Damian escaped the simulation.

Damian **** this avatar to frown as he continued to stare in shock at the form which this stupid simulation had **** him into.

“I chose the male option!” he repeated once more, huffing as the words came out in a voice so annoying it made Harley Quinn seem almost tame by comparison. Although perhaps his current annoyance of the glitch had coloured his perception. Whatever the case, Damian had no intention of staying in this particular program for much longer.

“Computer! Exit Program! Now!”

A short stint of silence followed, before a buzzing noise spread across the digital world as Damian’s surroundings turned to a static grayness.

“~IzzZzZzzZt~ ERROR…. Rebooting… repairing… ~izzZzzzZt~ rebooting. Repair protocols initiated. Releasing in…"

The static buzzing soon drowned out whatever it was the robotic voice was saying, and while Damian was mildly concerned about the mention of ‘errors’, he was at least satisfied that it seemed he was due for an immediate release back to the real world.

Damian soon found himself blinded as the simulated world melted away, and he felt himself getting pulled back to reality. With a heavy breath, he climbed out off the chair and placed the VR headset onto the nearby table.

“TT, stupid de…” Damian trailed off as he noticed the voice which came from his mouth. He leapt up in shock and looked at himself, soon noticing that his body had somehow changed to resemble the unfamiliar form of Jinx; the very same character whom the simulation had mistakenly placed him in.

“This is ridiculous! Am I still in the simulation?” he asked as he looked around to confirm he had indeed returned to the Batcave. Meanwhile his body was still almost identical to how it had just been in the simulator, with the slim and lanky but undeniably female figure, and the long blue braided hair, even her tattoos had somehow been imprinted onto his skin somehow. The only remnant of Damian’s actual appearance was his Robin costume, which itself no longer fit his form in any way; hanging too loosely in some areas while far too tightly in others.

“Negative,” said the Batcomputer.

“Then why am I Jinx?”

“-IzzZzzZt- Unable to answer the query. My apologies.”

“Ugh…”

Damian groaned as he, or perhaps she, continued to pace aimlessly around the Batcave, still in shock at this dramatic change. She awkwardly tugged at her Robin outfit, notting it was uncomfortably misshapen to fit her current form.

“Computer. Activate the fabricators; give me a copy of my standard outfit tailored to this current form.”

“-IzzZzZzzt- Affirmative.”

Damian let out a small sigh of relief as she heard the Batcomputer go to work, although this did little to dull her overall annoyance. As she paused to focus and regain her bearings, she noticed a faint burning sensation across her body from her feet to her head, as if her DNA had just been rearranged on a molecular level… which seems likely given what she can see.

She hadn’t the faintest clue on how to explain this to father, no doubt he would find some way to blame her for supposedly ‘breaking’ the VR system somehow. Clearly though this device was not fit to have left the beta-testing stage yet, and she couldn’t even begin to fathom why a VR Headset apparently had genetic alteration abilities.

“New costume ~iZzzZZzzt~ acquired.”

Damian was drawn from her discontent thoughts by the announcement, and quickly made her way to the fabricator, only to come to a screeching halt as she caught sight of just what the computer had made for her.

“I SAID TO MAKE AN FITTING VERSION OF MY STANDARD COSTUME!”

“~IzzzZzz~ …. ~IzzzZzZz~ Affirmative. This is your standard outfit as per my data.”

Damian could only growl as the computer presented her with a complete recreation of Jinx’s clothing. Did the VR glitch somehow just mess with the Batcomputer’s systems in general? That would be very unfortunate if it did. She considered her options, it was growing more and more uncomfortable wearing her Robin costume due to how completely ill-fitting it was for Jinx’s body. And with its current track record, she was beginning to get the feeling that attempting to get the Batcomputer to redo its clothing fabrications would be an exercise in futility.

And so with a deeply suffering sigh, Damian scooped up the copy of Jinx’s outfit and took it to the changing wrong. It took a slight effort to pull off the Robin outfit, but once she did it was surprisingly easy to replace it with Jinx’s infuriatingly skimpy and somewhat mix-matched ensemble.

As she checked herself over in the mirror, she found that between her body’s appearance and the newly acquired outfit she saw the spitting image of Jinx from the simulation. Suddenly she felt a spike to her head as her vision blurred, and for a moment she saw a manic grin in the mirror. She quickly shook her head and it was gone.

“Ugh, this entire ordeal is so taxing that I must be seeing things…” she muttered, dismissing the sight as a sign of her exhaustion. “How long until father returns?”

“~IzzZzZzZ~ I am unable to answer that query. ~IzzZzzZZt~ my ~Izzzt~ apologies.”

“Ugh… can you at least inform me of Batman’s last known area of operation?”

“Computing… Computing… ~IzzzZzzZzzt~ Affirmative. Batman was investigating increased activity by members of the Joker’s gang. It is believed that Punchline aka Alexis Kaye has been expanding operations in the Hill on his behalf.”

Damian frowned and contemplated this information. If father had just allowed her to join him on this mission instead of forcing her to undergo the simulations then this would have been avoided.

“Computer. Unlock arsenal.”

“Negative. Access denied.”

Damian rattled off an override code.

“~IzzzZt~ Denied. That is a Robin-specific override code for the arsenal. Robin is currently restricted as per Batman’s directive. Furthermore, your voice does not match Robin’s vocal scan.”

Damian’s scowl deepened at the repeated refusal. Damn it. Venturing out into gang territory without any weapons, equipment or support was unwise to say the least, even for someone of Damian’s skills and experience. Especially gang territory run by a psychopath such as Punchline on behalf of an even bigger psychopath such as the Joker.

An idea struck her suddenly.

“Computer. Pull up data on Jinx.”

Thankfully, the Batcomputer complied with this request, and Damian was allowed to view the character description of Jinx drawn from the VR’s memory banks. Just as she had assumed from Jinx’s appearance, she sounded like someone who would not be out of place at all as one of Joker’s goons. So if she leaned into those perceptions and maybe tried imitating some of these mannerisms and traits, then she could blend in long enough to figure out what her father was out and then explain all this to him.

Of course that carried with itself a number of risks… and even getting Batman to give what he would assume was a Joker goon long enough to speak to explain her true identity would be a chore, But still, that also seemed like the best way to get this whole thing resolved the quickest.