#bioblaster

Whilst the Prince and his retinue were at Wiz’s Chocobo Post, Noctis received a phone call from Cid asking him to drop by as soon as he could. Never before he had heard the old grump being excited but this time even Prompto was surprised.

“Pops rarely gets excited for anything.” Prompto said on the way to the car. “I mean, he does but…” He drifted off thoughtfully. His adoptive father was a hard man to please.

“Being a master mechanic, I surmised it would be machine related.” Ignis said as he strapped himself into the car. “No doubt he would automatically enthused.”

“If it’s weapons, I’ll be ‘automatically enthused” too. He’s always talking about more firepower anyway.” Came Gladio thoughtful quip.

“Come on, guys. Just get there. I kinda want to see what’s up, too.” Noctis whined from the passenger’s seat.

“Very well, Highness.” Ignis responded, starting the car. “Seatbelts, everyone.” He reminded one last time as he started to move.

Hammerhead is considered a safe haven. Cid would never betray them and would probably die before he spilt the beans on them. Like Jared did in Lestallum. As matter of fact, he would probably raise hell before he died and leave a crater where Hammerhead was.

Now that there was several Magitek Armour in the vicinity of the garage area, the four were cautious. They drove by Hammerhead and parked somewhere further from it as they scout the area.

Needless to say, Prompto had paled at the thought of Cid and the rest of Hammerhead cooperating with the Niffs but he had to see this through as a Crownsguard, family or not.

The crowds of civilians haven’t change but the presence of the Magitek Armour and parts, some of them charred, didn’t allay their suspicions.

The was a MAX- Cuirass unit with an opened cockpit. Someone in a black coveralls were tinkering on the cockpit’s side. The garage next to them was busy with the noise of a tool cranking and the laser cutter turning off and on.

Grabbing everyone’s attention with a wave, Noctis gestured at the man. He was going to go for a stealth kill, signaling by materializing one of his swords.

Suddenly, there were footsteps and the sound of heels hitting the concrete floor.

“Hey Loqi!” Cindy voice came from a blindside, from somewhere in the garage.

“What is it, Cindy?” The person answered, facing their way, squinting under the sun. His eyes laid on them and he froze at the sight of them, curious.

“The Prince is coming. Paw-paw wants yer down ‘ere.” Cindy answered. When he didn’t answer back, Cindy went closer to the Magitek Armour.

“What’s got into ya?” She asked in concern before turning towards the equally frozen four. “Oh, you’re here!?” She exclaimed in surprise.

That had led into a meal and explanation at Takka’s place. Which was pretty simple. After getting the boat to function and gotten back from Altissia, Cid mentioned to Cor about getting more firepower for the customizable weapons Noct had brought in. Cor suggested salvaging material from Keycatrich.

“So, you guys found those?” Noctis asked, disbelief was apparent.

“Indeed, we did.” Loqi answered back. “I am also quite sure that some of them bear the marks of your work.”

Noctis looked as if he had swallowed something sour. “Ugh, I still can’t get use to your accent.” He said, more to himself than not.

Loqi simply rolled his eyes as Cindy giggled. “If you think this is bad, wait ‘til ya see him with a bunch of schematics.”

At this Prompto snorted his drink by mistake and was coughing, hiding under the table as he did. Loqi took a few napkins to pass to him under the table.

“Noct, you seem to be perfectly fine with myself when I speak.” Ignis commented drearily.

Noctis took a moment to contemplate on that as Gladio tried to hide his laugh with a cough.

Prompto returned. “You can blame boarding school for that.” He told them.

“I suppose.” Loqi answered back with a shrug.

“Anyways, paw-paw is still tinkering with the machine he found at Keycatrich’s Trench. Gonna need all the Sophiars if it’s gonna finish before tomorrow.” Cindy quickly intervened after seeing the time.

“Wait, wait. What’s the thing he’s all excited about? Is it that thing?” Noctis asked before they got up from their seat. The three siblings looked at each other before Cindy answered.

“Paw-paw thought he could finish her up before y’all came here.” Cindy told him. “Was gonna get Loqi here ta help but you guys appeared.”

“Ah, I see. Pardon us for holding him.” Ignis apologized as the other two nodded.

The Sophiar trio left.

“Phew, that was close.” Cindy said when they were far from hearing range.

“Ok, spill.” Prompto asked excitedly, watching the other two. He knew there was something else on the agenda. Most probably not Prince related.

Loqi cleared his throat loudly. “Dear brother of mine.” He began dramatically. “I recall a wish made a long, long time ago.”

Cindy was laughing before giving Loqi a light slap while Prompto was looking at him like he had stars in his eyes. “Stop teasing him.”

“Come on, man.” Prompto groaned pathetically.

“Oh, alright.” Loqi gave up. “There’s a few Magitek Armour ready to be piloted.” He said with a small smile.

Prompto let’s out a muffled scream of before he hugged the both of them. “This is like, the best present in my life!” He said happily.

“Oh talking about presents, paw-paw did have something for Prince. “Cindy said, as if she just remembered while struggling to handle Prompto’s weight. “Need to give ‘im a hand with it.” She added as Prompto freed them from his hug.

“Ok!” He said with thumbs up.

The weapon was cleaned up and upgraded accordingly. It was almost dark when they were finished. Cindy went to get the Regalia for a check up while Cid retired for the day with a satisfied smile on his chair outside.

“C’mon Loqi, we could still make a round of it.” Prompto tried to coax, looking at the large MAX Cuirass.

“No, that’s not ready yet. Still figuring out the system.” Loqi explained. “Follow me. The ones that ready is at the back.” Loqi said as he gestured towards the garage.

True enough, there was two smaller Magitek Armour.

“Testing, testing. One, two, three.” Loqi said through his mic.

“Whoa!” Prompto exclaimed through his loudly.

“Shhhhh!” Loqi hissed through his. “If Cindy finds out-“

“LOQI TUMMELT!” Came Cindy’s shout. “PROMPTO ARGENTUM!”

“QUIT YOUR ARMOUR SYSTEMS AND GET OUT OF ‘EM NOW!” Cindy voice cut through, shrill and definitely pissed. “WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT PLAYING IN THE DARK.”

The two brothers ended up getting an earful from their worried sister. As someone that had witness people being killed by demons alive it was a valid worry.

Afterwards Loqi decided to continue to run diagnostics on the MAX Cuirass.

“Mind if I join ya?” Prompto asked as he heads towards the Armour.

“Be my guest.” He answered as he climbed up.

“Hey, Loqi?” Prompto asked as he settled in the cockpit. There were wires everywhere with a few free monitor panels.

Loqi had settled at the side of the Armour like before. “Yes?” He answered back with a raised eyebrow. The programmes were booting up.

“You remembered the promise?” He asked again, almost hopeful.

Loqi gave a small smile at that. “I do.” He answered. “To be honest, I didn’t remember about this until I saw it.” He confessed. “Those days in the refugee slums aren’t the best but…” Loqi trailed. “There were things worth remembering.”

Prompto sniffled before he coughed. “Yeah. Man, I feel old.” He added, voice had a slight crack in it.

Loqi chuckled at that as he gave Prompto a reassuring pat. “To think that Cor is now a Marshall.” He said with a shake of his head. “Can’t believe we tried to fight him when he came for patrol.”

“He was scary as heck!” Prompto said in defense. “Plus he looked like a gangster.”

“Now, now.” Loqi placated as the codes on the screen started to form into a line.”If it wasn’t for him, we would still be in the slums. And Cid would have never known us.”

Prompto whimpered. “You won’t be saying that if you went training under him.” He whined as he tapped the screen.

He laughed at that. “He is Cor the Immortal, after all.” He said. “Let’s just focus on the Armour, alright. This one is a bit tricky compared to the smaller ones. We need to disarm the weapons.”

“Yeah, ok.” Prompto said as he tapped the screen to input a few codes.

When midnight came, the two brothers gave up and went to sleep.

The next day, Noctis had a new machinery, the Bioblaster. Apparently, it was near the entrance to the trenches.

“That was an oversight.” Ignis commented.

“The fact that it was over the arch of the entrance, I would certainly say the same as well.” Loqi quipped.

“Well, guys.” The Prince began as he kept the weapon into the Armiger. “We gotta get to the next Tomb.” He said. “Thanks for the weapon.”

“Sure. If ya find something good, let me go tinker on it.” Cid said.

“Sure do.” He answered back as they all clambered into the Regalia.