Weapon Handouts!

Minty had them all gathered up and in a straight line. She had brought out a table and on it were the items she had handpicked for the team. Each was covered with a black cloth to add a bit of suspense and excitement to it.

"Vito," she said first, "With your fighting skills and technique I feel like this would be a good fit for you," she spoke as she handed him a pair of crooked daggers that had twists and turns along the edges of its blade.

Vito felt the blade in his hand as he brushed his skin across it. "It's blunt," he pointed out to her.

"That's because this is just a preview of what you will be getting, I will be sure to bring in the real thing for you soon," Minty replied.

Vito seeing that it was blunt decided to poke Cyrus at his side with it. 

*Poke* *Poke*

"Ouch, keep that thing away from me!" Cyrus complained.

"Don't worry, it's blunt. And besides, I would never backstab you," Vito winked.

"It's not the angle that I am worried about, it is the stabbing part of it," Cyrus expressed.

*Ehem* Minty said as she grabbed their attention once more.

"As for Edith," she said, "This weapon shall suit you the most. Unlike Vito who specialized in quick strikes, you focused more on brute force so I believe that a blunt weapon will do you justice. That is why I am giving you this hammer."

Edith took the hammer, but she was displeased with it. She continued to stare at it for a while without saying so much as a thank you.

"Is something wrong?" Minty asked.

"No, nothing at all," Edith answered. "It's just that..." she said now moving her arms around to express herself a bit more, "A hammer feels a bit, cliche."

"What do you mean by that?" Minty asked.

"Dawn," Edith said out loud to grab his attention, "You've watched a lot of media and played a lot of games amongst us. You know, 'cause you're a shut-in..."

"Where are you going with this?" Dawn asked feeling offended.

"It's just that, you see my point don't you? A girl, wielding a hammer as her main weapon? Like, where has that never happened before? Even I don't watch that much TV," Edith said lying through her teeth, "Or play that many games," that one was true.

"But yet even I know just how common it is to see a female wielding a hammer as her main weapon. So can you imagine, we go up to the people we are supposed to fight and they see me with a hammer and they go, "Yeah, that seems about right!" RIGHT!?"

Despite how she said it Dawn had to admit that Edith had a point. It was common. Too common. So much so that he almost wondered if Minty did this on purpose or by pure coincidence. It was the latter.

"I see, you are unsatisfied with the weapon I gave you," Minty said in a low tone.

"It's not like that!" Edith hurriedly responded as she put her hands up and shook them. "I just that I wanted something a bit more unique," she contemplated.

Minty then quickly brought a smile to her face as she said, "That will not be a problem. You see this wall," she said pointing towards the weapons that were laid out on a wall behind her, "You can pick any weapon that you wish to exchange for this hammer. But make sure that it is blunt so that it will work best with your fighting style."

"Really?" Edit said excitedly, "Thank you!" she squealed with joy. "Vito let's go you help me pick out my weapon!"

Vito had been admiring his daggers and was surprised to hear her calling his name and then dragging him across the room away from the others. Normally he would have protested or questioned it more but he decided to just let it happen this time.

He was silently dragged across the room.

"Okay, and that leaves you 3," Minty said.

"As for you Cyrus, I am not sure you will like this type of weapon," Minty said with a tone of sadness in her voice.

This left Cyrus wondering what she could have meant by that. It was only a weapon, right?

Lifting the weapon with the cloth still covering it, she placed it on her hand and taking it off, she revealed to him a gun.

It was a pistol, a Heckler and Koch to be specific. Seeing this, Cyrus finally understood why she was worried about giving it to him.

"I already have one of those," Cyrus said doing his best to smile.

"I know you do. I read your file and I know why you carry around this specific model," Minty said. "But you see, this type of weapon is the only type that would suit you well enough. Perhaps because of years spent in practice with it. You are a quick thinker and you can be decisive when it counts, making tough calls when the situation demands it."

"The only weapon I could think of that would match someone of such a caliber, would be a lethal weapon that could take a life in less than a second. Of course, I understand if you don't want this weapon or if you would prefer a different model to use."

"No," Cyrus said. "I'll take it. I'll take it," he spoke as he gently grabbed it from her hand and held it in his. Looking at it for a little bit, he soon brought his attention towards Vito who was laughing around with Edith holding onto a giant mallet on the floor.

He could faintly hear her complaining that it was the same thing as the hammer from before.

"I'll be sure to put this to good use, only when needed," Cyrus said reassuringly to her with a smile as he tucked it away underneath his shirt.

Minty was relieved.

"And now you Terra," she said standing in front of him.

Terra was so excited picturing what his new weapon would be, how it would look like, how he would carry it around. He was admiring all the different types of weapons in the room and picturing in his mind the best fit for him.

Minty opened up the cloth that was on the table to reveal an empty bowl.

"What?" Terra asked still smiling with his mouth slightly opened.

"Nothing," Minty said. "You get nothing."

"WHAT!!!?" Terra exclaimed so loudly that even Vito and Edith looked at him.

"You are telling me that Vito gets daggers, Edith gets to pick her weapon and Cyrus gets a gun!? But I get nothing!!?" Terra said as he both physically and verbally expressed how he felt. Oppressed.

"There is a reason behind this Terra," Minty said. "Your proficiency in weapons is remarkable. Better than me even and your skills and fighting style display that brilliantly. It would do you no good to be limited to a single weapon of choice when you can properly use multiple."

"So instead of having a weapon, why not just take your opponent's weapon?" Minty asked.

What Terra was hearing was positive and probably the best compliment he had ever received before, but seeing how everyone else around him was carrying and receiving weapons, made him feel so left out that he wanted to join them even if for only a little bit.

"Can I at least carry with me some brass knuckles?" Terra pleaded with puppy eyes.

Minty was taken aback by this, but she let him. However, she was unsure how he would be able to freely use his hands if they were locked around some brass knuckles. They would certainly do him more bad than good by hindering his fighting style, but seeing how excited he was to receive something, she didn't have the heart to say no.

With Terra gone to pick up a pair of brass knuckles, it only left Cyrus and Dawn standing before her. She placed a hand on her waist as she sighed while placing the other hand on her head.

"And as for you Dawn," she said as she now lifted up the last black cloth to reveal a small slick black chain that was shining with the reflection of light.

"You did so well with the chain before, so I couldn't think of a better weapon for you to take than this one. Except this time, I gave you a better and stronger version of the chain you used before. This one also accommodates your size and will be sure to fit in your pocket."

Dawn took the chain from her. He stared at it for a while and then tightened his grip on it, causing it to jiggle a little. "Thank you," he said politely.

And with Dawn accepting his handout, that had concluded this activity, now all Minty had to do was wait and see what Edith would bring to her. And it didn't take long for that to happen.

Coming towards Minty now, Edith was showing her the new weapon she had chosen.

In her hands, she was holding a mace with a smooth round sphere at its end and drawings of stars placed around it.

"Minty," Edith said excitedly, "I would like this one," she said holding out the mace for Minty to inspect.

Minty took a quick look at it and she said, "A mace, that is a very good choice. I am sure you will do wonders with it."

"And what do you have behind there?" Minty asked Vito as his hands were placed behind his back.

"Uhm, Minty, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to exchange the daggers you gave me, for these ones," Vito said as he pulled out some smooth straight black daggers that were thin enough to hide within his sleeves properly.

Minty thought about it for a little while before saying, "I picked the first pair for you because it was better suited for defense, but if you wish to be more of an offensive fighter then you may do as you wish, just make sure not to get too wounded while using these."

"Thank you so much, Minty," Vito said as he and Edith were smiling away at their new weapons.

Soon after even Terra had brought in the brass knuckles that he wanted and Minty approved though she still felt like it would be a hinderance for him. At the very least, he would be doing something that made him happy.

Minty was now very happy with the progress she had as she saw the kids chatting around and holding out their weapons for each other to see, except for Cyrus who had his tucked away. But there was still a smile on his face.

Seeing this had caused a great smile on her face as she whispered the words, "I am NOT boring."

"Alright, everyone!" Minty announced, "You get the rest of the day off. I will be going somewhere to ensure the finer details of our mission outing and the rest of you get to practice with your weapons if you want or rest. I will leave that to you."

Minty opened a portal out and the kids waved their goodbyes to her as she left.

Not long after, Minty came back saying, "I almost forgot to mention, we are going to fight them tomorrow so this is your only day to prepare yourselves. Keep that in mind," and then she went right back through the portal.

"Wait what!!?" Terra exclaimed, "Why would she withhold such important information until the last second!? We only get a day!???"

"Less than a day," Dawn corrected.

"Well, I am not surprised," Cyrus answered, "With the way she's been acting, it looks as though she brought this mission up on a whim. As if someone dared her to do this thing, or said something to spite her enough to do this."

Edith added in, "Either way, she is rushing to make sure that we go on this mission, as well as putting in effort. Compared to planting trees with her, she is acting like a totally different person now."

"You think someone would manipulate her into doing something like this? But who would do such a thing and why?" Vito asked.

Cyrus thought to himself before saying, "I don't know her well enough or the people she speaks to a lot, but from what I can base this off we have three suspects, Alex, John, and Sasha. One of them must have put her on to this."

"I don't see Sasha as the type to purposefully do such a thing, so I believe either she changed the mission to try and impress Alex by outdoing John or this is a friendly competition against John. Either way, I feel like John played a role in this somehow."

"A competition huh?" Edith said, "Wow, so we are basically bragging rights to them for who did the best job at this. I feel used," Edith sighed.

"Well, we might as well enjoy this while it lasts, otherwise we might go back to planting trees again," Cyrus said.

"Wait, everyone!" Terra suddenly said. While they were arguing about Minty's strange behavior he was thinking about something else.

"I have an idea," he continued. "Something we can do right now to prepare ourselves for tomorrow!"