Agent Raven of S.H.I.E.L.D. (COMPLETE)

Distractions

With a handgun, Natasha had taught her to start with two-handed shots, then progress to one hand (both of them, of course). That wasn't an option with the Field firearm. She wasn't going to fire this thing with one hand anytime soon.

She adjusted her stance and brought the gun up. She was one of the last agents to start practicing, but soon her shots joined the ten others that rang out in the range (Doug was practicing too). Once she was satisfied with her work on the short-range target, she adjusted the settings and worked on hitting a farther target. The SHIELD shooting ranges had six preset distances for agents to practice on. Raven intended to practice on every one of them. 

That meant she only had about five minutes in every setting. About halfway through the session, she put her firearm away and took a water break. 

Danny waved to get her attention, and Raven pulled one headphone to the side so she could hear him. "I was watching your target. Nice aim."

She smiled. "Thanks. Don't know why you were watching, but thanks."

"Eh, I get bored," he shrugged, sipping his water. "I like looking around to see how everyone else is doing. You know it's a competition, right?"

Raven narrowed her eyes, signaling confusion. Danny pointed at the screen above her stall. "For group practices, the target averages your score per shot. We get ranked at the end of the session, and our points count toward the Point Hub scores."

Her score was currently 9.88. Not difficult, considering that she had been working at relatively close distances. It would probably drop during the second half. Raven scanned the scores of her peers. All of them were in the same range. 

Actually, Raven hadn't checked her Point Hub profile in ages. She decided she would check it out afterward.

She nodded at Danny's score. "Not doing too bad yourself," she pointed out. He had a 9.84, right on Raven's heels. 

"Better than my usual, actually," he noted, capping his water bottle and setting it back down before winking at her. "I must be siphoning that Romanoff energy off of you."

"Hilarious," she groaned, but she did the same before turning back to the weapon rack. This time, she grabbed a sniper rifle.

As she loaded a fresh clip into it, she got a few stares. Smith, who was just starting his water break, raised an eyebrow. "Big enough for you there?"

Smirking, she asked, "What? You've never used one?"

"You have?"

"A couple times," she remembered, turning her attention back to the rifle. "Not my favorite, but it's nice on some occasions."

He shook his head as she stepped back into her stall. "Spies."

Raven adjusted her target to the fourth distance setting and got back into her stance. She supposed he had a point; Field agents didn't usually carry out assassinations. Espionage took care of that. As long as she was here, though, she might as well practice for the last fifteen minutes or so.

She got much fewer shots in during the second half. The bulky Field firearm had much less recoil and a shorter cooldown time than the sniper rifle. That being said, her shots all hit exactly where she wanted them to. She had to re-aim every single time, so she was much more accurate. Her score would reflect that by the end. 

Natasha had taught her how to fire rifles, but she always thought more about Clint when she used them. Shooting bullets was different from shooting arrows, but she always associated the archer with long-range shots no matter what ammunition she used. Being so far from her target was... isolating, in a way. It felt more impersonal, which she had to be to carry out assassinations. Most of the time, she didn't know who she was firing at during Field missions until after they were over. She always knew exactly who she was assassinating. 

Raven realized that most of the Retrieval reports from her earlier Field missions were probably accessible by now. She could go back and cross-reference her suit footage with the casualty reports and find out the names of the dead now. She made a mental note to do that later. 

Next distance setting. 

It was something she had picked up from Clint. He kept a small black notebook full of people he had killed on missions. Raven had adopted the idea back when she started. She hadn't taken the time to put her Field kills in it yet, but her assassinations and the people from Germany were all in there. Truth be told, she didn't remember if Clint only wrote down his assassinations or all of his kills, but Raven had decided to record all of them. 

The book had the names and pictures of the victims, as well as their birthday and death day. Below that, she wrote why they had been targeted or which mission they had fallen during. That was about half of the page. In the bottom half, she wrote down three reasons why they should have been allowed to live. Usually, those three reasons had something to do with their family or friends, or sometimes their community.

Last one.

Raven wasn't naive. She knew that even though she was an apathetic killer when it came time to pull the trigger, people didn't deserve to die. It wasn't about 'deserve'... most of the time. One person deserved to die, but they weren't really a person to Raven, and they also weren't on Earth. Technically, she didn't even know if they were alive, but she would assume the worst until proven otherwise. 

Hart had asked why Raven had joined SHIELD before she killed him. It hadn't been to 'do good' as Hart had assumed. She had two reasons. One of them was somewhere out in space, bidding his time. Although she had no idea how, Raven was committed to either kill him or die trying, assuming no one beat her to it. If there was any way to get to space, it was probably through SHIELD and the Avengers, so she was on track to get out there for the time being.

The lights shut off in her stall. The practice session was over in five minutes, and 6-11 needed to clear out for the next group. Raven lowered the rifle and flipped the safety back on before emptying the magazine and putting everything back where she found it. 

The agents filed out of the range, brushing past the next group waiting their turn. Someone nudged her from behind. Danny again. "Where are you headed?"

"Point Hub."

"Want some company?"

Raven shrugged. Couldn't hurt. "Sure."