[center][b][color=red][sup][h1]A R S E N A L[/h1][/sup][/color][/b][/center]
[COLOR=red][INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3]Star City, California[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT][sup][color=darkgray]January 1[sup]st[/sup], 2052  |  2:13pm |  Queen Mansion[/color][/sup][/INDENT][/INDENT]



Roy Harper sighed, looking at the massive spread of ingredients siting upon the kitchen island. He was cooking for himself, Oliver, Dinah, Lian… and more importantly the special guest who was 13 minutes late to helping him begin cooking. Roy was never a patient person, and he was also not at all a skilled cook. Which is why the arrival of Waylon was incredibly important. Needless to say, the doorbell’s chimes were a godsend.

Roy of course knew when he opened the door that on the other side would be a eight foot tall, hulking man with green scales. The two men gave a brief smile and nod, with Croc leaning down slightly to pick up Roy in his arms and squeezing him a little too tightly. Roy gasped in pain, but Croc replaced the hero back onto the ground where he belonged. [color=red]“How’ve you been, Crocie?”[/color] With a smile filled with razor sharp teeth, Waylon smiled down at the scarlet archer. [color=007236]“Well… the consulting job has been paying nicely.”[/color]

[color=red]“Perk of being a former super villain is you become a hot commodity when people are looking for reformed criminals to find vulnerabilities in their security… I just get stuck teaching teenagers kung fu.”[/color]

The two were immediately on their way to the kitchen, laughing as usual. The two had grown close since Roy tried to get Croc to kill him on a rooftop what felt like ages ago. Waylon James, the villain and powerhouse that he was, did take Roy into his care and helped get him clean when no one else would. He was even the sponsor of Roy’s recovery in rehab, and later on in his support group. Helping Roy helped himself in the end, instilling a sense of responsibility in Croc that led him to leaving the villain life behind and working as a freelance security consultant. In a world with super villains, someone like Croc becomes very desirable for companies that want to ensure that they are “catastrophe” proof.

For the next two hours, the two caught up on what they were involved with. Roy shared stories of his students and the antics Lian would get involved with. Waylon, on his end, shared about some of the jobs he was hired for. Hell, Croc even managed to find himself a woman who loved him for who he was, but Roy stopped him before he could explain the physics of it. Needless to say, it was a pleasant time.

They had just finished getting the Turkeys out of the oven (one for Croc, one for the Queens/Harpers) when the two heard stirring in the lobby. Within moments, Oliver and Lian were there in the kitchen with Dinah following. Lian was already trying to get her fingers in the food while Roy chastised her, Croc and Oliver in the meantime embracing and joking with one another. Dinah just rolled her eyes before walking over to Roy and giving him a hug. As usual, it took a few minutes for the food to make its way to the table (with a few obvious morsels stolen by Lian and Oliver). During that time, Connor Hawke and his family arrived. Mia, Emiko, and the others were always on duty on New Years Day, so this was as close as the Arrow family could get to being all together to celebrate the New Year.

After an hour and a half of eating, drinking, and laughing, the Arrow family began to disperse into their usual duties. Waylon entertained Lian and Connor’s children in the ballroom whilst Connor’s wife helped keep an eye on them, Dinah and Oliver worked on the dishes (which usually resulted in Oliver splashing Dinah with water playfully over and over until it was no longer funny or cute), and Connor and Roy sat down for a drink to catch up. They were never particularly got along when they were younger, since Connor was the illegitimate child of the Green Arrow and Roy was just some orphan Queen picked up off the street to be his sidekick first. Now that they were both fathers and had reconciled their differences with Ollie, the two liked to catch each other up on what they had been up to.

As they sipped on their whiskey in the study, Roy made his way over to his desk, noticing a few notifications on his computer screen. With a few clicks, Roy pulled up the reports that were being routed through the Star City Hall of Justice. He had forgotten Perseus was going to send the mission brief… and Roy wished he had looked them over. The team was bringing Bloodsport in to the facility… and looking at the live reports feeding in from the Peacekeepers and local authorities, the place was barely armed. Perseus should have recognized the trap that his strike force was being led into. Like his father, the younger Luthor could be seriously blinded by his own ego.

Unfortunately, there was little Roy could do at this point, from his own study. He wasn’t the fastest man alive… he was just a regular guy with rather killer calves for his age. And those weren’t exactly going to get him to the desert in time to help the team if things went wrong. Of course, though, Connor picked up on how distraught his half-brother was. [color=tan]“What’s wrong, Roy? I haven’t seen you this stressed since you went back to teaching kids how to play with knives.”

The scarlet archer took another sip of his whiskey before looking back in the direction of his fellow Leaguer. [color=red]“Al asked me to go back into the field.”[/color]

[color=tan]“That’s great, right?”[/color]

[color=red]“No… I can’t go back out there, Connor. I’ve got to think about Lian, and Queen Industries needs me…”[/color]

Connor scoffed,leaning back in his chair as Roy stood hunched over the computer. [color=tan]“Those are just excuses, Roy. Excuses you never had before. Liam and the company weren’t on your mind when you jumped into the war… you disappeared for a year and then came back begging for essentially a desk job. What happened over there?”[/color]

Roy’s eyes rose to meet Connor’s, a slow-boiling anger tempered with fear brimming in his blue irises. [color=red]“It doesn’t matter. I turned Perseus down, and he ended up walking into a trap with Robert at his side. Just hope things don’t go too sideways.”[/color]