Member
Dion
Simple Unicycle
Half Pint
Supermaxx
Morden Man
An Outsider
Lord Wraith
08:34 AM
Suicide Slums, Metropolis
“He misses you,” said Connor Hawke, his voice a little garbled through the speaker; the reception was terrible in her apartment. This was the first time Mia was speaking to him since she left Star City. It was good to hear his voice again. Where Oliver’s surged with confidence and panache, his was gentle, soothing; just what she needed this morning. Even in daylight, the Slums maintained their vice-like grip on her. She could feel despair and doubt closing in on her, even in these early hours, the notion that she wasn’t up for the task she’d given herself gnawing at her mind. She needed an escape into easier times. Who better to give her one than Connor?
“I know,” she said. She was lying on her bed amid a tangle of bedsheets, head resting on her pillow.
“He’s worried about you.”
She hesitated. It hurt to be reminded that she’d willingly left people that so obviously care about her. “He shouldn’t be.”
“You know my dad. You’re like a daughter to him.”
“Yeah. I guess I am. Tell Ollie I’m doing fine.”
“Are you?”
“…yeah. I’m getting there.”
“How’s the city?”
“Suffocating. It’s… it’s like all the hope Superman brought to it died with him. Connor, it’s horrible. I’ve only been here a week, but… I’m not sure there’s anything I can do. Not by myself.”
“Don’t say that. You can do this, Mia. You’re as much of a hero as me or my dad. You don’t need our help.”
“I ran into some guys last night. They were hurting this girl… then they laughed at me because I was ‘Green Arrow’s sidekick.’”
“…”
“…”
“How bad did you hurt them?”
“I broke their jaws.”
“That’s not that ba – ”
“And shot arrows at their feet.”
“Dad’s done worse – ”
“Connor, they were explosive arrows.”
“…What?”
“It was a small payload.”
“…”
“…”
“…I won’t tell dad.”
“Thank you.”
John King could see the whole of Southside from up here. The tallest building in the Slums, it looked over everything; the pubs, the nightclubs; the brothels and whorehouses; the crumbling homes, the abandoned warehouses; he could see everything and everyone, criminal and innocent, as they went about their lives, roaming these degraded streets without reason or purpose. This building was his castle, and he was its king – and soon, the Slums would be his kingdom.
He was sitting on a chair. A comfortable chair. Black, with leather upholstery, as cushioned as they come. He liked it. And, like the many things he liked, he’d fought for it tooth and nail. It was positioned behind a desk – mahogany – in a large room on the top floor of his castle, his view presented by a large, panoramic window.
“Sir?” asked his bodyguard, one of many, from the entrance to the room, cautious with fear. As he should be.
“What is it?” King intoned, not turning from the window.
“You, ah, you wanted updates on any cape activity in the Slums – ”
“Get on with it.”
“The, ah, the Green Arrow’s sidekick – the girl one – Speedy. She was spotted last night. Put three would-be muggers in hospital. She was, ah, seen doing similar things during the week beforehand. You want us to, ah, do anything about it, sir?”
King frowned. The Green Arrow’s sidekick? What was she doing in Metropolis? “No. Not yet,” he said. “I want to see what she’s capable of.”
His mission was a tough one. To mold the Slums into what he knew they could be, he would not tolerate any opposition. And if this ‘Speedy’ proved to be a problem… if she so much as took a whiff of his plans… then he would get rid of her.
Permanently.
