I didn't see Clark again until the day of his and Lois's anniversary party at Wayne Manor. Clearly, it was Lois's idea to have an actual party for their 10-year anniversary, because Clark wasn't exactly the social type. I had found it ironic that not only was it a wedding anniversary for my cousin and his wife, but it was also an anniversary for me from when I first landed on Earth. I wore a cerulean blue cocktail dress as I made my way through waves of guests that were all chatting, drinking, and snacking on finger foods in the main ballroom area. I didn't know Lois and Clark even knew that many people.
After working through the obstacle course of bodies, I finally made my way to the lady of the evening that I was looking for.
"Lois!" I shrieked, as the dark haired, beautiful reporter turned around to greet me with a huge grin. She immediately bent forward to give me a tight hug.
"Kar-,er…Linda!" Lois exclaimed, having almost mistakenly said my real name. It was still taking some getting used to, even on my part.
"It has been too long, Girly. I always seem to be out on assignment whenever you stop by the house!" Lois said as I smiled warmly, about to say something as I felt a large hand wrap around my waist and a familiar form press up to my side. Lois looked up to Bruce with a very wide grin, taking note of the few scrapes that were still healing from Bruce and Clark's most recent tussle.
"Bruce Wayne. Clark told me about your…altercation," she said as Bruce smirked, leaning over to idly kiss the top of my head.
"He's lucky I was pulling my punches. Wouldn't want to beat up Linda's cousin right in front of her," Bruce said with a wink as Lois chuckled.
"I have to say that I am absolutely thrilled to hear you two are together. I have alwaysbeen a major shipper for the two of you. Bruka I called you guys, actually. It just makes sense!" Lois said, that last phrase causing her voice to go up an octave in excitement.
"Shipper?" I asked quizzically. I had noticed a lot of lingo the past decade I had been on Earth, but certain words and phrases like, "BAE", "Fleek", and "Bye, Felicia" still eluded me.
"Bruka?" Bruce also asked quizzically.
"Oh you know…those two people you just really hope would end up together over anyone else in books, tv shows, movies…and you take the first two names and combine them and…," Lois said as Bruce and I continued to stare on at her as if she were leaking battery acid from her eyeballs. Lois looked back and forth between the two of us and seeing that she wasn't getting through to us, decided to move on with a wave of the hands.
"It's a fangirl thing," Lois said as Clark suddenly appeared behind her, making her give out a little shriek in surprise. Clark grinned widely as he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Seeing these two interact with each other always made my teeth absolutely ache with just how adorably in love they were. It was still far too soon into Bruce and I'sventure to know what fate had in store for us, but a girl can always dream about having their own Lois and Clark relationship; or should I say…Clois?
"And just what are you three talking about?" Kal asked, looking between the three of us. Bruce and I decided to let Lois have the floor on that one since we were still confused by all her apparent made up words. Lois usually never had a hard time taking the floor…ever.
"Oh, I was just telling them about my name that I used to have for them…Bruka, remember?" Lois said, smiling to her husband over her shoulder. Clark rolled his eyes as adjusted the glasses on his face.
"Yes, and I also seem to remember asking you to never say it again," Clark quipped as Lois reached up to idly pinch his cheek with a laugh. I suddenly drowned out all other sounds around me as my eyebrows furrowed in concentration. I was picking up rapid sounds of varying explosions that seemed to be coming from a location within Gotham City. Explosions were never a good sound to hear and I immediately lifted my chin to them to speak. Kal looked down at me, obviously having now heard the sounds as well.
"I'm going to go check it out," I said to Kal and Bruce as they booth stood up tall, adjusting their suits as if they were getting ready to change into something more…comfortable. I raised both of my hands and placed one on either of the men's chests.
"I got this one. Clark this is your anniversary party and Bruce this is your house. Mine would be the least noticed absence. Not to mention, all three of us being gone at the same time would be very obvious," I said sternly as I slowly lowered my hands. The two men exchanged glances and squared off their jaws, seemingly exchanging mental notes. Bruce reached into his pocket and produced what looked like an earpiece. He looked at Kal before he reached over to me and slipped the earpiece in my ear.
"I know you can hear me where ever I am, but I have no way of hearing you if you're in distress. With this piece in, I'll be able to hear everything that is happening. If it comes down to it, I will come to you for back up," Bruce said as he slipped his own earpiece in, looking down at me sternly. Was it wrong that I found it incredibly sexy when Bruce got down to business like that? I stifled a grin at that thought and nodded my head with affirmation.
"Understood," I said as Bruce gave my forehead a kiss and patted my shoulder.
"Go get 'em, Lioness," Bruce said and I had to give him a lopsided grin at his first official nickname for me, but I'd bring that to attention later. Kal nodded to me.
"Be careful," is all Kal said which surprised me, but I was off before either of the men in my life had a chance to change their minds. Seconds later, I was clad in my Supergirl costume and flying through the air towards the sounds that I heard earlier. I landed in front of what looked like an abandoned toy factory as I looked around cautiously with a cock of the eyebrow. An eerie silence suddenly blanketed the airwaves as I slowly took a few steps forward towards the factory.
Suddenly, something came crashing through a nearby window and my arms flew up to shield my face from the glass. As I lowered my arms to look at what flew through the window, I had to cant my head quizzically at what I saw. A baseball bat? I turned my gaze towards the factory and simply tore the chain from the door handles that was currently condemning the building. As I entered the factory, my eyes widened as I saw a single hand grenade roll to my feet and idly hit my boot. My body immediately flew down to the ground, covering the grenade with my body just as it exploded. My body guarding the blast from spreading. My head shot up to look around me then, more confused than ever as I heard a high pitched voice with a slight New York-style accent echoing through the factory.
"He acts like he owns me!" the voice bellowed and I super sped to the voice, my cape flapping about me as I came to a halt in front of the woman. I cocked my head at her, reviewing the bleached blonde pigtails she wore, a black and red halter-top, hot pants, and were those roller skates? I cleared my throat.
"Do you seem to have a problem…Ma'am?" I asked stupidly, having honestly no clue how else to phrase it or state the fact that she was destroying public property and could have potentially killed someone…if she hadn't already. The woman had clearly been crying…a lot, as her mascara and make-up was streaked all across her face. She looked on at me like a deer in the headlights before wheeling herself over to stand in front of me. Her hands found her hips and her mouth blew out a bit of air to remove a strand of hair from her face.
"Who the hell are you, Blondie?" she quipped, her words laced with attitude. I was completely taken aback as pretty much everyone in the known universe knew who Superman was, on account of the 'S 'symbol alone. Powers of deduction would tell someone if Kal was Superman then that would make her Superwoman they'd often guess first nowadays and then I'd usually correct them or leave it be. I raised my eyebrow slowly and motioned with my hand to my chest.
"Super…girl," I said slowly and with enunciation. She rolled her eyes idly, moving her skates back and forth in one spot.
"Oh I've 'eard of you alien weirdos…whatta ya doin' in Gotham?" she asked, her eyes going wide as she stared at me. To be honest, it was kind of creeping me out a little.
"Who…are you and why have you been throwing grenades?" I asked, not really believing that the words were even leaving my mouth. They sounded ridiculous, but so far, this chick seemed to be a little two Kryptonians shy of a yellow sun. She took her hand and wiped off her palm on her shirt before extending it to me.
"Ah, jeez, where are my mannahs?! I'm Harley…Harley Quinn!" she said with pride and I slowly shook her hand, still eyeing her quizzically. Suddenly, a familiar voice was booming in my ear from the earpiece.
"Is she by herself? Ask her," Bruce said and I looked at her, pretending as if I didn't have a voice booming in my ear.
"Are you…by yourself Harley?" I asked and she laughed, doing a twirl on her roller skates.
"Of course I'm alone, Supes. Unless, of course, yer includin' the voices in my head…then there's about a hundred of us," Harley said as her huge smile remained plastered across her face. I could only give a nervous laugh at her response as Bruce's voice boomed in my ear again.
"Good. Harley is crazy; though I'm sure you've figured that out by now. She was released from Arkham a couple months ago on 'good behavior'; sounds like she needs to go back. Keep her busy," Bruce said as I sowanted to respond to him to ask how exactly he expected me to do that.
"So…Harley, everything okay? I heard you yelling something about thinking heowns you? Who's he?" I asked as Harley crossed her arms over her chest in a huff, sticking her bottom lip out.
"Mistah J, my soon to be ex-boyfriend. Well, again, anyways. I can't seem to shake the guy…we just click, ya know?" She looked at me with the first human expression I had seen from her since meeting several minutes ago. The crazy part was I actuallydid know. I nodded slowly in agreement.
"So why do you keep breaking up?" I asked, actually invested somewhat in the conversation now as she let out a loud "Ha!" in response to my question before putting her hands on my hips.
"The shortah list would be why we're still togethah, Girly. Ain't a lotta guys that can deal with this sort of crazy," she said as she twirled a finger around near her head. She gave me that creepy smile again as she idly did figure eights with her roller skates. Suddenly, another unfamiliar voice spoke from the shadows. I was a bit miffed with myself for having not heard the figure coming into the factory.
"Ain't that…the truth…Harl," the voice said as I saw Harley's eyes go wide with horror. Tears began to lightly form in her eyes as she looked on at me, forcing a smile on her face.
"Puddin'! You escaped!" she shrieked as she turned around to face him, raising her hands in the air in mocked triumph.
"Well, I couldn't leave you all alone, Harls," he said with a grin as his form emerged from the shadows. I could not stifle my intake of breath as I saw who it was. I'd recognize the green hair, pale white face, purple attire and painted on grin anywhere. The Joker. Mister J was The Joker. Suddenly, Bruce's voice boomed in my air.
"I'll be there in seconds," he said sternly and urgently. Joker walked up to Harley and idly patted her on the face. He then grabbed her chin and turned it from side to side as if examining her.
"What's this I hear about you leaving me again?" he asked as his hand clenched tighter around her jaw and my face grimaced at the sight.
"Oh, I was only kiddin', Puddin'. Just girly hormones, that's all," Harley lied as I saw his grip grow even tighter. Okay, that was enough. I sped forward, grabbed his arm and twisted it just enough to incapacitate him without breaking his arm.
"That's enough," I said as Joker left out his trademark, maniacal laugh.
"Oooo, look at you. Had no idea 'ol Superman dyed his hair and grew tits!" he shrieked as I twisted his arm even more, which to my dismay, only made him laugh that much harder.
"So strong and menacing, I like it. Tell me, how big of a fan of green are you?" he asked as his other hand began to rise to the flower attached to his lapel. It was then that Batman burst through the glass ceiling (it was like Gotham had its fair share of glass ceilings for Batman entrances alone) and landed on the ground near us before sliding his form between myself and Joke rjust as I released his arm.
"Batsy! The bane of my existence, honey to my bees, and milk to my-,"Joker began before Bruce's hand was clenched tightly around his throat with a growl.
"You and Harley are going back to Arkham," Bruce said sternly as Joker's mouth sputtered from hardly being able to breathe. I raised my hands to Bruce's forearms and lightly placed them there, looking at him through the eyes of his mask. I didn't have to say that he was about to kill him out loud; my look alone was enough as he released the grip and instead started to grab Joker's arms and pin them to his own back.
"Oh, ho, ho…Batman silenced by a woman, if I recall the last to have that effect on you was a little more bodacious in the rack department, wasn't she?" Joker said with a sly grin and I could only roll my eyes. Bruce just growled before he looked over at me.
"Can you handle Harley?" Bruce asked as I nodded. Joker suddenly glanced behind his shoulder at Harley.
"Harley now!" Joker bellowed as Harley bit at the cuticles of her fingers before producing the hand grenade that already had its pin removed. She pouted before looking over at me.
"I'm so…sorry." Harley said before tossing the grenade to the ground. I immediately flew my body into Bruce's side, sending us flying out of a nearby window as the grenade went off, my body covering his. Joker, no doubt, had escaped…again.