My take on the Green Arrow Mythology
Chapter nine: John Dee
My name is Arthur King, and I never did like to take orders. For months now Oliver Queen, a man we thought we could help, has been going through a process in which he was supposed to make contact with his inner self, something that we all have done in The Sanctuary. But something’s gone horribly wrong.
Yesterday, Oliver accused me of killing his parents.
Nothing like this has ever happened before, the only reason we know what’s going on is because of our limited knowledge with what we call ‘The Drug’, which by no means is an actual drug.
Five years ago a man named John Dee made contact with the man we now refer to as The Boss. John demonstrated to The Boss how he is able to alter people’s dreams, bring out their inner most thoughts and shape the individual to those thoughts. They referred to it as The Process and John became known as The Drug. Unfortunately for John, he also became a prisoner of The Sanctuary, The Boss not wanting him to ‘waste’ his talents. For a lot of people, they don’t want to talk about what happened when they went through The Process; at least I know I don’t.
But there has always been one constant- no one has ever seen anyone else in their dreams.
For some reason John is playing with Oliver’s mind, altering it to such a degree that he’ll never understand the difference between this world and the one that he sees in his dreams. That is why I’m going to kill John Dee.
The Boss has made sure that no one goes down to the cells. The original hole that led down to them is now being guarded 24/7 by some of our best men. All of the secondary holes, the ones only I know, are closed down permanently. In other words, I’m going to have to do this the hard way.
I enter the armory and start to collect the regular trick arrows. I personally created these- smoke screen arrow, explosive arrow, trip arrow, etc.
“Hey, you can’t be in hear King!”
I don’t even look at him to shoot. It’s almost second nature for me; I haven’t had to look for ten years. He lands with a thud after the arrow shoots him straight in-between eyes. I’ve got no time to mess around.
He’s already on to me, I know it. Racing through the hallways, the alarm begins to sound. Here and there guards appear and left and right they fall with little to no effort from me. As the red light flashes over everything, I finally arrive at the hole.
A sudden barrage of gunfire sends me to the hide behind the doorway. I quickly take out one of my explosive arrows, nock it into my bow, and as soon as the gunfire stops, I act.
Aim, release, hit.
BOOM!
The guards are molded into the walls from the sudden explosion and most of the floor is a blackened mess. I cover the distance from myself and the hole in almost no time at all. I place my bow around my shoulder and quickly slide down the iron ladder toward the cells.
Unfortunately, now I have to slow down.
I approach the first iron door; the one ominously covered in blood, and carefully open it. A burst of air escapes from the room, old and smelling of rust and mold. For a second, I almost feel like retracing my steps and face the soldiers waiting for me upstairs, but I remember Oliver, and know that I’ll never let that young man’s life be ruined by this godforsaken man. I open the door.
The world I step into is one that I can hardly believe.
The water, usually running into the room through the sewer system, beads up from the floor and actually floats in mid air. Drops of water, all of different sizes, just…floating.
I shake off my wonder and cross the dry floor toward the ladder. However, rung by rung, my head becomes more and more dizzy. Suddenly, my vision shifts and no longer am I inside the cell.
The trees wet from the hard falling rain. Lightning strikes above me and thunder rolls a second later, shaking the ground to it’s very core. My bows around my shoulder and my quiver is almost empty, but that almost doesn’t matter, as long as I have a weapon, I’m dangerous and I’m ready.
The horse clops towards me, it’s breathing labored from its long journey. The rider, cloaked in black and almost more soaked than me, bobs with the horses movements. I take my possession on a high hanging branch, take an arrow out from my quiver, and aim for the rider. Aim, re- no, no this isn’t right.
The image shifts from the rain soaked forest to the ladder as I try to shake off Dee’s hold on me. Once I get to the top of the platform I fall to my knees as I try to shake off the effects of it all. Below me, I hear the clatter of footsteps and the shouting of the guards as they enter the room. Finding my composure, I quickly find a smoke screen arrow and fire it at the awaiting group. Their quickly covered in the enveloping smoke and I make my way to Dee’s door.
I quickly pry open the iron door, which was covered in rust, and close it behind me, jamming it with one of my regular arrows. For the moment, I try to breathe easy.
I turn around and face the door to Dee’s cell.
An eerie glow escapes from the door’s window. I try not to let that effect me and I slowly approach it.
I lift the hatch, releasing the lock on the door, and slowly open it.
The man that I see is unlike anything that I have ever seen before. Bare-chested, John Dee actually floats above the floor in a Buddhist meditation pose. Around him, candles float above the floor as well, emanating a strong flowery smell that completely takes over the room. What really catches me though, is Dee’s face. The bottom half, his mouth, chin and a part of his nose appear completely human, however, the top half, his eyes, forehead, hair, and ears, are covered in a skull mask with a small glowing red gem at the forehead.
I raise my bow, nock an arrow, and aim it carefully at the man’s chest.
“Hello Mr. Dee.”
End of Chapter nine
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