Bruce stood quietly in the unknown street, caution washing over his form. A quick glance at some of the street signs and buildings told him he was somewhere in japan, though he didn't recognize the location. As he turned his head to read the signs, he felt something was off. His armor was incredibly loose... and heavy.
Not only was his Bat-suit loose, his detective vision wasn't functioning properly. He tried to connect to the Bat-computer, but there was no signal. Even a quick call to Alfred proved impossible. Just where was he? Bruce weighed his options and ultimately decided to explore this place.
Stepping into an alley way, Bruce slipped free from the Bat-suit after confirming that he wasn't being watched. The soft material of the under suit normally clung tightly to his skin, yet it too was slightly loose. His body was smaller than normal. Looking down at his hands, they too were also smaller in size, like how they were in his teen years. Bruce frowned. He had to find out what was going on.
Bruce lifted the Bat-suit up, despite it being heavier than normal, he was still in rather great condition for his size. Removing the cape, he wrapped it around the chest of the Bat-suit and tied it over his shoulder.
'I can't just go exploring with the Bat-suit.' Bruce thought to himself as he glanced around the place for somewhere to hide it. A fire escape on the building to his left gave him an idea.
Backing up against the building behind him, Bruce ran toward the wall with he fire escape. If anyone were watching, they would think he were a madman for dashing straight at a brick wall. Shifting his weight back, but not too far as he still had the weight of the Bat-suit to accommodate for, Bruce ran up the wall and latched onto the fire escape.
Pulling himself over, Bruce set foot on the metal grate of the fire escape. Looking up, he saw numerous sets of stairs. Lugging the extra weight over several sets of stairs would be a taxing process for a normal teenager, but Bruce was rather fit in his teen years and the roof wasn't that high up. Making it to the highest platform, Bruce looked up to the roof. Fire escapes are designed so that residents can go down a building, Which meant that they don't exactly lead to the rooftops all of the time. He was just glad that the highest floor was a residential area. 'It's just short of the roof. If I use the handrail as a launch point, I can climb up to the top of the building.'
Jumping forward, Bruce placed his foot on the railing. His leg bent as he fell slightly, only to straighten out again once he jumped. The small stature of his body allowed him to grab the ledge with only two of his fingers. Grunting, Bruce quickly threw his other hand up to the ledge as he straightened out the other. Placing his feet on the wall below, Bruce pushed with his feet and pulled with his arms, causing his body to fly over the ledge and onto the rooftop.
As far as he was concerned, this rooftop wasn't meant to be used as there was nothing on it beside some gravel. Moving to the corner of the rooftop, Bruce placed the Bat-suit down and threw his cape over it. Thankfully, there was a dip in the roof which cause the ledge to hide anything anything a several inches tall. Any onlookers below would see nothing, and if anyone were level with the rooftop, all they'd see is a small mound. It wasn't the best spot, but it would have to do for now.
Bruce walked over to the ledge. Kneeling down, he looked over the sunset dyed city. 'This is definitely Japan, but I don't recognize the location.' As curious as he was about his location, another question was just as important. 'How did I get here?' The possibility of it being one of Gotham's villains wasn't likely due to the fact that they were all locked away in maximum security prison cells. None of his enemies even had the ability to instantly send him to another location, nor did anyone he knew have the ability to regress someone's age.
Deciding on his objective, Bruce grabbed the gauntlet and glove from his Bat-suit as well as a few gadgets from his utility belt.
Quickly making his way down from the rooftop, Bruce began his expedition through the streets. One thing that he noticed almost immediately was that every street sign he saw had a weird name, most of them weren't even actual Japanese words. After reading several signs, building names and news reports, Bruce could confirm that he was in a city called 'Mustafu'. As far as he was concerned, Mustafu wasn't even a real place. And for Batman himself to never hear of this city said a lot.
As he walked, Bruce thought more and more about his predicament. Detective vision wasn't functional, he wasn't able to connect to the Bat-computer nor could he contact Alfred. All of that combined with the fact that he was in an unknown location. 'Either I breathed in too much of Scarecrow's toxin, or something bigger is going on.' Whatever is was, the truth of the matter was that Bruce lacked the resources to investigate, so he kept walking, trying to find out more about this city.
During his trek, Bruce received many stares from the residents of the city. The main reason was because he was wearing what appeared to be a loose fitting black onesie. The other reason was because he's a foreigner and looked out of place here. He didn't care though, he was more enticed by the technology he found on the buildings and street sides. It wasn't anything too special, but it was rather advanced and clean for a modern city.
All things considered, Bruce did all he could outside, what he needed to do was real research. Turning into another alley way, Bruce pulled up his gauntlet. A holographic screen appeared, showing a web browser on the display. 'The building over there has Wi-Fi. Good.' Normally he'd establish a direct connection with the Bat computer, but seeing as that wasn't possible, Bruce had to make do with this.
'Quirks?' Bruce thought to himself. 'This is going to be a problem.'
Bruce lowered his gauntlet. The terrified shriek of a woman coming from around the corner of the alley way had him on alert. Turning his back to the street, Bruce ran further into the darkness ahead, turning the corner once he made it all the way.
"Just hand it over, lady!"
"We'll make this quick, so just hurry up!"
After the turn, Bruce dashed behind a dumpster to his right. 'Four men, two armed. Their backs are all turned, they won't notice me sneaking up on them.' Something was off about one of those men. He appeared to have a rather realistic wolf mask over his head, yet no one else was wearing masks. There was a possibility of it relating to the 'Quirks' he read about, but he didn't have enough time to read up on it to confirm this hypothesis.
Analyzing the situation, Bruce planned his next moves. 'The two in the back have knives, I can take both of them down but it'll alert the two up front.'
Staying low, Bruce swiftly snuck up behind the two men in the back. Standing to full height, which was taller than average for his age, Bruce reached out, grabbing their heads and pulling them together with force strong enough to knock them out. He had to use more force than usual to accommodate for his size.
The sound of a crack and limp bodies falling to the ground had alerted the men ahead, but Bruce was already on the move. Throwing a Batarang at the man furthest from himself, Bruce lunged a the other, knocking him off balance. As soon as the man hit the ground, the other recovered from the Batarang stun just in time for Bruce's hand to hit his face.
Once he fell down from the impact, Bruce turned his attention back to the other man he knocked down earlier. Walking over to the thug, Bruce grabbed him by the neck, positioning him before punching him in the face. The punch caused his head to hit the concrete immediately after and the force shook his brain, causing him to go unconscious.
The other man had gotten up by then and charged at Bruce only to be met with ready fists. A three hit combination had been more than enough to deal with the last thug.
Crouching down, Bruce reached for the item on the ground, the purse the men had tried to steal from the woman. "Are you hurt?" Bruce asked.
The woman shook her head. Her face lighting up immediately after she grasped the purse in her hand. "Are you a hero?! You were so fast!" Blinking a few times, the woman's face changed from a worried expression to a curious and excited one. "No, you're too young... Maybe a sidekick?!" Bruce had apparently looked older than fifteen to her, but it wasn't exactly something he'd correct her on.
Hero? Sidekick? Bruce really had to finish up on his reading, because this world was starting to sound like a strange one. "The police should be here soon." He said, ignoring her questions as he turned to the street.
The woman was about to call out to him, but ultimately decided to wait for the police.
As he walked, Bruce felt eyes on him. He had noticed the stalker during his fight and decided to lure him to a quiet place. Since alley ways were popular today, Bruce turned and walked into another one, stopping once he made it halfway through.
"Come out." Bruce spoke just loud enough for the person tailing him to hear.
A figure fell from above, landing on the ground in front of Bruce. A second after, he stood to full height, revealing his full appearance. A pale faced man with ragged long black hair and a small amount of facial hair stood at six feet tall. Bandages wrapped around his neck, draping over a black shirt like a scarf. His utility belt held over a pair of matching dark, baggy black pants. His matching black shoes told Bruce that this man had a thing for the color black.
"You performed an illegal act of vigilantism," He began with a tired and uncaring voice. "You're coming with me."
The man had taken Bruce to a police station for questioning. Apparently, he was a pro hero named 'Eraser Head' who was on patrol and noticed Bruce looking rather suspicious and began tailing him. Once the mugging had began, he originally planned to stop it himself, but Bruce was too fast and didn't leave him with enough time to intervene.
Normally, the pro hero would have jumped in sooner, but he had hoped that he could follow the vigilante to find a base of operation. Apparently there was an up-rise of vigilantes and the police were getting desperate to find and stop them.
Naturally, Bruce was taken to an interrogation room to be questioned. Perhaps they hoped that he was part of a larger group of vigilantes and could provide some information.
"So, you're a traveler?" The detective asked.
"Orphan." Bruce replied.
The Detective's face darkened, not an obvious gesture, but one that didn't go unnoticed by Bruce. "And how did you get here all the way from America?"
"My parents moved here before they died." He lied about that part. Bruce had no choice but to play it safe for now.
The detective pondered Bruce's words before scribbling in his notepad. "You know, for an American, your Japanese is pretty good."
"My Karate instructor was very adamant that I became fluent." Another lie, but it explained both his hand to hand combat skills as well as his ability to speak Japanese.
"About that," The detective began. "Eraser Head is an expert in close quarters combat. He watched you taking down those men and couldn't help but recognize several techniques used by you throughout that fight. Your form was even a unique one. Would you mind explaining why a young teen such as yourself would have such skill?"
"I was planning on becoming a hero eventually. So I trained to prepare myself." Bruce was treading dangerous waters now. He simply lacked enough information to create accurate lies. He didn't know the system or laws of this society, he was a blind man walking through a mine field at this point.
The detective sighed. "Then you should have at least waited for a pro to come and handle the situation, or call the police."
Bruce shook his head. "She didn't have that kind of time."
The detective stared at Bruce with wide eyes for a few moments. Blinking, he regained composure. "You could get into real trouble if you keep this up, though I'm sure you knew that." The detective stood up. "Due to the nature of your situation, I'm obligated to let you off with a warning."
The detective gestured for Bruce to stand up as well. Gathering the blank papers on the table, the detective stood at the door, stopping before his hand could reach the handle. "You said you wanted to become a hero, right?" Seeing Bruce nod, he continued. "Which school were you planning on attending?" He asked.
"I wasn't sure. I never did the research." Bruce replied.
The detective pondered for a while. "My friend is teaching at a prominent hero school and the entrance exam is coming up soon. If you're interested, the school is called 'U.A.' academy... anyway, I just thought you'd like to know."
The detective opened the door, ready to walk out. He nearly collided with Bruce when he stopped abruptly and turned around. "This is actually quite unprofessional of me, but I forgot to ask. What's your name?"
Bruce stood silent in contemplation, almost appearing to forget the answer to such a simple question. Scarecrow had already revealed his greatest secret to the entire world, he had no reason to conceal it any more... but these people didn't know who Bruce Wayne or the Batman was. If he were truly in an alternate dimension, he shouldn't take the same name as a precaution.
After a few moments of silence, Bruce looked the detective in the eye. Reaching out to shake his hand, Bruce spoke.
"Thomas."
Yeah, I know what some of you following me are thinking. "Dal, get back to Earthland's Hero of Justice!"
No!... I mean, not no as in I'm not writing it, I'm still writing it. What I meant was, "No! stop thinking that specific sentence!" Because I'm already working on it. The reason why I was gone for two months was due to a chain of unfortunate events that happened one after another. But don't worry, it got better. Because immediately after, a chain of fortunate events happened.
First I got sick and really, really bored. Then the laptop I use for writing and posting had a problem so I couldn't write for that entire month. The other unfortunate events are rather blurry and I can't remember them.
Then this is where the Fortunate events happened. Fortuna came out and I rode a K-Drive for an hour before getting bored and logging off. Then I raised my accuracy as Hanzo. Then I got a PS4 and played Spider-Man... You get the idea, I technically went on vacation after the first month.
And there was no Arkham Knight category, so don't get me on that.
Oh well... I'll be working on Earthland's Hero of Justice for the next few days. This was just a side project that I work on when I'm not busy with the main story.
Remember to always wipe the toilet seat and to wash your hands before every meal.
-Dal
