Reality Crisis

Selina sat on the hard floor of the hut that she shared with Jonathan, with her back pressed against one of the even harder walls. Her legs were drawn up to her chest, knees pressing into her own frame with a comic book propped against the joints. The other books lay sprawled around where she sat in a semi-circle, all open to various pages of herself. Action poses, heists, banter with other villains and a few panels dedicated to her and Batman.

She didn't quite understand. None of it could be true and yet all of it was true. She was staring down at her life inked into these pages, these fictional works and though she hadnt yet lived most of these scenes Selina couldn't help but feel very small.

She sighed, lifting a palm to settle over her eyes for a moment. Her head ached from all of the images, the knowledge she was now aware of. She hadnt grabbed all of the comics, and she had a feeling that there might not actually be a definitive number. There may be endless amounts of these books with her in them, with Jonathan in them....with Bruce in them. It was too hard.

Selina struggled for a moment. Floundered in her existence.

With a sigh, Selina rubbed her eyelids with her fingertips and let the comic tumble to the floor in front of her as she shifted her legs. She stretched her limbs over the comics, settling the limbs over the books themselves, trying to think.

What would Jonathan make of this? Bruce? Dinah? She wasn't sure if it was exactly safe to disclose this to anyone. Jonathan she could trust, but the others....? It was best to keep it on the ground for now.

Opening her eyes slowly, Selina lowered her hand and glanced around at the comics spread out on the floor. She couldn't help but feel very small. Very put of her element and she had no idea what to do next.

How to cope.

It felt like crashing, which was not unexpected. Talia had already closed her eyes, ready -- content, even, knowing that her death was just a few minutes earlier than the rest of Gotham's. But when the din abruptly faded, she opened her eyes and found herself in the center of a wilderness. This was not Gotham.

Standing from the ground, she narrowed her eyes and scanned. There was nothing to see but trees. When she'd climbed as high as she could, she marked a distant city wall in one direction and a strange twisting of trees in the other. She was closer to the trees. It became her new direction.

Selina had made it back to the Sanctuary safely a few days ago, after leaving Sam and die Festung behind her. She had been exposed to many things, new places, people and information. It was almost more than she could readily process with her mind. She had to sort through what was fact and what was fiction. How did she know that Sam wasn't just making things up? Well, he didn't seem to be lying to her. But that didn't mean he wasn't good at hiding the truth. She wrestled with the things Dinah, Belia and Sam had told her, and of course with the discovery of a new city and the fact that there were books about her life.

Over the course of the few days, since her arrival back at the hut she share with Jonathan and the present moment, Selina had been getting very little sleep. Her mind worked over the facts relentlessly and it wouldn't let up. Thus she slept very little. She was concerned about the other city and why the others were here in this one. Apparently there was protection here. She had yet to meet the one responsible for creating this small colony but perhaps she should make the effort. She wondered of he would cast her out like Belia did at the mere mention of starting a new colony. Perhaps Selina had been a bit forward with the information, but she didn't like to waste precious time. Especially when it seemed they didn't have a lot of it to begin with.

She lay on her cot, curled up in a fetal position, staring blankly out at the room. Her mind raced and she was exhausted, but she knew she wouldn't sleep. This world had changed so much since she'd ventured out of the sanctuary, and she wasn't sure what exactly to make of it. She did know that she had stability here. She didn't believe Jonathan would abandon her, and she knew she could count on him to be there just in case anything happened.

The night was warm, and inviting. And just when Selina closed her eyes to try to make herself sleep the ground itself began to shake violently. Her eyes opened and widened, and before she could get up to see what was going in she was literally thrown out of her cot and onto the floor.

Earthquake.

Selina had been resting inside of the small home she was sharing with Jonathan. Her mind was still racing with the things she had seen of this world so far. It was so different from Gotham and she almost couldn't comprehend the fact that she was no longer in the city she knew so well. Every back alley. Every store. Every heist.....all of it was dust in the wind at this point. Nothing that she had stolen mattered anymore and it was sort of discouraging. It wasn't like there was anything of importance here that she could steal. Did this place have anything of value in it? Was there such a thing left? She hadn't explored much of the land outside of where she was staying mostly due to the fact that she had no idea what lay in wait out there for her. Gotham was predictable. This vast forest full of monsters wasn't.

She closed her eyes for only a moment. Just long enough for a second to pass in a normal moment. But this time they didn't open. Not right away.

There was darkness. Then light.

And pain. Lots of pain.

When her eyes opened Selina grimaced, lips pulled back from her teeth as she rested back against a chair. Her shoulders, arms and clavicle were bare. A cloth rested over her chest and there was a fire burning on one of her shoulders. It wasn't anything she had ever experienced before. Had she been injured? What happened?

Slowly, Selina tilted her head to look down at the wound. It was ugly. It gaped and spewed blood which cascaded down her arm and soaked the sheet that covered her. Selina groaned as her stomach turned once the copper smell hit her nose. Gathering herself, Selina regained her composure and allowed her tongue to slip over her lips which were dry. Too dry.

"Jonathan?" Selina whispered, unsure of where she was or what had happend to her. She needed a doctor. She hoped he was there. He was the only one that could help her.

She scaled the rooftop of Falcone's large manor, where an elegant party seemed to be taking place, which was the perfect distraction. That meant that "The Roman"'s thugs would be busy checking in the guests and keeping the party in order. Slowly, she climbed over the shingled plateau of roof, before lifting her hands up, curling her leather-clad fingers around the lip of the balcony above her, pushing herself upwards using the toes of her boots for leverage, sliding over the railing with ease. She had done this same act so many times it was second-nature to her, and she blended in so well with the shadows that she was sure nobody would see her. That was, save for the Bat whom watched her from afar, using his own design of binoculars. Batman was attending this party as well, though not as an invited guest, but to infiltrate the gang of thugs before they could do anymore damage to the inner workings of Gotham. Bruce had had enough of Falcone getting off in court, or having his thugs take the fall for his actions. It was about time he caught The Roman in the act and finally brought him down.

The corners of her red lips ascended upwards into a smirk as she set her feet down on the ledge, pushing from the rail itself to move silently up to the set of doors that seperated her from the inside of the house, making sure to walk on her toes so that her heels wouldn't give away her position. She waited outside of the large doors, listening for a moment, before hearing nothing on the other side. Purrfect. With her hand, she settled her fingers on the long golden knob of the door, pushing down gently against the lever, the door sliding open without hesitation. She breathed out softly, sliding in through the slit that had appeared between the doors, drowning herself in the darkness.

Once she was inside, she crept across the room after closing the door silently behind herself, avoiding the obstacles that had been tossed about the room in a fashion that meant the current resident was more than just a bit of a slob. They were an outright pig. She made a face to herself upon seeing the condition of the room, but didn't let that slow her down as she made her way across the room safely, to the door opposite the ones that lead to the balcony, opening the door that lead to the hallway slowly. She peered through the crack, eyes alert for movement, seeing none. With that, she swung the door open and moved out into the hallway, able to hear the festivities taking place in the ballroom connected to the manor. If there was one thing The Roman was not, it was frugal. She liked a man that went all out with things, especially when they were as much of a moron as Falcone was.

She made her way down the hallway, alert and listening, before finding herself surrounded by thugs, which only made her smile. "Be gentle boys." She breathed, before there was a loud crash from one of the windows in the long hallway, which earned the attention of all of the thugs, and the leather clad kitty, it being none other than the bat. Selina sighed, and began to fight the thugs, with Batman's help, before the Bat pulled a gas bomb from his utility belt, setting it off in the room. Grateful for the quick escape, even though Batman had blown her cover, Selina manuvered through the hallway, through the window that Batman had come through, allowing him to assist her, until they were on the roof of the building once again. "You always spoil the good part." She said with a pout, earning a hard look from the Bat which amused her.

Together, she and Bruce leapt from the roof, each parting to their seperate vehicles, fleeing the scene for now. Selina had the information Bruce wanted, and why she had been there in the first place, he wasn't sure, but he was going to find out. They raced back to Gotham, entering the city limits, Selina pulling her motorcycle into the alley, leaving it to scale the side of a building with her claws. Falcone was sure to come after them both once his thugs relayed the message that both of the masked nightcrawlers had tried to crash his party.

She scaled the building with ease, and ran across the roof, leaping onto the next building below the one she had been on previous, anxious to be rid of the man she knew was chasing her. He would want answers, one she wasn't quite willing to give just then.

It was at that point Selina leapt from another building, intending on landing on the dark street of Gotham, finding herself diving instead into a large drift of snow. She made a face, landing hard in the drift, a soft sound of pain and surprise escaping her lips as she rolled through the white blanket, coming to an abrupt halt as she crashed shoulder first into the base of a very green tree, one that seemed untouched by the blanket of white. She made a face, closing her eyes for a moment as she rested there, trying to figure out where all of this snow had come from. Gotham had earned a warm climate and was peaking at a record for the most intolerable days and nights, this was someplace else entirely. It had to be. She could feel the snow against her face, but not anywhere else, considering her suit was designed to prevent extreme temperatures from harming her, fire included. "What is this?" She breathed, finally opening up her eyes, which were hazy for a moment before they cleared. She stared up at the sky, and the leaves, trying to let all of this set in. This wasn't Gotham. Where was this? How did she get here?

She would find out in time, but for now, it was time to find someone that could give her the answers she needed, which meant getting up.

Jonathan looked up as he landed, hard against the ground, groaning as he reached up to pull his mask over his head. He glanced around at the huts before him before cursing violently, laying back against the ground. Willing himself back to Gotham and not stuck in his hell again.

He finally sat up, stuffing the burlap into his pocket and switching his contacts for glasses before pushing off the ground and heading of to explore the place he had landed in, since this didn't look like the last village he had.

He hoped that he ran into someone like Beauty again...or someone with food. Food was good, Food got the person on his 'never kill' list.

A band of ragged men and women escorted her from New Troy to the gates of die Festung. The journey had not been without incident -- but to the ones who took her, they seemed wholly unaffected by the battles. It was, as one of the weary men told her, "just the way it is."

She'd wrapped her feet with strips of her skirt before heading out. The sandals she wore weren't designed for long hikes through uneven wooded areas, but they were all she had. The wrapping had helped, but her feet were still sore and aching by the time she said goodbye to her escorts.

Looking worse the wear from the trip, she pushed her hair out of her eyes and headed into die Festung proper. Eric had been right; the place was even worse than his city. She hadn't thought it was possible.

Jonathan kicked out at his opponent, yelping slightly as his ankle was grabbed, growing his body backwards with the thrust from his opponent, forcing his body to flip, wincing as his wrist twisted, taking his weight painfully before he landed on his feet.

He crouched down, sweeping his leg to knock the man off of his feet, throwing himself out of the way as the man countered by trying to stomp on his leg and break it. He rolled to his feet, punching out with his left hand while blocking the sickle that was aiming for his neck with his right hand, hissing in pain as the blade bit into his skin, leaving a long cut. “Cheater, you said no weapons,”

“I said no weapons for you, not for me,” Thomas said, smirking at his boss.

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