Present time, Caitlyn and Jayce talk within Jayces room. "Something is off..there was a symbol as well. A monkey symbol at the scene." Caitlyn says to Jayce, who looks at her with a raised eyebrow.
While Caitlyn thinks to herself, trying to piece everything together in her head, Jayce approaches her with a smile. "I'm sure it'll be fine. But I will be honest, it is strange." Jayce responds, while Caitlyn begins to pace around the room while continuing to think.
"I wish I could talk to the man at the crime scene. Marcus threw him in prison. No trial, no judge, nothing. Either he just doesn't care, he's abusing his power, or he really wants that man to be gone. But why would he want that?" Caitlyn wonders to herself, as she questions everything that took place earlier.
Jayce watches her pace around the room. "I'm not sure. Keep me updated. I'm going to make my pitch to Professor Heimerdinger." Jayce ways to Caitlyn with a smile, and she smiles at him in responce.
"Good luck." Caitlyn wishes Jayce, before Jayce leaves the room.
Moments later, Jayce and Viktor discuss things within their invention room. "I have a belief that the professor isn't going to be so thrilled about the new hextech gemstone." Viktor says, before letting out a few coughs. Viktors energy since six years ago was different, now he walked with a cane and his eyes seemed more sunken in and weak.
While attending to one of their inventions, Jayce looks at Viktor. "Don't worry. Most of his worries have been resolved with this new invention. I think he will take a liking to it." Jayce says to Viktor with a smile.
Moments later, Heimerdinger walks into the room. Jayce and Viktor both show off the new hextech gemstone that they have invented. The gemstone is much more stable, compact in a spherical shape, and usable for the general public. Jayce even uses a large hammer to slam onto the gemstone, which shows just how stable it is. Using the gemstone to power up nearly anything, Heimerdinger watches for the entire time in shock.
Once Jayce and Viktor are done with the pitch, Heimerdinger stands in disbelief. "Unbelievable." He says in awe, causing Jayce and Viktor to smile at one another. "That should be perfectly usable for the general public within ten or so years." Heimerdinger says as he walks past Jayce and Viktor, leaving them confused.
"Ten years? You saw what the gemstone can do. It's ready to be used now." Viktor argues with Heimerdinger, though he it's mostly going through one ear, and out of the next.
"Power like that will be too dangerous for the public to use. Though I'm sure you will come up with a way to fix that." Heimerdinger responds as he walks out of the room. Viktor was about to say more, however Jayce stops him. So they both watch. Heimerdinger walk away with disappointed faces.
"So what're you going to do? Are you going to mention the gemstone at your speech today?" Viktor questions Jayce, while looking at him. Jayce then turns to look at the gemstone, with conflicted feelings.
Hours later, when the sky begins to get darker, Jayce is about to give the big speech for progress day. He proceeded to adjust his attire and make his way backstage in time for his speech.
"How do I look?" Jayce asked Viktor while Viktor smiled and dusted Jayces clothes off.
"You look like a man ready to give a big speech in front of the council members and people of Piltover." Viktor responded with a reassuring smile.
"Thanks, partner." Jayce nodded while the person onstage spoke.
"Now, it is my honor to Welcome Piltovers finest inventor. Someone responsible for revolutionizing our city as we know it today. I would like to give a warm welcome to Jayce Talis!" The woman on stage said behind a microphone before moving out of the way and clapping for Jayce.
As Jayce walked from behind stage and up the steps to the microphone, the crowd cheered and cheered. Jayce smiled and waved as he professionally made his way to the microphone. "Thank you, thank you so much." He said as the cheering continued.
"Wow, first off I would like to say this is such an honor. It is an honor to be standing in front of you today." Jayce began to speak, causing the crowd to quiet down. "You know it was only six years ago where I made such a device. One that I knew would change our lives for the better one day. It wasn't easy, and I was almost going to give up one day.." Jayce spoke in a serious tone.
Mel and the other council members watched Jayce closely, especially Heimerdinger who had an intimidating glare.
Jayce looked down at the floor for a second. The crowd could feel the energy Jayce was giving off before he looked back up at the crowd with a smile. "Helping me get through tough times, and helping me revolutionize Piltover forever...I would like to say that I didn't do this alone, and in fact i'd like to present to you this new and improved item with my partner, Viktor! Give him a welcoming applause." Jayce said while applauding with the crowd and looking over towards behind the stage.
Viktor was almost left speechless with a surprised look in his eye, nonetheless he couldn't hide the happy smile. He walked up to the stage and was greeted by warm applause and the warm smile of Jayce. "We couldn't be here without this man as well..and with this man, I would like to present to you the new and improved Hex Crystal!" Jayce yelled out to the crowd before looking behind at the projector screen, revealing the new Hex Crystals.
The crowd went wild as they saw this. With its spherical and more compact shape. Even all of the council members were proud and joyous, especially Mel. The only one who wasn't was Heimerdinger.
Jayce looked down at Heimerdingers disappointed face with a bit of regret before seeing Mels proud face and shaking that regret away. "This new and improved Hex Crystal, known as the hextech gemstone is more compact and stable than the previous one. Therefor we will hopefully be releasing it to the public very soon." Jayce said as the crowd continued cheering. He then wrapped his arm over Viktors shoulder as they both smiled with celebratory fireworks bighting up the night sky.
A couple hours later during an afterparty for the progress days success, Jayce was standing behind a balcony, looking at the bright city of Piltover. "Progress day is a day to show off your inventions. All upcoming inventors have a shot at it and there success is slightly based on the general publics excitement about it. With that being said, I think yours did really well." Mel, one of the main council members said with a drink in her hand next to Jayce.
"You think? Sir Heimerdinger didn't seem to pleased with me revealing it. After me an Viktor showed him our product and proposed the idea of it being available to the public well, he was really against it." Jayce responded while looking slightly regretful of his decision.
Mel watched Jayces face closely. "There's a simple reason for that. Heimerdinger isn't looking ahead, he's looking backwards. Piltover can't progress with someone like that leading. They need someone young who's looking ahead." Mel explained while Jayce listened. Mel then held gently onto Jayces chin and pointed his face towards the city of Piltover.
Jayces regretful face slowly changed as he turned his head back and looked into Mels eyes with a deep, suggestive stare. They looked into each others eyes, completely toning out the party and all the noise behind them as if they were the only two in the room.
Viktor on the other hand was all alone in his room with the latest invention. While struggling to walk, he started coughing continuously into his arm. After regaining his composure and moving his arm away from his mouth, he saw blood right where he coughed at.
Viktor stared at his arm in deep thought before staring deeply at the latest invention. "My time is almost running out. I need to think of something quickly if I want the undercity to go down." He said with a serious and almost saddened look in his eyes. "Luckily the gemstone will be released into the public soon..meaning they will be able to protect themselves for what's to come. And there's no way the gemstone will be available to those in the Undercity.." Jayce mumbles to himself.
Meanwhile, outside of the afterparty, Caitlyn, along with other enforcers patrol the area. While looking around, Caitlyn notices a fire from afar. Her pupils shrink with shock as a result. "Fire!" Caitlyn alerts the rest of the enforcers, making them all go over to the fire.
There, the enforcers see a building on fire, along with a giant painting of a monkey on it. "There it is again.." Caitlyn acknowledges to herself, before what looks to be drones with teeth flying directly in front of all the enforcers.
"What's that!" One of the enforcers yell out, causing Caitlyn to look at the metal devices, covered in pink and neon green splash.
"Oh happy progress day!" the devices have speakers attached to them. Those are the words that come from the speakers. "You guys have to do a much better job. Because too bad for you, you're too late." The longer those words come from the speakers, the more distorted the voice gets.
All of the enforcers are confused with their weapons out. Suddenly, the devices floating in front of them begin to quake. Caitlyns eyes quickly widen with fear. "Get down!" Caitlyn yells before jumping down to the ground. Most of the other enforcers are too late to jump down, but that doesn't stop the devices from exploding and causing a scene.
Many people from the after party begin to grow worried, once they hear and feel the explosion fron afar. "What was that?!" "What's going on?!" Many people begin to panic, while Jayce looks calm and confused.
Jinx from around the corner of the now dead enforcers, smiles and chuckles. She then looks at the bright blue gemstone, which makes her eyes the vibrant blue that it used to be. "Better luck next time!" Jinx taunts with a smile, while Caitlyn looks at her from the ground. Because of the explosion, Caitlyn can't completely identify who it is. All she can see is that long blue hair.
Before Jinx could run off, she's stopped by noticing someone within the corner of her eye. "I'm sorry, I was too late." Lucy says to the enforcers with anxiousness in her voice. Jinx watches her with wide eyes, that slowly starts to turn to anger the longer that she watches Lucy.
Lucy checks for pulses with all of the enforcers. Once she realizes that Caitlyn is the only one left alive, she carries her with all the strength she has, and walks off as secret and quietly as possible. "You too, Lucy?" Jinx says with an unsteady tone, tilted head, and a saddened expression, that slowly turns to a more hateful one.