Felicity and Laurel 49
The night was warm and clear with the quarter moon rising over Starling's skyline, but apart from acknowledging the help the faint light gave her Laurel paid it little heed, for tonight she had a target.
The Huntress was on a solo mission tonight, after Fat Tony Mokbal. Laurel was all too familiar with his reputation, a notorious pimp and a rough one as well, his girls ended up in hospital if they didn't make their assigned amount of money turning tricks overnight; the girls too terrorized to speak against him, no matter how hard Laurel and the DAs office had tried. He'd walked from the courtroom so often that Laurel had been itching to take him down but she'd held off, partly afraid that this one might be personal, trying to remain objective.
And she'd remained objective, right up until Sin had learnt that Fat Tony was forcibly recruiting street kids as young as 12 into a brothel; made available to people willing to pay exorbitant prices to have sex with children. Oliver might have demanded she leave Mokbal to him, or the team, but Oliver was in Central City with John, following up on a lead on the new strain of Vertigo that had started to hit the streets. It had first appeared there so he'd gone to Central City to work with the Flash on chasing down any leads.
That had left her and Roy to patrol Starling, but when she'd heard Sin's news, Laurel had suited up and gone after Mokbal. She knew Oliver would be pissed, but she was happy to finally admit that this one was personal.
Felicity had stood there, watching as she'd suited up then nodded once and smiled, before telling her to 'go get him'. Laurel had smiled hugged her tight then left, knowing she carried Felicity with her in her ear as she watched over Laurel like their guardian angel.
Moving up the fire escape to the right floor she peered in the filthy window, confirming that it was the right room and that her target was alone. Taking a deep breath she stepped back as far as she could, then took a running start, reaching up and grabbing the metal of the next level of the fire escape, swinging up and ramming feet first into the window. It shattered as her feet hit it, her momentum carrying her through to land amidst a shower of broken glass. Mokbal spun in his seat and jumped to his feet, backing away from her.
"Jesus, who the hell are you, some kinky bitch with a leather fetish?" Laurel couldn't hang around; she knew others would have heard the breaking glass. Her voice sounded strange, she was still not used to the voice distorter and she sounded wrong to her ears.
"Tony Mockbal, you have failed this city" The gross, corpulent toad kept backing away, edging around the desk towards the door.
"That's the Arrow's line and you ain't him" Laurel shook her head and spoke, moving to stay between Mokbal and the door.
"No, I am the Huntress and tonight I'm hunting you" He sneered.
"You can be whoever you wanna call yourself, it don't matter to a dead woman" His hand dived inside his jacket, obviously grabbing for a gun. Laurel had already palmed a shuriken before she had spoken; with a swift throw it sliced into the back of Mokbal's hand as it emerged holding a gun. At this short range it was an easy throw, the shuriken's blade sinking deep into the tendons and muscle there, the gun clattering to the floor from suddenly weakened fingers as he screamed. Before she could move Felicity's voice sounded in her ear from back at the lair where she had hacked into the building's security cameras.
"Two men with guns about to come through the door from the corridor, you have probably five seconds" Laurel was already reaching down, grabbing one of the ASP telescopic batons from her boot and extending it with a metallic snapping sound, arriving at the door as it opened, bringing the baton down onto the first man's wrist as it appeared holding a pistol, Full of adrenaline she hit him at full strength and the man's wrist shattered from the sheer force of the impact, the gun hitting the floor as the man screamed from pain. Not pausing, she kicked him in the leg, sending him stumbling as she whipped her hand back, the baton catching the second man across the face, probably breaking his jaw or cheekbone as he was thrown back against the door jamb by the savage blow, stumbling to his knees, he'd managed to hang on to the pistol so she brought the baton down on the back of the gun, sending it tumbling away as a follow up knee to the side of his head knocked him out.
Turning back she saw the first man bending down, trying to grab the gun with his off hand so Laurel took a step over then delivered a savage punt kick to the guy's chest, sending him flipping onto his back, crumpled against the wall, either unconscious or stunned. She kicked the gun out of reach then turned to see Mokbal clutching his wrist, trying to dislodge the shuriken and wincing in pain at every movement.
Striding over she grabbed the shuriken and wrenched it out, dragging a stifled scream from Mokbal as the barbs tore at the flesh, then kneeing him in the stomach, following it up with a blow across the face with her fist that sent him to his knees. No use trying to hit him in the belly when he had that much padding there.
"Tony Mokbal, you have failed this city. For your crimes you must pay in full measure" He stared up at her, his face twisted in pain.
"Pay how? Money? How much do you want, I'll pay, anything"
"With the remainder of your life" A savage round house kick to the face sent him crumpled to the floor as Felicity's voice sounded through the earpiece.
"OK, I called in an anonymous tip off to the SCPD; I'd say you have three to five minutes"
"Right" Laurel wiped her shuriken clean on Mokbal's shirt before returning it to its belt pouch, grabbing a handful of cable ties to secure each man's hands and feet, then turned, scanning the desk for Mokbal's laptop. "I see it" With quick movements she unplugged it from the system, then moved back through the smashed window, retrieving the backpack she'd stashed there and sliding the laptop inside. A minute more and she was up the fire escape and making her way across the rooftop, the first sounds of sirens already audible. "That was quick, what did you tell them?"
"That the Arrow was seen entering the building" Laurel shook her head and smiled to herself.
"Great, I do the work and he gets the credit" She heard the snigger in Felicity's voice.
"Only until they talk to Fat Tony, I think you terrified him, he probably wet himself when you used that 'pay with your life' line" Laurel smirked a little evilly; she wasn't particularly concerned about the sensibilities of a lowlife scum pimping children out to paedophiles.
"Good, I can't wait to see him finally go away for his crimes" She vaulted across a small gap between roofs without stopping as Felicity's voice came though.
"How long do you think he'll get?"
"For child sex slavery, kidnapping and a bunch of lesser crimes, he might get out when he's seventy, or maybe eighty, depending on the judge"
"Good, and good work tonight, I watched a bit of the fight from the hall camera and you had it under control" Laurel nodded as she leapt a three foot gap to another roof, moving quickly to clear the area.
"Thanks, they weren't expecting me, that'll change in time but for now I'm not complaining"
"I liked that line, I am the Huntress and tonight I'm hunting you" Laurel smiled, a little embarrassed.
"Thanks, it didn't sound too corny did it?"
"No, it sounded good, not sure how the Arrow's going to handle you stealing his tag line though" Laurel shrugged mentally even as she kept moving.
"It ties us together, makes them know that there are multiple people protecting Starling, not just one person, but an organisation" She could hear Felicity's smile though the comlink.
"Team Arrow for the winz" Laurel continued her progress across the rooftops when a loud racket from behind her made her pause and turn.
"That's interesting" Felicity's voice came though, a little anxious, making Laurel smile at her friend's care.
"What?"
There's a helicopter just arrived, it's sweeping the roof of Mokbal's building with a searchlight"
"They must know the Arrow uses the roofs, are you clear yet?"
"Give me a few minutes to put some more distance between them and me, they've started sweeping surrounding rooftops" Laurel could hear Felicity thinking that over.
"OK, head on home and I'll have a coffee waiting for you"
Seven minutes later she was two blocks away and dropping down to the space where she'd stashed her silenced motorbike. Ten minutes later and Laurel was pulling into a darkened courtyard on the far side of the Glades, turning the bike off. Dismounting she moved to the wall and, counting bricks up and across, she located the right one and pushed it, feeling it give before the wall slid back, revealing a room large enough for half a dozen bikes. She pushed it inside to join several others then closed it up again, before making her way up another fire escape, across the roofs of two buildings, before opening a ventilator and climbing in. Pulling the door shut behind her, faint lights came on, barely illuminating the ladder down. At the bottom she turned to a solid metal door and entered a five digit number into a keypad, hearing it unlock and swinging it open, revealing a small room.
Stepping inside the airlock, she closed the door then used another keypad to open a second door, revealing a dimly lit tunnel running off into the distance. At the end she came to a second airlock, the same combination on the keypad opening the door. Once closed, she turned and entered a different combination into the keypad in front of her, with a click a portion of the brick wall next to her swung back, revealing a short tunnel. If she'd entered the original combination it would have opened the obvious door in front if her which led away from the lair back to the surface via several tunnels and two airlocks, all under surveillance from the lair.
Stepping through the false wall and closing it behind her she walked up the corridor to the final door, pulling her right glove off she pressed her thumbprint to the scanner while leaning forward to have her retina scanned.
Satisfied she was authorised, the armored door unlocked and she stepped through, into the welcoming warmth of the lair, to be greeted by Felicity, holding a coffee out for her.
"Welcome back" Laurel smiled as she took the cup, sipping carefully as the scalding coffee hit her tongue, Felicity made them hot, sweet and strong, just what she needed. "You sounded like you were having fun" Lauren nodded. What she'd done had been risky and dangerous but at the end of the day, it had been exhilarating and when she'd finished she'd just wanted to laugh at the sheer joy of surviving, of taking down someone like Mokbal and watching the fear in his eyes as he realised his money and his reputation and his hired muscle wasn't going to help him. She looked back at her friend and smiled.
"It was, not the whole danger part, but the excitement and the rush and the knowledge that he's going away for a very long time, yeah that feels pretty damned good actually" Felicity nodded and held her hand out.
"Speaking of which, may I have the prize?" Laurel nodded, putting down the coffee and slipping the backpack off, then pulling out Mokbal's laptop for Felicity to sort through in search of the evidence they'd need to put him away. The hacker wandered away and started connecting the laptop up to a series of cables, before booting it up. "Hmm, that's interesting, everything's secured with military grade encryption" Laurel frowned, only to have it turn to a smile at Felicity's next words. "It'll take a few hours to crack it and download everything" Laurel nodded.
"No one ever said he was stupid, a vicious thug and an amoral son of a bitch yes, but stupid? No" Felicity stepped back and looked at her friend.
"Anyway, it'll be ready tomorrow" Laurel nodded.
"We can have a look through it then before dropping it off to the SCPD computer guys" She turned to look at Felicity standing there, a smile on her face then came to a decision.
"Felicity, how would you like to come on patrol with me?" Felicity's jaw dropped.
"Me?" Laurel smiled at her friend's surprised look and near-squeak in her voice.
"Yeah you, you might as well get used to being out in costume and we both know Oliver'll only let you out of here over his dead body" Laurel shrugged. "We can meet up with Roy and you can get some experience watching us at work" Laurel smiled at her friend and raised an eyebrow. "I know it's late but are you in?" Felicity looked at her for a moment, before a wide smile broke out as she spoke.
"Hey, I'm a masked vigilante too, I'm used to going out at three in the morning and doing something stupid" At the Watchmen quote they both broke into a grin, before Laurel tipped her head at the row of costume cases.
"Then go and get changed, the night's still young"
