Fanfic / The Hurricane

The Hurricane (FFN Link) by Nyame is an Arrowverse What If? Fanfic with a simple premise: what if, instead of Oliver Queen and Sara Lance, it was Laurel Lance, and Laurel alone, that went on the Queen's Gambit?

What follows is a story that covers Laurel's journey to becoming the Black Canary during her own five years away from home, while her loved ones cope with the hole left behind from her loss. This single change turns out to have wide-spanning effects, gradually spiraling into a very different, if similar, universe.

Tropes:

• Adaptational Badass:
  • Laurel starts her road to becoming a vigilante much earlier than she did in canon, and thus has far more training and experience as a warrior, including briefly joining the League of Assassins. She also ends up awakening the Canary Cry, something her canon counterpart never did if you discount her various dopplegangers.
  • Shado was already pretty badass in canon, but in this story she becomes even more of a badass, due to joining the League of Assassins with Laurel.
• Adaptational Wimp: As a consequence of the change, neither Oliver nor Sara become the skilled fighters they are in canon. Word of God even went out of the way to confirm that Oliver was not going to become Green Arrow in this AU.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Slade develops feelings for Laurel instead of Shado in this AU. After the Mirakuru is injected into him, that causes him to be obsessed with Laurel, while his relationship with Shado gradually begins to sour. Eventually, this causes him to try and kill Shado after Laurel rejects him too many times, blaming her for giving him false hope about Laurel eventually returning his feelings.
  • Laurel's supposed death kills any chances of Oliver/Sara happening, as whatever feelings they once had for each other are tainted by the perceived feeling of betrayal. After one awkward kiss, the two definitively decide they are Better as Friends.
  • As opposed to a one-night stand, Sara develops a close friendship and then an actual relationship with Alex Danvers (or rather, Earth-1 Alex Danvers), considering the other woman her First Love. While the relationship doesn't last, the two promise to remain friends.
• Arc Villain: Much like Arrow, each of Laurel's years away has their own villain that she has to contend with.
  • Year 1: Edward Fyers, the leader of the mercenaries. He grows to have a particular hatred of Laurel, and make his intentions to rape her before killing her very clear to her.
  • Year 2: Initially Dr. Anthony Ivo, until it shifts to Slade Wilson (who has been driven mad by the Mirakuru) after his death.
  • Year 3: At first Ra's al Ghul is presented as this, since he's the one who forced Laurel and Shado into his servitude by making them join the League of Assassins. He's later usurped by the Joker, who betrays their partnership and enslaves him by Jokerizing him into one of the clown's many minions.
  • Year 4: The Calculator/Noah Kuttler, who is using the Brother Eye Virus to rob banks in Gotham.
  • Year 5: Lady Shiva. While the main threat is Egon and his human-trafficking ring, Shiva is the only reason Laurel is in any position to oppose them at all, and the other woman's interest in her has several ominous undertones.
• Ascended Extra: Al-Owal. In canon he was given little characterization beyond being the trainer of Malcolm and Sara and one of Ra's' first followers. Here, his role expanded greatly as Laurel and Shado's main mentor in the League, where he gradually develops a distant affection for them. During the climax of Year 3, he commits a (non-fatal) Heroic Sacrifice and allows himself to be Jokerized so they can be given the opportunity to escape.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • Oliver ultimately prevents Emiko being a future threat by visiting her and revealing that Robert wanted her family to receive support, openly stating that even if her mother was the mistress to a married man Emiko herself didn't do anything wrong. While Emiko isn't willing to forgive everything Robert did, Oliver's words inspire her to abandon her vendetta against the Queens, recognising that Oliver's words reflect how he and Thea didn't do anything to her either and it's unfair to condemn them for Moira's neglect of Emiko and her mother.
  • Basically the reason Ra's releases Laurel from the League of Assassins; while she disobeyed his orders by approaching Batman for aid, considering that her actions saved the entire League from being "Jokerized", he acknowledges that she was never a good fit for life in the League and declares that she will receive a complete release from them.
• Big Brother Instinct: When Oliver finds Thea and some of her friends about to buy drugs and Tommy's birthday party, he immediately steps in to stop the dealer and has the man arrested even when he has absolutely none of his canon training.
• Brought Down to Normal: As part of Laurel's training mission with Lady Shiva, she is temporarily deprived of access to her Canary Cry so that Shiva can see how she performs without that particular ability.
• The Cameo:
  • When Laurel is training as a vigilante in Gotham, she befriends Jason Todd in Crime Alley.
  • While Sara is attending medical school, she goes to the club Warriors, run by Guy Gardner, and meets up with Kyle Rayner, with Word of God confirming that Guy and Kyle are Green Lanterns in this reality but just operate away from Earth.
  • While Laurel is travelling across America, she saves Barry and Iris from a mugger and captures Leonard Snart and Mick Rory during her time in Central City.
• Canon Welding: As in the comics, Mirakuru is one of the drugs involved in creating the venom that gives Bane his strength.
• Closet Key: Alex Danvers proves to be this for Sara, as their friendship and eventual relationship is what causes Sara to come to terms with her bisexuality.
• Chekhov's Gun: After Laurel and Shado join the League of Assassins, Laurel realises that the invisible ink they use for writing messages is the same style of ink used in Robert's notebook, which confirms a connection between the League and the List even if they can't find any evidence that Robert was connected to the League.
• Chick Magnet: Bruce's debut sees him accidentally encountering his ex-girlfriend Silver St. Cloud during a gala he's attending, only for their conversation to be interrupted by his current date Vicki Vale. He then internally muses that the only reason he agreed to take Vicki is to shut up the gossip columns, as he has no intentions of entering another relationship after having another bad break up with Talia and with his current relationship with Selina on the rocks.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Much like her comics counterpart, this is why Talia al Ghul left the League of Assassins. She couldn't stand having to constantly choose between her father Ra's al Ghul and her lover Batman during their war, and opted to leave so she wouldn't have to anymore. Ra's believes that if he can finally convince Bruce to join the League, Talia will rejoin them so Bruce and her can finally get married like they always wanted.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Compared to Laurel and Maseo's "almost dramatic" duel for League membership, Shado's duel against her opponent (who, per Word of God, is the Arrowverse version of Savant) is downright boring. He clumsily swings his sword around a few times trying to strike her, eventually leaving himself wide open for her to gut him open with ease.
• Darkest Hour: Chapter 19 opens with Laurel on her own after the rest of the League and Gotham's rogues have been "Jokerized", leaving her with no other option but to contact the Bat-family for help.
• Demoted to Extra: The end of Laurel's Year Four features a member of QC being arrested for creating the virus that was recently used in a series of bank robberies in Gotham, with the context making it clear that this employee is Felicity Smoak.
• Didn't Think This Through: Shado comes to support the idea of Laurel and Slade becoming a couple due to feeling Oliver isn't good enough for Laurel and hearing about Slade's marital troubles, even encouraging Slade to confess to Laurel and assuring him that one day, Laurel might come to return his feelings. This massively backfires after Slade is injected with the Mirakuru and becomes a Yandere for Laurel, who is still in love with Oliver. When talking about it with Laurel later, Shado realizes that her support for Slade was never going to change how Laurel felt about either man, and that she should've just stayed out of the entire situation. Something that is only reinforced when Slade tries to kill her later on after Laurel rejects him again, blaming Shado for giving him false hope.
• Differing Priorities Breakup: Sara and Alex break up after the latter's father dies and she's forced to move back to Midvale to help support her mother, as Alex believes that they can't make a Long-Distance Relationship work while Sara believes they can.
• The Dreaded:
  • The Joker. Even after he's dead. The Bat-Family don't like talking about him at all, and the Rogues only just barely tolerated him and couldn't bring themselves to appropriate his hideout at Amusement Mile after he died because they hated him that much. Laurel, a hardened assassin who witnessed the full depths of Slade's Mirakuru-induced insanity, finds him so terrifying that she can barely bring herself to read all but a few pages of his file in the Bat-Cave. He's that scary.
  • Lady Shiva. The World's Best Warrior, bar none, and a legend to the League of Assassins. Laurel is positively terrified when she realizes she's Shiva's captive, and does everything she can to avoid pissing the other woman off when forced to go on a mission with her.
• Easily Forgiven: Loosely applies; Laurel had to help save Gotham from an army of "Jokerized" rogues and Assassins first, but afterwards Barbara freely offers Laurel a place to stay despite how they met when Laurel was acting as a spy for the League of Assassins.
• Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Selina is temporarily inflicted with this after Laurel breaks her nose during a fight.
• Entitled to Have You: After he's injected with the Mirakuru, Slade's attitude towards Laurel has shades of this, which only grows worse after he finally confesses to her.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As devoted as Ra's al Ghul is to the League's code and principles, he's not an Ungrateful Bastard. When Laurel is forced to break the code in order to save the League from the Joker, Ra's declines to give her a serious or harmful punishment and just opts to exile her from the organization completely, giving her the freedom she's desperately wanted all along. The only thing that makes it a punishment is the fact that it forever separates her from Shado, her best friend.
• Evil Is Petty: Malcolm was the one responsible for Robert Queen closing the steel mill and not offering workers such as the Restons due compensation, basically forcing Robert to use the loophole as a demonstration of his own power.
• Evil Power Vacuum: It's noted that the Joker's death left a power gap for other criminals to exploit that they didn’t get in canon, with one such new arrival in Gotham being the Calculator.
• Foreshadowing: Lady Shiva's existence is hinted at several times before she shows up in Year Five. Both Ra's al Ghul and Orphan/David Cain note that Laurel has the same aptitude for hand-to-hand combat that Shiva does, something that both impresses them and unnerves them in equal measure.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The Joker was essentially this to Gotham’s other rogues, as they "respected" him but they still feared what he could do if he provoked them. Essentially nobody outside of Harley Quinn liked him, but his insanity and obsession with Batman guaranteed that no rogues would leave him out if they were attempting some kind of large-scale plan against the Dark Knight or his allies.
• Groin Attack: While interrogating the Scarecrow, Laurel stamps down on his balls with such force that even Batman winces in male solidarity.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Laurel and Shado gradually develop into this over the course of Laurel's time away from home. With all her other loved ones dead, far away from her and unaware she's alive or, in this case of Slade, completely insane and now an enemy, Shado has remained the one friend that's stayed constantly by her side. Which is why after she breaks the League's code in order to save everyone, Ra's decides to punish her by completely releasing her from her vow, leaving her unable to see Shado ever again.
• Hidden Depths: Jason Todd, while still just a street punk, is shown to have a fondness for classics such as Jane Austen and Shakespeare.
• Hopeless Suitor: Slade towards Laurel. In addition to Laurel still being in love with Oliver, she flat-out did not know Slade was even an option, as he was almost two decades older than her, married, and had an adult son around her age.
• Incompatible Orientation:
  • Al-Owal admits to Laurel and Shado that if Batman accepts Ra's' offer to become his heir and Talia still refuses to rejoin the League, then Ra's will have Nyssa take her place as his bride. Understandably, as Nyssa is a lesbian, that only furthers her resentment over the situation.
  • Tommy attempts to flirt with Alex at one point, unaware that she's gay and attracted to Sara.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Slade still gets stabbed in the eye by a green-clad archer. The archer in question, however, is Shado instead of Oliver.
  • Akio still dies and Maseo still joins the League of Assassins. The only differences are that Tatsu dies as well and Maseo ultimately doesn't make it pass the induction stage due to being killed by Laurel.
• Irony: Sara muses that she knows Moira wouldn't start dating Malcolm because the Queen matriarch has better taste than that, unaware of their prior affair.
• Joker Immunity: Averted; after the League and the other Gotham rogues have been returned to normal, Ra's manages to capture the Joker and Harley Quinn and has them both beheaded.
• Kaleidoscope Hair: As part of Laurel establishing a vigilante identity, she initially dyes her hair red in her civilian identity and wears a wig while in the field, but Lucius Fox states that he’s developing a fast-acting hair dye that will allow her to change her shades of blonde between civilian and vigilante.
• Like Brother and Sister: How Laurel eventually comes to see her friendships with Shado and Slade. Unfortunately, Slade doesn't exactly see their relationship the same way.
• The Mistress: Kazumi Adachi used to be this for Robert Queen, something she is quite resentful of and bitter about. Thus, she's very unwelcoming to Oliver when they meet for the first time.
• Morton's Fork: Laurel and Shado face this when they learn that Ra's plans to work with the Joker to infect most of the other rogues with "Joker Gas" that will turn them into duplicates of the Clown Prince of Crime so that Batman will be forced to turn to the League of Assassins for help. Obviously neither of them agree with this plan, but they have no way of contacting the police or Batman without getting arrested themselves, and may not even be believed anyway. After the Joker uses the gas on the League as well as the Rogues, Laurel is forced to take a chance and contact the Bat-Family for help anyway.
• Oh, Crap!: Laurel is basically terrified when her “tour” of America is interrupted by Lady Shiva.
• Open Secret: Despite being myth everywhere else, the existence of the League of Assassins is this in Gotham thanks to Ra's al Ghul's decade-long war with Bruce. Everyone from normal rogues to the GCPD knows about the League, to the point that even after Laurel fully transitions into becoming a vigilante, it takes only one fight for Selina to figure out she's League-trained.
• Parental Betrayal: Proving himself Father of the Year, Noah Kuttler sells out his daughter Felicity Smoak as the creator of the Brother Eye Virus after he's arrested by the police in hopes of lowering his inevitable prison sentence.
• Pragmatic Hero: When Laurel decides to leave Gotham, she agrees with Bruce’s observation that she can’t just go straight back to Starling City no matter how much she wants to see her family again. They plan for Black Canary to spend the next few months travelling across America dealing with various smaller crimes until settling in Starling, at which point she will find some way to fake her return from Lian Yu in a manner that suggests she just got back to America and has been a castaway for five years.
• Role Swap AU: Instead of Oliver and Sara, it's Laurel that goes on the Gambit with Robert instead. Subsequently, this turns the story from one about Oliver's journey to becoming Green Arrow, into one about Laurel's journey to becoming Black Canary.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Ultimately Ra's officially abandons his ambitions to make Batman his heir when he has the Joker prisoner after his latest attack and Batman still refuses to kill the clown (although Ra's does it himself anyway).
• Secret Relationship: Moira Queen opts to keep her relationship with Walter Steele a secret, fearing that if Malcolm finds out about them, he'll attempt to use Walter against her like he already is with Oliver and Thea.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • In the earlier chapters, Shado is one for Slade/Laurel, due to feeling that Oliver isn't good enough for Laurel after hearing about how much he cheated on her. She comes to regret it when Slade is injected with the Mirakuru and becomes obsessed with Laurel.
  • Much like in the comics, Ra's is this for Bruce/Talia, both so Bruce can be his heir and because it'll keep Talia happy and loyal to the League. Even after Talia left the League, he still remains this, and part of the reason he wants Bruce to join is because he thinks it will bring Talia back into the fold.
• Ship Sinking:
  • Slade/Laurel is arguably a non-starter from the get-go, as Laurel is still in love with Oliver. However, its already negligible chances of happening are destroyed after Slade is injected with the Mirakuru and becomes a Yandere for Laurel, culminating in him trying to murder Shado, Laurel's best friend, out of spite after he's rejected one too many times.
  • Oliver/Sara have some brief Ship Tease during the equivalent of Laurel's third year away that ends in an awkward kiss which makes them quickly realize that there are No Sparks between them and that they are definitely Better as Friends.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Ivo tries to convince Slade, Laurel and Shado to spare him by offering to take them back himself, all three of his enemies reject that offer. Laurel guesses that if they let Ivo live he'll just claim that they took him prisoner when they get back to the mainland, and Shado states that he lost any right to sympathy when he expressed a plan to have his men rape Laurel and Shado for “stress relief”. Shado concludes by observing that even if Ivo was telling the truth that he's doing this to save his wife, either his wife would be disgusted by what he's done in the name of saving her, or if she'd accept Ivo's crimes then she's such a horrible person she isn't worth saving. As Ivo tries to protest further, Slade picks him up and literally squeezes him to death with his new superhuman strength.
• Spared By Adaptation: Shado survives past the point of her canonical death, and ends up joining the League alongside Laurel.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Laurel awakens the Canary Cry while trying to save Shado from being murdered by an insane Slade. According to Word of God, her metagene was activated thanks to the numerous strange chemicals found in the abandoned Japanese submarine where the Mirakuru was found and Ivo's lab on the Amazo that she came into contact with, combined with absorbing some of the mystical energy emitted from Lian Yu. Slade's attempt to kill Shado served as the emotional trigger that forced it to finally express itself in the Cry.
• Underestimating Badassery: Ultimately Ra's makes this mistake in his "alliance" with the Joker; while he assisted the Joker in his plan to "Jokerize" the rest of the Rogues, Ra's wasn't prepared for the Joker to use the gas on Ra's himself.
• Unishment: Essentially Ra's gives this to Laurel when he gives her a complete release from the League after she helps Batman save them from being "Jokerized"; Laurel is free to do whatever she wants with the training she has received from the League, but the one thing she can't do is call on the League and their resources at some future date (which is why this is a punishment, as that means cutting herself off from Shado).
• Unskilled, but Strong: Basically Laurel’s thoughts on Harley Quinn when she fights the other woman; Harley has no formal combat training, but makes up for that by being strong and acrobatic. An exhausted Laurel isn't able to use her superior skill to dominate the fight, and as a result falls back on her Canary Cry in order to win.
• What If?: Laurel being on the Gambit ends up changing a lot of things:
  • Oliver is never thought dead, and because of that the amount of grief his family goes through is significantly less. Moira doesn't "shut down" like Thea claimed she did in canon, while Thea never becomes a Hard-Drinking Party Girl thanks to Oliver doing his best to discourage that behavior. Oliver himself undergoes a period of hard partying to cope with the deaths of Laurel and his father, only to give that up after seeing it was causing Thea to follow in his footsteps.
    • Another consequence is that Oliver is the one who inherits control of the family estate instead of Moira, due to his status as the eldest son. That means he's the one who receives Robert's quest to take care of Kazumi and Emiko, which he decides to fulfill.
    • As a result of that choice, Emiko opts to leave him and the rest of the Queens alone, completely averting the events of Seasons 6 and 7 entirely.
    • Another consequence of this is that Moira Queen ends up choosing to keep her relationship with Walter Steele a secret rather than openly dating and marrying him. Initially, this is because Oliver disapproves of the idea of his mother moving on so quickly, though this doesn't last. The real reason is that Moira fears Malcolm will use Walter against her like he does with her children if he finds out about them, and wants to keep him safe.
  • The Lances don't completely fall apart, in part because Sara's problems are so much more obvious than Laurel's, culminating in her nearly killing herself drunk driving and barely avoiding a DUI. After that, her parents decide to get family therapy to help deal with their issues.
  • Slade ends up falling in love with Laurel instead of Shado, due to meeting Laurel first and spending more time with her, in addition to Laurel having many of the same qualities that he found so attractive in Shado in canon. That means he is much better at hiding his madness after he's injected with the Mirakuru since Laurel never dies like Shado did in canon, allowing the initial plan to capture the Amazo to go off without a hitch. The group ultimately doesn't splinter until after Laurel and Shado discover him trying to conduct experiments using the former prisoners, at which point they're already out at sea, far away from Lian Yu.
  • After Laurel and Shado are recruited to the League of Assassins, not only does Laurel kill Maseo in their final trials in order to be properly inducted into the League, but they are subsequently sent to Gotham as part of Ra's' latest attempt to "recruit" Batman as his heir (Word of God explicitly notes that Sara would never have been given such an assignment given her relationship with Nyssa; Laurel and Shado aren't as close to Nyssa and are better fighters than Sara would have been at this point, making Ra's more inclined to trust them).
    • Maseo's own entry into the League is different from canon. Instead of offering up the Alpha-Omega Virus, he offers the Soultaker Sword instead, which came into his possession after Tatsu and Akio were killed by the Triad. According to Word of God, without Oliver or Laurel to help him in Hong Kong, Maseo wasn't able to complete his mission and ended up leaving A.R.G.U.S. in grief after the deaths of his family.
  • It's explicitly noted that Laurel's role in the latest attempt to make Batman Ra's' heir led to the Joker's death, which would seem to prevent Batman's canon retirement (assuming that Luke Fox was correct and Bruce walked away after killing the Joker (Batwoman (2019))).
    • The Joker's death is also what draws Noah Kuttler/The Calculator to Gotham, causing him to start a robbery spree using the Brother Eye Virus. After he's captured and arrested, he sells out Felicity as the true creator of the virus, leading her to get arrested too.
  • Because Laurel ends up joining the League of Assassins instead of A.R.G.U.S., her last three years away go differently from Oliver's. In addition to Maseo being unable to secure the Alpha-Omega Virus and losing both Akio and Tatsu, Laurel's decision to stay in Gotham and learn under Bruce means she has nothing to do with Shadowspire's operation, allowing them to continue their work unimpeded until they claimed the Khushu idol. As another result of that, Laurel has absolutely no reason to go to Russia and take down Kovar (who instead is killed by Shado as part of her initiation into the League).
  • Instead of a night club, Oliver uses the old steel mill to open a charity foundation named after Laurel.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The spirit of this is invoked if not outright stated when Malcolm Merlyn shows up at the Queen Mansion on his son's birthday, not only having forgotten the significance of the date, but outright ignoring it in favor of business even after he's reminded. Everyone else present is openly appalled and angered at his actions, with Sara explicitly musing that Laurel would have called Malcolm out on this attitude if she'd been around, and being tempted to do so in her sister's stead.
• Yandere: Slade, for Laurel, after he's injected with the Mirakuru. He goes from being respectful to obsessive, violently attacking anyone he perceives as a threat to her or to their 'relationship'. After he finally confesses to Laurel, he constantly tries to force her to accept his feelings and enter a relationship with him, even threatening Shado at one point to force her hand. When Laurel still refuses him, he then tries to kill Shado, feeling that if he can't have Laurel, then no one can.

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