Serix was thankful that Cassie’s initial anger was beginning to fade. His actions seemed to rub her the wrong way quite often, even though they were well-intended. He marveled that she was still willing to put up with him after all that he had done to upset her. So of course, when Cassie suggested they practice with the guns, he was more than willing to put their awkward morning behind them and move on to another activity.

He got up from the floor and grabbed the gun he had taken from the store that previous night, and then followed her out into the hallway. The electric lights were painfully bright when they exited the still-dark bedroom, and he had to squint against them as his eyes readjusted. Cassie led him to the room with all the robots, where she set up some boxes to use as targets. The whole thing gave him a feeling of nostalgia. When he was still a child, his instructors always set up target practices like this one for the young Lunairans. It was strange to be doing this again on Earth with Cassie.

When she finished setting up, Cassie walked back to stand beside him, **“First things first, don't point the barrel at yourself, don’t point it at anyone else, and try not to hit anything the ammo could bounce off of. Alright, now show me what you can do.”** Her tone was businesslike, but Serix couldn’t help feeling like she was keeping something from him. He was tempted to ask what he was missing, but it was too late for that. He had already told her that he would adjust to the new weapon just fine on his own. He couldn’t ask for help now. His pride wouldn’t allow it.

Serix ran a quick analysis of the gun in his hands. It had a similar size and shape as an RG-12, although it was noticeably heavier than its Lunairan counterpart. It appeared to load ammunition in almost the same fashion, as well. The barrel was larger, so the gun’s projectiles would also be larger, requiring more force to shoot them. He wondered what kind of effect that would have on him as the wielder.

After finishing his calculations – the process took only a matter of seconds – Serix hoisted the gun in his left hand and aimed the barrel at the center of one of the targets. As an added precaution, he brought his right hand up to stabilize his left. His eyes flicked to Cassie for a second, and then returned to the target. Maybe her smugness was just an act to psych him out. After all, how different could this gun be?

He pulled the trigger.

Then his eyes widened and he almost dropped the weapon when it let out a deafening _bang_. The kickback was also stronger than he expected, forcing him to take a step back to keep from stumbling. Looking back at his target, he saw that it had a small hole in it just to the right of the center. He had missed.

Serix shook his head in a vain attempt to stop the ringing in his ears. “That was… more violent than I expected,” he said, casually examining his gun to try and cover up his surprise. “Hard to believe something so small can make such a loud noise.”