It's hard to think about what to do with a pistol.... maybe you should take it up to Rhys?

"Hey, um, Rhysmeister?" You ask nervously, walking up to the front desk with your pistol held in both hands. He nods his head forward so that he can look at you over the reflective sunglasses, but keeps both hands behind his head as he leans back in his chair. "I have a pistol.... I can't really think of that much that I can do with it."

"Cha, dude! Are you for serious?" Rhys jumps up from his seat, incredulous. "Guns are, like, the best to tinker with!"

"....How? I-I'm not a gunsmith, and it all looks really complicated...."

Rhys waves off your comment. "It's not about designing a better gun, bro. It's about strapping stuff to the gun! Or the even more rad part, bro?" He leans in closer, a serious expression on his face. "Strapping stuff to the stuff that the gun shoots."

He leans back again, and sees that you're just a few seconds away from shuffling back over to your desk.

"Let me show you, bro." He tells you before leaning under the desk, fiddling around for a second, and then producing a huge bolt-action rifle from beneath it which he brandishes with pride.

It's got flashlights taped to it, and the stock's been sawed off midway through so that springs could be attached before the rest of it was put back on the other side of the springs. There's a ton of other things you don't recognise attached by glue or string tied in a bow, and it looks like it's barely being held together by duct tape and blue ribbons. You look back up at Rhys, who's smiling proudly.

"I call this baby The Gun. You know, after the surfboard? First met her back when I was your age, just starting out with learning to be a Warrior, and she served me righteously through my deccy-decade and a half of it." He leans in close to you again. "We didn't have any fancy-pants multiple-shooters back then like you've got with your little hand cannon, bro. But the swords and axes were just as good as they are now. Know what kept me afloat?"

"What?" You ask, starting to get a bit excited but trying to keep it internalised.

"Exploding bullets, bro. Bangers, if you will. Shoot one of those babies at a monster, poof, that's not a monster, that's a puddle. You get me?"

You nod seven times.

Rhys places The Gun back on his desk, and runs his hands across it, breathing it in. When he's done, he comes to rest with a hand either side of her, and looks to you again.

"If you'd like, brah, as your teacheroonie, I could totally show you how to make your own lil' biters into bangers."

Oh, yes please! At Rhys' request, you go grab one of your ziplock bags of impact bullets and bring up your chair from your desk to sit with him at the front. He fetches an old-looking notebook that has "Boom Powder" written on the front, and together the two of you go through it intensively. You actually take notes, as well!

The notebook is basically filled with all of the attempts and mistakes that Rhys made when he was a Warrior student trying to make his bullets more powerful, and the eventual final recipe he cooked up for making his bullets explode on impact. He's got a bit of the stuff left, as well as being able to grab the ingredients so that you can make more together.

The two of you spend just about the whole class sitting at his desk together, fiddling over your bullets and the proper ratios and distributions, as well as how best to actually store the explosive payload in your impact rounds. By the end of class, after many attempts and failures, you've finally figured out how to do it in such a way that it'll be safe for you and **** FOR ALL WHO OPPOSE YOU.

Rhys leans back and claps his hands together in celebration as your first fully successful shot bursts into a small explosion on the wall across the room from his desk, taking a chunk out of it and leaving a large circular scorch mark around the crater. You pull back your pistol and stare at it in awe, and Rhys grabs you by the shoulders to shake you excitedly.

"Dude! You, like, totally did it!"

You did! You did do it! You squeal and kick your legs in excitement, then throw your arms over Rhys' shoulders in a celebratory hug. Oh man, this is really just the coolest!

"Alright then, bro, alright." Rhys gently pushes you back and off of him. "Do ol' Rhysie and The Gun proud when you finally get out there. I'll chuck you the rest of my special boom powder to use, your pal Meddle's not gonna get any more use out of 'em now. You've got the recipe?"

You nod and hold up the pages of your open textbook to show him. He briefly checks over the notes.

"Radical!" Rhys attempts to initiate a secret handshake with you that was also a secret to you. "Hm. We'll need to work on that part, bro. Oh, and, I'll totally take the fall for that lil' missing chunkski in that wall, you're in the green."

The bell rings loudly, and the rest of your class (most of which are staring terrified at either you or the large chunk missing from the concrete wall) eventually start to pack up their things. You and Rhys do the secret handshake, but he goes slow enough that you can keep up just from watching him.

"Alright then, that's class dudes!" He stands from the desk and chckks off the music from the boom box. "I'll see you all again in, like, a long time. Let me know if you need anything! Somehow. You'll find a way, you're a smart group a' kids."

With that, you go back to your own desk and start to pack up your own things, barely containing your immense excitement. Your equipment suitcase now has two extra bags in it -- a small one, with a handful of explosive impact bullets, and a bigger one, full of the last of Rhys' pre-made special boom powder.{if Time == 7}

On your way out you see that Lexi, who wasn't bothered by the explosions or gunshots at all, has finished painting a nice little pink heart on the middle of the chest of her brown leather armour. Aw, that's nice. It's got a gradient and shine to it too, so it looks all 3D. That must've taken a lot of work!{endif}