Two years later
It's amazing what two years can do for you, Oliver thought as he stood just offstage. The stage had been setup for today's event just a few hours earlier and ever since the surprise press conference had been announced, press had slowly started to fill the seating area. That had been until about an hour ago when the seating filled up and the rest of the number of people that continued to file in were forced to stand in the back behind the seats.
"Apparently, Oliver Queen's star power is still as strong as ever."
Smiling, Oliver turned around to see his lovely girlfriend marching towards him. This was the largest difference between two years ago and now. Instead of Felicity disappearing to Gotham City, she now shared his residence at Queen Mansion with him. He was as happy as he could ever remember being and the woman before him bore a large responsibility for that.
"Well, I'm not in the tabloids as often as I used to be." Oliver replied with a smirk. The truth was that after relinquishing control of the day-to-day operations of QC, Oliver had chosen to take his life out of the public eye. He made the occasional appearance at QC Charity Events or at Verdant events but mostly, Oliver spent his time working at home.
"True story." Felicity commented. "Although it hasn't stopped them from parking outside of the house three nights a week for the last two years."
"And how much have they gotten out of that?" Oliver mused.
"Just that picture of you with your shirt off they took through the parlor window." Felicity said with a grin.
"I still blame you for that." Oliver grumbled.
"Who said it was a bad thing?" Felicity said incredulously. "I framed the damn thing."
"Very funny."
"You think I'm joking..." Felicity mumbled softly.
"I heard that." Oliver said seriously, although the grin on his face betrayed the serious tone he had taken.
Suddenly, one of the PR reps from QC (Oliver couldn't remember his name) stepped off the stage and approached Oliver.
"Are you ready, Mr. Queen?" he asked nervously.
"Certainly." Oliver said, plastering the public Oliver Queen smile onto his face.
"Knock 'em dead." Felicity said from behind him as she raised up on her toes and planted a kiss just under left ear. "I'm so excited for this."
"I am too." Oliver agreed as he followed the PR rep to the stage.
Instantly, the flashes of cameras blinded him as marched up the podium with his family's company logo on it. The applause in the room was almost deafening as Oliver raised his hands, begging for silence. For almost a minute, the crowd didn't cooperate, shouting loudly and screaming his name. Since the defeat of Ra's al Ghul, Oliver had become the city's largest individual donor to charitable causes and his company's charity, The Robert Queen Memorial Foundation, had raised nearly 100 million dollars for various charities across the city.
Couple that with the stability that Oliver Queen now brought and Oliver was the city's most famous and beloved resident.
Finally, the applause died down and Oliver was able to start his presentation.
"Thank you for that warm welcome and thank you again for coming." Oliver said, beginning with the customary greeting. "In case you're unaware, my name is Oliver Queen and along with my sister, I am the controlling shareholder in Queen Consolidated. In the last two years, QC has become the nation's leader in technological breakthrough along with our software defense systems. We've teamed with companies like Wayne Enterprises and Kord Industries and with our pooled resources, we've seen the speed at which we can produce new technologies increase ten-fold."
At this point, Oliver waived to the side of the stage. With that signal, the current company CEO, Walter Steele, joined him on stage.
"The man truly responsible for this success is this man, my step-father Walter Steele." Oliver said before encouraging the audience to applaud the man. As always, Walter took the credit graciously. "Working with Walter has been one of the great joys in my life. So, it is a sad day that I announce that Walter is stepping down as CEO of Queen Consolidated. Walter has expressed that he would like to work in several areas related to Starling City and that his work at QC wouldn't allow him the time to do that. Because of this, Walter has put his retirement on hold for nearly a year. We're sad to see a man of such skills leave us but we know that whatever he does with his time and resources, our great city will benefit!"
Again, the crowd gathered chose to applaud Walter. Slowly, Oliver marched over to Walter before hugging the man he had come to know as a wonderful man and father figure. As the two men embraced, Oliver whispered in Walter's ear.
"Thank you again for agreeing to this."
"Thank you for considering me, son." Walter said as they broke apart and shook hands.
"You're still family." Oliver said simply before turning back to the podium. Again, he had to wait for the crowd to settle back down before he could begin again. "When Walter came to me to discuss his retirement, we decided that we wanted to announce his replacement the day we announced his departure from the company. With that in mind, Walter and I have spent the last four months interviewing new candidates and we believe that we have found ourselves a great man to replace Walter. Allow me to introduce Queen Consolidated's newest CEO, Ray Palmer!"
Again, at the mention of his name, another man stepped onto the stage. The moment Oliver had met Palmer, Oliver had known that he would be the man to lead QC into the future. He had both the brains and the face to take QC far. With a grin, Ray took his place next to Oliver as Oliver continued.
"Ray was formerly the owner and CEO of Palmer Technologies. I met Ray at a technology conference with Walter and QC Executive VP Felicity Smoak and knew that Ray would be the man for our company. However, Ray was a tough man to convince. Obviously, he didn't want to leave his company in the dust being the good man that he is. So, Queen Consolidated purchased controlling interest in PalmerTech and has been rebranding all of the companies' facilities with the QC logo. No jobs were lost and not a single project changed."
With that, Oliver turned and nodded to both Walter and Ray, dismissing them from the stage per the plan.
"Ray will hold his own introductory press conference later in the week to answer your questions and all three of us will available for comment upon the conclusion of this event. Finally, I do have one more announcement. Ever since Slade Wilson's siege on this city, I have made a bit of a name for myself by supporting several candidates for public office within the city. First, it was Adam Donner for Mayor and then it was several of the city's councilmen and women last year."
This was the part of the event that Oliver was truly nervous for. Taking a deep breath, he continued.
"As we reach the reelection season, people have continued to ask me who I was going to support for public office. The first is my close friend Laurel Lance. As you all know, Laurel is running to be our city's District Attorney to replace outgoing DA Gladys King who is retiring at the end of her term. I've known Laurel for almost as long as I can remember and I know that she will be a great District Attorney in our near future."
Quickly, Oliver grabbed a drink from the glass of water in front of him. His hand trembled slightly at the thought of what he was about to say.
"There has been a lot of talk about our current Mayor, Adam Donner. In the face of the recovery from The Undertaking and Wilson's attack, Adam was a wonderful mayor. His background in law and economics made him an ideal candidate to lead our city, hence why I help fund his election and reelection campaign. Unfortunately, once we recovered from those attacks and the city's occupation by The League of Assassins, our city has stalled. While our companies grow, our city's poor and destitute remain just as poor off as they had been before the accident that left me shipwrecked on a deserted island for five years. Then, I wouldn't have noticed because I was too busy being the immature playboy that I was. But I've changed since then and for the better. I've noticed that our city has not changed, it hasn't evolved and that needs to change. It's because of this lack of evolution, this lack of forward progress that I have decided to run for public office."
Instantly, the screen behind Oliver changed from the generic QC to something different. Simply, it read: Queen for Mayor.
"Specifically, I have decided to run for Mayor of Starling City."
Almost instantaneously, the room exploded as the reporters in the room tripped over themselves to ask questions. With a grin, Oliver marched off the stage to a clear excited Felicity Smoak. The moment he was out of sight, Felicity jumped into his arms, nearly strangling him with the force of her hug. As she broke away from him, she planted a kiss on his cheek, leaving a hint of red lipstick.
"That couldn't have gone any better!" Felicity shouted with excitement.
"I know." Oliver said, unable to suppress a grin. "They didn't even know what hit 'em."
A/N: This is it! We've officially started Part 2 of my Green Arrow story, tentatively titled The Green Arrow vs. Oliver Queen. This is just the prologue as only the first few chapters have been even outlined so the title of the story may actually changed but the themes that I have in mind really make that a perfect title.
Don't expect an update to soon for Chapter 1 but I will be working diligently to get it out to you. Thanks for reading!