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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 7, 2008 20:53:54 GMT -5
Vince noticed the lack of serious effort on Armand's part, and was pleased when Mercedes made him pay for it. He'd bring that up when they were done.
She moved fast, impressively so, and the hit to his gut hurt--- no denying it. Fortunately he could be quick too, or at least quick enough, and he blocked the elbow jab to his throat. Barely. He backed off, only for a second, and gave her a smirk. A 'now we'll have some fun' kind of smirk, and sprang at her again, twisting and aiming one hand at her side, and the other at her neck.
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Post by redtopaz on Sept 7, 2008 21:09:35 GMT -5
Mercedes was forced to choose. She blocked the reach for her neck and tried to brace herself for the hit to her side. She took the blow and stumbled back a few steps. ¡Mierda! The guy could hit! Just what she'd been hoping for. This time she returned the smirk. She followed his attack with a weave and jab to his side, aiming for almost the exact place her foot had struck. Mercedes wasn't above playing rough and it was now apparent to her the Armand had the advantage in strength.
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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 7, 2008 21:31:01 GMT -5
Her reputation preceded her, as he soon found out. Physically, he was stronger, but she was smarter tactically. They fought almost as impressively as he and Vince had, until said mummy interrupted their battle.
"Alright--- break it up you two. My case in point," he said nodding at Mercedes. "And as was demonstrated at the beginning, ladies, your first advantage will always be your opponent underestimating you."
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Post by Jules on Sept 7, 2008 21:56:01 GMT -5
Zizzy watched in amazement, and even though Mercedes had been nothing if not abrasive towards her, she was thoroughly impressed by the girl. If she could be half as good as that she'd be incredibly satisfied. And Armand, she'd known he could move, but not quite like that.
Mary on the other had a critical comment about several things, but said nothing because it wasn't really her position and besides it felt kind of weird criticizing people now that her head reached maybe their waist. It was like being a child all over again, people always looking down at her to talk.
She finally caught the sight of Zizzy standing their in the line recruits, she'd been focused on the fights and tried not to hide a laugh. Not because she thought the girl would be unsuited---she'd had no real chance to evaluate her skill, but because she imagined Armand being here wasn't strictly for demonstrations.
She touched Vince's wrist, something she was used to having to do now to get people's attention. "And you say you don't have a sense of humor."
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Post by redtopaz on Sept 7, 2008 22:05:15 GMT -5
Mercedes dropped form and stepped back, raising a palm to her bruised side. She grinned at Armand before she had a chance to remind herself that he trod all over her aunt. A good fight was hard to resist. She'd have to corner him after the training session and hear it straight from his mouth... For the moment, she had other things to focus on. Mercedes hand dropped from her side to her holster. They were probably going to need her for firing demo's next.
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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 7, 2008 22:39:29 GMT -5
Vince spared Mary a soft smirk. Only she would recognize the coincidence, and his planning of it. "It's sadistic, if easy to miss," he replied, and then moved forward to round up the guppies.
"Alright, spawn. Move to the targets." He nodded at Mercedes.
Armand returned the grin briefly before turning to catch up to the recruits, one in particular, but Vince stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "You can talk to her when she's not at work," he replied firmly, and then raised an eyebrow. "Are you pouting?"
A touch of pink hit Armand's cheeks. "No."
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Post by Jules on Sept 7, 2008 22:57:08 GMT -5
Zizzy smiled involuntarily when she saw Armand heading her way, but of course Vince stopped him. Besides, she'd rather her fellow recruits didn't know, Ryan was already nudging the hell out of her side whispering in her ear about how she'd certainly caught someone's eye. She only grumbled back at him as they approached the out-door shooting range being set up.
Mary came up behind everyone, a little self-conscious suddenly. She was bad at manouvering the wheel chair in crowds, she was desperately unused to it. Open roads was easy to manage, weaving through recruits was not. So she could just pretend she'd intended to bring up the rear all along.
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Post by redtopaz on Sept 7, 2008 23:17:46 GMT -5
Mercedes nodded in response, marching over to the targets. She stood at the first line. The target was a fair ways off. She drew her gun fired three shots and immediately sheathed it again. All three were straight through the targets head. It wasn't a button-hole shot or anything Annie-Oakley style, but impressive none the less. She moved to the second line and repeated the same routine. All the shots were clear through the head again. She turned to the recruits and held out her gun, butt first.
"Who thinks they can do the same?" she asked, looking around in a way more openly curious than bullying.
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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 9, 2008 12:04:02 GMT -5
Vince hung back with Mary, grabbing onto the end of the wheelchair before she could insist on doing it herself. He didn't spare her the long suffering sigh, however. "If you were a little more mean," he chastised with a hint of amusement. "They'd be stumbling over themselves to get out of your way."
He kept to the back as Mercedes fired off the shots. The majority of the students were rightfully impressed. The ones that weren't had never shot a gun before, and figured, how hard could it be? One such recruit stepped forward and took the gun from Mercedes aimed it in a copy-cat style of what he'd seen Mercedes do, and shot. His arm richoceted back and nearly clocked him the face. The bullet, wherever it went, did not hit the intended target.
"Dear god," Vince said with enough disgust that the young Nightmare blushed a combination of green and red, shuffling back into place and handing Mercedes her gun.
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Post by Jules on Sept 9, 2008 20:58:20 GMT -5
Mary only grinned up at him, "I don't mind the recruits liking me." She said teasingly as she watched the boy try and copy Mercedes. "Doesn't mean I don't think that was absolutely hilarious."
Zizzy was not the next one to try to hit the targets, nor the third or fourth. She'd rather someone actually showed her how, gave her tips. She'd never fired a gun in her life and she wasn't stupid enough to assume she could do it on the first try. Ryan, however, had no reservations and was in fact eager to try.
He didn't hit it with quite the same finesse as Mercedes, but it was obviously not his first time. He handed back the gun and returned to the line up, already nudging the hell out of her side again.
"Hey look." She hissed good-naturedly, "You're going to break a rib."
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Post by redtopaz on Sept 9, 2008 21:54:37 GMT -5
Finally, Mercedes plucked the gun from the next recruits hands, exasperated beyond her patience. She showed them the correct way to hold, aim, and fire the gun and then had them try again. Marginal improvement, but still a lot of work to be done. She had them run obstacles next, slowly guiding them through the more difficult parts of the course. As the afternoon came to a close and the group winded down from their last run around the perimeter, she moved over to Armand, carefully avoiding his godfather and Mary, and closed in on him.
"I need to speak with you a moment, Su Alteza." she said, trying not to sound too ominous. All she was going to do was get his side of the story. And find out if he was a rank bastard deserving of some serious violence or not.
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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 9, 2008 22:57:01 GMT -5
Armand input where he could, helped a few of the recruit's form doing this or that. Somehow, though, Vince always managed to catch him if he ever got to close to Zizzy. He did catch her eye once or twice though, as he watched her; her and whoever-it-was she kept talking to (ch).
At last the day was over, but Mercedes soon cut off any feelings of relief. He really needed to brush up on his spanish insults. Bracing himself for the worst, already resigned to another reprimand, he squared his chin and nodded. "Fine. What did you need?"
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Post by Jules on Sept 9, 2008 23:05:06 GMT -5
Finally it was over and she could approach Armand without half the recruits putting two and two together (you had to really wonder about some). But by the time she said bye to Ryan and the others and turned around, he was talking to the pretty officer. Zizzy frowned and decided she was allowed to approach just as much as anyone. For a moment she worried about making a good impression, what if it was something to do with the L.O.S?
But than they could tell her to bug off if they wanted her too, so she stepped forward and casually meandered her way to Armand's side, smiling at Mercedes first, "You're really impressive." She said sincerely, "I don't think I'll ever manage to pull off half of what you did."
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Post by redtopaz on Sept 9, 2008 23:16:41 GMT -5
"Gracias," she said warmly to the girl. Compliments were always the fastest way to Mercedes' good side. "You did pretty well yourself, and it's perhaps just as well that you hear this as well." She turned back to Armand, a little irritated by his general attitude.
"As you already know, I've a dear friend who at this moment is nursing a deep wound. I've heard the story from her and, while I would never say Iseabail is capable of over exaggerating, she is in the midst of some terrible feelings and can only relate to her current pain." Mercedes had been doing pretty well up to this point, but here she stumbled for words. "I... thought it best... to hear the story form the other side," she said at length. 'So I can tell if I need to beat the shit out of you or not' she added mentally.
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Post by Miss Jack on Sept 9, 2008 23:41:10 GMT -5
He raised an eyebrow, and some of the ice fell away from his expression. The difference between the sisters was evident. He shot Zizzy a quick look from the corner of his eye. Perhaps it was best if she heard, but if it had been up to him, he would have dealt with this without involving her.
"I'm sorry for her pain," he said softly, lowering his eyes. "Perhaps in comparison, it doesn't seem like I could have any idea, but I'm still.... I wish she wasn't." He didn't know how to express, without sounding trite or hypocritical, that while he didn't regret his decision, he would have chosen any other way for things to end up if it were possible.
"I'm not sure what you want to know," he continued. "I have no secrets, and nothing to be ashamed of that I am not already, but it is... admittedly, a long story."
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