The world's greatest archer meets the world's
immune zombie.
⚠
Ghost talk. Nothing too graphic.
Ellie had taken to staying outside, the ghosts didn’t seem to follow too closely out there. To pass the time, she’s using whatever arrows she has left (she’s going to have to make more, or maybe some will appear to her, the way her guitar did) to practice. She’s in the area called The Green, but she doesn't know that.
She shoots a few arrows at trees, cursing when they land a little lower. Eventually, she sits on a log and pulls her guitar off her back. She starts to play Elliot Smith’s “Waltz #2.” It’s easy on her fingers now, now that she’s played it so many times. She doesn’t even hear someone approaching, which would certainly spell her death if she were back home. Possibly even here.
It was a good thing Kate Bishop was a good guy — guy in the slang tense for a group of people — and not a villain or a ghost, or else Ellie would be a sitting duck.
Kate had heard the tell-tale WOOSH and THWING of arrows as they flew in the air and stuck solidly in something. It didn't sound like Clint, because Kate was a connoisseur of Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye (# Old). She probably knew more about him than he knew about himself: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Didn't stop Kate from slowly crossing the Green until she found who the noise belonged to. The guitar strumming made that easier.
She saw a brunette sitting on a log. For a second, she just watched. Kate was an avid fan of music of all kinds. She'd lived in various worlds — ah, capitalism and the rich — for much of her life. She recognized the song — Elliot Smith — even if the playing might have been a little rougher than the original. This held its charm.
Kate's instrument of choice was the cello. What could she say? She just enjoyed string instruments.
"You might be making too much noise," Kate whispered as she silently walked up. "There's still ghosts here. I took out one in the Green the other day."
There was a THUNG as Ellie’s fingers slipped on the guitar’s strings. “There’s ghosts out here?” And she was just sitting there like nothing was happening?? “I thought this was a safe spot.”
She put the guitar to sit beside her, if Kate was super observant (which isn’t she just?), she would notice that Ellie’s tattoo on her left arm was that of a moth and fern, the same moth that was on the guitar neck. “You’re the uh, world’s best archer, aren’t you?” Her smile is genuine but something in her eyes says she’s skeptical.
Kate's brows furrowed in confusion, her expression turning slightly sour. How long had this woman been out here and not been bothered by the ghosts? Was she not scared at all? Kate had a Kree composite soul bow, and she was scared out of her mind. Anyone who wasn't was either incredibly strong or incredibly - well, dumb.
"They're all over the whole campus. All the buildings. Outside. Some of them hide literally in the ground."
To prove that she was the world's best archer, Kate hauled the bow off her back. The bow hummed to life as she pulled back the string — with four fingers, creating four arrows. Her back tensed as she picked her targets. Three arrows into the ones Ellie shot that went low, one into a small knot on a tree. The arrows, because they were made of psionic energy and only what Kate put into it, did not destroy Ellie's arrows, but illuminated them as if there was a pink energy field around them.
"World's greatest archer."
Something Kate wouldn’t understand is that Ellie was used to be snuck up on. She was used to living in a constant state of readiness.
Though, at Kate’s mention of ghosts– “I think I saw one earlier. It seemed more sad than wanting to kill me.”
The proof of archery greatness leaves Ellie a little stunned. “Holy shit! That’s the sort of thing I want to see backing up people’s crazy stories with. –Is that the Kree arrow you mentioned?” Ellie loved comic books, but never heard of the Kree. She was into Savage Starlight.
"The Kree bow, yeah. It makes arrows out of your own psychic energy." That was why she could change the arrow to whatever she wanted, with whatever strength she wanted it to be. It was a neat piece of equipment to add back into her repertoire. Still, she missed her regular set(s). She missed the elaborate traditions of nocking her arrows, labeling the trick arrows, and, of course, the feel of the quiver at her back.
Even if she wasn't aware that Ellie was used to being sneaked up on, Kate didn't think it was a good idea to be out here alone. Black Widow had been murdered by one of those ghosts, and well, she'd said it before but: Black Widow was the sneak who sneaks up on sneaky things! That meant everyone needed to be even more careful.
"Some of them are sad. Some of them are reliving their death, but most of them are trying to kill people."
Ellie looks warily around for a moment. What if the ghosts of the people she’s killed appear? What if they mock her for Joel’s death, like Nora did? Will they bleed and cough or will they just look surprised at the knife you’ve put in them. Just thinking about it made Ellie shiver, and let out her breath a little shakily.
“Yeah, yeah, I should stop making noises.” She slung the guitar onto her back and stood up, taking her arrows out of the trees. When it came to being near the Kree arrows, Ellie was careful not to touch them.
“If I get too close, am I going to get like, fuckin’ radiation poisioning or something?”
"It's not radiation." But truly, she didn't know. The Negative Zone was a mystery to her; she hadn't been one of the lucky ones who got caught and shoved in the prison Stark and Fantastic made for them. Maybe they were radiation. She doubted Noh would give them to her if they were. He knew how fragile humans were.
Kate turned the arrows "off" with her mind, Ellie's arrows no longer glowing. The knot in the tree still had a hole in it though. This stuff was so cool, but she really missed her wooden bow and arrow. She missed her trick arrows, forgetting to label them, and having to figure out which was which by using them.
"The arrows can kill you, but only if I put that into them, and I didn't. I was just showing off. They were barely a glow."
Ellie chuckled at “barely a glow” and continued gathering up her arrows. “These aren’t easy to come by, you know?” She pointed at Kate with a handful of arrows as she said it. The bow and arrow was the first thing she used after Joel got hurt– it was the only elegant way to catch some food. Going around shooting a gun was going to attract attention, plus the ammo could be useful later.
“I learned when I was younger–” She was going to say “little” but she was still pretty little as it was. 19 years old, lean and muscular. She picked up her bow and goes to stand near Kate, nocking an arrow and letting it fly at a tree. It’s not perfect, but it’s close to one of Kate’s arrows. “But you know trick moves and shit?”
Kate wasn't much older than Ellie at twenty-two. Both of them had seen a lot it would seem. Kate wondered what Ellie's world was like that arrows weren't easy to come by. Maybe something like this — a void in which you couldn't escape. Wasn't that just life in most cases? I am way too young to be this cynical. She'd blame Clint if he was around.
"I know a lot of things; I just have a real love of archery. I learned a whole bunch of fighting techniques and weapons training starting about — I don't know, I guess six or seven years ago?" She couldn't believe it had been that long since Central Park, but then other times it felt like she'd lived through decades.
She held onto the bow, but let it go dormant. She didn't want to be caught unaware if a ghost were to show up. "You should go to your room. They're warded so no one can get in. Including ghosts." She paused and looked upward at the strangely empty and white sky. "I know, it's boring, but I don't think normal arrows are gonna do much."
Ellie had seen far too much for her age. But don’t we all? Maybe a little bit? Ellie didn’t seem fazed by any of it. It was normal for her. She was born after the collapse of civilization, by several years. She was already cruel and hard but didn’t know that yet.
“It saved my life, so I guess I kind of love it, too.” She thinks back to that winter, chasing that damn deer over half the woods of whatever fucking backwater town they were in.
“Do you want to walk me there, safety in numbers? Except then, I’d have to walk you to yours, and then we’d have to go back again to mine, and–” she laughs, a light hiss of laughter.
Kate grinned. Cyclical fun.
However, she was eager to get back out there and help clean up as much as she could. She'd escort the younger woman to her dorm room, the head back out. It seemed to her that her bow worked on some of the ghosts when other people couldn't use their normal weaponry. She felt a responsibility to get out here and do this, especially seeing as this was her first impression here.
"I'll take you to your dorm — "
Kate pulled Ellie's arrows out of their spots and handed them over to her.
" — But then I'm heading back out."
“Well, just don’t die, okay?” She took the arrows from Kate and stashed them in her quiver. She slung that over the other side of the guitar and nodded.
“Lead the way. Or maybe I should, since it’s my room.”