Ramping up to the climax of this “Birds of Prey” fanfiction as Black Canary, Batgirl and Sonya Blade converge on a meeting between the Chechen and (presumably) China White!

Want to read from the beginning? CLICK HERE!

Sonya steered the rental car through sparse, late-night Gotham traffic. She and her passenger, Dinah Lance/ Black Canary, followed the Chechen’s caravan of department store box truck and flanking sedans.

The duo tailed the Gotham mobsters from the northern part of the city to the lower east side of the main island.

The downtown area’s dense placement of skyscrapers thinned out as they reached the rail yard just north of Tricorner Island.

Sonya parked in a side alley a few blocks from the rail yard. She then reached into the backseat and grabbed a camera bag. She and Canary then left the car and headed for the rail yard.

A chain-link fence barred the detective and the vigilante from entering. From their vantage point, they saw the Gotham mobsters stopping at the main entrance gate.

The driver of the lead sedan exchanged words with a guard at the gate. The guard returned to the guard shack and admitted the mobsters into the yard.

“We’re going in after them, right?” Black Canary asked, though her tone alluded to her words being a statement.

“We may not have to if they stay in sight,” Sonya said, patting her camera bag.

Black Canary gave Sonya an incredulous look. Sonya frowned. “Gordon said I could snoop around with an escort,” she said. “Out of respect for him allowing that — against my captain’s wishes, by the way — I’ll observe, but not interfere.”

Sonya pulled her camera and a telephoto lens out of her bag. Canary looked on with disappointment. Sonya huffed.

“My case against Kano in Seattle got bounced because I went charging in with no warrant, no proper procedure,” Sonya said. “I can’t let that happen again with China White.”

The detective attached the lens to the camera.

“Sounds like somebody’s growing up,” Canary said, with a bit of pride in her tone.

Sonya flashed a sideways glance at Canary, who looked back at the buildings beyond the chain-link fence.

“I, however, am still a masked vigilante who can go where I please.”

Sonya snickered. “How’d that work out with Batgirl?”

Black Canary mock-punched Sonya’s shoulder. The detective smiled and said, “Let’s see what we can see.”

Canary started toward the fence. Sonya reached out a hand to stop her. “From here, Dinah.”

Through her binoculars, Batgirl watched from a perch just outside of the Tricorner Rail Yard. Two sedans and a box truck passed through the rail yard’s main gate. She checked the time via her cowl’s head’s up display.

A few weeks ago, Batman uncovered word of the Chechen receiving a shipment from an unknown source. When Kano and the White Fang ninjas showed up, he made the connection between the shipment and China White.

Since the Park Row incident, Batgirl spied on the Chechen to learn the location and time of the shipment’s arrival. She’d gotten it and relayed it to Batman just before Black Canary crashed the party.

The Chechen was running late, probably because of the mess Black Canary made of his mall office. It surprised Batgirl that the Chechen planned to attend the meeting. He must think the vigilantes were onto him.

China White wouldn’t appreciate a potential new business partner starting with the heat on him, heat that could spread to her.

Whatever China White shipped to the Chechen must be financially lucrative. Either that, or he was afraid to cross White. After all, she upheld her end of the deal by sending Kano against his rival Gamble.

They may not have destroyed the operation at the Monarch Theater, but Gamble would lose time re-establishing the mini casino in a new location as White’s thugs made that spot too hot.

Thanks to her head start over the Chechen, Batgirl surveyed the area before he arrived. The rail yard is a classification yard; no goods move through it.

Instead, incoming trains sat uncoupled so their cars could combine with other cars to create new variations of trains.

Batgirl surmised this would be the perfect spot to ship an illegal package. Who would expect to find it in a place where no one ships anything?

Her surveillance found nothing unusual within the yard. Besides the two guards at the gate, the place lacked any noticeable personnel.

It’d be a few hours yet before the early morning work shift descended to continue the yard’s business.

Batgirl watched the Chechen’s caravan continue through the rail yard toward the maintenance building on the east side.

Still no sign of White’s people. Batgirl would have to look closer.

All the heroes are on site at the rail yards. The Chechen is here… but where is China White? Or at least her emissaries? Find out next chapter… maybe?

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!