Chapter 9 - The Broken Promise Part 1
Felicity gulped down her 3rd glass of water in the last hour. She's been feeling very thirsty these past few days.
...
"Damn it..." She hissed as she washed her hands underneath the cold running water. Her hands were red as a tomato. Not to mention the constant burning she's feeling through her veins. She could literally feel the heat rising from her hands.
...
"Felicity, you're looking paler than usual. Are you ok?" Bobby asked her friend.
"Yeah I'm good."
...
"Shit." Felicity pulled her shirt off to reveal a very red tattoo on her chest. It was awfully red and was turning green on the side.
...
"Woah, you need some rest, Felicity." Diggle said worriedly as he steadied the blonde I.T girl who looked as if she was about to faint.
"No, I'm good. Must be some tummy bug..."
...
"Felicity, are you sure your Okay?" Bobby asked again as saw her friend wobbling from place to another.
"Yeah.. I'm all go-..."
"FELICITY!" Bobby screamed as the I.T girl hit the floor.
...
"AHHH! My head!" Felicity whined as she held her head in pain. She opened her eyes to see herself lying on a bed. A very pink fluffy bed. But who's bed... she didn't know.
"Hey! Don't you dare get up from that bed, missy! You are in some serious big trouble." Bobby exclaimed as she stopped her blonde friend from standing up.
"Whaat?! Ouch, shit." Felicity hissed again. "What happened? Who's bed is this?" She asked earning a pointed look from Bobby.
"Oliver Queen's."
"WHAT?!"
"Its my bed, you Idiot. Why would I put you on Oliver Queen's bed in this state."
"Oh" Felicity said somewhat in a sad voice which earned her a small sharp slap on the arm from Bobby. "HEY! What was that for?"
"For getting yourself poisoned, you dumb ass." The blonde detective complained as she placed a wet towel on Felicity's head.
"Poisoned?... w... What... Wait... We were in the cafe. Talking. Then how did I end up here? And why the hell is my head hurting?" Felicity babbled as she felt a small bump where Bobby had laid a wet towel.
"That bump is the result of you fainting just after I finished asking you if you were okay. I ran some samples of your blood in the lab. They came out positive with an unknown poison."
"Poison?" Bobby nodded in return.
"I found it in your Bratva's tattoo, felicity." It didn't take long for Felicity to figure out the reason...
"That son of a bitch! He poisoned me." She exclaimed as she felt the now swollen tattoo underneath her shirt.
"Eww! Don't touch it! You're just going to pop its puss out." Bobby warned as she held her friend's hand from reaching the big bump on her chest.
"I'm going to kill him."
"Yeah, well you can kill the Bratva's leader later. First, we need to figure out how to save you." The detective mused as she handed a cup to felicity filled with some kind green liquid.
"What is it?"
"Its a more advanced version of you're arrow's green tea leaves. After Agent Hill brought a sample of it to HQ, a scientist named Gemma Simmons was able to turn it into a far more effective remedy. We only use it in extreme measures. It does the same thing but its more faster, efficient and long-lasting. The original one works too but there's no guarantee that a person can come back alive. With this one, we're sure." Bobby explained as felicity took a sip of the drink and gagged on its bitter taste. "yeah, I should have warned you about that. The taste... its really bad."
"So this thing is keeping me alive?" felicity said as she put the drink down. She wasn't getting anywhere to that green liquid.
"Yes. But only for a short period."
"How short are we talking?"
"2 days max."
"Shit." Felicity cursed as she rubbed her forehead in worry.
"Hey, hey, I know this is hard, but you'll be fine." The older agent comforted her friend. "Besides its not like this is your first time being poisoned, right?" Bobby asked hopefully but stopped as she saw a guilty look on Felicity's face. "Oh."
"What poison was it?" Felicity asked slowly as she stared at Bobby in worry.
"I... I don't know. " Bobby replied just as Felicity removed the wet towel off her forehead. "I've informed Hunter about this since it was Anatoly who put it in. He has a good chance at finding the intel on the poison, considering he's quite high up in the Bratva's ranks."
"And if he didn't?.." Bobby gripped her friend's hand in reassurance.
"I won't let anything happen to you, felicity. Hunter isn't the only one looking for the cure. Fury has his every contact looking into this."
"You told FURY?!" Felicity suddenly said loudly, trying to control her hands from shaking too much.
"Uhh.. Yeah. Why?"
"Bobby.. Damn it!" Felicity cursed again as she finally sat up on the bed ignoring her friend's protests. "Why did you tell that pirate about this, Bobby? He doesn't even know I went to Russia! Oh god, I'm definitely in for all the shouting." she screeched back just as the older agent looked shocked at the outburst.
"Well... you... I'm... You were dying, felicity! And you still are! What did you expected me to do?" Bobby scoffed. "I had to tell him."
"He doesn't know I was in Russia." Felicity repeated again, looking down at her shivering hands. This poison is really acting up.
"I thought you told him?!" felicity looked guiltily at her friend. "You didn't. WHY?"
"Because I didn't wanted to get shout at." Felicity blurted out without thinking. It wasn't the shouting she was most worried about. It was the fact that If her cousin hears about this and turns up in starling, the league will also come here considering their following a lead on him. And if both her cousin and the league gets here, they'll be too many body count, resulting in her and her cousin's identity reveal and her cover blown infront of Oliver and Diggle.
"You have a UNKNOWN POISON in your blood that can kill you any second in the coming two days and all you care about is Fury shouting at you?!" Bobby exclaimed.
"Getting poisoned is nothing compared to what Fury's going to do to me." Felicity said slowly. "And restriction on my access level will be the very first thing."
"Restriction level? Oh, felicity, Felicity. You really do love your hacking more than your life, do you?" Bobby smiled at her friend's antics.
"Hey! Don't laugh about this. If the poison doesn't kill me... Then he'll definitely will." Felicity said earning another playful smile from her friend.
"Okay, Whatever you say." Bobby said as she raised her hands in defeat. "Now, stay on the bed until I find you some change of clothes. You're not in the state to go back to your apartment. So my clothes will have to do. But mind you, they'll be a little bigger."
"No worries. I'll manage." Felicity smiled as she pulled the blanket closer to her body. She could feel her body shivering. That's when she glanced at the awful bright pink color of the blanket.
"Here you g-"
"Pink? Really?" Felicity said as she cut her friend off. "Since when did you started liking pink?"
"Agh! I didn't choose it." Bobby huffed in annoyance. "It was assigned to me... by Coulson."
"Ho-Ho-Ho Woah.." The blonde I.T girl laughed. "What did you do?
"He made me do something that I didn't like so I pranked him real hard, which again earned me this assignment and that pink duvet... also that bright colorful living room." Bobby said as she pointed towards the hallway.
"So, I'm a punishment to you?"
"wh.. No! I didn't mean it that way. I didn't know it was you who I've been partnered with. All I was told that I have to play corps in a city I've never heard off until few months ago when the whole undertaking happened. It was a week later when Agent Hill enlightened me on your position here." Felicity smirked at her friend.
"And do you like it here?"
"This city.. has.. its.. ups and downs.." Bobby hesitated with a weird face.
"Like what kind of downs?"
"um..." Felicity tried her best to put an evil smirk on her face. Its really hard when the burning sensation was increasing every minute. "Oh, Shut up." Bobby exclaimed before leaving the room.
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"Don't take this the wrong way, but you look disgusting, Dig." Felicity commented as she saw the ex-solider roam in Oliver's office with a very... very.. Sweaty and sick face. He looked worse than Felicity when she was passed out few hours ago.
"Yeah, well, I don't feel great, Felicity."
"Is there a right way to take that? You should go home." She said as she walked towards Oliver's desk. She was trying her best not to fall over her feet, considering her body still hadn't stopped shivering yet.
"I am going. I just need to make arrangements for a replacement bodyguard." She heard Diggle from behind her.
"Did you get the flu shot?" Felicity asked her friend again before arranging the files. "Personally, I never do. I know that I should. I just, I have this thing about needles. All pointy things, really. Which is ironic, considering who we work with." She continued as she walked back. Thats when she noticed how worse Dig looked compared to few seconds ago.
"Yeah, it's not the flu, Felicity. It's more like-"
"DIG!" The blonde I.T screamed as she saw her friend hit the floor. "Oh god, Shit." Felicity ran to her friend's aid. She checked his pulse and sighed in relief.
"Dig! Wake up! DIG!" felicity screamed as she she shook the ex-solider. "Damn it! Going to Russia was the worse thing ever. I swear Anatoly, if you had poisoned Diggle too, I'll kill you." She muttered to herself as she dialled in Oliver's number.
"Felicity, this is not a right time to-"
"It's Dig! Something happened to him." Felicity started as she explained the whole situation to her green partner.
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A dark-skinned man hurried through the dark corridor as he tucked his gun in. Behind him 4 others followed, all high-ranked agents within ARGUS. They quickly accelerated their pace before stopping at the clear glass double doors at the north tower of ARGUS's secret base. The one in the front knocked before walking in.
"Any updates?" Amanda Waller asked as she teared her eyes away from the big screen in the middle of their surveillance room.
"Yes, mam. We got a hit. It's in Russia. A man named Lance Hunter." The dark-skinned man smiled before handing the blue file to his boss. Amanda smiled evilly as she looked at the file's content. She quickly closed her file and looked at her agents inside the surveillance room.
"Mr. Larry, could you please load up the recent activities involving Miss. Smoak?" She asked her technologist expert who nodded and loaded up various camera feeds of Felicity's doings and whereabouts.
"If you don't mind me asking Waller, How is poising our potential asset is going to get us close to SHIELD?" The former director of ARGUS asked Amanda. "Felicity Smoak is an asset. She's the closest we've ever gotten to SHIELD. We could get anything out of her. Make her reveal everything she knows about her agency. Then why did you poison her?" She looked at him with a small smile before opening her mouth.
"Felicity Smoak has a strong will, Mr. Chant. She wouldn't give up anything, even if her life is dependent on it. Even though we catch her and torture the life out of her she still wouldn't open up her mouth, just like others. I'm sure by now you must have figured out that SHIELD's agents are very stubborn when it comes to revealing information. They live a life of secrecy." Amanda said as she walked around the room. "The only way we could get a lead was to make her the bait."
"The bait?" Amanda raised her eye-brows at the former leader.
"Are you taking your medicines, Mr. Chant? You seem to be lacking your exceptional mind-reading skills today." She mocked.
"Don't mock me, Waller. I can take back that position from you anytime." The old man warned just as Amanda gave him a sick smile.
"You're still the same, Chant." She said as she shook her head at the old man. "Anyways moving on, Poisoning Smoak was the best option we were left with. If you've noticed Mr. Chant, SHIELD is very protective of its agents. Remember the previous ones we've caught. They were all somehow freed rather than left for the deads... This shows how SHIELD can do anything for its agents. It also proves how the agents isn't only their strength, they're also its weakness. And we can use that weakness against them. " She sneered just as the former leader was hit with realisation.
"By poising their one of own so they're forced to act making easier for us to locate them."
"That's right." Amanda smirked before looking up the live camera feeds.
"And did we find anything useful in this past week of surveillance?"
"Yes, we did." Amanda said in glee before loading up a picture of an older blonde. "This is Bobbie Morse. One of Starling City's head detective. She moved here few weeks ago. Worked 4 years in the army as a weapon specialist and head leader. She's one of the best according to her files. She was on a mission in Afghanistan to lead a team to the front line. But call it her bad luck, they were ambushed, leaving her as the only survivor. She made it back to the base but with her mind-set to quit the army. So her S.O send her to starling city as a detective. Now, the best part. While her files claimed that she was in the army during the last 4 years, our facial recognition software has picked up various of activities and sighting of her all around the world, which means that she's not who she says."
"So she's a SHIELD agent too?"
"Possibly. We're still unsure. There aren't many evidence against her. But whoever she is, she's part of the network. Her and this man." Amanda continued as she loaded up a picture of a man in his 20s. "Lance Hunter. Works for Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies or you could just call it STRIKE. An agency that deals with fairytales. Not too bright I guess. But moving on, As of right now Lance Hunter is undercover in Bratva's ranks. These two have been contacting each other through the encrypted secure lines."
"Do you know what intel their exchanging?"
"It could be anything But if Morse is with Smoak then... she'll probably use Lance Hunter as her contact to figure out the poison that Smoak was injected with. My guess is they're already doing that. It's just a matter of time before they make a mistake. And when they do, I'll be there to pick it up and get to its origins." Amanda replied with evil smirk before turning back to the live feeds.
"That could take ages. Why don't we just raid them?"
"With what, Mr. Chant? They are highly trained and skilled agents. They'll disappear before we could get anything out of them. SHIELD is mainly known for its ability to stay in shadows. If we lose them, we lose our only chance. The game has to be played cunningly. We can only outlaw them if we use their own moves against them."
"And what if this Smoak dies from the poison?"
"Then she dies. I can't do anything about it. I won't be giving her the cure. She's done too much damage on ARGUS and she'll have to pay one way or another. Besides we'll just get more reasons to invade her home and search her up." Amanda said simply before shrugging her shoulder in a I-dont-care way.
"But she has information!" The old man screeched.
"Which we will get soon."
"But-"
"Agent Larry, would you please come with me? I need to brief you on our new task force." Amanda cut her former boss off as she left the room with her tech agent following after her.
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"What the hell are you doing here?" Diggle exclaimed in pain as he saw Oliver walk in the arrow cave.
"I heard you passed out."
"I told Felicity not to call you." Felicity was way too worried to look guilty. She had just scraped his 1000 pound body 18 floors down Queen consolidated and a heaps of heavy dragging to bring his ass back to the foundry. She did all this even when she, herself is suffering from the effects of an unknown poison that could kill her anytime and what does he do in return? Blame her for calling Oliver.
"Yeah, but before that, you said "gaw" and "thud," so I didn't take it very seriously." She scoffed as she covered her friend with grey blankets that seemed way too depressing. Bobby's blankets were more lively than these...
"She was right to call me. Diggle, you need medical attention." Oliver supported her as he rubbed Diggle's shoulder.
"He needs more than that." Felicity piped in. "When Dig passed out, I sent a sample of his blood to a chemist I know at QC. The guy owes me a favor. Long story, I fixed his parking ticket. Huh. I guess it's not that long." She babbled.
"Felicity." Oliver said bringing her attention back to the topic. "The blood samples?"
"Oh Right, It came back positive- for trace amounts of Vertigo."
"I never used Vertigo before in my life." The ex-solider said in his defence.
"You were exposed to it somehow.''
"Vertigo's in play again?" Oliver asked.
"When the Count recovered from his OD on Vertigo, he was sent to Iron Heights." She said as she walked back to her computers.
"That got hit in the quake. He got out the same way the Doll Maker did?" Oliver said as Felicity search through the records before coming up with a red file.
"And just like with the Doll Maker, prison officials worked overtime to keep the lid on the escape." She finished as she showed the record to Oliver. Felicity could literally see his gears turning. She watched him as he pulled out the antidote arrow from his perfect collection of arrows.
"I know what you're thinking." She said looking Oliver in eye.
"No, you don't. I made a choice not to put an arrow in this guy. And it was the right choice. There's no more killing." Felicity nodded her head in return. She knew that Oliver was trying to respect tommy's death by not killing but she was still worried at how long his agenda is going to last. With this kind of life, killing is not optional. "I worked this up to counteract the effects of Vertigo. Give it to Diggle. I need to get back to court. And while I'm gone, just work up whatever you can and figure out how Diggle got Vertigo in his system without his knowledge." He finished as he handed the antidote to her.
"Ok." Thats when he noticed how pale she looked. "You okay, felicity? You look really pale?"
"Uh.. um.. No.. I'm fine. Just a little shaken by Diggle's condition." She said as she brought her shaking hands behind her back and kept her face free of any tension. Its really hard to do that when you can literally feel you're body shutting down slowly.
"Okay." She knew he wasn't convinced. "I'll be back."
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"Hey Cherry, do you know where Lance is?" Bobbie asked the strawberry blonde at the receptionist desk.
"Why don't you ask pike?" The girl replied bossily without looking up from her sheets.
"I can't find him."
"That's because you're looking the wrong way, Blondie. He's on the next floor up." Bobbie glared at the younger girl just as she looked up to see Pike talking to Lance.
"You know, you could have said that in a nicer way." Bobbie narrowed her eyes at the receptionist.
"And why would I do that, Blondie?" The young girl looked up with a smirk. "What? Going to report me?" Bobbie gave a sick smile to her colleague.
"No, that would be childish. I was planning to do this..." Bobbie started before picking up young girl's water glass and dumping it all over her notes.
"NO! My notes!" The strawberry blonde screamed in panic as she moved away from the table and hurriedly tried to clean the water off her notes.
"Have fun making new ones." Bobbie replied with a smirk before walking out of the building. She headed towards her car as she looked around at the black SUV that has been following her since this morning. She knew someone was keeping an eye on her, but who... she didn't know. Looks like it's time to make some calls... she thought as she pulled out her burn phone.
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Felicity groaned as she pushed herself through the thick crowd of the club. Apparently the district attorney who was working against Moira Queen's trial was just kidnapped by Count Vertigo. To her displeasure the drug lord didn't waste any time in letting everyone know that he has the attorney by posting a live video of his new Vertigo cure. What amazes felicity is Count's will to come back in this business. Otherwise once Oliver catches someone, no-one really wants to go back being the criminal again due to the vigilante's fear.
"Whisky on the rocks, please." She ordered to the bartender who happily made her a drink as she looked around the club. Every person here tonight was Horney.
"There you go."
"Thanks." Felicity thanked the bartender as she picked up the golden drink. This better take the edge off... She thought sarcastically before moving the glass towards her lips.
"Uh Uh.. Don't you even dare, Felicity." A warm hand snatched the drink out of Felicity's hands as she was just about to take her first sip of the whisky. She turned towards the offending person in anger...
"Bobby?" The I.T girl exclaimed as she saw her friend in a short red cocktail dress starring at her as if Felicity has stolen her teddy bear or something. Not that Bobbie has one but still...
"This.. is poison to you, dumbo." The older agent exclaimed as she emptied the drink in the nearest Ice bowl.
"I already have one in my system. Maybe this could get rid of it." Felicity whined childishly before earning a sharp slap on her arm from Bobbie. "HEY! Stop doing that. It freakin hurts." Felicity scolded as she checked her arm which now had a imprint of Bobbie's hand.
"I didn't even hit you that hard?"
"Well, it hurts." Felicity whined again as she rubbed the sore spot with her shaky hands. "It's the effects of the poison. My skin is burning from inside out so any contact makes it worse."
"How bad is the pain?" The older agent asked with sympathy.
"Bad enough to make me wince. But I can handle it. Including the other side effects." Felicity said as her friend carefully poked her skin. "Its my arm, Bobbie. Not a pimple. Its not going to strangle you to death... Well unless I order it too.." The older blonde agent looked weirdly at her partner. "Never-mind, what are you doing here?" She continued.
"I came here to see how you were holding up and... wait, where's the billionaire? He's not looming over you anymore."
"He's out there saving Attorney's ass from Count." Felicity said with a tight smile as she plopped her head in her hands. Only she knows how it feels to be sitting on the sidelines.
"Someone's not happy."
"I miss my nightly walkouts, bob. I haven't been out there since the leag-... I mean since Sara and her wannabes arrow lovers followed her here." Felicity quickly rephrased herself as she nearly revealed the league's existence and her relations to it. Luckily Bobbie wasn't paying attention to the I.T girl, instead she was focused on something else. Bobbie was level 7 therefore not cleared to know the league's existence. But felicity knew if the older blonde agent was staying in starling then it won't take much longer for her friend to find out about the league and felicity's relations to it.
"Don't worry we'll go together when we get rid of your little death problem." Bobbie winked at her friend as she gulped down a shot of vodka, given by the bartender who couldn't keep his eyes off her. "Meanwhile, watch your back. You and I are both being followed." This perked up Felicity's interest.
"Followed? By who?"
"No idea. But I have a hunch. Just keep your eyes around the clock. I'll let you know more once I have my confirmations." Bobbie said quietly before winking at the bartender and disappearing into the crowd.