The speedster took off running, lightning entering the nearby warehouse and stopping there. Obviously a trap, but Star City’s vigilante hoped he could outsmart his adversary, rushing in the dark after the speedster. Damn speedster…the things you’re making me do, Barry. Crunching as he entered the premise using a broken window, Oliver was keeping all of his senses in high alert, waiting for the attack; there wasn’t anyone around, but to be fair it was pretty dark in there. Despite the only light coming out from the small room in the corner, and a pretty dim one at that, the Green Arrow could take a good look around.
Everything was one big open area, except for that one room from where the light was coming from. Well, except for the stairs at the opposite extremity that was going up in the addict or down in the basement. Slowly, Oliver made his way into the abandoned warehouse, moving as lightly as possible, trying to avoid making any noise, which wasn’t an easy task in this old building. No lightning or speedster in sight. Creaking upstairs prompted the archer to look up, bow up, noticing only now the hole in the floor.
No wonder this place wasn’t an active workplace anymore, it was falling apart. Oliver swiftly turned on himself seeing a yellow flash behind him, just in time to see the lightning charging his way. Quickly, Oliver brought his bow up to protect himself just before the quick flashing spot contacted with him, sending him flying to the opposite wall, next to the door. Quickly recovering, the archer got on his elbows, looking around before getting back on his feet. There he was, the Ghost, immobilized right where he hit the Green Arrow, looking right at his victim.
It was hard to tell from the distance and the dark, but it almost looked like he was smiling. Hoping the Ghost would fall into the same trick than Barry did two years ago, when the Scarlett Speedster was under Rainbow Raider influence, Oliver quickly drew out of his quiver and shot 2 arrows in a row in the direction of the speedster, who easily dodge them, laughing, mocking. ”That’s all you got? ” ”You’re about to see. ” One second later, an explosion made itself heard, deflagration pushing the arrogant speedster forward, falling on his knee.
Got you! Fast enough to make Barry proud, the archer took out another arrow, aiming at the speedster’s legs. Great job for the aiming, not enough for the speed. The diversion failed, the Ghost turned around and grabbed the arrow coming toward him. Cursing, Oliver barely had time to register his plan A failed that the Ghost was coming at him again, tackling the archer on the ground another time. Oliver felt himself be thrown, kicked, away, landing near where he entered. Except, this time, he heard a way too loud creak and the ground breaking under.
Everything went into slow motion: he could see the speedster approaching, eager to see the fall, he could feel the floor give away under…his last clear thought was that he needed to get that Ghost, for Barry, for everyone who care about the man, for the whole city who needed their hero back. Grabbing one last arrow, he aimed faster than he ever did in his life and just let it go. Before Oliver even had the chance to see if he actually hit his target, everything was lost in pain and broken pieces of woods.
Everything became confused the moment Oliver connected with the ground underneath, a full level lower, his vision blackening as the pain took over his body, feeling like he just broke all of his bones. He could feel consciousness leave, but he needed to know if he did it. Barely raising his head and opening his eyes, despite the shaky and blurred vision, he noticed the blue shape closing on the edge, looking down. It was impossible to see the expression of the speedster, but the archer could discern the other man reaching for his leg and sharply yanking something out.
Got you was Oliver’s last thought before everything went dark. ***FLASHFLASHFLASH*** A voice screaming in his ear was the first thing Oliver was aware of as consciousness slowly but surely came back to him. ”Oliver? Oliver! Answer me! Answer me dammit! Oliver!! ” ”Feli…ci…? ” He mumbled weakly, before understanding it was coming from the comms in his ear and he needed to activate it first. ”Felicity? ” He repeated, a bit strongly. ”Oh thanks God, I thought he took you or kill you, not that he can’t both took you and kill you. Did he hurt you? Of course he did, or you would’ve answered a lot faster. ”Felicity! ” He said louder to stop her, slowly sitting up and staying in the position, waiting for the dizziness to pass. ”I think I was able to inject him with the tracker, my second arrow hit him. Please tell me we have a signal. ”
”I’m on it. Are you ok, dammit? ” ”Think so. ” ”You know that’s not an answer. ” Oliver grunted as an answer as he slowly got up on his feet, his arm instantly reaching for his side, definitely some bruises ribs. At least his limbs felt ok, they’ll probably be sore for a couple of days, but nothing felt broken. ”How long was I out? ‘ ‘Only a couple of minutes. ” ”Arrrgg. ” The hiss of pain as he made his way to the stairs escaped his lips. Alright, maybe a couple of his ribs were broken. Hopefully, they finally had a way to locate the Ghost and he wouldn’t need a third round with the guy. He paused for a second to really analyze if he was hurt elsewhere; his head was hurting, but the dizziness was mostly gone for now and while he felt sore all over the place from his fall, the only other persistent pain was in his left shoulder. He got lucky this time. Seconds were passing and there was still no answer.
Felicity? Did the tracker worked? ” ”Give me a moment, alright? ” He heard furious tapping on the keyboard as Oliver suppressed the too familiar feeling of pain and started jogging upstairs. Once he was back on top of the stairs, he kneeled to get back his arrow on the ground. He knew the speedster would take it out quickly, but still hoped his arrow had time to inject the tracker in the Metahuman’s system. ”Got it! ” Exclaimed Felicity. ”The Ghost is running toward the North side of town. ” Oliver listened to her as he was rushing outside, going right to his bike.
This guy was going to pay. He could barely wait to finally get answers and maybe found a way, beat it out of that guy if needed, to get their old Barry back. ”Oh god… ,” ”Felicity! What is it? ” ”I think he might be heading right for Barry’s house. He’s going after Barry again! He’ll hurt his family and take him again. We need to call Barry, warm them. ” ”Wait! Don’t call them” Unexpectedly commanded Oliver as thought struck his mind faster and harder than lightning, a dark thought hitting his mind as he was thinking back to his two last encounters with the Ghost, ‘What?!
Why?! ” ”Just trust me… ” No matter how confidant Oliver sounded, it wasn’t representing how he was really feeling. He needed to trust his instinct on this one, desperately hoping he was right and yet, hoping he wasn’t at the same time. Whether he was right or wrong, things were about to go downhill. Or they could go from bad to worse if he was right… and the Ghost was still on his way to hurt the West. Oliver tried comforting himself at the idea that no matter what, there was no getting there in time, even for Barry.
Still, it didn’t stop the pit to appear and grow in his stomach as Oliver climbed on his motorcycle and started speeding toward the West’s house. ”Felicity, what’s happening? ” ”I’m…. not sure. ” She slowly started, fear and confusion creeping in her voice. ”He arrived at the West’s house and he’s not moving. ” After agonizing minutes, Oliver finally arrived close to his destination, stopping far enough in the dark before the residents could see him there. ”The Ghost moved? ” ”Not since he arrived there, he’s still standing still.
”Listen to me, that’s what we’re going to do. ” ***FLASHFLASHFLASH*** It was still pretty early in the morning when Felicity entered the lab, frantically looking around, only witnessing people arguing around instead of finding the one person she was looking for. The moment they saw her enter, all of Cisco, Caitlin, Iris and Joe turned around and closed on her position. ”What’s wrong? ” She asked, looking around, unseeing the young speedster. ”Have you seen Oliver? He went out last night and he hasn’t come back. ‘ ‘Barry took off last night from the lab again, before Caitlin discharged him” Said Joe, sighing, out of ideas what to do with his son, acting like he didn’t even heard the part about Oliver.
”What do you mean? Barry’s gone? In the wind? ” ”No no, he came back home, I found him in his bedroom when dad called to say Barry took off. Wally’s still with him now. ” ”Guess he really hates being around us now. ” Sadly sighed Cisco who barely had the chances to exchange couple of words with the boy since he came back. Barry was always eager to get out of there these days. ”What’s wrong then? ‘ ‘It’s just…” Slowly tried Joe. ”If we can’t control him to stay here for just one day, there’s nothing we can do to stop him from rushing after the Ghost again if he want to. ” ”Right now I’m more worried about Oliver, he went against the Ghost like night. ” Said Felicity as she hurriedly took a seat behind the computers and took out her tablet from her bag, going unnoticed as she connected to her program and her tracking system of the Ghost.
Seem like mentioning the archer a second time caught the team’s attention this time, bringing them to remember all the sudden what Oliver said before leaving yesterday. I thought you and Oliver checked out of town. ” ”He found the Ghost again? Where? ” Before the tech girl could answer, they got all interrupted by Joe’s ringing phone. ”I’m sorry, it’s Wally. ” he apologized before walking a couple of steps away, but still close enough for everyone to hear if they kept silence, which they all did. ”Wally what is it? He ran off again?! ”
Wind rushed in, making Barry appeared in the room, scanning the people present, like he was searching for one person in particular. ”Now you show up here. You wanna be here or not? Irritably stated Cisco, annoyance taking over, sick and tired of Barry’s attitude. ”Maybe you should stop worrying about me and start worrying about your own problems. ” Coldly said Barry before turning around and scanning the people in the room once more, stopping at Felicity. ”Where’s your boyfriend? ” ”That’s what I’m wondering too… ” She trailed, biting her lips. ”I’ll try looking again. ” She put her concentration on her tablet screen, glancing quickly around to make sure the attention in the room shifted to Barry before sending one quick message: ”He’s here.
Can come. ” By the time she looked back up, Caitlin and Joe were already on the speedster’s case. ”You really want to get yourself kill don’t you? Thought we agreed on you staying here for the night. ” ”And I thought you said I was going to be fine. ” ”Yeah… you probably will once you’ve rested enough to allow your healing power to completely come back. Barry, you’re the only person we’ve found who’s been burned by the Ghost and survived. Not to mention you got hurt again yesterday, you shouldn’t be back running already. ” ”Whatever. ” ”Oliver! Suddenly exclaimed Felicity as the other missing man slowly entered the cortex, grunting as he was holding his side.
”What happened last night? You didn’t came back to the hotel. ” He rose his hand to stop her from the hugging his hurt ribs. ”The Ghost pushed me down a whole level last night, tried to shoot him, but I missed. ” ”Where is he now? ” Interrupted Barry. ”He’s in the wind, back at square one. ” Mumbling something incomprehensible under his breath, Barry walked away from the group, closely follow by Caitlin who probably had a thing or two about the speedster running on his watch.
The rest of Team Flash looked at each other in confusion before deciding to follow, but keeping their distance. ”So? ” Before answering, Felicity looked down at her tablet, sighing, almost whispering. ”Yeah, the Ghost is in the med bay right now. ” Oliver looked down on the computer screen, the tracker he put last night in the Ghost was still active and was walking around the cortex, going right in the medical area, following the exact position of Barry. Barry was the Ghost.