mutated

chapter nineteen: all i want for christmas? food!

Christmas. The dreaded time of the year.

People would think someone so nosy like me would know exactly what my friends would want for Christmas but no I could never figure out what to give people. Usually, I baked cookies for everyone, but unfortunately, the cookies that they provided here were probably the best in the world, and none of my cookies were going to top it.

As a full member, we were finally allowed to leave the building, leaving me hopelessly lost in the middle of Tsim Sha Tsui. After some not-so-skillful blundering through several shopping malls, I managed to buy gifts for nearly everyone in my class.

I started with the girls, realizing that I'd probably end up getting all of them similar things, and it would be easier for me to choose out things for them. I first went into a jewelry shop, and left with a whole bag of different accessories, from bracelets to necklaces to earrings and hair clips. Having access to a multi-billion dollar bank account, we were literally allowed to shop till we dropped.

Maxim had probably realized that I was going to set camp in his lab, so he had left a detailed instruction manual on everything in the lab and a map of the multiple levels he presided over. He also left a blueprint of a laser device to warn me not to go near any of his personal projects. Looking at the complexity of the design, I was pretty sure I wasn't going near his personal bubble anytime soon.

Then it was time to give a little Jadie-twist of violence to this pretty little trinkets. I coated the pendants in my lovely nano-thermites in case they were in need of a grenade, and after carefully drilling the pendants hollow, filled it with some of Theodora's nasty concoctions. Red ones would kill, blue ones would freeze them and green ones would make them incredibly ill. 

I magnetized the necklaces themselves so they could snap straight into a small knife in emergencies, modifying it so the sharp blades would only snap out when activated, so they wouldn't accidentally slit their own throats. I did similar things with the bracelets but also coiled in about a meter of thin but deadly sharp wire in case they needed something to strangle someone with.

The earrings were modified so they would act as comms as well, and they packed a nasty electrical punch and could shoot out the gem on the earrings to hit adjacent enemies. The needles were hollow and filled with poison, so you could also stab someone discreetly with just the back end of the earring.

The hairbows could now be unraveled into long winding ribbons that could be used to strangle people with, while some of the others had hidden blades along them. Some of the extra sparkly ones had nano-thermites weaved into it, in case you needed an extra bit of kaboom when you blew something up.

I also ended up buying some small handbags in case. Filled with carbyne weapons, they could bypass security systems, and the straps could be used as a whip or wire to strangle with. The weapons inside were all disguised as your average things. A laser disguised as lipstick, throwing daggers disguised as pens, a purse that was actually a gun, even make-up that could act as a photostatic veil that could fool facial recognition software.

I don't know if some of those designs were too violent. They served a greater purpose, and they were fun to make.

Now it was time for the boys. What the hell do I give boys?

Did I have to give the boys anything?

Yea, I did. Fair's fair. I didn't hate the boys, heck I even tolerated them, so they deserved a little Christmas gift.

I ended up deciding to give them some little-modified gifts as well, in the guise of a pack of cards each.

Diamonds were the knives. The cards were actually anagrams that once unhinged, could form tiny throwing daggers, or if all 13 cards were used at once, a sword. It wasn't the strongest sword, of course, but thin enough to slip through chinks in armor or anything like that.