Harley Quinn: Oracle of Chaos by Jade Gretz

https://www.deviantart.com/jadegretzai/art/Harley-Quinn-Oracle-of-Chaos-1234613836

Harley Quinn: Oracle of Chaos ANIMATION

Salt Laughing at Midnight

The water came first, before the sound.

It crept through the old amusement pier like a patient thought, seeping between planks, lifting old ticket stubs, nudging forgotten shoes until they bobbed like guilty secrets. Gotham Harbor had always been a liar—promising romance, delivering rot—but tonight the water had intention. It wanted witnesses.

Harley Quinn stood at the edge of Pier C, boots just shy of the slick wood, mallet resting on her shoulder like a faithful question mark. Neon from a broken carousel blinked behind her, staining her skin cotton-candy pink, then bruise-blue, then gone.

“Well,” she said to the water, smiling with all her teeth, “ain’t you a clingy little thing.”

The harbor answered by exhaling.

Something vast moved beneath the surface. The pier trembled. Farther out, buoys rang together like nervous bells. Harley tilted her head, pigtails swaying, eyes bright with curiosity that had learned the hard way how often curiosity bit back.

She had followed a trail of drowned men to this place—dock enforcers with gills torn raw through their throats, smugglers with salt packed behind their eyes. Every corpse wore the same expression: astonishment, edged with longing. As if, in the moment of death, someone had promised them a beautiful secret.

“Okay,” Harley murmured, “note to self: next time, bring snacks.”

A shape rose.

It was not the clean arc of a dolphin or the graceful menace of a shark. It was wrong in smaller ways: too many joints, too many eyes that blinked out of sequence, a mouth that smiled as if it had learned smiling from a cracked mirror. Scales caught the carousel light and fractured it, scattering rainbows across wet wood.

Then another shape rose. And another.

Mer-creatures, yes—but not the storybook kind. These were the harbor’s dreams after a long night drinking.

Harley stepped back, mallet sliding into her hands. “Hiya, fish sticks. I’m Harley. You are… definitely not my therapist.”

One of them spoke. Its voice was water pushed through rusted pipes.

“Laughing one,” it said, tasting the words. “We have heard you sing.”

“Oh honey,” Harley said, tapping her chin, “everybody hears me sing. Usually right before the screaming.”

The water behind them bulged. A man climbed onto the pier as if emerging from a womb that had finally tired of him. He wore a tailored suit that drank the water and held it, silver hair slicked back, eyes the color of coins at the bottom of a well.

Silas Marrow. Aquatic crime boss. Smuggler of things that wanted to stay lost. Collector of debts that could not be paid.

He smiled with professional warmth. “Ms. Quinn. You’re earlier than expected.”

Harley gave a theatrical bow. “Traffic. All the bridges were crying.”

Marrow gestured to the creatures. “My associates. They don’t like to be called monsters.”

One of the mer-creatures leaned closer. Its eyes lingered on Harley’s lips, the curve of her throat. When it inhaled, the air cooled.

“Oh, sugar,” Harley said softly, “you look at me like I’m dessert.”

The creature shuddered, scales flushing a deeper hue. “You are salt and sugar,” it said. “We hunger.”

Harley’s smile sharpened. “Flattered. But I’m on a diet.”

Marrow chuckled. “They were summoned by old rites, Ms. Quinn. Songs written when the shoreline was a mouth. I give them work. They give me loyalty. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

“Uh-huh,” Harley said. “And the drowned guys?”

“Contract disputes.”

The pier groaned. Beneath it, something scraped.

Harley’s eyes flicked down. Mystery coiled in her stomach like a sleeping cat. “You ever notice,” she said lightly, “how everybody with a ‘mutually beneficial arrangement’ says it real fast, like if you don’t breathe between the words it’ll be true?”

Marrow stepped closer. The air around him smelled of brine and old ink. “I can offer you something,” he said. “You have a reputation for… flexibility.”

“Ooo,” Harley said, leaning in. “I do love compliments.”

He lowered his voice. “I can give you a city that laughs back. A chorus beneath the waves that knows your name.”

The mer-creatures hummed, a low, seductive vibration that climbed Harley’s spine and rattled memories she kept locked. Laughter as survival. Laughter as surrender.

For a heartbeat, the harbor seeme
...(more at https://www.deviantart.com/jadegretzai).
For more supergirl, chun li, batgirl, tifa, lara croft, wonder woman, rogue and much more, please visit my page at www.deviantart.com/jadegretzai - Thanks for your support :)