Parties at the Queen estate were nothing new, and this one was no exception. Oliver and his business partner at Queen Consolidated, Isabel Roshev, to attract new investors to the company. Everything seemed to be going off without a hitch except for one thing, Oliver had yet to show up. Felicity took notice of Isabel's irritation and went over to try and reassure her.
"Mr. Queen's going to be a bit late. He's am extremely sorry." She informed. "It couldn't be helped."
"Where is he?" Isabel asked.
"Um…" Felicity said trying to come up with a response. "He just… got a little hold up. You know, tying up some loose ends. I am actually in direct contact with him now. Let me check."
She then stepped away to contact Oliver, only to have the sounds of massive gun fire blaring in her ear, much to her shock.
…
Said gunfire was coming from fully automatic weapons that three gang members were using to try and kill Green Arrow. Fortunately though, he was quick enough to avoid the gunfire.
"Shoot him!" one of the gang members yelled.
"Where man?!" another one asked.
"Anywhere!" he yelled back.
"Yeah that's smart." A voice called out.
The three men turned to see Black Canary standing there with her batons at the ready.
"Shoot blindly into the sky, that'll work."
She then quickly threw her batons at two of the gang members, knocking the guns out of her hands. As the third open fire, Canary ran towards a pile of boxes and leapt on top of it. She then jumped down, kicking the third gang member to the ground. As one of the other gang members grabbed his weapon ready to open fire, Arrow shot out an arrow that produced a cable wrapping around his feet. Before he knew what was happening, he was flung into the air, suspended. Seeing that he was outmatched, the third one decided to bolt as Green Arrow made his way down to the fallen gang members and Black Canary.
"People are gonna start talking if we keep meeting up like this." She told him.
"Unfortunately I've got bigger concerns than vigilante tabloids." Arrow replied, picking up one of the guns. "This is the second group of gang bangers I've taken down carrying M4A1 assault rifles"
"Yeah same here." Canary confirmed. "With weapons like these in the hands of common street punks, people are gonna be too scared to walk the streets anymore."
"Sounds like someone needs to put whoever's distributing these out of commission." Arrow decided.
"What? Like you?" Canary asked.
"I told you I'm not the bad guy." He insisted.
"I know I…" she started to reply. "… I heard about what happened with the Dollmaker. That was… something."
"Just doing what I promised." Arrow told her. "Trying to save the city without dropping bodies."
"So you've said."
"Still not convinced?"
"Not sure at the moment to be honest. I thought I knew who you were but… now I'm not so sure."
"Then let me show you. Help me end the threat of these weapons."
Canary was taken aback by the proposal. For the longest time she had been deadest on taking the vigilante down. She never imagined giving up on that, much less working alongside him. Before anything else could be said however, Felicity came in on Green Arrow's communicator.
"Um Oliver." She spoke. "Hi. Hate to interrupt, but you have a party to attend here and a business partner who might be looking for your head in a minute."
Arrow then turned around beginning to depart.
"Where are you going?" Canary asked.
"Somethings come up." He replied. "Just consider my proposal."
With that, he fired a grappling arrow and zipped off into the night.
…
Finally, Oliver arrived at the party.
"Sorry I'm late." He apologized to Isabel.
"This party is meant to attract new investors to your failing company." She scolded. "Being fashionably late might do well on the club circuit but it does not inspire confidence in Wall Street. Is that blood on your face?"
Oliver felt his face and felt the blood.
"Cut myself shaving." He dismissed.
Isabel simply rolled her eyes before walking back to the party. As Oliver turned to join it himself, he caught a glance of Laurel walking into the party herself. he followed her to see she was getting a drink.
"Hey." He greeted, causing her to turn and face him.
"Please don't ask me if I'm ok." She told him. "I have had enough of people asking me if I'm ok."
"I would never do that to you." He told her.
"Thank you." She replied.
"Are you ok?" he asked, thoroughly irritating her.
"The Dollmaker was just your garden variety traumatic experience." She brushed off. "You'd think after the quake and Tommy I'd be used to them."
"I've had a few of those." Oliver replied. "You never get used to them."
Laurel just shrugged as she walked off.
"Hey," he called out. "I know I'm usually tardy to these things, but you aren't.
Laurel turned around.
"Traffic." She replied before turning back to enjoy the party.
Oliver just stood there thinking over Laurel's reasoning as Felicity walked up.
"You really need better time management skills." She told him.
"Yeah well the guys with the guns disagreed." Oliver replied as Sebastian Blood walked up.
"Guns Mr. Queen?" Blood asked, getting Oliver's attention. "I was just talking with some of my constituents about guns. What's your take on the matter?"
"Never used one myself." Oliver replied.
"Gun violence in the Glades has gotten increasingly out of control." Blood reported. "Everyone at the DA is working overtime to try and stop it."
"Well I'm sure you, the DA and the SCPD are doing everything in your power to catch the one bringing these guns into the Glades." Oliver said.
"We are." Blood confirmed. "We even know who's been supplying the gangs with these new armaments."
"Really?" Oliver asked. "Who."
"Some new gang lord calling himself The Mayor." Blood answered. "Thinks he's the one to save our city."
"But that position has already been filled." Laurel corrected walking up. "Hasn't it?"
Blood laughed a bit in response.
"This Mayor only cares about spreading anarchy and chaos," Blood continued. "All from the barrel of a gun."
"Sounds terrible." Oliver remarked.
"You have no idea." Blood replied.
…
After having Diggle check in with his military contacts about the stolen weapons, Oliver went to Queen Consolidated to meet with Sebastian Blood again.
"Mr. Blood," Oliver greeted as Blood was talking to Isabel. "I see you've met Ms. Roshev. She's my-"
"Superior." She cut off.
"Partner." He corrected.
"On paper." She retorted.
"Is that why you asked me to come down here Mr. Queen?" Blood asked. "To mediate your job title?"
"You and I have gotten off on the wrong foot, repeatedly." Oliver told him.
Blood chuckled at that.
"Seems to be your super power."
"I was inspired by what you said the other night about gun violence in the glades." Oliver continued. "And I had an idea that might help."
"Really?" Blood asked sounding skeptical. "Another party at your stately manor?"
"No." Oliver denied. "I wanted to sponsor a Cash for Guns event. I give you the money and you get your constituents to lay down their arms. Everybody wins."
"Especially you." Blood remarked. "Trying to repair your family's tainted name by ridding the Glades of guns."
"You just get the money Mr. Blood." Oliver told him. "I don't want my family's name involved."
"Mr. Queen, may I have a word with you?" Isabel asked.
"Let me think it over." Blood replied before walking away.
He then left the room, leaving the two bosses of Queen Consolidated to talk.
"We are not sponsoring that event." She told him.
"I know." Oliver agreed. "I am."
"With what money?" Isabel asked. "Your investment party cost QC fifty grand, and no one invested a dime. I will not continue to authorize cooperate funds just so you can keep pretending that you are the CEO."
Oliver let out a sigh of defeat.
"Fine." He relented. "I'll pay for it myself."
Isabel let out a small laugh.
"Maybe you haven't noticed," she informed. "But your personal trust isn't exactly what it used to be, and this company isn't either. As much as I'd love to make this city a safer place, my first obligation is to Queen Consolidated. And yours is too."
Isabel then walked out of the room, leaving Oliver standing there by himself and feeling rather defeated at the moment.
…
At the DA's office, Laurel was at her desk hard at work. While she was working, she couldn't help but look up at her board of sightings and reports of the vigilante. As she looked at the board, she couldn't help but question if continuing working on the anti- vigilante task force was the best idea. She was so wrapped up in thought, she didn't hear her boss, Adam Donnor walking up.
"Burning the late night oil I see." Adam commented, causing Laurel to look up.
"Oh, Adam hey." Laurel replied. "Just… catching up on some old case files."
"Ah." Adam responded.
"… what would you say if I told you I was thinking of dropping out of the anti-vigilante task force?" Laurel asked.
Adam was surprised by the question and took a second to respond.
"I'd say that's a surprising decision." He finally answered. "You seemed pretty dead set on bring the vigilante to justice."
"Yeah well that was before he saved my life from a psychopath." She retorted. "I don't know, I guess I feel… guilty for hunting him after that? I don't know."
"I can understand that," Adam relented. "But no one is above the law. You've said so yourself."
"Yeah…" Laurel admitted.
"Well if you want, we could continue this discussion over dinner." He offered.
"Thanks for the offer Adam," she replied grabbing her things. "But I just remembered, I have to go."
…
As Laurel drove down the street, everything Adam said and her own thoughts on the vigilante situation began pouring through her head. She agreed with what Adam said, no one should take the law into his own hands, ironic considering her own nightly activities. Still even when the vigilante was killing, he was still trying to help the city. The mental debate she was having was consuming so much of her focus, she didn't notice she had a run a red light until she heard the blare of police sirens behind her. She let out a sigh before pulling off to the side of the road to pull over. She then proceeded to roll down her window as the cop walked up.
"Is there a problem officer?" she asked.
"You ran a red light back there." He told her. "License and registration please."
Laurel then proceeded to fish out her license and registration and had them to the officer.
"I'm sorry officer," she apologized. "I was just lost in thought. Guess I wasn't paying attention."
"Well Ms. Lance," he responded writing on a ticket. "I'd advise you to exercise greater caution in the future."
"Of course." Laurel replied as the officer handed back her license and registration as well as the ticket.
As the officer started walking away, a thought popped into Laurel's head.
"Officer!" she called out getting out of the car.
The officer turned back around to face her.
"I have sort of an odd question to ask." She told him. "What's your opinion on the Starling City vigilante?"
"The arrow guy?" he asked. "Well, you know the polices official stance. Vigilantes aren't the law."
"But…" Laurel guessed.
"A guy like that," the officer continued. "Putting himself on the line like that. Saving people. Sounds like someone who cares a hell of a lot for this city. Why do you ask?"
Laurel paused for a moment.
"Just curious."
…
"I need some good news." Oliver said walking into the cave.
"Bad news first." Diggle replied. "Somehow the Mayor did get his hands on a crate of military-grade weapon from Camp Kirby."
"And the good news?" Oliver asked.
"If he kept the crate we might be able to find out where he's hiding." Felicity answered walking over to a device on the table. "This is the same make and model of a tracking system the army installed on its weapons crates. If they lose a crate, they send out a remote signal that activates the beacon."
"The Mayor's clever." Diggle commented. "He deactivated the beacon. Sent out a signal, nothing comes back."
"You both need to work on your definition of good news." Oliver remarked.
"Ok, how's this?" Felicity interjected. "Guess which company designed the tracking system the army uses. I'll give you a hint. Their CEO? Always late."
"Queen Consolidated." Oliver replied. "Nice.
Felicity smirked before turning back to the computer.
"I pulled up the original specs from the QC mainframe." She continued. "Turns out there's a design flaw. The beacon is still susceptible to a subform wave, even when it's been deactivated."
"The Mayor turned it off Oliver," Diggle interjected. "But we can turn it back on."
With a few carefully calculated keystrokes, Felicity managed to pin point the location of the stolen crate.
"I believe you ordered the crate of stolen military weapons Mr. Queen." Felicity joked.
…
At the Mayor's hideout, the Mayor glanced over at the crate of weapons and saw a blinking red light.
"I thought you deactivated the tracker!" he yelled at one of his subordinates.
The punk just looked around confused. Enraged, the Mayor smashed the tracker with his gun, destroying it. Just then, the sound of an arrow flying rang out. Seeing the Emerald Archer coming out of the shadows, the punks began opening fire on him. He quickly ran along the balcony above, quickly returning fire. The punks kept firing at Arrow as he rolled along the ground letting loose another arrow. He then leapt to a lower platform, firing another arrow and taking out another punk. During all this chaos, the Mayor tried to make a break for it.
"Cover me!" he called out.
Green Arrow then jumped down to ground level as the Mayor made his escape. Just as he readied himself for a fight, the Mayor was gone. He looked around to see the weapons he stole were all there.
"Weapons are secure." He reported on his communicator.
"And the Mayor?" Diggle asked.
"Still in office." Arrow replied.
Back again and much faster too. Had a bit of trouble writing this one since a lot of it focused around Sara and (spoiler alert) I don't plan on including her in this story. Hope I did a good job. Another thing I thought I should note is I'm not planning on touching on the flashbacks in this story since I really have nothing to add there. everything will be in present time. hope you stay tuned for more