Chicago- Andy's suburb home
Andy Barclay awoke in his bed, realizing that he didn't have a nightmare like he did so many times before. Even though it had been only a day since the defeat of Anuboll, Andy felt like things were starting to get better. Looking over, Andy saw his wife, Nica Pierce, laying in bed next to him. As he brushed her hair out of her face, Nica slowly opened her eyes.
"Morning." Nica said groggily, while smiling. "Sleep well?"
"Surprisingly, yes." Andy replied, beginning to sit up in bed. "Did you?"
"Yeah." Nica replied. "Best sleep I've gotten in the last five years."
"Good." Andy whispered, before leaning in and kissing Nica.
"Ew, gross!" A little girl yelled. Startled, Andy and Nica broke away from the kiss, turning toward the door. Fortunately, they were relieved that the person standing in front of them was their niece, Alice.
"Do you always have to do that in front of me?" Alice said, crossing her arms.
"You know the door was closed for a reason, right?" Nica said, staring at her niece.
"Hold on, so you're fine with swearing and cutting up demons, but it's the kissing that draws a line?" Andy asked teasingly.
"No." Alice admitted, with a grin. "I just wanted to fuck with you this morning."
"Cock block." Andy muttered, causing Nica and Alice to laugh. "For some reason, that reminds me. You mentioned once that someone actually believed you about Chucky one time. When was that?"
"Back at Harrogate, there was a guy with an identity disorder." Nica said. "We all called him Multiple Malcolm. Basically, he instantly believed Chucky was real just because we fucked one time."
"Well, that sucks." Andy said bluntly. "I know I wanted people to believe Chucky was alive, but I'd rather them think it through and think rationally. Or, in Alice's case, see him for what he really was."
"We really do need to get her back into a school." Nica said, as they all got ready for their day.
"I know, but I'm afraid she'd be the subject of too much ridicule." Andy said. "Back when I had said the doll was alive, no one believed me, and I was humiliated every time at my school. Eventually, I had to move between foster homes before I met Kyle."
"I understand where you're coming from, but that shouldn't excuse her education." Nica replied. "Besides, after the news showed footage of that army of Chucky's, I doubt people would make fun of her now." Just as they all finished getting dressed, Andy heard his cell phone ring. Walking over to the nightstand by the bed, Andy picked the phone up, wondering who was calling.
"Who the fuck would call at this hour?" Nica asked.
"I don't know." Andy said, before answering the call. "Hello?" The call lasted no more than a minute, but Nica and Alice noticed that Andy's expression went from surprised, to confused, to angry, to sad, before he spoke again.
"I'm on my way. Thanks." Andy said, before hanging up.
"Who was that?" Nica asked.
"Oliver Queen called." Andy answered.
"The Green Arrow called you?" Alice asked, causing Nica and Andy to stare at her, confused. "I had seen him from Heaven."
"Well, he just called because a friend of his stumbled on something." Andy explained.
"Why are they asking us?" Nica and Alice asked in unison.
"Because Tyler is dead, and according to a witness, she could hear Chucky's voice before he died." Andy said. "Let's go."
Star City
"I appreciate that Oliver called us. Just wish he could be here." Andy Barclay said to a woman with long, brown hair. It hadn't even been an hour after Andy's friend, Ronald Tyler, had called him, when he was alerted by someone in Star City about a murder. That someone was none other than Oliver Queen's friend, John Diggle, whom Tyler said he was visiting.
"Yeah, sorry Barclay." Diggle replied. "Right after Oliver called you, he had to go stop some criminals trying to assassinate a member of the mayor's staff."
"What the Hell happened?" Nica asked.
"A witness claimed she saw your friend walking down this alley, just behind the joint." The woman explained. "After that, someone in a dark hood and sleeves similar to that Chucky doll sweater left the area quickly."
"Then did you find anything?" Nica asked.
"Yeah, we found this recording on top of the dumpster, right next to your friend's corpse." Diggle said, approaching Andy and holding up an audio recorder.
"Hi, I'm Chucky, wanna play?" The recording said. Hearing the Good Guy doll's voice gave Andy, Nica, and Alice shivers.
"You think it's a copycat?" Andy asked.
"Dinah and I aren't sure of anything right now." Diggle said. "But we saw the footage a few months back. We saw what happened in Chicago."
"How do you know Tyler?" Andy inquired.
"After that incident at Kent, Tyler transferred to the same base I was at in 2009. We got put in the same platoon, and he was with me in my final tour in Afghanistan." Diggle explained. "You ever served?"
"Once." Andy stated. "After the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, I was went from Kent Academy to the Army, and was deployed in Iraq. Around 2006, I was honourably discharged based on the incidents I've been involved with, and they chalked it all up to PTSD, especially after an ambush killed everyone in my squad but me. I never saw Tyler until a couple years ago, when we heard about Chucky attacking Nica."
"Yeah, I can't believe this is how we'd be reunited." Diggle said sadly.
"At least Janice still has Kristen…" Alice murmured with Andy and Nica silently agreeing.
"Well, we'll find out who did this." Nica said, before looking out towards the street, seeing a figure a few blocks down, in the exact clothing the report described. "Maybe even sooner than we thought…" Andy, seeing the figure too, gritted his teeth in anger, and began sprinting.
"I'll take care of this!" Andy yelled. "Stay with Alice!" The figure began running as well, and while Andy took off after them, Nica, Alice, Diggle, and Dinah stayed behind to take care of the crime scene.
The hooded figure knocked over people and vendors, hoping to slow or even stop Andy. However, Andy, fueled by rage, just jumped over everything, leading the killer to duck into an alley and climb the ladder to the roof. Andy tried shooting the hooded person, but the shot missed, and the figure disappeared up above onto the roof. Growling, Andy quickly climbed the ladder, and resumed his chase. After jumping over to another building, Andy finally lined up his shot, and hit the hooded killer in the leg. Andy slowly walked over to the criminal, but they pulled a knife, ready to stab Barclay. Instead, Andy sidestepped, and taking the knife, stabbed the hooded person in the shoulder, pinning them to the ground. Blinded by anger, Andy repeatedly hit the person in the face, before removing the hood, but became shocked at who was under it.
"Rachel?" Andy asked, horrified. He remembered the red headed woman. Rachel was someone he had dated just before he went to Harrogate to save Nica, but after an argument about the second amendment, it seemed Rachel was scared away by his story of Chucky. Now, it appeared that was all an act. "Why did you do this?"
"Why?" Rachel repeated, laughing. "I need a reason? Maybe it's fuck with you, Andy. Maybe I simply hate you and your new wife."
"That's why you're doing this then?" Andy said. "Not for Chucky, not for a demon, it's just you?"
"You're goddamn right." Rachel said, spitting blood at him. "So how does it feel, to know that not everything is the work of a demon?"
"It feels like this." Andy replied, drawing his gun and shooting Rachel in the shoulder. At first, Rachel screamed in pain, before suddenly laughing.
"You have to be working for somebody!" Andy yelled, shooting Rachel again, this time in the leg.
"If you must know, his name is Mallus." Rachel sneered. "But he didn't even have to ask. This was all me, just for a little fun." Snarling, Andy aimed his gun right at Rachel's eyes, and pulled the trigger, splattering her brains all across the building's rooftop. Feeling depressed about realizing he didn't take down a serial killer, or a demon, or anything supernatural, just a mortal woman, Andy knelt down on the roof and tried to fight his inner demon. After what felt like an hour, Andy climbed back down the ladder and went back to Nica and Alice.
"What the Hell happened?" Diggle asked. "Did you find them?"
"Yeah, something like that." Andy grumbled, looking at the ground.
"You killed him, didn't you?" Dinah asked, but Andy didn't answer. Even so, Dinah already knew the truth.
"Well, what now?" Nica asked.
"She said she was working for someone, but she did this on her own accord." Andy said. "I think it was to call us out."
"'She'?" Nica and Dinah asked, much to their surprise.
"And who did 'she' say she was working for?" Diggle asked.
"Someone who calls himself 'Mallus'." Andy said, and upon the name, Diggle stiffened.
"Someone you know?" Dinah asked.
"Not really." Diggle replied. "But our friends on the Waverider are having a problem with someone, or something, named 'Mallus'. We gotta call them about this."
"Right, we should go." Andy said, beginning to leave with Nica and Alice.
"Hold up, you're not leaving just yet." Diggle said.
"I don't want to get involved." Andy said. "What I saw a few minutes ago showed me that the worst monsters are sometimes just normal humans."
"From what it looks like, you're already involved." Diggle said. "Besides, if this 'Mallus' really is part of this, we're going to need a lot more help than we have right now."
"Like I said, I don't want to be apart of this." Andy said, throwing his hands up as if to surrender. "I might even disband my own group."
"What, just because your best friend dies, you're gonna walk away from this?" Nica asked. "You already tried that after Chucky possessed me."
"Yeah, don't puss out now." Alice added.
"Look, Barclay, I'm not going to pretend to know all the crap you've been through for thirty years." Diggle started. "But I once had a brother named Andy. I thought that he was assassinated a years ago, only for him to come back in 2015. It turned out that he was working for a terrorist organization headed by Damien Darhk, and ultimately caused one of my friends to die. After that, I killed him because I thought he'd be a threat to my family. You're not the only one who's had tough shit thrown at you." After a long silence, Andy finally made his decision on what he was going to do.
"Fine. Where do we start?" Andy asked.
"By calling the Legends." Diggle said.
"Who're the Legends?" Alice asked.
"A group of friends who basically fly around Waverider, basically a spaceship." Diggle said casually. "Last year, they gave us a hand in stopping an alien invasion, and they recently helped stop that catastrophe about Nazi doppelgangers from another Earth."
"Terrific. I'm gonna see if I can call up Constantine." Nica whispered to Andy, before pulling out her phone. "Maybe he'll be able to help…"