"The Tip of the Arrow"
"Starling City's Green Beacon of Hope" a mysterious voice teased, "Tonight, you will lose everything you hold dearest. Tonight, you will know the depths of your inability to change the course of your precious City's fate - darkness, death and despair. Tonight Green Arrow, you will fail this city."
A tense silence filled the foundry as the team watched the screen fizzle audibly and turn to black. Oliver glared intently at the dark screen, enraged by the new content of information brewing in his head.
"Felicity" he growled sternly through clenched teeth.
"I'm already on it" she informed, tapping fiercely at the keyboard before her.
"I'm hacking into every cellphone tower and frequency in the city trying to get a location ofnthe broadcast but the signal is being bounced around whenever a match is calculated" she continued frantically.
Oliver exhaled loudly as he turned intently, heading towards his costume's encasing. Diggle clutched onto his arm inches before making contact with the enclosure stopping him in his tracks.
Oliver issued a piercing glare at him as he pulled his arm from his grip.
"What are you doing Diggle?" he asked sternly.
"Oliver listen, you won't be able to do anything going out there without a plan!" Diggle rationalised.
"I have to do something, I can't just sit here waiting!"
"That's exactly what you're going to do Oliver! The city can't be saved if you're out there chasing your tail doing exactly what they want you to!"
Felicity watched the two helplessly as her computer continued searching. A hole opened up in the pit of her stomach, she knew it was her job to handle all things technical and failing wasn't something that was in her nature.
Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Oliver.
"Just do what you can Felicity"
Oliver headed towards the staircase and made his way out of the foundry.
Diggle turned towards Felicity who gave him a gentle and encouraging pat on the shoulder.
"You know what he's like" she comforted.
"It's not just that Felicity" he hinted, turning his gaze towards her, "I can't shake this feeling of Deja Vu."
*Streets of Starling City*
Oliver navigated the busy streets of Starling City, his eyes catching the mysterious figure on news programmes and radios as his motorcycle dodged pedestrians and vehicles. His mind was reeling over who it could be that would want to bring about such chaos over the Green Arrow. The past few months had been relatively peaceful with barely any vigilant behaviour in the City.
His thoughts are interrupted by Felicity's voice in his earpiece.
"Oliver, are you there?" she asked.
"I am Felicity, what have you got?
"I've been analysing the feed and I was able to isolate a section of the footage that shows a shipping container with a singular logo that's native only to one of Starling City's docking stations."
"Got it." Oliver replied as he accelerated towards the Docks.
"It seems a little suspicious to have something like that in the frame of where it's being broadcast from.." Felicity questioned, her discontent evident in how voice, "It seems like it may be a trap."
*Starling City Docks*
He pondered on Felicity's suspicion as he arrived at the first section of the docks. An image of the shipping container's logo appeared on the LCD screen between his handlebars - a crucial upgrade courteous of Miss Smoak.
The insignia showed a hexagonal shape with the letters 'S.R.M' in the centre.
Oliver dismounted his bike placing his helmet over the handlebars, before pulling his bow from behind him and retracting it. He walked promptly along the sparsely lit docking entrances searching for the logo. At the time of night the main concentration of the docks is on the incoming shipments from large container carrying ships so it was unlikely that Oliver would come into any trouble searching the narrow one-vehicle-wide entrances.
Towards the end of the docks he could clearly see a white van parked alongside a large steel gate crowned with arrowheads. He could see a handful of large men in black combat-wear taking silver slate boxes from the side of the van and walking them into the compound.
Slowly Oliver paced towards the van, sticking closely to the shadows that the other docking stations are casting. The insignia on the back of the van came into his vision as he neared the entrance and he could clearly see it - 'S.R.M' in a hexagonal shape.
Oliver pressed his index finger to her earpiece and relayed his findings quietly to the Team.
"There are steel crates being handled into the docking station by men in black combat wear" he announced, "Have you found anything of significance with this shipping company?"
"Most shipments made through that company are fresh produce and occasionally building materials" Felicity responded, the sound of her keyboard tapping transmitting through the earpiece also.
"It's unusual however that their shipments are outward goods, they specialise in inwards goods primarily - so I don't think those steel crates are exactly on the books" she continued.
"There's only one crate left!" a demanding voice called from beyond the compound gate, catching Oliver's immediate attention.
"Hudson, bring it in and don't forget to lock that gate up tight - we don't need any unwanted guests tonight" the voice continued.
Another man in combat attire paced towards the van to collect the final crate, the remaining thugs lingering inside the compound. Oliver pulled an arrow from his quiver and pulled it against the bow pointing it towards the ground as he watched the individual move closer and closer.
Upon reaching the handle to the van's sliding door, Oliver glided silently from the darkness and fired the equipped arrow into the individuals hand - pinning it against the handle. Before bellowing out in pain, Oliver motioned towards him and covered his mouth, the thugs eyes widening in surprise at the sight of the Arrow. A piercing glare is issued from Oliver as he ushered a 'shush' motion over his lips with his finger and slowly proceeded to remove his hand from the individuals mouth.
Adopting his Arrow voice he proclaimed sternly, "Unless you want a hole in your other hand to match, you'll tell me what you're doing here!?"
Before the brute can utter a word, a voice is heard resonating from a speaker system - the same grimly taunting voice from the broadcast earlier that night.