Doctors, Harry Potters, and Sherlock Holmeses were everywhere as far as the eye could see. Roy gripped the sleeves of his signature red hoodie. He felt out of place in a convention. But he had to find this guy before it became a problem.
Where could he be? Roy thought. And who the heck is he?
When him and Oliver first fought this guy, Oliver slipped a tracker on him before the guy got away. Felicity had tracked him to the con, and Team Arrow had gone to investigate.
Honestly, Roy would fit in better with his Arsenal suit.
Roy continued in a single direction. The Starling City Comicon was very lively and full of nerds. Roy was surprised by how many people were there, considering the amount of destruction and terrorist attacks that have taken place since Oliver's return from Lian Yu.
"Do you see anything, Roy?" Felicity asked over their coms.
"Nothing so far. How about Oliver and John?" Roy responded.
"Only a bunch of Sherlocks," Dig said.
"I have absolutely no idea what I'm looking at," Oliver said.
"Those are cosplayers, Oliver," Felicity explained.
"But what are they cosplaying?" Oliver asked.
"That's called anime, Oliver," Felicity said. "And the girl on your left is...Bella from Twilight?"
"Tommy once mentioned Twilight, but he never told me what it was," Oliver said.
"You don't wanna know, Oliver," Roy said as he cringed.
"Although I agree with Roy, I think we should get back to the job. We need to find this guy," Dig said.
The team went silent and went back to searching. The tracker was showing the guy in the con, but it was too difficult to find him in the mass of fangirls and fanboys. The cosplays were slowly getting crazier and crazier. Roy's hair and hood suddenly blew across his face. He looked around. Why's it windy indoors? Roy figured he was near the air conditioner and continued walking, pushing past Jedi.
Roy continued through a clump of superheroes like Spider-Man and Captain America. But those weren't what interested Roy.
Roy stared at a woman with touseled blonde hair. She wore black leather from head to toe. In the split second Roy could see her face, he saw a black mask.
Roy was looking at the Black Canary.
What is Sara doing in Starling City? Wouldn't she tell us if she was here? And why is she here as the Black Canary? People don't know about her!
Roy pushed his way to Sara. Maybe the guy we're looking for is an enemy of the League? Roy was a few feet away from Sara, and when he was close enough, he shouted. "Black Canary!"
•••
Liberty turned around to find a man with dark hair and a red hoodie, a Roy Harper cosplayer. He had just shouted for her.
Liberty smiled at the Roy cosplayer. "Hi there!"
The Roy cosplayer looked confused but he shrugged it off. "Canary, what are you doing here?"
"Hanging out, y'know. I saw a couple other people. Oliver, Nyssa, but I haven't seen you yet." Not many Arrowverse cosplayers were there that day. The next day was when there would be an Arrow panel, so there'd be more or then.
"Nyssa's here?" Roy asked.
"Yeah, she's somewhere over there," Liberty answered as she pointed a ways away.
"What's the League doing here?" Roy asked.
"Not much, really."
"Wait, did you leave the League again?" he asked.
Liberty laughed. "No, I just need to be alone right now. But you can stay if you want, I guess."
The cosplayer looked confused, but he stayed. Liberty looked over to where his gaze was. "A Deathstroke!"
"A Deathstroke?" Roy asked.
"Yeah, it's Slade! C'mon!" Liberty sighed as the -play in cosplay slowly fell to pieces. This was her first time cosplaying, so she wasn't very good at it yet. And it was exciting to meet an Arrow, a Roy, and a Slade! Liberty grabbed Roy's wrist and dragged him with her.
•••
Something is not right, Roy thought. She isn't acting like Sara, I still don't know why she's at a con, and she should not be excited to see Slade Wilson! Heck, Slade is supposed to be in ARGUS's prison on Lian Yu! The heck is going on?
Roy looked at Sara closely. She looked like Sara, but certainly wasn't acting like Sara. Upon closer examination, she looked less and less like Sara. Her lips were drawn rather than pursed. She smiled wider than Roy had ever seen Sara smile. She looked closer to his and Thea's age than Sara's. Her eyes had more of a sparkle than Sara's ever had. Her hair was too straight, and her cheeks too red.
What the heck? I swear Sara didn't look like this when I last saw her, when she left after the Siege.
Sara grabbed his wrist and pulled him through the crowd to Deathstroke. Now that Roy thought about it, something was...off about both Sara's and Slade's suits, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it. But, Roy hadn't seen them for a while, so they could've had a wardrobe change.
Roy was more worried about why Slade was there and Sara's wellbeing. It wasn't right.
While he had a chance, Roy tapped his com in his ear, ready to tell the team about whatever this was. "Guys, I think we have a problem. Sara is here, she said Nyssa was somewhere, and Slade is here too!" he whispered into the com. All he got was static. Something was interfering the signal. "Oliver! John! Felicity! Can anyone hear me?" More static.
Something was definitely off. Sara, Nyssa, Slade, the coms, these were signs of disaster, but Roy didn't know what. He wished he had pretended to be a cosplayer and showed up in his Arsenal suit, because it has better coms and he'd had his bow, arrows, and batons. And this might end in a fight.
•••
Liberty glanced at the Roy cosplayer. Something wasn't right. He was acting very suspicious of everything, even though it's just a con. Unless he was super good at cosplaying and he is acting like Roy, something was off. And even the best cosplayers meet their chatacter's villains, so why was Roy trying to get away from Slade?
"Canary, I don't feel so good about this...," he said.
"There's nothing to worry about, uh, I never got your name."
"Roy Harper, the guy who fought Deathstroke with you during the Siege!" he said. "How come you needed to ask?"
Liberty giggled. "I know that, I wanna know your real name. I know you're cosplaying Roy."
•••
"I know you're cosplaying Roy."
That line repeated in Roy's head. Cosplaying? Cosplaying?
Wait, if she thinks I'm a cosplayer...then this can't be! Over there isn't Slade Wilson and Nyssa isn't here! And this person isn't Sara! That's why they all look off!
Roy didn't know how to respond, so he did so bluntly. "I'm not cosplaying, and you aren't Sara Lance."
•••
"I'm not cosplaying, and you aren't Sara Lance."
Liberty needed some time to process. "I'm not cosplaying." If he isn't cosplaying...what?
Shouldn't he know I'm not Sara. We're at a convention for goodness's sake!
"Huh? I know I'm not Sara! I wish I was, but that's not happening anytime soon!" Liberty said.
"Well obviously you aren't her," he snapped. "I figured that out pretty easily. So who the heckin' are you?"
Liberty raised her hands in surrender. "Alright, we both know I'm not the Black Canary. I'm Liberty Davis, just a normal fangirl."
"How did you know who I am?" Roy asked.
Liberty laughed. "The amount of times I've binge-watched Arrow," she chuckled. "Roy Harper is my favorite character."
"Very funny, so I'm some cartoon character."
"No! Arrow is live-action," Liberty corrected. "And you aren't literally Roy, you're a cosplayer."
"I am not cosplaying, Liberty. Never have, never will."
Oh my gosh, is this guy okay? He is so adamant about being Roy. Is he okay? Is he, like, schizophrenic it something? He really thinks he is Roy, but he can't be. Just because he has the jawline of Colton Haynes doesn't mean he's a vigilante!
"Look, I wish I could be anyone from Arrow. Well, maybe not Moira Queen or Amanda Waller because they kinda suck, but anyone else, I'm down for it," Liberty said. "But we can't be our heroes, however sad it is. I'm Liberty, not Sara Lance. You aren't Roy Harper, so who are you?"
•••
Roy was fairly certain this girl, Liberty Davis, wasn't a threat to him specifically. He believed her when she said she was cosplaying Sara. But how on Earth could she know about all this? She claimed to watch a TV series called Arrow, but how could there possibly be a TV series about Team Arrow? If it existed, that would: a) be creepy b) be extremely hard to do since Oliver was really good at not letting word get out he was the Arrow and c) be all over the news if it existed. If it was big enough for people to cosplay, then how did people not know Oliver was the Arrow and that he, Dig, and Felicity worked with him? How did people not know about Ra's al Ghul, Sara, Nyssa, or the rest of the League of Assassins? How did people not know about Waller, Lyla, Deadshot, or the rest of the Suicide Squad and ARGUS? How did they not know Oliver lied about what really happened on Lian Yu? How weren't they exposed?
"Like I said, Liberty, I'm Roy Harper. How can you watch Arrow? How doesn't everyone know about Team Arrow and why haven't I been arrested yet?" Roy replied.
"Because none of it is real! Starling City doesn't even exist! It was based off of Seattle or something, it isn't really an American city!" Liberty responded in exasperation. "Seriously, are you okay? You should know you aren't Roy Harper! Seriously, looking around I can see, one, two, three other Roys! I know, it would be awesome if you were really Roy Harper, but you aren't! You can't be a fictional character!"
Fictional character? Did she just call me a fictional character? "What do you mean fictional?"
Liberty through her hands in the air in frustration and scoffed. "I cannot believe we are having this conversation!" she snapped. She pulled out a smart phone, a semi-new model of the Galaxy Note, and opened up Google. "See, look at this!" She entered arrow cw in the search engine. When Google finished loading, it showed some information about the show. Liberty handed the phone to him. "See, look!"
Roy looked at the phone. There was a poster advertising Arrow. There was a picture of Oliver on it. There was a brief description, which read, 'When presumed-dead billionaire playboy Oliver Queen returns home to Starling City after five years stranded on a remote island in the Pacific, he hides the changes the experience had on him, while secretly seeking reconciliation with his ex, Laurel. By day he picks up where he left off, playing the carefree philanderer he used to be, but at night he dons the alter ego of Arrow and works to right the wrongs of his family and restore the city to its former glory. Complicating his mission is Laurel's father, Detective Quentin Lance, who is determined to put the vigilante behind bars.' As he continued to look at it, he mentally made note of how accurate it was. Down to what everyone's lines.
"See! Google classified it as a fictional TV series! You aren't Roy Harper!" Liberty said.
Roy shook his head. "But I am. How am I going to convince you?"
"I dunno, why don't you go stop bank robbers in front of me!"
Roy shrugged. "Find me a crime."
CRASH! There were screams and people began running out the building.
"This doesn't look good," Roy said. "Based off of personal experience, I guess that there is some evil jerk here." Liberty nodded. Roy smirked. "I guess I don't need to find some bank robbers to prove to you I'm Roy Harper, the Arsenal."