A Creature of the Night
It has been a rather cloudy night so far as it was hard to see the full moon that was supposed to be shown. The only source of light that could be seen in the city were from the buildings, the cars, and the GCPD blimp hovering above several miles above the city. The blimp in question is out on patrol as two officers were doing their business and checking in as usual.
"This is Gotham Air One reporting in. Things are actually quiet for once." One of the officers said into the radio for the usual check in procedures.
*Blip*
"Hey, did you see that?" The second officer said to get his partner to look at him funny.
"See what?"
"I got a blip. Right here." The second pointed to the generalized spot on the radar. "It just ghosted across my screen."
"I didn't see anything."
"But it was there." The officer said before peering out of the window. "It must be right below us."
*Whoosh*
"See! I just saw it Mark." The same officer said as he pointed towards the distance of the dark silhouette his eyes caught onto.
"There what is?"
"It looked like….bat wings?"
"Bat wings?" Mark questioned before a slight thought came to mind. "Could be Batman flying over Gotham Frankie, for his patrols or whatever he does on most nights."
"But this high up?"
Mark hummed in thought for a moment or two before speaking to Frank again. "Then take us through those clouds just in case."
Frank did just that by pulling the controls to make the blimp go higher and higher into the sky. Passing through several clouds before breaking through the higher atmosphere. With the moonlight shining upon them now, this gave the two officers a better chance of seeing things.
"Sorry Frank," The one officer said as he kept on looking, "seems that nothing is up here."
"But I swear I saw it Mark. Something was definitely flying up here."
If the two had looked further down, they would've seen the darkened silhouette officer Frank had seen, latching itself to the metal hull on the bottom before it released its grip and plummeted from such a height. With the speeds it was reaching, it soon opened itself up to reveal batwings as it glided and soared through the night sky. No one was ever the wiser from some pedestrians seeing the slight shadow come across them and assumed it was Batman. As the mysterious figure soared through the air, it started changing directions with it's destination in mind: Phoenix Pharmaceuticals.
In the building's darkened halls, a security guard was making his rounds for the night. With most evening/graveyard shifts, one would need something to entertain yourself so you don't lose that much interest in your job. Some would draw sketches, some music play in a low volume to not fully distract them from work, others dance, etc. For this one security guard, he had a tape recorder in his hand and was fiddling around with it.
"Testing: One, Two, Three. Testing: One, Two, Three." The security guard said into his recorder before speaking in a better tone of voice. "And you too can dream to be a high paid radio personality in your spare time. Just like me. So call *Cough* *Cough* So call the Gotham Institute of Broadcast Arts." He stated before chuckling a little. "Oh yeah, that sound so much better than the last run."
*Bang* *Rattle*
Hearing the sudden noise coming from behind him, made the guard quickly pull out his gun with his recorder in the other hand. He slowly made his way towards the source of the noise to see if anyone was trying to break into the place. When getting to the designated room, he quickly went in with his gun aimed to be greeted with….nothing. Nothing at all.
"Phewww! For a second there I thought something was in here." The guard said as he walked further in to see if anything seemed amiss. "Might've been my imagination. *Sigh* Need to stop taking too many of these graveyard shifts. Starting to get to me."
If the man was paying any attention, he would've noticed a slight light be reflected from the ceiling. It slowly came down and landed onto the office floor with a low 'thump' that ended up alerting the guard. He turned around to see where the source came from and saw a large, shadowy figure, walking ever closer to him. From what he could barely make out as it got close enough seemed….monstrous.
"AHHHH! Get away!" The guard screamed as a deafening roar reached his ears. Making him bring his hands to the sides of his face to hopefully cover up most of the sound.
RAAAAAAAARHHHH The figure bellowed out in a loud volume, before it swung its arms to knock the security guard back. In the process, the guard had let go of the tape recorder in his hand, which skidded across the floor to stop underneath the nearby desk. In a brief moment of courage, the guard aimed his gun and fired upon the figure several times….
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
….but he didn't know if they were successful or not. It didn't matter in the end as a scuffle ensued in the one office with yelling and screaming before a chair was thrown, break the nearby window in the process. More yelling and screaming could've been heard if someone was nearby.
"NO! NO! What are you doing?!" The guard screamed out as he was lifted above the ground and carried off to the nearby, broken window. "Let me go! Let me go!"
….Very poor choice of words Mr. Security Guard….. Very poor choice of words.
"AAAAAAAAHHH!" The guard yelled as he was thrown out of the building and plummeted towards the nearby river with a loud splash.
-Unknown Location-
With the sun setting in the distance, two individuals are bathed in it's warm colorful wonder. Seems so much better to see from far away in its picturesque appearance, but coming closer to the scene seems hard to see without being moved. As the two people are facing each other with one holding a duffel bag over his shoulder, while the other had a pleading look on her face.
"Do you really have to leave?" She asked with tears welling up in her eyes.
He looked at her with his strong, caring gaze. Showing that his actions are never wavered. Not wanting to back down with what he must do.
"I promised. The people I love, are waiting." He responded with a firm voice.
"...I don't understand. Not at all. But…. please take care of yourself."
He saw her shaking, trying to contain her emotions from spilling out. He placed his bag onto the ground and closed the distance to bring her into his warm embrace. His strong heart beating against his chest made her heart slowly synch with his in tandem.
"Of course I'll come back to you. Even if you don't promise to wait. I'll return knowing you'll be here."
She looked up with her pure, blue eyes to study his bright hazel ones. With the sun reflecting off of each of them made their appearance more beautiful for the other. Their lips were slowly being drawn closer together as to hopefully savor a kiss that they won't experience for god knows when.
"Then come back to me Naruto."
"It's a promise of a lifetime Harleen."
Their lips inched closer until-
*BEEP BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP BEEP*
"GAH!" The blonde woman woke up suddenly when her alarm clock blared by her nightstand. Panting heavily with the breath she supposedly held during her sleep as she tried to get fresh air into her lungs. Once calming down, she turned off her alarm as she raked her hand through her hair while trying to process what she had just seen in her dream.
"It felt so real." The intern muttered as she placed her fingertips towards her lips to feel a hollow feeling like it seemed to be missing something, but what. She then looked towards her first edition copy of Loveless by the nightstand and recollected her thoughts of what she could try to remember from that dream. Mentally comparing from the one passage she read in the book to what she saw in her dream before realizing the differences. "Those last bits were…. from my subconscious?"
She shook her head, trying to get those obscene thoughts out of her head. There was no way she could really like Naruto in such a way. There wasn't…. But every time she seemed to deny such a thing brought back that hollow feeling in her heart.
He's been her friend since she first started out at Arkham. Unknowingly helping her out through so much both in and out of work. Making her feel so happy after so long, after…. After that night. The one night that things went downhill on her self-esteem and sent her into a dark place. But, somehow, Naruto had been able to drag her out of that pit and help ease her pain. His comforting warmth helped ease the pain she has kept hidden from the world. Naruto became a great friend to rely on.
….But after what happened at Arkham might end up changing things between them.
She apparently fainted after hearing from Naruto confessing that Pam is allowing him to be in an open relationship with other women. It is very scandalous on what she heard, even though there was a reason behind it with Pam being sterile/barren. But the thing that possibly got things more complicated was the statement that there was an impression of both she and her friend have feelings for each other.
It's completely ridiculous….right?
Once out of her odd fainting spell, the intern denied such a thing and didn't wait for either of them to talk to her as she ran out of the asylum. She unintentionally made a spectacle out of it, but she didn't care as she couldn't face or hear them at all. She just needed to figure things out.
It didn't help that Naruto had been calling and leaving voicemails for the past few days, but she hasn't even bothered to listen and respond to them. She assumed that her friend wanted to explain things to her, but fear got the better of her and she didn't want to listen to his kind and caring voice. The blonde wanted to, but for some reason she couldn't play the messages.
She just needed time to sort all of this out. She just needs something else to focus on. She just needs a distraction from her frustration.
So after making herself a nice omelet to help start her day, she went into her daily exercises to start the day. Even though she is no longer into gymnastics, doesn't mean that she wants to be out of practice. Harley does a lot of stretches and her typical workout routine consisting of: push ups, sit ups, squats, handstand push ups, raised push ups, weight training and several other exercises that she has done for years.
Harley was pretty much done with her routine when all of a sudden….
*Ding Dong*
*Groan* "It better not be her again." Harley said as she got up from her floor and wiped off some sweat off of her person.
*Knock Knock*
Narrowing her eyes a little, she marched up towards her door as she loudly spoke out. "Mrs. Fernandes…. I already told you I haven't seen your cat!"
When opening the door, she had expected to see her neighbor….except she was greeted with….
"I haven't seen him either…." Naruto said as he looked at the hallway of the apartment floor. "Or is the cat a girl? Was I being misogynist just now? Or is it misogynistic? Never really knew on that."
"N-Naruto!" The intern said in surprisement as she didn't expect seeing him here. "W-What are you...How did you find my apartment?"
"Well I remembered some of our previous chats on some places you liked going towards that was near your home. Took some bit of digging to eventually narrow things down. After that, I just ended up chatting with some people nearby that were your neighbors." He said to her, which was partially true. The publisher actually broke into Arkham last night to find Harley's address. It was just that he had a tough time narrowing things down to several blocks and needed to get the last bit of info from her workplace.
Not that she would ever need to know that tidbit.
"But why are you here?!"
Her response changed his mood drastically as he went from slightly cheerful to a worried one. "Can we talk Harley?"
Not wanting to have any of her neighbors see or hear this conversation, she ushered him inside before closing the door behind him.
Taking a look around, he couldn't help but say something. "Nice place you got here Harley. Lots of space."
Her larger than standard studio styled apartment had a nice fixture of descent furniture to fit with the style and theme she had going on with the decorations to lighten up the residence. There was an elongated couch separating the kitchen from the living room to help make it be a wall of sorts. There's even a hallway, with the opening connected to the living room, which lead towards the bathroom and her bedroom.
"Mind telling me why you're here Naruto?" She asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"...You haven't responded to my calls and I was getting worried. Even checked in with Pam and Selina if you had spoken with them, but they said that you haven't." He said to her as he scratched the back of his head. "So I wanted to see if you were okay."
"Well I am, so you could go now."
"Can you please listen to me Harley?"
Harley looked at him for a few brief moments and just sighed in response to his pleading look. "Fine, what do you need to say to me?"
Naruto released a small breath as he felt a bit better that she would be willing to listen to him now. 'Man I thought this was going to be easier to say.' He thought before speaking to her. "Look…. I'm sorry on what happened the other night and I didn't expect things to go the way as it should."
"That's a complete understatement." She said as she rolled her eyes at him with her frustration coming back. The intern then glared at him for a moment before opening up her mouth. "If you possibly thinking that there's something between us, then you got another thing coming buster. So say what you need to say and go."
He felt hurt when hearing this, but guessing on how she is feeling he can understand what she's possibly coming from. "But that's the thing Harley. I don't know if there is anything between us."
The intern quirked up an eyebrow as she didn't expect hearing such a thing from him. "Excuse me."
"I mean…. I just don't know if I think I do."
"...What do you mean exactly?" Harley asked with her curiosity seemingly baited now for what he has got to say.
*Sigh* "It's just that…. It's just that I consider you a great friend of mine Harley. For as long as I've known you; I admired how hard you worked when wanting to get to your current position, with what you wanted to truly get. Hell, I know I worked hard with what I wanted to have in my life and it's not easy like everyone else…. I even guessed that I have known you long enough to know that you need to have someone special in your life." The publisher stated getting a little reaction out of her on the last bit as one of her hands tightened around her arm a bit.
"So when Pam told me that she assumed that you have feelings for me and vice versa, I didn't know what to do. 'Should I go after or not and possibly risk what we currently have'. That's what I thought Harley and I had been going over that for quite some time now.
Sure... I think you're very beautiful with how I see you the majority of our time together. With your angelic look of yours, that shade of blue your eyes have that seems to sparkle a little when something interesting comes across your field of vision and I think your laugh is very cute. But that's just putting you on this sort of pedestal…. I think, and makes me wonder if I like the image of you or what you really are. So I-I don't know if you should be me since…..since I don't want to risk our friendship Harley."
'...He thinks I'm beautiful?' She thought with her fighting down the blush that tried to come across her cheeks. But she had to bite her inner cheek to keep that feeling down with wanting to hear more of this. Luckily for her, somewhat, he didn't see this reaction as he gained a downcast look and didn't look at her in the eyes at this point.
"I've learned that the hard way when I was younger of going after this one classmate I had a crush on…. and from what I tried to do to please her, had hurt our friendship in various aspects. *Sigh* I first started crushing on her when we were younger, with me thinking that she was very pretty and I wanted to gain her attention. I did become her friend and from there I sought out her feelings, but she was interested in another classmate of ours. The guy wasn't all that great at all and she had deserved better, along with the other girls that were fawning over him.
There is, in fact, a whole list that I could tell you about him on those reasons, but I don't want to get side tracked on this…. My friend had fawned over him too much that I just wanted to appease her and did what I could to bring him back to her, but in the end he didn't even bother at all with him so focused on other things. Even years later, she was still hung over him that I still don't even realize why she likes the guy after all of the bullshit he pulled. It even got to the point that she up straight lied to me, that she liked me instead to help comply on this one thing going on at the time." Her friend said as his tone of voice had a hint of anger towards the end.
'Why does that sound familiar?' The blonde thought before her eyes glanced towards her bookshelf towards her copy of 'Ninja Storm'. 'Was that part of the story actually from his life?'
He calmed down a bit as he noticed that he was starting to get angry when remembering the times Sakura was chasing after Sasuke. So he shook his head a little before continuing on with his explanation. "So when that happened, the pedestal I had for her broke and my friendship with her was over. We still worked together before I left home, but I considered things between us to be done. There was nothing that could be done to fix things between her and I and everyone else we knew the same thing.
So what I'm trying to say here Harley, is that I would like to bury the hatchet and maybe move on. I would like to still be friends with you and get to know you better since I think there's more to you than I know about and vice versa. You've done so much for me and Pam and I want to help you out in return for the 'three' of us. I just don't want to lose and drive you away. But if it's too late then I'll be fine to leave and we don't have to speak to each other ever again."
Once he said his piece, he walked around her to get towards the door, but was stopped when he felt Harley grab ahold of his arm.
"...I'm sorry Naruto. I really am." Harley said to him as he looked at her now with her calm expression. "I didn't know on all that and wished I could've heard it sooner. I was just shocked and confused on what was going on, that I needed time to myself. I ignored the only friends that I have right now and it hurts knowing all that. I was just afraid of things moving too fast and I didn't want to get into a relationship too soon….after my last one."
"...Harley…. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Naruto said as he realized that it was going to end up in that territory right now and he didn't want her to feel uncomfortable in voicing it out.
Rubbing her arm a little, she looked away from him for a moment before speaking again. "Thanks. I don't know if I want to talk about that right now."
"It's okay Harley. You can tell me when you feel ready." The publisher responded, which made her smile a bit. "So what do you say? Will you still want to be friends?"
"...Yeah. I'd like that."
When hearing this, he brightly smiled at her and chuckled a little. "Great to hear. So I was wondering if you're free for the day."
"Well I need to finish getting ready before I head over to work." She said, getting him to nod as asking that bit right off the bat seemed too much at the moment. "While I'm there, I'll go talk to Pam and apologize to ignoring her for the past few days. After that, I'll go see if Selina is still in the hospital and apologize to her as well."
"Actually, she got out yesterday and is just at her loft now."
"Then I'll call her while I'm on my way to work." Harley said as she mentally added that to her list for the day. "But as for the next day I'm off, well I'm free tomorrow."
"How about I treat you for a day of your choosing on what you want to do. I'll be fine of doing whatever your heart desires, no matter how odd it might be. If you're fine with that."
"Are you sure?" She said as she tried to wave off his offering. "I don't want to possibly make things uncomfortable for you."
"Nonsense." Was his immediate response as he shook his head at her. "Besides…. I still owe you something to celebrate with you doing well on Pam's evaluation along with you getting the Magpie case so soon. So doing a full day on whatever you want to do, I'll be fine with paying it and I won't take 'no' for an answer."
"If you say so." She drawled out and thought for a few moments before nodding. "Okay then, you got yourself a deal. I would like to have you pick me up tomorrow morning and I'll direct you to what I want to have for my little holiday."
"Then I'll see you tomorrow morning. I'll call when I'm getting close." The former shinobi said before leaving her apartment to do his own things for the day.
*Chuckles* "Then I can't wait." The intern said to nobody in particular as she went to take a shower. "Because there is a lot that I wanted to do for a while and I intend to do them."
-Mayor Hill's Office-
"I didn't authorize this statement Bullock." Commissioner Gordon said towards his detective with not only them, but District Attorney Harvey Dent being inside of Mayor Hill's office.
With what Gordon was referring to was the a copy of the Gotham Times laid out on the mayor's desk with the headline of 'Gotham Police Declare War on Batman' with a brief statement from the injured security guard saying that a 'Manbat' harmed him. With what has been brought into speculation, made into public fear that Batman is possibly harming innocent civilians and workers now. You could thank Harvey Bullock for that.
"Come on Commissioner." Bullock said as he tried to sweeten his way out of this one. "Someone just asked me a couple of questions and all I did was answering a couple of them."
"Yet you gave them without my approval." The auburn haired man said as he shook his head with frustration building up. "If you would've kept quiet, then he wouldn't know that we are moving against him."
"Well I'll find him Commish'. All I just need is a little extra help….If you wouldn't be so kind, your honor?" The detective asked the mayor, who was currently thinking current events thoroughly.
"What kind of help detective?" Hill asked, which got a more determined look from the pleasantly plump detective.
"I want my own tactical squad for the sole purpose of throwing the net over Batman."
Hill then brought his eyes towards the other bespeckled man in the room before addressing him. "Commissioner? What do you have to say in this?"
"I've already denied the request." Gordon plainly stated with his arms folded across his chest. "Nobody's going to make an anti-vigilante task force on my streets."
"But your honor, this nutcase in a bat costume was probably going to snap sooner or later and I'm surprised we hadn't bothered to do this sooner." Harvey Bullock said to try and defend his part of the argument.
"Look….I can understand what you're trying to do here Bullock, but this isn't Batman's MO."
"Oh yeah! Well tell that to the guy that was tossed out of the window and landed straight into the hospital!"
"Enough!" Hill said in a firm tone. This got things quieted down from the little argument as Gotham's Mayor got up from his desk and looked towards the auburn haired male. "I'm sure we could spare a few men Commissioner Gordon. Detective Bullock does have a good record and a reputation on getting results."
'To a certain degree.' Gordon thought as he mentally rolled his eyes.
"So I'll be granting him the task force. But is there anything else you need out of this detective?"
"Yeah….I just want to be sure that the DA's office will give me an airtight case here sir." Bullock said as he drew his attention to Gotham's DA himself, who was currently sitting a bit away from the group while fiddling around with his old coin .
As this was going on, Harvey Dent was mentally going over what has happened recently. Supposedly Batman has gone rogue and attacked a security guard last night. There was no security footage in that part of the pharmaceutical building to fully authenticate the claim. All that the victim had claimed was a 'bat like figure' or a 'bat creature' attacked him while doing his rounds. It could've been the Dark Knight himself or could've been someone else trying to pin the blame at the bat themed hero.
But things have been pretty confusing with this whole problem that he couldn't make heads or tails on this entire mess. If there was more evidence to this, then the case would end up better handled instead of….this. Harvey could dismiss the warrant out for Batman's arrest with how things are like now; but with the DA elections coming up very soon, he'll need as much public support and pull towards his side so he can be elected for another 4 years in office.
Once coming down to his decision, he stopped playing with his coin and looked towards the black haired detective in the room.
"If you can catch him Harvey, then I'll send him to jail for you."
-Chinatown-
Coming out of the door to a particular shop in the Chinatown district in Gotham showed the Wayne butler holding a package in his hands while keeping the door opened long enough for his ward to step outside of the asian area.
"...Sounds to me that whatever happened last night was possibly the old corporate sabotage sir." Alfred said as he walked alongside Bruce.
"With how this bat imposter got in and out without being fully noticed, until the end, could be possible. Even with the two very quiet burglaries at the other pharmaceutical companies this week."
Looking at the package in his hands, Alfred looked towards Bruce with a skeptical look. "Remind me again sir, but what did we just purchase in there?"
"Hormone-free bovine glands." Bruce stated as he opened the trunk for Alfred to put the case in there. "I'm experimenting my need of sleep. Currently it's roughly four hours, but I would like to cut that down to two. Most glands are supposed to be rich in adrenal fluids."
"Then I'll be glad to blend them up for you before you go to bed sir." The butler said as he closed the trunk. "Though I do wonder if I should even bother to do so Master Bruce. Given the fact that things have been rather quiet in the city since the attack at the manor, asides from the incident from last night. This could give you the opportunity to actually get a full eight hour sleep after so long."
It has indeed been quiet since the manor incident. When word had somehow gotten out on what happened, handfuls of criminals had the bright idea to not go out at night to not incur Batman's wrath of so many dead security and police officers. It was a small ratio of sorts of how many deaths against the ones that lived.
From what was brought up on the reports along with the security footage Bruce had given to the GCPD, after he edited out of him going into his Batcave, that the only people that were killed by those hooded assassins were done as last resort. Many of the assassins had only knocked out other security and police personnel as a priority so that there wouldn't be much of a commotion. The ones that were killed was when things apparently seemed out of their hands.
Speaking of dead bodies…. With the hooded assassins that committed suicide at Wayne Towers that night, their bodies went missing from the GCPD morgue when the morgue-tician went out to go use the restroom. When he got back, those bodies were gone and security footage was erased to hide on who took them. Bruce guessed that the assassins quickly went in there so that no one would get information on what could be scrounged up on their group.
Asides from that mess, crime had seemed pretty low especially when Vanitas had been making appearances to take care of some thefts, robberies, an attempted rape and murder and several other things. Even Dick called when he heard of what happened and expressed his concerns that he wasn't brought in to help out into his home for nearly a decade. But Bruce told him that things were taken care of in the end. His foster son relented, but grudgingly accepted since he had some issues to deal with at the college and had let off some steam at Bludhaven by taking care of a handful of crimes there for the past few days.
"Maybe you're right Alfred. I could maybe get some more sleep….after this bat imposter thing is taken care of." The billionaire stated before a voice called out to him.
"Mr. Wayne….Small world."
Looking behind him, he met the gaze of the blonde therapist that he had helped save with Vanitas at the abandoned hospital. With his usual habit, he looked around her form to see any other detail and came across a bag in her hand.
"Dr. Ravencroft." He greeted to her with a small smile. "Nice to see you again. Don't mind me asking, but what are you doing here?"
"There's a variety of herbal teas I enjoy and I can only procure them from here." The blonde therapist said to him. "Don't mind me asking the same thing but what were you doing?"
"Trying something out a friend of mine suggested." Bruce lied on the fly with a shrug. "He said that it helped relax him more when sleeping and I thought I could possibly need it as of late."
The doctor nodded at this to show that she bought the lie. "I can understand that given what we had discussed in some of our sessions."
To be sure that Bruce wasn't using Dr. Ravencroft for the one time thing and not let her dwell into suspicion, he had decided to hire her for several other sessions before ending things from there.
"So since you're no longer my patient. I think it would be fine for you to drop the 'doctor'." Bethanie said as she got closer to the billionaire.
"Only if you drop the 'Mr. Wayne'."
"Consider it dropped, Bruce." She said to him with a small smile before linking arms with her. "Nice car."
"Thank you."
"A little extravagant for one, don't you think?" Bethanie said in a coy tone, making Bruce chuckle in the process with what she had in mind.
"I'd be more than happy to help give you a lift, Bethanie."
"How about tomorrow night?"
He knew what she was referring to dinner and chuckled at this. Quickly thinking this over, he guessed that he could possibly get this imposter business done tonight and be free tomorrow evening to help out on his 'playboy' cover. With his mind process done, he nodded and gave his response. "Sure, why not. But don't mind me asking but why tomorrow night?"
"There's a fundraising dinner downtown. 8 o'clock and it's black tie. So don't forget your checkbook." As she said this, she let go of the billionaire's arm and walked away from him with a sway to her hips.
Bruce didn't know how long he looked; but when he turned around with a smile on his face, it quickly went into a questioning frown. Reason being….well by Alfred's cheeky grin.
"Don't you say one word." Bruce ordered as he stepped into the back seat of the car. He didn't meet his old friend's gaze after that since he didn't want to add ammo to his gun.
"What…. And to make you more flustered sir?" Mr. Pennyworth rhetorically asked with his grin growing with every passing second.
"I'm not flustered." Bruce defensively said as he briefly looked up, only to quickly look away. "I'm not."
"Then I'll be sure to put your bovine glands on ice until further notice sir." Alfred said as he closed the door with a chuckle escaping his lips. "Can't wait to tell Maggie about this."
-Night, Phoenix Pharmaceuticals-
Batman had to be extra careful this evening when getting to the pharmaceutical building that was attacked last night. He had to hide his batmobile outside of city limits and glide his way through most of it without being scene or else he'll complicate matters. It wasn't easy but he got there with the building in his sights. He fired his grappling gun towards the building and before making his way in a zip line motion, he had to tuck in his cape just in case if anyone down below were to glance up.
Unknownst to him; a pair of doctors, whom were getting frisky with each other in the late night hours, caught sight of the bat themed hero and quickly called the police before making themselves scarce.
Once the Dark Knight was successful into entering the building from the rooftop, he navigated his way through the hallways until he was able to find the entrance to the crime scene. It was easy to get the guards stationed there knocked out with his tranquilizer darts that Marva had developed for him. It would leave the targets to be asleep for half an hour until the agents wore off, leaving plenty of time for him to investigate the crime scene. So once inside, Batman had activated the next prototype detective vision in his cowl to start investigating the room.
"Now then, I should start searching for clues for what occurred in here." The disguised playboy said to himself as he looked throughout the room in his vision. "From what reports have stated so far, security guard Marcus Bowden heard a noise and came into this room to investigate. A fight broke out, resulting with a chair going through the window and in the end, Mr. Bowden was thrown out of it and fell into the river below. Need to know what else occurred here."
As his eyes glanced throughout the room, he saw the broken window with the police tape and tarp covering it so the wind wouldn't tamper with the evidence. He got closer to see if either the victim or the imposter had come in contact with the broken glass and moved the tarp away from the edges to see if there was. Unfortunately there wasn't any at all.
He then moved closer to the desk to see a broken vase there and when he took a closer look, he was greeted with the site of hair follicles. Knowing this could be as good of evidence he could get, he pulled out a little bag from his utility belt and placed the hairs into it before putting the bag back into it's pocket. Batman looked around the desk and found several gun shells on the floor, but didn't see any blood in the room at all. Which was strange since there should've at least been some droplets from the fight. Either the assailant had good body armor or the bullets went into him but he had contained them as long as he could before leaving. Had to be either one of them with there being no bullet holes in the surrounding walls.
That was when he saw….claw marks?...on the ground around some parts of the room. They were feint to the point that anyone could've missed them, but not him and his analytical eye. One would have to crouch down real low to possibly see them. With his current position, his vision picked up something that was lying under the desk. Once reaching under, he grabbed ahold of it and brought it closer to his face to see that it was a tape recorder.
"Wonder why this is here?" Batman asked as he played the tape.
"Testing: One, Two, Three. Testing: One, Two, Three." A male voice said like he was trying to practice for something. "And you too can dream to be a high paid radio personality in your spare time. Just like me. So call *Cough* *Cough* So call the Gotham Institute of Broadcast Arts." *Chuckle* "Oh yeah, that sound so much better than the last run."
Batman pressed the pause button and realized that this was Marcus Bowden's recorder. "Seems he was practicing for an assignment or an audition for the radio station." Once saying that, he played the tape again.
*Bang* *Rattle*
Paying close attention to the tape this time, Batman closed his eyes to possibly visualize what went on in the room. All that he could hear was the guard's footsteps and him pulling out his gun from its holster before hearing the man's voice again.
"Phewww! For a second there I thought something was in here….. Might've been my imagination. *Sigh* Need to stop taking too many of these graveyard shifts. Starting to get to me."
It was there when Batman heard a slight 'thump' in the background with some slight scratching sounds and flesh hitting against the floor following after it.
"AHHHH! Get away!" Marcus screamed out.
RAAAAAAAARHHHH
Once hearing the roar, Batman stopped the tape and slipped the device into his belt before adopting a thinking pose. "Hmm, seems that whoever this imposter is might be a metahuman. Don't know what that sound might indicate, but I'll need to go through the bat computer for more details."
He would've investigated more, but the sounds of police sirens and helicopter blades started to fill the air just as a search light came shining through the office window.
"I need to get out of here." Batman said as he shut down the 'detective vision', rushed out of the room and down the several hallways to reach the elevator to try and make his escape. He soon made it towards his goal and grabbed ahold of the openings of the elevator to make his escape. Luckily he was able to open them wide enough to slip right through, because a handful of SWAT team members came busting through the stairwell.
"There he is!" One of the SWAT members called out when the person barely saw Batman slip right through the barriers. "We need to go back down now!"
"I don't think so." A voice called out from behind making them turn around to see a cloud of smoke covering the area. In their confusion, each of the SWAT members were being picked off one by one. Shots were being fired in the confusion and all but one SWAT member was left standing.
"Where are you?" The man said as he was frantically looking around, as the smoke dispersed, for the man that did this to his fellow teammates.
"Here."
This made the man quickly turn around, only to be met by a fist to knock him out.
"Well that was rather interesting." Vanitas said as he looked at his handy work. "Haven't done that to a bunch of cops before. Thugs yes, but cops…. well there's a first for everything." The masked publisher then looked towards the window where the police were stationed and spoke to no one in particular as he fazed himself through the floor. "Now I need to help Batman out of this mess."
Shots were being fired upon Batman as he was running for cover. When he had gotten out of the elevator shaft, he came across a group of SWAT and they fired their assault rifles when he came into their sites. He had to run through several hallways to hopefully get away from them, but there were too many. Batman eventually got into a room that could possibly help hold him out for a brief moment.
And how brief that moment was as a SWAT member came into the room to see if the Dark Knight was there. The officer caught a glimpse of the hero and yelled out a call for help, but the Bat's hand covered his mouth to keep him quiet. That little bit of noise was all that was needed as the other SWAT members heard their teammate and rushed towards the room. Once getting close, they hugged the wall outside of the room, ready for their next course of action.
"The Bat's got to be in there sir." One of the SWAT members said to his commanding officer. All that the man got as a response was his commanding officer to pull out a cannister from his belt. "Tear gas sir?"
"We'll flush him out. So get your masks on." The commanding officer said as he gave out the order before tossing the tear gas container in there.
The container had landed into the room and skipped several times till it came to a stop to a few opened containers of flammable gas. Batman and the one SWAT member saw this and panicked. So Batman grabbed the man and dashed out of the nearby window for their safety.
As for the other SWAT members outside of that room, they were ready for the gas to go off. But they didn't expect someone to run towards them, skid to a halt and shoot his hands out towards the sides. They were mildly confused at this and aimed their weapons towards him.
"GET DOWN!" Vanitas yelled out as the room ignited and sent a shockwave towards the entire floor as the entire area was sent up in flames. The SWAT members thought they were goners, but saw a shimmering barrier of sorts all around them. Vanitas protected them from the blast.
"You guys are complete morons!" The disguised publisher yelled at them as he canceled out the barrier. When that happened, they felt the full heat of the flames. "Didn't you guys even look at the sign?" Vanitas questioned as he pointed towards the flammable hazard sign outside of the room. "Get your men out of here and onto safety! I'll go get your other guys from the upper floor!"
Vanitas didn't wait for a response for this as ran and focused his powers into a dagger before throwing it upwards. It might've stuck towards the ceiling, but it went fazed right through it and landed on top of the upper level. The disguised Uzumaki then focused onto his powers again to focus on the dagger up there and before he knew it, he warped onto the upper level. It was lucky that the flames haven't reached this level yet, so he went towards the window and broke it to give him a better way of getting the downed men outside.
The masked hero had grabbed ahold of the dagger on the ground and focused more power into it before stabbing it on the wall behind him. With what he has planned for this needs a good anchor on both ends. So with that, he brought out another dagger and did the same thing before throwing it towards the ground below where all of the police were at. He then grabbed ahold of two SWAT members before warping his way towards the dagger outside.
"What the devil?!" Bullock yelled out as Vanitas somehow appeared near him. At first he thought the dagger seemed too much when it landed next to him. He went to see what it was, but the other hero of Gotham showed up there with two of his task force members. "Where the hell did you come from?!"
"From the building. Where else would have I been?" Vanitas responded in a cheeky tone. "I'll be right back."
This confused the detective and Commissioner until he warped away from them for a few moments before coming back with two other SWAT members. This happened a few more times until all of the downed members were placed right outside. Even the security guards that were stationed outside of the crime scene that Batman had knocked out.
"Well here you go."
"Thanks for the assist Vanitas."
"No problem Commissioner. Just doing my job." Vanitas said as he summoned his motorcycle in a plume of black and white smoke. "Have a good night you guys." He told them before revving up his bike and drove off with the sounds of Bullock cursing at the top of his lungs with him wanting to take out Vanitas as well.
-Next Day, Gotham Zoo-
"Come on Naruto." Harley said in a giddy tone as she eyed the next part of the zoo. "I want to see those next."
"Alright Harley, I'm coming." Naruto said as he was practically being dragged along by his blonde friend. "We can take as much time as we want. They aren't going anywhere."
The Gotham Zoo is the current place the two are at in Harley's little holiday. Since Naruto offered his friend that everything they do for the day will be on him, she decided to exploit it to her heart's content. With some exceptions of course.
Naruto had picked up Harley around eight in the morning and the first place she wanted to go to was Paula's Diner for breakfast. It was a simple meal really that Harley told Naruto that she had called Selina and talked to Pam to tell them that she was sorry on how she acted and not seeing them. She explained everything to them on what she was feeling and they forgave her since it was a practically a normal reaction for anyone if they heard such a thing. It made Naruto feel better that Harley was able to explain her feelings on the whole matter.
After breakfast, Harley had wanted to go to the arcade of all places. Something about wanting to get rid of some angst she had been building up for quite some time because of work. It was pretty understandable, so the two of them had been playing through several fighting games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Marvel Vs Capcom. That was all before going onto some of the regular arcade games that Naruto had gotten enough tickets to get Harley several plush toys with some left over for him to grab one for Pam and Selina. It was rather cute to see Harley hold a pirate fox plushie and gush over it along with the other ones he one her. With the ones he got for Selena and Pam, they were a Rocket Racoon and Groot plush respectively.
Though there was an odd feeling he got when playing at the shooting gallery to get one of Harley's prizes. Naruto had never used a gun before in his life, even a standard arcade one, only used his kunai, daggers and cards as his projectiles. But when he was aiming down on his sights, some purple circles appeared to help pinpoint his target. When he fired, he did it in rapid succession that could've made any sharpshooter green with envy. Naruto wondered what the deal with that was, but he didn't complain since he gotten Harley one of the bigger prizes in the end.
Once leaving the arcade, the two went out for lunch before going to Harley's next stop on her list being the Gotham Zoo. It was fun seeing Harley be so energetic throughout the day that it could've been a crime to see her depressed all of a sudden. Reason why he wanted to make his friend happy was to not only help her celebrate all of the good she has done so far, but to also help uplift her spirits that she has been having for quite a while.
The two had finished going through several areas of the zoo from the reptile house, the aviary, the aquarium and the insectarium. So now they were going to the regular animals on display from the lions, tigers, and bears. Oh My….
…..
(Sorry, couldn't help myself. Moving on.)
When seeing most of the animals here in the cages, Naruto couldn't help but frown a little as part of Selina's environmentalist influence was rubbing off on him. Wanting to get the animals out of their cages and find a way to get them back to their natural habitats. But it wouldn't do them any good.
'Maybe I should bring Selina here when I get the chance.' Naruto thought before he was dragged again by Harley to their next stop.
Things were normally going well until they suddenly stopped…. Well more like Harley stopped with Naruto bumping into her. He gained a questioning look as he gazed his sites at his friend. He then looked towards what she was staring at and saw it was the hyena pen. Or more importantly, what was in the pen.
*Squeel* "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" Harley yelled out as she practically gained stars in her eyes. "Look at those babies! They are so cute!"
Naruto let out a small laugh as he saw Harley run up to the pen and gush over how adorable the two hyena babies were while being fed by the animal handler.
"I have a feeling I now know what your favorite animal is Harley."
"Yeah. Always loved them when I was younger." The blonde intern said as the nostalgia kicked in. "They were an interesting bunch that I wanted to interact so when I did a study on them for a school assignment I felt connected to them in a way. Whenever they are stressed, they would always laugh. Would always give out an interesting sound to get others to recognize each other. Even thought of having one or two as a pet."
"I can understand that." He commented as he looked at the scene along side her. "I've been meaning to ask this Harley, but why the arcade and the zoo? I would've expected going out on a shopping spree on books and clothes, but not those." He didn't get much of an immediate response as Harley's eyes were still glued on the hyenas, but one came up a few moments later.
"Well~ the shopping spree did come to mind, but I figured it would've been better if we were actually dating." She said as she started to chuckle a little at the thought before things went on the different route.
*Sight "... But I didn't have much fun in my childhood, with me not having not that many friends at all. With how things were like at the time, I eventually had to grow up rather quickly. From working hard so I could try and have a better life once I got older. Had to sacrifice a lot of my free time working on gymnastics and school work so I could get into college.
So today I wanted to at least…. Well hopefully try to at least feel like like a kid again. To feel what I had missed all those years ago. Even if it's only for a handful of times, it would at least make me feel better without having to deal with work for the time being."
Once that was said, Harley had felt Naruto wrap his arm around her to bring her close to a side hug. She didn't resist at this, as it felt nice to be in his warm embrace. After having the chat yesterday morning, Harley felt better that Naruto wanted to stay friends with her. It really did, don't get her wrong about that as a large weight came off of her from her worries.
But with what went on today, spending time with Naruto as a friend, made her wonder if those feelings she had before went away for a time or started to slowly come back. With not having the feeling of life bringing her down and feeling like a free spirit, Harley felt a bit connected with her inner self. So when Naruto had given her all of those gifts/prizes and made her day all the more wonderful so far, it started making her have this bubbly feeling inside of her. She didn't know if she liked Naruto as just a friend or possibly…. Possibly something more.
"The Gotham Zoo Tour tram will depart in five minutes." A voice from the intercom spoke out, breaking the semi-quiet moment between the two. "Adventures of Curoptery in the Bat Exhibit will begin in thirty minutes."
"Well I think we stayed here long enough Naruto." Harley said as she broke hold. "I would like to maybe get onto that tour if possible."
"That's fine Harley." Naruto said with a small smile. "It might help wrap up what we haven't seen here today."
She nodded before both of them walked together towards their destination. With the density of people moving all around each other, the two had missed seeing Bruce walking right past them. But it didn't matter to them as they were more focused on each other.
But you might be wondering why Bruce is at the Gotham Zoo in the first place. Well let's find out, shall we….
He had arrived to the Gotham Zoo a handful of minutes ago as he was making his way through the crowds of people that were attending to attractions for the day. His destination in mind was the Bat Exhibit as he had an appointment he scheduled earlier in the day. When he had entered the building, it felt like he was somewhat back at home in his Bat Cave. With the dark and brooding feeling he experiences in there every day, minus all of the expensive equipment he has in there.
"Hello!" Bruce called out into the darkness as he navigated his way through the pathways. "Anybody home?! Dr. March?!"
"Yes….who is it?" A man called out, making Bruce turn around towards the source. He was greeted with the site of an old man, probably in his fifties, with his white hair and short stature. He was currently wearing a lab coat with a Gotham Zoo name badge on it. He also wore a typical pair of black pants and shoes with hints of bat guano on them with a white shirt and green tie.
"Bruce Wayne. I have an appointment. Called about having a bat problem."
"Who do you think we are? Pest control?" Dr. March said in a grumpy mood.
"No I just need to-" "Yeah yeah….follow me."
Bruce did just that as he followed the good doctor until coming to a darkened doorway that would've been hard to notice, if you weren't used to seeing in the dark.
"You donate a few million and you think you own the place." The doctor mumbled as the two entered the lab. "I understand that I need to analyze something for you."
"Yes doctor, I've been hearing these squeaks coming from my chimney and I've found these in my fireplace." Bruce lied in a cheerful tone as he pulled out the bag with bat hairs from his coat pocket. "They looked like hairs and I was wondering what you could tell me about them if I have a bat problem or not."
"And what is wrong with having bats Mr. Wayne? And what then? Destroy them like the pests they are?" The man said with an angry hiss. "We won't be able to survive the next evolutionary cataclysm, but bats will. They are survivors Mr. Wayne. Not pests! You should understand that!"
"Dad! Will you please cut that out." A female voice called out, getting Bruce to turn around to see a beautiful woman in her mid to late 30's. Shoulder length blonde hair with curls throughout its length. She wore a standard lab coat with her name badge present over the purple attire she had underneath. She also wore a pair of red rimmed glasses to cover up her green eyes. "I hope that Mr. Wayne means you no disrespect."
"Of course not Miss…."
"Mrs. actually… more like doctor. Dr. Francine Langstrom." The blonde greeted the billionaire. "You had actually spoke with my husband earlier on the phone."
"Why yes. Yes I did."
Like calling on the devil and he shall appear, Francine's husband had walked into the room. He appeared to be around his wife's age with being a head taller than her. His light brown hair was combed back to make his face appear longer with his high cheekbones and square like jaw.
"Oh Mr. Wayne. Good to see you. Sorry that I'm late, had something else to take care of." Her husband said as he came up and shook Bruce's hand. "Kirk Langstrom. So did you bring the sample you acquired?"
"I actually gave it to Dr. March." Said man had walked out of the room and shut the door behind him. "Eh…. Where'd he go?"
"Probably starting up on his analysis and if it's a bat problem then we'll let you know by tomorrow at the latest." Kirk said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Dad was just lecturing on the virtues of chiroptera, bats in english if you were wondering."
"Yeah….I hope he didn't get too carried away on that." Kirk groaned a little when hearing that. "He's rather protective on all of this. I think he enjoys their company over people any day of the week."
"I'd can't imagine." Bruce said with a small chuckle. 'If you only knew doctor.' "Oh and I also brought this as well." He said as he held up the tape recorder from last night, with some editing he took out to only focus on the roar. "I got a recording from my chimney and sorry if it sounds a bit off. Tried my best for a good recording." He said before playing the tape.
RAAAAAAAARHHHH
When this was played, Francine was rather startled when hearing this. But with Kirk, Bruce noticed he didn't shaken up when hearing this at all. Something seemed off about that. Bruce then stopped the recording and handed the device to Francine.
"That doesn't sound like any bat I've ever heard Mr. Wayne." She spoke while trying to come up with some thought to all of this.
"We have an animal sound library here at the zoo." Her husband said as he took the recorder from her. "I'm sure the guys over there will be able to identify the sound. So we'll let you know once the results come in."
"Thanks. I appreciate it." Bruce said as he left the lab and went straight back home to figure things out this evening.
-Batcave-
The sound of the roar was playing throughout the cave as Batman was trying to work things out on his end if he can't get the results in before going out on patrol.
"I never depicted you to listen to rock and roll sir." Alfred said as he came over to switch out the empty pot of tea he left earlier.
"You know, I had compared some of the sounds to any known bats. Even the computer can't make any heads or tails out of it." The hero said as he scratched his head in slight frustration.
Before he had left to the zoo earlier, he had his computer go through the samples found at the crime scene and things weren't all that conclusive. So he resorted to contacting the experts in this sort of thing when one little result came through that the hairs came from a bat. Even when he came back, he did the best he could to figure out the source of the sound. From what Bruce could tell was that he'll need to get more equipment when possible.
*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*
The sound of Bruce's phone went off in the cave, making him turn off the sound playing on his computer. With Bruce being closer to the phone, he picked it up and answered.
"Hello. Bruce Wayne speaking."
"You have bats Mr. Wayne. Common brown bats." Dr. March said over the phone. "They shouldn't pose a problem as long as you don't smoke them out. But once the weather starts getting colder, they'll move onto a warmer area."
"But what about the sound on the tape?"
"Believe it or not, but it's actually two sounds spliced together. Starlings and brown bats. Probably fighting over a nest in your chimney."
"Thanks for the assist doc. I'll be sure to pay you back when you're raising funds again."
"Good to know. Have a good night." Dr. March said as he hung up the phone.
"Well that narrows the sound down a little bit, but the computer would've picked up on it. I went to them if they knew something I didn't and that hair wasn't that of a typical brown bat."
"And those melodic sounds?" Asked the Wayne butler.
Bruce typed up the designated bat species and pulled up their natural sounds before playing them at the same time. They sounded similar to the one from the recorder, but it didn't match up at all. More monstrous due to what Bruce concluded as the bat imposter being a metahuman.
"I'm afraid that we are facing an incongruity here."
"Incongruity? No… Dr. March is lying and I intend to find out."
-Evening, Gotham Zoo-
Inside of the Bat Exhibit's lab, a shadowy figure had his lab run a variety of chemicals through various tubes while he was handling the samples Mr. Wayne had brought in earlier. With the burner on, the person had brought out a pair of tongs to grab ahold of the tape before putting it over the open flame to destroy the film inside. Once placing it back onto a safety tray on the side, the person then used the same pair of tongs to do the same process again on the bag of hair samples.
Once that was done, the person started to pant and groan a little. In response to this, the person pulled out the vials that were stolen from the pharmaceutical buildings and struggled to open them up before pouring them into the chemical fixture. With the chemicals doing their work, they traveled along their glass pathways with the person's eyes following them in an impatient struggle.
"Come on. Come on. Hurry up." The person said as the concoction finally reached it's goal and the entire thing went into a glass beaker. As this went on, the person licked their lips in anticipation. Once the very last drop fell into the container, the person carefully picked it up to their lips and drank down the whole thing.
*Cough Cough* *Panting* *Cough* "That should probably do it." The person said while taking off the safety gloves before going into the other room.
Without being noticed, Batman came out of his cover from the outside and slowly opened up the window to get inside of the lab before closing it back up. He was going to search the lab for clues, but the sound coming from his cowl was going off. With the particular tone going off in his ear was coming from his phone.
"Need to keep this low." Batman muttered as he crouched down before answering the call. "Hello."
"Did I catch you at a bad time?"
"No...I don't think so. Why you ask Bethanie?" He asked with his mind mostly focused on the task at hand.
"What are you wearing?"
This threw him off his game a little as he didn't know how to respond to that. "... I'm sorry but what?"
"I'm hoping it's a tux since it's 7:30 and I'm expecting you in half an hour."
'Dammit, I forgot. The fundraiser dinner.' Bruce thought as he quickly answered her back. "With my checkbook right?"
"Yup."
As this went on, the door to the lab opened up violently.
"Who's there?!" The person said before scanning the room. "Don't bother try and hide. I heard something in here."
Berating himself on this, he decided he needed to end the call now. "Bethanie…. I'm going to call you back."
"Bruce? What is goi-"
With the cover being blown, Batman came out of his hiding spot to address the person from the doorway: Dr. Kirk Langstrom.
"I'm here to see Dr. March."
"Well he's not here Batman."
"Then where is he?"
"Giving a lecture on human extinction and bat evolution at the college as a guest speaker for a friend of his that teaches there." Kirk plainly said as he closed the door behind him and walked further into the lab. "He's really quite brilliant you know."
"He's misguided and a thief." Batman said as he held up a chemical vial.
"My father-in-law is just a theorist, since he was afraid to put it to the test. But I wasn't." The doctor said with a small chuckle as he walked past his work table. "We'd discovered a formula to create a totally new species. Neither man nor bat. And once I started taking it…. *Panting* I just couldn't stop. I honestly wanted to stop *Cough Cough*, but it took over."
"What are you saying?" The Caped Crusader said as he slowly readied himself for whatever is going to happen.
"Francine and her father tried to protect me, but it was too late. *Panting* The beast already knew what chemicals it needed to bring itself about. It was out of my control." He said defensively before he started to groan. "It took over and I was thrown into the backseat to make me get what it wanted. Now *Groan* it's all in me!" Kirk yelled out as his body started to spasm to make him fall onto the lab table and try to get himself back up. Batman went closer to possibly help him but Kirk yelled out to him. "StAy bacK!"
With that final warning, his body started to shift and churn as his body started to enlarge itself with his hair starting to grow out. The clothes were straining against the fabric as his eyes started to dangerously dilate with the veins of his eyes showing up drastically. His ears started to shift into a sharpen tip with his hands starting to gain more skin in between his elongated fingers before it seemed to spread underneath his arms.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Kirk yelled out in a mighty roar like screech as the Man-Bat soon took over. It raised its arms free as the clothing shredded like a pseudo cocoon before it swung its arms across the table, spilling all of it's contents onto the floor.
"My god." Batman said as he saw the horrid spectacle before him. He then readied himself yet again as the Man-Bat jumped into the air and came down to him with its clawed feet. Batman ducked out of the way, only for the creature he's now facing glided across the room before coming back at him in high speeds. It brought down its talons on the hero as it ripped through part of his cape and costume to show some of the skin underneath.
"Going to need a new suit after this." He said as he then saw Man-Bat lift the table and quickly threw it at him. This time, Batman wasn't able to dodge in time as he was then pinned down with nowhere to run. He struggled to get himself free, but the creature jumped on top of the ruined piece of furniture to possibly finish off the hero.
"Kirk?!" A voice called out. Both turned towards the source to see Francine in the doorway. She gasped at the sight before speaking in a shaky tone. "W-What have you done?"
The creature didn't react well to this and bellowed out a screech and opened up its wings to fly out of the room. Batman knew what Man-Bat was going to do, so he pulled out his grappling gun and fired at the man turned beast's leg to have it be wrapped in it's hardened coil. He braced himself as he was then pulled out from underneath the desk and was sent flying with the Man-Bat flying out of the window.
With the Man-Bat flying higher and higher into the night sky, it soon realized the weight it had as it was pulling him down from its leg. It looked back in confirmation to realize that the Batman was still on him. With that in mind, it started to shift and turn to hopefully get the hero of Gotham to let go so that it can be free to do whatever it wants.
As this was going on, the GCPD blimp was doing its rounds for the evening.
*Blip Blip* *Blip Blip* *Blip Blip*
"I'm getting something strange here Mark."
*Groan* "Oh not this again Frank."
"I'm serious Mark. It's right below us."
As he said this, the Man-Bat flew right in front of them with its monstrous screech that got the two officer startled at the sight.
"What the devil?!" Mark yelled out before a loud bang was sounded off in their miniature cabin. The two officer soon saw the source as they saw Batman pressed up against the glass. With the impact he made had gotten it to web out before he was pulled out of his placement and was dragged back out into the night's sky.
"Gotham Command! We need choppers now! We just spotted Batman and some sort of man-bat thing!" Frank yelled out into the radio as his eyes were locked onto the spectacle before him.
-Meanwhile-
*Sigh* "It's practically quiet out tonight." Vanitas said as he was perched on top of his corporate building. The full moon was bright out tonight, making him gaze upon it's beauty. "Nothing really going on so far. Might as well call it a night and see what Selina would want to do for the evening."
He was ready to jump off of the building when he saw a bat like creature flying across his vision, with someone dangling from it's clawed foot. Naruto used his helmet to hone onto the figure and was able to see…. Batman?
'What the fuck is going on?' He thought as he saw the creature fly closer to his position. 'I might as well get some answers now.'
As the beast flew closer to the building, Vanitas jumped off of his placement and threw his arm out to summon his grappling scarf. It extended as far as it could and grabbed ahold of the unoccupied leg. With a jolt, the disguised Uzumaki was then dragged along for the ride.
With the new added weight onto the beast, it looked back to see another person trying to bring it down.
"Well ain't this a blast so far!" Vanitas yelled out as he looked towards Batman, who was holding onto dear life.
"What are you doing here?!"
"Apparently helping you out Bats!" Vanitas said as he had to try and move himself from not hitting a nearby building. "Seems that you're not the only 'bat' here in Gotham?!"
Batman didn't respond to Vanitas' joke as he was more focused on staying alive and stopping the Man-Bat before it causes any problems.
-GCPD-
The sound of helicopter blades were starting to rotate at high speeds to indicate that it was starting to take off. Soon the door to the building's rooftop was violently slammed opened to reveal Bullock running towards the helicopter.
"Come on! Let's go! Let's go!" The detective said as he tried to open the door of the chopper.
"I can't do that sir!" The pilot said getting Harvey to look at him oddly.
"What do you mean you can't do that?!"
"I just got word not to let you in here without the commissioner!"
"Who told you that?!"
"I did!" Gordon yelled out as he ran across the rooftop. "Get out of here detective! The mayor may or may not let me fire you, but I'm not taking the heat for your fiasco!"
"You heard the mayor, Commissioner! This is my case!"
"Then why don't you take it up with him?!" Gordon yelled out as he made his way into the chopper. "I've got a job to do and if you want to tag along, then go ahead!" Once the bespeckled man got inside, he told the pilot to take off.
"Hey! Wait up!" Bullock yelled as he jumped inside of the chopper.
-Back with the action, Insert Kingdom Hearts 2.5: 13th Dilemma Extended-
The Man-Bat was flying all over the city to hopefully get rid of the pests latched onto its legs. Swinging around with a lot of effort to finally let go, but they were very persistent. It soon realized that it needed to fly into some hazards.
What it didn't know was that both 'pests' have been knocking into each other quite often on this 'joyful' ride of theirs. It would've been easier if only one of them was latched onto the legs, but with two…. Well the two are realizing how 'fun' it is hitting each other.
"I swear…. *Groan* I would throw up right now if I didn't have this helmet on." Vanitas said as he tried to stabilize himself, but with the Man-Bat being the one steering this whole time is making things harder to do so. Didn't even help that he kept hitting against Batman. "Would've enjoyed being in an airplane over than this. *Smack* At least I would've had something to stay sturdy on."
In his mild nausea, he barely missed the warning from Batman on the construction site ahead of them. While Batman was able to move his body better to move away from some of the metal beams, Vanitas kept smacking against them.
*Smack* "Ow!" *Smack* "Ack!" *Smack* "Fuck that hurts!"
Soon the Man-Bat went upwards to make the two heroes soar into the upper levels of the construction site before going through several loop de loops in fast speeds.
"AAAHHH! We're gonna diiiiieeeee! We're gonna diiiiieeeee! I'm going to throw up! And then I'm gonna diiiiieeeee!" Vanitas screamed out with him not enjoying all of the spinnings and twirls any longer. "Maaa Maaa!"
"Will you just shut up?!" Batman snapped out as he got frustrated on Vanitas' yells and complaints on this entire struggle.
"Maaaake meeeeee!"
An opportunity soon presented itself as Batman had he let go of his grappling gun, making him fall onto the Man-Bat's back. With this new surprisement, the beast flew out of the construction site before doing the same tactics as before to shake off this 'pest'. But this time, Batman was fighting for control of the 'wheel'.
As this was going on, the GCDP chopper was flying through Gotham in search of Batman and that man-bat thing one of the officers reported. Their wait was over as the occupants of the helicopter soon saw several figures approaching their position. They soon saw an odd spectacle of Batman riding….something.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Bullock yelled out, voicing the other's thoughts.
"That thing is what we are after!" Gordon said before he noticed that they were coming closer. "Move!"
On the sudden command, the pilot did just that to move out of the way as the Man-Bat took a dive, sending Vanitas higher into the air. Because of that, his grappling scarf soon met the path of the helicopter blades, making them slice through the fabric. With losing it's connection to the beast, the helmeted Uzumaki was sent flying higher into the air.
"FUCK!"
With the spinning Vanitas was experiencing, he wasn't be able to focus properly to shoot out his grappling scarf. He was then resorted try to latch onto a nearby building, but he banged off to the side and fell farther away from said building. It seemed that the masked Uzumaki wasn't going to make it with the wind accelerating him towards his demise.
"I can't die here like this!" He yelled out as he tried to focus his powers to at least survive the fall, but it wasn't responding. Like something seemed to block his connection. He focused harder and harder with more determination before he yelled out in frustration. "Come on! Give me something! Anything at all!"
And just like that, something clicked inside of him. Something that felt lost seemed to have returned to him as the surrounding air felt natural to him after a decade. A dark torrent of air started to form around Vanitas' hand before he grabbed ahold of it out of instinct. Once doing so, he jerked mid-air due to the sudden stop from his fall that made it feel like his arm almost got ripped out of it's socket.
"Dear Kami, that is going to fucking hurt for the rest of the night." The masked Uzumaki groaned out before he looked upwards to see what helped save his life.
At first, he thought it was an odd colored pole with its blue and purple tones on the metal surface. But when he was inspecting the length, which seemed to be roughly his height, there were blades coming out from the ends of the pole to get the former shinobi to realize it's a lance. With one end of the lance had the one symbol he kept seeing on his summoned weapons and notebook. While the other end had an odd metallic dragon's head of sort to finish off the rest of its appearance.
"...I did not expect seeing….that." He thought out loud as he didn't know what to do exactly with it. It was just sitting there in the air while he was dangling several hundred feet above the ground. "What should I do with this?"
'Get on it.'
"What?" Vanitas questioned as he didn't know where that voice came from.
'Get. On. It.'
"...Okay…"
With some hesitation, he pulled himself up and was going to sit down when the lance started to move all on it's own. It forced him to balance onto the pole with his feet as he soon zipped across the sky like he was riding a surfboard or a skateboard. Vanitas wondered if he was going to feel sick again, but oddly enough he didn't feel any bit nauseous at all. In fact, he felt better than before.
"I don't know why I'm like this now, but I'll figure that later. I need to find Batman and that Man-Bat thing." He said as he soon scanned the city for any sign of the two 'bats' all the while getting his lance to go higher for a better view. As it climbed higher, the masked Uzumaki soon saw the pair of 'bats' some distance away. The lance moved without warning again as it bolted through the sky to get towards it's target. It wasn't long for Vanitas to get closer to see Batman punching Man-Bat's face while steering away from several buildings.
"That must not be fun at all." The former shinobi muttered as he got closer to the two and brought his arms out to get the grappling scarves to latch onto Man-Bat's legs. He pulled as hard as he could while getting his lance to slow things to a complete stop. The sudden halt caused the 'bats' to end up crashing against a parking garage, leaving a large indent against its wall with the masked rider thrown off of his lance. They soon landed onto the ground with the two heroes shaking the cobwebs out of their heads while the Man-Bat was rendered unconscious.
"Finally…. It's over." Vanitas groaned out before a spotlight shined upon them. "Spoke too soon."
"This is the Gotham Police! Hand over the Man-Bat thing now!" A loud voice called out from the speakers before it was suddenly cut off to another voice.
"What did I say about messing with the speaker without permission Bullock?!"
"...Not to touch it."
As this went on, Batman had ushered Vanitas to help carry the Man-Bat. He then pulled out several smoke bombs and threw them onto the ground to help cover their mistake. Even Vanitas had to disperse his lance, which was nearby the helicopter, which made a large amount of smoke that was hard to get rid of with the rotating blades of the chopper. By the time things were cleared up, the three were gone.
"You know," Vanitas started to say as he was walking for a bit of time with the other hero of Gotham, "you didn't have to ask me to help you out."
"Well I needed to since I think I might've sprained my ankle on that fall."
"Ouch." The masked publisher said with a sympathetic hiss. "Yeah that would explain that now….. So how much longer till I can leave you two be for the evening?"
"Just a little more." Batman said before bringing one of his hands towards his belt and pressed a button to get his batmobile to roar to life with the hood opening up. "Here is good."
"Great because whoever this guy is-is bloody heavy."
The two carefully placed the beast into the passenger seat of the batmobile before Batman pulled out a tranquiliser and stabbed it into the creature's neck. It was so that it would stay asleep a whole lot longer for what Batman had planned to do for the rest of the evening. Vanitas didn't want to know as he summoned his motorcycle and drove off into the night to parts unknown.
-Batcave-
When getting back to the cave, Batman had a bit of a struggle to get Kirk out of the vehicle. Luckily Alfred was there for the assist before placing the changed man onto the medical table. After that, Batman had hooked the beast up to his computer to run a diagnostic on him.
"I take it that you didn't make it to dinner with Bethanie Master Bruce?" Alfred rhetorically questioned getting his charge to look at him. "She called the manor after you supposedly hung up on her."
"She called at an awkward time." Bruce defended as he focused on the readings the computer were displaying on the screen so far on Kirk's condition.
*Sigh* "What am I ever going to do with you Master Wayne?" The ever faithful butler said with a shake to his head. "You better call her back when possible to make up for…. what's the phrase I'm looking for…. 'standing her up?'"
"I will after I fix Dr. Langstrom here."
"Good."
"It helps a bit that I have a list of all of the stolen chemicals that ended up being used to make Kirk…. Into a monster." Bruce said as he brought up said chemicals onto the screen. "I just hope I can undo what has been done upon him Alfred."
Alfred could only look onto the screen as several scenarios were played out to possibly figure out the cure. "Then does it appear feasible sir?"
Once that was said, a result came through making the 'playboy' to give out a smile. "It just might."
-Sunrise, Gotham Zoo-
The sound of the Batmobile's engines roared as it came through the service entrance of the zoo before it came to a complete stop near the Bat Exhibit. As the hood of the vehicle opened, Francine rushed out of the building in a worried state. She drew closer as her eyes were landed on the wrapped up form held in Batman's arms.
"Is he…. Is he alright?"
The only answer she got was Batman unfurling the wrappings to reveal her husband back to his normal form with some stitches and bandages on him. She sighed in relief to see her husband was human again since what he became…. It scared her greatly. Speaking of…
"Is he going to change again?"
Batman shook his head as he walked towards the entrance of the Bat Exhibit. "He won't... the formula is out of his system. So things are over for now."
She didn't know what he meant and asked him as she opened the door for him to get her husband inside. With the sun starting to rise from the horizon, a figure was slowly revealed from the building's rooftop. To show that Vanitas was hiding on the building's rooftop this entire time.
After what happened hours ago, the masked Uzumaki had to leave and patrol the city again. Reason being was that when he got that lance of his, he felt a storm brewing inside of him that needed to settle down. The only thing he thought was to bring out his new weapon and ride it until he felt it calm down. Like before, nothing else happened since the Man-Bat had come out and the police were heavily patrolling the streets making all crime lessen for the night. But that didn't mean Naruto stopped what he was doing.
With nothing actually going on, he rode the lance like weapon at a decent pace. First with just riding it like it was a surfboard or a skateboard for a while before sitting down on it to ride it like a stereotypical witch or wizard. Riding at various speeds to try and settle down the storm for all it's worth. During all that time, it felt truly satisfying to feel the wind rushing through him even with his helmet put away to get the full feeling.
Time had past as he saw the sun start to rise from the horizon and he was ready to go home when he somehow spotted the Batmobile. His curiosity had peaked as he wondered where it was going. So he rode his lance to follow the trail before it ended up at the Gotham Zoo. From there, he saw what occurred outside of the Bat Exhibit and got all of the answers he needed before using his lance to fly back home without any problems of air sickness anymore.
-Evening-
"So are you going to tell me why you blew me off on our first date last night? And hang up on me?" Bethanie asked as she was seated across from Bruce at a nice restaurant.
After dropping off Kirk Langstrom at the Gotham Zoo, he went home and rested for a few hours, especially since he needed to ice up his sprained ankle. When it was an appropriate time, he called Bethanie and apologized and asked if she would be willing to go to dinner that night. The therapist said yes but would want to hear his excuse face to face.
"I was helping someone out that needed my attention. Didn't know the man all that well, but felt the need to do what I can to possibly save his marriage."
"I see." She said as she took a sip from her wine glass. "But did it work?"
"I think so. The two might be going through some counseling for the time being." He responded with a shrug. "Never really has been my strong suit. Relationships that is."
She chuckled at this when remembering that little tidbit from their previous sessions. "Well let's see what we can do to change that."
"Then I'm glad that I'm not your patient anymore." Bruce said, making her smile a little.
After saying her piece, Bruce's eye caught onto something that surprised him and voiced it.
"Naruto? Selina? What are you two doing here?" Bruce called out, making the secret couple look towards the source.
"Oh hey Bruce. Nice seeing you here." Naruto said as he and his girlfriend got closer with smiles on their faces. But underneath their smiles, they were freaking out a little that they were spotted but they knew that someone might spot them sooner or later. Reason why they came prepared.
"Nice seeing you as well." The playboy said to his friend before looking at the environmentalist. "How's your side Selina?"
"It's doing alright," she said with a shrug, "have to try and not move in certain angles or else the pain will come back. Would've been worse if the stitches didn't settle."
"Then I'm glad to hear that." Bruce said with a smile to see her feeling better. "Like I promised in our arrangement, I'll send you what I owe you on whatever charity you plan to donate next."
"Great to hear that Bruce."
"But that still doesn't answer what you two are doing here?"
Naruto chuckled a little as he brought up the excuse. "Well I had promised Selina to take her to this one fundraising event last night, but I was held up at work all night long for some projects coming up soon."
"So he apologized to me and offered to make it up with dinner." Selina quickly said before adding in one more thing. "As friends that is."
"Funny…. Somewhat the same excuse Bruce gave me." Bethanie said to get the secret couple to look at her. "I'm sorry. I haven't introduced myself. Dr. Bethanie Ravencroft." She said as she held out her hand for the two.
'Where have I heard that name before?' Naruto thought as Selina shook the blonde's hand as she introduced herself. A thought then came to the forefront of his mind and remembered the Magpie incident along with his chats with the bird themed woman. 'Oh…her.'
The publisher then saw the greeting end between the two women, before Naruto shook the therapist's hand. "Nice to meet you Dr. Ravencroft, Naruto Uzumaki."
"The owner of Spiral Publishing." Bethanie said with a smile. "I enjoy a lot of the works your company has published, especially with your latest book."
"Why thank you doctor."
"Why don't you two join us?" The therapist suddenly asked getting the others to look at her funny. "It might be fun and I don't mind having the dinner be a 'double date'."
"Are you sure on that?" Selina asked since she had hoped to have another private dinner with just her and her boyfriend. "We don't want to intrude on your date."
"I'm really fine with it, really." Bethanie said before putting her attention towards Bruce. "What do you say Bruce?"
Seeing the pressure was on him, he sighed before nodding and called the nearby waiter to combine the two parties. When the tables were being set up, Bethanie excused herself to go use the restroom. As she was on her way, she pulled her phone out of her purse and dialed a number before bringing the device to her ear.
…..
"Yes it's me."
…..
"I'm having dinner with him now as we speak."
…..
"I practically got him hooked."
…..
"There's another thing that I should mention."
…..
"I'm having dinner with Naruto Uzumaki as well."
…..
"Then I'll wait for further instructions." The therapist said before she hung up the phone as she went to use the restroom to freshen up.
-End Chapter-
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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