Glassmetal finished fixing the damage from the other day as we watched, discussing what kind of tests we would run.

“We should probably start with something basic.” Victor began, putting an arm on his back lifting his shirt. “A pistol, for example.” He finished saying, holding up the gun he had taken out.

“You just walk around with a gun?” I asked a little more wary of the man now.

“There’s powered all around, dude. And also, we’re fugitives, it’s only sensible to carry one.”

“Uh, I guess” I said, now that I had powers, I had put conventional weaponry a little out of my mind even more so since all the battles I’ve been in were only power fights, but of course in real confrontations the likelihood of encountering a gun were not negligible.

“I’m done with the floor.” Glassmetal said getting up, dusting his hands off even though they were clean.

“Let’s go then” Victor said with a smile, his sleepiness apparently forgotten. “You can stand wherever Josh, come on Glassmetal.” He said quickly moving behind the glass protection on the side of the door.

“It’s Joseph” I called watching him go, shaking my head.

“you’re ready?” He yelled from afar, I wondered to myself, sighing, was I ready for this? This is probably craziness.

“Okay, sure.” I said just resigning myself to satisfy my curiosity. It never hurt for long. “Okay just don’t aim wh-”

I was interrupted mid-sentence, mid thought, as the pain exploded on my calf. “FUCK” I let out, falling to the floor clutching the bleeding leg. Now in muted pain and shock.

“What the actual fuck man...”

“You okay there?” Victor yelled again, seriously I might start disliking this guy.

My power pulsated just after I was hurt, like an eye opening, awakening, it looked, figuratively, at the situation like analyzing my mind for context. My leg mutated, the bullet being ejected, the skin recuperating over it, so it did react to trauma. I mean, it was an attack after all, and it took longer to take effect, oh well.

Over the place where before was a bullet wound now there was a thick patch of tough looking hide, greyish brown with plaques that looked solid, making a honeycomb texture.

I pulled on the transformation, expanding it to all over my body, transforming in a human with an alien rhinoceros like skin. I got up, not feeling any pain, even the memory of it was hazy.

“Next time wait until I'm ready, are you actually crazy?”

“I learned that getting shot is better like that, like taking off a Band-Aid, you know, in a sudden move”

“Who even taught you that.”

“I’m in the business of shooting powered for a while”

“Ominous, weird” I said to him, He laughed at me.

“So wanna keep going? It seems to have worked for you.”

“Ah, yeah.” I said lifting my arms they were heavier but I felt pretty protected. “Hit me-”

I couldn’t finish again as a bullet ricocheted against my shoulder, bruising the flesh under it, but that was way better than getting shot without protection, it didn’t end there though, as Victor shot four more rounds at me, only stopping when his revolver made loud clicking noises echoing around in the smooth walls.

I stumbled back, the force of the attacks always being transferred, my muscles were bruised on all the places the bullets hit, all over my members and two bullets on my torso, guess he was trying to not accidently get a dangerous shot in.

I put my feet under me, a shock absorption layer being created under the tough hide making me bulk up a bit.

“Everything fine, then?” Victor asked, Glassmetal just watched intrigued, and a bit weirded out, a normal reaction.

“Yeah, adaptation complete.”

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Victor laughed. “Cool catch phrase huh.” he turned to the younger man besides him "Glassmetal, let's try something more impactful.”

“Sure, he seems capable of taking the hits, You okay with a higher caliber, Joseph?”

“Yeah, that’s the point of testing after all, right.” I made sure my footing was stable, and waited for the rounds, focusing on keeping my mutation active and my core ready to react.

Behind the protective glass, that had circles open on it for people to shoot out of, was a table, made of the same color than the surrounding space, nothing remarkable about it, Glassmetal touched it and it activated, lights running through it as it opened up, revealing a trunk full of weapons.

He then took out a polished ball out of his pocket, it also lighted up, this one with hundreds of thin lines all around the sphere. He let it go and it stayed fluctuating around him.

Victor saw me looking at that confused and explained “Having a tinker is a huge bonus for any faction, even though the Stannus hoard the powered and the technology, they still sell it, and here and there we intercept a shipment.”

While he spoke, he went through the weapons, raising them up for inspection which let me see them, there were pistol, rifles and some apparently functional tinker weapons similar to the ones I saw on the crates on the lab.

“If we get a word of someone like our boy Glassmetal here we also do our best to get him out before, you know.” He gestured with one of the guns to his head, making his point. “The families don’t like rogue powered.”

The biggest gun he took out had the clear visual signature of being made by Glassmetal. He checked the ammunition or sometimes energy readings of the weapons, while that was going on the ball by Glassmetal’s side had opened up creating a kind of tablet that he was reading something over while the two talked.

“Okay” Victor announced finally. “We’ll amp the power steadily.”

“Great.” that way I could adapt more easily.

Victor took out a pistol now, all black and slick looking he pointed it at me through the circle and I readied myself again.

Bullets were a fast thing, it seemed my power was really focused on defense and not overall adaptability, at least until I learned some detection or sense enhancements.

He started firing and without being able to see the bullet at all, I only felt the impacts, it hit harder, I could tell that much. But the protection I had done till now held it steadily

We tested the weapons, slowly going up, the bullets from rifles hit way harder and sometimes hit me hard enough that my powers mutated slightly, sometimes getting a little stronger, but there seemed to have this upper limit that it could achieve without a fitting power to learn the methods. It made me resolve myself to more and more expose myself to all sorts of powers.

After a while it was time to finally test the fancier weapons and Victor brought up a pistol that had something akin to a lightbulb instead of a hole in the firing end.

“This one here is a laser gun, there's a wide variety of subtypes around, but this baby just shoots a Hella of a strong laser beam.” he explained, turning the gun in his hand. “Now, let's see how you deal with this.”

He pointed the gun at me and pressed the trigger, if before I thought the bullets were fast, this didn’t even compare, it was immediate. A pressing of the trigger and I had an extreme hot spot burning on my armored skin, it also had a punch to it, trying to push me back.

I remembered something about laser weapons, how they also rely on the heat they generate to punch through stuff and started bobbing and swaying in place, letting my hide cool off while not in direct contact with the weapon. It gave time for my powers to adapt and the tough exterior started changing, taking a reflexive cover, starting to throw the laser around the room wildly.

Glassmetal and Victor screamed as the laser passed close to them leaving a blackish mark on the floor and walls.

Victor had stopped firing in the chaos and now looked at me, “Hah, looking good huh, but if the government didn’t like you now imagine when they see you fighting.”

I nodded, I always heard that there were powers that mutated their users, to various degrees of effects and often times permanently, you just never seemed to see this kind of people, like with the other types of mysterious disappearances, everyone secretly knew and heard the rumors that the government whisked they away to never be heard of again.

“Well, I have a lightning rifle as well but we know that you can adapt to those already, right silver warrior?”

I looked down at my form completely shining and reflecting the room around me. “Well, yeah.”

It was getting increasing hard to maintain it though, apparently the more mutations I had to create, the more the imaginary band that I pulled on got harder to keep hold of, as it stood now it was already starting to strain.

“If we going to do more tests it has to be quick.” I told them

“Glassmetal test your stuff, we don't want to have the power run out in the middle of something.”

“The high level then?” Glassmetal asked, seeming kind of uncertain.

“Yep.”

“Okay then” Glassmetal said taking out of the trunk a huge hulking gun all squarish with a rectangular opening on the front that he pointed at me, he touched the glass and it flowed to a shape that held the gun better, he did the same with the table, making a resting place for the butt of the gun.

The gun opened up in the middle expanding and getting longer reveling a channel made of a darker green metallic color, multiple thin lines appeared all over the weapon then, as it thrummed with energy. Glassmetal took his place standing behind the gun with only one hand barely touching the weapon.

“This is a prototype that uses the energy I generate and my capability to enhance the conductivity of the material to, honestly, out of the charts...”

“Let’s do the testing, you can tell him the science later.”

“Okay, sure. Just be warned that it can pack quite a punch.” he said nodding in my direction, I nodded back at him my shining silvery form taking a protective stance.

“Here I go.” He said over the sound of the powered gun, the thing looking more like a sci-fi cannon bearing its open mouth my way.