Jim blocked Ann's blow, then drove her back in a flurry of moves. He was pressing her back, until she was right up against the line that marked their drill area, then…
The buzzer sounded as Ann stepped over it.
"I—I never had this much trouble before!" Ann said.
Chris' cough sounded like the word "Hookwolf."
"I've…" Jim frowned. "It's a bit like Uber when I first fought him. He knew the technique, but not the practice behind it." Jim shook his head. "You're nearly as fast as me, but when your power is guiding you, it doesn't… think ahead." And that's a problem.
"This is a common problem with combat thinkers," Armsmaster said. "And since your power defaults to lethal," he gestured at her practice spear, sensors on it to detect if her power was active, "Trollhunter and I are your only safe sparring partners."
"I thought I was going to be patrolling…" Ann said.
"When it's safe," Arsmmaster said. "And Legal is still working out the issue with the gangmembers you injured."
Ann looked down at the ground at that.
"Hey," Jim said. "It's not that bad. Now let's go again." Ann nodded and they started at the center, Eclipse and her spear clashing.
Armsmaster glanced at Claire and Chris and nodded. Chris touched a control on his pad, and behind Ann, several humanoid forms stepped forward from the wall. Suddenly they started running for Ann. She seemed to sense them and whirled around, jumping away from Jim, just as one figure reached her.
"SAVE MY BABY—" Moments later, there were parts of robot bouncing across the floor, including the bundled baby, which played a cheery funeral march.
"What—what was that!" Ann said, turning pale.
"You killing a civilian," Armsmaster said. "Your hyperfocus on who is in front of you makes you vulnerable to being surprised, and when you're surprised, your power takes over—and it defaults to lethal force."
"I—I'm going to kill people!? Whenever anyone surprises me? This sucks—I suck!" Ann went stalking out of the training room.
Yeah, well your power isn't there for your benefit. Not that anyone save Jim, Claire and Merlin knew that, at least not here.
"She still has twenty minutes," Armsmaster said. "However, I don't think they'll be productive. Are you willing to spar?" he asked Jim.
"Sure," Jim said. "Sorry about your robots, Chris."
"No problem," Chris said. "I figured out to just build a core and I can attach body parts as I need them." He grinned. "I've been thinking about seeing if other branches want them—I think I can keep up with the demand."
"That would be highly useful," Armsmaster said, as he took the guard position.
Score one for meditation, Jim thought as he raised Eclipse.
"Stupid power…" Ann said, she turned on the shower. "Maybe I shouldn't be—"
"Sucks, doesn't it?" Claire said from outside of the stall.
"I mean, why can't I have a laser beam from my eyes that just stuns people!"
Because that would make it too easy. Claire paused. "We don't always get to choose what we get."
"You seem to. You managed to stand up to Leviathan, but when you run into some gangmember, you just tie him down."
"I also have to deal with Merlin."
"He can't be that bad." Ann said.
"Oh… You'd be surprised." Clair sat down. "Ann, have you considered asking to patrol without your naginata?"
"But I'm…"
"Brute 4, Mover 3, Thinker 2, but your unarmed tests…"
"I flailed."
"But your power didn't jump straight to 'kill everything' and you don't need those skills, not when you're grabbing a guy who just snatched a purse." Claire shook her head. "And you flailed against Armsmaster. Jim's the only person who can keep up with him—and that's with his sword. Unarmed, Armsmaster puts him on the mat, four out of five times. Against anyone else, you're pretty good."
"PR doesn't like the weapon…"
"PR doesn't like the Wards to have things that are too killy, but they have to let Jim use Eclipse." Claire frowned. Especially since he's really reluctant to pull it, not to mention we're working with the Protectorate most of the time. "So… how about this. Ask Kyle if you can sell the idea that the naginata is a weapon of war. You only need it during war, and since it's peacetime here in the Bay…"
Ann snorted at that. Claire paused, then giggled. "Okay, peacetime for the Bay, maybe not peacetime for anywhere else, but it's pretty peaceful for us. But anyway, we see if Armsmaster can put together a quarterstaff for you. Your power follows the underlying structure, so it protects you—but without an edge, you won't get that instant-kill issue."
"Mom might be happier," Ann said nothing else for a moment. "We talked to the PRT lawyer. About Kenji."
"And?"
"Kenji's going to plead guilty to transportation of minors across state lines for sexual purposes… he said it was the Mann Act. What he did to make it good…" There was just the sound of water for a few minutes. "He won't be spending any time in prison, but he'll have to have a tracking bracelet and a parole officer until he's 21. Because of me, it'll be monitored by the PRT. Mom's going between crying because he won't be in prison and crying because she doesn't know how she screwed up. He got expelled from Winslow."
Maybe not such a bad thing… Winslow still had lots of ex-ABB and Kenji had played a role in bringing Lung down…
"How's he going to get educated?"
"The PRT said they'll provide tutors, and next year, he can ask to be reinstated to Winslow, but he's fucked for college."
Claire didn't have anything to say to that, because honestly, she hadn't seen much to make her think that Kenji was heading for college regardless of what he'd done. He was an idiot.
"Well, if Kyle and Director Piggot agree, we can all go out on a girls' patrol. You, me, Vicky and Missy."
"Is she going to keep up with her Jack the Japanese Ripper cracks?"
"Probably not. Amelia heard about that and gave Vicky a list of the near-death experiences she'd almost inflicted on people, starting with the time she cracked her aunt's ribs with an over-enthusiastic hug."
"You're kidding!"
"No. Amelia's…" Claire sighed. "Decided that Merlin is the adult in her life she wants to emulate."
"Is that good or bad?"
"Yes." Claire said, handing Ann a towel as her friend turned off the shower and walked out of the stall.
"Yes." she repeated.