Melody would have sighed if she could have spared the energy, however her expression was more of a grimace as she called on her magic to slow the projectiles flying at her enough to dodge. She grunted as she felt an impact on her back.
Ivy giggled from her place in the maple tree. She raised the paintball gun again and fired at Melody‘s naked behind, “Not supposed to stop, keep running or I keep shooting.”
Melody winced as she took off running through the park, it was a wet nasty day and she was being hunted by a bunch of kits with paintball guns all because Sarah didn’t think she had enough endurance. Staying at the store would have been safer, damn it. She slid around the corner and rolled in the muck as she slowed the couple of shots Trix snapped off at her. She could see the end of the path just up ahead, if she could just reach that she would get a break. She held her breath called on her time magics and ran. She was about twenty feet from the end when she felt herself tossed up in the air by magic.
Abby smirked as she watched a blurring Melody go flying because of her trap magic. She emptied the rest of her clip into the prone girl before she could crawl across the finish line.
Gabrielle winced as the red, yellow, blue and brown muck covered girl painfully got up. “That last attack was dirty.”
Sarah shrugged pulled out her deck and flipped through the cards before pulling out her water card and using it to wash most of the muck off Melody. “Better, though you still got hit a couple of times. You need more practice with your time magic. Why don’t you get something to eat though, then you can go through the course again.” She turned to Abby, “You’re up.”
Abby grinned, “Should be fun.”
Melody watched Abby take off at a blur. “You think one of the kits will manage to hit her?”
Sarah shrugged, “Unlikely but always possible.”
Melody sighed, “You know it should be your turn next.”
Gabrielle looked up from making her sandwich, “Not really a problem she and Abby both passed with flying colors when she ran through it earlier.”
Melody frowned, “So why make Abby do it?”
Gabrielle smiled, “Because she likes to. She thinks it’s a blast besides she gets a kick out of training.”
Melody groaned as she looked up at the heavens, “What did I do to deserve you ladies?”
“Just lucky I guess.” Gabrielle glanced toward the field, “Abby almost made it back without getting hit.” She held up her radio, “Points to Natasha for hitting Abby. Your new target is once again Melody, this time she‘s packing a paintball gun of her own. If you‘re hit, you‘re out, and you can‘t shoot any more. Snipers you have three minutes to get new positions, mark.” She put the radio on the table. “You have one minute to finish your sandwich and then two in the portable healing machine, and then you run through the gauntlet again.”
Melody nodded as she took the sandwich, “Thanks.”
~
Wendy grinned, it was almost dark, which was as far as she was concerned a perfect time to be out in the park playing paintball. She was currently hiding in a patch of darkness overlapping some bushes waiting. She thanked her night vision for giving her a glimpse of the ex-witch sneaking between the trees trying to make her way to the far side of the park. She was just about to fire when a small hand wrapped itself over her mouth, and a plastic sword pressed itself to her neck, “Stand down.” Wendy slumped as she recognized Alsius. Damn she had failed the mission, she’d been too busy to watch for possible help. “Alright you got me.”
Alsius smiled as Wendy dropped her gun, Melody had offered to help her with some ice spells if she helped her with this mission, as it wasn’t technically against the rules, and it was just a skirmish, she had agreed. She was sadly too busy congratulating herself to notice the red dot that appeared on her chest right before she was lit up with paintballs.
Becky grinned, “Ambush our sister will you.”
Morrigan chuckled, “Come on Becky grab Wendy and let’s go hunt down the witch.” She smiled as she looked at Alsius, “Oh and Alsius, for your trouble.” She pulled the trigger on her paintball gun.
Melody blinked as a large muck beast leaped at her, she barely bought her hands up to slow it’s progress when she felt the annoyingly painful stings of paintballs hitting her in the back. She watched as the image flickered and died.
Talsanra grinned, she might not be able to hold the illusion magic she copied from Abby for very long but she was getting better. She lost her smile when Melody shot her back with her own paintball gun. “Hey, that’s not fair.”
Melody grinned, “Oops.”
Talsanra waved her hand, “Get her girls.”
Melody winced as the rest of the hidden girls broke cover and let lose.
~
Xander glanced at Gabrielle, “So how’s Melody?”
“She was a little black and blue but she’ll be fine after a healing cycle.”
“You don’t think it’s a bit mean not telling her that half the girls on the field were using teleport to get around?”
“She’ll learn, she’s getting better.”
He chuckled, “Drill sergeant Gaby.”
“I’ll make it up to her, but we have to step up the training if we want to be in the best shape we can.”
“Just remember to save some time for fun.”
“You mean running through the woods with paintball guns isn’t fun?”
“I’m just saying maybe you need to swap it from being just her to team games for a bit. It‘s not her fault she got selected for the gym fight.”
“I know it was mine for agreeing to a random selection. Still, I guess I shouldn’t channel aunt Buffy with the crazy drill instructor act.”
He chuckled, “I don’t think you would look good in the uniform.”
“Oh please, the short hair is a no go.”
He nodded, “So what’s next on the list of things to do.”
“Well mom always said no taking over the world or destroying it, so I guess that leaves tech hunting. I was thinking about hitting some of the fighting rings.”
He frowned, “You sure that’s safe, one blood test and you’re up a creek.”
“So many things would be easier as a guy.”
“Like peeing standing up?”
“That’s what levitation is for.”
Xander blinked before rubbing at his face with his hands, “Didn’t need to know that.”
“Hey you’re the one that asked. Actually I was thinking more along the lines of males having blood gifts and thus a reason to be stronger than human average.”
“Don’t you have enough powerful techs?”
“Not until I have all of them. Besides the more power my girls pack the better when it comes time to fight demons again.”
He nodded, “Alright, but still don’t forget to have a good time, Erk.” He reached up and wiped the whip cream pie off his face, “And who’s idea was it to teach the Harlequin wannabe to conjure pies?”
Ivy adjusted her jester‘s hat abashedly, “Oops sorry Xander, I was aiming for Gaby.” She put her hand over her mouth, “oops.”
Gabrielle grinned as she took off after the little trouble maker, “Oops indeed.”
~
Leo chuckled as he played with Tiffany‘s ears, “So what do you think of Gaby’s training plan?”
She grinned as she fought the impulse to arch her back and wiggle, “I think it would have been a lot more entertaining than running around town with Raven taking pictures of the various pokegirls. Not that it wasn’t fun or anything.”
Raven shrugged, “Nah, that’s fine. I don’t expect you to understand how much fun taking pictures is. Still next time everyone has a training picnic in the woods, it would be nice to get some training in.”
Leo nodded, “What do you think Laura?”
“You know me, training is always fun. Besides it’s got to be better than trying to teach a bunch of kits wilderness survival.”
Leo shrugged, “It’s important.”
“Doesn’t mean I like it. At least it’s better than having to sit still in a classroom.”
Leo chuckled, “Yeah, not a happy thought.”
~
Ivy giggled, one little pie to the face and she was on kitchen duty, okay so she would have been on kitchen duty later anyways but the pie incident had increased the duration of her work. She absently levitated a potato from the bucket over to her hand to start peeling it. It gave her time to think of more practical jokes so it was sort of okay and well Lily’s chikotit was cooking for the ship so the food was good. She looked over at were Alsius was working on the frozen deserts for the after dinner snack. “Anything good?”
Alsius shrugged, “Just some ice-cream with frosted berries.
“Oh so that’s what you were doing after you got paint-balled.”
“Yep, figured I would pick some berries and make treats for everyone. How’s your technique coming?”
Ivy shrugged, “Well, Gaby wanted me to practice, so I’m practicing.” She levitated another potato over, “Not exactly the use I had imagined to make of my psychic abilities but still it could be worse.”
Alsius waved her hand over the next batch of deserts to give them that special dusting of frost that everyone liked. “How’s that?”
“I could be using it to toss ponytaur shit. Or even worse I could be sent back to a boring ranch.”
“Gaby would never get rid of you, come on she’s not even mad about the attempted pie to the face.”
“I know, part of me wishes I could go with the others and scope out techs and be more useful than hanging around the ship or helping train Melody.”
“Hey Melody is on the combat team, she needs to be better if we can get her up to par isn’t that a good thing?”
Ivy nodded, “Yeah, but still I want to do something fun.”
“Well, you could always see about asking Morrigan about learning that temperature barrier tech she copied from a fairy type.”
“Oh?”
“Then you could give me a backrub without getting frostbite.”
“So you’re saying I should learn an extremely hard to learn technique to help you?”
“Well if you do, I’ll help you pull off some pranks, I’ve got a few good ideas, if you want to hear them.”
Ivy opened her mouth but shut it when the older pokegirl cook came back into the kitchen, “Sure, a game of chess afterwards sounds great.”
~