Chapter 8

-[Evan]-

A few days had passed and he'd upgraded the security of the computers in the base to his own personal standards.

Along with that, he'd also quickly gotten some materials to upgrade his tech, courtesy of Felicity. The base had the basic necessities to live so he didn't need to go out and find a hotel like he had originally planned.

The sound of the elevator door opening got his attention but he didn't get up from where he laid on the couch.

"We're back!" Lucas announced as he and Felicity walked in.

"And we've got lunch!" Felicity added.

He groaned as he raised his head from the soft couch. "Did you get tacos?"

Lucas and Felicity walked to where he laid, Lucas laughing. "You can't eat Tacos everyday, it's not healthy." He said, dropping a take out bag on the table in front of them.

Groggily sitting upright, Evan reached for the bag, searching its content. "Then what did you get?"

He pulled out a plate, frowning in displeasure which caused Lucas to laugh even harder. "Like it?" Lucas asked.

"A salad? Do you hate me?" Evan asked, reluctantly opening the plate to take a bite.

Felicity searched the bag she held, pulling out a takeout plate. "Don't worry, I got you. Bought these when he wasn't looking."

As he took the plate, a relieved look appeared on his face. "Tacos! You're a lifesaver." He immediately took out one, taking a satisfying bite.

Lucas turned to Felicity with an exasperated look. "You know you're spoiling him right. I wouldn't be surprised if his blood is 80% tacos at this point."

"What? It's not like he's out of shape." She said with a shrug before turning to Evan who was almost done with the first taco. "How do you do that actually?"

Evan was currently in a tank top as opposed to his usual baggy clothes, exposing his lean but defined body.

The boy in question shrugged. "Milk?" He said unsurely.

Before either of them could react, there was a beep from the computer.

"What's that for?" Felicity asked as they quickly moved to the computer setup.

"I set it to alert me whenever any camera we have access to recognizes any person set as a high priority in our database." Evan answered.

"And the person it just caught is?" Lucas questioned as Evan brought up footage of a blonde bespectacled woman in a white lab coat.

"Dr Serling Roquette. Nanorobotic expert in claytronics at Royal university." Evan said, watching as Red Arrow escorted the woman inside a lab.

"Yeah she went missing two weeks ago. I tried to find her but no luck. She still owes me for helping her with work when she was sick." Felicity said, receiving strange looks from Evan and Lucas. "What?"

"That aside, it seems Green Arrow's former sidekick saved her." Evan said.

"Where are they?" Lucas asked.

"This footage is from the local highschool in Happy Harbor and from the looks of it, someone's still after her. I'll bet it's whoever kidnapped her in the first place seeing as how Red Arrow didn't just bring her back to Star City." Evan said as Felicity began typing on the keyboard.

"We don't have audio but we can read their lips to at least find a clue about what's going on." Felicity said as she got to work.

Evan knew exactly what was going on but he couldn't exactly reveal that or how he knew. Barely a few moments passed and subtitles were available for them to 'hear' the conversation.

++++++

[Red Arrow]:[Can you do it?]

[Roquette]:[Yea but where are you going? I need protection while I'm working on the virus.]

++++++

"Virus?" Felicity wondered out loud.

"Shhh!" Evan and Lucas shushed her at the same time.

"Why are you shushing me?! We're reading, we can't even hear what they're saying." She questioned in exasperation.

+++++++

[Red Arrow]:[I have other things to attend to but I know a few people who can stay here and protect you.]

[Roquette]:[And while you're doing that, who's going to protect me in the meantime?]

[Red Arrow]:[You're safe enough for now.]

+++++++

After that, Red Arrow left without waiting for a response.

"Well he's nice." Lucas said sarcastically.

"A real ideal hero. Could give the blue boy scout a run for his money." Evan added, just as sarcastic.

"So do we just sit back and watch or…?" Felicity asked, trailing off unsurely.

"Information is power so of course we're going to get a bit involved." Evan said as he began one of the things he did best, hacking into the school computers.

They watched as Roquette began interacting with the computer, a screen in front of them mirroring her activities on the device.

"I think you guys have this part under control. Wake me up if you need me." Lucas said, walking away, but not before stealing a taco from Evan.

"Hey!" The amber eyed boy complained.

"Can you two not be children?" Felicity asked tiredly.

Evan grumbled in complaint but didn't say anything more as he quite easily hacked into orbiting satellites to provide thermal imaging around the building.

There was nobody in the vicinity as of yet. They continued monitoring what Roquette was doing, Felicity pausing for a moment.

"She's making a virus to destroy some sort of nano machine." Felicity said, sounding impressed.

"Want to give her a hand?" Evan asked with a smirk.

-[Roquette]-

Typing away at the computer, she felt a mixture of fear, anxiety and relief. Fear and anxiety because she was just rescued from assassins and was now poorly hidden in a high school lab with no protection.

As grateful as she was to Red Arrow, there was nothing stopping her kidnappers, the league of shadows, from taking her once again while she was unguarded.

'Stupid heroes thinking they know everything.' She grumbled.

Her feeling of relief was from the speed and ease at which the virus was coming along. She knew she was good at what she did but this was a new record, even for her.

It was like the virus was writing itself and she was just assisting it but that was impossible, right? Either way, she was happy that she would soon be done with it and that the nanotech fog she was coerced into making would be neutralized.

Now where was Red Arrow and the people who were supposed to protect her?

-[Evan]-

Watching the subtle but constantly changing emotions on Roquette's face, he held back an amused laugh.

He and Felicity had access to the computer she was working on and were speeding up the work process, not being too fast to overtake the entire thing nor too slow to hold her back.

His attention was caught when the cameras picked up a few people heading into the building. His eyes zeroed in on the blonde among them, a small smile on his face at her presence.

'I guess I shouldn't get too distracted.' He thought, going back to what he was doing.