Deathstroke clearly disagreed with what Shiller had to say. In his opinion, as Joseph's biological father, it should be him who gives Joseph special training, even if Joseph was preparing to join the Justice League. Both Batman and Shiller should step aside.
But Joseph obviously didn't think that way. He was quiet by nature and didn't like killing. Although, because his father was an assassin, he likely didn't have many peaceful days, he preferred to use limited force. His superpower also meant he didn't have to rely much on physical violence.
So between being the apprentice of the world's number one mercenary and joining the Justice League to study, he chose the latter. Clearly, he agreed with the concept that "restraint is the essence of the aesthetics of violence." Both Batman and Shiller were practitioners and icons of this ideology.
In contrast, Deathstroke's extreme violence didn't quite fit his taste. So when confronted with the slightly resentful look from his father, Joseph remained unmoved.
"I'll teach you the most basic shooting techniques first." Shiller glanced at Deathstroke and said, "It's hard to imagine a teenager growing up in America not knowing the basic shooting skills of a handgun."
"We have guns at home, but I'm not interested in them," Joseph shook his head and said. "The neighbors once tried to take Lute and me to the shooting range, but I found it too noisy."
"We won't start with a silenced pistol," Shiller said as he took away the quiet puppy from his hand. "A silenced pistol affects the feel of shooting significantly. You need to familiarize yourself with other regular pistols first. Let's go to the shooting range to practice basic shooting."
Joseph nodded and followed Shiller, while Deathstroke sneaked behind them both.
"I remember when you were seven, I wanted to teach you how to shoot," Deathstroke muttered. "But after firing a shot, you ran away covering your ears. Since then, whenever I played with guns, you stayed far away."
"I told you, it was too loud," Joseph said calmly.
"Didn't you wear earmuffs when practicing shooting in the military?" Shiller turned to look at Deathstroke.
"They issued earplugs, but I didn't like wearing them," Deathstroke shrugged. "Besides, wearing earplugs on the battlefield is a death wish. Anyone not accustomed to gunfire cannot survive."
Shiller knew Deathstroke wasn't wrong. After all, when Deathstroke joined the army, it was a time of war, and scientific training was of little concern, and they almost just handed everyone a gun and sent them to the battlefield directly. New recruits only learned aiming and shooting, and running through trenches, leaving the rest to fate.
"Your rough methods are outdated," Shiller commented. "The focus now is on scientific training. In the initial training at agent schools, you have to fire at least 30,000 rounds with a handgun. Without hearing protection, it could cause severe hearing damage."
"Yeah. Isn't that why a single Colt Python makes you deaf?"
"Didn't you almost go deaf too?" Shiller said, "How come you haven't gotten used to it?"
Deathstroke had nothing to say. He had indeed adapted to gunfire, but the problem was, did that revolver emit a gunshot? It was like having a tank cannon fired near your ear.
They arrived at the underground shooting range of the Justice League base. Such indoor ranges looked very similar. A space was divided into two areas; the shooting benches were separated by transparent partitions into cubicles. Inside the cubicles were handguns secured with hangers, goggles, earmuffs, and a scoring display panel.
Shiller demonstrated the standard shooting positions to Joseph with the pistol in his hand, mainly discussing the isosceles stance and the Weaver stance, particularly highlighting the pros and cons of these two methods.
"From the perspective of target area exposure, the one-handed Weaver stance might be more useful. But note that when side-facing an enemy, if hit, a bullet may pierce through vital organs, causing irreversible damage. So, I suggest doing this only when wearing ballistic gear; otherwise, it's better to hold the gun with both hands normally."
Joseph nodded, and Deathstroke followed suit. Shiller turned to him, as if to say, "What are you nodding for?"
"I don't usually use a handgun," Deathstroke said. "For me, a handgun is an awkward weapon. At the range where a handgun is accurate, using a sword would be better; beyond the range of a great sword, a rifle is preferable."
Shiller thought for a moment, and that seemed to be correct. Seeing Joseph's somewhat puzzled expression, Shiller explained, "Although most handguns can shoot at fifty meters, under normal circumstances, accuracy and lethality drop significantly beyond thirty meters. The optimal range would still be ten to fifteen meters. If your shooting skills are good, shooting around twenty meters also works."
Joseph glanced at Deathstroke, seeming to weigh whether the gun or sword was faster within seven steps. Shiller didn't need to think about it; within a hundred meters, Deathstroke was faster. Whether using the great sword or dual blades, when they spun, gods and ghosts fled.
"You'd probably need to re-learn handgun shooting skills," Shiller said. "In your former perspective, a handgun's biggest drawback was insufficient lethality, but the biggest advantage now is also the lack of lethality. Batman gave you so much to think about."
Deathstroke thought about it and realized it was true. Batman had never paid to hire Deathstroke before, probably because there wasn't anyone necessary for him to kill. Plus, after beating up Robin, Batman didn't have a good impression of him. They hadn't worked together before, so Deathstroke had no idea how much Batman could actually offer.
And Diana only needed to make a slight move for Deathstroke to truly understand the vast gap between him and a capitalist. The money he earned was still money, but Batman spent like it was nothing.
Given this, rather than running back and forth between Eastern Europe and the Middle East every day, it would be better to settle on the East Coast and wait for the money god to throw him a bite to eat. Although Batman's tasks were numerous, forbidding him from killing anyone, as long as the money was right, Deathstroke's principle of not killing was even firmer than Batman's. Uprooting the money tree, even the fish in the fish tank were caught alive.
Under such circumstances, moves like Blade Storm couldn't be used anymore. Sticks were hard to control in terms of force, easily leading to someone being beaten to death. Most cold weapons were overly lethal, even fists. Because Deathstroke's Cyborg strength had no limit, but the handguns developed by ordinary people were much better. Whoever shot them had the same firepower, and it was rather difficult to kill someone with just one shot.
Once again, the handgun's lethality was too low. Deliberately controlling the number of shots made the probability of a kill extremely small. Not only was headshot difficult, but most handgun bullets didn't damage the organs as much as imagined. Only aiming for the chest mostly damages the lungs, with a rare chance of hitting a critical part of the heart.
Thus, Deathstroke also started practicing using a handgun. Saying it was practice was just rehabilitation. After firing less than ten shots, he was able to hit precisely each time, aiming anywhere and hitting there. Mobile shooting was also no problem. Cyborgs were simply too overpowered.
In contrast, Joseph paled significantly. His physical fitness was that of an ordinary person, with more than half of the initial dozens of bullets missing the target, improving slightly afterward. But when switching to moving targets, it became difficult again.
Deathstroke watched anxiously, itching to shoot for him. He wanted to offer some guidance, but Joseph was wearing headphones and couldn't hear, so he could only circle around like a donkey around a mill.
"Your basic physical fitness is somewhat lacking," Shiller said, "Your arm strength has issues, which causes instability in holding the gun and subjects you to too much recoil impact. But the real key is that your back muscle group isn't developed enough, core strength is far too weak."
Joseph glanced at Deathstroke. He had just watched how Deathstroke shot a gun. To put it bluntly, Deathstroke's strong body made it possible for him to suppress even an automatic machine gun, let alone a small handgun's recoil.
"Don't look at him," Shiller pulled back Joseph's attention, "He's a Cyborg, his strength isn't comparable to ordinary people. But there's a downside, being too tall and strong can easily alert others, making it difficult to blend into many situations. As long as you train diligently, you might be better suited to being an Agent."
Joseph nodded, quickly adjusting his mindset. Actually, he was learning quite fast; with continued diligent training, his gun skills should be decent.
"I'm somewhat regretting it," Deathstroke whispered, "Seems like he doesn't have the ability to be drawn into this kind of violent incident."
Shiller couldn't help rolling his eyes: "Have you ever considered that gun skills for him might just be icing on the cake? He might be more suitable for being a spy?"
"Uh, but if something happens..."
"Just take control of someone who can shoot, isn't that enough?"
Deathstroke had nothing to rebut. Then he said, "If he decides to stay here, we should consider moving."
"What you should be considering is to stop bothering Robin in the future," Shiller said, "If he joins the Justice League, he's likely to work with the Robins. You can't beat up his colleagues and still expect him to have good relations with them."
"Oh, God, there's that," Deathstroke seemed to suddenly recall, "Those brats are quite troublesome, they sure would bully him."
Shiller looked at Deathstroke a bit speechlessly. He not only had no clear understanding of Joseph, but also no correct perception of his own actions. He still thought he was just passing through Gotham, then got bullied by a group of crazy teenagers, his counterattack was merely teaching the bear kids a lesson.
They practiced for about two hours, then each went back to rest. Soon, Shiller and Deathstroke were engaged in maintaining law and order on the East Coast. This work wasn't too difficult. Because Batman was absent, Gotham's madmen had little desire to cause trouble, most were merely bank robbers, carjackers, and road bandits.
Dealing with such ordinary criminals was simple. Shiller would scout out, identify how many criminals there were, and their respective locations, then Deathstroke would rush in to knock them out and directly throw them to the police.
Shiller also carefully selected a couple of relatively safe cases to take Joseph along. Initially with no restrictions, the tasks were simple without any ripples. Joseph walked around the periphery, and everyone obediently came out to surrender. Later, without using his superpowers, he fired two shots with a handgun, both hit, successfully preventing a cash transport robbery.
This showed that Joseph was indeed suitable for this line of work. He remained calm in chaotic situations and even performed exceptionally well. Coupled with his superpowers, he was simply born to be a Superhero.
Fortunately, Deathstroke hadn't let him enter the industry too early, otherwise Batman might have lured him in to be a Robin long ago. Although he wasn't dark-haired, he was blue-eyed, blending into the Batman Family without any issue.