Tom knew what the date was all too well. For today was the 18th July, which most of you know to be Jimmy's birthday. The date was not lost on him, and as such he knew he had to secure Jimmy a present of sorts. It was a quiet time to be buying stuff, for as he knew fairly well, there was a lockdown in force and that meant that he couldn't easily buy anything. This was because lockdown restrictions only permitted him to enter into a shop one at a time. Too many people in an enclosed place could cause all sorts of unwarranted problems, and this was a very serious safety concern. Things were already enough of a knife edge with the R number being on the edge of being pushed over the boundary of danger. If it rose too high, they were back in lockdown, which would suck as Tom had thouroughly had enough of being locked down inside a building for hours on end. He wanted normality again, but he knew that getting the infection rate as low as possible was the critical factor in allowing this.
He was still bored, though. And that could not easily be corrected.
"Kat?" he called.
"Yeah?" his effective roommate replied.
"I'm heading out for a bit, so I'll see you soon!" Tom replied.
"Sure thing, I'll keep myself occupied."
"Catch you later," Tom replied, and exited out of the house. It was a relatively quiet day in the streets of Nottingham. Although the lockdown restrictions had been partially lifted in June, such as the reopening of non essential shops and changes on who could meet with whom and when (and where), most people still maintained the requisite separation distance and barely spoke to one another. Many also never left their houses, which suited Tom nicely. He rarely had any need to talk to anybody anyway, which was exactly how he liked to keep things in his life. To the point, and on a need to know basis.
But his mind briefly joked that technically all shops could reopen, as VAT was applied to almost everything and VAT was meant as a tax on non essential goods. Thus, all shops could technically be open or not operate at all, for that matter. Tom continued on his way, past the NET system which had finally resumed operation. The virus had led most people to travel by private vehicle, to run down the risk of infection. After all, you could hardly infect somebody from inside your own car, unless you happened to be inside said car, which is highly unlikely to be honest. The same luxury was not possible on public transport, with so many people squished together (which explained why so many trains ran empty on the main line, especially around here, as most people could work from home).
Tom went on his way down the street, the sky being reasonable. As non essential shops could now reopen, he reckoned that some place where he could get something for Jimmy was now open. So on his way he went, through streets he loved and knew very well. Tom then eventually arrived at his target destination, which was one of the large stores in town. This place borderline sold everything, from boxes to toys to cards and many other things, one of which would be perfect for delayed mail to send to Jimmy, whom he felt was in desparate need of cheering up. Tom went through the isles to American items, and eventually looked at a possibility. The Statue of Liberty.
It was then his attention was drawn to another object sitting on the floor. It was a dark blue oblong shield, with a star on the front. A pink star, as a matter of fact. He picked it up to look at it. "Rather odd item for lost property."
It then glowed, and a bright light flashed over Tom. "Scan complete. Welcome back, commander."
"Sorry, wha-AARGH!"
Next up, Tom was already starting to shift. His neatly kept short brown hair was now blue, but still neatly kept and changed into a military haircut (soldiers hardly want hair getting in their eyes, after all). His previously brown eyes were suddenly changed to blue, and this was followed by his face shifting a bit to be a different shape. Moments later, he gained height and increased from 5 foot 3 to a round 6 foot, his clothing being strained by the added seven inches of height. Extra musculature piled onto him as his bones thickened and became harder, as if they had been subjected to years of training and combat experience. The overall much larger person now looked very odd as he stood there, with this odd shield in his hands and the body mass of a soldier.
Mercifully, his clothing got the wake up call it needed, so he didn't look like a wierdo for much longer. His shirt lengthened to its usual length, and the sleeves grew to cover over his arms. Not long after that, his pants adjusted in the same way, fitting better and tipping below his shoes.
Speaking of shoes, his shoes suddenly changed into armoured metal boots, which were purple with golden trim. Greaves bolted into position on top of the existing fabric and joints attached to the top as more plating bolted onto his thighs. This left small gaps in the armour as the chestplate floated into position, and the back plate bolted it into place and secured it still. Seconds after that, arm plates attached themselves up and down his arms, with the left hand forearm plate gaining a bolt onto which to attach the shield. The shield bolted into place as both his hands gained armoured metal gloves, and a digital tactical display dropped in over Tom's face.
"Correction complete. Damaged DNA repaired. Welcome back, Prince Shining Armour."
Tom, or Shining, had little time to react as he suddenly found himself teleported out of the room, armour and all, and he suddenly landed in a street in a foreign city.
"OK, this is Paris," he said. "What is going on today?"
"My lord?"
Shining looked back to suddenly see an officer dressed in heavy purple armour with golden trim, wielding a glaive that glowed with spectral energy. "What's a member of the Noctis Metalican doing here?"
"Rapid deployment, to cover the area in preparation for your arrival. The Crystal Empire Guard could not mobilise quickly enough."
"I'll get that sorted out with General Firefly when I'm back in the Empire," Shining sighed. "In the meantime, we both have a special mission."
"Which is?"
"Today is April 21st. My wedding anniversary, and I haven't got Cadence anything! I know, I was stupid to forget, but there's a chance to make it right. We need to find something in this city, and pretty fast, as the day marches on."
"Then there is no time to waste."
As the Benny Hill theme started up in the background, these two armoured figures sped about Paris, looking positively ridiculous as they did so (Shining had already disposed of the armour's cape, as it made it difficult to run about for fear of it getting stuck in something). Onwards they went, until they found a metalworkers shop, with the name Le Cheval de Fer. The pair entered through the door.
"Bonjour, bons messieurs! Avez-vous besoin de réparer votre armure?" asked the shopkeeper. ("Good afternoon, good sirs! Do you need your armour repairing?")
"I'm female," the officer protested.
"They can't exactly tell under all the armour," Shining pointed out. "Bonjour à vous deux. J'ai peur que notre armure soit bien. Je me demandais si tu pouvais lancer un collier avec une inscription? C'est mon anniversaire de mariage aujourd'hui, et j'ai oublié d'obtenir quelque chose pour ma femme." ("Good afternoon to you two. I am afraid our armour is fine. I was wondering if you could cast a necklace with an inscription? It's my wedding anniversary today, and I forgot to get my wife something for it.")
The shopkeeper chose not to correct Shining muddling up 'deux' and 'aussi', aware that French was not his first language. "Bien sûr! Qu'aimeriez-vous y inscrire?" ("Of course! What would you liked inscribed in it?")
Shining admired the metalworker's handywork as he looked over the necklace. It was made of gold, with a yellow gem set into it from the Golden Queen mine in the Crystal Empire. Inscribed on the side were the following words;
For my love, Mi Amore Cadenza.
He occassionally teased her by using her full title (which he always thought was stupid, and so did she), but this was in good faith. He nodded to the officer. "It's time to go. We need to put this somewhere she'll find it." He turned back to the metalworker. "Merci pour votre temps. Ma femme va adorer ça!" ("Thank you for your time. My wife will love this!")
"Jamais de problème, monsieur! Cela fait très longtemps que je n'ai pas servi la royauté pour la dernière fois." ("Never a problem, sir! It has been a very long time since I last served royalty.")
Shining proceeded to another building in town, and placed the necklace inside a cabinet in said building. He closed the door, and smiled. "There. She'll know to look for it here. In the meantime, I'd better be getting ready for tonight's event!"