Disclaimer:
I do not own DC Comics. I do not own The CW. I do not own anything related to DC Comics in general, or Arrow specifically. Except maybe a few DVDs of old DC movies that I haven't given away yet.
Following Through
Chapter Four
Dragon's Wrath
By The Shroud
A/N:
Please review on whatever you can, suggestions, ideas, etc. This chapter imagines if Diaz really went all out on the full Team Arrow, and pretended that he was a real threat that was truly dangerous. I try to imitate the quick cut style of Arrow, and I'm not sure how I feel about it as opposed to the longer, continuous shot style. Let me know your thoughts on it. Expect death, vengeance, and a cliffhanger.
Middle May, 2018
Star City
At Oliver's house, he, Felicity, and William were having dinner, but he received a notification on his phone. Oliver got up and slowly walked to the phone, seeing a message from Anatoly to him and all the other members of the team, saying, 'GET OUT. NOW.'
He turned around, saw red dots zeroing in on each of their hearts, and shouted, "Get down! [1]"
Oliver flung himself to the floor, behind the countertop. From their breathing, he could tell they were both still alive, but Felicity must have been tagged with a bullet. He whispered to them, "Come over here-"
From the neighboring rooftop, a grenade had been fired at and through their window, exploding. As his ears started ringing, the three Quadrant members ziplined over to their roof, before dropping down to their balcony and then walking in. Felicity and William managed to crawl over to him despite being hit by some of the grenade fragments, and he gestured for them to stay quiet. They pulled out rifles, and he scrambled to get a weapon, only to find a barely sharp enough kitchen knife. It would have to do.
Same Time
Diggle received a notification, and he saw the message from Anatoly [2] just as he heard gunshots in a nearby room.
Curtis was with Nick, and received the message, just as three Quadrant members dropped down and started shooting, prompting Nick to tackle him down to the ground behind a desk.
Three gunmen kicked down the door before starting to shoot, and Rene jumped down behind a table, pushing it over to provide cover for both him and Zoe.
Dinah was talking to the unconscious person she had been dealing with, mocking, "You know, you're gonna wake up in a couple hours, your head's gonna be throbbing, you're gonna regret not talking."
Seven gunmen reloaded their guns behind her, and she realized, "Oh… you were just the bait."
In the hospital, Diggle ran through the crowd of people running away from the gunshots just as he was going towards them. Lyla had taken care of four gunmen already, and swung around when she heard his footsteps, only for him to raise his gun and shoot a gunman behind her. She spoke, "Thanks."
Three more gunmen swung around the corner, crouching, firing everywhere down the narrow hallway, where the two didn't have any cover and the rooms to the side were closed and locked. Diggle and Lyla were both shot down, falling to the ground, before the gunmen advanced to shoot both of them in the head.
The gunmen swung through the window, and Curtis saw that Nick had taken a bullet in the heat, and sobbed, "No, no, no-"
Before seeing the gunmen advance, and threw a Sphere, which managed to shock two gunmen, but the third had already opened fire, killing him, before the third gunmen was shocked as well.
Rene picked up his gun, and spoke to Zoe, "Don't look."
Zoe nodded, and he sat up, shooting the three gunmen in the head in quick succession. Prepared for more, he started reloading, and just as he finished, five more came through. The first two he shot down, but each of the next three had grenade launchers, and two managed to fire grenades before also getting gunned down. The grenades blew up, destroying his house and killing him, though he managed to shield his daughter from the blast.
Dinah carefully considered her options, before screaming and then swinging around and using a baton to bat the guns out of their hands. Part of the sound wave vibrated throughout the wall in front of her, and another part reflected before hitting her, the gunmen behind her, and the other wall, which resonated, causing the walls to collapse on them. Thanks to the slight increased durability she had as a metahuman, she was able to get up, and started stumbling away to the safe way, but got sniped from another rooftop from another person. This other person was wearing a strange black suit with concentric white circles, and whispered, almost childishly, "Bang."
Primary Lair
Eight members of the Quadrant moved with precision, using axes to smash all the cases, crush the computers, rip out the wires, tear up the suits, and demolish the walls besides that right next to the elevator.
Quadrant Safehouse
Diaz spoke over the phone, "Oh, if only I could have done this months ago [3]. Torch it."
Primary Lair
They started pouring gasoline all over the place, while also including some dynamite. All but one went into the elevator, and the last one activated a lighter, dropped it, and then ran back to the elevator, barely escaping the fiery explosion that completely wrecked the lair.
Back In Oliver's House
Oliver crawled over to the opposite side, before jumping out to slit the closest one's throat, knowing that reluctance to kill could only be fatal in this case, and used their body as a shield. He picked up a nearby table, throwing it at one of the two remaining gunmen while throwing the corpse at the other and running up to slit their throat as well, pulling out a fully loaded pistol from their jacket and, seeing the last one lying on the floor from the table he had thrown, shot the final one in the head…only for five more gunmen to bust in through the door and begin firing haphazardly everywhere, killing Felicity and William and hitting him twice in the chest. Before they could start aiming at him, he shot them in rapid succession, killing them as it was unlikely they would have useful enough information for interrogation to yield anything of value.
Oliver breathed in and out, in and out. He slowly crawled over to William and Felicity, closing their eyes, gaining a dark form of determination. He may have suffered the brunt of the Dragon's wrath, but the Dragon would learn to fear his own wrath… if he didn't die first.
A/N:
And that concludes this chapter. I considered killing absolutely everyone, even Oliver, but this leaves room for a sequel where I can explore a possible plot (or three) that I hope everyone can enjoy.
[1] William and Felicity were at the table, then the three attackers show up, and then Oliver shouts for them to get down and suddenly they're teleported behind the countertop with him. Not here. In addition, the other two just stand and wait while he takes out one of them rather slowly (relatively) and don't shoot at him or the fleeing Felicity and William. Not here. I give them a lot of luck… but it's not enough. I should warn you that I'm particularly fond, in the actions scenes I write, of headshots (in the rare case I include a gun or when there's a blade of some kind going through the brain stem) and of slitting throats. They seem logical targets, considering that they will certainly kill the person in question (almost certainly if they're Frank Castle and get lucky with those bullets to the skull, but the other things should work unless they have some blood bags on them that automatically pump in blood somehow long enough to survive a few more seconds and then manage to press a hand against the wound, which drastically limits their fighting capabilities. The brain stem is still as certain as ever, though, unless the attacker misses.)
[2] Anatoly sending it to all of them makes more sense than Diaz sending a group to Oliver and then to everyone else, thereby allowing Felicity to warn everyone. Diaz is quite the 'loser' in S6&7. Not here. Instead, he sends eight attackers, staggering them with three as a first wave and five more to follow up… oh, I meant eight each.
[2] He wasn't able to, because he didn't have full control of the Quadrant yet. But now, he's about to find out why it's a very, very bad idea...