Post by starlord on May 26, 2010 19:32:37 GMT -5
Green Arrow
[/i]Issue #28: “Picking Yourself Up”
Written by: Brian Burchette
Cover by: Trevor Yarmovich
Edited by: Don Walsh[/center]
In the murder business, he went by the name Merlyn. He was a bow-slinger for hire who, at the moment, had been hired to eliminate Star City’s newest Green Arrow. Leaping off the building towards his prey, he expected the young blond man to dive out of the way; he didn’t expect the kid to step right into the tackle.
Connor did just that, though; grabbed Merlyn by the front of his costume and used his own momentum against him, thrown into the side of a parked car.
“Run! Get out of here now!” Green Arrow shouted at Mia who stood watching the scene with shock written on her face. He brought his bow up, firing two arrows in rapid succession at his new foe.
Merlyn recovered quickly enough to roll out of the way, bringing his own bow up and firing the same number back. Conner was able to spin around, dodging the first, but the second nicked forearm, cutting deep into the skin.
“First blood...” the assassin mused with a wicked grin.
“... means nothing,” Connor answered as he turned and began to run down the street away from the man in black.
“Really? You’re running away?” Merlyn shouted as he took off after him. “Now what kind of hero does that?”
The kind who is trying to get you away from Mia, Connor thought as he made a quick turn down an alley.
Merlyn shouted to the disappearing figure. “I wanted a fight, kid, not a game of cat and mouse. Doesn’t matter though, it’s a flat fee either way.”
He raised his bow as he also turned into the alley, only to find it empty. He looked up in time to see Green Arrow’s leg disappear over the side of the roof. Shaking his head in disgust he leaped up, grabbed a hold of the fire escape and propelled himself at a rapid pace. He had heard great things about this new, younger Green Arrow. So far he had been disappointed.
Reaching the top of the fire escape he jumped the last few feet, clutched at the roof and vaulted over the side in one fluid motion. He nimbly swung around to give chase only to find himself staring directly into an arrow point. His prey held the projectile right at him.
“I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t move. I’d like a few answers; especially who hired you to kill me?”
Merlyn admitted to himself that he was slightly more impressed.
*******
D.E.O Agent Amara Hunter stepped into her hotel room and switched on the light as she tossed her keys on the nearby desk. She was physically and mentally exhausted. She was also frustrated as hell. She was no closer to getting to Brick then she had been a week ago. As much as her superiors disliked the idea of bringing in a so-called superhero like Green Arrow, they had to admit that he could be exactly what they needed to get to Daniel Brickwell.
She had no sooner sat on the edge of her bed when her cell phone went off. For a split second her brain assumed that it was the partner that she had just lost before she remembered he'd been murdered. It wrenched her heart all over again as she checked the caller ID, and failed to recognize the number.
“Hello?” she answered cautiously.
“I’d like to order a double cheese, double pepperoni, deep dish.”
“Sorry Sir, you didn’t dial right. Might want to check that phone book of yours again.”
The man grunted an apology and hung up. Amara immediately went to her briefcase, opening it quickly. A small computer rose from the leather case. She typed in a number followed by a name and within seconds a face appeared on the monitor.
“I was wondering if you were ever going to contact me,” said the smooth voice of her superior, as he came online.
“I haven’t had a lot of luck up until now. Brickwell has done an annoyingly perfect job of sealing himself off from the outside.”
“Until now...?”
Amara nodded with a slight smile. “Until now. I just got word that our mole has entered the hole. No details yet, but I should know more by morning.”
“It’s good to hear. I want you to update me every eight hours from here on out. I don’t care if all you can tell me is what you’ve been eating; I want to hear from you. Are we understood?”
Inwardly she bristled at his attitude, but she also knew that her past would always hang over her head until she proved herself once again. Just one more reason why her partner’s death had been placed squarely on her conscience.
“Understood, sir,” she replied. She ended the transmission just as there was a soft tapping at her door. Her face creased into a frown as she quickly put away the briefcase, then snatched her gun back from the small table by the door.
Cocking it as quietly as she could she called out, “Who is it?’
“The guy you’ve been looking for.” The voice of the man called Brick called back to her, the voice deep but not without softness to it.
She opened the door, her face a mix of shock and rage as she aimed the gun at the mob boss standing in front of her. “Daniel Brickwell, you are under arrest.”
“Sure, babe, now let me in, this hallway is drafty as hell.”
*******
Green Arrow never got the answer to his question, for Merlyn moved quicker than the young archer expected, catching him off guard. He pushed Connor’s arms up while sweeping his leg behind Connor’s – tripping and bringing him to the ground.
Connor realized his mistake as he fell, accepted it and moved on. As soon as his back struck the roof, he rolled to the right, getting as far away from the assassin’s immediate range as he could before leaping back onto his feet.
Two arrows were flying at him; he leaped into the air, his body twisting to make sure they passed by him without causing injury. Before his feet once again hit the ground he already had two of his own arrows nocked and launched at his foe.
Merlyn dove out of the way, chuckling the whole time. Now this was what he had hoped for; a bit of a struggle before he planted one right between the kid’s eyes. He swung around, nocking an arrow and firing, but was shocked to see that the newest Green Arrow was no longer there. He looked around quickly, but for all intents and purposes – Green Arrow was gone!
“Where did you go?” he shouted into the air, as anger replaced the humor he had found in the situation. There was obviously more to this young man than met the eye.
No problem, he found him once, he’d find him again; though he really did wish at times like this that he worked at an hourly rate.
*******
Queen Enterprise’s private jet landed at Star City International Airport a little after two-thirty in the morning. Black Canary had made sure that there was a car waiting for Eddie Fyers when he landed. She had wanted to call Connor and Mia to let them know he was alive, but he wanted to see his daughter's face when he came home.
Stepping out of the plane he saw the skyline of the city he had come to call his own in a very short time. Mia was out there somewhere, and he couldn’t wait to get back to her; to be the father he had never been when she was younger.
He slid into the back of the limo with his mind a million miles away, and never noticed the small unassuming baggage handler who watched him intently. As the car pulled away, the small man immediately grabbed his cell phone.
“Eddie Fyers is alive and back in town. No, honest to God, I just saw him get off a private jet. Not sure who, but I’ll find out. Cool... hey, don’t forget. The reward was five thousand dollars for any information... cool.” He hung up the phone whistling a happy tune.
*******
Connor quietly opened up the apartment window and slid into the darkened kitchen, double-checking he hadn’t been followed. In his short time in the States, he'd heard of the assassin Merlyn; someone not to be underestimated. On his way home he asked the important question: who hired the man to kill him? The obvious answer had to be Daniel Brickwell. He decided once he rested he would get a hold of Agent Hunter and let her know. If nothing else, it meant they were getting under his skin.
Shutting the window as quietly as he could, he jumped when the kitchen light suddenly popped on and Mia shouted at him. “Where the hell have you been?”
Connor took a deep breath before responding to the teenage girl with the red cheeks and the hands firmly planted on her hips. “I apologize for not letting you know I was alright. It has been a long twenty-four hours that involved my being beaten by the mob boss known as Brick. I followed it up with a short recovery period with Star City’s latest DEO agent and ended the day by battling an assassin.”
She considered his words before throwing her arms up in frustration. “Well when you put it that way, what the hell am I suppose to say?”
“You can start by please not swearing in my presence, there are more intelligent words to use. Then you can explain what you were doing out so late.”
With everything that had happened, Mia had nearly forgotten the reason for her impulsive search for Connor.
“I had a visitor last night – Shado.”
Connor looked up sharply. “What?! But she’s dead?”
“She got better, and she said that my dad is alive too. He’s coming home, Connor... my dad is coming home!”
She couldn’t help herself, Mia leaped at him with a huge a huge hug in her excitement. Though he was dubious about her announcement, he couldn’t help but respond to her joy in kind. In his mind, though, he wondered if this was some kind of trick that Shado was playing on them.
He was about to question her when the voice from the kitchen window interrupted them. “You are a hard person to track, but not impossible; especially for one who has trained with the League of Assassins.”
Connor turned to see Merlyn standing there, arrow aimed right at them. He shoved Mia away, sending her sprawling into the living room as he jumped in the other direction, reaching for his weapons that he had set down. His uniform was still on, which was the only good luck he had had so far.
His fingers touched the bow as Merlyn’s arrow pierced his hand causing him to cry out in both surprise and pain.
“Now, now, little Arrow, we can’t have that. Playtime is over.”
“Not yet, you son of a bitch!” Mia shouted from behind him.
Merlyn spun around in time to see the base of a steel floor lamp right in front of his eyes. He heard the sound of bone crunching in his nose before he felt it, and then the room started spinning.
*******
Star City’s largest mob boss, nicknamed Brick, sat down in the small hotel sofa, his eyes never leaving that of D.E.O Agent Amara Hunter.
“So here I am, babe. You got me right where you want me.”
Amara shut the door slowly as she fought the kaleidoscope of emotions that churned inside of her. “Why are you here, Daniel?” It was the question she needed answered the most.
“You know why.” His reply was quiet. “Just like you know that I’m leaving here when we’re done talking and there ain’t nothing you can do about it. Those bullets ain’t gonna stop me, your people made sure of that.”
Her duty as an agent of the D.E.O. was telling her to contact somebody; to radio for backup, but her heart held her back. Since he had come to her, maybe, just maybe, she could talk him into coming back with her. Perhaps there was a little bit of the old Daniel Brickwell still somewhere inside of him; if she could reach that... maybe it wouldn’t have to turn nasty.
“So you’re not here to turn yourself in, and I’d bet a paycheck you haven’t come here to apologize to me, so I’m guessing you’ve stopped by to try and weasel information out of me. You know that isn’t going to happen.”
Brick crossed his huge leg. “Maybe I came by 'cause I miss you?”
“Since you put it in the form of a question I’m thinking that’s not it either.” She realized she was still holding the gun on him and slowly lowered it. “How long have you known I was in town?”
Daniel grinned. “Since the moment the private jet landed. This is my town, Amara, nobody comes in or out of it without me knowing. Besides, I haven’t been real low key these last few months; I figured it wasn’t going to take long for the big bad government to come get what they think belongs to them.”
“We don’t think you belong to us, Daniel,” She said, jumping on the opening he had given her. “The D.E.O. feels obligated to put things right. Why did you run away? What made you choose this as your life?”
His grin widened, reminding her of a shark right before it struck. “The money is a hell of a lot better, to begin with. Uncle Sam isn’t much for paying out big bucks you know; they seem to think everything’s about country and duty.”
She sat in the chair across from him as she gazed into his face, looked desperately for the man she had known before the D.E.O changed him... when they were still in love.
“Don’t do this, Daniel. Just come back with me and we can fix this. We can help you.”
“See now, that’s the thing, Amara – I don’t want to be helped. I like being the big bad Brick – it suits me.”
His voice was mocking, but she sensed the truth in it. Even when they both worked at the D.E.O., before the experiment went wrong, there had been an edge to him. It was part of what attracted her to him.
“They didn’t mean to turn you into this, you know. It was...”
“... An accident, yeah, yeah, I know. I’m the one who volunteered for it, remember? Either way, it doesn’t matter. They found out that the experiment was a bust and I got the means to further myself. In the end I think we both got something out of it.”
“So why are you here?” she asked again.
He considered her for a moment before he stood and walked over to her. “Because if you don’t leave Star City, I’m going to have to kill you, and I really don’t want to do that. Don’t look at me that way.” His voice got colder as her eyes softened. “I said I don’t want to, doesn’t mean I won’t. Tell the boys to leave me be and go chase one of their other mistakes.”
“You know we can’t do that. We’ve fixed all the others. They're living normal lives now, and doing great. You could be doing the same, Daniel,” she pleaded.
Brick shook his head in disgust. She obviously hadn’t been listening to him at all. “I’ve said my piece. Go home, Amara, and take the D.E.O with you, 'cause, honey, I’m staying right where I am.”
His over sized hand had just reached the door handle when he heard the gun cock behind him. He turned slightly. “Don’t be dramatic, it doesn’t suit you.”
The door opened as he heard the gun discharge. He felt the bullet graze his shoulder, ripping into his suit coat. Slowly he shut the door again, turned to her with a look that she had only seen a few times – and never directed toward her.
“Now why’d you have to go and do that.” Though his face was full of fury, the tone in his voice seemed genuinely sad.
With a scream that mingled both rage and a deep seeded hurt, Brick leaped at Amara Hunter as she continued to fire round after round.
*******
Merlyn struggled to stay conscious after the blow he'd been dealt. He reached blindly for an arrow, but as his finger tips felt the tip of a shaft, he was suddenly tackled by Green Arrow.
Wrapping his arms around Merlyn’s waist, Connor used his weight as well as his momentum to send them both hurtling back through the small kitchen and right out the window. The glass shattered as they both fell hard onto the fire escape.
Merlyn kicked Green Arrow hard in the gut, then flipped him overhead and over the rail. Connor had no time to launch a line to save him, and crashed into the ground, and the air left his lungs.
His uniform top was torn, his arrows lay broken around him and he struggled with his breathing when he saw the two arrows hurtling toward him. There was no time, and he knew it. Still, he rolled away so one just clipped his side while the other slammed into his shoulder, going all the way through.
He watched in pain as Merlyn jumped down, holding his bow out in front of him with both hands.
“I was going to pierce you through the heart, but you’ve proved yourself worthy of a more personal touch.” He brought the string of his bow around the young man’s neck and began to choke him.
Connor panicked. Years of training seemed to vanish as if it never existed. His brain was just beginning to tell him to calm down when he heard the familiar sound of an arrow piercing flesh. His hopes rose as Merlyn let out a cry of pain. It was his Ollie! He was back! It had to be.
His blood turned cold when he looked up through his blurry eyes to see Mia standing over them on the fire-escape, her own bow nocked a second time.
“Get off of him, you Johnny Cash wannabe!” she screamed.
Green Arrow felt the pressure from the bow give around his neck as Merlyn stood up to face her. Connor was gasping for air, his shoulder throbbing in pain. Too much was going on at once; he couldn’t block it out as he had been taught.
“You just killed yourself, you little bitch,” Merlyn growled as he reached behind and pulled the arrow out. It had pierced through the armored costume, as blood seeped from the hole.
He leaped up to the last rung of the ladder that towered about five feet above the two men. Green Arrow watched him and realized that for Mia there was no way out if he reached her. His training kicked back in as he gave a great yell into the early morning air.
In one fluid motion, he brought his legs up high, and then down onto the ground hard, kicking off and propelling his body upward. He latched on to Merlyn’s uniform with his one good arm, the other still carrying the embedded shaft of the assassin’s arrow in it. Before Merlyn could react he had used his momentum to swing his legs over his body, wrapping them around Merlyn’s neck. He hung upside down, his back against the villain's, so that he could use his good arm to pull out the arrow.
As Merlyn cursed him in frustration, trying to hold onto the fire-escape, Connor tore the arrow out his own body and with impeccable precision, shoved it into Merlyn’s side; making sure to avoid any vital organs.
Letting out his third cry of pain that night, Merlyn let go of the metal rung and fell back into the alley. Connor leaped off at the last second, landing just inches away. He rolled with the fall, came up to his feet as his foe desperately struggled to find his own balance; on his knees and pushing himself up with his hands.
Green Arrow quickly moved in, a spinning kick to the chin sending Merlyn down the alley where he lay still finally.
“Oh God, Connor, are you alright?” Mia cried out as she started to run down the fire-escape to join him.
He threw his arm up to ward her off. “Get a small bag and pack a few things for the both of us, we’ve been compromised - we’ve got to get out of here.”
She nodded without a word, turning back into the apartment. Green Arrow stumbled as he moved toward the unconscious body of Merlyn. He searched the man’s body, finding only a corner piece of a torn napkin with an address jotted down on it. As he stood back up, for just a brief moment, he had the urge to grab the back of the man’s head and smash it into the cement just once... just to make sure he was down. It went away and he took a deep breath. There was obviously more of his father in him than he realized.
A couple of minutes later, Mia joined him in the alley with a bag packed for both of them. She was visibly shaken but her eyes were strong. He was inwardly pleased; she had come a long way in a very short amount of time.
“Where are we going?” she asked as he hobbled down the alley with her following beside him.
“We’re going to get help from a friend,” he said with the face of D.E.O. Agent Amara Hunter in the forefront of his mind.
*******
Jebadiah “Bulldog” Marshall, Jr., was not a crooked cop, but he had been working hard to gain that reputation. He had been hired by the D.E.O. to go undercover in hopes of infiltrating Brick’s gang. They needed something on him... anything so that they could legally pull him in. Try as he might, he had not been able to get into Brick’s inner circle. He did, however, get noticed by another mob boss who was setting up shop in Star City – Anthony Scarapelli.
As he drove his old beat up Ford across town to his shabby little apartment, he kept one eye planted firmly at the rearview mirror. He knew he was being tailed; he just wanted to know where they were at all times.
When he passed the Four Seasons Hotel he was startled to see so many police cars, fire rescue, and an ambulance sitting out front. Something in his gut shouted for him to pull over – to check it out.
His torn and faded trench coat flapped in the cool spring breeze off the Pacific. He ambled through the crowd of people that had gathered around in front of the hotel.
Two cops turned sour at the sight of Bulldog's arrival. He ignored them, pushed between them roughly and he continued on to what was now obviously a crime scene.
Paramedics worked frantically on the body of a young African-American woman covered in her own blood. Jeb’s eyes lit up for only a second as he recognized the lady on the ground as his contact for the D.E.O. – Amara Hunter.
“What the hell happened to her?” he asked one of the nearby detectives.
“Somebody tossed her out of her room. If it hadn’t been for the awning breaking her fall, she’d probably be dead already,” he grunted.
One of the paramedics yelled over his shoulder. “I’m losing her! Get that gurney over here now!”
The gurney showed up, but the paramedics were still struggling with her. “No pulse! I’ve got no pulse!”
His partner grabbed the portable crash cart, trying to set it up as quickly as he could. “CLEAR!” He shouted, shocking her only after he made sure everyone else was out of the way.
“Nothing....” His partner said after checking her pulse.
As the two of them continued the life and death battle, Bulldog Marshall’s eyes wandered upward to the seventh story room with the shattered window. His mind took in every little detail; but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to know who had done his to her.
His eyes wandered downward again and out of the corner he caught the most subtle of movement between two buildings across the street. Roaming farther away from the scene he caught another glimpse, this time enough to tell who it was. Trying hard not to be obvious, he signaled the young man with a small wave of the hand and a brief shake of the head. Bulldog was telling him to stay away. Now was not the time.
Across the street Mia whispered to Connor, “What’s going on?”
Getting the signal from Marshall, Connor leaned back against the cement wall and sighed. “I think we just lost our help.”
To Be Concluded...
