Chapter Text
“Holy fuck," she mutters, leaning into the full-length mirror. One hand pulls down her lower eyelid, revealing the bright teal of her iris.
Then the cyan of the other iris.
And the entire goddamn house she doesn’t recognize in the reflection.
“Was I kidnapped? Am I hallucinating? Am I in somebody else’s skin - what the fuck is happening?”
She stops, looks down and immediately sets to patting herself down, quickly realising that she doesn’t have pockets.
Or pants.
In fact the only thing she’s wearing is a giant white T-shirt that goes down to her knees.
“Fuck.”
Spinning on her heel, she quickly scans the room and spots a bedside table and a small tab-like device sitting on top.
Immediately vaulting over the bed she woke up in not five minutes ago, she faceplants into the comforter and just barely manages to snatch it up.
Her hands fumble with it for a bit before somehow triggering it, the tab splitting in half and expanding outwards.
“Oh!” She says in surprise, eyes wide as a circle forms in the middle of the now apparent screen, spins once, and then zooms in to reveal the home screen of some kind of futuristic I-phone.
‘WELCOME, MELORIA.’
A thin line of text appears at the bottom before fading away just a second later.
Sci-Fi Phone?
Face ID?
New Name?
“I’m gonna start freaking out-”
Stop.
Just…
Just stop.
It isn’t going to do anyone any good to just panic and all that, she needs to figure some things out before coming to any assumptions.
Like, for one, why does she look like…this.
And— what was the name again?
She looks down at the device before pressing the two sides together, and then gently pulling them apart. The circle returns and scans her face for just a second before the pop up appears.
“Melio- Mel- Meli- Melio- elio- Fuck it, Lio."
Okay! That’s one step done. Figuring out her, or maybe just her body’s, name.
Next.
“Figure out where the fuck I am…”
It doesn’t take long to figure out how to work the device, it’s literally just a phone screen that works without all the inner guts.
There are a few apps and such, small things she’s sure every mobile has regardless of the format it’s in. Except this one seems very…bare bones.
It has a mail feature, despite not having any contacts, it has a photo album, despite not having any pictures, and the app with a lock symbol on it only has one…
Key?
She isn’t totally sure what that one means but it’s fine.
It takes even less time for her to find the internet app, or, the closest thing to it.
The feed opens up with some political name from a distant Kingdom she subconsciously ignores.
So, they’ve got sci-fi junk but still run by a monarchy.
Cool.
She continues to Scroll down, more and more as more useless names and drama pop up.
“C’mon,” she mutters to herself. “Give me something-”
There!
Something she actually recognizes!
“Grimm attack on…west research station.”
Lio blinks a few times, tapping on the headline and opening up to a new tab with the image of a creature on it.
One with inky black skin, shiny and almost liquid looking, with an outer-exoskeleton of bleached white bone.
“No…No no no no nononononononononono-”
Quickly closing out of it, her Scrolling immediately picks up in speed, stopping at a different series of captions.
“--Series of Dust robberies-”
“--Train Raided By White Fang-”
“--Commotion In ‘Junior's club’-”
And then-
She stops, eyes wide as she slowly and carefully taps on the caption staring her right back.
Because inside the image is a man, with short grey hair wearing a green cowl, and a cross shaped brooch pinned to its front.
Right below the picture, it shows:
BEACON ACADEMY INITIATION DATE FINALLY REVEALED!
Lio reads the text with monotone in her throat, and she drops the Scroll, because that’s obviously what it is now.
She knows what it is.
But just barely.
Because out of all the universes and shows and books and games and forms of media she’s consumed over the span of her entire life.
At the end of it all, the one world the Cosmic-Karmic-Bullshit-Engine decided to throw her into…
Was the fucking RWBY-verse.
The show she knows the least about.
Lio takes a long, slow, and deep breath, holding it for three seconds…
Before she shoves her face into the comforter, sticks her ass up in the air and proceeds to kick her feet into the mattress like a child throwing a tantrum as she muffles her screams of rage.
"MMMMMFFFFFFFMFMMMMM.”
Watch your language, missy.
”You. Are. Fucking. Kidding me.”
Turns out, she wasn’t just isekai-ed into the RWBY world.
Because that would be too easy.
No, she had to be put into the body of someone already here.
Which, normally would be a pretty interesting experience!
She could go and change the narrative, find some other nonsense to do, test out their powers-
Semblance.
But, of course.
That’d be too easy.
Instead, she was put into the body of one of the dozens of background characters that appear for half a second during the wide environment shots.
And even better, she recognized this background character.
Sort of.
Because RoosterTeeth is such a cheapskate on anything even closely revolving around this show, most of the background people are just reskinned and recoloured versions of the MC-Models.
It’s why there are dozens of people out there that are just Nora but with blonde hair.
Lio, somehow, got one of the possible rarest fucking background models there.
Because of course she did.
She was wondering why she looked so familiar.
It’s because she’s the goddamn most terrifying girl in the entire series.
Salem who? She’s talking about Neo.
The Ice-Cream themed assassin with a parasol that she uses like a third arm and a Semblance to perfectly mentally fuck with any and everyone she wants to.
Except this instance of her is noticeably a different flavour.
As evidenced by the closet full of Neo’s outfit, an entire row of copy-pasted clothes.
And they’re all green.
“Goddamn inverse colour scheme. Mint Chocolate Chip lookin’…”
Lio snatches up the first one on the hanger and get’s to dressing, grumbling to herself the whole while.
Don’t get her wrong, this is probably one of the better options. If she had to be anyone, Neo is her first pick. Ruby and Yang are fine, sure, but Neo?
Neo’s her favorite.
Silent, stylish, badass and most importantly, unrecognizable.
The general public doesn’t know her face. Right?
Probably.
Hopefully.
She’s not technically a criminal.
Yet.
So looking like her won’t bring about any trouble.
But that’s not the issue.
The issue is that she has no idea what to do here.
She barely watched the show. Only kept up with it for Neo. Because she was cool. And cute. And, maybe most importantly—
She didn’t open her goddamn mouth.
“But I can,” Lio says, clipping the cropped jacket into place and staring down at it.
Still no pants.
Fight her.
She gets dressed weird.
Lio scoffs to herself and continues pulling on her clothes.
Or, this girl's clothes.
Because, technically she did just kind of steal this girl's life away.
But at the same time.
She pauses, looking around the room and spotting a clear lack of EVERYTHING
There’s a table in what she assumes to be the kitchen, the same white as everything else with a fridge inlaid next to the front door. White walls covering every inch of everything she can see. A hallway that leads down to more rooms she doesn’t want to check. A singular also bright white sofa in the middle of what she assumes now to be the living room, evident by the mounted TV.
And that’s it.
Nothing else.
There was barely even a life to live in the first place because this house is empty .
“Except belts!” Lio exclaims in anger, clipping the second belt onto her waist and then smacking its buckle when it doesn’t squeeze as tight as it should. “Why do you have so many useless belts!”
Lio steps in front of the mirror again, this time with a clearer head and a fully assembled outfit, a step up from last time.
The cropped jacket fits snug across her torso, collar popped splayed across her clavicle. The pants hang so low that she has to keep checking they haven’t fallen. The heeled boots come up to just below her knee, and it took awhile to get those on.
But the colors…
“Oh, come on .”
And yeah, she was right.
It’s Neo’s outfit. Exactly Neo’s outfit– every stitch, every fold, every ridiculous Not-A-Single-Piece-Of-It-Should-Work-But-It-Does layout.
Except instead of the white top with the black pants and leotard, it’s completely inverted.
The top’s black, the pant and fucking belts are both equally white, and the leotard is the exact same.
The inside of the flipped collar is mint, just like half her hair, and the cuffs add an extra splash of opposing colour to the milk-leather gloves she’s got on that, honestly, do very little to hamper her sense of touch funny enough.
What doesn’t surprise her much are the handfuls of necklaces she’s got laying on her neck. They’re mostly just chains, which is perfectly considering how that was exactly how she wore necklaces before this!
With at least a pound of metal wrapped around her.
She spins slowly, letting the reflection catch the full ensemble.
She looks like Neo if Neo had walked into a dessert cafe and mugged a Starbucks barista on the way out.
“…I hate how good I look.”
She stops the spin and pauses, looking at the two bare spots of skin near her hips, the little openings between her leotard and the pants.
. . .
And she sticks her hands in them like pockets.
“Heh heh…”
As if summoned by that very thought, the Scroll on the bed lets out a small chime, the diamond on its front flashing slightly as she picks it up.
A new message…
REGISTRATION COMPLETE.
Your initiation date for BEACON ACADEMY has been finalized. A Bullhead will be available for transportation at the following address:
. . .
“…You’re kidding.”
She rereads the message.
Then again.
Her only piece of mail, and it’s an acceptance letter.
She looks up to stare at her reflection.
Beacon Academy. The Big Main School. The plot-central home base where everything kicks itself off.
And this body, this Background-Ass-NPC-Variant-Of-Neo just so happens to have registration papers?
“Bullshit,” she mutters. “There’s no way.”
She crosses her arms, and begins to think.
This character, Melora or Meloria or whatever the hell it is, is supposed to be the bare bones of a character. It’s why her Scroll was so blank and her house is so depressingly minimalistic.
Because she isn’t meant to have any more of a purpose than to fill space.
“But now I'm here, and I didn’t just land here. I got inserted. By what, karma? The Plot Gods? The Great Narrative Horse in the Sky?”
She glares upward, like the universe might respond.
No answer. Just the comforting white void of poor interior design.
“Yeah. Thought so.”
This isn’t a coincidence. This is exactly the kind of cosmic railroading that fanfics write about.
Of course the girl she’s inhabiting was already registered for Beacon. Of course she’s got a fast-track ticket to the start of the series.
Because the universe doesn’t hand you all of these specific things and an open door to Beacon for fun.
It wants her in the story.
. . .
Fine.
Doesn’t take much convincing.
“Alright, then,” she says aloud, stretching her arms and rolling her neck. “If I’m going to Beacon, that means I need a weapon.”
And if she’s going to abuse this system to the max, that probably means that this girl probably had one with her already.
Time for a scavenger hunt.
She scans the apartment again, popping her head into the various rooms to try and find something that looks like it can shoot blasts of ice and lightning.
But Lio had almost forgotten that there’s barely anything in here. Plain walls, a single table, no decorations, no art.
No personality.
Except, however, this little thing tucked into the back of the closet.
It takes some finagling, but Lio eventually slides out a long, hard-shell case. The kind you’d mistake for either a guitar case or something way too expensive.
She flicks the tabs open, pushes it up and inside, nestled in foam, is what looks like-
“Oh, shut up."
It’s Neo’s parasol.
Fucking Hush, except this one’s mint-colored, with deep aquamarine shades and, the best part.
It’s a gun.
Not a sword hidden in the shaft like the other kind.
A gun.
Mint Neo has a gunbrella.
She holds it up, testing the weight.
Lio isn’t a hunter by any means, but she has held guns before. Shot them more times than most other people can say they have in their lifetime.
Perks of having dual military parents.
Now, while she doesn’t know how all the inner workings of a gunbrella work— even how a normal gun works, she can tell.
This is balanced, smooth, and so so satisfyingly deadly .
She clicks it open halfway, and even though the canopy doesn’t open she can hear the soft ‘ clink’ of internal machinery shifting around, just enough to make her grin.
If not for the colourful glint of light on glass, she almost missed the second most important part to this.
In the bottom of the case, separated in the foam about a half inch apart from each other, are three rows of four little trinkets.
Around twelve full vials filled with crystalline powders, each one a distinct colour different from the others.
Dust.
“Fuck. Yes.”
Dust is a concept she’s enjoyed since she first learned RWBY was a thing.
Elemental abilities are always used in any good magic system, so finding a way to make it both a commonplace set of powers, as well as a new way to express them?
Everything about it just
screamed
things that she’d like.
And she did! The capabilities for technology, mixing with Semblances, and all the different ways it can be utilized was just so interesting!
And now she was here.
Inside the RWBY world.
And holding a vial of it in her hand like it was a travel-sized shampoo bottle.
She pops the latch and taps a bit into her palm, carefully and cautiously.
It took a little bit of thinking before she decided to settle on testing out Wind Dust.
Lightning Dust has the potential to hurt her, Ice Dust just sounds like a pain to clean up afterwards, and Fire Dust is just a whole other can of worms.
So this’ll have to do.
She settles onto her knees, feet tucked under her, cupping the coloured powder like an explosive because, technically it is .
She stares at it for a moment. Waiting.
. . .
. . .
. . .
And then promptly realises a pretty crucial fact.
To activate Dust, you need Aura , something she sure as hell does not have yet .
Lio huffs already tilting the vial back to refill it when a thought strikes her.
If the universe had gone out of its way to shove her into a walking OC-variant of Neo, complete with a place to live, registration papers, and her own weapon…
Then maybe it must’ve tossed in the basic ability to use that stuff too.
“Karmic Bullshit Engine,” she mutters. “Don’t fail me now.”
So, closing her eyes, Lio metaphysically feels around inside her chest, poking and prodding at everything until something either glows or-
“Ooh!” Lio yelps, laying a hand against her chest as she leans forwards slightly, blinking a bit to collect herself.
Okay so, apparently she has had her Aura available.
Just…a bit of a weird feeling trying to summon it up to the surface.
She just…needs a second.
. . .
And then-
FWOOOOOOSH
The pile of Wind Dust in her hand suddenly consumes itself, the entire thing spiraling up in a mini cyclone that does little more than swirl Lio’s hair around.
Her smile is there, appreciating the fact that holy shit this is really cool—!
But she isn’t fully concerned about that. What’s catching her attention is the colour seeping from and lifting off her skin. A deep green, because of COURSE it is, what the hell ELSE would it be?
Aura feels the same— almost, and yet different.
It isn’t some kind of energy in her body, although it could absolutely be confused as such. No, it’s more…soul-bound? Like there’s a certain part of her chest that’s letting out this barely visible force.
She lifts her hand slowly, and sees it trail behind itself in mirrored echoes.
Afterimages. Ethereal and translucent. Faint shards of green following an inch behind every movement.
Not illusions. Not tricks.
Aura.
Her Aura.
Lio wiggles her fingers experimentally, watching as each one flickers in a delayed trail, shimmering slightly at the edges like an oddly composed cloud of smoke.
“Woooaaaaaahhhh…”
It feels like her soul just stepped outside for some fresh air.
Like she just had a shower and all the oil was pulled off her skin.
She feels so open now, and every one of her senses were clogged. But now that they’re open she can actually see, and feel and hear .
It tingles, but not like static.
Its almost in a way she can't describe, but not from lack of sensation-- more because she can't find the words.
She lowers her hand again, curling it into a fist as she nods to herself.
“Okay,” she murmurs, a small grin forming. “I see you.”
Her Scroll beeps softly as she removes it from the sensor at the door, a sound within letting her know the lock just clicked into place.
Finally figured out what the ‘Key’ app was for.
As much fun as testing weird soul-force powers was, there’s only so much you can do without the actual powers part of them.
Case in point, Lio has no clue what her Semblance is. Or how to even begin discovering it.
She knows she’ll need to do tests and figure all that out eventually, but right now?
She just wants to do something.
She’s been cooped up in the apartment for little over a day, and even though there are probably things she should be doing, right now she’s antsy, Crawling-The-Walls-Level bored.
The map in her Scroll helps. There’s plenty around, and it's easy enough to find her way with the glowing path projected on the screen.
Actually getting there? A bit harder.
She’s nervous. Worried she’ll mess up socially or in some way draw attention to herself— do something wrong.
What if she accidentally reveals herself?
Would it really be that bad?
Ozpin would probably be intrigued, maybe even helpful. Salem and Cinder? That’s more complicated.
But Lio’s biggest fear, despite not actually being that big, is when Torchwick and Neo come into the picture.
Pretty early on, she won’t have enough time to build up enough anxiety for when it happens, but she just hopes that the Beacon students won’t see the Triple-Ice-Cream-Girl and wonder why their fellow Huntress looks exactly like her.
I mean, she’s a background character, maybe she still has some of that glamour effect on her to keep them from asking questions?
She sighs and glances down at the little glowing path she’s been following for the past ten minutes.
Still on track.
The few people she’s passed don’t seem to recognize her, which is a relief. But she’s starting to recognize a few people. Or at least, types of people.
Faunus are a fascinating bunch. She hasn’t seen many yet, but the occasional tail or extra pair of animal ears aren’t exactly hard to spot.
The concept of them is super interesting, and a needed element in the RWBY world.
The whole racism thing is dumb. But, then again, racism in general is dumb.
She doesn’t have much of a side in that argument. Just the blunt, frustrated urge to shout at everyone involved.
Her Scroll gives out a chime as she arrives, and Lio looks up at the store front she stopped at.
Ironwood & Co. Tactical Outfitters
Gear, Mods, Dustworks, Customization, Repairs
New Products Weekly!
Perfect.
“Alright! And if you need anything else, just press this right here and I'll come right away.”
“Okay, thank you so much,” Lio says to the woman with a smile, watching her walk back to the front counter area.
It didn’t take much to get into the firing range section of the store, especially considering it’s empty. Just 20 Lien and a waiver screen.
And, apparently, her wallet is 100% digital.
Or this one is, at the very least.
Because while there are Lien cards and coins and all that, it’d be a hell of a lot of work just to carry around a handful of loose bills in your pocket than if there was an actual system to hold them.
Plus, the Scrolls are used for basically everything else, acting as a credit card means very little.
She brushes that away and sets her case on the station counter, popping it open and retrieving her Gunbrella.
The firing range is pretty big, all inside with various slits along the ground of the firing path, half of them have images of Grimm as targets with a humanoid shaped dummy at the far end.
So some pretty decent target work.
She holds the umbrella out, aiming it forwards with one arm…
And shortly after lets it and her limp hand fall to the countertop.
God, this is heavier than it looks.
Both hands isn’t difficult, but you have to consider the fact that:
- This thing is a gun.
- This thing is an umbrella.
- This thing is an UMBRELLA GUN.
So y'know, some things to look out for.
Lio changes her hold slightly, realizing that the only way to really hold it is with one hand, as the canopy obscures most of the shaft.
The best way to get around this would be…
She stops, quickly flips through her mental database of scarce RWBY knowledge, and then activates her Aura .
Not enough to flare it out, or even make it visible. But just enough to pump through her muscles, just under the surface.
And then suddenly it barely weighs anything.
And Lio feels like she just drank an entire pot of caffeine.
Aura was always described as a combat enhancer, but this…
This feels like a whole new level.
She aims the Umbrella forwards, tip sliding itself back as her hand falls on the trigger, a held breath later and-
Click—
Aww, shit, right, ammo-
She pops the canopy open and grabs a handful of Dust bullets, these ones with red rims around their base.
She quickly loads them up and raises it again, closing one eye as she breathes in, holds it-
Bang—!
The bullet flies out and hits the first Grimm target, embedding itself halfway into the glass.
“Wuh,” Lio pauses for only a moment before smacking her forehead. “Stop doing that!”
Lio aims the umbrella for the third time, and then she starts to pump her Aura into it, letting her Mint-soul infuse into the material and the next bullet in its chamber.
She can feel it heat up, the red glow suddenly not just cosmetic as she takes a breath, holds it and-
Fwoosh—!
A fireball erupts outwards and streaks in a single line, puffing up and consuming the Grimm image in a cloud of orange.
Lio breaks out a wide smile as the smoke starts to clear, cheeks almost hurting from-
“Oh you’re FUCKING kidding me.”
The glass stands there, slightly darkened but no worse for wear.
“How?! Fucking, HOW!?”
Lio throws her hands up and turns around pacing for only a few steps before she comes back and picks the Gunbrella up again.
Why isn’t it doing it like the shots fired from the show?
Those ones don’t even activate until they hit!
Is it the way she’s applying her Aura to them? That’s just what you’re supposed to do, right?
. . .
Unless, it isn’t what you’re supposed to do.
Because you can control it, manipulate it to a sense, but only in specific ways.
So, instead of flooding the bullet before it’s even shot, what if she…
Lio aims it up again, and coats the entire Umbrella, minus the few remaining Dust bullets in her Aura.
And then she aims, takes a deep breath, holds it and-
Bang—!
–-Taps the bullet with it right as it leaves the barrel, activating the Dust within but doing nothing more as it hits the Grimm, and then detonates , plumeing up into a bonfire of flames before vanishing and leaving shards that quickly disappear as they’re programmed to.
“Yes!” Leo shouts in celebration. “Yes yes yes yes yes!”
She raises it again and takes a few extra shots at the various other targets.
Bang—!
Bang-Bang—!
. . .
“Yeah, this isn’t gonna work.”
The girl at the front desk jolts as Lio slams the Gunbrella down on the counter, scared out of whatever desktop game she was passing time with on her computer thing.
The front area is very different from the firing range, and Lio noticed that almost as soon as she walked in.
Hit with the smell of way too much cleaning product, and at the same time an underlying scent of oil and sweat.
Makes her think of Bass Sporting Goods.
Or Dick’s Pro Shop.
. . .
Yeah those sound about right.
“I need an upgrade!”
“Oh!” The woman quickly collects herself and stands up. “Of course, a-any specs in mind?”
“Big,” Lio says. “Really big. I want this thing to make a statement— I want it to scare God.”
The clerk blinks. “You… want to mod a stealth weapon into a siege cannon?”
“Yes.”
“. . .”
“. . .”
“Alright then.”
Lio pumps her fist as the lady walks off, and she turns back around to look at the front room.
She wasn’t joking when she compared it to the hunting stores, the roof is empty and tall, but there’s so much variety with the different things they’re selling.
The layout is a cross between a weapons museum and an RPG shop menu, and her eye can’t help but catch on the rows of melee weapons, racks of Dust ammo, shelves stacked with firing attachments, separate parts entirely, and some weird circular thing labeled ‘Arc-Blade Bouncer Module’ that looks vaguely illegal.
But, this is Ironwoods’ place.
Or, no relation to General Ironwood who is an entirely different person.
But whoever it belongs to, this place reminds her of her old hobby.
Or, she says hobby when in reality it was a required set of classes she needed to actually get into the Engineering course, but still, it’s got that same feeling and Lio smiles— right at home.
She turns back around at the buzzing-humming noise, and sees the lady scanning the umbrella with a handheld…well, scanner.
Lio picks it up afterwards and she watches as the screen embedded in the counter suddenly starts projecting, a 3D hologram rotating image of the weapon in her arms.
Lio almost starts tweaking.
This is every engineer’s DREAM right here, Ironman holograms and digital blueprints and-
And she has access to them. What does she even do?
Answer is, everything.
Length? Extend it.
Handle? Add bracing.
Barrel shaft? Reinforce the alloy or maybe even switch it out entirely.
Internal chassis? Needs some remodeling for a size increase of this proportion.
Dust properties? Add all of them .
And the canopy?
“Make it double-layered,” she says, grinning. “So I can make it collapsable too!”
The lady, obeying her every request, taps her little control tablet as the model shifts and expands, bit by bit until at the end where her eyes are blown wide open, same with her jaw.
It’s a monster.
Lio taps the name field, the hologram responding to her touch as she inputs its new designation.
HAVOC.
“Look,” the clerk lady begins. “As much as I want to work on this…this beast-”
She smiles briefly before quickly wiping it away. “--You don’t look like someone who should drop so much Lien on this. I mean, you came in here just looking for a firing range . And sure, it’ll cost less since we’ve got a base to go from but I don’t think you should be making a Huntsmen-level-”
“I’ve got 50,000 Lien, is that enough?”
“I’ll get started right away!”
“I wanna help.”
The Lady, who’s name she’s only just learned is Missy, suddenly looks up from the futuristic looking workbench she led Lio to. It's already holding a copy of the new and improved Havoc .
“Do you have any experience in making these things?”
“Sort of. I’ve made weapons sure but not like…these.”
And that is true, battle-bot blades and flamethrowers do count, even if they can’t shoot lightning bolts and junk.
“I mean…yeah if you think you can manage it, sure.”
“Well, that’s what I wanted to ask. I want to help, but I think I'll need some coaching.”
Missy raises a brow. “Like, I guide you through it?”
“Yeah, but not if it’ll hurt your own…I don’t know, process? I want to be able to repair it if it gets damaged or anything.”
There’s a pause as Missy considers it, and then she gives a sort of ‘Might as Well’ face as she waves Lio to her.
A Lio who is desperately trying not to squeal in excitement because this all sounds cool as shiiiiiiiit.
-]=|=[-
“I’ll get the tools. You, uh… don’t blow up anything you don’t want blown up.”
Lio cracks her knuckles and hops in place. “No promises.”
The components are all laid out in front of her like puzzle pieces. There’s the frame, half a dozen new mods blinking with indicator lights, several disassembled pieces she’s gonna have to get real familiar with, and a radio.
She clicks the button on top, and it’s suddenly playing some kind of catchy tune.
“Alright…Alright I can work with this!”
-]=|=[-
Welding sparks spray every which direction as Lio, goggles down, carefully lines a reinforced spine through the umbrella's shaft.
There’s a whole process that goes into welding most people don’t realise, and it’s a fucking PAIN to deal with.
But, if you do it right-
Missy sets aside another canopy leg, and when Lio looks up she’s got an annoying smirk on her face.
She huffs and goes back to welding. “Show off.”
-]=|=[-
“If this thing’s gonna fire cannon rounds, it’s gonna need bones of tungsten!”
Or, that’s what she said at least. Lio doesn’t really know what kind of metal this is but it’s damn good effective at the very least.
The whine and buzz of metal on grinding metal fills the workshop area as she watches Missy press a curved piece onto what looks like a mounted sanding machine. Looks like she says, as nothing in here really looks like any of the traditional tools one would find in a real world workshop.
But, it doesn’t matter what they look like as long as they get it done.
And what they have so far, the delicacy is gone. Now it’s all weight and presence and god this is gonna be good.
-]=|=[-
Lio inserts the barrel insert into its holder, clamping it down once again as she flicks a small lever on the controller.
The shaft extends outwards with a mechashift ‘clunk’ and Lio tosses her hands up in celebration.
“Missy!” She shouts to the other girl across the workshop. “I did it by myself!”
“Cool!” Missy shouts back, not taking her eyes off the firing mechanism she’s currently working on. “By the way, the Dustweave machine I'm transferring in won’t be here ‘till next Thursday. That alright?”
“How long will it take to get the canopy finished?”
“Well, with how big it is…three days?”
Lio winces but nods. “Yeah that’s good. We just gotta work quick to get it ready.”
She turns back to her barrel and flicks a few more of the levers, causing it to retract and for the head legs to reveal themselves, extending out and causing Lio to questioningly look down at the controller again.
“I didn’t even install you yet how the-”
-]=|=[-
“What’s this?”
“Recoil compensator.”
“What’s this?”
“Blast shield addition.”
“What’s this?”
Missy smacks the device out of Lio’s hand, catching it before it falls to the floor.
“That,” she says with a stern tone of voice. “Is the trigger.”
Lio holds her hands up placatingly. “Alright alright I get it.”
“Good.”
“. . .”
“. . .”
“. . .”
“. . .”
“So like how cool does this look-”
“Can you- Put that down!!”
“C’mon though!” Lio, holding a half completed Havoc like a grenade launcher despite it’s lengthy size, aims it at the far corner of the room, pulling down the bolt and then pushing it forwards, causing a satisfying ‘Chunk’ sound to release from it. “I look cool as hell-”
Missy proceeds to make Lio sit in the corner for the next two hours.
-]=|=[-
“Alright, so if this works, it should let me…”
Lio pauses, looking over the same mechanism, before sticking her finger into it, yelping when it automatically spins.
“Phew! Okay, so– Missy!”
“Yeah?” The clerk responds, approaching the table. “Show me what you’ve got.”
“Okay so, I’ve added a central rotating Dust loader thing, which, if I’ve linked to a custom trigger dial near the handle grip so all I need to do is this and-”
The cylinder near the trigger bolt spins once, and the corresponding glow lights up right above it, red for-
“Fire Dust.”
Spin, click, blue.
“Water Dust.”
Spin, click, yellow.
“Lightning Dust- and I've got a few extra sections for other Dust if I wanna add it. And, I was considering what’d happen if I loaded in multiple Dust types! Like, would they combine into the Hybrid Dust types? I don’t think so but…hey! Variation!”
Missy observes the mechanic, squeezing the activation handle a few times to rotate it and its movement.
Lio stands to the side, waiting like one of those chefs at a cooking competition for the judge to say whether they hate or love the dish they cooked.
“This…”
Lio can hear the suspenseful music, and can imagine the camera flashing between them over and over as it kicks up-
“Is really cool!”
Ha ha! Success!
“Twelve different slots, this is really cool! Nice job, girl!”
-]=|=[-
“--The umbrella part expands outwards, and the material will protect the shooter while the outer shell stays as a energy dampener, reworked to absorb kickback and stabilize the shots I make.”
“Still keeps the silhouette,” Missy notes, nodding along. “But if you pop it open, it’ll block small artillery?”
“It should block all artillery, or at least— yeah the ones that aren’t excessively strong like rockets or…I don’t know, what’s the average durability of-”
“Way lower than this one's, so you’ll be fine. Plus the strength of the fabric should help, especially if held up with your enhancement should-”
“Should let me jump off buildings and float like a leaf with a death wish.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
“Good.”
“Yeah-”
BZZZZZZZ-
The loud buzz of machinery is the only thing that fills Lio’s ears, stretching and setting the canopy material over the industrial grade legs, setting in the final layer. Mint and aquamarine panels edged in Dust-threading.
Decorative and conductive.
“Honestly, I expected this to be a lot more expensive. This part– I mean. Gravity Dust seems a lot more special then you’d expect but-”
“Oh, yeah, no, it’s a lot easier to obtain than people usually expect.”
“Doesn’t that mean you can overcharge people?”
Missy pauses. “Well…I mean now, I probably could-”
Lio laughs and shoves a hand into Missy's shoulder.
-]=|=[-
Lio steps back, brushing a smear of Dust soot from her cheek, Havoc held upright beside her, clearly over a foot taller.
But she still smiles and brings it forwards, the parasol opening and showing the same image on the other side as if she hadn’t.
A little gadget Missy hooked up for her.
Speaking of Missy-
Lio turns to the right, spying the clerk waving at her over by the firing range entrance with her own pair of sound-proof headphones.
But that isn’t important now.
Lio looks forwards and extends the shaft, its barrel pushing out another length, moving and mechashifting underneath her fingers.
The entire thing is huge, like a beach umbrella that she’s able to simply carry around like it’s not.
It’s elegant and powerful.
Polished and wild.
Heavy.
Overengineered.
And hers.
“If this breaks the wall I’m suing you!” Missy shouts.
Lio scoffs a laugh and leans down, looking into the extending scope, able to see past the fabric.
The dummy, all the way at the back of the firing path, stands silent as she aligns her view with him.
The shafts' kaleidoscopic muzzle extends out slightly. They had replaced it and swapped out the ammunition for a smaller caliber she wants to say, but even so.
The inner mechanisms shift and click when she pulls the lever to load in her first shot.
She doesn’t need to fulfill Missy’s promise.
Her finger rests along the ring, and she doesn’t move any more than a finger as she taps the trigger, holding it and-
BANG!
The recoil hits like a truck, and even with the canopy absorbing most of the blow-back it still washes over her, the shot screaming downrange and the dummy at the other end gets flash-frozen into a perfect, shining sculpture, jagged spikes extending back, all of it shattering from the ensuing shockwave.
Lio squeezes to swap shots, and not a moment later-
BANG!
The entire back wall is black with scorch, and the space is filled with heat, all of the remaining ice vaporizing in an instant and leaving streams of warp and steam to rise from the floor.
Lio retracts Havoc, setting it upright and looking at the impact zone with her bare eyes.
“…Nice,” she breathes, taking a moment to look it up and down. “Very nice.”
Last Bullhead For BEACON ACADEMY
The message scrolls across one of the holographic signs once again, even bolder this time with an accompanying chime.
Lio doesn't even notice it, making it just in time, skidding to a stop at the edge of the platform with her heart in her throat and a wide grin across her face.
The Bullhead descends a short distance away, massive and humming like its name suggests. It kicks up a transparent cloud of dust as it touches down, bigger than she remembers it from the show. Or…what she thinks she remembers.
She never actually paid much attention to the specs. It always looked smaller on screen.
Standing in front of it though, how real it is.
Just like everything else.
She shifts the umbrella on her shoulder, a simple thing like it's been this whole time; mint green and unassuming. The same one she used in the workshop, the same one she dumped over 30,000 Lien on just in the last half-month. The same one that isn’t just a Gunbrella anymore.
It’s weird. Two weeks ago she hadn’t even known what to do with herself, just going through the motions of preparing for where the Karmic-Engine is guiding her to. She spent most of her preparation time getting ready for this , and now she’s got a siege-class weapon slung over her shoulder and a whole lot of optimism.
Missy had even hugged her!
Awkwardly. Side-armed, but still!
Lio smiles.
Is she ready?
HA.
But she’s going anyway.
She skips forward, weaving through the tide of students and travelers, boots squeaking faintly against the platform, the umbrella bouncing with every step.
The sounds of bells fill her head.
She boards the Bullhead without another thought.