The rifle was twice as big as she was - but she was able to cope with the massive size and weight difference.

Beside her, Soldier was giving a running commentary on things she needed to do. Adjust the scope for the height and wind speed, lay out the catcher cloth for the casings, check the rounds-

She had briefly wondered why he hadn't switched to an automatic adjusting scope before she remembered that he was old. And that was not the hypersensitive musings of a six year old - he was almost ninety years old. And sniping - to him - was an art form all it's own.

Using an automatically adjusting scope - or a rifle that held the casings itself - would be sacrilege to him.
It wouldn't be his artform. She let him ramble on, occasionally following an instruction here, a suggestion there.

She knew - like many - that her age placed restriction on the things she could and could not do. She also knew that she was an incomplete weapon - Winter Soldier had rescued her before her training had been completed.

There were gaps in her knowledge that she undoubtedly wanted to be filled and that required a level of on-the-job training.

Sniping lessons were one of them.

'Have you calculated the wind drag and adjusted accordingly?'

'Yes.'

'When was the rifle last maintained?'

She glared up at him from her prone position. 'Seriously?!' She demanded.

'You should know these things.' He replied solemnly. 'They will impact your performance.'

'Yesterday!' She defended, going pink at the scolding. 'You sat in front of the damn TV, watching the news and cleaning your gun with a horrible - with THAT look on your face!'

Soldier sniffed angrily. 'I did not have a look on my face.'

Mantis returned to her scope with a lightly snorted 'Right.' And she was Lady Death. For a man who had thought himself a weapon for almost seventy years, he was very good at picking up humanity again. Like being a complete and utter liar.

'Do you see your target?' He asked.

Did she? with all the bitching back and forward about it, she hadn't paid attention. Preying Mantis refocused on the task and scanned the area until she found him. 'Got him.'

'Distance?'

She hazarded about 900 yards. Not a bad distance, but by no means easy for a first timer. Then again - she was who she was and Winter Soldier was a good instructor. They generally made impossible roll over for them. She wondered if he'd done this before and then snapped back to what she was doing. Complete focus was needed abd expected from him.

'Adjust again for distance.'

She did.

'Now, don't pull it back, squeeze gently until it fires itself.' He instructed. As she added more pressure to the hairpin, she noted that his breathing had changed. It had gotten heavier and he'd loosened up. Like he was the one pulling the trigger. The gun fired suddenly and shocked her out of her analysis. It rammed back, deep into her arm, taking a piece of her shoulder, she was sure. The recoil was that strong.

'Target is dead.' She heard him mutter as frantic activity was going on below them. People were looking for the shooter - She was currently writhing around on the floor whimpering 'I think I broke a collarbone.'

Winter Soldier was not a sympathetic. He dragged her up and hauled her towards the rifle. 'pick it up and lets go.' He ordered. 'The rooftop's about to get busy.'

'My shoulder's in pieces!' She argued.

'If you don't pick up that rifle and move to the safe-zone - YOU will be in pieces.' He warned.

'I'm six!' She snapped.

'And? Do you think they care? It will heal in a few hours.'

Yeah, he's done this before. Mumbling about the unfairness, Mantis grabbed the rifle and hefted the over-large gun onto her back, mindful of the shoulder.

Maybe she would stick to knives and swords and things that used such precision, you'd hardly know you'd been cut.

It was safer for her shoulder that way.

Grumbling the entire way, she hefted herself to the safe-zone.

A/N: Yeah, I'm not posting these in chronological order. It's mostly a collection of oneshots. Like I said - too many opportunities for bad parenting for me to stick to one thing for long.

And the second part of the origins is giving me hell. I needed a break and this popped up.