Chapter 58. Training Begins
A little mad I decided to compare weapons. ‘Oh… That is obvious.’ “I only have six shots,” I say, cursing my own stupidity. “Yea kid, send in a weapon alteration to the support department along with your six-shooter. They should get a new one sent out before our time is up. Until then kid…” He goes over to a weapon storage room. And comes out with a gun just like his except it's mirrored for a lefty shooter like me.
“Tech-guys gave this to me to see how I would like akimbo. I didn't, to make a long story short, and it's been here ever since. He tosses it to me and I grab it with both hands. Feeling the heft to it, and seeing the design of it. It was hard to describe, to say the least. It had 3 cylinders holding 6 shots each,18 in total. After the one inside was spent, the next one on the track would take its place sending the empty one to the opposite side. This wasn’t a weapon, this was art.
As I was geeking out over this new artwork I heard ‘Snipe’ start laughing. “Hah y'know what kid? I’ll make you a deal. You do well enough in our training, and I may let you have that.” Shaken out of my thoughts of amazement, I looked at him with wide eyes. I looked back at the pistol, and felt like I needed it. I looked back at him full of determination. “What do I have to do?” He let out a small chuckle. “Alright kid, ammo is right over there. I have other things to take care of, so this will be just you. Train as long as you can take, but with none of your techniques. You must be comfortable shooting without any help.”
I nodded my head with a smile. ‘This is the training I am best at.’ He soon left and I was alone in the range with myself, my gun, and my victims; I couldn't be happier. I familiarized myself with the ‘soon to be mine’ gun. After about 10 minutes of making sure I could work the weapon, and reload without looking 70% of the time, I felt good enough to take on the dummies. This time I was ready for the civilian targets, so I wouldn’t just fire at everything that popped up.
I started better than my first attempt this time. I never hit a civilian, and that was my #1 goal. ‘Can’t be a hero, shocking civilians running to me for help.’ Now it was my target accuracy that had something to be desired. So after the second attempt I reloaded, and went for the third. ‘This time I will take a full second to aim at each one. Once I can hit within one inch of a bullseye then I will start to focus on speeding up my aiming time.’ Once the third attempt had finished I was a little more accurate, but much slower overall. ‘Speed or accuracy? Hah! I’ll keep training till I have both!’
I settled in for a long day of training. On my 10th attempt I was noticing diminishing returns on my training. ‘It seems that I have grown quickly to a point, and now I have hit a wall. This will take time to hurdle, but I know Deku will grow exponentially. I have to keep improving before he moves past me. I must become a wall for him to overcome, on his journey to #1.’ Re-Psyching myself up, I reloaded much faster and without difficulty; not even needing to look. I then started the 11th session.
In the control room a group of heroes and side-kicks groaned, while others seemed to cheer at the development inside the training room. ‘Snipe’ moved in to see what all the commotion was about. Only to find his employees were making a betting pool of how long I would last before taking a break. “What is he up to now?” A random side-kick spoke up with a big grin. “He’s up to his 12th session now! If he goes for just two more, I will make it big!” ‘Snipe was quiet for a moment then spoke up to everyone. “Who has the bet on the highest round, and what was the round that you bet?” He looked around at everyone mumbling the rounds they picked out, for one to speak up.
“I guess it was me, I bet he would make it to 20.” At the end of the man’s statement ‘Snipe’ seemed to chuckle. “Hmmm. Put me down that the kid will make it beyond 30 rounds.” And with that ‘Snipe left the room full of shocked individuals. They soon regained their composure, and looked back into the room to see me still going at it. Getting better at each iteration; not much mind you. However each session did help me improve, however small that may have been.
After my 20th session I was getting better at hitting around the bullseye without aiming at it. My muscle memory was attuned to where the bullseye should be, and shot that area when I wanted to shoot a target. It was still in its infancy, but I could feel my aim sharpening without my full attention. I decided to work a little on the speed of my shots next. I reloaded and got into position for the session to start.