The Safe House — The Armory
The heavy steel door slid open, revealing a room that smelled of gun oil and cold electricity. The walls were lined with racks of equipment that looked like they belonged in a science fiction museum—sleek, matte-black, and humming with power.
Kazuki stepped inside, his eyes wide. "You guys had all this in the basement of an arcade?"
"We are the last line of defense against a timeline collapse," Aeva said, walking over to a workbench. "We don't buy our gear at Walmart."
Renji leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms. "Pick your poison, kid. But choose carefully. A weapon is like a marriage—if you pick the wrong one, it'll make your life miserable and then take half your stuff."
Kazuki walked along the rack. He saw massive plasma rifles, gravity grenades, and gloves that crackled with blue lightning.
"I don't know how to shoot," Kazuki said. "And I don't want to kill anyone."
"The Helix won't give you that luxury," Renji said coldly. "But if you want to keep your hands clean... look at the melee rack. Newton's Third Law is a bitch at Mach 5."
"Newton's Third Law?"
"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction," Renji explained, sounding bored. "If you punch a villain at 800 miles per hour, his face breaks. But your hand breaks too. The Velocity Core protects you, but even it has limits. You need a tool to take the impact for you."
Aeva picked up a sleek, silver handle from the table. It looked like the hilt of a sword, but there was no blade.
She tossed it to Kazuki.
"Try that. It's a Vector Blade."
Kazuki caught the hilt. It was heavy, perfectly balanced.
"How do I turn it on?"
"Squeeze the grip," Aeva said. "It syncs with your suit's output."
Kazuki squeezed.
VWUM.
A blade didn't pop out. Instead, a shimmering, translucent distortion of air extended three feet from the hilt. It looked like a heat wave in the shape of a sword.
"It's not metal," Aeva explained. "It's a directed kinetic field. It vibrates at high frequency. It doesn't cut by sharpness; it separates molecules. It can slice through steel like it's butter."
Kazuki swung it. The air screamed as the blade passed through it.
"It's... loud."
"It's messy," Renji critiqued. "One wrong move and you slice your own leg off. Put it back."
Kazuki deactivated it and set it down. He looked at the next item.
It was a long, black metal staff. Collapsible. Simple.
He picked it up.
"What about this?"
Renji's eyes lit up slightly. "The Fulcrum Staff. Now we're talking."
"What does it do?"
"Nothing," Renji said. "That's the beauty of it. It's made of a hyper-dense alloy harvested from a collapsed star in the 2090s. It is virtually indestructible. It absorbs kinetic energy."
Renji walked over and grabbed the other end of the staff.
"Hit me."
"What?"
"Try to pull it away from me. Use your speed."
Kazuki hesitated, then engaged the suit.
[VELOCITY CORE: 10%.]
He yanked the staff.
Normally, Renji should have flown across the room.
But the staff didn't move. It absorbed the jerk. Renji didn't even wobble.
"See?" Renji smiled. "It eats the momentum. But here is the trick..."
Renji tapped a button on the side of the staff.
"Release."
BOOM.
The staff released all the stored energy at once.
Kazuki was blasted backward. He flew ten feet and landed on a pile of gym mats.
"Ow..." Kazuki groaned.
Renji spun the staff in his hand, a blur of black metal.
"Defense. Offense. Reach. And best of all... it doesn't run out of ammo. It's a weapon for a thinker, not a butcher."
Renji threw the staff to Kazuki. Kazuki caught it, feeling the weight. It felt... right. It felt like an extension of his arm.
"I like it," Kazuki said, collapsing the staff until it was the size of a baton and clipping it to his belt.
"Good," Renji said. "Because you're going to need it tonight."
"Tonight?" Kazuki asked. "I thought we were hiding."
Renji walked to a large holographic map on the wall. He pointed to a blinking red dot in the industrial district.
"Baron Ryx—The Silencer—made a mistake. When he hit you with that sonic blast, he left a unique vibrational signature on your suit. Aeva tracked the decay rate."
Renji turned to face them, his expression grim.
"We know where he sleeps. We aren't hiding, Kazuki. We're counter-attacking."
"But... he's Tier 3," Kazuki swallowed hard. "He almost killed me in five seconds."
"That's because you were reacting," Renji said, loading a fresh magazine into his rifle. "Tonight, we dictate the terms. We hit him fast, we hit him hard, and we put him in a Time-Lock Cage before he can tap those tuning forks."
Renji looked at Kazuki.
"You wanted to be a hero? Heroes don't wait for the bad guy to knock on the door. Gear up."
Aeva handed Kazuki a new upgrade for his suit—a helmet with a sleek, polarized visor.
"Put this on," she said softly. "It has sonic dampeners. The Silencer won't be able to scramble your ears again."
Kazuki put the helmet on. The HUD (Heads Up Display) flared to life, glowing amber.
[SYSTEM: OPTIMAL. WEAPON: FULCRUM STAFF LINKED. READY.]
He looked at his reflection in the metal wall.
He didn't look like a student anymore.
Silver armor. Black helmet. Glowing blue veins. A staff on his hip.
He looked like a weapon.
"Let's go," Renji commanded.
[To Be Continued…]