Arrow: Hooded Adventures

Part 1: Knight

Chapter 4: Schooled

Oliver arrived on the roof of the Wayne Enterprises building at exactly 9:00 o'clock, in costume, waiting for Batman. He stood there perfectly straight looking out into the distance for exactly ten minutes, wondering why he was late, and wondering if he was ever going to show up. He suddenly heard a noise behind him and turned, lifting his bow and lasing an arrow he saw about two dozen cops in riot gear coming up the stairs and all pointing their guns at him.

"Crap," Oliver said under his breath, then raising his voice to the 'Arrow' standards, he said, "Drop your weapons and leave here unharmed!"

"You are under arrest!" One of the cops shouted, and he could tell it was not Detective Lance, "I will offer you the same mercy you did to us!"

He laced one arrow into his bow and pointed directly at one of the cops helmets, then in a second he spun around shot the arrow into an adjacent building and was gone.

"What just happened," one of the cops, obviously a rookie, asked in pure surprise. Unbeknownst to either the vigilante or the cops, two sets of eyes were watching the proceedings.

"Last night yet another police bust of the Starling City vigilante, now known as 'Arrow' went south," The reporter stated on the television in the coffee shop, "This time our sources say that police received an anonymous tip that the Vigilante was going be on the roof of the Wayne Enterprises building. With the vigilante's reputation for unmasking billionaires it is possible that he is going after Bruce Wayne in connection to the Merlyn Global Group deal. We'll have more on this story after the break."

"God," A man sighed behind Laurel, "I came to Gotham to get away from these nut jobs, and I go to the one other city that has one, just my luck."

"That man is putting himself out there for this city!" Laurel turned around and saw that the man behind her was quite handsome, but she also felt an eerie recognition of the face, "It is an ordinary citizen helping a nearly incurably corrupt city try to have a new reputation."

"You seem very confident in your opinion," The man replied with a charming and confident smile.

"I am."

"Well, then we might have to talk about this at dinner tonight," The offer was enticing but she had to decline, but then at the last second she saw Oliver walk through the door and decided to take this man up on his offer.

"Why not?" Laurel said, on a whim, "When should I be ready by?"

"Bruce," Oliver said in mock happiness, "How long has it been?"

"Since you accused me of corporate fraud and of being a terrorist?" Bruce's smile hardened, and Laurel realized that she had done the exact thing that her father had asked her not to do; get a date with Bruce Wayne, "About 20 hours, give or take," Laurel decided to go through with it, if for nothing else to piss-off Oliver, "I'll pick you up at six."

"Well," Laurel said, "Bruce, I should leave you to this, but I'll see you at 6:00."

"Ma'am," The barista said, "You didn't get your coffee," But Laurel had already left the building, while Oliver and Bruce moved to another table.

"Still think I'm a terrorist?" Bruce smiled sarcastically, "Have you figured out what I have on you?" Bruce asked still indeed keeping up the charade.

"Know I have not figured it out," Oliver said, then went on to tell a blatant lie, "My life is kind of an open book, all you have to do to see it, is turn on a television."

"Very funny," Bruce said, "But even billionaires have their secrets, you and I know that better than most, don't we Oliver?"

"What are you getting at?" Oliver leaned in, trying to understand what Bruce was intimating.

"Do you know what I love about a boomerang," Bruce leaned back, his eyes glazed over as if he was watching something else.

"No, what?" This brought Bruce back from his thoughts.

"It always comes back," He leaned in, "And sometimes it will bite you in the ass, and make you look like a fool, in green leather." With that he got up and left, leaving Oliver realizing that he had underestimated Bruce Wayne, by a lot.

"I underestimated Bruce Wayne," Oliver said as he jogged down the stairs in the basement, "He's so much smarter than I thought. Felicity, you look like you have something to tell me."

"Yes," Felicity said, "But it's just usually you don't want me to interrupt you because then I start babbling and you don't like that, so..."

"FELICITY!" Oliver interrupted, "What do you have for me?"

"Right," Felicity said, "You know how I said that I couldn't get any farther in the Wayne Enterprises files?"

"Yeah,"

"I was wrong," Felicity said and she pointed to the screen wear there was something that looked very similar to the suit that Batman wore.

"You son of a bitch," Oliver said, shaking his head, "This just gets bigger and bigger, and where's Diggle?"

"I don't know he left saying he had something important to do, I didn't bug him about it."

"Ok," Oliver said, "I'm going to need Diggle's help taking down Batman."

"Why would you want to take him down?" Felicity asked, "You're treating him like a criminal, but maybe he's a hero? Like you, I mean he's doing the same kind of thing that you do."

"I hate that you're probably right." And with that Oliver left the cave.

"Master Bruce," Alfred spoke to an empty room trying to find Bruce, "Your limousine is ready to pick up Ms. Lance."

"Thank You, Alfred," Bruce stepped out in a suit and tie, ready to go, "Take the night off."

"Thank you, Master Bruce. I hope the date goes well," Alfred thanked him, "And I do hope that this does not have to do with your date's former lover's night time activities."

"You will be disappointed then."

"Sorry I'm late, Laurel," Bruce said as he exited the hotel to see that Laurel was already in the Limousine, "I had too much trouble finding the correct pair of shoes to go with the suit."

"I highly doubt that's true," Laurel said skeptically.

"Well, you'd be correct," Bruce smiled, "but that story sounds so much better than, the classic 'I lost track of time'."

"So, shall we go?" Laurel asked seemingly content with his story.

"Of course."

NEXT: SPORTSMASTER

A/N: Only two more chapters to go in part one, but I do have something to talk about with Part 2; one word: KATANA!