Cracks in The Wall

Chapter Seven

Tim was determined to find answers, and to do that, he couldn't have someone following him around. After diving out of Peter's window, he had changed into civilian clothes that he had compressed in his belt. Yes, Peter knew his face, but dark jeans and a hoodie were far less conspicuous than bright red spandex and a cape.

As he walked down the busy street, Tim began to think. The man hadn't recognized him at all, cowl or no cowl. This was good, but at the same time quite concerning. His identity wasn't compromised, which was a good thing. The problem, however, is that it definitely should have been.

'Maybe that guy was just living under a rock, or just terrible at noticing details and making decisions,' he thought, contorting his face. 'He thought I was struck by lightning, and his first reaction was to bring me into his apartment and leave me on the couch. He never once seemed to think of calling 911. Clearly his thought process is a bit messed up.'

Tim decided that an interaction with just one person, especially one that evidently makes highly illogical decisions, wasn't a good person to base solid conclusions on. He needed more information. Given that he had no transportation, useful resources, local contacts, or long distance forms of communication, the best way he could find information was the old fashioned way. He needed a library. However, due to the previous problems that created this necessity, coupled with his limited knowledge of the area, he still had to figure out how to actually get there. It was times like this he regretted leaving his phone at home in favor of his communicator.

Although talking to people was definitely the wrong way to keep a low profile, this was now his only choice. He looked around, knowing that he would have to choose who he asked carefully. Scanning the street, he noticed that there was a lot of traffic in the area. The roads were backed up from the storm, and it seemed as if they'd been waiting to continue driving for quite some time. One blonde haired man was even laying on top of his car. Tim took notice of this. He was the perfect target. An unsuspecting, and likely very tired, person who wasn't paying attention. He would likely be too out of it to recognize him.

"Excuse me, sir?" Tim asked upon making it to the vehicle.

The blonde haired man stirred, not expecting to interact with anyone.

"Huh? What's happening?" he asked, slowly turning his head toward Tim.

"I apologise for disturbing you, but I'm not from around here, and I was wondering if you knew how to get to the nearest library?"

"Oh, um, yeah. It's about four streets in that direction, on Hillside Avenue," the man said, vaguely pointing in a direction behind Tim, clearly still groggy.

"Ah, thanks. Sorry for bothering you," Tim said, quickly walking off in the direction he was given.

The blonde haired man just did a half wave to him in response, no longer looking in Tim's direction.

After walking for around forty-five minutes, Tim finally found the library. The directions were vague, which didn't help. Especially given that he was pointed in the opposite direction of where he needed to go. He had been walking aimlessly, and a cop eventually caught on and asked if he needed help. Fortunately for Tim, she was much more accurate in giving directions, and she didn't recognize him either, which was a relief.

He walked into the library, the smell of old paper filling his nose. He looked around and finally spotted the computers. Once he sat down, however, he hit a minor snag. You need a library card to use the computers. Fortunately, Tim was the best hacker in the Batfamily, except for Barbara, of course. He hijacked the system in 30 seconds, slowed down only due to the potato of a processor on the PC. There was a risk that he'd get caught, given the public setting, but a library card wasn't really an option. They take your picture for those. Names, ages and emails can be falsified, but having a picture of your face in the system is a bit harder to deal with. Besides, he didn't have time for that whole process anyway. Also, by hacking into the computer, he could access more… well hidden... information if he needed.

First, Tim set up his own firewalls so as to not be tracked, and then he tried to make contact with the batcave. This didn't work, which thoroughly worried him. His communicator was one thing, but if this didn't work either, something was up. This PC worked fine, if not for just being a little slow, and the Batcomputer was never down.

Though this was disconcerting, it wasn't top priority to figure that out right then. Next, he tried searching for bus routes to Gotham from where he was. He had thought of stealing a vehicle, but that wouldn't work for multiple reasons. For one, he'd never get anywhere in that traffic, and there wasn't anywhere isolated enough for him not to be caught, no matter how discreet he was. The only option was a bus or some other form of public transportation, so he picked the first result for long distance bus routes and searched for Gotham.

"What the heck? No. That can't be right," Tim stammered in disbelief. According to the search results, Gotham wasn't a real place. At least, not in the same capacity. There were places holding the same name, but they obviously weren't the same gloomy city.

"Maybe if I pick out the coordinates?" Tim said out loud, desperation lacing his words. He carefully typed the coordinates out, afraid of the result. Much to his horror, the result of his search was a small town called Perth Amboy in New Jersey.

Tim couldn't get any words out after this. His mouth opened, but not a whisper escaped. After about 30 seconds, he composed himself and took stock of what he knew.

'Alright, Gotham doesn't exist. My communicator doesn't work, even though it should, which implies that the frequency it works on doesn't exist either. My brother and sister, as well as one of the most powerful beings in existence are missing. Oh, and given that none of the important places seem to exist, and no one recognized me at all, it certainly seems as if I don't exist either. If that's the case, then it likely means Dick, Cass and Wally don't either,' he thought. "Crap."

This would make tracking the others down next to impossible. He needed help if he was going to make any progress. Tim sighed. There was only one person who's apparently willing to help, and he was reluctant to work with him. For one, he appeared to just be a civilian. For another, he was also super shady. But this was his only option now.

*Sigh* "I hope Mr. Parker is still willing to offer his assistance after all this."

[Hey, thanks for reading. Let me know what you thought.

And if you're someone who's reading this as it's being written, I apologise for the long wait, school starting back up really drained me. But I'm going to do my best to at least get one chapter out per week. And thanks for sticking around to read this. The support is really uplifting.]