In my latest “Birds of Prey” fanfiction, Black Canary re-teams with Sonya Blade and with a lead on China White’s activity in Gotham. Batgirl’s headed in the same direction.

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Thanks to the comm unit in her cowl, Batgirl could hear Batman as if he were next to her despite racing nearly a hundred miles an hour through Gotham’s nighttime streets.

“Black Canary tipped Chechen to knowing about China White,” Batgirl said. “He may not show up for the meet.”

“The Chechen has seen what China White’s people can do,” Batman growled over the comm. “If he doesn’t accept the shipment, she’d turn on him and take Gotham by force.”

“Should I let him take the shipment and bust him after?”

“Take them all at the site. Make sure White understands that she’s not welcome in Gotham.”

Batgirl smiled. “I’m headed to the rail yard now. Could use some backup, though.”

“Riddler’s men stole Lemarchand’s Box from the Gotham Museum of Antiquities. Murdered some guards and left a riddle. The incident has Major Crimes and me tied up. But you’ll have backup.”

Batgirl started to ask, but then she realized when she mentioned Black Canary, Batman didn’t scold her for letting the rogue vigilante near the Chechen. With him occupied, he must have figured Canary would assist Batgirl.

But Batgirl soundly told Canary to stand down and left her. How would she figure out how to catch up?

“If things get difficult,” Batman said, “call Commissioner Gordon. He’s already aware of the White-Chechen deal. I just didn’t tell him where so we could get there first and minimize civilian casualties.”

Batgirl always felt weird talking about James Gordon in the third person. It was like he was merely an ally in their war on crime and not her father.

Because of her vigilante activity, Gordon only knew his daughter as Barbara, the bookish genius wasting her talent on a low-level start-up to avoid college. He didn’t know her as the vigilante Batgirl.

Barbara worried that if he did, he’d end her vigilante crusade and turn on Batman for encouraging it, despite it being her choice to become a vigilante.

Besides, Gordon was already a criminal target for being Gotham’s top cop. He didn’t need “father of Batgirl” to enlarge that target.

“I’ll get the lay of the land and call Gordon,” Batgirl said.

With that, Batman signed off. Batgirl continued her drive to the rail yard on the lower west side. Black Canary explicitly ignoring her request to stay behind still rankled her, but she saw how the woman handled herself. She’d be an asset — if she weren’t so headstrong and undisciplined.

Batgirl hoped Black Canary would make the party on time.

Black Canary stood up as the headlights of a rented sedan pierced the night’s darkness as it turned the street corner up ahead. The sedan pulled up to her. Sonya Blade sat inside.

“I can see why you couldn’t get an Uber in the Bowery,” Sonya said.

Black Canary got into the car. “I only had to fight off two muggers and one homeless guy asking for beer.”

“Batgirl ditch you?”

“After a very long speech about how I betrayed her trust and how she should have listened to Batman and sent me back to Seattle.”

Sonya shook her head. She started driving. “Did pissing off Gotham’s other vigilante at least get you any info?”

Canary shook her head. “I was about to ask the Chechen what he knew about China White when Batgirl busted in and dragged me out.” Canary hit her fist against her open palm. “I bet he was gonna tell me something. Why did she stop him?”

“You didn’t ask her?”

“Couldn’t get a word in. Then she took back her headset and headed out. In a bit of a hurry, too.”

“Any clue where she went?”

“No,” Black Canary said. Then she smiled mischievously. “But the Chechen is still at that abandoned mall.”

Sonya nodded in understanding.

Ten minutes later, the vigilante and detective from Seattle parked a block away from the mall.

Sonya had just killed the lights when they saw two sedans and a box truck belonging to one of the mall’s abandoned big box stores pull out of the mall’s parking lot.

“Abandoned mall, right?” Sonya asked.

“Since the eighties, from the look of the place,” Canary replied.

“Then why would a department store truck be leaving the place?”

The detective and the vigilante exchanged glances. Sonya started the engine. “One way to find out,” she said.

Wait. Lemarchand’s Box sounds familiar. But that’s a story for another day.

Meanwhile, next week starts the climax of this “Birds of Prey” fanfiction as all parties converge on the Gotham rail yards! It all goes down in the next chapters!

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!