Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“FUCK!” Duke screamed, a stray bullet ripping through his shoulder armor. Cass didn’t spare a moment to check on him, fully absorbed in the fight in front of her.

Today was supposed to be a normal patrol. Her, Duke, and Steph had decided to patrol all together just as a chance to hang out. With most major rogues in Arkham, nothing big should have happened. Should, being the key word. Someone hadn’t told that to fucking Deathstroke of all people, who was currently leading a group of mercenaries into Gotham. For what reason? Still unknown. Rose wasn’t even here to flirt with, so it was a net negative all around.

Steph screamed, and Cass watched in horror as some unknown person plunged a sword into Steph’s arm and ripped it back out with extreme prejudice. There was blood everywhere . Cass looked for Duke, who was currently clutching his shoulder and using his flagging powers at the same time to down foes.

This was unsustainable. They had called in reinforcements as soon as Slade showed his ugly mug, but the rest of the Bats were still a few minutes out, which was a few minutes they didn’t have . Then, there was a… ripping sound. Ripping wasn’t the right word for it. It sounded like a million different pieces of fabric were destroyed at once, the sounds overlapping into a brutal cacophony. There was… a portal. A glowing and swirling portal. Duke must have opened it, as he was currently covered in the same glow that the portal had. Since when could he open portals?

Well. That was certainly an exit strategy for the ages. With barely a glance, Steph, Cass, and Duke all made a break for it directly into the portal.

“Batgirl to Oracle, Signal has formed a portal and we’re going in, see ya!” Steph yelled into the comms, before jumping straight inside, grabbing Cass’s hand as she ran in. They were immediately followed by Duke, who grabbed Cass’s other hand. The last thing Cass saw before the portal closed behind them was Tim’s horrified face as he swung onto the scene.

Then, there was only brightness .

It was impossible to describe in words how it felt. They could’ve spent moments or days or months or years spinning in the space in between. Flashes of impossible colors swimmed in and out of Cass’s vision. They had no name on the visible spectrum, they glowed and swirled and pulsated and it was mesmerizing. Looking to  her right, Duke was observing in wonder, but a normal amount of wonder. Steph meanwhile, looked as mesmerized as Cass felt. Were these the colors Duke saw every day? No wonder he could never describe them, they were beyond human words. How could you describe the existence of something to someone who had never witnessed it?

They swirled and spinned and twirled for an eternity, clutching onto each other tightly all the while. Eventually, they drifted closer and closer until all three of them were in a group hug.

Then, there was… something… in the distance. A speck of pure darkness in the world of light. Cass nudged Duke, who perked up at the sight. Duke attempted to start moving towards the speck. Up until that point, they were content with being buffeted around and around in circles. Now though, they had a goal, but the physics of this world weren’t cooperating.

Steph was the one who started to make swimming motions. Breaking apart from the group hug and going back to a line of held hands, the three of them started swimming towards the darkness. Cass could only kick her legs, while Steph and Duke used their one arm each in addition to their legs. Slowly but surely, they started swimming their way through the lights and towards the darkness. There was no need for words in this in-between world, so they didn’t communicate as they kept pushing their bodies further and further.

The speck of darkness was growing larger. They were getting closer. What was previously a speck was looking more and more like another portal. This was assuredly their exit out of here. The trio kicked faster. Although this world was breathtaking, Cass wanted to be on solid ground again. She wanted to run and feel the wind in her hair and feel the adrenaline of a fight and a million other things that couldn’t be had here.

Finally, they floated in front of the exit portal. Cass caught Steph’s eye, and nodded. She caught Duke’s eye, and smirked. As one, they pushed themselves forward and into the unknown.

~

Because the universe was kind, they were deposited close enough to the ground below that they could easily fall into a roll and pop up without injury. Cass brushed off her shoulders with a sigh, and breathed in the polluted air.

“Huh,” Steph murmured. “My arm is healed.”

Cass made a questioning noise, and inspected her girlfriend’s arm. Her Batgirl suit still had a massive bloody rip in it, but the skin underneath looked as if it had healed over the course of a few months. There was only a faint scar left of what should’ve been a massively gaping wound. How long had they been in the portal?

“My shoulder’s healed up too,” Duke said in wonder. Cass turnt to inspect his wound, and the exact same thing was true. There was a hole where the bullet had shot through the chinks in his armor, but the wound had healed and scarred over. Duke had regenerative powers, but nothing to this extent.

Steph was the one to voice what they all were thinking. “How long were we in there?” She said with a grimace.

Cass and Duke shrugged. Steph sighed, and tried turning on her comm. Cass followed suit, and got an earful of static for her troubles.

“No dice, the HUD in my helmet is fried too,” Duke said with a wince.

Steph sighed loudly again. “No tech, no idea where we are, no idea on how much time has passed. Fuck.”

“Rooftop reconnaissance time?” Cass asked, her voice scratchy as always.

Her companions nodded, so the three took a moment to search for a nearby fire escape. The alleyway they had been dumped in wasn’t one Cass was familiar with, but that didn’t mean much. Hopefully, they weren’t far from the manor and could figure out how much time they had lost.

There was thankfully a functioning fire escape a couple feet down from where they were dumped, so they climbed up and onto the rooftop up above. The view they saw punched the breath out of Cass’s lungs.

“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” Steph groaned.

Cass took in the skyline with increasing panic as the minutes passed. “Is this our New York?” She asked, her head swiveling around and around. She had been to New York many times. She had traversed the rooftops of New York many times. As she observed more and more, she became more sure of her conclusion.

“Alternate universe?” Steph guessed.

Cass nodded her head. There was no other logical conclusion. They were stranded in another universe, with no way home. Great.

Chapter Text

This sucked. This sucked ass . Stephanie was never jumping into a mysterious portal ever again, what the fuck. She had a sense of joy and whimsy, but not this much joy and whimsy.

“What do we do?” Duke said, looking out at the skyline.

“Clothes, information, food, water, shelter,” Cass listed off.

“Isn’t food and water first, usually?” Duke asked.

Steph see-sawed her hand. “Kinda,” Steph started. “We have rations in our belts. Right now we’re in A New York, right now the priority is finding out if the Justice League exists and if they have the tech to port us home. To do that, we need civvies to go to the library. We have cash that will hopefully work, and then we can get more food and water.”

Duke nodded, he looked like he wanted to take notes. Steph loved his enthusiasm and whimsy. 

“We have to be less noticeable,” Cass murmured, tugging at the skin tight shiny suit she was wearing. Steph hummed in agreement. They both thought for a moment.

“I wear a t-shirt under my suit, one of you could tie your bodysuit on your waist and then wear it,” Duke offered.

Steph looked him in the eye as she said, “Duke, I love you, you’re my favorite. I’ll go buy us shit, you guys hang tight.”

Duke blushed, before quickly shedding his outer armor pieces. The plain black t-shirt he was wearing surprisingly didn’t smell super bad, which was great for Steph. She turned away from her companions, quickly unzipping the top half of her suit and tying the arms around her waist. She slipped Duke’s shirt on, and it was oversized enough that it neatly covered her utility belt. She couldn’t do much about the bottom of the uniform still looking like a super-suit, but she could play it off as a cosplay if anyone actually cared enough to ask.

“Alright, I’m decent. Stay here, do not move, we don’t have comms. I’m going to the thrift store, and if I see a second hand electronics store, I’ll go there,” Steph announced. Turning to Cass, she added, “If I’m not back by nightfall, find me tomorrow at the nearest library. Also, can I have your emergency cash too?”

Cass nodded at her word vomit, handing over her cash to Stephanie. “See you soon,” Cass said, and that was both a threat and a promise that Stephanie heard loud and clear.

Steph waved jauntily as she bounced down the fire escape, and off she went into New York City. She first surveyed the ground around the building Duke and Cass were on, making sure she took mental notes of all of the landmarks around. Then, she remembered the digital camera Tim had gotten her for her birthday. She whipped it out from one of her utility belt pockets, and was pleasantly surprised that the tech inside survived the trip. Steph took a couple quick pictures of the surrounding buildings and street names, and her anxiety cooled down a tad now that she had physical evidence of her companion’s locations. Slipping the camera back in her utility belt, she walked down the street.

The reality that she wasn’t in Gotham anymore was starting to set in. If she was in an unknown part of Gotham, she just had to exude “Don’t fuck with me” energy and she’d be good. In New York, that could get her arrested or something, she didn’t know. Instead, she acted like she was a normal teenage girl who knew exactly where she was, thank you very much.

She wandered around lost for a bit, before she found a busier street. The grid mechanism that made up New York was good for guidance, Steph wasn’t lost and she could totally make her way back to the building without her reference pictures. As she got to more commercial streets, she started coming across the kinds of stores she was looking for. She also started coming across street vendors, who in her world sold merch for the Justice League. Here, there were other heroes that looked completely unfamiliar. This wasn’t boding well for the JLA existing in this universe, but at least there were heroes? Hopefully.

Steph saw a thrift store in her periphery, and headed inside. It looked like any thrift store she would come across in Gotham, so she stopped to browse. She had to limit herself to just a few items for each of them, they probably wouldn’t be here for longer than a week (hopefully.) She grabbed two pairs of jeans each, guessing Duke’s sizing. She grabbed three tshirts for each of them as well, then sweatshirts, and threw in some packages of new underwear and socks. Did she need to buy shoes? They could all just wear the boots from their costumes, they were made for heavy duty usage and would survive being used as normal shoes for a week or two.

Steph also grabbed a backpack for each of them, something that could hold essentials and their costumes. She went up to the checkout line, and her training prevented her from being nervous as she handed over her out of universe cash. ‘Please please accept the same American Dollars.’ Steph evidently had no reason to worry, as the cashier put the money in the register without even looking twice at the cash she handed over. Phew.

She left the thrift with bags in hand. She was carrying one backpack on her back with most of the stuff, and carrying the other two backpacks in normal shopping bags. There was a sign that looked like it could be a used electronics store in the distance, so first Steph scoped out an alleyway to change in. There was a small cramped one with no visible cameras that she carefully ducked into, efficiently pulling off the rest of her costume and slipping on one of the pairs of jeans she had just purchased. They were bell bottom jeans, so she could slip her boots underneath with no problems. She then took off Duke’s shirt, and put on one of the crop tops she had bought for herself.

Feeling more settled and less like she was going to be outed as a vigilante any second, she jauntily walked down the street. New York was way chiller than in Gotham, this was practically a vacation! She did see one or two muggings, but nothing even close to the daily violence of Gotham, even by daylight. This was awesome. As she walked, her eyes did not deceive her, she had in fact seen a cellphone sign! Besides the whole ‘being dropped in an alternate universe’ thing, today was a pretty lucky day.

The door tingled as she walked into the cramped store, and she immediately started surveying the scene. There was a huge bucket of spare parts in the middle of the store that Tim would be salivating over. Steph could tinker if need be, but it wasn’t her area of expertise. She turned away from the scrap, and started browsing the shelves for some prepaid cell phones. She scanned for a while, there was a shitton of stuff in this store. Fixed up microwaves, repaired computers, they truly had mountains of refurbished tech. After some time, she spotted little flip phones for 35 each. The prepaid data plan should last them at least 2 months, maybe 3 if they were careful, (not that they’d be here for that long. Fingers crossed.) Plus, Tim would be psyched if they brought back some mysterious multiverse technology.

She grabbed one in purple, one in black, and one in red. She brought her haul up to the front counter, humming under her breath. The person at the cash register had to do some things to actually activate the phones, so Steph was just chilling and looking around more. The door jingled, and Steph looked over. The young adult who walks in seems unassuming, but something about him is setting off Steph’s alarm bells. As if sensing her stare, he looks straight at her. He’s cataloguing everything about her, and it’s only Steph’s resistance via Cass that allows her to catalogue him straight back instead of being cowed by his all knowing stare. If Steph ran into this universe’s Cass on the first day, she’d be so annoyed that Cass wasn’t here to see them too.

They had a stare off. Steph wasn’t as good with reading body language of course, but she’s picked up a few things. For one, he was currently holding a ridiculously heavy bin of spare parts, and none of his muscles were straining at all . He was pretending to struggle of course, but Stephanie could spot that his arms were barely engaged and his legs weren’t spread wide enough apart to support the box in the first place. He had to be enhanced in some way. He was a good actor, but not good enough to fool Stephanie. 

They kept staring at each other. Stephanie didn’t dare break first, she was trained better than that. The moment stretched on, and on. His muscles still weren’t struggling! After multiple minutes of standing in place holding that box! Steph spotted torn apart microwaves, piles of wires, and mysterious metals that must’ve weighed a shitton. 

They were encroaching on comedic levels of stare off when the moment was finally broken by the person at the cash register letting out an “Aha!” , causing both her and the mystery person to physically jump.

“Here you are, the phones should now be in working order,” The man said, putting the phones back into the packaging and bagging them.

“Thanks!” Stephanie chirped, taking the bag.

The cashier then looked over, spotting the person who was looking more and more awkward by the second. “Hey Peter, didn’t see you,” they said. “Leave your stuff in the middle, the boss will appraise ‘em and transfer you the money by next week.”

The now named Peter nodded, pushing the box on the table and turning around to head out. Not before shooting Stephanie another suspicious glance, though.

Steph, resolute, rushed out the door to try and catch Peter. So far, he was the most interesting person she had come across. Lucky for her, he was standing outside with his eyes narrowed.

“Who are you?” He growled, setting Stephanie’s hair on end.

Steph pushed through the base instinct to cower, and laughed instead, sticking out a hand to shake. “Stephanie. You’re Peter?”

He nodded slowly, grasping her hand. He shook her hand like Superman did. It was a firm handshake, but his fingers weren’t physically gripping hers tightly enough for it to be as firm as it was. Enhanced strength was definitely the vibe. A normal person wouldn’t have known the difference, but Stephanie wasn’t the average person. She just adored being right. He dropped his hand quickly after, sticking it in his pocket. Peter was outwardly going for nonchalant, but he was obviously projecting ‘uncanny valley’ to unsettle and spook her. Unfortunately for him, Steph had lots of practice ignoring her lizard brain screaming danger. His little act wouldn’t do whatever he was hoping it would do.

Stephanie let the silence between them simmer. Normally she had to break any unfilled silence with her unending chatter, but here, right now, she would not be the first to break. Peter was still projecting hostility, so, what would the harm be in projecting right back?

Stephanie took a moment to uncoil her tense muscles, took a deep breath in, and sunk into her vigilante headspace. It was harder to do outside the mask, but Steph was nothing if not a professional. Spoiler was one with the night. She was dangerous, she lived in the shadows. She did whatever it took to win, no matter how scrappy or dirty those methods were. She didn’t kill, but she did maim and permanently injure. Spoiler was a predator, no matter her title or name at the current moment.

Spoiler could not be cowed, and she let an unholy grin break across her face. She took great pleasure in the goosebumps that visibly shot down Peter’s arms, but he showed no other reaction besides narrowing his eyes. He was also a professional, then.

Peter was looking more unsettled by the second. His eyes were darting around her limbs, obviously looking for the second she twitched a muscle to start fighting him. As much as it would be fun, Spoiler wasn’t quite that cruel. Right now, at least.

Visibly swallowing, Peter still glared. She respected his moxie. “If you step a foot out of line in Queens, I will find you,” he whispered lowly, a threat evident in every syllable.

Spoiler just hummed. “I’m just passing through. I won’t cause you trouble, you won’t cause me trouble. Mutually beneficial!”

Peter twitched, and nodded. They stared at each other a moment more, before Stephanie let out a sigh. “I’ll get out of your hair,” She said while turning on her heel. “See ya!” She called over her shoulder before jauntily walking off. She didn’t look to see what Peter did, she was wholly unconcerned. Steph would start making her way back to the building she left her companions at, and if Steph felt the telltale sign of surveillance she would do something. For right now, the weird encounter would stay a weird encounter and not escalate. Steph kinda wished they had gotten off on a better foot, it would be nice to talk to someone who actually knew what the fuck was going on in this world. Oh well.

She hummed a little tune as she skipped through the streets. Steph was getting a better vibe for this area of New York now that she had been here for a bit, and that vibe was the grittier districts of Metropolis. Nowhere near Gotham levels of violence and misery, but also not like the major districts of Metropolis. It was a nice vacation for sure.

The sun had barely started setting when Steph finally climbed up the fire escape onto the roof. Duke and Cass were where she had left them, playing some sort of card game on the concrete.

“Honey, I’m home!” Steph announced, setting down her spoils.

“Steph,” Duke said as soon as she sat down to look at their game. “Does it count as cheating if I look into the future to see Cass’s moves? She’s doing the same with my body so I don’t think it should count. Thoughts?”

Cass was scowling, glaring at Duke. “I can’t help it. You can.”

“Ok, but I use it so we’re evenly matched in spars. Why not in a fast paced card game?” Duke whined, gesturing to Cass’s momentary win that he was stalling with this conversation.

“Skill issue,” Cass glared.

Steph couldn’t hold in her laughter any more. She doubled over, and the more she tried to stop laughing the more she wheezed and giggled until her chest hurt.

Steph wiped tears from her eyes, and was almost sent into another fit of hysterics once she caught sight of the mock-offended expressions of her girlfriend and brother.

“This is a serious argument,” Duke said, a smile threatening to break through his forced frown.

“Very important,” Cass added, her lips twitching.

Steph giggled again. “My professional opinion is that knowing your opponent's moves doesn’t matter here, you just need to be fast. Duke, get good.”

Duke flopped to the ground, hand over his forehead like a Victorian maiden. “Betrayal!” He shouted. “Betrayal for a thousand years, from the wench I dare call my sister!”

Stephanie was sent into another fit of laughter, this time with Cass and Duke joining in. It petered off after a few minutes, and Steph’s cheeks hurt from how wide she was stretching them. She needed that.

“Anyways,” Steph giggled again. “I have clothes and some pre-paid phones, go change!”

Steph threw them their respective backpacks, and turned around so they both could get changed in relative peace. A few minutes passed with just the rustling of clothes and the sounds of the city behind them as Duke and Cass peeled out of their uniforms and into normal clothes.

Soon enough, Cass was tapping on Steph’s shoulder to let her know it was okay to turn around. Duke and Cass looked much more relaxed now that they were out of the sweaty latex.

Duke was the first to yawn, and Cass and Steph were quickly following suit. “Let’s—” Steph yawned again. “Set up our phones, and then we’ll set up a watch rotation for the night?”

Duke and Cass nodded. Rubbing at her eyes, Steph handed them their phones, and powered hers on as well. It was simple, asking for them to pick their language, agreeing to all of the legal agreements, etc. They added each other as contacts, and then the exhaustion truly caught up with them.

“I’ll take the first watch,” Cass murmured. “Steph, you take the middle, Duke takes last?”

Steph and Duke nodded, and quickly set up their bags as pillows. Steph pulled out her and Cass’s capes to act as blankets, they were surprisingly comfortable. Steph was barely tucked in under her cape before she was out like a light.

-

Steph registered Cass shaking her awake, pulling her out of her dreamless sleep. Steph stretched out, rubbing her eyes and gesturing for Cass to burrow under Steph’s cape. Duke was still sound asleep, Steph would wake him in a couple hours. For now, it was her job to watch the night sky for any potential dangers. 

Duke and Cass despised middle shifts, but Steph didn’t mind them so she tended to take them. There was something comforting about being up at the witching hours while not on patrol, when society was mostly asleep and the underbelly came out to play. Steph loved people watching, and the most interesting people tended to be out between 1-5am.

Steph’s eyes at first started catching young adults heading home from the club. Then, younger college aged students would stumble out of bars in the wee morning, laughing and joyful. As the night wore on, Steph swore she saw a vigilante break up a crime, but it was a bit too far for her to tell for sure. As the sun started to rise, she saw as bleary eyed workers meandered out of their apartments to start the day. Steph checked her new phone, and it was already around 5AM, which meant it was Duke’s time to be up.

Steph shook him awake, and he let out a jaw cracking yawn as he sat up.

“Sunrise already?” He mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he got out from under Cass’s cape and onto the roof proper.

Steph just nodded, and immediately took Duke’s place under Cass’s cape. It was nice and toasty warm from his body heat, and the exhaustion from travelling between dimensions hit Steph quickly once again. With a sigh, Stephanie sank back into unconsciousness.

Chapter Text

Duke was tired. He was always tired, but he was especially tired right now. He even got double the sleep he normally did! And he was still exhausted down to his very marrow. If you took a peek inside his veins, he was sure even his blood cells were moving sluggishly.

The rising sun helped a little. He collected the UV rays and attempted to absorb them into his body. Plant mode, as Steph fondly called it. He breathed in and out, letting the power of the sun absorb into his skin and kickstart his light healing factor. 

Some of the bone deep exhaustion lifted, but not enough for him to feel alright. He was always running on fumes, but this was possibly the worst he had ever felt in his entire life. He used up too much energy with that portal. Whatever healing magic fixed his wounds evidently didn’t extend to his tiredness and overextension.

His healing factor and energy absorption usually worked even better when he wasn't in Gotham, where the sunlight was brighter and purer, so the fact that he was still this exhausted even after 30 minutes or so was alarming. With a frown, he pulled his shirt off to hopefully expose more of his skin to the sun’s rays.

Then, the proper sunrise started. Duke had trouble describing what the sunrise and sunset looked like to anyone that didn't live in his brain. It was magical, no matter how many times he witnessed it. And he witnessed it a lot. With his ability to see every electromagnetic spectrum including the ultraviolet and infrared spectrums, the sunrise went from beautiful to otherworldly. He could see the normal pinks and purples and oranges, but he could also see so much more . All of the light glowed and wiggled and vibrated across the cityscape as the sun crusted over the horizon.

Everything was in beautiful colors that only he could appreciate. His blues and purples were brighter and glowing, and his reds were deep and pretty. His favorite color was on the ultraviolet spectrum. There were certain dyes and plants that glowed bright under UV light, and Duke was (probably) the only person in this universe who could perceive it. Impossible colors were his favorite, and normal colors could never compare, but he answered red if anyone asked for his favorite color in his day to day life.

He could also see every freckle and blemish on everybody’s skin, he fully thought that the phrase “clear skin” was a joke until Steph had explained that yes, most people did actually have mostly unblemished skin, and that people couldn’t see freckles and blemishes unless they were very dark and near the surface of the skin.

As the sun rose higher, all of the buildings started emitting more of a glow. As the world warmed up, Duke could physically see the heat. It was fun to look at all of the glowing red blobs that he knew were human bodies moving through buildings and across the streets.

He sat absorbing the sun’s ultraviolet rays for hours, slowly but surely coming back into himself. Still exhausted, but he was approaching normal levels of exhaustion versus about to collapse from lack of energy. As New York City started to properly wake up, he roused his sisters into awareness.

He shook Cass first, and in moments she was fully awake and alert. Duke was so jealous. Steph on the other hand took awhile to be roused from her beauty sleep. She mumbled for just a few more minutes until Cass physically jumped on top of her. Duke cackled as Steph screeched and started fighting with Cass so she could get up. 

“Urgh,” Steph complained once Cass successfully woke her up, "Let's get dressed and go to the library," she said while rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

Duke and Cass nodded in agreement, and the trio quickly changed into a new set of clothes. 

The jeans Steph had gotten him were a little short, but that wasn't a huge deal since his boots made them look alright. He put on a random t-shirt with a band that probably didn’t even exist in their home dimension. Steph and Cass packed their capes away, and they were ready to head out. Duke took a moment to mourn the rooftop. They would assuredly find somewhere else to sleep later on, but this was the first place he relaxed in this new universe. It was a bit special, sue him!

Steph and Cass were already moving down the fire escape when Duke physically shook himself out of his reverie. He ran over, and went down right behind them on the ladder. Once they were all standing facing each other on the ground, Steph clapped her hands together. “All right," she said. "Our phones don't have GPS, so we're going to have to ask for directions." Duke physically cringed. Steph patted him on the shoulder. “The people here are nicer than in Gotham!" She reassured him.

"Still," Duke shrugged. "Asking strangers for directions is crazy work." Steph giggled and pushed his shoulder. 

"Shut," Steph replied. 

They made their way out onto the street, chattering about nothing as they made their way to more populated areas. Steph was taking her job of finding someone trustworthy very seriously, and Duke and Cass made faces at each other behind Steph’s back every time Steph made a comically over-exaggerated thinking face. Eventually, there was a mom with an elementary school aged kid who Steph decided was a suitable target. 

With an impressive enthusiasm, Steph adopted the naïve young adult look and bounded up to the woman. "Excuse me miss, do you know where the nearest library is? My friends' phones all died, and we're not really from around here–" 

The woman smiled, interrupting Steph’s practiced tirade. "Of course! We're close to the New York Public Library. Right down the street is a train station for the 7 train, ride that to 5th av, and you can’t miss the library once you’re out on the street!"

Steph grinned widely. "Thank you so much, I really appreciate it! Have a great day!" Steph waved, and bounced back to Duke and Cass with a grin still stretched on her face. Steph high-fived them, and armed with directions, off they went.

The NYC train system was so much nicer than Gotham's, holy shit. No one gave their group a second glance as they boarded the train to their destination. It moved quickly, and there weren't any rogue interruptions! It was relaxing to just sit with the knowledge that you'd actually get to go where you wanted to go. This was nice. Maybe Duke would pressure Bruce into fixing the subway back home, that would be a fun project.

"Let's make Bruce fix the train back home," Cass whispered. Duke had to hold back his giggles, and was largely unsuccessful. 

"I was literally just thinking the same thing," Duke whispered back. 

Steph smirked, "Bruce owes us so much overpay for this. Once we're back, he'll do anything," They all shared an evil grin, before dissolving back into giggles. Soon enough, they reached their stop, and came back out onto the street. And holy shit, there were so many people, all giving off different heat signatures and there was a hazy glow from the sun. It was so bright, Duke was starting to get a headache. He shielded his eyes, curling into himself. Everything hurt. Of course, Cass noticed. She grabbed his arm, leading him along behind Steph as he screwed his eyes shut against the overwhelming sensory input. He barely paid attention to where they were walking, but he did notice when it got noticeably quieter and cooler. He didn’t open his eyes until Cass whispered that it was safe to do so.

Duke blinked the spots out of his vision to be greeted with a quiet and dimly lit corner of the library. He glanced around, thankful for the low lighting. There was still a pounding in his head, but Duke could manage instead of practically collapsing. He breathed in and out, settling himself back in his body.

"Okay?" Cass asked, eyebrows furrowed in concern. 

"I'm okay, thank you Cassie," Duke murmured. She just raised an eyebrow in response. Curse her ability to tell when he was lying. "… I'm still a little dizzy,” he added. “But I'm okay, I promise," and it wasn't even a lie this time! Cass squinted, scrutinizing him before deciding he passed muster.

"Good. Steph is researching on the computer, I'm going to eavesdrop on conversations. Want to look for books on quantum research and the technology of this world?” She asked. Duke knew he could say the word and sit this one out, but he wanted to be helpful. He would’ve been more useful on the computers, but even the thought of looking at a screen right now made his head pulse in agony.

“I can do that, no biggie,” he replied.

-

He could not do this. Duke took one look at the tiny text in a printed book, and immediately slammed it shut. Everything was blurry and swimming. Everything was pain and suffering. This sucked. Everything sucked.

Duke was going to just. Lie down. That seemed like a good plan. He stumbled somewhere, finding a small little corner with shitty carpet and curling up into a little ball. Duke shut his eyes, and drifted into unconsciousness.

-

“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey-” Someone was slapping Duke’s face repeatedly.

“Steph, shut,” Duke mumbled. Wait. The voice was definitely not female.

Duke blinked his eyes open, his vision swirling between different electromagnetic spectrums, only to be met with the sight of someone who should not be alive . Duke could feel his jaw physically dropping.

“Did you know you have super cancer? Holy shit dude,” Duke mumbled, the world currently alternating between the darkness of x-ray and the brightness of ultraviolet. “Your bones are like, see through. And your body is like, so tumorous, that’s impressive.”

The man laughed, patting Duke on the head. Duke was too tired to swat the hand away, which was probably a bad sign. But hey, the dude hadn’t done anything yet!

Woah. The walls were going see through. Duke could see a bunch of skeletons walking around. Nice.

The man said something about offering free x-rays. Duke was trying to process the walls alternating between being fully solid and transparent. His head hurt. What if he just… went back to sleep. Maybe perceiving the sunrise this morning was too much. Everything hurt.

The man was still there. Maybe he was saying something about shelters now? Something for mutants? What was a mutant? Did he mean meta? Did this world have different words? Ow. Too much thinking. Back to empty.

“There are two chicks heading this way, they yours?” The man said too loudly.

Duke opened an eye, confirming they were his family. Only Cass had that many improperly healed bones. “Cass and Steph,” Duke mumbled. “Sisters,” he added after a moment.

The man hummed. “I would’ve liked to meet under better circumstances, but I’m going to scram. Feel better soon!” His voice was too cheery when everything was terrible.

Duke would’ve voiced his displeasure, but he was too tired. And oh, now there were strong arms lifting him up.

“Hi Cassie,” he mumbled. “Hurts.”

“Idiot,” Cass hissed.

“Didn’t mean to,” Duke replied. It felt nice to be lifted like a sack of potatoes, it made him feel like he was a kid again. Cass was so strong.

Cass grumbled as she carried him along. Eventually, she set him down and forced him to stumble along while holding onto Cass on one side, and Steph on the other. Something about being conspicuous. Duke hardly noticed when they stopped moving.

“Duke, you need to go up the fire escape,” Steph murmured.

Duke cracked his eyes open, sighing in relief when he realized it was dark out. Things were still bright and his vision was still fucky, but it was a little bit better now. “Yeah, I can. I can go up,” he said.

Slowly but surely, he climbed up the rickety metal staircases up onto a rooftop of a new building. Cass and Steph were right behind him, and quickly bullied him under a cape and a backpack acting as a pillow. Within moments, he sunk into unconsciousness.