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Chapter 1 ~
When a hooded up Oliver returned to his lair after a patrol to his father’s old Queen Consolidated Factory, he had an
unexpected visitor sitting at the computer terminals. Their back was to him in the high back chair as their pink nails flew
over the keyboard. He raised his bow and aimed an arrow in a second.
"How did you get in here?" A review of the surroundings revealed she was alone. He didn’t know if she was gutsy or stupid yet, or if he wanted to wait and find out.
"Your security, and I use that term loosely, sucks. I could fix that for you after I’m done upgrading your systems that look like they were from the 90s. And not the good part of the 90s. You don’t even have standard encryption and your standard issue, firewall isn’t updated. And FYI ABCD is not a suitable password. Although kudos, the machinery is beautiful and top notch."
She swivels around in her chair. Oliver takes in the petite blonde in a pink blouse and black pencil skirt with panda flats on them. She doesn’t bat an eye at him aiming the deadly looking arrow at her from beneath her glasses. Dig’s footsteps fall heavily against the steps after he stashes the van nearby.
"It’s okay. She’s …family." Dig steps between Oliver and Felicity.
Oliver lowers his bow. He already dismissed her as a threat but he was still wary.
"Hi Uncle John."
"Uncle?" Oliver is lost.
"He’s adopted." Felicity cracked a smile. She was used to that reaction from when she was younger. "I’m Felicity Smoak, MIT class of 09. Breaking into top secret Arrow caves since .. well this afternoon. I thought you’d guys be back sooner. Good thing I ate on the way here."
Oliver tilted his head and looked as if he wanted to grin. She was adorable.
Dig isn’t amused. He crosses his well-muscled arms in front of his chest.
"What kind of trouble did you get into hacking this time?"
"Hacking is such an ugly word."
"Felicity."
She shoot her head, her ponytail swaying against her neck.
"Ugh, please give me some credit. I was ten when I hacked NASA. I cover my tracks now." She insisted, adjusting the glass
frames on her nose.
Oliver’s eyebrow raised. He is in disbelief.
"You hacked NASA when you were ten years old?"
Dig sighs as Oliver’s gaze flew to him in surprise.
"How did you find me?"
"It wasn’t easy. But it also wasn’t hard. You two need to learn to cover your digital and cellular tracks better."
Oliver looks at Dig, questioningly. Should he be worried, he silently asks Dig.
"If it’s online, she can find it. But few people are as good as her. Personally never met her."
"Don’t worry. I covered all the tracks I used to locate you, Mister Queen."
Oilver realized she knew his secret identity. He pushed back his hood and put his bow and arrow away before facing her again.
"Thank you." He belatedly said, the words not coming out easily.
"I didn’t do it for you. I did it for John. I didn’t see myself visiting him in prison."
Oliver nods.
"Do I want to know why you were hacking NASA?"
"No." Dig says. She ignores him.
"I was just researching for my report on the moon landing, the real moon landing."
"You were going to traumatize your classmates."
"I was younger than them and I wasn’t traumatized when I saw the real footage. It isn’t like I was going to spill the beans
about what really happened to Kennedy. You know I hate mysteries.” Felicity rolls her eyes. She skipped a few grades so her
classmates were older than her but still acted like babies to her.
"Well, I don’t. So what are you doing here?"
She stands up and faces him, her demeanor serious. Her attempt to go toe to toe with him was generally lacking as she was
already petite to be dwarfed by his frame.
"I know you’ve been looking for Uncle Andy’s killer. You promised us you’d stop when you refused our help."
"I couldn’t do that and I couldn’t let either of you get involved."
She should have known better but she didn’t want to believe it. She knew Andy’s death haunted him. He would spend the rest of
his life hunting the reason why and the people responsible even if it killed him.
"So you team up with a, borrowing a quote from the Police Chief himself, lunatic vigilante criminal. " She gestures to Oliver
who shifts uncomfortably at the family argument occuring right in front of him. She loved Dig ever since she met him when she
was just a kid at his knee but he was so stubborn and infuriating sometimes. Or almost always according to Lyla. But he was
also fiercely loyal and dependable.
"Should I leave?" Olive asks, his eyes fliting side to side between them.
Dig and Felicity ignore him.
"And also I have a name, you know." He snorts. "And the police don’t have an issue with me anymore." He didn’t know why he
cared what she thought of him especially since he’d been called worse but he just did.
Felicity’s gaze cut to Oliver.
"I’ll well aware of that Mister Queen. Tell me, do you have any regard for other people’s safety or just your own?"
Dig puts an arm around Felicity.
"Stop Felicity, Oliver is a friend and he’s my partner now. I admit I thought the same things as you did efore I met him and
even in the beginning - “
"At least you haven’t completely lost all your faculties." She says, not caring that said crazy man was standing right there.
"But he is not what you think. So please go home. It’s dangerous. You shouldn’t be here."
"It’s too late for that. I don’t have a home anymore. It blew up last night. Needless to say, you owe me some expensive
computer equipment.”
Dig pulls her to her feet.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes, I got out in time. I saw them coming. Lyla taught me well. I barely had time to grab my emergency bag."
Dig picks up his phone.
"i’m calling Lyla. She will come get you."
"Aunt Lyla is missing." Felicity states, not knowing another way to say it.