Sean and Cade: The Cutting Edge

[Justin OOC]

Thursday Night 7pm

After revealing he had indeed managed to somehow keep hold of the rifle he took from the prison, later on Sean had revealed an interest in it.   It was after school, nearly seven at night, as Cade had had to take care of some work before he could head over to Sean's.     The rifle and clips were folded up in his backpack, and he smiled as he pulled up at Sean's.  

He quietly made his way to the barn, where he'd agreed to meet up with Sean, and chuckled.  "Anyone else, they'd probably wonder just what the hell's going on."   He knocked on the door, and waited.   He knew enough about firearms being a hunter, but this was so far beyond simple rifles and shotguns, he hadn't really felt too comfortable doing much with it, It would be better to have Sean look at it, and then maybe figure out just what all the weapon, and perhaps the ammunition could do.

"Hey Sean, it's Cade, you home?"  In his other hand he had two pizzas, a meatlovers for himself, and one with pepperoni, bacon, green olives, and mushrooms for Sean.   

[Sean Cassidy]

"Just a minute! Coming!" came Sean's high voice through the door of the converted barn.

He blinked his eyes and pulled himself out of the phantasmagoria of cyberspace, where he'd been working on his game without having to relay on the clunky interface of a keyboard to write code. When you could translate the thoughts and ideas in your head directly into (virtual) reality, it made designing and programming a video game so easy, so easy in fact, that the options available to you could be bewildering if you didn't constrain yourself.

It also made losing track of time a definite rather than a possibility. Sean spun around in his chair and hopped out, rushing towards the front door as he saved his progress and powered down the dedicated, isolated server he developed his games on with a thought. Sean had initially tried not to rely on his growing psionic powers too much, but, well... with the ease and convenience they lent to his interests and hobbies... He didn't even feel guilty anymore.

Sean opened the door and waved Cade in, standing up on his toes and inhaling deeply as the pizzas passed by his face, the Triforce on his green shirt distorting. "Smells good. Didn't realize how much time's past, nor how hungry I am."

The buxom boy got a couple of plates and set them on the gaming table he and his dad had made, the cover hiding the sunken area holding the grid map, terrain, and miniatures from their last gaming session, a few assorted dice still sitting in the shallow trough ringing the table. They each claimed a few pieces and started eating. After a while and sating his initial hunger, Sean waved an impatient hand.

"Okay, let's see this thing and see if I can figure anything out about it."

Sean might not have been familiar with shooting guns, but he was familiar enough with their mechanical components and design, having done some research so he could add verisimilitude to the firearms in Regenesis and to the modding and crafting subsystems. Had to have those in open world RPGs now, and he liked them too, and tried to add multiple mechanical functions to each skill in the game, to make different play styles viable.

It the high-tech weapon had electrical or computerized components, well then, he could have a 'discussion' with them and learn a great deal more.

[GDP_ST]

The gun was so far beyond what Sean had researched about firearms that it might have come from some cyberpunk-themed RPG.  As he gently turned the surprisingly lightweight rifle over, the technologist's keen eyes saw several signifiers that whoever had made the weapon was not just on the cutting edge, but defined that edge - hell, they were likely the molecules just ahead of the edge as it swept through the air.

"Look here... It's a RFID receiver."  He said, pointing to a small chip visible just above the trigger assembly.  A touch of his Shine informed him further.  "Yeah... set to receive a very short-range signal from a specific encoded transmitter."

"Okay."  Cade nodded, trying to look as though he was following.  He recognised some of the terminology but...

"Radio Frequency Identification."  Sean said, glancing up at the athlete.  "It means that whoever was issued the gun also had a chip in their... hand?  Or glove.  During signing out the gun, this chip here was encoded to sync up to that other chip."  He half-closed his eyes, exploring the electronics of the chip and what they attached to.  "Wow.  It means, dude, that if you'd pulled the trigger on this thing, it wouldn't have fired."

"Shit."  Cade felt his composure tested in that moment.  Imagined going into battle against the Dark, it looming over him... or a team-mate... or Marissa, and him being the only one able to do anything only for the gun not to fire.  The thought made him a little queasy.  "That's sneaky."  he commented.

"Very."  Sean nodded, still examining the gun.  "Not only can enemies not pick up and use these weapons in the field, but you could deactivate every single gun in the arsenal if there were a revolt or mutiny, just by sending out a... signal..."  He looked up at Cade and grinned.  "This might help us crack Site B, man.  I could probably turn off every gun in the place if I can get a strong enough radio signal to send the deactivation command."

"Right."  Cade nodded, smiling.  "What else is funny about the gun?"

"Well, other than the composite it's made from is top of the line, and the level of engineering is way above what our boys in uniform are used to, the ammo is weird.  This clip looks like taser rounds.  This one looks like normal bullets.  And this last one looks like some kind of armor-piercing sabot load."  Sean whistled.  "I wouldn't try to hide behind a wall from this thing and expect it to protect you."  A thought occurred and he moved his fingertips over the chip again.  "This can be used to track the gun... but there doesn't seem to be any log of any interrogation signals indicating they've tried, yet.  I turned off the receiver for now, but I'm going to need to work on the chip and on a trigger chip for you to wear on a glove or something."

[Cade]

Cade nodded.  "I guess it was a good thing I'd not actually had to use it then."  Cade chuckled softly   "I'd actually been concerned with them tracking it, glad they didn't.   Though I find it hard to believe that they don't know who we are.   Not like we killed anyone there."    

He sighed.  He was happy they'd avoided killing, but at the same time, he knew some of the injuries inflicted were somewhat severe.  It was easier knowing that they'd have killed them as intruders if they'd been given the chance, but it was still something he knew the others, aside from Jason, probably thought about.  

"It might be a good idea to find a way to isolate this gun, so that only I can use it and they can't send some sort of kill signal to it.  I'd hate to actually need to fire it and not be able to."

He was still enjoying another slice of Pizza, and mused  "Taser rounds, I'd be interested in exactly how those work, and once you've got it working, knowing how effective the AP rounds are would be a good idea.  This gun's way more advanced than anything our military's using."

[Sean Cassidy]

"It's not exactly Borderlands tech - not counting the whole digitizing stuff," Sean agreed, pointing at the high-tech firearm with the crust of his second slice of pizza. "But it's not that far off. I'm a little surprised they didn't make inputs for multiple magazines, or a special magazine that hold multiple kinds of rounds and a selector, so they don't have to switch magazines entirely to get the ammo they want. Can really see why they went with RFID, for their needs, instead of something like biometrics. Far more practical and elegant a solution for them."

Sean stood up and pattered around the gaming table to put the rest of his pizza in the fridge. Two pieces was about his limit in one meal, but he'd probably snack on another piece later, and besides, cold pizza was just about as good as hot. He walked back to the table and set his elbows on it, resting his jaw on his fists as he eyed the gun once more.

"As for restricting its access... I already switched the frequency the tag is operating on. I can beef up the encryption and make a trigger chip we can put into a glove or ring or something for you to wear. I can't guarantee someone couldn't shut the thing off remotely - this is Shadowrun territory and they have at least one guy over there sort of like me when it comes to cyber voodoo - but I can make it a lot harder. To make it complete proof against a remote kill order, I'd have to strip out the tag and electrical components entirely. But then it would usable by anyone picking it up."

Sean reached forward and claimed one of the magazines, and extracted one of the taser rounds. Holding it up between a thumb and forefinger, he gave the round a closer, cursory examination. It was really well crafted, definitely not something someone could make at home, at least, not without a fantastic workshop and a damned good 3D printer.

"Testing a taser round shouldn't be hard." Sean shot Cade an impish grin a casually tossed the towering athlete the bullet. Cade instinctively caught the bullet, then flinched, hastily holding his drink away from him, then frowned at his height-challenged friend, who snickered. "Not gonna do it inside, dude. But I don't particularly want to be tased and while I could call Laurie, she's taller, stronger, and faster than me, and I still have to live with her. So you're up, Cade."

Sean tossed his head, nodding towards the door. "Outside, other side of the barn so they can't see from the house. We don't actually need the gun, I can trigger the round, so you're spared that at least."

[Cade]

"Yeah, okay,, if we're doing this, then get a towel you don't care about."  Cade said quietly, Sean looked at him, and then nodded, understanding.  He came back with a towel and found cade had already stripped off his shoes and socks.  He went into the bathroom with the towel,  and came out with it wrapped around his waist, his pants and boxers over an arm.   The two head out behind the barn and Cade stood in a small patch of grass, steeling himself for this.  "Almost feels like a skit from Jackass..."

"If it was, I'd not have told you and just done it."  Sean came back.

"And you'd have definitely been the one to clean it up."  Cade smiled.

It was probably not the best of ideas, but all the same, it was good to know.  They could go test the other round types at the pond if they needed to since it was well outside city limits.   

"Alright hit me."  He'd handed the round back to Sean, who now threw it at him.  Suppressing his reflex to catch it, he allowed the round to strike him in the chest, and Sean triggered it.   The electric shock was bad, way harder than anything he'd been hit with.  His mind was on fire, his whole body tingled, and Blackness claimed him quickly.  As he pitched forward, falling like a massive tree, and spasming on the ground before remaining still.
 

[Sean Cassidy]

Instinctively, Sean moved forward to catch his collapsing friend, immediately regretting the decision, but too late to get out of the way. Cade had more than a foot on him and probably like a hundred pounds and while Sean was many things, strong wasn't one of them. Sean grunted managing to cushion Cade at his own expense, air escaping his lungs, as he was pinned to the ground by Cade's spasming mass on top of him.

I am so glad he is unconscious right now, Sean thought as he squirmed out from under Cade, who finally went still. Sean checked on his friend, to make sure he was still breathing and that his pulse felt okay - which was about the limit of his first aid skills. Then he brushed himself off and straightened his shirt, looking around to make sure no one else saw what happened.

Cade groaned and slowly opened his eyes, to find Sean leaning over to look down at him, a glass of water in one hand and a small bottle of Advil in the other.

"You've been out for 'bout five minutes, dude," Sean said, proffering the water and pills to Cade. A wry grin curved one side of his mouth. ""So, would now be a bad time to tell you I can make myself or someone else immune to electrical discharges? I mean, if I had, we wouldn't have found out how effect the tase rounds were. Probably."

Cade sat up, bracing himself on an elbow, giving Sean a long, nonplussed look. He shook a couple of Advil into his hand, threw them in his mouth, then took the glass of water and gulped it down. He looked at Sean again, his expression level. Sean's grin began to waver.

"You're despicable..." Cade said with a fair Daffy Duck impression.

[Cade]

He groaned, and stretched, still clad in the towel, and braced himself before he sat up.  He took the glass and pills and downed them .  "I need to go change back."   it took him more effort than he thought it would to get up and shamble over to the bathroom, pants in hand, and he emerged clothed again.   "Okay.  Glad we did that outside."   He smiled, and they head back into the barn.  "I do want to check the other ammo types, but at the same time the more we use of it the less we have.  Can't exactly go get down to the store and replace caseless ammunition, can we?"

"So it's cutting edge tech.   And they were conducting inhuman research there.  They had someone who had powers like you.  This is all straight out of Science Fiction Sean, or straight out of anime."   Sean was one of the few he'd willingly talk about that with, who knew that Cade was an avid fan of anime and manga.  "What do you think we should do next?"

 

[Sean Cassidy]

Sean sat at the table once more, eyeing the assault rifle. "Not much to do left, except to set you up with a responder tag so you can actually use the damned thing. Unless you want to go with deactivating that system entirely." He took a sip of his Pepsi, his nose scrunching up as it had gotten warm with they'd tested the taser rounds and Cade recovered. He gestured with the nearly empty can at the firearm and the magazines sitting on the table next to them. "Not much to check on the rest of the ammo. Bullets that go through things and people and other bullets that go through things and people better."

Sean stood back up and started collecting the plates and empty cans, arching a brow up at his much taller friend. "I don't want to say it's aliens... but. It's aliens." He felt a little bad not revealing everything, but Cass had given some cover with her meeting at school. "You heard what Cass was saying. They must've gotten their hands on some sort of advanced or alien tech, and reversed engineered some of it to help them make stuff like this, that sweet, so sweet, holography tech at we saw at - or rather under - the hospital, the radio from the trailer and who knows what else. Totally aliens."

Sean nodded back to one of the converted stalls of the renovated barn he used as a workshop. "Let's see what we can do to get you set up with your new Halo Assault Rifle. Also, maybe pack it back into the gym back, in case someone else drops by unexpectedly, hmm?"

[Cade]

Cade shot Sean his "Really?" stare, and shrugged.  "At this point that doesn't even sound that strange."

He chuckled.  "Having the hologram tech would be cool, Set up an actual danger room to train in safely, that'd be pretty sweet."   He modded, and quickly folded it back down to fit in the backpack, and he brought it to Sean.   "Thanks for looking into this Sean.   It'll be nice to have something to defend myself with that's better than a fire extinguisher."

"Multidimensional extended range instant communications...  "  Cade was letting a little of his own nerd out.  "That would all be damn cool."

[Sean Cassidy]

"Heh, yeah. We could have Interdimensional Cable for real," Sean chuckled as he threw the pop cans in the garbage. "Aiming a bit high with a Danger Room. The holography stuff didn't look that good. But for video games and gaming? Sweeeet."

Instead of bringing the dishes back to the house, Sean set them into the deep, multipurpose sink in the small bathroom in the barn. Adding an actual kitchen to the barn was all that was really needed to make the barn into an actual viable apartment, but with everything going on, it was only a 'would be nice' rather than any sort of imminent priority.

He washed his hands than rejoined Cade. "You have a pair of gloves we can use, or do we need to head out and get something?"

"I have something in my Jeep," Cade assured his voluptuous friend as he removed the magazine from the gun and emptied the chamber. "Back in a minute."

While Cade went out to his vehicle, Sean awkwardly cradled the large firearm in his arms, the gym bag with the ammunition slung over his shoulder and headed over to the former stall that he used as his workshop. At least it was out of easy sight.

Cade returned and found Sean in the ordered clutter of his workshop, sifting through a rack full of drawers of various sizes. On the table to Sean's side was what appeared to be a drone in some percentage of assembly or disassembly. "Will these work?"

Sean glanced quickly over his shoulder and nodded at the pair of black, half-finger gloves in Cade's hands. "Those look perfect." Sean spun around, one hand cupping something or several somethings very small. He pointed by jutting his chin. "Next stall, over."

The two of moved to the other stall, which tended to change purpose with whatever Sean seemed to be interested in at the moment. Currently, it seemed to be passing for as a sewing room. Skeins of thread, yards of cloth, various bits of various grades of foam and other assortments were held in cubbies. There was a sewing machine that looked way more complicated than Cade was expecting. In one corner, there was a hunched-shouldered... something without a face perched on a stand.

"Didn't know you were so into fashion, Sean," Cade said with an amused smirk.

Sean scoffed, but there was a slight pinkness to his cheeks as he ran his free hand through his rich red hair. "I make my Halloween costumes here and, uh, I've been trying my hand with alterations, so stuff fits better." Sean set the things he had been holding in his hand on the table next to the sewing machine. They were roughly the size of a grain of rice, one half of each one transparent, the other half holding what Cade assumed was some sort of microchip. "Half of this stuff is mom's anyway, we share the room."

"What are you going as this year?" Cade asked, pointing at the thing on the stand.

"Not done yet, bud, not gonna say just now," Sean unanswered with a grin. "Put the gloves on, gotta see how they fit, so I can determine the best place to put in the RFID tag."

Cade slipped on the gloves, then held them up to display to Sean, twisting them front to back to front again.

"Trigger hand?" Sean asked.

Cade waggled the fingers of his right hand, and Sean grabbed it brusquely with both of his deft, delicate hands, kneading various points with his thumbs, looking for the best place to insert the chip where it wouldn't irritated Cade and was unlikely to get broken. He tapped at the space between thumb and forefinger. "Here, I think. People who've actually inserted chips like these under the skin usually putting them in the webbing between thumb and forefinger. Okay, you can take them off, now."

Sean claimed the right hand glove and sat on a stool, giving the glove a closer inspection, studying the seams more than anything. He turned them inside out and nodded in satisfaction, and reached for a tool, a seam ripper. With practiced motions, he undid several stitches.

"Made a lot of mistakes at first," Sean admitted, setting aside the seam ripper then sorting through the various types of RFID tags he had assembled.

"I'm surprised you already have those things on hand," Cade commented.

"Eh, I've been toying around with putting an electronic lock on The Barn and making fobs to unlock the place. Then started considering what I could with them and my drones..." Sean made his selection then reached for some super glue.

"Glue?"

"Glue. Much easier than trying to sew in a tiny pocket for the tag than restitching the seams. Glue's good enough to keep the tag in place."

With one hand, he held the small hole he had made in the glove open, then carefully, placed the tag inside. He pinched the fabric over the tag, letting the glue set. He could feel the nub of plastic, but only just. Cade, or anyone else wouldn't even notice it unless they knew to look for it and where. A few small stitches by hand, and the glove was done.

Then he repeated the process with the other glove. At Cade's questioning look, Sean just said, "Back up. In case the main one gets damaged."

Done with the gloves, he handed them to Cade, then spun around on the stool to stare intently at the firearm, his eyes nearly aglow with psionic power. He could have programmed the tags and the gun the mundane way, of course, he had the hardware and software to do it, but psionic technokinesis made things so much easier and more efficient.

Sean let out a breath and nodded, giving Cade a thumbs up. "Gun set to read only those tags and the receiver has been disabled, so remote access - by 'normal' means anyway - shouldn't be possible. Give it a test."

Safety conscious, Cade made sure the chamber was still empty, and inserted an empty magazine. Stock braced against his shoulder, gun up in a firing position as he aimed at the far wall, Cade pulled the trigger.

Click.

[Cade]

Cade smiled, and flicked the safety back on, before ejecting the magazine.   He busied himself with reloading it and chuckled.  While he was a natural southpaw, he did some things right handed.  Shooting was one, with a rifle at least.   It was just so much easier to find right handed rifles and shotguns, that's how he'd been taught.

"Well maybe not a danger room, but I bet you could get there, eventually. "  It was a real compliment.  "You've always been the tech-savvy one in this group, so there's that, and your abilities now, I think it's a matter of when more than If."   

"So have you put any thought into who you're going to homecoming with Sean?"

[Sean Cassidy]

"Maybe not a Danger Room, but I might be able to manage some kick ass VR that would be nearly as good, especially if the Project will share their tech with me - us," Sean countered as he neatly replaced the needle, thread, and glue, and gathered up the unused RFID chips. "Not quite X-men, but likely a lot more convenient and less potential collateral damage."

Sean returned the microchips to their cubby, then arched a nonplussed brow up at Cade when he asked him about Homecoming. "Since when have I ever been big on going to school events unless Mom and Dad dragged me to something Teagan or Laurie were doing?" Sean shook his head in apparent exasperation. "Haven't really given Homecoming a thought."

That wasn't strictly true. With his friends starting to pair off, the idea had on occasion skirted the edge of his thoughts. He could go stag, but he hadn't ever been one to go to school Dances. And especially with his mates taking their own dates instead of them going as a group, he'd feel like an extraneous wheel. There might have been one person he'd consider asking, but knowing her for only a couple of days, it felt presumptuous to him. Besides, he didn't have anything to wear to something like Homecoming. Last time he'd worn something... suit-ish, it had been at his grandfather's funeral, when he was about eleven.

"How 'bout you, Cade? Marissa, hmm?"

[Cade]

Cade Considered the limitations that Sean thought they'd have, but still it would be so much better than how things were currently. 

Then he answered the question about Marissa.  "Yeah, though I do actually need to ask her."  he sighed.  "Pretty sure I'll get lectured for taking so long, but hell it's not like we've been dating for a long time."

"You oughta go too.   I'm sure it will be fun.  I mean I think everyone else is going, and any time we all get together the potential for insanity rises doesn't it?"   He smiled, though it was abit bittersweet.  They didn't really get to have the most normal lives anymore.

 

[Sean Cassidy]

Sean gave a wry chuckle as he lead Cade back to the main room of The Barn, who returned the firearm to the gym bag, along with the modified gloves. "Do we really need any more insanity in our lives right now, Cade?" Sean pursed his lips in thought, then gave his friend a shrug. "I'll give it some thought, but no promises."

[GDP_ST]

Spoiler

Fic closed and wrapped:  +1 XP each.