Chapter Text
Discovered
(Mainstream Comics Continuity x My Fantasy AU)
Eventually, even Batman agreed that the best place for the Warlocks & Warriors alternate thems was the Batcave. Mostly, Nightwing couldn't figure out how The Bat as he had introduced himself, managed to travel over any roof tops on any Earth with that much armor weighing him down. At least Alt-Nightwing seemed to have the right idea; lightweight and flexible.
The most difficult part of getting them all back was keeping the Robins from killing each other. Strangely enough, W&W Red Hood (And Dick was trying so very hard to keep from making any quips about Little Red Riding Hood, he really was) turned out to be really helpful with that, tag-teaming with W&W Nightwing and Batgirl (Flittermouse, she called herself) at keeping their Robin distracted.
Alfred was waiting for them, domino mask on and trays of drinks and sandwiches at the ready. "Refreshments, Master Batman?" He asked in that uber-polite way that was not really a request at all.
The way all the alt-versions of themselves relaxed at the sight and sound of Alfred did a lot towards convincing Dick they were who they said they were. "I take it you have an 'Agent A' in your reality too." he commented to W&W Red Robin, who was closest to him.
The familiar yet strange teenager gave him an odd look but nodded. "If you mean Alfredos," he inclined his head towards Alfred. "Then yes."
"Cool." Dick nodded back. Any world with Alfred in it couldn't be that bad.
Sacrifice
(Mainstream Comics Continuity x Some Sort Of Dystopian Future AU)
Cassandra had not gone to "Other Earths" as often as some of her siblings had, but she was familiar enough with the feeling that came with inter-dimensional travel to recognize it. As such, her first instinct was to take cover and assess the situation; see who would be friend and who would be enemy, and wait for Tim to find her with his new inter-earth machine and get her home.
Her first instinct was forgotten upon seeing what had to be this world's versions of Tim and Steph leaping out of the closing door of some kind of space ship or something to fight off a lot of armored soldiers and let the ship escape.
They expected to die, Cass could see, they just hoped to buy enough time to save their friends.
She palmed a smoke pellet from her belt. Forty to three were her kind of odds. As Steph would say, Team 5'5" was in the house!
Crash-Course
(Mainstream Comics Continuity x MCU - Post Civil War)
"So there was a whole big fight that was nominally about oversight of superheroes, but turned out to be more about a super assassin called the Winter Soldier, who may or may not be more or less innocent of most of his crimes due to them possibly being committed under duress and diminished capacity, aka, Soviet/super-terrorist-organization brainwashing."
Spiderman nodded, taking a huge bite of the hot dog Tim had bought him from a vendor two blocks over. His Batman Inc. card might be useless in this dimension, but his cash seemed to work just fine.
"And how did you get mixed up in all of that?" Tim asked, frowning. "You're an underage, street-level vigilante. How did you make the jump to duking it out with the big leagues in Germany?"
"Mr. Stark." Spiderman said through his mouthful. "Iron Man. He figured out who I was and came by my apartment. He said he needed my help and, uh," he swallowed. "He may have implied he'd tell my au-guardian if I didn't go with him."
"He what!" Tim's jaw dropped.
Spiderman winced and shoved the rest of the hot dog in his mouth in an obvious ploy to avoid saying anything.
"He blackmailed you and took you out of the country to fight a personal battle of his own under false pretenses!"
"Yeah," the kid (and Tim was the last person to look down on anyone because of age but he'd not be able to think of Spiderman any other way for awhile now) shrugged. "That's where Daredevil kinda freaked out too. Plus his whole rant about how unconstitutional the Accords are and how many basic human rights and even civil liberties they violate."
Tim put Daredevil, who Spiderman had already mentioned as the extremely territorial guardian of Hell's Kitchen, on his mental list of possible contacts and allies to make. "Oversight is one thing. A good thing actually, but nothing that gets passed through in three days is good news." He wiped the mustard off his fingers and pulled his gauntlets back on before hauling himself to his feet with a sigh. "And my best chance of getting home happens to be the man who is all for that so long as it serves his purposes. Fun."
Spiderman hummed thoughtfully and seemed to come to a decision. "You could come stay with me and my aunt." He offered quietly. "I can say you're a friend from school."
"Thanks." Tim said, forcing his best imitation of Dick's 'we're all friends here' smile despite the knot in his throat. "But if Iron Man knows who you are he'll be monitoring you and I'd like to stay off his radar as long as possible. I think I'll go check out Hell's Kitchen." He pulled a grapple off his belt and strode to the edge of the roof. "And Spiderman-"
The kid looked up, pulling his mask down over his chin and yet somehow managing to seem so very young despite the red and blue, bug-eyed cowl. "You need to be more careful who you trust. I will keep your secret, but you don't know me well enough to invite me to your home. That is the most vulnerable you can be."
"I know." Spiderman nodded. "But since we stopped fighting and started talking, you haven't made my spidey-senses so much as tingle."
Compromised
(Technically this could be either time or 'verse travel, whichever you prefer to see it as!)
Damian refused to acknowledge that this was happening. There is no way that he would ever-ugh!
"Awww!" The alien floating in the air in front of him cooed, her glowing green eyes crinkled up at the corners so that she looked like Grayson when he was laughing. "You were so grumpy and adorable when you were tiny, Ves' tacha!"
The imposter who claims to be him as an adult (As if! He will be Batman well before he reaches the age the Imposter claims.) scowls and brushes invisible dust off of the red Nightwing symbol on his chest. "I was an arrogant, bigoted, insecure little monster." He says sharply. "Who is probably planning how best to dispatch you. Please back up, Habiibtii."
No. There is no way that anything even remotely like this is in Damian's future.
Begun
(This one actually comes from a comics storyline where Batman and Robin (Jason Todd) travel to another timeline/earth and prevent the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne. As they fly off, they are watched by an inspired Baby Bruce Wayne. Quinis and I have discussed the future possibilities of that Earth and I have a story in progress.)
Bruce watched, wide-eyed in amazement, as the dark man and brightly-colored boy saved them from the man trying to rob them. It was hard to see around Mom, (who hadn't moved from in front of him since the first, scary moment when the man with the gun had stepped out of the shadows) but impossible to miss how quickly and efficiently they had the mugger tied up and the dark man spoke to Dad in a low, rumbly voice about calling the police and next time calling Alfred to pick them up if they were somewhere taxis didn't come, instead of walking through dark alleys, even if it was his night off.
As they flew away into the night, the kid looked back and waved at Bruce, a wide grin on his face, like saving people was the best thing ever. They reminded Bruce of the Grey Ghost or Zorro.
Bruce knows, with absolute certainty, what he wants to be when he grows up.
Truth
(Pre-Boot x Nu52)
Babs sips her coffee and appraises the girl fidgeting in her seat across the table. She is so very, very young (not just physically, but mentally and emotionally) in a way Barbara doesn't think she ever was. "So you got your legs back and became Batgirl." It is not a question.
"Yeah." Other-her says defensively. "I wanted to help!"
"I was Batgirl for almost five years before I retired." Babs says quietly. "After the shooting, In my first year as Oracle I saved more lives than I had in all those years combined. The only way you could have gone back to being Batgirl-or become her for the first time, in your case, is if you decided to forget everything you accomplished and all the ways you grew as Oracle.
"I'm disappointed that any version of me could ever be so shallow."
Infinite
(This one is a little complicated to define. It's more of a prequel to 'verse travel and the source verse, aka, the one doing the traveling, might best be described as Earth 934, my own, close-to-comics AU. [We all have one of those guys, an attempt to make all the retconns and reboots make some sorth of coherent sense] so basically Mainstream Comics Cannon. Ish?)
"Somewhere, in one of these realities, is where she landed. The body we buried was a construct, meant to throw us off the trail." Donna finishes her speech quietly and steps back. letting the rest of them process. (She's emotionally sensitive and in-touch that way.)
Roy is paper-white, his wide eyes fixed on the map of the multiverse like it holds the secrets to his heart's desire. (Which Jason would say it did except that would not be enough to describe what it could mean.)
Koriand'r has her battle-ready face on that promises to bring the hurt on those who had caused pain to her friends. Rayner (the jerk) who is probably the least emotionally invested of the lot of them is already reaching for his comm and informing one of the other Lanterns, Stewart probably, that he'll be out of touch for awhile.
"What are we waiting for." Jason scoops up his helmet. "Let's go save Lian and bring her home."