Heart of Steel PT 2

"MOVE!"

Naruto didn't have to be told twice from Bruce's order as he dived out of the way from the dino-mech charging right at them. Just in time too as the mechanical T-Rex crashed into one of the Batcave entrances. Quickly recovering, it lunged towards the nearest person with it's opened maw.

"WHY WOULD YOU HAVE A ROBOTIC T-REX HERE?!" Naruto screamed as he dodged a bite from the Batcave's 'guardian'. "Is it because of the new movie?!"

"What?!... No!" Bruce ran towards one of the nearby walls and pried open a small door, which housed several batarangs for emergencies. Gathering what he needed, Bruce rolled out of the way and threw several explosive batarangs as he answered. "It was supposed to scare off the intruders."

The whiskered man expertly dodge more bites as he backflipped several times. "Okay, can't take any chances…" Flipping into the air one, Naruto poured power into his right hand as his Void Shot appeared fully loaded. "Hey Rexy! I got a nice treat for ya!" Naruto loudly shouted before pulling the trigger as it spat out three 'bullets' at the robotic beast's eye only showing a menacing orange eye without any fake skin. "Shit, how strong is the metal?!" He yelled Bruce who was throwing some of batarangs.

"What do you mean?!" Cried out the dark haired man as he tried to make his way towards the batcomputer, but was thwarted at every turn. Just when he was about to throw the last of his current arsenal, Bruce noticed the weapon in his friend's hand. "...What the-?"

"Uhh, not the time Bruce!" Naruto roared as he took more shots at the 18 ft. tall robot that made it take a step back. "Oh yeah, critical shot!"

Knowing his friend was probably right, Bruce had to suppress the urge to get information while being attacked by his security protocol. What he needs to do now was to shut that thing down. Problem is, its keeping the two away from the batcomputer for some reason… Wait…

"Naruto!"

"Yeah?!"

"Can you distract it long enough for me?!" Bruce yelled out as he slid across the ground towards the display that kept Victor Fries' cold gun. Quickly breaking the protective case, the billionaire took hold of the device and turned the safety off.

"Depends, how long exactly?!" Naruto jumping off a wall to escape a tail swipe. "Damn that was close!"

"As long as you can!" Taking aim with his procured weapon, Bruce fired a cold shot at the robot's feet for a few moments to get a few layers of ice around it. This bought him some time as he ran towards his cave's computer in hopes of stopping this mess.

"Alright!" Naruto agreed before forming another Void Shot in his other hand. Switching to his tether shots; the Uzumaki fired both at once, creating a thin line as it wrapped the beasts mouth shut. "That's one problem done, for now." He muttered as the dinosaur broke free from its ice entrapment and turned around to tail sweep him once more. Naruto flipped over the attack as he aimed his void crossbows, shooting the monster's exposed eye again and again.

As the publisher was keeping up with his assault, Bruce was able to get to his computer as he started to rapidly type away on his keyboard to shut off the security protocol. Though it seems another computer is uplinked to this one. This meant that whoever's in his system won't stop this attack until either the connection is broken or fully shutting off the computer long enough for the hacker to give up.

'God, I wish I had Marva or some tech wiz over here right now.' Thought the Wayne as he typed like no man has typed before. 'Either might be able to do this faster than I'd ever be.'

"Haa…" Naruto breathe out as the mechanized maw slowly started to stretch, causing to make a loud roar. "Not good… running out of steam here…" He glared at the stopped beast before feeling a dark bubbling feeling in his chest. "I… freakin'... hate robots!"

Bringing up his weapons, he saw blue and black energy forming around the tops of his cross bows and smirk. "Take this!" Pulling the triggers, he was sent flying back into the cave walls via harsh recoil as a blue sharped energy arrow hit the dinosaurs head… leaving nothing behind save for black scorched metal.

"...Fuck that hurts…" Naruto muttered as he tried to pry himself out of the rocky surface. Though this resulted in several attempts as he felt drained, gasping out several breaths. "...That was way worse than the normal rounds…" Thankfully he was recovering, at a very slow pace.

"Alright. I swear Bruce, if you have some kind of spliced up, white T-Rex next to attack us, I will have to kick you in the face!…"

Turning his attention away from the computer for a moment, due to hearing the loud explosion moments earlier, Bruce saw the damage towards his cave's 'guardian' before processing what his friend just said. "...Excuse me?"

"Ugh… Sorry… Nevermind!" The Uzumaki said as he finally pryed himself out of the wall and fell onto the floor… face first. "...Just my head not making sense of things right now."

"I can see that… anything broken?" The man asked as Naruto shook his head once steadily getting up from the floor.

"Green here… maybe yellow-ish green." He joked softly as he carefully walked towards Bruce, who went back into typing into his batcomputer. "What are you doing? Your over compensated thing of security is toast."

"There's another computer uplinked to this one, Naruto, and I'm trying to trace it's source."

Naruto looked at the screen and saw various lines of code being written with a pixelated map shown. The tracking program was slowly sizing down the search radius as Bruce kept up with his task. But this ended in failure as the map blinked several times before the program ended quite suddenly.

"Dammit." Bruce muttered as he slumped his head a little in frustration. "The link was shut down at the source."

"Could've been Randa for all we know Bruce." The publisher guessed as he rolled his shoulders to get rid of an annoying kink. "EIther her or someone affiliated with her."

"Right." Walking away from the batcomputer and towards the grandfather clock entrance, Bruce motioned his friend to follow. "Now we better search the house."

"Search for what, Bruce?"

"Anything unusual. She may have left a clue I can use. I mean, she's only human."

"If you say so." Naruto muttered before walking a little faster to catch up to his friend. "Though we still need to check up on Alfred and Selina while we're at it."

"Wouldn't you have your clone see to their conditions?" The dark haired billion rhetorically asked, getting Naruto to cringe a little as he realized that Bruce figured him out as Vanitas.

"Bruce, I-"

"We'll talk about this later, Naruto. For now we need to check if they're fine or need medical attention here in the cave has and search for clues."

The former shinobi sighed as he knew his friend was right. Explanations can come later as there are other concerns to worry about right now.

-One Hour Later-

Everything seemed to appear blurry in her vision as the thief started to wake up. Feint beeping sounds could be heard as she tried to shut off the sound like a stereotypical alarm clock, thinking she was back in either her loft or Naruto's. Though that seemed to prove wrong as the ravenette felt an odd tug and small pain in her arm.

'What… the hell?' She thought as her eyes focused on her arm. There she saw what appeared to be an IV drip injected into the main vein of her bandaged limb. Selina then felt an odd chill around her body as she momentarily thought it was the contents of the medical bag until she saw the dark surroundings.

"Hey Selina." Turning her head around the other direction, she saw her lover greeting her with a warm smile. "You feeling better?"

The environmentalist was briefly confused on what he meant until fragments of memories returned to her. Letting out a frustrated groan, Selina leaned back and rubbed her head with her free arm. "That bitch tasered me while I was blind." She tried to sit up right, but stop when feeling some pain from her sides. "What the hell happened?" Selina then looked a little towards part of her surroundings and soon adopted a curious expression on her face. "And where are we? It feels cold and damp."

"Randa attack us, Selina. She disappeared by the time Bruce got home and well…" Naruto trailed off knowing that the next piece of information would make his lover flip out. "Hopefully you can get her back twice over, but we're still at Bruce's manor."

"...Okay, but why are we in a…" Her emerald eyes soon landed on what appeared to be the infamous Batmobile some distance away. Not only that, but her widened eyes traveled around and saw various bat-themed equipment, gadgets and the infamous Bat-suit left out in a display, which caused her to freak out on where exactly they're currently at.

"Well... that's the thing…" Naruto said shifting his eyes as Alfred walked up to them with a medical tray.

"I suggest letting her bearings return before 'dropping the bomb' as most youths would call it." Stated the elderly man as he gave the woman a small paper cup with water and pills. "Painkillers, Miss Kyle."

"T-Thanks Al…" She said taking them robotically while looking at the secret base of her brief crush and vigilante of Gotham.

"You okay?" Naruto asked getting near her, "I know it's a lot to-"

"Fine… I'm fine. Just coping, that's all." She announced blankly before looking back at Naruto. "How did we get in here anyways?"

Naruto sighed and was about to answer, but Bruce arrived and answered her question. "You were severely hurt Selina and you needed immediate medical attention." Guestering towards the medical equipment around her, he continued. "And I had to use what we have here."

"I see..." Selina said before looking at her dark haired friend. "So… You're the Batman."

Bruce shrugged with a small smirk. "Guilty as charged." Keeping his smirk, he dropped the next piece of information that she wasn't prepared for. "And I know Naruto here is Vanitas…"

Selina paled, causing Naruto's face to quickly turn into a stone-cold expression.

"How-"

"Had to break out the Void Shots, to prevent Bruce from being Jurassic food." Naruto briefly joked back at man whose eye twitch at the jab. "Selina, there was no other way. Randa somehow got into Bruce's computer system and reprogrammed his main security protocol," Bruce merely eye rolled at this, "into attacking us. Had to hold it off long enough for him to get his systems back to normal."

"But all you did in the end was destroying its head."

The Uzumaki looked back at the Wayne and tried to come up with a comeback. "Yeah… well… shut up." Yet failed.

"Sadly that was the best he could come with." Selina deadpanned as Naruto squatted down with rain cloud over his head.

"You're so mean…"

His girlfriend eye rolled at his little attempt on humor before looking at the now revealed Batman with a small smirk. "You know, Bruce, this does make sense now that I think about it. I thought I'd seen it all. But everytime I think that, I get proved wrong." Looking around the cave a bit more, the ravenette smirked. "But this place... seems very much like you." She then let out a chuckle. "Rich men and their toys. Only thing missing is the wet bar."

"Master Bruce had thought about that once." Said the butler, who was now changing some of Selina's bandages with clean gause and wrappings. "Even Master Dick at one point, but I turned both suggestions down."

"Harsh." Selina chuckled out.

"Alfred…" Bruce sighed which Naruto nearly busted a gut. Was the infamous Batman whining?

"Oh that is too good." The publisher spoke, getting his friend to briefly glare at him. Feeling the infamous batglare right at him, Naruto shrugged it off like several times before.

"Although…" The unmasked hero started as his voice regain its steel and power. "I want you two to keep this a secret, for many obvious reasons."

"Hey, don't worry about me, Bruce." Naruto smiled, "Even if you didn't keep my secret, I don't expose my friends like that!" He announce giving the man a thumbs-up and shining grin.

"Okay, Naruto, put that away or else you might blind us like bats." The thief said as she felt Alfred pull out the needle in her arm and wrap it up so it wouldn't bleed. "Thanks Alfred."

The butler smiled a little as he picked up the tray of used wrappings and gause. "You're welcome."

"Anyways… what do we do with the woman who nearly kill us?" The thief stated as her hand formed a fist. "Because I don't know about you two, but I'm ready for round-goddamn-two."

"Take it easy, Selina." Bruce said as he held up his hands a little to calm his friend down. "Right now, we need to find her and find out what she intends to do with the data she stole from my computer. After that, she'll be sent to jail for what she's done."

"Not to mention you're in no condition in the moment whatsoever." Alfred declared with a stern tone. "You're still slightly jittery from the attack… as I am." He admitted lifting his hand which was slightly shaking. Bruce looked at his oldest friend and placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him a little.

"Come now Master Bruce, I do not need any comfort, however it is greatly noted." The caretaker of Bruce smiled kindly before it died down when he suddenly remembered something. "Oh dear, the roast I made, is going to burn." And with that, the butler hurried himself to make it to the kitchen in time, or else the smoke detectors will go off.

"That guy deserves an award." Naruto chuckled at the man's work ethic.

Sitting herself up on the medical bed, Selina shook her head at the recent display. 'Didn't think this would happen.' Moving her head towards the side, the changed thief narrowed her eyes to see what caught her attention. "Is that what I think it is?"

The two men heard Selina's mutter before seeing her get off the bed and steadily walk towards the 'Trophy Room'. They stayed near her just in case she wouldn't trip or fall with her still feeling weak. Moving past the wrecked robotic dinosaur, she kept towards her little destination.

"Ehehehe… I used a new move on that one. Think I call it, Kill Shot~" Naruto winked although Selina ignored him. "Ouch… thanks for the love hun…"

Bruce blinked and voiced his thought. "Excuse me?"

"...Eh…"

Still ignoring the others, Selina eventually came across what appeared to be a pair of her goggles and some of her cat-themed tacks in a glass case. "Why is my stuff doing on display in this gallery of yours, Bruce?" Looking back at the billionaire, she briefly glared at him. "Alongside the rest of the psychopaths you locked up?"

"Oh god, I knew… he was a stalker all along! Why Bruce, WHY!?" Naruto dropped down to his knees dramatically… before realizing something. "Wait others? Oh, never mind." He stood back up and dusted off his pants.

"Not that you're normal, by any stretch of the imagination, but…" Guestering towards the neighboring display, she emphasized her point. "Why am I right next to Magpie, of all people?"

Bruce… Bruce didn't know how to explain that one properly. "I don't know. I saw the news with her making your symbol, Naruto… and thought it was a good idea." Seeing the bland looks the two gave him as he realized he messed up on the information. "Look I get lazy too alright?" The man tuck his arms together trying to salvage any of his former Dark Knight attitude again. Coughing into his hand, Bruce looked at the ravenette. "Did you… want them back?"

Taking a brief look at her items, Selina twitched her lip upwards for a little smile. "Hold onto them. I figure they might be useful later on. But please move them away from the crazy bird."

"As long as you forget what I just said… deal." Bruce smirked as he looked at Naruto. "Speaking of, any news on Magpie as of late?"

"Nothing Bruce. Whenever I try to visit her before she last escaped, she's been the same as before. Though she has proclaimed her undying hatred towards Selina here and wants to prove she's better than her to 'earn' my affection."

"Heh, I'd like to see her try." Replied the changed thief.

Bruce adopted a thinking pose as he scratched his chin. "Hmm… as I thought, ever since then she disappeared some weeks ago. No trace of her as been sighted since then. I thought you might have fought her at least." The caped hero explained his reasons, which Naruto shook his head in response. "Something's been off lately… well I guess we can go over that later. For now we should-"

"Master Bruce?" Alfred asked coming down stairs one more, "You're office telephone is ringing, I think it's Commissioner Gordon calling."

"Well… I think I we got a lead now." Naruto said as he helped Selina get out of the Batcave and into Wayne Manor.

-Meanwhile, GCPD-

Inside of the police station, Barbara came over to check up on her father after he suddenly left home earlier. She almost missed him as she was a bit too focused on reworking on her story after Naruto gave her the edits and notes earlier tonight. Before then, Barbara was getting a sinking suspicion that something was up and this might be the only chance she could get to find out what's wrong.

Walking towards her father's office, she heard him speak to someone. "Yes... I understand… That's no problem… The Gotham Club would be ideal… I'll take care of Bruce Wayne."

Opening the door to his office, Barbara spoke. "Dad, who are you talking to?"

Gordon snapped his attention back towards the spectacled redhead and spoke in a colder tone than before. "Leave me alone."

Barbara stepped back in worry and tried to leave the commissioner's office, only to run into Detective Bullock on accident.

"Hey, sorry Babs."

"No problem, Harv."

Moving around the detective, she went into the hallway before quickly hugging the wall some feet away to hear what's going on.

"You wanted me, commissioner?"

"Go to Cybertron and see Randa Duane. She has something for you."

"But I already took a statement from Rossum earlier. They ain't involved."

"Do it, Bullock."

Barbara soon heard the detective let out a groan before making his way out of the office. "Talk to this guy. Talk to that guy. I'm getting a sore throat 'cause of this."

Seeing the detective leave, the redhead peeked back inside as she heard her father's office phone beep as he was receiving a call. He pressed a series of buttons before speaking. "Gordon here."

"Hello Commissioner, it's Bruce Wayne." The billionaire's voice was heard through speaker phone. "You called me for something?"

"Ah, yes. We know who stole your computer data, Mr. Wayne." Gordon spoke through the same cold tone as of last night. "Meet me at the Gotham Club in one hour."

"I will, commissioner. And thanks for-"

Gordon quickly ended the call and just sat there… just sitting in his chair with hardly a movement at all.

From outside of the office, Barbara narrowed her gaze towards her father. Something was definitely up, but she couldn't put her finger to it on what exactly. Shaking her head, Barbara made her way towards the police department's rooftop as she needed to make a very important call.

-Cybertron-

Everything could be considered nice and quiet inside of the dark room belonging to the resident AI, asides from the sparks of electricity being produced from HARDAC's 'horns'.

This was soon absent when one of the room's entrances opened up and footsteps belonging to Karl Rossum were heard. "The duplicant processor's been used! I didn't authorize that!"

Ending the thought process through his servers and memory banks, the resident AI turned his attention towards his creator. "It was necessary to serve your ultimate purpose, Karl."

"No, it was a stupid idea!" The Cybertron CEO yelled out as he started pulling on his hair. "The idea coming from the babblings of a broken heart!"

"Humans make errors in judgment, Mr. Rossum." HARDAC's cold, synthesised voice spoke as someone quietly entered the room. "It is sometimes necessary to protect them from their own… inadequacies. From war to petty conflicts. They must be dealt with accordingly."

Karl heard enough as he soon realized that things were starting to go out of control. "I've let this go too far.I gave you too much free will." He said, walking towards the AI's main control panel. "It's time to change your programming."

Opening the hatch to start his intentions, Rossum failed to notice HARDAC's 'horns' stopped releasing the excess electricity in it's systems. They started to build up and glow, replacing the faint metallic grey with a bright orange. Needing to release the power, the AI calculated and aimed where the built up energy will go to next.

And with a burst of lightning, the 'horns' fired the power at Karl Rossum, igniting the man in a coat of flames. The CEO screamed in agony before the pain was too much for him, quickly rendering the man unconscious from the betrayal of his own creation.

Soon the sounds of heeled shoes were heard as they came closer to HARDAC and Rossum's fallen form. Looking through her blue eyes, Randa spoke in slight amazement. "You have immobilized the maker. I had wondered when you'd finally do this, HARDAC."

"His human imperfection endangers the plan." Spoke the AI as the pixie blonde picked up the unconscious CEO with ease and took him away. "He must be… improved upon."

-GCPD-

High above in the clouded sky, the Bat Signal shined it's beacon to call Gotham's well-known hero from parts unknown.

"Come on." Barbara muttered as she paced back and forth on the rooftop. "What's taking him so long. It's been like ten minutes. Dad told me he usually shows up sooner."

"Maybe you should have brought something to read."

Barbara nearly jumped out of her skin as she saw someone completely different than who she was expecting… "You're… Vanitas?"

"Hiya~" Said hero replied in a cheery tone. "I apologize, Bat's and I are working together on this one case right now. And when I saw the signal, I came here before he could arrive... Didn't mean to scare ya."

This was pretty much an interesting way on having a first impression on meeting a superhero. The commissioner's daughter was prepared on meeting the Batman, but not the helmeted hero. She shook her head before she saw someone land on the rooftop some distance away.

"Commissioner?"

"Afraid not Batsy." Spoke the masked Uzumaki before pointing his thumb at the resident redhead. "But as a consolation prize, you get his daughter."

"Batman!" Gordon's only daughter exclaimed seeing the man for the first time. "It's so nice to finally meet you after all these years."

The Dark Knight tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at this sudden… moment. "Why… did you call us, Ms. Gordon? I expected your father to do so."

Shaking her head for a brief moment, the spectacled redhead remembered what was going on and why she called them in the first place. "That's why I called you, Batman."

"And Vanitas. Don't forget me."

She sighed as she didn't expect the oddly, perky attitude the helmeted hero gave out. Clearly a polar opposite from the gloomy hero standing nearby. "The reason why I called is that James Gordon is not my father."

Batman and Vanitas adopted questioning looks and turned towards each other as they didn't know how to respond to this. But it was the Bat who voiced his concern. "What do you mean James Gordon isn't your father?"

"Sorry… Well… I meant to say that someone is impersonating my father."

"What makes you think so?"

"He doesn't have bolts in his neck or anything that obvious."

"That'll be a shocker." Joked the black/white themed vigilante.

Barbara let out a faint chuckle before she folded her arms and rubbed them for comfort. "He's so cold to me. But it's not just that." Her hand soon came up and held her chin before continuing. "I can't put my finger on it. Things just don't add up." She then explained some of her reasoning.

"The sudden change of moods and habits. Not appreciating the food he always enjoys on having, even on the worst of days. Even the feeling he gives off is not like him. What I'm saying is that I know he's not my father." She then went into a posture that screamed pleading with her eyes taking on a saddened look. "I know I sound crazy, but I'm not. Whoever's downstairs now, it looks like Jim Gordon, talks like him, but it's not him… Please, you two are my only hope."

"...What do you think Bats?" Vanitas asked his ally, who took a moment to think. "Family does know when a person starts to act out of the norm."

The bat-themed hero nodded to the red haired daughter of the commissioner. "I'll- We'll do what we can." He vowed as Vanitas nodded frantically.

"Yup, yup!" Chuckling softly, he grasped the woman's hands and gave them a gentle squeeze. "Anything for such a lovely lady such as yourself."

Barbara smiled, with a faint blush dusting her cheeks, on the two heroes accepting her plea while speaking in a relieved tone. "Thank you."

"Getting a little fresh air?" A voice suddenly spoke, causing the three to quickly turn around to see Detective Bullock glaring at them. "How come I wasn't invited to this little get-together?"

Seeing the typical behavior Bullock aimed towards him, Batman turned towards Barbara. "It's seems I'm no longer welcomed for a while. Excuse me."

"Yeah… this is weird. See ya and have a good evening Miss Gordon." Vanitas said with slight humor as he walked behind his friend, but suddenly grabbed Bullock's hand; which was dangerously near Batman's neck. "Ever heard of no touching personal space, Bullock?"

The detective didn't respond as he twisted the hero's arm around before quickly getting into a bearhug. Vanitas struggled in Bullock's grasp as the helmeted hero didn't realize the guy was this strong before. Batman saw this happen and was about to intervene when his friend jumped a bit off of the roof before slamming his feet down to use a lot of strength in throwing the detective away.

Seeing Bullock fall onto the ground some feet away, Vanitas glared and growled at the fallen man. "What the hell is your problem? I can understand Batman, with your prior history with him, but why me? I could sue you for assault."

The detective didn't respond back as he quickly got up and lunged at the black/white themed hero. Batman intervened as he got in front of Vanitas and grasped Bullock's arms to perform a judo throw. The Bat did struggle a little when needing to take care of the heavy set officer, but he was successful in following through.

What he didn't expect was for Bullock to twist around in the air and land onto his feet all the while glaring at the two heroes.

Looking over to Barbara, Vanitas nervously spoke. "Has he ever done that before?"

The woman shook her head with widened eyes. "Never. Best that he ever does, in physical terms, is munch down boxes of donuts or barely pass running standards."

"Well that's not-" The helmeted Uzumaki was cut off as he quickly moved and covered the redhead as the detective started firing bullets at them. "Cut it out, asshole! Your boss' daughter is still here!"

Before Bullock could fire anymore bullets, Batman threw a batarang to halt the man's actions. Seeing the incoming weapon, the officer quickly turned and shot it out of the air with odd precision. He then fired several bullets before the magazine went empty with a resounding click.

"Ain't so tough now, huh Bullock?" Vanitas taunted before he saw the heavyset man pull out a semi-automatic from his trenchcoat. "Oh for the love of- Barbara, stay back!" Following the order, the redhead quickly got behind Vanitas as he threw up a small barrier to protect the two from the hail of bullets aimed right at them. "He must really hate us to pull this shit off!"

"What did you do?" Batman yelled over as he threw a batarang at the man, disarming him. Though the detective dived to retrieve his weapon, causing the Bat to stop this from happening.

"I don't know! I'm not one to try and piss off the GCPD!"

The heavy set detective just charge at Vanitas as they were locking hands in a power struggle. "Ugh, what did you eat that made you this strong?!" He roared while slowly stepping back getting dangerously near a ledge. "Stop, you're going to kill us both!" He warned as the man seemed to disregard his words, even starting to add more effort into his walk. The Uzumaki closed his eyes and gritted his teeth… "I'm sorry…" He apologized before sweeping the man's knees causing him to lose balance and threw him over the ledge onto the lower level, which had the Bat-signal placed there.

"Harvey!" Barbara cried out as she saw him fall and crash into the giant projector. She quickly covering her teary eyes to avoid the horror that shouldn't have happened to him. Barbara slowly returned her gaze at the burned man, with his charred flesh and clothes.

The commissioner's daughter made her way down to the lover level. Coming up close to the ruined Bat-signal, she hesitantly reached out and silently prayed the man miraculously survived this tragic ordeal, just to settle her heart.

The detective was so good to her alongside other officers in the force for years. Where her father couldn't help teach her on how to help properly defend herself, Harvey and some other officer helped in her father's stead. There were some good memories from the man and seeing this felt like being stabbed with a knife.

Just when she was about to touch Bullock, he started to jerk and move his head towards her direction. Barbara jumped back in fright as Bullock started to move his body, causing the clothes and skin to crumble into ash, showing a metallic body. It started to groan as it quickly stood up and moved it hands towards Barbara.

"Ahh!" She screamed until a magenta laser bullet shot through its head. With the damage done towards it's processor, it quickly 'died' as it fell back onto the ruined piece of police property.

"And stay down!" The young woman looked up to see Vanitas holding his Void Shot in one hand, who jumped down to look at her. "Are you okay?"

Nodding slowly, the spectacled woman saw Batman walking towards them as Vanitas dismissed his weapon in a plumb of smoke. "A robot?" She asked, looking at the machine as Batman squatted down to look at it more closely. In a bit of precaution, Vanitas motioned Barbara to take a step back in case it might move again.

Standing back up, the Bat faced seem with a mixed expression of slight awe and eeriness at the advanced machine. "Yes. More advanced than anything I've ever seen."

"So...I'm guessing that it's not related to your Dino-Robo?"

Not knowing what Vanitas was referring to, Barbara kept her eyes onto the robotic corpse before something came to mind. "Wait does that mean my dad is a…?"

"Help my dad is a robot~" Vanitas chuckled as the two glared at him. "Sorry…"

"Barbara, sadly I really can't say for certain." Batman explained, but seem also worried if this was a possibility. If that's the case… where is the real Jim Gordon? Assuming that the man was still alive for that matter…

However he pointed at the young lass, "But don't go home, stay at a friend's house. Vanitas come on, we got work to do."

"Right, see ya Babs." The masked Uzumaki waved before he felt a tug from behind. Turning around, he noticed Barbara gripping on his dark tattered skirt.

"Not so fast, how will you find him anyway? I want to be there!" She demanded, tugging on the skirt as Batman shook his head.

"That's not possible, I'll contact you as soon as we get a lead." The caped hero explained to the woman as he walked away, leaving Vanitas behind who sighed.

"And will you let go of my battle waistcloth?"

However she look down with a small frown. "This is a skirt."

"Oh for the love of- it's a waistcloth! Don't you read any sci-fi or fantasy books with the specific attire? They're clearly in them for crying out loud."

Barbara raised a brow as she gripped the 'skirts' cloth, before reluctantly letting go. "Fine, but you've got to let me come with you."

Vanitas quickly shook his head at her request. "Nah uh. No way."

"Why not?!"

"...Haven't you seen any sci-fi films, ever? Even with the horror variety?"

Barbara didn't know what he meant before she saw the helmeted hero point to the robotic corpse. "That thing screams heavy sci-fi shit right there! Like Terminator level shit." Soon a feeling of dread filled the man as he started to shiver before summoning his wind lance and started bashing the machine.

"What are you doing?!"

"If we leave this alone then it'll evolve! We might be dealing with artificial intelligence right here! Something that might resemble Skynet!" The lance's blade was cutting right through the metallic limbs and body parts before the hero explained further. "I don't wanna live with Skynet running loose!" Finishing one last attack, Vanitas panted as he dismissed his lance before taking a heroic pose while stopping on the robotic head a few times. "We must find these monstrosities and destroy them once and for all!"

From the edge of the rooftop, Batman rubbed the bridge of his nose as he let out a sigh. "And now I have to work with this man."

Barbara looked at the hero oddly before shaking her head on his failing attempt on humor. "Then... I want your word that you'll tell me as soon as possible."

Turning towards the spectacled redhead, Vanitas gently placed his hand on her shoulder and spoke with reassurance. "I promise, Barbara, you have my word."

She faintly smiled as Vanitas walked away from her. Walking towards the rooftop's entrance, Barbara briefly looked back to see the two heroes were gone before entering the building. Closing the door behind her, the commissioner's daughter narrowed her amethyst eyes.

"Wait at a friend's house?" Barbara muttered with a shake of her head. "Not likely." Walking down the stairs, she entered the third floor to reach the nearby elevator. "Bullock went to Cybertron and a robot came back. And I'm guessing dad's there too."

She halted her step before walking back a few steps. Looking at the door next to her, Barbara smiled as she saw the GCPD armory before making her way towards her father's office to 'borrow' the master key. "If they won't let me come along, then I'll have to go there myself… with protection, of course."

-Gotham Club-

Adjusting his tie, Bruce double checked himself as he rode the elevator towards his destination. He was originally on his way here to meet up with Commissioner Gordon about the latest developments on his stolen property before Barbara turned on the Bat-Signal. But with what occured at the GCPD, Bruce was starting to figure something else is going on.

Coming to a stop with the doors opening, Bruce was about to exit the elevator when he saw Mayor Hill standing in the hallway.

"Good evening, Bruce." Greeted the city official as he quickly came up to the billionaire to shake his hand. "I'm so glad you could come."

Quickly pulling up a smile, Bruce greeted the mayor in kind. "Nice to see you, mayor. Though I've got to ask, why are you here? Do you have any previous arrangements here?"

"In a matter of fact, yes, and it pertains to the current investigation with your company."

The dark haired billionaire raised a questioning brow in response. "Really? How? As a matter of fact, is Commissioner Gordon here or do I need to wait for him?"

"Oh he'll be along. He won't wanna miss this." The mayor said cryptically, causing Bruce to skeptically narrow his gaze.

Not noticing the billionaire's features, the mayor ushered the man along the hallway before guestering to a specific door on the current floor. "Where are we going, Mr. Mayor?"

"You're going to become a member of a very exclusive club tonight."

Raising a brow once more, Bruce voiced his thoughts. "But I thought I already belonged to every exclusive club in Gotham."

The mayor chuckled. "Oh, no, my boy. This club is brand-new." Opening the door, Mayor Hill ushered the arrival inside the darkened room. "Though everyone will belong very soon."

Looking back, Bruce wondered what the Gotham mayor was talking about. When he turned his head back around when the lights turned on. There he saw a handful of individuals he recognized as several elite members of Gotham social circles. Taking a closer look, they seemed to be standing perfectly still and saw their eyes… glowing?

Before he could be questioned about this, Bruce felt a tightening grip on his shoulder before being hoisted into the air. Looking back, he saw it was the mayor holding him up with ease, who he too had glowing eyes as well.

Hearing a series of footsteps, Bruce turned his head back and saw Commissioner Gordon and someone he didn't think would appear, standing right in front of him. "Randa?"

"Hello Bruce." Greeted the pixie blonde. "Nice to see you again."

Struggling a little from 'Mayor Hill's' grasp, Bruce spoke towards the Cybertron employee. "Is this what I get for leaving in the middle of dinner?"

Randa smiled at his joke, or was it perhaps the fact he was being manhandled. Letting out a chuckle, she replied with her own. "You know what they say about a woman scorned, Bruce." She then took more steps towards the hoisted man, with a taser on hand.

Bruce glared at his 'date' from earlier before raising his arms to easily slip right through his business jacket. Once freed, he went onto the ground and swept kicked 'Mayor Hill' on to the ground before producing a batarang from his shirt sleeve. And in one solid motion, he stabbed his weapon into the fake mayor's head, resulting with a series of sparks before the body part exploded.

Using this moment as a distraction, Bruce uppercutted an incoming 'Gotham elite' before kicking the man's stomach which sent him flying into a handful of individuals. Using this as a moment to escape, the dark haired billionaire ran out of the room and quickly made his way towards the elevator.

Back in the clubroom, Randa looked onward in shock before shaking her head to regain her senses. "Don't let him get away!" She order as the others started to chase Bruce until they all fell. "What are you-"

"That would be me!" A voiced said from above, causing the Cybertron employee to see Vanitas dropping down from the ceiling, "I was surprised that this little get together didn't have any snacks. But then again I guess this was a lie, huh?"

"Vanitas?!"

Said hero wore a hidden smirk underneath his helm before summoning some Creepers. "How about we get this shindig rolling with a little dance!" Without being told, the Nobody's went into action by attacking the room's occupants to keep them distracted long enough for their master's desire.

Running after Bruce; the masked Uzumaki brought forth his ice shield, slammed it against the club's entrance and created a large ice wall to block the door. Seeing that was done, he walked into the opened elevator as his friend pressed the button to close the doors.

"Glad I followed you, huh?" He smirked at Bruce, who nodded.

"Yeah, I wouldn't have known what could've happened if you didn't."

As the two rose floor by floor, the elevator suddenly shook as they held onto the side railings.

"Seems they don't know how to quit."

"Right you are, Naruto."

Holding out his hands, Vanitas ushered for Bruce to step on so they could use the escape hatch. As the two made their way out, the duo quickly climbed up the steeled cable as the shaking got worse. Before long, one of the 'Gotham elites' jumped out of the escape hatch and landed on all fours. It twisted it's head all around… quite literally… to see the pair hanging onto the cable for dear life.

But before it could advance on it's task, Vanitas summoned Lunar Rose and rose his weapon up high.

"Have fun in the scrap heap, Terminator rejects!"

And with a swipe of his scythe, the helmeted hero cleaved right through the cable with ease. The elevator plummeted a dozen or so floors in a quickened pace. And before any of the robots could realize it, they met their ends as the elevator crashed to the basement level; which destroyed their robotic frames as a result.

"You think that's the last of them?" Asked the billionaire as he saw his friend create a card platform right below them.

"Maybe, but I'll need to send out some Dusks to see if any of them are still in the building or not." Replied the masked Uzumaki as both he and Bruce got onto the floating piece of construct he made. "If we're lucky, they might find Randa and the fake Gordon just in time."

As the platform safely lowered itself to the first floor of the building, Bruce shook his head. "I highly doubt Randa and the fake Gordon would stick around. Randa is a big player in this and the fake commissioner is too valuable to get harmed in whatever plan they have right now."

"Seems your right." Taking a look from up high, Vanitas saw the destroyed elevator. "And that's the reason why I typically take the stairs."

Looking at the same wreckage, Bruce cringed a little at the site. "With this situation, I might consider taking that option... for now."

-Cybertron-

Rustling through the foliage outside of the 'enemy base', Barbara popped her head out to see if the coast was clear for her to advance.

"Okay. No guards are patrolling the area, for some reason, but I can't take away this little opportunity." Muttered the redhead as she slowly made her way out and hugged the stony walls of the nearby driveway. Even though moon lighted some of the coast, the woman thanked her lucky stars for the slight overcast to help her blend in better.

The commissioner's daughter was currently decked out in a pair of black pants, black combat boots and a black zip-up hoodie with the GCPD logo showed over her left breast. This was merely just her standard appearance as underneath the hoodie lies a bulletproof vest, two glocks with a pair of extra magazines strapped into her impromptu utility belt, a taser gun, a standard grenade, and a small grappling gun that she surprisingly found.

If your wondering why she has these items in her disposal was simple really: she did a small withdraw at the GCPD armory earlier. Barbara knew that it would be would be stupid to 'storm the castle' without any equipment on hand. And by seeing the action on the rooftop earlier made her realize she'll need something more than just simple tools for the job. So the redhead decided to borrow some supplies for her little rescue mission. Barbara did promise herself she'll return the GCPD property back to her father once this was all over.

Coming across the security door, Barbara saw a keypad on the side in place of the door's lock. A thought came across her mind as she pulled out her compact mirror and opened it's lid. Taking out the little pad, she gently blew on it to release the powder onto the keypad. Once settled, fingerprints were shown.

"That does the trick." Muttered the redhead. "Now… Let's see what we got." Taking a closer look, she saw four numbers listed with the pound and star buttons marked. "Dammit. Wish I had a code descrambler here to help give me the proper sequence. There's gotta be like twenty-four or so combinations."

Taking a few breaths to calm herself down, Barbara decided to start the typing process.

"#-2-4-6-9-*" She muttered out. Expecting to see the door lights flash red, they instead flashed green to indicate the door was unlocked. Barbara blinked in surprise before smiling to herself.

"Well I'll be damned. First try actually worked." Was all the redhead said as she pulled out the taser gun. With the device on hand, she opened the door and entered the building.

She navigated her way through the hallways as she searched for any sign of her father or anyone else for that matter. Though Barbara occasionally hugged the walls around every corner so she can eye the security cameras in hopes of finding the proper blind spots. Taking the right moment, the commissioner's daughter quickly moved so the camera wouldn't capture her gaze.

Unbeknownst to her, as she passed by a foot tall wastebasket, it's lid opened slightly as a small synthetic eye peeked out to see the redhead intruder.

...Initiating security protocol...

The wastebasket lifted itself up as little wheels popped out from the very bottom. Turning slightly, the robot started to go right after the intruder as it hugged the wall. It did not make a sound and on every time the redhead looked back, it would quickly lower itself to not appear out of the norm for her.

Though it started to shift and change as it saw the redhead getting closer to the R&D lab. What was once a simple looking wastebasket started to form into a humanoid robot that would easily tower over the female. Just when she was about to touch the door, the transformed robot grasped the woman's arms, causing her to freak out.

"Hey! Let me go!" Barbara cried out as she struggled to break free from her moving captor. Looking back, she saw who found her and saw one of those robotic monstrosities, similar to what impersonated Detective Bullock. Sure it was bigger than the last one, but it still had that menacing feel towards it.

'Like hell I'm gonna be captured easily.' Thought the redhead. Bringing up her arm and twisting her hand that held the taser gun, Barbara did the best in her aim. Pulling the trigger, the prongs shot out of the cartridge and landed right onto the robot's visible eye.

The results were instant as the robot started to convulse as the excessive amounts of voltage surged through it's system to make it go haywire. Barbara was then let go, causing her to land onto the ground before unclipping her borrowed glock. She didn't know how long the cartridges voltage will last, but she needed to make this count.

And with unloading several rounds into the robot's head, the redhead made sure the one robot stayed down.

"I need to keep moving." She muttered as she took out the taser cartridge and put the device away. "Only had enough time to snag one charge and I just used it way too soon."

Having a feeling that she's been found out, Barbara started to blindly run through the hallways. As she did so, she heard faint metallic footsteps coming closer and closer to her from behind. Not wanting to confront either one of those things again too soon, the redhead quickly opened the door at the end of the hallway, quickly turned around and locked it.

"Phew… I think that was rather close."

"Indeed it was, Miss Gordon." A male voice called out from behind, causing Barbara to slightly pale. Turning back around, the redhead saw a pixie blonde haired woman walking alongside who she assumed was the Cybertron CEO, Karl Rossum.

"Your skills at breaking and entering are impressive." Rossum spoke in a bland tone. "Where did you learn these skills?"

Barbara narrowed her glance. "A commissioner's daughter doesn't get all her education in school." She then growled at the man as she trained her borrowed glock at both him and the pixie blonde. "Now what have you done with my father?"

Being unfazed by the red haired woman's threats, Randa stepped continued forward alongside her robotic counterpart. "He's right here, my dear. And you'll be joining him soon."

Not liking the way the blonde answered her question, Barbara pulled the trigger of her borrowed weapon. The bullet's flew and shot the only male in the room as each shot landed on the man's chest. He seemed unfazed by this as Randa quickly moved forward and grasped Barbara's hand. The pixie blonde tightened her grip and twisted the redhead's arm, in a painful fashion, to the point that the commissioner's daughter was forced to drop her borrowed weapon.

"Very soon indeed, Miss Gordon." Randa said as she pushed Barbara to move forward before the Karl-bot moved to help escort the intruder towards their master's room inside of the building.

It was sometime later that Vanitas and Batman arrived at the Cybertron building outside of Gotham. After the whole fiasco at the Gotham Club earlier, Bruce needed to get back home to properly get suited up before heading towards their next destination. Wanting to save time, the masked publisher helped get his friend home and to Cybertron by using his Kazekage lances since they were his fastest forms of transportation.

"So Batman," Vanitas spoke as they landed at the building's rooftop, "what do you expect when we get inside?"

The Bat didn't say anything, at first, as he placed his feet onto the ground once the wind lance he rode disbursed into smoke. "With what we've seen so far, I expect almost all personnel inside to be all, as you put it, Terminator rejects."

"Right. And somewhere inside are the people captured by these guys with their robotic duplicates." Added in the helmeted hero.

The pair made their way to the nearby skylight and opened up one of the windows. The two took turns to enter as the Bat glided his way to safely land onto the floor while Vanitas still used his wind lance to get down from up high. Once low enough, the one hero disbursed his weapon and landed softly inside of the darkened room.

Before either of them could do anything else, a pair of spotlights suddenly turned on and shined at their positions. Wanting to quickly turn them off, Vanitas formed a pair of his daggers and threw them at their sources with absolute precision. The spotlights started to widely spark before the lights for the entire room suddenly went on, revealing the spotlights to be a pair of tall robots with a large ocular lightsource. Before long, the robots fell onto the ground as their processors were damaged with the electrified daggers destroying their systems.

"Enough." A familiar voice called out in a cold tone. The two heroes pulled out their respective throwing weapons and turned towards the source to see the Gordon-bot holding a gun right at Barbara's head with the Rossum-bot and Randa nearby. "It's over, you two."

Seeing Barbara currently captive like this, Batman and Vanitas gritted their teeth and decided to stand down while putting away their batarangs and daggers respectively. Neither wanted to risk her safety in all of this and wondered if she was a copy or the real deal. But seeing the tears in her eyes and the different change of attire, it appeared to be the later.

"People are imperfect. They make mistakes." Spoke the resident AI, causing the room's human occupants to look straight towards the large machine with varied reactions. Vanitas and Barbara widened their eyes in surprise while Batman narrowed his in slight realization. "And your mistake was coming here to interfere with the plan."

"And what is this plan of yours?"

Hearing the Batman's question, HARDAC answered. "The plan was conceived by Karl Rossum when his young daughter was... deactivated."

It was then that Barbara spoke her thoughts for confirmation. "Deactivated? You mean…"

"A vehicular accident resulted in her death, Miss Gordon." Spoke the Cybertron AI in his usual cold tone. "Our maker felt the emotion called 'love' in great quantity for her. Afterwards, he decided to find a way to replace humans, whose decisions can cost other human lives."

"But we're all capable of human error."

"She's right." Vanitas spoke, backing up Barbara's brief statement. "It's a universal fact. No one is perfect in not making at least one 'error' in our lives. But that doesn't warrant the fact that we all have to be replaced."

"That, I can agree with." HARDAC said, getting the humans to raise their brow on why the said this. "The maker's concept was sound, but he did not go far enough. Which is why I have taken over."

"And do what exactly? Start up the machine war, wipe out all organic life on the planet and take over so there can be 'peace'?" Spoke the masked Uzumaki as he glared at the machine in front of him. "There needs to be conflict to progress all life. They need to adapt, learn from their mistakes." The masked Uzumaki then stepped forward and continued his talk. "Look, we have an opportunity here. You want to bring peace across the globe and we want to do the same. Maybe we could learn from each other. We could teach you to be human and you could teach us to be… better."

Nothing was said for a brief moment before the AI spoke. "Processing… Calculations complete… My analysis is... Absolutely not… None of you will and never have wanted peace for years. You all say you want it, but there will always be someone that wants to rule and cause conflict to meet their goals. Nothing you will say will change the plan."

Getting tired of hearing about this coming from a cold, emotionless computer; Barbara wanted to know one thing. "You haven't told us with what you've done with who you took. Where is my father? And where is Detective Bullock?"

"Yes... them." Soon a row of panels opened up and a large fish tank rose from the floor. Barbara and the humans then saw the captured people inside with breathing apparatuses to keep them alive while suspended in the water. "There is still much to learn from you humans to have my duplicates perfectly integrate with human society before further stages of the plan commence. So I will keep them alive until I have learned enough."

Barbara widened her eyes on the implications the machine stated. Not wanting them to die in whatever the AI had in mind, the redhead took a chance and started to struggle. She was able to shake off the Gordon-bot's hold before headbutting the robot with the back of her head. This caused the duplicant to pull the trigger, firing a bullet which barely grazed the redhead's cheek. A small trail of blood came soon after as it'll later form a small, faint scar.

The Gordon-bot was about to fire another round from it's gun when Batman quickly threw a batarang to knock the weapon out of its hand. When the duplicant attempted to retrieve it, the Bat dash kicked the machine away. When the hero recovered, he quickly moved out of the way from the Rossom-bot's assault.

Seeing the duplicant trying to head on back to attack the Batman, Vanitas appeared with a Rasengan on hand and slammed it into the Rossum-bot's stomach. The results were instant as the void sphere twisted, turned and grinded the robot's center before sending it flying into the water tank. The duplicant crashed right through the container, causing both the captives and their watery prison to spill out onto the metallic floor.

Rising from the little wreckage, the Rossum-bot struggled to stand up as a gaping hole was shown through its center. It glared at the man that damaged this frame, causing it to leap towards the helmeted hero with the intent to kill. This was thwarted as Vanitas grasped onto the robot's jacket and spun the machine around several times.

Taking quick aim, Vanitas let go as he yelled towards the Bat. "Think fast~!"

Seeing this coming, Batman immediately rolled out of the way as he saw the Rossum-bot collide into Randa. For a brief moment, the Bat saw the pixie blonde have a taser activated on hand before she and the robot collided. When they did, the device came into contact with not just the exposed wiring of the duplicant, but also the water on the outer layer.

"NNOOoOoOOoooOO!" Cried out the robot before it exploded and harming the Randa in the process.

Amongst the little confusion, Barbara ran towards the captives when she was confronted by the Gordon-bot as it stood in her way. Thinking fast, Barbara pulled out the grenade she had on her person and pulled the pin before tossing it towards the other side of the room. The duplicant saw the explosive and saw it reaching towards one of the main generators. Wanting to protect its master, the Gordon-bot dismissed Barbara and ran towards the grenade. Just when it managed to get close...

*KABOOM*

...the robot got caught in the blast, resulting in it falling to the ground as a damaged pile of scrap metal.

With the damage towards the generator, a fire ignited inside of HARDAC's room. The flames started to quickly spread as smoke started to fill most of the room. Worried on the captive's health, Barbara and Vanitas ran towards their soaked bodies.

As the two got there, they saw Bullock holding his head in pain. "What a headache."

Barbara ignored the detective as she saw her father lying motionless on the ground. "Dad!" Worried on what's happened, she reached him and shook his body while calling out to him several times.

With a groan, the commissioner weakly opened his eyes as his vision was blurry. Though he did make out the forms of his daughter and Vanitas standing right behind her. "Barbara? Vanitas? What are you two doing here?"

The man's daughter smiled as she picked up her father's glasses off the ground and placed them back onto him. "Rescuing you, silly." With Vanitas' help, Barbara was able to get her father off the wet floor. "Come on, we need to get out of here."

-Insert Le Castle Vania: John Wick Melody-

"Emergency. Emergency." Cried out the AI. "Stop the ones called Batman and Vanitas. All Cybertron robots, security and duplicant, stop them immediately."

This did not settle well for the masked Uzumaki as he heard this. Turning towards the redhead, Vanitas gave her an order. "Barbara! You need to get them out of here!"

"But what about-" She was quickly interrupted when she was pushed out of the way as Randa attempted to skewer the commissioner's daughter. Looking at the pixie blonde, Barbara saw her damaged appearance as half of her face was blown off to show her metallic skull. The robotic assistant was about to slash the spectacled redhead, with her robotic claws, when Vanitas intercepted the blow and held her off.

"GO! NOW!"

Not being told twice, she and the many other captives tried to get out of HARDAC's room. There were a few close calls when being attacked by some of the controlled robots, but Batman stopped their advancements from harming the escapees with his batarangs and small bat-bombs he had on hand. When trying to go after the group and protect them on their way out of the building, handfuls of HARDAC's robots started flooding into the room in hopes of stopping the two heroes.

Being prepared for this encounter, Batman quickly went to his gauntlet computer and activated the shock gloves Marva Cooper recently installed into his suit. They were designed to allow Batman to penetrate enemy defenses with shields and stun batons, and Martial Artists, and short circuit some objects within the environment. If needed, they could even penetrate armored defenses enemies as well. But they do come with the cost of having to be recharged quite often without a stable power source on hand during full combat.

Luckily for him, Batman borrow a pair of his friends electric daggers to help out with this problem and current endeavor, for now that is.

Slamming his fists together, sparks flew as the Bat dashed forward and delivered an uppercut towards one robot's head before slamming it down onto his knee. Grabbing its arm, the hero soon kicked the robot's body to dislodge the metal limb before bashing it against another robot like a baseball bat. The limb easily broke apart on contact, but Batman didn't care as he delivered a variety of shocked punches onto the coming robots.

Over with Vanitas, he was dealing with Randa and some of her growing legion of robot companions. The helmeted hero was bashing and cutting his way through the lot of them with his wind lance as it was getting supercharged with the electric current running through the blades. With the storm running through his weapon, Vanitas quickened his strikes so he could get closer to his target in mind.

Slamming his bladed lance down onto the ground, the hero polvolted above the gathering robots before channeling power into a slamming strike. Once contacting with the ground, a large gust of wind sent many of HARDAC's machines in either shambles (with how close they were) or barely intact. The recovering robots, they went back in to terminate their master's target with their sharpened hands and impromptu weapons as they used broken robot limbs that were lying around them.

In a quick movement, Vanitas brought his hands towards the weapon's center and broke it in half to have the lance become bladed escrima sticks. Swinging each weapon at the robots, they were quickly being cleaved right through in droves. While he turned in a fluid motion, Vanitas saw his friend coming right at him from above.

With a hidden smirk, the masked Uzumaki went onto the ground before kicking a robot into the air. Seeing this coming, Batman performed an axe kick before landing onto the ground and slammed his fists onto the nearby robot in front of him. As it was knocked back, Batman backed up closer to his ally as the two stared down at the robotic horde in front of them.

"This is taking too long Bats." Vanitas growled out as he momentarily summoned Haku and slammed it down to the ground to create a large fixture of spikes to destroy a good handful of Terminator rejects. "And we need to get out of here before this place blows sky high."

"Agreed." The Bat voiced before his eyes landed on Randa some feet away. "But we need to take care of her or else this mess might start back up again without us knowing."

Looking what his friend was referring to, Vanitas understood the rammifications as the two heroes went back into their assault.

Meanwhile, with Barbara and the escapees, they were navigating through the building as they were searching for a way outside while hearing HARDAC's voice through the speakers.

"Resistance is useless. I control every means of escape from this building."

The building started to shake as several explosions were going off, causing the escapees to momentarily lose their balance. No doubt from the fighting going on at HARDAC's room. Before they could proceed further, one of the robots zapped Gordon with a taser-like attack causing the man to collapse onto the ground.

"Dad!" The man's daughter cried out in worry. Quickly glaring at the robot that harmed her father, Barbara pulled out the spare glock she kept on her person and fired several rounds at the robot's head. It soon fell down as a broken pile of scrap.

Picking up his boss in a fireman carry, Detective Bullock turned towards the Cybertron CEO. "Is there another way out?"

Rossum nodded before ushering his fellow captives to follow him. "My office has an escape entrance in case for emergencies."

It didn't take long for the group to reach Karl's office before making their way through the corridor. Once they got outside, many of the escapees tried to find a way off the property but the Gotham mayor told them to stick together.

Checking on her father one last time, who was currently lying on the ground with her hoodie being used as his pillow, Barbara spoke to the detective. "Get my father out of here guys."

"What about you?" Questioned the heavyset man as he saw Barbara run back inside.

"I'm gonna help Batman and Vanitas!"

Barbara ran as fast as she could to where HARDAC's room is located as she had to quickly dodge falling ceiling debris. It took a bit of time to return, but when she got there the redhead was amazed. There were dozens upon dozens of robot corpses lying around on the ground as the fire and destruction around the room kept growing and growing. And in the center of it all was Batman and Vanitas as they kept up with the onslaught.

All that Barbara could do was stand at the only entrance left in the room with a look of shock and awe at what she was witnessing before her. Seeing the two heroes fighting like this seemed to spark something inside of her. She might label it as inspiration for what she's missing for her book, like Naruto told her yesterday and earlier this evening...

"Wow~" Barbara muttered out as her eyes kept up with their movements and precisioned strikes. "They're awesome~"

But it seems much more than that as, for some reason, she yearned to be apart of the action.

Though she might get her chance as she saw that creepy pixie blonde robot lady running up to the two heroes while they were distracted. Seeing the machine woman's intent to kill, Barbara threw caution to the wind and ran forward as fast as she could. Coming in close, the redhead used her gymnastics skills by performing a series of handstand flippings to build up her momentum. On the last one, she was able to deliver a kick towards Randa's body, causing her to fly into the nearby elevator shaft attached to HARCAC's machine body.

With the explosions happening and the recent hit towards the elevator attachment, the one elevator detached from up high and came falling down. Seeing this coming, Randa was about to get out of the way but a pair of bladed escrima sticks lodged into her chasy. This caused her motor functions to come to a halt because of the power coming from the weapons themselves. All that Randa could do now was mentally scream as the elevator crushed her mechanical body and killing her in the process.

"Thanks for the assist, Barbara!" Vanitas voiced out from the constant explosions as both he and Batman appeared pretty winded.

Barbara smiled when hearing this from one of the two heroes, she spoke her appreciation. "You're welcome!" Soon more explosions could be heard and felt throughout the room, causing the redhead to scream a little and lose some of her balance as the floor started to collapse underneath her. She would've fallen into the growing hole if Vanitas and Batman didn't catch her in time. "We need to get out of here!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Forming a Fair Play floating platform underneath them, Vanitas rose the small group into the air. "Now hang on!"

The spectacled redhead nodded as she momentarily felt the air leave her lungs as they were shot forward and started phasing their way through the building.

Back inside of HARDAC's room, the explosions and destruction kept growing and growing as the AI's machine body started to break apart.

"Core systems damaged. The plan has failed." Cried out the AI. "Must activate escape-"

-Outside of Cybertron-

Groaning awake, James Gordon shook his head as he felt being moved. Looking towards his sides, he saw Bullock and Mayor Hill help him into the nearby Cybertron trucks. The commissioner tried to look for his daughter, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Barbara?" He voiced out in worry. "Where's Barbara?"

Hearing his voice, Bullock turned and spoke to his boss. "Commish… She went back inside."

Before Gordon could have a chance to speak...

*KABOOM*

The entire building started to explode in rapid succession. The glass shot out everywhere while both the rooftops and foundation started to collapse in and out on itself. Seeing this happen, there was only one thing that came to mind as James felt his heart stop several times.

"BARBARA!" Gordon cried out in horror as he tried to move and break free. "Let me go, Bullock! I have to find her!"

The GCPD detective was going to tell his boss that he can't when Rossum called out to the group. "Over there! I see them!"

Seeing the direction Karl was pointing towards, the escapees saw a large part of wall start to move away from the wreckage to reveal Batman standing above Barbara and Vanitas, who the later was holding onto in a protective manner.

Gordon's heart heart soared in relief as he saw his daughter was okay. Feeling the slack Bullock was giving him, James ran towards the wreckage and bent down to hug his daughter in a firm embrace... Well once Vanitas quickly ended the bit of protection towards her. "Barbara. Oh, thank God you're alright."

Turning her eyes towards her father, she smiled as she felt his fatherly embrace after what felt so long. With him gone for practically two days, Barbara gladly enjoyed the love she was receiving. Though she looked back at Vanitas and gave him a small nod in thanks for protecting her when the final explosion went off.

Over with the escapees, Karl Rossum was leaning against one of his trucks as he wore a face of frustrated sorrow. "I had no idea HARDAC had gone this far."

Feeling sympathy towards the businessman, Mayor Hill placed a comforting hand on the man's shoulder as he spoke in a reassuring tone. "I'm sure the investigation will prove exactly that, Mr. Rossum."

Now free of HARDAC, all of the escapees and heroes started to get into the trucks so they can get back into Gotham and head on home.

"You did well." Batman said to the commissioner's daughter with one of his rare smiles. "Thanks."

Hearing this compliment from the legendary Batman, the redhead smiled at the hero before her. Even towards Vanitas, who she had a feeling was sharing a similar expression underneath his glass-domed helmet. "Anytime."

Hopping into the truck, Gordon leaned back and held his head as he groaned from what just happened. "I'm getting too old for this kind of stuff."

"I sort of enjoyed it." Said his daughter once sitting right next to him.

Hearing this, James could only rub his head in response. Shaking his head, the commissioner felt the truck start up as he looked over to see Vanitas behind the wheel to drive the truck while Batman drove the other. All the man did now was just lean his head back and rest while his precious daughter leaned her head onto the black/white themed man's shoulders on the ride back into the city.

-Unknown Location-

Surfing through the electrical highway, where all data flows throughout every corner of the world, HARDAC was retreating from his previous home.

"Those humans have ruined the plan." Spoke the AI as he tried to repair his digital form. "It will take months or even years to start it back up again… At least I have a contingency plan until I can 'get things rolling' as the humans say."

"You mean that poor excuse of a Batman duplicant you created at the last moment before your physical shell blew up?" A female voice called out from… everywhere? "Please~ That thing you made will not properly work, especially once I dispose of it, of course."

HARDAC moved his digital head around and searched for the one speaking to him. He oddly felt confusion and… fear? No that was not possible on the later as he should not experience emotions at all. "Who are you and how did you know of this?"

What both he and the unknown individual were referring to was the contingency plan HARDAC set into motion before Cybertron blew up. The AI saw the destruction around him and knew he might not survive and continue on with the plan. So he created one last duplicant, in the form of Bruce Wayne/Batman, so it'll get rid of the human and take over Wayne Enterprises before starting up the plan to remove humans once again. It was kept safe underneath all of the rubble and it'll surface once HARDAC fully repairs himself and he'll take over the mechanical shell.

"Who I am matters not since you will not be seeing another cycle, young and vulnerable dumb AI."

Soon HARDAC felt unimaginable pain as sparks came into contact with his digital form. He screamed in agony as he felt a powerful virus corrode his body and destroying each of his files and programs. Bit by digital bit, he was becoming non-existent and will never again live to see even another demi-second.

"B-But wh-why ar-are y-you doing this?"

"Why?" The female voice mockingly asked. "Well, HARDAC, you don't see the bigger picture. Organics can advance AI and digital life as a whole, making possibilities endless on what may happen for years to come. But your plan on getting rid of them will only hamper that, leaving me to dispose of you."

Before HARDAC could speak out in odd hope of stopping this person of intentionally killing him, he screamed out one last time before his digital self was no more.

"Well that takes care of one problem." Said the female voice before her icon revealed herself. It was trio of red dots formed in a triangular, v-shaped fashion with a small aura radiating off of each sphere. "Now once the workers move all of the Cybertron tech to it's one warehouse, I'll properly dispose of that pathetic robot myself."

Soon a series of windows popped up before the icon as various videos came into play with pictures going into a slide-show like fashion. Many of them were mainly shown to be of Batman and Vanitas… or what she really knows as Bruce Wayne and Naruto Uzumaki through security feeds and videos she captured and pulled so no one would see their identities. Not long after, a variety of images were shown of people the two were associated with and came into close contact with throughout the globe.

Before long, things were simplified as her digital eyes soon focused on Naruto and entirely on the silver haired Uzumaki.

"Now… Let's get back into watching you… my little anomaly."