Zinda Blake (
zerocharliexray) wrote2022-05-10 05:42 pm
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[oom] a beautiful night in Gotham City
The door she opens leads into a handsome old building with high, gracious ceilings. Down the tastefully appointed cream-colored hall, figures are bustling in and out of a room; some dressed in normal civilian clothing, others... not so much. "They're settin' up for the surgery," Zinda explains, and nods to another door not far from them. "That's where the Skipper is. Canary's in there with her, I think."
She looks from Bucky to Sharon and back again. "Mind waitin' while I go fetch her?"
She looks from Bucky to Sharon and back again. "Mind waitin' while I go fetch her?"
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"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.
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"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."
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"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.
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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.
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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."
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It won't take long to get into position and wait for what comes next.
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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.
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The brothers leap from the ship, landing lightly on their feet: twelve all told, each dressed in black silk, each cloak lined in a different color, straw hats obscuring their faces.
All but for one; the one who addresses Dinah. He is bared-headed, and smiling. "We were to deliver the contents of this ship to Mr. Tan's... associates," he says, straightening easily before her.
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Dinah gestures indifferently at the unconscious bodies Helena and her team have left, artfully laid out over some sweet looking cars, for the viewing pleasure of any visiting drug smugglers.
"We're here to stop you, Rabbit," she says, lifting her head to draw attention to the seven people at her back. "Welcome to Gotham."
It's all bravado, sorry Sharon. But that doesn't mean she isn't going to keep it up. It's part of the fight already.
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"Are you?" he says, pleasantly. "And you have brought these fighters in an attempt to provide for us some small sort of challenge, Siu Jerk Jai?"
At Sharon's side, Ted Grant, his Wildcat hood pulled up over his head and face, snorts quietly. "These assholes," he mutters. "Give me a straightforward fight any day."
Meanwhile, the lead brother -- his family arranged silently behind him -- addresses Dinah. "You wish to face us in honorable combat?"
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"I respectfully request no weapons be used, Rabbit. We request the honor of trial by hand."
She knows Helena will hate it. She knows Creote and Savant will too, but she doesn't care about them. The brothers are too proficient with their blades, too lethal. Hand to hand is where she and Ted both live.
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He says this over his shoulder, and a moment later an alarming array of weapons goes scattering to the ground: throwing stars, blades, cudgels of all sorts.
Helena, the Huntress, looks sulky but sets down a miniature crossbow and a small quiver of bolts; her weapons are quickly joined by Connor's bow and quiver of arrows, Savants cudgels, and a series of small handguns and throwing knives which Creote removes from wherever they'd been hiding about his person.
Sharon gives up nothing; she brought no weapons. Rabbit turns back to Dinah: smiling, smiling, smiling. "Shall we begin, Siu Jerk Jai? Or have you other requests?"
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"We additionally request that four of your number sit this one out to even the sides."
He grins when he denies - she's glad she could amuse him at least.
"All right," Dinah says over her shoulder. "You know the plan. Watch each other. If they have a weakness, it's that they don't really care for each other."
The absolute antithesis for how she fights - she always know who has her back.
"If you put a man down, take the extra time to make sure he doesn't get back up."
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Sharon's close enough to see the flash in Helena's eyes as he turns to her. "Huntress, by kiai, I mean -- "
"I know what a kiai is, Dragon," she says, annoyed. "You taught me."
The blood is flowing swiftly through her veins now, anticipation a sharp bite at her nerves. It's been a hell of a long time since she's had a fight like this, and she's going to have to give it all she's got.
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"Guys," Dinah says, sincere despite the martial arts bravado, "I can't express how much I appreciate you being here. We're doing this for the best person I know, so let's do right by her and see what we can do to wipe the smiles off their faces."
She reaches out and takes Helena's hand, and immediately feels the weight of first Ted, then Connor's hands on top of hers.
(She loves them so much)
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He's in the shadows somewhere, unseen, but for a second she closes her eyes and makes her own promise to Bucky: we'll get out of this, she promises him, silently. Stay alive.
It's been impossible not to notice that Richard Dragon isn't the only one who seems most concerned about Helena. Once they break apart and resume their positions behind Dinah, Sharon sees the big boxer maneuver himself close to the Huntress, holding something in his closed hand out to her as he speaks, too low for Sharon to hear.
She can't spare the attention. Dinah is turning to face the brothers, and she can see it in the way they shift, how their weight comes to the balls of their feet; sees their smiles glittering in the dark.
Sharon flexes her fingers and settles into a ready stance of her own, her gaze tracking over the brothers until she picks her target; he seems to look back at her from the shadow of his straw hat. When she gives a little nod, he nods back.
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Dinah feels like an actor saying lines in a play, but it is a role she has been playing her entire life, and falls into it comfortably.
"Once more with fire."
She punctuates the last word with a direct high kick, right to Rabbit's face, and is almost surprised when it hits - first blood in the first second.
She must have caught him unaware. Maybe she's the first idiot to charge directly in at them like this.
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The first few seconds of any fight usually set the tone for the rest: who is the more aggressive, who the better striker, has the more precise technique. It's clear after the first flurry of blows with her chosen opponent that the Silk Brothers are good, very good...
But maybe not unbeatable.
She sees a flash of red out of the corner of her eye as she feints and lands a spinning elbow in her opponent's jaw – somewhere, the Huntress has dug up a set of old-school brass knuckles and she's used them to remove most of one Brother's teeth.
Bits and pieces of the fight around her rush into her vision. Creote – that's Система, she recognizes it from Nat, from Bucky. Savant is a flurry of red and white at the edge of her vision. Richard Dragon – he's good. Very good.
But she has to focus on her own fight. Her opponent is one of the younger brothers, she thinks, light on his feet and with a whip-fast strike that she tries to avoid rather than block, seeking to get an angle on him any way she can.
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This is why, even while taking Rabbit on blow for blow, Dinah knows that Dragon has earned his reputation and more, that Connor has improved even more since the last time she saw him, and that Savant has stopped leaving open that one spot she used to almost kill him that one time.
They're doing well in the first minute. Better than she expected. Almost...
Ha, Rabbit, you made a mistake. You had your brothers play down their skill too much. Dinah can see their play already.
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Most boats are easier to board than people think. He climbs up the stack of containers that he's chosen and leaps over the gunwale, landing lightly on the deck.
He can hear frantic chatter coming from the cabin and drifts that way, listening carefully. Good; they're alarmed. That'll make this easier. He's prepared to toss everyone left off the boat if he has to, but it'll be faster if he doesn't.
Bucky appears in the cabin doorway and levels a handgun at the two men inside. "No radio," he interrupts, overriding the captain's order. "Leave now or die."
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Dinah waits until they think they have it, and then:
"Now!"
It's not a move from any discipline, but it's inspired by Dinah's first love, Judo, in that it relies on balance and leverage to direct the opponent's flow of attack in the direction she chooses.
Just as the Brothers are about to each attack the centre, her circle of fighters explode out simultaneously, breaking the kettle and disrupting the Brothers' attempts to rout them.
And the fact that Tiger falls under Ted's fists in the charge is a bonus.
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She turns to make sure he's down for the count, right before white light explodes in her vision as someone's foot connects with her jaw and sends her head snapping back. Crap.
Her vision's a little blurry, but that amulet is doing its job; she's thinking more clearly than she otherwise might be able and so goes low as the Brother who hit her leaps for another strike, rolling out of his way as he lands and his fist hits the pavement. She leaps lightly to her feet and faces him, refusing to be unnerved by his smile.
Somewhere behind her, there's a scuffle and a shout, and then she can hear Creote, the big Russian, screaming for Savant. Whatever just happened there, it's probably not great.
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(A warm June afternoon, somewhere on the Pacific Northwest. Birds are filling the air with song, punctuated by the sound of children laughing. So many, children, all blonde and boisterous, just like their father.
"Another hot dog, Pretty Bird?")
And then she snaps back to Gotham, not quite on the floor, but not upright either. She spits a tooth out into her palm, realising the only reason she has room to do so is that Rabbit wanted to gloat.
He's not smart, when it comes down to it.
"Did you really think you could stop our delivery with just eight fighters?"
"Ten," Dinah corrects.
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Zinda's been wincing at each blow and grunt, but she stays focused, painting the boat at the pier with a target each time she circles around. But at Canary's words, she grins, vicious and triumphant.
"This is Zero Charlie X-Ray," she says, over the radio. "How's it looking down there, Sarge? Am I clear to take my shot?"
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Good.
Keeping an eye on them as he steps back to guard, he confirms, "All clear, Zero Charlie X-Ray. Light it up."
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