AN: Okay guys, thanks for all the reviews and favorites already and thanks to everyone for not pointing out that I misspelled prologue in the chapter… Anyway, I love the reviews keep them coming! I'm just letting you know, I'm not an archer so this is how I imagine shooting would be and then at the end is just fun not really all that logical, or maybe it is I don't know. Enough of my rambling, I don't own YJ and now enjoy!
AN2: Okay so if you've read this before I just changed the outcome at the end, soooo was right and I was wrong in making him win. That's really all that's changed sorry if this comes up in your alert and it's just this I'm working on the next chapter now I promise.
The team found themselves in a wide and mostly clear room; one whole side of the room was glass, revealing that they were above a city but not high enough to be in the air. A few large targets took up one side of the wall and a couple of weight machines lined the adjacent wall but looked for the most part unused.
"Whoa, time feels normal." Wally gasped.
"Your powers will be subdued during your time in the other's training times." Green Arrow said, just realizing that that wasn't explained.
"Why do my hands feel weird?" Wally asked.
"They're called calluses; you get them when you work a lot with a specific part of your hand or foot." Green Arrow explained.
"So we have them now because…" Wally tried to figure it out.
"We are going to train with them so it will be better for our hands to not bleed while we are going." Robin explained.
"So what are we going to get when we go to you?" Wally nudged his best friend.
"You'll just have to wait and see." Robin smirked not wanting to wait for his turn.
"Okay guys, so normally we warm up with a couple shots at the targets, but since you're new we'll spend a bit more time on it." GA told the team while leading them over to a hidden closet to get out enough equipment. After each person was fitted with a bow and quiver they lined up in front of the three targets. "Before anyone kills another we are going to go over aiming. You want to look down your arrow and anchor it before you shoot. It won't work perfectly at first but it'll be easier after a while."
Artemis and her mentor took the first shots to show the team what to do. After them Robin, Kaldur and Conner stepped up to the line twenty feet away from their respective targets. Robin was the first to aim and fire, he looked almost as steady as the two archers and when he released his arrow pierced through the center a second later.
"When did you learn to shoot?" Artemis asked impressed.
"When I became Robin Batman trained me in every possible discipline, including archery." Robin told her.
"Wow, why everything possible?" Megan was trying to figure out how one boy could learn everything.
"You never know what a situation will give you and you have to always be ready to fight with all you've got." The Boy Wonder shrugged as he shot another one just below the first.
"Okay Robin, step away and let someone else try." Green Arrow ordered taking out the two the Robin had shot.
"Kaldur, why don't you try?" Artemis suggested.
Without saying anything, the leader took aim and fired the arrow landing just on the edge of the target. "I guess I'm not that great at this." Kaldur admitted turning around.
"No, that's actually really good for your first try." GA commented.
"It's a lot better than my first shot, although to be fair I was like five. Try raising your front arm a bit."Artemis agreed.
"Yeah mine too, but I was older that Artemis." Robin added.
"Okay my friends, I will try again." Kaldur took aim again, this time hitting close to the center. "That helped a lot."
"Okay, now keep trying and once you hit the center twice let Megan go." Artemis ordered.
Conner wasn't waiting for the archers and Robin to get over to him. He struggled to aim the bow and released before it steadied out. The arrow ended up embedding itself in the corner of the ceiling closest to him. He threw down the bow going to stomp on it but being stopped by a shove from behind.
"Whoa there Con, no need to break things that aren't yours." Robin said, trying to get the boy to calm down.
"You will get better Conner, it just takes time." Artemis comforted.
"And a working bow." The youngest added.
"Now, get ready to shoot but don't go yet." Artemis ordered. She walked around her friend observing every twitch of his body. "You need to anchor your right hand and relax your grip on the bow, it'll be easier to hit the target when you relax, and spread your legs wider it'll let you stay steady for longer."
"I miss reality." The clone mumbled before adjusting to the advice. His arrow this time made it just onto the edge of the target.
"I told you you could do it." Artemis placed her hand on his shoulder. "Green Arrow's going to help you out some more while we get to Wally and Megan."
Megan was just stepping up to the target so they skipped over her to let her try on her own and went to Wally. He was actually struggling to pull the string back all the way and gave up with it half way back, the arrow puckered out before hitting the wall.
"Nice going Baywatch."
"Hey running doesn't require upper body strength." Wally defended himself.
"You better work on that before Batman gets to you." Robin cackled imagining Wally's face already.
"Don't worry about that now though; just pull the string without an arrow." Artemis instructed.
"You saw me before, I can't." Wally protested.
"There's a breaking point where it gets easier to hold so don't give up."
Wally did as told, his arms rippling with the effort until the string popped back and the rippling stopped. "Wow, that's a lot easier." Wally laughed. "See, I told you it would be easy."
"Now do it again with an arrow." Artemis said, stifling a laugh. "Oh but don't let it… snap back." Wally had already let go of the string before the blonde could warn him and was now hissing and shaking out his hand. The string had snapped back, hitting his hand on the grip.
"Don't you dare whip out a camera dude!" Wally hissed to the bird.
"It's a simulation how do you expect a picture here to make it out?" Artemis asked.
"He will find some way I'm sure." Wally glared at his friend who was smirking and giggling.
"Anyway, get going you heard Arty." Robin ordered ignoring Artemis' glare.
Wally sighed before nocking an arrow and struggling again to pull the bow back. Once he did he was able to aim and hit near the center. "That wasn't actually that bad.
"No it wasn't, now do it twenty more times." Artemis instructed with a smirk.
"What!" The not-so-speedster cried.
"You heard me now get going." With that she grabbed Robin and walked the ten feet over to the last member of the team. "Hey Megan how're you doing?"
"It's okay I guess, I can hit the target." Megan answered, showing the two quickly, hitting a foot off of the center.
"That's pretty good, just keep trying." Artemis encouraged before walking over to her mentor who was actually making good progress with Conner.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" GA asked as they came over.
"No, I'm thinking we could just be done." She said sarcastically.
"Well then let's call everyone over and start it." GA practically jumped up and down as he called everyone over. "We are going to go play a training game that we can normally only play if Roy is over. Can everyone please grab a new quiver?" Ollie pressed a button, revealing a bunch quivers with different color strips around the top of each one. Robin took a red one, Wally took a yellow one, Kaldur took a blue one, Artemis took a green one, Megan got a pink one, Conner got a black one and Ollie got an orange one. "Okay, now everyone step towards the glass so we can set this up." With another press of a button random white blocks came out of the floor.
Robin caught on immediately. "Oh this is going to be so asterous."
"What's going on?" Wally asked.
"Paint arrow." Artemis answered with a wicked smile.
"Okay, rule time. So as soon as you get hit three times you're out and can go sit on the bench by the door behind that long wall. As more people get out it gets harder, last one standing wins, now scatter a horn will blow in ten seconds marking the start." GA told them before running off.
The team followed his lead, quickly dispersing throughout the room. As soon as the horn sounded all the participants pulled out an arrow with a little ball as the arrowhead and started running. Artemis and Robin were the first to meet, both mirroring the other by letting the arrow fly and then back flipping out of the way of the incoming projectile letting them hit into the wall leaving colored splotches.
In another part, Green Arrow met Wally around a corner, instantly nailing him with an orange spot and a pretty nasty bruise before Wally even got his bow ready. Wally finally shot his arrow only to be nailed by another one from the archer and have his arrow not fly true going over the man's head. Before Wally could even react a third arrow hit him from behind, he turned around to see Kaldur reloading. With a sigh, Wally walked over to the bench to wait for the game to end.
Conner came up on Robin from behind and thought he could shoot him without the bird knowing. Of course this is Robin he snuck up on and before Conner could shoot, he felt two arrows go into his chest; both of the spots were red. Without shooting his arrow Conner fled to stay in the game.
Artemis walked right into Megan, both their ready arrows staining the other's shirt. Artemis quickly backed up and was able to release another arrow before running away around the corner. Megan followed her, but wasn't ready for a double shot that Artemis had released. Megan walked slowly over to the bench to sit with Wally.
Artemis ran into her mentor watching around the corner with her back to him. She shot an arrow that landed right on the back of his neck. He turned around but instead of firing made a shh gesture pointing around the corner. Artemis looked around and saw Robin peeking out from another corner waiting for someone in the same direction Green Arrow was. Artemis ran across the opening to another pathway to await their victim. Kaldur came around the far bend in the corridor the three were waiting in and on an unspoken signal the three revealed themselves and fired, knocking their leader out of the competition.
Green Arrow came upon Conner trying to be stealthy going the opposite way, he was failing. To stop the terrible attempt at quietness he shot, leaving the clone to walk out of the ring.
With the three best archers still on the field, a few new walls popped up to push the players together. Robin walked up to the only adult playing without him even noticing. He did notice though when an arrow hit him in the butt. Robin smirked as the man turned around to give him a glare while shooting off three arrows which were all dodged by the acrobat. Robin, while flipping around, managed to fire an arrow that hit in the middle of Green Arrow's forehead. To say the team was surprised when the archer walked into the losing corner was a huge understatement.
The walls then all disappeared, letting those on the bench watch as their two human teammates squared off. Artemis was the first to fire which set off a flurry of arrows which lasted until they each had no more arrows left. In the end, the previously clean room was colored with Christmas colors and the two teens had hardly anything on them. Artemis had a bit of red on the edge of her hair and a skid mark of red on her shoulder, and of course the pink dot on her shirt. Robin had a line of green across the top of his sunglasses that looked like it belonged there and a solid splotch of green in the middle of his chest.
"That was awesome." Wally cheered seeing the two coming over.
"It was most impressive." Kaldur agreed.
"Hey Robin, you should come on patrol with me sometime with moves like that." GA joked.
"Is it just me, or are your arms really sore too?" Wally asked randomly as the room faded and began to form the next simulation.