Good day to all you YJ fans and lovers!
First off I want to apologize for adding this next chapter so late. I meant to have it up much sooner than now, but better late than never I guess. And for those of you who're still fans of the story, thank you for staying with it for as long as you have. I promise to keep working on the story more and post future chapters sooner than I have now. Hopefully I do a good job writing for White Canary's POV, starting right now.
But enough about me, please read on. And don't ever be afraid to ask me questions, or leave comments or ideas for me to listen to. If I don't get to them right away, do not be discouraged. So read, enjoy and fight the Light!
Chapter 11: Schooled
Mount Justice
August 3, 13:00 EDT
Her hair's wasn't so long. It went down to her shoulders, barely touching them. And it looked very natural too. And curly too. Natural curls.
I'm sitting in my bedroom at the Cave, with my sketchbook and mechanical pencil in hand, drawing from recollection of what the girl—White Canary looks like. Now that I've seen her face to face, the artwork will look much more realistic.
Before I became a Green Lantern, I was an artist. At times a struggling artist. I would draw, paint, spray or sketch whatever I could think of, whether it was a person or a place that I've seen before. Anything that would look good on a canvas or in a frame. I usually keep the artwork for myself, but when my family would struggle for money, I would sell drawings and paintings to anyone who liked and appreciated them.
After I went full on green, I haven't had as much time for my artistic expression. Though traveling through space, seeing new planets and species, experiencing so many wonders of the galaxy did give me a lot more ideas for new pieces. As busy as I am, I still try to find time to draw even the littlest of things, even sketching my GL brethren, the Leaguers, and my friends.
Ever since spotting White Canary in D.C., I haven't been able to get her out of my mind. So I decided to use her image to help me. Every now and then, I'd take my pad and pencil and sketch her out on paper from what I remember from my head. At first it was a way to try to get her out of my head, which didn't work. Then I thought I'd use them like wanted posters, ask people to look and see if they've ever seen anyone who resembles her. But that was a bust too.
They are at least ten drawings of White Canary in my room, probably more. Most of them are light partial sketches, not having much from memory to draw from. But now that I've actually seen her, I have a lot more to draw from, having a much better outlook.
And that's the weird thing: I can't stop drawing her and I don't know why. I've finally found her, talked to her, even argued with her to a point. My search is over. I should be done with this, and her. So why can't I stop thinking about her? Why can't I move past her?
'Perhaps it's because you want to do more than talk to this girl once you find her.'
"No, Kaldur's wrong. It's not like that. It's not…"
'SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!'
"NO! And even if it was, it wouldn't work out. Not with me…" I say as my head falls back onto my pillow out of frustration, laying in silence.
Then a lightning fast speed that rushes into my room breaks the silence. I raise my head up to see it's Wally, in uniform, sitting at my desk to my left.
"I've got to get some paperweights in this room."
"Sorry about that", Wally says as he chuckles some.
"What's up, is everyone here for training?"
"Nope, still waiting for Superboy. And our teacher too, Black Canary."
Black Canary. There has to be a chance she knows about White Canary. As soon as I get the chance, I'm asking her.
"Kyle. Hello? Earth to Kyle."
I shake my head in response. "What? Sorry, must've dazed off."
"I can see that. You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I've just got a lot on my mind."
"And by 'a lot on my mind', you mean the cute girl in white leather." Wally says while slyly smiling at me.
"It has nothing to do with her!" Though from my reaction, he can probably tell I'm lying.
I then notice his eyes wandering around the room, specifically lower. Before I know it, Wally speeds through my room and is at the door entrance. What was that about? Why did he—
"Wow. I have to say, she's way prettier than how I thought she'd be. Did you draw this from memory?" Wally asks me, while holding my sketchbook. If anything, my face is probably as red as Tornado is.
"Give me back my sketchbook!" I demand him, standing up.
"What? I'm just appreciating your artwork. They say art imitates life. If that's the case here…"
"I SAID GIVE IT BACK! NOW!"
"You want it?" He says as starts to hand it back to me. I'm just about to grab it just as Wally says, "You're gonna have to catch me first."
Next thing I know, Wally runs off into the hallway, still with my sketchbook. Leaving me in my room, alone and angry. That's it!
I grab my ring off of my desk, put it on my finger, and fly after the soon to be dead speedster.
"WALLY!" If anything, the others in the Cave heard me, but I'm too angry to care about that.
I'm flying right behind the yellow speedster, hearing him laughing like he's enjoying himself. I try to grab ahold of him, but he speeds away from me, moving farther away from me. I'm usually fast enough to beat Wally in a race. My anger must be messing with me.
We end up running into the central room of the Cave, where Aqualad, Robin and M'gann are, their attention brought to us now. From the way they're looking at this, they're either confused or thinking this is some new training exercise. I'd go with training exercise if I were them.
Kyle, what's going on? M'gann asks me telepathically.
Can't talk. Trying to kill Wally. I try to respond to her as fast and best as possible.
As I hover in the center of the room, Wally starts running circles around me long enough to make a small Flash-made tornado surrounding me. You want to play like that? Fine! Two can play this game!
I ready my power ring, filled with green destructive energy, for what I'm thinking right now. I dive to the floor headfirst, letting the momentum of the fall pick up. Seconds before the ground comes up on me, I bring my arm back, and launch my fist downwards to the ground. As soon as my fist makes contact, a giant tidal wave of green energy surges around me and crashes into Wally's tornado. Both the wave and tornado break apart into each other when they collide with one another. GL Shock Wave. I'll have to remember that one.
I stand back up after creating my new technique, now that all of this, whatever this was, is over. I look over to the right to see Wally on the floor, with M'gann checking to see if he's okay. From the look of him, he hit the wall pretty hard. Nice job Kyle. Great way to show team spirit.
I turn to my left and Kaldur stands right in front of me. And this isn't going to help me at all now.
"What was that all about Kyle?" He angrily asks me.
"He tried to kill me!" Wally shouts over to us.
"I did not!" I answer back at him. I take a deep breath, in and out, calming myself before I continue to speak. "I was trying to get something back from Wally, who took it right in front of me like it was his."
"You mean this?"
Kaldur and I look over to Robin, who's holding my sketchbook. "Yes, that."
"What is so important about a book?" Kaldur asks me.
I try to answer him, but I can't find the right words to explain myself. So I decide to show him. I walk over to Robin, who hands me my book back, and I flip through it to find what is so important. "White Canary."
"Wow. You drew this?" Robin asks, with no hint of sarcasm.
"I knew you were an artist, but I had no idea you were this good." Kaldur says.
Wally and M'gann walk over to join us, the latter looking upon my drawing. "Oh Kyle, she looks beautiful. I didn't know you could draw, and this amazingly."
"I haven't in forever, or at least it feels that way. But recently, I've been drawing her for some reason. And after Santa Prisca, I still couldn't stop. But now I can draw her now more clearly."
"If this is what she truly looks like, then it shouldn't be a problem finding her again." Kaldur suggests to me.
"Thanks, but I have another way of finding her in the works. And as for you…" I say, directing my attention to Kid Idiot. "Why'd you take my book from me in the first place?"
He doesn't answer me, his eyes going all over the place. He looks to the others for support, but it doesn't look like they're giving him any now. "I thought it would be funny, you know a joke. But I didn't think you'd go Kryptonian angry at me for taking it."
"Why wouldn't I have? You can't just take something of mine, or theirs", I refer to our friends, "without our permission. We may be teammates and friends, but we still have our own privacy."
"Kyle is right, Wally." Kaldur says, stepping in and supporting my argument. "We can't just take whatever we want from one another. Just because you think something will be funny or a joke to you, does not mean it is the same to them." He then looks to me, and I nod back to him.
We turn back to Wally, who now looks guilty and sad about his joke. "I'm sorry Kyle. I didn't realize how strongly you felt about your privacy. I should respect that about you more. And I know how important this girl is to you, but I had no idea you would get so mad about me taking a drawing of her. It was wrong of me to take your book the way I did. I hope you can forgive me."
Wally brings out is hand up to me, hoping for a friend make up handshake. "So are we cool?"
I'm still a little mad at Wally for what he did, but I can see he's genuinely sorry. Plus, staying mad at him for an hour more wouldn't do either of us any good at all. Not to mention it could throw off everyone's teamwork. Forgive and forget. Staying mad for no good reason won't solve anything. Thanks Mom.
"Yeah, we're cool." I grab his hand with me, shaking it tight and bringing him in for a bro hug. The others look happy to see we've settled this argument. So am I.
"But hey", I say as I point my finger at him, "you try to punk me like that again, and I'll slingshot you so fast, you'll be nothing but dust in that costume of yours."
Wally laughs at my threatening joke. "Just try it, GL." I laugh back at him. No matter what, I could never not be friends with Wally. Not with any of these guys. I couldn't ask for better friends.
"Recognized: Superboy, B05."
We all look over to the zeta beam tube to see Superboy finally making it for our training session. I look over to M'gann, whose face just lit up like a Christmas tree. Could she be more obvious?
"Hi Superboy. How was Metropolis?" She asks him, but he just walks past us in silence and anger.
"Must be one of those days." I say.
"Ready for training everyone?"
We all turn to see who asks us this, to which we find Black Canary, who's sporting her regular blue jacket and black leather underneath. Her jacket looks torn just a bit, nothing too bad though. The second I get a moment alone with her, I'm asking her about another Canary.
Walking along with her is Martian Manhunter. "Uncle J'onn!" M'gann joyfully says as she goes to hug her uncle.
"M'gann, I was in the neighborhood so I thought I'd see how you are adjusting."
"A few bumps, but I'm learning."
"That's all I can ask for." J'onn says with sincerity.
I look over to Superboy, his back facing us. If Superboy was in Metropolis, he probably ran into Superman. That couldn't have ended well.
I walk over to him and say, "Where do you think you're going?"
"Anywhere but here", he answers angrily.
"Training is mandatory, so you're not going anywhere. Besides, you might learn something new."
He huffs at the idea. "Yeah right." But he crosses his arms and stays put. At least he's staying.
"Class is in session", Black Canary says as she makes her way to the center of the room.
The training ring lights up as Canary reaches to the center. "I consider it an honor to be your teacher. I'll throw a lot at you, everything I've learned from my own mentors…" She grunts in pain as she takes off her jacket, revealing her bandaged arm. "And from my own bruises."
"What happened?" M'gann asks in concern.
"The job", she answers as she throws her jacket to the side. "Now, combat is about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting, never reacting. I'll need a sparring partner."
If Black Canary does have some connection to White Canary, sparring with her will help me get a good idea of what her fighting style is like. Plus, I've always kinda wanted to see how I'd do in a match against Black Canary. She received most of her training from Ted Grant, better known as Wildcat, one of the original members of the Justice Society of America.
Just as I'm about to step forward, I hear "Right here, yeah!" from Wally, making his way to the ring.
"You sure you're up for this, Kid Fall?" I jokingly call him.
"Haha, very funny. I've got this." He says ever so cocky. Right, like he had it with me a few minutes ago.
Wally stands face to face with Black Canary. "After this, I'll show you my moves." He did not just… Oh he is so done.
Before he knows it, Wally hits the floor with his back. "Hurt's so good." Never flirt with your opponent, especially when she's the Black Canary.
"Good block. But did anyone see what he did wrong?"
Robin answers, saying "Oh, oh. He hit on teacher and got served?"
"Dude!" KF says back to Wonder Boy. He's not wrong though.
"He let you take control of the battlefield, giving you the advantage and the win", I answer.
"Very good Kyle", she says to me. "Maybe you'll do better than Kid Flash did."
"I'm right here you know", he says as he steps out of the ring.
"M'gann, would you mind holding my book for me?" I ask her, to which she accepts gladly.
I walk into the ring, readily standing face to face with Black Canary. Now that I'm up close to her, I can definitely see similarities between her and White Canary. Both are blondes clearly, and they wear protective leather gear, though opposite colors. And they both have light blue eyes. Either that's one big coincidence, or they're somehow related. But Black Canary doesn't have any sisters or daughters. She doesn't, does she?
"Since we're training your combat skills, why don't you refrain from using that?" She asks, referring to my ring. "It wouldn't be much of a fair fight if you created constructs, now would it?"
"Don't worry, I'm no cheat. Whether I win or lose, it'll be on my terms", I say as I take a fighting stance.
Canary matches my stance with her own, both of us ready to begin. I start off with kick aimed for her side, to which she moves back to avoid it. She comes at me with a punch straight at my face, but I block it with my left arm.
For what feels like a good minute, we keep throwing punches at each other. But Canary and I keep on either blocking or dodging them. After blocking another punch, Canary brings her arm back for another swing at me. Before she can make contact with me, I jump over way and land myself behind her. I try to swift kick Canary's legs, knocking her off balance and to the ground.
To my surprise, it actually worked. And when I turn over to her, I see she'd just caught herself, landing on her hands and staying in the fight. Before I can make another move, Canary's feet jump over to me and press up against my chest with what feels like a lot of force behind it. Her kick pushes me onto the floor, hard. Green Lantern: 0. Black Canary: 1.
I start to get myself off the floor until my teacher offers me her hand. I accept graciously.
Standing back on my feet, I look over to my teammates, who're all, but Superboy, applauding my fight with Canary.
"You did awesome GL!" Robin says to me as he high fives me. "You could learn a thing or two from Kyle, KF", he tells Kid, who still looks soar himself from his match.
"That was incredible Kyle", M'gann says as exuberant as ever. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"
"Hal taught me how to use my ring", I answer as she hands me my sketchbook, "but I learned most of my combat skills from my drill sergeant, Kilowog. Not the handsomest GL, but definitely one of the strongest and most honorable you'll ever meet."
"Excellent effort, Kyle", Aqualad says as he claps on. "We learn more from our failures than we do from our victories."
"Very true Aqualad", as Canary agrees with my leader. "Even the most experienced fighters, like myself and even Batman, can walys—"
"Oh please." Superboy says, still standing alone, as he interrupts our teacher. "With my powers, the battle's always on my terms. I'm a living weapon, and this is a waste of my time."
"Prove it." Canary tells the 'living weapon'. This ought to be good. Or bad. Either way it'll be something.
I step out of the ring, joining my friends, as Superboy steps into it. He faces his new sparring partner, who looks calmer than he does. He throws a punch to her, only for her to grab his arm and throw him over her and to the ground, landing on his back.
Robing laughs at the Kryptonian, with Aqualad and I nudging him to stop giggling. He tries his best to cover his laughter with his hands.
Superboy gets back on his feet just as fast as he fell to the floor, rushing over to Canary. She jumps up in the air and lands behind him, swift kicking his legs, making Superboy fall to the floor on his back, again. I guess great fighting minds think alike.
Canary offers Superboy her hand for a lift up, but he refuses, getting himself up. "That's it. I'm done."
"Training is mandatory", she says back to him. But all he does is stare back at her. If he had heat vision, I'd be worried he'd try to melt her on the spot.
Before anyone says anything else, an alarm goes off inside the Cave. The computer screen pops up behind Canary and Superboy, with Batman on said screen. Mission time.
"Batman to the Cave." We all move over to the screen, joining Canary and Superboy.
"Five hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary." I look over to Canary's bandaged arm. That explains that. "The attacker was capable of studying, then duplicating the powers and abilities of its' opponents. Arrow called in reinforcements, which nearly proved disastrous as our foe gained more and more powers with each new opponent."
"Whoa. One guy with the powers of the Justice League?" Wally says in awe and fear. I have to admit, the thought does scare me too.
"In the end, it took eight Leaguers four hours to defeat and dismantle the android." Eight Leaguers!? Four hours!? Let's hope we don't have to go up against this android anytime soon.
"An android?", Robin asks. "Who made it, T. O. Morrow?"
"Good guess Robin, but Red Tornado doesn't think so."
"Tornado would know since Morrow is his creator", I say. "But there aren't that many robotics scientists that can make this dangerous of an android."
Manhunter speaks his mind next. "The technology, however, bears the signature of Professor Ivo."
That name makes us all turn towards J'onn, with expressions of either shock or worry. "Professor Anthony Ivo? But I thought he was dead?"
"So we all thought. Or hoped." Canary says to my right.
Batman continues with his debrief. "To make certain this threat is permanently neutralized we're sending two trucks carrying the android's parts to two S.T.A.R. Lab facilities in Boston and New York for immediate evacuation. Every precaution is being taking. We'll have four additional decoy trucks to create confusion in case Ivo, or anyone, tries to recover the remains. You will split into undercover teams to safeguard the two real trucks."
"Yes! Road trip." Wally says excitingly.
"So now we take out your trash?" Superboy asks the Dark Knight.
"You had something better to do?" Batman replies, to which Superboy stays silent.
Aqualad pulls out a GPS device. "Coordinates received. We're on our way." He and the others head off to our destination. I know this is bad timing, but I have to ask Black about White.
"Kyle", Canary says, waking me from my daze, "aren't you going to join the others?"
"Yeah, in a minute", I answer her. "Before I go, I wanted to ask you something."
"If you're looking for a rematch, it'll have to wait til after your mission", she says with a grin.
"Maybe another time. No, I was actually hoping you know someone I'm looking for. A young hero, like us."
"What makes you think I know of this young hero? Why not ask Batman?"
"I did. He wouldn't tell me. I'm asking you because she goes by the name White Canary."
He eyes widen just enough for me to notice when I mention her name. "White Canary… Doesn't sound familiar. Sorry Kyle."
"Well maybe you've seen her then. I have a picture of her, or what I can remember of her." I say while flipping through my sketchbook again.
"You've seen her?" She actually sounds surprised there.
"Yeah, but it was only the last time when I really got a good look at her. She's got a mouth on her too."
"You've talked with her?" Still sounding surprised.
"Yeah. Here it is." I show her my drawing of White Canary, and she grabs for carefully. I look into her eyes and I see shock, surprise, amazement and pride all in them.
"My god… She looks so strong… So beautiful…" Canary says, who's starting to tear up a bit.
"You do know her, don't You?" She looks back to me and nods. "Why did you say you didn't before?"
Canary wipes her eyes of water before she answers me. "Because I was trying to protect her. I didn't want her to be in this life, like you and me. I wanted her to give her the opportunity to have a normal life. But I guess she wanted to go out and play hero." She can't be her daughter. Canary and Arrow have no kids. So then…
"Canary", I ask gently, "if you don't mind me asking, but who is she, to you I mean?"
But she stays silent for what feels like forever. I decide to go and join the others for our mission, but I hear a name. "Sara…"
"Her name is Sara. She's my sister."
Star City
August 13, 15:26 PDT
"I told you, don't let your guard down!", I hear the old man yelling to me while I lay on the floor. "Now come on, back on your feet little girl."
"Whatever you say, Grandpa." I say to him, getting back up.
I stand back up and get into my stance. My hands, which have wrapping around them, are upfront and my feet are separated from each other, staying firmly on the ground.
I look to my opponent, a much older man, in his mid-60s no doubt. But old or not, he's still as strong and muscular as ever. Wearing sweat pants, a black shirt, and hand wrapping too, he moves back and forth, like he's dancing, just waiting for me to move.
I lunge myself towards him, sending my fist to his face. He blocks it with his guard up. I keep up with more punches, trying to wear him out. Though if anything, I'm the one getting worn out.
He tries to hit me this time, but I duck down and dodge his fist. I move in close and launch a few punches inside, hitting his chest repeatedly. I manage to hit him in the jaw from below, making him back up to the corner of the ring.
"Not bad, little girl."
"Thanks, old man. Looks like I'm finally catching up to you, Grandpa Grant."
He then moves over to me and before I can even think of what to do, I feel a fist forming right on top of my gut. A second later, his fist connects to my face, sending me flying back towards the ropes, then bouncing off of them and to the mat.
"Like I told you, don't ever let your guard down", he tells me while I'm still dazed lying on my back. "Even when you think you've won the match. Guess you still got some learning and catching up to do, missy."
The bell rings then, which starts ringing in my ears. Match is over, again. I can sneak up behind anyone, without them noticing. I can take out a thug before they can react. But I still can't beat Grandpa Grant in a boxing match? Either I'm losing my edge, or he's still an animal in the ring.
I shake off my daze and start to get myself up until Grandpa reaches his hand out to me. I grab it and he raises me up. "You're welcome."
"You know, one of these days I am gonna win against you", I tell him as we both exit the ring.
"That's what you said the last time, and the time before that", he says as he grabs two water bottles, throwing one to me. "How many does this make now? Wildcat: 15, Songbird: 0." He laughs at his score while drinking his water.
"It's definitely not 15, maybe 13." I take a drink of water myself. "And Songbird, really?"
"Well you can't use Black Canary since, well, Dinah calls herself that. Unless you have a better name for yourself."
"Yeah, White Canary."
Grandpa chuckles at my heroic name. "It's not exactly original, but it'll work."
"Well I like it. And so does someone else."
"Oh really. And does 'someone else' have a name?"
Does Green Lantern count as a name? "Doesn't matter. It's not like Dinah will actually let me go out with her and fight criminals and help people in need. She'd rather have me live a normal life, with school and homework and boys, which is nice and all. But I also want to go out and fight bad guys with her, saving lives, make a difference."
"She just doesn't want anything to happen to you, especially with everything you've been through." Grandpa says tenderly to me.
I sigh heavily as I cross my arms. "I know she does. But I'm that little kid she found all those years ago. I'm sixteen years old. They are kids my age who face danger every day, saving the world even. Why shouldn't I get to do the same?"
Grandpa walks over to me, taking my arms and holding them softly, even with his rough as sandpaper hands. "Sara, have I ever told you about Dinah's mother? The first Black Canary?"
I look to Grandpa, wondering what he's getting at. "Yeah, of course. She was a member of the Justice Society of America, same as you. She died from radiation poisoning from battling one of your enemies, umm… Aquarius. But what does she have to do with any of this?"
"Everything."
Before I can ask him what he means, the door to our left opens. The person coming through said door is my sister, Dinah. And she does not look happy.