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Leaving
Roy Harper leaves the life of a sidekick to become a hero
Chapter 1: Leaving We run through the street in pursuit. As we give chase to the criminals, I look at the man next to me. Oliver Queen, my mentor, my partner, my friend; but while on patrol, he is a very different person. Usually humorous and witty, he is stone cold and focused.
We have good reason to take down the men we are chasing over the past few months, they have been smuggling drugs and weapons into Star City. As soon as we caught wind of these events, we decided to put an end to it.
Now we are here, chasing after the last of the smugglers. Them and Oli stops, takes aim with his massive longbow and fires. When the arrow hits, one of the men falls, but before Oli can nock another, my arrow is already on its way. Fired from an equally strong bow with aim that has been practiced nonstop for the last 3 years, I know my shot is good. The arrow hits the man in the right shoulder blade, shattering it instantly. Both Oli and I used nonlethal impact arrow, basically a solid weight instead of one of our razor sharp broad heads. When we reach the smugglers, we tie them to a pipe and send a signal to the police.
“Good work Speedy,” Oliver says to me.
“Thanks,” I reply smugly.
We make our way back to The Quiver, such a better name than “The Arrow Cave” as Oli used to call it. I change into regular clothes, head upstairs, and go to bed. Being Speedy, sidekick to Green Arrow, is not an easy task.
I wake up to the sun creeping over my eyes. I look at my clock and it reads 9:30. I’ve over slept. I make my way downstairs where Oli is cooking breakfast, it looks like I wasn’t the only one to sleep in.
“Good morning, Roy,” he says to me.
“Morning,” I reply, “What’s for breakfast?”
“I made us French toast in celebration,” he states.
“What are we celebrating?” I ask.
“Last night we took down the last of the smugglers…”
We eat in silence, mostly because we both are eating as much as we can, he makes the best French toast. After breakfast, I help clean up and we head down stairs for training. Today is Thursday which means hand to hand combat training. Once we are both warmed up, we are ready to begin sparing.
He begins with the first move, a hard left hook with the entire weight of his body behind it. I barely duck the punch and come up with an uppercut that started in my legs. As I feel the punch connect, he flies to the mat. He gets back up and grabs one of the wooden practice swords. He attacks with a ferocious yell, I barely have time to grab my own practice sword to parry the stroke. As the stroke connects, I feel a lot less force behind it than I thought I would. As soon as his sword hits mine, he makes a lightning fast side cut which catches me in the ribs. I lie on the ground gasping for breath. He mocks me with his sword, holding it less than an inch from my face. I get up and hit him in the face with the hilt of my sword, making blood gush from his nose.
“I thought you were done with your arrogantly aggressive attacks,” he yells, clearly angry.
“And I thought you were done bruising my ribs.”
“You didn’t block it,” he says.
“And you didn’t block mine,” I retort.
“You need to learn self-control,” he roared.
“You need to learn respect,” I returned
“You will not patrol until you can control yourself,” he declares
“Watch me,” I say as I grab my bow and quiver.
I get into my uniform and get on my motorcycle.
“Stay out of my way,” I call as I ride past him, but I knew in the back of my mind that he was right.
I get on the road and everything blurs together, I ride east out of Star City and just keep going. I get low on gas and refill at a small gas station. I find a small thrift store and buy some civilian clothes. I make my way to Bludhaven and give my friend Dick a call. Dick Grayson, once Batman’s sidekick, Robin, is now his own hero and goes by the name Nightwing. Standing a little under 6’, he is and expert martial artist and amazing acrobat. He specializes in the martial art of escrima, an offensive form that utilizes the strengths of two sticks. After speaking to him on the phone, he invites me to his house and I ride there. I reach his home, knock on the door and he answers.
“Come on in, Roy,” he says.
“Thanks” I say has he closes the door behind me. As I enter I notice a man in the room, he looks to be about the same age as me. He has black hair with a white streak in it, and green eyes. “Who’s this?”
“Roy Harper, meet Jason Todd” Dick says, giving me a name to his face.
“What are you guys up to?” I question.
Dick looks at Jason with a question in his eyes. Jason slowly nods and Dick turns to me.
“Jason is the Red Hood,” He explains, “We are planning a three man raid on a heavily armed drug manufacturing plant. The team consists of Jason, a female Tameranian named Starfire, and I; but we could use another if you want to come. ”
“Yeah, sure, whatever,” I reply, I could use a good mission to get my mind off things.
“We leave tomorrow morning, go get some sleep,” Dick orders.
I go upstairs to his spare bedroom and hit the sack. I wake and head downstairs, grab a bite to eat. While I’m munching on some toast, Dick comes down and starts to brief me on the mission. Dick goes over the plan to incapacitate the leading drug lord in bludhaven. Jason’s job is to take out the guards, Starfire’s job is to escort our vehicle to and fro the compound, Dick and I are going in to get the drug lord.
We gather gear and get in the van. We stakeout the compound for hours and wait for it to get dark. A few hours after dusk, Dick and I entered the compound through the ventilation system. Once inside, we hear the sound of shouting and gunfire, as Jason starts to distract the guards. We make our way deeper inside and locate the drug lord. I quickly aim my bow, but Dick pushes it aside. He then moves forward to arrest him, but I have had enough. I select an arrow, nock, aim, and fire within a heartbeat. The arrow flies true and cuts off the scream of the drug lord as it passes through his vocal chords with a sickening thwack.
Dick whips around and proceeds to scold me. “Why did you do that!?” He exclaims.
“I’m sick of people telling me what to do,” I retort.
Jason then enters, looks at the body, turns to me, and says, “Good work. I assume that was you and not Dick.”
I reply with a simple nod. We then make our way back to Dick’s home, where we continue to debrief our mission. Dick was furious, but no one else seemed to have a problem. I then thought to myself the world may need a team with lenient moral standards, one that’s not afraid to kill, a team of outlaws. All agree to form this team except for Dick who dislikes killing. We set out to find missions and leave Dick in the review mirrors.
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