A Jolly Good Hunt

Alarms were blaring into the night as a robbery was taking place at one of the city's banks. Most would conclude the incident would continue from the front doors of the building; though in this case, it was happening through the side. But to be more accurate, through a giant hole made by explosives.

One man was seen leaving the blown out wall with a dufflebag full of money in each hand before he opened the door to his van and threw them inside. Once doing so, he heard the faint sounds of police sirens coming to signify that he'll need to leave soon. In response to this, he pulled out a small digital clock from his pocket to check the time. Giving the response he was radiating, the thug seemed pleased on how fast this job was turning out.

*Chuckles* "Right on time." The thug said as he looked at the device in his hand. He was going to put it back into his pocket and signal his friend when a dagger suddenly penetrated the clock and dug a little into the man's hand. "GAH! What the fuck?!"

"Are you sure about that?" A voice rang out from possibly all angles of the small alleyway. The thug questioned where the man was hiding as he nursed his hand. With a little grunt and sucking up the pain, the thug pulled out a gun from his side and took aim in random directions.

"Who's there?!" The thug questioned in a frantic state. "Show yourself!"

The man didn't know where the man was hiding, causing his mind to play tricks on him. So when a little pebble was sounded off nearby, the thug started to fire in that direction.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

"Tch. Tch. Tch. Tch. Tch. Bad shots." The voice said in a displeased tone. "Very bad shots. Now all you have are two bullets. Though I do wonder if you can make them count."

It was at this time when the thug saw a moving shadow near a collection of pipes, making him quickly fire his gun.

*Bang* *Bang*

As a result, smoke started to come on out from entry holes and spreaded out through the area. The thug didn't know what to do now as his eyes scanned through the smoke, but it seemed too thick for him to see through. While backing himself up to get to the van, he pumped into something and turned around to see the hero Vanitas standing there.

"You missed." Was all the hero said before he punched the gun wielding thug's lights out. *Sigh* "I should really wrap this up and go to bed."

"Then nighty night hero." A voice called out from the blown out hole before a large safe door was thrown out. Vanitas was able to roll out of the way just in time for the piece of bank property slamming against the van nearby. When the hero looked back at the hole, he saw a thug wearing a pair of bionic gloves that made the disguised publisher think it increased the man's strength ten-fold… or something in that cockish range.

"You do realized you possibly wrecked your getaway vehicle."

"It won't matter if I can get rid of the likes of you." The glove wearing thug stated before he leapt towards the black and white themed man before throwing a series of punches at him. Vanitas dodged each and every one of them with minimal ease. Of course one of the hits landed against the van nearby, leaving a large dent it it.

Wanting to finish this up now, he went under and delivered a strong uppercut against the man's jaw before kicking him in the chest. As the thug tried to recover from the hits, he didn't realize the hero grabbed ahold of the bionic gloves and phased them off of his person. He went to punch the man again, but felt contact with his skin.

"What the-" *BAM*

And with that, the situation was taken care of.

*Sigh* "This better be it for this night surprises." The masked Uzumaki muttered as he summoned a Kazekage lance and rode it towards his loft. "Or else I'll be extremely pissed."

…..

Yeah…. You really shouldn't have said that Naruto, since Murphy likes to screw with people at times. Though to be fair, the one remaining surprise wasn't nearby at all, it was across the other side of Gotham from the Uzumaki's position. And the event was going to be rather interesting for what's to come.

At said event, a man was running across several streets with panted breaths as he tried to get to the safety of his corporate building before the people chasing him got to him. As he got closer, his eyes landed upon the markers of the building he owned like the giant cartoon cat head as the main form of decoration. When coming nearby the building, he started to call out any form of assistance.

"Please! Help me!" The man cried out. *Pant* *Pant* "SOMEBODY! HEEELP!"

The sounds of a vehicle soon approached him, making the man turn around to see how close his pursuers were. So he kept running, but it seemed to be wasted for him as the vehicle rode off of the stairs and flew into the air before landing in front of the scarred man's path. Upon closer inspection, due to the lights shining upon it, it showed the vehicle to be of victorian design or something in it's later period. But after a bit more focus on it, it was revealed to be an antique model-T.

"I must say Mr. Toad," a man spoke out in an British accent as he rose from his seat with an blunderbuss musket rifle in his hand, "what a wonderful night for a hunt."

"I couldn't agree more, Professor Pyg." The driver spoke out in a similar accent.

The gun wielding man soon shot a bullet out of his musket as it startled the chased man into running for his life. He soon ran past the two pursuers and went into the building as the vehicle drove around to go after their target. More shots were shot out as they seemed to miss before one of them landed on the man's shoulder.

"GAH!" The man cried out as he pushed himself through the doors of his building and entered the lobby to see pair of security guards at their station.

"Mr. Shreck!" A guard called out. "Are you alright?!"

"Does it look like I'm alright?!" The man said with sweat coming down his face. "My life is in danger you idiot! So do your job!"

*CROOOOOOOAK*

The loud sound seemed to deafen the ears of those in the lobby as the front doors were blown off of it's hinges. Said door soon flew towards the coming guards and knocked them out, leaving the chased man all by himself. It wasn't long before the victorian vehicle rode it's way through the damaged entrance and came rather close to the wounded man. It's headlights soon shined upon the man's face to identify the pursued man.

This was Maximillian "Max" Shreck, the ruthless and ambitious owner and CEO of the multi-million dollar department store Shreck's. He was a man in his late forties/early fifties with his grey hair combed back while wearing a nice business suit. Several other features weren't fully seen as the headlights were too bright to give out good details. Even for the man in question as he couldn't see the details of the men chasing after him.

Wanting to keep up a strong threatening appearance, Max sneered at the men in front of him. "Do you have any idea who I am? Do you know how powerful I am in this city?!"

There was no response as the man soon gained a new piece of pain on his person. Max soon realized that it came from his neck and reached to see what it was. His eyes soon clouded slightly as he saw in his hand a tranquilizer dart before falling onto the ground in a numbish mess.

"Excellent shot boss." The driver spoke out in glee as he and his 'boss' waltzed right to the downed man. "Right in the gizzard."

Once coming in close, the larger man pulled out a stethoscope from the bag he was carrying and placed it onto Max's head of all places. Said man tried to focus his sight on the two men, but everything was getting cloudier by the second. All that he could possibly tell with the light shined upon them was a large man in a pig's mask and someone that resembled a toad.

'I must be hallucinating from the drug.' Max thought as he gazed at the shorter man. 'He can't be a toad.'

"Tch. Tch. Tch. Tch. This isn't very good. Not very good at all." The 'boss' said in mocked sadness. "Have you checked your cholesterol recently?"

"You must watch out for the red meat." The shorter man said as he got in close to the downed man's position.

"Wh-Why… Why are you doing this to me?" The store owner rasped out as he barely saw the larger man's eyes narrow behind his mask.

"From what you've done to our kind." The pigman said in a calm tone.

"Your… kind?"

"Yes... " The driver spoke out as he brought up a walking stick into the air. "Animal kind. *Chuckles* Now hold still since this will only hurt for a second."

And with that, the driver swung his cane down hard on the man's face to knock him out.

-Morning, Naruto and Pam's Loft-

Things were seemingly well inside of the loft as everyone was fast asleep, more so than others. With the sun somewhat shining through the various clouds made some of the residents want to sleep in a bit longer. Sure there's the alarm clocks by each of their beds and the natural light that comes from the bed, but with it being the weekend most want to just lay back and relax.

This could be somewhat the case with Naruto, as he tried to fully get back to sleep after waking back up several times throughout the night. The Uzumaki has been feeling rather restless in both body and mind. That neither would want to fully relax in one way or another.

*Groan* 'I just want to sleep on my day off… Is that too much to ask?!' He yelled out in his mind as he quietly shifted in his bed so that he wouldn't wake up Pam. 'I should maybe use the restroom… That could help.' So as he got out of bed, with a little help of his silence manipulation, the publisher made it to his destination and splashed some water onto his face.

*Sigh* "How the hell did it come to this Naruto?" He asked himself in the mirror for any reply, but got nothing in return really. "Why are you so damn worried out of nothing? You should be happy. Happy that you've got three great, wonderful and beautiful girlfriends along with a sweet foster child in your care. Nothing should possibly make you upset."

Of course it was a lie for him really. Sure he does have a good amount of happiness in his life now; but after Rachel came into his life, she made him start to think of various things of what might happen to her. For example that prior to her showing up, he was totally fine with watching the news or reading the newspaper to see the accidents or incidents occurring throughout the world and in Gotham. But afterwards this made him a total wreck that he would have a hard time imagining Rachel being in those situations. Seeing her get injured... or worse.

*Sigh* "This must've been how mom and dad were like when they were pregnant with me." The Uzumaki said as he imagined how the two must've felt during the ten month pregnancy. "It was obviously worse the night I was born."

Naruto was getting pretty attached to the little girl that he became such a daughter-con (like a sis-con, bro-con) guardian to some degree. Well not only him, but his girlfriends as well… Moreso with Pam in particular. With Harley and Selina, they were pretty much loving aunts to the Rachel that when they had any free time at all they would try and spend time with her.

But as for Pam, she loved and cared for the little girl with how much she saw herself inside of the ashen grey child. Rachel had developed quite the hobby with gardening that the two have done to the patio area. The ashen child said that it was something her mother used to do before her passing and she regrets not doing the activity with her. So Pam ended up teaching the child everything she knows about gardening and things went pleasantly well from there.

Speaking of Rachel…

Due to her having no record of her at all, he had to go through a lot of trouble making identity papers for her. Child services helped point him in the right direction on where to go and get things taken care of in the legal sense. This was more of a hassle to take care of than from when he first came into this world and he needed identity papers.

Sure, he did get help from his traveling companion turned friend during their time together in Eurasia. He did lie a bit to her on why he didn't any identity papers and she bought it with understatement. She gave him his legal papers for exchange of a few favors here and there, but it went well in the end.

Getting side tracked here and need to get back to Rachel...

Well Naruto's ward has been slowly opening up to the four adults in her life right now. Though she's not fully trusting them all that much due to not only the Sewer King screwing things up for her, but also people she briefly mentioned back in her previous home. They were not all that great in her opinion.

With the wearied stares she would notice every now and then, along with being held back on some learning moments. It gave the adults a bit of understanding, more so with Naruto, and wouldn't want to pressure her into opening herself up on her past prior to her coming into their lives. But as a result, it made them wonder what the hell happened to her with how she grew up.

"I wish she can tell us soon so it can put my mind at ease." He muttered before heading to the living room. 'Hope my morning workout can at least help get rid of some stress.'

As for his body though, well… it is a bit more restless than his mind apparently.

Sure there were details that pertain to the mind affecting the body and not letting the body actually rest. With the worries the person is dealing with being one of the factors. But what is really going on is the fact that Naruto hasn't made love for a while now ever since his punishment given by Pam.

Ever since he hooked up with Selina, the two had been able to get rid of their sexual frustrations with each other to leave both very satisfied. They experimented through a lot of things; some good and some not great that they would bring it back up on another day or not at all. Though they do plan to do roleplaying at some point, even Selina bringing up an idea of BDSM, but they never really got back into talking about it after Pam brought up his punishment.

It was close to an hour later after the start of his workout when the sounds of the shower turned off. Once Naruto got out and dried off, he saw Pam barely getting out of bed with her stretching to pop out any kinks from her sleep. To this he came up to her from behind to wrap his arms around her before kissing the top of her head.

"So how was your sleep?" Naruto questioned as he breathed in the aroma in her hair. "Hope it was better than mine." 'Or lack thereof'

"It was fine dear." Pam responded as she leaned against his frame. "Just a little nervous for my job interview today."

"With Star Labs? Well you were a great employee over there, so they should accept you back after so long."

*Sigh* "I hope so Naruto. I hope so."

While Pam was taking her turn in the shared bathroom, Naruto walked out to the kitchen to make breakfast for his girlfriend and ward. As he was getting the ingredients, the door to the loft opened up to see Selina walking in with a slightly tired look across her face. Not only that, but Isis was perched on her shoulder before jumping off to wander around the loft.

"Morning Selina and good morning Isis."

*Meowr*

"Morning to you too." She muttered as she got up to the kitchen counter with the morning newspaper on hand. The ravenette was going to say something when she saw the slight redness of his eyes. "Rough night I take it?"

"Yeah, couldn't sleep all that well."

"Nightmares?" She asked as she saw him shake his head 'no' as he started to chop up the ingredients. "Then what was it?"

*Sigh* "Been thinking about Rachel too much, that's all really. From how she came into our lives and what I'll need to prepare her for later down the line."

"Well that's guardianship for you." His dark haired girlfriend responded with a shrug. "It happens to the best of us I suppose."

"Yet you never had a charge of your own."

"True. Though that doesn't mean that I can't help but worry on relations that I have with my family. With how little amount of contact I have with my sister and her family, I would need to think things through the best that I can for them."

"That's understandable."

"Not only that, but it's the same way with how I worry about Shizune with her boyfriend, Isis and now Rachel."

"And what about me?" He said with a mocked hurtness in his voice.

"Don't worry hun, I worry about you and the girls as well." She said before opening up the newspaper to see a black envelope with an embroidered 'A' on it. "Oh yeah, this was hanging on your door when I came over."

Seeing what she was referring to, Naruto could only groan in response.

"The Argus Club? Again?" He spoke out before rubbing his head a little. "I've already gotten way too many of those ever since Bethanie started asking me to join."

"Yeah I remember." The environmentalist said before walking over to the recycle bin and dumping the letter there. "I've lost count on how many times they've sent these or how many times Bethanie kept asking you to join."

"Well I don't plan on ever going since I'm busy with work, you girls now, Rachel and my late night 'activities'."

"Speaking of, why do you keep going out on most nights if it's going to mess with your schedule?" She asked since it's been on her mind for a while. "Not that I fully complain with all of the good that you've done so far and the lives you've saved, but still though."

*Sigh* "I know Selina." He simply said as continued making the breakfast for not only Pam and Rachel, but also the new arrival. "At first, I wanted to just use my patrol time as a way to train myself more and get a better handling of my powers. You've obviously seen a sample back at the clocktower back on Christmas Night."

*Dreamy Sigh* "Yeah… How can I forget that? Saving Isis' life, impressing me very well on how well you've moved and the Cat Eye Emeralds you've given me. Which, by the way, are still in my loft. Couldn't part away with such gems."

*Chuckle* "Good to know you've kept them. But asides from that, it just got to a point that patrolling somehow merged with my training time. Mostly started out after dealing with the Daggett incidents."

After feeling satisfied with the answers given, she leaned forward a little to not only smell the delicious food being cooked, but to also ask another question in mind. "Well since you've been busy with patrols, maybe I could assist to lessen the load."

This caused the publisher to look at his lover with a raised brow before scrunching his face a little on this little request. "I don't know if it's a good idea Selina."

"Oh come on, it'll be fun~. Both of us being together, fighting side by side, enjoying the various adventures together."

"I'm also guessing that you might want to rope me into one of your thieving escapades." He said getting her to look away with an innocent whistling tune. "Don't think I noticed your kleptomania acting up again, but I'm not reporting since I noticed those items were reported from cheesy dirtbags."

She could only scratch the back of her head at this and nervously laughed at this.

"Though it would be fun to do all that with you, but it might risk causing problems with you. Don't forget that the public knows that your Catwoman." He pointed out with the wooden spoon in his hand. "And it's a complete miracle people are donating money to charities through you."

"I know that, but I don't know what else you're possibly complaining about."

"Then what about that if people see you with me, despite us being in disguises, that people that want to get back at us will just have to target people closest to you to hurt you in the end."

Selina could only scratch her head a little with a pained expression at this. "That's true."

*Sigh* "Look Selina, I know you mean well, but had this little discussion with Harley. Despite it being differently worded out, but I just don't want you getting hurt."

"Well I'm a big girl Naruto and you don't have to hold my hand if I want to go out there and help." She argued back and interrupted him as he tried to speak out. "And don't forget that I've done this way longer than you have, despite of you having experience as a former shinobi.

And as for Harley, she only had the first time patrol with you when you two found Rachel and that was only short lived. I'm even guessing that it might be unfair for her to only have very little time of having fun when spending time in that 'activity'. Sure she'll need to get more experience before really going out there, but I can tell she would want to do well enough to make you proud."

Those were good, valid points his dark haired lover pointed out. Making him take it all in and let it sink in for a bit while he was getting the rest of breakfast made.

*Sigh* "You're right Selina. I'm sorry." He said to his defeat. "All of this is just coming at me so fast that I don't know how to properly take care of it all on my own. I know it's good to get help every once in awhile, but us guys tend to be so damn stubborn in wanting to do everything by ourselves."

*Chuckle* "Well at least you're honest about it and I forgive you for that."

"Thanks… And about you coming with me sometime, let me think about it."

She could only do but smile at his response. "Great."

"But for you, maybe add a bit more to your costume to hide the rest of your face if needed." He said making her tilt her head in curiousity. "I mean the goggles could only do so much, but slipping them back onto your head doesn't really help really."

She thought about it and nodded a little on the tidbit. "I see your point."

"At least it's not as bad as Harley's first outfit that's for sure."

"Saw it and it wasn't looking well." She said with a mental laugh as she remembered when Harley showed her outfit to her one time. "It helps really that she has other ideas to possibly go with, but it'll take time to make."

"I hope so."

"Though the hooded cloak was a nice gift for her to give to Rachel and she seems to like it."

*Chuckle* "Yeah." He briefly said as he finished up making breakfast and served the omelets onto each of the plates. Once putting the dirty dishes into the sink, he walked over to his seat when he saw the newspaper headline. "Millionaire Abducted?"

"Yeah." Selina said in confirmation. "Read a little this morning on my way up here. Maximillian Shreck got kidnapped in his corporate building last night."

It was this point when Pam came walking in with her in her business attire. "Did you just say Max Shreck?"

"Yup." The ravenette simply said before looking at the botanist's outfit. "Going to the Star Lab interview today?"

"Yes and I hope to get my old job back." The redhead said as she sat down and took a small bite out of her omelet. "Now what happened with Max Shreck?"

"Abducted from his corporate building last night and that's the gist of it." Selina said as she took a big bite out of her meal before walking over to the TV remote to turn on the television set. Once getting to the right channel, the news went on as normal before things changed to the main headline.

"...And onto other news... Gotham Police are still baffled of the kidnapping of millionaire Maximillion 'Max' Shreck since there has been no ransom demand." Summer Gleeson stated at the news station.

"I find it oddly convenient that once we turn on the TV, the main bit of news seems to show up when we need it." Naruto muttered before Selina shushed him before the three continued watching.

"Though the only thing we, of Gotham Insider, have gotten from them was a VHS tape with a package underneath. Nothing of the package seemed out of place, but instructions stated to play the tape first before opening it to not ruin their 'surprises'." The female reporter said before she signaled for someone to play the tape. "So here it is people and just in case of anything horrendous to occur, don't let your youngsters watch this."

The video started to play with a SMPTE color bar image for a few moments before it suddenly switched to something that really surprised the viewers, a smiling anthropomorphic toad wearing British looking attire.

"Is the camera rolling Mr. Toad?" A male voice called out with a quasi-elegant tone in a British accent. This caused the so called Mr. Toad to lean in closer to see if the recorder is working.

"Indeed it is boss." The toad spoke out before he turned the camera to reveal a tall and obese looking man, dressed in a large purple greatcoat and a pig mask. In his hand and resting on his shoulder was a blunderbuss musket rifle.

"Well hello there. My name is Professor Pyg…. Also say 'hello' Mr. Toad." The camera then shifted back to the toad man for a brief moment.

"H-Hello there." The toad man spoke out with a bit of glee before he shifted the camera back to his boss.

"How Wind and the Willows of them." Naruto muttered as thoughts of the nursery rhyme came to mind.

"Now we'd like to let you all know how much of a privilege it is for us to be in your fair city. With it's rich and vibrant history since its founding all those years ago. It has shown us quite a lot in our time here, so we thought it should be fair to return the favor. To show you something special." Professor Pyg said before he walked over to a wall, with the camera following the man, where empty plaques were shown with one having a black bag attached. It wasn't long before the man pulled off the bag to reveal Max Shreck's head with some cloth shoved into his mouth.

"Marvelous, isn't he?" Mr. Toad sarcastically said, but it was hard to tell with his pleasant tone of voice.

"Well poor Maximillian Shreck sure likes to brag with all of the millions he covers himself all day." The pig masked man said before he pulled out the gag from the millionaire's mouth. Soon the millionaire's face turned into a snarl and growled out to his kidnappers.

"I swear to god that you'll-" *SMACK*

"It's rude to interrupt!" Mr. Toad spoke out as he waved his cane at the man.

"Actually Mr. Toad, I was going to question him on a few things to see if he tries to plead innocent. *Chuckles* Which, of course, is a lie."

"But I am innocent you bastards!"

"Oh really?~" Mr. Pyg said before he signaled his partner to hand over a small bag. Once it was brought over, The masked man pulled out a thermos and went to the little brass bowl nearby. "Let's start with the waste from your so called 'clean textile' plant." It was then the kidnapper poured out the thermos' contents to show sickly green goo that seemed to start eating away from the metal.

"We've got more in the back if you'd like a nice dip." Suggested the anthropomorphic amphibian.

"That could come from someone and somewhere else." The retail store owner said as he tried to defend himself. But from what all of the viewers could see was that he was actually lying.

"Oh~ Then what about the documents that shows proof that you own half of the fire traps in this lovely city." Professor Pyg stated as he pulled out said documents, but it appeared to be pretty mangled and shredded on the ends. "It took a lot of tape and a lot of patience, but it was well worth it."

It was there that Max was starting to sweat a little, in addition to him being in his current position.

"Oh, I've got a question Mr. Shreck." Mr. Toad spoke out with hints of giggles escaping his mouth. "How's your old business partner, Frederick Atkins?"

"I-I believe he's currently on vacation."

"Really?~" The toad questioned as he set the camera down nearby and took the sack from his boss' grasp. "Well how do you explain this?" The mutated man then pulled out a severed arm and waved it around in a gross fashion before using it to slap the captured man's face several times. "It is rude to lie Mr. Shreck!"

"Well said Mr. Toad. Well said. And of course these items of interest will be shipped out with the tape we're recording so that your legacy will forever be ruined." Professor Pyg stated before he shoved back the gag into the millionaire's mouth. "Now aside from those unpleasantries, I'd like to point out that he's not the last that've stolen keys to the past. Who, of course, shall learn a rule from the jungle…"

"That everyone pays." Mr. Toad finished off before he went into a widened smile to show his disgusting, rotten teeth.

*Chuckles* "So welcome to the hunt Gotham City!" The eco-terrorist dramatically spoke out before the tape ended and Selina turned off the TV set.

"Well… Seems we now know on how the guy got a lot of his riches." The ravenette commented with narrowed eyes. "If the city doesn't take away a lot of his property away soon, then I might just steal more from the guy."

This little comment got the publisher and botanist to look at the environmentalist with a raised brow. Said woman noticed this and reply to them for confirmation with a roll of her eyes. "Yes, I stole some items from the man. But it was before I met either one of you."

"Well I'm glad that I've never shopped at the Shreck's department store." Pam said as she walked over to the kitchen counter to finish off her breakfast. "I'm always careful on what I buy and I've heard various rumors on his products."

"And now we know on some of the shadier stuff he deals with." Naruto stated getting his two girlfriends to nod in agreement as they went back to their breakfast. "Though the bit with the rhyme spoken was interesting." He spoke out to gain the girls' attention. "A modified variation of Little Jack Warner. Based off of a land deal gone south between Henry the 8th and Thomas Warner. Due to bribery if I remember correctly."

"A little clue to add more on what else Shreck had done recently or is involved with?" Selena questioned before taking a few bites from her omelet. *Swallow* "Possibly another land deal or something of that nature to cause Pyg and Toad to hunt him down."

"And to figure that information out, one would need to look at the man's financials to see if there are any other connections to the future victims." Selina could only look at her lover with a questioned look, making him sigh in the process. "If you forgot in the video, there were two other head plaques. Thus, there will be two other victims. Not only that, but the fact of Pyg mentioning the keys to the past, hence the financials."

"Well... As much as I would like to hear you two discuss more about the recent kidnapping, I'd better get going." Pam stated as she placed her dishes into the sink. "I've got to head off to my interview and I want to get there on time."

"Do you want me to drive you over there?"

"No, it's fine Naruto. Besides, I don't want to just rely on you for being my chauffeur all the time." The botanist replied before coming towards her boyfriend and kissed his cheek. "Wish me luck."

He smiled and kissed her cheek as well, despite him wanting to kiss her lips really badly. "Will do."

As this little interaction happened, Selina formed a small smirk as a little idea came to mind. So she got up from her seat and wrapped her arms around Pam.

"Don't forget about me Red." She said before bringing her lips towards the botanists in front of their shared lover. They moaned in their little embrace for a few more moments and when they separated, they saw Naruto's eye twitch knowing that he wants to kiss them badly.

"Well see you later Selina." The botanist said as she walked out of the loft. Once she did, the ravenette faced her boyfriend with an 'eating a canary' smile.

"You did that on purpose didn't you?"

"And why would I do that darling?" She said with the ever present grin. "Just wanted to say goodbye to my friend for a hopefully good day for her."

He could only shake his head at this since the teasing wasn't really helping on his withdrawal. Wanting to get back onto things, Naruto spoke out. "So without knowing where Pyg and Toad will strike next, I'll be patrolling the streets today for any sign of them."

"Maybe I can help."

"What do you mean Selina?"

"Well~ I have nothing better to do for the day. So I could maybe help you out and break into Shrek's building to find the connections."

"Are you sure about that?" He asked as he shifted in his seat. "What if you get caught in the act? If you do, then you'll end up violating your parole and be sent back to jail."

"I won't Naruto. I'll be careful." She said as she grasped and squeezed his hand in reassurance. "This isn't the first time I've done such a thing. Especially when one of those times, I broke into the former Multigon International building when Red Claw was in town."

"Trying to prove that they were doing shady work behind the scenes." Naruto said in remembrance on that experience when he officially met Selina as Catwoman.

"And if I remember correctly, you were rather fetching when you saved my life." Selina stated as she drew closer to him from her spot.

"Not to mention that you were very alluring in the given light at that time." He said while mirroring her action.

"Aren't you sweet." She whispered as they came closer. "So… You'll be fine of me helping you out on this."

"Yeah."

They were about to kiss, but the ravenette pulled away to leave her lover hanging with a smile on her face. "Good to know."

Realizing that he got tricked, again, his eyes started to twitch badly. He was going to say something, but he heard someone come down the stairs. Both adults turned around to see Rachel in a fresh pair of clothes with Isis in her arms.

"What were you two doing?" The ashen child innocently asked with a confused look on her face.

"Nothing." Both Selina and Naruto spoke out at the same time.

"...Okay." Rachel said as the two adults turned back around. She then turned her head towards the black cat in her arms, who was getting pretty comfortable in her position. "Adults are weird. Right Isis?"

*Meowr* The cat cried out as she looked up at the girl and nodded her head.

The foster child then walked towards the kitchen counter and carefully sat in one of the empty seats, to not disturb the cat, where a plate of food was waiting for her. It still appeared warm, due to the steam coming off of it, and took a few bites out of it before her guardian spoke out.

"So Rachel… Are you ready to meet Harley's neighbors today?"

"I think so." The young ward said with some hesitation. She's heard from the pale woman that she has a pair of surrogate nieces as neighbors that are around the ashen child's age. Harley was pretty insistent for her to make new friends instead of being hauled up inside of her guardian's loft for who knows how long.

"Well from the first and previous times I met the two, they were pretty nice to interact with." The Uzumaki said with a smile. "So you'll do fine of possibly playing with them. And Harley will be there to watch over you three while Paula and Lawrence are out of town for the next several days."

The foster child thought this over a little more before a small thought came through her head. "Can… Can I take Isis with me?"

Hearing this, the ravenette looked over to the dark purplette to see the innocent look on her face. Ever since she first met the black cat, she grew a little attached to her precious baby. Sometimes taking her everywhere whenever Isis is within her range. It was rather cute in Selina's opinion, but the request made the thief pause and think.

Whenever Isis was outside of either hers or Naruto's lofts, she was always with the older woman. She freaked out when the cat ran off during the Daggett incidents and was weary of leaving her out of her site at times. Selina wanted to deny the request, but that would only hurt the young child in the end.

*Sigh* "Okay Rachel, you can take her. But you better bring some food for her to have so she won't go running off." The ravenette said getting the young child to beam at her.

"Thank you." The child said with a smile.

It wasn't long after that the three left the loft and went their separate ways. Naruto taking Rachel to play with Artemis and Jade before patrolling the city while Selina breaks into Shreck's building to find clues on the kidnapping victims. It'll be an interesting day to say the least, but the two adults hoped things go right by the end of it.

-STAR Labs-

"Alright Pam. You can do this. You can do this." The botanist muttered to herself as she sat in the hallway while fiddling around her fingers and tapping her foot onto the ground.

'You've got nothing to worry about 'sister'. Things will turn out fine.' Ivy spoke in reassurance inside of the botanist's mind.

'That's easy for you to say, but it's been a long time since I had to reapply here. It won't be the first time of me hearing someone not getting their job back after reapplying sometime later. I just hope that I'm not one of those people.'

'True, but there's also the option of working at the botanical garden that Bruce suggested.'

*Sigh* 'I know, but it would be nice to have my old job back.'

'A job that possibly has reminders of him in various areas.' Pam's darker half pointed out making the lighter part wince. And she was unfortunately right.

When the changed botanist came by for the first time in months to reapply for her old position, there were brief moments here and there that she saw Woodrue alive and well. It practically scared her until she realized that she was just hallucinating. Even when appearing in her old lab, the memory of what happened that night made her body shake as the entire event played out in her mind. Pam knew that she would want to move on, but things tend to come back and surprise her from behind.

'I know it's hard to swallow 'sister', but would you rather spend many of your days locked up in the building with not doing all that much to help save nature.' Ivy pointed out on the first option before getting to the next one. 'Or would you do what 'we' can now do best at the gardens and work to preserve things from there. Especially with the old tree we briefly worked with to save the lives of the city.'

Pamela was going to weigh her options on the matter when the door to the interview room opened up. With the sudden event happened, the botanist jumped a little in her seat, not that the person at the door noticed really.

"We're ready to see you Ms. Isley."

*Cough* "Right."

Once gathering her things from the chair on the side, due to how warm the hallway seemed to be, she walked into the room and sat down in the chair in front of the board of directors in the Gotham branch of the company.

"Good day Dr. Isley. Nice to see you again after these several months." One of the board members spoke out in kind.

"Nice seeing you all as well." Pam spoke out in a decent tone so she can keep up a nice appearance. "Also thank you all again for what you've done with my medical bills and paying the late Holland's friends and family."

"You're very welcome Ms. Isley." The second board member simply said before continuing. "Now I believe we aren't here to talk about that unfortunate set of events as we are here about you possibly coming back to work with us again."

"Yes I understand that, but I just wanted to express my gratitude is all."

"Understandable."

"Now then, from what we have known in your entire time working with us that you've been doing quite a marvelous job in the various assignments you've done for us. Even with your supposide pet project of yours." The third board member said getting Pam to nod at this.

"Of course... I've worked hard to help out the environment to the best of my knowledge back then. It was hard to pull through, but I've been successful in what I've done."

"As far as we've known." The first board member stated before pulling out a sheet of paper before glancing at it and spoke out. "Though we are a bit curious about your pet project that a lot of your free time between assignments had gone through."

"Yes... that." The fourth person said in little remembrance. "The idea of a serum to promote plant growth in desolate areas. Not only that but also the research gained from the Hollands to possibly help on food shortages is also interesting as well."

"Speaking of said serum. Were you able to complete it Ms. Isley?" A fifth board member asked getting the redhead botanist to nod her head.

"I have sir, but the only serum amount I had completed was destroyed in the incident when Woodrue tried to steal it from me."

"How… Unfortunate." The third member said with a shake of his head. "But what of the knowledge of making it? Do you have notes, files or any remembrance of making it again."

"I'm sorry, but no sir. All of the hardcopy notes and research I had was in my lab at the time and it was burnt into a crisp. Even the files that I had electronically were destroyed as well since they were in my laptop." She explained with a straight poker face to the board members. "But as for my knowledge on making the serum again isn't possible due to how badly I can't remember of the actual process. Woodrue had worked me for several days straight on the lie he told me that you all wanted the serum done prior to my incident. I hardly slept and due to the trauma placed on my head, a lot of the details went away."

The first half of what she said was the absolute truth due to her not wanting to bring anything work related home so she could relax and be herself. It was something Pam pretty much regrets now, but can't complain about that now. As for the second half, it was mostly a lie. She has full remembrance on how to make the serum, but when discussing about this with Ivy and Naruto that it was something to keep for herself.

"I see…" One of the board members muttered. "Then it's unfortunate that such a project wouldn't come back to the light of day I suppose."

"Moving onto other things. I do feel that it would be good if Dr. Isley would be brought back and be able to work with us again." The second board member said with a small smile before the third member spoke out.

"Same here, but there is the matter that pertains to the screening process that had to be done before coming in."

"Which would be what exactly?" Pamela asked as she felt a little nervous now.

"Pertaining to your time in Arkham." The man spoke out, getting Pam to go a little stiff. "As you all may have forgotten, but Ms. Isley was admitted there earlier this year after getting out of the hospital. Where she has been placed there for roughly five months."

"I-I don't know what that has to do with-"

"There is also the factor on the criminal background checks as per standard protocol and you were red flagged on that bit when contacting the GCPD. They have said that you have been charged by kidnapping and attempted murder."

"I surely would've heard about it." One of the members mumbled out before addressing the potential rehire. "Is that true Dr. Isley?"

Knowing that lying to the board in such a delicate detail would've made things worse. So after taking a deep breath, she had to honestly answer the question. "Yes sir. I did."

"So was this the reason why you had to be admitted into Arkham in the first place?"

"Yes."

"And would you like to explain the details of how this came to pass?"

"I-I would rather not." Pam said as she tried to calm herself down a little. "Talking about it would only bring up bad memories and it would be hard to explain."

Nothing was really said after her little statement as the board had varying thoughts running through their heads.

"Would you please step outside so we can discuss things Pamela?" The second board member asked getting the changed botanist to walk out of the room and shutting the door. From there Pam sat back down to her previous seating and started to think on what came up.

'Well… It seems that things are going down the drain.'

'That's quite an understatement 'sister'.' Ivy bitterly said as the botanist could only sit there and wait for a handful of minutes before the door to the interview room opened back up. Once the redhead got back inside, she sat back down to hear what the board has to say.

"We have come to a final verdict Dr. Isley." The first board member spoke out.

"Which would be what exactly sir?" Pam asking as she already guessed on what it might be now.

"That I'm sorry to say this, but we won't allow you to come back and work with us again." The board member said before continuing onwards. "Even though your charges have been dropped, as from what we have seen in the criminal record document we have here, you were still charged with such crimes and we can't allow people working here with such charges."

"I understand that sir." The botanist said as she rose back up from her seat. "Is there anything else you'd want to tell me?"

"That we'll be closing out your 401K that you've signed up with us and giving you back the money. So expect the check to arrive at your current address within the week. Not only that, but we'll be closing out your insurance with us as per standard protocol."

"Thank you and have a nice day members of the board." The Green champion spoke out as she nodded to each of them before leaving the room and thus the building.

-Hours Later, Gotham Streets-

The somewhat cloudy day escalated to that of a darkened overcast, making it appear like it was the early evening. Nothing much had really changed over that time, but the news bulletin from earlier in the day gotten people a bit nervous of the new set of criminals going through the city. Wouldn't be much of a big deal really on how that would go.

Well….. You say that now; but you know that with Gotham, things tend to happen quite often. Given the case with the current car chase happening through some of it's streets as an antique model-T was ramming itself against a frantic driver. Upon closer inspection, it was revealed to be Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad was going after their next target: Michael Holt, an african american industrialist.

"Hello! Gotham Police!" The driver yelled into his phone as he tried to look between the rearview mirror and the road ahead of him. "This is Michael Holt and I'm being attacked by-GAH!"

The man dropped his phone as he was rammed from the side, causing him to swerve a little. The industrialist tried to search for his phone, but it seemed useless now as he tried to escape with his life in tact. Even with the fact that he had almost crashed into several cars during the little chase going on.

Back with the model-T, one might wonder how it has been able to catch up to the speeding car. Given with the antique look it has. But what one doesn't realize was that it has been modified and refitted with the newest engines and weaponry to suit its driver's needs. Especially with the fuse-fire cannon rising up from the front of the model-T that was currently aimed at the vehicle driven by Michael Holt.

"Mr. Toad. Would you like to do the honor?" Professor Pyg suggestively asked his partner, who was currently driving.

"It would be my pleasure Professor." The talking toad said with a widened grin before he pulled out his cane. He soon pressed a button as a little flame came out from the very end. Mr. Toad leaned forward to lite the fuse, but he was soon knocked back by the batmobile ramming him from the side.

"Boss! It's the Batguy!"

"It's Batman Mr. Toad." The larger eco-terrorist corrected his smaller companion. "Remember to respect our enemies and a first one must do is correcting their names."

"Right boss."

They kept onward with their pursuit before the eco-terrorists felt a tug from the back of their vehicle. Professor Pyg rose up to inspect what happened to see the Batman fired a metallic cable from his batmobile that latched onto their model-T. So the professor reached into his sack and pulled out a razor sharp bone saw before swinging it onto the cable to free themselves of the Bat's grasp.

"We're free Toad!" The man told his compatriot. "Now fire!"

Not wanting to be delayed again, Mr. Toad quickly lit the fuse and had to keep the car steady and close enough to hit their intended target. They were pretty jovial on how close they are in capturing the man as the fuse got smaller and smaller by each passing second. Unbeknownst to either of them, the Batman sped up the batmobile so it could stop the blast in time. Luckily for him, he did but the unlucky part was that he ended up getting hit in the process from the cannonball.

Even more so that the blast ended up knocking the batmobile into the industrialist's car, making it swerve and slamming into a lightpost to knock the man out. The batmobile kept on moving as it eventually rolled several times after it's collision before coming to a complete stop. It was shortly after this that the model-T came to a stop between the two vehicles.

"Oh hoho! I want to do that again!" Mr. Toad yelled out in excitement. Being a bit curious on the Batman, the talking toad jumped out of his ride and landed onto the batmobile. He inspected it to see if there was a way to get inside of it, but it was really hard to tell.

"Forget about the Bat Mr. Toad!" Professor Pyg stated to gain his partner's attention. "We can always kill him later."

"Sorry boss."

"It's quite alright my dear fellow." The man spoke with reassurance. "Besides, we've got one more stop before the day is through. But for now let's get this man inside of the car."

The two soon nabbed the industrialist and securely tied him up before throwing him into the back seat of their car. The eco-terrorists quickly drove off, leaving the unattended batmobile behind with the unconscious Batman inside. It was not long after that the sounds of a motorcycle engine came rather close to the scene before it came to a screeching stop.

"Dammit!" Vanitas yelled out as he slammed his fists onto his motorcycle. "Got here too late!"

He'd been driving throughout Gotham for several hours after he dropped off his charge at Harley's. It was not really pleasant on how things have been going since that time as he searched various parts of the city to find the eco-terrorists. But no matter where he went, there was no sign of them.

A lead eventually came up when the police radio signal came through of one Michael Holt calling in that he was being chased by the eco-terrorists. It was a good breakthrough, but the catch was that it was occurring on the other side of Gotham. So Vanitas sped through several streets and phased through buildings and cars that were in the way. Of course by the time he arrived onto the scene, Pyg and Toad already left with the batmobile not moving.

*Groan* "I swear to kami that if you died Bats, I'll find someway to drag your ass back to the living and beat you up for this mess." The masked publisher muttered as he got off of his bike and went to the batmobile to see if the hero in question was alright. Once he fazed his body through, he grabbed the hero and pulled him out.

"Hmm… Seems he's alright." Vanitas said as he inspected the man's body to see if anything was out of the ordinary. This was actually one of the handful of times of seeing the man this vulnerable that Naruto could possibly unmask the guy and find out the man's identity. But he had a lot of respect for the guy to not do such a thing.

Not knowing how long the Bat will be like this, he situated him in a nice covering in the nearby alleyway so no one would notice. When that was taken care of, Vanitas brought out a blank card and wrote of what exactly happened that lead him to waking up in the alleyway. He just hoped that the man won't be in a sour mood when this was done and over with.

'I better get back home and figure out what Pyg and Toad's next move is.' He thought as he went back to his motorcycle and rode off.

-Naruto's and Pam's Loft-

It took about fifteen minutes or so to get back home when Naruto was greeted with the site of Selina, in her Catwoman suit, looking over documents on the couch.

"I'm guessing that you were successful in your little mission."

"Yup…" She simply said as she flipped through another document and wrote down other details on a notebook. "Took a while to get inside of the building, due to the high security brought out from the news reveal and the man's kidnapping. But I got a lot of the sealed files the man had."

Getting curious in what she's currently doing, he sat down next to her. The publisher peered over and started to look over the documents with his old intern training kicking in. "So how far into the financials have you gone over Selina?"

"A lot actually." The ravenette said as she passed over a file to him. "That one shows details on Shreck planning on building up a power plant."

Wondering what details were inside, he opened it up and started to scan through as quickly as possible without losing any detail. "I don't get it really. Why would Max want to build up a power plant since, as far as I know, this city has a good power surplus?"

"Look further in the back." Selina ordered as she kept going through other documents. "If you see on the schematics, it shows that the power plant is that in name only. In reality, it's designed to suck up and steal power from the city so that Shreck could sell it back in god knows how much."

"Being one giant capacitor." He said as he finally got the idea while looking things more in depth. "Storing and stockpiling the city's power, if not fully authorized by the city's government, is completely illegal."

"Pretty much." She said as she placed the documents back down to stretch out her arms and back. "That and various other things the man would be charged with once I send these over to the GCPD as an anonymous donor."

"I gotta say, but I'm extremely impressed." Naruto said with a growing smile as it felt really nice to experience this way again. Like being with Lois and Cat during all of the assignments in the past.

"Like I said before Naruto, this ain't my first rodeo of doing investigative work when dealing with saving the environment."

This was good and all, but this also wasn't helping out with the current situation of the current kidnappings by the eco-terrorists. Naruto wanted to know who was possibly the last victium by their scheme. He was going to ask about it when his eyes wandered around the loft for any sign of his botanist girlfriend. Of course he did smell a bit of alcohol in the air and it was rather strange.

"Have you seen Pam? Wasn't she supposed to be back from her interview some time ago?"

*Sigh* "Yeah… About that."

Given the tone of her voice, he realized one thing. "She didn't get her old job back, didn't she?"

It wasn't really a question, but an actual statement as Selina got up from her spot on the couch and lead her lover to his bedroom. Once he cracked open the door, he saw the Green champion passed out on the bed with a few bottles of alcohol near her.

"She was like that when I got back." She said as she went into the bedroom to pick up the few empty beer bottles lying around. "Well she was mumbling in her sleep that she didn't get it and some other stuff that was hard to pronounce."

He could only look onto the first woman he loved with a mixture of sorrow and pity as he caressed her cheek with his hand. Not getting the job she wanted to return to must've hit the botanist harder than he thought, but who can blame her. For as long as he's known of her, working at Star Labs was the only job she ever had during her time in college and interned there in the first place. It must've been like ripping out a large piece of her life and just crumbling it into nothing.

As this little thought process went on, his eyes soon scanned the few bottles in the ravenette hand. With the case that seemed to be nearby, it showed that it was a six pack of beer and it seemed odd really. Usually people get a bit drunk once consuming more than just a regular six pack. But with the current pack, only half was consumed.

"If you're wondering on the beer Naruto, it's just some basic cheap stuff that I sometimes buy on my own at times." Selina said as she unintentionally chuckled a little. "This stuff wouldn't really get me drunk at all, but just only three beers got her drunk and passed out."

With this little information, Naruto's mind started to go through on some reasons why this went on. During the few times he and Pam drank alcohol together when they were dating prior to them making love for the first time, she drank her fair share of wine and beer and she turned out fine. But this… This was odd.

'Wait a second… She's part plant now… So that means…' He thought in realization before voicing it. "Well I think I know the problem now."

"What is it?"

"Well she can normally drink alcohol like everyone else and she knows her limits. But since she's part plant now, the drinks would jump a lot more on the concentration on her bloodwork."

"Making her able to get drunk a whole lot faster than a normal human."

"Especially since plants don't do all that well with alcohol if not properly treated well… or something in that nature." Naruto replied with a shrug before he left the room with Selena. Once they were out, he formed a clone to gather several bottles of water for the botanist with something for the coming headache. "I will honestly say that I will not envy Pam's headache when she wakes up."

"That I can agree with." The ravenette said as she dumped the bottles in the proper waste bin.

"So I've been meaning to ask, but have you found any connections are with the kidnappings?" He asked to bring back to the subject at hand.

"Yes… Well I think so."

"What do you mean?" The publisher asked as Selina walked over to the pile of folders and documents.

"I did find the file towards the end of my little gathering, but I didn't take a good look at it." She said as she pulled out the targeted file and handed it to him. "Would've looked earlier, but security was coming close to the room for a sweep and I needed to quickly leave. That and I was going over the other documents first for any presidented evidences."

"And how did you know that this was the right one?"

"Since Pyg and Toad were animal themed people, like myself, they would go after things that could be harmful against the environment in one way or another."

Feeling satisfied with the answer, Naruto opened it up and started going through the details of the file. "Says here that there was an animal preserve in the wetlands outside of Gotham, but it was sold to private investors when oil was found."

"I know and it really ticked me off when I found out that bit of information. Thank god that the reserve by the old military base is intact or else I'll really be pissed."

He slightly ignored the little rant and quickly went through the part he was looking for: the private investors. There were sixty investors total, but the only ones that really stood out were Max Shreck, Michael Holt…. And Bruce Wayne?!

"But…. But why would he be apart of this?" Naruto mumbled, getting his lover's attention.

"Who?"

"It doesn't make sense at all. He donates a lot of money to help preserve nature. No, this must've been one of his greedy directors behind all of this like when Pam went nuts."

Feeling left out on the little reveal, she finally snapped and yelled out to get his attention. "Okay who are you talking about?!"

"It's Bruce Selina. Pyg and Toad are going to target Bruce next." He said before reaching into his phone and dialed the Wayne Manor phone number. "Come on. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up." Naruto muttered in worried impatience before hearing the call being answered.

"Hello. Wayne Manor." Alfred spoke out on the other end.

"Alfred, it's Naruto. Is Bruce there?"

"No, he is not Mr. Uzumaki." The Pennyworth butler answered before a curious tone came from him. "Why are you asking? You sound worried."

"You need to either hide or get out of there Alfred! Pyg and Toad are targeting Bruce!"

"How would you know about- GAH!"

"Alfred?!" Naruto yelled out in worry, gaining Selina's attention even more. "ALFRED!"

"I say, this doesn't look like Bruce Wayne." A British voice called out making Naruto feel absolute dread running through him. "I believe you sacked the butler."

"I was sure this was Wayne." A second British voice called out making the Uzumaki know that Pyg and Toad have arrived at Bruce's home.

"I told you to get your eyes checked Mr. Toad." Professor Pyg spoke out towards his partner. "Retinal deterioration is the number one cause of blindness in amphibians."

"Sorry boss." Mr. Toad apologetically said before he gasped about something. "Look boss! Someone's listening to us."

It wasn't long until the publisher heard the phone being picked up and the British man answered the line. "Well hello there. Sorry that you had to hear such a thing, you cheeky peeper."

"I swear if you lay one hand on him." Naruto growled out getting the man to chuckle a little.

"Well if you are Bruce Wayne, then we'll be seeing you soon. If not, then would you be so kind to inform the man that we've taken his butler. Either way, have a good evening. Ta ta." Pyg stated before he hung up the phone.

"Dammit!" Naruto yelled out as he was pacing around the loft with Selina trying to comfort him. "They've gotten Alfred."

"What should we do?" Selina asked before she saw her boyfriend pressing some buttons on his phone. "What are you doing?"

"I need to tell Bruce." He said as he placed the phone onto his ear. "He clearly wasn't at home so I need to call his cell. I need to tell him what happened since Alfred was a second father to him."

Of course the call didn't take long for it to be answered. "Hello. Bruce Wayne speaking."

"Bruce! Where are you?!"

"I'm almost back home from work." He said in a strained, tired voice. "Why are you calling?"

"I tried calling you at your home to tell you something." He lied as he had to quickly cover up the original reason. "But when I was talking to Alfred, he was nabbed."

"WHAT?!" The billionaire yelled out, getting the publisher to move the phone away from his ear. "When did this happen?! Who took him?!"

"It was just moments ago and it was by those two eco-terrorists Pyg and Toad."

Nothing could be fully heard on the other end as Naruto heard his friend possibly getting his car to go faster. He was going to reply back, but Bruce beat him to it. "Thanks for letting me know Naruto. I'm going to call the police now and see what must be done." And with that the call ended.

Once pocketing his phone, the Uzumaki formed his Vanitas attire around him. "I need to go find Alfred."

"Not alone you're not." His ravenette girlfriend spoke out as she walked up to him again. "I'm coming with you."

"No you're not Selina."

"Yes I am Naruto." She said as she grabbed ahold of his hand with a tight squeeze. "I've come so far on this and I need to see this through."

"I know that Selena, but I-" "I want to help you on this." She interrupted him before continuing on with her reasoning. "If you possibly want me on the field with you then you must let me come with now. So please Naruto, let me help."

He could see the bit of hurt in her eyes that was being covered up by her conviction. Naruto couldn't say no to that since it would make those eyes be filled with pain on her love not trusting her.

"Alright Selina, you can come." He said making her smile a little. "If there's anything you need to do, do it now since we'll leave in five minutes. As for the files, I'll have a clone drop them off at GCPD along the way."

She walked up to him and gave him a nice hug before pecking his cheek. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

-Wetlands Oilrig, Outside of Gotham-

"Enough of this madness." Michael said in desperation as he tried to free himself of the connecting leg shackle to the other two men with him. "Anything you want; no matter the price, I'll pay it."

"I'll double whatever he pays." Max said to possibly buy his freedom. "You can do whatever you want with these two and I won't say a word."

"With what money Shreck." The industrialist said in response. "Your stock probably is pretty much down down the drain from the possible reveals this morning."

"Gentleman, gentleman. You must save your strength and wasting it by arguing will do you no good." The 'professor' said as he was taking a sip of his tea.

"He's a doctor you know so I recommend you listen." The talking amphibian said as he too was drinking tea with his partner.

"Now then, let me explain on what is going to happen." The large man spoke out as he got up from his seat and walked towards their captives. "You're going to be hunted, much like how you've hunted and drove out the animals that once occupied these wetlands."

"But this land was purchased legally."

Hearing Max's excuse, Pyg got up rather close and personal to the greyed out business owner with blazing eyes. "You destroyed a natural habitat, drained of its resources and then abandoned it to rot and decay! So there is no way, shape or form, legal about that!"

Once moving away from the failing business owner, the masked eco-terrorist took a few deep breaths to calm himself down before continuing speaking to the captives. "Now then, we are going to give you lot a five minute head start to hopefully escape this place. Which would supposed to start…" The man pulled out a pocket watch to check the time at this. "Oh right now apparently."

"I do recommend not wasting any time right now." Mr. Toad spoke out as he came up to the group. "So get going!"

And with that, the three men carefully got up and tried to run, but couldn't go too fast due to the shackles connecting them. As Max and Michael were being very precautious in their attempt to run away, Alfred was quiet and collective as his old secret service training came back to help him in the current predicament. Even though Pennyworth was out of the spy game, the experiences would never leave him.

Reason why he lived for so damn long in the first place.

Now as this was going on, the batmobile plowed right through the gate of the grounds leading up to the oilrig. The Batman was going at fast speeds so he could hopefully save his longtime friend and caretaker from certain doom. He wished that this didn't have to happen, but he sometimes blames Murphy for his predicaments… Along with some greedy directors in his company.

The past week has been relatively nice to say the least once he got back from his business trip. Nothing really bad happened when he was away, but Bruce was rather surprised on what did occur while he was gone. Children were found underneath the Theatre District and Vanitas saved them from the supposed Sewer King, who was currently serving a life sentence in prison. When he read up on the details, he was absolutely appalled on what happened and wished he could've done something sooner. But he was glad that Vanitas was there to take care of things.

As for today, he ended up sleeping in due to Alfred spiking his drink last night so the 'playboy' could get a full eight hour sleep. Bruce wanted to know why he'd done such a thing, but a little explanation that the hero needed a good full amount of sleep to help him out better. Sure there were the bovine glands to reduce his needed sleep, but the faithful butler was rather persistent for his charge's heath as of late.

After the discussion, Bruce found out about the kidnapping last night and went to Gotham Insider so he could analyze the kidnapping tape himself. He was barely able to find Michael Holt's name in the video, with it reflecting off of Pyg's weapon, before he went onto the streets to find the next victim. Chasing the eco-terrorists down was a bit easy, but on how it ended wasn't all that great of him being knocked out from the blast on his batmobile.

Luckily there was no major damage, due to Earl's latest upgrades on his vehicle, but there was still concerns with some internal safety.

When Batman woke up, he found himself outside and wondered how that happened. That was until he found one of Vanitas' cards on him with it written down on what happened. Feeling annoyed on what happened, he was heading home to figure out who was going to be targeted next by hacking into Shreck's servers to possibly find the final victim.

It was there when Bruce got the call from Naruto that Alfred had been taken. The billionaire was absolutely furious that Pyg and Toad kidnapped the butler, but he was confused on why exactly and he needed the details quickly. So once he got back to the cave, he used Marva's latest tech to get into Shreck's servers to find the financials.

He did find what he was looking for, but was shocked that his name was listed on the investors listing on the wetland oilrig. It felt like what happened months ago when Pamela was kidnapping industrialists and one of his directors got into the slash and burn outfit behind Bruce's back. It was possible he was dealing with a similar situation again, but the Bat will take care of that later.

For now, he needed to save Alfred.

-Back with the Captives-

"Can't you two move any faster?"

"You're yanking and yelling isn't helping." Michael growled towards the aging man as the three were walking through another corridor.

"Well excuse me for wanting us to stay alive!"

"All that you care about is you and your legacy." The man pointed out to earn a more heated glare from the man. "You'd risk the lives of others for your own benefit."

It was there that Alfred knew that it was enough squabbling when he grabbed ahold of both of the men's shoulders and yanked them back. "Will you two stop both metaphorical and literal?"

"Are you insane?! What the hell does that mean you old coot?!"

Answering Shreck's question he stepped forward and squatted down to see the faint shimmer of wire by their ankles and pointed it out to the other men. "I seem to remember you wanting to stay alive Mr. Shrek." The butler then traced the line upwards to the trap hanging above them, making the other captives gasp out in shock. "My guess is that the entire complex is booby trapped."

"So what does that mean? Do we just give up?"

"No Mr. Holt. What I'm suggesting is that we stop running and fight back until help arrives."

"Now hold on." Shreck spoke out as Alfred walked over to the side and saw a loose pipe sticking out. "You never told us who you were."

His answer wasn't immediate as Alfred twisted and tugged the busted pipe before it came off of the wall. Once it was free, he patted it and swung the impromptu weapon a little bit before replying back. "Didn't I tell you? Well I'm the butler."

For the past several minutes, the group carefully walked through the corridors to find a way out, but there was no luck so far. They did have to watch their step as Alfred pointed out the varying wires on the ground. The group did pass through several of them, with the latest one right behind them. They would've continued onwards if it wasn't for the fact a bomb was tossed their way with the fuse getting shorter by the second.

"Get back!" Alfred yelled out as the captives ran back for safety.

Holt was able to get over the wire safely, but Shreck tripped over it to end up triggering the trap above them. There was only a few seconds before the man's possible demise, but Alfred had lunged towards the businessman and pushed him and the industrialist out of the way. The three were out of the blast area; but in the process the trap from above came tumbling down and slammed down on both sides of Alfred's shackled leg.

Regaining his bearings, Holt saw the butler's predicament and came towards him. "Are you alright?" There was no answer as the two other men saw that the butler's shackle was destroyed and laid on the ground.

"His chain's off." Shreck said as he got up from the floor. "Let's get the hell out of here."

"Not without him."

"Leave him!"

"He saved your life asshole." Michael growled out to the aging man. "Both of our lives. So there is no way in hell I'm leaving him." The man came up to Alfred and tried to get him back up. But when the pressure came towards the unshackled leg...

"GAH!" Pennyworth cried out as he felt the pain go through his leg. "My ankle's broken."

"Perhaps I have a bandage for that." A voice called out from the other side of the trap to reveal Pyg and Toad calmly walking their way. The 'professor' looked inside of his medical bag and came with a mocked sigh. "Seems that I'm all out of bandages. So I believe that leg will have to come off." He said as he pulled out a bonesaw from his sack.

"Forget about me you two." The butler said getting the two captives' attention.

'But-" "RUN!"

Hesitantly complying, Holt ran away with the already retreating Shreck down the hallway…

*CROOOOOOOAK*

...But Mr. Toad's sonic attack knocked the two men down from afar and triggering another trap waiting for them. The two expected their demise right away; but a cage came downwards, entrapping them for their captors.

-Earlier with Batman-

*BANG*

The door into a long stairwell violently opened up as the Caped Crusader ran in before climbing the flights of stairs. As he ascended the stairs, he saw the visible gas in various areas in the room before pulling out a small lighter. He flickered it for a brief moment to see the flame get bigger to realize that the stairwell is filled with methane gas so he'll need to be careful when getting higher.

Of course he didn't count on the bad support some of the metallic planks are once he stepped onto one of them. Causing said plank to fall to the depths below to ignite some of the methane to bring up a giant ball of fire. Batman quickly covered himself with his cape for safety before the flame died down and continuing his ascent.

As he continued upwards, he heard a loud explosion coming from up above which caused the stairwell to violently shake. Moment caused the stairs below the hero to collapse and fall towards the depths below to spark more flames. There wasn't enough time for Batman to run, causing him to pull out his grappling gun to get out of the flame's path.

But before he could do anything, he felt something grab both of his arms and yanked him up.

'What the-?' Batman thought as he brought up several flights of stairs before falling to the ground. Next thing he knew, he saw a shimmering barrier around him as flames surrounded him. When the blast died down, he saw who saved him.

"What are you two doing here?"

"Saving your butt apparently." Catwoman said as Vanitas brought his hands down to lower the barrier around them. "That and saving the captives."

Ignoring the first bit, Batman asked about the later. "How did you know to get over here Selina?"

"Can't a girl have her secrets?" She cooed at him, only to get a glare in return. *Groan* "Fine. I was doing an investigation on my own after seeing this morning's news. Naruto overheard of what happened and called Wayne to warn him. Yada yada yada I ended up with Vanitas here to save the day."

He wanted to ask more; but there was no time as Alfred's safety came to the forefront of his mind, causing him to run off to find him.

"Sheesh. No thank you from the guy." Vanitas said as Catwoman chuckled before they ran after the caped crusader. It took a bit to catch up, due to Batman's head start, but the couple eventually saw Batman fire his grappling gun and ziplined his way to knock away Mr. Toad. Who was about to attack the downed Wayne butler.

"You'll pay for that." The amphibian growled out as he lunged at the Bat again, but was intercepted with a scarf wrapping around him. "What the-?"

"You give toads a bad name." Vanitas said as he swung the British toad around and sent him flying back to Professor Pyg. With how strong the throw was, the two were knocked back and seemingly was rendered unconscious.

Seeing that they might be in the clear, Batman came close to his old friend. "Are you alright sir?"

Alfred's lips gained a small smirk at this of hearing his charge calling him 'sir'. Though as quickly as it came, it quickly died out before he replied. "Not really Batman. My ankle's broken and I'll need help getting out of here."

"Then I hope this helps." The Bat said as he pulled out a pain med and injected it into him. "This will help until proper treatment can be placed on you."

"Thank you, but the pain isn't important right now."

"HEY!" Shreck yelled out from the confines of the impromptu cell. "What about us?!"

"Maybe we could leave him behind and take Holt with us." Catwoman jokingly said with a smile that gained a more angry look from the greyed out businessman.

Batman turned towards the thief with a narrowed look before he decided to ask the two arrivals a question. "Mind if you two help getting them out of here?"

"I'll help out on what I can." Vanitas said as a clone was formed from black and white whisps of smoke.

"Come on Catwoman." Clone Vanitas said as he walked towards the Wayne butler. "Help me with this one."

"Sure."

"And what are you going to do?" The Dark Knight asked with the main one still standing there, as the clone and Selina picked up the downed man before getting the other captives out of the cage.

"Helping you deal with Pyg and Toad obviously." The disguised Uzumaki said as he turned to see Pyg and Toad getting back up from the attack earlier.

"Mind answering me this, but when was the last time you've had a physical?" The 'professor' asked as he spun his bone saw around and aimed at the two heroes.

"A while back, but my doctor had better bedside manners than you Pyg." Vanitas said as he and Batman got into fighting positions.

Toad then came forward and puffed out his mouth before opening it...

*CROOOOOOOAK*

...And another sonic attack was sent towards them. The two were sent back a bit of ways, but had to quickly recover as Pyg came towards them with his weapon on hand. The bonesaw was met with Batman's gauntlets in hopes of holding the man at bay.

He pushed the larger man away before delivering a kick to the man's midsection when Pyg tried to assault him with his weapon. Several swings came afterwards as the caped crusader moved out of the way several times before he delivered a kick to the man's arm to send the bonesaw away. With the loss of his weapon, Pyg tried to attack the Bat but was met with a knee to the face to send him away.

As this went on, Vanitas threw several daggers at the amphibian but missed as the man jumped out of the way due to his special skills. The disguised Uzumaki had a hard time landing a hit on the man, but that was the case with how agile toads were from his memory of having them as his past summons. It wasn't long before the villainous toad came towards him for close quarters fighting, resulting for Vanitas to resort to Frog Kata.

Attacks seemingly met and dodged several times, but none would gain the upper hand in the current moment. Either one of them would need the opportunity to strike. Luckily for the hero, the toad barely left an opening for a quick moment for Vanitas to land a good hit. Toad was sent flying back after the last hit, leaving the disguised publisher a brief moment to think to himself.

'It was like fighting Gamakichi all over again.' He thought in remembrance of fighting his personal summon back when he was on his training trip with Jiraiya.

When the two villains regained their bearings, they saw Batman and Vanitas several feet away from them and closing.

"It's over you two. Give up." Batman said as he saw the eco-terrorists getting back up.

"I don't think so." The 'professor' said as he pulled out a trigger and pressed the button on top. Soon the heroes saw flashing lights in the dark parts of the corridors and realized that Pyg had activated bombs. As a result, the heroes ran away as the eco-terrorists ran off to safety with the coming blast covering their escape.

"Bad day! Bad day! Bad day!" Vanitas yelled out as he and Batman ran through the corridor as they felt the blast going off behind them. The flames were catching up to them as they were near the end of a dead end. Not wanting to leave the Bat behind, Vanitas grabbed his arm as he phazed the them out of the complex.

They quickly descended from the highest level and landed on top of the shipping containers below before they continued their escape as the building started to explode and collapse behind them. It was about to be a close call as both seemingly looked back for a brief moment of the incoming debris heading their way with the edge fast approaching.

"JUMP!" The heroes yelled out in possibly warning the other, but it didn't matter as they leapt off of the platform with the blast behind them sending them farther than expected. They both stumbled in their landing, but were possibly fine in the end.

"Are you insane?!" Shreck yelled out as he walked away from Catwoman, clone Vanitas, Alfred and Holt. "What if we were still in there?! We would've been killed!"

"Oh will you shut up Shreck." Catwoman said as she didn't want to deal with the man's yelling. "We saved your hides and yelling should be the least of your worries."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

"You'll find out soon enough." Was all she said as she handed the wounded butler to Holt while the clone dispersed.

Somewhat ignoring what Selina meant, Batman went up to Alfred to check up on him. "Are you alright?"

"Yes Batman and thank you for your assistance." Pennyworth said as he looked at Vanitas and Catwoman. "They've been good enough to quickly get us out of there before the blast went off."

"Good to know."

"But what of Pyg and Toad?"

"I'm sure that Gotham will be seeing them again, but not anytime soon." Batman answered as the sounds of police sirens came closer to the scene.

"And that's our cue." Vanitas said as he formed a card platform underneath him and Selena before they took off into the air. "Have a pleasant night!"

Seeing this happen, Batman narrowed his eyes before running towards his batmobile and started it up to go after the two. He's got some questions to ask of them and if he can't get any from Vanitas, then he'll get them from Selina. Possibly this might be the only thing that will go on for the remainder of the evening with it being one hell of a long day.

…..

One would expect things to end right here, but it doesn't seem to be the case at the present moment.

Far away from the collapsing oilrig, the resulting disturbance from the wetlands had somehow traveled to the connecting swamps some miles away. Though with how big the oilrig was, how couldn't the waves and shock disturb the surrounding areas from the collapse. But this was besides the point…

Deep inside of one particular swamp outside of Gotham, a figure slowly opened it's eyes for the first time in god knows how many years. The being moved around slightly as it looked through its surroundings to see that it was underwater. It didn't really disturb the being in the slightest as it wanted to possibly go back to sleep.

Rise….

'What... was that?' The being thought as it shifted and turned to look around for the source.

Rise….

'There… it is… again.'

Rise….

It was then that the being felt the pull and complied with the simple command. It slowly came up and started to walk underneath the murky water. It took the being a few minutes to reach the surface, breaking through to feel the fresh air after so many years. Wondering what was going on, the being looked around to see it's location.

With the moonlight casted around the area; eyes soon landed upon a nearby sign, making the person read from it.

"Sl...Slau...Slaughter Swa… Swamp." The being spoke out in a rough, raspy voice that made it possibly identifiable to be that of a man's. His eyes traveled yet again before it landed upon thing of newspaper that seemingly landed in front of him due to a gust of wind passing by. The man squatted down to inspect it to see what interests could come before the risen man.

Though only one thing in particular caught the man's attention from the seemingly old and tatered newspaper article.

"Mon...Monday." The man said as he narrowed his eyes as a part of one particular nursery rhyme came to the forefront of his mind.

"Born on a Monday." He voiced out before his eyes soon landed upon the city lights in the distance. Instincts soon surfaced from a past life or something of that nature, making the man slowly walk towards the lights. The man didn't have anything else to do at all, only letting his instincts fully drive him.

Yes… Follow the lights to Gotham our Champion… Our Champion of the Black...

-End Chapter-