Reality Shifted

Ch 1

“I give you the Daring Dangers!” An old man announced as he gestured to the traipse up above. The light shifted to a raven-haired, blue-eyed teen in a white and red costume, mask covering his face. The announcer continued his introduction of the Daring Dangers.

“Dan Danger! Dawn Danger! Dane Danger! Dean Danger! And Diane Danger!” The crowd cheered as Dan and Dawn flipped through the air, Dane and Diane shot three arrows at a time, and Dean threw two barrels while Dan and Dawn passed through them.

As the two acrobats were preparing for their next trick, but Dan missed the grab and was now falling towards the ground where there was no net to break his fall. Dawn’s eyes widened as she watched her ‘brother’ fall. “Robin!” She yelled in her mind.

As Robin fell, he suddenly froze. In fact, nothing was moving, except for a rotating circle that indicated that there was a problem. “Agh! Come on not now.” Came the frustrated groan of a young Korean girl, as she tapped the space bar on her laptop.
She sighed as she closed her laptop, keeping the tab she was on up, before placing it on her desk that was right next to her bed. Grabbing her phone, she looked at the time. 12:36. She plugged her phone up to its charger and placed that on her desk as well.

“Oh, well. I guess I can finish that episode of Young Justice tomorrow.” she muttered, before curling up in her warm blankets and drifting off to sleep. The light of the moon that was coming through her window illuminated her face.

♡~♡

The next morning Leah woke up to her phone ringing. But who would be calling her at this time in the morning on a Saturday? When the ringing didn’t stop, she pulled her arm out from under the covers and flopped her hand onto her phone.

Bringing the device to her face, she cracked open her eyes only to shut them tight as the light blinded her momentarily. Opening her eyes again she looked at the ID. Steph Rogers. Her best friend. Then her dark brown eyes drifted to the time on the screen. 6:18.

Groaning she answered the phone. “Stefanie, ireogien neomu irda.” (Steph, it’s too early for this.) She knew her friend had no idea what she said, because she spoke it in Korean, but she didn’t care. It was her fault for waking her up so early.

“Okay, I have no idea what you just said. But that doesn’t matter because I have a question for you.” Leah sat up and yawned. Her dark hair fell off her shoulders and bits of it fell into her eyes. “And this couldn’t wait till we meet up this afternoon?” She asked, as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and heard Steph giggle from the other end. “No, it couldn’t. Did you see what happened with Superman in Metropolis?”

Leah blinked as confusion was written on her face. “What do you mean? Did they come out with a new episode for Young Justice that I didn’t know about? Or are you just pulling my leg?” Steph scoffed. “Ah, Lee what is Young Justice? Are you making stuff up? Look if you haven’t seen it turn on the news and see for yourself. But I got to go I’ll see you later today, bye Lee!”

Before Leah could say anything, else Steph hang up. Leah pulled her phone from her ear and stared at it. She looked around her room before grabbing her laptop. Something was definitely not right. But what? Leah had this feeling that she couldn’t quite place. Before she opened her laptop her eye caught sight of her alarm clock that was flashing. The time read 12:00am. ‘Huh, guess the power went out last night.’ She thought before opening the device.

Apon opening the device she noticed that the page she left up last night now said error and every time she refreshed the page it kept saying the same thing.
“Okay, that’s weird.” Leah muttered to herself before opening a new tab and looking at the news. She looked at the latest story which was on how Superman defeated a giant robot that morning around 4:00.

Leah’s eyes widened. This had to be a prank, right? Superman, much less Metropolis, wasn’t real. She felt her chest tighten. “Okay. It’s okay Lee. This is just a prank, there is no need to start panicking over a silly little prank.” But the tightness in her chest didn’t go away. She knew, deep down, that if this was a prank then they would have announced it.

Right?

Glancing at the poster in her room of Batman, she took a calming breath. “Okay, let’s see what I can find. Like I said this is most likely a prank.” As she scrolled down the News website, the worse the tightness in her chest got.

This wasn’t a prank, The further she scrolled proved that. She closed her laptop, rather harshly, and put it on her bed. She got off her bed and started to pace the room with a worried look. “What is going on! Heroes are real. But their fiction! Or at least supposed to be.” She stopped in the middle of the room and looked at the time. Grabbing her phone she sent a text to Steph. Her hands shaking.

Lee: Hey, are we still meeting up today?

It took about 2 minutes before Steph replied.

Steph: Of course!

Leah’s hands dropped to her sides, as she let out a shaky breath. She put her phone on her dresser and got changed. She put on a plain lavender purple T-shirt, blue jean pants that stopped just above her ankles, and white socks. She will grab her black converse from downstairs. After making sure her hair was brushed, she left her room and walked down the stairs. Entering the kitchen, she started looking for her mom. “Oma?” (Mom?) Not getting an answer she passed by the fridge and saw a note.

Sorry sweety, but I got called into work early this morning. Have a great day with Steph and remember I won’t be home till late tonight.
Love, Mom

Leah sighed, both out of relief and slight panic because her mom was also her in this crazy world. She grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and left, locking the door behind her. If she thought this morning was bad, she would be wrong. As soon as she stepped outside, her panic came back full force. Across the street she saw a sign that said Gotham city Northside Elementary. A sign that used to say New Jersey Elementary.

“This, this isn’t happening. This. I’m… I’m in Gotham!” Breath coming in shaky, she pressed her back to the door and slid down with a defeated look and panicked eyes. Nothing was the same anymore. Heroes existed, she was no longer in New Jersey anymore, now she lived in Gotham, and she was the only one so far that remembers that this should all be fiction.

She was alone. She hated being alone.
Getting up she started walking down the road, that was once familiar, but now it was like she was walking with or next to a stranger. ‘Maybe. Maybe, I’ll see something familiar.’ She thought, with a little hope. But after walking for about an hour there wasn’t any progress. It was now 7:56 and Leah wanted to scream and yell and cry. All of this was starting to become too much. Her thoughts were all jumbled and her brain felt like mush.

As she was lost in thought and trying not to panic, she didn’t notice there was someone in front of her and bumped into them. Causing her to fall on her ass and the person to stumble. “Sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going.” She apologized and stood up, as she rubbed the now sore spot on her bum. Finally looking up she saw none other than Bruce Wayne, Richard Grayson, and their butler Alfred Pennyworth.

Bruce was fixing his shirt when he looked at Leah with a kind smile. “It’s okay. Just be careful next time.” Leah was trying so hard not to panic, but seeing Bruce and Richard and Alfred, plus everything from this morning set it over the top. And her breathing picked up. Her eyes widened, her pupils dilated, as she clenched her chest, her heart beat wildly, and her breaths came out in rapid gasps.

“Igeon neomuhada. Neomu manhi. Sumeul swil su eopsda.” (This is too much. Too much. Can’t breathe.) Was the only thing she could choke out in her panic. Picking up on her panic Dick took a step forward to help calm her down, only for her to take a step back. “Hey, it’s okay. We’re not going to hurt you.” Leah’s eyes darted around, she needed to get away from them. She ran past the three men standing in front of her, jumped onto the car and front flipped onto the other side of the street and took off running. Looks like all those gymnastics lessons are paying off.

As she ran, she kept bumping into people and muttering an apology every time. Making a quick left she found herself in an alley and once she was sure that she wasn’t being followed, she pressed her back to the wall and slid down bringing her knees to her chest.
Tears pricked her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She had to stay calm if she wanted to get through this, but it was useless as the tears slowly rolled down her face in a silent sob. ‘I want to go home. I want to feel safe. I don’t feel safe here’ She thought, as she hugged her knees closer to her chest. “I want Appa.” The sentence was muttered and quiet.

She didn’t know how long she sat there till her phone started to ring. Grabbing her phone, she answered it and brought it up to her ear. “Hello?” Her voice cracked.

“Hey, L! I was- are you okay?” Leah whipped her tears and cleared her throat before answering. “Oh, um, yeah. Anyway, what’s up?” Getting up Leah made her way out of the alley and down the street. Using her arm, that wasn’t holding her phone, she hugged herself. “I was wondering where we were going to meet up?” Leah stopped and looked around, soon dark brown eyes landed on a park and a smile pulled at her lips for the first time since that morning. “How about Gotham Park?”

“That sounds like a great idea! I’ll see you in a few minutes.” The call ended and Leah walked into the park. Finding a bench, she took a seat and watched as kids played with each other without a care in the world.

Her smile soon faded as she remembered what world she now lived in. One with dark and light, good and bad, one not with just petty thieves, and thugs. But one with super villains and superheroes. Living in this world will definitely leave its scars.

As she sat there her eyes drifted to the sky, the sun was hiding behind the clouds. Since she was by herself again the thoughts from earlier creeped in. Soon she was saved from those spiraling thoughts by a familiar voice.