Her mother's daughter

J'Onn picks Dinah and her bike up in Chicago as soon as Team Milliways has departed, and flies her quickly to Central City, before having to rush off into the skies again. Dinah salutes as he flies and sprints into the city as fast as she can on tired legs and three inch heels.

There she sees a red blur and chases it down, in time to see Barry stop, right in front of a rock giant he must not have seen behind him.

She doesn't break her stride.

"Ten-HUT, General Flash!"

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Flash turns around to see the giant shatter and takes a step back, so that as Dinah draws near they are side to side, her sonics working in parallel with his clay-shattering vibrations, to take on the last handful of giants.

"Thanks for the save, General Canary. How's troop morale?"

She takes a breath from screaming as the last giant buckles.

"We're still rallying. Lantern's with the Blackhawks now, Can you believe all those heroes are listening to the five of us?"

She's been giving her uncles orders all day. And it's just felt natural.

"We know the most about the enemy," the scientist points out. "Still... wow. I say fly, Superman says 'How high?'"

The last giant crumbles, leaving them in relative quiet for a second.

"Listen," Dinah says, with what may be spectularly bad timing, "about earlier."

"When you kissed me."

She. Kissed him. Funny, she could have sworn there was mutual kissing there.

"That.

"Barry, I've been thinking - about you and your life, what you've told me of it. And I have to know..."

She intended to say 'I have to know how serious you and your girlfriend are. I have to know how serious you are about me. I have to know what we are to each other', but she's interrupted.

"Barrrry!" In the ruins of a building just a block away, a beautiful brunette stumbling through the brickwork, tears of desparation and fear choking her voice as she calls out. "Barry! Where are you? Oh God, oh god."

Suddenly Dinah is standing on her own, unnoticed, as the Scarlet Speedster beside her disappears and the handsome blond man from the cave appears behind the crying woman, still finishing his tie as he slows down, then scoops his fiancée up into a hug.

"Shhh. I'm right here, Sweetheart."

Dinah watches, not approaching, ready to be the only hero around if the Appellaxians make a reappearance.

They're so in love. It makes her heart leap slightly just knowing that is possible, even as her stomach plummets.

They're in love.

Whatever it was between her and Flash, it's nothing compared to what's between Barry Allen and his future wife.

"Listen," she hears him say. "I ran into Flash. He's optimistic about his war. Get the word to your newspaper and then lie low. I'll find you again. I promise."

The brunette departs to an arriving rescue helicopter, always looking ver her shoulder to her fiancé.

Only when she's gone does Barry look at Dinah, pulling his mask back over his face.

"As I was saying," she says, trying not to sound too angry at him; it's not his fault. "I have to know that I'm not going to grow up that much like my mom. I wont' turn anyone into a two-timer, Barry."

"I'm - I'm sorry if I did anything to..."

"Don't be. If anything, you opened my eyes." This isn't the real him. He's Barry Allen who puts on a costume to be a superhero. Dinah - she's Black Canary who takes off her wig to be a florist. They walk the same line, but on opposite sides.

"Still friends?" Barry asks.

"Sure. Go liberate Baltimore or something." She can bike to the next town until a teleporter or flyer can pick her up.

"Remember," Barry says lightly, already a crimson blur. "We'll always have Metropolis."

"Funny man."

Dinah sighs. No, I'm not gonna be like Mom at all, she thinks. I'm gonna be single for the rest of my life.

She's interrupted in her sulk by first the sound of wood creaking behind her, then the sound of darts shooting past her ear, as the wood giant is hit by a pair of flaming arrows.

Her rescuer even takes his hat off to bow in greeting. "Green Arrow at your service, Pretty Bird."

"And Speedy! Remember me? Of course not, there's a girl around." The boy next to him is a teenager, probably younger than Dinah was when she started out, but tall. His outfit, a red and yellow copy of Green Arrow's Robin Hood get up, covers a grinning face and bright red hair. He brightens even further when they draw closer. "You're Black Canary? Geez, G.A. You're right! She's hot!"

"HEY!" That comes in stereo from both Dinah and Green Arrow, and for a second, the silence is awkward.

But he has a charming smile.

"You know," Dinah says, as the roar of the invaders starts up again. "Sucking up to me won't get you into the J.L.A."

"Like I'd really want to join. So... you free after the invasion?"

Dinah doesn't reply. She's too busy screaming.

The flight back to Rhode Island is long and silent - Dinah, for one dwelling on all those men who just dropped dead the second J'Onn touched them with his mind. they won, but it doesn't feel like a victory, and then - then there's J'Onn.


Back in the cave, it still doesn't feel like anyone's going to say anything until Aquaman speaks up.

"So what now?"

Dinah sighs. "Now, I think we ask some hard questions. J'Onn - I think I speak for everyone when I say that, though we appreciate the fact that you're on our side..." and there's a whole lot of apology that has to come oout there, on everyone's side. "...mostly, we still feel betrayed."

After a certain conversation Dinah thought it best if she be the first person to turn up at the Fox Hotel on Mayer Street before the men could get there, and she wasn't wrong. They have, apparently, been warned about a press conference and have a room set up, and the street outside is filling up with reporters as she arrives.

So all she can do is stand outside, waving to her new public, and promising that they'll have something to say when the others get here.