I'm not really a big fan of split POV stories, but I saw there was no other way to get around Oliver being passed out. Plus, I have some pretty cool (in my humble opinion) stuff planned for this chapter, and explaining that with Oliver not conscious would be a bit difficult. Also, if I've messed up any of the finer details I'm very sorry! I haven't been able to see season two yet, so if I've messed up details there (specifically about the lair) please give me some slack. So, here's chapter 2 as told from Digg's point of view. Thanks for reading, and please leave comments and reviews so I can know what to do better!
John Diggle felt calm, relaxed even, as he landed blows in quick succession on the training dummy. For the past couple of weeks, they hadn't had to deal with anything serious in nature or threat level, and for that he was grateful. In fact, the most serious threat that they had dealt with was a thief who had a thing for breaking into cars, and he had been found and apprehended in a matter of days.
All of them needed this little hiatus from the more dangerous threats he thought as he continued to pound away at the dummy. With his recent upturn in down-time in the lair, he had focused more on his combat training, and he had to say that his skills had increased quite a bit. He could now spar with Oliver and only occasionally come out the clear loser. Another benefit of the respite in criminal activity was that they had all been finished before 11, which was some sort of record. He had been using his spare time wisely by spending more time at home with Lyla, who was probably still up, despite him telling her on multiple occasions that she didn't have to wait for him.
As he continued to pound away on the dummy, he heard Felicity's voice over the sound of his fists colliding with the dummy. Pausing, he listened to what she was saying.
"It looks like it's Statham Chemical Supplies" said Felicity, her back to him. "Oliver, please be careful."
Stepping away from the training mats Diggle started walking over to the large desk where Felicity sat with her computers. Not her computers, her babies he mentally corrected himself, rolling his eyes.
"What's up?" he asked, as he got closer to her chair.
Felicity swiveled her chair around to face him, a slight worried expression on her face.
"The alarm for a chemical supply store just went off," she said. "I don't know why someone would break in there, but I don't like it."
"That's not your ordinary target for a robbery," said Diggle, his brows furrowing a little as he glanced at her computer screens. "When did the alarm go off?"
"Just now," answered Felicity, not even glancing at her screens. Almost as if she sensed his follow up question, she answered him. "He was only four blocks away, and the way he drives, he'll be there in about five minutes."
"Good. Unless they're just after one thing, they'll still be there when he shows up. Lets just hope whoever's behind this doesn't grab something bad and use it on him." said Diggle, still looking over her multiple screens.
"You don't think that whoever is behind this is trying to, you know, make chemical weapons, do you?" asked Felicity, the signs of worry more apparent on her face.
Diggle let out a long sigh and turned to look at her.
"I don't know," he said, trying to keep his voice as even as possible. "I hope to God not. Its not pretty when they're used."
"When did you-" started Felicity, a puzzled look on her face. "Oh, the Army. That's right." She made to turn away from him and back towards her computers when she stopped. Turning back around, her face was covered in an even more puzzled look.
"Hang on. I thought the Army never used chemical weapons in combat?" she said.
"They don't," said Diggle flatly. "But that doesn't stop other people from using them. I've seen what they can do, and I hope I never see it again."
Walking away from her computers, Digg grabbed his gun from a nearby table, sat down in a chair and began to disassemble and clean it; another routine he'd fallen into with the lull in activity. Cleaning his gun had always been relaxing for him, almost therapeutic. It gave him a sense of calm and it allowed to him act mechanically without having to plan his next moves carefully. It also gave him a sense of confidence that the next time he would need to use his gun, it would be ready and wouldn't fail him. He couldn't afford something like that now, not when so many people were counting on him to do his part and come back alive.
All was silent in the lair as he worked, except for the occasional sound of metal on metal as he slid various parts out and back in. He knew that, at that moment, he couldn't do anything to help Oliver, which made him feel useless. He hated feeling useless. He also knew that Felicity, who might've been able to assist him in some way, was too nervous to speak, so he didn't prompt her to say anything.
The minutes ticked by, when suddenly Felicity straightened up from her previously slouched position and put her hand to her earpiece.
"What?" she said quickly.
Instantly her face went from semi-relaxed to shocked, her mouth dropping open in apparent horror.
"What!" she exclaimed, confusion evident in her voice. "How? I thought that it couldn't be made anymore, now that The Count is dead!"
"What is it? What's happened?" said Digg, already moving towards Felicity.
She held up a hand to him, not looking away from her computer screens, her face still covered in shock, listening intently to whatever Oliver was saying.
"Are you alright? Do you need me or Digg to come get you?" she said hurriedly, finally turning to face him.
He looked into her eyes and saw that she was panicking. Whatever had happened to Oliver definitely wasn't good. Felicity had been through a lot with them, and although she was still new to the hardships that came with war she'd seen her fair share of emergencies. Whatever happened had shaken her up pretty badly, and that made him feel even more apprehensive. He was about to ask her what had happened, but before he could say anything, her voice exploded through the lair.
"Oliver!" she yelled, worry showing plainly on her face. "You're driving a motorcycle! Not focusing is exactly the opposite of what you need to be doing! Where are you right now?"
Digg listened intently, trying to see if he could hear what Oliver was saying to Felicity, but he couldn't make out anything. Piecing together what he had heard Felicity say, Digg tried to understand what had happened to Oliver, but with the snippets of information that he had gathered he couldn't come up with much.
"Ok," he heard Felicity say quietly and he turned to look at her again.
Again, before he could speak, Felicity started in a rush.
"Oliver said that he thinks that he's been drugged with something like Vertigo."
"What!" exclaimed Diggle "How?"
"That's what I said, but he didn't say anything! He did say that he wanted you to make him an antidote for Vertigo!" said Felicity hurriedly, her face still shining with a fearful expression.
"On it," he responded quickly, moving before he had even spoken.
He made his way swiftly over to where Oliver kept his trunk from the Island and knelt down next to it. Opening it up he rifled through its contents until he found the little drawstring leather pouch that contained the cure-all Island herb. Grabbing a few in his hand, he put the pouch back into the trunk and shut the lid, quickly making his way over to a table that had become their makeshift med bay.
Mixing the ingredients as carefully and quickly as he could he tried to come up with all of the possible solutions to how Oliver had been poisoned by Vertigo again. Even though the Count now dead for good, as well as the doctor, he guessed that someone else knew the recipe for the awful drug and that they were using the stolen chemicals to make more of it. Mentally making a note to be sure and eradicate Vertigo for good, he added the ground up herbs to water and stirred them together, forming the antidote.
"It's ready!" said Diggle over his shoulder. "Where is he now?"
Felicity, who had been facing her monitors, whipped around to look at him.
"I'm not one hundred percent sure," she said, her lips pursing together. "I'm getting a lot of interference from something, maybe the storm. Because of it I can't get a lock on his location!"
"Damn," said Diggle as he strode over to Felicity's desk. "Where was the break in?"
"Here," and she pointed to a location on a map that was pulled up on her monitor.
"How long should it take him to get here?" he asked, trying to keep his voice calm.
"Driving the speed limit about fifteen minutes," said Felicity, looking back at the map.
"Well, lets hope he drives faster than that," he said.
Diggle stayed put near Felicity as they waited for Oliver's return. Neither of them spoke, the tension palpable in the room, and he could see the fear welling up inside Felicity as the minutes dragged by.
Suddenly, she spoke, her voice full of worry.
"Oliver, are you alright?"
Digg looked at her, trying to gauge Oliver's response from her facial expression.
"What? What happened?" he asked.
"I'm not sure. I heard a definite grunt, almost like he was in pain, but now all I hear is him breathing. Why won't he respond?" she said, quickly, the words seemingly spilling from her mouth.
"Can you make it to where we can both hear what's happening?" said Digg.
Felicity turned sharply back towards her keyboard, and after a few taps, the sound of Oliver's labored breathing and what sounded like rain was coming from the speakers.
"Dad?" came Oliver's voice suddenly.
Digg turned to look at Felicity, her face mirroring his expression of complete and utter shock. What in the world was going on?
A few more seconds passed of the sound of Oliver's heavy breathing filling up the room, and then he spoke again, his voice even more shaky and quiet than before.
"Mom?"
Now Diggle was extremely worried. He was certain the Moira had died at the hands of Slade, and was almost positive, from what Oliver had told him of the Island, that his father was dead as well, so he ruled out immediately that his parents were actually alive and wherever he was at that moment. That left only one solution; whatever was in him was making him hallucinate.
"Oliver, can you hear me?" said Felicity into her earpiece. "Please Oliver, what is going on? Where are you?"
The only answer to her question was the sound of his breathing and the rain, both of which seemed to have picked up in intensity.
"Find him Felicity," said Digg quickly, looking over at her. "He needs our help, now."
Felicity nodded and turned back toward her computers, typing away furiously, as his voice rang through the lair again, this time barely a whisper.
"Please, don't go."
He had never felt more helpless in his entire life. His friend, his brother in arms was somewhere, alone, in the rain and probably hurt, hallucinating about his dead parents, and there was nothing he could do to help him. He had to fight back to overwhelming urge to drive off in search of him that instant, knowing that Felicity was looking for him. They would find him, and Digg would find whoever did this to Oliver, and when he did, he would make sure that they wouldn't see the light of day again, whether he put them in the ground or in prison he didn't care.
"Thea." came Oliver's voice, sounding unlike anything Digg had ever heard before from him. All of the power, confidence and anger that usually filled his Green Arrow voice were gone, replaced solely by fear.
"Digg, I've got him!" screamed Felicity suddenly. Grabbing his shoulder and pointing at one of her screens she started again. "He's in the back parking lot, he's here!"
Wasting no time Diggle started to sprint towards the stairs that led up and out of the lair. Before he had gotten to the stairs though, he heard Oliver's voice again.
"Thea!"
Oliver's scream seemed to reverberate around the walls, echoing and distorting, the fear so real in his voice. That fear drove an icy spike into Diggle as he propelled himself up the stair three at a time. When he reached the top of the stairs he lowered his shoulder into the door and crashed through it, knocking it clean open where it stayed.
Not breaking stride, he caught sight of Oliver, lying face down on the asphalt, his arms outstretched in front of him, merely feet from the door.
"Oliver," said Diggle as he got to his side. He put his fingers to his throat, checking for any sign of a pulse, which he got in seconds. Oliver's pulse was extremely elevated, even for his standards, not a good sign.
Diggle removed his hand from Oliver's throat and placed them both around his waist. Pulling up, he slung Oliver over his shoulder and moved swiftly back towards to door. He hardly noticed his dead weight as he rushed back down the stairs and into the lair.
"Get the antidote!" he called out as he descended the last stair and made his way to the table.
Felicity immediately rushed over, antidote in hand and helped Digg lower Oliver's limp body onto the table.
"Oh my God, what's wrong with him? What happened?" she said, her voice a terrified whisper.
"Don't know, but he's passed out," said Digg as he unzipped Oliver's rain soaked jacket. Throwing it aside, he held out his hand for the cup filled with the antidote, which Felicity pushed into it moments later. "Hold up his head so we can get this in him.
Felicity did as he said, and once Oliver's head was tilted up, Digg opened his mouth and poured the contents of the cup in.
"Now we wait," said Digg, sighing heavily and setting the empty cup down on the table.
"What will happen?" asked Felicity, the fear still evident on her face and in her voice. She also hadn't let Oliver's head back down and was clutching it to her like it was a lifeline. "How will we know if he's better? Will he wake up?"
"I don't know Felicity, I just don't know."
Minutes seemed to pass like hours as the waited for something, anything, to happen. Diggle paced back and forth in front of the table, occasionally looking over to check on Oliver who hadn't moved at all. Neither, he noticed, had Felicity, who still held Oliver's head to her, absentmindedly running her fingers up and down his face.
Suddenly the quiet of the lair was interrupted by the sounds of the storm raging outside, but only for a moment. Following the silence was the sound of the heavy door closing, and an almost imperceptible sound of a footfall.
Glancing at Felicity who now seemed absolutely terrified, Diggle snatched his gun off of the nearby table and made his way so that he was putting himself in between Oliver, Felicity, and the stairs. Even though he had no idea what was coming, he knew he needed to protect his friends, his family, at all cost.
The quiet footfalls grew marginally louder as whoever was coming down the stairs grew closer. Suddenly the sound stopped, just at the edge of the stairs that were covered in darkness.
Leveling his gun at the stairs, Diggle called out. "I'm warning you now, I'm armed."
For a while there was no reply, and as Diggle was about ready to speak again, a rough, deep voice spoke.
"Put the gun down."
"Come out now, or I shoot!" said Digg, readjusting his grip on his pistol, readying himself.
There was a slight rustling sound from the darkness of the stairs, a blur of movement, and suddenly something collided with the barrel of his gun, knocking it out of his hands and out of reach.
"I told you to put it away," came the voice again, this time louder. The light sound of footfalls began again and Diggle saw who spoke come out of the darkness.
The first thing Diggle saw emerge from the shadows was a large black boot, which was followed by a body. The figure was large and imposing, clad in what looked like a dark grey suit of body armor, except for the hands and feet, which were covered in black. The only thing still obscured by darkness was the figures head.
"Who are you?" asked Diggle, squinting to see more of the person.
The figure stepped forward and Diggle got his first good look at him. Around his shoulders and down to his feet billowed a large black cape, but what startled Digg the most was the man's face. Only his mouth and part of his chin was exposed, the rest was covered in a black mask with large, pointed ears.
"I'm here to help," said Batman.
