Continuing the “Birds of Prey” fanfiction: Batman coordinates with Commissioner Gordon. Meanwhile, Back Canary prowls Gotham’s streets.
Want to read from the beginning? CLICK HERE!
Detective Sonya Blade had departed a few moments ago.
Commissioner Gordon reached into his desk and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. However, the cigarettes had been replaced with chewing gum. Gordon took a stick.
“For the record, I believe in justice over revenge too.”
With that unmistakable growl, even when among allies, Gordon didn’t need to look to the open window to know Batman stood there.
“Did you get all of that?” Gordon asked.
Batman walked to Gordon’s desk. “Detective Blade is a good cop on paper,” Batman said. “Batgirl will keep an eye on her. They’ll find out what China White is up to.”
“And what about the Chechen, Gamble, and the rest? If White is forcing their hands…”
“I convinced Gamble to hold off on retaliation.”
Gordon leaned back in his chair. “I hope he fared better than Kano.”
Batman ignored Gordon’s sarcasm. “After Batgirl and I helped him at his theater, Gamble was willing to give us time. But not much. I’ll see the Chechen tonight.”
“You think he’ll be amiable to your plan to stop this war?”
“The Chechen thinks he has outside muscle. Sever that tendon, and he’d never go up against Gamble. He’d also rather avoid Penguin’s wrath if he tries bringing in new product without paying Penguin’s fee.”
Gordon laughed. Batman looked at Gordon as if he were the one in the strange costume. “Anything left for my men to do?”
Batman turned back to the window and prepared to exit. “Keep the rest of Gotham safe.”
Gordon threw up his hands. “Thanks for giving us the easy part!”
The commissioner’s words were spoken to an empty room.
Four years had passed since Dinah Lance had prowled the streets of Gotham.
Four years since her fateful confrontation with Heihachi Mishima, the businessman and crime lord from China, who had forced her mother to abandon her.
Mishima had died during that confrontation. He was the only man Dinah had ever killed. She kept telling herself it had been an accident hoping to make things right in her head.
Batman hadn’t accepted that. He banished her from Gotham.
Dinah spent three of the following years traveling the world with various bands; she continuously got into the kind of trouble only her martial arts skills and Canary Cry could get her out from under.
She’d spent the last year in Seattle. The rock star life had its moments, but she was only truly happy when she donned the domino mask, fishnet stockings and leather jacket as Black Canary.
It was odd that Dinah took to that life.
At the time, it was fun to run around as a vigilante. To an extent, it still was, but her encounters with Sonya’s Kano, the ninjas, and that Scorpion thing reminded Dinah this life was just as deadly as Lady Shiva and her mother had warned.
Dinah wondered whether it was the fun or the danger that drew her to the vigilante life.
When they arrived in Gotham, Sonya had gone to police headquarters to seek help with Kano and China White through official channels.
That was a bit of a misnomer since she hadn’t gotten formal permission from her boss in Seattle.
Dinah took to the streets she once knew to see what she could find through unofficial channels.
From the newspapers, Sonya and Dinah had learned Kano was arrested in the Crime Alley/ Park Row section of Gotham. Dinah headed there, remembering the area as a hotspot for all sorts of low-level crime.
Unfortunately, a few hours of snooping under the guise of a reporter gained no more information than when she’d landed in the city.
Dinah was disappointed; she figured the low lives in this city would be eager to talk to a hot, flirty blonde.
Her investigation did garner the attention of some black guys who started following her through the neighborhood.
Dinah quickly cut down a side alley and then up a fire escape so rusted she was surprised it held under her weight.
Once on the roof, she threw on her domino mask and removed her jeans, revealing her Canary fishnets underneath. No point in blowing her fake reporter’s cover.
The three men following Dinah followed her into the alley but lost sight of her. They began a search but didn’t think to look up.
With the men unaware, Dinah leaped down from the fire escape, immediately taking down one of the men. She lashed out with a kick that felled a second man.
The remaining man fumbled for a pistol in a shoulder holster.
“Pull that and things get lethal,” Black Canary said. It was a hollow threat; Canary didn’t kill. Well, not anymore. This guy didn’t know that.
“The Bat team doesn’t kill.” The man’s hand inched further toward his gun.
Black Canary balled her fists. “I’m not with them.”
The would-be gunman stopped cold. He took his hand away from the pistol and held both hands in the air. Black Canary stalked toward him. “Why are you following that reporter?” she asked.
“She was asking too many questions,” the man replied.
“That’s her job. Which questions bothered you?”
“She was asking about that red-eyed bastard who attacked the theater.”
Black Canary now stood in front of the man who had followed her as Dinah. “Yeah? Tell me everything you know about this red-eyed bastard and what he was doing here.”
Canary saw the man look at something behind her. She turned to see one of the first men she’d tackled aiming a gun at her. His hand was shaking; he probably had a time focusing with the concussion she probably gave him.
Before Black Canary could react, a bat-shaped boomerang knocked the gun from the man’s hand. Then a person in leather and a cape looking like a bat dropped down and gave the man a second concussion.
To Canary’s surprise, this bat wasn’t a man… but a girl.
You can’t operate in Gotham City without one of the bat-vigilantes knowing. Come back tomorrow for the first meeting between Black Canary and Batgirl!
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!
