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"Then you won't mind my asking her, will you?" Owle sent telepathically to Eripse. At least, she thought it was Eripse. All she could tell was that there were two minds in the same body; there was no way of knowing which was which. Well, she supposed, if she had gotten the spider instead of Eripse, the spider would correct her error.

Owle stared blankly down at the wad of bills in her hand, eyes widening just a little bit as she saw how much there was. He'd paid enough for a first class restaurant, and then some. "But...this is too much..." she stuttered, as the door swung shut behind Mr. Brown.

Still, she didn't go chasing after him. She just quietly smoothed out the bills and put them in the cash register as Rain went running up the stairs.

"Rain! Take this with you!" she shouted to him as he came running back down. A jar of ointment was tossed to him - it looked like it had oozed out of Owle's hand, rather than materializing out of thin air. Weird. "If you get a chance, that'll help slow the bleeding, and disinfect the wound better than a splash of alchohol. And if you need me, or a healer, or some kind of help...you know how to reach me, right?!"

This was called to his back as he was running off...hopefully he'd pay her some mind.

Those silvery, yellowy, zombie-esque, undead eyes actually blinked at Owle, before she'd give a small grin.

Ah... Mind tricks aren't always my favorite... Marjjie lacks her own voice, but grammar and such are easy to tell the difference....

Yes. Ask, Bird. Ask but not eat, yes?

She'd smile then, frowning after the man had ran off in a haste...

"Wish he'd have let me fix his damn hand..."

Her brain would work in circles, openly allowing Owle to listen in, since she had no particular knack for shutting out someone she was also talking to. It was like trying to have two conversations while on the phone.

Damn, I won't be able to follow him.... Maybe the lady'll have a TV... News'll have something...

Eri, Bird lady still here, methinks.

Bird lady? Arjjek won't eat you, I've told you that... Despite how much she might want to, I won't let her.

No, other lady.

"Wha...? OH. Oh... Hi... Hehe..." sweatdrop

"Now is fine. I'd rather they be prepped now than when there's no time." Was Joseph's only instruction.

Upon hitting the prep button could feel a series of metal prongs press up against, but not break, his skin inside the gloves. Plus three previously unseen outcroppings popped out from the edge of the glove holding it in place just below the elbow. The clap was relatively uninteresting until Rain's hands met, he could feel the prongs pulling electricity into the gloves as if some sort of circuit had been completed. As he pulled his hands apart visible arcs or energy shot from palm to palm, before he pulled them far enough apart that the arcs were jumping between pieces of the gloves. Eventually the gloves seemed to kick in and absorb all the energy.

"Suit yourself, chestpiece probably wouldn't do you much good anyway. You'd be using them manually anyway." It was around this time Rain would be waving the glove near Joseph's face... He seemed unfazed, "They wasted too much energy, have to get that fixed. Anyway, here's the deal with working these things. First things first, there should be a locked slider on the side. Twist that and it controls how much energy the gauntlets discharge ambiently. Halfway's about the strength of an overclocked tazer, and you could probably use your own powers plus the overcharge setting to discharge a full body electrical shield."

He paused.

"That would probably hurt and fry the gloves. Don't do that." He grabbed what appeared to be a shotgun from out of the trunk before slamming the trunk, "Next thing is the energy blast. You'll notice on your palms there's a kind of glassy looking thingy, don't worry about it, it's pretty durable. Well, if you lock your hand in a super rigid position it begins to prep that, doing a shitty palm strike causes the gloves to discharge a blast of electrical energy. Don't have the exact numbers, but it's short range and medium power. There's a knob around your right knuckle that adjusts that though, careful with the overcharging."

"Not done yet, on your left glove there should be three plastic looking bubbles. They can be pulled out and tossed at people, upon impact they'll explode into a sticky substance and a buncha metal balls." He opened up the passenger side door and grabbed his bottle off the roof, "Clench your fist and then press the button below the bubbles, it'll cause a constant stream of electricity to travel between your fist and those metal balls. Unclench your fist and it'll stop, otherwise it'll keep going until the gloves are totally drained."

"There's a couple of other things, but they're untested, and thus disabled." He put one foot in the car, "The resonance-imaging thing is pretty cool, but really unstable. Would probably backfire and turn your bones to dust at this point. So yeah, don't fiddle with the wiring and accidentally activate that."

"So yeah, we've got a horde of the living impaired to stop," He jumped in the car and did up his belt, if it wasn't for the distinct sound of a shotgun cocking he seemed relatively normal, "Onwards to Barton!"

Rain tried his best to pay attention to the details Brown rattled off about the gloves, studying them as he went. After going for the first button he explained, then changed his mind about due to how dangerous it was, he was hesitant to touch anything else on them. So instead, he was trying to focus on what not to touch. He liked his atoms nonspliced, thank you very much.

"Well, ah..." he started, just looking at the gloves. He wasn't really sure how to react, or how effective they would be. But then again, neither did Joseph, hence the field test.

He was awoken from his stupor at the sound of a cocking shotgun, and he shook his head and hustled to the other side of the car, climbing into the driver's seat. As he would be handed the keys to the car, the first major dilemma of wearing those gloves came into play.

"Ah... little help?" he said embarassed, fumbling with the keys as best he could. In the future, when these gauntlets were part of a fully designed mechanical suit, their wearers would probably be deployed via Armored Van or ATV; or, have their own designed methods of travel/propulsion. Either way, the prototype was somewhat bulky with all of its features, and probably not as fine-tuned for fine motor functions as they could be.

Assuming Joseph indeed helped him get the right key selected and into the ignition, he could manage to start the car and pull out of its parking spot well enough on his own after that point. Yes, he could take the gauntlets off, but if they were driving into a battlefield, the opposition probably wouldn't allow them time to "suit up". And all those guns hinted that was a distinct possibility.

Rain would, of course, need directions of where to go in Barton, not being too terribly familiar with it. Wherever the attack was located, Brown probably already had a location. Rain certainly hoped that he wasn't driving into a City of the Dead.

...

One way to find out!

"So....I guess that's a yes, then?" Owle asked, feebly. Seemed that way. Poor creature didn't even seem to understand too well what she was asking.

"Alright. Thank you Marjjie."

"Nope, sorry," Owle answered. The Firebrand did not have a TV...well, Rand did, up in his room, but she wasn't about to invite anyone in there.

"Whatever it is, they can handle it. If not, I'll call in back up."

She frowned slightly. "And they're not my boys..."

Rain she had met only recently, and Joseph Brown she hardly knew.

What Owle would feel was something trying to break through the shields around her mind and failing as she braced herself against it. "What the ********?" she exclaimed. "Whatever the hell you just did, don't do that!"

Really, attacks on her mind were one way to get her really, really pissed.

And did this woman think for a second that Owle was going to trust her after Eripse had attacked her shields?

...well, Owle was kind of gullible like that sometimes. Especially considering some of her friends lived in Barton.

"Rain..." she reached out to him, hoping not to distract him. "What's happening in Barton? Are people going to need a medic?"

She couldn't fight, at least not well. But she could survive in the danger zone, and keep other people from dying.

Owle sighed, deeply, at Rain's response.

"Alright. I'll start packing my things...times like this I wish Ryuji wasn't always off somewhere..."

Really, if the dragon were around, she could just load all the medical equipment she'd collected onto his back and be off. As it was, she had to make sure she had everything, and then she'd be carrying it in her arms while she flew as fast as her tiny wings could take her toward Barton.

She darted up the stairs, and into her room, pulling a large bag out of her closet...

Scaled feet pounded down the stairs to the bars common room, then clumsily wove their way around tables and chairs to the front door. Without a word or explanation to anyone, Owle tore it open, and stepped outside. It was a beautiful day, but even from here she could see something ominous heading over Barton.

"Rain, I'm going to want to take a look when I get closer..."