Chapter 61: Fly Canary, Fly!
"Grk!" The last thug fell to the ground clutching his midsection. All around him, his buddies were in similar forms of disarray, bruised and a little bloodied.
Black Canary let in a deep breath, allowing her eyes to look over her handiwork with satisfaction. Another gang was off the streets. Once Nyssa had gradually lifted the partial-ban on patrol (citing that experience was the best way to really break in her new skills), the criminal element of the Glades found themselves beaten back by Black Canary with even greater ferocity than before. There was no getting by her anymore.
And just in time, as well. Green Arrow's presence in the Glades had already been limited by his desire to patrol all of the city; now, as the Justice League was expanding, he was traveling more and more out of it. Granted, the body count (dead and injured) had kept the overall city crime rate down. He wouldn't be comfortable leaving Starling otherwise. But someone had to stick around to keep the peace, and she was his best bet.
"Canary." Speak of the devil and he shall appear.
"Arrow." Canary turned around and greeted her counterpart calmly. She blinked when she who was next to him: Supergirl.
While her mouth wasn't visible, Canary could feel the other woman smiling at her. "Black Canary. Green Arrow has told me a lot about you. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." She held out her hand, which Black Canary took gratefully.
"It's nice to meet you too, Supergirl." She let go of Supergirl's hand, and looked expectantly at both of them. "May I ask why you're here? I have a feeling this isn't a social call."
Green Arrow nodded. "It isn't. We're here to tell you that we'll be out of town for a bit. Vixen has been dealing with some metas from Central that have migrated to Detroit, so Supergirl is heading over there to help her out. I'm going to Freeland - Black Lightning has some 100 members that he's been having trouble pinning down and he needs a fresh set of eyes."
"What about the Flash?"
This time, it was Supergirl who spoke. "Hub City. There's been a couple of meta-sightings over there. While we're sure Martian Manhunter can handle it, Flash still wants a crack at him. He's left an associate of ours, Firestorm, in charge of protecting Central City until then."
"And we're putting you in charge of Starling City while we're gone in return." Green Arrow finished.
Black Canary blinked at that, a little overwhelmed. "Are you sure? I mean, that's a lot of responsibility, and I'm still in training-"
"Canary." Green Arrow stepped forward, and placed his hands on her shoulders. "You've been doing great work this past month. We wouldn't leave the city in your care if we thought you weren't ready for the responsibility. We trust you. I trust you."
Black Canary gazed up at her inspiration, her mentor, and nodded slowly, touched by his faith in her.
"Don't worry." Green Arrow continued. "It'll only be for a night or two. Whatever happens, I'm sure you can handle it."
After that heavy meeting, Black Canary finished up her patrol and made her way back to her hideout - another development that had occurred since her training with Nyssa had started. After a few more weeks of perusing, she had ultimately selected the abandoned clock tower as her secret hideout. With Ted's help, she had outfitted the place with some training equipment, a laptop, a small cot, a mini-fridge, and small box television with a cable hookup. She wasn't exactly sure how Ted had managed that without someone noticing, and she had a feeling she wouldn't like the answer, so she just said nothing and thanked him for his help. After informing her teacher about her new hideout, the duo switched between hers and Nyssa's every week, so training wouldn't be too monotonous.
This week was her week, so Nyssa was waiting for her at her clock tower. As Canary increased her skill and experience, Nyssa had gradually lessened her accompaniment on patrol. Now, she only joined Black Canary once or twice a week, mainly for observation. Other nights she was mission control, spending time observing the news and the internet, occasionally calling if there was something Canary needed to check out.
As soon as Black Canary finished ascending the stairs, Nyssa was there with a water bottle in hand and some food. Her student took both gratefully, taking off her mask and seating herself in a second chair next to the computer to begin to eat.
"Did something happen?" Nyssa asked, noticing the pensive look on Laurel's face.
Laurel swallowed down a bite of her sandwich and sighed. "Green Arrow and Supergirl are going to be out of town for the next day or so. They've put me in charge of the city until they come back."
Nyssa blinked. "Well then, it's a good thing you have tomorrow off for work." She stated casually, not at all perturbed.
"Nyssa, I'm not sure I'm ready for this." Laurel said, letting her fears be known. "The Glades are one thing, but the entire city? I'm just one person, no matter how skilled I am."
"Laurel." Nyssa said firmly, putting a comforting hand on the lawyer's leg. "It's only going to be for a day or two. You'll be fine. And besides, you won't be doing it alone."
Laurel cast her a confused look.
"I'll be patrolling the city too. At night, of course - I need to stay in hiding and all - but you're right, the city is too big for one pair of shoulders to bear."
"Really?"
"Really." Nyssa smiled.
Laurel returned the expression gratefully. "Thank you."
Nyssa nodded, and then her expression turned serious. "Did you find anything on Brick?"
Laurel became grim, and shook her head. "No. Not a peep. Even his 'recruitment drives' have gone scarce."
They were both referring to Daniel "Brick" Brickwell. Laurel had used her contacts to get a dossier on him from the DA's office, and nearly cursed when she saw the length of the rap sheet. Despite being a relatively "small" fish, Brick had been plenty busy since he first started his criminal career twenty years ago. Judging by his ruthlessness and the fact that he was still out on the streets despite his blatant criminality, he probably would've been higher up the ladder in Starling's underworld had it not been for the established powers like the Bertinellis and the Triad keeping him down.
That was both a curse and a blessing. While he was denied the finer things in life, Brick had the benefit of being low enough on the totem pole not to catch Green Arrow's attention. While Green Arrow was taking out mob bosses and corrupt one percenters, Brick kept his head down and amassed resources, until the wind blew over with the Undertaking and left a massive power vacuum that needed to be filled. A position he was ripe to take for himself.
Since then, there had been word on a street that he had something big planned, big enough to put his name on the map. Both Black Canary and Green Arrow had been investigating it, but Green Arrow's increasing responsibilities with the League stopped him from fully committing, leaving the investigation almost entirely in the hands of Canary, who was just as dedicated but lack the resources that Arrow had.
"I'm worried he might try something if he hears that Green Arrow and Supergirl are out of town." Laurel commented, taking another bite of her sandwich.
Nyssa interlaced her fingers together. "Indeed. We have a direct line to Green Arrow in case of emergencies, but whatever Brick is planning, it might take more than me, you, and him to resolve."
"Agreed." Laurel sighed. "But there's nothing we can do about it now, so I guess we'll just have to wait and try again tomorrow night."
"Opening ceremony?" Kal asked quizzically as he and Ruby filed into Balliol's indoor football stadium.
"Yup! It's this big fancy event they have on the second week of school to celebrate the start of the new year. We have a bunch of performers come and sing, dance, you name it! Then we get to eat at this big buffet in the end." Ruby explained as they started looking for some seats. She noticed an empty pair near the front and dragged Kal over there in haste, before anyone else noticed.
"How is it I've never heard about this before?" Kal asked as he sat down, looking around the stadium, particularly at the huge circular stage set up in the center of the field.
Ruby shrugged, then pointed at something. "Hey, look!"
"What's with the cameras?" Kal asked, peering towards the direction she had indicated.
"Balliol airs the ceremony every year on one of the city's local channels. I don't know why, really, but it doesn't matter - we might get to be on TV! Maybe mom will DVR it and show it to Kara when she gets back from her trip! I know she always watches it every year just to catch a glimpse of me!"
Kal hummed. "What about Balliol College? Are they a part of the ceremony too?"
Ruby shook her head mournfully. "No. They still have classes and stuff. We won't be seeing Thea today until after school." Thea had graduated from Balliol Prep the year before with top honors and was now a student at its award-winning college.
People continued to file into the stadium, meeting up with friends from different grades and sitting themselves in the designated areas of the stands. Once all the students had been seated, the doors closed and the ceremony began.
Unbeknownst to the students, there was still one opening to the stadium left unattended. A loading crew, carrying equipment inside for the ceremony, was still carrying items to and back from the building. If one were to look a little closer, they might notice that these items were bags. Bags that had faces pressed against the material from the inside.
And if one were to watch the loading crew, they would notice that some of the group had gone missing. And that some of these missing people were now wearing different clothing. Specifically, clothing that was identical to the uniform of Balliol Prep's guards. The ones in charge of school security.
They'd especially notice how these 'missing' people were walking directly towards one of the entrances to the field.
Laurel lazily flipped through the channels of her TV while Nyssa sharpened one of her knives next to the computer. The vigilante blinked when she landed on a particular channel and started showing a very familiar scene.
"Oi, Nyssa!" Said assassin looked up. "Come over here."
"What is it, Laurel?"
"It's Balliol Prep's annual Opening Ceremony!" Laurel squealed. At Nyssa's confused and somewhat amused ceremony, the lawyer reddened and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "It's my alma mater."
"I see. And what is so special about this… 'opening ceremony', if I may ask?"
Laurel turned around and gesture to the TV. "It's an event that Balliol does every year to celebrate the start of a new school year and showcase their wealth to the city. They bring in some performing acts and have this huge show for the students currently attending the academy. Then, after the broadcast is over, they have this banquet where the kids can mingle with their teachers and some alumni. It's one of the biggest local events in Starling."
Her smile turned wistful. "I always loved the opening ceremony. I mean sure, as I got older I came to the realization that it was just another way for the administration to stroke their egos, but I never let it diminish the enjoyment Sara and I got out of it. There were never repeat performances either - every year they got new acts for the ceremony. And the banquet had so much food, we often took home a huge box of leftovers for mom and dad to eat with us for the next couple of days."
"What happened to the rest of the food?" Nyssa asked, curious.
Laurel shrugged. "Donated to the homeless shelters. It is a rich kid school, after all, and there's no better lesson to learn in rich kid school than optics and good publicity. I think they also do it so people don't call them out on changing their admissions policy; it used to be that everyone in the city could attend Balliol, and needless to say, nobody liked it when the policy was changed. There's still bad feelings over it even though it's been over a century since the change happened."
Nyssa nodded along to Laurel's explanation, until something on the broadcast caught her eye. "Does the mayor usually attend the opening ceremony?"
Laurel shook her head. "Only every once in a while, usually after some big event. I remember the year of 9/11, the ceremony had been delayed a week for mourning, and that the program had been modified to include a speech from the mayor. This year, it could be any number of things, though my best guess it's the Undertaking or the Justice League."
She then looked at the screen a little closer. "Why is that security guard walking on stage?"
Steven Rune, executive assistant to Dean Poppy Balliol, tapped a pen on his clipboard as he watched his boss continue her speech to the crowd of bored students. He couldn't blame them - Poppy was a sweet woman, but she was also a bit full of herself. Her speech was laden with offhand, subtle praises to herself, and many of the children had been hearing and deciphering them for most of their school careers. They were no doubt waiting for her to finish so they could move on to the mayor and then to the fun stuff. He couldn't help but sympathize. He had organized most of the event, after all, and he had cherry-picked quite a few top-notch acts this year. He couldn't wait to watch them too.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see one of the guards standing up and getting up onstage. The guard was bald, tall, and a bit heavyset. He must've been the ones they outsourced for the ceremony. That was the only thing that could explain why he was standing up and walking onstage and catching everyone's attention and ruining everything! Steven snarled. He was not going to have some meathead screw up one of the four most important events of the school year!
Steven moved towards the stage to drag the security guard away, only to freeze when he heard a click behind his head.
Laurel and Nyssa gaped in disbelief as Dean Balliol was suddenly grabbed from behind by a guard and gagged and restrained. Behind her, several school officials and the mayor were similarly attacked by other guards, beaten and tied up. Students screamed as the stadium was suddenly filled with people; people bearing guns and other weapons. One of the students suddenly stood up and walked towards the gangsters and was handed a gun. He fired it into the air to calm the crowd down.
Once there was silence in the stadium, the camera changed feeds and now was directly back on the guard - and both women gasped when they recognized the face staring back at them.
"Hello, Starling City! My name is Danny Brickwell, or Brick as many like to call me! And this," he gestured to the stands, and another feed flew over the crowd of terrified students, "is my debut, I guess you could say. This is my way of saying that Starling City," he leaned forward, allowing the camera to get a closer look of his face, "is my turf now."
"Now, for all you rich bastards out there - I have your kids. And if you want your kid back, you gotta pay me four million in cash to have them back. Not four million in total, but four million each. You've got four hours to get the money, or else heads start flying."
He grinned nastily. "Peace."
And with that, the feed cut out.
I've been waiting for this arc forever. Tell me, how do you think it's going to end?
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