Chapter 14 - Taking Aim
The lights glared down oppressively in the shooting range's main lobby. It was a scheduled training day for the Ruskol Police Department, but the attending officers were stuck waiting. Many of them were groaning among themselves because of it. One of the officers, a robin named Ciella Holt, stared over at the front desk, where the source of the delay was slowly being worked out.
"Spirits, I have all the paperwork signed right here, is it really necessary to have to look it over?"
"Sorry, Lieutenant. It's just the procedure." The clerk at the counter said with an apologetic look, before returning to reviewing the stack of documents.
"James, darling. If it really has to take so long, I could just come back some other day."
"Eira, we planned days in advance for this. It would just be more paperwork to have to reschedule."
The police department had to submit a mountain of paperwork just to be allowed into the CCA's secured firing range, all of which Lieutenant Barlow had worked through for the past few weeks. But on top of that, his wife had wanted to try shooting at the range, and he had been eager to please her.
Unfortunately for Ciella and the rest of the officers, Eira was a civilian. If she wasn't married to someone on the force, she wouldn't even be legally allowed near the building. This meant loads more paperwork needed to be worked through to bypass the law while waiving the range's responsibility for any "illicit activity" she could allegedly get up to in the controlled environment.
Ciella stared at Eira with an uncomfortable mix of feelings. She understood the feeling of wanting to shoot perfectly well; firearm training day was one of the things she looked forward to the most from the job. It was being denied that exact anticipation that caused her feelings to become muddied as she looked at the Lieutenant's wife.
Minutes of the clerk poring over the paperwork passed on agonizingly slowly. Eventually, to the relief of everyone in the lobby, he finished filing the documents away and the group was finally allowed into the firing range. Once inside, Barlow went over the rules for the training, and the officers took standard-issue Special Service Pistols and ammo from storage and headed to individual booths to get started. Before Ciella could do so herself, Barlow stopped her. Eira stood just to his left, looking at the floor.
"Officer Holt, a moment, if you would."
"Yes, Lieutenant?"
"If it's not too much trouble, could you show Eira the range for me?"
Ciella gave him a confused look. "You want me to train your wife? N-not that I'm refusing, sir, but I thought that you would be taking care of that."
"Believe me, I would love to, but I still have to watch over the other officers' training. Reports to file and all."
Ciella frowned slightly. It always comes back to paperwork, doesn't it?
"Aside from that," Barlow continued, "you've proven consistently capable handling springers given your track record on previous trainings. I couldn't think of anyone more fitting for my love to learn from."
"Oh, t-thank you, sir! I'll do my best, then!"
"Good on you, Officer." Barlow turned to Eira. "I'm sorry I couldn't train you myself, my love."
Eira gave him a faint smile. "It's alright, darling. Your work is important. I'm sure Officer Holt will teach me well."
The two of them shared a hug and kiss. Pulling away from each other, Barlow went down to the end of the range to start monitoring the training, leaving Ciella alone with Eira.
"Um, t-thank you for doing this for me, Officer."
"R-right, it's no problem." Ciella said, unsure of her own words. "Well, let's get to a booth, then."
Ciella grabbed an SSP and a couple of ammo boxes from storage and led Eira to find an open booth. When they found one, Ciella prepared a generic dreamkeeper silhouette target and sent it down to the end of the range.
"So, do you have any experience shooting? It would be good to know where we need to start."
"Oh, well James went over the basics of how springers work with me, but I've never actually fired one."
Ciella resisted the urge to sigh. "Okay, it's a start at least. So you'll want to hold it like this." She gripped the pistol in both feathered hands with her arms fully extended, making sure to keep her finger off of the trigger.
"You really have to hold it with both hands?"
"Yes. It's not like you've seen in scrollcasts and movies. You have to hold it firmly; the SSP's got a bit of a recoil to get used to." Ciella loaded the gun with a bullet in both of the two chambers and handed it to Eira. "You think you can handle that?"
"Yeah, I think I've got it."
"Okay then, let's see you fire. And remember to take the safety off first."
Eira disengaged the safety, took aim at the target, and pulled the trigger. The gun's recoil took her off balance, and she would have fallen over if Ciella hadn't been standing behind to support her. To her credit, the bullet appeared to hit the target despite that.
"Spirits, you weren't kidding about the recoil!"
"I don't kid about guns. Now, you've still got a bullet in the other chamber, so try firing one more time, and try to hold it firmly this time."
The next shot was much more controlled, and Eira handled the recoil much better.
"Okay, that looks good. Now, if you'll give me the springer, I'll reload it and you can fire off a couple more shots."
"Ah, here then."
Eira handed Ciella the pistol. She was quiet for a moment while Ciella methodically reloaded it.
"Um, Officer Holt? Do you… hate that you have to teach me?"
"W-what? Do I hate it? Why do you ask?"
"Well, you seem kind of tense, and I saw the looks you were giving me while the paperwork was getting filed. I know being here today made that whole thing take much longer, and now you have to waste time teaching me instead of using the range yourself… I can understand if you hate me for that."
"I…" Ciella was at a loss for words. After a moment, she spoke again. "Ugh, no, I can't really say I hate you. I really love shooting, and teaching you is getting in the way of that, sure, but…"
"But?"
"But I know you wanted to shoot too, and I can respect that. Besides, something tells me it wasn't your first idea for a date with your husband." Ciella laughed faintly.
"Heh, yeah. The thing is, I got to thinking if I ever had to protect myself, it would be better to know how to handle a gun than to do something crazy like learning my power."
"Whoa, now that would be crazy."
"On top of that, it kind of seems cool, you know? Firing off a spring-loaded round from something so small and taking care of a problem before it can get to you… There's something romantic about it. T-that's not weird, is it?"
"Oh, no, yeah, I get that! To tell you the truth, part of the reason I joined the police force was to get to experience that exact kind of feeling!"
"You're kidding. You joined the police for the guns?"
Ciella laughed. "Well, not just for that. Lieutenant Barlow was kind of a big inspiration for me. I read about him in the news a few years back, and that inspired me to take the leap and join the force."
"Really? I didn't know that, Officer."
"Call me Ciella, it's fine."
"Well then Ciella, should we get back to shooting, then?"
"Of course. Plenty more to teach you, after all."
The two of them continued practicing on the range, carrying on a conversation in between rounds of Eira firing and Ciella reloading. After a while, Eira's ammo box was emptied out and Ciella was given the chance to take over shooting. She spoke while preparing a target for herself.
"So, Eira. I've noticed you were aiming for the center of the target, and most of your shots landed around that area. Pretty good for your first time, I have to say."
"Oh, thanks Ciella!"
"I'm going to do something a little different. The target's made to look like an average person, so I'm going to fire at spots that would incapacitate, rather than outright kill them."
"Rather than… W-was I not supposed to shoot for the heart all the time? I feel a little guilty now…"
Ciella smiled. "It's alright, I didn't mean it like that. It was your first time, so aiming at a single point to improve accuracy isn't a bad thing. Even given how it's shaped, it's still just a target at the end of the day."
Eira blinked. "Oh. I guess that's alright then."
"Right. Moving on from that, aiming for incapacitation is part of the department's training exercise, but I think you could learn from it. Pay attention to how I aim and where the shots land.
Ciella pulled out a data-scroll to start a timer, then focused on the target and the weight of the pistol in her hands. Taking in a breath and aiming carefully, she shot at the target's right shoulder, followed by its chest on the same side, matching her breaths with each shot. A swift reload had her repeat the process on the opposite side of the target.
Silence save for the sound of springer fire reigned between the two as Ciella repeated the process of targeted shooting. Eira watched on, taking in the sight of a professional at work. In a short time, Ciella's ammo box ran dry, and she retrieved her target, which was now riddled with holes clustered around strategic areas.
"You don't need to worry much about it," Ciella told Eira after the two left the booth, "but speed and accuracy in shooting are important for police work, so that's how I go about it."
"I see. Your shots were all so accurate, I hardly noticed how quickly you got them off!"
"Well, it is a passion of mine, after all."
"And it's a good thing you're putting that passion to good use on the force, Officer."
The two women hardly noticed Barlow behind them until he spoke up.
"Oh, Lieutenant! We just got done on the range."
"So I see." Barlow turned to Eira. "Did you enjoy shooting, my love?"
Eira nodded. "I had a lot of fun. Ciella's a great teacher, and we ended up getting to know each other pretty well!"
"Ah, that's good. Glad I chose you for the job, Officer Holt, I'm glad everything worked out."
"I'm glad to have been of help, sir. It was a pleasant surprise, getting to know Eira. And training her was a refreshing change of pace, actually."
"Good to hear, Officer. I-" Barlow suddenly froze, going wide-eyed and limp.
Ciella was quick to react, supporting Barlow on his left side before he could fall over. "Eira! A little help, here!"
Eira, still in shock, moved over and held him up on the right. "Spirits, it's happening again…"
"One of his episodes, yeah. Don't worry, we've gone through this plenty of times before."
Ciella called for another officer to help her and Eira settle Barlow into a chair. The three of them watched on as the Lieutenant started to shudder.
"James… Spirits, I wish he didn't have to deal with this…"
"Relax, Eira. We've got everything under control." Ciella turned to the other officer. "Get ready to help hold him down if he gets violent. Spirits only know what kind of horrible power he's having to see this time."
—
In the fallguard stadium, everything was unusually quiet. A young James Barlow sat in one of the seats higher up in the stands, his parents at either side. Suddenly, a cracking noise pierced the air, followed by screaming. Barlow quickly crawled under his seat, looking down at the source of the sound in terror.
The cracking sound came from a springer pistol held by a robin woman with an empty expression on her face further down in the stands. A verdant green halo was suspended over her head. On the field, one of the players was facedown on the ground, blood pooling under his head.
Turning around quickly, the woman put another bullet square in the head of the closest person to her, dropping them to the ground amidst a rising cacophony of screams. She then began to reload, gripping new bullets for the pistol in her featherlike fingers.
Before she could finish reloading, she was quickly attacked by multiple angry dreamkeepers surrounding her. Their strikes drew blood, but a quick flash of her halo seemed to reverse any damage done. The blood on her feathers making her red facial marking look larger was soon the only evidence that she'd been injured.
"Ah. Refreshing," she said calmly, as she finished reloading the gun.
A quick burst of two shots ended with two of the dreamkeepers who attacked her falling dead, their blood adding to the greater mess of viscera covering her body.
The pattern repeated itself multiple times as the killer made her way up the stands. The woman would reload. She would be attacked. Her power would heal any damage. She would shoot twice. Two more people would die. The screaming would get louder.
Some smarter attackers pulled away at places the woman would pull bullets from to reload, in an attempt to disarm her. After a while, the woman's clothes were left in blood-stained tatters, leaving her no means of reloading.
"Time for a change of pace."
With all her ammo spent, the killer discarded the springer and let her power intensify. Still showing little emotion, she threw a punch into the face of one of the people surrounding her, using enough force to dislocate her arm. It only remained that way for a moment though, healing nearly instantly from her power.
Wait, this isn't right…
Barlow sat terrified under his seat as the power user continued to overexert herself, tearing through would-be attackers at a cost that was quickly refunded by her power. But with the change in strategy, the deaths came at a slower rate than they had with the gun, prompting him to think.
She's killing them, sure, but it's not the power that's doing it…
The woman continued making her advance, but Barlow's mind was racing with other thoughts than his imminent demise.
This isn't how it happened… All the killing was done with a power…
When the woman finally approached the seat with Barlow under it, she found him with a look of confusion rather than terror.
"This is all wrong. You… You're not the killer, are you?" He asked her.
Officer Holt smiled. "Yeah, I'm not. Hang in there, Lieutenant. Everything's going to be alright."
—
"Hang in there, Lieutenant. Everything's going to be alright."
Barlow stirred at the sound of Ciella's words, slightly startling her, Eira, and the other officers who had gathered since his flashback started. The one Ciella called over to help backed up into the group of officers once he saw Barlow wasn't going to put up a fight.
"Ugh, it happened again… Spirits."
Eira was quick to embrace her husband. "Oh, James, darling! It wasn't too terrible this time, was it?"
"Eira…" he said, standing up and embracing her back as she rose with him. "No, somehow, it wasn't."
"Good to see you back with us, Lieutenant." Ciella said with a smile.
"Yeah… It's strange though. The power this time, Holt, you were the user, but all it did was heal you. You used it to push yourself past the breaking point fighting people in the crowd, but if anything, you killed more people by shooting them than anything power related."
"Shooting? Sir, I'd never shoot to kill unless I had no other choice."
"And you'd never use a power either," Barlow said with a shrug, "but try telling that to whatever's making my mind go to these places…"
"You've had flashbacks with harmless powers before though, right darling?"
"Yeah, it doesn't happen too often, but it throws me for a loop every time it does."
"A power gets used, people die from it, the stadium is full of screaming. Same basic pattern whenever it happens. But nonlethal ones throw a wrench into that, right sir?"
"Exactly. I think the only reason I was able to recover from it so quickly is that this time, the killing got so slow I was able to think it through."
"Well, whatever it is, I'm just happy you're all right now, darling."
"Me too, my love. Me too."
"Um, sorry to interrupt," a voice said from behind the group. "But your time on the range is up. You'll need to leave now."
Everyone turned to face the interrupting party, who turned out to be the clerk from the front desk.
"Are you serious?" Ciella roared. "The Lieutenant just recovered from a traumatic flashback and you're telling us to get out? Can you even read the room, or do we need more paperwork for you to be able to even do that?"
"I-I'm sorry, ma'am, but i-it's CCA policy…"
The clerk started stammering, doing nothing to improve Ciella's mood. Before she could say anything else, Barlow put a hand on her shoulder.
"At ease, Officer. Nothing to be gained from harassing the poor boy."
"But sir, that was just…"
"At ease. If it's CCA policy, there's not much we can do. Better to get back to the office anyway, it's been a long day."
Ciella pulled back from the clerk and nodded to Barlow. "Understood, sir."
With the situation defused, the group began to leave. Ciella spared one more glare at the clerk before everyone left the shooting range and returned to the Central Ruskol office.
—
Back in the office, Ciella explained everything to Detective Banks, who arrived shortly after the rest of the office returned from training. The Barlows stood off to the side, letting her vent her frustrations to her coworker.
"And he just told us to leave, right after all of that, like that's just okay to do!"
"Spirits damn, I can see why you're upset. Policy or not, Jay didn't deserve that at all."
"Right? I swear, the nerve of some people."
"Well, there's nothing that can be done about it, so anyway," Barlow interjected before the two could rile each other up more, "you got any news on the powers case, Mar?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah. I got some news on that. Apparently last night, just like the other two, there was another performance. Seems our power user did this one a little different though. Get this, the show was partly about the weapons ban in addition to talking about powers!"
"Weapons now? You're sure about that, Mar? Just what the hell is this guy thinking?"
"I don't know, maybe he's onto something with that…" Ciella said.
Barlow gave her a look. "You're not defending him, are you Officer?"
"Ah, no sir, not at all! It's just that the weapon ban seems like a bit much sometimes."
"I think it would be nice if there were less restrictions on weapons." Eira added. "It would mean civilians wouldn't be completely defenseless when law enforcement isn't around."
"I, well, I guess you have a point, my love…"
Ciella and Banks snickered quietly. A quick stare from Barlow made them both stop.
"A-anyway, Mar, you got any more info?"
"Nothing more about last night, but I caught a rumor about the show before that. From what I heard, the guy had a wardrobe malfunction, making the fancy robe he was wearing come apart while he was doing his act! Can you imagine?"
Banks laughed, causing Ciella and Eira to follow suit. Barlow maintained a neutral expression.
"Mar… Be serious. That's not exactly a clue we can use. Think, was there anything meaningful in that little story?"
"Ah, shit, sorry Jay. Just trying to lighten the mood. The robe was apparently a custom job, Serapean styled, white with gold detailing, if that helps any."
"Heh, well I guess we've got some kind of clue, then. If it was custom, there might be a clue to who this guy is wherever he got it from!"
"Maybe. Problem is, the place he got it from could be practically anywhere in Anduruna, and not even necessarily from a legitimate business…"
"White with gold…" Eira paused. Her expression lit up as she came to a realization. "I've seen that robe before!"
Banks blinked. "No shit, you did?"
"Just last week, at the Head to Tail, a man was returning a white robe with gold accents to be repaired! Maybe he was the power user, or at least someone who knows him!"
"Hm, Head to Tail is a pretty popular custom shop. And it's in the Sabbaton Towers, so it's accessible, too. That could be the place!"
"Wow, hell of a coincidence if it is! I bet you'd do well as a detective with a memory like that, Eira!"
Barlow frowned. "Let's not jump to conclusions here. Eira, that's more than a bit of a logical leap. It could end up being just a coincidence."
"Darling, tougher cases have been solved with less to go on, I've read about plenty of them! It could at least be worth looking into!"
"Well, I suppose if you're really sure about this, then it wouldn't hurt to follow up on it. Do you remember anything else about the man?"
"Um, let me think. He was a snake, thin with red scales, and he seemed pretty nervous. I think Nadine called him Mr. Atrox?"
"Hm, I might've actually seen someone like that here in Ruskol, now that you mention it. Atrox, huh? It could be worth looking up in the citizen registry next time I'm in the CCA office."
"And I could check in on the Head to Tail one of these days, see if they're willing to say anything about the guy." Banks offered.
"I could keep an eye out on patrol, too! If this Atrox guy is someone who lives in Ruskol, chances are someone here knows him."
"I think I could ask around," Eira said, confidence growing as she spoke. "Being a civilian, I might be able to find something out that people wouldn't be comfortable telling an officer."
Barlow smiled. "Thanks everyone, I'm glad to have all of you helping on this. It's a small lead, sure, but who knows? Maybe we actually picked up on something huge today. With your support, we can get to the bottom of this for sure!"
The group kept talking about the powers case into the night, with Ciella contributing where she could. She hadn't been very close to the case, but as she learned more, she felt a sense of duty washing over her. Somewhere in Ruskol, there was a deviant power user speaking out against the law. Taking him down would be one step toward a brighter future for Anduruna. And if this Atrox guy had anything to do with it, she would do her best to find out.
Atrox… If he really is connected to all this, then how? And just what is this power user planning?
