Lauriver Chronicles

Chapter 22

When the Queen Jet touched down in Star City, Oliver could not be more relieved, since he already hated that it had taken him this long to come home after he'd gotten that call from Abby, since he never should've left during the middle of Laurel's big case, but now he knew who his next target was going to be. Martin Somers was going down and Oliver was very tempted to not let Somers walk away from that, hell, he was tempted to carve Somers' heart out of his chest, but then he remembered his talk with Bruce. If he crossed that line and gave into that darkness, then he'd just be as bad as the people he was taking down. He had to be better than that.

"Damn, this city is a lot nicer than Gotham was. It doesn't feel quite as dead." Luke Fox said, bringing Oliver's attention back to the person who'd come with him, Luke Fox, the head of Queen Consolidated's new Applied Sciences Division, since after Oliver had sent his mother Luke's resume, Moira had immediately agreed to hire Luke as long as Bruce Wayne was willing to let him go, since she didn't want to be accused of stealing his employees and Luke had made it clear that he wanted to get out of his father's shadow, so it worked out for everyone.

"Yeah, the rot isn't visible yet, but it's there. Though hopefully we can keep it there. I'm just curious about what kind of arrangements you've made until you've found a place here?" Oliver asked him.

"Your mom's putting me up in a hotel until I can find my own place, she really wants me to stay." Luke said and Oliver chuckled.

"Well, since Felicity Smoak left us to go and work at Argo Enterprises in National City, mom is trying to make sure that we don't lose anymore bright talented minds and you're probably one of the brightest minds in the country that hasn't been scooped up by Kara Danvers." Oliver said.

"Actually, she did try to recruit me once, but I was too set on following in my dad's footsteps at Wayne, before now." Luke said.

"Let me guess, you got tired of just being known as Lucius Fox's son?" Oliver asked.

"Yep. It was nice at first, but now it feels like at Wayne, everyone will just see me as second best to my father, whereas here, I won't be in his shadow." Luke said.

"I get it, it's part of why I'm not working for my family's company. I don't just want to be known as Robert Queen's son. I want to be my own man. Besides, I still don't know how Bruce manages to balance being Batman with being the CEO and chairman of Wayne Enterprises." Oliver said.

"It helped when he recruited Dick and then the others. You know, build a team. But anyways, where are we going? Are we heading to your place?" Luke asked, since even though they were in the car, Oliver hadn't told Luke their destination.

"No, she's meeting us at my community center with our daughter Jasmine and her friend Abby." Oliver said, since he'd talked to Laurel over the phone regarding her powers and the fact that Abby had agreed to keep them a secret had been enough to get Oliver to agree to bring her into the fold, since he'd need a doctor to patch him up after certain missions. And while Laurel hadn't said anything yet, Oliver had a feeling that the discovery of her power would lead to her wanting to become more involved in his mission, but that was an argument they'd have once they were face to face.

"Why?" Luke asked.

"Because that's where my base is and now that it's finally done, it's time to bring the team together. Or at least the beginnings of it." Oliver said, since he wasn't going to bring John to the lair until after he'd convinced him to sign on, since Oliver did agree with Bruce that he couldn't protect Star City alone and if there was one person Oliver trusted to have his back on the battlefield, it was John Diggle and this would become a battlefield.

"Your Batcave is ready?" Luke asked.

"I was thinking of calling it the Barracks actually, since for one thing, arrows don't live in caves and calling it the Quiver feels stupid. Besides I'm a military man, so calling it the Barracks makes sense and it also doesn't feel quite as much like it's something out of a comic book." Oliver said.