We were currently pursuing Slade in a van. It was so hard to get the upper hand on him when he always seemed to be one step ahead. Even knowing what he was going to do didn't make it easier. I had literally faced him once before and he still seemed to be ahead of me. It might have been because of the mirakuru. It did put his mind on overdrive in a way that was hard to keep up with.
"It was not a good idea for me to wear a ski mask." Iris declared as she took hers off.
"It's okay if you're a little nervous." Sara stated.
"Little is an understatement." Iris declared. "Why are we doing this?"
"Slade didn't exactly give us a choice." I pointed out.
"Yeah but this isn't exactly the best plan." She remarked.
"It was your plan." I reminded her.
"And I was hoping that one of you would tell me that it was a terrible idea." She argued.
"We're here." Mia declared. Courtney wasn't with us because I needed to have someone to watch the club. I wasn't sure if Slade would send someone there, but Courtney was the most equipped to protect it if he did.
Slade's company had its own Applied Sciences building. It was probably because he wasn't able to commandeer ours. I climbed the fence while Iris cut it open. We started by taking out the guards.
"I've got the security cameras down." Mia declared. "That skeleton key we got from Tockman is coming in handy."
We probably should have returned that, but it was probably better in our hands than anyone else's. We didn't need it stolen again. She opened the door and went inside.
"You know we could really Kara right now." Mia remarked. It probably would be a good idea to have someone as strong as Slade who also wasn't as crazy as him, but I was pretty sure that wasn't an option.
"Who's Kara?" Sara inquired since she hadn't been there when we met her.
"She's an alien teenager who lives several hundred miles from here." I stated. "I don't want her to get involved in this unless it's a last resort."
"Are you sure that blowing this place up will stop Slade from what he's trying to do?" Iris questioned.
"No, but it might at least slow him down." I pointed out.
We started to plant several bombers before another security guard came and tried to stop Iris. I knocked him out and grabbed him because we did not anyone to get caught in the blast.
Once we got everyone out, we left them so they would be far enough away so they wouldn't be harmed. Once we were able to confirm that, we blew it up. I knew that this wouldn't stop Slade, but it would at least force him to go with his plan B. Even if it had been my family's Applied Sciences Building, I wouldn't feel guilty about it considering that Robert didn't deserve to have his name on it. Thea probably need to bring up a name change with the board.
It was also good news that Slade couldn't appear on TV to talk about the explosion since he was a wanted man. He technically wasn't a fugitive because he had been released of his own accord. I couldn't help but wonder if the reason that Lt. Pike was so adamant about going after Quentin was due to the fact that he didn't want to admit that he made a mistake by letting Slade go. However, Slade wasn't immune from charges because he hadn't been charged for the crime.
"I still can't believe you guys blew that place up." Courtney remarked.
"Here's what we know. In order to make his army of human weapons, Slade will need a centrifuge." I stated.
"Well he'll probably have the resources to get something like that." Iris declared. "We shouldn't expect this to stop him from being able to do that."
"I don't." I answered.
"Well we need to take the fight to him." Iris declared.
"He's not going to stop. We have to be prepared for him to do anything at this point." I remarked.
"How's Tommy doing?" Courtney asked.
"He's been sleeping here." I stated. "He can't exactly stay at home because he can't tell my mom or Thea that the reason Dinah broke up with me was because I'm the vigilante and he knew about it."
"I could try to talk to her." Sara offered.
"I think you should be more concerned about your dad at the moment." I declared. "We have to find a way to get the charges against Quentin dropped because he does not deserve to go to prison for helping us protect the city."
"I'll start looking into Lt. Pike. If he has any secrets, I'll find them." Mia declared. I knew that blackmail might not be the best idea, but it was probably the only one considering that Dinah was not able to get the charges dropped.
I was pretty sure that Quentin would be able to get out of this. If it was anything like before, he would actually be able to get a promotion. I didn't know why the police was still so interested in trying to catch me. Were they so jaded that they weren't able to see that I was making the city a better place? Hopefully, I would be able to change that this time around. I wasn't quite sure how I would change it, but I knew it would be a good idea to do so.
The following day I was at home with my family. We were all distraught about Emiko's decision to leave suddenly and the worst part was that only Malcolm and I knew why. Well I was pretty sure that Mom knew as well, but she hadn't said anything to me about it. In any case, Thea definitely did not know anything about it.
"I just don't understand it. Did she think that we had something to do with her being kidnapped?" Thea asked.
"I still don't understand why Slade would do it." Mom remarked. "He didn't even demand that I drop out of the race, but if I had, it would mean the money that he donated was a waste."
"We can't try to understand this." I pointed out. I wished that I could tell them that it was all my fault, but I couldn't. "We just need to take solace in the fact that Emiko is safe and we have her under security so he can't go after her again."
I really wanted to talk to her again. Maybe she had had enough time to process things that she wouldn't be angry at me anymore. It was kind of selfish for her to be mad that I hadn't told her when there were plenty of other people that I hadn't told. The problem was that she definitely wasn't answering my calls and she wasn't even going to our school anymore. The only way for me to really find her would be to track her phone and I didn't want to do that to my sister.
"Right now I think that we should focus on trying to catch him." Malcolm replied. "I don't think we can trust the police at this point considering that he managed to manipulate them so easily with some false evidence. Maybe we should take this into our own hands."
"What exactly are you suggesting?" Thea inquired.
"I think that we should hire someone to take him down." Malcolm declared.
"No." I stated. "We are not going to stoop to his level. Plus there's also the fact if this person gets caught, they could tell the police that we were the ones responsible."
If I didn't know how dangerous he was, I would consider talking to Amanda Waller, but he was too much for any of Task Force X to handle and unlike her, I did care if they got killed.
I was also grateful that no one had been able to get their hands on our company. It meant that all of our money and our property was safe. It probably would have been a good idea for Slade to try make a business deal , but I was pretty sure that Thea would be smarter than to blatantly sign anything without thoroughly reading it first.
That afternoon, Tommy and I went to lunch with Malcolm. I was glad that the two of them seemed to be getting along well now because this part would be a lot easier to provide him comfort. The three of us met at Big Belly Burger.
"So how are you holding up?" I asked. I then realized that asking that wouldn't do any good. "You don't have to answer that. I'm sorry about this."
"Even though you think it is, this isn't your fault, Olivia." Tommy remarked. "I kept this secret just as much as you did. I deserve some of the blame."
"I think that you probably just need to give some time," Malcolm suggested. "I made my mistakes when I was with your mother and she kicked me out a few times as well."
"I'm just surprised that after all of this time that I was considering breaking up with while she was having her substance abuse issues that she ended up breaking up with me instead." He admitted.
"Anything that you need right now we can give you." I told him. "I can even give you dating advice."
"Olivia, you should really stop trying to tell jokes or lighten the mood." Tommy remarked. "I don't think I've ever met anyone with worse comedic timing than you. I'm concerned with what you're going to do about Slade."
"I don't know yet." I admitted. "I kind of have no idea where he is right now and I can't do anything until he reveals himself. He always seems to be ahead of me and this stuff with Emiko and Dinah has shown me that he can still find ways to hurt me, but I promise that I will take him down."
"Do whatever you need. Don't be afraid to kill him." Tommy declared.
Later, I was at work. Emiko quitting meant that I had even more responsibility than before. It also meant that Sara needed to be there more. I knew that it would be a good chance to talk to her about her dad.
"Hey." She greeted me.
"How's your dad?" I asked her.
"He's willing to go to jail for you." She stated.
"So I hate be the bearer of even more bad news, but Artemis is gone." Mia interrupted. "Her parents don't know where she is and they're considering filing a missing person's report on her. Do you think Slade might have taken her?"
"He might've but I know that he doesn't plan on killing her." I declared. "I know that there was only one cure to mirakuru in the past, but if we can find any other way to do it that won't result in killing her, we need to find it."
"I haven't heard of anything." Sara declared.
"Yeah, this stuff wasn't around when I went to college." Mia added. That surprised me. "Oh yeah. I got my degree. I was able to go to college in the new reality that you created."
"I'm proud of you." I told her. "What was it in?"
"Liberal Arts, I really didn't have a direction when I went to college." Mia explained.
We then went downstairs and there was Slade in full armor. Okay this was really bad. I had forgotten that he had brought the fight to us. He had a gun and started to fire on us. We also decided to take cover. Unfortunately, Sara tried to get the upper hand on him. Her abilities really didn't give her an advantage. He ended up grabbing her by the neck and choking her before he threw her across the room.
At that point, Courtney took out her staff and started to blast at him. Unfortunately, it seemed to do nothing against his armor.
"Courtney, stop!" I ordered.
"Your weapon is useless against me." Slade declared. He then her into the glass and I went over to try to stop him. I at least had the advantage that I couldn't be injured by him. I went over and grabbed weapons, but he was able to fight me off.
"Don't forget who taught you how to fight, Kid." He declared. He wasn't the only one who taught me how to fight.
He left without doing any more. I was pretty sure that he just wanted to use a show of force and didn't want to kill anyone. At point, I called Tommy over.
"Well you and Courtney are don't have any serious damage." He told me. "Of course I guess you can't be injured anyway."
"What about Sara?" I asked.
"Her wrist is broken." Tommy declared. "Though a little surprised that has even more scars than you do."
"Thanks for doing this, Tommy," Sara declared as he started to wrap her wrist up. "I know it can't be easy for you right now with what's going on."
"I've been better." Tommy admitted.
"I'm starting to think that maybe I should tell her." Sara remarked. "It would also be a good idea for the two of us to talk about this."
"I don't want her to know that I know that she knows yet." I stated. "I want her to come to me."
"Well I called her over here, so you better think of some reason for how my wrist got broken." Sara stated. I wished that she hadn't done that.
A few minutes later, Dinah was there.
"What happened? Why aren't you in the hospital?" She asked.
"I thought that Tommy would be good enough at helping us that we didn't need to mess with the bureaucracy." I lied.
"So what happened?" She questioned.
"We just had a little bit of a workplace accident. I probably shouldn't tell OSHA about it." I quipped.
"Well I have a meeting him some contractors that I need to go to." Dinah declared. It seemed like she wasn't ready to tell me that she knew yet either. She may have not trust me yet. "Tell Tommy that I said thank you."
"Thanks for coming." Sara told her.
"Always." Her sister replied with a nervous smile.
Speaking of sisters, I knew that there was something that I needed to do. I knew that ambushing wasn't a good idea but it was still the only one. She was still a creature of habit and went to the same coffee shop.
"Hey." I greeted her at the door.
"Leave me alone, Olivia." She told me. "I don't have anything to say to you. So fuck off."
"Emiko, I know that you're mad about this but I have reasons that I didn't tell you." I replied.
"And yet you've told pretty much everyone close to you except me." She argued.
"That's not true." I replied.
"Who haven't you told?" She challenged.
"I haven't told my mom or Thea and I didn't tell Malcolm. He just kind of figured it out." I declared.
"I guess that means that I'm not as smart as him." She quipped. "You know the worst part about this was that for the first time in my life, I felt like I was in a good place. I had a family, I had a job. Then I found out that everyone was lying to me. I actually liked Artemis. I didn't even have to think about how my father killed over 500 people, but what I know now is that I'll never be part of your family. Now I already told you that I won't turn you in, but if you keep pushing, I will."
I then went back to the club and I was hit with some more bad news. Slade had taken the skeleton key. You know instead of keeping it so it couldn't fall into the wrong hands, it would have probably been a better idea to destroy it to keep it from falling into the wrong hands instead.
"Well that's going to give him a new way to mass produce the serum." I remarked.
"Yeah he can pretty get into anywhere that he wants." Mia agreed.
"We just have to find the place in Star City with most cutting edge technology." I declared.
It was then that I realized where that was and I couldn't help but have mixed feelings to say the least. Well I supposed that they would be a little less mixed if certain people weren't there when I went there.
At that point, my computer dinged. That timing was bad.
"What's that?" Courtney asked.
"I've been running an algorithm recently to see if I could use some information that you mother gave me." I declared.
"And what were you trying to find out with it?" She asked.
"I've been trying to figure out who your father is and I think that I might have gotten an answer." I replied.
"Olivia, I know this is important, but we should probably go do this right now so Slade doesn't kill everyone there." Iris remarked. She was right. I would have to tell Courtney what I found later.
When we got there, we saw that Slade was driving off. I did manage to see something from the window though and that was Cisco and Caitlin talking to security. At least I knew that they were okay. The bad news was Slade had gotten away.
"So now you should probably start talking." Courtney remarked.
"Well I don't have any way to confirm this. I'm just basing it off of the information that your mother gave me." I explained. "She told me that she didn't know the guy's last name, just that his name was Arthur and he would have been at University of Nebraska around 1995. The guy that I can up with is Arthur Light, a former scientist who worked for STAR Labs."
"Do you know where he is now?" She asked.
"No." I responded. "And Courtney, I can't even prove that he is your father unless I could do a DNA test. I could be wrong. And right now really isn't the best time for you to be looking for him."
"I know it's not, but you can't just tell me something like this and expect me to do nothing." She pointed out.
"I'm not saying that you have to do nothing." I argued. "I'm just saying that right now we should focus on defeating Slade and I promise that as soon as we do that, I will help you try to find him."
We then went back to the club.
"So I think I found what was stolen." Mia declared as she pulled up some blueprints on the screen. "I hacked into Harrison Wells's, he's the director STAR Labs, computer and found that found a prototype for one of their new Biotech projects. The patent is still pending."
"So what does it do?" Courtney asked.
"It can deliver blood from one single patient into multiple patients at once." Mia explained. "That means Slade could transfer his blood into a bunch of other people, like those prisoners that he freed from Iron Heights."
"Yeah and he can modify it to bypass the obstacles of the mirakuru." I added.
"But the amount of blood that would require is probably too much than even Slade can handle." Iris remarked.
"Well if he does use it, he'll be weak, but it also raises another question. If he has Artemis then I'm pretty sure that he would be willing to use her as a guinea pig." I said. "I also know that we'll be able to find him when he uses it."
"I'll start looking for any spikes in the power grid." Mia remarked.
"I have another way that I am going to find him." I declared. The next day after school, I went over to the Russian neighborhood of Star City and I started to ask around before I was able to get the information that I needed. It was a bit surprising how willing they were to share when you asked them, but I was also pretty sure that my Bratva tattoo helped.
I found an apartment building and I knocked on the door. I could have kicked it down, but I wanted to be civil first before I did anything.
"Well, well, I did not expect to see you here." Tara remarked. "How did you find me?"
"Turns out that people still fear the Bratva." I declared. "I want to know where Slade is."
"And you think that I am going to tell you this why?" She asked.
"Because I don't think that you really know Slade or what he's planning on doing." I explained.
"I know exactly what he's planning on doing and I will do whatever he needs to because I am his soulmate." She responded.
"If you're his soulmate then why are you letting him go through with his plan to force me to marry him?" I inquired. "Why are you going along with his plan to ruin the relationships with my family? What do you even have to gain from this?"
"You do not understand how power works. The Bratva won't let me in, so I am going to force my way in if I have to kill every last member here in Star City." She replied.
"Do you think that will impress your father?" I asked.
"Screw my father! I do not care what he thinks." She retorted. "If you think that you can get me to change my mind, I will not. So you can leave because I no intention of telling you where he is."
After I left, Iris looked at me.
"So I just spoke to Mia. Someone reached out to the arrow and wants a meeting." She explained.
"Who?" I asked, even though I was pretty sure who it was. I didn't think Sebastian was ready to change his tune just yet, so I was pretty sure it was Dinah.
"Dinah." She answered.
I went to the rendezvous point and she was there.
"I heard about your father being arrested. If I could help him, I would." I told her. I probably didn't need to have my hood on, because I knew that she knew, but I didn't know if we were alone.
"That's not was this is about but it's ironic that he used to think that you're a murderer and I was the one who was defending you. You kept protecting me and my family and I never asked why."
However, before she could say anything more, her phone went off. I imagined that it was Sara telling her that Quentin had been injured while in prison. It looked like there would be a little more time before she got to see me without my hood on. I hoped that the most important thing from her seeing me would be convincing her to take Tommy back. I could take the blame for him not telling her about me because I did ask him not to do it and I hoped that it would work.
I knew that I would have to still keep trying with Emiko. I had a lot of regrets about what happened and I needed to try to come up with a reason that she would understand for why I hadn't told her. The only problem was that I couldn't think of one that would work at the moment. I didn't think any sort of apology was going to be enough for her and it sucked. I also needed to show Slade that I wasn't going to just let him ruin my relationships without me having a say.
At that point, I got a call from Mia.
"So I managed to get the dirt that we need to get Detective Lance out of prison." She told me. "I think you should go pay him a visit."
I went to the station where he was just leaving.
"Lt. Pike." I told him.
"What are you doing here?" He asked. "You have a lot of nerve showing up here."
"I want you to drop the charges against Quentin Lance." I stated.
"He was aiding and abetting. Maybe you don't think that the laws don't apply to you, but that doesn't mean that they don't exist." He argued. "What are you going to do? Kill me?"
"No, but I think that you know a few things about aiding and abetting." I pointed out. "Three years ago, your niece was in a car accident that killed a homeless man, but she was never charged because you covered it up."
"I did that to protect her." He pointed out.
"And I just got you to admit it." I declared as I showed him a tape recorder. "This recording can end up on news desk unless you drop the charges. You might even end up joining him in his cell."
"This isn't over. I'm going to put you away." He told me. "Whether it's in jail or the morgue, I'm going to find out who you are and I'm going to catch you."
I didn't say anything and just left.
At that point, I got the other phone call. This would be about Slade setting off his machine. I knew what I needed to do. I also knew that I didn't want to risk everyone here. Sara was already injured, so the only person that I was going to bring with me was Courtney. We would still have to be careful in case Slade was there.
We went to the warehouse where the machine was running and upon first glance, I didn't see Slade anywhere. The only thing that I saw was the prisoners and the machine. I knew that I had to sever the connection, but I was given pause when I realized that it was indeed Artemis who was hooked up to the machine. This was going to really mess her up. Part of me wanted to keep her locked up, but I knew that I couldn't do that because she needed to go back to her parents who were very worried about her. I tried to figure out how to do it without killing her.
"I wouldn't touch that if I was you." Slade remarked. He had Tara next to him. "Removing her mid-cycle will surely end her life."
"Slade, she's just a kid." I declared.
"She's only here because you pushed her away." Slade pointed out. "She loved you and you rejected her."
"She was at shelter in Bludhaven. She didn't even put up fight." Tara added.
"I will." I retorted as I pointed my bow. "Tell me how to shut it down."
"If you could feel the power that I have right now, you would know that I do not fear an arrow. I am stronger than you will ever be and soon I will not be alone."
I then shot at the power grid. I would just have to hope that I would be able to save Artemis's life a second time. I also hoped that if she was of her mind, she would be willing to make such a sacrifice if she needed to. I really hoped that it would not come to that though.
Tara started to shake the ground, but Courtney managed to blast her to get her to lose focus. However, Slade grabbed her and threw her against a wall hard enough to cause part of it to break off.
"Neither of you can hurt me." Slade boasted. Instead of saying anything, I shot an exploding arrow into his chest, causing him to be blown back by it. While it would hurt him, it might take him some time to regenerate from that. I then went over and start to break Artemis free before Tara got up and started to shake the ground again. However, she was suddenly stopped when Courtney shot a beam of light through her chest. I still didn't think that I would see the last of her unfortunately. I grabbed Artemis and shot an arrow up before Courtney flew up behind me. I called Tommy over because I knew that I would need her help.
"She's lost a lot of blood. I think she needs to be at the hospital." Tommy explained. "Her pulse is really weak."
"The hospital will want to know what happened and we don't have a good way to explain that." I pointed out. "Can you stay with and watch for any changes in vitals?"
"We also have a Slade problem. He has 20 guys just him and we have no way of stopping him." Sara stated.
"Yes, we do." I replied. "I got a sample of mirakuru. I'm pretty sure that we'll be able to use this to make a cure."
"Are you sure that we can even do this?" Iris asked.
"Yes, because I've done it before." I answered. "We can't beat Slade in his current state but once we get this to bring him back down to normal, we'll be able to stop him. I also have something that I need to ask you, Courtney. Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Courtney declared.
"There's something that you need to know. I don't think she's dead. I think Slade is going to use the mirakuru on her to save her." I stated.
The following day, I had the work phone in my hand. I knew that Emiko had blocked my number, but I was pretty sure that I could still call her from work or from home, but I didn't even know if she would talk to me. I didn't know to fix things with her.
"Olivia." Dinah interrupted. She came and gave me a hug.
"What's this for?" I asked.
"I just felt like you needed it," She told me.
So Tommy has kind of joined the team in a sort of medical role, but he hasn't reconciled with Dinah yet. Also things with Emiko are still bad. On top of that, things are about to get worse with Artemis. Please don't forget to review.