"What the hell!?" Motoko pointed at her brother. She had invited him on her latest scav raid, but he said he would only go if he could dress the way he wanted to - which was shirtless. She reluctantly agreed and made sure to hang near him as close as possible to deal with any injuries he received, but.. he didn't. He never got shot. Not once. He would appear, and just stand in front of an angry, terrified well-armed scav and they... just... didn't shoot. Then he punched their heads off.
"No really, what the hell!?" Now she tried to address this in the after action meeting, "You just wandered around shirtless. armored only in pants, and you didn't get shot even once!"
"What's the issue, Motoko?" Ichi asked. She looked and saw that all her chooms were confused.
"The issue is why was Jun shot while in the last mission while wearing armor and not even touched when he took it off in this one. Why?!"
Jun smirked, "If you look preem enough like me, you can intimidate bullets to not leave the gun."
"What?" his sister just stared into nothingness, "That.. that can't be a thing."
"Motoko," Hiromi sighed, "Jun's not exactly wrong. Except instead of bullets, he intimidates the shooters. It gives him several seconds to act. When he was wearing that armor you made him wear, he looked almost like every computer generated enemy that is featured in every single game and training sim. Most people who trained or played games will see him and shoot almost instantly. It only helped when he undid the front of the armor, but that made him look kind of like an elite enemy which only gave him a few extra moments of enemy hesitation."
Motoko stared at her friend.
"I learned about this in basic small group tactics class in school. Armor does let you survive more, but it also makes you far more likely to targeted far quicker than otherwise. Subdermal armor works the best, especially with matched unique tattoos and cyber lacing. If you look preem enough, you can stun the enemy when they see you."
Motoko blinked, "That shouldn't make sense. Okay... okay. What about badass longcoat armor? That's preem, right?"
Hiromi shrugged, "Sure, why not? We can try it."
"Can you make mine with flames patterned on the bottom?" Jun asked, "And maybe holographic flames as well?"
"Preem! I want mine to have bitchin' demons shredding on hellfire guitars!" Rebecca added, all excited at the prospect.
"You know what? Sure. Let's design individualized badass longcoats for everyone," Motoko threw her hands up in exasptoration and brought up a virtual clothing design program.
Absolutely no one got hit during Section 9's next mission.