Chapter Text
The Glades seemed to be enveloped in a perpetual haze of darkness and despair, which became more pronounced in the darkness of the night. The blinking street lights and the occasional sound of gunshots and screams added to the fear that in some ways, the Glades of Starling City might be worse than even Gotham, however it was an open secret, the shadows of the Glades insignificant to the neon signs, billboards, high rise apartments and skyscrapers of the wealthier parts of the city.
Two teenage girls walked on the side of the road.
"I told you coming to the Glades was a bad idea." A brunette with long hair and doe eyes, wearing a black fur coat over a dark green party dress said accusatorily.
"Oh, don't be a child, Evelyn." Her sister rolled her eyes. She was a blond girl, wearing a revealing white dress and a matching crunchie on her arm. She swiped across her phone in irritation. "The stupid cab declined service. Wait for a second, we will get another one."
"We could have hitched a ride with some of the others." Evelyn said.
"I told you I had no intention of going to Harper's after party just so he can whine and try to get back with me."
"Ava, we are lost." Evelyn looked at her surroundings warily. "Maybe I should just ask Dad to pick me up."
"And risk getting grounded forever." Ava scoffed, holding up her phone for better cell service. "No, thank you."
Suddenly, Evelyn saw movement from the corner of her eyes. She turned around to see a trio of masked thugs come out from the alleys, armed with knives.
"Ava." She said fearfully.
"Seriously, Eve, I am telling you all this nonsense about the Glades is just some-" Ava stopped speaking as she turned around and saw the group converging on them.
"Are you pretty faces lost?" One of the thugs sneered, taking out a knife.
The girls screamed and turned around to run, only to find their road blocked by two more thugs coming out of a van, both having guns.
They held each other fearfully.
"Please leave us alone." Evelyn whimpered.
The men laughed, approaching closer.
"Help! Someone, help please!" Ava screamed, Evelyn joining in and the men started laughing louder.
One man wrestled Evelyn's purse out of her hands, while another did the same with Ava's phone before they pressed their guns to the foreheads of the girls, who went still with fear.
"To the van. Don't try to be smart or I blast your brains out." The man holding Evelyn sneered, pushing her roughly.
"No please…" She wept.
"Stop whining." Another said, kicking her.
"Stop this, please." Ava pleaded. "You already took our phones and money."
"Which is nothing compared to the cash your parents will give us for you brats." Another thug said, coming up to them, twirling his knife in his hands.
Ava gulped.
Just when they were about to be forced into the van, a ear piercing scream cut through the air, making all of them clutch their ears in pain.
Before they knew what was happening, a woman in a black leather suit wearing a matching domino mask grabbed the wrist who was holding a gun to Evelyn's head and twisted, snapping his arm. The other man who was holding Ava threw the girl down and fired at the vigilante, only for her to deflect the bullet with her stick.
The woman smirked, spinning forward, and slamming a sidekick against the thug's gut, knocking him unconscious.
She turned towards the other three thugs, who did not have guns but were running at her with knives.
"Die bitch!" One of them yelled, slashing wildly at her, only for her to gracefully dodge his attacks and grabbing him by the arm, before hauling him over her shoulder at the other two.
After beating the thugs unconscious, she turned towards the girls, who had recovered their mugged possessions and were looking up at her gratefully.
"Thank you." Evelyn told her.
"The cops will be here soon." She asked, her voice distorted before sprinting to the shadows.
No sooner than she had disappeared, the girls heard the approaching sound of sirens and breathed collective sighs of relief.
"Dinah Laurel Lance, always trying to save the world."
Laurel scoffed as she turned around to see Tommy Merlyn approach her with a glass of scotch. If only he knew what she had been up to the last several years.
"Tommy Merlyn, always a pleasure to see you."
"Late to your own party? Classic Laurel." He smirked.
"I was held up by some traffic." She lied easily.
"So, what have you been up to? Sara was always so tightlipped about where you were, I started thinking you were never coming home." He stood beside her, leaning against the counter.
"Aw, did you miss me, Tommy?" She pouted, doing her best to not roll her eyes. The last thing anyone needed to know was her downward spiral into a world of crime and interdimensional terrorism. She shook her head. Zoom and Prometheus was gone, and after facing what she had, Diaz's threats did little to intimidate her anymore. She was back in her own Earth, trying to build a better life for herself.
"Everyone did." He said truthfully, his voice losing all jest. "I was worried about you."
"I know." She chewed her lips. "I am sorry for not keeping in touch. With everything that happened with Oliver and then the Hood, I needed a break to figure stuff out. I should have checked in on you. I was not the only one hurting."
"Laurel, we all know how much Oliver meant to you."
"It is okay, Tommy. It has been more than ten years… I am okay now." She put a hand on his shoulder. She looked around to see the myriad of people dancing before them. "Thea really went all out planning this party, didn't she?"
"Well, you stepping foot in Starling City after 5 years… It is a reason to celebrate." Tommy smiled, raising his glass for a toast. "To new beginnings."
"To new beginnings." She repeated, clinking her glass against Tommy's, and smiled.
Unbeknownst to her, underneath the same club she was reconnecting with old friends and acquaintances, a bespectacled young man looked up from his computer screen which played the footage of the Black Canary fighting off the thugs. A beautiful athletic Asian woman with her black hair tied in a bun leaned over his shoulder.
"Did you find out who she is?" Emiko Queen asked.
"Not yet." Cooper shook his head. "It is a wonder I was able to recover the footage at all but I did find this…"
He paused the video to focus on the thugs and the girls covering their ears.
"The statements SCPD took from the girls confirmed it." He added. "She might be a meta having some sort of sonic scream."
"Great." Thea snorted. "Just what we need… More maniacs from Central City"
"And there's more." Cooper continued, clicking his mouse and an image of a woman with long blond hair wearing a black mask that completely covered her face and dressed in a black coat with fishnet leggings appeared. "Her powers match that of this woman… One of Zoom's lieutenants- Black Siren."
"Wait. She might not be the enemy." Another voice said. They turned around to see the last two members of their group, Andy Diggle.
"She did save those girls." Andy continued.
"We need to know who she is." Robert said firmly.
"So, we can ask her to join?" Emiko asked. "I think we are doing fine on our own. We do not need a former criminal working with us."
"Well, all of us are technically criminals…" Cooper quipped.
"You know what I mean." Emiko shot a glare at him.
"We don't know if she is the same person as Black Siren." Andy pointed out. "There can be two metas or more with the same powers – Look at all the speedsters running around in Central City."
"We still need to be sure of her intentions. The last thing Starling needs is another rogue vigilante running around town." Emiko told them, folding her arms. "After the Undertaking, it took years for us to earn the people's trust and not get gunned down by SCPD on sight. We cannot let this meta ruin everything we have accomplished."
Hope you liked this and please review.
I always wanted to explore Earth 2 and while I will always think killing off Earth 1 Laurel was the biggest mistake the writers did, Earth 2 Laurel quickly became one of my favorite characters and this story has been on the back of my mind for ages.
The Earth 2 version of the vigilante team (they have not named themselves anything yet) consists of Cooper Seldon (Felicity's ex-boyfriend), Emiko Adachi (Oliver's half-sister) and Andy Diggle. Unlike their Earth 1 counterparts, they are good people and try to help people.
Emiko is not the Green Arrow in here. Her vigilante codename and backstory will be revealed soon, same with the others.
Evelyn and Ava Sharpe are counterparts to Evelyn Sharp and Ava Sharpe, but unlike their Earth 1 counterparts, who are unrelated and have different surnames (even if it is by a single letter), on Earth 2, they are sisters. Though they are just going to be one off characters for now, I thought it was fun namedropping two characters, who were linked to the Canaries in Arrowverse canon. Visualize Ava as being portrayed by the actress who played her younger version on Legends.
Though this story is mostly stand alone and can be read as a mostly canon compliant story (mostly due to Earth 2 Thea being alive in this story), it is part of the Infinity Crisis series and it's inclusion in the IC multiverse is with the permission of the brilliant Michael Weyer. This story will set up how Laurel becomes Earth 2 Black Canary and the leader of her team which includes Earth 2 Adrian, same as S8 ep1 of Arrow.