Chapter Thirty-Five: Blood Vendetta.
Banners hang over the buildings celebrating all of what Sebastian Blood had done. Many of the people questioned him and wondered about his intentions. This man had nothing other than the best intentions, and he would continue to prove that. He had his supporters who would shout down any words against him.
A car arrived, and Sebastian Blood stepped out in all of his glory. He stepped out of the car and moved over to survey the citizens in Starling City. He smiled so many people willing to find leadership after the leaders who had run this city failed to protect them. Some of the leaders inside this city had proven to be not trustworthy at all. They had been proven to be in the league of people like Moira Queen.
Every man had his own trial, every woman had her own trial, and some children had their trials all too soon. Blood looked at them and raised his hand to wave. The man responded with a smile. You just had to love his charisma, it was hard to hate him, as he was always bright and full of energy. Criticism happened, but he proved to live beyond those critics and proved them wrong.
Now, he had the population of Starling City down in the palm of his hand. They chanted "Blood" for him. Blood raised his hand in the air and waved it one more time. The chanting settled down after a couple more minutes. Blood smiled and waved at his adoring public.
"Thank you, thank you for coming!"
Blood took half of a step back and soaked in the cheers of the people around him. He waited for them to die down completely before speaking.
"The last few months have proven the mettle of the people of Starling City. Anyone who wants to become what they can be, to raise to their full potential will have to go through a crucible. And though this crucible, they are able to achieve their full potential."
Blood heard the applause and waited for it to stop.
"Each day, we rebuild the blocks in this city," Blood said. "And we rebuild the foundation which has been torn down because of the selfishness of one woman. But, we should not condemn her completely. She has been led astray by some of the rich in this city. They don't understand their actions have accountability."
The crowd applauded once again and again, Blood stopped.
"We must give them a chance to look their sin straight on and face them," Blood responded. "Every single person in Starling City from the downtrodden to the elite are going to go through a rebirth, a baptism of fire. First, though, we must look at those who have been victimized, and only then can the healing begin for the entire city. The team will completely rise to the top."
Blood rose his hand. The crowd began to chant "we will rise."
"I will be your guide, but only I can give you the inspiration," Blood responded. "You are going to have to learn to be your very best on your own. Only then can we stand together. Only then can be the absolute best!"
The chanting continued to grow in a fever pitch. Brother Blood had them in the palm of his hand.
"I only give you the promise of opportunity!" Blood yelled. "Everyone in this city will be on an even ground and only the strongest will rise out through the fire."
The loud crowd got even more excited. The loud chanting continued when the entire world watched. And from afar, Sara watched, with Artemis watching every moment of Blood's speech.
"What do you think?"
Artemis asked this question in an attempt to get Sara's insight of everything. The younger archer didn't hear any response, but she could judge the utter agitation from Sara, and a small bit of contempt.
"He talks a good game," Sara said finally.
"Yeah, maybe," Artemis said. "I don't know why anyone would trust someone of the last name Blood."
Sara thought Artemis had a pretty good point. She followed Blood's progress as he moved through the ground, shaking hands, kissing babies, pretty much anything a politician like Blood would do for good press points. He had a pretty good way of putting the desperate in the palm of his hand. He told them opportunities would come, only if they worked hard on it.
Sebastian Blood had all of the makings of a cult leader, which could qualify for a lot of politicians these days.
'Yeah, there's really a difference.'
Sara noticed a truck pulling off to the side. She grabbed Artemis's arm and pulled the younger archer back. The back of the truck opened and several smoke bombs came out, breaking open on the ground. Several masked mercenaries appeared in the back of the truck and threw tear gas grenades into the crowd, forcing them to scatter.
Starling City's finest moved in quickly to try and deal with the stampeding crowd. Two of the mercenaries fired tranquilizer darts at the men and dropped them down onto the ground. They approached Blood with their weapons at the ready.
Blood stepped back and his hands raised in the universal sign of surrender.
"What can I do for you?" Blood asked.
"You better abandon your campaign before it's too late," one of the mercenaries said. "You don't represent the interests of these people in Starling City, any more than the upper class does. You're nothing, but a fraud, a scam."
Blood stepped back, realizing these men had plenty of hostages. He took a deep breath and spoke to them in a soft voice.
"Why don't you remove your masks? We can talk face to face, there's no need for violence….."
One of the goons stabbed Blood in the back of the leg and forced him down to the ground. Blood landed on his hands and knees, the breath escaping his body. More police tried to move in, but the chaos of the crowd and the smoke bombs prevented them from going forward.
"You better be quiet, Blood, or these people will die."
Blood looked up towards the lead mercenary with defiance.
"Your problem is me, so take me instead. Leave the people alone."
The leader of the mercenary turned towards the other men and they nodded in response. Two of them hoisted Blood off of the ground and dragged him off before hurling him into the back of the van.
The smoke cleared, with Blood having been dragged off. The people started to scream and yell at Starling City's finest. There were chants of "YOU FAILED THIS CITY" towards the cops, and there were the beginnings of a riot after the mercenary attack grabbed the beloved Sebastian Blood and took off with him.
Sara cleared out of the area after things calmed down. She switched out in the hood and looked above from a perch point. She was trying to trace where Blood might have been abducted. Each second she thought about it, the more this really did not make sense.
'Something really doesn't add up,' Sara thought.
"Okay, perhaps I'm being paranoid," Felicity said. "Shouldn't Blood have been able to afford some security detail? I mean, all of the donations, and he couldn't have hired someone better than your average Starling City Police Officer….no offense to their capabilities, but given all of the enemies he made…."
Felicity took a second to take a breath and collect her thoughts.
"You would just think he would have added some extra security or something," Felicity said. "I suppose someone with bigger bucks could have paid them off to take a walk. There might be someone of the Starling City Elite who is not happy with having their name dragged through the mud."
"Maybe."
Sara averted her course. So far, there had been no news on Blood or his kidnappers. A high profile politician disappeared and so far there had been no word from the mercenaries who abducted Blood.
"You don't think so."
"No, I don't think so," Sara said. "This just reeks of something rotten. I can't put my finger on it."
Sara jumped down and looked around in the alleyway. She last heard the truck driving through this area, before it disappeared. She climbed over the fence and ran down towards a junkyard. The moment Sara arrived at the junkyard, she saw it, the truck. The hooded heroine went over the fence and landed on the ground.
She walked over to the truck and opened it open. There was nothing other than some boxes of equipment on it. Sara could see a few grenades, but most of the truck had been cleared out. Sara continued her investigation only to find out there was no one around in the truck. She dropped back out of the back of the truck and stepped back.
Sara wondered if they had Blood somewhere in this junkyard. She didn't know where he could be. Sara activated the heat sensory goggles underneath her hood and looked around. She could see some tracks and she figured out what happened instantly. They dumped the truck, took Blood into a second truck, and went off to parts unknown.
'Nothing out there but the river, there must be something I'm missing,' Sara answered.
"Hey, not to interrupt you, but I have something for you," Felicity said. "I'm putting this on your Red, this is going all through the Internet and all through the news."
Sara took out her phone and the images of Sebastian Blood could be heard. His shirt had been stripped off and he had been chained to the ground. One of the mercenaries held a gun to the back of the politician's head. Another held a leather belt and raised it over the head.
"I will not…drop out, I will fight for this city with my last breath."
The sound of hard leather smacking against skin echoed. The strap connected to the chest of Brother Blood and it was sickening them.
"Starling City belongs to the people, not to the corrupt!" one of them yelled. "We will destroy this city's false idols one by one until it is given back to the people. If Blood does not yield, more will suffer. A few will die so many can survive!"
Sara took a moment to study the camera footage. She saw something rather intriguing, to be honest. She paused the image and made an attempt to sharpen it the best she could. The image slowly flashed into light when it kept rising up.
"I know where this is," Sara said. "He's in the basement of the rundown church of Blackfire."
"Wait, you mean….that Church of Blackfire?" Felicity asked. "I thought that was in Gotham City."
Sara sighed when she left the junkyard. There was far too much to explain here and not enough time. Her heart raced when she moved faster. There were many times where Sara wished she could be a bit faster and move with greater speed.
"It is," Sara said. "Well, it was, but his Church expanded. I'm not sure how much Blackfire has to do with it….and he's been dead for several years."
Dead for several years, yet Sara saw someone who was a dead end resemblance for Deacon Joseph Blackfire last year when she tripped out under the influence of Vertigo. Unless he became something else in the process, it couldn't have been him.
'I can't think about that, not now.'
The very second Sara arrived at the front entrance of the Church, shivers came through her mind. She stepped through as the bells on the top of the church rang. There were some demonic looking birds which fluttered above the Church with one of them giving a sinister caw in response.
There were very few things which gave Sara a severe case of the creeps. There was something in the Church which was stalking her, and putting her in great uneasiness. She walked closer towards the entrance of the Church and stepped inside. The chimes continued to ring.
'Okay, not really helping.'
Sara sensed something, maybe a presence, stalking her. The senses heightened by being so close to death so many times alarmed her. She turned a half of a step behind and leaned back against the walls. She looked and saw a reflection of something dark and black against the mirror.
The hooded heroine turned around and saw one of the ravens disappear from the church.
'Okay, nothing to worry about, unless it goes all Hitchcock on me.'
Sara pulled herself together and moved closer. She took in the layout of the church. A long hallway stretched out leading to the basement door. The further Sara walked in, the more she saw some guards. They were only the first of the problems Sara had to deal with tonight.
'Got to take them out, now.'
Sara waited for one of the guards to come closer to her. She wouldn't even need to use her arrows now, best to conserve them for later. One of the guards moved in close to her. Sara reached in and made her move.
The guard never had a chance. She grabbed the man in an arm hold and put a hand over the man's mouth to both block the oxygen flow and silence him. Sara pulled him back and the man slumped to the ground. She pulled him off to one side.
One of the guards made a move to attack her. Sara disarmed him of his club and kicked him in the ribs. The man dropped down to the ground, and Sara hooked him around the head. She flipped the man down onto the ground and dragged him off into the shadows.
Sara noticed one more guard at the end of the hall.
'Time to end it now.'
The guard noticed Sara moving in. He turned his head to raise the alarm. Sara rushed the back of the man and dropped the man down to the ground. The man crumpled to the ground before Sara pulled back from him. She stepped back and waited to see if there were any of them.
The door opened up, and Sara squared off against the lead mercenary. She recognized the scars on his hand from afar when he jumped in from Blood. A miniature rocket launcher hung from his hand ready to blast at Sara at a moment's notice.
"I wondered when you were going to show up."
The blood of the mercenary started to pump rather excitedly. His boss said there would be a pretty good chance the Hood would show up to try something and now she was here, in the flesh, and it was so exciting for her to be here. The Mercenary pointed the rocket launcher, not carrying if he would wipe out half of the church.
'You're mine, bitch,' he thought savagely.
This one moment of hesitation, and actually talking caused the Arrow to withdraw a bow and take aim. One crisp shot through the darkness and caught the mercenary in the hand and caused him to drop the rocket launcher down onto the ground.
The Hood rushed towards the mercenary and went to take him down. He dodged a shot with the arrow and reached in to grapple with the Hood. The two of them fought for a standing position. The Hood managed to grab onto him and hook the mercenary around the neck. He avoided the attack, and turned around, stabbing the Mercenary in the shoulder with a knife.
The second stab had been blocked with the Hood pushing back the mercenary to the ground. The mercenary flipped over and landed in a heap down on the ground. The skilled attacker popped back up and engaged his hooded adversary with some strikes he learned during basic training.
There should be no mistake made about it at all, this man was pretty skilled at what he did. The Hood avoided the shots and returned fire with some more of her own. A couple of huge uppercut punches rocked the mercenary in the chest.
"Why would you even protect someone like Blood?" the mercenary asked. "He may consider himself the champion of the people, but he has his own agenda. He is dark, diseased and…."
Sara stopped him midsentence by clipping the underside of his jaw with a violent uppercut. She held onto the man's arm, and pushed him back, pinning him down. She came precious inches away from an arm break. The man in question tried to escape her arm hold, but there was no getting out from this one.
"This isn't about what Blood's agenda is!" she told him. "This is about protecting civilians from those who were willing to harm them. You put innocent people in danger. I can't forgive that, I won't forget that."
She rendered the mercenary unconscious with two more swift attacks. Sara stepped back to survey the carnage. As much as she would have liked her work to be done, it wasn't done, far from it. Two more mercenaries stepped up the hall.
One of the mercenaries swung a heavy chain to try and wipe her out. Sara ducked down underneath the chain and caught him with a glancing punch to the chest. She twisted his arm around and turned him into perfect position to receive an arrow to the knee.
The second mercenary rushed her and received an arrow directly to the chest for his trouble. He folded up like a cheap table.
Sara looked around, surprised there weren't more around. The rest of them might have gone back to home base, or something.
'Too easy,' the cynical part of Sara's brain thought.
The damning sound of a pipe organ caused Sara to pause. She walked over towards the basement and she walked over towards the kneeling and battered form of Blood. Angry purple welts started to raise from his back, his face had been cut up, with one of his eyes swollen completely shut. His arm twisted at an awkward angle.
"Felicity, I found Blood, he looks bad," Sara said. "He's going to need medical attention, stat….call Starling City General…"
"Actually, I'm way ahead of you," Felicity said. "They didn't seem too pleased to find out Blood's at the Church of Blackfire. Guess they believe some of the urban legends about that place."
Sara wasn't sure if the urban legends were urban legends. Hell, for a while, she as an urban legend, and one could not argue with the fact she was real enough.
Regardless, Sara's head thumped and she looked down at the battered form of Blood. She waited until hearing the sirens, making sure the mercenaries had been gift-wrapped, and ready to be hauled out of there by Starling City's finest.
The term "long day" had been abused by many people over the past couple of years, but, yes, this was a long day.
"And despite the fact safety inspectors have cleared the launch of the Particle Accelerator for next month, there are still protests against the device being launched. Doctor Harrison Wells remains adamant everything will be cleared, and he invites his doubters to attend the demonstration to show how safe it is."
Sebastian Blood's face resembled raw hamburger which had been run over by a lawn mower. He sat down in his office, holding the arm which would have a few more scars. The moment he stepped out of the hospital room, the people nearly mobbed him. His approval ratings had gone more up than ever before.
He also started to feel a draft. The Hood, or the Arrow as the press decided to call her these days, a much better name, stood in the office to face her.
"My door was unlocked," Blood said.
"One of the mercenaries confessed to working for a group who calls themselves the Court of Owls," the Arrow said. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about these people, would you?"
Blood answered with one stoic word. "No."
The Arrow gave one long look at Blood, who looked her straight in the eye when he said that. Most people wouldn't look someone straight in the eye and lie to them because very few people could pull it off without any problems. Sara wasn't one hundred percent convinced.
"If I find out you're lying, I'll be back."
Blood gave no indication he heard a word she said. The Arrow walked towards the door.
"Before you go, I have something to say."
The Arrow stopped and turned around. She could see the true nature of Blood as he sat behind the desk. The bruises and the swollen eye, busted up lip, didn't hide the fact he still had all of the cunning of a politician.
"You're going on your own crusade now, and I respect that," Blood responded to her. "I'm trying to clean up the mess which has been made in this city. The last three Mayors have been short-lived, and they all have died because of increased violence. Even I found out that I wasn't untouchable. It's a horrible cross to bear to try and save this city."
Blood stood up despite the agony shooting through the back of his leg.
"We bear it each and every day," Blood said. "Oh, we do so in different ways, but we're not too much unlike. We've made enemies."
Blood answered with a sigh.
"The only difference is I do my crusade in the light," Blood said. "And you do yours in the dark, without any transparency, hiding your identity."
"Is there a point to this conversation?"
Blood got as close to staring down the Arrow as she would allow him to.
"The point is, as long as you wear that hood, there will always be people who wonder about your intentions."
The politician sighed and then decided to add something. "And thank you."
The Arrow disappeared into the night. News regarding the trial of Moira Queen popped up, and given Moira was one of his main talking points in his campaign, Blood wanted to hear the latest, even though he already knew. Blood took extra care to check his windows and doors, and also to sweep underneath his desk, just in case.
"The trial of Moira Queen, despite a motion for a delay and a motion for it to be moved, will be taking place in Starling City starting next week. She will be on trial for the attempted terrorism and murder of countless citizens in the Glades in Starling City."
A light rapping on the door caused Blood to rise from his position. An aide handed Blood a disposable cell phone and turned around to walk off without a word of acknowledgment the transaction occurred. The phone rang and Blood answered it in six rings, per their agreement.
"There must have been an easy way to keep in contact," Blood said.
"Did it all go to plan?"
"Yes, but did you have to tell them to beat me within an inch of my life?" Blood asked.
"We had to make it convincing, old friend," the man on the other end of the phone said.
"Soon the city will be reborn in a bath of fire, where only a few will survive," Blood said. "And after all, I've gone through, you should at least tell me the identity of Starling City's vigilante."
"Your sense of entitlement amuses me, for now," the man on the other end of the phone said. "At the end of the day, once all hope had been stripped of this city, and all had drawn their last breath, she will be unmasked for the entire world to see. The monster she is will finally be revealed."
"She has her attention directed towards the Court of Owls," Blood said.
"They may have their plans for this city, and as long as they line up with my plans, I will play along. But make no mistake about it, I'm nobody's pawn."
Blood's ties to the Court of the Owls made him very nervous right now. What was his benefactor planning.
"And now, since your approval has skyrocketed , it's time to go forward to phase two," he said. "I'll give you more instructions, but for now, destroy this phone once I hang up."
The phone line went dead. Blood set the phone on the desk and pulled open a drawer. He held a hammer and smashed the phone into dozens of tiny pieces.
Blood swept the pieces into the garbage without another word. He returned to watching the news, and planning his next move. It would be a good day in Starling City when he succeeded.
To Be Continued on April 7th, 2017.
Well, nefarious goings-on are happening in Starling City, but it wouldn't be a life in the day of Sara Lance if it wasn't.
Particle Accelerator, well, I'm pretty sure that's just background noise which won't be important in any way whatsoever later on. :)
Until Friday.