14. THE ATOM

Ray Palmer is a brilliant young physicist with a big heart whose life's work leads him to discover macromatter compression – the science of turning things really small, including himself. He must put on a protective suit that enables him to also shrink to miniscule sizes for short periods of time. The technology is still in very early stages of testing and thus unstable, but word has gotten around in high places. Much to his annoyance, he gets involuntarily recruited by the government for a top-secret mission. Together with his new team of S.T.A.R. Labs scientists – Jenet Klyburn, El Mohamed and Ryan Choi – and overseen by his mentor Harrison Wells, Ray has to utilize shrinking technology to procure an unknown "target".

General Wade Eiling, the man who personally picked Ray for the mission, emphasizes that the target is dangerous and must be kept out of enemy hands. A surly private liaison in a suit, Norman Brawler, is assigned to keep an eye on the team.

The mission is not without its dangers, however. They learn that a masked combatant is following in their tracks to try and upend the mission. Brawler tells the team that this man is armed and dangerous, and if things go out of hand he will have to be eliminated. The scientists are confounded, especially Ray, who has spent most of his adult life in academia and research with no interest in violence. This inner conflict later puts him at odds with Brawler, who puts a literal gun to his head to continue with the mission. But Ray is saved by the masked man, brandishing a compound bow and arrow.

The man reveals himself to be the hooded vigilante from Star City, known to the public as the Green Arrow. He tells Ray that Brawler is actually working for a powerful, dangerous man who seeks to track and capture known superpowered beings. But it's too late; riding on Ray's earlier efforts, Brawler manages to seize control of the target.

Ray and the Green Arrow join forces to counter a stealth military unit which has been protecting Brawler, freeing the rest of the scientist team, but the liaison manages to escape. Ray learns that Harrison Wells had been involved in some shady experiments in the past, and was blackmailed by General Eiling to put pressure on Ray to join the team.

Green Arrow says he has been tracking Norman Brawler's employer for some time and came across this mission. The "target" turns out to be a network of satellites sending and receiving massive amounts of surveillance data that could only be hijacked undetected with the help of the shrinking tech. Ray discovers that the satellites actually belong to Wayne Enterprises.

Mid-credits:

Norman Brawler is in his employer's office, reporting about their newly-acquired surveillance suite. His boss is a charismatic, fresh-faced man in a three-piece suit. He smiles as he opens up several video streams from the satellite feed on a large screen, immediately mesmerized.

After a few seconds, Brawler asks, "Will that be all, sir?"

Without looking away from the screem, his boss replies, "Yes, thank you Norman. Stay close."

"Will do, Mr. Lord."

As Norman exits, his boss, Maxwell Lord, continues his voyeuristic reverie, ecstatic at all the individuals he can now personally trail on screen. Hundreds of different video clips load up on screen, landing on a few which get magnified. We see real-time footage of the Flash, Martian Manhunter and Superman, among many others.

"Heheh," Maxwell sneers. "Checkmate."