bumbershoot
an umbrella.
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Dave leaned on the end of his sledgehammer. It was cheap, and not nearly the best out there. But it was what he could afford, and it would do for his purposes. He was the first of them to arrive, although he could already see Jill coming. He could imagine what she would bring. Probably something small and quick. It was Pete that he was really concerned about . He was almost guaranteed to bring something weird.
Once Jill got closer, she took one look at Dave’s hammer. “Huh. I thought you’d bring a sword for sure.”
“Swords are cool and all, but they’re only good against unarmored enemies. Hammers are good against everything.”
“And since we have no idea what we’re going up against…”
“Exactly. How about you?”
Jill took off the backpack she had been wearing and pulled out a rope. It was quite long, and each end had something tied to it. On one was a knife, and the other a fairly sizable chuck of metal. Dave could tell she had spent quite a bit of effort to make sure both were as secure as possible.
“I figure once everything gets upgraded, this’ll be fun to use.” She said proudly.
“Isn’t that kind of stuff really hard to use?”
“That can be said about any weapon. I’m pretty sure using a hammer is more than just swinging it around.”
Dave nodded. He had kind of been hoping that was all it would take, but now that he thought about it, she was probably right. Hopefully the beings who contacted them about this not-so-little tournament would include combat training in addition to making their chosen weapons stronger.
“I guess Pete isn’t here yet?” Jill asked.
“Nope. Is it bad that I kind of hope he’s a no show?”
“A little bit, yeah. But it doesn’t matter, here he comes now.”
Sure enough, Pete was making a mad dash towards the meeting place. He didn’t have any packs like Jill had, but he did have an umbrella in his hand for some reason. When he met up with the other two, he doubled over and gasped for air with his hands on his knees.
“S-sorry I’m late.” Pete said, every word followed by a deep breath. “Had to put the finishing touches on my new baby.”
“Pete, please tell me you brought an actual weapon.” Dave said. “Please tell me that umbrella isn’t it.”
“Why? It totally is.”
Dave rubbed his forehead. Jill sighed heavily.
“No, no. It’s fine, really.” Pete said. “See, I totally weaponized it, and I figure once it gets all aliened up, it’ll be super useful.”
He held the full size, non-collapsing umbrella out and flicked a small button that he had definitely added himself. A piece of metal popped out of the top. It was clearly sharpened, and even had a slight edge to it. But it was barely four inches long, and did not look to be particularly well fastened.
“That’s going to fall apart the first time you use it.” Jill said with slumped shoulders.
“Right now, sure. But like I said, upgrades. Super, awesome upgrades that’ll totally make this a badass weapon.”
“A spear would’ve been better.” Dave said. “Easier to make, and maintain. Plus it’d be longer and most likely easier to use.”
“And a spear is a tested weapon that’s been used for pretty much all of human history.” Jill added. “That is something made to keep the rain off you with a pointy thing stuck on the end.”
“Oh, just you wait. This is going to be great, you’ll see. I bet it’ll become the perfect weapon that combines attack and defense. Way better than a hammer and…whatever you picked, Jill. Hold on, is that a rope with a knife on it? Why aren’t you complaining about that?”
“Because this is an actual weapon.” Jill said. “Ninjas used this kind of thing all the time. It’s perfect for all kind of things, even out of battle. Yours is only good on a rainy day.”
Before the argument could continue, a bright light filled the area. It did not have a source, and seemed to radiate from everywhere at once. All three of them became silent. This was it. Their ride was here.
“Well, looks like we’ll just have to see what happens.” Dave said. “And hope to god that Pete didn’t screw us over with a bad weapon choice.”
A moment later, all three had disappeared. Gone from the face of the Earth, and off towards someplace far greater.
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You know it's either going to be an awesome, incredibly useful weapon, or totally useless. There's pretty much no in between with something like this.
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