Chapter 14: The Story, The Boat, And The Raid On The Boat.

(Author's Note: Minor Mistake got made in Chapter 13. Malcolm Merlyn shows up to the Black Spider Clan at the same time he showed up to the League in canon. The explanation will be in this chapter.)

Training is boring. Every hero worth their salt knows this. The adrenaline dump from going out into your city, whether it be Metropolis or Central City, can't be replicated by hitting a bag, testing your quick-draw speed with your weapons, or even trying to beat your fastest time either on the ground or in the air. But, and this part everyone also understands, dying is not preferred. So, if for no other reason than to keep themselves alive, everyone trains their skills and keeps their weapons sharp.

To keep that boredom at bay, though, they make the drudgery fun. The Flash routinely would go to Central City's track team and challenge them all to sprints to keep his speed up, which also served as a de-facto intelligence-gathering session for everything from where was the best place to eat to any rumors of anything going on untoward.

Wonder Woman routinely found herself in Crossfit boxes throughout the Mediterranean and South Pacific, pushing herself to the limits of her considerable abilities while still keeping her general connection to the region of the world that most closely held her heart.

The weird thing is that Wonder Woman didn't have to. She was a demi-goddess gifted with powers that made her a match for Superman, after all. But if you asked her, and quite a few did, it was less that she needed to, and more that she found the idea of not being prepared for any eventuality supremely distasteful. Plus, and this part she admitted to only after about 6 glasses of ouzo dulled her inhibitions, she found herself enjoying the fact that this particular brand of exercise had a lot of people wearing not a lot of clothing while they did it.

Green Arrow and Black Canary, on the other hand, discovered that the best way to train was to enter competitions. So, on more than one occasion, Oliver Queen entered archery competitions under an assumed name and in disguise. He won more of them than he would like and donated all of his winnings to charities that dealt with increasing literacy and STEM proficiency in the Glades.

Black Canary, meanwhile, competed in amateur kickboxing. She found that using her martial arts skills in controlled environments helped her from feeling like all she ever did with them was deliver justice. For her part, she donated her considerable winnings to the Police Athletic League.

But all those years ago, when Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance were members of the League of Assassins, training wasn't a luxury. It wasn't something they did for fun or competition's sake. It was a question of survival, and an absolute necessity.

But lucky for Al-Sahim and Al-Kanari, they had two excellent teachers.

Five Years Ago in the Mediterranean Ocean…

As Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance head onto an open training hall on the League's boat to continue their sparring sessions with Al-Dhiyb and Nyssa Al-Ghul, they literally find themselves shaking with unreleased adrenaline after going to their 1st mission and nearly losing their lives more or less back-to-back. Grabbing a quiver filled with his familiar emerald green-fletched arrows, Al-Sahim looks confused when one of the new initiates takes it from him and walks it back to his quarters. Raising an eyebrow he nonetheless steels his features as his training requires, not interested in making whatever he is being expected to any harder than it ought to be by showing pique.

"Well, kid, you and your girlfriend over there bungled the fuck out of that mission. You killed some random guy, NOT the guy we were expected to kill. We were conspicuous, and noticeable when we were supposed to be stealthy. And because of that, we could not serve the balance and another team had to find him and take care of him. Everything we wanted to do that night didn't get done, and that's because you panicked in the heat of the moment and didn't keep your head" bellowed Al-Dhiyb, towering over his student.

"But as I think about it, it's the one thing we didn't train you for. We taught you everything we could about how to fight, but we didn't teach you how to read a room and see threats. We didn't teach you tactics, like stealth or intimidation. In short, your teaching is incomplete. And that is no one's fault but ours. So grab your girlfriend over there and some coffee. We're going to start from the beginning" says Al-Dhiyb kindly, as Nyssa Al-Ghul saunters into the room with three of the league's initiates carrying a blackboard, a small library's worth of textbooks, and weirdly the collapsible bullseyes and practice dummies that are used back in Nanda Parbat.

"We are going to take this entire boat ride, and sometime after, to make sure your minds are as well-trained as your bodies are. A great assassin knows every inch of every room he is required to enter and knows his target as he knows himself. He knows his likes, his dislikes, where he spends his time" states Nyssa, her barely-there smirk evident in her voice as well as in her face.

Meanwhile, Five Years Ago at the foot of Mount Fuji…

Malcolm Merlyn was exhausted. No, as the billionaire thought about it, exhausted was an insult to this. Literally from the moment he swore his allegiance to the Black Spider Clan, exhausted was all he had been. He had immediately been placed against experienced ninja and been beaten relentlessly before he could even get a hand up to defend himself. He was then tied up and hung upside down where he was beaten with sticks and whips, before having an impossibly large black spider tattooed on his back.

Then, after a healing process that felt more perfunctory than concerned with increasing his health, he was trained. He was trained with katana, bows and arrows, the hand-and-foot claws that were known as Falcon's Talons, and just about every single weapon that was in the armory. He also learned about the history of the Clan, and their various cells left sleeping throughout major cities worldwide waiting for just the right moment to be activated. There was even one in Starling City, loaded with ninja trained in all the arts he was being trained in.

But when he was tired like this, he had a motivation that kept him going. It was not, as he imagined it might be when he first arrived here, the love he had for his son Tommy. The tactics of the Black Spider Clan bled the love out of him for anything and anyone a bit at a time, kind of like leeches. All that was left, all that COULD be left, was the appreciation of evil.

Besides, after what he knew he was going to do, he figured Tommy wouldn't want anyone to know about who his father was.

The motivation was hatred and revenge. Hatred for all the people in the Glades who had stood idly by, doing NOTHING, while the love of his life bled out in their streets. This was a sin none of them, not even the children, could be forgiven for.

But revenge? That wasn't for the Glades. No, that was for the group that had rejected him. It was for the League of Assassins.

He had wanted to do this the right way, to cull only those who he knew were directly responsible for the sin he was trying to cleanse. But the League, those pollyannas hiding behind a "balance" he could not understand, refused him outright. The second-in-command of their leader, this man named Al-Dhiyb, even informed him that any further standing in his presence would mean his death.

He knew he was going to burn down the Glades to the bedrock. But if, by some great fortune, he could take this Al-Dhiyb with him it would make a good day all the better.

But that would have to wait. For right now, he had a partner to guide through. He had been told what female ninja were called, a word that seemed thick and foreign to his tongue. Despite the idea, given to him by Genshin and Kushimaro, that he was expected to treat this woman as his equal, he couldn't.

She called herself Cheshire, but that didn't matter to him. Nothing about her did. For him, she was just a means to an end, a tool that he could use to pry open doors and get their mission finished. And after that was done? Whatever would happen to her was no longer his concern.

Back on the Boat…

"And that's why you have to get your tuxedos and evening gowns made by one of our clothiers. There are always places to hide daggers, Al-Kanari, or flechettes, Al-Sahim" says Nyssa, unzipping her leather jacket and turning it upside down to reveal approximately eight sheathed Chinese butterfly knives which clatter on the floor.

"Let's take a break everyone," said Al-Dhiyb, feeling like if he stared at his two charges long enough he could see their overfilled brains literally pour out of their ears. Besides, he figured it was time for them to see him as something other than the bellowing professor on high.

"I know that when we were on that yacht, you wanted to find out how I got here. It's not exactly a common thing for someone to find themselves in the League of Assassins, much less a high-ranking member who has veto power over new recruits. I mean, before we found you guys, we had to tell this weird guy named Malcolm Merlyn that he couldn't join the league" stated Al-Dhiyb, who quickly notices the dropped jaws and horrified expressions of his students.

"Let me guess. You know him?" asked Al-Dhiyb protectively, realizing that he saw these two kids as like his own family.

"Know him is an understatement. He's the father of my best friend, and we've known each other since we were kids. Both Laurel and I have known him all of our lives. So to hear that he wanted to do this is, well, jarring" says Oliver, his girlfriend and mission partner still too shocked to speak.

"Did he say what he wanted to do as a member of the League?" asked Laurel, quickly going into lawyer mode but still being careful to not interrogate.

"I am sure you both know, as members of the League, the value we place on not harming innocent people. Even on that yacht, we fired wounding shots on the yacht's security forces and the navy men who joined us there. They were simply officers sworn to provide justice, no matter how weak we might find it. But not this Merlyn. Apparently, when his wife died, he sought to murder not just those who he knew to be responsible, but the entire city. He believed it to be beyond redemption, beyond saving. We disagreed, and so we parted as enemies. I have reason to believe that he found another guild to help him do what ours would not. If I had to guess, I would imagine he has joined up with the Black Spider Clan. The day will come when we face them in battle, and I look forward to showing this Merlyn the error of his ways" said Al-Dhiyb, his voice and posture giving off reasons why he was called Al-Dhiyb or the Wolf.

At that exact moment, alarms sounded all throughout the boat indicating that they were being confronted by a hostile ship. As Nyssa ran back to join them, tossing Oliver his quiver and compound bow, she simply told Al-Kanari and Al-Sahim one thing: "This is a raid. Kill every man and woman you see who does not wear League armor."

And so, their orders given and their focus sharpened by a betrayal, Oliver Jonas Queen and Dinah Laurel Lance went to war.

On the main deck…

Al-Dhiyb roared into battle, cutting swaths through the ninja in front of him with the dual katanas that he wore everywhere while behind him Nyssa picked off stragglers with perfectly placed arrow shots or killing blows with her short sword.

"This reminds me of that weekend in Kazakhstan" yells Al-Dhiyb, pulling out his swords from the abdominal cavity of an unlucky ninja.

"Really, Al-Dhiyb? Because this feels like Cebu" responds Nyssa, drilling 4 straight arrow shots into 4 successive ninja.

In The Crew Quarters

Landing hurricane-fast high kicks that knock her opponents out Laurel then opens the door behind her to see Oliver Queen flipping her the kanabo she carried on the yacht in the middle of the Croatian sea in addition to two bandoliers filled with throwing darts, and guards her with arrows as she changes into weightlifting shoes.

"Get dressed faster, Pretty Bird. We're getting raided" says Al-Sahim, the adrenaline running through his body faster than he can deal with it.

Exhaling loudly, praying what she's about to do won't sink the boat, Al-Kanari blinks as she sees a small patrolling group of ninja before screaming loud enough to send them all over the side into the cold Mediterranean ocean.

"We'll be fine" smirks Al-Kanari, seeing Al-Sahim put his bow back on his back as they made their way through whoever was left.

Back On The First Deck…..

Al-Dhiyb and Nyssa were literally wading in blood. Not their own, of course. Never their own. But they had dispatched so many ninja that the entire deck of the League of Assassin's boat was covered in blood. Exhaling, they looked around and noticed Al-Sahim and Al-Kanari standing alongside them.

"Well, that was…. That was entirely too easy" said Al-Dhiyb, glancing over at Nyssa who gave him a nod in agreement with his assessment.

"Either we're all that good or this was a test. I vote for test" said Al-Sahim, Al-Kanari nodding her head as Nyssa calls for some members of the League to clean up the blood.

"So what do you think they wanted? And do you think we'll see them again?" said Nyssa.

"This feels like we were distracted for a purpose. But for right now, let's return to Nanda Parbat. We need to think this through, and we're not going to do that right now."

5 Years Later….

A hobbled Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance walked to a small cemetery in Starling City. They put flowers down on 4 graves, and wondered idly how it had all went wrong.

Blessing the names of Tommy Merlyn, Quentin Lance, Moira Queen, and Slade Wilson, the Green Arrow and Black Canary hugged each other and sobbed in each other's arms for just a minute. A battle was forming, and they couldn't be gone from it for too long.