A Shocking Attraction! (Veera/Tess)

[Kami-Gaz]

The unnatural hills rang with the haunting sound of whirring, the sound of a machine spinning up to what sounded like a high-pitched drone and quickly faded into almost nothingness. This sound had been rhythmically coming and going for approximately 2 days now and the local scavengers were getting used to it to the point that they actively hunted for the technology that was creating it. Milling about and digging in different piles of waste products that the world had thrown away for any sort of salvageable tech… this still working mystery machine that was making this noise was an even better prize. Many of these scavengers had been here all of their lives, born to a family that had done this for generations, others were down on their luck and resorted to it… and the final few were using it as a past time to stave of boredom as they hid from bounty hunters and marines.

The alien whirring had started up again, charging to a crescendo then petering out, causing a strange echoing effect that made the source hard to pinpoint in the junk valley. Its actual location was up one of the many hills, buried in the side. The cause? It appeared to be a long-barrelled weapon of some kind, but the design was too big to be a rifle and too small and sleek to be a cannon. It was a triggerless weapon held by a woman who had made a quite comfortable spot in the junk hole. “I spy with my fishy eye~, the guy who is wanted for hunting fishmen for trophies.” The Snow haired vixen hummed as she let her eye stare down an attached scope to a rather well dressed scavenger.

The whirr came back but this time instead of tapering off at its height there was incredibly rattling “CATHUNK” as the gun spat out slug of metal at speeds metal had no business going. Before he even could react, the target was impacted by a hunk of metal about the size of a large dogs fang. It easily punched a hole through his kneecap practically blowing the entire leg off below it if it were not for a few strands of muscle and skin holding it there. “What a shocking turn of events Mr. Bellvidere. Shall we bring you in alive or dead? The poster is fine with either.” The shooter asked as she trained her scope onto the mans torso, the crater of rubbish under him clearing of dust and light debris caused from the sheer power.

“Yeet for distance, Kobe for accuracy.” The lever at the bottom of the weapon was cocked and another slug was loaded into the chamber. A quick cracking of electricity could be heard as it licked the shooters skin and surged into the weapon and caused the whirring to build up again. “CATHUNK.” The shockwave of the slug leaving the rifle past the point of the sound barrier sent the snow-white hair everywhere. If it were not for the steampunk goggles, she would have easily lost sight on the target. “Dead it is~” Veera Falcone spoke as she picked her weapon up and stood up straight out of her junk hole. Her long body had matured over the years to develop a killer set of legs from her mermaids’ tail, from a distance it looked as if she was wearing black tights under her short shorts and knee-high boots.


A few hours later~.

As Veera wandered through the humid markets with the body bag over her shoulder she didn’t stop to think of her appearance, she was just focusing on what she could get with the payment. The money would be a big help, she could get some new higher power electro magnets to start work on her magnetic boots plan… or passage to the last known location of her prime target… the mere thought of the shadowy figure put a frown on her face and sent small shock to the closest person without her realising it. The yelp that came was more than enough to snap her out of the thought however!

[Vio]

In hindsight, I’m not sure if I should’ve even come here in the first place. Wouldn’t they think to look for me here first, or would they think it too obvious…? Oh, well! No use overthinking it! Mildly cautious was the best description of a woman’s mindset as she meandered through the streets of the Funkyard, taking due note of various illuminated signs and other, rather dishevelled pieces of technology that could really have done with some TLC. Drawn by the isle’s underworld reputation of being a haven for scavengers, rather than any reputable source’s outlook of it as a place of waste and landfill, Faraday Tess had come hither to escape and get some time to herself.

Even though the World Government had occasional presence here, it was well-known that their control over the country (if it could be called one) had long since waned. Now the place was ruled by small-time inventors, renegade crooks and salvage hunters, lending it no true allegiance to the law. The place was a tip, both figuratively and literally, but that was just fine with the intrepid electrician. She wasn’t going to end up in the sights of some mercenary looking to snag an easy two million, nor those of a navy trooper looking for a ticket to promotion. At least, she hoped so.

^{“Aii!” a man yelped:
“Hey! W- Watch it!”}

Huh? Sounds like some sort of commotion? Ears catching the noise, Miss Faraday cast her eyes of red and blue to the source. A lean, thuggish man in a studded leather jacket and exceptionally baggy slacks, wearing shocking pink hair in a mohawk and tinted goggles over his eyes seemed to stare at a woman of surprising height and snowy hair who seemed to be hauling a large sack.

^{“What d’ya think ya doing?”}

^{“Excuse me,” Tess interrupted:
“What’s the problem…?”}

---

Faraday Tess (8F00FF)

[Kami-Gaz]

With this new confrontation be tween the leggy mermaid and the pink punk man having just started Veera would look him up and down to get a good measure for the man. When she finished her eyes locked with his angry expectant eyes… He had asked a question of his shocker and she was yet to answer. A small smile came to the snowy haired woman’s motherly face as she went to speak.

“Excuse me,” A voice had interrupted, seemingly trying to diffuse the situation.

“Oh nothing, I just got lost in thought and you just got a static shock. No harm no Foul. Sorry pinkie-” The punkish man’s face turned sour at the name and he took a large step closer to try and make himself imposing.

“What did you just call me?! That weren’t some static shock love, that was lightning!” He called out, realising he was a little shorter than her so he had to crane his neck up to look Veera in the eyes. He was totally ignoring the person who was trying to diffuse the situation. With hands balled up into fists he stood there trying to give a stare down.

“He seems a bit touchy on his hair colour…” Veera said, looking away from the punk to talk to Tess. A smile still on her face, trying to remain calm…. What was the point in getting worked up over an accident, it was only a little static build up after all? What Veera called static build up might be different from the average persons though. “Hey Pinkie, I’m taking this to the local bounty office. What do you say you show us all the way and we can have a drink and sort this out with the change I get from this fish food?”

The smile had never left the Mermaid’s face and she made no sudden movements. However, the magnetic weapon on her back whirred up slowly as her free hand had found its way to the metal handle. It was not a subtle sound and the whirring magnets that were now powered where pulling the metal in Veera’s necklace to it noticeably. ‘Don’t need to give this one much Yeet.’ She pondered, just in case things got a bit ugly.

[Vio]

Why do people get so tetchy about these things? Questioning the irritability of the pink-headed punk, Faraday Tess simply watched and waited. Her presence alone seemingly ignored by all but the subject of the man’s ire, it was obvious this one cared little for interruptions. A bull seeing red, his attentions were solely focused on making a scene, but that in turn meant that Tess still had the element of surprise should she have needed it - should anything have gone awry.

L- Local Bounty Office…? Maintaining a smile on her face was one thing, but Miss Faraday’s innards churned at the mention of the B-word. A persistent thorn in her side had been the hunters of such a thing, all because of her own kindred’s jealousy and outrage. Sure, a measly two million was a petty amount, but it was more than enough to make the rookie hunters work to track her down. Thus far, all had received the same fate, but she’d never laid heterochromatic eyes upon a woman of such stature before. Caution prickled on her nape.

^{“Stop. Calling. Me. Pinkie!” he yelled:
“You bi- Bibibibibiiiiiiiii!”}

Omamljivanje…! A split second’s timing was all that was required. A split second in which the travelling tinker’s left hand had jabbed forefinger and pinky into the enraged thug’s side. Thumb pressed down over middle and ring, the young woman’s tool did the rest, turning the lean fellow into a juddering, babbling wreck as his entire physicality became the circuit for considerable voltage. By no means was said charge intended to be lethal, but by the time Tess pulled her mitt away, ‘Pinkie’ had been reduced to little more than a sprawl of twitching muscles on the floor.

“Look, there’s no need to get all riled up over a nickname,” Faraday chirped, leaning over the debilitated but most definitely aware and conscious ruffian. “You’ve gotta look on the bright side! This kind lady offered an alternative solution to the current situation, and you ended up being too direct about it. Next time, don’t you let names get to you, alright?”

^{“Bi… B-Bi… Bi-!”}

^{“The name’s Tess!” she replied:
“See you around, Pinkie!”}

Standing straight, she turned to the stranger. Significant was the difference between their heights respective, with the snow-haired siren standing nearly an entire foot taller and prompting Tess to tilt her head back just to meet the eyes. Still somewhat cautious of this woman’s intent, but not willing to let it dominate her positivity, she addressed them with gusto.

“Sorry about butting in there! You seemed to have your hands full with… well… that,” she motioned to the hefty sack over the lady’s shoulder, its contents perhaps a little more obvious after what had been said and in turn a tad more disturbing. “So I thought I’d lend a hand!”

---

Faraday Tess (8F00FF)
Pinkie (F173D8)

[Kami-Gaz]

The orchestra of a pained mans screams as he was feeling a high voltage current flow through his body was an all to familiar sound to the Electric Eel Mermaid. Something that was somewhat soothing, over the years of her life it was a defence mechanism and the sounds were a sign of a job well done. Now she had nothing to do with this zapping… It was a strange feeling but one that filled her with joy… the shorter woman had just done what Veera would always do. This revelation caused her eyes to widen and the smile on her face to grow more into a hyper grin.

“You just pumped him with enough electricity to drop him!” She said in an ecstatic manner, the façade of a full-grown adult melted away as she saw the inventor in-front of her. The body bag hit the floor and Veera kneeled down and closed in on the hand that did the zapping. “I appreciate this hand! How does it work? Where does the power come from? Is the current direct or alternating?”

The array of questions had just begun when Veera stopped and pulled out her weapon and pushed it forward to show the smaller woman. “Look Look! This is powered via a scaling direct current that is impossible to control by switch and too delicate to force!” The feeling of joy that had flooded through the mad mermaids’ body was immense and was only interrupted when a stranger behind the pair let out a blood curdling scream.

“A DEAD BODY!” The piercing shriek had easily snapped the bounty hunter to her senses and she in a quick motion spun on her heels and nudged the cold hand into the bag, hiding it somewhat. The damage had already been done and a small crowd had begun to form with the woman staring at Veera in some disbelief.

“I should really Zip those up better on the way to the bounty office.” The Electric Eel murmured. “It’s okay! I am taking him to the bounty office, he was a fishman killer and deserved what he got!” Veera called out to try and placate the crowd and the woman who was now shaking and trying to wrap her head around this whole situation.

“Maybe we should get out of here and talk about this nerd stuff over a coffee…” The smartest thing she had said all day.

[Vio]

Within seconds, the woman’s annoyance had been replaced with excitement and fascination, which was quite surprising to say the least. Faraday Tess now found herself — specifically her creation — being ogled at by what seemed to be a fellow inventor. Questions poured out of her mouth; ones that sparked a sense of joy in the electrical engineer’s own mind. She was about to respond when the other enthusiast pulled an unusual tool off her back and showed it off.

^{“Impossible to control?” Tess blinked:
“Then how do you—?”}

The cry was loud and clear.

I guess my hunch was right about what was in the bag, she noted as she cast oddly coloured eyes to a pallid hand poking from the sack. Pinkie’s display had drawn some attention, and it seemed this was further adding to the number of eyes upon them. The woman called out, explaining the situation is a rather blunt way — an unusually blunt way. Tess couldn’t help but think: I don’t even know what a Fishman is…

^{“Maybe we should get out of here,” the hunter suggested:
“And talk about this nerd stuff over a coffee…”}

“That sounds like a great idea!” What qualms Miss Faraday initially had were now being washed away by the exciting prospect of shared hobbies. Something of a unique case, Tess had never even entertained the possibility of meeting somebody who shared an interest in electrical engineering and its applications, even less so somebody who had crafted their own designs. Any doubt about hanging around a Bounty Hunter had been erased from her mind; somebody who shared her interests couldn’t possibly be that bad!

“By the way,” she said as they began to walk, leaving shocked people and a literally shocked thug still twitching on the ground. “I’m Tess! Who’re you?” The town itself was nothing short of a mess, but at least the people had made something of an effective network of buildings and streets, businesses thriving. Finding a café or something was not too hard, but the girl’s mind was more interested in explaining her creation. “This baby’s designed to capture and store electrical charges, then — by completing the circuits — I can deliver a direct current for different effects! I’ve been toying with the idea of an alternating current, but it’s a bit beyond me right now; nothing a little bit of research and development can’t fix, though!”

---

Faraday Tess (8F00FF)
Veera (50A6E9)
Pinkie (F173D8)

[Kami-Gaz]

With a rushed set of movements Veera quickly packed the loose limb into the body bag and zipped it up tight. A quick hoisting movement came next and the long leg tailed woman made a move to head for the bounty office with her new friend in tow. “Tess? Well I’m Veera! It’s good to meet another tech nerd.” The woman exclaimed as the pair came to a rather perfect destination. The bounty office was right across the road from a quaint little Café that had a wonderful aroma seeping from it’s ajar door.

The talking of the glove-based shock delivering system got Veera even more exited for this coffee that she had initially thought she would be. “So, you have a decent understanding of electrical storage and discharge… How do you charge your shocker?” The mermaid asked as she sat the body in free chair just outside of the café, choosing one with a well placed parasol to keep all three of them out of the sun whilst they conversed and geeked out.

“Wait wait… Are you like me? Can you generate your own bio-electricity due to your physiology? You don’t look over 30… you can’t be a mermaid…. Are you quarter Fishfolk?” The curious Eel pondered as she slithered forwards to get a good look at Tess over the table and then down to the electric gauntlet. As she did this she casually slid her rifle onto the table so it could be inspected by a fellow tinkerer.

“Hello, welcome to the Bronze Dwarf, sister Café to the Iron Giant on Wrestlemania. What can I get for you today?” A chirpy voice of a waitress dressed in a steampunk attire sounded, All to happy to cut into this conversation to see what the 3 potential customers wanted. Which was odd considering one of them was a corpse missing it’s ability to enjoy beverages and snacks.

“I’ll have the strongest coffee you have and some chocolate cake please.” Veera said, not removing her eyes from the polarised hair of Tess, almost mesmerised by it in a way.

[Vio]

“Bio-electricity?” Miss Faraday blinked. She had heard of many forms of life that could produce such a thing, some through specialised organs and others through muscle contractions. But to think that this person — this Veera — was suggesting that she could generate her own electrical energy was quite the concept. To top it all off, she was introducing herself as a Mermaid — a people of practically mythical status? Inconceivable! To give time to the tinkerer to process her thoughts, the interruption of the waitress was much appreciated.

^{“Orange juice, please,” she added:
“And a slice of fruit cake!”}

^{“Coming right up!”}

“I can’t generate electricity on my own. I’m only human!” Tess smiled. “So I have to make do with other ways of charging it up! Once the electricity is stored, I can discharge it whenever I need to! I’m still working on a decent way to generate power in a portable manner. The best I can think of would have to be a hand crank system? Anything else would be far too difficult to move around efficiently.” Oddly coloured eyes shifted to observe the weapon now placed upon the table. A simple weapon at its core; a rifle modified several times over and in ways her genius mind could not fathom at just a glance. The most obvious features were small vents running down either side of the relatively chunky barrel — a feature that would ordinarily ruin such a weapon’s ability to function. Curiosity piqued, she doffed the gauntlet and laid it upon the table. And then she gestured to the gun: “May I…?”

---

Faraday Tess (8F00FF)
Veera (50A6E9)
Pinkie (F173D8)

[Kami-Gaz]

“Go ahead.” Veera said as she ran her hand down the spine of the weapon and unclicked the outer casing on the barrel. As the plating fell away and gently clattered onto the table, it revealed a long rail with strategically placed magnets that would rotate around the barrel at speed. The unusual thing about this design was that there was no trigger to initiate the firing sequence. “Do you like it? It was something I built the first time when I was Eleven.” The white-haired dame noted as she ran a finder down the barrel, the general static her body produced caused the closest magnet to slowly rotate.



“I’m interested in your glove though… Maybe you could charge it with shock absorbing boots. They could help you in moving about and convert spare kinetic energy into juice for your glove.” The mermaid absentmindedly commented as she caressed the butt of her railgun.



The waitress returned to the pair with a tray carrying their cakes and beverages. The smile on her freckled face flashing to either of the geeking out girls. “You’re Coffee and Chocolate cake.” The redhead said cheerily chirped before placing down the Items in-front of Veera. “And fruit cake and Orange Juice for you.” The maid said as she stood back and rested the tray against her stomach. “Enjoy your snacks.”



“Thank you!” Veera noted as she picked up the fork and tore into the slice. “We need to do this more often Tess, it’s not often I find someone who is a good tinkerer.”

[Vio]

“Ooh! I get it!” Faraday Tess chirped, having only needed to see the passing of static between fingertip and metal rail to understand the major processes involved in such an invention. “Passing an electrical current into the weapon causes the electromagnets to revolve, which in turn causes a flow of electromagnetic energy down the rail, away from the butt of the rifle,” she said, voice clearly carried away by the intricacy — and yet also the simplicity of the device whose guts were on full display. “So the projectile is accelerated by sheer electromagnetic force as it’s pushed down the rail! All you’d need is a sufficient electrical current!”

Veera proposed an idea of her own.

“Hmm… I like the idea,” Tess answered, visualising an admittedly overcomplicated design for such footwear in her head at the mention. Conversion of kinetic energy to electrical energy was a simple enough process — she’d already seen that a hamster running on a wheel could generate a small but substantial charge over a few minutes’ exercise. Intelligent hamsters would have been pioneers in the field of electromechanical engineering!

^{“Oh,” she chirped:
“Thank you very much!”}

The waitress had brought the two girls their requests, and the electrical engineer had to take a moment from her musings to enjoy the moistness and sweetness of the fruit cake she had ordered. Deliciousness and welcome refreshment aside, there was one flaw in Veera’s idea, but it had just been a spur of the moment thought process. Munja Rukavica had, on more than a few occasions, revealed that it was prone to overloading if charges exceeded certain values, as arbitrary as it might have sounded.

“Mhm! Maybe,” Tess considered, albeit absentmindedly. Her mind was elsewhere, focused in what was very nearly a creative fugue as her inner self scribbled down complex equations on a blackboard and devised blueprints for other potential pieces. Munja Rukavica was nothing short of a miracle of design, if only because of the kind of power it held despite scale, but it was by no means perfect. “Transferal of kinetic energy to electrical energy would take a while though,” she continued, “but maybe I could make an additional storage medium to prevent overloading. Come to think of it, I might have to replace some of the wiring…”

---

Faraday Tess (8F00FF)
Veera (50A6E9)
Pinkie (F173D8)

[Kami-Gaz]

As her cake companion was away in her own world forging equations and solutions Veera chuckled. The leggy mermaid considered what she looked like when she had moments of being in her own world, it was quite refreshing to be on the other side of it for once. “Wow so that’s how I look when I get lost in thought.” She teased softly, a kind smile resting on her face as she watched Tess.

In a few moments the woman had shifted her attention from the nearly eaten cake to her stripped weapon, putting the casing back on with ease and surging some of her bio electricity through it to ensure none of the components were stuck. The whirring of the magnets as they fired up and spun around the rail started an otherworldly hum. “Works perfectly~!” Veera sang before placing it in the lap of the bodybagged man. ‘I should turn this in before he gets smelly…’

Her attention turned to the cooling coffee, the thing that was as black as the moonless night sky. It was just the way she liked it. “What concoction would you consider using in your battery? I’ve tinkered with a few things.” Veera noted before taking one long sip that turned into several. In moments her cup would be empty and replaced back on the saucer. “A Lead Acid will help you best I think.”

“I’ve got to go and turn this bounty in. I’m skipping town too, I’ve got a trip to the grand line coming up.” Veera prattled on as she stood up and headed over to the body bag to slip her railgun on her back and pick up her pay cheque. It was one quick motion to hoist it up over her shoulder and a slight grunt followed the excretion. ‘He’s damn heavy.’

“I’ll cya around Tess!” Veera announced with a smile to her newest friend. “I look forward to see what you come up with though.” The mermaid said as she walked across the road and into the bounty office with a wave over her free shoulder.