Zaun, Black Harbor.
"It's raid time!"
The moment Caitlyn's clear, commanding voice rang out across the long street, everything went silent. A beat later, raucous laughter erupted.
"Where'd these two clueless chicks crawl out from?"
"Hah! Saying that in Black Harbor? I'm dying!"
"Don't know the height of the heavens, do they?"
"Catch them, let's teach them a lesson!"
"Gut 'em and toss 'em into the sea!"
"I'll torment them until they stop breathing!"
…
Behind Vi and Caitlyn, their armored cases split open with a hiss. Armor flowed across their bodies like quicksilver, locking into place and expanding rapidly.
When the Atlas gauntlets fully deployed around Vi's arms, the lenses on her visor lit up. The runic arrays etched across her suit flared, siphoning energy from the Hextech engine to empower her.
Caitlyn's full-cover helmet sealed over her head, and at the same instant, the Hextech sniper rifle Duke had prepared for her transformed automatically, sliding neatly into the slot on her back.
Gripping the rifle's stock with her right hand, Caitlyn drew it forward. A soft voice chimed in her ear.
"Hello, I'm your personal assistant, Hunter. Do you require assistance?"
A light-screen appeared before her eyes, displaying the AI interface. Caitlyn asked without hesitation:
"I need to arrest all these people. Any recommendations?"
"Riot suppression module engaged. Web-shooter primed. Sonic disruptor charged. Shock module active. Please, pull the trigger, ma'am!"
"Well, Duke really did pack me a bag of surprises."
Caitlyn leveled her rifle at a thug making obscene gestures at her and pulled the trigger. From the barrel erupted a violent sonic pulse. It rippled outward through the air, leaving behind concentric rings of distortion.
The thug frowned in confusion. All he heard was a low hum shaking the air, no flames, no bullets.
The next instant, it was as if a truck had slammed into him head-on. His body was flung backwards, airborne for several meters before he crashed heavily to the ground, skidding along the dirt. Blood seeped from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. If not for the faint rise and fall of his chest, many would have sworn he was dead.
"Hah!!"
Vi's roar carried through the street as she clenched her fists. Twisting at the waist, she slammed a punch into the side of a vehicle. The Atlas gauntlets roared to full power, compressing the air at her knuckles into a razor-thin sheet.
Boom!
The built-in firing pins clicked, unleashing a tidal shockwave that surged outward.
KRRAAASH!
The entire harbor shook with the blast. A truck carrying Shimmer vials shattered into scraps, its cargo exploding in a spray of glowing blue liquid.
From inside the factory, Kroc emerged, hefting a massive alchemical-tech battleaxe. His eyes narrowed at the sight of Caitlyn and Vi in full armor.
"Tch, tough marks. Everyone, take them down together!"
He thumbed a switch on his axe. Alchemical mechanisms inside whirred to life, and its exhaust vents hissed steam.
Locking onto Vi's pink hair, Kroc lunged forward, wrist twisting as he leapt high and brought his axe down in a brutal overhead slash.
Smack!
A giant hand batted him out of the air like a fly. Vi's right fist then slammed into the ground.
BOOM!!
The earth split under the shockwave, sending everyone airborne. Caitlyn spun her rifle and fired in rapid succession, thick synthetic webs, reverse-engineered from Spider-Man's own formula, pinned every thug to the walls.
Spider silk was absurdly strong; even a strand as thin as a pencil could drag an airplane. Auto-degradable, unbreakable until it dissolved, once it bound a target, there was no escape.
Together, Vi and Caitlyn cut through the criminals like a knife through fruit, dropping everyone still standing.
White webs plastered the walls, groans echoed from those struck down by sonic pulses, chaos turned to silence.
Then, Hunter's voice blared:
"Warning, magical energy detected! Warning, magical energy detected!"
"Magical energy?" Caitlyn muttered.
A poisoned crossbow bolt whizzed past her throat, scraping sparks off her armor.
"Aah!"
It struck an unlucky thug instead. His scream cut short as his flesh melted away like wax, his body collapsing into a formless heap.
"Heh-heh…"
The sinister chuckle echoed through the void. An unseen predator circled them, his crossbow drawn, every bolt dripping with venom.
"Tell me, have you seen my fleas?"
The eerie whisper danced all around them, shifting in pitch and distance so neither could locate the source.
"That bastard… the one who ambushed me last time?"
"Has to be. Invisibility and poisoned bolts."
"And the venom's even deadlier now," Caitlyn noted grimly, glancing at the corpse reduced to sludge.
"Hunter, can you track him?"
"Apologies, ma'am. I can detect magical energy, but I lack stealth-breaking protocols."
More bolts whistled from blind angles.
Clang, clang!
Vi's electromagnetic shield blocked them. She snarled toward the shadows.
"You filthy sewer rat, come out and fight me face-to-face!"
"…Rat? How do you know?"
"Yes. I am a rat."
With a shimmer, Twitch emerged from stealth, crouched atop the factory wall. His goggled eyes glinted as he studied them.
"Wait… he's literally a rat?" Caitlyn gawked.
"Duke builds mechanical beasts," Vi shrugged. "What's so strange about a rat wielding human weapons?"
"Still ugly as hell, though."
Twitch stood upright, nearly as tall as the two women. His ragged green coat hung short at the sleeves, frayed by gnaw marks. A long tail dragged behind him. In his hands gleamed a hybrid alchemical-tech repeating crossbow.
"I think I know you two…" He tilted his head, then straightened. "Doesn't matter. I'll melt you down and eat what's left. Ever tasted rust?"
"I have. Delicious, like mold!"
"This guy's insane," Caitlyn muttered.
Vi shoved her behind just as Twitch's tail lobbed vials of volatile poison at them.
The rat squeezed the trigger, venomous bolts hissing through the air. Steam vented from his crossbow as he inhaled deeply, savoring the toxic fumes.
CRACK!
Vi slammed her gauntlets together, the shockwave blasting the vials back at him. Twitch's fur bristled as he leapt down and vanished once more.
"That bastard, "
Vi charged, gauntlets igniting, propelling her forward in a blaze of flame and fury.
…
The factory walls crumbled under her blow, the shockwave cracking the far building.
Arrows whistled in volleys, but they merely sparked uselessly against her armor.
"This pest can't pierce us, take him down in one go!"
As Vi advanced, Twitch vaulted toward Caitlyn, only to hear a sharp snap. Pain ripped through his leg.
He looked down to see a Yordle Snap Trap clamped tight, glowing red.
"Got you, little rat," Caitlyn smirked, leveling her rifle.
Twitch panicked, tail uncorking a vial to corrode the trap with sizzling venom. He rolled free just as Vi's explosive punch hurled him from stealth, his goggles shattering.
Twitch screeched a sharp whistle.
From every corner, plague rats swarmed like a living tide.
Vi slammed her fists down, quaking the ground and scattering the horde. Caitlyn fired again, but Twitch rolled, his swarm shielding him from the shot.
Snatching up two intact vials of Shimmer, the rat dove into a sewer drain, vanishing beneath the filth without a splash.
"That rat's slippery," Caitlyn muttered, eyes narrowing.
But in truth, neither she nor Vi had unleashed their full arsenal. If they had, not only Black Harbor, every rebel in Zaun, could have been crushed outright.
"Eh, let him scurry. We just made ourselves rich," Vi said, dusting off her gauntlets as she surveyed the immobilized thugs.
"At this rate, we're climbing three ranks in one go."
End of chapter....
🔹 Hexcore Initiate – 15 chapters ahead
🔸 Arc Reactor Elite – 35 chapters + 3 BONUS CHAPTERS
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