Ms. Hellbrat

“The majority of them are quickly located via the Witches' Council and shipped here for basic training and instruction.” Her expression when she faced Meredith was serious. “But these are still very young girls who have supernatural abilities and instincts. Those instincts will tell them that you are the enemy. That shirt is to keep you from getting jumped by the baby slayers. The distinction between Possessed and Traditional, as well as between full-vampire and half-vampire, is still beyond most of these girls.”

Felicity frowned. “But I'm a baby slayer, right? I've only been called a couple of weeks. I wouldn't have attacked Meredith even if she wasn't my cousin.”

“You're also a mature rational grown woman,” Rona stared at her in disbelief. “You're not a pre-teen who just got turned into Supergirl and thinks she can blindly follows her instincts.”

“And your training has been unorthodox,” Riley added. “Your mentors are Pures. A dear friend turned out to be a witch. A half-vampire is your cousin. You've been exposed to things these girls have not.”

“They've been sheltered,” Rona agreed. “We don't even consider placement on one of our field slayer teams until a girl has reached sixteen-years-old. They're only exposed to the supernatural under very controlled settings.”

Meredith huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine, I'll wear the damn shirt until they get use to me.” She pointed her finger at Rona. “But I'm not going anywhere. Felicity is my responsibility. And,” her lips curled, “I'm not afraid of a bunch of rabid pre-teen girls. I'm meaner than them.”

Felicity shuddered and made a pained face. “I remember you as a pre-teen girl and you were probably meaner than them back then.” If the slayer remembered correctly, there'd been an incident with Meredith's friend group, some poor boy, and them doing a song and dance of “Bye Bye Bye” by NSYNC in the school hallway that led to her cousin almost getting expelled.

Meredith grinned. “Exactly.”

Choosing to ignore that, Rona pushed open the door to a massive and impressive training room. Felicity would have been gaping...except honestly the one under The Bronze was pretty impressive too. Her expectations were set somewhat high by this point. Still, it definitely beat their training equipment at the lair so that was something.

“Wow,” Thea muttered. Thea, who had not as yet seen the facilities under The Bronze.

Felicity nodded and smiled and tried to look really impressed. Oliver looked pissy. She could practically feel him thinking about upgrades he could make to the lair. She squeezed his hand where it was still wrapped around her waist to distract him and then noticed something. “OH! Salmon Ladder!” She hopped excitedly and pointed it out to Oliver. That made him crack a smile which was totally worth the embarrassment of everyone else looking at her like she was a little special.

“You do realize you are perfectly capable of doing the salmon ladder yourself now, right?” Oliver leaned close and spoke next to her ear.

Felicity rolled her eyes. “Not nearly as much as fun. I prefer the spectator role on that one.”

She could feel his breath on her skin when he spoke again. “Maybe I want to watch you do it.”

The slayer snorted. “You just want to watch me bust my ass.” She turned to look at him and noticed the heat in his stare. She gulped. “Or...you know...not?” And then he grinned...and Felicity bit her lip nervously because he was not supposed to look at her like that...or at least not in public! Bad Oliver!

“Could you two stop it?” Thea drawled and made a face. “I'd like to keep down my lunch.”

“Preach,” Meredith agreed.

Felicity pursed her lips and turned determinedly back toward the front. “There is nothing to stop.” She lifted her brows and looked to Rona. “Can we continue the wonderful tour?”

Rona was frowning at Oliver. She dragged her gaze back to Felicity. “The Bitchettes are gonna hate you. Hell, I've already got a hot boyfriend and I almost hate you.”

Felicity frowned confused. “Huh?”

“I refuse to hate you,” Macey told her happily. “Because I'm nice and you're CUTE!” She leaned closer to Felicity and lowered her voice. “I'm totally gonna drool over the man candy though.”

Felicity just nodded and went with it. “Sure.”

Rona sighed and rolled her eyes. She waved around the room. “You obviously seem to have some idea of training equipment and layout. Not surprising when you've been training with Pures.”

“I wish I got to train with Pures,” Macey grumbled.

“Hand-to-hand, close combat weapons training,” Rona pointed out the different areas, “strength and endurance.” She paused and looked at Felicity to make sure the new slayer was keeping up.

Felicity forced a big smile and gave her a thumbs up. “It's not a big tire you can beat with a sledgehammer, but I guess it'll do.”

Thea snickered and Oliver poked her in the side.

Macey frowned. “Dare does that?” Then she tilted her head to the side and her eyes lit up with interest. “Does he do it shirtless?”

Felicity and Thea both snickered at Oliver's expense.

Rona glared at her blonde companion. “Macey, could you try looking less like a boy-crazed ditz? Focus!” Once the blonde huffed offended, Rona looked back to Felicity. “I've called some of the slayer captains in to meet you. Maria should be rounding them up now. Once we get the introductions out of the way, they can break it down to their teams so they know who not to slay,” she notched her chin toward Meredith, “and who not to climb like a tree,” she looked pointedly at Oliver.

“Slayer captains?” Felicity wondered.

“We split the girls into teams,” Rona explained. “Senior slayers are chosen to head up the teams and supervise and mentor their team members. We can't all just look to Buffy. We needed a functioning hierarchy and chain of command.”

“Will I be assigned to a team?” Felicity asked. She really didn't know if she wanted to be assigned to a team. Would she be getting ordered around by a teenager?

Rona grinned. “No, Felicity, you're here as a courtesy. You have a life back in Starling and we're not messing with that.”

“You might end up leading a team,” Macey pointed out. Felicity looked at her wide-eyed and Macey smiled like that was good news. “You're protecting an active hellmouth. When things start getting all hinky you're gonna need help. Buffy will probably assign you slayers.”

THAT did not sound good. THAT was not good news! Felicity gulped. “But...”

“There are two slayer teams in Edencrest,” Meredith added with a look at her cousin, “one run by Elise Stephens and the other run by some chick named Kennedy. But it is the biggest current active hellmouth. They need two teams. We don't.”

Rona looked Meredith over surprised. “You know slayers?”

Felicity waved that off because she didn't CARE about catching Rona up on Meredith's backstory. “I don't need slayers!” she insisted. “I have Dare and Cross and Meredith and Oliver and Thea and Roy and Case and Digg!”

Rona shrugged. “We'll see.” And that didn't sound nearly definitive enough for Felicity. The last thing she needed was super-powered teenage girls to start showing up on her doorstep and looking to HER to lead them!

“I've been a slayer less than two weeks!” She stomped her foot in a fit of pique.

Oliver pulled her back against his chest and rested his chin on her shoulder. He hugged her to him. “Felicity, breathe. We'll handle it.”

Felicity ground her teeth. “Fine! But if they start showing up, YOU get to lead the slayers. I'll swap you for Roy.”

Thea laughed out loud. “Can I tell him that? I'm pretty sure he'll be down.” She pulled out her phone and started to text her boyfriend. “He's still terrified you're gonna stick him with Team Lance. He'd rather face certain death every night than take orders from Laurel.”

Felicity's eyes narrowed. “Laurel does not get to give orders.”

Thea snorted. “Someone might want to remind her of that. She texted Roy what time he needed to be at the lair for a team meeting tonight. He threatened to go back to jacking cars to get enough money to buy himself a plane ticket to London. He says he's officially Team Supernatural.”

“He is,” Felicity said. “Roy goes where you go.”

Thea smiled at her affectionately. “There's a reason I like you.”

“Aww...” Macey leaned up against Rona and spoke softly, “they have their own little team. They have a Scooby Gang.”

Rona shook her head. “I don't even want to know.” She cleared her throat to regain everyone's attention. “If you'll follow me, we can wait for the slayer captains in the conference room.” She turned to lead them forward toward another exit.

The slayer captains were...an interesting lot. Some were sugary sweet and eyed them like they were lollipops (males and females), a few were openly hostile and obviously believed everything they'd ever read about Oliver and Thea, a couple were pleasant and interested, and the rest were outright bored and irritated at the waste of their precious time.

Felicity was exhausted just from meeting them all...and these were just the captains! She looked at Oliver feeling overwhelmed. She winced as she caught his expression. Oliver's unaffected and charming playboy mask was wearing thin. His eyes and mouth were tight. If they were back in Starling, Felicity would be worrying about the furniture and the training dummies.

“I think we broke him.”

Felicity looked across the table and into the eyes of one of the most hostile of the group. Lex, if she remembered correctly, was a seventeen-year-old slayer with short cropped sandy brown hair and thick-lashed brown doe eyes. Her features were, in fact, so delicate and feminine that even her boyish haircut couldn't distract from them. Unfortunately she was also as mean as a snake and she'd spent the last ten minutes sharpening her tongue on Oliver.

“Back off, Cujo,” Meredith finally growled at the teen from Felicity's other side. She leaned across the table toward the younger girl. “Ollie's trying to play nice and he's too much of a gentleman to call you out as the bitch that you are. I suffer no such conscience.”

The slayer blinked at her and shrugged. “I was only checking my facts.”

Meredith rolled her eyes. “You were throwing every dumbass stunt he's ever pulled up in his face. You don't know him from Jack. Keep your venom to yourself.” Then she realized what she'd said and made a pained face. “And now you've made me defend OLLIE!” She pointed her finger at the girl. “You are on my shit list!”

Thea glared at the girl from Oliver's side. “You do get that tabloids lie, right? Even if you did have the right to judge my brother, which you don't, half that shit isn't even true.”

Lex leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest unimpressed. “Maybe you're right. Maybe he isn't the waste of space the tabloids make him out to be.” Her eyes hardened. “But that sure as hell doesn't mean he belongs here.” She leaned back forward and seethed at them. “You think this is some game? That we're some tourist attraction you can come gawk at? Let's meet the super-teens and watch them do tricks? This shit is life or fucking death!” She slapped her hand down on the table. “This is the actual battle between good and evil. We are warriors for the forces of light and we are fighting to save the damn world! What the HELL business does some playboy celebrity have here?”

Felicity didn't know where it came from but she was on her feet and leaning across the table toward the younger girl before she could blink. There was a snarl on her lips. She slammed her own hands down and heard the table groan at the hit. “Oliver is here with ME! I don't know who lied and said YOU got a vote on who was and was not allowed in this facility, but I am here by personal invitation of your Slayer General and I could give a FUCK less how you feel about it.” She eyed the girl up and down and something in her roared and snarled to attack. “You think your life is hard? You think you know anything about Oliver and what he's lived through? You think you deserve any more respect than he does? Well, you need to get your facts straight, little girl, and grow the hell up!” She sniffed and looked down at her. “You DON'T impress me.”

The girl shrugged and sat back again but something in her expression looked...satisfied. The blanket of rage receded from before Felicity's eyes and her body tingled with awareness. Her eyes scanned the table and she realized she now had the attention of the entire room. She swallowed nervously...then narrowed her eyes back on Lex. Felicity wondered just how much of that had been genuine and how much was a test. Her face flushed with embarrassment. Great, now she was competing in a pissing contest with teenagers. Her life had reached a new low.

“Right then,” Rona spoke up and Felicity took the excuse to turn her attention to the senior slayer. The other woman was frowning down at the cell phone in her hand. “Our fearless leader says you should all head to training and pass the information on to your teams.” She looked pointedly at several of the captains. “Keep your girls in line. Visitors are to be treated with respect and any complaints can be brought to her.”

The captains all started to stand from their chairs and head for the door. One hung back and smiled toward Oliver. She had long bright blonde hair, cornflower blue eyes, and perfectly applied makeup. She spoke to Rona. “I could give the visitors a tour.”

Rona's expression was wry. “You planning to hit on Finn or the vampire, Laney? Cause everyone else in this group's already taken.” The girl made a face and Rona lifted her brows. “Get to training. No one's interested.”

After watching the blonde huff and leave, Felicity made her way around the table to stand by Rona. She cleared her throat. “I...uh...I should apologize for making a scene.”

Rona snorted and waved her off. “You're a slayer, Felicity. We only come in aggressive. If you don't demand respect around here, you usually won't get it.”

Felicity winced and nodded. “Right. I'm getting that.” She looked back briefly at Oliver. He was still tense, still obviously angry and uncomfortable, and she wanted to do something to alleviate that. She lowered her voice and spoke to Rona. “Is there any way you could show us the shooting range next? Oliver might need to blow off some steam.”

Rona's expression was sympathetic. “I'm sorry about Lex. She can be a hardass but she's a hell of a slayer.”

“I just wish she'd picked on me,” Felicity said. “Oliver already spends enough time beating himself up about his past. He doesn't need help.”

Rona looked like she would have said more, but Oliver stepped up to join them and she painted a smile across her face. “So...how about we check out our shooting range?” She led them to the door. “We've got some cool features that I think you'll enjoy.”

The shooting range was impressive. Of course, Felicity hadn't done much training with ranged weapons as of yet, but she was sure Dare would get around to them eventually if Oliver didn't beat him to it. Felicity could also feel the magic pulsing through the air. She listened vaguely as Rona explained some of the enchantments that their witch allies had placed on the room. No harm enchantments, self-returning arrows and ammunition, smart targets...it was a lot to take in. Still, that wasn't why she'd asked to see it.

She turned to look at Oliver with a grin. “You ready to try it out?” But she fell silent as she found his attention focused elsewhere, a frown on his face. “Oliver?”

He started and threw a small smile her way. Leaning over, he pressed a kiss her temple. “I'll be right back.” He walked forward down the range.

Felicity frowned after him. Even Rona stopped talking to watch him go. The senior slayer moved closer to Felicity and cocked her head to the side. “He okay?”

“Uh...” Felicity was about to shrug when she realized where he was headed. Oliver walked up behind a young girl, a young slayer, who was practicing her archery. The girl couldn't have been more than fourteen with long straight brown hair and awkward lanky limbs. Though she hit the target with every arrow, even Felicity could see that the girl's form was awful. Oliver shook his head as he watched her. Felicity grinned and nodded. “He's gonna be fine.”

“Layla's stubborn,” Rona said as she watched the girl loose another arrow. “She's determined to learn archery, but she missed the sign-up for the latest class. We told her we'd get her worked in as soon as we could, but she's got no patience.”

Felicity watched Oliver fondly as he started to step forward to draw the girl's attention. “She's fixing to get a lesson.” She started walking toward her boyfriend and the preteen.

Rona snorted as she followed her. “This should be interesting.”

Focusing in, Felicity heard Oliver clear his throat. “Move your feet closer together,” he told the girl, “your throwing your balance off.”

Layla lowered her bow for a moment and turned to glare at the stranger. Her face was painted with all the angst that only a preteen girl could carry off. She planted her free hand on her hip. “I hit the target.”

Oliver cocked a brow at her. “Doesn't mean you aren't doing it wrong.”

The girl seemed to consider that for a moment. She narrowed her eyes on the vigilante. “Are you a watcher? I don't recognize you.”

Oliver shook his head. “No, I'm here with my partner. She's a slayer.” He nodded toward Felicity.

The girl looked back briefly at their approaching group. When she settled on Rona her lips drew into a mutinous line. She tossed her hair and turned back to Oliver. “Well then why should I listen to you?” Layla asked.

Oliver huffed a laugh. “Because I may not be a watcher, but I am an archer. And you're never going to hit a moving target unless you correct your form.”

Layla seemed to consider that. Then staring up at Oliver in challenge, she held out her bow. “Prove it.”

Oliver's grin only grew as he took the bow and measured its weight in his hands. He pulled an arrow from the girl's quiver and drew it back to test the bow string. “This is a little small for me, but okay.”

“I swear to god,” Thea whispered to Felicity as she stepped up beside the slayer, “if he says she reminds him of me, I will figure out a way to set his ass on fire.”

Felicity chuckled because she knew the little girl did. Oliver couldn't help comparing little girls to his baby sister. He adored Thea. The younger Queen should just get over it.

Layla put both hands on her hips now and watched Oliver doubtfully. Her mouth fell open in awe as Oliver nailed dead center of the target before turning back to face her and holding back out the bow. “Your turn?”

The girl took the bow and eagerly spun back to face the target. This time when Oliver directed her to move her feet she quickly complied and looked for further instruction. He moved around behind her and helped guide her into the correct stance.

“I need to brush up on my archery skills,” Macey sighed.

Rona snorted and leaned toward Felicity. “You better hope all the other slayers don't hear your boy has actual skills. There'll be a line all the way out the door waiting for his personal instruction.”

Felicity grinned back at the other slayer. “You ain't see nothing yet. That was him being humble.”