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Run and Repeat

Sitting in the mansion as he looked out at the city, Tommy couldn't believe just how crazy Starling had become in the last few months. The idea that there was some modern Robin Hood wannabe running around shooting people had almost become just an interesting quirk of life in the modern city, but then it seemed like he and everyone he knew started getting caught up in everything from Helena Bertinelli turning into the Huntress to that goddamn mess with Thea being arrested for drug charges.

He pitied that Thea had just made several bad decisions because of the stress of everything that had been going on recently, but that just reinforced his point; the city had become a hell of a lot crazier in the last few months, and so far the only good thing about recent events was Oliver's return…

What made it even worse is that there was still a part of him that wished his old friend hadn't come back.

He didn't outright think that Laurel and Oliver were doing anything behind his back- Laurel wouldn't do that to anyone else after it had happened to her, and somehow Oliver didn't seem like the type to do that when he was doing stuff like trying to re-organise the Queen Christmas party- but he couldn't ignore the fact that there was something between them that was having some kind of effect on Laurel. As much as he was grateful to have Oliver back in his life, Tommy couldn't stop himself from thinking that Laurel's feelings would be far simpler if Oliver wasn't here…

In a dark way, the recent break-in at his house was a good way to stop himself thinking about his personal issues and reflect on the city's wider problems. He appreciated that things had been getting weirder recently, but the idea that society had reached a stage where some nutcase in a hood could barge into his house and threaten his father like that…

God, that was the reason he didn't like the whole idea of vigilantes; they acted like they could just charge in and start shooting people. Even if they thought it would make the world a 'better place', from what Tommy had heard most vigilantes in real life basically just wanted an excuse to hit people at best.

Seriously, he would be the first to admit that his father was emotionally distant, but what had Malcolm Merlyn done to attract the attention of the Hood? As far as Tommy knew, his dad obeyed the law, didn't have any criminal contacts, and had definitely never outright hurt innocent people like most of the Hood's targets; Hell, the guy had outright saved him and Oliver in his 'public debut' (something Tommy still wondered about), so why would the guy suddenly start attacking his family?

"Tommy?"

"Laurel?" Tommy looked up at his friend in surprise. It wasn't that Laurel hadn't visited him at home in the past, but he'd always invited her in the past (and most of the time Oliver had been along as well). The idea of her coming on her own was nice, but it raised a few worrying questions, even before he started wondering why Oliver's bodyguard was standing behind her, to say nothing of his strange new friend standing on the other side of him. "What are you going here?"

"This… isn't a social call," Laurel looked apologetically at him before she pulled a sheet of papers out of her bag and handed them to him. "I'm here to deliver a court summons to your father."

"…What?" Tommy blinked at her in surprise. It wasn't that he didn't know about Laurel's job, but the idea that she could be here to deliver any kind of legal summons for anything more serious than his old misdemeanours was almost ridiculous.

"Here," Laurel indicated the papers. "To cut a long story short, it's been determined that your father violated his civic duty to the public when he closed your mother's old clinic, and considering how many people depended on that clinic for medical support-"

"You're going to sue him for deciding to close down-?"

"We aren't suing him; we're just issuing the legal declaration on behalf of the people who are suing him," Laurel corrected.

"And you took the case?" Tommy looked at her indignantly.

"CNRI took the case; I just got chosen to deliver the summons because it was thought you'd take it better coming from me," Laurel clarified.

"And how am I meant to take this?"

"With a degree of dignity and professionalism, maybe?" the bodyguard observed from behind Laurel.

"I'm sorry, what are you doing here?" Tommy looked pointedly at the other man.

"Considering the scale of the case and… recent events… it was decided that some additional protection might not be a bad idea," the dark-skinned man said.

"Recent events?" Tommy repeated, deciding not to question what the thin guy was doing acting as another bodyguard. "Does this have anything to do with the fact that my dad was attacked by a certain vigilante-?"

"The Hood's activities have nothing to do with this case," Laurel cut him off firmly. "My clients want justice, and that's what we're here to get."

"My dad didn't do anything wrong-"

"Then he's got nothing to fear from the case," Laurel interrupted him once again. "If your father had wider legitimate reasons for closing the clinic, we'll convince our clients to settle the matter out of court; it's only if his reasons were unsatisfactory that we'll have to take this to a more official setting-"

"OK, I get that," Tommy said, biting back his initial bitter response as he stood up; if he let himself hear much more of this, he was worried he'd end up saying something he'd regret later. "I'll… do you want me to get him for you?"

"No need," his father's voice called out from the main hall. "I'm here; what's the situation?"

"Dad," Tommy looked awkwardly up the stairs as his father walked down to join them. "You don't have to-"

"It's just a flesh wound, Tommy; I can still walk around," his father smiled, indicating his bandaged arm before he looked at Laurel. "Miss Lance, can I ask what you're doing here?"

"Mr Merlyn," Laurel said, stepping forward to take the papers from Tommy and present them to his father. "We're here to deliver a court summons to you for closing your wife's clinic."

"I… see," Tommy's father said, raising his eyebrows as he took the papers from Laurel and glanced over them for a moment. "I take it this isn't the kind of thing where I can just say that I concluded it wasn't helping people and leave it at that?"

"No," Laurel replied with a cool tone.

"Then… if you just let me get a few things together, I'll be right there to respond to this," the older man confirmed.

"Of course," Laurel nodded in understanding, as the subject of her current case went back up the stairs.

"I'll just… check things at the other end," the new young man said, indicating the door behind him.

"Check wha-?" Tommy began, even as the other man walked briskly out of the mansion.

"Barry has… his own way of doing things," Diggle shrugged. "It can seem unorthodox, but it gets results."

Noting Laurel's casual acceptance of such a bizarre statement about a man who'd allegedly come here as her security, Tommy resigned himself to just chalking that up as another example of how weird things had become in this city over the last few months.

Now? Malcolm cursed to himself as he hurried into his bedroom, grateful that he'd kept up the necessary precautions in his various properties. Someone decides to act like those people are worth saving now?

He'd told himself that he'd closed down Rebecca's clinic so that he wouldn't have to actually destroy it when he triggered the Undertaking, but he was willing to admit to himself that he'd also done it because he didn't see the point in keeping it around any longer. It had served as a useful 'front' to give the impression he still cared about the people (if they deserved that title) living in the Glades, but when he'd finally decided to cut to the chase and set his plans in motion at last, it made more sense to shut the clinic down ahead of time than keep maintaining it when he knew how long it had left to exist.

Cursing how some people seemed incapable of acknowledging when their time was up, Malcolm moved swiftly to the secret compartment where he kept his 'local' equipment, pulling on the familiar black attire and checking his weapons as efficiently as he could. Doing things this way would attract attention, but if he staged it right he could claim that he had been abducted and present himself as another victim of the conspiracy in the aftermath; Moira couldn't exactly admit her own knowledge of his role without incriminating herself-

"Going somewhere?"

Drawing his sword and spinning around in the same motion, Malcolm fought down a curse when he saw the mysterious man in the red mask standing in the door of his room, the man's body vibrating as though he was an old video stuck on some kind of fast-forward.

"Do you really think you can stop me?" Malcolm countered, glaring bitterly at this unknown man while trying not to consider the implications of someone with this apparent power being here at this time.

"I think we're going to try," the man replied casually, his arms folded as he dialled down the vibration to lean against the wall. "You're intending to kill thousands of innocent people-"

"In the Glades?" Malcolm spat incredulously. "You can't honestly believe-!"

"I believe that everyone has the right to make their own lives wherever they wish," the man in red cut him off. "Judging someone for where they live is the true sin, Malcolm Merlyn; if you truly believe-"

Lost for a better way to get out of this situation, Malcolm let out an enraged roar as he charged at the other man, drawing his sword in the process. The figure in red moved just in time to evade a blow that had been intended to pierce his heart, but for some reason the man wasn't fast enough to dodge Malcolm's follow-up punch to strike the red figure in the head. As the figure was sent sprawling to the ground, he reached out towards Malcolm, but the ex-League member dodged it and ran for the window, diving through the glass before his opponent could get back up.

If Malcolm needed further proof of his destiny to destroy the Glades, that was it; even faced with such an unusual enemy with exceptional powers, he had still managed to prevail.

Now he just had to get to the tunnels and activate the Markov device…