Author's Notes: I apologize for the wait, a lot of technical difficulties came up but here is the latest chapter. After there will be one more chapter, the most action-packed, and then the Epilogue. I will be working on a sequel to this story when it is done so please be on the look-out for that. Other than that, please Review and Enjoy!
It was the next morning and the team was at a stand still. Rumors of a big arms deal with no lead, a psycho serial killer with no lead, and a vigilante who knew Oliver's identity as The Arrow. Things were not working out.
Oliver, Diggle, and Roy were in the Foundry doing a three-way Escrima training session. It was supposed to be every man for themselves but quickly turned into a 2-on-1 situation with Roy and Diggle against Oliver.
Oliver was keeping up with Roy and Diggle's pace very well, blocking quickly and efficiently before coming to a stop.
"You sure are taking training seriously this week." Diggle noted.
"Fighting this vigilante was like fighting Malcolm Merlyn all over again, which means I need to train harder." Oliver replied as Laurel and Felicity walked in.
"I got the information you requested-" Laurel said but was quickly distracted by seeing Oliver, Roy, and Diggle shirtless and sweaty.
Laurel leaned over to Felicity, "Is it like this all the time in here?" Laurel whispered.
"Mostly on Wednesdays," Felicity answered nonchalantly, "but this week has been special."
The two women walked to the lab table as the men followed suit. Laurel placed several folders on the table as she started relaying the information.
"It took a little digging, but I found a connection between the last couple of arrests made this week. Steven Hortz, Daniel Swits, Ronald Harken, all of them are somewhat affiliated with a crime mob out of Gotham City. The mob is said to be owned by Carmine Falcone. The deal you've been hearing about is said to be between him and the Bertinellis." Laurel explained.
"The Bertinellis?" Roy inserted, "I thought they were locked up."
"Franco and Helena are incarcerated, but there is still another in the family." Laurel said as she placed another file on the table.
"Pino, Helena's little brother." Oliver said.
"So this guy is taking over the business while daddy's in prison." Diggle said.
"How long before this deal is supposed to happen?" Oliver asked.
"Interrogators couldn't get that information out of them. Unless you're willing to go all the way to Gotham and ask Falcone yourself, I don't know what to tell you." Laurel stated.
"We won't have to. We have a Gotham resident right here in Starling." Oliver replied.
"You mean Bruce Wayne?" Diggle asked, Oliver agreeing.
"I don't think Mr. Wayne will know a whole lot about the underground operations of his city, he's too busy being a stuck-up rich playboy." Laurel inserted.
"It won't hurt to ask, he may know more than we lead him on to. Besides, he's the best lead we have." Oliver inserted, "Now, we need to see where he's staying."
"Oh he's in a hotel suite, top floor around the corner from Palmer Industries." Felicity said quickly, everyone looking up at her, "NOT that I've been in his room or anything..."
"Are you going to need backup?" Roy asked.
"For Bruce, no. It should go fairly quickly." Oliver stated.
"You're not going to hurt him...are you?" Felicity asked.
"No, just a couple of questions, in-and-out, The Arrow doesn't need to get involved, me and Bruce are just going to play a little catch-up. In the meantime, I need more information on The Batman. Felicity, find any information you can on this guy. Diggle, keep training with Roy, and Laurel, thank you." Oliver said before making his way out the Foundry.
Elsewhere...
"You've brought too much attention to yourself Beanbag." Pino said.
"It's Ragdoll, and what's the point of being a hired killer if I can't have a little fun?" Ragdoll replied, sounding like a 5-year-old.
"You're not supposed to be a hired killer you idiot, you're supposed to be a bodyguard." Pino said before Ragdoll lashed at him, pinning Pino to a nearby wall and holding a knife to his neck.
"Call me an idiot again Mr. Bertinelli, and I'll carve your face like a pumpkin." Ragdoll whispered.
"Hands off the merchandise you freak." Said a voice from afar.
They turn to see a muscular bald man dressed in regular clothing with a bearded goatee enter the facility. He had what looked to be tally marks carved above his left eye.
"Unless you wanna be added to my tally, I suggest you do as I say." The man said, pulling out a hunting knife, almost three times bigger than Ragdoll's Swiss knife.
Ragdoll let Pino go and turned his attention to the bald man, "And who the hell are you my brave bald friend?"
"Reassurance from Falcone himself," Pino answered, fixing his jacket, "he's here to make sure obstacles are dealt with. We can't have lunatics like you messing things up. Now, you two get real aquainted with each other, the deal is tomorrow night and I need you two to tie up our loose end..."
It was now 6p.m. and Bruce was on the giant balcony of his suite, dressed in a white martial arts Gi, sporting a black belt practicing his hand-to-hand skills, performing acrobatic kicks and flips that were surprising for a man of his build.
Bruce does one more acrobatic flip before landing gracefully on his feet. He then walks toward a table holding 12 bat-shaped shuriken and a long, thick piece of red cloth. He took the cloth and blindfolded himself, then took the shuriken.
Around the balcony were 12 wooden planks, this was a test of Bruce's memory. He takes a step back and goes into a gymnist T poistion. Bruce then backflips and summersaults toward the center of the balcony.
As he landed in the center, Bruce started rapidly throwing the shuriken at the planks surrounding him, each one landing percisely in the center of what would be a head, spinning clockwise and counter-clockwise with each throw.
Bruce throws the last shuriken in a kneeling position at the last plank by the table, then his phone starts to ring. Bruce gets to his feet and takes off the blindfold, admiring his work. He calms his breathing before heading to pick up his phone.
"Bruce Wayne." Bruce answers.
"Hey Bruce, this is Oliver Queen."
"Ollie? How'd you get my number?"
"I may have had a certain blond PING your phone."
"She can do that?"
"One of her many talents, but I really just wanted to talk tonight, catch up on our years if you don't mind." Oliver says.
"Well, you are an old friend, and you did go through the trouble of hacking my phone. I don't see why not." Bruce joked.
"Great! If I recall correctly, you loved Italian and I know a great restaurant."
"You have yourself a deal Mr. Queen."
The Foundry
Roy was practicing his accuracy with the bow and was getting better. He reached for a tennis ball and threw it, bouncing it in the air and as he did he drew his bow back and fired, but the air missed. Roy looking very disappointed.
"Don't be dissappointed Roy," came a voice, it was Diggle coming down the stairs to the Foundry, "Oliver makes it look easier than it really is."
"I thought you were with Lyla and Sara?" Roy asked.
"I was, Lyla insisted I "get back to work" while she went clothes shopping for Sara." Diggle answered.
"Well there's not much going on right now, everything's been pretty silent the last couple of hours." Roy explained.
"You should go home and rest Roy, I'll take it from here." Diggle offered.
"You're right, but the thought of doing nothing bothers me when we have a psycho killer and another viglante out their with nothing but dead ends." Roy replied.
"I'm sure something will pop up, I'll let you know if I find something." Diggle said.
Roy nodded at the notion as he placed his bow and quiver back in the glass case and headed out before turing back around.
"Oh, for some reason the surveilance has been acting weird." Roy added.
Diggle pulled up the surveilance on the monitors to check it out. They did appear to be odd, almost cropped.
"Roy, turn the lights out please." Diggle asked.
Roy walked and turned the main lights off, the lights on the surveilance cameras were still on.
"The video's looped." Diggle exclaimed as he came to the shocking conclusion.
"The food is delicious here Ollie," Bruce said, cleaning his mouth with a napkin, "I wouldn't mind having one of these back in Gotham."
Oliver sat back and grinned at Bruce's notion before he started bring up a couple of important matters,
"Speaking of Gotham, how is everything at Wayne Enterprises?"
"Everything is going smoothly, mostly thanks to my partner Lucius Fox. The man is a genius." Bruce answered, "Though I do wish there was more I could've done for Queen Consolidated, I know how it must've felt."
"Starling was built on the foundation that my parents built, even though it was built on a lie, and because of that, people died." Oliver said.
"The Undertaking wasn't their fault, Ollie. Mrs. Moira Queen was under the seduction of a mad man and only did what was necessary to keep you and Thea alive." Bruce replied, Oliver smiling at Bruce's naive deduction of the events.
The Foundry
Felicity rushed into the The Foundry after being called at work about the surveilance being tampered with. She got into her chair and rolled to the monitors.
"This definitely counts as mainframe hacking," Felicity said, going nuts on the keyboard,"whoever did this is good, they put installed a decryption key so no one can trace them back. It may take some time but I'll have it unlocked soon..."
A red alert that popped up on the screen.
"Facial Recognition has a lock on the man in the doll mask. It looks like he's heading for Jacob Paulini's condo." Felicity said.
"He's there to finish the job. Roy, suit up, you and I will head over there." Diggle commanded.
"I'll call Oliver." Roy said.
"By the time you get back, I should have the decryption unlocked." Felicity said.
"So what exactly happened to you on that island?" Bruce asked, "If you don't mind me asking."
"It was...an experience." Oliver said.
"Say no more." Bruce said, taking a sip of his wine.
"What about you? I heard you dissapeared for almost 10 years."
Bruce sat his glass down, "Well, after my parent's death, I went to a really dark place. You know this. All of my suicide attempts, acting out, the rage that came over me was...puzzling. Going into adulthood, I saw that I needed to find myself again. So I went on a ssoul search."
"For 10 years?"
"Some searches take longer than others. But I came back with a vision, a vision for Gotham. I saw the potential in my city and I've been working toward it ever since. Though I have to thank Alfred for putting up with me."
"To a better tomorrow." Oliver toasted, Bruce following.
"So what about Carmine Falcone?" Oliver asked, Bruce pausing.
"The mobster? What about him?"
"I heard he has a hold on Gotham."
"The man is poisoning Gotham, but no one can get a hold of any evidence to take the man down." Bruce replied before Oliver's phone started ringing.
"Excuse me. Hello? I'm on my way. Sorry Bruce something came up, please finish your meal, on me of course."
"Everything alright?" Bruce asked.
"Fine." Oliver said before leaving Bruce.
Jacob Paulini's guards were laying outside the condo dead. Inside, Arsenal and Diggle were facing Ragdoll, who had the upperhand as Arsenal and Diggle just couldn't get a hold of the man.
Jacob Paulini was hiding behind a sofa chair when Arsenal went crashing down beside him, unconscious. Jacob rushed to the door and as he opened it, the man with the tally marks on his head was in front of him.
The man stabbed Jacob in the heart with the hunting knife and pulled it out, Jacob falling to ground as the bald man made his way toward Diggle who was beaten, bloodied, and out of ammo when a figure crashes through the window behind the bald man. It was The Arrow and now the odds were even as the bald man lashed at The Arrow while Diggle lashed at Ragdoll.
The Arrow dodged all of the bald man's lash attempts before sending a solid punch to the man's jaw, followed by a solid kick to the bald man's thigh. The bald man rush at The Arrow, picking him up and thrusting Oliver hard into a wall.
The Arrow sends a flurry of elbows into the bald man's back, trying to release his grip when he see's Diggle's leg get stabbed. The Arrow takes an arrow from his quiver and jams it into the bald man's shoulder before pulling it out and firing it at Ragdoll who acrobatically dodges it.
The bald man picks The Arrow up again and flips him over his head. The Arrow lands on his feet and sends a kick to the back of the bald man's leg, sending him down to one knee before Ragdoll intervened, now taking on The Arrow.
"Get Arsenal out of here!" The Arrow said to Diggle before getting back into action with Ragdoll and the bald man.
Diggle limped toward Roy and got him on his shoulder, carrying him out the door. The bald man broke away from the fight with The Arrow and ran toward the broken window.
"Our ride is here!" The bald man yelled before taking a couple of steps back and jumping out the window, falling 1 story before landing on a motor boat with two armed men on it. Ragdoll continued his fight with The Arrow, bending and flipping abnormally around him before dropkicking The Arrow through a glass table and cartwheeling to the broken window.
"See you soon, Robin Hood." Ragdoll said as he bowed and rushed out the window, The Arrow following.
The Arrow reached the window and tried to fire an arrow, but the armed men were laying down cover fire as they went off into across the shoreline, disappearing around the docks.
(Moments Later...)
The Foundry
Roy and Oliver were unhooded and carrying a wounded Diggle down the stairs, Felicity got up and rushed to them.
"Oh my God, Diggle." Felicity said, checking his wounds.
"A couple of stitches and I'm fine." Diggle said, Roy and Oliver laying him against the table.
Felicity went to the cabinets and grabbed the first aid kit before revealing what she had found,
"While you guys were gone, I unlocked the decryption, you will not believe what I found on the surveilance-"
"I hope I'm not interrupting." Came a voice from afar, making Felicity jump.
Roy and Oliver drawed their bows and were shocked to see that it was Bruce Wayne standing in The Foundry as well as his picture on surveilance.
"Oliver, you really need to take me up on my offer."