The Duel

Spectre sits on the big team couch reading Of Mice and Men, Squire sits opposite her, all five of his pistols laid out under a towel. He haolds a rag in his hands, carefully tending to his old, heavy pistols. Spectre glances up from the book and catches squire's maintenance peering cautiously at the inner workings of the guns. He had carefully taken apart his Walker pistols, cleaning each part delicately, before pausing and looking up at her.

Sq: "Whatcha readin' over there?"

Sp: "Of Mice and Men, it's just some boring old thing Ms. Watchson's got us reading. Could you maybe not point that thing my way?" She gestures at the barrel he's currently cleaning

Sq: "Oh, I wasn't pointin' it at ya. Least I didn't mean to iffen I did." He'd set down the pistols, and look back at her. "My ol' pa taught me you don't point guns at folks less you got a good reason to."

Sp: "That's a good attitude squire, and I'd like to think we don't have ANY reason to EVER point 'em' at ANYONE here in Halcyon"

Sq: He cocked an eyebrow at that remark. "What makes you say that? There's bad people here in this big city, out to do bad things to good people, and that's why I use my tools. It ain't any different than that girl's maul, or your fightin' sticks."

Sp: "Gun's kill people. My sai don't."

Sq: "Spectre, if I take your Sai and hit somebody hard enough. I could kill somebody, heck, you could take a butter knife and end someone with it. My guns don't kill people..that's up to me to do, or in this case. Stun." He says, motioning to his flashy, blue and yellow revolvers. "The tool dosent dictate the hero. The hero dictates what the tools do."

Sp: "You're right about that Squire, but when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you use my sai properly, you'll disarm someone, if you use a toaster properly you'll get breakfast, if you use a gun properly someone will die. Though.. you said you stun with those?"

Sq: "Indeed. From what I can tell. They deliver 50,000 volts of justice. At least that's what them scientists told me when they made it, and you can easily disarm with a gun. If you got a quick enough eye and a fast hand, you can shoot the gun right out of a baddies hand."

Sp: "I don't know how much 50k volts is but it probably hurts a lot... I bet I could disarm you safer and faster than you can get to me"

Sq: "You disarm me? Last I checked, ain't saying you aren't skilled. But a gun beats a sword plain and simple. And you know. I can imagine 50K does hurt. But I figure that's called...pain compliance."

Sp: "Alright there big mouth, 10 paces let's duel it out, losers's got to uh... I don't know, we'll figure out what you owe me once you're guns on the ground" She jumps over the couch and stands up straight in front of squire "So what do you say"

Sq: He leans backwards as she stands in front of him, clearly a bit caught off guard by the challenge. "Uh..I'm not about to duel you, Spectre, if there's one thing I don't do, is I don't hurt my teammates."

Sp: "Oh come on!! It'll be fun, just a bit of friendly competition. I've sparred with Deadfall and i'm still around, see?"

Sq: "Yeah, but I don't wanna dig hooks out of your side if I hit you with a taser, PLUS I don't want you gettin' hit with lightning." His tone was quite genuine in his desire not to. "I save my shots for the villains that deserve it."

Sp: "You're no fun" she pouts "Besides didn't you say you could shoot the sai OUT of my hand? If you do it right you're not gonna hit me at all!"

Sq: He frowned up at her, crossing his arms. "Are you..absolutely...abundantly sure? I care about you folks, an' the last thing I want is seeing someone on the team get hurt if I wound up causin' it."

Sp: "Eh so I'll twitch and convulse a bit on the floor. It's nothing that GRAY hasn't done to me" she looks at him pointedly "As I'm sure you'd know"

Sq: "Uh..I don't know, though. I don't know much about you, frankly, but..I guess this could count as good bonding.." He'd stoop down and reach for his blue and yellow pistols. "You want me usin' one or two?"

Sp: She flourishes her sai and laughs "I'm using both, but you do you bud" she heads off counting the paces "1! 2! ..."

Sq: He scooped up both of his pistols, sighing and starting to walk. "You know they didn't really do this, where I'm from.." He'd remark, before tightening the grip on his pistols, his body tensing up as well, taking a deep breath as she counted down.

Sp: "... 9! 10! Alright buddy, we'll count together and turn around on 3. Last one holding onto the weapons wins. 1! ..."

Sq: "2" He'd remark coldly

Sp: "... 1!" She crouches low and starts running, her sai shielding her face(edited)

Sq: As if his hands were made of lighting too, he points and fires, a pair of bullets flying towards his training foe, the first bullet clangs off the tip of the Sai, while the other goes hard against the grip, sending it flying into the air as electricity sparks off of it.

Sp: Spectre stops dead in her tracks "Well how about that! Guess you can walk the walk..."

Sq: The Sai clatters against the ground loudly, before he walks over, placing a gloved hand against it, grabbing it up, and with his own flourish, flipped around to where he clutched the bladed side, grip pointing at her. "I back up everything I say with my actions. Otherwise, I'd be a mute."

Sp: she gingerly takes it and tucks it back away into the folds of her costume "Guess I'm not as hot shit as I thought I was..." she laughs wryly "Squire, do you... do you WANT to be part of this team?"

Sq: He watches her put the weapon up, leans over, and sets his pistols back down. "I..do, originally I didn't think too highly of this whole thing. But I really feel like I'm making a difference for this here city by being here."

Sp: "Yeah I guess all of you superheroes are." she sits back down on the couch "Redstreak, You, the rest of the team, even Riley, can stop a villain in their tracks. But I can't even show off..." she looks at squire "Do you think I'll ever make a difference on this team?"

Sq: "You don't need to show off though. All you gotta do is just train, and take solace in the friends you do have..I know you will, and I'm very certain you already have...be honest with ya, I wish I had the sort of dexterity you did..and it'd be nice having friends." He sits down next to her on the couch. "I kinda feel like I'm on my own on the team."

Sp: She leans over and gives him a hug, surreptitiously wiping the still forming tear out of her eye before giving him a light punch on the shoulder "Maybe if you focused more on NOT hurting the bad guys and instead on making sure that people were safe people would open up to you more. I know that'd make me feel a lot better around you."

Sq: He was suprised by that hug, he'd shift a little and try to return it, only to get punched. He'd look back at her and just put an arm around her, patting her on the shoulder. "I..think I get what you are sayin'..It'll take some getting used to, but frankly it ain't like I've not been doing that this whole dern time."

Sp: "You know squire, you're pretty cool for a 200 year old teenager"

Sq: That gets a chuckle out of him as he looked back at her. "And you ain't half bad yourself. You think you can teach me how to throw stuff like you did friday?"

Sp: "AW heck yeah!" she jumps up excited to show off her cool toys to her new friend