Oliver Queen in
"Sharpshooter"
Brought to you by DC Redux
Written By George Jones
Present Day
Portland, Maine
A woman, laid flat in a bed, stretched her arm out from under the duvet and went to wrap it around her husband's warm body. It only met a cold mattress. She opened her eyes to see her man standing by the window and staring out through a small gap in the crimson curtains. She could see that he was tense and agitated. The woman sat up in the bed and rubbed her tired eyes. "Honey, come back to bed." She spoke softly through a yawn.
The man turned his head, his eyes were dilated like a fawn caught in the headlights. He spun on his heels and went back into bed, sweat was now pouring off his brow.
"What's the matter, baby? Another bad dream?" She asked as she placed her hand upon his cheek.
"No, it's not that. It's what I told you before, about my old-"
"Honey, I told you, it's all in your head. I'm sure what happened to Doug and Wayne was just a coincidence"
"It's not just Doug and Wayne. They found Mike this morning. I didn't tell you. I'm the last one alive that got out of Burma. All three in the space of a few weeks, I'm telling you somebody is coming after us. I don't know why. I'm need to protect you"
Her face suddenly became worried as her husband climbed back out of bed and opened up the bedside table. He pulled out a glock handgun and went back to the window.
"You're scaring me." She said as she sat up and pulled her nightgown over her naked body.
"Go back to bed. Sleep!" He barked.
"I'm calling the police…" she said in near hysterics and she ran across the room and picked up the landline phone that sat on the bedside table on her side of the bed.
"Put that fucking phone down!" He screamed.
"…the line's dead…" she said now through streams of tears.
BOOM!
The room shook with a loud bang as their bedroom door swung open as if it had been shot with a double-barrelled shotgun. The man spun around and fired his handgun at the door, peppering it with holes. His wife stood, frozen still in terror, as a dark figure wearing a hood and cape rushed into the room with a Navy SEAL dagger in one hand and a bow in the other.
The phantom menace, in the blink of an eye, threw the dagger across the room and struck the woman in the leg, dropping her to the floor. The man fired the last couple of rounds in his pistol towards their attacker but his shots missed as the hooded man grasped his bow with both hands and swung in with the strength of a mountain gorilla, striking the man across the face and sending him crashing to the floor.
He dropped the handgun as he scrambled on the floor, his nose and several teeth broken, pouring blood. The hooded man delivered a bone-crunching stamp to the man's knee, breaking it in several places. The man howled in pain as their attacker stood over him and pulled down his hood to reveal a blonde bearded man.
"Hello David!"
"Oliver?" David panted through mouthfuls of blood "But you're-"
"Dead? Yes, I thought so too."
"I'm so sorry! There hasn't been a day since it happened that I haven't regret what we did out there!"
"We were brothers! We were comrades! And you left me in some stinking jungle to die like a wounded dog!"
"Oliver, please! I can get you money! A lot of it, just don't kill my wife!"
"Your wife!? I'm not here for her. Not all the money in the world could repair my mind"
"Just-just make it quick then."
"Oh. I will."
6 Years Ago
Pakistan
The blazing sun belted down upon Oliver Queen's face, his body hidden by thick bush and foliage on the side of a steep hillside ridge, overlooking the Taliban training encampment below. His Barrett M82 rested in its tripod next to him, also hidden. Oliver lowered his binoculars from his face and rested his heart as adrenalin began to pump into his veins.
"Radio. Check in. 'Snake-eyes' to 'Arrow'. Do you copy?" Queen's satellite phone, which sat next to him, buzzed.
Oliver reached down for it and held it to his ear. "This is 'Arrow', copy."
"Has the target been sighted?"
"Abbas is still inside the barracks, he hasn't left in about two hours, forty-six minutes."
"Copy that 'Arrow'. 'Snake-eyes' out."
Oliver placed the satellite phone back into its pouch, took a sip of water from his cantina and raised his binoculars back to his face.
From the foliage behind him came Oliver's sniper spotter who quietly lowered himself back down besides his partner.
"Nice of you to join me, speedy." Oliver quipped with a warm smirk.
"Oh very Funny 'Arrow', did you come up with that yourself?" The kid teased back "Abbas moved yet?"
"No. Still plenty of time for our friend to become confirmed kill 67."
"Hey, Ollie."
"Yeah, Roy?"
"Why'd you join the military?"
"Same reason as any of us."
"No no, I joined because I couldn't get a job stacking shelves in Walmart. You're the son of a millionaire."
"Well. Guess I joined cus that's what asshole teens do- the opposite of what their parents want."
"You ever regret it?"
"More regrets than you'd ever believe."
"Like wha-"
"What is this? The Late Late show? Shut up."
"Right."
Oliver smiled to himself. He liked the kid. Another half-an-hour passed with still no sight of Abbas.
"Ollie." Roy whispered as he glared down on the encampment through his own binoculars "I think I've found our target."
Oliver pulled the M82 close and rested his finer on the trigger "I see him. How many yards?"
"900."
Oliver adjusted his scope "Wind?"
"All clear. Uh. You got this?"
Oliver didn't answer. His rifle kicked back as he pulled the trigger. The round whistled through the air and down the ridge as the heavy 50. calibre round ripped Abbas' body in half and spread his entrails across the wall behind him and to the floor below.
"Time to get the hell outta dodge!" Oliver said as he began to take the rifle off of the tripod.
"Now I see why they called you the 'Arrow'."
"Kid, shut up and get moving."
Present Day
Star City
Inside of a dark and empty office room in an abandoned warehouse, Oliver sat in front of a small TV set that was playing the local news. In the corner of the room, an empty barrel filled with wooden logs burned.
"This shocking saga of events carries on, after returning from the dead military legend Oliver Queen son of the late businessman Robert Queen has sold off the majority stock shares of Queen industries for a reported sum close 450 Million dollars. Queen's whereabouts are unknown currently and our sources say the military are opening up a new investigation to how he could have been pronounced KIA. Updates to follow as we receive them"
Queen switched off the TV set and leaned back in his chair. His body was sore and tight; scars were etched on his body like rivers on a map. He rubbed his eyes and heavily breathed in. The memories wouldn't stop, what happened in Burma, what they did to him.
Oliver reached down and picked up his bow that laid flat on the floor next to him, he placed it in his lap and inspected it. No more guns, never again, he vowed to himself. Queen stood up and swung the bow over his shoulder and walked over to his duffle bag, which rested on a rotting table in the corner of the room. Oliver reached into it and pulled out his collection of medals and pictures of him during his time in the military, tossing them into the flames of the burning barrel. Fascists, he thought to himself as the pictures turned black. He then turned back around and tears began to run down his face, he was a broken man. Alone.
"I'm sorry, Dad" The veteran wept as he crumbled to his knees and held his face in his hands "I'm so sorry."
Oliver took the dagger that sat in his belt and pressed it against his wrist. He sobbed uncontrollably, the memories of what he saw and did racing through his mind, he couldn't control the pain. He just wanted it to end. The misery. The anger. The thirst for revenge. And then… a figure entered the room. He recognised it. It was that of his father.
"Dad?" Oliver said through tearful eyes.
"Don't do it, son."
"I can't take it any longer- the pain."
"Use it, Oliver, use the pain and do some good. Make me proud"
"How?"
"That's for you to discover on your own."
As Oliver tossed the dagger across the floor and away from him the figure disappeared and he was again alone in the dark room. "I'll do it for you, father. For you. I promise."
Stay tuned for more one-shots introducing your favourite classic DC characters to this bold, daring new universe!
Oliver Queen will return in DC Redux's "KIA" by George Jones
Coming Soon