Chapter 3
Laurel, Diggle, and Quentin were being led through a monastery by Black Siren and a few of Talia's students. The former three were still bound in chains and Laurel was still unable to use her Canary Cry as one of Talia's students holding the sonic dampener near her.
"Nice place," Quentin said sarcastically to Black Siren. "This island got a Big Belly Burger too?"
"Before the Chinese turned Lian Yu into a prison, it was a holy retreat," Siren explained.
"But now you're using it for payback for a guy you barely know on a guy you barely know," Diggle said.
"Ollie hasn't done anything to you," Laurel said to her doppelganger. "And what do you expect to gain by working with a man like Adrian Chase?"
"Chase freed me, and I don't owe Oliver Queen a thing," Siren retorted, as she, Laurel, Diggle, Quentin, and Talia's students headed down some steps.
"If you're anything like me, there has to be a part of you that realizes what you're doing is wrong," Laurel tried to reason with her. "Deep down, you must feel some kind of guilt or remorse for your actions."
Black Siren scoffed. "Just because we look exactly alike doesn't mean we have anything in common. I'm not weak and naive like you, birdie."
They entered a room where Roy Harper and Rene Ramirez had their hands chained to the ground as the two men were struggling to free themselves in vain.
"John! Laurel!" Roy called out as he noticed them.
"Hey," Diggle replied.
"Hoss, you okay?" Rene asked Quentin.
"Rene," the older man said.
"Okay, everyone, calm down," Siren instructed coldly, as the team glared at her. "The five of you are gonna have plenty of time to catch up." With a wink, she sarcastically added, "See you later."
Smirking, she turned around and headed off. Like Roy and Rene, Laurel, Diggle, and Quentin now had their hands chained to the ground.
"I'm assuming you still can't use your sonic scream?" Diggle asked Laurel.
"Nope," Laurel replied, noticing another sonic dampener hanging up on the wall. "There's a dampener in here too."
Diggle, Quentin, Roy, and Rene looked up at the device.
"Well, we gotta get out of here somehow," Roy said.
"Don't worry, Oliver will get us out of this," Diggle said, confidently.
"Yeah?" Quentin said, skeptically. "What makes you think he even knows where we are?"
"Knowing Ollie, he'll figure it out," Laurel said, wanting to remain hopeful despite their situation.
Oliver, Ollie, and Slade were following Nyssa through the forest when she suddenly stopped and looked down. Slade now had his mask off.
"The trail's gone cold," Nyssa told the three men.
"Are you sure?" Oliver asked.
"No doubt my sister knew we would follow," Nyssa said.
"That's great," Ollie said, sarcastically. "Maybe we should've just had Clark fly up in the air and do an aerial search of the whole island with his telescopic vision combined with his x-ray vision."
"Let me go on ahead, see if I can recover the trail," Nyssa said.
"Okay," Oliver nodded, before Nyssa walked on.
"So instead of marrying Laurel, Sara, or the blonde, you marry Ra's al Ghul's daughter?" Slade remarked.
"Nyssa talks too much," Oliver grumbled.
"She hasn't explained your beef with Chase," Slade said.
"Yeah, there seems to be a few missing blanks regarding that," Ollie added, as he turned to his counterpart. "What's the deal with you and this Chase guy?"
"My past is coming back to haunt me," Oliver stated.
"You're not the only Green Arrow who's been there and done that," Ollie said.
"Seems to be a recurring theme with you, kid," Slade said to Oliver.
Oliver shook his head. "Don't know why."
"It's not really that complicated," Slade said, as he moved to stand in front of Oliver. "You suffer from survivor's guilt. You can't get over the death of your father."
"Adrian Chase has nothing to do with my father," Oliver denied.
"Kid, when it comes to you, everything has to do with your father," Slade pointed out. "You and I are not dissimilar." Oliver sighed as Slade continued. "We're both haunted by our pasts. And the only way to bury that ghost is by forgiving yourself."
"Forgiving myself? For what?" Oliver asked.
"You blame yourself for your father's suicide, and everything else that has gone wrong since," Slade said. "You need to forgive yourself for your sins."
"You say that like it's easy," Oliver said.
"It is the hardest thing in this world," Slade said, knowingly.
"I'm kinda starting to like you now," Ollie said, now realizing that this Slade was actually an honorable man with some decency in him. "I can see that you're nothing like the old, baldy jackass general that we had to put up with on my Earth."
"So there's a version of me in your world," Slade said.
"Yep, but I have to say that I definitely prefer you all the way," Ollie said. "Anyway, care to share what happened between you two? You guys were besties, then you guys became enemies, and now you're apparently besties again. Must be a hell of a history."
"Slade and I were on this island together during my first two years here," Oliver explained. "He taught me a lot of what I know. I wouldn't be the person I am today without him."
"Kid, you wouldn't have survived past your first year here without me," Slade remarked, and Oliver rolled his eyes despite knowing that the older man had a valid point.
"Now the part where you two fell out?" Ollie inquired.
"During our second year, I was dying due to an attack and Oliver, Sara, and a woman we both loved named Shado gave me a serum called Mirakuru to save me," Slade explained. "While I was recovering, Shado was murdered and Oliver kept from me how she died because he blamed himself. Once I found out, I was enraged and, due to the psychological effects of the Mirakuru, I went insane and did many terrible things." Slade took a moment to let out a deep sigh. "I killed Oliver's mother... I ruined his sister's innocence... and I nearly destroyed his city. I did many unspeakable things that could never be forgiven."
Ollie could see that Slade was clearly remorseful of his past actions. After all, it wasn't entirely Slade's fault, given that his mind had been altered for the worse by the Mirakuru drug. Ollie was about to respond when Nyssa returned.
"If the three of you are done relaxing, I've picked up a trail," she informed the men.
Oliver, Ollie, and Slade followed Nyssa as they headed off.
Malcolm, Thea, Curtis, Clark, Chloe, Felicity, and Samantha were heading towards the spot where the plane was.
"What's your superhero handle?" Felicity asked Chloe. "Mine is Overwatch."
"Uh, Watchtower," Chloe answered.
"Watchtower? Not a bad nickname," Felicity said. "It's quite catchy."
"Overwatch has a nice ring to it as well," Chloe said.
"Thanks," Felicity said in appreciation.
"There's something I need to tell you guys," Samanatha said to Clark, Chloe, and Felicity. "When we get to the airplane, I'm not gonna get on it."
"What?" Felicity asked, incredulously.
"Why you don't wanna get on the plane?" Chloe asked. "You'll be safe."
"I'm not leaving William behind," Samantha said.
"William will be safe, Ms. Clayton," Clark assured her. "We will make sure of it."
"Oliver will bring him back," Felicity added.
"I know, but I can't abandon my son," Samantha insisted.
"Just because you're leaving doesn't mean you're abandoning him," Chloe said, before throwing a knowing glance at Clark. "Trust me, there are very capable people on this island right now who will find William and make damn sure no harm comes to your little boy. I'm telling you this as a fellow mother, by the way."
"All right, fine," Samantha gave in, although a part of her was tempted to argue further.
Meanwhile, Malcolm moved closer to his daughter. "You know, I traveled halfway across the world to rescue you. I thought it would at least entitle me to a conversation."
"Yeah, well, it doesn't," Thea retorted.
"Did it ever occur to you that I'm here because I'm your father?" Malcolm asked in exasperation.
"No, you are not," Thea snapped, angrily. "We are nothing to each other. Don't you ever understand that?!"
She suddenly stopped dead in her tracks upon hearing a click sound under her right foot and her expression turned into one of horror.
Malcolm looked at Thea with concern, while Clark, Chloe, Felicity, Curtis, and Samantha all turned to her with concern on their faces too.
"Thea? You okay?" Curtis asked.
"No, she's not," Malcolm answered. "She just activated a land mine." He knelt down beside Thea. "Don't move." He inspected the landline for a few moments before looking up at her. "The trigger's rusted over."
"Okay, that's... that's good, right?" Thea asked in a quivering voice. "That's a good sign?"
"I'm afraid not," Chloe said, regretfully. "That means it can't be disarmed."
"Well, somebody needs to do something," Samantha said, worriedly.
"I think this is your cue," Chloe said to Clark as she nudged him on the arm.
Clark nodded and walked up to Thea. "On the count of three, I'm going to take you off the mine."
"No, that'll blow us all up!" Felicity protested, her voice full of panic. "Well, not you of course since you're invincible, but the rest of us will be blown to pieces!"
"Wait, you're invincible?" Samantha asked Clark in amazement.
"Invincible wouldn't be the word that I would use, but very few things on the planet can hurt me," Clark explained.
"In other words, an explosion won't do anything to him," Chloe added, much to Samantha's astonishment.
"So he's a meta-human like The Flash," Samantha said.
"You could say that," Chloe nodded, not feeling the need to reveal her best friend's true nature at the moment.
"You ready, Thea?" Clark asked her. "I assure you this will be very quick and no harm will come to you or the others."
"Let's just get this over with," Thea said.
"All right, I'm gonna count now," Clark said. "One, two, three."
With that, there was a brief blur of movement and, the next thing the others knew, Clark was now the one standing on the land mine, with Thea in his arms bridal style.
"Oh, thank God!" Felicity exclaimed eagerly, while Curtis sighed in relief, Samatha looked amazed by Clark's speed, and Chloe simply smiled.
"Thank you so much," Thea said gratefully to Clark.
"I'm just doing my job," Clark replied, as he released her from his arms. Turning to the others with an alarmed look, he said, "You all need to go, now! They're coming."
"Who's coming?" Curtis asked, looking around in confusion. "I don't see any..."
He was cut off when a boomerang flew into view and embedded itself in a nearby tree. Everyone turned and saw Digger Harkness and several of Talia's students approaching.
"Go now!" Clark urged the others. "I'll deal with them."
"You heard him, let's go, quick!" Malcolm instructed the others and none of them needed to be told again as they rushed off.
Clark continued to stand on the land mine with a satisfied look. He turned around and saw the enemies coming towards him.
"Go after the rest," Harkness said to Talia's students.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Clark said.
"Oh," Harkness said with an arrogant smirk as he stopped behind Clark. "Well, you don't seem too bright. Just standing out here in the open like this." Pulling out one of his boomerangs, he added, "What kind of ass-backwards strategy is that?"
"Let me show you," Clark said.
With that, he flicked Harkness very lightly in the chest, sending the mercenary flying several meters back. Harkness landed against a tree before falling on the ground.
Talia's students stared at Clark in shock and fear, but before they could do anything else, they were surrounded by a blur of blue and red and the students were all down in an instant. As the land mine exploded, Clark almost immediately extinguished the flames with his super-breath.
Clark turned and saw Harkness, who was clutching his back in pain, slowly getting back to his feet. Then, an arrow flew out and hit Harkness in the throat. Harkness gasped in pain as blood gushed out of his throat. A moment later, he fell to the ground, dead.
Clark turned to the person responsible and saw Malcolm standing there with his bow raised.
"Why aren't you with the others?" Clark asked, firmly.
"I figured you were the type who prefers saving your enemies over letting them die," Malcolm said, as he lowered his bow.
"You didn't have to kill him," Clark said. While was had no issues permanently putting down the likes of Doomsday and other aliens who were simply too powerful to be defeated otherwise, there was not really any justification for doing the same to mere humans.
"Let's face it, Digger Harkness was a lost cause," Malcolm pointed out. "The world is better off without him."
Clark didn't say another word, knowing there was nothing he could do about what Malcolm had just done. The two men carried on and soon rejoined Thea, Curtis, Chloe, Felicity, and Samantha.
"According to your story, it sounds to me like your roaring rampage of revenge wasn't entirely your fault," Ollie said to Slade, as they were walking with Oliver and Nyssa. "While you did kill my counterpart's mother, I can't completely blame you for your past behavior given that you were mind-warped by that Mirakuru stuff, which could've happened to anyone."
"Mirakuru or not, my sins are too great to be excused or justified in any way," Slade pointed out.
"Unfortunately, that guilt you're feeling is something you'll have to live with for the rest of your life," Ollie said. "There's no way around that. But here is the thing. Your past actions don't define who you are in the present. You don't have the Mirakuru in you anymore, so now's your shot at becoming a better person." He glanced at Oliver. "The man I'm sure this guy would be glad to call a brother again."
"You're really good at giving pep talks," Slade said.
"Probably because I've been on the receiving end of them myself more times than I care to admit," Ollie said.
"The trail continues this way," Nyssa announced, as she led Oliver, Ollie, and Slade towards a wrecked plane.
"This place brings back memories?" Slade asked Oliver.
"Feels like a lifetime ago," Oliver replied.
"For Shado, it was," Slade said in a sad tone.
"No time for nostalgia," Nyssa told them as she lowered her binoculars. "I know where they're going."
She handed Oliver the binoculars. Oliver looked through them and saw the monastery in the distance.
Oliver, Ollie, Slade, and Nyssa entered the monastery.
"Do either of you know anything about this place that could give us a tactical advantage?" Nyssa asked Oliver and Slade.
"I've only seen it one time, and that was from a distance," Oliver replied.
"Well, maybe we should split up," Slade suggested.
Nyssa glanced at Slade warily before turning to Oliver. "Should we?"
"Yeah, go on, Nyssa, we'll be fine," Oliver assured her. He turned to Ollie. "Go with her."
"Sure thing," Ollie nodded, before he and Nyssa headed off.
Slade walked up to Oliver. "She doesn't trust me."
"Can you blame her?" Oliver asked, as he turned to Slade.
"No," Slade replied, before knocking Oliver out with a punch to the face.
A moment later, Black Siren and several of Talia's students walked up behind Slade, who turned to them.
"Tell Mr. Chase I have a gift for him," Slade said.
Black Siren looked down at Oliver's unconscious form with a sadistic grin.
Slade, Black Siren, and Talia's students led Oliver into the room where Laurel, Diggle, Quentin, Roy, and Rene were held. Oliver's hands were now bound in chains and his bow and quiver of arrows were missing.
"Ollie," Laurel called out in surprise, relief, and concern all at the same time.
"Don't blame me," Siren said with a smirk as she turned to Slade. "Mr. Wilson is the one who gets credit for this trophy."
"Slade," Diggle snarled as he glared at the man in question. "You son of a bitch."
"I never should've trusted you," Oliver said, also glaring at Slade.
Slade, Siren, and Talia's students turned around and walked off.
"Are you all right?" Quentin asked Oliver.
"Where's my son?" Oliver asked, much to everyone else's shock.
"Wait, Chase took William too?" Laurel asked in disbelief.
"You have a son?" Roy asked Oliver in shock as he was the only one in the group who hadn't known that fact. "Since when?"
"We didn't know anyone else was here," Rene said.
"Okay, what makes you think he's here?" Quentin asked Oliver.
"He took Samantha, he showed me a video of William," Oliver explained, and the others grew horrified and, if it was possible, felt even more disgust towards Adrian Chase.
"That bastard," Laurel scowled. Normally she was against killing enemies if it wasn't necessary, but at this moment, she wanted nothing more than to unleash her sonic scream on Chase at full power.
"He is on this island somewhere and we need to find him!" Oliver stated with anger and determination.
Clark, Chloe, Felicity, Samantha, Curtis, Thea, and Malcolm had reached the plane. Clark narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he spotted something on the ground and went to check it out. Chloe, Curtis, and Thea noticed Clark's reaction and followed him.
"You can fly it, right?" Samantha asked Malcolm.
"I'm pretty sure I can, Ms. Clayton," Malcolm replied.
"Guys, we have a problem!" Chloe announced.
Malcolm, Felicity, and Samantha turned to the others in alarm and headed over to where Clark, with Chloe, Thea, and Curtis standing behind him, was digging up some dirt to reveal some antennas and pounds of explosives in the ground.
"Are those antennas?" Samantha asked, worriedly.
"Yep," Thea answered.
Clark looked up at the others. "This is C-4."
"Those are way too many antennas for a remote trigger," Curtis pointed out. "They must be networked."
"Which means there are more than one," Chloe added, grimly.
"Yeah, you could say that," Felicity confirmed, as she was looking at her tablet.
Chloe, Curtis, Thea, Malcolm, and Samantha all looked at the tablet's screen, which was showing a satellite image of Lian Yu with hundreds of red dots covering the entire island.
"Wait, there's hundreds," Thea noted.
"Way too many to diffuse," Curtis added in a grim tone.
Malcolm turned to Clark and asked, "Can you get them off the island?"
"Not without the risk of setting them off," Clark answered regretfully, and the others groaned wondering how they were going to get out of this situation.
"All right, let's get out of here," Oliver said to Laurel, Diggle, Quentin, Roy, and Rene.
"I think Wilson did something to your head when he knocked you out," Quentin remarked.
"Curtis worked this up for you, Laurel," Oliver said, as he took a device out of his suit and handed it to her. "It's gonna control your Canary Cry, but it's also gonna bypass the sonic dampener."
"Remind me to tell Curtis thanks when I see him," Laurel said with a smile as she placed the device around her neck. "This might hurt a bit."
"Better that than being stuck here any longer," Roy pointed out.
"Just sing, Canary," Rene said to Laurel.
The others stood back from Laurel as she took a deep breath and unleashed her sonic scream on the chains.
Talia was walking with four of her students when the sound of Laurel's Canary Cry made her stop.
"The prisoners," she realized in alarm.
She turned around to see Nyssa and Ollie standing on the steps.
"Don't concern yourself with them," Nyssa said to Talia with a hard expression. "We have unfinished business, sister."
"I heard you gave up the ring of the Demon's Head," Talia said in disgust as she walked up to Nyssa. "What a foolish woman you've grown into."
"It was your selfishness that forced me to grow up alone," Nyssa argued as she and Ollie headed the rest of the way down the steps.
"Our father never would have passed his mantle onto a woman," Talia pointed out. "I had to forge my own path."
"And you left me, knowing I would suffer at father's hand," Nyssa snarled, traces of hurt in her voice.
"And you wish to settle the score now?" Talia suggested.
Nyssa and Ollie moved to one corner of the room, while Talia and her four students stood opposite of the two.
"I stand with my friends," Nyssa stated.
"You ally yourself with our father's murderer," Talia said in disgust. "He'd be ashamed of you."
"Father was always ashamed of me," Nyssa scoffed.
Talia's four students unsheathed their swords, but she put a hand in front of them.
"No," she commanded. "Take care of the archer. Leave my sister to me."
"You heard her," Ollie said to Nyssa. "You got your sis and I got these chumps."
Nyssa and Talia put their bows on the ground and unsheathed their swords. While Talia charged at Nyssa as the al Ghul sisters began to engage each other, the students charged at Ollie, who had his bow at the ready.
Ollie ducked under the sword of one of Talia's students before punching him in the chest and then in the face, taking that student down. He spin-kicked another student in the abdomen before grabbing his arm and throwing him to the ground. He then punched the third student in the face twice, taking him down too, and flipped to avoid the swings of the last student's sword before kicking him in the groin and knocking him down with a punch to the face as well.
At the same time, Nyssa managed to beat her sister in what was an evenly matched battle as she punched Talia in the face and then in the leg, knocking her down.
Two of the students that Ollie had taken down got back up when Slade suddenly jumped down from the nearby railing and effortlessly sliced them down with his sword.
Talia tried to pick up her sword, but Nyssa stepped on the blade. Nyssa picked Talia up, putting her own sword to the latter's throat.
"Do it," Talia taunted, while Nyssa looked conflicted. "Father would have wanted you to."
Nyssa hesitated for a moment and then kneed Talia in the face, knocking her out cold.
"Good you didn't kill her," Ollie said to Nyssa, who turned to him with a frown. "Your sister may be a shrew, but if there's one thing you don't want on your hands, it's the blood of family."
"That's the exact reason I spared her," Nyssa nodded.
Oliver, Laurel, Diggle, Roy, Rene, and Quentin entered. They were now out of their chains.
"He was only pretending to screw with you?" Diggle asked Oliver about Slade.
"I needed a way to get Curtis' device to Laurel," Oliver explained. Turning to Ollie, Slade, and Nyssa, he asked, "Have you seen my son?"
"I've searched," Slade answered. "Your son is not here."
"Nyssa and I couldn't find him either," Ollie added in a regretful tone. "I'm sorry, man."
"We gotta get my gear and we gotta move," Oliver ordered in a stern tone.
Oliver was now armed with his bow, his quiver of arrows once more attached to the back of his suit, as he led Ollie, Slade, Nyssa, Laurel, Diggle, Roy, Rene, and Quentin further into the monastery.
"We find Chase, we find my son," Oliver stated.
"Not so sure about that, hoss," Rene said, as he and the others noticed the door open up ahead.
Adrian Chase entered the room with a sword in his hand and an insane look on his face. He was accompanied by Black Siren, China White, Carrie Cutter, Liz Warner, and what remained of Talia's students.
"Hello, Oliver," Adrian greeted with an arrogant smirk. "Welcome back to purgatory."
All the members of the heroic team glared hatefully at the man responsible for all this madness.
What better way to conclude this chapter than at that point? Next update will cover the final showdown against our star-throwing big baddie and show the heroes' greatest advantage no longer keeping his arsenal under wraps.
To reply to your review, Green Hal37, Oliver's rescue team only know Clark by the name Superman, but even if they did know his civilian name, there isn't even a Clark Kent on Earth-1 anyway. Well, take a look at Smallville's Slade Wilson and you'll see why Clark, Chloe, and Ollie reacted the way they did. Glad you enjoyed the stuff with Ollie. Agreed on Ollie and Chloe meeting Roy Harper and commenting about their son having the same first name.