Legion Of Rockstars

I watched wistfully as Jimmy took a confident stance, extending his arms in front of him. The barrel of his pistol lined up with the target, and bam-bam-bam, there were three holes in the poster’s head, all within a few inches of each other. I frowned as he lowered his arms slightly and emptied the rest of the clip into the poster’s chest, all within five seconds. Seriously, if that guy lost his arm and got a gun attached to the end, he’d be like Robocop or something.

And then there was me. I was lucky if I clipped the poster’s arm. No matter how long I aimed up the shot, how long I stood there and told myself I could do this, I could never hit the poster in the head or chest. One time, I’d shot the poster straight in the groin, but that was just a chance shot, one in a million.

“You were a cop in a past life, weren’t you?” I asked bluntly, my frustration seeping into my voice. Jimmy looked over the little cardboard partition between us and smiled. I sighed and pushed the button that brought the clips I’d stick my poster to closer to me. As Jimmy watched, I unenthusiastically slipped the poster into the clips and pushed the button again. The poster slid away from me, and I picked my pistol up and switched the safety up, lining the shot up and wondering what the point was anymore.

“Here,” Jimmy said quickly before I could shoot. He stepped up behind me, and I pressed my lips tightly together. Of course, here came shooter extraordinaire to show up the newbie. “You’re not relaxed enough when you aim. Raise your arms just a little higher and notch your chin up. It’ll open everything up for you.” Gently, he reached around me and pushed my arms higher up. I lifted my chin a little bit, just as he instructed. “Don’t concentrate so much when you aim. Just look down the little aimer thingamabob and relax your gaze a little bit.”

I took a deep breath and just looked into the circle welded to the top of the pistol. Through it, I could see the poster, taunting me with its expressionless silhouette. Jimmy shifted a little closer.

“Now, adjust the gun as needed.”

I aimed the circle right at the poster’s head.

“Keep your chin up.”

Hell, I hadn’t even noticed I’d lowered my chin again. I forced myself to lift it again, notching it up like some pompous prim whore.

“And pull the trigger.”

Taking another deep breath, I pulled the trigger, just once. The gun jerked back a little bit, making my back brush against Jimmy’s chest. He was standing really close.

“Nice shot.”

My eyes widened as I saw a gaping hole right in the center of the bulls-eye on the poster’s head. I flipped the safety back on and put the gun down in shock. Looked like shooter extraordinaire knew his stuff.

“See? You do have it in you,” Jimmy told me with a proud smile. I smiled back and turned around to study my poster again. Jimmy still hadn’t moved away from me, and I realized that it didn’t bother me. Sure, he and I had grown closer together over the past month.

Oh, yeah, a month has passed since my first mission. I’ve proven my worth as an agent in the Legion. As it turns out, I’m a natural for this sort of thing. Pink is being nicer to me; we’ve grown closer ever since I earned her respect and acceptance within a week of me becoming an agent. As for my relationship with Amy and the Avenged guys, we’ve only grown closer. Amy and Matt have been tip-toeing around each other for the past month, seriously annoying me and Matt’s band mates. We plan on locking them in a very small custodial closet and seeing what happens.

I’ve grown closest to Jimmy, though. There’s just something about him...He can always make me laugh, and God damn is he cute. He’s always willing to help me, and he always does it in a way that isn’t overbearing and admonishing. You wouldn’t think of him as being sweet—he just seems like the crazy drummer guy—but he really is. I spend a lot of my time with him, in the shooting range, in the gym, or hanging out in the lounge. Amy teases me about liking him, and maybe I do, just a little bit.

Suddenly, something started to vibrate against my butt. I jumped about a foot in the air and whirled around, glaring reproachfully at Jimmy. He looked just as bewildered as I did, and we both looked down to see his pager vibrating on his belt loop. Seconds later, my pager started to vibrate as well. I smiled apologetically at him as we both looked at our pagers—Joan’s office in ten minutes. Our pagers always said that about new missions.

Jimmy and I quickly left the shooting range to head to her office. When we arrived in the little lounge area, Frank Iero from My Chemical Romance, Corey Taylor from Slipknot, and Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy were already standing in the lounge. They nodded in greeting towards us before we walked over to Joan’s office. She let us in, and we lined up across from her.

“Asher, this mission is a little different than the ones I’ve been assigning you to,” Joan warned me. “We’ve received a lead on a Jonas hideout. I’m sending you five, some of my choice agents, to check it out, see what you can find. It’s an abandoned gas station not far from here. You’ll just be driven there. Is that clear?”

“Yes,” we all said.

“Good luck,” Joan told us. We thanked her and walked out.