Corto Maltese

Diggle stared at him as if he had a second head growing out of his neck. "You're going to have to explain a little more Oliver, because you're starting to talk crazy!"

But how could he explain it? She was the woman he had assassinated in Hong Kong. He had taken position on the rooftop facing the Four Season penthouse, Oliver had aimed for her chest, a hit that was true and clean. But there she was, less than a hundred feet away, walking around unscathed, practically a vision of health and vitality.

Then trucks started to roll up beside the containers. "Is that ARGUS?"

John extended his neck to look passed him. A dozen men filed out of the back of the trucks, armored and with assault rifles, and definitely not friendly at all.

"That's not ARGUS!"

Oliver dashed behind a barrel as bullets rained. The men were weaving through the containers, trying to get closer to them.

The HIVE commander reacted to the sound of gunfire as if it were church bells. She turned her head to the side, listening. "ARGUS knows we're here?"

Shaw typed out the coding, nodding while doing so. He would have expected nothing less from Waller. Though it seemed her new boy-scout was woefully under prepared to deal with him and HIVE. Lyla's baby daddy just didn't know how Corto Maltese worked like he did. "That's why I bought renta-soldiers to secure the perimeter, most of them are rebels; it's amazing how cheap you can get an army in this country."

But Kane did not share his opinion; perhaps he should not have forgotten who he was dealing with. "I wanted no disturbances during this exchange."

He stopped typing and glanced at her, her pretty face had darkened, and knowing these people he had dug himself in this hole, without him even realizing it.

He made a point to shrug evasively but he could see that she was probably already thinking of methods to kill him. Shaw had forgotten that this member of the council was particularly unpredictable. Apparently, she's killed a man with her bare hands after he slighted her, though you wouldn't be able to tell she did any of the dirty work with those clean cuticles. Unpredictable? That's women for you, give them power and they use it to be vindictive and selfish. Boys fuck things up, girls are fucked up. "It was unavoidable Commander" he explained blank-faced.

She glowered at him, "I doubt that. What a disappointment this has been."

Meanwhile, Oliver shot at several soldiers. One jumped him from behind and he elbowed him in the throat and then tackled him down to into the dirt with a chokehold. He used his bow to knock the side of his head. They were wasting time here. Oliver waved to Digg who was busy taking out a soldier.

"Gun!"

John slid one across the ground; he caught it, stood up and aimed.

Left. Right. Behind him. Over the shoulder. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Soldiers fell to the ground as if he were shooting ducks at a carnival fair with a fake gun.

Finished, Oliver crouched beside a barrel, all the hostiles taken out; Diggle was near him, nodding in approval. "That was some damn accurate aim man."

"Well you know" said Oliver, shaking his bow at Digg, "it comes with the territory."

A guard moved forward from the file that had formed behind the commander, he whispered in her ear but loud enough that Shaw could hear. "Commander we should go. The battle's closing in on us."

"Done". Mark announced, he had been dodging ARGUS and Waller for too long, he wasn't about to let the buyer leave without getting what they paid for, or worse, start thinking he was the one setting them up. In the end he had chosen wisely. ARGUS had been losing, and this might change the tides of the battle and end it once and for all. He wasn't concerned of the fallout; he would be safe across the globe in Australia by the time this deal was over.

He'd had reservations initially, his friends, his reputation. But both of those could be made again if a man had the will for it. He shut the case lid and made to pass it to Kane. Their outstretched hands hung in the air between them.

Thwack.

An arrow pierced his arm. The case dropped on the ground.

A wall of guards promptly formed around the commander and she was taken aside, out of sight. The HIVE guards turned and shot at their attackers to protect their queen. Arrows arched through the air and barreled down on them.

Mark hissed and looked at the arrow head peeping out of his collar bone and before he knew it John Diggle had pounced on him.

The HIVE commander ran into the abandoned shack, taking out her satellite phone while her men fought. Clearly Shaw had underestimated his ex-peers and had failed to check the quality of his 'renta-soldier's' before purchasing them. She did not have the patience to deal with such sloppiness and incompetence. He might presume to know the ins and outs of the depravity of Corto Maltese's corruption merely because he was betraying his 'good-willed' ARGUS employers. But he did not know the criminal underworld like she did. She ruled it.

"Falcon requests back-up, I repeat we need back-up."

In the commotion he saw the un-dead woman flee the scene. The ARGUS actual was lying on the floor. He hid behind a boulder, taking aim when he could. A guard reached for the case and he shot him in the wrist, and used bola arrows to tie up another. Oliver chanced a quick glance away and saw Diggle dragging Shaw around to the back of the shack, literally kicking and screaming, and he made a mental note never to end up on Diggle's bad side.

He slammed the traitorous bastard against the wall and his fist connected with his jaw.

"Lyla trusted you! How could you put a bulls-eye on her family? On my family?!" John throttled him. Mark's teeth were bloody; he didn't seem to have much fight left in him.

"Waller" he rasped, "you don't know the…the thing's she's made me do…I had to get away."

"You did this as an easy escape?"

Shaw groaned, John looked down and saw that he had been hit in the fire fight; a red stain was growing on his side. Karma had come around to bite him back.

"I had no choice…"

"You always have a choice!"

There was no excuse for putting innocent lives on the line. None.

"Kill me" he pleaded. "I'd rather… not be taken alive. Waller won't… show any mercy". For a brief moment he was honestly considering it; did it make him a bad person that he didn't care?

"If only." He took out his gun and drove the grip into the side of Shaw's skull; he slumped to the ground, unconscious.

There was another barrel that he could use for coverage, closer to the shack. It was risky maneuver when you measured the distance from where he was. He could be turned into a pin-cushion if he was not fast enough.

Then he heard the faint sound of an approaching vehicle. Was it the HIVE cavalry? He concentrated. No. It was a motorcycle. A lone rider?

And sailing through the bruising sky, he saw a small ball fly towards the shack. A grenade? He thought. But when it landed he knew exactly what it was.

The sonic cry of canaries erupted into the air.

He covered his ears. Any glass in the vicinity shattered instantaneously.

When it ended he straightened from the crouched position. Sara-or as she preferred now, Taer-Al-Asfar-had made short work of the HIVE guards and was clutching the ARGUS actual to her chest. She was running from the shack with it, back towards her motorcycle, likely Felicity had instructed her on the importance of it.

The odds were beginning to look in their favor.

"Sara has the actual; let's get out of here" reported Oliver. Yes, he did not need to be told twice that she was here. Diggle had never been hit with the canary cry, and it did a number on his hearing for a few seconds after it subsided, they were still ringing. He did not know how Sara could adapt to the sound.

He intended to leave Shaw where he was. But it was probably a good idea to tie him up before he left him for the wolves aka ARGUS and Amanda Waller's wrath, unless of course they expected him to carry the bastard back home for them. He had to admit this part of picking up Amanda's trash was not agreeing with him.

But as he bent to tie Mark's wrists in zip ties he saw two black trucks barraging in. Before the driver even hit the brakes, HIVE agents were leaping out.

The swarm had arrived.

They had come from the East, his back was exposed to open landscape and in front of him was the shack. No solid coverage. Shaw had chosen a locale that limited his options for escape. A flurry of expletives raced through his mind. It would not be wise to draw their attention by shooting at them. They were closing in. There were plenty of dry bushes dotting the area and it was a good as any place to hide.

"Diggle? Diggle come in!" No response.

"Where is he?" Sara asked when he ran towards her and the bike. She glanced behind him and her eyes widened. He saw what she saw. Two black trucks, silhouetted men prowling the area where John was, predators searching for prey.

"I have to go back and get him; you take the actual and go, we can't let them get their hands on it" he ordered, and for a moment he thought she would refuse, given how stubborn she could be. But instead she agreed.

"Take this" she tossed him a tracker he could put into his pocket. "In case I lose you, I'll double back and cover you guys once I get this somewhere safe", she assured him and got on her bike. He nodded a silent thank you, he was glad she hadn't completely abandoned them for Ra's Al Ghul and the League. He wanted to tell her what Al-Sayad had confessed, since she deserved to know that she was not safe in her 'home'. But he currently had other problems to handle.

The bike's engine roaring alive put the full force of the HIVE guard's attention on him and Sara. They began shooting. Oliver sprinted to the shack in time, he saw Sara make it onto the main road. They would chase her for the actual, but he was confident she would find a way to evade them.

The HIVE agents were coming from the east, but there would soon cover the whole area if he didn't get to Diggle fast. This side of the shack was not yet searched, the sun had set and he had the falling light to give him cover.

"Diggle come in" he whispered into his comm. But their signal was jammed. There was a response coming in, he held his breath.

It was just static on the other end and his best friend's words were warbled.

"O—er—ge—we—beh—the-ake—"

Meaningless. So much for the odds being in our favor. He cursed. He drew his bow to ready himself in case he got any surprises. Digg could be somewhere on the other side of the shack. They were trapped on all sides. Should he charge them? Wait it out? Call Felicity for back-up? He cursed again in frustration at their meagre choices.

He spotted their parked trucks. If he could get close enough to disable them then they couldn't leave this place. He might be able to find Diggle too, if he wasn't already captured, or worse. He preferred not to think about those grievous possibilities in the heat of the moment. Oliver crabbed walked closer to the trucks and took out the tires; they burst and let out air with a long whiny sound.

"After her!" Shouted a guard, waving his fellows towards the exit Sara had left through.

"Towards there! Cover the perimeter" commanded another, closer still.

Oliver aimed and took two stragglers out, but there was still too many. At least the trucks had no HIVE guards protecting them. He could hop into one, rev it up and barrage through all of the agents like bowling pins. It was the best plan he had then, heck the only Oliver stood and checked that the coast was clear; he readied himself to run for it.

But then there was the creak of wooden floorboards behind him. Too late. In the corner of his eyes he saw her…

His head exploded in white light.

Face-planting onto the ground, bow falling out of his hand, Oliver groaned, the images before him phasing between blurry and clear.

She kicked him. Hard. Forcing him to roll over onto his back.

The woman he thought he killed, the HIVE commander… knelt beside his head. Her beautiful face had not aged in the last six years. In the white suit she wore she was almost ethereal…

And then, a demonic smile spread on her lips.

"Oliver Queen…"

Corto Maltese coastline

If she wasn't freaking out before she was definitely freaking out now. Second time this week Oliver and Diggle had gone missing. This was about to creep to the top of her list of really bad days, and that was saying a lot. All for Amanda Waller's crusade. She was beginning to understand Oliver's point about how Waller would use them until they met their deaths…

No. NO. This is not the time to point fingers Felicity!

Lyla was complaining in her ear, the frustration she had contained before was coming out now. "That idiot!" Referring to her baby daddy. "Why couldn't he just stay put and listen to me for once?"

She paid the taxi driver, "gracias" she told him and got out. Felicity had arrived at a creepy narrow back-road that wound beside the beach, definitely not a tourist highlight. Sara had dumped the actual in one of the bushes here for the IT tech to find, and doubled around to escape the HIVE militia.

"I could say the same about Oliver. But enough with complaining about the men in our lives, what the frack are we going to do?! HIVE has them!" She wasn't even ashamed to be on the verge of hysteria it was warranted.

"The ground team would've reached the island by now". That piece of information was probably the best news Felicity had heard in a long while. Felicity took out a flashlight and waved it around the foliage. She was definitely not dressed to go digging around in the middle of nowhere for the case containing the data omnibus. And it's black too, which only makes it harder to find. Great.

"I can direct them to extract Oliver and Digg."

"You know where they are?" She asked, grasping on hopefully.

"I don't" she stepped into the bushes, the dry branches scratching her bare legs. "But Sara's been following the trucks that took them away. Oliver has a tracker on him too, if luck's on our side they won't find it on his person".

"They will. They're quite thorough."

"Well, they better not!" She prided optimism as one of her favorable traits but in situations like this she could get snappy. Just ask Roy.

"Why do you think HIVE took them? For questioning?" It was plausible they wanted ARGUS agents to interrogate, with the agencies being archenemies and all. But Oliver didn't know anything worth dying for about ARGUS. He wasn't even an agent, just an associate. And besides, was he even loyal to ARGUS to begin with? He was only in this to help his best friend, and to Oliver that would be all that mattered. She had to admire his loyalty even if it meant the downfall of ARGUS if this got out of hand. Well more than it already has.

"That's a… soft term for it" Lyla said and Felicity could tell she was trying to settle her own frazzled nerves. "But it won't be anything remotely close to that for the first hour.

Felicity stopped and gulped. "I see."

Would they…'discard' them after they got what they wanted? Leave their corpses in the ocean for the crows to feast on? She was only making her stomach queasy with those disturbing thoughts. Don't go there, Felicity, just don't.

As if she was right there in front of her Lyla said, "It doesn't settle well to dwell on what-if's and maybes in a stressful situation like this. Keep me updated, I'll check back in in half an hour, its chaos here." Lyla signed off.

"'Corto Maltese? Oh goodie, I haven't been on a vacation in ages!'" She said, high pitched, mocking the ecstatic past version of herself who had first heard the news of this Caribbean trip. Here she went deeper to imitate Oliver, "'No, you shouldn't come, it will be dangerous. I need to keep you safe'"-and reverted back to imitating herself-"'I think it will be fun Oliver! Don't tell me what to do!'"

She smacked her forehead; "urgh stupid!"

Unknown location, Corto Maltese

When he woke he was restrained. He glanced at his surroundings; the lighting was low preventing him from seeing beyond a radius twelve feet in front of him. He was in some sort of cellar with red brick walls, crates of imported liquor stacked against them on either side of him. He hissed when he bent his neck. The blow he had taken was swelling into a lump just above his nape. That was when he sensed he was not alone. Oliver stared ahead of him, waiting.

The commander emerged from the shadows, the light dancing in her eyes like two circles of blue fire. Her white suit was immaculate and each of her movements graceful; the way she clasped her fingers in front of her; how she bent her neck slightly as if to consider him and what she wanted to do with him. A wolfish grin spread on the woman's face. He waited for her to speak.

"In my unique experience, most captives would have a million questions by now." Her voice might have sounded silky smooth to him before, but closer, he could hear the maliciousness laced in it. He stared at her emotionlessly. She circled around him slowly like a vulture waiting for their meal to die.

"They ask these questions with the assumption they would be answered immediately. Who are you? What do you want with me? What are you going to do to me?"

She stopped a few feet in front of him, tapping a manicured finger on her bottom lip thoughtfully. "But you aren't 'most' captives are you? You're special. Unlike your friend."

That's when he heard John being beaten up in the next room. The groans and stifled cries of pain his friend emitted only served to feed Oliver's rage, boiling beneath his calm veneer. She was toying with him. If she wanted to play, so could he.

"I'm not going to ask you questions I already know the answers too" he said fixing a stony glare on her. "And I can assure you that we are nothing like Mark Shaw; we won't break under whatever torture or pressure you put on us."

She made a 'mmhm' noise her lips pressing together thinly as if she found it funny that he dared to defy her. "You say that now, but then I suppose you've never been kidnapped by HIVE before."

"Well it's not like I walk around asking to get kidnapped. So I don't have much to compare it too" he snarked.

But he sort of did though; which was a depressing fact in itself. He kept a hard gaze on her trying to figure out her motives. He was no ARGUS agent; therefore any question regarding the agency would be fruitless. He truly had nothing to give to these people and that ignorance could literally cost him his life. While this game was ongoing, his instincts were calculating an escape route and his wrists puzzling out the restraints that bound him to the chair.

She snickered humorlessly and nodded in mock approval, "You mask your fear with good humor, that's a very positive perspective to have."

"You'll never win" he said resolutely, their gazes locking, "We will burn you to ashes, you'll see."

The winning grin she had plastered on twitched and died. She took a step closer to him, and then another. And he thought he had killed this woman six years ago but she was very real to him then, and he was about to learn how wrong he had been. Closer. He was confused, what was she doing? Shouldn't there be a guard in here with her? Closer. What was happening? Was she going to—

She raised that perfectly manicured fist and punched him.

His head whipped to the right. Oliver remained still, staring at the cement ground, eyes blinking in shock at how powerful that strike had been. 'Punch' was not the appropriate term, it more like she had just tried to decapitate him with her fist.

Her grace, her poise, that elegance she exuded had withered away until it was as if it never existed at all. Only a vengeful vicious monster was left behind. How did she know his name? Why did she hate him? Had she discovered the identity of her attempted murderer all those years ago and this was her form of vengeance? Why didn't she just kill him?

She cupped his chin and forced him to meet her gaze. "Do you know why you're here Oliver Queen? Mmhm?" She released his chin and struck him again. Same side. Harder. He heard his jaw click and then unclick back into place. He couldn't help himself, he groaned, black dots swimming in his vision. This was quickly becoming one of his worst kidnapping experiences.

She struck him once more. The other side. A mixture of blood and saliva trailed out of his mouth. His nose was long past holding the flood gates closed as blood trailed out of it.

"You're here to answer my question". Her tone was growing angrier, more maniacal, as if hitting him was penance for whatever he had done to her in the past.

She hit him. In the stomach. It felt like he'd been smashed against a concrete wall. He bent over, sagging in the chair, the air in his lungs knocked out. It was insane how strong she was. Too strong.

"Just one little question that I need the answer too."

Smack. Smack. Left. Right. One explosion of blinding white light after another.

"Where is he?"

Smack. Smack. Blood and saliva. The blow had broken two of his teeth, molars; the empty cavities filled his mouth with blood from the inside out. He almost didn't hear her question because of the dizziness that had set in.

"Where's who?" He moaned.

SMACK. SMACK.

"Where is he?!" She fisted his collar and throttled him, bringing him close, her mouth an inch from his face.

"WHERE IS SLADE WILSON?"

A/N: um say what? Just hold on... Look out for more updates in the next week. Yes I've been procrastinating, but also very inspired. See you soon.