Molly Learned Poison Sting!

Rebelle moved around the improvised training area that she had set up beneath her home in Brookfell for her and Molly, setting up the remaining targets which had endured their recent explosive practice session. Most of the survivors had either been only grazed by Molly's explosive spikes or they had been knocked over by the concussive force of one of the blasts, sparing them from being targeted directly. Either way, they had earned the privilege of enduring a second round of training with the Ferreanie. Once the existing targets had been put back up she began pulling more bits of scrap out of the piles of junk to make new targets with, using a can of orange marking spray paint which she had gotten from an abandoned construction site to add bullseyes to the new additions as well as new bullseyes on some of the original targets which were large enough to bear multiples. This time the targets were more spread out around the room than before; unlike Magnet Bomb where Molly was launching a barrage of thorns at a single target Poison Sting needed to be more precise and thus she had opted for a wider arrangement of smaller targets. Once the range was prepared, she walked across the room to stand behind her partner.

“Alright Molly, nothing fancy this time; we don't need to set off every alarm on the street again. Just load those spines with some basic venom and let's see if we can't refine your accuracy some more.”

Compared to the last move she had learned this was much a simpler request for Molly. She'd been injecting venom through her spines her entire life, so “loading” the spikes came easily for her. It was the process of aiming whichever specific thorn she was firing accurately, aligning her natural magnetic fields so that they pushed the projectile away from her, and then strengthening the field to the correct level before releasing the thorn to fly towards her target that was giving her trouble still. Initially Molly had tried using the same method that she had figured out for Magnet Bomb which, while it certainly could accurately deliver the toxin-filled spine to the desired destination, presented the problem that the projectile was often penetrating too deep, and even going right through the target in some cases. While such penetration was certainly impressive, it did make it rather difficult to actually inject the venom into the target if the projectile wasn't actually in them.

With that in mind, she dialed back on the strength of her magnetic field and began working her way back up in strength. At first the resulting shots lacked sufficient power, arching when they were fired and landing short of the intended target. As she dialed the strength of her magnetic fields back up the arc grew more and more shallow until finally her shots were flying in a straight line with enough velocity to stick in the target but not so much that they punched straight through. Once she had gotten the necessary strength and angle of her magnetic fields refined Molly shifted gears and began working to improve how quickly she could fill and then fire the venomous spines. It took some practice to optimize, but by the end of their afternoon of training they had gotten to the point that the Ferreanie could fill the thorns with venom as she was aligning and strengthening the magnetic field. As the ringing of the last projectile's impact faded Rebelle scooped Molly up in her arms and gave her an affection rub on the top of her head around the base of her central spike.

“Great job Molly! Lets head upstairs and see if I can't find a treat for you after all that hard work.”

With that Rebelle turned off the single, naked light bulb which hung in the center of the room before heading up the ladder with Molly in her arms in search of a treat of some kind to reward her for a job well done.