❝ Yes, yes! Just like last time! ❞
❝ And this happened while you were here? ❞
❝ I was IN the very room when it happened! ❞
❝ Nothing! I don't know how, it just happened! I'm beginning to think that-- ❞
Caitlyn didn't even wait for the wiry man to take his leave before walking further into the workshop, her gaze focused on the vandalized mass of machinery in its center. Pulling the supple leather gloves from her hands, the Sheriff brushed her fingers over the steel, watching as the dented metal beneath her touch gave away, toppling with a series of clangs and a cloud of dust. She fanned the debris away from her face, expression remaining cold and unreadable.
The machine — a generator used to supply power to the southern district of Piltover — sat in a decrepit state, if you could call it a state at all. It appeared as if it had been ripped apart and beaten repeatedly with some sort of blunt object, its panels and gears bent at odd angles and strewn haphazardly around the room. This very generator was new, the first of its kind unveiled to the public eye only one month ago. It had been a gleaming beacon of progress at the time, and she was sad to see such hard work reduced to a pile of scrap.
Logically, this crime made no sense. But Caitlyn was not a dumb woman. She knew the self-proclaimed City of Progress had been looking into the option of manipulating time and space through techmaturgy instead of magic. Though mostly theoretical in its current state of development, there had been some minor breakthroughs involving short-term timespace control in the past years. If her hunch was correct, whoever was behind this strange form of vandalism had more than likely gotten their hands on the research, and more baffling yet, managed to get it working.
The Sheriff glanced around the room, sapphire eyes drinking in every detail with an investigator's gaze. Nothing but this one lone generator sat in disrepair; other smaller machines clicked and whirred, continuing with their autonomy without hindrance. It was just like last time, where only one of the plant's central power stations had been destroyed despite being around numerous other equally valuable devices. Whoever they were, their only interest was in destroying Piltover's most recent advancements in technology — namely projects used to better the general public. If that was the case, she could assume they had some sort of vendetta against Piltover in itself for some reason or another. But why?
Caitlyn rounded to the back of the generator, her intuition urging her forward. That was when she saw it. A small ripple of movement had caught her attention, and upon closer inspection, saw she hadn't just imagined it. There, just behind the machine itself, was a distorted, undulating area of space. ❝ Flux. ❞ She gasped, almost excitedly. So her hunch was correct.
Flux was one of the many things discovered in the city's research of time. It was a small tear or distortion in space; a side-effect caused whenever objects were displaced or warped through spacetime. For this much flux to actually be visible a half of an hour after the anointed crime, Caitlyn imagined that whoever caused it must have traversed time from this very spot many, many times. Space was still in the process of repairing itself, and within the hour, the visible distortion would be gone for good.
So that answered the how of her investigation, and she had a good idea as to why as well. The only thing left was to figure out the who and the what. Who did this? What is their reasoning? The Sheriff brought a hand up to her chin, rubbing it idly in thought. Whoever they were, they were no ordinary criminal. They had some means of grasping time, whether it be magical or technical. That would mean a nigh impossible chance at apprehension, especially if they could traverse time exclusively, without any other factors traveling with them. But she couldn't just let this act of defacement go unwarranted. They were actively making a statement against Piltover, and any statements against Piltover had to go through her. What she had to do was anticipate their next attack, and hopefully catch them off guard, before they can react by jumping through time.
❝ That's far easier said than done. ❞ Caitlyn groaned inwardly, finding herself, surprisingly, at a complete loss of what to do. For now, she would call to increase security at all major city projects. If she couldn't apprehend the culprit, she could at least try to hinder them.
