"We're going to try something new today." Gladiolus announced as Noctis and Prompto walked into the training room. "It's not my favorite, but I'm supposed to make sure you're well rounded.."
Prompto looked relieved, he had enjoyed coming with Noctis to train, but he clearly had no skill for melee combat. "What is it?"
"Well then, let's get to it." Noctis said, ready to get it out of the way so he could go back to video games.
Gladiolus nodded, "You'll see when we get there, follow me," he walked towards the door, "Ignis will be waiting for us, and you know how he is about punctuality."
Noctis had a good idea of what was going on, because there was only one weapon he was told he had to wait to train on. His father was cautious with these things, but since he was old enough to live on his own away from the security of the castle he was obviously old enough for other restrictions to be lifted.
The firing range was empty except for Ignis, who was checking over gear when they arrived. A small table had ear plugs, ear muffs, safety glasses, loaded magazines, belts with holsters, and several pistols laying on it.
"Ignis," Gladio called, "You about ready for us?"
"Just about." Ignis called, nodding to himself and pulling out the paper targets they'd be shooting at. They had blue silhouettes with different circles drawn in them. Noctis had a vague idea of what the circles meant, but since he'd never been allowed to shoot a gun he had never paid too much attention to it. "While I hang the targets, why don't you start explaining."
"Sure," Gladio walked up to the table and shoved a belt in Noctis's and Prompto's hands. "Put these on for now. I know, Noct, that you won't need one in the future, but humor me."
Noctis shrugged. "Whatever." buckling the belt around his waist and adjusting the holster over his hip.
Prompto did the same. "Oh man, I can't believe we get to do this. This is so cool."
"Cool, and dangerous, so listen up." Gladio had switched to his business voice. "First thing we're going to talk about is safety, and neither of you will touch a gun if I don't feel like you're taking this seriously."
Prompto stood up a little straighter, and put on a serious look, his excitement still showing through. "Yes sir."
Gladio ignored him. "First, I don't care how many times you've checked, and how sure you are, you will treat every gun you handle as if it were loaded. That means it's either on safe or pointed down range." He picked up one of the unloaded weapons on the table keeping to his own instructions, he checked it again, kept it pointed away and gestured to what he was talking about as he spoke. "Even when you are pointing it down range you will keep your finger straight and along the receiver, until you are ready to fire."
Prompto nodded enthusiastically, Noct less so. "Got it."
"Good, next," Gladio continued, "You will keep the weapon on safe until you're ready to fire." He pointed to the safety, flipping it on and off for demonstration. "These are the rules you're going to follow today. The obvious stands, no horseplay while we are on the range, and there will be no warnings, you break a rule you get kicked out until I decide you've learned your lesson. Questions?"
They both indicated they were good. "Okay, moving on." Gladio then went through explaining the different parts of the gun, how it worked and how to reload them. He gave tips on how to stand, how to aim, and how to hold the gun.
Noct was a little surprised how many details went into it, in movies it always looked so straight forward. He wouldn't have guessed that even what part of his finger he used to pull, not pull squeeze, the trigger was important.
"One other thing, before I forget." Gladio had given them each a weapon and had them holster it. "The first shot is harder than the next. Let me show you." He pointed the gun downrange, no magazine or rounds in it, and sent the slide forward. "So once it's like this, if you have it loaded, you take off the safety" he did just that, "and it's ready to fire. However, if you watch," he squeezed the trigger a few times, the weapon clicking as the hammer fell each time. "You'll see there are two stages to it, the first part pulls the hammer back and the second sends it forward. It's called double-action. That's just the first shot on these guns though." He pulled the slide back and let it go forward. "After your first shot, the slide with go back and eject the casing, and at the same time cock the weapon." He pointed to the hammer which was back this time. "Now it just takes a little bit of pressure and the next round fires off. That's single-action. Some of the revolvers we have, which you can see some other time, are double action for every shot, so it's important to keep that difference in mind when you switch between guns."
Prompto was repeating the specific names for things under his breath, trying to remember all the terms Gladio was throwing at them.
"Are we ready to start?" Noctis asked, looking at the clock on the wall, over an hour had already gone by. His precious video game time.
"I think so, you're with me." He gestured to Noctis, "and Prompto is with Ignis."
"This way, Prompto." Ignis waved him over, and began explaining the firing line instructions and the scoring of the targets. That's apparently what the little circles were for, each one was worth a different amount of points, and different scores correlated with different proficiencies.
"Alright Noct, let's see what you've got." Gladio walked towards a different spot down the line where the other target had been hung.
The little booths were just wide enough to move around in and find a comfortable stance, with Gladio practically breathing down his neck. When he had to put on earplugs and earmuffs at the same time he understood why Gladio was standing so close. Even with him yelling in his ear, it was muffled. Something, something indoors firing is worse for your hearing, and don't want the future king going def.
It felt like it went pretty quickly after that, Gladio barking off orders in his ear, and him drawing, firing, and reholstering the weapon. Every couple of instructions the target would move a bit further back, or he'd have to go from standing to kneeling, and shoot from there. It was pretty fun.
Noctis didn't expect the rush of adrenaline he got from shooting at a piece of paper, but he found that his hands had that imperceptible shakiness in them when he stopped, and he was grinning when it was all over.
Gladio gestured for him to take off his hearing protection, "Let's see how you did." He hit the button and the track brought the target closer. "Not bad, not bad at all." Gladio said, "You've got a good grouping here, and looks like other than a few stray shots, you're right where you need to be." He clapped him on the shoulder. "About what I expected, great job. Let's go see how Prompto did."
Prompto was excitedly talking and wildly gesturing at Ignis, practically bouncing up and down. "Noct, that was so much fun." He was grinning ear to ear, and with the adrenaline still in his veins Noct found the grin infectious.
"Hell yeah it was." He agreed, finding himself with the urge to brag. "Of course, I'm a natural."
"Of course." Prompto agreed laughingly. "Wouldn't expect anything less out of the great Noctis."
"How'd you do?" Noct asked, suddenly wanting to compare his results with Prompto's. "You think you got the hang of it?"
"Definitely," Prompto practically beamed. "I just did what Gladio and Ignis said, and it was super easy. I thought shooting a gun would be harder than that, but it's not any harder than shooting a camera."
"What do you mean?" Gladio burst out, interrupting the two and drawing their attention to where he was talking to Ignis and holding Prompto's target. "Is that even possible?"
"I saw it with my own eyes," Ignis was as calm as ever. "You can have him run through the course again, if you'd like to confirm it for yourself."
"What's going on?" Noctis asked, walking up and taking a look at Prompto's target. "Dude, you only hit it once."
"No," Ignis said in response.
Noct looked at him confused, "No?"
"No, he hit it all forty five times." Ignis clarified.
Noctis was even more confused, finding himself echoing Gladio, "What do you mean? There's only one hole in the target. Sure it's dead center where it should be, but it's only one hole."
"What I mean is that Prompto is a natural." Ignis adjusted his glasses. "Maybe natural isn't the word I'm looking for, and I hesitate to use the word genius, but he's clearly the best shot I've ever seen."
Gladio whistled long and low at the praise from Ignis, and Noct looked from the two older boys, to the target, to Prompto who stood there grinning like an idiot obviously unaware of just how impressive he had been today and so off in his own little world he seemed to miss what Ignis was saying. He was actually busy taking a selfie with his phone with the range behind him, completely oblivious.
"Not bad for my first time, right?" He bumped Noctis's shoulder with his own and snatched the target out of his hand, holding it up so the light shown through the perfect little puncture. "I can't wait for next time, maybe I'll be pretty decent at this." He seemed to remember something. "Oh yeah, Noct, let me see yours, I bet you did even better."
"Oh um, I threw it away already." Noctis lied, suddenly embarrassed, even if Gladio had told him he'd done great.
Prompto deflated a little, but bounced right back. "That's okay, you can show me next time."
"Yeah, next time." Noct agreed, Gladio giving him a very amused look from behind Prompto's back.
"This is the coolest thing ever." Prompto was still admiring his handy work.
Even though Noctis was a little jealous, he found himself smiling again anyway. Prompto hid it well, but was obviously self conscious about a lot of things, and right now, without even realizing it he'd just impressed both Gladiolus and Ignis but was too busy having fun to even notice. "Yeah, it's pretty cool."