Nobody likes Riddles

It was starting to become an absolute great day for one Edward Nygma. He woke up fully rested, had a delightful meal and coffee at one of his favorite cafe's, and he actually had a slight challenge on on the recent crossword puzzles he procured. And this was before he made his way to work so he would be in great spirits throughout the day.

Edward did what he could to keep his mind sharp as a software designer, which has become a popular job title in the current market. With video and computer games becoming all the rage, his intellectual mind would be perfect in creating challenges that would make players rather addicted in wanting to complete the games to it's fullest. Even with his pride and joy that Edward literally put his blood, sweat and tears into making: Riddle of the Minotaur.

And said game practically became the face of Competitron as it made millions in it's name. It's employees were pleased with how business is booming and keeping them preoccupied in making new games left and right. The designer was absolutely happy in his profession that he thought nothing would bring him down from his feeling.

…Well that is until today.

Stepping out of the elevator, a crowd of people slowly exited the compacted room before Edward stepped outside with a notepad and pen as he wrote up new, potential games. He was a man in his early thirties with his combed brown hair and green eyes. Currently wearing a green button up shirt, black pants and shoes along with a purple tie to complete his attire.

Walking towards his office as he hummed a pleasant tune, Edward pulled out a set of keys from his pocket and inserted one of them into the lock. As he turned, the key seemed to have jammed before thinking he must've used the wrong one. Trying again with a different key, due to him having quite a bit actually, but that seemed to have the same result as well.

Turning his head for a moment as he scratched his head in confusion before his eyes landed on the nameplate on his door… or lack of one.

"What's going on here? Where's my office?" Turning his head towards a janitor nearby, Edward he moved his hand towards unmarked room. "My door was right here."

The janitor merely emptied his trash can before saying something to the employee. "'Was' is right."

Being really confused for a moment, Edward was about to speak when his eyes landed on his nameplate in the trash. Pulling it out, the designer raised his voice. "What's the meaning of this?!"

"What does it look like, Eddie?" A smug sounding voice called out from behind, causing Edward to turn around to come face to face with his boss: Daniel Mockridge. Currently wearing a grey suit, it complimented his combed black hair and moustach. "You're out of here.

You're history. You're fired. Comprende?"

The software designer merely widened his eyes before they dangerously narrowed as he growled at the man. "Excuse me?! Have you lost what passes for your mind? You can't afford to do without me, Mockridge!"

All this did was widen Daniel's smile. "I can if you're gonna sue me for royalties."

"But I created the "Riddle of the Minotaur" game!" His voice was being heard throughout the office as things seemed to have quieted down on the floor. "This company is making millions from my genius!"

Mockridge merely scoffed. "Competitron Software's success didn't come from the product. Competitron is a corporate attitude. Its strength is in the deal." Pulling out a folded up document from his jacket pocket, the company owner presented it towards Nygma. "More specifically, the work-for-hire contract you signed."

Edward couldn't believe this. This had to be some sort of joke. He was supposed to get the royalties and copyrights towards the game in full once he retired, but from the document shown to him that seemed to be a pipe dream now. But when did he sign that. He never remembered touching such a document to begin with.

...Unless.

"You bastard!" Nygma yelled out as he lunged at Mockridge and grasped his suit jacket as they toppled onto the ground. Once there, Edward started to punch Daniel's face with rage across his features. "You tricked me into signing it, didn't you?! The last company party!"

What Edward was referring to was the company birthday party where all of it's employees, from the CEO to the janitor was invited. Things tend to be a bit crazy with most employees getting hammered with all of the alcohol they consumed. Nygma couldn't remember most of it, due to him drinking some of the stronger beverages, but last thing he could recollect was Mockridge offering him some bubbly and he was out.

Security came onto the floor and pried Nygma off of the bleeding CEO. "You had me drugged and made me sign it!"

"That man is crazy!" Mockridge said in desperation as his eyes were kept on his former employee.

As security had to escort the man off the floor, Nygma yelled out with a snarl on his face. "You're a fool, Mockridge! Thinking you can get away with this! I swear, I'll get back at you for what you've done!"

-Two Years Later, Present; Naruto and Pam's Loft-

Most of the saturday morning rays peeked right through the blinds of Naruto's bedroom as he slightly tossed and turned in his sleep.

"...Oh hey there little buddy." Naruto mumbled in his sleep. "You look interesting with that rainbow colored horn of yours… Why are you aiming that at me?… And why is it glowing?... No… No… Stop shooting those rainbow lasers at me." More mumbles soon followed as he rolled around on his mattress, unaware of the person staring at him from his bedroom entrance.

"I almost forgot he talks in his sleep." Talia muttered with a chuckle. "Whatever he's dreaming is beyond me." Taking a look at some of the children's book manuscripts nearby, which he had to bring home from work for assessments, the Demon's heir got a decent idea.

Talia did know people tend to bring their work home to finish what couldn't be done in the office. Whether it's reports or projects that had to be done as soon as possible before their desired due dates. And editors for newspaper and publishing companies are no exceptions.

Her former student and love interest is not only the founder and CEO of the publishing company, he's also the editor-in-chief in the Gotham location. Sure he could have other editors that work under him take most of the workload off of him, but the whiskered Uzumaki wants to work his fair share just like the rest of his employees. Even if that means adding book after book he needs to go over the typical workload he usually has each day.

Of course the past two days were a little hectic for her potential husband.

Things were fine, at first, with the promised tour of the Gotham location. Talia saw how well each of his employees treated their boss as the work environment is what it should be. She imagined what it could be like when he hopefully replaces her father one day as Naruto would have the respect of leading the vast organization with it's many followers.

At some point, the tour was interrupted when Naruto had to attend several important meetings that he seemingly forgot, causing him to silently panic under his calm facade. It was still good to see that from him as the Demon's Heir caught those surprised feelings, but played everything off like it was nothing. Naruto did apologize to her for having to end things there, but Talia didn't mind as she had plans of her own to attend to.

Her errands that day consisted on breaking into Arkham to research on both Pamela and Harleen. Talia did acquire a good amount of information about the two women, especially with the former becoming a metahuman due to her unfortunate accident. Dr. Isley's info was quite fascinating with her chlorokinesis when reading through the various documents. Being admitted at Arkham for five months due to her almost killing a handful of industrialists that harmed nature at the Grand Greenhouse.

'That did explain a little on why Naruto was defensive about going there. And on who that mysterious 'plant woman' that fought alongside the Dynamic Duo and Vanitas that one time.' She thought as she walked towards the kitchen to cook breakfast for her, Rachel and her guardian. 'Though I wonder if he knows what's currently going on at the greenhouse.'

After leaving Arkham, which took a while researching on the two, Naruto called Talia and asked her to pick up Rachel from school since he'll be stuck at the office for who knows when. She complied and got the ashen child home before heading out again with her going to the abandoned Grand Greenhouse. Once there, Talia saw the many flora seemingly move on their own with vast changes towards their typical appearance. There was even a lab station set up with an array of notes on different projects currently on the works.

Talia had a feeling that, if convinced properly, Pamela would join her father in order to save the planet and everything to be balanced like it once was years ago.

From there, Talia tracked down Batman while on patrol that eventing to see more on what he could do exactly to help more for her father's assessments. Not much else could be said about the caped crusader on his fighting prowess against various crimes being committed in the city. Though she still had distaste towards the man from what he did to his company's sonic drill earlier that day.

The following day, which was yesterday, was typically the same: dropping off Rachel at school, seeing Naruto at work for a bit before having to excuse herself so she could do more research while he attended important business meetings. This time it was infiltrating the GCPD to look up the criminal records on both Pamela and Selina Kyle. Pamela's was roughly the same on the one report on her arrest before being admitted at Arkham, but Selina's rap sheet was rather extensive on what she did in terms of burglary for the sake of saving the environment. Even on what history was brought up on the ravenette thief.

Before Talia could do more on her remembrance, she heard the doorbell ring… several times in succession.

"I wonder who that could be." She muttered as she set the frying pan on the back burner. Walking towards the door, she briefly left her guard down as she didn't check the peephole before opening up the door.

"Puddin!" An enthusiastic voice yelled out as it's owner glomped Talia. "I missed you so much!"

'What the-' The assassin thought before her lips were captured by the female in front of her. Talia widened her eyes before the woman's weight seemingly overcome her own, causing the two tumbling onto the ground. The fall caused the assassin to open her mouth, which lead to her downfall as a foreign tongue entered her orifice.

As Harley assaulted 'her puddin's' mouth with her tongue, a thought crossed her mind as she grinded against 'her boyfriend'. 'Strange… puddin would be tongue fighting me by now.' Without looking, the changed psychologist scrunched her face a little as an impromptu thinking appearance. 'Come to think of it, the tongue feels and tastes different.'

Harley's thought process ended as a familiar voice was heard from above at the doorway. "What the hell are you doing Harl?"

Ending the kiss; the pale blonde lifted her head, turned around and opened her eyes to see Pamela standing there next to Selena, who apparently had an odd mixed look of concern and contained laughter.

"Oh hey Red, Selina." Harley bubbly said. "I was just giving puddin a long awaited kiss from yours truly."

"I can see that." Pam started off before pointing towards the person underneath her blond friend. "Problem is, that's not Naruto."

Harley blinked a few times before looking down to see her straddling a strange dark brunette with wide, twitching blue-green eyes. The blonde awkwardly chuckled and sheepishly waved at the woman underneath her. "Uh… Hi."

There was no verbal response given, right away that is, as thoughts were trying and failing to be properly processed. One being the sudden entrance of one of Naruto's girlfriends, in which said girlfriend suddenly mouth raped her with the blonde's tongue. Talia didn't know why, but it felt rather arousing to her as the blonde's tongue invaded and wrestled with her own.

Putting that aside, the Demon's Heir was pissed for several reasons. She berated herself on lowering her guard in her potential husband's home. This was a mistake on Talia's part as someone could've attacked at a moment's notice. The assassin got used to relaxing so far here in Gotham, with Naruto mostly by her side, that she didn't expect something like this to happen.

On the ambush, Talia could've easily taken down her assailant instead of being in her current placement. Sure, said assailant didn't have any ill intentions at all as Harley did her actions blindly, thinking Naruto was answering the door instead of her. But what really pissed off the Demon's Daughter was that… was that...

'My first kiss… stolen… that bitch!' Talia frustratingly yelled inside of her mind. 'That kiss was supposed to be Naruto's! Not hers!'

Not knowing on what was brewing inside of the assassin's mind, Harley waved her hand in front of the woman's face. "Uh, hello? Anyone in there?" Snapping her fingers a few times, nothing seemed to be responding. "What's the matter with her?"

"Uh, Harley."

"Yes Selina?"

"Maybe you should get off of her. Like, right now."

"Oh! Yeah, right!" Quickly getting up from her position, Harley held out her hand towards the assassin off the ground. "Sorry about that. I thought you were someone else."

Snapping out of her mind filled rants, which somewhat consisted of beating up Harley for her earlier actions, Talia grasped the psychologist's hand before being pulled up. "I...It's fine… Just be sure to look next time before you act."

"...Yeah, I'll be sure to do that." Came Harley's chuckled response.

Dusting herself off, while giving Harley a bit of a stink eye, Talia spoke. "I take it you're Dr. Harleen Quinzel." Looking towards the women at the now closed off doorway, the assassin addressed them as well. "And you two must be Dr. Pamela Isley and Selina Kyle. I heard a lot about you from Naruto."

Selina was the first to properly greet the odd arrival. "And you must be Talia?"

"Yes that's right... And how do you know my name?"

"Naruto called me earlier this week and informed me of you showing up."

"Oh yeah, I got the same call as well." Turning over to the botanist, Harley spoke to her gal pal. "And I assume you got one as well."

"You can say that." Came Pam's response. Not through the typical means over a cellphone, due to not getting a good reception in Guatemala. So Naruto resorted to chatting with her through the Dreaming one night as he wondered how things were so far in the Latin-American country. "Asides from telling us you were here in town visiting, he told us of some his adventures 9-11 years ago with you."

"I hope they were good."

"Oh they were, I can assure you."

Soon the four heard the sounds of a pair of feet walking into the living room with a following yawn. Turning to the source, they saw Naruto in a pair of Kermit the Frog pajama bottoms with a plain white shirt. He seemed a bit drowsy as he walked a little further before he eyed his girlfriends. Blinking for a few moments, Naruto's mind started to wake up with a realization, causing him to widen his eyes.

"Crap! I forgot to pick you up from the airport Pam!" He yelled out before coming towards his redheaded girlfriend. "I'm so sorry, I should've woken up sooner! I was just so tired from work last night! Did you have to take a taxi to get on back?!"

Pamela merely waved him off with a small smile. "It's quite alright Naruto, Selina's flight arrived around the time mine landed so she gave me a lift."

"You're welcome by the way, thank you very much."

Looking at his ravenette girlfriend, he gave her a kiss on the cheek with a pleasant smile. "Thank you for doing me that solid Selina. I owe you."

"No problem." She then noticed something different in his boyfriend. Taking a better look, Selina widened her eyes slightly and addressed it. "Did you get a haircut Naruto?"

"Yeah, I did." He said as he ran his hand through the back of his head as the ponytail was now absent. "My hair got a bit too long and decided to get rid of it."

"I think it looks good on you puddin!"

Naruto was about to address his bubbly girlfriend when said woman jumped on him and claimed his lips with a lot of passion behind it. As this went on, Talia's eye twitched as a pang of jealousy ran through her as she wanted to be the one to kiss her former student at the current moment. But with Harley kissing her moments ago and now kissing Naruto, that seemed to be an indirect kiss to some degree.

'Though I still want to experience the feeling behind it.' Talia thought as she saw Harley break the kiss.

"Man, I know you missed me a lot Harley but why the extra 'umph' to it?"

"Well~ I may have done something recently that I wanted to make up for by kissing you."

Not knowing on what Harley met as he held onto her, Naruto's eyes landed on Talia. And before he could speak, his nose picked up something nice in the air. "I have a feeling you're cooking breakfast Talia?"

"Yes, but I had to put it on hold when answering the door when Harley here gave me an… interesting greeting."

Looking back and forth between the two, a thought came to mind. "Do I wanna know?"

"No." Came their shared response. They then looked towards Pam and Selina, which the later seemed in wanting to spill the info but relented as the thief decided to tell him when Talia's not around.

The group soon made it over to the kitchen as they picked up on their conversations while Naruto and Talia helped make breakfast. It wasn't long before Rachel came out of her bedroom and joined the group for the morning meal. The publisher asked his girlfriends on how their flights were and if their respective goods made it back in one piece.

On Harley's part, it wasn't much as it was mainly documents she got from the convention she went to for work. With Pam, it was obvious with her delivered plants will arrive at the botanical gardens by the end of the day or Monday at the latest. Selina had to speak a little more secretive with Talia around that her procured goods were back in her loft,, but she'll need to give them to Kurama sometime today.

As the six people started to eat, one topic eventually came up as they talked about Talia's Brough Superior parked in the garage as it used to mainly belong to the Uzumaki.

"...I don't see how much of a deal it is for you not wanting to own a motorcycle Naruto." Selina said before taking a small bite out of her omelette. "They're nice and quick to ride around and gives the pleasant rush when you're the one in control."

"It seems you have your fair share of experiences with motorbikes Selina." Talia stated as she eyed the thief.

"You can say that." Taking a sip of her drink, Selina spoke again. "Still Naruto, why don't you want one?"

"As much as I'd like to ride one nowadays, I prefer driving a car." Came the publisher's response. "Like you said, they're quick in terms of getting to place to place, but they're not great during the Winter time and if I need to transport other things with me."

"Well I think it would be fun owning one." Harley added in as she chowed down on a piece of bacon. "But I think I need some help driving a motorcycle if you get it puddin."

"I'd prefer not getting one since I wouldn't like you adding to the consumerism of producing more and more motored vehicles that are out in the market." Pamela chimed in as she took a swig of orange juice.

"If that was going to happen Pam, I would rather buy a used one over a newer model." Said the Uzumaki. "Can't really rely on the new stuff if their so happens to be problems without someone knowing when they're on the shelves."

Rachel didn't say much as she finished up her meal and placed her dishes in the sink. The current topic wasn't something she could get into as it was more of a 'grown up' topic in her opinion. All that she wants to do now was brush her teeth, shower and finish getting ready for the day before finding something to do to pass the time.

"So when will you go 'car shopping'?" Asked the thief.

"Next week. I need to wait for the insurance check to arrive in the mail either today or on Monday. Until then, I'll need to get around through other methods." Taking a glance at the nearby clock, Naruto quickly ate his meal and swallowed it.

"What's the rush Naruto?" Talia asked.

"I need to hurry up and finish getting ready before making my way to work."

"Can't you use our bike Naruto? I wouldn't mind."

Placing his dishes in the sink, the publisher answered his former teacher's question. "As much as I'd like to use it today, I really need to look presentable today for the meeting. Another reason is that I don't know how long it's gonna take and I don't want to hog your only ride on the day you need to head back home and see your father, I believe."

Talia clicked her tongue as Naruto was right. Today was the last day she could stay in Gotham and make it back in time to speak with her father in person. He has always been keen towards scheduling and never likes things running late unless no other option was available. She'll need to make it over to the League hideout outside of Gotham with her motorcycle before taking the plane stationed at the hidden airstrip.

With a small sigh, the Demon's heir spoke. "I suppose you're right."

"Thanks." Walking away from the kitchen, he looked at the four women present as an idea popped up. "If you guys have nothing planned for today, maybe you girls could hang out or something. Possibly get to know each other a little more."

The four looked at each other as some thoughts came to mind. With Naruto's lovers, they wanted to know more on who his former teacher and traveling companion was. As for Talia, this was the only chance she could possibly get to assess each of them in a more personal light to gather more information than from what she got from her research and from Naruto.

Each of them agreed in their own respective ways as Naruto smiled before making his way to clean himself up for work today.

-Spiral Publishing-

Things have been pretty well so far at the office. Naruto was able to have a clone go through a lot of documents he didn't get the chance to work on yesterday. This occurred before he submitted the rest of his corrections to the authors working for the company for possible approval before sending them out to the printers. Even going over some of Simon Trent's memoir chapters on what he brought in earlier today as he accepted the business offer some weeks ago.

And this was all done before the big meeting he had for today.

Speaking of, Naruto was in one of the building's meeting rooms as he was discussing a business proposition with a particular gaming company.

"...So you see, Mr. Uzumaki, we of Blizzard Entertainment are hoping we could form a partnership of you publishing what novels we wish to have out on shelves."

Eying one of Blizzard's representatives, Naruto had to state the obvious. "Are you sure you want my company to have the legal rights to publish any and all future books you want? Is that right?" Seeing the few representatives nod at this, Naruto continued. "From my understanding, there are hardly any novels that are tied in with video games… period. And all I know on what your company has made so far were just that: video and computer games. But why have the decision of going somewhere completely out of the norm?"

When he was informed earlier in the week that Blizzard Entertainment had contacted his office in wanting to discuss business, Naruto was quite curious on their offer. Not much happens every so often when a gaming company wants to seek out another business to print out advertisements for upcoming games if they're limited on their resources. And if Naruto originally knew it correctly, gaming companies would sometimes have certain book companies to print out gaming manuals on how to properly work and handle their games.

But to actually publish novels from them is something odd for the former shinobi.

"We understand your concerns, but there's a reason behind it." Seeing the whiskered publisher gave one of the Blizzard reps the go ahead, the man spoke. "You see, we plan on having writers develop tie-in novels to some of our upcoming games we have in production right now. And if things go well from there, then upcoming novels could be released alongside or in between new games"

"What, like with some of your racing games or 'Lost Vikings'?"

"Actually, it's with two new IPs. One's currently being made and planned to be released next year while the other is still being planned out."

"Okay… And what are they called and what are they about? I would like to get an idea before I consider moving forward with this deal."

And so the representatives told the publisher on what Warcraft and Diablo were about. Both games were of the fantasy genre with Warcraft adopting Dune II's "build base, build army, destroy enemy" mechanics while Diablo was more of a dungeon crawler with it's action role-playing. From there, the reps told the basic story synopsis on the two with orcs fighting against humans for Warcraft while Diablo has the typical Heaven vs Hell conflict on the mortal plane.

Each were good in their own right and while discussing both of the new gaming IPs, the reps explained the books would at least help expand each of the 'gaming universes'. Not everything could be explained all in one game, for obvious reasons, so what couldn't be included would be brought up in the novels. It's a hard process with what type of lore will be created, but it'll be worth it.

As things were being further discussed, with some of Naruto's managers inputting their thoughts, the Uzumaki looked outside briefly and saw something that caught his attention. What would normally be the stock update on the scrolling screen built into the building across the way seemingly blacked out before something replaced it. Someone tampered with it as he or she wanted to leave a message for just a minute before the stock update returned.

"...Mr. Uzumaki?"

Snapping his attention back to the meeting, Naruto tried to play along as he turned to one of his managers. "Yes?"

"What would you say about accepting their offer?" The one manager said in a hushed tone so only a select few could hear. "I would normally agree with the deal, along with the others, but it's somewhat your call."

Realizing that the possible end to the meeting has come, Naruto had to get things underway. Addressing the Blizzard reps across the table, the former shinobi spoke. "Gentlemen, I'd like to move forward with this opportunity. Though we could pick this up at another time to discuss numbers and contract issues, if that would be possible."

The reps had small smiles on their faces as they stood up from their seats and shook hands with Naruto and the managers in the room. The contract meeting will most likely happen next week, but it'll be a long process as it might take multiple sessions.

As the managers and the Blizzard reps left the meeting room, Naruto looked back outside towards the stock update screen as he remembered the message briefly shown.

Mockridge: Here's a riddle for you. Why do multimillion dollar deals break down in the Wasteland? Come tonight.

-Pauli's Diner-

Sitting in a corner booth; Talia, Pamela, Harley and Selina were having a pleasant conversation as their meals arrived. The assassin was getting to know Naruto's three lovers pretty well throughout the day so far and nothing seemed to halter her little goal. And right now, Selina was telling one of her past exploits to the Demon's Daughter.

"Your methods in procuring funds to help protect the environment are not so bad, Selina. And I'm not just talking about going to events and 'ask' for donations."

The thief merely smirked. "That's good to know."

"Which, of course, earned a few points in my book."

"That's what I said, when I was admitted in Arkham." The botanist said as she sipped her drink. "Then again, most environmentalists have to stay together."

It was then that Harley spoke up as she leaned back against her seat. "Though with how extreme they are, might draw the line. Take Pyg and Toad, for example. They were way too extreme in wanting to see their goals come to fruition, but fanatics tend to feel fully justified in the end."

Selina glanced over with a raised brow. "Just like someone we know."

Pamela groaned as she rolled her eyes. "One time and everyone will end up labeling me that way.

The assassin sucked in her teeth slightly at the mention on the environment extremists as her father could arguably be considered one. It's mostly covered up with most targets being made towards others wanting to harm nature as a whole. Though her train of thought ended when their appetizers arrived.

"...I don't understand your country's reasons for deep frying everything." Talia muttered as she eyed the plate of cheese french fries. "Hell, that's more oil than there is potato."

Picking up a french fry, Selina spoke her thoughts. "Sometimes things taste better that way." Taking a bite out of it, she chewed and swallowed. "Depending on what's being made and how it's prepared, it could be deep fried crack or really bland."

"To me it's just really unhealthy." Pamela said as she dug into her caesar salad. 'Even before and after my accident."

"You're missing out Red." Taking several cheese fries, Harley dipped them into her dipping sauce and ate them with a pleasant hum. "They can be finger-licking good."

"That's with KFC and the food here doesn't match up with what you just said." Stated the assassin as she took a bite out of the little appetizer.

"Whatever."

Throughout most of the day, the four women did what Naruto suggested and hung out together to get to know the opposite party a little better. Talia as one and the current girlfriends as the other. With Naruto's current girlfriends, it was a rare opportunity for them to have together since they were always working and hardly had time to spend time with one another when it's not with their boyfriend.

Once dropping Rachel and Isis off at the Crock residence, the four women hit the town and tried to see what they could do to kill time. Whether it was clothes and shoe shopping to update their closets or appreciating the human canvases of a variety of people passing by. Not much could be done asides from those activities, but neither didn't mind before they decided to get some lunch.

"I do have to admit, it's hard to tell if America or Ireland and Scotland has the better 'deep fried' food." Talia stated as she took a sip of her water.

"Why's that?"

"Well… most places in both Ireland and Scotland tend to deep fry anything edible. Like deep frying calzones, turkeys, candy bars and fruit for instance."

The changed botanist adopted a queasy look on her face when hearing some of those examples. "Those sound disgusting."

"Those sound delicious." Came Harley's thoughts.

"The calzone and turkey sound interesting, but candy bars and fruit… nope." Were Selina's words."

"I can agree with you on that Selina, but there's one item that really made me sick when I tried it."

"And what would that be?"

"Deep fried butter." Answered the assassin, getting disgusted looks from the three other women. "Yes, it is disgusting as it sounds. Literally a deep fried heart attack in a bar right there."

"And you actually tried it?"

Talia scrunched her face on the memory. "I was short on money at the time and I needed to win a bet against some men… Had to resort running several miles to burn off what I had ate, with throwing up just in case."

"...And there goes part of my appetite." The botanist said as she pushed the fries away from her a bit more. Force of habit really, even though she wasn't planning on eating them in the first place. Only the several servings of salad.

Wanting to change the subject, Selina wanted to ask what was on her mind. "I've been meaning to ask this, as it keeps escaping me every time, but how did you two meet?"

Harley perked up when hearing this, alongside Pam, as the psychologist spoke. "Yeah, I've been wondering the same thing."

Talia blinked when hearing this before she chuckled. "I'm surprised Naruto hasn't told you three yet."

Taking a bit out of her salad, Pam spoke. "Remember, he only told us of some of your little adventures together 9-11 years ago. Nothing else."

"Well that's a shame. And I figure you three want to know now, right?" Naruto's three lovers nodded, causing the assassin to readjust herself in her seat. "Then you girls better be comfortable, since this'll take a while."

"We've got a lot of free time to kill Talia." Spoke the thief as other plates of food arrived at their table. "There's no rush at all."

Taking a swig of water down her throat, knowing it'll be a long chat, the Demon's Daughter spoke. "It started eleven years ago where the two of us were in Osaka, Japan. When I first met him, I wondered why he hardly had any asian features about him. Asides from the fluent accent, Naruto did say he had an interesting gene pool that his European features won over the asian on varied aspects. Or so I was told with him saying he was an orphan from a very remote and isolated Japanese village that wasn't on any map."

When hearing this, the three girlfriends shared the same thought as it must've been Naruto's cover when coming to this reality since each of them did think the same thing. Their lover eventually told them that shortly after coming to this Earth, the Tsunade of this reality gave him a set amount of money and the excuse on his appearance before he went out to see the world. It wasn't much, but it was a start for him to go with.

Not knowing their thoughts, Talia continued. "Anyways, I was doing this one assignment for my father and I had to meet someone in Dotonbori, one of the busiest districts in Osaka. With how crowded it wa that day, it was hard to keep track of your belongings with everyone bumping into each other. Of course that happened to me as I lost my purse, which had a gun I kept with me for protection."

"...I'm sensing something bad happened afterwards." Was all Harley spoke as she felt uneasy with what was said. It was a little hard for her to eat her plate's contents now.

"Afraid so. With how busy the time of day was, it was hard to track on who followed me before I was brought into an alleyway. I fended off as many as I could before I felt pain in my neck and next thing I knew, I blacked out. When I woke up, I was rocking back and forth as I realized I was on a boat."

"Was it human trafficking?" Pamela asked. Despite how illegal it is, most countries in the world still have it going around in the black market.

"It wasn't. If it were, then I would've seen women and more effeminate men in the brig."

"So why were you taken?"

Taking a bite out of her meal, the assassin soon answered. "You see... my father is a very, powerful man and has many enemies. Said enemies had men track me down and wanted to make an example out of me towards my father." Talia sighed a little as she adopted a thousand yard stare. "Of course they wanted to have some fun, while I was heavily drugged, before sending word to my father on their demands."

Pam, Harley and Selina adopted uneasy looks as they guessed on what happened. Though it was the botanist who asked it. "Did they… Did they rape you?"

Snapping back, Talia processed on what Pamela asked, causing her to quickly shake her head. "No! Thank god they didn't!... But they were about to after I got my fair share of bruises and cuts." Soon the assassin formed a small smile across her lips. "And when it was about to happen, Naruto came to save me as he knocked out the man who was going to do that."

Sharing a similar thought, the girlfriends wanted to know how their boyfriend came into play. Seemingly reading their thoughts by seeing their expressions, Talia answered their question. "Like I said before, Naruto was at Osaka that day and he saw me lose my purse. He tried to give it back to me through the crowd. When he was about to lose me, Naruto saw me get dragged off. He tracked me down all the way to the pier and snuck aboard the ship that I was brought into before taking care of some of the captors.

I did complain a little that he took his damn time, but with the storm taking place, I understood he had to go at a slow pace to lower the amount of men onboard. Shoving away my slight anger, we took care of the rest of the ship's occupants. He did pull in his fair share in the confrontation and when everything seemed calmed out on sea, Naruto had to push me out of the way as he was shot several times instead of me."

Harley gasped and leaned towards Talia before speaking in a demanding tone. "Was he alright? Tell me he was alright!"

"Harley, calm down." Pam ordered as she pulled her blonde friend back. "Naruto's alive and kicking, so obviously he was alright." Looking back at Talia, the botanist did ask though. "Was he?"

"Yes, he was alright. Bleeding but nothing serious. Though with how bad the storm was in the open sea, his wounds would've escalated worse as the ship tipped over. I don't know how, but even wounded, he saved me yet again by dragging me out of the water and into a lifeboat. And for the next two days, I helped tend to his wounds as I felt indebted to him.

Though he didn't think I owed him anything, which felt like an insult to me, as he felt that I needed to be saved at the time. We started to talk a bit more until help arrived and things were quite pleasant. Got to know each other, to some degree, since there was not much to do to pass the time inside of a lifeboat with very few supplies and no oars to help paddle ourselves quicker to shore.

Once reaching Shanghai, I had thought of parting ways with him but my pride of owing him my life made me stick around him as he wanted to travel. Even when I confronted him on me tagging along, he tried to get away from me a few times but I kept on finding him. Naruto did accuse me for a brief moment of me being a stalker, but after the second or third time of finding him he relented and decided to humor me.

As time went by, we became good friends as we traveled throughout most of Eurasia for two years while I taught him much on what I knew back then. We got to learn more about each other than we realized as it seemed we were inseparable." Talia said with a soft smile as a thought came to mind. 'Hell, my sister even told me that during the few times she ran into us.'

"Aw~ That's so sweet." Came Harley's response to hearing the tale. While Pam and Selina didn't exactly have the same response, but they did enjoy learning more on their lover's past.

Taking another swig of her drink, Talia spoke up suddenly. "There was even something else I learned about him. But before I tell you, I need to ask you this. In one word, what do you think Naruto is the personification of?"

The shared girlfriends thought for a moment before they gave their answers.

"Curious. Strong." Were Selina's answers.

"Earnest and loyal." The botanist said.

"Courageous? Determined?" Guessed the psychologist.

"Those sound just like him." Commented the assassin as the others nodded in agreement. "But the jury is still out for a clear 'definition' as I gazed deeper into him. For a time, I thought he was 'pure'. And I'm not talking about pure light since felt that his 'light' was shattered several times over through past conflicts. His light had been brought back together to intensify the feeling to combat against the darkness inside of him. I don't know how, but he made me interested in wanting to know how that occurred."

Not much could be said about that topic as the conversation shifted onto other things while the four ate in relative peace. The shared lovers briefly looked at each other as they somewhat understood what Talia ment while knowing Naruto's past before he came to this world. They don't know if they should tell Talia or not on the Uzumaki's past, since it was Naruto's right to do so. All they could do was try to enjoy this day with Talia before she had to leave town to god knows where.

-Evening, Batcave-

It had been a long day for Bruce Wayne as he paced back and forth in his secret lair. From the documents needed to be signed to looking over several projects currently in the works. Even checking up on the Coopers to see what new gadget they came up with for his batsuit.

When looking it over, it was a mini computer interface built into his left gauntlet as it was supposed to function like the batcomputer back in his cave. It's still in it's prototype phase, but it would at least help when he's out and about on patrols. From hacking into communication signals, help detect clues as it connects with his 'bat-vision' in his helmet and much more.

Putting that thought aside, his main focus was what happened earlier that day when he had a business meeting with Daniel Mockridge of Competitron. He wanted to sell the company to Wayne Enterprises as Bruce was interested in the deal. Moving the company to Gotham would create a large amount of jobs that the city's residents desperately need.

But as the meeting went on and on, the billionaire started to feel rather bored as Mockridge kept dragging sales pitches through the dirt among other things. Boasting about Competitron owning all rights to 'Riddle of the Minotaur' as they used many of the royalties to help create an amusement park to promote their company even further. Bruce thought if Mockridge kept that up then the billionaire would've just thrown the deal out of the window and call it a day.

Things did seem to come to a halt as the company owner seemingly paled all of a sudden and had to excuse himself from the room. Bruce didn't know what was wrong until he looked where Daniel was looking at. It wasn't long as the billionaire looked at the stock update screen at the building over and saw someone tampering with it to have a peculiar riddle plastered before it went back to normal within a minute.

"Why do multimillion dollar deals break down in the Wasteland? Come tonight." Bruce muttered to himself. "There has to be a double meaning."

As this went on, Dick Grayson was currently playing a computer game on the batcomputer. From what the Wayne butler could see on the computer screen, it was some sort of maze-like game with a little sprite character combing through the intricate pathways. Not much could be done for the retired British agent as he couldn't make heads or tails of what he's seeing.

"Master Dick," spoke the butler as he looked at the young ward, "that must be quite a game to be worth tying up a $50 million piece of equipment." A response wasn't given before Alfred waved his hand in front of the college student's face to break his concentration. "Shouldn't you be doing your homework by now?"

Looking at the Wayne butler, Dick shrugged a little before answering. "Already finished Alfred and besides, it's only the first week of the new semester so not much is going on now." He then went back back towards the game as he made some correction. "Also it's not a game, Alfred, but the game." Pressing the pause function on the keyboard, the title card was shown to the older man. "Riddle of the Minotaur. It's pretty cool."

Alfred merely rolled his eyes a little since children these days have different thoughts on what is popular. "If you say so, Master Dick."

Seeing Alfred wasn't convinced, Dick unpaused the game and showed the butler. "Look. Not only do you have to avoid all these traps, you've gotta solve all these riddles." Moving his character sprite to a Question Mark on the map, a text box appeared on the screen with three little diagrams: a zigzag line, a straight line and a curved line.

"What is the shortest distance between a point in Nome, Alaska and a point in Miami, Florida?" The butler read off.

"Why it's a straight line, of course." The Grayson acrobat said as he pressed a certain key command to select the option.

"Begging your pardon, sir, but mightn't the answer on a globe be a curved line?" It wasn't long after that was said that a golden hand appeared on screen and grasped the sprite character and started to move it. "What's that?"

"Oh, that. That's the Hand of Fate." Answered the young ward. "When you make a mistake, it picks you up and takes you to another part of the maze."

While things were being discussed, Bruce was getting his batsuit on as he fitted his new gauntlets into place. Though all that he could think about was 'the wasteland'. Nothing much seemed to fit until he remembered who the riddle was aimed towards.

"Doesn't Mockridge own a club downtown called The Wasteland?" Asked the Bat.

Suddenly Dick groaned as he covered his face with his hands. "Seriously, 'The Wasteland'!"

"Right. The Wasteland."

Looking back towards his guardian, Dick shook his head before doing corrections as he wasn't paying attention to what Bruce was talking about. "What? No. I meant in the game." Pointing towards the screen, the sprite character was currently locked up. "It's a dead end, see?"

Realizing his charge wasn't listening earlier, Batman grabbed Robin's costume and threw it at him and ushered him to quickly change. "Come on. Daniel Mockridge is walking into a trap."

-Wasteland Nightclub-

What would normally be a busy Saturday night for a nightclub was quite vacant as the building was closed down for renovations. With the darkened dance floor and lights not turning on, it was hard for the Competitron owner to navigate through the hallways. Though it was a little easier for him as he saw a light coming from his office.

"Nygma?" Mockridge voiced out as he opened the door. Seeing a shadowy figure sitting in his chair, with the desk light illuminating part of the man, the company owner narrowed his eyes and addressed his former employee. "Nygma!"

"Did you decode that message all by yourself, Mockridge?" The former software designer asked with a hidden brow under the shadows. "Or did you have help?"

All Daniel did was glare at Edward and growled at him. "You're trespassing, Nygma. Get out. You can't kill this deal. I'm selling Competitron to Wayne and you can't stop me."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Of course I'm sure! I had you blacklisted for a reason."

"And it's that same action which caused me to no longer able to find a job replacement after what you did to me." Nygma said with a sneer as he tightened his hands into a fist. "And because of your greed, I couldn't sue the company at all for what was rightfully mine." Suddenly, the former Competitron employee took a deep breath and swirled the chair around to face his former employer. "But I have a proposition for you Mockridge. Something that you might like."

Mockridge widened his eyes slightly as his lips went into a smile, showing that his greed started to surface. "You've come up with a new game?"

Nygma merely tilted his head before he saw Daniel's eyes landed on a peculiar object on the table. "You mean this?" Seeing the man nod, Edward shook his head in response. "No, this puzzle is far more than any mere game." Holding up the contraption, it appeared to be a set of five rings hooked together. Quickly moving them around, Edward was able to separate them before hooking them back up. "Solve this and then we'll talk."

Mockridge narrowed his eyes as he walked towards his desk and snatched the rings out of Edward's hands. He fumbled around with them as he saw his former employee have a smug look on his face. It wasn't long as the rings started to apparently shrink all of a sudden as they tightened around his hands.

"What the hell is this?!" Mockridge yelled out as he tried to get his hands loose. "Some kind of extortion scheme?!"

Nygma then got up from his seat and walked around the desk as he addressed the captive man. "You think I want money, Mockridge? No, no, no." Nygma revealed his intentions while snapping his fingers as several thugs came out from the shadows. "All I want now is you."

Suddenly a sound was made from outside of the office, causing Nygma to walk on out and peer into the dance floor below. There stood the Dynamic Duo as they looked around inside of the darkened building.

"Well, well." Nygma voiced out, causing the heroic pair to turn towards the source. "So you're the infamous Batman and Robin. Who invited you two to this private meeting?" Descending the stairs, Nygma kept his eyes on the pair.

"You know what happens to gamecrashers?" Pressing a button on his cane, a spotlight turned on to reveal Nygma's appearance. He currently wore a black button up shirt underneath a green three piece suit. Additions towards his suit were the green tie, leather gloves, shoes and question mark pin on the jacket that matched his green domino mask and the hood covering up most of his facial features. To finish off his appearance is the cane with a metallic hook on the pommel. "They have to match wits with The Riddler."

"The Riddler?" Asked the Bat. "What is that, Nygma, some kind of joke on your name?" All this did was earning a questionable look from Robin.

The now pronounced Riddler chuckled in response. "My, my. Can we actually have a brain beneath that pointy cowl of ours?" It wasn't long before a pair of thugs walked up as the Riddler continued. "So tell me, do you have brawn to match your wits?"

Soon the goons went into action as they pulled out their loaded weapons and started firing at the Dynamic Duo. The pair rolled out of the way as they pulled out their respective batarangs before throwing them at the goons. Seeing this happen, one of them was able to move out of the way in time while the other couldn't as the throwing weapon knocked the gun out of his hand. Before the thug could pull out his sidearm, Robin came in close and kicked the thug away while another took his place.

As this happened, Batman leaped over one of the tables before kicking one of the thugs. Rolling for recovery, the Bat lunged towards a nearby goon and delivered a spin kick at the man's chest before striking another with his elbow. Seeing his partner running towards him, Batman quickly kicked a goon into Robin's path so the masked Grayson would leap on top of him to knock him out before kicking an incoming pair.

While this occurred, the Riddler pressed a button on his cane which caused the night club's hanging lights to turn on and start spinning around in a circle. The fixture accelerated in place as sparks started to come off while lighting up the room in a array of colors. Before long, one by one the bulbs popped as fire started to ignite from above.

The battle continued as the Duo fought what goons were on the dance floor, even with the growing fire surrounding them. One of the thugs got the better out of Batman, who currently was on the floor by a lucky shot. Seeing the opportunity present itself, said thug picked up a nearby security pole as was about to bring it down when Robin came flying in and kicked the goon away, who fell into a pile of broken rubble.

As all of the goons were down for the count, the heroic pair heard the sounds of clapping off to the nearby door with the Riddler smirking at them with Mockridge being carried outside by a pair of thugs. "Well done. It seems you two really do know how to scrap. But I wonder if you you could save two people at the same time?"

Lifting up the cane and aiming it at the heroes, Nygma pressing a button as something was shot out from the end. Batman was able to roll out of the way, but not Robin as he was ensnared by a cloth that started to constrict around him. The masked grayson did what he could to free himself, but there was no such luck.

"It's my own variation on the Chinese finger puzzle." The Riddler said as he walked out of the doors. "Ta ta Batman."

Quickly grabbing the ensnared Robin, Batman ran out of the burning club as he heard the sounds of tires squealing. As he stepped outside, he saw a van speeding right out of the alleyway and into the night.

"Batman!" Robin's muffled voice was heard in duress as his confinement has caught on fire. "It's getting hot in here. Get me out of this thing!"

"Need some help!" A familiar voice called out from above, getting Batman to realize it was Vanitas. "With Bird Boy's cries for help, how could I say no." Jumping down with his windlance, Vanitas made a small gust of wind to kill the flames before slicing through Robin's entrapment. From there, the masked Uzumaki ran inside and conjured a gust of wind vacuum to eat up the flames. "And that takes care of that."

-On the Streets-

Riding his motorcycle next to the batmobile, Vanitas reflected a little on the events leading up to the current situation.

After heading home from work, Naruto prepared dinner for his girlfriend's, Talia, Rachel and Isis. His old friend was leaving tonight and he wanted to make something nice for her before Talia left town. Naruto did learn the four women had a good time hanging out together, but his girlfriends seemed to be sporting concerned looks across their features during the evening meal.

As he excused himself to use the restroom, Naruto had a clone replace him while the real one went out to do his nightly patrols. Things were rather quiet in terms of nightly activities as this gave him time to figure out what the one riddle he saw earlier was exactly. All that Naruto could make out of it was the Wasteland nightclub that he, Selina and Harley went to one time.

By the time he got there, he saw parts of the building were ablaze with Batman holding a confined Robin. Vanitas did create a clone and had it gather up the unconscious thugs before transporting them to the GCPD as the original traveled with the Dynamic Duo.

'And such a waste of a good nightclub.' Thought the masked publisher as he kept up with the batmobile. 'At least there are others here in the city or else the girls and I wouldn't have that much fun.'

Taking a quick glance outside from inside of the batmobile, Robin eyed Vanitas as he thought of the helmeted hero knowing Batman's secret identity a few nights ago. It was quite disconcerting as he of all people found out who Bruce really was in such a predicament, but nothing could be done about it. Though the one League of Shadows woman Bruce talked about, Warith, knew his identity as well which could cause them to be targeted at some point if someone wanted Batman dead and ordered the assassin group to do the deed.

'I just hope things don't bite us in the ass because of that.' Dick thought before shaking his head and turning to his mentor. "I've been meaning to ask this earlier, but what did you mean 'a joke on his name'? You know who he is, right?"

Batman nodded as he drove through the Gotham highway. "I figured the creator of the Minotaur game was behind this when I saw that riddle plastered on the stock update screen earlier." The Bat then explained the details behind it. "I read about him in the Competitron company records before the meeting I had today. His name's Nygma, Edward Nygma."

Blinking at the realization, Robin spoke. "I get it now. 'E. Nygma', meaning a puzzle or riddle. An enigma. At least we know who we're looking for."

Their conversation soon ended as they heard tapping on the vehicle's windows, causing them to look to see Vanitas pointing towards the city lights… as they started to flicker on and off. Coming to a stop, Batman and Robin hopped out of the batmobile and walked towards the highway's edge to see a certain pattern was being made.

"Someone's tampering with the electrical grid." Vanitas spoke as he stood beside the heroic duo. "And by the looks of it… I say it's morse code."

Batman nodded as he pulled up his mini-computer on his gauntlet and started typing away in hopes of getting the message decrypted as soon as possible.

In another part of town, the Riddler was typing away on the electric grid's main console before setting a timer to have the system return to normal.

"And… Done." Nygma said as he walked away with a handful of knocked out and killed guards lying on the ground. "That should get their attention."

"Why'd you do all of this boss?" One of Nygma's thugs asked as he scratched his head. "I mean, you got the guy you wanted."

"He's right." Spoke another thug. "Why are you doing all this and possibly warning the cops or Batman for that matter?"

"Because Batman knows who I am." The former software designer answered. "We have to put him and his snot-nosed cohort out of the way first." As he walked further away, he felt a gun being pressed against his head. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"You promised me my money and I'm getting sick and tired of waiting for it." Pulling back the safety, the goon growled at the cane wielding man. "So hand it over or else I'll blow your brains out."

Nygma merely sighed as he spoke. "Then answer my riddle first and I'll pay you right away." Coughing into his hand, the Riddler spoke his riddle. "What question can you never answer 'yes' to?"

"I don't give a crap. I want my money now."

Soon the Riddler spun around and smacked the goon with his cane before slamming his back against the wall. Putting the cane up against the man's neck, Nygma glared at the hired thug. "The correct answer is: are you dead?"

And with a quick swipe, the Riddler brought the hook part of his cane across the man's throat to slice it open.

"Now are there any more questions from you lot on when you get paid?" Seeing no response, Nygma rolled his eyes. "That wasn't a riddle, just so you know. And as for getting paid, I was planning on doing so once we drop Mockridge at our next stop. From there, you boys will be free to go."

As the cane wielding man walked out of the room, the remaining goons looked at each other as they quickly followed.

"Hey Murph."

"Yeah Carl?"

"How come we're working for this guy again and not for the Joker?"

It was one of the other men who answered first as he surprisingly had a high, squeaky tone to his voice. Something that could be akin to a certain cartoon mouse. "Because the clown shot my penis and balls off! That's why!"

"Oh right, sorry."

Back with the heroic trio, Batman was able to read off the message on his mini-computer before walking towards the batmobile.

"What did it say Batsy?" Vanitas asked as he quickly summoned a handful of clones before getting onto his motorcycle. Even though the three were going after this Riddler fellow, people were obviously getting hurt with what the man has done to the city's electrical grid. So his clones will be sent out to help take care of the damage.

"When is the minotaur's owner as high as an elephant's eye?"

Hearing this, Robin scratched his scalp as he got into the bat themed vehicle. "Well, Mockridge owns 'The Minotaur', but what's 'as high as an elephant's eye'?"

"It's corn Dickie." Vanitas voiced out, getting Robin to glance at the helmeted hero as the man called him by name. "Corn can grow up to 15 ft. or so and that reaches an elephant's eye."

"Okay… so what's he saying?: When Mockridge is corny? When Mockridge is in the corn?"

It was then Batman came up with the answer. "What's another word meaning 'corn'?"

"Kernel? Cob? Maize?... Wait, it's maize! When Mockridge is in the maize!"

"And the only maze I can think of is the one at the Competitron Amusement Park."

"Good to know." Vanitas said before he revved up his motorcycle engines before racing down the highway. "Then let's go!"

-Competitron Amusement Park-

It took a bit of time getting towards their destination outside of Gotham, but it was quite easy finding to quickly get to the Riddle of the Minotaur Maze attraction with it located at the center of the park. Lights were being projected onto its walls with green question marks spray painted among the white marble. As the three heroes walked up it's steps, a projection was being played across the maze entrance with the Riddler in all his glory.

"Ah~ The Dynamic Duo and Vanitas. I didn't expect you to be with them, but I suppose there would have to be at least one good brain amongst the group if you three solved my riddle."

"Where's Mockridge Nygma?!" Batman called out, getting a chuckle from the cane wielder.

"Oh, he's right here." Switching the video feed showed Mockridge tied down onto a table with a giant mechanical minotaur, appearing ten or so ft. in size, hovering over him. "In the center of the maze, along with my friend Mr. Minotaur and his friend, Mr. Scimitar." Returning the feed back to Nygma, the man pulled out his pocket watch as he spoke. "And I believe he has about ten or so minutes before they become very well acquainted indeed. So unless you can-"

"Is this a skippable cutscene?!" Cried out the masked Uzumaki. "Since this is supposedly a game, I think there should be one."

Nygma just dully stared at Vanitas with a twitch of his eye. "Well… Aren't you eager." Recomposing himself, the Riddler addressed the three heroes. "Now before either of you enter, you must throw down your utility belts. It'll be more interesting that way, don't you think?"

Looking at the Dynamic Duo, Vanitas spoke his thoughts. "Should we really be doing this? I mean, I heard this Mockridge guy is a real jerk." Seeing the two glare at him, Vanitas rolled his eyes as he unclipped his belt. "Okay, fine."

Seeing them place their belts onto the ground, Nygma pressed a button to open up the door beneath the projection. "Now you may enter."

With the heroes entering through the door and into the maze, the door behind them quickly shut. Vanitas went towards it and tried to phase right through when an electrical current ran right through him. The masked Uzumaki screamed a bit before being blasted back, in which the Dynamic Duo were able to catch him.

"I forgot to mention this, but once you enter you cannot leave until you answer the Riddle of the Minotaur." The Riddler spoke out through the speaker system. "I can't wait to see if you pass or not."

As the speakers were cut off, Vanitas got back up and shook himself a bit before running off ahead with Batman and Robin not far behind. "So… Have either of you guys played this game before? I clearly haven't."

"Only halfway through." Came Robin's answer, causing Vanitas and Batman to groan a little.

"Great~ I love this already."

Coming across an intersection of the maze, Batman spoke to his partner. "Now where to?"

"I'm thinking. I'm thinking."

A panel soon opened up from one of the walls, revealing a mechanical griffin as it made it's way towards them.

"Could you do it more quickly?" The Bat demanded as he went on guard.

"Oh, the griffin." Robin said as he walked a bit closer to it. "That just blocks off the way you came, that's all. And the only way past it is by answering it's riddle."

As the mechanical griffin stalked closer, a synthesised voice spoke to them. "Feed me and I live. Give me drink and I die. What am I?"

"Oh that's easy. It's fire!"

On what Robin expected for the robot to stop moving, it instead opened its mouth and launched a fireball towards them. The three quickly ducked out of the way as the blast made a hole at the nearby walls. Not wanting this to happen, Vanitas summoned his ice shield and slammed it down to create ice spears to destroy the mechanical griffin.

"...That's not supposed to happen."

Soon the speakers went back on as Nygma's voice was heard. "Since I'm the original creator of this fine game, I took the liberty of adding in several software patches to my design. So if the original traps don't kill you, then surely my new ones will."

When the speaker went dead, the three ran through the twisted corridors as they saw a sign pointing towards the left with the word 'anatidae' written there.

"Anatidae?" Robin voiced out as they went that direction.

"Biological family of hornville waterfowls." Batman answered as they kept running. "Mostly comprised of swans, geese and-"

"DUCK!" Vanitas cried out as he pulled the two down to the ground. Looking back up, the three saw various buzzsaws running through the one hallway. "...Seriously! Borrowing a trap from Indiana Jones!"

"Yeah, I think Nygma was borrowing elements from that film on that trap." Robin added in before the speakers came back on.

"I did not take inspiration from that film!" The Riddler roared out before he coughed into his hand a few times. "Have you ever heard of Pharaoh Amenemhet II?"

"Can't say that I haven't." Came Vanitas' response as the three crawled underneath the buzzsaws before entering the empty corridors.

"He created a labyrinth in Egypt that consisted of thousands of rooms and courtyards and also built a brilliant maze inside his own pyramid to thwart tomb raiders." Nygma explained as the three heroes ran through the maze before encountering three mechanical griffins, which started shooting fireballs at them. "My game's inspiration came from his maze as I am it's architech, it's maze-master." Vanitas quickly formed a barrier around them as the Dynamic Duo soon jumped out and landed onto the griffins. The two mech fired at their targets, who jumped out of the way in the last second, resulting with their heads blown off. "And you three are the tomb raiders who wandered into the coming grave that would soon hold Daniel Mockridge's corpse!"

Just when Vanitas destroyed the final griffin, Batman called out to the 'maze-master'. "I'll find Mockridge, even if I have to tear this place apart Nygma!"

This only earned a chuckle in return. "I highly doubt it since no one has ever reached the center of the maze before. Oh and you three have eight minutes before Mockridge becomes one of the only good corporate sharks out there these days: a dead one."

"Then I hope it's worth it since I think Myst was a much, harder puzzle solver!" Cried out the helmeted publisher. Looking at the Dynamic Duo, the hero tilted his head slightly. "What. That game was fucking hard when I first played it and I think this game is much easier."

Hearing this made Robin nod his head in agreement. "I actually agree with you Vanitas. That game was harder and I haven't finished through a fourth of it just yet."

Shaking his head, Batman ran off ahead with the two soon following close behind. It wasn't long before the group got into a seemingly dead end with a plague show between two pathways. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be in arabic.

"Do either of you read this?"

Just as Batman was about to use his mini-computer, Vanitas quickly answered. "It says 'Which way to the eating place?'" Looking back at them, he rolled his eyes behind his helmet. "There's a lot you two don't know about me."

"Obviously." Came Robin's remark. "But seriously: Which way to the eating place?"

Seemingly tired of the riddle, with no other clues being shown, Batman ran towards the left. "Just pick one and move!"

As Robin soon followed his mentor, Vanitas called out to them. "You're going the wrong way!"

"Crap, he's right!" The masked Grayson cried out as he saw a floating, golden hand coming their way. "Because here comes the Hand of Fate!"

Having to turn around, Batman and Robin made their way back as they went back to the crossroads. Needing to buy them time, Vanitas used his ice shield and created a wall to stop the golden hand's advancement. Seeing it was stuck in place, for now, the helmeted Uzumaki walked down the other hallway.

"I was going to tell you guys that in the Arab world, you eat with your right hand." Seeing the pair at the dead end, he soon saw three odd keys hanging next to what appears to be a doorway. "And Nygma was planning on having cops do this?"

"Seems that way. Which is ridiculous unless there was someone really smart in the GCPD." Robin said as he looked at each of the keys. "Any idea which one opens the door?"

"And why are they labeled A, C and D?" Questioned the Bat.

Vanitas and Robin merely shrugged at this. "Don't look at us."

Picking the 'D' key, Batman inserted it into the lock and twisted it. Nothing appeared to have happened until they heard a panel slide open. Turning towards the source, they saw a pair of giant blades spinning right towards them.

"Look out!" Vanitas cried out as he quickly slammed his shield onto the ground to create an ice barrier. Though with how quickly the blades were going, they cut right through it before slamming into the nearby wall. "So… Ah, try another one Bats."

"Okay. 'A' this time."

Just when Batman was about to insert the 'A' key, Robin grasped his mentor's wrist. "No, wait! Turn that key and there'll be three blades."

"But how do you-"

"It's the 'C' key. Trust me."

Trusting his protege's words, he placed the 'A' key back onto it's hook before picking up the 'C' key. Placing it into the lock, the three heroes soon hugged the wall, with Vanitas at the ready, just in case if any giant blades were to show up. Twisting the key, the door started to open."

Behind his helmet, Vanitas widened his eyes on realization. "It's a musical puzzle."

Robin nodded as he explained. "The 'D' key has two sharps. The 'A' has three. But 'C' has none."

Just when they were about to enter, another mechanical griffon entered the corridor. Not wanting to deal with it, the Dynamic Duo ran into the opened doorway while Vanitas focused power into his shield to create ice spears and sent them at the mechanized beast.

"I'm getting really tired of these things." He said before joining the two. As he reached the two, he saw three markers with a zigzag line, a curved line and a straight line. "Any idea what this riddle is about?"

"The shortest distance between two points on a globe." Robin answered before feeling Vanitas' eyes look at him. "I… failed this riddle while playing the game earlier this evening."

"Less than one minute."

Hearing Nygma's warning, Batman turned to Vanitas and asked him something. "Mind if I borrow one of your daggers?"

Raising a brow at the request, the helmeted Uzumaki complied as he formed several in his palm. After saying a quick 'thank you', Batman ran down the left doorway as he spoke to his protege. "Stay here."

"But that's the wrong door!" Robin cried out as he started to run after the Bat. "The Hand's going to get you!"

"That's the plan!"

Soon the giant, floating hand of gold came swooping in as it picked up Batman off of the ground. Trying to steady himself, the caped crusader took hold of one of it's fingers and used Vanitas' daggers to it's 'skin' to pry open the mechanized compartment.

Not knowing what his mentor was doing, Robin was running after him before he heard Vanitas call out to him. "Robin! Hop on!"

Looking back, Robin saw Vanitas coming towards him quick on one of his floating playing cards as they started to follow right after Batman.

"...Hey Vanitas."

"Yeah?"

"If you were able to do this… Why didn't you do this earlier? I mean, it would've saved us the trouble."

…..

…..

…..

…..

"Son of a bitch!"

Soon Nygma's voice was heard through the speakers as he growled at the heroes. "This is grand-scale cheating! You can't tamper with the Hand of Fate!"

"I don't believe in fate, Nygma, since we make our own!" Vanitas retorted as thoughts of Neji Hyuuga came into his mind during their younger years. With the Hyuuga prodigy proclaiming fate always made their destiny happen. But Naruto showed him during the Chunin Exams.

"And here I thought you lot followed the rules!"

"Apparently not yours." Came Robin's remark as the three heroes hoped of their respective, floating transports to land on the ground safely.

"You probably don't believe in minotaurs either." Spoke the Riddler. "But you still have to answer the riddle for you three to make it out alive with Mockridge intact."

Without much warning, the minotaur's eyes started to shine as it's synthesised voice spoke to the three heroes. "I have billions of eyes, yet I live in darkness. I have millions of ears, yet only four lobes." As the mechanized beast spoke the riddle, it's scimitar inched closer and closer to Mockridge's stomach making the man squirm in his tied position. "I have no muscle, yet I rule two hemispheres... What am I?"

Batman stroked his chin as he thought over the riddle a few times in his head. And before the blade could pierce through the company owner, the Bat quickly answered. "It's the human brain." Soon the mechanized beast powered down while Batman explained the answer. "Billions of optic and auditory nerves four lobes and two hemispheres. And it's the only thing Edward Nygma respects above all else."

Nygma merely clicked his tongue when the Batman answered his riddle. "A lucky guess, that's all."

"I solved your riddle Nygma. Now let us go!" The Bat demanded.

"Oh, I will. Just as soon as you answer one last riddle, all because you three cheated!"

The three heroes soon heard the minotaur's metal groan as it's armor started to shift and churn. Not wanting Mockridge to be close to the mechanized beast, Batman and Robin rushed forward and were able to cut the company's owner's bindings loose. Getting away from the minotaur, with Mockridge on toe, the heroes saw the robot step back as the floor underneath opened up.

"I begin and have no end. And I end all that begins." Mechanical arms rose from the opening as they applied pieces of armor into the robot's 'skin' openings. "I am always around, but never seen." The minotaur started to become larger and more intimidating than from before with it's new rustic armor covering its golden skin. "I am often avoided, but never outrun. I might find you at the end of the road or around the corner." Finishing off it's appearance, the scimitar seemed to have extended to compliment with the robot's new appearance. "Who am I?"

Robin merely swallowed a lump of air in his throat as he looked at the being in front of him with it clearly dwarfing Solomon Grundy by a good margin. Batman looked onward as he tried to figure out the robot's weak points in hopes of taking it down. All Vanitas could do was to summon his scythe as he had it at the ready before stating Riddler's answer.

"You are Death."

"Right you are!" As the minotaur's eyes opened up with it's intense glow, the mechanized beast roared at the heroes and now unconscious Mockridge. "More specifically!YOURS!"

-Insert God of War: Pandora's Guardian Extended-

The minotaur slammed it's unarmed fist onto the ground several times, causing cracks to quickly appear as the heroes moved out of the way from the stampeding mech. The result had several maze walls break down on the impact. Not wanting the civilian getting hurt, despite on how much of an asshole he apparently is, Vanitas quickly made a clone and had it get the man out of the maze via floating Fair Play platform.

Seeing the main target starting to flee, the Riddler ordered his mech to go after him as he spoke through it's speakers. "You're not getting away!" Needing the better reach as it started to break through several walls, the minotaur swung its scimitar in hopes of slicing through the card platform. The attempt failed as a scythe appeared in it's swinging path, blocked the blow before Vanitas teleported to it's position.

"I don't think so Riddler!" The helmeted hero cried out before using much of his strength to not only parry the minotaur's blade, but leave a deep crack. From there, Vanitas spun the blade to leave several gashes into it's armor as he poured power into his bladed weapon.

Soon explosions were made across the mech's back as Batman and Robin threw some of the exploding cards Vanitas made for them. Running at the mech, they jumped onto the walls before launching themselves a bit higher into the air. They soon landed onto the mech's armor and held on as they brought Vanitas' daggers out before stabbing into what openings they could find.

Starting to feel something penetrate its 'skin', the mech roared as it started to thrash about like a typical mechanical bull. Spinning and turning in hopes of ridding itself of the pests. Robin wasn't that fortunate as his grip slipped causing him to fall down, but Batman was able to catch him just in time before swinging him back up onto the armor.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." As Batman kept his hold, he gritted his teeth as he brought his hand onto his gauntlet and typed a command. "When I give the signal Robin, you need to let go!"

Robin widely looked at his mentor and thought he was crazy. "But I just got back up here!"

"I trusted you earlier, so trust me in return!"

As Vanitas kept the minotaur at bay, with his strikes and cloned distractions that soon broke the scimitar, Robin kept up with his assault as he tried to focus on his surroundings. With everything moving so quickly, it was hard to register one thing from the other. All that he could somewhat register in his field of vision was the Hand of Fate coming right towards them.

"Jump!"

Registering the command, Robin let go as he soon fell onto something hard. Looking around a bit, he saw them flying above the maze and towards the maze's entrance. He soon looked on to what he and Batman were on and realized it was the Hand of Fate.

"When were you able to control this?" Robin questioned before he saw the mini-computer shown on Batman's gauntlet.

"I hacked into its systems earlier." The Bat said as typed in more commands. "Now hang on, we need to get back to the entrance to grab our gear and fight this mechanized beast."

Back with the helmeted Uzumaki, he saw the Dynamic Duo get away from the crumbled area. With them vacated out of the area, for now by his guess, Vanitas threw his scythe behind the mech in a buzzsaw-like fashion. Teleporting to it's location, the hero dug his scythe's blade deep into the minotaur's back. Feeling the blade barely touch it's skin, with how deep the blade penetrated, the mech started to go rampant and break through various walls in hopes of getting rid of the pest on it's back.

"Yee-Haa!" Cried out the helmeted hero. "C'mon little doggy!"

"Stop riding my minotaur, you neanderthal!"

"Make me!"

And so the Riddler took the challenge. Ordering his minotaur to thrash even more and break through the many walls of the maze attraction. Vanitas did let go a few times, but he used his twilight scarf to latch back onto his scythe and onto the minotaur's armor continue the wild ride. But he didn't want to keep delaying his attacks at one point. So he quickly formed a clone and had it used his Kazekage lance to ride around the mech for a distraction. Prying out his scythe, Vanitas swung around and brought it's blade down onto the minotaur's helmet to break most of it off in one hit.

"Stop doing that!" Spoke the Riddler as the minotaur smacked Vanitas away from it's optics. But this left an opening for the clone to come charging right in through the sky as the wind lance pierced through the armored chest piece. It soon exploded, causing the piece of armor to crumble to expose its belly.

With the original, Vanitas groaned out a little as he soon saw the returning Dynamic Duo on top of the golden Hand of Fate. The pair threw their batarangs at the mech, causing some of them to pierce the skin and explode to expose the hardware inside. The Duo soon jumped off of the floating hand as the minotaur smacked it away before the heroes used their grappling guns to latch onto the mech's horns.

"Did we miss anything?!" Robin cried out as he wrapped around the robot.

"Some of it, yeah!" Vanitas answered as he summoned a Kazekage lance and threw it at the mech's chest. But to his mild-surprise, the minotaur smacked it away. He tried it again and again, but each of his projectiles kept getting smacked away as it was learning from the previous attacks. "We need something big to hit it's chest hard! Possibly the only way in stopping this thing!"

Batman nodded as he motioned Robin to let go of his grappling gun. The pair soon landed with a recovery roll before getting close to Vanitas' position. As he saw the golden hand platform roaming around the area, the masked Uzumaki got an idea.

"If I can get it's chest exposed, can you ram that hand into it?"

Batman nodded as Vanitas created several clones. Dashing to several parts of the current area, they jumped towards the mechanized minotaur and latched their grappling scarves onto its limbs and neck. Pulling with all their might, they were able to expose the minotaur's chest for Batman's next action.

"Nygma! How do you take out a minotaur with a single blow?!" Typing a command onto his mini-computer, Batman glared at the minotaur mech as the Hand of Fate came flying right towards it. "Like this!"

Overclocking it's speed, the golden hand rammed right into the robot's chest, causing it to be sent flying back with Vanitas and his clones along with it, due to still holding onto the grappling scarves. The clones went up in smoke as Vanitas' body smacked against one of the standing walls. As he fell down, the Dynamic Duo ran up to him and helped him up.

"Thanks… Is the thing down for the count?" Hearing mechanical groans being heard, the three looked at the source to see the mech trying to stand up. The three soon readied themselves for the coming fight… which didn't happen as the robot fell onto the ground and it's head broke off. "Okay, now it is."

Looking up high, Batman called out to their opponent. "It's over Nygma.! You're through!"

All that he got in return was a throaty chuckle as the Riddler spoke to them. "Sorry, boys, but you'll never find me."

"What do you mean?" The Robin questioned.

"I'm not even in the amusement park." Answered the Riddler. "What? You didn't think I would be stupid enough in being at the maze, in person? No… By the time you get out of the maze I'll be long gone and out of the city limits. But don't fret, this confrontation was quite the learning experience. One that I'll be sure to use in our next encounter. So until then, bye."

The group started to relax a little as the speakers turned off, even to the point that Robin had to sit on the ground as his adrenaline started to wear off. Wanting to get out of the maze, Vanitas formed a card platform underneath them and steered it towards the attraction's entrance. There they would see Mockridge still unconscious by the batmobile as the heroes had to return back to Gotham to inform the GCPD what happened while getting Mockridge into protective custody.

By the time he got back to his loft, Naruto got his clone's memories on what happened when he left earlier. Dinner was good and everyone was happy by the time Naruto saw Talia out. They said their goodbyes in the garage as Talia promised she'll come by and visit whenever she's around the area.

But for some reason, as he didn't know why, Naruto had a feeling he'll see more of her than he realizes it or not.