Log: Clint and Scott

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

Scott help Clint with some training and they discover something new.

Clint looked at the shotgun in his hand, then squinted up at Scott. "I'm not exactly sure what my dads would say about me firing a shotgun. Even if it's only at clay pigeons."

"If it makes you uncomfortable then you don't have to use it," the teacher noted, "but while you're getting good at archery you need practice dealing with moving targets. Hence," Scott gestured to the clay pigeon launcher.

"I don't mind trying it out," Clint said. "But the look on Andre's face when I tell him about it will be priceless. I'll make sure I have my phone with me so I can text you a picture." He grinned.

"Just don't tell him it was me who gave it to you," Scott laughed, "The last thing I need if for another enraged parent to come knocking at my office door. You'd be surprised how much that happens", the X-man laughed, "Actually, no you probably wouldn't anymore."

Clint grinned again. "Dude, I wouldn't wish an angry Steve on anybody." He looked back at the shotgun and checked it the way Mister Summers had told him to. Then, checking to make sure he was standing the right way, he asked, "You're just doing one, right?"

"Angry parents are the worst, trust me, I know that better than most people," Scott replied with a laugh, "This is your first time on the range," the X-man noted as he loaded the pigeons, "so we can keep it simple, don't want to make it too difficult."

"Okay," Clint said, nodding agreement. He knew to expect the kickback when he fired, so he's braced himself like Mister Summers had told him to before, then waited for his teacher to release first disc. It flew faster than he expected somehow, but he tracked it like he'd been instructed and fired. "Ow," he said, even as the clay pigeon half exploded. It hadn't been a direct hit. His shoulder was going to bruise. Lowering the gun, he rubbed at the spot where the butt of the shotgun had hit him, then looked back toward Mister Summers. "Can we try again?"

Now that he'd seen the clay pigeon shooter in action and knew how the gun was going to react, he was pretty sure he could hit one properly.

"Sure," Scott loaded up the next clay pigeon into the launcher reaching down to alter the speed and trajectory controls, after all the point was to keep Clint guessing and working on moving targets, and no two targets moved in the same way. "Here we go," he told the student as he pressed the launch button.

Clint figured he should've anticipated Mister Summers changing it up. It was logical, after all. He hadn't, though, and so he was left with another indirect hit. He frowned, then nodded to himself and paused to reload the shotgun, flexing his shoulder as he did. "Again?"

"Glutton for punishment?" Scott enquired with a smile as he altered the settings again, "Try to find a neutral position which lets you react to any vector the pigeon shoots at," he advised as he launched the next pigeon flying low to the ground."

Clint let his eyes unfocus a little, not staring specifically at any one area so much as letting himself see more with fewer details. When the clay pigeon shot out closer to the ground, he zeroed in on it much more easily and and shifted accordingly. He fired, hitting the disc dead on and smiling in satisfaction as it shattered.

Scott on the other hand was staring at Clint's face thoughtfully, "Let's try that again," he said, fiddling with the controls before launching another pigeon in a random direction. This time however, instead of watching the pigeon he was watching Clint's eyes.

Clint popped the shells out of the shotgun and reloaded again. Letting his eyes unfocus again, Clint took a breath and waited for the disc to fly. When it did, it was a simple thing to refocus, shift to accommodate the new angle, and fire. Again, another center strike that saw the clay pigeon shatter.

"When did you learn to do that with your eyes?" Scott asked as he left the pigeon launcher and walked over to Clint. "I don't think I've ever seen you do that before."

Lowering the shotgun, Clint clicked se safety on and, making sure his finger was off the trigger, turned to face Mister Summers. "I dunno - I didn't realize I was really doing anything different. I just unfocused a bit so I could see more stuff. Then I saw the clay pigeon and fired. What were my eyes doing?" He was almost worried he'd somehow manifested a new, visible mutation. That sort of thing happened. Or secondary and tertiary mutations completely separate from their first one.

"You somehow managed to get your eyes to dilate while you were waiting and then when they spotted the target they would snap back into focus." Scott noted staring thoughtfully at the young boy, "You know, when I told you to find a neutral position to wait in this isn't exactly what I had in mind. You really didn't notice anything?"

"No?" Clint thought about it for a second before shrugging and saying, "I mean, my eyesight's 20/2, so I guess even unfocused I see things pretty clearly. It's just... taking more in, I guess, instead of zooming in on one thing. But that's what I did with the clay pigeon. I saw it and just... it was all I saw so I moved."

"That's a pretty useful ability," Scott mused, "if you combine it with your visual and spatial awareness then you should have a pretty good idea of what's going all all around you. A nice trick for making sure you know the best places to shoot when you need to."

"I guess - I never really thought about it that way. I've mostly been working on the spatial awareness with archery and pool and stuff," Clint said. "Do you think I should do something specific to test this thing out?

"I'm sure I can think of something," Scott replied with a laugh, "Give me a few days to pull together a scenario and we can try testing you out. After you go to the infirmary and make sure going back and forth isn't going to overstress your eyes."

"Cool, I can handle that," Clint said, grinning. They'd only run some spatial awareness scenarios with Logan in the Danger Room - he was kind of excited at the thought of maybe getting to use it again. "Can I use my bow instead of a gun, though? In the scenarios?"

"If you'd be more comfortable with it then I don't see why not," Scott replied with a smile, "That might actually be better, force you to go for the one-shot one kill scenario."

"Awesome," Clint said. "This is gonna be great." He couldn't wait to tell Maddie. Apparently his eyesight was more interesting than just being able to provide party entertainment when people got bored.