Tightly clenching the grip I gradually exhale, steadying the handgun. I squeeze the trigger, the copper-plated bullet whizzing through the air. My hands jolt upward, the recoil surprising me, despite this being my final shot.
Just as I lay the gun back down on the metal panel, an alarm buzzes, signalling the end of target practise. Pulling the ear defenders off and setting them down, I step out of my cubicle.
"How many shots you miss?" Ellie pries, stepping out of her cubicle and leaning against mine. Without waiting for any response, she walks into my booth, examining my target dummy.
"Oh," Ellie grimaces dramatically, "Four misses? You do know you're meant to hit the target, not the wall, right?"
I turn to face her, cocking up my eyebrow, "And how many did you miss?" I inquire.
"Three," she taunts with a sly grin.
I vaguely register the sound of metal hinges creaking. I shift my gaze towards the metal doors as Rychner bursts through them. "Get in line Ellie!" he barks.
Ellie's eyes widen as she immediately shuffles back in line, keeping her head down.
"Right, Ellie," Rychner starts, making his way over to her. He halts, thinning his eyes as he inspects her target. Clearing his throat, Rychner speaks up, "You need to work on your recoil control. Apart from that...not bad."
Ellie tugs the corner of her mouth up into a smirk. "Not too shabby yourself, Sarge." she teases, wiggling her eyebrows.
Rychner's eyes gradually close as he lets out an exasperated sigh. "Unbelievable..."
He steps past Ellie and towards me. "Looks like you need to work on..." he pauses, his eyes scanning the target behind me. "...hitting the target. I mean seriously, what do you call this? These aren't even kill-shots."
"Sorry...?" I mumble in response.
"Sorry? Really? Just when I think you can't possibly get any worse you go and apologise to somebody else." the voice complains.
"Don't be sorry, be better," Rychner commands. "And take a few extra shooting hours after training. This is just embarrassing."
"What do you want me to do? Punch him?" I sarcastically snap back at Charthrax.
"I would not object to it," it responds.
"Chester!" Rychner hollers as he steps away from me and towards the bat-like guy beside me. He vaguely pauses in consideration before speaking up, "Hm, good shooting. You've come along quite well..."
Chester shoots me a smug look as Rychner turns and walks away.
~*~
"That all you got?" Rilo scoffs as my fist goes flying past his face. I take another swing at him, missing by mere inches. Rilo jabs his fist towards me. I stumble backwards as pain explodes through my face. I take a moment to steady myself.
"All that strength is useless if you can't even land a punch." he taunts.
Clenching my jaw, I promptly thrust my fist forward again. Rilo tumbles to the floor as my fist crashed into him.
"You can do it, Axel!" a female's voice cheers from somewhere behind me. I cock my head around, my eyes scanning the room. Ellie stands flapping her arms around in the air, a smile riddling her face.
The air is knocked out of my lungs as a sudden force crashes into me, sending me flying across the mat.
"Never let yourself be distracted," Rilo instructs, lending me a hand. I clutch onto it, groaning as Rilo pulls me up from the floor.
"That's enough training for today," he pauses, "...and Axel?"
"Hm?" I pant.
"If ya want to go up against Borg speed's going to be a major advantage, so you need to work on that."
"...Yeah, Borg..." I grumble, not relishing the thought of getting in the ring, well matt, with him again.
"You'll be fine." Rilo waves his hand in dismissal.
I raise my eyebrows. "You really believe that?"
"Well, you'd better be. I hear people are already placing their bets." he chuckles.
"B-bets? Ugh, you've gotta kidding me." I groan in frustration.
"Nope. I'll be betting on you, by the way." Ellie sniggers diverting my attention away from Rilo. "No pressure though," she grins.
"I've got to go," Rilo mumbles, looking down at his wrist-watch. "I'll be seeing you tomorrow for training," he adds, pointing at me as he walks away.
I sit down on that matt, taking the opportunity to catch my breath.
The sounds of Rilo's footsteps fade, silence befalling the room. Lifting my hand, I gently press against the tender flesh on my face where I got punched. I let out a grunt, quickly retracting my hand.
"You okay?" Ellie questions, breaking the silence.
"Uh, yeah. It's definitely going to leave a mark though." I gripe.
"I wasn't talking about the bruise." Ellie clarifies.
"Wh-" I cut myself off, taken aback. I rack my brain, wondering how I am supposed to respond.
"You're not." Charthrax abruptly nags in my mind.
"Ugh, for the love of- Just shut up, would ya?" I yell.
Ellie's eyes grow wide at the sudden outburst. "Woah, okay, no need to snap. Was just a question."
My eyes too widen as the words leave my mouth. "Oh-oh no, sorry. I wasn't talking to you- I mean... uh."
A/N: Thank you for reading and apologies it is so late! I just made a new update schedule and managed to get sick just before I started so it did not go quite as planned. Hope you enjoyed it though and feel welcome to comment!
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Experiment VII
Science Fiction"Experiment number G7, that's all I am now. Who we were, everything we had, gone. We're just a bunch of failed experiments, but they made a mistake. They underestimated us, and now they're going to pay." Started: April 12, 2019 (approx.) Finished: ...
