Oliver Queen sits at his desk, finishing a cup of decaf as he concludes looking over the newly approved budget for his company, Queen Consolidated. He chuckles and looks out the window of his sixty four story skyscraper. The Star City skyline shines with the mid afternoon sun. He sets down the budget, satisfied. With his investments, his company wouldn't be running out of money any time soon.
"Mr. Queen!" a man Oliver recognizes as his chief financial officer, Mr. Hawke, bursts into his office, thoroughly out of breath. Queen takes his feet off of the desk in front of him and stands with a start. "What's the word, Mr. Hawke?" The tired man takes a few deep breaths before gasping, "The money," Oliver's heart begins to race. "Mr. Hawke," he asks through his teeth. "What happened to the money?" The man's eyes were scared; sweat was collecting over his brows, he gulps, "The stock exchange. It's gone," Oliver feels his eyes widening. "The money, it's all gone."
Crane can't help it. He never can. He beams as he walks into the stock exchange building. People are bustling about, and are so invested in their investments that they don't take time to glance up at the strange man with the oversized bag strutting down the middle of the stock exchange floor. This was reason enough to grin, and he was just getting started.
The plan was simple. Gain complete control over the stock exchange, thereby gaining control over the population's money. And with the money, effectively having control over everyone. A bit ambitious, but the premise was so simple Crane couldn't believe no one had thought of it before. The only missing factor now was for his 'partner' to show up and he could get started. People were dumb, but security was bound to notice the suspiciously shaped bag Crane was holding eventually, and he was no fan of physical encounters.
"Psst," someone behind him whispers. Crane turns to see a slender man, donning a green suit jacket and bowler's hat, smiling expectantly back at him. He doesn't return his smile. "Really Naston?" he sighs. "Way to disguise yourself, you insolent fool." Edward Nashton feigns hurt, and pulls off his fake pencil mustache. "Jonathan, I'm hurt." He sneers. "Riddle me this? How is it that one so stiff has a brain at all, scarer of crows?" Crane groans. "Enough riddles, just get to hacking," Riddler snickers. "Like you can tell me what to do," He pulls out his tablet and starts the job nonetheless.
Riddler wasn't Crane's first choice as a partner in crime. He would much rather work alone, not relying on anyone else to do his work for him. Unfortunately, the process of breaking in to the stock exchange would take someone with much more finesse at computer hacking than him. And Riddler certainly had that. So he had to work with him, despite how annoying his riddles and puns could be. On a plus side, it was always nice to have a scapegoat if the plan went awry.
Crane looks up and sees that security, it seemed, had finally noticed that something was off kilter, and a guard was starting to make his way towards Crane. Scarecrow nervously glances towards Riddler, who was still typing away furiously. As the guard begins to reach him, Crane turns his back and pulls out his cell phone, pretending to be deep in conversation. The next thing he knew, the phone was being forcefully pulled from his hand buy a muscular, armored security guard. He glares down at him from his six foot plus height. "What's in the bag, scrub?" Crane shows no emotion on his face, and replies, "Surely, I can get a little respect?"
The guard hits him in the gut, hard, knocking the wind out of him. "I said, what's in the bag?!" "FINE" Crane shouts. "You want to know what's in the bag?" He glances back over to Riddler, who gave him a thumbs up. He reaches into the bag and grabs the first thing his hand comes in contact with. Imagine the surprise on the guard's face when a four foot long scythe was suddenly at his throat. "Aww, what's wrong? Scared?" Crane asks the pale faced man, before promptly slitting his throat.
Ignoring the blood dripping on the floor, Crane walks around to the Riddler. "Is it transferred?" he asks. Riddler responds with a childish grin. "All the money in the market, scrambled between over thirty bank accounts throughout the world." "Excellent," Scarecrow replies. "Let chaos ensue."
People around are already screaming hysterically at the sight of the dead guard upon the floor. But what's to say they couldn't create even more insanity? Reaching into the bag once more Crane grabs a compact tank of gas, and throws it out into the crowd of security guards rallying a few meters away. The tank lands beneath their feet, and they barely have time to react before fear gas is casted through their airways. Any resistance is futile, and soon they are overcome by their greatest fears.
"Oh this is starting to get interesting," Crane mutters. Basking in his victims' screams around him, he reaches into the bag, and tosses another tank into the crowd of civilians. He reaches in for another when he feels a different object. He laughs, and pulls out the object, his iconic mask for which he was named. As women scream, and stockbrokers scamper about in a panic, Crane begins to walk forward in the middle of all the madness. As he slips the mask over his face Crane transforms from the awkward, spectacled scientist that he is, into a nightmarish creature of pure fear. The Scarecrow is on the scene.
Riddler sprints over to his side, a gas mask pulled over his bowler's cap to protect him from the toxic fumes. Scarecrow tosses him his signature cane, which Riddler catches with a flourish. "Watch yourself!" Riddler exclaims, bashing an incoming guard's nose in with his cane. The two criminals stand back to back, scythe and cane swiftly taking out any remaining guards that attempt to confront them.
FWWT. Their enjoyment is suddenly interrupted by the flight of an arrow, a green arrow, into the wooden shaft of Scarecrow's scythe. Riddler groans. "Not him!" Crane wastes no time talking, instead deciding on the wisest course of action for a situation like this. He turns and bolts for the exit as fast as his legs will carry him. Riddler, the quick learner as he was, follows suit.
The two villains burst out of the front door and onto the busy street outside. Barging through civilians, they make their way to their destination; as far away from the vigilante known as the Green Arrow as possible. Arrow after arrow whizzes past them, each closer than the next. Stopping would certainly mean death. They continue the pursuit for minutes, and Scarecrow could feel himself slowing down. One arrow nicks the side of his face, and he feels blood run down his chin. His heart is pounding faster and faster. Soon it would all be over.
Despite his tiredness and recent injury, Crane decides that it can't end this way. He has no desire to look down and find an arrow buried in his side, so he begins running through different scenarios in his head as he sprints alongside his green-wearing cohort. What was a way to get out of this situation unscathed by this angry archer? Then suddenly he grins. When outrunning a bear, you don't have to be faster than the bear, only faster than—Crane sticks out his leg and trips Riddler next to him, sending him rolling into the street below- the person behind you.
Scarecrow glances back to see a shocked Riddler lying in the dirt off the side of the road. An arrow comes from behind his fallen comrade and entraps him in a rope net, completely immobilizing the Riddler. Scarecrow smiles to himself. That would buy him some time to escape.
After another thirty seconds or so of running though, Crane senses something is off. For the past fifteen minutes, he had been bombarded by a seemingly infinite amount of arrows. But now the whooshing sound of the incoming projectiles had ceased. Scarecrow takes a risk and stops, turning behind him to look for the masked vigilante. Seeing nothing, he shrugs. Who would have thought it? He outran the Green Arrow. "Take that you prick," Crane says to the empty street. "Careful," a voice sounds from behind him, causing him to jump in surprise.
Scarecrow slowly turns, and winces at the sight before him. The emerald archer stands directly in front of him. His arms folded in front of him, the imposing hero peers down at him through his mask. "When will you learn Crane? If you only had a brain…" Green Arrow sings. Scarecrow rolls his eyes under his mask. "Leave the joking to the Joker, if I might speak my mind," he murmurs. Green Arrow grins. "I'll keep that in mind," he says, turning his head to check the area behind him. "Now if we're done flirting…" Scarecrow seizes the moment, rushing forward with his fist aimed at the vigilante's unprotected stomach. However Green Arrow is faster, and in a split second Crane finds an arrow aimed at his temple.
"You're pretty good Crane." Green Arrow looks amused as he draws back further on his bow. "But I'm better." Scarecrow contemplates his options. He shrugs to himself. Might as well go out with a bang. Moving only his index finger, Crane activates a tank of fear gas in his sleeve, and lurches it up into the face of his enemy. At the same time he feels an aching pain in his gut. Looking down he frowns. An arrow sticks out of his stomach; he feels blood, wet and sticky from where the arrow protrudes.
Next to him Green Arrow falls to his knees, the fear gas entering his system. Coughing he looks up into Crane's eyes. "Damn straight," he coughs.
Scarecrows vision begins to blur, he was losing blood, fast. FWWT. Scarecrow rips off his mask and searches for the source of the sound. Out of the corner of his eye, he can just make out another arrow striking beneath his feet. Crane's confused, delirious mind is still able to determine that this didn't make any sense. Green Arrow was lying across from him, no more able to get up and shoot an arrow than he was.
Green Arrow sees his puzzled expression and laughs. "You really think I would come here without backup?" he asks. Scarecrow coughs, blood spurting out and dirtying the ground in front of him, just as Green Arrow's eyes roll into the back of his head as he collapses completely, the fear gas having completely taken over his system.
Crane notices that the arrow is ticking beneath his feet. Tick. Tick. Tick. And something else. The Green Arrow's arrows, they were green. But this one was red… Using the last amount of strength he has, Scarecrow turns to look up at the building behind him. Zip lining down from the peak he could just make out a red shape through his rapidly closing eyes. His ears were ringing.
And then he saw nothing.
And he heard nothing.
And there was black.