Felicity liked to think of herself as reformed.

Once upon a time, in a universe where she had raven dark hair, wore black lipstick, and because her friends and family didn't love her and never submitted her to be on TLC's What Not To Wear, she also wore cargos, and had a slight problem, that she liked to think of as a hobby she could quit anytime she liked, when it came to hacking things she had no real business hacking.

She wasn't going to claim that it didn't work for her, she had found that it had worked in getting her into M.I.T. - which she had every intention of hacking her way into if she hadn't gotten in on her own merit - the fact that she had being an added bonus, and she had gotten her very fancy job as a Customer Service Assistant at Tech Village - she was still not over how little that employee discount was when she was trying to buy everything in the entirety of the whole store -, and eventually it had gotten her a job at Palmer Technologies, or rather the job.

When she had first met Ray Palmer she had just thought he was an odd guy, with a face too handsome for his own good, who couldn't rock a hoodie as well as he probably thought he could, though Ray Palmer had proved not to have a conceited bone in his body during their short lived relationship, and for some reason was seriously attracted to Felicity in her khaki's - she still wasn't sure if that was some kind of kink he had going on.

So all things considered, Felicity had never thought that she was being scouted to be his replacement.

Until one day she was being led into an insanely sweet high-rise building, told the entire top floor was her office, and not to ruin his legacy, and she had found herself the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company with degrees in Information Technology and Cyber Security, with which she avoided the totally plausible chances of people viewing her as overqualified for the job.

Along with her fancy new office and company, Felicity had also inherited what was called a Roy, otherwise known as a twenty-four year old from the Glades who knew nothing of the term 'business casual' and instead opted for the same red hoodie at least three days - though he rocked a hoodie significantly better than Ray - out of the five working days in the week, could only make halfway decent coffee, had absolutely no idea what alphabetical order was, and didn't have the temper necessary for scheduling appointments, and against all evidence that she shouldn't, Felicity had kept him.

She liked that no matter what, he showed up.

But sometimes his inability to do what she asked of him, like obtaining the schedule for Stellmoor International's Acquisitions branch, led to her reverting back to her old hobby.

So Felicity liked to think she was reformed, a reformed hacker who now aided society through digital gadgets that would no doubt spoil the minds of the youth everywhere, making the incapability of the next generation her fault and no longer Steve Jobs' which she supposed didn't make her that much of a benefit to society after all, which allowed her to justify the fact that she was currently hacking into Stellmoor International Acquisition's branch, she didn't have any kind of reputation to uphold.

"This is really illegal, Felicity." Roy reminded her as if she didn't already know.

"Somehow hacking the schedule for Stellmoor's Acquisitions doesn't seem as illegal as holding up liquor stores with your friendly neighborhood gang-bangers." She countered easily as she breached the firewall of Stellmoor's security with the same amount of relative ease, if not more.

"My gun wasn't loaded." He said in an exasperated tone.

"That's some real community service you did there, scarecrow." She nodded back only half paying attention to him as she scrolled through the database, before finding the section that allowed her to access the next few weeks schedule of meetings.

"I'd recommend a loaded gun when Isabel Rochev comes to slaughter you when she finds out that you did this."

"Isabel Rochev, Miss-I-Look-Angry-All-The-Time-Because-It's-My-Personal-Asthetic, is never going to know that I did this because I am smarter than her." Felicity informed him as she scanned the companies that were in meetings with Stellmoor over the course of those weeks.

It was perhaps the worst kept secret in the business world that Stellmoor International was done, Isabel Rochev, as efficient as she was at her job, was the kind of woman that alienated people, she was angry because anger suited her, and she was cruel because she liked to get what she wanted, and she had never understood the first rule of business at all.

As much as it was about being smart, about having good products, about appealing to the masses, one had to have a certain charisma, a certain likability to them in order to be able to successful, business only succeeded through the support of other businesses, and Stellmoor International was all out of allies.

But as it turned out, to Felicity's utter happiness, the competing companies that had already been in to Stellmoor to discuss terms were companies that stood no real chance against Palmer Technologies, she could outbid them all by landslides, she wouldn't even have to try to be likable - though she found that particular quality she often times stumbled upon by complete and happy accident.

"Wait, go back."

"To next Monday?"

"Yeah.

"That's when my appointment is, Roy."

"Just do it."

Considering Felicity was running on very limited amounts of sleep considering her mother had been in town, and had just left the other day, there was a very real chance that she had missed something. She scrolled backwards to the particular Monday that had 'Palmer Tech - 8 am' penciled on, and immediately realized what she had missed. Underneath her own appointment was scribbled in much smaller handwriting 'QC - 12 pm' that made her want to throw something in annoyance.

As it turned out there was competition after all.

She supposed that it shouldn't have surprised her really, if she didn't know better, considering she had never personally met the man, she'd say that Oliver Queen had a personal vendetta against her.

It was constant with him, if she was about to announce the launch of a new energy project, Queen Consolidated was putting out some kind of life saving mechanism for the elderly or puppies or something equally annoying and incapable of being spun in a negative manner. If Palmer Technologies was going to give free energy to the city then Queen Consolidated was going to pay for one member of every family in the Glades to go to college just days before they announced. Whatever it was, Oliver Queen somehow always managed to one-up her with projects that she was sure that he had nothing to do with.

A guy that surrounded himself with a harem full of girls - Felicity could name at least five girls he'd dated just off the top of her head, not that she was paying attention or anything - and peed on cop cars and attacked paparazzi and looked snarly in every single picture ever - seriously for every photo of an angry Isabel Rochev, there was a snarly photo of Oliver Queen - could not possibly be responsible for projects that provided free education among other things.

And therefore Felicity thought he sucked on principle.

She could stand for a lot of things, but being a plain dick while taking credit for other's work wasn't one of those things, by any means.

"I didn't tell Thea, I swear."

Ah yes, that led to the second bane of her existence, the fact that her executive assistant - who probably could use Oliver Queen's college fund because he had zero qualifications for the job - was sleeping with the enemy. In fact, Felicity would've loved if her executive assistant was sleeping with the enemy, but he wasn't just sleeping with her, he was in love with her, he practically lived with her, and while she was insanely happy for Roy as her friend and the annoying little shit of a little brother that she'd absolutely never wanted, it seriously irritated her as his boss.

All she was asking for was a little loyalty, not even a college education, but that apparently was too much to ask. Felicity blamed it on the fact that she had zero school spirit in high school, and now that was coming back to bite her in the ass because Roy had zero job spirit, or job qualifications, but it was probably time to let that one go.

"He's probably just doing this to fuck with me, anyway." Felicity muttered in a hostile tone directed at the computer, which was the indicator that she needed to go home, because no computer ever deserved any kind of hostility. "If I do something, he has to do it better."

"No offense, but he still doesn't even remember your name, Felicity." Roy leaned back into his seat, tossing his feet up on her desk, "The very few times you've come up he's just called you 'that blonde girl' or 'blondie.' So it might be a stretch to think he's getting off on this."

"I think Oliver Queen could get off on anything." She said as she deleted all traces of her presence off the Stellmoor server, not that it would matter, in the next three months, the company would be renamed Palmer Technologies, and she would have all the access she wanted above book.

"I think you just don't like Oliver."

Felicity frowned, she didn't dislike Oliver, there was a difference between hating the idea of someone and completely loathing the person that they were, but the fact of the matter was, she really didn't like the idea of Oliver Queen.

Everything about him in the years before he had taken over Queen Consolidated seemed selfish and entitled, and everything about him in the four years since he had taken it over was snarly and cold and brooding. She'd give him one thing, Oliver Queen didn't do anything half-assed, he did everything to the extreme.

Felicity finally stood up. She was ready to go home, it had been a long day, and in all honesty she'd hadn't gotten much of anything done as it was. "I just want Stellmoor."

The takeover of Stellmoor was important to her, incredibly so. She had basically gotten Palmer Technologies by accident, she hadn't known that she was being interviewed for the job, and sometimes it felt like a fluke, like she hadn't really earned it.

And while she knew she was capable, while she knew that the Palmer Technologies was thriving under her in the same way that it had thrived under Ray Palmer himself, she had something to prove as a woman that he didn't. She had to prove that she hadn't slept her way into the position, that she hadn't just gotten it because of favoritism, she had to prove that she deserved her seat at the head of the table, she had to prove that she was more than capable, that she could take Palmer Technologies places that not even Ray Palmer had taken it.

Taking over Stellmoor International, a company that had taken over hundreds of companies and small businesses with every bit of hostility there was, was the way to start doing that. To prove that she could take over what everyone else had been swallowed up by. She could prove that under her Palmer Tech was stronger than Stellmoor, and she could give those workers who had lost their jobs because of Stellmoor, especially those in small businesses, at least a chance to get their jobs back.

Felicity could help people and prove herself. Taking over Stellmoor was the only thing that Felicity was sure about since she'd been given her CEO seat eight months ago.

And she wasn't going to let Oliver Queen stand in the way of that.