"Lightning, get down here, now" Was the text that I received from Felicity. I informed another security guard I was taking a break and to cover my position as I covertly made my way to the keypad. I input the code and walked down the stairs. "Dig, Fel, whats happening?" Diggle looked at me "Apparently Oliver decided to give Laurel another hooded visit and she called half the force in with a silent alarm. Oliver seems to have got away but he hasn't made it back yet" I sighed "I'll hood up and find him." I began to suit up and I was just strapping on my weapons when Oliver walked in. I smirked at him "And here I thought I had to save your ass." He then said "You almost did." Felicity said "Yeah, because going after actual bad guys is so last year." Oliver then said angerly "To her I am the bad guy." Felicity then said "Since when?" Oliver replied "Since I didn't make it to Tommy in time." I looked down "She forgives you Ollie..Be patient.." Felicity looked at me before saying "How did you get out of there?" Oliver then looked at me and said "I had help from a masked blonde woman in black. Anyone you know David?" I was silent for a second. Was the huntress back in town... or did Sara finally make her debut in Starling City as the Canary? Well since Oliver knew what the Huntress looked like.. It had to be Sara. I nodded "Yes. She is not a threat.. She is an ally.. And I believe may be a team member in the future." John then said "If you could tell us who it is that saves us the trouble of having to find her." I chuckled "This one I can't John.. Spoilers. But you can track her using her Canary Cry.. The sonic thing I bet she used saving your ass Ollie." He nodded "I don't like the idea of another player in town.. Future ally or not." Felicity nodded "I'm on it."
I watched Ollie and Dig spar as Felicity worked. I watched their techniques "Good job Dig, you are getting better. Maybe one day you will be good enough to fight me" Oliver looked at me "Did you just say you are better than me?" I laughed "Like it or not Oliver... I do have stuff I can teach you..Assassin training, for when you are ready to take my instruction." Felicity then said "That may have to wait. I do have something on our mystery woman.. Multiple reports of a masked blonde woman attacking.. Attackers. She put five would be rapists in the hospital so far" I nodded "Sounds like her." Oliver then said "So she is targeting criminals." I nodded "As I mentioned.. An ally." Diggle then said "First David.. Then the Hoods.. Now her.. Looks like you started a movement Oliver." Oliver then said "I don't want to start a movement. David was the only good to come of that.. And technically he came first so he does not count. So we catch her.. And stop her. I'm not letting this city get overrun by vigilantes" I chuckled. Oliver looked at me "Don't tell me I do?" I shook my head "Not overrun.. Just.. More than us. We are called the OG team for a reason."
The phone on the table vibrated. Felicity answered it "Hi Detective." Oliver and I both looked at her in shock. She took down an address and said "I'll see he gets your message." She then handed Oliver the Address "Tonight. Meet Lance. He needs help." Oliver and I looked at eachother "Lance has finally decided to see our value it seems" I said. Oliver nodded "Agreed."
Oliver stood on top of the ledge on the roof of the meeting place, I stood on the roof over the door to the stairs, waiting for Lance. When he appeared Oliver said with his voice changer "So.. Miss Smoak gives you a way to call me now." Lance then said "She vouches for you and you told me that you're trying to help the city without dropping bodies, is that true?" Oliver then said "What do you think?" Lance then said "Well lets just say I am willing to be convinced. This city is hurting, and the police.. I always thought we didn't need to go outside of the law to find justice, but in light of recent events, I'm not so sure anymore." I jumped down and landed beside Oliver, saying "And that is where we come in." Lance let lose a small chuckle "So the two of you are working together again.. I guess giving the circumstances thats good." I nodded. Lance then dropped a file for us to read "Barton Mathis. The media calls him the doll maker. Because he suffocates his victims with flexible polymer that he pours down their throats and then dresses them up like dolls. I put him away, because of the quake...He's out and killing again." Oliver and I looked over the file. I was outraged at what this guy was doing. It was sickening. Oliver then said "These are from 6 yeas ago" Quintin then said "That's my personal file." I then said "Maybe it's not just the file that's personal." Lance then spoke holding back rage "Mathis killed eight girls before I got him last time. I don't want any more on my conscience." Oliver then responded "So why don't you let the police do their jobs" Lance scoffed "I could say the same thing to you two. They're spread so thin they can't even risk letting the public know that Mathis is out. You said you're trying another way? Maybe I am, too?" I then said "We will track him down Detective. Thank you for giving us this olive branch." He went for the door then looked back at me "Don't make me regret it." Oliver then said "We won't." Lance left and we headed back to the foundry to give Felicity the file before hitting the streets to find more information.
We returned later and Oliver asked "Lance's file, you find anything?" Diggle then said "He ramped up to one kill every thee days" I said "Well that gives us two to catch him. Whats the connection between the victims?" Diggle then said "young, pretty. According to Lances file, he couldn't figure out how he chose them. Barton Mathis doesn't have any family or known acquaintances. Lone wolves are harder to catch." I nodded "Which is why the Templars had such a hard time tracking me over the centuries. But one lone wolf can find another." Oliver then said "But Lone wolves also have a right to an attorney. Call Lance. Tell him to set up a meeting for tonight." Felicity asked "Where?" Oliver replied "At the office of whoever represent Barton Mathis." Felicity then said "I'm assuming this takes priority of finding out the identity of your secret admirer." Oliver looked at me and said "Well young girls are in trouble.. Maybe both problems have the same solution hmm?" I nodded "There's a good shot of that, yes. But on the safe side.. Have Roy find her will ya?" He nodded "Smart move Lightning, care to join?" I nodded and we left for the ally in full Vigilante garb.
Roy was taking out some recycling when he turned around to see me and Oliver standing there. He said "Hey.. I was wondering when I was going to be seeing you again. And The Ghost too.. I thought you two weren't working together anymore." I then said "We resolved our differences." Oliver then said "There's someone new in town– a woman. She's targeting men who target women." Roy then said "I know. I've seen her." I then said "Find her.. But don't engage." Oliver then finished by saying "Leave that to us." We then both turned and left, to do a little interrogation of a certain lawyer friend of Barton Mathis.
The Detective was the first to emerge, asking questions "Come back with a detectives badge, or a court order... what you find that funny?" Lance then said "Just a little." Oliver emerged next saying with his voice changer "Where do we find him." I then emerged behind Lance and said "Talk... or we make you talk." I ejected a wrist blade to prove a point. The lawyer kept looking between the two of us and said "Iron Hieghts prison." Oliver then said "He got out!" The Lawyer looked at me and Olier before exclaiming "What? How?" I then growled "You spent hours with him. Where would he run? WHERE?!" "I don't know, I don't know I swear" He stammered. I then said "Oh.. You sound scared. How about we make you terrified since you won't talk." I nodded slightly at Oliver who shot the man in the shoulder. Lance then yelled out "What the hell are you doing?! I thought you were done killing people!" Oliver then said "He will live" Lance then said "Yeah, but he'll report me to my lieutenant!" Oliver then said "He won't talk to anyone" Lance replied "What makes you so sure?" Oliver then growled at the Lawyer "Because he has another shoulder." Oliver then grabbed the arrow and pushed it in a little, getting the lawyer to cry out in pain. I then grabbed the man's hair and ejected my wrist blade and yelled "Talk! Or I start cutting off facial features!" The man then said "Okay okay okay! There.. There is another place. He was always drawing it. Sketching. His cell walls were covered with the place." Lance then sad "Yeah well., what's the place? Was it in Starling City?" The Lawyer said "Yeah.. The Bisque Museum. He said the building reminded him of Germany, where porcelain dolls were invented. " I then whispered by his ear "was that so hard?" then we left for the Bisque museum.
Oliver and I snuck in, Lance talked to the front desk lady. When we rendezvoused the Detective said "The lady at the desk said a guy matching Mathis' description checked in last week, room 52 and he paid in cash... now listen, just so we're clear. When we go through that door, we're here to arrest Mathis, okay, not to torture him." Oliver then replied "You asked for my help." I then said "We have no reason to torture him Detective..We go in, cover his escape, and you arrest him. Thats why you are tagging along." He nodded "Better be. Lets go." He pulled out his gun. I readied an arrow just in case, and Oliver did the same. We entered, but the room was empty, except for a little porcelain doll with a new paper cutting of when the Dollmaker got captured. There was a phone in front of it that began to ring. The detective picked it up. Oliver then said into coms "Felicity, we need a trace." She replied "On it." The detective began talking to the doll master. He then mentioned letting her go and my head snapped to Oliver "Felicity, hurry." "Hurrying" she replied. Lance began to beg to dollmaster to release the girl and Oliver said "Felicity!" She replied "I'm trying but he's blocking the trace!" But it was too late. I then looked at Oliver before saying "Detective, you work with the police to find the body.. We will be traking down some new leads. We will have Felicity contact you once we have something." We then parted ways.
Oliver and I both returned to the foundry, waiting for news. Finally a couple hours later Felicity stated "The police found her body over an hour ago." Oliver then asked "Does the body provide any forensic evidence a CSI could go over and we could.. Approprate?" Diggle replied "They sent everything over to a private lab" I smirked "Which I'm sure our lovely Felicity Smoak can get into in a heartbeat, am I right Fel?" She then looked at me and said "God I really wish you hadn't set me up like that.. Because no. They took their system offline.. Seems like someone hacked into a lot of police-related systems last year." Oliver then said "Then we do it like we did the Merlyn job. David.. I need you to stay here and be ready in case we get a lead that you can follow up on...Felicity.. Call Lance."
They found out how the dollmaker chose his victims.. And Mermaid... face cream. I looked at Felicity just as they discovered this and said "Fel, I need you to go over the main addresses of every victim to date.. Cross reference for locations you can buy this face cream. Maybe we can find one where he tends to kidnap his victims. Great find. Oliver, please give the Detective my appreciation as well. We couldn't have figured this out without him."
Oliver returned shortly after wanting to know what we have learned. Felicity said "Well its made from crushed mother of pearl and its super high end, its only carried in a handful of boutiques and its marketed for women with extremely delicate completions" Oliver then said "He picks the victims for their skin. The cream is how he finds them." Felicity then said "Only 4 stores in the city carry it and three have surveillance systems. I've run facial recognition through all of them looking for Mathis, but come up empty." I then said "Then he must be waiting for them outside the store.. Or is at that fourth store." Dig then said "Okay so we do the same. 4 stores, 4 of us. Easy." Oliver then replied "That could take days. He's probably out there right now looking for another girl." Felicity then replied "So that's what we give him. I'll go to the stores that carry mermaiden and buy it in each one to cover our bases." I looked at her "No. How about instead of getting yourself killed, you run facial on our two most recent victims to see if we can narrow down the search area. " She shook her head "I already thought of that. We can't go off of that alone, there's a chance it could narrow down a store.. Or it could just prove how random it is. No this is the most efficient way to find him." Dig then said "It's too dangerous!" Felicity stood up and said "More dangerous than going undercover in a mob casino, or jumping our of a plane? Its my life. Its my choice." I then pointed out "Both times I was there to protect you.. And I seem to remember you almost dying both times." She looked at me "My choice Lightning." I sighed and let her win.
Oliver and I kept watch from the rood adjacent to each store.. Making sure to be within rescuing distance of Felicity when she needed it. Felicity said over coms "Left the last store. You're going to reimburse me for these right? I saved my receipts." I then said "You volunteered." Oliver just shook his head and said "Go to the rendezvous point. Stay in public." Lance then said over coms "Just for the record I am not a fan of dangling helpless girls in front of psychopaths like meat." I then said "She is far from helpless Detective. She has us." He replied "Wow she must really believe in you then." Oliver replied "So did your daughter." The Detective replied "She suffered a loss. Grief's got a way of shifting a person's beliefs but then you know all about that. You've lost people too right?" Oliver stopped in his tracks and looked at me before replying "Why would you say that?" Lance replied "Why else would you be doing this? My youngest, she died." I looked at Oliver before looking away, knowing full well Sara was alive and in Starling City right now. I wanted nothing more than to tell them this.. But that would shift their focus.. And right now it needed to be on Felicity. Oliver replied "I'm sorry." Quintin continued "Less than a month after it happened I ended up catching the Doll Maker case. Threw myself into it. I think on some level with each girl I was trying to save...Sara. Just like with Sara.. I couldn't. He killed 8 girls Sara's age before I caught him" Felicity then cut in "Someone's coming."
Oliver and I peaked over the roof and saw Felicity being followed by a man in a suit and bowler hat. Felicity then said "Ok I'm going to admit to being seriously wigged out right now... well false alarm but next time I offer up to be bait for a serial killer please turn me down." She then walked into an ally out of our line of sight and there was a scream. Oliver and I jumped into action, running to a roof top that we could get eyeline. Lance called for police backup. Oliver loosed an arrow hitting the doll maker in the back and we both ziplined down. Oliver stopped to check on felicity whilst Lance and I ran after the target. We ran through some plastic draped door ways before a plank of wood came out of no where and hit the detective in the fact. I slid to a stop and turned to Mathis pointing a gun at me "Don't move Ghost. Or I will find a way to kill you" I went for an arrow when I noticed his trigger finger begin to move and I dove out of the way. There way a gun shot, followed by the sound of an arrow hitting metal and the gun sliding on the ground. I began to stand up just a there was a sound of police sirens. By the time I turned around Mathis was gone. Lance looked at both of us and said "Go! Get out of here!" We nodded and ran off. The good news was Felicity had not been harmed.. Bad news was our gambit had come up empty.
The next day I was at work in Verdant, preparing for my shift when I saw Oliver and Thea talking. I felt my phone vibrate and looked at it to see a text from Felicity "News. Now." I noticed Oliver looking at his phone before asking Thea to change the channel. I walked up to them as I saw the headline. Quintin and Laurel had been kidnapped. Oliver turned an ran for the foundry and I was about to do the same before Thea grabbed my arm and said "Do your best. Please." I looked at her "What?" She shook her head and said "Go.. You have the night off. Do what you need to do." I didn't have time to argue and ran off myself.
I made it down in time to hear Diggle say "Perfect place to make some Dolls after the quake." Oliver looked at his suit and said "Not tonight it isn't." I nodded and went for my suit and began to suit up "The police would have tracked it same as we did." I then said "We're faster." We suited up and headed out.
We both broke in through glass on the roof. I chose my spot as it brought be right down near laurel. I had Kveykva out and used my weight to slice through the tube that was attached to her mouth about to fill her with the liquid that would harden and kill her. The excess liquid spilled out and she was safe. The doll maker ran off. Lance was cut free by Oliver and said "Do whatever you need to do.. Just get him. Get him!" Oliver looked at Laurel and I quicked him by saying with my voice changer on "Arrow. This way!" We then ran off after him.
We made our way up a floor to get the height advantage. We got into position just as Sara had arrived and looked to be dealing with Mathis herself. Oliver and I both notched arrows. Just as it looked like Sara had defeated Mathis he pulled a chain and pipes fell on top of her. I then said "Now!" We both fired our arrows, the force of which sending Mathis flying back into a different pipe. We both landed. And stood in front of him. Oliver then said " Barton Mathis.. You have failed this city." I then said "You are going back to prison.. To rot." Sara then said from behind us "No he's not." She threw something at him, impaling him in the chest, killing him. We turned around 'Where is she?" Oliver asked. I shook my head "I don't know. But something tells me she will be back soon enough." He looked at me "And next time. We catch her. Go back to the foundry.. I am going to make sure Laurel and Quintin are alright.. Don't worry.. I will tell the detective you were following a lead on another case.. Which will ne true." I nodded "Okay. Don't do anything stupid." He nodded and we parted ways.
Later on that night once Oliver had returned he said "We need to find this woman." Felicity then asked "To catch her or send her a thank you note?" Oliver then replied "That depends." Felicity asked "On what?" Oliver then said "What side she's on." I then said "Well sounds like the sooner you find out.. The better. Lets catch a Canary."
