I'm still alive.

Was talking with a friend about new stories as I've struggled to get the... mojo back after the last season of TV being really dark & depressing in nearly all the shows I watch. He suggested a Castle based Pokémon Go story, but when I thought about it, the idea I had was for Arrow. This is a bit of fun that took a couple of days to type out fully. Hope you all enjoy. constructive reviews & comments encouraged as always.

Disclaimer - The people that own Arrow are the people that own Arrow... I am not one of those people.

The Salmon Ladder required complete focus. Anything less than that would see Oliver Queen crash to the floor. Clanging his way up the ladder, Oliver caught sight of Felicity Smoak lean back in her chair and pick up her phone. Turning his focus back to the ladder, Oliver nearly reached the top when he heard his girlfriend squeal.

Lowering his head from spotting the next rung, Oliver hung on the penultimate rung and watched as Felicity jumped out her seat and hurried across the Lair. The endless enthusiast of the woman was only one of the things he'd fallen in love about her. Felicity bounced on her feet, her now standard heels sat under the desk, her hand swiping at the screen of her smartphone.

'YES!' Oliver's lips curled up in a warm grin as Felicity shimmied around the platform in the centre of the room, her hips swaying as she bopped to whatever song was in her head, 'Gotcha!'

'You playing that game again?' Oliver dropped to the floor, grabbing the small hand towel he used to wipe the sweat from his face as he walked over, 'What did you get this time?'

'Finally got a Mewtwo!' Felicity bounced, waving her phone at Oliver too fast for him to see anything but a colourful blur on the screen, 'Been chasing this ass all over the Lair for months!'

'A... what?' Oliver frowned, trying to decipher the meaning of what she'd just said to him.

'A Mewtwo!' Felicity jumped up and down like a sugar fuelled toddler, 'This is such a rare Pokemon, I didn't think I'd be able to catch one.'

'Okay,' Oliver frowned, the word slow as he tried once again to wrap his head around the latest social media craze. It has come as a surprise to Oliver and the rest of the team that their introduction to Pokemon Go hadn't come via Felicity, but Sin. It had been a close run thing though, with Felicity taking one look at the younger woman's phone and quickly downloading the game for herself. Since then, Oliver had watched his fiancée run around Star City in her spare time, her phone almost constantly out and displaying the game.

Despite her needling, Oliver had stayed away from the app Felicity had downloaded onto his phone. The rest of the team hadn't been so lucky. One by one, they fell victim to it's clutches

'Oh..' the look of surprise on Nyssa Raatko's face had the entire table at the nearest Big Belly Burger joint to the Lair on edge. Apart from Sara and Sin, the group rarely saw much emotion from Nyssa with the reformed assassin slowly creeping out from her shell.

'Baby?' Sara frowned at her fiancée, Nyssa screeching her chair back and standing up. With a distracted mumble, Nyssa hurried across the diner, her phone out in front of her.

'No way,' Felicity and Sin turned to each other, surprise quickly turning to mirth.

'What's going on?' Diggle closed his phone, his daughter finally asleep on the other end. Turning to where Nyssa stood, he huffed and rolled his eyes before snagging some fries from Sara's tray.

'Close your mouth Oliver,' Felicity giggled, a finger pushing his jaw shut, 'You might catch flies in there.'

'How did you get Nyssa into that waste of time?'

'My fault,' Sin raised a hand, shrugging, 'I think it was me that did it.'

'Got it,' Nyssa grinned, dropping into the chair next to Sara and leaning over to give her a kiss, 'First Pikachu I've seen out there.'

'Pikachu?' Felicity wiggled past Oliver, her phone already open on the app, 'I need one more of them for a candy!'

Oliver rolled his eyes and tried to ignore the swaying hips when Felicity caught the creature on her phone.

Terror lanced up Oliver's back, the twitch he'd developed with his right hand moving as fast as Barry when he laid eyes on the huddle in the middle of the Lair. His chest started constricting, the still healing bruise on his left side sparking in pain.

'...where did you two find that one?' Felicity leant over Nyssa's phone, the woman wearing her now common grin as Sara chuckled and shook her head, 'What? I've been all over Star and Central Cities and I've not seen him anywhere.'

'You;re just looking in all the wrong places Lis,' Sara wore a triumphant smirk, 'You should join us on the run tomorrow. We'll take you to the spot we found him.'

'I've been on a run with you two lunatics,' Felicity grimaced, 'I think my ass still hurts from the pounding you two put it through... DON'T!'

Oliver's laugh was hidden under the loud gales of laughter from Sara, Nyssa chuckling softly as Felicity turned bright red from her latest double entendre. Hoping he could escape before they saw him, Oliver turned to find John Diggle leaning on a pillar.

'That game is like a virus,' Diggle huffed, 'one by one it's grabbing everyone in Star City.'

'Not us though,' Oliver shrugged, clapping his friend on the shoulder on his way to the pods.

'Hell no,' John agreed.

'Oh come on... you as well?' Oliver stared at a sheepish John, a look of exasperation on his face, 'I thought you and I agreed to stay sane?'

John pocketed his phone with a sigh. Wincing he tried a weak argument, 'Sara loves watching the Pokemon move on the screen, we go out on walks and she's laughing and bouncing as we capture them. She's even caught a couple herself.'

Oliver looked around the office the two were in, finding no toddler anywhere, 'Sara isn't here...'

'She likes it when they evolve,' Diggle refused to look his friend in the eye, 'So I catch as many as I can so I can get the candy & stardust for Sara to be able to evolve the ones she wants.'

Diggle knew that Oliver didn't believe him, the look plain on his face as the younger man turned and left the room.

The lights were low in the mansion when Oliver returned after a short patrol around Star City. Often after he left the Mayors office, Oliver would spend an hour or so if things were quiet just touring on his bike, taking down muggers or other petty criminals before returning to the mansion. Calling out, Oliver's hackles were raised when he didn't get a reply. Pulling the hidden handgun from the cubby hole under the staircase, Oliver cautiously crept through the lobby towards the flickering light. Peering around the corner, his entire body relaxed when he saw Felicity asleep on the couch, Thea curled up with her head on Felicity's lap. Both women were out of it, their clothes and the array of items around them telling him that the two spent a girls evening. Slipping off his shoes, Oliver padded over and kissed Felicity's forehead as he reached for the remote.

'...my turn to wear the leather tonight Ol'vr...' Felicity's mumbled words made Oliver gulp as she shuffled on the couch. The movement caused Thea to shift with her, the younger woman's phone clattering onto the floor.

Picking it up, Oliver glanced at the screen and groaned lightly when he saw the new app in the middle of the screen. Curiosity filled him and he opened it, scrolling through to the list of caught Pokemon.

'Someone's been busy,' Oliver closed the phone and kissed his sister's head before grabbing a pair of nearby blankets and laying them over his two most loved women.

'You look exhausted Ollie,' Sara frowned at her friend, Oliver sinking into the booth at Big Belly Burger with a pained sigh, 'Burning the midnight oil again or did that thing we told Felicity work better than we expected?'

'Don't answer that!' Felicity barked, a finger aimed at Oliver and a glare aimed at Sara.

'You will take the night off to rest and recuperate Oliver Queen,' Nyssa all but ordered him, daring him to fight her on this, 'We can patrol tonight without you.'

'You've told us time and time again Ollie that we need to be focussed when out there,' Thea waggled a fry towards her brother, 'You need to take your own advice sometimes. Like Nyssa said, we can handle it and if we can't, then we will call you to help.'

Oliver sighed heavily, the dull ache in his body sapping his fight from him. Opening his mouth to admit defeat, John spoke over him.

'Hey!' John called to the waitress behind the counter, 'Can you turn that up please?'

'… Is the Emerald Archer a secret Pokemon Go player?' a reporters voice spoke over a series of still images, 'These images, taken by a resident of the Glades, show the Star City vigilante and hero clearly playing the highly popular game. It appears the Green Arrow caught whatever it was he is hunting in the photos and it has been discovered by members of this network that there are a handful of gyms across the city currently owned by a 'Green Arrow'. How many gyms does he control in Star City? Is he team Mystic or team Valour?'

John muttered lowly, 'What was that about not us?'

'Something you want to tell us honey?' Felicity grinned evilly.

Oliver gulped, his body tensing up in the familiar fight or flight reaction as his friends and family all turned their heads to him. In the years since the Gambit went down, Oliver Queen contemplated how he would die many times, but never did he ever think the cause of his demise would be Pokemon Go.