The Second Quest

Part 1

Fact and Fiction

I do not own and will never own any DC characters mentioned in this story which I am getting no money for.

This story takes place right after Ollie's resurrection and before Ollie loses his pretty bird again.

"Screw you, Dad!" shouted the twenty two year old blond man as he flung a file folder into

the air, papers flying everywhere.

"You ungrateful son of a bitch! I've spend my entire life building this company from the ground

up so that my only son can someday walk in my footsteps, and you have the audacity to accuse me

of this shit," the older man shouted back from behind his desk.

"Don't start with that crap again. You built this company for the same reason that everyone else

builds emprie's, for their own over grown ego."

"I will not put up with this in my own office-my own home, for Christs sake!"

The blond man-child spun around and headed for thick mahogany door. His face was beet red

and the blood vessels in this temples were enlarged and practically glowing purple.

As he flung open the door her whirled around once more at the older man whose physical re-

semblance was uncanny. The only diference was that the older man's hair was gray and he carried a

goatee on him. "Get this tghrough your head, old man! I have never, nor would I ever want to be like you.

You spend your whole life walking over and backstabbing anyone and everyone you had to, to get where

you are. Every one of your holdings, your interests, is paved by poor people's blood and sweat. In fact,

old man, you're the last person on this planet that I would ever want to be like!"

"Oliver! Oliver, you get back here!"

The heavy door slammed shut behind the young man named Oliver Queen and he stood there

for a second, dazed. He was standing on a beach, the smell of sea salt in the air and the sound of

seagulls flying overhead. How the hell did he get here?

He looked down to see that this cloths had changed. Wat was, just a second ago, a cashmere

sweater and Dockers, was now nothing more then a loin cloth of old material. In his right hand he held a

very flexible type of wood that had been made into a makeshift bow. His skin felt tight, almost leathery.

The sun was beating down on him hard and he could feel the heat on his naked back.

"What the hell?" he mumbled as he felt a full blond beard that covered his face. To say that this wasn't

right would have been the understatement of the year. How the hell did he get here and where in the hell

was...here?

He turned aroound but the door was gone. His father's office door, in fact the enitre estate, was

gone. There was nothing but sand and water where once stood a fourty-five room mansion. He took a small

step forward and felt the sand cover over his toes

A rustling in some bushes to his stopped him in his tracks. Something was moving around up there

where the sand met some kind of jungle's edge. His heart skipped a beat. Something was watching him,

something big. Some kind of animal out there, he was sure of it. The beast was stalking him, or was he

stalking th beast? He couldn't be sure anymore. He did know that he was starved and that son of a bitch

was about to become supper.

He crouched down low and scanned the brush that lay to his north. He reached behind him and was

not surprised to find a quiver of hand made arrows waitging for him. He slowly pulle one to him and

nocked it, his eyes never leaving the underbrush. He knew that it was watching him, wondering if it could

take him; convincing its self that it could take him.

I've done this a hundred times, he thought to himself. Every muscle in his body was tense, but his

hands never shook. Crap, he wasn't a novice at this, not anymore. He would just wait until the beast

came from the brush chargining at him and then, at the last second, he would release the arrow and as

usual it would hit the wild animal square between the eyes-the arrow driving itself into the brain and

killing it instantly.

"Come on you son of a bitch," he whispered to himself, his blue eyes almost glowing with antic-

ipation. His lip curled up and a smirk crossed his face at the same time. "Come on, daddy nees a little

bacon for summer." He was waiting for a wild boar and he new that now...but how?

It came out from the brush lumbering at him at a faster pace then what he had expected; however,

he also hadn't expected to see some kind of seven fot freak of nature that would have made Frankensteins

Monster look GQ. It bellowed as it came toward him and it spoke to him in a deep and slow voice.

"My name is Soloman Grundy, born on a Monday."

Oliver froze and his eyes windened in horror. What the hell was that? He dropped his bow and stumbled

back in the sand, almost losing his balance and falling back into the sand. He was only just able to catch

himself and pull himself back into a more solid position when the things was on him. It slapped Ollie with the

back of his hand and the blond man was instantly lifted up out of the sand. As he flew though thge air he

had only one comforting thought; well, at least he was landing in water.

The breath left him as he slammed into cement. Cement? He felt a couple of ribs crack but ignored

it as he rolled himself to the right and then jumped up. Now what was going on?

He was standing in an alley in some sort of green costume. A green longbow was now in his right hand.

He touched his face and the full beard was gone, and in its place was a neatly trimmed mustache and goatee.

just like his father had. He also was wearig some kind of mask and his body hurt badly. There felt like some

kind of swelling his left eye. He heard a sound behind him and whipped around and nocked an arrow just in

time to see Count Vertigo flying in his direction. He let loose the arrow and it flew toward its intended victim,

but at the last second it was deflected by a flick of Vertigo's hand.

"Ollie!"

He stopped cold. That was a voice he should know. A young man's voice, but who? Who the hell

was calling for him in such pain and desperation?

"Dammit Ollie, I need you!" the voice called out again. It was full of anguish and it was getting fainter

by the minute.

He turned back to take care of Vertigo, but the villain was gone. He looked around wildley but the

man had just vanished.

"Ollie, please..." the voice was fading fast.

He took of running and started turning corner after corner trying to get to the voice that he knew. A voice

that tore at his very heart, but why couldn't he place it? What the hell was going on with him? Sweat began to

drip into his face mask as he continued to frantically search for the person who so desperately needed him.

Why couldn't he get to him? A feeling of panic began to grow inside of him.

That was when he halted as the street he was frunning down dead ended. Laying there in front of him was

Roy. That's who the voice had come from, his ward, Roy. He was lying on the ground in front of the archer

and sweat was covering his face. His body was shaking violently and Ollie could see the track marks up

and down his arms. He was also being cradled by Black Canary who was whispering reassuring thoughts

into his ear.

Dinah looked up at him with tears in her eyes, "What the hell is wrong with you? Why didn't you see

this? Ollie...you're losing him."

Before he could speak, another voice from behind mae him turn and stumble at the same time.

"Why did you leave me, son? Why? You were a sorry excuse for a son! I was innocent, damn it!"

"You were not," Arrow screamed back and whipped off his mask. "Stop lying to me you son of a..."

Canary's voice cut in, "Ollie, Goddeamn it Ollie, look at me. Look at me!"

Oliver Queen's eyes flew open and he looked around. He was in a hospital; that much was obvious.

He would have known if not by th horrible smell and the beeping of the machines around him, then by

the fact that his body felt as though it was hit by a semi.

He turned his head slightly and saw his pretty bird looking at him with more then just concern in

her eyes. He saw the love, the love that always tore at his heart. He tried to talk, but just coughed.

"Shh," Dinah said, putting a finger to his lips. "Just lay there. I'm going to go tell the doctor and Roy

that you're finally awake."

He shook his head no and pulled at the oxygen tube that was logged deep down in his throat.

He needed it out and he needed it out right now.

"No, Ollie, stop doing that! Just wait a second while I get the doctor."

He shook his head more vehemently and fought her as he weakly tried to get that tube out of him.

"Oliver Queen you stop right now!" Black Canary said pushing his hands away.

He stopped and gave her a cold stare. He needed to talk to her right now. He had to make

sure that this was real. As horrible as he felt he needed to know that this wasn't going to disappear

as well.

She seemed to sense that something was agitating him, she had always been good about

sensing what he needed.

"You don't remember what happened, do you?" she asked him as she sat back down beside

the bed and too his hand.

After he had shook his head no she went on, "We were fighting Count Vertigo. By all rights he

had me when you sent out a grappling arrow, the last one in your quiver actually. It caught and hooked

him in the leg. You yanked on it and he let out a howl, that's when it happened..."

She paused for a second and he urged her to go on with his eyes. She took a deep breath and

continued. "Somebody shot you, Ollie. Shot you from behind, three times. You've been in surgery for

over eight hours but the doctors seem to think that you are going to be fine. Oh Oliver, I really thouht

we were going to lose you," she started to choke up took a breath and reigned it in.

Just then the door swung open and a very hadsome doctor walked in and smiled at Ollie, "Well

look who' awake. I bet you want that tube taken out, don't you?"

Oliver nodded his head and the doctor smiled and called down the hall for a nurse. After she

had come into the room they worked the tube out and Ollie looked up to see that Roy had joined

them, and was grinning ear to ear.

"It's about time you woke up old man! Dinah has been worried sick about you. I told her you

were to ornery to up and die on us again, but she was having her doubts." His face betrayed his

bravado, though, and Ollie caught a glimpse of water in Roy's left eye.

They offered Ollie water and he sipped hungrily, and often, coughing occasionally as it

went down rought at first. Finally he leaned his head back and looked at the two members of what

he considered to be his growing family.

"Anything we can get you?" Canary asked.

"Mia and Conner and then my life will be complete," he whispered and smiled at them.

"They'll be here soon. They're taking a scout around town to see if they could track down
Count Vertigo," she replied with a smile.

"I had the weirdest dream," Ollie whispered as he felt the pain killers taking control of his

body. "I dreamt about my last fight with my father, right before I left. He was still telling me he

was innocent."

Things were starting to fade for Oliver Queen but he saw the confusion of both Roy and

Dinah's face and he looked back just as puzzled, "What?"

Roy spoke, "Hey pal, it was just a dream. You never knew your parents, remember. You're

an orphan, old man."

"No I'm not. Dad just died last year, nit-wit. You two were both at the funeral."

The other two looked at each other with concern. What the hell was going on? They turned

back to Oliver, but he had fallen back asleep.

Well let me know what you thought of Chapter 1