AN: Thank you to everyone who has read and commented so far, your comments are really inspiring. I'll get the final part uploaded just as soon as I have time to edit and proof it. I really hope this chapter makes sense (especially the latter part), writing action can be a little chaotic so please tell me if something doesn't add up.

Chapter Seven

Bruce and Oliver circled each other. Each making a half-hearted attempts to land a blow while they sized the other up.

Oliver's fighting style was a mixture, things that he had been taught by many different people and among others, incorporated Eskrima, Kata, Taolu, karate and street fighting.

He was familiar with many more fighting styles however, and recognised that Bruce seemed to mostly use a mixture of Keysi, Tae Kwon Do and Krav Maga. His style was also distinctive in that he rarely deflected any parries, preferring to block them and strike back.

As the fighting stepped up a notch, Oliver was forced to admit that his technique was good; tight and controlled, with little excess energy expired.

Oliver also couldn't help but notice that he also had a lot of scars on his torso and back, not as numerous as Oliver's, and no burn marks, but more than enough blade and abrasion wounds to suggest that he was not a competition fighter. He also recognised stitching in the bullet wound on his shoulder, as Felicity's. Considering how recent the wound was, Bruce was doing a damn good job of ignoring it.

Something about Felicity helping patch him up annoyed him, and Oliver was the first to step things up, delivering three blows much faster than previously. The first blow a distraction, which allowed his second to connect with Bruce's jaw; the third blow, which should have put Bruce on the ground, didn't connect however, as Bruce had compensated for the change of pace and ducked out of the way.

After that, the fight soon spread from the training mats to the rest of the lair, as they used whatever was close to leap onto and off of, much as they would in a real fight. The only space that was out of bounds, was Felicity's desk.

After Bruce had thrown Oliver over the table that Sara, Dig and Roy were using, and Bruce had vaulted over it after him, Oliver used her desk as a barrier between them, giving himself a moment to recuperate, but the fight was getting too close to Felicity for comfort and she stood up, turning to Bruce with her arms spread wide, protecting her computers and making it difficult (but not impossible) for Bruce to vault over it and her.

"If you lay a finger on my babies, I will drain your trust funds down to $5! Same goes for you Queen."

Bruce seemingly believed her, and he backed up a few paces, took a running jump to the overhead light fixtures and used it to swing over Felicity's desk. That made him an easy target for Oliver, but Bruce was able to roll away from the worse of the blow.

After that, they both made an effort to avoid her immediate area.

They ran along beams, vaulted the stairs and swung from the various roped and chains that Oliver used to train with but neither reached for a weapon, as if they had both decided that this was about their abilities, not fancy weapons.

Although he wouldn't have hesitated to in a normal fight, Oliver also chose not to exploit Bruce's bullet wound; he didn't want to win because someone else had wounded his opponent.

They were pretty evenly matched but neither was willing to concede defeat and the fight dragged on so long, that the others grew tired and returned to their work.

Finally Bruce went down but thinking that he had won, Oliver dropped his guard, allowing Bruce to kick his feet out from under him. They lay on the mats, both panting heavily, neither making a move to get up until they'd had at least a little rest.

Bruce began laughing and Oliver was surprised to realise that his earlier grudging respect had turned to genuine respect. He laughed too.

"Man, I haven't had a test that good since the Assassins League came to town."

"Oh yeah," Bruce flinched. "Those guys mean business." He agreed, pushing himself into a sitting position.

"You too?" Oliver sat up as well, just in case this wasn't the end.

"One of them gave me a bruise on my shin that, took three months to go away."

"Who did you fight?" Sara asked.

"No idea, he kept his face covered, they all do. I've run into them a couple of times while I was gone. The first time, God," he gave a wry smile. "I was so cocksure, thought I was invincible. I spent two weeks in hospital, recovering."

"Me too," Oliver agreed. It wasn't quite two weeks, but he was starting to like Bruce. "Diggle had to tell my family that I came off my bike. When I met him again, he had me in a choke hold, and I only defeated him by stabbing myself through the shoulder with an arrow."

"Ouch!" Bruce cringed in sympathy.

Bruce got up but made sure to move away from Oliver, signing that he posed no threat, then he stepped forward and held his hand out to help Oliver up. Although wary, he accepted.

"You got a shower in here?"

"Up stairs and to the left," Oliver told him.

Alfred approached them with a gym bag, which Bruce accepted with a nod of thanks, pulling a towel out and wiping his face.

"If you ever feel like a rematch, give me a call," Bruce said. "I could use a good fight now and again, stopping muggers is good work and all, but it's not exactly challenge, if you know what I mean."

"Just say the word," Oliver assured him. He held his hand out and Bruce shook it without hesitation.

Bruce headed towards the stairs, pausing by Felicity's desk. "How about a kiss for the victor," he asked.

Felicity shook her head but couldn't keep a smile from her lips.

"From where I was standing, that was a draw." None the less, she stood up. "You do get one for looking very sexy however, and not hurting my computers."

Oliver felt that same stab of pain as they kissed, which he now recognised as jealousy. Felicity looked so happy though and no matter how he felt or how much it hurt, he wanted her to be happy. He swallowed the pain down.

"What about me?" Oliver asked in a teasing voice as Bruce walked away. "I'm sexy and I stayed out of your way too."

Felicity smiled. "Dig will kiss you, I'm sure."

"How'd I get dragged into this?" Diggle asked.


That afternoon, Sara informed them that she had listened in to a telephone conversation in which the two directors had agreed to meet by the pond in the park after work, both sounding upset or worried.

Bruce had three directional microphones in his mobile Bat Cave and between them, they organised for three people to be in the park to aim the long distance mics at them. It worried the team members with training, that they had picked a location where it would be difficult to listen in on them, until Felicity reminded them how paranoid HIVE seemed to be, and that it wouldn't be unreasonable for them to assume such an organisation might have bugged their offices.

Because Bruce and Oliver's faces were well known, Sara, Alfred and Roy would be in the park, while the others waited in the RV, and Felicity would do her best to clean the feed up as it came in since over distance, sound quality would inevitably be lost. She also hacked into the CCTV cameras that surrounded the park, although she would be blind once they were inside.

Alfred dressed as he normally did, although he hunched over more and used a cane, hoping to give the impression of being a retired gentleman, out for a daily stroll to feed the ducks. His directional mic was be concealed by a broadsheet newspaper.

Roy dressed as a gardener, with caps and overalls with the city emblem sewn on, and spent his time weeding flower beds. His mic could be hidden in his tool box and Felicity forged a permit that would fool any cop who asked if he had permission to work there, although she didn't have time to create anything that would hold up to a proper examination.

Sara dressed in sweat pants and t-shirt and would do yoga (not an uncommon sight in a city when few people had gardens) and hid the mic in her gym bag.

All three of them wore ear pieces and personal mics, so that they could stay in contact with the RV and each other, enabling them to keep track of the directors if they decided to walk.

It went off without a hitch and they were able to record around 90% of their conversation, although some of it a lot of cleaning up before the conversation became clear.

Back in the Arrow Cave, Felicity went to work, using programs that she had 'borrowed' from law enforcement. The others listen to and transcribed each portion of conversation as it was ready.

"Did you see that article on the Merlyn's today?"

"Yeah. Poor kid."

"What about our kids!"

"You know what they'll do to our kids if we don't!"

"I know! I know… I just…"

"How are we going to live with ourselves?"

"Yeah."

"What choice do we have? If we go to the police, they kill Carrie and Jed, if we go to the press, they kill Carrie and Jed, if we fail to deliver-"

"They kill Carrie and Jed, I know. Can we even trust that they'll keep their word and let them go?"

"I don't know, but I'm not willing to bluff, are you?"

"Who are Carrie and Jed?" Oliver asked once that section was finished.

"Their kids, I think" Felicity explained, while still cleaning up the next portion of the recording. "I remember something in the background reports we did."

Diggle began looking through papers. "I got it… They are their kids, eldest and middle child respectably, and both are supposed to be away, Carrie is thirteen and at school in Europe, and Jed is twelve, he's supposed to be staying with an Aunt down in Florida."

"So they're doing this under duress," Bruce realised. "If we could get to those kids and free them, then we take away their leverage."

"One job at a time," Felicity complained, feeling a little harassed. "The next portion of conversation is almost ready."

There seemed to be a slight gap in the conversation, as the directors moved between microphones.

"…two days."

"Will it be ready?"

"Yeah."

"What if we contacted the police anonymously?"

"What! Are you kidding me!"

"There has to be some way we can let someone know, without them finding out."

"I do not want you gambling with my child's life! Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, but-"

"No, no buts. If they get even a hint that anything leaked, they'll scrub the operation."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"I said scrub, not scrap. They'll kill you, me, our kids and anyone else who might be a link back to them. Do you understand what's at stake here?"

"I know, hundreds, maybe thou-"

"One of them must have turned his head, away from the mic there, and I can't clean up sound that hadn't been recorded." Felicity explained.

"…know. The media will eat Queen alive for this."

"If they ever find out who really made those weapons, they'll eat us alive, assuming HIVE leaves any bones for the media to pick clean."

Felicity gave them the rest of the recordings as they were finished but there were no new details to be picked from them.

"So all we really know, is that someone is manufacturing weapons with the Queen name," Oliver said. "QC hasn't made weapon since my grandfather's day."

"It sounds like a smear campaign," Felicity said. "Even if you can eventually prove you didn't make them, the media will run with whatever name is on the weapons and worry about proof later, and by that time, QC will likely go under, especially in the wake of the earthquake machine."

Oliver nodded, looking worried.

"Then as soon as we know what's happening, I'll call a press conference. I'll say that it has come to our attention that someone is making weapons with our name on them, but they are counterfeit and not related to QC at all."

"It might work," Sara agreed.

"Except its Isabel who's behind this, she will have planted a false trail in our computers for the authorities to find. I'll go looking and see what I can find, but we have to assume she's done a top notch job of framing Oliver."

"It also involves 'hundreds maybe thousands' of something," Roy added. "But of what?"

"Hundreds or thousands of weapons?" Sara asked.

"From the way he was speaking, I think they were talking about casualties," Bruce offered.

"Okay, let's assume these weapons will kill a lot of people; how?" Felicity asked.

"Are they selling those smart bomb things that you found a design for?" Roy suggested.

"I doubt it," Bruce said. "That's a sharp, targeted tool, designed to minimise casualties, not maximise them. They would also be prohibitively expensive. Now, Isabel is cold and callous, possibly even psychopathic, but she's also an excellent business woman, she won't be spending a dime more on this than she has to."

"Well, let's assume it's the usual trafficked arms for now," Diggle said. "Guns, grenades, bazookas, maybe missiles, that kind of thing."

"Okay, but why would Queen, I mean, Oliver, be 'eaten alive' for it?" Felicity wondered. "People commit horrible crimes every day, but no one blames Colt or Smith & Wesson when some psyco shoots up a school."

"An illegal arms deal would do the trick," Alfred ventured. "Knowingly supplying illegal arms to a terrorist or to street thugs, would reflect very badly on the company responsible, not the mention, on the CEO who approved such a transaction."

"That's got to be it," Felicity agreed.

"Right," Diggle spoke up. "So, Felicity needs to hack into QC and find the records Isabel altered that point the finger back at Isabel. We then need to find those weapons and turn them over to the authorities before they can be sold."

"You make it sound so easy," Bruce noted with a wry smile.

"Not easy," Oliver agreed, "But it should be do-able."

"I can try hacking into Sagittarius records and see if or where they're making guns but, honestly guys, it could take me a couple of days to completely sweep the QC mainframe and as good as I am, I can't hack two places at once."

"I have a friend who can help," Bruce said.

"How good is he?" Felicity asked.

"He's more of an inventor than a programmer, but he's good."

Felicity bit down on her lip. "Okay, well I basically designed the QC firewalls so I can talk him through exploiting their weaknesses, there aren't many of them but with my help, he'll get into QC faster than he would Sagittarius; they have seriously beefed up their security since the last time I hacked in."

"So if you get the Sagittarius company records, we'll have everything we need, right?" Oliver asked.

"Not quite, they still have two innocent children," Sara reminded them. "We can't do anything with any of the information we get, not until we know where they are."

Felicity wanted to argue, as did almost everyone else in the room after all, intellectually she knew that saving the 'hundreds or thousands' of lives these weapons would take, was more important than saving two. It was logical to sacrifice the few for the many. It didn't matter how much she tied to talk herself into it though, she couldn't. They had to find those kids.

No one contradicted Sara, so it seemed that no one else wanted to argue the point either.

"Felicity, which of those directors wanted to go to the authorities?" Oliver asked.

"I don't know, I don't know their voices."

"It was the one in the light brown coat," Roy supplied.

"Do you mean tan?" Felicity asked?

"Yeah, the other one had on a dark blue coat, almost black."

"And you're sure he was the one that was wavering?" Bruce gave Roy a hard stare, not because he didn't trust him, but because they needed to be absolutely certain.

"I'm sure," Roy held his gaze.

"I'll check the camera footage and match that with their pictures on the company website." Felicity said, already tapping on her tablet.

Oliver and Bruce looked at each other.

"Then we go and have a pointed conversation with him," Oliver stated rather than asked.

Bruce nodded. "We can't be seen though."

"Felicity found a satellite image of their houses and the original architectural plans for when we bugged them, we'll find a way in that won't be seen."

"I'll reach out to my contacts, see if they've heard any chatter of an arms deal," Alfred said.

"Me too," Diggle agreed.

"I'm still on friendly-ish terms with some lowlifes in the glades," Roy added. "I'll ask around. Maybe we have another Mayor wannabe in town."

"Good idea," Oliver agreed.

"I'll go with you," Sara said.

"Then, let's get to it," Diggle said, rising from his chair, and everyone scattered to complete their tasks.


In the event, Oliver and Bruce were unable to find a way into the director's home that would guarantee they were unseen, so with Felicity's help, they came up with a plan B, which they enacted the next day.

As Bruce let go of Oliver, he stepped back and tried not to be envious of the jetpack. He'd have to ask Felicity of she could find out what they cost. Bruce Wayne's was a custom job, of course, and a very convenient way to get to the top of the tallest building in a two block radius. Had he been alone, Oliver would probably have parachuted in, since there just wasn't anything close enough to jump off or from, but chartering planes wasn't always easy. Even if Diggle could fly them (Oliver had never asked) they would have to file a flight plan and planes had identifying marks which could be traced back… The jetpack was much easier, and way cooler.

Now that both men were standing on a rooftop, in broad daylight, in full costume, he felt markedly less cool. Something about doing this at night just made it feel normal.

"So, what's that made of?" Oliver nodded towards Bruce's chest, meaning his suit.

It most resembled motorcycle leathers. Today he had left the cape off, since they would soon be climbing in air vents.

"Leather, lined with a microfiber which acts like Kevlar."

"Look much thinner than Kevlar."

"It is, it's just too expensive for the police and armed forced to justify when it's no more effective that what they use now."

"Don't you get hot in there?"

"It's a high tech fabric which allows breathability and it becomes more aerated when my skin gets hot. Unfortunately, the leather exterior negated that so yeah, it gets as hot as hell in here sometimes."

Oliver smiled, pleased that there were some cons to the Bat's attire.

"It looks different from the suits I've seen you wear on the news."

"I have a few different ones. This is the lightest, best for using in confined spaces. The strongest is more like a suit of armour, it weighs a ton and barely allows me to turn my head. I hate that one."

"Why wear it then?"

"Comes in handy when going up against people who are either heavily armed or worse, armed with more than just guns."

They stood there awkwardly for a few moments.

"I love the leather, by the way," Bruce said.

"Yeah, it's, uh, yeah."

"I've always wondered though, why a green hood?"

"It was given to me, I wear it to honour Shado, who wore it to honour her father."

"I like that, it's like having a legacy."

He wasn't wrong, even if the legacy was bittersweet.

"Why doesn't the hood come off when you fight?"

"Well, the hood is… you see, the cut, it's… I have no idea!" he admitted with a smile. "I guess better men than me put a lot of thought into it."

Bruce smiled. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." He braced himself for an awkward question about Felicity or something.

"That mask, it looks very comfortable."

"It is."

"How? I mean I've tried everything, I've made five moulds of my head so I can get it just right, but they all itch like hell after a while."

Well, at least there was one area in which his outfit was superior.

"It's a compressible micro-fabric. A friend made it for me and he's kind of indisposed right now, but Felicity might know what he used, I'll ask her, if you'd like."

"I'd appreciate it. If you want, I can hook you up with a couple of bolts of the Kevlar fabric, might save you a few scars in the future."

"Thanks, I think I have quite enough scars, for the time being at least."

"No problem."

"Okay guys, if you've finished exchanging sewing tips, the alarm on the fire door is being bypassed right… now."

"We're ready." Oliver had forgotten that Felicity could hear them.

They went to work and in short order, picked the lock on the fire escape and they headed into the stairwell. Once out of the sunlight, Oliver no longer felt ridiculous in his outfit, like a kid playing dress up, he felt like the warrior he was, with a legacy to continue.

He and Bruce went down one floor and from there, they entered an air shaft and after cutting hole, entered the crawl space above the suspended ceiling. The ceiling couldn't bear their weight, so Oliver shot a trick arrow into the next wall, with a rope line which they tied off and one at a time, they navigated the crawlspace, suspended from the rope.


John Egremont's nerves were visible to everyone he worked with, but they were used to him being stressed. Having recently acquired a division of Merlyn Global, they assumed his sweaty upper lip and jumpiness was due to his additional responsibilities, not to mention, the corporate reshuffling that often came with new acquisitions.

No one ever considered that his daughter wasn't at school in Europe but had in fact been kidnapped. Why would they?

As he entered his executive bathroom mid-afternoon, with a newspaper, no one questioned it, he'd been spending a lot of time in there recently.

It's fair to say though, that John Egremont got the shock of his life when a ceiling tile opened and not only the Arrow, but the Bat jumped down. He didn't look as frightened as both men expected though.

"John Egremont?" Oliver asked.

"Make it quick," he said to them, once he had regained the power of speech. He hadn't even made any attempt to get off the toilet or pull his pants up.

Both men were slightly appalled that he seemed to disregard the consequences his daughter might face if he were killed, but they weren't here to question his parenting skills.

"We're not going to kill you," Bruce said. "But if you tell anyone you were here, HIVE will."

Egremont nodded his understanding.

"You're making weapons with the Queen name on them, why?" Oliver demanded.

"I don't know."

"What exactly are you making?" Bruce asked.

"EMP bombs."

"You're making electro-magnetic bombs?" Bruce asked.

"To disable the enemy's electronics," he confirmed.

"Who are they being sold to?" Oliver demanded.

"The military, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, you name it."

"What's the catch?"

"They're more powerful than they should be. I don't know for sure but my guess would be that once they're at their destinations, they'll be set off."

"Disabling our biggest bases," Bruce caught on.

"And leaving the entire country vulnerable to an attack," Oliver finished.

"When are they being shipped?" Oliver demanded.

"The army is coming in to transport them in two days. They're going all over the mainland, for testing, training and readied for shipping to our troops abroad."

Bruce and Oliver shared a look.

"Who do you report to?" Bruce demanded.

"I don't understand."

"Who got you to do this?" Bruce growled.

"The Bradley Michaels, the R&D Director. His division designed and tested it, mine built it."

"Do you know the name of anyone else involved?"

"No, no one else here is involved. They think we're fulfilling a contract for Queen Consolidated and everything is above board."

"How are you passing the shipments off as Queen goods?" Oliver asked.

"The paperwork is all forged, Brad has handled all meetings with the higher ups, pretending to be a Queen Consolidated employee. I don't know where he got the I.D. badge, but it looks genuine. So does the paperwork."

"What about your daughter?" Oliver asked.

"They have her. I get a ten minute webcam chat with her once a week, they email me a link, but I don't know where they're keeping her." His eyes welled with tears.

"When did she go missing?"

"Four months ago, when this started. My wife is a nervous wreck, she won't eat, she hardly sleeps, Doug gives me Xanax for her and I crush them into her drink, it's the only way to stop her going to the police."

"Tell no one about this," Bruce warned.

Egremont shook his head. "I wouldn't dare."

With that, the men disappeared back into the ceiling, replacing the tile as they went.

Egremont sat there in shock, wondering if that had been real, or a hallucination brought on by stress. God knew, he'd dreamed about someone riding to his rescue enough times.

'It must have been a dream,' he decided. 'The vigilantes only come out at night and there's not a single trace of them left, not even a scuff mark on the floor.'

He didn't question whether he believed that, or whether he just wanted to believe that. Either way, it would be easier not to tell anyone if he thought the visit had been a figment of his own imagination.


"So what's an ESP?" Roy asked.

"EMP, or Electro-Magnetic Pulse," Felicity answered, because it always fell to her to explain the technical aspect of anything. "Basically, it's a strong electromagnetic wave that creates a current within any electronic circuits that the wave passes through, overloading them."

"Huh?" Roy frowned.

She was pleasantly surprised when Bruce answered. "The pulse fries anything electronic within a certain radius, taking out cell phones, computers, radios, newer cars, anything that needs a circuit to operate, essentially blinding a village or small town."

"So once they cripple these military bases, then what?" Sara asked.

"Judging from their plan on the island," Oliver replied, "they'll probably launch a terrorist attack of some description, to cash in on the ensuing chaos and panic."

"And by blaming Queen Consolidated, destroy the company and Oliver" Bruce added. "The company will be bankrupted by legal and compensation claims, possibly even facing criminal charges. After such an attack, people will be looking for a scapegoat, which they will find in Oliver's at worst, faulty machinery or at best, his facilitating terrorists. The compensation claims would be so massive, the company will have to go into liquidation and Isabel or one of her companies, can buy it back."

"She gets the company she wanted in the first place," Sara finished. "Plus she makes Oliver public enemy number one."

"It's very clever," Roy admitted.

"That's one word for it," Oliver said darkly.

"Any news on the QC computers?" Sara asked.

"Mr Wayne's friend is still combing the records, just to be sure," Felicity said, "but he believes he's found every entry he can that talks of this order and Oliver's involvement, and changed it to look like Isabel is behind the transactions, which she is. He also discovered a massive payment from an unknown source, to QC's Applied Sciences division, which in the wake of events, will look like a payoff from terrorists."

"Once he's finished, I can talk to someone I trust in the FBI," Bruce said. "Tell him that Oliver is suspicious of this payment, worried about what it means, and is seeking quiet help from the authorities because he doesn't want to tip off whoever is behind this."

"And Sagittarius?" Sara asked.

"I'm in their system," Felicity explained. "I'm copying any incriminating evidence, especially if it points the finger at QC."

"Such as?" Bruce asked.

"Most of the incriminating stuff is by email, talk of the plan to pin this on QC and the best way to go about it. I already have more than enough to bury them, but I want to double check everything."

"Is that strictly necessary?" Alfred asked.

"Probably not, but I don't want to leave a stone unturned if it might point the finger at Oliver."

"Where are we on tracking the children?" Oliver asked.

"Good news, I think. I looked into the bank accounts we were able to identify and by cross referencing the date the kids were kidnapped with the people HIVE paid, I've found three accounts, each received two payment's, one a few days before the kids went missing, one three days later. All three accounts were credited on the same dates."

"So we have a team of three that kidnapped and are holding the children," Bruce surmised.

"These are the account names." Felicity brought up a page on the display screen, with a photographs and information. "First is Bette Sans Souci. She has a long history of selling her services to the highest bidder. Next is Tony Pegg, he's former military gone rogue. Smart and dangerous, he's being paid more than the others, so he's probably the mastermind of this particular plot. Lastly we have Roy Raymond. He's the youngest, and also the son of Roy Raymond Sr."

"The TV guy who investigates unsolved crimes?" Roy asked.

"That's him," she confirmed. "Evidently, the apple fell very far from that tree. I've printed out a dossier on them all and I'm combing police databases for their plates and any tickets, searching camera feeds for facial recognition, and I'm watching their, their parents, siblings, partners, ex partners, children and friends etc. credit and bank cards. One way or another, we will find these kids."

"And if we can't?" Bruce asked her kindly.

"If all that fails, we can ask Lance to put out a country wide Amber Alert but considering how many fingers HIVE have in so many pies, that will likely tip them off the moment it goes out over the wire."

"We can't do that," Oliver said. "If we don't find them, then we'd don't go to the police, that will only get them killed sooner."

"What do you suggest?" Bruce asked him.

"That we get to work. Failure is not an option.


24 hours of chasing every lead they had got them nowhere, although with only four hours sleep, they were all tired, short-tempered and sniping at each other.

"We're running out of time!" Oliver yelled. "If we don't find those kids…"

They all knew how that sentence ended. Either the kids would die, or hundreds would be killed in a terror attack. A lose/lose situation.

"We need a new plan," Bruce agreed. "A third option."

Silence reigned for a long few moments.

"I only see one option," Oliver broke the deafening silence. "If we can't get to those kids, we have to steal the EMPs."

"As soon as they find out, they'll kill the children," Sara argued.

"She's right," Felicity agreed.

"Then they can never know," Oliver said.

"So what, we sneak in and steal 500 units of these machines, without being discovered?" Roy sounded incredulous.

Oliver looked around everyone. "That's exactly what I intend to do."


Oliver watched as the two parties met, signed the paperwork and then made small talk, while the trucks were loaded with the crated EMP devices.

It wasn't a quick hand off, thanks to the size of the delivery.

From the plans that Felicity had found, each EMP could target an area three square miles and with this many, they could effectively cripple every major US city, if they wanted to.

After an eternity of beeping trucks, fork lifts and crates, the truck convoy was ready to roll. With a final handshake, the convoy departed.

Oliver sighed with relief.

"So far, so good."

He quickly ran to the opposite side of the rooftop and using a zip line arrow, rode it over to the next building.


Felicity watched as Alfred and Diggle approached her.

"Everything okay?" Felicity asked.

"Not a single God-damn hitch," Alfred smiled, using an American accent, which was pretty flawless. She supposed he'd lived here for long enough to have picked it up naturally.

"Bruce?"

"Right here!" He bounded over, pulling a cap off as he went.

Felicity stretched up to kiss him.

"Then let's get started."


"Mr Queen, I wasn't aware that you would be present at the transfer of goods?" General Lane greeted the CEO.

"I'm not, Sir. I'm here to inform you that you have been conned. My company didn't make the weapons you ordered, you were dealing with a company called Sagittarius, who forged documents to make it seem as if you were doing business with me."

"I don't understand," The general frowned.

"If you'll follow me?" Oliver led him, flanked by six of his men, into the warehouse, where dozens of army trucks were lined up.

"We collected the EMP's earlier tonight, Alfred Pennyworth played your part very well, General," Oliver explained.

Alfred acknowledged the praise with a nod of his head.

"You have stolen government property!" Lane yelled.

"If you'll hear us out, General, I think everything will become clear. It began when the Arrow discovered this plot but the people behind this have children held hostage, so he couldn't act. He asked if there was any way that we could collect the delivery."

"So the email I received this morning, changing the time and location of the shipment, was from you?"

"Yes, Sir, probably the only genuine email you've ever received from me. I also communicated with Sagittarius on your behalf, telling them you would be two hours early, allowing us time to bring the shipment here."

They were using an old aircraft hangar on the outskirts of Starling City.

"Why?" the General asked.

"The machines you were sold are defective," Bruce Wayne left the device he'd been examining and came over to them. "If you'll allow me to show you?"

General Lane nodded and followed Bruce to the EMP that Felicity was working on.

"This is the EMP," Felicity explained without any preamble. "The explosives in here cause the wire wrapped around to emit an electro-magnetic pulse when you press this button," she pointed to it. "Your machines came with a little something extra though."

"Oh?"

She pointed to a square box that rested on the armature cylinder.

"That is a timer," she explained. "Every EMP is set to detonate in thirty two hours, when they'll all be sitting in bases, ready to be tested or shipped abroad."

"It will have devastating effect," Oliver explained. "Leaving the bases and much of the United States, vulnerable to a terrorist attack."

"We ordered five hundred units!" Lane's pallor became grey as he considered how much damage these could've wrought. "My God!"

"We're removing the explosives from the armature cylinder as we speak," Felicity assured him. "The devices will be safe then, and you can see about removing the hidden timer in your own time."

"Why are they doing this, and framing you for it?"

"I believe the woman responsible, Isabel Rochev, wants my company, which wouldn't survive this scandal, and she wants to profit from the ensuing chaos of an attack. As for Sagittarius' involvement, I believe you'll find that at some point recently, one of Miss Rochev's companies acquired it."

"Who are the terror organisation?" Lane asked.

"No idea," Oliver answered. "She could have done a deal with the likes of Al Queda, or she could be the one with her finger on the trigger. Isabel Rochev's agenda here is to make money, and ruin me in the process."

"What about the children you spoke of?"

"They're the children of two Sagittarius employees, taken to ensure their cooperation with the plan. We don't know their location, that's why I couldn't simply tell you what I knew, I had to make it seem as if the military had taken collection, in order to buy us more time to find them."

General Lane looked around the warehouse. "Where did you find enough people to drive all these trucks?"

"In the glades mostly, people with a driving licence and the right look, I offered them all two thousand dollars for one week's work. Then we hired every Army uniform we could find, from consume shops, to wholesalers, to prop houses."

"You employed these people for a whole week?"

"I can't send them back to the glades until this is over. I don't want anyone to start talking about playing a soldier, not until the children are safe."

"And they believed these random men were Military?"

"Alfred was a captain in the British SAS, and he volunteered to be the front man for operation, playing you, essentially. My bodyguard, Mr Diggle, is former Special Forces and played the role of second in command and between them, they taught the other men a few tips and tricks for how to behave. The fact is, if most civilians see a uniform, they trust it. Luckily for us, it worked."

"So, what now?" General Lane asked.

"That's up to you, Sir. We've collected as much evidence of this conspiracy as we can but you might want to see this through. I think that's the only way to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, that an attack is planned, and who is behind it."

General Lane nodded. "I'll call my superiors."

"No!" Oliver said with certainty. "This group have moles everywhere and if there's even a hint that they've been discovered, they might be able to remote detonate the bombs, as well as killing the children. We need to finish disarming these before doing anything else, then we have to try and find the children they're holding."

"Agreed." Lane nodded. "Whatever we do, will stay with me and my men for the time being."

"Can you trust them?" Oliver asked.

"I know all these men personally, and I would trust them with my life."

"Understood," that was good enough for Oliver. "Do you have anyone trained in dismantling IEDs?"

"Everyone had a little training."

"Well these are safer than IEDs as they're professionally made and can't be set off accidentally, but I would still want trained men working on them."

"And Bruce Wayne and the blonde woman are trained?" Lane asked.

"Not exactly," Oliver smiled. "But both are surprisingly well versed in electronics and EMP weapons."

Lane grunted his acceptance. "I'll debrief my men and we'll be back to help you in ten."

"We'll be waiting," Oliver assured him, going back to see how Felicity and Bruce were fairing at disarming the bombs.


With help from the soldiers and by working through the night, all 500 of the EMP's had been disarmed by the following morning and were setting off in conveys for their various destinations.

General Lane remained behind with a few of his best trained men, to discuss strategy, for example, which military bases would likely be the focus of the attacks.

Felicity was asleep, her head on the table as the men talked. Of all of them, she was the least well rested, as she had been up with her computers for the last few nights.

When her phone beeped loudly and unexpectedly, her head shot up off the table. "What's happening?"

"Your phone," Oliver told her, still surprised by how well her army fatigues suited her, even if they were rather rumbled by now.

Felicity fished her phone out of her pocket and her eyes widened.

"Roy Raymond's sister just received a call from a payphone on the outskirts of Dallas."

"Does she have any friends or family in that area?" Oliver asked.

"No, not that I could find." Felicity pulled her tablet out and began typing.

"It could be anyone," General Lane argued.

"And we can't go in to the area until we know exactly where the children are being kept," Bruce agreed.

"The NSA monitors all phone calls," Felicity reminded them.

"It'll take an age for them to voluntarily give us that recording." Lane argued.

"Right," Felicity agreed. "Which is why I didn't give them a choice." She pressed a few more things on the touch screen and a conversation began to play.

"Hello?" It was a female voice.

"Hey, Kel, how are you?" Said the presumed Roy Raymond Jr.

"Roy? Is that you? Where have you been?"

"I told you, I had a job offer."

"And didn't call for over three months! Where was this job, the arctic?"

"Please, Kel, just calm down and listen, please. I have something important to tell you."

There was a long suffering sigh then. "Go on."

"I can't tell you how or why, but you have to believe me on this. Pack the kids and Steve up and take a family vacation somewhere remote, preferably secure too."

"Roy, I can't just up and leave with my family, we both have jobs and the kids have school, we-"

"KELLY! You have to do this! Please, I'm begging you, find somewhere remote and hide, things could get very ugly for a few days."

"You're scaring me."

"Good, I've got to go, just… please, believe me on this one."

"What have you got yourself involved with this time?"

"Just do it Kelly. I love you. Bye." The line went dead.

"There were a few GPS phones near to that payphone during the call, but only belongs to a burner phone," Felicity said. "That phone is currently heading south on Highway 45, towards the town of Ferris. I'll keep tracing it."

"I think that's our call to arms, gentlemen." General Lane got to his feet and his soldiers snapped to attention.

"No," Bruce said. "You need to stay here and arrest the terrorists. We'll get the kids back."

"You two?" Lane looked between Oliver and Bruce, his incredulity palpable.

"With a little help, yes," Bruce agreed.

"What kind of help?" Lane demanded.

"The illegal and stealthy kind," Felicity said. "The kind that hacks into government databases and cuts through red tape. They can do this, General, especially with my help to guide them in."

Lane was wavering and Diggle pressed the point home.

"You really will be more help here, Sir. We're only talking two kids and three kidnappers down in Dallas, but who knows how many terrorists will be involved in the attack."

"All right, I don't like it but I'll agree to let you and your… friends handle this, but I want to be kept informed."

"Understood," Oliver agreed, then he and Bruce left the room.

"You aren't going with them?" Lane asked Diggle.

"With respect sir, you'll need me more."

Lane clearly didn't like this turn of events but in the face of an eminent terror attack, he had little choice.

"I'm staying too," Felicity said. "I'll get you as much intel as I can, in a second." She slipped from the room and ran to catch up with Bruce and Oliver.

"It's going to be okay," Oliver assured her.

"I know, and I trust you guys, which is why I'm only going to wish you luck, not say goodbye."

She hugged them each in turn, stealing a quick kiss from Bruce, then watched as they walked away.

"You okay?" Diggle asked a few minutes later as he came to stand beside her.

"Yeah." She sighed.

"Come on," Diggle encouraged. "Dwelling on the dangers never helps."


AN2: I cant say anything about who Felicity ends up with without giving it away but whatever you are thinking, you will probably be in for a surprise. That's really all I can say. Although I cant tell you why, please don't give up on the story.