The dimension hopper

A/N: damn I was gone for a while. Sorry about that, I just had a rly bad block and was behind, so enjoy this 3k chapter! (Also I removed Maayan from the plot to those who remember her from c2)

~~~Alex POV~~~
When I woke back up after the possession incident, I was back in my bed. I checked if I was still possessed by trying to move my head to the left. Thank every god I don't believe in, I was no longer possessed. Everything still hurt though.
I was in the same room I shared with Liel a few hours ago. The latter was sleeping on the bed next to me. Judging by the view from the open window, it was around midnight. I tilted my head a bit and saw we were alone, but in the corner of the room there was a little red light that I assumed was a security camera.
I buried my face in my pillow again. I really couldn't bring myself to wake Liel up or look for the pills Zatanna made for us. My throat felt like I just drank a bottle of bleach, and I feared my leg would never recover from how much that demon walked on it.
I tried to ignore everything I felt and fell asleep.
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When I woke up again, I heard knocking on the door.
"Madam Alex? Madam Liel?" The person, who I assumed was Alfred, called while knocking.
I didn't have the energy to stand up to open the door, nor to tell him to come in.
I lifted my head to see Liel still snoring on the bed next to me. So I picked up my pillow and threw it at her face.
"OW what the fu-!" she murmured, then noticed the knocking. "Come in!"
The door opened and Alfred walked in, holding a tray with food. "Top of the morning to you, girls. I have your breakfast ready."
Liel and I sat up as she murmured "thanks" and I gave him a thumbs up. He put the tray on the table between our beds. Pancakes and orange juice for Liel, yogurt and tea for me. Looks great.
"Do make sure you rest today," Alfred said. "Lord knows you need it after yesterday's... action."
We both nodded and Alfred left the room. I took a few bites, but I wasn't all that hungry. So I picked up my notebook and wrote a note for Liel.
"What do you want?" Liel asked groggily after I threw the note at her. She read it for a moment. "Oh fuck no. Not happening. I refuse. Stop time to recover? That's the worst idea you ever had! You can't- this won't stop you will it?"
I shook my head and she sighed. "Fine..."
I took a deep breath, and when I opened my eyes, they were glowing. Liel fell on her bed dramatically. "This will be torture."
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~~~Cass's POV~~~
Cass was just getting her morning cup of coffee when she heard screaming upstairs.
"I AM GOING TO FUCKING MURDER YOU!" Liel screamed, making Cass hurry to their room.
When she flung the door open, she immediately saw something was... not quite right.
Alex was sitting on her bed, rolling her eyes as Liel was shaking her aggressively. But Cass could see the difference in both of them.
Alex's hair was longer, the scars on her neck seemed older (when did they remove the bandages on them?), and the blackness on her fingers, that just a few hours beforehand was only on the tips of her fingers, covered them almost entirely.
Liel's hair was somehow shorter, she just a bit taller, and the bandages on her half-arm were changed.
When she entered the room, Liel stopped yelling at Alex and turned to her with a smile. "Hey Cass, long time no see."
Cass raised an eyebrow. "We talked yesterday."
That statement made Liel cringe. Alex smirked and stood up. Cass added how she was standing on her broken leg normally to the suspicious list. "Liel?" She said and the girl rolled her eyes and came forward.
"You might want to update everyone, but that bitch-" she hit Alex in the side. "Decided that the best thing to do after being possessed is stop time for four motherfucking months, but like 5 minutes ago for us she figured out she could just speed up time. Do you know how boring those four month are?! I know I can do shit I never would've tried if I had my phone, and we're both fully physically healed now!"
Cass didn't know how to respond to that, but luckily Alex stepped forward. She gestured to her broken leg. "Can you...?"
Cass perked up and nodded. She signaled them to follow her and started walking out of the room. They were all going to talk to Bruce because she thought his expression would be funny when she'll tell him what happened. Now where is he?
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~~~Bruce's POV~~~
Bruce was trying to cut the cast off of Alex's leg, but of course his gaggle of children had to come and be a bother, as usual.
Tim leaned forward. "Aren't you supposed to have regular check ups when you break a bone?"
"I'm still mad that they skipped the whole training arc. So unfair!" Steph said from the Batcomputer she was sitting on.
"Shut up," Liel said. "I spent 4 months in frozen time."
Dick jumped down from the gymnastic rings he was swinging on. "I agree with Liel, they did train after all."
"Of course you would." Jason shoved Dick.
"Can we circle back to the fact they didn't have check ups for four months?" Tim chimed in again.
"Tt- you don't need that, Drake." Damian scoffed and Cass nodded.
"Okay but are they 14 now because they spent time frozen in time or are they still 13?" Jason thought out loud.
"Nah." Alex decided after a second. "Too weird."
Bruce finished with Alex's cast and stood up holding it. "The leg is fine. And Liel, you can remove your bandages, your hand should fine as well."
Alex stood up and Liel cheered. A notification came on at the Batcomputer and Steph jump down to see what it is.
"Yo, Batman, you have a JL meeting in an hour." She called over her shoulder. "Something with Constantine and- oh Zatanna! Can I join?"
Bruce sighed. "No."
Steph rolled her eyes at him.
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Batman stepped out of the zeta tube in the watchtower. He grunted to Wonder Woman's 'hello, Batman' and Superman's 'hey B!' And sat down at his chair in the meeting room.
After a few minutes the room was filled with people. Zatanna and Constantine stood up and the room became quiet.
"We believe that there's a new magical villain." Zatanna said. Batman noted how tired and disheveled the both of them looked.
"What makes you think that?" Superman asked, his head tilted to the side like a puppy.
"We were both stuck in time for four months." Constantine said while lighting a cigarette. "So we should-"
"There's no need for that." Batman chided.
Constantine let out a long sigh. "What, did you already find the villain?"
"No. There is no villain." Batman continued after he saw everyone's faces. "I personally know who stopped time."
Hal Jordan scoffed. "Sure you do, spooky."
Batman glared at him until he took his feet off the table and sat up straight.
"Can you bring them here so they could plea their case?" Wonder Woman asked.
Batman thought for a moment before nodding. "I'll get them here tomorrow."
They spent another 30 minutes deciding who will be there, what to do, questions to ask, etc etc.
after all that was done, Batman headed straight for the zeta tubes. He had two pre-teens to talk to.
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~~~Alex's POV~~~
I was sitting in mine's and Liel's room with Liel, trying to find good pictures of our friends to send to Barbara.
"Okay, so we got Daniel, Zoe, and Lior, so now we only need April." Liel said.
I nodded and we continued scrolling in our phones' galleries. We were doing this for over an hour because most of the photos we do have are either of their forehead or their nose from really close up, so we needed to look deep.
I heard knocking on the door, and I was truly ready to end it all to end this torture, so I called out, "come in." And Bruce walked in, full Batman gear.
Liel lifted her head from her phone. "Sup Batman."
He grabbed a chair and sat down in that awkward pose that meant either we fucked up or he fucked up.
"So," he cleared his throat. "Apparently, when you two stopped time, it did not affect Zatanna and Constantine. The league has requested to... meet you both."
Without even looking her way, I could see Liel's eyes light up. "Fuck. Yes! Do we wear masks? Do we get secret identities? Oh my fucking god this is the best day of my life!"
Batman gave a small smile and looked at me. Obviously I had to come as well, seeing as I was the one who actually stopped time, so I nodded.
"Great." The man said and stood up. "You'll get domino masks, and you can have fun with your names. See you tomorrow at twelve in the cave."
He closed the door and Liel shrieked like a toddler. She flew two meters above me. "We need to think of names now!" She dragged me to her desk and opened a notebook. "For you I'm thinking... oh! Depression girl!"
I hit my head on the table.
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I took a deep breath. I remembered the feeling of teleporting using a zeta tube, and I really didn't want to throw up in front of Wonder Woman.
Batman turned back to us after adding us to the computer. "When we arrive, only Wonder Woman, Superman, Zatanna and Constantine will be there."
We both nodded and he turned the thing on. The yellow beam felt just like I remembered; horrible.
Fortunately, I could shove the puke down my throat. Unfortunately, Liel couldn't. Right, I forgot she never zeta teleported before. I patted her on the back until she stood back up and wiped her mouth.
After we were done Batman started walking towards a room I assumed was the meeting room where the other heroes were waiting.
Batman opened the door and I could see the heroes in question; Constantine smoking while throwing a burnt cigarette away, Superman lecturing him on the dangers of smoking, Zatanna helping clark by summoning two black lungs that floated next to him, and Wonder Woman sipping coffee while watching them.
Batman cleared his throat and everyone shifted their attention to us. Liel waved to Wonder Woman (and to Wonder Woman only).
"Batman..." Zatanna started while staring at us.
"You can't expect us to believe those two trapped us in time!" Constantine called after a moment.
I looked at Liel and raised my brow. She looked at me confused but I lifted up my hands and she gave a small 'ah'. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them they were glowing and everyone but us, Zatanna and Constantine were frozen in time.
The two looked around confused, so I took three steps to the right and motioned to Liel to unstop time. Her eyes went back to normal and the trinity looked confused. This was fun, wow.
Superman pointed a finger at us. "How come I didn't notice you moved?"
"Dude we don't have super speed," Liel chuckled. "We control time."
"And that's it?" Zatanna questioned. "Do you have any other powers?"
"That doesn't concern you." Batman interrupted and everyone collectively rolled their eyes.
Wonder Woman stepped forward. "Why did you stop time in the first place?"
At the same time, Liel raised her hand (the half missing one) and I lowered the collar of my shirt just a bit to show my scars.
"To save time." I simply stated.
Constantine sighed deeply. "Well, if you too plan to keep doing that we must fix this... mistake."
I rolled my eyes under the mask. "One second."
I closed my eyes and internally called the big bad god inside my soul. We had a little chat:
Him: how's my favorite possessed girl doing?
Me: I need your help.
Him: I would, but you see-
Me: your powers don't work on two magicians.
Him: still-
Me: does that means you're weaker than two mortals?
Him: that doesn't-
Me: should I tell them that?
Him: fine, fine! I'll fix it!
I opened my eyes and saw everyone staring at me. I gave Liel the 'go on' motion and she sighed and stopped time. This time, everyone in the room but the two of us were frozen in time. Liel stared at me. "Girl how?"
I fixed the collar of my shirt. "I had help."
I could feel her rolling her eyes before taking a few steps to the left and unfreezing time.
Zatanna and Constantine sighed in relief. "Thank you." Zatanna said.
"No problem." Liel smiled at her.
"You two head back." Batman ordered. "I'll finish here."
Liel grinned. "Sure batsy."
Then she levitated herself a meter above the floor, winked to me and flew away at a speed that wouldn't shame Superman.
Bruce sighed and turned to me. "No. You, walk there."
I decided that if Liel got to show off, it was only fair I could do the same. I nodded, took a step forward, right into his shadow, disappeared, and appeared back in Liel's shadow, who was obviously trying to hold in a laugh. I pressed a few buttons and we were in the cave. Liel started laughing like a maniac, and didn't stop for like 10 minutes.
"Oh my god- did you-" she stopped to laugh. "Did you see the fucking look on Batman's face?"
I smiled and nodded. "He'll kill us."
That only made Liel laugh harder. "Oh... I don't give a fuck, it was all worth it."
While I patted her back, because she did need to throw up in the end, I looked around the cave. My guess is that it was around midnight, and everyone was on patrol. We left around 11pm, maybe 11:30, so it made sense.
Liel wiped her mouth. "I'm hungry as hell, wanna see if the kitchen ban includes us?"
I closed the bag I had pre prepared and threw it in the trash. "Sure."
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~~~Liel's POV~~~
I was sitting on the counter in the kitchen, eating the chocolate cake we made and listening to Alfred's war stories.
"So, after that entire incident they decided to have us moved," Alfred said while preparing medical supplies for the incoming bats and birds.
"Where?" Alex asked while looking for the vanilla ice cream I was promised.
"Oh, that is quite classified." He said with a chuckle. "But I do have a nice story from that day. My mate Harry, may he rest in peace, almost killed us all that night."
"Ohhh that sounds like a juicy story!" I said, grabbing the ice cream out of Alex's hands. "What did he do?"
Alfred put some more tape in the box he was organizing. "He thought he caught an enemy soldier near the car with all the ammunition, so he opened fire. That so called enemy soldier was, believe it or not, a little Robin bird with his mother. Harry shot them both dead."
"Talk about unfortunate foreshadowing." I took a bite out of the cake.
"Yes, yes, but at the time we were glad to eat anything that didn't come in a can." Alfred said and me and Alex burst out laughing.
"Alfred-" I laughed and Alfred raised his hands with a chuckle.
"In my defense, it was decades before master Bruce was even born," he said. "I was a young man."
"How'd Harry..." Alex made a killing gesture.
Alfred gave a deep sigh and closed the box he was stocking. "Less than a year before I met Thomas and Marta, Harry was stuck in a building with... people very similar to the villains master Bruce fights each night. We, as in the rest of the unit, failed to save him. My other mate, Arthur, was never the same. He killed himself a few months after he was discharged. Needless to say they were more than friends. Poor Arthur..." Alfred sighed, as if letting all these memories go with the air.
Alex came over and sat next to me. I put my head on her shoulder. "That's a sad story." I said.
Alfred nodded and opened a new box. "As I said, not long after I stumbled into the Waynes, and the rest is history."
"No, comics." Alex chuckled.
Suddenly, the door opened and Batman walked in. I wondered where his gothic ass was.
"Ah, Batman, how was the meeting in the watchtower?" Alfred said and made both me and Alex chuckle. "Did the rest of the family arrive back from patrol?"
"The meeting went as expected," Batman growled. "But Robin has a stab wound he's refusing to let me look at and Nightwing is limping, so if you can..."
Alfred nodded and grabbed the boxes he was stocking. "Very well. Have a good night's sleep, master Bruce."
After he left the room Batman glared at us. "We need to talk."
"Sure." I said and squeezed Alex's hand. What can I say, it was really hard to forget the stories about her dad.
Batman crossed his arms. "What you did was irresponsible and dangerous. I told you both we cannot reveal your abilities to the justice league."
I snorted. "But it was so funny."
Batman sighed and rubbed his temples. "Yes, but I had to deal with three hours of questioning."
"Like?" Alex raised a brow.
"From Zatanna, if you two are magic users, from Wonder Woman, if you're new Gotham vigilantes, and from Constantine, if I adopted new children because I felt there were too many boys!" Batman said in a tired ass dad voice (I should trademark that).
Alex snorted a laugh. "I am adopted."
The old man smirked like he just remembered something. "Superman did ask me later if the rumors are true about an upcoming introduction of a new Wayne."
It was my turn to laugh. "Tell him that yes, definitely, because like I just found out," I turned to Alex with a grin. "She already has... hm, what was it? Right! 32 articles in the Gotham gazette alone!"
Alex hit her head against the wall. "Fuck..."
"So as punishment for giving away information I specifically told you to keep secret, Liel, you will also attend the gala, and Alex, you're having an interview with Clark Kent the same night." He said.
I perked my head up. "Wait what? No! Bruce, I'm begging you, why?!"
Alex face palmed and muttered, "fuck..." again.
Batman grinned and walked to the door. He stopped and turned around. "Their expressions were funny, though." Then he left.
Newfound information: Batman is an evil genius.