7599/Pew Practice

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Pew Practice
Date of Scene: 29 August 2021
Location: Gun Range: Triskelion
Synopsis: Are there Republicans in space? What starts as ray-gun practice at the Triskelion range turns into a debate on technological exchange and lot of sass.
Cast of Characters: Michael Erickson, Lara Croft, Darcy Lewis




Michael Erickson has posed:
    The Range is a hall of silence despite its many chambers of thunder; within, Agents and their allies practice with their firearms, slugs propelled by violet chemical reactions. Slugs impacting false flesh and solid objects. Rounding up scores practicing the death of others - ostensibly in the defense of others.

    But of course, there are more advanced areas, far from the rest. There Michael Erickson - or the man who calls himself that - stands in one of the booths filled with energy-absorptive tech and materials, in a position that is very similar to that of those who are flinging around bullet-shooters. The weapon in his hand, however, looks something akin to a black-chromed merger of a Luger and a beetle, insectile and bulbous. From its tapered muzzle a crackling flash of bright blue light snaps down the range corridor into the targets on their pedestals, releasing clouds of sparks and veins of crackling energy. There's thunder here, too, though it isn't the roar of chemical propellant or the bursting of the sonic barrier. It's just...thunder. Real thunder. There in his hand.

    From his target score, apparently he's damned good at flinging lightning.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara had been happily awaiting this part of the Trisk to re-open to the agents, as the athletics and training areas were second to none... She had started with the rock climbing walls, where she volunteered as a trainer for other Agents new to the whole climbing element of physical fitness. But now, after a quick shower and cleanup, Lara was coming to the gun range to practice her targeting skills. It was a day of training, but to her it was also relaxing... allowed her to unwind and focus her thoughts more readily.

Dressed casually in black track pants, a white SHIELD-logo emblazoned in black upon the chest, Lara enters the gun range and walks toward an open section carrying her side arm in a black case. She posts up at a spot and sets the case down, spending a moment to tie her long dark hair back in a loose ponytail behind her shoulders.... Her eyes roam around as she does this too.
The 'thunder' noises most certainly draw Lara's eyes as she is back from the range right now, standing beside the readying table. She watches the figure shooting that lightning weapon and it makes her narrow her eyes for a moment. She starts to idly walk in that direction to get a better look of it in action, as her hands come down to rest upon her hips.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Even Darcy comes here sometimes! All Agents are required to keep up various certifications and training standards. And for all her nerdiness, her scores are... well, let's just she doesn't have the record for the LOWEST scores, at least. She took self defense classes before she was a spy, even! Just ask Thor!

But is that why she's come down? Time will tell.

Regardless, Agent Lewis arrives sometime after the others are already up to their pew-pew business. That she comes in wearing a lab coat may suggest intentions other than physical training, or maybe just that the air conditioning is always turned up too high in this place. Who knows. She strides down the firing line, mostly ignoring the various agents working on their own targets, headed toward the same 'special' test area in the back. When she arrives? Her greeting to both of them is just a little bit on the anti-social side:

"Don't mind me."

From there, she walks back to a small raised monitoring and control area set behind the range. There's some controls here for the test area itself, as its functionality is a bit more complicated than 'press the button, targets come out.' There are all kinds of modes and options. But she's not interested in them either. She hunkers down in front of a screen. Of course, it has all kinds of metrics and monitoring capabilities too. This is SHIELD. Probably everywhere that isn't the bathrooms has cameras, and this is the /superweapon test range./

Michael Erickson has posed:
    Superweapons, indeed! Though as far as Michael's buglike pistol is concerned, it isn't /terribly/ super. It is, by and large, a ray-gun, though it flings what looks like lightning rather than any more exotic particles. Now of course, in Darcy's monitors, the energy is clear - the weapon is some kind of charged particle gun, flinging electrons as if it were meant to be in the armory of the God of Thunder. Rather terribly lethal. Shockingly so, in fact.

    But it does not have much in the way of recoil, so Michael holds it out like a very small-caliber pistol, snapping off shots down the range with his free hand tucked behind his back. Were this World War I he would not be out of place standing at the edge of a trench, inspiring troops or whatever until some German sniper picked him off from the far end of No Man's Land.

    Darcy's words as she comes by don't really surprise him, though Lara's approach causes a faint smile to line his lips. "Agents," he greets, echoing between those crackling, miniature peals of thunder. "Hello."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara was not one of the more well known agents in the Agency. She wasn't a 'secret' Agent, per-se. She was acquisitions specialist of sorts. So her presence often flew under the radar of the greater agency as a whole. She knwos of faces like Darcy's but doesn't have a long standing working relationship with the woman. She does offer her a smile when she sees the white coated woman making her entrance. A nod is afforded to her as well before she watches Michael again.

After he fires the weapon another time, she looks back to where Darcy was and then back to Micahel to see him register her presence now. She nods once to him, of course knowing him from the party they attended together last month. Did she know he was brought on here? Maybe! Maybe not!

"Impressive." Lara says to the man. "Though it seems a bit like overkill in most scenarios.... Still though, I'd probably be happy to have one of my own." She says in her British accented voice, offering a faint smile to the man.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Once Darcy is set at her station, she becomes quickly absorbed by whatever she's doing, her focus narrow and intent. Mostly, she stares at the screen, although occasionally, she will tap-tap a key or two. "Hmm. Mmmm? Mmmhmm." Yes, it all sounds very fascinating.

"Uggggh! Boring!" Or not.

After making this sudden and frustrated pronouncement, she looks up from the station, accusation in her expression. "You know, for a fancy alien death ray, that thing is kind of lame." Michael, in fact, may have told her something to this effect before, when she was asking about future tests. But she acts like it is a new discovery, and moreover, than the simple facts are some kind of personal insult.

"So, Mr. Alien, is that thing really all you've got?" She is apparently not so impressed as Lara! "The miniaturization is great and all, and I'm sure the power source is interesting, but even we mere primative humans figured out shooting lightning in the 1890s." Good old Tesla.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Yes," calls Michael between another couple of shots, "That's why we see them in active, compact use all over the planet today, Agent Lewis! Because it's a simple technology." He smirks as he moves to holster the gun in an equally bulbous holster made of weirdly glossy, scaly hide, clipped to his belt by some form of device or another - alas, it makes little sense to make fasteners exotic for the Hell of it. "I suppose you won't want to know all about its use in the Empire since it's so boring, then."

    He looks to Lara, then, and gives her a loose salute of some kind, fist briefly bouncing off his chest. "Agent Croft. I'm afraid it's no humans allowed where these are concerned - just us spacemen." A grin. "Surprise! I'm not from around here, as it turns out. Lovely to see you again though."

Lara Croft has posed:
A glance back is given to Darcy when she seems far less impressed by the weapon. It makes her smirk softly before she looks back to Michael. "Well, yes, Tesla made leaps and bounds in his technology. But, I've never seen such a thing condensed down in to a small arm weapon before. So, yes, that thing must have a rather impressive battery inside of it." She quietly says before folding her arms over her stomach.

When Michael explaisn a bit, Lara just shows another soft smile. "Well that makes sense." She says. "You were far too nice at that party to be anything but a person from the stars." IT was a party of mostly anti-mutant racists after all, so they both came to find out.

"I'm glad you've decided to come work with SHIELD."

Darcy Lewis has posed:
COUNTER SASS? Oh dear.

Darcy's eyebrows kink inward in a deep expression of displeasure, and she abruptly stands back up from the station (tapping one last key - save your work!) before storming her way back down. She stops in front of Michael, close enough to be somewhat infringing on his personal space. "OK, you win. Go ahead and explain all about its use. Starting with the basic principles behind its design, including - yes, as I highlighted - the power source, and how THAT works." Her hands fold across her chest. "Well? I'm waiting. Explain away!"

Also, as if to deflate the suggestion that Lara isn't /allowed/ to play with it, she adds: "Despite their efforts, we did recover a fair bit of salvage from the various Shi'ar attack sites and the inventory is all going through analysis. I've got a pretty huge backlog to sort through still, but if you want to try one out, I'm *sure* I can requisition you one for testing." She looks back from Lara to Michael. "Something better than the little pocket zapper."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "We've had a few thousand years back home to work it out." Michael gives Lara another faint smile. "Not as nice as you might think, I'm afraid. My people are part of that group that rolled into orbit not long ago and tried to crack open the moon - militant conquerors, that sort of thing. Not terribly different from your own Roman Empire, actually, though we never had to worry about the Visigoths. Just the Kree." He pats the weapon on his hip. "It's got an electromagnetic absorption cell on board, charges itself passively over time through the planet's magnetosphere - it only works in atmosphere anyway, so that works well."

    He draws the weapon again, holding it up by the midsection for Lara (and Darcy, naturally) to better see. "Quanatzi-N'gaan Model 323 electron particle emitter. One of many small arms the forces of the Empire employs. This was old when I came here, though. I expect it's been phased out of military service entirely now." He lets them have another long look, turning it over in his hand, and then back into its holster it goes with a soft 'huff' of metal on padding. "I imagine that unlike Agent Smartass over here, you might like to hear more about my people in the anthropological and historical sense." He turns to grin at Darcy. " -- and I say that with all due affection, Agent. You're obviously a delight and a brilliant mind and I quite like you anyway. And I am happy to answer any questions about our technology and its principles that I am educated in, though I will caution that as I am a soldier, my intellect fuels more of my understanding than university education."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara stands a few paces back from Michael as Darcy comes to get a closer look, or assert her dominance here in the tech being put on display... she's not sure. Either way, Croft shows a small smile at Darcy before she looks back to Michael as he holds the pistol up to display it more while giving a longer run down on it.

"I'll admit that I have a great deal of interest in your culture." Lara says. "But, my focus is primarily on Earth. I can't imagine I'll ever visit an alien world, let alone have a chance to delve in to their likely limitless archaeological mysteries. One world is a lot of work already." She shows another quick smile before she uncrosses her arms from her stomach again.

"I would love to test some of those weapons, Agent Lewis." Lara says then to Darcy. "I'm sure there are more experienced Agents here, but I do have a love of weapons, trained in to me by a true 'gun nut', as they say."

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Darcy, somewhat predictably, smirks, clearly in full smarty-pants rampage mode. "Ok so you know the name and model number and very vaguely how it recharges, but not how it works, or how said recharging is accomplished beyond that it happens, just like the average teenager knows they have a Samsung phone with 5G and an ultra high-def touchscreen and a USB charger to a lithium battery, but they don't know how any of those technologies operate, either and couldn't replicate any of them with a gun to their head. Right? Just so we're clear? You're about equivalent to a human teenager with a fancy gadget made by slaves in China that they have no understanding of or appreciation for." Woah Nelly, now she's getting political, too! Poor Imperial Conqueror species man.

And the deathblow? "Whereas I could absolutely explain all of that, and if I took apart your gun, probably explain it too. Although depending on the power source, it might take me a while. I could almost certainly identify the basic principle it functions under - are we talking micro fusion? matter-antimatter reactions? exotic particle generation? - although obviously the mechanism might be beyond us to easily duplicate, and even that is probably more about materials than about fundamental knowledge."

Finally, she huffs. "I'm sure your culture is fascinating, actually. But I do sort of have a job here. And, actually, I'm not too interested in having you explain your technology as we've established that you have a layman's - by your own cultural standards - understanding of it. I would enjoy a closer look, though." And here, she holds out a hand, palm up. "Promise I won't break it."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Well as it happens I can actually travel to other planets again, Agent Croft, so I think that if you're interested in visiting planets local to your star system at the very least I can give you a tour." And then Darcy smirks and starts nerd-bullying, or something like it. He weathers the frst buffet, but his smile starts to fade with the stacking word count. "Agent Lewis needs to realize that sometimes people are screwing with her," Michael asides to Lara, and he looks back to Darcy, his lips settling into a line. Something's touched a nerve.

    "Agent Lewis," he begins, his voice equal parts gentle and stern. "I've just turned my back on my people thanks, in part, to their exploitative practices. I've killed them in battle, protecting human lives. I am a /traitor/ to my kind, now, and whatever family remains in the Empire are likely suffering beneath social and governmental sanctions." A slight spike in sternness at the end, there, but the iron recedes. A smile, then. Gentle. Or, perhaps, tired. "So. If you please, dial back the attitude just a bit. It makes you fun to work with but you might perhaps take a bit of stock in just /where/ your barbs might land."

    He does not, as it happens, draw the pistol for her inspection.

Lara Croft has posed:
The exchange between the two of them has Lara smirking softly. "I believe Agent Lewis might be used to dealing with a lot of tough military types around here." She quietly offers to help Darcy, not that she needs it. "That is, at least, my own experiences within the SHIELD group. There's a lot of tough macho types who love to talk a 'big game'."

Lara turns to the side then and walks back to where she left her gun case. She takes a second to open it up before she reaches for the 'ears' headset that let sound in up to a sertain decimal level. She wraps those around her neck and glances back to Michael.

"Is that an offer to explore our solar system? I'm not even sure what I'd do with myself in such a case." She tells him with a soft smile as she prepares her sidearm out of the foam formed rest she pulls it, and its pieces, from.

"Seeing the rings of Saturn must be quite the sight, if you're speaking of seeing them up close." She says before loading the weapon with a small sound of slide and snap.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
At the end of all of that, Darcy gives a bit of a huff of breath.

"Sorry. Being a traitorous galactic conqueror is definitely an upgrade from the normal variety." How very kind! "And I hope your family is OK." Well, that one is a little less snarky.

Buuuuut....

"But also I don't particularly like getting talked down to, jokingly or not. It's pretty common on our planet," and here she looks aside toward Lara who is bringing up the same point. Macho military types indeed. "And it's not really an improvement to get it from a so-called 'superior' race that, one, just tried to invade us and two, as far as I can tell, is really only ahead because of the happenstance of when along the grand cosmic timeline evolution happened to hand out the upgrade to sentience. Technological advancement doesn't really work like people think. There are big gaps in understanding, and big leaps based on tiny changes. And I'd bet that dude from 1890 could figure out your gun as well as I could if he got a look at it. So..."

Which leads to a voiced 'ahem' as her hand is still there. Fingers do a grabby motion.

"I might also remind you at this point that as a noble traitor to a nonetheless very hostile alien race, you have no legal status on this planet whatsoever outside of what SHIELD provides you, and that said protections are predicated on your ongoing cooperation. Please don't make me file paperwork about this. I promise, really, that I won't break it."

All that said, she also asides to Lara, "You ought to take him up on it. Space is wild."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    Ahhh. Words. He frowns faintly, nodding once. "That wasn't my intention," he says to Darcy, "And I apologize if I sounded that way. I wasn't trying to mansplain, or...species-splain, or whatever. I'm...in a very transitional place, and I'm very aware of my sudden isolation. I'm sorry for being rude."

    Buuuuuuut...

    Michael leans forward, looking the woman in her big, brown, sassy eyes. "Agent Lewis? You mean well, but don't threaten me with bureacracy. Or the law. I'm here because I believe in helping people, but it doesn't need to be with SHIELD. My weapons are my own, and I - and I alone - choose whom to share them with. File paperwork to try and take what's mine against my wishes and all you'll get is a burnt-out metal shell. Are we clear?"

Lara Croft has posed:
Once her gun is prepared, Lara steps up to the stall that is designed for her kind of weapon and she sets it down on the shelf in fornt of her before she readies her ears and then slips on a pair of goggles from the rack beside her. She glances over at the two of them as they're really laying in to each other now and she just smirks softly at them.

This reminds her of about every other conversation she hears going on at SHIELD on a daily basis. People. Interacting. With. Each. Other.

Lara turns back to her shelf and gathers up her gun then. She lifts the custom 1911 Nighthawk up, readies it and aims down sights. The customized silver skeletal trigger is squeezed once and a loud pop of classic gun powder and slug projectile echo around the firing range as Lara centers her shot on the target down range.

What comes next is a rapid succession of seven more shots before her gun is lowered, the magazine emptied. She sets the gun down on the shelf again and glances back to the two of them.

"Are there legal ways for aliens from other worlds to join our society?" Lara then asks. "Or do they ahve to rely on SHIELD like some... reality version of ... what is that film? Men in Black?" She asks as she pulls another full magazine out of her case and sets it down o nthe shelf beside her gun.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
A staring contest ensues...

Well not really. Darcy gives in prettty fast, especially as its hard to maintain eye contact when her own go rolling waaaay back. "OK, well, I tried!" She withdraws her hand and turns around abruptly to walk back toward the station. "Don't say I didn't warn you. But between you and me, 'I'll break my own stuff - and totally screw myself - before I bow to any authority even in the most minor way!' sure seems like a macho jackass mindset to me. Also, by the way, this range," and she gestures her hand, "has like a million different kinds of sensors set up. I got pretty good data from you just shooting the thing, which is why I said it was boring, because it mostly is. The power source, admittedly, I'll have to do some guesswork on from ambient readings, though, which is mostly just a pain in my ass."

Once she's made her way back up to the computer, she does a very brief set of further tap-taps, but that's it. Pretty soon, she's making her way back down again.

"Not really my area of expertise, but no, as far as I know we haven't exactly figured out a framework for alien immigration, considering we're still pretty bad on the human variety," she laments, speaking more to Lara now. "Mostly, if they're the benevolent-acting kind rather than the invading kind, the Government deals with them through an appropriate organization, like us or the DEO. Some get a bit more leeway, like the Justice League types, but there's still some measure of oversight and, well, I kind of imagine Superman isn't usually a prick over routine government inquiries." Big smile. "Everything I've read says he's like a big boy scout."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    He just stares at Darcy as she drifts off. "It's like she didn't hear a word I said," he tells Lara while Darcy's off doing things. "Of course I knew that there were sensors set up in this range, but -- is this what it's like here? I just /left/ a regime that threatened the full weight of the law if you didn't do what it wanted. I'm starting to think I made a mistake." Michael shakes his head, a mask of grim disgust settling over his features. "I'm going home. Look me up if you'd like to say hello, Agent Croft. I'm in the book."

    And off he goes, unclipping the gun from his belt and taking off his jacket, into which it is bundled. Off to...wherever...probably to stew a bit.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara ejects the empty magazine and sets it aside before she slide snaps the new one in to the 1991's grip. She considers the conversation taking place over her shoulder and it has her smiling faintly. "You're not wrong about messy immigration issues." Lara says back to Darcy before she notes Michael beginning to make his leave. "I'll do that." She tells him with a soft smile before she adds. "And I think you made the right decision, Michael." She tells him. "But, I might be biased on which side I wanted to not be destroyed by the other. Hang in there too, you're amongst friends, I promise." She tells him further before she turns back to the range and repeats her firing actions as she had with the first round of gunfire.


Bang bang bang bang!

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"Blah blah, minor, reasonable and harmless request is equal to facism because 'muh freedoms.' No government could possibly have reasonable concerns about vastly powerful weapon technologies running free in their population! Who'd have thought they'd have Republicans in space." The two of them are clearly both on their own particular trajectories, so obviously, Darcy isn't letting up with the Darcy-isms at this point. She gathers up her stuff, but since it's now a race to see who storms out first, she... doesn't leave. Well, she walks a short ways, over to the table where Lara had been before.

"Full disclosure, I'm submitting a report on your case, and filing a request with Command for them to require you to hand over your gear for analysis. But do what you want, blow it up for all I care. Really not personal, but, you know, this is my actual job description so unfortunately the whole 'please and thank you and hope I am worthy of your trust' doesn't factor in." Apparently, she's decided Agent Croft has the right idea now, and so her annoyance is going to get vented on some targets. PEW PEW TIME.