The final confrontation between Batman and Kano! And I bring Black Canary and Sonya Blade back to get us closer to the formation of the Birds of Prey!
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“This the part where I’m supposed to cower and beg for my life?” Kano stood at one end of the street. He faced Gotham City’s self-appointed defender, Batman.
“If you’re smart,” Batman said.
Kano laughed. “Never been too smart.”
A bolt of red-hued energy fired from Kano’s cybernetic eye.
Batman dodged under the blast and released an attack of his own — a Bat-Shuriken. It pierced Kano’s cybernetic eye.
Kano grabbed his face and shrieked in pain.
Batman closed the distance between the two men. He stopped Kano’s scream with an elbow to his throat. The Aussie stumbled back but held remained standing.
The criminal’s yell of anguish turned to one of rage. He charged at Batman, leading with a right hook. The vigilante took a step back.
Kano’s punched sailed through empty air.
Batman countered with a kick that shattered Kano’s thigh. The criminal collapsed to the ground.
The Dark Knight grabbed the criminal by his gaudy shirt and pulled him up so they were face-to-face. “Now you cower and beg for your life,” Batman said.
Kano spat on Batman’s cowl. He followed that with a weak laugh
Batman’s lips curled into a scowl. He then answered Kano’s insult with a punch square into Kano’s face.
The Aussie passed out, his cybernetic eye and nose bleeding.
Batman dropped him to the ground.
“Way to go, Batman!” a voice shouted. It was young, not much older than early teens.
Batman looked toward the source. In a window two stories up and closest to the alley, he saw a young black boy and his younger brother. “Isn’t tonight a school night?” he said.
Shocked, the boy pulled his brother back inside and closed the window.
Batgirl glided down and landed next to Batman. He kneeled to handcuff Kano.
“Always fun to watch you work,” Batgirl said.
“This isn’t the end,” Batman said.
Batgirl nodded. “I saw Kano meet with some of the Chechen’s men before the ninjas showed up. If that gets back to Gamble, he’ll go after the Chechen. He may do that anyway.”
Batman glanced at the battered criminal at his feet. “Kano said one thing that made sense. He’s never been too smart.”
“You think China White sent him to make a deal with the Chechen?” Batgirl asked.
“Trading muscle for inroads to the territory. Chechen deals in drugs, as does White.”
“Great. Only a matter of time before Penguin gets wind of all of this and asks for his cut. Three-way gang war!”
“It won’t get to that,” Batman said in a dark tone that made his statement a fact. “I’ll see Gamble tonight and contain him.”
“Want me to see the Chechen?”
“Not tonight. Go back to the cave. Rest. You have lunch with your father tomorrow.”
Batgirl blinked. “You go through my calendar?”
He and Batgirl heard the deep growl of a powerful engine approaching.
“Jim mentioned you always have lunch on Wednesdays,” Batman said. “Along with his wish for you to go to Gotham U.”
Batgirl threw up her hands. “Don’t you start on that too!”
A moment later, a sleek car as dark as night drifted around the street corner at high speed. Its angled front sped straight for the bat-motif-ed vigilantes.
Batgirl stepped to the side.
Batman remained in the Batmobile’s path.
“Gather the shuriken in the sedan window,” Batman said over the roar of the Batmobile. “Leave them on the window two stories up, closest to the alley.”
The Batmobile’s roof broke open, sliding back over the rear of the car. Batman leaped into the air, over the front of the vehicle and landed in the driver’s seat.
The roof closed into place over him as the car raced off into the night.
Batgirl watched the car ride away. “Show off.”
She looked to the window Batman had mentioned and saw two young boys looking back down at her. They were mesmerized by their luck at seeing the vigilantes in action.
Batgirl admitted she had the same reaction when she first saw the Batmobile in action.
The vigilante smiled. Batman had the Mr. Fearsome act down but knew who to scare and who to inspire. She headed to retrieve the shuriken Batman intended as a gift.
That morning in Seattle, Dinah was in the middle of a yoga pose when she heard a beep from Sonya’s computer. She approached the machine like it was dangerous to the touch.
Luckily, what she needed to know was printed on the screen — a headline from the website of the Gotham Times newspaper.
Gotham’s infamous vigilantes had left Kano (minus a cybernetic eye and with a broken leg) for Gotham City’s police.
When Dinah had worked Gotham, only Batman and his kid partner Robin worked the streets. She had paid only cursory attention to the city since she’d left and didn’t know of any other vigilantes working in Gotham.
The kid joked while he punched and never left a mark.
What happened to Kano was a Batman thing. He had the nerve to say Dinah’s actions as Black Canary were extreme.
Sonya had left earlier to check in at work. She’d smoothed things over with her captain, explaining the attack on Dinah and China White’s involvement.
Sonya’s captain took the accusation seriously and assigned more detectives to the White detail with Jackson Briggs. Sonya hadn’t gotten the assignment due to her conflict of interest.
With the news on Kano’s capture, Dinah figured she and Sonya wouldn’t find anything in Seattle anyway. The evidence they needed was in a Gotham jail cell.
That is if Dinah was willing to face Batman’s wrath by returning to Gotham to get it.
Batman and Batgirl brought down Kano, but there’s still a world of trouble heading for Gotham.
Can Black Canary and Sonya Blade help put a lid on that danger? Or will the Canary’s presence cause more problems than it’s worth?
Come back next week to find out!
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!
