Chapter 45

The reporters were nothing if not persistent. It took Black Canary about twenty minutes of speeding and off-roading to get them off our tail. As well as finally getting out of the city limits.

Not that I was complaining. I could think of worse scenarios than sitting closely behind Black Canary with my arms around her. There wasn’t much to say during the ride. Or perhaps I should say there wasn’t much that could be said when you were going about 140 on the highway.

Black Canary only started to slow down after suddenly off roading to the left and revealing a dirt path. One that I hadn’t seen previously, but then I hadn’t exactly been looking out for these things.

“Someone’s popular.”

Black Canary teased as she continued to ease up on her speed. I huffed a bit in response.

“You have no idea.”

“Oh, I think every woman on the Justice League has an inkling.”

Rolling my eyes, I gave her a disbelieving stare.

“Yeah? You’ve been interviewed personally by Lex Luthor?”

Black Canary quickly turned her head to look at me. The helmet was still on her head so I didn’t see what expression she was making. If I had to guess, it would have been disbelief. It was a pretty random event after all.

What’s next, Beast Boy being interviewed by Bill Gates? Kid Flash being interviewed by Maxwell Lord? Robin being interviewed by Bruce Wayne?

It was just…weird.

“…What did he want?”

“Eh, I think he was just trying to get into business with me or something. I probably looked like a fat payday to him.”

Black Canary hummed at that before focusing on the road. Not saying much of anything for several minutes until we got to our stop. A rundown house in the middle of nowhere.

She took off her helmet and shook her head back and forth. Freeing her trapped hair before turning back around and giving me an amused smirk.

“You can let go of me now.”

…Which is of course exactly what I did. I narrowed my eyes as Black Canary’s smile only seemed to widen in amusement at my reaction.

“Clinging on to me so tightly…it was kind of adorable.”

“You were going ninety in a school zone. I think I had the right to have a tight hold.”

Black Canary rolled her eyes.

“Please, it was more like seventy.”

It most definitely wasn’t. Black Canary walked inside the dilapidated building before flicking the light switch a couple of times and stating her name out loud. A few seconds later, the floor split in two before opening up and revealing…a Zeta Tube.

Of course. What else did I suspect?

“Where are we going?”

Black Canary looked over her shoulder at me with a playful look.

“Wouldn’t you rather it be a surprise?”

“No.”

Black Canary pouted as if she actually cared before stopping and rolling her eyes as she noticed I wasn’t reacting to it.

“Spoil sport. It’s Star City.”

Green Arrow’s city. Got it. I did hear that she had been primarily operating there for some time now. It was also actually pretty close by to Jump City, unlike Metropolis and Gotham. It was the second closest city to the Titans that was under the protection of a Justice Leaguer.

The first was actually Coast City, but half the time I forget that there’s even a Justice Leaguer there. Considering how Green Lantern is almost never there and is instead…I had no clue what he did to be honest.

But he was definitely more of a…part time Justice Leaguer.

Thankfully Coast City doesn’t actually get much in the way of super villains, so he actually isn’t needed too often. Otherwise, the Titans would probably be forced to actually intervene from time to time. Like some sort of superhero version of house sitting.

It didn’t take long for the Zeta Tube to be set up and teleport the two of us to…some sort of empty warehouse. Well, empty as in there wasn’t much in the way of people. There was tons of shit around the place. Including what looked like several Black Canary suits and clothes with…

What was that?

There was a strange costume near hers that was all black. It had a long jacket and what seemed like a very…punk kind of design. It also came with a mask that had large goggles that protected the eyes with a red kind of tint to them. The mask also seemed to come with a sort of beak like gas mask. It reminded me of a plague doctor mask, but the beak was much smaller than those, though still bird like in appearance.

“Do you like it?”

Black Canary questioned me, which gave me a rather foreboding feeling.

“I…like the style. It seems a bit a familiar though…”

“Probably because I based it off of your superhero outfit.”

Ah. So that’s where this was going.

Black Canary slipped an arm around my shoulders as she directed me towards it. Her other arm spreading out in a wide arc as if to highlight the scene before me.

“While you’re under my wing, I plan to train you to the best of my ability. Which I think starts with you not using your power unless it’s an emergency.”

…alright, that made a modicum of sense. She was here to teach me martial arts mostly. If I just disabled the opponent with a few seconds of touching their skin, it wouldn’t really help me fight better against opponents I couldn’t do that to.

Though I was hoping that martial arts wouldn’t be the only thing I would be learning from her. There was a lot more to being a superhero than fighting after all.

I nodded my head to show that I understood to which she nodded with a smile, before pointing over to the costume.

“And I think the best way to do that…is to give you a whole other superhero identity!”

…What.

“What.”

I stated as she put her hands on her hips.

“I was thinking some sort of bird theme in order to fit in with my name. How do you feel about…Blue Falcon?”

I looked at Black Canary with disbelief.

“…What part of me is fucking blue?”

She waved that off.

“We can just adjust your costume to be blue later. It’s not a big deal.”

“I’d rather just continue to be Law, thanks.”

I tried to wipe my hands of this situation entirely, only for Black Canary to put her own hands in the air and take a step back.

“Hey, it’s your identity. I’m fine with whatever you decide. Just thought you might like a little…rebranding. At least when you’re with me. But if you want reporters to swarm you like they did in Metropolis, go ahead.”

…She did bring up a good point. At least until the heat around my superhero identity died down, maybe I should bring up a new one. At least with Black Canary. Back at the Titans Tower I would still go by Law. There was no changing that.

Even still.

“…I’m not going by Blue Hawk.”

Black Canary tried to play it cool, but it was obvious that she was happy about my decision. Interesting…maybe the reason she wanted a sidekick had more to do with some sort of loneliness in her life. Something I would have thought would have been filled by Green Arrow, but perhaps the loneliness stemmed from…lack of actual friends?

I didn’t really know either way. I’d need to be her sidekick for at least a few weeks in order to see how many friends she actually had, and whether or not she kept up with them.

“That’s fine. We can workshop the name. What about uh…Hawkeye?”

“Am I your sidekick, or Hawkgirls?”

“Fair point.”

Black Canary proved to be rather excited in coming up with a name for my new identity. Even if it was only temporary, she seemed to be overly invested in it. Way more invested than I was anyway.

Which lead to her bringing out her phone and looking up bird names in order to see what sounded good to both of us. I on the other hand just spit balled whatever came to mind.

“What about Crow?”

Black Canary looked up at that with a frown.

“That’s pretty close to Raven, don’t you think?”

…I didn’t see the connection, but I took her word for it. Black Canary threw out the idea Vulture, but I quickly shot that down. Along with Mockingbird and Owlboy. Owlboy…couldn’t I at least be Owlman? I wasn’t a kid.

“What about Phoenix?”

I threw out, only for Black Canary to immediately shoot it down.

“That’s pretty feminine sounding, don’t you think?”

In what way!?

In the end it took about forty minutes of this for us to finally come to an agreement. In truth I mostly just folded as I was much too tired to keep fighting her on every name. Not to mention just how long this had gone on for.

Though I at the very least got a name that wasn’t completely terrible.

Songbird.

Black Canary liked it because not only was she the one to come up with it, but because it sounded like it had something to do with her beyond just the bird theme. I liked it as any supervillain with a few brain cells would deduce from the name that I had some sort of similar ability to Black Canary herself. Something vocal at least. Which means they would be blindsided when I actually let loose.

Not that I really plan to, considering the whole premise of this identity was built on the idea of handicapping myself in order to get better at fighting. Which was something that would have been handy for me to have earlier against Ravager. I had more strength, I had more speed, the only thing I didn’t have was experience or skill.

Sure, there was sparring against the Titans and Black Canary, but sparring was very different from an actual fight. Especially when your opponent was trying to kill you.

Black Canary was excited to see me in the costume, despite her attempts to hide it. The goggles would take some time to get used to, but the mask was…actually pretty snug. Honestly, I was starting to see where Min-Jun was coming from with them.

A pretty big flaw in the plan though was that there was nothing really covering my long red hair. To which Black Canary’s solution was just to…undo the ponytail. Which was definitely an…idea.

Did she really think people were that stupid?

Still, I guess there would be at least some reasonable doubt.

After suiting up Black Canary was quick to escort me out of the secret underground base she had. Which involved Black Canary showing off her entire collection of Motorcycles.

I didn’t know much about cars. I just knew there were a lot, and they looked pretty pricey.

This time instead of having me ride on the back of hers, she let me ride one of hers. Specifically, the cheapest out of the bunch, because of course she would. She directed me through an ear piece to follow her as she started to patrol the city.

I had to say, Star City was a lot more comfortable to be in than Metropolis. It wasn’t Gotham, not by a long shot, but it was at least passingly familiar.

After half an hour, Black Canary actually got something. I wasn’t sure how. It wasn’t like she was Cyborg and was constantly connected to police chatter and the internet. Not to mention she was driving.

Hmm…maybe she had some sort of handler? Like some guy who’s job it was to find crime and point it out to her?

It didn’t take long to find out what happened. Considering the scene of the crime involved a pretty messy splat on the sidewalk. Cops had already started to form a perimeter while dealing with what was left of the deceased body.

It seemed like he either jumped or was pushed out of the building-

I didn’t have much time to really start doing any sort of detective work before Black Canary was on the move again. Several minutes and traffic violations later, we stopped at a different block.

This time there wasn’t a crime scene. At least, there hadn’t been one yet. Black Canary hadn’t said much so far, but I was willing to guess that something was going to happen here. I got the feeling I wasn’t being kept in the loop not because of anything intentional, but because Black Canary wasn’t used to having a sidekick yet.

I’d have to talk to her later about that.

My theory that something was going to happen here soon was only strengthened by the appearance of Green Arrow rappelling down a building. Next to him wasn’t the red sidekick I was familiar with, but instead a girl dressed in green. She had long blonde hair and a slightly dusky skin tone.

Green Arrow’s eyes lingered on me for a second before passing over and landing on Black Canary. I definitely didn’t blame the guy.

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”

Aaaaand I was now tuning Green Arrow out until he had something important to say. Listening to him and Black Canary flirt wasn’t high on my list of priorities. In fact, it wasn’t on the list at all.

The girl on the other hand seemed pretty interested in me. And by that I meant in the Gotham way. Which means she was trying to see how much of a threat I was before approaching.

…I think I was already starting to like Star City more than Jump City at this point. It was definitely nice to be met with some sort of return to normalcy rather than the Titans constant overly trusting nature.

“It’s nice to actually meet you in person, Law.”

We’ve technically met before during the Cadmus mission, but not officially. I didn’t know if he remembered that or not, but I didn’t plan on bringing it up either way.

“Likewise.”

He clapped the shoulder of what I assumed was his new sidekick. Who was still staring me down, but not in an overly hostile manner. There’s a big difference between the ‘yeah, you better keep walking’ evaluating look, and the ‘if something happens, I’m prepared for you’ evaluating look.

“This is Artemis, my new protégé. Artemis, this is Law. Though he’s going by Songbird for now in order to hide from the public.”

She hummed at that.

“The medicine guy? Cool. So how exactly do you fight? Do you throw prescriptions at them or something?”

She was testing the waters. Seeing how I would respond to being challenged.

“Good guess, Katniss Everdeen. What kind of power do you have? 20/20 vision?”

She rolled her eyes and was about to respond before Green Arrow stepped in. Likely thinking that our first conversation had gone poorly. On the contrary, I felt it had gone pretty well.

At the very least, I was left with a better impression of her than before. And wasn’t that what first impressions are all about?