One shot, one... [Open]

[shootingblancs]

Somewhere in the City, there is an impromptu target range set up at the edge of a park - targets draped over various types of available furniture and boxes. Otherwise, however? It looks completely deserted - there isn't a soul in sight.

If you're walking past, you may suddenly see an impact on one of the targets - a shot hits home just outside of the bulls-eye, kicking up fluff and dust as it pierces the target. Where's the gunman, though?

Michael exhaled as he released the trigger from his perch on the third floor of one of the abandoned buildings, checking his aim through the sight on his high-powered sniper rifle. He'd almost hit the bulls-eye. But almost wasn't good enough here. Especially not after Sheryl had been taken hostage by that lunatic - if something had happened to her, what would he have told Alto?

The next time anything like that happened again, he'd put a bullet between the guy's eyes before he could even finishing writing his threats on the comm system. He'd make sure of it.

He exhaled another breath as he returned back to his gun, putting his finger on the trigger, and taking careful aim...

...he fired. Hopefully, the eye-catching bullet-riddled targets would make it obvious enough for people not to run into his range.

Comments

[fieldpromoted]

Her grin got all sharp-edged and wicked. "Hah, do I look like a lady to you?"

[shootingblancs]

"You look like a pilot. What that means is up to you."

[fieldpromoted]

"Cocky as shit, best at what I do, and always up for a good time," Trudy said. She'd finished off her beer by now and had totally forgotten about the one left on the floor.

[shootingblancs]

"Sounds about right to me," he quipped. She wasn't making it any less obvious. "Who in our line of work'd ever turn down a good time?"

[fieldpromoted]

"Nobody I wan't flying with me, that's for damn sure." Trudy didn't do subtle. Subtle was a waste of time. She was about as subtle as a bag of bricks to the face.

[shootingblancs]

"You can't fly high with thoughts like that weighing you down." A pause. "We're just dancing around things, aren't we."

[fieldpromoted]

"Yeah it was fun for a couple minutes but now it's getting ridiculous. Think I've made myself pretty clear - you don't have anywhere to be or anything, right? And it's been a pretty fuckin' shitty day."

All of which were great reasons for them to go find a quiet room somewhere and work of some of this tension.

[shootingblancs]

For a moment, Michael paused, thoughts turning inward. All of that - the talk about not being able to fly with thoughts like that weighing you down? He'd believed that wholeheartedly, once. But the world had spun around him.

Was Klan even on the ship with them? Was she even alive? He wasn't going to follow in Sheryl's footsteps and lose himself to moping, but he'd meant the words he remembered saying to her as darkness bit in at his vision.

...but she wasn't here. And here he was, back from the dead. And it'd just be so easy to fall back into old habits.

"I don't have any plans. But I could make some."

[fieldpromoted]

"That's what I like to hear," Trudy said with an easy smile, leaning over. She crowded up into his personal space - moving slow, since she knew better than to corner a soldier without enough advance warning - and kissed him.

She hadn't missed that beat of hesitation, but hey, it was the end result that counted.