Harry stood outside the door of what was originally his hotel room when he and Moony had arrived at Vegas. His clothes were repaired, but more threadbare than ever even with the repair spell he tried to use. Thankfully, his new wife's abilities made for a very short trip to the other hotel, and the 'Dark Energy' she used felt oddly comforting.
*Knock-Knock*
Harry heard scrambling inside the room as soon as he'd knocked, and in seconds, it flew open to reveal a slightly haggard looking Remus Lupin.
"Harry, thank goodness you got here so quick. I," He then noticed Raven, "Um, I'm sorry, who is this?"
"Of course," Raven sighed before looking him in the eyes, "It's me, Remus, Rachel," at the blank look, she held up her right hand, "You were at mine and Harry's wedding."
Moony's eyes shot wide, "Y-Y-Your-You mean," he turned to Harry, "Then you too? And-but," He stopped, seeming ready for a stroke of some sort, before sighing, "Sirius is never going to let us live down." He stepped aside, motioning the young couple in, "Well, you may as well come meet my new wife."
Harry entered and quickly moved towards his bedroom to change clothes, returning surprisingly quickly in a new pair of loose pants.
"So," Harry began awkwardly.
"Yeah," Remus added.
After a few moments of silence, Raven finally had enough, "Well, I guess since you don't remember, my name is Rachel Potter, formerly Roth, I'm Harry's wife and everyone calls me by my Azarathian name Raven." Letting Remus stare for a moment, she nodded, "And now you give your introduction."
"Right," Remus nodded, "Um, I'm Remus Lupin, and I was a friend of Harry's dad. I came with him to keep him out of trouble, fat lot of good that did," he grumbled at the end.
Not really knowing what else to say, Harry just went ahead and asked, "So, you got married too?"
Moony sighed, "Yeah, apparently. I just woke up earlier and she was there, and we had matching rings. I found the license while looking for your mir-" he suddenly stopped for a moment, looking to Raven.
"She knows, Moony," Harry assured him, "she's magic too,"
"Really?" Remus asked, surprised, "Well, anyway, I found the license looking for the emergency mirror, and-" He was cut off when a towel clad someone popped in and hugged him from behind.
"Punkin', baby, you wanna join me in the tub?" Finally taking notice that there were other in the room, the blonde woman's expression soured a bit, "Who are you-" she stopped as her eyes fell on Raven, "Hey, ain't you the magic chick on bird-brain's new team?"
"Raven," the sorceress corrected, "And you're Harley Quinzel."
"Nuh-uh, not anymore, now I'm Harley Lupin," She said with pride before pointing angrily at Raven, still hiding behind Moony, "and you can't take me in, I'm got let out and I ain't done anything you can charge me wit'."
All the sudden, a screech and a crash were heard from outside the window. Rushing to the window, the group saw a several block long traffic jam, people running on foot, and basically what seemed to be a lot of people trying to get the hell out of Vegas. Raven turned and looked to Harley, who grinned sheepishly.
"Heh-heh, I can explain..."
8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8
"...I've tucked away a great big time bomb somewhere on the Vegas strip, and only the Justice League can stop it." The Joker said, his words being broadcast across numerous channels, "Because if anyone else tries, then I press this," He continued, showing a big red buttoned remote control, "and KABLOOEY, no waiting."
Standing, the clown walked across the room, the camera following, "Now I know you'll want to see the big bomb hunt from the best possible angle, so I've set up hundred of cameras all across town, the League won't be able to burp without us looking in on them. And since every good suspense show needs to have a ticking clock, here's mine," at his command, a timer appeared at the corner of the screen, reading just below 23 minutes, "oh, what did you expect from me, a round number?" Holding a hand to his earpiece, Joker smiled wide, "And it seems we're getting our first remote in, now since our normal anchor-lady wandered off into the Vegas nightlife and has yet to return," that seemed to come out strained, the Clown prince clearly angry, before continuing, "We've enlisted a local favorite, Sue Manteris. So what's going on there Sue?"
The camera switched to a nervous looking, black haired woman, "W-well, Mister Joker, we're over the south end of the Las Vegas strip, and traffic is bumper to bumper as people are trying their best to leave town, some even seem to be leaving on foot."
"Sorry to interrupt, Sue," The Joker cut in, "but it seems that one of our stars is approaching the red carpet." The feed cut to the bat-wing landing outside Rong Town casino, "And he's in black, always sheik," The Javelin jet landing next to it, "But here come the fashion disasters. I'm surprised their mommies let them out of the house looking like that. Well, while they stumble around trying to find my bomb, let's see how the local economy is doing." The shot cut to a pan of an empty Casino, "Oh, it looks a little slow," The camera panned to a single old lady at a slot machine, "What's this? Madam, aren't you scared?"
"Of what, this thing will pay off sooner or later," The old lady growled as she kept playing.
Joker laughed loudly, "I love this town," He laughed for a few moments before "And now back to the boy in blue," the screen cut to Superman, hovering in mid-air, "Clueless as usual, wait a minute, what's this?" Superman took off, "Sue, are your seeing this?"
"Y-yes," the nervous news anchor nodded in the chopper, "It seems Superman is heading back to the Rong Town casino," she finished with a little hope in her voice.
Silent for a moment, Joker slapped a palm to his forehead, "Of course, he's got X-ray vision, he can see it! Oh, silly me."
The camera cut to the inside of the casino as the man of steel flipped over a roulette table, revealing a bomb in the floor, the Flash coming up behind him.
"Big un'," The speedster commented.
"You were expecting anything less from the joker?"
The screen cut back to the clown prince of crime, "Oh, woe is me, or woe would be me, except this is Vegas, and I always have a card or two up my sleeve."
Cutting back the bomb, "It looks like a binary set-up, but I can't tell what chemicals are-AHH!" Superman began, before being blasted from behind by one of four people entering.
"Ladies and gentlemen," The jokers voice was heard, "tonight's extra special guest stars, making their world debut, the Royal Flush Gang! Jack! Ten! King! And Queen!"
King fired another energy blast, which Flash avoided. Ten made a running tackle at Superman, but Jack, who moved to follow, was nailed by a red energy blast to the back, dropping him like a lead weight and showing the Green robed teen standing behind him, his face hidden in the darkness of his hood.
Superman managed to throw Ten off, but the gang member quickly got back up. The Flash was playing with King, but almost took a hit from behind until a black barrier appeared, stopping Queens Magnetic attack before forming into a blue robed figure, her face hidden like her counterpart.
"WHAT?" Joker yelled, as the powers ripped stone tiles from the floor, effectively negating Queen's magnetic onslaught before knocking her out.
"What are you doing?" a voice behind the blue robed Raven growled, turning her face-to-face with the goddamn Batman, "Do you realize what you've done?"
"We've saved your ass," The green robed teen said, dropping the unconscious Jack as Flash did so with King.
"No fair, No fair!" Jokers voice came from the casino intercom, "You broke the rules, and now you have to pay the price." There was a click then a tense silence, then another click, and another, and another.
"What's going on here?" The joker bellowed.
"That would be me," A disembodied voice commented, before shimmering into existence as a man in jeans and a hoody, his face hidden behind a few spells and the hoods shadow, "A little transfiguration, a couple of short illusions and all your real bombs are kaput without you knowing."
"WHAT?" Joker yelled, "But-But how did you find my bombs? How did you even know there were more?"
"'Cause of me," Another voice added, before a veil dropped to reveal Harley Quinn, in full make up, "Mistah J, I QUIT!" She shrieked at the camera, before wrapping an arm around the man in the hoody, "I found a real man who loves me, and treats me right, and," she finished up by pulling off a glove and showing a ring, "He isn't afraid of commitment." Another thought popped into her head, "And he's way better in the sack," she added, nuzzling into his arm, "A real wild animal."
Joker growled, "Doesn't matter, because you know what? This show has been on all the news channels, and the last few minutes or so have been picked up by a couple of broadcast networks, and while not as much as I would have hoped for the project, by my projections we've got somewhere between 30 to 40 million viewers watching, which is just what I wanted," Joker said as he spun a chair around to reveal a dark haired teen, staring unblinkingly at the camera, "Because, thanks to this little Ace up my sleeve, you'll all be witness to my greatest joke ever, because everyone watching will soon be completely, and utterly insane."
"But you can't stop watching, can you? I'd like to say it's because of my animal magnetism, but really it's all thanks to my little Ace in the hole." Showing Ace in her seat, never blinking, "Different they called her, some even said she was a monster, and really, could this be a monster? I ask you," Joker asked as a baby picture of Ace was shown beneath her eyes, before panning to a couple looking in horror into space, "eh, purely rhetorical, of course. Condemned for something she could barely comprehend, our little Ace soon became a guest of the government, but even they were afraid of her strange power, but they had this little headband that made her as harmless as a drowned kitten."
Stepping close, he wrapped a hand around her shoulder, "Oh my little Ace-y, all your life people recoiled in fear of you, and boy can I relate, and maybe that's why I was never afraid of you. You see has the power to alter perception, for the normal Joes out there, that means she can make you crazy just by looking at you, in person or on TV. Even as I speak, all you couch potatoes are losing your grip on reality, which I think is overrated anyway, but you can bring yourself to look away or even change the channel, even though you know something is very wrong. And the best part is, I'm immune, because I'm already crazy. So turn it up, Ace." Joker said with a laugh, before he barely managed to dodge a red light that flew past as he found the two meddling robed kids staring down at him.
"Sorry," Raven quipped, "but your show's been cancelled."
Joker growled, before smiling, "But we've just got to the best part, show 'em Ace!"
The girl in question turned sharply to the pair. Raven looked away, but she caught Harry's eyes and he felt something odd. If Voldemort's intrusions could be described as the pain of a battering ram working its way into his head, this was more like a cold breeze slipping its way in, before everything went blank.
8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8
Both Harry and Ace found themselves standing upon rocks floating in nothingness.
"What have you done?" Ace asked softly.
"Me?" Harry questioned, "I thought you did this."
"No, it had to have been you," Ace said, a bit of edge in her voice as she locked eyes with Harry again, "What have you done?" She asked, angry, as she used her powers again, but again they didn't act as they should have, instead of madness flowing into his mind, thoughts and memories flowed into hers. She saw herself alone and unloved, locked beneath the stairs, she saw the other children ridiculing her, dogs trying to bite at her, chasing her for hours, hope and knowledge of parent that weren't hers, friends that weren't hers in a school that, though she'd never truly been there, made her so happy. She saw people loft her up on their shoulders in happiness, she saw people fear and distrust her for a power she didn't understand and for things that were not her fault, she saw beasts and monsters trying to kill her, a dragon chasing her, a small, fat man judging her, a friend falling dead, the ghosts of parents that were not hers.
She saw a green light.
She saw herself with a beautiful young woman after a few too many drinks, she saw the young woman shoot down her repeated advances, but she was swayed, the fun they had, the love that grew in her violet eyes.
She saw four great red eyes glaring at her, before showing her a hidden truth.
Harry himself saw the jumbled memories ace saw, his life in a blender, but he could more than see what she was seeing, he could feel her reactions, the longing when she saw his friends, the fear when she saw the beasts, the basilisk, the dragon, Fluffy, her sorrow and an odd, slight sense of kinship at his sad, lonely childhood, and the fear, distrust and outright hatred he was treated with over the years.
He saw what must have been the lost memories of the past few days, he saw himself act like a complete fool, but somehow win over the girl who would soon be his wife, and he saw the devotion in her eyes as they danced together under the lights.
He saw the red eyes, and they whispered to him in a soft, smoky voice.
Try to be more careful, beloved...
8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8
Joker cackled as the green robed punk got caught by Ace, somehow freezing the girl up as well, but his confidence as the girl's eyes flashed bright red, the guys doing the same. Turning to Ace, thinking she'd done something, he found the girl right next to him, quickly reaching into his jacket and pulling out a large metal ring.
Joker quivered as Ace glared at him, "Ace-y, look, I can explain," he said, backing away, as she kept glaring in contempt. Hitting a wall, Joker fell to the ground, shielding his face, "Don't do this."
"Don't do what?"
Joker relaxed, looking up, "That's my little Ace-y, everything is-" he stopped when he saw her eyes glow yellow, screaming as his twisted mind fell into darkness, his body going limp.
Ace walked calmly to the door, before looking back to the couple looking at her.
"Where will you go?" Raven asked calmly.
Thinking for a moment, Ace replied, "Nowhere." Walking calmly as the doors opened for her, she heard Harry, as she now knew him, call after her.
"If you need help, you know where to find us."
Nodding, more to herself than anyone else, Ace kept walking, the door closing behind, leaving the young couple, a few still hallucinating television workers and a catatonic Joker behind.