Chapter Two: Tripping the Rift
Dominic Weathers was having a very strange month. First he Saves a pretty girl from the Green Goblin and almost gets blown up for his troubles. Then he finds out that he is sharing his body with an alien symbiote that wants to help him and wants to bond with him. Where most people would have been really freaked out by this kind of thing, Dom was not most people. He loved having a strange life, he reveled in the weirdness that fate, or karma, or whoever threw his way.
After making the decision to bond with his new symbiote partner, both he and Dom decided that he would need to do some training in order to control his new powers. With help from his symbiote Dom started learning how to web sling through the city. The symbiote also assisted Dom with his physical training by exercising its host's muscles while he slept and cleansing any toxins out of his body. This along with causing his hosts body to release some small amounts of muscle building hormones helped Dom develop a strong but not overly developed physique, much like that of a gymnast. They both decided that until they revealed themselves as heroes they should do their best to remain 'under the radar.'
As such they only went out for web slinging practice late at night, and the symbiote changed its appearance to that of a solid matte black body suit so that no light reflected off of them. They also went into the mountains outside of New York to work on the other powers the symbiote provided, namely the super strength and the symbiotes ability to form weapons out of its own body. Dom became very good with these things, especially the thrown weapons his new partner could create.
On one of their late night web slinging jaunts, Dom and his symbiote encounter something odd. While they are taking a quick break in the shadows of a rooftop skyscraper Dom notices a strange light appear in the far corner of the roof. 'Hey pal, are you seeing what I'm seeing?' He silently asks his partner.
'Yes Dom I do see the strange light. I believe we should investigate, but with extreme caution.' With that Dom starts slowly walking towards the strange light, making sure to keep low and hide in the shadows as much as possible. While walking towards the light, the symbiote informed Dom that it would shift towards its normal appearance. Dom accepted this, and the symbiote became a mass of red and black color with white flame shaped eyes and its mouth unhinged, showing its needle like teeth and a flesh colored tongue. Dom also decided to change his hands into weapons, his left hand into an axe, and his right into an elongated set of razor sharp claws. When the two got close to the light, they noticed that it looked like some sort of vertical ribbon of light hanging about two feet in the air. It was flickering very weekly as they slowly approached it. Dom changed his axe hand back into a normal and, but kept the claws out on his other hand.
As Dom crept closer to the strange ribbon of light, it seemed to flicker less weekly and become slightly stronger. 'What do you think this is?' Dom silently asked his symbiote.
'I am unsure Dom, I have never seen this phenomenon before.' The only thing that the symbiote knew from its genetic memories that cam close to what it was seeing now was knowledge of an experiment done by Reed Richard of the Fantastic Four to bring additional help while they were on 'Battle Planet' during the secret wars. It relayed this information to Dom. 'If this is some sort of teleportation rift then whoever did it was not very good, this rift looks like it might be unstable. We may wish to leave as it could be dangerous.' The symbiote suggested to its partner. As soon as it made this suggestion the Rift seemed to stabilize and spring open into a hole filled with light. There was a vast inrush of air that pulled at Dom's body, he tried to use his ability to stick to objects to stop himself but the suction was too great. He was pulled forward and into the rift.
Dom's world exploded into light, and the next thing he knew he was again on a rooftop. Quickly getting up Dom looked all around to figure out where he was. He knew immediately that he was not on the same roof as before. The roof he had been on was a skyscraper in the middle of New York City. The roof he was on now was also a skyscraper, but it was much taller than the previous one. Slowly walking around Dom got to the edge of the roof and looked around. He did not recognize the city that was spread out before him. It looked dark and somehow dirty, even though he was at least one hundred stories in the air.
Dom slowly took a deep steadying breath. 'Hey pal do you by chance know where the hell we are?' He silently asked his symbiote partner.
The symbiote had been taking in the sights around them as well. 'No Dom I have absolutely no idea where we are. This place does not look like any city I have seen. Lookout behind you Dom!' The symbiote yelled in Dom's mind. Dom reacted immediately and jumped straight up, just as a set of bolos came flying past where he had been standing a moment earlier. Dom twisted in mid air and landed looking back at the being that had flung the missile weapon towards him.
What stepped out of the shadows of the building was a large man in a costume. His costume was black and appeared to be some kind of body armor. He had a large cape that fell to the ground and on his head he had a cowl that hid all but the bottom of his face. The cowl had what appeared to be ears on the top of his head, and on his chest was the symbol of a bat. He held another set of bolos in his hand. "Who or what are you and what are you doing trespassing on the roof of the Wayne Tech building?"
Both Dom and the symbiote were confused by what the man had said, Dom had never heard of Wayne Tech before. Before he could come up with an answer the man seemed to grow impatient and quickly spun the second set of bolos and flung them that him. Dom quickly jumped out of the way of the bolos and decided that escape would be advised in this situation. With that in mind he flung himself off of the roof of the building and shot a strand of webbing toward a neighboring one, and started to web sling away from the strange bat costumed man.
Batman had seen many things in his days as a crime fighter, but this creature in front of him had to be one of the strangest. When he first got the hit that someone had tripped the roof sensors at the Wayne Tech Building he went there immediately, luckily he was close by and it only took him a few minutes to get there. He saw what he at first thought was just a man in a red and black suit standing at the edge of the roof looking out at Gotham City. Batman decided to capture the man and question him. He flung a set of bolos at him but suddenly the man jumped straight in the air and twisted around to face batman as if he had seen the weapon be thrown at him. The extreme acrobatics of the move had not escaped Batman's attention either and he quickly pulled out another set of bolos from his utility belt.
He then confronted the man in front of him, although getting a good look at him he decided that maybe this wasn't a man, or even human. The strange flame like eyes on the being, the large mouth with sharp needle like teeth and the long pink tongue made Batman think that maybe this was some sort of alien monster, or maybe a genetic experiment of some sort. He gave the thing in front of him his question, and when it did not answer he flung his second set of bolos at it. The being then game him a second shock of the night and jumped straight off of the roof. Batman quickly followed to the edge of the roof and saw the being shoot some sort of substance out of its wrist and swing away, continuing to shoot bits of black and red substance continue swinging away.
Batman quickly jumped after the thing and activated his cloak; the cloak immediately became rigid like a parachute and batman glided after the strange red and black creature. 'Whatever this thing is, it is fast.' Batman thought to himself as he tried to keep up with the strange creature in from of him.
Dom was web slinging for all he was worth trying to get away from the crazy bat suited guy. His symbiote informed him that the man was still following him, somehow being able to fly. "Oh fantastic, I get sucked through some kind of crazy rift in space, end up in God knows what city, on God knows what PLANET, and the first guy I come across tries to tie me up like a bull at a rodeo. Now I'm just trying to get away and he can FREAKING FLY? Of course why not." Dom ranted to himself in the strange dual voice he always had when the symbiote was covering him. "Is he still back there?" Dom asked his symbiote partner.
Using its 360-degree vision, the symbiote saw the strange bat costumed man still on their tail, however they were starting to get some distance between them. 'Yes Dom he is still behind us, but he is starting to fall behind. I believe that if we find someplace to hide we can evade him.'
Dom agreed whole-heartedly, until they could figure out where they were it was best to stay away from as many people as possible. Dom quickly found what looked line an abandoned apartment building and quickly swung towards it. He then changed his symbiote back into the matte black body suit and hid in the shadows of the building. About twenty-five seconds after he handed and changed, the bat-costumed man came flying by. Dom got a good look at the man. 'Hey I don't think he can fly. Look at him I think he is gliding. Yeah he's using that cape of his to glide like a parachute.' Seeing the way the man flew, the symbiote agreed with its host's assessment.
After the man flew out of sight, Dom and his partner decided to take stock of their situation. "Well we were pulled into that weird rift thing and ended up on the roof of that building. Then that weird bat guy shows up and tries to capture us for trespassing. At least he spoke English. Unless you did some kind of weird symbiote translating for me?" Dom asked his partner. The symbiote replied that while it can do that if it knows the language he did not. The bat man was indeed speaking English. "Well that's a relief, and looking at him he looked like he was a human wearing a costume." Dom continued thinking about the appearance of the strange man.
"Do you think he could be a Hero like Spiderman? Or do you think he was just some nut job?" Dom asked his symbiote partner.
'I am unsure, although I would lean towards him being a hero by his attitude and by the impressive equipment he was carrying.' The symbiote surmised.
Dom thought about this for a moment before nodding in agreement. "Yeah your probably right. I mean if he was just a nut then he wouldn't have had all those gadgets, and if he were some kind of villain, he probably wouldn't have tried to catch us, just kill us. Lets go out and have a look around. Maybe we can figure out just where the hell we are and see about trying to get back home." With that Dom quickly and quietly climbed out of the abandoned building he was in and crawled up to the roof.
'Lets see if we can find an area of the city that looks like its got lots of people in it.' Dom thought while looking around for something that suited his needs. Finding what appeared to be a well-lit section of the city he started to web sling in that direction making sure to keep an eye out for his bat costumed friend. Dom quickly made his way to the section of the city he was looking for. He landed on a rooftop that was only a few stories off of the ground and looked over the edge. He saw people walking around what looked like a nighttime market place. Thankfully all the people he saw were human.
'Well at least I wont stand out any more that I do at home.' Dom thought to himself as he quickly went towards a dark alley and climbed down to street level. He quickly had his symbiote change into a pair of blue jeans, and a green t-shirt and a long black leather jacket, and a pair of black tennis shoes. Having changed into street clothes Dom walked out of the alley and into the market place. He wandered around, getting the occasional looks from people who noticed his green hair, and just let people's conversations drift over him. There was a lot of mention of "Batman" which had to be the man he had encountered.
According to the conversations Dom heard, Batman was a hero in this city who fought different criminals. To Dom he sounded just like Spiderman or any of the other heroes of his home. Listening to more conversations of the people around him, he learned that the city he was in was Gotham City, someplace he had never heard of in his life and neither had his symbiote. He also noticed looking around at the people making purchases that they were paying with US dollars. Taking all of the information he had gathered he left with his symbiote and went back to the abandoned building he had hidden from Batman in.
"So we are apparently in Gotham City. It's in the United States, even though neither of us has ever heard of it, and it's the same month, year, and day that it was back home. So what do you think has happened?" Dom asked his symbiote partner.
'Well Dom I am not sure, but I believe that a reasonable hypothesis might be that the rift we encountered flung us into an alternate universe that is in some ways similar to our own but very different in others. I heard mention at the market of several different heroes in this world, not just Batman. I also heard the name Robin used frequently, along with the name Superman.' The symbiote concluded.
Dom nodded his head as the symbiote continued its explanation. It was certainly very out there, but looking at the evidence it was the only explanation that made even the slightest amount of sense. "Well pal I think that we are stuck here for the moment, so what do you say we get some sleep and try to figure this whole mess out in the morning. Wake me if anything happens." With that Dom walked over to the center of the room and cleaned off a section of floor and lay down to sleep. He even found a blanket that was not dirty and covered himself with it. The symbiote, not needing sleep, watched over its host for the remainder of the night.
When dawn came a few short hours later the first thing that went through Dom's mind was that he had had one very strange and vivid dream. However opening his eyes and looking around showed that he had not been dreaming. He was still in the abandoned apartment building covered in a dusty blanket. Dom stretched and got up, deciding that he needed to and focus and think. So he had his symbiote change into a black gi so that he could do his morning katas.
After about an hour of doing katas, Dom was relaxed and calm. Just as he was thinking about what to do today his stomach growled at him, letting him know that he had not eaten anything since early the day before. "Hey pal did we think to bring any money with us when we went out last night?" He asked his symbiotic partner.
'Yes we did, I have your wallet inside my subspace pocket and it has some money in it. Hopefully we will be able to use money from our dimension in this one.' The symbiote said changing into some street clothes for Dom and putting his wallet into the back pocket.
Dom was thinking the same thing; he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. Inside was about fifty dollars in the form of various bills. Dom went to the roof of the abandoned building but was unsure of where to go from there. He was completely unfamiliar with the layout of this city and had no idea where he could go to get some food. 'Why don't we head toward that market we visited last night and then start just wandering from there. We might be able to ask for some directions.' The symbiote suggested.
Unable to come up with a better idea, Dom headed in the direction of the market place, making sure to keep to the rooftops and only web slinging when absolutely necessary. A few minutes later Dom exited the same alley he had left the night before and was in the area of the market. It was not very busy at the moment since the day was only starting so there were not many people around. Dom wandered around looking at a few of the things the vendors sold, he asked one of them where a good place was to get some breakfast as he was new in town.
"Well there's a nice little diner about three blocks away called the Starlight Diner. They have a pretty good breakfast there." One of the vendors informed Dom.
"Thanks mister, can you give me directions to it?" Dom replied and set off in the direction the man gave him. A few minutes later he arrived at the Starlight Diner and went inside and saw that it did look like a nice little diner. The waitress, Gabi according to her nametag, came over to him and got him seated and before he knew it he had some hot coffee and a plate of pancakes, eggs, sausage, and bacon in front of him. Dom ate everything very quickly and asked the waitress if there were any places that she knew of that were hiring for jobs. He explained that he was new in town, and the waitress said that they were looking for a new cook at the diner since the old one had just quit this morning.
Dom quickly told her that he would like to apply for the job. The waitress brought her manager over and he had Dom go into the kitchen and make some things off of the menu. The manager was impressed with Dom's cooking skill and hired him on the spot; he even gave Dom his meal on the house as he was now working there. Dom started working immediately and worked there for the rest of the day until it was time to close the diner for the night. That night after helping to lock up the diner Dom dreaded heading back toward the abandoned building he was staying at. However he was saved by one of his new coworkers, namely Gabi, the waitress he had initially met.
"Hey Dom are you heading home?" Asked Gabi.
Dom looked around feeling slightly uncomfortable. "I don't really have a place to stay yet. I just got into town and I don't know anyone. That's why I jumped at the chance for a job." Dom explained to Gabi. Looking at her Dom noticed that she was quite attractive. She had Jet-black hair that came down to mid back, and she had some very impressive looking cures to her body. She was still in her waitress outfit, but this did not make her any less attractive.
She looked at him a little sadly. "Oh I'm sorry. Hey why don't you come stay at my place until you get yourself set up? You can crash on the couch, just don't try anything funny." Gabi said as she laughed at the look on Dom's face.
Dom for his part was completely dumbstruck he couldn't believe his luck. First he finds a job while at the diner, then he gets invited to stay at this girls house whom he hasn't even know for twenty-four hours. "I couldn't impose on you Gabi. I mean we just met this morning, I'm still thankful that you helped me get this job." Dom stammered, while Gabi just grabbed him by the arm and started walking towards her apartment that was just a few blocks away.
Dom tried in vain to protest his staying at Gabi's apartment with her, but she would not hear of it so Dom was reluctantly dragged towards her apartment. "Here is the deal for you staying here. You sleep on the couch and in return you cook. I can't cook to save my life and I know you can cook because all the customers were asking what we were doing differently with our food since you started. So that's my offer, deal?" Gabi asked Dom as he was trying to get his brain working again.
It took Dom a few moments to figure out how to work his mouth again. "Um… yeah uh ok that sounds like a fair deal to me, and as soon as I get some money together I'll find my own place." Dom said as Gabi pulled him into the elevator that went up to her apartment.
Once they got inside her apartment she directed him towards her couch and said she was going to take a shower. With that she left Dom sitting on the couch in her living room and headed off to take a shower. Dom sat there a few minutes before his symbiote piped up. 'That went very well, we started the day looking for food and you ended up with a job and now a place to stay that isn't an abandoned building. Id say today counts as a very good day.' It said silently to its partner.
Dom had to agree with his partners assessment, all in all today had been a very successful day. Dom turned on the television and searched for the news, which he found. The newswoman was talking about some person known as Killer Croc, who had escaped from someplace called Arkham Asylum a few days ago and was still at large. They said that Gotham P.D. was on the case and hopefully Croc would be apprehended and returned to Arkham. 'Hey pal I've been thinking, we have absolutely no idea how we came to this universe and have no way at present to get back to our own. Why don't we start up our hero business here, in this Universe? There seem to be just as many super criminals as in our home universe, and in this universe since they seem to know absolutely nothing about you or your kind, we can be a little more relaxed in how we present ourselves to the world. What do you think?' Dom silently asked his partner.
The symbiote thought about the proposition its host had put to it. It made sense, this world seemed as plagued by super criminals as their old one did, and they had absolutely no way of figuring out how to get back there. 'Dom I think that is an excellent idea. Although I do believe that we should keep my complete nature to ourselves. This also allows us to continue our mission of helping people. I believe that we should assist with the story that the news person is currently discussing.'
The symbiotes suggestion brought Dom from his inner conversation back to what was happening on the screen. "The criminal known as Killer Croc has been spotted in the downtown area of Gotham. He is robbing the second National bank of Gotham. Police are arriving at the scene and apparently have Croc trapped inside. No word yet as to whether Batman has made an appearance yet to help stop Croc." The newswoman concluded, all the while a picture was showing next to her of the criminal in question.
Dom immediately understood why he was called "Croc". He looked like a huge mutant crocodile man. 'Yeah I definitely agree that we should help. This could be our chance to show what we have.' Dom silently thought to his alien partner. He then remembered Gabi. He could still hear the shower going. "Hey Gabi I'm going to go out for a little bit and unwind. I'll be back in a little while." He yelled at the sound of the shower.
"Okay, there's a nice bar a few blocks down the road where u can go relax if you want. I'm just going to go to bed. When you get back just knock on the door I'll let you in." Came the replay from the direction of the bathroom.
"No problem, I shouldn't be too late." Dom said as he quietly opened the window and climbed out and slowly closed it again. He then used the fire escape to get onto the roof. Luckily the news had posted a map of Gotham during their report so they could show where everything was happening and he knew roughly where he was in regards to the section of the city where the bank was.
END CHAPTER TWO