Target Practice

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

Since living in the new castle with Ruffnut, Mindy had done her best to maintain upkeep, even "borrowing" a few things from the wreckage of Grand Central to spruce up the place. It helped, especially since the events of the homecoming, to keep her head busy. On the one hand, yes, dad had appeared: he wasn't dead, he was proud to know they won, and for just a little bit? She got to be a little girl again, to crack wise with her dad, to show him how far she'd gotten.

But then he was gone again, and the new pod pop didn't bring him out. She shouldn't have hoped for it, but she had, a little. Once that was a no go though, she was either training or helping Ruffnut patch up some of the frayed tapestries or fix up carpeting or overall making sure there were no holes for them to fall through anywhere. It had been good, but even Ruffnut had sort of side stepped asking her about dad. It was something she appreciated: Mindy wasn't known for easily delving into her feelings.

This naturally led to another thing on her mind: what had happened on the mission, where the Castle gun shootout had almost taken her out- SHOULD have, if it was anyone else. She had severely underestimated what she could do: the way she;d moved, the accuracy in each shot, the sheer carnage: that was akin to a limit break.

And now, she wanted to control it.

She emptied herself of all thought: that was how a fight in the dark was, if you had no edge. There were only a few precious seconds to gather your mind, and then you opened your eyes and all hell broke loose. Your eyes and your hands had to work in tandem then, and you pulled back and took out people one by one until you got the job done or you were dead.

Like now: it was those gun slingers from the castle, and she started with ten at first, taking them out easily. The background was the saloon again, only she made it bigger to accomdate the increase in shooters.She cursed to herself (it was too quick!) then brought the number to fifteen, then twenty.

Each took less time, and Hit Girl nodded: she HAD gotten better. She wasn't even using Zetta's gun or her artifact, and she was still taking these bastards down.

"All right: switch it to forty, and place them all over the bar."

Ok. GO.

Comments

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

"Yo!"

Ruffnut showing her amazing ability to have terrible timing and or her ability to locate Mindy by randomly wandering the ship popped up in the darkness, light glowing off her skin from crackling lightning dancing along her skin.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

"What? Ruff-"

"An interloper! Take her out!"

The words were out of one of the thugs mouth: Hit Girl didn't know which one. What she did know, however, was the intent once the words started: and now, without even thinking about it, she entered back into that mode where everything slowed down. If one could describe it, it was everything was in black and white, blurring together. Only for a fleeting moment did Hit girl think something was wrong with the Sensorium, and then she realized it was the Sensorium, but HER. It was pure intention that was making her move through regular time.

And, of course, that mattered less when her friend had the potential to get shot.

SLICE.

"Augh!" Hand went flying, and then Hit Girl was at the next guy, barreling through him with the butterfly knife, rolling to the ground and back up, glocks in hands. The words were at "...her out..." when the bullets started to fire, and the men were getting pumped full, not quite understanding hwo they couldn't see her. Five. Seven. Ten.

Duck.

Hit Girl dove on the floor and time was starting to speed up, but only because she was loading her guns and off she went again, the body count to seventeen before she got close enough to Ruff to knock her to the floor, right behind the bar.

Twenty down, twenty left. Hit Girl's heart was thumping mad in her chest, her shoulder was scraped to shit and there was an endless barrage of gun fire behind them.

And she was grinning her head off, despite it all.

"Dude, I don't know how, but you just inspired me to do something I didn't even do on the mission. Now go take out some of those guys!"

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruff blinked a few times confused by what had just happened and shrugged it off lighting up her fists with electricity lunging into combat alongside her friend, punching and throwing projected enemies like a whirlwind pain.

Even if she didn't really understand what Mindy had done, she did understand that this was fun. The feeling of superiority over larger men with weapons.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

It was pandemonium. The thugs could still not believe she had taken so many out in a mere thirty seconds without them getting so much of a hint of where she was. One moment she was spiraling in the air, the next she was underfoot, shooting off ankles and already striding outside their circle in mere seconds. But this was no Sensorium miracle, no magical thing that was making everything work: this was Mindy's own strength, and this was her limit all over again.

"Ruff, get those guys up on the steps before they bear down on you hard!" She yelled, firing her guns into the last few groups of them.

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruff let out a grunt of agreement and picked up one of the fallen thugs by his feet swinging him through the air round and round before hurling him bodily at her targets on the stairs knocking several of them down. "HA!"

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

Recently, Hana had been hanging out alot at Ruffnuts new 'keep', to help move things around or just to bum about with her. They got on really well, like a house on fire infact.

He'd only spoken to Mindy a few times. Oddly, he'd met her before he'd met Ruffnut. They'd even organized a little 'spar', which Mindy had won as Hana had no real fighting experience and although strong and relatively skilled, hadn't accounted for no spiritual partner and was no match for a practiced, ruthless fighter like Mindy.

Most of their meetings now were quick glimpses of each other as Hana came and left Ruffnuts fort after hanging out with the Viking, or when he'd popped over to help with fixing something.

He always smiled and waved if they saw each other and acted friendly. He liked Mindy. Especially since she'd actually spoken to him on his first mission when he'd felt totally new, useless and ineffectual. But their relationship didn't really extend past 'a friend of a friend'.

Hana thought it best he make an effort though, since, as he saw more and more of Ruffnut, he subsequently, saw more and more of Mindy.

It was an odd coincidence really, that as he'd resolved to speak to Mindy more, he should happen across her on one of his daily jogs around the parts of the ship he was more familiar with.

"Wow!" He gaped, unabashedly at her skill.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

Hit Girl was more than a little annoyed. She was faster, yes, and really really close to her speed from the mission, but not quite where she needed to be yet. She held off actual maiming, of course: she was trying really hard to listen to Morgan, and she had still remembered the words she exchanged with Kon that one time. If she could avoid that level of death (in other words, just shooting them) maybe she could control the way she took people out.

Yeah, it still sounded stupid to her. Damn it.

She did stop a moment when she felt the presence of someone else, someone she knew. It was Hana, that boy that was Ruff's other friend. She'd met and sparred with him before, and all in all? He was the kind of guy she liked hanging with, like a gruffer version of Negi. She didn't mind him being around, though the possibility of him and Ruff possibly hooking up gave her a tightness in her chest she didn't understand. Since when was she jealous?

Oh yeah. Sasami and Negi. That sucked.

Well whatever. She paused the Sensorium, a moment, gesturing to him. "Hey Hana. What's up?"

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

Hana grinned brightly, raising a hand in greeting. "Yo. Not much, just, you know, loitering about." He chuckled. Although his running was a part of his training, he didn't bother saying so. It barely seemed worth mentioning after seeing what Hit Girl's training was like.

He moved to sit himself on the outer edges of the saloon, not wanting to get in the way. "You been out here long?"

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I noticed you loitering in our place too, without hardly saying hello," she said cuffing him lightly on the head. It was actually chill, having a guy friend that was right up her alley. Negi was cool, but he was a really good guy, like, REALLY good. That, and she didn't get to see him as much lately.

"I've been running this sim, I'd say, just about every few days. Since we got back from the mission, I've been trying to replicate some moves I did back then. I was super fast, Deloreon fast, but I could have died. I'm trying to see if I can do it without, you know, getting close to dying."

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

He took the cuff with a smile, mane of wild hair absorbing it. "I could be louder if you want!" Hana let out a sudden loud bark of laughter to back up his claim.

It took him a moment to get the reference, brow furrowed in confusion. "Deloreon fast? Oh! Like the movie! Cool!" Hana gave her a impressed look. "That's real fast!"

He nodded. "Yeh, not dying is a pretty good idea."

[wantstobebatman.livejournal.com]

Doc knew much much better than to interrupt someone in the middle of that kind of fray. Wandering into an occupied sensorium was one thing when someone was having tea or playing poker with some dogs. It was another when they were fighting that hard and fast and taking a killing blow to anything that moved.

So Doc didn't move.

He melted into the shadow by the entrance, stayed perfectly still, and watched Mindy with fascination until she had felled the last of her opponents.

He cleared his throat once she seemed to have stood down.

"You're a lot faster than you look." he commented with a smile.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

Hit Girl stopped for a moment when she heard the voice.

"I ain't done wit' you yet, var-" was silenced when Hit Girl shot the gang member in the chest, and again, paused the simulation.

"Recent development," She said, not that she wasn't glowing a little inside at the praise. "Just trying to get back the speed I had on a mission a little while ago. But I am doing a lot better, so I'm at least happy about that, you know?"

[wantstobebatman.livejournal.com]

"Hey, I would be. Seems like your practice is paying off to me." Doc grinned a little, tucking his hands into his plant suit pockets.

"How long have you been learning stuff like this? Combat isn't exactly a typical hobby for a girl your age."

Watching her had him all curious. No kid was that good who hadn't been trained, and trained hard, by a skilled superior for a good chunk of their lives. It was so rare he met someone else who shared the sort of childhood he had had.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

Hit girl nodded. "Getting exactly where I need to, yeah. Just gotta push myself a little. It's like, when you know you can do better, you have to get to that higher level. People call that being a perfectionist, but I just say they have a problem being thorough."

And Hit Girl did not buy into that.

"Since I was a k-well, younger, anyway. Kind of a long strong involving vengeance and criminals back in my world. And yeah, most girls like playing with dolls more than knowing how to use a glock properly. But that's them, and I'm me. We have different things we wanna do in life."

She shrugged. "And I've been training since I got on the ship. Can't afford to slack off when almost everyone has a powers or magic, right? I wasn't picked here for my love of rainbows and sunshine."

[wantstobebatman.livejournal.com]

Doc smirked.

"My skills are pretty tame compared to what some people around here have too. It's WEIRD. I'm used to being more use in a sticky situation than other people and here it's the other way around."

"Did your parents train you?" he asked after a moment, peering around at her simulation a little. "Or did you go looking for a teacher on your own to get that revenge you mentioned?"

He wouldn't put it past her, she struck him as the kind of kid who would run off to seek her destiny like that.

[punchesfaces.livejournal.com]

First thing to do in unfamiliar territory - get the lay of the land. Particularly when it was going to be home for the time being. The sensoriums in particular interested him - he still didn't like the idea of the ship poking around in his head, but he could see the merits of such a place for training.

Which, from the looks of it, someone was already doing. He slipped just inside the door, a quick glance around telling him everything he needed to know. Cannon fodder: check. And their attacker - huh. She looked a little young for this, but she was pretty good. Particularly given he wasn't picking up any enhancements.

He waited for an appropriate lull in the combat, and then spoke up. "Nice job."

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

Hit Girl was moving with ease, and while she was still a little annoyed that she wasn't quite at that place from the mission, she was still faster than when she had taken down D'Amico's men. That was good too: unwashed cowboys tended to be pretty bloodthirsty. That, and the smell from them alone could knock you out.

But she was still sticking and moving, taking them out steadily. Definitely an improvement, and being small like this made her a harder target. For the moment she was in the grove, cutting them off steadily, stopping only when she sustained her first hit: a graze to the shoulder, and she rolled on the floor a moment, gaining momentum for a retaliatory strike when she felt there was someone real in the Sensorium.

Seeing the person, she didn't break a sweat: she tossed him a gun. "Hey, get those guys on the right? They're giving me shit."

[punchesfaces.livejournal.com]

The gun was not entirely unexpected, and he caught it easily. Not his weapon of choice - firearms seemed so impersonal sometimes - but it'd do. He took aim at the right most wing of enemies, emptying the weapon's clip into them with inhuman speed and precision. The last bullet had barely left the chamber when he tossed the weapon aside and darted into the fray to take on the remainder. He ripped the throat out of one of them with his bare hand, and grinned - god, he'd been missing this.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

Well. Looks like that guy liked to get his hands dirty. Of course, the whole reason that Hit Girl had given him the gun was because you need to mow a few people down BEFORE you actually were able to get close. That, and well, she didn't really know exactly what kind of people were going to be walking into the Sensorium. The last thing she needed was someone puking their guts out in her simulation (that's right Ron, Lash told her that story). This, however, was a welcome change of events.

And now out came the bow, and a bit of stabbing to the closest guy. If that was how this guy was going to play it, may as well go all out.

[punchesfaces.livejournal.com]

In the Midnighter's eyes, weapons against guys like these was too easy. But, then again, not everyone thought at the speed of quantum super-computers. Or moved fast enough to make use of that. But he was a whirlwind of death in the pack of enemies, using the corpse of the first one as a make-shift weapon against another three.

[thewunderkind]

Lash was...well it was hard to decipher how she'd been feeling the last few days. In between seeing Hawke again and the whole mess that this was implying beginning to dawn on her, she had wanted to go to the sensoriums to do a bit of thinking and weapon building of course.

She hadn't really expected to be greeted with images of saloons.

"Well that's different," she remarked loudly looking around.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

If the saloons were a bit of a surprise, people flying out of windows and falling off of rafters dead should not be. Hit Girl was showing no mercy now: she went at the thugs with a fury, trying to test each theory in her head, learn why she'd been able to do what she did before. The cries of mercy and pleading was met with gunfire, and a moment later, all was quiet. Hit Girl emerged, bloodstained, checking a stopwatch.

"A little faster, but not enough," she said, half to herself, then looked up. "Oh Lash, hey! What's going on?"

Yeah, she didn't look unperturbed at all. Just another day for her.

[thewunderkind]

"Just needed a bit of time out to think..." she looked at her for a moment, pushing a foot at one of the dead guys before speaking. "...hey! Nice shot to head." She pushed the body over. "Went clean through too."

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

"I'll bet you do," Hit Girl said, kicking one of the guys over. "Ooh. That couldn't have been a happy death. Yeah, I've been getting a lot better with the clear shots. Trying to be humane and all."

She rolled her eyes, wiping some blood off her cheek. "So. Seen grumpypuss yet?"

[thewunderkind]

"Grumpypuss?"