Green Arrow #7: "Bringing it on Home"

Star City

The Fero Corporation was located in the heart of the city, a company that once belonged to Lex Luthor, and before that, Oliver Queen. Now it was apparently being run by a conglomerate whose ties were murky at best, but obviously deep.

There came a knock on the door of the CEO’s office and the man called Cortez leaned back in his chair as he allowed the caller to enter.

The vice-president of the company came in looking grim-faced. “Mr. Cortez, I wish I had better news for you.”

“If you’re going to inform me that our attempts to bring Green Arrow out into the open have failed so far, I am already aware of that. Our intel has just informed me that the archer is overseas; he’s been quite busy from the looks of it. You might as well hold off on our recent activities in the city. No use destroying out own slums if Robin Hood isn’t here to try and stop us.”

“There’s more,” the man called Jack Ruby said. “It looks like Oliver Queen’s hold over the Starfish Hotel and Casino is stronger than we first believed. He has no shareholders, no board of directors. It’s the one holding that seems to be his and his alone. The only way to get it from him is to deal with him, or his chief executive who seems to be in charge of the daily affairs of the place.”

“And who might that be?” Cortez asked.

“Dinah Lance.”

Cortez rolled his eyes, “Of course, the Black Canary. How typical of Queen to give his girlfriend control of his money. No wonder he was such a bad businessman. Alright, we need to inform him first, let him decide where we go from here. Do we know where he is, at the moment?”

Ruby shrugged, “No idea. He was checking in with our Metropolis headquarters, and then he was on his way to Hub City to check on some business interests there. Sounds like he may have a deal in the works with Intergang. After that he said he was heading back to Las Vegas.”

“Well, find him and get a hold of him. When you do, patch it through to me. We don’t make any moves without his permission.”

His right hand man nodded and walked out of the office, leaving Cortez to ponder the information about his boss. The man was definitely making some big moves, and had been since they had acquired Luthorcorp. Now Intergang? If they could take control of that organization… well… they would be nearly impossible to beat.

He smiled to himself as he gazed out at Star City. Time to come home, Mr. Queen; there’s a world of hurt just waiting for you. And you know what they say – paybacks are a bitch.

The castle that once belonged to his family loomed ever closer, and the man once known as Count Werner Vertigez felt the exhilaration as he and his small army approached the building. He wanted to get as close as he could, but the Vlatavan army would more than likely make that impossible. That was alright, however, as he just needed to be in close enough proximity for the poison to work.

His girls were terrified, but he kept them moving. He looked at them all, young and beautiful, and couldn’t help but feel regret for these unwilling martyrs to his cause. He stayed behind them, walking with them, and making sure that none of them ran. Only one would look back occasionally, giving him a look of smoldering hatred. He rather liked her, actually. Her death, he decided at that moment, would sadden him. If he had the time, he would possibly even take a moment to grieve openly. He did promise himself that once his people were free, and he was back on the throne, he would erect statues of each of them. They would be considered heroes, and praised by his people. He would see to that.

Count Vertigo felt the piercing pain in the back of his left shoulder as the arrow made a sickening sound into his flesh. He let out a scream of pain that made the girls stop and turn.

As their captor staggered forward they all saw the young blond man, his tanned skin and masked face, standing there, another arrow nocked and ready.

“My apologies, Sir. I am not usually one to attack from behind. It is most dishonorable. However, so is using children as weapons. So I am sure I will be forgiven this one time.”

“How dare you!?!” Vertigo roared as he brought his powers to bear, only to be struck through the hand with yet another arrow from Connor Hawke.

The Count let out another scream of pain as he pulled the arrow all the way through, gritting his teeth as he did so. This was intolerable, and the insolent little pup was going to pay.

With a cry of anger, Vertigo leapt toward Connor, taking him by surprise with the full frontal assault, and falling back against the man’s weight.

Werner struck the young man several times, before Connor had a chance to flip him away, causing the villain to fly over Hawke’s head and land hard on his back. They both jumped up at the same time and the Count sneered.

“I am a Prince, boy. I have been trained in the use of several forms of martial arts. Your bow lies out of your reach, you are now out-classed.”

Connor Hawke couldn’t help but raise his eyes at that statement. “All right, then I suppose we must put that to the test.”

Bracing himself, Connor blocked several kicks and jabs that the Count threw, only to retaliate with several of his own, striking the count twice and knocking him back.

“So you have some training yourself. Impressive, but do you really think you are a match for me?”

“Yes,” Connor replied simply, no hint of egotism anywhere in that statement.

For the first time since their meeting, Count Vertigo seemed a bit hesitant. Perhaps the young man was better than him. In the distance, he could see a platoon of Vlatavan soldiers headed their way. Time was running out, and he realized that he still had one piece of luck going for him; the wind, blowing exactly towards the castle, and the army.

The Count grinned, “It doesn’t matter. I’m close enough now. The reign of The Vertigez Family is now at hand." With that he reached down to a small device attached to his belt and went to press the detonator.

They all realized what he was doing and the young girls began to scream in horror, finally running for their lives, hoping to get out of range of the detonator; all but one. Mia Deardon ran forward, knowing that her only chance was to stop the madman, and knowing that she would never reach him in time.

Even Connor Hawke, who was much closer, leaped at the Count, knowing that it was too late, even with all his skills, he could not move that fast. He was right as he watched, in mid-air, as Vertigo’s finger flipped the switch on the detonator.


So lost in the conflict were all of them, that they did not see the green shaft fly over their heads; nor did they hear or see the small pulse of energy suddenly sweep the area.
As Count Vertigo’s hand hit the switch, a wild grin on his face, he had less than two seconds to realize that there was no blast. Then he was tackled by the younger archer.

Eddie was running up along side of his friend. “It worked.” he said, breathlessly.

“I got lucky,” Green Arrow admitted. "I’m not much of an engineer, I pay other people for that, but I figured if I combined the components from one of my blast arrows and my sonic scrambler I could make up some kind of EMP arrow Apparently, I did.”

“But you weren’t sure?”

“Of course not,” Ollie replied.

“What if you had been wrong?” Eddie asked.

“Well, no one would have been around to get mad at me, would they?”

Eddie shook his head and headed toward his daughter as Ollie helped Speedy round up the frightened girls, getting the bombs off of them as quickly as they could.

Connor had Vertigo pinned to the ground, having struck him hard enough with the tackle to leave the Count stunned.

“No… so close…” Werner was muttering.

Eddie caught up with Mia, who stopped running towards the Count when she saw her father heading in her direction. Relief flooded over her; the man she never thought she would ever see was there. He had traveled half-way around the world to find her.

She tore off her own bomb, putting it down gently as she walked up to Eddie. They looked at each other for a moment, and then Mia broke down, embracing her father and sobbing into his chest. Although he was taken aback at first, instinct kicked in, and Eddie grabbed her, kissing the top of her head and trying to comfort her with words that the others could not hear.

“The army is almost here,” Ollie noted as they had acquired the last of the bombs. “Looks like the Count is going to probably be taken into custody by the Vlatavan military.”

Speedy shook his head, “They won’t touch him. I’ve got all the papers I need to take him back with me. I’ve already called for retrieval.”

Seeing Green Arrow give him that look as he shook his head, Roy couldn’t help but speak out. “Always condemning before you know all the facts, aren’t you? You haven’t changed a bit. What we’re doing is important, for the safety of this entire world.”

“'We',” Ollie commented. “Well there’s a hive mentality if I’ve ever heard one.”

“Go to hell,” Speedy said as he turned and walked toward the Vlatavian troops.