Earth 1, Str City
''If I was a person who drank to excess, Ava Sharpe thought to herself. I would definitely want to hit the bottle at this point.
An internal memo from Director Michaels' office had arrived on her desk, detailing the creation of a new 'X Unit' within A.R.G.U.S. under Team Leader Felicity Smoak. The team currently had eight field agents, although more might be added shortly, and an in-house group of four. That sounded all very well and good - although it was not clear exactly what this 'X Unit' would be doing. The answer seemed to involve duplication of the work of her team, although 'in their own way' - whatever that meant. The team was housed in a separate building and, Smoak, when she came to report to the Director, wasn't very talkative.
What there was talk of - on the streets and in the media - was a new batch of vigilantes - the so-called FIRESTORM, ATOM, the Hawks, Lady Midnight, Mask, White Canary and Red Canary. The Anti-Vigilante Laws were in place by then and Ava was certain they would soon be caught. Then she began to study the activities of these weirdly named individuals and came to a conclusion that sent her to the Directors' office.
''Yes'' Lyla confirmed. ''They are X Unit's field team.''
X
The day the Anti-Vigilante Laws were passed was also the day when Dinah Drake resigned from the police force. In a way, making this decision had been inevitable. She had crossed the line when she decided to keep her knowledge of Black Canary's identity to herself. Now she was not prepared to lead the hunt for and arrest of friends, especially when they were trying to help America deal with this current crisis.
She'd spoken to John Diggle before she handed in her resignation letter and it was he who escorted her through the A.R.G.U.S. building to her interview with his wife. From John's manner, she knew that the outcome of the interview was pretty certain. She left Lyla's office as a Senior Field Agent of A.R.G.U.S.
There was a formal induction of course, which was basic stuff for someone with her background. Then she was assigned to work with Ava, the other Sharpe, who turned out to be an efficient, by-the-book officer. That was something that Dinah could easily live it - I could do with being more orthodox, she admitted. She renewed her friendship with Evelyn, who turned up at the offices a couple of times a week.
''I'm working at X Unit'' was all the teenager was willing to say at first.
When word began to spread about the new vigilantes, it wasn't hard for Dinah to work out that they were the Legends.
Which meant that he would be there too. Her mind skittered back to the day he'd called her - from the hospital it turned out - to thank her for what she'd done when that Chronos shot him.
''You're welcome'' she'd said automatically and kept the conversation brief, matter-of-fact.
But afterwards, she'd stared at the phone for long minutes. Some of the thoughts she'd had were crazy. Sometimes she would still find herself thinking 'I'm not a cop anymore' and 'he doesn't seem to be a crook now'. But she'd moved on, fallen in love with Vincent - a genuinely good man, worth twenty Leonards. He was with Sara, sister of one of her best friends. Forget it, Dinah.
X
Evelyn walked slowly along the row of prisoners, suspected agent provocateurs for Savage, in what was a familiar routine. Leonard would probe them, find out what Earth they were from - often he would add details of their criminal past or why they didn't want to be sent home. He'd found that he could check up to ten a day without any side-effects.
On this occasion, things were different with the last but one suspect. He'd focussed the man for longer. The suspect began to sweat and Evelyn guessed he was pushing to get at something the man was trying to withhold. Eventually, he moved on to the last suspect.
''Can you call Michaels?'' he asked, when they'd left the prisoners' room. ''I need to see her.''