The Black Queen's gambit.

The howls.

The howls were near deafening, as the lycanthropes charged towards the Black Canary with all the ferocity they had laid dormant for so many years. The spiders leapt at the Canary, their legs splayed out and their fangs bared. The serpents were the same, propelling themselves with the speed of a thunderbolt only matched by the Krypto-wolves who in mid air flung themselves at Dinah with claws brandished. Even the cats, who for their tenure in Gotham being on the sidelines in past conflicts were in full force to strike back at the vampire queen and her armies. The most furious of which was the black wolf himself, his eyes red with fury as he raised a claw to swipe at the vampiric woman with enough force, it would have blasted the vampire woman to paste. A veritable tide of fur and teeth and claws and blind rage came crashing down on the smiling pale woman. That is until she spoke a single word.

“Stop.”

Instantly, the throng of giant animal people stopped dead in their tracks, a look of stunned confusion on their faces as they stood or floated still on the spot as if turned to stone. A lethargic look on their faces as their arms slowly fell to their sides, deflated of any rage that fueled them. And as the hundreds of werewolves, werecats, snakes and spiders stood like statues, a single woman laughed.

“I am the Black Canary, the siren of the night, the whisper on the wind.” Purred Dinah as she took a step forward, approaching Bruce and his two loves as they simply stood there, transfixed by her verbal commands. “I am my FORMER Master’s charm, his guile, his… Magnetic charisma if you will… Heh. By my voice am I heard, by my will do you all obey. And now that I am free, MY will is absolute!”

Circling Bruce like he was a statue at an art gallery, Dinah scratched at his chin like he was a pet dog, her eyes narrowing with delight at his stunned expression, still looking forward where she was standing earlier. Then her eyes turned to Karen, Clark and Lois, her smile evaporating as she scowled up at the trio. “Hmm… Seems I was wise to toss you to the wolves when I did, just look at you know, broken chew toys to a bunch of slobbering animals.”

A growl behind her made Dinah look over her shoulder with a coy look, her finger tapping her lip as she smiled back at the snarling monster, she had reduced her former husband to.

“Now, now Oliver, don’t fault me for experimenting, after all you were rather boring when you had a pulse. At least now you have your uses.”

“And you had yours.”

A blur of motion and darkness snatched up the Black Canary by her throat, hoisting her a foot off the ground where her feet dangled while Dracula held the traitorous vampire in his grasp. His eyes boiling red with a hiss from his fanged teeth.

“Your powers do not work on me… FORMER bride of mine! They are of me after all.”

Smiling a toothy grin back down at Dracula, Dinah did not resist as he raised his free hand to strike.

“They DID two nights ago! But you’re right, MY abilities do not work on you… SO, I had help.” She giggled, unaffected by his hand around her throat. The woman flicked at a jewel around her neck, the same one he remembered when the queen of Themyscira visited him in his castle. “The eye of Aphrodite, a purple sapphire said to draw out the passions of even the most dead-hearted of men and women, and show them the power of true love… At least it WOULD have if I hadn’t added a drop of my blood to it. Now its an amplifier to my hypnotic powers, cranked up to the level of a goddess. How did it feel? To cheat on your long-lost wife with the queen of the Amazons? To be cajoled into abandoning it all just for a thoughtless fling with the frigid queen? Granted you didn’t do it willingly… But I SO did love the results.”

His eyes going wide, he recalled that day, how the queen and her guards entered his court, and drew him to gaze at the artifact around her neck. How it disarmed and beguiled him and left him to her seductive embrace. Seeing the realisation in his shocked gaze, her smile grew.

“Shame I couldn’t take pictures, to SHOW Selina your adultery, the betrayal… I’m sure her tears would have been delicious.”

A nimbus of air blew out from Dracula’s feet, his cape and jacket fluttering behind him as his eyes glowed an intense red. “You have earned yourself a cruel and horrible death my former bride.”

“I’m sure I have, but YOU won’t be the one to be my executioner, I’ve prepared for your little temper tantrum after all.” Snapping her fingers, her army of amazons gave a stamp of their spears to bring Dracula’s attention to them, along with the snarling winged vulpine beast that used to be Oliver glaring back at him.

“You think I would not kill my own brother? How do you think my fable began?”

Tilting her head to the side and narrowing her eyes with a haughty grin, Dinah tsked down at her old master. “He’s just a pet… I had someone ELSE in mind.”

The impact that struck Dracula’s side was severe enough that his grip on Dinah’s neck faltered. The shockwave making his ears rings as vertigo overtook him and he found himself flying through the air across Gotham city. A tree exploded on impact with him, wood splinters bursting in every direction as he continued to soar through the streets, crashing through cars, street lamps and finally impacting a building back first, screaming with a spear’s tip impaled through his shoulder.

The blade burned his flesh, his blood feeling like it was liquid fire coursing through his veins as he looked up to the pale face of Hippolyta smiling down at him with fanged teeth and burning red eyes. Her armor, once a polished gold had been intentionally dulled, darkened to reflect her new patron, along with the tunic that bore the image of a black bird in front of a full moon.

“Hipp… Hipp…”

“The spear of Artemis. An instrument of justice that always makes its mark against the sinful and guilty.” A sharp edge of metal pinned up Dracula’s neck, forcing him to look up at the Queen of Amazons twisted into Dinah’s personal champion. “And the aegis! The shield of Zeus himself, the impenetrable wall. Tools best used against a creature of the night.”

“Hippolya… She has you ensnared.”

“WRONG! I am FREE! Free to be cruel, free to express my malice and sadism on the living! My goddess wishes blood, OCEANS of blood to sate her undying thirst and the thirst of my people, and I shall be the instrument that will let blood spill in this world. My goddess demands your severed head as a trophy…”

Her smile growing wider, her fangs, though not true vampirism shown behind her blackened lips. Twisting the spear in her hand, steam bloomed from Dracula’s shoulder wound, making the undead king twist his face in agony to the divine weapon searing his insides.

“But my goddess is generous as well as demanding; she has given me permission to play with my quarry, I shall give her your head… After I’ve had my fun with your body.”