This was wrong. Well, the feel of it was right, and familiar, but everything else was different. As much as Alf desperately wanted to see Gotham, this was a mistake, because this city wasn't his home.
After setting the plane to hover over what should have been an empty apartment building that his Uncles used as a secret safe-house, Alf nearly swung in on a disheveled couple having dinner by the ancient television. Startled from that, he physically crossed the buildings and streets to the warehouse that Bird's Eye used as his base of operations, only to find it boarded up and falling apart. Worried that every place would be like that, he next ran to his friend Danny's house, and found it to at least be semi-normal: kids were still running around the old children's home, but there were several nuns watching over them instead of the auburn-haired adult couple Alf knew and loved. When his eyes landed on a boy with the right shade of hair grinning and showing a few smaller ones how to throw a punch, the kid bit his lip and retreated into the dark alleyways.
Finding a secluded fire escape, Alf settled into a ball with his cape wrapped around him, and proceeded to stifle his sobs as tears rolled down his face.
He didn't want to damage the timeline. He wanted to go home. He didn't want to accidentally reveal something that changed the course of history, and meant he went back to a Gotham that was even less like home than this place. Alf's father had once been sucked into a parallel dimension; the Batman of that world was all alone, only having a cat with Alf's name for company in a horrible city. No Momma. No kids. No Aunts or Uncles, blood- or legal-related, who still spoke to or worked with the man.
Alf didn't want to write his family out of existence.
Burrowing his head in his arms, the kid shuddered with the combined emotional fear and pain that came from his situation. Even so, he wasn't so distracted as to not notice the light footsteps approaching from the roof above him.
In one smooth motion, Alf somersaulted forward, coming up in a crouch with a batarang in his hand, ready to throw. The woman on the rusty stairs just above his position held up her hands in a gesture of peace.
"Hey there, short stuff. Heard you stole a plane." Catwoman grinned. Alf blinked at her. And then took off over the edge of the fire escape. "Oh, great."
Leaping off and to the ground below as well, the semi-hero sprinted after the dark-clothed figure as he sprinted down the alley. Alf took a brief moment to glance behind him, unsure of how fast this Cat would able to move.
A clawed hand nearly catching hold of his cape was his answer. Swerving, Alf made it around the corner and bought enough spare seconds to pull out and fire his grappling line. He hung on for dear life as the device pulled him to the top of the nearest three story building, skidded on the landing, and resumed running.
The kid was almost to the far end and about to leap for the next roof over when a dark streak lept out from the shadows and tripped him up. Landing with an audible oomph, Alf blinked at the green eyed cat now crouched in front of him. It was sizing him up, he could tell.
When Catwoman reached them a few moments later, the boy hadn't moved, gaze still locked with that of Isis. Arching an eyebrow, the adult crouched down beside them, noting that while the kid inched away from her just slightly, his eyes never left the cat.
"... Are you gonna drag me to the Cave?"
She blinked. From what Batman had passed on from Flash, this little mystery kid hadn't spoken to the speedsters at all, and here he'd just asked her a question. The voice was tiny, making the boy seem even younger than his size would indicate, and whispered in a tone that made it sound like she'd be dragging him to a fate worse than death.
"Nah." She finally answered. "I think you and I should have a talk first."
Alf glanced up at Catwoman now, frowning. He didn't want to speak more than he had to. Not when every word could put his family at risk. Already, he could feel the need to start spilling everything that had happened in the past day, but he couldn't. Not to this woman, not with Holly and everyone else's existence at risk.
"Come one, kid. If nothing else, you should get a hot drink in you on a chilly night like this." Reaching out a hand, Catwoman waited for the kid's response. If he went without a struggle, she'd bring him to her apartment. Should he try to run again, though, her other hand was curled around a locater beacon, ready to be thrown and activated once it attached to a piece of clothing.
Staring into the cat's eyes again, Alf mulled over his options. Go with his- this woman, risk ruining everything, but potentially find a way to get home. Or, resign himself to a fate of remaining here, forever holding his mouth shut in an attempt to prevent causing temporal paradoxes.
He sighed, and grudgingly grasped the hand extended to him.