The Alternate Timeline
((All based on RiotRunaan’s Post))
———— Start: Pulsefire Log 0001———-
I lost my journal somewhere in the time rift. This will be my first log using PEARL’s memory bank.
I was wandering the Southern Wastes one day, searching the ruins to further my investigation. The magic there can be very wild and chaotic from whatever was left over from the days the civilizations were thriving, mixing together in various ways, good or bad… I knew it was dangerous, but I’ve been in more dangerous situations before. What’s the worse that could happen?
That’s when I stumbled upon a strange time warp that appeared in front of me. I tried to get away, but the pull was too strong. It sucked me in before I could do much of anything.
The next thing I knew, I found myself falling on the ground, looking at a dull, brown sky. I sat up, still feeling the effects of the warp churning my stomach and coughed from the intake of the foul, polluted air. I had no idea where I was or what had happened. Nor that whatever I was sucked in sent me into the future. I looked around, but I saw nothing but barren wasteland. I needed to know more, so I took it upon myself to venture out and gather information.
I had been walking for a couple of hours with no sign of life or civilization. It was strange. Was I on some distant place with not even a single speck of life? I was still alive, so the environmental conditions seemed somewhat satisfactory. Then where in the world could I be? I sat down, lost, tired and confused. ‘Maybe I should head back to where I started,’ I thought, hoping to find the time warp again. But when I thought about it, I already saw there was nothing there, so there would be no use trying to go back to look for something. And from the looks of it, I was no longer in the Southern Wastes. The terrain was familiar, but I couldn’t recognize it. I was about ready to give up, lay down and sleep when I saw some rubble in the distance. With a distant hope, I started running towards it, hoping I would find some answers.
I finally arrived on the outer bounds of what looked like a city. A capital, perhaps? It was grand city to be sure. Of course there was nothing that was standing left. Just lots of worn pieces of marble. Only a few structures remained, and even then they had a lot of large gaping holes on the sides or their entire top blown off. And this wasn’t normal wear and tear, despite how long ago this may have happened. It looked like they were bombarded with some sort of… explosive force. So devastating that it could destroy an entire house, maybe even two.
What could have possibly happened?
I looked around for any clues. Clues that might have helped clear my confusion. I walked through the broken city, feeling a chill down my spine. There was nothing but emptiness. Not even a whisper of life was left here. Nothing but the dry wind that swept up the dust into the sky.
That’s when I spotted something flickering on the floor. A worn dull blue banner with the pole splintered in half. I rushed towards it, thinking I finally had some answers. I picked up the worn piece of cloth, only to drop it back down as soon as I took a look at it.
This was the remains of Demacia.
I held my head in shock, not believing what I saw. ‘This can’t be happening,’ I thought. But the truth was right in front of me. I couldn’t deny it. The proud city and people of Demacia were gone.
I started to run deeper into the city, desperately looking for anybody. I searched, opening unhinged doors and scavenged through any possible places where people could be hiding. I saw plenty of shattered windows, burnt remains of homes, absolutely bent-out-of-shape metal bearings… I even tripped over a carcass once. A human carcass. It scared the hell out of me. Took me a few more moments to see more of them. They were old, but still unpleasant to look at. My stomach never felt more sick.
I walked down the main street, stepping over the debris left over. I hung my head, looking at the ground. I couldn’t bear to look at the ruined city, not that it mattered. I still felt pretty crappy. But I felt like I couldn’t leave either. I finally looked up when I noticed a flight of stairs in front of me. The palace. Or what was left of it. As I remember, it was very beautiful, inside and out. Calm and serene… but not anymore. I sighed, sitting down on the steps and shaking my head. This can’t be the past since nothing like this ever happened. Could this be the future? If it is, how far into the future is it? Who started all of this? If this is what was left of Demacia, what about the rest of Valoran? My head was spinning with so many questions, and I couldn’t stand imagining the remains of every other city, especially Piltover. I groaned. I just wanted it to stop. I wanted to go home to my own time. This… was too much. I laughed scornfully. “I must look pathetic,” I said to myself. “The great prodigal explorer, down on his hands and knees, begging to go home.” I sighed and stood up. “What a loser.”
Suddenly, there was a huge shadow overcasting me. Looking up, I saw a huge airship of some kind. I should’ve ran right away, but I was too shocked by the mere sight of it. All metallic and strangely sleek. The technology looks far more advanced than whatever I’ve seen… I didn’t even HEAR it coming until it was right above me. And it was gigantic! Maybe even as big as Summoner’s Rift itself.
Could this possibly be the thing that destroyed Demacia?
———— End: Pulsefire Log 0001———-
———— Start: Pulsefire Log 0002———-
A beam of light shot down from flying machine. Once it hit the ground, it headed straight for me. Based on this level of technology, I was sure I didn’t want to be caught in that thing. I started running off in a different direction with the ship in pursuit. I jumped and dodged every obstacle in my way, but the ship was too fast. Eventually, the beam caught up to the edge of my heels and my feet started floating up before the rest of my body. Soon enough, I was floating in midair, on my way to meet whoever was on this menace.
I was led into a cell right as I landed inside the ship. I would’ve been able to escape from the guards if there weren’t 7 of them holding these dangerous looking electrical devices pointed at me. So I just held up my hands and walked along with them, looking at the place. The inside of this thing was so… foreign. The walls were a white, cold, metallic color with switches, lights, and buttons all over the place. I felt a shiver go down my spine. I didn’t like where this was going.
Once we reached a hall full of what looked like prisons, I was locked inside one of them with two of the guards left to keep watch over me. It was like they knew that I could escape (which of course is true. I could arcane shift out of there if I wanted to). I ended up sitting there in that box for a good 30 minutes or so, hoping that that at least one of them would lose interest in me and turn the other way. But they didn’t. They had their eyes on me like hawks until someone yelled at them, saying that the captain was coming.
The bars on the prison rose up as a thin, but well built man in a strange suit and helmet walked in. The bars came back down before I could do anything unfortunately. I couldn’t see the guy’s face, but the aura he was giving was commandeering enough to know that he wasn’t a pushover. “What’s your name, boy?” he said in a strangely clear, unmuffled voice. Funny, his accent was oddly familiar, too. I scoffed. “I don’t need to tell you my name.” He made a low chuckle. “You aren’t in charge here, if you couldn’t already tell.” I have to admit, I got a little irritated. “Now, what’s your name?” I laughed back at him. “Don’t you know a League champion when you see one?”
“The League? Ha! You’ve got to be joking.” I couldn’t help but glare at him, thinking that I was making something like this up. Taken aback by the look I gave him, he looked at his guards, then back at me. Guess he knows now that I wasn’t messing around.
“The League doesn’t exist anymore.”
I’m pretty sure my mouth was gaping wide open right after he said that. I couldn’t believe what he just said. “Wh-what do you mean ‘the League doesn’t exist anymore?’” I barely uttered, standing up. “The League of Legends can’t just… just disappear!”
He sighed, raising his wrist to press a button on his cuff. Suddenly a light appeared behind me. I turned around, immediately jumping back to find the wall behind me had totally disappeared, showing me the land below. I was afraid I was going to fall out, but then I realized that there was no wind coming in that would result from this velocity. I walked up to where the wall was and tried reaching out, only to end up hurting my hand in return.
“This is just a projection of the outside…”
“Precisely.” I turned around to find the guy in the suit standing right behind me. “Look at the place once called Valoran. There’s nothing but waste and death left from the onslaught of war.” I looked at him probably with the dumbest look I’ve ever given anyone. I was so confused that I couldn’t say anything. He finally turned his head towards me. “Do you think the Fields of Justice still exist in these conditions?”
“Well I…” I wanted to say more, but nothing came out. “Now, tell me your name.” In defeat, I sat back down. “My name’s Ezreal. There, happy?” There was a slight silence. “You mean THE Prodigal Explorer?” he asked almost in awe. I laughed. “Well, yeah… what other Ezreal is there?” He paused.
“You disappeared about 68 years ago.”
I stood up. “WHAT?! 68 years ago? Is this where I am? 68 years into the future?!” I shook my head. “You’re kidding right?” The man shrugged. “Were you kidding about being from the League?” I held my head in frustration. ”I don’t understand! What could have happened during the time I was gone?” The captain crossed his arms. “A lot of things, apparently.”
He reached up to his head and took off his helmet. It was a man about in his 30’s with short brown hair. His face was stern with piercing blue eyes.”I trust you won’t do anything stupid?” he said, gesturing towards the bars of the cage. Angered, I yelled, “Of course! I didn’t leave school when I was 8 for being stupid you know!” He gave a hearty laugh and grabbed me around the shoulder, leading me out of the room as the bars rose back up. “I like your spirit, boy! You know I read a lot of stories about you! Or at least, whatever is left in the archives.” I chuckled nervously, just realizing how intimidating he can be, considering he was so loud and that he was a good one foot taller than than I was. But he seemed trustworthy and respectable.
“So…” I started, “who exactly are you?” “Oh that’s right!” he said, smiling at me. He got real chummy real fast. It kinda caught me off guard. “I’m the captain of the Piltover Alpha Platoon. I’m…” He looked up, thinking for a moment. “Let’s see, who would be someone you know… Oh yes! I’m Caitlyn’s grandson!” I almost tripped over when I heard that. “H-her grandson?!” “Yeah!” he continued, “my name is-“
Just then, a loud alarm went off. A few soldiers came running down the hallway, abruptly stopping and saluting in front of us. “C-captain!” the first man stuttered, “the Zaunites have caught up to us!” The captain let go of his grip on me and with an enraged outburst, he screamed “WHAT?!” and ran off. I quickly ran after him, slipping a little on the smooth surfaces and stumbling as some automatic doors opened and closed on me.
I finally came to a room where the walls were practically all windows. It looked like we were at the bottom of the airship. There were plenty of people sitting around, pressing their fingers on some… projected images that were floating in midair. The captain was walking around, barking orders. I walked towards one of the windows, looking out to see what was going on. I saw 3 other airships, much clunkier and have that grungy green-yellow color. Obviously Zaunite made.
“Thrusters at maximum power!” The captain screamed. Everyone was frantic, moving their fingers so insanely fast that it was making my own fingers twitchy. “Prepare the plasma cannons! Raise shields to 80 percent!” It was just a ruckus down here. But what’s the worry? Piltover technology has always been superior to Zaunite. What’s the worst that could possibly happen?
Suddenly, the ship was hit by a huge force. I saw some lights for a few seconds, but I fell over by the sheer impact of the blow. I grabbed a railing and slowly got up, my legs shaky from shock. “What in the world was that?!” I screamed. But no one heard me. Everyone was too busy yelling over each other and pressing what seemed like imaginary buttons. There were even more lights and explosions happening outside. I couldn’t really understand any of it, but I could tell these explosive weapons were even more devastating that I thought they would be. It was terrifying. If this is what technology holds now, what’s going to happen to the future of Valoran?
And more importantly, what’s going to happen to us?
———— End: Pulsefire Log 0002———-
———— Start: Pulsefire Log 0003———-
The ship continued to rock back and forth. I sat down, clinging to the railing before I was thrown across the room. More bursts of light appeared outside. I couldn’t tell what was happening, but then again I probably wouldn’t understand even if someone explained it to me. All I knew was both sides were firing all they had at each other and that we were… running away. I couldn’t believe it. Why were Piltovians running away from Zaunites? We always had better technology. We could still beat them by a mile, 3v1.
I slowly crawled over to the captain, who had stopped walking around and was standing on a pedestal in the middle of the room, watching the scene unfold intensely. I brought myself up to sit on the pedestal and tugged at his, erm, leggings while grabbing onto the railings that were lining the uplifted space. When he looked down at me, I said, almost screaming, “What are you doing? There are only 3 of them! I mean, Piltover technology should have surpassed Zaunite tech a long time ago! I bet you could totally take them on!”
The captain shook his head frustratedly. “I’m afraid your calculations are off, explorer,” he said with irritation. “Remember how I said that a lot of things happened while you were gone?”
“Y-yeah…”
“Well-“
Another blast hit the side of the ship. The lights flickered for a moment. “Captain!” someone shouted, “shields are down to 30 percent!” Gritting his teeth, the captain barked, “Aim all we have at the sensory systems and their frontal thrusters!” All the personnel were repeating his order, moving their hands in a flurry with plenty of beeping being heard throughout the room. The tension was so high that I was getting sweaty myself. There was a slight whirring sound coming from outside. I glanced around, trying to find where it was coming from, then I noticed all the fire from our ship was aiming at a few particular spots on the nearest Zaunite ship. After about half a minute, those spots burst into flames. I almost couldn’t believe the power these weapons have. I expected the Zaunite aircraft to start falling out of the sky, but it didn’t happen. It was still on the same course after us. Then… what was the point of that?
As I was about to ask, I noticed our fire aimed at another ship. More flames appeared, but that ship didn’t go down either. What was the captain thinking? Sure, I didn’t understand what was going on, but whatever we were doing didn’t seem to work at all. At this rate, we’re just wasting time!
“Shields are down to 20 percent!”
I felt the ship shudder and creak under pressure. I was gripping the metal bar I hung onto so hard that my hands were turning red, even under my gloves. They had just finished firing at the final Zaunite ship, but the results were still the same. A woman in front of me turned around. “Sir! All frontal sensors have been eliminated.”
Red lights started blinking. “Our shields are down to 10 percent!”
With a swift movement of his hand, the captain shouted, “Start up invisibility mechanisms! NOW!”
I heard more beeping. “Initiating stealth engines.”
Just then there was a huge BANG from the side of the ship. Black smoke was seen outside the window.
“Sir! One of our thrusters were taken out!”
The lights flickered again.
“Shields are now at 5 percent!”
The captain growled. “How much longer till our stealth engines are warmed up?”
“Stealth engines are at 50 percent!”
I turned my head towards him. “What’s going to happen to us?” I asked in desperation. I’ve never felt so scared in my life. I didn’t want to be blown up in an explosion! I needed to go back to my own time!
“Don’t worry!” he screamed, not even passing a glance at me. “We’ll be fine!”
“Engines at 77 percent!”
The ship took another blow. The impact was so great, it felt as if we would almost tip over.
“Our main cannon was taken out!”
“Keep firing everything we have! Keep them distracted!”
“Shields at 3 percent!”
Someone behind me shouted, “Shouldn’t we move to the escape pods?!” But the captain raised his hand at him. “I know what I’m doing!”
“Engines are at 93 percent!”
Another huge explosion.
“Sir! Our shields are completely gone!” What does that mean? Is it going to be over for us?
“Transfer some of the extraneous power back into the shields!”
Except for the faint glow of the floating images, the room went completely dark.
“How much longer till the engines are done?!”
“They’re at 98 percent, sir!”
I could feel my heart leaping out of my chest. I tried to put my hand over it, but my hands were shaking too bad. I could’ve sworn I would’ve freaked out if it wasn’t for a hand that firmly held my shoulder. I turned around to see the captain’s face in the dim light, calm and reassuring. “We’ll be fine, okay?” he reiterated. I opened my mouth, but no words came out at first. When I finally croaked an “Okay,” he smiled and stood up again.
“Stealth engines are done warming up, sir!”
“Initiate invisibility!”
There was more whirring, but much louder than last time. Everyone became quiet, waiting for what could be a close escape or impending doom.
…
“Invisibility has been initiated!”
The captain shot his hand out. “Make a course slightly left of our intended path, until we are far enough away from the Zaunites to be able to change course again. And make sure our remaining thrusters are at maximum power! Return power from shields to displays!”
The “windows” lit up again. We were slowly inching away from the Zaunite ships, tilting slowly away from the straight path the Zaunites were taking. It seemed like they had no idea where we were. They had stopped firing completely, probably trying to locate us.
I glanced up at captain. “Why don’t we just turn around now?” I inquired. Shaking his head again, he answered, “We only took out their frontal sensors. Their side and rear sensors are still active, so they could still detect us if we went anywhere around them. We need to make sure we get out safely.” He scratched his head and sighed. “It’s a good thing that Zaunites focused on their fire power instead of their shields, or else we wouldn’t have been able to take their sensors or thrusters out. Now we’ll be able to outrun them.” He looked at me with a little bit of pity and grinned. “I’m sure that’s not something you want to experience again,” he laughed. Personally, I didn’t find anything funny.
I rested my head on the metal bar I was still holding onto and closed my eyes. I let my grasp loosen a little, but I was still very shaky. After taking a few breaths, my heartbeat finally slowed down.
After I had calmed down a bit, the captain held out his hand. “I bet you’re starving.” Holding my stomach, I muttered, “Maybe a little.” I grabbed his hand and tried to stand up, but I fell over on my knees. My legs had lost all of their strength. He chucked. “Come on, boy,” the captain said, grabbing my other arm. “Get a hold of yourself.” I could tell we were both exhausted, but he was kind enough to help me up. I couldn’t help but back at him as he put my arm around his shoulder. It was awkward since he was so much taller than I was so he had to bend his knees, but I was able to walk a little better.
“We’ll discuss what’s happened while you were gone.”
Nodding slowly, I sighed and limped along side him as he led me out of the room.
———— End: Pulsefire Log 0003———-
———— Start: Pulsefire Log 0004———-
As soon as we reached a private room, the captain sat me down at a small dining table. I rested my chin on my arms as I watched him walk over to a seemingly plain wall. A panel opened up, showing a dark screen with buttons on it. Grinning at me, he asked, “So, whatcha hungry for?” I laid my head on it’s side, staring up at the ceiling. “Not really sure… Anything is good, I guess…” Nodding, he started pressing the keys on the screen. “Alrighty then. I’ll just order up the best we have.”
A lot of clinking and whirling was going on, but as soon as a warm aroma wafted beneath my nose, I sat up and my stomach growled even louder. I must’ve been hungrier than I thought.
Something appeared out of the corner of my eye. I jumped when I saw a mechanical arm come down from out of nowhere. I was about to get out of my chair when I saw it bring down a whole, juicy, golden brown roast chicken. I leaned forward, staring hungrily at it. It looked so good. It really did. Then I noticed more arms coming out of the walls, bringing out various dishes: soups, casseroles, sandwiches, desserts… There were even some dishes I couldn’t recognize, but they all looked delicious. The smell of it all was overwhelming. And the fact they were mostly Piltovian dishes made it even better. The captain walked up to the table, crossing his arms. “I thought you might find some native dishes more comforting,” he said. Outstretching his arm, he made a sweeping gesture at all the food. “Well, help yourself!”
I quickly tore off my gloves and grabbed whatever seemed most appetizing (which was pretty much everything) and loaded it onto a plate that was apparently placed as I was distracted by the outpour of food. As soon as I felt I had enough, I grabbed the chicken leg and tore into the tender meat, the juices running down my arm. I didn’t think anything could be so perfectly seasoned and cooked. I dropped the leg and stuck my fork in into a chunk of lasagna, taking a huge bite and leaving a gooey trail cheese from my mouth, finding it just as satisfying.
My natural curiosity got the better of me. I couldn’t help myself from trying everything. I’m sure it left my face a mess.
I reached out to grab some oddly colored drink, but noticed another hand going for it too. I could feel my face turn red. I totally forgot about the captain. And my manners. Yeah, there was enough food for the both of us, and he had already ate some himself, but I still didn’t want to be rude to the man who was giving me his hospitality. I withdrew my hand, not wanting to look at his face and how disgusted it must be. I muttered a tiny “sorry”, but the captain only laughed, saying with a lighthearted tone, “Oh it’s quite alright. My grandmother used to tell me you were the big eater. Go ahead and take what you’d like. I can always get some more.” Thankful he wasn’t angry at me, I took the drink and drank it all in one gulp. It was strangely sweet and fizzy, but oddly refreshing. I immediately grabbed some more to quench my thirst.
——
“Done?”
I lifted up my head from the table, nodding happily at the captain’s goofy smirk.
“My grandmother was right about you. You do eat a lot.” I glanced at the pile of empty bowls and plates. I probably ate at least a half of what was on the table; the captain only maybe only eating a fraction in comparison. Shrugging, I slumped back in my chair. “Well, I am still growing you know,” I said in my defense. He laughed in response and snapped his fingers. As the mechanical arms came down again to pick up whatever was left, I couldn’t help but feel that there was some little thing that was still bothering me.
“Captain, I don’t think you ever mentioned your name.”
Straightening his back, he clasped his hands together and cleared his throat. “Ah, yes. I should probably give you a proper introduction. My name is Damien. I’m the Captain of Piltover’s Alpha Platoon and… well, I guess you would know it as the Sheriff of Piltover. It’s no longer called that, but the basic role is the same. And, as you know, I’m Caitlyn’s grandson.”
I sat up, trying to shake off my drowsiness. “How is Caitlyn by the way?”
Damien shook his head and sighed. “She passed away 15 years ago.”
“Oh…I’m sorry.” It was a strange shock to me, even though it made sense. I guess it’s just weird and saddening to have someone I know not around anymore.
He waved it off. “It’s fine. I’m used to it. I’m sure you feel the same way.”
There was a small silence.
“So… how did this all happen?”
Taking a deep breath, Damien prepared himself on what he was about tell me. “So, you remember Viktor, right?”
I scratched my head. “You mean the crazy whack job professor who turned himself into a machine?”
“Yeah. He’s the one that started it all.”
My jaw dropped. “You’re joking.”
“No, I’m not. Seems like he had some secret plans no one knew about until it was too late.”
——
The Beginning
About 25 years after you disappeared, Viktor had begun taking a lot more people to experiment on than he did before, willing or otherwise. Since he failed to create anything with the crystal he stole, he decided to create biomechanical cyborgs like himself, but more militaristic. He made them into deadly soldiers; his own private army he built up in his little laboratory. They all retained their human like logic and learning capabilities, since computerized logic can be a little flawed, but integrated with mechanical processors that were able to calculate and make accurate approximations faster than any human brain. Whatever was left of the person had no will of their own. Viktor was able to control them fully. They followed one master and one master only. His “glorious revolution” was under way.
About five years later, he took over Zaun overnight under everyone’s nose. He easily put everyone in the city under submission. His technology was too advanced compared to everything else there, strangely enough. No one was able to confront him, nor come in or get out of Zaun. They were all trapped in their own city. He made all the scientists there work under him without question, ensuring that they would allow his ideas to grow and flourish. Everyone else had to suffer under his rule in which he thought would improve the society. The worst part was that nobody knew about it till he expanded his conquest.
The day afterwards, he came to Demacia with his legion of robots. The Demacian Guard tried to stand up to them, but the foot soldiers could not stand up to them. It wasn’t until their best mages came that they were able to drive them out. That’s when Viktor realized his machines weren’t able to resist those with great magical abilities, he immediately took it upon himself to find a solution. That’s when he remembered the crystal he had stolen from Master Jayce all those years ago. He still had some fragments of them, worthless now as an energy source since the energy they emitted were little to none, but he figured out a way to reverse the process and multiply it ten fold. Using this discovery, he created a hand held machine that would lead to his success.
The next time he came back, the Demacian mages were ready, all gathered in one place to confront him. But Viktor was ready for them too. He held up his device and activated it, sucking all of the magic out of their front line and dispersing it back in the air in a non-usable form. Now defenseless, Demacia easily fell under his reign. Once he had secured the entire city and subdued any resistance, he gathered the royal family, the nobles, and all magic users and killed them off in one go. Many Demacians ended up fleeing to various places now that they’ve lost their leaders and their protection. Those who couldn’t hid away within the city, hoping they wouldn’t be found. They had lost their faith.
The Retaliation
The Institute of War was informed of these events and began planning. The were perfectly aware of Viktor’s initial invasion, but since it was unsuccessful they decided not to worry about it. Now that Demacia was easily taken over the second time, the council and all the summoners were frantic. They knew Viktor had to be stopped. But he was one step ahead of them. Viktor and his army arrived at their doorstep, easily taking all of them by surprise. He trapped them all inside the Institute and, with his strange device, took away all of their magic, rendering their powers useless. They were all killed immediately. Any magical entities or League champions that were within the building were either totally destroyed from the dispersal of their own magic by Viktor’s device or kept trapped there for… well I guess forever.
Now there was no one that could stop him except us. Many people realized this and left their cities for the safety of Piltover. We were run amok with refugees. Caitlyn and many others welcomed them while others wanted them to leave the city alone and find some other place to stay. We responded immediately since we were the only ones who could match Viktor’s technology. Our scientists started working on a way to stop these menaces as well as create defenses for Piltover in case he does come trying to invade, but for some reason, whenever someone came close to a something useful, they were found dead and all the data had disappeared. It wasn’t until later that we found Viktor had poisoned them all with some sort of tiny machine that also destroyed and took their research back to him. One after one, our chances for stopping his mechanical army disappeared. Eventually, he stole almost all our ideas, improving his technology as a whole. He was able to speed up Zaunite technology while leaving us in the dust. We had back up researchers trying to pick up where their colleagues had left off, but obviously it was difficult and a little lackluster.
Nevertheless, we tried to stop Viktor as he continued onto other cities. The same thing happened started to happen as in Demacia: all the magic users were gathered and Viktor drained them of all their mana, eventually killing and destroying all city defenses as well as whoever was in charge. No one had the technological means to stop him, except maybe us. When we finally caught up to his army, we pitted our technology against each other. We knew what happened in the other cities, so we didn’t bring any of our mages. Instead we brought our best foot soldiers and gunmen. Even Caitlyn went to the front lines, despite her age. She was definitely angry at Viktor for all the countless brilliant Piltovians he murdered. She wanted him to be stopped and brought to justice.
Unfortunately for us, the battle went downhill. We had made a good dent in their numbers, but we had far more casualties than them to keep fighting. With our pride wounded, we had to retreat. It was a horrible loss and a huge discouragement for us.
Our Hope
Luckily for us, Professor Heimerdinger and Master Jayce were still around. Master Jayce had wanted to face Viktor on the field to finish it all, but Caitlyn convinced him that he and Professor Heimerdinger were far too valuable for Piltover. They were their only hope to stop all this nonsense. Everyone needed them to make the final stand against Viktor. Since he knew this was pretty much true, he reluctantly agreed.
They both hid away somewhere underground, safe where Viktor couldn’t find them. Together, with a few of their most trusted assistants, they started off where the others had left and created the most extraordinary things. Sure, we were still severely behind, and it took them a few years to conceptualize the ideas, sneak them out, build them, and then test them, but at least there was hope for us. They created aircrafts, explosives, guns… all sorts of things. Viktor had attempted to try to take these away, but we had kept the ideas and their creation process separate, constantly moving to new and different locations thanks to Miss Janna and her couriers, making it difficult for him to steal them away.
As the years went on, both Piltovian and Zaunite technology grew. Our fights on land became air battles. Guns and electric weapons became lasers and nuclear explosives. Much of Runeterra was wrought with destruction. We’re also the only cities left standing and have grown so much since then. Our defenses are so highly advanced that sometimes it’s no use for either city to attack one another, but Zaun attacks us very frequently despite that fact. We’ve tried counter attacking, but even if Zaun’s own defenses were feeble in comparison to ours, their firepower was far too strong. We had also tried to use magic in an attempt to counter Zaun, but we could not find any mages alive that were nearly strong enough as the ones before to be able to channel their power. Viktor had already captured most of our mages, except Janna, and eliminated them. Whoever was left were too weak, even if they practiced hard enough in the safety of our walls. At the rate we were going with this constant war, we might run out of stamina very soon. Professor Heimerdinger and Caitlyn had already passed away and Janna was very weak now, but Master Jayce was surprisingly as strong as a horse. I guess his grudge against Viktor had kept him strong and innovated.
Viktor himself had also kept whatever human of himself alive, along with his soldiers. They’ve constantly attacked us in an effort to wear us down. It has always been a struggle, but we’ve always been able to keep out of the city… except once.
The Pulsefire Armor
Master Jayce was on the verge of finishing something fantastic, something that could possibly match 100, or even 500 of Viktor’s biomachines. The Pulsefire armor. So advanced that even I couldn’t believe it. Able to fit and adapt to anybody, it was made as a final hope against Viktor’s tyranny. When it was finished and tested, rumors of it spread like wildfire and eventually reached Viktor’s ears. He absolutely had to have this technology. A few days later, his legion broke through our shields and marched upon our city, desperately looking for the armor.
As soon as he had found out Viktor had come, Jayce quickly took his creation and gave it to one of my lieutenants, telling them to fly it as far away as possible and to keep it safe and out of Viktor’s hands, whatever the cost. As soon as he left, the two rivals finally came face to face. Their battle was long and gruesome, and it left a good part of Piltover a mess, but in the end, Viktor was unable to move any longer with his lower body had been almost completely destroyed. Jayce, who was also gravely injured and exhausted, was about to take the final blow when he was knocked away by one of Viktor’s underlings. He was about to be killed himself when the enemy found out from someone else that the armor had been taken out of Piltover. Immediately, Viktor and his men retreated and started their search for the armor. I had hoped my lieutenant had gotten far away enough, but they were still able to track him. Communications with him became fuzzy as his jet was hit, but he planned to use the cloaking device right before he fell out of the sky. I heard nothing else after another loud explosion. That’s when I decided I needed to take my men and go looking for it. Seeing how the Zaunites still chase us constantly, I’m guessing they haven’t found the whereabouts of the armor.
All the clues we have are the coordinates from that last call. We haven’t been able to locate the spacecraft or the armor itself. We’ve been going around in circles trying to find it, but no luck.
But all of a sudden, on of my crew discovered a strange reading that appeared from the middle of nowhere. We locked onto a being that who’s readings were different than what we were used to. We followed it to whatever was left of Demacia, curious to see what or who it was.
——
“And that’s when we found you,” he finished.
I sank back into my chair, trying to absorb all this information. It was all really hard to believe. No magic? No Institute? City-states completely destroyed? And VIKTOR? Out of all these people, Viktor had to be the one who began it all? I closed my eyes and sighed. Again, I couldn’t help but feel homesick.
There was complete silence for at least 5 minutes.
“So…” I said, breaking the silence. “What happened to Jayce?”
“Oh right, I forgot to tell you what happened to him afterwards.” Damien straightened his back. “He’s in the hospital right now, recovering. He seems to be getting better, but I’m not very sure.”
I nodded my head. It’s hard to believe the Jayce I knew, so arrogant and proud, to be so gravely injured. But things have changed. I have to keep reminding myself that. “So I’m guessing that armor part happened recently?”
“Yes,” Damien said, resting his chin on his hands. “About a few weeks ago. We’re still looking for that armor, even though I’m starting to lose hope rather fast. It’s a rather sturdy thing, but seeing we haven’t been able to locate it for so long, I doubt the Zaunites will be able to locate it as well.”
I closed my eyes again, letting that statement run through my mind. “Have you tried a ground search?”
He looked at me, taken aback a little. “Of course! We’ve done a ground search a good couple of times. Don’t you think we’ve tried that already?”
I sat up and crossed my arms. “Well that time, you didn’t have me around.”
“What? What does that supposed to mean?”
“That means,” I said, raising my voice, “you have an expert around here. Have you forgotten who I am?”
He thought about what I said for a few seconds, then he let out a light hearted laugh. “Ah, yes! You must have tons of experience finding things.” I glared at him from the slight sarcasm, but right after he said that, he rubbed his chin, actually considering the idea. “Maybe that’s not such a bad idea.” Nodding some more, he continued to mutter. “Alright then! We’ll start again at the same coordinates first thing tomorrow morning!” He paused. “That is… if you’re willing to help us.”
I scoffed. “Well of course! I’m a Piltovian too! I’m not letting that creep Viktor take over.”
Captain Damien beamed at me, lighting up his tired face. “I’m glad to hear that.” He looked up at the clock on the wall. “Well, it’s getting really late now. You must be completely exhausted.” I sighed again, starting to feel everything catch up to my body. “Yeah… kind of.”
Standing up, Damien walked to the door and opened it. “Well, let’s get you a room, shall we?” I stood up, dragging my feet along as I followed him down the corridors. We stopped at another pair of doors, opening as Damien pressed a button. “Well you get a good night’s rest, alright?” Nodding I hauled myself over to the bed. “Thank you.”
WIth one last smile, he shut the doors behind him. I rolled over on my back, staring at the ceiling lit dimly by a pale blue light. My mind was buzzing with all these thoughts and questions as I lay there. Will I really be able to find this suit? And even if I do, what’s going to happen afterwards? Am I ever gonna get home?
But eventually, all the day’s events got to me and I fell asleep before I knew it.
———— End: Pulsefire Log 0004———-
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