9 Rift Divers, Inventors, and Armor? Oh My!

Whenever a Chaos Rift would open, it would usually cause an evacuation order to be sent to the local populous. However, people can be stubborn and usually think it's safe with Rift Divers around. Most of the population of people on earth has the potential to be granted powers from the Chaos Energy from the other worlds. However, it isn't always the case.

Humans who can't receive powers when coming into contact with Chaos Energies are called the Nulls. Approximately 70 percent of people in the world can utilize the energy from the other worlds. They aren't able to use any powers or become a Crisis Beast because of their inability to react to Chaos.

Fortunately, they can use gear that would provide weapons the ability to kill even Gamma Chaos Beasts with ease. Usually though, they stay far away from events unless they were to document, or work as scavengers for corporations to carry out monster parts. Most Nulls either become doctors or go into debt not able to supply themselves from the need of Chaos Crystals for certain payments.

Driving down the road towards Fenrir HQ, which happened to be in Detroit, not to far away from where Cyrus lived. They passed by APCs with the Fenrir wolf icon on the side of the vehicle. Cyrus and Myra ended up joining their caravan as they grouped up.

A man wearing the standard helmet all soldiers wore for Fenrir, "Hey, you should turn around and go home!" He was telling out the window. Cyrus pulled out his phone, clicking the fractured screen a few times. Then turned it around to face the soldier in the other vehicle. Showing his connection to FOG the soldier nodded and told Cyrus to follow them.

Counting how many vehicles there were, he knew it was a big issue. For if four APCs with Fenrir soldiers inside, the situation is much more dire than expected. Cyrus looked at his equipment and was a little worried not having anything to really offer any protection. He had to guess that some gear might offer resistances, stat buffs, or even a special attribute tied to them like the "Gunslinger's 9mm Mag". The shop seemed even more interesting by the moment, wanting to see what could be inside it.

Myra leaned over, "You looking at something?" She saw him deep in thought or viewing something she couldn't see.

"I am trying to figure out what sort of gear I should focus on." He reviewed the weapons he had, "I usually am a close to mid range combatant, but my stats seem to allow me to use almost any weapon or armor. However, I am concerned about my training from before this whole thing happened." Remembering that he was trained for CQC, or close-quarters-combat, since he never had to go into a rift that was more open, until he went into the Penalty Zone. Which had both enclosed spaces and open terrain.

Myra could see that without his armor, he would have to be more careful than ever before. His white T-shirt and black combat boots and pants were all he had for clothing. She looked at that shackle on his right arm, "Well, lets hope there is something salvageable in the rift." A sudden boom above them as lightning seemed to crack in the sky. The Chaos Energy in the area was rich and caused weather to be altered around its point of origin.

"Well... now we know it is going to be a big one." Cyrus nodded, both were concerned it may turn into a Chaos Tear if the energy kept rising. She made a promise to keep them both alive when their mother and father were missing. Though she could remember that the Chaos Control Organization had told them that they had died. However, she was old enough that they hadn't provided any proof and were taking care of them until they were adults.

Now arriving with the APCs, Cyrus stepped out of the car and went over to a couple of trucks with soldiers running about. It seemed over a hundred soldiers had been called and had answered to support them. Commanders Yuri Loto and Samantha Greenbore were going over possible outcomes of the rift opening inside the building. Cyrus walked over and saluted, his shackle dangling the chain when he did so.

"Sir! Soldier Cyrus Reinhard, Company 32... Reporting for briefing." Yuri looked up from the computers and stood tall. This man was 6 feet and 6 inches tall, wearing a green beret hat, and had markings up an exposed left arm. Yuri was an Evoker class, particular to the lightning element of Evoker magic.

"At ease," Cyrus went into a resting position, "we have called in everyone that could get here as quickly as possible. For we expect a Chaos Tear might occur in a hour or two. We haven't been able to pinpoint when, but we need people to be ready for an assault from the Tear." He turned and looked up at the building. "Who knew that one would pop up in our very building, the chances were almost zero, but here it is. Happening right in front of my eyes..."

"Has everyone been evacuated?" Myra asked, her white uniform showing up a little more in the darkness.

Samantha looked at Myra, "You must be from the Red Cross," she saw the symbol of a caduceus with four bars under it. "A Superior Tier Healer, I will happily compensate..."

"No need," Myra raised a hand, "helping the people and my little brother is all I am here for. Besides, if you should compensate me, give my brother a raise for even showing up." Myra gave a slap to Cyrus' back, which made him jump forward. Yuri looked at him and noted his rank as a Standard.

"You're a Standard and reported to an emergency, have a sibling who is a Alpha Healer, and is vouching for you to be paid more. What do you have to say Reinhard?" Cyrus closed his eyes briefly as he took a breath. "You have what it takes to be a true member of Fenrir?" Yuri asked, wanting to hear from the young man.

Cyrus Stood at attention, "I wish to save anyone I can and grow stronger by defeating all Chaos Beasts before me. Devour the defeated and become the strong. Bring about the change this world needs." He looked at Yuri serious about his answer. Which made a small smile crack on the man's stone like face.

With a nod Yuri seemed approve, "Well, show us what you got and go get some ammunition and have your weapons looked at. Cici is inside that trailer fixing up some equipment." He pointed to a trailer that had a woman with a jacket tied around her waist and tossing a wrench at a soldier. Yuri laughed, "She is spry and still able to threaten even Advanced Tier soldiers. I fear the day she will have me running away from her wrath." Samantha then dragged Yuri's attention away from them.

Cyrus and Myra nodded at one another separating from one another to do the tasks and jobs they needed to preform. Myra went to join the medical tents to heal the injured, while Cyrus went to visit his friend and headache, Cici Jones. For if he was to get anything made or custom built, he would always go to her. For she made his Short Blade which managed to defeat Fenrir with him nearly dying with the beast.

[Fenrir seems annoyed that you didn't die first.]

Ignoring the message, Cyrus went to the entrance of the trailer. He could hear inside a woman yelling about crystals and who took her blowtorch. A dark skinned woman in orange welder's pants and the upper part tied around her waist. She wore a grey tank top and had a ponytail hair style with dark brown hair stood at the back of the trailer.

"I swear if Marvin took my torch, I swear he dead meat and I will serve him to the hounds!" She heard someone entering the trailer, picking up another wrench she was about to throw it. "Didn't I tell you the last time get ou..." She stopped herself as she saw Cyrus. She blew a bubble from the gum she was chewing. "Well if it isn't the stormy cloud of bad hair days, how did my investment do for ya?"

"You're talking to me about bad hair days?" They stared at each other for a bit and then laughed. "The blade worked good, but I think its charge doesn't last well after you overcharge it once." He pulled out the blade and set it on the table. She picked it up and inspected it carefully. Her eyes seemed to focus on every millimeter of the weapon.

"You would have had to have a good reason to use the overcharge... The blade has been badly dented and chipped." She set it down and pulled out a magnifying glass that was attached to the wall. "Seems like you had fought something with a tough armor. Should have known you would do something stupid and not use your head."

He frowned, "Well I did, had to shoot its weak spot or I would have never killed the darn thing. Then used the blade to attempt to fry it, but got knocked away." Cici laughed and set the weapon aside. She then held out her hand and he knew what she was asking for. The berretta was placed into her hand and again she went over it.

"You take good care of your guns, but never your blades... Treat your weapons and tools right, they will keep you going strong." She pulled out the mag and noticed the few rounds left. Setting it down and pulling out two boxes. "The other mags please," Cyrus handed them over other than the one he got from the loot chest. Cici set them on a belt system that when fed bullets, it would begin to fill the magazines without her touching them.

Cyrus went into his inventory and pulled out the two gamma crystals. "Can we make anything out of these?" She shook her head, saying that she would need more time and parts to make something useful. That is when she noticed the shackle on his right hand.

"Oh, when were you going to show me that?" He hid it behind his back, while Cici began to beg. "Aw come on, I make you stuff and you either ruin or break them. You are lucky I ain't keeping you on a tab pretty boy." She was right and he knew it, not once did she ever ask to be paid by Cyrus. He never understood why, or the reason for never asking to be paid. Likely he guessed that it was because he was the only one crazy enough to try her new inventions and come back alive.

The one thing being a Standard was helpful for, survivability and sometimes just dumb luck. Though, he decided to show her and tell her that it can't be broken or removed.

"Well have you tried sawing off your own arm?" He remembered losing it to Fenrir, the feeling of the lost limb still made his whole arm tingle. "Well let me take a look at it, maybe I can dig something up on it." She pulled the magnifying glass over to over over the shackle. She took a popsicle stick and tried to see if she could press down on his skin and get underneath it. But it didn't work, like the skin was suctioned to the metal.

"Hmm, never have I seen anything like this... These gems, the chain, even the symbols all across it." She started to use a scalpel to try to get the gems out. But not even those would budge. She thought long and hard about it, pulling over a device that could detect Chaos Energy and display it on a monitor. The screen showed a flat line to indicate a base calibrated scale of Chaos Energy. Once she hovered it over the shackle it suddenly spiked drastically causing the line to disappear off screen.

"Hoo dang! You got something really special," her eyes seemed to light up with thoughts of inventions to use that power source. Cici was a brilliant inventor and could sometimes come up with wacky or insane results for weapons and armor. But at that moment, she wanted to know how Cyrus got it.

Without giving any detail, he explained he got it from killing a beast and he had unlocked his ability. Cici looked at it again, "You must have had to kill an Alpha or even a Superior for something like this. Its like you could power an entire continent with just that shackle alone. Well that is if we had the ability to use Chaos Energy as a power supply and not just use it to craft weapons and armor."

He decided to pull out the Beta Crystal and set it on the table, "I don't know if you have anything already built that needs a crystal. But do you have anything that you can use with this?" She gazed at the crystal, spinning around and lifting up a suitcase.

"You know I was saving this for later, but maybe with the whole, you know, Tear about to happen. Maybe you could use an upgrade, besides, there might be some more higher tiers you can slaughter with your new powers." She opened the case and revealed a chest piece. Its right shoulder guard had the symbol of a wolf head carved into it. The chest piece was more of an armored jacket. Having a plate armor under a trench coat.

Patterns on the jacket showed the wolf head on the back of the jacket in the color of red. The belt had a special loading holster for easier loading for standard semi-auto handguns. Boots for martial combat, made to absorb impacts without losing out on the power behind the kick. It didn't come with pants but with the Fenrir pants it would match at the least. She set the crystal against the armor as a flow of energy formed in her hand.

Cici was now carrying a hammer made of pure Chaos Energy. She was known as a Forger, uniquely gifted in the ability to combine crystals to equipment she made. Bringing down the hammer she hit the crystal causing it to shatter and spread the parts across the armor. Each piece glowed bright as they were absorbed into the armor. Looking at it carefully, she nodded, scooting the case to him.

"There you go, fine piece of work I do say so myself!" Cici smiled and stood brushing off her hands as the hammer vanished. Cyrus went to pick it up which caused a window to appear.

[Armor of the Black Wolf]

[Damage Reduction: 20%]

[Fire Resistance: 5%]

[While equipped: Your Devour skill adds 5m to its range, even can be used as an attack.]

[Skill Unlocked!]

[Devouring Chain: Hold out your hand and send a flaming chain to a target, pulls them closer by 2m and absorbs 2 CEP from them.]

All he could think about was a character from a video game that would also pull enemies closer to him. Cyrus smiled, using the systems equip function, the armor appeared on his body. The sleeve where the armor was supposed to cover the shackle instead got shoved under it. The shackle remaining visible. Cici and Cyrus noticed this and Cici was interested on how he put it on so quickly.

That is when a loud crash was heard outside, like something fell onto a vehicle. Cici gave Cyrus his pistol and mags back before heading out to see what happened. When Cyrus saw what caused the sound, it looked like some kind of suit of armor. Soldiers got closer to see if it was alive, but as they did, its fingers began to twitch.