Issue 0: "Back in the Saddle"

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Issue #0: “Back in the Saddle”
Written by Brian Burchette
Cover by Ramon Villalobos
Edited by Mark Bowers[/center]

On the other side of Star City another figure stood tall and proud, as he gazed across the skyline of the city that was his home. The full moon silhouetted him and his bow perfectly. Oliver Queen was back, and although there was a part of him that was missing Las Vegas and the New Outsiders, there was a larger part that felt happy to be home again. He knew that, at this time in his life, this is where he belonged.

Directly across from where he stood, was the company that his family had owned for three generations. A company now owned by LexCorp, following a surprisingly hostile takeover. His face hardened at the idea of that monster owning what used to be his father’s, and his father’s before him.

He leapt off the side of the building and onto a flagpole, which he used to swing himself over onto the ledge of another building. From there he took the fire escape down to the street level and peered out of the alley. There were two men standing on the street corner, huddled together; one of Asian descent and one young white man. He watched closely as their hands moved together quickly and the exchange was made.

He nocked his arrow and fired his shot, pinning who he believed to be the dealer to the boarded-up building behind him. The guy struggled, and Ollie realized, to his slight amusement, how slow-witted the guy was not to realize that, if he just took off the coat, he could escape.

The other man took off running down the sidewalk as Green Arrow strutted towards the one that was pinned. He watched the other one running, doing nothing to stop him. He didn’t need to. Three… two… one…

An arm flew out of an alley that the junkie was running past and the user flew to the ground. Roy Harper, bow slung over his shoulder, grabbed the guy by the back of his collar and dragged him back towards Arrow and the dealer.

“You getting tired in your old age, or what? You could have roped this guy before he got five feet from you.”

“I’m cutting down on the trick arrows. Anyway, I thought you might want to have some fun before you start your new job.”

“My new job could end up being… fun.”

“Yeah, you’re going to work for the man. That’s going to be a real blast,” Green Arrow said, letting the sarcasm drip from every word.

“Don’t start, okay. I’ve been offered a chance to help this country and the metahuman community. I think this is a great opportunity.”

“Just watch your back, kid,” Ollie said as he walked up to the dealer who was now looking at him through daggered eyes.

“Good news and bad new for you, pal,” the Emerald Archer said, tipping his hat up and pulling one of his arrows out of his quiver. “The good news is I’m letting you go, with a reminder,” he growled as he took the tip of the arrow and cut deep into the cheek of the dealer.

The guy gritted his teeth but did not cry out.

“Pretty tough there,” Arrow stated. “Let all your buddies know that Green Arrow’s home, and this town is going to be cleaned up. Oh, and I think I’ll take this,” he said as he reached in and grabbed a wad of cash from the jacket pocket of the dealer. “Consider it your good deed for the day. This money will be going to one of the many outreach care programs for kids trying to get off the crap that you’re pushing on them.”

The Emerald Archer pulled the arrows, that had kept the man pinned, out of his jacket and, without another word, the pusher took off.

“Damn, GA, that was a bit harsh, don’t you think?”
Ollie put his arrows back in his quiver. “Nope. Star City has gone to hell in a handbasket while I was gone. Black Lightning and that new kid, Static, can’t even keep up. It’s time to let the slime in my city know that I’m back, and I’m not going to let it happen anymore.”

“You sound like Batman.”

Green Arrow turned to his old sidekick, “I’m nothing like him!”

As Roy watched Ollie strut away, he rolled his eyes. “Sure,” he mumbled under his breath.

She stood before him in a wedding dress that was so white it seemed to shine like a star. Ollie reached out his hand to Dinah and she smiled up at him as she placed her hand in his.

“I now pronounce you man and wife,” the minister said. “You may kiss the bride.”

Oliver pulled her to him and dipped her as their lips met and he kissed her passionately. He pulled her back up with that flippant grin of his, but it fell from his face as he gazed into the eyes of the Queen of Spades. He stumbled backwards as laughter rang out from the pews of the church.

He looked outwards and saw all of his friends and colleagues sitting there, laughing hysterically at them. In the middle of the aisle he saw her – Dinah - being dragged by her hair at the hands of Desaad. Her costume was torn and her body was broken and bleeding. She was unconscious and therefore not fighting back at all. Everyone in the pews seemed to be ignoring them; too busy pointing their finger at Ollie as the laughter continued to rise into the rafters of the church.

Ollie screamed her name and leapt from the altar towards Desaad. He didn’t have his bow, but he didn’t need it. However, the further down the aisle he ran, the farther away the sadist from Apokolips seemed to be. It was if the church itself was stretching itself out, making sure that he could not reach them.

Then he was suddenly at the door of the church, the door they had just escaped out of. He swung it open only to be struck hard in the face by a powerful fist. He stumbled backward as he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked up. His eyes opened wide in shock as Adrian Chase, dressed in his Vigilante gear, stood there in front of him. The scene was even more surreal due to the fact that he was bleeding heavily from several gunshot wounds in his chest; however, it didn’t seem to be stopping him.

“You arrogant, self-centered son of a bitch!” Chase screamed at him as he threw another punch and Ollie went flying back into an offering table. “It was always about you, wasn’t it? You and Dinah… and to hell with the rest of us.”

“That’s not true,” Ollie mumbled as he lay on the ground surrounded by the broken pieces of the table. “You wouldn’t let us in… I tried… We tried!”

“You didn’t try at all,” he said quietly as he removed his mask, his blond hair falling down in front of his eyes. “You decided you didn’t like me from the beginning and chose to tolerate me. I was going through my own personal hell and you just let me sink further and further into it.”

“No,” the archer replied, but it came out as barely a whisper.

“Even now, do you really care what happened? Is your guilt over me, or over her?” Adrian said as he pointed to the figure that was walking up the steps and into the church.

Helena was naked, pieces of flesh dangling from her face; a face that was nearly unrecognizable. He turned away from the visage in front of him, immediately ashamed for doing so, but it had been instinct. He forced himself to look back up at her.

“You were the one person I thought I could trust…” Helena said as tears began to streak across her face. “But you were ashamed of me… of us… It’s the reason you never told Dinah, even in the beginning. You never even talked to me about it, about us. I was just a deep dark secret that you wanted to ignore. Isn’t that true?”

Ollie shook his head in denial. He knew that none of this was real, but he couldn’t stop it. He couldn’t pull himself out of it, and maybe, just maybe, he didn’t deserve too.

He slowly stood up to face the both of them. “I never meant for anything to happen to either of you. You have to believe me. I’m sorry… I screwed up. Yes, Helena, we should have talked. We should have been open about our past. I was… afraid… but I never wanted anything like that to happen to you.”

“You didn’t care,” Chase spat out. “Even now, what are you thinking? What are you thinking about!?” he screamed and blood began to flow from his eyes.

Ollie looked down. “Dinah… I’ve got to get to Dinah.”

“Right,” Helena said. “’Cause it’s always about what you want, and to hell with everyone else. Make a mistake and sweep it under the rug. Don’t own up to it. Same old pattern with you.”

“That’s not true![/b]” Oliver bellowed in rage.

A new voice behind him spoke, “Isn’t it?”

Ollie turned around to see Roy standing there in nothing but torn jeans and shirtless. His arms were black and blue and the track marks were fresh. The young man was hunched over, shaking violently. He was skin and bones, and looked like he hadn’t eaten in weeks.

“Isn’t it?” Roy asked again, his voice weakened by his condition.

At the vision of his young ward, the memories of that time of their life came flooding back as almost a physical assault and Ollie instinctively took a couple of steps back from him.

“Please don’t do this,” the Emerald Archer whimpered. “Please let me wake up now.”

“Why, Ollie? Because it’s what you want?” Another new voice and he turned around to see Batman, standing there, his arms folded across his chest.

“You stay out of this, you freak!” Queen shouted, his despair instantly turning into anger. “You of all people have no right to judge me… Not you!”

He took a swing at the Dark Knight who dissolved in front of him. He turned back around to see Adrian, Roy and Helena walking towards him. Now all three of them were bleeding from their eyes. Eyes that for Adrian were full of anger, for Roy desperation, and for Helena never-ending pain. Yet he saw the same thing lurking behind all of that, in their eyes. He saw accusations… never-ending accusations.

Oliver Queen let out a scream and his body flew up out of bed, covered in sweat. He was gasping for air, as if he had stopped breathing. He was shaking all over. It was a dream. He stumbled out of bed and opened the fridge in his small apartment and grabbed the first thing he saw. He untwisted the cap and drank the beer down in one swig.

Green Arrow sat on the roof and gazed at the daily paper. Of course it was all about the election and the sudden death of Peter Reece. It appeared that Edwin Alva was now running unopposed.

His good friend Jefferson Pierce had warned Ollie about Alva before taking off. He didn’t trust the guy. Ollie had blown it off at first; of course he shouldn’t trust the guy, for starters he was a businessman running for a political office. That alone made him an enemy of the people; anyone with half a brain knew that. Still, the whole bang babies situation and Polaris, and the way it all seemed to lead right to Alva’s company, made him wonder.

It also reminded him that he had given Jeff his word that he would check on the new kid in town—the one called Static. Just what this town needed, a kid running around playing superhero.

Well, he would have to check on the kid later. At the moment he was staking out a tip he had received on a huge drug deal that was going down on the south end of town. It was a section of Star City that, back in the day, was filled with meat-packaging warehouses. Back when that part of the city was bustling with activity, and prosperous. Before the racial violence and the senseless destruction. Now most of the buildings were boarded up and the place was used only for squatters, drug addicts, and major drug deals. And here he was, right in the middle of one, as he watched two cars pull up from different directions.

The men got out of the cars and began to speak to each other. A couple of nods and then both went to the trunks of their respective vehicles and reached in. One pulled out a briefcase that Ollie guessed was the money, while the other came back with a duffel bag that was no doubt full of some kind of illegal narcotic.

With the image of this morning’s dream, and the picture of Roy still in his head, Green Arrow slowly drew an arrow from his quiver and began to place it on his bow when an explosion ripped apart one of the nearby buildings. Glass and brick went flying high into the air and Ollie could feel the heat from the blast half a block away.

The two dealers dove to the ground and GA moved quickly, jumping off the roof and sliding down an old flagpole that stood at the side of the building he had been on. He jumped the last ten feet and saw that he had been spotted by the drug dealers, who were already pulling out their weapons.

“Wrong choice,” Arrow said as his arm flew behind his back and he nocked two arrows, firing both at the same time. The green bolts separated as they left the string and each hit its mark, the arrowheads going into the shoulders of each man. They let out a cry of pain and one was able to jump back into the car. The other one scrambled to reach his, but Ollie had already leapt on top of him and had him pinned to the ground.

“Doesn’t look like you’re going anywhere, dirtbag,” he growled as the man cried out in pain again from landing on the sidewalk and shoving the arrow all the way through his shoulder.

There was the sudden cocking of a gun and Ollie looked to his right to see that the driver had gotten out of the car and was aiming his Beretta right at his head. “Don’t think so, bowman.”

Ollie watched as the man began to squeeze the trigger. Ollie kicked out with his left leg and tripped the man, the shot going wild. The gunman fell to the ground, but was able to retrain his gun and fired at Green Arrow who had rolled off of the dealer and barely dodged the bullet.

As Green Arrow came up, his arm going for an arrow, he heard the sudden sound of automatic gunfire and he just had time to see the shadow of a man flying over the hood of the drug dealer’s car, an automatic rifle in his arms, and he let loose a spray of bullets that took out the driver in a bloody mess.

“Crap,” Ollie cried as he dove out of the way. He could hear more rapid gunfire coming his way and he looked up, from behind the dealer’s car that he had jumped in front of, to see five men, in what he instantly recognized as Kobra uniforms, heading towards him. What in the hell was going on?!

The shadowed man who had saved his life was leaning against the car, gasping for breath, but then he swung up and began to fire back at the Kobra agents.

“No! No more killing,” Arrow shouted as he fired an arrow in the agents’ direction and there was a sudden explosion just behind them. All five of them went flying into the air and landed hard, but none of them were getting up anytime soon.

“You always were such a wuss when it came to playing with the big boys,” the figure said as he slumped back down against the car.

Green Arrow went to retort, confused over the fact that this guy seemed to know who he was, before his brain finally caught up with the words and the sound of the man’s voice. He leaned against the car looking down at the man, shock and awe in his face and in the sound of his own voice.

“Eddie Fyers?!”

The man looked up and the street lamp finally showed his face. He was bleeding from a head wound, his clothes were torn and burnt, and his face was showing the years that had passed since their last meeting, but it was him.

“The one and only! Thanks for the save.”

“Ditto,” Ollie replied, stunned at the sight of such an old friend he hadn’t seen in years. “No offense, but… what the hell are you doing in my city, and why are you being chased down by Kobra agents?”

“I came here to find you; I need your help. As for these clowns, I have no idea why they are chasing me.”

“Geez, maybe it’s because you work for the CIA,” stated Ollie with sarcasm.

Eddie chuckled. “Funny thing about that. I’m not actually working for them anymore either. In fact, they’re kind of after me too.”

There was a moment of silence as Ollie took off his hat and wiped his brow. “Same old Eddie. So you came here hoping I would what…? Help you take out the CIA? Help you disappear?”

Eddie’s face sobered as he shook his head. “No, I came here because my daughter has disappeared, and this was the last city she was seen in. Her name is Mia Deardon and I think she’s in a lot of trouble.”