New Earth: Arrow

Chapter 17

"So, where are we headed?" Rene asked as he got in the passenger seat of Oliver's car.

"Where else. To the Arrowcave." Oliver said.

"I thought you hated it when people called it that." Rene asked.

"Tell anyone about it and I'll put arrows in both your legs." Oliver said and Rene nodded as he held up his hands in surrender, knowing that Oliver wasn't joking.

"Got it. Let's head out." Rene said.

"So, any ideas on why Ollie wanted us to meet him here instead of at the foundry?" Thea asked as she, Laurel, John, Felicity, Roy, Tommy and Quentin all stood in a familiar, but empty abandoned building.

"I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet Speedy." Oliver said as he and Rene entered the building.

"Rene." John said with a smile as he walked up and shook his hand.

"Hey, good to see you again hoss." Rene said as he shook John's hand before hugging Felicity and then turning to Quentin.

"It's good to see you again Rene." Quentin said with a smile as he held out his hand to Rene, who shook it.

"You too hoss. And I hope you're not tired of working with me, because I've decided to enlist in the SCPD." Rene said and Quentin smiled.

"If you'd told me that when we first met, I would've said hell no. But now, I think the SCPD would be lucky to have a cop like you in it's ranks." Quentin said.

"Thanks." Rene said as he looked at Laurel.

"So, you must be the Laurel all these OGs spoke so highly of." Rene said as he held out his hand to Laurel, who shook it.

"I've heard a lot about you too. Like how you turned on Ollie and gave his name to the FBI." Laurel said.

"You told her about that?" Rene asked.

"We wanted her and Tommy to know all the details about you before we made the decision." Oliver said.

"But I also know why you did it and you are also the only member of this team who kept fighting after Ollie went to prison, so I'll let it slide. Especially since I've heard about how much you helped my dad out after my death." Laurel said and Rene nodded.

"So, why are we here?" Tommy asked, since he was the only one who'd never been to this building before.

"Wait, is it finished?" Felicity asked.

"You tell me." Oliver said with a smile as he moved to a wall and pressed a few buttons on a panel, causing the wall to open and reveal a hidden elevator.

"Nice." Roy said as they all piled into the elevator.

"Okay, this place is way cooler than the foundry." Tommy said as they all walked out into the newly constructed bunker.

"Welcome to the bunker." Oliver said.

"Wow, it's exactly the same as it was before." Felicity said.

'Well, not exactly." Oliver said as he directed their attention to the suit pods and pressed a few buttons on the computers to trigger them opening to reveal suits on display from left to right. Wild Dog, Arsenal, Spartan, Green Arrow, Black Canary and finally a bright blue suit.

"Is this my suit?" Thea asked, since the suit looked like a blue version of the one she'd worn as Speedy, complete with the quiver.

"Figured you deserved your own and considering your powers, blue seemed more appropriate then red." Oliver said.

"I heard about those. I have to ask, why would you still fight with arrows when you can control water?" Rene asked.

"Because unlike Team Flash, I don't want to rely solely on my powers and besides, for right now, it's too dangerous for me to use them." Thea said.

"What?" Rene asked.

"I'll tell you later, but Thea's right. Laurel won't be relying solely on her powers either and Dinah didn't either on the old earth. Their powers are tools, not crutches. And by the way, Barry doesn't just rely on his powers anymore. Only reason why he uses them as much as he does in a fight is because most of the enemies he fights also have powers, so he's leveling the playing field." Oliver said.

"You'd know all about that wouldn't you." John asked with a chuckle.

"What is he talking about?" Laurel asked.

"A year before Crisis, that Mar Novu character decided to test our earth to see if we could handle the crisis that was coming and in doing so, he gave this book called the book of destiny which had the power to change reality, to a maniac named John Deegan. The first change he made was accidentally making Barry and I switch lives. I became the Flash and he became the Green Arrow. It's a long story that I really do not want to get into." Oliver said, glaring at John for bringing that up.

"Yeah we don't talk about that. Ever." Felicity said and Laurel nodded, knowing a closed topic when she heard one.

"So anyways, we've got the bunker back. So let's get to work." Oliver said.