CHAPTER 2. A VERY STRANGE DREAM.

6:45

Her alarm was already going off, so she reached out to grab the cell phone that was on her bureau. Not feeling the bureau, she thought that she had fallen asleep a little away from it, so she stretched out more… until she fell off the bed and hit the floor.

How had this happened? Had she moved her desk? Donna had gone to sleep with her? This wasn't likely to happen, especially since Donna hadn't shown any emotional difficulties in that difficult period of time.

She had to confirm what had happened, so she opened her eyes and couldn't believe her eyes. She was not in her bedroom. She was in a completely unknown bedroom. The bed where she was sleeping had a dark blue coverlet, with gray sheets, an odd combination for her. There was also a desk in the corner by the window with a swivel chair, the walls were painted a lighter blue than the bedspread, making it stand out even more because of the dark color. There was also a dressing room, but it was not as big as hers, but it could be said that it had the necessary clothes for living, there was even a simple uniform of black dress pants with a white shirt with an emblem on the left side.

"But what…?" She tried to say, but she stopped when she felt that her soft voice didn't sound like it. It made her run her hand over her neck, and then to her breasts, but she realized that she no longer had them. She had pecs instead of hers, even the stomach she was touching was quite hard. However, that was little compared to a sensation she felt in her crotch. She looked down and saw her crotch, which was covered with dark blue shorts, while her shirt was gray. "There's something there," she said, reaching out until she reached for what was moving in her crotch.

She let out a loud but brief cry when she saw that what was in her crotch was a man's private organ. She got up quickly and began to shake her hands as if that would remove the sensation, but her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the alarm go off again.

Her alarm had a simple funny tone, but, in this case, it played a song that repeated every so often 'No excuses'. She quickly turned off the alarm and saw that it was close to the seven o'clock. That didn't explain anything. It was clear that she had to go somewhere, but she didn't know where. Perhaps exploring this strange place would give her an answer.

It was not so. The place was an apartment, the places were the same as always, a living room with two recliners, a plasma television, a balcony, a laundry room, a dining room for four with a very small table, a kitchen, and a bathroom. It seemed that this person worked very hard to live in that place.

Not getting any information, she went back to her room and checked her cell phone. She saw that there was a message.

"I am already close to the school. Don't be late" The message said.

She could see that the sender's name was 'Dick'.

"Who's Dick?" She asked to herself out loud. Fortunately, she was alone, so no one was going to hear her. This was more confusing, so she was going to unlock the phone, but to her surprise, it needed a numeric password to access.

It wasn't common for people to put passwords on their cell phones, neither Barry nor Iris, not even Aunt Antiope had a password on her cell phone. She needed to access that phone to find out where she was, so she texted the first password she could think of: 0001. No response, until she thought to add another zero. Curious, this cell phone was unlocked with a five-digit password, not four, but it wasn't the correct password. She tried again now with 11111, negative result. She tried again now with 00000, negative result. The last password she came up with was 55555, but the result was also negative and the cell phone reached the limit of attempts, so she needed to wait thirty seconds. This was worse, the only thing that could help her was the cell phone that she held in her hand, but she couldn't access it. However, she needed to calm down, so she went to the bathroom and washed her face with cold water.

When she turned off the water and looked in the mirror, she saw her face, and it wasn't hers. The face in front of her had a square jaw, short black hair (maybe the same color as hers), rather thin lips, a shaved beard, a normal forehead, a straight nose and blue eyes. This must be a dream, she thought to herself, but she couldn't keep that comment in her head as she felt something move inside her.

"I have to do it" She said approaching the toilet with much disgust. "Too real," she said again, when she was done with what she had to do.

After that rather unpleasant and uncomfortable experience, she thought things through a bit, and saw that there was a computer on her desk. She ran to the object, turned it on, waited for it to boot up, but she also needed a password that she couldn't crack either. She turned off the computer and sighed.

She didn't know what to do, until she saw the uniform that was still hanging nicely in her closet. She went to the uniform, touched it, and remembered the message from that guy named Dick. There were no other options, so she put on her uniform and left the house, but not before taking her cell phone with her. That device may not be able to unlock it, but it might give her a clue in the future.

Before leaving the apartment, she saw a key on a small table, which she assumed to be the key to the same apartment, so she picked it up as well.

Once outside the apartment, to which she closed the door, all the feeling of disgust, confusion and uncertainty disappeared when she looked in front of her.

She was not in the town of Little Volos. She was in a big city, she could tell that she had gothic and old-fashioned tones as far as she could see, but, that mattered little. She was no longer in the town of which she had become so fed up.

When she got downstairs and out into the streets, she finally got a taste of what it was like to be in one of the possible cities she would go to when she graduated high school. She saw a large number of people she didn't even know walk the streets, all worried about something or were with their attention on something. Cars went by on many streets, sounds of music, chatter, or traffic were heard everywhere. She could finally see the skyscrapers that she had only been able to see through the internet, movies or video games, or by any other means, but never directly, until today.

Unfortunately for her, her astonishment turned to uncertainty when she asked several people where was the place that had the symbol on her shirt, or well, she found out that was the place when, after ten people who had made fun of her for not knowing the place, one did want to answer her and told her the name of the place and where it was. This took a long time.

It took her another twenty minutes to get to the university, only to wander from one side of the building to the other, on the one hand, amazed to be in a different place than the town high school, but on the other, she didn't know where to go. She went on like this for about fifteen more minutes until someone put an arm around her shoulders, snapping her out of it.

"Bruce!" Said the guy. She saw that the guy was quite skinny, he looked like Barry in that aspect, but this guy in front of her was more like he had short black hair, only combed into a fringe, his nose was long too, but his physiognomy made it see more likeable "This is the first time I send you a message and you don't answer me. Were you busy in your apartment?" The boy asked rather amused.

She knew that this guy must be the one who sent the message to the cell phone that she couldn't access yet. Despite suspecting that, she also knew that she had to be sure.

"Mr. Dick?" she asked, almost stuttering.

"You feel good? You never call me Mister. But, you arrived in time to eat" Dick said.

Knowing that he surely knew the guy she was replacing in this dream, she decided not to resist and let herself be led by Mr. Dick to the outdoor tables.

XXX

11:00

"You got lost" said another boy who was in front of him. This was even more confusing for her. When she arrived with Mr. Dick at the outdoor tables, there was already a boy the same age as them, only he had a skinnier face than Mr. Dick's, although he looked more likable than handsome, especially with his little more rowdy hair, and it was a little longer than Mr. Dick's.

When they arrived, both Mr. Dick and the other boy, whom Dick had introduced as Tim, had realized that the person they knew had taken a long time to arrive. What made it weirder was that this person was never late. That is why they had asked him why he had been late.

It took her a long time to form an answer. She didn't want to interrupt this dream, so, she tried to come up with a plausible excuse. She couldn't think of anything other than to say that she had gotten lost, omitting, of course, that she asked eleven different people where the university was, because most of them had burst out laughing. So, when Mr. Tim asked her that to confirm her answer, she just nodded.

"Wait, how did you get lost on your way here? That never happens to you" Tim told her, completely stunned by her response.

This obviously created uncertainty for her. How was he going to tell her that she wasn't the person they thought she was and that she was just having a very strange dream? She had to give an answer soon, so, she improvised.

"Well…to the girls…" She said without noticing that she had already made a mistake, since Mr. Dick and Tim asked her 'What?' in a very rude way. Her response forced her to correct what she had said. "I mean…to the young ladies…" She said, still not noticing that she had been wrong again.

"What?" Mr. Dick and Tim asked in unison, again, and louder. Knowing that she had to slow it down, she met their eyes, since she had been looking away all this time.

"I mean…" Mr. Dick and Tim were looking at her very carefully. "…To the boys" She said. The two boys just nodded. With this answer, she relaxed and said the answer that she had managed to make up. "You know, the boys like to relax, have fun, or get into trouble" She said this last bit reminiscent of Barry.

"You sound weird, man" Mr. Tim told her, still keeping a watchful eye on her.

"And your lunch?" Asked Mr. Dick.

She saw that she had nothing in her hands, even she had forgotten her backpack.

"What the hell happened to you on the way here to make you act like that, Bruce? Don't you even bring your wallet?" Tim asked.

She didn't answer, she just stood still, the pressure of the moment was so great that she didn't even know that she had a bag that she had to take with herself.

"Seriously, something is happening to you, but we can invite you" Mr. Dick said, surprised by the behavior of the person in front of him. "How about hash browns with eggs?" He asked her as she gave the person he thought he knew him the combination of food that both he and Mr. Tim had brought.

"Uh, thanks" She said, receiving a very wide smile from Tim.

The three of them ate in peace for a few minutes until they finished their lunches, when Tim had an idea.

"Do you want to go to the coffee shop later?" Tim asked.

"That one, of course?" asked and Mr. Dick answered. "Are you coming, Bruce?" he asked him.

She stilled for as long as Dick took to answer. She was in a city, far from the town she already wanted to leave to never return, and now she had the opportunity to get to know a real coffee shop, since it was the same as a city, seeing photos of those places on the internet did not count.

"What? What? What?! A coffee shop?!" She asked getting closer and closer to them, putting on a face of great expectation, and it could be said that both Mr. Dick and Tim were scared to see him with that face.

XXX

15:00

The coffee shop was better than she had imagined. It was in a sunny part of the city with some gothic overtones, but it was a very crowded one. This served to make her forget that she decided not to enter any of the remaining classes, since, it was a dream, she wouldn't waste it in a class learning something that she wasn't going to use in the real world. She spent her time walking around the place, then leaving and waiting for Mr. Dick and Mr. Tim to leave to go to that cafe, nothing was going to prevent her from knowing something like that for the first time in her life, and now she was getting fulfilling. She was mesmerized and attracted by all the details that were in the cafe, as well as being surrounded by people she didn't know.

"The wooden structure is great" Tim said, looking around, in a similar way to her, but it was more to study those aspects than to be amazed.

"Yes" agreed Mr. Dick. "Hey, Bruce, do you know what you're going to order?" He asked her.

This snapped her out of her trance and she saw the cafe's menu card. She was surprised by all the prices, which ranged from twenty to fifty dollars.

"If only they gave me money for something like that" She said in her whispers, thinking that they would not hear her.

"I do not understand why you say it. You don't even have to worry about that" Dick told her.

She thought for a moment that she shouldn't do it, because it wasn't right, and Aunt Antiope would order her not to do it because it was too greasy and would make her fat. Aunt Antiope allowed her to eat sweets, but not at such high levels, so these treats were rare when she could have them, so she knew she had to do this.

"Oh, whatever, it's a dream" She said aloud, confusing Mr. Dick and Tim again.

The dessert she had ordered was pancakes with fruit, honey, and butter. Antiope only made them to celebrate a good grade at school, so this was a nice change. This was so good, she wanted to take a picture of the delicious dessert she was going to eat, but, she still didn't know the password, so she tried the other ways she could remember: 12345, 54321, 24680, 13579. Those were all the remaining ideas that occurred to her.

Mr. Dick noticed that his friend was getting frustrated with his cell phone, something he never did, so he intervened.

"Bruce, what's wrong with you?" he asked her.

"Nothing" she replied.

Mr. Dick took a closer look and saw his friend's problem, but this surprised him even more.

"How is it possible that you don't remember your password? You never forget it, and you never tell us. I only know it because I memorized all the times you typed it when you thought I wasn't looking" Mr. Dick told him.

"This day is very strange, Dick" She told him, trying to keep the pretense out of her. Although, of course, she had been nervous that he would discover her.

"It's 91939, Bruce," she told him with a sigh. She punched in the numbers quickly and the phone finally unlocked, revealing that it had as its wallpaper a sunset with some skyscrapers in the city as wallpaper. The remaining sunlight contrasted with the last of the blue sky and the skyscrapers made it a beautiful sight.

"Thank you very much, Dick," she told him enthusiastically. Finally, with her cell phone unlocked, she took a photo of the dessert she wanted to eat so much. "Dreams are great," she said aloud after finishing her dessert. Her joy seemed like it would last longer, but it was interrupted by the cell phone again. She saw that the cell phone said 'Work'. This was conflictive, she missed classes in this dream, but curiosity about this job caught her attention, well, she was going to do something different, something other than braiding threads non-stop in the afternoon, that and she still did not know the city where she was in the dream, so it was likely that she would end up lost, so it was better to go to work; in addition to the fact that she didn't feel like going back to her apartment and spending a lot of time there doing nothing but watching her TV, that also bored her after a while. "By the gods, it looks like I'm getting late for work."

This surprised both of them, but not as much as what he had done before. They didn't know much about when he worked or when he had to leave, most of the time he did it, and sometimes they didn't get together after school because he had other plans.

"Oh really? You work today?" Tim asked.

"Then run" Dick told him before drinking his soda.

She got up from her seat, but she had one more question to ask them.

"I'm sorry, but where exactly do I work? Could you tell me?"

"What the hell is wrong with you today?" They both asked at the same time.

XXX

20:00

It turns out that she did have to go back to the apartment, but running, she couldn't leave for that supposed job without the wallet she had forgotten in the morning, and it was easier to go back than to go to the university for the classes she didn't attend. However, having returned for the wallet, she did not change her clothes and quickly went to work at the "Zatara Entertainment Agency", which she reached easily now that her phone was unlocked and she could access the GPS to get there quickly. She thought that her job would be like answering calls from people she didn't even know, but who wanted to book an appointment at the same agency because they had a talent or had to book a show or a job interview. Unfortunately for her, that was not her job, she was the personal assistant of the same general manager of the agency.

The manager seemed to be nice. He was a man with dark hair, white skin, a suspicious physiognomy, green eyes and a mustache with pointy corners, if not for the appearance of his face, it would give the impression that he is a bad guy (similar to Hades Princeton, but more cute) but it wasn't. The only detail to take into account was that he was quite harsh with her when she ordered him to do something, he wasn't authoritarian and he didn't insult either, but he did ask for everything quite quickly and loudly.

What he said to her that day was: Bruce, why did you come in your school uniform and not your suit? Bruce, get me a coffee; Bruce, organize the schedule; Bruce, speak up; Bruce, we don't do this; Bruce, this is not right; Bruce, go get my documents from the copier.

All these orders the boss gave her bothered her, but she knew she couldn't hit him or the dream would get worse, although she did wish the dream would end soon, this was worse than skipping class, and she was regretting coming to work to this place when she could have missed it, but her curiosity to do something other than school or braiding threads had possessed her, and she was paying dearly for it. Everything she was doing, she was doing it wrong or she didn't know how to do it, the boss saw this and even asked her what was going on with her, to which she replied that she hasn't had a good day. Either way, that workday was pretty tough, and it got worse when a man in his thirties left the boss's office rather upset at seven o'clock at night, and headed towards her.

"I had scheduled an appointment at this time, and they dismissed me as if nothing had happened. It's your fault for not having scheduled that appointment well, boy" The man told him.

She didn't know what to answer. She could leave, but, seeing how bad her day had gone, she preferred to be calm and tell him her role in the office where she was working in this dream.

"I'm sorry, but if the boss dismissed you now, it means you never called here…" She started, thinking this was going to fix it, but she was interrupted.

"What are you saying?!" He yelled at her, much angrier.

This did make her want to be aggressive, but she was interrupted by a hand that grabbed her arm.

"Excuse me, is everything alright?" asked a female voice. "I'll take care of it" the woman whispered to her.

She moved away a bit, but stared at the girl who was taking care of the situation that she could have done completely stupid, but it wouldn't have mattered, she was dreaming after all. The girl looked just like her, she had a lovely face, she was slim, toned, a little full pink lips, blue eyes, black hair; the differences were that she had milky white skin, her nose was a bit long, and her voice was lighter.

The girl who had saved her from that situation with the guy spoke delicately with the thirty-year-old guy and they seemed to understand each other. It seemed that the guy had relaxed and gave a mischievous look. After that talk and he just walked away, or so they thought, since they didn't see him when he took out a small slicer. Other than that, the working day passed without any other major inconvenience.

Once the office closed, several employees went home, while others stayed behind, including the girl who had saved her. Unlike her, the girl was dressed for the office, in a black skirt and a white button-down shirt. She wanted to get closer to that girl, she wanted to thank her for the help with that annoying guy, but she was acting quite nervous, and, unlike the other people in this dream -except for Mr. Dick and Tim-, she had been nice to her, and she might never see her again, so it was appropriate to do that.

"Zatara..." She tried to say, she had heard the girl's last name from what a few equally young boys had said, but not her name.

"Miss Zatara" Said one of the young employees.

She quickly adjusted to this rule she had been given and spoke to her again.

"Miss Zatara..." She said, but curiously, the girl interrupted her this time.

"We just had a little misunderstanding, Bruce. It was bad luck. I only acted according to the manual" Said the lady.

The response was accompanied by the head of the agency himself.

"A misunderstanding that I hope you don't make again, Mr. Wayne. Your position does not save you from sanctions for making this type of error" The boss told him.

It took her time, but, calmly, she noted that the head of the agency was the father of the agency, considering the position he took behind Miss Zatara. But, she knew that she had to give a satisfactory answer, since she was not going to see them again.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Zatara, it won't happen again" She said it without hesitation.

She might never hear the story, but Mr. Zatara had been a great wizard in his youth. His full name was Giovanni Zatara, although he was nicknamed "John." Onstage, he was called "Zatara, The Master of Magic". His golden age spanned from his early twenties to his late forties, until he had to retire from what had brought him, like many people, such because his wife had died when their daughter was twelve years old due to a tumor. He knew his daughter needed a father figure, so he gave that up for her. Of course, for any artist forced to retire, they never quite leave, and that's why he founded the entertainment agency, where his daughter had settled in quite well. From time to time, he missed his magician days, but he liked to see his daughter being happy, besides, he hoped that she would be the one to take over the show when the time was right, but, he wanted her to have a normal life until then.

His concern jumped when, looking away from her, he saw his daughter's skirt, and noticed a cut. She would have preferred pants, but he insisted on wearing a skirt whenever she worked there, because it was office policy.

" Zatanna, your skirt," she told her daughter.

Zatanna looked down and saw that her skirt had been cut, or had come undone. No, the second was unlikely, the clearest thing was that that guy took the opportunity to cut her skirt, and it was obvious that he would never show his face around there anymore.

"That guy" Zatanna said, angry.

She was mad at that guy. If she ran into him, she would smash his face in, taking advantage of the fact that she was dreaming that it was the body of a different person. But, now she wanted to help Zatanna, so she plucked up her courage and asked Mr. Zatara.

"Do we have strings somewhere, Mr. Zatara?"

Mr. Zatara was surprised that the person in front of him would ask him something like that, but he decided to answer.

"We have a few in my office" He answered a little hesitantly.

With that, she grabbed Zatanna by the arm.

"Come with me" She told Zatanna.

Zatara followed them to his office.

"Mr. Zatara, I need her to take off her skirt," she said.

"What?!" Zatara asked. When she said that, Zatanna got uncomfortable, thinking the wrong thing.

She noticed that they thought otherwise, so she had to fix it.

"Oh no. No. I'll turn around, I swear. I need you to do that to sew up the hole," she said.

The two hesitated, but when the person working as his assistant turned around, Zatanna slipped out of her skirt, while Zatara handed her his sack and she put it on her legs. This done, the boss's daughter sat on top of the desk, making sure to keep her legs covered with the sack.

With the skirt in her hands, she turned on the light, Zatara passed the threads to her, and she began to sew the skirt.

As she did this, Zatanna turned to her father and gestured for him to come out. He hesitated, but he saw that the person sewing his skirt was actually doing it, so it didn't mean he wanted something with his daughter, at least not right now, and in such a hasty way, as was the case with many of his interns, who noticed that they liked her daughter, but did not approach her because she was the daughter of the same boss; so, he left the office, but he stayed guarding the door in case something happened.

"You're done?" Zatanna asked.

"Almost there" The person Zatanna thought she was answered. "Done" She said, passing her the skirt, which no longer had the hole, it was sealed with green thread and decorated with red and yellow threads that made it look like they were flowers on top of the grass. Curious, in the end, she did have to braid threads in this dream, but she had done it with pleasure for this girl.

"You are very good, Bruce" Zatanna told her as she looked at the stitched area very carefully. "It looks better than before" She added.

She laughed a bit before speaking to the boss's daughter.

"By the way, I wanted to thank you for helping with that guy earlier."

She was surprised when Zatanna touched her face and her gaze shifted slightly from hers.

"To tell you the truth, I worried a little about you" She told her, still not looking at her. She smoothed her hair a bit and now she did look at her very tenderly. "You're pretty strong, but calm, and you still get into trouble. Today I like you better. You have a feminine side. Who'd say?" She asked with a smile.

She just gave the boss Zatara's daughter a big smile.

Subsequently, she turned around again for Zatanna to put her skirt back on. Zatara walked in when Zatanna knocked on the door, and saw that nothing bad had happened between his daughter and his rather lame assistant on this day, though he suspected from the look on her face that she'd start dating him or that something else would happen some time later.

A few minutes later, everyone went home, although some of the inmates did not let themselves look at that person with resentment, a resentment that they would say directly to his face the next day, this because Zatara had accompanied that person along with his daughter to the entrance of the building, so it was better to leave, maybe it was too late to argue at that moment.

Zatanna and her father left quickly in their car, while the person who was dreaming took a taxi that dropped her off at the apartment building.

"This dream seems very real" She said to herself. She had eaten something from the refrigerator when she got to the apartment, though it hadn't been much. Then she went to her bed, where she was reviewing what she could find on the cell phone from this dream, and that meant going to the gallery where all the photos were; she saw that there were not many, but most were of Mr. Dick and Mr. Tim with very happy faces.

"I wish I lived in a city like this" She said to herself again as she kept scrolling through the photos one after the other, until she saw one of Zatanna, who had her back turned. "Ah, one of her" She said. She was further surprised when, in the next photo, she was turned back towards the camera view, her face playful. "Platonic love?" She asked very interested.

In the end, she saw that this phone had a diary, so it was a good idea to write down what had happened with Zatanna today. What she wrote exactly was: "I had a pretty good conversation with Miss Zatara today thanks to my feminine side". To this she added a few emojis of happy faces with hearts.

Strangely, she remembered the question that had been written in her notebook "WHO ARE YOU?". Therefore, she went to the desk, which had all the writing implements on it, and she picked up a pen and wrote 'Diana' on the palm of her left hand, hoping to leave an impression on the person who read it, if it wasn't a dream that was happening.

Right after writing her name on the palm of her hand, she yawned, so she went back to her bed, lay down, and fell asleep soon after.

How was this? I told them that I would do everything possible so that the situations and some circumstances were different from those of the film, and I think I succeeded with this chapter. Did you like it? Do you think I missed something? Let me know in the comments.

By the way, I put Zatanna because she seemed the most suitable for the role of Miss Okudera, and I wasn't even going to put Catwoman in this role. Batman doesn't need Catwoman to be a good character, and the same goes for Wonder Woman and Trevor.

With that said, see you in the next chapter.