Originally the longest chapter so far, I didn't like where it ended so I cut a later part of it off and put it at the beginning of the next chapter. READ AND REVIEW!
"Okay, so here's how it works." Will said as they reached the training room. "You'll draw a number out of a bowl." He grabbed a bowl and shook it up a little. "That number represents the number of enemies you'll have. "You draw another one which will represent the number of hostages."
"It's not the same every time?" Dave inquired.
"Of course not." Ornitier answered. "Out in the real world, you never know what you'll have to face. So this is randomized as well." Dave pulled out a number and grimaced. He tried to put it back but Will grabbed it out of his hand. When he looked at it, even he winced at it.
"Twenty-four enemies." he announced. "Well good luck with that." He put the paper back in the bowl and shook it up again. Mindy drew and looked a little disappointed.
"Twelve." she announced, looking defeated. "I was hoping for more of a challenge."
"Wanna trade?" Dave asked sarcastically.
"Can we?" Mindy asked hopefully. Will looked at Ornitier, who looked back at him.
"I don't even know." Ornitier admitted. "This is the first time someone actually asked." He grabbed a book nearby and looked through it. After four minutes, he looked back. "There's no rule against it but changing the number for any reason gets your rank lowered." Mindy pouted, but put her number back in the bowl. He put it down and grabbed a small hat that sat to its right. "Now here's the number of hostages." Mindy pulled out a three while Dave had two. When they replaced their numbers, Will led them to a separate room with a bunch of wooden weapons.
"You aren't allowed to use lethal weapons. You can use our rubber bullet guns and wooden swords." Mindy looked over the weapons in front of her and found one similar to her own sword staff. She picked it up and it was heavier than it looked. "I figured you'd like that one." He opened a door to a room with guns lining the wall. "Now, how many guns do you want?"
"What's the limit?" Mindy asked.
"As many as you can carry." Will answered. She took three pistols and strapped two of them two her belt with one on her foot. "Going light?"
"What's the point of carrying so many guns if I'm only fighting a few?" Mindy asked rhetorically?"
"More ammo?" Will suggested.
"You only need more ammo if you miss." Mindy said confidently, causing Will tog grin.
"Your application didn't lie at all. You are awesome." Will complimented. He walked out of the room while Mindy followed him. She took her real swords and throwing knives and stars off and put them next to her backpack. "I'm ready. Now where do I go?" She looked around and realized that Dave was gone and assumed that he was already taking his test. Ornitier waved her through the door before Will stopped her.
"Before you go, you said you wanted a challenge, right?" he asked. Mindy nodded. "Wait here for a couple minutes." He walked through the door to where Mindy was supposed to go and after about thirty seconds, three others came out.
"He told me to tell you that he's taking our place." one of them said. Ornitier's eyes widened in shock.
"You have your work cut out for you, Hit Girl." another one said. Mindy ignored this, thinking they were underestimating her. Mindy walked through the door and down the hall. She got to a room that reminded her of the inside of the warehouse where she saved Kick Ass. She pushed the memory away to avoid painful memories.
"Okay, the match will start when lights flash off briefly." she heard Ornitier's voice over an intercom. "After that, they will turn off and on every minute. All your opponents are dressed in black and the hostages are in white. After you dispatch your enemies or free your hostages, they will run out of the room in order to stay out of the way. Three… two… one!"
The lights flashed off and back on again. Mindy ran to her left behind a mountain of boxes and quickly climbed up to the top, careful to stay hidden. In the distance, she saw four figures in black around one in white. She carefully climbed around the boxes to try and get around them. She was concentrating on her targets so much that she almost gave herself away to another enemy who was on the same box pile as her. She readied her wooden sword and covered his mouth as she hit him with it. The man was surprised and almost yelled when she grabbed him, but kept quiet and walked away, giving her a thumbs up. She smiled at him before turning to look for any other enemies. She saw two on top of boxes and made a mental note of where they were but focused on the captors. She finished making her way through the boxes and found herself right above the targets. Without hesitation, she jumped down and hit one of them with her sword and followed up with a whack across the head of another. Before the others knew what was going on, Mindy drew one of her guns and shot both of them.
"Five down. Five to go." she thought to herself as all the "dead" enemies walked away, impressed. The lights turned off and Mindy took her night vision glasses off her utility belt. She saw the two from the boxes jump down and aim their guns at her. Mindy dove for cover and got ready to shoot them, but realized that she dropped her gun. "Maybe I'm a little rusty." she admitted to herself. She pulled out her second pistol and shot both of them on the spot. Once they were down, Mindy holstered her pistol and grabbed the one she dropped. She cut the hostage loose and continued looking for other bad guys. She looked around the corner and saw a group of six, looking around with all their pistols at the ready. "Six? That doesn't add up." Regardless, she climbed on top of the boxes and threw a flash bang down before covering her eyes. All of them were blinded and dazed while Mindy jumped down and used her sword to take them all down silently. Once they were all down, she looked for a place to hide briefly and took off her night vision goggles. Once the lights turned on, she carefully looked around to see if there were any more enemies. Once she was certain it was clear, she ran through the warehouse and looked for the other hostages.
"There she is!" someone shouted. Mindy looked to her right and saw three more about to shoot her. "Get her!" She jumped out of the way as quickly as possible and drew her gun while working her way around the pile of boxes, getting ready to shoot at her opponents. Eventually, one of them peaked out from behind the corner and carefully checked behind the box Mindy was previously behind. He let out a relieved sigh, and waved at his associates that it was clear. Mindy took the opportunity to shoot him when he was walking away. The lights went off again, but not before hitting her target on the back. She put her night vision goggles back on and started climbing up the boxes as quickly as she could. Once she saw the other two back-to-back, so as not to be taken by surprise, she smirked to herself.
"This is too easy." she thought. She grabbed her sword and jumped down to their side and pushed them away. They both dropped their guns and were leaning on the nearby boxes. She took the opportunity to slash them both with her wooden sword. "Sixteen down, no idea how many to go." The person who she just beat looked at her in confusion before continuing to walk away. Mindy took note of this and continued to look for the hostages. Eventually, she found them both with one guard near them. Mindy decided it looked too easy and looked around them a little more and found another guard standing above them. She grabbed a metal ball from her utility belt and threw it as hard as she could over a box mountain to create a distraction. It created a loud enough noise to distract both of them. The guard on the boxes walked over to check it out and the guard on the ground just looked in that direction. Mindy quickly took her chance and ran straight forward, brandishing two of her pistols to the ready. When close enough, she shot the man on the ground straight in the head. Then she used her other gun and shot the guard on top of the boxes. Without slowing down, she sprinted to the hostages and let them free. She dusted her hands off with a confident grin. "Mission accomplished." Then she heard the sound of a shotgun cocking and looked to her right.
"Think again." Will said, shotgun aimed directly at her. "The rules have changed now." He looked up toward a camera. "Ornitier, from here on, I'm taking over this exam. Broadcast this in the base."
"You got it, Bro." Ornitier's voice said from the speaker.
"Are you sure you want all your coworkers to watch you get slapped around like a bitch?" Mindy taunted. "Especially by a twelve year old girl?"
"We're live, Hit Girl." Ornitier said.
"Here's the rules this time around." Will said. "You and I use our weapons to hit each other. Being shot doesn't mean you're dead, just got hit. The winner's the last one standing." Mindy nodded, determined. Will looked into the camera. "Pokerface! Three hundred dollars says that Hit Girl doesn't win."
"Who's Pokerface?" Mindy asked.
"Gambling buddy." Will answered. A few seconds later and Ornitier was on speaker.
"He says 'You're on. Can't wait to see you get slapped around like a bitch.'" Ornitier relayed. "Three...Two...One… BEGIN!" Mindy ran behind a box and grabbed her pistol from her holster. She made her way up the pile of boxes and grabbed a shield that she saw on top of a crate. She was surprised to find it but after looking around, she realized that there were a lot of weapons and armor lying around. She still climbed the boxes to jump down onto Will. However, when she looked for him, he was gone. Just then, she heard a bang and a sharp pain on hit her back. The force knocked her off the ledge she was standing on. Luckily, she held onto her shield, her sword, and her gun. When she hit the ground, she turned and shot Will, who was still standing there but couldn't move out of the way in time. All the bullets hit him directly in the face and he fell backwards and tumbled down the stack. He felt every box as he landed on them and they hurt, but he had to act fast and he pumped his shotgun as he went down. When he reached the bottom, Mindy had just turned the corner to where he would land and was ready. Will aimed his shotgun and shot her again, this time in the chest. She was knocked back, but still at her feet. When he fired another shot, she was ready, and blocked it like she did with the trash can lid. This time, however, the shield was knocked out of her hand. She was stunned by this, which gave Will the opportunity to hit her with another beanbag. This time, she was off her feet.
"As I told you, those guns I shot you with last time were toys." he said. "These are the real deal." He stood up and was about to shoot Mindy again to make sure she stayed down but then she grabbed a metal pipe nearby and threw it at Will. Out of instinct, he shot it and knocked it back. Mindy took the brief window of opportunity to tackle him and he dropped his shotgun. When they were on the ground, Mindy proceeded to punch Will in the face. Eventually, he was able to push her off and grab a pistol out of his jacket. Mindy, however grabbed his shotgun and shot him with it. Will, in pain, shot her with the pistol and rose to his feet. Mindy shot at him again, but this time he was ready for it. He moved away from the path of the beanbag and moved in to punch Mindy in the face. Instead, she dropped the shotgun and grabbed his hand to throw him over her shoulder. But when she tried to let go and let him fly, he grabbed her wrist with a vice grip and pulled her with him. Unready for it, she fell with Will to the ground. When on the ground, Will pulled his pistol and started shooting Mindy directly in the face. After the first two shots, she grabbed the pistol and pulled it out of his hand. They both stood to their feet and Mindy sucker punched Will and he fell while she ran for her wooden sword. While she was running, Will grabbed his shotgun and loaded one round into it before turning back to Mindy, who reached her sword but wasn't close enough. She was in a lot of pain from the first few shots she took and knew that if she was hit with one more, she would lose. Suddenly, an idea came to mind. She ripped off her cape and threw it in front of her so that he couldn't see her while she jumped out of the path of the bullet. The beanbag hit the cape and passed right below her. Once she landed, she ran straight toward Will, who was frozen. "I missed." he said, disbelief heavy in his voice. Mindy took the opportunity to attack. This seemed to snap Will out of his trance, but it was too late. Mindy struck Will with her sword from every direction. It was so fast, Will couldn't withstand it for long. He mustered up all the willpower he had and loaded his shotgun with one more round and shot Mindy's leg. She yelped in pain and lost balance while Will made a tactical retreat. "Damn, that hurt." Will said, reloading his shotgun to full capacity. He made sure that all his pistols were fully loaded as well. He grinned, looking at the camera. "This is fun." Mindy had run in a different direction than Will and looked at her sword. The gun on her foot had fallen off and she hadn't been able to find it. She did find her shield, however and rigged it so that it was practically glued to her arm. She looked into the camera.
"Ornitier, your brother's lucky this isn't a real sword. Otherwise I'd be turning him into your sister." she said, loudly enough for the camera to hear. She could hear very faint laughter coming from another room. She broke her sword in half so that she had one for each hand and grabbed a couple pistols that the previous enemies had left behind. "I'm not gonna lose though." She ran back with her swords wedged into her belt while she had her pistols in both hands. Will popped out and immediately shot her with another beanbag. Mindy, thinking fast, blocked it with her shield and shot Will with both of her pistols. Will pushed himself to bear the pain and pumped his shotgun again and Mindy blocked it again. She shot him again until he pumped his gun and moved her shield in the way. this time, however, Will used his shotgun as a club and hit her arm with it, causing her to drop her gun. Mindy hit him with the shield she was using and ditched her other gun while drawing both of her wooden swords. She whacked him in the head with one and proceeded to hit him in the leg with the other. Will could barely think, his head was spinning and his vision was blurry, but when he had a clear shot, he took it and hit Hit Girl straight in the stomach. She fell backwards on the floor. Grunting in pain, she looked back at Will, who was about to shoot her again. Before he lined up the shot, Mindy threw one of her swords and hit him in the head. While he was distracted, she flipped to her feet and hit him again using her other sword. When she was about to follow up with another attack, he swept her leg out from under her and she was on the ground again, but this time, she used her own legs to sweep him off his feet. When he landed, Will shot her again, this time directly in her side. He pumped his shotgun again while he slowly rose to his feet. The pain was incredibly intense and he couldn't stand up straight. Mindy did the same, in even more pain than Will. But she found herself enjoying the pain. It was the first time in a long time she genuinely felt like Hit Girl. They were both at their feet, weapons ready. Will shot her again, but she dropped to a knee and blocked it with her shield. She felt she was definitely gonna win, but this time the close range and sheer force of the shotgun broke her shield in half, rendering it useless in its purpose. He pumped it again, and had it aimed again. He and Mindy were both moving at really low speeds in comparison to their usual movement and they both knew it. They had to fight just to stay conscious. The shotgun was aimed and ready. Mindy swung her sword and hit Will's head at the same time as when he shot. They were both on the ground, not moving.
I'm starting to wonder if no one reads these notes. They have some importance, not this one specifically, but some of them do.