Target Practice- Part Two by: Enemyoffun With her grandfather gone,Olivia has now inherited Queen Industries. But that's the least of her problems what with dealing with the press, the Board of Directors and trying to find the person who hired the assassin in the first place.

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Author's Note: Here's Ch. 2 of Target Practice. This narrative is going to be slow, so some things that might not make sense in one chapter will be addressed in the next or possibly a later chapter. By the beginning of this chapter a character's motives will be answered to what I believe is a perfect explanation. I'd like to thank the people who beta read this chapter for me, djkauf for the editing and DC Comics for the characters.

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Chapter Two:

“Thanks for the heads up Scarlet”.

The entourage and I were getting were getting into the elevator on our way up to my grandfather’s office. After the meeting with Board members at the law firm, I seethed in the car ride home. I was too pissed off to say anything to anyone. Not that Scarlet didn’t try. Apparently, she mentioned the circumstance of the meeting and I completely ignored her. The Will was actually one of the documents---one of many---she’d handed to me over the last day or so. When she told me about the meeting to “discuss the contents in the Will”, she actually meant the future of the company. That fault was mine but as far as that was concerned; it was the only fault of mine. I was still pissed about the whole Isabel thing though. How hard was it for the Old Man or even Scarlet for that matter to say “Oh, by the way, you have a twenty seven year old Step Grandmother.”

“Your grandfather should have told you,” she said, sighing heavily. “I had a conversation about it with him a few days before his passing. But he was adamant that you not be told.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

There was silence in the elevator for a minute or two before I asked the question plaguing me since I found out who Isabel was. “So what’s her story anyway?”

“She and your grandfather have only been married six months. It was a marriage of convenience more than anything. She comes from an old family, immigrants I believe. Her ancestors were fairly wealthy Russian businessmen back in Moscow. Her uncle is the Russian Ambassador actually. That’s how the two of them met.”

I nodded. “She doesn’t live in the Tower does she?”

I think I would have remembered seeing a blonde bimbo basking by the pool side. Nevertheless, I had to ask.

Scarlet shook her head. “Like I said it was a marriage of convenience. She’s legally his wife but she doesn’t carry his name nor does she have any involvement in the company. Your grandfather married her to have something shiny on his arm. Miss Rochev lives in a penthouse in LA most of the time; while in the city she stays at the St. Regis.”

So the Old Man had a trophy wife. I couldn’t help but smile at that. He was such a severe old bastard; I found it hard to believe that he loved anything besides himself. Or his company for that matter. I only knew him for those few months but the way Mom used to talk about him; he wasn’t much of a father or a husband. It was all business with him and little else. He was cold and cruel. When Mom ran off with Dad, he disowned her. She was still technically the heir to his fortune but only on paper. The first time I ever met the man was when he walked in on me at that diner in Florida. Before then he was a name to me---a very famous one---but just a name nevertheless. Now he was dead and that very famous name was mine---the only thing that man ever really gave me.

A name that was taking a lot of hits lately.

“Does Isabel have a stake in the company?”

Scarlet smiled. “I think she thought she might. Upon his death, your grandfather left eighty percent of Queen Industries to his only living relative, you. The remaining twenty was split up amongst charities and other organizations. Isabel will receive less than one percent of that and only once a month.”

“Must have been some prenup.”

Scarlet smiled again. It was rare to see her do so. It was clear from the smiles that she wasn’t a fan of Mrs. Isabel Rochev Queen either. Not that there was a Queen in her name. It seemed weird that he’d keep something like that from me though. Then again, I was keeping a huge secret from him and when he finally found out, he blew a gasket. In hindsight, I think that both of us overreacted a bit. It pained me that the last words I had with him were so nasty. A few days after our argument he was dead and I would never be able to apologize again. That didn’t stop me of course. I think I said I’m sorry more than twenty times since visiting his mausoleum.

Scarlet put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. I didn’t even know I was crying until I saw my reflection in the elevator glass. This time I didn’t wipe away the tears. She didn’t say anything to me as we rode those last few legs up to his office. When the elevator stopped and the four of us got out, I took a deep breath in the little foyer area. The last time I was here, there were dead guards on the floor. All of that was gone now, cleaned up pretty quickly. The police investigated of course. Besides in house security and a few people in the know, the police were the only others who really knew how my grandfather died. Merlyn’s “fall” out of the window was labeled the “suicide of a distraught Queen employee” who name was withheld from the press.

Merlyn had no relatives that I knew of so I arranged for a small burial, no official ceremony. He was laid to rest in a small cemetery on the far side of town. Standing in front of the elevator, I couldn’t help but see the bloodstains---even though they were long gone. Scarlet’s hand stayed on my shoulder as she led me through the little foyer and through the double doors into the office proper. It was exactly how I remembered it, far too large for one man. Everything was back to normal, including the large window I accidentally blew up, sending Merlyn to his death. I was shocked to see how quickly things were back to normal. It was as if nothing bad ever happened. In fact, the glass was squeaky clean, sparkling in the afternoon sun. I couldn’t believe how efficiently things operated around here---especially without the Old Man running things.

I walked slowly over to the desk, running my fingers gently along the polished wood.

“We can have that replaced if you want,” said Scarlet as she walked through the room, her Qpad in hand, looking at some of my grandfather’s furniture. “Maybe update all this with something more modern.”

I turned slowly. “I don’t understand.”

“This is your office now, Miss Queen.”

“Wait, what?”

“You own a majority share of the company, you are the Chair and your grandfather left his entire estate to you. Therefore, this office is now yours.”

“But Mr. Steele?”

She shook her head. “Mr. Steele will keep his office; he said he’d have it no other way.”

I nodded numbly. I looked around the room. Everything about it was old fashioned from the curtains to the chairs. Even the desk. But I kinda liked it. Some of it was in dire need of an upgrade, like the PC for instance but most of it fit somehow. It was like the Old Man was still here and I didn’t want to change any of that. I finally shook my head and told Scarlet that for the moment I wanted to keep everything as it is. She seemed to smile slightly. Then she moved onto other business. She droned on about different things. I walked around the desk and sat in the large comfortable chair. I only caught snatches of what Scarlet was saying…something about a new secretary and security personnel. I only half listened. My eyes wandered the desktop, falling upon an old picture. Most of the pictures in the room were of the Old Man and other people, dignities, celebrities and a few Presidents.

But the picture on the desk was of a much younger Jameson. He was sitting in his chair, a small blonde haired girl sitting on his lap. Both of them were smiling and looked happy. It took me only a second to realize it was the Old Man and my mother. I reached out and gently touched the frame, smiling as tears started to flow again.

“He told me disowning your mother was the hardest and the stupidest thing he’d ever done,” said Scarlet with a heavy sigh. “He was going to reconcile with her as soon as you got back from your trip. He said no man---no matter how much of an ass they were---should ever die with unfinished business.”

Unfinished business? “And Mom died before he got a chance to…”

Scarlet nodded. “The death of your parents practically killed him. When he thought you were dead as well...” She paused and collected herself. “When he found you in Florida, he was the happiest I’d ever seen him.”

“Could have fooled me”

“Your grandfather is…was…a very complicated man”

I nodded. I continued to stare at the portrait. It was hard to think of that smiling happy man as the same grumpy old bastard who showed me nothing but disdain. I stared at the portrait for a while. Eventually Scarlet left, said she was off to handle other matters. Before she disappeared though, she told me where I could find a copy of the Will. Instead of getting the copy---I knew what was in there anyway---I picked up the phone. I needed to talk to someone, anyone. So I found myself dialing Mia’s cell.

She picked up on the second ring. “Hello?” she said in a whisper.

I looked at the clock and cursed. It was one; Mia would still be in class.

“Sorry Speedy, I didn’t realize the time.”

She laughed. “Well all of us can’t be mega gazillionaires who don’t have to go to school.”

I could just see her sticking her tongue out.

“Trust me I wish I was in school.”

“The Will thingy didn’t go as planned?”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

I quickly told her everything that happened. She was quiet the whole time, but she gasped when I told her about my step grandmother. It took me only a few minutes to relay the morning’s events to her. When I was done, she sighed heavily. I knew that sigh; I’d been doing that since I woke up this morning.

“That sucks,” she said afterwards.

“I need a destresser or something.”

Mia laughed. “I’m thinking retail therapy.”

We both laughed. Leave it to Mia to rope me into taking her shopping. But it was good idea, just not one for today. We made plans to go shopping tomorrow. We’d spend the whole day at it, which worked because it was Saturday. After we talked a little more, she promised to come over after school and we’d veg out all day in my room, eating ice cream and watching crappy television. Leave it to Mia to come up with fun stuff to do while in a bad mood.

“We have to hit Victoria’s Secret next,” said Mia as we left Claire’s, me dragging behind.

There were three groans, only one of which was mine. I had a pretty good idea where the other two came from. I turned my head slightly and smirked at both Locke and Spencer. They were laden down with bags and didn’t look at all thrilled. I couldn’t blame them. A week ago, they were bodyguards to one of the most powerful and influential people in the city and now they were tagging around in the shadow of a sixteen year old and her best friend. To be fair I did try to ditch them but they didn’t want to hear it. If anything they were loyal but even when I was a guy or rather when I was more guy-like, I couldn’t stand all this shopping. They were a lot more resilient than me that’s for sure. Even now as Mia dragged me from one store to the next, I was trying very hard not to scream and run in the other direction.

That didn’t stop her from having a good time though.

Mia was one of those rare breed of people, the kind of person that liked to do things her own unique kind of way. Take her hair for instance; it was a shocking hot pink. Her mother hated it but said it helped people to remember who she was. She liked to stand out, liked to advertise herself to the world. Besides the hair complemented her really well. She was spunk personified, always on the move, always jabbering away. That’s why I called her “speedy” because she was always going like the Energizer Bunny. Today was no different and now she had something to help fuel her craziness: me and my seemingly endless supply of money.

“Stop being grumpy” said Mia as she grabbed my arm and pulled me into lingerie store.

Spencer and Locke were extremely uncomfortable the whole time Mia and I looked at underwear. Hell, I was uncomfortable too. Though I looked like a complete girl on the outside, I was still a guy where it counted. Not that it was very big anymore. It started to get smaller on the island and seemed to be doing so every day now. I had to wonder if I was going to wake up one morning to find it completely gone. The idea of losing my you-know-what didn’t scare me---I knew there was no going back to being Jonas---but at least it was a small connection to my old life. The only true question was did I want to remember any of that. I miss my parents; I miss them every single moment of the day. But there was no getting them or my old life back.

I was Olivia Queen now and I needed to accept that, no matter how much I was reluctant to do so. After leaving Victoria’s Secret, we made a quick stop at The Gap. The best thing about being rich was that nothing seemed too outlandish. I could literally walk into a store and buy everything or anything I wanted. But that was a double-edged sword too because the sales people tried to get you to buy everything. They kept pestering the hell out of you, thrusting this and that in your face. Though I’d only been in the papers fairly recently, everyone seemed to know me. In The Gap I got a lot of looks and giggles from employees and customers alike. It was the same with every other store we went into today; everyone kept staring and whispering. The whole mall was like that. I felt like I was a goldfish and the mall was a huge bowl that only I was swimming in.

“You’re really spaced out today,” said Mia as we left the Gap, my goons carrying two new bags.

“Sorry”. I sighed heavily. “I have a lot on my mind what with Board Meetings, asshole lawyers and secret grandmothers.”

Mia nodded and lowered her voice. “Let’s not forget the other problems too.”

The other problems she was talking about concerned my “extracurriculars”. Mia was the only person outside of the Tower who knew what I did every night. Or rather what I used to do. Ever since taking care of Merlyn a few days ago, the Green Arrow was grounded. As soon as my grandfather died, the press came swarming. It’s kinda hard to sneak around the city when pictures of you were cropping up on the Internet almost every single day. It was amazing how fast these bastards worked, too. Just this morning there were several candid shots of me walking about my penthouse, getting into the limo, getting out of the limo, going into the law office, coming out, going home. The list went on and on. These people didn’t have a life or rather their new one seemed to be following me around with a camera everywhere I went.

Even now I could see them lurking. Thankfully, Scarlet was able to work out a deal with the mall. If any paparazzi were spotted on the premises, I’d sue the hell out of the place. So mall security was being extra vigilant for me today. I think Scarlet was trying to earn brownie points over the whole Will fiasco thing. I didn’t blame her in the least but I’m not sure she knew that. She made it clear last night---after our conversation in the my new office---that it was never her intention to lead me into that meeting as blind as I was. She confessed to being a little blindsided herself. The whole Board wasn’t supposed to be there, it was supposed to be me, her, Mr. Steele and Mr. Pierce. The Board showing up was something of a shock to her. After telling me all that she spent the rest of the night on the phone arguing with various people for me.

I’m not sure what the final verdict of all that was. When I woke up this morning, she had already made arrangements for me today. Though there would be people at the mall---something she didn’t seem to be happy about---the press would leave me alone. At least while I was inside. I just wished they’d leave me alone all the time, not being Green Arrow was driving me nuts. It was the only truly good thing in my life and not being able to do it was like cutting off one of my limbs.

It was even worse knowing that my grandfather’s killer was out there. Merlyn himself confessed to working for someone. At the time, it just seemed to slip on by but now it was all I could think about. Someone hired an assassin to kill my grandfather. I couldn’t help but think it might be the same someone who hired assassins to kill me and my parents. Merlyn didn’t really confess that much but it was easy to put two and two together. I was just lucky that they weren’t looking for Jonas Oliver anymore. As far as those people knew, I died with my parents on that boat in Florida. The Old Man made sure of that. But I had to wonder if he was really the target or if it was his company. That’s why I hired Harvey Mullins, supposedly the best PI in the city. Mr. Mullins---call me Harv---was confident he could get to the bottom of things.

It was driving me nuts not knowing though. So that’s why I asked Mia to look into it as well. She was something of a computer genius. I guess the correct term was Hacker but we kind of used that word loosely. She was good at what she did, better than good in fact. She could do mad crazy things on the computer. She could do even more now that she had full access to a super computer and the Queen Industries network of satellites. Ever since deciding to become the Green Arrow, Mia and I set up a nice little operation in the Tower. We had one full floor devoted to it all. We called it The Hub, it was a room of computers and servers set up so she could do her thing. On the books, it was listed as my gaming room. So besides all that the room had three massive flat screens and every game system known to man in there. All part of the cover of course but it also helped to unwind.

When not in school or at home, Mia spent a lot of her time in The Hub. I bit my lip as we walked down the mall promenade, making our way toward the Food Court. It was clear from our grumbling bellies where our next stop was going to be. As we maneuvered our way through the throngs of people, I couldn’t help but think that Mia had something, she wanted to discuss with me. It was the way she kept looking at the goons and me, back and forth with shifting eyes. I wasn’t truly certain until she slightly gestured toward the bathrooms with her head.

I nodded and turned to Locke. “Mia and I have to go to the bathroom.”

Neither he nor his partner were stupid as was apparent by the narrowing of his eyes. “You’re not trying to ditch us are you, Miss Queen?”

One of Spencer’s eyebrows rose. Jonas would have caved right then and there. But I’m not him anymore. So I played it cool. “Even if we did ditch you, we’d have nowhere to go. As soon as I stepped out of this place, the damn paparazzi would be all over me in second. Not that I don’t want to get rid of you guys---no offense.”

Locke looked annoyed. He didn’t want to follow me around either. He tried to hide it but it wasn’t working. So he nodded instead. “Don’t take too long.”

Mia grabbed my hand and we left my two clueless goons holding the bags. Mia was in a bit of a hurry as she practically pulled me into the bathroom. When she let go of my hand, she made a big show of checking each stall. When her search came up empty, she ran over to the bathroom door and locked it.

“A bit paranoid?”

“Cautious” she said “I don’t want one of those creeps with a camera to pop up on us.”

I laughed. “I take it you saw the pic of me in my bra then?”

She shuddered as she nodded. That pic someone was definitely getting sued over.

After our shudder fest, I asked her what was going on.

She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. She handed it to me as soon as she was done unfolding it. The sheet was Greek to me, a bunch of letters. I frowned and handed it back to which she sighed heavily. “It’s bank account numbers” she said, then pointed out several she apparently highlighted. “These ones are important.”

I looked at the sheet again, now it made sense. The ones she highlighted were large amounts, over a hundred thousand. I looked at the corresponding dates and my eyes widen. The first one was two days before my parents were killed. I looked at her and she nodded. Looking back at the sheet, my hand shook slightly. This had to be…but how? “Where did you get this?”

She looked around, still suspicious that someone was still watching us. “I did some searching in the bank’s mainframe. At first it was a bit of a chore, especially when it looked like it was going nowhere. Then I found a rather interesting name---John Bowman. Mr. Bowman got large deposits on dates corresponding to ones of significance.”

I took the sheet back from her and looked again. There were only three highlighted dates actually, the first one and third ones I noticed because of the dates and the amounts. But the second one was a bit confusing. It corresponded with the cruise ship hijacking but there was something different about. It took me a moment to realize that it was the transfer number. The first and third transfers came from one place but the second one was different.

Mia saw me looking. “Whoever owns accounts one and three is the same person but number two is different.”

I nodded, thinking back to the cruise ship. There was a group of heavily armed but undisciplined thugs. I took them all out pretty easily actually. But when I got to the bridge and encountered the boss, something was off. Especially when Merlyn saved me. Though he was dressed like the others, it always seemed to bother me. Why was he on the outside? He was on the bow of the ship, away from all the others. I always just assumed he was the real boss and the others were his goons. But it just felt wrong. Merlyn was a loner and working with others just didn’t work. He told me he didn’t kill me that day because he wasn’t hired to do so but it just felt wrong.

Mia nodded. “I can’t trace one and three yet but I’m working on it. Two however, someone clearly isn’t as skilled as they pretend to be.”

“You know where the transfer came from?”

She smiled. “I traced it to a location right here in the city.”

“You’re shitting me?”

She shook her head. “I was a bit surprised too. Something seems off about it though, like it’s too easy.”

I nodded but it was a lead. It might be a fishy lead but it was the first one we had. Now I just had to figure out how to investigate it.

She seemed to have an answer for that too. “I’ve got an idea but I need about a day to get it right. You think you can wait that long?”

I nodded reluctantly.

Mia smiled then returned the page to her pocket. We then proceeded to wash our hands, even though neither of us actually went. I guess it was the motion, just like Mia taking out her lip-gloss and giving her lips a touch up. When we were done and unlocked the door there was a stern older woman glaring at us. Mia apologized as she angrily pushed past us into the bathroom, grumbling about teenagers and drugs. We both couldn’t help ourselves as we laughed and made our way back to the Food Court. Spencer and Locke picked a table in the center of everything, looking really out of place in their black suits and sunglasses. Everyone around them was staring at them oddly, especially seeing that most of the people around were teenagers.

Locke started to stand when I approached but I shook my head. I didn’t want anyone to know those two were with me. Spencer said something to him and he reluctantly sat. I watched them for a few seconds as they watched Mia and me. Then the two of us went and got some food. Mia was in a pizza mood and that was fine by me just as long as she didn’t get crazy stuff on it like pineapple. Thankfully, I was able to talk her into normal cheese and pepperoni as the two of us carried our food back to a table away from the goons. They were two tables over and thankfully had enough training not to stare at us the whole time. Every once and a while one of them would look our way but it was done nonchalantly.

Throughout lunch, all I could think about was Merlyn. I had no qualms about killing him or rather watching him die. He deserved to die after what he did to the Old Man but it was still bothersome to know that it inadvertently happened at my hand. Ok, so the window blew up and he got sucked out but it was still my fault. I couldn’t help but think about it a lot though. I kept replaying the incident over and over again in my head, wondering if there was something, I could have done differently. Lately I’d been telling myself there was no choice, that it was either me or him but I’m not so sure anymore. He knew I’d be able to fire in the dark, he also knew I could out shoot him. I mean he was jealous of my skill when I was younger, it was the main reason he stopped taking me on as a student.

It just seemed strange that he would pick that particular moment to come after the Old Man. Why then, why that way? It didn’t make any sense.

“Shit” Mia cursed, interrupting my thoughts.

I knew that tone from her, it meant that something bad was about to happen.

“What’s the scale?” I asked, referring to our Scale of Bad Things.

“About a twelve.”

This time I cursed. Twelves were bad, especially when our Scale usually only went up to ten. The last time we got to twelve was at the community pool shortly after my breasts started to grow. I was in the boy’s locker room, which I thought was supposedly deserted. I was half way through changing---in the middle of taking off my shirt---when two guys a bit older than me walked in. It scared the shit out of me, especially when they looked right at my little bumps. For a moment, no one said anything. In my head, I was screaming but on the outside, I was scared shitless, afraid I was going to get my ass kicked. Instead, they apologized for walking into the wrong locker room and left. I pulled my shirt on quickly after that and bolted before they realized their mistake. I heard hell from Mia afterwards for abandoning her but as soon as I explained it, she understood.

So if it was a twelve now then it was really bad.

I took a deep breath and turned my head slightly, wondering what could be so horrible to rank that high. I cursed loudly. Coming toward us, looking a bit confused was Roy Harper, my best male friend in the whole wide world. The blood in my veins turned ice cold as he approached, my heart pounding a mile a minute. It had to be Roy, of all people it just had to be him. He was the one person I was avoiding more than any other person in the world. He didn’t know about my condition but he knew me well enough to be able to recognize my face.

This was bad, really bad. Of all the people, he was the last one I wanted to know about me. Thankfully, he was far enough away for me to react. I quickly reached into my purse and took out the pair of sunglasses I kept there. It was in the nick of time too because Roy slowly walked up to the table, the confusion still apparent on his face. He seemed taller than before, more manlier now too. I shook my head, he’s my friend, there’s nothing manly about him. He looked from me to Mia back and forth for a few seconds. Finally, Mia broke the silence with disgust in her voice.

“What do you want, Harper?”

He looked at me, really staring. When he spoke, there was still confusion present. “I could have sworn I knew you for a second there.”

Mia laughed. “Jonas right?” I kicked her in the shin under the table. Mia shot me a nasty look but laughed it off. “They do look alike and they should. This is Olivia, she’s Jonas’ cousin.”

The confusion seemed to fade. Roy sighed but looked sad too. I hated lying to him but it was the only way. I could not let him know that I was still alive and living as a girl now. “It’s nice to meet you,” he said sheepishly.

Before I could say anything, Mia shot me an evil look. "You want to join us? I was just helping Olivia get used to the city.”

I shot her one of my own evil looks as Roy sat down. I was going to kill her later.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF