Arrow: Fracture Part 3

Loose Ends

The clink of Oliver's bow brought a sense of relief to Felicity as she finally turned away from her terminal and looked to the beaten team. She jumped up from her chair and rushed to Oliver's arms, thankful that he had once again managed to escape death. The simple assignment had proven to be much more than originally expected by the team, especially Oliver. He wrapped his arms around Felicity and held her close, feeling her trembling body cling tightly to him. Felicity glanced down at Oliver's leg and saw the bullet wound that Diggle had patched for him in the field. The bandage wrapped around Oliver's leg as Felicity gently inspected it to ensure the damage wasn't worse than they thought. The rest of the team began to remove their gear as they settled around the Foundry, each keeping silent for fear of what was about to happen. Oliver politely moved Felicity's hand away from his wound before he stormed over to Riley and stopped directly in front of his face.

"What the hell was that?" Oliver asked, at his end with Riley's cryptic actions. The team stood silent and all turned to the confrontation, each wanting an answer for everything that was happening as bad as Oliver was. Riley paused as he broke away from Oliver's deadly glare and realized he would have to fully explain to the team what was about to happen and what they were getting involved with.

"That was HIVE." Riley stated, his tone purely professional. "It wasn't a setup or an ambush, those were HIVE agents." The team shared a few looks as they tried to understand what Riley meant by his statement.

"What'd you mean? You're acting like we've never fought HIVE before." Diggle spoke up, his personal feelings toward the organization nipping at his need to understand and know his enemy. Oliver read Riley's expression as he searched for a way to respond to Diggle's statement.

"No you haven't. You've only gone up against mercenaries or outside sources that HIVE has hired." Riley explained as he sensed Oliver's hostility towards him begin to lower.

"Okay, but why does that matter?" Roy asked, still not connecting why the realization made any difference.

"It matters because HIVE is a force unlike any you have ever encountered. Their agents are all ex-military of the most deadliest branches and they all share a similar belief to what HIVE operates under, which means they actually care about what they're doing." Riley began, as he looked to the team.

"These people are highly trained and will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. They're not some random group of street thugs or Tyger soldiers." He added, glancing to Felicity at the mention of the mercenary group that her and Oliver battled after being kidnapped by Hugo Strange over a year ago.

"So you're saying we got our asses kicked tonight because we aren't ready to fight HIVE? Great." Thea added, her sarcasm acting as a shield to cover her anger and concern regarding the new information. Riley shrugged at the comment as Oliver stepped away from him and moved to the table behind him.

"So I'm guessing since we've never actually fought HIVE before that it's not a good thing that they're here now?" Felicity brought up, expecting that her assumption was correct.

"No it's not. If HIVE is so concerned with staying hidden than the fact that they're using their own forces for this operation can only mean that it's not good." Oliver stated as he leaned against the table to take the pressure off of his leg.

"That's an understatement." Riley muttered as he slightly laughed at how the team was chipping away at the depth of the situation. The others glanced to Riley and awaited for him to explain what was actually happening, their angry glances speaking for them. Riley read the plain expressions surrounding him as he decided it was time to explain what was going on.

"Fair enough. I was given an assignment by one of ARGUS's top directors to look into a matter for him. Officially I was listed as some kind of oversight for industrial espionage and unofficially I was sent to find out everything about HIVE that I could. A few months after I got this assignment the director died of natural causes." Riley began as he looked to the team.