But Mommy, Nobody's There

It was a rather cold, Autumn night as the wind blew to add more of the chill to a certain area of Gotham. In a somewhat run-down suburb in Gotham, with how poorly it's appearance has kept up over the years, something seemed amiss. From a dog suddenly barking for no reason into the night and to faint footsteps being heard on the pavement. Soon the footsteps met with the wet grass and crunching leaves as they appeared to be encircling a certain house in the neighborhood.

Coming to a window, it seemingly opened up all on it's own with no one in sight. If one were to look inside, they would see a child's bedroom as it had several toys lying about. The faint footsteps drew closer to the bed, which clearly had a child underneath. And all of a sudden, the lamp by the child's bed turned on as the cord was pulled.

"Kimberly?..." Spoke a disembodied voice in a soft tone. "Kimmy… Kimmy… Are you awake?"

The child turned over in her bed to show her vibrant blonde hair as it went towards her mid-back. Her eyes cracked opened to show her innocent blue eyes as they scanned the room. For a moment, she thought she heard her mother calling her.

That was until she saw one of her dolls floating in the air, indicating one thing.

"Mojo, you came back!" Said the blonde child in glee as her imaginary friend came back to visit her again.

The friend chuckled a little as he made the doll move its arms a little for good measure. "Sure I did, sweetie. I said I would, didn't I?"

"Uh huh."

Soon part of the bed sank down to show her friend was sitting down on it as he placed the doll back into her arms. "Look what I got for you." He said as he pulled out a gold locket with a small diamond in the center from his invisible jacket.

Kimberly's eyes sparkled when she the nice piece of jewelry. "It's beautiful." Soon her hair went up for a brief moment before the locket went around her neck. "Thank you, thank you."

"You're welcome, sweetie." Mojo said with slight happiness in his voice. "Now don't worry. I know that what you've really been hoping for is a pearl necklace." Kimberly had a feeling at this point her friend was scratching his chin or hair at this point in slight embarrassment as he stood up from the bed. "I haven't found the right one yet, but Mojo promises he'll bring you one next time he visits."

It was at this point the blonde child gained a saddened expression across her pretty little face as she looked away from her imaginary friend. Seeing this happen, Mojo spoke in a worried tone. "Kimmy, what's wrong?"

"Next time better be soon or you might not find us."

"...And why's that?"

"Mommy says we're moving." Answered the child which got her to hear Mojo gasp in shock. "She says things will be better for us someplace else. Someplace safer."

"...I see."

Before long, a soft knock was heard from the bedroom door. As it opened, it showed a mother in her early thirties with her short blonde hair held back by a black headband. She wore a red sweater with a pair of black pants and shoes.

"Kimberly, who are you talking to?" Said the mother as she looked around the room. "I swore I heard somebody…"

Kimberly smiled as she answered. "Nobody, mommy. It was just Mojo."

Her mother faintly smiled as she let out a chuckle on the reference with her imaginary friend. "Oh, I'm sorry. I probably just missed him then. I would've said hi."

"But he really was here, mommy."

"I know, honey, I know." She said as she tried playing along. "Now go to sleep, okay? You've got school in the morning."

Back outside of the home, the window slowly closed shut once the mother closed the door to Kimberly's room. From there, the footsteps walked away from the home and onto the street as they appeared louder with the feet harshly stomping on the ground. And before long, a trash can was dented by an invisible kick with a following angry growl into the night.

-Next Day, Downtown Gotham-

It was currently raining for most of the day as the clouds overhead didn't clear up at all. Though a silver lining was seen as it's been only a light drizzle for a good chunk of it.

Parking on the side of the street, a man got out of the car as he wore a grey jacket and pants combo with a black sweater underneath to compliment his slicked black hair and eyes. Closing his car door, he locked it up just after pulling out his light grey briefcase before turning his attention to one particular building. Not just any building, but one that was currently hosting a jewelry expo with today being it's last.

Once getting inside, the man made his way into the men's restroom. Checking each of the stalls, the dark haired man saw no one, asides from him, was currently in the room. Making his way towards the door, he twisted the lock so no one would stumble in unannounced.

Just in time too as he heard someone trying to open the door from the other side. "Hey! Who locked the bathroom?! I gotta go bad!"

The dark haired man chuckled slightly before placing his briefcase onto the counter. Opening it up showed some sort of grey cloth-like material. It took several minutes for the man to cover himself up with the cloth from head to toe and once done, he activated something with his watch. The light around him started to shift before he apparently became invisible to the naked eye. Even when he grasped his briefcase again, it soon turned invisible as well.

Back inside the expo floor, Naruto was looking over a stand where a nice selection of Swiss watches were out on display. He's been meaning to get a new one as his previous one recently broke on because of water damage. And the salesperson said the digital watch would've been fine with water exposure… heh, yeah right.

While he was at it, Naruto though on getting ones for Lois, Cat and Talia. The Uzumaki had considered getting ones for his girlfriends, but they appeared fine with either not getting one or currently fine with the ones they had. With Lois, he forgot about her birthday back in August and needed to get her something decent as a friend. Same went with Cat…

Well not on the lines of a late birthday present, since hers is in January, but just something for her to remember him by since he still thinks fondly of the 'media queen' out West.

As for Talia, Naruto figured he might see his old friend sometime soon with how she said she'll visit again in the coming future before leaving town last month. And with him not getting her a birthday present for close to a decade now, he might as well be prepared just in case… Along with the fact he still doesn't know when her birthday is exactly.

"...A most handsome selection, isn't it Mr. Uzumaki?" Asked the salesperson.

Naruto looked over the Swiss watch in good detail and saw nothing out of the norm. With a small smile, he spoke. "I think I'll take it." Just when he was about to sign the warranty papers of the watch, and pull out his wallet for his credit card number, the Swiss watch was snatched out of his hand by some invisible force. "...What the hell?"

The watch floated in the air before it seemingly disappeared into nothingness with various other items on the table. Both Naruto and the salesperson were freaking out, especially when they saw many other merchandise from other tables were being picked up and disappearing as well.

"Holy smokes!" Said a saleswoman selling diamonds.

"Police, police, over this way!" Said a man getting his watch stolen.

Help! Security! I've been robbed! Said a woman as her priceless necklace was ripped right off her neck.

Left and right, people were being shoved out of the way by some unseen force while their expensive belongings were being taken. The security arrived in the room to try and calm down the masses as they were scaredly baffled while trying to stop the invisible man. Of course, this proved useless as their weapons were stolen without them noticing and practically defenseless.

Not liking the look of things, Naruto quickly ran into the nearby restroom and formed his Vanitas attire around his body before quickly phasing through the walls. By the time he got back inside, so no one would possibly suspect his civilian identity, Vanitas saw the back entrance opened with the incapacitated guards.

When near the opening, the masked Uzumaki picked up a sound. "Footsteps?" He ran through the doorway and ended up in an empty alleyway with signs of construction around the area. From the wet cement covered up by tarp to other equipment that were left behind by the workers.

Wanting to pinpoint the invisible thief, Vanitas activated his thermal/infrared vision of his helmet capabilities and saw something was off. For some reason, he wasn't picking up anything at all on where the thief was currently at as the hero still heard the footsteps.

"Who are you?" Vanitas said as he went on guard in a loose stance. "I know you're in here." Out of nowhere, the hero moved out of the way as a cement knife was thrown at him from the side. "Cute. Real cute."

Vanitas then the tarp being stepped on, causing him to look over to see the temporary indentations. Pulling out a smoke bomb from his utility belt, he threw it at the tarp which soon went off. With the smoke filling up the area, Vanitas saw a silhouette inside to get a good idea on where to aim towards. As he ran towards the invisible man, the hero grabbed a can of paint nearby and opened it before splashing it's contents onto the thief.

As he was partially revealed, the thief kept running as he went towards his watch to activate something. Soon the paint started to burn away to hide his form once again. As Vanitas possibly caught up with him, by guess work, he turned the corner and saw he ended up in a crowded street. With all the people walking around, the masked Uzumaki cursed to himself when he realized the thief had managed to get away by perfectly blending into the populace undetected.

-Later, Elsewhere-

It took a while to get back to his rundown apartment as he was able to escape from Vanitas' clutches. After running through the crowds for a while, the man decided to head back to his car once he knew the helmeted hero lost track of him. He would've done this sooner, but the invisible man just wanted to be sure he wasn't being tracked.

Once inside of his home, he flipped the light switch and dropped his suitcase full of stolen goods on the couch before making his way to the kitchen for some food. Having to run for your life worked up one hell of an appetite. At this time, he pulled off the invisible cloth from parts of his body after turning his equipment off with his watch. With a sandwich on hand, he got to his dining room table where a framed picture rested at.

As he sat down, the man gazed at the photo of a blonde, blue eyed little girl; the man scowled while speaking. "A better life somewhere else, huh? Where your dear old dad can't find you? That's what she really meant!" The dark haired man gritted his teeth as he thought of his ex-wife. "Well, don't you worry, Kimmy. She's never gonna take you away from me. I won't let her. You hear me? I won't let her."

-Next Day, Spiral Publishing-

"...How are the current projects coming along, Harry?" Spoke the Uzumaki as he looked at the handful of people standing in his office. Said people were little representatives from each of his departments as they were sent to converse with their main boss for the weekly meeting. This mostly occurs if the company is being overhauled on projects and assignments as Naruto doesn't want to keep checking on things on a daily basis when he gets bored.

"Things are looking well in the advertising department, as usual, boss." Spoke Harry Matthews as he flipped through his clipboard charts and reports. "A lot of companies keep requesting us to help make their posters, catalogues and the like. So we've got no shortage on that."

"And upcoming books, Harry?"

"Posted, as usual, in some of our magazines."

Naruto nodded before looking towards one of his new employees: Alexander Knox, former reporter of the Gotham Globe. A man in his thirties with light brown 'poofy' hair was cleanly shaven to fit with his white button up shirt, red tie and grey pants. Even had a small messenger bag on his side to keep most of his belongings while on the go.

You see, the Gotham Globe newspaper company was starting to go under not long ago. This was all due to sales dropping with their rivals, the Gotham Herald and Gotham Gazette, doing much better business-wise. After some convincing with his board of directors and his new company partner, Cat Grant of CatCo Worldwide Media, Naruto decided to buy out the newspaper and merge it with his own to 'expand his influential reach', as it were.

...Cat's words, not his.

And now they not only put out magazines for their stories and articles, but also newspapers.

"So Alex, any good stories to tell?"

Alexander Knox gave a small shrug as he flipped through his notebook. "Well, sir, there's not much going on lately, crime-wise. After these Sirens suddenly appeared to take down Killer Croc, things have been rather lax for the past week. Though they have appeared a few times to supposedly help out Vanitas and Batman on some instances."

'Yeah, I figured as much.' Naruto thought as he scratched his head. 'We were the first to publish the story, which gave us a good jump on sales, but things are now dying down.' Putting his attention back to his reporter, he asked what came to mind. "What about the 'invisible man' robbing the jewelry expo I told you about? Any more information about that?"

The reporter shook his head. "Sorry, Naruto, but nothing is creeping out so far. Though I'll let you know if I get something."

"Right. Now, asides from that, plan on heading out to Central City by weeks end. I heard there's something going on with STAR labs' main station there. Something with with an accelerator, I believe, that would really change the scientific world." Turning his attention to one of his artists, he asked his next question. "And what of the new concept arts for some of Blizzard's books, Maggie?"

"They're progressing well." Said the British woman. "I emailed the images for confirmation earlier today and just waiting for their responses."

"That's good." He then looked at the last employee in his room: Helen Smart from their website department. "And are there any problems with our sites? I heard earlier there were some, Helen."

"There are, sir." Said the blonde as she rubbed her arm. "Some of the new programs and software we got are causing some concerns. But I believe our guys at IT are getting things cleaned up as we speak."

The Uzumaki nodded when hearing this. "I'll go by Wayne Tech later today, in person, and talk to Bruce Wayne if I can get us better software than from what we were given. Could've been a virus that slipped through their eyes when making their new products."

Looking at his office clock, along with his stomach rumbling a little, Naruto realized it was probably time for lunch. "Then I believe we're good for now." Said the publisher as he stood up from his desk. "Do whatever else is needed for today, guys."

Everyone nodded as they exited the Uzumaki's office to go into their separate ways. Some went to their respective departments while others decided to go get themselves lunch. When Naruto made it to the elevator, the door was about to close when someone placed their arm in between to reopen the passage.

It didn't take much for the Uzumaki to notice that it was Helen from earlier. "Hey, hey."

"Oh, hello Naruto."

"Going down?" She nodded yes. "Lunch, I take it?" She nodded once more, causing him to press their desired floor to get them to the building's cafeteria.

On the way down, the blonde woman looked towards him and gave him a small smile. "Thank you again for getting the transfer to happen, Naruto."

He just shrugged in response. "It's no problem, Helen. We needed to transfer people over to Central City and you volunteered to be sent over there."

"Yes and I hope I'll be able to get Kimberly into a safer city than from here. No offense, by the way."

"Eh~ None taken. You've gotta do to keep your precious people safe. And if that means moving them somewhere else, then by all means do so-so they'll have a better life."

Helen nodded with a small smile on her face as the elevators opened. They stepped out to go to their separate ways in the cafeteria as others entered the compartment. It wasn't long when Helen went over to the vending machine for a little treat when someone came into her peripheral vision.

He was a man that was several years older than her with his black hair slicked back with his dark eyes to match his black sweater and grey suit combo. He was someone she did not want to ever see again for what he's done to her. For he is her ex-husband.

"Hey, babe. Long time." He said with a wry grin.

Helen narrowed her eyes and walked away from him. "Not long enough, Lloyd."

"Did they tell you about the parole?" Said her ex-husband as he tried to catch up to her. "I'm living in Gotham now."

"I don't care what you do as long as you don't do it within 100 feet of me."

"The restraining order? You don't need that anymore." He grasped her arm, causing her to go stiff at the touch. "Look… when I was a bum, it made sense, but-"

"What do you mean, "was"?" She asked, pulling her arm free from his grasp before getting into the cafeteria line.

Lloyd wasn't enjoying of her ignoring him, again, causing him to make a scene in the company food area. "Come on, babe! Look at me!"

Helen didn't look at her ex-husband at all and she didn't care if many of her co-workers were looking towards her. She gathered her desired meal consisting of a chicken salad with several apples and a small bottled juice. When she got to the end of the line, she saw a can of coca-cola placed onto her tray.

Turning to the source, she saw Lloyd place it there as he pulled out a wad of cash out of his jacket pocket. "...How many all-night gas stations did you have to knock over for that?" She asked with disdain. Lloyd tried to pay for her lunch, but she shoved the hand away and took the soda off her meal tray. "Keep it. I don't want your dirty money, Lloyd."

Helen paid for her meal and left the line before her former husband caught up with her when she placed her tray onto an empty table. "But everything's different now, Helen, can't you see that?" He said in desperation in his voice. "I can give Kimmy everything she'll ever need.

This seemed to set off the blonde as she turned towards him and growled. "You stay away from her, Lloyd!"

His pleas started to grow at this point as he placed his hands on her shoulders. "Come on, babe. If you could just let her see me-"

"Keep your hands off me!" She yelled out, causing many in the cafeteria to go quiet. "I told her all about you and what you've done! She knows you're not to go near her."

"Is there a problem here?" A voice called out from behind, causing them to turn around to see Naruto standing not far away from the arguing pair. "I can get security here, right now, if there is."

"No there-"

"Yes there is, sir." Helen said, interrupting her former husband. "This man is violating my restraining order and harrassing me."

"Now wait just a second, Helen." Lloyd went to grab Helen's hand, but she jerked it away at the last second. "Cut me some slack. I'll give you anything you want."

"Want?! All I want is for you to disappear and leave. I never want to see you ever again."

This caused Lloyd to narrow his eyes as he saw many people keeping a good look at him. Security was supposedly called in to possibly escort him out of the building. Holding up his hands in defeat, Lloyd started to walk away. "Okay, okay I'll leave." He soon muttered to himself as no one could possibly hear his personal threat towards his ex-wife. "But just remember the old saying, Helen: Be careful what you wish for."

As the man left the area, many conversations slowly returned. Though many would occasionally glance at the blonde woman, who was taking deep breaths to calm herself down. When she sat down to possibly eat, her boss sat down right in front of her with a boxed lunch of his. "Mind if I sit here, Helen?"

"...Not at all, I guess."

Getting a good read out of her, he spoke the obvious question in mind. "I take it he was your former husband?"

She breathed out a sigh in response. "Yeah, he is."

"And I take it he's the reason why you requested the transfer?"

She went still for a moment before answering. "Yes."

"Wanna talk about it?" Helen was quiet as she took her first bite of her meal, causing him to speak again. "It's fine if you don't want to. It's your story to tell, if you like to or not."

The blonde woman sighed as she placed her fork down. "The divorce happened while he was in prison." She then went to her apples and started cutting them up. "He used to work for some mob boss when Kimberly was just a baby. I didn't know what he did back then as he kept it a secret from me. I didn't know where the money was coming from since my main priority was focusing on our little girl."

Taking a bite out of the first apple slice, she continued once swallowing. "Then, one night, the police came and took him away with a warrant for his arrest as they spotted him committing a crime before fleeing away. I didn't believe Lloyd was involved until the police gave me detailed reports on what he'd done: breaking and entering, larceny, murder, you name it as he'd done it."

She continued on with her meal for a few moments before picking up where she left off. "Took awhile for me to scrounge up the money back then on the move and hopefully get away from him. But it seemed Murphy likes to screw me over and have Lloyd find me after all this time."

"So not only did you not want to move away to protect yourself and your daughter from the dangers of this city, but also to hide from Lloyd as far away as possible."

"Yeah and I hoped that working hard enough here, I would be able to request the transfer to really throw him off our trail. Now I just hope he'll never find us again, for Kimberly's sake."

-Later, WayneTech-

It took a bit of time to figure out when would be the opportune time to arrive at WayneTech. With his loads of paperwork and assignments to look over, Naruto had to work through the majority of them before figuring it would be the right time to leave the office for his errand. As the Uzumaki walked through some of the hallways of the building, he was able to stumble across one of the men he was looking for: Lucius Fox.

When the CEO turned around after speaking with one of his employees, he spotted the whiskered man coming his way. "Well hello, Naruto. Good to see you."

"Nice to see you too, Lucius." Said the publisher as he shook hands with the man.

"What brings you here?"

"Well, for starters, there were some concerns with the software my company got from here and my boys at IT think there must be some virus that must've got into the system."

Lucius nodded as he ushered Naruto to follow him. "Yeah, we've been getting some complaints about this from some of our buyers. So we planned on doing a recall pretty soon so we could figure out the problem before giving everyone the software they initially wanted."

Naruto sighed in relief when hearing this. 'Great. Now that possibly solves one problem.'

"Though you could've just called us just to save you the trouble in coming here, Naruto."

"It's no problem at all, really. Needed to get out of the office and get some air for a bit."

The Wayne Enterprises CEO chuckled a little in agreement. That changed when he possibly read the Uzumaki's mood. "But I believe that's not just the reason why you've come here, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I figured you could've gotten me on that one."

"Then let's speak in my office where we'll have more privacy."

The pair made it to the elevator and took several minutes of travel to reach the CEO's office. In that time, Naruto did ask if Bruce was in town. Lucius stated the billionaire was currently in Chicago to oversee and confirm some projects in the labs over there so he won't back for a few days. Once locking the door, the CEO typed down a code by the entrance to get things secured.

"Over protective much?"

Lucius shrugged in response. "Well you can't be too sure these days. So what's up?"

"Well… You've heard about the 'invisible man' robbing the jewelry expo yesterday, right?"

"So you know that I was there, right?"

The CEO nodded once more as he was informed of Naruto's nightly activities by Bruce himself. Saying that the whiskered Uzumaki could be trusted, but one can't be too sure lately.

Naruto sighed in relief as he talked with Bruce at a prior point on who else knew about him being Batman. So far it's a pretty small list with Lucius being one of them. "Well reason why I came on by, asides from my software problems, was to see if possibly WayneTech is responsible for this invisible man."

"Not that I could think of, Naruto. As far as I know, none of our equipment has been stolen with everything accountable." The publisher sighed a bit as he would've thought he could've gotten a lead, but it seems he'll have to- "But I do recall there being something last year about an invisibility project."

This seemed to peak Naruto's interests as he possibly has something now. "What do you mean, Lucius?"

The CEO walked to his desk and started typing things into his computer before displaying the information on his screen. "There was an inventor named Karos that wanted us to go into business with him with some plastic he called: 'The Cloak of Invisibility'."

"Sounds like something from a fantasy novel."

Lucius chuckled in agreement. "We were interested in hearing more on what it could do exactly, but for some reason, Karos withdrew his proposal before we could close a deal."

"Did you guys wonder why?"

"Not much, I'm afraid, since Karos was pretty hush hush on the specifics but made it sound really interested on the idea. Though we did keep the offer on the table if the man wanted to bring back his proposal."

"So did he ever get the chance to talk to him again?" Naruto asked, getting Lucius to suck in his teeth a bit. "What happened?"

"He passed away a couple of months ago."

"Oh…"

"But I've heard that his assistant, Sam Giddell, was trying to carry on his research."

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he gained a bit of suspicion behind this. "Mind giving me his address?"

-Evening, Karos' Lab-

Vanitas was looking down through a skylight where he saw Sam Giddell tightening up the restraints on large rolls of plastic. And if these were what he heard before, then he possibly found what he was looking for. But before he could confront him, he needed to check on a few things.

Jumping down to the main level of the building, Vanitas phased his way through the doors before entering the laboratory. He stuck to the shadows as he walked towards the scientist's office to find out some clues as to what was going on. Phasing through the door, Vanitas started searching when he came across the filing cabinets. Many of the files were nothing noteworthy as his main focus was anything related to the 'invisible man'. It took a while before finding something close as the file was labeled 'Camouflage'.

'Hope this is promising.' He thought as he opened the file and started looking through the details. 'Huh… Interesting.'

Once done, he placed the file back and made his way out of the office. With him possibly getting what he needed, the hero wanted to confront this assistant for more answers. But before he could get the chance, the nearby bookshelf tipped over to cover the hero in various containers and boxes.

"Okay, you, come out of there." Said the assistant as he growled at the intruder. He bent down to try to find any sign of the man when he spoke up. "I don't know what you think you're doing-"

He was soon interrupted when he was grabbed from behind and shoved to the nearby wall. The scientist was startled and was about to fight back when he noticed Vanitas right in front of him. "You! I-I didn't know!"

"Are you Sam Giddell?"

Sam nodded in slight nervousness. "Yes, I am. But what do you want?"

"Where were you two days ago?

"Here. All day." He said as he calmly placed his hands onto the hero's forearms. "If you let me go, I can prove it. The building security saw me… Hell, you can check!"

"...I believe you." Vanitas said as he let go of the scientist. Once the atmospher seemed to calm down, he spoke up. "Working kind of late, aren't you?"

Sam pointed towards the large rolls of plastic on the other side of the room. "I wanted to prep the last of the stuff for disposal."

Taking a better look at the material, it was indeed plastic, but there seemed to be something inside of it. "So this is that 'cloak of invisibility' plastic your boss created?" Sam nodded in response. "How does it work?"

"Give me a second and I'll show you." Giddell went to the workbench and pulled out a foot long sample of the material and clamped each end down in place. Once done, he clamped something else onto the bottom before pulling out what appeared to be an electric baton. "It's really quite remarkable."

"Is there a point to this?"

Sam nodded before pointing to the material. "Do you see those filaments embedded in the plastic?"

Vanitas activated his 'hawkeye' to see closer from his position. He did indeed see a good amount of fibers and filaments mixed into the plastic. "I do."

"Well not anymore." The scientist soon pressed the baton onto the material, causing it to electrify for a few moments before it… disappeared? "Run an electrical current through them and the stuff bends light instead of absorbing it, so you can't see it."

"Really? But I saw in the report that it could also hide away heat signatures."

"Right you are." Sam chuckled a little. "My boss really wanted to really make someone invisible so not only does this make one invisible through the regular eye, but also through thermals. He hoped to possibly use WayneTech as a way to go into the military for further pitching."

"Why's that?"

"Wanted to have the material sewn into fabrics for specific people in armed forces or something on very dangerous extraction assignments so they wouldn't get caught."

"So why pull back the proposal?"

Giddell sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "There… was a problem when we went into further testing. One of our guys got really sick since the plastic became toxic. If one were to wear it for too long with the material having good enough skin contact, the stuff seeps into their pours and you can figure out the rest."

"But what about putting this stuff on like cars or planes?"

"We tried that as well." The scientist then pulled out a lighter and flipped it on. Once bringing the flame close to the material, it quickly went up into flames before Sam used a fire extinguisher to put it out. "Turned out that possible flame exposure would cause further problems." He sighed as he sat down on the nearby chair. "I've spent two months after my boss' death trying to correct the problem, but it's hopeless."

"So you were gonna dump it?"

Giddell looked at the helmeted hero as he raised his voice. "Properly, mind you. It's way too dangerous in normal means… Though, funny thing is, some of it seems to be missing."

"How so?"

"At first, I thought it might've been me using most of it for further testing to see what I've done wrong, but I threw that out of the window with me getting my corrections right."

'Then that must mean someone stole some of this.' Vanitas thought before saying what came to mind. "Who else knows about this stuff?"

"Only the other assistant… Well… Actually he was more like an errand boy."

"Mind telling me who he is then?"

The scientist nodded before answering. An ex-con. Goes by the name's Ventrix, Lloyd Ventrix."

'Lloyd… Ventrix?... Isn't Helen's husband...' Thought the hero before his eyes widened on what he processed. 'Shit! I need to get to her now!'

-Smart Residence-

Helen was taking out the garbage for the evening after cleaning up her home. It was a long day at work and once getting home, she had to prepare dinner for her and Kimberly before continuing packing with the upcoming moving day. Sure it was several weeks away, but Helen wanted to be sure she got many things sorted out before then.

As she was about to make her way inside, a voice spoke up from behind. "Ms. Smart." Helen jumped in her spot and quickly turned around to see Vanitas standing some feet away from her. "I'm here to warn you about something. It's rather urgent."

Inside of the Smart residence, Kimberly was fiddling around the pearl necklace Mojo just gave her mere moments ago. "Oh~ it's so pretty, Mojo. It's exactly what I wanted."

"Well I did promise I'd get it for you, Kimmy." Said the imaginary friend as she felt herself being lifted up and put into a bridal carry, causing her laugh a little in the process. "Now, come on. I wanna show you something real special."

"Where are we going?" Kimberly innocently asked.

"Oh… You'll see."

Back outside of the residence, Vanitas was finishing explaining to his employee what he recently learned earlier in the evening. "...And prolonged exposure to the plastic can damage the mind, as well as the body."

Helen felt unnerved on hearing what her ex-husband was probably doing. 'This does explain that large wad of cash he was flashing earlier today at lunch.' Helen thought before something started to bother her. "...Did you say he can make himself invisible?"

"Yes, why?"

"...Oh dear god! Mojo!" She yelled out as she ran past the helmeted hero.

"Who?"

The blonde woman ran inside of her home and stumbled in step as she slipped on the carpet. She quickly got back up and ran towards her daughter's room. Opening up the door, she saw the bedroom window was wide open… with her daughter nowhere in sight.

"Kimberly! Kimberly!" She yelled out in desperation before she collapsed onto the ground as tears poured down her cheeks. "Oh dear god, what have you done, Lloyd?"

Vanitas came into the room and saw his employee on the ground sobbing. He knelt down and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder with a firm squeeze. He felt horrible on what happened to her and swore he'll her daughter back. But first…

"Who was this Mojo you spoke of, Ms. Smart?"

Coming out from her little fit of tears, Helen answered. "I… I thought Mojo was just her imaginary friend. I never would've thought…"

"It's not your fault, Ms. Smart. You didn't even know." He said as he helped her up. "Now… How long ago did you last see your daughter?"

"It was five minutes ago when I put her into bed."

Vanitas nodded before making his way out of her home. "I promise, Helen. I'll bring Kimberly back into your arms. No matter what."

-Abandoned Drive-In Theater-

Kimberly was not liking where Mojo was taking her. It was all dark and scary. Why did Mojo bring her here. After traveling for a bit of time, Mojo finally let her down as he brought her to… a car?

"Here we are." Said her imaginary friend as he opened the car door.

"You want me to get in your car?"

"Now, Kimmy…

"But it'll look like the car is going by itself." She said in concern. "Won't we get in trouble?"

"No, Kimberly, we won't."

She then felt her arm being pulled as Mojo was leading her into the car. Kimberly pulled back, getting herself free from his grip. "I… I don't know."

The blonde child heard him let out a tired sigh and felt his gaze upon her. "I'll tell you what, maybe if I let you see me, you'll feel better." This left her utterly confused on what Mojo was talking about until his face slowly revealed itself to her with his slick black hair and dark eyes. "Hi, Kimberly."

She gasped in shock of the floating head, causing her step back a few paces. "You're a man?" Kimberly tried to go away, but felt the sleeve of her sleeping dress being held onto. "I gotta go, Mojo. I'm not supposed to be with strangers. Mommy told me."

'Mojo' brought her in close as his head ducked down to her level so they could properly look each other in the eye. "But I'm not a stranger, Kimberly. I'm your daddy."

Hearing this proclamation felt like the time when she saw The Empire Strikes Back on the big reveal towards the end of the movie. "M-My daddy?" Blue eyes quickly widened on the realization before her as memories started to come to the forefront of her mind. "G-Get away! Mommy says you're not allowed to come near me!" The grade schooler tried to get away from his grip, but him squeezing her arms wasn't helping. "She says you're a bad man and that's why they locked you up!"

Lloyd wasn't liking this at all and realized his daughter wasn't going to willing come with him. "Never mind what your mother said! You're coming with me whether you want to or not!"

"Not in this lifetime, pal!" A voice spoke out from behind. Just when Lloyd turned his head around, he was tackled away from his daughter by the helmeted hero of Gotham onto the ground. "KIMBERLY! GO! NOW!"

The blonde child didn't have to be told twice as she ran away as her legs could take her. Kimberly cried out a little in pain on the sharp little rocks and small pieces of glass on the ground, but she needed to get away! She needed to get back to her mother!

Back with Vanitas, he was currently dealing with his employee's ex-husband as the two struggled for dominance. Each one delivered punches onto the other with the criminal having his fists starting to bruise against the hero's glass domed helmet. Lloyd was able to break free and run away towards his car once he kneed the hero's groin before punching his sternum.

As Vanitas tried to recover a bit on the ground, he soon saw the one car door close as sounds of electricity filled the air. Before long, the car started to turn invisible to the world around it, causing the hero to realize Lloyd covered his vehicle with his stolen plastic. Just when he got up from the ground, the car's engine roared to life before it started to drive right towards him in hopes of running him over.

"Oh crap!" Vanitas cried out as he started running away from the invisible car. "Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap!"

This went on for a few minutes on the chase as Vanitas could've just jumped and rolled out of the way. But he needed to hopefully get his timing right with his next course of action to take Lloyd down. Briefly looking back, Vanitas saw the dirt and tire trail behind him as he mentally counted down to jump and gasp onto the invisible vehicle.

'Gotta do this in 3… 2… 1!'

As he turned around and quickly jumped, the masked Uzumaki was barely able to hang onto the car's roof by the crevice between the front windshield and the piece of metal. Just when he thought he was secure, Vanitas soon felt the car speed up as it drove out of the abandoned movie drive-in parking lot and into the streets. It twisted and turned all over as many cars had to serve out of the way when seeing Vanitas seemingly flying and way too low on the ground.

Not really enjoying the several times he was almost thrown off, Vanitas brought out one of his Foundre daggers and punctured a hole onto the car roof to keep him hanging there. Before long, he leaned towards the car's drivers side and tried to punch the window in, but realized it's reinforced. "Give it up, Ventrix! The suit's toxic! It'll kill you!"

From inside of the car, the helmeted hero could barely hear what Lloyd was saying through the growing hole on the car roof. "Don't hand me that! I'm not feeling any pain! Not like you're gonna feel!"

Suddenly the car swerved once more as the two ended up in the railway lot before getting onto the train tracks. Vanitas wasn't going to enjoy the idea on what's about to happen, especially since he was hearing a train coming their way. Having enough of this, the hero phased his arm into the car and grasped Lloyd's clothes. There was a bit of a struggle, but the hero pulled him out of the car when Vanitas rolled off of the roof.

Just in time too as the one train came closer and closer and impacted the car, completely demolishing it in a fiery blaze with only the train heavily intact.

The pair rolled painfully away from the nearby destruction as the the fire grew in the background. Vanitas groaned a little as he got back onto his feet. Seeing the fire not far away, he quickly summoned a clone and sent it off to take care of it with his ice shield.

"Lloyd, the suit! It's poison." Cried out the hero.

"So what if it is?!" Yelled out the invisible man as he delivered a punch across Vanitas' damaged helmet. "I don't care!" Several more punches and kicks were successfully landed soon after. "As long as I have it, I can take my daughter back whenever I want! Her bitch mother won't be able to stop me, and neither will you!"

Just when he was about to hit the hero once more, Lloyd felt his limb being grasped. "What?!"

"Took a bit to get you real close, Lloyd." Said the hero as he quickly twisted the invisible man's arm. "Had to really pay attention to your annoying voice." He said as he remembered the time last month pertaining to the Vertigo incident, with both him and Batman having to resort to their other senses to make it out alive. Pulling him close, Vanitas was able to pull off the man's cloth-like mask to reveal his face to the world. "Peekaboo~ I see you~"

Soon Lloyd felt a world of hurt as he was given a large series of punches across his body as his placement was currently seen by the hero. He couldn't do a thing as his covering wasn't fully there, leaving him to be a literally target for Vanitas to let out his frustrations on him. Before long, the 'invisible man' fell down onto the ground, groaning in pain.

"Now get ready for your biggest disappearing act, Ventrix." Growled out the masked Uzumaki as he placed a pair of handcuffs on the man's arms. "The one where no one sees you for 10 to 20 years. The one where you'll never see your daughter ever again, asshole."

-Few Nights Later, Smart Residence-

It's been quite the eventful time for the past few days for Helen and her daughter. After the attempted kidnapping on her daughter, Vanitas was able to save her precious little girl and bring Lloyd to the police so they would know what transpired. All of the stolen property was returned to their owners once they found Lloyd's apartment with many of the incriminating evidence to really be sure he'll get locked up for what he's done.

After what happened, the article was released in their Spiral magazine as one of their main stories. It was indeed rough on most people at work kept telling her the typical phrases on them being sorry and whatnot. It was getting old after the first half hour or so, but Helen was indeed feeling better

'Now, at least, the move will go a whole lot smoother than I possibly would've realized.' Thought the blonde woman as she went to her daughter's room and tuck her in for the night.

"...Me and Mommy are moving." Helen heard her daughter's voice speaking with someone. "Even if Daddy gets out of jail this time, he'll never find us."

With recent events still in her mind, Helen's fears took over in thinking someone dangerous was in Kimberly's room. Opening up the door to her daughter's room, she peaked inside and saw Kimberly standing by her bedroom window. Being curious and a little defended, she spoke up. "Kimberly? Who are you talking to now?"

Kimberly turned her head around and spoke the honest answer. "Just Vanitas, mommy."

Helen sighed in complete relief when hearing this. She then chuckled a little. "Oh... Him again."

"But he really was here, mommy."

With a smile on her face, Helen escorted her baby girl into her bed to tuck her to sleep. "I know, honey. I know."

Unbeknownst to the mother, Kimberly was indeed telling the truth. Standing on the rooftop, Vanitas smiled underneath his helmet. He's been checking up on the mother/daughter pair while out on patrol. And he'll keep doing this until Helen and her daughter finally move away from this city to live peaceful lives somewhere else.

-End Chapter-