December 9th 2013 - Arrow Cave/Arrow secret base

John Diggle, a man willing to lose it all for the sake of what he truly cared about. He was willing when he fought for his country and lost his brother, and he's willing even now as the ally of Oliver Queen, The Vigilante. The fight never really ends was his first thought as he helped Oliver onto the bed in their secret hideout. Always some new threat, some new enemy coming out of the woodwork, first it was Malcolm Merlin, now this new threat with super soldiers. It just never stops.

Something was bothering him though, why was he there? He just caught a glimpse of him on their way out, the guy in the trench coat who called himself Zalost. He expected Oliver to go in half cocked, but somehow this guy managed to get them both out of there alive despite the super human they were up against.

"Oliver, you need to tell me what happened in there." He was still making up his mind on this Leo guy, was he a threat, an ally. He was certainly forthcoming about where he'd learned to fight, but it wasn't anything like hardened military training or even remotely similar to what his friend went through. Instead, it was cobbled together, makeshift, with different techniques mixed in to fix any weaknesses.

"I told you, I saw him sneak into the factory and followed him, I wasn't sure he knew what he was up against after breaking into the clinic last night." he sounded tense, though that might be the bruised ribs from what looked like a sledgehammer at first with knuckle imprints.

"Right, the guy you got those files from. The guy I wanted to gauge better before you went in to try and get him to not make trouble on top of everything else."

"He wasn't there to fight Cyrus, but he clearly wasn't working for them either, something doesn't add up with all this, he was prepared for him, like he knew he was going to be there." Oliver paused as he noticed something in the pocket of his costume now that his ribs were bandaged, and pulled out some sort of brass syringe.

"You can't be serious." he noticed it was filled with some sort of green liquid. "When did he?" "Felicity, get this analyzed, I need to know everything you can tell me about it."

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December 10th 2013

I turned the vial over in my hands, the green liquid almost glowing in the dim light of the office I was squatting in. "Ok, so I've got the mirakuru, now what, it's not like it's safe." I sighed as my head rested against the cool wall, the morning sunlight filtering in through the window. Setting it back into my coat pocket now wrapped in some cloth I found discarded to help protect the glass vial from shattering and impacts, I got up to get back to working on my project.

Sitting on a makeshift workbench was a stun-gun one of those crooked cops had dropped in the scuffle with those teenagers, I'd taken it apart to make sure there were no tracking devices on it and removed the serial number, no point in getting caught with a police weapon except getting sent to jail. Rigging up a charger for the battery wasn't too difficult, there was an old laptop charger and some scrap equipment I could pull resistors and capacitors from to set up the correct voltage and amperage from the multi-meter I keep in my rucksack for when I need to fix something or do something makeshift, the small pen soldering iron more than enough for patching wires and replacing small components with the battery pack I had charging with the solar panel during the day.

I aimed the freshly charged stun gun at a pile of papers and heard the telltale click of the tazer going off, nodding in approval before retracting the line and re-arming the gas cartridge with the hand full I'd picked up at a sporting goods store. They were cool with me trading supplies for fixing a serious leak in their stockroom instead of needing a plumber on record. I'd been taking jobs like this now for a couple of days from places around the poor parts of starling city, either in exchange for money or supplies, but only what I needed.

I was a long ways from being able to do something with the super soldier serum, and I wasn't wealthy either. I hated having to hide this from the hood, but I knew he would find me snagging it suspicious, and I was hoping that sneaking the syringe into his costume would be helpful since he didn't have Barry trying to save him or Roy recovering now due to my interference. It was around this time I heard someone trip and knock something over in the hallway, causing me to duck back into the shadows, my stun-gun at the ready.

"I'm telling you I heard he was staying here, the handyman who's been helping the glades, only asking for food or supplies in exchange for fixing stuff." my heart was beating so loud it was echoing in my ears, I didn't like combat, but it was a necessity sometimes, so I had to be ready for anything.

"Barry I know you want to investigate this case but really, you should just leave this guy alone, he probably had nothing to do with the fight at that factory last night." I paused and started to breathe deep to calm down before I heard the door turn, crap, why didn't I lock it?!

"Look the train broke down before I could head back, so I'm stuck here for the moment anyway, plus the description given by a witness to the incident matches the one given by those guys who got beat up at big belly burger recently as well as this handyman guy. And the chili powder on the floor of the factory was clearly made in a non-sterile environment, so it adds up."

They paused as our eyes met, and I had nowhere to go at that point. I stood up and walked over to the pair, mentally kicking myself and swearing to figure out what entity was toying with me. "Wasn't expecting visitors, sorry for the mess but, well, it was only supposed to be temporary anyway." I set the stun-gun down on the table and did my best to hide the anxiety I was feeling at having been discovered.

"Hi I'm Barry, and I just wanted to ask you some questions if that's alright?"

I sighed, he really was way too open and friendly, just like I remembered. I mentally wished him good tidings and decided to pull up one of the office chairs I stashed against the wall, this was probably going to take a minute and the woman who I quickly reminded myself was Felicity was eying the small workbench I'd set up, my tools set out from the stun gun I was working on, my watch off to the side since the wristband was a multi-tool for electronics stuff.

"Mr Allen, as I'm sure you're aware, I'm squatting in this office, as it is, it's dangerous to be wandering around here, so I'd prefer if you didn't stay too long, might bring attention and force me to relocate." The use of his last name had a slight reaction as he tried to hide the surprise in his features, I then turned to Felicity.

"Felicity Smoak right?, did Mr Queen put you up to this?" I asked being a bit more direct, I swear he'd never let her into this situation on a good day and is likely watching from a nearby rooftop.

She seemed a bit surprised at the question, clearly not expecting to it. "He doesn't know but how did you know who I-" I interrupted her raiding my hand "Anyone can find anything out with enough access to information, you should know that given your past." clearly I hit a nerve given her reaction but turned to Barry next.

"Mr Allen, to answer your likely questions, yes I was at that factory last night, and no I'm not connected to the murders, as a civilian CSI and consultant if you want to perform an arrest you need an on duty officer right? I'd be happy to answer whatever questions you might have but at the moment I'm afraid I've had a long night, so I will agree to meet with you at the diner two blocks west in a couple hours, alright?"