Prologue
Starling City was incorporated as a booming landscape over two hundred years ago. Bordering close to other major urbanized locations such Metropolis and Gotham City, Starling City has been noted for its sprawling neighborhoods such as The Glades, South End, and Adam Heights. Despite the beauty and excitement of this recognizable town, Starling has it fair share of crime been taking over the city from the Chinese Triad to the Bertinelli family. It appeared that Starling City would soon fall in decay until a green hooded vigilante stepped in to change all that…
Most of the time, Ollie could sense the fear of his targets.
Standing in his leather boots, pants, and tunic top made up a thin material combination of burlap, felt, and crinoline, he positioned himself near the edge of the rooftop observing the running obese figure sprinting across the adjacent gable, panting in horror while glancing over his shoulder every so often to ensure that no one was following him.
Ollie leaped to the next ledge over, took another glance at the sprinting man; then concealed himself behind the corner areas of the rooftop architecture before taking in his target's appearance. The man seemed completely terrified, darting for some place safe to hide. His heart beat wildly in his overweight chest, his ill-fitted toupee slid of his bald head and fell to the ground while his pale skin drenched in perspiration. Ollie could feel his target being stalked. From who remained be to be seen.
Thin laces became on undone on the running man's left shoe causing the string to tangle in mid-clomp. Before the portly man knew it, he had tripped on his own expensive loafers and his large body hit the ground hard cracking his teeth in the process. The tap of vinyl black boots kicked dirt upon the concrete rooftop as the blond man stared to see a female figure wearing a thinly flowing lime green and yellow kimono approaching in his direction. Ollie noticed the woman had concealed her face with some sort of kabuki demon cat mask that exhibited a very sinister wide grin and she sauntered toward the sprawled fat man who begged for his life.
"No!" The plump gentleman begged. He shook his palm in mercy. "I'll give you anything! Money? I have millions. Please…don't kill me!"
The kabuki mask wearing woman cocked her head. Then she spoke. "Steven Mandragora, prepare to die…" She clutched something hard in both wrists, pressed a secret switch on her leather gloves and out protruded three long sharp blades fastened to look like feline claws. Raising the weapon in the air, she brought it down on her victim's head. Steven Mandragora covered his face and cried out in fear.
An arrow shot breezed by, striking the trio of blades on the assailant's hand. The deadly metal shattered crashing to the floor with a loud clink. The masked female backed away to see a zip line connected toward to the roof and a green hooded vigilante riding the cord down to where she was located at. Leather boots made contact with the woman's chest. That small kick sent her backward against the ground allowing time for Ollie to gain leverage as he pulled out his bow and arrow and aimed it at his opponent.
"Stand down!" Ollie instructed.
Wicked laughter shook the woman's evil grinning cat mask. Springing back up from her position on the ground, she quickly got to her feet and covered her chest with other unbroken clawed glove. Steven Mandragora, unharmed by his attacker, raced behind the hooded archer.
"Don't let her kill me!" The older man gripped the back of his top.
The blond archer directed his attention back to the masked female. He targeted the point of his shaft toward the woman. She refused to drop her metal claws. "I said stand down!"
"You do know you're protecting the wrong man!" The cat woman hissed. "He's a murderer and sex trafficker. What would you protect him?"
Ollie growled. "I'm not." Lifting the back of his elbow, he struck Mandragora in the nose cracking the bridge of his nostrils. The fat man fell to ground clutching his bleeding face.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Steven Mandragora sneered. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT!"
Holding his warrior stance and with the arrow still pointed at the masked female, Ollie's blue eyes replied to the man behind him. "Steven Mandragora. You're a crime boss and a murderer. You've kidnap hundreds of women overseas and force them into prostitution. You have failed this city!"
Distracted for moment by the older man's pleas, he heard the masked female charge toward him. He tried to pull the bowstring but it was too late as his attacker slashed at the shaft with her working clawed glove. She shoved her set of blades forward but Ollie blocked the attack with his bow providing time to grab the sharpest arrow from behind his quiver. The masked cat lady swiped at his stomach causing a small knick on the tunic top he was wearing. Small droplets of blood stained the fabric while she attempted another round again and aimed for his heart. This time Ollie was ready for her.
Jabbing forward, he clutched the sharp arrow tight within his gloved hand, slammed the edge through each of the trio of blades until he sheared the long claws off the leather glove belonging to the woman. Next, he balled his fingers into a fist and shot through her mask with a basic uppercut. The kabuki demon mask shattered upon impact revealing a tanned Asian woman underneath the disguise. Ollie's opponent back flipped, landing a lucky kick to his chest as she ran toward the other side of the rooftop.
Muttering something in Mandarin, the rich playboy translated her remarks. This isn't over. You are not worthy of Yao Fei's teachings!
"Yao Fei?" Ollie frowned. The blond vigilante remembered the Asian man who saved his life back on Lian Yu island. He responded to the assailant in the same Mandarin language. "How do you know Yao Fei?"
The lethal female cackled before answering in the same dialect. "You may have noticed that I'm not all there myself. Then again, Steven Mandragora was never our intended target."
"What are you talking about?" The hooded champion questioned. "Why are you speaking in riddles?"
She simply grinned and continued to ramble. "If you're looking for the white rabbit, I'd ask the Mad Hatter. Or you could ask the March Hare, in that direction…" She pointed toward Steven Mandragora.
Two whizzing sounds echoed through the darkness. Ollie glanced at an even paler Steven Mandragora staring lifeless at him. The fat man released his hands that were covering his chest to reveal two small puncture wounds protruding from it. The old man collapsed to the ground allowing the blond hero to see two arrows sticking out of the back of his spine. Blood seeped everywhere.
Laughter erupted from the Asian woman before she teased him in Mandarin. "Oh, if you really like to know, he went that way." She directed his attention toward the other side of the roof. A dark shadowed masked figure in a trench coat leaped from the building. Ollie glanced back at the insane female who spread her arms and danced. "Can you stand on your head?"
Ollie scowled. The Asian woman giggled, reached into her lime green kimono to pull a few small pellets. Dropping them to the floor, a huge gust of smoke filled the area as the hooded vigilante began to cough and covered his mouth to prevent from inhaling the fumes. Something darted in front of him, kicked him in the chest which forced him to fall to the ground before disappearing within the smog-filled cloudy darkness. Adjusting his eyes, Ollie squinted to see his foe jumped from the rooftop and vanish into the night.
Sounds of police sirens could be heard in the distance warning him to leave the crime scene. Once they discovered crime boss Steven Mandragora's body riddled with arrows, Sergeant Quentin Lance would be assume he was the culprit. He had no other choice but to escape. Preparing to leap back up to the adjacent rooftop, his blue eyes shifted down. Two small metal objects caught his eye. He picked them up. They were two small medallions. One had the wide grinned of a cat similar to the character of Alice in Wonderland. The other was made of bronze, contained at Hindi deity with four arms, one of which was carrying a trident, and displaying a third eye.
"The Cheshire cat and Shiva the Destroyer," he noted as he placed the contents inside his pocket. Glimpsing down at the police force driving past his building, he observed the law enforcement squad head toward the other direction of town.
He raced off the rooftop, jumped off and followed them in pursuit of their intended location. Hopefully, something better would turn up tonight.
Orchid Bay used to be the happening spot until crime syndicates began claiming the territory and threatening the local businesses forcing many of them to shut down. Not since these same criminal organizations took over The Triangle has Orchid Bay transformed into a difficult section of Starling City for many of the residents to move into. However, a few brave souls have decided to inhabit the area while others are waiting for the day to move out of it.
Sergeant Quentin Lance and his men found the back alley loft according to the 911 emergency call made by the neighbors. According to dispatch, sounds of someone screaming had alarmed the nearby residents. The gruff, determined law enforcement officer snuck toward the entrance as they made their way toward the brick building.
He focused on the doorknob and its rusted iron that exhibited years of wear and tear. Despite the oldness of most buildings, many of the elite upper class chose to renovate and remodel old buildings with the intention of moving in. Once considered outdated by the average person, owning an antiquated piece of property was now seen as vintage or retro and earned a newfound appreciation among the art crowds, wealthy chic, and the trendiest groups of Starling City. For someone like Sergeant Lance, it meant another criminal situation in progress.
Twisting the door handle, the metal knob refused to turn. He knocked several times and rang the doorbell but received no answer. Frustrated, he pounded on the door.
"Police! Open up!"
Still, no response. Nodding to his fellow officers, he signaled for them to break down the door. Gathering a small battering ram from the squad car, the group busted through the entrance. Guns and rifles raised in the air as they scrambled inside the building.
"Starling City Police!" The sergeant announced. "Anyone in here?"
Soft moans of weeping could be heard upstairs. Quentin gestured to his men to remain behind him while he prepared his pistol. Marching up the stairs of the decorated loft, the police officer located the bedroom door, kicked it down, and aimed his gun inside.
His years of being a cop prepared him to expect the worse. He had been through enough crime scenes to know that any bad situation could potentially be quite horrific. Lifting his eyes, he glanced to see the bedroom splashed in a wave of scarlet. Similar to a Rorschach inkblot test, blood littered all four corners of the walls. His eyes finally drifted down to see the mutilated body of a half-naked man laying a pool of blood. Quentin Lance stumbled outside of the room and wretched before going back in again.
"Sergeant, what's wrong?" One of his fellow officers asked.
"Call homicide," stated the older cop. "We've got one messed up situation here."
Forcing himself to look inside the room, he heard small whimpers coming from one end of the bedroom. Covering his mouth so that he could ignore the site of the brutalized corpse, he followed a set of bloody footprints leading from the body to the closet. He slid the door opened as a naked woman screamed in his face.
"Jesus!" Quentin Lance cursed. Slowly, he kneeled in front of the shaking female. She appeared to be tall, in her early twenties, African American, and beautifully exotic in her appearance. Blood caked her ebony skin and face as she hugged her knees to her chest while still wrapped in a terrycloth towel. The policeman offered his hand to her for comfort. "Miss, don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Sergeant Quentin Lance of Starling City's PD. Are you hurt? Do you need medical treatment?"
The strange woman shook her head and started to cry.
"Can you tell me your name?"
Shivering underneath her towel, she muttered something between her breath. "Ma…Ma…Ma…"
Quentin attempted to complete her answer. "Mary? Margaret? Madison?"
"Mari…Mari…Mari Jiwe…" She whispered before slowly closing her eyes and fainting. Her fingers opened revealing something clutched in her hand. It was a black ivory carving of some sort of animal tooth with a V carved in the center. Sergeant called to one of his men.
"Call an ambulance!" He yelled. "This woman is in shock!"
Far above the other side of another rooftop, Oliver Queen used his binoculars to spy on the bloody victim through the window of the loft. He recognized the name of the man who was killed. Edgar Mandragora, Steven's son and the man who was to take over the fat man's criminal's empire. Sadly, it appeared that there was no chance of that ever happening. The hooded vigilante observed the strange woman found in the closet and wondered about her connection to Edgar. Did she murder Edgar Mandragora? Could she be capable of killing him? Then his thoughts returned to the two assailants who killed Steven Madragora. Who were they and why did they target the father? These inquiries loomed inside his brain. Leaving the rooftop, he decided to share his findings with his partner, John Diggle.
Starling City Sentinel
Orchid Bay- Starling City Police discovered the bodies of both father and son last night brutally murdered in two different locations of the city late last night. Steven Mandragora, 65, and his son, Edgar Mandragora, 30, were found dead and possibly killed by two different assailants.
The Mandragoras, an infamous crime family with ties to the Russian mafia, had allegedly been living in Starling City and possibly continuing their criminal activities including drug smuggling, illegal prostitution, and murder. According to police, Steven had been found with two arrows in his back on a rooftop near The Triangle. Though police have not confirmed or denied that this is the work of the green hooded vigilante, speculation by the public appears to be pointing in that direction.
Steven's son was not as fortunate. In what appears to be a brutal torture and murder crime straight out of a horror movie, Edgar Mandragora was discovered with his body badly mutilated in his loft in Orchid Bay. Allegedly, the corpse had been damaged beyond recognition that police refuse to release any further information, pending further investigation in the case; although, a suspect has been kept for questioning.
International supermodel Mari Jiwe, 25, from the African nation of Zambesi was found with the suspect naked and bleeding when police answered the late night emergency call. Blood from the victim was found on Mari's body leading police to believe she had some connection to his murder but have not ruled her out as a primary suspect. She is currently detained by Starling City PD and awaiting legal representation…