Name: Melissa Dinah Lance
Hero Name: Songbird
Known Alias': Screaming Siren, The Canary,
Age: 20
Powers: Melissa has the ability to create various sonic effects through the combined action of her vocal chords and harness. She can produce the following effects:

Sonic Scream
Can create an ultrasonic shockwave powerful enough to stun or injure foes as well as objects. She is also able to create a number of disorientating effects by using a specific note or oscillating between two notes (the effects she can cause are vertigo, nausea, confusion, dizziness and unconsciousness)

Sonar
By sending out a precise, pure note and listening to the returning, altered wavefront of the note, she can evaluate her surroundings in total darkness

Constructs
Her harness allows her to manipulate sound waves into physical constructs. She is able to create wings that allow her to fly or shields that protect her from incoming bullets/blasts etc.

Equipment:
Voice augmenting Harness - The harness enhances her natural powers and also enables her to have finer control over them.

Skills:
Investigation
Melissa has experience in using deductive reasoning to come to a conclusion. She uses this to analyse a variety of situations including crime scenes.

Martial Arts
Melissa has extensive training in various martial arts including Krav Maga, Aikido, Hapkido, Judo and Tae Kwon Do.

Gymnastics and Acrobatics
Melissa has years of experience in both gymnastics and acrobatics. Studying both in order to build agility and flexibility.

Appearance:



Melissa looks somewhat like a dainty doll standing at only 5"5' and 125 lbs. She’s slender with a small bust and hips and a delicate heart-shaped face. However, she is stronger than she appears. She has a toned musculature from years of experience in Gymnastics, various martial arts and acrobatics. Her most striking features are her piercing blue eyes and white-blonde hair.



Known Associates:
Ted Grant (Wildcat)
Friend of her mother who has trained her since she was a young child

Roy Harper (Speedy)
The sidekick of Green Arrow, he and Melissa have been friends and training partners since childhood. He’s a close friend.

Green Arrow
A friend of her adoptive father, she thinks of him as a sort of uncle and trains with his sidekick Roy.

The Fixer
The fixer is an associate of her fathers and after her father’s death, he gifted her with the power augmenting harness explaining that her father had requested one be made for himself but that the fixer thought she should use it instead. She also goes to him when she is in need of information on specific technology etc.

Hawkeye
Melissa was rescued from Baron Zemo by Hawkeye.

Known Adversaries:
Discord
A villain that held a grudge against Melissa for deafening him with her sonic scream.

Baron Zemo
An associate of her father’s Melissa had met Zemo on several occasions. However after her father died, Zemo abducted her with the intention of indoctrinating her and using her to aid HYDRA. Though she was rescued she still hates and fears Zemo.

Canon Basis:
An amalgamation of Melissa Gold (Songbird and Screaming Mimi) and Dinah Laurel Lance (Black Canary)

Personality

Melissa learned very early in her life that showing her emotions was a weakness, something that could be exploited. Her father consistently trained her to never show vulnerability and as such, she learned to use humour as a facade. Consequently, she never appears to take anything seriously and is often sarcastic. She does not like to talk about herself and will deflect with humour whenever she’s asked anything personal.

Obviously, she does feel emotions she’s just not very good at expressing them or asking for help and on the occasions when she can’t hide her feelings she usually displays them as anger. But considering she was ‘raised’ by a ruthless criminal intent on turning her into a weapon, she’s actually not as screwed up as you’d expect. Perhaps the biggest impact this childhood had was on her outlook on things, she’s incredibly cynical for someone her age.

She is also more likely to use underhanded/criminal methods to get the job done. She wouldn’t kill anyone but she has no issue with using her contacts in the criminal world to get information. Sometimes her methods do come close to the line, such as beating a suspect for information or using someone as bait, but she never crosses it.

Bio:

Melissa’s life has never been a simple or easy one. From the moment she was born it seemed she was destined to face strife. She never knew her mother and was told by her father, that she was a one night stand he had had. He only discovered Melissa after her mother appeared demanding money. Her father was a career criminal and did not take kindly to having anyone demand anything from him and turned his back on them. However, a few weeks later he found Melissa abandoned outside his home. Neither he nor Melissa ever saw her mother again.

Her father, Eli Gold, initially did not intend on raising Melissa but after a few weeks, he’d changed his mind and decided to raise her as his own. However, Eli was not in any way a normal parent and Melissa’s childhood was spent basically learning how to be a criminal. From practically the moment she could walk he had her begin training under various of his associates learning multiple martial arts, gymnastics and more. Determined to mould her in his image he did not allow her to do anything that didn’t further her education.

Her playtimes consisted of learning how to clean and maintain weaponry, how to analyse and investigate scenarios and most importantly learning to control her powers. By the time she was 12 she was a black belt in multiple martial arts and capable of planning criminal operations and analysing information. Her life was changed dramatically however when her father and his team were caught and imprisoned. Having been trained and emotionally manipulated by her father for her entire life Melissa went on the run. But although she was very skilled for a 12-year-old she was still only a child and she was found.

She was put into the foster system and things could have gone much worse but Melissa was lucky. She was fostered, and then adopted, by Larry Lance (a police officer) and his wife Mimi. Given her unusual upbringing, the couple recognised that they couldn’t just raise her as a normal child. Larry was friends with the hero Green Arrow and asked the archer for his assistance, he agreed to train Melissa building on the skills she’d learned. Gradually with the help of Green Arrow, Roy, and Larry, Melissa began to be more of her own person and she decided she wanted to be a hero.

She spent the rest of her childhood and teenage years learning not only skills she would need to fight crime but also about things Eli had never bothered to teach her such as history, pop culture and more. When she was 18 Melissa began to join Speedy and Green Arrow on their crimefighting endeavours and it was during one of these that she came face to face with her father. Eli had escaped from prison and was hell-bent on getting her back and seeking revenge on those who had taken her and corrupted her.

However, Melissa refused to leave with him and fought against him. Unfortunately during this battle, Melissa’s emotions about her father boiled over and she lost control of her powers. Her sonic scream killed her father and deafened one of his team (Discord)
Melissa was devastated at what she had done and when she discovered she couldn’t use her powers, believed it to be a good thing. But she’d only overtaxed them and after a few weeks, she was fully restored. Frightened by her loss of control she was determined to never use her abilities again but The Fixer changed that. He had always had a soft spot for her and even though they were on opposite sides of the law he had always kept an eye on her.

In a discreet manner, he arranged for her to receive a gift that he had been holding onto for the last year. Something he had made for her father but now thought she should have. Initially reluctant, Melissa eventually took and used the gift (the power augmenting harness) which allowed her to control her abilities to a much stronger degree. In the two years since her father’s death, she has continued to work with Green Arrow and Speedy to fight crime.

Hawkeye, unbeknownst to her, was the one who sponsored her for the Tony Start Initiative as he has been keeping a discreet eye on her over the last couple of years after seeing her potential during and after her rescue from Baron Zemo’s clutches.