Shopping

Shopping is a short story written by BionicleChicken for the Custom BIONICLE Wiki Character Swapping Contest of 2015 about his assigned character Tiara.

Story
"Skoleita Pistol. Designed for efficient use in the field. No matter where you fire this gun, the target will never be suffering from a flesh wound. Incapacitation is guaranteed. Best part about this one is the lack of bullets required. Generates its own source of energy to fire. Especially in the hands of a Toa with Elemental energy to spare," The store owner said, wiping a spot of grime he caught of sight of.

The Toa of Water before him was leaning on the counter. The way she poised herself made it clear that she was showing the owner something he might want to see. Most likely for a discount. The Xian owner, however, has already encountered several "customers" like her and successfully ignored the sight. He focused on the gun in his hand, which he blew on after making sure the grime was gone.

"Sounds like a real firearm," the Toa smirked in a soft voice. "Nothing like these other pebble-launchers you took out before. Hell, I think that one you showed might actually hurt my ex." She pointed at the carefully placed collection of ranged-weaponry on the counter.

The Xian laughed. "Listen, missy," he smiled. "You wanted small but working weapons. I brought out those small but working weapons. All these, these in front of you, are there because you keep scoffing at each one. This one you sound actually interested in." The Xian twirled the Skoleita Pistol with his index finger skillfully. Sideways, then vertically, followed by an expert switch of hands.

The Toa's eyebrows raised, but her dark blue eyes still looked bored. After the spinning, the Xian placed the gun on the counter; long rows of pistols slowly rising in firepower when looking at them from bottom row to top. "The Skoleita is the best pistol in my store, Raindrops," the Xian gestured to the large collection. "Take your pick."

The Toa of Water shifted her position, so her fingers were around her chin in decision-making mode. The small store was silent as she looked at her choices. The only sounds that echoed around the dark orange walls were the sounds of the ceiling fans overhead. The smell of the natural polluted air lingered. The Toa of Water had to get used to it once more when she entered Xia. After many times gagging from the smog, she finally stopped when she came to this store. She was skulking around the nearby streets when she spotted it out of the corner of her eye.The Toa of Water tapped the fingers not on her chin on the counter. She slowly made for some of the guns, pulling back each time.

The Xian stared at her. She was pretty enough, but not for his tastes. Her appearance's charisma was waning the more she took her damn time.

The Toa froze, then pointed at the Skoleita. "No need for reloading, you say?" She asked. "Its rounds are self-generated?"

The Xian nodded.

"Now that is interesting, I'll take it," the Toa picked up the Pistol and pointed it at an aisle.

"Wonderful," The Xian muttered. He snatched the Pistol out of the Toa's hands, earning a glare from her. The Xian ignored this gesture. He placed the gun on the back counter. He dug at the underside of the front counter and took out a rectangular container filled with various types of ammunition. In this case, he took out a transparent cartridge with a blue orb within. The orb had various tiny circuits connected to it, and within each, one could see colors flashing. Some of the colors didn't even have names.

"So the price for that piece, including the tax for the company that made it, is four hundred-fifty widgets," the Xian announced. "Say, I didn't even get your name."

The owner didn't even notice the sound of the Toa grabbing the Skoleita before he felt it smash against the back of his head. Everything looked like a radial ripple by the time the pain set in. The owner's vision got blurry and he fell over onto the floor, the container full of ammunition falling on him.

The Skoleita cartridge fell out of his hand, but didn't hit the ground. Mata Nui knew what would happen if it did. The Toa of Water had caught it, and stuck it into the Pistol. The Toa could feel the energy coursing through the weapon, as it gently buzzed in her palm.

"I think I'll take the one hundred percent discount, thank you very much," the Toa of Water eyed her newly acquired firearm. "And the name's Tiara, by the by."

Tiara slid over the front counter and walked to a better view of the owner's bleeding head. She leaned over and aimed her Skoleita at it. One flash of blue later, a cauterized hole in the owner's head appeared out of nowhere. Tiara grinned and was about to put her weapon away when she realized she didn't even buy a holster.

None of those shoulder nonsense, she decided, and took a belt. With more ideas in mind, Tiara also decided to buy a small knife. She then realized the belt had no sheathe for blades and switched. Tiara made her way to a mirror and examined her new weapons. They were too exposed, but Tiara figured that no one would care. After all, that wouldn't be the first thing people would pay attention to.

Tiara sighed with satisfaction. She walked to the store's light switch and flicked it to "off". The sign on the front door was then changed to "closed". Tiara didn't bother to lock the door. She didn't care if the store could be robbed at a time like this, and neither would the owner.

Tiara had new tools, and she was ready to looking for work again. Maybe a nearby bar had some seedy-looking characters that were looking for resumes.

Characters

 * Tiara
 * Gun store owner
 * Zaktan - mentioned