Continuing the Gotham City segment of this Birds of Prey fanfiction, Gotham gang bosses Gamble and the Chechen standoff as two Gotham vigilantes break up the party.
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The Chechen held up his hands to appear disarming. “You do not want drugs in your neighborhoods. I respect that.” He took a puff on his cigar, then used it to emphasize his next words.
“Now, you must respect me by keeping your drugs out of my neighborhoods.”
“You could have just asked,” Gamble said.
“And would you have respected my wishes?”
Gamble thought about this. “Probably not,” he mumbled.
The Chechen shrugged. “Then we are at an impasse, as they say.”
“Except I didn’t come up in your hood waving my dick,” Gamble said. “Shitting on your rep.”
“Instead, you poison people on my turf.”
“You don’t give a damned fuck about those people, long as they buy your high-priced whores!”
“Asas you care for yours?”
“You’re damned right, I do!” Gamble said. “And if you ever bring your shit into my community like that again —”
The Chechen dismissed Gamble with a wave of his cigar.
Gamble grabbed the Chechen and drew him in. “I should throw your Eurotrash ass right off this roof, be done with this!”
“And then my dogs will be done with you, your men, and there will be a war.”
Gamble glanced at Maurice. He had his handgun out, pointed at the Chechen’s men. They had also drawn guns.
The man with the dogs looked ready to let them loose.
“What would a war do to your community, heh?” the Chechen said through a mocking smile.
Gamble locked eyes with the Chechen.
“My men will retaliate,” the Chechen said, undeterred by Gamble’s anger or the threat of violence. “. We will burn your community to the ground.”
Gamble pulled the Chechen toward the edge of the rooftop. Abram yelled for him to stop. Maurice yelled something about putting down the dogs.
A thin, tensile line wrapped itself around Gamble’s legs, then pulled the African -American mobster off his feet. He and the Chechen went down but were still on the rooftop.
All the mobsters’ eyes followed the line toward the adjacent rooftop. A boy barely out of his teens stood over there. He wore a bright orange tunic with green leggings, boots, and gloves. A yellow cape hung behind his back.
Though he wore a domino mask, the yellow “R” in a black circle on his left chest gave away his identity.
Robin, the Boy Wonder.
“If you guys can’t play nice,” Robin yelled across the ten-foot gap between buildings, “you all have to go home!”
One of the Chechen’s men moved to get a clear shot at Robin. He took it, but Robin was already in the air, performing a gymnast-worthy leap and flip to get him onto the roof with the mobsters.
The thug’s bullet pierced only blasted thin air.
In mid-air, Robin threw two Bat-Shuriken at Gamble’s two henchmen. They struck each man in the gun hand. The pain made them drop their weapons and grasp their hands.
Robin casually landed on the roof with the gangsters as easily as if he’d just leaped from his bed to the bedroom floor.
The Chechen’s man re-aimed at Robin. A bola wrapped around the man’s arms, throwing off his aim. His second shot went as wild as the first.
“Thanks for having my back, Batgirl!” Robin said over the commlink hidden in his mask.
The Chechen’s dog handler looked in the direction from which the bolas had come. Back across the rooftop, he saw a silhouette easily mistaken for Batman.
Yet this silhouette was that of an auburn-haired girl. Like Robin, she was in her teens. She wore a black costume with yellow gloves, boots, belt, and cape lining.
This was Batgirl.
“Can’t have you showing me up!” Batgirl said to Robin.
Maurice ran between the violence and got to Gamble’s side. Maurice’s friend and boss worked on removing the line at his feet.
The Chechen was getting up.
“Ain’t the night to tangle with the costumes,” Maurice said, assisting Gamble in freeing the line.
“The Chechen can wait,” Gamble agreed.
While scrambling to put distance between himself and Robin, the Chechen signaled to his man to release the dogs. His command was heeded. The growling dogs charged at the Boy Wonder.
Robin quickly drew two Batarangs and threw them at two of the dogs. He struck them square on the head, knocking them both unconscious.
The third dog leaped at Robin. At the last moment, he ducked. The dog sailed over him —
…and off the roof.
Batgirl’s Batarang-guided Batline snagged the flying dog’s hind legs, pulling it back from the abyss. The dog slammed against the side of the building before Batgirl but was otherwise unhurt.
Batgirl separated her line from her belt and tied the end around a drainpipe, leaving the dog dangling over the edge.
“Always picking up after you,” Batgirl said to Robin over their commlink.
Robin checked on the mobsters.
Abram had gathered up the Chechen and pulled him toward the entrance to the building’s interior. Gamble and his men were already making their way to that exit.
“Don’t go away mad!” Robin called after them. “Just go away!”
The Chechen broke free of Abram and stood his ground. “I’m not leaving my dogs to you!” said.
Batgirl leaped across the gap and landed on the roof next to Robin. “We’re only here to make sure you don’t kill each other,” she said.
“You, unfortunately, burned the evidence we could have used to bring you in.”
“Then you have no reason to hold us,” the Chechen said. “Give me my dogs, and we’ll be on our way.”
Robin and Batgirl exchanged glances. As much as they’d like to bring these goons in, they knew the Chechen had won his freedom this night.
To be continued next Tuesday…
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!
