Inspiration
My name is Oliver Queen. After five years in hell, I returned home with only one goal: To save my city. But my old approach wasn't enough. I had to become someone else. I had to become something else. I had to become the Green Arrow.
My name is not Oliver Queen. I am not a billionaire. I did not spend 5 years in hell. However to save lives, my old approach is not enough. I have to become someone else. I have to become something else. I have to become a vigilante.
This was not always my goal, for many years, my goal was to become a cop, and 5 years ago I succeeded in that quest. All I ever wanted was to save lives. To protect people. I always thought this was the way. Yet it turned not to be the case. The justice system is corrupt. It does not work. Too many innocent people convicted of crimes, too many guilty people walk the streets. The police try to not let this happen, except we are held back by red tape, by morality. I have more blood on my hands than I care to recount. Not lives I took personally, but lives that were lost because I could not do what needed to be done. I could not use every means necessary to get information out of criminals, I could not barge onto a scene without backup or a warrant. I could not pursue people due to diplomatic immunity. I knew what I needed to do. I needed to become what I fought. I needed to operate outside the law. There was only one way I knew how. I had to become my childhood fantasies.
This was not easily done. I had no super powers. I did not have so much money that I could spend it on whatever I needed and it not look suspicious. I did not have my own technological company that could provide me with whatever gadgets I could ever need. I had no secret cave under my house, or the money to buy an old warehouse to flip into a nightclub with a secret basement. I had to do everything on my own.. And that meant breaking the law.. That meant using my job to get what I needed, and that took time.
For the past 5 years I stole what I needed from crime scenes. Small things, always before they had been catalogued. Some small sum of money, or some sort of weapon, or some gadget. I also did my research and found a hidden base in the city which I worked, Toronto, Ontario. An old war bunker from the war of 1812, which had been left off any recent city blueprints. I had even tracked down the perfect outfit and weapons, all of which I purchased with said stolen cash. After 4 years of doing this, I had amassed quite a collection of stuff perfect for illegal crime fighting. I had even tracked down a guy who knew how to make specialized stuff, and after explaining my mission (Anonymously of course) he agreed to be my supplier (It helped that I had gathered some blackmail material as insurance that he would never rat me out.)
However gadgets and weapons only got someone so far. If someone had a gun they COULD go out and try to fight crime, however without the proper training in how to do so, that someone would become a dead someone pretty fast. Lucky for me, I had a lot of training. Perhaps I wasn't trained by secret assassins like Bruce Wayne or Oliver Queen, but I had enough training that I was confident I would be able to hold my own. I was trained in 4 forms of Martial Arts. Karate, Jujitsu, Kickboxing and Tee-Quon-Do and was the highest belt in each having spent over 15 years in a few of them. I had police training, and was trained to use many different hand to hand weapons.. As well as different ranged weapons. For the past 4 years, since I decided to embark on this mission, I had taken archery classes. Publically, I was painfully average. However after years of private practice in my bunker, I had grown to be very adept. Perhaps even the best archer this side of the border. I was ready.
After 4 years of planned prep, and many more years of unplanned prep. I was finally ready. Ready to embark on my mission. One that could very well end in my death, or going to jail for the rest of my life. However it was one I must take. Lives were at stake, and as long as by putting on the mask I saved lives, it was worth the risk.
My name is Joseph Wilde, after years of training, I have finally prepared myself for the mission I must undertake to save my city. To do so I must protect people on two fronts. By Day I am Detective Constable Joseph Wilde of the Toronto Police Services, by Night I am someone else.. I am something else.. I am the Green Arrow.
