King
Chess is not about the overwhelming forces- it is about controlling the application of force, of your own and your opponent's.
Chapter Three
Oliver finally pushed open the doors of the Watchtower and stepped inside in search for Chloe. He looked around a little bit at the open space, and worried that she might have gone off on her own when he heard his name being called.
"Oliver"
He looked up at the staircase where she was descending, a professional face put on. "Good, you got my message."
Message? Was she seriously going to pretend that it was only one? That there wasn't a trip to the hospital, and that he was wasting his time worrying about her?
"I got all ten of them, Chloe", he said as he looked around. She said that she was trying to get everybody back together. Was he the last to arrive? Damn board meeting. "Where are the other super-friends?" he asked as she walked past him
"Still waiting for them to ping me back." Oh, good. So he wasn't a complete failure. "See, this is why I keep asking everybody to come up with some sort of standardized trouble alert", she said as she fished for papers on the desk. "The team needs structure."
Structure. Right. "Is that what we're lacking?" he asked as he looked around at the monitors. They were all busy. Running searches, traffic cams, phone calls, she was listening and watching everything. The city had lost any sense of privacy, and its people had no idea.
All of this, and it still wasn't good enough for her. She didn't have any lines drawn, and to her the team needed more.
"Well, you're really on a kick lately, Chloe. Personal phone conversations", he said as he walked past one monitor, "bank records", he added as he stopped at another. "Amazon wish-list?"
She walked over, and minimized the page only to have another one take its place. "Big sister's watching", she said proudly as she sat down at her desk.
Wait a second, those emails looked familiar. Corporate meetings, minutes, investment plans.
"Is that…my email?" he asked
If she was keeping an eye on his emails, then that meant that she already knew that the solar towers were going to be built. And that meant that she knew that he had failed.
Crap, that meant that she saw the email from Canary. Maybe she ignored her hopeless attempt at flirting and saw that he never replied to it. It was strictly business for him.
He turned around to face her. "Chloe, I'll have you know that those messages between me and Canary were purely platonic."
But she was staring at him in disbelief. And she appeared completely unaffected. Interesting. "Can we skip your virtual love life and actually focus on the job here?"
"Gladly", he replied, seeing that this was getting to be awkward.
"Great", she said before the professionalism took over as she started typing. "Our victim's name is Sylvester Pemberton, and he had a long criminal record."
He turned back to the screen as his file popped up. "Fraud, embezzlement, and assault", she continued. "He didn't have any family, but he did have a friend show up at the hospital."
She pulled up the hospital video feed, and froze the feed. She magnified the image enough for him to see a young woman walking, and watched as Chloe ran it through the database.
He didn't understand- she did this all on her own, and she was being completely professional about everything. She barely let him know what was happening on the Kandorian front. Why the sudden change?
"Courtney Whitmore", she said, distracting him from his thoughts. "She's a sophomore at Blue Valley High, and she gets a big ol' D+ for her attendance. She hasn't been to school in the past three weeks."
A murdering teenager? No way. "You don't think Blondie's our killer, do you?"
"No. But I do think she knows something", she answered as she pulled out a print-out. "I want to take a look at this glowing staff the police have on evidence." She showed him the picture.
A glowing staff. Of course. They were all innocent glowing light-up thingies.
"We need to get it", she told him.
We, huh? So she was going to give him another chance, and he would take it. "We, meaning me, right?" he asked, trying not to smile too widely
She smiled back innocently. Sure, he would do this for her. And he would do it before another member of the team could.
He walked into the police station. Another person had died by the time he had gotten here- he needed to get to the bottom of this fast.
He took a look around at the men and women hard at work. Most of them were on the phone, others were reading files and on their computers. Oliver approached a man walking by, and asked where he could find someone working on the Pemberton case. The man pointed to a desk, and walked away.
Oliver looked at the man occupying the desk. The staff looked kind of big from the picture. It was a better play to find out where it was now before he put on gear and stole it.
The man looked up when he walked over. "Can I help you with something?" he asked
"Yeah, I was just wondering what the status of the Sylvester Pemberton case is."
"Why does it concern you?" the man asked as he flipped through a file. Oliver looked at the file curiously. They needed all of the information that they could get. Maybe he could steal that file later. See what was inside.
"A friend of mine was walking around the city in the middle of the night when it happened. I just want to make sure that whoever killed that innocent man pays for his crimes before someone else gets hurt."
The man put the file down before looking him up and down. "You're Oliver Queen, aren't you?" he asked
Oliver sighed impatiently. "Yes."
"There was only one witness on scene, and that was Chloe Sullivan. You might want to tell your girl to stay off the streets in the middle of the night. It's not safe."
"I'll be sure to pass along the message", Oliver answered before sitting down across from the man and looking around. The staff wasn't here. He took a look at the back of the room, and saw a door. The police lock-up- evidence was probably hidden there.
He still wanted to see if he could get any answers before breaking in. "Look man, I'm just trying to make sure that there isn't a repeat of what happened. I heard that there was some sort of weapon submitted as evidence. Were there any fingerprints? Any leads?"
"That's classified information", the man answered with an apologetic look on his face. "I'm sorry. I would get into trouble with my superiors if I said anything."
Tight-lipped. That's fine. Oliver stood up, and reached for his business card. "No problem. You're just doing your job. If there are any new developments, please don't hesitate to call", he said, handing the man his card before walking away.
He waited until the man busied himself in his work again before hiding in the corner where the door was. Sure, he was just doing his job. But Oliver also had work to do, and he wasn't leaving empty handed again.
Three locks on the door. Great. He took out his pick-lock and got to work. Keeping an eye on the people the entire time slowed the process, but he got inside, and examined the evidence for the previous night. There was an empty space where the rod should have been.
The rod could be anywhere- it could be examined by forensics right this second. He had to get his hands on it as soon as possible. That file. It could have something.
Oliver opened the door a crack, and waited 20 minutes before the man got out of his chair. He left the room quickly, walked behind five people with their backs turned, and scooped the file before sitting on the floor behind the desk.
He opened the file, and read the same information that Chloe gave him- Pemberton's criminal record. He flipped to the page that read evidence, and saw that the rod had been submitted into evidence, but was now declared missing. Damn.
When he finally left the police station unseen, he took out his cell phone, and called Chloe to give her the bad news.
"Chloe, I got a peek inside lock-up. Pemberton's glow stick is M.I.A."
"Oliver, we have to track it down."
He glanced over to the side of the road when he saw someone carrying said glow stick. Courtney. Maybe there was hope for him after all. "Call you back", he said distractedly before hanging up and running across the road after her.
"Excuse me, Miss Whitmore", he called out.
She glanced at him and let out an irritated scoff. "Do I know you?" she asked
"If I had to take a guess, I'd say that golden rod doesn't belong to you", he said, trailing behind her.
She let out a laugh. "Well, it belongs to me now!"
"Really don't want to get the police involved in this, do you? I mean, it'd be a shame to miss your junior-junior prom; breaking and entering gets you more than a slap on the wrist."
She turned around abruptly, pointing the rod in his direction. "Whoa." He put his hands up in the air. "Hey"
"Come any closer, and I'll give you my version of a slap on the wrist", she challenged.
Right. The rod was cool and all, but she had no idea who she was dealing with. "Let's cut to the chase, lite-brite. Two people were murdered, including a friend of yours."
There was a look of shock on her face, but he could tell that she was trying to hide it. "Two?"
"I'm trying to find out who's behind all of this, but I need you to be straight with me."
A man suddenly threw the rod back, and whispered to the girl. "We help ourselves."
"Hey, wait!" The girl exclaimed before the man aimed the rod at him. There was a bright flash of light, and then they were both gone.
He took out his phone, and dialed Chloe's number. "Did you find it?" she asked
"I don't have the rod. But Courtney did, right before some guy took off with her. Any leads on your end?"
"I think so. I'll text you the address of the parking lot. Meet me there in ten minutes."
"Be careful", he told her. But she had already hung up. Great. He waited for the text message, and headed over to the address.
He was around the parking lot when Chloe arrived. She silently pushed open one side of the fenced door, and Oliver opened the other side before stepping inside. "If someone's killing criminals from the past, why kidnap Courtney?" he asked
"Maybe she knew what Sylvester Pemberton had hidden up his star-covered sleeve", she answered as she looked around. "His car received a handful of parking tickets in this lot, so it should be easy to spot."
Oliver stopped in place when he saw the car. Old school, very old school. "You could say that", he let out a laugh as he walked over to the door. "Alright, just give me a sec", he said, reaching for the lock-pick in his pocket. "Get this door open."
He pulled out the lock-pick when he heard the door opening. He turned around, and saw Chloe smile. "Or you could just try the handle", she said.
She took a peek inside of the car, and he tried to examine it from behind her. "Clark's at the Daily Planet trying to track down Pemberton's home address right now, but it looks like he might have been living here."
"Well, if he knew someone was after him, maybe he was on the run", Oliver reasoned before walking over to the other side of the car and opening that door.
He opened up the glove compartment and found a little book. He closed the compartment, and read the words aloud. "Star-rocket racer. What do you suppose this was, a get-away car?" he asked before paying attention to the book.
He opened it to a random page, his eyes widening as he saw pictures of Chloe and Clark with descriptions of their identities. Chloe wasn't kidding when she said that Pemberton recognized her as Watchtower. Turned out that he knew about Clark being the Blur- his mark was drawn to the side.
He needed to protect both of them, Chloe especially since Pemberton was able to track her down. He flipped the page, and saw two pictures of him- one in a suit, and one in his gear. How was he going to protect Chloe if he had to be on the run himself?
He flipped another page, and saw Dinah and AC. And he had a feeling that if he kept flipping, he would find Victor and Bart. They were all in jeopardy.
"He knew about us", he said, handing the book to Chloe. "He knew about our identities."
"That means Courtney probably does too."
He saw the worry on her face. Hell, he felt it too. He took the book out of her hand and stashed it back in the glove compartment before getting out of the car. Out of sight, out of mind.
She got out of the car too.
"Look, Chloe. I'm going to find her. You should go visit Clark at the Daily Planet, see if he found anything there. Do you need a ride?"
"No, it's right there", she told him.
"I'll drop you off on the way to the Clock Tower. I want to see if I can track her down using one of my satellites."
"Oliver, it's fine."
There was a clap of thunder, and he felt a drop of rain on his face. "It's starting to rain. Come on, I'll drop you off."
She nodded, and they were off.
He dropped down at his couch at the Clock Tower hours later with a sigh. He hadn't stopped here right away like he said he would. Instead, he searched all over the city for Courtney. He checked abandoned buildings, the creepiest of dark alleyways in case she had been tied up and left there, he even checked her school to see if she was there. Nothing, not even a clue.
He got up and walked over to this desk, pulled out a remote, and pressed a button so that a monitor descended from its hidden place above a couple of ceiling tiles.
He checked satellite images from when he was talking to Courtney, and saw the same bright light that emitted from the rod. If the rod was used again, this was what he could look for.
He searched for that same image throughout the images for the hours he was out looking for Courtney, but there was nothing. That rod hadn't been used yet. But Oliver knew that it was only a matter of time. He would wait.
Waiting and sifting through the new images was making him a little anxious- he hadn't heard from Chloe or Clark in a while. He hoped that nothing big had happened.
So far, Chloe had done a better job at keeping him in the loop with things. Maybe saving her from herself wouldn't be too tasking of a job after all. Maybe she wanted to be saved.
A new group of images were taken within the minute, and Oliver sifted through them, almost bored now, when he saw that same bright light in one of them. It was smaller than the other one, but he could still see it. He zoomed in on the light a minute later, and saw that as it was fading the image of a teenage girl was becoming clearer. Courtney used it, and she was on the run. He needed to follow her. Now. Make sure that she wasn't going to get in any more trouble.
He suited up as quickly as possible, now tracing her on a device in his pocket. She wasn't far from here. He hopped on the railing on his balcony, shot out a zip-line, and flew into the air until he landed on a rooftop.
He checked the device. Two buildings away. He shot the zip-line so that it attached itself to a nearby flagpole, and zipped over so that he could see the girl in plain sight. It was her, alright, but what was she wearing?
His earpiece suddenly went off, and he could hear Chloe's worried voice. "Oliver?"
Oh no, what happened? "What's wrong?" he asked through the voice distorter
"Clark's gone."
"What do you mean, he's gone?" he asked, trying to remain focused as he ran off the roof and flipped onto a lower level. Where the hell was Courtney going? She was in the middle of Suicide Slums- this was dangerous!
"One of Pemberton's old gang somehow teleported him away, said he had to show him something. Called him his friend."
Right. Friends don't kidnap friends. But this was something different. "Where would they take him?" he asked as he ran, trying to catch up with her from above without being seen.
"I think the same place they took Courtney."
"Another twist to the mystery, Chloe", he said. "Satellites caught the glow of that staff over the Metropolis sky ten minutes ago. I followed it", he explained as he spotted her walking again. "Wherever Goldilocks went, she got a change of clothes."
He looked down at Courtney. What was she doing? "It's getting stranger", he said to Chloe as Courtney stopped moving.
"Stranger, how?"
"Well, it's the middle of the night in Suicide Slums. She's standing under a street light, all dolled up with no place to go. It's like she's making herself…" he stopped when he realized just what Courtney was doing here. She was setting up a trap.
"The target", he finished.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he shouted down to Courtney
She turned around and spotted him. "Me? What are you doing? Get out of here!"
Yeah…no. He jumped off of the roof, and landing on the ground. "Red, white, and blue. Loud and proud to be an American. Nice", he remarked as he stood up.
"Well, at least I'm proud of something other than myself."
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked
"I know what kind of hero you are, Green Arrow."
Obviously not, if she didn't know about the good the team did. And the future good that would come from stopping the Kandorians. "Is the masked cheerleader really talking down to me? Where's my friend? Where's Clark?" he asked
It was cold all of a sudden, and there was a blue glow. Oliver was knocked down, and he heard a voice call out "Anyone up for some ice cream?"
Okay, time to stay down. If the guy didn't notice him here, then he would be able to rescue Courtney. That was, if she needed help. Hopefully she knew how to use the glowing rod that suddenly appeared in her hands.
The man appeared behind Courtney with an icicle pointed at her neck. "Who are you supposed to be, sweetie? The new star-spangled kid?"
Was that seriously her name? "It's Star Girl. Say cheese!" she exclaimed before the rod glowed again, and the man was thrown to the side.
"Oliver, what's going on?" Chloe asked
He watched as the guy got back up and the icicle in his hand grew to a rod. They started battling, and it looked like Courtney had things under control. He kept an arrow aimed at the scene, just in case.
Soon, they had both of their weapons aimed at each other, light matching ice. But they were both thrown back, and Courtney was separated from her weapon. Oliver looked at the rod, and then at Courtney again- it was clear that she wasn't going to make it in time.
He saw the man shooting ice at her, and knew that it was time to step in now. He stood up, and shot the arrow out, watching as it smashed the ice in pieces. The man disappeared suddenly, and Courtney turned around.
"You jaded jerk! You just ruined everything! This was my chance. I was supposed to get the first shot at Sylvester's killer."
So he ruined everything by saving her life. Sure. Thanks to him, she could get another shot at the guy!
"He promised me", Courtney went on.
"He?" Oliver interrupted "He, who?" Who was she working for? The same guy that kidnapped her?
And then suddenly, he felt himself being lifted into the sky. "Oliver?" he heard Chloe ask in the ear-piece. He needed to get to Watchtower before this guy did something to him- Chloe didn't have to figure this all out alone.
Although he was holding onto the guy, he tried to put him off course, tried to push him in the direction of the Watchtower.
"Stop struggling", a raspy voice answered.
"Yeah, I'm supposed to trust someone who just kidnapped me. I don't think so. Where did you take my friend Clark?"
"That's none of your business. Stay out of our way."
"I'm making it my business", Oliver said, trying to get some personal item of the man's so that this whole thing wasn't for nothing. He grabbed some sort of ninja star. It looked ancient. Perfect.
"You should stop putting your nose where it doesn't belong."
"Yeah, yeah", Oliver muttered. "This is a great little flying service and all, but you might want to work on your small talk." He spotted the Watchtower. "Want to drop me off at that building there?"
"Sure thing, princess", the guy answered as Oliver spotted Chloe staring at the big stained glass window.
He knew what was coming, but he didn't want Chloe to get hurt. He was about to protest, but it was too late. The next thing he knew, he was making contact with the window, smashing the glass, and rolling onto the Watchtower floor.
He groaned in pain as he tried to get up, shards of glass cutting him with every move that he made. His sunglasses had already flown off of his face, so he pulled back the hood and deactivated the voice distorter.
"Oliver!" He saw Chloe get up from the floor, pulling him up. "Are you okay?" she asked, worried
"He'll live", the voice sounded from the window. "Now, stay the hell out of our business." He pointed a spiked mace at them. "Next time, I won't ask so nicely."
The man flew away without another word.