Chapter Eleven: Unbalanced.


Sara walked forward swinging her arms back and forth with a purpose in an unmistakable power walk. Laurel tried to follow her, but it was obvious when her sister was upset, it was hard to get through to her. Oh, Sara wasn't yelling or anything, but she was a bit angry about this entire situation. Whether or not she was angry about not doing more, or angry at the people who did this, Laurel didn't know. The only thing which she could take to the back was Sara was angry.

Hell, Laurel found herself a tiny bit frustrated at the entire situation herself. She was the one who convinced Sara to wait and try and deal with this one through the official channels. It was a small miracle no one was hurt or killed, otherwise, it would have been worse.

It was pretty bad to begin with. Laurel tried to look at the worst possible time.

"I'm here to see Thea Queen," Sara said.

The officers turned towards her. What was with the looks on their faces? She didn't know. They looked like they were contemplating something. And Sara was going increasily agitated.

"Yeah, well….she's not really talking to anyone right now," one of the officers said.

Sara could see the hesitation, and endeavored to be a bit more forceful. Maybe she didn't have to, though.

"Let her through," Quentin said, poking his head out from the next room. "She might be a bit….more willing to name names if she saw a couple of familiar faces."

Sara hoped her father was right with what they were saying. The doors opened up and they saw Thea sitting on the bench. The bright and vibrant nature on her face had completely vanished. Her face dimmed several shades, and there was a look buried deep in her eyes of absolute horror. A flushed feeling came over her face.

Laurel noticed the signs, she saw them in several people who had hit bottom. She encountered those people in her day job, and it was hard not to pity them, even though they could not do anything to help themselves. Thea had not reached the absolute bottom although she shuddered and shake. It was a train wreck which Laurel could not turn her way off.

'Damn, this looks better.'

It was obvious she knew this time, she had done a very bad thing, and there was really no way to fix it. The shudders which went through her body showed about that much.

About ten minutes later, Moira Queen marched her way into the station. She walked with a purpose and didn't even bother to ask for permission to see her daughter. She pushed her way through the guards with the assertive force.

"What happened?" Moira asked.

Thea's head bobbed back and forth. She could barely hold herself up.

"It was a hell of a ride," Thea said. "I thought I was invincible. I thought….everything would be okay, I thought there was no chance anything bad could happen. I thought there was no chance."

Thea shook her head to bring herself back to what passed as reality.

"Well, I thought I was invincible," Thea said. "My car however, it wasn't and….wow, it's been a hell of a ride, hasn't it?"

Moira didn't know her daughter was this far gone. She realized she had come close to losing another child, thanks to her blindness.

"Thea, you shouldn't…that was….you shouldn't have shot up before going behind the wheel of a car," Moira said. "You shouldn't have been poisoning yourself like that period."

"It's been a hell of a ride," Thea said.

Sara put a hand on Thea's shoulder and the girl jolted up.

"Well, guess what, the ride's over," Sara said. "I warned you what those drugs would do, and you saw what happened to that boy when you were there. And yet, you still did it."

"It was a nice ride though," Thea said.

It was like her mind had been stuck in a never ending loop, the same thing. She had been broken, unable to say anything else. Sara tried to rain her eyes on Thea, even though she was quite disgusted at the situation. Not disgusted at Thea, but at the situation, and more importantly at herself.

It was supposed to her job to keep people like this off of the street, and she not only failed this city, but she failed Thea.

"Thea, this is completely serious," Laurel said. "You could have killed yourself, you could have killed someone else."

Thea shook her head, not really denying it. She tried to mutter about how this entire situation was a hell of a ride again, but slowly, everything faded from her system. The headache worsened, and cold harsh reality hit her hard.

She done fucked up, big time, so big she couldn't even begin to describe how badly she fucked up. What had she done?

"What's going to happen to her now, Detective Lance?" Moira asked. "I'll just…pay whatever fine…"

Quentin held his hand up to stop Moira's words in his tracks.

"I'm afraid it's not going to be that simple this time," Quentin said. "Your daughter's chances to ride this one out doesn't look too good….and to be perfectly frank, maybe this is the wakeup call she needed."

Moira set her jaw firmly. While she didn't dispute it, that was one thing a mother never wanted to here. Even though, she knew deep down Quintin was right.

"And the judge who is going to hear Thea's case….well she's had her share of run ins with your son in the past, and he narrowly escaped from trouble," Quentin said. "And she's gotten only tougher since then…..and she'll crack down hard this time. Especially given how she feels like she has to set an example."

Quentin cast one look towards Thea who still was pale and shaking within her cell. It was very hard to look at her, and it was hard not to find pity with her. She made bad choices. Quentin saw many of those types walk through the doors during years, and there were very few happy endings there.

"Her last name will damn her pretty good," Quentin said. "More than a fine, she's looking for some serious prison time….the only silver lining we have is no one did get killed."

"I didn't mean to…..I was just….." Thea said. "Are you sure no one was hurt?"

"It's the only good thing which came out of this situation," Quetin said. "The worst that happened is a couple of people are going to have to get new mailboxes."

Sara looked at the situation. She would have had to get ready to go out on the city and hunt down the people who produced this drug.

"What the hell was she on anyway?" Laurel asked.

"Vertigo….it's called Vertigo," Thea said. "It was supposed to be the ultimate thrill, the ultimate high…."

Sara had allowed that information to process in her mind. Veritgo, oh, that name rang a bell and a hard one at that.

'It has to be a coincidence,' Sara thought. 'Would he do anything as small time as drug peddling? Then again, he has many dopplegangers and imposters, it's possible? But…he's….I was sure of it…but he's been known to cheat death before.'

"What did you do with the information I gave you earlier?" Sara asked.

"First, you did the right thing by telling me, although I'm not sure it was a good idea to raise such a big stink when you were there," Quentin said. "By the time I popped up, they packed it in, and they were long gone….guess they didn't want a visit from me or anyone else from the SPD."

Sara only could not. She had to get out there and out in the city.

"Not much we can do here," Sara said. "I'll be back later….let me know if something happens."

Before anyone could question where Sara would have to go in the dead of night…..she disappeared.


Sara pulled up the hood and stalked the night with a purpose. She returned to the scene of the crime, but there were no leads. Her father was right, they had all packed it in. There was not even one drop of this hard drug there.

'No, I can't give up, not tonight.'

She knew it was a crapshoot to find one of the dealers. And they would be heavily armed when she ran them down. Not that was a problem. She had been motivated by pure frustration, and anger at herself. Anger that happened to Thea and despite her best efforts, there was nothing Sara could do to stop it.

Everything paled in comparison to tracking down this supplier, and shutting it down from the source. Along with shutting down the people who caused this, once and for all, and Sara intended to do this with extreme prejudice.

Sara strayed a slight bit from her roots as an assassin. She had found ways to disable, quite painfully, without killing. Broken bones, joints which did not work the same way as they used to, and a healthy bit of nerve damage, they were more than sufficient in allowing the message to be sent.

Yet, she would not be afraid to kill if it meant saving lives. It was a tricky one to deal with, and she had not had any fatal encounters just yet since putting on the hood. She had not had a necessary.

'An assassin kills out of necessity and there is always a meaning to their murders. To kill without meaning and without remorse, it sends an assassin into the territory of terrorist. But, to refuse to kill, even when that's the best option, that is even lower, and you are an enabler of the murders of countless people. The blood will be on your hands.'

Sara closed her eyes and shifted herself away from the trip down memory lane. Tonight, it was essential to find the supplier of Vertigo, and shut down this entire operation by any means necessary. The hooded vigilante dropped down to the ground.

Luck finally shined brightly on this mission. One of the suppliers stood outside of the wall of the night club, smoking a cigarette. The Hood dropped down to the ground. The supplier dropped his cigarette in surprise and withdrew a knife to go and attack the do-gooder.

The vigilante dodged the first stab of the knife. Her spine arched back and blocked the second stab of the knife. A third stab had been avoided, along with a fourth, and a fifth. Every time that knife almost came up against her flesh, she just handily avoided it. Time and time again, these shots had been avoided.

"You're not going to get me!" he yelled.

The Hood fired an arrow into the arm of the supplier. The drug peddler dropped to the ground, agony at the arrow striking such a vital nerve ending. She had him right where she wanted him.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" she asked. "It hurts to see you giving those drugs to children, who don't know any better, and ruining their lives. It hurts them, to see their lives drain away from them, frustrated, and suffering, cold and lifeless."

"It doesn't hurt them, it gives the ultimate high," the supplier said. "Sure there are a few side effects, but…..ARGH!"

Sara grabbed onto the arrow and pulled it. The supplier squealed like a pig in a gate at the arrow slowly being ripped out of his wrist.

"Where is the man giving you Vertigo?" she demanded.

The supplier looked at her, and he realized he didn't want another Arrow inside of her.

"You mean the Count?" the supplier asked. "I don't know, I swear to God, I don't know….he shows up, every three weeks, gives us a truck load of the stuff, takes his cut. He's a bit strange, but he keeps bread on the table."

Sara ripped the arrow out of his wrist. She could hear people rustling from inside of the building and took it as her cue to go.

The man didn't do anything, which meant any of the suppliers had no idea where the Count had gone. Sara dropped down onto the rooftop and she heard a buzzing in her earpiece.

"Hey, Sara," Laurel said. "You okay?"

"No," Sara said. "Did something happen with Thea?"

"Not exactly," Laurel said. "But, our mutual friend just pulled up a lead, and I think we both have a good idea where the Vertigo is."

Sara only responded with a stiff nod and watched the supplier's agonizing face on the ground. It was no less than he deserved after peddling Vertigo. Her heart jumped, perhaps something good would come out of this nice.

"Tell me, then."


A young man with crazy eyes watched the news. He called himself the Count, to many on the street, he was known as Count Vertigo. He thought that was taking it a step too far on the tacky scale to be called Count Vertigo, surely Vertigo was the drug he peddled, and he called himself the Count, so people would call him that.

At least he hoped they would. People were stubborn and persistent with their labels. Once you had been known for something, you were known for it for life.

Regardless, he knew of the man who also called him Count Vertigo, and the ignorant thought the Count to me that Vertigo. Oh, how he aspired to be as rich and powerful as him, the potential heir to the throne in a distant foreign land. If the ignorant wanted to make those assumptions, well the Count wasn't about ready to stop them in their tracks to be honest.

No one had seen the real deal in a long time, close to three years in fact, but there were rumors he was out there, and he didn't take too kindly to imposters.

'Perhaps one day, I'll be as rich and powerful as him, but for right now, I'm an honest man, plying my trade.'

He reclined back and listened to the news. Something rather curious hit his ears when coming over the wire.

"Tonight, Thea Queen, the sister of the recently deceased Oliver Queen, crashed her Porsche into the back of a police car," the newscaster said. "We can reveal Ms. Queen has been under the influence of the street drug known as Vertigo, which has claimed eight lives so far, and lead to the hospitalization of many more. Many are calling the Starling City Police Department for this hazard to the health of the people."

The scoffing coming from the young man was only followed by him shaking his head.

"Well, it's not my fault they weren't able to pay," The Count said. "Maybe if they had just taken out a nice little loan or something, they still would have been alive."

He adopted the classic Thinker Pose of his hand underneath his chin and leaned back, a slight grin crossing over his face.

"Still, a personal recommendation from a Princess, or rather a Queen….and everything is just going splendid," the Count said. "And thanks to my backers in Gotham City, I'll be able to take Vertigo to the next level. They'll either pay for their next hit, and when the money runs out….well no use in wasting precious oxygen!"

He smirked at the thought. He never touched the stuff to be honest, preferring lesser dangerous drugs. Still he could hardly fault anyone for wanting a greater high.

The phone off to the side of the desk rang. The Count reached over and scooped up the phone. He bounced about on the chair with a smile on his face.

"Everything is going according to plan, boss," the man on the other end of the phone declared.

"Are you in place to add my little taste test in the water supply? "the Count asked.

"Yeah, boss, soon everyone will get a taste of the wonders of Vertigo."

"Splendid!" the Count cried, clapping his hands together. "Soon, all of them will have a taste of the wonders of Vertigo. They're not going to back away. Either they'll pay up, or they'll pay."

Get a free sample, and jack up the prices, it was a plan which was brilliant. And this entire city would soon be under the spell of Vertigo.

The Count brushed a strand of hair back from his eye and looked positively giddy, he looked more excited than he ever did in his entire life.

"It's going to happen, tonight's the night," The Count said. "Get ready, we can't be late."

"No, boss," one of the men over the phone responded. "When do you want to do it?"

"In a couple of hours, I need to ensure everything else is in place," the Count said. "And I need to ensure there's no Hooded involvement."

The Count followed the exploits of the vigilante in the Hood in an almost obsessive degree. He figured the Hood would come calling sooner or later, and when he or she did, the Count would have his day, and would put the Hood down for the count.

'Oh, this is going to be wonderful….imagining sending the Hood out in the wild, overdosed on my new and improved Vertigo!'

The thought made the Count twitch in excitement. He reached down into the box and pulled out one of the green vials. It glowed in the light and shimmered. He could hardly keep the deep grin off of his face when gazing upon such an item of absolute beauty.

"One little dose will do anyone in this city some good," the Count said. "No fear….at least until it wears off. But if they don't keep buying…well the night terrors will be the stuff which will bring even the most hardened of men down to their knees. And that's not even accounting for the day terrors, which are even worse."

The Count made a breaking motion with his hands and snorted in response.

"They will be truthfully and utterly broken," the Count said.

The door busted open and a man staggered into the room. His hand dripped with blood, he looked pale and shaking when walking towards the Count.

"What's going on?" the Count asked. "Seriously, you don't look so good….you look like you can use a little pick me up…."

"Hood, it's the hood…..The Hood is attacking us….the Hood…the Hood….."

The Count frowned. He really did need a pick me up. And a perfect test subject didn't present himself every day. He jammed the syringe into the side of the neck of the supplier. The supplier's eyes glazed over and he became blissfully calm.

"Are you floating on air?" the Count asked.

"Yes," the supplier said.

"Tell me what ails you, my dear lad," The Count said.

"It's the Hood, that psycho vigilante has been attacking us all night, she got three more of the boys, and she…or he….I don't even know," he said. "But the Hood's coming; whoever is underneath the Hood's hood is after you."

The Count's heard one of his guards outside dropping. His face turned into a very obvious frown.

"The Hood followed you here."

The Count jabbed the supplier in the neck three more times. He gave him more bliss, too much bliss in fact given his heart sputtered to a stop thanks to the Vertigo overdose.

"Now, time for my guest."


'It's always a rundown warehouse,' Sara thought. 'Stupid recession.'

She dropped down to the ground, in the darkness, and hovered behind a trash can. She saw two guards, beefy, but not too bright, waiting on either side of the door. She was ready to take aim and take them out. She drew back her bow and caught one of them in the side of the shoulder with a well-placed arrow.

The pain caused the guard to black out. The second guard turned around, and Sara sent a tranquilizer arrow into the back of the guard's neck. He would be out for about an hour, long enough to hopefully conduct business and to shut down this entire operation.

The vigilante slipped past the front doors. She walked forward and saw an average looking young man standing in front of him.

"Greetings, Hooded vigilante!" the Count bellowed at the top of his lungs. "Or would you prefer to be called Mr. Hood? Or is it a Ms. Hood? Or do you just not have any gender identity preferences whatsoever because you're going through a period of transition in your life?"

Sara readied her bow, ready to strike.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time," the Count said. "Greetings, Hooded Warrior, for I am your ultimate equal, Count Vertigo."

"You're not," Sara said, disgust even obvious through the modulator on her hood. "The Count Vertigo I knew was extremely dangerous, and not some low rent drug dealer who peddled his drugs to teenagers."

It was now the Count's turn to scoff.

"Not just teenagers," the Count said. "Soon, all of Starling City will be getting a nice taste of my wonder drug."

Sara didn't fire just yet. This bastard obviously had something devious up his sleeve and she wanted to know what.

"Just think, Vertigo can make anyone's fears melt away, including the Hood," the Count said.

"I don't fear anything," the Hood said.

"Oh, I disagree, it's obvious my Vertigo blessed someone really close to you, because why else would things get this personal?" the Count asked. He looked towards her with pity. "Once I give the okay, all of Starling City's water supply will get a taste of Vertigo….."

"Not going to happen."

She fired three arrows, all of them aimed at areas which could disable the Count should they connected. They passed through the Count and Sara gritted her teeth through the hood. She shook her head in response.

'Hologram,' Sara thought. 'Someone must have hooked him up big time.'

The Count popped up from a vent right behind her and with surprising precision, stabbed her in the back of the leg. She spun around in lighting fast precision and nailed him in the side of the throat which dropped him down to the ground and sent him flying.

The burning started through Sara's body and spread through her body. The ringing escalated in the back of her head and the breathing grew even more intense. Sara tried to hold herself together. The more she did though, the more she slipped under Vertigo's influence.

"Oh, don't try and fight it, it will only kill you faster if you do," the Count said. "There's enough in that syringe to kill a horse."

Vertigo was an apt tone as the ringing continued, and the dizziness escalated how she felt. The entire room swirled around her. Sara clutched her temples and screamed in agony. A blaring sound echoed in her subconscious, when she slipped further under.

A flaming building surrounded her and a bearded man dressed like a Southern preacher started to laugh. Her eyes flashed and the demonic face of Slade Wilson flashed, and then Oliver falling down next to her, her hands soaked in blood when he did. The world started to swirl around her!

"You're the first to feel what Vertigo can really do, when it's been untamed, and it's been untreated. And soon, everyone will be underneath my thumb. Everyone will bow down before the Count."

Sara kept her control all of this time. She had to focus, she had to fight. Buzzards surrounded her head and the corpses of all of her loved ones were on the ground, with more sinister laughter. A demonic echo of "you failed this city" echoed further in her subconscious.

Something inside Sara Lance snapped and she lunged forward. The Count had been surprised, and she grabbed him around the throat.

Her bloodshot eyes looked into the eyes of the Count before strangling all of the life out of him. It was not quick enough, so she snapped his neck.

Sara fell back against the wall, the entire world flashing around her. The Count's broken body fell to the ground.

All hell then proceeded to break loose in Sara's mind.


To Be Continued on November 18th, 2016.


So the aftermath of Thea's little trip, leads us to the self professed Count, who peddles the drug known as Vertigo. And he's nuttier than a squirrel's bowl movement. And it wasn't the first Count Vertigo Sara had to deal with, but we'll deal with that plot thread much longer down the line.

And she has a very bad trip, snapping the Count's neck. Needless to say, Sara's not going to have a good time, and the trip is about ready to get much worse.

Until Friday.