A slow wide grin spreads across her face as she watches them make their way into the arena. They're all talking loudly and jeering at one another, completely ignoring all of the other competitors who are looking at them with wide, mesmerized eyes.

They are the Avengers, after all. Who wouldn't be completely mesmerized? She snorts softly at the thought. I'm not. She checks over her gun of choice, making sure it works completely fine. It's an older sniper rifle that is much better than the newer ones by her account. It looks a bit odd, but it's one of the best guns she's ever owned.

Her second weapon of choice is a newer pistol. The range isn't too good, but she'll use it well if the need arises. However, she doesn't plan on it. She was a sniper in the military and will always be one.

She started paintball after her second tour got cut short a little after one year in. This year was supposed to be her last year, but now all she's doing instead of serving her country is trying to get by with her lousy barista/security guard job and participating in paintball competitions with her sniper skills.

She knows the perfect place to hide and the perfect way to take out each of her targets. She's been doing this for years, having hunted when she was just a child with her father. If he was still alive he'd probably look down on her choice of how to use her skills, but it doesn't matter now. He's been gone for years.

She had heard that the Avengers were going to participate in this particular competition. It isn't widely known and therefore the winners don't get cash prizes, but she just had to see if the intel one of her acquaintance's friends had was correct. And boy was she not disappointed. I'm gonna have to find that guy later... See what other info he's got.

Her eyes flicker up towards the digital clock. She pushes off the wall and heads into the arena. She's one of the only people left in the waiting room, the rest of them a few children who aren't old enough to participate in this particular competition as it's for eighteen or over.

She ducks down and makes sure the metal on her rifle doesn't alert anyone of her position. There's just a little over five minutes until the competition starts. The competition itself is simple. Be the last one standing or stay alive after one hour.

She has no doubt that the Avengers are going to target everyone in the competition to have a proper romp around the surprisingly large course. Considering the building's an older warehouse, she should have expected it, but what she wasn't expecting was the fact that they've got so many props that actually make the whole place look exactly like a forest. They've got real trees, too.

She mentally snorts as she hears a few people laughing and she even sees a few standing around doing nothing. Noobs. She makes sure she's crouched as low as possible as she sprints up one of the two hilly areas. It's got a large tree at the top, but since it's so hard to get to, she doubts that anyone's got there.

She sighs in relief as she inspects the tree and the whole hill just to make sure that no one's hiding and waiting to pick her off once the buzzer rings. Everyone was debriefed thirty minutes before the competition started. They closed the gates thirty minutes beforehand so anyone who didn't hear the rules can't play.

The rules are easy. No lethal weapons. No aiming at the groin or head area. You must shout hit if you get hit, if not, you're banned for life. And you must have a different color than everyone else.

There are about fifty people in the course, so there's a wide range of colors and some are different shades. The color she got was black, just like all of her gear. She heard that the Avengers got red, blue, gold, purple, crimson, and silver. That soldier must have silver, she mentally snorts, knowing that he's got a silver arm. Her hand momentarily flickers down to her right leg where her own prosthetic is, the reason she was discharged.

It's one of those newer fancy 3D printed ones. She had made it in black and she thinks it looks nice with the pale color of her skin. Majority of it looks like wires so you can see straight through it. She has four different ones as it costed no less than two-hundred for all of them. This one is her favorite, though. She tends to wear shorts to show it off as she's not embarrassed by her injury.

She shakes her head and narrows her eyes. She's got a mask covering the majority of her face, as she usually does during her paintball competitions, and she knows that a few people in the crowd recognized her.

She's built up quite the reputation within the last two and a half years and she's even received a nickname. The Shadow. So original, she mentally snorts, taking position at the top of the tree. Just because I always wear black and no one knows my identity and no one sees me after a match, that doesn't mean I'm a shadow. She thinks for a few moments. Oh, wait.

She whistles lowly at the view. She can see nearly all of the course and it's quite impressive. The center is practically a maze and one wrong turn will lead you to a dead end where all of the snipers can easily pick you off. Hell, she can see about thirteen people who are easy pickings, but that's not what she's going for. She can't draw attention to her position.

She's planning on taking out the big guns. She'll wait until the Avengers take out everyone and make them think that they're the only ones left and then that's when she'll strike. Like a predator in the night. Silent but deadly. You're not killing anyone, Aura. You're just... killing their pride. She gives herself a mental nod. Yes. Kill their pride.

She flattens herself against the tree and hugs her rifle to her chest as the buzzer rings. Within the first ten seconds, there's about ten Hit!'s. She sits on the branch and watches as all of the newbies get picked off and shout in frustration as they walk back to the main doors, waving their white flag in the air.

Her own one is tucked into her back pocket, but she doesn't intend on using it. She intends to win. She may or may not be very competitive. Eh, she thinks to herself, mentally shrugging her shoulders. I'm not hurting anyone.

She lays down on the branch as she hears the loud footsteps of a few people coming towards her. "I heard she came over here!" she hears a masculine voice shout. It's a bit higher than she expected and she has a feeling that it may be a kid who decided to sneak into the competition. It happens.

She looks through her scope and nearly snorts at what she sees. It's a group of three boys dressed in camo. The leader is running up the hill to the very left of her towards an outpost as fast as he can while chattering loudly, and she's surprised that he hasn't got picked off yet. She rolls her eyes. Well, now he is.

She narrows her eyes as the guy looks away from his friends and she fires off two shots. His two friends groan in sync as they are forced to take a step backward from the shot. They both shout that they're hit and the leader of the group who was most likely talking about her immediately sprints away, knowing that he's next. She rolls her eyes and readies for the shot before freezing in place as a paintball hits the kid.

She squints her eyes to catch the color in the dim light and she hisses under her breath. "Shit!" she mutters, dropping out of the tree as fast as possible and ducking for cover as a few paintballs fly towards her. "Shit. Shit. Shit!" I can't let him get me!

She ducks down as she runs behind the outpost tower. Paintballs are no longer flying towards her, but she knows that only means that either he's running after her or he's changing position for a better shot. Most likely the latter, she absentmindedly thinks as she slides down the other side of the hill and rolls behind one of the walls. That soldier's known for waiting for his target to do all the work and get into the perfect position where he can get them.

Good thing she knows a thing or two about being a sniper. Instead of heading towards one of the other ideal sniping positions, like the other hill, the outpost towers, or the other trees, she heads towards the far wall.

She had scoped out the area earlier and had learned of a little secret hidden on the wall. It's a little foothold that makes it so anyone with good enough jumping skill can jump onto a nearby house prop. It's unpredictable and it's also a good enough position to see some of the arena.

She pins herself to a wall and grabs her rifle as she spots a little spark in the distance. She knows it's not the soldier as he's smart enough not to be seen, but she knows it must be one of the Avengers as everyone else has been hit.

She lowers herself onto the ground, happy that she's on the higher section of the map and squints into her scope. She grins behind her mask as her target comes into view, running from someone.

She pulls the target and her grin broadens as her target let's out a groan. "Oh, c'mon!" Stark groans out, looking at his chest where she hit him. "Wait, who's color is this?" Not a second later Black Widow comes into view and before the famous assassin can react, she's hit, too.

"Shit!" the read-head curses as she sprints away from her, knowing that the assassin's already heading towards her previous position. She also has an idea that the other assassin, Hawkeye, may be searching for her too since she knows that the two are in cahoots.

Instead of taking the expected route of escape, she doubles back on her original position and heads towards the two hit targets. She nearly laughs as she hears them curse and shout out that they're hit.

She makes sure to stay away from where they're headed, but she mentally checks the two of them off her list. Two down, four to go. Oh, this'll be fun, she thinks as she spots a blonde head of hair in the distance.

She hears a round fire off and the familiar voice of the Falcon yell out. Three down, three to go. All I've got left is the Captain, Hawkeye, and that soldier. She changes her route as she heads towards her original destination. It doesn't take her long to reach the far wall and she easily locates the foothold hidden behind part of a bush.

She narrows her eyes at it and arranges herself so her leg doesn't get caught in the branches. It's a bit of a struggle for her to pull herself up as her foot gets caught, but she manages to push off the wall and spins around to grab onto the ledge of the roof. This looked easier in the video, she mentally grumbles to herself, adjusting her grip so she can easily throw herself onto the roof.

A shot fires in the distance and she instinctually flattens herself to the roof. "Hit!" the Captain yells out. Damn, she thinks to herself, arranging her rifle so she can see over the edge of the roof and can shoot if she needs to. I wanted to get him. Oh, well, she sighs. I'll get the next one. I'll save the soldier for last since he stole my kill.

Her eyes flicker over to the large digital clock in the distance and her eyes widen. How the hell are there only twenty minutes left!? She shakes her head and squints her eyes as she looks over the vast expanse of the clear arena. It only takes her about five minutes, but she spots Hawkeye.

As swiftly as possible, she takes aim and her paintball soars through the air. She can tell he's surprised by the way he falters in the tree, but a few seconds later she hears him call out that he's hit.

She ducks down immediately as she sees a flicker of metal in the distance. He was waiting for me to shoot, she thinks in annoyance as s paintball hits the roof right next to her hand. She yelps and rolls away from the edge. Damn, that soldier is smart. Letting me get the shot so he can see exactly where I am.

I bet he thought he was gonna get me, too, she thinks in amusement, slinging her rifle over her shoulder and grabbing the back edge of the house roof so she can get down. If she had a real leg she would just jump off, but her prosthetic's got limits. At least now I know where he's at.

She sprints off as fast as possible towards his location. He was only a bit to the left of where Hawkeye was situated and she's amused that the assassin hadn't spotted the soldier sooner.

She crawls up a tree that was out of his view and she takes aim with her rifle. She swivels to her right as she spots his arm gleam in the distance as he runs the edge of a building. She lets two paintballs fly, but she curses as they land a little behind him. I need to factor in his speed. He's much faster than I thought.

Two more paintballs fly and while they get closer to him, they don't hit him. He disappears behind a dummy house and she drops out of the tree, making a path between various dummy houses and walls as she makes her way through the center. It's the only area where he'd have trouble spotting her.

She throws herself to the ground as a paintball lands on the wall just ahead of her. Shit! He's closer than I thought. She looks down at her rifle but doesn't bother with it as she realizes that she's out of paintballs for it, having only been allowed a few for the rifle she was using. She reluctantly grabs her pistol out her thigh holster and she pushes herself to her feet, her leg sore from her rough landing.

She growls softly to herself as she realizes that she's only got two clips that hold ten paintballs each. She'd usually bring more, but she hadn't expected emptying clips without hitting a target.

"Damn, soldier," she grumbles as she looks around her. She nearly freezes as she realizes that he's no longer using his rifle. He must have run out, she thinks. But the thought doesn't console her as she realizes that she's now literally stuck in a maze with a trained super assassin. "Shit."

She sprints as fast as possible to the area near the doors as it doesn't hold a lot of covers. While that means that she may be a bit defenseless, it also means that he won't be able to hide as he prefers to do.

She throws herself to the side again as a few more paintballs fly near her. She can practically hear him cussing her out for avoiding him. Ahead of her, she can see the open area where everyone can look over the arena. She can see the rest of the Avengers group overhead and a lot of them are either glaring at her for shooting them or they're highly amused.

She'd be amused, too, if she saw what was going on. One small girl with half a leg versus a super-soldier who's killed over two-dozen people and was also a famous sniper in World War II. Yeah, she doesn't blame them.

She yelps as a paintball flies past her, her eyes widening as she throws herself against the wall. Don't get distracted! she hisses at herself. She closes her eyes and readies her pistol as she spins around and slowly leans past the wall.

She blindly fires two shots and she hears him cuss out in what she assumes to be Russian. She grins from behind her mask but throws herself back against the wall as he shoots towards her again.

"Just give up!" she hears a voice from above yell. She looks upwards and glares at the Falcon. "He's got you pinned!" She narrows her eyes at him and fires a paintball towards him, making him yelp as it hits his shoulder. Worth it, she thinks as she tucks the empty clip into her utility belt.

She takes a deep breath and moves before she can think too much about it. She spins around and fires off shots as she swiftly sprints to the wall on the other side of the opening. Shit! How many paintballs did I just shoot? She mentally growls as he fires off a few more shots as she tries to peek around the wall.

He must be really low, now, she thinks to herself, going over the options in her head. Fuck it. She runs out from behind the wall and levels her pistol to his chest. She stops as he does the same and she snorts as she realizes what they're doing.

"Are we seriously doing this?" she mutters, feeling her mask move as she speaks. His eyes are narrowed at her and she's amused to see him in full Winter Soldier gear. Including the mask. He's lacking the goggles, though.

"C'mon, doll," he says, taking off his mask. She doesn't waver as she narrows her eyes at him and doesn't remove her mask. "I've got you cornered. Surrender." She tilts her head to the side as if thinking about it.

"How about... no." He narrows his eyes at her and at the same exact time, they pull the trigger. She blinks as the buzzer rings but no paintball leaves her gun or hits her. She looks down at it and unloads the magazine. She looks at it and snorts softly as she realizes that she had no paintballs left. She looks up at him to see him looking at an empty clip, too.

They look at each other for a few minutes before she starts giggling softly, her posture going from soldier to teenage girl within a second. Her giggles almost immediately turn into laughter as she hears the rest of the Avengers team start to laugh, too.

She grabs her stomach as he laughs, too, shaking his head all the while and putting his gun into a holster. She does the same, and shifts her rifle around on her back, watching as he approaches her. He holds his hand out and she immediately grasps it in her own, pulling down her cloth mask and smiling up at him.

She tilts her head to the side and flashes her teeth at him. "Nice game," he says. "You make an amazing opponent." She giggles softly in her remaining amusement and nods her head in acknowledgment.

"You're not too bad yourself, soldier." She takes her hand away from him just as the rest of the Avengers team join them on the main floor. Apparently, nearly everyone else left right after they got picked off, so there were only a few people to see the end of the game.

She steps to the side and salutes to the Captain. "Captain Rogers," she says, tilting her head to the side at the silver paint on his chest. "I see that Sergeant Barnes didn't just pick you off just because you're friends."

The Captain nods his head and she relaxes her position as he nods his head. "Army?" he asks needlessly.

She gives a sharp nod. "Served five and a half years as a sniper before I got discharged," she says, gesturing towards her mesh-looking prosthetic. He gives her a sympathetic smile and nods at her. "Anyways, good game. Maybe I'll see you at the next tournament, Sarge," she says, looking towards the soldier before beginning to walk away as she starts to lift her mask over her face.

"Wait!" she hears the Falcon say loudly. She lowers her mask and looks back at him. "Why don't you join us? We were just going to head out to eat before going back to the compound. You took out three of us, that deserves a reward."

She turns back to them fully and crosses her arms as she juts her hip out. "I would have taken out four of you if it wasn't for him." She gives a side glance to Barnes who rolls his eyes at her. "Also, thanks for taking my kill back there."

He raises an eyebrow at her as he leans on his rifle. "The guy was bothering you. I did ya' a favor. Besides, you got his pals." She narrows her eyes at him but rolls them in an amused manner as a puff of air leaves her nose.

"That's beside the point, Sergeant, and you know it." He waves his hand around and she looks over at the Falcon who looks equal parts amused and confused. "I've got nothin' else to do. Why not?"

He grins and looks from her to the soldier. "Good. You got a ride? If not, Buck's got an extra helmet." She snorts softly in amusement at his subtle hint and shakes her head.

"Of course you've got a motorcycle," she mutters under her breath at him. "I've got a bike of my own, so I don't need a ride. I'll follow you out, though." At that, she puts her mask back over her mouth and heads out the door, disregarding the confused and amused mutters behind her.

"She's like a girl version of you, man!"