Green Arrow: Eternal: S1E6: Time for the Lion

“...and so, a stabilizer would make sure that the bike won’t just fall over.” Oliver was proposing to his team.
“But if we added said stabilizer, that limits maneuverability.” Naomi countered. This was how it usually went. “The stabilizer wouldn’t allow for instant turns and grinds.”
“True, but it’s far safer.” Oliver replied.
“Why not go with a compromise?” Henry offered. “Add in a stabilizer, but have it be able to deactivate? We could add in a feature that locks on the stabilizer at high speeds.”
“...that could work.” both Oliver and Naomi said simultaneously.
This was how things had been going for the past while. Oliver, Naomi and Henry had all been working together on making cool new inventions. The capsules, a new bike, hell they had even designed a new door that allows people through based on body scans. Arthur King had even come down to congratulate them a few times. Their new hit creations has been getting them on a decently high payroll, with access to a ton of new materials for R&D work. Which Oliver was infinitely glad about, seeing how the Q-Core’s R&D lab was his secret storage space for the Green Arrow gear. The trio of devs were working on making a new custom bike, on Oliver’s suggestion. If the prototype worked, he’d have a steed to use for crime-fighting.
It was late now, 6:02 PM. The shift had just finished up.
“Well, I think we did some good work.” Fyff said, getting up and stretching. “We can try testing it tomorrow.”
“I guess I’ll see you both Thursday, then.” Naomi replied. “I’m gonna go grab a snack from the cafe. You coming, Ollie?”
“Nah, I’ll make sure everything’s shut down around here first.” Oliver responded. “Like usual.”
“Suit yourself.” Naomi said, and she and Henry left the room. As Oliver heard feet walking down the steps, he smiled.
“Suit myself indeed.” Oliver smiled. He walked over towards the closet with the Hunter suit inside, opening it up. He then used his key to unlock a hidden drawer in the closet, and opened wide. Inside the compartment rested a folded green-and-black Hunter suit with a hood attached, an emerald green mask on top. Oliver took out the mask and suit. He took off his regular clothes before zipping the suit open in the front and climbing in, zipping it closed again. He then grabbed his mask, looking at it with a smile.
Then he heard a door open behind him.
Oliver whirled around to see Naomi staring at him. “Naomi! I can explain-”
“Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow.” Naomi said, chuckling to herself. She walked inside, closing the door behind her. She then started to laugh. “How didn’t I put the pieces together sooner? The suit you’re always seen wearing - it’s a modified Hunter suit! You’re always bragging about your archery skills, and the tech you’ve been suggesting has been used by the Green Arrow soon after! The capsule arrows use our tech, the grappling arrow uses our new grappling hook design… Oliver, you son of a bitch. Did I miss anything else?”
“...no.” Oliver admitted. “Except that since I came back I’ve been all about social justice.”
“We live in an era of Batmen, samurai, amazons and pyromaniacs with jetpacks. Why didn’t I expect you’d want to join in?” Naomi reasoned. “Anyways, am I the first one to discover your secret identity?”
“Batman did it first.”
“Damn it!”

“I want in.” Naomi demanded.
“What? No.” Oliver replied.
“Why? I can be your tech support! Y’know, your eyes in the sky! The girl in the computer chair!”
“...well… As long as you’ll stay here, safe?” Oliver asked. “Because I’m not willing to risk your life. You don’t have combat experience.”
“What experience did you have before you took up the mantle of Green Arrow?” Naomi asked.
“Five years’ survival on a deserted island.”
“...oh, right.” Naomi replied. “Anyways, we should have some way to keep in contact. Remember those tiny comms we made?”
“No?” Oliver stated.
“Oh right, that was before you got here.” Naomi remembered, running over to a cabinet. She opened up the third shelf and took out a small box, lifting it up to reveal eight small disks lined up. “These communicators can be programmed to work on several different channels, but they’re currently set to channel one. These things can’t be hacked into, but they can access exterior channels if linked to them through a broadcast. The reason the wavelength they use can’t be hacked into? It’s not a radiowave. These things use infrared signals to perceive sound.”
“That’s cool.” Oliver replied with a smile. “Why aren’t these in use?”
“Queen Tech didn’t like the idea enough. We still made sure the prototypes worked.” Naomi replied.
“Arthur doesn’t want ‘em, we’ll take ‘em!” Oliver said with a smile, grabbing one.

An arrow flew into the sky, latching onto the side of a rooftop. Green Arrow was then dragged towards it, who landed on the side of the building with his feet and flipped up onto the roof. As the archer ran across the roofs, he looked around. “No sign of trouble around here, Naomi.”
“I told you not to call me that!” a voice came through in Arrow’s ear. The comm was working. “I need a cool codename if I’m gonna be your partner. Like… Lion!”
“Alright then, Lion.” Green Arrow replied with a sigh. “Any signs of trouble?”
“I’m checking with the cops.” Lion replied, tapping away at her computer.
“You’re just gonna ask the cops if there’s any trouble going on?” Arrow asked.
“No, silly! I’m gonna hack into their comms!”
“I’m not sure if you should be doing tha-” The bowman was unable to finish before a loud explosion went out. Turning towards the source of the blast, he saw the smoldering ruins of what used to be an old abandoned building. “Lion, a massive explosion just went off southeast of my current location!”
“I heard!” Lion replied. “And so did the cops. They’re panicking. Looks like something’s happening, though. I’ll patch you through on Channel 12.”
“You hear that, Broderick? If you didn’t, let me explain what just happened. A bomb I set earlier just detonated.” a voice said, not belonging to Lion. Someone on the police line. “Think of this next hour as a clock. Every five minutes, a bomb goes off. That last one was in an abandoned building, so no casualties. But what about the next one? Can you risk it?”
“Damn you, Tockman!” this “Broderick” said over the radio. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Organized chaos.” Tockman replied with a smirk. “And it’s Clock King, now.”
“Who the hell is this chump?” Arrow asked, already grappling away.
“Last name of Tockman gets a result in the police database.” Lion replied. “William Tockman, former criminal. Stole to get money to pay for the medical bills of his sister, but was caught by then-Deputy Chief Broderick Westberg. He was denied the ability to see his sister before she died. He got out of jail only a few days ago.”
“Guess he’s got a vendetta against the cops, then.” the bowman thought aloud. Then he realized. “Wait. Lion, get up a map of Star City. Is there a circle of locations related to the cops that connects with the building that the explosion just happened at?”
“Checking now… yeah, there is. If we’re treating this map like a clock…”
“Good to know you got what I’m saying.” the Emerald Archer replied.
“Assuming the 12 is pointing north, the 1 just blew up. The 2 is the home of Captain Frank Pike. Move, Arrow!”

As soon as the Arrow arrived, he saw Captain Pike pulling up in his cop car outside. His wife came out. “Frank? What’s happening?” she asked.
“You need to get Henry now.” Frank said, pretty worried. “There’s a mad bomber in the city. I need you two somewhere safe, and I’m going to take you there.”
“That’s a good idea.” Green Arrow said, landing behind them. “Considering there’s a bomb planted in your house. If you go a block or so away, you’ll be safe. We’ve got two minutes before the bomb goes - I’ll try to save your house!” As the Arrow ran inside, Captain Pike and his wife nodded. They ran upstairs to get their son and get out.
“Can you scan the building?” Arrow asked.
“Did you put scanners on your costume?”
“...alright, then what’s the most likely place this Clock King would put a bomb?”
“Try the Grandfather Clock in the hallway!” Lion proposed. The archer ran over to the clock and opened it up. Nothing. He tried tipping the clock on its side.
“Bingo. There’s a bomb attached to the bottom.” Green Arrow said. “No clue how to get rid of it, though, and it says 57 seconds until detonation.”
“You have an arrow, doofus!” Lion replied. “Shoot it into the sky where it can’t hurt anyone!”
Green Arrow nodded, tearing the bomb off the bottom of the clock and dashing outside.
23 seconds. The archer held the bomb in one hand as he took out one of his claw-arrows in the other. It would hold the bomb safely.
20 seconds. The bowman activated the arrow, grasping the bomb tight. He slipped his bow off of his back and loaded the shaft.
15 seconds. If he shot it now, it’d just fall back down and explode in some unknown location. He had to get just the right shot.
10 seconds. His hands were getting sweaty, his nerves screaming at him.
5 seconds. Good enough. Green Arrow let the arrow fly into the air. Just as it reached the peak of its launch and started falling downwards…
0 seconds. The bomb went off, destroying the arrow and nothing else in the sky above Star City. Many people gasped in shock.
“Your house is safe now.” he said with a smile to Captain Pike, who was just returning with his wife and kid in the car.
“Now I know why exactly they call you a hero.” Frank replied. “I know about the situation on the radio from the Chief, but not about your involvement. You know where these things are?”
“I’ve got eyes in the sky.” the Arrow said. “Mind if I use your radio to get in contact with the police? I have some information that could help them.”
“Sure.” the Captain replied, handing his radio over as Ms. Pike thanked the archer on her way into the house.
“Ahem. This thing on?” Arrow said with a smirk, trying to lighten the mood. “This is Green Arrow here, talking to all the police in the area. I’ve got a hypothesis on where the bombs are located! They make a circle, like a clock, around a central point. Each location of the bombs relates to a police facility. Lion, what’s the locations?”
“The courthouse, police HQ, prison, training facility, academy, town hall, and four police homes including the Chief’s.” Lion stated.
“Bombs are somewhere in the courthouse, police HQ, prison, training facility, academy, town hall and four police homes including the Chief’s.” Green Arrow repeated before listing off the individual officers’ homes that had bombs. “Next bomb is somewhere in the prison. I’d advise you get your officers working on all of these at once. I’m heading to the prison, myself. Over.”
As the archer turned his comm off, another voice came on. “Good to have you helping us out here, Arrow. This is Chief Westberg. If any of you cops are near any of those locations, get there and find the bomb! But I don’t want any more than six officers within a blast zone at once! We’re going to find the bomb here at HQ, so don’t risk it! Over.”
The bowman smiled, handing the radio back to Captain Pike. “Give me a ride to the prison?”
“Right away!” Frank saluted the archer, and the two climbed in the police cruiser. Pike then drove off, the vigilante sitting beside him.

Black Canary had heard everything. She had been walking by the academy when she heard Green Arrow’s voice over a cop’s radio. She smiled. Taking each of the locations into account, she walked over to one of the town maps in the plaza. Pulling out a pencil, she marked each of the locations and used them to make a circle. Sure enough - it was a circle with each location representing a number. But the person who had set all this up… were they foolish enough to possibly have a lair in the middle of the clock? After all, the hands had to turn from somewhere. She had given up being a vigilante a while ago… but why the hell not? May as well try and do some good. Nodding to herself, the blonde bombshell hopped on her bike and drove off towards the abandoned warehouse in the center of the clock.