It's Not Safe here
"Thank you all for coming tonight here at Wayne Towers." Bruce said to address the audience. He was currently standing behind a podium with flashes keep going on and off to indicate the press taking photos of the event. "I'm proud to announce that Wayne Industries continues it's quest to advance the human condition with the latest technology it can muster with the innovation to not only address the nation's energy needs, but also the world's."
"Wonder what the latest 'solution' is going to be this time?" Naruto asked in a low enough tone of voice for only Selina to hear. "People in the past have said different variations and some succeed in their goals while others crash and burn."
"Who knows for sure, but we'll have to wait and see." Selina responded back while both of them were sitting next to each other in the audience.
Naruto had gotten a call from Bruce a few days ago to invite him to this press event. From what he vaguely stated, he'll be releasing a possible new solution to help the world's energy crisis. Sure...there isn't one now, but with how the world's population tends to waste energy and go through various means of needing to acquire it can be rather costly. So the publisher decided to take up on the offer for the exclusive press release.
As for why Selina is with him; Naruto thought that since this possible solution would dramatically affect the environment in a positive way, so he decided to bring her along for the ride. He would've also invited Pam to the event if she wasn't still admitted into Arkham. She was still considered 'mentally unwell' and can't be released until kami knows when. Naruto also invited Harley as well, but with how complicated her sessions were with Magpie. He could understand that she needed every ounce of focus on the damaged woman.
Soon the image of an interesting, looking battery was on display with some animations following after. "The Zephyr. A high output, perpetual energy source, since the sun, all wrapped up in the form of a battery."
"Ok this seems interesting." Naruto stated as he unconsciously scooted further from his seat with Selina mirroring his action.
"One might think that this little battery would give you a never ending flashlight, but it can power much more than that. Just one of these can be able to power an entire city for years, saving millions and practically billions in each form of currency. Even to the point of giving the world an energy surplus after eliminating the energy waste we do every day in our lives. No more harming the environment, but instead help heal it by leaving it alone through the Zephyr." Bruce explained getting many audience members to react positively on the applications on the device.
"I thought you might like that. So don't take my word on it. Meet the man behind this breakthrough: Simon Feck." The billionaire stated as the man of the hour was presented. When he came out from the back area, it came to quite a shock to everybody that the man was actually a teenager, practically out of highschool even.
Simon Feck appeared to be in his late teens, reaching early twenties, with his long brown hair combed back with hints of peach fuzz on his face after shaving this morning. He wore a pair of wire framed glasses for his brown eyes that showed hints of nervousness and anxiety, but mustered up his courage to stand at the podium in front of everyone. Simon also wore a blue button up shirt with a cream colored suit to fit his form.
*Cough* "Thanks Mr. Wayne for giving me this opportunity to speak to you all." Simon said into the microphone as some people that were in the first few rows could see the teen fidget a little before taking a deep breath to continue. "Throughout the world, we are wasting various resources incorrectly and not using them-"
*Clang*
A throwing star suddenly appeared out of nowhere and sliced through the microphone to imbed itself onto the podium, causing an uproar in the sudden occurrence. Soon several hooded men came down from the ceiling before they tossed smoke pellets across the stage and onto the audience to make things more complicated. From distracting the oncoming guards to getting people to flee in terror. Some guards were able to nab Simon and flee from the stage while others stayed in place to hold off the hooded men. They weren't that lucky as they were either knocked out or killed with bladed weapons for getting in their way of their goals.
"Selina!" Naruto called out as he tried to find his friend in admist to the chaos of the crowd. "Selina! Where are you?!" His question as soon answered as he looked towards the side to see her running after the hooded men and Simon with the security detail. "Dammit!"
The security detail were running as fast as possible while covering the young genius towards the exit. But Simon had stepped wrongly during the run and fell towards the ground getting the security team to try and get him up.
"Mr. Feck, we need to get-" One guard said before being kicked to the side and knocked out while the other guards were knocked out or killed in the process.
"You will be coming with us." One of the hooded men blankly stated as he grabbed ahold of the teen's arm and tried to take him away.
"Hey!"
The yell was the only warning one of the hooded men got before being pounced on by Selina and wrapped her legs around his neck before using her momentum to throw him into another hooded man. She then jumped towards one of the men and swung her legs around to hit the man several times before landing on the ground to sweep kick another. When both were on the ground, she dived towards them and landed her knees on their chests to hopefully knock them out before moving onto the next few of hooded men.
"H-Help!" Simon pleaded as one of the men was dragging him to god knows where until someone else showed up. Grabbing the assailant's arm and twisting it around to let go of the teen before kicking the man towards the wall hard.
"Sorry for the wait Mr. Feck." Vanitas said to the scared teen. "Traffic was a nightmare. Look for cover and come out when it's over."
He didn't get a response from the teen as the masked publisher dashed towards the closet hooded man and elbowed him in the stomach. He then grabbed ahold of his head and tossed him over his shoulder onto another man coming towards him. Seeing several assailants coming at him, Vanitas summoned various cards and daggers into his hands and threw them to pierce non lethal areas of the body to hopefully put them out of commission. Didn't work as he had hoped, the masked Uzumaki then had to run towards them and make quick work out of them before moving onto the others.
"Mind if I join this dance?" Vanitas rhetorically asked as he dived towards one of the men and in a somersault like move, threw him onto another man before summoning his escrima sticks.
"Not at all." Selina grunted out as she grabbed another man's head with her arms while her legs grabbed another man's head and twisted them to subdue them. "Would appreciate the help really."
Blows were traded and blocked as the two were making good work out of the hooded men. Some were getting back up and were ready to take more punishment. That was until a dark figure fell down from the ceiling and kicked one of the men onto another.
"Seems Batman finally showed." Vanitas called out to get Selina's attention on the new arrival.
"Wonder if he'll play along with us." She said as she blocked a few punches and tossed the man towards Batman, who had punched him in the air.
"Like we have a choice in the matter."
Things seemed to be wrapping up as the enemies dwindled down to just a handful. Knowing they weren't going to win, they threw tons of smoke pellets onto the ground to cover their escape along with gathering what men they could gather. When the smoke cleared, there were a few hooded men lying on the ground that seemed to have been left behind. Vanitas came towards one of them and saw what the man was wearing after things settled and the outfit seemed familiar to him.
'Isn't this the same outfit….that Minato wore?' Naruto thought as he remembered his encounter with this world's counterpart of his father. It looked very similar to the man's lying on the ground if he added on lightning designs on it. Coming closer to the man and pulled off the hood before questioning him. "Who sent you?!"
He didn't get anything of a proper response as the man started to speak in a foreign language. It was odd at first before Naruto saw the man open his mouth to flick something from his tooth and bite hard on it. Coming to the realization on what the man was doing, the black/white themed man tried to pry open his mouth, but it was too late as foam started to come out.
"Fuck!" Vanitas yelled out in frustration. "He used a cyanide pill!"
"And he's not the only one." Selina said as she saw the other hooded men foam in the mouth as well. "Seems whoever they were, didn't want to get questioned."
"Guess so." Batman said once he got back up to inspect one of the hooded men. "Custom made clothing, several weapons each, etc. Dangerous men by the likes of it."
"No kidding." Vanitas said as he walked walked towards Simon Feck's hiding spot and knocked a few times. "It's safe to come out kid."
"T-Thanks." Simon nervously said. "You guys saved my life."
"It's what we do." The masked Uzumaki stated before he fazed himself into the walls to get away.
*Groan* "Again I keep missing my opportunity to thank him." Selina frustratedly said before feeling a weight wrapped around her. Looking down she saw it was Simon and heard him mutter 'thank you' to her. "Yeah...that's fine. Not to be rude but mind getting off."
"Sorry." The teen said as he unwrapped himself and saw the mixture of dead and unconscious bodies on the floor around him. "Can we get out of here please?"
"Yeah follow me."
When the two of them were outside, they barely saw the police arrive onto the scene with several officers running inside. The two were then approached by a pair of officers that were pretty familiar to the thief. They were about to be questioned until someone called out to her.
"Selina!" Naruto called out as he got closer. "Thank Kami you're alright. What happened? I lost sight of you when everyone went nuts."
"Thanks Naruto and I was about to tell these two about what happened." She said when she pointed towards Officers Montoya and Uchiha.
"Yes, we were going to ask what happened as well." The Uchiha said as he pulled out a notepad and pen. "Would you mind telling us?"
"Not at all." Selina said as she recalled the events that happened on the inside with Simon adding in his point of view of what happened. As this happened, Bruce came onto the scene with a worried expression on his face.
"Everyone okay?" The billionaire asked as he also looked towards the teen genius. "Simon, are you alright?"
"Yeah I'm fine." Mr. Feck responded to the business owner. "But why were they after me? What did I do?"
"Making the Zephyr I'm guessing." Naruto answered getting slight attention onto him. "It seems that whoever targeted you either wants it for themselves or wants you out of the picture for possibly ruining their businesses."
"I agree. With the Zephyr having untold potential of saving power for the world, various people would feel threatened on losing a lot of money in the process." Bruce nodded at his friend's thoughts.
"Since he's a target, perhaps police custody for the time being?" Montoya asked with good intentions. "I'm sure that the GCPD can do everything that we have in our disposal for your safety Mr. Feck."
"No offense officer, but from what I saw in there I'm guessing that you guys won't be able to protect him well." Selina stated getting the officers to look towards her, especially with Detective Bullock and Commissioner Gordon overhearing the conversation.
"Are you saying that we ain't good enough to protect the kid?" Bullock said as he felt pissed off and offended on what was just said.
"Not that I trust the police or anything," the thief said to hopefully cool off the detective a bit, "but those hooded men were professionals and could maybe slip through and do whatever goal they want with minimal ease."
"I see your point Ms. Kyle. So what should be done instead?" Gordon asked as he tried to think of something with recent events.
"Simon could stay at Wayne Manor until proper help arrive and get him to a better location." Bruce offered getting varying looks from the group.
"Are you sure about that Bruce? I know your home is big and whatnot, but is it well protected?" Naruto asked the obvious question.
"With my latest security added into my home I think so. But if it makes things a bit better, the GCPD could come help out if they want."
"Will she be there?" Simon suddenly asked as he gained a slightly hopeful expression. "I-I would maybe feel safer if she or one of those heroes that saved me were there."
Selina was about to say something when Bruce suddenly spoke. "Of course she'll be there. She won't leave your side for the night."
'What?!' Selena and Naruto thought as they looked at the billionaire with semi-shocked looks.
"...Okay then. I'll be sure to help transport Mr. Feck to your residence and get security brought over there for the evening." Gordon said as he looked at the two friends and knew he should probably get out. He already had enough experience with his daughter and late wife to know that kind of look. "Come on Simon, let's head out."
As the others started to leave, both Naruto and Selina were practically burning holes into the billionaire. To which, the same man gave them a questioning look. "What?"
"What were you thinking to say that I'll help out in protecting him?" Asked the thief with a similar thought going through the publisher's head.
"Just hear me out okay."
Knowing Bruce might be going somewhere with this, Naruto stood down a little and placed his hand on Selina's shoulder to calm her down. She relented and awaited for Bruce's reason for doing this without her consent.
"Reason why I jumped the gun was because Simon is very scared on what happened and he needed someone a bit familiar to keep him safe. You were there to protect him and this made him feel safer around you Selina." He told her as she tried to process this.
"I can understand that Bruce, but it made it seem that I'm a bodyguard and I'm not all that great protecting people. Animals and the environment I do what I can, but humans can go so far."
The billionaire thought this over and came up with an idea. "How about a compromise?"
"Which would be what exactly?"
"You help protect Simon for the night and in return I'll pay for whatever cause you plan to help next."
She thought this over on the pros and cons. While this was going on, Naruto pulled Bruce to the side and quietly spoke to him. "You sure about that Bruce?" Naruto asked as he seemed to see the twinkle in Selina's eyes on that offer. "You basically making a 'blank check' offer to her and she's probably going to exploit it."
"I know that, but it's the only thing to possibly help her comply to the current situation."
'I hope this doesn't turn out where I think this might end up?' The publisher thought as he started to think of the worse outcomes if his secret girlfriend complied to all of this. He didn't want to see her get hurt, or worse.
"It's a deal." The environmentalist said getting Bruce to nod before walking towards his car that had recently pulled up.
"Are you sure you want to go through with this Selina?" Naruto asked in a worried tone.
"I'll be fine Naruto. You don't have to worry about a thing." She replied before feeling his hand grab ahold of hers.
"Yes I do have to worry. I just don't want you to get hurt tonight if those hooded men come back for Simon."
She saw the look on his face and gave him a kiss on the lips to calm his worries a little. "I know honey. I can take care of myself and when push comes to shove, I'll think of something."
Nothing was said after that as Naruto sighed in defeat before giving her a worried look. The two made it to his car and made their way to Wayne Manor for the coming events.
-Unknown Location-
In a dimly lighted room, several figures were crouching down in a spot light seemingly waiting for something. Upon closer inspection, they were the same hooded men that came to Wayne Towers. None of the men moved at all until a voice called out from the shadows making them stand up to attention.
"The Zephyr holds so much potential for our cause. Reason why each of you, along with your fallen members, were sent to retrieve the battery along with it's creator: Simon Feck." The voice said all around them to make it hard to pinpoint where it's originating from. "Yet each of you came back empty handed. All because of one woman before Batman and this new comer, Vanitas, showed up. Some failures can be overlooked, reason why each of you will be sent back out for this mission…..under someone else."
Once that was said, a figure stepped out of the shadows to reveal a unique outfit that wasn't a standard attire of the group. The man wore a set of ornamented black and silver body armor that was fitted around his body to show no restrictions on his body movement. The other unique feature of the man's outfit was the silver ape mask with flowing white hair to cover up a lot of his features.
"Qarrad Alfidd…. Your mission is simple: get Simon Feck and the battery. You can do the option if you want to either get the inventor or the battery on their own."
"It will be done Lady Shiva." Silver Monkey replied as he nodded towards his new 'team' and ushered them to follow for their mission.
-Wayne Manor-
"...Did not realize that Bruce was so much into dog art." Selina said as she saw the various works of art in the Wayne estate.
"They were his father's actually, along with ones from the past several generations of the Wayne family." Alfred replied as he gave a small tour to the guests. It was comprised of Commissioner Gordon, Naruto, Selina, Simon, and a well dressed man that screamed 'security detail'.
'Yet he doesn't have a shred of cat themed work at all from what I'm seeing.' The thief thought as her little habit of inspecting works of art kicked in.
"But are you sure this place is secured?" Simon asked the butler as he tried to calm his nerves and played with something in his coat pocket, possibly the Zephyr battery.
"You could say that Wayne Manor would actually be called 'Wayne Fortress' Mr. Feck." Mr. Pennyworth said before pointing to a security camera above. "Security cameras monitor the house and grounds at all times. Current military grade with prototype Wayne Tech motion and heat sensors in every room. Even have an emergency lockdown to be sure no one can come in or out."
"Seems a bit 'overkill' if you ask me." Naruto said in a hushed tone to his secret girlfriend which made her nod a little. She had broken into fancier residences before but this seems over the top. If she ever wanted to do such a thing here, she'll have her work cut out for her.
The group soon came towards a bookcase with nothing on it before touching the side of it to make the piece of furniture move out of the way. "And here we have our panic room. An impenetrable vault filled with supplies to last for six months."
"Paranoid much Alfred?" Naruto asked out loud making the butler chuckle a little.
"Indeed, but you can't be too sure with being the owner of a multi-million/billion dollar company. Could possibly be targeted at a given notice." The former secret service operative replied back towards the publisher. "Of course with recent events, we have not only the GCPD here to keep young Mr. Feck here safe, but also the hired help of Mr. Reese and his security team to be sure that nothing bad will happen."
"That's correct and it won't." Reese replied in a bland tone.
"So Mr. Feck, I hope you feel safer during your stay in Wayne Manor." Alfred said getting the teen genius to nod a little.
"Then I am confident that they, along with Ms. Kyle, will be more than enough to keep you safe until I get back." A voice said from behind the group. When they turned around, they saw Bruce finished getting ready… for a date?
"And where do you think you're going Bruce?" Asked the publisher.
"Hot date." The man replied as he kept adjusting his cuff link. "Well as hot a date could be when going to a museum reception."
"And what about Simon?"
"Too young and not my type."
Naruto soon facepalmed at the odd joke his friend made before pulling him away from the group to talk to him alone.
"First off, bad joke there Bruce. Second, you don't joke in this kind of situation since Simon's life is in danger. And third, what the hell is wrong with you?!" Naruto said with his growing frustration towards the billionaire.
"What do you mean?"
"What do I mean? I'm talking about that you're not staying here to be sure Simon is safe and sound for the evening until the proper authorities arrive in the morning. And you're going out tonight to have a kami-damned date?!" Naruto yelled out in a low tone as to not draw too much attention to them.
"Is there something wrong?" Selena asked as she came up to the two men.
"Nothing's wrong Selina. I'm just going to leave now." The publisher said as he made his way to the entrance of the estate.
"Let me talk to him." She said before glancing back at the business owner. "I'm sure I can try to help him cool off." She didn't wait for a response as she went after her secret boyfriend.
"Well that could've gone better sir." Alfred said as he came up to his charge.
"Yeah….it could've." Bruce said as he walked some distance away towards the old grandfather clock that hid one of the entrances to the Batcave.
"So what are you going to do now Master Bruce?"
"I need to find out who's after Simon Feck."
"Might I suggest searching his lab. See if anyone might go there to take what they can't take from the source."
"Thank you Alfred, not like I've done this before." Bruce responded as he as he was about to pull a secret lever in the grandfather clock to open up the passageway.
"Before you go I do have something to say to you sir."
"Which would be…"
"That I think you should figure out better methods and excuses to get out of certain spots. Like dates being one of them."
"Don't see what's wrong with that method, since they've turned out fine in the end."
"Unless you look at it in a certain perspective sir." Alfred said before elaborating his claim. "You need to realize that if you keep leaving from certain events, dates, and whatnot; then it might draw suspicion towards yourself. So do try to think of a better way to get yourself out if possible from an important business meeting that you can't miss out on or something else. Even if you plan to find a future Mrs. Wayne, then you can't keep using that old excuse or else you'll end up breaking the woman's heart and start a trend among other bachelorettes that you don't plan on commitment."
Once that was said by his faithful friend and father figure, Bruce had thought things through in quickened detail. *Sigh* "I see your point Alfred. Once this situation is over with, I'll try to think of better excuses."
"That's all I ask sir."
"So are you sure the latest security system Earl and Marva had set up will do the job?" Bruce asked as he opened up the entrance.
"I'm pretty sure about it Master Bruce. If not, then they'll need to come on by quite often to do more installments to the systems to make up for the mistakes."
"Then I hope it doesn't come to that." Was all Bruce said as he stepped into the pathway before closing the entrance to be sure no one noticed.
-Meanwhile-
"I've told you Selina that I'm fine." The publisher said as he tried to shrug off her slight concern.
"No your not honey and I can obviously see it." She said to him as she held onto his hand. "I'm upset too on what Bruce did, but I'm trying to not actually 'voice' it out."
"I know Selina, but I just don't like how this is turning out so far."
"Same here, but I'm sure that things might go well by morning."
"I hope so." He said with a slightly downcasted look upon his face. *Sigh* "I just don't want another woman that I deeply love and care for be hurt. I already had that scare with Pam and I just don't know what would happen again because of it."
Hearing this made Selina feel hurt on what Naruto was saying. He does love them a lot but he doesn't know what she knows that could get those feelings to possibly worsen. She wants to tell him so badly but she doesn't want to see his reaction on that information.
Shaking those thoughts aside, she gave Naruto a reassuring smile before briefly kissing him. "I'll be fine honey. If those hooded men come back, then I'll do well to hold out on my own. With our sparring matches at either one of our places, it's been getting me to stay in my 'A' game."
"Good to know." He said to her with a small smile. "Just promise me that you'll do what you can to stay safe."
"No promises, but I'll try to make it work."
"Another thing I should say before I go."
"Which is?"
"That Reese fellow, he seems off to me." Naruto said getting his secret girlfriend to look at him funny.
"How so? He seems pretty fine to me."
"I don't know, but just stay weary of him ok?"
"Will do." She said to him before making her way back to the teenage genius.
Once out of his peripheral vision, Naruto frowned a bit as he made his way out of the door and into his car. He needed to get his mind focused onto something and one started to creep onto his thought process. The publisher needed to find out who those men were and who sent them. With how they fought and worked, they were obviously assassins/shinobi like from his old reality. Even with how they dressed made him make some connection with what Minato wore, that the man was affiliated with the group.
So with that in mind, Naruto needed to make his way to Simon Feck's lab and possibly see if he might catch them there. Since the source is under lock and key, his lab might be the next best source to possibly nab whatever information there was on the Zephyr project. He can tell that this was going to be a very long night.
-Simon Feck's Lab-
What Batman saw once he came into the lab was that it was a complete mess. Glass was everywhere along with various papers and materials. It seems that he was already too late that whoever was behind the attack already came by to hopefully grab the Zephyr. Hoping to find better clues out of this, he brought his hand up to his mask and pressed a little switch to activate his 'detective vision' prototype that Marva has been working on.
From what the female Cooper told him when he was handed the device was that it could help him survey a crime scene better than before just in case if he possibly missed something. The initial plan on the final version, with some initial 'upgrades', would have Bruce be able to have an x-ray vision of sort to see how many crooks there are in an area so he could take care of them easier. Not only that but also do the crime scene analysis that once all clues have been gathered, the scene of the crime could be 'played' out in front of him in real time per say. It was an interesting idea for the caped crusader and he seemed pretty forward with the idea to maybe help him out easier depending on certain situations.
So far with the prototype he has in his cowl was that it is very limited so far until another model would come out, but it will suffice. When going through the room, Batman saw various footprints highlighted on the floor and moving all over the place until they ended at certain spots. It was then he realized that they were in the ceiling, causing him to duck down when a pair of katanas came down towards him.
He was able to block them with his arm braces, but the weight placed on them caused him to struggle a little. Once pushing himself free from the bladed entrapment, he punched one of the hooded men while kicking the other before he realized they had him surrounded.
"Who sent you?" Batman growled out to seek out an answer. All that he got in response were the hooded men to drop various smoke bombs onto the ground to cover their escape. He looked around for any sign of them, but there were any. That was until he heard something clatter onto the ground and rolled towards him until coming to a stop. Once looking down, he saw that it was several grenades…. And they were primed to blow.
Seeing that he needed to get out quickly, he ran towards the nearby window and dived through it so he wouldn't get caught up in the blast. He was lucky to make it out just in time as a few seconds after breaking through the glass barrier, the room blew up in a fiery blaze.
By the time he glided back towards the ground, he heard several motorcycles coming his way to make him realize those hooded men were escaping. Running towards his motorcycle he had nearby, he quickly started its engines and raced off to catch up to them. Unknownst to him, he missed another motorcycle coming after the same targets once he sped off.
-Wayne Manor-
The sound of humming was coming from a certain part of the panic room. Selina had been dealing with it for a bit with Simon listening to his music from his cassette player. It at least kept him preoccupied as she was mostly left alone to do her own thing, which was looking through the surveillance footage being recorded live. It seemed odd that she was on this side of the monitors that she would always try to stay out of the feed. But this time, she needed to rely on them to be sure Simon was safe and sound.
This gave her the opportunity to think on recent events with her relationship with Naruto and how great he has made her feel. The love they have for each other is real and is growing at a good pace. She enjoyed the dates they have gone to with the ones they had at restaurants having to be done in private so they won't draw attention towards themselves. But of course part of her thoughts keeps drifting back to what her eco-friend/shared friend towards Naruto's affection had told her that made her feel uneasy on top of what's currently going on for the time being.
She soon heard the humming stop as the young genius got up from his seat to stretch his legs a little by walking around the room. Probably looking around to keep his mind off of the current predicament he was having. He soon came to a stop when he saw a toy train in the room of all places and started to play with it a little.
"Always found trains to be fascinating." He said to break some of the silence by making small talk. "Being a huge leap in technology in the industrial revolution and things started to progress from there. Asides from that; I just enjoy the sense of feeling of the rush, speed, intensity, metal-clanging and greatness some people enjoy being inside of it. Like leaving for a world anew; being in it gives this rush to see new sites that makes people imagine what will show up next."
"Everyone has their interests I suppose."
"Yup." Was his short response before looking out of the bullet and blast proof window to see most of Gotham in the distance. "Seeing all those lights out there makes me think of how much is being wasted and what could've been done as a good replacement. When thinking back on my love for trains on my thoughts when I was younger, that they never really stopped moving, I ended up with the idea for my battery."
"Reason why you're being targeted now." She blantly said which made him feel depressed for a bit. *Sigh* "Sorry Simon, just too many things on my mind right now."
"Same here ma'am." He said to her apology. "I just have so many thoughts running through my head that I just need to preoccupy myself the majority of the time. Whether it's listening to music, writing in my notebook of mine, or anything else for the most part. Reason how I was able to think of the idea for my battery for the most part."
"Speaking of the battery, mind if I see it?" Selina said as she got closer to him. "Don't worry, I'll give it back to you."
He complied as he reached into his pocket, pulled out a little fabric like case, and handed it over to the raven haired thief. Once opening it, she saw it was black in color and wanted a better inspection of it, so she pulled it out of the case to let the light shine upon it. The moment she placed it on her hand, she couldn't help but comment on the feeling.
"It's warm."
"Yeah, a lot of power running through that little thing." He said to her as she handed back the little device. Once it was placed onto his hand, he soon gained a questioning look and started to mumble several things that Selina couldn't quite make out.
"Is something wrong?"
"It seems warmer than I expected." Simon said as he was fiddling around with it in his hand. "It seems to be getting hotter."
"Should we get some ice for it then?"
"Would be the best idea." He said to her before letting out a yawn. "Right before I go to bed. It's been a long day."
Both of them soon exited the panic room as they made their way to the kitchen to grab a cup full of ice before making it to Simon's assigned room for the evening. Along the way, the two ran into Alfred and told him that Simon was going to retire for the evening. Once making it to the guest bedroom and before attempting to lie down on the piece of furniture, Selena started to inspect the room for anything that seemed amiss to her. Call it a slight case of paranoia, but with what is going on that one can't be too sure to be safe.
"If you need anything Simon, just yell. I'll be outside to make my rounds." She told him as he got situated on his bed with the cup of ice by the bedside.
As this was going on, Alfred was meeting with the head of security to inform him on the latest form of detail.
"I am here to tell you that Mr. Feck is in his room." Alfred said getting the man to nod at this. "You can lock down the property for the night on your end. I already informed Commissioner Gordon on this and he's doing his duty on his end."
"Good to know." Reese said before both men went their separate ways. When making it towards the gate, he saw several police officers there with some of the other security detail. "The package is set in for the night. Is there anything else to report?"
"Nothing at all sir." One of the security detail said with some nearby officers roughly saying their own thing respectively.
"Good." Reese told them as all of the men turned their backs towards him.
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
The sound of the silencer went off as each of the men guarding the entrance fell down to the ground dead with blood spilling from the empty cavities in their heads. The person responsible was Reese as he placed the gun onto the ground and whistled lowly to get some hooded men to jump over the gate. Once they landed, they quickly hid the bodies while Reese went to the side where the bushes were at to change. During this time, something fell onto the ground nearby to reveal Reese's' face.
"Always hate wearing those." The man muttered as he slipped on his metallic ape mask. "Time to move."
-Meanwhile, Insert Final Fantasy VII Advent Children: The Chase of Highway-
The sound of motorcycles filed the air, as they were racing through the streets of Gotham. Several hooded men were on their respective motorcycles to get away from the scene of the crime of Simon Feck's lab exploding. They were possibly on their way of getting scott free, if it wasn't for Batman being on their tail. They tried to shake him off by losing him through various streets, but they forgot one thing: Batman practically knows these streets like the back of his hand.
For every turn the motorcyclists made, he would cut them off from another street. It was frustrating for them to try and get rid of him on every chance they got. That was when they went under an overpass when he arrived.
Vanitas' motorcycle flew into the air from the overpass above to land in front of the hooded group, having them boxed in on both the front and back. The group then pulled out their katanas from their sheaths and were aimed towards the man in front of him to possibly cut him down. It wouldn't be that simple really as Vanitas swerved around to momentarily face them. In those brief moments, he used one of his hands to summon a handful of daggers and threw them at the tires. The results were instant with them being cut and punctured to send the motorcyclists either skidding into a wall, going off the road, or hitting a nearby parked car. When this was done, Batman drove towards one of the closest hooded men and picked the man up to question in.
"Who sent you?! Talk!"
"It's too late Batman." The hooded cyclist said. "You'll never stop them now."
In his frustration, Batman knocked the man out with a punch before speeding off with Vanitas not far behind. The disguised billionaire started to punch some numbers on his motorcycle to try and call the manor, but it seems that whatever group these men are must've cut the lines. He then decided to punch in another set of numbers to call the communicator Alfred has on him and hopefully answer as soon as possible.
"Hello?"
"Alfred!"
"Master Bruce. What's wrong?" Alfred asked in an alarmed tone.
"You need to activate the security systems and to get both Simon and Selina in the panic room now! Even inform Commissioner Gordon if you can!" Batman said as he yelled into the speaker in his helmet.
"But how will you get inside of the manor when the system is up?"
"I'll find a way." Bruce said as he saw some more hooded motorcyclists coming from behind him and Vanitas. "I'll have to get off now. Seems I got some tailgaters."
"Then good luck sir."
Once the call was ended, Batman saw Vanitas swerve his motorcycle around momentarily to try and perform the same action he did before. It was successful on one of the hooded men, but the others moved out of the way and onto another street to hopefully cut them off. It was then Vanitas drove a little faster to get close to the Dark Knight when he spoke out to him.
"I'm guessing they are after Mr. Feck?!" The masked publisher asked out loud to hopefully get the masked billionaire to hear him.
"They are!"
"You go on ahead while I'll try to hold these guys off!"
"You sure?!"
"I'm positive! Now GO!" Vanitas yelled out, making Batman to nod and pushed his motorcycle to it's limits as he went further ahead. "Now to buy him some time."
The hooded men were starting to catch up to the black and white themed hero with their weapons aimed towards him. Vanitas occasionally swerved around to throw several cards and daggers their way, but they were starting to wise up to what he was doing and they started to counter. Some of the motorcyclists pulled out some handguns and started firing at the masked Uzumaki, but they ended up hitting his invisible barrier around him.
*Chuckle* "They should think of something better before they run out of bullets." Naruto muttered as they continued with their bulleted assault. He then needed to get them off of his tail soon before wising up yet again that guns won't work on him. So he brought his hand out and charged up a void rasengan before turning back to aim it towards the hooded men. "Time to see if this works now."
Vanitas then pictured in his mind's eye a gun's trigger going off as a bullet went out of the barrel. In the outside world, the idea ended up the same as his arm acted like the barrel of a gun and fired off several void rasengans towards the men. They were caught off by surprise by this action as they ended up getting hit by the blasts with a few falling off of the bridge they were on, while the rest ended up crashing into each other.
"That takes care of them." Naruto said as he looked on ahead and saw Batman ride up the giant metal wires to support the bridge before jumping off of his vehicle. With the motorcycle plummeting towards the ocean below, Batman spread out his cape to activate it's gliding function to fly towards Wayne Manor. "Show off."
-Earlier, Wayne Manor-
Selina was walking through the hallways to make her rounds while also looking at the various works of art present in the Wayne estate. She did recognize some works, while others she did not. She would've been interested in them, but the feline part of her only desired feline themed works of art and jewels. Hell there was even that one Van Gogh she saw in one of the hallways, but upon closer inspection turned out that it was a believable fake.
"Real one must be hidden in a vault somewhere in the manor." The thief muttered as she kept checking every other corridor. As she was expecting to see another security detail or police officer in one of the hallways, she ended up not seeing the person. "That's odd, should've run into one of them by now."
She was going to keep moving forward until her foot ended up hit something on the ground to make it skid a bit. Upon closer inspection, it was a police gun. When looking around a little, she ended up seeing the unconscious body of one of the officers tucked away in a poor fashion making her realize that the hooded men were here.
The thief made quick work of getting to the guest room and opened the door to see Simon sleeping in the bed. She went up to him and gave him gentle nudges to get him out of his sleep. It wasn't long until he did and felt alarmed when seeing the darkened figure above him.
"Hey it's me, Selina." She told him, making him calm down a bit. "Something's wrong, we need to move. Now."
"Okay. Let me get the Zephyr." The teenager said as he glanced over to the cup of ice...well cup of water now and pulled out the device. "It's warm now. I don't know what's wrong with it."
"Worry about it later." She said as she placed several pillows underneath the covers.
"You sure that would work? I think I'm shorter than that." He said before being pulled out of the room.
"Come on." She urged as she led him to another hallway and crouched down when she saw someone get closer to the room.
In said room, the door opened up to reveal Silver Monkey. He surveyed the room and spotted the bed where the teenager was at. The monkey themed assassin then pulled out his blow dart and blew into it to fire the tranquilizer dart towards the figure inside. Once that was done, he got closer to retrieve the drugged up kid only to be kicked from behind and land face first onto the ground.
When Selina's surprise attack was successful, she quickly closed the door on the assailant and broke the handle. "We need to go to the panic room. Now."
"Right." Simon said as he followed her towards their destination. If they stayed any longer, they would've seen the assassin shove his fist through the door.
After navigating through several corridors of the manor, they eventually made it to the dining hall. From what Selina remembers from the brief tour she was given, they were almost close to the panic room. They would've gone further, but Selina heard something in the room and pushed Simon out of the way from two tranquilizer darts aimed towards them.
"You missed." She said as she looked towards the monkey masked assassin from the other side of the dining room. "Simon, stay down and look for cover."
"Right." He said as he quickly looked around and hid by one of the room decorating furnatures.
"Give me the boy and you will have a swift death." Silver Monkey said as he came closer to Selina. "If not, then it shall be as more painful the longer the delay."
She hummed in fake thought for a brief moment before giving her reply. "Sounds tempting, but no. Not gonna happen."
"Have it your way then." Was all Silver Monkey said before jumping onto the table and spun into the air to deliver an ax kick towards the thief.
Selina rolled out of the way before grabbing onto one of the dining room chairs and swung it towards the assassin to hopefully stagger him. Didn't work all that well due to his armor, but she didn't relent on her assault. WIth the remains of the chair on hand, she started to attack him with her impromptu escrima sticks.
Her time sparring with Naruto were paying off a little as her assault kept the assassin at bay, but it could only do for so long. He found some openings to her form and exploited it by sending quick jabs and kicks to those spots to send her back a little. With the slight frustration she was now having, she threw the impromptu weapons at her opponent. The monkey assassin blocked them easily before making a grab at the woman, who was able to snag his hands.
The two kept each other at bay without being able to move an inch. WIthout any warning, Silver Monkey had brought his head back and slammed it onto Selena's. With the slight daze, she was left open for him to whip out a hand claw and slashed her side.
"AAAH!" Selina screamed out as she held onto her side. Before she could do anything else, the assassin added more to the pain and kicked her in the abdomen, sending her straight towards the nearby wall.
As he got closer with his clawed weapon to finish her off, a sound of a gun went off as his bladed weapon was broken. Looking onto the side, he saw the Wayne butler with a shotgun on hand with smoke coming out of the barrel with a scowl on his face. The assassin then whipped out a kunai from his sleeve and would've thrown it at the butler, but another gun went off to knock the weapon out of his hand. This time it was the newly arrived Gotham Commissioner with some of his officers not too far behind him. Seeing as his luck went out, he fled from the dining room with bullets flying towards him.
"I sometimes think the ones that dodge bullets would always be a bother." Alfred said as he rested his weapon.
Gordon then saw the teen genius nearby and came up to him. "Are you alright Mr. Feck?"
"Yes I'm fine, but I'm more worried about her."
When he said that, the others looked towards Selina leaning against the wall. Montoya went to check on her injuries and saw the bleeding wound on her side. "We need to get her to the panic room stat." The hispanic officer said before addressing her partner. "Sasuke, please help me out here."
"Sure." He replied as he went to the other side of the downed thief and helped her up.
"We'll help cover you. Mr. Feck, please stay close to Officers Montoya and Uchiha until we get to the panic room if you would." Mr. Pennyworth said as he had his shotgun at the ready. With him in the front, Alfred had led the group towards the panic room with Officers Uchiha and Montoya carrying Selena in the middle, Simon not far behind and Gordon covering the rear. It wasn't long until they got to their destination and they went inside before the butler started medical attention on the injured thief.
Unbeknownst to either of them, when Simon was leaving the dining room, part of the broken chair got caught onto his pocket and left a rip big enough for the small battery to fall out by the panic room's entrance.
Navigating to the rendezvous point in the manor was a little tricky for the monkey themed assassin, knowing that there were some remaining security detail still active. When he got into the designated room, he was greeted with a handful of his fellow assassins for the mission at hand. They were about to discuss their next move when a figure dropped down from the ceiling, knocking one of the assassins down for the count.
"It only gets worse from here." Batman said as he stood ready for the fight at hand.
"Worse for whom I wonder?" Silver Monkey taunted with there being more opponents against the Bat. He then dashed towards the hero with a downward punch before sending up a kick towards his abdomen with some other strikes. They were blocked before the Bat grabbed ahold of his offending arm and kicked the assassin's sides and leg joints before tossing him to the side to focus onto the other assassins in the room.
With the Batman distracted, Silver Monkey pulled out a small pellet and timed it correctly to toss it towards the hero's face. It was successful as the green gas came off with the hero groaning out when he tried to look around. With the Bat temporarily blinded, Silver Monkey was going to attack the hero when he heard something and looked towards the source coming from…. outside?
"Dynamic Entry!"
That soon to be the assassin's downfall as he was suddenly kicked to the side and slammed against the wall, hard. Landing on a slight crouch, Vanitas came back up and seemed rather cheerful given his body posture. Seeming oblivious to his current surroundings, he seemed to brush off the imaginary dust off of his person.
"Man, I can't believed I nailed that one. Getting past that security system was not easy." The black and white themed hero said before looking at the occupants in the room. "Hiya."
One of the hooded assassins got out of his momentary shock and threw several shuriken at the new arrival. It came to another shock for the other assassins to see the weapons go through him. They soon realized why there wasn't a broken window in his arrival since he somehow phased right through it.
"Now that's just rude." Vanitas said before punching the one assassin's lights out. "Didn't your parents tell you not to throw sharp things at people."
None was responded back as the assassins went back towards their assault with Batman now out of his temporary blindness. The two heroes once again worked together to take care of the home intruders. Without them looking, Silver Monkey got back up from the ground and decided to leave for the panic room to collect the teenager and the battery.
-Panic Room-
"Well….this will have to do for now." Alfred said as he looked over the work he had just finished. It took a bit to close the wound with what he had with the medical kit inside of the panic room, but it worked out in the end. "Just need to get these IV's attached to her and she'll be good as new.
"That's fine and all Mr. Pennyworth, but what are we gonna do now?" Renee asked as she helped the butler clean up. "All of our men have been subdued, either unconscious or dead, and that security system you said earlier is still up. We can't get anyone else to come to the manor at the moment. So I'm asking again: What are we gonna do?"
"For one, I'm going to deactivate the security measures so that Commissioner Gordon here can properly call in for help." Alfred said as he went to the nearby computer and rapidly started typing the commands to shutdown the system.
"Help? But I thought we were safe in here." Simon said as he was starting to get more nervous with every moment.
"You're never completely safe I'm afraid." The butler said before glancing at the security monitor for outside of the panic room. "Especially with the man at the door." The others saw what he was referring to-to see Silver Monkey set up a bomb to hopefully blow up the entrance. "Now would be the time to call in for help Commissioner."
-Outside of Panic Room-
Once setting up the bomb, the assassin quickly got far away from the estimated blast radius so he could be safe once he set it off. Pulling out the trigger, Silver Monkey flipped off it's cover to finally prime it. He was about to press the button if it wasn't for a batarang hitting it out of his hands. He was going to quickly react to this, but a pair of black and white boots kicked his back, sending him towards the panic room entrance.
"I know this sounds cliche and all, but you should give up." Vanitas said as he and Batman started to walk closer to the downed assassin.
"From what I'm seeing, that door is a titanium blast door." Batman said once the two of them came to a stop. "That bomb of yours might as well be a firecracker."
There was no response on this as Silver Monkey wasn't really focused on the two heroes, but on the object his eyes had caught once he was face down on the floor.
"The Zephyr." The assassin said in realization on what he is seeing.
"What?" The two heroes said before the assassin quickly moved from his spot and kicked the bomb towards the other wall to automatically explode on impact. When the smoke was cleared, the two heroes could only see a gaping hole to the outside with the assassin gone. In response, the two ran after the retreating monkey without any further thoughts.
"I can't believe the Zephyr was just outside of the panic room." Silver Monkey said as he raced his way towards his escape with the battery in his hand. "Couldn't let the opportunity slip from my grasps."
He would've run further ahead, but one of his legs got caught from underneath him, causing him to fall. In response, he quickly pulled out a kunai and slashed at the foreign object from his leg as the two heroes caught up. Once caught up, the two heroes tried to apprehend the assassin, but he held his ground as best as possible by blocking their kicks and punches. It wasn't until Vanitas ended up kicking the one hand that had the battery, causing it to let go and fall over the edge.
"NO!" Silver Monkey yelled out as he jumped above the two heroes and plummeted down towards the sea to reach it. As he got closer with his arm stretched out towards the prized battery, he saw the faint glow coming off of it until it was too late….it exploded. "AAAAGH!"
From up above, the two saw what happened and were confused on what they just saw. Once the explosion cleared, they saw that the man either escaped or possibly died due to the close contacted explosion. But one question that was on their minds was: what caused that to happen?
"Did you two apprehend him?" Gordon said as he, his two officers and the teen genius came onto the scene.
"I'm afraid not Commissioner." Vanitas said to the bespeckled officer. "He got away with an explosion that oddly went awry."
It was then that the teenager gained a realization and fumbled around his jacket pocket to feel for something.
"Is something the matter Mr. Feck?" Montoya asked as she saw what he was doing.
"The Zephyr. I must've lost it earlier when getting to the panic room."
"Why bring up the Zephyr now?"
"I just realized on what that explosion was." Simon said as he rubbed his head in slight frustration. "I messed up, my battery became unstable and it was starting to deteriorate."
"Resulting with it exploding." Batman concluded with the new information. "All that raw power was building up too much without being used until it needed a way to escape."
"Not a good way to go though." Vanitas said before seeing the teenager's face. "Hey don't worry Simon, you're a smart kid. You'll figure out the problem in time."
*Sigh* "I guess you're right."
"Well I better get going. Nice seeing you Commissioner, officers." The disguised publisher said before he summoned his motorcycle and rode off, making the others move out of the way.
"HEY! Warn us next time!" Officers Montoya and Uchiha yelled out from the sudden action.
"Well I already called the nearby hospitals and other precincts to help take care of the wounded and the deceased Batman. Don't know how many there are still alive or not." Gordon said as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Good to know. Then I hope your night gets better because of it." The Dark Knight said as he jumped off of the ledge and glided down from the cliffside so he could get to the hidden entrance to the batcave.
-Outside of Wayne Manor-
"I'm definitely going to hate doing this whole 'backtracking and waiting' thing." Naruto said as he drove towards the gate leading to the estate.
The publisher had to leave the palisades to get back to his parked car and drive all the way back after waiting for the police and ambulances to arrive at Bruce's home. He would've gone back sooner, but he didn't want to draw too much attention towards himself if he arrived too soon. Once coming closer, he saw the various vehicles on the grounds with doctors and officers all around to gather the wounded and dead bodies to the hospital and the morgue respectively.
"There must've been more than I thought." He muttered before his eyes landed upon a sight that made his heart slow down and go pale in the face. Naruto quickly pulled over and got out of his car before running towards what he just saw moments ago. "Selina!"
"O-Oh hey Naruto." She weakly said as she was on a stretcher with several bags of IV attached to her. "Sorry that you have to see me like this."
"But what happened to you?"
"I was protecting Simon from one of them in this monkey mask that slashed my side. Luckily for me, the panic room was very well equipped and Alfred got me all patched up."
After Selina said this to him, Naruto felt a burning anger growing inside of him. 'If I ever see that monkey masked guy again, I swear….' He shook himself out of his thoughts when he felt her hand grab ahold of his.
"Don't beat yourself out honey. There was nothing that you could've done. Whatever happened, happened." She told him while gently squeezing his hand.
"So what's going to happen now?"
"From what I was told, Simon's going to be sent to the GCPD until morning where he'll be placed into protective custody. Probably going to be moved around for a while to ensure his safety."
"And you?"
"Going to stay at the hospital for like a day or two. *Chuckle* "I prefer recovering at home, but the doctors would've wanted to keep an eye on me so I won't pull my stitches with how I got them."
Naruto chuckled at this as he briefly remembered some of his times at the Konoha hospital once Granny Tsunade became the Hokage. Both she and Sakura would confine him to his hospital room until he made a full recovery. If he tried to escape the place, either one of them would hunt him down and strap him down on the hospital bed.
*Sigh* 'Good times.' "Well I'll be sure you'll be fine Selina. I'll come on by tomorrow and check up on you." He told her as he leaned in and kissed her cheek before leaving. That is if she didn't grab ahold of his wrist.
"Naruto….there's something that I need to tell you."
"...You could maybe tell me about it tomorrow when you're feeling better." He said to her since he could tell it's a private matter and he wouldn't want the doctors to hear this. Even though they are professional in not saying anything.
"No. I need to tell you this now Naruto." She said with more conviction in her voice. "I felt like I almost died earlier and there was so much I wanted to tell you. So I swore to myself that if I made it out of that mess earlier or was dying, I needed to at least tell you this one thing Pam asked me not to tell you."
Hearing this, Naruto gained a confused and worried look before asking her of what she meant and what Pam told her exactly. She ended up telling him when the doctors left to check on the other wounded before driving off to the hospital. It was definitely quiet in the vehicle at this time before Naruto left and made it to his car to drive off to his next destination in mind.
-Arkham Asylum-
"Almost done and I'll finally go home for the night." Harley muttered as she was writing up her latest session with Magpie.
It's been nearly a week since Harley had gained Margaret Sorrow, or Magpie as she desperately prefers to be called, as her new patient. She has been trying to break through the damaged woman to at least get some results in the first few sessions. From what she was told prior to the first session was that Margaret had suffered from a split personality syndrome with a case of amnesia along with no longer feeling pain of any form. Instead of the one Harley was more used to because of her interaction and friendship with Pam, there were two personas sharing Margaret's body without being known of the other. She was even told of what happened prior to the woman being admitted to Arkham.
She had hoped to speak with 'Cassie', the 'lighter' half of Margaret, in the past sessions but it came to a failure. Then she remembered after the last attempt that Magpie tried to use a device to gain back her lost memories, but it was damaged and malfunctioned when it was attempted to be used again. Harley eventually came to the conclusion that 'Cassie' possibly died that night and all that remains is the bird themed woman, Magpie.
From what the intern had observed from the sessions so far is that Magpie is a total wacko. Well wacko isn't a proper thing to say actually. In a technical standpoint, she suffers from an obsessional syndrome with potential homicidal tendencies. Her uncontrollable obsession with shiny objects tends to send her mind in a pleasant state of sorts that would preoccupy most of her time. Even decorated her cell with her clipped off nails along with other shiny objects she tends to steal whenever she gets out of her cell. A lot of the guards have learned to leave her alone and not touch her shiny possessions after one guard came in to try and claim back a set of keys she stole from him. Nearly scratched his eyes out the moment he took them back.
Since then, the guards and most inmates tend to stay away from the woman with a 5-10 ft. pole and hide away any 'shiny' valuables they have on hand whenever near her.
It would've been simpler if that was all that was wrong with her. From the lost memories and her uncontrollable obsession with shiny objects. But it seems that there is more than that since she had ended up being obsessed with the new hero, Vanitas.
After a few unsuccessful sessions, Harley was heading home for the night when her eyes caught the glimpse of the security footage outside of Magpie's cell. It wouldn't be much of a problem if it wasn't for Vanitas standing in front of it. The blonde intern had asked why the guard didn't inform security about this, but he replied that Batman had actually done this a lot in the past with several inmates. It was all good in the end so every other guard that sometimes sees this happen doesn't really report it. This made Harley's mind boggle on such a thing and when she made her way to Magpie's cell to defuse the situation, that's when she heard it…..
-Flashback-
"...but I don't like being caged." Magpie said towards the hero. Her words lingered in space. Paralyzing the world with the tone of voice of her feeling hurt, broken, lost and most of all: afraid.
When hearing this, Harley came to a stop when she heard this and hid behind a pillar so she wouldn't be seen. Why did she do this? She was supposed to go out there and stop what they were doing, but why? Why is she just hide and kept on listening in?
"I remember that Ravencroft and Braxton had kept you in a 'cage' when they were studying you." Vanitas said with his helmet filtering a bit of his voice. This was actually the first time Harley had heard his voice and from what she could tell right now, it had a sense of comfort that made her want to trust the man. Even though she isn't interacting with him.
"Yes." The bird themed woman answered with her voice seemed very distant. "I never liked tight spaces."
"So you do remember. You were stripped of your memories, but you remember the cage."
Nothing was said in the long silence. No sound at all to the point that possibly a pin could be heard if it was dropped. It was so quiet that if this moment was to be hung up in a museum, it would've been passed as a prized painting.
After a few more moments, she spoke with a shaky tone to it. "I….I remember the cage."
"Is that all that you remember?"
"No….Only the cage."
"Then is that what you're afraid of? Being dragged back into the cell that made you?" The hero pressed on with the information. "Please….Magpie. Let me help you."
"I-I'm afraid of it all." Her voice wavered in the answer.
It was then Harley realized that this was her chance in gaining the information she wanted. So she quietly opened up her lab coat and pulled out her notebook and started writing quickly from what she just heard. It helped out even more that Magpie took a moment's pause to think of what to actually say so that Harley could finally catch up before moving forward.
"Imagine waking up one morning….not knowing who you were... Imagine standing up to look at yourself in the mirror, only to find an unfamiliar face." The patient said as her voice seemed to indicate that she was in a trance of sorts. "Imagine trying to tell someone else your name, only to find that you can't seem to place it at all. Only to find that you can't remember even a hint about it."
Harley then heard some clinging sounds against the bars and glass barrier of her cell before hearing Magpie speak out again. "Then as the panic overtakes you, you begin to question everything. Who am I? What am I? Where and when was I born? Where do I live?" Her voice started to quiver soon after. "Who are your parents? Are you married? In a relationship? Do you have children or siblings…. Are you an only child or the only person you consider yourself as family?"
As this went on, Harley couldn't help but feel her eyes start to water when hearing all of this? It truly felt heartbreaking to truly hear from someone that has a case of amnesia to actually say their feelings about this outloud. It was honestly the first time listening to such a thing and it made her want to know more.
"Then….Then you ask the most important question of all."
"Which is?"/'Which is?' Vanitas and Harley asked/thought at the same time on wanting to know Magpie's final thought.
"You stand there with tears in your eyes and you ask yourself." She whispered out like she seemed to be truly haunted by an unfamiliar spectre of her past. "What have I done to deserve this?"
-Flashback End-
After being in that unofficial session, Harley had gone out there and talk to Vanitas and tell him to stop, only to see that he was gone. She had returned to her office and debated with herself on what to do exactly with what she heard moments ago. It went to the point that she wanted to throw away the pages of notes she had put down, but she couldn't do that at all.
When it was time for her next session with Magpie, she tried to get through to her like in the past sessions to ask on what she could do to help her out. Nothing was successful at first until a stray thought passed through her mind. She didn't want to say it with it possibly making things worse, but it ended up coming out. The blonde intern told the patient that Vanitas was in the other room, listening as they spoke.
When hearing that, Magpie perked up and seemed to be happy all of a sudden. It seemed disturbing at best on how she changed at a flip of a switch and seemed to be more compliant. From there, Harley ended up asking the same question to what Vanitas had asked Magpie and it came out with the same results.
As the follow up sessions had gone, she ended up using the same tactic of saying that Vanitas was in the other room and it felt wrong every time Harley said it to the woman. She didn't like being manipulated and in turn Harley didn't like to manipulate others. But it was the only way she could get results from her patient. So until further notice, she had to swallow her pride a bit and try to pull through.
Up till now, she had gained more information that she could really get prior to using that 'dirty' tactic. The intern ended up to the conclusion that Magpie truly adopted things similar to that of a bird, asides from her attire she likes to wear underneath her shredded up straight jacket. The claustrophobia discussed prior with her fear of small cells would bring up why she tends to think of herself as a damaged bird, she just wants to be free to do as she pleased.
It was even then that she heard about the supposed nightmares of being back at Blackgate. It was hard to make out, but the intern was able to piece it to the best of her ability. Magpie ended up remembering small fragments of her time being experimented on by Braxton and Ravencroft. It could've been considered a miracle that she remembered anything prior to her memory loss, if you didn't consider the 'torture' sessions.
Even towards the end of the latest session with the nightmare discussions, Harley was able to learn that Braxton and Ravencroft were actually taking orders from someone else to conduct further experiments that wasn't what they originally planned on the whole 'mind control' aspect of removing the bad from the person. There wasn't anything else after that and Magpie couldn't remember anything else from the nightmares.
"What most doctors would do to get their desired results." Harley bitterly said as that painful feeling came back towards the pit of her stomach. *Sigh* "I wish I could tell someone about this, but I don't know if anyone would believe it.
Harley did indeed wanted to tell someone about it but there was no proper way to tell them from what came to mind. Sure she could try to contact Batman, but there was no way to do so. Even on the past several days when Vanitas came on by for his late night chats with Magpie, she couldn't be able to go out there and try to tell him. She felt vulnerable and undefended by all of this.
Glancing towards her clock, she realized that it was time to finally go home and try to sleep this off. She got up and started to pack up her things before heading out of the door to lock it up for the evening. The moment she walked past the service desk, she saw Naruto rush past her in a hurried pace like a man on a mission.
'What's wrong with him?' The blonde intern thought as her curiosity drove her into following him. The trail eventually lead towards the women's wing, right in front of Pam's cell. 'What's going on?' She internally asked as she ended up hiding yet again. It's going to be an odd habit for her from what she could tell by this.
"Pam!" Naruto said in a loud tone. "Pam please talk to me!"
"Naruto? What's wrong?" Pamela groggily asked as she got up from her bed.
"Is it true?"
"What's true?/'What's true?' Pamela and Harley asked on what Naruto was referring.
"There was an incident earlier this evening that Selina got hurt in the process. Before you ask, yes she's fine and she's resting at the hospital right now, but that's not important at the moment. What is important is what she told me in fear that I wouldn't know the truth."
This gave Pam pause to process this slight moment. *Sigh* "So you know."
"Then please Pam. Tell me why you didn't tell me before?" Pleaded the publisher.
"Because 'we' didn't want you to feel hurt beloved." Ivy said with a downcast look.
"I would've handled it if you told me sooner." Naruto argued with pain evident in his voice. "I thought you trusted me."
"But 'we' do!" 'They' said to him with tears welling up in 'their' eyes.
"Then why didn't you tell me?!"
"Because 'we' can't bear you a child!" 'They' said to him before 'they' started to cry in the process.
Nothing was said after that and from her hiding place, Harley was in shock when hearing this and wondered how this could've happened. From what she was told by the medical doctor, Pam was in good health and nothing was wrong with her. Did she leave this part out of the medical examination? Did Pam ask her to not reveal this to anyone else?
She needed to know. She has to know more about this. The blonde intern was about to get out of her hiding place to demand the answers, but Pam spoke up.
"It was several weeks after 'we' were admitted here when 'we' first noticed something odd about 'us'; that 'we' missed 'our' period. 'We' wondered what was going on, so 'we' went to the regular medical doctor here to do a more extensive examination. She complied and did a full examination without 'our' power dampeners on to get better results. She tested the blood work, did a pelvic examination, everything to check to fully see if 'we' were a healthy woman.
The majority of things turned out fine that 'we' were truly a healthy woman, but after that she gave 'us' the bad news. Before telling 'us' this, she asked on how 'we' became this way and explained what occurred prior and during 'our' transformation. After that, she brought up and compared 'our' medical sheets prior to coming here made her come to the conclusion that whatever happened that made 'us' this way ruined 'our' reproductive organs. Mostly with the toxins within 'our' bloodstream would practically kill off any possible chance 'we' would get into bearing. Not to mention that 'we' are basically more of a plant than human now and it would be truly hard for 'us' to create a child through a traditional manner." Pamela said as her voice seemed like it was breaking as she got further into her conversation. Harley took a peak from her hiding spot to see Naruto placing his hands on the glass barrier with him wanting to hold her in his arms.
"'W-We' dreamt of having a family of 'our' own with you Naruto. Dreaming of carrying our child for all nine months, through the good and bad experiences of being pregnant. Being able to hold onto your child for the very first time. To see them grow up throughout the years. To see them find love and have our ways to find enjoyment in teasing them. All of that….All of that 'we' dreamed of truly experiencing. Something 'we' would truly kill for." Pam said as she started to choke on her words. Those words made Harley think of the same thing, that it would truly be horrible for even her to lose the chance in experiencing those priceless moments.
"But that bastard took it from 'us' that night! Woodrue might be dead, but he was successful in stealing the one thing that 'we' truly wanted more than just that serum! He took away 'our' chance in having your children!" 'They' yelled out as 'they' balled their eyes out. Nothing was said after that as the sounds of her crying filled the quieted wing of the asylum.
"Pam….You know that no matter what, I would still love you. I didn't care of what you have become and what you're past was truly like because I would still love you." Naruto told her that made the botanist look towards him with her reddened eyes. "So what if you can't bear me a child Pam. We could always adopt a child and love him or her like one of our own. Did you think that I would be so shallow that I would stop loving you because of that?"
"N-No 'we' didn't. 'We' wouldn't even think-"
"Then was that the other reason why you wanted me to seek out other women? So that they could be lucky into having my children?" He asked causing Harley to gasp out in shock from her hiding place. This ended up blowing up her cover getting Naruto and Pam to look towards her direction. "Who's there?!"
'I-I might as well show myself now.' Harley thought before moving out from her hiding place.
"H-Harley?!" Naruto asked out in surprise as he saw his friend and doctor to his girlfriend. Even Pam was surprised at her appearance. "H-How long have you been listening?"
*Gulp* "F-From the beginning." The intern stuttered out. "Please don't hate me. I didn't mean to listen in, but you rushed past me earlier and I wanted to know what was going on."
"Harley, I didn't mean to let you hear this. I don't even hate you at all. I was just so consumed of wanting the answers that I ended up getting you to follow. So I forgive you on that."
"Even 'we' forgive you Harley. You have been so good and kind to 'us' and 'we' didn't want to push you away if you ended up hearing this." Ivy stated as mental ideas on what she and Pamela had planned out for Harley to possibly join their group were starting to shatter. Things have possibly been ruined with 'their' doctor hearing this, even the last bit.
"B-But is it true on what you said Naruto? That Pam wants you to be with other women?" Harley asked as her mind was reeling over the new information. It seemed a bit much for her to handle.
He wanted to look away with shame on his face, but he couldn't look away from her blue eyes that held so much innocence in it that it would be wrong for him to lie to her. "Somewhat from her perspective."
"Then….Then what about you?"
"'They' want me to be with other women that I actually love and care for Harley. And…. And I agree. I don't want to be with women that I won't truly form a connection with. I wanted to deny such a thing about this, but 'they' pointed out that Selina actually loves me and that I love her just as much."
Harley's mind started to process this and it seemed so confusing for her to work out and if this was a lie at all, but Naruto was telling the truth to her. "I see…. But is there anything else?"
*Gulp* "There is one thing?"
"Which is?"
"...Pam has the impression…. that you have feelings for me….and vice versa."
And just like that, things seemed to go sideways for the blonde intern as her mind overloaded and had shut down on the process. Without any warning, she fainted on the spot. If one would see her face right now, it seemed to take on a slightly redder tone with her eyes being replaced by swirls and steam coming out of her ears and mouth.
"Harley!/Harley!"
-Unknown Location-
"So….It seems you have failed to get either Simon Feck or the Zephyr." Shiva said after being debriefed by her subordinate on the mission. From what could be seen from the assassin's appearance was his arm being heavily bandaged because of the scars and burns from the exploding battery. One would've also seen the bandages on his face of the same injuries if it wasn't covered up by one of the man's spare masks he had at the base.
"Forgive me on this Lady Shiva. I won't let you down again." Silver Monkey said to the woman in the shadows. "I'll make another chance in retrieving the teen scientist."
"There is no need to do so anymore Qarrad Alfidd. We already have gotten what we needed."
"Pardon me my Lady, but I don't understand what you're talking about."
"...I might as well tell you since you had thrown things off for Batman and this Vanitas fellow." Shiva said getting a confused look from behind the monkey mask. "We had figured that things wouldn't be successful in the end as we hoped. So I had ordered some of the men you brought with for the mission to raid Simon Feck's lab. They were able to locate all of the research notes pertaining to the Zephyr project before destroying the lab like planned for cover. So now we will study them and make our own Zephyr batteries to our heart's content."
"...I see." Silver Monkey said as he tightened his fists in anger that he wasn't informed of this part of the mission.
"You may go now Qarrad Alfidd. Rest up until I or Ra's call for you." She told him, making him bow in the process.
"By your leave Lady Shiva." The assassin said as he walked out of the darkened room.
As he was walking towards his quarters for the evening, he was practically seething behind his mask on his humiliating defeat by the likes of Batman and Vanitas. Not only that, but he was left out of part of the plan on getting the Zephyr notes from the lab. Don't get him wrong as he understood the idea, but it infuriated him that he wasn't in the loop about this.
When he went past a certain part of the complex, two columns of four glowing green eyes (eight in total) lit up as they watched Silver Monkey give out so much hate.
*Chuckles* "Seems I might have found someone of use here after all." The person muttered before the eyes went out like a candle, to add the monkey themed assassin into his plans.
-End Chapter-
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