Mako's Message: I had more fun with this chapter than I was expecting to. Which is saying something because I really wanted to write it. I did have some problems here and there, but I decided to take the advice of some friends and not worry so much about the details and just let it flow.
This is why I also did something I've been hesitant in doing. I've had a lot of ideas for things that didn't make it into the story, and in this chapter... I just act like they happened anyway. I'd hesitate to call it a ret-con, but it kinda feels that way because you'd think she would have mentioned some of this before. So please forgive me for that.
Anyway, this isn't the chapter you were probably expecting, but hopefully you'll enjoy it anyway.
Thanks for reading.
Katie's leaving.
Surprisingly I have mixed feelings about this. I mean, I hate the bitch, but having another body around to train with was nice. Out of everyone in Justice Forever she's pretty close to the bottom of the list of people who are a threat to me, but she's at the top of the list of people who are willing to hurt me. She never pulls her punches and goes for every opening. She may not be particularly good, but that alone keeps me on my toes.
She's almost my favorite sparring partner because of that. Dave is my favorite, of course, but once he got good enough that he COULD hit me, he started worrying about hurting me, and he'll pull his punches or not punish me the way he should when I know he has an opening.
At least he's stopped freaking out when he DOES actually hit me and just keeps going. I mean, I need to be able to keep going after getting hit just as much as he does after all.
Now, I didn't know this this morning, so when she didn't meet up with us for our morning jog I started thinking up ways to make her pay for skipping tomorrow. Then we get to the center and she's got her car there and she's carrying all these plants and flowers into the building and putting them around the training center. There were flowers in the kitchen, she had plants up by the cots, and baskets hanging from rafters.
She even lugged a fucking tree up and had it in a corner by the window.
And she wasn't done.
It actually took me a few minutes for me to close my mouth, pull my eyes back into my head and demand to know what the fuck she thought she doing.
She just froze in the middle of like...fluffing one of the plants or something, then slowly turned to me and asked, "You don't like it?"
I said, "It's not about whether I like it! Who said you come in here by yourself and mess with my stuff!?"
And she narrowed her fucking eyes at me and said, "Other Justice Forever members come in by themselves."
I just glared at her that time and she looked away and went back to fluffing the plant, "This is my last day here and I wanted to do something as a going away present. I thought you'd like it since they'll increase the oxygen levels, so you can all train harder and longer."
I was honestly surprised by that, so I asked, "What do you mean this is your last day? You're quitting?"
Dave sighed and said, "She's leaving for college tomorrow. She has to be there by next week and wants to drive across country," as he walked by and headed for the locker room.
And I stared after him and said, "How the hell do you know that?"
And Angela walked over to the kitchen and said, "I thought everybody knew." She got a water bottle out of the fridge, took a sip, then said, "Well, everybody who talks to her."
I had a little flare of rage and was about to call them all traitors, but then I realized I'd seen them talking to her all the time. Not long, friendly, conversations or anything just, "So how're things? - Oh yeah? That's cool," during breaks or whatever and I was the only one that literally did not speak to her if it wasn't about training.
So I asked again, "So are you quitting? Or are you going to keep doing this wherever you're going to college?"
She paused for a second then said, "Well, I don't know what the town is like yet, but I was planning on it, yes." Then she went back down for more plants.
I started thinking about this, and I decided that if this was Katie's last day with us, I was going to have to make the best of it.
I grabbed some masking tape and gave it to Dave, then strapped the resistance bands around both wrists, both ankles, and around my waist. I walked away from the wall until the bands were taught, then had Dave mark the floor with the tape.
When Katie came back up, I told Angela to bring up whatever was left in her car and Katie to come over because I was giving her her final exam.
I took one step closer to her, pointed to the tape and said, "You're goal is to push me back passed that line," then I held up my arms so she could see I was tied to the wall, "This is the only handicap you get."
She couldn't do it.
She tried really fucking hard though. Hit me a couple times too. Just couldn't move me past the line. I liked how she worked too. She tried to keep me away from the line, so I'd be fighting more resistance, and then try to land a big hit to knock me back.
After we were done, I felt like she could easily take down your average street thug. She could probably even win two on one.
Since she did better than I expected, I decided to have mercy on her and give her a slight warning, "You can have a five minute break. And I suggest you stretch. You don't want to be stiff for what's coming."
I enjoyed the look of slight horror on Katie's face as she lay on the floor panting with the first hints of bruising showing up. But she did get up and start stretching, even though it hurt just to move.
While she was doing that I went and loaded a gun and a few spare magazines with simunition.
When I walked back over to Katie with it, Dave recognized it, but Angela didn't. So when I stopped a few feet from Katie and pointed it at her, Angela let out a shrill, "Uuuhhhh...?! MINDY!?
Katie looked up and went as pale as a fucking ghost. Almost made me laugh. I couldn't help smirking though as I said, "Dodge," gave her a second, and then shot her in the chest.
She fell back on the floor clutching her chest and yelled, "AAAAAAAAAAHHH! Mother-FUCKER!"
Angela screamed, but stopped after a second when she realized Dave wasn't doing anything. Katie pulled her hands away and they were covered in red, chalky, paint stuff, but no blood.
"Godamnit Mindy!" She yelled, "What the fuck was that?!"
I said, "Simunition. It's like paintballs but they work in real guns. They hurt like a bitch, but they don't break skin. Well, usually," then I shot her again.
She screamed again and I said, "I'm going to keep shooting you."
I'd let the gun fall to my side when I said that, so when I raised it again she finally started moving. She rolled to the side, but I still got her in the shoulder. Then she scrambled to her feet and I shot her in the ass.
Dave smirked at that one.
Once she was on her feet she started giving me more of a challenge, but that's not saying much compared to a stationary target at point blank range. I tagged her a few more times before she finally figured out to watch where I was aiming and changing direction.
It didn't help her much, but I did miss once, so I started putting a little more effort into it.
Eventually she started ducking, jumping, and sliding as well as actually faking me out instead of just changing direction. I lost her for about five seconds after she slid under a table, which was kind of surprising.
It took about two minutes before I ran out, and by then it looked like Katie was sweating blood. She was breathing heavily, but looked like she could have kept going.
I looked her up and down and then went to put the gun away. After I had it back in it's case I said, "I guess I'll give you a D. It's not quite failure, even though you'd be dead a dozen times over if those had been real bullets, but you had some decent moves in the last minute and most thugs never bother to practice with their guns so their aim is terrible. You just can't freeze like that though. Standing still means you're dead on your feet. Also, watch their hands. Unless they've got a lot of experience with guns, it'll take a second for them to squeeze the trigger and that second could be the difference between life and death. Especially if their hands don't follow their eyes. I swear to you, I saw one idiot pull his gun on me, then turn his head to follow me all around the room while I cut up his buddies, and his gun was still pointed in the same direction. Dumbass didn't even move his feet. I don't think he even realized it until I went after him."
She just kept nodding her head while I talked, and when I finished I said, "Hit the shower and get that crap off you. I've got one more test for you." She nodded and shuffled off into the locker room.
Angela looked over at me and said, "Jeez. Harsh much?"
I just said, "Hey, if she's gonna hit the streets on her own she needs to be ready. Not like there'll be anybody there to pull her ass out of the fire."
She let it go after that, but a couple minutes later she asked, "Are you going to do that to me?"
I said, "I did that to Dave."
She looked over at him and he nodded. "We'd do it outside though. She still only gives me a B"
I smirked at him and said, "And until you can move like me that's as high as you're going to get."
Then he said, "Which means never."
I smiled at that, but it's probably true. Not only is he just flat out bigger than me, he's also not as flexible. I don't know if it's a girl thing or what, but no matter how much I have him stretch he just cant bend like I can. Best he can do is a split.
Anyway, when Katie finally came out she looked like a drowned rat that a cat got bored with. It looked good on her.
I grabbed the bag I packed and told her to give me her car keys, and she looked at me like, "What? Fuck no. You're thirteen!"
Before I could straighten her out though Dave walked up to her and said, "I'll drive. I know where we're going."
Angela seemed confused but followed us anyway. I stopped her though. I said, "Stay here. You're not ready for this. She probably isn't either, but she's going to be out of my hands after today. Work out on your own for awhile. We'll be back in about two hours."
Dave drove us a little ways outside the city, out where it's mostly highways, while Katie sat in the back. I could not stop smiling the entire time. It would have been embarrassing if either had noticed.
So we pulled off the road and went off into the "hills" which are just mounds of loose dirt and rock they dumped there while building the roads and only have a few patches of grass and the occasional scrub bush growing on them. I dropped my bag, opened it up, and tossed her the vest inside and told her to put it on while I loaded the gun.
She looked kinda panicked and I liked that, but she did it without question. While she was standing there it looked like she was trying to pull her head into the vest too, like some sort of turtle.
When I pointed the gun at her, she let out this whiney, "Dave?"
Dave said, "You'll be fine. We know this. You know this too, at least in theory. Now you'll know it in practice too. Because at some point you may have to trust the vest, and if that happens, you'll need to be able to trust the vest."
She bit her lip and nodded and turned to face me, trying to look all stoic, but her legs kept shaking.
When I was aiming at her, I had a really strong urge to shoot her in the face. I thought I had gotten over it, but when we were standing there, and I was pointing a gun loaded with live ammunition at her... I really wanted to just fucking kill her. Everything she ever did to Dave just rushed back into my head.
But I knew I'd never be able to convince Dave it was an accident if I did. And the longer I stood there, the more something about the fact that she was standing there, waiting for me to shoot her... I guess I realized that when I did this with my Dad, I wasn't afraid he was going to kill me. And when I did this with Dave, he wasn't afraid I was going to kill him. But Katie was afraid I would kill her, and it turns out she was right to, and she was still standing there, waiting for me to pull the trigger.
So I pointed it at her vest, pulled the trigger, and knocked her on her ass.
She didn't get up immediately, so we went over and she was laying with her eyes bugging out of her head and her mouth opening and shutting like a fish out of water.
Dave said, "You okay?"
She nodded.
So I said, "Good. Get up. We're doing the entire magazine."
And she started scrambling to her feet and asking, "Are you serious?"
Dave said, "Yup," and we started walking away while she dusted herself off.
I shot her six more times, but then when I was about to fire the last round, I stopped and held the gun out to Dave and said, "You wanna do the last one?"
And he gave me that stupid ass grin I love and said, "Sure."
My favorite part of that trip was that for a second there Katie actually looked like she was more afraid of Dave pointing the gun at her than she was of me.
I think Dave kind of enjoyed it too.
So, once Katie managed to hobble back to the car, she lay down in the back seat and just lay there. I don't know if she passed out or not, but she didn't move or say anything during the trip back. Dave helped her up the steps and up to the cots, and then I know she passed out because she was still asleep hours later.
The rest of the day was pretty much the usual. I worked with Angela while we both pretended I didn't see her trying and failing to use the Salmon Ladder when we came back. Showered, went home, took a nap, while Dave went to work.
We met up again that night for a Justice Forever meeting, and it was a lot more formal than usual.
John had us all sitting around in the center, facing Katie, while he read off a list of things she'd done while a member. Participation in Operation: Let The Dogs Out(Dr. Gravity came up with that one), participation in and organization of several blanket and food distributions, regular soup kitchen volunteer, stopped four purse snatchings, watched over a toddler in the ER after his mother was in a car accident, escorted several women home, and other stuff. Made her sound like a Girl Scout.
Then they asked The Gentleman what he thought of her since he worked with her more than anyone else, and he said, "She's thrown herself wholeheartedly into out cause, and has accompanied me on several requests for aid, during which she proved a more than satisfactory partner."
Then John asked ME what I thought of her, specifically, how her training was coming along. I really hated it. I wished I could have at least been warned about this. So I was standing there, trying to figure out what to say without looking like I was the bitch here, and I finally decided on, "She is competent and has exceeded all my expectations."
Katie actually smiled at me when I said that. Like she thought I liked her or something. Obviously I didn't shoot her enough that morning.
So then, John says all dramatically, "I hereby declare, that Heartbreaker is authorized to start, and head, an offical chapter of Justice Forever in her new home city."
Katie's eyes bugged out of her head when she said that, so I guess she didn't know what this was all about either. The Gentleman ran up and hugged her and she fucking kissed him. Made my eye twitch.
The rest of the team went up and congratulated her more slowly. Even Dave went up. Alice came up and said, "Well, at least she's out of your hair for good now, right?"
I said, "Mmnn.
"Well, I saw her before she changed into her costume, so I got a good look at what you did to her this morning, so I think it's safe to say you made her suffer for what she did."
I said, "No I didn't. I just trained her."
She said, "So, you weren't harder on her than you were on Dave or your other friend?"
I didn't say anything so she said, "Well, even if you're not happy about it, just remember that after today, you never have to see her again."
I sighed and said, "I just feel like this means she won or something. Like she's been forgiven."
She put her hand on my shoulder and turned me to look at her and said, "The only person who can forgive her for what she did is Dave. I don't think he has, but it looks like he's put it behind him. It might be good if you did the same. A strong as you are, it's not good to carry all that weight around." Then she brushed imaginary dust off me and said, "It also makes you unattractive, and if we're going to get you a boyfriend you don't want to look like an evil grudge holding bitch."
I kinda laughed at that. I was kinda raised to hold grudges after all.
But I guess she has a point. What good does it do me to keep grinding this ax when Dave has let his go, and he was the victim?
And the center does smell better now.
