“Initiate copy-cat!” he thought, shuddering as waves of pain danced along his limbs.

(EVOLUTION INITIATED: CAUTION, THIS WILL CAUSE INTENSE PAIN IN HOST, PROCEED?)

“Yes!”

Dustin felt his skin start to peel. Fighting not to scream, he was thankful for the pain from the sonic attack, as he wasn’t sure if he could have endured this otherwise.

Olivia blinked in surprise, finding herself laying on the ground, as his plates continued to slough off. She scrambled back. Blood began to seep out of cracks in his skin, and his head, chest, and a part of his body slipped free, exposing a much smaller form. He climbed to his feet, as a small two-foot person, with his PED on his back, and glanced around.

Behind him, it looked like he had melted. Stepping away, he glanced around him.

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)

They were in a short hall, with three doors to choose from. Not hesitating for long, he grabbed her hand and they darted for the right door. It had just clicked shut, when he heard some of the Josagn exclaiming over the shed skin.

The room they had entered, was full of all sorts of mechanical things. They had just enough time to duck behind a row of flying bikes, before the door was opened.

“Clear!” came a call, before the door was shut again.

“He really must have melted! Who would have thought a sonic attack could have liquified him?” The speaker had to be by the door for them to hear his muffled voice.

Several more moments passed where orders were given to clean up the mess and to start repairs. The two could hear bits of a discussion about the stick people. Apparently, they were giving up, and returning to their forest. The Josagn were joking about how they hadn’t stood a chance.

Dustin glanced at Olivia in time to see her rolling her eyes. These aliens were really stuck up. He felt a little sorry for the stick people, but they weren’t his main concern right now. He had just spied an entire shelf of PED’s. Sneaking over to it, he was floored by what he saw. These PED’s were all upgraded in one way or another. It looked like they threw them here, when they killed the wearer.

Olivia wandered further into the room, as he started looking through them. He was breathing hard in excitement as he looked over the various upgrades. There were so many, and some of them were even better than the one he had on. He could spend hours here working on this!

“PED initiate a return to my lizard man form.”

(EVOLUTION INITIATED.)

As his form grew to his six-foot size, it was much easier to reach the upper shelves. The PED moved itself back to his left forearm, and covered itself with a crystal plate again. He was so glad he had thought up all of these functions with it. It was so much easier just telling it to initiate a certain function, rather than having to go into detail with each evolution, every time.

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

“Look over here!” Olivia hissed from further in the room.

Dustin looked over and saw her holding up several guns. His jaw dropped as he realized this must also be the storage for weapons. Forgetting the PED’s for the moment, he hurried over to her.

There were rows and rows of different weapons.

“PED, do you have a scan feature?”

(NEGATIVE)

“Hold on, Olivia,” he said, jogging back over to the PED’s. After a quick search, he found three that had attachments that might function as scanners. Looking over them, he finally picked one, and started upgrading his PED with the new components. His fingers flew as he detached and reattached parts here and there.

(NEW COMPONENTS DETECTED. SYNCHRONIZATION REQUIRED. ESTIMATED TIME TO COMPLETION TWO MINUTES THIRTEEN SECONDS.)

“Initiate synchronization,” he said in excitement.

(SYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE. SCANNING ABILITY NOW FUNCTIONAL.)

“Scan all items in range,” he said, holding it up and watching where the scan light flashed, moving it as needed to include all of the weapons on the shelves.

(SCAN COMPLETE. THE FOLLOWING ITEMS WERE FOUND: GENERIC PISTOL, SONIC PISTOL, PLASMA PISTOL, LASER RIFLE, GRENADE LAUNCHER, ELECTROMAGNETIC RAIL GUN, PULSE RIFLE, SNIPER RIFLE)

“What does each do?” he asked, even though some of them were obvious.

(GENERIC PISTOL: A SINGLE-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES MATERIAL BULLETS, AND DEALS DAMAGE IN A SINGLE LOCATION UPON IMPACT OF BULLET.

SONIC PISTOL: A SINGLE-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES NO AMMUNITION, AND DEALS SONIC DAMAGE INCAPACITATING TARGET.

PLASMA PISTOL: A SINGLE-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES NO AMMUNITION, AND DEALS PLASMA DAMAGE IN THE FORM OF SUPERHEATED BOLTS OF BLUE PLASMA THAT DEALS LARGE AMOUNTS OF DAMAGE OVER A WIDE AREA.

LASER RIFLE: A TWO-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES A BATTERY PACK, AND DEALS LASER DAMAGE IN THE FORM OF A SUPERHEATED BEAM GUARENTEED TO BURN THROUGH ALL ORGANIC MATTER IN A SINGLE LOCATION.

GRENADE LAUNCHER: A TWO-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES GRENADES, AND FIRES GRENADES THAT DEAL SPLASH DAMAGE OVER A LARGE AREA.

ELECTROMAGNETIC RAIL GUN: A TWO-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES A BATTERY PACK AND MATERIAL BULLETS, AND DEALS HIGH POWERED DAMAGE TO A SINGLE LOCATION OVER A LARGE DISTANCE.

PULSE RIFLE: A TWO-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES A BATTERY PACK, AND FIRES A PULSE OF ENERGY THAT DEALS DAMAGE OVER A LARGE AREA.

SNIPER RIFLE: A TWO-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES MATERIAL BULLETS, AND DEALS DAMAGE TO A SPECIFIC LOCATION OVER A LARGE DISTANCE.)

Dustin picked up a laser rifle after several moments of indecision. This was the only one that didn’t make noise when it was fired. As much as he wanted some of the others, it was important that he not draw attention until he was ready for it. Turning away, he paused and grabbed a couple plasma pistols too, and then headed back to the PED shelf, after looking around the room some more. While there was plenty more to look at, none of it looked like it would help them at the moment, while he knew the PED’s offered a lot of upgrades.

“If you see anything else exciting, let me know,” he whispered at Olivia, and she nodded as she went to look over the shelves more carefully.

Grinning at the assorted PED’s he set his guns down close enough he could grab them quickly, and got to work sorting and examining each one. He didn’t want to miss anything cool, and some of these definitely looked worth the time.