A/N So this is something I came up with while talking to myself! Enjoy!
The game was designed to be simple. It was meant for everybody to be able to play it. That was probably why Superboy complained so bitterly about it. But Black Canary was adamant. There were only four people in the cave that day, with everyone else assisting their mentor, grocery shopping, or taking some downtime beneath the waves. Canary had insisted that the remaining three: Artemis Kid Flash and Superboy, assist her with a theory she was working on. She wanted to take advantage of the fact she had three team members and no one to question her idea. That was why they were playing a game of rock, paper, scissors.
"Alright listen up, I am going to give you your item," The trainer asked the small circle that was standing in the training room. "But I don't want you to tell anyone what you got. And I would like you to keep the small choise for every round, ok?" the Artemis and Superboy were scowling, but they nodded anyways while Kid Flash grinned.
"I'll be anything you say babe. This way's probably the best, seeing as I never loose at this game. I can outthink anyone." the speedster boasted. Everyone present rolled their eyes.
"Oh shut up Baywatch." Artemis chided. Black Canary turned to face Superboy and showed him an action that was obscured from the others. She then showed KF and Artemis their's.
"Alright guys, I'm going to send two of you into a simulation and I want to keep the characteristics of your object in mind. The goal of this simulation is for one person to pin the other player, or get them into a situation they can't get out of. Got it?" KF was still the only one grinning, but the other's once again agreed. "Alright. Artemis, Conner, you're up first."
She and Kid Flash went into the control booth as the training room melted into the bleak Gotham skyline. They were standing in an alley way that had large black fire escapes on either side. It was a deadend covered in graffiti and litter. As soon as the buzzer sounded, Superboy rushed Artemis as she flipped backwards and landed on the second level of the fire escape. As her opponent jumped up to chase after her, she shot an exploding arrow straight into his chest. It went off, and while it didn't make a scratch, the force sent him backwards and he crashed into an open dumpster. When he looked back at the roof, he saw the ends of her golden locks dissapear over the roof.
Knowing she could never keep a Kryptonian pinned, Artemis reasoned that her best bet was to use a foam arrow or chain arrow to keep him where she wanted him. But that wouldn't work from close quaters, so she fled over the roofs. While no one on the team knew it, Gotham was home turf advantage, for not just the Bat family, but the newest Arrow family member as well. She headed for her apartment building. When her father had chosen the place, he had made sure that the roof was an ideal snipping position in case he was ever attacked at home. It took her two minutes to get there and fall flat on her stomach, facing the direction she came in. She notched a foam arrow and closed one eye, waiting for the oppritune moment.
The archer was faster then Superboy had given her credit for. He only had the sound of her footsteps and the smell of her perfume to follow her by, which made things difficult as they mixed with the numerous sounds and smells of a busy city. Finally, he tracked the elusive girl to an apartment complex a few blocks from where they had started. The second he slowed down though, he heard the tell tale sound of a bowstring and then foam was exploding by his feet, creeping it's way up his legs. Instinctivly, he pulled his arms away from the swelling foam and looked around for where the arrow could have come from. He couldn't see anything untill a cloud moved and the moon's silvery light reflected off the tip of the next arrow being aimed for him. It rebounded of his stone chest and he began pounding at the now solid foam. It quickly broke at his touch, strapnel flying in all directions. Soon all but his foot was free, which he simply yanked from it's prison. Another arrow came for him, but he slapped it away and launched himself to the top of the apartments. The force of his landing shoved Artemis back a few feet and she slammed into a vent. She was on her feet imediatly, but it was pretty much over now. Her close range attacks did very little against him and he simply kicked her legs out from beneath her and put his foot over her ribs.
A bell sounded and Gotham dissapeared and was replaced with a 'Superboy Wins' noticfication. He removed his foot and KF sped over and offered her a hand.
"Thanks." she grumbled alowing him to pull her up. Canary arrived and placed a hand on Conner's shoulders.
"Well done both of you. You lasted a fair amount of time Artemis." the older blonde smiled.
"Yeah but she still got her butt kicked!" Kid Flash jeered laughing a bit. His smile fell off when she hit him. "Ow hey! Don't shoot the mesanger!"
"We already knew the message. Besides like you could do any better!" she volleyed.
"Actually, I know I can!" he returned.
"You want ot put your money where your mouth is?"
"Bring it on Blondie!" They both swung their heads to look at Canary. She held up her hands in surrender.
"Alright I guess that's settled then..." she said and went back to the control booth with Conner. Once again the room shimmered away and changed it's self into Central city.
"Aw yeah, home city advantage." the speedster cheered, pumping a fist into the air.
"It's going to take more then that to beat me!" and the second the buzzer sounded, she was gone.
"Aw crap."
Speeding through the city, KF noticed it was pretty much empty. Civillians weren't yet programmed into the simulator since it was pretty new. He rushed around trying to find out where the blonde had gone. He was running through several scenario's in his head at the same time, trying to be prepared for anything she could throw at him. He wasn't however prepared for her to walk right into him causing them both to spiral to the ground. He had an ache in his side from where he had crashed into the decorative fountain he had been running past. But he leapt up quickly all the same. He ran toward her, hoping to catch her off guard, but she suddenly kicked her legs out and tripped him again. He slid this time stopping farther away. Now she had her bow extended and an arrow notched. He couldn't tell what type it was, but he avoided it anyways. He closed the distance between them and engaged her in hand to hand. The archer was sharp and pointed with her blocks and attacks, always guessing where he was going to strike next and countering it. She wasn't able to block them all however and he had made contact a few times. After he struck her shoulder, she retreated several feet. They stared at each other in a western showdown style. Canary even changed the sun's position to mimic such a scene. Both speedster and archer made a 'wtf' look but shrugged it off, unaware that their mentor had taken a few pictures. Finally, KF couldn't take the waiting anyomore and ran toward Artemis, his fist already extended. Smirk already on her face, she grabbed his arm and threw him to the ground and whiped out an arrow. Before he could move, it was pointed at his chest and the simulation ended with the same bell as before. Now however the status bar read: 'Winner Artemis.'
"You were saying?" Artemis asked sweetly, as she lowered her bow. Superboy supressed a smirk and came over with Canary.
"Shut it."
"Nicely done. Just one more and then we'll be done. Kid, Superboy, you're up!" the girls went away and the boys were left to it. This time they were in Happy Harbour, right on the beach. It was now dark out and the waves were loud as they crashed against the sand. The starting bell rang, and the hot heads went for a full on assult. Both had done the math in their heads. If Artemis lost to Superboy and won against Kid Flash, it was obvious who was who. It didn't stop either of them from going all out though. The entire team had been debating this situation just a week ago, and in the end everyone had agreed that paper shouldn't win against rock. They fought hand to hand for a good five minutes, Kid's speed dodgeing Superboy's punches and the clone's invunerability made the speedster's hit's mere annoyances. After getting bored Canary's voice entered the scene.
"I want you guys to think of your rock and your paper. What does it do to beat the other in the game? What are the other's weaknesses?" her disembodied voice asked. Once again, plans raced along KF's mind, rushing to beat the others. What did paper do? Nothing. It cover rock and somehow that stopped it. Robin had pointed out how ridiculous this was and frankly, the boy's scientific mind agreed. But what about weaknesses. Rock's were hard to break, it was the brawn... and every genre savy idiot knew that the brawn didn't have that great of brains. Suddenly, the ideas in KF's head shifted direction and the theoretical lightbulb went off in his head. At the same time, Superboy decided that he would just keep trying to hit the red head and charged. He swung his fist, but it didn't connect. The other boy was barley visable as he blured around in a circle, sweeping sand high up into the air. It flew everywhere and filled the ebony boy's eyes and throat. He tried to get out of the whirlwind that Kid Flash had started, but couldn't break through. Then the bell sounded and Kid Flash's name was pronounced the winner.
"Hey! But I wasn't pinned!" the loser complained when the training room reappeared. The girls approched, the older one was grinning widely.
"No but untill he ran out of energy, Kid could have kept you there untill someone who could have pinned you arrived. That was the purpose of this excersize. You had to think of the skill set you had and use it to your advantage. I assume you all know who each other were?" the nodded.
"Superboy was rock, Kid Idiot was paper and I was scissors. So what your saying is that we all used atributes that a rock, a peice of paper and a pair of sicssors had to beat our counterpart?" Artemis asked skeptically.
"Exactly. In a fight you need to think of how you can beat your oppontent, either will your specific skill, brains or brute stregnth. Paper in fact shouldn't beat rock, but by covering it, it confuses it untill a stronger force arrives." the three exchanged a look.
"Rocks can be confused?" Kid asked confusedly. BC face palmed and shook her head.
"Sigh. Glad to see you grasped this concept. When the others come back they will have the same excersise. You can stay and watch if you like, otherwise you're done for the day. Good job." and she left them alone.
"Well that was original at least." Kid said. All of a sudden, cackling echoed around the room. A sudden weight sent them to the floor, with Superboy pinned by Artemis, Kid Flash and the new weight.
"Rock may beat scissors, scissors may beat paper and paper may beat rock, but Robin beat ALL!" the boy wonder grinned from atop the pile.
Well that was random. But I hope you enjoyed! As I said above this came while I was thinking about rock paper scissors today at lunch, which snowballed into this. Thanks for reading! :D
