"Any luck?" Thea asked her brother as he and his team came back into the barracks after chasing down every lead they could think of.
"No. Even the Bratva came up empty and we couldn't find anything in our patrols." Oliver said angrily as he slammed his bow down on the counter.
"Not exactly how I pictured our first night on patrol." Laurel said, since she was now dressed in the new Black Canary suit Bruce had sent her and John was now wearing his own suit, complete with a black helmet with a green visor on it and Tatsu was wearing her usual Katana gera, since that was the name she'd chosen for herself.
"Don't worry, I'm sure that you'll get to kick some ass soon, since we're not giving up. Luke, Abby, please tell me that one of you got something that can help us?" Oliver asked.
"Nothing on my end. Whoever it was that abducted your mother knew how to hide from my tricks." Luke said.
"What about you Abby?" Oliver asked their resident mystic.
"I've reached out to every mystic contact I have, including your Justice League teammate Doctor Fate. None of them have ever encountered a cloaking spell this powerful before. Which means that it's very old magic. Magic so old that it's been forgotten by everyone, even a lord of Order like Doctor Fate. No one's seen anything like it before. The only thing I could get was a name. Arcane. And even that's likely a codename. It'll take time to find a strong enough magical workaround." Abby said.
"Arcane. At least that's a starting point. Keep working on it. See if you can learn anything else about this Arcane. We find them, we find whoever hired them." Oliver said.
"That'll take time." Abby said.
"I know. But please, keep trying." Oliver said.
"I never said I wouldn't. We'll find her, I promise." Abby said as Helena joined them.
"I just spoke to my dad, he, Tim and Stephanie are currently in the middle of a Two Face/Scarecrow turf war that's turning ugly fast and since Dick's in Bludhaven and Kate's now in Hub City, he can't send any additional help our way right now." Helena said.
"Did he at least have any intel to provide?" Oliver asked, since he understood that Bruce had his own city to protect, but he was hoping that in all the years he'd spent fighting as Batman, he'd have some kind of intel to help.
"None at this time, but now that we have a name, I'm sure the world's greatest detective can dig something up." Helena said.
"Thank you." Oliver said as he walked away.
"Is he okay?" Thea asked about her brother.
"Are you?" Laurel asked.
"No, but at least I'm trying to deal with it. Ollie, it feels like he's trying to keep his emotions on lockdown. That can't be healthy." Thea said, concerned.
"He's trying to prioritize the mission first. I've seen my dad do it plenty of times. He's trying to keep himself from feeling so that he can focus on the mission. It took my mom months to get him out of that particular routine and that's just because of how deeply ingrained it was in him when they fell in love. Laurel, I suggest that you try to stem that behavior in Oliver before it cements." Helena said.
"Yeah, I'm on it." Laurel said as she walked after her fiance to find him beating up a punching bag.
"Well, I'm not sure if this is a healthy way of dealing with your frustrations." Laurel said as she walked up to him.
"I couldn't save my father when the Gambit went down and now I can't seem to save my mother either. Some hero I am." Oliver said as he continued to wail on the bag.
"Ollie, we will find her." Laurel said.
"I'm trying to be optimistic, but it's not easy." Oliver said.
"I always was the optimist in this relationship." Laurel reminded him.
"I have all these connections in the Bratva and the League and yet I'm useless now. I can't save my mother." Oliver said.
"You will. You just have to be patient. We're going to find her and we're to save her. That's what we do." Laurel said.
"I hope you're right." Oliver said.
"You know I am." Laurel said.
"And I think I might have a new lead." Luke said from his station.
"What do you have?" Oliver asked as the team regrouped around him.
"Helena, do these too look familiar?" Luke asked as he pulled surveillance footage of a blonde man wearing a hockey mask and sports gear and a woman wearing an orange-yellow suit and mask that looked like a tiger.
"Sportsmaster and Tigress. Dad has a file on them and he's actually crossed paths with them before. They're some of the few who've gotten away from him, but he's also the reason they've failed their jobs in Gotham. Dad says that they're some of the most skilled fighters he's ever seen. She's long ranged, he's melee. They're thugs for hire, renting out their skills to the highest bidder and considering their line of work, I think I know why they've been contracted in Star City." Helena said.
"Someone doesn't want me poking around in their business." Oliver said.
"Yep. Best way to fight a mask with another mask. They might not know much, but if you can capture them, you can find a way to find out who hired them and hopefully that will lead you back to Moira." Helena said.
"Where are they now?" Oliver asked.
"It looks like they're hitting a bank off 4th and Wilson." Luke said.
"Then that's where we're headed. Though they're likely trying to draw us out, we'll use that to our advantage. Tatsu and I are the only ones they'd be prepared to fight, since tonight was John and Laurel's first time in the field." Oliver said.
"Let's go." Laurel said, eager to finally kick some bad guy butt.
"Hang on, give me a second to change, since you're gonna want some extra help and I've actually gone up against these jokers before when I was still active as Huntress." Helena said and Oliver nodded as Helena left to go change.
"I'm coming too." Thea said.
"Out of the question. You have no training and nothing to prepare you for this. I had a feeling that you'd want to join in this life after you learned the truth about Helena and I, but now is not the time to discuss it. We'll talk about it more once mom is safe. Until then, trust me and stay here." Oliver said and Thea pouted, but nodded in agreement.
Sportsmaster is played by Hayden Christenson and Tigress is played by Ming-Na Wen.