Shori No Megami

Obective #2. Five Years Ago

The Academy, Tarmac, April 2nd, 0700 Hours.

“Have you got everything?” Rose grips Sumire’s shoulders as they stand on the tarmac preparing for Sumire’s departure.

“Yeah… They’re shipping the rest…”

“Then… here. Birthday and graduation present.” She hands Sumire pair of silver earrings and a matching choker. “I came up with the design, but Tech’s the real genius behind it. It’s a comm. Link with a channel directly to us. No matter where you are, you’ll be able to reach us. If anything happens…” She smiles sadly. “Well, we’re always here.”

“But, uh. Don’t let anything happen. And here.” Tech presses a pair of designer non-prescription glasses into Sumire’s hands. “I upgraded them. The surveillance feed will record directly to all of our laptops, so if we spot something you don’t, we’ll let you know. I’ve included infrared and x-ray features, too.”

 “And… this too. Hold out your hand.” Sumire puts her arm out, and Boom snaps a thick, studded leather purple wristwatch around her wrist. Sumire eyes it nervously. It’s a bit conspicuous. “I’m only going to tell you this once, so pay attention. Each stud has a different function. You need to twist them a ¾ turn to trigger the function, but I’ve made sure you can do it with your teeth if you have to. The stud at the base of your wrist is a taser. Use it like spider-man, you don’t want your palm to get caught. Top left stud releases a miniature serrated knife in case you’re tied up. Bottom left releases a lock picking set. Center top releases standard police and military grade handcuff keys. Center bottom turns on a universal tracking device. Top right releases concentrated miniature smoke bombs—do NOT underestimate those suckers.”

Sumire’s expression is growing more and more dazed, so Boom picks up the pace. “Bottom right releases highly concentrated sleeping pills. Dissolve them in liquid and they’re undetectable, but they’ll knock an elephant out in 30 seconds. As for the watch function… Press the button the side once, a gps display comes up, and it’ll automatically trigger your universal tracking system. Press it twice, you’ll get heat-sensitive radar. Pull out the button, and you’ll get my very special, highly compressed gelignite charges and detonators. You can use that to break through just about anything in front of you. The blast radius is small, so it should be safe if you’re in a tight spot. Just don’t make it too tight—you’ll need at least two and a half meters between you and the charge to detonate, and the detonator won’t trigger if the remote device is too close. You need to push the button in to trigger the detonator. Got all that?”

The entire team stands in stunned silence. Sumire is the first to finally get a word out. “What the FU-…Holy crap, Boom! When did you come up with all of this? And…” She’s looking at the watch, and no matter how you look at it, there’s no way it can fit all that... “Where did you put all of it?”

“Try not to think about it too much. The keys and knife take up the most space. The explosive jelly stores easy, and the remote detonator are pretty much just little antennae. And as for how I came up with it… Well, it’s cause of you, right?”

Sumire gives him a blank look. “Huh?”

“Your strategies and evasive maneuvers gave me most of the inspiration, so you’re the inspiration behind the design. I’ve been developing prototypes for all of us for four years. You’ll probably be able to get yourself out of anything with that sucker.”

“What if someone takes it off me?”

He shows her a small remote the size of a domino. “I’m keeping this on me. The synthetic I used to construct it is the molecular and functional equivalent to flexible diamond. Nothing’s cutting through that baby. The only thing that’s going to get that off you is this trigger, and I’m going to make damn sure no one can touch it.”