“So, did I pass?” he asked.
“It’s a good start.”
At that point the rest of the team rushed forward, Danny at the lead, patting Hunter on the back. Although they were talking over each other, it was clear that in addition to complimenting him, they were asking for shooting advice, making target requests, and in general gushing all over the place. While Freddy and Danny were clearly the more enthusiastic fans, Kara and Erika were also impressed. Erika even gave me a look that said something to the effect of “you have some competition”. I just shrugged and smiled.
At that point the target had returned and Danny went up to grab it. He spun excitedly towards Hunter and myself.
“Can I keep this?” he asked.
I shrugged and Hunter nodded. Freddy’s face looked a bit sad and Hunter noticed.
“Would you like one too?” he asked.
“To trouble you with such a trivial thing seems completely unprofessional Mr. Richardson,” Freddy said, a sigh at the end.
“Tell you what. If you promise to stop calling me Mr. Richardson, I’d be happy to shot a few more targets. Besides, BD here might still need some convincing of my skill,” Hunter smiled.
He walked down the next three lanes, hitting a button and sending a target moving backwards on each one. Then he made his way back to the first, drew a single pistol and fired eight shots in rapid succession. Again the gun was very quiet and again there were no shells. He then stepped over to the next lane and fired eight more shots. In the course of firing on that second target, the bullet drum closest to the trigger dropped and the second one slid back into its place. Without having to even slow his shots, Hunter pulled another drum from of his coat pocket and slid it into the weapon, continuing to fire as he did so. Eight more shots on the final target and he spun his gun and re-holstered it. Walking back over to us he pressed the return button on each lane.
“There, one for each of you,” Hunter smiled.
“I am honored. Thank you sir,” Freddy bowed in return.
“Seriously? How come you don’t act this way when I do cool stuff?”
Erika gave a slow walk over to retrieve her target gift. She was putting a bit more sway into her hips than normal. She grabbed the target and turned a pair of suggestive eyes my way.
“I guess guns are just sexy. This is going in my locker,” she said.
“Ha, ha.”
“Erika is right. These are pretty sexy,” Kara said.
She also did the sexy walk over to her target, although with Kara that is pretty much her normal walk. She isn’t very good at hiding her sensuality. Both her and Erika held their targets in the hands, slowly looking from each other to the targets and making sounds as if things tasted yummy.
“Enough. I get it.”
Like a pair of schoolgirls, they both started giggling and pointing at me.
“You should see your face,” Kara laughed.
I sighed through a fake smile and turned back towards Hunter. His expression was part smiley and part curious.
“That was fun, what’s next?” he said.
I waved him on and we all walked out of the range. After removing our protective gear, we would be able to talk to each other without shouting. Although every one stayed pretty quiet as I think they knew where we were heading. I waved “thanks” to the range master on duty and we all walked out and down the hall. Further down on sub-level six, past the armory and the range, was one of my favorite rooms, the gym. Unlike the weight room upstairs, this was mostly a large open space. While various pieces of gymnastic equipment sat around the room’s edges, the center was covered in mats and great for training. This was where I worked out with Erika.
We walked into a mostly empty room. There was a guy and girl sparring on the far side of the mat and another guy doing pull-ups on one of the bars. They all glanced our way as we entered, but didn’t seem to pay us much mind past that. The guy and girl were wearing full sparring gear and really going at it. There wasn’t much to see because of their helmets and chest pads, except her blond ponytail whipping around as she caught the guy in a chokehold. He tapped out fairly quickly and they reset. She moved pretty good and I made a mental note to find out who she was the next time I saw her. For now, there was work to do.
“Okay, you made it very clear you can shoot. How are your hand to hand skills?”
“Like all team members, I had basic hand to hand training,” he said.
“Okay, how about you show me.”
I gestured towards the mat and he nodded. After tossing off his coat and pistol holsters, he started circling me on the mat. Again, as he moved, I could see the insane muscle control. There was an athleticism here that one normally only sees in world class gymnastics competition. His balance was perfect and he held his hands up ready for me to make a move. At this point I knew the kid had skills, so this was less about me embarrassing him and more about understanding his baseline ability. I started off slowly.
He began in a full defense. I threw a punch with my right and he bobbed to his left. I threw my left and he bobbed to his right. Then I kicked low, towards his midsection, and he turned to the side and bent his body out of the way. I followed with a round kick and he leapt backwards out of range. I started throwing a few combinations and he continued his defensive stance. The kid was amazingly fast and he clearly knew how to stay out of trouble. But I wanted to see a bit more of his fighting instincts, so I started leaving openings in my defense.
At first the openings were small, and he paid them no mind. I was starting to think that this was clearly not his forte. So, I left bigger openings and he finally took the bait. With that staggering speed he threw a punch. I blocked and even though I had an easy open to counter, I was more interested in watching his offensive abilities. I gave him another big opening and he punched again. Another opening brought a kick and I just continued to block and watch. I learned some very important things there, the first of which was that Hunter was incredibly strong. Much stronger than any normal person his size should be. I was pretty sure that my little five-foot tall friend was stronger than me. Before I had too long to wonder why, I found my answer.
I had just blocked another of his powerful kicks when I decided to see how he reacted to my counter strike. I kicked out a bit faster than my earlier attacks, with enough oomph that he would have great difficulty getting out of the way. But that was enough to push him into overdrive. Every muscle in his body sprang to life and he surged to his left, just avoiding my kick. The look on his face made it clear that he barely got out of the way in time, but that wasn’t nearly as fascinating as his hair.
I mentioned before that Hunter had shoulder length white hair. It hung down around his head, framing the sides of his face. But when he had to move his fastest, his hair trailed in the air behind him. I am not telling you this because it looked like some type of cool action movie slow-mo sequence, but rather because I saw his ears for the first time. They were pointed. I relaxed my stance a bit as he landed.
“That’s why Freddy freaked out.”
Hunter tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t quite sure what I was talking about.
“Oh, sorry. I couldn’t see your ears before.”
Hunter smiled and then ran an index finger over each of his ears, tucking his long white hair behind them. There was some mumbling from the team as they realized what Freddy already knew. Hunter was an elf.
“You didn’t know?” Hunter asked.
“No idea. But, I think we’re good here. You can throw your coat back on.”
“Because I’m an elf?” he questioned.
“No. Because you dodge better than anyone I have ever seen. And trust me kid, I’ve seen some things in my life. Hand-to-hand clearly isn’t your thing, but you are more than capable if necessary. I believe you can handle yourself in a fight.”
“Seriously?” Danny yelled, “That’s it?”
“I got what I needed. Vector should be able to handle any su
rprise that this adventure throws at him.”
“Thanks,” Hunter said.
He was putting on his coat and clearly relaxed. Exactly where I wanted him. I smiled at Danny.
“I’ll prove it to you Danny.”
With that I spun around and hurled an oversized metal marble right at Hunter’s head. It was one of the few blunt weapons that I carry on my person. I was maybe ten feet away from him and he had no warning. Showing the speed that he displayed in our fight, reflexes flashed and he narrowly dodged the projectile. He had been crouched down picking up his coat, so he dropped to the ground, rolled forward, and came back up on his feet. His hands on his hips and a smile on his face, he looked over at us. The team, especially Danny, was murmuring in amazement.
“Are we done now?” he asked.
“Yeah, we’re done.”
I looked back at Freddy, who didn’t seem very happy at my sneak attack. But he didn’t look so mad that he couldn’t answer my question.
“So would our tags have helped with that attack at all?”
“It is highly unlikely they would affect something traveling at that speed in any way,” he said.
“Right. The tags really work best on things like firearms. Watch,” Hunter said.
Then he drew a pistol with lightning speed, pointed right at me, and fired. To say I dodged the bullet would be crazy. Even at my best I am not faster than a bullet. No normal person is. But, if you see the gun move into position, dodging bullets is a simple matter of not being in the path when the person pulls the trigger. I watched his hand move and the gun flash out. Even though Hunter was crazy quick, he wasn’t so fast that I couldn’t see him move. He had positioned himself in such a way that none of the team was behind me or in any danger from the shot. I had to bend to my left at a funny angle in order to avoid the bullet, but I felt the wind as it whipped under my arm and right by my chest. The loudest part of the whole ordeal was actually the bullet striking the wall behind me, as his silenced guns sounded like a Hollywood special effect. The expression on Hunter’s face looked a bit impressed and kind of shocked. I was about to make a smart-ass comment when he fired again. This time I had nowhere to go. Pain flashed through my whole body as the bullet found my chest.
CHAPTER 7
I’d equate this instance of getting shot with someone throwing a softball as hard as they can and hitting me in the chest. It hurt…a lot. Obviously it felt a hell of a lot better than getting shot without the tags on. My chest was throbbing and it knocked the wind out of me. I glanced down in time to see the tiny mushroomed-bullet fall from my chest and bounce on the mats. I took a deep breath and ignored the discomfort that I was feeling as I looked up at Hunter. He had a sly smile on his face and he seemed very interested in how I was going to react. I was pretty sure that the expression on my face said, “I can’t believe you just shot me.” But, Freddy wasn’t taking any chances. He was obviously worried that things might escalate, so he jumped in.
“Mr. Chang,” Freddy started, before I turned my look on him and he tried a friendlier tone, “Bruce. Please remain calm. Mr. Rich...Hunter was just following procedure. Although I do not believe this was necessarily the proper venue.”
“There’s a proper place to get shot?”
“In this case, yes. You see as a matter of GHOST protocols, once each team member has received their tags, they are to participate in a demonstration of their use. This is done so that we all know what to expect should the unfortunate take place and we take fire in the field,” Freddy said.
“Makes sense I guess. Like cops getting pepper sprayed. But these are bullets. How can we know for sure that these tags are functional?”
“They have been created with great care. There is almost no chance of failure. Although, to be honest, this is also why they are tested once they arrive. But as I mentioned, proper protocol is to test the dog tags under much safer working conditions. I must say that I am a bit shocked at Hunter’s actions,” Freddy frowned.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Hunter said.
His expression made it clear that he expected us to be laughing. Sadly, after we lost Timothy, I’m not sure the team was ready to laugh at any one of us taking a bullet. So, I figured it was best if Hunter and I continued the rest of our conversation in private. I glanced over at the team.
“Well, I think the show is over folks. You all have paperwork to file and tags to get tested. I will catch up with you tomorrow. Me and Vector here are gonna have a little chat.”
“Very well, I will trust you two to remain civil towards each other,” Freddy said, “We will see you both in the morning. Thank you again for the souvenir Mr. Richardson.”
Hunter gave Freddy a look.
“I mean Hunter. My apologies,” Freddy corrected.
It was my turn to take a shot.
“Actually, I think he prefers Vector.”
“Only if I get to call you Black Dragon,” he smiled.
“Weren’t you going to anyway?”
“Absolutely,” he replied.
“Then here we are.”
We continued to stare and smile at each other, the rest of the team sort of frozen there with no idea how to react. I had to admit that the kid’s spunk perplexed me. Whether he was trying to impress me or get under my skin, I couldn’t be sure. Somewhere deep down I had this weird feeling that he was trying to figure me out, like this was his method of getting to know me. I had no idea why he cared, but it was clear from his initial reaction in Dutton’s office and the fact that he read my file, that he wanted to know more.
To my surprise, I wasn’t actually mad that he shot me. If anything, I was a bit upset that he placed other people in danger for his joke. Although, with the accuracy that he displayed in the range, maybe in his mind, there was no danger to anyone else. Vector had made a point of positioning himself so that there was nothing behind me but wall. I figured we would talk about it once the team left. To speed matters up I gave them a look. Danny was the first to react, heading for the door and calling back to us over his shoulder.
“BD. Vector. Take care. See you two tomorrow,” Danny hollered.
Once he went, everyone else took that as a cue to follow. Kara and Erika were next, giving a wave and saying goodbye. I nodded in return and watched them walk out the door. Freddy was the last to go.
“Gentlemen,” Freddy said, with a small bow.
He then turned and followed the rest of the team out. As he left, I glanced over at the other three officers who had been working out to see what they were doing. Apparently, there was something in the air that made them uncomfortable, as they gathered their gear and headed for the door. As I waited for them to shuffle out, Vector wandered over to a pommel horse in the corner. He sprang up into a handstand on the edge and hand-walked himself to the bars. A few twists, turns, spins, and whatever you call it when people dance about on those things, and he dismounted with a neatly tucked flip. Again, his agility was staggering. Not that I was a slouch in that department, but I was afraid to join in for fear of things deteriorating into some deranged gymnastic dance off. I rubbed my chest a bit as I looked back up at him.
“I hate to admit it, but it almost made me laugh.”
“I had anticipated it being funnier,” he said.
“Maybe once we get to know you better?”
“You’re probably right. The comedy of shooting people might be a second day thing.”
“Exactly.”
There was a bit of snickering as we both let the tension in the room fizzle out. But before things turned completely relaxed, there was something I needed to be sure of. I allowed my tone to get a bit more serious before I spoke.
“There is one thing that I need to know.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Were you sure that no one else was in danger when you fired?”
“Of course. I calculated every possible ricochet angle.”
“And how did you do that?”
“Like my ma
rksmanship, my brain is also slightly above average,” he smiled.
“So, you knew they were safe?”
“Absolutely. Plus, they were all wearing their tags.”
“Fair enough. Then I guess we’re good.”
“Glad to hear it,” he nodded.
“Besides, the tags needed to be tested anyway. This has to be way more fun than sitting in some stuffy lab. Now I know that they work and what it feels like when it happens.”
“Well, for reference, that should have been the equivalent of a Desert Eagle.”
“Really? Your bullet didn’t look very big.”
“I make ‘em special. Plus, it’s not the size, it’s the…” he tried.
“…Yeah, yeah. So, where did you get those guns?”
“I built ‘em.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. Engineering is kind of my thing,” he said.
“Okay. I guess that makes you a great fit for the team tech guy.”
“That it does. I’m also a pretty good hacker.”
“I’d imagine you are. You would probably get along well with Visine.”
“The guy with the nanites?” he asked.
“Yup,” I shook my head before continuing, “Hell, if he was here, I bet he would have shot me too.”
“I like the guy already.”
We both laughed a bit and then Vector glanced down at my hand rubbing my chest. I hadn’t realized I was still doing it.
“How’s the chest?”
“I’ve had worse. It will be fine tomorrow. As I’m sure you read in my file, I heal pretty fast.”
“I know,” he nodded, “We have that in common.”
G.H.O.S.T. Teams (Book 2) Shifters Page 6
