The New World, No More Batman?

Bruce sat in the kitchen of the shelter. Mrs. Humner, the director, gave him clothes and fed him lunch. She showed him where he would stay that night.

Three boys stayed normally, but they weren't here currently. This was all temporary, she informed him that since he was an orphan they would need to get him to an orphanage or foster care. 

At this point, Bruce didn't care, he was going to call Dick and have him pick him up as soon as possible. He asked to use a phone and Mrs. Humner let him use hers. 

He dialed Dick's number, but the number didn't work, neither did any of the Gotham numbers he had. 

"Excuse me Mrs. Humner, are there some problems with Gotham?" He asked.

"Gotham? What's that?" She asked.

"You know Gotham, the city that's across the bay," Bruce responded.

"What are you talking about child, there's no such thing as Gotham, you have the five boroughs, New Jersey there's Lower New York Bay but there ain't anything called Gotham. I think those muggers cracked your noggin'. I'll take you to see a doctor tomorrow," Mrs. Humner said. 

"No Gotham? That can't be. New York and Gotham are across the Bay from one another." Maybe he should call Lois in Metropolis, he was avoiding her because of what happened to Clark.

He began dialing Lois' number but didn't get through. The Metropolis area code didn't work no matter who he tried to call. 

He used the phone's search engine to find a map of the United States and realized that Gotham, Metropolis, Central, and Keystone City, none of them existed. It was at that moment that he realized he wasn't in his world. 

He punched into the search engine the word superheroes and a slew of photos, news articles, blogs, and media showed that there were superheroes in this world but none that he had ever heard of. 

"What is this world?" he wondered aloud. 

"What indeed, honey, Bruce, I need my phone," Mrs. Humner stuck out her hand to receive the phone. Bruce passed it to her and went to his room. 

All three of his roommates were there now and when they saw Bruce come in they looked at him wondering who he was.

"I'm staying here for tonight," Bruce informed them. 

"Oh," one of them said. None of them introduced themselves, this kid was just here for the night. No need to get to know him. 

At a loss, Bruce climbed onto his bed and closed his eyes. His utility belt was wrapped around him twice. If anyone tried to take it, he would know. 

Bruce was woken up by one of the boys who told him dinner was ready. He ate dinner with everyone in the dining hall. There were kids of varying ages.

After dinner, Bruce climbed into bed. This time, instead of resting he was thinking. 

"If I'm in another world, should I try to find my way back?" For the first time in his life, Bruce Wayne was relieved by the idea that he didn't need to be Batman anymore.

To get back to his world, how could he find it? What was there for him? Selina and the Batfamily, but he was so tired.

He was in a new world, as a child. Could he let himself have a childhood? The obvious problem with having a childhood was that his mind was that of an adult. He couldn't imagine trying to pretend to be a kid. 

"A normal childhood is out and I don't need an adult to take care of me. I should find a way to get some money and survive on my own. I'll need to get out of here first. I should leave before they put me in the system tomorrow. 

I'll wait until the kids are asleep and then I'll go. I'll need some money...that shouldn't be a problem."

Lights out was 9 pm for the shelter. There were a few kids who were awake, but his roommates were about his age, which was somewhere between 9 and 11 years old. The boys fell asleep almost immediately after the lights went out. 

Bruce took this time to sneak out of his room and found a laptop downstairs. He brought it to his room and spent over an hour doing some research. He hacked a bank created an account and wrote a program that allowed him to transfer money from a few overseas accounts into his account.

He only took $100k from those accounts. The program would lead anyone who wanted to find him on a wild goose chase throughout the world. It would keep criminals and law enforcement busy for weeks. 

By the time they traced the fake account he created, Bruce would already have a legitimate account with enough funds to do what he needed. 

He returned the laptop to its spot downstairs after changing its IP and erasing his foot print from the computer. Even if they took the hard drive they wouldn't find what he did. Cyborg was a great resource, Batman learned a lot of tricks from him. What was thought of as impossible, Batman easily accomplished thanks to Stone's expert teaching.

Bruce took some extra clothes and food and placed all of it in the backpack Mrs. Humner gave him earlier. When it was nearly 11 pm, Bruce snuck out the window in his room and left the shelter.