The two C.I.A. officers stood at the doorstep to the headquarters of the Justice Society of America, the world's first, and arguably, greatest team of super-heroes, ., search warrant in hand. They were after a fellow agent by the name of Eddie Fyers. There was only one thing between them and their prey – Green Arrow.
“Please don’t make this any harder than it has to be, Mr. Arrow. We have the warrant, please step aside.”
“You have a warrant to enter
this place? That’s some pretty big oranges you guys are packing, I’ll give ya that. Mind if I take a look at that piece of paper for a moment?” he asked as he reached out to take the document.
Agent Turner pulled it away. “Yes, we do. You have no need to read it. If you think there’s something wrong with it, contact our superior.”
Ollie’s eyes narrowed underneath his mask. His head was killing him from his concussion and his broken collar bone, but he wasn’t hurting enough to know that something wasn’t right.
“Wait a minute. Why is the CIA here, anyway? Shouldn’t the Feds be bringing this guy in for you? You guys are supposed to be international. This ain’t your jurisdiction.”
Agent Gertz sneered at him. “When it comes to Fyers, our jurisdiction is this entire planet.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll get back to you after I make a phone call.”
Both men chuckled at the same time. “You think it’s going to be easy to contact our boss at this hour of the morning?”
Green Arrow gave them a mock look of shock. “I wasn’t calling some middle management numb nut. I was going to have you two checked out by the Justice League files. It’s quicker, and much...
much... more thorough.”
Ollie saw the exact reaction he had hoped for as the color temporarily drained from the faces of both men. The one called Turner recovered quicker and began to laugh as if he had just been told the funniest joke he had heard in the last ten years. His partner gave him a questionable look; the distraction that Agent Turner was hoping for as he suddenly drew his gun and jammed it straight into Green Arrow’s broken collar bone.
Ollie let out a cry of pain, and stumbled backwards, allowing both men to step inside. The one called Gertz struck him in the face before Ollie could react. He fell to the ground, dazed.
Agent Turner grabbed Ollie by his good arm, pulling him up just far enough off the ground to strike him in the back of the head with the butt of the gun. There was a blinding flash of pain in Ollie’s head, the room spun for several seconds and then blackness.
*******
The two men marched through the halls of the Justice Society, opening doors and looking in rooms, but the place was still, no sign of life anywhere, until they got down to the end of the hall, made a left, and opened the very next door. There they found exactly what they were looking for.
Eddie Fyers lay on the bed, his face as white as the sheet, but his eyes were open. A young blond girl leaned over him, a blond man of foreign decent stood on the other side of the bed. They both turned when the two men moved into the room.
“Eddie Fyers, you are under arrest for high treason,” Agent Gertz said as he approached the bed.
For a moment, Eddie looked at him blankly, then some kind of recognition covered his face. “Mike? Is that you? What am I doing here? What happened to me?”
Both agents seemed genuinely taken aback by the comment. It was enough of a distraction for them that they did not notice as the young man quietly dropped an arrow head onto the floor. The room suddenly exploded into smoke.
“What the hell is going...?” Agent Turner started to say, but found himself being struck from behind. One blow behind the ear and he collapsed to the ground.
“Turner?” Agent Gertz called out as he drew his gun, only to have it knocked out of his hand. He turned in time to see a gloved fist strike him in the face. He fell backward, dazed, coughing, and confused. As he started to rise, he was struck in the head by a rather heavy wooden chair. He fell to the floor unconscious.
“I don’t think that was wise,” Connor said. “You may have hurt seriously hurt him. I could have handled this.”
“They were after my father,” Mia reminded him. “Anyway, when you’ve lived on the streets as long as I did, you learn how to handle yourself. Come on, we need to get him out of here.”
They were all coughing as the room continued to roll in smoke. They grabbed the hospital bed and began to wheel it out, Connor held onto the IV, but disconnected the other wires as quickly as he could.
“What’s going on?” Eddie’s voice rang out, weak, slightly panicked. “Who are you? What do you want with me?”
“It’s alright, Eddie. We’re not going to let anything happen to you,” Mia said reassuringly as they left the room, finally gasping in fresh air.
They both checked on the patient, only to find him struggling to get out of bed.
“Don’t try to move, you’re still too weak.” Connor warned.
“Listen to me, kids, I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing here, but you’re in the process of kidnapping an agent of the United States Government. I think you better quit now, before you get in any deeper.”
The two of them exchanged worried looks. “Don’t you know who I am?” Mia asked.
“No idea, little lady, but I know what you’re going to be if you don’t cease what you’re doing and start telling me what’s going on.”
Mia looked at Connor. “Oh this isn’t good.”
*******
His name was Tai Lee and his family came by money the old fashioned way – through the pain and suffering of others. Many would consider him the worst of the lot as he, like his brother before him, used children in many of his underground activities.
Tai’s brother, Jong Lee, was murdered by his own bodyguard, a villain for hire who went by the name of Skorpio, after the man had discovered (with the help of Green Arrow and Black Canary), about his boss’ child pornography ring.*
*
See New Outsiders #6A killer with a conscience, his brother was always able to pick them. Tai was not as stupid, and preferred to keep a small group of armed men that he knew well, using only professional killers when he had to.
The family estate lay on the outskirts of Star City, having been abandoned since his brother’s death. He had had no intentions of coming to the city or continuing business there, but a recent visit from the hero called Green Arrow had changed his mind. *
*
See Green Arrow #3Green Arrow had entered his place uninvited, humiliated him, forced him to turn on a trusted business partner. Now it was time to make the man pay, and he would do so by taking the one thing he knew the archer cared for the most... his city.
Tai was not, however, as strong a man as his brother Jong had been, and knew that he no longer had the power to gain control of Star City’s underworld. He did, however, know of someone who could. A “rising star” in the mob scene, and with the help of an old friend who had also been burned by the archer, they would help this man rise to power. This man who was called Daniel “Brick” Brickwell.
His head of security, a giant of a man who went by the name Tuba, opened the front door to his family home and he entered for the first time in over ten years. He had never liked the house; it brought back too many bad memories. Tai was also aware, though, that ghosts could not hurt him, especially when he was now the sole heir of his family’s entire fortune.
“I was wondering if you were going to show up.” The voice came from the formal living room, thick with an Indian accent. Tuba pulled his gun on instinct, but Tai motioned for him to put it away as they rounded the corner to be greeted by their guest.
“It is good to see you were not captured by the archer,” Tai said as she went up and shook the man’s hand.
The man grinned broadly. “It takes more than a man with a bow to take down Kemel
Asad, but let us get down to business, I am a busy man. You have a plan to finally rid ourselves of Green Arrow once and for all?”
Tai nodded. “And when he is dead, we will celebrate by opening up our slave trade operations right here in the city that he held so dear, while he rots in hell.”
*******
“If we do not hurry, those two men will be waking up soon.” Connor insisted to Mia as they stood in the corridor with the hospital bed carrying Eddie Fyers, between them.
“You’re talking about my partners,” Eddie said as he struggled to get up, but a wave of nausea struck him and he fell back onto the portable bed. “What the hell have you two done to me? Who do you work for?”
“They work for me, Eddie.” Green Arrow said as he came staggering into the room. His head was bleeding where he had been struck, his broken collar bone was crying out in pain, but he was trying to ignore it.
“Ollie?’ Eddie asked in shock as he saw his old friend walk up to him. “What are you doing here? What’s going on? Are you part of this kidnapping? Damn it! Why do I feel so weak?”
Green Arrow gave the two young people a puzzled look. “What’s wrong with him?”
“He doesn’t recognize either of us, and has no idea where he is or how he got here,” Connor explained.
“Please tell me you’re joking.”
“I wouldn’t find any of that humorous,” Connor replied.
Eddie once again tried to sit up. “
What the hell is going on here!”
Ollie sighed. “All right, the condensed version. You were shot in the head by a bullet made from an alien metal. You survived the surgery but the alien substance was poisoning you, so my buddy Green Lantern and I flew across the galaxy to find a cure. It worked, you’re alive, but obviously you don’t remember a thing. Which is a helluva inconvenience since you’re being chased by CIA agents, and have been for over a year now.”
His buddy stared at him as if he was talking in a foreign language. Then he reached up and touched the bandage that was wrapped around his head. “This is some kind of sick joke,” he muttered.
Connor looked across to Mia. “I’m beginning to get the feeling that neither of them have a grasp on humor.”
Eddie looked up at the young man, and then at the woman. “Who are they?”
Ollie opened his mouth, shut it, and opened it again. “Well... the young man is my son, Connor Hawke. The girl is your daughter, Mia Dearden.”
“Young woman,” Mia corrected him.
This time Eddie’s eyes seemed to bulge in their socket. “I don’t have a... oh my God. Did you say Dearden?”
“You know, pops; we really don’t have time for this,” Mia said urgently.
“This is unreal,” Eddie whispered, his face a mask of incredulity.
“We’ll sort it out later,” Ollie said. “Right now we’ve got to get you out of here before the CIA agents come back for you.”
“But I work for the CIA... why would I be running from them? And where are we?” he asked again.
“We’re in the headquarters of the Justice Society of America.” Mia replied.
“Now I know this is all a lie. The Justice Society disbanded years ago.”
“We’re running out of time,” Mia hissed.
“You’ve ran out of time.” the voice of Agent Gertz announced as he and his partner came out of the medical lab, guns drawn. “You are all under arrest.”
“This isn’t good,” Green Arrow said.
*******
The door to the JSA headquarters opened up and the ensemble were marched out into the street where a black van was waiting for them. Mia and Connor supported Eddie between them, the older man still dazed as he scanned the area.
“This isn’t right,” Eddie mumbled. “This isn’t procedure.”
“What do you mean?” Mia whispered as the two of them leaned in.
“I’m awfully confused right now, but I’m not stupid. This is not procedure. There should be back up. I don’t understand how the organization got jurisdiction to begin with.”
“Are you saying we’re being set up?” Connor whispered.
“I’m saying, kid, that if we get in that van, we’re not getting back out.”
The two youngsters looked at each other, their eyes confirming each others' thoughts. The side door to the black vehicle slid open, and two men inside motioned for them to enter. Connor stepped up first, then helped Mia in; both of them noting only two more in the van itself. As both turned to lend a hand to their fathers, they turned suddenly, and struck at the men with the guns in the truck. Connor was swift and to the point, striking his opponent only twice before he fell to the ground unconscious. Mia, on the other hand, went for the main weakness of any man, dropping him to his knees with one well placed kick. She grabbed for the gun, raising it up in air out of instinct. By then, Connor was at her side, jabbing the other agent once with two fingers near the neck; he too fell over.
“I didn’t know you knew the Vulcan nerve pinch?”
“The what?” he asked in honest confusion.
Outside the van, Ollie reacted as soon as he saw the youngsters attack,and struck Agent Turner in the face with his good hand. The man stumbled back as Green Arrow pivoted and brought his leg around behind Turner, causing the man to trip and fall to the ground, his gun flying out of his hand.
“Hold it right there!” Agent Gertz screamed, but Eddie struck his arm with his left arm, than a right hook that sent Gertz flying backwards. His head began to spin, but he pushed it back as he leaped into his old partner, both of them falling to the ground. Eddie wanted to pass out, he felt the blackness surround him, but he kept fighting back. He had no idea what was going on, but he knew this kind of procedure, and it meant his life if he was taken away, and probably Ollie’s and those kids. He couldn’t let that happen until he could figure things out.
Gertz came back with a right cross that sent him rolling off the agent. He saw the two kids leaping out of the van to his right, the girl running towards him and the boy heading towards Ollie and Agent Turner, whom Arrow was trying to fight with one arm.
His own foe reached for his weapon, but the girl had called Mia kicked it farther away, then stepped hard on the agent's hand, causing him to grunt in pain.
Eddie rolled back on the pavement toward his enemy, hoping to get to him before the girl got hurt, but Gertz was too quick. He had already grabbed the blond girl with his other hand, latched onto her leg and pulled her down tothe cement. He was able to land another punch into the man’s gut, causing Gertz to let go.
He heard a small commotion to his right. Taking a glance he saw Agent Turner go down in an impressive moment as both Green Arrow and the one claiming to be his son struck the intelligence agent at the same time, actually lifting him off of his feet and brought him down for the count.
Fyres turned back to his own situation, staved off the nausea that kept growing, and once again grabbed a hold of Agent Gertzin hopes of distracting him from the girl. Gertz landed a punch that caused his head to snap back, striking the concrete. His head screamed in pain, his vision now becoming a narrow tunnel. There was nothing else he could do, and he knew it. It would only be seconds before he was out. The pain was so intense that he could only hope that he was going to wake up eventually.
Then, just before the world went to black, he watched the scene play out in front of his tunneled vision. His old buddy was on top of him, his fist raised to land one more blow to his already battered face. He heard Ollie and the kid scream the girl’s name – Mia. They were shouting for her to stop. He saw Gertz look up, startled.
“Get away from my dad,” he heard her shout, as if the voice was coming from a mile away.
The last sound he heard, he recognized instantly. It was the sound of a gun discharging. The last moment he saw was Agent Gertz looking stunned, his face growing wide with amazement, before he felt the man fall to the side and off his own body. Then he could no longer hold on; darkness enveloped him.
