Capítulo 24: Uncomfortable Truths
"I'm doing well Dr. Queen, thank you for asking. I just wanted to give you an update on how things have been going." Mr. Specter said. Isaac picked Harvey Specter to be the point person with his firm because he knew how far the man would go for his clients. It was one of the things he loved about Harvey's character in his past life, that and his attitude, he hated losing and never let anyone walk all over him.
Harvey went ahead and informed Isaac that the State, and the DA's office, had offered a settlement offer that he personally found insulting and told Isaac as much.
"This is a spit in the face, Isaac. They're basically telling you to fuck off." Harvey added colorfully. Harvey had been begging Isaac to let him go after both offices with full force, Isaac had been resistant, for some reason even he did not know, but he was tired of it.
"Mr. Specter, I leave everything in your hands, just make it hurt." Isaac said coldly. He practically heard the smile in Harvey's voice when he responded.
"Thank you Isaac, and don't worry, I'll make them regret ever touching your family." Harvey responded savagely.
"Now that that unpleasantness is out of the way, how is everything else looking?"
"Deals have been worked out with all the major hospitals, with more calls constantly coming in. I've also been fielding calls from several interested governments, but I recommend we put them aside until our firm can be sure that you're legally protected. The last thing we want is for you to find yourself on the wrong end of Uncle Sam, which could put all your domestic and international deals in jeopardy." Harvey warned. Isaac knew he was right, if Isaac got on the wrong side of the U.S. Government they could tie him up in court for years, risking all his other projects and deals.
"I agree, it's too big of a risk right now, but let me know the second that is no longer the case." They continued talking business for over an hour, double, sometimes triple checking items, he made sure Harvey knew exactly what he needed done. One of his biggest deals, right behind his MedBed, was his Extremis vaccine. Everyone wanted it, 'The Ultimate Vaccine'. At least that's what the media called it, anyone who took it was instantly cured of any illness or genetic defect they had. As a result, the serum not only extended human life, but also tricked the users DNA, making anyone who took it younger, physically. One of Isaac's test subjects had been 90 years old, a week after taking Extremis she physically looked to be in her mid-50's, inside and out. Isaac gave her back decades.
He, of course, had not added any abilities to the vaccine and had locked Extremis, making sure it remained unchanged. It was his way of insuring that none of the many nefarious organizations used what he created for their own ends, hell he even locked his own DNA. Isaac would not tolerate any clones of his running around in the world, he read too many comics where that ended poorly.
Obviously, big Pharma had not been happy with him since he released his inventions to the world. They fought him tooth and nail, Isaac had not been surprised, his creations spelled the end of many of those companies, and many of them deserved it. His family was set to make Billions from his deals, and he got to help people at the same time, a win-win in his book. As Isaac walked through his city, enjoying the beautiful, sunny day, he thought over his next steps. He still had not dealt with Malcolm Merlyn and his plan for the Glades, that time was fast approaching. Isaac knew it was past time to confront Moira about the secrets she had kept from their family, all of them.
As Isaac thought over the many, many things he needed to get done he noticed someone across the street who should've definitely been on his to-do list. Helena Bertinelli, princess of the Bertinelli crime family, and soon to be their destruction. With her fiancé already dead, Isaac knew the path she was set on, he just hoped he could nudge her in a more productive direction. Before she got too far ahead Isaac hit her with a tracking spell and then watched her leave.
"Claire, that woman that just walked away, I want you to keep eyes on her and let me know if she comes anywhere near Moira. Can you do that for me?" Isaac asked.
"Of course, Isaac. I'll keep an eye on her." Claire responded, her voice coming from the watch she gave Isaac (chapter 14). As Isaac headed back home, his driver behind the wheel, his spidey-senses went haywire.
"Alex! Turn left now! Don't ask why, just do it!" Isaac roared. Alex did as he was told, and an explosion went off right where their car had been moments ago. The car shook from the blast as flames licked its trunk, Isaac felt the heat spread through the car. Isaac knew he couldn't stay in the car, not with someone taking pot shots at him, so he made a quick decision.
"Alex, make the next right and then pull over." Isaac had not needed to tell his driver to step on it, he was already doing so. He put a quick 'ignore me' spell on Alex and ran magic through his bracelet, soon liquid metal spread up his arm and continued until he was covered in it. Isaac had not expected to test his new armor quite so soon but that's life, he mentally controlled his armor to reveal his face and spoke to Alex.
(Pic Here)
"Alex, get out of the car and run, now!" Isaac ordered. Alex tried to argue, but Isaac was having none of it, he used his magic and forced the issue. Almost immediately Alex was out of the car and running, with him gone Isaac focused on his hidden attacker. He put his mask back on and made himself invisible, the last thing he needed was for a villain to know what he could do. Isaac teleported to a roof two houses over and watched as another blast destroyed his car, he followed the line of fire and teleported there.
Before Isaac confronted his attacker he summoned his faithful sword, 'Shadow's Bane', he had not used it since killing the villain 'Reactron'. He summoned his electrical power and watched as it ran down his sword, covering it. When he was ready he let go of his invisibility spell and spoke to his mysterious attacker.
"Man, I'm having some serious Deja vu right now. Now, who the fuck are you and hasn't anyone ever told you it's rude to go around blowing up people's cars? That is no way to make friends." Isaac quipped. Before waiting for the cloaked figure's response, Isaac tried to read their mind, key word being tried. Isaac was stunned, it wasn't that the being had strong mental shields no, there was just no mind there to be found.
Isaac thought he knew what happened, but he had to be sure, 'Ostende Qui Cum Vita (Show those with life)' Isaac thought. Once the spell was cast Isaac was able to sense any lifeform around him, if he added more magic the spell's range increased. The cloaked would-be assassin had not appeared to his senses, he was either not alive or he was an android, an artificial being. Isaac was brought out of his thoughts when the assassin finally spoke.
"Misson incomplete, target Isaac Queen is not dead." The being said. Isaac wondered who sent this robot after him, for it could be nothing else with such a speech pattern.
"Why do you want Isaac Queen dead?" He asked. When the robot refused to turn around, Isaac decided to just end the situation, so no one was killed in the crossfire.
"Claire can you please hack this rust bucket and get me all the info in its 'brain', I want to know everything it does."
"Of course, Isaac, give me a second." She said. Maybe 10 seconds later Claire was back, with all of the robot's information copied, he reminded himself to look through it after he delt with the knock off terminator.
"Venire." Isaac whispered out. The robot jerked for just a second and then flew back towards him, Isaac stood ready, his sword at his side, covered in his black lightning. When the robot was close enough Isaac sped towards it and brought his sword down in a flash, it fell forward, its body covered with black sparks. Just when Isaac decided to go check on it, it exploded, doing no real damage to the building but it had completely vaporized the robot's body.
"Claire, I need you to dig through all of that robot's data and let me know what you find, I also want to know who sent it after me, consider that priority one." Isaac commanded. He promised, to himself at least, that whoever targeted him would be delt with, permanently, he just needed a name. As Isaac thought over the many ways he'd make the mastermind of his attempted murder suffer, his spidey-senses went off again.
Isaac spun around, his guard up, and blocked a vicious blow to his head by a bow, the man wielding it was dressed in a forest green outfit. His attacker had his hood up, obscuring his identity, but Isaac already knew who it was. The Starling City vigilante had made a surprise appearance, Isaac figured he probably heard all the commotion and decided to investigate.
"Can I help you friend?" Isaac asked calmly. The Arrow just stared at him for a moment, hands clenched, before he spoke, anger clear in his voice.
"Why did you kill Isaac Queen!?" The vigilante demanded to know. Isaac was stunned, he had not realized that anyone thought him dead, let alone his brother, Oliver, when angry, tended not to think clearly.
"I didn't. I stopped the assassin who tried to kill him. Key word being tried." Isaac said plainly. The Arrow let out a low growl and Isaac knew his brother didn't believe him, but he had a plan for that. While he was thinking, the Arrow attacked with a flying knee; Isaac turned to the side, but the Arrow would not stop. The vigilante whipped his leg out for a fierce side kick, but Isaac was ready for it, he caught Oliver's foot and slid in to take down his other leg. The Arrow saw the move coming and jumped, one leg still in Isaac's grasp, and swung his leg towards Isaac's head. He ducked and let go of his brother's leg, Isaac backed up a bit to get some space and tried to talk his brother down.
"I did not kill him! Why don't you just check, I'll stay right here while you do." Isaac asked. Oliver paused for a moment.
"If you're lying to me I will kill you, slowly." The Arrow snarled out. He then jumped back and appeared to whisper something, what Isaac did not know but he guessed his brother was asking his partner, Mr. Diggle, to check for him. Isaac had planned for situations where he had to be in two places at once and Claire knew exactly what to do. She would highjack any calls made to his phone and answer them with his voice and since she had access to all his info no one was the wiser.
Isaac watched as his brother had a hushed conversation with John, when finally, the Arrow stopped, sighed, and then walked back towards Isaac.
"Ok, I've looked into your story, and it checks out, Isaac Queen is still alive. Now, tell me who attacked him, and where are they?" Isaac thought over how to answer his brother's question and decided to just go with the truth.
"I don't know who sent it, but Mr. Queen was attacked by some kind of robot. Believe me I know how that sounds but that is what happened, when I attacked it, it blew up. I haven't found a single piece of it left, which is too neat for my taste."
"A robot? You seriously expect me to believe that?"
"It's what happened, whether you choose to believe it or not is up to you. I believe that someone wanted your brother dead and sent a disposable assassin after him. When I beat it I think someone made sure there would be no evidence left behind, probably the same someone who sent it." Isaac explained. The Arrow looked to be thinking things over, he whispered something before speaking again.
"Ok, say I believe you, what were you even doing here, and who are you?" The vigilante asked.
"I was in the area when I saw the attack and decided to put a stop to it. As far as who am I, I'm just a friendly neighborhood vigilante, like yourself. Anyway, I have a lot to do today so I got to go, take care of yourself." Isaac added. As he went to teleport away, Isaac heard his brother yelling at him to stop, that he had not said that Isaac could leave yet. Isaac just turned to his brother and waved before he vanished before the vigilante's eyes, Isaac chucked at what his brother's face must have looked like when he disappeared.
Isaac reappeared in an alley he had scoped out previously, it had no cameras and almost no foot traffic. He got rid of his armor and quickly changed into a ripped-up version of the clothes he was wearing in the car and then hailed a cab. He called Moira and told her he was on his way home, letting her know he was alright, she of course refused to believe it and told him to go straight to the hospital. Isaac pretended he had not heard that and told her he'd be home in 20 minutes; he actually made it in 15.
"I cannot believe how stubborn you are Isaac, you were attacked, you should be at the hospital getting checked out!" Moira protested as she fussed over her youngest son as best she could with the immovable obstacle in her way. Thea was the first one who saw Isaac when he made it to their Manor, when she saw the state of his dress she launched herself at him and had not let go. Isaac walked inside with one Queen literally attached to his waist and the other hovering around him like a hummingbird, eventually he grew tired of it.
"I keep telling you, I am fine. Look for yourself." Isaac said, frustrated. He took off his tattered clothes in front of them, all the way to his boxer-briefs, and gave them a 360 view, showing not a single scratch on him. He waited for the ladies to respond, yet nothing came; when he turned around he saw the two Queen ladies stunned silent. For Moira, Isaac figured it was because she had not realized how much Isaac had grown, she had never had cause to see it. Thea on the other hand was just drooling not shocked, she had after all seen a lot more of him before.
Finally having some, Isaac collected his ruined clothes and headed up to his room to look over the information Claire copied from his would-be assassin. Even with his enhanced intelligence going through as much data as Claire had collected without her would have taken much longer than the two hours it took. What he found was a treasure trove of information on numerous subjects like robotics, engineering, biology, and cybernetics. Apparently, the mastermind of Isaac's assassination had hooked the robot to his network. So, when Isaac sent Claire in, what she got was not just the robot's knowledge, but everything it was connected to as well, including the identity of the mastermind.
Isaac was shocked when he found out who it was, he had not expected him to still be alive, it made a little sense though. Anthony Ivo was, after all, a reoccurring villain in the DC universe, Isaac just had not realized that his interference had changed Ivo's death. Knowing what he did about Oliver's history with the deranged villain, Isaac thought he understood why he was targeted, it was his press conferences. Ivo probably never even knew that Oliver had a brother, but lately Isaac had been in the news quite a bit because of all the advancements he made. Isaac guessed Ivo's plan was to kill him and later reveal to Oliver that Ivo had killed Isaac because of him, similar to what he did with Shado.
Isaac had no idea what Ivo had planned for Oliver and that was a big problem, with him alive Isaac's knowledge of the future was in jeopardy. Isaac needed to deal with him quickly, he thought it might be time he talked with his brother about his nightly activities. He also needed Malcolm and his 'Undertaking' delt with, but first he had to protect his family's reputation and protect Moira from any fallout. Isaac had to call a family meeting, they all needed to put their cards on the table so that they were protected from any secrets backfiring. That had been a huge problem for his family in his past life, their secrets destroyed them, and Isaac would not let that happen again.
"Claire, run a complete diagnostic on yourself, please." Isaac asked suddenly. It had just occurred to him that in the comics Ivo had been a brilliant scientist who delt with computers and cybernetics all the time. It would not be out of the realm of possibilities that he had ways to affect synthetic beings, like a ship's AI for example, Isaac figured better safe than sorry.
"Diagnostic running now, pulling up my code for you now sir." Isaac spent the next three hours combing over every line, while Claire checked her internal systems. Afterwards, they both concluded that she was in perfect health, and that Ivo had not managed to do anything to her, Isaac was relieved.
"Claire, please have redundancies put in place from now on, I want you protected from any possible incursion, do whatever it takes." Isaac ordered.
"Alpha clearance needed. Password please." Claire asked flatly.
"THISISAWESOME09241992" Isaac replied.
"Access Granted. Going offline to implement changes, estimated time 24 hours." Isaac groaned at that, Claire being offline for an entire day was not ideal, but there was nothing he could do about it.
"Understood, begin shutdown. See you soon Claire." With that, Claire was gone. Isaac laid down on his soft bed and took a short nap, it was likely to be the only peace he had for a while. As he slept Isaac reached out to Sara Lance putting thoughts of him in her mind telling her to come home, that she was needed. He repeated it a few times, he knew that by doing this she'd know something was messing with her mind, so he promised her answers if she returned. Once that was over, Isaac closed his connection to her and shut down his mind and truly rested.
Isaac put off calling for a family meeting for several days, he knew he had to, just not how, a lot of secrets would be revealed. Not to mention the questions being asked about how he knew about it all, he had already figured out how to explain it all, but it was not going to be easy. Deciding to just get it over with, Isaac called the whole family, as well as John Diggle, and told them to be ready for a family meeting the coming Saturday. Of course, Oliver kept trying to call him the whole time leading up to the meeting, trying to find out why Dig was necessary, Isaac never responded.
Finally, Saturday had arrived, and everyone was gathered, Isaac led them all to his father's study, a room he had not been in since the man's death. It was clear that Isaac had not been the only family member to not step back into Robert's room as Oliver, Moira, and Thea all protested to having the meeting there.
"Isaac, why are we doing this here, why can't we just use the living room?" Thea asked as tears welled up in her eyes as she stared around her father's office. Both Moira and Oliver voiced their agreement with Thea's objection, they were off to a great start Isaac thought sarcastically before responding.
"Fine, then we'll go to the garden then." Isaac conceded. Before anyone could object Isaac stared them all down, he needed this delt with already and was tired of delaying. They made their way to the memorial garden, and all found a seat. Before Isaac sat, he tossed up a quick privacy spell so that no one could hear what they talked about.
"So, I know you all have questions about why I called this meeting, especially you Mr. Diggle, all I'll say, for now, is that we have a lot to talk about." Isaac said, plainly. Everyone looked confused, but Thea was the first to voice hers.
"Isaac what is this all about, and why are you being so weird over it?" She asked. Isaac had agonized over how best to handle the meeting, but just decided to rip the band aid off. There were too many secrets that had to be aired and the people that he loved were going to be hurt by them but there was nothing he could do about it. It had to be done, not only for their safety but also to preserve any chance they had of healing their familial bonds, afterwards.
"You're right Thea, I should just get right to it, but I'm gonna start by saying I'm sorry to you all because what I have to say is going to hurt and a few of you might end up hating me for it." Isaac glanced over at Moira and Oliver as he said that, with a deep sigh he continued. "This family has a lot of secrets, secrets that will either get us killed or see us manipulated by people who want to tear us apart. That is not an exaggeration, I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that I'm doing this to save our family. Th.."
"Wait, are you joking right now Isaac? Because if so, I do not find this funny, at all." Moira interrupted. Isaac watched her face, a mix of confusion and anger, but he also saw a hint of guilt behind her eyes.
"First off I'm completely serious, secondly no more interruptions. This is hard enough to do as is, I do not want to have to constantly stop to answer any questions, just let me say what I need to and then you can ask me whatever you want. Ok?" Isaac waited until everyone agreed before continuing.
"I'll start with some of my own secrets first, I already know who tried to kill me last week and don't worry I will tell you all about it during this meeting." Isaac promised, cutting off any possible interruptions. "I should also tell you all that I'm not exactly normal." Isaac went on to tell everyone about his magic and all his other abilities, he talked about the things he had done including visiting a magical underwater city. When he told Oliver he was the one he fought with on the roof, his brother's mouth dropped, it was hilarious. Thea thought it was awesome, Moira however, was unamused, she did not like me risking my life.
Isaac also told his family how he had been having visons of the future for years and that his visons were why they were having this meeting, which shocked them.
"I'm guessing the future isn't look so great, is it?" Thea astutely asked. Isaac just shook his head before carrying on.
"No, it doesn't. Now the visions I've seen are of a future where I don't exist, so some things I can't see but much of what I've seen has come to pass. It was why I was so agitated when Oliver and Dad went on their trip, I saw how it would end, I just did not know how to explain it to anyone. For that I am truly sorry." Everyone was stunned silent. Isaac noticed that Oliver's head was down and that he had clenched his fists and thought his brother would try to hit him, but all he did was get up and hug him. Now Isaac was the stunned one, he had not expected it at all, he thought Oliver was going to be furious, but he wasn't.
"It wasn't your fault, so don't go carrying that weight with you, ok?" Oliver said. Isaac just silently nodded his head as his eyes glazed with unshed tears, as everyone nodded in agreement with Oliver. Everyone took a few minutes to digest what they had been told before Isaac started again.
"So now some truly uncomfortable secrets.."
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