"What the hells going on?" The man cried out, dragged along the ground out in the middle of nowhere, beyond the borders of Gotham City. He struggled in the grasp of the men that held him, bringing him towards the object covered by a tarp in the middle of the opening. "Let me go."
Stepping out of the car, Jacob watched as the mans' eyes opened in shock, recognising his mask from the meeting. "Wait. You said I'd get to live if I help you find them. I did. Please, let me live." Jacob ignored the man, instead looked around at the group of men gathered. They were men who had worked for Jacob from the beginning before he had been able to get a body double sorted out.
They knew he was really in charge, a fact Jacob did not like in the slightest.
For now, though, there was nothing he could do.
"Please, you said I'd get to live." His voice was becoming more desperate as he drew closer to the tarp.
"No, we said that you'd get to live another day," Jacob responded. "It's been several since then and you've given what you promised. We held up our end of the bargain and you held up yours. But I need you to do something else for me. Don't worry, you'll get to live a little longer."
The man grits his teeth, glaring out at Jacob, some of his nerve returning. "But not long after that, right?" He was smarter than most, enough to recognise that much. The guy was right, after all, he would see too much after this, as would everyone here. Jacob had no intention of letting them live to tell the tale of what happened here.
"Prep him." The masked men nodded their heads, pulling off the tarp revealing the suit of armour that stood there. Everyone at the point took a moment to marvel at the sight of it, not quite sure what they were seeing was real or not.
It was pure silver in colour, a little bulky in areas, but possessing a smooth, ridged surface.
Reaching into his pocket, Jacob discreetly pressed a button on the remote, an audible clicking sound filling the air. "The helmet should be removable now." One of the men tested it, the helmet coming off fully, the locking mechanism having been undone. As soon as the helmet was removed though, the front part of the suit also opened, right down the middle, vertically.
Knowing exactly what he wanted, the man was shoved into the suit, but he did little to resist. As soon as the body was placed inside the suit closed up around him. He was smaller than Jacob, but only slightly, he was also not as skinny so it was a tight fit. But it was designed for him, it was designed for Jacob and he knew from personal tests that each part of the suit fit him perfectly.
The helmet was then placed on his head and the suit fully formed up, sealing itself and the person inside it securely. "Right then, fire on him." There was a pause, a moment of hesitation that led to Jacob's men being unsure of what the meaning behind it was.
Not too unsurprising after all, that was an expensive piece of work, it cost him hundreds of thousands to build. If he hadn't built everything himself and bought premade parts off the market, it would have cost him millions. However, Jacob wanted to familiarise himself with every part of his armour to make sure that when the need came about, he could fix it easily.
Even so, the order was given and eventually, gunfire filled the air, bullets hitting the metal armour of the suit. The echoing sound produced from it was quite a joy to listen to, even more so when the gunfire stopped and not a single bullet broke through. There were scuffs here and there, but nothing had broken through.
Once more, Jacob pressed the button, the helmet's locking mechanism coming undone. "Check on him."
A few moments later, Jacob learned that besides being a little hard of hearing, the man inside was unharmed. 'So I'll need to rework the sound dampening inside the helmet to make sure that doesn't happen again.' Jacob mentally noted. "Bring out the shotgun."
However, his testing of the armours durability was far from over with.
-X- Line Break -X-
He'd been steadily increasing the number of rounds and power behind the attacks being unleashed on the armour and each of them did nothing. Not even when one of the guys took an injection of Venom, the common strain, not the improved version, and pummeled the suit could even put a dent in the armour.
It was well-forged, sturdy and strong.
Jacob was quite proud of the work he had accomplished.
It had taken time, but he had finally completed it.
Venom was just a side project, this was what he had really been working on. Even if some parts still needed work, that was perfectly fine with him, he was never one to shy away from hard work. This version of the suit was just a prototype, after all, there was still plenty of improvements to make and he had plenty of new ideas to implement into them.
A suit of armour that could provide him with the means to fight his own battles, if need be.
"Fire," Jacob ordered, watching as the man resting on one knee beside him, raised the RPG and fired the rocket directly at the suit of armour. Heat rushed over him, Jacob thankful to have put on headphones to protect his ears from the sound.
And as the smoke dispersed, besides the scorch marks on the suit, it was once again, unharmed. "How many rockets do we have?" Jacob asked one of his men, looking to three cars parked nearby. One was his, another was carrying the bulk of the men he had brought with him. The other acts as a supply car, possessing all the arms and ammunition being used during this test.
"Just one more. Shall we go get it?"
"Prep the RPG again, but don't fire until we finish checking upon on our test subject." The man nodded, heading to get the rocket ready as Jacob himself moved towards the suit of armour. Its helmet had been removed, and this time, the suit was being opened, the man falling out onto the ground, he was alive, breath laboured, but he was in pain.
'So everything up to an RPG can be handled by the suit. I'll have to look into new ways to improve the durability to better protect myself.' Taking out his gun, Jacob put the writhing man out of his misery. He then looked at the suit, tracing his finger along the score marks before feeling on the inside.
A few dents, but nothing major.
A very good sign to take in mind for future projects.
Nonetheless, Jacob had come for what he wanted and now it was time to actually test the suit out for himself. Stepping inside, Jacob rested him fully back against the spine of the exo-skeleton, personally drawing across the five circles until they connected around his chest. He then fitted his arms into the suit, down into the gauntlet where he played the into the rings of each finger.
The exo-skeleton was the first part Jacob had designed.
It was based on the skeleton of the human body, namely the skeletal system, the best example of a stable structure that he could find. Rings were connected to the metal rods that would take the entirety of the strain of the suit, off of his body. It was also the only thing that would enable the person inside to fully be able to move, an auto-locking system that made sure that if all the rings weren't attached, the suit wouldn't move.
A precaution Jacob had made to make sure that it not only couldn't be stolen unless these steps were followed. But also to make sure that he wouldn't make a move without the proper stable structure to take the brunt of the suit's weight off of him. If he didn't, the weight of it would crush him and that was not what he wanted.
Taking the helmet offered to him as the front of the suit closed up, Jacob fitted it over his head, allowing him to see out of the eyes. It wasn't perfect, but it allowed plenty of room for him to see everything he needed to.
"Everyone, get ready to move out, we're done here for the day," Jacob said, turning to the man holding the RPG. "Pass me that, I want to see what it's like."
An excuse really as once the RPG was in his hand, Jacob held it for a little time, watching as the men piled into the lead car. Once the doors were shut and the car was full, Jacob raised the RPG and pulled the trigger, firing the rocket at the car and blowing it to kingdom come. The inside burst into flames, killing all those inside, the majority of those that had come here while it flipped through the air.
There were shouts of shock that filled the air, no one quite able to understand what had happened.
At which point, Jacob ripped the submachine gun from the hands of the closest guy and took aim, killing the two closest to him, the only ones out of the car in a quick and easy fashion. He then took aim at those in the cars and fired.
Some got out and fired at him, their bullets bounced harmlessly off his suit, though Jacob was wary that too much fire could cause damage to his hearing. So he focused his fire on them, all the while one of the other men, carrying the supply car tried to reverse out of the area, only to be sprayed by bullets and killed.
By the end of it, Jacob was the only one left, bullets laying at his feet and surrounded by bodies. If it wasn't for his armour, such a thing would have never been possible, but that was precisely why he had built this suit in the first place.
Now everything was complete.
He was done hiding under Black Mask's protection.
It was time to step out and make a name for himself.