Note: I don't own anything
Chapter 1.3: {A Small Mercy}
There was a dim flash of blue light and a weird *bang* sound. It was at least several times quieter and sounded like a mix between a gunshot and the sound of a working Tesla coil. For about half a second, maybe less, I could see the glowing projectile in the distance. The cylinder didn't spin, but one of six lights on its sides went out. I didn't even feel making that shot.
'Neat, no recoil.'
"So, it fires a projectile that is very likely to be slower than a bullet. I'm interested in what kind of damage it does, but first, let's see how fast it can shoot and how it reloads."
It turns out that because there was no recoil I could shoot as fast as I could pull the trigger. I pulled the trigger seven times before I heard a *click* sound. All lights on the cylinder's sides were out, and I could feel how the gun started to absorb an insignificant amount of my energy on its own. A second later the lights were back and the gun stopped absorbing the energy, which probably meant that the reload was over.
"With no recoil and no distractions I can pull the trigger about four times a second."
'Time to see how much damage it does.'
I aimed at the window of the bridge platform and pulled the trigger, then moved the gun a bit to the side and took another shot. After repeating that six times more I jumped on top of the bridge. I could see from the deck that I made eight small holes in the window, but it didn't shatter. It could mean one of two things, either it was a very sturdy window, or the projectiles melted the glass. Now I was examining the top of the bridge to see if the projectiles stopped at first contact, or pierced through until something sturdy enough stopped them. It took me about twenty seconds to find all eight holes. All of them looked exactly the same, perfectly round and with barely visible scorch marks.
"We will have to find a sturdier target later to see if there is any impact when the projectile hits. Anyway, that seems a little too deadly for a gun with such a name."
'Well, a quick death is a small mercy.'
"Ugh, now both my gun and the voice in my head are mocking me. Great! Change of subject: let's shoot some cans."
I wondered if shooting the cans would vaporise their contents, and it probably did, partially, but not to the expected result. The cans reacted exactly as they would to a normal bullet, projectiles created two holes and the soda inside exploded through them, moving the cans randomly on the ground. This wasn't what was supposed to happen if the liquid inside them was instantly vaporised. They were supposed to explode because of the significant portion of the liquid instantly turning into gas and pushing the surrounding liquid in all directions. It's almost like the projectile was made to be less deadly by screwing with the laws of physics.
'You were right, so far this thing doesn't seem very powerful. Seems barely more useful than a regular gun.'
"Yeah, I sure hope it can do something more impressive than bending the laws of physics to make my attacks less dangerous."
I pulled at its soul through the link while aiming at another can of soda and demanded a demonstration of its power. I didn't even pull the trigger this time, the gun fired on its own. The sound was different, it was more like a quiet electrical snap. The projectile hit a can of soda I was aiming at, not moving it even a bit, and half a second later the can exploded, the soda inside it going in all directions, then raining down on the deck. It was like that projectile filled the can with several packs of mentos.
.
.
.
"What the fuck just happened?"
'I... have no idea, but making targets explode doesn't sound very merciful to me, unless you want to kill them faster or something. Well, at least it finally showed us something worthy of its Fullbring status. Try shooting something else now.'
I aimed at the bridge window that I shot earlier and pulled at the gun's soul again. Another shot was fired without pulling the trigger, and when the projectile hit the window, it instantly shattered into glass powder. I checked the top of the bridge, but there were no new holes or any other damage. Only the window was affected. I shot another window, this time the one that didn't have any holes, and the same thing happened, only with a slight delay. Then I shot the deck, a bit further away from me, just in case that it exploded or something. Nothing happened. I walked a bit closer to the part of the deck that I shot, and when I was about a few steps away from it my leg started sinking into the metal floor. I immediately pulled my leg out and jumped away. I shot another window on the bridge just to make sure that the effect wasn't random. The same thing happened as the last time, a glass window turned into powder after a slight delay.
Slowly, I walked closer to the part of the deck where my leg started sinking. I touched it with the tip of my shoe, and nothing happened. I started putting pressure on it, but again, nothing happened. It felt exactly like the rest of the ship's deck, only it still had my footprint. Whatever that shot did, it looked like it had a time limit. I had three more shots before the reload so I shot another can, just to make absolutely sure that the effects were not random. Half a second later the can exploded just like the first one did. Now that I was sure I shot another part of the deck and started counting seconds, then came a bit closer and stomped on what I assumed was the affected area. My leg ripped through the thin metal as if it was made of wet sand. I pulled it out and started to carefully put pressure on another part of the affected area, my leg slowly stretching the metal under it. Then, about eight seconds after my last shot, the affected area became just as firm and sturdy as it was before.
"I think I figured it out, and even if it doesn't work on living things, its still an amazing ability."
'So, what kind of ability is it?'
"It makes things weaker."
'Uuh, what?'
"Whatever is hit by the projectile, it becomes weaker. I'm not sure if it just becomes weaker all around, or if only one specific characteristic is affected, but that's exactly what it does. The deck of this ship is pretty thin, but its made of metal, so it can easily support multiple people and some heavy cargo. After the shot even standing on it in the affected area for more than a second became impossible. If I haven't jumped away the first time then I would've ripped through the deck and ended up on a lower level of the ship. The soda can exploded 'cause it was unable to contain the pressure, like a balloon. We didn't notice how it was inflating 'cause it happened in just half a second. I don't know why the glass window turned to powder though, and I'm not really a scientist anyway, but it reminded me of what happens with prince Roopert's drops when you break the tail. Anyway, that's not important right now. We need to see what the weakening can do to a living target."
Before I got a response I did something stupid, I shot myself in the hand. Immediately the feelings of tiredness and weakness spread from my hand throughout my whole body and I lost consciousness. The last thing I heard in my head was:
'Stop, you id-'
'Wake up!'
I could feel the January night's cold with my whole body. Not the best feeling to wake up to. The left side of my face was in pain, but it was dull, secondary. Not the pain of the hit itself, but the lingering after-pain of consequences. I stood up, slowly. My body felt fine, for the most part. I wasn't weak or tired anymore, but I was still a bit disoriented.
'What the fuck were you thinking?! What if shooting yourself like that make your skin fragile?! The wind would've ripped it all to shreds! Or what If your whole body just collapsed on itself because of its own weight?! You fucking moron! If you do something like that again I'll fucking kill you!'
"Oh, shut up. It worked just fine, didn't it? How long was I out for?"
'About eight seconds.'
I was overjoyed to hear that. This ability probably wouldn't work exactly like that on most Brutes, Noctis Capes, and maybe some Thinkers, but as long as I hit a regular squishy and weak human with that shot then they would be out of the fight at least for eight seconds, or until something woke them up.
"Well, let's see if it ha-"
'Don't you fucking dare to change the subject! Your recklessness and stupidity could've seriously hurt or even killed us! We could've fucking exploded like those soda cans 'cause of the blood pressure!'
"Calm the hell down!"
There was a pause several seconds long. I could feel his rage, and it was directed at me.
"We're still alive, and we're fine. I couldn't test it on anyone else anyway.'
'You could've tested it on animals.' - he said, dismissively
"And what if it was painful?"
'Don't pretend that you really care. I know that you don't, 'cause I don't care about it either. We're not that different.'
"Well, maybe I didn't want the burden of possibly killing or torturing an animal on my soul."
'Ah, so killing a mortally wounded drug dealer is fine and dandy, but animal experimentation is where you draw the line. Got it.'
"That was different. It was mercy."
'It was a choice!'
"..."
'It was a choice. You made it from the very beginning. I was there when it happened, but I didn't stop you 'cause I agreed with you. As I've already said, we're not that different.'
"Ugh, fuck you! There was no way to save him and get what I needed, or at least I thought so at the moment."
'Yes, exactly, and that's why you decided to get everything you wanted out of him before your mercy kill. You put your goals, your own benefit above his life because you didn't really want to save him in the first place. If you cared then you would've planned to save him as your main priority, not to get what you wanted.'
"Fine, you're right! I'm a selfish hypocrite, I admit it, but at least I want to be better, and I'm trying, right here, right now!"
'Well, clearly you fucking failed! You put your own goals above someone else's life, again!'
"And which life is it then?!"
'Mine!'
.
.
.
'I want to live as well, you know?'
I took me a few minutes to analyse his words, to rethink the choices that I already made. Worst of all, I tried to put myself in his shoes. He was a voice with little to no control over the body he was in, and sometimes the one that controlled the body did stupid and reckless things that could kill him. I struggled to find the words to reply to him. He didn't want an apology, I knew that for sure because he was made of me. Finally, I spoke.
"Alright, I got it. Next time I will ask you before doing something possibly dangerous and deadly. Maybe together we will find a better way, or something..."
'Okay, good, glad that we figured this out. Now, let's see what else this gun can do.~'
The rage that I felt from him disappeared as if it never was even there and his voice sounded cheerful in my head. It shocked me so much that I stood for several seconds with my mouth open.
"Wait, that's it? You won't tell me to give you a promise or anything like that?"
'No, I'll just do my best to save you and then kick your ass. Your promise isn't worth anything anyway.~"
"..."
I didn't know how to react to that, so I did as I was told. I aimed at one of the cans pulled at the soul of the gun. The gun didn't release another type of special projectile, it didn't start draining the energy from me, it didn't do anything. In my disappointment, I started lowering the gun, and that's when I noticed something strange. It was resisting. The gun was weakly pushing my hand back up, guiding it into its previous position so that I would hit the can when I fired. I forced myself to aim slightly to the side, pulled the trigger and hit the can anyway. A clean hole right through the centre.
'Aim correction and homing projectiles as parts of one ability? This is great!'
"Uh, yeah, aimbot power is pretty cool."
'Oh, just relax already.'
"Okay, okay. Sorry, I'm just... still a bit shocked."
A few seconds of silence later my head was clear enough to think and analyse this power. Clearly, it designated the soda can as the target. Even now I could feel the gun trying to correct my aim. But was it selected as a target because I was looking at it, or because I was aiming the gun at it? How good the aim correction and homing projectiles were? Would they still hit if I shot in the opposite direction from the target? Would this power work if I close my eyes or if I turned my body in another direction? Would the target selection work if I close my eyes or turn my body away? How many targets could I select? I started testing things out.
First, I closed my eyes and let the gun guide my hand. I could actually feel where the can was relative to me. I pulled the trigger and opened my eyes. It was a clear hit. I made another blind shot, this time resisting the guidance of the gun a bit. Another clear hit. It was now more a hole than a can. I pulled at the gun and dismissed the target. Then, I aimed the gun at one can and turned my head to look at another one. Only the can I was looking at was selected as the target, I could feel it, and I could feel the gun guiding my hand again. I turned away, closed my eyes and I could still feel where the target was. I aimed my gun at the sky and fired, then turned around and checked the target. No hit. I waited for about a minute, and there was still no hit. I overestimated the effectiveness of homing projectiles. I turned around, closed my eyes and let the gun guide my hand, only after I started cooperating it began correcting the rest of my posture as well. When it was done my eyes were still closed and my body was still facing away from the target. Another blind shot and another clear hit. I dismissed the target and started selecting new ones, one after the other. Eight targets was the limit. For aim correction to work I had to pick which one I wanted to hit. I dismissed the targets with my eyes closed and tried to select them again through the memory about their positions. I didn't work. Target designation was line-of-sight only.
"Okay, I think I figured out most of the rules and limits for the aimbot."
I pulled at the gun's soul again to check if it had another ability, but got nothing.
"And I guess that that was its last ability"
'So, wanna play with the gun some more?'
"Let's just pop the remaining cans with the weak shots and go home. I feel tired, emotionally."
Author's Note:
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