Celeste had received many calls that week, but the one she had loved had been the call of TechGuard´s sales executive. The company provided her bodyguards with reliable guns to protect her, and on top of that they had also been kind enough to get special permit for her taser, which otherwise would have been illegal since Celeste did not have the minimum age for owning one. Of course they also gave her a lot of cartridges for her little toy, without a single question.
So when she received the news, she could not help but feel very excited and relieved at the same time. Since the meeting in the park with the lady of the multiple tentacles, the girl had felt a bit unsafe outside of her home. Of course, now she did not dare to escape from the custody of her bodyguards, but having them so close all the time was becoming a punishment and a blessing. So maybe she could regain her sense of security just by getting a new gadget with which to deter or punish the criminals who get too close.

On Saturday, the day agreed for the appointment, she arrived at the place specified in her favorite white limousine, accompanied by her two bodyguards and platinum debit card.
A small team of TechGuard´s employee were conducting various outdoor activities such as moving large container, or trying out the different weapons that the company sold. While these small demonstrations took place, the sales executive who worked with them stood in the entrance of a large building that looked suspiciously like an aircraft hangar. Inside they found an advanced shooting range and a long table with lots of gadgets, guns, and knives of all kinds.

"Welcome Miss Manfrella." Said the man while executing a small bow. When she was close enough, he took her hand and tilted his head to kiss her in the dorsum of the hand. Of course he did not kiss her. Only the ignorant did it. Her host was too instructed that instead his lips floated over her hand. The seller was quite handsome, but his lips were split by a scar, which made him look very scary.
Celeste, in gratitude for the courtesy dedicated him one of her famous bows. "Thank you for meeting with us with such rush." But the man hastened to answer, using more courtesy than sincerity. "It's not a problem, you are always welcome." Her bodyguards stood behind her, and in the eyes of the young man they were totally invisible. Nobody greet them, or thanked the two man from their visit.
Then they all entered the great hangar where the climate was much more pleasant and the noise of nearby activities had been reduced to zero.

The silence that filled the place seemed to have solidified in some sort of anti intrusion fog, since it seemed that the air inside the hangar was heavier than outside. Perhaps it was due simply to the temperature change, but that silence seemed willing to drown them all. It was going to kill them if no one speak.
Celeste was the first to defend herself against that unnatural silence. "There is not a safe place anymore..." The girl began to grumble with a clear tone of indignation. A tone very similar to the one used by her grandfather when he referred to the changing world that was always getting worst. "... There are mutants everywhere." The girl ended the phrase without any concern. Beside her bodyguards she felt safe enough to openly complain of the mutant problem... besides there was only one person with them, and she did not believe Vladimir the sales agent could be a mutant...
The handsome young man answered again, keeping his tone if cordiality. "It's true. There are many dangerous mutants outside." Then he did something he had never done, something that made him even more beautiful. He left for a moment his bubble of courtesies behind and winked at her with amusement. "The mutant threat increased the sales a lot." They laughed at the occurrence. Her bodyguards just watched.

Finally they reached the table placed in front of the shooting gallery. And Vladimir began to show items. One by one, he picked them up and briefly explained how to use it.
"This ball contains a paint that is easy to spot..." At that time he was showing a ball made of some kind of rubber. "In some countries, this ball can be found next to the cash register." He made a small gesture for them to follow him and moved closer to the various targets placed at different distances. Some were mere targets, while others had human form. Then he threw the ball to the nearest carton man and it exploded releasing a yellow-green paint that was really easy to see.
"Interesting." Said the girl, nodding and looking for a utility for those balls. She could only think in ruining someone else image. "I need something more aggressive." Without feeling offended by the interruption, Vladimir quickly headed to the table again and returned with a couple of knives with long grip. "I do not want knives." Said the girl quickly. But the salesman instead of arguing with her, stretched out his hand and pointed with it to the fake man stained with paint. Then he shot the blade, that penetrated into the head of the target.

Although shocked, she had to shake my head. "Too aggressive Vlad..." Still, when the sales man approached with another ballistic knife, the girl grabbed it and watched each detail carefully. For a moment she considered their advantages and disadvantages. With that knife she had the element of surprise on her side, but she did not need to create a slaughter and as much as she would like to hurt some mutants, the knife seemed to need much practice, too much marksmanship to function properly, and in her last fight the stress had destroyed her aiming abilities.
"Try it." He said at last, and he showed how to fire it. With trembling hands the girl flipped the switch and the blade of her knife came out, fired in the general direction of the cardboard man, but even so she did not hit it. "I like the idea, but I want something less lethal." She smiled at such request. What could be less lethal than a flying knife that does not impact the target?

For the first time, Vladimir did not seem so pleased with her response. He might have hoped Celeste to like the ballistic knife that he had chosen for her, or maybe he just loved that kind of weapons and expected her to do the same. Whatever it was, the girl could not identify the feeling in his face, but in his eyes. But his eyes were moving too fast and he knew very well how to hide them under invisible lens, so his expression was lost.
She did not notice when he had returned to his bubble of courtesy. But as long as he keep showing them the weapons, she did not care at all... Once she thought to had seen him without his mask but now she did not know where the man ended and where the mask began. Maybe she had misjudged the man, he seemed to be deeper than she had thought. His voice was filled with pure courtesy and mocking concern. "If you want to fight mutants, you will need something lethal, otherwise you will have problems my lady." In an attempt to give credence to his words, he gave her another smile. A sad smile.

Before the girl could look into his face for a more precise answer to what was going on, she noticed how the man took out his cell phone. A beautiful machine that seemed to have stepped out of a science fiction movie. Although she always had the last phone in the market, Vladimir seemed to have one that she had ever seen. Probably made especially by TechGuard.
After pressing a button, he put it on his pocket again. Moments later, a man dressed in the a work uniform entered the hangar. "Hello." Said in a voice that would have been better suit for a bear than a human. Despite his insolence, his powerful voice intimidated her enough to silent her complain. "He will help with the following demonstration." Assure the salesman. Then headed to the table and chose a gun, then shot to the leg of his assistant.
Fast as lightning, Vlad caught him before he hit the ground.
Once he checked that his companion was still breathing, he took off a small object from the assistant´s left leg and proceeded to continue the demonstration as if nothing had happened.

She was horrified, but the lack of emotion from the seller achieved to calm her enough to do not run. Not for the poor man who remained unconscious on the floor, but for her own safety. But before she could react, the handsome young man showed her a red dart. The object he had extracted from the human bear. And then the girl understood what happened even without hearing his whole explanation.
"It's a gun adapted to shoot darts." He showed one of the darts. "Depends on the content, it can be as lethal as you like." It was simple. Non lethal with a strong sedative and highly lethal with a potent poison. That was clear. "I can not use guns." Said the girl as an excuse for not being able to use that wonderful invention. Still thinking in the many possibilities that that weapon provided. She could fill the dart with what she wanted. From a muscle-paralyzing substance to a deadly poison. It was a versatile weapon that although she would not buy, she could not help but admire with some trepidation.
But after a few of his inquisitive stares, she gave her hope of denying something to that handsome man. "Maybe." She finally said with a devilish smile on her face. Vlad also smiled, closing the deal.

All weapons so far had their charm, except for the ball filled with paint. Its usefulness was understandable when trying to capture a thief, but nothing more. She needed something aggressive but not lethal. Just like her taser.
Just as she was thinking she maybe ought to ask for another taser instead of losing time with all those beautiful arms. He found a gun for her that could shoot darts. The dart was always the same but the content could change and that was what attracted her enough to put that weapon in the next round.
The assistant used to show the speed of action of the chemical, was still lying on the floor. Clearly sleeping by the snoring that escaped from his mouth.
Without disturbing the comfort of his companion, and ignoring his annoying snoring, the seller continued his own demonstration. Again he took a gun-shaped object, although this had a characteristic yellow color she had only seen in other product. "A Taser." The girl said aloud, and Vladimir, attentive and quick as a cat heard her gentle voice and answered. "Not just any taser, miss."

And with a professional smile decorating his lips, he moved with long strides to get as close to Celeste as he could. The girl took the modern apparatus off his hands and watched in amazement, visualizing what that thing could do.
The shape of a gun made it look more menacing. In the end, where most tasers would have a single cartridge, this one had two. Two cartridges. Two shots, perhaps in two different directions.
Guessing her thoughts, Vlad took the device from her hands and pointed toward the nearest cardboard figure. He shot. The metal teeth flew to dig into the man fake flesh, pressing another button, he achieved a second pair of teeth to jump out, another man was nailed. Celeste knew very well from experience that if these had been persons they would be on the floor unable to move. And as they were still "wired" he could send electricity to keep them both there. "Awesome." Said the girl. The vendor smiled and pulled the Taser into the weapons she was probably going to buy.

Fortunately Vladimir knew better than any other seller that he did not have to explain every detail to sell his products. With a simple demonstration, she had enough information to judge whether the weapon in question was worth or not.
Otherwise they would have to lost all day watching each item in the list. Surely with other customers it was that way, but Celeste was not there to being persuaded to buy things, but to decide what she wanted to buy.
She already knew the taser he had show her, but she had never really used one of that type. Apparently such power was reserved only for different authorities to maintain orders. Although Celeste only enforced her own orders, TechGuard was prepared to provide the papers for that very interesting instrument.
At that moment she had two thing to buy, the dart gun and restricted taser.

"Miss Manfrella." Said the seller to capture her attention. Although her name sounded very strange on the lips of Vladimir, she immediately recognized it and lifted her face to the boy. "I'm afraid I have to show this article." Telling that, his face contorted in a grimace of discontent. His mask of feigned concern told her all she needed to know, she would not like that new object at all. "Go ahead." The girl said wearily, trying not to sound as angry as she felt. "Is not his fault." She told herself, but still, there was not another person to blame but him.
The seller ran to the table and returned with a strange bunch of devices that appeared to be some mini Walkmans.
"It's a new product." The boy began. Celeste yawned. "If you turn it when you are in danger it produce a sound of one hundred decibels..." He stopped his explanation, his companion began to move again. He took his phone, and pressed only one number as he did before and then put it in his pocket again. "It would be best if I show you." The Walkman had several buttons, and when he squeezed a one, a shrill cry left everyone almost deaf. "I do not want it." Said the girl while her ears were bombarded by the siren. She did not know if his seller had heard her or not, but after a few seconds the infernal noise stopped, leaving the entire hangar in a strange silence again.
"I knew it would not be of your liking." The boy excused himself as he returned the horrible thing to the table. Apparently it was designed to attract attention for someone to run to her aid... as that was going to happen in the city. Each one took care of himself.

By the time Vlad was in front of Celeste again, he was holding a new non lethal weapon. Two more men dressed in the uniform of the company had entered and had taken their partner who was waking up. Surely they had not used the strongest sedative for the demonstration, but she still doubted that the man could return to work that very day. Hopefully they would give him the rest of the day.
She followed the employees with her, as they took him away, once gone, her seller began to sell them a new product. "It's a small stick that can be hidden easily, named Kubotan." He showed it to Celeste, and even attempt to fold it to show the material was very strong. "There's even a martial art for it. You can use it to hit pressure points." Vlad smiled, but the smile did not last long. "So if they attack me, Should I acupuncture them to death ?" Asked the girl clearly uncomfortable with the concept of the miniature cane.
Her salesperson, a hard man to offend, continued his demonstration. He had a big variety of micro canes or Kubotan that could be used as a key chain so they were really easy to hide. Of course, only if fashion was not a wanted factor. Because in her opinion the cane could not be combined with anything else.

"It's better if you see it." He said again. Knowing that so much talk was not good. Even when their relation was short, he still know that Celeste was too young and she was prone to get bored quickly. Instead the demonstrations were quick and concise. Again he took his phone and pressed a single number. It was amazing how the others knew what he wanted when the only thing he did was to push a button. Maybe they had a code, and each button would send a different message. She had to ask him later.
While Celeste watched the stick in disbelief, another Techguard came inside the hangar. The only difference with the others was that this one did not have the normal working uniform but stained gray clothes. He greeted everyone with a bow. Oriental style. Although they were clearly from the same country.

A moment later the man began to attack the air, showing various movements of the martial art which used those little sticks.
It was a mixture of martial arts and swordplay, his feet danced while his hands skillfully thrusts and cuts as if the stick were a sword. It was almost like watching someone doing fencing, but with a much shorter sword. Perhaps with the force a grown man, that stick could be a weapon of mass destruction, but Celeste was just a skinny girl.
"I do not like it." She said finally, trying not to sound angry. The man greeted them again with a bow and retired without saying a word. "Sorry, I thought you were going to like it." Vlad said pretending to be sorry. "It is very popular in some places." His eyes melt her heart, so the girl tried to explain the reason for her anger. "It would not work against a mutant. The taser is extremely powerful but with mutants it fails some times. It is a unless stick." The man smiled mischievously. Celeste did not know why.

The devilish smile was held on his for more time that any of his others of expressions, he still have it even after he came back from the usual trip to the table to grab a new weapon. Once again near the girl, the seller showed what he was hiding behind his back. A giant stick that was almost the length of her arm. Still, Celeste did not show any sign of being impressed. At least not until the man flicked a button and the tip lit with a LED light. While a small whipping sound warned of the electricity that moved through its body. Her taser also have a LED light to aim where she wanted the needles to jump, so...
Vlad confirm her suspicions. "It's a stun baton." The name told her everything, but she still listened to the man intently. "Like your taser in stun gun mode, it produces a powerful electric discharge which is extremely painful." The girl nodded excitedly. She knew very well what a big discharge like that could do. The memory was painful, but it was proof that she could defend herself. Stereo´s skin had burned under the warm kiss of electricity. And she had heard his cries of pain.
With a larger area of ​​contact, it could only mean more damage.

When she managed to escape from her reverie, Vlad moved the electrified baton toward the fake human target, and caressed its surface with the cane producing sparks where the object tried to devour it. Being human flesh, it would be burned and more than painful.
As if that were not enough, Vladimir's surprised her by delivering a powerful blow that broke the fake man in half. All the time, the electricity ran through the cane, so it could be a doubly dangerous weapon if used wisely.
"I love it." Said the girl before Vlad could destroy another target. "But it's only a stick that a mutant can break in half." Vlad said while summoning again the devilish smile to his face. "It's different from the other stick." Said the girl, trying to avoid admitting she was wrong. Fortunately, the seller did not push his luck, and let the girl enjoy her defeat alone.

Although she did not have to openly admit she was wrong about the power of the baton, she still felt very humiliated. The wound was still open and her many thoughts did nothing to calm her.
All kinds of thoughts whirled in her mind, one of them even openly accused him of planning that whole show from the beginning. Otherwise, she did not understand why he had bothered to show her the small keychain. If not to go after something bigger and dangerous later. He had done it on purpose.
But every time the girl watched him, his face remained unchanged and he even smiled when she did. Perhaps it had been simply an accident, not a planned insolence.
Still, she could not help but imagine that that joke had been his revenge for rejecting all the weapons Vladimir seemed to adore.

The seller changed his mask so quickly that it hard to guess who he was in reality. He was a very strange creature, while very attractive, despite the horrible scar that separated his lips into four equal parts.
The man who probably had been in a bloody battle, return to the table with an elegant cane. "You will love this, miss." He said with his usual courtesy plated voice. On the surface it seemed a simple stick, but to the trained eye of Celeste it was much more. Camouflaged by the dark color of the cane, she observed that there was a strange switch that was hidden at plain sight.
"I think you guessed its secret." Ventured her dealer when she smiled to herself.

Still the friendly boy approached to show it more closely. Although she was frightened by the strange artifact, the girl grabbed the handle just as she had seen Vlad did. If that was what she believed, she would not touch another part that was not that handle.
It felt very comfortable to the touch and it was pleasing to the eye and the concealed button was hard to see for it to go completely unnoticed. A weapon hidden in a cane, very clever.
Vladimir took the gun from her hands, then took a few short steps leaning on his stick trying to pretend he was walking there by chance. Without Celeste realizing it, the seller moved the button and a small red light was kindled, that much she saw. And she knew it probably indicated that the security mode was off. As in her Taser. Vlad then pressed a button that she had not seen and the tip of the stick lit up with electricity. A Stun gun tucked inside a cane.
As a reward for his short starring the girl gave him a sonorous applause. "Ideal for a gentleman." Said the girl, clearly dismayed by the lack of a similar object for girls.

Not showing his disappoint, the seller of TechGuard headed to the table again. Although they had seen many of the weapons, at that table there were too many more. All piled upon each other forming an irregular mountain of dangerous weapons.
The seller moved nimbly from the table in the middle of the hangar to where they were. While his hands played absently with a small black stick, a little larger than the initial mini stick but much smaller than the electric baton.
To begin his demonstration, the man gave a little bump at the base of the weapon, and this extended to the size of a baseball bat. Celeste hastened to hide her surprise as fast as she could but Vlad and had seen her face. He smiled.

Although the deployment of the weapon was impressed to see. It not was more than just a stick that could be used to deliver blunt damage, but nothing more. It did not have any hidden secret, not spikes in its body, or electricity to burn the skin.
And like all these weapons, it needed some training and strength to inflict damage. But she knew that if she said something negative, Vlad would going to prove her wrong and would once again humiliated her in front of her bodyguards so she simply smiled and nodded as he showed a pair of rudimentary movements with the stick.
When he saw how Celeste's attention was disappearing, he took out his cellphone once again and pressed a single number. Moments later, two employees entered the hangar pushing a cart in which rested a human torso made of a kind of jelly. "It ballistic gelatin. It simulates a human body." Informed her seller with a big smile on his face. Apparently he loved the ballistic gel as much as the knife with the same name. Maybe he just loved that word. "Try it."He said, still with a smile.

She took the baton that he handed and headed in the direction of the human torso. She could not help but notice that the stick was extremely light despite its size. She knew that she would have any problem to wield it like as war hammer, but she doubted that something so light could do enough damage, after all many times the weight meant more power.
Still filled with doubts, she lifted the weapon as if it were a baseball bat because that's how it looked like. As a portable bat that she could carry around.
As she practiced some hits to the air that felt very natural, she observed that the gelatin simulated a human body had something inside like a skeleton made of gelatin too. Vladimir had lots of toys and stuff. Why they did not have used more of those torsos? It would have been interesting to test other weapons in such instruments. It seemed a more accurate method to measure the strength that her own imagination.
Leaving aside questions, she prepared herself to hit the target.
She moved the stick slowly and touched the jelly man's head, clearly testing where she wanted to hit.
And then without notice, she released all her fury in a brutal blow that plucked the head from the gelatin man.
Vladimir quickly approached, bent down and picked up the pieces and showed them to Celeste. His smile was huge, he almost looked like a child.
"Not only did you broke his neck, but also penetrated the skull." Before the girl could say it was too deadly for her taste, the man continued. "If you hit the legs or arms you will break his bones." Then he winked. "Not lethal." Said the man. She just smiled and nodded, mesmerized by the power of that simple stick that was not only light and durable but also was easy to hide. Ideal for a lady's purse.

Her smile was enough to make Vladimir put aside the cane for the future purchase, maybe if she had seen a man perform that feat, she would not not bough it. But since she was the one that took off the head of that ballistic torso, she did not have any excuse to not buy it. The stick had proven to be what she needed so she moved back to her place among her bodyguard.
In the time it took Celeste to return, Vladimir had already returned with the new weapon of self defense he wanted to show them.
"This is a mixture of three weapons." Vlad began to explain, while showing a small black thing that had a glass in one end, so it seemed to be a small flashlight. "It's a flashlight." The man said, pointing with the object to Celeste so she could see the lamp behind the small circle of glass. "Also a pepper spray" He showed the place where the pepper was shoot from, and then continued. "And also can be used as a melee weapon." And then showed a couple of quick movements while holding the flashlight in his hand. It was almost completely hidden in his hand, not counting the little pointed ends that were visible at both ends. They were not sharp, but certainly would hurt.

"My Taser also has a flashlight." Said the girl upset by the simple toy that he presented. It was a waste of time. "Even my cell phone has one." Continued the girl teasing Vlad´s flashlight.
But him, continued his demonstration by turning on the small flashlight and pointing to them. The light was so strong that Vladimir had disappeared, the only thing she saw was the light and nothing else. Everything seemed to become blurred and let in the shadows. "It is not a normal flashlight, miss. This generates two hundred Lumens which are capable of temporarily blind a man." She observed the light terrified, fearing that her beautiful black eyes were turned off by being exposed to that powerful light. But Vlad moved toward her, to calm her before her fear became more intense. "It works only at close range, and is temporary." Again he gave her a condescending smile. As if she knew nothing of the world, and he a mere man of business knew everything and more.
"I want to try it." Demanded the girl, with the sole intention of erase the insolent smile on his face. She failed. The man simply performed the practiced routine of taking his phone and pressed a single number.
Both waited standing among the targets, the table and her bodyguards. They were in the center of all three stations.
A minute later a tall and thin man entered to the hangar and walked toward them cheerfully, clearly not knowing what to expect.

The young adult greeted them with an awkward "Hello" when he was close enough, and stood with great presence to expect more orders. Celeste stole the little device from the hands of Vlad, and pointed straight in the eye of the newcomer. If the light did not blind as Vlad had promised, the pepper spray in his eyes was going to keep him from seeing. The man could not even open his eyes to glare at them properly and as much as he tried, he could not help but curse a few times while his eyes blazed as if they had thrown acid on them.
"Excellent. Vlad, add it to the cart." Teased the girl while returning to her place, regardless of the suffering man she had used for the demonstration.

The suffering of man was not going to stop any time soon, so Vlad called more TechGuard´s employee that took the wounded man outside. Probably to a medic.
This time four men entered the hangar and only two went out with the man used to test the flashlight with pepper spray. The other two stood next to Vlad, as if they were two bodyguards. Although both were quite tall, neither had the musculature characteristic of her own bodyguards.
"I fear that this is the last weapon I can show." He said with fake pain in his voice. All his emotions were clearly faked, he had used the same tone in many other meetings, so the girl avoided to feel special for that treatment from the handsome young man.
There were a lot of weapons still on the table she had not yet seen, but apparently the category of non-lethal weapons had been completed... or rather, she had completed all the weapons Celeste could buy without a illegal permit.

On this occasion, Vladimir returned with bunch of objects that looked like flashlights but unlike the previous one, these flashlight like objects were all white and much bigger. Still it was not very large, only a couple of inches longer than the expandable baton when it was closed.
"Run." The seller said to nobody in particular, and one of the two employees began to run. Celeste watched as the subject moved away from Vlad. The seller instead of running to catch him, raised his arm and aimed with it. And the strange object produced a huge white net that caught the runner like an octopus and clung to his limbs until he was unable to move.
Vlad threw aside the used netgun, then took one more and ordered the next employee "Run". The man began to run, but before he could even reach his partner, the new netgun was shot and hit him making him trip.
Two shots, two hits. The nets that weapon launched seemed to work perfectly.
Celeste opened her mouth to ask something, but the insolent Vlad interrupted her before any sound could came out of her voice. "I know, you want to try it." He said with a smile.

With a maddening slowness, the seller moved to employees who were still struggling to escape from the net. "Reinforced nylon." He said while stroking the net that covered the first runner. Once he helped them to escape from the trap, the four returned to the center of the hangar where Vlad gave the order for the two employee to run again.
Although the mechanism was quite simple, Celeste did not find the button until it was too late. The first employee had escaped, but obediently walked back.
The second employee was not so lucky, Celeste had already understood the mechanism and all she needed to do was to raise her arm and point toward the moving target. The man stumbled, unable to move his legs. That system was almost as good as her Taser.
"Prepare all the net launcher you have, please." Asked the girl, clearly pleased with the last item on his list.
Vladimir just smiled, and accompanied Miss Celeste to close the deal.