Under the Hood - Chapter Fourteen
Title: Under the Hood
Author: cherrylng
Rating: R/15
Pairing: Belldom
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction and has never happened. I do not own Muse or Assassin's Creed. I do, however, own several OCs in this story.
Summary: If someone were to tell him a few years ago that he was to meet an interesting man who calls himself Corvo, that he was to become an Assassin by his own decision, to learn how to free run and be a jack of all trades in weapons and fighting, to learn of Assassins and Templars and Those Who Came Before, he would’ve laughed, tell said someone ‘cheers’ at their unbelievable story, and gone back to his merry way. Such is the way of life when he thinks about the past and how far he’d come to this moment.
Warnings: Violence, Language, Action, Guns, Crossover, Original Characters, Humour
A/N: It's been almost a year since I last updated this story. In between writing various other stories and work, I kept away from it because I was so used to posting a large chunk of it to count as a chapter. In doing that, it also meant that updating it is so few and far between, much like what I did to Call It Magic. So here's a rather short one after the mission, and something for Dom to learn.
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Chapter Fourteen
The whole event after the mission had convinced Corvo more than enough to press Dom towards learning how to use firearms once both men have returned to Britain to start it. Or rather, to be more accurate in such a statement, they could’ve been back in England to start the training had Poppy not found out about what happened while they were giving her a summary of their mission, and she was not a happy woman.
In fact, she was so angry that she immediately booked a flight over to California just to give Corvo a tongue lashing that he finds is worse than getting shot.
It was fortunate that Poppy knows of a contact who offers them the use of their shooting range in California to avoid the hassle of going back and forth to train Dom. And for the chance for Dom to witness, for the first time, Corvo in fear of a woman’s wrath while in a room that the shooting range owner oh-so-graciously let Poppy ‘borrow’ it.
It’s a terrifying sight for Dom to see Poppy angry, but to witness Corvo being the subject of Poppy’s ire? It became a car crash that is hard to ignore, and Dom has a front row seat to it. Well, not really front row sets so much as standing by the door and eavesdropping on them.
“You brought him into a mission where he has no firsthand experience of working in firearms?! What were you thinking when you were planning up on that mission?!” she all but shouts at Corvo, who takes the verbal abuse with some amount of dignity, humility, and grace. It still doesn’t stop Dom from wincing in pity.
“It was for teamwork and bonding. In hindsight, we should’ve trained him in using guns before that,” he hears Corvo lamely explains.
“Oh, we? At the rate that we’ve been mentoring him for, for which you are mainly responsible for teaching him, he could’ve known how to shoot and what to expect from shooting a man dead by now!”
“Hey, I’m busy as it is with how crazy of a schedule that I’ve had for the past year!” Corvo replies in defense. “I’m trying my best, but I can’t be everywhere at once when things start clogging up my time!”
“And you got yourself shot! How will you explain that to anyone?!”
There a silence that took over from inside that room, which Dom presumes that Corvo is thinking carefully on his response to Poppy. Dom then hears Corvo’s terse reply. “It wasn’t a mission that guarantees that no one comes out of it unhurt, Poppy. You yourself know that. I’m just thankful that it was me rather than Dominic or Ashley that ended up shot.”
Only when their yelling match came to a grudging stop, and Poppy seems more in favour of releasing her anger at the firing range, did they leave the room to start to teach Dom how to use firearms. Before he can set foot into the firing range, Dom is shown several pistols that are available in the shooting range, their lessons starting with understanding the guns themselves on the table.
It is a tall order for Dom to learn on using firearms even after that first time. He had some experience with it before as something of a recreational activity that Glen set up on their day off in America years ago, but never on using it for self-defense or to kill someone. It felt too soon in Dom’s opinion to learn it, remembering how the guardsman fell from that one shot.
But after what happened and how he saved Corvo’s life, he knows that it’s a necessity to take this next step. There’s only so much one can train in melee combat to be proficient at it before it is glaringly obvious that he needs to learn ranged combat and weapons next, or else Dom is in a severe disadvantage in certain situations.
Almost an hour was spent on Dom being taught the names of the pistols, the different types and functions of various guns, the difference between a semi-automatic and a revolver, the number of rounds each pistol has in its magazines, how to dismantle and put a gun back together step by step, and the various advantages and disadvantages of what each pistol has, from its firing range to its recoil knockback. Most importantly that Corvo has him drilled into his head is gun safety, for no gun must face anyone when not in use and never assumed that a gun is not loaded even when you know it is not. It’s what hammers it down for him that it isn’t just an etiquette, but a serious understanding that a gun is indeed a deadly weapon and not a toy.
Then, Corvo tells him what type of firearms that law enforcements from various parts of the world uses, particularly in around Britain.
“These are the ones that are mostly used by the London Metropolitan Police,” Corvo pushes two pistols towards Dom, and from what he remembered of the brand and type they are, the two pistols are the Glock 17 and 26, both are semi-automatic and use magazines. “In Northern Ireland, they use a wider variety. Even after gaining peace and reducing the requirements, they still hold quite a variety compared to the other side.
“This is the one that I used as my sidearm on that last mission,” Corvo pulls a new gun out on the table from his belt holster, painted in black and having a silencer attached to its muzzle. “A Beretta M9. Has a 15 round to its magazines.
“However, depending on the situation and who we ought to know, some weapons can be more common than others,” Corvo says. “A little advice: always think that you won’t have enough bullets. If you can get close to some guys that you shot down, you can use their guns and ammunition instead and put yours away until needed. To use up all of your ammo while in a battleground is a very bad move to make. A fatal one as well when barely anything is not on your side.”
“Duly noted.” If I can ever get close to one, he almost wanted to add.
“The other advice is that until you have a proper body posture and the strength to handle the recoil well, you are to stay away from much more powerful guns like the Desert Eagle,” Corvo says seriously, putting a large handgun onto the table. He points down at it. “This gun is no plaything. It’s like having a mini cannon in your hand. You’ll get punched in the face with your teeth knocked off by your own hand or blown off your feet just from the power of its recoil alone without proper handling.”
“It’s that bad?” Dom can’t help but asked.
“The various videos that you can search up on YouTube can pretty much prove my words.”
When it’s time to learn how to use a gun in the firing range, Corvo hands him a Glock 17 and teaches him the right posture and position before he can aim and fire.
Right foot in front of the other, knees bent.
Two hands instead of one for steadiness and accuracy. One arm hold out straight, the other loose.
Turn the safety off. Finger away from the trigger until he is ready.
Inhale to calm down and focus, exhale to shoot.
As he starts, it still takes Dom by surprise and shock at the loud noise and the knockback that he felt, even with the mufflers and safety glasses on. After he used up the 17-round magazine of the Glock, he can’t help but feel disappointed that only a few of the bullets hit the paper, but not the exact target. Beginners don’t always start out well, but they eventually will get a hang of it and get better.
It took two more magazines before Dom got a few shots on the target, some hitting way off and others managing to hit the ‘human’ target. As Dom reloads the gun, his mind is buzzing, yet he finds it almost calming while practicing how to shoot. In such an environment where he is training rather than having his or anyone else’s life on the line, he can see the routine to it, the aim and timing feels almost like playing music.
He turns to see Corvo and Poppy busy firing away, perhaps finding that same relaxing sensation that Dom found, only much more common from the experienced ones.
From Corvo, it is obvious to see that the younger man has good aim in his steady firing, eyes on the targets as he aims and shoots at various parts. The head and chest areas close to the heart are immediate kills; shoulders, elbows and knees to incapacitate the target. He is quick in reloading his current gun with a new magazine or changing to a different weapon. And he is even having a bit of fun in showing off by holding a pair of pistols in both hands and shooting at the targets with barely any detriment to his accuracy and posture.
But it wasn’t Corvo that disturbed Dom with his sharpshooting skills, rather it was Poppy that truly did. She has good aim like Corvo, and shows it by always shooting at the paper targets between the legs. First. Several times.
Dom gawks at the sight of how many holes there are on Poppy’s target, and how one of the holes that is forming is getting bigger, feeling his ‘little Dom’ shrinking outright in fear. Whatever kind of vendetta Poppy has towards men or the groin area in general, he’d rather not know.
What makes it worse is that Corvo doesn’t stop her, he even outright encourages it by soon joining along her side and doing the same thing to his target. The two of them then ended up in a competition to see who create the biggest hole or have the most shots placed on the groin area. Dom isn’t really sure, he’s just gawking and wincing at every shot landing on the groin area of the targets.
During a break, they were having a conversation about the possibilities of dying of blood loss via gunshot wounds on the groin area. The earmuffs did nothing to Dom to never not hear that or ever have such gruesome thoughts erased from his head.
He wonders if other Assassins have heard of them having such a conversation within earshot and whether or not if they feel that wince of phantom pain between their legs.
It’s times like these that reminds Dom that there are certain kinds of craziness in his life. There are those like Matt in which he learned to get used to, and then there are those that keeps him on his toes.
And joining the Assassins seems to fit somewhere in between the lines.