Modern Age Online

Kaleb glared at all his notifications. Of course, they all had to appear after he was finished working on Rhot's axe. Also, none of them were combinable with his other skills that were maxed out. He was hoping something would ping with both his Ranged Combat and Endurance Skills at max. But apparently getting a crafting skill to combine with a combat one was a tricky prospect. Now he had an annoying choice to make. Did he bring his crafting skills into Intermediate or did he wait and see if they could combine later? Looking at his Robotics skill, Kaleb knew it would take a long time to level up the other skills. Intermediate Skills apparently took a lot of Experience.

Sighing to himself, Kaleb shook away the notifications and watched as Claire wielded Rhot's axe. The giant woman was swinging the metal war-axe in wide arcs on her training mat. Kaleb had wanted one of the Brute lizards to test the weight of the thing. But none of them would touch it. Especially when they found out it was for Elder Rhot. It didn't seem like they were afraid of the Elder. Just that they didn't want to touch his weapon. Thankfully, Claire was around to test out the finished product.

The short-hafted axe sported a blade on one side and a large, flat hammer on the other. Terrance's insistence that the flat end would be good for crushing armor was immediately proven true when Claire flattened a training dummy with one swing. But Kaleb was still proud of the vibrating metal edge of the weapon. They had dialed in a fantastic frequency that kept the blade moving enough to tear through metal, but not so much that it shook the wielder's hands. Claire pivoted on her foot and swung the edge of the axe at a metal training dummy. The resulting sparks and creaking of metal echoed throughout the hangar and more than a few people covered their ears. But the damage was spectacular.

The training dummy was split apart at its shoulder and down to its waist. Claire wrenched the weapon out and examined the edge before sending a smile at them. Kaleb gave a wave as Roy shouted from next to him.

"Try out the overdrive!"

Claire's face became confused, and she looked down at the slightly humming axe. Roy dashed off like an excited puppy to help her find the installed button. Kaleb's sidekick had been really excited about adding the function to the axe. Kaleb thought it was overkill, but was excited enough to try it out. It was another unique use for their stash of repulsors. Which Roy seemed fond of using.

Claire found the button with Roy's help, and Roy quickly came back to his spot outside the mat. He shot Kaleb an excited smile as the weapon's humming grew louder. The already blurry edge of the axe took on a red tinge as it left a light trail around Claire. The giantess flipped the axe across her hands for a bit before taking aim at the half-destroyed training dummy. Her slim arms lashed out, dragging the weapon through the metal dummy, and there was a quick shearing sound. The next thing the hangar knew, the dummy was cut in half. A slight whiff of smoke coming off its bisected torso.

"Woohoo!" Roy cheered as Claire glanced down at the weapon in awe.

Kaleb gave her the cut signal, and she immediately turned off the weapon's overdrive mode. Giving the weapon a second to cool down, Kaleb and Roy made their way closer to Claire. Two Gun hurried after them, his eyes on his wife. Checking for any damage to her. Kaleb was sure there wouldn't be. The wiring on the axe had several fail-safes in place in case the overdrive caused catastrophic feedback. Although he saw the large woman shaking out her fingers as she handed the axe to Roy.

"You okay?"

"Yes, dear. But that overdrive mode nearly shook my fingers off. I imagine it's not for sustained use though, is it?"

Two Gun and Claire glanced over at Kaleb, but it was Roy who answered. "No. The embedded repulsors cells can only charge the vibrations so much. If it gets to be too much, the axe would switch off entirely."

The teen was rubbing his hands across where they'd embedded said cells. They needed to be close to the edge of the axe, but not so close that they interfered with the vibrations. Satisfied with what he felt, Roy used both hands to toss the weapon over to Kaleb. He caught it with a grunt and spun in around carefully while bringing up its stats.

"It's even a named item." Two Gun whistled.

"I think that has more to do with it being a gift than its actual power level." Kaleb said, setting the weapon to the side and sighing.

The creation of the axe had taken most of the day. Which was fine for skill growth and having fun crafting. But it meant that Kaleb didn't get to any of the other things he wanted to do today. Thankfully, Rhot's commission didn't have a time limit. So they could hold off for a bit longer. Kaleb was thinking about returning to his car when he spotted Claire's look. It wasn't quite pleading, but it was clear the tall woman wanted the axe. Luckily, they had accounted for such a thing.

Kaleb gave Roy a significant nod and turned back to his workshop. Behind him, he heard Claire and Roy already in excited conversation. Kaleb heard their footsteps following right after him as he carried the axe inside and set it on the shelf. Terrance and Daivor looked up from their own work excitedly, wanting to hear how the testing went.

"Everything seemed within expectations. I just want to do a final diagnostic check."

The teen and the gnome nodded as one before Terrance went back to smelting metal. Daivor used his belt to latch onto Kaleb's workbench and swing up. His workbench was scanning the weapon as Roy led Claire and Two Gun over to his workstation and showed off the blueprints they'd come up with. It took some explaining, but once he'd finished, Roy's voice was loud with excitement.

"… so it shouldn't have the same drawbacks as the axe," Roy finished saying as he pointed to several points on their blueprints.

Claire put on a stiff smile as her eyes seemed to glaze over the numbers and figures on the sheet of paper. Thankfully, there were Roy and Kaleb's drawings to draw her and Two Gun's eyes.

"Gauntlets?" Two Gun asked, clearly not listening to Roy's explanation.

"POWER Gauntlets." Kaleb interjected. "They'll have the same function as the ax's overdrive mode. Just without all the shaking and buzzing."

Claire raised an arched eyebrow before looking down at the blueprints again. "Are you sure? They seem awfully thin."

"We can make them that thin thanks to Marie's work with the alien alloys. Of course, they'll have to be just big enough to embed the repulsor cells. But that shouldn't make them too bulky and with the alternate power supply, they'll pack a bigger wallop than the axe."

"Then why didn't you do this to the axe?" Two Gun asked.

Kaleb shrugged. "The gauntlets are for a teammate. The axe is for an unknown member of a council of lizards that don't like me too much, anyway. It's still an upgrade to what he wanted. But not so powerful that we can't deal with it."

"Do you truly think the Brute clan would attack us?" Claire asked skeptically.

"Nope. But better paranoid and wrong than blasé and dead."

Claire and Two Gun shared a look but said nothing else as they went back to examining Roy's blueprint. Meanwhile, the scanning of the axe had finished and shown zero damage to the weapon's internals. Which Kaleb was grateful for. Hollowing out and embedded the various electronics in the axe had been a pain in the ass. He really didn't want to do it again just to rewire the damn thing. Daivor re-checked the rune work along the ax's shaft before looking up and nodding at Kaleb. The thing was done.

With a grunt of effort, Kaleb sat the big weapon by his workbench and helped the homunculi clean up a bit. He wanted to reset his workbench to zero before he began his next project. Even if he was planning on working on his car. He finished cleaning and then checked his commissions basket. It sat empty, and he nodded to himself. Ignoring the flashing notifications, reminding him to do something with his skills.

"You're not taking it?" Claire's voice asked.

"Not today. There's too much to do, and the request didn't have a time limit. So I figured I'd jump back on my car."

"You mean that pile of junk you got stashed halfway down the runway?"

"Hey, that pile of junk is going to be my next sweet ride, Two Gun. Don't you disparage my baby."

"Dear, why don't you simply buy a car? The SG makes enough money that you could reasonably afford something cheap."

Kaleb sighed as he grabbed a mug off his workbench. Downing the cold coffee, he turned to the husband and wife duo.

"Because this way I get to design and craft my own vehicle. One built to my specifications and with my tech inside it. And who knows, maybe while I'm working, my skills will advance enough to give me better ideas on how to build more things for the group. Y'all like the weapons and armor I've made you both, right?"

Claire looked down at her husband, a small smile on her face as Two Gun shrugged. "Whatever you say, doc. Your gear hasn't done us wrong yet. It just seems like such a long way to go to solve an uncomplicated problem."

"The long, hard road has much more to teach us than the short and easy one, my dear cowboy." Kaleb said sagely as he brought out another set of blueprints.

Holding them out for the others to see, Kaleb explained. "I'm also going to make powered daggers for the team. It'll be a good backup weapon, along with the pistols I made for everyone. It also has the added benefit of teaching Terrance over there some basic wiring."

"Just a regular college course, aren't you?"

"Hey, the smarter they are, the less I have to do." Kaleb joked before he set the blueprint back down.

He picked up his mug again as he got to his feet. Two Gun and Claire hurried after him, and the three of them left his workshop. Kaleb noted the several Brute clan lizards hanging about his front door. But none of them said anything. They just watched him like a hawk. Kaleb was starting to understand why the Brute Clans weren't used for clandestine work. He suspected Elder Rhot would know about his finished axe sometime tonight. Waving the problem off, Kaleb looked over his shoulder and asked.

"How's the hunt for the serial killer going?"

"Slowly." Two Gun grunted. A scowl marred his face. "We've got limited leads and the ones we do have can't tell us anything. Farrah's work sorting out who Karick took versus our face-snatcher's victims helped a ton, though."

"We've got a list of victims and we're trying to find any link between them."

"You know there might not be one. Our killer might just be crazy or it could be a Player who needs faces for… something."

Two Gun nodded. "We know. But we're coming at this like detectives. Trying to work out the clues and finding a motive. My gut tells me this is a local, not a Player."

"And I trust his gut." Claire smiled. "So we're working through the standard models. Locations, vocations, and social circles."

"But so far, we've got nothing." Two Gun grumbled as they entered D34d-I's office. "The Face-snatcher hunts all over our turf and into downtown Austin. Meanwhile none of their victims has the same jobs or runs in the same circles."

Kaleb poured himself some coffee from D34d-I's coffeemaker and took a sip as he thought. "What about the victims themselves? Any similarities?"

"Nope. Men, women, alien, human. The snatcher doesn't have a type, it seems."

"What about items found with the victims? Anything linking them there?"

Claire snorted at his question as Two Gun's scowl grew deeper. "Those details would be with the police and we've been asked not to contact them yet."

"Why not?"

*Quack*

"Because, Professor, Farrah and I are still in talks with the local PD."

Kaleb jumped, startled, as D34d-I glared at him from behind his desk. He hadn't clocked the duck alien when he walked into the office. Although, to be honest, he was more focused on getting coffee. He took another sip to calm himself before asking.

"What about Chief Raymond? I thought our little meeting sorted out the bounty?"

*Quack*

"Yes, it did. But it also made our relations that much more tenuous. We already didn't know who we could and couldn't trust down there. Now with the news that they've lost the bounty, both mine and Farrah's contacts have gone silent. It is a shitshow we are trying to get a handle on."

"Mhm." Kaleb nodded around a mouthful of coffee. Swallowing, he nodded at the other three players. "Well, here's wishing y'all luck. I've got a car to fix. Good luck with the murderer and the assholes."

D34d-I's next quack sounded more annoyed than usual as Kaleb turned toward the door.

*Quack*

"We'll get everything settled, Professor. But stop stealing my coffee!"

"But my pot is always empty, and yours is always full. If you're not going to drink it fast enough, don't blame me."

D34d-I released another annoyed quack as Claire and Two Gun waved Kaleb away. Apparently, the three of them had something to discuss. He almost ran into a Brute Clan lizard as he spun out of the office. The big lizard apologized, but kept a steady gaze on Kaleb as he walked off. Kaleb sighed as he scanned the area around his workshop. Brute Lizards were still doing their jobs, but they always had their heads angled toward his workshop.

"I'm going to have to deliver that damn axe sooner than I'd like." Kaleb muttered into his coffee cup. "These damn snitches are going to tell on me as soon as they get back."

Shaking his head, he entered his workshop. If he was going to go to Under-Town, there were a few things he wanted to prepare first. Maybe he'd stop in and check on Shaggy and the others if there was time.