Who: Barbara Gordon, Dinah Laurel Lance NPCS: Dinah Drake Lance, Bad Guys What: Dinah goes out as Black Canary and finds out that she already knows Batgirl. Wait- what? When: August 1st, 2000. [So backdated it’ll make your head spin] Where: The Docks, Gotham City, NJ
Barbara had gotten the shock of her life the night prior. Batman had finally let her use the cave independently to train and research (though she was sure that he told Alfred to check in on her from time to time). Her partnership with Batman and Robin was still so new--there was no way for him to know about her photographic memory. And she had wanted it that way. In fact, the first thing she had done when getting alone time in the Batcave was to start going through his key files on villains and vigilantes, memorizing them line by line so that if things didn’t work out, at least she had a starting place for intel of her own.
She had only gotten as far as the Bs when she came across the file for Black Canary, since she had seen the name written down for the vigilante’s identity.
That was why she was out on the streets tonight, on the prowl to find a particular bird for a very strongly worded conversation. Batgirl had been able to track her to the Gotham docks, and now she was just mustering up all the Batman-esque presence she could to make a point. Dinah had always been like an older sister to her. Their families had even been close as they grew up. She didn’t doubt that her friend was whip smart, but vigilantism, especially in Gotham, was as dangerous as it could get.
Only twenty years old and recently divorced, the Black Canary was nothing if not a little reckless, a little dangerous and absolutely determined to make a difference in the world-- the same way that her mother had before her. And frankly, anyone who thought differently could go screw themselves (and that included Dinah’s mother who had some very strong opinions about her daughter’s version of night life).
The Black Canary was in the middle of stalking a group of drug peddlers, crouching the roof of a one storey building and watching the comings and goings of the bad guys beneath. She didn’t expect to have company and-- frankly-- wasn’t paying attention as much as she probably should have been. She was focused on her target, not on her surroundings.
Batgirl was absolutely silent as she moved--stealth was pretty much the first part of Batman boot camp, though no one was as good at it as Bruce. From her vantage point, she could see Dinah, and she could see the drug peddlers. She frowned, knowing full well that she couldn’t ignore that situation either. The question was, did she lecture first or stop the baddies? Begrudgingly, she admitted that what she came here to do was somewhat secondary to the larger problem of the drug operations.
Babs was smart enough to know that she needed more information before rushing into things. She dropped down onto Dinah’s level, sneaking up behind her. “Lovely night for a stake out, I suppose. If the weather keeps.”
So maybe her zingers and Bruce’s were a little stylistically different. Dinah startled and nearly leapt out of her skin, already drawing herself into a fighting position though if Babs had been a bad guy with a gun, it would have been too late already.
“Batgirl.” Black Canary said, looking at her, her brow furrowing. Why did her voice sound so familiar? And her hair-- Canary’s eyes widened and she answered with a whispered, “...Barbara?”
“Batgirl,” Barbara insisted, more than a little annoyed that her friend had figured her secret identity out so effortlessly. Still, there would be time for the long talk once she found out what Dinah was doing here. “Were you planning on taking all those men out on your own?” Because that seemed more than just a little ambitious.
“Yeah.” Canary said, staring at Batgirl. “Uh... okay, Batgirl, when did you start doing this?” She asked, apparently not in the least bit bothered by the idea of facing all those thugs on her own.
“Longer than you, apparently,” Barbara quipped. “Especially considering how easy it was to get the drop on you.” She started looking around, examining the area, the buildings and points of access, places to hide. “So this is just a beat ‘em up kind of mission? Or did you have some intel you were after?”
“Pft.” Dinah rolled her eyes, Barbara was starting to sound like her mother. Always with the “keep your eyes open” and the “don’t let anyone sneak up on you” and the “you take those fishnets off this instant! I didn’t raise my daughter to go running around in her underwear at night in Gotham, picking fights!” Sure you did, Mom. Stupid Mom. What did she know about being a superhero anyway, really?
“The big guy..” Canary said, inclining her head down towards a large man standing on the docks who had wrapped himself in chains for seemingly no reason, “He’s the ringleader. They’ve been running drugs Downtown for a couple weeks now but seem to keep getting their deals busted up by some crazy dame” she was totally going to bring back the word ‘dame’. It just sounded cool. It sounded like something Ted Grant would say and Ted was pretty much the God of Cool in Dinah’s eyes. “in fishnets. They’re getting a big shipment in tonight from Columbia, so there’s a couple more of them than usual.”
Canary paused and looked over at Batgirl, looking her up and down, a smug kind of smirk playing across her face, “So. Batman, huh?”
“Yes. Batman,” Batgirl replied, making her way over to a nearby electric box and pulling a gadget from her belt. “But don’t flatter yourself. He didn’t send me after you tonight. I decided to pull your butt out of the fire on my own.” She glanced over her shoulder at the Canary. “I’m going to knock out the power to this area, then we fight them. You ready?”
“Geeze you’re crabby. Why are you so crabby? Are you mad at me? Which, by the way, you have no right to be mad at me, what with you being Batgirl and all.” Canary said, casting Batgirl a pointed, sideways glance.
“Whatever. I don’t need a sidekick.” She continued, though she crouched down and waited for Barbara to cut the power. Just because she was being a pain in the ass didn’t mean she didn’t have a point about the strategy here. Not that Dinah needed the power cut to take out the thugs... she totally didn’t. She would have done just fine. Totally.
“Yes I am mad at you, but this isn’t the time to talk about it,” Batgirl snapped, shooting Dinah a look. “And I’m nobody’s sidekick.” With that, she overloaded the circuit, effectively cutting off power to that section of the docks. The men below startled a bit, scrambling in the common. A few of them started to fish out their phones to use as flashlights. Barbara, for her part, made her way silently over the side of the building, skidding down on a line and dropping about ten feet from the men.
She definitely had gotten into this line of work without Batman’s support, but that didn’t mean she didn’t appreciate his sponsorship when it came to things like night vision in the cowl. She took a moment to take stock of their weapons before sweeping the legs out from one of the men. It was time for this fight to start.
Black Canary ran a completely different kind of game. When the lights went out, she waited for the phones to come out (since she for one didn’t have night vision... or a cowl). Where the first light came up, she dropped down from the one storey building onto the perp, one foot extended and the other curled back. She planted the kick directly into his back, driving him to the ground with the clatter of a phone and the sound of the air being forced from his lungs. He’d be gasping for a few long minutes before he could get himself back up and into the game and by that time, it would already be over.
“What is it!? Who’s there?!” One of the other men called-- and it was because of his revealing his location with his voice that Canary targeted him next.
Batgirl danced around the periphery, letting Canary take the targets who stepped up front and center while she dealt with the guys who had held back. She saw one man raise a gun, and she tossed out a batarang to knock it out of his hands. “Sonuva!” he shouted, turning to her direction and pulling out a flashlight. “It’s a bat!” Babs smirked as she heard the safeties on their guns being uncocked. With a confident flip backwards, she disappeared behind a stack of shipping crates, bullets following hot on her heels.
It’s a bat, sure. They’d only been chased up one side of Gotham and down the other by none other than the Black Canary and now they were freaking out because it was a Bat. Great. All the work and none of the credit- wasn’t that just the way?
Dinah dropped to the ground as the bads began to fire wildly, and moved to creep up behind them as they fired on Batgirl. She jumped up behind the center shooter and covered his eyes, nose and mouth with both her gloved hands, dragging him back to the ground.
It took a few moments for the rest of the goons to realize that their friend was suddenly no longer where he was supposed to be, but once they did....
“Oh shit! How’s he doing that?! We know you’re out there, Bat!”
Barbara had to grin. It was really fun when they all got that confused and scared look on their faces, and the phantom attacker schtick really did work better with more than one person. For now, she was having fun working with the Black Canary. She could see one of them men fleeing, the head boss himself. She hurried, tugging her bolas weapon from its place on her belt and giving it a good throw so that the weighted ends of the rope wrapped fast around her opponent. She leapt on him as he tripped, yanking his arms back and cuffing him.
She glanced over her shoulder, wondering if Canary had finished up with the other thugs. It would be time to tip off the cops soon.
Canary was just wrapping things up with the leftover thugs by throwing the only two that were still standing into each other then landing a solid kick in the center of one of their chests, which sent both men sprawling into the crates that Batgirl had just left behind.
“Are you still mad at me?”
“Can we save that for after we finish tying these guys up?” Batgirl asked, getting out plastic restraints and making sure none of the men had a chance to escape. She also got a quick call off to patrol units, and soon, she could see flashing sirens. She turned to the Black Canary, hooking an arm around the other girl’s waist before grappling back up to the roof, where she deposited herself and her friend.
“Now, the long and short of it is--what the hell do you think you’re doing, Di?” She set her hands on her hips, feeling utterly exasperated.
If Babs had been anyone else, Dinah would have been all cranky with her for that grappling hook stunt-- but as it was, Dinah just kind of held on and went with it.
She rolled her eyes at Babs impression of her mother and wagged a finger at her, “You know, you’re starting to sound just like my mom. I should be asking you the same question. At least I’m not running around with strange, older men who have a thing for boys and like to dress up like Bats on the weekend, okay? And before you say anything- yeah, I get Batman’s a big help to Gotham and all that crap but seriously, Batgirl just what did you know about the guy before you decided to run off with him?” Dinah said, trying for righteous indignation. If Babs wanted to disapprove of Dinah coming out here and beating up bad guys-- well two could play at that game.
It wasn’t even that she had anything against Batman, not really. But it did worry her that Barbara had just up and joined his ranks, presumably without the vaguest hint whether he was actually sane or not. Dinah knew first hand that people weren’t always what they presented themselves to be-- and it had been a very recent, very hard learned lesson. Barbara didn’t need to repeat her mistakes.
“Hey! Shut up!” Babs retorted. Because this wasn’t about her, it was clearly about Dinah. “First of all, I didn’t run off with him. I was a solo act paying homage to the man, but he made it clear he wasn’t going to let me do that without getting trained. Ergo, if I wanted to make a difference, it was by his rules, and you know what? I’m better for it--and you know I don’t really acknowledge people being smarter than me--” because they weren’t “--but he’s different. He’s a genius, and he’s dedicated, and he’s focused. Which is about the opposite of you right now, so no more of your lip. You thought you were actually going to pull that off without equipment or assistance?”
How could Dinah miss all the variables right in front of her face? If Babs hadn’t shown up when she had, the best case scenario would have been a botched raid on drug dealers, and at worst a dead Dinah, which had Babs more than a little freaked out. “At least I have someone watching my back. How selfish can you be! Running out there on your own...not thinking about the mess you’d leave behind if you were hurt or worse.” She huffed, crossing her arms. “I found your name in a file. He had you pegged already. And so I came here to talk some sense into you.”
“That’s great and all but I’ve been training for like... a long time so you know -this whole holier-than-thou, I’m-smarter-than-you act is really getting on my nerves, okay?” Dinah retorted, crossing her arms stubbornly across her chest.
The revelation that Batman had a file on her was … well... it was enough to shut her up momentarily. “He has a file on me?” She stopped for a minute, trying to process how she felt about that and finally settled with, “Cool.” Then jumped back to the topic at hand, “Look you’re not going to change my mind, okay? Seriously, if it weren’t for your cape and ears and all that, I’d totally think that Mom put you up to this. Does your dad even know you’re out this late? Does he know about this?”
Hey, at least Dinah wasn’t hiding her nightly activities from her parents. Granted, she was older than Babs and her mother had learned a long time ago that she couldn’t actually make her namesake do/not do anything-- but the point remained. And Dinah felt absolutely vindicated. So take that, Babs.
“Uhhhh... no. He’s a cop. ” Babs replied, the last part hissed out. Bruce had given her a healthy paranoia about secret identities that made this whole conversation incredibly awkward. “Hell, he’s practically the cop. And don’t brag about your training. I’ve trained too. With Batman.” So there! “And it’s not like I rushing into drug busts without a plan, which is what you were just doing. No plan!” She raised a finger to halt whatever was coming next. “And if your plan was anything along the lines of ‘I was gonna punch the heck out of them’ that isn’t a plan.”
She let out a huffy sigh, crossing her arms. “And sure. Dad doesn’t know. Because if he knew, it would be a liability that would put the both of us at risk and his job in jeopardy. So sue me for keeping my identity a secret--which, by the way, is what most vigilantes do. Pro tip.”
Pro-Tip? Really? Where did Miss Thang Barbara Gordon get off? If anyone was going to be handing out pro-tips here, it would be Dinah thankyouverymuch. She was practically raised by superheroes. Hell, she WAS raised by superheroes-- her own mother had been the Black Canary for God only knew how long and then there was Uncle Ted who encouraged her to pull on fishnets and punch bad guys in the face-- and Uncle Alan and Uncle Jay. Seriously, just because Babs was all in with Batman (who, by the way, was kind of a freak of nature in Dinah’s own humble opinion) didn’t mean that she was any better a superhero than Dinah. She was just about to snap back a retort when the rev of a motorcycle engine and an all too familiar voice stopped her in her tracks. “Oh shi--.”
“Junior!” The older woman said, dropping the kickstand of her motorcycle and didn’t even bother getting off of it. She was in great shape for a woman in her 50s, her short, black hair laced with gray around the temples. This was a woman-- a lady through and through-- whose aging was done with grace, dignity, and no compunctions about showing it. Also, she was pissed. “Just what on God’s green Earth do you think you’re doing?” She asked, trying to keep her tone to just disapproving and not straight out homicidal-- although she thought it was entirely justified.
The woman took one look at the red-headed companion that Canary was bickering with. That particular shade of red, height, weight-- even the way she retorted to Dinah the Younger... that combined with Junior’s eternal friendship of a certain daughter of a certain police officer. The elder woman did not give a resigned sigh, though she was starting to believe it was entirely useless to tell this generation not to do something. They wouldn’t listen. All that was left, really, was to make sure they stayed safe.
That didn’t mean that she was giving either of these two mostly-teenage girls a break. Not in the slightest.
She looked directly at the red headed one, ”You. Take your Die Fledermaus behind home this instant or I am calling your father.” She wasn’t bluffing. Dinah Drake Lance did not bluff. Then she turned to her daughter, “And you. Home. Now. Big trouble.”
When the new Canary started to protest, her mother held up one hand, effectively silencing all remarks. Dinah Drake lifted the kickstand off her bike and took off-- she was going to need to call Ted Grant in on this one... and have a very serious, stern talk with that Batman character.