Issue 1 Downtime

The skeet flew through the air and Elena tracked it before unloading a blast in its direction. She missed by a hair and the blast sailed off into the sky as the skeet continued to fall. She cursed, in French, and the automated machine launched another projectile. This time, she hit and the skeet burst apart in a lot of small fragments. Anyone capable of recognizing it would see a decent bit of radiation stored up in her frame and Elena was exuding a mild sense of irritation.

((Open Thread))

An older student with braided, blond hair and a colourfull skirt stood off to the side and behind, watching with rapt interest.

"pretty nice, mademoiselle!"

Elena glanced over, "Thank you. They've been testing my capacity again, so I have excess to burn." She swore in French again and the launcher fired again. The skeet was winged by the following blast and went wobbling away. "Unfortunately that means my aim is a little off."

Bear shrugged.

"Aim at a bigger target, then?"

"Not a bad suggestion. Did you have one in mind?" She swore again and the launcher thudded again. This time she tracked it with both hands, unleashing a broader blast that pulverized the skeet.

"Let's see..." she replies, digging through a satchel she had at her side.

"Here's a new one.. It should do nicely."

Showing it to the French miss, it looked like a sphere decorated with picture depicting a bunch of balloons.

"How far can you shoot?" she asked, with a smile,

"How far can you throw?" She smirked. "Depending on the target, I can be fairly accurate within fifty meters, I lose all significant power at one hundred meters unless I pour power into the blast. Most effective within twenty-five meters. Take your pick."

"Hmm.. Let's see, shall we?"

Turning a small dial on the ball, she wound up, and tossed it straight up.

It shot out like a rocket, quickly losing sight. A moment later, it exploded in a large, colourful firework.. And then hung in place, frozen at the moment of maximum spread... And slowly began floating down, not losing shape.

Soon, it was under 100 meters up.

"Have at it, mon ami!"

Elena gritted her teeth and leveled a two-handed blast at the target, striking somewhere off-center but a definite hit. She drew back and launched another, correcting this time and getting closer to the center.

Each successful hit bounced to structure around, tearing holes it it and pushing it back up slightly, before resuming it's slow float to the ground.

"Not bad.."

"Thank you." As the thing got closer, Elena switched to rapid single-handed shots, bleeding off energy rapidly in the process.

"Popopopop! Popcorn!" bear Sid, grinning.

Elena shook her hands as she finished, "That feels much better. Thank you."

"Hey, glad to help. Do you have to bleed off often?" bear asked, starting to pick up the scraps of tissue paper-like substance.

"Not to that magnitude, usually, no. Only when my limits have been pushed or I've gone for a while without bleeding off."

"So, like peeing then?" she asked, giggling.

"Sorry, sorry. Un petit faux pas."

"I programmed the skeet launcher to respond to profanity," she said with a laugh, "so I don't quite consider your comparison a faux pas. The comparison is somewhat apt unfortunately."

"Well, at least I understand it pretty well, then."

She smiled. Offering a hand.

"I'm Byrna, but everyone calls me Bear."

Elena took the offered hand, "Elena. No nickname really."

"That's good, because Elena is a nice name to say. It really flows off the tongue!"

"You are from America? There are a lot of students here from America it seems."

"Yep! I'm one of the wave from the west. Guilty as charged."

"I thought so," Elena said. "America seems like it would be a nice place to visit some time."

she smiled.

"Ive got e perfect little place in New Hampshire to visit."

"What is it like in New Hampshire?"

"Nice, quiet, peaceful. You can do what you feel like. it's great."