Chapter 9: Stealth Training
Stevie was making good progress with her training. Since it gave her something to use as a distraction and lose herself in, she did it more often than not. She could now hold her own against Robin and Artemis without too much trouble. She had never had a goal before, but now it was to learn to fight. All of the team knew by now, and some of the others had also taken to helping her. She had actually become quite good friends with Superboy, who had "revealed" his identity as Connor Kent to her. She actually knew all of their real names now besides Robin, but Wally said that no one else knew his real name because Batman prohibited him from telling anyone.
Thing were strangely...normal for her. Well if training with the sidekicks of superheroes was normal... Compared to what she had been through, this was as normal as it could get. Today, Robin had free time and he told her that they'd begin some stealth training. According to him, it was a very important part of fighting.
"The most important part of stealth is being silent and quick. Timing is also key. Once you master all of those, you'll be able to be a ninja." Robin smirked a little bit to himself. "Practicing each one individually and then combining them is how we'll do it, but just to give me a good idea of where you stand, I think we should do something pretty whelming."
Stevie tilted her head to the side. Whelming? What did that even mean? But before she got the chance to ask, he was talking again.
"I think you, me, and the rest of the team should play a game of laser tag."
Laser tag...? What was that?
"Okay well since I can tell you're confused, let me explain. The games of laser tag here are pretty awesome. Every person gets a vest and then a laser gun. We usually do teams, but I think it would be cooler this time if we were all against each other. Once you get tagged with the laser gun, you're out. All the lights are off and we use the whole cave to run around, hide, and try to ambush everyone."
Stevie raised an eyebrow. So kinda like hide and seek? That sounded pretty fun and who knew, maybe she would be better at this stealth thing than she thought. "Sounds cool. When are we going to start?"
Robin folded his arms over his chest and started toward the doorway. "Well as far as I know, the rest of the team is here, I just have to find them. You stay here and then I'll bring them back."
"Alright, sounds good." Stevie smiled a little at him and sat down on one of the benches as he left the room to retrieve the others.
This would be her first official team exercise. She usually practiced one on one with Robin, Artemis, or some of the others when they were around. Fighting was really fun and she felt better to know that she could protect herself if need be. Her defense skills were now pretty good and she knew some basic offense attacks. Now, she'd be learning stealth, which was pretty cool, though she had a feeling that actual fighting was more her thing.
She looked up as Robin came back in the room with the others. Wally was already talking a mile a minute and he seemed excited. Connor and Artemis seemed a little less enthusiastic and Kaldur just seemed pretty neutral. M'gann seemed peppy and excited as usual. So basically, everyone was acting the way they usually did. Maybe Wally was a bit more excited than usual, but that was it.
"So I think what we can do is give everyone a three minute head start so they can form allies and hide and whatnot. Once you get hit, come back here and take your vest off so we know. And a few rules," Robin paused to look at Wally. "Wally, no using your super speed. And M'gann, stay out of camouflage okay? Just so everything's a bit more fair."
"Aww come on man my speed is what will make me win," Wally said with a grin.
"Automatic out if you use it," Robin said with a smirk, causing the redhead to groan.
Stevie stood to her feet as Robin retrieved black vests and very real looking guns from a chest tucked away in the corner. The only visible difference between those guns and real ones was a red plastic covering over the hole int he barrel, but it was barely noticeable. He began to hand them out to everyone and soon she was strapped up in a vest that was way too big for her frame and she had a laser gun clutched in both hands.
"Alright the rules are what I said before, plus any use of flashlights or anything like that is a disqualification. Three minutes starts now!" Robin shouted and then practically disappeared as he flicked the light switch off.
The entire cave was shrouded in darkness and Stevie wasn't sure where to go. What would strategically be the best place to go? She could always go in the girl's bathroom. Then she'd have her targets limited down to Artemis and M'gann. And even better, the others could pick themselves off one by one. How many minutes had it been? Shoot she forgot to keep track.
The others were already gone and she quickly hurried out of the room, pausing when she heard a mischievous cackle come somewhere from above her. Great. Just what she needed so early in the game. If they was following her, she needed to shake them off so that they wouldn't know where she was headed because she also had the possibility of being cornered in the bathroom.
She glanced up and around her to try and spot any of the others, but she was unable to. It was too dark and she had no idea what she was doing... Letting out a flustered sigh, she crept quietly down the hall, figuring that the three minutes was about up and she had to be careful of the others. A quiet noise caught her attention and she poked her head in the doorway that led to the kitchen.
The first thing she saw in the dark was a bright orange head hiding behind the counter. Wally had his back faced to her and he was occupied hiding from the beam of the laser that was aimed his way. She could get him. She grinned wickedly, popping out from behind the wall and aiming her gun at his chest, but as soon as she popped out, the laser moved toward where she was.
She barely had enough time to duck into cover. If she reacted a second too slowly, she would have been caught. Maybe it was best if she stayed out of this scuffle for now. It already seemed like there were a few people in the area so she had to get to somewhere where it was less concentrated. Slipping down the hallway, she headed in the direction of the bathroom, crossing through the room in the center only to be stopped by a slight shuffling. Her eyes widened because she was out in the open and she darted to the side, scanning for the figure of another person.
She saw the shadow and she jumped out of the way as a red laser came her way. It was hard to make out who it was in the dark, but she could tell the person was male and he was tall and muscular. Either Connor or Kaldur.
Stevie was going to lose.
She sprinted toward the doorway, quickly ducking behind the wall, waiting for a moment, and then poking her head out. She was able to make out the features of Connor in the darkness and she quickly hid back into cover because he was headed her way. Maybe she could just go for it and run. If it worked, she would be really relieved.
With her finger on the trigger, she jumped out as shot at him as quickly as she could before bolting down the hallway. She was technically going in the opposite direction of the bathroom, but at this point she didn't care as long as she was away from Connor. Maybe she even got him if she was lucky.
Stevie found herself in the lounge area and she glanced back behind her, not seeing Connor. In here, it seemed to be clear so she quickly ducked behind the couch and took a breather. Okay so if she waited here for a few minutes and then backtracked, she could get to the bathrooms. The only obstacle was getting through the main room, which was large and barren of cover. She would have to take a long look inside before entering, but for now, she was going to stay here a minute and breathe.
She pressed her back against the wall, drawing her knees up to her chest and keeping the laser gun firmly in her grip. So from here, she had to pass the bedrooms to get to the bathrooms. So all she had to do was go down the hallway and she'd be there. If someone was in the hallway, she could always duck into her room. Okay that sounded like a good enough plan, right? As long as she wasn't blindly wandering from room to room...
Waiting for a moment, she listened for any movement in the room. She couldn't hear anything nearby, but she did hear a lot of footsteps in the distance. If anything, now was the time to get up and run.
Jumping to her feet, she scooted out from behind the couch only to come face-to-face with M'gann. She let out a gasp of surprise and fumbled with the laser gun, pointing it at the girl's vest and pulling the trigger. However, the martian moved just in time to avoid the hit and soon enough, a laser was coming toward her. Stevie ducked down as the light shone over her head and she scurried across the floor and into the hallway. Once she was a considerable distance away, she turned around, her gun at the ready. As soon as M'gann stepped into the hallway, she blasted her with the laser and it hit her right on the chest plate, a small noise sounding to indicate she was out.
"Aww you got me. Nice job! If you're looking for the others, I saw Robin and Wally in the kitchen. I'm rooting for you," M'gann said quietly, a small smile becoming visible on her face before she turned around and headed through the doorway.
Thank you, she said silently to herself and slipped down the hallway. Well if Robin and Wally were in the kitchen, that left Artemis and Kaldur unaccounted for, unless they'd already gotten tagged out and her attempts at trying to get Connor out were unsuccessful. Focus, Stevie. Just get to the bathroom and hide out until you think it's safe.
No more hesitation. She just went for it. Which turned out to be a bad idea because as soon as she turned down the corner, she spotted another person at the end of the hall. Great. Here she was running into everyone. Maybe she should have just stayed in the training room...
On instinct, she bolted to her room, slipping inside and looking around frantically for somewhere she could hide. Under the bed would be too obvious and so would the bathroom. Then it hit her. Robin used the vents a while back to get into her room. She could use the vents, she just had to get to them. They were just up above the television and she could jump on the stand and get up there if she was quick and careful enough.
With a speed she didn't know she possessed, she leaped up onto the stand and balanced precariously on her toes as she shoved the laser gun into the vent and then leaped up. She slipped a little, but caught herself before she could fall too far and she hauled herself into the vent. Time slowed down when the door opened and she remained completely silent as the figure made its way around the room. A flash of light from the window flitted across his face and she recognized it as Kaldur. When he turned his back to look in the closet, she slowly slid further into the vent until she was far enough in that he couldn't hear her. There had to be a way to the bathroom through this thing...
It was cramped and dark inside, but she was small enough to slip through easily. The only problem was that she had no idea where she was going. She went around a few turns, went down and then up (with a lot of struggling) and she was still clouded by darkness. No landmarks, no other exits. Nothing.
Stevie let out a sigh and put her gun down next to her, leaning her head against the cool metal and letting out a sigh. She was going to be stuck in here forever. They'd never be able to find her and she would slowly lose sanity...
"Lost?"
She jumped back violently, ramming her head against the top of the vent and squeezing her eyes shut in pain as she scrambled to get to the laser gun. Her eyes shot open and she raised her gun and pulled the trigger, but she was too slow. A red light shot toward her, hitting her right in the vest and making it beep. Aww man... But wait...their vest was beeping too!
The figure shifted closer to her and revealed himself as Robin. Of course he would be the one to get her. Apparently, he was the expert at stealth. However, she got him too. She grinned a little.
"Nice one, Stevie. You've got good reflexes. Guess we're both out," he said with a low chuckle.
"So I did alright?" she asked, pulling her knees to her chest and looking over at him in the darkened vent.
"Yeah, you did good."
A smile broke out on her face. Maybe making friends was a good thing...
A/N: Guys I actually updated :o I know it's been SOOO long and this chapter was definitely NOT my best work (I promise the next chapter won't suck as badly) but I have good news! I'm focusing more on my writing now so I'm going to try and update a lot more often. I'm aiming for every two weeks :) It might be a bit hard, but I'm going to try as hard as possible to update often for you guys. You've been so loyal and the feedback you've given me has been so lovely that you deserve better than to be left hanging for so long. If I'm not able to update for whatever reason or the update is going to be late or there's any news on this story, I will be posting status updates on my Wattpad, which is on my profile. It's just easier to update you guys there, so if an update is going to be late, you can just check there for news. Thank you so much for sticking with this story and I hope you enjoyed this (rather sucky filler) chapter!
