BOP Issue 1 of 4

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New Outsiders: Birds of Prey

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Issue 1 (of 4): “Elimination Process”
Written by Matthew Davies
Cover by ArtTeach
Edited by Mark Bowers[/center]

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“So, what are we going to do?”

The question finally broke the deafening silence that had hung between the weary trio. The speaker glanced around, gently massaging one bruised and swelling cheek. Her normally startling emerald orbs were now dull and dreary, and her eyelids were evidently sore as she struggled to keep them from fluttering closed. Brushing back a strand of hair, she awaited an answer.

“What can we do?” another responded dejectedly. “We lost. The others are all back there and we don’t even have any idea how to beat their captor ”

The third sighed in relative disgust. “If you’d have let me end things back there instead of making me run like a coward, then this problem would have been solved by now.”

“We don’t kill,” the first speaker stated bluntly. “There’s no point looking back at the past, anyway. We’ve got to concentrate on the here and now.”

However, each one of them, Helena Bertinelli, Dinah Lance, and Barbara Gordon, couldn’t help but allow their minds to drift back to the events of the past few hours…

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She was barely five and a half feet tall, her relatively small frame enhanced in bulk by a thick crimson cloak that shrouded her entire body. A hood was raised, casting a shadow across her indistinguishable face, and her arms, entirely hidden by sleeves longer than the actual limbs, were crossed over her chest. The velvet shadows of that particular night seemed drawn to her, gathering around her like a kind of dark warning. Like an…

“Omen? You gotta be kiddin’ me! What a trashy name!”

Green Arrow was crouched before the new threat on the screen, the domino mask that covered his eyes crinkled as he frowned mockingly. He bow was clenched in one gloved hand, an emerald arrow in the other. The feathered hat resting atop his head was at an angle, sloped to reveal some of his golden hair spilling out from the side.

The female beside him, the costumed adventurer Black Canary, sighed and rolled her eyes, crossing one arm across her chest and resting the other on Arrow’s shoulder. “That’ll get her,” she mumbled. “Way to go, Arrow!”

“Shall we get this over and done with, pretty bird?” the archer retorted, rising to his full height and slipping the arrow into place.

“You and your stupid nicknames,” a third girl, attired in a sleek black costume with a bat symbol emblazoned on the chest, interjected, leaping forward. Her blazing red hair streaked out behind her, brushing against her flowing cape. “Got any intel on this new gal?”

“We know as much as you do, Batgirl,” Canary reported. “She hijacked the Out of This World casino and then started displaying herself on the advertisement screen right outside.”

“The strange thing is,” Arrow added, “she’s just standing there. She hasn’t said a word since she said her name, hasn’t moved a muscle…nothing. She’s just there, with the customers on the floor around her.”

“Weird,” Batgirl agreed slowly. “Did you call in the others?”

“Vigilante is on his way. Huntress said she’s busy – no surprise there – and Zatanna is doing some reconnaissance inside,” Canary answered.

“Good,” Batgirl said with a nod. “Once Zee gets back, we can get to work!”

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Zatanna tried to be as quiet as possible as she weaved in and out of the various tables and fruit machines; ‘ekaM em elbisivni!’ only worked to keep her hidden from sight, not to cushion the noise she made. She was swiftly approaching the culprit – this enigmatic Omen – and didn’t want to alert her to any presence. Not that she was worried about this crimson-robed girl; she looked small and frail enough to snap at a single strike from Zatanna herself, let alone the other five Outsiders!

“I know you’re there.”

Zatanna froze as Omen spoke for the first time. Her voice was dark and filled with self-confidence and a strange, eerie tone that sent shivers down the invisible girl’s spine.

“You cannot defeat me,” Omen told her, her voice almost a whisper now. “I am just a warning. A messenger of destruction.”

Zatanna remained silent.

Omen shifted a little under her robes. “Answer me.”

Silence

“ANSWER ME!” The girl’s voice resounded throughout the room, filled with pure fury and mindless rage.

Simultaneously, Zatanna let out an agonizing shriek as something tore through her mind and sent her sprawling. Tears streamed down her cheeks as the pain that had gripped her senses finally subsided. She looked down at herself. She was visible again. “What…uh…”

“I am merely a messenger of destruction,” Omen repeated, advancing toward her prey. “You cannot defeat me.”

Zatanna muttered something under her breath and leapt to her feet. Her hands pulsed with a fierce red energy, and a ball slowly formed in her palm…a fireball. “Take one more step, gumbo, and I’ll burn right through you!”

Omen outstretched a hand, and Zatanna’s eyes widened.

“What…are...you…UGH!” The fireball flared as Zatanna tossed it upwards due to mental coercion. It impacted on the ceiling and chunks of concrete rained down upon her. She screamed once again as she was buried alive…

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“So she took down Zatanna. We knew from there this…‘Omen’ was powerful,” Barbara intoned.

Dinah pondered her companion’s words, her eyes pools of raw emotion as horrifying scenes flashed into her mind. Shaking her head as if to disperse these memories, she rose from her seat and began to pace in the darkness, her blonde hair shuffling in the slight breeze drifting in from the windows.

“Just not how powerful…”

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“Zatanna!” Batgirl cried out as the raven-haired girl on the screen was flattened by clusters of solid concrete from above.

Canary cursed under her breath, whilst Arrow stood, dumbfounded, next to her. The crowd gathered behind the police cordon fell silent as the ominous culprit returned to her position in the centre of the room, silent and still as before.

“We don’t have time to wait for Vigilante,” Arrow told his companions, resting three arrows against the bowstring and making his way toward the casino entrance. “We’re going in, now!”

Canary charged after him, Batgirl following closely behind.

“Be careful!” Canary called. “Remember we still don’t know exactly what she can do!”

“It looked like telepathy to me, or something to that effect,” Batgirl responded, reaching for her belt and unfolding a metallic yellow batarang. “We have no defense against mental attacks, so we have to hit her hard and fast!”

Arrow butted the door with his shoulder and sprinted through, a look of grim determination crossing his face. He scanned the room and quickly assessed the situation – Omen had turned to face the trio, and they didn’t have much space to maneuver The customers were still unconscious on the carpeted floor, so the heroes couldn’t attack with full power for fear of hurting any innocents.

“Why do you persist in fighting me?” Omen hissed. “Surrender is your only chance of survival.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that, babe!” Arrow retorted, and released the bowstring. It snapped taut, propelling the three pointed arrows at the criminal

Omen’s eyes narrowed behind the featureless mask, and she vanished momentarily. A millisecond later, she appeared once again across the hall, perched behind a roulette wheel. The arrows embedded themselves in the wall and detonated, sending plumes of flame outwards. Omen focused again, and Arrow let out a shout of sudden pain He clutched his head, and managed to mumble a barely intelligible warning.

“Telepathy…my…head…ugh!”

“She has to focus to use her telepathy!” Batgirl realized.

Canary nodded in agreement. “All we have to do is distract her concentration a little…cover your ears.” As her friend immediately did so, Canary herself cupped her hands beside her mouth, and screamed. A supersonic cry blared throughout the casino, causing tables to crumble and glass to shatter instantly Omen instantly recoiled from the harsh sound, clamping her hands to her head and beginning to flounder around wildly.

Arrow recovered slowly, moving his gloved hands from his head to his ears, a clear signal for Canary to stop the assault. “Nice work, Dinah!” he mumbled into her ear as he dived past her and gripped his bow.

Batgirl bounded across the various tables and machines, hurling batarangs as she jumped Omen was forced onto the defensive, sidestepping and ducking under the whirling blades.

“It looks like she can’t hit more than one of us with her telepathy at the same time,” Canary informed Arrow as they followed Batgirl into action

“We can use that to our advantage, then,” Arrow returned, loading his bow with another three arrows. “But she is sure as hell gonna pay for that damn head zap!”

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Helena spoke up. “You underestimated her. A rookie mistake, really.”

“We all did,” Barbara mumbled softly.

Dinah paused for a moment and then and retorted, her voice laced with fury. “I didn’t see you there to help us! Don’t you dare call me a rookie!”

“Calm down. We won’t get anywhere by arguing,” Barbara insisted

Helena snorted “And you weren’t getting anywhere by fighting, either…which was why I decided it was time for me to step in and do what needed to be done ”

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The Huntress leaned back against her gleaming purple motorcycle and steepled her fingers with a sigh, admiring her handiwork. The motionless forms of thirteen thugs were slumped around her, several eliciting pained groans. Her black hair was slightly mussed, and her chest was rising and falling a little quicker than normal, but other than that, she showed no signs of exhaustion as she swung her legs over her motorcycle and gripped the handles.

“Time to head to Out of This World, I suppose,” she muttered, and accelerated The wheels kicked out against the concrete, spraying dust and dirt over the criminals as she sped free of the alley, turning onto the main road and increasing her speed even further.

She heard another whining drone matching that of her vehicle, and she cast a glance behind her to see a familiar figure. “Vigilante!”

The black-clad ‘hero’ of sorts brought his own bike up alongside hers, barely even sparing her a second glance. “Arrow, Canary, and Batgirl are in trouble!”

“Don’t be melodramatic,” Huntress hissed. “It was a schoolgirl in a red cloak.”

“Zatanna is down, and Canary almost destroyed the building with her sonic scream just to stop one of her attacks,” Vigilante shot back, his voice completely calm and emotionless.

“…Whoa.” Huntress paused for a moment, shock evident on her face She lifted a hand to push back a single strand of ebony hair, before returning it to grip the handle and shifting her weight to the right.

“Where are you going?” Vigilante barked as she veered off to the side and rounded a corner.

Huntress stayed silent as she accelerated down the road, her grip tightening on the handlebars and a look of determination setting in.

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“I’m still surprised you wouldn’t let me kill her, you know. She humiliated you all. Made you look like fools. I could’ve ended her life there and then,” the ebony-haired girl added.

“This ‘job’ is not about getting revenge or being humiliated,” Barbara persisted, audibly irked.

“No, it’s about winning.”

“No!” Dinah snapped. “It’s about having principles and fighting for them!”

“Obviously your principles weren’t a very strong motivation when you were fighting Omen.”

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Batgirl leapt from table to table, fruit machine to fruit machine, batarangs flying free of her gloved hands. Omen’s relatively small frame was an advantage to her in a situation like this, but it was merely a distraction technique that kept her occupied and unable to launch any telepathic assaults, whilst Batgirl and her companions could figure out a plan. Omen herself was struggling to keep the bladed batarangs at bay, slipping to the side and throwing herself back from the spinning projectiles. Batgirl could hear the sound of her gasping for air even through the metallic clangs of the weapons striking the floors and walls.

“Any plans?” Batgirl grunted as she continued her rather desperate attack

“Yeah – win!” Green Arrow retorted, loading his bow and locking onto the ducking and leaping Omen.

“Helpful, GA,” Canary said with a grin. “Real helpful!”

“Enough!” Omen interjected, her voice a thin rasp of its previous self. She paused, and reality twisted. Everything seemed to warp around her, swirling and distorting itself and she, herself, began to disintegrate into a scarlet spiral…and then she was gone. There was a small rush of air, and the warp began to grow, pulling the three heroes in, everything contorting around them…

“It’s not real!” Batgirl blared, and the warp…undid itself Everything came back into focus, and Omen was still standing before them. There was one difference, however – she was now clutching a dozen gleaming yellow batarangs in her hand. She hurled one with deadly precision at its original thrower Batgirl twisted with the weapon, but it grazed her shoulder and sprayed a few damson droplets across the carpeted floor. A second clipped her thigh. It was at this point that Batgirl vaulted backwards, and dropped down behind a fruit machine

Canary and Green Arrow were not far behind, Canary hauling Arrow after her as the batarangs rained down upon them in a sharp golden barrage. “What the hell happened back there?” she demanded as she dived behind the next machine.

“A telepathic illusion,” Batgirl responded, massaging her bleeding thigh “There was a slight shift in our surroundings before it happened; a shift that told me that we only thought we were in the casino then.”

“Enough explaining,” Arrow muttered. “You’re fresh out of batarangs, and another sonic scream will bring the house down. I’m the only chance of stopping her. If you two can keep the batarangs she’s throwing away from me, I can - -” Arrow’s strategy was interrupted by a roulette wheel tearing through the fruit machine and smashing into the back of his head. He let out a short cry and dropped instantly as the wheel, engulfed in a soft red energy, lodged itself in the wall.

“No!” Canary shrieked, and knelt beside him, cupping his head and gasping at the blood that gushed openly from the wound. “She’s got telekinesis ”

“But she can only lift small things, by the looks of it,” Batgirl said hopefully “We can use that…grab GA’s bow, and we can move.”

“What?!”

“Trust me, Dinah,” Batgirl mumbled, locking her gaze on Canary’s. Hesitantly, the blonde-haired hero placed the bow and quiver into her companion’s hands.

“I hope you’re right about this,” Canary said with a gulp, and placed a final kiss on Arrow’s forehead. “Let’s do it ”

Batgirl slung the quiver over her shoulder, strung the bow, and charged.

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Vigilante hit the brakes and allowed the momentum to propel him over the handlebars. He twisted in midair and landed on his feet, before the entrance of the casino. His eyes narrowed behind his visor as he drew a pistol from his holster and curled his finger around the trigger. With his other hand, he brandished a knife and swiped it through the air menacingly.

Showtime, he thought to himself, and darted forward.

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“We did our best!” the blonde-haired heroine growled.

Barbara let out a small sigh. “Stop this! We’ve got a job to do, and we’re not going to do it unless we work together!”

“As much as I hate to admit it, she’s right,” Helena admitted dejectedly

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It didn’t surprise Canary that Batgirl was a superb archer as well. The red-haired beauty seemed to be talented at nearly everything! The duo dove into battle, launching themselves toward the slight frame of Omen in the elegant, graceful dance of combat. They were an almost perfect fighting team – Canary stayed ahead of Batgirl, swiping any incoming projectiles from the air with swift kicks and jabs, whilst Batgirl herself dodged those that Canary missed and fired off rounds of arrows from her quiver. Omen, meanwhile, batted the arrows away and continued to hurl small objects with her telekinesis.

Batgirl drew yet another arrow from her quiver and placed it into the correct position. A wooden chair hurled itself at her, but Canary appeared from the side and struck it with a single booted foot. It crumbled and dropped, Omen’s influence on it lost. Batgirl took this chance to launch off the arrow. Omen gestured, and the primitive projectile snapped. “I’m almost out of arrows!” Batgirl informed Canary, loading the last three into her bow and tossing the quiver aside. “Get me a good shot! This one has to matter!”

Canary didn’t reply, instead focusing on the incoming objects. She shattered a vase with a sharp kick, and batted aside a glass of water with a single hand. Thinking about what she was doing was no longer an option. For her, there were no thoughts – it was no longer a fight for her, but merely a routine. She flowed with the situation, bending and twisting, kicking and lunging, melting to the ever-changing requirements of her role in the battle.

“Canary…” Batgirl called, her expression grim. “It’s time for more extreme measures.”

Canary responded with a brisk nod, and opened her mouth.

“No need for the sonic scream yet!” a new, masculine voice interjected. The three women glanced at the new arrival – a black-clad male with red Vs on his chest and on his masked face, above his visor. A set of nunchucks dangled from a yellow belt secured around his waist, along with an empty holster, which normally contained the gun he was now gripping, its barrel locked on to Omen.

“What did you do?” Canary retorted dryly. “Walk?”

“Better late than never, I suppose,” Batgirl remarked. On the inside, however, she was relieved. Her heart was pounding so hard, she was scared that it might explode out of her chest. What’s the matter with me? I couldn’t think of a good enough plan in time, and now my team is in danger. Good going, Babs!

Vigilante ignored the women and focused his attention on Omen. “I suggest you stay very still, or you’ll know what it feels like to be on the wrong end of a rubber bullet.”

Canary fell into a defensive stance. “Careful. She can still hit one of us at any time with a mental attack.”

Omen stayed very still, almost as if she was frozen in position. That was when Batgirl let out an agonizing scream, and clutched her head despairingly.

“What are you, a one-trick pony?” Canary hissed, and leapt forward, her leg extended. It connected with Omen’s chest and sent her sprawling. Vigilante dashed after her and squeezed the trigger. The robed girl scrambled for cover as the rubber bullets peppered the carpet around her. The knife he held in his other hand was let loose, and impacted on her crimson cloak. It locked her in place on the floor. She hurriedly shed the garment, and scrabbled for safety as the barrage of bullets kept coming. Canary stepped back and knelt beside the groaning Batgirl

“You okay, Red?”

Batgirl gritted her teeth and rose to her feet. “If Ollie can take it, I can take it.”

Canary grinned, and stood beside her. Vigilante was still pursuing Omen, who was now on her feet and resorting to desperate telekinetic bubbles to catch him off guard. The tactic may have seemed desperate to them…but it worked. Batgirl cursed, spitting the words savagely from her mouth, and Canary stood aghast as silence bubbled over her lips. One of the bubbles clipped Vigilante’s wrist and sent the pistol tumbling to the carpet with a dull thud.

“What is it with this chick…?” Canary muttered.

“Not now, Dinah,” Batgirl reprimanded, and sprinted after the stunned Vigilante Omen was slowly rising, while her cloak, tearing itself away from the ground and Vigilante's knife, rose up to meet her, falling down onto her body and clipping itself in position. Batgirl skidded to a halt on a blackjack table beside the scene Across the way, Canary took a defensive pose before her fallen partner. The scene froze. The four combatants seemed to pause, absorbing the mayhem and chaos that engulfed the crumbling casino hall.

Vigilante broke the stillness, drawing the nunchucks from his belt. “The back room ”

“Of course,” Batgirl realized in spite of herself, and the action erupted once again. Both herself and Vigilante hurled themselves into the melee once again, Vigilante whirling his oriental weapons threateningly and Batgirl executing feints Omen was forced back onto the defensive, slowly working her way back…back…“Now!”

Canary bounded forward at the order, her mouth snapping open and her two fellow heroes throwing themselves aside as sound waves rippled through the air, exploding from her lips and slamming into the helpless Omen. The building seemed to shake with each wave of the scream, small chunks of plaster falling from above and coating them all in a fine white layer of dust.

Omen staggered back instantly, the red mist generated by her telekinetic power locking her feet in place. The energy began to dissipate, surrendering to the superior force violently abusing it. Omen began to flail wildly until the unearthly force around her feet finally vanished and the girl slammed into the door behind her. Canary’s scream ended as the door instantly gave way and she tumbled back into what looked like…another world. Luminous spheres hung from the ceiling, decorated in the colors of individual planets – Mars, Pluto, Venus, Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus, and even Earth itself, were all featured amongst many other fictional globes. The room was dimly lit by ‘stars’ scattered across the velvety black ceiling. Several space-themed gambling tables were spread across the room. Everything fitted in with the general tone; the owner had gone as far as having futuristic half-spheres suspended from the ceiling for chairs.

“I always hated this place,” Batgirl commented, removing her hands from her ears and following Omen inside.

Canary nodded in agreement as she followed closely behind. “It looks like some kind of Star Trek convention.”

Vigilante retrieved his nunchucks and stepped after his companions. “Get ready to turn on the lights, Batgirl.”

“Way ahead of you, V,” Batgirl retorted. “As soon as you’re ready…”

Vigilante gripped his weapons and cautiously strode toward the staggering, and obviously disorientated, Omen. He swung the nunchucks, slowly at first, building up the speed and power. As its velocity increased, so did Vigilante’s own, as he quickened his pace and broke out into a run. Omen swiveled on her heel and sprinted away from her pursuers, her robe billowing out behind her as she ran. Vigilante increased his speed just a little before pitching his weight to his left foot and using his right to launch himself forward. He slammed into Omen and secured his arms solidly around her waist in a tackling position.

“Now!” he called, a hint of desperation in his voice.

Batgirl flicked the switch, and the world went mad.

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“I suppose it’s lucky she chose that casino, really,” Dinah interjected “We got at least a few good shots in.”

“Yeah, we sure did. We know at least some of her weaknesses.” Barbara ran her hand over her chest once again, applying pressure in various positions to check for injuries.

“I know one thing she’s vulnerable to…” Helena stated smoothly, her hand gripping a golden hilt clipped onto her belt.

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Huntress removed her mask and discarded it, throwing it aside onto her already cluttered bed. She was in her apartment, her bike parked in an alley behind the building. She pushed open the door to her living room and glanced around. Everything was as she’d left it – the kitchenette that occupied the small space in the back area of the room was still a jumble, or ‘organized chaos’ as she liked to call it. The dishwasher hummed along with her recharging laptop, which was plugged in at a socket besides her battered old microwave. Taking up the rest of the room was a large black leather sofa, a thirty-two inch widescreen television, and a storage rack housing a pile of miscellaneous possessions. When she was here, reclining on the sofa or making herself dinner, she was not the Huntress She was just Helena Bertinelli, no strings attached. But this visit was rather different.

Helena passed the sofa and gently pushed the storage rack aside. She reached for a small handle, camouflaged in with the walls, and pulled. It rolled open, revealing an arsenal of weapons. An array of shurikens and throwing stars were positioned next to a gleaming dagger emblazoned with a strangely intricate pattern unfolding across the metal. Beside that was a crossbow matching the model that was strapped to her belt, along with several tipped darts all labeled with different colors, and finally, a curved replica of the aforementioned dagger. Above all of these, acting as an elaborately patterned crown, was a devilish sword with a dragon imprinted on the blade. With a brisk nod, Helena removed the sword from its lodgings in the velvet and slowly slipped it into its sheathe.

“Time to get back to work,” she mumbled.

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Strobe lights dappled the chamber, blinding Batgirl as she recoiled from the random swirls of color and sound that assaulted her. She stumbled back and heard Canary grunt somewhere around her…the room seemed to have turned upside down, especially in the centre of the room. A bright sparkle enveloped the two combatants that had been battling there moments before, with sound effects seemingly replicating the ‘transporter’ theme from Star Trek.

“Babs!” Canary hissed, the sound altering tone and pitch due to the almost-reality warping display that was swallowing them. “Turn it off!”

Batgirl reached for the switch, her arms flailing wildly as she floundered through the confusion. Maybe full power was a little too much…she mused, lurching forward Her finger found something, and she depressed it…only for yet more lights to dazzle her, sending her to her knees with her hands clamped over her eyes.

From what little Canary could see through the overwhelming visual attack, Batgirl had fallen It was up to her. Her sonic cry would do them no good here; she couldn’t risk hitting another teammate. Not to mention that the extra sound would probably deafen her and everyone else present. If she could just find the switch…

The lights failed as Canary flipped the switch. She let out a desperate gasp and stumbled, holding her mouth with one gloved hand and her stomach with the other. Batgirl exhaled fiercely, and rose dazedly to her feet.

“Dinah…” she mumbled.

Resisting the urge to regurgitate, Canary turned and followed her companion’s gaze to the centre of the room. Omen was standing over a lifeless Vigilante, her cloak frayed and a rubber bullet embedded in her shoulder. There was a small crack in her mask and her hood was partially torn off, allowing her opponents to see streaks of fiery red hair.

“Oh…” Canary murmured, her eyes falling to Vigilante. His visor was shattered, the shards sprayed across the room. His cheek was swollen and bruised, and his leg was at an awkward angle with a bone showing, caked in blood. Half of his mask had been ripped off during the unseen battle, and his ear was gushing the same scarlet liquid that coated what was left of his costume. Looking closer, she saw that a small chunk had been taken from it.

Batgirl gulped and reached for her utility belt threateningly. “You sick - -”

“Save it!” yet another female voice came, accompanied by the vicious acceleration of a motorbike. Canary dived aside as the source of the noise darted in through the door. Omen threw herself away, but not far enough as the rider clipped her with a staff, sending her tumbling.

The rider flipped over the handlebars, landing in a crouch on one of the stools, her ebony hair slightly disheveled.

“It’s about time you showed up, Huntress!” Canary barked, and began to launch herself forward.

Huntress sprung towards her prey, her eyes glistening with fury as she peppered the area around the red-cloaked menace with staff strikes. Omen rolled to the side and rose to her feet in one fluid motion, disarming her foe with a sharp chop to her hand Huntress narrowly ducked under a roundhouse kick, but was too late to avoid a strike to her chest. There was an audible rush of air as the oxygen was forced from her lungs, and Omen sent her sprawling with a backhand to her cheek.

Canary gritted her teeth and charged, but Batgirl gripped her arm and yanked her back, sloppily hurling a small cylinder in Omen’s general direction. It clattered to the floor, and Batgirl turned to the door, pulling Canary roughly behind her

“What are you doing?” Canary hissed in confusion.

“This is a retreat!” Batgirl called, alerting Huntress as well as Dinah.

“What?!”

“We can’t win this, not yet! Now move out!”

The cylinder let out a sharp hiss, squirting a thick, billowing cloud of smoke out through it’s top, forming a shroud that Batgirl knew would cover their escape. Omen couldn’t use her powers effectively if she couldn’t see.

“Retreat?” Huntress spat in disdain. “I’m no coward!” She only supported retreats in a situation where it was completely necessary; and even then, she gave in after a fight. This problem, however, had a solution A permanent solution. She reached for the hilt of the sword, ready to finish what she had started…

…and then Batgirl swooped in, securing her under the armpit and swinging back towards the exit. Omen cursed behind them as Batgirl followed Canary through the main hall and out into the night…

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“Why did you do that?” Huntress barked, her voice laced with fury as they effortlessly slipped through the crowd that was jostling around them. Minutes earlier, Batgirl had persuaded the police commissioner to cordon off the entire area and evacuate everyone; this Omen had to be taken as a serious threat.

“It was our only option,” Batgirl snapped, grappling onto the rooftop and pulling Canary up with her.

“We could have done more!” Huntress protested, clenching her fists and locking her fierce gaze on the cloak-clad girl.

“Oh, shut up!” Canary roared, her eyes glazing over. “We may have just lost three teammates in there! You really wanna go and get yourself killed, fine! But don’t drag us into it!”

Huntress fell silent momentarily. “It wouldn’t have been her doing the killing,” she growled, and turned away.

With one last glance at the casino, Batgirl followed.

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“There’s no point in arguing amongst ourselves. What’s done is done.”

Helena nodded vigorously in agreement. “I just hope the rest of our team isn’t ‘done’, as well.”

“They won’t be,” Dinah murmured in response to Helena, reassuring herself more than anyone else. Her shoulders slumped. “They’re fighters.”

“Still,” Barbara said, “we can’t even begin to imagine what sort of pain they’re going through…”

A strange, tense silence overcame them.

“Enough reminiscing,” Barbara announced, derailing her companions’ trains of thought. “It’s time for action. We strike back now, or never.”

“Agreed,” Dinah added, positioning herself beside her friend.

Helena reluctantly took up her place on the other side. “I thought you’d never say it.”

The trio stepped into the light.

“The New Outsiders is temporarily dissolved,” Batgirl said, reluctantly forcing a grin. “For this mission…we’re the Birds.”

“The Birds of Prey,” Black Canary finished proudly.

“Nice name,” Huntress said mockingly.

Batgirl threw open the door. “Let’s go.”

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To be continued…[/i]