I woke up on a bench in the locker room. ‘I guess I fell asleep for a while.’ I got up, and began to change out of my costume. After I was done, I decided to check my phone. ‘I started around 3pm, and now it’s 6pm. So I wasn’t asleep that long.’ I left the locker room, and made my way back to the range. ‘From here I should be able to find somebody, and maybe find some barracks, or someone to pay for my motel.’ I found my borrowed pistol hung up next to the settings panel.

‘I will be back for you.’ I was making a promise to that pistol that she would soon be mine… Yes, it’s a ‘she’ all guns are she’s. I left the range, and looked around to see a clear lack of people in the halls. ‘Probably out on patrol… But wouldn’t they take shifts? It is way too soon for the emergency to happen.’ Confused, I looked around while making my way to the entrance of the building. I held my briefcase a little tighter. I was thinking maybe I should have kept it on. ‘Something doesn’t feel right.’

Making it to the same receptionist I got her attention. “Hello, is something wrong? This place is kinda empty.” She looked at me with slightly widened eyes then quickly changed back to a normal expression. “Oh everything is fine. Most of the side-kicks are just in a meeting right now.” I nodded as that seemed plausible. “Then can you help me find lodging around here? I don’t have anywhere to sleep.” She seemed surprised at my question. “None of your teachers told you? You can stay here at our agency. We always have a spare room or two for anybody we rescue who may need it for a couple days.”

I smiled “That will be perfect then. Do you know where mine may be?” She nodded with a business smile. “Of course, just follow me.” I did just that, and saw that the rooms were just a hallway down from the range. ‘Why didn’t she just tell me like last time?’ I blew my questions aside in favor of better and longer sleep. I put my briefcase near my bed with my weapon right under my pillow. ‘I may be paranoid, but I hate going to sleep in new places.’ I fell asleep soon after I had everything where I wanted it.

I woke up to somebody in my room. I could see them clear as day even with the lights out. ‘This is why I’m paranoid!’ I took a closer look, and noticed it was the receptionist lady. Gripping my 6-shooter I kept my eyes on her. “Now why is the head receptionist in my room?” She looked startled that I was awake, and was able to identify her. She quickly shook it off and answered me. “‘Snipe’ has said that I should wake you now to talk to him about training.” I sat up in my bed, and started to stretch to wake myself up. Seeing my display with little more than shorts on, the receptionist started to blush, and quickly headed out the door. My eyes started squinting at that sight. ‘You do seem young, but this body is probably 4 years younger than you.’

I quickly got changed into my costume, and quickly went outside my room. Taking the small walk to the range I noticed gazes from the side-kicks. ‘Probably just taking a look at the new kid around the place.’ I thought nothing of it, and began to think of the attack in two days. ‘I will have to be around to help the three at defeating stain. I shouldn’t have too much trouble, but the more training the better.’

I finished up my thoughts by the time I made it to the range. Stepping inside I saw ‘Snipe’ inside training on around the difficulty I had in bullet time. He was doing almost just as well as I did. ‘Man I had to cheat to get that. It’s also 6am. How early does he get up to train this?’ After watching him finish up this session he looked over at me. “Goodmorn’n kid, I hear you can do pretty well at the test that I had set up for you.” He then walks over to his lefty gun near the settings box, and picks it up to give it to me. 

“Show me.” 

I nod to him before I check the ammo in the gun, and find that all is clear as ‘Snipe’ goes into the control room. I step into the center of the room and wait. I hear a noise to my right, and quickly point my gun at the target. Only to quickly realize it was a civilian target. Just after this realization I heard another noise behind me. Looking behind me I see another target, except this one I could shoot. I aimed at the bullseye, and pulled the trigger. Without looking to confirm where I knew it would go I looked in the direction of another target I heard coming up.

This kept going on until I ran out of ammo. After I was done I heard a slow clapping coming from ‘Snipe’ as he was walking towards me. “Well done kid, Shots were fast, accurate, and full of confidence. You have graduated from targets. You said you wanted to fight against longer range opponents right?” He tosses clips full of rubber rounds at me. “You will be fighting me for today, kid. Just a reminder to you, no techniques of any kind. This will just be pistols only, you need to have experience fighting enemies at a distance that you can’t close the gap on.”