Chapter 62: Out on the range

Chapter 62: Out on the range

An hour or so later the three of us had finished our drinks and food and were ready to leave. The first time we had done this Steve had pointed out that drinking probably wasn't the best thing to be doing before trying out potentially dangerous gear, but I quickly pointed out that none of us were capable of getting drunk any more. Bucky had laughed when Steve blushed, caught being a goody two shoes.

We left the bar and headed to an alley, taking a look around before they both held out their hands and I traveled us to the range, a dozen acres of land I bought with Tony's help, located in the middle of nowhere. We landed in the corner of the same tent that had been set up at the Quarry, now set up as a sort of break area, with self contained fan units, lights and even a fridge that kept itself stocked with beer, soda and a few snacks. Not far outside was a well made range hut, complete with chairs, gun rests, spotter monoculars, anything you could need at a range. A short walk the other direction was a large three car garage, a simple metal structure strengthened by vibranium and Asgardian alloy.

I set this place up shortly after I moved my workshop from the quarry to its current location. Steve, Bucky and I had been coming here on and off for a few months as a way to unwind and a way for me to get some feedback on some of my newest creations.

"So I've got a few updated versions of the guns we tried last time, a new shotgun and a heavy cannon I want your opinion on." I said before gesturing to the garage. "There's also two new vehicles I want you to look at."

As we walked to the gun range I pushed out a trunk of weapons, flicking out a card so it appeared on the concrete floor of the range hut. I cracked the trunk open and pulled out two guns, handing one to each of them before grabbing the third for myself. It was a conceptual blend of several rifles, including the SCAR, the HKMR762 and two M14's, all to try and create the perfect high powered DMR.

This particular attempt had a soft blue glow emanating from the seams, softly pulsing from one end to the other. Each rifle was modified to run off energy cells, and therefore never ran out of ammo, before it was combined into this form. I also fiddled with the individual parts, trying to tweak it into its perfect form before I stacked it for its ultimate version.

The final result was a sleeker, longer rifle that leaned heavily towards the M14 but still pulled from the SCAR. It fired blue pulses of energy which immediately they both recognized when I first showed them off. It had taken a while to assure them that this weapon would not disintegrate its targets unless you specifically set it to that setting.

"You fixed the recoil?" Bucky asked as he checked over the rifle.

"It's scalable now." I explained. "It's on the stock controls."

My last version had removed the recoil in its entirety, and they both immediately complained that without the recoil it was hard to anticipate and get into a rhythm of shooting. Bucky nodded and examined the left side of his stock, pushing open a small panel of buttons. There was a switch to deploy a complete silencer, one to dampen the light, one to deploy a bipod, a small knob to choose between six different scopes and a new one to adjust how much the weapon kicked.

The three of us sat down in the three different bays and aimed down the range. Scattered down the range were barrels, small wooden structures and a few sandbag barricades. After settling in I pushed a button on the wall next to me and a few dozen targets popped up, slowly moving around, back and forth, up and down. After a moment's pause we all opened fire, testing out the different options.

"I like the scalable recoil," Bucky said, nailing a distant target in the head. "Having the best of both worlds comes in handy."

"Still a bit of a space gun for my tastes, but I can feel the M14 influence on it," Steve added, hitting a closer target with a three round burst. "What are you designing this for anyway, you already have your guns?"nove(l)bi(n.)com

My guns, which were each charged with a Destroyer armor beam, had changed little since I originally made them. Each of their forms, two revolvers, a rifle and a shotgun were triple stacked, having all but slammed into diminishing returns at that point. The rifle, which had been the only form that did not have infinite ammo, had been enhanced similar to how these guns were, but with a focus on more mid range.

"Because I can." I said with a shrug, picking off one of the furthest targets as it peaked over a barrel. "Plus having a little extra fire power packed away just in case could come in handy."

"A little extra firepower?" Bucky said skeptically, his eye roll almost tangible. "You could already take over a small country with a dozen of these things and I'm sure you plan on stacking them until they can take out a tank."

I stayed silent, unwilling to lie more, which only made Steve and Bucky chuckle. We spent a few more minutes trying out this iteration of my DMR before we stopped.

"I like it," Steve said as he handed the rifle back. "I'm not sure what else you could add to it at this point. Have you figured out how to make it non lethal?"

"No, and I officially gave up on it," I said with a shrug. "The lethal and nonlethal concepts clash too much, even through a transformation. Plus Tony pointed out that having a gun that is lethal and non lethal is just asking for someone to mess up and shoot one when they meant to do the other. I'm going to make a dedicated non lethal option. "

"That's probably for the best."

Next we tested a shotgun that I had just finished developing that visually looked like a sleek and streamlined Saiga-12, even if it was a combination of several shotguns. The main advancement I had made was the ability to switch between a few different types of rounds to fire. With a simple selector wheel you could switch between slugs that explode, pierce, deliver a small EMP like shock, or deliver a purely kinetic blow. It also had a few "spread" modes that fire smaller, less penetrative but still extremely lethal bolts of energy, for use in situations where going through a wall could mean a civilian casualty. It also had a few different options on the gun frame itself, such as a silencer, a few different types of sights and the same scalable recoil.

"The scalable recoil is perfect on these," Steve said after I had explained the gun's abilities and we all started trying them out. "No one likes to admit it but firing high powered slugs from a shotgun is not fun."

"I've been messing around with vehicles for a bit now, just picking random roles and trying to build the best vehicle I could for that role."

Sitting in the garage were a bunch of different vehicles, all clearly modified or completely custom. The smallest was a pair of ATV's with a sleek science fiction vibe to them. The front wheels were attached to different supports, providing the absolute best of shock absorption. It sort of looked like two motorcycles attached together. Next to those was a larger buggy, with massive tires that had the best grip I could conceptually craft into it. The last vehicle was an absolute monster of a truck. Eight wheels, heavily armored and powered by six max stacked arc reactors, it was a behemoth. In fact, that was what I called it, the Behemoth.

It was also too big for me to card, making it almost completely useless. Though it did teach me a valuable lesson.

Apparently, I could make something inside a card that once I pushed it out I could not pull back in. I was just thankful I had kept it in the deck until I was down here at the range. It would have been a pain to deal with at the warehouse.

"Damn Maker, that is massive," Bucky said, walking to the massive truck. "Is it as tough as it looks?"

"Tougher." I assured him. '"It's called the Behemoth."

Eventually the two focused on what I actually wanted them to focus on, the buggy and the two ATV's. After a few minutes of explaining their capabilities, as well as me handing both of them a conceptually crafted helmet, we drove out of the garage. Steve pulled out first in the buggy, with Bucky and myself chasing after him on the ATV's.

For the next few hours we wove between trees, around rocks and along a dozen paths that I had carved out while testing other vehicles. We were traveling at some ridiculous speeds, our enhancements the only reason we weren't smashing into trees, boulders or each other. Eventually we switched up vehicles, with Steve taking an ATV Bucky in the buggy. After another hour we made our way back to range, covered in mud and dirty.

"The buggy was clearly faster," Steve said as Bucky hopped out of the buggy. "But the ATV's had it beat in maneuverability."

"That was the idea," I said with a nod, leading the two out of the garage, shutting the door behind us.

"The buggy was much more comfortable as well," Bucky pointed out. "My butt was getting sore after the first hour on the ATV."

"Hmm I'll have to take a look at that," I said, making a mental note.

"So why bother making these at all?" Steve asked as we stepped into the tent, dropping down on one of the chairs. "Last I heard you could fly at what, mach three?"

"Honestly? These are for fun," I said with a shrug. "Some of this stuff is a hobby, some of it is because I want to be prepared."

"Prepared for what?"

"Anything. The world is changing Steve, it's heading to something, I can feel it. I want to be ready for whatever it is," I explained, passing him and Bucky some water bottles from the fridge. "I know it sounds paranoid, but weird stuff is happening more and more often. I mean look at you Steve, and you Bucky. Two best friends, super soldiers, separated during world war two and then reconnected in the modern era. How crazy is that? And then there is Iron Man, the Hulk, Asgardians, and that's just what we know of."

"I guess it's hard for me to spot because this is all so new to me," Steve admitted, giving Bucky a look, who only shrugged. "But life did stop being normal for me when I was chosen for the super soldier program."

"Just keep it in mind. Weird is the new normal. And don't be afraid to call me in if there is something weird going on."

"You don't have to worry about that," Bucky responded. "You're already on the short list of people to call if shit stops making sense."

I chuckled and nodded, checking the time on my phone.

"Alright guys, it's about time I get back to the warehouse," I said standing and stretching. "I assume you want to go back to DC?"

A short while, and a few goodbyes later I traveled back to the warehouse. Ema was still gone, but I still had plenty to keep me occupied until she got back. With Tony due back I wanted to get some of my own projects done before we started collaborating again.