Summer of Bad Batch 2024

Siblings Will Be Siblings

Week one prompt: Water gun fight

Alternate prompt: "It's not what you think."

I did both in one.

Enjoy! :)

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Crosshair walked the halls of Kamino. 

As a third year cadet, it was a familiar route to him by now. Every week, it was the same path he walked from the barracks to the lab and back again. The same fluorescent lights on the ceiling like arrows piercing into his over-sensitive eyes. 

Hunter understood his pain, his eyes almost as sensitive as Crosshair's. Almost, but not quite. 

Crosshair, speed walking into the barracks, slammed the button Tech programed to dim the lights. No one was in the barracks. 

Did the Kaminoens come for them while he was in the labs?

A small package was sitting on his bed. It was in the shape of his training Firepuncher. Was it a new training rifle? 

A note was placed next to it, dark text against light flimsy. It was in Tech's neat handwriting, the one he used for his studies as opposed to the curling together lines that could barely pass as letters.

"Crosshair, Wrecker had an idea two days ago and I modified a training rifle for the occasion. Rendezvous with us in training room 03 as soon as you can."

Crosshair tore the packaging off what he now knew to be a modified rifle. It was a smaller Firepuncher rifle, not the training ones, a heat scope attached to the top. He opened the bottom, expecting a power pack to fall into his hand. Instead, it was a clear container filled with... water? A water gun? It dawned on him that the holo he watched with Wrecker the other day had a water gun fight. 

And he was a sniper-in-training who was just given a sniper rifle filled with water. He gave it a test fire, aiming at the poster with a 'C' written with blaster bolts tacked onto his wall. It was powerful, no kickback like his real rifle, and a strong stream of water hit dead center. 

Oh, this was going to be fun. He grabbed his helmet and headed for the training rooms.

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

"Are you sure Crosshair got out the labs already?" Hunter asked, adjusting his position behind the grey barrier. He had been crouched for twenty minutes, finger on the trigger. His water gun was aimed at the doorway with Tech behind the barrier next to him. Tech pulled out his datapad, water gun still trained towards the doorway, and tapped on his datapad few moments before responding.

"Yes. I got a ping from our door being unlocked. He had to have seen the package." Tech responded, putting his datapad back into his specially made waterproofed pocket. 

"Do you think he'll join us?" Wrecker asked, a barrier behind the two. Hunter shook his head, water gun slipping from it's aim.

"I am not sure." Tech said, voice taking a dejected tone. 

"Maybe he was tired. He always naps on lab days." Wrecker suggested, walking over and sitting cross legged next to Hunter. "I was hoping he'd join us. We don't get much free time now that we're older."

It was true. Their assignments had gotten harder, though, Tech still excelled. Crosshair loved the extra time at the range to practice. What he continued to voice everyday was the way it strained his eyes after looking through the scope for hours on end. More often than not, he silently went to the barracks afterwards and went straight to the bunks. Sometimes he joined his brothers in their bunks, sometimes he climbed into his own and turned his back to the room.