"Fuckin' hell, that hurt!"
Both Valentine and Tobias heard Yuuki's angry snarl from outside the front door, turning towards the twins as they came through the door with their bike helmets in hand.
"If you got into a fight, Yuuki..." Tobias warned his oldest offspring with a mere glare, but she waved her hand dismissively, bringing with the gesture the scent of her own uniquely tinged blood.
"I was playing with my butterfly knife, cut my hand trying to catch it." She replied as she held up the offending blade as proof. "I'll be fine, it's already started to regen."
"Good, now I have gifts for all three of you." Tobias curtly spun on his heel and used his Telekinesis to pop the clasps open on the gun cases. "Been working on these since Valentine killed our mother."
"This oughta be good..." Yuuki commented as she and Rachael shared a glance before entering the living room with their little brother between them.
"Matched set, grab a box and open it." Tobias smirked as he reached into his suit jacket and withdrew a cigar in a steel tube and his lighter. He'd recently admitted to have picked up the habit from one of his BSAA team members a while back, much to Rize's amusement and Alice's annoyance. He slid it out of the tube, then lit it with the expected cloud of steely grey smoke and the sharp clasp of the zippo snapping closed. "They're all the same."
Yuuki was the first to open a case, immediately covering her mouth with both hands with a sharp gasp.
"Why...?" Rachael leaned over her twin's shoulder to stare at their newest sidearm to join their collections. "Fuck... That's a sexy gun."
"We all get one, you starstruck moron." Valentine popped his case open and withdrew the last gun, already aware of the various metals used in the guns. "Quinque Steel frame, slide and guiderod. Titanium barrel, 24 karat gold accent parts, stainless steel internal springs and components... Q-Bullets already loaded."
"I found an interesting design concept in a Colt knockoff model called the AMT Silverballer. So, after a few days of searching, I revamped the design into all of our guns, so eject the magazine and watch where your feet are." Tobias took a drag from his cigar as he spoke to his daughters, who had more firearm experience than Valentine - he was still learning at the BSAA base under his father's sadomasochistic training regime.
With a glance, they both depressed the magazine release, causing the spring loaded magazine catch to propel the loaded magazine straight to the floor with a slightly unsettling sound of metal sliding against metal, very akin to a blade being unsheathed.
"Springs inside the magwell are compressed when the magazine's loaded, but once the mag release is pressed, it drops the mag itself, without having to do this." Tobias unholstered Silence from his belt and dropped the magazine with a slight flick of his wrist, but then caught it again and slammed it back inside. "Drawback to those guns is it takes a harder hit to lock in the magazine since the springs are resisting."
"We're not exactly weak. You of all people should know that." Yuuki knelt to retrieve hers and Rachael's fallen magazines as she spoke.
"We have human friends, most of whom have a tendency to join us in gunfights rather willingly." Rachael reminded her sister as she slammed her magazine back into her gun, glancing at the three spares sitting inside each of the gun cases. "Like Jake, Sherry, Stella, Natasha..."
"Stella's a cyborg. She'd have less trouble than a squishy human." Yuuki countered, but Tobias chuckled for a moment, earning her attention.
"She's still technically human, Yuuki."
"Technically, yeah..." Yuuki smirked as she collected her new gun into the case and snapped it closed. "But she's not weak, we can all agree on that."
"Agreed." Tobias exhaled a mouthful of smoke with a smirk. "She could give Mishka a good run for her money, I'd pay cash to see the two of them fight each other."
"I'm not sure Hinami or Motoko would like the idea, honestly." Valentine laughed slightly as he collected his own gun, like his sisters were doing.
"Motoko might... You don't know her like I do." Yuuki replied, ruffling Valentine's hair with her free hand, smirking at his immediate reflex to fix it.
"Hey! You're not permitted to be here!"
"I am." Valentine glared at the unfamiliar BSAA technician, flanked by Kuro and Shiro. "You just haven't been given the report or my authorization."
"Look, little girl, I'm sure that whoever gave you that authorization will inform me and my staff, but until then..." The technician began, but Shiro suddenly shoved Valentine's cell phone into his face, having held the line open the whole time.
"Firstly, Valentine is my son." Tobias spoke in an icy calm voice. "Second, I am the one that gave him the permanent authorization to be in the tech facility, he has a project in mind for the T-15 Exosuits currently undergoing upgrades. Provide him with any blueprints or documentation he needs, and leave him to his work. Any issues are to be directly reported to me in person when I come there to bring him home. This evening."
"U-understood, Captain Darkwood." The technician glanced down at the androgynous child smirking rather smugly at him. "Right this way, Valentine..."
Tobias hung up his desk phone with a small smirk, having thought ahead for just that reaction. It was no secret that Valentine was a prodigy when it came to machines, so when Valentine asked to tinker with some of the BSAA tech, he simply laughed and drove him to the facility, already providing him with the necessary details and access he'd need.
"Here's the T-15 blueprints, and this is the specifications." The technician presented Valentine with the documents and rolled paper he needed while a nearby assistant lifted their current prototype T-15 onto the workbench.
"Hmmm..." Valentine unfurled the rolled blueprint and gave it a practiced examination. His father's original design had been only modified once since being adopted by the BSAA, and even that change was minor. It still functioned the same way, deployed to and from the same backpack-style, and it was Quinque Steel. "I'll need video data showing active usage of the Exosuits, doesn't matter if it's training footage or archived combat files."
"I don't have the access for the archived footage, but I can give you the training video we use."
"That's fine, go get it." Valentine was still examining the blueprints. He had a concept in mind already, but needed more reference material. "Kuro, access the archived Titanfall 2 livestream from my sisters' website, specifically the equipment segment. Shiro, scan and archive all these documents, the blueprint, and the training video once he comes back."
Within minutes, the technician returned with the file on a portable storage drive, handing it to Shiro as Valentine continued to stare at the blueprint while holding his thumbnail between his teeth.
"I'll need... two. Maybe three." Valentine was still deep in thought, speaking to himself before suddenly turning to the technician. "Where is my father's T-60f Mobile Ordnance Platform?"
"I believe it's here at this facility. Shall I bring it here, or escort you to it?" The technician knew about the hulking suit of Power Armour, but knew he wasn't tall enough to utilize it.
"Shiro, go with him to scan it, I want a 3-D hologram rendering of it. You." Valentine turned back to the technician. "Escort Shiro, then come back, I have one last task for you."
"Understood, Mr. Valentine." The technician nodded, then left with Shiro following behind him without a word.
"Judging by your words, you have a side project or a similarity between the T-15 Exosuits and your father's T-60f Mobile Ordnance Platform?" Kuro asked as Valentine reached into the thigh pocket of his cargo pants and withdrew a pocket-sized notebook and a pencil.
"It's just for reference right now, but I do think I have something in mind." Valentine started flipping through the pages, stopping at a fresh page. "I just need to do some tests and run some numbers first."
"You want me to wear the T-15?" The technician was rather surprised by the tame request from Valentine, who was still sketching in his little notebook.
"I need to get a better viewing angle, and both Kuro and Shiro aren't tall enough for the T-15, but you are." Valentine replied without looking up. "It's just for a few minutes while I finish my sketch."
"Okay, and that's all you need from me?" The tech asked as he lifted the prototype onto his back and deployed it after locking the shoulder straps in place.
"Turn to the left, hold your arms up like Shiro's doing." Valentine tilted his head towards his white clad android, who was demonstrating the proper position, much like a cartoon cactus. "Try to hold that position, let me know if you're getting tired."
"The suits are designed to assist with this sort of thing, but sure, I'll let you know." The tech nodded, still holding up his arms as directed.
After a few minutes, Valentine asked him to turn a few times, then did a few more specific poses, then gave his final sketch a nod. He finally had his design.
"Alright, you're done. Take the suit off, put it back on the workbench." Valentine closed his notebook with a curt snap, tucking his pencil behind his ear as he let out a sigh. "You can go now, I've got what I needed."
"May I ask what you have in mind?" The technician extracted himself from the armoured suit and lifted it back onto the table.
"About four particular upgrades." Valentine replied. "One of which I'll need to speak to a friend about."
"Of course, well, I'll leave you to it." The tech waved as he left Valentine to his work, the pneumatic door sliding closed behind him before Shiro turned to Valentine and spoke.
"Shall I make the call?"
"No, she's busy right now. I'll talk to Motoko in person the next time I see her." Valentine replied. "Now, let's get to work, one of these ideas I have is pretty straightforward."