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Author's Note: Here's Ch. 7. I'm happy to report that I'm back on track with this story and hope to write it more frequently. This is another Green Arrow chapter finally, which is strange to say because this is a Green Arrow after all. I'd like to thank everyone for their input, djkauf for the editing and DC Comics for the characters.

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Chapter Seven:

Life as I knew it was over. Roy knew who I was and now everything was hell. I wanted to curl into a ball somewhere, find a dark place to hide in and hope no one ever looked at me again. Ok, I’m being a little dramatic but I couldn’t get his face out of my head. As soon as he took my necklace in his hand and saw it connected with his----I shook my head. The look on his face, the confusion, the shock, the utter disgust. Ok, so there was no disgust, but it was sure to come. He almost kissed me, me his best friend in the whole world. Me, the biggest fraud in the whole wide world. I guess it can be said that I might have reacted a little poorly. But at the time getting away seemed to be the only thing I could think of.

When I got home yesterday, all I could do was cry. Now all I could do was stare at the blank TV screen, the remote in my hand. The whole world was at my fingertips and all I wanted to do was sit in the dark. I couldn’t get yesterday out of my head. I kept going over events again and again. I tried to think about what I could have done differently. I suppose the first thing was not to go at all. But I wanted to go, I needed to go. I’d be a fool if I didn’t admit that I missed Roy. He was one of my best friends in the whole wide world and avoiding him felt wrong. When he first caught Mia and me in the mall the other day I felt like fate was pushing him back into my life. When I ran into him again two days ago, it was destiny.

But I was a fool to think I could hide from him forever.

I wanted to tell him about me a long time ago but I was scared. I was afraid that he’d think I was a freak and leave me. Mia was fun to be around, I loved her to death. But Roy was my rock, the guy I could always count on. The guy I wanted to be. I’ll admit I was a bit jealous of him too, but I never didn’t want to be friends with him. Telling him what was going on with me in my eye meant an end to our friendship. I just couldn’t deal with him hating me. So when Jonas “died” I decided to cut Roy out of my life. It was easier to let him think I was dead then to try to explain things to him.

The opening of the door broke me from my depressed thoughts. I didn’t turn my head until I heard my visitor slam into something and curse. The light flicked on as the words came out of her mouth: “Why are you sitting in the dark?”

Mia.

I turned and tried to hide the tears but it was no use. We locked eyes and her annoyance at my strange behavior was gone. She was holding a folder but dropped it as soon as realization hit her. She rushed across the room and sat down next to me, pulling me into her arms as she did so. I cried into her shoulder, wailing as hard as I could. I started telling her what happened but through the tears and sobs it was lost to her. I cried and talked for a few minutes and when it was finally over, she pulled me away gently.

“Mind explaining all that in English now please?” she asked, handing me a tissue.

I wiped my eyes then blew my nose. Snot is disgusting. Then I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Roy and I went to the gym yesterday.”

She nodded. “You told me. I was expecting you to call last night to tell me how it was, but I take it by your reaction it didn’t go so well?”

I shook my head. “Everything was going fine for a bit. I was enjoying myself then he wanted me to shoot with him. I tried to tell him I wasn’t very good but then he insisted on teaching me. I refused some more and tripped while backing up. He grabbed at me and we fell on top of one another. That’s when he tried to kiss me.”

Anger flared across her face. “That little son of bitch, the next time I see him I’m going to punch him in the balls.”

I shook my head quickly. “No, I actually liked that part” I was blushing, I couldn’t help it. The blush wasn’t lost on Mia either who smiled both with confusion and understanding. I took another breath and let it out quickly. “We never got to kissing though because he saw my necklace.”

“Oh shit.”

I nodded, tearing up. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened next.”

Mia didn’t say anything for a second or two. She grabbed my hand though, giving it a gentle squeeze. “So how did he react when you told him the truth?”

I bit my lip. “I didn’t, he kinda guessed, but I ran away.”

“Olivia!” She smacked me upside the head, which I definitely deserved. Then she gave me a warm hug. “Sweetie” she said, as she pulled away. “You should have told him, running away is only going to make things worse.”

I was crying again. “I was scared, I was afraid he’d react badly.”

Mia frowned. “So you decided to react badly and didn’t give the boy a choice.”

My lip trembled and I ended up balling some more. Mia wrapped me in another hug; this one lasted a bit longer. I didn’t cry nearly as long though. When I was done, she wiped away my tears. Then she moved the hair from my face and smiled. We sat there in silence for a bit, Mia smiling, trying to make me feel better.

I finally broke the silence. “I screwed up.”

“Yep” she said with a smirk to which I gave her a gentle, playful shove.

We both laughed.

Then she got serious. “I think you should try calling him.”

“No way” I said to which she frowned. “At least not yet, I’m not ready to talk to him just yet.”

“The longer you wait the more confused the boy is going to get. You need to get this over with and fast. Roy is dense but he’s a good guy too. You’re afraid he’s going to freak but he’s a good guy.” She bit her lip and sighed. “And you didn’t see him after you disappeared. I’ve never seen anyone look that way. I was a wreck but Roy was like a robot. Everything about him was gone, pulled inside and everything left was a vacant shell. You’re his best friend and when you were gone, he died a bit too.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. I know she told me something similar before but I guess I never realized what it would be like for him. It was hard for me not having him in my life but I completely forgot about his feelings. What a selfish bitch I turned out to be. Here I was thinking about the hell I might be in if he found out that I wasn’t truly a boy but I never thought about his feelings. Now here I was avoiding him, letting him think I was still dead. I rushed to Mia immediately, I couldn’t live without her. But Roy, what made him any different than her?

“Shit, I’m a fucking idiot.”

Mia nodded. “Yeah but I still love you.”

We laughed and I gave her another playful shove. Then we hugged again.

“Thanks Mia, I really needed that.”

“You’d do the same for me, hell you did do it when you saved me that night.”

Mia went to a dark place after I was gone, both physically and emotionally. She told me more than once that I saved her and was totally grateful for it. I would save her time and again if it meant that she never went back to the place I found her. When I saw her that night in the woods I didn’t even recognize her. Then when I rescued her from her so called new friends, I wanted nothing more than to save her for the rest of her life. It was only fair that she returned the favor today.

“I’ll keep saving you Speedy,” I said softly, not sure whether or not she heard me.

She smiled so I’m guessing that was a yes. Then she took the remote from my hand, clicking on the TV. She started to surf through the channels, trying to find something decent to watch. Me, I got up off the couch. It was a good thing too; I’d been sitting on it all day. I wasted most of the morning and the afternoon just vegging. Here it was Monday afternoon and all I did was mope. I made Jade cancel all my appointments, which pissed my tutor off but I was a mess anyway.

I looked around the room, wondering if I should open the curtains to let some much needed light in. As I was looking over at them, I noticed Mia’s folder on the floor. In all the depression and the crying, I think both of us forgot about it. I turned to her to ask about it but she was busy surfing so I decided to walk over and pick it up. As soon as I did, she turned her head and laughed.

“I forgot all about that,” she said, jumping off the couch.

“What is it?” I asked as she walked over and I handed it to her.

“I’ve been doing some digging on Merlyn. Those transactions have been bothering me so I sent some feelers out. I kept running into dead ends so I decided to put the word out. Saturday morning I got a reply from this awesome hacker, calls herself The Oracle.”

“Wait, how do you know it’s a girl?”

Mia smiled. “Because all the best hackers are girls dummy.”

I rolled my eyes.”Full of yourself a bit.”

She laughed. “Anyway, this Oracle was able to do some serious digging. Merlyn’s a busy boy; he has more than twenty different aliases and does jobs all over the world. The one in Florida and here were his last.”

“When you say jobs you mean…”

“Assassinations” said Mia, nodding. “He’s a pretty popular guy too, did at least six jobs this year alone. He’s really good at them as well. Your grandfather was one of his highest paid ones though.”

She fell silent. It was still a touchy subject.

Neither of us said anything until I remembered something. “What about the Florida one?”

She smiled. “That’s the funny one. The bank account we found was a set up, some kind of dummy trail for your PI to follow. I’m sorry for both of you that I didn’t see that sooner. That’s why it was taking me so long to find any more leads, but Oracle found them right away. Merlyn is good at hiding his tracks but not good enough. The Florida job and the hit on your grandfather, they were both from the same guy.”

“Who is it?”

She shook her head. “He covers his tracks well” She sighed deeply then smiled. “Merlyn on the other hand…” She opened the folder, pulling out a sheet of paper.

“What’s this?” I asked, looking it over.

There was a name but not much else. It wasn’t the best lead but it was good enough. I could work with a name. Besides there were ways of finding the right information if you knew the right sort of people. Thankfully, I did or at least I knew where to find the sort. According to Mia’s info, my guy worked out of the shadier part of the city, which meant one thing, I was going to have to travel with some cash and a lot of luck.

“I think it’s time the Green Arrow pays Mr. Albrecht Raines a visit.”

“Tell me about Raines?”

I was in the back of the Viper, Luke behind the wheel. It wasn’t the most inconspicuous car on the lot but I’d sorta began to think of it as Green Arrow’s car now. Mia even jokingly dubbed it the “Arrow Car”. It was just a shame that Luke was still refusing to let me get behind the wheel. He made a promise to my grandfather to look out for me and that’s apparently what he was going to do. So as long as Green Arrow was going out into the streets at night, so too was her silent partner, Luke the driver. He was silent too, barely uttering a word. I think I surprised him when I called him to the penthouse and told him Green Arrow had another mission.

Luke was none too happy about it, either. He had convinced himself---and only himself---that my last mission had been my last. I guess he thought nearly getting blown up had some kind of finality to it. But the only thing it brought a finality to was my costume. Now I was improvising, using my green hooded cape, black yoga pants and dark green turtle neck. It didn’t exactly scream menacing but it was the best I had on such short notice. My new costume was still being “made”. I’m not sure of the specifics other than the fact that it wouldn’t be ready until at least the middle of March. So that meant either one of two things: Green Arrow was grounded until then or she’d just pop around in whatever clothes she could find.

Luke was definitely for the former.

“You’re not paying attention are you?” asked Mia’s voice in my earpiece.

I sighed. “Sorry, Speedy, daydreaming.”

She groaned. “If you’re not going to take this seriously then I’m going to bed, I have a physics test tomorrow.”

“I’m serious.”

She was silent for a second or two before continuing. “Like I was saying before, Albrecht Raines, age 36, college drop out. After leaving college, he tried to make it big in New York, selling his paintings on street corners but it didn’t pan out. So nearly broke, he made his way to San Francisco, hoping to get luckier here.” There was a pause and I heard the tell tale sound of her fingers tapping furiously away at her keys. “This is interesting. According to SFPD’s database, Raines was arrested on suspicion of counterfeiting but the case was thrown out. The DA was furious but they couldn’t get anything to stick. They tried to book him on smaller accounts too, fake ID’s, phony passports but nothing seemed to work.”

“Who the hell is this guy?”

“Ugh” gasped Mia. “I just found his Deviant Art page. This man likes his color.”

I rolled my eyes. “You said he was a counterfeiter?”

“Small time stuff” There was some more tapping. “Then about six months ago, Raines dropped off the grid. He sold his apartment, emptied his bank account and disappeared. It’s like he was there one minute and gone the next.”

“Sounds like someone didn’t want to be found anymore.”

“He covered his tracks pretty well,” said Mia, it almost sounded like there was admiration in her voice.

“How did your friend find him then?”

“She didn’t, well not really anyway. An old alias of Raines turned up attached to the same account that Merlyn was using…the Bowman one. Apparently Bowman transferred money into an account owned by Albrecht Regenbogen, one hundred thousand to be exact.” Mia whistled which with the feedback was a bitch on my ear.
“Whatever Raines did for him it had to be something big.”

“Anything else, Speedy?”

“Yeah, something doesn’t feel right about this whole thing. If you happen to find him, try to be careful. Raines is clearly connected to something and that something has a lot of pull, too much pull to be safe.”

“Will do,” I said, pulling the earpiece out of my ear and putting it in one of belt pouches.

Luke made a scuffing sound but other than that, he didn’t say a word.

The silence was welcomed as we drove. I tried my hardest not to think about things but my mind kept wandering back to Roy. Mia started nagging me after about an hour of watching TV. She was insistent that I call him and try to clear the air. I promised I would but I’m not sure she bought it. In truth, I was kinda on the fence about the whole thing. On one hand I wanted to tell him everything, I felt I owed him that much. On the other hand, I was still afraid of how he might react to the truth. Not only was I lying to him as Olivia but I’d been lying to him as Jonas for a couple of years now. I found it hard to believe that he’d just sweep all of that under the rug like it was nothing.

I groaned. We were going to have to talk but that talk could wait.

The car came to a slow stop. I turned and looked out the window, grimacing into the inky blackness around us. I hated this part of the city; there were never any lights on---well at least no place where they were needed. I hated coming here too. A couple of blocks over was where I had my first real fight as the Green Arrow. It was with a criminal called “Brick”. He robbed a bank and I chased him into an old glue factory. We had a good fight; I only ended up besting him through pure dumb luck. I should have left it there but something about the area perplexed me so I returned the next night. I started poking around the old warehouses, trying to stir up the dust. That’s when I found them: a gang of teenagers. They were squatting in one of the buildings. At first, I thought they might just be some of the numerous homeless in this part of the city. Then one of them made a move, proving he and his friends were anything but normal.

It was the first and only time I ever had a run in with a metahuman gang that called themselves Posse. I was outnumbered but managed to hold my own. In the end, we came to an agreement: I’d leave them alone if they kept their noses out of the real dirty stuff. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement, one that I was unfortunately going to have to break tonight. Not that I was here to turn them in for their petty crimes but I did need info. Kids like them were invisible and the invisibles were always the ones who saw the best things.

“You sure about this?” asked Luke as I opened my door.

I nodded but said “no.”

As soon as I stepped outside, I was hit with the smell. It’s really hard to describe without comparing the place to a gas station rest room. I tried not to think about it as I closed the car door and darted quickly across the street, disappearing into an alley. The Mission District at night always had this foreboding feel, especially when I was snooping around not knowing where I was going. I still wasn’t totally familiar with every part of the city. I’d lived here all my life and yet there were parts that were still very foreign to me. My family actually lived outside the city in a nice big white house, far away from the bustle and hustle. For the first few days living in the tower, it felt strange to sleep at night and not hear the sounds of crickets and the wind blowing through the trees.

I felt a tear roll down my cheek just thinking about home. The house was still there---vacant. It was all left to me in my parent’s Will. My father was a contractor so he made an honest living. He and Mia’s father were in business together. My parents and her’s made enough to vacation more than once a year and to own a beach house in Miami. Now I owned several houses. My grandfather had a lot of property all over, not just in the city either. There were a few villas in Spain, a nice mansion in the south of France and a tropical getaway down in the Caribbean. All of it was now in my name. There were a lot of places in the US as well, mainly in the major cities of course. I had yet to review all the paperwork but I was looking at over one hundred million dollars in prime real estate.

It made me sad to look at the buildings in this part of town in comparison. Things were bad here and only seemed to get worse. My grandfather’s mechanic and his family lived not too far from here. Not that I’d ever been to their house but I made it my business to know where my employees lived. I wish there was something more I could do for him and his, something to get them out of this shit hole of a neighborhood. But unfortunately, one problem at a time and tonight I had two of them I wanted to take care of.

I stayed in the shadows as I slunk down the alley, something not all that hard to do. When I reached the end of it, I crossed another street and into another alley. I did this for a couple of alleys until I found the place. It looked like all the rest of the old buildings around. It was built in the 40’s, its steel frame rusted, two thirds of windows boarded up. It didn’t look like anyone lived there but that was the point. I found the place by accident the first time. I thought I was following the shadow of a cat but it turned out to be a strange girl in a Lolita dress. It was almost as if she led me to the place. Before I knew what was happening, I was ambushed. I put quite a few arrows into the pavement before her friends realized I wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

Now here I was making my way through those very same shadows, trying to act as stealthy as before. But as soon as I stepped up to the building, I realized my cover was blown. I smelled him before he was on. He came fast and hard, swinging his arms like a damn bulldozer. He took me by surprise but thankfully, I caught a whiff of him. I rolled away from his blows, pressed against the far wall. I only managed to bring my bow up just in tip. I couldn’t get an arrow off in the cramped space but I was able to use the limb to block his swinging arm as it made way for my head.

“Thumper” a voice called from the darkness, distracting the brute for a split second.

I rolled off the wall and away from him, swinging the bow in a quick arc toward his legs. I caught him in the shins, taking him down like a ton of bricks. As soon as I did, there were several curses in the darkness and the other members of his gang seemed to appear out of nowhere. The one in the lead---the tall black man---was their leader. I didn’t know his real name, hell they didn’t have them as far as I knew. The gang called him Damper, I’m not sure why. As far as I knew, he could make himself invisible.

“La Flecha Verde” he said with a laugh.

The large tub of lard next to him rumbled as well. The one on the ground---Thumper---grumbled as he got to his feet.

“Bitch caught me off guard,” he grumbled.

“Bitch got you good” laughed the fat one.

“Enough you two” said Damper, giving them cross looks before turning to me. “What brings the great Green Arrow back to our neck of the woods---back to where she said she wouldn’t tread?”

“Business” I said, trying to sound more badass than I was.

“And you came to little old us?” said Damper with a laugh. “I’m touched, truly I am.”

I smirked, pulling the large wad of cash out of my pouch, waving it in the air. “I have cash, quite a bit of it if you’re interested.”
Damper’s eyes widened and he licked his lips. But came to his senses a second later, crossing his arms. “We don’t want your money.”

“Don’t be a fool” snapped a female voice, somewhere unseen.

“Stay out of this woman.”

I waved the cash back and forth. “Two thousand, Damper. It will feed you guys for a couple of months I think, maybe clothe you too. All I’m asking for is an address.”

He eyed the cash and nodded slightly. It was too much to give up, especially around these parts. They were good people---most of the time. But everyone had to do what they could to survive. I respected that, hell I lived it for a few months myself. “So this unlucky bastard have a name?”

I smiled. “Raines.”

It didn’t take a genius to know that they knew him. I saw it on their faces as soon as the name rolled off my lips. “You’re familiar with him?”

Damper nodded. “Bit of a prick. Nasty business with him though, you might want to keep your distance.”

I shook my head. “I need this one. He might have some much needed intel. I’m not asking you to get involved, I just want an address.”

Damper sighed. “He lives a few blocks from here” He turned toward the darkness behind him. “Probe, you can show her where.”

A moment or two later, the girl in the Lolita dress appeared. She had jet-black hair, pale skin and always wore dark shades. Like before, her face was an expressionless mask.

“That good enough for you?” asked Damper.

I nodded then tossed him the cash. “If this turns out to be a wild goose chase, I’m coming back for that and trust me when I say I’ll shoot first.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way, chica” said Damper as he slowly disappeared into the background.

“He’s down there,” said Probe as she pointed down the alley.

I looked down it, pulling an arrow out and notching it. I wanted to make sure I was prepared this time. Last time I went poking my head where it didn’t belong I almost ended up in a bunch of mushy green pieces. This time I had to play this smart. I nodded to Probe, motioning her over to a nearby dumpster. She went without complaint, ducking down and disappearing from sight. I moved slowly, winding my way to my source. Raines’s place was a little hole in the wall with a dirty window and only one door I could see. There might be a back entrance but as long as the man didn’t know I was coming, I think I was pretty safe.

I crept up to the window, ducking low but not low enough that I couldn’t see through. The view wasn’t great but I was able to make out a person inside. Raines was a tall man, wiry brown hair in a ponytail. He had an unkempt beard and looked to be a man that didn’t get much sleep. He was somewhat jittery, fluttering about his little workstation. I found it hard to believe that he was the man that had Posse so scared. Sure, I knew there was something up with him but this guy was hardly menacing. If I had to guess, I’d say he had criminal underworld ties, possibly a local branch of Intergang or something of that nature. It wasn’t unheard of for them to work here. They were usually East Coast thugs but word on the street was they were expanding their horizons. It also made sense that they’d keep someone like Raines on their payroll.

A counterfeiter and a forger might come in handy. I had already figured out why Merlyn wanted him, too. A job like the one he took probably made him a big target. If Raines was as good as they said then Merlyn would have come here for a new life. I just wondered how much about Merlyn’s business this man might know. There was a good chance he didn’t know a damn thing and that meant this was a waste of time. But if he did know something and was willing to talk then I just found my new best friend.

I took a deep breath; I guess there was only one way to find out.

I took a step back, standing up as I did so. I fired a quick shot through the window, followed by another just as quickly. Raines squealed like a girl but I didn’t give him much of a chance to react. I gave the door a swift kick, glad it was as weak as it looked. It gave way, popping open. I rushed into the room, firing another arrow and quickly notching another. All my shots were precise, two had gone on either side of his head, the third went directly above it. Raines was standing there trembling, the crotch of his pants thoroughly soiled. At the sight of me, he made a mad dash for his desk in the corner. I fired my fourth arrow, hitting the desk drawer before he got there.

“Enough of that” I snapped, causing him to stop dead in his tracks.

“What do you want?” he asked, trembling.

“John Bowman.”

He shook his head. “Don’t know him.”

I smirked. I fired another arrow a centimeter from his big toe. “Want to try that again?”

He shook his head. “You don’t want any part of them, trust me.”

“Who are them?”

He bit his lip and cursed. “Forget I said anything, bad news all around.”

I fired another arrow, this one at his other foot. “You’re a smart man Raines, I’m not here for you but I can make things very difficult for your line of work.” I notched another arrow, pointing it toward his left hand. “Want to try your luck?”

Raines’s face went as white as a sheet. “Ok, ok. Bowman---I don’t know his real name. He works for this group; they funnel a lot of business my way. They want solid ID’s, good covers. They pay well, keep me out of trouble. But you don’t want anything to do with them, they’re bad news. They’re killers, assassins for hire.”

I nodded. “What do you know about Bowman’s last job? Who hired him?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I get a package in the mail, specifics, pictures.”

“Get it for me.”

He nodded and made his way slowly over to a filing cabinet in the corner. He pulled a ring of keys out of his pocket and fumbled through several before finding the right one. He opened the drawer quickly, rummaged for the file before finally pulling it out. He turned toward me, pressing it against his chest and shaking his head. “You don’t want this, nothing but death is attached to this thing.”

I held out my hand and he reluctantly handed it to me. “Do you have a name, a name for the group he works for?”

He shook his head then sighed. “Used to work for actually.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Just talk. Bowman’s last job, they didn’t sanction it. He did it freelance. Hell, if you hadn’t killed him, they would have. They don’t like it when you disobey their orders. They’re very bad mother-fuckers. I’m telling you right now; leave this where it is because you don’t want to get involved with these people.”

I smirked. “I’ll take my chances.”

He laughed nervously. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

I stuck the folder under my arm and slowly backed out of his place with my bow raised. There was no way I was going to take my eyes off a prick like him. I kept on him until I was well away from the building. As soon as I did, I lowered the bow. I hefted the folder in my hand and smiled. Now I had more than something. I’m not sure how much that something was but maybe it was enough to give me some clues as to what I’m dealing with.

“We good now?” asked Probe as she came out from behind the dumpster.

“We’re good, thanks for the help.”

She nodded. “This means you owe me one, you know that right?”

I smiled. “Sounds fair to me” I pulled a business card with a number out of pouch and handed it to her. “You get in trouble, give that number a call.”

She took it and nodded. Then she turned and ran off back down the alley.

I looked at the folder in my hand and smiled.

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