Alright, this one took a bit more effort. I've never written action sequences (they are pretty difficult to write, so it seems). I think I really brought out Felicity in this one, probably because I think and speak and am as clumsy as she is. If you don't understand what the time intervals are, it's that the story begins in the "present" and goes back to the beginning of the day to explain how they got where they were. I hope that isn't confusing, but it's how it happened in my head.

Thanks for the great comments. I really do love reading them.

Also, this one is a little dark, be warned. But it had to be done for what is to come…..

"Oliver, third door to your left." Oliver ran past the rooms until he reached the door Felicity had indicated.

"It has an electronic lock, Felicity."

"Almost there." Felicity was behind her monitors, typing away trying to decode the lock and to let Oliver into the room.

Two guards approached Oliver from behind and began to scream for him to not move. Pulling his hood down he turned to face them. "You're going to regret this." He looks up at the guards as they pounce on him. In one fell swoop, he lowers himself to the ground and trips one guard from behind and hits the other with his bow. He discharges two arrows that pierce around one of them and nail him to the wall. The other begins to raise himself off the ground. Oliver turns and slams the staff of his bow on his head, rendering him unconscious. He returns to his original stance and exhales a steady breath. "I warned you."

"Yes." Felicity gave her usual fist bump in the air and paused. "I have to stop doing that." She pointed to raised hand.

"Felicity!" Oliver tried to regain her attention and focus her on the mission.

Felicity lowered her hand to the keyboard and continued typing. "Okay, the tracking device you slipped on him indicates that he's in that room. There are five heat signatures in there, two on each side and one in the center." She typed a few more things. "Stopping the air flow into the room… now. Dig, you can release the gas."

"Copy that. Releasing gas." Diggle turned the nobs on the aerosol canisters labeled Fentanyl. "They'll be knocked out in about thirty seconds Oliver, get ready."

The three have seen firsthand how incredibly strong and fast these super soldiers were. Oliver's arrows barely penetrated their skin. His blows barely left a mark. They were like titanium shells. Even when they did manage to hurt one of them, the healing processes seemed to be accelerated and they would just dust themselves off and keep fighting. But, Felicity had a brilliant idea. A sedative had to be administered with the serum in order for the host to survive the injection process. She believed that perhaps sedatives could be given to soldiers to incapacitate them to some degree. Since needles would probably bend and snap against their skin, gas was their only option.

Oliver was completely silent outside the door. He heard a loud thud, followed by another and another. "Okay, the gas should have dissipated from the air by now." He heard Felicity's voice in his ear. The light on the door lock went from red to green. He stepped forward and grabbed the nob, ready to enter. "Oliver, be careful." Felicity said with concern over the coms. Oliver smiled, took a deep breath, and entered the room.

_24 hours earlier_

"Tell me again so I can fully understand," Diggle asked Oliver while pinching the bridge of his nose in equal parts frustration and disbelief. "He was wearing a mask made out of, what?"

"Patches of skin, stitched together." Oliver recalled what he had seen in the basement when he saved Roy and fought against Gold. "He was using a voice scrambler; I wouldn't be able to identify him by speech."

Felicity leans in toward Oliver and Diggle, who were supporting themselves with the desk behind them. "So we're basically dealing with a mad scientist who thinks he's Leather Face?" They both look at her, and she shrugs. "Just saying out loud what you both are thinking. Do you remember anything else? Something in the room? Something he might have said to figure out who this guy is? It's pretty much a dead end to search for men with masks made of other people's skin. No pun intended."

"The room had a refrigerator filled with blood and centrifuge with green vials. Probably the serum." He searched his memory for something relevant. "When he injected Roy he called him brother. Gold too." He looked at both of them to see if something had been sparked.

Felicity turned around and began to type away with the little information that Oliver had provided, doubtful that she would find something.

Diggle stood up and stretched his back when something came to him. "An old friend of mine from another life dealt with a cult leader that used to call his followers brother. He used to feed off their admiration and kill anyone who turned against them. It was some pretty nasty stuff, from what I heard."

"Did it happen to be called Church of Blood?" Felicity mentioned, turning her head slightly to look at Diggle. He nodded and both men approached her chair to look at what she had found in the all-knl internet. "Apparently they are involved in some pretty nasty stuff. They're your basic brainwashing and zombie creating bunch. Seems like they've done an upgraded with this serum business."

"Someone has to be supplying him with it." Oliver said aloud, leaning into one of the monitors in hopes that some answer would arrive as a pop up.

"I can't tell you that. But, it says here from a number of police reports that people have been disappearing after donating blood in one of the drives funded by this Sebastian Blood. Twelve people so far. It makes sense; you have to be somewhat healthy to be able to give blood. Ripe pickings for potential candidate."

Oliver walked to the desk behind him and took his blazer off. "Seems like were gonna donate some blood Dig. Hope you're not afraid of needles."

_Present _

Oliver opened the door and charged his bow in succession. He scanned the room carefully. There was a man strapped to a chair in the center of the room, with blood draining from his eyes. He had been injected already. Two larger men were lying on the floor around the chaired individual. The room looked like an ordinary examining room, if a doctor decided to meet patients in the dead of night and enjoyed unsterilized surfaces and concrete. A tray with a few empty vials was beside one of the unconscious men. Oliver walked to him and saw that there was one vial half filled with the green serum. He picked it up and tucked it into his pocket.

"Oliver there are two moving heat signatures; ones headed your way fast and the other is running in the opposite direction towards the back exit."

"Diggle."

"I'm there." Diggle understood Oliver's one word command to follow the one that was leaving the building.

Oliver felt the ground beneath him shake slightly. He looked around him and the equipment around him was vibrating as well. The tremor of the ground was getting more violent. "Oliver!" Felicity screamed through his ear piece. Just then, a large man burst through the room's side door and pushed Oliver into the wall. His body sliced through the concrete wall behind him. As he attempted to get back on his feet in between the rubble, the large man approached him and with one hand raised him above his head. He laughed under his breath and threw him like a baseball through another two walls. Oliver raised his head from his lying position and saw the man a few hundred yards in front of him. He tried once more to raise his body, but was unable to. His hands slipped from underneath him and his entire body was in pain. He lay there staring at the celling, with various pipes above him, feeling the pulsation on the floor as the man stepped towards him.

_18 hours earlier_

Diggle pulled up to the building where the blood drive was taking pace. It was a small one story structure in the Glades squeezed in-between a few apartment complexes. Outside, hanging from each side of the entrance door were two banners with the mayoral candidate Sebastian Blood. Below a smiling picture of Blood it read Help Save the City.

"There have been multiple police reports of people disappearing after giving blood at this location," Felicity informed them through their ear piece. "It says here that they have been giving those who donate psych evaluations too. Didn't know you had to be right of mind to give blood."

"It's reminds me of something they do when they evaluate you to join the military. To check if you're all there. The blood donation may be a front as a physical evaluation. They're recruiting." Diggle commented while opening the door for Oliver.

The small makeshift clinic was not out of the ordinary. There were a few volunteers drawing blood from people that were sitting down, a receptionist taking down every ones name and age, and pamphlets on the dos and dont's of giving blood. "Hello," the woman behind the desk greeted Oliver and Diggle. "Here to become a soldier for the city?" She held out a clipboard with a questionnaire for both of them.

The two men looked each other and smiled at the woman. "That's exactly what we are here for." Oliver grabbed both clipboards and handed one to Diggle. They both sat down on chairs beside her desk and began filling them out. "Felicity, I need a layout of this building. Rooms that they may be hiding something."

"On it," Felicity began to search for rooms with no windows and isolated from the rest of the building.

"For the most part this looks pretty normal, Oliver." Diggle turned the page on the questionnaire, scanning the room around him for anything that was out of place.

"Mr. Queen." Oliver and Diggle looked up from their packets to see Sebastian Blood standing in front of them with Laurel by his side. "I see you've come to help donate." He extended his hand towards him, with his patented smile. "I'm glad you've joined our cause, Mr. Queen. You've become a soldier for the better good."

"Ofcourse." Oliver's eyes drifted from Blood to Laurel who was standing beside him with folders in her hand. "Nice to see you Laurel." He gave her a smile.

She gave him a faint smile back and turned toward Blood handing him a folder. "We better go Mr. Blood. We have a meeting in a half an hour." She turned back to Oliver and Diggle. "Oliver. ." She nodded at both of them and began to head out the door.

"If you excuse me, campaigning duties call." He smiled and nodded to both of them. Turning toward the exit, he felt a hand holding his arm. It was Oliver who had raised himself from his chair to stop him.

"Mr. Blood, I've heard about the multiple people who have gone missing from the Glades after donating here. One of the people was a friend of my sisters. Have you any idea of what has been happening?" Oliver asked still holding on to Blood's arm.

Blood turned to face him, raising his arm to loosen the tight grip Oliver had on it, and sighed. "It is a tragedy. But this is the Glades, where people go missing everyday Mr. Queen. At least they did their part in saving this city. For that, they will be remembered as brothers and sisters. Now, if you excuse me." He smiled once more, and proceeded to leaving.

"I've took a look at the building blueprint and there is no room that could be used for serum injection. They must find candidates here and transport them to another facility." Felicity informed them.

Oliver glanced at Diggle and could see that they both had similar thoughts. "I have an idea of someone who might lead us there. Felicity, can you activate the tracker I just slipped on Blood." Oliver grabbed his clipboard and the one that Diggle was holding as well. He handed both of them to the receptionist. "I am sorry, something came up. Well, be back another time." He signaled to Diggle and they both left before the woman could say anything.

_Present_

Oliver could hear the footsteps approaching him. He tried to steady his breathing to help with the pain. He closed his eyes and remembered what Tommy had said to him the last time he was in a situation like this.

I know I called you a murderer, but you're not. You're a hero. Get up and fight Oliver!

The memory of his friend ignited a fire in Oliver. He couldn't feel the pain anymore. He could only hear Tommy's Voice. Fight! Oliver raised himself off the ground and grabbed his bow. He loaded and discharged his arrows in rapid sequence. Some of them bounced off the large man's chest, a few went through his leg. Oliver threw his bow to the side and began to hit him, fast and hard. It took the man back a few steps, but made him even angrier. He grabbed Oliver from the neck and raised him high walking forward. Oliver kicked him a few times in the chest, but it did nothing. His grip was getting tighter around his neck. Oliver began to feel himself slip away and his eyes drifted upward. Above him he saw a small pipe that read DANGER HIGH PRESSURE. He raised his arms and grabbed the pipe, hitting the large man with his feet and driving him backward, losing the grip on Oliver's neck. Oliver pulled down with everything he had, and the pipe burst. He angled the contents of the pipe toward the large man's face and he began to scream. It was burning his skin. He dropped on his knees holding his face, and fell forward.

"Oliver, are you okay?" Felicity yelled through the earpiece, trying to get an answer.

"Yeah," Oliver said out of breath. "Where's Dig?"

"Back entrance." Felicity informed him, with a relieved tone.

Oliver took another look at the large man, now lying lifeless on the floor. He nodded, reassuring himself that what he just did had to be done. Grabbing his bow, he ran to the back entrance.

_3 hours earlier_

"Anything yet?" Oliver asked as he walked in to the foundry with Big Belly Burgers for all of them.

"Nothing. Are we sure about this Oliver? I understand that feeling you got at the clinic about him, I got it too. But is that enough to speculate that Blood is responsible for all this?" He turned his chair to face Oliver as he entered and passed him a burger.

"Dig's right, Oliver. He's got a lot to lose." Felicity commented.

"He's got more to gain. A mayoral candidate that speaks about the Glades being abandoned and thieves looking to make a quick buck on the misery of the people that live there all while he is stealing the lives of innocent people and putting them through science experiments. He has to be stopped." Oliver looked at his watch. It had been an eventful day, but things were just about to get more interesting.

An alert popped up on one of Felicity's monitors and she turned from her burger consumption to read it. "Here's something. He had been moving from place to place, all within public areas. He had an especially long meeting with a gun control advocate at Salts. I wonder who paid the bill for that dinner, am I right?" She looked at Diggle and Oliver, but there was no response. "Yeah, me neither. Well the tracking device is indicating that he just pulled up at an abandoned building near the quarry. Guess who it was formally owned by?"

Oliver waited for an answer, clearly not in the mood to play the guessing game. Felicity turned to face both of them and smiled. "Give you a hint, starts with an A and ends with -rgus."

"Good work Felicity." Oliver took a step towards her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Haven't let me down yet." Felicity gave him a smile and a nod and he turned to reach for his bow. "Time to suit up."

_Present _

Opening the rear exit door, Oliver stepped out to see Diggle holding the man in the mask at gun point. He was kneeling on the ground and began to laugh when he spotted the Arrow approaching him.

"Just in time for the party," Diggle turned slightly to spot Oliver walking past him.

Oliver approached the masked man and readied his bow. "Who supplied you with Mirakuru?" The masked man did not answer, he only continued to laugh. "What was your plan for the Glades?" Oliver screamed at him, removing his mask and revealing something he already suspected. "Why are you doing this Blood?"

His face was bruised and bloody from the blows that Diggle had to give him to cooperate. He looked up at Oliver and continued to laugh. "There is a bigger plan; there is always a bigger plan. We are rebuilding this city where we are all equals. We are making this city better. It's more than you have ever done." He attempted to get up but was pushed back on his knees by Oliver's hand.

"Who is we?" Oliver asked him.

He gave Oliver a smile. "Oh, he is an old friend of yours. He has great plans for you, Arrow."

Oliver looked at Diggle who was just as confused as he was. "You're wrong Blood. This city needs help to rebuild, but not yours." He armed his bow and pulled back aiming it at Blood. "You have failed this city."

"I was not the first to wear the mask, and I will not be the last." Blood continued laughing. All of a sudden a black arrow rushed past both Diggle and Oliver and pierces Blood through the center of his left eye. Both men spun to survey the surrounding buildings, but could not see where it had been fired.

They turned back to the man that was before them. He lied there, in a pool of his own blood, clutching his mask with both hands.

TO BE CONTINUED