Welcome to Gaia! ::

Naeria could not blame the members of the Vanguard who had chosen not to follow the Commodore at the end of the hilltop battle. What Lyndin had done had been horrifying. Naeria wanted no part of it, and she had not been able to look at him the same way, or to speak to him at all, really, since the incident.

She had only gone with him because she'd assumed he was returning to Velencya, where she'd meant to tell the council and the people about what was happening, to ask for aid in finding way of saving their worlds that did not rely on the cruelty of the Negaverse.

Her voice might not have gone very far, but she'd been willing to try.

Things had changed, after that. They were stuck on Earth looking for solutions anyway, each in their own way. It had been nothing but a relief to know that the five who remained with Order had survived, and she smiled when she came across Valynyr and her setup with the cans, and the blaster.

"Practicing?" she asked.

Naeria lurked awkwardly at the edge of the makeshift shooting range after she'd spoken. Her shoulders were hunched, her eyes wide and unblinking, nervous.

If Valnyr had told her to leave, or had so much as looked annoyed, she would have scampered off without saying anything more, but as it was, she was asking if she wanted to stay, and Naeria nodded, her shoulders relaxing away from her ears.

"Andreyia's been helping me train," she said. "He was promoted. I don't know if you knew. He is very good with the weapons."

She went quiet for another moment, although it was less from nerves this time, more just for thinking.

"I could be your moving target, if you wanted," she offered. Naeria was very quiet. She wouldn't draw attention to them, like whatever contraption Valynr might have been thinking about building for practice. "I could shoot back. That would be more like a battle. I could look at your form too, yes."

Stepping closer to where the cans were set up, Naeria drew her own blaster from the holster on her belt, but she did not do anything more until Valnyr had agreed to the plan.

The Cadet blasters were made to be training tools. Even on the highest setting, they weren't particularly dangerous, but Naeria took a second to make sure that hers was set to a lower power setting. She also looked it over for any damage or grime, the way they'd been trained, but when she found none, she nodded.

"Count to thirty," she said. "Then we start."

One. Two. Three.

Naeria sprinted off, today's layer of thin, slushy snow crunching under her boots as she moved.

Four. Five. Six.

There were trees here to keep them away from the prying eyes of humans. Naeria ducked behind one of them. She pressed her back flat against the rough bark.

Seven. Eight. Nine.

She brought her blaster up in front of her chest, rested her finger lightly on the trigger, and peeked out around the side of her cover. She waited.

Twenty five. Twenty six. Twenty seven.

Naeria took a deep breath and flexed her back against the tree that she'd chosen, but she didn't allow herself to peek at her fellow Vanguardian, not yet.

Thirty.

It was only at that point that she turned, slowly enough that she did not make too much noise to give away what she was doing. For one second more, she just faced the tree. Then, she leaned out from the cover, just for a moment. One eye and part of her face and hair was visible in that moment, but in the meantime, she was able to spot the pink of Valnyr's boot sole.

Andreyia had told her not to hesitate, so she did not. Instead, she pulled her blaster around and fired at her foot.

It might not be the most honorable, but it would likely be effective in a real battle.

Oh. Her attack had hit!

That was good. Naeria had been doing occasional target practice of her own, and it was good to see that it was paying off when Valnyr's foot twitched and vanished.

Within a split second, Naeria had vanished back behind her tree, making herself as small as her tall frame would allow. She cradled her blaster in both hands, silently counting down the seconds until the recharge had finished.

Then, she peeked out again, ready for another shot.

This time, Valnyr was faster.

The shot hit the side of her cheek, sending odd, heavy tingles throughout the rest of her face. There was an awkward second where she couldn't quite blink, or move her mouth.

She still shot, but this time it was a quick, blind thing before she was ducking back again.

Everything was going fine. They had a system now. They were exchanging shots, learning how to reach targets in the split seconds that they would duck out from behind cover. It was target practice, in motion.

At least, it was target practice until all at once it was not.

Naeria was behind her tree again, waiting for her recharge, when she heard footsteps.

Then, before she could think too much about that, she was being shoved to the ground. Her back hit the grass with a thump. Her blaster almost went flying, but she was holding it with both hands, and she curled her fingers tighter around it at the last second.

Naeria looked up at Valnyr, her wide, owlish eyes full of shock. Then, they narrowed slightly.

She squeezed the trigger of her blaster, sending a point blank blast towards the other while she tried to wiggle away from her.

Naeria blinked, twice, and while she might have been able to reposition and get another shot off while Valnyr flinched, instead she let her blaster vanish into subspace and raised her empty hands in front of her.

"Sorry?" she murmured.

She hadn't known it could give people stomachaches. She hadn't known that it felt worse than being kicked.

Some of the others had been working on upgrading their weapons and making them more powerful. Naeria had thought that she should do that too, once she got approval, but suddenly she wasn't sure that she wanted to give it more raw power.

People going through seconds of drawn out suffering every time she hit them was and uncomfortable thought, especially if she somehow made it more intense than this. The intent of the blasters was to stun people, and for a moment there, Naeria wondered if there was a kinder way to do that.

"Do you want to take a break?" she said out loud. "I think we practiced all our skills. Aim. Use of cover. Strategy."