After spending the rest of the day talking to the press, Oliver returned to Queen Mansion with Felicity and Diggle. For the first hour at home, Oliver simply did what he did most evenings: watched the local news with Felicity at his side. Not surprisingly, the news was focused on him and his announcement to run for Mayor.
"You certainly did surprise them." Felicity whispered as she nuzzled into his shoulder. Felicity had gone into the office at nearly four that morning to get as much of her work done as she could before she made her appearance at Oliver's press conference. While the couple wasn't married, she was largely seen as the stabilizing force in Oliver's life. For the next few months, the pair of them were going to be judged as one unit while they ran the election circuit.
"You can't fall asleep." Oliver said with a grin. "We still have work to do tonight."
"I'm skipping tonight." Felicity mumbled.
"You can't skip tonight. We need you."
"Why? You're the Green Arrow. The second they see you, 99% of the criminals just pee themselves and give up."
"That isn't quite how it works." Oliver chuckled.
"Close enough." Felicity said before looking at her watch. "It's about that time, isn't it?"
"It is." Oliver said as Felicity adjusted to sit up. Just as she did, Diggle walked into the room. "Things good at home?"
"Lyla and Sara are in for the evening. We ready to go?"
"Once we get downstairs." Oliver confirmed as he stood. Taking Felicity's hand, the pair of them followed Diggle to back of the home. As the three of them walked, they came upon a portrait of Robert Queen. Slowly, the three of them stopped and faced the portrait. If anyone else had happened upon them, it would have appeared that they were just looking at the photo.
In fact, hidden within the eyes of Robert Queen, were biometric scanners. Each of them were scanning the retinas and fingerprints of the three people standing before them. Within the last year, Oliver had cataloged the information of every person that knew of the Green Arrow's identity and those people were granted certain levels of access. Thea and Roy were only granted partial access after their move to Keystone City while Diggle, Laurel and Felicity could access the new ArrowCave at any point. Barry Allen and Clark Kent were also given partial access assuming Oliver himself was with them.
Not surprisingly, Bruce Wayne did not have access to the Arrow Cave.
"Have you heard anything from Thea or Roy recently?" Diggle asked as they waited for the system to unlock the door.
"Not really." Oliver said softly. "They're both a little busy."
About a year earlier, Roy and Thea had left Starling City and taken up residence in Keystone City. After her brief tenure as the CEO of Queen Consolidated, Thea had discovered that she had enjoyed and missed the work that she had been doing. As a result, she had applied for the President position of the Keystone branch of Queen Consolidated. Once her application had gone through, Walter had immediately hired her.
To go with her, Oliver had decided to expand his nightclub business, opening branches in Keystone, Central City, Metropolis, Miami and New Orleans. With their move, Oliver had named Roy the general manager of the Keystone location. While Oliver missed them both dearly, he was happy to see that they had both spread their wings.
He was also happy to hear that Arsenal and The Red Arrow had relocated to Keystone City last year as well.
Finally, the scanners finished doing their work and a panel behind them opened, giving them access to the stairs that would lead down to the ArrowCave. Motioning for the other two to enter the cave first, Oliver followed the pair down the stairs. This particular set of stairs worked their way in between two walls in the basement level before burrowing another ninety feet before hitting the ceiling of the ArrowCave.
They had specifically designed the new cave to be completely impervious. Anything short of a nuclear bomb exploding directly above it would physically protect it while the eight feet thick walls prevented any external signals from getting in. Felicity, being the genius that she was, had been able to set up a system that would allow her to broadcast to them without it being able to be traced.
That and the fact that their signal was bounced around nearly 1,000 local IP addresses before reaching Oliver or Diggle or...
"Took you guys long enough." Laurel said with a grin, waiting for them with her feet up on the desk in front of her.
"Felicity kept trying to fall asleep." Oliver said as he went to his locker.
"Stop being so damn comfortable and we won't have that problem."
The Applied Sciences division of Queen Consolidated was widely renowned as the most technologically advanced office building in the world, winning numerous national and global awards for their integration of the world's most advanced day-to-day tech into the workplace. If those same people could get a look at the ArrowCave, they would think that Applied Sciences was working in a cave in the most remote area of Siberia.
If a tech was created but deemed implausible for mass production for any known reason, it ended up in the ArrowCave. The net worth of the new gear there rivaled that of the entire northern half of Africa. Basically, if there was something that they wanted done, they could do it.
They had also furnished it with an entirely separate men's and women's locker rooms complete with running water for showers. Apparently, Laurel had threatened to quit as Black Canary if there were no showers.
That particular grievance never made it Oliver, although he was fairly certain that she wasn't entirely serious.
At least he hoped not.
Once the three of them had finished changing into their gear for the evening, they came back out to the general work area for tonight's briefing. Unfortunately for them, the news they were about to get wasn't great.
"Brick again?" Diggle groaned as the hologram image of him projected from the back of Felicity's computer.
"Apparently, he offered to pay the guard a million dollars to get him out." Laurel said as she looked over his file. "Then, he threw the guard through a wall."
"Through the wall?" Oliver asked.
"Yeah," Laurel confirmed. "what's left of him is going to Starling County ICU. He's not even expected to make it there."
"How long ago did he get out?"
This time, it was Felicity that went into full-on debriefing mode.
"He's been out twenty-five minutes which means that the three of you need to get moving." Felicity said as she put her earpiece in. "Get moving and I'll finish the briefing on the way."
"Got it." Oliver said before leaning down to kiss Felicity on the cheek. "Keep an eye out for us."
"Always do." Felicity replied before turning to look him in the eye. "Be safe."
"Always am." Oliver answered, completely his part of their nightly ritual before heading towards the loading bay. When the new ArrowCave had been installed, they had build a secret tunnel that connected to a small road just outside of Queen Mansion. It ended up taking them a bit out of their way when going back into the city but it also made their first appearance of the night nowhere near Queen Mansion.
So, after ten minutes of underground induced radio silence, the three heroes of Starling City broke out into the night sky and back into radio contact with Felicity.
"Go." Oliver muttered.
"He's been making his way back to the Glades, it looks like." Felicity started. "If he gets there, we'll never catch him."
"Then we get him before he gets to The Glades." Oliver said softly into his comm. "Where is he now?"
"He's on Adams, going towards 5th and O'Neil. You're six minutes away right now."
"And at the rate he's going?" Diggle asked.
"He'll be in the Glades in ten." Felicity informed then. Then, Oliver felt as if he could literally sense her smirk. "So you'd better get moving."
"We'll take that under consideration." Oliver smirked before ramping the speed up on his bike.
As the three masked heroes hit the edge of Starling City, Oliver spoke into his comm.
"Sentry, read the file."
"Do we really need to do this?" Felicity asked politely in his ear. "You've faced Brick like five times now."
"And we read the files every time, Sentry. Just to remind ourselves who we're fighting."
"You'd think you would remember the giant red man that looks like a giant pile of rocks."
"Sentry." Oliver said with a grin.
"Oh fine." she replied as Oliver imagined her rolling her eyes. "Tonight's contestant is Daniel Isaiah "The Brick" Brickwell. Formerly an enforcer for Frank Bertinelli, Brickwell took over when Frank was removed from power. Highly driven to succeed and shows a fairly decent sense of business, especially considering he kept himself hidden from us for nearly a year before we were able to figure out that he took over for Bertinelli."
Oliver could hear Felicity clicking away as she accessed different parts of Brickwell's file. As usual, the image brought a rare smile to his face.
"When we caught up with him, Brickwell skipped town and ended up in Central City just around the same time that Wells' handy-dandy particle accelerator went kaboom. The building that he was in was right next door and conveniently, made of bricks. When the accelerator went off, the building collapsed on top of him. When he awoke, his body had been transformed. His body density went through the roof and his skin took on a rough red shade, making his body basically the composition of the roof."
Finally, Felicity got to the part that he knew that she would hate. It needed to be said though so they could all be reminded of who they were facing.
"Previous meetings with Brickwell have left GA with several broken ribs, a broken hand and a shattered hip, Black Canary with a broken foot, a first-grade concussion and two dislocated shoulders, in the same meeting I would add. However, our winner for this evening is The Hood who in addition to breaking nearly every bone in his right arm trying to punch Brickwell, also broke his collarbone, had a fractured skull and the winning injury, a collapsed lung and internal bleeding from being thrown off a third story building. How long were you sidelined after that particular evening?"
"Four months." Diggle replied with a chuckle. "Don't sound so happy about that."
"It was nice having some company down here."
"Focus, you two." Oliver grinned. "Where is Brickwell now?"
"He's about six blocks from you, straight ahead." Felicity said as she accessed their satellite imaging system. "The building he's entering is an abandoned apartment building on the edge of the Glades. Seven floors, the building is a known Bertinelli family hideout. He probably won't be alone."
"When will you know how many people are in the building?" Laurel asked.
"Right about now." Felicity chimed happily. "Seems like Brickwell is alone although we don't know how long that will last."
"Alright, let's get in there then." Oliver replied as he gunned the bike into the next gear.
Five minutes later, the three of them pulled into the alley behind the building that Felicity had noted. Once they dismounted their bikes, Oliver called Laurel and Diggle over to him as they approached the backdoor of the complex.
"Sentry, what floor is Brickwell on?" Oliver asked Felicity.
"Not surprisingly, you're going to be taking the stairs. Floor seven."
"Floor seven, got it." Oliver answered before turning back to Laurel and Diggle. "Hood, bring the guns. I know that it won't hurt him but it will annoy him. Canary, sonic cry is ready to go, right?"
"In hand." Laurel said as she pulled out the same circular disc that Sara used to use. "Just let me know when."
"The second we get in there." Oliver replied with a grin. "Again, it's not going to do anything to him other than piss him off but I'm okay with that."
"You're okay with pissing off the giant brick man?" Felicity asked in his ear.
"Not really." Oliver answered. "I'm using the new arrow today."
"Is it ready?" Diggle asked softly.
"We'll find out."
The "new arrow" was another one of Felicity's wonderful ideas. This idea was an arrow filled with an expanding adhesive. The shaft of this particular arrow was slightly wider than one of his normal arrows and was made of a weaker aluminum shell. This caused the arrow to break when it made contact with its target. When the arrow broke, the contact with the oxygen caused the adhesive within to expand to ten times its original size, covering the target in the adhesive.
A nice touch that Felicity had added was that the way the adhesive was loaded inside the arrow meant that when the arrow broke, the adhesive only expanded downward. This avoided the potential for the adhesive covering the target's face and killing them by suffocating them.
"You two take the back stairs. Stay out of sight until it's time." Oliver ordered.
"When will it be time?"
"When he starts coming after me." Oliver grinned.
"Of course." Diggle muttered with a shake of his head before nodding to Laurel. Seeing they were both ready, the pair of them raced across the first floor of the building to the back staircase. Once they were there, both quickly started ascending. Knowing they were on their way, Oliver quickly drew his bow and raced up his own stair. About a minute later, he was on the stairs just outside the seventh floor.
"Confirm location before radio silence."
"Confirmed. Ready to breach the second we hear the building start shaking."
"Hopefully you'll come a little sooner than that." Oliver said with a grin before silently opening the door. The second he did, Oliver wished that he could have been anywhere else. The building smelled worse than he could have possibly imagined. It was likely that the plumbing had stopped working years ago and the homeless who had occasionally squatted there had just used wherever they could to relieve themselves.
The condition of the building itself wasn't much better. There were large parts of the walls and the floor that were missing. Suddenly, Oliver was worried that if the fight with Brickwell got to heavy, this building wouldn't survive it.
Suddenly, Oliver heard something behind him. As he turned, Oliver drew an explosive arrow from his quiver and lined up a shot. Sure enough, his target was the object that he had heard moving.
Each time Oliver saw what was left of Danny Brickwell, he couldn't help but marvel a little at the size of him. Even before his transformation, Brickwell had been large and more physically imposing than most. But after his transformation, he truly was a monster, standing nearly eight feet tall. In fact, as Brickwell stood from the chair he had been seated in, he nearly had to duck to even fit in the room.
"The Green Arrow." Brickwell growled, his voice deeper than any you could imagine. "I was wondering when you'd turn up."
"You were expecting me?" Oliver asked, his voice distorter activated.
"I broke out of Iron Heights. I think you have the place bugged."
"If you knew I was coming, why didn't you just skip town?" Oliver questioned him.
"I grow tired of fighting you, Arrow." Brickwell said as he marched slowly towards Oliver, the entire building shaking with each step. "You've beaten me before but that was my own fault. I underestimated you and it won't happen again."
"Are you sure?"
"I am." Brickwell growled menacingly. "It's why I made sure there were snipers surrounding the building before you got here."
Instantly, Oliver went to one of the windows and scanned the surrounding rooftops. Sure enough, Oliver could spot at least three snipers in the immediate area with it likely that there were more around the other side of the building.
"It's also why I ordered the men that are coming up the back staircase after The Hood and Black Canary."
Once Oliver got that news, radio silence was over. He quickly lifted his hand to his ear and spoke.
"Hood, BC: you have men coming up the stairs for you. Are there windows in the stairs?"
"Yes." Diggle replied.
"Take them."
"What about you?" Laurel asked.
"I'll get my own way out." Oliver said before turning back to Brickwell. "I don't think this is going to end how you think it's going to."
"It's going to end with those two getting away. That's fine. They aren't who I really wanted."
"I'm here, Brickwell." Oliver said, taunting the giant man. "You've been standing there for this whole time. What's stopping you?"
"I'm in no hurry."
"Unfortunately for you, I am." Oliver replied before lining his arrow up at Brickwell. However, at the last second, Oliver turned and aimed at one of the load-bearing column in the center of the building. Releasing the arrow, the column exploded on contact and only seconds later, the building started shaking, no longer able to support its own weight.
"Nicely done, Green Arrow." Brickwell replied, chuckling to himself. "You've condemned yourself to death."
"That's what you think." Oliver answered firmly. He knew he was running out of time so he was going to have to move quickly. In a flash, Oliver withdrew another newer arrow. Aiming at the floor just in front of Brickwell, Oliver fired and turning around. The second the arrow hit the ground, it immediately released a blinding flash, causing Brickwell to growl in pain.
Moving as fast as he could, Oliver finally drew the adhesive arrow and fired, striking Brickwell directly in the chest. A second later, the adhesive began to cover Brickwell and reached out, sticking to everything around it. Within twenty seconds, Brickwell had fallen and was now glued to the floor, screaming for Oliver to let him out.
"You're just going to leave me in here while the building falls down!" Brickwell shouted.
"You'll survive." Oliver said simply before accessing his radio. "Hood, BC?"
"We're out and we've taken care of your little sniper problem." Laurel answered. "Now, get the hell out of there."
"Yes ma'am." Oliver said shortly. However, as Oliver took a step towards the windows, the floor suddenly gave out from beneath him. For a second, Oliver felt that gravity had forgotten him, leaving him floating in midair. Then, it seemed that gravity remembered, sending Oliver falling quickly to the earth. The structure of the building was so unsound at this point that when Oliver hit the floor of the sixth level, he simply broke through it.
The same happened for the fifth and fourth floor before Oliver finally came to a crashing halt on the third floor. Groaning in pain in what was certainly a dislocated shoulder, Oliver rolled onto his back before using his uninjured (or less injured) left arm to push himself off the ground.
"OLIVER!" Felicity shouted in his ear.
"I'm fine." Oliver grunted.
"You may be fine but you need to get your ass in gear." Diggle shouted. "That building is coming down. Now."
"Understood." Oliver replied as he made his way to the stairs. Thankfully, there was a window at the third floor staircase. Throwing a line-dart to the building next to them, Oliver jumped out of the window as he felt the floor of the building shake again, this time worse than before. Swinging down to the ground, Oliver rolled, grunting as his shoulder jammed into the ground again, before getting back to his feet and sprinting for his bike.
Seconds later, as Oliver reached his bike, the building gave one final shake before starting to give.
"WHERE ARE YOU TWO?" Oliver shouted.
"Right here." Laurel replied as she raced from the alley behind the building and mounted her bike. Diggle was hot on her heels. Instantly, the three of them fired up their engines and bolted from the building. Looking his rear mirrors, Oliver was able to see the building collapse to the ground, leaving nothing but a pile of brick and rubble.
"Sentry, how strong is that adhesive?"
"We tested it on a semi-truck. Put one square foot on the back left tire. It never went anywhere. Brickwell will be there for awhile."
"Good." Oliver replied. "Contact Barry. Tell him to get a STAR Labs cleanup team out here. I want Brickwell inside their metaprison."
"I'll make the call now. Just come home."
"On our way now."
After patching Oliver up and correcting his shoulder, the whole of the Staring City Team Arrow sat in the ArrowCave to go over some intel. At least, two of them would be.
"Diggle, Laurel: I want you two back on patrols." Oliver said as he took a seat next to Felicity. "It's probably going to be a slow night now that we brought a building down on Brickwell but you never know."
"Try not bringing the building down on yourself next time." Diggle replied as he grabbed his helmet.
"I'll take that into consideration." Oliver replied, waving for the two of them to go back out. Once the pair of them were gone, Felicity came over to Oliver and sat on his lap, placing a gentle kiss on his forehead.
"How are you doing?" Felicity asked. "I mean, I know that you tried to drop a building on yourself so you can't be great."
"I've had much worse." Oliver replied, meeting Felicity's gaze. "I'll take the next day or two to recover and then I'll be back out there."
"Good." Felicity said with a grin before turning back to her computer. "Now, to figure out how Brickwell got a million dollars while he was in prison."
"Wasn't access to his accounts shut off?" Oliver asked.
"It wasn't his accounts. I've checked everything we have on him and none of his accounts were touched." Felicity said, a hint of disappointment in her voice. "That means that Brickwell isn't the top dog anymore, right?"
"We can't assume that but I would have to say that it's something we should look into."
"Candidates?" Felicity asked as she moved to their list of potential criminals in Starling City. Basically, everyone of wealth who seemed seedy was on the list. Most of them they had some sort of negative intel on so they weren't simply being paranoid.
Especially since you never knew when one of these people were going to go from bribing city auditors to running weapons into the city.
"Daggett is still at the top of my list." Oliver said as Felicity underlined the name John Daggett. "Shady connections to the Maroni Family in Gotham. He's reportedly been visited by our friend in Gotham several times, although Wayne's never been able to catch him with anything."
"Yes, but Daggett's only been here a few months." Felicity reminded him. "So unless organized crime in Starling is just being run by the Gotham Mafia, then that doesn't really make any sense."
"I suppose you're right." Oliver answered. "Keep his name up there though."
"Will do. I'm also adding Tobias White." Felicity said, underlining his names. "Numerous income sources that I can't trace because they're either handled entirely in cash or by item trade. He's got connections to basically every large city in the country and it seems that he has been able to exert his influence more recently, especially by basically buying Mayor Donner."
"Add that to the list of reasons why I'm running." Oliver said with a grin before scanning the list one more time. "The only other person that I can see on that list that would be able to control an entire city's worth of organized crime is The Triad."
"You mean China White."
"I do." Oliver confirmed as he stood and marched his way over to the list.
"Oliver, I know that you'v-"
"I've been trying to catch her since Hong Kong." Oliver said firmly. "Would I love to catch her? Yes. Is that the reason I suggest her? No. She's the head of the Triad in Starling and despite my best efforts, they've managed to remain a large part of Starling City's crime scene. I wouldn't be surprised if she had just taken over everything."
"Me neither." Felicity replied, underlining China White's name. "I just don't want you to make this personal."
"Felicity," Oliver said as he turned to look at her. "we've been doing this for six years. Villains and criminals have changed over the years and we're still here. She's the only one that has remained that long but if she's been at it this long against us, then it's just something that we may have to deal with. Compared to the likes of Ra's al Ghul and Slade Wilson, she's small potatoes."
"No potatoes more like." Felicity said with a grin. "God, now I'm hungry."
"I can order some Big Belly while we watch Diggle and Laurel on patrols."
"Sounds like a plan, my man." Felicity said, leaning up to kiss Oliver.
"You certainly are weird."
"And you love it." Felicity said as she marched back to her computer.
"That I do." Oliver said with a smile before following her.
Oliver and Felicity go over the organized crime situation in Starling City; potential candidates for the figurehead of the Starling City Mafia
Being Oliver Queen certainly had some benefits at times. Most specifically, it meant that when you decided to run for Mayor of Starling City, you could afford the best. So, as Oliver took his seat at his new campaign headquarters office on the 50th floor of Queen Consolidated, things couldn't have been better. In recent months, large parts of the Queen Consolidated banner had been spread out to other buildings around the city, leaving entire floors of the headquarters building empty.
That had made it an easy choice for a headquarters location.
Today was the day that they got started. It was also the day that he started work with the majority of his senior campaign staff. Being Oliver Queen meant that a campaign for mayor was seen as more than just your typical mayoral race. It was a platform for those whose wanted to get into national politics. You work the Queen campaign and get the former party boy with no college degree elected mayor, you start working state and national campaigns.
Oliver and Laurel had worked together to interview and select their senior staff. In a not altogether unrelated point of information, the officer for "Lance for District Attorney" just happened to be on the 49th floor of Queen Consolidated. Not only were the two close friends, they shared a lot on how they felt the future of Starling City should be. It only made sense that they helped each other out and so they would. Their goal was to basically run a joint campaign, throwing support for each other as often as they could without weakening their own campaign.
Finally, the clock struck noon and Oliver stood and made his way to the door of his office. Unlike the CEO's office, Oliver made sure that his office was entirely soundproof and had no walls made of glass.
Well, the one wall was translucent glass but that meant that he only saw shapes, not actual faces on the other side of the glass.
Reaching the door, Oliver opened it and saw that his campaign staff had assembled outside. With a wave of his hand, Oliver invited them inside. While most mayoral candidates in major cities went with massive teams of advisers, Oliver had kept the number smaller. He obviously had his campaign manager but he also had a communications director, who handled all press and media contact, and a policy director, who would help him form the basis of his message to Starling City.
Now, each of the three of them had several staff that Oliver was paying but he would never meet with them. These three would be his council, along with Felicity in a more "unofficial capacity."
The first of his campaign staff was a man from Gotham City by the name of Roman Sionis. Formerly the President of Janus Cosmetic, a company that his father had willed to him after his untimely death, the company had gone under due to the man's poor business instinct. Fortunately for Oliver, business may not have been in the man's blood but politics were. He had successfully lead the communications department for two different Gotham City mayors in the last ten years and had worked on the staff for a US Senator.
Sionis was known for being rude, brash and straight to the point. During the interview, Oliver had nearly strangled the man. However, after restraining himself, Oliver couldn't help but see that Sionis would be a great manager of his own campaign, the opposite of Oliver's too polite public face.
To counter him, Oliver had hired Peter (or Pete as he preferred to be called) Ross from Metropolis as his communications director. Pete was originally from Smallville, Kansas, the same town Clark Kent was raised in. However, Ross had gone to Metropolis University for a degree in Communications and become a speechwriter for the Mayor of Metropolis. When the Mayor had resigned six months earlier in a sex scandal, Pete had put his talents to use writing for Queen Consolidated, specifically writing speeches for Walter and Felicity. The moment that Oliver had decided to run, Pete had been hired to craft Oliver's speeches.
But it was the last person who was arguably most important to their cause was Oliver's policy adviser. Her name was Myra Connelly and she would be in charge of the conversation between Oliver and the Starling City voters. It was her job to take what Oliver stood for and work with Pete and Roman to ensure that the version of Oliver Queen they saw was one that voters would like while also being Oliver Queen.
The point of today's meeting was very simple: Oliver was going to discuss what he wanted for Starling City and the other three would turn that into a vision that Oliver could run on.
"Good afternoon." Oliver said as he took his seat behind his desk. "You've been hired and paid for seven months work in advance. That takes us up until the election. If we're good enough and lucky enough to get elected, there is the possibility of getting hired as on full time staff should you choose."
"Getting ahead of yourself, aren't you Queen?" Roman commented quickly.
"You'll find, Roman, that when I do something, I do it one hundred percent. That means that when I went through the process of deciding to become the mayor, I decided just that. I may have publicly said that I was running but when I decided to run, I decided to win."
"Fair enough." Roman replied. "So, what are the buzz words?"
"Excuse me?" Oliver asked.
"Buzz words." Pete answered. "Every campaign has them. Words that the public comes to know you by. They'll be in every speech that I write and in every commercial you film. These are the two of three topics that form the basis of your candidacy."
"Alright." Oliver said as he adjusted in his seat. "First is equality. The number of one-percenters as grown by 14% in the last five years while the number of those living under the poverty line has grown by 19%. Donner has done a good job creating growth for the city but a poor job at making sure that those who need that wealth actually receive it."
"Equality." Myra replied as she took notes. "Also, I know that you supported him previously but that's the last time you admit that Donner has done something right. The link between the two of you is strong, especially considering your support for Laurel Lance. We need to distance ourselves from him or we don't stand a chance."
"Understood." Oliver answered as he continued. "Also, better business. The city has seen an increase in GDP by almost 6% in the last decade but not in the right industries. Almost all of that growth has occurred in factory styled business. Instead, we need to seek proposals that will attract medical and technology companies to our city."
"So you want more companies like Queen Consolidated?" Pete asked.
"Exactly. I don't want more textile plants and steel factories, although I know we need some. What I want are companies that are going to bring the future to Starling City, not more of the same."
"Bringing the future to Starling City." Myra muttered before turning to the other two. "Sounds like a campaign slogan if I've ever heard of one."
"I'll get the staff working on a writeup." Roman replied before turning back to Oliver. "Anything else?"
Oliver thought for a moment. Then, he decided that he needed to bring this up now rather than later.
"Two things. First, I'm not running as a party candidate." Oliver said before raising his hands to stop the interruption of his staff. "I know it will get me better support but I'm not going to be an indentured servant to the Democratic or Republican Party."
"Fine." Myra replied. "And the other thing?"
"I'm making it publicly known that I'm not taking any donations from anyone over the basic limits. If John Doe on the streets can give me five grand, then so can any PAC that wants to donate to my cause."
"You do realize that's going to derail any spending that we may have been able to do, right?" Roman asked. "PACs are able to get us things we're not. They're able to do things for us that we're not. You're really trying to kill your campaign before it begins, aren't you?"
With that bit of information, Oliver chuckled to himself for a moment before answering Roman.
"Roman, have you seen the Forbes wealthiest people in the world list recently?" Oliver asked, intentionally being condescending. "You'll notice that my name appears just above the man who owns Nike. Now, he's worth around twenty-six billion dollars and I'm listed at an estimated net wealth of twenty-nine billion dollars which my accountants will tell you is a bit of an understatement. They list me at thirty billion."
"What's your point?"
"We don't need money." Oliver leveled with him. "I am not doing this to gain political points with other billionaires. I'm not doing this to become Governor or Senator or President. I'm doing this because under Adam Donner, Starling City has reached a glass ceiling and I know that I'm the man to break through that. So, if I have to spend a billion dollars to get myself elected, then that's what I'll do."
"You really are a bit insane, you know that right?" Roman countered before continuing. "Insane or not, I didn't sign onto this to lose and I've already gotten paid so I'll take what I've been given. Here's the counter to your requests, Queen: the three of us, we've been doing this for a while now. You are new. So, when we tell you something is a bad idea, you fucking listen. When we tell you something is a good idea, you fucking listen. We're not going to make you do something that counters what you believe but if you haven't specifically stated something here, today, and we tell you to do it, you'd better damn well put on your big boy pants and do it. Are we clear?"
"Crystal." Oliver growled.
"Good. Any questions?" Roman asked, turning to the other two. Both silently declined to continue the conversation. "Then let's get this rich fucker elected."
