“What is this…?” Angel looked down at the golden symbol, she glanced around as the Leviathan’s Cross appeared again, it was happening to everyone in the house, and the source of the magic that was feeding the spell was nowhere to be seen.
“Is this a trap?” Agnes asked as she tried to comfort a flailing Flash next to her, “Just shoot them in the face and get Maker!” Agnes was getting irritated.
“No, this isn’t anyone here… and I don’t think it’s a trap, more of a snare, maybe an attempt at farseeing to get Maker’s location. Perhaps something to retrain us as another assassin moves in….” Angel sighed as the Cross faded. “Just be on guard.”
“Why are you so calm?” Agnes asked as Flash finally settled down clinging onto Agnes.
Angel smiled, “There’s no point in feeling anything else. First lesson, keep a level head and you can process the situation and handle it appropriately. All the training in the world won’t mean anything if you let emotions get the better of you, feeling scared or nervous? You won’t move at all or you’ll hesitate or fumble around. Feeling angry? You will act irrationally and brashly, leaving you open to attacks and you become sloppy in execution.” Angel drew out the revolver, and held it rather awkwardly, as she appeared to slowly spin it around, while rotating her wrist. Tossing the gun into the air, it moved in near slow-motion through the air and towards her body, the center. She was testing for how the snare was effecting her and the gun.
Interesting…. She though catching the revolver and continuing to spin it around with a look of amusement, as if she was just passing the time.
Agnes frowned and closed her eyes as she sat back in the couch trying to calm herself. As much as she disagreed with Angel. There was a reason why she is one of the deadliest gunslingers around. Thoughts of their childhood flashed in her mind but she did her best to ignore them.
~Memory snippet~
A young Agnes, no older than ten years old, stood in front of a makeshift target built from straws a piece of paper, and a crudely drawn outline of what looked like a person. She was holding small toy pellet gun trying her best to shoot at the target from a bit of distance away. A curious looking Mareep was bobbing around to his own imaginary beat next to her, absentmindedly chewing on some grass.
The sun was bright and she was in a large open pasture of endless green, Mareep, Wooloo, Skiddo, and various other Pokémon were around grazing and napping.
Her other sisters were around in the general area practicing with their own weapons. Amina, the second oldest sibling, was the nearest one to her dancing around elegantly as she twirled around a rope dart. Agnes stared at with a frown her as her sister gracefully moved around and leapt through the air, Amina was surrounded by several suspended clay targets. Effortlessly Amina would shoot the dart out at speeds that were nearly invisible to the eye utterly destroying each target around her and seamlessly continue her fluid movements.
Furrowing her brow Agnes took aim at her own target and fired several shots. Three misses and one hit the paper but not the target. “AHHH! This is so stupid! Why do I have to learn this stupid thing?” Agnes threw the toy gun in the grass and sat down by the Mareep next her. She ran her hand though her short back swept hair and pulled at the ends as she buried her face in her knees. “What am I going do Flash? Mother’s going to be so mad at me!” she pat the Mareep, she looked around at her other sisters, her older sibling were all practicing with their weapons with a relatively high level of proficiency. Her younger siblings were playing among themselves and with the other Pokémon.
“Mother’s not going to be mad,” Angel said as she walked towards Agnes, “She knows when we’ve been lazy and we’ve put in real effort.”
Agnes looked up seeing Angel bending down and picking up the discarded toy gun. She had a wide smile on her face, a completely pinkish purple Flaffy followed her around. “I can’t hit anything, why can’t I learn a cool weapon like Amina or Ada?” Agnes looked back down at the ground.
Angel began twirling the gun around on her fingers and tossed it around and caught it without missing a beat, “Because of this,” Angel put a finger on the inverted pentagram on her Agnes’s forehead, there is no clearer sign.” She held out a helping hand. Agnes sighed and took Angel’s hand and stood back up. “I’ll help you out.” Angel said with a grin as she wrapped her arms around Agnes. “Here,” she handed the toy gun back to Agnes.
Agnes took aim at the target listening to Angel’s guidance.
“Always remember, to be accurate, you have to be calm. Steady breaths means a steady hand, and steady breaths means to be relaxed.” Angel put her hands on Agnes’s shoulders. “See, you’re too tense, relax and don’t try to control the gun, let it be an extension of you. Squeeze the trigger, not pull, just before the first knuckle.”
Pop!