Home On the Range... Firing Range That Is is

"Whoa ho ho! What the eff was that and can I try?"

Walt grinned at Harley, looking away from the scorched target. "New little toy we took off of a Marvel villain last night. And not just yet. I'm still figuring it out. Apparently it can fire off different things. Each chamber has an attack effect based off of Spider-Man's Sinister Six opponents. Electro's lightning blast is pretty obvious but some of these are less so. The hallucinogens and toxins need some testing along with the others."

"Awwww!!!" She said. "That's no fun... you grabbed up the guy who made it right? Just spin the chamber, stick it to his head and threaten to pull the trigger if he don't spill the beans!" She pointed her index finger to her head, dropping her thumb like the hammer of a gun and sticking out her tongue while crossing her eyes making several of the others chuckle.

Walt was one of them but shook his head. "As entertaining as that might be, no. You know me. I don't threaten what I won't do. He's too valuable to waste and besides... there's better ways to get information out of someone. Anyway you can play with these toys."

Harley clapped happily looking at the box of "toys" KL-E-O brought out. "Plenty of things that go "bang" in here, baby!" She said.

Harley grinned though reaching past the fancy new gizmos. "Awwww... you knew I was coming!"

Dave grinned fiddling with an emerald amulet, watching as she pulled out an old fashioned round, black bomb with a fuse. "Classic! Here let me light it."

"Well you all are having fun."

Walt smiled at Pyrrha and company as they strolled up in their workout gear. "Morning ladies. Just finishing up exercise? Help yourselves to coffee. We're just getting in some target practice and starting the day off with a-"

"Yang!" Said Yang giving him a high-five as the others either laughed or groaned. "Can we join in too? Looks fun!"

Walt nodded. "Sure. Fire in the hole!" He said loudly as Harley with the bombs fuse lit and gave it a toss. Everybody covered their ears and opened their mouths slightly as the explosion went off sending dirt, dust and smoke, as well as obliterated targets, flying through the air. "Remember to follow range safety basics though."

The ladies started either joining in looking through the pile or went with KL-E-O to retrive their own arms and ammo. Some had theirs with them like Yang. Speaking of she was looking at a plasma pistol Dave was loading. "Hey Walt? Why don't we get weapon upgrades? You got access to crazy weapons and tech, right? I mean some of our gear has been upgraded but their mostly minor tweaks. Durability and reinforcement stuff mostly."

Walt frowned. "Well I certainly could and honestly I'd love to do just that... but I don't want to encourage any bad habits. Infact I want to break some of them first."

Yang blinked. "Bad habits?"

He nodded loading some of the weapons. "That's right. Though they're not all you ladies faults, some of the blame lies with those who've reinforced them coddling y'all. That's why y'all are starting with basics even though it's a bit redundant for some of you. Now that y'all are my responsibility we're going to start with that and-"

"Whoa!" She said. "What bad habits?"

Walt made a face and sighed. "It's early in the morning. I don't want to start the day on the wrong foot. Do you all really want to hear this now or wait for some other time later?"

Pyrrha nodded speaking up. "I do. I want to improve as a huntress."

He smiled at her. "I've always liked that about you. Alright... but know that these criticisms come from the heart. I ain't being mean. A lot of your mistakes are the mistakes of youth... and others coddling you and enabling these mistakes, alright?" He sees nodding and shrugged. "Well alright then. Let's start with you and Nora before getting into the real problem... team RWBY."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Blake asked her ears flattening unhappily as Yang crossed her arms.

Walt sighed. "Well mostly it's how y'all act and conduct yerselves... but we're getting ahead of ourselves. Pyrrha you and Penny do the best but you have a tendency to take on too much from others and then try for even more. For example you should have never faced Cinder alone. That was remarkably selfless... but also entirely the wrong call... but you know that, don't you?"

She swallowed and nodded. "I do... I shouldn't have gone alone... and I..."

He stared at her and nodded his support and she nodded as well. "I shouldn't have let Ozpin use me."

The others look at her stunned as Walt smiled. "You knew that wasn't the right call to make... and yet you let others expectations force yourself into that situation. Then you made the mistake of trying to go it alone. That was very heroic and sometimes that's exactly what is called for... but in that situation it was the wrong move and you paid the price for it."

She nodded. "I know and I realize that now. I've been talking... with Joy during hand to hand training. That's why you paired us with her isn't it?"

He smiled. "It's one of the reasons but not the main one which is that she's one of the best. I hoped she'd choose to open up to you but it was her decision. She knows about sacrificing everything, even her good name and legacy as well as her life, to ensure a missions success. But without a "win" it's meaningless. Your writers set that situation up for you on purpose so I'm not going to harp on it especially since you seem to know it... but that's unacceptable. No more Pyrrhic victories." He saw her nod and he did too. "That said I'm honestly very hopeful and excited about your growth. Keep it up!"

She smiled and nodded again. "Thank you so much!"

"Penny, the same goes for you but honestly you already knew that. You had already figured out the importance of thinking for yourself. Your second showing was too brief but you showed then and continue to do so now, the importance of exercising your own agency. Keep it up!"

She nodded emphatically and the light caught on a new emerald broach as she smiled. "I will continue to grow and exercise my own will!"

Walt smiled at Nora who nodded smiling back. "I know. I need to think, period."

Walt chuckled but nodded. "Yes, but it's not that your dumb Nora. You've got a good head on your shoulders and your own, unique perspective on things. You have a strong heart and it's usually in the right place. Listen to it combined with your head more and you'll go far. I have no doubt."

She smiled and grinned. "Thanks!"

He nodded. "She's not here but Neo has the same but opposite problem in a way. She needs to learn to listen to her heart more... and watch her tendancy to get over confident in situations but she seems to have learned that last lesson or at least is on that path."

"And what about us?" Yang asked. She was less indignant then before as Walt's words for the others were hard but fair, kind and insightful.

But he paused as he picked up another weapon to work on. "Team RWBY... honestly you all perform fairly well in battle. There's definitely room for improvement, and that goes for all of you, but it's mostly a matter of tactics, strategies and experience and we can go over the first two then see about getting you all more of the third..." he sighed. "But everything else shows a series of serious mistakes overall in how you handle most situations and then in how others handle you as a team that's frankly distressing. I don't know if it's core traits for you ladies or just bad writing from your creators if I'm being honest... and I don't know if I should go over it now or when we find the others."

Blake frowned but she didn't close off. "How so? Please... I- We," she said taking Yangs hand as she nodded. "We want to know."

Walt smiled at them and nodded. "Alright. We'll first there's a lot of hypocrisy and entitled behavior that leads to poor decisions and behavior over all. In my opinion it's also been reinforced by how all the adults around you treat you, reinforcing those behaviors and decisions." He smiled. "Glynda actually gives you all the fair harshness that you sorely needed and deserved in an instructor but Ozpin, Qrow and even Ironwood surprisingly..." he shook his head.

"Huh?" Yang said. "What's all that supposed to mean?"

Walt sighed. "Just that they did a surprisingly inconsistent job which was a discredit to you. I think if they were a little harsher, coddled you less, it might have helped curb some of your general poor proformance over all."

Blake winced but didn't refute it. "It's that bad?"

Walt nodded. "Well, setting aside my personal feelings I gotta be honest... it's really fucking abysmal. If y'all were my agents and operatives you'd have been removed from active duty pending review and serious retraining, especially on how to handle and de-escalate situations and keep them from spiraling out of control... not to mention other traits."

He frowned. "The really disturbing thing is how in nearly every instance those in charge either negligently turned a blind eye... or outright rewarded team RWBY's failures and bad behavior with priviledged status, like letting Ruby attend Beacon in the first place or letting y'all go to Mountain Glen and much worse as time went on." He stared and they both looked downcast and frowned. They all knew how badly they'd failed Atlas and Mantle both.

Which made him smile. If they were cognizant then there was hope. "I honestly had slightly higher expectations for Ironwood. But he immediately turned around and not only granted y'all your huntsman licenses but gave y'all equipment upgrades and again privileged status... and we all know how that went. Seriously wrong judgment calls, half truths and lies and betrayal. Even with the best of intentions that was extremely wrong. Y'all knew how on edge he was. He was as hurt and damaged as you all after Beacon and Oz's using you all. He was surprisingly upfront with you all. Yall knew what he needed most. But y'all were untruthful and used him just like Oz. Worse you betrayed his trust for Robyn's. Even if it's for the right reasons that was a bad call and should have been handled differently. Worse you all knew that... knew better from your own experiences but yall went ahead and did it anyway. And that wasn't the first or the last..."

He sighed shaking his head. "Blake hitting and slapping Sun, repeatedly, on many occasions. Yang punching Oscar... that wasn't right at all. Both train fights were handled wrong, endangering lives, and you were never called, nor corrected, on it. Same thing with Argus and dealing with Cordovin. There were tons of better ways to handle those situations but yall didn't hesitate to go right for the worst option in a "damn the torpedoes/we're the "heroes" so everyone who disagrees is in the wrong and eff 'em all" mentality. And almost as bad y'all never get taken to task for it. Infact you're most often rewarded for it in some form or fashion."

"Ouch," Yang said looking a bit crestfallen. Blake put her hand on her shoulder but nodded too. "We know you're being harsh but fair."

Walt nodded. It was what he expected. They honestly weren't aware and they were good ladies... and they'd been relatively good here. He was pretty sure it was a "writing" problem. He put an arm around both of them giving them one-armed hugs. "I can go on... but like I said it's kind of a systemic problem for your whole team. It feels unfair with out the other two here and..." he smiled at them. "It's a nice day off. I'd rather relax and enjoy your company after a very looooong week." They both laughed as he drew out the word "long" and nodded their understanding. "Tell you what. Remind me later and we'll discuss it a bit more sometime, okay?"

Yang grinned and elbowed Blake who smiled. "So we'll be spending some time together then?"

Walt blinked. "I'm tempted to say, "no" simply because I just pointed out how those others take it way too easy on you all... but that's past mistakes and not the here and now which is an important distinction to make. You two have handled yourselves well as of late. Alright. No promises but I'll see what I can do, okay?"

"Alright!" Yang said pumping her fist and Blake grinned.

"Great!" Said Harley jerking her thumb over her shoulder at Baroness. "If yer done yakking can we break out the rocket launchers? We got a bet going on ovah here!"

Walt sighed. "Oh boy howdy... why do I NOT like the sound of that, ladies?"

Anastasia adjusted her glasses smiling. "I assure you I'm quite competent with their use."

Walt frowned but nodded. "Yes I am certain you are... it's the bet that concerns me."

Dave chuckled. "Harls... play nice with your friends, 'kay?"

She nodded giving a thumbs-up with a wink. "No worries! It's just a friendly and fun wager! Where's the harm in that?"

Walt rolled his eyes and nodded. "Yeah, alright. KL-E-O do you mind giving me a hand? Gotta get started on breakfast soon."

KL-E-O nodded. "Certainly! You know how much I enjoy handling your rocket, baby!"

The others laughed and whistled as Walt shook his head, smiling. It was going to be an interesting day!

[Walter Stark - Penny Polendina - F.R.I.D.A.Y - Neopolitan - Pyrrha Nikos - Nora Valkyrie - Yang Xiao Long - Blake Belladonna - Kali Belladonna - Sienna Khan - Willow Schnee - Glynda Goodwitch - Zwei - Ahnassi - Lifts-Her-Tail - Senko - Sayoko Shinozaki - Roberta Cisneros - Haruna - Sasha Blouse - Ilulu - Rachel "Raven" Roth - Manami "La Brava" Aiba - Tsuyu "Froppy" Asui - Haruhime Sanjouno - Anastasia "The Baroness" Cisarovna/DeCobray - Demona - Raven "Mystique" Darkhölme - Pirotess - Lydia - Aela the Huntress - Serana - Mission Vao - Curie - Ada - PAM - KL-E-O - Merida - Gwen "Gwenom" Stacy - Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee - Jennifer "She-Hulk" Walters - Linda T. Duck - Shocket Raccoon - Lady Loki - Elizabeth "Betty" Brant - Gloria "Glory" Grant - Mary Jane "MJ" Watson - Emma Frost and Virginia "Pepper" Potts

Will Return In

Breakfast Plans

Coming Soon]