SKETTY24 SKETTY!!! Yuriko's back in this chapter --- well, sort of. And yes, we get to delve deeper into Stryker's mind before he became a psychopath ;). LOL!!! Oh...and Logan makes a little cameo appearance here too ;)! All of this is still happening in the past though ).
ANGELICA Aww...Yeah...William really was a gem before (until he went insane . lol). And yes, I guess they did have a connection right from the day they met ). As for what came out of that relationship, will be kinda revealed in this chapter, when William talks to Yuriko about it ;) (OOoohhh!!!). Anyway, thank you so much for sticking around for 60plus chapters :D!!!
NOTE: btw, I made a little site for this fanfiction D! Heheh...something I created during my free time )...
w w w . g a b e - e . c o m / usfanfiction
...it has a timeline, images, and more stuff to backup the fic...it also has another picture of a young Brian Cox (aka Stryker) where he looks like some 70's Brad Pitt wanna-be/shampoo commercial model. LOL!!! I'm not kidding! (I dunno what the pic was for, but I found it anyway and restored it x.x).
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Chapter 67: A friendly interaction
He looked around and observed the shooting facility. It was an enclosed shooting range, with a number of stalls, each one for each user. On the far end of the room were the targets. This was obviously not an ordinary kind of shooting range. Each stall was made of the material you'd find on the surface of a fighter jet. And the targets weren't just your ordinary paper and cardboard. They were made of bulletproof material that was impervious to at least, the bullet of a Desert Eagle.
He was quite surprised that he knew so much about this shooting range. He even knew the exact distance between the stalls and the targets. It was probably because he had been here before. After all, his memory only brought him to the places and the times that his younger self had been to in the past.
Stryker's head suddenly perked up and his eyes darted to one of the stalls. Someone seemed to be there. He could hear the voice of a man and a woman...a young man and a young woman, to be exact. He slowly walked to it, and as he get closer, close enough to see who they were, what he saw, was something that he couldn't believe. It was him and Yuriko...together. They looked like they were talking about something.
William placed a black, steel-covered suitcase on the counter in the stall, while Yuriko stood right next to him. "So, how are you and Logan doing? You guys have been going out quite a lot lately..." He said with a sly smile. Then he turned his head and looked at her. "...without me." He said. Then he quickly followed his last words with a chuckle, to show that he was just joking around.
Yuriko placed her hands on her waist in a cocky way, and then she tilted her head and arched an eyebrow. "Well, well, well, looks like someone's curious about something." She said inquisitively. Then she protruded the claws on her right hand and waved it at him. "Don't you know the saying, 'Curiosity killed the cat'?"
William looked at her claws and laughed. "Well I am curious...But I'm not a cat." He laughed again. "Come on, Yuriko. I'm your friend!" He said imposingly. "I just wanna know what's going on with you and Jimmy whenever I'm not around." He said with a shrug. Then he opened his suitcase and slowly took out the gun in it.
Yuriko retracted her claws and giggled. "You know, he hates it whenever you call him that." She said as she raised her eyebrows and nodded her head. "Especially when you call him ol' Jimmy. Now 'that' ticks him off...big time." Her eyes widened.
"Well, ol' Jimmy," Then he exaggeratingly cleared his throat. "I mean, your beloved boyfriend, is not here right now, isn't he?" He asked with a tilted eyebrow. Then he laughed. "God, sometimes I still can't believe how you could have fallen for him. Like, come on, Logan's great, I know, but...he just doesn't seem like boyfriend material." He said as he looked back at her. Why couldn't she have chosen 'him' instead?
Yuriko suddenly found the need to change the subject matter. Her relationship with Logan was between her and Logan alone. And despite the fact that William was her best friend, she still didn't feel comfortable talking to him about it.
"Look, enough about me now, okay?" She asked with a laugh. Then her eyes wandered at the gun on his hands. "Hey, what's that?" She looked at his gun curiously. "Another new toy from your toy box?" The gun did look like a toy...It was reminiscent of the revolvers you'd typically see in tongue-in-cheek western fleck.
William held the gun up and snappily spun its cylinder. Then he looked at Yuriko from the corner of his eye, and he clicked his tongue and winked at her. "You could say that." He said cockily. Then he looked at the gun again. "Took apart some Smith and Wessons and I came up with this baby." He said proudly. "Heh. I just wanted to see how far I can go with these older gun models. But you got to admit, it does look cool."
Then he twirled the gun in his finger and pointed it at her, like a western hero who just drew his gun in a high noon shootout. "Just like Dirty Harry, huh?" He asked with a glint in his eye and a smug smile on his face.
Yuriko couldn't help but giggle. "That's really cute, cowboy." She said sarcastically.
He arched an eyebrow and scoffed at her. "Well we'll see if you'll still call me a cute cow-boy after you see what this baby can do." He said as he position himself in the stall, ready to fire. "After you see its 4200 ft.-lb muzzle power, you'll be calling me a macho cow-man, baby. Cow-man!" He exclaimed as he looked at her from the corner of his eye. Then he steadied his stance and held the gun in a firing position.
"Wait..." Yuriko suddenly said. "So you haven't tested that gun before?" She asked curiously. She knew that William was an expert when it came to weapons, but she wasn't sure if it was safe for him to test a 'new' experimental gun for the first time without any kind of protection. At the moment, he was only wearing his typical tanktop and camouflage pants, which would definitely not be able to protect him from anything.
"And what if you miss or something? That thing might blow a hole through the wall!"
He shrugged. "Don't worry about it. After all, that's why I'm trying it out right now, right? To see if it works as great as I created it to be." He said excitingly. He had no fear and he knew it. Then he looked at her and grinned. "And about that 'miss' thing?" He chortled. "You, and anyone else in the CODs know that I never miss." Then he focused his sight back through the rear sight of the fun. "William Stryker never ever misses a target once he sets his eyes on it." He had a keen look in his eyes.
Yuriko grinned to herself. It was true...she had never seen Stryker miss in the shooting range, or in any scenario for that matter. Then she suddenly felt the need to test his concentration. "Hey, how's Karen doing?" She asked deviously.
William's hands suddenly shook a bit. "Uh, fine, I guess." He swallowed.
He was trying to concentrate and now Yuriko was asking him about Karen. He didn't know why, but he didn't feel comfortable talking to her about Karen anymore. Well, at first, he was, when he just met Karen...but now, now that had gotten closer to her, it just felt awkward whenever he talked to Yuriko about her. Why? Was it because he knew that he deeply cared for the two of them? And that he could feel his emotions being pulled apart whenever their names were mentioned in the same sentence? No. That couldn't be it...because Karen was just a friend to him...a very dear friend.
"I think she likes you." She suddenly said, with a smile on her face as she looked at him. Yes, she was teasing him. And the concentrated look on his face made her want to tease him even more. Perhaps if she teased him enough, he would put down that gun and stop this cowboy nonsense. Though, she had to admit, it did sting her when she told him that Karen liked him. It stung her, and she didn't know why.
"Nah." William replied as he continued to concentrate on his aim. "She probably has a boyfriend for all I know." He said with an indifferent tone in his voice.
Yuriko smirked and tilted an eyebrow. "You know, I think you're right." She said matter-of-factly. Then she leaned closer to him and moved her face right next to his ear. "Because the other day, I passed by her part of the city, and then I think I saw her --- in a restaurant, and she was there with this other guy. A very dashing young guy. They looked so happy together. In fact, they were even holding hands ---"
Stryker's gun suddenly went off, and in less than a split second, the ceiling above the targets exploded. Stryker and Yuriko froze in place with their eyes and mouths gaping wide open with shock as they watched what just happened. And as the smoke from the explosion cleared, it revealed a huge hole on the ceiling of the firing range. They slowly turned their heads and looked at one another, their faces still frozen in surprise, as if they couldn't believe what just happened.
Then Yuriko looked at his gun, and the surprised look on her face was replaced with that of fury. "What the heck is that, William?" She suddenly shouted. "A cannon?!" She asked furiously as she pointed at his gun.
William dumbfoundedly looked at his gun, and then he looked up at the hole on the ceiling. "Well, um, I did tell you it was pretty powerful." He said in a low voice as he looked at the hole. "...too powerful." He mumbled. Then he exhaled and shook his head from side to side. "Logan's going to kill me." He said with a worried tone in his voice. Aside from Logan being his friend, Logan was also his senior, his mentor. He admired what the man had done in the past. Logan had accomplished more than what any soldier could accomplish in an entire lifetime. He was like a big brother and a teacher to him...a person whose past experiences had guided him through so many obstacles and life-threatening situations. And as a big brother, he knew that Logan was going to kick his ass if he found out what just happened.
Stryker suddenly turned his head to look at Yuriko, an angry look painted on his face. "Well it was your fault!" He said angrily. "You made me miss!" He shouted. "If you didn't distract me, I could have hit the target and we wouldn't have that sunroof right now!" He said as he pointed at the huge hole on the ceiling that gave them a clear view of the blue sky above them. It was definitely a good thing that the training and testing facilities were on the topmost floor of the headquarters...because if he shot a hole on the bottom of another floor, he'd definitely be in deeper trouble.
"Well I thought you never missed!" Yuriko shouted back, though she knew that it was mostly her fault. She did distract him when he was about to fire.
Stryker rolled his eyes and grunted in frustration. It looked like Yuriko had proven him wrong. So he did miss. He really did...and he never missed a stationary target before. But in fact, he wasn't even supposed to fire the gun at that time. He fired too soon and too carelessly. He wasn't even aiming. He fired out of impulse. He fired out of...anger? Was it because of what Yuriko said about Karen? That Karen was going out with another guy? Wait a minute...did he just say 'another' guy, meaning that he was the other guy who was going out with her? But Karen's just his friend. He shouldn't be jealous if she went out with other 'guys'. Did he just think of the word 'jealous'?
Yuriko arched an eyebrow and smirked. "It got to you, didn't it?" She asked with a sly smile on her lips. "William likes Karen." She said melodiously.
"Of course I like her!" He replied, almost with a defensive tone in his voice. "I like her as much as I like Logan and Nathan and Hudson, and my other friends." He said. But he didn't mention Yuriko's name, because he knew that he had deeper feelings for her. Yuriko was above the term 'like'. He loved her and he knew it. Then he grinned and looked at her suspiciously. "What? You think I like like her?" He asked curiously.
"I think you do." She said matter-of-factly, her chin tilted up.
William raised his eyebrows and shook his head from side to side. "I don't."
Yuriko chuckled and nodded her head. "You do." She said imposingly.
"Why?" He suddenly asked. His looked at her in a serious manner, as if he was done joking around. "Do you want me to like her?" He asked as he looked into her eyes.
Then in that moment, Yuriko just stood there and looked at him. Why did he ask her that? Did 'she' really want him to like Karen? Did she really want Karen and William to be together? But why? Was it because she knew that Karen was a great woman, and that she would be good for him? Or was it because if William ended up with Karen, she would finally be free from the emotions that she felt for William? She would finally be free from the doubts in her heart when she chose Logan over him.
The two of them neither said a word. They just stared into each other's eyes, locked into their own silent conversation...as if they wanted to say something to each other that they couldn't say, ask something each other questions that they couldn't ask.
Then their eyes darted to the door of the shooting range as Logan entered the room. And as he walked inside, Yuriko and William were back to the reality that they could never be together. Logan was the living proof of that.
"I've been looking all over the place for you two." He said in his gruff voice as he walked towards William and Yuriko. His eyes were staring back into Yuriko's as he made his way towards them. He missed her in every second that she wasn't with him.
And as he walked closer and closer to them, he started to notice the gaping hole on the ceiling above the targets. His eyebrows furrowed and his jaw dropped at the sight of it. "What the heck happened here?!" He asked, his voice filled with anger and astonishment. He had a good feeling that William had something to do with it. His young friend had a knack for making things explode.
"I missed." William said widened eyes as he looked at Logan.
Logan looked at him as if he couldn't believe what the young man had just said. "You missed? But you never miss." He said those words as if they were canon.
Yuriko and William looked at each other. They both knew what happened.
Stryker was standing beside Logan as he watched the three of them interact with one another. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He really was friends with the two of them before. He really was. He looked at his young self and Yuriko, standing beside each other, and then he looked at Logan. This was the first time that he saw Logan look at him without a hint of hate and contempt in his eyes. But then, Logan was also looking at the young him...the 'him' who was not yet the man he had become.
Still, this was all too weird. It felt weird. It was too perfect, too ideal, to justify the future that they had. Was his memory playing tricks on him, or was this really a part of his past? How could a friendship like this crumble and fall?
Then he blinked, and found himself standing in a living room.
/"Another jump to the future."/ He thought to himself.