Chapter Text
Day 1: Darcy
Darcy Lewis was not faint of heart. Or, that’s what Thor said anyway. She kinda doubted it with her current situation. She woke up in a pool of green water and immediately started screaming, then choked on the slime that was running into her eyes, her nose, and her mouth.
Her skin felt like it was on fire. Not to mention her eyes. Everything felt like it was melting. Like acid coated her from head-to-toe. And yeah, that’s probably what was going on. Good grief.
Her fingers clawed for purchase around her, digging in dirt walls. The dirt crumbled under her fingers and she lost her grip, slipping back into the green liquid. Her throat burned too much to scream. She tried again, lunging a little harder now that she had an idea of where the edge of the pit was. Her whole body burned at the effort, and the irrational part of her brain noticed with some hysteria that she was naked.
Lovely. Tony wouldn’t let this die easily. She had better prepare for the jokes while she had the time.
Muscles screaming where her throat didn’t have the gumption to thanks to the slime, Darcy was finally able to pull herself out of the pit and roll tiredly on the ground. She laid there for goodness knows how long, her chest heaving with effort and her skin continuing to burn. She rolled onto her stomach, then onto her knees, vomit roiling up and out of her throat, taking the majority of the green substance with it. She coughed, gagged, then coughed again.
Her breath coming in heavy pants, she sat back on her haunches and used her hands to shove as much of the substance off of her body as she could. It sluiced off her in large globs, withering the grass it landed on.
“Gross,” she croaked, her throat aching. She looked around her. “Where am I?”
She was not on Earth. Well, she was. But that’s where it got complicated. It was Earth. Just not…her earth.
This earth didn’t have the Avengers. Heroes, yes, Avengers no.
What was more, this earth had completely different cities. Like, massive different cities. And, as her rotten luck would have it, she was in the one in New Jersey. Goth-ham or something. At least she wasn’t naked in Goth-whatever, though. Aptly named, the city was filled with Gothic style buildings. And the gargoyles. Ugh.
And what was worse? She had no idea how she ended up here. Her last memory was of helping Jane with an equation in the lab. Nothing out of the ordinary, she did that everyday. Except something had obviously happened if she was…well, here.
At least she wasn’t naked anymore. She had the uneasy feeling that if she were, she would have been hauled off by unsavory characters in mere seconds. As it was, she had to use the skills Natasha taught her more than once to ward off unwanted advances. Thank God people just hung their laundry outside for everyone to see. And that it was pitch black when she escaped the death trap of a slime pit. Though now she was thinking maybe it would have been safer to be naked in broad daylight instead. The streets were much much more dangerous at night from what she was seeing. She thanked her lucky stars again that Natasha had taught her a few things on how to handle herself in dangerous situations. She would be toast otherwise.
Even with what Natasha had taught her, some of the goons roaming the streets were well-trained and nastier for it. She’d be shocked if she lasted the night. And even more shocked if her feet didn’t get infected seeing as she still had no shoes. While people may have hung laundry out to dry, shoes were a very different story. Her feet were shredded and Goth-town had some serious sewage and drainage issues. Probably because the rain just kept coming down on her with no sign of letting up.
She felt like throwing up again just thinking about what she was stepping in as she made her way stealthily down the street. But hey, at least she hadn’t been murdered yet. That was a miracle in and of itself, and she’d already choked on some nasty slime early today, so what was walking through some compared to that?
It had been a good several hours of walking aimlessly through the city, looking for shelter, when she finally stumbled upon a place that might actually be of some help to her. Or she thought, anyway.
The GCPD turned out to be of zero help. She tried to explain that she had no idea where she was and that she needed help, but the lady at the desk just rolled her eyes and said, “So does everybody else, lady. Try the shelters.”
Like hell, Darcy thought, outraged. She knew all too well what big city shelters were like thanks to volunteer work with the good ol’ Captain America himself, and she had no desire to find herself in one without at least 250 pounds of beefcake and her taser with her.
“Can I at least have a map of the city?” Darcy countered quickly, scowling at the woman. “Please?”
The woman sighed, dug around her desk, and then slid Darcy a pamphlet. “Now leave.” She sent a judgemental look at Darcy’s feet. “Shoes are required in the building, ma’am. Leave.”
Darcy flashed her an angry glare, her thank-you dying on her lips.
She was moving back towards the entrance when a group of individuals shoved their way into the building. GCPD cops made up most of the crowd, but there were two other individuals. They wore masks on their faces and they had…capes? No, only one had a cape. The other just left his butt uncovered to be ogled by anybody. Huh.
Annnnnnd she had said that out loud, judging by the raised eyebrow she got from the man without the cape. Eh, what did she care?
Darcy quickly sized the two up. One was in all black, with a cowl covering most of his face, at least down to mid-cheek and tip of his nose. And were those…were those ears? What was he? A cat? A demon? Or…she caught the symbol on his chest. Oh. Bat. This must be the Bat she heard whispers of on the street. Well, he couldn’t be too terrible, seeing as all the nasty goons she’s had to deal with so far are terrified the Bat would find them and dole out vengeance. The way they said that word–vengeance–had become a point of humor for Darcy after she dealt with them. She knew a superhero schtick when she saw one. How could she not, with who she worked with?
The other individual’s mask–a darker blue, she noted–only covered their eyes. And, of course, he did not have a cape. He did have a utility belt, same as the Bat, and both were wearing some type of body armor. Kevlar, maybe.
They were vigilantes, then. But more on the side of the law, judging how they seemed to be working with the GCPD. Screw them, then, if they were working with these heartless creatures.
The Bat narrowed his eyes at her, staring at her forehead. Darcy blinked at him. “Uh…can I help you?”
“Your hair,” he said. And wow, that was a gravelly voice. What did this guy do for a living? Scream all day? “Is it bleached?”
“Okay, first off, rude. Should never ask a lady that,” Darcy tutted. “Also, not that I know of. Why?”
He stared harder, and Darcy shook her head. “Whatever. I got to go. Uh, maybe drop something in the complaint box for me about how awful these cops are at welcoming people to the city. I have some serious beef with the lady at the front desk.”
“People need to leave Gotham, not be welcomed to it.” The one in the blue mask spoke up.
Darcy scowled. “Yeah, well, it was the closest city I woke up to. Deal with it.” She turned on her heel.
“Wait–”
“Nope. You’re rude, I’m even madder than I was coming in, and now I’m leaving. Bye.” She flipped them off and kept walking. God, what was wrong with her? Even if she was stressed about this situation, she was normally much nicer to people.
With their eyes on her still, she stomped out of the police headquarters. Which maybe wasn’t the best idea considering her feet hurt like hell.
Batman watched her with narrowed eyes. He knew Nightwing had the same thought in his mind.
She had a streak of white hair at her temple. Right around, coincidentally, the time they were looking into rumors of another Lazarus pit.
The commissioner calling them snapped them out of their thoughts. Scowling, they followed him back for a debrief.