Chapter Text
Tim lounges in the Watchtower vent system, watching the Justice League scramble about to resummon him.
“How long do you think it’s gonna take them to ask Harley?”
Steph, who’s been paired with him for this little jaunt, shrugs, “How long did it take for them to get their heads out of their asses and let B talk to Waller?”
Tim nods, “Forty-five minutes.”
“Yep.”
He sighs when Lantern very nearly takes a swing at Deadshots head, “At least it’ll be entertaining.”
Harley kicks her feet up on the meeting table and yawns, “Ugh, this is going to take forever.”
Bruce hums and hands her family sized bag of chips.
She reaches out to take it slowly, “Where in the goddamn did you pull this from?”
He grunts and points at his belt.
“Yeah,” She rolls her eyes, “No shit dollar store Sherlock. How’d it fit?”
He stares at her dispassionately.
She huffs and rips the bag open, “Rude.”
“Quinzel!”
“Yo!” She kicks off the table and spins to meet the approaching footsteps of one Amanda Waller.
“How do we resummon it?”
“I thought you’d never ask!” She jumps to her feet and skips to the center of the room, ignoring the varying looks of wariness (the JL) and amusement (task force X), “So! Since Zatanna’s the one who insulted it, she’ll have to kneel when Promise confronts her and stay there until it asks someone else to take up the talking stick. Now, if that happens, my vote,” she spins to point at Superman, whose head jerks back the tiniest bit, “Would be you.”
“Why?”
She shrugs, “You seem to be the one who’s actually in charge. Now!” she puts one hand on her hip and the other on her chin, “I’ll need a candle, zero light and…” shit, she needs something vaguely mysterious.
“A personal item of the person who insulted the Component.”
She snaps her fingers, “Thank you B! I knew it was some kind of personal thingy. Now–”
“Hold on! How did Spooky know that?” Lantern waves his arms comically, “He despises anything Gotham!”
Flash snorts, “It’s Batman. If he doesn’t like something, he knows everything about it! It’s why he knows so much about you, Lantern Head.”
“Hey! You–”
“Girls, girls!” Harley giggles, “There’s no time for boy talk! We’ve got a Component to deal with. Zatanna?”
Said magician scowls, but says some backwards words and opens a little portal to bring out a charm bracelet, holding it out to Harley. “Here.”
“Thank you!”
Deadshot sets a candle on the ground and lights it (who knows where he got the lighter), he’s really very nice to be honest.
“Watchtower,” Wonder Woman shouts, “E-Lights to zero.”
The room is thrown into darkness and Harley sets the bracelet over the candle then kneels down in front of it. She says a few nonsensical things before slamming her hands on the ground.
The candle blows out and the main lights of the Watchtower turn on, showing Promise at the front of the room.
Harley puts her hands to her chest in the symbol again and bows, “Promise, I apologize for the insult given by Zatanna, we wish to rectify the situation.”
Promise’s hands come up to chest level and faces its palms outward, keeping its wrists connected. Its claws remain unsheathed in clear threat. “I wa-a-a-ant no explinasion-n-n. Where is the offending party.”
Harley, still in a slight bow, gestures to Zatanna, who (thankfully) kneels.
Promise hisses but accepts the apology by clasping its hands together, “And of t-t-the Promise you ma-a-de?”
Harley jerks her head and Zatanna says more backwards words. Suddenly there’s a sleeping cat, in a clear cage, in front of her.
Klarion, still depowered, shouts and tries to go forward, but is stopped by Green Arrow.
Harley stands and goes to pick up the cage and bring it to Promise, setting it down at its feet. It hisses and Harley steps back quickly.
“And you end of the deal, Promise?”
Promise inclines its head, “Ch-ch-child?”
Klarion steps forward, unimpeded this time, and stops by Harley, around ten feet away.
“Why ha-a-ave they imprisoned you so-o-o?”
The poor kid looks mildly terrified, “Well, I, uhm, I have some information they want?”
Promise hums, “I know litt-t-tle one, why this-s-s way? It is cruel to remove a familiar fro-o-om its master.”
“I,” Klarion hesitates and frantically glances around, “I’m a chaos lord I do what I’m supposed to!”
Promise hums in understanding. It sounds like a cat, “Ah-a-a-a, they do not underst-a-a-a-nd the way o-o-of things.”
Klarion nods hesitantly, “It’s what. It’s what I’m supposed to do.”
The kid isn’t lying. Chaos lords are literally supposed to sow chaos, it’s their purpose in existence. There’s nothing else for them to do.
“Wha-a-at do they nee-e-ed to know?”
Klarion inhales and then says, in a rush, “Thaal is bringing a new and more powerful Yellow Lantern, but he can be defeated easily using anything purple.”
“Purple? Seriously?”
Boomerang oofs and Harley glares at him then smiles at Frost. She turns back to bow to Promise, “Thank you for your assistance.”
Promise inclines its head, then reaches down to open the cage and take Teekl out of it, holding her gently. She awakes slowly and calmly, looking up at Promise who smiles and ducks to rub its chin over her head. Teekl purrs and jumps up onto his shoulders and nuzzles his cheek before glancing around the rest of the room. She jumps off Promise the moment she sees Klarion and goes to join him.
They poof out of existence in seconds. The lights follow soon after along with Promise.
When the lights come back up, Zatanna stands and immediately starts a shouting match with Wonder Woman over the ethics of keeping a familiar in a cage. Boomerang had, at some point, made friends with Lantern and the two of them were talking shit. Frost, Flash, Green Arrow, and Black Canary, who’s been awesome through this whole nightmare, go to the cafeteria for something to eat. Superman gets pulled into a conversation with Waller about future collaborations and King Shark… is nowhere to be seen. He can move surprisingly fast for his size.
Harley shrugs and skips over to her brother, “Ready to go? I’ve got a date.”
Batman grunts and heads for the Zeta Tube room.
“Whuddap motherfuckers!”
There are a number of bangs (not including Harleys entrance) from all over the Manor, followed by running feet and shouting. Bruce sighs and silently prays that nothing broke, human or otherwise.
Damian and Duke are the first to skid around a corner to the left of the study’s door, both of them covered in paint. Harley laughs and braces for Damian when he charges her legs and Duke goes for a bear-hug.
Cass pops out of a vent, a giggling Carrie not too far behind her, and one of the paintings hanging on the wall swings open to reveal Cullen.
Carrie attaches herself to Harley's other leg, laughing, while Cullen wiggles himself between Harley and Duke. Cass just rests her chin on Harley's shoulder and smiles when she gets a cheek kiss.
Bruce laughs quietly and shakes his head, “Alright everyone, let’s move it to the dining room. Alfred said dinner’s almost ready and Jason’s made a feast.”
The mini-bats detach themselves from Harley, with the exception of Carrie who decides to become a leech. Harley pays no mind and leads the strut for the dining room like a supermodel.
“Where are the others?”
Cullen holds up six fingers, “Harper, Tim, and Steph are on their way here from work,” Cullen puts three fingers down, dropping his left hand, “Dick is still at work, one of their instructors is out sick, and Jason’s scoping out a gang hideout,” two more, “And Tiffany can’t make it, she has the Fox family dinner.”
Bruce nods, “I’d expected as much,” he turns to Duke and Damian when their motley group enters the dinning room, “What pain can attacked you two?”
“The Home Depot kind,” Duke throws his hands into the air, smiling, “You know that sheetrock that was left over from the ‘Cave remodel?” Bruce nods.
“We plan on creating a model of the Manor and using paint to make it look like an art-deco,” Damian flounces off to the right of Bruce’s chair, stealing the one nearest the kitchen door, “We’ve started on the south wall.”
Carrie huffs from across the table, “I tried to inspire them to make something more challenging but–”
“We are not making Transylvania.”
Carrie sticks her tongue out at him.
It’s really not Damian's fault, he simply had to defend his honor.
Dick gets back to the Manor expecting it to be mostly quiet close to the entrance. It is not.
Damian and Carrie have gotten on the (reinforced) chandelier, Bruce is yelling at them to get down, Harley is encouraging them to do… something, Harper and Jason are laughing and Tim and Steph are recording. Dick has literally two questions.
“What the fuck? Where’s Alfred?”
“Out.”
Dick jumps about a foot in the air and turns to Cass and Cullen, “Out where?”
Cass shrugs and Cullen points at the door, “The garden, he’s looking for more tomatoes.”
“...We helped pick tomatoes two days ago, what happened to those?”
Cullen points at Damian and Carrie, that’s when Dick notices what their hands are full of.
“Oh no.”
“Oh yes.”
Dick doesn’t want anything to do with this. So he leaves to take a shower and ends up in a card game with Duke, who also wanted nothing to do with whatever was happening downstairs.
Dinner is a quieter affair than usual, even with Harley over, Damian and Carrie mostly quiet except for grumbling about getting a lecture from Bruce and most everyone else tired from work.
“Anyone have any plans tonight?”
Harley’s the only one that nods, “I gotta get back home, Ives is prolly annoyed I’m not back yet.”
Tim nods, “Assumed as much, how’s a movie night sound to everyone else?”
There are assents from most of the table and some light bickering over what movie to watch until the end of dinner.
Harley gives as many hugs as she gets before heading off to her apartment in Diamond. She unlocks the door and is immediately accosted and knocked onto the floor by her babies.
She coos and nuzzles Bud, laughing when Lou jumps to put his on her shoulders, “Yeah, good boys, my pretty widdle babies~” she climbs to her feet and nudges them off her, “I’ve gotta get the door, gimmie a sec.”
She turns back around after locking the door and finds the most beautiful sight in the world, Doctor Pammela Isley in an overlarge sleep shirt and sweatpants leaning against the kitchen opening.
She sighs dreamily, “Hi Pammy.”
Ivy rolls her eyes but smiles slightly, “Took you long enough to get back Harls.”
Harley skips over to her wife in all but law and kisses her on the cheek, “Sorry it took so long, I was accosted by these strange people who insisted they were my nieces and nephews.”
She laughs, “How terrible, I hope you’re not too beat-up, I’ve got plans for you.”
Harley flutters her eyes, “Oh really?”
Ivy hums and takes Harleys hand, kisses the back of it and leads her to the bedroom.