It's time to turn our attention to the characters who are NOT from Silverstone High. Roy, Thea, Wally, and Jesse. The Troublesome Four. The Fierce Four. Call 'em whatever you want. Time for the younger kids to take over the streets.
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Special thanks to Chevalier Lecteur, CallMeMiles, and Aragorn II Elessar for the most recent reviews.
To Chevalier Lecteur: Punny or funny?
To CallMeMiles: A double date was not in my plans, but I can squeeze it in if you want.
Roy and Thea, being the rebellious teenagers that they are, are out playing vigilante without Oliver and Laurel. Dressed in their special suits and armed with their bows and arrows, the two unnamed vigilantes patrol the Glades looking for signs of trouble. It's the Glades, after all, so there's always trouble. There's barely any corner you can turn to and not find a crime in progress.
Two muggings, one arson attempt, and three robberies are what the two junior vigilantes have stopped so far tonight.
Right now, the two were facing off against two drug gangs in up-close combat. Thea gets knocked down by one thug, but Roy saves her by shooting an arrow into the thug's shoulder. After tying up the remaining thugs with ensnarement arrows, the two vigilantes run away as soon as they heard police sirens in the distance.
"This is so much fun!" cheered Thea.
"Easy, Thea," said Roy.
"I'm sorry. It's just... man, this rush. I can't help it," said Thea, energized by all the fighting.
"Well, the night is still young," said Roy.
"We should do this more often," said Thea. "We make a great team, just you and me."
"Well, I can't disagree to that," said Roy.
"But...?" asked Thea, knowing there's more.
"Oliver and Laurel would kill us if they find out," said Roy.
"We can take care of ourselves," said Thea. "I mean, we're still alive, aren't we?"
"That's what worried me," said Roy.
Thea calms down Roy by kissing him. He happily returned the kiss.
"That's better," said Thea.
Suddenly, they heard screaming from not too far away. They ran towards the direction where they heard the scream. To their horror, they found their friends Wally and Jesse attacked by some random gang. Wally was held by two thugs while Jesse was pinned to the wall by other two.
"Pretty girl you got here, kid," said the leader to Wally. "Wonder how much another party will pay for her."
"Don't you dare touch her!" growled Wally.
The leader takes out a knife and points it at Jesse.
"Let's just see how she looks without all the cool girl getup," said the leader.
Before the leader could use his knife, an arrow hits him on the leg. The two thugs holding Wally were hit in the backs with arrows. Roy kicks the leader away from Jesse and frees her from the two holding her against the wall by knocking them out with punches.
Jesse quickly runs to Wally, holding him in her arms.
"Are you okay?" asked Wally.
"Yeah," said Jesse.
Thea punches the leader hard in the face to knock him out. Roy jumps off the wall and takes out one thug with a back-flip kick.
The last thug was trying to run away. Thea runs after him. Roy, Jesse, and Wally were surprised by how fast she runs. Thea catches up to the thug and tackles him. She pins him to the ground and punches him in the face over a dozen times, knocking him out.
"Wow," reacted Jesse. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, young lady," said Roy.
"Wait... Roy?" guessed Jesse, recognizing the red-hooded archer's voice
"Oh, shoot," cursed Roy. "Forgot to turn my voice modulator back on."
"Yeah, nice job," said Thea, whose voice is still modulated. She turns off her voice modulator and says, "Hey, Jesse. Hey, Wally."
"Thea?" asked Wally and Jesse, shocked.
"Let's talk about this somewhere not around a bunch of unconscious crooks. They won't stay down for long," said Thea.
The four teenagers headed to the clock tower, where their friend Sin resides. Roy and Thea take off their masks and pull down their hoods, revealing their identities to Sin, who dropped the cheese cake she was eating because of shock.
"Hey, Sin," greeted Roy.
"Like the outfits?" asked Thea.
"Hey... and absolutely," said Sin.
"I still can't believe you two are sidekicks of the Green Arrow," said Wally, still shocked.
"Well, we may be sidekicks, but we're not afraid to go off on our own," said Thea.
"Doesn't it scare you guys?" asked Jesse. "I mean, two eight graders dressing up like superheroes. It's cool and all, but..."
"We know. It can be scary," said Roy.
"But so much fun," said Thea.
"So, Sin, you said you needed us to talk about something," said Jesse.
"A friend. Max Stanton. He's dead," said Sin, showing her friends a picture of her dead friend. "I found him at some dumpster. Eyes bled out. Cops think he OD'd. But I think he was murdered."
"By who?" asked Thea.
"I don't know," said Sin. "But then I heard some punk on the streets talk about Max. Followed him and found him at some cult led by a guy with a skull mask called Brother Blood. I had to get out before I could find out more."
"Well, take us to where this cult is and we'll make them pay for Max," said Thea, pumped up for more action.
"Easy there, Speedy," said Roy, trying to calm down his girlfriend.
"Is that her codename? Speedy?" asked Sin.
"No, it's just a nickname my brother gave me," said Thea. "Roy and I don't have codenames yet. Green Arrow and Black Canary are still thinking."
"I know I'm risking your lives by asking you to do this for me, but since the cops won't do anything, I'm desperate," said Sin.
"You know we'll always help you, Sin," said Wally. "You got you best baseballs bats?"
"Enough to arm an entire army," said Sin, gesturing to a crate filled with baseball bats and other stuff that can be used as weapons.
"Well, we got weapons of our own," said Thea.
"Although, we're kinda almost out," said Roy, noticing that he's running low on arrows.
"Good thing I stole some arrows from crime scenes before the police could clean them up," said Sin, opening another crate full of arrows.
"Let's get to business then," said Thea.
Roy, Thea, Wally, and Jesse arrive at the warehouse where this mysterious cult hides in. Wally and Jesse stay outside with baseball bats, slingshots, and tranquilizer darts ready for use. They were ordered not to move in if they're not back in thirty minutes. Thea and Roy sneak inside with Sin, who insisted on coming along because it's personal. They made it down to the basement, where the leader, named Brother Blood, was addressing his people.
"The time will come when we will lay siege to the corrupt wealthy of Star City," he said. "As we wait for the clock to run down, we will improve ourselves with this..."
The cult leader held up a jet injector with a serum loaded on it.
"Bring in the next subject," ordered Brother Blood.
An unwilling subject was strapped down to the chair. He was injected with the serum. He started screaming and wriggling, until he stopped moving. Brother Blood checks for a pulse. There was none.
"Another failed subject," said Brother Blood, disappointed.
Roy, Thea, and Sin were horrified.
"I think I know what happened to Max," said Roy. "Sin, stay here. We're going in."
"Save the big one for me," said Sin.
"No problem," said Thea.
Sin hides behind a machine, while Roy and Thea sneak further in using the shadows. However, when Sin accidentally caused the machine to start steaming out of control, the vigilantes were caught. Two serum-powered thugs easily take them out.
...
A while later, Roy wakes up and finds himself strapped to the chair, unmasked. He tried to break free, to no avail. Thea, still masked, and Sin were both held as hostage, clearly planned to be tested next. Brother Blood walks up to Roy with another tube of serum in hand.
"Roy Harper," said Brother Blood. "You have quite the reputation here in the Glades. Fitting you would be here. We are all like you. Suffering at the hands of the wealthy, left to rot while they rise in power."
"If you hurt my partner..." growled Roy angrily.
"She'll be next," said Brother Blood.
"You get that thing anywhere near me, I'm gonna kill you," growled Roy.
"No, boy. You'll kill for me," said Brother Blood.
Blood injects the serum into Roy's bloodstream. He shakes and screams, until he stops. Thea and Sin were scared when he wouldn't move.
"Roy!" cried Thea.
"Another failed subject," said Blood, detecting no pulse on Roy. "Dispose of him."
A thud was heard, capturing everyone's attention. Wally and Jesse, putting on their hoods and masks, were sneaking in after the thirty minutes are up. However, Jesse accidentally bumped into Wally, causing him to hit the wall with his bat, which caused the thud.
"Oops," said Wally.
"Kill them," ordered Brother Blood.
Two of Blood's men fired their guns at the two. They jumped down the stairs to dodge the bullets. They ended up splitting up. Jesse gets cornered.
"Goodnight, miss," said the thug pointing a gun at her.
The thug fired the gun. Jesse closed her eyes, only to feeling nothing. She opens her eyes to see that the gun has been fired and the bullet was coming towards her, but in slow motion. She steps aside, making sure she was out of the way. She slowly grabs the bullet out of the air, amazed by all this.
"Wow," is all she can say.
She then moves the bullet lower until it points at the thug's leg. She then pokes it, so it was moving towards his leg at slow motion. She grabs his gun and takes it apart. She learned it from the movies.
Everything then moves at normal speed. The bullet hits the thug in the leg. Jesse punches the thug in the face three times, knocking him down. She kicks him in the face, knocking him out.
Wally was whacking some thugs with his baseball bat. He kicks one in the leg before hitting him with a tranq dart. He then fires tranq darts at the two men holding Thea and Sin hostage. He unties them and gives Thea back her gear.
"Fall back," ordered Brother Blood. "And blow up this place."
Brother Blood and his men run away through a secret escape. Thea ignores them and focuses on Roy, who was still "dead."
"Roy, c'mon. Don't leave me, please. Roy! Roy!" She cried.
Thea hugs him and cries on his shoulder, mourning. Suddenly, Roy started breathing. Thea's tears of sorrow turns into tears of joy as she kisses him.
"Is it hot in here or is it just me?" asked Roy, sweating.
"It's hot in here," said Thea. "Mostly thanks to Sin releasing some steam."
"I said I was sorry," said Sin.
"No, I'm pretty sure it's me. My blood is boiling," said Roy.
"We need to get him back to the clock tower," said Jesse. "I'm no doctor, but I did study biology and medicine this summer. I even interned at Silverstone General for a month."
Back at the clock tower, Roy was being treated by Jesse. The rest of their friends watched with concern, especially Thea.
"Don't worry. I'll be fine," said Roy.
"You're alive and that's enough," said Thea, happily.
Roy picks up his phone to text Oliver, only to accidentally crush it in his hands.
"Whoa," said everyone.
"I think that serum increased your strength," theorized Jesse.
"So, Max died because they wanted him to be some super strong lackey," said Sin sadly.
"I'm sorry, Sin," said Wally. "Don't worry. We'll make Blood pay one day."
Thea lightly smacks Roy on the shoulder, which felt harder.
"I guess we can add super strength to your arsenal," said Thea. Then an idea popped in her head. "Arsenal. That's what we should call you."
"I like it, Speedy," said Roy. "Speedy. I think it fits. You run so fast after all. I mean, how fast you caught up to that guy earlier tonight. Speedy."
"Okay, I guess that's not so bad of a codename," said Thea.
Meanwhile, in Slade Wilson's office, Brother Blood appears. He takes off his mask as the chair behind the desk turns around, showing Slade Wilson himself, suited up but unmasked.
"Sebastian Blood," greeted Slade.
"Mr. Wilson," greeted Sebastian.
"You let Roy Harper get away," growled Slade.
"I had to," said Sebastian. "We couldn't risk any of our work falling into their hands."
"That doesn't change the fact that Oliver Queen has a Mirakuru-powered arrow in his arsenal," said Slade, still angry. "Pray I don't plan killing you right now."
"You promised me justice for the Glades," said Sebastian.
"And you will get it," said Slade. "Besides, I'm not the only one you should be worried about. Our friend, Pagonia, was the one aided in the manufacturing of the Mirakuru, remember? I may have not seen her face, but I've heard of her work. She kills anyone who fails her, hence why no others who've met her have lived to tell her tale."
"Tell Ms. Pagonia to, please, be patient. The army will be complete soon enough," promised Sebastian.
"You better," said Slade. "Now, get out of my sight."
Sebastian puts his mask back on as he walks out the door. All he has to be worried about now is getting to school early tomorrow. Until his plan for the Glades is executed, he's just another ordinary student at Silverstone High.
Wally walks Jesse back home to her father's home. He stopped a mile away from the house because he wanted to talk to Jesse about something.
"Jesse, how did you do that?" asked Wally.
"Do what?" replied Jesse.
"Dodge that gunshot," said Wally. "I saw it. You were fast, like a... like a... speedster."
Jesse bursts out laughing.
"A speedster? As if," said Jesse.
"Jesse, the gun was pointed at your face," reminded Wally. "Then one second later, you were standing on the thug's left side and he gets a bullet to the leg. Tell me that I'm crazy, go on."
Jesse fake-laughs as she was about to lie, until Wally raised an eyebrow at her.
"Okay, fine. Yes, I'm a speedster," said Jesse. "But I didn't know about it until tonight. All I knew is, he fired the gun and everything went in slow motion."
"That sound awesome," said Wally.
"Yeah, it is," said Jesse. "And I can feel electricity surging throughout my body. It's... it's like a pump of adrenaline."
"Jesse, you're a speedster. This is big news," said Wally. "Jesse Quick, a speedster. Look at that."
"Just don't tell anyone, okay?" pleaded Jesse. "Especially my dad. He has a whole city of metas to worry about. He doesn't need to worry about me."
"I promise," said Wally.
"Thank you," said Jesse, hugging Wally.
After one goodnight kiss, they parted ways.
Unbeknownst to them, Reverse Flash has been watching from the shadows.
Jesse Wells has powers. I know what you're thinking. "When will Wally get his speed?" Soon. Just wait.
So, what do you think?