Roy continued working on the steel rivets that held some of the panels of the small tin shed together, it was becoming hard work as the steel strip that he had found on the floor, that he was using to force between the panels in an effort to pop the rivets, was now slippery from the blood that came from cuts all over his hands where the jagged pieces of tin he had pried open had sliced into his fingers..and the darkness in the shed meant he was working by feeling, rather than sight.
He was rapidly getting to the point were he wouldn't be able to continue working, the withdrawal symptoms from the heroin he had been given over the last week would soon make it impossible for him to continue, but he was so close, and a couple more rivets and he would be able to push himself through the lose panel he was creating in the back wall of the shed he had been tossed into earlier..If only he could stop shaking so much he would be able to work faster, but he was so damned cold.
He stopped working for a moment to ride the wave of nausea that flooded over him, shivering even more violently as he sank to the floor and sat still, breathing rapidly, and gasping at a surge of pain that hit him..after a while the feeling subsided a little. "C'mon Harper, you're stronger then this." he whispered to himself, forcing himself to turn back to work on the shed wall again..He was surprised they had simply locked him in here and left..he was pretty certain they hadn't even bothered posting a guard at the door, if they had he was sure they would have investigated the noise he was making by now, perhaps they thought he was too weak to try to escape..or perhaps they thought the ropes they'd had tied him with would hold...If he remembered correctly there wasn't even a fence..he could easily make it to the thick forest that boarded the edge of the yard..and then he'd need to move quickly if he was to make it to safety, or at least far enough away from his captors before the heroin withdrawal became too much to bare and he'd have to stop an ride it out for a day or so. He gave a final tug on the lose panel and was rewarded with a loud pop as the final rivet gave way.
He pushed his way past the lose panel and fell to his hands and knees on the ground in the darkness at the back of the shed..His stomach flipped and he was unable to stop the dry heaving that accompanied the nausea. Eventually his stomach stopped it's cruel assault and he gasped for a moment, before glancing around him and standing up, lurching on legs that felt entirely too weak to hold him upright for much longer, he surged ahead and disappeared into the forest.
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Green Arrow put his hands behind his head and leaned back in his seat, looking admiringly around himself at the little buttons levers on the control panal of the Bat plane, he smiled to himself..Batman sure had some great toy's to play with. "What does it cost for one of these thing's anyway?" he asked curiously.
"A lot." Batman replied.
Green Arrow sighed irritably. "I know it cost a lot, but I...Oh forget it..So do you think we're gonna need an assist with this or what? 'Cause Connor and Mia are hanging by the phone 'case I need 'em." he asked.
"We recon first..see what the situation is, and if necessary we'll call in whoever we need." Batman replied.
Green Arrow remained silent for a moment.."What do you think they want with my boy?" he asked.
"I'm not entirely sure of that..I do know that Austin Dixon grand plan is to rid the earth of Meta humans..he believes they are a threat to the purity of the human race...I also know that he was working for Checkmate at the same time as Roy was, he was eventually relieved of his duties for health reasons..the man's certifiably insane..he spent some time institutionalised before he managed to escape and flee the country." The Dark clad hero replied.
Green Arrow remained in uncharacteristic silence for a long time, staring silently at the control panel of the jet.
Batman glanced briefly towards his temporary partner, then looked away again. "We'll find him Ollie..We'll get him home safely." he said, his voice warm and reassuring..that of Bruce Wayne rather than Batman.
"I hope so Bat's I really do..A couple of weeks is a long time for anyone to be in a lunatics hands...I don't even want to think about what they coulda done to him." Green Arrow replied quietly.
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"Find him!...Don't come back until you have him, I don't want any excuses, we need to get him back now!." David Baily ordered the six men that stood in front of him, watching as four of them headed into the forest, while the other two hopped into a van and headed down the dirt road that ran along the forests edge...He had no idea how he was going to break this news to Austin...He was supposed to be moving Harper away from here..Two American heroes had turned up at their Swiss compound and spurred Dixon to want to ensure the continuation of their work remained secure..A lot was riding on the information that Harper had so far kept hidden..without Harper their goal would be so much harder to reach.
"He can't have gone far..." A man standing beside him started to say.
"Why didn't you put a guard on him? You know how important he is to the cause...Do you know what Austin will do when he finds out whats happened?...Do you!" Baily yelled at the other man.
"It was cold David...I didn't see any point in having the men standing outside in the..."
"You didn't see any point?...You idiot...maybe you'd see the point if you had to be the one the tells Austin he's missing!"
"We'll find him David, He won't have gotten very far, he's been weakened over the last couple of weeks..Just hold off on telling Austin for now, there's no need to alert him when we could have Harper back again in a couple of hours."
"We'd better get him back, and fast..Austin wants us out of here by morning." Baily replied, turning his back suddenly and walking inside the house they had been inhabiting for the last few weeks...They had gone to a lot of effort to ensure Harper couldn't escape from them, even going so far as the convert a room at the back of the house into a cell for the red head..only to have all that effort waisted by this one stupid move.
end 6