Birds sang out into the fresh mourning air, a luxury he wasn't even aware of until he came back from hell's acrid and dark atmosphere. He wished he didn't have to go back.
Its bright and sunny out in the wooded area Moxxie had picked out, A clearing about the size of a football field that must have been an abandoned camping area judging from the overgrowth and the logs sitting around a burnt-out bonfire. Another clue would be all the twig artwork in the trees although these didn't look like your average sleep away camp variety, a lot of pentagrams and other occult symbiology.
Damien sat to the side of the bonfire beside Moxxie who was laying down various firearms with ammunition in a careful manner. they had set up a makeshift shooting range and now it was time for target practice. Millie had to go back to the office to help blitz with something, so it was just him and Moxxie.
"Okay Damien go ahead and pick the one that you think you'll be most comfortable with, " Moxxie set the last weapon down on the blanket he brought.
On the ground in front of him sat a bolt action rifle, a shotgun, and multiple different handguns. Damien picked up the most familiar looking firearm out of the five in front of him, the bolt action rifle. He wasn't sure what the make and model was, but it had a striking resemblance to his uncle's Winchester model 70 back at the cabin. Instead of solid wood furniture it had a pistol grip and adjustable stock made from polymer and metal.
"That is a devil's arms Mk2 rifle. It's the base model that we keep in the armory since I don't trust anyone but an expert marksman like myself to handle the Mk4 I have back home." The imp straightened his bowtie and began putting rounds in the corresponding magazine. "The scope is already zeroed in for 100 yards."
Moxxie handed him a magazine and pointed out towards the forest before digging through his pack for binoculars. "Alright. There are clay bats and other items in the trees for this specific weapon. They're pretty small so don't feel bad if you don't hit one. We have plenty of time and ammunition. I have also prepared lessons for each of the weapons I brought today."
Looking through the scope Damien scanned the clearing. He looked past various cardboard cutouts to find the bats at the very edge of the clearing hanging from the lower branches of a tree. Damien pulled the bolt and checked to make sure the rifle wasn't already loaded before lying down flat on the ground. Instantly recognized the caliber as 30-06 confirming that this rifle was indeed like his uncles that he had plenty of practice on. He loaded the magazine and slid the bolt forward before putting the rifle to his shoulder again. Once the crosshair was on the bat he flipped the safety off. The bat was within 100 yards and like Moxxie said the scope was already zeroed so it shouldn't be too difficult of a shot. He pulled the trigger and felt the recoil. The bullet traveled down range but ended up veering right.
'Forgot about windage.' readjusting the crosshair a little to the left he carefully cycled the bolt and pulled the trigger again. this Time the bullet hit its mark and the bat shattered. he cycled the bolt again and looked at Moxxie waiting for a response.
"In two shots? not bad for a beginner" said the Imp looking through his binoculars. "Keep in mind that a follow up shot is unlikely out in the field. Let's see how many you can get in a row."
"Right."
Damien went back to the scope and located the next bat. He repeated the process and managed to eliminate it the first time along with the next two. No misses.
Moxxie tried to hide his disbelief, or was it disappointment? 'No matter he said himself he has no experience. You did the hard part for him by zeroing the scope. Yeah, that's it! The next set of targets are beyond the 100-yard range. He's guaranteed to miss those shots. Then I can begin with the lesson.'
"Coffee cups by the house."
"What house?" Damien asked, looking around for a house.
"Beyond the tree line. I put the coffee cups out there for a demonstration, but you can take a shot at it first."
"you're having me shoot near a potentially inhabited building?"
"don't worry there's no one there anymore. It used to belong to some cannibal family."
He found the "house" Moxxie was talking about. The only thing that gave the heap of rubble the semblance of having been a building at one point was a small portion of wall left standing. The four coffee cups were placed on various pieces of it. He saw two hundred painted on the brick which must be the estimated range.
"Found em"
'There's no way a rookie like him could make 200-yard shots.' Moxxie smirked and reached for the notes he had made last night for Damien's lessons "Alright four bullets for four targets. "
Damien grabbed a fresh magazine, loaded it, and took aim. After four shots he left the bolt open and put the rifle down. Moxxie crossed his arms and gave Damien an accusatory glance.
"HOW IN!" Moxxie stopped himself and took a deep breath accepting that the lesson he had spent all last night prepping was now utterly useless.
"Beginners luck." Damien muttered looking over the other weapons. He figured he'd just go down the line in the order they laid in. shotgun then the multiple handguns.
Damien picked up the classic pump shotgun and shells and started loading it. one in the chamber and 4 in the tube. The speed at which he did so caused Moxxie's eyebrow to twitch.
"You sure seem to know a lot for a beginner. have you shot firearms before?"
Damien didn't answer. Instead, he fired the shotgun at the nearest mannequin.
"I'm being serious Damien; we could have moved on to more advanced lessons if you had said something when I asked what your qualifications are yesterday." The imp gestured to the weapons, "basic handling of firearms is considered a qualification!"
"It's a gun. They aren't that complicated." Damien got into a proper stance and picked a cardboard cutout of a pink demon with the name Verosika printed at the bottom in stylized font. "Point and shoot yeah?"
"What you're doing is not just point and shoot! You don't think I can't tell when someone's obviously used a shotgun or rifle before!"
"I have no idea why you care so much." Damien grumbled Blasting the pink cutouts head off.
"Because it's literally my job for the foreseeable future to prepare you for the dangerous nature of this work. Shooting is only a part of what I plan on teaching you so if you don't mind id like some cooperation please! That way I can trust you out there."
"you're asking me to trust you?" Damien put a hand on the pendant around his neck and turned it between his fingers, 'Well I've done crazier shit in the past week like killing my deadbeat dad, shooting my way out of a police station and signing away the next year of my life to do god knows what.'
"Well yeah trust is obviously a two way thing."
Damien considered the imps words. While he wasn't at all enthusiastic about having to learn from someone who was decisively against his existence at I.M.P. , it didn't help to hold grudges. He couldn't really reveal much about his background without telling the imp how he's not even from hell though. Honestly his cover could be blown just as easily if someone was to ask him anything about the place since he doesn't know anything besides the extremely scarce information Mephistopheles told him yesterday. It could be beneficial to have a skeptic's insight instead of waiting for more info from the devil's advocate.
His hand dropped from the pendant. "Tell you what after work when blitz drops us off ill answer all your questions no bullshit. Millie's too."
"I'm holding you to that," Moxxie smiled "cause if you don't keep your word, I'm sending Millie after you."
"Yeah, well I guess ill start by telling you I can't shoot for shit when it comes to handguns." Damien switched to one of the handguns on the ground, "so what advice can you give me on that ."
moxxie suddenly lit up and went into a well rehearsed speech about proper form and it somehow started derailing into a lecture on the history of hell's arms race. after a couple of seconds his words started to fade into white noise again. in the meantime Damien tried to put the stuff about form into practice. after a couple minutes of random facts and missed shots he couldn't help but feel a little annoyed.
"Moxxie!" Damien gestured to the gun in his hand "less classroom teacher more range instructor please."
"Oh crumbs, sorry about that."
Blitz uncapped a pen and looked down at the list of phone numbers in front of him. Since neither Loona nor Damien had answered the calls yesterday it just added 7 more calls to the ever-growing backlog. Picking up the phone he started dialing the next number on his list when he heard his office door open. Looking up he saw Loona who should be at her desk doing her job, but he didn't want to risk her relatively calm mental state. Especially after last night.
"Not now looney I'm working."
Loona pressed the phone hook switch with her finger. "We need to talk blitz."
"Loona I already told you you're not being replaced. he's only going to be here for a year."
He started to dial the number again when Loona took the entire thing and tossed it to the side subsequently taking the receiver with it across the room.
"This isn't about him!" she took a seat across from blitz, "This is about you and me!"
"Seriously looney what's the big deal can't you see I'm doing this to benefit all of us." He threw his hands up in exasperation. "Even Moxxie started to see my reasoning when I let him in on how lucrative this contract will be."
"I don't care about your stupid contract. What I want is to know why I'm still playing desk jockey! Why would you hire a wet behind the ears newbie to do hits when I've been waiting to get jobs of my own!"
"I already told you I don't want anything bad to happen to you."
"I'm not a kid blitz, I can hold my own in a fight! Did you not see me taking out those Dhorks agents!"
the look on Loona's face wasn't one of anger it was determination. blitz thought carefully. he took his role as Loona's father seriously, and perhaps he did baby her too much. He just wanted to try and make up for her lack of a happy childhood. but she isn't a child, she hasn't been for five years at this point. Even still that didn't mean he was ready to just let her run off into the human world on dangerous missions alone.
"Please dad? I know I can be effective in the field." She looked at him hands clasped and eyes wide.
'Well shit there was the magic word, 'dad'. it didn't help that she was using her puppy dog eyes. he drummed his fingers on the desktop. 'I'm going to regret this'
"Okay Loona here's what I'm thinking." He closed his eyes and prepared for whatever may happen, "you can start going on missions, but only if you start taking your other duties seriously and you can't be goin off on your own. You need to be with at least one other employee at all times."
He expected her to blow up again, but it didn't happen. Opening his eyes, he was greeted by Loona contemplating his offer.
"But no one else would be willing to work with me." she slouched in her chair. "not saying it isn't my fault but fatty and his wife wouldn't want me around."
"I'll work with you!" blitz beamed hopefully, "We can be a father daughter duo!"
"But then you'll just be worried about me and not the mission."
Blitz couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed but he understood what she was saying, "Well we have Damien now, once he's ready you can take him with you. he'll need the experience anyway."
Loonas eyes went wide as she realized what blitz was saying "Wait, wouldn't that make me in charge of the missions. you don't even let fatty run missions."
"Well hold on now. I'll talk to MM to see if he's even ready for fieldwork yet. It could take weeks, maybe even months!" Blitz looked at the calendar and prayed, 'Please Satan let it be months.'
Loona opened a portal in the lobby allowing Moxxie and Damien through before going back to her phone. Moxxie looked somewhat less agitated, optimistic that the new hellhound might turn out to be a good idea on blitz's part. Damien wasn't half as bad as he had feared and was somewhat capable although he noticed that when it came to handguns half the shots didn't even reach the targets. But it would only take a couple weeks to fine tune. Mabey an apology was in order for calling him a crackhead earlier. And a coworker that could communicate effectively and help with the company's workload would be a much-appreciated addition to the team.
"I'm going to go put these away. I'll let Millie know about your promise." Moxxie took the bags from Damien and disappeared into the breakroom where Millie emerged in a flash as she had been waiting for this moment since it was made known that she and Moxxie would oversee his training.
The door closed and Millie cracked her knuckles with a wide smile as she sighted her new student who was about to learn firsthand why they gave her the honor of teaching him close combat.
"Alright Mox had his fun and now it's my turn. I've been hankering for a good brawl so Let's see what yer made of!"
Before Damien could protest or inform her that he doesn't have any close combat skills to speak of she rushed forward and swung wildly. Damien was barely quick enough to dodge when she swung again this time more focused, fist connecting near the bullet grazing he had gotten the other night. it wasn't even a hit that would have hurt otherwise but it felt like the area had been set ablaze. Before there was time to think about it, she was back. He managed to block the third swing but then felt the ground rush up to meet him when she swept his leg from under him.
The imp held off her assault waiting for him to get back up but when that didn't happen worry crept over her.
"Damien? are you alright?" she knelt down to look him over "You're supposed to fight back ya know. didn't hit ya too hard, did I? Wasn't even getting warmed up yet!"
She heard snickering and knew immediately that Loona had seen everything from her desk and was probably recording.
"Oh yeah that's definitely going on Sinstagram!"
'Of course, she did. That girl never passes up a chance to torment others.' Millie waved her off, "Don't you got something better to do. like answering the phone. It's what Blitz pays you to do by the way."
Loona just smirked as she uploaded the video to her story and tagged vortex.
Moxxie entered the lobby once more and looked at Damien who obviously wasn't on his way to the gym with Millie as the couple had discussed last night, "Millie why is Damien on the ground in pain?"
"I was fixin to see how well he could fight."
"your supposed to ask what he can do first and go from there. not beat the living heaven out of him as a test. And in the gymnasium, I might add. Don't want to have a repeat of the eel incident." Moxxie knelt on the other side of him and saw he was clutching his side, "does it hurt there? let me see."
Moxxie went to examine his side but Damien brushed him off and got back on his feet.
"I'm fine. I just wasn't prepared before." He winced as the burning worsened.
Millie gave him a stern look before pointing at the couch. "I'm not buying it. you're going to sit down for a once over then you're going to take it easy for a bit while i come up with a training regiment for you to follow. We'll start from square one with some basic exercise."
"I told you I'm fine!"
"Zip it mister!"
"I'd just do what she says Damien, Millie will use force if necessary." Moxxie gave his wife a wide berth.
"Yeah, that's makes plenty sense she's going to use force wh-" suddenly he was forced to Bend down as Millie leaped up and pulled him by the ear, "Jesus Christ that hurts way more than it should!"
"I told you to move it!"