A/N: This is the second chapter I wrote as I had a burst of energy while travelling back home for Spring break. The next chapter will probably take a bit longer to write, but I'm also really excited for where it's all going. Please keep leaving reviews, they mean so much! I love feedback. Stay safe everyone!
"Listen carefully, because I am not fond of repeating myself," the commanding voice of J'onn J'onzz, the Martian manhunter who now fights for the House of El spoke. "Your training will be brutal, it will be harsh, I will not pull any punches with you due to your status or even the injuries you have sustained. This is a war, and it is not fought by weak men. Do not be weak, or we will make you leave, despite your wishes. Make no mistake, I will make you prepared to fight, to kill if need be, but it is up to you to be willing to learn."
Oliver nodded. He normally wasn't one for formality, or even listening. But that was the old Oliver. That Oliver died on the gambit, he told himself. He had to be stronger, to learn to fight. And that meant changing, no matter how hard it was.
"When I give instructions, you say yes sir boy!" The Martian was on him in a second, hand aggressively on his shoulder. Oliver instinctively raised his arms in a peace-keeping gesture, shaking slightly.
"Yes, sir! Jesus, I'm sorry," He yelled out the first part, not able to keep the fear from his voice. The second part he muttered, hoping the Martian wouldn't hear it.
He was wrong.
"Fifty pushups, boy, now." He demanded, and Oliver hesitated, unsure if J'onn was serious. J'onn didn't even say anything, just gestured with his eyes to the ground. Oliver groaned, but got down onto his hands and knees. "Fifty more. Go."
Oliver got to working on his now 100 push-ups, his arms burning with each one. By one hundred he felt like his bones were made of jelly, and he collapsed to the ground.
"Get up, that was just the warm-up. I'm going to turn you into a soldier, or die trying. Because if you don't learn? You'll see your father very quickly."
Oliver stood up as fast as possible. "Don't talk about my dad," he growled low.
"Or what, boy? What will you do?" The Martian questioned, staring impassively.
With a growl, Oliver swung at J'onn, a wild and untrained strike. J'onzz dodged easily, grabbing his arm and wrenching it back. Oliver screamed out in pain as he wrenched his arm behind his back.
"Hear my words, Queen. Right now you listen to everything I say. Do everything I tell you, and you will survive this war. I can see it in your eyes, feel the determination in your mind. You have the potential, but you need to work. If you can't do that then get out of here, because if you try anyway? Your family will lose another person."
With that, J'onn let go of Oliver's arm and walked away, and Oliver sighed in relief as he clutched his arm.
Part of him screamed at him to get out. This was crazy, insane, impossible. He was a rich playboy, not a soldier. He couldn't be a fighter, he should just give up.
But he couldn't do that. His father gave his life to help these people. His father was a better man than Oliver ever could be, but Oliver owed it to Robert Queen to be what he wanted to be. To be better.
So he followed J'onn, ending up in huge room full of weapons.
"This is the arsenal, where we store all of our weapons. All of our soldiers train with multiple weapons, but they choose one to be most proficient in. Take a second, look around, and choose your weapon."
Nodding, Oliver walked around the room. Scanning the shelves. A vast array of rifles and other alien weaponry lined the shelves, blades and other melee weapons sat on display. None of them really called to him, until he saw it.
In the corner, seemingly untouched for who knows how long sat a beautiful black compound bow, and a quiver of arrows. Oliver made a B-line for it, reaching over and picking it up to test the weight. It fit into his hand perfectly, and he adored the weight. This was it, this was the one. He reached to the quiver, strapping it over his shoulder and walked to J'onn.
J'onn scoffed looking at him with wide eyes. "A bow? Really? Can you even fire a—"
Before he could finish the sentence Oliver drew an arrow, firing it into one of the three targets in the room. It hit a bullseye. He pulled out a second arrow quickly, firing it at the medium distance target. It got close to a bullseye, but not quite. He then fired a third arrow at the farthest target, hitting it in the middle of the target board. Not very close to a bullseye, but not too far off either.
"Alright, I admit I'm impressed. Seems you've chosen your weapon, then. Make sure you don't regret it."
And with that, training was on.
Frustration was an understatement to Kara's current feelings.
Oliver had been training with them for almost a whole month now, and she had made absolutely zero progress in getting him to open up. She had tried everything: sparring together, trying to get him to eat with them at breaks, none of it was working. She was going insane!
Her mind was racing, so much she couldn't sleep despite it being so late at night it was almost morning. Desperate to do something, she decided to head to the simulation room, to blow off some steam with some training, so quietly she got out of bed, kissing Mon-El on the forehead before throwing on some fatigues and heading over.
The walk to the room gave her some time to think. She was running out of strategies with Oliver, and it was eating at her. He was so…cold. She got why, really. He had been through so much in such a short time. She just didn't get why he wouldn't TALK to anyone about it. That always made her feel better, was it different for humans?
She let out an audible sigh, before finally arriving at the facility's training room. She stepped inside, heading straight for the simulation room but was surprised to see it locked. Someone was using it, this late? She was curious, so she went to the observation room to check it out.
When she stepped into the observation room, she was shocked to find J'onn there, watching. "Can't sleep either?"
She shook her head, standing next to him before turning to watch. "Seems our new guest can't either," J'onn commented, and Kara looked to see in fact it was Oliver Queen taking on the simulator room.
"What setting?" She questioned, and J'onn just held up four fingers. She raised her eyes in shock. "He just started! He should be at three at the most!"
"That's what I told him when he earned entry into the room. But every night since he could he's been in here, and been at this setting for most of them. He has no idea I know, but I've been monitoring it to make sure he doesn't get himself killed. He's gifted, though, I must admit. He's been close to winning multiple times."
Kara couldn't believe it, but she looked down to see all the same.
Oliver Queen moved like a man possessed, quick and frantic but with a certain grace. He leapt over a barrier, twisting his body midair to grab an arrow and do a corkscrew flip so he could fire the arrow off at a pursuing drone. It hit the silver orb, straight in its red eye, and he landed on one knee. He rolled forward, notching another arrow and firing at another drone.
The room was a giant silver room, with what seemed like a hundred panels all over the walls. Each panel could move and pull out, and on the fourth setting they went in and out in a sequence you had to figure out. The objective was to get to the platform suspended high above the room, and grab the flag.
He sprinted forward at an angle, running towards the wall. He took off the ground, using his right foot to push him off the wall and towards one of the moving wall panels. He landed on it, and was immediately on the move again.
It was mesmerizing, Kara could hardly believe how new he was due to his skill and efficiency. He was able to cover up any mistakes or flimsy footing well enough she barely noticed. Clearly he had done this many times, it was almost like he had it memorized.
She noticed his mistake before he did. The simulation starts with a bunch of drones, but when the trainee gets close to the end it fires out another one that is meant to intercept your jump to the last platform. He clearly knew it was coming, but based his dodge pattern on where it came from last time.
He didn't know that one's path changed each time. So when he twisted his body to dodge it he left himself open to get hit due to its new trajectory. The drone collided with him, knocking him off his path and sending him crashing to the ground below. He laid still for a second, before getting up slowly and letting out a roar of frustration and slamming his fist against the wall.
"You're not supposed to do this one alone," she commented worriedly. "It was designed to have a partner to help you get through it, to take down the drones while you scaled the walls."
"Well, he hasn't exactly been social has he?" J'onn questioned. "But he's going do serious damage if he keeps this up. I should step in."
That gave Kara an idea. "No. Let me go down there. This could be how we get him to open up and let us help him."
This was getting ridiculous, he thought as he stood there, catching his breath. He was so close, he could feel it. He had been working non stop since he got here, going at 100% at training sessions and doing his own training too and it was working dividends. He knew he was improving, he could hold his own with J'onn now for much longer than before and his archery aim was improving immensely, and he was good to begin with.
Yet, no matter how hard he worked he could not beat this simulation. It was killing him, every time he got closer and closer yet something new always popped up to screw with him. It almost felt like the room was just screwing with him out of some sick pleasure.
He shook his head, taking a deep breath. Honestly, he was just glad for the distraction. Thinking about drone flight patterns prevented him from thinking about his family, or home, or Tommy and Laurel.
"Hey, that was amazing work," a voice sounded in the room, and his head shot over to see the face of Kara Zor-El staring at him, smiling. "Especially for someone so new."
"Thanks," he grunted out quietly. "Not close enough. I still can't get passed it."
"You're not supposed to," she replied quickly, and his eyebrow shot up at that. What was that supposed to mean? "You're not meant to do this simulation alone, Oliver. This is a teamwork section. It's supposed to be done by partners, each alternating getting from platform to platform while one watched their back and took down the drones."
His eyes widened in shock, but his mind was racing, combing through his memory of the simulation. That did make sense, and really explained his issues with completing it.
"So, want to be partners?" she asked, and he stared at her apprehensively. Why was she trying so hard? He couldn't get it. He was a playboy, a rich human idiot with no real stake in this fight and didn't know her, and yet she kept trying to get close to him, get him to open up. But he didn't want to, he couldn't. It hurt too much to think, to talk, to do anything other than work his muscles so hard they screamed and forget about the fact that he lost his dad and how shit of a human he was.
"Kara, I…" he started, but she raised her hand.
"Don't worry, I won't push you too hard to open up or anything. We'll just train, finish the simulation, that's all. Just, please? I don't wanna watch you get yourself hurt because you're too stubborn to reach out. We're a team, all of us, and you have to be able to work in one."
Dammit, she was convincing. She was staring at him with her bright green eyes practically glowing and he wanted so badly to say no but he just couldn't. So, with a sigh, he nodded, and she practically squealed and smiled so bright he swore he was gonna melt. She really was beautiful, even in fatigues with her tied up in a messy bun at who knows what time of night.
She walked over to the console, restarting the simulation, and they got to work.
Drones flew out from gaps in the walls, flying around the room. Oliver knocked an arrow, firing at one and hitting it as he rushed to the first platform. Kara followed, running forward and sliding under a drone flying at her, swinging up and hitting it in the eye.
Oliver stood back, taking out drones while she scaled the platforms in the room. He had to admit, she was impressive, agile and graceful as she moved around the room, jumping on moving platforms while avoiding drones as Oliver worked to clear at the room. Eventually, she made it to the final part of the training sim, and he was ready.
He had one job, shoot that drone before it messed up her landing. He took a deep breath, knocking the arrow back and taking aim. Breath, everything breathe, he muttered, the old adage of Yao Fei serving him well so far.
He watched the drone fly out of the wall, hurtling towards Kara. He took aim, breathed, and fired. The arrow sailed through the sky, as time seemed to slow. Then, he missed. The arrow flew right behind the drone by less than an inch, and it knocked Kara off balance and she fell.
Dammit, he swore to himself. He rushed over, guilt and anger and self-doubt flooding him. He prepared for Kara to be angry, to berate or belittle him. What he wasn't ready for, however, was her to be laughing.
"That was fun!" she was giggling, stilly lying on the ground. "It'd been a while since I took this one on, I forgot how rough it was." She hopped up, and turned her smile to a look of genuine kindness. "Hey, it took me and Alex 10 tries to get it right. You did fine. Don't beat yourself up about it. We'll just try again, how's that?"
Oliver nodded, letting a small smile grace his lips. Damn right, they'd try again.
Diggle was starting to get disheartened, on top of his intense frustration. He had been on Krypton for almost a month, and nothing. No leads, no information. Nobody had heard anything about the Queen's Gambit or its passengers. How does an entire ship go missing?
He walked the streets of Kandor, scanning the giant city. It was beautiful, he had to admit. Giant buildings as far as the eye could see, elegant structures that were sharp and winding of the brightest steel he had ever seen. The whole planet glowed a shade of red he was unaccustomed to, being from a yellow sun world.
Out in the distance was many mountains and plateaus, making the horizon just as gorgeous as the city skyline.
However, the beauty was overshadowed by the obvious signs of oppression. Tanks and other military vehicles were commonplace on the streets. Random people would be stopped in the streets by military police, and questioned harshly. He had even seen a fair few public executions in the streets.
He couldn't wait to leave. With a sigh, he entered his shithole hotel they had him booked in, walking past the front desk.
"Excuse me, sir?" the woman at the front desk, a mousey young woman with brown bangs and giant glasses got his attention, and he turned with a small smile and walked over.
"Yes?" he asked, and she reached behind her desk to grab a piece of paper.
"In two weeks, there will be our annual Ascension Day parade! It is mandatory for all people living in Kandor to attend, so I wanted to make sure you knew."
"Thank you," he replied, before raising an eyebrow. "Ascension Day?"
"Oh, it is our greatest holiday of the year! It's the day our great Emperor Zod took over Krypton's government, banishing the council that led Krypton to near destruction and saved the planet's core from exploding! This year marks the twelve year anniversary, and is supposed to be the most exciting parade yet!"
He nodded, absorbing the information. This could be good, a lot of people all outside meant a higher chance of learning something. He hoped. It was better than nothing, at least.
Kara would be lying if she said that she didn't head to the mess for lunch with much more pep in her step than she had had the past few weeks. She and Oliver had made those late night training sessions an official thing, four days a week, and although she was sore and tired she had slowly been getting him to talk.
With some convincing, he was even willing to sit and eat with them! It may not be much, but it was a start.
She got her food quickly, finding the table that she and her friends sat at and taking her place. With her sat Alex, Winn, Mon-El and James Ol-Zen, her friend. James was a big man, with bald hair and dark skin. Half human and half Kryptonian, James and his parents had worked for House El for years, and James jumped at the chance to fight for Kryptons freedom.
These were her friends, her family, and she hoped that Oliver could become part of that family too. He was a good guy, even though he didn't think he was, when he let it out. He told her about his sister and his friend Tommy and growing up on Earth, but he was really a great listener. He let her talk about whatever and just listened, and it was nice. With how stressful this life was, it was good to have someone to listen.
She didn't have that with Mon-El. He would try, and she adored him for it, but he just couldn't resist talking through it or changing the topic if it wasn't interesting to him. He was changing, slowly, but some certain Mon-Elisms were still there and just as annoying as when they first met.
Kara set her food down, taking a seat next to Mon-El as Oliver sat down next to Winn.
"Nice of you to join us, Oliver," James commented, reaching out to shake Oliver's hand. "James, James Ol-Zen."
Oliver shook his hand, looking around. Everyone else he already knew.
"So, Oliver, how has it been adjusting to Krypton?"
"Not bad," he answered, looking down at his food. "Haven't seen much of it. From inside all planets feel the same."
"Well, you're progressing really fast," Alex commended. "I'm sure you'll be in the field soon."
He nodded, but didn't say anything. The conversation at the table continued as normal, Oliver not really saying much the rest of the meal but obviously paying attention.
"I'm just saying," Mon-El boasted loudly. "That no way any of you could top my Adraxian Ale party story!"
"You tell it almost daily," Winn groaned, shaking his head. "It was pretty funny the first time, but by time number seven hundred and ninety eight it loses the appeal."
"I tell it because it's always funny!" Mon grinned, turning to Oliver. "How about you, Queen? Got any crazy stories?"
"My friend Tommy and I filled a pool with beer once," he replied in such an offhand tone that it took everyone a few seconds to react. Mon-El's grin dropped to a look of pure shock, Alex and Winn both burst out laughing and James just smiled.
"I want details. All of them. Give me them now," Winn turned to Oliver, pressing him into talking.
Oliver let out a light chuckle, the first time Kara had heard that, as he went into detail about how, for his friend Tommy's seventeenth birthday they thought it would be a great idea to fill their family swimming pool with beer. It had everyone at the table roaring in laughter, and even Oliver was starting to enjoy himself.
"Now it was all fine until Tommy decided to jump from the second story balcony into the pool. Idiot broke his ankle, and he was lucky," Oliver laughed, leaning back and sighing. The grin on his face started to fade so slightly she barely even noticed. But, due to how much time they had been spending together, she could tell.
"This Tommy Merlyn sounds like a fun guy," Winn laughed. "Would love to party with him sometime."
"Yeah," Oliver said barely above a whisper. "The best."
Kara opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by the intercom. "Kara, James, Winn, Alex, Mon, and Oliver to the briefing room."
Oliver looked around at them in confusion.
"Looks like you're getting in the field sooner than we thought." Alex said, standing up. And they all filed out of the mess hall and to whatever mission was awaiting them.