"Alfred?" Bruce called. He limped out of his bedroom.

"Sir?" Like a silent ghost, Alfred materialized beside him.

"I think my leg's broken."

"Would this be an appropriate time to send you to the hospital, Master Bruce?"

"If you could take care of it, I'd rather not go to a hospital."

"Very well, sir. Let's get a good look at it. What'll Batman do, if I may ask, sir?"

"He'll just have to be a little gimpy for a while, Alfred."

"Master Bruce, may I suggest that you take a while off of Batman? It can only be prudent, especially as the police are particularly intent on your capture."

Bruce paused to contemplate this. "The Joker freed himself from Arkham. He's out there."

"And the police are looking for him without Batman's help right now. If he's still at large once you're healed, then you can assist in his detainment." It seemed Batman was taking a vacation.

-

"Well," Lisa sighed. "That's Archer."

"But no Garden Lane," said George.

Where Lisa's subdivision had been was a large construction site.

"No home." She paused to control the overwhelming fear rising within her. "George?" She sounded like a small child. "What are we gonna do?" She was on the verge of tears. She crossed her arms to hold herself together.

George put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hey. Hey. We're gonna be all right. We might not understand how we got here, but if we got here, we can get back. It's gonna be okay." Lisa attempted a smile. "Maybe Batman knows something. If we could set up the signal--"

"Or we just tell Bruce Wayne," she added.

"Oh yeah. That's gonna be hard, though. He's probably got people to deal with every aspect of his life."

"We'll just have to catch him off guard."

-

"Fantastic party, Bruce!" a middle aged woman gushed.

Smooth jazz played softly in the background. The expensive champagne made its rounds fairly quickly.

It was a business soirée, the kind his investors and benefactors fawned over. It was all a situation he knew too well. Chatting with one of his board members, Bruce felt an overwhelming bout of boredom. It had been three days since Alfred set his leg in the cast. Speaking of Alfred, he appeared beside Bruce and whispered something distressing his ear.

-

Expensive chairs, fancy lights… Lisa had fun putting a word to this beautiful room. It was worthy of the terms "Parlor", or "Antechamber." George didn't care if it was a front room or a living room, he was very uncomfortable in the expensive chair.

Bruce Wayne came through the door, highly agitated. He stopped before them to see the kids from the movie. She was wearing the same clothes, though they were now disheveled. He looked relatively normal without the Dent get-up. His appearance was scruffy as well. Sympathy and compassion made a small case for the teenagers in his mind, but the demand for an explanation won out.

"How do you know about Batman?" he asked gruffly.

Lisa attempted to think. Here was a man who looked exactly like Christian Bale, and he was Batman. Weird.

Luckily for her, George still had the power of speech. "We have reason to believe that we stumbled into your… dimension? I don't know. Dimension fits."

"How does that tie in with Batman?" He would be relentless.

"Batman is a lucrative franchise in our dimension," Lisa offered, having regained her voice.

"A comic book hero," George offered.

Wayne was obviously taken aback by this. "Like some sort of… Tony Stark?" he replied, unable to understand.

Lisa made a note of that. Marvel Comics were still comics in this dimension.

"Not exactly. You don't tell people who you are. You thrive in the darkness, in the shadows. Batman's much more subtle."

An hour later, Bruce Wayne still couldn't wrap his head around the situation of the two teens. How had they gotten here? Even if they were telling the truth about the whole dimension thing… which, they couldn't be. Could they? How else had they known? Had they just guessed? No, they didn't react with surprise when he'd told them.

Unfortunately for him, the party was still swinging. His leg hurt like ten thousand needles were stuck under the cast. Alfred watched him like a hawk. It had been no different when Bruce was sick or hurt when he was younger. He may have been on the other side of 30, but he was still Master Bruce to Alfred.

Lisa laughed. "But I don't like tomatoes!"

"I'm the one making the salad! You'll eat tomatoes!"

The kitchen swelled with the smell of the garlic bread in the oven, and the spaghetti sauce on the stove. It was the most advanced kitchen Lisa had ever seen. George was mixing the salad together.

"But I don't like them!" she repeated, pouting like a child.

"Too bad." He shot her a death glare lightened with that sarcastic twinkle in his eyes.

-

"It's turned off, boss," he growled. Stan had several problems with his "boss." For one, he was scared to death of clowns. And here he was, working for one.

"What?" the Joker looked over the machine. "I guess it had to be, huh? Anyone know how those kids got in?" He laid a gloved hand on the complicated mechanical box in the center of the sparse room.

"Where they from a different time, boss? Like the past?" Biff was just as disgusted with the boss as Stan was, but he was slightly less intelligent.

The Joker became irritated at this question. "No, no! They looked too modern. So maybe the future… but no! He drove a dilapidated '96 minivan that made the journey. If they were from the future, that thing wouldn't have survived. They did know about Dent, but their camera wasn't no or interesting. Her fashion was comfortable… cheap and comfortable. They definitely looked present-like. No… I think we tapped into something bigger. Something more important."

"Like simple transport?" Biff offered. He wasn't even granted a response. Stan felt like slapping him upside his head.

"We need them. We need to figure out where they came from … how they know about Dent… why they're here. Hey you, idiot number 2!" He pointed at Biff.

"Yes, boss?"

"Get a team together to find these kids. Their first names are George and Lisa. I think the closer we get to Batman, the closer we'll get to finding them," the Joker commanded.

Biff nodded and left. Stan was left feeling resentful. What he wouldn't give for a chance to get out of this psychopath's presence.

A/N: Thanks to laurentaylor14for reviewing! Thanks to all those reading, too!! Please review; reviews make my life!! ^_^ Err... sorry but I forgot a disclaimor from last chapter. I did not come up with the phrase "love child between clint eastwood and a grizzly bear" to describe Wayne's disguising his voice. I can't remember who said it, but it's from a fanfic story. If you know where it came from, please let me know!