Green Arrow vol 1.6

My name is Connor Queen. After the death of my father Oliver, I discovered that he wasn’t who I thought he was. He was the saviour of Star City, a masked hero known as the Green Arrow. I intend to fulfill his mission of saving the innocent from those who do harm and be his legacy; this is my story.

 

The next week and a half passed in a blur; basically what happened is Bruce and Dick came and took us to Wayne Manor where they took the bullets out. Bruce insisted I stayed there. I slipped in and out of a novacaine-induced coma until I woke up for good. Bruce was sitting there, a small grin on his face.

 

“You’ve finally returned from the dead,” he remarked. I couldn’t help but smile.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Suddenly everything hit me at once: being shot, fighting Red Hood One, Jason torturing him with a crowbar...

 

Jason!

 

“Where’s Jason?” I blurted out. Bruce looked taken aback.

 

“Uh... he’s in the lounge, why?”

 

“No reason,” I said, suddenly embarassed.

 

“Just so you know, I am adopting him,” Bruce said, “he will become part of the, ah, team.” My heart sunk.

 

See, I wanted to tell him about the dangerous psychopath Jason really was. I did. But when I saw the hope and excitement in his eyes, I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t be the one to shoot him down.

 

I faked a smile. “That’s great,” I said.

 

“He was excited to move here,” Bruce informed me, “I think it will be good for him.” I nodded in agreement. Bruce patted my knee in a fatherly gesture.

 

“I have to go to a meeting now, I’ll be back soon Rest up.” And with that he was gone.

 

I lay in bed for a couple hours. I heard a CRASH come from another room; now, for all I knew, it could have been something else; but what if it was Jason, out on the prowl?

 

It took all my effort to pull myself out of bed. I was exhausted by the time I got on my feet; sweat was rolling off my face. I just felt so tired, and the task ahead of me seemed so big, it would be easier just to lay back down and tell myself it was nothing. Which I almost did.

 

I looked on a chair and was immensely relieved to see my bow and a couple arrows in my quiver. I slung my quiver over my shoulder, grabbed my bow, and hauled myself out of the door, feeling stupid in my hospital robes.

 

Fear racing through my veins like adrenaline, I quietly crept down the hallway. The novacaine must’ve still had some effect, because everything seemed slightly fuzzy. Or maybe it was just my fear.

 

I heard a voice behind me. It sent cold, prickling shivers down my spine and suddenly I felt like I was doomed and all my fears would come true.

 

“Connor?”

 

I turned and shot an arrow at Jason. He ducked and it missed him.

 

“What the–” he shouted a lot of good words. I trudged down the corridor and made it into the Main Hall, which was a massive room that served as a lobby to the manor; it had a balcony overlooking it. Bruce often used it for parties.

 

Jason came from the opposite entrance.

 

“CONNOR! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?”

 

I used a lot of effort to speak.

 

“Wh-what were you thin-thinking? To-torturing s-someone with a crowbar...”

 

Jason went white.

 

“That... that was to save your life, Connor. I did it to save you!”

 

“YOU TORTURED A MAN TO DEATH!” Wow. Where’d that come from?

 

“He deserved it! It was justice for my parents!”

 

“Then you and I have very different ideas of justice. You were out for yourself, for personal gain. Admit it; you didn’t care about me, you just wanted to get even with him because he killed your parents.”

 

By now I wasn’t scared. I was angry, angry at being so willing to protect a monster like Jason. I heard footsteps and saw Dick jump from the balcony with his staff and land in between us. He looked from me to Jason and back to me again.

 

“Connor? What’s going on?”

 

“Jason, he–look, you can’t let Bruce adopt him.”

 

“What? Why?”

 

“Because he’s a monster!” Jason shook his head.

 

“Lies! All of it!”

Dick looked at me. “Connor, what happened?” I sighed. It wasn’t pleasent, but the truth had to come out.

 

I explained to Dick what had happened the night on the bridge, how Jason had tortured Red Hood One. Dick wheeled on Jason.

 

“Is this true?”

 

Jason seemed a lot older, and pale. He nodded and answered with a meek “yes”. Dick sighed. He looked from me to Jason again. He walked towards Jason.

 

“Jason, this will stay between us. The three us of,” he gestured to me, too. I didn’t care by this point; I was too tired and numb to even really register what was going on.

 

“But,” he added sternly, “you will control yourself. You will learn discipline, learn to turn away from killing. We don’t do that; if we do, we’re just as bad as They are.”

 

This was insane; he was seriously getting away with this? That was my last thought before I collapsed.

 

Later, Bruce came back. We didn’t mention the incident to him; I went back to my own house to a pile of homework.

Done