"You asked if I'm trying to field a small army," Makary spoke softly, his eyebrows moving down a little bit. "But aren't you the one asking for quite a lot of firepower?"

For a moment, I simply scanned the man's face, weighing the options in my head.

Should I admit that I was indeed in dire need of some serious heavy hitters? Or should I play it dumb... and try to pretend I was simply trying to get my hands on some new, fancy toys?

'Yeah, as if. The cost of those is way too high for him to believe I want them just to have some fun,' I thought, rolling my eyes over my own, momentary naivete.

"Right now, I cannot answer this question." I've revealed enough for the day. Nothing good would come from stupidly hinting at what plans I was fostering in my mind, regardless if they involved Makary and his men or not. "A time might come... No, I think a time will come when I will give you the answer. And by then, I might..."

'I might give you the war you wanted,' I thought, barely stopping my tongue from growing a bit too loose.

Makary's face tensed up a tiny little bit, eradicating all the hints of the smile I saw on it before. He clearly heard the restraint in my voice, and saw I said less than I was about to. Yet, he got the hint and didn't try to pry any further.

"Let's put the talks of the future to where it belongs, a better time later on," Makary spoke, kindly offering me a way out from the slight impasse my words put me in. "So, a heavy-hitter for when things get close and personal," he then muttered, raising his hand to caress his chin as he slowly scanned the items within the locker.

"How about Neupour?" Makary suggested, squinting his eyes as he looked down to inspect the small, hand-gun-like, blocky weapon.

It was a shape I was generally familiar with, for it was a modernized version of the legendary p90 model which was often referenced in the games I used to play.

A massive celestial beast rushing at me, its eyes filled with bloodthirst, its mouth watering at the thought of tasty human meat...

And then, a thick layer of steel mist appeared in its path, prying at every tiniest vulnerability the luck would allow me to hit.

A true, wall of steel... but one that would last for but a moment.

'Maybe I should ask for something with a heavier punch?' I thought when in my mind-scenario, the celestial beast simply broke past the mist this gun could produce.

The end result of the scenario I played in my heat wasn't nice. And while it was all based on mere imagination, feel of the power I felt from Madam's fox form...

"Is it not to your satisfaction?" Makary asked the smile once again appearing to linger in the corner of his mouth.

"I'm not sure it has enough stopping power," I admitted, spreading my arms and shrugging them a little. "Sure, it can shred a human, but..." I shrugged my shoulders again.

In a moment of doubt, I looked over at Fay. Yet, rather than quickly averting my eyes and thus proving that whatever she made me think about was important enough for me to try to cover such a blatant hint... I continued to look at her face for a short while. "But now that I think of it..."

Makary obviously caught my glance. Yet, just like before, when I held back my tongue, he either opted not to comment or simply didn't bother to.

"Let's put it aside, then." In the end, Makary clearly read into my initial thought, not the one that followed. After putting the relatively small but deadly gun away, he pulled a much longer, simpler one out. "What do you think of this slug-slinging sucker?"