Omega Squad

Chapter 1

Five days earlier.

The brown-and-yellow furred yordle's eyes fluttered open as he awoke from a turbulent sleep. He cast a glance around his room, as if to confirm that he was not in a dream. He breathed a sigh of relief upon finding that he was indeed in his typical, everyday surroundings. It was light outside—the radiant sun had slipped through his window and was casting glints of light onto the trophies hanging on his wall. They were reminders, but what they were of was long forgotten. Resolving to lay to rest the disturbances of the previous night, Teemo put on his scouting hat, and snatched his blowgun on his way out the door, whistling a jovial tune. His fluffy face was greeted by the warm sunshine as he continued a march down a long road that seemed to have no end.

Stepping out into Bandle City, he passed through the ordinary sights of the quaint town. Dilapidated houses and torn roofs quickly passed through his narrow vision, followed by glimpses of the younger yordles quietly eating their rations. Out of the corner of his eye, Teemo saw one of them bend down to pick up a crumb of bread that had fallen on the floor. In his heart, Teemo pitied them. But in his mind, he did not.

In the long and distant past, Bandle City had been the center of joy in Runeterra: it was a place where yordles frolicked, free to enjoy themselves and the company of each other. In those days, the Ancient World—that was what it was called before the Rune Wars—was filled with magic, free for all to use, whether for good or for evil. Being the masters of magic that they were, yordles had been free to create and explore. They quickly grew in reputation for their inventive designs: oversized mech which could shoot out flames, an arsenal of small turrets that could shoot at fast speeds, explosive bombs which could cover an impressive radius. But now...now, things were different. What had once been—in a memory hidden far back in what was left of Teemo's mind—had been reduced to a bleak, grey land filled with dust and grime. As far as Teemo knew, Bandle City's days of prosperity were long over.

But Teemo himself was unfazed by reality. Where others failed, Teemo had found a way to succeed. Teemo was nothing short of a Bandle City legend. Year after year he had proven himself worthy of the greatest honors. In Summoner's Rift, his combat skills were unprecedented and unmatched. Through the duties he performed—by representing his Division in Summoner's Rift—he proved his morale to be impervious to the intensity and horrors of even the most formidable battles. He needed not struggle in upkeeping an optimistic state of mind; he held within him a genuine, lifelike positivity. His carefree and enthusiastic personality was questioned by many, after all, how could someone who was coerced into murder possibly be sane? Though few ever voiced these opinions, and they amounted to nothing but feeble whispers; many gave Teemo respect, if not for him, it could have been them who were forced to kill. For such a great Player as Teemo, it was a great honor—but when concerning the matters of life and death—it became meaningless.

To him, his life had always been a dream, like some sort of game. The objective of this game, he had never known, and had never been told. His life felt complete, yet empty. Up until the moment when he had been called upon by the Institute to replace yet another failure of a representative, and entered into the League of Legends as a Player in the Summoner's Rift, he had not felt a moment of satisfaction in his existence. But the moment he stepped onto the field, adrenaline coursing in his veins, something ignited in him that he never knew was even there. His killer instincts carried him through battle to battle on the Rift, leaving him undefeated. Unfortunately, the feeling of fulfillment was momentary. The matches came in quick, short bursts, buffered by long periods of silence and the mundanity of ordinary life in Bandle City.

But there was one person who made his intense boredom much more bearable. He made his way towards the edge of Bandle City, obscured by heavy brush, where there was a fence preventing them from wandering outside of their Division. Few people knew of that place—his best friend Tristana was one of them.