Leon looked at Daren. "And oh, I have a gift for you".
Hearing him, the E Rank Cyber Gladiator grunted slightly as he looked at him with the sa deflated look on his face. "A gift? For ?"
Seeing the look on his face, Leon chuckled.
Unlike the others, he didn’t feel bad for giving Daren a beat-down at all. To him, Daren deserved it for all his betrayal.
Click!
He unequipped the modified VX-09 Emberfist Gauntlets, then he pushed both gauntlets towards Daren.
Daren looked at the gift. "I have a set of these, have you forgotten that you stole the blueprint from ?" He glared at Leon. "You think I didn’t know?"
Leon chuckled. "Chill out man, this is different. I modified the blueprint".
Daren raised his eyebrows slightly as he stared at the gauntlets on his hands, then he rembered just how dominant Leon had been with the gauntlets in the previous spar. "What changed?" He finally asked.
Hearing him ask finally, Leon grinned and taunted. "I thought your wounded pride wouldn’t let you accept it".
Daren snorted, shalessly waiting for him to explain.
Leon didn’t keep him waiting. "I modified the original blueprint. Now Ascended of all Classes can use it, not just Cyber Gladiators".
Daren’s eyelids twitched slightly in disbelief.
Leon laughed. "Chill out, damn, that’s not the only change! I used D Rank materials to craft it this ti".
Hearing that, Daren’s eyes imdiately lit up.
"Thought so," Leon smirked. "Using it won’t give you the power of a D Rank Ascended, but at the very least, it’ll give you the capability to damage a D Rank Ascended, especially if you can catch the physically weak Classes off-guard".
"The gauntlets now have the ability to seriously injure a D Rank NetRunner if you manage to connect a solid punch".
"And also, for this specific gauntlet especially, I added a new module. I added an energy shield module with my R9 energy shield blueprint".
"With it, you’ll have a trump card to save your life in a life-threatening situation. All you need to do to activate it is to think about it".
"Wow". Daren finally reacted as the look in his face changed, he now looked at the gauntlets with a feverish look.
Not just him as Tyla imdiately asked. "What of us? Don’t we get one?"
Leon looked at her and chuckled. "Your Class is incompatible with a weapon like this. With the nature of your NetRunner powers, especially at E Rank, a weapon like this will slow you down unnecessarily, weakening your overall combat power in the process instead of increasing it".
As he explained, his gaze swept across Talia and Ghostwire too, indicating that he was also explaining to them.
Brick didn’t ask like Tyla, but Leon understood the look in his eyes.
He nodded. "Don’t worry, I have the original one for you," he grinned. "When we go back to my aircraft, I’ll give it to you".
"You don’t have the ADE capacity to handle the modified one".
The Synth pursed his chanical lips tightly for a mont, then he opened his mouth and said. "Thank you".
"Don’t ntion," Leon laughed. "What are friends for?"
"Friends don’t beat each other up". Talia said quietly.
Leon froze.
...
After the events at the Lion Heart Gym, Talia took everyone on a sight-seeing tour around the capital city of the Freegrid Collective.
During this ti, Leon finally introduced the Zerphyr-7 to the rest of his friends and just like he expected, every single one of them was flabbergasted.
Kain especially couldn’t believe his eyes. "Damn!"
"I feel like I’ve been wasting my life". The sequence of events that happened today made him rember why he hated staying in Leon’s company. ’The annoyingly good genius bastard is back!’
Staring at the sleek aircraft, Brick finally made a comnt. "It’s crazy to think that you beat us so convincingly and that was not even your full power".
He sighed in a philosophical manner. "I feel old... I think I should retire".
Talia imdiately rolled her eyes and bumped him playfully on the shoulder. "Where’s your ambition?"
Brick looked at her and answered honestly. "I have no more ambition".
She was speechless, but in the end she also sighed. "I always knew the gulf in power between each rank increased with each subsequent rank, but I never truly knew how big the gulf was till we sparred".
She looked at Leon. "I’ve never felt inadequate with my power till now," she clenched her fists tightly. "I really want to attempt the D Rank Trial now".
"Whoa whoa...!" Leon imdiately stopped her. "C’mon guys, I didn’t spar with you guys so you could feel this way".
"Don’t rush to attempt the D Rank Trial because of when you’re not ready. Do it only when you’re convinced that you’re ready, just like back at the fringe of the Wastes when you sought my help".
"You can even seek my help again," he grinned. "You know I’ll always be available".
Talia chuckled and kicked him in a playful manner. "Got it".
After that, she looked around with a big smile on her face; she already recovered from the emotional damage of the spar loss. "It’s been months since we laid Rex’ to rest, and since we’re all together, let’s fulfill Leon’s wish and visit him".
Everybody agreed as they showed different levels of enthusiasm, only Tyla cleverly pulled out of the occasion.
Having heard the story of Rex from Leon during one of their bed talks, she knew that it was not in her place to self-insert into such an important mont.
Shortly after Tyla left, returning to the hotel room to spend the ti till they returned, that was when Ghostwire finally broke his silence.
This was the first ti that Ghostwire had spoken all day!
This was why everyone looked at him imdiately they heard his voice. Sensing their attention, he froze and paused slightly, but then he continued.
He briefly looked Leon in the eye, then he looked down at his feet like he was admiring his boots. "Um... will you also help when I attempt my Trial?"
"..."
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