The greatest show on Earth

Opening her ocean blue eyes, Queen Hippolyta looked up and around to an unfamiliar cityscape. Behind her, she found her people weeping and embracing each other. Grief and sorrow wracked on their faces as they kissed and hugged whoever was within reach. Feeling a hand gently touch her shoulder, she looked up to find her old friend, Cain Adamson crouched to one knee with his wife joining him to help her up.

“Stand Hippolyta, a queen should stand with her people.”

Desperately, the Amazon Queen reached out with both hands, snaking her arms around his waist and press up against him, slowly getting to her feet but refusing to let the man go, even after regaining their footing. Holding the woman close, she buried her face into his shoulder, leaving Dracula to look to his wife who watched the woman cling to her husband like a child. The two were patient with her as they held her close.

“It was like a nightmare I could not wake from, one where I saw a dark reflection of my better self tear down all I was and what I had built…” Sighing, and wiping her eyes, she turned her glance over to Selina, the tall were-feline tracing a clawed finger down Hippolyta’s hair with a maternal gentleness. One reciprocated when the Amazon Queen pulled her in to share in the embrace. The cat woman smiled as she wrapped her arm around the woman.

“I… I saw you… Long ago… So long ago… I… I envied you, this woman who Cain would wait for eternity to meet again.”

“Dinah has done too much to be redeemed.” Whispered Dracula, looking to the Amazons just now returning to their feet, but still embracing each other for strength.

A scream, one that reverberated across the city, with so much pressure behind it the trees wilted and windows exploded at the wake of death that followed it. The amazon army fell back to their knees clutching at their ears as they felt their flesh fail them, wilting, shrivelling and aging years worth in seconds to the banshee cry over their heads. Then a bright white light erupted outward from Zatanna’s staff, enveloping the amazons in its glow, and creating a barrier separating them from Dinah’s canary cry. The woman on the ground gasped and breathed in as they felt their bodies renew, regaining their strength, youth and beauty as they got to their feet and gathered their weapons. Keeping an eye on the vampiric witch who turned them from a force of peace to a band of murderers, and nearly wiped them all out.

Keeping their eye on the vampires on her steed, the amazons backed away to return to their queen, almost surprised to see the showgirl in white stride past them to face the former Black Canary.

“I agree.” Stated Zatanna. “that’s why I’ve arrived.”

“Zatanna!”

Turning to look over her shoulder, she looked up to find Bruce nodding back to her.

“Don’t go easy on her.”

“Give’er hell love!” Cheered Constantine behind him.

Smirking back, she nodded back and continued forward, dropping the wall but keeping enough of it up to protect her loved ones behind her. Landing heavily on the ground and dismounting her enslaved former husband, Dinah eyed Zatanna furiously.

“You think you’ve won? You’re just a corpse with a fancy ring around your finger! I am going to murder this city and swim in its lifeblood! Then do the same to all the others on my way to becoming the goddess of de…”

“You’re so much lesser now than when you were alive.” Zatanna interrupted. “So devoid of peace and love and kindness.”

“Love? Kindness? Worthless sentiments from children wishing for meaning in a meaningless world. I only crave POWER! Power is the only thing that matters. And once I’m done here, EVERYONE will know my name, because it will be the only thing spoken on the lips of my followers!”

Tilting her foot and acting coy, Zatanna bit her thumb playfully.

“What? Dinah the tweety bird? Dinah the coal mine canary? No, wait, I got one better. Dinah; the queen of all karens.”

Dinah’s face was a fanged mask of rage, her fingers twitching like claws before she regained her cold smile and folded her arms in front of her, regaining her allure. Raising a hand, she played with the jewel hanging from her necklace, playing with its surface as she pursed her fanged lips into a smile.

“Laugh all you want, while you’re choking yourselves to death.”

Immediately everyone present; lycanthropes, people, police, amazons, everyone suddenly against their own will reached up for their own necks and with all their strength, squeezed. Clark and Lois fell to their knees with their second pair of hands propping them up while their first pair gripped at their own throats, Karen did the same, rolling onto her back as she choked for air. Talia struggled to stop Dick and Kori from strangling each other, the two desperate to breath as their lover tried to save them. Dracula was beside himself, pulling his wife’s hands away from her own throat as she fought against him.

Dinah chuckled. All around her, the living coughed and struggled for air, collapsing to the ground as their bodies betrayed them. Then she heard a wooden tap, and a flash of green light that forced her to guard her eyes, and suddenly her victims gasped as they were no longer strangling themselves.

“Nuh uh, none of that.” Zatanna tsked, wagging a finger back at the pale blonde woman scoldingly. When Dinah went to speak again, Zatanna raised her open hand and the necklace that granted the Black Canary her power flicked off her neck and landed in Zatanna’s grasp. “Grouchy behaviour like that deserves a magic trick to perk you up.”

With another tap of her staff, a white light sparked briefly, leaving Dinah confused… Until she started coughing herself. Gagging, she reached into her mouth and pulled free a green silk handkerchief, tied to a blue one, then a purple one, a red one. Pulling a chain of multi-coloured handkerchiefs out of her mouth, the onlooking people couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of it all. Pulling the last one out of her mouth, Dinah spat on the ground and screamed, but not with her canary cry. Her eyes blazed with uncontained fury.

“YOU FUCKING COW! When I’m done with you, the only thing left will be your miserable bones for Oliver to gnaw on!”

“Oooh! Those are FIGHTING words Dinah, kind of reminds me of your scrappier days.”

Tapping her staff on the ground again, a brief flash of light sparked out again, leaving the Black Canary confused until she pulled away her hand from her eyes to find a boxing glove there instead. Looking down at herself, the pale vampires was almost red with rage to find her attire replaced with a mock costume of Rocky Balboa’s boxing costume with a t-shirt that read “I’m a Canary, where’s my coal mine?”

“A little bit on the nose?” Zatanna asked playfully, tapping a gloved finger to her lip while dangling her staff behind her.

Tearing away the costume to find her original black gown underneath, all semblance of self control peeled away by the time she threw the boxing gloves to the ground. Looking to her pet and minion, Dinah pointed back at the white lantern. “KILL HER!!!”

With a frothing, drooling roar, Olliver galloped into a charge towards the white lantern, his wings open to carry him the rest of the way and free his claws to slash and bite at the woman.

“Oh good, I needed a volunteer for my next trick.” Twirling her staff in both hands in front of her, Zatanna created a violet portal, one Oliver flew into just as she made it close. Bowing to her audience, Zatanna retained her joyful smile as she stamped her staff on the ground again. “Always got to love a magician’s disappearing act, so where did our big, angry Oliver go?”

Looking to the crowd at either side of her keeping their distance, she then turned to look behind her to her friends and loved ones with the same showmanship and mirth before she snapped her fingers and a violet portal opened overtop Dinah, leaving Oliver to land heavily on top of the vampiric woman still in mid leap ready to attack.

Laughing at the sight of the two tangled in mid struggle, Zatanna tapped her staff again, and when she did, the entire street lit up with light. A warmth, a sensation of joy filled the area as buildings, cars and displays were restored to what they were before the attacks. Brick, mortar steel and glass flew back to where they once were and all the damage was unmade as if time flowed backwards. Then bleachers appeared, made of solid light as one by one the crowds of people found themselves teleported to those seats. A mock circus tent appeared, surrounding and overlapping the area until everyone present looked up to spotlights pointing to the center of the stage where Zatanna had her hands raised to gather the crowd’s attention.

“WELCOME NEW GOTHAM AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!” Zatanna called out, all while Dinah and Oliver got to their feet. “I SEE YOU’VE HAD YOUR FILL OF TRICKS AND SCARES TONIGHT! SO, LETS END THE NIGHT WITH A TREAT!”

A blood curdling scream blasted out behind Zatanna, the woman completely unphased as Dinah gave off one of her most powerful banshee screams. But the White Lantern was unscathed, instead she merely looked over her shoulder and smirked as she tapped her staff, and Dinah was shocked to find her death evoking cry become a flock of white canaries who flew out of her mouth and scattered around the massive tent, chirping and singing up in the rafters. Seeing the absurdity of it all, it didn’t take much for the crowds to cheer and applaud the act.

“You think that you can make a spectacle of me?!” Raged Dinah, her hair in tangles and her dress ruined. “You’re Dead! ALL OF YOU ARE DEAD!”

“No Dinah… They are alive. And by the end of the night everyone will be alive, even you.”

Scoffing, her allure in shambles, the Black Canary broke down into laughter, leaning against Oliver who mindlessly stood there waiting for his master to tell him what to do.

“What? You intend to bring us both back to life? Does that mean you care THAT much?” The woman mocked, clutching at her dead heart and flutter her eyes.

“Not you.” Zatanna declared, pointing her staff at the two. “The two of you are gone, not even a shadow of who you once were, YOU have seen to that.”

With a practiced spin and twirl of her staff, Zatanna slammed it down and filled the tent with white light, blinding the two vampires who looked away in pain. They could not see the two columns of light form at either side of the magician. In seconds, those columns took form, becoming substance as they changed, sprouting arms and legs, faces and hair and clothing until the two being were fully formed and landed on their feet and collapsed to the ground.

Looking up now that the light had gone away, Dinah’s eyes went wide with horror and anger. There, laying prone on the ground at Zatanna’s feet… was herself and her pet. Now alive and human again.

Blinking her eyes in confusion, the blonde woman looked down and around her, not recognising where she was. Squinting, she turned to her left to find Oliver stand to his feet, looking around just as confused as she was until his eyes locked with hers.

“Dinah?”

“Oliver? What are you doing…” The woman barely had a chance to finish her sentence when the man barrelled towards her and lifted her off her feet in an embrace, kissing her lips the entire time. Slowly he fell to his knees, still kissing her lips and holding her close as if he’d lose her again.

“You’re back! You’re BACK! I thought I’d never see you again.”

“Ollie, what are you talking about? I’ve only been in Gotham for like 5 min…” Looking around her, she could see massive animal people, amazons and Dracula himself, watching her from the seating behind Zatanna, her friend now decked out in white and holding a staff with a rainbow crystal at its pommel.

“It’s been five YEARS Dinah, I fought every day of my life to find you again, and now you’re here.”

Confused and holding Oliver close as he regained his footing, the woman looked out at the center of the stage to find a woman that looked just like her. Her skin and hair were pale, wearing a gown that looked like an embellished version of her own costume. With a hideous winged creature behind her eyeing Dinah like a maddened coyote would eye a rabbit.

Feeling a warm hand over her shoulder, Dinah found her friend smiling warmly and helped Oliver to his feet, hugging them both. “Welcome back my friends, I hope you don’t mind, but I have a vampire problem I was hoping you could solve for me.” Opening a small portal, she reached into it and pulled out a stock of Oliver’s specialised arrows and his bow. “Are you up to the task?”

Breathing hard and baring her fangs in rage, The vampires looked to the still smiling face of Zatanna who stood and stepped back to give Black Canary and Green Arrow space to fight, the two taking a stance while Green Arrow satchel his quiver and pulled out an arrow to line with his bow string. Aiming back at the two vampires.

“Now the REAL show can begin!”