'If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun'

-Katharine Hepburn

Titans

Part One: Genesis

Chapter Three: Dinner Date

As he descended into the bunker, Oliver took a brief moment to smooth his face into the blank expression he'd mastered during his time away from the city. Back when he was stranded, but still finding himself studying under some of the best fighters the world had ever seen - the likes of the Celestial Archer, Yao Fei, his daughter and protégé, Shado, ASIS Agent Slade Wilson (who had gone on to become one of his worst enemies in the formerly Mirakuru-enhanced mercenary, Deathstroke 'the Terminator') and then there had been the ARGUS Agent Maseo Yamashiro, later known as Sarab of the League of Assassins (as well as his sword wielding wife Tatsu, who was now known as 'Katana').

Each one of his teachers had taught him something new along his journey, had taught him something that he could add to his ever-growing arsenal of skills, as he worked on honing his mind and body, turning himself into a walking weapon. Only once he was already a certified killing machine did Talia al Ghul come along and refine him even further, pushing him past his limits and giving him a persona, completing his transformation into the ruthless killer that had returned to Starling City.

He hated what he had become in that regard; hated how the darkness he had tried so desperately to avoid had come to penetrate every aspect of his life, but it was also the same thing that he wanted the potential new generation of heroes and vigilantes to avoid.

That itself was part of the reason that he had (eventually and under protest) agreed to take the Mirakuru-enhanced Roy Harper under his wing. It was the same reason he decided to help Thea learn to control herself, and even train a seemingly bloodthirsty Artemis alongside the rest of his new recruits, despite her young age of seventeen.

If they were going to be the next generation of defenders - heroes - he corrected himself mentally, then surely he had a duty to make damn sure that they were all as free of the darkness that plagued him as they could be.

The elevator came to a stop, jarring him out of his head, and as it was the early evening, not quite patrol time yet, he expected to see his team training away, warming themselves up before they decided upon the evening's routes. René would be at work cleaning his guns, or maybe hitting the bag with Diggle in the corner; Curtis would be on one of the Wing-Chun dummies, working on improving his reactions to being struck at; Rory would be trying to once again master the salmon ladder, despite the fact that he had an awful technique; and Evelyn would be sparring with Diggle (if he wasn't working with René), or taking the time to practice her archery on the range he'd had installed.

Felicity would no doubt be on one of her computers, doing something that nobody else, except for maybe Curtis, could understand.

What he didn't expect was to see Evelyn and Diggle having a stare down, with her red in the face from yelling no doubt, while everyone else was in the middle of trying to make a hasty exit.

"Hello…"

His voice trailed off as he saw the argument forming, but the combination of his greeting and his appearance into the room was enough to cause everyone to freeze where they were. The recruits and Felicity stopped from where they were in the middle of trying to escape to the outside, while Evelyn turned the full force of her glare on him, though it receded slightly, and he had to admit it wasn't a bad one.

It had nothing on the venom his mother could produce when she was enraged though.

He shrugged it off, even as John let out a muted, "Thank God", under his breath.

"Now, I know I took an extra day to get back, but I expected everything to be running fine, so could someone please tell me", he ran his eyes across them all, and watched as a few of them moved back, shrinking away from him in slight fear, "what the hell is going on?"

Before the others could attempt to get a word out, Evelyn used the distraction his entrance had caused to jump in front of the others, "Digg said he wouldn't let me go out into the field"

"Oh? Good", at her betrayed expression, he decided to explain, "he said that because I asked him to. That was my decision, not his"

"What?" Her face scrunched up in her anger for a moment, before she reined it back in, and turned her glare on him once again, "What the hell?"

He held up his hand to in an attempt to placate her, and it seemed to work somewhat, as she clamped down on her urge to argue with him, despite knowing that it would get her nowhere with him.

"We can talk later, in fact I came here to touch base, and tell you to get dressed"

"What? Why?"

"I've got dinner with my sister and you're coming too"

"I am?"

"Yes, go change. Now", she hesitated for a moment, before a pointed look from Oliver had her moving off towards the changing rooms, where there were a few spare dresses hanging up that she could borrow.

As she moved off to get changed, the others gradually returned to the room, sparing glances at Oliver, even as Diggle and Felicity moved towards the centre of the floor, and he stepped forward to meet them there.

"Everything else go alright while I was gone?"

"Other than that? No problems here. Curtis and René worked well together - better than I thought they would actually", Digg admitted with a slight shake of his head as the rest of the team began to gear up, "you sort out what you needed sorting?"

"It's all good on that front, but I'm planning another weekend trip in a few weeks. Can you handle things here again then?"

"Yeah, it's no problem man, but you better be warned", Digg levelled him with a glare that was filled with his own amusement, "I will be getting even for this"

"After all that time you got off, sitting in one of those comfy eight-by-eight cells, you want more? Careful Digg, or we're all going to start thinking you're getting greedy with the vacation days"

"Har har, look who went and found a sense of humour. Don't you have a dinner to get to?"

"Yeah, tell Curtis to give me a call when he's off patrol, I'm gonna go change before Evelyn does, that way Thea can't solely blame me when we're late"

It was Felicity's turn to smile up at him, "You know she'll blame you anyway, right?"

"I know, but I can dream, can't I?"

"Two jokes in one day", she leant up to pinch his cheek, and he pulled back, scowling as she laughed, and Diggle coughed into his sleeve, "keep this up and we'll all start to think you're becoming a real boy"

He rolled his eyes at the pair in front of him, "Just get to work. This city won't save itself you know"

"Okay brother dear, the restaurant is great, you're footing the bill by the way, and I got to wear my new dress, which is all great in theory, but you've got that look on your face which tells me that there's something serious you want to say to me - us"

"I don't have a look"

"You totally have a look", Evelyn added, as she swilled the straw around her soda, feeling disgruntled that she wasn't allowed to have the wine like the two of them, but Oliver Queen was no longer a carefree playboy billionaire, but the respectable Mayor of Star City, and with that level of responsibility, there was a certain image he had to retain in the public eye.

And a part of that was not allowing himself to be seen in the company of underage minors who he was allowing to drink.

"There's no look"

"There's a look", the two of them spoke in unison, prompting a round of giggles from the two of them, while he finished what little was left of his wine, fighting the urge to sigh and pour another glass while they calmed themselves down.

"So really Ollie, what'd ya bring us here for?"

"Straight to business huh? Alright, I'm working on putting together something new-"

"Like the recruits", Evelyn asked, and he nodded his head.

"It's similar idea, yes, and I was hoping that you'd both want to be a part of it"

"Told you there was something", Thea muttered to Evelyn, knowing that he could hear her, as he passed over the two brief files he'd brought for each of them.

"Hey, I didn't say you were wrong", was the reply she was given, while they both opened the files, and Oliver was glad that they'd been given a private booth and not an open table, as they began to read through his proposal.

As he was sat at the end closest to the main body of the restaurant, he ordered a round of coffee and asked for the cheque, giving the girls time to leaf through the pages, reading through its contents, as well as the notes he'd added at the side.

"You've really thought about this, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I have, but this invasion really made me move up my timetable. I had them working overtime to get the place up and running. On the upside though, I'm told that the security system is so secure even Felicity couldn't hack it"

"And can she?"

"I don't know, I haven't told her about it - I haven't told anyone about it, not really"

"Not really boss?"

"The others now know that there's a secure building, and where it is. They just think I bought it for our potential future rendezvouses, with whatever amount of funds I had Felicity 'liberate' from Merlyn, Slade and Darhk"

"And you saw no reason to correct them on that, did you?"

"Not even at all", he said with a smirk.

"Is this why you pulled me out of the field? You want me to do this instead?"

He turned to look at the youngest member of his team, she was only seventeen, but she was so full of passion that she honestly amazed him at times, "Yes. I think that you could learn a lot here, learn a lot from the others I've called about this, and I think you'll find that it's a better fit for you in the long run"

"Alright then. I'm in", at his surprised look, she added, "hey, I asked you to train me to kick ass; if you think that this is a better way for me to learn how to do it, then I'll trust your judgement. I'll be there"

"Thank you 'Mis", he turned back to his sister, "and what about you?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because you're lost", the honesty in his words shocked her, and she soon gave him her full attention, "you're floundering Thea, and you know it. You've got all this training now, from me, from Merlyn, and we were both taught by the best in the world, only now you don't know what to do with it. I think it's time you did something positive with it"

"I need time Ollie. I need to think about it"

"That's fine. You saw the date in there, six weeks away, and if it'll help you make your decision, I think I've got the perfect man lined up to take over your duties as my Chief of Staff"

"Alright you guys, dinner is served"

"Ooh spaghetti"

Barry let his eyes run across the table laden with food, as he sat down next to Iris at Joe's dinner table, and reached for the nearest slice of garlic bread, only to have his hand immediately swatted away by his adoptive father, "Wait for Wally"

The young CSI pouted, but didn't have to wait for very long, as a burst of yellow lightning lit up the room, and the youngest member of the West-Allen clan appeared in the hallway; a definite spring in his step and a massive smile across his face, which had definitely not been there during their talk in the speed lab earlier.

Barry thought that Wally would've still been mad.

"What's got you in such a good mood?"

Apparently, he wasn't the only curious one, as Iris immediately went into her investigative journalist mode, and Wally rocked about on the balls of his feet, moving quickly enough that Barry could practically feel his excitement flowing through the Speed Force.

"I just got offered a job"

Of all of the things Barry had envisioned Wally saying to them when he got back home, that hadn't been in his top five.

Or even his top ten.

Or twenty.

"What?"

At least Iris' brain was still working.

"Who offered you a job? You just started college"

Joe trailed off, unsure of what to say next, and Wally, seemingly not sensing his dad's slightly upset tone, continued, in the same excited tone he'd started in, "That's just it - I got it through college. Apparently, they saw the aircraft turbine supercar designs I submitted as part of my application, and the college passed my design onto them. They told me that if I'm prepared to work for them, then they'll pay to put me through college, so no tuition fees, and then they'll pay me a wage as long as I agree to work part-time for them too. The only other thing I have to do is transfer - same course, different location"

"Where? Where is it - the job, I mean?"

Barry's question caused him Wally to slow down slightly for the first time since he'd arrived, and he could detect an air of uneasiness about the man, "It's in Jump City"

"What?!"

Joe stood up in surprise, mouth agape as he looked as his youngest son, "But that's… that's on the other side of the country!"

"Yeah, so?" Wally slid into a seat, and began spooning spaghetti onto a plate, "It's like, a ten-minute jog to get there on a slow day, and even then, that's if I take it easy"

"So", Barry grabbed some of the garlic bread, cutting Joe off as the elder West sat back down, willing to let the scientist talk to the scientist, "did they give you a deadline for when you have to get a response back to them?"

"Oh, I already said yes", Wally either ignored his father's eyes widening at his statement, or just didn't notice - Barry wasn't completely sure, "I mean, how often do you get a chance to do something like this?"

"So, who is it that gave you the offer?"

Wally swallowed an amount of spaghetti that gave the others pause, "It's a new tech company that's just opened up, they're doing work into experimental and advanced technology, huh", he adopted a surprised look, "kinda like STAR Labs actually"

"So advanced research?"

"Yeah but it's all cutting-edge tech only - there won't be anything like what Caitlin does, or any particle accelerators being built for that matter"

"So basically", Iris cut in with a grin, "it's a company of Ciscos?"

Wally and Barry chuckled, as the younger speedster answered his sister, "Something like that yeah - they're still setting up and are looking for 'talented individuals'", he made quotation marks with his hands, "and once they saw my streamlined design for the turbo-charged cars, they decided that they had to snap me up"

"And do they", Joe spoke up for the first time since he'd sat down, "have a name?"

"Oh yeah, they're a company called Q-Core and the owner is some guy called Conner Hawke"

"And you don't know who that is?"

"No, the rep they sent out to me was a man called Jason Anders, who deals with recruitment and oversees the needs of the personnel for the company"

"So, an unknown man approached you, working for a company you've never heard of, and you said yes?" Joe wasn't happy, and his tone of voice made that clear, "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that I was never going to get a chance like this - it was a limited time opportunity, and there were only three slots"

"And who's getting the other two?"

"Let's see, there was a girl named Evelyn Sharp", Wally took a quick look at Barry, and was glad to see he didn't recognise the name, "and another girl, err… I think her surname was Dearden or something weird like that"

"You know things like this aren't uncommon", Barry interjected, turning everyone's attention to him, "I was offered a spot at Mercury Labs before I was one hundred percent certain that I wanted to become a CSI"

"I know, I know", Joe brushed his hand over his forehead, "and sometimes I wish you'd taken it, but then you probably wouldn't be The Flash and who knows what kind of state this city'd be in then"

"Yeah", the man nodded his head slowly, "it's funny how things work out sometime", he smiled to himself before turning back towards their youngest member, "so when does it start?"

"It starts on the eighteenth-"

"What!? But that's only-"

"-of next month"

"-a few weeks away", Joe trailed off, his dismayed tone floundering.

"I know", Wally's tone was back to one of confusion, "that's why I'm telling you all straight away. It was a make-or-break decision and I made it", he turned to look at them all one-by-one, "I thought you'd all be happy for me"

"We are Wally", Iris reached over the table, grabbing one of his hands with her own, "It's just a lot to take in. you're telling us that we only have a few more weeks with you before you move across the country"

Joe nodded in agreement as he sat back in his chair, slumping slightly, "I'm not happy you're gonna be so far away, but I am proud of you", he leant other to give his son's shoulder a squeeze, "and I know your mom would be too"

Wally swallowed, before reaching up and squeezing his hand back, "Thanks Dad"

The four of them settled into a comfortable silence, enjoying their food while Barry and Wally fought mostly in silence over what was left of the spaghetti and garlic bread.

"So, Wally", Barry swallowed the last of his food, turning to the man he was coming to think of as a brother with a smile on his face, letting Wally take what was left of the garlic bread, "what're you looking forward to the most at college?"

Wally grinned.

With the plastic dinner tray in hand, he made his way across the dirt and twigs that made up the island's ground, ignoring the constant crunching as he came to a stop at the circle of solid, reinforced steel that made up the sole entrance to their underground prison.

Reaching down, he typed in the four-digit access code, placing the tray on a slab of metal that would lower it down as he climbed down the small eight-foot ladder.

There were only five cells inside, only two of which had been used in the last decade, and only one of them was currently in use, while the regular occupant of the other had been whisked away for an interrogation session, leaving only one man that had to be fed that evening.

"Dinner", he called out, as he stepped up to the far cell, and handed the tray between the bars, the prisoner taking it wordlessly, "potatoes look good today. I'd have them last though", he called out, as he left the other man behind, closing the hatch behind him.

Feeling curious, the sole prisoner sat up on his cot, and a quick look at the mashed potatoes was all he needed to know that something was wrong with them, even if they looked mostly realistic.

Trusting his instincts, he turned it over, not surprised to find that it crumbled in his hands, before he got to the very centre, where it was solid.

Wiping the crumbling mess from his hands, he grinned to himself in the darkness.

No matter how long it had been, he'd recognise a block of C4 anywhere.