Disclaimer: Characters owned by DC Comics.
This is another attempt of mine at doing a story focusing on Roy Harper and Garth Ranzz, but it's kind of an experiment for me as I've never really written anything like this before focusing on the two. I'm open to criticism on it so don't worry.
As usual, Lian is also involved.
Also as usual, the two are a few pounds heavier than they usually are.
It was electric. It was magnetic. It, it was something, but it was amazing.
A storm of arrows, a melee of electricity in some sort of charged dance.
No, dance wasn't the right word for it.
It was a training session between Roy Harper, the hero called Arsenal from the 21st Century, and Garth Ranzz, the hero known as Lightning Lad from the 31st Century. The two men were members of the super hero teams known as the Titans and the Legion of Super-Heroes respectively.
Garth released a crackling bolt of lightning from his hand and decimated another of Roy's arrows as it went through the air.
Every time Garth wanted to create a bolt of electricity, he felt it crackling up from inside him and swim through the veins, muscles, and bones in his arm until they erupted in a violent, dazzling display of gold from the tips of his fingers.
Despite the ease with which Roy was firing his arrows, it was actually extremely difficult. He felt the strings cutting into his hands and a coppery smell intermingled with the smell of sweat. The fletch scratched his cheek but not enough to break the skin. It was irritating though, even more so than having to pull back over a hundred pounds with every projectile he shot forth. The muscles in his arms were practically screaming.
Through a number of circumstances relating to several supervillain attacks, mainly the machinations of the time-twisting witch called Dark Angel and the mind rapist Saturn Queen, the Titans and the Legion found themselves bonding over mutual enemies, and the two men had developed a friendship thanks to a third party (who wishes to remain anonymous for this story).
Roy discreetly fired a second arrow while Garth was distracted with the first one. It was inches away from the target when Garth tried to destroy it, but ended up missing. It hit the target. That made the score 4-4.
Among the reasons why the two had become friends beyond the aforementioned mutual friend, they had a lot of things in common. Both were in their 20s, both had red hair and considerably scruffy faces, both had some anger issues, and both were fathers. Although Roy was single and Garth was happily married, Roy had a daughter and son and Garth had twin boys, Roy wore his hair short while Garth wore his long, and Roy was two inches shorter than Garth.
Another bolt of yellow lightning erupted from Garth's fist, and he managed to obliterate a target before Roy could fire an arrow at it. Score was 4-5. They ran.
They were astonishingly agile and were pretty much destroying the targets in front of them despite their size and heft. Due to certain circumstances, the two had put on a considerable amount of weight and had body types more rounded than your usual costumed male heroes. Garth appeared a bit more muscular compared to Roy, but both weighed roughly the same amount. Their speed defied expectations amassed from first sight of their stomachs.
Roy reached into his quiver and tried to pull another arrow, but Garth tried to preemptively nix that idea by firing a small bolt at the arrow in Roy's hand. Roy dodged it, and shot Garth a rather pleased look. Garth feigned indignation as he wiped some sweat from his forehead.
The two were both wearing mesh shorts. Roy's were in maroon while Garth's were navy blue. They had been wearing shirts earlier but they'd been drenched with sweat, and it became difficult to move with them on.
Roy took advantage of Garth's brief moment to clear his vision and fired the arrow from his bow at the next target. That made it 5-5. They were even once more.
The next ten targets had suddenly sprung up in front of them. Now it wasn't a point of waiting to see where the targets would spring. They'd just spent a good chunk of time trying to score a point or trying to make sure the other wouldn't be able to score. Hit the target or stop the arrow from hitting it.
Garth was not going to run out of electricity any time soon, and even though Roy was down to a few arrows, he could just as easily use whatever he could get his hands on as a projectile weapon. They stood perfectly still a few feet from one another.
Silence.
Garth cracked his knuckles.
Roy shifted his feet.
Someone coughed.
"So…" Roy finally spoke. He scratched the back of his head.
"Yeah." Garth replied. He crossed his arms over his chest.
They looked at the targets one more time.
"On the count of three then?" Roy asked as he took out another arrow.
"Fine by me." Garth said, a bit of static dancing over his fingertips.
They positioned themselves, straightened their backs, and both took deep breaths…
1…
2…
3.
If you blinked, you would have missed it. At the precise moment Roy fired the arrow from his bow, a bolt of lightning flew from Garth's hands. Rather than focusing on destroying Garth's arrow, the two had focused their energy on the same objective: hit the target.
At the exact moment the arrow pierced the target in front of them, the lightning had scorched it black. It was impossible to tell what had hit first.
And then, they proceeded to repeat the process again, and again, and again.
And finally, one last target remained. Without missing a beat, an arrow was fired one last time alongside a stream of electricity, and the target was OBLITERATED.
10-10.
Tie.
Faint wisps of smoke rose from where the final target had stood. The smell of ozone mingled with scorched wood and sweat.
Garth walked over to Roy as Roy lowered his bow.
"Good game."
Garth extended his hand to Roy.
"Yeah man. Good game."
…
"How is it you never run out of power?" Roy asked as the two men were making their way up from the target range on Titans Island, back to the HQ shaped in the form of a giant T.
"I just don't." Garth shrugged. "Ever since the incident on Korbal, it's just always been inside me. I don't know if I CAN ran out of juice."
"Sure would've made things easier on my end."
"Easier but boring."
Garth eyed Roy's bow.
"Hey, think you can show me how to use one of these things?"
"If you've got the time."
"Let me see what my schedule's like."
"So, what do you want to do now?" Roy asked.
"I was gonna get changed and get something to eat. I'm starving. You?" Garth replied.
"I dunno man, maybe we should both take a shower or a dip in the whirlpool before anything else. We smell kind of…" Roy trailed off.
"Ooh, yeah. And a shower does sound great." Garth admitted.
"Daddy!"
Roy's young daughter Lian ran up to the two adults as they entered the tower.
"Hi princess." Roy smiled and bent down to kiss her on the cheek.
Lian backtracked and held a hand over nose.
"Eww, you guys smell bad!" Lian wrinkled her nose.
"Are all your kids so well-mannered?" Garth quizzed.
"My own flesh and blood turns against me. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I never bought her a pony for her fifth birthday. Now we're sworn enemies." Roy feigned melancholy,
"No we're not. You're such a drama queen, daddy." Lian said. "Anyway, who won?"
"It was a tie." Garth mentioned.
"A close tie. Thanks to me." Roy proudly stated.
"You?" Garth responded.
"So Mr. Ranzz won, didn't he?" Lian said.
"No it was a tie." Roy huffed.
"A close tie." Garth mimicked.
"Shut up." Roy said, not being amused.
"Anyway, we were gonna take a dip in the whirlpool." Garth explained.
"Wanna join us?" Roy invited.
"I dunno, think there'll be room for me? You guys are kind of…" Lian trailed off, thinking of a polite word for "fat."
"Substantial?" Roy said.
"Imposing?" Garth said.
"Um… I guess?"
"I think we'll have room. As long as you promise not to splash around." Roy told her.
"But that's no fun." Lian pouted.
"You can splash when your dad's not looking." Garth mock whispered. Roy didn't even bother to say "I heard that."
"It's not gonna be too hot, is it?" Lian said.
"We'll make sure it's not too hot." Roy assured her.
"Then sure! I'll go get my bathing suit. Be right back!"
Lian ran off down the hallway of the Tower to her room.
"Wanna invite your wife?" Roy asked Garth.
"Already on it." Garth replied, adjusting his flight ring to get in touch with Imra.
"Of course, then there might not be enough room for all four of us." Roy pointed out.
"Hey, I'M not the 'substantial' one." Garth defended.
"No but you ARE the 'imposing' one." Roy made air quotes.
The two scowled at each other….
And then burst into laughing.