zerocharliexray | [oom] a beautiful night in Gotham City

"C'mon, honey," she says, softly, though she smiles. "Let's get you back outside."

And back for a few more moments with Sharon, before they have to split up. And who knows what might happen then?

She shakes the thought away and leads him back into the Gotham night, the stars all but invisible above the glow of the city.

Dinah is waiting with Sharon and the other men when they return to the rooftop, leaning against the ladder that leads down to the fire escape and the car she's got waiting down there. It's not the speediest or most stylish of her fleet, but it'll fit five people without anyone having to cross any personal boundaries.

"Ready to go?"

"Ready," he confirms, touching his earbud to make sure it's transmitting properly so Zinda'll be able to hear him from the docks. Bucky makes sure all his borrowed weapons are properly secured for travel - wouldn't want anyone to have concerns in such close proximity, after all.

Dinah's own earpieces are not her usual custom earrings, because they're just screaming to be torn out. Rather, she has a more traditional, if invisible, comm in her ear, and she touches her lobe to show Bucky she's got one too.

"I'll drive, then. First one down gets shotgun."

And with that she hops over the railing, using the ladder only occasionally to effectively slow her descent to the road below.

"Oh, I like her," Sharon says, amused and vaults lightly over the railing, confident that Bucky will follow right after.

Ted Grant is last, the only one here of a certain age who actually feels his age, grumbling as he hits the blacktop. Sharon squints up at the night sky above them as the rumble of engines signals the liftoff of the Aerie One, which soars up into the clouds like an enormous bird.

She doesn't want shotgun, though. She lets Connor take it, so she can sit next to Bucky, lacing her fingers through his as Dinah takes them through the streets of Gotham.

What this means, though, is that if they don't occupy themselves, they'll hear Dinah and Connor having a conversation that starts off stilted, like people sounding each other out about where they stand with each other.

"I was sorry to hear about your friend. I wish her the best."

"Thanks, Connor."

And then:

"How's Roy?"

"He's good... you haven't spoken to Roy?"

"Not for a while, I just haven't had the time."

"Oh my god, Connor, call your brother."

"He's not..."

"As good as."

It feels good, Dinah realises. Not perfect, but there's something there. Some connection to the family she's felt she was losing. And it takes her mind of things. Which she needs desparately right now.

Sharon tunes the conversation out, not wanting to intrude, and looks up at Bucky instead, a half-smile tugging at her lips.

"Some field trip, huh?"

"Sure is." He gives Grant a cordial nod before turning his attention back to Sharon.

"When we get back--" Because it's a when, not an if. "--I'll set up a training and practice routine with you. If you still want."

She looks a little wry. "You sure?"

There's no doubt that if she'd been training with him all along, she'd be at least at the top of her game; maybe better.

C'est la vie. "I'd like that."

"I'm sure." Quiet, but certain. "After all, if you can defeat me in practice, I'd feel better about you going up against anyone else."

A single beat, and then he offers up one more thing, with a resigned sigh.

"Even M'Baku."

Sharon brightens, grinning, and squeezes his fingers.

"You're on," she says, and looks smug. "And then M'Baku is going down."

"From a completely different universe?" Connor asks, after a moment.

"Couldn't tell, could you?" Dinah asks, trying not to smile, as she slides the SUV around the corner into an ally.

"There's Huntress, and - " she's gobsmacked for a second when she makes out who's with Helena. Savant and Creote she was expecting, but that tall, well built man standing with them.

"...she brought Richard Dragon?"

Sharon peers with interest out the window.

"Who's Richard Dragon? Is he some big deal over here?"

"Oh, no one," Dinah says, as she pulls up near the group, who are walking over to meet them.

"Most people haven't heard of him. He knows Kung Fu."

She wonders if he'll stick around afterwards, treat her to a sparring match if they both survive.

Sharon laughs, which means there's a joke involved that crosses worlds but which he'd been in cryo for, he figures. He'll ask later. For now, he takes a moment to size up their allies. Huntress he remembers Zinda mentioning before, but the others are unknown to him.

There's something about the tallest dark-haired man that reminds him of a Spetsnaz operative. The way he sticks close to the white-haired guy makes him wonder if he's some kind of bodyguard.

The dark-haired woman must be the 'Helena' that Dinah had referred to. She's wearing a skin-tight catsuit-and-cape combination and an unimpressed expression as she glances over Sharon and Bucky.

The tall man in the back, who's built like M'Baku, regards them all implacably, but she can see the way he gauges Bucky, determining his threat level. "Canary," says the new woman, as she comes up. "We cleaned up Tan's goons."

There's grim satisfaction in her glance as she nods her head toward a collection of town cars, men in business suits sprawled around them. "They're not in any kind of shape to accept anything other than a respirator."

God, it's been - far too long, is what it's been, even if it's not been very long at all. And even in that short time there's been too much pain.

Dinah really wants to hug Helena. Hug her tight and make her promise that they're still friends, they're still good. But... that can wait. They can make up and bury hatchets after they've survived what's to come.

"Thanks, Huntress," she says, and the steel of her Team Leader voice is leaching into her demeanour already, as she turns slightly to introduce her team.

"You know Wildcat and Green Arrow. Sharon here's going to be on the ground with us. Sergeant Barnes," she lifts her chin to acknowledge them both, "is going to clear the boat for us."

She looks at Savant and Creote, and finds she has nothing to say to them, so instead, bows deeply to Richard Dragon.

"It will an honour to finally fight by your side, Dragon."

"Yeah?" Helena gives Bucky a long, considering look, then lifts her voice and calls over her shoulder. "You're off the hook, Josh. Go home."

"B-but -- " Somewhere behind the group of fighters, a scrawny ginger-haired man, his face liberally speckled with freckles, gets up. "Babyboots! You need Josh!"

"I assure you, I don't," Helena says, exasperated. "Get out of here. You're getting another chance to stay alive, so I suggest you take it."

As the man sputters and complains, the one Dinah called Richard Dragon steps forward and meets Dinah's bow with one of his one. "The honor is mine, Black Canary," he says. "I've heard great things. I look forward to seeing you at work."

Edited 2022-05-13 18:42 (UTC)

Dinah rises fronm her bow, and glances after Josh, then back to Helena, and says nothing because no one likes having their bad choices highlighted.

"Right," she says, gesturing quickly to make everyone stand where they can listen.

"I know I've said this before, but I'm saying it again: these men we're facing are among the best. Think Lady Shiva, League of Assassins level grandmasters of the art of violence.

"They've got a stupid honour code and some messed up ideas of bravery, and I hope to exploit that, but I want to make it clear now: we don't. You are not obligated to fight, even having come this far. And if you want to step back, I will not hold it against you."

She knows, that no one's going to (please, Helena, take the bench on this) but she needs to go into this with her conscience clear that she told them what to expect.

Not a damn one of them moves: not to argue, not to raise their hand and say yeah, no, I'm out. Helena -- the Huntress -- gazes narrowly back at Dinah, her chin stubbornly raised.

"We will fight," says the white-haired man, suddenly. "Creote?"

The mountainous man behind him shrugs. "I would prefer to shoot them," he says, in a thick Russian accent. "But we will fight."

"Yeah, I'm in, too," Helena says. Sharon shrugs and activates the bracelet at her wrist; the training clothes she'd been wearing dissolve as the white vibranium catsuit grows from the bracelet over her body. Once it's complete, she's almost a mirror image of Dinah, though her sleeves are long and end in gloved hands.

"We came all this way," she points out. "Seems kind of a waste to back out now."

Dinah makes herself look back at the two men who broke her legs, imprisioned her, made her relieve her worst nightmare, and thought she doesn't quite succeed in pretending she doesn't despise them, she does manage to give them both a nod.

"Thank you, Savant, Creote."

And of course, thanks Helena, whose brazen brass ballsiness may one day get her killed, but is always a heartwarming presence by Dinah's side. She didn't think for a second Helena would step down, not least because this is her fight, but Dinah loves her for it.

Sharon's costume change gets no second glance beyond a nod of acknowledgment, as she goes on:

"Their honour means they must never be defeated, which means they will not back down, and will go aggressive from the off. Don't waste your time holding back, take them down fast.

"There are a couple of plays I'm going to call, so listen up..."

They're outnumbered, and the only way they're going to walk away is to work as a team. Most of these are current or former JSA, or an inseparable duo like Savant and Creote. Dinah hopes that Sharon can also be a team player, because they're going to need. it.

She'd give a lot to be able to talk some tactics over with Bucky, but it seems unlikely that there will be time. She listens closely, instead, as Dinah outlines their approach and gives them a bit of background on their opponents.

Hard to say what to make of her new allies. Ted Grant might be a champion boxer, but how will he do against a striking system that employs kicks as well as punches? Creote and Savant stick as close to each other as she's been sticking to Bucky. Will they work with the rest of the team, or allow themselves to be split off?

And this Huntress. Sharon's got no idea what her skill level might be. There's a bright, vicious gleam in the woman's eyes that says she's no stranger to violence.

As Dinah finishes up outlining a play she's calling "Impregnable Mountain," a long, mournful sound comes bellowing over the water: a fog horn. And in the mist over the water past the pier, a few faint lights can just be seen, sailing steadily closer.

Too soon.

Dinah hates the way the fog horn sounds like the roar of some monster, about to lurch out of the fog and tear her loved ones limb from limb. It invokes a visceral reaction - ice that hits her stomach worse than anything she's faced with the Justice League.

But she wouldn't swap Ted, Connor and Huntress by her side for Clark, Bruce or Diana. That's the truth. There's only person missing from this fight, and she has to force her hand down from her ear - Zinda is no substitute for an Oracle pep talk.

"Right," she says, looking up over the water. "Let me take point, they know me. Game faces, everyone. Bucky, get hidden."

He listens intently to Dinah's proposed strategy, sizing up the team, mentally assessing and fitting Sharon's skills into the mix. When Dinah calls the order, he gives her a quick nod and Sharon one equally swift glance before he melts into the shadows like a silent ghost.

It won't take long to get into position and wait for what comes next.

She shouldn't be this scared - she's faced worse than these men, really. But Dinah knows that this isn't really fear for her, or of her opponent. It's not really fear for her comrades either, but it keeps trying to convince her otherwise.

She's scared because one of the people she loves most in this entire world is dying of the same thing that killed her mother, and she's not there.

As the cargo ship looms over them, she knows the brothers must see them, and eventually they appear at the railings.

"Hello, Silk Brothers!" she calls up, and their leader grins down at her, his teeth glinting in the light of the docks.

"Hello, Miss Crenshaw. Or may I call you Siu Jerk Jai?"

Well, so much for the element of surprise. They know of her association with Lady Shiva.

Well, she hopes that scares them, just a little bit.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject