Capítulo 1967: 197
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"Whoof! She handles like a dream!" Coco grinned, letting Gianduja's barrels spin to a halt as she adjusted her sunglasses and let her weapon fold back into its handbag state with a low whistle. When Ruby had initially approached her over the holidays about giving Gianduja a shorter ranged shotgun functionality, she'd been a bit reticent, but after the most recent test, where thousands of steel pellets had annihilated the entire downrange portion of her current firing lane?
Oh, she was really feeling it.
Sure, Gianduja's shotgun magazine was much smaller than the main drum of high caliber explosive shots and the firing rate was slower, but it was still something damn good for shorter ranged fighting where normally Gianduja's barrel length and size made dealing with close-up grimm harder than it otherwise would be. Sure, it wasn't great for melee range, but that was what its handbag form was made for. The shotgun functionality was more for indoors engagement or cramped caves and forest areas where having a full auto spray would be counterproductive.
Hence, shorter ranged, harder hitting slugs for firing on anything that got too close for her to spool up Gianduja in time.
"Oh yeah… this is good…" Coco all but purred, patting her bag as she thumbed her glasses and gave Ruby a thumbs up with a wide grin. "Coulda used something like this during the Tournament, but shit this is nice. Extra firing modes and a striking power increase? Ruby Rose, you sure know how to spoil a girl good!"
"I'm glad you like the upgrades!" Ruby chuckled, smiling wide and awkwardly laughing with that same kind of tone of someone who didn't really know how to accept a compliment without falling all over herself. "I've been thinking about how to increase Gianduja's power without adding too much complexity, but I figured letting you use her in more areas and with greater diversity was more important than increasing firepower- especially considering how well your Semblance does with Dust. So… yeah! Shotgun mode for close up enemies, bag form for melee range, and everything else you can shoot down with your main mode. I also added a select fire toggle in case you wanna conserve ammo at any point, plus a reinforced superstructure and kinetic modifiers along with a back handle so in case you need just a little more melee range you can use the gun form as an improvised bludgeon too! Uh… be careful with it though, because the back handle has an electronic trigger in it too so… yeah the recoil might be a bit much from that position."
"Uh huh… well. You've certainly outdone yourself," Coco hummed, looking over her weapon in mild awe as she ejected the spent shotgun casings from the mechanism- and, wow, was it almost exactly the same way that Yang's Ember Celica ejected shells. There was a spray of bright red plastic going everywhere, and Coco slid a new belt into place by clipping the first round in and spinning the entire mechanism almost like a revolver cylinder before everything closed and slotted back into place in a nearly invisible manner if one didn't know what they were looking for. "Gods, I'm still so fucking glad you fixed up the feed system on my girl here- reloading in a fight was a fucking process before you fiddled with it. Woulda saved me so much time and effort if I'd figured it out earlier but… yeah."
"No problem at all! It was a really good challenge, honestly," Ruby grinned, holding her wrench in a jaunty salute as she stood by and watched Coco set up Gianduja on a table so she could memorize how to field strip it, clean it, and maintain the internals properly. "Plus the superstructure reinforcement was a great way of using up some of my special extra durable metal stock that I just had lying around. Oh! Right- one more thing- the Dust compartment-"
"You made it bigger, yeah- I noticed! Super useful," Coco nodded, continuing to field strip her weapon down into its massive array of parts, going for a full disassembly instead as she continued to slide pieces out of place and unscrew the major assemblies into more manageable ones. "Makes carrying around a bunch of the stuff way easier, not gonna lie. Like, seriously- Rubes, this is everything I could have asked for with my baby. Thank you- genuinely."
"Hey, what're friends for?" Ruby shrugged, sitting down by Coco and watching her lay out every single one of Gianduja's parts in a methodical, well organized manner that seemed so at odds with Coco's usual wild, cool, fashionista partygirl exterior. "Besides- you can repay me by using Gianduja to kill lotsa grimm!"
"... Isn't that a little weird, sometimes?" Coco paused, tilting her head at Ruby and furrowing her brow. "Like… aren't you a grimm, technically? I feel like it's kinda weird for you of all people to go on a tirade about how much you hate the bastards but… I guess…"
"Nah, it's whatever. I mean, yeah sure I'm made of grimmstuff, but grimm are pretty mindless aside from how much they wanna kill people, and I'm me. Still human enough to have a soul, y'know?" Ruby shook her head, running her fingers through her hair and giving Coco a cheeky grin. "It's really not that bad, y'know? Besides, it's grimm. It's not weird to want 'em dead."
"... yeah, that tracks. Nevermind then. Anyway- what's next for you guys? Classes, missions? CFVY's gonna head out for our first mission of the year soon, but you guys haven't really signed up for anything yet have you?" Coco asked, starting to reassemble Gianduja and humming quietly as she did so, working swiftly and efficiently with her tools with a confidence that belied just how much work she'd put into her weapon.
"Mmm… not yet. Uncle Qrow and Professor Goodwitch told us to stay here for now, especially since General Ironwood's been bugging us to go to Atlas. I'm not sure I want to, but the General is right that there's a rising amount of grimm activity there and the people are scared," Ruby shook her head, pulling Crescent Rose from the shadows of her mass and running her fingers along the perfectly machined and maintained lines. "As much as I don't trust the General much anymore… there are still people that need to be saved, and I doubt that Mantle's walls have gotten any better since the last time I saw them- or the last time Cinder saw them, even."
"Shit, guess we'll go do that too, then," Coco muttered, frowning as she transformed Gianduja back into its bag form, settling it at her side and pursing her lips "We can run our current mission out, then head to Atlas for backup, I guess. Us, CMNE, RWBYP… That should be enough, right?"
"Team SSSN too, if they want," Ruby pointed out, then paused. "... They're fourth years, right?"
"Yeah, they're fourth years. They're pretty strong now too, but they're still kind of a low stakes kinda squad? Not great when they have to fight anything bigger than an Alpha," Coco shook her hand in a so-so motion, shrugging then and adjusting her glasses once again as she leaned back in her seat and gave Ruby a considering look. "Y'think anything big's gonna happen in this conspiracy of ours?"
"Probably. Especially with as many people as we're bringing up there. It's basically the perfect time for Salem to attack once we're all concentrated in one place. But, that said, we might have to split up?" Ruby shrugged, not really sure. "We don't know where she'll attack next. Mistral's still rebuilding Haven, Atlas is on high alert, Vale just rebuilt and had the Vytal Festival, and Vacuo hasn't been attacked at all. There's… a lot of things to consider and I don't know if what we're doing is the right decision."
Coco hummed, shaking her head. "Well, whatever happens- we can only make the decisions we think are best and fix everything that breaks from when we fuck up. Don't worry too much about it, pupper. Anyway. Thanks for touching up Gianduja- swing by the CFVY dorm sometime, yeah? Velvet makes killer cookies. I'll get her to make you some as a thank you."
"Mm! Will do!" Ruby smiled, watching Coco walk away with a small smile… one that quickly became even brighter as Penny pushed open the door to the firing range. "Oh! Penny!"
"Hello beloved! I believed you were done with your consultation with Miss Coco, so I decided to come pick you up," Penny smiled, all but skipping over to Ruby and enveloping her in a tight, warm hug and kissing her softly on the forehead. "Did you miss me?"
"Mm! I always miss you when you're gone!" Ruby giggled, snuggling into the arms of her beloved as they started walking back to the RWBYP dorm, safe and secure with Penny hugging her and guiding her around. "Even if you're not that far away… or are just standing outside the firing range."
"I did not want to intrude on your conversation," Penny shrugged, nuzzling into Ruby's hair with a little huff. "Though I am aware that I could have come in at any time. "Shall we make dinner soon?"
"Mm! Yeah! I'm thinkin'.... Oo, how about ribs? And we can get some salad going too!"
"That sounds wonderful, beloved."
"Yeah! Ribs!"
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