Series: The Ghost Unit
Title: Alternatives (12)
Setting: IDW Transformers, inspired by the "What's Wrong with a Little Destruction" 'verse by ajremix
Note: Many thanks to rexlapinii and ajremix for beta-ing!
Summary: In which Salvo is faced with an interesting training conundrum.

Alternatives
"In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns."
~ The Godfather

"...you're kiddin' me, right?"

"No."

"That's-" Salvo stared as the next shot not only went wide but also proceeded to ricochet against the target, sending the shooter diving to the ground for cover. "Primus. That's pathetic. And I've seen more than one bad shot in my life but-" he gaped as another shot failed to hit anywhere near any of the targets, then whimpered. "Make the badness stop please. The poor gun doesn't deserve to be treated that way!"

Flagship would have smiled at their walking artillery's desolation was it not for the fact that he felt rather pained about the whole thing himself.

#Fallout, that's enough.#

With a flat look, Fallout stepped back from her firing position on the targeting range and walked towards the observation booth. Stepping inside she stretched out an arm, holding the gun out for a glowering Salvo to reclaim.

"Never ever touch any of my weapons," the mech rumbled, fretfully patting the blaster she'd conceded to him. Without a word, the femme nodded then turned stiffly to walk out of the small room.

"Wait. Look, you ain't passing approval for full field work 'till you show you can defend yourself. I don't care what you use." Salvo's words were categorical and he waited until he had Fallout's full attention before going on, serious and intent. "Fine - you can't shoot and from what Deadline said about whatever block it is you have about guns, you ain't gonna be shooting right anytime soon. You're slaggin' fast and you're stronger than most mechs would expect you to be. That's fine. But you need to be able to take out mechs larger than you," he didn't need to point out that was likely every mech she'd encounter while on mission, "within a klik or two and then split, or you're busted. If you can't defend yourself properly in the field beyond that, you ain't going out to start with."

"...so long as I can defend myself I'm good to go - regardless of the weapons being used?" Fallout's stiffness was fading slowly and she looked at the larger mech with thoughtful optics. Both ignored Flagship's presence, intent on each other as they were. Salvo noticed how the defensiveness was slowly seeping away and made note of it, along with reminding himself to talk to Deadline some more about it.

"Yeah. We'll get you stun batons, for one. You should mostly always be in close combat range, so that's a good standby. And a silent one. So training on that starts soon as we get a set from storage fitted to you and you'll move on to training with bossbot as well once you've shown me what you can do. But that won't be enough. You need something that'll make do for not having a blaster to work with." Salvo's optics gleamed in the observation room's dim lighting. "Find that, and I'll help you make it work with your combat style."

"Deal." Fallout was unmoving as they spoke, though it was easy for both combat trained mechs to see the new kind of tenseness in her frame. Salvo had just opened a door for her and she was eager to go through.

"Good. C'mon, let's get you rigged up with those batons then." The mech led the way, gesturing as he spoke to the smaller femme. "We should have Deadline fix you up with an in-build set or permanent sheaths of some kind," he continued, reaching down to pull up one of Fallout's arms as they walked off, peering at her wrist components critically. "Maybe he can rig 'em up with something nasty too if you need an edge..." As their voices faded away, Flagship remained where he'd been, unmoving and forgotten, nodding to himself in satisfaction.

~*~

Three weeks later she walked into the training hall and informed Salvo she had found an alternative to the traditional blaster which satisfied her. After slow but satisfyingly steady improvement in the use of the batons, Salvo was more than ready to see what she had in store to justify an approval rating equivalency for a ranged weapon. A second after challenging her to back up her words, Salvo was staring at a magnetic grenade clamped to his chestplate. Two seconds later, he noted with approval that the stun grenade made less noise than the muffled whine of her engines as she peeled away from him in alt mode. The thought 'She's already across the field, woah!' did not quite get finished before the world faded out.

Three hours later, he woke in the infirmary and smiled up broadly at an extremely annoyed Deadline before taking him to witness as he formally passed Fallout for the first phase of her combat training.

Current Mood: calm