Well, here's the next chapter!
Hope you enjoy!
Oliver sneaked around the corner. If he was about to get in a fistfight with Dominic Kays, he wanted a head start. His arm was still a good way from super yet… And Dominic was a fit, athletic and was a MMA instructor. Former MMA national champion to be exact…
A weak arm could be just the advantage Kays needed to win a fight… Just the advantage that made Oliver lose or worse… Get killed.
Once he had rounded another corner he saw a big boulder of a man, the man was a pure bundle of muscles… Oliver was ready to bet his life that it was Dominic's son, Alexander.
Back in high school Alexander and Oliver had been friends. Or well… Brothers in crime would probably be more accurate…
But as many other relationships that was tied up around being on the wrong side of things, that one too broke. They had split up as friends after a gruesome quarrel between them and a girl…
Raising and drawing his bow, Oliver stepped forward and moved towards Alexander. He paused once he was halfway across the hall. Far enough away to be sure whether Alexander was attacking or just shifting his weight once he turned around to face Oliver.
"Turn around slowly and keep your hands where I can see them!" his husky voice rung off the concrete walls as he called out towards his former buddy.
Alexander did as he was told. A flash of terror crossed his face as he took in the green hood and the bow raised at him.
Suddenly he charged at him, running lower than Oliver had expected… The arrow missed by a mile and Alexander Kays ran into Oliver's torso full speed. Oliver smacked his elbow against the hard floor, and it sent million little lightning bolts erupted from it.
This time he was lucky. His elbow hurt, but he figured it wasn't too bad. There hadn't been any cracking sounds and he could still move his arm normally… (Okay… as normal as that arm would move now. It had been a bit stiff since he got shot a few months back…)
Oliver lost every bit of advantage he might have had, but he was still able to fight on. Alexander landed a few good punches towards Oliver's torso, whom could swear that he felt at least two ribs cracking due to the force. He bit back a groan that threatened to escape his lips and his eyes shut tight.
He had lost hold of his bow when Alex had attacked him, so he couldn't shoot him. His right arm was throbbing violently and his opponent was as big as a freaking mountain, probably as strong as a bear too… Hand to hand combat would only result in more pain, for his own sake…
Most of his arrows had fallen out of his container when he was flung through the air, but some of them might be inside of his reach… He could do a lot more damage with one of those arrows than by hand only… Problem was, so could Alexander, and it looked like he knew it…
A sharp burning sensation, followed by warm wetness manifested itself on Oliver's left side, just below his ribcage. He knew the feeling of sharp metal slicing him, it was almost familiar… Blood oozed out from the five inch long cut, which was running parallel to the bottom of his lower ribs.
He allowed himself to cast a glance down, to make sure he wouldn't bleed out within the next 30 seconds or so… It looked like he had a lucky day today! All though it was a long cut, it was pretty shallow and it wasn't bleeding too badly. Still he knew that Felicity would turn all mother bear about it...
Within seconds after Alexander had cut him with one of his own arrows, Oliver was back throwing punches and attempting to slice Alex wherever he got the opportunity to…
He managed to land a pretty good uppercut at Alexander's jaw, which caused the mountain of a man to lose his balance just long enough for Oliver to spin a roundhouse kick that hit him square in the back. It was forceful enough to send the giant man to his knees for a moment at least. Then he delivered a forceful hook punch that hit Alexander just right and sent him smack to the floor.
Oliver didn't want to kill Alexander, they had too much history for that. But he had no problems about tying him up and leave him here alone until he was able to return and find a more permanent solution…
Once Alexander was secured and Oliver had gathered up his equipment again, he continued sneaking around the abandoned factory site. His elbow was pounding and his side was throbbing lightly, but it wasn't anything that would compromise his fighting abilities.
A few minutes later he found the room where Dominic was hiding. Dominic and two of his huge bodyguards that was… Those guys made Alexander look like a normal person in comparison. They looked mean too. One of them, a man with some Asian heritage, had a bad scar running down the right side of his face, from hairline to chin. The other one, a blonde man about his own age, had tattoos running up and down his arms, even up his neck. There was no doubt that it was prison tattoos, probably from an American prison…
The blond man smiled, revealing his lack of teeth. They had probably been punched out somewhere along the road.
"Shit…" Oliver managed to state before the two human bulldozers ran at him. Fighting Dominic would have been challenging enough, but with these two bruisers he knew that he would have to depend more on luck than skill! Something he never enjoyed…
One of the men hit him around the waist, while the other one went in for a low cut. Shoulder tackling Oliver's legs with as much force he could muster.
Once again he was lucky, he hadn't been putting any weight on his unstable leg as he had been tackled. More accurately, he hadn't been in contact with the floor when the Asian guy went for his legs.
Once the bruisers stood up so that they could kick Oliver instead of punching him, Oliver rolled back over his shoulder and stood up himself. Even if these guys was strong as oxen, Oliver had much more speed.
He pulled his bow and sent an arrow straight through the blond man's chest, before he proceeded to do the same thing to the Asian guy.
Now it was only him and Dominic Kays left, and he was running low on arrows.
Without any warning Kays jumped over the fence that separated them, with much more agility than a 55 year old man should have. He also landed rock-solid a few feet in front of where Oliver was standing.
"Turn the power back on, and I won't harm you!" Oliver demanded, squaring off Dominic. His tone was as intimidating as he wanted it to be.
"No! I will teach these folks a lesson that they will remember for the rest of their lives!" Dominic paused to smile a sick and twisted smile towards Oliver, "I will let them starve so that they will have to put me as mayor of this city, just to get as much as a slice of bread!"
Dominic's smile broke in to a full grin, and he let out a laugh that caused Oliver to think about the villains in old superhero cartoons.
The 55 year old stepped closer, before he suddenly threw a superman-punch as he leaped towards Oliver. Thanks to his reflexes Oliver managed to duck away from the punch, but was surprised by a kick to his stomach.
Once he got back at his feet he jumped to get a hold of the lowest level of a ladder that went up to a metal bridge that was over him. He surprised himself when he actually reached it, and started pulling himself up one level at the time. When he was almost finished pulling himself up, Dominic grabbed a hold of his legs and yanked him hard enough for Oliver to lose his grip around the metal rod high above the ground.
His right knee exploded with pain and gave away from under him within seconds after he hit the concrete feet first. It was like somebody just cut off all that held his knee together and it just collapsed under him, like a house of cards.
He screamed as waves of pain rolled over him, and Dominic placed his foot above his kneecap before he placed his weight on the foot hovering above Oliver's painful knee.
He felt his kneecap dislocating as Dominic put more and more weight on his knee. He was helpless and pretty doomed right now. He let himself fall back on his back and suddenly found an abandoned arrow right where his left arm fell. Grabbing it, he flung himself back up and used the momentum to pierce Dominic's lower chest with the arrow.
Kays coughed up some bright red blood before he collapsed next to Oliver on the floor. Just seconds later, Dominic Kays drew his last breath.
The pain was excruciating, his knee felt like a billion sledgehammers pounded at it at once. He tried getting up, but his knee had just about as steady as a house of cards in strong wind… The only thing his attempts caused him was pain and nausea…
When he took the time to look down at his painful limb he saw that there was an odd angle, where his knee used to be… Instead of bending the way it should, it stuck out in a weird 45o angle… The sight of it reminded him of what Jonas Hart had warned him about a couple of times by now. His knee would probably give out completely and demand surgery…
Yup… this was it! He couldn't even move his toes without being stabbed what could only be described as with white hot lightning. He let out a moan as he let himself fall back against the concrete floor, and gasped when the movement caused him an excruciating amount of pain.
Tears rolled down his cheeks, and he couldn't tell whether it was from frustration about the situation, or just the pain the injury caused him. All though, he had no problem admitting that his leg was more than enough to make him shed tears…
Minutes passed before he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket. His hands was shaky as he dialed Felicity's number, and just when he put the phone to his ear he realized that he wouldn't be able to talk normally at all…
It hurt too much, it was too PAINFUL!
"Felicity!" his voice cracked at the first syllable. He wanted to be strong and brave, but this was too much and was both scared and in pain.
"Oliver!" her voice was alert at once, "Are you hurt?" It wasn't as much of a question as an assumption.
Oliver couldn't get another word out before he sobbed. Tears was now running down his cheeks by (what felt like) the gallon and his voice was far from the usual husky voice everybody knew him for.
"I… *sob* I wrecked my knee…" Oliver sobbed once more before he pulled himself together enough to at least attempt to finish the phonecall, "It looks awful and I can't *gasp*…I can't move without screaming!"
"I'll send Diggle and Roy straight over there, do you want me there?" the concern in her voice was more than audible.
More than anything else Oliver wanted Felicity to comfort him right now, but he didn't want her to have to see his leg like this… Or this hell-hole of a building for that matter…
"I would love it, but could you rather call Jonas and DC?" he paused to gather his thoughts again after another wave of A-grade, high intensity pain rolled over him… He couldn't help but let out an involuntary painful groan… Which Felicity of course heard, "You can meet me at the, OH FUCK!…. Sorry… At the hospital later!"
"I'll be there!" Felicity said as she already dialed up Jonas Hart and DC.
"Good…" Oliver attempted a smile, but was glad no one was around to see it, since he felt it came off more like a frown that a smile.
"OH GOD! Oliver!" Diggle was squatting beside him, his eyes glued at Oliver's right leg. "How did you do that?!" he asked motioning towards what should have been the knee area…
"I fell!" Oliver spoke through gritted teeth, he was about to start crying in front of two of his best friends if his leg didn't stop hurting soon.
"From where? The roof!?" Roy asked looking up at the roofm that was about 65 feet above them.
Oliver didn't trust his voice enough for a whole sentence, so he just pointed at the ladder hanging from the bridge. "The highest one…"
"You know… Moving you is going to be a helluva task!" Diggle stated. "But first we need to stabilize that leg of yours!"
Diggle patted him on the shoulder before he stood up and walked to look for some splinting material…
"How bad is it?" Roy was crouched beside him, "On a scale from 1-10…?"
"Fiv…"
"DON'T EVEN TRY TO PUT THAT BELOW SEVEN!" Dig's voice sounded from the other side of the room they were in.
Oliver bit back another sob as a new bolt of lightning sent fire up his leg.
"Okay… Eight then!"
"I'll let that one pass…" Diggle said when he returned with an armful of things they could use to secure Oliver's knee, "But I would have guessed Nine…!"
Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!
Thanks for the reviews so far! (I haven't had the time to reply yet! I think I'll get around to that soon! I hope so!)