Cloud Cent Chronicles: Part 3 Chapter 3

 

Getting Armed

    “This is a truly stupid idea, Shadow.” Sun complained as he put his helmet back on.

    “Do you have anything better? I’d love to hear it.”

    “Let’s just go.”

    Shadow and Sun walked into the mod shop, uniforms on. With the external modifier, any mod type should work, so Shadow had his pick of the punch. He’d decided that the arm store would have the most useful mods for him. 

    “Sergeants! Welcome to our store!” The woman behind the counter shouted with more enthusiasm than Shadow had shown for any customer. “How can I help you?”

    Sun stood there for a moment until Shadow nudged him with his elbow. “Oh, uh. I am general 071306. On behalf of the Sergeants, we need to procure some of your materials for, uh, inspection.”

    “What? Inspection? What for? There hasn’t been a single complaint against my store! Who is your superior? I'd like to have a word with them!” All the hospitality the woman had shown for the two Sergeants completely disappeared. “Do you have any idea how this is going to hurt my business!? Now answer me, who is your superior?”

    Sun answered, “My superior is the leader, ma’am.” The color drained from the woman’s face. “Now, are you going to let us go about our business, or do I need to call in backup?”

    “Fine, but the Sergeant's office is going to be hearing from me. Treating an inner area business owner like this. Disgraceful. You should be ashamed.”

    “Oh yeah, very ashamed. I don’t know how I’ll go on. Now, general, let’s get on with it.” Shadow said. The woman disappeared into a back room. Once she was gone, Shadow started looking around. 

    Okay, let’s see what we’re working with. Muscular mods? I guess I could try to intimidate the prison guards with fake huge muscles, but something tells me that they would still just shoot me. Pigment changers? Don’t think that would really help me. Oh, there’s an amouraran chip here. Let’s see...oh. Sexy cat costume. Of course. Come one, isn’t there anything useful in this store! These are all just vanity mods! What kind of mod shop doesn’t offer useful mods!? 

    Wait...what’s this? Shadow checked behind the counter to see if the shopkeep had any mods tucked away for premium customers. That’s where Shadow kept his mods that weren’t ready for sale, so he figured it was worth a shot. Spider-silk? What’s that? I’ve never heard of a mod like this. Well, nothing else in this store is useful. Let’s take this...might as well take the muscular mod too. Couldn’t hurt.

    “Alright general, I think we have what we came for. Let’s go.”

    “Good. Let’s get on with it already.”

    Shadow and Sun left the shop and immediately dashed out of the alley. They could hear the shouts of the woman who had clearly just gotten off the phone with the Sergeant’s headquarters. Once they hit the main road, they walked to a different alley across the way. 

    “Alright, there are no shops here, we should be safe.” Sun said, “What kind of mod did you get? It better be good, she and probably every store owner in the inner area probably know that we’re not Sergeants.”

    “That store was useless! How they charge those prices for those pointless vanity mods is beyond me. Seriously, that business is awful!”

    “Shadow, focus. What’d you get?”

    Shadow took the Spider-silk mod out of his pocket. “I’m not exactly sure. It’s called Spider-silk. I’ve never heard of it. I figured this has a better shot at being useful than anything else in the store.”

    “There’s no one around. Test it out.”

    Shadow took his amouranth mod out of the external modifier and replaced it with the Spider-silk mod. Then, he waited.

    “Well, do you feel any different? What’s it doing?” Shadow tightened his eyes then released them. He still felt nothing. 

    “I...have no idea.”

    “Is the mod busted? Did you take an unfinished mod?”

    “No, I don’t think so. The case is on it. You only put the case on once the mod is finished.”

    “So what? Is the mod just busted? Did we just out ourselves as fake Sergeants for nothing!?” Sun’s fists tightened. “We could have used these disguises to release the articles, but no, you had to go and waste the best disguises we had! Do you know how hard it was for me to get a general’s uniform!? I’ve been holding onto this thing for months Shadow! Months! This was our one shot, and you just blew it!”

    Sun pulled his arm back to hit Shadow. Shadow moved his arms up to protect himself, closing his eyes tight, preparing for the impact. Sun’s fist collided with Shadow’s arm. Shadow opened his eyes and looked at Sun’s fist connected with his arms.

    “Huh.” Shadow said, astonished.

    “Huh!? Huh what Shadow!?” Sun said, still pissed.

    “I didn’t feel anything.”

    “Oh, now you’re really pissing me off.”
    “No, really! I really didn't feel anything! And look, there’s no mark on my arm from your punch!”

    “Oh…”

    “It must have been the Spider-silk! Hit me again!”

    Sun reeled back and punched Shadow’s arm with all his might.

    “Well?”

    “Nothing! This is amazing!” Seriously, this is incredible. The strongest mod on the market is the keflen guard, but that’s nothing like this! That just makes a layer of protection around you, but you can still feel what hits you. It’ll save your life if someone blasts you, but you won’t be able to just walk it off. I’ve worked on some keflen chips before. I tested them on myself. When I got hit with it on, I still took that hit. This...it’s like the Spider-silk just absorbs the punch’s energy.

    “Okay okay,” Shadow sputtered out, still in disbelief, “try hitting me in the stomach. Let’s see how wide the effect is.”

    “Alright, ready?” Sun replied, readying his punch.

    “Yeah. Do it!” Shadow braced himself. Sun let his punch fly into Shadow’s gut. Shadow let out the breath he was holding and fell to the ground, trying to get that breath back.

    “Didn’t work, huh?”

    “Wha-wha. Hah...hah… what do- you think?” Shadow meant to sound angry, but really, he just sounded pathetic, like a man who had just been punched in the gut.

    “Hm. Well this is still good. If you can block the Sergeants’ shots with your arms, you should be fine. Sergeants usually aim for the head and upper body, so it shouldn’t be too hard. Of course, you’ll also have to lead the way into the prison.” Sun reached out his hand to Shadow, who grabbed it and pulled himself up.

    If I’m right and the Spider-silk absorbs energy, then the energy has to go somewhere eventually. It needs to be released or else the mod will overflow. I wonder…

    “Sun, I want to test one more thing. Stand still and brace yourself.”

    “Okay?” Sun got into position.

    “Ready?”

    “Yeah.”

    “Alright.” Shadow took a deep breath and pointed his arm at Sun, focusing on his chest. The mod should be linked to my brain, just like blaster mods. So all I should have to do is think about what I want to do. Okay…

    A low powered blast shot out of Shadow’s fist and into Sun’s chest, knocking him over.

    “Ow…” Sun moaned. “What was that?”

    “The energy the mod absorbs has to be released. Did that hurt?”

    “Not really. It was pretty strong though.” Shadow looked at the external modifier. The display showed a bar. That bar decreased slightly when Shadow blasted Sun.

    “Okay, I figured it out.” Shadow said. “You can see how much energy the mod’s absorbed in this bar. I’m assuming that if the bar fills up all the way, the mod will stop working or force a release of the energy.”

    “So it’s like an ammo meter?”

    “Kinda, yeah, but I can control how much ‘ammo’ is used. The more energy you release, the stronger the blast. I only used a tiny bit to hit you with.”

    “Okay, so we should probably fill the bar a decent bit before heading into the prison.”

    “Yeah. Let’s get to it.”