Welcome to Chapter 5 of Golden Rogue. I'm so glad that I managed to get this to you in time. I'm planning to focus more on my writing so I could be more like some of my favorite writers likechoejhulkp9 and Guardian-Sigil please enjoy.
Soviet Union, 1986
On the Waverider, Lisa decided maybe she should check on Jax. She was admittedly worried for him ever since Stein got captured. She's paid enough attention to know about their firestorm link. She's been in the criminal life long enough to know that if you want information, you have to resort to torture to get it. If they torture Stein, they torture Jax. Hopefully he's ok. As she reaches the Med-Bay, she sees Jax lying down asleep. She approaches him.
"Jax? What are you doing in here?" Lisa asks Jax. He twitches. "Jax, are you okay?"
Jax's breath hitches before he responds "Yeah, I, uh... I haven't been able to sleep the past two nights."
Gideon suddenly provides some intel. "I prescribed Mr. Jackson some mild medication."
"Which don't seem to be doing a damn thing." He responds.
"What's going on?" Lisa asks.
"Ah, it's Stein. They started in on him again. He's scared to death. I-I can feel it. He's trying to be strong, but..." He said worried.
"Hey, hey, calm down. Stein's going to be okay. They all are. Once we come up with a plan, we will save Mick, Stein,... and Ray if there's time." She jokes causing Jax to chuckle. But it falters and he stands up.
"It's not just about that. It's my fault he got captured. If... if he wasn't trying to protect me, he would have never gone in there alone."
"Calm down Jax, what's the worst that could happen?" She asks.
"You mean besides Vandal Savage "interrogating" him, or threatening him with Ray and Rory's lives?" He replies.
"Okay good point. Sorry, I'm not exactly the best at cheering people up, as you can tell." she apologizes
"Besides, You don't know what kind of place they got him locked up in." He said with grimace.
"What would that be?" She asks.
"Labor Camp Number 54 formerly known as the Koshmaror "Nightmare" Gulag. Built in the 18th century..." Gideon tries to explain, but gets cut off my Lenny.
"Can we skip past the Wikipedia crap and get to the good stuff, like how to break in?" He asks, and everyone looks up for Gideon's response but is given only silence.
"Perhaps you didn't register that as a question, Gideon." Sara said.
"I understood, but in its 200 years of operation, no one has successfully escaped from..." Gideon said but is cut off again. This time by Lisa.
"Ooh, is that a challenge Gideon? Guess you should know that we have never failed to break into a place. Plus how could a prison stop a group with a giant spaceship, superpowers and unparalleled technology." She said.
"Well, I hope you're right. Savage knows that Stein created Firestorm, but if he finds out that he is Firestorm..." Rip said.
"Always Savage with you, isn't it? My partner's in prison too." Lenny reminds Rip.
"And Ray." Sara said.
"Yeah, whatever." He replies without care. "The point is you didn't lift a finger."
"You know damn well it was never my intention to get them thrown into a gulag, but I had no other option. Besides, I doubt that it's Mr. Rory's first time in prison or second or, I imagine, tenth."
"He's got a point there." Lisa said.
"All right, arguing is not gonna bring the team back any faster. And Rip's right. Criminals usually do feel more at home in prison, and they know it better than anyone else." Sara mentions. She sounds like she has an idea.
"So?" Lenny asks
"So what if the key to breaking in is asking someone who's been in and out of Soviet prisons their whole life?" She said.
"And who might that be?" Rip asks.
"Are you familiar with the Bratva?" Sara asks.
"Ooh, The Russian Mob? In 1986, they would have ruled the criminal underground inside every prison."
"Alright, so who do we go to in this Bratva, who could help us?" Lisa asks
"I recommend Yuri the bear. He is a high ranking member of the Bratva and a former prisoner in many Russian prisons." Gideon explains and shows a photo of a bearded short haired old man. Not in shape but seems tough. Might be a little less than willing to help.
"Alright lets pay this bear a visit." Rip said as they all go.
They all go to a bathhouse to meet Yuri. Well Rip, and Lenny meet Yuri while Sara and Lisa hide outside the room since they can't go in the mens room they in a closet to provide backup just in case. They then hear a man yelling.
"Igor! Andrei!" He said. Then two men in black walk towards the room. That was there cue. Sara kicked the door in, and makes quick work of two men in twice as many seconds. Unfortunately that calls the attention of everyone inside they look at the two women menacingly.
"Don't all volunteer at once." She said.
"Just so you know she started it not me!" Lisa said.
"Don't even try that!" Sara responds.
And after that the men charge them. When one went for a punch Lisa caught his hand, lifted him and throws him over her shoulder to a wall. Sara punches another man in the face, and kicks another. Two try to attack her at once and Lisa grabs one behind her by the neck and stops him. She then throws him away and kicks him to a wall knocking him out. When they finish off those men they knock on the door and Lenny lets them in.
"We just took out six men. You guys couldn't handle one?" Sara said disappointed.
"You killed my men?" Yuri questions.
"They're not dead yet. And if you help us neither will you." Lisa remarks.
Yuri decides to surrender. "My organization runs black-market goods into Koshmar."
"Three of our, uh, well, comrades are being held there by Savage." Rip explains.
"Koshmar is not a hotel for petty criminals. If your friends are there, they must be insane, ruthless animals." Yuri said.
"Well one of them is, the other two are like puppies." Lisa remarks and chuckles.
"I can get you disguises and allow you to infiltrate Koshmar. That's all I can do for you."
"Thank you Yuri, we will be going now." Rip said before walking away and the others follow.
Rip shows them a design of the Koshmar gulag from the screen. It seems that Lisa, Lenny, and Sara are the only ones in this meeting. Jax and Kendra probably weren't invited for some reason.
"Now, according to Yuri, this is where his men have access. Got it?" Rip explains.
"This isn't my first prison break." Lenny remarks
"We got it covered." Sara translates.
"So how can we help?" Kendra asks.
"By staying on the ship. We don't need any more casualties." Rip replies. "Besides, Mr. Snart Ms. Snart and Sara have got it covered."
"Whoa, man. Why does it feel like we're on the JV team all of a sudden?" Jax asks.
"What you are is one half of everything Savage needs to change the face of the Cold War." He turns to Kendra. "And you are the only person who can kill him." He explains
"Yeah, so you can't just..." Kendra tries to respond.
"I am not going to gift-wrap the two people in the world that Savage wants the most." He was frustrated that the woman didn't understand or accept that she was absolutely vital to his plan.
"We should get going." Lenny wraps it up. He didn't want to be bogged by the argument. Neither did Lisa. She just wanted to make sure they could save there teammates, especially Mick, and maybe Ray... if it's convenient.
"Oh, Ms. Lance, could I borrow you for a moment?" Rip asks Sara. Lisa and Lenny just turn away and walk to the docking bay to get ready. When Sara got there she was wearing her hair in a ponytail and a black leather outfit instead of her usual white one.
"Impressive how many weapons you can fit in that outfit." Lenny said just before Sara tosses him Ray's miniaturized suit in it's container "And how much stupidity Raymond can squeeze into this one."
"The plan is to save him too, not just Stein and your partner." Sara turns to him and said.
"Oh, I'm gonna save Raymond, all right, so I can beat some sense into him. And what about you?" Lenny asks her.
"What about me?" She asks
"Clearly I'm not the only one with a side mission. What did Rip keep you after class to talk about?" He persists.
"He just wanted to go over a few details of the plan." She obviously lies to them.
"He asked you to kill Stein didn't he?" Lisa asks though she knows the answer. "It makes sense that he would go to you. He knows we wouldn't kill a crewmate just because it's convenient. You are used to this type of thing. It's perfect."
"It's also heartless." Lenny adds.
"The plan is to save Stein. And if, for whatever reason, we can't, Rip showed me what will happen to my home in 2016, to our families. If Stein breaks, the damage is irreversible."
"Been on a lot of heists, and even when things got rough, I never took out one of my own." Lenny tells her.
"Well, this isn't a bank heist."
"First, he left our partner twisting in the wind. Now he's gonna have you ice old silver-top."
"We're all just his pawns here, Sara." Lisa adds. "He's willing to let us all die if it means that he can save his family. I mean look, I'm the Con he's the Crook you're the assassin."
"He's not just asking me to kill. He's asking me to save the future. And if, for whatever reason, we can't save Stein, then I'm gonna do what needs to be done." She replies heartlessly as she gets back to preparing. Lisa just decides to see how Kendra and Jax are doing. She leaves to find them and sees them in the hallway. She joins them.
"Hey guys, how's life in the bench?" She asks trying to lighten the mood.
Jax scoffs. "Just great, just sitting back and watching as our friends go to prison on a life or death mission to save my other half or else the world is doomed."
"So not so great. Got it" Lisa replies.
"Anyway thanks for checking on us but we're fine." Kendra said with a smile. but then Jax starts to get a headache. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Something's changed. Grey thinks we've abandoned him. He's starting to lose it in there. I can't take this."
"We've got to tell Rip." Kendra said.
"The guy who benched us? He'll just tell us to sit tight. No, I hate feeling so helpless. This is exactly what it was like when I blew out my knee. I could barely walk, recruiters stopped calling, my mom always crying. I just wish there was something I could do." Jax tells them in sadness, but Kendra gets an idea.
"Wait. Your connection with Stein, it goes both ways, right?" She questions him.
"Yeah." He answers not getting what she means.
"So maybe we can send him a signal."
Jax ponders for a moment. "Grey did tell me about this one time he and Ronnie... Get a knife. You need to cut me."
"I'm sorry what!?" Lisa asks.
"If you cut me, then Grey will get cut too and we can send him a message!"
"Isn't there another way we can do this, like send him a psychic message?" Lisa wasn't exactly willing to cut her friend.
"Lisa... there is no other way."
Lisa sighs. "Fine ill get the knife." Lisa walks to the table and gets a small knife. Jax sits on the stretcher and mentally prepares himself for the pain. "Are you sure about this?" She asks and Jax just nods. She begins to cut. She writes WE'RE COMING in big letters. Hopefully Stein got the message and hasn't given up.
Lisa, Lenny, Rip and Sara all leave for the mission. They go on a transportation truck with Rip driving. Lenny and Lisa disguise themselves as guards. When they were asked for papers Rip just gave them money and said Yuri the Bear sent them. They were easily let in, and Lisa, Lenny, and Sara jump off the van and hide in the bushes.
"Remember, we get Stein first." Sara reminds them.
"And if the plan fails, you'll kill him. You want my advice?" Lenny said.
"No." She replies.
"Don't use your gun. Do it with your hands. Do it while you're looking right into Stein's eyes." Lenny said.
"You're talking about a member of our team." Sara reminds him.
"I just don't want you to forget who we're talking about." They get to the fence and walk through. Sara gets into a gurney to fake being dead and transport her undetected.
"So how does it feel to be dead again?" Lenny jokes
"Take the next left." She tells them and they do as she said only to find another guard.
"You can't be down here, comrade." He said.
"I was ordered to take this corpse to the incinerator." Lenny lies. The guard goes to check under the cover. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Dr. Vostok used him for one of her smallpox weapons trials." He pauses once they sees Mick and Ray being guided by guards. Mick turns and notices them.
"Highly contagious." Lisa adds while staring at Mick before he gets punched in the gut, turns from them, and leaves. They continue to push Sara until they reach their destination and Sara sits up.
"All right, this duct should take us to solitary. We get to Stein..." She tries to explain but gets cut off.
"Yeah, We're not going." Lenny speaks for the both of them.
"That's the plan." Sara reminds him.
"We came to save Mick too. And that's what we're doing." Lisa responds
"Fine. Forget it. So much for your code, crook, and con." Sara remarks as she walks away
"Anytime, assassin." Lenny retorts, and the Snart siblings walk away. They make it to the higher levels and find the main prison. It took a while before they finally found Mick with a lighter.
"You call that a flame?" Lenny catches Mick's attention. Mick turns to him and chuckles.
"Nice costume." He said as they opened the door.
"Got one for you too." Lenny hands him the outfit and Heat gun.
"Hey, Ray." Lisa whispers to him. He is really out of it and won't wake up. Lenny walks up to Ray and gives it a try.
"Wakey, wakey. Time to shrink... or not." He puts Ray's suit in his pocket and hopes for the best. Lisa didn't seem to care much. they came for Mick and Stein. Ray has his suit, so he can handle himself. "Let's go."
"What about him? We can't ditch him. He won't survive."
"Think about it Mick, Three guards walking out of here... not suspicious. Two guards carrying a prisoner out of here... very suspicious. He has his suit. He'll be fine."
"He took a beating for me." Mick persists.
"Raymond would take a beating for a total stranger. Mick, if our time in the can taught us anything, it's we look after each other. It's you and me, right?" Lenny tries to convince him but Mick just shakes his head
"If we're going, he's coming with us." He insists. There is no way that they can convince Mick to go without Ray so they just carry him along with them. Hopefully there won't be any guards on the way out and if there are, they think that Ray's a corpse.
"I can't believe you're risking your life for this idiot." Lenny remarks. but then suddenly the power goes out, and the doors start to open.
"Electromagnetic locks." Lenny said as the prisoners escape their cells.
"We're dressed as guards." Mick observes
"Run!" Lisa yells. As they try to escape they find it difficult due to the maze of prisoners around them. It was a full on jailbreak and there was nothing they could do about it. Suddenly a man who looks like the warden shows up and shoots a pistol to the ceiling.
"Everyone back in your cells!" He orders but Mick grabs him and throws him in a cell with a tall muscular and threatening prisoner inside.
"Enjoy your new cellmate!" Mick said as the Warden yells for mercy but is grabbed from behind.
"That door leads to the loading bay. From there, you can get to the jump ship." Lenny tells him.
"Where are you going?" Mick asks
"I got something to do." He vaguely tells him. Lisa knows exactly what he's talking about.
"I'll go with you." Lisa said
"Fine just make sure to keep the guards off me." Lenny orders and she nods. They head to the outside to find Sara.
"I have the shot." Sara said through coms, and both of the Snarts know what she means.
"Sara, don't do it." Lenny tells her.
"I don't have a choice. It's the only way to save Star City, the future." Sara stands her ground
"That's how a killer thinks." Lisa said.
"And that's not you anymore." Lenny adds. And after they don't hear a gunshot they know they succeeded.
"Sara? Sara, are you there?" Rip talks on coms.
"Now you're on the comm? We need to get out of here." She replies and once they're all together they try to escape. But suddenly Valentina Vostok walks in on fire, except it isn't hurting her. In fact she is using that fire as a weapon. Almost as if she was... Firestorm. Vostok has become the first Soviet Firestorm. They need to stop her. They pull out their weapons and Lisa and Lenny aim their guns at her.
"Whoa! Don't shoot! Grey's in there!" Jax stops them
"Lot of good it would do anyhow." Sara replies
"Man, screw this!" Jax walks towards Vostok
"What are you doing?" Sara asks
"I'm getting Stein back." Jax responds.
"We'll cover you." Lenny said and they fight off the guards while Jax tries to get to Stein, they were doing great until suddenly there is an explosion, and from that explosion there is Martin Stein. Jax saved him. Now they can escape. But wait suddenly Vostok is on her knees and is burning blue for some reason.
"I tried to warn her. Without the Splicer and myself, her nuclear powers are dangerously unstable. It appears Dr. Vostok is having a bit of a meltdown. It's... it's fascinating."
"Isn't that nice. How about we enjoy it from a safer distance?!" Lisa tells him sarcastically.
"I'll have the jump ship waiting just beyond the main gate." Rip tells them as they run. As they board the jumpship Vostok looks like she's about to blow. Once she does, luckily they are already at a safe distance of the explosion. Mission accomplished.
They decide to have a celebration after their great rescue mission. They have beers and We'll meet again on the radio.
"Courtesy of Yuri the Bear." Mick said as he walks away.
"How did you even have time to steal this?" Sara asks confused.
"Oh Sara, There's always time to steal." Lisa replies with a chuckle.
"A toast to the first time we haven't completely ruined the time line." Stein proposes.
"Please tell me that's true, Gideon." Rip begs.
"The projections of the future are back to normal." Gideon informs them.
"I'll drink to that." Kendra said.
"To Rip. To things not going according to his plan." Lenny remarks.
"To the Captain." Stein agrees and everyone repeats him. "All right. Hold on, Jefferson. You're not quite 21." Jax gives him a 'Oh come on man' stare.
"In 1986, the drinking age in Russia was 12, so..." Sara reasons.
"Well, perhaps we can let it slide this one time. After all, you were the hero today. You saved my life." Stein thanks Jax.
"Oh, that? That was no biggie." Jax tries to be modest.
"Having merged with an insane Russian scientist, I now know how lucky I am to have you as my partner."
Jax agrees "Partners." they do cheers.
Suddenly the ship begins to shake after a loud bang. Alarms begin to rise. It seems they're under attack again.
"What was that?" Sara questions.
"Isn't it obvious by now?! We're under attack! I'll give you three guesses who it is."
"Indeed. We have been struck with an explosive projectile." Gideon said.
"No kidding." Ray said sarcastically
"A scan of the vessel suggests that it is the bounty hunter Chronos."
"Yeah, I already figured it out thank you." Lisa said
"Oh, man, this guy has impeccable timing." Jax remarks.
"He appears to be following us. Firing countermeasures." Gideon fires flares at Chronos' ship and it lands. Countermeasures effective."
"Have we lost him?" Stein questions Gideon.
"Yes, but not his missile. Our aft shield is gravely compromised." Gideon says.
"Initiating evasive maneuvers." Rip relays.
"The vodka was a bad choice. Impact in three, two, one." They're hit and the ship falls/
"Sir, we've just been knocked out of the timestream." Gideon informs
"What does that mean?" Sara asks.
"It means we're crash-landing in place and time." Rip says and they end up crashing. When they get out of the ship, they see a burning city. Lisa's guess is that they're either in Rip's time, or world war two after the atomic bomb was invented.
"Gideon, camouflage the ship. This doesn't look like the type of place we want to linger out in the open."
Ray looks confused when he sees a building. "That looks a lot like a Palmer Tech building, but why does it have a Smoak logo on it?"
"Well you gave it to your friend Felicity Smoak right? When businesses are given new bosses there are bound to be changes." Lisa answers
"Wait. This is Star City. I thought you said the time line was safe." Sara tells Rip.
"Yeah, Star City was intact in 2016. This... this is 2046." Rip tells them. 2046? How could this city be so corrupt in 30 years. What happened here. Before anyone can answer that a man in a green hood jumps out of nowhere with a bow.
"Don't move!" He said with a disguised voice. Rip aims his gun at him.
"Oh, thank God." Sara said relieved. Does she know this guy? Is this the Green Arrow of Star City.
"I said don't move." He repeats.
"It's me. It's Sara." She explains.
"Hey, Oliver, look, I-I know it's been a long time, but don't you remember that Rip Hunter recruited us to become legends?" Ray tries to remind him. Wait Oliver? As in Oliver Queen. Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow? What is with rich people becoming superheroes. But then the man in the green hood reveals himself to not be Oliver Queen, but a young black man.
"I never heard of any legends." He said before firing an arrow at them
And that is it. Thank you all for reading. I hope you all enjoyed it. If you did I hope that you can read the next chapter and maybe tell your friends about it. If you have any questions about the future of this story feel free to leave a review and I'll be sure to reply. I'll see you next time. Drift out.