That night, Vi, the Undercity resident, propositioned Jayce to strike at the first target on his list: Silco. That man is the current ‘ruler’ of Piltover’s unsavory underbelly. Jayce was frustrated at the council’s unwillingness to act, so he reluctantly agreed to go along with her and attack behind the council’s back. Worse, he went behind Viktor’s back, creating a Hextech weapon. His partner would understand; they wouldn’t stand a chance otherwise. It was a risky move… one he now regrets taking.


    The blunder has left him with the body of a child, roasted from the inside by a pure blast of energy from his own Mercury Hammer. No matter what he does, it seems he can’t escape the dreadful face of death.


    “We’re done here,” Jayce stands up suddenly, resetting his hammer to its idle state and walking away. He saw too much blood today. First the bridge, the cemetery, now this. The Solver would be an easier target. A lone, deranged monster that shows its true colors instead of hiding behind children and innocents.


    “What do you mean ‘done?’” Vi braces her Atlas Gauntlets, the large Hextech gloves hissing, “You’re really gonna stop cus’ of one dead kid? Do you know how many more of them are out there? How many hundreds more there’ll be because of people like you who bury their heads in the dirt!” Vi yells. It became hard to tell if the shaking of the gauntlets was even due to the rumbling machinery.


    “I said enough! We’ve already gone too far,” Jayce looks to the Atlas Gauntlets, “Give me those back.”


    The gauntlets whir alive once again, their exhaust hissing in tandem with their wielders exhale, “Make me.”


    Jayce frowns, pulling the hammer up to position, “I can’t let you leave with those.”


    Vi cracks her neck, preparing her opening stance, “Well, guess you’re gonna have to kill another trencher.”


    Jayce braces himself, but stops at the sound of broken screaming coming from behind him. Vi’s eyes widen, stopping her in her tracks, and Jayce slowly turns. Behind him, in a dimly lit spot between two shimmer vats, an enforcer stands unnaturally still. The entire uniform and helmet is blue and blurry, looking fake and misplaced among the rest of Jayce’s surroundings.


    “H-H-Hell-o-o-o. C-counselor, there’s’s’s a situation upstairs,” The enforcer spoke with a heavy, broken, masculine voice.


    Jayce looks at Vi, who points at herself and then shrugs cluelessly. Jayce turns back, “Who do you think you’re fooling with this?”If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    The enforcer stops suddenly, each limb flailing for a short moment before turning back to normal, “I’m not fo-o-o-ooling anything! Pe-people are dying up there! The beer-ones are here!”


    Jayce simply glares, but Vi rolls her eyes, “This is a joke.”


    She yells as she launches forward with her gauntlets, much against Jayce’s immediate command not to.


    The static-y figure can do little as a Hextech powered fist slams down. Little results from the impact bit a small flicker of the figure—ignoring the crater in the concrete.


    “O-oh! wo-o-ow!” Its voice cuts in and out, “I couldn’t see this coming! You know, this reminds me of the time—“


    Jayce and Vi stare incredulously at the apparition as it begins ranting. Though, when one of the broken Chemtank guards starts getting dragged away, both of them immediately turn toward the noise. The metal of the suit releases a deafening screech as it grinds against the rough floor, causing the blue enforcer to stop talking. It releases an exasperated groan before disappearing.


    Instead of the deep, heavy voice from before, a light, monotone feminine voice resounds around the room. The origin comes from behind a Chemtank. It’s a voice Jayce recognizes, one he unflinchingly readies his hammer to. Vi follows suit, circling around the back of the broken armor.


    “Maybe. This. Is. Much. Harder. Than. I. Thought. Creepy. Giggle.” A camera, familiar to Jayce, reaches up from behind the Chemtank, taking in the two Hextech-armed combatants.


    “What are you doing here? Actually… it doesn’t matter: I won’t let you continue anyway,” Jayce’s hammer opens up, the blue sphere of pure energy inside charging up a shot, ready to blast the Solver to pieces.


    Vi looks at Jayce with surprise, noticing the recognition between the two. She has no idea what she’s looking at with the Solver. But, if Jayce of all people is ready to throw down with it on sight, it can’t be good. So, she gets ready too.


    “Callback Ping.”


    At the simple phrase, Vi feels her stance break, the gauntlets dropping to her sides as one hundred pounds of dead weight. Whatever mechanism Jayce magicked up that makes the gloves feel light as a feather now fails under the mere words of the monstrosity in front of her.


    Similarly, Jayce’s hammer closes and drops to the ground with a powerful thud, cracking the concrete it lands on. He struggles to pick it back up.


    The eye of the Solver lights up in a radiant explosion, illuminating the entire room in gold. Rectangles filled with text and an odd, hexagonal symbol brand each surface of the room with searing heat. The text is unreadable in the blinding light, but Jayce can make out the silhouette of Vi rushing toward the Solver.


    Even with the gauntlets as dead weight, she uses them to her advantage. Slinging them over her head and spinning, she uses the momentum to grab and launch the Chemtank’s body, chucking it at the camera.


    It blinks as it dodges, making the blinding light flicker and become white for the slightest moment, “Stop. It. Moron-bot. This. Is. Getting. Old.”


    Jayce rushes forward too, lugging the hammer behind him like a club as he sprints. Like Vi, he uses the weight to help his attack, spinning and swinging with all his might. The Solver’s camera, sparking and twitching as its pupil rapidly transitions between white and gold coloration, gets smashed to pieces, clattering across the ground.


    His hammer turns back on, just as the Atlas Gauntleys do. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a fleshly ball dart into a waste pipe of the refinery, a flash of gold accompanying it. Jayce sighs, knowing it won’t be gone until the snake’s head is cut clean off.


    Vi frowns, whipping around to Jayce, “What the fuck was that?”


    Jayce just shakes his head, taking note that the body of the Chemtank Vi had thrown was now gone without a trace. Instead of explaining, he simply wipes his hand along the text branded into the walls of the refinery, now cooled and legible. The text prints in flawless calligraphy:


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