novelraw Chapter 143 – Hotshot
Chapter 143 – Hotshot
Chapter 143 – Hotshot
“Well, most shotgun slugs don’t have the over-shot card or a crimp in front so you can just put them in off the shelf. A rivet press or similar device could help save your thumbs though.” – Kurt explaining to Tig how to install his new toys.
The next morning Kurt awoke to something fluffy in his face. That wasn’t exactly uncommon with Val around. Her tails had a mind of their own even when she was awake, let alone asleep.
Still, he turned his face, trying to get the soft fur to move past without having to push it. Normally, that worked and the fluffy appendage would slip past and slide under the covers. This time, that didn’t happen. He felt something dry and bumpy touch his cheek before he was poked by something with substance and he heard a huffing breath.
“Mmm Val… scoot.” Kurt put his hand between them and gave a little push. Sometimes that helped to get her to wiggle out of his personal… his hand was buried in fur that wasn’t a tail. “Val?”
Kurt opened his eyes to see a very vulpine face looking back at him, its yellow eyes snapping open and focusing on him. He wasn’t sure what to do as the giant fox blinked before it yawned, a long pink tongue flicking out to lick its nose. He flinched backward, bumping into Kristi where she was laying next to him and rolling over her back since she liked to sleep on her stomach. She barely groaned as they swapped places in the bed.
The extra room allowed Kurt to get a good look at the absolutely massive fox that was curled into a ball where Val had been. Its black fur only broken up by the yellow eyes that peered over the twin tails gently patting against he bed like when a dog wags its tail.
“Uhhhh… Val, I presume?”
Kurt would be damned if the fox didn’t smile as it lifted its head. It then winked and stretched its head forward to put its muzzle a few inches from Kristi’s face. She then licked Kristi’s face, starting at her nose and ending in her hairline.
“MMFf, Kurt…” Another lick. “Babe, its early…”
Val then began to snuffle in Kristi’s ear as Kurt watched. He was unsure if he should watch and let Val have her fun or if he should interrupt. That decision was made for him a moment later as Kristi’s hand came up and landed gently on Val’s face.
“If we are doing it then star-“ Kristi’s eyes snapped open as she realized that her hand was wrapped around a very fuzzy face with her fingers buried in the dense fur in front of Val’s ears. “EEEEIIIIAAHAA!” she shrieked and shoved herself backward, using Val’s face to push herself away.
This had the effect of shoving Val off the bed as she let out a yowl like a fox and flailed around. She thumped into the floor, having been completely tangled into the sheet from her twisting and squirming. On the other side of the equation, Kristi slammed into Kurt who was still propped on his elbow, having been looking over her shoulder.
She knocked him off his precarious perch and he rolled over her as she tried to slide under him. Sensing his body over her, Kristi Latched onto his arm and her tail snagged his legs out of reflex. Her momentum was such that she carried them both over the edge of the bed where they impacted the floor.
Kurt and Kristi both groaned from the impact where she had landed atop him but gotten an elbow to the ribs for her efforts. They both turned their heads and looked under the bed to where Val was struggling under the covers that she was twisted into.
“Damn it all, this wasn’t supposed t- Ah fuck it.” Said a voice that sounded deeper than Val’s but with a little extra screech at some words that had a naturally higher pitch. Suddenly the fox vanished and a very naked Val was left extracting herself from the bedding.
“VAL WHAT THE FUCK!” Kristi yelled under the bed.
“I should be asking you the same question. Kurt didn’t freak out nearly as much.” Val grumbled.
Feeling the need to correct the official record, Kurt spoke up while helping Kristi to her feet. “For the record, I also tried to get away but rolled over Kristi. It’s just that she is stronger and had a grip on your face.”
Kristi was looking between them like they both were crazy as her blood pressure came back down. “I still haven’t gotten an answer, Val.”
Kurt looked to the clock and saw that it was after five in the morning. He would be getting up in less than an hour anyway so he decided to just start getting dressed and put on pants while tossing robes to the girls. “Hold that thought. I am getting the coffee started before we get into this latest clusterfuck.” He then shuffled off into the kitchen while Kristi began chewing out Val about her proclivity of waking people up in very unorthodox ways.
A few minutes later the girls sauntered out of the bedroom and down the hall, lured by the smell of coffee. Kurt already had mugs set out and filled by the time they arrived. After settling in on the couch, Val began to recount what had happened in the night.
“This is something Inari and I have been working on for a little while.” She began, only to be interrupted by Kurt.
“How often do you talk with her?”
“Almost every other night.” Val answered. “Don’t you go to the gallery like every night?”
Kurt frowned. “Ah-no. Like once every couple weeks. But please, continue.”
Val shrugged and went back to her story. “Well, Inari thought that I should be able to shift into a fox since most of the kitsune that have a little spark of divinity or enough tails can do it. So, she has been coaching me a little bit here and there while we talk about other things.”
Seeing that neither of her partners were going to interrupt, she continued. “She was guiding me through the process when it just kinda happened. I think that was because of the nanites, but I can’t be sure. So, when I woke up, it was as a fox which was… weird. Familiar but weird.”
“Why was she guiding you through it?” Kristi asked when Val finished.
“She said that I might get stuck halfway or hurt myself and she didn’t want that.”
Kurt snorted. “Lucky. The Origin thinks that suffering is a character trait.”
Val gave him a sad smile and squeezed his hand while Kristi asked another question. “Why are you so big? I thought foxes were small, but you were like five feet long before the tail.”
“Oh yeah. Is that a kitsune thing?” Kurt asked, now very curious himself.
“Ah that is a half-elf thing.” Val answered before taking a sip of her coffee. “Apparently, I don’t have the ability to shift mass like a regular kitsune of the same level of ascension. So, I am just a really big, black fox.”
“Say that three times fast.” Kurt mumbled into his mug, making Val laugh while Kristi looked confused.
Val skipped past the little joke, going back to her explanation. “Apparently, I should be able to do other things that a normal kitsune can’t do in their fox form. Not sure what that is yet, but Inari says I will figure it out in time.”
“So, is there any downside?” Kristi asked.
“I wouldn’t call them downsides but it’s definitely going to take some time to adjust or get used to.” Val set down her mug and snuggled into Kristi’s side. “It’s like I was the passenger in a car and telling the driver where to go. But at the same time, the driver was telling me about all these things I hadn’t noticed or didn’t know I wanted to do before.”
“Such as?”
“Well, burrowing was a new one. Like I wanted to burrow under the covers this morning and not in the normal way I do. Oh! Scents and smells. It was like I could taste everything I can normally smell, and it was all so interesting. There weren’t bad smells, but I felt like I had a preference? Like I wanted to only be around certain ones.”
“What smells do you want to be around?” Kurt asked.
Val’s tails flicked over to him. “The kind that we all make when we are having some fun together.” She winked and bopped him in the face with the fluffy appendage.
Kurt swept his hand up to push the tail away only to hear Kristi let out a gasp then a little muffled moan. Coffee was soon forgotten as they had other, more interesting things to ‘discuss’ that morning.
*****
So, second attempt with this stuff, should have everything I need. Kurt thought to himself as he and the girls stepped through the doors into the training range that Jay’s groups somehow now owned. He wasn’t going to question it. This facility was everything he could ask for short of having a way to do force-on-force training with real guns. Well, maybe with the right spells…
That train of thought was abruptly decoupled as he noticed that there were other people in the room and not the ones he was expecting to run into. He was supposed to meet Sam there for some additional testing along with Tig. They were there, but they were also joined by the two new teams and their handlers.
“Well, shit.” Val muttered as she saw them all turn to look their way. “It’s our favorite people.”
Kurt grumbled a little. “So much for getting some valuable testing done.”
They walked over to the staging area that separated the benches from the back line of the range. It was made up of a series of tall tables that held their gear when getting ready for training or for inspection afterward. Kurt rarely used them, preferring the ones near the control tower since that was where he spent a lot of time programming target paths and settings.
Sam broke away from the group as they walked past, jogging over in his male persona this time. “Sup Kurt? Val and Kristi, good to see you again.” He gave Kurt a fist bump and quick hugs to the girls. “I wasn’t expecting a crowd today.”
“Yeah, me neither.” Kurt began laying out several boxes of ammunition and guns to use it in. “Have you had much interaction with them?”
“Eh, not much, just met them.” He waggled a hand. “Other than confirming that Taylor is more sensitive than a dick around teeth, his partner is pretty cool. Not sure about the other team yet, they seem jumpy.”
“Probably because Kurt nearly killed two of them a couple days ago.” Kristi hadn’t taken her eyes off the group since they entered.
Sam gaped at her. “What! Dude, spill, what did they do to piss you off?” he quickly summoned his own components and set them near the ammunition along with some tools.
Val filled in their changeling friend while Kurt began to assemble a selection of rounds with the elemental putty and hardening it under the special UV lamp that Sam had brought. He found that particular idea brilliant, mixing a UV reactive adhesive with the chemical compound. All he had to do was fill the hollow point cavity with the material then set it in a little oven looking contraption that had a purple light.
He had made it through all of the .32 ACP and into the 45’s by the time Val had caught Sam up on the latest drama. “That iiiisssss… wow. That was dumb no matter which way you slice it.”
“Yeah, he threw that short-stack like two hundred yards.” Val confirmed. “Then that snake guy tried jumping in and I thought it was going to be a TPK before Jay showed up and handed out peepee spanks.”
“TPK? Peepee spank?” Sam had a bewildered look on his face.
“TPK is ‘Total Party Kill’ and refers to D&D where a party is all killed in an encounter. Peepee spank is something I say on occasion. I picked it up from one of my platoon leaders back in the army. It means the same thing as getting chewed out. Kinda like a ‘slap on the hand’ metaphor.” Kurt filled them in as he pulled out several boxes of shotgun slugs.
Tig suddenly appeared from nowhere, leaning over the table to look at the boxes of ammunition. “Are those mine?”
“GEE-YAH!” Kurt flinched away in surprise along with everyone else. “Dude! Some warning next time. Fuck, can’t you walk up like a normal person for once?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I was trying to not interrupt but got excited.” Tig said with absolutely no remorse in his tone.
After she calmed down, Val was rather curious about the possessed elf. “How did you do that? The teleport thing?”
Tig tore his gaze away from the bench top to look at her as he responded. “I just sort of can. It’s not teleporting though. It’s more like a walk but through a place you can’t see.”
“Is it a place you can describe?” Kristi asked while crossing her arms and glaring daggers at the agent.
“Oh, sure.” Tig answered. He was forced to continue when he noticed that everyone was looking expectantly at him. “OH, right. So, it’s like a reality that is slightly off from our own. Like running on a different frequency. Umm… like souls or their outlines are the main thing you can see as far as living things, but the rest is just a muted version of this.” He waved his hand around.
Val was listening intently and ended up asking a bunch of follow-up questions. Apparently, she knew something about sub dimensions already and wanted to compare notes.
Kurt wasn’t sure about overlaying dimensions and seeing souls, but he was sure that he was ready to get on with testing before they were interrupted again. “Yes, Tig, those are yours. We still need to test them, but everything should work.”
While the possessed elf smiled and watched intently, Kurt went and set out a couple targets. One was the steel target they had used before, but another was a large metal plate that was hung on chains from a frame. It was designed to move a lot when hit by a bullet due to how it was mounted. Sam set up a series of cameras around the target, slow motion and ultra-high definition ones at various places. All the wires ran back to a laptop that he had set next to his lab equipment.
Kurt went back to the bench and pulled out the little Walther and loaded the first magazine with the ‘heat’ rounds they had previously tested. He wanted to see if the quantity of payload had any effect. He fired a couple rounds, each one punching through, but with much smaller holes and less burning spall than previously. That test was confirmed by the 45 that he tried next, producing much larger holes with greatly increased spall. Those fires were quickly put out and he noted the effects in his notebook, recording the added weight of the incendiary payload for each.
The slow motion camera showed a much more detailed picture of what happened. Each of the rounds seemed to burn their way through rather than penetrate. It reminded Kurt of the actual HEAT round testing he had seen using proper shaped charges.
“Next was an acid?” He asked, looking at the row of hollow points with a milky white paste in the cavity. It reminded him of the old Glaser Power-Ball ammo that was more novelty than practical.
“Yup, probably best against living things but we have the remains of that metal target and some other materials.” Sam confirmed, holding his own notebook and scribbling like a mad man while adjusting the cameras he had set up.
Kurt fired at the steel plate, getting barely any result from it besides a fizzle of orange smoke that smelled like rust. He then reset and tried it on a section of tree trunk that Sam had set up, getting a much more violent reaction, that caused the wood to smolder then eventually combust. After putting that out with a solution provided by Sam, he tried it on a cinderblock, getting nothing besides a mess of broken concrete.
Lastly, they tried it on another meat target, this time the front section of a deer that looked like it had seen better days. When Kurt had asked, Sam explained that he had found it as roadkill and decided it would make a good target and not waste much like the pig carcass.
The acid compound acted much like the heat round, this time without the fire but still releasing a lot of heat and steam as the front quarter of the deer was dissolved. The most disturbing thing, besides the smell, was the bones foaming as the acid reacted with something in them. Sam thought it was calcium but couldn’t be sure without more testing.
“Ice next.” Sam said and reset the range, cleaning up the debris and ‘remains’ of the previous test. He handed Kurt the next magazine which had purple filled hollow points.
Kurt put another round into the steel and they watched as the metal changed color. They also heard as it changed pitch, the ringing report moving higher and higher in frequency. The change took place rather quickly, lasting less than a second before going still.
“Shoot it again?” Sam asked and Kurt obliged, putting another round on the plate and causing the whole thing to shatter.
“Well fuck me.” Kurt said in wonder as he watched the rain of glass like shards falling to the ground in a wide circle.
“Sorry, not my type.” Sam muttered while stopping the record functions and resetting the camera.
Kurt chuckled as they set the next target and he put another bullet into a new section of tree trunk. It resulted in the log cracking and splitting, its bark flaking off to reveal a frosty and splintery stump. When Sam dragged it out of the way, the whole thing split along one of the fault lines with a pop and a crack.
The next shot was on another section of the carcass which had a similar reaction to the log. It grew a layer of frost and there was the sound of splintering ice as it froze within half a second of exposure. Once again, when Sam touched it, it split, large gaps opening around the joints and the intercostal spaces. Even the hair flaked off like dead needles from a poorly watered Christmas tree.
Sam sighed after he cleaned up the latest testing. “That was a great reaction. Overall, I am very happy with how that went. It was also nice to confirm that the quantity of the payload makes a big difference.”
“Me too. Unless you have any issues I say we call them Heat, Chem and Freeze rounds for ease of nomenclature.” Kurt agreed while helping him pack up. “When can you deliver on those?”
“Names are fine by me. I can get the rest in a couple days. Enough for thousands of rounds based on the 45 cavities. I am still working through the gems we got from the last raid and a stockpile I found in a tourist trap off of I-80.” He then looked at Kurt pulling out a shotgun. “What’s that?”
“Shotgun. Project for Tig.” Kurt answered and went to drag the large hanging target over to the testing impact area.
“Tig? A shotgun?” Sam looked at the possessed elf who was now watching intently at the proceedings.
“Apparently he likes to spread the Gospel of the Gauge.” Kurt joked then loaded one of the slugs into the chamber. “Ready?”
Sam reset the cameras and gave a thumbs up. Kurt fired, riding the recoil from the heavy slug. He recovered in time to watch it hit the target and see… nothing happen. The target didn’t more, didn’t make a noise, just sat there as the slug stopped on its surface and dropped to the floor with a clatter.
“That wasn’t normal, was it?” Sam asked and stopped the recording.
Kurt walked over to the target with Tig bouncing along in his wake. “Nope, but it was expected.” He leaned down and picked up the still warm slug, bouncing it in his hand before setting it on the top of the target stand to look at in detail.
It looked like a completely normal rifled slug except for the bit of stainless steel that was stuck into the cavity of the hollow point. Kurt examined it and saw no wear on the steel button, which boded well for the purpose of reusing it. He then pulled out his inspection loop and looked at the target before a wide smile split his face. “Jackpot.”
He turned around and high-fived Tig. “Great idea, works perfectly.”
“Really?” Asked the possessed. “Are you sure we don’t need more testing?”
“I would love to test on a live subject. But finding a volunteer is a little tricky.” Kurt said before grabbing the slug with a thick leather glove and using a pair of pliers to pull out the shiny nose cap.
When he had issued out new armor, Tig had asked him for some help in getting a ‘less lethal’ alternative to use on raids. He didn’t like the wands limited range and was rather averse to just shooting people. Apparently, he had a thing with killing sentient people. This was the solution Kurt came up with in his energy transfer researching binge.
The way it worked was by press fitting a reuseable, stainless-steel, device into the hollow point of a slug. The device was enchanted and just press fit due to its wide, flat head and short stem, looking like a big thumb-tack. The device itself would transfer energy into a spell construct that acted like the paralyze wands he had made. The difference was, instead of mana, it converted kinetic energy into the spell construct. In this case, it converted 2500 foot-pounds of energy into one spell that acted on one target to devastating effect. This also allowed for a greater range, in excess of 100 yards when using the rifled slugs.
“Well how about we find you a nice test subject then?” Jay said from behind them “May I see that?” He pointed to the shotgun and the ammunition that Kurt immediately handed over. He had seen him coming from where he was talking to the other squads and now recognized the smile that screamed trouble. “HANS!”
The half dwarf immediately came running in the funny scuttling way that short and stocky people ran. He arrived a moment later and went to attention. “Yes sir!”
“Good hustle, Hans.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Is Jay planning what I think he is planning?” Kristi asked over their implant.
Jay smiled like the shark from Nemo. “Have you had a chance to inspect the equipment that Kurt made for you?”
“I have. It’s the finest gear I have ever seen.” The half dwarf admitted and nodded respectfully at Kurt.
“Would you trust it and its quality with your life?” Jay was probing for something, and Hans had no idea what he was walking into.
“I plan to at every opportunity.” The sincerity in Hans’ voice was almost painful since Kurt had a good idea of what was about to happen.
“Great. How about you go and grab that big target and bring it over here for me?” Jay pointed to the hanging target that was fifty yards away. “Just drag it halfway back for me.”
“OH! Yeah, I think so.” Val responded to Kristi. “Should we stop him?”
Hans didn’t even question it as he began trotting down range. Jay let him get several yards away before he pointed the shotgun at the back of his legs.
Kurt thought it might be easier to do some testing on an animal or something, rather than a person. He was sure he could find a coyote or some other pest animal back home. “Jaaaayyyy… That might not-“ Kurt began, deciding too late to be cautious.
Boom. Jay fired and Kurt saw the slug fly out and hit the dwarf in the leg before the short man had a chance to turn at Kurt’s words. He stopped midstride, completely frozen as he tipped over with a ragged hole in his pants over his left buttock.
“What the shit!” yelled the orc lady and she came sprinting over just in time to see Hans slowly begin to tip then fall completely to the ground. He rocked around like an action figure that was tipped over, coming to a balance point in the position he had been shot in.
“Hmm, effective.” Jay commented, running the pump on the shotgun and handing it back to Kurt with the action open. “Well, let’s go see how he faired.”
The rest of the agents were completely dumbstruck at what had happened and stood gaping at the scene as Kurt and company followed along. Tig actually bounded ahead and reached the prone form of Hans before anyone else to begin poking at him like a kid pokes at a bug.
As they reached Hans, Kurt saw the steady rise and fall of his chest and knew he would be fine. He also saw that the wound wasn’t nearly as bad as he had assumed. The skin below the hole was a little red but not at all damaged. It reminded him of a paintball welt, a little puffy but not bad. The slug was also trapped in the pant leg, having fallen down after stopping, but he wasn’t about to go fishing in another mans pants for it.
Kurt broke out his inspection loop and gave the agent a thorough once over, looking for any trace of what the spell did. He was getting a pretty good sense of the spells power and could see it draining steadily as the dwarf’s natural resistance began to overcome the remnant of the spell construct.
“How does it look?” Jay asked after Kurt stood back up.
“Oh, he probably has another hour before he can begin to move, maybe another half hour after that before he is combat ready.” Kurt reported.
Jay hummed a little before nodding. “Hmm. That would put the effect at around four or five hours for a normal human then. Both dwarves and Gnolls are pretty magic resistant.” That made it click in Kurt’s head what the man’s other half was, and he noted it for the future. Now that he was looking for it, he could see some similarities with his posture and some other things like the hair and forward set of the shoulders.
So that’s what he is. Explains the attitude, I guess. Kurt thought then cast the counter spell to end the paralyzing effect instantly. Hans gasped and began to flail, windmilling his arms around until he could sit up. That seemed to be a common reaction from people’s first time with the spell. All the actions the body would naturally take to balance itself still tried to work but couldn’t, thus they caught up when they could again.
“Now, my dear Hans. What do we think about Kurt?” Jay said and poked the dwarf with the tip of his shoe.
“He is the best enchanter. I will never disrespect him or anyone else ever again. I am grateful for his mercy.” Hans spit the words out as fast as he could while bowing his head forward.
“That was a little much.” Huffed the orc as she and the other agents finally caught up but avoided crowding around. Her elf hander had a frown on his face while the half-naga nodded along, band wagoning with her.
Jay turned, arching an eyebrow. “Is it, Gella? Because I think I just saw a 100% successful attitude adjustment administered by shotgun and he lived. I call that the perfect amount.”
Gella pursed her lips, the tips of some very short tusks popping up over her bottom lip. “Still, he was already sorry for what he did, and we all planned to apologize as soon as you were done with your business.”
“Well perhaps we all get introduced then. Let’s head back to the staging area and sit down for a while. Hans, you can stand if you want.” Jay added the last part as an afterthought, seemingly genuinely concerned about the short man’s comfort.