InsaneJournal

"Bad guy got away? Pfft. Hunt his ass down."
Who: Tate, Oliver, Thea
Where: a park, the street
When: After the Evil Dead plot ended
What: Ollie gives Tate a sidekick tryout, they look for muggers and other bad people, Tate saves Thea from something really bad and Thea finds out what Ollie really does at night.
Warnings: Trigger warning for attempted sexual assault that gets stopped, warning for under age drinking, swearing, general irreverence, violence


As part of his new “moving on with my unlife” plan, Tate had decided that he didn’t want to hurt anyone else anymore. He already lost Violet. He was tired of being the bad guy. And, hey, it’s impossible to hurt someone who’s already dead. When that possession crap had ended, Tate went right back to being a ghost again...which saved him the chore of having to blow his brains out a second time. And he couldn’t think of a better way to redeem himself a little bit, by kicking the shit out of people who deserved it.

That, and he kinda liked that Oliver Queen dude. He liked making things explode and, sure, it wasn’t guns or anything, but they agreed on a few things. Which was more than Tate could say for most people, when he talked to them. Really talked to them, without worrying anymore about being judged and shit.

Tate waited in a park to meet up with Ollie, so he could make his first rounds as a sidekick and kind of make himself more legit instead of being a fucking prick.

...ok, fine, he was still going to be a fucking prick and he knew it, but at least he’d be like one of those antihero types that somehow worked on the side of good while being totally questionable about some of the methods being used. Hells to the yes.

Hey, fucking pricks made the best sidekicks if you really thought about it. Roy had been one, Hell, look at the sidekicks in the dreams Ollie had had. Artemis tended to qualify under the feminine definition of it, and there had been Conner Kent, which, yeah. Not that they didn’t have REASONS but then, Tate totally had them too.

Ollie wasn’t going to judge or anything. Instead, he’d gone ahead and made arrangements to meet with Tate for a patrol, with Thea to make sure that she didn’t notice anything he was doing, even though he kind of thought she knew a little at this point, and had slipped on his mask and hood and began making his way to the park under cover of darkness, and, okay, using the occasional roof when it was close enough to glide over. All of Ten-Ten was going to love it when they realized he could do that now, weren’t they? In any case, eventually he arrived at the park and kept an eye out for his new sidekick.

The best thing to do right now? Try to catch him unawares. Sure, Ollie was dealing with a ghost, but like being sensible was something he was ever good at. He started looking, and creeping around, slowly.

Oh, then Tate will fit right in. Totally!

The thing about ghosts was that they didn't have to be seen unless they wanted to be. Tate was on the lookout for Ollie, so he was projecting enough to make himself be seen in public. He counted himself lucky that he wasn't confined to the Murder House except on Halloween. Some things in this universe weren't as bad as they could be, he supposed.

Tate was wearing a black overcoat and all black attire underneath it, including his beat up black combat boots. He had his hands shoved in his pockets, breeze ruffling his already messed up hair, and looked like he was bored to tears. Zzzz.

There he was. Which meant Ollie was creeping up, even though, yeah, that probably wasn’t gonna work. “So, you want the secret handshake and password to the arrow cave?” he joked, pausing a second to adjust his tension a little. “Also uh. how are you at flying. Can you do that shit? Or transporting?”

Because it was the kind of thing that’d be really useful, considering. “I’ve also gotta work out exactly what you CAN do so we can work that out but...I’m thinking we might stop a robbery or something tonight. It’d be a good warm up.”

"...the arrow cave better be decked out," Tate said, with a lopsided smirk. It was good to see someone who wasn't afraid to approach him or hang out with him. He shook his head slowly. "Nah, I gotta hoof it. I mean, I can pop up when people least expect it? It's not like a fall's going to kill me or a punch from a person is gonna hurt unless I want it to. But if I'm being chased, I have to run my ass off like any other mother fucker would have to. I was on the track team for a while, so it's not like I can't catch up or whatever."

At least he was honest? He shrugged a little and offered, "I can kick the shit out of people. You'd be surprised what the right amount of rage and determination will do, when you're dead. I just wanna...make sure it's someone who fucking deserves it, from now on."

“The arrowcave isn’t a thing yet, really. It’s the booze closet.” Ollie might as well tell the truth when it came to this, right? “I mean, I already had a lock for there so when I sold most of it off a couple months ago...it just made sense, I guess. Someday though? It’s gonna be AMAZING. When I find a spot that’s not totally obvious to put it in. I mean, little sisters, you know?” he added, with a shrug. “There’s just some crap that some people are NOT getting involved in with my life.”

Like EVER. “Plus, I get the feeling it’d freak out my girlfriend if she knew how dangerous stuff was. So. There’s that and all.” He nodded at Tate’s listing of stuff he could do.

“Fast is a bonus, definitely. We’re mostly looking to be about speed and accuracy. If it comes to it, I know a guy who’s faster but doing his own thing so...I definitely can use the bonus stat points or whatever it is again.” It’d been years since he’d been high school friends with a DnD geek. Who he’d fucked in the bathroom but he wasn’t adding that part since, old people sex and all. But ANYWAY.

"All right, wait. Hold up. The booze closet?" Tate let out a clipped laugh, even if he was totally amused. "That's cool. So your identity stuff is all super secret stuff? Ok, got it. I'm not going to tell anyone, but I bet your girlfriend or your sister is going to be pissed off if they ever find out and you didn't tell them." He stopped and thought about that for a moment, before recanting a little bit. "Then again, some girls don't like that tell-me-everything thing, because some of it can scare the shit out of them."

As for the rest of that and Tate would've laughed at the old people sex thing he answered, "Yeah, I guess I'm the ground guy, doing the footwork. You got any type of batman communicator type things? Utility belt? I mean, I'm not asking for a gun or anything. I've got something to drop someone if I have to."

He didn't have to. He had a knife and he held it up to show Oliver. After all, Tate was trying to avoid anything gun related. Somehow, Tate having a knife wasn't really a comforting thought either.


“The vodka one anyway.” Ollie pointed out. “It’s...well kind of like a cellar? I don’t have much in the way of gear yet besides arrows. I want to GET an arrowbike but I have no idea what specifics I need or anything. “ He shrugged a little. “And well, Judy KNOWS now, lots of people know but, they don’t know details. Details would really cause them to flip out at me, you know? Like this time I blew up a building.” He added, making a face.

“Actually you’re the first one not there who I’ve mentioned this to.” He added as an afterthought, but hey, who COULD he trust, right? I do have a weapons guy that could probably come up with something in the way of tech that might be useful. Oh good.” he nodded at the knife. “That’ll be an excellent starting point if you can do the whole sneaky sneak bit.”

“As far as communicating...that’s a really really good idea and I need to look into that. I’ve been solo a little too long.” he confided.

After trying to look as innocent as possible, Tate had to bite his tongue before he asked if...nevermind, he couldn't keep quiet, "You got bondage gear in your cellar too?"

He held up both hands like he was fending off an attack, a wide grin on his face. It didn't help that he still had the knife in his hand to show Ollie.

"If you do and that Judy chick's into that, more power to you. I'm not gonna judge. I've done some fucked up shit, myself." He shoved both of his hands into his pockets, after tucking the knife into his belt, behind his back. The coat did its job and kept it hidden. "I don't have anyone either, so this' new to me. All I remember is the stuff I could do in my dreams. I can sneak, but if you want me to go kick bad guy number two's ass while you're pincushioning bad guy number one? Yeah, we're gonna need to be able to yell shit at each other. Maybe your weapons dude can help or whatever. Or hand signals. You’re the superhero here, you tell me what to hit and I’ll hit it. Or stab it. Yeah."

This was going to be the world’s most gloriously awesome mistake. That isn’t a mistake. We hope.

“I DO have arrows that’ll tie you up.” Ollie confided, smirking. “And one that sorta does a whipping motion. Not that I’ve been able to convince her to try it out. Which I guess I get. She’s a nun in her dreams so, you know. Different connotations that are probably really unsexy. If I were a nun, I’d probably get bored with ritually beating people too, you know?

“Communication IS a plus. And something better than a cell. I’ll get on that.” He promised. “Hell, Barton might have some ideas. He runs around with a team these days.” Or Tony for that matter. He made a mental note to send Tony a message later, asking about that. “Cause I’m thinking yelling stuff above a crowd’s gonna get old. Plus, they’ll get the jump on us that way.”

He should’ve thought of something better with Mia too, come to think of it.

"Nuns use rulers. There's totally some kink there you should be checking out," Tate said. It struck him that he was going to actually be part of a team and doing something that didn't suck and make him seem like a total complete asshole for once. His mind was blown for a second or two, and it had nothing to do with bullets, either. "Yeah. Yelling might be kinda obvious. I mean, whatever? It'll work for now. So, where do we start? Muggers, rapists...serial killers?"

“Hopefully tonight we’ll start with muggers, maybe low time punks hitting up Seven Elevens.” Ollie didn’t want to go in for TOO taxing yet, so this was the kind of stuff that he could mostly manage. “Serial killers and rapists, we usually wanna TRY having law enforcement nearby. There’s this whole THING the county has about killing them before trial. “

Which, in Ollie’s eyes, was pretty stupid actually. If you did something that fucked up, you deserved to die slowly, and painfully, right then and there. but he probably shouldn’t be as obvious about wanting to play God. “I need to set a better example probably.” He mused. “But again with the whole some people just need to die thing.”

"That's idiotic. Then they sit on death row for about ten fucking years, wherever, eating hamburgers and appealing shit over and over again." It was damn stupid in Tate's eyes, too. Even if he was on death row, he'd want the plug pulled, as soon as possible. Waiting around for it was retarded. "Ok, so we try the law enforcement crap. Fine. But some people deserve to die. At least we agree on that, because that's the stuff that really pisses me off about life. It's unfair. You hurt someone, you pay for it. I mean, look at me? I hurt my girlfriend because I was fucked up in the head, she's with someone else now. I'm alone. I fucked up and I paid for it. Simple as that. Some other shithead fucks up and kills someone and keeps killing? Eye for an eye, mother fucker. I did enough of that in my dreams. I don't want that, here."

Enough with hurting people who don't deserve it, Tate thought to himself. From now on, only going to hurt the ones that do deserve it.

“Exactly.” Ollie nodded intently. “And hey, there’s no saying shit can’t happen on the way to prison or the trial right?” He eyedarted a bit. “Before it becomes a major...thing. But yeah, it seems like dying’s taught you a lot so far.” So you know, going by that alone, it seemed like it would be a really good idea to focus on those bits.

“You know.” he commented, pitching his voice lower as he moved to try to blend in a little more. “It seems to me that the superheroes who are actually heroes are all well and good, but what are they really saying in the end if they keep letting shit go by unsolved? I think there’s something we two should be able to do about that.”

"Dude, yeah, I like you." There was a big grin on Tate's face, like he totally got what this guy was saying. It was like they were on the same wavelength and things made sense. He even followed Oliver's lead and moved by his side, until they were keeping more of a low profile. He really didn't need to, but he had to hear him and there was still the noise of being outdoors to content with, with breezes and the sound of cars going by in the distance. "I totally think the same thing. That's why those superheroes that are all good are really just tools, because they never really solve anything. They let it slide and then deal with it again later. Bad guy got away? Pfft. Hunt his ass down. I mean, what the fuck."

“I know, right? I mean, it’s better here, a little. Nobody’s AS idealized, but still.” Ollie shook his head. “As long as it’s not always a thing, there are always a few times you can...look the other way or accidentally lethally aim or something.” The agency probably wouldn’t approve, God knew the Justice League wouldn’t; just look at all the crap that had gone down with Huntress, but Ollie, and the part of him that demanded justice that wasn’t just locking people up approved, and he had the feeling Barton would have too.

“You know, in the dreams I actually STOP somebody from killing somebody who deserves it?” he added, scowling. “Damn, I’m a tool of the establishment.” Moral codes were okay, but not when everything sacred got violated.

"Hey, I'm always willing to look the other way. No prob. And if you did that, I'd be asking why. I'm pretty anti-establishment anyway."

Quoted for truth, Tate. Quoted for truth.

"So what do we do right now? Just stand and wait for a mugger or go looking for 'em?" he asked, taking a look around, hands shoved deep into his coat pocket.

“This is why you’re good for me.” Ollie pointed out, giving him a little grin and nodding. “Nah, we’re gonna go looking. There’s a couple spots they usually hit up downtown.” He’d watch Tate in action first, he decided, then see what they needed to adapt to in order to become a successful team or something along those lines. It sounded good in Ollie’s head anyway.

“Follow me, kiddo.” He directed, melding, as best as he could, into the shadows here. “Hopefully, we’re gonna kick some asses for the greater good.”

"Yeah, following your lead," Tate said, figuring that it was better for once to have someone to lead him, rather than being left to his own devices. Because, in both instances, he hadn't been doing the greatest job ever. He followed behind Ollie, not really having to meld in too much, because the only people who were really going to see him offhandedly (unless he wanted them to) were those that could see and hear the dead.

He knew that he'd have to keep quiet though, because Oliver didn't have that luxury, so he was trying not to talk too much until they reached the mugger hunting grounds. That was why he kept his voice down low, when he next spoke, "I guess you want me going in first, huh."

“Actually, that’d be awesome.” Ollie agreed. “I can cover you. Can you do stuff while you’re invisible? Either way, I think you’d be a great distraction.” He added, and, since Tate couldn’t really get HURT, he wasn’t worried about sacrificing him here either. It’d all work out. Probably.

"Yeah, I can do stuff. I can also scare the shit outta someone too, but that's not much fun." He'd do it anyway, if he had to. He wasn't even worried about getting hurt at all, because he was dead. If he wanted, he could get beat up and make it look like he was bleeding like a stuck pig, as a decoy. He'd be fine two seconds later, no problem. "You point out the dude, and I'll get him. Or girl. Shit, I'm equal opportunity? A girl could mug someone if she had a weapon, as easy as some guy could."


“Definitely can.” Ollie agreed. “There’s a time and place for chivalry, but not while you’re fighting crime.” You know, mostly. It was still kind of polite if you were running around with a girl to watch her back, though the fact she’d do the same for you didn’t really count against that. If her miniskirt went up though and the guy she was fighting seemed to get a thrill from it though? Then YOU were totally allowed to get a kick in for her sake.

Good thing Kara wasn’t here. He’d be after her to get pants daily if she was.

Ok, fine, Tate would have stared...but a girl that could hold her own while wearing a miniskirt? That's hot. The guy the girl was fighting would still get kicked, but whatever. It worked.

"Well, yeah? That's because they're criminals and it's not like they give a crap. They either want some pussy, some ass, money, or blood. That's usually how it works." The world really could be a filthy place. Only now, he was thinking it was better to take actual bad guys out of the equation instead of acting like one, himself. "So what do we look for. Some fuckwad who's staring at an old lady like he wants her granny panties, or what?"

In the dark of the night, a man was looking for a target, for some quick easy money. He was short and stocky, and had shifty eyes. They weren't crab-like. For if they were, that would be Howard Moon, and he's nowhere near the area. They were slightly beady and he had a bulbous nose, and slick lips. Because he used too much chapstick and ate a greasy ham sandwich recently. Truth.

“Pretty much.” Ollie agreed. “Or well, stalkery looking people. Another thing that you can usually spot is when they’re in all black as opposed to darker shades of stuff. See, it’s really stupid to go ahead and put on all black. You don’t get any shadow at all then, and it looks totally unnatural enough that it attracts people’s attention. People like us. Luckily, that’s a good thing but, future reference and all. So we wanna look for, well, hulking and menacing or shifty and sneaky.”

As if that helped at all, really.

Across the street, a little ways down, Thea was making her way back out from a night on the town that nobody knew about. With Ollie gone, it was perfectly easy to slip out, grab a drink or two with nobody paying much attention to her fake ID’s obvious fakeness. She was a little tipsy after club closing hours, and had a glittery purse dangling from her shoulder, and her hair was loose. Currently she weaved and stumbled a little, tripping over her shoes as she went. What the hell, why could things not be easy?

Tate stared at Ollie for a long time, not only absorbing what the guy was telling him, but totally thinking that they should be looking for people like THEM, which...all right, so they were good guys who looked badass, but were trying to do good and not have some other superheroes go apeshit on them thinking they were bad guys and...

"Fuck, that's kinda complicated," Tate said, with a sharp shrug of his shoulders. "Looking for people like us. Ok. Then we kick the shit out of them as soon as they attack. Got it."

Glittery purse was glittery. The attacker walked at a swift pace, hoping to catch up with the tipsy girl and snatch that purse. Maybe a little something extra for the road, since it's not like she could walk a straight line anyway. In fact, he wanted to smear his greasy ham sandwich lips all over her, maybe punch her in the face a couple times, and then take her purse and run off. Because why not take advantage of the situation since it had presented itself?

The man closed in and tried to make nice, putting one hand on Thea's shoulder like he was helping to steady her. "Hi there, pretty little girl. Need some help? Want me to call a taxi for you?"

Oh yes. Isn't he nice.

Yeah, how about no thanks. “Uh. I’m good.” Thea managed not to slur, somehow, and ew Hambreath guy was gross. Plus, she knew damn well she had to be careful out here. “Thanks though?” She tried, shifting a little so she could probably manage to get away. Well, maybe. If she had been alert enough not to let the guy get close enough. Also, she suddenly felt really like she wished she’d brought a jacket or something, or a knife. Roy had always said she should at least carry pepper spray. Which, nope.

“Over there, I think.” Ollie pointed out a likely scene. From far away, he couldn’t tell yet if this was a proposition or what. The girl’s outfit looked a little flouncy for that, but who knew? Maybe that was a thing these days. “We should get closer before we do anything. Make sure there are clear openings.”

"Sure. Oh damn, that tanked bitch is just asking for it," Tate said, not realizing either that that girl and Ollie were related at all. Tate looked both ways and then gave Ollie a nod that the coast was clear. "I'll go for the dude and if the failboat sets sail? Then dude, feel free to dive in."

Meanwhile, on the sidewalk, the man's hand squeezed onto Thea's shoulder like a vice. That grip wasn't letting go.

"I don't think you look like you're doing good," he said, his breath hot and hammy, right in her face. "Here, let me help you."

Help included trying to guide her with a shove, so they could hide between two buildings. Maybe he should've picked a drunker target, but they wouldn't be as hot as this girl was. So this? This was just bonus points.

“Sounds like a plan.” Ollie agreed, going through his arrows in his mind in a matter of seconds, trying to figure out what was going to work best here. He knew that he should go for more of a trap one than anything. “Sticky net arrow.” He decided, feeling for the ridges carved into the shafts of his arrows to pull that one out. “Go get em” He added, nodding.

This? Was not going well. At all. Thea knew she should start screaming something, anything to attract attention. She could MAYBE have gouged him with her shoe or something like that if she’d been sober but this? Was not good at all.

“I said..” She tried to hit him anyway, stumbled, and put herself in worse of a position here. She’d been told online or somewhere that you didn’t want to scream for help specifically, because people tended to look away, but should scream something attention getting instead.

“FIRE!” Thea remembered, and yelled that one pretty loudly.

And there was the moment for Ollie to make an Oh Shit, face.

Now, Tate didn’t remember ever hearing the sound of Thea’s voice, so he didn’t know who she was. But he did know that the FIRE thing really meant RAPE and he went running over there, without making himself seen. In fact, there might be the sound of the soles of his boots meeting the pavement, faint at first and then louder, before he seemed to pop out of seemingly nowhere. Before the guy could let go of Thea, Tate punched Ham Breath. He didn't aim for the other guy's face. Oh no. He went right for the throat.

With a stifled choking sound, Ham Breath the wanna-be rapist hit the ground.

And that was when the sticky net arrow came flying in that direction, landing on Ham Breath as well, while he was still down there. Thea blinked rapidly, watching all of this, and then a few seconds later, her arms were flinging around Tate.

“Oh my god. Oh my GOD thank you.” she managed, taking a shaky breath. “Geez, I had no idea what was going on. I just...”

“So.” Ollie strode up over to Ham Breath, hands on his hips, which would have been funny if it wasn’t such a serious situation. “You think this kind of thing is fun, asshole? Seriously?”

"I WAS JUST TRYING TO HELP HER!" screamed Ham Breath the foiled rapist, with his newfound froggy voice. "SHE NEEDED HELP! IT'S NOT MY FAULT THAT GIRLS THESE DAYS ARE PARANOID!" Yeah, right.

"Uh huh, I got a good idea of what was gonna be happening," Tate said, giving Ham Breath a kick to the gut, all while Thea was hugging onto him. Then he stopped to look at her, figuring that Ollie had some sort of vested interest the way he was saying that, like maybe he knew a rape victim or whatever. Tate was totally looking the other way. Doo dee doo. "Hey, you're fine now? But you're lucky you didn't get your drunk ass tapped behind the Lung Fok Chu restaurant."

Because, yes, that’s totally what that sign says on the building they’re closest to. Truth.


Sure. Because Ollie was gonna have accepted that anyway, but he was in even less of one considering this was his little sister they were dealing with here. “Yeah, save it.” He growled, going in for a couple more kicks. “You EVER touch my little sister, or anybody else’s sister, mom, daughter, friend, whatever again and I swear I’m actually going to kill you.”

“Christ.” Thea muttered, managing a snicker at the sign. And then, she finally recognized Ollie’s voice and... “Oh shit...Not that I wanted to take my chances with Mr. Ham Breath here but I’m not exactly out of the woods on this one.” Protect her? Or something.

"...OUCH! HELP! HELP! I'M BEING MUGGED!" said Ham Breath, like a total wuss ass, because those kicks hurt. Ouchie!

"I'm not seeing a thing," Tate announced, but with one last kick at the dude, before he answered what Thea said. "Why're you not out of the woods? What's up?"

“Yeah, sure you are.”Ollie agreed, getting in one last one for good measure. “Damn, I need a vido recording arrow. But we’ve got witnesses. “ He added, pointing to Tate and then to Thea. “I shouldn’t say anything cause I was doing the same kind of shit when I was your age.” he commented, “But seriously, that was dangerous. Next time you CALL if you need a ride. Uh, Tate, this is Thea. Thea, meet my sidekick.”

Oh boy. Tate, you’ve just wandered into a soap opera.

The bonus to this was that Tate already lived in a soap opera, even if it was of the murderous variety. He did die when he was in high school after all. Both times.

"Hi, Thea. I'm this guy's sidekick and I'm dead," he said with a grin, just to get that, like, out there. You know? So it wasn't an issue.

What? What part of this whole scenario ISN'T an issue, you guys?!

“...don’t kill me!” Ham Breath whimpered, all stuck to the ground and stuff.

“You’re dead?” Thea blinked a couple times. “Oh great, you’re the one who was possessing Ollie?” Not that she had a real problem with that, come to think of it. “Damn, the OC’s weird. “ But hey, he was cute and he’d saved her life or at least, come really close to that.

“Hey, shut up., Ham Breath. we’re trying to have a conversation.” She added, shaking her head.

Ollie? Was just mentally facepalming here.

"Ollie has issues," Tate said, matter of factly, his voice conveying a slight 'duh?' tone to it. He didn't even notice that Ollie was mentally facepalming or anything, since he was focused in on Thea for the time being. "I have issues. We all have issues. Shit, I bet you have issues. But I'm trying to fix it, ok? So I don't do that shit again. Really bad shit. I killed people. It was shitty shit. I don't want to do shitty shit anymore. Not unless they're bad guys, like this dickweed here. I mean, if it's a killable offense. So do you want him dead?"

He was pointing down at a whimpering Ham Breath, which, yes, that's his name now. When (or if) he ever makes it to get booked for attempted everything, his photo will have a little black sign with white plastic letters that says BREATH, HAM on it.

“Yeah, I definitely have issues.” Thea had to agree there. “Hell, everybody on the damn network does. Not as many as this asshole here. And hey, people change, right? Sorry it had to take being dead and all. That must kinda suck.” You know, like it was a casual conversation here, and not something else.

“You know.” Ollie commented. “I can’t decide if we should kill him or not.” Hey, he might as well join in on the conversation here, right? “I mean on the one hand...people’d be a lot safer. On the other, getting him dragged in and all...might get other ones thinking.” Hmm. Decision time.

"Yeah, well...I killed my girlfriend and then myself, but I was having these dreams about her leaving and we were already both dead when it happened, but she kinda overdosed in the dream one and...oh. Yeah. We better decide what to do with this guy."

Ham Breath started to cry while peeing himself. "Please don't kill me!"

"Hey, I know,” Tate cheerfully suggested. “We could strip him down and you could use one of those sticky arrows to hang him on a wall, until the police get there," Tate suggested like it was the funniest thing on the planet. "And if Thea's got some lipstick in her purse, we can write things like 'pig fucker' and 'don't drop the soap' on him and leave it for someone else to call it in."

Oh yes, because the police would SO appreciate THAT.

“You, know.” Ollie smirked at that. “I like the way you think.” Full points for you, Tate! “Actually, we probably don’t wanna go that far cause it looks like harassment, but we can totally leave notes about the truth.” And then, he glanced at Thea. “Actually. I’ve got an arrow that should audio record your description of the story on one of those mini tapes.” Barton had come up with it, and Ollie had eagerly jumped on the idea. “And we could still write some stuff?”

“I’m in.” Thea grinned, still a little shaky but the idea helped. “Geez, so this is what you do at night. Here I thought all the superhero stuff was code for, I don’t know, I thought you were a themey stripper or something.” She told Ollie and started pulling out some makeup. “Let’s see...the crayony ones should work BEST.”

"Okay so maybe drop the pig fucker and write the soap thing on him...." Tate had to stop talking because he was laughing too hard, thanks to Thea saying that thing about a theme stripper. Once he recovered he told her, “Like a Robin Hood male stripper? That is gay porn awesome. It should be on film."

Oh yes. Tate finally felt like he had found his place. He could get used to this superhero sidekick gig to constructively get some of his aggressions out. And he really liked the way Ollie thought, which he found fully relatable. Not to mention? Oliver Queen's sister's was kinda hot and a smart ass. It was win-win no matter how he looked at it.

Not so win for Ham Breath, who was still crying like a baby in full on piddle-pants mode.

This gig was a bonus for Ollie too. “You’ve got the best ideas.” He pointed out, really pleased at the way things had gone. “And yeah the soap thing. That’s perfectly fair. I mean, we all know it’s gonna happen. Hell, I HOPE he drops the soap.” He added, for Ham Breath’s benefit. “Whatever happens to you where you’re going, you’ll deserve it. “ He added. “Since I’m pretty sure you’ve gone this route before. “I”m game if you two are.”

Ollie’s new sidekick, for all that he’d been dead in Ollie’s head and kind of evil, was pretty cool, Thea thought, and cute. And he’d saved her. So, she was pretty cool with this turn of events too. “I’m game.” she agreed, nodding. “Team Arrow, strikes, huh?“ She could get to like this.