Gotham City, The Docks
Using John's ARGUS connections, he managed to get himself, Oliver, Barry, Sara, Ava, Cisco, Caitlin, Ralph, Dinah, and Sherloque into the city; while Iris and Felicity stayed behind in S.T.A.R. Labs to focus on support and research. Arriving at the docks the heroes all took to gaze at the dark metropolis which contained over three million people in the city and the day was just starting.
"So, this is Gotham, doesn't look that bad," Barry said.
"Give it time, this place feels almost cursed," Dinah said.
"Have you been here before, Dinah?" John asked.
"Back during my hard traveling hero days when I was trying to take down Sonus's crew, I hung around with a bunch of scumbags around these parts," Dinah answered.
"We might have to use that, Dinah, most of us here don't have any resources to exploit in this city; the ones I have are sketchy at best," Oliver explained.
"What do you mean by that Oliver?" John asked.
"Back in the day, my father used to have business dealings with some of the members of Wayne Enterprises including their former CEO, Lucius Fox. If any of them are still here and had good relations with my dad, we might get lucky." Oliver explained.
"So how do you wanna do this Ollie?" Sara asked.
"We split up in five groups. Barry and I will go talk to my father's old contacts. Caitlin, you and Cisco go the morgues, finding the bodies will give us some answers. Ralph, Sherloque, go and try to find the alleyway that we saw if you can. John and Dinah, go to the neighborhoods start asking around, see if anyone has seen Laurel's face. Sara, Ava, I want you two to find us someplace for us to set up shop; just in case were here longer than we planned." Oliver ordered.
"I'm sorry, not that, those aren't good plans but who put you in charge?" Ralph asked. Oliver gave a look as did everyone else, that said, of course, he's in charge. "Okay, message received." He acknowledged.
Outside of the Iceberg Louge
Dinah guided John to the outside of the Iceberg Louge, one of Gotham's most popular nighttime spots that are secretly ridden with criminal activity.
"Nice place," John said.
"If you don't mind the cold, the penguin theme, and the criminal trash; that place is too exclusive for us to get in so let's just stick to those outsides," Dinah said. She walked towards a stranger and showed him a photo of Laurel Lance. "Have you seen this woman?" She asked. "Piss off," The stranger replied, this continued for several minutes for both Dinah and John.
"Any luck?" John asked.
"Nope, you?" Dinah asked.
"Nothing. Hey, what's was up with you earlier? John asked.
"What do you mean?" Dinah asked.
"I mean you seem pretty gun oh about wanting this to be Black Siren and not Laurel Lance," John stated.
"I'm just trying to remain objective John. But you're right maybe a part of me wants this to be the Laurel I hate instead of the Laurel that you all love, but can you honestly tell me that none of you have a blind spot when it comes to Laurel." Dinah asked.
"No, you're right we all do. Especially me considering it was my brother that got her killed." John sadly answered.
"John," Dinah said feeling like a jerk.
"Let's keep asking around," John stated.
Gotham City Morgue, One of them
"You're sure this is the right morgue?" Cisco asked.
"Positive, why are you so nervous?" Caitlin asked.
"I prefer to avoid a morgue until I'm dead, plus the last corpse I saw came back to life," Cisco said referring to Grider. Caitlin and Cisco approached a doctor who just exited the room; his attire told her that he was the medical examiner.
"Excuse me, doctor," Caitlin asked as the doctor stopped to look at her. "My name is Dr. Caitlin Snow and this my colleague Cisco Ramon, we're from S.T.A.R. Labs. We were wondering if you have seen these two bodies in your or any medical examiner's room at some point." She said as she gave him the sketches of the deceased in Cisco's vibe since Felicity could not find them in any criminal database.
Taking a long look at the drawings, the doctor then handed them back and replied. "I'm sorry Dr. Snow I'm afraid I can't help you." He said as Caitlin saw his photo id, that read a Dr. Scott Snyder.
"But, Dr. Snyder if we could just please check your records it would really help us with a private investigation that we are doing." Caitlin pleaded.
"I'm sorry, I can't help you." Dr. Snyder said as he returned the drawings to Cisco and walked away from them.
"Well, that was a bust," Cisco said.
"Very," Caitlin agreed.
As soon as they were walking away Dr. Snyder pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. "It's Snyder, two scientists from S.T.A.R. Labs came to visit me just showing me pictures of the bodies you wanted to be destroyed. Their names are Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon." He said over the phone.
Undisclosed Safe House
Sara and Ava were setting up shop in an abandon safe, connecting cables to computers and various other equipment. Barry also quickly brought the heroes suits and weapons just in case the group would find themselves in trouble; Sara knew they likely would.
"So how did you know about this place again?" Ava asked as she was plugging up the computers.
"It's an old League of Assassins safe house, they used to have at least one on every major city on the planet; though I've never been to this one, they pretty much all look the same," Sara replied dusting off some old boxes of League equipment.
"Clever. Guess your ex-boyfriend will be less bossy when he gets back." Ava said.
"Doubt it, and I wouldn't really consider Oliver an ex-boyfriend by the way," Sara answered in a surprising tone.
"Really, I thought after your affair with him, you and he actually dated when you came home from Nanda Parbat," Ava asked
"Oh, that ... that was a one-nighter, although now that you mention it, it does feel like he and I had a brief thing even though I know we didn't," Sara answered but was perplexed by her answered.
"Wait, are you experiencing a Temporal Echo?" Ava asked.
"What?" Sara asked confusingly.
"Temporal Echoes, its experience you get when you remember something from a previous timeline; something that was erased from your history but you can't quite recall what exactly was erased," Ava explained.
"So, you're saying something like "Flashpoint" erased one of my relationships?" Sara asked in a slightly horrified manner.
"It could be Flashpoint or one of your team's screwups, I mean technically babe the Legends have messed with history a lot more than the Flash," Ava explained as politely as possible.
"Huh, well considering it's me and Oliver it probably wouldn't have lasted anyway." Sara sighed, walking past her girlfriend giving her a slight bump on Ava's butt with her own rear end in a playful manner causing Ava to smile. "Besides, I'm all yours." She said going for the next box.
"So how are you doing with everything else?" Ava asked worriedly.
"Ava," Sara replied as she turned around.
"Sara, come on. Pretty much one the first things I've learned about you is how much you love your sister and how much you wish you could find a way to save her without affecting the timeline." Ava reflected.
"If it's Laurel." Sara bluntly stated.
"What?" Ava asked.
"Look, Ava, I appreciate your concern ... really I do and I love for it but right now I'm trying to prepare for the worst," Sara stated.
"Meaning?" Ava wondered.
"If it's not Laurel then it's Black Siren or someone making themselves look like my sister. But, ... if it is Laurel ... my Laurel ... my sister, then it's making think about a million questions in my head right now." Sara said as she started to tear up. "Like how is she alive and why didn't she tell me she was alive?" She said.
"Well, Sara, you are a time traveler it must be hard for her to call you." Ava reluctantly answered.
"What about Oliver or Team Arrow, talking to them means you can talk to me," Sara said as a tear ran down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away. "So, if it is ... my sister, why doesn't she want to talk to me? Why doesn't she want me to know she's alive? Why wasn't she there for me when ... when our dad died." She said. Choosing not to say anything, Ava walked over and just hugged Sara tightly, as Sara wrapped her arms around her.
Street of Nolan and Burton
"If I remember right, the last of my father's old associates should be down this way," Oliver told Barry as they were walking.
"I'm surprised they put it in the bad part of town," Barry asked.
"It's cute that you think there's a good part of town," Oliver replied with an amused tone.
"Well, you were right about the one-percenters taking the good parts with them," Barry told him.
"Like I said nobody talks about Gotham." Oliver restated.
Suddenly, three thuggish criminals popped out the streets and one of them spoke. "Sounds like you guys aren't from around here." The thug said as Barry and Oliver stopped in their tracks. "Probably don't know, but Gotham tourism bureau collects a tax on out of towners, so phones, wallets, and watches now." He said threateningly as he pointed a gun at them.
Annoyed, Oliver approached the thugs. "You know what, fellas?" He said to intimidate.
"I ... we don't want any trouble, so maybe we can just talk this out, okay? Barry said and he started to laugh nervously. "Talk it out, okay." He said.
With the thug pointing the gun turning his eyes at Barry, Oliver could tell he was distracted and quickly took advantage of it. "I'll talk first," Oliver said, as he quickly disarmed the thug of his gun and elbowed him in the face, then he kicked the second punk right in the face and finally he took the gun and pointed it the third would-be-thief. Suddenly, police sirens could be heard and Oliver turned around to see the cops pointing their guns at him. "Oh, great," He said.
"On the ground now! All of you, on the ground! Show me your hands!" The cop said as Oliver turned around, the cop's face turned yellow. "Oh crap. I need SWAT at Nolan and Burton. Green Arrow is sighted at Nolan and Burton." The cop said on his radio.
"Sir, we don't want any trouble," Barry said frantically as he got down on his knees interlocking his fingers on his head.
"Yeah. Tell that to Oliver Queen!" The cop replied as Oliver reluctantly got down and put the gun away, allowing the cops to arrest him and Barry.
Author's Notes - As much I loved watching Barry and Kara ripping Oliver a new one about his promiscuous past, I think it's more reasonable that Oliver's father had contacts with Wayne Enterprises for information gathering than a woman he had a one night stand with.
As for my decision to erase Sara and Oliver's relationship in season 2, this was because some people have noticed that the two of them rarely have any interaction anymore despite their past; this would be a good explanation. As for those who wonder whether or not this is possible remember Iris and Joe at the start of Season 3 they were estranged because of Flashpoint, so it's possible for something like this to happen. Also, I did this because I have mixed feelings towards Oliver and Sara's relationship in Season 2, retconning it into a one night stand would better fit their character's at that point in time.
For those who aren't Batman comic readers, Scott Snyder was a Batman writer primarily during the New 52.
