The Canary Diaries: Night Watch [Huntress]

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11:45 p.m. East Gotham

It was a cool summer night in Gotham. The sky pitch black and the city glowed. A small fog had rolled in and it was nearing midnight, Dinah was in East Gotham, the most dangerous part of Gotham. It was a slow night, so far she had taken down a simple drug dealer and also a mugging, nothing too serious. Just the norm for a nigth partol in this part of town. You see the scum lived here and Dinah thought to eliminate the problem at the source. This had been the third night in a row and the creeps and criminals had began to fear the Black Canary, paranoid somewhat.

On a roof top starting her second shift on night watch, Dinah sat observing and waiting to take action, but nothing so far. She had brought along with her a backpack filled with things such as a mp3 player, medicine, a police scanner, binoculars, a thermos of coffee, etc. The night was dragging slowly, everything seemed quiet but no, that's how they trick you. They come alive from 11 til' about 3 or 4. Criminals are very unpredictable.

Dinah then took a sip of her coffee and started to seach the channels of her scanner waiting for something.... anything. She then grabbed her binoculars and started to look down onto the street, nothing much really just some prostitutes and a few hoods who didn't seem to be making any trouble... yet.

"Come on babies, give me something..."

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Night patrols were always an adventure. If it wasn't the darker, more colorful criminals then it was the cops, and if neither of those offered any kind of challenge, then Huntress knew she could always depend on the Batman to ruin her night, or worse, some amateur that would gum up the works. It was with these thoughts in mind that the Huntress, having spotted some blonde haired chic on a rooftop decided to stop by and investigate the woman for herself, and though she expected an amateur, what she found to her great surprise, was the Black Canary.

"I wasn't away you packed a lunch for these night time activities. What do you do with them when you have to go into action, take them with you or stash them someplace?"

Stepping down from the ledge mere seconds after having landed there, Huntress moved around the roof to make sure they were alone. It wouldn't pay to be caught off guard as it had happened once before, and that was an oversight Helena had no thoughts to repeat. Satisfied they were indeed alone, Huntress returned to where the Canary was sitting, before she leaned back against a rough-cut brick chimney, crossed her arms under her chest, and then waited.

"What if I had been an enemy? With you sitting on your butt like that, you'd have been easy picking, my dear Canary. I'm the Huntress."

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Dinah then turned to her fellow vigilante and stood up with her hands on her hips.
Flicking her hair back and then approached her. "Huntress, huh? So does that make me the prey?" Dinah then reached for her thermos and took a sip of her coffee. "You don't have to worry about me, I'm not new to the game if you didn't already know!" Dinah then gave Huntress a smirk.

"So, you're... the Huntress! Hmmm... I heard a lot of things about you. That you hit hard, but some times you hit TOO hard!"

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"There's no such thing as hitting too hard, Canary, unless you want to wind up dead. Is that your goal, because if it is, you won't last a week in Gotham. And I can't believe you brought a lunch up here with you. For Christ's sake be more professional, woman."

Grabbing the thermos from where Canary had placed it, Huntress poured what was left of the coffee out before she tossed it back to the tarmac. The sandwiches could have been kicked over the side of the building's edge but she was getting to angry with the so called heroine to make that of any matter to her.

Huntress simply could not believe the lax in professionalism she was seeing in the Black Canary. She had a reputation for being just as cut throat as her own reputation gave her but there was nothing in their meeting thus far to prove the blond haired bimbo was anything more than a heroine wanna be. That the night had been a cool one so far was helping to keep her at least a little bit calm, but Huntress knew she had the patience of a bull in a china shop and this woman was taxing her nerves.

"This may be the Batman's town, but I take pride in being able to match him punch for punch and case for case. And if you think I hit too hard, you should try looking at him. Pound for pound, my hits are an equal to his, when gender is taken into consideration."

Flexing her fists to force herself to relax, Huntress turned away from Canary and then walked the few feet to the edge of the roof. Unlike many of the buildings that made up Gotham City, this one had but one gargoyle which adorned its front edge but in minutes, the Huntress was standing on it, not even considering for a moment that it might be so old - so cracked - that it might shatter below her. Her arms crossed under her chest, Huntress let the cape slide off the back of her body to blow lazily off to the left while she scanned the immediate area below them.

If a crime was going to go down, then it was bound to happen where one didn't see a cop or even a mask, but even so, Huntress had learned early on that she needed to be seen, needed to move about the city in search of the crimes, instead of sitting around and waiting for the crime to head her way. Looking back over her shoulder to see if the Black Canary had heard anything of what she said, Huntress hesitated for but a moment, before she placed her hand next to her right temple and turned on the comm-link. A message was coming in for anyone in the vicinity of the docks, and though that part of town was a good seven blocks over, Huntress responded in her usual way before closing the link.

"Huntress here, I'm seven blocks out, but on it. ETA five minutes. Nice meeting you, Canary. Take what I said seriously or I might be finding your body somewhere. Gotham City isn't the place for a person that takes it all as calmly as you seem to be doing it. It's ruthless, its cut throat, its deadly.., or as Batman once said.....it's not a game."

Grabbing the edges of her cape, Huntress dove off the tip of the gargoyle and vanished into the darkness. She had to get to the docks as quickly as possible and such a dive had been practiced for just such a rapid transit. Half falling - half gliding, the Huntress finally released her holds on the cape and went like a bullet toward the ground, before she reached for the grappling gun and fired it at the closet object - a flag pole - so that it would swing her body toward the docks and the impending danger...

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Wait... what!!!? Did I just get told off? Dinah thought as she watched Huntress swooping down the building towards the docks. Who did this "Huntress" think she is. I'm a seasoned veteran, having served the Justice League in my past. But maybe she is right, maybe the training with Lady Shiva wasn't enough. The years being pampered by Ollie may have soften her a bit. But those days are over, she doesn't have Ollie at her side and to give her support. He broke her heart but she still has love for him that may never fade.

Enough of that! Get your head in the game Canary! There is a legacy to uphold and we don't want to tarnish the Black Canary name by being too "soft". Dinah then made her way down the side of the building following her fellow vigilante towards the docks.

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Swinging past one building after another, Huntress finally came to a rest on the top of a much lower roof. She had lost the Black Canary with her fast get-a-way and knowing the woman could not have possibly followed her that well, decided it was time for the change. Moving to the edge of the roof, Huntress fired the grapple gun a second time and then jumped off the building to make her way to the financial district and the armed robbery taking place there.

Her initiation move toward the docks had been a feint to draw off anyone that might have been looking, like possibly a scout stationed on the top of an adjacent building, though Huntress couldn't be sure there even was one. With the two of them Black Canary and herself - on that last rooftop, they could have been under surveillance as the Huntress had found herself once before. That time was almost disastrous in that the perps were waiting for her when she had arrived at the crime scene, and though they had had the upper hand at first, it was her skills as a fighter that had saved the day for her.

"I'm still a few blocks down, decided to take a detour in case anyone was watching where I was. Oh, by the way, the Black Canary's in town so you may need to read her, her rights as you have with others, me included."

Talking as she landed in an alley nearly fifteen blocks from where she had been with the Canary, Huntress touched the recoil tab on the gun and waited for it to rewind. She had noticed a slight amount of slack in the cord, a certain amount of give, which told her it was about time to replace the cord, for no matter how strong the tensile strength of the cord, its repeated use would at some point weaken the fibers, and she would not want to find herself in free fall at ninety stories up.

"Okay, I'm in position, and heading in. I'll be coming from your eight o-clock and ....., wait. You were right, they have posted sentries. I'll be right back."

Going silent, Huntress placed her body flat against the alley wall and then slowly, quietly moved down the way. The nondescript individual was meant to look like a homeless person, but one look at the body language told Huntress he was not homeless. They tended to act a certain way, some with an air of confidence that showed they knew what they were doing, while yet others acted like the proverbial scared rabbit all the time. The former was the veteran, one who had lived on the streets for some time, paid their dues and survived, while the latter had meat with diversity and more than likely lost the battle.

Moving to within a few feet of her target, Huntress waited. She could hear the voices coming across the hand held radio the target held in his left hand and she wanted to wait until he had called in as the others were doing from their vantage points. Whatever was going down was big, big enough to employ several lookouts around the entire district, which told Huntress they had stumbled across a very well planned - professional operation, one that was going to have a built in tenacity to it, but then what was the fun of busting heads if one didn't screw up another's master plan?

**Check point seven, all's clear.**

"You don't say?"

The blow to the head meant to quell any more talk, Huntress caught the thug before he could make any sound of warning, though his friends would know soon enough that all was decidedly not well. Checking the frequency for the radio, she then turned it down so that only she could hear it and stuffed it in the belt, before she dragged the unconscious man back deeper into the alley. In moments, he had been tied up and gagged in case he came around too quickly, though somehow Huntress that even if he did, his calls for help would fall on deaf ears, since his friends would be too busy to even care about him.

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Canary just arriving at the scene noticed the gunmen on top of rooftops, keeping a watchful eye for intruders and for people like us. Hmmm, Huntress must be onto something big. She then seen Huntress stalking a homeless man and then she ATTACKED HIM!!! Knocked unconscious and was now dragging the man in to the darkest of the alley.

Ok, let me not jump to conclusions! I'm sure she had a good reason for that move. Canary then laid her body against the wall trying to keep out of sight of the crooks and the Huntress herself. Hmmm, I'm very intrigued by this Huntress, she doesn't play around. She then made her way around the building staying out of sight to the opposite end of the alley in which Huntress pulled the man to. She then watched as Huntress tied up and gagged the hobo.

Coming out the darkness.... "Wow, that's a great way to treat the homeless Hunty! But, anyway... so what's the situation here?" Canary giving her a stern face. "And who are you talking to? An informant? A cop? Details, hun!"

Is this guy really a hobo!?

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"If I knew fully the situation, BC, I'd be sure to share it with you. From what I do know, whoever we're dealing with is well organized and professional."

Giving Black Canary what little answer she could, Huntress started in to search the unconscious man. Examining each item she found, Huntress then tossed it onto a growing pile for later use, before she came to one item that garnered more curiosity than the others. It was a piece of paper with a description and locations of the different cameras that dotted the local landscape. Glancing above her toward one of the cameras that was in the process of turning toward her, Huntress touched the right side of her mask and spoke quietly into the comm-unit, knowing the others in the area would be able to hear what she had to say.

**One of the men had a paper giving the locations and descriptions for the security cameras in the area, but there's something else. It appears they have the means to control them as well, meaning they can pan the cameras around to find us. One of them is panning toward my location now, so I need to get moving.**

"Since you're here, BC, you might as well tag along. That camera up there is looking for us and I don't and to be found just yet. we need to go."

Moving from the path of the rotating camera before it could get a bead on her, Huntress moved to the opposite side of the alley before she reached for one of the throwing stars she had in her belt. The camera continued to zero in on their former location and in moments gunfire erupted from the bottom portion of the camera, killing the unconscious thug in seconds, before moving back to its original position, though before it even could, Huntress threw the star into its housing, a move that effectively short-circuited the mechanics of the camera, rendering it mute.

"One down, looks like forty-five to go."