"All clear." Vi ordered, after taking a peek through the windows to the apartment, signaling for the others to come down from the rooftop.
Mylo followed first, reaching for the handle to the balcony door, grunting in frustration when it didn't budge. "Who locks their balcony?" He reached into his pocket, pulling out an old rusted tool, and began picking at the lock.
Powder was the next to jump down, Clagger assisting her from the surface above the balcony they had all previously been treading on. Vi took her hand to pull her from the railing, before looking at Clagger as he finally made his way down. As soon as he dropped to the balcony, the ground shaking slightly from his weight, he turned to look over the railings at the people wandering around the clean, well kept streets. Almost laughable how different they were to the streets in the undercity. "There's tons of enforcers down there." He mumbled, feeling slightly more pressured to not fuck this heist up, the idea of what could happen to him and his siblings crawling under his skin.
"Means we're in the right place." Vi said, keeping her voice hard and steady. More enforcers means more valuables. "You gonna get that door open any time soon?" She pushed, turning her attention to Mylo.
"Workin on it." He shot back, scrunching up his face. He fidgeted with the tool, turning knobs and screws, to find a way to get this lock picked. "Seeing as I'm the only one who knows how to pick locks, I suggest-" He was interrupted by Vi busting the door open with a swift kick. Mylo shot his head up in shock. As Vi walked through, pushing the door out of the way, Clagger and Powder followed. Clagger shoved his head, mumbling something, while Powder shuffled past, giving him a look. "Animals." He whispered. If they were gonna take the risk of sneaking topside to break into a big fancy apartment, they could at least do it discreetly.
They all looked around the room at the amount of shiny objects, practically begging to be gazed upon, each probably singly worth more than the four of them combined. Powder mouthed 'wow', as Vi contemplated which corner of the room to go to first. Vi dropped the sack, soon to be stuffed to the brim with objects dripping in value, then stammered over to rifle through the bookshelves.
Clagger continued to look around the room in amazement, when Mylo spoke up. "You know, Clagger, for once you're right." He started, brushing his hand across a table covered in piles and piles of, what looked like, drawn out plans and ideas. "We are definitely not supposed to be here." He couldn't help the smile that began to plaster across his face as he said that. He rubbed his hands in excitement as he peered over the objects on the table, before scooping up two random gadgets. He looked them over, not particularly sure what they were, but proceeded to shrug it off and plop them in the sack anyway. Rich people shit was rich people shit. It didn't matter what it was. If it looked expensive, it was going in that sack.
The others began following this and searching for more items to fill the sack. Clagger peaked inside a small chest, and messily dumped the objects into the small bag. Meanwhile, Powder looked past some old rusting books, spotting a small bronze horse statue, and tossed it inside as well. Vi, fidgeting with a random gadget in her hand, looked across the large chalkboard on the wall. "Must be an inventor." She won't lie to herself, the idea did cross her mind to smudge up the scribbles and numbers plastered all over the board, to which she didn't understand a bit of, but, eh, that was just cruel. It's not like she'd get any money out of that.
Powder hummed in response, getting more and more intrigued with the place and items filling it. An investor? Maybe she could sneak some of the goods for herself, something here's gotta help getting Mouser working. She trailed across the bookshelves, searching for something worth picking up, when she spotted what looked like- "whoa, I think this is a real Valdiani." Powder silently squealed. She picked up the shiny piece of wonder, studying it from every angle. She pressed her fingers against the top and watched in wonder as it split into fours as it opened, revealing a golden orb, surrounded by moving rings spinning around it in different directions. Mylo's irritating voice broke her out of her trance.
"Oh, yeah? What about this?" He attempted one upping her, failing miserably as Powder told him the impressive instrument he was showing off to the entire room was just a nose hair trimmer.
Vi turned towards Powder as she knelt over the bag. "Keep an eye out for anything valuable, Powder." Vi ordered in a soft tone, sparing a glance at Mylo as he attempted to use the nose hair trimmer. "Before Mylo fills the bag with Junk."
Mylo, slightly offended, pulled the device out of his nose and carelessly tossed it behind him, rubbing his nose before moving on with his search. He stopped at the previous table he had been peeking around earlier, now spotting something shaking from under the piles and piles of drawn out plans and ideas. He quickly moved the trembling papers out of the way, his curiosity taking over him. He called the others over as he stared down at a bright blue crystal, displayed on top of a gold and bronze triangle like surface. "Guys?" He leaned in towards the orb as Vi and Clagger joined him.
"Wait, Vi, how the hell did we find this place?" Clagger questioned, glancing around the room, now growing increasingly suspicious. He and Mylo jumped back slightly as a small shock shot through Mylo's body after cautiously poking the crystal with his index finger.
"It was a tip from Little Man." Vi said breathlessly, somewhat dumbfounded. How the hell did that little dude find a place like this?
"Little man?" Mylo gawked, just as dumbfounded as Vi.
"Just leave it." Vi grunted, trying to get back on track. No time to get distracted. Who knows when the owner of that strange crystal will be back? "Come on." She whispered, becoming greatly aware of how much quieter they needed to be.
As the others refocused, Powder adventured off down a separate hallway, leading to what was most likely a bedroom. After a quick, yet amazed, glance around the room, she wandered over to a desk. She noticed a few more possibly valuable items and casually stuffed one into the pouch hanging on her belt. She reached up to the small bookshelf above her, balancing on her toes, as she slid a book out. After a quick peek at the inside, finding nothing particularly interesting, she slammed the covers closed, dust specks flying off the surface. Turning around to take another glimpse at the room around her, she spotted two fresh sandwiches sitting mindlessly on another of the millions of blueprints laying around this place. "Woo-hoo!" Powder cheered, as quietly as she could control herself to. Giving no second thought, she stumbled over to the sandwiches, taking a big bite out of one. She let out a joyful sigh, enjoying the unfamiliar, yet refreshing taste of a fresh sandwich. And there were two of them? She'd have to share this with Vi later. Maybe Clagger too. Definitely not Mylo though.
Her attention quickly turned from the fluffy sandwich in her hands to a big lump resting under the piles of blueprints the sandwiches had been placed on. Moving the paper out of the way, she gaped upon a big blue chest. It would almost be rude to not take a peek inside at this point. She attempted to lift it up to maneuver around it and find an opening, but her weak noodle arms couldn't seem to make it budge. I could get Vi in here, she can lift just about anything up. No, no. I can do this alone. I don't need her for everything. She stood up on her tippy toes to look around the large box as it stood in place, until finding a small knob. As she hesitantly pressed it, the top slid open, sounds of gears turning, revealing six shiny blue crystals. As she reached for one, she moved it close to her face, inspecting it closely. Moving it around in different angles, she could see her own facial features in its reflection. The color of the crystal almost matched the color of her own crystal blue eyes. She began to lean in even closer.
Back in the main room, Vi, Mylo, and Clagger continued stuffing the bag to its brim. Clagger accidentally knocked one book of the many books, papers, and other less valuable belongings piled on the floor with his foot as he shuffled by, while Mylo tossed one of the final stealable successors in Vi's direction to add it to their bag. Just as Vi caught it one handed with her left, she heard a soft thud from behind her, from behind the main entrance. Thank genetics and paranoia for her impeccable hearing. She swung her head to face her ear towards the entry, before slowly turning her entire head and narrowing her eyes as she saw a figure pass by the small glass frame on the door. The door knob began to jiggle. Her eyes shot open as she rose to her feet, pointing a finger at the chair Mylo was lazing around on. "Mylo." She said in a hushed, but commanding tone.
Understanding immediately, Mylo grunted as he rushed to drag the chair he had just been lounging in seconds prior across the room, to barricade the door.
As he pressed the chair up against the door handle, Vi ran down the hallway Powder had wandered off in. "Powder, we gotta go." She used the same whisper yell. Quiet, but commanding.
Powder's attention drew from the crystals to her sister. "Hello? Is someone in there?" They could hear a muffled voice from outside the door as Powder rushed to grab all six crystals from their respective places in the chest, shoving them into the same pouch from earlier. As she sped out of the room, a crystal slipped from her hand, missing the pouch, and crashing to the floor. A detail both Vi and Powder failed to notice. The crystal began shooting out bolts of electricity as it rolled across the room, as if it was powering up.
As Vi dragged her sister through the small hallway to join the others, the crystal continued to charge up, the sparks growing bigger and bigger at each bounce.
"Come on." Mylo called out, waving towards their only exit back outside the balcony, as his sisters joined them in the room. The chair holding the door still continued shaking as the force from the other side grew more anxious, banging harder and harder against the entrance.
Vi rushed over to the sack still sitting in the ground as the others made their way to their exit. "We'll be fine. Just get back on the roof." Vi whispered, a great urgency clearly showing in her voice.
The crystal continued rolling, until it made its way under the bedroom's bed. Surges of almost lightning like energy powered through the small orb, growing and growing, until...it blew.
Clagger, Mylo, and Powder were now waiting on the balcony, not so patiently watching as Vi threw the sack over her shoulders and rushed towards them. Suddenly, they watched as a big force light engulfed their sister. Blinding them all until they were forced to look away from the apartment and shield their eyes, feeling ruff breezes of wind rush passed their bodies.
As Vi ran, an overwhelming force of light surrounded her body. She stood, now frozen in...fear? Confusion? She didn't really know. As she looked around at the blinding brightness covering her, she waited, honestly expecting something more...painful. But all she felt were great gushes of wind pushing past her, nearly knocking her to the ground. She could still hear the banging from the door. Although being muffled by whatever was happening around her, she could still hear the faint sound of the anxious man behind the door, until it just stopped. What did that mean? Did they give up? Did they finally break through? Honestly, she was partially hoping it was the latter. It was getting sad how long it was taking this dude to break through his fancy damn door. Like, really? I could've done that in ten seconds max.
As the light began to dim, slowly calming Vi's uneasiness, the others stood concerned if, when that light finally settled, they would even see their sister there. "Vi?" Powder mumbled, voice shaky and weak. Her anxiety only got worse as the light grew smaller and smaller and she still couldn't see her sister's figure. Until, the sight of vibrant pink hair slowly peeked its way through the light smoke coding the once organized, for the most part, apartment. Granted the now unorganized state of the place was mostly due to them, but still.
She was now hunched over on the ground, coughing softly, and much closer towards the balcony entrance than before. Most likely pushed there from the heavy wind they had all felt. Now only being a few feet away, it didn't take Powder long to rush over to her sister's side and hug her tight enough to make her start coughing even more. "Pow." Vi managed to squeeze out in between coughs.
"Sorry." Powder quickly loosened her grip, still hugging her before letting go to stand above her. She stared down at Vi just barely getting her breathing under control. She leaned down and gave her a hard slap to the back. Probably harder than necessary, but it seemed to be doing the job. "Better?" She asks, a hopeful, yet wary smile tugging on her lips.
Vi inhaled one last time before finally steadying her breathing and sitting up to look up at Powder. Still draped on the ground, sitting on her knees, just not nearly as hunched over. "Better." She smiled up at her, voice still raspy, but reinforcing.
Clagger and Mylo walked up to them from the balcony, breaking their tender moment. "Yeah, yeah, we get it. Sister love. Yayy." Mylo mocked. "We gotta get outta here before-"
He was interrupted by an unfamiliar voice. "What the hell did you do?" The voice was somewhere between a yell and a plea, voice cracking at the end in desperation.
The crew shot their heads up to see a tall tan skinned man in a silk maroon button up with deep gray slacks, topped off with a clean marble white vest, stumbling towards them in disbelief. Behind him, a young girl around Vi's age hesitantly followed, mouth softly hung open, gawking at the scene before her. She wore a deep blue dress with puffy white sleeves. Evenly cut, mid length, hair dripped past her shoulders, same color as her dress. Wow. Could they look anymore Piltoverie?
"Oh shit..." Vi mumbled, quickly scrambling to her feet.
"Vi..." Clagger starts, slowly taking a small step backwards towards the balcony. This was definitely not how this was supposed to go. They had to get out of here quick, like quick, quick.
"What do you think you're doing?" The girl spoke up, revealing her expectingly posh accent.
Vi can't help the small eye roll that escapes her. Just hearing the sound of a Piltie's voice gets under her skin. "What does it look like?" She answered, sarcasm seeping through, picking the sack back up off the floor it had dropped to after their unexpected encounter with a certain big random blinding light orb thingy.
Before anyone could continue, topside or undercity, they heard a small, yet throaty, cough from the corner of the room. As the Zaun kids slowly shifted their heads towards the sound, Vi hesitantly, as she still didn't trust the Piltie's standing before them. Who cares about the strange, mysterious coughing noise eerily coming from a dark foggy spot in the room? Ok, well, maybe I care a little bit, just that description is terrifying. But still, our royal highnesses could attack at any moment, whining for enforcers to come and be their knights in shining armor, mystery noise or not.
Meanwhile, Jayce and Caitlyn followed their gaze, Jayce being sure to keep a watchful eye on the four thieves standing motionless in the middle of his apartment. His completely ruined apartment. He knew Cait wouldn't be nearly on guard enough to expect anything from these undercity kids, so he had to do it for the both of them. Cait doesn't know undercity people like I do. Ok, well, maybe I don't exactly know, know, undercity people that well, but I think it's fairly obvious what I should be expecting. They literally just broke into my property. Cait's parents' property. Whatever.
As the six people squint their eyes to get a clearer look at what was lying before them, a restless body came into view, awkwardly squirming around where they laid.
Jayce and Caitlyn automatically untensed their bodies slightly, dropping their unknowingly tight shoulders. "Oh, it's just another one of them." Caitlyn mumbled breathlessly, clear relief breaking her usually perfect posture. She didn't exactly know what she was expecting, but all she knew was that this was better than whatever her brain was concocting. Sure, a fifth intruder isn't great, but I like it far better than some vicious beast thing springing at me from the deep smoke consuming the once clean living space. Seriously, why did my brain work this way?
"You sure that's a good thing?" Jayce mumbled back, attempting to keep his voice as quiet as possible to avoid a possible beating from the young girl now glaring at him. Yep, his voice definitely wasn't low enough.
Before Vi could bite back, however, Powder spoke up, her voice now shaky and filled with utter confusion and shock. "That's n-not one of ours." She muttered, it being easily passable as a whisper. Jayce and Caitlyn were only barely able to hear her, as they still stood a few feet from the undercity kids.
Jayce's posture immediately tightened up again. Even the undercity kids looked frightened, even the tuff scary one. "Stay back, kids. I'll check it out." Jayce offered, voice unnecessarily deep. He was the adult here after all, he should be protecting Caitlyn, and even these kids, even if they were from the undercity. He puffed out his chest slightly, standing strong as he took a step forward, only to be struck in the chest by the young girl's surprisingly strong fist, keeping him from walking any further.
"Pft, yeah right, pretty boy. We can handle ourselves, thanks." Vi, grunted, snapping to her siblings behind her, signaling for them to follow. "Let's go guys." They immediately obliged, each giving their own kind of look to Jayce as they strutted by. Clagger gave a small, almost apologetic, nod. Powder half kept her head down, but the small smirk on her face was apparent enough to show her clear amusement with Vi's quips at the man. Mylo simply stuck a mocking tongue out at him.
Jayce just huffed. Yep, there goes his masculinity. He turned his head back to Caitlyn still standing behind him, almost giggling at the sight before her. "You..." he stuck his finger assertively at her. "Stay here."
Caitlyn just scoffed at this. "Yeah right." She mumbled, scurrying past him as the other had done seconds prior. She hated when Jayce got like this, all protective older brotherly. She appreciated being looked out for, she really did, but she could take care of herself. Opposing of what her parents thought, she was strong. At least, she wanted to be. But she would never get strong if someone was always there, holding her hand along the way. Not to say she wanted to be alone, trust, she hated being alone. Jayce was the only friend she had, and she appreciated him more than he would ever realize. All she really wanted was to be treated as his friend, not some kid he was stuck babysitting.
Caitlyn and Jayce hurried to join the others, still not having grown too much closer to the unidentified body. The now group of six's steps were small and hesitant, some out of fear, others out of awareness of how dangerous and unpredictable a situation like this could be. Some being Powder, Caitlyn, and, although he'd never verbally admit it, Mylo. Others being Vi, Jayce, and Clagger. Powder silently kicked herself for being so afraid. She looked up at her sister's stern face, brows furrowed. If she was scared, she didn't show it. Powder, on the other hand, you could see shaking in her boots from a mile away. Pull it together, Pow. She could almost hear her sister's voice in the back of her head. She looked at Vi, but her lips weren't moving. Pull it together. Pull it together. Pull it together-
The six eventually made their way to the unknown figure. A light smoke still coded the area, but as it slowly fizzled out, it revealed a man. Vi looked down, squinting her eyes, trying to observe every part of him. He looked young, late teens, maybe early twenties. He was dressed in a faded green, raggedy tank top, with a rusted orange colored scarf draped around his neck. His deep gray cargo pants were covered in stains and splotches. The army green gloves protecting his hands were slightly oversized, clearly impractical, like he didn't have a choice of dozens of different options of gloves to pick from like people up here had. His dark skin was coded in dirt and grease, like he didn't get to take a nice hot shower everyday like people up here had. He was clearly from the undercity. The weirdest thing about him, though, he looked hella familiar. Hm, white hair, just like Little Man.
At this point, they were all practically hovering above him. A clear invasion of his personal space. The undercity kids were leaning in specifically close. Something about him just looked so familiar, so homey. Maybe it was just because he was a clear fellow undercitian?
The group snapped out of their focus when the man's eyes suddenly flickered open.