Episode 1: Welcome to the Playground

A young boy runs through a war-torn landscape obscured by red smoke. Sparks of metal clashing with metal flew by as he stepped over dead bodies. Tears ran down his face, whether it be from the smoke or from sadness, it didn't matter.

"Mom?! Dad?!" The boy yelled over and over, soon tripping on the body of a heavily-armored man. It was an Enforcer, one of the main soldiers of Piltover. The boy scrambled away from the body because the mechanical eyes lit up. He started running once more, never confirming if the enforcer was alive or dead.

A grenade flew by the boy, finally lighting up his features. He wore a dirty white shirt and ragged pants with no shoes. His hair barely reached his eyes because of their curly nature. His dark skin complimented his brown hair, but it was all covered in dirt. The most notable features were his squirrel-like tail and ears.

The battle ended as quickly as it started. The enforcers pulled back while the undercity militia was left with few soldiers to spare. The boy saw many people he knew from the Undercity. Friends, enemies, acquaintances, and even people he only saw once.

Then, he saw it. Two bodies lay on the ground, both having a squirrel tail and ears. His mother had already lost the light in her eyes, while his father was gently caressing her face while crying. The boy walked over to the two, as if the slightest wind would blow his parents away.

His father saw the boy in the corner of his dying eyes. He whispered, "Please… Protect what's left… Risu." Just then, Risu noticed the varying holes in both of their bodies. It finally broke him, making tears stream out of every crevice of his eye and snot droop from his nose.

Risu didn't know how long he stood there. Eventually, a large man, who his parents knew as Vander, came by him. He carried two girls in a similar situation to Risu. Vander picked him up and put him in his giant arms, walking away from the battle he created.

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"We're almost there!" Violet said, looking down at the three below her. Powder, Claggor and Mylo were having trouble climbing up the tall building in Piltover, yet Risu stood above all of them, already on the roof. He was easily the best at parkour out of all of them.

Violet, known by most as Vi, had her pink hair shaved on the left side and the rest slicked back, a leather shoulder pad on her right shoulder and a faded pink sleeveless jacket. She wore a white t-shirt and leather pants under it. She is the leader of the group and the eldest.

Claggor is a round boy, younger than Vi by a year and wears a blue and yellow shirt with brown pants. He always has his pair of goggles and fingerless gloves on him. He also wears a leather strap around his torso. His hair is curly and kept as low as it can be.

Mylo is skinny and sly like a fox, plus the same age as Claggor. He's usually wearing a white tank top with leather shoulder pads and bandages on his forearm. He also wears brown leather pants like most of them. He is mainly the pessimist of the group.

Risu is the only non-human in the group, being a Vastayan. He has brown hair and eyes and dark skin, also being the main color of his tail and ears. Risu is the same height as Violet and is six months younger than her. He typically wears a black long sleeved shirt and a leather wristband. His prized possession is his silver-colored tail ornament, a wire running along it with droplet-shaped metal hanging from it.

Powder is easily the youngest of the group, her blue shirt complimenting her blue hair and had the same leather pants as the others. She was the most innocent, and therefore, a minor liability.

"Hey Powder!" Vi called out to her younger sister. "Nice being above it all." The group stared up at a giant blimp flying above them, astonished at how Piltover was much better off than it's undercity companion. Risu put two L-shaped fingers together so it looked like the sight was in a picture frame.

The main city of Piltover was a beautiful place, untouched by pollution or corruption. The angular streets lead up to a giant building, most of the place being steampunk-themed. Shop stalls and people lined the streets, most of them middle class workers.

"One day, I'm gonna ride in one of those things." Powder commented.

"One day, I'm gonna break into one of those things." Risu smirked, already imagining the plan to get in one.

"One day, I'm gonna shoot one of 'em down!" Mylo backhandedly commented, pointing a finger gun at it. Risu frowned at him while Violet pushed his arm out of the way.

The group began walking towards the edge of the roof, while Violet mapped out the path they had to take to get to their destination. "Vi, a-are you sure about this? Look, if we get caught, we're-" Claggor asked, before Violet interjected.

"It'll be fine, I promise. We'll be in and out before anyone notices." The group jumped down to the next house, the roof being a little lower than the one they were originally on. They walked to the edge of the roof and looked down.

"I mean, Claggor has a point. Shouldn't we aim for something lower? Like a small corner store or something? This is a big leap for us, especially Powder's first job." Risu asked, slightly hurting Powder's feelings. Vi reassured the group that they would be fine once more.

The roof was arched so that if there was someone on the side of it, they wouldn't be able to climb back up. There was a small bar on the part where the angle started. Vi jumped off the roof and landed on the bar, before pushing off of that and grabbing the roof of one of the small balconies on the house and jumped to the roof of the house across the street.

Risu smiled and slid off the roof, landing on the bar and easily leaping onto the roof of the balcony, then proceeded to do a frontflip onto the roof of the house Vi was on.He smiled brightly at her and she smiled back. "Showoff."

Mylo and Claggor were quickly behind. Their performance was less spectacular than Vi's and Risu's, but it worked. "Couldn't we have at least… Walked there?" Claggor asked Violet. It was a good question too.

"Gotta stay out of sight for this one." Violet responded. Risu was about to comment on the statement, but both he and Vi noticed Powder staring distantly at the ground from the tall building. She was clearly scared of the height.

"Called it. This is on you, Vi." Mylo called out, rolling his eyes. Risu smacked him on the back of the neck, earning a pained groan from Mylo.

"Powder, look at me! What did I tell you?" Vi asked her sister, who seemed to regain some color on her face.

"That…" Powder exhaled heavily. "…I'm ready." Powder slid down onto the bar, nearly falling off, but stabilized herself. Risu got ready to jump and catch her if he needed to. She swung onto the balcony of the house and jumped onto the roof of the next.

Powder swung her arms around, nearly falling off the roof but Violet caught her. Risu exhaled sharply before following the group onto a narrow part of the roof. Claggor asked, again, "What if Vander finds out we're all the way up here?"

"Look around you. You think anyone topside's going hungry? Besides, this is exactly the sort of job Vander would've pulled when he was our age." Vi responded, steeling her nerves for the next part of the job. Claggor decided to drop the topic for now.

"To be fair, back in Vander's day, the Undercity was ten times more chaotic than it is now, and this was more of a necessary evil rather than a test of-" Risu stopped when he noticed everyone, minus Claggor, was staring at him.

"I'm going. Are you with me, or not?" Vi said, directed towards Risu. He sighed and nodded, getting a bright smile from Vi.

Claggor started, "Vander's gonna kill us-"

"Yeah, only if we screw up. So don't screw up." Since they were at the final junction, the group decided to steel their nerves and follow through with the plan. Risu swung off the roof and onto the balcony below. Being the sneakiest member of the group, he scouted out the top balcony of the building.

"No one's up here." Risu called out to the others. They all quickly came down, Claggor helping Powder down. "Who locks their balcony?" Mylo groaned, taking out his lockpick and starting to open the door.

"There's tons of enforcers down there." Claggor looked down from the balcony, seeing many armored soldiers down below. Nobody paid him any mind anymore.

"You gonna get that door open any time soon?" Vi asked Mylo. He was in the middle of one of his snide replies when Vi had enough and kicked the door open.

"Animals." Mylo said to no one in particular. Risu grabbed his hair forcefully. "You know I didn't mean that!" Mylo smacked Risu's hand off his head and Risu smirked at him, continuing to walk into the building and enjoying the frustrated expression on his face.

The building was as big as the others, but it held a large room next to the balcony. The room looked like a study room with various contraptions scattered here and there, plus a giant chalkboard. The team didn't understand what the main purpose of it was, but they could tell there was some valuable stuff.

Vi walked in and set the bag on the floor, looking at the things in the room like a kid at the candy store. Everyone went around and looked at the things they wanted, or mostly things that looked cool. Risu looked around the room and saw a cool looking dagger, then slipped it in his pocket. It had a large socket in it that looked like it was meant to hold something round.

"Must be an inventor." Vi commented, looking at the complicated formulas on the chalkboard.

"Woah. I think this is a real Valdiani." Risu looked over to Powder and saw there was some kind of intricate contraption in her hand that played a gentle song.

"Oh yeah? What about this?" Mylo held out a rod with pincers on it, pressing the button and making the pincers move erratically.

"That's a nose hair trimmer." Powder told him. Mylo looked dejected for a moment but shrugged it off.

"Ooh, look at this!" Risu held up a ball and pressed a button on the top, making large rods and other phallic objects pop out.

"That-is something that we probably shouldn't mess with. Keep an eye out for anything that looks valuable." Vi quickly lunged and grabbed the object out of Risu's hand before Powder could see it.

"Ehh… Guys?" Mylo said unsurely. Everyone looked over and saw a triangular plate with pincers in it, holding a blue stone. Mylo touched it and got zapped a bit. Risu decided to bag the gemstone in the same bag he put the dagger in.

"Wait… Vi, how did we find this place?" Claggor asked.

"It was a tip from Little Man." Everyone except Vi and Risu looked a bit more unsure about the location after that response.

"How did one man get so much stuff?" Claggor asked again.

"Simple. Just get born lucky." Mylo said. Powder began wandering to other rooms, opening the door to what looked like a bedroom but still held valuables in it.

Risu followed Powder to the bedroom, saying, "Hey, wait up. I don't think we should be going to others. Someone could have been sleeping in that bed and we would have been caught immediately. Let's just go back to the main room."

"Come on, Risu, you have to learn to take a few risks. We could find something really- Ooh!" Powder was quickly distracted by two sandwiches resting on a table. She took a large bite out of one before uncovering the blueprints right next to it.

"Woah…" Risu was distracted from his own claim too, once he saw the large chest on the table. He helped Powder open it and looked inside. Six more of the blue gemstones rested on top of pincers, although these ones looked much more idle than the one in the main room.

The two heard a semi-loud bang and looked over. Vi was running at them, "Guys, we gotta go!" She whisper yelled. Risu immediately dashed out of the room while Powder took a moment to collect the blue gemstones, even dropping one of them in the process.

Everyone rushed out of the balcony door as the door to the hallway banged, with people yelling outside of it. "We'll be fine. Just get back on the roof!"

Suddenly, a large blue explosion went out of the room, not causing much damage but shooting out a lot of smoke. Vi came out of the smoke to make sure everyone was fine. "Uh oh…" Everyone looked at where Risu was looking.

For some reason, the explosion hadn't ended. Blue streaks of lightning cracked the balcony and the wall, making a small portion of the building crumble and fall. Vi looked down the hole, mumbling "Shit." as she saw a group of enforcers down below.

A large horn sounded moments after part of the building collapsed. The group of five ran through the streets of Piltover, people moving out of the way so they wouldn't get hurt. "Stop right there!" An enforcer shouted, throwing a ball that burst into three pieces held together by wires.

Claggor narrowly dodged the contraption by going next to a pole, leading the enforcers into the town square. Mylo and Risu slid down a railing leading to a lower street, Risu flipping over Mylo and moving next to Vi.

Risu did a side-flip to dodge one of the enforcer's throwable handcuffs. He looked up and saw enforcers on a bridge above them.

The group reached the bridge from the upper side of Piltover to the undercity. The bridge was quickly raised, except the group was able to get across the quickly parting bridge, except for Risu. The bridge's gap was a bit too long for Risu to jump across, so he climbed up one of the bars on the side of the bridge and pushed off.

Risu was sure he wasn't going to make it and was gonna land in the water, something in his pocket glowed blue and teleported him the distance he needed. He slid down the portion of the bridge that had parted and caught up to the group.

"How the hell did you do that!?" Vi yelled, looking back momentarily at Risu.

"We'll figure that out later!" Risu shouted back.

The group quickly turned into an alleyway, going into an even more narrow part after the enforcers threw another handcuff at them. Vi broke one of the gas valves on the wall, making smoke spray everywhere and disorienting the enforcers.

Risu picked up a box and threw it down the narrow alleyway before following the group down one of the many pathways in the alley. The enforcer in the front was hit with the box and it knocked him over, making the enforcers have to wait a bit longer to help the guy up.

The team ended up at one of the trash pipes. Vi forced open the valve and Mylo looked down. "Man, not again, I just got this shirt-!" Vi quickly kicked him down, making Risu laugh. Vi stared at him and he jumped in quickly, everyone following in succession.

They ended up in a heap of trash and scrap, quickly trying to wipe off their clothes or anything that had gotten dirty. "I thought last time was the last time we were gonna do this." Mylo commented.

"Well this time's the last time." Vi said, with Risu mocking her with a hand puppet. She glared at him and he quickly put his hands down.

"Just-what was it? What the hell happened back there?" Claggor asked.

Everyone looked at Powder, since she was the one rushing to grab something when she left. "I don't know! I didn't do anything!" She yelled at them once she noticed that they were accusing her of causing the explosion.

Mylo sneered at Powder, "You could fill a whole damn library with all the things you 'didn't do'."

"Hey, it wasn't her fault-" Risu quickly interjected.

Before anyone could continue, Vi stood up, "Hey! We just emptied a Piltover penthouse right under the Enforcer's noses. So, if you're done beating yourselves up, let's get this home." Vi put the bag of valuables back on her shoulder before everyone followed her out.

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The group walked in from the shallow side of the undercity, where there was a lot less people yet more illegal activity. A man the same age as Risu and Vi sat on one of the benches next to a run-down house. "Nice haul?"

This portion of the Undercity was where a lot of illegal activity happened. To be more precise, you had to be involved in illegal activity to even survive in the undercity, but this portion is where you could easily get robbed or killed.

"You could say that." Mylo bragged to the boy. Vi and Risu, who understood what the guy was trying to get out of them, glared at Mylo. The guy flipped a coin in his hand before standing up. Two of his men walked out from the other end of the street.

"I heard there was, uhh, some action across the river. Someone really kicked the nest."

"Is that so?" Vi asked, not all intimidated by him.

But now you're-you're tracking this mess of yours through my streets."

"Your streets? What makes you think-" Vi was cut off by Claggor, who finally stepped in.

"Listen, we don't want any trouble, okay?"

"Ya hear that Deckard? They don't want any trouble." One of Deckard's goons mocked. Deckard walked in front of the group and next to his thugs.

"You know, in my experience, trouble finds you. There's no reason this has to get ugly. How about you share a little taste of your treasure there and, uh, we'll call it even?" The group glared at Deckard, who was trying to swindle them out of money he had no part in.

"No, no, no. We worked too hard to-" Mylo began.

"Just a taste?" Vi smirked, holding the bag in her hand. Risu, knowing what was about to happen, got in front of Powder in case something bad happened.

"Just a-" While Deckard glanced away for one moment, Vi swung the heavy bag at his face. She threw the bag to Risu, who understood what she wanted. He passed the bag to Powder and got ready to defend her, breathing heavily.

The two sides began fighting each other. Risu looked distant, as if he was remembering something that he didn't like. His mind kept flashing back to that cursed evening, when everything was taken away from him.

He snapped out of it when he noticed Claggor was handling two of the goons, and to help himself fight, he threw one of them towards Risu. Risu hesitated, sinking into a primitive fighting stance, but the goon's eyes were on the bag in Powder's hands. Risu gestured for Powder to run.

Risu finally decided to take action and punched the thug, but he kept running after Powder, while Risu was on his tail. Risu took a moment to look back at the fight before trying to catch up. There wasn't any games to play anymore.

Eventually, Risu caught up with the two. He ended up at the docks next to the toxic river, where the thug was creeping towards a building. Risu took action and shoved him onto the floor. Risu punched the guy over and over, but he covered his face with his arms.

Powder inched around the two who were fighting, trying to escape. The thug, having more experience, punched Risu and quickly rolled on him, now having the upper hand and beat on Risu the same way he did. Risu's squirrel tail curled around the thug's leg and yanked him off the top of Risu.

Risu kicked the thug back. He landed right in front of Powder, who was awestruck right in front of him. Powder tried to run away but the man grabbed onto her leg, making her yelp and accidentally throw the bag into the water below.

Risu kicked the thug's arm off of Powder, picking him up by the shirt and pushing him towards the edge of the water. The thug reached for something in his pocket, but Risu stopped his hand from coming close to him.

He glanced at what the thug had in his hand and saw that he had a crude knife in his hand. He was preparing to stab Risu, but Risu struggled with him. Eventually, Risu had the knife pointed at the thug and kneed him in the privates.

The quick sense of pain made the thug jolt and lose his grip. Risu drove the knife directly into the thug's chest, making him stumble back and cough up blood. The thug put one hand on the unstable wood railing and another on the knife in his heart. The last thing he did was glare at Risu before falling into the river.

Risu collapsed on the floor, noticing Powder wasn't there to witness the murder. He hyperventilated, continuing to see the day where his parents were taken from him. The one time he decided to stand up for someone was the time he accidentally took away something from them.

Risu was already envisioning that the guy had a little brother or sister at home, his imagination stacking more and more guilt on him, Risu kicked away the bloody knife that fell in the struggle and curled up into a ball.

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"You did WHAT?!" Mylo yelled, cornering Powder against the wall. She had just told them what happened to the bag of treasures.

"I'm sorry! I tried to fight him off with Mouser, but... she didn't work." Powder said.

"Who saw that coming?" Mylo walked away from her, cynically commenting on the situation.

"We never should have gone there." Claggor walked around, frustrated. Risu was leaning on the wall, fidgeting with his tail ornament. He had a blank look on his face.

"Doesn't matter. The stuff's gone. It's all right, Powder. At least you're okay." Vi said. The group began to enter a building.

"'Okay'?! What about us? I get my face bashed in and she just gets a pass?" Mylo asked. Risu wasn't mentally there to smack the pessimism out of his brain.

"Yup." Vi mocked him. Inside the building, it looked like a normal living room but filled with overgrowth. The 5 entered a small compartment and Vi switched a lever on the wall, lighting the elevator up and sending it down.

"Everytime. Everytime she comes along, something goes wrong. She jinxes every job." Mylo stared directly at Powder, who was about to respond.

"Just drop it, Mylo." Vi put her foot down, obviously tired after the long day.

Vi glanced at Risu, who kept staring blankly at the floor. He wasn't nearly as hysterical as he was when they found him, but he was still distant. Vi walked up to him and asked, "Hey, you okay?"

Risu slowly looked at Vi, staring into her eyes before responding, "Yeah."

"What happened back there?"

"It was nothing, okay?" Risu brushed her off. It looked like a little brightness had return to his eyes, at least. Vi returned to looking out the gaps in the elevator, seeing shady men look at her from one of the bridges. She put her hood up so they wouldn't see her.

When the elevator hit the bottom, they all immediately got out. The Undercity was a shady place, filled with crime, evil, and sins. The group practically fit in with the atmosphere, not getting involved in any business that didn't involve them.

Illegal pet dealers, shady traders, and even seduction shops were outside for everyone to see. Risu stared a little too long at the older lady who ran the sex business and she winked at him, which he grimaced at and walked faster.

Eventually, they reached a bar called the Last Drop. It was run by a strong man and their adoptive father, Vander. The group walked in solemnly, where Vi glanced at Vander. He was sitting at one of the tables with a weak-looking guy and some sort of dealer and his bodyguard.

Vander made eye contact with Vi and traded a silent message with her. Risu threw his hands into his head, mumbling, "We're so fucked."

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Vi sat on one of the three couches in their small room that they considered a hideout. Claggor and Mylo sat on opposite ends of each other from the table. Powder sat down on the third couch, while laid beneath a kotatsu, his head poking out of the comforter.

"Vander learns none of this." Vi declared, a frustrated look on her face.

"No worries there. Powder already took care of the evidence" Mylo said. Risu suddenly remembered the dagger he slipped into his pocket and the blue rock next to it. For some reason, the blue rock had vanished and the dagger had a dim blue glow on it.

"I tried, okay?! You don't get it! You're older, you're bigger, it-it isn't fair!" Powder retaliated, making Risu recluse further under the kotatsu.

"Just stick with us-take a punch or two!" Milo said back to her.

Risu heard the door open, and assumed Vander walked in. Everyone looked away from him. "Everyone alright?"

"Never better." Mylo said with the same tone.

"Good. I don't suppose you can explain why it is that I'm hearing about an explosion and a foot chase topside? Five children fleeing the scene." Vander slowly walked around while he was talking, lifting up Risu's kotatsu and seeing him blankly looking at the floor while curled up.

"What the hell were you thinking." Vander asked grimly.

"That we could handle a real job!" Vi responded to the rhetorical question.

"A real job?"

"We got our own tip, planned a route, nobody even saw."

"You blew up a building." Vander bluntly pointed out.

"That wasn-"

"Did you even stop to think what could happen to you? Aye? To them?" Vander pointed at the younger people in the room. Everyone looked away after the long pause, Risu peeking out of the comforters.

"Where did you even get this tip?" Vander asked, without an answer for a few seconds.

Powder meekly replied, "We just… Heard it at Benzo's shop."

"From?" There was a small pause.

"Little Man." Vander groaned after Powder said that.

Vi slammed her hand on the side of the couch and stood up. "I took us there. You wanna be mad, be mad at me, but you're the one that always said we need to earn our place in the world!" Vi argued angrily.

"I also told you time and time again that the north side is off limits! We stay out of piltover's business!"

"Why?! They have plenty while we're down here scraping together coins! When did you get so comfortable living in someone else's shadow." Vi shot an insult at Vander. Everyone looked at Vi in shock at what she just did.

"Everyone out." Vander didn't ask, he commanded. Everyone, including Risu, followed each other out.

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Risu assumed that he was able to roam wherever he wanted, so he decided to take a little walk. Entering a narrow alleyway, he quickly climbed up to the top of the building. Risu was easily able to place his fingers into the smallest indents in the wall and climb up them, like a squirrel.

He sighed and massaged a bandage on his cheek, pulling out the knife from his pocket. Risu guessed that the blue gemstone fell in his escape. He ran his hands along the design of the dagger before getting his finger caught in a crevice.

"Ow!" Risu gently sucked on the thumb that got cut. He noticed that the droplet of blood disappeared from the surface of the knife, making him slightly confused. He guessed that the knife had cut him quick enough so that there was no blood on it.

Risu pulled out a spare bandage and wrapped it around his finger before continuing to inspect the dagger. For some reason, there was a gentle hum coming from the blade. Risu tossed the blade into the air and raised his hand to catch it, but it somehow ended up halfway across the roof of the building.

Risu was sure he didn't throw it hard, but the knife went very far. There is definitely something going on, Risu thought. He went over to grab the knife and noticed that there was blue lightning sparking off of the knife.

Risu tossed it again, but it had a normal result compared to what happened before. He pocketed the knife and said, "Hmm, maybe Ekko knows something about it." before hopping off the roof. In the spot where the knife had fallen, there was a large blue scratch forming.

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"Hey, Little Man-Oh, Claggor. Didn't think I'd see you here." Risu walked over to Benzo's shop, where Claggor and Ekko sat. Ekko is a boy with dark skin and white hair. Today he was wearing a worn white shirt and leather pants. They stood outside Benzo's shop.

"Yo! Susu!" Ekko leaped at Risu, giving him a big hug. Risu saw Ekko as a little brother as the two got out of some trouble when they were young. Risu patted Ekko's hair and set him back down on the ground.

"Um, speaking of us, how did you get that tip?" Claggor asked Ekko.

"Woah, did you guys fight the enforcers?" Ekko nearly ignored the question and excitedly nudged Claggor and Risu. Risu flashed back to the murder, but quickly rubbed his eyes and it was all gone.

"Oh-uh, no. Just some bombs." Claggor brushed him off, trying not to get Ekko too excited for their "victory" on the upper side.

"Did Vi kick their as-?" Ekko asked before Risu bonked him on the head with his tail.

"Hey, what did I tell you about swearing? And yes, she did." Risu smirked proudly.

Ekko set down the boxes he just put up, getting into a sloppy fighting stance. "Ooh, Vi taught me these moves." Ekko swung wildly at the air, attempting to shadow box.

"Hey, so how'd you find that place anyways?" Claggor pushed, trying to figure out how deep they were in.

"Oh, pfft, this weirdo came into the shop. Bought a whole bunch of stuff Benzo only keeps there for display. He paid in gold and didn't even haggle! Oh, I charged him double price. Sucker." Ekko chuckled and Risu patted him on the head again, giving him a fistbump.

"How did you know where he lived?" Claggor asked unsurely. Seemed like a shady guy to him.

"Uh, followed him. How els-"

"Oh shit, enforcers." Risu got up from his resting position on the wall and helped Claggor out of the alley. Two enforcers were walking down the alley where they were talking.

"It'll be fine! Go!" Ekko whisper-yelled after Risu began pushing him. Risu was the most incriminating one because he had the most notable features: a squirrel tail and ear.

As Risu and Claggor left, Ekko leaned on the crates next to him and saluted. "Well hello!" He said as they walked by.

Risu slinked away from Claggor and into a special entrance into Benzo's shop. Ekko already occupied one of the spying gear, which poked a spyglass into the shop. The shop was run-down, like most establishments in the Undercity, but it mainly sold little devices and valuables. There was a jeweler's counter where Vander and the general of the enforcers sat, plus Benzo was behind the counter.

"-The council needs someone to make an example of. The people need to feel safe." The enforcer general told Vander.

"Yeah, topside people."

"We had a deal, Vander. You keep your people off my street, and I stay out of your business." Risu stopped out of shock. Vander would never make a deal with the enforcers, he thought. Everyone hated the upper side of Piltover, yet Vander made a deal with them. Risu kept watching in hope of getting context.

"Give me a name. We'll keep things quiet. No one will know you were involved."

"I can't do that." Vander put his foot down. His public image was already nonexistent and giving up to the enforcers like this would be going against his own code.

The general scooted closer to Vander and stared directly at him, instead of on the counter. "You don't seem to grasp how serious this is. If I don't put someone behind bars tonight, the next time I come down here, I'll have an army of enforcers with me. We both know how that would go."

Risu's eyes went wide at the mention of an army of enforcers. His family could be taken away from him once again. "I'm sorry Grayson, but I can't offer up my own people." There was a long pause after Vander mentioned her name.

"If you ever change your mind, this will reach me." General Grayson set down a large blue and gold cylinder. "And only me." Vander picked up the object and rested his hand against his head.

Risu and Ekko both looked at each other. They had listened in on something they clearly weren't supposed to. And Risu would be a bad friend if he didn't tell Vi and the rest of the gang about it.