Avy's Weapon Training v3.0 [priv/jet]

So Avery Frost had found herself in this position once again. It hadn't even been a while since she changed her guns to have a second form and now she was thinking of upgrading them again to increase the firepower and piercing ability of her bullets as well as the heat intensity of her flamethrower flames. This would be harder than normal considering she's taking into consideration two weapons at a time, upgrading them without jeopardizing the vital parts and making sure they don't clash against each other.

The blonde sat by her desk, looking at the blueprint outline of her weapon. Even at its current level, Avery was looking for more improvements. She was satisfied yes, but there's always room for more features and options, which she was currently considering. What else did her guns lack that would be useful in and out of combat?

Now that she thought of it, it doesn't have to always be useful in combat. For instance she had so much trouble sparring against other students because she couldn't hold back the intensity of her guns. In the end, they just dropped like flies without even knowing the full potential of her weapon. The same thing went for her flamethrower. Even those deathstalkers were no match for them.

Thus she figured she'd add a limiter. Something to adjust the firepower perhaps. Her flamethrower already had that feature by the use of trigger-sensitivity so that at least made it easier. Now what else could she add? Gosh, all this knowledge over tinkering things and she was limited with her own creativity. With a shrug, Avery figured she'd just add other stuff later on just like what she'd been doing for so long. For now, she'd focus on strengthening them and adding a limiter.

The girl spent several hours sitting on her desk, creating a 3D visualization blueprint of her new weapons with new parts. Yeah. It was definitely harder than she thought with barely any space left to squeeze in the additional features without having to minimize some. However, that's the mentality of mediocre people. Not only was she from a Frost lineage who excelled in building weapons, she herself knew she would always figure something out. That's what differed her from the rest of mediocrity - she never limited herself with limitations.

And thus, spending almost the whole day in front of her laptop, Avery gave a small smile as the final piece of the puzzle clicked in. So that's what she needed to do eh? It wouldn't a walk in the park, that's for certain. But at least it's possible. Before long, she looked at the window and realized it was late. Crap. Looks like she would just have to continue her plans for the next day. After all, some parts would have to be ordered first. While some were exclusively available from her family's company.

[485/1750 words]

That morning, after doing her routine, the first thing Avery did was check if the exclusive parts she ordered all the way from Atlas arrived and was pleased to see they did. Nothing less from a company managed by perfectionists, eh. After opening the box, she realized how delicate the parts were and though she was confident she could handle them with care, she didn't want to risk destroying the whole weapon with a single mistake. Going to a veteran blacksmith could work but she didn't trust them enough to let them handle her guns. Not to mention they wouldn't be any better than her anyway. A person with polarity semblance would be handy in these situations. And she had just the right person in mind.

Avery took her phone and quickly typed in a message.

[Hey noob, meet me at this address. 1:00PM sharp.]

She attached the coordinates to the location of a coffee shop in the middle of Bellmuse then sent the text. Now then, onto the next issue. Avery had three more hours to spend before meeting up with him so that was enough time to gather the remaining parts she needed. Moving to the basement storage with a black bag in hand, she looked at the metallic parts sorted in transparent drawers and cabinets. It made it easier for her to gather the things she needed, as well as take note of the ones that needed to be replaced. In due time, she had everything in hand and all that's left was to put everything in place.

True to her word, Avery arrived ten minutes early in their destination dressed in a casual navy-blue v-neck sweater, jeans and boots. She chose a table by the corner with a couch able to sit six people; she needed all the space to lay out the parts after all. After removing her coat, she settled on the couch and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. Since she had the time to spare, Avery ordered a cup of macchiato while waiting for the guy. She took out a pocket book, flipped to the page she left off and read to spend the time.

[850/1750 words]

Jet was asleep. It was morning; there were no classes, so it was to be expected. Last night, he had snucked into the music room and played the piano in there for most of the night. He thought he had gotten good at sneaking in his own room silently with how many times he did that. The lock on the window by his bed is metallic so he can easily open it and slip in silently. At least he hoped he was really silent, he wouldn’t put it past Scarlett to be too shy to tell him that he keeps waking her up. He should ask to be sure. So we have Jet, sleeping in and obviously not hearing his scroll notice telling him he got a message.

Still, it was always a bit hard to sleep when the sun was shining through his window straight into his face. Generally, it meant it was about 11:00-11:30. Groggily, he got up and dragged his feet to go and get a quick shower to wake him up, not seeing the green flashing light on his scroll. The shower helped, but mornings were never his thing. Well it’s not exactly mornings, more like he was always slow to wake up.

Getting back to his bed, chewing a slice of cheese he picked up from the mini-fridge, he finally noticed the message he got. He frowned a bit, he didn’t expect a message from her. He wondered what that was about. He recognised the address though; it was a coffee shop that sold these awesome almond croissants that he could never get enough of. That and decent coffee too.

Shrugging, he continued with his morning routine lazily before something finally clicked in his head. “Waiiiiiit… What time is it?” Looking at the electronic clock by his bed, a toothbrush in his mouth, he almost spit it all out when he realised it was 12:15 already. “Awww damn!” Now perfectly awake, he finished preparing in record time and was mounting his bike by 12:24 and hoped to catch the 12:30 Bullhead off of Syne. That would get him to Bellmuse by 12:50 at the latest and at the coffee shop right on time if he cut corners a bit round. “Shit, if I’m late she’ll kick me to oblivion, I can already feel it!”

He arrived literally on the minute. Parking the bike, he threw his arms in the air in celebration then composed himself, not wanting to look like he actually rushed all the way. Once inside, he spotted Avery in a corner booth with a large table. He waved at her when she noticed him before pointing to the counter, indicating he was going to get himself something. He took two of the almond croissant and one simple black coffee and made his way to the girl waiting on him.

“Hello Avery! I was a bit surprised by your message, pleasantly so.” Taking a sip of his coffee, he smiled at the blonde woman in front of him. “So! Did you need something from me or did you actually just want to hang out?”

The moment the clock stroke 1:00, she looked up from her book in time to hear the chime of the shop door as the man in his usual sunglasses waved at her. She sighed and continued reading instead. Only when he made his way to the couch did she close her book and place it to the side. She spared a glance at the almond croissant he ordered. Hm. That did look nice. However she was in no mood to eat a the moment with a task in hand. At his greeting and question, Avery merely scoffed.

"Oh please. Do you really think I'd hang out with you?" She rolled her eyes. But then realized it meant the other option which was worse. "Additionally! I don't need you for anything. I just thought you ought to make yourself useful for once and do something productive with your life," she stated ever so calmly.

From her bag she took out her tablet and opened the file to the blueprint of her weapon. Normally she wouldn't have shown it to anyone else but if he was someone Scarlett trusted, she'd give him the benefit of the doubt. After accessing the file, she handed the scroll to him. It would show an interactive 3D visuals of the weapon design to every last detail along with the specs listed on the side.

"I'm in the middle of upgrading my weapon but they're already powerful enough that the new parts to be used need delicate handling. It can't be done by hand and I'd need one of those special machinery to do so. On the other hand, you have a polarity semblance. I'm sure you already know where I'm going with this." Avery tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear and took a sip of her coffee. "In addition, the weapon summary and specs are all in there. You're a tech specialist so if you have further suggestions, I'd hear it."

Avery zipped open the black bag beside her and took out her usual manila paper and laid it out on the table. She placed her pair of golden guns in the middle of the paper and proceeded to take out the new parts to be used. The delicate ones were kept in a transparent box which she placed to the side.

[1248/1750 words]

Weapon Specs:

Jet scoffed a bit at the rapid dismissal Avery made after he implied she might want to hand out. It’s not a reaction that surprised him, it was very much in-character for her to say something like that. From what he knows of her at the very least. “All right, if you say so.” Jet was smiling. He felt like teasing her a bit but refrained from doing more than what he already did. She wanted his help on something and he wasn’t going to make her angry just for his amusement, she was pretty scary when angry… Or angrier than usual? Jet still wasn’t sure how to interpret her usual demeanor and the way she interacted with him and even Scarlett to a certain extent. He couldn’t tell if she was constantly angry, nervous, insecure or if she was actually super happy and that she just didn’t know any other way to express herself.

Avery then proceeded to hand him her tablet with a 3D representation of her weapons. When she mentioned his power being polarity, he was about to correct her on it after the sip of coffee he was taking at the moment, but before he could, he choked on his burning hot coffee when he saw the weapon’s specs and materials. Coughing a bit and hitting his lungs with his fist, he finally heaved a deep breath. “Holy crap! Where did you get all these materials? Half of this can’t be found on normal markets. You’re either more loaded than I thought or you have pretty good contacts.”

Jet scrolled through the list of pieces and made sure to register where each of them went. He hovered one hand over the weapons to get a feel of the metal pieces inside. He could agree with her already that on the level of power output these two overpowered hand-canons could probably rip apart someone’s arm in one shot. OK maybe some exaggeration… or not, but the fact remained they were powerful. Only issue he could see with them was the number of features they had built in. Three greatly different forms (belt, guns and gauntlet), multiple types of attacks with bullets and flames as well as different modes and enhancements. All in all, Jet was impressed.

“All right, so first of I need to precise that my semblance isn’t polarity. My control over metal isn’t limited to those metals that are affected by magnetism, but it’s weaker in power output than the polarity type semblances, I can’t use it to lift heavy stuff. The advantage I have though is in precise sensory ability, which means I can feel metal by extending my aura. It allows me to feel the inner pieces of a device, their shape, position, etc.” He indicated his hand that was still over the guns. “I wanted to clarify that so you could understand what I’m doing since I will use that particular aspect of my semblance often.”

He brought back his hand and placed the scroll on the table. “Now, on to the matter at hand… How the hell did you cram all those things in such tiny devices?! Seriously, it’s a bit mind-blowing and I got to congratulate you in managing that. I can see from the pieces you brought that you already have something in mind in the immediate for the upgrade so I’m guessing you’re asking my opinion for future enhancement.” Scratching the back of his head, he continued. “I’m pretty tech savvy but nothing ever beats the designer when it comes to understanding a specific weapon so you tell me if I’m wrong somewhere. First of all I can see that the weapon has been optimised to reduce recoil. I’d be calling you stupid if you didn’t when you have full-auto freaking hand-cannons. Actually, I doubt anything can be done to the gun function itself other than add more power, which I feel would be overkill. As for how to do that, only way I’d see to accelerate a round would be to add a magnetic acceleration system to it. Even though it’s… possible with an electronic system to apply the magnetism at the exact nano-second to have an effect on the already speeding bullet, I’m not sure the change would be worth it considering the increase in size the gun would need, both in girth and length of the barrel, it’s not worth it for pistols.”

Taking another sip, Jet continued. “If you’re aiming for another form though I could suggest going for a hyper-range rail-gun since you already have mid and close range down. Would be useful against Nevermores. Considering the already extremely different forms your weapon has, it’s already able to compress and decompress in virtually any form you program it to, so making a rail-gun sniper shouldn’t be too much of a stretch. The electromagnetic pieces would have to be fitted somewhere though which could be problematic to deal with in the other forms, maybe keep them on your waist unless you actually need them? Anyway, rail-guns are slow to shoot but hit much harder than explosion based projectiles. Just an idea.”

Jet’s coffee was cold now, but he didn’t care. Launch him in geek mode and he’s hard to stop. After a bite from the croissant, he finished his observation. “For the gauntlet mode, I don’t think there is much to do there. I’m starting to think you want to fly with these things, but they cover your close combat situation. You got martial arts plus you can use the back recoil to punch harder, can’t do wrong with that. The flame throwers are a nice touch though.”

Pushing the tablet back to Avery he smiled. “They’re really great weapons. Now, what did you plan on doing already with them today?”

Avery raised an eyebrow at his coughing upon seeing the blueprint of her weapons. She decided to stay silent on the matter as she passed him a napkin instead. The girl was actually a little impressed that he recognized all of the parts despite their rarity which meant his knowledge over technology was more vast in comparison to normal blacksmiths.

The blonde leaned back and folded her arms when he started to explain his semblance in depth. Precision and sensory - just what she needed. He was practically a walking tech upgrader. The more he explained about the weapons based on their blueprint alone, the better Avery acknowledged his intelligence. He was the first to realize that her weapon wasn't a mechanical firearm like any other gun and is actually a device with a combination of parts that are a mechanism of their own. He was even quick to figure out her fighting style with the gauntlet form when others would question the purpose of a barrel switch.

"Hmm. Impressive. Though what do you mean tiny? It's an enlarged desert eagle as you can see." Well perhaps it's tiny to him, but the fact that the gauntlet could wrap around her forearm from knuckle to elbow said much about its overall size. But then again, she wasn't exactly the biggest person around.

"As for the third form, I've not made plans for that yet but I'll keep that in mind." While the thought of an electromagnetic projectile launcher was tempting, the fact that it's only advantage is hyper-range made her question its effectivity. She was able to kill two Nevermores alone with just her guns and semblance within just a few weeks of attending Syne. Long range was not needed for that.

Now then, since sunglasses guy was pretty accurate with his explanations, Avery was a little more confident in his ability to tinker with her weapons. Hopefully.

"Onto the matter, the blueprint I showed you is the final design. It's not incorporated in the guns yet as the parts are delicate. The flamethrower form of my weapon utilises gunpowder as its fuel and coupled with the paraphernalia that changes the heating properties of the flames, the weapon overall is akin to a sensitive bomb. One wrong move in changing the parts and it'll blow up. It's something manual upgrading alone can't handle as it needs extreme precision. And that's where you come in. Precision with semblance use is higher than by hand."

Avery opened the transparent box separated in sections containing the sensitive parts. "I simply need you to place the parts together. A simple yet difficult task with a high risk." She tilted her head. "Since you're so confident with the precision and sensory of your semblance, something like this should be a piece of cake."

_______
[1716/1750 words]

Jet devoured his first croissant before feeling the need to explain his statement of the guns being tiny. “Oh, they’re not tiny for pistols, don’t get me wrong! What I mean is the amount of transformation it can do and the quantity of features implemented in it is impressive considering the relative size of the weapons.” Most people would have trouble cramming that many features in two assault rifles let alone two pistols and doing it so they’re structurally still strong. The choice of the metals composing the gun helps too. Titanium is extremely strong but too brittle to handle a lot of frictions from moving parts, while gold is a relatively soft metal that can absorb a lot of kinetic force without breaking. The combination of both works to make a structurally solid and reliable weapon in the same way the different metals of a katana render it both solid and flexible. It’s really good work.

For a weapon to fold and unfold it can’t be one solid piece of metal. Since they’re made of multiple metal pieces fitting very tightly together to get a specific shape, to stay structurally strong they have to limit the amount of moving pieces. Some go to the extreme and get something that can break easily since the mechanism and articulations of the weapon become a weak point in the structure and the more extreme the transformation, the more intricate and fragile the mechanism for it become. One way around that weakness, is to use bigger and stronger materials, resulting in a bigger and bulkier weapon, example a giant Gatling gun being compacted in the form of a relatively small box. That’s the main reason why while weapons usually have different forms, they don’t transform that much. Going from a spear to a sword by simply retracting the shaft, or changing to a rifle using that same shaft as the barrel. In the end, the metal still has to go somewhere. No matter how much you fold a bazooka, it will never fit in your pocket. On the flip side, the more you unfold something small, say a pen, to become a sword, the thinner the metal will be and it will break on the first hit. Averia’s guns, while keeping the same overall size between forms, needs a lot of moving parts to be able to change shape as much as they do. The fact that they remain structurally strong is pretty impressive.

Jet let Avery explain to him what she expected of him exactly. He couldn’t lie; he was pretty excited to be working on this. His semblance was indeed perfect for handling delicate parts and he was somewhat flattered that she thought of him to do this. He didn’t say as much but he thought it very hard.

Smiling, Jet nodded. “Yeah, I can do that no problem. I’ll start and go slow, not only to be careful, but so you can direct me if you want something done a specific way, if you want to tweak something else or, in the case I’m about to make a mistake, have the time to stop me from doing it. I’m confident about my ability and that I can do this without any hitch, but it’s still your weapons and I’m pretty sure you would rather have the control over what is happening. My abilities are at your command!” Using his semblance, the he lifted one of the weapons in the air. He could disassemble them without his hands if he needed to. Looking at the blueprints again and comparing it to what his aura could feel of the weapons, he had a pretty good idea of what went where. Piece by piece, he started removing them and placing them neatly on the table, ready for Avery to direct him if needed.

With a small nod, Avy watched as sunglasses guy proceeded to use semblance to disassemble her weapons piece by piece. Just as she thought, delicate handling by hand can't compare to semblance handling in terms of precision, and so far he's doing a good job at it. It made her think he had done this with other weapons before. Just as she finished her coffee, she stood up and left to the counter; she was confident he'd handle it on his own. Ordering two more cups, she returned and gave one to him while he's busy with the work.

"Ah, be careful with this small blue square. It's akin to a dust crystal in a way that it's highly reactive. It's responsible for converting gunpowder to flames. Of course you know that already. Make sure it's placed perfectly inside the coating," she reminded him as she settled back on the couch.

A few more minutes of watching and she leaned forward to point at a metal piece. "This one over here, a little to the left for like two millimetres or it'll protrude when shifting forms. And for this, hold on. Hmm. You can probably squeeze in one more layer of material. Just one is enough to increase the cooling mechanism exponentially. It's tied to the passive of my semblance after all."

Thereafter, she continued to watch as he put the parts together piece by piece only directing when needed. He was pretty accurate with the job and in no time her gun was placed back together. She picked up the golden gun and smiled a little. The weight barely changed but it's still there, which meant she had to train with them when she got home.

"It's good. Now just do the same thing with the other and we're done here," she said, taking another sip of her coffee. With the other gun, she didn't have to direct much since he already knew what to do and which one to change from the blueprint.  In no time, both guns were fixed. She was pleased with the results. No explosions at least.

"Hmm. Not half bad. Your semblance is handy at least," she shrugged nonchalantly. She wasn't one to praise people often but she only did because she was throughly impressed of his skill.

Clearing the table and placing everything back to the bag, she drank the remaining coffee on her cup and stood up. "Well then. Bye." And walked away. However, when she was near the door, she halted and turned to him. "This doesn't mean I owe you anything. In any case, if you need me something I'll try to lend a hand depending on my mood. Bye now." And Avy left.

[exit]
[2177 / 1750 words]

The actual process of modifying the weapons went pretty nicely. Avery’s directions were few but to the point, making the whole thing quite enjoyable. She knew her stuff since some of the adjustment she requested on the spot were improvements Jet himself missed from the blueprints. Two heads are definitely better than one in this case. They might have some friction between them, Avery being pretty cold in general, but Jet though they worked pretty well together on this occasion. Maybe that would help Avery warm up to him. Hell she even complimented him! And bought him coffee! That was something at least. Definitely better than the frozen solid soda.

The sorta backhanded comment about being available to help him (if she was in the mood as she said) made him smile too. “That’s ok, I wasn’t doing this so you would owe me anything, I was happy to help and will do so again if you need, just ask. See you later!” Jet waved a bit in a silly way as she left.

“Well, that was interesting.” Jet took his time to finish his coffee and the second croissant. Today was looking to be a good day.

[exit]