The Hostage Without
Merfilly
FANDOM: Birds of Prey Comic
PAIRING: Black Canary/Oracle
RATING: PG
DISCLAIMERS: Belongs to DC Comics.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm fiddling around with some different dynamics.
ADVERTISEMENT: Part of the The FemSlash Advent Calendar :: Dead of Winter 2006 - http://fsac.shatterstorm.net/.
Date in Calendar/Word Count:16 December 2006 - 1476 words.
CONTINUITY: Comics, Post-Issue 99.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Continuity is going to be fidgety, as we have no idea How Issue 99 Dinah becomes JLA 1 Dinah.
ARCHIVING: at ShatterStorm Productions.
E-MAIL: stephvickers@hotmail.com or feedback at merfilly's LJ @ http://merfilly.livejournal.com/.
She still carried the transmitter and receivers. She had never seen a need to not carry them. After all, she had promised, in her book, to always be there for the one who had reminded her of what the hero life was all about. And the jewelry held sentimental value for that as much as any other trinkets she owned.
So when the receivers pulsed the tone that meant they had been activated, it was enough to draw Dinah Lance up out of her sleep and blink at them wearily. It took her a moment to fumble for the earring, and another to actually get it to her ear.
"....ary, please...please hear me." That voice, the voice of her friend and one time lover, snapped her to full consciousness. She snatched the transmitter necklace up with a quick toss back of her covers to stand and pace.
"Oracle?"
"Can't speak loud. Hostage situation, New Metropolis bank, Marston Avenue branch. Approximately thirty-five hostages, five gunmen."
"Not far from my place at all." Dinah frowned. "Why can't you speak loud?" she asked, dreading the answer.
"I'm one of the hostages."
Barbara Gordon was glad to be in Metropolis. If she had been in Gotham, there would have been a strong chance of being recognized by the goons as Commissioner Gordon's daughter. Her nerves prickled as she kept reviewing the situation. There had been no way, so far, for her to make the situation work for her own skills, and she had been relieved to get Dinah on the other end of the mobile link. Since the woman left their partnership...a relationship of more than one level...she had tried not to intrude on her life, not fully understanding what had gone so wrong for them.
Now, she monitored, and tried to determine just what it was about the situation that did not fell right. A cop's daughter, and a trained vigilante herself, Barbara knew better than to ignore that feeling.
Maggie Sawyer did not deal with street level crime much anymore. Since going to the SCU, her concentration had been on learning ways to fight the various meta level threats. And how to deal with meta level benefactors. Such as the woman in fishnets now approaching her on foot.
"Black Canary."
"Officer Sawyer, isn't it? It's been a long time." The blonde looked at the police barricade. "It is also...unusual for you to be here, isn't it?"
"Happened to be nearby, lending a hand, in case it's Intergang related." She judged the hero with a cynical eye. "Unusual for a League member to be responding to a bank robbery."
"Happened to be listening to the scanner," she replied, and both women appraised one another.
"Hunch," Sawyer said.
"Inside source," Canary replied, and they both smiled.
"With Superman away, we tend to get a flux of crazies," the cop told her. "Our sharp eyes show us four gunmen."
"I can tell you five, but my source suspects there is someone else involved." Canary studied the building. "Getting in...we don't have teleporters up and running yet, Sawyer. And I can't go in guns blazing anymore than you can."
"Good thing I got the call too." Canary and Sawyer saw a young woman shimmer into view, and Canary smiled broadly.
"Gypsy!"
"Two Leaguers," Sawyer said, showing a good memory. Gypsy flushed; she had been a member of the League so briefly, and then had been so green. Even now, learning how to work for Oracle's team, she felt raw but she saw Canary honestly believed in her ability to help end this situation.
"Sawyer, got a wire?" Canary would not go in and leave the cops wondering; she felt they had their role to play. "I want you to be ears on, in case the source inside is right, and things get ugly."
"You two better stop them from getting ugly," Sawyer rejoined. "We'll keep a holding pattern, make it appear as if no one is on scene." She nodded toward the snipers. "That includes using them if it comes down to it."
"Understood," Canary told her, turning to move away, Gypsy on her heels.
The source on the inside was watching as the one goon supposedly in charge 'negotiated' with the police. She had managed to push up enough on her elbows among the hostages to scan over the other people trapped with her. It was hard, with four gunmen scanning over them, to observe as well as she needed to, but slowly, she was eliminating suspects from among the other hostages. She did not dare use her link anymore; the bank had finally gotten very quiet, as the hostages stopped sniffling and sobbing, falling into the silence of people awaiting death or rescue.
The silence was briefly broken as the negotiator snatched up one man from among the crowd, and forced him onto his knees in front of the window. The negotiator turned his gun that way, ready to kill his first bargaining chip.
Oracle recognized the intense aural sensation of the Cry activating within a tightly closed space. She struggled to focus past the Cry, trying not to screw her eyes shut at the blinding pain it brought, watching the other hostages as the gunmen fell to their knees in agony. It was a small burst, designed to incapacitate long enough for Canary to move into position, and would do no lasting harm to the hostages themselves.
Sure enough, the leader was the first one down, victim to a flying kick. The other goons, typical of their kind, focused on the external threat, rather than using the hostages. It was a textbook maneuver on Canary's part, and one working in her favor. Oracle just could not stop the feeling it was all about to turn south in a hurry.
Her green eyes scanned the crowd, rising up more on her elbows, looking for signs that one of the crowd was more than terrified by what was happening. She could hear the sounds of the fight, but she did not dare stop her search until she found...
"Got you." Oracle saw one man, a relative no one in the grand scheme of things, but possessing signs of meta ability in the way his hands were glowing. The fight with Black Canary was down to her and one gunman, making Oracle wonder just how she had managed to incapacitate the other four so swiftly. The fight with the last one passed close to the man with the glowing hands, and Oracle saw him coiled to spring, her sign to be ready.
Canary felt the satisfying impact of her knuckles on the last gunman's face, watching him go down under one of Ted's better punches, just before she felt the danger at her back. She whirled, seeing one of the so-called hostages springing toward her...and then watching as a shoe thrown hard and accurately hit him in the back of the head, taking his attention off the fight. Without ever letting those glowing hands touch her, Canary executed three kicks, and the man sank down unconscious. She flicked her eyes over the crowd, letting a ghost of a smile touch her lips at the red head, before speaking.
"Officer Sawyer," she began.
"We heard."
"One meta, at the very least. Going to need nega-bands."
"Understood. And Black Canary...thank you and your partner. I'll try to let you know what we learn from them." Sawyer waved her people inside, pleased there would be no fatalities this day.
Black Canary gave a small signal with her hand, and Gypsy faded into view, helping the hostages get to their feet, reassuring them that it truly was all over. The woman in fishnets lent a hand as the police came in, securing the suspects, eventually moving to where the redheaded woman was maneuvering into her chair.
"May I?" she asked, reaching down to take the woman's hand for her to pull against. Her blue eyes were carefully neutral, and Barbara wondered again just where they had lost the rapport they shared. Had it been with Dick's rash proposal to her? Or had the bond been dissolving before that?
"Thank you." Barbara had to fight the feelings she evoked by that simple gesture, especially when the blonde did not pull on her, respecting her independence.
"Always willing to help," the vigilante said, with promises of so much more than public service hinting within those words.
Green eyes locked on blue, thoughts of the past, thoughts of all they had shared and lost communicating themselves.
"I'm sure the people here today appreciate that." Barbara guarded her heart, not wanting to walk the road with Dinah she had walked with Dick.
"I..." Dinah flushed. "Be safe." She turned and walked over to Officer Sawyer to give her statement. It was not the time to revisit lost futures.
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