Secrets

Oliver Queen:

Watching with a smile as Jigoku is eaten by the rats, my smile only grows when I see him screaming and crying.

"Ahhh," he goes, shaking as he tries to throw the rats off him. However, there are too many. They jump from the roof onto him, grabbing onto him with their tiny little hands and biting him. He throws them off but is quickly knocks to the ground as rats start biting at his feet.

"Ahhh," he yells, kicking the rats away. The second he's on the ground, my rats crawl onto his body. They bite him all over, taking whole chucks off.

"Juba Nobu," I say, walking up to the shaking Jigoku. "Juba Nobu. Hear his name!"

I grab him by the shirt and pick him up. Shaking him back and forth, I bring him face-to-face.

"Hear his name," I say, "Before you're eaten! Juba Nobu."

Punching him across the face, Jigoku looks at me with crying eyes. He tries to crawl away but my rats quickly overtake him. As I watch Jigoku drag himself toward some cats, I see another bright flash and now, I'm sitting in an airplane.

"Son of a--," I cry when I hear an explosion right beside me. Looking outside the window, I see dozens and dozens of planes, all shooting at each other. Turning back, I take a hard look at all the control. Something is telling me to grab the stick in front of me.

Fighting the urge at first, I find myself grabbing the stick, the plane's control Tilting it to the side, I flick a series of switches and push a bunch of buttons. Joining the dogfight, I take down some airplanes, shooting and destroying them before flying through the exploding fireballs.

"Hotshot," someone shouts. "Come on! Hotshot! This is Red Rooster!"

Looking around for a bit, I see a radio and grab it.

"Hotshot here," I say. "What's going on, Rooster!"

"I got two on my tail, and I can't shake them! I need help."

"I'm coming!"

Not wasting a second, I turn my plane around and charge to Rooster's location. As I fly through the sky, barely dodging incoming fire, I begin to realize something.

"This...This isn't me," I think. This feels like a memory, but it isn't my memory. "What--What am I doing here? Where am I even? When am I even?"

Looking out the window again, I take a harder look and see older airplanes. Old-school fighter planes. The ones only on display in museums.

As I fly to Red Rooster, whoever that is, another flash appears and blinds me. Screaming and covering my eyes, I now see myself in...the military?

I see people, both men and women, running in unison. I see tanks and jeeps all driving in one direction like they're heading somewhere.

"Hey Hotshot," someone yells. Turning my head, I see a young girl with long blonde hair looking at me. She's wearing one of these old-school fighter pilot helmets with goggles and straps. Also, she had on a brown leather jacket and long pants.

"Hey Blondie," I answer, jokingly. "What's up?"

"Hand me that wrench."

I turn my head again and see a set of wrenches.

"Give me a number," I say.

"1/8."

"Here," I say, grabbing my 1/8 wrench and throwing it at Blondie. Blondie catching it, starts tuning her plane.

"Hurry up, will you? I have to go in a few min--"

Before I can finish, Blondie throws my wrench back at me. Catching it in my hand, I look back at Blondie.

"That was quick."

"What can I say? I worked fast."

Going back to fixing her plane, I smile at Blondie as I take all my tools and place them in my toolbox. Once all inside, I take my toolbox and walk over to the next warehouse. As I walk to the next warehouse, I catch my reflection in one of the airplanes.

"Oh my god," I think when I see myself. "Is that me? I'm...the man in the sunglasses."

Despite the green, oil-covered overall and messy, greasy hairs, I can still tell it's The Man. This time, instead of wearing his sunglasses, he's wearing a pair of goggles. Similar to the one 'Blondie' was wearing earlier but with no helmet. Another flash takes me to a city.

The city or I guess the better term is village, I'm in looks small. All the buildings are made of wood, and only two or three are two stories. The streets are very muddy and the doors and windows all have papers on them. There are a few signs here and there, and they all appear to be written in Japanese. 

"Am I...in Japan? How did I get here?"

I don't get the time to answer. As I take a step, a bunch of angry villagers appear out of nowhere. The second they see me, they start throwing rocks and trash at me.

"Foreigner," they yell, "Leave! Leave our home! You have done enough damage here! Leave!"

I throw up my arms to shield myself as I run away.

"Since when I can understand Japansese," I ask myself as I run away. Running as fast as I can, I slip in the mud and land right in it. My whole front side is covered in mud, I push myself up and try to run but the villagers reach me. They push me back down and step on me, forcing my head beneath the mud. I almost drown but the villagers leave after a few seconds.

"Ahhh," I moan, fighting through the pain as I push myself over. Staring at the blue sky, catching my breath, I'm surprised to see a little boy standing over me.

"Minster," the little boy starts. "Are you okay?"

"Dandy," I answer. "Who are you?"

"My name is Juba," the boy says. "Juba Nobu."

Juba Nobu helps me up into a sitting position. Cracking my back and rotating my arms as I sit up, I turn to Juba Nobu. He's a little kid, at the very most, 6 or 7 years old. He's very thin and is wearing torn clothes.

"Juba. Why are you talking to me? Your parents wouldn't approve."

"I have no parents," Juba states. "They left me."

"What?"

Juba Nobu nods his head.

"My parents left me where because I am not well."

"Not well? Kid, you lost me. What are you talking about? Wait, don't tell me yet. How about you tell me over a bowl of ramen?"

The second I say ramen, I hear Juba's stomach grumble. Juba places his hand on his stomach.

Pulling myself up and cleaning myself off, I offer Juba my hand.

"Come on, kid. I'm sure there's one restaurant around here that'll let me in. If not, then I guess you and I can talk while looking through the trash."

Juba smiles when I offer him my hand. He smiles and takes it. As soon as Juba takes my hand, I feel something inside of me heats up. It starts as a spark before turning into something else. I feel the feeling in my arms and legs returning. I watch as I pull my fingers back in, curling in on themselves.

The spark shooting throughout me, I turn my head up and scream, before another flash takes me away. Shooting up, I hit something and fall back down.

"Ahhh," I cry, holding my forehead. Blinking at first, my eyes taking a few seconds to adjust, I see glass in front of me. Looking down, I see a breathing mask and tubes inserted into me.

"Again," I say. "Ahh. I'm getting sick of waking up in this thing."

Shaking my head, I take off the breathing mask and remove the tube. Pushing open the glass cover, I turn myself around and place my feet on the floor. As my feet hit solid ground, I think I might fall over again but I'm wrong.

Standing up, fully up, I look myself over. Nothing burns. Nothing is in pain. Everything feels fine. I stretch my arms. I rotate them. I even do a few flamingo poses. All without anything hurting.

"Did Juba Nobu do this? But how? That was a memory, and it wasn't even my memory. At least, I think it was The Man's memory. Right? But wait, how did I see The Man's memory? None of this makes any sense."

As I try to put together an impossible puzzle, with too many pieces missing, I hear a screaming and turn around. There, in the doorway, I see Iris West.

"Oliver," Iris shouts, "You're awake!"

"Iris," I say. I don't waste a moment and run over to hug Iris West. Literally lifting her up, I then quickly place her down. "Sorry about that, but I am just so happy."

"No, no," Iris says with a smile. "It's fine, it's fine. I understand. You've been out of it for a while now. Since fighting that Professor Pyg guy."

Hearing that name, I feel a cold shiver runs down my spine. Despite the cold shivers, I remember something important.

"Wait, where is everyone? Where is Dinah?"

Dinah Lance:

Watching with all the families and everyone else as The Man kicks down an old wooden door, he turns back to us. Going inside first, The Man comes back out a few seconds later.

"Welcome home," he says, nudging his head toward the door. The families, still a little scared, slowly and carefully walk inside.

Following the families inside, I can't help but hold my breath.

"Ohhh," Poison Ivy says, pinching her nose. "You couldn't have picked a slightly better-smelling building."

"I didn't pick this building by random," The Man says. Shooting his fist into the air, The Man orders all of us to stop. Turning his head right and left for a few seconds, The Man walks up to a rotting wall. Placing his hand on the wall, The Man moves it around.

"I recognize this movement," Professor Stein whispers. "The Man did this when he was looking for hidden buttons back in the hideout."

"Hidden buttons," I repeat.

Before anyone can say anything, we all hear a loud grinding sound. Turning our heads, we see The Man opening a secret wall component. Revealing a single, tiny keyhole, The Man reaches into his jacket and pulls out a key. Inserting and turning the key, the floor beneath us starts splitting open. We all have to jump to one side as the floor opens, and a large stone building quickly rises.

"Do all buildings in Hub City have secret rooms built into them," Harleen asks. "I thought that was only Gotham."

"Usually it is," The Man says, taking the key and closing the secret component. "But this building doesn't belong to Bruce Wayne. It belongs to me."

"You own this whole building," Selina asks.

"Yeah, plus a few more."

"And do they all have secret rooms built into them?"

"Yes."

"What is it with you and secret rooms and secret components and building secret things," Jason asks. "Sheesh, I mean seriously, even Batman wasn't this paranoid."

"What can I say," The Man answers bluntly, the door to the stone building opening. He walks into the stone building and motions for a few families to accompany him. "I like building secret things because I don't like it when people take my things. Anyway, go in shifts. Three families and one Insurgency. See you at the bottom."

The door closing and the stone building sinking back into the floor, we wait a few minutes before it comes back up. Families by families, one by one, we all disappear into the floor.

Getting in when it's my turn, I wait with the families for the door to open. When it does, and we all walk out, our mouths drop open.

"Welcome to my private city," The Man says, waiting for us with crossed arms. "Rule 1. No swearing.