Chapter II
A/N: Here is the second episode. I'm trying to figure out whether I can bring Malcolm in sooner (sorry *not sorry*, I'm a Whovian who is obsessed with one Captain Jack Harkness). Hopefully I can, but he definitely won't be in this chapter. SSD.
On another note, I am in desperate need of a beta reader to talk things for this story over with. Also for grammar, as it is not my strong suit. This story now takes place on Earth 1. Earth 626 just made things more complicated than I needed. There are still some changes of course. SSD
Erika had invited him to her place to talk about things. She had apparently moved out of the mansion shortly after she graduated from college.
Oliver understood her desire for having her own space. It was one he now had himself.
He was surprised to see that Erika's place was near a lake. While his sister was a good swimmer, she had a lingering fear of the water due to a prank that some of her classmates played on her in elementary school. It was probably why she hadn't come along on the intended voyage.
Once he exited the car, he heard his sister call out, "Welcome to my humble home. Enter freely and of your own will."
"What book is that from again?" he asked as he came up the walk.
"Dracula. You'd know that if you had actually paid attention in English Composition class," Erika drawled as she let him in.
"Good thing I had you to help with that," Oliver snarked back.
"Damn straight you were! So… what did you want to talk about?" she asked as they got into the living room. It was basically a souped-up log cabin.
"Thea."
"I already know about the drinking," Erika said, handing him a soda.
"I'm not talking about drinking. I'm talking about drugs," Oliver muttered.
"Oh go-se! I thought I'd scared off the dealers! She must have found new ones," Erika hissed.
"You knew about this?"
"Yes. I can't always do much, since I travel for research work. The next couple of months will be the first time in nearly a year that I have spent more time at home than on the road," Erika growled, before continuing, "Looks like I have some more scaring to do."
Looking at his middle sister, who was 5'5. "You scare some drug dealers? How do you do that?" Oliver asked smirking at the thought.
"I can be very scary when I put my mind to it," Erika replied with a grin that would scare a shark. After taking a glug, she asked, "So… What are you going to do now that you're officially alive? I bet I can make a guess!"
"Not what you're thinking. I want a Big Belly burger." Oliver replied.
"Then let us go there. My treat," Erika smiled as she grabbed the keys for her car.
Alfonso Rivera had been lured to Starling with the promise of a job. He'd just had to fake his death again and create a new identity for himself in this fascinating modern age of computers and facial recognition software. Not that he had a hard time of doing that, he was a werewolf who immersed himself in the cyber world and moved with times.
Before he was turned, Alfonso had been a nobleman in the Spanish court. He had gone along on what would be known to history as the Spanish Armada. The English had had the weather gauge, along with superior cannons, and smaller speedier ships. He had washed ashore in Ireland, along with a few others from his ship.
The Irish had been more than welcoming, given that they shared the Catholic faith. Though not all of the Irish had been peaceful, especially the one who attacked and bit him. Then shortly after his first shift his former comrades tried to kill him. He'd had to make haste to the other side of the island where he had mercifully found help.
The centuries had taken some getting used to, but upon meeting a scientist known as Nikola Tesla, Alfonso had found something to interest him. Turing had been another fascinating man to know. The poor man had been screwed over as thanks for helping to save the world.
Computers and ways to protect them (and hack into them) were his main way of passing time. The ungodly amount of money he made doing both of those things was a perk.
It was only two days before his interview, so he had decided to take a look around the Supernatural district in the city, to find out if there were more of his kind in the city. Most werewolves preferred nonurban areas, but there were still a fair amount that chose the city, since if they slipped up, it was easier to cover things up and fewer questions asked.
It took quite a while to get any kind of information. Finally a lightning elemental told him of a few places where a Darius Campbell might be found.
The elemental then said, "But you won't find him first, he will likely find you first, if he doesn't have eyes on you right now. If not his own, then the ones he's training."
"He has protegees?" Alfonso inquired. It was not an uncommon practice for older werewolves to train those younger than them.
"Three of them last I heard, we know them as the Grey Ghost, Sandstorm, and Darkfire," the elemental continued.
"What do you call their master?"
"We call him The Wandering Wolf."
Alfonso froze at the uttering of that title. While he had never known the creature's true name, the title he had known almost from the time he was made into a werewolf. The Wandering Wolf was a master assassin in the League, one of the finest ever trained, human or werewolf.
He was not someone who's blade you wanted to be on the wrong end of. Or any kind of weapon he was holding. And if his protegees were only half as good as he was, they too would be wise not to anger.
Thanking the elemental, he went on his way towards The Green Drakaina. When he was about a quarter mile out, Alfonso heard, "So you've been looking for me. I would like to ask why?"
"I was looking for other werewolves, hoping that I would find others of my kind in the city," Alfonso replied warily.
"If I was going to kill you, you would already be dead and in the harbor. Come along with me to the bar. What brings you to this city?" Campbell asked motioning him along.
Feeling that he wasn't going to die just yet, he replied, "I'm here for an interview to be in charge of the cyber security department at one of the major companies here in town."
"Which one and what is the likelihood that your future boss knows about your furry problem?"
"Merlyn Global, and I do not think that he would even know that werewolves exist."
Erika was prowling around in an area of the docks known for its high concentration of high-end drug dealers as the Grey Ghost. This was a solo job and it was personal.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm actually the most normal of Robert Queen's children, she thought as she narrowed in her eyes on a particular dealer. One who occasionally liked to cut his product with potentially lethal substances.
However before she could move, Erika saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She sniffed the air. Her brother was up to something again.
Deciding to take advantage of the chaos he was wreaking, the Grey Ghost jumped into the fray, subduing as many dealers as she could and tying them up for the police.
Looking up from her latest capture, she saw that her brother was going after the triads.
Even I'm not crazy enough to go after the triads on my own, was her first thought as she slunk towards where he was going after one of the goons in particular, the one who seemed to be running things
Erika took out the various other triad members that would interfere with her brother's bout. He still had not invested in a full-face mask, or even a mask at all, something she would have to remind him about if they got to talk in the aftermath of the dock fight, and before the police could detain them.
Soon enough the police arrived, and Erika booked it out of the area before the police could even see the Grey Ghost. She knew that Oliver was not exactly keeping the force unaware of his presence and his doings.
Upon seeing him break free, Erika followed him at a distance, keeping herself out of view of any unwanted watchers. She knew her brother was aware of the Grey Ghost as he fired several arrows in her direction, which she barely managed to dodge.
"Easy, I'm not here to arrest you. Just making sure you got out cleanly and without any police tailing you back to wherever you hide out." Erika was thankful for her mask, her dark goggles that covered her distinctive eyes, and her voice distorter.
"You seem to be following me when I act against those that have failed this city. How am I to know you have not?" Her brother finally giving a clue as to his crusade against the crime in the city.
"Everything I do as the Grey Ghost is in service to this city. I protect the people that have few to protect them," Erika replied smoothly.
"But what about when you are not the Grey Ghost? You must be someone under that mask of yours," her brother retorted.
Taking a deep breath, she answered, "When I am not wearing this uniform, I do the best I can to help. That's all I can do. That's all anyone can do. I am freer to take more drastic measures as the Grey Ghost. We are not alone either. I have some coworkers shall we say that also do what they can. I can point them in your direction if you would like?" Erika was hoping he would.
Since Oliver had come back from the dead, in doing his vigilante work it was like he was trying to get himself killed.
"I work best alone," he replied before making his departure.
Damn it Ollie, I don't want you dead again. This time, likely for real with the amount of enemies you're making, Erika thought as she made her own departure.
The Triads did not like it when you meddled in their operations.
A/N 2: With the change of Earths that I have made, updates should be *much* faster. There will be more Tommy/Erika interaction in the following chapters. Oliver will not find out about his sister's extracurricular activities for a while. What was your favorite part?
Today is also the anniversary of VE Day.
OC casting:
Alfonso Rivera- Antonio Banderas as he was in the first Zorro movie.