Watchpoint Gibraltar, Iberian Peninsula, Europe
"-and so it gives each shot a bit of an extra punch, a bit more technological than I normally would've liked but well… I find the benefits outweigh my own personal feelings." McCree explained as he showed his hand cannon to Adrian.
"I never would've expected a revolver like this to exist, quite a piece." Adrian said as he twirled the revolver in his hands like the cowboy movies he always watched growing up. Handing the weapon back to McCree, he looked up at the clock adorning the inside of the firing range as he leaned back against a table, after Hana's determined statement yesterday, he'd decided that he'd spend today getting a feel for her strengths and weakness starting with weapons training, Being completely honest with himself, he still wasn't sure exactly what role she filled in Overwatch, Hana didn't seem to fit into any typical military role despite her technical abilities he assumed it would be rather redundant at Overwatch with Athena. Besides she'd introduced herself as a soldier, Adrian shook his head as his thoughts wondered, what he should be focusing on was her lateness. He said they'd meet here at ten hundred hours yet looking at the clock it was a little over a quarter past, in the ODSTs…hell for the UNSC in general it was expected you'd get to your meeting place at least five minutes ahead of time. He sighed, unsure whether he should let it slide this once because of Overwatch's lax regulation or enforce it even harder.
"When was she supposed to get here?" McCree turned his head towards Adrian as he loaded his revolver.
"Ten minutes ago." Adrian responded with disappointment.
"Ah take it easy on the girl, she's young besides there's plenty of time yet in your training to have her make up her tardiness." McCree flipped his revolver cylinder shut, "Tell ya what, lets take your mind of things for a bit. You up for a lil challenge?"
Adrian turned his gaze towards McCree, a feral grin growing across his features, "I'm always up for a game, especially when shooting's involved." He pushed himself off the table as the two made their way towards a couple empty booths to the end of the range.
"Here's how we'll do it, we each get six targets, whoever gets it done with the fastest with the highest accuracy wins. Headshots only."
Adrian nodded as he drew his SOCOM from his hip, his armor was being repaired courtesy of Brigette with her stubborn ass of a father so for now he had some basic holster attached to his casual clothes. He'd felt naked outside of his armor, bare as a newborn but there wasn't much else he could do if he'd wanted his armor back in one piece.
"Alright, what are the stakes?" Adrian questioned as he flicked the safety off.
"I've always wanted to go to that bar you recently went to but never got around to it. Let's keep it simple for now, drinks are on the loser."
Adrian snorted, when betting against other ODSTs the stakes had always been… creative…to say the least but it was nice to not be risking a court martial for a change. As McCree counted down from three, Adrian could feel his index finger twitching outside the trigger guard as he focused on the six paper targets lined out in front of him.
When the cowboy hit zero, a flurry of gunshots echoed out from their two booths in a matter of seconds. Just as soon as it had begun it was over, as Adrian holstered his pistol he turned to see McCree blow the smoke off the barrel of his revolver with a smirk before putting it in his holster with a flourish.
"Well it was fun but I'll be enjoying those drinks on you." McCree drawled out.
"You didn't even ask for my results yet."
"Don't need to, been the fastest one here since Overwatch was founded and my shots never fail me." Adrian looked at his results, 3.51 seconds with 93% accuracy, walking over to McCree's both he looked on in disbelief at his score, 2.98 seconds with 95% accuracy.
"You motherfucker," Adrian chuckled, "You do this with every new member?"
"Just 'bout, gotta put the new recruits in their place if they think their hot shit. In your case it's just fun to mess with you."
Any retort was ended when a new voice entered the fray, "Sorry I'm late old-man but I was busy with work." They turned to see Hana walking towards them.
"Work? This is your work…" Adrian said.
She shot him a curious look, "No? I'm a streamer, before Overwatch I was a champion e-sport competitor."
Adrian was baffled at this turn of events, "You're…a streamer while also being a solider in Overwatch?"
"Well duh."
Adrian shot a confused look towards McCree who simply shrugged, "That's on you partner, though I'll make sure to fill in the blanks for you tonight while you buy me what's owed." He chuckled as he left the range.
"What was that about?" Hana wondered as she turned her gaze from McCree's exiting form back to a stunned Adrian.
"That's uhh…its nothing. I'm still trying to wrap my head around your whole situation."
"Ughh old people, what's so hard to understand? When I'm not fighting, I stream, sometimes I even stream my fights in my mech to boost support for Overwatch." She gave an exasperated sigh.
Adrian knew what streaming was, it'd still had a healthy existence in his world though the military had never had any overlap with the online community like this. This whole situation felt surreal to him, the more he learned about Overwatch the more he felt his relationship with it grow more complex. Though he was interested in her role as a mech pilot as the pieces started to fall into place, they'd have plenty of time to talk later.
"I'm just going to ignore that, lets focus on what I called you here for thirty minutes ago." She replied with a sly shrug, "For now just take a few shots at the targets down range, let me see what you've got so far." Adrian instructed as she walked up to an empty stall, she pulled out the smallest pistol he'd ever seen, he stared at it in disbelief thinking it was some kind of joke.
"So Hana what the hell is that?"
"My pistol?"
"But…does it actually do damage? I don't think it could pierce a piece of paper."
She looked offended, "I'll have you know this is a custom-made energy pistol, it can rapid fire fusion bolts as fast as I can pull the trigger."
"Uh huh," He'd wisely decided not to comment on its outrageous appearance in the hopes of actually getting something done today, "Whatever just assume the stance you'd normally use when firing and hit a few targets."
She did as she was told, her stance being a far cry from what he was used too, it wasn't bad per se but more so it highlighted her inexperience, a lack of discipline. When she fired her pistol it sounded more like toy than an actual weapon, there also seemed to be little it any recoil. As a mech pilot it made sense she wouldn't have as much experience with conventional weapons, but if she only practiced with her pistol she'd be in deep trouble if she ever finds herself without it. Other than her stance, he'd have her practice with a variety of weapons so if she's ever in the field she isn't solely restricted to that toy blaster of hers.
When she finished she shot him a questioning look, "How'd I do?"
"Not great but not awful, your stance is too simple, it works well when you're just starting out but in combat you need a stance that allows for more dynamic movement. You're far too stiff while your legs are too close together, try to copy my stance." He pulled out his SOCOM and aimed down the range, her biggest issue in his opinion was her back, it was far too straight, a little bend forward made it easier to control the recoil. She tried to imitate his posture but there were still issues in her pose, a bad stance was far worse than a simple stance. Holstering his pistol, he walked over to her to manually adjust her position.
"Hey what are- Get your hands off me you pervert!" She yelled as she tried to wiggle out from his grip.
"Jesus take it easy pip-squeak; I'm trying to fix your stance for you." Placing his hands on the side of her torso he repositioned her to a better position, then he used his boots to nudge her feet apart for a slightly wider stance, finally he grabbed her hands to hold the pistol properly. "See? No need to burst a blood vessel, how's that feel?"
"Weird, it doesn't feel natural."
"Cause your body's not used to it, the more you practice this stance the more natural it'll become. Take a few shots with this posture, let's see how you do."
Fighting the urge to resort to what felt comfortable, Hana went through the motions of firing with the new stance Adrian had showed her. When she finished she saw Adrian nodding approvingly as he glanced over results, turning to look at the digital display to her side it marked a 6% improvement in accuracy. It was a rather small advancement sure, but it didn't diminish the swell of pride that filled her, she was always competitive in nature so being able to get better at anything had always brought on a cathartic enjoyment.
Adrian was glad to see improvements already, though he wasn't so naïve as to believe that future results would have such drastic changes. Sure a better stance helped greatly, but a majority of her future skill will come from practice, repetition, it'll be slow progress but in the end she'll be just as deadly outside her mech as she is in it.
"Well that was a good start, so I guess I'll see you here tomorrow for more practice?" Hana spoke as she put her pistol away.
"Good start? We've barely been here for fifteen minutes, better buckle up buttercup because we've got a lot more work to do."
"Wh- what?! But my viewers will be wondering where I am!"
"Well they'll have to wonder a bit longer than, now once was good but I was those results replicated."
Hana stared at him slack jawed before assuming the stance she'd recently been taught as she grumbled to herself about crochety old men.
By the time Adrian had decided it had been enough for the day, it was half past noon, Hana was rather upset though it seemed her hunger won out over her annoyance as they both headed towards the dining hall.
"Ugh I can't believe we spent almost three hours doing that! At the end it felt like you were just messing with me."
"Well maybe a lil', but it's going to take a lot of practice to change the shooting style that's already ingrained into your reflexes. The first few days are the hardest, just be lucky you have such a great teacher." He gave her a slapstick grin.
"Sounds like that comes from personal experience."
"Of course, the initial training to be an ODST is to forget everything you learned in basic only instead of taking it slowly over a couple hours each day, its quite literally beaten into you every second of every hour in the span of a few days. That's just the beginning, so trust me when I say I understand the frustration you feel but also know that you have it far easier than most."
She gave him a sidelong glance before facing straight ahead of her, the rest of their walk passed in silence until they entered the dining hall. It was full of people, some recognizable but many not, the oddest thing was that for once he wasn't the center of attention in the room. Without his armor he looked like any other of the regular workers on base. Going through the line of food set out, he grabbed a little bit of everything leaving him with a plate if food to rival that of Gods. Sitting down across from Hana he chuckled at the critical gaze she gave as her eyes looked over his mound of food.
"You're going to be able to eat all of that?" She voiced her skepticism.
"Oh easily, I skipped out on breakfast, I feel like I could devour a horse…or maybe…several very large chickens."
"Are all people from…your home as strange as you are?"
"I suppose so, facing the inevitable tends to give one a more unique outlook, though ODSTs tend to be on a whole other level most of the time. Crazy sons of bitches but listen I feel that I keep talking more about my life than actually learning anything here."
"Your point?"
He scoffed, "Man I don't know, tell me about yourself."
"Myself?"
"Yeah, you stream right? What do you stream exactly, I know that people can make a living streaming damn near anything."
"Games for the most part, I'm big into the MOBA scene and competitive gaming competitions."
"No shit? I remember when I was in my first year of highschool that competitive gaming was sweeping like wildfire for some reason, I think some team set a bunch of records or something. God it's been a hot while since I've been able to play anything, let alone have any actual hobbies other than reading the same few books over and over again.
That caught her attention as her head perked up, eyes staring at Adrian as he gorged himself on his lunch. "You play?"
"Oh yeah, lots when I was younger, 'specially when I was in Force Recon where we'd be stuck for days or even weeks on end with nothing going on. It helped to pass the time, build a sense of bonding between the guys you were stuck in the shit with, once I became an ODST I simultaneously had more free time and no time for personal hobbies. But here I am rambling on about myself again, so you play competitively, you any good?"
She let out a good-natured scoff, "I'm the best there is! You old-timers might not know it but is a name known around the world."
He smirked, "Well if you're willing to put your money where your mouth is maybe sometime soon you can take some notes from a real master."
Adrian noticed that her previously dour mood had noticeably brightened, instead of sulking about the extra work she was back to her usual animated self. Part of him hoped that she'd forget this wager he pushed forward, not that he wouldn't enjoy a nostalgic break but if this kid was as good as she said she was he doubted he'd be able to put up much of a fight. He never considered himself a sore loser, but he also wasn't that excited at the prospect of being obliterated time and time again. The rest of the lunch past with spirited conversation over their newfound common interest though it was mostly Hana's overjoyed excitement as Adrian threw in his two cents whenever there was an opening. Afterwards they went their separate ways though Adrian found himself wandering without much a purpose, back home soldiers were put on ice in cryogenics if there was a long gap between missions. Now with an abundance of free time he'd found himself at a loss for what to do, eventually he found himself outside on the main bay that overlooked the ocean. With nothing better to do he walked up to the cliffs edge and sat down, legs dangling over the precipice as he simply took in the calm lapping of the ocean waves. Laying back he closed his eyes deciding to rest until something came up, it seemed to be an ingrained trait with a lot of marine in the USNC to be able to sleep on command. When the covvies are near relentless in their attacks you have to try to get some shut eye when you can, oftentimes for only minutes at a time.
His sleep was restless but ultimately uneventful, he awoke to a constant nudging to his eye, cracking open his eyes he noticed the sky that had once been a clear blue was now a darker shade of red as the sun went down past the horizon. Looking around for the source of the nudging he turned to see a nonchalant Reinhardt lightly kick him with the tip of his boot.
"Agh knock it off you lumbering mountain I'm awake."
Reinhardt gave a hearty chuckle as he helped to pulled Adrian to his feet, "Ja my friend you are awake now! Earlier you were in such a deep slumber I doubted a cannon could rouse you!"
Dismissively waving the man's statements away Adrian asked the question at the forefront of his mind, "What do you need, we got a mission or what?"
"No no space-man, I came to invite you for a round of drinks! Your presence the last couple nights was sorely missed, it's hard to toast your valiant efforts against the foul beast when you're not there."
"Yeah well I was busy trying not to die."
"What do you say? Tonight, do we drink?"
"I've already got plans with McCree for this bar out of town, lost to a bet and now I owe him."
A knowing smile spread across Reinhardt's face, "He managed to get you too huh? I wonder if he'll ever meet his match or find someone with enough sense not to accept his boastful challenges."
"Yeah yeah whatever."
"Ah but wait! This is perfect, I'll simply come along with you and McCree, the merrier with more as the saying goes!"
Adrian turned to Reinhardt with a confused expression, "That's not…never mind sure whatever but I ain't paying for your damn drinks. Especially with you, I'm sure you could down a whole damn barrel of whiskey and still be right as rain."
"You're probably right my friend!"
As they walked on eventually meeting up with McCree near the gates of the Gibraltar outpost, Adrian couldn't help but feel a mistake had been made somewhere along the way. Looking back on it Adrian was more right than he'd ever thought though the events that transpired were also beyond his own imagination. Though perhaps it can largely be attributed to the fact that he couldn't remember a single thing that occurred that night, instead having to piece together the events the next day with a raging hangover, just like his nights on shore leave with the ODSTs.