Hello, and welcome to my first time taking on a challenge fic! I found this challenge on the profile page of DarkLord98, so any and all credit for the idea goes to him.

The challenge is to send a teenager between the ages of 14 and 19 to the DC Universe; specifically, the universe of The Batman 2004 series. From there he'll go on to either Teen Titans or Young Justice; I haven't quite decided yet, but I'm leaning more towards Teen Titans.

I threw in a cameo from a future story I have planned in this chapter. See if you can guess what the story is going to be for by looking at the details given.

Let's begin.

Year One—Dan's Age: Fourteen

Dan Dies and … HOLY SHIT, IT'S BATMAN!

Daniel 'Dan' Blake had never thought he'd done anything in his life that warranted any kind of reward afterwards. He was only fourteen, for Christ's sake, and he honestly wasn't all that extraordinary. He liked animé, comic books and the DC animated cartoons. In Dan's opinion, Marvel would never be able to live up to DC's greatness when it came to the making of cartoons, no matter how much they tried to get into the TV industry.

This story begins with Dan dying. It was a death he would be embarrassed to recount; all that had happened was Dan tripping over his cat at the top of the stairs and tumbling down, breaking his neck before he was even halfway. He'd always hated that damn cat.

And now he was sat in an office, or at least what looked like an office. He wasn't all too sure what kind of office it was, though. Absolutely everything within the office was a blinding white colour. Dan was struggling to see anything in the room other than the walls. The desk was white, the chair Dan sat on was white, the man who had just mysteriously appeared on a chair in front of him wore nothing but white; even the man's hair was white!

"Hello there," said the man, cheerfully. "My name is Yasuhide Kusuhara, and I'm here to guide you to your afterlife."

"What's with all the white in this place?" Dan asked in exasperation, then, "Wait … what?" He wasn't sure he'd heard Yasuhide correctly.

Yasuhide chuckled. "Yes, you heard me quite correctly, my friend. I'm here to guide you to your afterlife."

"B-b-but …" Dan struggled to speak. He had been an atheist in life, so the fact that there apparently was life after death both confused and scared him. He cleared his throat and changed the subject. "Why is your hair white? You can't be any more than, what … eighteen?"

"I'm seventeen," said Yasuhide. "I just happened to grow up a little faster than others, that's all. And my hair's not normally this colour; it's usually black. Hell, I don't even really work here. I'm filling in for a friend of mine who's off on other business, they're gonna send me back to the land of the living later."

"If you don't work here, then what do you normally do?"

"I run around inside a TV and fight monsters with some friends of mine."

"Are you insane?"

"Are you dead?"

"Good point," Dan conceded. "So … how does this work, exactly? Do we just have a chat and then decide whether I go to heaven or hell?"

"Well, not exactly," said Yasuhide with a bit of a nervous smile. "It all depends on where you choose to go, really. It could turn into your heaven or your hell. I'll give you a couple of examples. Say you chose to go to the world of Harry Potter; I think all the magic and wondrous things that happen there would be enough to make it a person's heaven, at least up until Voldemort's forces start amassing. But then say you wanted to go to, I don't know, the world of Attack on Titan. Now that is enough to be anyone's personal hell."

"Wha—?" Dan was completely lost … though the thought of living Attack on Titan was harrowing to him.

"Okay, so this is how it works," said Yasuhide, straightening himself up as if this was going to be a long conversation. "Only the really evil people go straight to hell after death. We're talking murderers, rapists, all those awful people. And since you aren't one of these dreadful men, what you're going to do is pick a world."

"Pick a world?"

"Yep. Any world that was fictional in your reality is completely open to you now. I believe I am actually from a world that's fictional in your own, but it's quite different from how you would know it. Anyway, I shouldn't get off topic; that's how the system works. As long as you aren't an evil scumbag, you get shifted to a different world each time you die in one. You even get to choose special abilities, assuming they aren't too overpowered. We don't want you breaking the world because you decided to become your new world's Son Goku."

Dan was silent. Thinking. This was crazy, but … it was happening no matter how crazy it appeared to be. And he remembered his death clearly, no matter how his current awareness of reality told him it had not happened. He remembered tripping, falling, and breaking his neck halfway down the stairs. He remembered a brief moment of pain that was quite severe, and then he remembered just randomly waking up in this office. What was that Sherlock Holmes had said? When you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. He couldn't be alive; it was impossible to dream in a coma; this was all too elaborate for a prank. Those were the impossibilities. So what was left?

He really had died. That was what was left.

"Any world?" said Dan. He was smiling. If this was true, and any world was now open to him …

"Yep." Yasuhide was smiling, too.

"How does the DC Universe sound to you?"

"It sounds like you need to be more specific. There are a lot of versions of the DC Universe."

"I want to start in The Batman. Y'know, the one that started in 2004. And I want it to lead into either Teen Titans or Young Justice."

"Any particular preference?"

"Surprise me. I like both shows, so either is good for me."

"All right, then." Yasuhide wrote a few things on what looked like some sort of contract. "Any particular powers you want to have? It's entirely optional, of course, but I think they'll help where you're going."

Dan thought about it. "I want Airbending powers from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I would just ask for all four, like the Avatar, but I get the feeling that would be breaking your rule against overpowered abilities."

Yasuhide chuckled. "Probably. I don't actually know, I don't normally work here. Good choice, either way." He wrote a few more things on the contract and then pushed it towards Dan, along with the pen. "Just sign your name at the bottom and we can get this dimension jump under way."

Dan took a brief look through the contract—his father had always told him to read something before signing it—and there wasn't all that much to it. He wasn't allowed to change any of the major events in the world he was going to, but he was perfectly able to interact with all of the people involved with said important events. There was one section that read: Whether you choose to enter into the DC Universe and become a hero, anti-hero or villain, you will not render anybody important to the events of the world incapable of performing their part. The fact that he had a choice in alignment was a nice thought, but he knew he was going to be a hero. After years of watching superhero cartoons, he really couldn't imagine himself doing anything else.

Dan signed the contract.

"Thank you for using this afterlife service," said Yasuhide, "and we hope to see you again in the future." He grinned. "But not too soon, eh, Dan? Just remember not to change major events—small ones are fine, but large ones can cause major universal complications—and remember one other thing: do try to have fun."

Dan noticed a light building up around him … then a flash … then he saw a city. It was the middle of the night, from the look of things. The place looked very peaceful, but appearances could be deceiving. Dan knew exactly where he was the moment he saw the city around him.

He had arrived in Gotham City.

Dan could see immediately that he was in that infamous part of Gotham simply known as The Narrows thanks to a road sign that stood near his materialisation point. There were a number of streets listed on said sign, but the one that told Dan for definite where he was read: Arkham Asylum. That was good, because, assuming he had arrived at the time of the first episode of The Batman, that meant that The Joker would be taking over Arkham soon, and Dan could get in to the thick of it all the quicker.

Dan barely had to walk for a few minutes before the imposing image of the Asylum appeared before him. There was nothing yet to make it appear that anything was amiss. As he tried to find his way in, Dan briefly took note of his reflection in a window, and found that he still looked quite like he did in his old world.

He had fair, Caucasian skin, and short, wavy black hair with specks of grey in it—he had never known where the grey came from. His eyes were a dark brown and fairly average-looking. He was of average weight, but he was also tall, which made him appear somewhat narrower in build than was natural. One thing that had changed was his clothing. Whereas before, when he had died, he was wearing a suit-like set of pyjamas with pinstripes running down them, he was now wearing the faded, grey remains of a shirt, a pair of blue jeans with brown stains and multiple tears in them, and a pair of what looked like boots, but they were so worn down and damaged that they might as well have not been there.

Dan found this change in attire curious, but shrugged it off. He had more important things to be thinking about at the present time.

After a little wandering, Dan decided that trying the front door was probably a good idea. It was well past visiting hours, but when he considered it, the people who worked here had to be pretty stupid. He walked in through the front door—the receptionist was conveniently bent over, looking for something under the front desk—and it was a simple matter to hide behind the right walls and make as little noise as possible in order to remain undetected. Dan was right, as it turned out; the orderlies and guards throughout the place were about as smart as the bricks the Asylum was built out of. It made sense, because he seriously doubted The Joker would have got in if they had been doing their jobs properly.

Dan got to a storage closet and ducked inside. There he waited for the shit to hit the fan.

The lightning outside really complimented the creepiness of Arkham Asylum. There was no sound of rain outside, and that made Dan curious. The loud booms of the thunder served to make Dan jump every few seconds, and after a while the rain finally appeared to start. Cartoon logic reigns supreme! Dan thought to himself with a small chuckle.

After what felt like an hour, but in reality was ten minutes, Dan heard a bang … and another … and another. Out of curiosity, he took a peak out the door of the closet he was hiding in and saw, to both his nervousness and excitement, that all of the cell doors had been opened and the patients were all leaving their cells. They all just wandered around, almost zombie-like in their aimlessness.

This is it, Dan thought to himself in anticipation. Not long now … I REALLY hope Zsasz doesn't turn up …

He retreated back into the storage closet and continued to wait.

It felt like barely any time had passed at all when he heard The Joker's deranged laughter echo through the building. The cackling of this deranged lunatic finally snapped Dan into the reality of the situation. He was in Arkham Asylum; a bunch of potentially dangerous lunatics had been released from their cells; and, to top it all of, The motherfucking Joker was in the building! It finally occurred to Dan just how much shit he had gotten himself in for.

BOOM!

That'll be the exploding jack-in-the-box, Dan thought as he steeled himself for the events to come. Not much longer now …

Gulping down any remaining nerves, Dan exited the closet one final time and began to move through the halls of Arkham. The patients were still wandering around in their zombie-like trance, posing apparently no danger whatsoever. Maybe they keep the dangerous patients in another ward …? Dan thought. He continued to move through the building, manoeuvring through the patients as they mindlessly stumbled about, until he came across something that told him for definite that he was right where he should be. He saw a man in a grey orderly uniform standing bolt upright, facing a wall. The man made no moves whatsoever.

Dan knew what had happened, but before he could do anything, some footsteps from behind him drew his attention. He turned to face his approacher and gasped when he saw who it was.

It was him. It was BATMAN! There was no mistaking it: The black cowl with the bat-like ears that exposed only the mouth and chin of the wearer; the black cape with the dark blue interior that resembled a pair of bat wings; the grey suit with the yellow oval on the chest, a black bat shape centred on it; the yellow utility belt filled with gadgets …

And the eyes. The eyes that the cowl somehow made to appear white with no irises. And they looked terrifying.

"You're not a patient," said Batman in his hard yet youthful voice. "And you're definitely too young to work here. So, why are you here?"

Dan began to panic a little. He began to wrack his mind for an excuse, when suddenly a thought entered his mind, almost like a soft whisper:

You were digging through the garbage …

"I was digging through the garbage," Dan repeated out loud. It was strange. He didn't feel like he was lying. He cleared his throat and gestured to the orderly. "Personally, I think we should be more worried about him."

Batman looked past Dan and his eyes sharpened (how Dan knew this when they didn't have irises, he could not tell you). Batman walked past Dan, who then followed behind, and approached the orderly's still form. He grasped the man's shoulder and turned him around to face them … and the sight that greeted them was much more terrifying than it had been in cartoon form. The man's mouth was stretched into an impossibly large grin that showed all of his teeth. The grin was so massive, in fact, that it had torn his lips open in several places, and small drops of blood were dribbling down his chin from his mouth.

"What the hell?" Dan said, not even having to fake the surprise and revulsion in his voice.

The cackling, deranged laughter echoed through the building once again … but this time it was closer. "Takes after his pa, wouldn't you say?" came a rough, humour-filled voice from just behind them. Dan and Batman turned to see The Joker sat on a support beam just behind them. He wore a purple and green outfit that heavily resembled a straight-jacket; there were strange, curving symbols up and down the arms. His skin was white, almost as if it had been bleached that colour, and his hair was long, green, and wild. His eyes were unnaturally round and red as blood. His lips were a deep, dark red, and his mouth was twisted into a grin even larger than the one on the orderly, showing all of his yellow, misshapen teeth.

"What did you do to him?" Batman demanded, pointing at the orderly.

"Just some laughing gas, Drac," said Joker.

"Really, 'cause I don't see him laughing," Dan remarked dryly.

"What do you mean?" Joker asked, turning his attention to Dan. "He has such a big smile on his face. How is that not laughing?" He dropped down from the support beam and pointed one of his long sleeves at Batman. "And what 'rational' being dresses like you? Speaking of threads, think this is a good look for me?" He did a sort of dance, swaying and shaking his arms.

Batman grabbed the front of Joker's shirt and pulled him forward aggressively. "Who are you?" he asked coldly.

"Joker," said the clown, not once dropping his grin.

"Not what, who?" He brought a hand to Joker's face and started rubbing. He pulled his gloved hand away to find that not a trace of any make-up was upon it. Joker's face looked exactly the same as it was.

"Smear free," said The Joker. If anything, his grin actually widened slightly. "It's perma-clown!"

"That's messed up," said Dan. It was one thing accepting something like that in a cartoon, but to see such a thing in real life … Dan felt a very real sense of horror building within him as he took in every detail of The Joker's vile being.

"Hey, don't dis the party face, kid!" The Joker yelled at him with a glare. He focused his eyes on Batman once again. "Ooh, tough crowd. Look!" He managed to wiggle out of Batman's grip and leap away. "Nothing up my sleeves!" He raised his right arm, allowing his sleeve to fall down and reveal his hand, which was holding a wooden hammer-shaped contraption used for containing gas. "Nothing that won't put a smile on your face! Say cheese!" he yelled as he jumped towards Batman, brandishing the gas device like it really was a hammer.

Batman wasted no time in throwing one of his batarangs at the contraption, which sent it flying out of The Joker's hand and onto the floor somewhere.

"I'm out of gas," said The Joker in a disappointed tone of voice.

Batman stepped onto The Joker's long sleeves, essentially pinning him to the ground. "And I'm out of patience!" he growled. He then punched Joker clean in the face, sending him stumbling backwards and ripping the majority of his sleeves off in the process.

"You really know how to spoil a coming-out party," said The Joker once he'd regained his balance. "How do you expect me to spread mirth and whimsy without a proper hideout!?"

"This place as a hideout?" Dan asked in confusion. He felt his sense of wit return to him as he witnessed the quite frankly awesome fight that was breaking out before him. "I feel low just taking the food from their garbage, I don't think I'd want to live here."

"Not helping," Batman whispered at him. He turned his attention back to The Joker. "Listen, Joker, you're sick. You need help."

"Well, maybe I am a little … off." The Joker rubbed his chin in thought. He then, out of nowhere, jumped and landed a harsh double drop-kick to Batman's chest, sending the caped crusader to the ground. "But what are you gonna do? Lock me in the loony bin? I'm already here! My old hideout's a shambles, and these digs just scream me!"

What followed was an almost embarrassing display on Batman's part. He was swinging punch after punch at The Joker, who simply ducked and dodged out of the way with surprising agility. He was cackling away the entire time, just avoiding Batman's punches as if it were child's play for him. Seeing that this wasn't going to end any time soon, Dan decided that now would be as good a time as any to try out his new powers. Concentrating, he held his hands out in front of him, focusing intently on the air around him, willing it to come to him. After some effort, a small tornado of sorts appeared between his palms. With a triumphant grin on his face, he thrust his hands outward, aiming in the direction of The Joker. The wind blew that way with some force—not nearly as much as Dan felt he would eventually be capable of, but enough—and hit The Joker head-on. The unexpected gust of wind knocked The Joker from his feet and onto the floor with a slight yelp of surprise.

Both Batman and The Joker looked at Dan with wide eyes. Batman snapped out of it first and moved to haul The Joker to his feet. The Joker, however, managed to jump to his feet and out of Batman's reach.

"Fine!" spat The Joker. "Take back the Asylum! But mark my words, this town's got happy days ahead!" He pulled two razor-sharp playing cards from the insides of his sleeves and flung them at both Dan and Batman. Batman expertly dodged, whereas Dan flung himself at the floor, praying to any deity that would listen that he would be able to avoid it. He had already died once today, and he wasn't exactly eager to do it again.

The Joker was running when they both turned their attention back to him. Batman ran after him immediately; Dan followed shortly afterwards, stumbling a little as he quickly regained his footing. The Joker turned a corner, and they followed him. They turned the same corner only to find that The Joker wasn't there—instead, there was a giant purple box with a picture of a clown on all four sides, and a lever rotating on one side. It didn't take long for either of them to register that this was a jack-in-the-box just like the one that had blown up the bridge, and Batman immediately ran to hold the lever in place. The music continued anyway, and the box appeared to be approaching the point of explosion. As the music drew to a close, Batman jumped back and held Dan in an attempt to shield him, then …

… the music stopped, the box burst open, and a giant clown on a spring popped out along with a lot of confetti.

"Smile, Gotham!" said a recording of The Joker's voice from within the box.

Batman sighed in apparent exasperation and turned to Dan. "Come on," he said. "I want to know what you just did, but we can't wait around here."

"Lead the way," Dan said with a shrug.

Batman walked over to the orderly and picked him up. Dan then followed Batman to a window, where he shot out his grappling hook somewhere Dan couldn't see.

"Grab onto me," Batman told him.

Dan wrapped his arms around Batman's neck, dangling off the man since he hadn't yet reached his full height. Batman held the orderly by his clothes with one hand, while the other was occupied with the grappling hook. He prepared to jump out of the window, but paused when a voice spoke up.

"Freeze!" ordered a dark-skinned, bald man in a white dress shirt with suspenders. He was pointing a gun at them. This was Detective Ethan Bennett, Bruce Wayne's best friend and one of the detectives on the hunt for The Batman.

A lightning flash obscured them from view for a moment, and that's when Batman jumped out of the window, swinging using the grappling hook. They reached the Batmobile relatively quickly and were driving off in no time.

"This is awesome …" Dan said as he exited the Batmobile. They were in the Batcave now, and it was more impressive than Dan had ever imagined. It was, as one might expect, a large, dark cave with sharpened stone jutting out of the wall in several places. But it was massive. They weren't anywhere near the bottom; the part of the cave that Batman used as a base of operations was a series of round metal platforms connected by a series of walkways, and each one had a different purpose. Dan did not have time to ascertain the purposes of all of them, however, as he had to follow Batman from the Batmobile's parking space directly to the central platform, which was much bigger than the others and contained a large monitor above several smaller computer screens. To the far left of this workspace was what appeared to be an elevator.

"A child, sir?" said a voice heavy with British accent. Alfred Pennyworth, as one would expect of a butler, wore a basic black suit. He had barely any hair to speak of—likely due to his old age—but what little he had was a greying black, and he had a moustache that was neither thick nor thin. At the moment he was looking between Batman and Dan in curiosity.

"He did something very interesting," Batman told Alfred. He turned back to Dan. "What was that?"

"I have control over the air," said Dan. "It's pretty limited, though. I don't get all that much practice."

"How?" asked Batman.

"As far as I know I was born with it," Dan said with a shrug. Curiously, he once again felt like he was telling the truth, despite knowing otherwise … "I don't use it much, but I try to use it to help people."

"What's your name?"

"Daniel Blake. But I prefer Dan."

"A pleasure, Master Dan," said Alfred in greeting, giving a polite little bow.

Dan blinked, unused to this sort of behaviour. "You're the most polite person I've met in years," he said with an appreciative smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, too, mister …?" Pretending he didn't know who these people are was already starting to irritate him slightly.

"Pennyworth. Alfred Pennyworth."

"Is there anyone else who knows what you can do?" asked Batman, trying to get them back to the topic of the conversation.

"Probably not. I don't even remember my parents, they died years ago." Dan had to resist the urge to flinch at just how easily those words had exited his mouth. He didn't even have to think about it. It was like … he could remember everything about his old life: his parents, his friends, the fucking cat that had tripped him down the stairs. But he also remembered another life: living on the streets, struggling to get by day by day, using his powers over the air to stop the occasional attempted mugging. The logical conclusion was that he had been given false memories to help with coming up with his cover story … but why hadn't Yasuhide told him about that?

After a few moments of silence, Batman said, "Alfred, set him up a room in one of the Batcave's holding cells. Try to make it at least relatively comfortable."

"Huh?" Dan was suddenly very confused. He had hoped to team up with Batman, but he definitely hadn't expected it to be this easy.

"Your abilities may be useful," Batman explained. "If you're telling the truth, you could do great things for this city. We'll set up a room down here so you can help us."

After that, Dan didn't really do much of anything that night. Alfred made sure the cell had a relatively homely feel to it, so Dan didn't feel like he was in a cell, and that's when Dan realised just how tired he was. Apparently dying, jumping universes and trying out new superpowers could do that to a guy. The second his 'room' was ready, he dropped onto the bed and went to sleep. The Joker's unnaturally wide grin haunted his dreams …

Done! Worry not, things will get more action-packed from here on in. I just thought Dan would be tired after jumping universes and using his powers for the first time. This shouldn't happen again.

Next Chapter: Holy Hell, Bane ALREADY!?