Warblers are anti-gunfire devices invented by Max Epper.
History[]
Seven Ancient Wonders[]
Developed by Max Epper as an anti-gunfire device, Epper sold the designs for the Warblers to the U.S. military, but, thinking they knew better, the Americans attempted to rework the Warblers, prolonging their development and delaying their use in active duty. Because of the outcome, Epper kept several of his warbler prototypes for himself.
When the Coalition of Minnows team were attempting to reach the Colossus of Rhodes' head in the Sudan mine, they used Warblers to deflect the bullets fired by their European competitors. Before activating them, Epper warned that radio contact would be disrupted as well. After firing a number of them into the cavern with a grenade launcher, Jack West Jr and his team moved to begin scaling the Scar, using rubber bullets that weren't affected by the Warblers to hold off the Europeans as they worked, while Francisco del Piero's men worked to load their own rubber bullets.
They later used Warblers again to protect themselves against the CIEF as they raced Cal Kallis and Marshall Judah's teams through the inlet towards Hamilcar's Refuge. When the CIEF started firing RPGs at them, Epper fretted that the Warblers wouldn't be powerful enough to deflect them, forcing Stretch to resort to firing sniper rounds to destroy the RPGs mid-flight instead.
The Five Greatest Warriors[]
Jack and Zoe Kissane kept Warblers in their packs during their attempt to get them and the CIEF force into the Third Vertex past the Japanese defenders.
Jack still had one in his pocket when Cieran Kincaid was set to execute him and the rest of his team in the Dead Sea, and switched the Warbler on to deflect Kincaid's gunfire from point-blank range.
On his way to the Sixth Vertex, Jack rigged up the Halicarnassus with several Warblers, which when powered by the plane created a huge magnetic field around the plane. This allowed him to fly the plane in towards Easter Island without having to worry about the anti-aircraft fire from the Chinese.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
When Jack returned to his farm in the Simpson Desert to collect some of his ancient documents, he looked around for a Warbler he had kept in his home, believing that with the difficulties the team were facing he would need it. However, despite his searching, Jack couldn't find the Warbler anywhere.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
Around a year earlier, Lily found Wizard's last Warbler while looking through the farm's work shed. Missing her grandfather figure, Lily decided to keep it on her person as a constant reminder, though she wasn't sure if it still worked.
While being held at Dion's mercy within the Supreme Labyrinth, Lily surreptitiously switched the Warbler on, and when Dion fired his pistol at her point-blank, the device's electromagnetic field deflected the bullet, shocking Dion long enough for Lily to turn the tables and kill him with his own grenade. As Jack comforted Lily afterward, he remarked on how he hadn't been able to find the Warbler, and Lily explained how she had acquired it.
Later, while the group was resting, Lily slipped the Warbler into the sleeping Jack's jacket pocket, believing he would need it at some point.
As Sphinx was making his way to the the Throne of Life, General Garthon Rastor attempted to fire upon him and Cardinal Ricardo Mendoza, only for Sphinx to yell tauntingly that he had electromagnetic countermeasures to protect him, evidently another kind of Warbler. However, as he was forced to make his way through the Four-Sided Maze to the Throne of Death, Sphinx lost his Warbler during one of the maze's rotations.
When Jack was at Ezekiel and his remaining Omega monk's mercy, the latter attempted to execute him, only for the bullet to be deflected by the Warbler Jack unknowingly carried. When Lily caught up to Jack, she explained how she had given him the Warbler.
When Rastor got onto the bridge leading to the Throne of Death and started using a high-velocity rifle to keep Sphinx and Jack at bay, Jack questioned why the Trismagi hadn't used his Warbler-like device to try to push through. Sphinx replied that he had lost his Warbler and doubted if the device would even work against Rastor's high-velocity bullets. Choosing to believe that the device his mentor had designed would indeed work, Jack broke cover and ran at Rastor. Fortunately, the Warbler's electromagnetic field was able to bend the trajectory of Rastor's rounds, allowing Jack to reach the mad General and begin fighting him.
Attributes[]
Warblers are grenade-sized, disc-shaped devices that emit a magnetic field that deflect all supersonic metallic flying objects within its range, namely bullets. While primarily intended to repel rounds fired from pistols and rifle from a fair distance, bullets from from near-point-blank range can also be deflected by a Warbler, and even heavy-bore, high-velocity rounds can also be affected by a Warbler's electromagnetic field.
When active, Warblers can disrupt any radio signals within the range of the electromagnetic field they generate. Another downside to their use is that they will also deflect the bullets fired by a person carrying an active Warblers, forcing them to use rubber bullets. Additionally, weapons such as RPGs are too heavy for the magnetic field to deflect; although the version Sphinx had on him was able to emit a magnetic field powerful enough to do so, he in turn did not think this Warbler could repel a high-velocity bullet.
Trivia[]
- The Warbler device that Sphinx uses in The One Impossible Labyrinth is presumably a derivative of Epper's original device that the U.S. military had spent years re-developing.
- How Lily had managed to keep ahold of the Warbler that she had taken from Jack's farm throughout is unknown, as there were plenty of opportunities for her adversaries to take it off of her:
- Before being placed on the hostage train after being kidnapped and taken to the Underworld.
- During her time being held captive by the Knights of the Golden Eight and later Sphinx and his entourage prior to being used as bait in Moscow.