Showcase: Queen Arrow
Targets
by Libbylawrence
TARGETS: Part 1
Diana Dare was miffed. She pouted. She fumed. She ranted. She raved. Here she was a wealthy, beautiful, talented woman who was one of the greatest living archers in the world. She was known the world over for her many posters, magazine covers, modeling jobs, and sensational bikini and high heels costume of Queen Arrow. Yet she did not feel complete. She wanted more. She had recently decided to form her own modern version of the Law’s Legionnaries. It made perfect sense to the blonde archer, since her old friend the late Green Arrow had been a founding member of the original group of heroes who had used that name along with the more colorful, if numerically incorrect, name, the Seven Soldiers of Victory.
She had made a fine start. She had secured the promises of a Southern Belle second generation version of the famous Black Canary (Angel O’Day) and of the masked mystery-woman called the Tarantula (Angela Leonard) that they would join her team soon. Each had personal business to attend to first. Lady Di, as she often thought of herself, could imagine a nice parallel between the martial artists Canary and Tarantula with the former group’s Crimson Avenger and Wing. She represented the Archer role the late Oliver Queen had filled so well. Of course, she did not expect to stumble across a modern Shining Knight or Vigilante just waiting to sign up, but she did know that the surviving partner to Green Arrow (Speedy) was still around and possibly in need of a mentor. She remembered Speedy as a bright kid with a devotion to Oliver Queen that did not prevent him from indulging in good natured banter with the “city man.”
She thought of Roy Harper as a boy, yet due to the weird workings of their mutual time tossed lives, Diana was now younger than the newly named Red Arrow! He had aged a few years, while she had been plucked out of her proper time and brought directly to this year. She hoped he would still have the same crush on her that he had displayed back then.
He would make a perfect sidekick for her. After all he had years of experience in the role! She knew the bratty Arrowette was more appropriate for the role since she was much younger and female; however, Diana did not like her. She found her skilled but also had a touch of resentment for this other female archer.
Queen Arrow had been around first. Max Lord, business representative for the late Green Arrow, admitted this claim to her as well. However, Arrowette had revealed that she was Oliver’s grandchild. That amazed Di, who could not help but recall him as the young and crusading hero he had met during the war.
TARGETS: Part 2
She referred to the girl archer as Smurfette out of disdain and yes, a bit of jealousy. She knew her claim to the role of female archer was a prior one to that of Arrowette’s; however, Arrowette had clearly a closer blood tie to the Green Arrow legacy. So she vowed to remain civil to the child, but not go out of her way to invite her to join the new team.
She tossed herself down on her sofa as the maids cleared away her breakfast dishes. She wore a fluffy white robe with faux fur trim over a sheer fabric. She wondered if the real Shining Knight, Stripsey, Vigilante, and Star… oops… Patriot would like to join the team? She knew her glamour could attract them, but would they respect her as a leader? The Knight and the Patriot were both more of leader types than she was. Plus, the Patriot had started the California-based Infinity Inc. He was out of the question now!
She did not know what to do. Then as she threw back her head and her long blonde locks cascaded back, she spotted her library in the next room. That gave her an idea! She swung her feet off the sofa and slipped on her furry pom-pom slippers.
She ran into the library and made a quick call. “Hello, Max? This is Di. How are you? Little Maxie still OK? Wonderful! Listen, Max, I need a favor. Do you think you could give me access to the private papers of Oliver? You know we were very very good friends. I have a good reason. I need to understand his origin and what made him the leader and hero he was. You see, I’m starting my own team and something is missing. If I could learn what drove him, maybe I could compensate. You are such a dear!” she gushed.
TARGETS: Part 3
Diana Dare, wearing an orchid miniskirt and blazer with high heels, sat in the luxurious home of the late Oliver Queen. She gazed at his private papers and read for the afternoon. She knew a lot about the late hero from press clippings and personal conversations, yet she had failed to live through many of his exploits due to the trap of Atoman’s that had brought her decades through time against her will. She had that much in common with Green Arrow and Speedy too. As members of the Seven Soldiers, they had fought a being called the Nebula Man who had used his chronal energies to hurl them into distant regions of time. They had been rescued quickly by their perspectives, yet in fact decades had passed in their short absence. Thus, they too found themselves young years after they initial youth.
She sighed. How this world had altered! She had worn a modest yellow and green (which she now thought ugly) costume as Queen Arrow back then. Now, however, she had vowed from the start of her second career that she would garner attention. Thus, she had used PR agents and photo ops as well as a daring bikini costume to attract the media and establish her name.
Now she paced the room and wondered what she was missing. She saw a painting with an abstract feel to it. Weird hues of color were scattered across the canvas. She mused that it resembled a target. A warped and imaginative bullseye pattern, but still a target. She saw his desk and pens still lined up so orderly and sharp and on a whim born of instinct, she tossed a pen toward the painting. When she hit the bullseye the painting dropped down to reveal a hidden safe.
She jumped up, heels clattering, and opened it. It swung open to reveal a leather bound journal.
“The Journal of Oliver Queen” was written across a title page. She hoped she had found the information she needed. Perhaps this one book had even escaped Max Lord’s survey! She decided to read it so she settled down and began with the first entry.
“I can’t stand it! I can’t go on! Years of work! All my work! Ten years in the gathering: gone! I must get away… away from any memory of men who could do this… men who could do such evil!”Those agonized words began my career as the Green Arrow, although I did not realize those events were anything more than a fiery ending to the world famous collection of Indian lore and relics I had amaased over ten years in which I had become the greatest American archeological site financier on the East coast.
I had loved all aspects of American Indian lore and had devoted most of my family fortune to buy and preserve the relics of a lost or fading way of life that was intrinsically American. My collection was housed in the Star City Museum’s Queen Branch for American Indian Studies. The curator was my teacher, mentor, and friend Professor Morgan. His name was the first resource that came to my fevered brain the night thugs burned my collection to ashes and tried to kill me, before I used my skill with old weapons to subdue them for the authorites. I rushed away from the burning ruins of my life’s work to the club where he and I and all Star City’s noblest and wealthiest circles socialized in exclusive and male seclusion.
TARGETS: Part 4
I said the words I opened this journal with to the patient, caring and a bit detached Professor Morgan while a crooked waiter at the club listened behind silken curtains. Morgan replied, “Go to Lost Mesa. There you’ll find enough relics to replace the whole wing!” He spoke of a secluded, virtually lost locale where American Indian cultures had thrived and still clung to the ancient ways in a modern world at war. I answered with a loudness I attribute now to passion or a kind of desperation. “A gold mine awaits me!”That figurative phrase caught the eager ears of the waiter who took my words at face value and hired gunmen to get there first and rob me of the imagined wealth my cry painted within his mind.
Thus, unknowingly from despair, fear, and the fires of my past life, was born the career of the Green Arrow!
The first entry ended and Di smiled. “This is taking me to his true start as I hoped.”
TARGETS: Part 5
Diana Dare continued to read the Journal of Oliver Queen.
My trip to Lost Mesa was a retreat in more ways than one. I was fleeing the civilization that had produced men with the greed and malice to destroy the work I had collected for ten years. I was running away from evil men. I was hoping to find for myself renewal of spirit and mind in the relics of a lost past. As I approached the slope of the rocky embankment, I noticed caverns cut deep within the jagged cliffs. I flew my own plane, as always; a rich man’s toy, as Roy Harper would mockingly call it. I met that valiant boy at Lost Mesa and he changed my life. I had always been attracted to the past. The lore of the Indians called to me and I did master the use of the weaponry and the life skills of those noble people. However, it was a scholarly love that allowed little room for practical matters like relationships with other people. He changed me and my life by bringing a raw, enthusiastic, vitality to my rather sterile life. I studied the ways of the American Indians. He lived them!
Diana kicked off the orchid high heels and curled up in the chair in the Queen study. “Roy Harper was raised by Indians? I never knew that!”
She frowned as a noise echoed through the halls. “Max? Is that you?” she called languidly.
When the Blonde Bowgirl received no answer, she slipped down to peer out the door that led to the long hallway. A soft hiss caught her ear, and she spun to the ground seconds before an arrow would have parted her skull! It embedded in the doorframe, and the agile woman rolled across the floor to the table, and she flipped it on its side and gazed toward the dark door.
Slowly, she detected a figure approaching from the outside. He carried a bow and had to have been the person who had just tried to kill her!
“I know you’re there! Come out and I shall not harm you! I want Queen’s treasure map! That’s all. The map to Lost Mesa’s gold!” he said.
Di scanned the shadows and reached for her cast off heels. She reached them, and with the precision of an expert markswoman, she tossed them into the man’s face.
He yelped in pain as the spike heels smacked his face. She tackled him with one fluid motion and they fell to the carpeted floor. She slugged him as he grabbed her throat.
“You’ll pay for that! I’ll kill you right here!” he shouted. His voice carried through the empty estate and Di flipped him over her head with both legs.
She swung out again and connected. He was old and gray-headed, but she could not say she had ever seen him before. “The map to Lost Mesa was lost or used and destroyed over forty years ago! Queen used it to finance his heroic career!” she said as she kicked high and dropped her foe to the floor.
He swung out and tripped her in his own bow. He pounced for her and pinned her to the floor with his stronger body. “I don’t believe you! Tell me where Queen’s lost gold is!” he hissed as he pressed his face closer to hers.
She bit his hand and clawed his eyes until he released her. Then she grabbed the bow and sprang to her feet. She felt better as the weapon she had mastered so long ago became hers to use.
TARGETS: Part 6
She saw his eyes widen with understanding. She was in control now! He fled and she allowed him to escape. She was tired and knew he would return. His greedy passion for the supposed Queen treasure made that fact evident.
She locked the door and read the journal anew.
Roy Harper was five years old when he and his father made the fateful trip to Lost Mesa in 1932. The plane crashed and ended the life of his father. He was left stranded on Lost Mesa with his loyal family servant Quoag. The Indian man raised poor Roy with all the love and wisdom any child could want. He taught him woodlore and archery and made this blond boy the living embodiment of the skills I had read about for so long. Thus, when I arrived there, Roy was already around 14. He and I fought at first sight. He thought I was there to rob the place of the legendary lost gold while I was innocent, except for the fact that I had accidently tipped off the crooked waiter at my club about the wealth that awaited me at Lost Mesa. I had spoken figuratively, but the greedy man took me at face value and had gathered a gang to get to Lost Mesa first and rob me or the land of the imagined gold.We teamed up to fight the killers, for they soon killed poor heroic Quoag who had given his life to help Roy and myself escape. During that first thrilling fight when we used the skills and experienced the same kind of swashbuckling peril we would come to know so well as crime fighters, two things happened: A team was born and two names were coined. I became the Green Arrow, while the agile Roy was named Speedy.
TARGETS: Part 7
The thugs died when a huge golden statue fell upon them during their chase of the two of us. Yes, there was gold hidden at Lost Mesa. Roy and I took it and replaced the damage done to the museum and bought the equipment and supplies we would need for our new crusade. We buried noble Quoag and returned to my home of Star City. After Roy learned that his mother had died some point after he and his father crashed on Lost Mesa, he became my ward.He taught me much about life, and I tried to be a father to him, too. I was a skilled archer, but I lacked his years of daily experience in the use of the bow and tracking techniques. I did know science and machinery and gave these skills to the lad. We became defenders of America and fought Axis agents, crooks and monsters, both alone and with heroes like the reclusive Aquaman, the Seven Soldiers of Victory and the larger All-Star Squadron!
We also encountered an amazing number of skilled archers! A rich old schemer named Professor Millions had trained a dozen or so of these crooks, who took names ranging from Black Arrow, the Archer, the Astral Archers, the Rainbow Archers, even the weird alien called Xeen Arrow!
We met good archers too, like the lovely Queen Arrow and Miss Arrowette! The brave Bowman of Britain and the rest of the Green Arrows of the World, Bowman Jones, and others. We heard legends of other mystery-men turned archers like the one called Spider who came before us and joined the Freedom Fighters, and others like the Golden Arrow who was a pulp fiction hero here, but was said to have existed in another world!
Diana grew tired and decided to take a break. She wondered what to do about the prowler. He was a good shot, too. Could he be one of the foes listed in the journal?
She flipped ahead to see an entry dated shortly after the pair returned from their decades long displacement in time, which occurred in 1949.
I have read an amazing thing! A second Green Arrow and Speedy had been carrying on a career with sensational success during the years we were lost! They had blond and red hair, but otherwise looked much as Roy and I did! They apparently shot as well as us, too. I must call Max Lord as soon as possible!
The entry stopped, and when the next one continued it was after pages had been torn from the book. Soon afterward, the journal picked up with the red skies and shadow demons of the Crisis! Oliver Queen had died during that epic battle. So who had been the second Green Arrow?
TARGETS: Part 8
The next day, Diana Dare sat down with Roy Harper in California. She wore her Queen Arrow costume and he was dressed as the Red Arrow. She knew from his expression that he still found her as attractive as he had as a teen. She gained confidence from that and smoothly explained her reason for the visit.
“So as a new team leader I realized I lacked something,” she said.
Fabric? thought Roy as he tried not to stare.
“Oliver was a masterful leader. He offered me a role model, of sorts, so I asked Max Lord to give me access to his papers. That led to this journal and the comment about a second Green Arrow! I was time tossed during their career, so this was news to me. The pages dealing with them were ripped out. Plus, someone attacked me and demanded a map to Lost Mesa!” she said.
Roy was older than Diana, through the paradox of time displacement, but he still felt an attraction to her on an almost schoolboy level. He lost any feelings of awkwardness when she brought up this new topic.
“Diana, listen. Stay away from Lost Mesa. It doesn’t need to be disturbed by us costumed, or barely costumed types anymore. The Indians there live a peaceful life. There is no longer any gold there. Ollie and I took all of it when we started. Arrowcars don’t come cheap! As for the second Green Arrow, I can explain that for you,” he said.
Di tossed back her blonde locks and listened.
Roy said, “Shortly after the JSA rescued us from the time displacement, along with the other Seven Soldiers we resumed our lives, first as civilians, then as heroes. Well, we soon learned that in our absence Star City had not missed us, because a second Green Arrow and Speedy team had picked up as crime fighters where we stopped. Those ordinary folks in the city never knew we had disappeared. When we returned and learned of our replacements, we met them and accepted them as worthy replacements. They insisted on retiring, since age had caught up with them and we were back. They deserved the peaceful retirement that poor Oliver never got. I ripped out those Journal pages to protect their privacy after Oliver died. I left his parts intact to preserve his legend.”
Di said, “But who were they? I mean, they were in your league, from all the press clippings I pulled yesterday. The Star City Journal is full of their adventures. They continued on right up to after the JSA returned from their own retirement. Different hair colors, but the skill was so obviously there that no one doubted they were the real pair with modified looks. Could one of them be the guy who attacked me?”
Roy shook his head. “No! One is dead and the other is in retirement. I’ll say no more. Nice to see you again, Diana. Oliver liked you very much. You can let me handle any would-be robbers at the estate. Just go form a team that would make us original Legionnaires proud.”
She frowned and shook hands with him. Obviously he was not likely to accept her invitation to leave Infinity, Inc. and be her sidekick.
She made her plans quickly on the flight out of California. She piloted her private plane straight to the one place that seemed to hold the secret to the mystery: Lost Mesa! The map had been hidden within the Journal’s leather binding! She had not bothered to reveal this to Roy, who apparently never found it. Of course he knew the way there anyway!
“Lost Mesa, here comes Queen Arrow!” she vowed.
TARGETS: Part 9
Queen Arrow managed a smooth landing on the flat slope of Lost Mesa. She knew this was largely due to the advanced plane she piloted. Her wealth had made it easy to acquire the very best in terms of vehicles and headquarters for the new team. She was greeted by Indians who seemed intrigued by the general archer image she displayed with her bow and quiver.
“I am Queen Arrow. I come here seeking answers about Oliver Queen and the men known as Green Arrow,” she announced.
A young man stepped forward. “I am Quorak. My great uncle was Quoag, the man who taught the art of the bow to the first Speedy and the second team known as Green Arrow and Speedy. You see…” he began.
Then before he could continue, a sleek plane landed on the slope and costumed figures jumped out to fire arrows at them.
Diana shoved the boy to safety and drew her own bow, but she was seconds too late as chains whipped from arrowheads to bind her tightly from the neck down. She fell forward, and could only look up from the dust as the red, blue, green, and yellow boots of men and women stood over her.
“Well, well, well. Look at the prize fish we’ve caught, eh?” said a voice she had heard before.
It was the man who had attacked her at the Queen estate.
“I knew if I watched you long enough you’d lead us here! The Rainbow Archers shall take the gold of Lost Mesa in a just revenge upon the legacy of the man who defeated us so often: Green Arrow!” he chuckled. He planted one boot on top of Queen Arrow’s back as she lay there helpless.
“Take her to the caverns and bring out the rest of the squatters. This place is ours for the taking,” he crowed.
TARGETS: Part 10
As Queen Arrow watched in horror, her chains were looped over a tree and she was pulled upside down until she dangled helplessly.
“My father was the waiter from the club who was lured here by Queen’s rash talk of treasure. He set out for this desolate spot and was never seen again. Queen must have killed him to protect his gold mine. When I grew up, I joined the gang called the Rainbow Archers, who were taught by Superman’s old foe Quigley, the Archer. I mastered the very skills old Queen used to slay my father back in 1940. When Green Arrow died, I learned that he was Queen, and that my life had taken on a pattern as if by fate. I hated Queen and learned the skills that he had been using as Green Arrow without ever connecting the two men. So I realized Queen’s estate might hold the secrets to my father’s death and the treasure that should have been his. I watched you, or had one of my men and women trail you. You do like to stand out! Now, I’ll have the gold and kill you too!” said the current Rainbow Archer.
Diana strained at her chains, but had to admit that she was absolutely helpless. Some leader I am! I’m trapped, all because my ego prevented me from listening to Roy Harper’s warning! Even Arrowette would not have been so headstrong! she fumed.
TARGETS: Part 11
Then the colorful gang raised a cry as several wooden shafts landed all around them, and vapors poured out.
As they fell, the Rainbow Archer covered his face and wrapped his arms around Diana! “Someone’s smart enough to subdue my gang from afar. Gas arrows! Must be Red Arrow! He must have followed you too!” he said.
Queen Arrow coughed and could not see through the smoke.
Then, she heard a thud and Rainbow Archer toppled forward.
“Shhh! I’ll free you!” whispered a familiar female voice.
“Arrowette!” gasped Queen Arrow.
“Yes! Red Arrow picked me up and brought me here. He realized you’d never accept his warning to stay away, so he gathered help and decided all of the Green Arrow heirs should come together here,” she said.
She cut down Queen Arrow, who fell with an impact that raised dust around them. “Sorry about that!” said Arrowette.
I’ll just bet! thought Diana.
Then Red Arrow appeared. He kicked the rising Rainbow Archer in the head and connected with a right cross. “Queen Arrow! Hold on and we’ll get to the bottom of this,” he called.
Diana jumped up as soon as she could move again.
The Indians stood all around the beaten gang and the young man who first greeted her stepped up again with an older man.
“Queen Arrow? My name is Rob Harper. I believe you know my brother Roy here. He’s actually the oldest, believe it or not,” said the old man.
TARGETS: Part 12
As Diana rubbed her arms and legs to restore feeling in them, she listened to the story of the second Green Arrow and Speedy.
Rob Harper said, “I was born in 1932 after my dad and my older brother Roy here departed for Lost Mesa. Mom could not join them, because she had just learned that she was pregnant with me. When Dad and Roy were lost, she grieved and gave birth to me, but died doing so. I was raised by the family’s Indian aides. Dad was a ranger. I was taught the skills of archery that were being taught to Roy during my infancy. His teacher was Quoag, while I learned from Quoag’s brother Quorak.
“When I was three, Quorak and I moved from the old house, since we could no longer afford it without the salary of my father. Thus, I never knew Roy had lived, and when Oliver Queen brought him back to the East in 1940 or so, he only learned mother had died. He never knew I even existed.
“Then, in 1949, the heroes vanished and a visitor came to us. He had tracked us down while researching a possible book on Green Arrow. His name was Oliver Morgan. His father had been the mentor and confidant of Oliver Queen. Oliver Morgan had known the Green Arrow’s secret, as had his late father, so he wanted to replace his friend Oliver Queen when he was lost to us all in 1949 or so. He had the skills, since he had learned them alongside of Oliver when they were fresh out of college. He even found out that I existed through some intensive research for the book.”
“So he had assumed Roy and Olly were dead and thought a book would do no harm. Then he learned about your birth from neighbors?” asked Diana.
“Right! When Oliver Morgan saw me shooting with Quorak, he got the idea that we could be a new Green Arrow-Speedy team. We met up with Max Lord, Oliver Queen’s business partner, and he equipped us with the arrows, the car, and the other equipment. We retired after Oliver Queen and my brother Roy here returned,” said Rob.
“You can imagine how surprised I was to meet my fifty-something kid brother!” said Roy.
“Yes! And imagine how I felt back in ’49 when I found out my big brother had not died in 1932, but had been a real mystery-man!” said Rob.
Diana said, “So you live here now?”
Rob nodded. The real Green Arrow was a swell guy. He embraced us… he had been close to my Oliver (Morgan), anyway! We quit the costumed game after he and Roy were rescued. But Oliver Morgan, my Green Arrow, died fighting Professor Millions. We never let it get out that he had died, and Oliver Queen was back by then too.”
Diana said, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for endangering you all, being arrogant, and just taking too many things for granted.”
Arrowette messed up Queen Arrow’s golden locks and smiled, “You’re forgiven!”
Queen Arrow smoothed down her curls and smiled, “Well, I have learned a lesson. I guess I need a mentor myself. I can’t lead my team, just finance it. I need a mentor. How about it, Rob?”
He smiled and they talked into the night.
