Temple Tantrum

[Jiang Winters]

She slowly crept up towards the group, on the opposite end from the man that had called out to the Jedi. Before her was a tall figure. She could vaguely sense the aura before she stepped into that Force cancelling bubble. Val knew it was useless to fight inside the bubble, and the fact that the figure was so dangerously close to the edge..

She watched the others move forward and venture deeper into the temple. Val hung back till the last Hutt was the only one left before she backed out of the Force cancelling bubble. Using the Force, she lifted a heavy, medium sized statue. She sent the object hurtling at the figure's back. She knew it wouldn't do much damage, but it would definitely get his attention..she assumed it was a him, anyway. As soon as she launched the statue, she turned and dashed in the other direction, ducking into a hallway. She hoped to lure the soldier away from the ysalamiri and engage her in battle.

As is typical of heavy statues, the object Val lifted made a soft stone-upon-stone grating noise as it was hefted off of the temple floor, and, when flung through the air, made a fwoosh noise. Both sounds were quiet enough that a human would be hard-pressed to hear them, but Ayda was far from human.

She instinctively glanced behind her to investigate the sound and, lo and behold, a statue came hurtling right for her friggin' face! The feline promptly threw herself to the side. She skidded along on her elbow and hip armor; the statue smacked rather nicely into the ground, creating a small crater where it hit.

Ayda didn't bother inspecting the wreckage, nor did she contemplate how narrowly she'd avoided being pancaked. Instead, the feline scrambled to her feet, collected her rifle, and spun to engage whoever had chucked the statue at her. Unfortunately, all she saw was an empty corridor. Scowling, the Mashi Horansi slung her particle rifle and drew her shotgun. She racked a round into the chamber and advanced back down the hall, finger on the trigger. She knew she was walking right into a trap, but what choice did she have? They'd been ambushed, and if she let the Jedi live, then the scumbag could just chuck something even more massive at the Ysalamir and squish it. She had to bring an end to her attacker, and she had to do it quickly.

 

[Sreeya]

Val's heart pounded against her chest as she ran. Thankfully, the soldier fell for her trap. She was lured away from the lizards, leaving Val with her Force abilities. She skidded into the hallway, turning back in time to face her enemy. Val was immediately hit with a familiar aura. She stopped in her tracks, sliding on her feet before whipping around. Val pinpointed who it was and her eyes grew wide.

"A-Ayda?"

She couldn't believe it! Val felt a pang of anger quickly replace her surprise. However, there was definitely a moment where she felt betrayed. She had known Ayda to be more rigid than the other Winters, but she hadn't expected her to have gone this far. She hadn't expected Ayda to go back to working with Hutts. All Val could think about were the positive times they had spent together. Hell, Ayda had even helped give a her a bath. And now she stood there ready to kill her. Val's moment of thought definitely cost her, giving Ayda a chance to attack.

 

[Jiang Winters]

"Val?"

Ayda's blood ran cold for a split second. She remembered Valena. She remembered Valena only too well, only she didn't remember her nearly as fondly as Val remembered her. She clenched her teeth, lips pulling back in a lopsided snarl as her eyes narrowed and ears laid back.

She raised her shotgun, pressing the skeletal metal stock of the weapon into her shoulder and taking aim. The targeting reticule on her HUD wandered across Val's chest. Ayda's finger tightened around the trigger, her tail curling at the tip and her shoulders relaxing. Then, without the usual cliched one-liner, an angry bellow, or even a sassy smirk, she fired.

The gun barked and kicked, though her heavy armor soaked up most of the recoil. She slammed the slide back and racked it forward. A spent red casing went hurtling out of the weapon. She touched off the second round and worked the slide; out went a second smoking casing, little streamers of gray trailing off it. Ayda rocked the slide forward again and prepared to fire, though by now Val would have time to counterattack...

 

[Sreeya]

She heard Ayda's voice, but to her horror, Ayda's expression did not change in the least. Val took a step back, completely baffled to find her truly prepared to attack. She wouldn't have seen it coming in a million years. Val opened her mouth to speak again, but the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She instinctively drew upon the Force right as Ayda fired the shot, the energy shield on her gauntlet projecting up in time to deflect the pellets. Val couldn't help but call out to her.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS, AYDA?!"

Without waiting, Val abruptly dashed to the side, applying a powerful Force push to topple Ayda backwards. Less than a second later, Val jumped and ran up the side wall of the hallway, using the momentum to jump off and bring her saber down in an arc. Though the action looked vicious, it was clear that Val wasn't truly in this fight just yet. She still saw Ayda as a friend and this bothered her to no ends. Val aimed for her arm, knowing it would be shrugged off, but it would close the distance and hopefully prevent her from using the shotgun again.

"Stop this now!"

 

[Jiang Winters]

"Nngh!"

Ayda grunted as the force push slammed into her, shoving her backwards and causing her to lose control of her shotgun, which fell and dangled from its butt-mounted lanyard, which was clipped to her shoulder plate. She staggered back to her feet just as Val came in for round two, coming in for what looked to be a variation on a Falling Leaf attack directed at her limbs. Not one to take a blow like that sitting down, Ayda flung herself headlong into the melee, taking full advantage of her species' natural agility and her cybernetic enhancements.

As the saber fell for her left arm, Ayda brought up her bracer to guard herself. The blade came into contact with the ultrachrome-plated armor, and though the pain seared off instantly, the armor itself was intact. She batted the blade aside, and followed in by launching an open-palmed strike at Valena's sternum with her right hand. The move wasn't intended to kill, but rather, to knock Val back and knock the wind out of her long enough for Ayda to get some breathing room.

"You stole Sonam from me. Any chance I ever had with him you took!" she snarled in anger, her fingers reaching for her shotgun again. She was going to end this, by god, even if she had to beat Val silly with the stock of her shotty. She didn't want to shoot her now, no; she wanted the pleasure of pummeling the miserable little human into a bloody pulp with her bare hands.

 

[Sreeya]

Val simply growled at Ayda's words. She thought for sure that they were past that petty girly drama. Val felt anger course through her veins. This was only amplified by the fact that Ayda casually attempted to swat her saber off to the side. However, the second the saber touched her hand, as Val had prepared to collide against the armor to begin with, she switched off the saber. With the aid of the Force, the hilt flew to her left hand, the azure blade springing to life just in time to collide with the palm flying right to her sternum. With Ayda's left hand positioned more laterally, it left her torso slightly open. However, instead of a physical attack, Val let forth another powerful Force push. At this close range, it would cause her painful pressure on top of throwing her back.

"GET OVER IT! YOU'RE ACTING LIKE A CHILD! THAT WAS IN THE PAST! I CAN'T CONTROL HOW HE FEELS!"

Granted that the push toppled Ayda back again, Val would continue pressing an attack, swinging her saber in diagonally to slice across her torso. This time, her motion was slightly more precise, as it was obvious that her rage was replacing whatever she felt for Ayda.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Val was good, but Ayda had literally been built for a fight such as this. With her augmented reflexes, it wasn't difficult for Ayda to spot the danger posed by the re-positioned saber in the split-second of time it took for Val to re-position it. Instead of retreating from the attack, however, Ayda curled her hand into a fist, directing the ultrachrome plate on the back of her hand at the saber.

It was for naught, though, as a powerful force push send her skidding backwards and created intense pressure along her front, though her armor again soaked up the worst of it with her face receiving only minor pain, which she was able to ignore. Val moved in with a precise diagonal strike, aiming for Ayda's chestplate.

Rather than bother with a fanciful and dangerous block, the feline side-stepped the attack and slid into position at Val's flank in a single rapid motion. Operating on instinct, Ayda kept her momentum up and reached out for Val's weapon wrist while simultaneously bringing her knee up, intending to 'pull' Val down and into her knee, which would be poised to slam into her stomach.

 

[Sreeya]

Val was surprised when she felt her saber miss. Ayda was surprisingly agile for being bigger than her. She skidded forth and abruptly felt Ayda grasp her wrist. Val felt a pang of terror hit her as she realized this put her in an awful position. She began to be yanked down, but Val's strengths lied in the fact that she was incredibly agile and light. This put her at a disadvantage strength wise, but usually made her much more quicker and lighter than her enemies.

As a result, Val clicked off her saber and abruptly launched herself into the air again with the aid of the Force. Speed aided her movements as her body curled around in a halfcircle, poised in the air. Before she could be tugged down further, her right knee came up to complete that half circle and slam right into the left side of Ayda's face, her body positioned slightly diagonally. As a result, Ayda's right hand would be out of range to stop the kick. Also, due to Ayda aiming a knee at Val, it could potentially throw her slightly off balance. However, Val's main goal was to finish the circle, yank her wrist back and land on the ground behind Ayda.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Ayda saw what Val was up to, and it made her mad.

As the lithe human, in a demonstration of her incredible agility and speed, launched into a maneuver that would undoubtedly work to free her from Ayda's grasp, the feline decided that a very quick, very brutal reprisal was needed to put Val in her place before she could free herself.

She violently twisted Val's wrist, using her inhuman strength to snap the woman's joint as fast and firmly as she could with the intent of pushing it far beyond its limits. She simultaneously 'turtled up', that is, lowering her head forward while shifting her left shoulder upwards, bringing her armor's massive left shoulder pauldron into play. However, Ayda was indeed off balance, and in spite of her best efforts, she felt herself begin to slowly topple towards her right flank.

Still, she maintained something of an advantage. Her massive shoulder plate absorbed the blow from Val's knee, though the sudden shock accelerated her fall. She still held tight to Val's hand, and so she decided to use that to her advantage by trying to twist as she fell, to either slam the human into the ground along with her or to fling her away, to buy herself some breathing room.

 

[Sreeya]

Val cried out as excruciating pain shot up her wrist, throwing off her attempt at the kick. Though she landed the kick on heavy armor, the effect was useless. However, she suddenly felt herself be pulled down again. This time it was due to Ayda toppling over due to being off balance. Val gritted her teeth and attempted to ignore the pain. Instead of being successfully tossed aside, she simply landed right on top of Ayda. Usually this meant jumping into a blanket of furry, warm goodness. But no, Ayda was all armor and the impact made Val see stars for a moment.

Quickly collecting herself, Val glanced down at the shotgun still on Ayda. The muzzle of the gun was pointed downwards. Before Ayda could do anything to potentially crush her, Val used telekinesis to position the gun. A single tug with the Force pulled the trigger to fire the gun right through Ayda's foot. At this close range, there was no doubt it was enough to make Ayda suddenly have a very bad day. Not waiting around to admire her handiwork, Val quickly jumped off, her saber jumping to her right hand as the left was temporarily wounded. Her jump put her to Ayda's left flank, ready to strike down if she attempted to get up.

"Ayda stop this dammit! Remember who I am! I'm not your enemy!"

It was a last attempt at trying for peace.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Ayda howled in pain after the shotgun unloaded its charge of 00-buckshot into her boot at point blank range. Though well armored enough to shrug off the blast, the impact was still enough to force her foot down, badly spraining her ankle and damaging her toes and part of her foot as well. The attack bought Val the time she needed to get to her feet, though she seemed to underestimate the time it'd take for Ayda to recover from the assault. Fueled by adrenaline and years of combat experience, the feline was already hauling herself back to her feet by the time Val was ready to strike again.

A quick step took her back out of striking distance, giving Ayda a moment to stand up. She took her shotgun back in hand, cycled the slide, and hefted the weapon, leveling it right at Valena's head. A simple flick of her finger shifted the weapon from pump-action fire to the somewhat less reliable, but far faster, semi-automatic firing mode featured by the weapon, and with five rounds left in the tube, she was more than ready to obliterate Val.

A wicked smirk materialized on Ayda's lips. "This is payback for everything you've done to me and my family. That old asshole, Sheng, is going to get it next," she purred. The female shifted slightly, leaning forward into her shotgun as her finger touched the trigger...

Then, nothing.

Baffled, Ayda glanced down at her gun. The safety was on, but she didn't remember setting it. She moved to flick it off with her thumb, but something was in the way. Something very big, and something very invisible to the naked eye. Her heart leaped into her throat and her ears lowered as terror seized her. Something was intervening. She tugged back on her weapon and went for the safety again, but this time it was utterly immobile. To make matters worse, she could see her gun visibly bending - the shotgun was being bent in half by whoever was holding onto it!

Before she could react, she felt something swipe her feet out from under her. She plummeted to the ground, and a wicked stomp to her armor's chestplate crushed the wind out of her, while driving her down with enough force to crack the tiles beneath her and leave a dent in the floor. She coughed and wheezed as her fingers scrabbled at her chestplate in a vain attempt to loosen it enough for her to take a deep breath, but it was no use. It was jammed tight, and whatever had stomped on her was still atop her.

It was at that moment that her assailant decided to reveal himself.

The Force Cloak that had surrounded Sonam peeled away, shimmering into nothingness as the heavily armored feline, clad in his Dynamic Muscle Suit's Applique Armor, made his appearance. "Pity you started the party without me, Val," the feline quipped, as he applied a bit more pressure to Ayda's chestplate. "Would've been real fun to see you two go at it."

Prerequisite sarcasm delivered, the feline removed his boot from Ayda's chest, then delivered a punishing kick to her flank. The raw force of his power armor's kick sent her flying with enough force to smash through the plaster and concrete wall, leaving her to tumble to a stop in an abandoned storeroom on the other side. Sonam lobbed a EMP grenade in after her, then turned back to Val. "She'll probably live, but she'll be out of it for a few hours. A fire team's already on their way to recover her."

Smiling thinly, he knelt beside Val - the only way to bring his head even close to her level - and hooked one massive armor-clad arm around her, drawing her in for a gentle hug and giving her a quick nuzzle along her cheek. "That's not important though. Are you okay?"

 

[Sreeya]

Val's compassion was going to be the end of her. She knew it. She stared at the gun pointed at her head. She knew there was nothing she could do. In the end, Val did not want to kill Ayda. The one thing that truly struck her was that she wouldn't get to see her children again. This one gentle pull of the trigger and she would leave this galaxy forever. Val could do nothing but stare death in the face. She had always known she would die in battle, but she never would have predicted meeting her end at the hands of a friend. Val squeezed her eyes shut as Ayda clicked the trigger. However, she felt nothing. Was this death? Did this mean she was already dead and beyond pain? Val was afraid to open her eyes again, wondering if she would be standing at the pearly gates. However, she was taken out of her thoughts when more clicks ensued. Val finally opened an eye and was shocked to find Ayda still there, staring in confusion at her shotgun. Val opened both eyes and blinked, just as confused as the shotgun literally bent. She looked up at met Ayda's gaze, clearly informing her that she wasn't doing this.

Val gasped and jumped back slightly as Ayda was abruptly forced into the ground, the unseen force putting a dent in her armor and seemingly crushing her. She had never witnessed anything like this, and it only terrified her. Being in such a state of confusion, combined with her injury, made it so she didn't think to pause and realize who this was. However, a familiar silhouette abruptly materialized in front of her, and she was all but slammed with familiarity. Val had her back pressed against the wall, only managing a weak noise in response to his sarcastic remark. Without pause, he bodily kicked Ayda across the hallway, clear through the wall and into another room. He tossed in a grenade for good measure. Val could say nothing, still processing the strange series of events. She said nothing for a moment, completely stunned. As soon as she recovered, her first reaction was to lightly smack Sonam on the face.

"Why are you here?! It's the last stand! You could have gotten away! You-"

She realized how futile her words were. It was almost comical, especially as she was so tiny compared to him and lecturing him on safety. Val managed a weak smile and returned the hug, welcoming the nuzzle.

"I'm fine."

She lied. She had no reason to concern him with her wrist injury.

"There are more of them in the corridors. I have to find them. You should-"

She was cut off by a thunderous noise resonating from the upper levels of the temple. It was enough to send a vibration through the foundations. Val looked up, grimacing.

"Aerial assault. We're so boned.."

She looked down, just in time to catch Sonam rushing towards the source of the noise. Val paused before darting after him. She grabbed one of his paws to stop him, though it definitely took some effort. Val didn't exactly know why she stopped him. For a moment she simply muttered incoherently, looking down. She finally met his gaze, a serious look on her face.

"What if I never see you again..?"

The thought brought a dull ache to her chest. She had to fight to keep her emotions from pooling over. This was war, and there was no time to shed tears. She noticed she still had a grip on his paw and quickly retracted her hand, embarrassed. Val fully expected to die today and she had submitted herself to that fact. She hadn't even made an attempt at hiding the thoughts, to where Sonam would be able to understand exactly what was going through her mind. She had been in countless battles, but this was the grand finale. The last stand. Val finally gazed up at Sonam again, opening her mouth to say something, but another loud explosion above shook the foundations of the temple. Val looked up, the mood completely changed.

"I'll handle things down here! You should get out of here! This doesn't have to be your fight!"

 

[Jiang Winters]

Sonam scoffed at Val's suggestion. "Sam's already topside with several squads of my best men. Dal and Jiang are set to be here any minute now. Every last soldier and warship I can bring to bear is either here already or on its way. Coruscant's my home, Val. I can't walk away," he replied, before smiling fondly at her. "Sides, I couldn't live with myself if I just up and left you."

Whereas Val viewed the fight for Coruscant as a last stand, Sonam viewed it as a turning point. Should the Republic fail at Coruscant, their reinforcements would pour in and swamp the attacking Hutts, costing the Hutts dearly. Should they prove victorious, the Hutts would be repulsed and left weakened, demoralized and crippled from their defeat. He fully intended to walk away from the battle alive; he knew what the risks were, and he was fully prepared to take those risks, then slap the Hutts silly with them. He had too much to do, too much to live for; dying wasn't really an option for him.

The feline gently shook his massive gauntlet free of Val's hand, then reached around to his armor's back, where a steel box hugged tight against his suit. "I nearly forgot. This is yours now."

He held it out to his left, then let it drop to the floor. It smacked the ground with enough force to crack the tiling, which triggered the case to pop in half, its hinged lid folding open and a repulsorlift field holding the contents aloft. It was Sonam's Dynamic Muscle Suit, resized to fit Valena. The advanced suit of power armor was unlike anything else in the galaxy; it would give Val a very distinct edge in any fight, even without access to the Force. And, weighing in at over 700 pounds of armor and synthetic muscle, the suit would definitely level the playing field between her and any opponent.

The suit's abdomen opened up at a seam in the armor between the stomach and chest sections. To don it, she'd have to step 'up' into the chest cavity and work her arms in, then pull herself up into the armor before working her legs down into it. Ordinarily, a dedicated machine would be used to help her equip the armor, but such a luxury was nowhere to be found in the Temple.

"Here, get in. The armor's AI, Sonny, will seal up and boot the armor for you once you're in. Everything will be instinctive from there on out. I'll stand guard for you long enough to get in. One little caveat though; you've got to strip to wear it, unless you happen to be wearing a dedicated DMS interface suit under your robes."

 

[Sreeya]

"Er...no.."

She confusedly answered his question about wearing a DMS interface suit underneath. Truth be told, she didn't even know what the hell it was. The only reason she had snazzy tech so far was because of the Winters family. Even Huang had armor made for him. She glanced down at the DMS that Sonam took off to drop to the ground. Val simply looked down at it, quietly surveying it.

"Are you sure? Will you be all right?"

Once again, she felt the vague sense of being quietly laughed at for her concerns. Sonam had developed into a one man army on his own. If Val hadn't known him inside out, she would have been terrified in his presence. She looked up at his words, blinking.

"St-Strip? Now?? But we're..fight..battle..."

Another thunderous roar up above. Val quickly tossed off her robes. She ducked into a corner, blushing furiously at the thought of disrobing near Sonam, though he wasn't facing her. The cold chill of the temple abruptly gripped Val's bare skin and she quickly crouched next to the armor and began to slip into it. Almost instantly it took a hold of her, and it was a bit scary. Val grimaced, completely unsure.

"Um..Sonam..how does this work..."

She felt like an idiot. Usually, she never wore any armor to battle except for her gauntlet and a bracer on the other arm. Val looked down.

"Will I be able to stay fast?"

Val had no idea exactly how the armor worked yet. She didn't know she was in for a great surprise.

 

[Jiang Winters]

"I'm wearing a Generation 2 suit. It's a bit... Stiff, but I'll be fine," Sonam replied, turning his back to Val to make her feel safer about disrobing... Little did she know that he'd patched the visual feed from her suit into his neural net and was stealing a peek or three through her suit's sensor system. He watched as she clambered into the suit, ears twitching as he used the sensor feed to watch her board the armor. [Talk about eye candy!]

After she was aboard, he canceled the feed and turned back to her. The suit, with Val in it, was still suspended by the repulsorfield. It'd already sealed around her, leaving her covered from neck to toe. He used the force to call the Pinnacle's helmet to his hand and stepped behind her. With the application of a manipulation tentacle, built into his gauntlets to give him a fine touch that his gauntlets couldn't replicate, he bound her hair into a tight bun and fixed it in place with an elastic hairband he'd carried for such an occasion. After that, he slipped the helmet on over her head and made sure the seals between it and her neck closed properly.

The screen and speakers in her helmet popped to life a moment later, while the system interfaced with her nervous system via a series of high-end sensors running along her spine. A tiny avatar, vaguely similar in appearance to Sonam in khaki shorts and a bright Hawaiian shirt, popped up in the corner of her vision and waved. "Hey there. Name's Sonny, I'm your suit's Distributed Organic Computer. Kind of an AI. Don't mind me, Sonam's used this suit for so long that... Well, long story short he's 'imprinted' on this suit, so you're stuck with a mini-Sonam for your DOC." The digital tiger waved his hand, a string of brilliant blue holographic glyphs following behind his fingers. He tapped a handful of them. Her suit powered up as his fingers moved, with its primary power, locomotion, and sensor systems coming on-line.

"Okay girl, first things first. This suit is completely powered, and it takes its commands directly from your nervous system. When you move, I move with you. What you feel, I feel. What I feel, you can feel. What I see, you see. So on and so forth. Basically, this suit acts as a new 'skin' for you, giving you access to superhuman strength, agility, reflexes, and senses. There's also a bunch of nanotech stuff that's really really techy and, unless you have a doctorate in molecular chemistry and nanoscale engineering, will DEFINITELY fly right over your head."

He snapped his fingers and the characters disappeared. He lazily plopped back into a virtual hammock a second later, which was suspended between two palm trees. After tucking his hands behind his head and making himself comfortable, Sonny kept jabbering. "Now go ahead and move around a bit. I need to get some readings on how you move and work before I unlock all of the suit's abilities, like the bracer-mounted high frequency energy blades. Take it easy, though!" he warned, grinning devilishly, "First time I've ever had a girl inside me, so go easy on me, alright Val?"

 

[Sreeya]

Val was completely astonished when she saw the small AI version of Sonam. His state of attire was ridiculous, and it only made her jaw drop. When he laid back on a hammock, she simply shook her head.

"Man I wish I were on vacation right now.."

She sadly muttered to herself. He looked so happy in his little hammock. However, she quickly remembered where she was. Val nodded.

"Right. Moving."

She began to move, and took a step that would have made her walk right into the wall. She was too busy getting used to the armor. However, the armor stopped on its own, not in a way that made her trip. Val coughed, realizing what she had almost done. She raised an eyebrow, embarrassed around an AI.

"I meant to do that, Sonny. Testing you out, you know.."

Val reached for her saber and ignited it, swinging it around. The motion was effortless, and she felt as if she were simply waving her own arm about. Val glanced over at Sonam, her vision enhanced. Upon request she was immediately allowed to zoom in and offered crystal clear picture.

"Wow! I can clearly see up your nose! This is amazing!"

 

[Jiang Winters]

Sonny burst into laughter as he popped back into her field of vision, still chillin' out in his hammock. "Yeah yeah, you think that's clever, you should just SEE all the juicy footage I've got stored in here of him AND you!" the feline AI quipped, a mile-wide smirk on his muzzle. He snapped his fingers and the armor, still in training mode and therefore under his control, slowly moved as he willed it.

"Okay, last couple things. First, this suit has built-in weaponry. Here, I'll demonstrate. By triggering it myself, you'll feel how to trigger it, and it'll be instinctive from there."

Slowly as so not to injure Val, he directed the left arm out to her left and held her hand perfectly flat, then activated the bracer's High-Frequency Energy Blade, which was very similar in performance and operation to a lightsaber. A pair of two foot long blades of shimmering blue energy, tapering together to form a sharp point at their tip with a narrow channel between the two blades, sprang to life from a pair of emitters built into the heavy armored panel on the back of her hand. He then demonstrated the same with her right arm, holding it in a safe direction and her hand perfectly level. "These are HFEB's. We call 'em laser wristblades for shits and giggles. They work almost the same as a lightsaber, so the same materials that stop and short out sabers short these out, but these work underwater so... Yeah, you get the picture. The backs of your fingers are plated with flexible cortosis weave, so you won't lop your own fingers off by accident. Now, weapon 2!"

He deactivated the blades and, still holding her wrist perfectly level, aimed both her hands directly at a the wall in front of her. A pair of long rectangular ultrachrome pieces peeked up from the tops of her forearm armor; emitters for a powerful but short-ranged blaster. Sonny fired both weapons, pumping several bolts of destructive sapphire energy into the wall, creating nasty, smoldering craters. "A pair of heavy blaster pistols. They recharge off of the suit's power supply, but the best they can manage is 10 shots at a time. It takes 'em about 5 seconds to recharge after their capacitors are expended, so plan for 5 seconds between salvos. I can help you with targeting data, so hitting your target won't be a problem. Just bear in mind that you've got to be within 25 meters of your target for these to be effective."

Sonny disabled the weapons, then used the tip of her boot to kick her shield gauntlet up into the air, which he snagged and snapped onto her armor's left forearm. Within seconds, the armor's nanite technology had interfaced with it and had assumed control of the device, and had even created miniature power conduits linking the device to the suit's power grid. "Aaand there. You can activate that at will now, too. Looks like you're all set for war, girl. I'm disengaging training mode now - you've got full control now."

Sonam, sensing that Sonny's training was complete, stepped up to Val and gently rapped his fist against her shoulder. She'd feel the cold, harsh texture of his armored fingers as if he'd touched her bare skin, though the armor was incapable of transmitting pain and so it'd otherwise feel like nothing at all. "There you go. How do you like it so far?"

 

[Sreeya]

Val gasped as she felt Sonam's touch, though the pressure was different from feeling any kind of pain. She flexed her digits, though she was reminded of the pain from her wrist. Val still hadn't mentioned it. She looked up at Sonam and smiled, though he probably wouldn't see it.

"It's incredible! I've never experienced anything like this!"

She went to give Sonam a hug, but it was just an awkward gesture with metals colliding.

"Anyway.. I can't thank you enough. I don't feel hopeless about the ysalamiri situation anymore."

Val knew time was running out. A battle had erupted not far from where they stood, and the upper levels of the temple was turned into a war zone. She knew Sonam would be needed elsewhere. Val clapped Sonam on the back.

"Let's come out alive and meet after battle!"

There was no doubt that she felt a lot more confident than she did minutes ago. Perhaps today wouldn't mark her death, after all..

 

[Jiang Winters]

Sonam pulled Val into a gentle hug after she clapped him on the back, then turned her loose. "Stay safe, Val. Sonny, you keep her alive or I'll melt you down for salvage!" he said, winking. The feline's helmet then popped out of his armor and sealed over his face, hiding his visage from view as he turned and left the area, going off to fight his own battle, while Sonny, having detected the damage to Val's wrist, set to work using the suit's on-board medical systems to fix it, though he -did- rather strongly suggest that she take a moment to use the force on the injury, lest she go into battle with an injured limb.