Chapter Text
She would never forget that day.
The day a rough and harsh fog fell over the bridge to Piltover. One that was suffocating without a mask. At least to those from above.
“Dear friend across the river…my hands are cold and bare…”
The day fire licked buildings and caught wood like a ravenous beast. The day the fires seemed to roar for a lifetime. The days where the world seemed so hot that not even the waters were safe from it’s drowning heat.
The day the world was so loud and confusing and chaotic that she wanted to rip off her own ears. The day that never seemed to quiet despite her own screams trying ever so desperately to drown out everything else, but it was always overpowered by the next explosion, the next gunshot, the next collapsed pillar.
“Dear friend across the river…I’ll take what you can spare…”
The day ashes and dust fluttered and danced through the air like they never had before. They danced like it was their last day on this planet, like lovers who had been taken away from each other, only to be reunited once again, for one last time, one last encore. They coated her throat with their tight grip, and made breathing one of the most difficult tasks she had ever done, but even still she could fight her way through the dust and ash armies and scream if she needed to.
“I ask of you a penny…my fortune it will be…”
The day her brother’s once playful, chirpy singing had gone somber, dull and quiet. When he sang not because he wanted to, but because he was terrified. When he sang to comfort himself and his sister rather than to entertain a crowd. When his voice still sang out perfectly and clearly, even through uncertain fears and cries. When he sang with his heart open and his eyes closed, as if he could just sing the troubles away.
“I ask you without envy”
The day her brother’s eyes were closed, but her’s were opened wide.
“We raise no mighty towers…our homes are built with stone…”
The day she saw a completely new scene. One with fire and rubble and people…but they weren’t standing. They weren’t laughing or smiling or bartering, or arguing with checkpoint generals. They were laid roughly across the stony bridge. They looked like people who were in the middle of a restless sleep, one with a never-ending nightmare they couldn’t escape. They were motionless, completely and totally still as if staying still would cause the monsters to go away, so that they could sleep properly. So they could have a peaceful sleep.
“So come across the river…”
The day that was so clouded with fog, it seemed the sun would never shine again. So clouded that she had considered that the Gods had left them here to die, and closed the curtains so no one could see the end of this tragedy.
“And find the-”
She had stopped walking. Stopped walking across broken wood planks and shattered stone pillars. Stopped walking across jagged iron bars that had been ripped from the posts. Across discarded weaponry that shined in the light of fire and embers, despite being caked in ash. Across the people who laid sleeping through this endless nightmare.
Her brother stopped his singing and his walking as well. He hesitated before lifting the hand his sister had told him to shield his eyes. For dust, she said, to shield it from the dust and ash of the fog.
The dust and ash stung the newly revealed eyes of the young boy, and he blinked hard and fast, trying to get used to the new heat that his eyes were exposed to. He looked up timidly to his sister, wondering what was wrong.
She stood still, looking at something through the clouded fog. Her brother tightened his grip around her hand, and she squeezed back, trying to be reassuring, but to him or herself, she would probably never know.
There, just a few steps before the side of the bridge, stood a towering figure. The clouds and fire hid the person's features well as he battled and clashed with a guardsman with nothing but a trident.
His movements were swift and agile, and she looked upon the figure in awe, marveling at the skill of it all and forgetting, for just a moment, where she was.
The figure had thrown the guard to the ground, and in a finishing blow, spun the trident and stabbed it deep into the chest of the man. It was quickly removed a moment later, leaving the figure behind breathing heavily and harshly.
A moment later, he whipped around fast, hand tightening on that trident of his, a raging fire in his eyes that burned stronger than anything else out here.
That was the day she had flinched back, but stepped in front of her brother, because she didn’t care what happened to her. If her brother died, she wouldn’t know how to live. It was the one thing she had control over. She could protect her brother. Even if she was terrified out of her mind. Even if she wanted to run away. She placed a protective arm around her brother, pushing him slightly behind her, and readied a hand to fight. Because she would go down swinging. She would go down protecting her brother.
Instead, the figure relaxed, still breathing heavily, as he looked upon the two siblings. He stood up straighter and turned to face the kids. He wasn’t hostile. He looked upon them as if curious and surprised.
The figure walked towards them. And, after a moment’s hesitation, she took a step back, bringing her brother back with her.
The figure stopped, still somehow surprised by their hostile response despite their setting and situation. He raised his left hand as in his right he held his trident, and said something.
“It’s alright. I’m not here to hurt you.”
His voice was gentle, comforting. A voice that seemed to fit a kind traveler, or a caring father. It was one that the sister felt like she could trust, even if everything else was telling her something else.
He took another step forward, stepping out of the smoky curtain, revealing himself in the light of the fire.
A male of about a 6ft stature towered above them. His sandy-colored button-up long-sleeved shirt was dirtied with dust and ash and blood, even as a dull purple shawl was draped over his shoulders and covered a good portion of the shirt. From the shawl hung turquoise strings that might have had some sort of decorative ornament on it, but due to fire or fighting or both, had been long gone. He wore a belt with a shiny golden buckle that still had some sort of shine despite the dirt, and had dark brown pants that had all sorts of cuts and tears, and black boots. From his belt hung a small, shiny gold object that she couldn’t make out.
His face was kind, though it seemed weathered by years and years of war, or maybe age, as the young girl couldn’t tell how old he was. Curly dark brown hair that fell only halfway down his ears, though it seemed the ends of it had been burnt by rogue embers, or something else entirely. He had a growing beard, though it seemed like it was still growing.
He had a deep cut that ran over his right eye, and it seemed like he got it more recently than she could imagine. And, yet, he was smiling gently, as if he didn’t notice it.
His trident was brilliant. Amazing blues and greens that swirled up to the top where it branched out into three prongs, each looking like they were made of diamonds. Where the three prongs met was a symbol of a candle, and the little flame on top that had smoke engraved on it that rose to the top of the middle prong. Even she could appreciate the craftsmanship of it.
She didn’t trust him completely, but she still asked her question anyways, hoping he’d know.
He stopped, as if debating what to say. He repeated the question, and then gestured off to the left, guiltily.
Her face dropped, confused and scared. She looked over to the place where the male gestured. Her grip on her brother’s hand tightened, trying to comfort him and herself.
And what she saw, she…didn’t really remember.
She remembered the overwhelming agony that she felt when looking at. A type of grief and sadness that ripped at her heart and her soul worse than any other feeling she’d had before. She remembered how absolutely weak and helpless she had felt, and how she had collapsed onto the ground. She remembered the way her brother had tried to comfort her, the way he hugged her and refused to let go. He had already cried too much today, and he was completely out of tears to cry. She remembered screaming, but not the sound. She remembered that her throat had burned, but she couldn’t remember the actual pain that came from it. She might have been crying, but if she had, the heat from the fire and destruction had swept them away before they could make it off her face.
The male with the trident looked upon the scene and mourned. Mourned for the loss of innocence, and the loss of families, his included. He mourned for the loss of life and freedom and peace. Mourned for himself, and for the siblings that were sat crying and comforting each other.
He looked from the siblings to the sparkling trident that was in his hand. The weapon that had defended the Undercity and himself for years. The trident he had used to kill countless Piltover guards and unruly Undercity citizens.
The trident that led the charge that would unknowingly be the cause of parents being taken away from their children, leaving behind nothing more than their motionless bodies and their children to cry in despair and agony.
His hand tightened into as much of a fist as he could around his trident, and in a stroke of impulsion, he bared his teeth, lifted the trident, and threw it with a loud shout that mirrored the sibling’s own sorrow.
The trident soared through the air, whistling as if saying goodbye, and spun as if dancing, like the ashes and dust and clouds that it broke through. She looked up at the right moment to see the trident shine magnificently in the sun that was coming through the clouds, and strike the large gold medallion-like structure that hung between the two strongest pillars of the largest support of the bridge. A loud dong! Was heard throughout the Overcity and throughout the bridge, and it reverberated and echoed deep and long, she could feel the vibration in her chest, distracting her from everything else.
A moment later, the male placed a comforting hand on their backs, and he smiled that kind smile she found hard to distrust.
“Let me take you home.”
That was a day she’ll never forget.
She would never forget the kind smile the stranger gave them, and the kindness he showed them as he picked them both up and carried them away from the bridge, stumbling only a bit as his vision was still clouded by dust and fire.
She would never forget the way her brother slept peacefully on the man’s shoulder, looking the most comfortable he had ever been in years, despite the tear tracks that stained his freckled face.
She would never forget the way the Piltover guards stood in the smoke, their masked and goggled faces completely shielding any and all emotions other than disdain and distrust as they turned their backs to finish their jobs. Or the way she remembered her face twisting in anger and fists tightening.
That was the day she swore 2 things:
That she would never forgive Piltover. And she would make them pay, one day.
And that she would protect her new family. That she would protect her brother, her little Solidarity, and she would protect this new helpful stranger.
“Who…are you, anyways?” She had asked once the horrors of the bridge were long gone.
The curly brown haired stranger looked at her, and smiled gently.
“The name’s Pixl. Pixlriffs.” He answered sincerely. “And what’s your name?”
“Lizzie.”
*********
The City of Piltover. A sparkling, shiny utopia. The peak of humanity and humanity’s achievements. A place where anyone can be anything, and where new things are invented every day. It truly is a paradise.
And Lizzie…well, she absolutely hated it.
She hated everything it stood for. She hated all the dumb “progress” they had made. She hated all the stupidly rich, stuck-up little brats that lived there. She hated every single inventor, every single enforcer, every single shopkeeper, engineer, builder, council member, magic users, all of them. She hated them for what they did to her and her family.
So, if anything, this was more payback than anything.
She climbed to the top of the building, only stopping for a second to turn around and make sure her companions were behind her and still following.
She smiled as she saw the two boys climbing up the wall, nearly over the top themselves, so she held out a hand to help them up.
“Hurry up, you too.” Lizzie was smiling playfully, her hand outstretched. Her brother took it happily as Lizzie hoisted him up over the wall.
“Woah…” Her blonde-haired brother marveled, looking at the sights of the portion of the world they almost never got to see. Yeah, Lizzie might have hated it, but even she had to admit it was pretty.
After helping Scott up onto the roof, she dusted herself off and walked up behind her brother, looking across the sea of roofs and tiles. There were shades of white and blue and gold everywhere. Gold seemed to be everywhere, marking the edges and gutters of the houses, coating the tiles, or making up the strange piping that ran from building to building, or even the structures that looked like sundials, or those that were tracking stars and constellations, or maybe just for decoration and show-off. Smoke rose from a variety of different rooftop chimneys, showing that even with all the progress, the city still hadn’t moved on beyond good ol’ steam power. One of the few things Piltover had in common with her home.
She patted him on the back. “Enough staring, wonder boy.” She gave him a little wink and turned to Scott. “All up to you, Scott.”
He walked forward, and looked around, trying to locate something. “It’s not far from here.” He said, accent coming in heavy. He had quite a heavy accent and quite a different one from herself and her family, but it was quite a cute voice, intriguing at the very least.
He found what he was looking for and beckoned the three of them over. Scott went first, sliding down the tiled roof, and quickly grabbing onto a balcony off to the right. He swung himself around, and pushed off hard, flying through the air for only a few seconds, before landing with a hard thud on the other building. He smiled cockily, and said, “Your turn, your majesties!”
Lizzie rolled her eyes at the jab, but slid down the tiled roof anyways, swinging gracefully over to the balcony and jumping off of it, landing perhaps even more gracefully than Scott did, to which she gave him a look that said, “What were you on about?” Scott nodded to her and gave her a little clap, moderately impressed.
When she looked back, her brother was still on the other side, hesitating, and looking scared of the fall below.
“Oh no…” Scott whispered, sounding more concerned than annoyed. He sighed and walked forward, obviously intending to help him out, but Lizzie stopped him with a hand to his chest. She turned back to her brother.
“Jimmy, look at me.” Lizzie said, trying to be encouraging, “Scott and I have both done it, you can do it too.”
They locked eyes. He was breathing fast, as if trying not to have a panic attack. He shook his head, as if to say “I can’t.” Lizzie shook her head back and smiled, trying to be encouraging, and telling him “Yes you can. I believe in you. Just try it.”
He seemed to be considering it, breaking eye contact, looking around at the path Scott and Lizzie took before looking back, looking more determined, and nodded.
Okay, I’ll do it.
He took a breath in, and, following what Scott did, slid down the roof. He almost yelped in surprise at how fast he was going, but he managed to jump and grab onto the balcony, almost missing it and causing the metal to creak and ring.
Scott cringed and rubbed his eyes, turning away, “I’m not watching…”
Lizzie wanted to smack him across the head, but she also didn’t want to look away in case something happened.
Come on. You can do it. I know you can.
He was dangling from the roof for a moment, nothing under him but the people and the pavement of Piltover. After this moment of shock, he lifted himself up back to the balcony, giving himself a moment to breathe once he got there.
He turned around to face the next building, and saw Lizzie, who was nodding and smiling enthusiastically. She motioned for him to come over, and, after a deep breath in, he jumped and pushed himself off the balcony.
And suddenly, he was flying through the air. The air rushed through his hair and over his face like a calming wave. He felt like he was floating, gliding through the air, and he felt strangely calm. Like he knew he could do this. He felt like smiling and staying this way forever.
But gravity did it’s work and he landed on the roof, stumbling slightly before falling down onto his knees.
But he had made it.
He looked up to Lizzie, smiling widely and dumbly, and she smiled back just as wide. She held out a hand, and he took it gladly. He noticed how her skin was surprisingly soft compared to his and after years of staying in the Undercity, and her sharper nails poking his palm, but not causing any pain. He always wondered how she managed that.
“Alright, Scott, you can look now.” Lizzie teased, “He’s fine.”
Scott turned around, and he seemed to relax almost instantly when he saw Jimmy was okay, though he quickly tried to cover it up. He brushed it off and said, “Great. Now that none of us have died, we can get on with this. The apartment’s only 2 buildings down on this side.”
Scott continued to lead the way, while Lizzie followed with Jimmy in tow. None of them really said much. Scott was too busy trying to remember the exact way to go, and Lizzie was preoccupied with everything else, paying attention to everything else other than the backdrop. Jimmy felt like they weren’t up for talking, so he kept to himself, and continued looking at the wondrous city.
Sure, Lizzie hated it, and he understood why, to a certain extent, but he thought the scenery was gorgeous. It was such a rough contrast from the Undercity, sometimes he forgot that not everywhere looked like The Undercity. Like his home. He wondered how often people here used the funny little contraptions on their roofs, or what it would be like to use those mechanical wings that would fly over their heads every so often. He wondered if the rivers were nicer and cleaner, and if other kids like himself would swim and spend their days there. He wondered how many little trinkets and toys this place had. Like a kid in a massive candy shop, he was amazed and astounded by it all.
A few minutes later, they arrived on the roof of the apartment. Lizzie was thankful, to say the least, so they could get their stuff and get out.
Scott crouched down, grabbed onto the edge of the roof, and swung himself down and over the guardrail, landing with a silent thud against the polished concrete.
Lizzie followed suit, and she helped Jimmy as Scott walked over to the door and tugged on it, surprised as it pushed back on him. He tried again, only for the same result.
“Locked.” He said out loud, to which Lizzie scoffed. She walked over to Scott to try the door herself.
Scott nodded over to Jimmy, “Well, looks like you’re up-”
A loud crash and the jingling of broken hinges, caused Scott to turn around fast, only to see the doors swinging open, and Lizzie letting out a breath, as if she’d accomplished something, and smiled to herself. She looked over to a dumbfounded Scott and an amazed Jimmy.
“Come on, let’s see what this lead of yours has, Scott.” Lizzie said, and she walked into the room.
Much like everything else in Piltover, this room screamed “Rich Inventor” type. They were obviously well funded, and had been doing whatever research or experiment of whatever for a long time, as papers, paper balls, and notebooks were strewn about the place, and two blackboards had all sorts of equations and notes on them, all written in white chalk.
Books lined shelves that all had leather-backings and were lined with golden materials, all with different colored covers, and all saying something different, though Lizzie didn’t spare much of a thought to most of them.
Along the walls of the room were desks all filled with more papers, notebooks, and all sorts of trinkets and gadgets. Telescopes were pointed at some windows, and loads of golden astrology-esc things hung from the ceiling.
The feel of the room was almost completely different from the rest of Piltover, surprisingly. Instead of the nice and fancy blues and whites, the room was mostly made of a sort of black cold stone that reminded Lizzie of obsidian. It made the room feel way more industrial, especially with pipes and wires going throughout the room on the ceiling, and the only real light coming from the windows and the red-tinted glass gas lanterns that hung from chains. It felt like a cave, and it surprised Lizzie that something like this even existed in this city of gold and blue.
Scott had already gone ahead and looked through the desks and picked out a few things to take back. Lizzie couldn’t really tell what they were, only that they were sciencey and probably worth a lot. Lizzie took the Shulker bag from her back and set it down on the floor, and got to work looking at everything else.
Jimmy had looked around, but hadn’t really gotten anything, too busy being impressed by everything to start properly grabbing things. He stopped at a curious fish tank in one of the walls, showing off an exhibit of red-scaled fishes. Salmon.
He frowned. He never did like Salmon. Too tricky to catch, and never any good with the cooking methods used in The Undercity. He stuck his tongue out at the fish, hoping to insult them, even though they were just fish.
However, the fish tank revealed a room behind it, like a window. Multi-purpose fish tank.
He followed the wall full of books and materials over to an archway leading to the hallway beyond the wall. He took a glance at Lizzie and Scott, who were both still busy in this room to take much notice of the archway. So, he followed the wall, running a hand curiously through the books as he passed, and turned the corner to the new room.
This apartment had been an absolute steal. There were so many materials here, it absolutely blew Lizzie away. There were tons of iron, and iron materials. There were clocks and compasses and materials of map making and book-writing. There were loads of brewing stands for making potions, and every and all materials needed to make those potions. There was enough gold, diamonds, emeralds, iron to where they’d never have to leave again. Vials of gunpowder and blaze powder, as well as these curious blueish-green orbs that seemed to sparkle with stars in the center. She had no idea what that could be for, so she decided to leave them.
She had to admit, she was insanely curious about those books now, so she looked at a couple of the titles.
“History of Piltover”
“Uses for Iron and ways to Implement it Safely”
“Explosives and How to Use Them”
“The Booming History of Fireworks”
“Blacksmithing”
“History of Enchantments.”
“Basic Aerodynamics”
She stopped and did a double take, before removing the “History of Enchantments” book from the shelf.
She flipped through it briefly, seeing all sorts of runes and Galactic texts that she could barely read or understand. The picture was filled in with all sorts of scribbled notes and arrows. It looked like the descension of a mad-man.
She didn’t realize whoever this was was messing around with enchantments. From what little she could recall about Piltover was that only Council Members and those from the Academy were legally allowed to study magic. Did they stumble into a Council Member’s Apartment? She didn’t really know how Scott had found this place, and now she was starting to question just how much longer they should stay here.
She placed the book back on the shelf and decided to quicken her pace.
Jimmy, as he had rounded the archway corner, had walked down the hallway to what seemed like a separate storage room. When he opened the door wider, it seemed much the same to the room before, only slightly tidier. There were just two desks in here on either side of the wall, and at the end was a window that had a magnificent view of the setting sun.
Along the shelves on the walls were potion bottles, barrels, chests, all sorts of machinery, along with tripwire hooks and levers and buttons that seemed to connect to nothing. In a pot grew a black flower that looked quite deadly, and who’s stem had thorns. He wondered why someone would want to actively keep those flowers in their room, but maybe Piltover didn’t have a bad infestation of those Wither Roses, so perhaps the inventor was studying it. That was the only reason the boy could see why someone would keep it here.
He looked over to one of the desks, only to see more papers and crumpled up paper balls. Something shiny did catch his eye from underneath one of the papers, and curiosity got the better of him. He gently removed the papers to see what it was.
It was a dark blue chest with some sort of eye symbol on it, and the chest seemed to be made out of stars and tiny little lights. With much struggle, he managed to open the heavy chest.
And, inside, there were 15 different slots for something to be held, but only 9 were full. And they were filled with small vials of…something red.
Curiously, he picked up one of the vials and held it to the light. Inside was a shimmery red dust that filled up half the vial. It seemed to glow with electricity, and a current seemed to be ever-flowing within it. It seemed to hum with energy, and he had never seen anything like it before.
Something about it called to him. He had never considered himself a tinkerer, but he did enjoy messing around with fireworks and such. Maybe he could figure out how to implement this into his firework machines, or use it in his actual fireworks.
He looked around the room a bit more, spotting candles along some shelves, more gears and gadgets, nuts and bolts, and some Iron materials. He spotted, interestingly enough, an unused firework star that was colored red and black. He looked over to the little red, black and grey ball for a moment, and then back to the vials. He took about 3 of them and placed them in a pouch on his belt, walking over to the firework star to grab it.
Scott had dropped a couple more things into the Shulker bag, as Lizzie shuffled through them, still debating in her head if they should get more of the dangerous stuff, like potions or blaze powder, or the debris parts that were yet to be melted down, but she had ultimately decided against this.
She still wondered why someone would want to mess around with enchantments. The people of Piltover and the Undercity had access to the elusive power of enchanting, but it was very clearly illegal to mess around with outside of designated enchantment zones only found in Piltover’s Academy District, and it was often heavily armed and protected. Only the Council and a few select individuals who worked in these magical workshops knew how enchantments worked. Had they perhaps stumbled into one of those worker’s homes? Scott didn’t mention anything-
“Hey, Lizzie?” Scott had called, bringing her back from her own thoughts. She blinked, remembering where she was, and looked over to Scott, who beckoned her over.
She got up, admittedly worried as to what Scott needed her for, and judging by the sound of his voice, he was troubled by whatever he found. She took a breath and looked to Scott who gestured over at the chest he was looking through.
When Lizzie looked into the chest, she stood up straighter, feeling her eyes raise in surprise and her mouth slightly open.
In the middle of the chest, rested a small, but familiar golden figurine, with it’s little arms raised above its head, and it’s eyes glowing a brilliant sparkling emerald, magical runes were engraved upon it, and it shined with magical properties.
There was only one other person she knew of that had this item. And even then she was told it was extremely dangerous, and was for emergencies only.
She reached in and grabbed it, running a finger down the runes and along the side of it, tracing it, as if to make sure it was real. It was it’s own figure, not attached to any chain or wrapped in anything. It was simply out in the open.
She wondered what exactly this was. She knew its name-or at least what her father had called it. An Undying Totem. A golden treasure that had been a relic from old magic users, the infamous Evokers that had laid waste to civilizations, and there were only so many in the world. He said there had only been 5.
What was…was this inventor trying to-
She stopped, listening out for the sound of indistinct chatter. Scott seemed to hear it too, as he looked at Lizzie and shot her a concerned look.
Then a moment later, she heard footsteps. And they were coming closer.
She shoved the golden totem into Scott’s hand, and ran to a nearby desk, grabbing a chair with slight difficulty, and she ran to the door, shoving the chair underneath the handle to prevent it from opening.
She took a step back, breathing, secretly hoping the footsteps were for another room.
And then the door handle shook as someone tried to open the door.
Oh no.
“Scott!” She hissed, “We gotta go! Get the stuff!”
Jimmy was startled when Lizzie ran into the room and said, “Jim! We’ve gotta get out of here!”
Panic shot through the young boy, and he stuffed the firework star into his belt pouch and grabbed anything he thought was valuable and shoved it into his pouch as well. He looked back over at the chest, and grabbed the other remaining vials, and rushed out the door, one of the vials dropping as he tried to put them in his pouch.
On his way out of the room, he slammed the door shut behind him, running out to the main room of the apartment, where Scott was already carrying the bag and about halfway to the door, and Lizzie was waiting for him. She pushed him in front of her to try and help him get to the door faster.
Lizzie looked back, and that book of enchantments caught her eye again. It was like it was calling her, begging her not to leave it behind.
And that book would be insanely valuable, even with all the notes written in it.
So, she turned back to grab the book from the bookshelf, ripping it out of its place and then turning around to run to the balcony door.
And, in a perfect world, the trio would get to the roof and away from any enforcers before they would be caught, and then they’d head home with their package and reap the rewards.
Only, the world isn’t quite so lucky.
See, when Jimmy had slammed the door, a firework star from on-top of a shelf that was too high for him to reach or take much notice of was jerked forward, and rolled a few inches before it fell onto the ground, with enough force to where it would have regularly exploded.
Only, it had landed on the vial filled with red dust.
And the dust, as everyone in the building was about to be made aware, was more dangerous than it had originally seemed.
So, when the firework star landed onto the vial that was already cracked from the tumble it had taken out of Jimmy’s pockets, it exploded with more force than anyone was expecting.
The explosion force pushed both the inventor on the other side of the door and Lizzie back, and it exploded in a colorful and dusty red and black shine, filling the room with smoke and sparks.
Lizzie coughed from the dust and smoke, but stumbled forward and out onto the balcony, where she nearly collapsed into Scott and her brother’s arms. The explosion had knocked the wind out of her, and while she wasn’t hurt, she still was gasping for air.
“Are you-?” Scott started to ask, when a deep and low rumble cut him off from anything else.
The building seemed to shake, and rumble as if an earthquake was happening. Lizzie was entranced by it all. She had never felt anything like it.
Her eyes went wide as cracks started appearing on the side of the building winding up and along where the explosion came from, and concrete dust was starting to kick up from the cracks.
The cracks ran along the wall and the floor of the balcony on the other side from where the trio stood. The rumbling got louder, and the sounds of heavy and sharp cracks! seemed to echo throughout the city. There were shouts of surprise, alarm and intrigue from the city goers below. She wanted to tell them to get back away from the building, but she would rather not give away their position. Or the fact that they might have had something to do with it.
And it finally dawned on her what all of that meant.
“Guys!” She shouted, trying to warn her friends. She backed up, and extended her hands so she could bring her friends with her.
After all the rumbling and cracking the building was doing, it finally caved. Chucks of concrete and deepslate and black-colored stones fell, bringing other chucks and clouds of dust with them. People shouted in fear and surprise, as mental creaked and groaned, and made the terrible noise it made when breaking. Sparks and embers flew out with the smoke, as the fire that came with the explosion was finally given some light to the outside world.
Flashes of blue and gold armor flashed through the dust as guards rushed over to see the damage and the commotion. Lizzie resisted the urge to curse.
Clouded and light-green tinted goggles shot up over to the trio, as they were spotted through the now clearing dust cloud. Shouts of rally and alarm came from the guards.
Well, no point in being subtle now.
She grabbed the two boy’s shoulders, and they turned to look at her, eyes full of worry and uncertainty. They were looking to their big sister for some sort of guidance.
And, while it wasn’t amazing advice, it was the best advice for this situation.
“Run!”