' After 5 years since his disappearance, the billionaire Oliver Queen, who we all thought was dead, has reappeared. Details about his rescue are confidential however, they say he was the only survivor of the accident with the 'Queen's Gambit' .'
I kept my gaze on the TV and kept changing channels in the hopes that something different was playing on other channels.
But no such luck.
'Our reporters got some exclusive news about-'
Click
'They said that Oliver Queen -'
Click
'Oliver Queen-'
Click
After trying all available channels and without any different results, Oliver gave up.
' Sigh, I knew this would be all over the news but this is fucking insane.'
Oliver got up from the chair he was sitting in and looked out of the airplane window. ''So much has happened in the last few days.''
First, Amanda fulfilled her end of the bargain and sent the rescue in the form of the fishermen. I didn't ask any questions so as not to arouse suspicion, but I'm sure the Captain knows something.
'Second, it took a few days before they confirmed my identity and sent me back to Star City. Almost a whole week, but at least I'm on my way home.'
'Third, I have to try my best to recreate the personality of the old me, which may prove difficult since when I disappeared I was only 13 years old. People change, even more so who was supposedly stranded on an island for 5 years, so I'll have to think of something.'
'Fourth, I think I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that I'm… shall we say, a little screwed up.'
Oliver looked down at his hands, which were shaking. 'This started a while ago, and I don't know if it's from nervousness or fear.'
Like it or not, this Oliver was still a normal person, thrown into a world where gods walk among us, and he was armed with a bow.
Oliver took a big breath and tried his best to calm down, ' One thing at a time. Now my main goal is to look like the old me.'
Oliver went back to his seat, closed his eyes, and tried to sleep.
Dream
In the fortress of solitude.
A certain Green Arrow was trying to escape from this place, this place that once was considered a refuge for the needy, now considered a hideout for a supervillain.
The Green Arrow, seeing the door to this place slowly closing and an angry alien following him, suddenly stopped and turned around, "Don't make me do this, BoyScout. These arrows are deadly, and rated E for everyone.'' Said the green Arrow aiming an arrow at a very angry Superman.
Superman, one of the most powerful beings in the universe, ignored what the man said and continued to stare at him with a look of hatred," You break into my house, try to kidnap my parents, and still expect to get away with making jokes!?!?"
Green Arrow flinched at the hateful tone that Superman spoke of, ' He really has lost his mind for good.'
Just as Oliver was trying to think of a way out, Jonathan and Martha Kent came out of nowhere and tried to calm their alien son, which seemed to be working.
The eyes of the Green Arrow lit up and saw an opportunity.
'He may be distracted, but his reflexes are almost the same as Barry's. I can't risk him seeing what I'm going try to do.'
In seconds he thought of a plan and acted. Taking advantage of Superman's brief distraction, he discreetly tied some kind of pill and the tracker he had on him to the tip of an arrow.
The Green Arrow, seeing that there was very little time left before the door closed for good, began to smile, 'Now it's in the hands of fate.'
He aimed his bow at the alien again, ''Hey, weren't you taught never to turn your back on your opponent?!?''
The Green Arrow shot several arrows toward Superman, who easily fended them off and noticed that some missed of them their target.
"You missed." - Superman.
"I never miss." - Oliver smirked.
That said, Green Arrow did not stop shooting. Unfortunately, one of the arrows he shot ricocheted off Superman's body and hit his father.
When Oliver saw this situation and the look of murderous intent Superman was giving him, he let out a sigh, "Well, I guess that's it."
The Archer barely noticed that Superman was beating him to death, the only thing on his mind was his beloved.
'Sorry, birdie. That's the end of the line for me.'
Oliver's eyes, which were barely working, saw Superman's fist coming toward his head.
And after that, darkness.
'' AHHHHHH.'' Oliver woke up from his dream/nightmare with a startled scream, and his back was covered in a cold sweat.
Oliver looked around and noticed he was still on the plane heading to his house, so he tried to calm down. 'It was just a dream.'
Oliver decided to drink some water, but as soon as he took off his seat belt, the pilot's voice caught his attention: ''We will reach Star City in 10 minutes. Please sit down and fasten your seat belt."
That's what Oliver did. "Sigh, one nightmare after another."
10 minutes later, the plane that was bringing Oliver Queen to the world of the living again, landed.
To Oliver's surprise, what was waiting for him on the way out of the plane, in addition to the reporters, was an ambulance sent by his mother.
After a few minutes to confirm, Oliver entered the ambulance and headed to the best Hospital in town.
Many hours later
''He has scars covering 80% of his body. We don't know what caused them, and he doesn't want to talk about it.''
Moira Queen gasped at the information the Doctor gave him.
''Furthermore, he may have some kind of mental problem after being isolated from people for so long, so if anything happens, please contact the police or us.''
After giving some more information regarding Oliver's condition, the Doctor let Moira into the room where Oliver was.
The first thing Moira noticed is that her baby boy had grown up. He was standing looking outside the hospital window.
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After some seconds of shock, Moire finally managed to control her trembling voice, '' Oliver, is that really you..?''
Then, the man acted like he just noticed her presence, and gave her a smile, '' Hi, mom. I'm back.''
That seen to send Moira some signal and she rushed to hug Oliver, '' I- We thought you were dead.'' She grabbed his head and looked into his eyes.
''It's okay now. Everything is going to be fine.'' Oliver reassured his mom.
'' Are you okay? Is it hurting somewhere? The Doctor told me about the scars.'' Moira started to pat Oliver's body to see if she could find anything abnormal.
'' I'm okay mom, don't worry. If there was anything hurting, do you think I would stay quiet?''
Moira stopped asking questions and finally said, '' Welcome home, son!''
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After being discharged from the Hospital a few hours later, Oliver followed his mother into a car.
The motorist opened the door to them. After entering Moira said, '' Bring us home.''
''How is Speedy? Is she doing ok?'' - Oliver
Moira was silent for a moment and sighed, '' She is in a .. complicated situation right now.''
'' What happened?''
''Let's just say she's a little worse off than you were before the accident.'' Moira looked at Oliver, ''Do you mind if I talk about your accident? I know it's a difficult subject, so if you want me to stop talking about it, just say so.''
'' I don't care. But the most important thing is Thea, what's wrong with her?''
Moira sighed, '' She's involved with the wrong people... She thinks we don't notice, but we do.''
Oliver noticed that she said we and looked at her hand to find the original wedding ring she had was gone. ' So she's seeing someone... if this is anything like what I think it is, I know who she's dating.'
''How bad is her situation?''
Moira took Oliver's hand, '' Don't worry about it. We are handling it.''
After a while and some small talk, they arrived home.
It was a huge mansion, with so many rooms that you could lose count.
And at the entrance of this mansion was a girl who looked 16-17 years old, and she was next to a man who looked much older than her. They looked like they were waiting for someone, and they also looked anxious.
After Oliver and Moira got out of the car, Thea and the man, Walter Steele, came towards them. Thea was running towards Oliver while the man went to hug Moira.
Thea came close to Oliver and jumped toward him. Oliver, who had expected this situation, caught her easily. Then she started to cry, '' I thought you were dead!!''
'' I'm not dead and I don't plan to die anytime soon.'' Oliver patted Thea head with his free hand.
Thea looked up and started to cry even harder.
Oliver, seeing the situation and realizing she was not gonna let him go, started to go toward the man while Thea was clinging onto him.
The man and Moira noticed the scene and smiled.
Oliver got close to them and offered a handshake to the man, '' Hello Walter.. or should I call you dad now?''
The couple gasped. They didn't think Oliver would notice it so soon.
'' Well, it's not like you guys were hiding it, and I'm okay with it. People move on, you guys have nothing to be ashamed of.''
They looked relieved and at the same time guilty, '' We planned to tell you later.''
'' I already said it's okay... you're going to leave me hanging?'' Oliver asked the man and looked at the hand that was still in midair.
This seems to wake Walter up and he shook Oliver's hand, '' Welcome home, Oliver.''
After this brief reunion outside the mansion, all of them entered. All this while, Thea was still clinging to Oliver like a Coala.
'' We haven't touched your room since the accident.'' Moira said while crying a little, '' We couldn't bear to do it.''
They all went to the dinner area to talk a little more, with Thea still clinging to Oliver.
So the family talked about random things for hours and the atmosphere in the house was one of happiness.
Until Moira, looking more serious, asked Oliver, '' Okay honey, let's talk about more concrete things now.''
Then she looked at Walter, who nodded, '' We think you should take a few months to rest before doing anything. You've just come back from a difficult situation, and you're still too young to take on everything your father left...''
'' Don't worry, mother. I don't plan on taking over the companies right now. I want to enjoy my second life a little and then I can think about it.'' - Oliver
The couple looked relieved, '' We know you want to enjoy life so you can spend as much money as you want. Just don't do anything crazy that might make you go away for too long. We just got you back, I can't bear to lose you again.''
'' That will be helpful. While on the plane I saw some new sports cars that I liked.'' - Oliver
They talked some more until it was 3 AM and they decided to go to bed. But Oliver was troubled.
'' What do I do with her?'' Oliver asked Moira and Walter while looking at the sleeping Thea still attached to him.
Moira just smiled, '' Just let her be. She probably won't leave your side for a long time.''
Oliver just sighed and went to his room, which was already clean and ready to go. He gently put her to bed and lay down next to her, still with many things on his mind.
' So strange. I clearly know that originally I am not the real Oliver but these emotions are very real. I have to deal with it since this is my reality now.'
He moved his body and was now facing Thea. He touched her hair a little, ' Apparently, now I have a sister who likes me very much. When I was on the island alone for a month, things like feelings were easy to deal with, seeing as I didn't interact with no one, but now...'
' And there's still the lingering and most important question that I have since arrived here... Which universe of the DC I'm in?'
Oliver closed his eyes and imagined all the universes that he read about in his past life, ' The majorities of the universes of DC always have stories where villains could straight up kill all life on the planet but choose not to.'
' No matter which one it is, they are all bad, some more and some less. I just want to survive and try my best to protect my new family.'
Oliver didn't know if this was his feeling or the old Oliver, but he knew from the first moment he saw his mother and sister, that he would protect them to the best of his abilities.
' Should I even be the Green Arrow? I haven't searched yet about superheroes and whatnot, but should I risk my life now that I have a second chance?'
With more and more doubts filling his mind, Oliver went to sleep.
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The first thing I noticed as soon as I woke up was that it was still very early. I checked the clock and it was still 5 AM.
I haven't slept much, but I'm fine.
After getting up and covering Thea with a blanket, I went for a walk around the house.
I went into the kitchen and was surprised to see Walter there and drinking coffee. Walter was also surprised, ''Good morning Oliver. I didn't expect to see you up so early, is everything okay?"
"When I was on the island there was practically no such thing as a bedtime and a wake-up time, so my sleeping hours are going to be strange for a while. But yes, I'm fine." I said as I looked for something to eat and drink.
Walter nodded and continued eating.
I found a few things to eat and sat down in front of Walter.
We were eating in silence until I asked him, "Are you going to the company now?
"Yes, I like to be the first one in and the last one out. To set an example as the CEO. - Walter
They had already mentioned that he was the CEO to me last night, so I didn't need to act surprised.
"I see... can I ask you a favor?" I asked after finishing my food.
"Sure, what do you want?
I grinned, "Money. A lot of Money."
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I spent a few hours to find a place downtown that had a large basement. A place that was busy and close to all the main places in town.
After checking if the place would be good to have some kind of alibi and if it would be a good hiding place, I bought the place on the spot.
Being rich is very good.
Hours after cleaning out the whole basement, I bought several things for my hideout.
Computers, training equipment, etc. Some won't work yet because the basement is without electricity at the moment. I also bought several empty books to write important things in, the one Amanda gave me is already full.
So, not to waste time, I took out my cell phone, which I was given yesterday as soon as I got home, and started to look up the civilian names of the superheroes.
And the results were interesting.
I started to write down the information.
'Bruce Wayne is 28 years old and the largest shareholder of Wayne Corporation. There are a lot of things about his personal life that I didn't think was important to write down. Batman appeared only a short time ago, 3 years to be exact.'
' Clark Kent is 30 years old and works at the Planet Diary.Superman appeared 4 years ago.'
I also looked up Barry, Diana, and Hal Jordan, but their lives were pretty much the same in all universes, the only difference here is that most of them were too young, in their mid-twenties to earlier thirties. Diana is the exception as she has only recently appeared to the world and is probably a few centuries old.
Also no Justice League. My guess based on the information I have is that there's no real threat that forced the creation of the Justice League.
This means that a big threat could be happening anytime soon.
This realization rang alarms in my head, ' I need to be ready. I don't know how much time I have left but I must always assume that it could happen tomorrow.'
After putting down all the information I could on the heroes, I decided to arm myself for what could happen. I also have to research the water that I got from the Lazarus Pit. I also called some favors.
I decided to go home, seeing as I had my hands tied at the moment. The 'favors' that I asked some friends, bless you Oliver for having those contacts, will take some time to arrive.
As soon as i arrived home, a worried Moira and a Thea, who was crying nonstop, come rushing at me.
'' Where are you?!? Do you have any idea how worried we were?'' Moira said while checking me.
Thea said nothing and just clung to me again.
'' Sorry, I was enjoying my new life and not noticing the time passing. It won't happen again.'' I patted Thea head to try to calm her down but to no avail.
' Sigh, it seems she will stay here again.' I simply accepted my fate.
Moira didn't look that convinced. She sighed and suddenly motioned someone to come to our location from the house, '' I should've expected that... but i- we can't risk what happened to you happening again. I can't lose you for another 5 years or longer.''
The reason she motioned someone to come became clear, as a person came from that direction. '' This is your new bodyguard. John Diggle. He will stay with you from now on.''
The man, John Diggle, extended his hand for a handshake, '' It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Oliver. I will do my best to protect you.''
I shook his hand while thinking, ' My backstory is definitely of the Arrow TV show, but from what I researched, I can't be there, the timeline and the people here don't match.'
'' Nice to meet you too.'' I greeted Diggle, who could probably become my right-hand man in the future.