Second Chances: Arrow

Chapter 17

"So, what exactly are we doing now?" Dawn asked as she and Oliver met in the bunker, both of them dressed in sweats.

"Laurel, John, Rene, I've worked with them for years, I know their skills and their limits. If we're going to work together, I need to know just how skilled you are. So, we're going to spar and to make it easier for you." Oliver said as he produced a blindfold.

"You want me to fight blindfolded?" Dawn asked.

"It's not for you, it's for me. No matter how well Laurel has trained you, you're not at my level. It's not an insult or arrogance, it's the truth, just because of how much experience I have. I've been trained to fight blindfolded, so it should give you a slight advantage." Oliver said.

"You really think you're that good?" Dawn asked.

"Trust me Dawn, Oliver is that good." Felicity said from where she was working at the computers, trying to find dirt on Dr. Blossom like Oliver had promised Abby.

"Really?" Dawn asked her girlfriend in shock.

"Trust me Dawn, I can count the number of people who are a match for Oliver on one hand and even so, I doubt they'd stand a chance against him now. He's one of the deadliest fighters on the planet." Felicity said.

"I've had to be in order to survive everything I've been through." Oliver said.

"Okay, so what's going to stop you from knocking me on my ass in two seconds if you're that good?" Dawn asked.

"The fact that since this is training, I'm going to be holding back during this match, since I don't want to hurt you. Honestly, this will probably just be me dodging and blocking your strikes. The way this will work is that this will end when you manage to land one solid shot on me. You do that, you win. But if I tire you out before you land that hit, I win. Got it." Oliver said as he put the blindfold on.

"Okay, let's do this." Dawn said, wanting to see Oliver's skills for herself.

And she quickly found that Felicity had not been exaggerating, since every punch she threw, every kick she tried to land, they all missed, since Oliver managed to dodge every attack and honestly, Felicity, who'd been watching her ex and her girlfriend spar and honestly, she was getting tired of watching her girlfriend embarrass herself attempting to punch Oliver, who wasn't even breaking a sweat, while Dawn was coated with it.

"Oliver, just finish it. This is getting painful for me to watch, since it's making me question if I'm dating the right member of this team." Felicity said, unable to resist taunting Dawn a little.

"You sure?" Oliver asked, though he was smirking, since he knew what Felicity was doing.

"Please. And I'm gonna tell Laurel she needs to up Dawn's training." Felicity said.

"Fine." Oliver said as he proceeded to grab Dawn's wrist the next time she attempted to punch him and he effortlessly tossed her over his shoulder and knocked her on her back.

"Damn. Screw Laurel, I need you to start training me." Dawn said and Oliver chuckled.

"She taught you pretty well, but I will talk to her about helping out with your training." Oliver said as he helped Dawn up.

"Thanks." Dawn said as she rubbed her now sore shoulders.

"Dawn, don't take it personally. It took Oliver years to get that good and honestly, I'm happy you don't have all the scars he does that came with his training." Felicity assured her girlfriend.

"I thought you found my scars attractive?" Oliver questioned Felicity good naturedly.

"It is on you, but that's just because you've got that survivor charm. You make it work. Dawn on the other hand, while I'm sure she'll develop quite a collection as she continues through this life, I'm glad that she doesn't have quite as many yet. I'm also glad that she doesn't have criminal connections." Felicity said and Oliver rolled his eyes.

"Hey, the Bratva came in handy." Oliver said.

"Until you betrayed them and turned them against us." Felicity reminded him.

"Which I will not be doing this time around, since if Slade is still alive, he won't be able to get in my head like he did before, since now I've got the upper hand since I know every move he's going to make and he won't be able to make quite as much progress." Oliver reminded her.

"Good point. But maybe you should keep tabs on Anatoly to make sure that he doesn't fall down the same spiral without you there to keep him in line." Felicity said.

"Already on my list. Speaking of which, I'm gonna see if my contacts there can do anything to help us find something on Dr. Blossom, since I didn't forget my promise to Abby." Oliver said and Felicity nodded.

"Do I even want to know how you have connections to the mob?" Dawn asked.

"Probably not." Felicity said.

"I saved the Pakhan's life and helped him take over the Bratva in the first place. I'm one of his most trusted captains." Oliver said.

"Huh, not the answer I was expecting." Dawn said as Abby walked in.

"Well, I think I have a place for you to start digging into Blossom." Abby said as she handed Oliver a journal.

"A police journal?" Oliver asked.

"My dad was tracking Blossom's activities for a year before he got fired. This has all the information he'd gathered. Now my dad being bound by the law meant that he couldn't do much with it, but you aren't bound by the law." Abby said.

"You're right. And that's why people like Blossom should be afraid of me. They can't bribe me into leaving them alone." Oliver said.

"Speaking of bribing, I hacked into Blossom's bank statements and check out what I found here." Felicity said as Oliver and Abby walked over to join her.

"Okay, so what are we looking at?" Abby asked, but Oliver saw it.

"It looks like Thomas Blossom has much deeper pockets than we thought, since look at how much he's spending." Oliver said as Abby saw it.

"Wow, there's no way he could be making that much, even with his hospital salary and look at where a lot of that money is going." Abby said and Felicity nodded.

"Yep, he's paying very large amounts of money into numerous offshore bank accounts on a regular basis." Felicity said.

"And I'm assuming you've already tracked down the accounts and who they belong to?" Oliver asked.

"I'd be insulted if you assumed anything else. The accounts belong to key members of Star City's infrastructure. Brian Nudocerdo, Kate Spencer, Councilman Kullens, and pretty much every other key player in this city, including some members of the medical board." Felicity said.

"And it looks like some of those payments started around the time I was dismissed from the hospital and barred from practicing medicine." Abby said.

"Yep. Now the only question is where is he getting the money to finance these bribes." Felicity said.

"Check to see if there's any connection between him and Malcolm Merlyn, since it wouldn't surprise me if Malcolm was using Blossom to handle these payments for him to avoid implicating himself." Oliver said.

"I wouldn't put it past him." Felicity said.

"Wait, why would the CEO of Merlyn Global Group be doing something like that?" Abby asked.

"Because Malcolm's actually a former member of the League of Assassins and he's a sociopath who's planning to use an earthquake machine to level the Glades to get revenge for what happened to his wife." Oliver said.

"Just another reason to hate one percenters. No offense." Abby said and Oliver chuckled.

"None taken. I'm well aware that a majority of the one percenters in this city are human garbage." Oliver said.

"So, what do we do now?" Abby asked.

"We start by preventing Blossom from bribing anyone else by cutting off his cash flow. Send this data to Detective Lance. Sara's girlfriend restored his memories, so he can be our contact on the inside. We give this to him and he can resume building a case and he can also freeze Blossom's assets. We can start doing some cleaning in the SCPD." Oliver said.

"And the DA's office and City Hall." Felicity added.

"So, let's get to work." Oliver said and the others nodded.