AN this is a one shot... kind of a Limitless (movie/TV show) AU.
The pain was radiating through him, fire raging through his veins. He'd dry heaved into the toilet, sweat pouring down his face and backs. He could vaguely hear Digg telling him to go to the hospital but he vehemently denied going. Another stab of agony ripped through his stomach.
Flashback: 28 hours previously:
"SCPD! Put your weapons down!" Lance shouted. The Count's men and some of the Russians opened fire, which the cops returned. Oliver looked around and saw The Count making a getaway and took off after them, ignoring Diggle's shout.
He caught up to them and decked the first man, but when he reached his boss the Count spun and jabbed his dual syringe into Oliver's chest, injecting the pure vertigo.
"No witnesses." The Count said as Oliver staggered back, his body on fire with pain, his mouth opened with gasp as the effects started to take hold. The Count shoved a pill down his throat. "Something new I was going to try on the market." Turning to run but a tin fell out of his pocket as he ran away.
Oliver grabbed it as Diggle ran up to him as he pulled the syringe out of his chest.
Present:
"Please Oliver, we need to get you a doctor." Digg tried to reason with hm. They were in the foundry
He managed to pull a card out of his sweat drenched pants, "Call her…She said I'll know when to call her. Please call her, she'll help…" he gasped.
"Who?" Digg asked, "Miss Smoak? She's a computer expert not a doctor."
"Digg!" He pleaded, "Call her!"
Digg took the card and made the phone call.
Flashback: 17 hours previously:
Oliver staggered out of the elevator followed closely by Diggle.
"Hey, we need to get you to a hospital." Dig told his friend.
"No." Oliver growled back.
"Oliver, God knows what was in those drugs. It could be causing permanent damage." Dig argued. Oliver continued to ignore him, seeing the person he had been looking for.
"I know what it's doing to me, it's making me super smart and when the drug wears of I feel like I'm having the worst hangover ever."
"That's why you took the second pill?"
"Yes, now I need to find out what's in that pill; I have seven hours before his pill runs out." Oliver shook his head, his mind was never as clear as it was now but it was muddled by the vertigo.
"Felicity." He said, causing the woman to turn from the people she had been talking to. "Hey, they said you'd be up here."
"You look like something the cat dragged in." she remarked. "Not that there are cats in this building. Well, once a cat did get in, but a guard tazed it." She leaned in and whispered, "It smelled like fur and static in here for like a week."
Oliver tried to focus on the woman, but the drugs in his system were making it hard for him to focus on anything or too much and it was giving him a headache. He cleared his throat to interrupt her usual babble.
"Would you mind stepping away from the window for a moment?" he asked in a raspy voice. "I have a little bit of a hangover."
"Sounds like you need a bloody Mary and a pretzel, not the I.T. Department." She noted.
"Actually, my buddy Kevin is starting an energy drink company." Oliver began, withdrawing the syringe from his coat pocket and the clear medical zip-lock bag containing the pill.
"He says it's fantastic for curing hangovers, but I am very particular about what it is I put in my body."
He could have sworn he saw a flash of some emotions flicker across her face; recognition? Worry? Irritation? Before he could decide which one it was it was gone and she covered it and commented.
"I've noticed." Felicity blanched. "I said, not noticed. Right?"
Olive chuckled weakly dismissing his former thoughts for later. Normally he enjoyed her babble, but right now he was having a hard enough time staying in an upright position. "I'm trying to find the secret recipe. Could you please do a spectro-analysis of the sample and find out exactly where in the city it's made?" he handed her the syringe and the bag.
"If it's an energy drink, why is it in a syringe?" she asked.
"I ran out of sports bottles." Diggle looked over at Oliver, then without saying a word walked over to the elevators to call a car.
Felicity gave him the same 'Really?' look Dig just had, then said "Okay. But…if you need my help, you'll know and call me" giving him her card and walked off. Oliver took it, not sure what she meant but shook his head and walked over to the open elevator.
"Your B.S. stories are getting worse." He said dryly.
"I'm well aware." Oliver replied as the doors closed.
Present:
"She'll be here in a little while." Oliver barely heard Digg speak, his mind running over his conversation with Felicity; she knew what the drug was – the pill. Time seem to slow down or speed up, he wasn't sure but before he knew what had happen he heard her.
"You look like crap." Her brilliant smile and bright colours seem out of place in the dark, wet basement. She looked around the place and nodded sadly at the poor computer setup, "This place looks worse than you…but I work with it…" Felicity spoke calmly, watching him with pity or something akin to recognition of the pain he was feeling. "I have my secrets I'm am willing to do whatever it takes to keep-" She told him with her hands indicating herself. "And I'm guessing you want the fact that you run around in green leather at night kept a secret as well." Her hands gesturing to him. "If we want our respective secrets kept- I believe I can help you." She sat down on a chair opposite him.
"You don't seem the type to be drug dealer." Digg commented.
"I suppose I am a drug dealer- in a way." She nodded her head sideways, "But I only produce NZT – that's the drug you were given- for myself. I've tried to stop NZT from reaching the black market but it's more difficult that you'd think. The version of the drug you were given is out dated, one of the first to be produced actually. Analysis showed it was produced in New York four years ago." She explained but it took all his energy to concentrate on her words.
"As I was saying I can help you, luckily your genetics has done half the work for us- you're immune to the drugs more serious side-effects…"
Digg interrupted, "Serious side effects? He looking like he's dying!"
"I'd appreciate it, if you didn't shout- I'm not the one slowing down this process." She looked at his partner then turned back to him, "Like I was saying, right, your last dose wore out four hours ago, if you wasn't immune you'll right now be suffering from severe mental confusion as the drug would start rewiring your brain not to mention your body would have started degenerate." She explained.
"I was in my final year at MIT, just your regular student, I was already brilliant, and top of my class already had Summa Cum Laude in the bag; I didn't need a performance enhancing drug when NZT got shoved down my throat at the one and only party I had ever attended in my time at MIT, but that's a story for another time. Anyway, same way the Count shaved it down yours. I was in the same place you are in right now. I know how it feels; your body craves it faster and faster, yeah. You think it's bad now, it's only gonna get worse. You actually might remember this moment as the last time you felt vaguely human. But it doesn't have to be that way, Oliver. I took a pill this morning. I've taken a pill every morning for the past four years. I can't remember the last time I felt bad. That's not true. No, I had a headache two years ago."
"How…how did you how did you do that?"
She opened her bag and pulled out a medical kit, "This." She clicked it open and assembled the contraption. There were a few clicks, squeaks and hisses, "Millions of dollars of private research. It works on a cyclical enzyme system." Both he and Digg looked at her oddly, still fascinated with what she was saying. "Oh, you don't know what that means. It doesn't matter. All you need to remember is that every so often, you take one of these shots. And you can have as much NZT as you want with no side effects. You're on the verge of having a life that most people can't even begin to imagine. Can you remember what it's like to be inside your mother's womb? I can. I think about it when I need to relax.
Have you ever thought about why people have to age? Is it inevitable? I'm not sure."
"So-so, wait. What-what the hell are you offering me? You're offering me unlimited NZT? Why? Why would you help me?" He asked her.
"Let's just say that I want to help you – a concerned third party. But one thing. This conversation is here and now and nowhere else. My secret comes out- so does yours." She looked at him, "So what's it gonna be, Oliver? You ready to become somebody who matters?"
"I take it you have conditions for this?" Oliver asked her.
"Yes, you have potential Oliver, clearly you have PTSD amongst other psychological problems, that are all normal for you to have under the circumstances and situations you've been in the last five years. Waller did a number on you." She murmured the last part looking sadly at him and he looked at her shocked. She noticed, "I hacked into A.R.G.U.S.; I read you file." She pipped unapologetic and continued on. "I take it therapy was out of the question so I'll recommend some good reading material that'll help and if you need a listening ear, I can lend mine and I'm sure Digg has offered his advice and ear as well." She smiled reassuringly at him, "Now down to the real business, hmm? I don't like the killing -so that's gonna stop, you're smart before and now so I'm confident you'll find alternate methods of handling the criminal element. Since Mr Diggle and you are the brawn out on the streets I want to be a part of it, I'll be tech and medical support. The list is something we'll have to take about later in more detail but the criminal element would have to expand to those outside the one percenters."
Oliver nodded in agreement.
"Now for your persona as Oliver Queen, the whole playboy thing you got going on is not gonna fly. I want you to announce your candidacy for Mayor of Starling City when the next re-election rolls around."
Both Digg and he looked at her in shock; him the mayor?
"You're not stupid Mr Queen, being CEO doesn't suit you. Signing papers, reading boring reports and board meetings aren't your style. You're a people person, you want to help, connect; being Mayor is the perfect option for you."
Oliver nodded, his acceptance of the plan. Felicity then stood and injected him with the syringe thingy. "So you help me save the city? Stop me being a killer? Get me elected as Mayor? What do you get out of it?"
"I help you save this city, I stop a guy who I believe has a good heart." She placed her hand on his chest over his heart, feeling it beat rapidly under palm. He could feel the heat form her palm radiated through his t-shirt. The moment was too heavy and out of place the electricity surging around them. It lasted less than a few seconds, she looked away then back at him, "behind all that darkness from continuing to be killer. You had already planned on bringing me in your crusade, weren't you? With all those lame excuse- 'I spilled a latte on it?', 'my coffee shop is in a bad neighbourhood?' and the latest one: 'I ran out of sport bottles?' I just sped up the process and save you the trouble of coming up with more lame excuses."
"I have a question, you said millions of dollars in private research? Why do you work at QC at a lowly tech nerd?" Digg asked.
"It's a hobby." She stated, "My first love was computers, so an It job was always a dream. But yes, I'm a multi billionaire. I just liked the anonymity of it all but now I think about it and its more thanks to Oliver here, I'm considering starting my own company: Smoak Dynamics or Massive Dynamics- I'm little iffy with putting my name on the building, not that there's anything wrong with that. This is our chance Oliver for both of us to step into the light and out of the darkness."
He nodded, "Yes, agree to your terms."
She got up and walked over to him and administered the shot to him. He started to feel drowsy and her voice sounded distant, "You'll start to feel sleepy now, when you wake up we'll start your regimen of pills." Felicity told him standing up. Digg helped him stand to go lay down on the med table.
"We really need to fix this place up, a bed and couch would be nice." Her voice and her face was the last thing he heard before the world went blank.
AN this is a one shot because i have no idea how to continue maybe when the new season starts and see how the whole mayor thing works i'll see what i can do... if you have any ideas or comments/ feedback is amazing and love hearing from you.