Arrow: Fracture Part 3

Corporate Warfare

The clicking of Felicity's keystrokes danced throughout the empty cubicles as Curtis put the finishing touches to his new device. A streak of the setting sun pierced through the large windows surrounding the entire room causing Felicity to shield her eyes from the sudden brightness. Her brief pause allowed her to glance over at Curtis to check on his progress.

"Alright. That should do it, all we need is to hook it up to your program and it should work." Curtis proudly stated, jumping to his feet as he looked over to his boss.

"Make sure the cables are secure and I'll activate it." Felicity replied as she typed in her final commands. Curtis quickly double checked all the lines running to the device and signaled with a thumbs up upon seeing that everything was ready. Felicity nodded and punched the final key to activate the device, flooding her monitor with a flurry of information about the nearby communication signals.

"Nice! Now it should only take a few minutes to isolate and copy the pattern of your mystery relay." Curtis happily explained while inspecting the device to ensure it was running smoothly.

"How long do we have?" Felicity asked, intently staring at tablet.

"Three or four minutes probably. Why?" Curtis tentatively responded, noticing the sense of urgency in Felicity's voice.

"Cause we don't have that long." Felicity stated, her tablet screen showing a live feed from the building security system and the numerous armed men moving toward them. Curtis froze in terror at the sight on the screen, momentarily reliving his last mission with Team Arrow and how it had also taken a turn for the worse.

"We need to hide." Felicity ordered as she pushed Curtis away from their workstation in the center of the cubicle maze. The sound of a door opening dropped both Felicity and Curtis low toward the floor as a team of heavily prepared HIVE agents flooded into the room. The men each wore tactical gear and moved with their weapons ready, obviously prepared for a fight. Felicity slowly peaked around the edge of a cubicle and waited for one agent to move past before she and Curtis darted across the open area to cover. They stopped beside another group of cubicles and remained hidden as Felicity reached for her phone to call Oliver for assistance. She typed a quick text and wasted no time in sending it as Curtis kept watch for any threats moving newr them. The HIVE agents systematically began searching for their targets as they moved from one cubicle to the next. The flashlights from their weapons passed overhead and snapped Felicity and Curtis back into hiding before they were spotted.

"You didn't say anything about men with assault rifles hunting us down." Curtis whispered as he and Felicity both carefully searched for a way out.

"That's because I didn't know there would be." Felicity replied, somewhat surprised that Curtis would start such an argument during a dangerous situation.

"I better get hazard pay for this." Curtis added, his panicking mind spurting out pointless demands in an attempt to help him gain some control over the situation.

"And a raise." He added, slightly shrugging as he peaked around the corner.

"Are you seriously trying to negotiate right now?" Felicity snapped as she tried to keep her voice down. A faint tone sounded from her tablet just as her and Curtis began to move toward the nearby exit, causing them both to freeze. A message popped up on the screen to alert her that the device had successfully began eavesdropping on the HIVE relay as well as caught the nearby agents' attention as they began to move toward the noise. Curtis nervously grabbed Felicity and moved under the closet desk with her, leaving the tablet on the floor just a few steps from them. The agent carefully moved to the tablet and scanned the area, his grip on the weapon in his hands firm and ready for a target. Curtis and Felicity hunkered below the nearby desk and tried their best to keep from moving or breathing as they stared at the agent's boots from the small sliver of wood shielding them from his sight. The man knelt down and inspected the tablet before glancing over the desk beside him and spotting something sitting on the floor beneath it. The bright beam of the flashlight shined straight at the bottom of the desk and illuminated Curtis and Felicitys' hands pressed against the floor. A sting of pain shot through Felicity as she felt the light bath her hands and expose her and her frightened employees' hiding spot. The sound of the rifle shifting in position caused her and Curtis to both hunker down as they prepared for the barrage of bullets to rip them to shreds. A sharp crack of the window wrung out instead as a single arrow shot into the building and struck the agent's shoulder, knocking him to his back. A second later and the Green Arrow crashed through the same window, rolling into the building as glass rained down around him. The other agents snapped to the heroes sudden entrance and opened fire, spraying the area with gunfire. Oliver jumped over a collection of cubicles and returned fire as he flipped over the incoming gunfire, allowing the desks and office equipment below him to be ripped into pieces. The agents began to organize as they moved in to surround the vigilante before he could make a move against them. Oliver instead wasted no time by charging through a cubicle wall and striking one of the agents across the face with his bow, knocking the man over the desk beside him. Oliver snapped two arrows to his bow and fired at the next target, striking the agent with both arrows. The man stumbled into cover with both arrows sticking from his body armor, momentarily keeping him from the fight. The other agents moved in and forced Oliver into a dash to outrun their gunfire. The windows and cubicles around Oliver were shredded as he ran for safety, feeling the debris explode into him as he tried to stay ahead of the mens' aim. Another arrow dug into one of the agent's legs, dropping him to the floor as the others turned to see where the shot had come from. The outline of a small person appeared outside the building as the masked hero slid down a zip line toward the open window. Thea buckled against the force of the wind whipping her around as she zipped down the cable toward the building, taking advantage oh her harness as she fired another arrow into the building to cover her brother. The agents moved out of sight as Oliver circled around them, moving to reach them before Thea entered the building and left herself open to being shot at the window. The agents waited as Thea jumped in through the open window and ripped off her harness just in time to spot the men taking aim at her. A flashbang arrow erupted near the agents and disoriented them as Oliver jumped down and engaged the men. The agents quickly sensed the change in combat as they turned to fight the hooded hero, opting to abandon their weapons for the moment. Oliver began to hit the agents with several well placed strikes, managing to connect with the three men around him. He furiously moved to keep each man occupied and unable to use their weapons effectively in such close quarters. Thea focused on the agent moving up to her from the side, knocking his firearm to the floor as she hit him with a series of punches. Roy landed in the room and moved over to Curtis and Felicity, wasting no time in getting his friends out of the dangerous situation.

"Stay close to me!" Roy ordered as he bent down behind the desk and motioned for Curtis and Felicity to follow him. Felicity snapped over toward Oliver as she saw him kick one of the agents over a desk before turning to defend himself from the other two. Curtis glanced back and saw Thea wrap her legs around the agent's head and force his face into the window as she rolled away. The glass splintered as the agent dropped to the floor, leaving Thea to scramble for her bow as another group of agents appeared from across the room. The men opened fire as Thea rolled into cover and out of reach of her weapon. Roy ran to the corner of the room and fired an explosive arrow at the corner window and shattered it, causing Curtis and Felicity to both cover themselves from the glass shards. Roy quickly retrieved the two harnesses from his belt and went to secure them to Curtis and Felicity as they looked back across the room at the battle raging behind them. Oliver crashed down onto the desk and rolled off as the agent pressed his attack and kicked the masked man's chest. The sudden impact caught Oliver off guard as he pushed himself back up to his feet and out of the way of an incoming punch. A quick spin and the rebounding agent caught a boot to his face as Oliver snapped back around to watch the man crash into the nearby cubicle. The new group of agents split up and moved to intercept both heroes, using their numbers and firepower to their advantage. Thea darted out from cover and barely grabbed her bow before jumping over a desk to avoid more incoming fire. Oliver moved to ready an arrow as the wall beside him exploded from a grenade. The shrapnel and debris flew out into the room as Oliver was thrown into a group of cubicles. He fought the surge of pain flowing through him while pushing himself up from the floor.

"Time to go." Oliver said over the comms, knowing that the team wouldn't last much longer when HIVE was using such advanced weaponry and numbers. Roy pulled a grappling arrow to his bow and fired it into the next door building before turning to connect Curtis's harness to the newly created zip line. Curtis began to hyperventilate as he looked out at the massive drop and calculated how dangerous using the zip line would be especially since it was just put in place.

"You're up first." Roy ordered as he positioned Curtis by the window.

"Yeah, maybe I can just take the stairs." Curtis suggested, still unsure of the safety of the so-called escape.

"Didn't you go base diving on your honeymoon?!" Felicity snapped as she glared at Curtis and his sudden hesitation to heights.

"That's not the point!" Curtis fired back, his nerves at a breaking point.

"Then what is it?" Felicity asked, unable to understand why such a extreme sports enthusiast would be afraid of a zip line escape.

"This thing is obviously not safe. I mean what if it's not tested to hold my weight or what if they anchor breaks?" Curtis nervously rambled. Felicity and Roy shared a quick glance, neither in a mood to politely calm Curtis down.

"Sorry about this." Roy muttered as he kicked Curtis out of the window and down the zip line. The wind whipped past Curtis as he shot down the cable toward the building, his rapid movements throwing him all around on the cable. Roy quickly snapped another arrow to his bow and fired, shattering the window that Curtis was about to smash into. The newly broken glass rained onto the floor as Curtis crashed into the room and rolled off. Felicity sighed with relief at the sight of her friend safely landing.

"Your turn." Roy said as he motioned for Felicity to go next.

"Get him out of here, I'll wait for Oliver." Felicity stated, her gaze snapping back to check on the rest of the team. Roy angled his brow at her but knew trying to change her mind wouldn't work. He jumped out of the window and hooked onto the zip line as Felicity turned to watch Thea and Oliver both charge toward her with HIVE agents chasing close behind. The gunfire kept the two archers separated as they ran toward the escape, debris flying all around them. A single explosion rocked the building as the force of the blast threw Oliver and Thea in opposite directions. Oliver landed on a desk as Thea was thrown through the window and out of the building. Oliver and Felicity both froze for a moment as they watched Thea fall from the skyscraper. The brief moment of disorientation wasn't enough to slow down Thea, she instantly fired a grappling arrow into the nearby building whilst in free fall. Her small figure shot by the window as Oliver and Felicity watched her safely swing toward the safety of the building beside them. Felicity turned away from Thea shooting across the sky just as Oliver grabbed ahold of her and threw the two of them out of the window and onto the zip line. Felicity dug her nails into Oliver's back as they glided across the sky toward safety, one of Oliver's hands on his bow sliding along the cable and the other tightly holding Felicity to himself.