Two Flaming Dummies And A Bucket Of Water

[Deleted]

John walked into the training room, ignoring the two others, they obviously seemed busy anyways. He went over to the shooting range and got a pistol from the attendant before beginning to test how good of a shot he was. After he'd spent a whole magazine, he fumbled to find the release, and put the gun down to inspect the target he'd shot at. He'd managed to get a single bullet in the center of mass, and he was fairly sure it had been by accident.

It didn't fill him with too much hope for the future, but then again, it seemed he had the time to get better. He continued to practice for a while longer though, gradually learning things from each shot. It seemed he might have find some promising use of the weapon after-all.

[JoAnna Blake]

JoAnna came in soon after someone else did. A giant of a man who stood a good foot taller then her. She silently gawked at him, but it never registered on her face. She waited until he was done with the attendant and stepped up herself. She had no gun knowledge what so ever. Aside from what she learned in class, and she'd only been on Gamma Base for four days. One of the bright shiny new recruits! So far she had made no friends, which she was perfectly fine with, was yet to be assigned a mate, another thing she was perfectly ok with not having at the moment, and had received the strict life that was the military. She couldn't have been more happier. Take that mom and dad!

Her parents had both been average doctors. Being strict with her since day one in her academics and really anything she did. They over criticized her and expected her to try harder in everything she did so she didn't look like a defect. Because in their eyes, and everyone else's she was. Bright sunny blonde hair, pale skin, and big baby blue eyes. The only blonde child her parents had. Jo wrinkled her nose in annoyance and sniffed as she thought of her parents. A small smirk however graced her plump pink lips as she remembered the look on their faces when she informed them she had been excepted into the military.  Especially as part of Generation Y. She should have been proud right? Felt like she accomplished her life mission? Wrong. She had so much more to prove. Getting in had only been the beginning. She was not some dumb blonde that needed to be coddled because everyone thought they were superior. She was far from it.

 She was not stupid to ignore gun safety, so as the large man left she asked the attendant to show her how the gun worked. On a mechanical level. She had a great understanding of how machines and gadgets worked. As the attendant dissembled the gun before her eyes she watched with calculating eyes. Remembering every movement, every twist, every click. When he handed it to her to try for herself, she dissembled it just as fast as he had and put it back together faster. She handed it to him to make sure she had put it back correctly which resulted in a wide eyed attendant who was nodding his head in shock. She then proceeded to check the weapon out with a few magazines. Taking the gear she went down to an open booth which happened to be near the quiet giant. There was an empty booth separating them.

Tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear she loaded a magazine in, took aim at the target and fired. Closing her left eye so she could use her right to look down the sight of the hand gun. One finger wrapped around the trigger just barely touching it, while the other gripped the bottom of the grip to keep her hand steady. She took aim and emptied the magazine. Bang! Bang! Bang! Ping! At the sound of the ping she lowered her gun and emptied the clip before she looked at her target. She was a little wide, but not bad for someone who never fired a gun in her life before. 

[Deleted]

He didn't know if it was just that his mind was in a million and one places, or if she had used whatever ability she had to stop him from noticing her entrance, but the four successive shots that sounded while he was examining his target gave him a jolt, so much so that he seemed to instinctively form a fireball in his hand. He winced and quickly flung it at one of the unused practice dummies, setting it ablaze. He realised he'd have to work on stopping that from happening.

He paused for a moment as he sniffed the air, smelling burning cotton. He looked around, and then caught sight of his reflection. His entire right arm was a blazing inferno. After a few seconds of panicking, he tried to pat out the flames. It didn't work, not even a little bit. He tried to focus by picturing his arm without the flames, and in a few seconds the fire was gone. He couldn't help but sigh in relief, relatively safe or not, it would take a lot of getting used to.

John decided to see who was shooting with him, and when he caught sight of her, he didn't think he'd be able to find any words to say to her. Though he did manage to pipe up after a moment or two, his voice didn't quite match the rest of him. It sounded soft and kind, "Ohh, uhh, hello..."

[JoAnna Blake]

Jo was about to load another magazine into her gun when she smelt something burning. Why was there something burning? She turned to look and her eyes turned to saucers. He was on fire! She saw the big man patting his arm out and was about to yell 'Stop, drop and roll!' At him when the flames vanished. At this point she just stared at where the flames had been touching his arm, leaving him unharmed. His shirt? Not so much. The end of his shirt sleeve was frayed and burned, missing a good couple inches in length.


Was he a fire user? She was suddenly concerened he didn't know how to use his powers yet. Which could be very dangerous. She glanced over his shoulder and saw a sad burning practice dummy. Jo then realized he was looking at her, and her eyes widened again. He had a rugged Handsomeness to him. She liked his face more then she did Roman or Tavis's, that was for sure. And despite Tavis's assholeness, and Roman's quite air that read 'I don't want to talk to you unless your dying or the base is burning down', this person seemed more friendlier despite his size.


She was surprised by his quiet voice. It wasn't deep like she expected it to be. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear again as her cheeks turned a bit pink. Not expecting him to actually talk to her. "Hi." She responded back. Her voice was clear. Slightly un confident then it normally would have been. "You..umm...Your shirt." She pointed at his sleeve. Adverting her eyes away. "Might want to put an order in for a new one." She suggested. She normally didn't talk to people unless she absolutely had to. But she felt like her and the man were similar. He had the quiet loner air to him like she usually did. "You want help putting that out?" She asked pointing to the still burning dummy that now was starting to smoke.

[Deleted]

He tilted his head slightly as he looked at it, "Uhh, sure...is there anything we can use to do that? I'm not seeing any water or anything..." His deep blue eyes turned back to her and gave her a small smile, "Sorry...first day and all that." His mind wandered for a second as he looked at her, before he remembered the still-blazing dummy, "Ohh...damn it." He looked around the room, trying to find something to put the fire out. After a few seconds he paused and looked up, rolling his eyes as he spotted a sprinkler, "Well that's not going to work too well..."

Once again, John turned back to the blonde girl and smiled awkwardly, though he spotted a fire extinguisher just behind her. He quickly reached past her and grabbed it, fumbling with the frustratingly difficult mechanism as he approached the dummy. It took him a second or two in order to actually get the blasted red can working, though it did the job quite well, despite his oversight of a tiny flame that soon burnt itself out.

Somehow he got the feeling that he had just made a bit of a fool of himself, and in-front of the mystery girl to boot. He blushed a little and went to put away the fire extinguisher, not quite able to get the girl out of his mind. He didn't know what it was, something about her was hard to forget. A buzz of questions ran through his mind; What was her power? Did she even have one? Is she in Unicorn Unit too? Are there different Units? Am I overthinking this? She's kind of cute isn't she? Yep, I'm definitely overthinking this.

[JoAnna Blake]

JoAnna offered the stranger a small rare smile she rarely gave to anyone. "Um..." She looked around with him trying to spot something they could use. Water was a precious resource in Uncica, they couldn't go about wasting it. It was a last call option if they had to put the fire out. "It's alright. Today is my fourth." She said looking at the walls. She spotted the sprinklers and made a face. If they went off an alarm would sound and they would most likely get into trouble. Wouldn't they? Course it was the training room. This probably happened all the time.


Jo caught his awkward smile and returned it with a gentle one of hers. Her eyes widened a bit when he reached behind her and she glanced out of the corner of her eye to see it was a fire extinguisher. She stepped to the side out of his way and watched him put it out. Hiding the grin on her face with her hand as she watched him fumble with it. She often found people amusing who didn't know how to work things.


She moved out of his way when he put the fire extiguisher away. Noticing the slight redness to his face. Was he blushing? What for? She cocked her head to the side slightly. And stared for a moment before she realized she was and she gave a small cough before pointing at the arm that had been on fire. "Did you burn yourself?" She asked, wondering if he was ok. "How'd the fire happen anyway? If you don't mind me asking." She asked hurriedly. Not wanting him to think she was pestering him. She was just curious.

[Deleted]

He shook his head, standing up straight, "No..I seem to not be affect by fire.." He looked down at his arm, unconsciously grazing it with the finger tips of his other hand, "The fire was me..." He held his hand out slightly and a small flame appeared in the palm, the skin underneath it glowing a bright red. The red on his cheeks deepened slightly, "It doesn't quite lend itself to much beyond wanton destruction." He didn't mind if she was pestering him, he was enjoying the conversation, brief though it was so far.

He looked a little awkward as he put his eyes back onto her, giving her a little nod, "What about you, have you got an ability of some kind?" John gave the light stubble that framed his face a little scratch as he let his gaze take her in. She really was quite stunning, though most definitely a mystery to him.

[JoAnna Blake]

JoAnna watched him curiously as he ran his hand on his arm. "Well that's good. Wouldn't want you to burn to a crisp." She said as one side of her mouth twitched up into a smile. "Really? Fire generation of some sort?" She asked. She bent over a bit to get a closer look at his hand. Seeing the skin turning a bright red like it was being heated from some invisible force underneath the skin. She found it fascinating. It was like an unsolved puzzle or mystery that she wanted to solve. "Wanton destruction or not, it's impressive, and I find it absolutely fascinating. I wish I knew how they did it you know?" She said speaking about how the scientist could give them these sorts of amazing powers.

She stood up straight, tying her hair long curly hair up into a tight bun. She glanced at him and a smirk crossed her face. Switch on. She was there and then she wasn't. Invisible to the naked eye. The only thing that could see her were heat sensors. The only down side was she hadn't been given any special clothes that were designed to turn invisible with her. So as she stood before the man all he would be able to see were her clothes which looked like they were floating in mid air. Switch off. JoAnna suddenly appeared again. A shy smile on her face. "I guess you could call me Miss Disappear. Or JoAnna. Or Private Blake. That works too." She joked. She held her hand out too him in greeting. "Private JoAnna Blake of Phoenix Unit. And you are?" She asked, wondering who he was.

[Deleted]

He smiled as she disappeared, his eyes trying to find some kind of tell that she was there, beyond the floating clothes. He gently took her hand and gave it a soft shake, though his disappointment at her not being in his Unit was probably evident on his face. "Private John Nuitu, Unicorn Unit. And no matter what you say, being the invisible girl sounds better than being a walking matchstick."

He smiles a little, though a thought occurred to him about their attire, "I wonder if they are going to give us some clothes that can work with these abilities...though I am curious as to how they would achieve it. The process that they did on us is a mystery, but I wonder how they would be able to create clothing for us." He catches something out of the corner of his eye and can't help but say something, "You're a good shot..." He didn't quite regret it instantly, but there was certainly a degree of regret, after-all, he didn't know if he'd just changed the subject to something she wanted to talk about.

[JoAnna Blake]

She found his hand instantly warm. Like warm water or a heater. Made sense if he was a walking matchstick. "Nice to meet you John." She said warmly. Noticing the slight look of disappointment on his face, but she didn't comment on it. She almost wished she could put in a request form to a different unit so she didn't have to be on the same unit as Tavis, but she wouldn't complain. If it was what Unica wanted so be it.

"They should at some point. Can't very well do our jobs if I have to worry about being seen or you catching your's on fire. Some special fibers or something they'll probably put into the material." She reasoned. Their scientist were truly amazing. If she hadn't decided to join the military she might have decided to become a scientist. Anything but a doctor like her parents.

She turned her head to look at what he was talking about and noticed it was her shooting target. She realized then that she was still holding his large hand in hers and she slowly pulled it away. Trying to blow it off like it wasn't a big deal. She arched an eyebrow up at him. "You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you that was the first time I shot a fire arm." She hoped it didn't come off as arrogant. Normally she wouldn't care. But John had a the possibility of being a friend, and she had very few friends in her short life. In fact she could count on one hand how many friends she actually possessed. And even then she didn't think they actually considered her a friend. She could be cold and stand offish at some points. Others viewed her as cocky or an over achiever. But she had to be didn't she? Because of her fair traits? It was either that or they would think she was useless. She was ok with not having friends. She had accepted being alone a long time ago.

"How did you do?" She asked, returning the question.

[Deleted]

He tilted his head towards his own target, the spreading of the twenty holes quite wide, though there were two that had hit the center. "My first time too...I get better with every shot, that much I can tell." He smiled slightly as an idea occurred to him, "I don't know if they'll let us if we're in different Units, but maybe we could practice together. After-all, you seem to have a knack for everything I'm bad at."

John realised all of a sudden that his hand felt oddly empty since she had removed hers from his grasp, it made him look down at it, a deep frown on his face. Eventually he mumbled something to himself, it wasn't quite comprehensible, the only reason John knew what he'd said was because he tended to repeat what he was saying in his head. It took him about thirty seconds to realise he'd gotten distracted, which made him look up quite sharply, his face once again flushed a deep red, "Sorry, I got lost in my own thoughts..."

[JoAnna Blake]

"That's good it means you'll have room for improvement." She said trying to be supportive. Jo's head whipped up to look at him with a surprised look on her face, before it settled. "I don't see why not. I think they'll have to inter mix the units someway. If we were all stuck with the same members we'd go crazy. I know I would." She grumbled the last bit thinking of Tavis again. "Oh I wouldn't say that. I'm sure there's something your good at that I'm not." What was there besides the fact she appeared to be a better shot then him? She only considered that one thing she was good at that he wasn't. He seemed older. JoAnna was only seventeen. A 'kid' around here as what she liked to consider it. Everyone else was in their early or mid twenties. She felt an even larger distance towards everyone else now. Another milestone she had to accomplish. She may be young, but she wasn't irrational.

She looked curiously at him as he mumbled to himself. Why was he mumbling? Did he feel uncomfortable being around her? Had she said something wrong? She wracked her brain for any reasons and didn't come up with any. Had he taken what she said the wrong way and presumed it was arrogance? She saw his frown and frowned herself. Strange. She was surprised, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately in John's presence, when he looked sharply at her. A small smile appeared when she noticed how deep red he'd turned and found it cute. Large, scary looking. intimidating man, that was actually rather quiet and adorable. Yeah she wasn't telling him that...

"It's ok, I do that too sometimes. Want some help?" She asked walking over to where he had been set up at. She placed her hands on her hips and she looked at his hand gun and then down at his target. Her face was blank, not showing any emotions. He had been right when he said he was wide but gradually they were getting closer. He even managed to hit the target twice. "Fire it, and I'll see if I can pin point what might help you out." She said changing gears to the serious side of JoAnna that was one for getting work done in a proficient manner. She wasn't one to goof around or tell jokes. When she was younger she was often told she had been rather dull and took everything too seriously. Well they would have too if they had her parents.

[Deleted]

He smiled at her grumbling about going crazy with her Unit, he'd had yet to meet any of his Unit, except Specialist Naveen. He wasn't sure he liked her, but he definitely didn't hate her. His brow furrowed slightly as he noticed her personality change, but he nodded nonetheless, happy to have some help. He fought an urge to gently poke her or ruffle her hair, they definitely weren't close enough for that kind of stuff.

The sound of her saying the word fire brought him from his thoughts and he quickly picked up the pistol. He held it with both hands, his muscles loose to take the recoil, and his stance a little wide. The gun didn't quite calm him, but it gave him something to focus on. He closed his eyes for a minute, took a deep breath, opened his eyes again, and pulled the trigger. The resounding bang forced him to blink, though all he did was put the gun down and look to JoAnna, once again she caught him quite off-guard. She was very enthralling to say the least.

[JoAnna Blake]

Jo watched with narrowed calculating eyes. She took note of his stance, which was good. His muscles were relaxed, he seemed to be doing everything right. Maybe it was just his hand eye coordination. She chewed on her lips like she normally did when she was thinking something over. The gears turning in her head. She looked at the target again and her brows furrowed. "You seem to be doing everything right. It just might be your hand eye coordination." She murmured more to herself. She turned away then and walked down to her station grabbing her gun and and magazine and walked back to his.

She loaded it and then went through the motion of how you fired it. "Safety off," she finger clicked the safety button. "Stance," her legs went were spread apart and her arms were out in front of her. "Breathe." She let a breath out just as she pulled the trigger and the bang sounded. She hit the corner of his target. She set the gun down and chewed on her lip more. "You did the exact same thing as I did. I don't think I can pin point it, other then you need work on your coordination." She said turning to look up at him. Jo had good coordination because before she joined the military she had worked on the waste treatment machines for a year. "That's all I know how to help with." She mused. Thinking of something of the top of her head. "Playing catch or juggling should help. Although I don't know where you'd find a ball..." She trailed off as she wracked her brain some more. Her eyes lit up suddenly then. "Oh! Weight training. Take a medicine ball and throw it against a wall while you do sit ups or crunches. Change the angle every now and again while you throw it so you can get a work out AND work on your hand eye coordination." She suggested. During weight training they could do what every they wanted so it would work out for him.

"Other then that your just going to have to keep practicing. Practice makes perfect." She said grinning at him. She turned her head away and reached over to click the safety back on, on her gun. Realizing she just said more words then she had ever spoken since arriving at base. "I just sort of rambled..." She mumbled. Reaching up to scratch her cheek. "If you want to take my advice you can. Won't hurt my feelings if you decide not too." She said quickly, not wanting him to feel like she was telling him what to do.

[Deleted]

His smile grew brighter and he shook his head, wanting to dissuade her of any silly notions. "Don't worry about rambling, I like listening to you. As for your advice, I'll think I'll take it." He was looking straight into her eyes as he spoke, the silvery blue in his own iris' showing that his smile wasn't fake as he unconsciously reached to take the hand that was against her cheek.

He froze as he felt his hand touch hers, blush rising up his cheeks. The embarrassment on his face took over his eyes as he stumbled for words, "Uhh..I..umm..." His fingers twitched as he tried to take back his hand, though he seemed to be moving a little too slow, or maybe that was just his heart beating really fast.