Hell's Kitchen seems to breed shadowy vigilantes. Now, there're two of them

Bat Plan Six-One-Six

Night had fallen in Hell's Kitchen and the heat was helping this pressure cooker of a neighbourhood live up to its name. At least it was dark, which fit his usual modus operandi. Then again, being hurled into what was extremely likely to be a parallel Earth- no, scratch that, he'd been down that particular rabbit hole often enough.

A shrill scream cut off his train of thought and he snapped his attention to the assault in progress. It was a sight that never ceased to sicken him, a group of testosterone addled morons thinking that being stronger than the woman they had cornered. gave them the right to abuse her.

The first second of the fight saw two Batarangs fly to their targets, and the scum hit the ground a split second later. The next second saw Batman drop from his perch three storeys up and land heavily on the third of the sextet.

In the third second of the fight, the last three men saw their assailant and found their wits.

"We can take 'im-!" One of them he lunged at Batman, only to find that the man in the cape and cowl had already been lunging with his own punch as he'd landed.

In the fourth second, Batman turned, his cape whirling around him, obfuscating his movements. The thugs didn't hesitate to leap at him though... only to find themselves sprawled on the ground two feet in front of the caped crusader. Small welts were forming on their faces where the swishing cape had whipped them both, before hammer blow punches knocked them out.

In the fifth second, Batman waited, checking to see if any of the felons rose again.

The sixth second was when he turned to the woman and asked. "Are you hurt?" When she stuttered out a nervous 'no', he was satisfied and bound the unconscious men with zip ties from one of several pouches adorning his belt.

Finished, he turned to go but was halted by the woman calling out, "Who are you? Are you the Daredevil?"

Several thoughts sped through the mind of the world's greatest detective as the woman spoke. She's safe now, I can see she's dialled nine-one-one. Who is this Daredevil she's mentioned?

"I'm not Daredevil." With that, the caped vigilante fired off a grapnel line and whirred skywards and onto one of Hell's kitchen's rooftops, and out of sight.

He remained perched there for the seconds it took for the Police patrolman to arrive, and he could see the woman aping motions, as she attempted to describe to the man what had happened. Satisfied he had no further business, he dropped further into the concealment of the struts of a water tower.

He tapped a few invisible buttons on his gauntlet, and a seemingly holographic display zoomed into place, which only he could see. However this presented the Dark Knight with a new problem beyond being misplaced in New York. The Bat-link wasn't connecting to the Batcomputer, this in in itself was not a problem, as he could use his technology without the link, but there were few things that could prevent communication. Worse still, he wasn't picking up any Wayne Tech at all.

That certainly narrowed down the possibilities, short of being in an entirely different universe. He hadn't detected any jamming, so he wasn't under attack. Wayne Tech was in nearly every major city in the world, so he wasn't out of range. Was he out of time?

"Hello." The voice behind him was unexpected and the tone was neutral. It was one he used himself quite often. Turning slowly he saw a man stood on a strut, unperturbed by the four storey drop behind directly behind him. The man was wearing a dark red suit not unlike his own (minus the cape), with a cowl sporting short ears or horns at the top. And somehow the newcomer gotten to where he was, completely undetected. That impressed the caped crusader.

Batman turned to face the speaker, rising swiftly but calmly. The other man seemed physically fit, if a patch on the scrawny- maybe wiry would be better term- side, and was only half a foot shorter than Batman. This didn't seem to be causing the devil any hesitation though. If the the red costume, with its horned cowl hadn't been enough of a clue to his identity, then the stylised criss-crossing double D's on the tunic were.

"You're the Daredevil," Batman said in a tone a little more intimidating than the one Daredevil had used. The woman below had thought he was Daredevil and if she thought that due to the swift and brutal takedown of her assailants, then it was a safe bet that the man was a trained fighter. Or maybe it was just their shared fashion sense.

Batman continued, "By the way you announced your entry, I'm presuming you want to talk."

A small smile formed on the red clad man's lips as he replied, "At least for now. What happens in the next few minutes is down to how this conversation turns out. And that's down to you. "

"I agree." Batman had to suppress a (very) small degree of amusement. The man seemed relaxed but he could tell this red Devil was ready for action, and his voice was pitched just right to convey a level of threat, even whilst leaving room for negotiation.

However, Batman (and certainly Bruce Wayne) had never heard of the Daredevil. And it was rare for him not to have some record on a vigilante or superhero.

"Those guys down there deserved what they got and now they're in the right hands," Daredevil paused, seemingly looking over the edge of the roof at the police below. "That said, I've never heard of you and you're in my city. So, you want to tell me what brings you over the Hudson?"

"The Hudson Bridge."

Daredevil smiled. "I know you didn't use the Hudson Bridge. You can either play it straight, or we do this the hard way."

Batman's attention was drawn away from Daredevil, and to his interface as he tapped a few more commands. He noticed that Daredevil almost visibly tensed, but immediately relaxed as Batman spoke; "I don't even think I'm in the right New York, so by extension I'm on another Earth. I'm not even sure how I got here."

"Oh, so you're one of those..." Daredevil muttered.

"Those?"

"A tourist." Daredevil spoke with a lighthearted tone, as he hopped down from the strut. "But don't worry, I know a guy who might be able to help. And if he can't. then there are some other guys. And I think at least, one girl."

There was a long pause.

The red masked vigilante offered a friendly smile as he moved past the other guy. "I'm kidding about being a tourist. Seriously, someone crosses between worlds and loses a sense of humour. So what do I call you?"

There was a brief, but tense pause, "Batman."

Some of those who cooked up trouble in Hell's Kitchen this night were served a double helping of vigilante. Bullets flew and as grumours began spreading that Daredevil truly was from hell and could be in two places at once.

"I'm telling you Stacy, it was bad enough Daredevil turned up!"

"Geez Louise, that's why you have guns!"

"Hey, I told you to stop calling me that! Do you want a broken arm?" Freddy Fast Fingers looked at his old number running friend and shook his head. "What's got into you guys?" He scoffed, but his smile faded when sparks flew from the wall and all he felt was pain in his head as he collapsed.

Stacy stiffened in horror as he heard a small metallic clink, shortly before smoke began billowing out of it, causing him to stumble backwards through it, one hand over his mouth. He never made it as something coiled around his ankles and whipped him skywards. All of this happened in seconds and he could hear screams of terror now. It took most of one of those seconds for him to realise he was screaming.

"Quiet. Your screams are making it hard for me to concentrate on holding this rope."

Stacy's blood went ice that voice spoke again. "You are going to tell me where you got the guns from. "Now."

Stacy shuddered. "I can't! They'll kill me!"

"So would this fall. TALK!"

He talked.

After a rapid clear out of the gun runners, some lower level drug dealers and a bunch of dirty cops, the two men stood high above the streets watching and listening to news reports, some of which were claiming that Daredevil could now summon giant bats to help him.

"Seems that we work well together, Batman, and from what I'm hearing, we're scaring the bad guys into hiding, or quitting."

"Or putting them in traction."

"Works for me. I made a call by the way. I contacted an old acquaintance of mine who specialises in strange happenings. He told me that he can reverse the spell that sent you here."

"Your friend is a magician?"

"One of the world's finest."

The phrase made Batman crack a very small smile, considering what the press back home had dubbed him and Clark.

"This magician, can he get me home?"

"Yes, but due to Someone called 'Felix Faust' interacting with a spell from our world, the mystical conflux is too unstable to send you back immediately, or to retrieve anyone from your world. Whoever's over there, they're on their own. Since Doctor Strange told me that-

"Stop," said Batman abruptly, as a thought crossed his mind. "Doctor Hugo Strange?" It was not a pleasant thought and he tensed.

"No," replied Daredevil swiftly, noticing Batman's increased heart rate, " Doctor Stephen Strange, Master of the mystic arts, once the world's top neuroscientist, and until recently, the Sorcerer supreme."

"Your friend is a man who combines the knowledge of the deepest workings of the human mind with Magic. That, in the wrong hands possesses terrifying potential."

Daredevil replied. "We know. We've had to deal with it before. It took fifteen magicians, ten powerhouse heroes, the Fantastic Four, and a combined team of the X-Men and Avengers to deal with his group. We were lucky they broke through Gaia's mental hold on them by themselves."

Batman considered the Injustice league, and Doomsday, andother godlike entities, and considered what it took to stop them. "Yes," he said. "One more thing, as I was being forcibly removed. I thought I saw someone being sent through to my world. A man in a red and blue suit with webs and a wide eyed bug mask."

Daredevil groaned. "Well, at least we can be pretty sure we know where Spider-Man is now."

"Gotham."