Green Arrow

Issue #8: Dawn of a New Day

Written by: u/The_Word_Wizard

Edited by: u/dwright5252 u/AdamantAce u/deadislandman1

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Arc: ...And Loose!

“Shit!” Green Arrow shouted as an arrow whizzed past his head. He barely ducked in time for it toclip the feather of his cap. “That was a little too close for comfort,” he muttered to himself. “I hope Thea’s plan works…”

He ran down the hallway through one of Star City’s business skyscrapers. Malcolm Merlyn was back, and once again using his Dark Archer persona to intimidate other business owners. That night he was targeting another tech firm, one specializing in weapon targeting systems. Dinah still hadn’t been able to figure out what he was up to exactly, but from what the team had been able to piece together, it wouldn’t be good.

Whipping around a corner, Green Arrow kicked off the wall and in one swift motion pulled an arrow from his quiver to loose it at his pursuer. The Dark Archer dodged it effortlessly and Oliver was glad his maneuver hadn’t lost him any momentum. The chase continued as Oliver threw down anything he could reach, from desks and tables to stacks of paper, trying to buy himself just a bit more time.

Distracted by the Dark Archer gaining on him Green Arrow didn’t see the extension cord in front of him until it was too late. He tripped and almost fell to the ground. It would have been a fatal mistake had he not recovered his footing and kept running as another arrow whizzed past his head.

Finally, he crashed through the door of the conference room and slid over and behind the large table in the center of the room. The Dark Archer followed him and paused a moment in the doorway, unable to see his prey.

“Now!” Green Arrow yelled and an arrow flew from a hidden corner of the room and struck the Dark Archer’s arm, releasing a rope and tying his arm to the wall, the arrow embedded deep into the drywall.

Green Arrow sprang out of his hiding place and aimed a bolo arrow at the Dark Archer’s feet, tying them together. He climbed atop the table and drew an arrow back, aiming it at Malcolm.

“The jig is up, Malcolm,” he said. “You’re done terrorizing this city.” Instead of shrinking from defeat, Malcolm...laughed? It wasn’t the reaction Oliver expected.

“Oh, Ollie, you always were a simple one,” he taunted. “Do you really think I’m doing this to... what? Get a leg up on the competition?” Oliver pulled back harder on his bowstring, trying to compensate for his fading confidence.

“No, though that would be brilliant, it’s much too...small minded. I have a much bigger target in mind,” he said. Thea emerged from her hiding place and walked towards Malcolm, her drawn arrow practically touching his masked cheek. “I think I’ve monologued long enough, though I doubt you’d really understand if I kept going. This little chat’s over.” With his single free hand Malcolm reached swiftly into his belt and threw a smoke bomb at the ground. Oliver’s eyes burned and he put down his bow to try to cover them.

“Thea!” he shouted. He stumbled down from the table and reached through the smoke, but couldn’t find either of them. “Dinah,” he said into his earpiece. “Turn on the building’s ventilation!” A confirmation came through on comms and moments later a loud whirring filled the room as the smoke was cleared.

Malcolm was gone, and Thea along with him.

“There has to be some clue to where he’d take her on that damn drive,” Oliver said, pointing aggressively at the thumb drive next to Dinah’s computer. The one holding the files from Malcolm’s computer.

“Ollie, I’m trying, but there’s nothing like that on here,” Dinah said exasperated. “Not a single email or document mentions any kind of hideout or lair. The Dark Archer doesn’t take prisoners, Ollie.”

“Then why take my sister?” he said as he paced the apartment. “And why leave me?”

“I don’t know, Ollie! But I’m trying my best,” she said. Oliver stopped his pacing for a moment and sighed.

“I know you are, pretty bird, and I appreciate it so much,” he said. “I’m just...frustrated. I don’t like being in the dark like this.”

“I know, Ollie,” she said, getting up and putting an arm around his slumped shoulders. He reached up and held her hand. Her comforting efforts wouldn’t find his sister, but it did help him feel a bit better. “But we’ll find her.” she said. “He must want her alive, or he would have killed her. We’ll find her.”

“I hope your accommodations are comfortable,” a familiar voice said. Thea slowly opened her eyes and looked at her surroundings. It wasn’t much in the way of accommodations, but it certainly was no cell. There was a bed in the corner, a reasonably comfortable looking chair, a table, and even a shelf with some books. But no windows to be seen. She had no idea where she was.

“I can’t just let you roam, but I’d hate to keep you like a prisoner,” Malcolm said, opening the door to her small room and stepping through. He was still wearing his Dark Archer suit, but his hood was back and his face mask down. Thea had known the archer’s identity, of course, but it was still a shock to see her father’s best friend wearing the garb of a killer.

“What do you want with me?” she said, skipping right to the chase.

“I want you to join me,” he said. “With your father gone, somebody has to step in and fill his place. And who better than me?”

“It’s been almost a week,” Oliver said, throwing his hat to the floor of Dinah’s apartment in frustration. “And still no sign of Thea or Malcolm. Mom’s coming home from her business trip overseas any day now, and what am I supposed to tell her? That I lost my little sister while fighting the Terror of Star City? And did I mention that that murderer is Malcolm Merlyn? Yeah that’ll go over real well.”

“Ollie, I can’t tell you what to do,” Dinah said. “But maybe you should at least consider telling your mom the truth about this.” She gestured to Oliver’s green suit.

“Absolutely not,” Oliver said with a sudden sternness. “I was gone for five years, Dinah. How do you think she would react knowing as soon as she got me back I started risking my life almost every night? Worse, she might actually kill me for letting Thea get involved too.”

Dinah just sat in silence, resigning to bring the subject up again as a better time.

“Keep looking,” Oliver said, gesturing to the computer as he retrieved his cap. “I’m going to go see if any of Malcolm’s associates know anything.”

Oliver returned to the warehouse where Thea had saved him from the Dark Archer. After some more file digging it turned out the dock workers weren’t as innocent as he had believed. It was time to find out what they knew.

Stealthily, he swung down from a rooftop perch, bypassing the locked gate into the dock area, and avoiding the gaze of the guard posted in the station above. Keeping to the shadows, he crept behind pallets of boxes, most containing wiring and other tech equipment: standard fare for Queen Consolidated.

Two workers drove past his hiding place on a forklift. There was minimal staffing at night, but Green Arrow still knew to keep an ear open. Eventually he made his way to the warehouse the Dark Archer had been spotted in before and slipped inside.

It looked nearly identical to the last time he was there. Random shipping equipment stored tidily against the walls, a few pallets lined up, but looking inside the crates revealed nothing suspicious. He was about to move on when he heard approaching footsteps. He ducked behind a pallet of crates and waited.

One person entered the room, clad in black from head to toe, with a dark red visor over his eyes. In his hand he held a manifest pad and was checking things off it. After checking the room the man looked around and pushed one of the empty pallets to the side, revealing a trap door with a code lock in the corner of the room.

“That must be where Malcolm’s keeping Thea,” Oliver muttered to himself. Silently he left his hiding place and tailed the man through the trap door before it could shut behind him. He followed a staircase which wound down roughly two to three floors until it ended on a balcony overlooking a room about half the size of the warehouse above. Crates with hazard and explosive labels lined the walls, but Oliver only glanced over them. He had one thought on his mind.

And she wasn’t there. The room, though large, had little in it outside the crates on the walls, which allowed him a clear view of the only other person there: the man he had followed.

Instinctively, he grabbed an arrow and drew it back before shooting it at the man’s shoulder. The man screamed in pain as Green Arrow jumped over the balcony and onto the floor before running over to him.

“Where is she?!” he yelled in a gravelly voice. Batman would’ve been proud if he wasn’t dead. He twisted the arrow in the man’s shoulder, releasing another yelp of pain before saying softly, though no less gruffly, “Tell me...now.”

“I-I don’t know who you’re talking about!” The man whimpered. Green Arrow pulled the arrow out and shoved the man to the ground, his shoulder bleeding profusely.

“The girl your boss kidnapped,” he said slowly and forcefully. “Where did he take her?”

“I have n-no idea!” the man said, wincing as Green Arrow’s hand curled into a fist. “We just handle his business operations here! I don’t know where he goes for personal matters.”

“You should probably get that shoulder looked at,” Green Arrow said, turning away from the man unsatisfied. “And that knee.”

“My knee-? Aaagh!” the man yelled as Green Arrow shot an arrow through his knee. He didn’t want him running off to tell his boss just yet.

Oliver slammed his bow and quiver to the ground. Dinah jumped, startled. “Nothing there?” she said.

“Oh no, there was definitely something,” he replied. “A whole second underground warehouse of somethings. Chemicals or explosives or I don’t know what else! But no sign of Malcolm or Thea.”

“Well that underground warehouse is something to look into!” Dinah said, trying to put any sort of positive spin into the conversation.

“Yeah, and we can figure out what it’s for once we find my sister,” he snapped back. “I’d hate to think what’s happening to her…”

Thea sat cross-legged on the bed in the small room, reading one of the books from Malcolm’s shelf. She had spent her first few days trying to find some way out of the place, but it was no use. She couldn’t find even so much as a crack around the corners. So she resigned to sit and wait. Ollie would find her, she was sure of it. And then they would both give Malcolm what was coming to him.

“Thea,” a voice said from the other side of the door. It was him. “There’s someone here who wants to see you, and I think you’ll want to see her.” The door opened, and in stepped a very familiar woman.

“M-Mom?” she said, barely believing her eyes. She threw the book down on the bed and got up to accept her mother’s embrace.

“You’re safe sweetie,” Moira said, pulling her daughter tight against her chest.

“No, we have to get out of here!” Thea said, pulling away. “Malcolm’s not who you think he is!”

The Dark Archer stepped into view. “Actually sweetie,” Moira replied gravely, “I know exactly who he is.”