Expanding Your Range

"Come on, speed it up!" Two's voice rang out in the training room. He stood above on the balcony along with Haji and One.

Down below, Zero and Three were pitted against each other in a training exercise.

Three set her footing and swung a fast jab right at Zero's face. He quickly used Chronos Trigger on himself to speed himself up in time to dodge. Zero then retreated several feet back to catch his breath.

However, Three wasn't allowing it. The second Zero stopped moving Three dashed in his direction.

"Fuck!" Zero was covered in sweat. She's so much better than me at close range, Zero thought to himself frantically.

For this exercise, Two placed a rule upon Zero that he wasn't allowed to use Chronos Trigger on Three. He could only use it on himself. The idea being that he shouldn't always rely on a slow target to be successful. This was proving more difficult than Zero first anticipated for several reasons.

"You're not getting away that easily." Three was upon Zero and went for a hard knee. Once more Zero used his ability to sidestep the move. Three's knee hit nothing but air as Zero remained to the side of her for his next move.

He focused his ability just to his right hand as the familiar vibrating sensation returned.

"Bustershot!"

He thrust his fist forward as he aimed for Three's side.

*BAM!!*

"Are you serious…" Zero said through gritted teeth. Just like the first time he had tried it in their fight, he could feel the dull sensation of the impact. Three stood in the same place with her gaze fixated on Zero.

"Well I'll give you points for trying." She said smugly. And here was the first problem.

Haji couldn't help but smile. "Wonderful. She's getting much better at quick changes. When this started, Three wasn't able to keep up with Zero's speed nor was she able to predict his counterattack. So she gave up on trying to. The second he goes for an attack, she's bulking up her muscle mass enough to absorb the impact of his attacks."

"Yes. She's transitioning between offense and defense much better than she used to." One agreed.

"But Zero has yet to figure out a countermeasure. Not to mention that was his second bustershot. He can't use it again." Two chimed in.

"Does Three know about that?" Haji asked.

"I don't think so." Two replied.

"Good. For the sake of this exercise it's better if she doesn't relax her guard. Now, how goes the distortion cloak?"

"Well…I'm sure you're about to see for yourself. With bustershot no longer an option it's only a matter of time before he attempts it."

*BAM*

Zero is sent flying off his feet as Three decked him with a solid right.

He hits the ground, but does a roll to recover to a knee in case Three tried to follow up.

And she did.

Three was already on him before he could have time to think of a way to avoid her.

Here goes nothing! Zero thought to himself.

"Output 50%!" Three clasped her hands above her head and came down with a heavy two handed fist. A white glow started up around just his arms as he held them up to meet the attack.

The attack slammed into Zero's arms and Zero successfully held his ground!

"What in the world?!" Three said as she found herself unable to push him back any further. Suddenly there was a bright flash and an explosion of energy between them.

*BOOM*

Three was sent sliding back several feet but managed to stay up. Zero however tumbled backwards until he came to a sliding halt.

"And that's about the scope of it right now." Two said with a sigh.

"What happened exactly? Looked like he had it under control." Haji inquired.

"So he has no issue actually activating the cloak. Full body right now takes too much time to do in a real fight situation currently, so he only uses it on certain sections of his body. Less time to do and he has better control of it. However…the problem is with the build up of kinetic energy. Once something collides with the cloak, Zero has no way of dispelling the energy and the shield only exacerbates it with its own energy."

"Hmm. So he needs to figure out a way to dispel the energy before that happens. It would be ideal if he could turn it back on the person." One noted.

"Yeahhh. There's a few things that we need to work on with his move set before he'll be able to consistently handle things on his own." Two said as he leaned forward on the banister.

"I think there's something that is a little more pressing." Haji jumped in.

One turned in the direction of Haji's voice. "What's that?"

"Zero can only work in close range. Everyone on the team aside from him can work in multiple ranges and even has some splash damage moves. Even Three can use her strength to level an area or toss around some rubble. But while his time control is impressive, he is only a threat up close. Which makes him predictable since you know he has to come in to do any real damage."

"I see." One said. "Which is probably why Three isn't having to work too hard to handle him right now."

"Exactly. Two, have you put any thought into this?"

"Some, yes. But Zero's ability doesn't really have any long range capabilities to it. Which is why we've just been focusing on his short range." Two answered.

"Then you've blinded yourself to the possibility that it presents." Haji stated.

"I'm not sure I follow, Sgt."

Haji pulled out one of his pistols and held it in his hand. "Think about it. A single bullet from this gun travels faster than the speed of sound. Maybe even twice over. And can travel hundreds of yards under the right conditions. But…what if Zero used his ability on a bullet? How fast could it travel? How long would it keep its initial speed before dropping off?"

The wheels started to spin in One's head. "This makes sense. I hadn't thought about Zero utilizing a weapon before. Kind of like your katana and canister system, Two. Linked with your ability they become deadly weapons. What if we did something similar for Zero?"

Two's eyes widened. "Why didn't I think about that…that's a pretty solid idea actually."

"Leave Zero's training to me today. I have some ideas." Haji remarked.