Chapter Text
The black cross army… a forgotten anarchist group of the past. A problem that shook the world, a plague that spurned the world, a threat that was suddenly gone… At least that’s what most people think. You see there was a group. EAGLE and their five person secret squadron was dedicated to defeating them in secret, away from public eye, and public harm. Those 5 soldiers eventually settled down and retired, but remained ever vigilant in case they were ever needed again.
Though that idea was shattered nearly 40 years later in the depressing, dank docks of starling city port. There was a group wearing all black military-esque outfits lead by a man in a black robe, and a black pointed hood were stealing arms from a police transport when a man in a green hood shot at them with a bow and arrow. “Put down the guns, and put your hands up!” the man in the green hood spoke with a deep modulated voice.
The military men, the black crusaders known as zolders looked up and wasted no time and started firing back. “Felicity, who are these guys?” the man in the hood spoke into an earpiece. On the other side was a blonde woman named Felicity Smoak who looked at the footage. “I don’t know but the outfits are indicative of a frightening mix of klansmen, and Nazis, hopefully that’s not what these are, those are two groups that should never mix.” Felicity rambled into her comms device.
The hooded man tried to take a few down but was surrounded by the armed men, and out of arrows. He raises his hands in surrender trying to guess how to escape, when a whistle grabs the gunmen’s attention and a man in a crisp white suit jumps from above down from abandoned mezzanine, looks around at the gunmen in black. He moves without warning and starts doing martial arts to perfectly take down the gunmen.
The man in the white suit looked around and he spoke in thick Japanese. “Black cross…” the military men now outed as black cross started shaking at the sight of the Japanese man. “Kid, get out of here-” the hooded individual barely got to finish his sentence when the young Japanese man yelled. “Henshin!” with a blinding flash of maroon light filled the area. Where the young man stood was now a heavily armored individual.
“Aka Ranger!” the armored man spoke encased in a form-fitting armor of searing red polymer, marked by the iconic white 'V' insignia and a dramatic short cape, Aka Ranger stood as the maroon vanguard—a leader whose helmet, with its azure insect-like lens, granted him a lethal focus for defending the world. The hooded individual stared wide-eyed.
This maroon vanguard moved swiftly, bullets bouncing off his armor. With each step, with each punch, a black cross member dropped to the floor. The hooded figure stared in awe as the man in red moved with grace. The hood picked up an arrow from the ground and nocked and pointed the bow at the man in the red armor.
“Hands where I can see them!” the hooded man loudly commanded the man in red armor. The man in the red armor just simply ignored Oliver’s order and leapt 50 feet into the air to the top of the abandoned building and looked back before disappearing into the night.
“Felicity?” The hooded figure asked the blonde girl. “I can’t track him, Oliver. I can’t hack into his tech, and he’s moving too fast to lock on to him. He’s practically a ghost” Felicity told the hooded man, Oliver, about the impossible task that baffled her.
“He called these criminals, Black Cross.” Oliver told the information to Felicity. Felicity immediately tries to track down any information. “Some obscure Japanese newspapers from the 70s but everything else is heavily redacted.” Felicity relayed to Oliver.
Meanwhile the man in red was speeding down the highway on his motorcycle The Red Machine when the same blinding maroon light changed the armor back into a white business suit. This man was Naoya Kaijo, grandson of Tsuyoshi Kaijo the original Aka Ranger from 1975, the rangers of the secret squadron passed down the knowledge in case they ever needed to rise again. “Sofu…” the man spoke. “I will defeat them all.”
The SCPD were not happy. Quentin lance was fuming. “First we get that nutjob in the green hood, now we have some wacko in red armor playing hero?” He briefed the Anti-Vigilante Unit as he looked over the photos of the Aka Ranger taking down thugs, and mainly members of the black cross. Little did anyone know, this would be the start of something very, very grim.
Elsewhere laurel lance was at CNRI trying to do her latest case when her star witness walked in… Naoya Kaijo… “So, Mr. Kaijo? Was it? What can you tell me about this string of crimes against Japanese immigrants?” Laurel asked as Naoya sat across her desk.
“This group was more prevalent during my grandfather’s generation, an anarchist cult… so to speak… The group who threatened your clients is not to be messed with, be careful.” Naoya warned not of malice, but of worry. “I’m sorry Mr. Kaijo but I won't back down from keeping my clients safe. I won’t allow some losers who don’t like the fact that there are immigrants in their neighborhood to scare me.” Laurel spoke confidently.
Naoya nodded, reaching into his wallet and gave her a business card with his information. “If you ever get into trouble, call this number immediately, because these animals won’t hesitate to kill you..” he warned laurel before walking away.
On his way out he bumps into Oliver Queen. Oliver Queen recognizes Naoya from their encounter on the docks and immediately gets suspicious. “Hey laurel, who was that guy?” Oliver questioned when Naoya left the office building. “He’s some business man from Japan, he was a witness of crimes that have been happening to older Japanese residents of Starling city. Witnesses say people have been putting crosses on the doors, and figures where black have been spotted fleeing the scene, I'm thinking it’s some new hate group.”
Laurel deducted incorrectly. “Look, Ollie… I love that you’re concerned, but I'm a big girl. I don’t need you to protect me.” Laurel chastises the man. Oliver lulls it over and tries to discreetly follow Naoya, but a turn down an alley causes Oliver to lose sight of the man. Naoya drops down from his elevated hiding space and puts Oliver in a chokehold. “Don’t ever follow me.” Naoya threatened before tossing him on to the ground and disappearing.
In an underground bunker stood a menacing figure known as the “Black Commander.” He wore an elaborate oversized mask in the shape of a cross adorned with gold crosses with his face painted black and white. “38 years. 38 years we have been waiting! 38 years for the Gorenger to be old and frail! Yet there’s a new generation of them!” the Black Commander raged. A man in a black pointed hood spoke. “My lord, we have another problem, there’s a vigilante in Starling, he’s poking his nose in our affairs too.” Black Commander, enraged, struck the man. “Wait… if the police are distracted we can use this to our advantage. We stage disaster for the police to be at. Perhaps with a bombing, something that would force them away from our actual business. so we can divert our forces elsewhere.”
At an apartment building, Laurel Lance was meeting with her clients. “So Mr. Saito. When did the harassment start?” Laurel asked, starting their interview. An older Japanese man looked at her for a second before speaking. “My daughter had no right to call you.”Mr Saito's daughter walked up to him, sad. “Otosan, please… just think about it.” Mr Saito's daughter begged. “O sumire, it’s not what you think…” Mr Saito tried to quell his daughter’s fears. “These crusaders are nothing new…” Mr Saito tried to reason.
“I don't want my kids, your grandchildren to have to live in fear of some racist group attacking them!” laurel confused asked. “Why don’t you care? If some racist group-” laurel was cut off by Mr. Saito. “It’s not some hate group! It’s going to be alright!” This confused both women who were listening. Mr Saito turned his heel to sift through newspapers till he found the one he wanted. “Ah, here it is… Aka Ranger. Remember Sumire about the stories i told you when you were young?” Mr Saito said with nostalgia in his tone.
Mr Saito held up a newspaper from a week ago that showed a picture of the new Aka Ranger titled ‘NEW VIGILANTE “MAROON VANGUARD” ON THE RISE.’ “He's always protected me.” Mr Saito said confidently before pulling out a picture from when he was a boy standing next to the original Aka Ranger, Ao ranger, Ki Ranger, Midori Ranger, and Momo Ranger. Laurel stared at the photo in confusion, this means that this maroon vigilante isn’t new and that what she thought was an investigation about some modern hate group was completely wrong. “This changes everything… mind if i take a picture of this photo?” Laurel asked before snapping a picture and sending it to her contact, the hood.
In his base Felicity analyzed the picture. “So according to this picture there’s 5 of them and has been operating since the mid 70s. But why did the Japanese government go through such lengths to hide it?” Oliver and John Diggle were sparring while listening to the info dump. “Whatever it is, it can’t be good.” John told Oliver. “Well this Naoya guy clearly wasn’t around in the 70s so what is going on?” Oliver questioned.
Felicity tried searching deeper but there wasn’t anything besides a few personal accounts, and very grainy photos. “Well i tried, but this was the 70s, don’t expect it to be High Def 4k footage, personal video cameras weren’t the best. And negatives can deteriorate over the span of 38 years." Felicity said as a warning to the others to not get high hopes on her internet deep dive. “What I can find is very little, just a newspaper article with descriptions that match the people in Mr Saito’s photo.”
Oliver listened, and wiped off his sweat with a towel before putting his shirt back on. “Sorry to dash everyone, but I promised my mother I’d be home for dinner.” Oliver spoke casually. He put the escrima sticks away as he drank from his water bottle. He checks and gets an angry text from Thea about how late he is. “Diggle, mind giving me a ride home?” Oliver asked his friend. Diggle wiped his sweat and headed into the back to put his suit back on so he can take Oliver home.
On the drive home, John noticed the look on Oliver’s face and decided to question why Oliver was so down. “Last time you were like this, you found out about vertigo.” John said making the comparison which was scarily spot on. This revelation caused Diggle concern. “Oliver, seriously what’s wrong?” Diggle spoke with great concern to his friend’s psyche at the current moment.
“It’s complicated, dig.” Oliver said, snapping from his thoughts. “The guy in red, Laurel, is getting close to him, I don't want her caught in the crossfire of whatever the hell he’s doing.” he lamented on the situation at hand, he’s not concerned about the man in red, he’s upset that Laurel is involved. “I don’t want Laurel to get in this red guy’s war path.” Oliver said, giving his reasoning to Diggle.
“Oliver, she ain’t your girl anymore. You don’t have to watch her every move.” Diggle answered reasonably. This of course made logical sense to Oliver, but unfortunately he never followed reason, nor logic when it came to Laurel. To him Laurel was just a civilian that he needed to protect from harm. “You don’t know that, Dig.” Oliver Tried to argue. “Dude, even if this Black Cross Army wanted to go after Laurel you saw that Naoya guy took down a whole parade of them with ease.” Diggle reasoned.