My “Birds of Prey” fanfiction is back! Kano and his ninjas trap Dinah Lance in a Seattle alley! Can her friend Detective Sonya Blade get to her in time?
Want to read from the beginning? CLICK HERE!
Dinah’s mother was the original Black Canary. During her adventures, the vigilante gained an arch-nemesis in the assassin Lady Shiva.
When Dinah was fifteen, her mutant ability to generate blasts of sonic force emerged. Professor Charles Xavier , the world’s foremost authority on mutants and their powers, came calling with the offer to help Dinah harness that power.
Dinah’s mother politely declined the offer. Instead, she sent young Dinah to study with her alter ego’s nemesis.
Then, her mother disappeared.
Lady Shiva demanded young Dinah earn her keep or face abandonment again. Earning meant training in the martial arts so that she, too, might one day become an assassin.
Part of that training was sparring with ninjas, including Shiva’s daughter, Wu Ming-Yue.
Over the nine years that Dinah was with Shiva, she battled more ninjas than she thought Japan could hold.
Shiva declared each encounter a training exercise. She left out the part about how failing the exercise meant Dinah would die.
Though a brutal taskmaster, Lady Shiva’s training prepared Dinah for precisely this moment.
Once again, if Dinah failed, she would die.
At the least, she wanted to stay alive long enough to wipe that smug smile from Kano’s face.
Smarter than the average thug, the ninjas came at Dinah with a plan. Kano and his ninjas stepped to the sides of the alley as the bowmen at the mouth of the alley fired at Dinah.
Of course, Dinah didn’t want to get hit. Taking the initiative, she charged in a zigzag pattern at the firing ninjas.
Dinah would have loved blasting them with her Canary Cry as she went but restrained. She didn’t know what lay beyond the ninjas out on the street.
She also reflected that she’d already used the Cry twice. All she needed was one of those nosy citizens to put that and her presence together, especially with her out of the mask.
Dinah’s bold frontal assault caused two of the ninja bowmen to flinch; their shots went wide, arrows embedding in the alley walls.
One bowman got lucky: his arrow slashed Dinah’s arm. She fought through the pain and continued her run toward the five attacking ninjas.
Dinah soon stood before them, her proximity to the group neutralizing the bowmen’s weapons.
Then Dinah felt woozy.
Her condition didn’t stop the two swordsmen from attacking her.
Dinah parried their blows and got in one of her own, but it was weaker than she intended. Dinah stumbled back.
The swordsmen pressed their attack but did no better than before.
The vigilante rock star performed a roundhouse kick that knocked one ninja to the ground.
Dinah nearly fell to the ground herself.
Something was wrong with her. A sinking feeling hit her as to why she suddenly felt this way.
Poison.
“What’s a matter, Canary?” Dinah heard Kano yell from down the alley. “You’re looking a bit outta sorts there.”
The three bow-wielding ninjas dropped their weapons in favor of ninja-to swords.
Glancing back at the ninjas with Kano, two swordsmen stood with the red-eyed cyclops of a criminal.
The bowmen slowly approached Dinah’s position. They lined up arrows on their bows and waited for the opportunity to strike.
During their exercises, Lady Shiva would allow the ninjas to kill Dinah if she acted below her ability, but she would only let them do so using honorable tactics.
Should they do something like poison their enemy, Shiva would step in to Dinah’s defense.
Unfortunately, Shiva wasn’t here now.
Sonya raced on foot through Belltown traffic. She could see the smoke in the air from the detonated bomb a few blocks away.
Police and first responders cordoned off the area, preventing even foot traffic from getting in.
Approaching the barricades, Sonya reached for her badge. A uniformed cop just behind the barricade approached her. A flash of her detective badge got her past the barricade.
However, there was still plenty of chaos before her.
Cars that crashed soon after the explosion cluttered the intersection. Their owners had long since abandoned them to get to the other side of the barricades and perceived safety.
Other uniformed officers ushered people out of the danger zone.
Sonya saw bruises, cuts, and, in one case, a man being carried as he’d broken his leg.
It looked like a war zone, covered in choking smoke.
A loud scream came from a block south. It wasn’t a typical scream; it sounded amplified, but not through technological means. A second one followed.
People around Sonya heard it too but didn’t know what to make of it. Sonya did, as she’d heard the scream many times before.
The Canary Cry.
Sonya quickly headed toward her friend.
The two swordsmen charged at Dinah. She leaped past them and toward the wall. Pressing off the wall with her feet, she vaulted through the air, sailing over the bowmen. Upon landing, she stumbled to one knee.
One of the former bowmen tracked the move. He slashed at Dinah’s position, but even in her poisoned state, Dinah avoided the attack.
She hated having to run from a fight with punks like these, but Dinah needed to deal with the poison coursing through her system.
She couldn’t do that while fighting.
The closest hospital was fifteen blocks away. Dinah wondered if she’d make it that far. She wouldn’t make it on foot.
Forcing herself to get moving, Dinah stumbled toward the mouth of the alley. She’d grab one of those scooters that were all the rage nowadays if that was the most expedient way out.
A swordsman advanced on her and swung his blade. Dinah got out of the blade’s way, just barely avoiding his attack.
Too bad she couldn’t do that with that damned arrow earlier.
Two more ninjas advanced. The other two swordsmen remaining from the original five moved toward Dinah.
Two gunshots stopped them.
Vigilantes and cops and ninjas, oh my! How is Dinah getting out of this one? Find out in the next chapter!
While writing this fanfiction, I used Green Ronin’s Mutants and Masterminds, 3rd Edition RPG, to leave some things to chance. Check it out!
Like this Birds of Prey fanfiction? Check out Mark’s original “Shadowdance” saga books!
