The Universe's Mixer

HARLEY WAS QUEEN????

Jack stared at the television screen in disbelief. And anger. Lots of anger. He had spent years here doing his best to dismantle this city's structure and place himself into some kind of power. He'd been doing pretty well, too, hadn't he? They'd stopped trying to come after him, he was the proud owner and operator of Arkham. He had money. Goons and henchmen. He had fear of him flowing through the city's populace.

Harley shows up and mere months later somebody gives her a castle and makes her QUEEN?

That was highly unfair.
Uncalled for.
Unlikely.
Unhappy.

Clearly she had forgotten her place in the hierarchy of things. Clearly she needed to be taken down a couple of pegs. Queen. First he would find a way to make himself king. Then, with all that power, maybe he'd cut off her head. Like King Henry. Or maybe he'd just lock her up in a tower. Or maybe he'd just beat her into submission like he usually did. Queen.

Queen!

There was no excuse for this at all. None. He was the most criminal of the criminal element. He was the scariest of scary. He was the most mischievous of the mischievous. The cream of the crop, the cat's meow.

He was The Joker.

There was one thing about this City that Elizabeth didn't understand. Instead of Gold, they used paper. It seemed like an odd trade off. She liked the feel of gold in her hand. The height of it, the look of it. Sure, back in England they had writs of credit sometimes, but it was for gold. She enjoyed gold.

She missed gold.

So when she sat down at the counter of the bar she'd wandered into, as she was still on a rum kick, she demanded the city give her gold.

So the bartender laid a shot infront of her that was not rum. It was something that had gold flecks in it. It wasn't the same.

"All I want is one gold coin. Just to hold. Just to look at. Please." She begged no one. Took the shot up and gulped it down in a second flat. It wasn't rum, but it'd do.

She needed to get her hands on some gold. Maybe she really was a Pirate.

Cameron was really sick of looking up infectious diseases. She was sick of studying when she should have been working under House. The problem was that the City did not have House, but instead supplied her with a Cannibal by the name of Hannibal, who was completely fictional and terrifying. At least there was Wilson, but Wilson could not fill in the blank that House left.

He was good at something and that was dealing with people who had Cancer. He could not be House.

After giving up studying Cameron found herself back down in the clinic and dealing with patients of all shapes and sizes. But none were that challenging. Drug users that wanted their fix - Out! Kids with the flu, as always, getting shots. Adults with the sniffles convinced they had some kind of rare disease and not the common cold.

Cameron wanted a challenge. Either that or she needed to get out more and stop working here so much. But the Hospital was at home as anything else in this city.

She missed House. She needed House. She was going to go insane.

Zoe thought that the Captain and Wash were gone, for good. And Kaylee hadn't any idea what to do about that. This city saw fit to bring people back from the dead, only to take them away? To give her a captain to report to and then send him packing too? It. Was. Not. Shiny. Kaylee was not okay with it. She was going to finish fixing Serenity and she was going to find Mal and Wash.

The only problem was, once she got a hum, and the wires right. She realized the outside of her favorite ship was in dire need of some repairs if it ever hoped to get off the ground. So Kaylee in her cover-alls and a her welding mask set off to fix the nose, and eventually work her way across the whole of the ship. Only it was hard to keep herself rigged to stay up there, weld and hold the sheet metal in place.

This wasn't shiny. This wouldn't do.

She wanted Mal, and Jayne, and Book, and Simon, and Wash, and River, and Inara. She wanted everything to be normal. She wanted her Simon back because then at least he'd hold the metal in place or keep her straight on the rigging so she didn't fall to her death. Or if she fell he'd fix her gorram arm.

Wasn't shiny at all.

The curses that left the mechanics mouth were all muffled and in another language to the natives of the City, but she still cursed and kicked at a loose panel while hanging from the nose of Serenity by one rope.

Not. Shiny.

It felt like forever since she'd been out and about. Actually, she wondered where she had gotten off to and suspected that on some level she'd not gone anywhere at all, or maybe she'd gone back home. It didn't matter, whatever had happened, she'd been gone in some fashion. She was back now and feeling slightly detached from reality, which was a very odd thought in the City.

Winifred "Fred" Burkle was on a mission. It was probably a very stupid mission, but it was a mission all the same. She was on a mission to see if she was the only one to have gone away. Or more to have faded for a little into whatever clone/drone life was the City. She was rather certain that was what had happened to her. Yes. So, what was this particular mission? Or this phase of it? Heading out to the strangest part of the City to see if it was still there.

She made her way, meandering through the changing streets and looking for that dangerous place, the place of no color, of all grays. The place where he lived. The Bates Motel. Of course, it was possible she'd run into people along the way or someone living there. She hoped on some level that she'd see Wesley or maybe Sam or even Dean, but her objective was to see if Norman was still around, if the odd place that was just outside the City proper was still there.

She was going where the streets had no name, and the rainbow just didn't go. She probably should have brought waffles as a "Please, don't kill me" offering.

Elle was mad, more than that, she was downright pissed off. The City had decided to have a Queen and it totally wasn't her! That made no sense. If anyone should have been Queen it should have been her! She had all the right qualifications. She was good with people. She was powerful. She could get people to listen and win a war.

And she was good with money and... A lot of things like that, things Queens should be good at.

This Harley girl. Well if the city didn't appreciate Elle, then she'd forget about the City.

She started small. She blew up a few wires which caused some power outages. Then she welded a whole bunch of doors shut and locked the owners and customers of some stores, bars, and apartments inside.

Now she was in the park staring at the pond. Staring at the ducks IN the pond. A little shock to send them flying away forever? Or to kill some poor defenseless duck?

Her father would not be pleased, but if it was something the city loved.. Then why not? Who would really stop her?