Gift of Fate Chapter 16 (17/?)
Aug. 2nd, 2011 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luminare91Summary: Oliver has been missing for two years, ever since his boat went down in a sudden storm. Chloe is still grieving for him. What will it take for her to move on and live her life again? What happened to Oliver? Will he ever come back? And who's behind the mysterious disappearances in Star City?
Rating: PG-13 for the most part, however there are sections that are NC-17 (my first attempt, for the record) for sexual content. This fic contains violence and language. Chapters containing sexual content will be preceded by a warning.
Spoilers: The entire series, basically. The basic setting is season six with a twist, but anything is fair game if it works for this fic.
Warning: Again, this is AU and is a continuation of my fic Twist of Fate, which you really need to read first or this isn't going to make any sense. There will sexual content and violence.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, I'm just playing around with them.
Beta:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jessicaj703 Thanks for all the help!
Previous Chapters: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15
Banner bygeek_or_unique
Author's Note: I'm sorry for the long spell between updates. This fic has been giving me trouble. It's one the most complicated pieces I've ever done. I'm not used to handling so many important characters and so many story lines. It's been hard to figure out how to bring everyone and everything together. I'm not sure how fast updates will be at this point. Not only is my muse being stubborn, but this summer has been hard and it's not going to get easier. I'm leaving in about a week and a half to spend a couple of weeks at my Aunt's house before heading back to school. I'll try to be as speedy as possible, but I can't guarantee anything. Sorry :(
Chapter 16
Victor Stone stared at the screen, not wanting to believe the information in front of him. It couldn’t be right. Ignoring the cord that connected him directly to the computer, he pulled the keyboard toward him, clearing out the search to start over, this time manually sorting through the data.
He came to the same conclusion. He had come to the same conclusion three times.
His hand shot out, seizing the cell phone off the edge of the desk. He dialed Chloe, but she didn’t answer. Cursing under his breath, he tried Clark, but he didn’t answer either.
“Damn it,” he hissed, trying one last number. To his relief, the call went through.
“Hey, tin man. Long time no talk. What’s up?” Bart asked cheerily.
Victor fought the urge to groan. He’d sought Bart out on Clark’s suggestion shortly after leaving Smallville. Clark had thought it would be a good idea for Victor to meet other people like him. But the hyperactive kid had mostly just driven him crazy, so they hadn’t really stayed in touch beyond the occasional drop in.
“I need a ride to Smallville,” Victor snapped. “Yesterday.”
“Why Smallville?” Bart asked.
Victor rolled his eyes and gripped his phone more tightly in his hand. “Because I need to talk to Chloe.”
“She’s not in Smallville,” Bart said. He sounded like he was really enjoying knowing something that Victor didn’t.
“What do you mean?” Victor asked, his patience running severely thin.
Seeming to finally sense that the cyborg was not in a mood to joke, Bart became more serious and stopped fooling around. “She’s in Star City. What’s going on, Vic?”
“I just need to talk to her about something. Can you give me a lift?”
“Not until you tell me what’s going on,” Bart said stubbornly. He hated feeling out of the loop.
Victor groaned. “Just get your skinny red butt over here and give me a ride to Star City. I’ll explain later.”
***
Stopping the convenience store robbery and catching the bad guys had almost been too easy. They’d never even seen him coming. In moment, he’d had them trussed up and deposited them on the sidewalk outside for the police to collect. It had taken him less than five minutes. A small part of Hal actually wished that it had taken longer. While he hoped that Chloe and Oliver would be all right with the fact that he was privy to their secret lives, he knew how he would feel if his identity was compromised. He knew that he wouldn’t be taking it well. So he wasn’t exactly eager to face them, no matter how well they were handling things.
In an attempt to stall, he stopped a few more small crimes on his way back to the penthouse. It was almost half an hour later when Hal finally got there, his normally confident demeanor a mere mask over a distinctly nervous core.
He landed lightly on the balcony. No one was around to see him, so he didn’t bother to go down to the street and take the normal way up. Sighing, Hal allowed the energy that formed his suit to disperse and in a matter of seconds he was once more wearing only his jeans and t-shirt. Through the glass of the door, he could see Oliver and Chloe sitting in the living room, but he couldn’t hear what they saying, if they were saying anything at all. Hal took a deep breath, and pushed the doors aside.
The two blondes looked up instantly at the sound of his footsteps, their laughter dying. Judging by the look on his friend’s face, Hal guessed that Oliver had been aware of his presence since he’d landed and been waiting for him to take the initiative.
“That wasn’t the welcome I was expecting,” Hal grinned, feeling slightly less apprehensive. “I take it I’m not in the doghouse, then?”
“Oh, you definitely are,” Oliver said. He stood, crossing his arms over his chest, and glared at his friend. “Why don’t you start at the beginning. How the hell did you figure out that I’m Green Arrow?”
“It was really just luck,” he said quickly, hoping that would somehow make the situation a little easier. “I had no idea you and Green Arrow were even connected until I came over the day after our alter egos met.”
“What gave it away?” Chloe asked, her voice curious. After spending so much time with Clark and keeping his secret, she couldn’t quite figure where she and Oliver had gone wrong.
Hal shifted uncomfortably. He seriously doubted that either of them was going to be happy to discover how he figured it out. “It was actually a bit of an accident,” he said quickly. The last thing he wanted was for Oliver and Chloe to think that he had set out to discover who Green Arrow was. “I didn’t care who was wearing the tights--”
“They’re not tights,” Oliver interrupted.
Chloe glared at him for a moment before gesturing turning to Hal. “So how did you figure it out if you weren’t trying to?”
This was the part that he really didn’t want to tell them, because as funny as he thought he was, he doubted that Oliver and Chloe would feel the same way. But he took a deep breath and trudged on. “I recognized you,” he admitted, gesturing weakly toward Chloe, who looked absolutely stunned. “You’re not exactly a forgettable face. It wasn’t hard to realize that you were the same person who’d been helping Green Arrow.”
She let out a quiet groan. “All these years of helping the Blur and I never thought that I would be recognized.”
“It wasn’t as big a problem in Smallville,” Oliver said softly. “Everyone knew who you were, anyway. Besides, you were usually playing damsel in distress or helping at the Torch.”
Chloe didn’t look convinced.
“If it helps, it wasn’t just seeing you that gave it away,” Hal added. “It was the way you and Oliver were interacting. You told me yourselves--” He stopped short and frowned slightly before continuing. “Well, actually you told Green Lantern that there was something going on between Green Arrow and his sidekick, but that’s not the point. It was obvious how much you two were into each other when I saw you the other day as yourselves, which was what made me realize who Oliver was and...and I’m not making any sense, am I?” he asked weakly.
Oliver shook his head, looking mystified, but Chloe let out a quiet laugh. “No. I get it.”
“I don’t,” Oliver grumbled. “How did you figure it out?”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “He saw that I was in love with Green Arrow and then when he saw the two of us together, he saw that we were in love and put it together.”
His eyes widened. “Oh,” he said softly. “We should probably be more careful about that.”
“You think?” Hal asked, his eyebrow arched.
***
The two friends spent the rest of the night swapping stories of their heroics while Chloe listened from the sofa. They were clearly good friends. It was obvious in the way they riled each other up and prodded each other to be better.
After nearly an hour, Chloe’s phone rang. She excused herself to the kitchen to answer it. Seeing that the caller ID read “Bart,” she frowned in confusion. Normally, he’d just zip in to talk to her. He didn’t know that they had company.
Feeling worried, she answered the phone. She didn’t even manage to get a word out.
“You need to get down here, like yesterday,” Bart said, speaking so fast that she almost couldn’t understand him.
“What happened?”
“Victor found something that you’re not going to believe,” Bart squeaked. “He called me a couple of hours ago and said he needed to talk to you. Ever since he’s been here, he’s been going through all the intel we have. He even had me sneak into the penthouse to get the flash drive I nicked from that doctor’s office. ‘Licious, you are not going to believe what he found!”
“I don’t believe what I found!” Victor shouted from the background. “I need Chloe to come make sure that I’m not crazy!”
“I’m on my way,” Chloe said quickly. “Just give a minute to tell Oliver.”
There was a slight scuffle on the other end of the line. “Can I by any chance just come up?” Victor asked. How he had managed to snatch the phone from Bart was anyone’s guess. “I want to make sure that I’m not seeing things and I think it might help if you traced my steps on another computer.”
She bit her lip. “I’m not alone up here, Victor. But the two guys I’m with are heroes and will understand the need to be discreet if you’re willing to tell them about yourself. You don’t have to go into details or anything.”
“Do you trust them?” Victor asked after a moment.
“With my life,” she said without hesitation. “If it makes you feel better, I’m dating one of them.”
“All right. We’ll be up in a minute.”
Feeling distinctly worried, Chloe slid her phone back into her pocket and hurried back out to the living room. Oliver and Hal fell silent the moment they noticed her somber expression.
“I have a friend who’s been looking into all the information we have on Fitzgerald,” she explained slowly. “He’s different, a meta, but it’s up to him to tell you how. Anyway, he thinks he found something. He and the kid who gave you a lift out of here the other night are on their way up. He wants me to double check his findings.”
“Does he know about us?” Oliver asked.
“He knows you’re up here and that you’re heroes, but he doesn’t know who,” she explained. “I just wanted him to know that he could trust you.”
“Sounds good to me,” Hal shrugged. “Any idea what this friend of yours found?”
She shook her head. “All I know is that he seemed really freaked out and that rarely happens. He’s got to be one of the most levelheaded people I’ve ever met.”
At that precise moment, the elevator doors slid open. Victor and Bart came hurtling off it. For once, Bart was trailing behind, looking distinctly freaked out.
“Do you have a computer?” Victor asked.
Chloe rolled her eyes, trying to suppress the anxiety threatening to overwhelm her. “Do you really have to ask?” She pointed to where her laptop sat on the coffee table. “Victor, this is Oliver and Hal. They’re part of this, too.”
“Nice to meet you,” Victor said quickly. “I’m sorry about all of this,” he added to the room at large. “I’m not normally like this, but I think you guys may have stumbled onto something big.”
Hal and Oliver just nodded their understanding and Victor moved to stand behind Chloe, who was now sitting on the couch with her laptop balanced on her knees. He hesitated for just a moment before connecting himself to the computer.
“Well that’s not something you see everyday,” Hal muttered.
“It is if you’re in our line of work,” Oliver snorted.
The two green-loving heroes watched quietly as Chloe and Victor lost themselves in code. They couldn’t understand a word the two were saying, but they were obviously getting somewhere. Across the room, Bart was pacing so fast that he was blurring around the edges.
A few pregnant moments passed while Victor and Chloe bent over the computer. Chloe ran through the information, using Victor’s capabilities as a human computer to speed up the process. They retraced Victor’s steps, double-checking his conclusions. Oliver was just beginning to really get anxious when Chloe’s mouth fell open and her fingers stilled.
“That was about my reaction,” Victor said softly.
“What did you find?” Oliver demanded.
Chloe shook herself from her stupor. “Victor found a couple of other doctors who seemed to have been doing the same thing as Fitzgerald. He hacked their accounts and found that they were all receiving payments from the same shell company. Tracing it back, he managed to find the parent company and who’s behind all of this.”
She paused, biting her lip, and glancing back to the computer screen.
“It’s Lex,” she finally said. “He’s the one behind this”
***
Silence filled the penthouse. Chloe and Victor were attempting to figure out why Lex would want all the metahumans he’d had captured. Bart was sitting in one of the armchairs, his foot tapping erratically. Across the room, Oliver was staring out the window, shoulders tense, hands balled into fists.
“I never met Lex,” Hal said abruptly. He couldn’t take the silence anymore. “I know enough about him to know that he’s a bastard, but I can’t believe that he would do something like this. It’s too sick.”
“Believe it,” Victor sighed. “Because of Lex and his experiments, I’m more machine than man, Bart nearly died, and a friend of ours was almost filleted. That’s not to mention all the times his plans have nearly gotten Chloe killed.”
“What would he want with a bunch of metas?” Hal asked, still mystified.
This time, it was Chloe who answered. “Lex has been obsessed with power for as long as I’ve known him. When he thought he knew about the Blur, he tried to get solid information on him so that he could force the Blur to do what he wanted. Luckily for us, he never actually got that kind of leverage.”
“But what does that have to do with metas, though?”
Bart grimaced. “He’s trying to find a way to harness their power. At least, that’s what we think he’s up to.”
“Then how do we stop him?”
“That’s just it,” Chloe groaned. “As many times as we’ve managed to foil his plans, we’ve never had this kind of hard evidence on him. Usually it’s just my snooping or someone noticing something strange going on in Smallville. This is the first time we’ve got this kind of information on Lex. The most we can prove is that LuthorCorp is responsible for his, but we can’t prove that Lex was actually behind any of this. He could do the same thing that he did with Victor. He’ll claim that someone went rogue and that he had no idea it was going on.”
“That can’t possibly work,” Hal scoffed.
“LuthorCorp is a huge company,” she said. “Even the most involved CEO depends on reports to know what’s going on. All Lex has to do is say that he received falsified reports and that he hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary when he visited the facilities. He might get fined, but he won’t actually be punished for the kidnapping or the experimentation.”
Hal glowered at the wall. “There’s got to be some way to stop him,” he grumbled. “What do you guys usually do?”
“We get as much information as we can and try to take down the facility,” Chloe shrugged. “But we’ve only ever taken on the smaller facilities in Smallville. Usually it’s just to save whomever we know Lex has taken. We’ve never attempted to actually stop one of his operations.”
“Maybe it’s time we did,” Oliver said, finally breaking his silence.
Victor arched an eyebrow. “How do you propose to do that? We’ve all tried to stop him at some point and we’ve all nearly died or been captured in the process.
“If he can catch me, then he can definitely catch you,” Bart said emphatically.
“Exactly,” Victor agreed. “You don’t stand a chance.”
Oliver turned away from the window. There was a determined glint in his eye that Chloe had come to associate with his Green Arrow persona. “You’re right,” he agreed, surprising them all. “I don’t stand a chance. But maybe we do. Did it ever occur to you that going up against Lex alone is never going to work? What if we worked together? He wouldn’t be prepared for all of us and we’d be able to watch each other’s backs. There’s a reason Chloe keeps an eye on me when I’m out on patrol. What if the only thing we need to take Lex down a peg or two is a little bit of teamwork?”
“What exactly are you planning?” Chloe asked.
He began pacing, forehead furrowed as he thought through the details. “We nail down the details first. We figure out who is working for Lex and we find out where the captured metas are being sent. Then we take down the facility. Once they’re free, we can take care of the bastards that put them in there. Between all of us, we should have the necessary abilities to get in and get out, especially if we can convince the Blur to help us and if Chloe will be our eye in the sky.”
“It sounds like a good plan,” Victor acknowledged. “You’re probably right about the whole teamwork thing. There’s just one problem. I don’t know you. I don’t know what you can do or even if I can really trust you. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt right now because Chloe trusts you, but if I’m gonna put my life in your hands, then I need a little more than just her word. No offense, Chloe.”
“None taken,” she said gently.
“Then let’s fix that,” Hal grinned, offering his hand to Victor. “Green Lantern, but you can call me Hal. I’m the one that brought the information about Fitzgerald to Chloe and Oliver. They were already looking into the disappearances in the city, but had no idea who was behind them until I came along.”
Bemused, Victor took Hal’s hand and shook it. He glanced over at Oliver. “Where do you fit into all of this?”
“I knew Chloe in Smallville,” Oliver said softly. His mind immediately flashed back to Lex’s involvement with the meta that had nearly killed him and he wondered why he hadn’t realized what his old school mate was capable of sooner. Pushing the thoughts away, Oliver turned his attention back to Victor.
“I used to help her and the Blur with the meteor freaks--”
“Infected,” Chloe interrupted.
He rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I helped them with the metas that attacked the town until I was was forced away for a few years. Now I help people as Green Arrow.”
Victor’s eyes widened, and he turned to stare at Chloe. “He’s the guy you told me about when you were trying to convince me to go see Katharine, isn’t he?”
Chloe simply nodded.
Seeing the confused expressions of everyone in the room, Victor hurried to explain. “After I got out of Lex’s lab, I was trying to decide whether or not to go see my girlfriend. Chloe told me about a guy that she’d known who’d gone missing and was supposed to be dead. She told me that she’d give anything to prove the world wrong and that she was sure that Katharine would want the same thing. I’m glad it worked it out better for you two than it did for me.”
Blinking back the tears that seemed to naturally accompany any memory of the years without Oliver, Chloe gave Victor a quick, but fierce hug.
“So do you trust us?” Hal asked. There was a twinkle in his eye and no malice in his voice. Everyone in the room knew the value of caution.
Victor nodded.
“Good. On to the next problem. My leave is up in just a few days. Between my earth job and my intergalactic job I doubt that I’ll have time to be much help or to go gallivanting across the country to wherever this lab is. I’m still pretty new at this and the Corps is pushing me pretty hard to see what I can do,” he admitted.
Oliver frowned. He hadn’t thought of that and he’d been hoping that Hal would be able to help them. His powers would have been incredibly useful.
“Would you still have time to patrol on earth?” Chloe asked.
“Yeah. I always make time for that.”
“Then could you cover Star City, pretending to be Green Arrow so that no one connects him to Oliver?”
Hal grinned. “Definitely. How soon do you think you’ll need me? If I tell the Corps what I’m doing, I might be able to swing a little more free time.”
“Sooner rather than later,” she said after a moment. “If we’re actually going to go through with this, then we need to be closer to Lex. We need to be able to keep an eye on him incase something we do tips him off and we need better access to his computers. I’m also willing to bet that this facility of his is likely to be somewhere near Metropolis.”
Oliver nodded in agreement. “It’ll be easy enough for me to give a business related reason for being there. The Metropolis branch could use a little work. It only makes sense that I would visit every major component of the company after my time away. I can set up accommodations for anyone who comes with.”
“Lois will be more than happy to help,” Chloe added. “She’s been on a personal vendetta against Lex ever since she found out about what he’s done to some of our friends.”
Bart sped over to stand beside Chloe. He threw his arm around her shoulders. “You know I’m in, mamacita. I’ll do anything I can to stop his baldness.”
Hal chuckled. “I’ll cover for Oliver. Green Arrow will continue to protect the streets of Star City even if he’s really out kicking bad guy butt in Metropolis. I’m gonna need a spare set of your gear so I can make it convincing though.”
“I’ll give you the code so you can get anything you need,” Oliver promised.
“I’m in too,” Victor said. “I always was more of team player than a solo act.”
There was a moment of silence as the newly founded team looked at each other. Chloe couldn’t help but feel that they were still missing someone, but it was a start and she was excited about that.
Behind her, Oliver allowed himself a grim smile.
Author's Note: So there you have it. Things are getting interesting and the League is almost fully formed. I have to warn you, I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up. It's giving me even more trouble than this one. Please bear with me. Read and Review. It really does help with the muse gets stubborn.
Rating: PG-13 for the most part, however there are sections that are NC-17 (my first attempt, for the record) for sexual content. This fic contains violence and language. Chapters containing sexual content will be preceded by a warning.
Spoilers: The entire series, basically. The basic setting is season six with a twist, but anything is fair game if it works for this fic.
Warning: Again, this is AU and is a continuation of my fic Twist of Fate, which you really need to read first or this isn't going to make any sense. There will sexual content and violence.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, I'm just playing around with them.
Beta:
jessicaj703 Thanks for all the help!Previous Chapters: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15
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geek_or_unique Author's Note: I'm sorry for the long spell between updates. This fic has been giving me trouble. It's one the most complicated pieces I've ever done. I'm not used to handling so many important characters and so many story lines. It's been hard to figure out how to bring everyone and everything together. I'm not sure how fast updates will be at this point. Not only is my muse being stubborn, but this summer has been hard and it's not going to get easier. I'm leaving in about a week and a half to spend a couple of weeks at my Aunt's house before heading back to school. I'll try to be as speedy as possible, but I can't guarantee anything. Sorry :(
Chapter 16
Victor Stone stared at the screen, not wanting to believe the information in front of him. It couldn’t be right. Ignoring the cord that connected him directly to the computer, he pulled the keyboard toward him, clearing out the search to start over, this time manually sorting through the data.
He came to the same conclusion. He had come to the same conclusion three times.
His hand shot out, seizing the cell phone off the edge of the desk. He dialed Chloe, but she didn’t answer. Cursing under his breath, he tried Clark, but he didn’t answer either.
“Damn it,” he hissed, trying one last number. To his relief, the call went through.
“Hey, tin man. Long time no talk. What’s up?” Bart asked cheerily.
Victor fought the urge to groan. He’d sought Bart out on Clark’s suggestion shortly after leaving Smallville. Clark had thought it would be a good idea for Victor to meet other people like him. But the hyperactive kid had mostly just driven him crazy, so they hadn’t really stayed in touch beyond the occasional drop in.
“I need a ride to Smallville,” Victor snapped. “Yesterday.”
“Why Smallville?” Bart asked.
Victor rolled his eyes and gripped his phone more tightly in his hand. “Because I need to talk to Chloe.”
“She’s not in Smallville,” Bart said. He sounded like he was really enjoying knowing something that Victor didn’t.
“What do you mean?” Victor asked, his patience running severely thin.
Seeming to finally sense that the cyborg was not in a mood to joke, Bart became more serious and stopped fooling around. “She’s in Star City. What’s going on, Vic?”
“I just need to talk to her about something. Can you give me a lift?”
“Not until you tell me what’s going on,” Bart said stubbornly. He hated feeling out of the loop.
Victor groaned. “Just get your skinny red butt over here and give me a ride to Star City. I’ll explain later.”
***
Stopping the convenience store robbery and catching the bad guys had almost been too easy. They’d never even seen him coming. In moment, he’d had them trussed up and deposited them on the sidewalk outside for the police to collect. It had taken him less than five minutes. A small part of Hal actually wished that it had taken longer. While he hoped that Chloe and Oliver would be all right with the fact that he was privy to their secret lives, he knew how he would feel if his identity was compromised. He knew that he wouldn’t be taking it well. So he wasn’t exactly eager to face them, no matter how well they were handling things.
In an attempt to stall, he stopped a few more small crimes on his way back to the penthouse. It was almost half an hour later when Hal finally got there, his normally confident demeanor a mere mask over a distinctly nervous core.
He landed lightly on the balcony. No one was around to see him, so he didn’t bother to go down to the street and take the normal way up. Sighing, Hal allowed the energy that formed his suit to disperse and in a matter of seconds he was once more wearing only his jeans and t-shirt. Through the glass of the door, he could see Oliver and Chloe sitting in the living room, but he couldn’t hear what they saying, if they were saying anything at all. Hal took a deep breath, and pushed the doors aside.
The two blondes looked up instantly at the sound of his footsteps, their laughter dying. Judging by the look on his friend’s face, Hal guessed that Oliver had been aware of his presence since he’d landed and been waiting for him to take the initiative.
“That wasn’t the welcome I was expecting,” Hal grinned, feeling slightly less apprehensive. “I take it I’m not in the doghouse, then?”
“Oh, you definitely are,” Oliver said. He stood, crossing his arms over his chest, and glared at his friend. “Why don’t you start at the beginning. How the hell did you figure out that I’m Green Arrow?”
“It was really just luck,” he said quickly, hoping that would somehow make the situation a little easier. “I had no idea you and Green Arrow were even connected until I came over the day after our alter egos met.”
“What gave it away?” Chloe asked, her voice curious. After spending so much time with Clark and keeping his secret, she couldn’t quite figure where she and Oliver had gone wrong.
Hal shifted uncomfortably. He seriously doubted that either of them was going to be happy to discover how he figured it out. “It was actually a bit of an accident,” he said quickly. The last thing he wanted was for Oliver and Chloe to think that he had set out to discover who Green Arrow was. “I didn’t care who was wearing the tights--”
“They’re not tights,” Oliver interrupted.
Chloe glared at him for a moment before gesturing turning to Hal. “So how did you figure it out if you weren’t trying to?”
This was the part that he really didn’t want to tell them, because as funny as he thought he was, he doubted that Oliver and Chloe would feel the same way. But he took a deep breath and trudged on. “I recognized you,” he admitted, gesturing weakly toward Chloe, who looked absolutely stunned. “You’re not exactly a forgettable face. It wasn’t hard to realize that you were the same person who’d been helping Green Arrow.”
She let out a quiet groan. “All these years of helping the Blur and I never thought that I would be recognized.”
“It wasn’t as big a problem in Smallville,” Oliver said softly. “Everyone knew who you were, anyway. Besides, you were usually playing damsel in distress or helping at the Torch.”
Chloe didn’t look convinced.
“If it helps, it wasn’t just seeing you that gave it away,” Hal added. “It was the way you and Oliver were interacting. You told me yourselves--” He stopped short and frowned slightly before continuing. “Well, actually you told Green Lantern that there was something going on between Green Arrow and his sidekick, but that’s not the point. It was obvious how much you two were into each other when I saw you the other day as yourselves, which was what made me realize who Oliver was and...and I’m not making any sense, am I?” he asked weakly.
Oliver shook his head, looking mystified, but Chloe let out a quiet laugh. “No. I get it.”
“I don’t,” Oliver grumbled. “How did you figure it out?”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “He saw that I was in love with Green Arrow and then when he saw the two of us together, he saw that we were in love and put it together.”
His eyes widened. “Oh,” he said softly. “We should probably be more careful about that.”
“You think?” Hal asked, his eyebrow arched.
***
The two friends spent the rest of the night swapping stories of their heroics while Chloe listened from the sofa. They were clearly good friends. It was obvious in the way they riled each other up and prodded each other to be better.
After nearly an hour, Chloe’s phone rang. She excused herself to the kitchen to answer it. Seeing that the caller ID read “Bart,” she frowned in confusion. Normally, he’d just zip in to talk to her. He didn’t know that they had company.
Feeling worried, she answered the phone. She didn’t even manage to get a word out.
“You need to get down here, like yesterday,” Bart said, speaking so fast that she almost couldn’t understand him.
“What happened?”
“Victor found something that you’re not going to believe,” Bart squeaked. “He called me a couple of hours ago and said he needed to talk to you. Ever since he’s been here, he’s been going through all the intel we have. He even had me sneak into the penthouse to get the flash drive I nicked from that doctor’s office. ‘Licious, you are not going to believe what he found!”
“I don’t believe what I found!” Victor shouted from the background. “I need Chloe to come make sure that I’m not crazy!”
“I’m on my way,” Chloe said quickly. “Just give a minute to tell Oliver.”
There was a slight scuffle on the other end of the line. “Can I by any chance just come up?” Victor asked. How he had managed to snatch the phone from Bart was anyone’s guess. “I want to make sure that I’m not seeing things and I think it might help if you traced my steps on another computer.”
She bit her lip. “I’m not alone up here, Victor. But the two guys I’m with are heroes and will understand the need to be discreet if you’re willing to tell them about yourself. You don’t have to go into details or anything.”
“Do you trust them?” Victor asked after a moment.
“With my life,” she said without hesitation. “If it makes you feel better, I’m dating one of them.”
“All right. We’ll be up in a minute.”
Feeling distinctly worried, Chloe slid her phone back into her pocket and hurried back out to the living room. Oliver and Hal fell silent the moment they noticed her somber expression.
“I have a friend who’s been looking into all the information we have on Fitzgerald,” she explained slowly. “He’s different, a meta, but it’s up to him to tell you how. Anyway, he thinks he found something. He and the kid who gave you a lift out of here the other night are on their way up. He wants me to double check his findings.”
“Does he know about us?” Oliver asked.
“He knows you’re up here and that you’re heroes, but he doesn’t know who,” she explained. “I just wanted him to know that he could trust you.”
“Sounds good to me,” Hal shrugged. “Any idea what this friend of yours found?”
She shook her head. “All I know is that he seemed really freaked out and that rarely happens. He’s got to be one of the most levelheaded people I’ve ever met.”
At that precise moment, the elevator doors slid open. Victor and Bart came hurtling off it. For once, Bart was trailing behind, looking distinctly freaked out.
“Do you have a computer?” Victor asked.
Chloe rolled her eyes, trying to suppress the anxiety threatening to overwhelm her. “Do you really have to ask?” She pointed to where her laptop sat on the coffee table. “Victor, this is Oliver and Hal. They’re part of this, too.”
“Nice to meet you,” Victor said quickly. “I’m sorry about all of this,” he added to the room at large. “I’m not normally like this, but I think you guys may have stumbled onto something big.”
Hal and Oliver just nodded their understanding and Victor moved to stand behind Chloe, who was now sitting on the couch with her laptop balanced on her knees. He hesitated for just a moment before connecting himself to the computer.
“Well that’s not something you see everyday,” Hal muttered.
“It is if you’re in our line of work,” Oliver snorted.
The two green-loving heroes watched quietly as Chloe and Victor lost themselves in code. They couldn’t understand a word the two were saying, but they were obviously getting somewhere. Across the room, Bart was pacing so fast that he was blurring around the edges.
A few pregnant moments passed while Victor and Chloe bent over the computer. Chloe ran through the information, using Victor’s capabilities as a human computer to speed up the process. They retraced Victor’s steps, double-checking his conclusions. Oliver was just beginning to really get anxious when Chloe’s mouth fell open and her fingers stilled.
“That was about my reaction,” Victor said softly.
“What did you find?” Oliver demanded.
Chloe shook herself from her stupor. “Victor found a couple of other doctors who seemed to have been doing the same thing as Fitzgerald. He hacked their accounts and found that they were all receiving payments from the same shell company. Tracing it back, he managed to find the parent company and who’s behind all of this.”
She paused, biting her lip, and glancing back to the computer screen.
“It’s Lex,” she finally said. “He’s the one behind this”
***
Silence filled the penthouse. Chloe and Victor were attempting to figure out why Lex would want all the metahumans he’d had captured. Bart was sitting in one of the armchairs, his foot tapping erratically. Across the room, Oliver was staring out the window, shoulders tense, hands balled into fists.
“I never met Lex,” Hal said abruptly. He couldn’t take the silence anymore. “I know enough about him to know that he’s a bastard, but I can’t believe that he would do something like this. It’s too sick.”
“Believe it,” Victor sighed. “Because of Lex and his experiments, I’m more machine than man, Bart nearly died, and a friend of ours was almost filleted. That’s not to mention all the times his plans have nearly gotten Chloe killed.”
“What would he want with a bunch of metas?” Hal asked, still mystified.
This time, it was Chloe who answered. “Lex has been obsessed with power for as long as I’ve known him. When he thought he knew about the Blur, he tried to get solid information on him so that he could force the Blur to do what he wanted. Luckily for us, he never actually got that kind of leverage.”
“But what does that have to do with metas, though?”
Bart grimaced. “He’s trying to find a way to harness their power. At least, that’s what we think he’s up to.”
“Then how do we stop him?”
“That’s just it,” Chloe groaned. “As many times as we’ve managed to foil his plans, we’ve never had this kind of hard evidence on him. Usually it’s just my snooping or someone noticing something strange going on in Smallville. This is the first time we’ve got this kind of information on Lex. The most we can prove is that LuthorCorp is responsible for his, but we can’t prove that Lex was actually behind any of this. He could do the same thing that he did with Victor. He’ll claim that someone went rogue and that he had no idea it was going on.”
“That can’t possibly work,” Hal scoffed.
“LuthorCorp is a huge company,” she said. “Even the most involved CEO depends on reports to know what’s going on. All Lex has to do is say that he received falsified reports and that he hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary when he visited the facilities. He might get fined, but he won’t actually be punished for the kidnapping or the experimentation.”
Hal glowered at the wall. “There’s got to be some way to stop him,” he grumbled. “What do you guys usually do?”
“We get as much information as we can and try to take down the facility,” Chloe shrugged. “But we’ve only ever taken on the smaller facilities in Smallville. Usually it’s just to save whomever we know Lex has taken. We’ve never attempted to actually stop one of his operations.”
“Maybe it’s time we did,” Oliver said, finally breaking his silence.
Victor arched an eyebrow. “How do you propose to do that? We’ve all tried to stop him at some point and we’ve all nearly died or been captured in the process.
“If he can catch me, then he can definitely catch you,” Bart said emphatically.
“Exactly,” Victor agreed. “You don’t stand a chance.”
Oliver turned away from the window. There was a determined glint in his eye that Chloe had come to associate with his Green Arrow persona. “You’re right,” he agreed, surprising them all. “I don’t stand a chance. But maybe we do. Did it ever occur to you that going up against Lex alone is never going to work? What if we worked together? He wouldn’t be prepared for all of us and we’d be able to watch each other’s backs. There’s a reason Chloe keeps an eye on me when I’m out on patrol. What if the only thing we need to take Lex down a peg or two is a little bit of teamwork?”
“What exactly are you planning?” Chloe asked.
He began pacing, forehead furrowed as he thought through the details. “We nail down the details first. We figure out who is working for Lex and we find out where the captured metas are being sent. Then we take down the facility. Once they’re free, we can take care of the bastards that put them in there. Between all of us, we should have the necessary abilities to get in and get out, especially if we can convince the Blur to help us and if Chloe will be our eye in the sky.”
“It sounds like a good plan,” Victor acknowledged. “You’re probably right about the whole teamwork thing. There’s just one problem. I don’t know you. I don’t know what you can do or even if I can really trust you. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt right now because Chloe trusts you, but if I’m gonna put my life in your hands, then I need a little more than just her word. No offense, Chloe.”
“None taken,” she said gently.
“Then let’s fix that,” Hal grinned, offering his hand to Victor. “Green Lantern, but you can call me Hal. I’m the one that brought the information about Fitzgerald to Chloe and Oliver. They were already looking into the disappearances in the city, but had no idea who was behind them until I came along.”
Bemused, Victor took Hal’s hand and shook it. He glanced over at Oliver. “Where do you fit into all of this?”
“I knew Chloe in Smallville,” Oliver said softly. His mind immediately flashed back to Lex’s involvement with the meta that had nearly killed him and he wondered why he hadn’t realized what his old school mate was capable of sooner. Pushing the thoughts away, Oliver turned his attention back to Victor.
“I used to help her and the Blur with the meteor freaks--”
“Infected,” Chloe interrupted.
He rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I helped them with the metas that attacked the town until I was was forced away for a few years. Now I help people as Green Arrow.”
Victor’s eyes widened, and he turned to stare at Chloe. “He’s the guy you told me about when you were trying to convince me to go see Katharine, isn’t he?”
Chloe simply nodded.
Seeing the confused expressions of everyone in the room, Victor hurried to explain. “After I got out of Lex’s lab, I was trying to decide whether or not to go see my girlfriend. Chloe told me about a guy that she’d known who’d gone missing and was supposed to be dead. She told me that she’d give anything to prove the world wrong and that she was sure that Katharine would want the same thing. I’m glad it worked it out better for you two than it did for me.”
Blinking back the tears that seemed to naturally accompany any memory of the years without Oliver, Chloe gave Victor a quick, but fierce hug.
“So do you trust us?” Hal asked. There was a twinkle in his eye and no malice in his voice. Everyone in the room knew the value of caution.
Victor nodded.
“Good. On to the next problem. My leave is up in just a few days. Between my earth job and my intergalactic job I doubt that I’ll have time to be much help or to go gallivanting across the country to wherever this lab is. I’m still pretty new at this and the Corps is pushing me pretty hard to see what I can do,” he admitted.
Oliver frowned. He hadn’t thought of that and he’d been hoping that Hal would be able to help them. His powers would have been incredibly useful.
“Would you still have time to patrol on earth?” Chloe asked.
“Yeah. I always make time for that.”
“Then could you cover Star City, pretending to be Green Arrow so that no one connects him to Oliver?”
Hal grinned. “Definitely. How soon do you think you’ll need me? If I tell the Corps what I’m doing, I might be able to swing a little more free time.”
“Sooner rather than later,” she said after a moment. “If we’re actually going to go through with this, then we need to be closer to Lex. We need to be able to keep an eye on him incase something we do tips him off and we need better access to his computers. I’m also willing to bet that this facility of his is likely to be somewhere near Metropolis.”
Oliver nodded in agreement. “It’ll be easy enough for me to give a business related reason for being there. The Metropolis branch could use a little work. It only makes sense that I would visit every major component of the company after my time away. I can set up accommodations for anyone who comes with.”
“Lois will be more than happy to help,” Chloe added. “She’s been on a personal vendetta against Lex ever since she found out about what he’s done to some of our friends.”
Bart sped over to stand beside Chloe. He threw his arm around her shoulders. “You know I’m in, mamacita. I’ll do anything I can to stop his baldness.”
Hal chuckled. “I’ll cover for Oliver. Green Arrow will continue to protect the streets of Star City even if he’s really out kicking bad guy butt in Metropolis. I’m gonna need a spare set of your gear so I can make it convincing though.”
“I’ll give you the code so you can get anything you need,” Oliver promised.
“I’m in too,” Victor said. “I always was more of team player than a solo act.”
There was a moment of silence as the newly founded team looked at each other. Chloe couldn’t help but feel that they were still missing someone, but it was a start and she was excited about that.
Behind her, Oliver allowed himself a grim smile.
Author's Note: So there you have it. Things are getting interesting and the League is almost fully formed. I have to warn you, I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up. It's giving me even more trouble than this one. Please bear with me. Read and Review. It really does help with the muse gets stubborn.
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Date: 2011-08-03 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 07:31 am (UTC)