7. An Eye For an Eye

The sound of the explosion nearly knocked Oliver to the ground as he worked to get Felicity free from her ties. Luckily he had a knife on hand, and quickly cut away at them, though he was still apprehensive at the explosion that had just occurred.

"Felicity? Felicity can you hear me?" he coughed for what seemed like the thousandth time, the smoke now burning his lungs. The unconscious IT girl didn't move a muscle, and he had to carry her out of the chair. He picked her up easily, her small frame over his shoulder. Trying to keep her cloth over her mouth, he felt for the door handle that led to the outside hallway, away from this dangerous gas.

Suddenly, he felt a huge metal door handle and pulled at it, but it wouldn't budge. He tried harder, using as much of his arm strength as was humanly possible, but no prevail. Oliver was worried now, his vision was hazy and he was starting to feel the effects of the carbon monoxide.

He was going to have to go through the window.

Meanwhile, Diggle was in between a rock and a hard place, trying to find a way to get to that grenade before Tockman set it off himself.

"You want this, don't you?" the Clock King said mischeviously, holding up the small hand grenade. "This is the only item in the building that can blow up a door that strong" he said. "But what would be the point of that, when I went through all of the trouble to get the door that secure?" he laughed cynically.

"How could you do this?" Diggle asked disgusted. "You have nothing to gain from killing that poor girl!"

Tockman looked at the ground for a minute, and then reached Diggle's gaze. "I am doing that girl a favor!" he yelled. "I lost my sister because she got shot in the glades. You know, you were there, after the city exploded into Hell! She died and nobody even tried to help her. Do you know how much pain she must have felt, how much emotional pain it caused me when I found her? Well, you DON'T!"

Diggle walked closer to the man. "I do know. I do know what it feels like to lose someone you love after seeing them just a second ago. I served two tours in Afghanistan, and I have had buddies standing right next to me, and the next minute they were blown to bits by a land mine or a grenade." he hesitated, trying not to remember the horrors he went through. "So don't tell ME that I don't know what its' like."

Tockman glared at the man.

"And so you think it is justified that you kill more people off, just because someone you love isn't with you anymore? You can blame yourself, you can blame everybody else, but you can't take justice into your own hands."

"I am giving them a mercy killing!" Tockman interupted. "That girl in there probably would have gotten killed another horrible way if I didn't stop it from happening. I was just putting them to sleep, never to wake up again. That is better than anything those people gave to my sister!"

"You are too far gone, man." Digg responded. "You need help. I can help you, just hand me the grenade."

Tockman quickly looked at the bomb in his hand like he forgot it was there. Then he looked back at the millionare's bodyguard.

"Your right. It's my fault all these people are dead. That girl in there is probably dead now too, what would my sister think?" he was sobbing now. "I am the one who deserves to die. I am so sorry, I never meant to do this."

"It's okay, it's not your fault. Just had me the grenade and we can still save her!"

Tockman pulled the grenade back. "No." he said. Digg saw what he was about to do. He lunged toward the man with all of the strength he had, knocking him to the ground just before he pulled the pin. Tockman hit his head on the cement floor, and was unconscious.

Digg quickly, but securely grabbed the bomb out of his hands and set it next to the steel door. "I'm coming Felicity" he whispered.

He pulled the pin, and ran as far to the other side of the hall as he could.

Then he heard it. The explosion hit him in a huge blow and he covered his blaring ears to block out the sound. He recovered for a few seconds and then did his best to dodge the shrapnel to get to the room.

The door was still in tact, he couldn't believe, but there was a space big enough for him to crawl through the wall. He wore his oxygen mask, and looked around for Felicity through the smoke.

He finally saw her, but someone was holding her, and trying desperately to open the 7th story window to the outside. He recognized the green hoodie immediately.

"Oliver!" Digg said through his mask. The vigilante looked in his direction, and only put his guard down when Digg raised his hands in surrender.

He motioned to the door. "We can get out over here!" he tried to yell to him. He saw the motionless Felicity in Oliver's arms, and silently prayed she was going to be okay. There was no time to think the worst right now.

Oliver quickly made his way to the other side of the room and Digg helped him squeeze Felicity through the small opening through the wall. Once they were all through Oliver was frantically coughing, and Digg gave him his turn with the mask. Oliver shook his head and pointed over to Felicity, who was lying on the ground, breathing shallow.

John leaned over Felicity to put the oxygen mask on her, hoping it was enough to get her breathing back in order. He was so exhausted from the whole mess, he almost didn't hear the shot that winded past his ear.

Whoo! There ya go! Sorry about the late update again, its' really hard to find time to write! Well, I guarantee you will have another update tomorrow! Happy Friday!