Vi was awoken to the sound of an alarm, she hadn't set a damn alarm clock. She didn't own a damned alarm clock. She dragged herself angrily from her bed and made her way over to the window, it was still dark out. She stomped into the next room swearing whoever was responsible would get a beatdown for waking her at such an ungodly hour.
She didn't bother to get fully dressed, she only put on her shoes and massive hextech gauntlets to accompany her sleepwear which consisted of a tank top and shorts. After locking her apartment door behind her she bounded down the stairs taking three at a time. It didn't take long to find the cause of the commotion, the hardware shop on the corner of the street had been robbed. Again. Clearly the thieves responsible didn't know what happened to the perpetrators the first time around. They weren't from around here, big mistake, she knew the layout of this block better than anyone. She let a malicious grin form as she darted left into the nearest alley.
It took all of five minutes to follow the trail of disrupted waste, crates and various other substances one would expect to find in alleys to find them scrambling over an eight foot wall. Idiots. she thought as she continued down the adjacent alley and pressed her back to the wall of a house. The wall they had climbed over led to a street with a dead end, they'd have no choice but to come back this way and when they did, she'd be waiting.
The sound of footsteps and heavy breathing announced their arrival and gave them no warning as she stepped out from her hiding place and swung a heavy arm into the chest of the first of the men to pass. She felt something snap, probably a rib or collar bone as he did a full back flip from the force before landing in a groaning heap on the unforgiving concrete. Hmph, there were only four of them. The others stood frozen in shock before the second man snapped out of it.
"You little bitch!" He snarled as he drew a knife from under his jacket, he darted forward with a slash aimed at the bruisers face but she quickly whipped up an enormous hand to catch his own, before he could right himself his feet left the ground as she swung and sent him flying into the nearest wall. He hit hard and fell limply to the ground, she turned back to the remaining men.
"That's two." She said flashing them a cocky smile. At this one of the men dropped what he was carrying and bolted. The fourth let out a roar of rage as he charged at her, fists swinging but never connecting. She dodged his lunges with ease despite the heavy gauntlets. Switching to the offensive she blocked the now exhausted mans final blow and returned a fist of her own into his gut. He fell to his knees clutching his stomach, heaved out it's contents and collapsed to the side.
A bullet ricochet from her armored fist reminded her of fleeing gang member. This was her favorite part. She pointed a large metal finger to the rapidly disappearing figure, a light red laser locking onto him and she began her charge. The man realized his mistake too late as the woman reached him at an inhuman speed and received a heavy uppercut to his chin, launching him into the air. But it didn't end there, as she jumped up with him and yelled "Eat this!" as she smashed him to the ground.
Vi landed on the ground in a crouch. Weaklings. She stood up and stretched out a yawn, turning she approached the bag the third man had dropped in his effort to escape. It was full to the brim with expensive machine parts, one in particular caught her eye, it was a large dial. It was also the same thing she looked at when she visited the store, her gauntlets required regular maintenance to keep them in working condition but lately she'd had trouble with the amount of pressure they could handle. She frowned as she recalled the owner of the shop, a great hulk of a man who loomed over her every time she was there as if he expected her to shove the parts up her shirt and run out with them. With a grunt she hauled the bag onto her back, she'd be taking these, because fuck that guy.
"It would appear someone beat us to it." The Sheriff muttered with a raised eyebrow as she scanned the scene. Four men each beat up and bloodied, one thing that was slightly confusing is that one of the victims, the one much further away from the others appeared to be in some sort of crater. To have made such a crater the man would have had to have hit the ground delivered with force well beyond the capabilities of a regular human. Was it some sort of weapon instead? Such excessive force could surely only come from some sort of machine similar to that of a wrecking ball.
"My guess is that our unlucky thieves ran into a gang who decided to take what they'd stolen for themselves." reported one officer. She nodded slightly, it sounded plausible there were plenty of gangs and other criminals who hung around in dark alleys for purposes such as illegal trading, the stolen goods were in fact missing so it was a definite possibility.
"Arrest them." She heaved a sigh, she had better things to do than recover a few lost items. She'd got her men, that was her priority. But a little alarm in her head rang out warning her of a potentially bigger threat to Piltover.
She returned to her office and slumped into her chair, if there was such a gang wondering the streets that could deliver such destruction... Her experience in the league told her that nothing was impossible, Ghostly armored centaurs, Living scarecrows, heck even Yetis. If something like them were loose on the streets of Piltover... They were potentially too dangerous to turn a blind eye.
"Anna," She called to her secretary, "Could you bring me all the case files we have from the past six months please." Anna came in a minute later and heaved the pile onto her desk. "Anything else Sheriff?" "See to it that I'm not disturbed." The woman nodded and left. This was going to be a long day.
It had been a week since the hardware shop incident and Vi was itching for some action, she'd made use of the stolen dial and a few other components from the bag and now that she had control of the pressure, she could hypothetically release it in a shock-wave type blast. She was dying to try it out but unfortunately people don't appreciate having holes blown through their walls without reason. Or at all for that matter. She was tinkering with her gauntlets when she heard a group of people pass the apartment building.
"-heard, Bobby got into that elite gang-" another voice cut in, "The warehouse right?" "Yeah," The first voice confirmed "apparently they got a big score in the second district-" She strained to hear more as they walked out of earshot. Elite gang you say. Big score you say. She grinned, since selling off the remaining parts to upgrade her gauntlets her money supply was running low and that's all she needed to hear. There were three warehouses in this part of Piltover and she knew exactly the one mentioned some twenty minutes from here, a year ago some wannabe gang had occupied it and had actually grown considerably since. She'd been waiting for an excuse to bring them down for months and promise of a 'big score' was too tempting to resist.
"IT'S ONE FUCKING WOMAN! JUST SHOOT HER!"
"IT WON'T WORK SHE'S WEARING ARMOR OR SOME SHIT!"
Vi couldn't help but laugh at all the chaos she was causing, she'd entered about ten minutes ago and since then had destroyed so many walls it was a wonder the building was still standing. She'd encountered near twenty members and each one hadn't slowed her for more than a few seconds. Fondly recalling entering this place as she ran, literally blowing the iron double doors from their hinges. The upgrade worked better than she'd hoped. Alas she couldn't stay for too long, the police force had no doubt heard of this by now and the outlaw really didn't want to be here by the time they arrived. More people meant she was getting close to the heart of the building the pinkette concluded, plowing through yet more shouting men. If the prize was here, it was where everyone was trying to keep her from. Hearing a familiar click the woman dove behind a pillar as the deafening roar of a machine gun welcomed her. Various shouts along the lines of "Die bitch!" and "Get out here!" could be heard over the gun. She must be close.
It wasn't an easy task getting through but she waited it out just long enough for the machine gun to die down before sending the pillar she was hiding behind crashing down over them with a few blows of excessive force. Even with her gauntlets protection she still felt the blows in her wrists, vaulting over the rubble she made her way up what was hopefully the last set of stairs, sirens blaring in the distance. Shit. Only one more obstacle lay between her and her prize, and that was the leader. He was your stereotypical hard man, shaved head, lots of tattoos and muscles that suggested drug aid. Rolling her eyes at his obvious attempt at being intimidating he slowly stood from his seat and tried to make himself look at big as possible.
"You've got some nerve bitch. Coming in here all alone and take out my boys one after the other. I have connections, and when they heard about this they-" She cut him off with a swift right hook. "Shut the fuck up." He was unconscious before he hit the floor, slightly disappointed with how easy it had been she eyed a safe under a table. With the police for so close now she decided to crack the thing later and hoisted it under her arm. The sirens were alarmingly close now, there was no way she could go back the way she came. Instead the bruiser made a dash to the window that overlooked the streets and alleys below. The nearest roof was three meters away and five meters drop. Hoping it could take her weight she leaped through the window, wincing as a few shards of glass scratched her limbs and face. Hugging the safe in her giant arms the pinkette landed loudly on the roof -which thankfully didn't give way and rolled across it before dropping down into an alley.
Shouts and a few gunshots sounded behind her as she sprinted away, it was safest to not return to her place right away, maybe store the safe somewhere while the heat died down. After ten minutes she slowed to a jog, there had been a fire on this street a few months ago everyone had been evacuated and people tended to avoid this area because it smelled like burnt, well, everything. It had been a decent place once, tall and grand houses overlooked the once bustling road but what was once tall and grand was now silent and looming, like a shadow creeping over the city. She reached her destination almost not realizing as she was so deep in thought. It was a burnt up old house, boarded up. It had belonged to a kind old lady who'd taken pity on Vi when she was younger occasionally when the youth was particularly beat up she'd come over and the woman would fix her up. Muriel had offered a place for Vi countless times but she'd always refused, if anyone learned of her connection to the elder she could be blackmailed.
She pried one of the loose boards from the door and crawled through, despite the burnt interior it was still as nostalgic as it ever was, but there was no time to admire what a mess everything was. Vi jogged upstairs to the main bedroom and slid the safe underneath the double bed. She was careful to avoid the main roads as she headed in the direction of her apartment. Sirens could still he heard in the distance but none of the force had yet left the warehouse, no doubt busy arresting all those gang members. The pinkette smirked but was suddenly dragged from her thoughts by the echo of a shot -unmistakably a rifle, the dust flicked from the ground as the bullet hit a hair away from Vi's right foot. She jumped backwards and ran in the opposite direction of the shooter. There was only one person in Piltover with aim like that. The Sheriff of Piltover herself. The Sheriff had to be on a high roof somewhere, all Vi had to do was stay low and out of sight. Caitlyn was only human after all. She made sure to stay out of open areas, making a map in her mind of where one could see looking through a scope if on one of the buildings back there. It would make her route agonizingly long but the bruiser needed to avoid the Chief at all costs.
Snap
Vi swore loudly as strong teeth sank into her flesh. Not able to stop her sprint soon enough she let out a strangled cry of pain when whatever it was stayed its ground and tripped her, teeth raking through muscle as the pinkette hit the ground. She managed to supress a shout when she turned herself over, knowing the cuts were deep without needing to look she glared towards whatever it was. Swearing under her breath she grasped the animal trap and pried it open carefully removing her wounded leg from it before letting it snap shut. Then she noticed some kind of pink substance on her boot. "Is that... Icing...? Fucking Icing!?" She growled aloud. She'd underestimated Caitlyn, she was of course a champion of the league.
Vi was fast, Caitlyn had to give her that. After her warning shot the outlaw had darted in the direction planned, effectively herding her to the area the Sheriff had taken the time to riddle with her trademark Snap traps. By now Vi would have most likely reached her home or wherever it was she was going. Caitlyn smiled, time to get moving.
Aha. Caitlyn crouched down, she'd placed a total of fifteen traps in alleys, on roofs and anywhere she could think of that someone fleeing the police would go. Ironically trap numbers six appeared to have had a brief occupant, evident by the disrupted ground and obvious blood-stained teeth. She was actually impressed, her traps were specifically designed to capture meaning that prying them open required a considerable amount of brute force. The amount of blood suggested that the trap had done a lot more damage than intended, as to be expected really when the victim was running. Vi was wounded, Caitlyn would catch her yet.
Vi limped up the stairs leading to her apartment the wounds bleeding had slowed but hadn't yet stopped, she'd been careful not to leave the cliche blood trail right to her front door, she never live it down if she was caught because of such a stupid thing. It felt like forever since she had set foot in her home, she quickly unequipped her gauntlets setting them down on her workbench so she could work on her leg. The muscle damage wasn't as bad as she'd feared but it would take a while to heal, deciding stitches were the best course of action after washing it -she was no doctor but whatever, she took a needle and thread she kept in a cupboard for just such occasions and sat herself on the floor. Hissing as she pulled up the cloth the woman began sewing up the gashes. She was no tailor either but the pinkette did a decent job, before long the bleeding stopped and she managed to hoist herself to her feet. Too occupied washing away the last of the blood she didn't hear a clunk outside her door and the creak of it being opened.
This had to be the place, confirmed by the huge hextech gloves sitting on a bench in the corner, she was welcomed by the sound of running water. I really hope she isn't in the bath... The Sheriff grimaced as she closed the squeaky door. The running water stopped and for a moment she thought Vi had heard her but then heard muttering coming from what was probably the kitchen. "Fucking glass... Ack!" There was a clatter as Vi presumably picked a shard of glass from somewhere and dropped it into a sink. Footsteps approached and Caitlyn aimed her rifle in their direction and sure enough, seconds later the outlaw appeared at the doorway of the room to her left. Vi noticed her immediately and froze in place, her eyes darted over to the workbench. She was unarmed thankfully, otherwise she'd have problems subduing the pinkette. The Sheriff released the safety in warning.
"Don't even think about it." Vi opened her mouth to say something but changed her mind and closed it again. After a second she asked, "How the fuck did you find me?" Something resembling a smile flashed across Caitlyns face before she dismissed it. "I've been keeping tabs on you for a little while now, don't worry, I came alone." The other woman snorted. "I'm pretty sure this is breaking and entering, Sheriff." The brunette didn't say anything, instead she looked Vi over. She was covered in soot, dust and dirt, even under said filth her hot pink hair was obvious. She had her name tattooed under an eye but the capital 'I' suggested it was meant to be the roman numeral for 'Six' not that she was one of those people who found the need to tattoo their own name onto themselves. This was the one that was uprooting Piltovers crime organizations, This young woman was the one who crafted and wielded those metallic hands weighing a literal ton?
"So, what do I owe this pleasure?" Asked said young woman with only a half genuine smile. "Arresting a defenseless girl in her own home?" She shifted her weight onto her good leg to exercise her point. Caitlyn raised a stern eyebrow, "And who said I came here to arrest you?" The color drained ever so slightly from the younger womans face. "Woah, you didn't come to finish me off did you?" Her tone suggested she was joking but again her eyes met the workbench, probably trying to figure out whether she could grab her lifeline before the Sheriff could shoot. Apparently the answer was no because her gaze returned to the brunette. "Actually I had something different in mind, I've been researching cases from the past half year and twenty-two percent of them seem to have an unknown third party who intercept the perpetrators and bring them to justice. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you Vi?"
"How do you know my name?" Replied the bruiser avoiding the question. "I know all about you Vi." At this her face darkened before growling through gritted teeth "You don't know anything about me." Caitlyn shook her head, "Oh but I do, and that's why I'm here. Your crime fighting hasn't gone unnoticed and I came to ask for your strength, we could really use you in the force." Vi barked out a laugh "You're kidding right? The Sheriff of Piltover tracking down a wanted criminal to ask her to join the police force? You serious?"
"Deadly so. You'd no longer have to worry about the police finding you and you can beat up all the bad guys you wish." With that the older woman brought her weapon to rest on her shoulder, putting trust in Vi not to equip her own weapon and beat her through the nearest wall. The pinkette stood in place, contemplating the many things that were bound to be running through her head. After a moment of silence she broke into a grin. "Alright, I'm in." She said simply. Caitlyn turned and exited the apartment beckoning for her new partner to follow as she did.
"Excellent, I'm sure we'll be Piltovers finest."