Arrow The Cat and the Canary

The wind whipped through her hair, sending it flying wildly behind her as she leaned forward over the handle bars, and squinting her eyes at the road ahead. She veered in and out of the cars that moved slowly along Fitzwilliam Street. Speedy had her arms wrapped around her waist as she revved her motorcycle more and sped through the traffic. Everything moved by her in a blur and she wondered if this was what it was like for Barry when he ran, the world racing by. She cleared that thought as she turned the corner onto Simmons and 34th.
"Where now Overwatch?" She yelled, barely able to hear her own voice.
"Take the next right and you're there." Laurel pulled the throttle, going full speed along the practically desolate street. She followed Felicity's instructions and pulled up outside the bank with a screech. As she and Speedy quickly dismounted the bike, an unlicensed black van slammed on its brakes and they watched as Spartan exited form the driver's door. The three of them walked towards the entrance to the building, each drawing their respective weapons. Felicity chimed in on the comms as they did.
"According to the cameras inside the bank as well as the infrared detectors I was able to use with help of the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite, there are five bogies inside; three with gins, the other two with bats. They have hostages. Eight civilians and two bankers are inside, so watch out for stray bullets or arrows. Speaking of which, Green Arrow is in position on the roof Wait for his countdown." The words poured out of her mouth and into their ears in a constant rushing spill, so fast that they didn't fully process it for several seconds after she had finished talking. It felt odd to be suited up in their gear in the middle of the day, but for the sake of innocent lives, it didn't matter. Duty called, and they answered. They eagerly waited for Oliver to give them the go ahead.
"On my mark. Three... Two... One...Now!" With that, Diggle bust through the door, pistol out and aimed straight ahead as he entered the bank. Speedy followed behind him, an arrow already notched in her bow. Laurel quickly adjusted her mask before racing in after them, tonfa in hand, ready for action. As soon as she entered the bank, she saw nine of the hostages, all gathered in the far corner, on the ground huddling together in terror. She watched as Speedy sent an arrow through one of the robbers' shoulders, causing him to scream in pain before knocking him back with a boot to the chest. All of the thief's wore women's tights over their heads in an attempt to hide their identity. Spartan head-butted one of them, his helmet causing the thief's nose to shatter on impact, dropping him to the ground, cupping his face. She watched as Green Arrow descended from the ceiling through the skylight and driving his fist into one of their jaws before striking him with his bow. One of the masked men attempted to swing his baseball bat at Laurel, but she ducked under it, hitting him in the chest with the end of her tonfa, winding him before swinging her boot into his groin, and her knee into his chin when he had doubled over. The man fell to the floor like an Autumn leaf. She looked around to find the fifth man of the group. He emerged from behind the cashier counter, holding the last hostage by her hair and holding his gun to the side of her head. The woman trembled in fear, tears running down her face as she let out whispered begs for mercy to her captor, pleading for her life.
"None of you move or I blow her fucking head off, alright!" The masked man shouted at them. His voice, though as much as it tried to sound confident and intimidating, still held a slight quiver of fear. He knew that he wasn't getting out of this but was going to go down fighting either way. "Just let me go and I won't hurt her. I promise, but I'm not going to prison." Green Arrow looked at his team and raised his hands in surrender, dropping his bow to the ground. He looked back at them again, nodding at them to follow suit. They copied him, holding their hands in the air. None of them knew what he was planning to do, but hoped that it was smart. In a calm voice, he spoke to the armed man.
"Okay. We're not armed. We won't hurt you if you just let her go, okay?" His voice was unusually low and gentle for a situation like this. Laurel had seen this before with her father, a few times when he had to talk people down from jumping out of windows or off the tops of buildings. Oliver was negotiating. "Just let her go and you're free to walk out of here." The tenseness in the room could've been cut with a knife. Laurel held her breath, afraid that if she exhaled too loud, it might startle the man, causing him to pull the trigger and kill the poor, innocent bank teller. Her name badge read Katherine. They all stared intently at the man, whose eyes darted back and forward between them all, as he shifted his grip on the woman's hair, pulling it tighter, causing him to gasp in pain. Out of nowhere, the comms in their ears beeped, nearly making Laurel jump out of her skin.
"Guys, you're not alone in there. Scanners have another body entering be building by.... Is that the side window?" She asked aloud to herself. Before she had even finished getting the last syllable out of her mouth, the large stained-glass window behind him shattered into a million little pieces cascading to the ground in a glittering waterfall of rainbow coloured glass. A large figure flew through the window and landed with the sole of his boots slamming into the back of the armed robber, sending him flying to the floor and the woman he had held a gun to, raced over to Speedy, grabbing her by the upper arm and holding on for dear life. Speedy turned to her.
"Get the others and wait outside. S.C.P.D is on their way. You're going to be okay." The woman followed her orders, signalling the others to join her as she raced out through the doors to safety. They all looked back to the stranger who had arrived to save the day. He was clad in a black leather two-piece costume, heavy duty black boots, a matching domino mask and a streak of black grease paint under each eye. It was the one who had attacked Laurel in the warehouse two nights before and stolen the vile from her.
"Who are you?" Oliver asked, in a tone that demanded to be answered. A smirk crawled its way across the man's face.
"Call me Black Cat." He said teasingly. In a flash of movement, he drove his boot into Green Arrow's chin, causing Laurel to jump back and gasp from fright. He fell like a tonne of brick to the floor, Spartan rushing to his side to make sure he was okay. Laurel's heart pounded in her chest. This guy, the Black Cat, had taken her down already. She wasn't going to let him do it again. Before he had a chance to make another move, she unleashed her Canary Cry on him, his hands raising to cover his ears, his teeth gritted, and eyes squinted, trying to bare the sonic screech piercing his ears. She stopped for air and he pounced, kicking her back a few steps. She managed to break free of his grip, driving her elbow into his jaw. Speedy rushed past her, launching herself into the air and sending Black Cat back with a kick to the chest, landing down on one knee. She sprung up from there, wrapping her arms around him and slamming him against the solid, concrete wall. He cried out in pain and slammed both of his fists straight into Speedy's back, causing her to let go of him and stumble back. The two women looked at their assailant, who smirked at them and cracked his knuckles. He ran at them, both jumping aside to dodge him. Black Canary swung her tonfa at him, clocking him in the side of the head, but he seemed unfazed by it. He threw his fists at her in a barrage of furious hits, which she blacked with her forearms. She watched as he dropped down to the ground and spun his leg, knocking her off of her feet and causing her to hit the ground hard. She groaned in pain as she rolled to her side and struggled to get to her feet again. When she finally had herself balanced, she looked back over to the scene that was unravelling before her. Diggle was swinging at Black Cat, who was expertly ducking and dodging all of his punches. Black Cat thrust his fist powerfully into Johns chest, hitting his solar plexus so hard it sent him tumbling backwards. John landed in a heap not too far from Oliver. Laurel turned back to watch Speedy try to hit Black Cat in the face with her boot, only to have him grab her leg mid-air and swing her into the wall. She hit off of it then collapsed onto the ground. She was the only one left who had a chance at stopping him before he got away again. She readied herself, locking eyes with him and grounding her feet. She would not go down easily this time. She rushed forward, driving the handle of her tonfa into his jaw, sending him stumbling backwards. While he was off balance, she copied his move, dropping down and knocking his feet out from under him and watching as he landed with a loud thud! She stood over him, watching as he breathed through the pain. She planted her foot on his chest to keep him from getting up. She wouldn't let him get away that easily.
"Who are you?" She asked, attempting to make her voice as intimidating as possible. She didn't want him to know how nervous she was right now. He let out a small laugh and looked up at her and scoffed.
"Who am I? That's not the question you should be asking." He said, his voice full of condescension. "The question you should be asking is who are you? You act as though you are Star City's saviours. The ones that can bring peace, stop corruption and end violence, but all you really do is cause violence and chaos and reign terror over this city. I'm here to show you what a vigilante should be. To show you what you've been doing wrong for so long. If I had been here a lot earlier, there wouldn't have been the Undertaking, or the Siege. I'm here to put an end to people like you, who take the law into their own hands as a way to rebuild the world in their image, despite what is best for everyone else. And believe me, once I've sorted out the mess you have turned this city into, I'll come for all of you." He spoke with a holier than thou attitude which made Laurel want to punch him in the face. Repeatedly. "I stole that chemical weapon from you, because I knew that even if you did manage to retrieve it, it still would've made its way into the wrong hands and destroyed this city." Laurel looked over to her semi-conscious team mates and began to worry. The words that were coming out of his mouth, as bad as they were, were true. The city had suffered so much since Oliver had shown back up four years ago and taken up the mantle of, at the time, the Hood. Since then so many people had taken it upon themselves to either help him in his mission to rid the city of its corruption and criminals, but many more people had taken it upon themselves to make it their mission to take him down and destroy the city he swore to protect. It had cause so much death and destruction and loss and pain to so many people. Was he right? Were they just causing more damage than they were good?
"I want to save this city." He said to her, his voice genuine and compassionate. Maybe he was telling the truth. Maybe he did just want what was best for the people of Star City. She got so caught up ion the swirling pool of her thoughts that he was able to roll of his weight to one side quickly, knocking her off balance and giving him an opportunity to get free. He got to his feet and scrambled towards the window he had broke through. As he was about to leap off the ledge, an arrow whistled past Laurels head, missing by less than an inch and managing to graze Black Cats side. He yelled out in pain before throwing himself out of the building, gone.