The coat was a bit larger, made for someone with a bigger build than Todor. But to Todors' surprise, it shrank to the contour of his body. He gasped, sharply exhaling his breath.

"Smart nano fabric," Mick said proudly. "Morgs and Anadori may have their enchanted clothing, but us humans traveled the harder way. Making magic through technology."

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," Todor said marveling at coat which fit him perfectly now.

"Wise words those. Did you thought of it?" Mick said with a nod.

"No, it's third law of technology invented by a writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke," Todor explained, not wanting to take credit for something other great person achieved.

"I thought humans in Mundane Era didn't have magic," Mab said perking up from an item he was examining.

"We didn't have magic but we knew of the concept," Todor said offhandedly still marveling at the thing he was wearing.

"You know, many youths who were born in Moriganhold don't even know what law is," Mick said with a chuckle. "I might grab a book from this Sir Arthur, haven't had anything decent to read in a while. Now put those shades on."

Todor complied and put sunglasses on expecting for his vision to get dimmer. Instead, everything got blurry for a second then it came into focus with crystal clarity.

"Neat, it actually corrected my eyesight," Todor said looking at the words that showed up in his field of vision. 'Project Kavacha system initializing' it said in green letters. A few seconds later it listed: Shield - OK (Stand By), Temperature Control - OK (OFF), Threat detector - OK (Stand By), Aim Compensator - OK (OFF), Vision Correction - OK (ON). And so on it went for two more minutes. After it listed everything question appeared: 'Do you want to turn HUD on? YES/NO' and in smaller letters under it said 'Blink to click desired option'.

"It's controlled by eye movement," Todor said consumed by the novelty of it.

"By default, yes. You can switch to finger controls with gloves that I left in coats right pocket." Mick explained.

Todor decided after short deliberation that he liked eye controls and that seeing HUD would be kinda cool. If it gets too annoying I will turn it off, he concluded and blinked with his left eye clicking YES. 'HUD enabled if you want to configure HUD layout click on gear icon in your lower right corner,' it said before winking out of existence. HUD showed up a second later. It contained battery charge level, his heartbeat rate, temperature and different data from radar, scanners, and detectors.

After a few seconds, another question appeared: "Mobile device detected on a person. Do you want to link it with Kavacha system? YES/NO'. Todor clicked YES right away. 'Unknown mobile device operating system. Creating a handshake routine. Please wait,' it said with a symbol of the hourglass turning. Now that is a blast from the past, Todor thought wistfully. After only twenty seconds or so it said: 'Handshake routine created. Linking. Please wait.' Ten seconds later it completed the task but another question popped up: 'Do you want to transfer control of your mobile device to Kavacha system when worn? YES/NO'. Todor shrugged and clicked YES. Suddenly he could access his phone contacts, send and read texts, make calls, just by blinking on commands. 'NEW TEXT from Cassandra. Read now? YES/NO.'

Todor looked at the blinking question in front of his eyes and clicked YES. The text said: 'I am so sorry to hear about your unpleasant encounter with vampires. Nasty creatures, I am grateful they can't infect anyone anymore. If you are feeling better we could meet up tonight at the same place I suggested before?'

Todor thought for a second then clicked on replay button. Small keyboard appeared. It looked complicated and daunting to write entire text with blinking but after few beginning words, it became quite intuitive and easy. He typed: 'I am getting better all though I am still worse for wear. I'll be there tonight and no vampires will stop me now :)'. He blinked at send after a short review of what he wrote. 'Text sent' blinked three times and was gone. There, alea iacta est, time to live for a change.

He tweaked the controls a bit, playing with settings and exploring the menu. In the end, his HUD had only a few most essential information left but he set up shortcuts to call for anything fast if he really needed it. Sighing he took off the glasses and put them in the breast pocket of the coat.

"How long was I playing with this thing?" he asked Irry who was looking at him like he was a fool.

"Not long, just half an hour," she replied with a barely noticeable smirk. "I am glad you are enjoying yourself after all the trouble I caused you."

"Oh, get over yourself girl." Todor said exasperated "For the last time, what happened with Midnight Breeze and his bloodsucker goons was not your fault."

"I know that intellectually," she said looking at the floor then she shrugged rising her head to look at him. "But emotionally I still feel responsible. It was me that brought you in the position to get noticed. If you told me ... about that thing I might not have done that."

Todor looked at her eyes and a pang of guilt blossomed in his chest. He blinked and shook his head.

"I understand that. I'll try to inform you of any sudden and unexpected development," he said seriously.

"Hey, Teddy, look at this," Mab called drawing his attention to a weapon that vaguely looked like a beefed up shotgun. He walked to the glass case she was pointing at.

"What is that, Mick?" Irry asked, her voice sounding a bit off than usual.

"Ah, that is what I call perfect success but a perfect failure as well," Mick said joining them around the strange weapon. "It's an attempt at creating portable sixth generation railguns for HFA infantry."

"I thought it was pronounced ray guns?" Irry said with a smirk.

Mick chuckled.

"Ray guns is an umbrella term for all energy weapons, like lasers or plasma blasters. This is the kinetic weapon, like your 9mm pistol. It's just that projectile is not propelled by the chemical explosion of gunpowder but by electromagnetism."

"Does it work?" Mab asked.

Todor glanced at the boy and saw that he retrieved the strange new sword. Scabbard with a milky white blade was hanging on his back since the weapon was too long for him to carry it on a waist. It would scrape the floor while he walked, at least until he grew up a few centimeters.

"It sure does, boy. It works great, actually." Mick assured him. "At the speed, this baby throws things you just need small metal pellets not larger than a grain of sand to do some serious damage. So ammo is no problem at all. You can carry a lifetime supply of it with you."

"How doesn't the projectile that size disintegrate due to atmospheric friction?" Todor asked checking out the slick black device.

"The metal block from which the weapon shaves off tiny granules for ammo was treated with an alchemical agent that does some freaking things," Mick said tucking his thumbs in his pockets.

"So what's the problem then?" Mab asked, curious.

"Same problem as with a jacket this young man over yonder just acquired. Juice," he said nodding towards Todor. "Battery is large and on the heavy side, and it can last only three shots before going dead. So all that power and accuracy is wasted since you can only fire three times before you need to replace or recharge the battery." he chuckled, "They solved the problem of running out of ammo, but replaced with running out electricity."

Ezezu buzzed in his mind. You want this one as well? He thought back to the incorporeal book. A wave of approval came back from Ezezu.

"I'll take it. How much?" Todor asked without further delay.

"Hmmm, five hundred suncrowns is a fair price," Mick said with a shrug.

"Only?!" Todor exclaimed, unbelieving.

"It's just a toy boy. Sure, deadly toy, But still just a toy." Mick said with a smile.

"I'll take it nonetheless. And I believe that is enough shopping for today. You folks agree?" Todor concluded and turned to Mab and Irry. Both just nodded lost in their own thoughts.

They made their way back to the ground floor and to the main shop room. There Roland just finished serving some elderly gentleman who thanked the young man and exited the shop.

"I thought you will never show up again and be forever lost in old Mick's toy shop down there," Roland said with a dazzling smile. "I have your Jolt special, extra clips, and ammo right here. Will I be adding anything else to the total?"

"Don't worry son, I will finish here. You can go rest." Mick said with a wide grin.

"We just got back from lunch, old man, I don't need rest." Roland protested.

"Don't worry, you will get your bonus for selling that Jolt special and ammo," Mick said reluctantly.

"That was all I needed to hear," Roland said flashing another dazzling smile before disappearing in the back of the store.

"Me first." Mab said taking out the wallet from his pocket."How much was it? Fifteen kay?" he asked counting fifteen one thousand suncrown banknotes and putting them on the counter in front of Mick. Both Todor and Irry stared at the boy in disbelief.

"You carry that much cash with you all the time, squire?" Todor asked flatly.

"Yeah, don't you?" he asked with a grin.

Irry just shook her head while Todor picked out his wallet from a pocket and grabbed his credit card. At least credit cards work almost the same way they did back in my time, he mused sadly to himself.

"I pay with this," he said waving the plastic rectangle a few times.

"Man of taste and culture, you are," Mick said pulling the credit card through a reader. "I added this holster and fired rounds to the total. I hope you don't mind."

Todor waved it off with a smile plastered across his face. While Mick was doing his thing on the computer and printing out the bill he put Jolt special on the belt Kurt gave him. Now his dagger was on his left side and his pistol on his right while belt went over his new high tech coat. I am wearing my jacket under this coat and I feel really comfortable. He realized suddenly. Then he grinned.

"I'll be coming regularly from now on to the shooting range," Todor said to Mick when he finished with the transaction. All and all, he paid slightly less than two thousand suncrowns which to Todor's eyes was the ridiculously low amount for what he got.

"You are welcome here anytime we are open. And even when we are not if you reserve the spot in advance." Mick said happily.

"I'll keep that in mind," Todor responded instead of goodbye and trio was on the street sidewalk again.

They walked in silence for a while until they got to the subway entrance.

"So, what are you going to do today Sir knight. Is it Sir knight correct form of address?" Mab asked. The boy looked a bit better than when he heard the news about his cousin. But sadness was still there in the corners of his so young looking eyes. He was hiding it well though.

"Go home. Read maharoon, then later tonight go on a date," he said with a smirk.

"With that sexy Morg shopkeeper, we bumped into at MagicWaveStop?" Mab asked grinning back.

"The same. But tomorrow we practice sword fighting, my squire. Get ready." he said with mock seriousness.

"I will sir," he said saluting in Anadori style with an open palm on the chest. Giggle escaped him just a few seconds after.

"Irry. You will come with me to Mick's shooting range tomorrow to give me pointers?" Todor asked Anadori woman looking at her posture. She was worried about something and Todor hoped that he wasn't the object of those worries.

"Of course. You have my number, just call or text." she grinned.

Then Irry went to one side, Mab to other whileTodor entered the underground passage tosubway tunnels. All and all he was feeling optimistic again. Ezezu joined in his sentiments as the traintook off.