greenspace (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} greenspace) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} avengers_logs,@ 2020-09-10 08:27:00 |
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| Entry tags: | -complete, darcy lewis, gamora, nebula |
Who: Gamora, Nebula, & Darcy
What: Go to the shooting range
When: A few days ago
Warnings: Some violence toward paper and a random mansplainer
“Thanks Kenny,” Gamora awkwardly accepted a fistbump from her favorite uber driver, who also happened to be the only uber driver she knew, as he dropped them off in front of Westside Rifle and Pistol Range.
“Hey, anything for my favorite Missouri girls,” he said cheerfully, thinking about the sweetass tip the boyfriend had given him on their last ride. “Tell your friend to call me,” he added, nodding at Darcy before honking his horn and driving off.
Gamora rolled her eyes, as she turned to Darcy and Nebula. “If you ever need a ride anywhere, I’d say that’s probably a freebie,” she said, heading toward the door. “I had Friday make us an appointment. There was some issue about permits, but your father’s computer fixes everything.”
She walked up to the counter to check them in, blatantly ignoring any stares from the men loitering in the lobby, and asked to see their options. “We’d like something with a little power,” she added, without a hint of irony or flirtation, as the man went in the back room to get the ‘little ladies’ some handguns.
Nebula rolled her eyes as well at Kenny’s obvious interest in Darcy. Since her eyes were black, and only Gamora could see her true-blue self, it might not be noticed. Still, they had reached their destination intact and that was a plus.
People were staring, but then they were an unusual grouping.
So, a brunette, a redhead and a green woman walk into a shooting range shop…
She had no idea what the punchline would be to that joke, but humour and Nebula were an odd couple. Her humour tended to be darker and more observational. Watching the proprietor retreat to pull some weapons, Nebula quietly asked, “Do you think the ‘little ladies’ will need some lessons? Can I punch him if he tries?”
Hanging out with a couple of intergalactic assassins would probably intimidate a lot of people. Luckily, Darcy wasn’t like most people and she thought Nebula and Gamora were pretty cool. Especially since they were willing to teach her how to use a gun. Until now, she’d always gotten by with her trusty taser. And it wasn’t like she thought she’d ever want to carry, but it would be good to know how, just in case.
While the man behind the counter went into the back room, she looked at the smaller guns in the display case. “Oh, look! that one is so cute! Can I try it?”
There was probably a reason that no one in Darcy’s life had been willing to give her a firearm before now.
“That seems like a perfect starter,” Gamora nodded at Darcy’s choice. She was personally hoping for something more along the lines of a Nova machine gun. “Remember when we were small and decided to steal Cull Obsidian’s blaster to practice shooting?” she asked Nebula. “And it was basically bigger than you were?”
The clerk brought out a variety of disappointingly small pistols. Gamora picked up one, and then another, testing their weight and finally chose one. “I guess this will have to do. Has nobody ever told you that size does, in fact, matter in many arenas of life?”
She leaned against the counter to give Nebula a chance to choose a weapon. “So Darcy, we need to talk about safety, first. Rule number one: always treat a gun as if it’s loaded. Rule number two: never point a gun at anything you don’t intend to destroy. Rule number three: always aim for center body mass.”
Nebula stared at the pink weapon Darcy seemed so pleased to find then stared at Darcy and decided it wasn’t worth trying to talk her out of it. Love was blind.
“Yes,” she said to Gamora. “But we managed.” They had ‘managed’ to shoot the side of a building, but details, details. Looking over the options, she pursed her lips in disappointment. She picked up a few, tested their weight, looked down the sites and decided onthis one.
“What is this called?” she asked the proprietor, holding it up so it pointed at the ceiling.
“That there is a Glock 19 Gen 4, 9 mm,” he replied proudly. “One of the best selling handguns in America.”
“It will do.”
She listened to her sister explain some basics to Darcy, and added, “Rule number four: assume your opponent has a larger, more powerful weapon and don’t get cocky.”
Darcy couldn’t understand why her companions seemed disappointed by the guns they were offered. They all looked like far more legitimate weapons than the cute pink one she’d chosen. Whatever, this was going to be fun, even though she knew it was also serious and she listened carefully to the rules that Gamora and Nebula gave her.
“I just want to shoot at some paper targets,” she said. “I don’t know if I could ever actually shoot at a person.” Even if it was a bad guy.
Gamora smiled, leading the way to the range. She didn’t bother to mention that rule #4 was made for other people, because of her. “The rules are because even when it’s just a paper target, a gun can hurt you or someone around you if you don’t act as if it’s real.”
She handed Darcy and Nebula headphones from the rack and grabbed a pair for herself, then grabbed a stack of novelty paper targets off the pile and a sharpie. “Let me set us up here,” she said, sifting through the pile and started to laugh. She clipped a paper outline of Thanos up and sent it to the end of the range. “Neb, show her how to do it.”
Nebula accepted a pair of headphones and hung them around her neck. Then she loaded her gun, so Darcy could see what she was doing, took the safety off and looked down the range at the target Garmora had chosen. She turned to her sister and raised one eyebrow. “Really?” She laughed, then pulled on the ear protection, and assumed a stance and a hand-hold for firing, again so Darcy could see what she was doing.
She took a breath, let it out slowly, more for their Human friend again, and emptied her clip at the target. When Gamora summoned it to them, they would see most shots had hit the chest of the paper cut-out, but some had been reserved for the head.
“In the universe I remember,”she said softly, using one hand to remove the headphones, “where we fought and eventually defeated our father, the purge of half the life in the existence could have been avoided if we had… aimed for the head.”
“Then why is one of the rules to aim for center mass?” Darcy asked. She was impressed by Nebula’s skill and knew that there was no way she’d ever be that good, even if she spent hours every day practicing.
If it ever came down to a situation where Darcy needed to fire a gun, she wanted to make sure she did so in the most efficient and effective way possible, though she really hoped it would never be something that happened.
She did pick up the bullets and load her little pink gun carefully while she was watching and listening.
“Because 99% of the universe doesn’t have that kind of aim,” Gamora put another target up and tested the weight of the Sig Sauer in one hand. “The headshot is a move for assassins and sharp shooters like Star Lord. For everyone else, you aim for the middle, then even if you aren’t perfect, you still hit something. Also, not every species keeps their brain inside their head.”
She took aim, one handed, thinking that while this little gun was no blaster, if she had two of them, she could probably do some serious damage. Before she could pull the trigger, she heard a low voice behind her, “Careful there, little lady, you’re playing with a big gun there, you’re gonna need two hands.” A burly man in a t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off and a trucker hat over his balding curls sauntered up behind her. “Looks like you might need a real man to teach you all the right moves.”
“Name’s Jimmy, it’s sure nice to see pretty little things like you interested in protection. You’ve come to the right place to meet someone who can protect you.” Gamora raised her eyebrows at Nebula and Darcy as the Terran introduced himself and literally fitted his body around hers. She imagined that he was attempting to brush his erection against her hip while he manhandled her into place, but there didn’t seem to be anything there to feel. She thought briefly about going for her knife, but decided that bloodshed would ruin the day before Nebula got her aggression out and before she could teach Darcy how to shoot the tiny pink gun that she was pretty certain was leaving the store with them today.
She jabbed her elbow hard into his soft belly, and when he doubled over, used his weight for momentum to flip him over her shoulder and flat on his back, then whipped back toward the target, emptying all 15 rounds into the head of the innocent paper outline without a pause. “I think I’ve got this,” she said, stepping over the man who was still curled up on the floor as his friends guffawed from behind the plexiglass partition. “And this is why I only date Celestials.”
She smirked when Gamora efficiently dealt with the Human.
“You went easy on him,” she murmured to her sister, and took a moment to use one booted foot to roll the man, still in fetal position, away from where they needed to stand in order to continue shooting. Her push was not gentle: he hit a wall. The wall wasn’t damaged, though she couldn’t necessarily say the same for the man.
“No entering the booth without ear protection,” she added in her husky voice. Did she sound menacing? More like just practical. She didn’t tolerate fools, either. “Those are the rules on the sign beside the door, which you apparently didn’t bother to read, assuming you can read. You are without ear protection. Leave.”
Then she reloaded and selected a male-shaped cut-out, complete with hat, to fire upon. Which she did. With prejudice. It returned with most of the bullets having destroyed the groin area.
“Looks better this way,” she said to no one in particular.
Sorry, Jane, but you’ve been replaced as Darcy’s BFF by two badass space assassins. Darcy watched as they easily and effectively dispatched the man who inserted himself in the middle of their shooting, though she did hope that they weren’t about to (a) get tossed out of the place or (b) get arrested. She was pretty sure Tony would be less than pleased if he had to bail her out of jail.
By the time Nebula was finished shooting, a very tough looking woman had come over to see what the fuss was all about. “Jimmy, get your dumbass out of here,” she said. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop treating this place like your own personal meat market?”
Darcy relaxed a little when the woman took the man to task and was relieved when he struggled to his feet and took off without a word. She offered the woman a smile. “Thanks,” she said, hoping that her ire wasn’t about to be turned on them.
The woman nodded and turned to leave without another word.
“Okay, well, that was fun,” Darcy said. “Now is it my turn?” She picked up her pink gun and stepped forward, choosing a basic silhouette to hang as a target. “What do I do?”
“Okay.” Gamora had never actually had to teach this to anyone before, so she walked through in her head what she had just done by instinct and then started telling Darcy what to do. “The grip goes in your dominant hand like this.. Keep your finger away from the trigger for now, until we’re set up.” She pointed the gun toward the target as she helped adjust her grip so that she wouldn’t risk getting pinched by the slide. “Now you’re gonna need your other hand to wrap around like this for support, unless you’ve been surgically enhanced, which you haven’t.”
She stepped back, demonstrating how to stand. “You want to plant your feet a little bit farther apart. Okay, now point the arm holding the gun as straight as you can toward the target, but bend the support arm just a bit more… like that. And bring the gun up a bit, that thing sticking up at the top is to help you aim. Line it up with the bullseye.”
Gamora looked over at Nebula…. “I forget how many steps this is… isn’t it weird that it just sort of happens. Okay, now you can put your finger on the trigger, Darcy, and pull back the slide to load… You’re going to feel a recoil so ground yourself and hold steady and don’t release the trigger too fast or you’ll knock the bullet off course okay? Then you just take a deep breath, and pull the trigger.”
She leaned back against the wall, giving Darcy space to shoot.
Darcy followed Gamora’s instructions, holding the gun firmly with both hands, planting her feet on the ground, and bracing herself for the recoil. It looked so easy on TV and in the movies, when they showed people running around shooting guns without any effort at all, but she knew that wasn’t accurate.
Taking a deep breath, she lined up the gun with the target and squeezed the trigger. The bullet did hit the target, though right on the edge and nowhere near the center mass that would do any damage.
She still felt badass as hell, even though it hurt her shoulder a little when the gun recoiled. “Oh, that’s fun,” she said.
Darcy wasn’t augmented nor had she fired a gun before, so there was bound to be a strong learning curve. No matter. The daughters of Thanos would make sure she was more comfortable to safely use a weapon in order to defend herself, though Nebula hoped it wouldn’t come to that. She liked the young woman, who spoke her mind and didn’t put up with any shit, as they said in New York. A lot, it seemed, by her observations.
“It can be fun,” Nebula said with a nod, “though it is also serious business. It is a useful skill and you will learn it, but remember: do not draw your weapon unless you genuinely intend to use it.”
*******
“That was a pretty respectable first shot,” Gamora said.
She shoved another clip into her gun, and put up another target in the lane next to Darcy. “So if you’re in the real world and you need to shoot someone, you don’t have to do the fancy empty the whole clip thing and waste a bunch of bullets, especially if there might be someone else you need to shoot later, but you are going to want to at least do a double tap. That means you shoot, you adjust to the recoil, and you shoot again right away, before the situation changes.” Gamora demonstrated.
“You’re a natural. But just like anything else, even when you’re a natural, it still takes some practice.”
“Anything worth doing takes practice,” Nebula added, sending another cut-out down the range and reloading her gun. “Another factor to keep in mind is if you don’t need to use your weapon, don’t. If you can run to safety, do so. If you fire at a target and it falls down, do not walk over to check and see if you have hit it. It could be playing dead.”
She shifted her stance to be more sideways, raised her arm and fired multiple times. When she summoned the cut-out, there was only one hole. All the bullets had gone through it.
“Remember, we are trained assassins. You don’t have to be fancy or try to do as we do, and do not do this at home.” That last bit seemed to be an import warning used in many Terran programs involving dangerous activities, so she thought it might be prudent to include it.
“Uh, no, definitely not going to be shooting at home,” Darcy agreed. She was pretty sure Tony and Pepper would not approve of that. Nor would she want to risk putting Morgan in harm’s way. “In fact, I don’t even plan to get myself a gun anytime soon.” She would need a lot more lessons before she’d be comfortable having a firearm around all the time.
She stepped up to take her next turn, this time firing her full clip, and actually hitting the target a few times. Her shots were nowhere near as impressive or smooth as either of theirs, but considering this was her first time, she didn’t think she was doing too bad.
“Listen Darcy, if we get attacked or something, you 100% try this at home. It’s our job to protect people, right?” Gamora shrugged. She had promised Tony Stark she would keep his daughter safe, this seemed like a crucial part of the plan.
Gamora grabbed the permanent marker and scrawled ‘DIMENSIONAL RIFT’ across a target, setting it up for her sister. “I don’t know if this will help at all, because I know if Peter... If it was me, exploding the whole planet wouldn’t feel like enough. But I think we try shooting, otherwise we’re going to have to figure out who Dr. Phil is.” Gamora realized she knew next to nothing about Nebula’s relationship with Barnes, but her sister’s loss made her want to destroy things.
Nebula rolled her eyes at Gamora. “Well, of course, if she needs to defend herself at home, she must do so at home, but no random target practice. It is too dangerous and there is a small child on the premises.” Neither Pepper nor Stark would be pleased if their other daughter’s life was endangered.
She reloaded her gun, aware they had a bit of an audience. She asked, “Who is Dr. Phil?” Nebula raised her weapon and fired a few times, making a small diamond pattern in the cut-out. She wished the range was longer, but as a release for some of her anger at the sudden disappearance of Bucky, Wanda, Hope -- everyone recently, it would suffice.
As much as Darcy loved Oprah, she would never forgive the woman for unleashing Dr. Phil on the world. “He’s a quack who thinks that he knows everything,” Darcy explained. “And he’s awful, so definitely do not listen to him. “Also? Stay far, far away from Goop. Gwyneth Paltrow is also terrible.” She would never get over the whole ‘vagina scented candle’ thing.
“If you want good celebrity advice, Anna Faris has a pretty great podcast,” Darcy said. “But really I think most people crowd source advice these days rather than looking to celebs to provide it.”
Should she introduce them to Reddit? Probably not yet.
“Does she know about how to keep a man… or literally anyone we care about, from disappearing into another reality?” Gamora asked, switching the gun to her left hand. She tried to focus on the feel of shooting, but was still distracted by the idea that any of them could just be gone at any point.
“This isn’t enough, is it?” She asked Nebula. “We may need to move on to explosions.”
Nebula nodded, once, to acknowledge the insignificance of Dr. Phil and emptied her clip at the next cut-out, which happened to be a random one provided by the shop. She summoned it to her and the word ‘yes’ was spelled out in bullets on a large, purple dinosaur with a goofy expression, wearing a cap that said ‘Barney’.
“Explosions will be more difficult to acquire and utilize,” she said, “but perhaps Stark knows of a friend of a friend where we can indulge.” She smiled at Gamora and Darcy and hoped it wouldn’t bother Darcy that their day was about to get much, much louder.