Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.
Laurel and Barbara accompanied Nicole to the hospital room where Henry was and at the sight of him, his sister covered her mouth, looking at her brother so severely injured on bed, with a breathing tube attached to his throat as she tried to hold more tears from her eyes.
"God…" Nicole sobbed out. "Not again… it's even worse than the last time…"
"He's gonna pull through, Nicky. He has to. You of all people know he's too stubborn to die." Barbara said as she held her arms.
"Can… Can I go in?" Nicole asked and Laurel and Barbara nodded as they accompanied her inside and Nicole held her brother's hand.
"Hey, Hank." Nicole tried to laugh but due to her current state she was unable to sound convincing. "I should have known you would pull through. You're too stubborn to die. Always have been." Barbara smiled at that. "You used to be fat when we were kids, the guys at school were picking on you and you were too slow to outrun them, so instead you tried to fight them and half the time you ended up with a bruised eye but you gave them hell too. But I had to step in and make them back off. Nobody messes with my baby brother." Even Laurel had to chuckle at that. "And then you exercised a lot and started to train self-defense; you wanted to become a cop. Instead you became an investigator-for-hire and a hacker; you studied and trained a lot, you wanted to make things better and provide some living for us… and for Mary and Ashley." She laughed for a moment. "I've kept telling you that you could not do this forever; that sooner or later, something like that would happen again. I wish you had listened to me. But you always have to play a hero, do you? Anything to make this world a better place for us. I know what I've been saying about what you're doing but… I think there's no better job that would fit you.
But I'll always worry about you, OK? You'll always be my little brother, no matter what." She kissed Henry on his forehead as she wiped her wet cheeks and got up and turned to Laurel and Barbara.
"Promise me that you'll find whoever did this and make sure he faces justice. Please, Laurel." Nicole begged and Laurel and Barbara nodded.
"He won't be on the run for long." Laurel promised and Nicole hugged her.
"Thanks. I… I should go pick up Riley. He needs to know that Uncle Hank's OK." Nicole said as she left but at the door, she stopped. "Ollie…"
"How is he?" Oliver asked as Laurel and Barbara turned around to see him and Sara at the door.
"Is he alright?" Sara asked.
Nicole sighed. "You better see for yourselves. I honestly hope he gets through this." She said as she walked away.
Laurel approached her husband and sister and hugged them both as they returned the hug. "Thank God you're both here."
"You know we're always here for you, Laurel." Oliver said before Laurel blinked.
"I thought that…"
"Barry's friend." Oliver explained. "He has this toy that helps me conceal my face, you can see the real me but the others…"
Laurel nodded as Oliver and Sara entered, pain flooding as they saw their friend injured.
"Oh God." Sara breathed out as she held Henry's hand. "Henry…"
"He has pulled through this once, he can pull through this again. Don't worry, Sara." Barbara assured her.
Sara sighed. "I guess this means rain check on the dinner, huh?" She said humorously. "I don't know if you can hear me, Henry… but… I'm sorry I wasn't there more for you. Whatever had happened between us… I haven't felt so happy for a long time and I know that neither have you. Maybe if you ever recover, we can give this whole thing another chance, huh?"
Suddenly, they could swear they heard Henry laugh weakly and Sara could swear, she felt Henry's fingers moving as his eyes opened slowly.
"Am… am I… in Heaven?" Henry whispered. "I… I could swear… I'm looking at an angel…" He said weakly as he turned to Sara.
Barbara, Oliver and Laurel laughed briefly as Sara embraced Henry gently.
"At least your sense of humor remains intact." Barbara said, wiping her cheeks.
"Don't scare us like that again, you dumbass." Oliver laughed out.
"Idiot." Henry growled mockingly.
"Jerk." Oliver shot back, laughing.
"I… I hate hospitals…" Henry whispered. "How bad is it?"
"You're lucky that the rebar didn't pierce your heart or any other major organs, otherwise you'd be dead right now." Barbara explained. "But your leg's a mess. It took four surgeries to patch it up. You won't be able to walk properly for a while."
"As long as I'm not on a wheelchair, I'm not worried." Henry said sarcastically before realizing what he had just said as his expression softened. "Sorry, that was a low blow."
"It's OK." Barbara chuckled.
"Who did this?" Oliver asked.
"They call themselves Ninth Circle. They've shown up following the fall of H.I.V.E." Laurel explained. "We don't know what they're planning but it's not good. We thought we had a lead but it was a trap."
"If anyone can stop them, I'm sure it's you." Oliver assured his wife as he held her by her arms.
"How's your team doing?" Laurel asked.
"It's… we're working it out. Don't worry about us, promise me you'll be careful and take them down." Oliver asked as Laurel nodded.
"I will." They both kissed each other. "I love you."
"I love you too."
"Sara…" Henry held her hand as she turned to him. "I know what you said and I know this might not work out between us… but… would you like to give this whole thing another shot? I want to try at least. Maybe a dinner, once I get out of here." Sara turned to her sister and her brother-in-law, considering before turning to Henry again.
"Maybe… just get better first, OK?" Sara kissed him as he returned the kiss back and Oliver and Laurel smiled at both of them.
A.R.G.U.S.
"What do we have from Mr. Reed?" Laurel asked.
"He recently sold weapons to Ninth Circle; a missile launcher, AK-47s, you name it, for a top dollar but what he didn't know was that they were planning to attack an U.S. military base; they assaulted Guantanamo last week; until now, we've had no official confirmation it was the Ninth Circle." Lyla explained. "And from what he told us, looks like the cash came from an account in Monte Carlo." She turned on the screen.
"John King, third richest man in America right after Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor." Naomi explained.
"I've read about him." Helena nodded.
"Bruce talks a lot about him." Barbara added. "He says he's very charismatic but sort of… off."
"Humanitarian billionaire. He's spent his life and wealth improving the cities of United States; he helped contributing in renovating Star City after the Undertaking and the Siege, also helped rebuild Gotham but we suspect it's a façade. He has questionable business partners; he was in H.I.V.E.'s pocket for example, we suspect he is a banker of the most dangerous men on Earth. For example, we back-traced the money that Mercy Graves had acquired from H.I.V.E. and from Milo Armitage when he wanted to purchase Malcolm Merlyn's earthquake device back to him, the cash went through at least six dummy corporations."
"I read that his wife was murdered." Laurel remembered.
"Stabbed to death three months ago, they haven't caught the man who did it." Lyla nodded. "Left with a daughter, Mia. Been seeing a PTSD counselor since then." She pulled out another picture of a teenage girl as sadness took Laurel over.
"She looks a little like Tommy when his Mom died and like Thea right after the Gambit."
"The authorities recently received a message that King was planning something; that message came from a dummy e-mail set up by Mia but when the FBI interrogated her, she denied ever sending the mail; our best guess is that she's too scared of her father. Last week, she ran away from home." Ian said upon entering. "King's been hellbent on tracking her down since then and he's keeping the whole 'daughter missing' thing hush-hush to avoid potential scandal. And he also hired a hacker to back-trace and stop anyone who'd go after him and the Ninth Circle, which explains the virus hidden in that laptop you found; whoever invented that thing was good, they knew how to cover the scent and no one would know what was in that thing until it was too late."
"They almost killed one of my best friends." Barbara snapped.
"We're gonna find them." Laurel promised.
"Funny thing is, not long after you freed Mr. Reed, some hacker had siphoned a lot of zeroes off King's private fund through dozens of dummy corporations, using the same code that was in that booby-trapped laptop, guessing that person had a change of heart." Lyla explained. "And it was like this person wanted us to find him, or her."
"You think this is a trap?" Tatsu asked.
"I don't know but a lot of assassins in Seattle have become active from what we can gather, I'm guessing King wants this hacker really bad." Lyla said.
Elsewhere
"Have you found them?" A man around 40 years old asked, drinking his scotch in his apartment.
"No, sir, they were able to wipe most of their tracks, Mr. King but I believe we have a name."
"Who is it?"
"Felicity Smoak. It took some effort but we were able to back-trace the signature in the virus in our system."
"Nobody steals from me or my clients without consequences. Use any means necessary."
"Yes, Mr. King."
Author's Note:
Sorry, but I'm getting inspired by Green Arrow (The New 52) and some older Birds of Prey comic book series, so I just could not resist involving Felicity, since something similar happened to her in the comics. Don't worry, before you start thinking that, she's not joining the team but as usual, her stupidity backfires big time on her, so it's up to an old friend to save her ass once again.
So, what do you guys think about it?
Please review and let me know if you are enjoying this so far.
With regards
Bl4ckHunter
