Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.
AN: Thank you for returning to read this story. We shall now see if the Dynamic Duo can play nice with Team Arrow. Too bad Oliver isn't there as well…won't that be a hoot to see Oliver and Bruce interact? Maybe I got to write another story about that sometime….anyhoo, enough of all that. Now onto this new chapter. Enjoy!
Previously:
"So, I assume you have an idea of how we stop these villains?"
"Yes. You team up with Batman and Nightwing."
"Who? Those crazy vigilantes from Gotham? Why should we do that?" Diggle asked.
"Because they have dealt with Ra's al Ghul and his mad schemes before to destroy the world."
"What about Merlyn? He has told us he has valuable information of Nanda Parbat he is willing to share with us," Felicity said.
"That may be correct, but working with Batman and Nightwing would be the best way to beat Ra's. They are, you may not believe it, even more talented than Mr. Queen, and are quite resourceful in their own right."
"Better than Oliver? I don't think so," Felicity muttered.
Amanda quirked an eyebrow at her, but Felicity decided to make her point. "I haven't met them, but I have heard they both are quite difficult to work with."
A laugh escaped Amanda. "And are you saying Oliver isn't?"
Diggle hid a smile behind a cough, and Roy had to leave the table for a glass of water.
"Well, I for one sure hope we can change your minds about us, since we came all this way to help you."
To Team Arrow's amazement, two caped figures stepped out of the darkness.
After Nightwing made his comment, Diggle leaped from his chair. "Damn it, Amanda! You have no right to invite whoever you want down to our secret lair!"
Amanda shrugged her slim shoulders. "I would think Oliver would consider saving the world to take precedence over protecting his secret." She sniffed. "For once."
Batman walked over to the table and took the seat Diggle had vacated. "And considering I have much experience in both battling Ra's grandiose schemes to take over the world, as well as evading his attempts in making me his Heir, I am very qualified to offer much needed…advice, shall we say?"
"Really? You mean, this guy Ra's has tried both of these things before?" Diggle asked.
"You'd think he'd have given up by now," Roy muttered.
"I like you," Nightwing said to Roy. "Yes, you'd think so. Except I think he's learned to be both persistent and patient by living so many centuries." He sat down in the empty chair next to Roy.
"I, for one, think we need all the help we can get. Especially if they have the heads up on this Ra's guy. I haven't been able to find much info on him, as yet," Felicity said.
Batman fixed a gaze on the petite blonde. "So, you are the IT expert."
Felicity walked up to the imposing figure in dark blue, looking up into his eyes and reached out her hand. "Felicity Smoak, MIT class of '09. Good to meet you, Batman."
Batman looked down at the petite figure in front on him, engulfed her tiny hand in his large gloved one, and shook it. "Good to meet you, Ms. Smoak. Perhaps I can teach you a few things along the way."
Felicity's eyes widened at the supposed insult to her abilities and was about to say something when Lyla interrupted, "Well, now that we're all here, maybe we can get down to business and figure out how to combat these villains."
Amanda stood up. "I trust, Michaels, you can handle the rest of the meeting. With Batman and Nightwing here, my presence is superfluous. So I shall take my leave. I trust, Ms. Smoak, you will not have further need to contact me."
Again, Felicity felt like she should respond but was stopped this time by Dig's hand upon her arm. He winked at her as he took the seat next to his wife which Waller had vacated. He motioned for Felicity to sit down. She rolled her eyes in response but sat down without saying a word and watched Amanda walk out of the lair.
Lyla looked at Batman. "I do wish to extend our thanks for helping us with this."
"It's my hope, Ms. Michaels, we can take care of Ra's al Ghul for once and for all. He's been one of the most bothersome criminals we've ever had to face," Batman told her in his gruff tone.
"Oh, gee, Batman, I thought you were enjoying your little spats with him. And his daughter." Nightwing said, with a gleam in his eye.
Batman glared at his sidekick. "Really, Nightwing, I do not think it's appropriate to tease me about that at this time." Looking around the table, meeting gazes questioning the statement all around, Batman sighed. "Ra's al Ghul has attempted, several times, to maneuver me into marrying his daughter Talia as well as becoming his heir."
"Um, you don't think he's going to try something like that with Oliver now, do you?" Felicity asked.
Batman pursed his lips in disgust. "Who knows? As Waller had said, it seems like the plan is for Darhk to release the virus, to regain the mystical power. Ra's is hiding Oliver due to his knowledge of the virus and the antidote. Who knows? It's possible Ra's will attempt to leverage Oliver to Darhk in some kind of trade-off, which would then lead to his killing Darhk."
"No," Diggle disagreed. "I still think he would've a better chance to kill Darhk while Darhk is involved with releasing the virus." He looked at his wife. "Waller did offer it up as a possible scenario as well, didn't she?"
"With the little info we have, it's difficult to see which option Ra's will go after," Lyla said. "Or, it could be something else entirely."
Roy asked, "Did you say Ra's has another daughter besides Nyssa? And you have had some…kind of relationship with her, Batman?" At his gruff 'yes' Roy asked, "Couldn't you approach Talia to see what she knows, and what she's willing to tell us?"
Nightwing began to cough, and Batman glared at him. Batman then straightened in his seat. "Let's just say when we last parted ways, Talia and I weren't exactly on speaking terms."
Nightwing swallowed a laugh. "Yeah, you rejected her, and she's still acting like a spurned woman."
Batman muttered, "Remind me again why I brought you along?"
"You need me." Nightwing bestowed on his partner a face-splitting grin, then gave Felicity a wink. "And I'm too cute to leave behind."
Batman closed his eyes momentarily then opened them again. "You all bring up excellent points. However, I think neither Nyssa nor Talia will agree to sell out their father. I cannot think of any other insiders who would be willing as well. So, we have to plan for the most likely scenario or scenarios and go from there."
"But whatever we do, I think time is running out," Nightwing said.
"How do you know that?" Roy asked.
"Well, I did ask this friend of ours about primordial forces. She states it operates within a small window, and if someone is talking about it, then it must be about to occur soon. There's no way to predict them more than two weeks outside of their occurring."
"So…that leaves us, perhaps….?" Laurel asked.
"I'd say about a week."
Laurel asked, "Well, if it's such a short time, why did Ra's bring Oliver back to Nanda Parbat, if he's only going to return here?"
"So he doesn't have to worry about hiding from people for too long," Batman replied.
"Talk about hiding people…you decided to hold this meeting and you didn't bother to invite me?" Merlyn's voice interrupted them as he slowly walked into the light from the shadows of the lair.
"Malcolm Merlyn." Batman's voice was so icy it could have turned the water in the water cooler into ice.
"Batman. How nice to see you once again." A small smile appeared on his face. "Or should I say Br…"
Batman's voice both interrupted and drowned him out. "We're only on vigilante name basis at this time, Dark Archer."
"So, you two know each other?" Felicity asked, wanting to bring some levity into the situation.
Batman continued to glare at Merlyn. "I met him years ago when I trained with the League."
Team Arrow offered a collective gasp. Felicity asked, "Really? You really trained with the League as well?" she asked Batman.
"That's what started all of this foolishness of Ra's chasing me all these years," Batman said.
Looking between the two men, Diggle asked, "Are you two able to work together, or do we ask Merlyn to leave?"
Batman again pursed his lips as he thought over his answer. Merlyn quirked an eyebrow at the masked crusader and said, "Only if you don't want to succeed in beating both Ra's and Darhk. You need all the help you can get."
"Even yours, Merlyn?" Batman asked in a tone which shivered Felicity down to her toes.
"Especially mine," Merlyn answered with his characteristic smirk.
"Why is that exactly?"
"Because I have the most recent information on Nanda Parbat."
"How is that possible?" Batman leaned back into his chair and glared at Merlyn.
"Let's say I visited Ra's three years ago with a plan to bring about change to this small corner of the world."
Team Arrow exchanged glances, not believing what they had just heard. Diggle shook his head minutely, hoping everyone would stay quiet.
"Which of course he refused to give you permission to do, correct? Instead you carried out your little Undertaking all by yourself here in Starling. Thus inviting his wrath in the first place, starting the mess in which Oliver Queen is now involved."
"Wow, Br…Batman, you sure do stay current, don't you?"
"Only about certain dangers. Like yourself."
"Okay, boys. Are you still sure we should allow Merlyn around, Batman? It seems like you two have quite the large amount of animosity between you." At Batman's look of consideration, Felicity shrunk a little in her chair. "I just want to make sure, that's all."
"Thank you, Ms. Smoak, you are correct on several counts. Despite our…personal history, I think we both can lay our disputes aside in order to take care of these two criminals." Shaking his head, Batman said, "Which we should continue discussing our plans to take care of. Time is running short. Especially if we wish to save Oliver."
Felicity bit back a squeak. She wondered what exactly Batman meant, but she wasn't going to ask. Instead, she set up her tablet, ready to take notes. "All right, let's get this going, like Batman said. I think we should plan on both scenarios happening. Either Ra's using Oliver as bait to draw Darhk out, or killing Darhk before he can spread the virus."
Batman nodded at Merlyn, who rolled a chair from the computer area and sat down next to Diggle. The conversation did turn towards figuring out some strategies to handle the situation in front of them.
Felicity was pleased with her team, how they decided to buckle down and work with the newcomers. She was kept busy with taking down the possible ideas of preventing Darhk from spreading the virus. She was the one who offered Barry as another possible source of aid.
"Have you met Flash, Batman, or have you heard of him?"
Nightwing laughed, then as Felicity turned widened eyes towards him, not hiding her hurt, he apologized. "I'm sorry, Felicity, I didn't mean any offense. It's just that Batman takes special pains to stay current in all world news, especially regarding any superhero types."
Felicity gave him a slight smile and acknowledging nod, with a small blush appearing on her face. "So, I think we can utilize his special talent as well."
"Well, if we go on the assumption Ra's will have Oliver shoot an arrow to kill Darhk while he's releasing the virus…"
"Bar…I mean the Flash…can run up the building and catch the vial before it can fall to the ground when Darhk falls over dead," Felicity said, not hiding the excitement in her voice.
Batman nodded, showing his approval for her quick thinking. "I think that would work, Felicity." Looking around at the rest at the table, he said, "We have enough…should I say manpower…to cover all contingencies. We need to verify where Darhk will be when he releases the virus, make sure he doesn't pull some kind of switch with his plans or leave prematurely, so we need several on guard to watch that. Some to take out any HIVE guards hanging outside the premises. Some to take out the HIVE guards immediately around the place."
Diggle sighed. "So have we figured out how we can get the info where this is all going to take place? Besides figuring out the placement of everyone, we also need to be in position to grab Oliver as soon as this is done. Also grabbing Ra's…"
"Which shouldn't be a problem, right Batman?" Nightwing said, nudging Batman in his shoulder. "You're going to fight and kill him this time, right? Settle this once and for all?" At Batman's growl, Nightwing said, "You know you promised you-know-who you'd take care of Ra's this time. Not listen to any foolish ideas from Talia."
"Nightwing, I keep telling you not to talk about certain things in mixed company." Looking at the Team Arrow, Batman said, "As Nightwing indicated, I think it is best for Nightwing and me to be the ones to fight and capture Ra's. Plus have others circling that building, take care of any LOA team, etc. Similar to the plan for taking care of HIVE operatives."
As the team progressed to refine the details of the rescue plan, Felicity continued to take notes, and maintain progress. For the first time since he'd disappeared, she had hope they'd be able to rescue Oliver and bring him home.
AN: Yes, we are moving closer to the ending of this story. Thanks for continuing to read this. Not one of my more popular fics, but what can a gal do? It happens sometimes. Glad the new season of Arrow is almost upon us.
If you're feeling generous, please take a moment and write a review. Always appreciated. And come back for the next chapter when I get it posted to see whether they will be able to save Starling City and Oliver!
