Inside the Council chamber of Piltover.
"This time we got absolutely wrecked."
The dark-skinned councilor with the rotating gears around her neck looked deeply troubled.
"The Black Mist operation affected Noxus too."
She was effectively the leader of Piltover's elitist faction.
Even if an arm couldn't overpower a thigh, there were still plenty of people in Piltover working behind the scenes who hoped to return to the old order, with the Upper City standing over Zaun again.
Only by keeping Zaun under a tight grip could they keep making even more money.
After all, from now on, Zaun's resources would have to be bought at fair prices.
Their Enforcers also could no longer pressure Zaun however they pleased.
For certain vested interests, that had been hard to accept from the start.
But the leading scientific minds of Piltover, both old and new, Jayce and Heimerdinger, the Kiramman family, the Medarda family that had placed its bets on Jayce, and the Ferros family, who had quietly made a fortune without drawing attention to themselves, had all ended up standing on the side of that Governor of Zaun.
That made things extremely troublesome.
Originally, they had assumed that Stevan of Clan Ferros, that balding old man with no real long-term vision, would oppose the whole thing with everything he had.
Who would have thought that he wasn't the one calling the shots in the family at all, and that a younger member named Lucide would simply take a seat at the council table instead.
At that point, whether it was Salo with his young aristocrat air, or Bolbok the mechanical councilor, both had no choice but to keep their mouths shut.
The head of the Enforcers was the Kiramman family's daughter, Jayce was at the forefront of Hextech research, and Clan Ferros, which had been lying low in Piltover while quietly building wealth, had directly produced a method for mass-producing hex-crystals.
Mel was the richest person in Piltover, and she and Jayce were in love with each other.
As for the other three councilors, the truth was that as long as the three of them invested money, they would still profit in the end.
Seven seats, and four of them were on Caleb's side. How exactly were they supposed to turn this around?
And after Caleb's later accomplishments, he had not only solved two major problems in Zaun, he had also helped Piltover deal with a troublesome criminal.
That completely pushed Clan Ferros over to the side of the "Governor of Zaun."
The three damaged councilors could only swallow their anger.
Their businesses had already taken losses across the board, and in Hextech business, they would fall even further behind in the future.
But after the Harrowing, the wheels of the Twin Cities had fully accelerated and were rolling rapidly forward.
Move aside, keep up, or die.
Those were the only three choices.
After being rescued by Zaun, the people of Piltover had shed much of their previous prejudice.
Trying to stir up the public again and get them to help kick Zaun back down was no longer possible in the short term.
Salo let out a quiet sigh. Once this entire incident was truly over, his family's wealth would probably shrink by a third.
But there was nothing he could do. He had already fallen behind the tide of the times and had become one of the sacrifices in Zaun's rise.
They needed to win over the best craftsmen so they could find the next opening in the market.
That was the same conclusion all three of them had reached without even needing to say it aloud.
Jayce was now the leader of Piltover, and even if he weren't, he would still be diving deeper into Hextech research.
But with Hextech being such a vast blue ocean, was it really going to be developed by him alone?
Of course not.
A monopoly on technology did not exist in Piltover, and Jayce had no intention of monopolizing it anyway.
From the beginning, he had wanted to bring the power of Hextech to the people.
If their families could seize the opportunity and build up a technological field of their own,
then those shrunken assets would not only return to where they used to be, they might even double.
As Jayce arrived, the councilors pulled themselves together.
The meetings over the past few days had felt endless, but as the very beginning of a new era, none of this meant much to them.
...
Caleb strolled through the streets of Zaun.
Ever since the night of the Black Mist, the people of Zaun had been carrying themselves a lot straighter.
Pilties? Weren't we the ones who saved them?
What the hell did they still have to act smug about?
To be fair, Zaun really did have far more talent than Piltover.
When the Upper City had only five people who counted as top-tier fighters, the Lower City had sent out a whole crowd of them.
Now that the Upper City owed them, it had no way to keep looking down on people anymore.
Before long, Zaun would just be a place name, nothing more.
At this point, if someone still called them gutter trash, it wouldn't just be the Zaunites who got in their face, even the people of Piltover would not let it slide.
Thanks to Caleb's efforts, equality between the Twin Cities could now keep running smoothly for the long term.
People on the street still smiled and nodded to greet him.
The Harrowing had also taken people away from both cities.
After grieving, though, people still had to pick hope back up and keep living.
"Caleb!"
That peaceful moment was broken by a shout.
Caleb turned around helplessly and looked at Vi running toward him from the distance.
"Where are your gauntlets?"
Her next sentence made Caleb's pupils jolt.
"They got stolen!"
"The hell?!"
Caleb was stunned. In the Undercity, there were only a handful of people who could steal Vi's gauntlets.
If it really came down to a fight, Vi was vicious even without them on.
Who the hell had the guts to do that?
That question followed Caleb all the way back to the office, where he found two long braids hanging limply.
Jinx also looked thoroughly wronged.
"Well, that's exactly what I wanted to ask you."
Caleb looked at Jinx, even more puzzled now.
"Did you take Vi's gauntlets?"
Caleb sat down in his chair and picked up the lighter on the desk, spinning it in his hand.
Ever since Sevika had started doing community service under him, that lighter had somehow ended up on his desk.
"No. My minigun's gone too."
Jinx pouted, her face full of grievance.
"Did you get a look at what the thief looked like?"
Now Caleb was honestly curious too.
At this point, all the heroes in Zaun who could be united were already on pretty good terms, and the ones who couldn't had mostly been dealt with.
And there was still somebody bold enough to pull this off right under his nose?
"I didn't get a clear look..." Jinx's voice came out low and sullen as she curled herself into a tiny ball.
"Come on." Caleb didn't say much else, just knocked lightly on her head.
"Where are we going?" Jinx looked lost.
"The Firelights."
First Vi's gauntlets, then Jinx's gun.
After that, the next target would probably be Ekko's device, then maybe Heimerdinger's and Viktor's inventions.
Caleb understood this kind of thief pretty well. For people like that, the treasure they stole mattered less than the process itself.
That was the part they truly enjoyed.
...
In less than ten minutes, Caleb was already standing on his hoverboard in front of the Firelights' base.
Ever since the Firelights had stepped into the open, many of their entrances had been made much more visible.
At the beginning, everything had been designed to avoid the gangs, but now they needed more convenient routes for everything they had to do.
"What's wrong?"
Ekko looked at the hurried Caleb in confusion.
"Have you lost anything yet?"
Caleb didn't waste time and asked on the spot.
"Not yet, I think." Ekko touched the dial hanging at his chest, his Z-Drive.
"I've got a feeling you're next."
Caleb's gaze swept quickly across the crowd, but for the moment, he really didn't spot anyone especially suspicious.
"Has something happened recently?"
Ekko scratched his head, still not following.
"Something got stolen?"
Caleb sighed and told him the truth.
"Vi's gauntlets and Jinx's gun are both gone."
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