The Tachikawa Crime Syndicate

Chp. 3- Shooting Range


"Whoa, put that down, I wanna live to see twenty-five you know," Matt said as he seized the AK-47 rifle from Mimi's control and placed it back on its bracket. "Do not touch anything." Matt added as he turned to face Mimi.

"Lighten up, learn to have some fun," Mimi said as she tossed herself onto a near by couch and flashed a playful smile at Matt, who remained passive.

"I'll lighten up when you're away from all this live ammunition, 'till then, don't get your hopes up, since when was this couch here?" Matt asked Mimi who smiled a bit before responding.

"I kinda asked Daddy to have Larry and Tony put a couch here. You know those plastic chairs don't belong here, maybe in an airport somewhere, but so not here.
Like if I was to have guest over and were to ask them to have a seat on those chairs they would be like all, 'are you high?'
And I'll be like all, 'no, don't be silly,' and then they'll probably leave. So see if you had a couch they wouldn't be all disgusted and want to throw-up. Not to mention if my friends were arsonists the chairs would be beckoning them to catch them fire and put them out of their misery.
And if my friends were arsonists just think of all the chemicals that would be released into the air if they were to be caught on fire.
Do you now see why I had to have this couch placed here?" Mimi asked Matt, who had a confused expression written all over his face, obviously he had gotten lost somewhere within Mimi's rambling.

"Sorry, did you say something, I kinda of tuned out there, I heard something about a couch and chairs, but I kinda lost interest when it got irrelevant." Matt said as he scratches his head, still trying to make sense of what she had said.

"Fine let's just get this over with," Mimi said as she searched the shelf for a gun.

"Okay, let's start you off with something simple... yet basic enough, here," Matt said as he handed Mimi a medium sized green and orange gun.

"Are you serious, a water gun, please, give me a break," Mimi said as she pulled the white trigger, causing water to splash all over Matt's shirt. Matt shook his head, and took the water gun from her.

"You were going to get a Super-Soaker, but you can just forget it now," Matt said, she smiled when Matt handed her a paintball gun.

"Thank-you," Mimi said as she took the gun into her own hands, and examined it a bit before she looked up again.

"Before you get all trigger happy, which I expect you to be if you're anything like your father, we need to go over some of the basics. Orders from your father, you understand don't you?" Matt said as he handed Mimi a notebook with sloppy hand writing inside.

"You expect me to read this, you write worse than my doctor..." Mimi commented as she skimmed though the pages of the note book she had been given.

"Hey, I happen to have very nice hand writing I just happened to be in a hurry, I wanna see you write that much in a few hours, not to mention make some crappy sketches." Matt said a sense of insult to his voice.

"Excuses, I know third graders who can write better." Mimi commented as she began to read the passages of the notebook.


An hour and a half later
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"Ok, congrats, you're ready to start shooting, go for the most common kill shot, which should be pretty obvious." Matt orders Mimi as he started the timer on his watch. Before Mimi could even pull the trigger, Matt stopped his watch and started a separate one. Mimi took aim carefully and pulled the trigger.

"It's about time; let's bring up the target shall we?" Matt said as he jotted down numbers onto a notebook. The pulley brought the target up before them, Mimi frowned, and Matt did not look very impressed.

"I missed?" Mimi asked aloud as she neared the target for a closer look at her failure. Mimi looked confused.

"I was just about to say the same thing myself... It took you three minutes to miss an inanimate object. It took you fifty seconds to get your gun ready, one minute to actually pull the trigger and miss. America's top sharp shooters can take aim, shoot and reload a high powered sniper rifle in sixty three seconds." Matt said to her as he showed her multiple timers.

"You sure do know how to raise a girl's self-esteem." Mimi said sarcastically.

"Okay let's try it over again, try to improve your time by at least two seconds." Matt said to her calmly, as he reloaded the gun for her.

Mimi carefully took aim and this time pulled the trigger without hesitation. Matt stopped the timer and once again jotted down miscellaneous passages in his notebook. "What are you writing?" Mimi asked as she jumped up to look over his shoulder. "Stuff," Matt answered as he kept the notebook out of her reach. "C'mon, please," Mimi begged.

"Your father wants a written report on your... progress, if you'd call it that." Matt answered bluntly. "Well," Mimi asked. "Your timing has gotten better...slightly... But your aim is desperate need of help." Matt told her as he handed the notebook over to Mimi.

"Well help me, you look like a pretty trigger happy guy, you should know a thing or two about guns." Mimi said, Matt looked expressionless, sighing he gave in.

"Okay make sure the safety is off, now steady your aim... steady it...here, let me help you," Matt said as he knelt down besides her. He delimited his arms around hers, his hands making their way towards the trigger. Matt pointed the gun around, directing Mimi's movements, their eyes met, and Matt pulled the trigger twice, his eyes never leaving hers.

"That was better wasn't it?" Mimi asked once she redeemed her voice, still looking deep into Matt's eyes...

"Yeah..." Matt incoherently spoke in a low tone as his eyes left hers and went back to the notebook.


"Here... I think you're about ready for this," Matt said as he exchanged the paintball gun for a high powered pallet gun.

"Great!" Mimi said enthusiastically as she took hold of the paintball gun.

"Ready for moving targets?" Matt asked with a smirk to his face.

"Moving targets?" Mimi asked clearly confused.

"Yes, moving... You know moving as, in motion. Moving like this," Matt explained as he waved his hand before her face.

"But I can barely hit a non-moving target." Mimi pointed out.

"I missed the part where that was my problem. We only have a day to get you to shoot a gun well; we have to keep to schedule." Matt said as he led Mimi into another room in the facility.

"You see, Mimi aim is a lot like balancing yourself. You have to focus on one spot. Your grip is a bit shaky also, most likely because you're nervous... Tell me what happens when you start to shake and move around when trying to balance yourself?" Matt asked Mimi.

"You fall down," Mimi answered.

"Exactly same with a gun, if you get all unsteady, you'll miss your target... But lucky you, I'm paid to help you." Matt explained to her as he flipped on a few switches.

A row of targets began to move by on a pulley and lights switched on.

"This looks hard... And bright." Mimi commented as she looked at the scene before her.

"Stand over here...Ok this may sound weird...epitome of weird...Weird at a whole new level... Well you see here's the deal...Your father said for you to be comfortable...And I'm guessing my suggestion is more comfortable than the alternative." Matt explained as he pointed to harness like object that was hanging from the ceiling.

"You're right that does sound weird...But you haven't told me your suggestion" Mimi informed Matt as she glanced at the alternative.

"Well you see, your father only has the best in every one of his facilities, this is no exception. What you have in your hands is one of the powerful pallet guns in this hemisphere... And you see, my alternative is for me to kind of have my arms around you approved by your father of course" Matt spoke quickly and unsurely as he attempted to keep eye contact.

"Yeah sure; but only because you look cute when you're uncertain" Mimi said to him as he nodded out of loss of what to do.

"Uh... Thanks, I guess, I'm not sure..." Matt trailed off.

"Ok, what'd I do?" Mimi asked

"First off, do the obvious and remove the safety, which you haven't done yet." Matt said to her his chilly breath against her cheek... "Now concentrate... Don't worry about your timing, just focus on the targets," Matt continued, Mimi slightly sighed.

Endeavored to concentrate on her moving marks, but her unconscious mind wasn't exactly cooperating. For some reason her mind wouldn't let her forget Matt was right there with her, for it kept on registering his presence. "Forget that I'm even here," Matt whispered into her ear after a minute of silence had passed by. She pulled the trigger out of both nervousness and discomfort which her mind had brought upon her. The bullet barley hit one of the targets.

"You're getting closer," Matt pointed out.

"This is hopeless," Mimi commented upon her self.

"No you're not giving up that easily, here..." Matt said as he put his hands over hers. Guiding her hands with his own, his eyes never blinking as he held the gun steady. "Now you just tell me when to pull the trigger," Matt instructed her.

Her eyes were focused, she was undoubtedly nervous, not because of Matt's presence, but because of what she knew. If she missed the longer they'd be stuck together, and she didn't exactly want that.

"Shoot." Mimi said, Matt pulled the trigger instantly, blasting a hole right through the center of a target.

"Great, now try it yourself." Matt said as his arms left her.

Mimi took aim, just as Matt had earlier instructed her and pulled the trigger, the bullet, much to her surprise hit the target right on. "Reload and try again." Matt instructed her. Reloading the gin she took aim once again, and once again hit a target right on. Matt had a mixed expression on his face, confusion, shock and impressment was all there.

"This is just like the arcade." Mimi stated

Feeling that she had progressed, far enough he introduced her to his Chrome 45. "This gun is my life. Be both careful and gentle with it." Matt said.

"It's a gun," Mimi pointed out, Matt looked at her as if she was insane.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that," Matt said as he handed the gun to her. "I'm going to be throwing these hard green plastic Frisbee like disks into the air, with this machine. Your job is to fire away before they hit the ground, while still treating my gun well." Matt explained to Mimi

"Got it," Mimi said with a smile.

Matt started up the machine and fed the plates into it. "Ready?" Matt asked over the roar of the apparatus, his hand hovering over the start button.

"I think so," Mimi responded, uncertain of her untutored skill.

With a press of the button a clicking sound emerged from the machine. Mimi wiped the sweat off of her hands, tightening her grip on the handle. Her hear began to palpitating with anxiety when the first disk was shot out. A deafening clamor erupted from the gun, shattering was heard as shards of glass fell to the ground.

Several shots later Matt shut down the machine; Mimi tossed Matt the gun with a confident smile on her face.

"I think I did quite well," with that said Mimi walked away, leaving behind a curious Matt.

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A/N : Can't Kill Me helped a bit on this chapter. So give her credit for the akward parts...