Disclaimer: The characters and settings used in this fic are the property of DC Comics and Warner Brothers. I don't own any of it.
Although this is part of my "Alternate Events" series, it's not really necessary to have read any of those stories for this one-shot. For the designations of the universes that appear in this story, Earth-1 is Smallville, Earth-4 is Arrowverse, Earth-10 is a combination of Arrowverse Earths 2 and 3, Earth-11 is a universe where Sara Lance is Green Arrow and Patty Spivot is The Flash, and Earth-12 is the DCAU/Timmverse.
This fic draws some inspiration from Chapter 7 of Aragorn II Elessar's fic "When Heroes Live Their Lives", which I recommend for those who haven't read it.
Earth-4
(Star City)
Five green-garbed individuals stood together in a warehouse, each armed with a bow with a quiver full of arrows at their backs.
In the center of the group was Oliver Queen of pre-Crisis Earth-1/post-Crisis Earth-4. He would be called 'Oliver' to differentiate him from his two namesakes.
To the left of him was Oliver Queen of pre-Crisis Earth-21/post-Crisis Earth-1. He primarily went by 'Ollie' whenever he was around other versions of himself.
To Earth-4 Oliver's right was Oliver Queen of pre-Crisis Earth-192/post-Crisis Earth-12. He would be called 'Green Arrow'.
On the left of Ollie was Earth-11 Sara Lance, whose universe designation number was the same before and after the 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' catastrophe.
On Green Arrow's right was Adrian Chase of pre-Crisis Earth-2/post-Crisis Earth-10.
Exactly thirty feet in front of them were five targets situated on wooden stands.
Standing to the side as witnesses of the ultimate Green Arrow shootout competition were:
Chloe Sullivan-Queen, Ollie's wife. She was holding up her phone, recording the event.
Earth-4 Laurel Lance, Oliver's wife.
Earth-4 Sara Lance, Laurel's younger sister. She was currently pregnant, the father of the unborn child being Sara's husband Kyle Rayner, who was this universe's Earth-based Green Lantern.
Earth-10 Laurel Lance, Adrian's fiancée and vigilante partner.
Earth-1 Dinah Lance, Ollie and Chloe's good friend and the former's Justice League teammate.
Earth-12 Black Canary, the wife of her Earth's Green Arrow.
Roy Harper, Oliver's protégé and one of his best friends.
Roy's wife, Thea Queen, Oliver's sister. She was holding her and Roy's one-year-old daughter Julia Moira Harper.
Mia Dearden, Ollie's protégé who was like a younger sister to him.
"So, we have twenty-four arrows each," Green Arrow pointed out to Oliver, Ollie, Sara-11, and Adrian.
"First one to finish firing all of them is the winner," Oliver stated.
"We already know who that's gonna be," Ollie smirked confidently.
"Don't get overconfident," Sara-11 warned with a smirk of her own. "We haven't even started yet."
"Action speaks louder than words, you know," Adrian added.
"Agreed," Oliver nodded. "Ready when you all are."
"Ready!" Ollie, Green Arrow, Adrian, and Sara-11 announced with eagerness and determination.
"Get set," Oliver added in a similar tone.
"Go!" All five emerald archers finished in unison.
With that, Oliver, Ollie, Green Arrow, Adrian, and Sara-11 nocked and fired one arrow immediately after another at their respective targets in quick succession. All the arrows hit the center circle of their respective targets. At first, it appeared that the five archers were moving in perfect sync and firing simultaneously, but after just a few seconds, it became clear that each Green Arrow was either faster or slower than the others.
"Bingo!" Ollie announced excitedly as he lowered his bow while his quiver was now empty. The other four Green Arrows lowered their bows as well. "I fired all twenty-four of 'em, which means I'm, unsurprisingly so, the champion of this arrow shootout!"
"I knew it!" Chloe exclaimed happily. "I knew my husband was gonna claim the victory on this one."
"I only had one arrow left in my quiver," Green Arrow told his fellow archers. "So that's twenty-three I managed to fire."
"I fired twenty," Oliver stated, his quiver containing four arrows left.
"I shot nineteen of mine," Sara-11 stated, having five arrows left in her quiver.
"I also shot nineteen," Adrian reported.
"Really?" Sara-11 said as he and Adrian exchanged surprised looks.
"Guess you and I are tied," Adrian pointed out.
"We're gonna have to break it somehow," Sara-11 stated with a smirk.
"Any ideas?" Adrian asked.
"So you came in at second place," Oliver pointed to Green Arrow, before pointing to himself. "I came in at third place." He turned to Sara-11 and Adrian. "And you two are tied for fourth place."
"And I'm first place of course," Ollie said, proudly. "Don't get me wrong, fellas, the rest of you are great, but this guy you're looking at right now?" He pointed to himself. "He's the most skilled and good-looking archer in the Multiverse."
"The good-looking part is debatable," Green Arrow remarked, his arms folded against his chest.
"Technically speaking, you don't know that for sure," Laurel-10 said to Ollie as she and the other witnesses of the contest walked over to the Green Arrows.
"My doppelganger has a point," Laurel-4 agreed as she also acknowledged Ollie. "You may have beaten my husband and the other three archers, but for all we you know, there can be someone out there who's even better than you at archery."
"We just haven't met him or her yet," Thea added.
"Well, until we do meet that archer, I'm the one who's wearing the archery crown," Ollie said.
"They're just mad you beat their Oliver," Chloe said to her husband.
"If it was a fight, especially one without weapons, the results would've definitely been the other way around," Roy pointed out.
"For sure," Thea agreed with a grin.
"There's no doubt of that," Sara-4 also agreed.
"At least my Ollie came in at second place with just one arrow short, which means he might actually beat the 'first place' Ollie if they were to do a rematch," Black Canary stated with a confident smirk.
"'Might' being the keyword," Chloe told the Earth-12 Lance woman.
Adrian turned to Sara-11. "So, you're up for breaking our tie."
"I'm up for it if you're up for it," the female Green Arrow answered. "Any ideas?"
"You first," Adrian told her. "You're the lady."
"I have an idea," Oliver announced as the two, as well as the others, turned to him. "You two can spar against each other. Whoever keeps their opponent on the ground for more than five seconds first is the winner."
"Great idea," Sara-11 agreed with an eager smirk.
"Deal," Adrian also agreed, at the same time.
"This is gonna be fun to watch," Green Arrow commented.
"Too bad none of us brought any popcorn and other snacks along," Ollie quipped.
Adrian and Sara set their bows on the ground and turned to each other with matching looks of fierce determination.
"The sooner we settle this, the better," Adrian stated.
"Agreed," Sara-11 conceded, before the two hurled a flurry of punches at each other as both green-clad combatants deftly blocked or dodged each other's blows.
Sara lashed out with three swift kicks, which Adrian parried with his forearms. Sara then tried to kick his legs in a sweeping motion, but Adrian jumped back with a flip to avoid his opponent's feet. As Sara rushed him with a punch, Adrian caught Sara's fist and threw out a powerful kick to Sara's chest that sent her stumbling a few feet back before she quickly steadied herself. Adrian tried to follow up with two punches, which Sara sidestepped before she struck his face twice with her elbow, staggering him back. She then grabbed his arm in an attempt to flip him to the ground, but Adrian resisted her grip with a pull and kneed in the abdomen.
The Olivers, the Laurels, Chloe, Sara-4, Dinah, Black Canary, Thea, Roy, and Mia watched the battle intently, none of them sure who would eventually come out on top.
As the fight went on for nearly ten minutes, the two combatant's fighting skills proved to be more or less equal, though Sara was a bit faster and more agile, which was offset by Adrian being taller and physically stronger. They had blocked, dodged, and sidestepped the majority of each other's kicks, punches, and elbow strikes with great skill, only occasionally landing a successful hit on each other that both quickly recovered from each time. At one point, Sara had leapt on top of Adrian, grabbed his head between her feet, and flipped him down, only for Adrian to get right back up and, after another intense exchange of punches and kicks, most of which were blocked and avoided, delivered a hard head-butt that made Sara's nose bleed. After that, Adrian had knocked her to the ground with a hard punch to her chest, only for Sara to quickly recover and retaliate by kicking Adrian's legs from under him in a sweeping motion, knocking him down in return. Sara had then proceeded to leap onto Adrian in an effort to pin him down, but Adrian threw her off before both jumped to their feet and continued their exchange of blows. As Adrian grabbed her around the throat with one hand, Sara struck his arm with a punch, making him let go before she threw a spin-kick, only for Adrian to catch her foot. Sara pulled her foot free and whirled around Adrian, getting behind him. Adrian turned around just in time to block a punch that Sara sent towards his head and, from there, the stalemate between them continued. Eventually, Sara gained the upper hand when she landed a powerful kick against Adrian's knee, making him stumble and almost fall down. Taking advantage of Adrian's momentary discomfort, Sara wasted no time delivering three quick, but hard punches to the face that dazed him, after which Sara whirled behind Adrian again and, that time, seized him in a chokehold as she threw them both to the ground without her firm grip loosening even a bit.
"If this were a fight to the death, I would've already snapped your neck by now," Sara-11 told him in a stern tone as Adrian struggled to breathe and free himself from her grasp. "Do you yield?"
"Never," Adrian answered, defiantly.
"Tell me, do you yield?!" Sara asked again, that time more forcefully with a snarled.
"I already told you my answer," Adrian shot back, his voice hoarse.
"DO YOU YIELD?!" Sara asked a third time in a raised voice.
"I yield," Adrian finally gave in as his breathing was getting harder with each passing moment. "You win."
Sara released him from the chokehold and stood to her feet, while Adrian took several seconds to catch his breath while rubbing his neck.
Sara held her hand out towards Adrian, who took it with his own as she helped him back to his feet.
"Congratulations for setting me at last place," Adrian told his opponent, who smirked.
"It was a hell of a fight," Sara-11 pointed out with a note of respect of her opponent.
"It sure was," Adrian conceded.
"That was intense," Mia commented, unable to deny that both of them were considerably better fighters than herself.
"For a moment, I was kinda worried she was gonna actually..."
"She wasn't gonna kill him," Sara-4 assured Dinah before the latter could finish her sentence.
"I'll take your world for it," Dinah said.
"She knows that because she would've done the same thing," Laurel-10 pointed out about Sara-4.
"Yep," the latter blonde confirmed.
Sara-11 turned to her Earth-4 doppelganger with a grin and walked up to the other blonde woman. "Perhaps in the future, sometime after your pregnancy, you and I can engage in a sparring match to determine which Sara Lance would come out on top in a similar fight."
"I'd love to see that," Thea said, excitedly.
"Same here," Roy agreed with his wife.
"Sure thing," Sara-4 accepted her doppelganger's proposal. "I look forward to it."
"That makes two of us," Sara-11 said.
"Two versions of my sister sparring would be very interesting for sure," Laurel-4 commented.
"We can all agree with that," Sara-4 said.
"Yeah, that's a wrap," Ollie said to everyone. "This archery debate has been settled at last and the result wasn't the least bit surprising."
"We have to do a rematch one day so I can have my revenge," Adrian suggested as Oliver was briefly reminded of Prometheus at the former's use of the word 'revenge'.
"If anyone's more likely to have revenge, it's me considering I came the closest to winning out of the four of us," Green Arrow pointed out.
"That's debatable, but we'll worry about that then," Oliver stated. "Right now, let's get this place cleaned up."
He, Ollie, Green Arrow, Adrian, and Sara-11 went to their respective targets and collected all the arrows they had fired, while Chloe ended the recording and put her phone away, eager to show the video to Clark, Lois, and the others.
That's it for this one-shot. Although I do consider the "Alternate Events" series to be officially over, I've decided that, every once in a while, I will post a one-shot that could take place before or after the Crisis.