Chapter 8:

During the original first few weeks after Oliver's return, Thea spent her nights either dancing and drinking at clubs or watching TV alone while high on Roxys. That was definitely more fun than her current situation. But this time she had to focus on protecting her friends and family from a psychopath.

Tonight, she was watching Felicity scan a never-ending pile of documents from a cracked widow in the abandoned skyscraper across from Queen's Consolidated. The room was plastered with graffiti and was far too dusty. It definitely needed an effective interior designer for some business to decide to use it as office space.

She had decided to take a break from trying to contact Oliver. She did all she could to reach him. Eventually she would run into him, whisper she knew the truth and ask to talk to him privately in the Arrowcave.

While her original inkling was to stake out Roy's place, she chose to watch Felicity because she was Chase's most likely target. After all, Chase's obsession was on Oliver, not her. Chase already tried to attack or manipulate Laurel like he did Evelyn Sharp. In some ways, Evelyn reminded Thea of herself at nineteen. Naïve and foolish to believe that a psychopath could have a heart. She hoped the young girl could live a normal life this time.

Anyways, it was hard to be certain of his game plan. But Laurel was with Joanna and under police surveillance. Oliver's future ex-fiancé had no such protection.

It was up to her. So far, Felicity was safe. It was nearing 10:30 pm and she was still at work. No wonder Felicity could handle working late nights as Overwatch and the CEO at Palmer Tech. She already was working late nights as a lowly IT girl. For some reason, Felicity was not working at a computer. All she was doing was scanning documents and putting them in folders. Didn't they have secretaries for that type of administrative work?

A woman with her dog and a few drunk adults passed the entrance of Queen's Consolidated. Thea yawned, and wished she brought some coffee with her. But she did not want to accidentally leave anything with her DNA in this building. She had already drunk a large cup after school. That would have to suffice.

Her burner phone rang. Great Samantha was calling her again. Thea had been ducking her calls all afternoon; someone had entered Queens Consolidated each time she called before, and she hadn't wanted to be distracted. Well, it looks like no one was entering the building and Felicity had at least a dozen more documents to scan and organize. She could take a moment to console Samantha.

"Hey Samantha," Thea answered. "Are you alright?"

"No. I'm not," Samantha said snidely. "Your mother came by today and threatened me."

"I'm sorry." Thea said, eyes still moving back and forth between Felicity and the people passing Queen's Consolidated. "I'll talk to her when she's back." She did remember Walter mentioning that her mother was going on a trip today. She had been too distracted by her failure to reach Oliver.

"She's served me. She's trying to get William away from me. Oliver actually signed a motion for custody." Samantha screamed into the phone. "What is he thinking? He knows that William would be in danger if he's in his life."

"What's a motion?" Thea glanced at the window across the way. Everything was fine. Felicity was still working in the copy room.

"A pleading. A legal document that asks a court to grant them what they want. I'll need to hire a lawyer to write a reply. A counter-complaint. There's no way I'm going without a fight. But, seriously, can't you talk to Moira and Oliver and tell them to let this go. We need to focus on Prometheus. That terrorist attack your mother is planning. But, no, you're letting your family focus on trying to steal my son from me."

"Oliver deserves a relationship." Thea felt that she was running in circles with Samantha. Every conversation led to the same words and tension. When would it end? "I'll talk to them about delaying it. But we will have to figure out this situation eventually. You need to consult with Oliver before making a decision. You know he deserves that."

"You know I do," Samantha said shortly. "But Prometheus. He kidnapped us and William. He bombed the island. He killed us."

Lying in a corner of her own loft, blood drenching out of her neck. One moment she struggled to speak to Oliver and the next she burst from a hot tub to an unfamiliar place, surrounded by people to attack.

"I know. We basically died. But we survived. We will stop him and figure out all this drama." No. Not now Felicity. "Now can you be quiet for a second? Felicity is leaving the copy room."

"Felicity. You're watching Felicity instead of talking to Oliver about Prometheus?" Samantha's voice cracked.

Thea watched Felicity moving from the copy room to a hallway out of her line of sight. "I tried, but he's off being you know what. He's probably wallowing in self-hatred, blaming himself for the Triad attacking Laurel. Watching Felicity is something I can do until he gets his head out of his ass."

Samantha sighed. "Sorry. I'm just worried. I was hoping you had some plan to protect William."

"I do. We'll find a safe house for you and William to hide in until Prometheus is finished." Thea explained.

"What about Moira?"

"I'll handle her." Three muscular men had entered Queen's Consolidated. Thea could see the barest hint of something in their pockets. They could be carrying guns. Great. Trouble was coming the one time she decided to call Samantha back. Felicity was still in the building. Thea was not going to take any chances.

"Look. Some suspicious men entered the building. I'm going in to check and make sure Felicity is safe."

"Ok. Please let me know that you're both alright after you're sure." Samantha told her. "I really don't want to deal with this alone or hear about her death tomorrow."

"Same." Thea ended the call.

After putting on her black mask and pulling the black hood from her sweatshirt over her head, Thea gathered her tools. It was strange to wear black instead of red, but a red outfit would possibly verify to Chase that either she or Roy was involved. She had a gun and a switchblade; she had wanted to buy a bow and arrow from a weapon's dealer but could not find one that carried them. She put on the voice modulator she bought. She pocketed the phone, and her car keys for the getaway car. Before zippering it shut, she grabbed an annoying, squeaky thing that was sure to distract the group. Laurel had definitely demonstrated the value of having a loud noisemaker when the other side had the physical advantage.

It was time for Speedy to conduct her first mission in this timeline.

There were times that Felicity Smoak hated her job as an IT support technician. The late nights were exhausting and her supervisor, Martin Fogly, was a user, plain and simple. He kept taking credit for Felicity's ideas and had threatened to fire her tonight if she refused to scan and electronically organize all the documents from Applied Sciences reports for a meeting the next morning. She didn't mind the electronic organizing part; she had already developed an algorithm for that. She despised that Martin was forcing her to spend her evening hours copying documents.

He could have told her about the project at any time during the day, but no. He had to wait until she was about to leave. While Martin was home with his wife, Felicity was stuck at work. Why did she choose this job over the one at S.T.A.R labs again? Oh, right, her fear that she would be in a position that would entice her to create and facilitate another dangerous computer virus. Still, if it wasn't for the amazing CEO, Walter Steele, who always checked in on his employees' welfare, Felicity might have left this job long ago.

After four hours of this mind-numbing task, Felicity decided to take a break and drink some of Martin's Red Bull from the staff room. If she was going to be up all night, she needed caffeine. Take that, Martin. If he wanted to ruin Felicity's night, he deserved a stolen drink.

Felicity brought her drink to her cubicle. Some of the drink splattered on some papers on her white desk. Great, she just had to clumsily spill. This was a night to remember. The sight reminded Felicity of her mother, Donna Smoak. Felicity had more than enough memories of her mother bringing her to the corner of the club she worked at in Nevada. Each time Donna brought a drink near an attractive man, she would accidentally spill the drinks and flirt with him. Oftentimes, she would end up bringing him home with her and Felicity at the end of the night.

Three good-looking men came around the corner. The one in the front had an off-putting haircut where one part of his hair looked higher than the other. He was most likely the leader. The other two were big, burly men who seemed to wait for his command.

"Can I help you?" Felicity wondered how they sneaked in. Queen's Consolidated had state-of-the-art security, with security badges, security pads with different codes for each level, key fobs specialized for unlocking the main door of each level and various rooms for the higher ups, and several night guards.

"Are you Felicity Smoak?" The leader walked so close to her that she could see his Adam's apple bulging.

Felicity lowered her drink and pushed up her red glasses. A thousand thoughts ran through her head. She finally settled with the logical conclusion that these three visitors were here to make her night even worse.

"Who's asking?" Felicity pressed the button for security, nothing happened. Great. They must have broken the alarm. She looked around for an object to defend herself with. She grabbed a folder of documents she planned to shred earlier and her Red Bull. "I mean, I would like to say, I am who you think I am, but I don't know you. Do you want to hurt me or get back at me for something? I tell you; I don't answer threats and I could seriously ruin your credit score if you don't leave now!"

"She's her. He said you had red glasses and blond hair and tended to babble." One of the leader's lackeys said.

Great. Just great.

Felicity flung her remaining Red Bull on the leader's face and slapped him with the folder. As he leaned away, temporarily disoriented by the liquid in his eyes, Felicity ran around him.

Unfortunately, his lackeys were unfettered. One grabbed the folder out of her grip, and the other flung her to the glass wall. He pressed her tightly against the wall. Felicity tried to knee him in the groin, but his strong arms forced her to a sitting position on the ground. She could see elevators through the glass; they promised freedom. All she needed to do was get to the other side.

"Do you have it? Or can I choke her?" The lackey was asking the leader.

"I got it." The leader brought out an arrow. "Remember, Prometheus wants it to look like the Hood. Brute strength is not his forte."

Prometheus? The vigilante who saved the police detective's daughter? Wasn't he supposed to be the good one? Not that the Hood Guy was that bad; he did help many people receive their money back and only target rich morons.

Great. She was going to die at twenty-three. Way before she made anything out of her life. She was going to die insignificant. An unimportant, useless IT girl who never reached her full potential. This is not what she spent all those late nights at MIT for. This is not what her years of studying coding, operating systems and other secrets of technology were for. She should have done something more with her life than settling with this job.

Felicity needed to say something, or she would get overtaken by all her rambling thoughts of regret. "Look. You don't want to waste your time killing me. I'm nobody. I'm nothing. And it's not like the Hood guy goes around killing random employees at large corporations. He focuses on the CEOs and their security guards and their lawyers. The police will question it."

"You poured Red Bull down my face, and you expect me to not kill you?" The leader screamed. His handsome face twisted into a scowl, promising nothing but revenge.

"It's just a drink! I was only defending myself." Felicity shouted back. "And that's no reason to kill someone. People spill drinks on each other all the time. Sometimes on their cars and phones too." Oh, right! Felicity had her phone in her pocket. Maybe, she could use it to signal the back-up security alert she set up.

While the leader was staring at her, grinning wildly, the other two were more focused on strategizing on how to kill her. She needed to distract the leader.

"There's some paper towels in the nearby bathroom. Maybe, you can clean your eyes before you kill me. That way you can see me clearly when you, you know, stab me with an arrow."

The man stared at her, before nodding at his men. "Watch her, but don't kill her. I want to do it."

Great, the two men were now watching her closely as they argued. Still, at least there were only two men with her now. She could more likely escape from two men instead of three.

She could push the man off her and run. She tried to move, and he pushed her back. He was too strong. Who was she kidding? Her strengths were computer hacking and other forms of computer science, not fighting off killers.

A gunshot rang from outside the room. Was helping coming or did the leader kill someone?

It didn't matter. The two men were no longer looking at her. Felicity pressed the security alert and then dialed 911. As the police picked up, Felicity heard another gunshot and then a loud thump followed.

"Queen's Consolidated. Prometheus men are trying to kill…" One of the men took the phone from her and cracked it against the wall.

He threw her against the office's glass wall; this time Felicity's head bumped against the glass. He twisted her arm and Felicity heard a crack. "Seriously. What have I done to you? Don't you know that hurts? Of course, you do, and you don't care because you're a mad man who listens to some vigilante and follows his stupid orders to kill a defenseless woman. I hope you are happy with yourself, because you sure are seriously disturbed."

Before he could respond, a loud, squeaky noise vibrated across the room. The men both started clasping their ears. While Felicity disliked the sound as well, she used their distraction to crawl away from the man. She struggled to ignore the pain from her twisted shoulder and her throbbing head. Please let there be no internal bleeding.

As soon as she reached her desk, Felicity stood up and started running. Both men followed her as she ran out to the elevator area. She shrieked at the sight of the bloody body of the leader.

A person slightly taller than Felicity appeared from the hallway. It was a vigilante. One she never heard about on the news. He was wearing a ragged black hoodie and a dark mask covering his eyes. "Hide. I'll take them out." The person's voice was distorted; she recognized the sound of a voice modulator. She recalled playing around with them as a kid. Fun times.

Felicity nodded. "Thank you."

But before she could move, the two men appeared, their muscles pulsating and their hands in fists.

The vigilante raced towards them, pressing the noisemaker. The squeaky, disorienting noise returned. The two men grimaced and ran towards the vigilante. As they closed in, the vigilante kicked one in the groin, and shot at the other. As the vigilante and the first man fought, the man who received the gunshot wound faltered backwards.

The other man threw the vigilante face forward to the ground. He pressed his foot against the vigilante's neck. The vigilante reached for his gun, but it had flown across the room. As the man squeezed and the vigilante squirmed and struggled to breath, Felicity ran to the copy room.

The man was too strong for the vigilante. Felicity needed to help somehow. After frantically glancing around for a sharp object, Felicity grabbed a scissor and paper cutter; she was ready to help her savior.

Felicity returned to find the two men knocked out. Various cuts marred the arms of the henchman who had previously appeared unstoppable.

An echoey sound came beside her. "Thanks. But I had it handled. Still, keep those. Just in case they have any help waiting outside. Come with me and I'll bring you somewhere safe." The vigilante appeared over her right shoulder. He was now holding his gun and a switchblade.

Should she trust this vigilante? "I…"

"I promise that I don't want to hurt you, Felicity."

The black-hooded vigilante did stop Prometheus's men from killing her. "Ok. I trust you." And she did. This person's previous actions demonstrated that he cared about her safety. Also, she needed to find out why Prometheus wanted her dead. She was average-looking and undateable. She was a random IT girl. She was raised by a cocktail waitress and single mother. She was not the type of person who deranged people typically targeted.

"What should I call you?" Felicity asked as they walked down the stairs. "Hood 2? Gunslinger? Maybe Ninja Warrior? No, that name sucks.``

"Red Arrow."

"That doesn't make much sense given that you're not in red and you don't have any arrows. Oh wait, do you mean like red because you cause blood to pour out of people's bodies? Eek."

The vigilante voice modulator echoed again, and Felicity realized it was laughter. The electromagnetic waves of laughter created the echoes. "No. I definitely don't like seeing people bleed. Ew. So, yeah, that name is not really me, anyways. I just wanted to see if you'd call me that for once."

"For once? Have we met each other before? Do you work at QC too? Oh! Did you attend MIT?" The vigilante shook his head. "Oh, now you're killing me. I really want to know where you know me from. But I guess you can't because you vigilantes are all about hidden identity, and if I know, I might tell the police and ruin your life." Who did she know who asked her to call him Red Arrow?

"Yes. I prefer to keep my identity hidden. But I'm sure that if I told you, you'd keep it secret. I might tell you after we get to a safe place. I just have to check that my ally doesn't mind." The vigilante explained. "Call me Speedy."

"Cool. You are definitely speedy. And don't worry about hiding your identity from me. I understand why. You can't have strangers spilling all your secrets. But I do want you to know what happened. So, there I was, drinking an energy drink, minding my own business when ..." Felicity told Speedy about the night's events as they exited the building and entered a black car in a nearby alleyway. She needed to share the story before her mind became rattled by her painful experience.

Speedy drove them around Queen's Consolidated and into the main downtown road. Once they reached a stop light, Speedy took out a flip phone and pressed the number two and the speaker button. "I need to call my friend. She's worried."

Speedy left the phone between them in a drink holder. The phone rang until a shaken, tired female voice answered, "Are you alright? Is Felicity safe?"

"She is. We're all good. I'm taking her to a safe place where I can hopefully talk to You-Know-Who, and I don't mean Voldemort," Speedy explained.

The woman laughed. "Glad to hear. Look, William's calling for me. I'll talk tomorrow."

Felicity felt touched that a stranger cared about her safety. "Who was that?"

"Someone who cares," Speedy said simply.

Speedy continued to drive without stopping. Soon, they were riding through the Glades. Felicity did not spend much time in the Glades. She preferred her safe neighborhood in the outskirts between the central city and the Glades. She knew better than to walk alone in the Glades at night as a young woman.

"Where are we going?"

"A place where you'll be safe from Prometheus. I thought you said you're fine with some secrecy."

"Touché. I'll be quiet now. Oh, why is that homeless man petting a fire-hydrant"

"I don't think that's what he's doing," The vigilante said.

"I know. I just didn't want to say it." Ew. This night was definitely turning more disturbing. If that was even possible.

After a tense few minutes, Speedy stopped near an abandoned steel mill. Felicity recognized the QC logo on the side of the building.

"You do work at QC! That's why your secret hideouts here." Felicity giggled before gasping. Her stomach hurt. Probably from the stress she experienced tonight.

"Felicity. Are you ok?" Speedy turned towards her, reaching out his hand towards her shoulder before bringing it back.

"I'm fine." Felicity nodded frantically. Ignore the pain. That was her new mantra. "Don't you have someplace safe to show me?"

Speedy nodded. "Follow me."

Felicity followed Speedy into a rundown building. It did not even have a door. It was a wide-open space with concrete floors. Speedy led her to a door with an old-fashioned lock. Speedy and his partner definitely needed more updated security.

Speedy dropped to his knees and opened a vent. He pulled out a camera. He was starting to play it when an arrow flew in the air and struck his hand. Speedy dropped the camera and it clanged on the floor. Another arrow striked Speedy's leg.

A man in a green hood appeared and Felicity screamed uselessly, "Hood guy alert." Damn, this is awkward and scary. So scary.

The Hood was holding a bow with an arrow aimed at Speedy's chest.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't kill you or your friend." The Hood's voice modulator was deeper. Felicity felt her chest pain rumble. She survived Prometheus's men just to be killed by the Hood.

"Well, for one, she's injured, and she is an innocent person who needs your protection from a maniac named Prometheus." Speedy said.

The Hood pulled his arrow back. "And you?"

"If you let me take off my hood and mask, I can give you a million reasons."

The Hood raised his bow in a gesture that probably meant go ahead.

Speedy took off and pocketed his mask, and then lowered his hood.

"Holy shit, my savior is a teenage girl." Felicity squealed. She was not expecting that. To think, she kept referring to Speedy as a he. The teenager stared at Felicity, smirking. She had to explain herself. "Not that I don't believe girls can fight or anything. It's really cool, so cool that you can fight and all. So cool."

Damnit, why couldn't she control her babbling.

"I know you. Don't I? Where have I seen you? Think, Felicity, think."

Felicity then coughed some blood. Great. Not a good sign.

"Felicity." Speedy stepped towards her and helped her to the ground. "Rest. I'll talk to the Hood."

Felicity glanced at the Hood. He (or she?) was staring at Speedy, frozen in place, but at least the bow was lowered.

Finally, the Hood said, "Speedy. What? How?"

So, the Hood knew Speedy, but not as a vigilante.

What craziness has she gotten involved in? To think, she thought her night was bad when she was simply scanning paperwork. It's amazing how her life could change in a few hours.