Chapter Text
Note: This fic uses characters but no one set canon lore.
Lone Wolf
Chapter One
Roy 1.1
I lived a life where I believed that nobody could touch me.
I would outrun and outsmart every enemy eventually and if I couldn’t do it with fists, I’d do it with my arrows, or maybe even some sort of explosive. I thought that I could outrun the world, or, change that, I thought that we could outrun the world. I look to the side where there is nothing but an empty rooftop and the sound of wind.
No plan. No show of pride or strength or cockiness. No stupid jokes.
No Jason.
I sigh as I sit down on the rooftop not knowing what I’m doing again and it’s been that way for a while. We were Outlaws in our twenties. Despite him being a couple of years younger than me, I was always drawn to his strength and we obviously had known one another before then although it was limited interactions.
I think that before I even considered my bisexuality, I loved him. He was strong but he had this strange type of kindness. And then in working together, we became deeper and more in love and we never spoke of it. Then, we had some time apart before realizing that the team thing only worked together and I trusted in him more than any other person outside of Ollie.
As we redeveloped our partnership, I saw him trying to change to following Bruce’s more empathetic view on things and before we knew what had happened, we were going on dates, spending time together, getting engaged, getting married.
And then, two weeks before our one year anniversary, I got a call on the phone, not even from Bruce, Alfred.
“Mister Harper, I hate to inform you of this, but Master Jason has unfortunately passed away.”
Those words had come from Alfred, not even Bruce. Bruce and Grayson had been trying to find some clues or something to defeat an adversary, Grand Finale, and I learned later that Jason had given his life for Bruce. The mix between anger and heartbreak had been difficult to deal with. And now, here I am, a couple of days after that reunion and I have nothing to show for it.
Jay always said that he liked to work alone as he couldn’t let anybody get hurt. I kind of understand it now because I don’t want to work with anyone who isn’t Jason.
I hear my phone ring and see Oliver’s number. I squeeze it tight in my hand and then take a deep breath in. I don’t really want to deal with all of this. I take a deep breath and close my eyes feeling the weight of Arsenals outfit upon me and then click accept.
“Yo. Ollie, what’s up?”
“I need to recruit you,” Oliver tells me and I take a slow breath. “Or Arsenal. Any chance of you meeting me tonight to get a couple of rogue villains off of the street?”
Oliver speaks so naturally. Just follow a plan. Execute a command. Join together as Green Arrow and the former Speedy despite the fact that I’m 29 and no longer a kid, although at times I don’t feel much of anything.
“Just give me your coordinates,” I say as I prepare myself to go half-heartedly into stopping crime and wishing that I was doing it with Jay at my side. We’ve both exchanged this being dead thing, but he’s been gone for a full year and we’re married. You have to tell the person you get married if y ou come back alive within the year.
Roy 1.2
I get to Ollie’s side as fast as I can and I turn to him, watching his eyes as he looks at the building of a medium-sized tech company. I don’t really know what he’s looking at so I’m keeping my mind open for anything suspicious or anything which we might need to defend ourselves from.
“You hear about Project: BEAST?” Oliver asks me quietly and I nod. I know a little bit about it. Something about seeing a crocodile or a bear or something trying to commit crimes. I’m not really surprised, an anthropomorphic animal being a villain feels lie a Wednesday to me.
“This is them?” I ask although I feel like a year ago there would be more interest in my voice, more curiosity, more excitement for the new and the strange. I think that Ollie catches that in me. I’m more down to earth, more analytical, more guarded than I was a year ago when I had Jaybird.
Oliver nods and I look out and then eventually see what looks like a sealion with mechanical legs. Holy hell, this thing is insane. Behind him is a lioness, walking on two legs and carrying something in her arms and then there’s a honey badger looking around. All three of them have thick black collars on their necks with red buttons.
Are those shock collars? Things to control them? Is there some kind of audio component to those collars? I reach out to take an arrow out and hold it up to aim when I feel someone – or something drop down beside us. I look aside to see a gray and black wolf about six feet tall wearing a brown leather jacket, torn black jeans, and a black shirt that doesn’t hide the fact he has muscles. The wolf even has sturdy brown boots on and a black baseball cap with holes where its ears are poking out the top.
I turn and line my arrow up at him but he ignores it and I look to see that there’s no collar on him just a circle of burned skin. What the hell? Why isn’t this wolf attacking? He’s with that gang but it doesn’t seem as if he’s turning us in.
“What the hell are you?” I ask and the wolf gestures to me some message like ‘can’t speak’. Okay. He can’t speak. Does he understand a thing that’s going on here? Not that I understand much of what’s going on here.
Before I can figure out what’s going on, the wolf is jumping down to the ground to deal with the minor villains, the troublemaking thieves and I just stare at him stunned before seeing Oliver getting into the fight as well. I fire a few arrows managing to catch the mechanical sealions legs and then stunning him. The wolf presses something into his glove before trying to deactivate the collars without causing the animal much issue.
By the time that the wolf takes another breath, the other three animals are on the ground and we find ourselves as just me, Ollie, and a huge anthropomorphic wolf. Ollie and I both draw our bows up and aim at the wolf but he calmly holds his arms up showing he’s going to surrender and that he’s not a criminal like them.
It’s really hard for me to wrap my head around, but I kind of want to believe this guy. He’s not committing crimes and he seems to be capable of independent rational thought despite the fur and the ears and the tail.
“Get on the ground,” Oliver commands and the wolf seems to rase an eyebrow as if to say. ‘I really helped you guys out right here and you’re treating me like a criminal.’ The wolf sighs and shakes its head as Oliver restrains him and I kind of feel sorry for the guy. He did his beset to help us and he’s a wolf, a predator, sure, but he doesn’t seem like a criminal .
“I think we need to get all of these animals into Belle Reve,” Ollie says and the wolf’s eyes widen and he shakes his head, a small whine coming from him.
“I don’t think this guy was doing anything wrong,” I argue feeling sorry for the wolf who is obviously able to understand us. “Unlike the others, he wasn’t doing anything wrong, he’s not a criminal. That’s just too harsh, don’t you think, for someone just because of what they look like. He helped us out. And he’s wearing clothes and shoes and a hat, so he obviously knows how to do things other than…be a wolf.”
The wolf looks to me pleadingly and it breaks my heart. It was attempting to be good. I don’t know if he’s an animal or what, but he was trying to help us and I take a slow breath before asking, “Wasn’t Wayne working on this case too?” The wolf seems to deflate and Oliver sighs.
“Just the wolf,” he points and I nod in agreement.
“It’s going to be okay,” I try to explain to the wolf who huffs out annoyed as if asking why the hell did he try to help us and I ask myself that as well. I don’t know how long the wolf has been operating or if he even has a name, but it’s beyond obvious he’s been surviving in the shadows. He opened himself up for this and we punish him for it.
I just hope that Bruce will be gentle. I don’t think the wolf deserves anything less.
Bruce 1.1
I had been staring at the files for Project: BEAST for hours before getting a call from Oliver Queen telling me that they had an asset from the project but not a dangerous threat, a wolf. A wolf who seemed to want to help, who took down some of the other animals, but still a wolf.
Through some full body scans though it appeared that the wolf was human inside, had human organs and muscles but on the top surface it was distorted and the skeleton was wrong looking like an animal, a wolf in this case. The vocal chords also seemed rearranged and were more that of a wolf or dog. But one thing was clear, the wolf used to be a person who had been involved in this project, this experiment, and yet seemed…obedient.
I turn to the wolf who I’ve restrained and is just staring at the ceiling of the Batcave as if nothing about this was new or unique and hey, I’m in the Batcave, okay, that’s interesting. “You used to be somebody and the DNA samples should tell us who,” I tell him, still keeping the wolf restrained and secure. Maybe not the right way to deal with guests, but this wolf was a test subject I need answers from.
I see the data finish analyzing on the screen and look at it, “You have to be kidding me,” I whisper aloud before looking over it again.
Subject Identity Match: 98.7%
Name: Jason Peter Harper-Todd.
I frown and turn to the wolf, walking over to him, “Jason?”
End of Chapter One
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