Will jolted awake with a splitting headache. He opened his eyes to find the space around him shaking violently amid a tremendous noise, like an aging machine.
He had experienced this twice already. Needless to say, the timeline had changed again, but unlike before, this time it went on for far too long.
Amid the relentless shaking, the plaster in the New Jersey Police Department's holding cell began peeling away, revealing bright silver metal walls beneath. The iron bed Will had been resting against also dissolved from solid matter into nothingness, scattering into countless molecules before reassembling before his eyes.
The dim interior grew increasingly bright, the extinguished fluorescent tubes replaced by natural light emanating from behind translucent walls.
While Will was still reeling at the changes to the walls, the turbulent space had already reconstructed his simple iron bed into something resembling a Life Support Pod, covered in wires and pipes.
Whoosh!
A roaring noise swept past the window, drawing Will's attention. He turned to see a huge spacecraft descend from the sky and settle on the plaza outside the Police Department.
In the distance, the city slumbering beneath the night sky disintegrated with a crash. Buildings with extravagant, bizarre designs and flashing neon strips rose from the dust, accompanied by aircraft as numerous as swarming mosquitoes.
Will seemed to have become someone abandoned by time. Standing outside its rushing river, he witnessed human civilization step into the next century in just a few short minutes.
"Why-was this happening?!"
When the spatial tremors stopped, he stood in this magnificent yet unfamiliar world and directed his question at the ceiling's LED screen displaying blue skies and white clouds.
Had Joker still existed in this world, he would surely have leaped out with a crazed laugh to tell him that, if