James hadn’t been sure that it was really the Gotham where Batman roamed until he saw the front page of one of the newspapers in the gas station that had really confirmed it. On the front page was a triumphant photo of Supergirl dismantling a giant robot. Apparently a fleet of them had attempted to invade earth the other day. Hell the paper was an edition from the Daily Planet of all things. For some reason it hadn’t occurred to him that this was not his world until this moment, right now he stood upon an Earth in the DC comic Multiverse.

After taking a deep breath to settle his nerves, he went to the side of the gas station and entered the phonebooth. Digging into his pocket he pulled out some quarters and began to dial. Thankfully the currency in his wallet was pretty much identical to this world so he had managed to get some crappy sandals, along with some quarters. Paul had dropped him off with a wave and his business card. While he knew it was futile to do so, he had to try. He called his parents, his friends. Every phone number he knew, but the numbers didn’t reach anyone or strangers picked up.

With each failure a heavy weight grew in his heart until he had to go and sit on a nearby bench. It felt as if he was being pressed into the earth by a ton of rock and he found himself having a hard time breathing. So he focused on just taking one breath at a time until the heavy weight began to lesson. He could feel the terror and hopelessness lurking at the edges of his thoughts so he focused on calming himself down until he was ready to begin to think on what exactly he needed to do. Given that this was no longer his Earth he no longer had access to anything that he really needed. Such as his bank account, which left only the money in his wallet. Or even an identity, for all intents and purposes he was effectively an illegal immigrant.

Feeling that existential terror rising once more, he let it flow over him then dispersed it. It wasn’t going to help him get back home if he kept letting his fears get the better of him. For the moment he was alive and that was what was important. Before doing anything he needed to look over what he knew about the DC universe. To his surprise, James found he could recall everything he had read with startling detail. He could even remember on which page each event had happened in each comic book. Yet another strange ability he had gained, one that at least appeared helpful: Eidetic Memory. 

Perhaps since he had not come here of his own free will he could seek assistance from the Justice League. Though as soon as that thought popped into his head he threw it out. For whatever reason his gut was screaming that it was a bad idea to tell them. In fact his gut was screaming that it would be a terrible idea to inform anyone about who he was. Like it would be inviting impending doom upon his head. Yet when he considered figuring a way back on his own, he did not get that same feeling.

But for now that was out of the question, he lacked the knowledge and the resources at the moment to do anything about it. He also needed to figure out what was on with him, and whatever other abilities he had gained. Before even that he needed a place to stay and before that he needed a job.  So he went back into the Gas station and bought a local newspaper and began to search through the classifieds. Unfortunately most of the job listings were too legitimate, there was no way he could get them. Then he spotted the last listing and it was exactly what he had been looking for.

Picking up the phone he dialed the number listed and when the man on the other end answered it with a grumpy hello James said “Hi, I was calling about the Apartment Manager position. Is it still available?”

Over an hour later, he found himself deep in the East End district of Gotham. After paying the Taxi Driver, he stepped out of the car into the slum district. The Taxi sped off apparently not wanting to spend another minute in this place. It was no wonder, the whole place screamed danger to him even in the middle of the afternoon. The only people walking the streets at this time looked either downtrodden or mean. While he had no real desire to live in such a hell hole, his options at the moment were limited. He would have to be careful, but as he had survived falling to earth he probably wasn’t in danger from some thug from the streets.

Gathering his courage he approached the apartment building from the ad and entered. Behind the desk sat a large obese man who looked at him through narrowed eyes. “You must be Mr. James Mistfield.”

Nodding James held out his hand and said “Yes, and you are Mr. Edwards?”

The fat man grunted and stood with great trouble and took James hand. “Call me Stan. Mr Edwards was my bastard of a father. You look clean and you can probably handle yourself. So you really want to be an apartment manager for this shithole?”

A little taken aback by the man’s attitude, he said “Yes, well, I’ve come into hard times at the moment and well here I am.”

Stan grunted and said “Yeah isn’t that the fact of life. Well at least you don’t look like some of the fuckups that have been here before. You at least seem competent. Now I don’t give a damn about your personal drama, just as long as you take care of your duties I will be happy. If not I’ll throw you on your fucking ass.”

“Understood. So what are the duties exactly? You weren't very specific on the phone.”

“Simple shit mostly. Basically see that box there?” Stan pointed to a box that had complaints written on it. “If there is an issue, the tenet will either knock on your door, call you, or place a note in the box. Mostly just complaints about broken pipes and shit like that. Now you either fix it yourself or you get a hold of me and I will hire someone to come and fix it. You do that however and I will deduct it out of your pay.”

“As you can expect, not much crap you need to do most of the time. Except you are required to sit at the desk between 10PM and 2 AM. Except Mondays and Thursdays, those nights are the ones Gotham PD likes to patrol the neighborhood. Now some of ‘tenets’ like to pay for their rooms daily. You take their money and put it into that safe through that slot on the wall. I will collect it in the mornings and count it. I know how much is supposed to be in their so don’t think of skimming or I will fuck you up. Oh and if any of our tenet’s guests get out of line, go ahead and throw them out into the street.”

Stan waddled to a cubbyhole and knocked on the back of it making a hollow sound. “I keep a shotgun fully loaded in the back here. If shit goes down, use it if you have too. Though I would get the fuck out of here if I could. Though don’t ever call the goddamn cops, you do and I will throw you out on your ass. If they come anyway, just do as they say and my ‘friends’ will get you out. Though you will owe them big time, so don’t fucking get caught if you use it.”

With a grunt Stan reached his fat fingers into his pants and withdrew a ring of keys. “Here are the keys to the apartments and rooms. The utility rooms are in the basement and are opened with the silver keys. Oh and…” Stan reached back into his pants and gave James another key. “Here is the key to your room. It’s in the back down that short hallway.” Stan waved and continued “As I said it’s rent free provided you don’t fuck things up.”

Taking the keys James nodded and asked “Don’t I need to sign something?”

“Nah, don’t fucking trust documents. That’s how they fuck you over. As long as you don’t screw this up, I will uphold my end of the deal. You’ll get four hundred every week on Friday in cash. Don’t ask for any advances, I don’t do them.” Stan looked at his watch and said “Shit I’m late. I’ve got to take care of something. Just do as I said, and you should last longer then that last shithead I hired. Oh and the rest of the rules and shit are in a binder in the desk.”

With that Stan turned around and waddled out of the apartment building. Going to the desk he found the binder and glanced through it. It was pretty straightforward detailing what was expected of him. All of it was to be expected. What was not in the papers was what this place was clearly being used for. While some of the apartments were clearly being lived in, most were probably being used for less than legal activities. Most likely of which were prostitutes taking johns to these rooms.

Still as long as they weren’t harming anyone he didn’t really care. Walking to the end of the hallway he opened his new apartment. The smell struck him first, and then he saw a complete mess in the room. There was barely enough room for a twin-sized bed, and the sheer mess of it didn’t help matters. On the side was a door that led to a small bathroom, that when he turned on a light sent cockroaches scrambling about. Disgusted, he closed the door and had to move a trash bag to sit down on the bed. The smell just seemed to grow even worse, threatening to make him vomit. He found that the mattress was in fact the worst part of the room.

Simply unable to take it anymore James stood and lifted the mattress to find a horrific mildewing bloodstain on the bottom of it. Alarmed he stepped back and said “What the fuck have you gotten yourself into James?”

Having no desire to stay in this mess of a room, he spent the next few hours he cleaned until the room was completely spotless. He had thrown away everything in the room as it was all junk or fouled. Thankfully he had managed to find some cleaning supplies in a storage closet in the hallway that looked like they had never been used. Even so, as he looked around the room he realized that it in fact was way too clean.

Places he knew he hadn’t cleaned yet looked almost sparkling. Great was this yet another strange ability of his? It was at that time his stomach growled a bit and glancing at his watch he saw that he had a few hours until his shift at the desk began. Before that happened he needed to go and get something to eat. 

After leaving his apartment he noticed that surrounding the door was a circle of extremely clean carpet compared to the rest. At least this power seemed to have a clear limit, he made his way back onto the streets where the sun had just set. Even so to James it was almost as bright as daytime. While there were some street lamps, most were broken, so James had to come to the conclusion that he could see in the dark. As he was thinking about that he found that he could smell a faint trace of what had to be fried chicken. This stirred his stomach and he decided to follow the smell for a few blocks until he came to a diner that was open.

Entering the door with a chime, he found that a wide variety of people were having meals there. Though most were clearly thugs of some sort. Sitting in an open seat he nodded at the waitress who came over to him and said “What will you have sugar?”

“Well I smell some great fried chicken, I would like to have that if possible.” James said and gave her a smile.

To his surprise he found the waitress face completely flushing and she shyly said “Of course sir. Old Dale, our cook, comes from the south so he makes a mean fried chicken that will leave you wanting more.”

“I’ll have that then thank you.”

She nodded flustered and went to input his order. While waiting he noticed several long glances coming his way from the waitress who was in her late twenties. He had examined himself in the mirror when he was cleaning the bathroom, but did not think he had grown any more handsome. He wouldn’t say he was ugly, but he was nowhere near the level to leave this woman flustered the way she was acting. He really hoped that this wasn’t part of some new weird power of his. He would feel like scum if he was somehow manipulating this woman to be attracted to him.

That was just something else he had to worry about. As he was thinking that he realized that a sketchy looking punk was eyeing him from the back. As soon as he noticed this he had a flash of insight and realized that the damn punk had been planning to mug him when he left the diner. Annoyed, he instinctively flashed the kid with a pissed off glare. The punk shuddered like something had crashed into him. Then the kid stood and ran out the door of the diner. When he passed James found he could smell shit running down the thug's leg. Great now he had to be careful giving people looks.

After finally getting his food, he found it really did taste great and finished it quickly. When he paid for the meal, the waitress slipped him a piece of paper that he realized contained her number. He gave her a smile and headed out and back towards the apartment. As he was walking he heard the sound of a whip and glanced up. He caught sight of a woman dressed in black leather swinging across the roofs. Clearly it was Catwoman heading somewhere for the night. Shaking his head in mild disbelief he began to walk back.