Green Arrow & Black Canary’s Chaos Magic Mishap (Patreon)

This was a story commission for one of the top tier patrons - hope you all enjoy!

Fighting magic users was nothing new to Dinah Laurel Lance, better known as Black Canary, nor was it for her partner in superhero antics, Oliver Queen - Star City’s famous Green Arrow. They had fought off witches and warlocks alike in the past but the latest sorcerer they faced off against had thrown quite a spanner in the works to successfully slow them down. While there was no denying that the two heroes were familiar with each other’s bodies as on-again-off-again lovers, that hardly compared to the experience of finding themselves misplaced inside the other’s skin courtesy of the sorcerer’s spell. 

It had all happened so fast. The Emerald Archer had tracked down the sorcerer - he had taken to calling him Barry Patter, as was his terrible sense of humor - to the basement of the Star City Library where he had a number of hostages chained up to experiment on with his magic. Knowing better than to try and face down a magical threat alone he had called upon his closest ally and the Black Canary had been all too happy to assist, having a surprisingly clear schedule for once. The two had worked together for years both as a pair and as part of the Justice League so they were a well-oiled system. That didn’t mean that they didn’t challenge each other though as Dinah was always quick to point out when she thought Oliver was being obnoxiously hot-headed or underestimating a threat; similarly Oliver was always quick to tease his ex-girlfriend for being too uptight for her own good.

Mere moments after they busted into Patter’s lair - Dinah had insisted they assign him a new villain name but Oliver was persistent and it had stuck - the sorcerer was already summoning a portal to make his escape, a grimoire full of dark spells clutched tightly in his grasp. He reached out his arm and a red glow began to emanate from his hands. At that exact moment both heroes found themselves frozen in place, the same red glow covering them from head to toe. “I can’t have you catching up to me so quickly again,” Patter declared angrily, before a smirk began to creep across his thin face. “This out to slow you down though…”

As the villain began muttering in some deep forgotten language, both Dinah and Oliver felt a pulling sensations at their very souls. A moment letter and that sensation multiplied as their very consciousnesses were ripped from their bodies and deposited into their counterparts. Their visions swam and by the time things finally became clear the portal had closed and Patter was long gone.

“Pretty Bird?” the Black Canary’s own voice asked, using the nickname Oliver had always had for Dinah. “I think something’s really wrong here.”

Dinah turned, looking across at where her own body stood and then down at herself - at the green-clad masculine body she suddenly found herself in. “Yeah,” she grunted, speaking in a deep rumble, “I think you might be right there.”

The duo managed to maintain their cool long enough to free the prisoners from their chains and safely escort them into the capable hands of the SCPD and all the way back to Oliver’s base, the Quiver, before all hell broke loose. “What the hell are we going to do?!” Oliver exclaimed, pacing around the room and wringing his hands. “This is a nightmare. An actual goddamn nightmare. Dinah, say something. You’re freaking me out right now. Aren’t you massively concerned about this? How are you so calm right now?”

Dinah rolled her - well, Oliver’s - eyes. He could be so dramatic sometimes. “If your voice gets any louder you might end up using my Canary Cry,” she pointed out, angling back in her chair and resting her long legs up on the table. “And, for the record, I’m pretty freaked out too but we’re not exactly going to be able to fix this if we don’t keep our heads on straight. Patter wanted to slow us down and he’s succeeded but if we want to get back to being ourselves - and trust me, I do - then we need to track him down and force him to undo this spell.”

“Unless…” Oliver stopped his pacing and began fishing Dinah’s cell phone out of the leather jacket he now wore. “Maybe we don’t even need Patter to switch us back. I’ve got a friend who owes me a favor and this isn’t too far out of his ballpark.”

“Tell me you’re not talking about Constantine,” Dinah sighed, already knowing the answer before Oliver could even reply. John Constantine was a likeable man but situations seemed to have a habit of getting even worse when he got involved. She wasn’t sure she wanted to risk getting him in on the body swapping action. Getting Patter to reverse his spell was definitely the safest bet as far as she was concerned.

Oliver had apparently decided to stop taking Dinah’s opinion into account though and already had her cellphone pressed to his ear. The call didn’t last long, sixty seconds at most, and when Oliver tucked the phone back in his pocket he didn’t exactly look too pleased. “So he’s currently trapped in a Hell dimension and therefore can’t switch us back,” he explained in a grim tone that sounded so unusual in Dinah’s own voice. “However he’s given me the address for a chaos magic specialist who should be able to undo this for us. Apparently they owe Constantine a favor and he owes me one so it all works out.” 

Dinah wasn’t exactly filled with confidence but Oliver had his mind made up and there was little she could do to change it - she’d learned that long ago. If Constantine said this chaos magic specialist could get the job done then they’d have to give it a try. Either way, Dinah would definitely be making sure to land a few extra kicks to the groin when they eventually caught up to Patter just for the hassle he’d caused them.

True to form, the ‘specialist’ Constantine had sent them to was working out a carnival tent just outside Central City. Upon entry they found themselves face-to-face with a boy, likely no older than ten years old, although there was something in his eyes that suggested he was much, much older. 

“Uh, we’re looking for a wizard?” Oliver asked, glancing around to see if anybody else was hiding in the tent. “Or a witch? A warlock? Other magic user type being? Have you seen one around here, little guy?” 

“Oliver, he’s the guy we’re looking for,” Dinah hissed before turning her attention to the smiling boy, “Aren’t you?” The wizard nodded and waved them towards a pair of cushions on the floor before seating himself on a third opposite them. After sharing a confused glance, the two heroes followed instructions and sat cross-legged across from the child.

“You’re a clever one, Black Canary,” the boy exclaimed, looking right at Dinah despite the fact that she was in a decidedly masculine body. “Oh, I can see through the magic,” he declared suddenly, answering the question that Dinah had been about to ask. “Body swap spells aren’t that uncommon, you know. How do you think I ended up like this?”

Oliver shifted uncomfortably, still not used to the tightness of the Black Canary costume. Wearing fishnets for one thing had taken quite a bit to get used to and the sooner he was done with it, the better. “Can you help us out? We’ve got a sorcerer to catch and it’s going to be a little difficult like this,” he explained. 

The boy looked between them. His smile grew wider. “Yes, yes, I think I can! This is quite advanced chaos magic - the sorcerer you’re tracking down must have access to a powerful grimoire - but it’s not completely beyond me. I think I can help put both your minds at ease. Give me your hands, please.”

Oliver offered his hand immediately. Dinah hesitated for a moment, still a little suspicious but upon her partner’s urging she extended her hand and allowed the warlock to take it. Glancing across at Oliver she hissed a simple, “This better work or I’m gonna give you a reason to scream.” Oliver just smiled back.

With a grip on both heroes’ hands, the warlock began muttering under his breath in the same forgotten language that Patter had used earlier that day. There was now familiar tugging at their souls though, or even any changes in their physical beings. Instead Dinah could feel something peeling away at the edges of her mind, allowing memories that were not her own to flood in: growing up in the house of Moira and Robert Queen, looking after her baby sister Thea, joking around at school with Tommy Merlyn, flirting with Dinah… These are Oliver’s memories!

Realizing what was actually happening, Dinah attempted to pull away but found herself trapped in the warlock’s impossibly strong grip. She attempted to talk, to warn Oliver what was happening, but her body was completely rigid just as it had been when Patter had worked his magic on them earlier. The longer she was trapped in the other’s grasp the more she could remember about Oliver’s life - how it had felt the first time he had donned the green leather suit and mask, learning to shoot a bow with deadly accuracy, how devastating the loss of his parents had been.

At the same time Dinah struggled to hold onto her own memories but found them slipping away rapidly, replaced entirely by Oliver’s. She could still remember their most intimate moments together only now it was from Oliver’s perspective as thrust deep inside her, grunting and panting in sheer overwhelming lust. She could feel how turned on he always was by her, how he hadn’t been with a single other woman since the first time they had spent the night together. Even Oliver’s lame jokes were funny to her as Dinah realized they were her jokes - she was Oliver Queen.

The last scraps of defiance were finally torn down for good as the warlock released their hands from his grasp. The two heroes relaxed, their chests rising and falling heavily as they adjusted to the magic that had overwhelmed them. The faintest thoughts that something was wrong faded away at the back of their minds as they inspected themselves and reacted in delight and relief.

From their perspectives, the curse Patter had put them on had been reversed and they were back to their rightful bodies. They had no idea - and indeed could and would never know - that rather than place them back in their bodies the warlock had merely altered their minds to make them believe they were the rightful owner of that body and it had worked like an absolute charm. 

Dinah Laurel Lance had become Oliver Queen, Star City’s famous Emerald Archer, the legendary Green Arrow. Oliver Queen was now Dinah Laurel Lance, district attorney by day and the fearsome Black Canary by night.

Rolling his shoulders and grinning like a kid being given candy, the new Oliver Queen jumped to his feet and tensed his muscles. “God, it’s good to be me!” he muttered, chuckling as his female partner rolled her eyes. He turned to the warlock and outstretched his hand once more. “Thanks for the help, little guy,” he offered in his usual charming tone, exchanging pleasantries and then departing the tent with Dinah in tow.

As the two resumed their hunt for Patter, this time with a sturdier plan in place, a familiar desire awoke within Oliver. “Hey Pretty Bird, what do you say that we get some drinks once we’ve put our guy behind bars?” he suggested, letting his eyes wander down her gorgeous body. “We didn’t really take that perfect opportunity to explore each other’s bodies so, you know, we could always do that back at my place too…”

Dinah just laughed. “You have a one track mind, Queen,” she teased, although the hand groping his ass through his leather pants suggested she wasn’t entirely opposed. “Impress me on this mission and we’ll see where things go from there.”

Oliver wasn’t concerned about his chances to impress. He never failed to hit a perfect shot when it counted, he was the Green Arrow after all!