I wouldn't be opposed to seeing what kind of Knives Jinny would end up with. Though I doubt he has many weapons stored here that are more then simply functional, even if a piece or two has a fun story behind it.
Anyway, post is up. And as hinted at the very end of it, Slade will either be starting knife training now, or they can transition to getting Jinny costume put together. As that is also a vital part of being a Merc. It is both a point of protection and a point of style after all.
Slade would chuckle slightly at Jinayah’s exuberance as she bounced around the room looking at all the tools of death he had stored here. “I’ve been collecting them for quite a while at this point.” He would answer “Most of them I purchase from some of my contacts, but some of them I pick up from jobs while I’m working.”
“And I’ll show you how to open most of them now if you want.” He would continue as she bounced around the room. “Some of them have volatile materials in them so those will still have to wait until we can cover how to handle those materials.”
He had to move a bit close to see what it was that she had asked about but simply grinned when he saw what it was. “Yes, I kept that. One day you’ll be able to tell people you got the drop on me with that knife.” He would say, his smile at Jinny gravitating towards edged weapons much softer than it had any right in being due to the context of it. “And you’ve got a long way until you can do so again”
He would kneel down to inspect the weapons that Jin had chosen. He knew they were in top condition, as he made sure that everything in this room was in top condition at least once a month. Twelve razor sharp throwing knives balanced for throwing with grips suitable for CQC in a pinch. They were also light weight, good both for throwing easy as well as not being much of a strain if young Jinny wanted to control them telekinetically.
Next was the paired set of Daggers, twelve inches of frighteningly sharp twin edged steel. A Simple, yet fictional, grip to allow a myriad of grip options when it came to wielding them. The Balance was weighted more towards being used in melee but that didn’t remove the option of throwing them if needed, though that would require some extra work to keep throws on target.
Slade couldn’t help but let out a chuckle once he was done with his inspection. “Either I’ve taught you well, or you have a good set of instincts.” He would say ruffling her hair. “These are a great choice for how you fight.” And he didn’t miss the longing look she had thrown at the swords earlier; these were also a great start for learning how to use one of those later on as well.
“Want to start with learning about how to use them now?” He would ask standing up once more. If she did, he would grab another pair of daggers so that he could demonstrate the correct stances and grips. "The other option is to get your outfit put together" He would add "After all your normal clothes won't do much to protect you while on a job"
Penny withheld a grimace at the lack of real damage that her guass round inflicted. The steel spike landed, but she noticed the lack of effect the stored lightning had and wasn’t blind to the countered gravitic distortions.
Still both of those observation fell to the way side at Snoopy’s chimed in update.
‘Mika?!’ Penny thought incredulously at Snoopy’s happy update, before she forcefully paused that train to thought to focus more at the matters at hand. Those being the acidic hands grasping her ankles, the enchanted sword heading for her back and the strike coming at her front.
[E.O.D status: initialized
First was the sludge. It was corrosive, that much Penny could have guessed without coming into contact with it, and alone it wouldn’t have done much more then scuff her paint. But it was also magical, which came with its own problems, as that property allowed it to start eating away at her. But hardly a moment after the burn began a dull sheen would rapidly spread across Penny’s form starting from the points of contact. As she altered the top layer of her chassis adding in the properties of enchanted platinum, making her effectively immune to corrosion.
[E.O.D. status: 3%
The strike at her rear was more complicated, but she had extra limbs and an extra eye so that wasn’t insurmountable either. Two of the Spider limbs focused on keeping the blade away from actually hitting her, in addition her holographic armor snapped to life along her torso. She didn’t think that her gravimetric barrier would do much considering how it seemed that her foe also had gravity magic, and wanted to hold off on her electromagnet barrier for now. Extremely high heat killed magnetic properties after all.
Her other two Spider limbs lashed out at the blade trying to grab hold of it, or disarm the tentacle limb holding it. As Penny wanted it after all, because good quality enchanted metal wasn’t easy to come across.
Snoopy was floating just above her head but faced backwards so that Penny could ‘see’ though him to more accurately coordinate her limbs.
At least that had been the plan, Melisa’s assistance would change things, but not significantly. One of Penny’s spider-esque limbs would abandon defense to begin tearing away at the slime coated limbs grasping at her ankles.
[E.O.D status: 14%. Right optical display rerouted to secondary input system.
Lastly was the straight forward attack, this Penny chose to meet head on with a punch of her own. Her left-hand fusing shut into a veritable club as she aimed to break Oro’s nail like arm with her counter strike.
[E.O.D Status: 19%. Humanity.exe priority lowered; CPU access throttled.
Penny’s inhuman mind scanned her situation again to verify that all active issues were being addressed. All three avenues of assault were addressed and responses were deployed. Melisa had been dragged to safety and had begun supporting operations and both Nunico and Shion were currently out of the line of fire.
Satisfied she returned to the thought that she had paused.
“I have to say Mika I’m surprised that you threw your lot in with the Mint. Was it personal that you chose to attack, or just trying to drive up profit for the Golden trove?” She would call out, but her voice was notably distorted compared to normal.
“And I’m curious, does Su know about your ties to the Mint?”
Quietly Snoopy pinged Penny with another update, this one going unacknowledged due to its low priority.
[Topographical data downloaded] [Routing optimal path to destination: ‘Home’]
Outwardly Snoopy just beeped happily, he was finally able to perform his primary function and thus was quite content.
“Leena’s Null field happened” Aurelio would reply the moment he could. “And trust me, it’s not going to last that long. We can see it falling apart on our end.” He would add as he made a few clones. Before rushing back into the field to get to the rest of his teammates.
One of the Clones would stay outside the effected area to hold open a steady com link with HQ, the other two would follow Aurelio back in. One ahead of the other. That way the ahead clone fizzled out the last clone would stop giving a clear indication of where the field ended.
When he got back to the center of the madness, Aurelio would have like to been able to say he was surprised that the chaos had grown, He wasn’t but he would have like to be pleasantly surprised. Instead, he just ran towards the nearest Beacon member who needed immediate aid.
Leena.
He heard Alicia’s call out and hopped Leena would comply, and in that hope he set aside seventy percent of his remaining mana for the moment the field dropped. All of which would be used to summon as many copies as he could which would then proceed to teleport out with anyone they could. It didn’t matter if they were friend or foe save for Justine if he could help it.
Friends were getting ported back to HQ, everyone else would get sent to Penrose Park.
In the meantime, he was going to try and help deal with the people latched onto Leena in a manner that he really wasn’t a fan of using but wasn’t going to let that stop him. He would reach out and try to touch them and begin syphoning off all emotions they had running through them, enforcing an onset of total Apathy. If that didn’t work, he just hopped that Leena dropped the field soon so that he could teleport her out. Perhaps taking her aggressors with them back to HQ.
Viva was a font of curses and vitriol. Even as her vision black from the supposed lack of oxygen rather then the enchanted darkness around her. Her gun vanished in a short flare of light when it landed on her from her arm getting shot. Which only had her increasing the volume of her rant towards the members of the Mint that had betrayed her.
She was still hurling insults when Alma struck her and forcibly knocked her into unconscious. Which was obvious when it happened as Viva turned into a pile of flesh colored glop in the same instant, one which only vaguely retained a humanoid outline.
Due to the curse on her, it was hard to tell when she would wake up. But it was unlikely that it would be in time to escape or hinder the Mint’s plans any further.
Yes, he brought her in there so that she has a wide array of things to choose from when it comes to her primary weapon.
As for what all is hidden here? Lots(Read: as much as is narratively useful), but I'm also reminded that eventually Slade opens up a base in the volcano near Jump city. So not everything.
And a post. For reference, the garage for the house I see as being a three to four car garage. so the Armory room Slade revealed has a loooot of weapons.
“I’ll try to arrange a hunting trip before school starts up again. It’s not quite the same, but it is a good first step” Slade would offer, not bothering to correct young Jinny misconception. Because she already knew how to kill someone. If she were to lash out at someone in the same way she had been burning off energy earlier and put some force behind her blows they would require hospitalization at best and a morgue at worst. It would be interesting to see how the other students faired if he was being honest.
“Not an entire military, a small Company sixty to seventy men.” He would correct. Because although he was good, he wasn’t that good. “And I’ve been known to be intimidating.” He would agree humbly, enjoying the simplicity of her statement. He was curious to see how she reacted when she learned more about his professional reputation.
“As for teaching you how” Slade would take a moment, both to contemplate the best way to answer and to enjoy the adorable bit of mimicry that Jinny was putting on for an extra moment. “That will be more difficult. A lot of the aspects that assist in Psychological warfare, that is utilizing being scary, come from experience. But we can still work on it. It is good that you realize that you need to own brand of intimidation however, what works for some won’t work for others.”
“And we can definitely start with getting you a weapon.” Slade would say his cruel smile returning for a moment. “Follow me” He would say as he started to walk towards the equipment cage. The cage was locked with another blank keypad, in fact just about all of the keypads down here were that way, an odd but effective security measure.
He would open the cage and then walk towards the row of lockers at the back before entering yet another code on one of the blank keypads of one of the lockers. But rather then open the locker, which Slade knew held a supply of C4, the locker itself sank into the floor revealing a hidden door way. “You’ve asked about all the locked rooms before.” He would say before stepping though the door way into the room beyond. Following behind him Jinny would find herself standing in a surprisingly large room. It was equal in size to the garage up in the main house, but it was far from an open space. Just about every inch of the walls were covered in weapons and evenly spaced out in the room were racks upon racks of even more weapons. Guns of all types and calibers, bladed tools from simple tactical knives to massive twohanded swords lined the shelves alongside polearms and axes galore. Just about every type of weapon was stored within this room, even some of the more esoteric weapons like whip swords could be seen.
“I keep them locked because it would be very difficult to explain why most of them look like this one”
“No, nothing to sign. Nothing needs to be written down” Slade would answer turning to place the piggy bank down somewhere off to the side. “At least not with me. Each Mercenary has their own preferences, as do the people that hire them. My memory is good enough that I can simply remember.” He would explain with a smirk. “My reputation also helps.”
“And you can sell what ever services you want to. Assassination is a large draw, plenty of people want other people dead after all, but it is hardly the only task that people want done.” He would go on to explain. “Infiltration, Corporate espionage, kidnapping, sabotage, bodyguarding, hacking, training. Anything is an option if you want it to be. Which also means that you only have to do what it is you are willing to do. I refuse any contract that has to deal with kids for example. Doesn’t mater the reason or the offer, I refuse to go after children. But not all mercs are like that, we each have our own codes of conduct.”
“The most fun I’ve had?” He would take a moment to hink over that while he slipped out of his mission focus, it had served it purpose. “That would be when I was hired to eliminate a small PMC. Private military company. They had gotten wind of me coming a few days before I got to them, so they had time to fortify the place and be on alert for me.” His smile turned both mocking and cruel as he thought back to that mission. It was an attempted assassination on him disguised as a legitimate contract but he didn’t care it was fun. “It allowed me to utilize all of my skills to their fullest. Required it as well, otherwise I doubt I would have survived to collect. As not all contracts will pay up front, some only pay after completion and some will split pay”
“Some of those skills we can start training you in now, some will have to wait until we get settled in at the academy. As this basement was only built with the fundamentals in mind.”
Penny would be lying if she said she wasn’t curious about how Nuncio kept slipping in and out of Snoopy’s detection, never the less she nodded her understanding to him. Then she turned to the new arrival, committing the girls name to memory and putting away her acquired spear fragments as she listened in.
Not that what Shion had to say had much to do with her, but it was interesting to hear that someone was trying to get the Outer Alliance out of Penrose. That and concerning. Still, it wasn’t her place to interfere. So she was content to simply be an observer for the next bit.
Heck Penny would have maintained that stance even when she first noticed Oro’s rushing at them. It was hard to impossible to actually sneak up on Penny, due to how her magical senses were attuned, but that didn’t mean she would have bothered to turn and face Oro’s when she was first noticed. Plenty of people jumped at Penny’ back and she had confidence in her shields ability to hold back what ever it was this additional new comer was planning.
Then she noticed a update from Snoopy.
[Over City transfer detected] [Local topography data downloaded]
That changed things. As did detecting Seepa’s sword flying through the air. Oro’s went from uncategorized third party to hostile Mint agent In Penny’s mind. She spun on the spot a high-pitched whine suddenly emitting form her just moment’s before she unleashed a full charged Gauss round at Oro’s.
Snoopy also turned to track the new foe as he began feeding relevant data to Penny’s optical feed.
Striding forward after the opening volley Penny reached out magically towards Melisa and harshly pulled her away from the toxic sludge. “Mint assault” Penny would say as she closed the distance towards Oro’s.
One would be able to forgive Aurelio for not fully understanding when the tiny samurai looking girl started to talk at him. After all he was busy in trying to keep Sakura's life from slipping away, that didn't stop him from nodding in understanding to Ronin as she turned to leave. Sparing a moment he would reach out and give her a boost. a sliver of Calm, and curling the Love within her back into her as she raced away. It wasn't much, he only had a moment to weave it after all, but it would help her maintain her focus and add just a bit extra to her speed.
He hoped that it would be enough, if there was a way to end this feud with Mariette that didn't end up with more blood shed he was all for it. Turning back to the matter at hand Aurelio suddenly found himself with a dealing with a very different circumstance.
Sakura's lips on his.
Now, Aurelio was taking the sudden kiss much better that Sakura was. After all it wasn’t the first time that he had been on the receiving end of one. Bringing people back from the brink leads to all sorts of weird reactions. He was still stunned by it, as having it happen before or not one is never prepared for such a sudden kiss, doubly so for an Empathy mage. As the outpouring of Love is always a hell of a kick for the system.
Or maybe that was just Aurelio.
Still he shook him self out of his stupor quickly enough, just in time to see Sakura collapse again. He let out an exasperated sigh but never the less moved next to her once again. “Let’s try the healing bit again with a bit more oomph this time.” Aurelio would say once again bringing a glow to his hands. This time though it was a brilliant white. After all Love is the greatest when it comes to support.
“Elora are you still there?” he would call into his comm as he spun an even great healing spell though Sakura, mixing in a moderate buff as he did. “As All Beacon is going to need an extraction soon. Leena’s Null is breaking this Dimension apart. So start locking on to signatures” he would explain taking a good look at the growing crack in the center of the room.
In the back of his mind he mused that kinda odd how he kept getting kissed by people who weren’t his girlfriend. Which lead him to the thought that he should actually ask Sally to be his girlfriend.
“God damn it!” Viva would spit out as she tried to dodge the shadowy spell. She doubted that her baby boy would have simply fled from a simply fight. Something else must have happened to him, of that Viva had no doubt. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to still have to deal with the merry band of sycophants however.
The problem was that she was simply to close to effectively get away. The time it would take to summon her bike was too long this close. And the narrow alley way made it impossible to avoid the next magical cage sent her way.
But even as she was bound in tendrils of darkness and feeling the fog of breathlessness filling her mind, she struggled. Blindly she created barriers between her and the Mint agents she had been working with, and just as blindly she shot at them with her revolver. The barriers when struck would shatter out in a spray of entropic shards ripping and decaying everything they touched. She would continue this over and over again, forming new hands or tentacles to hold her gun as new shadows tied her down and burning threw her mana recklessly to form more and more barriers. She knew she was caught, but she was going to make them pay for it as much has she possibly could.
I under stand the pain. I stumbled across it for the first time back on cartoon network, Adult swim block I think. Only when I dropped in on it, it was the last third of one of the movies for it. So I had no context, and no idea what I was watching. It was awesome, but trying to track it down again later was a nightmare. for a while I was under the impression that I had just dreamed the whole event.
She reminds me a bit of Read or Die, where a lot of people have that ability. Is and endlessly useful power, and a personal favorite of mine. Also means that they likely know of each other already. Slade has a wide net of contacts after all, but I'm not sure if they have ever met before.
So feel free to have her show up at HIVE, She will be a teacher for Infiltration while Slade is a teacher on weapons.
Izurich
Mistress Dizzy
LG
Light the Dark
twave
