Arrow: Fracture Part 3

The Beast

Dust particles and chunks of dry wall showered the hallway as the single arrow shot through the wall and into the assassin's chest. The man was dead before he hit the ground, collapsing onto the floor with several of his fallen comrades all with arrows emerging from their corpses. The remaining assassins blindly returned fire through the wall, snapping arrows to their bows with ferocity and fear driving them. The section of wall was covered in holes, large sections were missing and now littered the ground. The firing stopped for a moment, the assassins knowing they couldn't waste all their ammunition when they couldn't even see their target. One of them cautiously stepped closer to the nearby door, preparing to check and see if they had managed to hit their attacker. His hand reached for the door handle as the other remaining assassins moved to his side, standing just out of his reach. Just as the door handle began to twist the wall beside them exploded. The hallway was covered in a cloud of dust as the Green Arrow crashed through the crippled wall and tackled an assassin. Oliver was quick to spin the assassin toward his comrade who had already prepped and released an arrow directly toward the Green Arrow. Oliver snapped the unlucky assassin into the path of the projectile, blocking himself from the attack. The arrow dug into the man's chest as Oliver spun around to deal with the threat behind him. The second to last assassin swiped his sword at Oliver only to have his attack easily dodged. Oliver pulled an arrow from his quiver and drove it into the man's neck before ripping it out and guiding it to his bow. The final assassin managed to fire at Oliver again, but his hasty aim had cost him dearly. Oliver ducked down under the passing arrow and fired his own directly into the final assassin's heart.
The HIVE agent fired his machine gun as Oliver lept over him and engaged the group of hostiles at close range. The agents didn't have enough time to react as the Green Arrow quickly began to dispatch them one by one. A few quick jabs disoriented the men as Oliver avoided their desperate attempts at defending themselves with knives and close quarters weapons. One of the knives was used to cut another man's sidearm out of his hand before being driven back into the man's own gut. Oliver quickly snapped another sidearm away from himself and used it to execute the wounded agent dying from his knife wound. The agent struggled for control of his own weapon as he fought to break the Green Arrow's grasp on it. Oliver allowed the agent to break away from the grapple giving him time to retrieve a smaller arrow from his thigh holster. Oliver spun underneath the man's arm and slit him across the neck with the arrow before snapping the same arrow into the agent across from him. The HIVE agents all fell to the floor, their blood quickly covering the tile beneath the bodies. Oliver effortlessly stepped through the carnage without a hint of remorse or regret, his eyes lifeless. Taking lives was something he had tried so hard to move away from, especially when it came so easy to him. The fear of one day enjoying it had always crept in the back of his brain, a reminder that he needed to be better. But there was no enjoyment in this. There was no pride in killing these men, there was no revenge in killing these men. There was simply a void, a beyond dark pit deep inside him that needed and demanded blood. An uncontrollable urge to take these lives that came as natural as breathing. The beast within Oliver was hungry, it had laid dormant for years and now it was time to feed without restraint.

The nurse checked over the equipment currently connected to the patient, making sure the everything was working as intended. The steady hum of the machines as they provided the necessary essence to Felicity was the only sound in the room. Thea glanced up from her seat as the nurse stepped around the bed and moved to the door. Her shoes shuffled across the tile and left the room to the silence of automated machinery again. Thea rubbed her tired eyes, dropping her guard for a moment. Oliver had asked her to stay and watch over Felicity before he had disappeared into the night, leaving the team behind without another word. She didn't know what his intentions were and she didn't want to. The fact that her brother had become someone capable of doing what he had done had at one point scared her, but knowing what he was yet to do was something that scared her even more. A motionless figure in the doorway caught her attention, snapping her back to the moment. Nyssa stood silently, her eyes fixed on Felicity with a painful look in her eyes. Thea stayed in her seat, not wanting to start a fight without having a plan first. She slowly retrieved the knife from her boot, careful to keep her movement hidden.