Brave New World: Arrow

Chapter 9

I have nothing against Felicity anymore, but am I the only one who thinks it sounds wrong to hear her call Oliver Ollie?

"So, why'd you call us here?" Rene asked as he, Dinah, Thea, Roy, Felicity and Tommy entered the bunker to find Oliver, John and Laurel waiting for them.

"I wanted to show you the latest improvement we've made to the bunker." Oliver said as he typed a few buttons into the console, causing a few lights to switch on revealing mannequins each one bearing a different suit on it, in the following order from left to right. Wild Dog (though it looked like Cisco had made some improvements, since while Rene was partial to his OG Suit over the one Cisco had made him, it looked like Cisco had taken that combined the two, making Rene's OG suit more protective), Spartan, Green Arrow, Black Canary (which looked like Earth Two Laurel's suit since Laurel had decided that suit was likely more protective than her homemade one and like Dinah, she wanted to honor her counterpart's memory, even though she'd never known her), Arsenal, a silver suit that looked like an updated version of Speedy and finally, Black Siren (which was basically Dinah's Black Canary suit).

"Damn, Cisco does fine work." Rene said as he walked up to his suit.

"That he does." Oliver said as he looked at his own suit, which Cisco had made to look exactly like the one he'd worn on the lost battle for earth 38.

"Question, why is my suit the wrong color?" Thea asked.

"I realized that having everyone call you Speedy was a bad idea, since it's a dead giveaway to anyone who knows you. I was thinking that maybe you should be the one to get the mantle of Artemis, since I have a feeling that you'll put it to better to use than the last person who had it." Oliver said.

"You mean the traitor." Felicity said.

"Hey, go easy on her." Rene said, the guilt from his own betrayal still eating at him.

"Rene, you are different then Evelyn, it was two completely different situations and now that I've taken the time to calm down, I see that. Rene, while what both of you did was a breach of trust, but unlike Evelyn, you did it for the right reasons. You were doing what you had to in order to get your daughter back, while Evelyn sold us out for her own selfish reasons. That's why I chose to forgive you and bring you back into the fold. I trust you Rene. And so please, stop blaming yourself. Especially since it's for something that will never happen again, since as soon as I find him, I'm putting Diaz so far into the ground even though he won't be able to find his way back out." Oliver said.

"Still, we should do something about Samandra Watson." Dinah said.

"One problem at a time." Oliver said they all nodded.

"Why does it sound like you already have our next problem in mind?" Thea asked.

"Because you know me Speedy." Oliver said.

"What's up?" John asked.

"Before this team can get out into the field, we need to address a problem within it." Oliver said.

"What problem?" Tommy asked.

"The problem is that while certain members of this team are comfortable fighting alongside each other the only people who've actually worked alongside every member of this team are myself and Dig. Roy has worked with us, along with Laurel, Rene and Dinah, Laurel has worked with myself, John, Thea and Roy, Thea has only worked with John, Laurel, Roy and I and Rene and Dinah have only worked with John, Roy and I. If this team's going to work, then we all need to be able to work in concert. If we're going to stop all the threats to Star City, both old and new, we need to be fully united. So, this team is going to start training together, both down here and in the field until we're able to work in perfect sync. Like we did before." Oliver said.

"Agreed, but Oliver, I think that you're the one that needs to suit up first, since from what I hear, you're kind of behind everyone else." Dinah said.

"What do you mean?" Oliver asked.

"Come, Sara, Kara, Kate, they've all suited up already and Barry is likely not that far behind. You're supposed to be the first vigilante, not the last." Dinah said and Oliver rolled his eyes as he turned to his suit and they could all see his thoughts moving away from them.

"Where'd you go there?" Laurel asked her boyfriend as she snapped him back to reality.

"Sorry, just thinking about something that Corrigan told me while I was in Purgatory." Oliver said.

"What?" John asked.

"Before I went to the Vanishing Point to pick up Barry, Sara and the others, he had me relive all of my old battles, basically my greatest hits. Malcolm, Slade, Ra's, Darhk, Prometheus, all of them." Oliver said.

"Why would he do that?" Laurel asked.

"To show me that all those fights, every battle, every scar, every victory, every defeat, was to prepare me for something greater." Oliver said.

"Becoming the Spectre." John said, remembering what Corrigan had told Oliver before he'd sent himself, Constantine and Mia back to Earth One.

"Yeah. And I just can't help but think that maybe I'm going down the same path again." Oliver said.

"Oliver, becoming the Spectre was your destiny in the old reality. The anti monitor is dead. There's no reason for you to become the Spectre again. And even if you do, well, that's something to worry about in the future. You don't need to be the Spectre now. What you need, what the whole city needs is for you to be the Green Arrow." Felicity said.

"Careful Felicity. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to make a move on my man." Laurel said with a smile, though it was made very clear that she was only half kidding.

"Relax, I'm not gonna risk the wrath of the Black Canary." Felicity said, making it clear that she was over Oliver, which was true, since honestly it had become clear to her that while Oliver had loved her once, it was never the he loved Laurel. Not that she could blame him, since Laurel was far closer to Oliver's type than she was.

"Good. But she's right Ollie. Star City needs the Green Arrow. Don't worry about that whole Spectre thing. We don't need that right now. We need the Green Arrow." Laurel said and Oliver smiled, since he knew that they were right.

"Let's suit up. Time to let Malcolm know that his days are numbered. And Tommy, I hope you don't mind that I'm going to kill him when we lock horns." Oliver said.

"If you didn't, I'd kill you myself Oliver. I know I had a problem with it before and as a doctor, I probably still should, but my dad died when my mom did. You'll be doing us all a favor by putting the man who replaced him in the ground, just make me a promise." Tommy said.

"Name it." Oliver said.

"When you kill him, make sure he stays dead." Tommy said and Oliver nodded.

"Trust me, that is the plan." Oliver said.

"Why aren't we going after him now?" Rene asked, more curious than anything else.

"Because right now Malcolm is still an honored citizen of Star City. They have no idea that he's a criminal. We need to expose him as the maniac he is before we take him out, otherwise we'll have another police problem on our hands." Oliver explained and Rene nodded.

"Now, let's get to work." Roy said and they all nodded as they moved to suit up and make their mark on Star City.