My dragon may be destroyed, but you will still kneel before me, Oakenshield.

1725, -42, 7. 1:00 PM.

-Great Goblin-

...

"How do we know he was behind Smaug?" Bilbo asked, fretting his hands together. "Anyone could take credit for it..."

Dís shook her head. "It was him. I tried to trace the e-mail and was blocked at every turn. He's using proxy servers and routing it through four different countries. Every time I hit a dead end a piece of code pops up... The same code that took down Smaug's firewalls."

"He's taunting us," Dwalin growled.

Ori put a hand on Dwalin's arm to calm him. "What do we know about Great Goblin? We need to see if there's anything we can work with."

"He always sends his minions," Bofur said with a shrug. "He's got t' have hundreds of them."

"Yeah. We keep putting them in jail, but it never makes a dent," Nori added as he toyed with one of Bofur's braids. "They're all the same- no identifying features, fingerprints burnt off... It's like they don't exist."

Bombur ran a hand through his mustache in thought. "They've obviously been trained to fight, but most of them are nothing special. It's more about overwhelming number than actual skill."

Ori rapped his gloved fist on the tabletop. "That's not what I asked. What do we know about Great Goblin himself?"

The Company fell into an awkward, thoughtful silence. At length Dís answered," He's probably a NP, since he wasn't worried about Smaug killing him. His coding level is off the charts..."

"So, he's probably a NP computer genius?" Ori sighed, waiting for the others to follow his line of thought. "Has anyone actually seen Great Goblin?"

Thorin growled low in his throat as he caught on. "We have no idea who we're up against."

"So, don't go to the meeting," Bilbo suggested softly. "It's probably a trap."

"It's undoubtedly a trap," Gandalf agreed. "But it's also the only lead we have."

"Then we're going to the meeting?"

Thorin sighed. "You can stay here where it's safe. Blue Team will go."

Bilbo rolled his eyes. "You'll need Dís here to monitor everything, which puts you down to three members. I'm going."

"You're not a fighter and this could go horribly wrong."

"Of course it's going to go wrong. Which is precisely why I'm going. Someone needs to be around to save you." Bilbo winked at Thorin and vanished, his voice floating out of the nothingness. "Plus, it might be useful to have someone Great Goblin can't see."

"Fine," Thorin consented with an irritated scowl. "Bilbo will join Dwalin, Balin, and myself on Blue Team."

"And me," Ori added with a steady nod. He was met with a wall of skeptical looks, but surged on. "You know what I can do. NP or Super, I can take his skills if need be."

Thorin tossed up his hands in exasperation. "Anyone else? No? Good. Let's work out a plan then. I don't want to go in blind if we can help it."

"The coordinates in the e-mail are for a large warehouse in the Rhovanion district," Dís explained, pulling up a map on the monitor. She zoomed in to the street view and accessed the closest security camera. "From what I can see there's only one way into the building. No other doors, no windows. I downloaded the schematics from when the building was built and there are no hidden passages in the original design."

"That doesn't mean Great Goblin didn't add one," Nori pointed out. "In fact, I'd put money on there being at least two other ways outta that building. If it were me, I'd have a movable hatch somewhere along the back wall, probably near one of the corners for more cover. If I had a way to fly, the other would be to the roof. If not, it would be to an underground tunnel."

Bofur shook his head incredulously. "You've given this some thought... Do I need t' be worried?"

Nori rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and shrugged. "I started as a thief. Escape routes come with the territory."

Thorin stared at the map and nodded. "Nori makes a good point. We have to assume Great Goblin will have another way out."

"If he's even there," Gloín said slowly. "I mean, we already know it's a trap, the whole building could be swarming with minions and he could be three states away."

"That's a cheerful thought," Bofur muttered.

"It's not full of minions, unless Great Goblin has found a way to block their heat signatures," Dís said, pulling up a temperature overly. "I hacked into the government satellites. There is only one living thing in that building."

Bifur made a quick gesture at Dís, who nodded and reached up to squeeze his hand.

Loni elaborated, "Bifur says he'd rather face a hundred minions than a single man. If Great Goblin is confidant enough to be alone, he's got something planned..."

Gandalf regarded them sagely. "There are some who would not deem it wise to temp fate in such a way."

"What choice do we have?" Thorin growled. "This is the only lead we've got!"

Bilbo frowned. "This isn't a lead. A lead is catching a break that the bad guy doesn't know we have. This is more akin to dressing ourselves in raw meat and walking into the den of a hungry lion."

"Great Goblin is trying to hurt my family. I will seize this chance to take him down. And I'll go alone if I have to."

"Ya won't be alone, Oakenshield," Dwalin rumbled. As he stepped forward Ori moved to stand at his side.

"We're with you, lad," Balin sighed. "I don't like it, but I don't see much choice."

Thorin looked to Bilbo, who cocked his head with a smirk. "I already told you I was going."

"All right then," Thorin said with a tight smile. "Time to figure out a plan."

…

In the end there was little planning they could do against an unknown enemy in an unfamiliar setting. When morning came the Company sat around the table and ate their breakfast in silence, their usual banter replaced by a nervous energy. No one liked the idea of walking into a trap, which was precisely what they were planning to do. The overall mood was made even more solemn when Gloín dropped the morning edition of The Daily Portents on the table. The headline declared S.M.A.U.G. Destroyed by So-Called Supers and showed a grainy photograph of Dori dismantling the dragon's corpse.

Dís fitted Blue Team with com units and cameras so she could monitor their progress from Erebor Tower. The rest of the Company would be watching the monitors, ready to help should something come up. The other teams were not happy about being left behind, but Thorin's logic convinced them. It was a bad idea to send everyone knowingly into a trap. They would all be much better off with two teams in reserve for when things went wrong.

Blue Team said their goodbyes and made the drive to the Rhovanion district in silence. Great Goblin's warehouse looked the same has it had in the satellite images- tall and brick and imposing. Balin activated his com and checked in with Dís while the others took a moment to ready themselves.

"I want ya to take a bit of my power, lad." Dwalin rubbed a finger over Ori's gloved hand. "Last time ya didn't get much of an emotional hangover... Ya can handle it and it'll help keep ya safe."

For a moment Ori looked like he was going to refuse, but he nodded slightly. "Okay. But only so you don't worry as much." He peeled off one of his gloves and looked down at the softly glowing runes standing out amongst the scars on his flesh.

"Let me..." Carefully Dwalin reached forward and took Ori's hand, raising it to his lips and kissing the palm. His eyes unfocused slightly as the runes drew out his power, but he smiled as Ori pulled away and put his glove back on. "And ya said we'd never be able to touch..."

Ori flushed and pulled Dwalin in for a kiss. "I love you, Dwalin."

"And I love ya, lad."

...

"Before we walk into this trap I wanted to thank you," Bilbo said, not taking his eyes off the warehouse.

Thorin frowned. "Thank you? For what?"

"For letting me be a part of this team. I'm not a Super, not a hero, not even a burglar- though you call me one. It's been quite a long time since I felt like I belonged somewhere. Like I could do some good."

"You belong with us," Thorin whispered as he leaned down and claimed Bilbo's lips with his own.

Fisting his hands in the soft fur of Thorin's cape, Bilbo purred his agreement. Breaking apart, he grinned. "Maybe you aren't so terrible at this kind of thing after all. We had dinner, we kissed, now we're going to battle a criminal mastermind. It's sort of a second date..."

Thorin laughed and kissed him again.

…

"All right, Blue Team," Dís' voice echoed through their coms. "I'm still only picking up one heat signature inside, but we know this is a trap. I'll monitor things from here and let you know if anything changes. Be careful in there."

"Roger that," Thorin replied. "Blue Team is heading in."

The door to the warehouse was unlocked and Dwalin extended his knuckle-dusters before pushing it open. As they stepped inside Thorin shifted his arms and torso to diamond and Bilbo disappeared. Balin opened the bag he carried and poured out a collection of small, sharp rocks. Muttering a spell under his breath the rocks rose up and circled around his body like a living shield.

The door sealed itself behind them with a loud click. Thorin cursed under his breath. "The only way to go is forward."

The corridor they entered into was long and dimly lit, with no exits other than the open doorway at the end. Thorin took a headlong step and a portion of the wall slid away, half a dozen metal spikes springing out. Balin's rock shields took out two of the spikes while Thorin and Dwalin's quick reflexes blocked the ones meant for them. Without thinking Ori threw his fist out and the spike jutting towards him stopped with a metallic clang. Pulling off his glove he flexed his fist to show the metal which coated his knuckles. "Huh. Guess I took more than just your regen..."

Dwalin gave a pleased snort, then peered down the corridor. "Looks like we're runnin' the gauntlet here."

Bilbo agreed from somewhere up ahead. "It appears we're not just walking into a trap, but that the trap is literal as well."

"There's still only one heat signature in there, Blue Team," Dís said in their ears. "He's straight ahead of you, at the far end of the building. It's hard to tell the elevation, but I'd hazard to say he's above y-"

Their coms went dead.

…

"Blue Team? Can you hear me? We've lost visual!" Dís pounded at the keyboard and cursed. "Shit! We've been blacked out. Our whole security system is offline!"

"What does that mean?" Bombur asked, glancing around nervously.

"It means we have no way to help Blue Team." The lights flickered, then went out. "And we're sitting ducks up here."

The Company stood in appalled confusion for a few moments before Dori got to his feet. "No power means no security cameras, no outside communication, no shielding, right?" Dís nodded. "We'd better ready ourselves then. I have a feeling we're going to have some unwelcome guests."

...

...

A/N: We're heading into the home stretch with this story! There will be 33 chapters total, so we're almost done! Stay tune Monday for Gloin's origin chapter (and a bit more on how the Company came to live in Erebor Tower). See you there- same bat time, same bat channel!