Chapter Text
When he was younger, Dick hated high stress training exercises. He hated it well before the simulation massacre with the team. He hated them, but he couldn't deny their use. Now, when faced with a situation where the whole world seems to have gone to shit, rather than panicking he can take every worry and concern and separate the emotions that come with them. He stuffs the fear in a box deep inside the caverns of his mind and refuses to open it again. He hates the mechanical feeling that passes over him, stealing away any personality, but it comes in handy. He can debrief. He can analyze. He can be a soldier.
The first thing Dick does, before even answering his siblings who are now staring at him like he's an open textbook, is check his holocuff. He's glad that he's kept it all these years. He has tried costumes without it and just doesn't like not having the convenience of a holocuff. It has everything someone could need, and even though he's now the resident hacker now that Oracle has come along, being able to remotely break into a security system always has its perks. He loves his holocuff. If only the damn thing would work. The moment he pressed the button on his holocuff, he was met with static. No time, no location, nothing.
He glanced up at his siblings who took the silent message immediately. Tim opened his own holocuff, only to be met with the same static Dick had. Jason tapped on his helmet and immediately tapped it again, no doubtedly having static roaring in his ears. Damian pulled out his hand held communicator device and showed it to Dick. Static. Nothing but fucking static.
“We are in New York City. No technology, no way to get ahold of Batman. We've had an encounter with what could potentially be magic and have no clue what the effects are.” Dick says out loud. Silence, again.
“The blast from the building must have taken our tech out.” Tim supplies.
“Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. But who the hell was that guy? The one with the hammer?” Jason demands. Dick buries his face in his hands.
“Could we..” Tim starts, “Could we be in an alternate universe?” Dick thinks about Tim's words.
“The orb didn't look like a breach, but I suppose its possible.” Dick answers. “We need more information and we need a way to contact Batman, the League, anyone.” He decides.
“And how do you suppose we do that?” Damian asks, crossing his arms.
“We’ll have to go old school. Public library would work.” Dick says.
And thats how the four, after an hour and a half of walking the streets of a New York City that isn't theirs, found themselves at the Midtown Public Library. They were able to find articles of clothing to in a dumpster that were able to cover the obvious parts of their costumes. The librarian looked disgruntled by their appearance and no doubt smell, but led them to a community library that no one was using. Tim is sat af the computer while Dick, Jason, and Damian crowd around him. Tim lets out a big sigh and sits back in the uncomfortable looking wooden chair the librarian provided.
“Nothing. No Batman, no Justice League, no Gotham.” Says Tim. “Definitely another universe or Earth. Bart told me a bit about how these things work but usually there’s at least some sort of doppelgänger. There’s no Gotham, though, so there’s no Bruce Wayne, no Dick Grayson, no Jason Todd, no Damian Wayne, no Tim Drake. We just….don’t exist.”
“Great. Fucking spectacular.” Jason chides.
“What about that man we saw?” Dick asks. Based on the man with the hammer they saw, there has to be some sort of hero system here.
“Which one?” Tim asks back.
“The one with the hammer.” Dick replies. Tim types quickly on the keyboard, a loud and clacky thing that disturbs the otherwise silent library. Pictures of the man from earlier show up labeled ‘Thor’.
“Like the Norse god?” Damian chimes in.
“Maybe that’s what they have here.” Jason says.
“No, it says here he’s apart of the Avengers.” Tim says, reading an article dubbed ‘Earths Mightiest Heros’. Dicks eyes catch on the time stamp in the right hand corner. 6:00. The sign outside the library said they closed at 8.
“Okay. We need to figure out the next course of action. Cleary, this world has a justice system with hero’s. That means there’s a chance they can get us home. We need to figure out how to do so without disturbing this Earth. First, though, we need a place to stay. Jason, can you and Damian scout out the city and find us somewhere we can crash?” Dick asks. Jason has the most experience when it comes to cities like this. Damian is the most observational of them all, and it’s no doubt he’ll be able to help. Plus, Dick already doesn’t like the idea of splitting the four up. This way, there will be at least one person with one of them at a time.
“I could.” Jason says. “It ain’t gonna be pretty, though.”
Dick nods. “Tim and I will stay here and research this Earth. Hopefully we can come up with a plan. I’ll give us an hour and a half, is that enough time?”
“Plenty.” Tim responds.
“I’ll make it work.” Jason says.
With that, the four split in half.
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At 7:30 exactly, Dick stood next to the computer with Tim, rapidly tapping his food against the ground.
“Give them a minute, Dick.” Tim comforted. “They wouldn’t have gone far.”
After 163 seconds, each of which Dick counted, Damian and Jason rounded a bookshelf. Dick hoped the way the tension melted from his shoulders wasn’t noticeable.
“We found a map.” Jason said, grinning wide.
“Todd picked it out of a dumpster.” Damian added, clearly disgusted. “He then wiped his hand on me.” Ah, that explains Jason’s chipper demeanor. Jason must’ve noticed Damian’s displeasure at having to wear a flannel they found hung on the edge of a dumpster earlier.
“A necessary evil.” Jason said, “It helped us figure out how to get back here. And how to get ro where we’ll be staying. It’s a five star abandoned office building. Comes with complementary roaches.” Jason’s mood seems to have improved, if he’s joking about their situation. Dick is just glad he’s able to make light of things, even if it’s teasingly.
“Good. Me and Tim were able to figure out a lot.” Dick says, smiling. With that, he begins his debrief. “This Earths history is similar to ours, with a few differences. It really starts to branch off during the second World War, though. The geography is different too. It doesn’t have Central City, National City, or Metropolis, among others. They had a big invasion a few years back. A bad one that mainly happened here in New York.”
“I’m guessing that means they won’t be very welcoming to people not from here?” Jason asks, his arms crossed as he leans against a bookshelf.
“Most likely,” Tim chimes in. “but these ‘Avengers’ are a mix of all kinds of people with different origins. Hopefully, it means they won’t immediately blow us up if they see us.”
“Based on all this,” Dick continues, “we’ve come up with a plan.” Damian looks skeptical at this. “This man, Tony Stark, he’s essentially this worlds Bruce Wayne, except if everyone knew Bruce Wayne was Batman, and Batman acted more like Brucie Wayne.”
Being in the eyes of the media for all his life, Bruce had developed an identity separate from who he truly was. This identity, however, was not the Batman. Instead, it was a facade he put on for the media. While Bruce Wayne was calm and educated, Bruce Wayne was a party animal. After taking in Dick, the mask began to fade, however Brucie Wayne could still be found at one of his galas.
“Our plan is to siphon off small amounts of money from this Stark guy. We’ll use this to get ourselves set up to a point where we won’t starve.” Tim explains.
“Stark holds a lot of parties, not too different from the Galas we hold.” Dick adds on. “Tim is going to create us each identities which we’ll use to get into one of those parties. From there, we’ll try to find some sort of technology to help us get the hell out of here.” Dick waits to see Jason and Damian’s response.
“That plan is idiotic.” Damian finally says. “How do we know there will be technology that can help us? How do we know if we can even break in to this Starks laboratory?”
“Listen, right now it sounds like a long shot,” Dick defends, “but if we can solidify it with some more research, it can work. All we need is something to get us in contact with our Earth. I promise you, things will work out. For now, it’s been a long day and tomorrows not going to be any better. Jason?” Dick asks. Jason understands his silent request and the four leave the library.
The building Jason found was in rough shape, but it would work for the time being. They climbed up a fire escape, the green paint chipping off every time one of them gripped it too hard. They proceeded to go through a window on the sixth floor which led to what must’ve been one of the offices. Papers cluttered the floor and no corner was without a cobweb. What it did have, however, was a desk and couch. A pullout one from the looks of it. Why one of those was in an office, Dick had no clue. Him and Jason pulled out the couch and let Tim and Damian climb into the bed, assuming him and Jason would take the floor.
“I’ll take first watch.” Dick offered. No one protested, so he took a seat at the window and picked up a newspaper he found in the trashcan next to the desk. It’s undoubtedly outdated, but any information is good information. He began the first paragraph about a vigilante in red and blue while his three brothers feel into a much needed sleep.