John Diggle wasn't yet the battle-hardened Spartan people would one day know him as. At this point, he was still finding his footing as Oliver Queen's partner. So when Oliver asked him to keep watch over his mother, Moira Queen, and his younger sister, Thea, Diggle had reason to be nervous. Protecting the CEO of Queen Consolidated and a rebellious teenager was a tall order, even for a seasoned veteran.
Fortunately for him, luck intervened.
Moira received a call from the police informing her that Thea had been detained—for drug use and theft. "Theft" might not have been the most accurate word. After getting high, Thea had stumbled across a designer boutique, decided she liked a dress in the window, and smashed her way inside.
Moira had grown weary of her daughter's reckless antics. Each outburst brought more shame to the Queen family. This time, she didn't rush to cover it up. Let Thea stew in a holding cell. Maybe jail would succeed where motherly patience had failed.
And honestly, what place could be safer than a police station?
Diggle sighed with relief. At least Thea's troubles meant he only needed to focus on protecting Moira.
Police stations in cities crawling with capes and criminals were rarely bastions of security. Gotham's was infamous for corruption, riddled with mob ties and constantly overwhelmed by lunatics. Starling City's, while not spotless, wasn't nearly as bad. Sure, corruption lingered—where didn't it?—but the department still carried enough weight to maintain public trust. With vigilantes like the Huntress and even the Birds of Prey occasionally stepping in, crime in Starling had eased somewhat. The SCPD had clawed its way to at least partial respect in the eyes of its citizens.
Meanwhile, in a detention cell inside the station, Thea Queen sat slouched on a chair, looking utterly unbothered.
Golden waves of hair framed her youthful face. Her uniform—blue blazer, white shirt with the top buttons undone, plaid skirt, and knee-high socks—looked more like rebellion than regulation. The tie around her neck hung loose, an afterthought. She crossed one long leg over the other, leather shoes tapping idly against the concrete floor.
She was the perfect picture of the beautiful but untamed high school girl.
Since the deaths of her father and brother, grief had driven Thea into a spiral of drugs, drinking, and thrill-seeking. Moira's permissiveness only gave her room to sink deeper. She had become the embodiment of every parent's nightmare: "I smoke, I drink, I do drugs—but I'm still a good girl." Years later, she would claw her way out of that hole, fight alongside Oliver as Speedy, and even learn the truth about her real father, Malcolm Merlyn. She would endure tragedy, resurrection by the Lazarus Pit, and ultimately become a hero in her own right.
But right now? She didn't care about any of that.
Half-sober, she already suspected her mother had no intention of bailing her out. And that was fine with her. She didn't care. She didn't care about anything. Sprawled in her seat with all the grace of a street kid instead of a Queen heir, she watched officers bustle around outside her cell and wondered idly what kind of chaos she might cause once she got out.
…
With her gaze drifting across the cell, Thea Queen suddenly realized she wasn't alone anymore. Someone was leaning casually against the corner wall, arms crossed as if he belonged there.
Young. Sharp-featured. Dark-eyed. Handsome in a way that radiated danger.
"Want to do something exciting?" Jack Kadere asked, his tone low and teasing.
"Exciting?" Thea's emerald eyes lit up instantly, a mischievous grin tugging at her lips. "You're not a cop. No officer in this place would ever use that word with me—they're all allergic to fun. So I won't bother asking how you got in here, or who you are. I'll just ask… what's exciting?"
Jack's smile widened, wolfish. "How about a kidnapping? Take you right out of this police station, call up your mother and brother, and turn the whole thing into a little cat-and-mouse game."
Thea frowned, suspicion warring with curiosity.
"Think about it," Jack pressed. "Your mom probably isn't rushing to bail you out, and once you're released you'll be locked down tighter than ever. Sounds boring, doesn't it? This way, you skip the lecture, skip the punishment… and dive straight into something a little more thrilling."
That hit its mark. Thea bit her lip. She hated the idea of sitting here waiting for Moira's disapproval, or worse, Oliver's judgment. A jailbreak sounded exactly like the sort of reckless thing she lived for. But still—
"You're not actually planning to kidnap me, right?" she asked carefully.
Jack chuckled. "If taking you out for a night of doing whatever the hell you want counts as kidnapping, then yes. That's exactly what I'm doing."
"And after that?"
"We'll see where it goes. Not everything needs a plan, Speedy." His smile darkened. "But one thing's for sure—your brother Oliver needs a reminder that meddling comes with consequences."
Thea rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, that sounds like him. Came back to Starling and decided the whole city needed him to babysit. So… how exactly do you plan to waltz me out of here with half the police department watching?"
Jack straightened from the wall, his grin never fading. "Ready?"
She smirked. "Try me. I really want to see how you—"
The words caught in her throat as the world blurred around her. The cell dissolved in a streak of red light. In an instant, the walls, the bars, even the buzz of the fluorescent lights vanished.
The chair she sat on was still beneath her—but now it rested on uneven ground, surrounded by trees and open night air.
Thea blinked hard, pinched her arm, then winced at the sting. This was real.
"This is…" She turned slowly, recognizing the outline of familiar ridges and foliage. "The mountain behind my house? How did I—how did we—? I was literally just in the station!"
Her voice cracked with disbelief.
Jack stood with arms crossed, watching her with amusement. "Exciting enough for you?"
Thea nodded, stunned. "You have powers? Like teleportation? Sci-fi, beam-me-up kind of stuff?"
"Not teleportation," Jack corrected with a smirk. "Just speed. More speed than your eyes can keep up with. To you, it feels instant."
She shook her head, half in awe, half in doubt. "That's insane."
"Then tell me," Jack said, leaning closer, "where do you want to go next?"
Thea thought only a second before her rebellious streak took over. "That boutique downtown. The one with the dress in the window. I only got caught because of it."
Jack chuckled. "You'd look good in anything, Thea. But if that's what you want, consider it done." He bent down and scooped her easily into his arms.
She squeaked in surprise, then instinctively clung to him, arms wrapped tight around his neck.
Whoosh!
Red lightning tore across the wilderness, vanishing as quickly as it appeared. The chair stood alone in the clearing, the night silent once more.