The Starling Saviour

Chapter 62

'Now, the trick is to keep your weight evenly distributed,' I heard Diggle explain to Felicity as he helped her up from the floor behind me.

I was researching the next criminal Oliver had gone out to deal with, the new felon arriving in Starling in a helicopter. On my first evening as a full-time vigilante, Oliver had decided it would be best if I took over Felicity's job for the night whilst she learnt how to defend herself and I got a sense of being fully immersed in crime fighting. Plus, I was still shaken up; I had murdered the Dodger only a few nights ago.

'I thought the trick was to avoid getting into fights,' Felicity sarcastically shot back at Diggle.

'Yeah, well Starling City's not the kind of place where you can talk your way out of trouble,' Diggle stated. 'Besides, if you're gonna be working with us, I'll sleep a lot easier knowing that you can handle yourself, at least a little bit.'

We heard the door to the Arrowcave clang, Oliver entering from after his fight with his newest victim.

'How'd it go?' Diggle asked at once.

'Badly for him,' Oliver replied quickly.

'Who him?' Felicity wondered after getting her breath back from Diggle's mini self defence class.

'An assassin for hire with an affinity for knifes,' Oliver expanded on the night's events. 'His name was Guillermo Barrera.'

'Was?' Felicity worried about Oliver's use of the past tense.

'A mercenary who mostly worked abroad,' I gave the rest of the team a background on Oliver's latest target from the intel I had happened upon whilst researching him. 'He throws and slashes knifes at his victims, right through the heart every time. Except from today, since you came back alive, and I'm guessing you killed him.'

'So we can't ask him about his intended target?' Diggle questioned with a sensible mind frame while Oliver crossed a name, Mr Barrera's, off The List.

'No,' Oliver answered Diggle's question, turning to Felicity. 'Which is why I need you to hack his phone. Barrera's world class; he kills high profile targets, and whatever job he was hired for isn't finished. We need to figure out who he was here to kill and fast, they are probably still in danger, okay?'

'While you do that, we have a thing to go to,' I reminded Oliver. 'Tommy's birthday meal-celebration thing?'

'I have to meet McKenna,' Oliver remembered suddenly, a look of brief guilt on his face.

'Good thing she didn't meet you at the heliport,' Diggle smirked slightly. 'It may not be a good idea to fall for the cop that's hunting you down.'

'Well, it's slim pickings for us vigilantes,' Oliver pointed out in defence of his new romantic pursuit.

He was definitely right about that.

'I'll get over there now, since I'm ready to go, and I don't think green is the colour you should wear tonight,' I commented as I got up to leave the Arrowcave. 'I'll tell Tommy you're held up at the club.'

'See you there,' Oliver smiled back at me as I finally left.

'Happy birthday, Tommy!' I greeted Tommy with hug. 'I hope you don't feel too old yet.'