"Wait here," the woman said to Ray as she walked up the stairs away from him, swaying her hips from side to side. Ray nodded, tugging his jacket sleeves up to his elbow as he looked around the immaculately decorated room. He didn't know where he was, he'd been blindfolded on the way there, so he hoped the woman's boss approved of him because he didn't really like the thought of the alternative. The woman, Lisa he thought he remembered, returned, beckoning him to follow her with her finger. Ray followed her up the stairs and then down to what he could only assume was the basement of what he also assumed was some sort of Safe House to a dark room only lit but low hanging lightbulbs. Two men stood at the back of the room speaking in hushed tones. "Have a seat," the woman said pulling a chair out of the darkness, "we'll be with you in a minute." She added before joining the two men.

"You sure about this sis?" Leonard Snart asked his sister as she joined his and Mick's conversation.

"I'm positive Lenny, he's our guy; he passed that test you ordered in an hour."

"That fast?"

"With three and a half minutes to spare."

"So he's smart, doesn't mean he's any good." Len said.

Ray could feel the Boss' gaze burning into him as he slouched lower into the chair Lisa had given him. He ran a hand through his hair and folded his arms. "Give him a shot, he's the only one that finished, let alone actually did the thing correctly."

"Fine, get over here," the Boss demanded. Ray stood, stuffed his hands in his pockets and sauntered over. "On that table over there, are my and Mick's guns, completely disassembled and mixed up. Build 'em both again, correctly. Impress me," the man said as he, the woman and the other guy walked over to a table with a half completed chess game. The woman leaned back in her chair, picking a book up from the table while the men engaged in their game. "Tik tok, before the end of our game" he called over as Ray stood watching.

Ray headed over to the table to look at the parts available. The only clue he seemed to have to which gun was which was the actual holding parts where the fire and ice substances were held. He ran his fingers admiringly over the pieces, noting the temperature changes in the parts. Deciding this was key to which gun was which he set about setting them apart before attempting to assemble them. He tackled the Heat Gun first, it didn't take him too long to work out what went where. Then he moved onto the Cold Gun. He noted that this gun, unlike the other had been upgraded numerous times. It was more compact, efficient and some of the parts looked almost brand new.

Ray completed snapping the last part into place as a voice sounded "check mate" which echoed around the room. Ray checked his builds over with his keen eyes and stood back, his hands behind his back, face straight as the two men checked over and admired their guns.

"Nice work," one of the guys said, lowering a pair of goggles, turning to a brick wall and firing flames from his gun. "I'm going to the bar." He said holstering his gun, pulling on a coat and walking out. The other guy, the main boss looked over his own weapon in extreme detail before shooting against the same wall.

"It works," he said with a hint of surprise and condescension in his voice. "Not bad work at all, for a dead man." He said stepping forward into the light. Ray remained calm, though he never expected the man to be this handsome. "Raymond Palmer. Supposedly dead CEO of Palmer Technologies. Last I knew you played for the good guys."

"It's Ray and I just want to build things. No strings attached. Everybody needs a hobby. And since I'm dead I have a lot of free time on my hands." Ray returned with an equally cool tone.

"I don't trust you-"

"Now now Lenny," the woman returned into the light, "you said bring you who passed your tests and he did. You never said who you were on the Ad."

"Now isn't a good time for this Sis. Let's discuss this over a drink," Lenny said. "And call me Len. Take him to the bar," he said to his sister, "don't let him see anything, I still haven't made up my mind." Len walked off into the dark. Lisa retreated the way the two of them had come in, Ray followed as she began turning off the lights. She re-blindfolded him and helped him on the back of her bike, he held her waist and listened to her instructions so they didn't crash.

"If it helps," she began, removing the blindfold, it was no dark, he wondered how long he'd been in the basement. "He hasn't ordered your execution or threatened you. I'd say I liked your chances. Let's have a drink," Ray turned to find a bar, Saints and Sinners in front of them. Lisa ordered for him, a beer and a glass of wine for herself. "My brother will be along shortly. He sits in the back booth." Ray nodded and headed over there to sit down past the other patrons. Tugging his sleeves back down to his wrists he sat and waited. Len turned up five minutes later, ordered a scotch and joined him.

"So, tell me more about why you responded to the ad?"

"Legally I'm dead. Untraceable. I just want to live, undetected and build things. You can give me that. I don't care what other things you do or what my builds are used for. I just want to stay dead. Metaphorically speaking." He added.

Len considered, "I'll give you a shot. One week, my guys are gonna come to you with whatever they need doing, I'll give you a business account, order in what you need, get it done and we might just keep you. My sister will pick you up tomorrow, from your place write down the address and get to know people, most people here are my crew." Len finished his drink, placed a pen and paper on the table and walked off to where Lisa was sipping her drink at the bar. "So what exactly did you see in him?" Len asked Lisa as they both watched Ray discretely.

"Honestly? I don't know. He has the skills. He's stayed legally dead for over a year. I figure he can keep a secret."

"Guess we'll just have to see."

The next morning Lisa was waiting outside of Ray's crappy apartment building, leaning against her bike. This time he wasn't blindfolded as she drove through the streets. "This is our main base, the other place is mainly for emergencies only. Lenny's rules are everybody has to check in at least once a week and be here for meetings he calls. Other than that we have freedom. As for you you're here to work, you'll be able to get out of that crappy place within a week. If we keep you." Lisa showed him around the rooms he was allowed in. She gave him the password to access the laptop in his work room, told him the code for the break room if it was ever lost and where the meetings and bathrooms were. Len was in the breakroom. He gave Ray an envelope.

"This is the codes and numbers for the tech account. Order anything you need, next day delivery or go pick it up if it's local. You can use the bikes, not Lisa's though, she takes a lot of pride in her bike. This way to your workshop." Ray followed Len to his work space. He couldn't help but be impressed, the place was immaculate. Everything was neat and tidy, most of the tools looked new, the connecting storeroom had pretty much anything he could ever need, he couldn't imagine what he would need to order but he had a feeling he would find out eventually. "I'll be in and out of the building most of the day, when it gets to about five Lisa will take you home. Good luck, also build whatever you want in the meantime but Rogue tech comes first."

"Where will you be?"

"I have other businesses to attend to."

"So I can build? No strings attached in here?"

"Anything. Don't get too into it this morning, Lisa said her gun was playing up and the others will probably drop by to meet you."

"Thank you." Ray said leaning against a worktop, folding his arms.

"Don't mention it." Len replied, "seriously, don't." For a second Ray looked down and smiled and in that moment Len thought that maybe this wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Ray looked around the workshop in wonder, he was so excited he couldn't decide what to build first. He was saved from his indecision by Lisa around an hour later as promised by her brother. "Your brother mentioned a gun or something?"

"Yeah it's just not as efficient as it used to be. I think it's the sight."

"This is amazing technology, who build this?" Ray said, turning the weapon carefully in his hands.

"His name is Cisco, he works at S.T.A.R. Labs, with the Flash," Lisa said with a little bit of sadness.

"Cisco built this?"

"You know him?"

"Knew him." Ray said also a little sad.

"Oh, right. So do you think you can take a look at it?"

"Sure," Ray smiled. Ray gave it a test shot against a wall to see how off the sight was. It wasn't too bad, but Ray decided he did need to make a few adjustments. "Leave it with me, shouldn't take too long to sort out."

"Thanks. I'll be back later. I have to run some errands."

"OK," Ray said distantly, already starting to disassemble the gun. He couldn't deny he was impressed, Cisco's work was amazing, just like that of Felicity and his own. He estimated that it was maybe a year old, based on the wear and tear to the chamber and the trigger had felt a little stiff when he'd tested it.

He was just putting it back together, completely in the zone when a paper bag was dropped on the desk behind him. He turned, snapped out of his trance and blinked a few times to adjust to the lights and the Big Belly Burger bag in front of him. "Thought you'd be hungry." Came Lisa's voice.

"Thanks," Ray said confused, "what time is it?"

"Almost 2:30."

"Seriously?" He asked digging through the bag. "I finished it. Also improved it."

"Improved how?"

"Bio metrics in the trigger. It'll know your DNA sequence and will only work when you squeeze the trigger. Watch," he took the gun from her hands, powered it up, pointed it at her and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened. "Now you try."

"Do I get to point it at you?" She asked skeptically and not amused by his demonstration.

"I'd rather you didn't." He replied as she powered it up, pointed it at him then swung her arm around as he threw one of the tools he'd been using. Perfect hit.

"I'm impressed," she said turning. He'd perched on the edge of the desk and had begun eating his fries. "Some of the others are in the breakroom, why don't you come by, meet the team?"

"I guess I could," Ray agreed dropping the fries back into the bag and picking up the milkshake behind it. "Lead the way." Ray had long since removed his jacket and left it over the chair in his workshop so he was dressed in his jeans and a dark blue sweater and had rolled the sleeves up to his elbows while he worked. "So how come this place is bright and open and the other place was so..."

"Dark and creepy? My brother likes to scare his newbies. Proves you can work under pressure and keeps you on your toes." Lisa smiled leading the way to the break room. There were five people there. Mick from the day before was the only person Ray knew. He was reading a large paper at a table by the kitchen beside what Ray could only assume was a 7 year old girl eating a kid's meal. Then there were three on one of the couches. A man, a woman and another guy, younger that the others in the room sat across from them. "Guys this is Ray, Lenny's giving him a shot at being our Tech guy. You know Mick," the older man nodded in their direction and continued to read his paper "and this is Shawna and Mark and that's Hartley." Lisa dropped onto a couch by Hartley, moving closer to him so Ray could join them. Everyone seemed to be eating burgers so Ray joined in. He kept quiet and ate his lunch, listening to their conversations.

"So where'd you find this piece of man candy Lis'?" Asked the other woman, Shawna.

"He responded to the Ad and he was the only one who passed Lenny's tests. Speaking of tests, how did yesterday go?"

"All good. In another 20 weeks we will have a little rogue girl. And we already agreed on a name, but we can't tell you."

"Yay. Are you still pissed at my brother over shifts?"

"In the bar? Not as much as I was, the other night there was a huge fight so now I'm glad to be in the bakery."

"Bakery? Bar?"

"We have other sources of income. Legal sources of income." Lisa told Ray.

After his lunch Ray excused himself back to his lab and began planning some builds he hoped he'd be kept on long enough to create. Lisa arrived outside his workshop at five on the dot to take him home.

The rest of the week continued on a similar scale. Lisa picked him up, he went to his lab, and she'd take him to the breakroom at lunch and take him home at five. He met other members of Len's crew and on the last day of his trial Lisa showed him the bakery. A small place on a corner in the City Center that always had a line out of the door and the baked goods were heavenly. "Len created the recipes."

"Your brother bakes?"

"That he does."

"Are they any good?"

"Put it like this, if I didn't have the ability to say no then I would probably be three times my size right now." Len was in his office finishing some paperwork. Lisa pushed him in and said she was going to get herself some coffee and help pack the leftovers with the counter girls and Shawna.

He was in. He didn't know how, but he was in. Lisa took him home and left him with a box of the confectionary which he put in his fridge when he got home. He sighed and took out his phone sending off a single two-word text to an unnamed number. 'I'm in' before deleting it and any evidence it had ever existed.