EPISODE 14: STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
Starling was home to many large corporations such as Queen Consolidated, Merlyn Global, and older than both was Kord Industries ran by Ted Kord. He was on his office at the moment where he had a look of sadness. He was writing on a piece of paper when his office phone rang.
He pushed the button answering it "Yes Jamie."
"Thea Queen is here," he responded.
"That time already," he said fixing his suit. "Send her in."
Thea shortly walked in alongside her was Diggle who was also in his suit. Thea had a great respect for Kord who has been trying to help Starling for years and even mentored their father when he was just starting out in the corporate world.
"Thea," he greeted her. "Mister Diggle, both of you come…sit."
"I'll stand," Diggle said standing by a wall as Thea took a seat across from Kord.
"Is everything okay?" Thea asked. "Everyone is not as cheery as usual when I come here."
"That is because we recently lost an employee," he confessed. "Was found murdered a few days ago."
"I'm sorry," Thea said. "Were you close?"
"I'm close with all my employees," Kord said leaning back in his chair. "I was just writing a note to his family along with a check to help them with anything they need."
"Who would want to murder him?" Thea asked.
Kord paused briefly, "I don't know."
Diggle doesn't know if Thea caught that but he has a feeling Mister Kord might be hiding something.
"I hope they catch whoever did it."
"You and me both Miss Queen," Kord said. "For now let's get to business."
In the hideout Dinah was engaged in a pretty intense sparring match with both Diggle and Sin. They kind got into an argument about who would win in a triple threat and here they are. At the computer screen Felicity was doing general research of Starling City. She was keeping an eye on any criminal activity that may be of interest to the tea. Right now things were calm but Diggle was waiting for Oliver to arrive.
Dinah dodged a kick from Sin and deflected a few shots from Diggle before moving out the way as Sin tried to hit her from behind but instead ended up kickinf Diggle in the chest making him fall to the ground.
"You're out," Sin said moving over to Dinah next."
"I can't even beat the person I trained," Diggle said moving over to Felicity.
"Your strength keep increasing you will be able to win no problem," Felicity said.
"Given Oliver's track record with fighting guys with superior strength I know it won't be enough for what we are facing."
"What do you mean?"
"Oliver was trained by the League of Assassins," Diggle began. "So was Malcolm and everyone who is following him. I know Oliver isn't your average Leaguer but we are technically fighting an army of people with his level of training. We are going to have to be on are guard at all times."
A loud noise interrupted Diggle as he looked over seeing Sin lying on her back.
"Sin clearly needs help with staying on guard," Dinah said grabbing a bottle of water.
"Enjoy this victory," Sin said "Just a few more and you won't be able to land a hit on me."
"We'll see," Dinah said with a smirk.
Oliver walked into the room with Nyssa at his side seeing his allies have just wrapped up there training.
"Alright Dig," Oliver greeted. "What is this lead?"
"It's about that case Roy told us about," Diggle said.
"The one that he thinks may be linked to Cheshire?" Sin said.
"Yeah. I did some digging and the victim is a Kord Industries employee."
"Kord hasn't been on are radar since this started," Nyssa chimed in.
"Not until now anyway," Oliver said.
"I sat in on a meeting with your sister and Kord and I think he knows more," Diggle finished.
"What are we looking for exactly?" Nyssa questioned.
"I'm not too sure but I think we should start with the dead employee."
"Already have," Felicity said. "Kord has some good security but I was able to pull a building location that only Kord, someone named Jaime, and our dead guy have access to.
"Let's check it out," Oliver said. "Suit up."
"I'm going to have to pass on this one. Going to visit Sara and see how she is doing."
Oliver gave her a nod as he grabbed his Arrow gear.
The full moon was over Starling and on the roof top of a rundown building the Arrow, Oliver Queen was engaging a group of heavily equipped League of Shadow members. They have stopped wearing the traditional League of Assassin garb and were now wearing a slick black armor. They looked like modern ninjas instead of the classic suits the assassins have worn for generations.
With Oliver was Sin in her black Arsenal uniform and Nyssa who was in her red and black garb. Oliver fired off an arrow hitting a guy in the chest sending him to the ground. He blocked incoming strikes using his bow as his adversaries came at him with swords. Sin was faring well with the experienced opponents as she found herself being able to read their moves. Perhaps it's from all the training with Oliver and they were part of the same organization. She kicked a guy in the chest then quickly leaped over an incoming opponent pulling out her pistols firing a few shots. The ninjas didn't go down as the typical thug thanks there advanced armor. She put her guns away seeing they would not help here and whipped out her bow.
Nyssa used her blade engaging them with her much superior swordsmanship skills. She cut one down moving to the next hitting him with the handle of her sword and then brought her blade down across his chest. She leaped in the air kicking two across the face before coming down on them with her sword cutting them both in the neck.
Oliver kicked the last one over the edge of the building before turning to see Sin and Nyssa had finished as well.
"What do you think they want with Kord Industries?" Sin asked.
"Don't know but that's why we are here," Oliver said lifting the window ceiling. "Diggle said it may be a good idea to look into it."
"From what Roy told me it may have been that cat masked wearing woman behind the murder of the employee."
"And she is with Merlyn," Nyssa chimed in with disgust.
"Let's find out what their after," Oliver said jumping into the building. The others followed as they began their search.
They started their search of the Kord owned building as the three split up in opposite directions. Oliver was impressed with some of the tech he was seeing being developed. He came to a computer turning it on. It immediately asked for a password. He pulled out one of his hacking arrows sticking it in the computer and began trying to access its files. Felicity wasn't the only one who hack.
Nyssa looked around the room also impressed with what she was seeing. Kord was a smart man that much was known but some of this stuff almost rivaled League tech. It's only known by a few but the League of Assassins was one of the technological advanced groups in the word only surpassed by a few like HIVE.
Sin walked off pretending to investigate the place. She couldn't even begin to know where to start looking. She barley recognized anything in the room…scratch that she didn't recognize anything in the room. Oliver has given her a few lessons that involved making different types of arrows which included a little bit of chemistry but this stuff was on a whole other level. Sin turned a corner and froze when she found the one object in the room covered with a sheet. She took the sheet off and under it was a machine marked with a REJECTED sign on it.
Sin heard a door open from above and walking in was a young Hispanic teen. "Crap," Sin said hiding instantly. "We got a guest," Sin whispered over the earpiece.
Nyssa and Oliver hid as well as the young man walked around the room in a casual brown jacket and blue backpack. Oliver recognized the boy as Kord's apprentice Jamie Reyes he believes his name was. The boy walked around the room for moment noticing the sheet off of the device Sin was looking at. He narrowed his eyes making his way to the computer where Oliver was trying to hack into. Jamie tried to stay calm as he casually made his way over to the alarm.
"He's going for the alarm," Nyssa said firing an arrow right in front of the teen. He tried to make a run for it but Sin fell down in front of him putting his arm in a lock an bringing him to the ground.
"Arsenal," Oliver said coming out the shadows. "Ease up." He approached getting down on one knee. "We don't want to hurt you. We just have a few questions."
"Then you should have made an appointment," he said struggling.
Sin looked down and saw a weird blue thing attached to his back. It suddenly started glowing and Sin was pushed back as Oliver and Nyssa went on guard. When they looked back at Jamie he was incased in a blue and black armor.
"Well that was unexpected," Nyssa said drawing her bow back firing an arrow that just broke on impact when it hit the armor.
"You're going to need bigger toys," Jaime said as his arm formed into a canon and he fired a wave of energy knocking both Oliver and Nyssa down.
He turned to see Arsenal fired an arrow that exploded before impact wrapping a cord around him. His armor suddenly formed a jetpack and he took to the air which caused Sin to dangle by her bow. Oliver got up shaking his head seeing Jaime was now air born. He quickly fired an explosives arrow hitting Jamie in the back making him collide into a wall. He and Sin fell to the ground hard with loud groans. Jamie got up ready to go another round.
"I think that's enough," a voice said. They looked to see Ted Kord standing at the top of the stairs. "Stand down Jamie," he ordered. "I am pretty sure I know why they are here."
Sara was at home packing her bag ready to go meet with Malcolm. The training has been getting tougher, especially since their intentions for one another is out in the open. Sara wants to get the training necessary to not only kill Malcolm but to make sure no one will hurt her ever again. While Malcolm wants her to join his cause and his League of Shadows. Before she could walk out the door she stopped and looked into a mirror on the wall. The training was getting tougher as bruises on her face were starting to show more often. She opens the door and standing there was her sister Dinah.
"What happened to your face," she said coming into the room.
"Nothing," Sara said.
"That is not nothing," Dinah said taking a closer look.
"Look I've been taking some self-defense classes," she said. "One of the lessons went a little rough."
"Where are you taking these lessons?" Dinah asked.
"With a guy I met," Sara said. "Its private lessons," Sara locked the door behind her taking off.
Malcolm entered the HQ of the League of Shadow where his loyal followers were hard at work preparing for the endgame. He walked over to the many computer screens that were on the wall. He found quite the talented hacker just rotting away in a cell.
"Cooper," Malcolm greeted the young man who was typing away fiercely at the keyboard.
"Mister Merlyn he greeted."
"How is hacking into the Kord Industries mainframe?"
"Not going to happen unless you can get somebody in there. The team you sent was taken out by the Arrow and friends. Chances are they'll destroy the device."
"No matter," Merlyn said. "We have other ways of getting it."
"My employee who was murdered was the head of a project titled Ruble," Kord explained to Oliver and Nyssa in a corner of the room. Sin and Jamie were talking on the other side. "Its purpose was to make demolishing buildings more efficient and controlled. The device would go underneath the building and when activated cause a controlled earthquake that will level it."
"Sound effective," Oliver said. "What was the issue?"
"Well the device itself," Kord said. "I found out that with a large stable source of power it could be used to cause larger quakes. In my companies hands I knew it was safe but it was others intentions I grew concerned of. Someone duplicated are design and tested it out on a small village in Africa. Their power source however gave out and the device exploded leveling the area."
"Damn," Nyssa said.
"What happened next?" Oliver questioned.
"I hunted down the men who did it and made sure that any blueprint of the machine was destroyed," he said.
"Wait?" Nyssa held up her hand. "You hunted them down."
"Yes," he said. "Like Mister Queen here I to use to play hero." Oliver was caught off guard by the elderly man's knowing of his true identity. "Don't be too surprised," Kord said. "People like us have a certain atmosphere we give off."
"Back to the matter at hand," Nyssa said. "We need to destroy this thing and anything related to it."
"Blueprints, notes, schematics, and anything else," Oliver added.
"Alright," Kord said.
Over with Sin and Jaime they were talking about his armor that Sin was having a hard time grasping.
"So I was coming home from school when a building belonging to Mister Kord exploded and this thing on my back attached itself to me. The Scarab is what we call it. It is what makes the armor and all the weapons."
"Sounds cool," Sin said astonished. "Why would you want it to come off?"
"Because we don't exactly get along," Jaime said. "Also there have been times when it completely takes over my body."
"Oh," she said.
"Mister Kord had been studying it for a while before the explosion."
"Arsenal," Oliver walked up. "We are just about done here."
"Jaime," Kord approached. "I want you to find anything related to project Ruble and destroy. Hard and digital copies," he said.
"Yes sir," he replied flying out the room.
"I'll have this one dismantled before tomorrow."
"Good," Oliver said feeling good about being a step ahead of Malcolm's plan. "Now what are you going to do about him."
"Jaime? I'm trying to help him every way I know how. Can't go to too many people for help or risk word getting out."
"I understand," Oliver said feeling he may be in a similar boat when it comes to Sin's future.
"Slow. Weak. Pathetic," Lawrence shouted at his daughter Artemis as they were training.
He threw strong punch after strong punch not holding back. Artemis tried her best to block the hits but her father was much better and she got hit in the face falling to the ground.
"Get up," he demanded. "I ain't raising no weakling."
"You call this raising," she whispered.
"Excuse me," he said. "You got something to say, say it loud enough for me to hear."
"That's enough," Jade yelled running into the room. "You were doing this when I left. It's been hours."
"She's getting off east compared to what I put you through."
"And you will out put her through what you put me through," Jade said narrowing her eyes.
"Are you forgetting whose been keeping you both safe all these years," he hissed. "The League of Assassins want us dead."
"If I recall correctly Ra's wanted you dead not me and Artemis."
"Why you little…"
He stormed out the room in fury as Jade helped Artemis off the ground.
"I can't do this anymore Jade," Artemis said sadly.
"As long as are father has Malcolm to call on we won't be able to go anywhere. You know that."
"I know."
Sara was with Malcolm in their training room as she aggressively tried to land a hit on him. She was throwing punch after punch kick after kick and she has come to realize that Malcolm was holding back a lot when they first started. He ducked another kick she tried to hit him with and grabbing her by the leg he throws her onto the ground.
"That's enough for today," he said walking past her.
"That's it," she said getting up.
"I have somethings to take care of."
"Why are you doing this?"
Malcolm turned around to look at her, "What?"
"All this," she addressed. "Tearing Starling apart, going to war with Oliver, what do you hope to accomplish when it's all done."
"I want this city to pay for what it took from me and not just this city but this unjust world that has come to form. I thought working with the League would change that but I was wrong. So I will control what happens to the world and create one where no one will act without my say so."
"You think that justifies you killing innocent people."
"Sara," Malcolm got closer. "I promise you I have never killed an innocent person."
"No, you just have your followers do it for you," she said walking away.
"You're improving quickly," he tells her before she exits the room.
"Mister Merlyn," Cooper entered the room.
"What is it?"
"It's as I predicted," he said walking over. "Kord is destroying the device and anything related to it."
"Alright," he responded "I'll take care of it."
Sara entered her home stretching her body ready to lie it down for the night. She knows these lessons with Malcolm can't go on forever but at the same time the progress she has made would not be nearly as evident if she was getting taught by anyone else. The lights to her apartment turned on suddenly and standing there was all of team Arrow. Oliver, Dinah, Sin, Diggle, Nyssa, Roy, and Felicity.
"What are all of you doing here?"
"Take a wild guess," Dinah said her eyes narrowed.
Thea sluggishly walked down the stairs as the doorbell rang over and over. She opened the door half asleep to see Artemis standing there hood over her head soaking in the rain. Thea rubbing her eyes still trying to wake up.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I just wondering if I could stay the night?" she asked lifting her head showing the bruise on her face.
"Definitely," Thea said. "Come in."
NEXT. EPISODE 15: SKELETONS OUT THE CLOSET
A/N: I know it's been a while and I apologize. I'm not going to say chapters will be coming faster because I honestly don't know what life will throw at me next but I promise I WILL FINISH THIS STORY. Besides the good part is coming. Anyway I'll be around for a while catching up on stories and stuff so I'll try and get more writing done.
Till Next Time!