Saturday, April 25, 2015

Sword

I made it to Spencer's apartment and knocked on the door. He opened it and invited me inside. Spencer has the kind of apartment you'd expect a college student to have. He's got an overflowing laundry basket, a trash bin full of ramen wrappers, counters that could use a good scrubbing, and a few text books and schoolwork cluttering a small desk. His kitchen table was cluttered with a bunch of gadgets and loose mechanical bits.
“So, you ready to see the improvement's I made?” he asked, going over to his broom closet.
“Course I am,” I said. “It's been what, four months? I'd love to see how it looks.”
“Yeah,” he said, taking a leather coat out of the closet “Sorry it took so long. Didn't cause you any trouble, did it?”
“I can handle myself unarmed,” I said. “Still, I've missed the thing.”
“Right,” he said, handing me the coat “Try this on first.”
I looked the coat over. Running a hand along it, I noticed that there were gadgets and such inside of it, between the material. There were also two slits on the back, over the shoulder blades, that were sealed shut by some kind of mechanical locks. I slipped it on, and looked down at the sleeves over my arms. On my right wrist was a turquoise opal button, with an eye carved into it. On  the left wrist was a red opal with the heretic's fork engraved in it. The symbols of the Vision and Brute, respectively.
“Press the blue one,” Spencer said.
I tapped the opal on my right wrist, and the locks over my shoulder blades released, and the slits both opened up.
“Try them out,” Spencer told me.
“All right,” I said.
I rolled up my right sleeve and tapped into the Vision's power. Energy began seeping from my back, spreading out and solidifying into a pair of red wings, made up of a substance similar to an insect's exoskeleton. The same energy wrapped around my right hand and forearm, becoming a plated gauntlet. I examined myself in Spencer's mirror, and saw that the wings fit perfectly through the slits in the back, without damaging the coat.
“Neat,” I said. “How long'd this take you?”
“A few weeks,” he said. “Getting the locks right was pretty tricky.”
“Cool,” I said. “What about the sword?”
“Right here,” he said, pulling it from the closet, with some noticeable effort.
The sword is huge. Very huge. It has a long, broad red blade, and a long hilt. It originally lacked a hand-guard, but Spencer had changed that. It now hand a very techo looking guard attached at the base of the blade. There was a trigger right by the hilt, which had been wrapped up in cloth and rubber.
“Um,” he said. “Do you think you can do the thing?”
I nodded, and reached out with my right hand. I felt my energy flowing around the sword, and I took control of it. The sword levitated in the air, and floated toward me. I grasped the hilt, and felt its familiar weight. The sword is heavy. Heavier than most people could handle. I'm not most people. I allowed my wings and gauntlet to fade away, and hit the blue button again, causing the slits to lock back up.
“Now, pull the trigger on the sword and touch the red button,” Spencer instructed me.
I did. I felt a surge of magnetic force go through the sword's hilt, and into its blade. A similar force seemed to be produced by the gizmos inside the coat. I raised the sword over my shoulder, and pressed it to my back. It stayed there, clinging to the coats magnetic force.
“You should twirl it over your head when you do that,” Spencer said.
“I'm not doing that,” I said.
“Oh, come one!” he said. “You could totally be Cloud!”
“I don't wanna be cloud,” I said. “I wanna be Cecil. Cecil's cooler.”
“Pfft,” he replied. “No he's not!”
“Yes, he totally is,” I retorted.
“Whatever,” Spencer said. “So, what do you think?”
“Works pretty well,” I said. “Make's up for the absence of my sheath.”
I used to have a weird sheath composed of tentacles that lashed to my back and around the sword, but it got destroyed by a dragon. It came with the sword.
“So how much is this gonna cost me?” I asked.
“Well,” he said, “With all the parts, the batteries it comes with, and the work put into it...”
He gave me a number, and I grimaced.
“That,” I said, “May take me a while to scrape together...”
“I can wait,” he said.
“All right,” I said.
I opened up a rift into the Streams Of Destiny and stabbed my sword into the ground on the other side. The Streams are the Vision's domain, and lately, they've been going to hell. They're completely unrecognizable, because of some outside entity corrupting it. I've yet to figure out what's causing it, but if I can find it, I'll snuff it out. Hopefully, that will return the domain to its former glory.
“I'll see you later,” I said, shutting the rift. “I've got dinner plans with Kelly.”
“Oh, so you can afford to take your girl out?” Spencer asked jokingly.
“We're eating in tonight,” I said. “I got this chicken and dumplings recipe from my friend Daniel that I wanna try out.”
“Well, have fun,” he said. “And take your time on the payment. It's not urgent or anything.”
“Sure thing,” I told him.
And with that, I left.

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