Chapter Text
Gwen’s fingers burned when they touched the cool air, tearing through something that felt like cotton. Was that webbing? Just a little farther. She gasped and hacked when her face finally emerged from the shallow grave she’d dug herself out of. Dirt clung in her throat, in her eyes. It was everywhere. The buzzing feeling of a million insects crawling over her skin.
She dragged herself further from the grave, the cold bit through her dirt covered clothes moist from recent rain probably. Why was she in a grave, what the fuck happened? The lack of oxygen made everything ache. She hadn’t felt this weak since she’d needed to inject herself in a desperate attempt to keep her powers. Retching, she finally dragged herself to her knees, the taste of bile wasn’t much better than dirt. The world sounded muted, she’d be willing to bet there was dirt in her ears too. What happened? Last thing she remembered was using the cosmic cube-
The vibration of heavy footsteps trembled under her fingertips and she wheezed, heart kicking up the tempo. She was almost relieved to feel it working overtime. Wiping her hands on wet grass she used slightly cleaner hands to wipe dirt from her eyes.
Hide, hide, hide. Something in her chanted. Feeling very much like her spider-sense, but… more somehow.
She scrambled up the nearest tree hands sticking to bark as easy as she remembered sticking to buildings. She crouched sideways, bark digging into her hands. She focused on putting layers of foliage between her and the incoming behemoth. And he was just as big as she suspected. He had to be twice Gwen’s size, probably around seven feet tall, Three sets of arms and two sets of eyes. Hair covered his body, two chelicerae by his chin smoothed the hair fur? on his chin.
The man knelt by the disturbed earth where Gwen had emerged, fingers digging into the hole and pulling up what looked like a medical bracelet. A strange clicking noise filled the air, cutting through whatever it was that was dulling her hearing like a razor. She felt warm liquid dribble from her ears and hoped to god it was somehow only water.
“Goliath.” A hooded man in green and yellow emerged from the gloom. “Ahhh. One of them survived?”
“Spiderling.” Goliath rumbled, standing straight passing the bracelet to the newcomer. The sound of waves lapping at the shore filled the following silence.
“Interesting.” Gwen couldn’t see his face, but she could hear his grin. “Independent little tyke.”
Goliath let out another round of the clicking noise, Gwen felt pulled to… do something. Move. or maybe respond? Her spider sense was screaming against the urge. Danger danger hide run hide.
She trusted that screaming over any physical reaction she may have to the noise. These two hardly looked like the good samaritan type, and by the way they were talking she wouldn’t be surprised to find other bodies buried here. She also didn’t really feel like seeing how well she fought after digging herself out of a shallow grave. Her throat burned, lungs begging for her to cough, she felt fear grip her and clapped a hand over her mouth just in case. Just in case this was some sort of response to the earlier urge, just in case she couldn’t resist the impulse.
“We’ll find her. She can’t have gotten very far.” The newcomer reassured the larger man. “Come. We should inform Wanderer of this new development.”
Gwen waited for the sound of their steps to fade, for their heartbeats to meld with the sounds of the world. And then she waited even longer, the lingering sense of danger reinforcing her caution. She landed a little unsteadily on the soft wet ground, giving in to the irritation in her throat to wheeze around some more dirt, hacking to try and dislodge it.
She took a better look around, she was practically under a bridge. It extended out over a massive channel, though she didn’t recognize it. She twisted around. She didn’t recognize the skyline. This wasn’t New York.
She wasn’t in her suit. A pair of muddy jeans and a Sodden sweatshirt. She patted her pockets, to find no phone, no wallet, no loose change. Of course. She was in for a long walk to… well somewhere. Perhaps a teen shelter if she could find one. She shivered at the thought of having to cohabitate with adults in an unfamiliar city.
She trudged towards the sound of cars, feet squelching unpleasantly in her sneakers. She turned towards the city once she reached the road and caught sight of a large sign, illuminated intermittently by the headlights of passing cars.
Welcome to Gotham City
Gwen had never heard of Gotham City before. And everywhere she looked there were discrepancies. Like the tech, It was all chunky and outdated. Billboards advertised products she’d never heard of, and the newspaper headlines?
GOTHAM GAZETTE
BATMAN JAILS JOKER BUT FOR HOW LONG?
She had a sinking feeling that she was more displaced than she originally thought. The paper date also made her pause. November… She could have sworn in was April…. She tried to contain the twist of panic. She didn’t have a watch on her wrist and she doubted it could be in the grave she’d just crawled out of. The upside was she hadn’t glitched once.
It took a bit of doing to find a teen shelter in Gotham without a phone. The citizens of Gotham seemed especially judgmental, distrustful if not outright hostile. Her spider-sense had started buzzing constantly, warning her off of approaching certain people. She found someone who didn’t set it off and looked less judgemental than everyone else she’d made eye contact with so far and asked if they could point her towards the nearest shelter. Unsurprisingly the nearest one to where she’d unearthed herself was in a section of the city called Crime Alley. Because of course this place had a crazy neighborhood just for crime…The stranger gave vague directions, and she ended up relying more on following the instinctive nudging of her spider sense.
It was a run down building, much like the buildings surrounding it. A faded but still colorful mural splashed over the outside of the building and Gwen really wished she could take more time to admire the artwork, but the temperature had dropped lower the further into the city she’d gone and she was starting to feel drowsy… Not good, in in in.
“Hello there.” The woman at the desk greeted, vowels drawn out in the way people did when they were surprised but trying not to show it. She stood, taking in Gwen’s state. Gwen tried to clench her jaw against her chattering teeth. “Oh sweety.” She allowed her concern to show properly. “Come in, come in, let's get you settled shall we?”
Gwen nodded, shuffling further into the shelter. Her spider sense was crooning at the warmth in the building. “What’s your name?” The woman asked from where she had disappeared into a closet of some sort.
“G-Gwen.”
“It’s nice to meet you Gwen, I’m Sue.” She came out of the closet with a basket cradled in her arms. She smiled, pressing it into Gwen’s arms before going back into the closet with a hum, “I’m guessing small or medium?”
“M-edium’ssss f-ine.” Gwen replied. Her shivering was slowing. Sue asked a few more questions before emerging with a small pile of clothes for her.
She was guided to the showers and directed to find Sue after she had finished. “Take your time.” Sue insisted. “When you're done I’ll be at the front and I can set you up with a bunk.”
Gwen entered the bathroom, locking the door behind her with a quiet sigh. She put her basket and clothes on the sink counter and froze when her eyes met her reflection.
She was the same height, her face structure looked the same, just thinner, so much thinner. Her hair though, her hair was black. Naturally black. She vowed to bleach and dye it as soon as she could. She dug around in her basket for a tooth brush and toothpaste. Brushing three times just to clear out the worst of the dirt. And rinsing at least four with mouthwash finally made her mouth feel normal. Gwen almost hurled herself into the shower to scrub the dirt from her body, anything but staring at a person she barely recognized.
Sue gave her some simple underwear, sweats with REDHOOD printed down the side of one leg, and a slightly too big shirt that had a logo for a place called Batburger printed on the front. Are the burgers regular and just bat themed or were they made of bats? Another thing for her to look up, she supposed.
She stuffed her feet into some thin house slippers and gathered her things in a mesh bag to eventually wash, taking another long look at herself in the mirror. If she really had hopped into another dimension then the body she woke up in would explain the lack of glitching.
Now the question is how she had managed to mess that up so badly. She’d been mid rewrite when… something… something had distracted her or interrupted her? Whatever it had been, it had been enough for her to lose control of the cosmic cube’s power.
She stepped out into the empty hallway, adjusting her hold on the basket and bag. She’d caught sight of a computer lab on their way to the bathroom and supposed it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make a pit stop before checking back in with Sue.
She grimaced at the clunky looking machines. But they fired up and didn’t make dial up noises so she’d count the wins where she could. A quick search confirmed what she’d already suspected. She’d somehow managed to land herself in an alternate universe. In an alternate version of herself that had met an unfortunate end. She bit her lip, someone had to be looking for her right? None of the heroes she knew existed here. None of the typical scientific or tech companies either.
Without ID she’d have to go searching for herself using missing persons databases. It was shaping up to be a long sleepless night.