Issue #5: "Sins of the Father"

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Green Arrow

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Issue #5: “Sins of the Father”
Written by: Brian Burchette
Cover by: Ramon Villalobos
Edited by: Don Walsh[/center]

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Oliver Queen watched Green Arrow on the video monitor as he made his way over the inner wall of the compound of the man who was now holding him hostage: Kemel Asad. A man of Middle Eastern descent who Ollie and his partner Eddie Fyres had discovered was making part of his vast fortune in white slave trade… child slavery to be exact.

“I see by the look on your face that you were not lying, you had no idea that the vigilante was here, did you? Not that it matters much; your life was terminated the moment that he entered my premises.”

“WAIT! Can you at least tell me how you can get your jollies by selling young American girls to the highest bidder? What sort of sick ^$@# are you?”

Asad laughed. “I get no kicks, or thrills from it. I find it no different than selling imported clothing, or American cigarettes. It is nothing more than an ends to a means.”

“Well, that makes you even more of a monster than I thought. Doesn’t matter though, pal; even if you kill me, Green Arrow will still take you down.”

They glanced at the monitor to see several guards battling the archer, who was gliding through and over them like they were barley even there.

Who ever he is, Ollie thought. He’s one hell of a martial artist! Even Dinah could learn a thing from him.

Asad shrugged. “I will be long gone by then.” He pulled out his gun and aimed it at Ollie’s head.

“You know there are CIA agents crawling all over this country. Eventually they will find you and bring you down.”

This time when Asad laughed, it was as if he had been told the funniest joke he had heard in years. “You really think so? How totally naïve of you. So completely American with your blind patriotism. If you only knew the truth.”

It was with a dawning horror that Ollie began to put the pieces together, and the answer should have surprised him more than it did. Instead, it only made him sick inside. “I’ve been called a lot of things, Kemel, but blindly patriotic has rarely been one of them.”

“The time for talking is over.” Asad said as he placed the gun directly at Ollie’s forehead. The archer could do nothing but hang there, his eyes watching the video screen, realizing first, that Green Arrow wasn’t going to get there to save him, and second, that was his costume, but not his bow.

The shot echoed through out the dimly lit halls of the dungeon.

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Three guards surrounded Connor Hawke as he finished putting down one of their allies. He had miscalculated, and now it was going to cost him. He had been trained much better than this, but the outfit, along with the broken ribs he was sure he had received when he flipped himself onto the oncoming car, was impeding his abilities.

Why had he even put the costume on, when he found it? Was it because he wanted to play the hero? Or was it to impress… him? Either way, now was obviously not the time for reflection as he took a step toward one of the three that were closing in on him.

The guard panicked and fired his weapon as the young Green Arrow sprung into the air and did a somersault, causing the guard to fire on his buddy directly across from him. As that guard fell, Connor came down from his leap clutching his bow in both hands and swinging it out like a club, striking the second guy on the hand and causing him to lose his weapon. Without hesitation he spun around and kicked out with his leg, causing the third guard to go flying backward, unconscious. That only left him and the weaponless guard.

“You want a piece of me,” the guard snarled in perfect English as he brought up his fist to strike.

“No,” Green Arrow replied and struck him, open handed, in the jaw. He heard a slight crack and the final man collapsed to the ground. “And I sincerely apologize for that. If you set it right away, it should heal without incident.”

Now that he had a second, Connor turned to take in his surroundings. He was inside the primary compound now; all the guards had been taken out… the one’s that had gone after him. He had to be in there, somewhere. The question was how to find him before Kemel Asad knew that Connor was there to rescue him.

His answer came to him by way of the echo of a gunshot. His blood ran cold as he pulled a green arrow from his quiver, adjusting the extra bow that was also slung over his shoulder as he took off towards the sound of the gunfire.

I pray that I am not too late.

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Kemel Asad staggered forward, blood already beginning to pour from the wound in his shoulder. Still on his feet, he swung around and used the hanging body of Ollie as protection when he eyed the man who had shot him.

“Give it up, Kemel, there’s no way your getting out of here,” Eddie Fyers said. His shirt had been torn off, and several open wounds were still wet with fresh blood, but he stood straight as he used the doorway as a partial guard.

“About damn time!” Ollie shouted.

“Oh don’t wet yourself… huh, never mind,” Eddie replied.

“Real funny, just do something, will ya!”

“Listen, Asad, we just want to talk to you. We’re looking for a young blond girl.”

“Stand in line,” the political figure sneered.

Eddie took a deep breath, “She’s important, Kemel, and you’d be doing me a big favor if you just tell us what you did with her. We know she got as far as here; which means you sold her. Just tell us where, and we’ll leave.”

“The hell we will!” Ollie shouted, dumbfounded by his friends sudden change. “This sicko is running an illegal operation and we’re bringing him down.”

Asad began to chuckle, still using the hanging blond man as his shield. “He doesn’t know, does he, Mr. Fyers? Were you afraid to tell him the truth, or is this one of those secrets that you have to carry to your grave?”

“Shut up!” Eddie screamed.

“What the hell is going on, Eddie?” Oliver demanded.

“What’s going on is that Agent Fyers is going to put down his weapon and back away, right now!” The voice came from behind Eddie.

Ollie looked past his friend to see the two CIA agents standing there, guns drawn and aimed at Eddie. “Dammit! Eddie, don’t…”

It was too late though, as an obviously defeated Eddie lowered his gun to his side. “Don’t call me Agent; I don’t work for you anymore.” But his voice gave no substance to the words.

Ollie recognized both of them from earlier that day; they had been the agents chasing after them. The final piece of the puzzle clicked in the mind of the liberal whose belief in his own country's governmental system was tenuous at best. His stomach began to turn as the concept washed over him.

“Awww, Eddie… no…”

Eddie looked up at his friend, a mixture of remorse and shame on his face. He didn’t reply, he didn’t have the courage.

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Connor Hawke had made his way into the main house with very little trouble. By then, however, the echo of the gunshot had faded and he was once again on his own. He quietly worked his way down a long and ornate hallway, his back up against the wall, methodically checking every room he passed by. All of them, so far, had been empty.

When he came to the end of the hall, he peeked around the corner to see four guards, two at either end of the corridor, all holding semi-automatics, and both pairs guarding two separate doors. This gave him an extra dilemma. What were they guarding, which way should he go, and how was he going to take out four guards that were at least twenty six feet apart, on opposite ends of the hall?

He swung the quiver off of his back and began to check the arrows that he had found. He had gathered many news paper articles from Green Arrow’s very public adventures, and knew that the man had various trick arrows in his arsenal. Most of the tips, at least the one’s that weren’t regular arrowheads, all looked the same. Blunted and tubular, slightly heavier than a regular shaft, but how did Green Arrow tell them apart. There was nothing written on any of them. Not that he expected to find an arrow that had the wordsBoxing Glove Arrow, written on the side of it.

Peeking around the corner again, just to make sure the guards had not moved, he went back to examining the projectiles, and that was when he noticed a slight difference in the feathers at the end of the shafts. Logic would dictate that that was how he could tell them apart. Unfortunately, the quiver didn’t come with an owner’s manual.

Taking a deep breath, he drew one of the arrows and nocked it, pressing himself up against the wall, again. He would fire near the two down the right hallway. In case it was some kind of explosive, he didn’t want to strike them outright.

He counted to three and stepped into the hall, firing the first arrow at the feet of the guards. His luck ran solid as it exploded and a thick gas permeated the area, causing the men to choke. Thanking Fate for his luck, he swung around, grabbing at another one and fired the same way. As the second arrow came down, a net popped out and landed a foot in front of the guards. He was going to have to take those two out the hard way.

Connor still had surprise on his side as he took a running leap and kicked the one in the face, causing him to slump automatically to the ground. The second one turned to fire his gun, but the new Green Arrow had already twisted his hand and pulled the gun away, giving him a swift punch in the gut, and then a straight-handed strike to the back of his neck, hitting the guard in one of several pressure points that would knock him unconscious.

A bullet whizzed by him from the other end of the hall and he realized that even though the gas, which was slowly making its way to his end of the corridor, was even thicker than before, it hadn’t taken the men out. Now they were firing blindly in a panic.

There was one arrow that he had recognized, and now, he realized, was the time to use it. He fired high into the vaulted ceiling and felt the arrow embed itself into the stone. He pulled firmly on the rope, making sure it was secure, and than took another running leap, sailing through the air as he brought both legs out in front of him; striking both gunmen at one time.

He couldn’t help but grin with pride. It wasn’t until the very last second that he realized, as the thick cloud parted, that he had hurled himself into the door. Unfortunately this discovery came too late as his body slammed into the thick wooden entrance. His smile slid off his face as he slid to the floor in a daze.

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Eddie Fyers was broken, it not only showed on his face, but in the way he now stood; slightly bent forward, his shoulders hanging low. His head was lowered and he could not look his friend in the face.

“The CIA has always known about this operation, haven’t they?” Ollie demanded.

“Shut up!” One of the agents barked as he walked up to Eddie. “Sorry about this, Fyers. We warned you to back off. We told you it was going to get you killed. But you just wouldn’t listen, would ya?”

“He took my daughter, Carl. He took that sweet, innocent little girl and sold her. I just want her back.”

Asad scoffed, “Sweet? Innocent? You don’t know your daughter at all, do you? That young woman was anything but innocent by the time I got her off the streets.”

The blood that had drained from Eddie’s face came back in a rush of scarlet. “You do know where she is, you son of a bitch! What did you do to her? Where is she?”

Asad sneered, “I sold her, you pathetic little man. I received a nice little sum for her, as well. She was a handful, though. I couldn’t wait to get her out of my hair. I’ve never seen anyone so stubborn and willful. Try as I might, I couldn’t break her… and I did try.”

That was all it took for Eddie to see red as he screamed in rage and lunged for the injured man. Kemel staggered back in shock, but the agent named Carl was already grabbing for his ex-teammate.

As he grabbed Eddie’s arm, Eddie surprised him by suddenly reversing his lunge and striking Carl, causing both men to fall to the ground. Before the second agent could help his partner, Eddie had grabbed the gun from Carl’s hand and swung it around, pointing it at Ollie.

“Eddie, NO!” Oliver screamed, but the gun had already gone off. Ollie flinched, and suddenly found himself falling to the floor. Eddie had shot the rope that he had been tied too, splitting it and causing it to break.

“Get them, you idiots!” Asad screamed in something sounding very close to panic.

Carl’s partner was now on top of Eddie, wrestling for the gun as Carl head butted his nemesis, causing Eddie to grunt as stars appeared in front of his eyes and released his grip on the weapon.

The other CIA agent grabbed it and aimed it at Eddie’s head, but before he could fire, there was a sharp snapping sound as the end of the rope that had bound Ollie’s hands, lashed into the agent’s arm, startling him backwards.

Using the momentary distraction, Ollie leaped on the man, punching him in the jaw as they both hit the brick floor with a hard thud. The agent tried desperately to crawl out from under his attacker, but Ollie would not allow him the advantage. He struck him again, harder, and this time the agents head snapped back, striking the hard floor. He stopped moving, his breathing became shallow.

In the meantime, Eddie, who was wrestling with CIA Agent Carl, flipped the man over his head and threw him into the nearest wall. He rolled to his right and jumped up, swinging with his right arm and slugging Carl in the side of the face. Carl’s eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped to the ground.

Eddie looked around frantically with the realization that Asad Kemel has slipped out during the fight. He swore under his breath as he started to run out of the room, then hesitated and turned to see Ollie staring at him.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“Why didn’t you tell me, Eddie?”

“Tell you what? That I had been recruited to keep a white slavery ring from being cut off at the knees so that our government could get vital information of national security? Do you have any idea how disgusted I was when I discovered the truth? It was the final straw for me. That’s why I left, but I knew too much, and these days, our government is very tight lipped about how we acquire our information. The old rules are gone, Ollie. They lay buried in the ruins of that September morning. So I ran, I ran as fast and as far as I could. It wasn’t too long after, when I received word that Mia had run away. In my worst nightmares, I would never have expected for her to end up in the middle of all this. I don’t have anymore time, I’ve got to go.”

As he ran out of the room he couldn’t help but be surprised that his friend was running down the hall next to him. They didn’t say anything else to each other. That would come later. They still had a young girl to save.

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Asad Kemel was moving quickly. He shouted orders to his guards as he passed them; commanding them to shoot anyone that came down the corridor after him. He had to reach his car; get to his safe house. Once he was there, he would make contact with the American liaison, and make sure that somebody paid for this affront on his home, and his business.

He took the steps two at a time, panting at the exercise that he was not used to. As he reached the front door, he found Sajid, his right hand man, coming through with his gun drawn.

“The American spies have escaped, and the hero known as Green Arrow is on the premises. The guards will make sure they are dead. You must get to my office, destroy all documents; destroy the office. I will rebuild, later. Then meet me at the safe house. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Sir!” Sajid barked as the two of them heard automatic gunfire coming from below.

Asad smiled. “Ahhh, perhaps it is all over.”

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“Where were you? How the hell did you escape?” Ollie asked as they ran down a deserted hallway.

“It took me a while, but they were so busy torturing me that they didn’t notice that their knots were coming loose. I guess none of them were ever Boy Scouts.”

They rounded a corner and found themselves facing six guards who opened fire. Ollie grabbed Eddie and pulled him back around the corner as bullets whizzed by their heads.

Eddie went low; taking the gun he had stolen and brought it around the corner, firing blindly down the hall. There was another hail of bullets that hit the wall next to them as the crouched down, covering themselves the best they could.

Then they heard startled cries, the gunfire erupted again, but this time it wasn’t toward them. It sounded as if it were coming in the other direction. They exchanged a glance and Eddie peeked around the corner for a quick second. He brought his head back, his eyes revealing a look of shock, and then took another quick peek.

“What is it?” Ollie asked impatiently.

“Unless I’ve really gone nuts, their getting their asses kicked by you… I mean, Green Arrow.”

“I was hoping to run into him. I want my stuff back.”

Before Eddie could object, Ollie had run around the corner and out of sight.

“And he tells me I’m impulsive,” Eddie sighed as he cocked his gun and leapt into the fray.

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Green Arrow had already taken out two of the armed men and was working on the third, moving at rapid speed to try and avoid the spray of bullets. It was hard for the guards to aim well since he had moved in so close. They feared hitting each other; it was what Connor had been counting on.

Suddenly the shooting had stopped all together. Connor barely had time to realize this as he saw another figure out of the corner of his eye and swung his leg around, striking the man in the gut and sending him back against the wall.

When he brought his leg down, swiveling his body fully to face his next opponent, he found himself face to face with him! His green eyes, blond hair, and goatee made him instantly recognizable.

“I wouldn’t make any sudden moves if I were you, pal,” another guy said from behind him, a gun in his hand.

“Are you a friend of his?” Connor asked, cautiously.

“Well that depends, what did he do to you?”

Connor slowly lifted his arm and removed his mask. “He was an instrument in my creation.”

Ollie’s eyes widened as he stared at the young man in his costume. Eddie was, for one of the few times in his life, speechless. The three of them stood there in silence for what felt like minutes.

“Connor?” Ollie whispered.

The young blond man nodded. He reached out his hand to help his father up off the floor. “I apologize for striking you. It was not the way I had planned to meet you.”

Ollie continued to stare at him. “Connor?” he asked again.

“Wait a %#$@ing minute! You’ve got a son?” Eddie asked in disbelief.

Ollie took the hand and allowed himself to be lifted up. “Yes.”

Father and son stood there, wordlessly taking each other in. To Ollie all he could see was Connor’s mother, so beautiful, so striking, and so selfless. Connor had been taught to mask his emotions, to not let them over run him, but he was only human after all, and the moment that he had been waiting for his whole life was here, in the middle of some sick man’s fortress, while he wore his father’s uniform. He was suddenly overcome with feelings of sadness and embarrassment.

Connor spoke first, his tone sheepish. “I brought you your clothes.”

“You know?”

“Mother told me, a long time ago. I’ve been following your adventures as much as I could.”

“You’re mother… how is…?”

“She’s no longer with us,” Connor said, turning away. He could not look at his father when he said this.

“Oh… I’m… I’m sorry.”

Eddie cleared his throat, “Not that this isn’t one of the most mind blowing moments in my entire life, but I’ve got my own kid to discover.”

“This is my friend Eddie Fyers,” Ollie said, his eyes never leaving Connor. “We’re searching for his daughter. How did you even end up here?!”

“I was on my way to America to find you, actually. I stumbled across a young girl in Katmandu that had escaped this Kemel guy. She filled me in on what had happened to her and I decided to investigate…”

“We don’t have time for this!” Eddie barked in frustration.

“Yes, of course, he’s right,” Connor apologized. “Let me give you your costume and we can continue this at a later time.”

“No time,” Ollie said, still staring at his son in astonishment. He wasn’t sure what was more disturbing, seeing a son he hadn’t laid eyes on since the kids was two, or the fact that his son was, for the moment, Green Arrow.

“Let’s go,” Ollie said, and the three of them took off down the hall.

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Sajid had reached the office of his boss and was planting the last of the explosives, when he heard the sound of someone clearing his throat.

He turned to find Eddie Fyers standing there, gun in hand and pointing right at him.

“I will die proudly,” Sajid exclaimed as he brought the detonator up and reached for the trigger.

Eddie fired the gun and the bullet pierced through his left knee cap. “Yeah, maybe, but not today.”

He kicked the device away from the man and knocked him out with the butt of the gun. Then he began to rifle through the office. Ollie and Connor caught up with him.

“You move fast for an old man,” Ollie grunted, trying to catch his breath.

Eddie was rifling through papers that he had found hidden in a secret compartment under the desk. His eyes widened as he found a picture of Mia. He showed it to his friends. “He did sell her, and now I know where she is,” he said in triumph.

“Well don’t keep us in suspense.” Ollie said.

“She’s in Vlatavan; she was bought by Count Werner Vertigo.”

Ollie’s face drained of color. “Count Vertigo? #@%*! Could this get any worse?”

“Oh, I think it could,” said the voice from behind them.

The three men in the room turned to see Asad Kemel standing outside the doorway, the detonator in is hand. He smiled at them as he slammed the door shut and locked it. Laughing, he walked down the hall and out the front door of his compound.

One of his remaining guards ran up to him. “Sir! We are unable to locate the intruders.”

Kemel flipped the switch and the roar of the explosion was felt as much as it was heard.

“You can stop looking,” the slave trader said with a hearty laugh.

[starlord]

To Be Continued???

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