Relax and Recharge 2: Extreme Relaxation, Tuesday Period Two

[doubleohblonde]

Bond had emailed his students to meet him at the edge of the preserve, where he stood with sets of various paintball gear. As each student arrived he handed them a blue or yellow bandanna.

"Good morning," he greeted them. "I thought we'd go for a relatively low key final, since it's hardly like you're being marked on this. So we're going to have a spot of two-on-two paintball."

After explaining how the paintball guns and safety gear worked for the benefit of those who hadn't paintballed before, Bond gestured to the preserve. "I've marked off an area of the preserve, Team Blue goes in, and five minutes later Team Yellow follows them. Winner is the team that ends up with less paint on them."

"The Team Blue's time starts as soon as they've finished gearing up."

Comments

Re: Paintball - R&R2 [07]

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy really needed to find a class that focused on movement and tracking in the woods because this was a little sad, really. She watched the movement in the bushes for a little while, uncertain if it heralded the presence of a classmate or a squirrel or something. Okay, it seemed a little big to be a squirrel--maybe a hedgehog? Were there hedgehogs in the preserve?

There could be hedgehogs. But the more the bushes rustled, the more Kathy was convinced it was due to someone, not something. So she pulled her gun up into position and shot into the bushes several times. Instead of waiting to see if she'd hit, however, she stood up and ran down the tree branch, jumping to another tree close by and scrambling up that. Ha! Now her location could no longer be determined by where the paint had come from!

Re: Paintball - R&R2 [07]

[soniaroadsqueen]

It was a good plan! Exactly the sort of plan Ringo would come up with herself. Except that when those paintballs splattered against the bush in front of her, Ringo's eyes had swung back along their route. While she didn't spot the shooter, she did see a bunch of shaking branches.

And she suspected that those branches were not shaken by a hedgehog.

Maybe it was time to take to the trees herself. Ringo grinned, putting the trunk of a nearby tree between herself and the last place she'd seen movement, and began scrambling upward.

Re: Paintball - R&R2 [07]

[spin_kick_snap]

Only because hedgehogs weren't arboreal!

Kathy was discovering that it was very difficult to climb trees without making a lot of noise, especially if you were doing so quickly. The leaves took every opportunity to shake and rustle.

Rude.

On the one hand, that noise and movement broadcast her every movement. On the other hand, it also let her know that she wasn't alone up in the treetops, as she stopped moving but the rustling did not.

"Ringo!" she called. "I know that's you!"

Re: Paintball - R&R2 [07]

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo froze about two thirds of the way up the tree. She considered staying silent, but decided against it. Instead, she pitched her voice as low as she could. You know, so she'd totally sound like a dude.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" she called back.

Very convincingly.

Ignore the fact that their class was small and no one in it sounded even remotely like that.

Re: Paintball - R&R2 [07]

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy paused, hunkered on a limb. "...Are you trying to sound like Nathan? Because, uhh, you don't. Ringo, I love you, but impersonations are not your gift."

She peeked around, trying to see if she could catch a glimpse of Ringo, paintgall gun lined up with her sight.

Re: Paintball - R&R2 [07]

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Says you!"

Well, Kathy was right. Impersonations were not even close to Ringo's gift. But slowly peeking out from behind the tree trunk, aiming her own gun in the direction of Kathy's voice? That was closer to something she could do.

It turned out that all that running around and shooting she'd had to do in her Tactics class the first half of summer might end up being actually useful!

Re: Paintball - R&R2 [07]

[spin_kick_snap]

Pretty much exactly what Kathy was doing. She was using every lesson she could remember from Tactics. Including misdirection, leaning up and rattling another branch to draw her attention away from where Kathy really was. Just slightly, though, like it was accidental.

Re: Paintball - R&R2 [07]

[soniaroadsqueen]

Well, that branch shaking certainly drew Ringo's fire. Though she took a page from Kathy's book and immediately ducked back behind cover after she fired. She didn't shift position yet, but she definitely didn't want to get shot in retaliation.

Re: Paintball - R&R2 [07]

[spin_kick_snap]

But Kathy had been watching and saw exactly where that shot had come from.

Gotcha, Ringo. She had your location now.

Staying still and silent, she charted out a basic route to get to Ringo. Well, not to her, but to flank her. Let's see, if she bounced to that tree then that one and then a flip up there...Odds were, Ringo would hear her coming and flee, but Kathy was banking on being fast enough to see where she was going.

Three...two...one...She took a few shots at Ringo's tree to convince her to keep her head down and then moved.

Re: Paintball - R&R2 [07]

[soniaroadsqueen]

The sudden sound of paint smacking against her cover actually spooked Ringo. She moved almost instantly, which resulted in both Kathy and herself bursting out of cover at almost exactly the same instant.

It was far too late to reverse direction and duck back into cover, so Ringo just accelerated, aiming a spray of paintballs in what might generously called Kathy's direction as she sped along a branch and prepared to launch herself over to a new tree.