"What are we doing Oliver?" Diggle asked. It really felt like they were getting in over their heads. He stood next to Oliver towards the rear of the massive warehouse they had procured. They watched as the Spartans and the other members of their quickly growing army moved equipment into place all over. Hastily constructed rifle racks held their newly acquired weapons along with the equipment cases from the "Arrow Cave"
"The best we can Digg. The best we can." The stern faced archer replied. Felicity scurried into the room, followed by Thomas and Morgan carrying massive hard cases filled with various pieces of computer tech.
"Careful!" She shouted.
"Is all of this necessary?" Morgan asked. He dropped the cases next to a semicircle of gray folding tables.
"I need probably a lot more than this to set up working comms in another dimension but I'm doing the best with what I have." She said.
"You should probably get in there." Oliver said. He pointed to his ringing cellphone and walked outside. The number was one he hadn't heard from in quite some time.
"Bruce! Been a while." He answered, forcing a cheerful note in his voice.
"Oliver, I noticed the Arrow hasn't been seen in the last few days. I figured I should check on you." A stereotypically grim voice said.
"Gotten a little sidetracked recently. Come to think of it, this might actually be a Justice League issue." He said.
"We're not calling it the Justice League. Also what do you need our help with?" Bruce replied.
"This started two days ago and…just how soon can you get to Starling?" Oliver asked.
"I'll leave right now." Bruce said.
"I'll call Diana, Clark, Arthur and Hal. Barry is already here."
"We'll talk about you sitting on this for two days when we all get there." Bruce said. The phone abruptly went silent as Bruce terminated the call.
"Good talk as always Bruce." Oliver said. He turned on his heel and walked inside. Barry approached him almost instantly.
"Was that-"
"Yes Barry."
"Are they-"
"Yes Barry."
"How pissed was-"
"Very very pissed." Oliver said succinctly. He raised his voice to get everyone's attention. "Guys, we have some friends coming to help us out. Please no firing on new arrivals. I'll make introductions once they arrive."
Everyone grudgingly voiced their approval, returning to their work. Oliver donned his costume and waited outside of the warehouse. A heavily armored black car pulled slowly up to the dark building. Bruce Wayne popped the door and climbed out, already dressed in his heavy Batman armor.
"Queen." He grunted.
"Wayne." The archer replied. A sonic boom overhead indicated that Clark had finally found the right address. He levitated down slowly.
"Oliver! How are you?" He said, grinning broadly.
"I'm good Clark. Any word from Diana?"
"Nothing yet, and considering Arthur has to get here via convential methods we'll hear from him tomorrow most likely." The Kryptonian said.
"The band back together again? Feels good right guys?" The Green Lantern for Sector 2184 arrived, smiling.
"Okay, I think we've stalled long enough. Come on inside guys. No sudden moves, everyone is a bit twitchy." Oliver said.
"Everyone?" Bruce said.
"Just follow me." Oliver replied.
They come through the door and all activity in the room stopped.
"Oh god, there's more of them." Dean said sarcastically to Sam. The Spartans stopped what they were doing to appraise the new arrivals silently. The ODST's kept working, trusting Oliver to fill them in at some point.
"GUYS!" Barry darted up excitedly. "Who's excited for another team up?" He said grinning from ear to ear.
"Hello Barry." Clark said. Bruce nodded curtly in his direction. Hal fist bumped him. Oliver called everyone to assemble around the now customary meeting table. Introductions were made, Dean rolled his eyes hearing the various alter egos, but finally the Justice League was brought up to speed.
"Oliver you shouldn't have sat on this for as long as you did. This affects all of us. This affects literally everything." Bruce admonished.
"I was a bit sidetracked in case you couldn't tell." Oliver gestured angrily to the room. "I called you guys now alright?"
"After this is over, we might want to think about an easier way to stay in touch." Clark said. Dean had made his way to where Cas sat on the floor. He was hunched over the box and talking very quickly to Laurel who was furiously taking notes. Bruce wandered over to Felicity, curious about the tech setup. Barry and Hal were talking excitedly about getting a team uniform. Clark sat back observing.
"I've never seen him this worked up before." Dean said. Laurel glanced up before going right back to her notes.
"He thinks he might have found another world we can get to." She said.
"What are you doing then?" He asked.
" is providing notation on the map as to what worlds get us closer to the Core." Castiel said. Dean shot her a sympathetic look. Everyone settled on to cots for the night, trying to catch a few quick hours. Of course being a warehouse filled with various traumatized people, several are up almost immediately.
Dean snapped awake panting, to hear the quiet clink of glasses, and laughter. He gets up, and walks over to the table at the far end of the warehouse. Diggle, Oliver, Bruce, Vale, Buck, Thomas, and Smith all sit around a table drinking.
"Man, sleeping troubles seem to go around right?" He said.
"We're swapping war stories." Diggle said smiling. He passes Dean a beer, and turned back to Buck.
"Keep going Buck, what happened next?" He said
"Alright, well…" Buck said, stifling laughter. "So we get to the dropship, Covenant all around right? And Mickey is screaming at me to plant the charges. I look at the rookie -I swear to god this kid was so green, he joined us on the drop into the city- and his helmet just droops. He forgot the fucking charges. So I scream at the squad to get into the dropship. We scramble in there and try to figure out what to do. Mr. Big bad alien is literally knocking on the door but we're buttoned up tight. Romeo is cursing up a swarm. I couldn't figure out what to do so we just stole the damn thing."
"You did not!" Oliver said slapping the table.
"Oh yeah, our CO was livid. He wanted to court martial us but ONI was determined to give us a medal. They settled on a stern talking to and shifting us to Reach for a shit guard detail." He finished wiping a tear away as the laughter subsided. His face went somber briefly. "They're…they're all dead now." He took a long pull from his drink.
"We've all dealt with loss. As long as they died fighting the good fight, that's what matters. Doesn't seem like a better way to go than protecting the human race from aliens." Dean said. Buck nodded. The night went on, more drinks flowed.
"…So it turned out the wanted hacker was also the worst liar I have ever met. She almost blew our cover within thirty seconds of meeting the sheriff. He asks her name, I think she said Mulder or something like that? Anyway the fuckin sheriff had seen X-Files obviously so his eyebrow just starts creeping up higher and higher." Everyone around the table was cracking up. Dean took a drink and continued.
"Charlie ended up saving my ass a dozen times on that hunt though. Sam was down for the count and I don't know what I would have done without her. She was a good kid." He smiled.
"You guys are putting my stories to shame." Diggle said laughing.
"Monsters, aliens, supervillains, or Taliban, it's all the same. We've all got good stories Digg." Oliver said.
"I just don't understand how the hell your brother there can sleep so peacefully, if he's seen half the shit you have." Bruce said.
"Ah yeah…Sammy still manages to look at the world with some serious rose colored glasses. He has a lot of faith in a higher power looking out for us. I guess that lets him snooze a little more comfortably than the rest of us." Dean said. Finally, the liquor began to flow less frequently, the stories stopped coming. Oliver got up and poured everyone a final shot.
"This one is for Jason Todd, Charlie Bradbury, Jameson Locke, everyone who went down fighting the good fight, and for everyone going down range with us in the future." Oliver said quietly. Everyone nodded their approval and took their shot.
"Get some sleep everyone." He said. "We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." The assembled group got up and began to file towards their separate bunks.
"Hey Bruce." Oliver stopped him. The dark knight turned towards the archer.
"Yeah?"
"If you need to talk…about Jason I mean." Oliver said. Bruce's whole body froze and slowly relaxed. He nodded and resumed walking towards his bunk.