Green Arrow: Eternal: S2E1: Double Day Off

“This is the life, honey.”
Green Arrow gave a smile, the wind rushing through his goatee as he drove down the street on his bike. Dinah held him tightly on the back seat, giving him a smile.
“Can’t argue with that. Danger, adventure, goodwill, love…” Black Canary replied. “Anything a good thrillseeker would love.”
“Mmhm.” Oliver replied. “Always been a thrillseeker, myself. Have been since I was a kid.”
“Maybe that’s why you got into the superhero business.”
“Why did you?” Green Arrow asked suddenly. “I heard of the Black Canary in my youth as part of the old Justice Society alongside Hourman and Doctors Mid-Nite and Fate, but you’re not in your fifties.”
“That was my mother. Dinah Drake.” Dinah explained. “She was the first Black Canary - unable to control her sonic scream. She passed the ability down to me, but well… I could control it.”
“Is she still around?” Oliver asked.
Dinah fell silent.
“...I’m sorry to hear that.” Queen replied. Oliver looked up to see Q-Core in the distance, its lights shining brightly. “Let’s hop into Q-Core to drop off the costumes before we go out, shall we?”
“Yeah, sounds great.” Dinah replied.

Oliver had just been about to walk out with the bike, Dinah at his side, when he heard Naomi shout “GET DOWN!”
Green Arrow rolled quickly, dodging the throwing dagger hurled at his head by a hair’s width. As he did, he gripped an arrow and armed his bow. He fired the shot, and the arrow was sliced in half by another dagger.
Dinah gasped. “Lynx.”
“Green Arrow. Black Canary.” the assassin replied coolly.
“You know her?” Arrow asked, notching another shot as his side-stepped another thrown blade.
“Fought her once with the Birds of Prey.” Dinah replied, running towards Lynx. “She’s one of the world’s deadliest assassins.”
Lynx blocked Dinah’s chop quickly. “You flatter me.”
“Why’s she here, then?” Oliver asked, grabbing a specialized arrow.
“For the record, I’ve been contracted to take out Oliver Queen.” Lynx stated. “Or rather, I’ve been payed for one assassination attempt.”
“Lynx’s about the technicalities.” Black Canary replied, blocking one of Lynx’s own strikes. “How’s that arrow coming, hun?”
“Cover your ears.” Oliver replied, firing off the arrow. Black Canary flipped away as the sonar arrow began to circle Lynx, causing her to be lost in a droning spiral of noise. From behind a flipped-over table, Naomi ran out and pushed a chair towards the assassin, causing her to tumble to the ground. Canary ran up and punched her hard in the stomach, causing Lynx to wretch in pain. Oliver caught the arrow, silencing it. “Well, that worked well.”
“Too well.” Black Canary said.
“Clever.” Lynx said, suddenly opening her eyes. She wrapped her legs around Canary’s head and smacked her noggin into the ground. Green Arrow fired off a shaft, and Lynx deflected it before jumping out the window. She activated a glider and glided away.
“She usually do that?”
“Only when she’s satisfied with the fight she got…” Canary replied, holding her head. “Ow.”
“You said you fought her before with the Birds of Prey, right? What was that like?” Oliver asked.
“Well… This was back when Barbara was around.” Dinah said, sitting down as Naomi came over with some ice. “Thanks, Naomi. Good thing you were here to warn us. Anyways, it happened, what, two years ago?”

July 1st, 2016
“Told you he was a slimeball, Dinah.”
“I know, Barbara!” Black Canary groaned, the motorbike grinding down the street. “Nick Devine is a criminal slimeball who tricked me into thinking he was a good charity-supporting person but has actually been working with the Green Brotherhood to sabotage developing countries. I already figured that out myself, thanks.”
“This is why I do not trust men.” Tatsu replied. “Well, none aside from my husband.”
“You talk to your sword, Tatsu.” Canary shot back. “Anyways, we gonna stop this guy?”
“We’re at the dam.” Batgirl replied. “Canary, I’ll handle Devine. You and Tatsu take out the saboteurs.”
“Right!” Black Canary said, and the three jumped off their bikes. As they did, the three heroines flew over the barbed wire security fence and landed hard. Batgirl ran off to go handle the corporate sleaze as Black Canary and Katana took down the guards. Dinah ran towards a gate, but then rolled out of the way of a throwing knife she caught in the corner of her eye.
“I was wondering when some superheroes would show up.” Lynx said with a chuckle. “Black Canary, huh? I was expecting one of the Bats. Or maybe Doctor Mid-Nite. Or Hourman.”
“Sorry to disappoint!” Dinah screeched, letting loose her sonic scream to blow the assassin off-balance. Lynx readied herself just in time to not lose her hearing, as she was thrown into the side of the dam. Katana dashed towards Lynx, who took out a blade and deflected the steel strike. As she did, Black Canary ran up and delivered a powerful kick to Lynx’s stomach. Lynx recoiled, groaning. “Well, then… let’s get serious.” Canary smirked.
“Gladly.” Lynx dashed towards the two fighters.

“So Lynx tried jumping over our heads to land an aerial strike, but-” Black Canary stopped as an alert went off on Oliver’s phone. Ollie grabbed it, checking it.
“Sorry, Dinah. That new Batman movie we bought tickets for is in an hour.” Queen stated. “Shall we shed our costumes?”
“Sure. I’ll tell you the rest of the story later, Naomi.” Dinah sighed, beginning to pull off her gloves.
“No worries.” Naomi said. “You two have a date. I’ll let you get to it. Tell me how the movie was and I’ll pass it on to Henry when he gets back with the pizza.”

As Oliver Queen stopped the car in front of the theatre, Dinah took a look around. “Lots of paparazzi here.” she said. “Think they’ll ask us to stop for a while?”
“They’re probably here for the same reason we are - to watch the movie.” Oliver replied. “You may be a semi-famous singer and I may be a semi-famous survivor, but we shouldn’t attract too much attention.”
Dinah gestured towards Oliver’s tuxedo and her own red dress. “Really?”
“Point taken, but it’s a movie premiere.” Queen smirked. “Let’s go check out the film, shall we?”
“Right behind you.” Dinah nodded, following Oliver out of the car.

“HAAAHAHAHAHAHA!” “Joker” laughed maniacally, standing on top of a building. “You’re finished, Batman! I dare you to try and stop me from setting off the bomb!”
“Joker! I won’t let you!” “Batman” shouted, standing on the edge of a building across from his villain.
“And how can you, Batman? You’re all the way over there!” Joker replied.
“I’m not the only one trying to stop you.” Batman replied in a deep, gravelly voice.
“Huh?” The Joker turned around to see Robin swinging towards him, who kicked Joker in the stomach. Joker fell off the side of the building as Robin grabbed the remote, snapping it in half.
“Now he can’t activate the bomb!” Robin shouted over to Batman, who had used his grappling hook to catch Joker.
“Not remotely.” Joker let out a smile, drawing a knife and using it to cut the grappling hook’s cord. “HAAAHAHAHAHAHA!” Joker tumbled down towards the ground, landing in a truck of fish. “Something about this plan seems fishy…” he said, grabbing some fish and tossing them at Batman and Robin. The Dynamic Duo soared down towards Joker with their cape gliders.
“Holy Mackerel, Batman!” Robin shouted. “Look at those flying fish!”
“Dodge them!” Batman ordered. The two hit the ground running, only to find the fish truck driving away from them with the back of the truck open. Robin and Batman slipped on a barrage of fish as the Joker drove away, laughing like a maniac. “We have to follow him!” Batman shouted, and the two heroes launched grappling hooks onto the back of the truck. As they did, they skidded across the streets as they were pulled by the truck. Eventually, Joker stopped the truck - at a carnival. “Jokerland. I should have known he’d set up shop here.”
“Do you think that’s why Kite Man was attacking the bank? It could have been a distraction!” Robin inferred.
“Of course. I should have figured that out earlier.” Batman growled, skidding to a stop. Joker ran towards the carnival, and Batman and Robin gave chase. “If Joker hid the bomb at the carnival, he could kill thousands of people attending it, tourists and civilians!”
“That’s the idea!” Joker laughed, turning and tossing a pie at Batman. It hit the caped crusader in the face, but Robin soared over to Joker and kicked him in the chest. The Joker was sent flying into Jokerland, crashing into the wall to reveal the bomb. Joker ran over and was about to set off the bomb, when a grappling hook grabbed his hand and pulled him away. “You don’t cut a man off when he’s done the setup but hasn’t made it to the punchline yet!” Joker said.
Batman and Robin then punched Joker together. “Punchline - appropriate choice of words.” Batman said with a smile.
As the two ran over to disable the bomb, Oliver looked back towards Dinah. “Funny movie.” he said. “Though I do wish I could give them a few tips. Batman’s voice is much deeper, I don’t think Robin said “Holy insert thing here, Batman!” like twelve million times on missions, and Joker’s much more dangerous I assume.”
Dinah lightly punched him in the arm. “Lay off it. It’s a kids’ movie.”
“Kids should know what’s true!”
Dinah gave him another light punch. As Batman and Robin climbed to the top of a building, the citizens waved as they jumped into the Batplane and flew off towards the moon, ending with the Batplane soaring in front of the moon.
The credits rolled. Dinah and Ollie looked at each other, chuckling a bit. “What a cheesy ending.” Dinah commented.
“Oh, absolutely.” Oliver replied. “But then again, I guess that’s how movies like this go. Maybe we should wait and see if there’s an after-the-credits scene. You up for that?”
“Sure.” Dinah held Oliver’s hand tightly. The two sat and quietly chatted about the movie a bit - the setpieces, corny dialogue, fight choreography, inventive use of gadgets and music.
Then the credits ended, and a final snapshot appeared. As it did, Dinah looked towards the theater screen in shock.
DEDICATED TO BARBARA GORDON - THE BATGIRL; A TRUE HERO TO THE END
Dinah held a hand up to her mouth. She looked at the screen, seeing Barbara - her oldest friend - in her full glory, both in costume and in civilian clothes. A tear fell down her face, followed by another.
Oliver realized what was happening, and pulled Dinah into a hug.

After the movie, the two walked outside in solitude.
“...do you know that the last time I saw her, she was in costume?”
“No. You never talk about when she died.” Oliver said, using a remote to open the car.
“We were on a mission. One year ago. The Nobodies were attacking Gotham - you read up on that, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Barbara called me and Tatsu in. Said Batman needed her help with a city-wide crisis, and figured we could help out as well. So we did. The three of us fought together in the southern end of the city, taking out as many of the rebels as we could. But when my back was turned and Tatsu was chasing down some runners, someone grabbed Babs and gassed her. When she went radio-silent without informing us, I knew something was wrong. I turned to see her getting pulled away by a group of thugs. Nightwing did, too. They loaded Batgirl into a truck, attaching some sort of bomb to her chest. I tried chasing after them, but got caught in a fight with some creep named Victor Zsasz. I fought him off as best as I could, but by the time I was able to take him down the truck was gone. Nightwing got inside, but… well, I guess they got him the same way they got Barbara. I followed the truck to Wayne Tower, and as soon as I got there I saw Nightwing and Batgirl hanging off the side of the building. Then Barbara… she exploded.”
“I… I’m sorry.” Oliver said solemnly, starting up the car. “I’m sorry you had to witness that in the first place.”
“Don’t be.” Dinah replied. “Have you ever lost someone like that?”
“Define like that.”
“Having them taken from you, just vanishing in front of your eyes and then you never see them again.”
“Well… not exactly in that way.” Oliver said, his thoughts wandering. “But kind of.”
“Who?” Dinah asked. “If you don’t mind my prying.”
“My old childhood friend. Roy Harper.”







SOMEWHERE ELSE ENTIRELY…
The red-haired man sat up, groaning. The same dull white-and-grey room as ever, but that was how it always was. He had wanted this. This place.
“Konnichiwa.” one of the other boys said, a japanese kid with short black hair.
“Hello, Jin.” the red-haired man replied. “Where’s John and Maria?”
Gunshots could be heard from the next room over, and a large stocky man with a great grey beard leaned against the doorframe. “Training. Scythe and Barrel are always eager to train, you know that. Blade here wanted to wait for you before he began.”
“It is true.” Blade said in reply, taking his weapon from the wall. “You are the only one I did not fight yesterday - I wanted to make sure we could fight today.”
“Then fight we shall.” the man said, grabbing his bow and arrows.
The large man grabbed the red-haired man’s shoulder as he walked by. “Focus, Quiver.”
“I always do.” Quiver shook off the grip, putting on his blank grey mask.