6. Priorities

I will profusely apologize SO MUCH for the late update. Caught the stomach flu Thursday, and haven't been on the computer since. This may not be as long as other chapters, but I promise I will make it through this story no matter what may happen :)

'This is it' Felicity thought through her cloudy mind. 'I am the one who failed this city. I don't deserve to live, I got myself into this mess and now I am helpless against anything that may cross my path now.' she coughed, inhaling the monoxide gas.

she couldn't help but feel shame and guilt, even though these were sure to be her last living moments. Oliver had depended on her because of the skills she had, that nobody else did, and she wanted to get into the field and do the work that he and Digg and Sara got to do everyday. Now, with her gone, who will find the locations of the Vigilante's targets? Or be his eyes and ears in a Casino that they stake out? She shouldn't have been so careless. She had too many people depending on her and she wasted her time trying to save the day. "It's my fault!" she breathed.

She let out one last tear before she collapsed in her chair.

Diggle tripped up the stairs on the way to the last story of the building. "Should've started from the top," he muttered. He trudged across numerous hallways, looking for any signs of life. He was almost through the main hall when he saw smoke coming from a room down a side hall.

It was almost completely dark, and he had to cover his mouth with the inside of his jacket in order to keep from inhaling the odorless gas. He felt along the wall for a door handle, and, after a few seconds, he did.

From what he could see, this was the room that the gas was coming from, and Felicity must be inside. It wasn't until he felt the door frame that he slammed his fist up against the wall. The door was solid steel.

"DAMN IT" the bodyguard yelled in frustration. Immediately, he looked for any signs of something that he could break open the door with. He suddenly remembered the arrows that Oliver had left with him with the explosion technology. He searched his jacket and found two of them.

He armed the first arrow and laid it next to the door. Then he ran back a few steps and heard a BANG!

Nothing. The explosion didn't even make a dent in the door.

"Looking for this?" a croaky voice engaged Digg with a small hand grenade in his hand. He recognized him immediately. Tockman.

It took twice as long for Oliver to make it to the building. The traffic was horrendous as everyone was trying to leave the city or find others inside of it. His bike seemed to only go 20 miles an hour, even though his speedometer kept reading 120. "Come on!" he huffed.

Oliver was trying so hard not to think what could have happened to Felicity. 'I'm sure Digg must have found her by now...' he thought. Unless...

He never stopped to think that the Clock King could be monitoring every movement he made inside that building. The guy had an outrageous expertise in technology, and since Oliver already stopped the crooks who planted the bomb in the Glades, it never occurred to him that Tockman would go back to his other 'plan'.

It wasn't going to take much for Oliver to to kill this man once he had found him. The hatred he had for this man at the moment was more than Count Vertigo. It was going to take more than three arrows to get the revenge Oliver wanted out of this man.

Oliver stopped about a block from the building and decided it was faster to jump across these buildings than drive another block through the traffic.

He ran as fast as his legs would allow, his heart pumping out of his chest with every jump. After a few minutes of this, he took notice of the building across the street with a window on the top floor, clouded with smoke.

"Felicity!" he called, though he knew she couldn't hear him. He jumped down to the ground, and raced up the building next to Ocean and Grand. He gathered a cloth he had acquired in his vest, used to keep out toxic gases. He reached the 7th story, and worked to pry the window open.

The room was so filled with the gas that Oliver couldn't see anything in the room. He dreaded the thought at how long this room has been filled with the smoke.

Finally, he shook the window open, cutting his hand in the process. He jumped inside, already yelling through the cloth. "Felicity! Can you hear me? Where are you? FELICITY!" he started coughing. He felt around the small room. He then felt the side of a chair.

Through his eyes, though already burning, he took in his sweet IT girls' sight. Unconscious, and her breathing was shallow. He went to pick her up, covering her mouth with another cloth.

Then he heard the sound of an explosion.

Alright! Finally got this chapter finished. Next chapter should be published within the next few days. Hang in there, this story is SO not done yet ;)