The Tide Cometh
Disclaimer: I own nothing but what you see here. This was suggested by highlander348. Though originally the suggestion included the character being a female, but I decided to go with a male instead. Though I may go ahead and do a female version in the future.
Summary: After Oliver returns from being presumed dead for 5 years, he encounters a vigilante who is not all that pleased with his methods.
For years since he was a boy and was with out a father for several years after his beloved wife's death, Tommy Merlyn had been hiding a secret that a very rare few knew about. In fact, only the staff at his father's mansion knew anything about it and even helped him master his powers despite the fact they were clearly out of their element and swore an oath to never mention a thing to his father. Something young Tommy had been happy over as he wasn't too sure how the man would react. And even to this day as an adult, he hadn't told the man. Now you might be wondering what sort of gift our good man Tommy Merlyn has, and well its like this. He has the power to control water, though is unable to create it. And over the years he had gained enough control to not slip up and get himself revealed and hadn't even thought of doing anything special with it. That is until his best friend and brother in all but blood Oliver 'Ollie' Queen was lost at sea and presumed dead.
That and a random trip to the Glades while drunk out of his mind after Oliver's funeral that got him a brutal beating from some thugs had him making a monumental decision to do something about the way things were with himself, for the Glades, and the whole of Starling City. And so donning a pretty horrible outfit at first to conceal his identity and started helping people down in the Glades. The outfit consisting of black jeans, black boots, a tight short sleeved blue shirt, and a blue mask that only showed his eyes. Of course a few times he had gotten his butt kicked thanks to a lack of training and not having access to a source of water. And boy had it been fun in coming up with lies for why he had been so badly hurt.
Later on, he wound up going to Ted 'Wildcat' Grant for training and for whatever reason decided to learn the art of the sword through other means. Though his blade wasn't sharp enough to kill someone as he had no desire to have any thug's death on his conscience. He even later acquired a gourd that strapped to his back and carried water inside. It had taken a bit of getting used to due to the weight of it thanks to the water inside, but he eventually did so. But resolved to somehow find a way to prevent the weight issue from a problem.
That brutal beating he had suffered truly had made him grow up as he had wound up becoming less of a playboy and being more serious about some things, much to Malcolm's liking. By the time he met Ted Grant, Tommy had started to call himself Tide as he felt it was a fitting name due to his water based powers. And even for a time worked alongside Ted and his partner until things had gone bad for his new friends and Ted wound up retiring. He kept on with what he did though despite protests from Ted. His new way of doing things in his life turned out to be a fairly good thing when it came to Laurel and Thea. As both were pretty lost despite the support of their families, well when Moira was able to be a mother anyway due to her grief and having to deal with the company herself more often.
The loss of Oliver had caused him and Laurel to become pretty close friends, something Quentin Lance was never too sure on as part of him felt it was just some ploy to get into his only remaining daughter's pants. And had kept his mouth shut until the third year Sara had been lost to them, the older man's words had nearly caused Tommy to deck him but Laurel kept him from doing so and laid out a massive guilt trip on her father for his actions. Because of his closeness to Laurel, the two were able to provide Thea a shoulder and lots of support when she needed it. Especially when she was going down some bad habits, but thanks to his and Laurel's intervention, she had gotten back on the right track. He was never sure how he even acquired his gift, but he was okay with that. And the thought of telling the two women he cared most about had entered his mind a few times, but he was always worried on how they would react to it. Especially over his being a vigilante who was often seen in the Glades either during the day on occasion or at night a lot of the time.
And during his third year as a vigilante, he met an old army man down in the Glades who was about to get robbed until he stepped in to stop it. The man would wind up becoming a valuable ally and friend, especially when the old man managed to get him a far better outfit to wear for his vigilante activities. One that included bullet proof armor nicely enough and the entire look of it was blue. Of course his activities had long drawn the ire of Detective Lance who felt his way of doing things was not the way to uphold the law. Despite that, things were good aside from the random nut jobs who seemed to become his own personal little gallery of enemies. But lately ever since his best friend came back into his life as he was thankfully not dead, he'd been dealing with a new vigilante who didn't hold back from the kill.
Something that had drawn in Detective Lance like a moth to a flame, which to be honest was actually nice in not having to worry about Laurel's dad coming after him cause of how he operated. The fact this Hood guy didn't bother to hold back from the kill bothered Tommy a lot, and had often caused the two to butt heads over their perspective ways. Even leading to a few fights between the two and leaving Tommy pretty banged up from the encounters as the guy didn't restrain from holding back. Not even his water powers could seem to keep the guy down and he wasn't about to put a bubble around the guy's head from fear of accidentally killing him. Although, thanks to the Hood, he had had to replace his original gourd after the bow and arrow wielding jerk managed to destroy it with a well placed shot with an arrow. Because of that, Tommy now had the desire to break the guy's bow in return for destroying his gourd. But hadn't had the chance to do that yet much to his annoyance.
But after the night he had tonight in avoiding certain death for not only himself, but for his father as well had turned into one hell of a shocker for the young Merlyn. As on this night, he found that out that his own brother in all but blood aka Oliver Queen was the freakin' Hood of all things! He was honestly the last person he would have suspected in being the Hood despite that time with Detective Lance coming after him on grounds of his being the Hood. Just when ya think ya know a guy! Tommy thought with a sigh as he faced his best friend in the hallway of the hospital.
And the two had just had a fairly heartfelt talk that had left Tommy stunned over the fact his best friend wouldn't ever tell him about his being the Hood. And as he walked off, he decided that then and there was the time to mention a certain secret he had of his own. That and make the jerk apologize for his gourd! "You know Ollie, you owe me an apology." He said aloud as he turned around with a finger pointed in his direction and a determined look on his face.
"I know Tommy, you're absolutely right and I am damned sorry for keeping you in the dark." Oliver told him softly.
But to the blonde's confusion, Tommy waved it off. "No man, not that. But thanks anyways." He responded lightly, making Oliver confused as Hell.
"Okay... If not that, then what? As I am now pretty confused and I hate being confused." Being confused left him feeling vulnerable and he absolutely hated it.
Tommy just smirked at him as he now had ammo he could use on him at some other time. "Well I'd hate to leave you confused bro. But you see, you owe me an apology for what you did to my gourd!"
That just confused Oliver even further as he couldn't quite recall at the moment about breaking any kind of gourds. "Um... What? I've never broken any gourd of yours. I think I would remember that Tommy. Are you sure what you learned hasn't put you in some odd form of shock?" Maybe Felicity would know something that could help in that area. Or he could always just get his best friend some professional help. But explaining the cause for it would be a doozy!
That smirk just stayed right where it was, making Oliver feel a little annoyed in addition to his confusion. "Oh come on man! You don't recall at any point recently when you broke a gourd!?"
Boy I could seriously have fun with this! As after the emotional fall out the two had just previously had, fun was definitely needed.
What the Hell is he talking about? Why isn't he ranting and raving at me instead!? The only damned gourd I even recall breaking is that damned Tide nuisance's gourd. And that was a month ago.
Oliver just sighed in frustration and Tommy just knew his best buddy hadn't connected the dots yet. Making this whole thing that much more fun. "Tommy... The only gourd I even remember breaking is the one that belonged to that damned water controlling nuisance known as Tide! And you are clearly not Tide so I couldn't have broken any gourd belonging to you! Now, do you want to go get a check up to make sure you are okay?"
Oh how the Merlyn scion just wanted to break down laughing his head off over this whole entire thing. "That's the thing man, that's the gourd you broke and I want an apology! Or so help me I will kick your ass right here and now!"
Say what!? How is that his gourd!? He can't possibly be Tide can he!? I mean, I've known Tommy for years and he would have told me a secret like that. Right? Right!?
Tommy saw the conflict that was obviously going on his best bud's head and enjoyed it. "Come on Ollie, I know you aren't THAT blonde!"
He broke into a full on grin after that when Oliver's eyes widened in full on shock as he finally came to a certain realization.
"You? You're... You're him!?"
"Yep, that I am."
"How is that even possible!? You're friggin' Tommy Merlyn for Christ's sake! You and Laurel are whatever it is the two of you are while doting like Hell on my sister, and when not doing that, you're off being a big spender! Or whatever the Hell it is you do now a days..."
Tommy started laughing then, making Oliver frown at him over it. "Oh man! This is just great!" He got out while laughing.
Oliver just growled at him. "Would you stop laughing already!? I could have killed your dumb ass Tommy!"
"Hey now! I've had a few years of training and experience so I'm not that easy to kill. Now, you gonna give me that apology for the gourd or what? Cause I loved that gourd!" And he really did, he even had gone so far as to name it 'Bethany' too.
His buddy got up close and personal with him then. "Forget the gourd Tommy! You're him!? How!? Why!? When!?" he whispered harshly so as no one else could hear him.
"No Oliver, I can't forget about the gourd. I loved that thing!" He got another growl for that answer, but it didn't bother him in the least!
"Look, why don't we go wherever it is you go for your base of operations and we can talk about this in full? Including this whole killing thing you've got going on that seriously needs to stop. And then after we've done that, we'll fight it out, I'll beat you good this time, and get an apology!" Tommy told him jubilantly.
Hah! As if his own best friend could beat him! Oliver knows he has the upper hand here due to the harshness of what he went through for 5 years. And there's no way his brother can match that, but if he wants to live in denial... Well, he'll just have to do what he can to help his brother no longer be in denial. The thought of how he could do that appealed greatly to Oliver. The whole killing thing though, yeah that was likely going to be a Hell of an argument. "Yeah, good luck on those last two things Tommy. But let's go."
He turned around and walked off, with Tommy quickly following behind him with a scowl on his face while muttering to himself. The winner would only ever be known to those two, but Tommy did manage to find a way to get his best friend to apology to him for the loss of 'Bethany'. When Oliver and his team found out about the name thing, that led to Tommy, Diggle, and Felicity having a debate about proper names for things with Oliver watching on in disbelief over it all. Tommy's being around later proved beneficial when it came to Rasmus and his assassin along with apprehending Deadshot. The use of his water powers would prove damned useful as well during the Marcov device went off and caused Laurel to be trapped under some debris.
Which was a Hell of a conversation later on between Tommy and Laurel that involved a whole lot of shouting from the Lance girl until he finally pulled her close and kissed her like he'd been wanting too after he realized he had been falling in love with her in the past year. It got him a huge slap in the face, but also a kiss from her. Later on, he had the unfortunate or perhaps fortunate luck depending on how you see it to be in Central City when the Particle Accelerator went off. The aftermath left him being able to turn himself into water, and effectively being able to create water from molecues in the air around him. At first, he had been unable to control when he changed into water, leaving him stuck down in the sewers in dirty water for two months much to his dislike. Which pretty much motivated him to do what he could to get control.
This earned him another slap from Laurel when he finally made his way home, but in the end she was just happy he had managed to make it back. But forced him to take an hour long shower in order to be sure of the fact he wasn't smelling like sewage anymore. He was bummed out though when he learned he missed out on helping fight against an army of Mirakuru Warriors. But Laurel telling him that knowing their luck, another crazy event would happen and he'd get to be involved in that instantly made him perk up in happiness at the thought of getting to kick butt.
Author's Notes: Special thanks once again to highlander348 for the idea! I may in the future explore a story with this idea. Though I'll likely be covering more of the origin during those first 5 years. Hope you all enjoy this one! R and R!