Result of a Dream

(A literal title)

A/N: Yes I actually had a dream about this. The one image from this dream that stuck in my mind after I woke up was a sorceress looking through a giant TV-like screen at J'onn and Batman. She pointed to Batman and said " I'll hide there." And I thought it would make a good story. Thanks to my beta, Trickster91! You rock!

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Menagerie!

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The night was dark, though sirens sang on the streets of Gotham. Batman approached the scene, his Batmobile parked a short distance away, hidden in the shadows of course.

He pushed his way through the crowd control, and circled around the officer putting up yellow tape. In the centre of the circle of officers was Commissioner Gordon. Batman did nothing more than stand there, Gordon was busy talking. Batman waited. Finished his conversation, Gordon turned around, and found himself face-to-face with the Dark Knight. He jumped.

"Geez!" he exclaimed, "Youd think Id be used to your entrances by now."

Batman waited. Gordon straightened his jacket in an effort to regain his composure.

"Theres been a robbery," Gordon said, "The only things stolen were a new, experimental battery and the data that goes with it."

"What kind of battery?" Batman asked in his trademark monotone.

"One that would never need to be charged," He saw Batmans questioning look and clarified, "Its supposed to take and use energy from things around it. "The Dark Knight nodded and glanced at the laboratory that rose behind the crowd of police, before turning his attention back to Gordon.

"Weve already been through the building and we cant find anything. Whoever did this...they're good."

With another nod, Batman made his way toward the building. There was nothing more to discuss, it was obvious that they wanted him to look into it. A list of the usual suspects ran through his mind. Joker? No, he always leaves a calling card of some sort. Penguin? No, batteries aren't what strike his fancy. Mr. Freeze, definitely out of the question. The police would have found frozen security guards and cameras if he were behind it. Well, Batman would see for himself once he started his investigation.

--

A pool of lavender light emanated from beneath a garbage can in one of Gothams many alleyways. As if propelled by an unseen geyser, the can flew into the air and landed a few feet away. Out of the now-exposed pool climbed a young woman. She sat on the edge of the portal and looked around.

"Oh dear," she sighed, "Now where have I ended up this time? And...where can I hide?"

This was Menagerie, and she was on the run. She was a sorceress, and her magic was the reason she had been outlawed from her home and chased through more dimensions than she could count. Not that she was a bad person, far from it, but her magic caused...trouble. Every time she tried to help someone other than herself, something bad would happen out of repercussion. If she rescued a cat from a tree, the tree would collapse. If she put out a house fire for someone else, the entire village would burst into flames. She didn'tt mean for any of this to happen of course, her magic did it on its own. And such was how her flight had begun.

She rose from her seat, dusted off her mis-matched outfit, and began to walk in the direction of the main road. There had to be somewhere she could hide.

A car drove by, and what an impressive car it was. Black, with wings. Menagerie smiled, a possibility coming to mind. Surely the Hunters wouldn'tt think shed hide in such an obvious place. As the car drove further away, she focussed on it. Her eyes blocked everything out except for the car. She began to visualize herself inside that car. But wouldn'tt the owner notice? Who was the owner anyway? There was no time to further elaborate on the thought, as she felt herself being pulled in the direction of the black car. The transportation pulled at her hair and clothes, it yanked at her fingers and made her stomach queasy. It was unpleasant, sickening and painful at the best of times, but if it meant being able to live long enough to figure out how to use her magic to help others, then it was worth it.

Something was wrong. She knew it from the moment she saw a blur that was the car approaching. The transportation was a lot more painful than it usually was. Her head throbbed, her limbs felt like they would break off, her eyes hurt with such intensity that they began to tear despite themselves. This was not normal.

It all stopped. Menageries vision cleared, and she found herself staring at the road, her hands gripping the steering wheel. As her eyes glanced in the rear-view mirror, she caught a frightening sight - herself, but not herself. This person was wearing a black cowl that covered the top half of his face.

She had transported herself inside the owner of the car.

--

Batman was disappointed. His investigation had turned up nothing. No one had seen anything, no visible evidence had been left. The alarms hadnt even been triggered - or touched at that. It had been a night guard walking by that noticed an open file cabinet drawer and safe. That was it. This case was very puzzling. Everywhere there should have been evidence, there was none. The police had already looked for fingerprints and found none. They had looked at the security tapes, and everything seemed normal - another anomaly. The tapes, even at the present time, showed everything as the scientists had left it. And so, with nothing more he could do at the scene, hed left.

He was brooding to himself the entire way home. In fact, he was so upset that he had given himself a headache. Well, a painkiller and a good nights sleep would fix that.

Parking the Batmobile, he exited to the Batcave, where he removed his costume. Soon, Bruce Wayne stood there, looking like he had never left. He climbed the stairs and exited the cave via the grandfather clock that stood in one hall in his mansion.

"Back from the investigation so soon Master Bruce?" Alfred said. Bruce nodded.

"There wasn't much to see," he said, "I have a headache Alfred, Id like to take some Advil."

"Yes Master Bruce," the butler said, leaving to get the pill. Bruce sighed and made his way to the rec-room to relax and watch some TV. No sooner had he started flipping through the channels than Alfred found him, and held out a small tray on which was a glass of water and some Advil. AI thought you might be here, he said as he held out the tray.

"Thank-you Alfred," Bruce said, taking the pill. He turned his attention back to the TV, where a news-reporter was talking about the robbery he had just been investigating. It troubled him that he didn'tt even have an idea who was behind it, or what they wanted with the battery. Obviously it was to power some sort of machine, hed seen things like that more times than he could count, but what kind of machine? And for what purpose? He had nothing to go on, and that troubled him even more. What kind of thief takes something and leaves almost nothing behind? The most he knew about this thief was that they had quite the skill with security cameras. He turned off the TV and looked at the clock. It was a decent, though late, midnight. This was the least amount of time hed ever spent investigating a crime. But there had been no use searching endlessly for clues and evidence that wasn't there.

"Think Ill go to bed early tonight," he said to himself, Alfred had gone to return the tray and glass to the kitchen. Bruce wandered down the hallways to his room, where he changed into his pyjamas, brushed his teeth, and promptly fell asleep on his king-sized bed.

--

Menagerie crept out of her hiding place. He was asleep. Good, now she had some time to think. How exactly had she ended up in Batman's...Bruce's...why exactly did he have two names? How did others know which to address him by? It was very confusing. In her world, everyone just had one name, it made things much simpler.

Well, whatever his name was, she was stuck inside him. How well was she connected to him, though? She decided to test. Opening his eyes, she looked at his arm. A small test was all she needed. She would lift his hand and allow it to drop. Once she had completed the task, she came to a frightening realization: it had felt like moving her own arm. Menagerie had nearly fused the two of them together, the only separating factor being that she still had a sense of herself, and he wasn't aware of her.

So how exactly had she done this? And this...well? She revisited her memories, trying to answer that question. Magic was a thing that needed to be done forward to do, and backward to undo. If she didn'tt know what shed done, she couldn'tt possibly reverse it. What had she done? Well, shed seen the car, imagined herself in the car, and ended up in Bat...Bru...this man. There had to be some way out of here, there had to be.

Although it was a better hiding place than she could ever have thought of, Menagerie just wanted out. Shed already seen more than any respectful, single sorceress should ever see. It was disturbing to say the least. But as much as she wanted to escape her hiding place, it had to be done without him knowing shed ever been there, otherwise who knows what might happen? He might tell the Hunters where she was. Theyd surely found their way to this world by now. They always did. She shook his head, forgetting it wasn'tt hers. This wasn't what she should be thinking about right now. She had to figure a way out of this mess.

He stirred. Menagerie dashed to her hiding place - a nook of his mind that he suppressed, it contained thoughts and such about a...Diana. He rolled over, only falling into a deeper sleep. Good, it had only been a false alarm. Menagerie came out again and let out a sigh - once again forgetting it came out of his mouth. She would have to hide until she could figure something out. While he slept would have to be when she tried to solve her problem.

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