The Flash Season 2 Episode 8: Flash Vs Arrow
"Ms. Smoak," Harrison Wells speaks up and Felicity spirals around, her blonde hair whipping through the air, "I think you may need to call the Green Arrow again."
And after the aftermath of the battle, after Barry was okay, after the Arrow had somehow weaseled his way in as Cisco's hero, and after the trio had left town, Team Flash snoozed around in Star Labs.
Cisco, after trying to replicate Felicity's algorithm (which looked like gibberish even to him) stopped typing on his monitor to look at Wells who was quietly helping Joe with the paperwork. Caitlin was beside him doing some doctor thing, and Barry wasn't speeding reading a book.
The question that had been bothering him all day finally was released (maybe he should stop hanging around Felicity that often; her verbal diarrhea seems to be contagious. But Felicity is his only connection to the Arrow.) "Are you telling me that you have no idea?"
Everyone turned to look at him and after learning that he was the subject of the random interrogation; Wells raised his eyebrows in silent question, asking him to elaborate.
"Oh, come on. Are we all supposed to believe that you haven't figured who the Arrow is?"
At the statement, everyone turned their questioning looks from Cisco to Wells, dying to know the answer, everyone but Barry that is.
Wells shrugs and resumes reading the report, his face a complete look of nonchalance, "I would if I wanted to Mr. Ramon, but I don't."
Cisco gave him a weird look, "Why the hell not?"
Wells puts the report down to look at him straight in the eye, "Because Mr. Ramon, he as all of us are, is entitled to his own secrets. If he does not wish to share them with us, then we have no business snooping around."
Cisco pouted childishly, "But... Barry knows."
The speedster raised his hands up in innocence, "We're friends... kind of, and he trusts me."
He ignored the look of disappointment from Joe entirely. Barry knew how much Oliver had sacrificed to save the city, how much he endures to try to make Starling safe and there is nothing anyone can do to make him think otherwise. Without Oliver, there would have been no way Barry could have been the Flash.
The Green Arrow is a hero and a good man. Oliver Queen is better.
"A FLOWER CANNOT BLOSSOM WITHOUT SUNSHINE, AND MAN CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT LOVE" –MAX FULLER
Joe West
"Nope can do. This is impossible. Do you know how hard I had to work just to be able to get into the traffic cams, CCPD, and tracking signatures of Central City? There is no way that I can possibly do all that for Starling City in time." Cisco raises his hands up in the air, a frustrated look on his face.
I rub my forehead with my index finger and thumb, the stress of it all finally catching up to me.
We encountered Sebastian Keith two days ago. Hit by the particle accelerator, he is able to become invisible for a short amount of time. While Barry is damn good at being the Flash and while super speed may be useful for a whole lot of things, there isn't much one can do when you can't see the target. Keith's abilities were also what helped him skip town and escape to Starling City, which is out of our jurisdiction.
I look at Barry, wondering if he has an idea for all of this. My role in this team is quite limited, and I know it. Barry comes up with the ideas, Cisco comes up with the technical and technological concepts for the idea, Caitlin backs everything up with her own expertise of medicine and health, and I make sure that the idea isn't stupid or self-sacrificial.
Like when Barry tells us all, "We need to go to Staring City."
Sure, that part is fine. It's the logical thing to do. Go to Starling, find the Meta, and bring him back.
"And how exactly do you propose we find the Meta? You can't exactly stroll around Starling City wearing the bright red suit," Caitlin voices my thoughts out loud.
Barry shrugs before walking towards his phone, "We get some help."
At that moment, I know three things. One, judging by the look of pure glee on Cisco's face, and the situation in Starling City, is that the 'help' Barry is referring to is from The Arrow. Two, there is no way I am letting my boy near that man ever again. Three, there is no way I am teaming up with the Arrow once again. And yes, two and three and very distinct reasons that should be valued equally.
"No," I find myself saying before Bare can even turn the phone on.
He stops in his movements to stare at me confusedly, but looks at me in tired disbelief when he sees the look on my face; the same look I had when he went to that college party with that frat boy who was arrested three times before that.
He sighs loudly, "Joe, he helped us last time."
I refuse to budge from my decision, "Last time, you didn't tell us you were bringing in the Arrow. Last time we were here, on our turf, we made the decisions, we made the rules, and I am willing to bet that it will be the opposite there."
And if there is anything that I taught Barry Allen growing up, it was to formulate your own opinion and choices and stand by it and fight for it, even when the whole world tells you to stop.
I guess the universe is coming back to bite me in the ass today.
"Which is exactly why we need to go there. Joe, we've been doing for less than a year. Harry is gone, and we're all over the place. I've seen the way Ol... Arrow and his team do it. They've been doing this for far longer than we have and the Arrow has been doing this sort of stuff for far longer than that. So trust me when I say that they are exactly what we need."
And without even giving me the opportunity to argue some more, he presses the dial button on the call, the untraceable cell (courtesy of Ms. Smoak) with no information on the contact apart from The Arrow. How useful.
"Hey, I might need your help."
God help me if I'm going to survive this without trying to shoot the Arrow (and end up brutally murdered by an arrow).
Ms. Smoak is present when we walk into Verdant, the hot new club opened in the city by Oliver Queen and now run by his sister while Mr. Queen takes over Queen Consolidated after both his mother and father's death. Can't say I'm surprised. When I first heard the news of the kid coming back from the dead. I knew that the partying playboy that featured heavily in the news will be no more, and I was correct. It even went as far as to him being suspected as the Hood, but eventually released, presumably after the police department thought how ridiculous the idea was (I didn't think so at the time),
I have to wonder if Mr. Queen is aware that the former EA, newly appointed Head of Applied Science, and his bodyguard are working for the vigilante.
"Felicity," Barry speeds his pace when he sees her, and the two former 'somethings' embrace in the middle.
"Hey, Barry. God, it's nice to see you again. Though it really sucks that every time you see us or we see you, there is always a meta involved or a villain involved and it usually requires you and the Arrow to go into battle and then possibly get hurt and you know...normal hero's life." She releases him and they smile dorkily at each other for a moment and I wonder why the hell these two aren't in a relationship yet (apart from obvious reasons such as distance, jobs and Barry's love for Iris).
"How about we go in before some reporter gets a full scope of Felicity Smoak of Queen Consolidated hugging an unmasked Barry Allen in front of the foundry doors?" John Diggle speaks up for the first time and I take a second look at his arms, which are twice the size of anyone back in CCPD. He gives me a nod, and I silently pray the Hail Mary in my head as we go down a series of steps.
Turns out, the Foundry isn't as bad as I expected it to be. Instead of rusty metal, and breaking walls, everything in here is up to date, modern and sleek, from the training area at the side to Felicity's monitors and the suits lined up on mannequins.
"This. Is the. Coolest. Thing. Ever!" Cisco surveys the place like a child on Christmas and I roll my eyes.
"Cisco, the place at Star Labs is much better than this," I tell him blatantly, ignoring Bare's silent scold to be nice and Felicity's indignant 'hey'
The young engineer turns around to look at me as if what I said was the most stupid thing in the world, "Ya, but that doesn't actually look like a secret hideout. Actually, that isn't even a secret hideout. Like, anyone can literally get in and we'll all be exposed. This. This is the coolest place I've ever been to. Does it have, like, secret tunnels or something? Does the ceiling open up and the Arrow likes jumps down."
As if he was acting according to Cisco's word, one of the tinted windows in the little not-so-cave, opens up, and we all get a nice look at an arrow slicing through the air hitting the wall at the opposite end, easily going through the same pinprick on the wall that was used every time the Arrow flew into the room. He lands gracefully in the middle, and disappointingly leaves his Hood on.
For a moment, I think it's going to be all awkward silence before the man in the hood stares at Cisco and says with dead seriousness, "The club is above us. I can't jump through the roof."
Barry, chuckles, and steps up, making Caitlin and I the only ones to hear Cisco whispering in awe to himself, "The Arrow just joked with me."
"The place looks nice." As an afterthought, Barry adds, "Not that I got to see the old place much since you were choking the life out of me."
What.
I lose all my rational control when the words come out of Barry's mouth and would have probably choked the Arrow myself if the vigilante hadn't made a sound close to a chuckle before saying, "In all fairness Barry, you're the one that poisoned me first."
Barry smiles with ease and familiarity, and I have to remind myself of how much I don't know about my son's life.
"That's two jokes in one day. What happened to you?"
I can almost imagine him rolling his eyes (which would be much easier if I had a pretty good guess of what his face looks like) before we all turn to Cisco, who somehow made his way to Felicity's computers and sequels like a teenage girl who just got asked on a date by her crush.
"Look at all this stuff. Is that the FBI? Oh my god. Did you just hack the FB..."
And before Cisco could say anything more, and ruin my moral values once again (I know too much as a cop), Caitlin appoints herself as his babysitter, going there to drag him away from more squealing, unknowingly helping me to pretend I didn't hear what he was about to say and Felicity from an extensive police search (even though I doubt I will find anything).
The Hood or the Arrow (whatever name he goes by now) walks up towards the computers, and I watch as Felicity Smoak wheels herself to the side, somehow unconsciously sensing that the man was coming, and now the two of them fit perfectly side by side, her on her chair and him beside her staring into the monitors as it combs through a series of people.
"Felicity, your med bay has nothing!" Caitlin calls from the other side of the room, where a metal table, heart monitor, and a series of other things I see in Star Labs' med bay are placed.
The blonde laughs, taking the pen she's been chewing out of her mouth, "Feel free to make a list. Tarzan here sometimes thinks he's invincible."
She looks up at the man from her spot, and I know that from her angle, she can see most of his facial features clearly and I eliminate the theory (one of many theories about the Arrow) that the Arrow doesn't show his face to anyone, not even his teammates. But I guess that theory was farfetched since Barry knows who he is so there is no reason that both John and Felicity don't.
Speaking of Barry, he has now placed himself beside John, the two of them have their arms crossed and are staring at the computers, or more specifically, the Hood (Arrow) and Felicity.
"So, how is that progressing," Barry asks John and for a minute, I think they're talking about the case and I wonder why he isn't asking Felicity or the Arrow himself.
Only to discover that while Caitlin and Cisco are stocking up the medical bay, the Arrow and Felicity are running searches trying to find this guy, John Diggle and Bare are gossiping about someone's love life (presumably Felicity's because as far as I know, the Arrow doesn't have time for a love life).
"They're at the stage where she's been promoted, they went on a successful first date, and then with all this madness, haven't had time to talk about it or go on a second one. But man, they things they do now since the feeling was discovered to be mutual, I need to remind them I'm in the room half the time."
Felicity has an office romance, I suppose. Where else would John Diggle be present to watch all he described. Unless...
No, that isn't possible. Felicity and whoever is under the hood? No way. Office romance it is.
The loud beeping noises interrupt everyone's working and gossiping, and Felicity yells out to the crowd of people, "We have him."
The Arrow nods and turns to face Dig and Barry, "Suit up."
And when I follow them with their eyes, I see the two of them heading towards the mannequins where Barry's second suit is placed and I once again wonder how close the Flash and the Arrow are if the Arrow's secret lair has the Flash's suit.
"Oh! If you guys have an extra suit of the Arrow's he can put it in Star Labs, so he doesn't have to carry this one around when he's there!" Cisco offers excitedly, but immediately tones down when I give him an 'Oh Hell No!' look.
And even though I knew it was going to happen, even though I expected this long before we even got here, it doesn't stop my fears and morally stupid self from appearing when I see the Arrow and John Diggle make their way behind Barry.
"No," I say before I can stop myself and I can see Barry's silent plead from all the way here.
I walk up to the trio and stand toe to toe with the vigilante, even though I'm pretty sure he and the whole room can feel my sweaty palms and racing heart.
"You don't have to go any further than this."
"Joe.." Barry starts but he is interrupted by the man in the hood.
"Excuse me?" He sounds bewildered as if he can't, for the life of him, figure out why I would stop him.
"Listen, Barry is fully capable of handling this meta by himself. He doesn't need additional people." I tell him, trying to keep my voice even.
I hear Barry's disappointed sigh from all the way here but I keep my eyes formally trained on the Arrow, even as he growls out in that modulated voice of his that makes everything seem ten times more scarier, "With all due respect Detective, Starling City is my city and I am here to protect this city. So if Barry is going to go out there to fight some metahuman, then you are not going to stand in the way of my trying to protect my city."
It's then that I become desperate and blurt out the one thing that has been bugging me throughout today, "I cannot trust my son with some masked man I don't know and trust."
The foundry goes silent all of a sudden before the Arrow's focus diverts from me to the dark-skinned man beside him and across the room to Ms. Smoak, the latter two nodding to him after some telepathic conversation, not even Team Flash or my family is capable of accomplishing.
Barry somehow understands what he means, because he takes a step forward and before glaring at me tells the Hood, "you don't have to do this."
The Arrow looks at him and I see the slight upturn of his lips, "It's okay Barry. If we're going to have any more of these, then they might as well know."
The Hood comes down, leaving nothing but Oliver Queen in the Arrow suit, and I can't stop staring even though I know I should say something.
"Trust me, detective."
And before I can get in another word, the trio walk up the stairs out the door, leaving a more star struck than before Cisco, a swooning Caitlin, a worried Felicity, and me.
With more fear in my heart than before.
Because Oliver Queen is The Arrow.
Felicity's scream is the next thing we hear along with the bomb blast that came before it.
Turns out that the meta wasn't aiming for Central City at all, his primary focus had been Starling City and it just so happened that Central City had quite a few materials necessary to make a bomb like the one that just went off.
The bomb that exploded in the harbor and caused Barry and The Arrow, now known as Oliver's comms to go off (I solemnly vowed to not think of all the signs I missed that lead to him).
The lair is silent. It's silent for a long time. No one dares to speak a word or call out to anyone. My throat feels tight and my eyes well with tears as I fall on the ground with the same heavy heart I had when Barry was found in his lab struck by lightning.
No one makes a move and no one breaths until we see the familiar red streak and then Barry is in front of us, sooty but alive, with a beaming smile on his face.
Not caring about anything, or the missing two members, I grab him into a hug, vaguely hearing Caitlin and Cisco breath signs of relief and join the small bubble that we've created.
"Oliver's fine Felicity. He's just talking to that detective." Barry tells Felicity when he pulls back, but in my happiness at seeing him, I fail to notice the way that the young blonde still doesn't get up from her seat.
"Man, I knew Oliver Queen was the Arrow. I just knew it!" Cisco says happily, somehow more in awe of the man than he was five minutes ago.
Barry shakes his head smiling before giving me a scolding glance (sometimes I have to wonder who the father and who the child is) "Are you fine now?"
No, No I am not.
I decide to tell him so, "No Barry I'm not. I was finer before he pulled the Hood back."
At Barry's questioning glance, I place my hands on his shoulders and tell him, "I told you the Arrow was dangerous. Well, Oliver Queen as the Arrow is worse. He lost his mom, his dad, his best friend, his sister is gone, and everything he knew that made him human is gone. A man is nothing without love."
Barry pulls back immediately, "Is that what you think? That Oliver is dangerous because he doesn't have anyone?"
My silence answers the question and Barry tells me, his words strong and powerful,
"Joe, I will bet on my life, my job, and my speed that there is nothing more wrong than what you just said."
And if I thought Barry's words were a powerful indication of how I was so very incorrect, the events that happened then, was nothing compared to it.
The Foundry door opens and Oliver Queen makes his way down, stopping to look at all of us and give us a nod before his eyes go straight to the genius in the chair.
For the first time since the blast went off, I take note of her; wide eyes, pale, hands gripping the chair so hard that her knuckles turn white.
And when she sees Oliver Queen, she lets out a sobbing exhale and runs to him, at full speed, throwing herself at the leather-clad man who catches her easily as if they've been doing this for years.
"Oliver," I hear her breathing out, and I watch transfixed, at the way Oliver rubs a soothing motion on her back, holding her close.
I watch as the Arrow, Starling City's vigilante who shoots arrows into people on a daily basis, can break a man's neck in a minute, and has no trouble watching men and women bleed to death, gently hold Felicity Smoak in his arms as if she were made of glass and whisper soothing words into her ear.
"Shhhh. Hey, I'm here. I'm okay. I'm here."
The two of them stay like that in their embrace, neither letting go and eventually, Barry whispers in my ear,
"Told you so."
I don't have it in me to contradict him.
Felicity Smoak mumbles into Oliver's leather jacket, but everyone can hear her clearly, "If you ever think of dying on me Oliver Queen, I am going to ruin your life so hard and leak your baby photos on the internet."
He chuckles, and I don't remember the last time I saw Oliver Queen show any emotion of happiness on the TV or during the few times he was in Central and I was in Starling. "Yes Ma'am."
And after everything dies down. After Felicity fusses over Oliver and John and Caitlin and I fuss over Barry, Team Flash (as Cisco loves to call it) makes their way to leave, Barry and Oliver having some kind of moment at the far end of the hall, and Cisco and Felicity swooning over tech while Caitlin gives John medical tips and the list she made.
I stay behind, watching everyone walk up the stairs and turn around to look at Oliver Queen standing in the middle of the foundry, Felicity plastered onto his side, holding onto his forearm. They probably realize the picture they paint, and if they weren't in this room with guns, darkness, and Arrows, then they would be the kind of picture you put on a Hallmark greeting card.
I give the two of them a nod and Oliver Queen nods back before his eyes return to his blonde whatever she is to him and he gives her a blinding smile.
It's my cue to leave.
I've never been a fan of interrupting young love.
"BEING DEEPLY LOVED BY SOMEONE GIVES YOU STRENGTH, WHILE LOVING SOMEONE DEEPLY GIVES YOU COURAGE" –Lao Tzu
Joe West knows that as long as Oliver Queen has Felicity Smoak, he's going to be just fine.