behisgirlfriday | (no subject)

Waking up in alternate universes was becoming a semi-regular fixture in Pepper's life. It wasn't something that she was particularly happy about, because getting smacked down into another universe pushed the reset button on her life. In her own world, she was Virginia Potts, personal assistant to Tony Stark. She knew what to expect out of her life. She was as stable as someone with a failing marriage and a miserably complicated boss could be.

But every time she woke up somewhere new, she was a blank slate. No job, no friends, no family, and no idea where she was at. It'd happened twice already, and she didn't know how many more times she could handle it. She was getting better at weathering the initial shock of it, at least. Pepper wasn't sure if she was proud of that or not. Maybe she could add it to her resumé: has experience in setting up businesses in multiple universes. Excellent with temporal distortions.

For the first time, she was in a city that she'd only heard about. True, she'd heard a lot about it, but that didn't make it any less strange to finally see it for herself. Gotham City reminded her of a lot of cities, but it was an entity all its own. The first thing that Pepper did was try to get a hold of Bruce Wayne. With any luck, he would still remember her. If he didn't, she knew enough sensitive material to convince him of her authenticity real quick. This was easier said than done, though. His manor---yes, he had a manor---was outside of town, and she didn't have cab fare. Her two attempts to get into Wayne Enterprises had ended with her being escorted off the premises. So that left only one surefire way of finding her old employer.

She'd have to get mugged.

[ Daylight belonged to the people of Gotham City, but the night belonged to Batman; he had no use for it. In stories, monsters prowled at night-- it was a time to lock your doors and bar your windows, because that time belonged to them. As long as criminals continued to be cowardly and superstitious, Batman would use it to his advantage. The city and all of it's gothic skyscrapers and dark, pervading atmosphere belonged to Batman, so when he said this was his city, he wasn't lying. There were few who were hapless enough to wander into Crime alley at night, tourist or otherwise, but tonight would have a few surprises in store for even the Dark Knight. ]