The Scythe knocked Myles into the air. Flying upwards unable to manoeuvre he was rendered unable to dodge the slash attack launched at him. Sparks flew off his armour and it disengaged leaving him a tired sweaty mess on the grass. John Marquis stood fully clad in his armour, barely a scratch on him.
“Don’t feel too bad Myles, The Cash armour was always a strong one and young John here seems to have a particularly high affinity with it”
Myles lay on the grass examining the clouds. He knew A legacy trigger had less adaptability going forward, but the trade off was a lot of power now. He had to admit he was a bit jealous. Having a solid set of tools and abilities to work with lent itself better to planning ahead than whatever random things the suit chose to give him based on experience and times of its own choosing. Maybe he was just salty his DIY experiment had yet to yield any results. Picking himself back up he summoned his Trigger and re-initialised his armour.
“HARMLESS LITTLE BUNNY LEAPS FOR THE STARS, THAT'S NO ORDINARY RABBIT!”
“I don’t suppose there is a way to weaponise all of these colourful sparks we give off is there?” Inquired Myles, a man invested in surviving.
“Only if you are interested in tickling your opponents… Sentinels on the other hand, just don’t stand too close when they transform.” said John Barrington.
“Why not? it looked fairly harmless when we sat Zara and Rusty suit up the other night.”
“Its a whole saga involving a sentient universe. Have Zara or Rusty to tell you, they will be able to explain it better.” Said John Barrington “Also never let them transform near flammable material… or anything too brittle.. or small animals”
Training continued at a rigorous pace. Whatever bad habits he was picking up could be ironed out later. right now he just needed to survive Sweetbright, the whistlers and be able to escape if one of those Engine Dynasty buggers came calling again. Attempts were made to persuade John Marquis to stay, but in his mind his work outing in the Quantocks took precedence over what was still at this point circumstantial evidence. After all there were still two Trigger users to handle it one of whom was a legend in the community if his boasts were to be believed.
“Speaking of trouble’ John Marquis Began “The Babbage woman from Human Resources has been kicking off. She has been telling anyone who will listen that you were dressing up in the park and assaulted her.”
Myles swore under his breath. There would be a huge mess at Arkwright & Fletcher waiting for him when he got done with the Sweetbright joint project nonsense. Staying out of office gossip and office politics were somethings Myles had put a tremendous amount of effort towards.
“Babbage? As in Laurence Cuthbert Babbage, author of such theatre staples as Funeral for a Sausage and The Butler saw her Knickers? Inquired John Barrington
“Direct descendant, his great granddaughter I think.” Said John Marquis, herald of office genealogy.
“I was in attendance the opening night of The Butler saw her Knickers. Met the man afterwards. I gave him a piece of my mind. Do you know who didn’t get to see any knickers?”
“Was it the audience?” Said Myles rolling his eyes.
“It was the audience. Not a one of us saw the knickers. Absolute scam.” Said John Barrington “No wonder his great granddaughter is horrible, bloody west end grifter.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
During the rest of that morning training, it transpired that Laurence Cuthbert Babbage was not only a huge tease, but owed John Barrington ten pounds of old money. Myles assumed some lending and borrowing was going as as ten pounds would have been a bit steep even for front row tickets back in those days. Later that day John Marquis would be hiring John Barrington as a temp. Thus saving wear and tear on clipboards. John Marquis was so impressed with his idea that Myles threatened to test his Knuckle busters against the Cash armour if he didn’t shut up about it earning himself a poke with the butt of the Scythe.
In better news they managed to not be interrupted by any fae. When he had some free time Myles was going to sit down and read through as much of the bestiary as he could the more he knew what to expect the better. The alien section would too get a thorough going over if he had time as aliens were cool and now the shock of finding out that are real is over he wanted to see one. Nonetheless Myles Endeavour recognised that the day he did get to see and alien the circumstances would be less than ideal. But right now he was heading home for a shower then going to work for a day of project liaising… whatever that was supposed to be about. At least it would look good on his CV.
The remaining days flew past. Myles continued working hard, training, mapping out the site and looking for a way to sneak a look at the lower levels. Utterly failing to charm anyone enough to sneak him in he gave that part of the plan up as a bad job. The fresh carton of milk he had brought with him seemed to have been defeated by a faulty coffee machine. The tank of tepid water and the jars of store brand decade coffee on offer nearly caused Myles to burn the place down there and then.
Wednesday evening however brought some good news. While the Jet packs were chugging along, the Neonblader hilt and Thunder staff had both been analysed by the Trigger.
Neonblader Hilt [DAMAGED - UNREPAIRABLE] Extracting 00:00 - Complete
Unidentified Thunder Magic Staff Extracting 00:00 - Complete
Updating Recommendations 100%
Fist Weapon 06:00
Neon First 25:00
Thunder Knuckle 25:00
Neon Thunder Knuckle 45:00
Spear 30:00
Neon Blade Spear 45:00
Thunder Spear 45:00
Neon Thunder Spear 60:00
Sword 30:00
Neon Blade Sword 40:00
Thunder Sword 40:00
Neon Thunder Sword 60:00
Jetpack 150:00
???? 4000:00
Allowing the suit to break down those externally made items had given Myles a lot of new options. He wanted all of them, but knew there was a time crunch. There was no pause development option to free up bandwidth or however it was quantified. Disappointing lack of tool sets still, but Myles was not ready to give up on that potential avenue of growth just yet.
Neon Thunder Knuckles would be ready by Friday… probably, Myles thought the suit was making its own rules up at times. He really wanted the spear. He recalled how much damage he caused against the Billunben by driving a hammer into it from a huge leap. With just a blunt instrument borrowed from the hardware section of the garden centre he had smashed an eldritch looking plant monster into paste and shards of pottery like armour. Screw it he thought, he already had three jetpacks taking up a bunch of resources. Myles selected Neon Thunder Knuckle and Neon Thunder Spear. He was going big or going home.. except he already was home and the next place he was going was training again in the morning, well, bed before that. Myles was going big and going to bed. One last check of his queue
?????? Repair 51% Synchronisation 80%
Jetpack 112:03
Jetpack 171:36
Jetpack 256:12
Neon Thunder Knuckle 40:59 - Fist Weapon Unavailable during this time.
Neon Thunder Spear 64:59
The Knuckle Buster would be missed over the next couple of days, but it seems it has gone to a good cause, shaving hours from the production time. The Spear would be cutting it close but it could prove a big help. Myles knew he had no experience with a spear, but he assumed there was a good reason so many peasant militias in history were armed with spears. Long pokey stick go in enemy, seems like a sound easy to use strategy.
This weekend Myles would be walking into the project site for probably a trap set by people who are probably spying on him and are probably up to something. He knew it was matter of time before the whistlers wold come after him again so the last thing he needed was more crap waiting to happen. so he would make sure whatever Sweetbright was doing, it wouldn’t bite him in the arse at a future date. Besides he suspected one of them was deliberately messing with his breakfasts and that could not go unpunished. He really hoped it was just his old paranoia, the instincts that were on high alert all the time. Myles would like nothing more to go in Saturday night and find the worst they have been doing is building some and of secret underground golf course.
Sandra Bright knew Myles Endeavour wasn’t stupid, it was why she had come to hate him. It was a petty impulse she knew but her pride had pushed her forward. She had only meant to get the measure of the new Fairy Trigger who had appeared in the vicinity of one of their harvest sites. Old habits had come out and she had seen fit to swing her dick around as Cerulean Sweet called it. However the only one cock-slapped was her. She had heard the best revenge was living well. But why not have her cake and eat it. Sandra Bright had decided Myles Endeavour would be sacrificed on the alter of her own corporate advancement, even if he somehow survived, he was going to secure her a very good life for the near future.