Short on Time

Chapter 131

"So this is the famous Lian Yu," Mia said. 

"More like infamous," I muttered.

"I did not want a return ticket to this place," William muttered. 

"The four of you were supposed to be safe and sound in Star City," Oliver said. "How'd you get here?" 

"A bunch of guys in tac gear came and stormed the bunker," Connor said.

"Just when I got a message from my sister telling me I needed to come home," I said, something about zombies.

"Can't you run on water?" William questioned.

"Brilliant idea," I told him. "Except I don't know how to get back to anywhere, plus, I'm not my dad." 

"ARGUS Agents," Diggle ground out. 

"Sounds just as fun as tranq darts," Laurel said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry about that," Lyla said as she walked out of the tent. "I needed you here, and I didn't have time to convince you." 

"What the hell's going on, Lyla?" Diggle asked. 

"Mar Novu needs us to build a weapon, and it has to be done on this island," Lyla said simply. 

"I'm not doing anything for that guy," Diggle replied. 

"John, we have to," Oliver reasoned.

"Not you too," I objected. 

"Since when do we take orders from the enemy?" Diggle asked. 

"We were wrong about Novu, John," Oliver said as we all walked into the tent. "He's not our enemy.

"Since when?" William asked. 

"He dropped me in an alternate reality in order to teach me the lesson that to fix the multiverse, we need to work with him," Oliver said. 

"This is crazy," Diggle said.

"I know it's hard to hear, Johnny, but it's the truth," Lyla said. 

"John-" Oliver began, but seemed to change his mind. "How do we build the weapon?" 

"The materials we need are already here in the crates outside," Lyla explained. "Dr. Wong has been experimenting with the dwarf star particles since leaving Hong Kong. He's designed schematics for the build."

"Schematics?" William asked. "Why does that make me think that this Dr. Wong guy won't actually build this thing?" 

"We're counting on you for that," Lyla said. 

"Say again?" Oliver questioned. 

"The device is powered by plutonium," Lyla continued. "Dinah, Roy, and Rene are on their way here with samples from Star City."

"So my mission was part of this?" Mia asked. 

"All of our missions are a part of this," Oliver said before turning back to Lyla. "With all due respect, what am I doing back on Lian Yu?" 

"In the past few days, the island has seen a rash of energy spikes," Lyla said. 

"Is that your reason for it being green? Because the last time that I was here, Adrian chase blew it up," Oliver said, and I could feel William stiffen next to me. 

"Yes," Lyla said. "Harnessing that energy is the key, and we need to do it right away because we have no idea how long the energy spikes will last."

"Okay, wait," Diggle said. "So we build this magic weapon for the space god and we stop Crisis?"

"There is no stopping Crisis," Oliver said.