The Watchtower

April 27, 13:23 EDT

Jenna blinked the spots out of her eyes when the Zeta Tube's light faded, following the computer's announcement of her arrival. "Recognized: White Canary, three-seven." Despite being there with a purpose, Jenna opted out of wearing her new all-white garb. She was sure no one would mind, seeing as she had an excuse.

"Welcome back."

Jenna had her arms crossed as she stopped in front of Oracle and Black Lightning. "The break helped," she admitted. "I figured it was time to get back into things. You said you had something for me?" If anything, she just wanted to get out of her empty apartment.

With the press of a holographic button, Lightning pulled up a computer screen. "Meet Nicole Divine."

Shown was an image of a woman in a suit appearing to give a presentation of sorts. Everything about her screamed 'rich do-gooder'. But looks can always be deceiving.

"Who is she?" Jenna wondered, a puzzled frown on her face.

"A multibillionaire," Oracle butted in. "Calls herself 'an entrepreneurial guru'. She's flamboyant and a showman, but she does some good."

Proof of that was shown from photos of her with important figures and people in poverty alike. Jenna was never a fan when things like that were so clearly staged but she ignored the feeling for the time being.

She sighed. "Well, I guess there are worse people out there."

"She's been dealing with some bad luck in the past year or so," Oracle continued, turning to pull up some more footage. "Remember the refinery explosion in Rheelasia seven months ago? Where Singh Manh Lee almost died?"

Jenna's eyebrows went high. "Damn. The chemical leaks, fires, even floods? Yeah."

Oracle nodded. "That's only one of them. Any Devine project turns out similarly."

"So, what, do we need to start figuring out who did this?"

Lightning stepped back in. "No," he said. "We already know who's behind it."

The screen changed, revealing a group of masked individuals in green suits. The only bit of skin visible was around the eyes and mouth.

"They call themselves the Green Brotherhood," Lightning explained. "They're an eco-terror group, striking anything they see as environmental threats around the world."

"Ivy should join," Jenna mumbled.

"They've been destroying Devine's projects and inciting fringe groups in the various countries around the world where Devine has a big impact. We need you to get close to Devine and try to find out who the Green Brotherhood are…and why they have it out for Devine personally."

Jenna gave a deadpan look. "By 'close' you mean…?" She made a face as she eyed a photo where Devine had an attractive woman on her arm.

Oracle chuckled. "Nicole is known for her open sexuality, so yes, to an extent," she said. "Anyway, I'll help you out from here. There's a Gotham event in a couple of weeks where she'll be present. It'll be a good place to get close without drawing suspicions."

Jenna nodded slowly, examining the information as she tried to soak it all in. "Alright," she agreed.

Then she ran a hand through her hair, glancing up at the fading blonde strands with a sigh. "I've been putting off redying my hair anyway."

Oracle turned to her. "About that…how do you feel about changing it up? I need you to be a bit more under the radar than normal. After all, your face is all over the news now."

Jenna raised an eyebrow at the redhead's smile.

~/~/~/~

Gotham City

May 5, 19:01 EDT

Honestly? I missed my natural color. Jenna smoothed down some stray strands, forcing the black waves to settle at her bare shoulders. She nodded politely at the man opening the door of the hotel for her, eyes training on the space ahead.

"I know we tested it out already, but make some noise if you can hear me, Jen."

Jenna hummed quietly. The speaker in her ear was significantly smaller, meant to blend in behind her hair. The necklace at her throat contained a microphone, providing a much more subtle way to keep in touch with Oracle as opposed to her comms. It felt weird to keep to the shadows in a way ever since officially being inducted into the League five months prior.

Jenna heard the whispers once she made it into the room. As much as it felt weird to have eyes on her, to be in this sort of setting that was entirely out of her element, she knew that was the least of her concerns that night. Her real problem was about how well she would be able to infiltrate. But it wasn't the first time she was forced to act, and it certainly wouldn't be the last, so she knew to keep her cool. Still, she grabbed a flute of champagne as a waiter passed, taking a sip to steel her nerves.

"Ten o'clock."

Jenna's eyes trailed over the glass rim, not even questioning Oracle's knowledge since the woman would be keeping her attention on the small camera embedded in Jenna's glasses. The darkwear contacts would have been too noticeable. A small group was nearby, two people splitting off to leave two others alone: a woman with a man standing a couple of paces behind her. Bingo.

"You're Nicole Devine…aren't you?"

The woman turned, eyes instantly raking over Jenna's body which was clothed in a skin-tight dress complete with a thigh-high slit. Topped off with her newly dyed hair and long gloves that concealed the abundance of tattoos, she was a vision.

Nicole's eyes finally met hers as she lightly smiled. "Are you another banker looking to invest in overseas interests?"

Jenna chuckled. "I'm afraid not. Sorry to disappoint," she said lightly.

"No need to apologize," Nicole waved off. "Between you and me, I don't need to hear the same spiel all over again for the fifth time tonight."

Jenna shrugged with one shoulder, glancing around the room as if looking for someone. "Well, I was here with friends, but they disappeared two minutes into getting drinks. Of course, this is strictly business for them, so I suppose they needed to have some fun where they could."

Nicole raised an eyebrow. "So this isn't business for you?"

Jenna hummed. "No. Quite the opposite actually, or so I was hoping." She rolled her eyes playfully. "Turns out the more money a man has, the bigger his ego grows."

The corner of Nicole's lips quirked up. "I completely understand. If you wanted, we could-"

"Miss Devine."

Jenna eyed the man who had approached her with a carefully schooled expression. What's General M'Barra doing here? God only hoped that the new change would keep her from being so noticeable.

"Our meeting?" he reminded.

"Ah yes," Nicole said with a vague look of realization on her face. "I was distracted."

She turned to Jenna, looking apologetic. "I'm sorry. I really need to-"

Hell no. Jenna wasn't going to let her slip by so easily. So she thought fast, making the glance over her shoulder obvious.

"Please take me with you," she said with a hint of urgency. "This old guy was bothering me earlier so I'm afraid that he'll start circling like a vulture soon. I won't be in the way, I swear."

Nicole seemed to hesitate at first, but between Jenna's pleading gaze and close proximity–one hand trailing up her arm, either she felt like she couldn't deny or she didn't want to. "Well, we can't let that happen. Let's go."

The elevator ride up to one of the suites wasn't long, but enough that allowed Jenna to fill the time up with idle chatter. For two reasons mainly, to get a feel of Nicole Devine and what kind of person she was, and to keep suspicions about Jenna herself low.

That's what she was hoping for anyway.

Once the elevator doors slid open, Nicole guided Jenna into the main room. "Make yourself comfortable. We shouldn't be long."

Jenna smiled in her direction, about to respond when something in the corner of her eye caught her attention.

The man standing next to the couch tilted his head. "Trying to replace me, Nikki?" he asked, staring straight at Jenna.

Nicole's brow furrowed, looking between Jenna and the man she was slowly starting to recognize. Although she still had a smile, it had become confused upon seeing Jenna's had fallen. So much for keeping lowkey. "I don't understand," Nicole said with a tense laugh.

The man smirked. "This is Jenna Lance."

Every part of Jenna's body turned to ice.

"Florist by day, master combatant by night. And much more gorgeous than images portray," the man finished, looking like a cat that caught a canary. Literally.

Any sort of persona Jenna had been holding onto was gone. She wished her gaze could truly bear holes into the man's head. "Lynx…right? Son of one of Gotham's mafia bosses?" she said with a dry tone.

Her already tense muscles only tightened further when she heard Oracle's voice in her ear. "Jen."

Nicole's eyes were wide, looking between the two adults that were squaring off. Her brow furrowed in puzzlement. "Do you two know each other?"

"By reputation," Lynx said with a wide grin. He doesn't mean…

"I hired Lynx and his father's Ghost Dragons as personal security during my stay here," Nicole explained.

"Lovely," Jenna said dryly.

"Jen, heads up, there's someone breaching the-"

The windows surrounding them shattered. Several members of the Green Brotherhood burst into the room from outside, instantly firing crossbow bolts at the various security in the room. Jenna grabbed General M'Barra's shoulder, shoving him down behind a chair as a shot just barely missed his head.

"And I really liked this dress too," Jenna grumbled as she grasped the fabric on each side of the tight leg opening. There was a loud rip as she tore the dress to fall mid-thigh, giving her more mobility with her legs. She pulled the torn fabric taut, looping it around an attacker's neck to swing his head down into the coffee table. She then pivoted to swing her heel into the head of another enemy.

Lynx was hard at work on his third enemy, busy choking out the man while glancing over at Jenna. "Your fighting is even more impressive in person," he called out, muscles tensing until his victim collapsed. "I'm having trouble placing your kick style though."

Jenna huffed. "I'll slow down so you can take notes," she said sarcastically, grabbing the garote that a man had flung out at her.

She tugged hard, spinning around to use the motion to her advantage and slam the man into the nearest wall. He crumbled easily. Well, that seems to be all of them.

Something latched onto Jenna's foot. barely giving her time to react verbally before her lower body was pulled out from under her. As she was dragged to the open window, she caught a glimpse of a chair at the end of the garote, tipping off the edge.

"No!" she gasped, catching the wicked grin of the one responsible by the window. Something on his arm set off an alarm in her mind, but it was too preoccupied in the meantime.

Seeing as she didn't want to die from falling out of a skyscraper, Jenna grabbed the first thing she could get a hold of, that being a curtain panel gently blowing in the wind due to the gaping hole. Her attempts were unlikely to work, since she still had a heavy weight pulling her down, and it felt like she was just going to continue to fall until something–maybe the curtain rod–hit the wall. Jenna's body jolted as it came to a stop.

For a moment all she could hear was the traffic below and her own labored breathing. Shit, shit, shit!

Craning her head back to glance up at the window, her eyes only widened further when she saw one of the attackers look down at her. He smirked, gripping the curtain with one hand and raising a crossbow to aim at Jenna's face.

Panic shot through her like a bullet. Please, not like this! Not this soon! All she could think about was Conner.

Surprisingly, she didn't have to fret. Because the attacker got a sudden stab to the neck, causing him to tilt out of the window and fall past Jenna to the streets below. Jenna wisely chose to keep looking up, her expression of fear turning to a glare.

"Are you going to help me up or not?" she yelled out to be heard.

Lynx's smirk was starting to become irritating as he peeked down at her, crouching comfortably near the window besides wearing slacks. He glanced down at the curtain as it began to rip. Then back to Jenna as her gaze never wavered.

After what felt like an excruciating amount of time, he sighed, letting one of his throwing knives fall toward Jenna. Luckily, she was quick enough to catch it, and even quicker in slicing through the ankle strap of her heel to let the shoe, and the weight attached to it, fall.

Just one thing left to worry about. But it seemed Lynx had that covered too. He grabbed the curtain just before it ripped completely off, tugging hard to haul Jenna up to his waiting hand. He seized her arm, pulling her back to solid ground.

Jenna propped her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath now that her life wasn't in grave danger. She glanced up at Lynx who was still standing over her.

"Thank you," she said, meaning it greatly. "I owe you. Times three."

Lynx's grin was back. "I'm sure I have a few ideas," he said, unashamed as he stared at her bare legs, lingering on the floral tattoo that rested high on one of her thighs.

She scowled. "Back off," she warned.

He was suddenly closer, leaning down to speak in her ear. "Careful, birdy. I know more than others would," he practically hissed.

Her glare was heated. "You wouldn't dare," she said lowly.

He just leaned back, looking smug. "Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me."

For now. The underlying threat made her uncomfortable, but still, Jenna turned away, scanning the room. Nicole and M'Barra seemed okay, despite the General's guards being dead. The room was a disaster as expected, and all of the Brotherhood were gone.

Nicole let out a low whistle. "Damn. Look at this place," she commented.

Lynx adjusted the sleeves of his leather jacket. "It was the Green Brotherhood, Miss Devine. I'm afraid that you and the General were their targets," he explained simply.

Jenna held back her scoff. No shit.

"Unfortunately," Lynx continued, making eye contact with Jenna, "all of the attackers have fled."

Jenna's eyes narrowed. "I bet they have," she said.

Lynx's brow furrowed as he opened his mouth, ready to retort or otherwise before Nicole interrupted the silent squabble.

"Well, I know a good thing when I see it," she declared, sounding rather chirpy for just having her life threatened. She had wandered off to the mini bar at the side of the room, making a couple of drinks. "I'll just double my coverage. You want a job, Miss Lance?"

Jenna's eyebrow raised. Immediately, alarms went off in her head. Nicole Devine seemed to have little care for Jenna aside from having a fun night, but the moment she saw what Jenna could do, she was more interested. Jenna just hoped that Nicole didn't really know who she was.

A tiny voice spoke in her ear. "Do it, Jen. Something else is going on here and I want to find out what."

Internally, Jenna sighed. Externally, she mulled the thought over. "Call me Jenna. If we're going to work together, we should be comfortable with each other."

She then smiled brightly. "You can never have too many people watching your butt, Miss Devine," she teased, making a point to glance downward. She ignored Oracle's groan.

Nicole smirked as she handed one of the drinks she made over to General M'Barra, sipping from her own. "Call me Nikki."

~/~/~/~

Star City

May 6, 23:32 PDT

Overall, it went fine. Jenna got a number directly from Nikki and she managed to get out before Lynx decided he wanted to spill all of her secrets that she wasn't even sure how he got ahold of. It was a start.

"She'll give me a call when she needs me to start," she was explaining to Oracle on the way home. "She's going to be doing an overseas tour."

"I never expected you to get that close."

Jenna snorted. "Neither did I. But with my suspicions of her and Lynx? It's a good thing." She frowned. "Do you know anything about him anyway? All I know is his family came from Hong Kong and his dad's a mafia boss."

"His dad ousted King Snake and took over the Gotham Asian Underworld. His family is very well known and very secretive at the same time," Oracle recalled. "There's got to be more to this for him and his family than just a bodyguard gig."

Jenna turned into the parking garage of her apartment complex, sighing. "Well, at least we have that in common. It just bugs me how he could see right through me. How I have no idea what all he knows," she said.

Oracle made a sound like humming. "We'll need to stay on our toes. I know he said that he wouldn't reveal anything, but that only means that he's going to use it for-"

"-blackmail, yeah." Jenna frowned as her car came to a stop. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Jenna shut off the comms and the ignition of her car, slumping back in her seat as she rubbed her face with a heavy sigh. Home sweet home. She should have been happy to finally get some rest, but knowing that she would walk into an empty apartment began to bug her again despite being distracted from it all day.

It wasn't anything new to have the apartment to herself, but Kaldur was refusing to take a break. He kept pushing himself with work in Atlantis, hardly coming to the surface unless needed, and it had Jenna worried. She had spoken to Wyynde a few days ago after finding out Kaldur was going to remain in Poseidonis; it worried her to find that the conference was put on hold after an attack from Ocean Master. Wyynde was just as concerned, so it helped Jenna feel a little bit better even if she couldn't be there in person.

With her eyes closed, Jenna had missed seeing the figures that walked up to her window, but the shadow that crossed over her closed eyelids was enough. As was the sound of a knock on her window. She might not have had Sam's powers, but it was easy to tell before she opened her eyes that a gun was being pointed at her.

Tonight? Seriously? The only complaint she really had was that she was back in civvies. And that she was really tired and just wanted to go into her apartment and collapse.

Really though, she might not have had to worry. With one press of a button on her phone, an 'SOS' would shoot out to the five people closest to her who also lived in city limits. She knew for a fact that at least three of them were out beginning their patrols. But that would leave her to fend for herself for at most five minutes.

And with everything that had happened in the last few months, her patience had been running thin. So sue her for wanting to bash a few skulls in.

Jenna cracked her window. Just enough to hear what they had to say without giving them any opportunity to grab her. "Gentlemen," she greeted dryly. "Lady."

"Get out," the one in front snapped, gesturing with his pistol.

Jenna raised an eyebrow. "A bit late for a carjacking, isn't it?"

"I said, get out. Open the door."

A tiny smile curved the corner of Jenna's mouth. She slowly reached for her phone, swiping to the main screen and pressing on one of the apps. A small, constant ring began to emit from the device. "If you say so."

As her hand pulled the door handle, she pulled one knee to her chest and kicked it out to slam the door into the gunman's gut. "I've been needing to cool down, anyway," she added.

Grabbing the side of the door with both hands, she swung her lower body out of the car, kicking both of his associates back. As they stumbled or fell, she slammed her heel into the temple of the first man, putting him out of his aching misery temporarily.

As one of his friends staggered to his feet, grasping his nose that gushed with blood, Jenna yanked that hand away, opting to use her forehead to bash his nose in even further. The pain was enough to send him crumpling.

"You bitch!"

Jenna turned to the last one standing, quickly closing the space between the two women. "That's a bit hypocritical, don't you think?" she questioned.

Before the other woman even had time to lift her gun, Jenna grabbed both sides of her head, bringing it down to her knee. Then she let go, allowing the third and final body to fall limp.

Finally, Jenna was able to shut her phone's 'alarm system' off, seeing an incoming call as expected.

"I'm almost there!"

Jenna chuckled. "I'm fine, kiddo. Nothing I couldn't handle," she quickly soothed.

Too late, a pair of feet landed next to the parking garage barrier. She turned around, catching a glimpse of black and hints of yellow before meeting the disgruntled gaze of Banshee. She just smiled fondly, a rare, genuine one as of late, as he crossed over to where she stood.

"Didn't hold back with the headshots I see," he commented, eyeing the blood covering the ground.

Jenna shrugged. "I could have done worse," she pointed out.

"I know."

For once, she was glad he didn't push it. It was easy to see her attentive, caring traits in the almost twenty-one-year-old man. After almost ten years of knowing one another, it was expected. So it wouldn't have been surprising if he had tried to gently press for the reason behind her actions, but it also wasn't surprising that he knew when not to.

So Jenna began to gather her things from her car, turning back to watch Banshee finish restraining her attackers when she was locking up the car.

"I imagine you have it well beyond covered, but give me a call if you need anything," she reminded, never able to break the mentality of being a mentor.

Banshee noticed as much, the corners of his eyes wrinkling above his redesigned mask—one to match his updated getup since becoming a public hero.

"Sure thing, Jen. See you later."

"See you."

She opened her car, gathered her things, and locked it behind her as she walked into the apartment complex, knowing that no one would be waiting for her in her home.

~/~/~/~

Hi! I decided to go ahead and post the first chapter. My schedule is still going to be very slow as I get more chapters done, but I had this finished for a bit and wanted to release it for you all to enjoy/share your thoughts!

This fic, like I've mentioned before, is going to be pretty different compared to the last three. For Jenna's arc, this will be the first time I'm not going off of episodes and instead taking (varying levels of) inspiration from comics, particularly Black Canary and Birds of Prey. So because of that, my writing might be a bit different.

Let me know what you think! I feel a little insecure about it, just because I'm working outside of my comfort zone lol. But hopefully I'll get more confident as we continue on. Reviews are always appreciated!

See you next time!