Black Canary’s Secret

At this moment, superheroes from two universes, members of two different powerful organizations, finally came together in an epic meeting.

Although neither side was at full strength, both were in terrible circumstances, and their first meeting place was unbelievably a private room in a bar controlled by villains, no one cared about any of that.

For everyone present, this was a joyous moment, one worth celebrating.

In Hawkeye’s eyes, this marked the beginning of reckoning with those criminals. With so many allies from another world, overthrowing the criminals’ filthy rule was only a matter of time.

And in Black Canary’s eyes, these surviving veteran heroes, who had refused to yield even unto death, were the greatest support she could rely on to save Red Hood and return to her own world.

After experiencing so much in this world, Dinah deeply understood how terrifying the evil in human nature could be. If she could not even trust these heroes who had spent half their lives resisting, she truly did not know who else in this world was worth trusting.

"This is my daughter, Ashley Barton. Don’t let her age fool you—she’s Spider-Man’s successor. She has enough strength to shake a truck."

Following Barton’s introduction, Ashley silently nodded in greeting. She had been watching this woman from the start. Ever since Dinah entered the room, her Spider-Sense had reacted, though it was much better now.

"Hello, Ashley." Dinah extended her hand toward the cold-faced kid, trying her best to show goodwill, but Ashley did not react at all.

To spare Dinah too much embarrassment, Venom took the initiative to reveal itself. It extended its sticky, strange, somewhat disgusting body and "shook hands" with Dinah, then flashed a smile frightening enough to make children stop crying.

"Hello, Ms. Dinah. I’m Venom. Nice to meet you."

"Uh…" Dinah froze instinctively. "You are?"

"An alien parasite. Its brain isn’t too bright. It used to oppose us all the time, but now it’s barely on our side. Hope its appearance didn’t scare you." Barton looked sour whenever Venom was mentioned.

"Not really. I’ve seen stranger things." Dinah smiled, then turned her gaze to the others.

"I’m Melissa, codename Songbird, former Thunderbolts. Traitor."

Melissa truly found her past actions hard to put into words. Although Baron Zemo was already dead, she remained immersed in pain. She feared she would never escape that nightmare for the rest of her life.

Seeing that Melissa did not want to say much more, Pietro immediately picked up the conversation. "My name is Pietro Maximoff. Just call me Pietro. Codename Quicksilver."

"Hello, Pietro."

After meeting everyone, Dinah finally looked at the short-haired black-haired girl in front of her. "I still don’t know your name."

"Kara Zor-El. Supergirl."

"…Huh?" Dinah’s smile froze.

For that brief instant, she even wondered if she had misheard.

In her understanding, it should have been impossible for anything related to her universe to appear in this world, much less someone connected to the aliens from her universe.

"You… what did you say your name was?" Dinah could not help asking again.

Black Canary’s reaction was entirely within Kara’s expectations. Pietro had already experienced several times what it was like to have people from other universes recognize his identity. Now Kara finally got to experience it for herself.

"You heard right. My name is Kara Zor-El. I’m from Krypton, and my codename is Supergirl."

Kara smiled and tugged at her collar, revealing the fitted combat suit beneath it. From Dinah’s higher vantage point, she could easily see the "S" emblem on Kara’s chest.

"The man you know, Superman of the Justice League, Kal-El—he’s my cousin."

"You’re saying Clark is your—wait, how are you here!?"

Dinah’s eyes widened in disbelief as she carefully studied Kara’s appearance. Now that she looked closely, Kara really did seem a little like Superman.

"That’s great. With you here, our chances are even better. Did you know your cousin is in this universe too? As long as we find them together, we can—"

"I’m sorry to disappoint you." Not wanting to keep hiding it from everyone, and with Dinah here now, Kara decided to explain the truth in full. Of course, this was also Zhang Ye’s intention.

"Actually, there is no so-called Justice League. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman were all impersonated by us. The videos Hydra and Red Skull spread were also knockoffs we made with magic."

"What!?"

Upon hearing this, Old Barton had trouble accepting it before Dinah could even react. He stared at Kara in shock, seemingly unable to process it, then looked at his daughter.

"I thought you knew." Ashley crossed her arms and muttered.

"At the time, we took down Green Goblin’s criminal alliance in Osborn City, but the commotion was too big to suppress. So Zhang Ye had no choice but to resort to this. He fabricated superheroes from another universe to draw Red Skull and the others’ attention."

Kara tilted her head slightly and continued, "Actually, this was also meant to draw out people like you who really came from another universe. We found one of Batman’s batarangs before, and we guessed there were other stowaways in this universe."

"So this was the ‘solution’ Zhang Ye told me about…" Barton thought it over and quickly understood what had happened.

It made sense. Zhang Ye had personally admitted that Green Goblin and the others died at his hands, so how could a Justice League suddenly appear now?

Unlike Old Barton, Dinah did not react much as she listened to Kara’s explanation. She simply listened calmly, with no joy or sorrow visible on her face.

"You don’t seem surprised by this?" Ashley, who had been watching Dinah’s expression, asked curiously.

At Ashley’s words, everyone present turned their attention to Black Canary.

Feeling their questions, Dinah trembled instinctively. She slowly closed her eyes, sighed, and nodded in admission.

"Yes, I’m not surprised. Actually, when I first saw the news about the Justice League on television, I never truly believed they existed."

"Was it because our imitation wasn’t convincing enough?" Pietro asked.

"No."

Dinah denied it, then revealed the truth.

"…Because in my universe, they should all have already died.

The ones here are either fakes, or they simply aren’t the people I knew."