"This," said Snake quietly, "is an H&K USP, .45 caliber. This is a silencer." He twisted it off. "You take it off like that, you put it on like this." He twisted it back on. "The magazine comes out like this. You reload this way. This is the safety. Off, on. Now, you try."

He handed the gun to Otacon, who promptly yawned. Snake frowned and gave him an intimidating look. Otacon didn't even notice it, engrossed in the gun. "Like this..." He took the silencer off and then put it back on. "And like this..." He released the magazine, and had a bit of difficulty reloading, but managed it.

"This is the sight. Aim over there."

"Just like Counter-Strike!"

Snake gave another withering look. "Guns are not toys, Otacon. Guns kill people."

"I know that." Otacon looked at the array of weapons that were placed on the table. "Do you have one that doesn't kill...?"

"They're not made to put people to sleep, you know." Snake shook his head. "Okay, here's another one. This is the M9. It's a semi-automatic. It's a double action pistol. It's not as heavy as the USP, and the range is about the same."

"Maybe we could modify one so that it doesn't kill people..."

"Otacon, pay attention. You're lucky I'm not making you field strip these. Single action, double action. It's got a 15 round magazine, but you can fire without the magazine. This is the safety. This one's part of the first set of them, made in Italy by Beretta."

Otacon took the gun from Snake and looked at it carefully. "It doesn't feel lighter." Snake shrugged and watched his friend try to do what Snake had done. He got most of it, but Snake made him practice.

"It's probably the best one for you to use, so I want to see you do it all effortlessly." Snake watched as Otacon tried over and over to do everything just the way that Snake had done. He was slow, but he was getting it done. Given some more practice, he might be able to do it.

He was trying, at least.

Snake showed Otacon a few more guns, but his M9 was the lightest, and had the least recoil of the ones he had. Given Otacon's strength, the M9 was probably the only one he'd be able to fire properly. A Glock 26 would be better, but he didn't have one of those on hand.

"All right, Otacon. Get the M9, we'll go outside and I'll teach you to shoot it."

"Couldn't we take a break? We've been going all day, Snake."

Snake smiled predatorily at the engineer. "And it's not even close to midday. Did you think it was easy? Missions don't have lunch breaks, you know."

Otacon stared at him. "We're not on a mission, Snake."

Ah. Time to start setting him up... "Not yet."

"Not... yet?"

Snake stood up. "Outside, Otacon." Snake walked out, not bothering to look over his shoulder. Otacon would follow.

He looked around. No one lived in a place like this, so it would be safe enough to fire around here. Scare the local wildlife, but that was it. When Otacon got out, Snake promptly took the weapon from him.

"You hold it like this. It's not like in a game or a movie: don't hold your wrist or you'll end up breaking your thumb." He held it out in a very proper two-handed grip. He wasn't going to even show Otacon how to do it with one-hand. "It's an easy gun, so you just pull the trigger."

He demonstrated. The gun was silenced, but Otacon still jumped. "It's... pretty loud, isn't it..."

"It's louder without the silencer." He handed the gun to Otacon. "Wait until I tell you to shoot."

Otacon brought the gun up in a tentative approximation of Snake's position. "I'm not sure I want to do this in real life..."

"Don't blame you." Snake corrected Otacon's position, making sure that his hands were in the right places. "You can shoot, or you can give up on this whole Philanthropy thing."

Otacon glanced at Snake and pulled the trigger. Snake nodded. "Might be nice to aim next time."

"Lay off will you? I've only done this in VR before."

Snake smirked. That was exactly the point of this whole thing, after all. "See if you can hit that tree over there. We're not too far away."

After only one reload, Otacon was actually hitting the tree. Apparently, the time he'd spent in VR training had at least given him the ability to hit stationary targets.

He was still jumping at the recoil though.

Well, one way out of that.

Snake smiled.

Time for Otacon to use a bigger gun.