"David! There you are!"

David had connected the earplugs that Robert had given him to his HUD, and it had come with the wonderful setting of making anything that was as loud, or louder than a gunshot just not come through at all, while still letting people's voices reach him.

He held up his hand and waved, smiling at her as he reached into his mum's EMT Jacket. He hadn't been able to figure out how to get the Lexington back out so far, but he'd run out of time to figure it out, so instead of thinking super hard about it, he fell back into his surefire way of working the Sandevistan; completely fucking winging it.

Stuffing his hand into the pocket and imagining himself pulling the Lexington out, he responded to Becca. "Hey there. I'm not late, am I?"

Becca looked up at him and shook her head, a smile on her face. "Nah, it's only what, 5:03? I'm sure Robert kept you back, trying to sell you something or some shit like that?"

A smile formed on David's face as pulled his hand out of his jacket pocket, a new weight in his hand telling him that he'd succeeded in bringing the Lexington back out of wherever the fuck it had been. But he could celebrate that later.

"Nah, he was actually really helpful. Let me borrow these earplugs to keep your monster of a shotgun from ripping my eardrums apart."

Becca let out a bark of laughter, hefting her modified Carnage onto her shoulders. "Yea, this baby is a bit of a beast! Took me almost 6 months to klepp all the extra parts needed to supercharge the base, but trust me, it's definitely worth it!"

She then turned away from him, pulling the shotgun off her shoulders and placing it down on the ground next to a duffel bag, which she zipped open, giving David a view of what was practically an armoury.

Letting out a whistle at the sight, David looked at all the different types of guns, each one spray-painted green and pink, just like Becca's skin. "That's a shitload of firepower you got there, choom. What's with the arsenal?"

Becca turned her head towards him, a feral smirk on her face. "I thought that it was best to get you acquainted with all the different types of Iron. I know Maine wants you to at least have a pistol on you, but you never know! Maybe you're a rifle person at heart, or have a dormant love for SMGs!"

David couldn't fault her on the logic, actually. It was probably best that he give as many different kinds of guns a try, especially if he was going to have to put perk points into a specific kind of weapon.

Giving her a smile, he allowed her to move past him again, plopping the duffel bag onto the bench next to the shooting range cubicle she'd been using a second ago. Dragging a stool over with her foot, she hopped on top of it and grunted, pulling out the biggest gun in the bag.

"Is that an actual fuck'n LMG?!"

The smirk Becca gave him as she placed the gun on the counter was feral. "Hell fucking yea it is! You already saw Guts, my shotgun, and now you've met Gore! He's a modified M2067 DEFENDER model. Added all the modifications myself!"

David stared at the behemoth of a weapon on the bench in front of him with a bit of trepidation. "Uh, so do I really have to try and fire that?"

Becca cocked her head to the side, looking slightly confused. "I mean, would you rather shoot the biggest gun now, or after your arms are all shaky from the smaller ones? Might as well get it out of your way now! I can already tell you don't vibe with the heavy artillery, but you should know what it's like either way."

Nodding, David put the Lexington that Maine had given him down on the countertop beside the DEFENDER, and hefted the gun up into his arms with a grunt of exertion. "Holy shit, this thing is fucking heavy!"

Becca just laughed. "Yea, the fuckers who named 'em were lying when they called them 'light' machine guns. I can't even properly carry that shit yet, although I am looking into some chrome for my arms that might fix that."

As his muscle strained to hold the giant LMG, David let out a breathy laugh. "I don't think I'm gonna be able to get out more than a few shots from this motherfucker."

Becca just shrugged. "Hey, if it ain't your gun it ain't your gun. Just do as much as you're able!"

David could feel the burn in his muscles as he lifted the DEFENDER off the countertop, bringing the sight to his eyes. "Alright, drop the targets, please!"

"Gotcha!"

As a sheet of metal moved into position in front of him, David tried his best to put the sight on the middle dot and pulled the trigger when he thought he had it.

THUD

David coughed as the LMG kicked back into his shoulder and chest area, driving the air out of his lungs. Not only that but there was also the fact that he still heard something from that shot. Had the sound vibrations literally reached him through his body?

David made sure to put the DEFENDER down properly, not wanting to just drop one of Becca's precious guns, before falling onto his ass, sucking in deep breaths. "Jesus. Fucking. Christ. That kicked like a bitch."

He was met with laughter from Becca, who was moving to put 'Gore' back into the duffel bag she'd brought. "Don't worry about that, choom. Knew it wasn't going to be your thing. Have you seen your arms?"

David just chuckled at that, coughing slightly as he did, knowing she was right. "Ouch, hurts more than the gun did, choom. You wound me."

Becca's laughter was nice. Had a bit of a feral tinge to it, but David couldn't say he disliked that. He eventually got back to his feet, and saw that in the time he was recovering, Becca had already set the rest of the much smaller guns out for him.

There was the Lexington that Maine had given him, a Lexington that was clearly Becca's, due to the paint job, as well as some other types of guns that he couldn't remember the names for.

His arms had finally stopped shaking by then, so he stepped back up to the countertop and grabbed the Lexington. "Alright, I think I'm ready to start with the rest."

Becca just flashed him a smile, picking up her own Lexington. "Nova! Now, let me show you how you're supposed to hold these. But just by the way, once you've got that down pat you can kinda change that however you need, though."

David hummed, smiling as he tried his best to copy how she was holding her pistol. "Let's just give this a shot first before I go changing anything."

[+1 Annihilation]

[+1 Handguns]

[+1 Handguns]

[+1 Handguns | +1 Perk Point]

[+1 Assault]

[+1 Assault]

David smiled at the notifications as he put down the last gun Becca had for him to try, a DS1 Pulsar she had named Spray n' Pray. His shoulder was still a little sore from Gore's kickback, and his arms felt a little numb, as did his hands, but altogether, this had been a worthwhile experience.

"Alright alright alright! That one was a… I'll be generous and give you a 4 outta 10. But I guess you're all done now, choom. So, whaddya think of my weapons?"

David looked over at Becca, who after showing him the basic way to shoot each gun, had sat behind him grading his shooting with each. He knew he was unlikely to have the greatest accuracy, seeing as he'd never fired a gun before today, but the fact that his average score was a 5/10 kinda sucked.

The weapon he'd been the best at was the revolver. There was just something right about the way they sat in his hands, and how they fired. As he looked at the green and pink DR5 Nova that Becca had tested him with, an idea sparked in his head.

'Shit, could I fire a revolver faster with the Sandevistan?'

He turned to Becca, an excited grin on his face. "Actually, before we finish up, can I try something with the revolver?"

Becca matched his grin, nodding her head towards the counter. "Go for it, choom! Looks like you've got a Nova idea banging around in that brain box of yours."

David hopped back in between the walls of the shooting range cubicle and picked up the revolver. He clicked open the cylinder to make sure it was still loaded and reloaded the two empty chambers with some of the ammo Becca had stashed in her duffel bag as she'd shown him how to.

He pushed the button on the cubicle wall to let down the target and let his Sandevistan activate, the world going green around him. He pulled the trigger for the revolver and marvelled at how slow the kick of the gun felt, and how easy it was to overpower it while he was boosted by the Sandevistan.

He manually pulled the hammer back as quick as he could and fired again, and he realised that he'd gotten another shot off before the first one had even hit its target. He repeated this until the revolver was empty, and there were 6 new holes in the targets sitting in the inner circle.

As the final bullet shot through the target and dug into the wall behind it, he let his Sandevistan deactivate, and the world returned to regular speed. There was silence for a second before he put the revolver down and turned towards Becca, spotting the incredibly intimidating smile that was plastered all over her face.

"Holy fuck'n shit, choom. That was the coolest thing I've seen all week!"

David felt a grin split open on his own face, and he held his fist out towards her. "I fucking know! I had a feeling that it might work but the fact that it worked so well is Nova!"

She pounded her fist into his outstretched one, bringing it back towards herself and letting out an explosion noise. "I knew it. I knew that you'd be good fun, Davey. Glad Maine didn't zero you for klepping his Sandy."

They worked together to pack up Becca's guns and were back in the regular shopfront area of the store before he knew it. He'd put the Lexington that Maine had given him back into wherever the fuck the Sandevistan had taken it again and was about to walk out of the shop before Becca stopped him.

"Hold it, choom. You really think I'm gonna let you walk outta here after a show like that and not put a revolver of your own in your hands?"

David just blinked at her, before realising what she was saying. "Oh, no, you don't gotta do that. I can probably grab one after my next job's payment goes through."

Becca didn't seem to be having any of it though, shaking her head. "Nope! After what you just did, I'm getting you a proper weapon, not some basic corpo peashooter that won't work with the Sandy like my DR5 did!"

She turned to Robert, who had apparently just been watching them argue for a sec, pointing at the man. "Yo! Rob! How much for a fucking Overture? I don't care if it's a second-hand buy or some shit, just need a sturdy gun."

Robert looked between the two of them for a second, before turning around and grabbing a small gun case, which David could tell was just big enough for a proper revolver. "You're lucky, kiddos. Got this baby off an ex-NCPD officer just the other week."

Robert opened the case, showing a pure black revolver. "Unmodded, but that just means it's a blank slate for whatever you need it to do. I'll part with it for 2.5k eddies, and that's already a bargain."

David coughed at the price and was about to deny it when he saw Becca's eyes light up blue, Roberts following a second later. "Did… did you just?"

"Buy a dope ass fucking gun for you so you can wreck shop when given the chance? Fuck yea I did. I can see it now, you running around at the speed of sound, popping Scav heads before they even know you're there…"

David felt slightly worried at the almost… dreamy look on her face as she said that, but as Robert handed him the gun case, he couldn't really feel anything but gratitude. "Fuck, thank you so much, choom. I promise to get you back for this."

Becca just grinned, winking at him as she bumped his thigh with her hip. "And I'm sure you will, Davey, just don't get too hung up about it. My loans are long-term stuff, so just pay me back as you can."

David nodded, his cheeks going slightly red as a grin jumped on his face. "Sounds good, choom."