Kaen and Caitlyn climbed the final stretch of stairs and emerged at the top of the tower. The smell of gunpowder and Jinx's blue smoke flare hung thick in the air. The scene that greeted them was a tense ballet of violence on the verge of exploding.
At the center of it all stood two figures. Vi, with her taped fists and red jacket, held a boxer's stance, her eyes locked on an enemy on the ground. And Jinx, her face a mask of fury and euphoria, spun with her heavy minigun, spitting bursts of bullets into the air.
Around them, four figures on hoverboards circled like mechanical vultures. Their masks, shaped like animal skulls, and their green vehicles gave them a ghostly aspect. They wielded long staffs tipped with sharp blades, moving with fluid, deadly coordination.
Kaen stopped at the threshold of the platform, his face expressionless. Caitlyn crouched beside him, her trained body instinctively seeking cover, her eyes analyzing the tactical situation.
"Five against two," Caitlyn whispered, her voice tense. "They're surrounded. We need a plan."
Ignoring her, Kaen stepped forward and shouted in his monotone voice, "Number one fan!" The strangely calm sound cut through the chaos. "Your collaborator has arrived for the grand finale!"
For a fraction of a second, all attention shifted to them. Vi and Jinx both spun, surprised by the sudden appearance of a third force. Jinx's eyes widened when she saw Kaen. The fury in her gaze flickered, replaced by something almost like hope, and a wild grin spread across her face. "Dead Fish! You're just in time for the ending!"
Vi's eyes shifted to the figure standing behind Kaen.
"Cupcake?" Vi said, relief and pure confusion mixing in her voice as she saw her there, beside some stranger.
That split second of distraction was all the Firelights needed.
They were unbelievably fast. One of them, a woman with a shorter staff, broke from the circle and dove. Her target: Jinx. Ready to strike her from behind with an incapacitating blow.
At the same time, the Firelight on the ground—the one Vi had previously taken down—also seized the distraction, lunging at her with its sharpened claws.
But Vi was agile. She dodged and deflected his attacks, countering with a whirlwind of fists, each punch thrown with brutal force.
Meanwhile, Jinx, struggling with her minigun, found it nearly impossible to hit the fast-moving attackers in the sky. She was completely exposed. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the Firelight diving for her at the last second. Instead of firing, she prepared to swing the massive weight of her minigun like an improvised hammer—when a streak of white hair darted past her.
That was the precise moment Kaen chose to make his move.
For Caitlyn, standing right beside him, he was there one second and gone the next. All she registered was a blur of white, moving at an inhuman speed.
And for the female Firelight, the world slowed. She was about to strike the blue-braided girl when a shadow suddenly interposed itself in her path. She saw calm, analytical violet eyes. Then, the figure simply shifted position and raised an arm. A rigid open hand, sharp as a blade. A tearing screech of metal followed. The impact against the unmoving arm and the momentum of her own dive were turned against her, hurling her violently into the metal floor, unconscious on impact.
The hoverboard, designed to be light and agile, literally split in half against Kaen's unyielding limb.
He didn't move an inch from the impact, his face as impassive as if he had just stopped a paper ball.
Jinx froze mid-swing, her mouth slightly open. "Hey," she said, a mix of surprise and mild annoyance. "That one was mine."
"Sharing is caring," Kaen replied, lowering his arm and dusting off imaginary dirt from his hand.
Their brief exchange was cut short by the shout of another Firelight. Seeing his comrade fall, he dove at them on his hoverboard and hurled something at Kaen. A small grenade glowing orange.
Kaen watched it, curious. Before he could decide whether to see what it did, a sharp gunshot rang out beside him.
Jinx had acted on pure instinct. She'd dropped Pow-Pow, drawn Zapper, her sidearm, and fired. The bullet struck the grenade midair. It exploded prematurely in a cloud of amber-colored crystalline dust that instantly hardened into an abstract, harmless sculpture in the air before falling to the floor.
Without missing a beat, they dodged the Firelight diving at them, while Jinx slapped one of her Firechomper grenades onto the back of his hoverboard.
In the air, the Firelight realized too late. The bomb detonated, engulfing his engine in a pink fireball. The hoverboard spiraled out of control, forcing its rider to bail. The Firelight leader, who had been observing the battle from above, swooped down and caught his falling comrade before he could crash.
Meanwhile, the battle had split. Caitlyn, spotting her chance amidst the chaos, sprinted toward where Vi had been fighting. The Hextech gemstone, dropped by Jinx at the start of the ambush, was rolling dangerously close to the edge of the platform.
With everyone distracted, Caitlyn lunged, staying low. She snatched the gem and slipped behind a stack of rusted crates just as Vi hurled her opponent against a railing.
Thinking she had knocked him out, Vi made a fatal mistake. She turned to check on her sister. "Powder! You okay?"
The Firelight, dazed but not out, rose slowly, grabbing his staff from the ground. As Vi's back turned, he crept forward and slammed the wooden end of his weapon into her jaw with a dull crack. Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
The Firelight leader descended, picking up the woman lying unconscious whose hoverboard Kaen had destroyed. Seeing Vi out cold as well, he reassessed. Kaen's arrival had changed the equation. This new individual, with his inhuman speed and strength, was too dangerous a variable. The gemstone was no longer worth the risk.
With a hand gesture, he gave the order to retreat. And he shouted at the Firelight who had just knocked Vi out and was about to finish her with his staff. "No! Bring her!"
The Firelight stopped, nodded, and hoisted Vi's limp body over his shoulder.
Caitlyn, hidden behind the crates, and Jinx and Kaen, still distracted with the other Firelights, barely reacted before they realized Vi was being taken.
Jinx, pistol in hand, watched in furious panic as the Firelights carried her sister away. "VI!"
"VI!" Caitlyn's cry followed, a sound of pure terror as she burst from cover.
With trained efficiency, the leader fired a flare that bloomed into a smoke bomb. In seconds, the area was swallowed in a thick shroud of dark smoke, and the Firelights vanished into the night of Zaun with Vi unconscious.
When the smoke finally dissipated, the silence was deafening. The hum of engines had faded, replaced only by the whistle of the wind.
Jinx stood frozen, Zapper still in her hand, staring at the empty space where Vi had been. "Vi…" she whispered, her voice trembling. They had taken her. Again.
Caitlyn clutched the Hextech gem against her chest, her heart pounding with helplessness.
And Kaen stood in the middle of the wreckage, breathing calmly, his violet eyes scanning the empty sky.
He looked at Jinx, paralyzed, trapped in the storm of her own mind. Kaen didn't bother reasoning with her. He stepped forward and grabbed her arm, startling her.
"Let go! I have to—!"
"Calm down. For now, we're going back to the workshop," he interrupted, his monotone voice now an unyielding command.
As he began dragging her along, his gaze fell on the frustrated, helpless enforcer girl. He hesitated. A strange, inexplicable feeling crept over him—that this girl, too, should have been taken.
"You… are coming with us as well," Kaen finally said in his flat tone. "You're under arrest."
"Eh?" Caitlyn blurted, stunned and confused.
The concert was canceled. And the night had suddenly turned awkward—and far more complicated.