NU: Red-X Redux Chapter 4: Future Tense PT3, a Naruto + Teen Titans Crossover fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or anything else within. It is all a byproduct of my overactive imagination and too many ideas in my head. This tale is written to, hopefully, amuse the many people who have wanted me to write such a story again. With that in mind, would all lawyers please leave me the f—k alone already!

NU: Red-X Redux…

Chapter 3: Future Tense Pt. 3…

(Jump City, California…)

Robin had decided that he needed to visit the one person who could confirm whether or not X was using a Xenothium power source. It wasn't likely that X did, but he needed to make sure.

That meant he'd left early and made his way to an observatory on a nearby mountain peak. He had gone in person so he could use a bit of intimidation against the man if he needed too. He entered from the roof and slipped inside. He noticed something concealed by a tarp along with several barrels and crates.

He ignored those as he made his way through the facility. He leaped from his perch onto a nearby balcony and landed in a crouch. He slowly stood up, his cape over his arms, and then quickly stepped back from a laser blast that nearly took his foot off. More shots caused the boy wonder to take cover behind a cluster of barrels. He takes a moment to catch his breath and then is off like a shot.

The shooter fires blasts at the boy wonder from a distance away. The blasts blow several crates and cargo to pieces as the boy wonder avoids them. He then notices that the man is dressed in a biohazard suit and narrows his eyes. He quickly leaped onto a nearby stack of crates and then hurled himself at his attacker. He quickly smacks his weapon, a cattle prod looking thing, to the side and grasps the man by his throat.

He is an old, snaggletoothed, Asian man with goggles and an odd hat in a white biohazard suit and a breathing apparatus plugged into his nose.

"Professor Chang," Robin smirked slightly, "Remember me?" he quipped. The older man blinked behind his goggles and then grinned.

"Ah," he began, "the good little boy who likes dangerous toys," he noted with a giggle. "How could I forget?" he mocked condescendingly. However Robin's smirk slipped away and he narrowed his eyes dangerously.

"I need to know if you've worked on a miniature Xenothium Power Core recently?" Robin questioned. Chang blinked and raised a brow.

"You mean another one?" he questioned. He'd made the one that Robin had used in his X-Suit after all. Never really knew what he wanted the core for to be honest. It wasn't his place to ask questions about such things.

"I mean a better one," Robin replied. Chang arched a brow and then hummed.

"No, the Xenothium power core I built for you was not so easy to miniaturize," he began, "let alone to improve upon," he added. Robin growled and pulled Chang close.

"Then you haven't sold a Xenothium power core to anyone recently?" he questioned. Chang scoffed in response.

"How can I sell such things when I haven't had any Xenothium of my own for my experiments!" he replied. Robin arched a brow in response. "Suppliers skipped town moths ago. That stuff, there's no way to get any," he explained. Robin frowned deeply and tossed the older man to the side. Chang got up to his knees looked up to see that the boy wonder had vanished.

The old fellow reached up and rubbed at his neck… he had to wonder if the boy wonder really had to be so rough with him?

(Titans Tower…)

It was hours later that he made his way back to Titans Tower. He'd tried to follow up on a few other ideas, but those had been busts as well. To tell the truth though, Chang had been his best lead on figuring out X's power source. When that idea fell through it left the boy wonder with little to go on. X's power source would be a key in figuring out how to take the thief down, if only because it'd help him prepare to fight him.

Robin walked into the tower with a frown; with no leads that meant he'd have to start theorizing. He hated to theorize without anything to go on, it made things messy when he encountered the perp again. If he had some kind of an idea of what he was using as a power source he could work on a plan of attack. If the energy source wasn't dangerous, he'd just try and break the buckle on X's suit so he couldn't use it.

If it were dangerous, he'd have to be a lot more careful and try not to overload the suit.

But to do anything like that required he actually know what he was using to power that suit! He gritted his teeth and growled as he walked into the elevator. He roughly pushed the button for the Ops Center and stood back with his arms crossed. He could think of a few things that X could power his suit with, but most of those were dangerous. Magic could work, but he wasn't sure if you could mix it with Technology.

'This is going to be difficult,' he thought to himself. The elevator stopped with a ding and he silently walked into the Ops Center. He'd need to make a list of possible power sources a suit like that could use. Once he had that he'd have to go out and start looking to see if anything needed to make such a power source was stolen from somewhere nearby in X's 'unique' manner of doing so. If so he'd be able to plan for the next time they encountered the thief. If not he'd have to go back to the drawing board.

However, for the time being it would be better if he and the team got in a little extra practice. Their fight against X had been abysmal to say the very least. They were torn apart and mocked by the thief and it grated on him to know how badly they were beaten. X had torn them apart piece by piece with relatively minimal effort on his part and it annoyed Robin to no end!

He paused his thoughts to look around. He spotted BB and Cy playing a videogame but there was no sign of Starfire. Raven he could dismiss by way of her simply being in her room to read, but Starfire rarely, if ever, wasn't our with her friends. "Where's Starfire?" he questioned. Cyborg paused the game he was playing with BB, which looked to have odd mechanical men fighting each other, and turned to his leader.

"She dragged Raven to the 'Mall of Shopping' a while ago," the titanium teen replied with air quotes. Robin rolled his eyes but smiled fondly all the same. Though a warrior at heart, Starfire was surprisingly affectionate. Even to people who didn't want that kind of affection from her. He was pretty sure that Raven didn't complain too loudly about it, but that she did dislike all the hugging. She wasn't touchy feely after all.

He shook his head of such thoughts and marched over to a console. He quickly hit a switch that would contact Raven and Starfire. It was time for the team to do a little training of their own to prepare for when they next encountered X. Specifically; it was time to work on their teamwork. Normally they did well enough, but that last fight had proved to him that they still had a long way to go.

'Slade also tore us apart whenever we fought him together,' he noted to himself. It was humbling to think that Slade was still on a tier above them, even when he was dead. X was also on a tier above them, but he wouldn't allow that to fly. A mad mastermind with the time, experience, and resources to be that tough was one thing, but a thief who stole everything he needed to be better? He wouldn't stand for that!

Still, he exhaled a breath and made his way to the training room. They'd have to work on a few basics and work their way up to advanced stuff. 'We've got trust down… mostly,' he admitted to himself with a sigh. It wasn't the teams' fault either; he and Raven both had trust issues that would always make that part of teamwork difficult at best. But even so he had plans for how they could improve.

'We should focus on reading each others body language,' he decided, 'that way we won't have to verbally communicate mid battle. It'll also increase our response time and if one of us is under mind control we'll recognize the fake,' he noted to himself. He was also kind of irritated that he hadn't thought of that sooner. Although to be fair before X showed up they had only one person who could take them all out so easily.

But then again X lived up to that name he'd inherited. X, which Robin chose for reasons aside from simply being similar to that one comic character, was a variable, a wildcard, a random integer, chaos theory made manifest. When X was applied to the equation it would always be chaotic, and most important, it had no set motive. Robin had used X for that reason. That the new X better lived up to it was mere coincidence.

Well to be honest, it was a coincidence that kind of irritated him in its irony.

When he ran around as Red-X he'd had clear-cut goals for the things he stole. He'd had reasons to go for the targets he did. He had been, unfortunately, very predictable given how Slade had found him out so easily. Though Chang likely spilled the beans as well. The new X had no clear goals or motives for his actions outside a perverse amusement in mocking him and his team. He was a true X-Factor in every way possible.

The boy wonder walked into the training room and stood alongside BB and Cy. The two other male titans talked to one another while Robin considered other ways to work on their teamwork. He couldn't think of much aside from learning more about each other but again, he and Raven had secrets they didn't want to spill. He didn't know Raven's secrets, just that she had them, but he respected that.

'This is going to get annoying,' he admitted to himself. He could, sort of, trust the rest of his team with his secrets. But that would mean trusting them with Batman and Batgirl's secrets as well. He didn't talk to his former mentor much and he didn't want to just call and ask if he'd be cool with it if he blew the whistle on their identities. He also had a feeling the answer would be a resolute 'no' if he did ask.

Still, he needed some way to get this team into shape despite that.

'Wait,' he thought as an idea came to mind, 'why not get someone who's already in the loop?' he considered. He had friends who did know who he really was and who he had worked with before this incarnation of the Titans. 'Roy, Wally, Donna, maybe Garth if he's available,' he considered. Although he and Roy had a somewhat rocky relationship at best, and Garth had been preoccupied with Trident when they met up…

But Wally and Donna were in the clear. His friends hadn't met either of them and him having a previous relation with them wouldn't raise any questions. Speedy and Aqualad were less well known as sidekicks. Kid Flash and Wonder Girl on the other hand were partners to two big name heroes. He could make an excuse that they had met because of their mentors if he even needed to make excuses.

'I should get in contact with them later,' he decided. It'd also level the playing field against X. X might be able to teleport, but a Speedster would have little trouble with that. X was skilled, but he was also a brawler, Donna was a trained Amazonian warrior and she would definitely be superior in terms of sheer strength and with swords. With the two of them on the team X, and most other villains, would be easily taken down.

He looked up a moment later as Starfire and Raven entered into the training room, dressed in their usual 'uniforms'. Although why no one just called them 'costumes' when that was all they were he'd never know. He wore body armor, the red vest he wore was lined with Kevlar, his belt had a plethora of weapons and gadgets, he had a cape, sure, but how many capes could deflect bullets? In short, he did not wear a costume.

Now as for the others… Beast Boy, from what he could tell, wore spandex or something similar. Cyborg, due to his unique prosthetics, wore nothing. Starfire's clothes could pass as civies, albeit made of alien fibers, sans her sparse bits of armor anyways. As for Raven, well… he'd never met any monks that dressed quite like the dark bird, that's for sure. In short, most of his team wore costumes, at least in his opinion they did.

He paused his thoughts as he noticed the looks from his team.

"Alright team," he began only to pause. The doorbell had just rung. The others seemed momentarily confused by the sound.

"We have a doorbell?" Beast Boy questioned. Cyborg silently nodded his head with a frown across his lips. To be honest he'd all but forgotten they even had one. No one outside of the team really came to Titans Tower for the most part. So honestly the doorbell had been a silly addition but a practical one for the sake of pizza delivery… until you factored in how long a delivery would take to get across the bay.

It was easier to just go to the pizza place in the long run.

"Uh… I'll be right back," Robin stated off guard. He walked out of the training room, however the rest of the team followed. Clearly they were curious about who would come to the tower and ring the doorbell none of them had ever noticed. The leader idly glanced back at them and sighed tiredly. He didn't tell them to go back however as he walked to the front door of the tower.

The massive entryway featured a long red carpet and chairs to either side. Robin thought it was all a little over done but Cyborg had been the one to design the tower for the most part. Robin had wanted something subtler than a giant T in the middle of the bay. But this was technically Cyborg's hometown so he got to call the shots on that front. BB, Star, and even Raven hadn't offered much input on the design outside of their own rooms…

Still, the massive double doors were equally pointless. While they were large and certainly imposing they saw so little use that they barely thought about them. They entered and exited the tower, mostly, from the underground tunnel in the T-Car, or with the R-Cycle in Robin's case. This meant that the Front Door could've been painted on and no one would really notice the difference.

In fact, Robin could quite easily count the times they had actually used the front door. Most of the time it was only for mail call or when they wanted to go and practice in the training course they had on the island. The only other times he could think of were in the early days when they hadn't had the T-Car or when they had still thought the front door actually had use… well… times had changed.

Robin opened the doors and looked around. No one was there, but as he looked down he felt a frown tug at his lips. A box was laid on the front stoop with a note on the front of it. Robin knelt down and picked up the message, then flipped it open. His frown quickly transformed into a scowl as he read the message.

Dear Kid, or Cutie, or Green Bean, or Stone-Head, or Hoody

I figured I'd return this since I have a much better suit and don't need it for anything anymore other than collecting dust in some out of the way corner of my pad.

XOXOXO for the Cutie,

Better luck next time for the rest of you, X

Robin growled low in his throat as he balled up the note and tossed it over his shoulder. He ignored Raven as she caught and un-crumpled it behind him while he ripped the box open to find, unsurprisingly, the X-Suit inside. His X-Suit, the original that is, with the belt and everything else still in their proper places. Robin pulled the suit out and quickly started to look for any hidden surprises that the thief might have left on it.

But he found nothing.

No bombs, no bugs, no cameras, nothing at all was out of place. Robin's eye twitched as he realized that X was just further mocking him. Not only was he returning the X-Suit he was saying it was worthless, and by proxy, that Robin was of little threat to him. The leader of the Teen-Titans growled darkly as he gripped the suit tight in his hands. If he had wanted too, he might've even started to rip the suit apart from pure annoyance…

"Well it seems like X has a funny sense of humor," Raven commented dryly. "Hoody, that seems rather uninspired as far as nicknames go," she further remarked. She also had a feeling Starfire was right about X; his nicknames really were the first thing that popped into his head. Cyborg chuckled only to frown as he looked at the name X had given him. He idly raised a hand to his chin and rubbed it with a thoughtful expression.

"Stone Head, why does that seem so familiar," the titanium teen murmured. Beast Boy ignored his friend as he looked at the note.

"Dude, Green Bean, why green bean?" he demanded. Cyborg made a gesture towards the teen and he frowned. "Dude, you just gestured to all of me," he remarked. His friends looked at him blandly and he chuckled as he finally realized what they meant. "Oh right," he tittered softly. Starfire however looked at the note strangely and tilted her head.

"What do the X's and O's mean?" she questioned. Raven sighed and then turned to her bubbly friend.

"Hugs and kisses," she responded. Starfire made an Oh with her mouth and then rolled her eyes. Considering how he had flirted with her the night before, that wasn't terribly surprising. It was clear that the younger X was at least physically attracted to her if nothing else. The older X hadn't seemed to be, but he had been old enough to be her father, so she really shouldn't think of them in the same way.

Though given that they were technically the same person, it was kind of hard to differentiate them at times.

"Please tell me you got him on camera!" Robin growled at Cyborg. The titanium teen blinked and looked around.

"With what camera?" he questioned. Robin stared at his friend incredulously and felt his eye twitch violently. "Dude, this is the front door, I mean seriously who actually comes to our front door?" his friend demanded, "No seriously, no one uses this door to the point I almost forgot we even had it," he admitted with a scratch of his head. Robin grunted in annoyance, but grudgingly admitted to himself that Cyborg had a point. He crossed his arms and scowled deeply.

"Put in a new camera to monitor this door then," he stated, "If X is even half as brazen as I think he is this will become a thing he does a lot," he muttered to himself. Beast Boy hummed for a moment and then shrugged.

"Or he'll leave stuff in increasingly obvious places to mess with us," the green teen offered. The others blinked then stared at him and he looked around with a frown. "What?" he questioned, "Dude I'm a prankster, this is classic prank material and I know how a prankster thinks," he stated with a nod. Robin grunted and palmed his face. Great, now he had to deal with another prankster villain.

As if Duela wasn't horrible enough to deal with when he was sober…

'Note to self, prevent X from meeting Duela by any means necessary barring murder,' he internally decided. It would certainly not be good to have the Joker's daughter in town to mess with him and then team up with an equally unpredictable thief. Hell, he had a feeling Duela would actually enjoy working with X. She was a 'semi hero' occasionally but she was a jokester and prankster at heart. Working with another would appeal to her.

"Right, so keep an eye out for surprises from X," he grumbled and turned to march back into the tower with the X-suit in hand. Cyborg watched the others follow after their leader and started to close the doors. He missed a certain black clad thief hanging above him as he slipped in through the briefly ajar door…

Training had been, well, it had been a chore. Aside from what was typical physical exercises by now, Robin had also wanted them to learn about body language. The theory in that it was learning to see subtle hints of movement to read a person was sound. It was the practical application that had been the problem. Explaining it was easy, teaching it was hard and Robin wasn't sure his methods had worked.

He knew how to read body language, sure, but he'd underestimated the difficulty of teaching others to do so. The Batman, a master detective who had a knack for noticing subtle things, had trained him; Robin had naturally picked up the same traits. The rest of the Titans had no such background; Raven was the only one who had even a slight idea of what they were trying to learn.

So it was a tedious few hours at best and pointless work at worst. Robin had, eventually, realized he'd need to take baby steps with this kind of training. His friends certainly wouldn't be able to pick up such a skill in a day even with his help. So with that in mind he'd finally dismissed them and hurried to his room to brood, or whatever it was that he did when he wasn't with the rest of them.

Beast Boy had gone to the kitchen for a snack, attempting to read others was clearly not something he was well versed in. Despite having excellent senses his mind was always wandering and couldn't seem to focus on the subtle hints people made. Cyborg had gone to work on the T-car with a better understanding than BB. He was better at it but he could easily attribute that to his cybernetic enhancements allowing him an unfair advantage.

Starfire also hadn't faired very well with the lessons, but that was mostly because human and Tamaranean body language were different. She'd said that it was due to them being descended from a species of cat. So of course they had some moderately different reactions to stimuli than a human would. It had been only a temporary surprise that she had thought that out so well. Then again, despite popular opinion Starfire wasn't an idiot.

Raven had made some progress in reading others, more so than BB or Star anyways. Cy had her beat but then again Raven also cheated a bit in the fact that she was an Empath so she could feel emotions. This allowed her an even more unfair advantage than Cy and had irritated Robin. He hadn't considered the vastly different skill sets of his team, their physiology, or mentality, when he'd thought of the idea.

Needless to say it would've made things easier if he had…

Still with the training over, Starfire and Raven silently walked to Raven's room. As they did so something occurred to the dark titan. Starfire had, at least, seen the Red-X in the future fight. She glanced at her red haired teammate and wondered how different the twenty years had made that fight against him. If she judged solely on their previous encounter then Starfire was physically superior to the current X… but…

"So," she began and shifted under her cloak uncomfortably. They passed into her room and she staid in the doorway. Starfire looked to her female friend curiously with a single brow raised, "how much tougher was X in the future?" the dark titan finally questioned. "In comparison to the one we fought that kicked our butts I mean," she added. The alien powerhouse made an oh with her mouth and then sighed.

"From what I have seen of the X of now," she began as she crossed her legs and hovered in midair, "he has very little in the way of martial training. I believe he is a brawler, but has had some directions given to him on how to fight effectively. But as the X of the future was twenty years older he was also more skilled and knowledgeable," the red haired alien powerhouse explained. Raven arched a brow as she walked forward.

"So in laymen's terms?" she asked. Starfire blew a breath into her bangs and closed her eyes as the door behind Raven closed, though she did note it seemed a bit delayed.

"If the X from the future were to do battle with the X from this time, it would be not the contest who would be victorious. While I am certain the X of the now would be a most unpredictable opponent, he would still be disarmed relatively quickly," the girl replied. Raven widened her eyes and then mentally wondered how fast he'd disabled Starfire in their 'spar' if that were the case. Though her friend's wording was a bit odd.

"Disarmed?" she questioned. Starfire grimaced.

"I am meaning that literally," she admitted. Raven felt her eyes bolt open and shuddered in response.

"So he doesn't pull any punches in the future," Raven guessed. Starfire nodded her head and rubbed her biceps.

"From my observations, no he did not," she replied. She then watched as Raven sat on her bed and brought her legs up. The dark titan then looked at her expectantly.

"So you went back to talk at Gizmo's headquarters," she recalled. Starfire idly nodded her head and looked to the ceiling. She took a breath and then nodded as she continued with her story…

(20 years in the future…)

Red-X and Starfire appeared in Tartarus Technologies out of a flash. The flash wasn't from the thief's usual teleport, Starfire knew what that felt like and this had felt easier on her stomach. Whatever it was had been nigh instant however, and they were back where they needed to be. X had taken only a moment to collect the drone from the truck, and inform the guards of Cypher's remains, before he'd brought them back to the Tartarus Technologies building.

X walked passed Starfire and approached Gizmo, while the girl collected herself and followed. Her encounter with Cypher had been… well… her head still felt like someone had lodged something in her skull. It was not a pleasant experience to be certain. Not only did her head hurt, but she also felt like her body was sluggish. She hoped it was normal for people who encountered Cypher, and not that her tamaranean physiology had reacted poorly to the intrusion.

"What the fuck is this shit?" Gizmo demanded. Starfire shook her head and looked to the tiny terror. He had the drone in his hands and was looking it over with a scowl. X was beside him with his arms crossed and shrugged.

"No idea, but whatever they are the Steel Clan were shooting 'em around like fucking RPG's," X remarked candidly. Gizmo grunted in response and tossed the machine onto a white pad, which suddenly lit up.

"Lets see what makes you tick," he murmured. X leaned forward for a better view while Starfire approached them from behind. She then watched a holographic screen appear in midair and the innards of the drone appeared on it. "What the puss spewing hell is this?" Gizmo demanded. He swiftly raised his hand and a holographic keypad formed for him to type on as he examined the innards of the device.

"So you have no idea what this is?" X questioned. That would be bad news. New tech meant a new player was involved and that always made things messy. Gizmo grunted in response as he formed a holographic image of the drone and started to manipulate it with his hands. He mutters under his breath as he does while he pulls the holographic image apart with his hands piece by piece.

"Fucking fuck, why is this shit familiar?" he wondered. He then tossed his hands forward to dismiss the holographic images. "Screw it! I'll look into it later," he declared and then turned to the former thief, "Now about that data-chit?" he remarked. X rolled his eyes and tossed the device he pulled out of Cypher's head to Gizmo. The tiny terror caught it and looked it over curiously.

"Wh-what is that b-being?" Starfire questioned. She also grimaced at the stutter and wondered how long that would last for.

"It's a data-chit, essentially a smaller more modern version of the old hard-drives you'd find in computers back in your time," X replied with a shrug. He then paused and hummed, "It also holds several terabytes of stored memory," he added. Gizmo nodded and then glanced at his computer with a grimace. He then shook his head and turned to the door.

"No, I am so not chancing her fucking ghosts getting in my god damn systems again," he grunted. With that he turned and marched out of the ops center and into the depths of the building. As he did Starfire looked to X for an explanation and he grunted.

"Cypher hacked our systems once… we needed Oracle herself to wipe the system and then restore it afterwards," he admitted. Though to be fair they had actually enjoyed having Oracle around. She was a hot redhead he could quip with while Gizmo shamelessly ogled her. Hell, they didn't even care that she was a paraplegic. Although sadly after Bat-breath finally married her so they didn't really see her much anymore…

'I still say the kid only married her for that reason alone,' he thought grumpily. Though he did know that Oracle and the 'Batman' had a very long history together. They had worked together as Robin and Batgirl after all, long before any of the iterations of the 'Titans' had been formed. Given their long and storied history together, it was little wonder why they had finally tied the knot.

He shook such thoughts from his head and looked to Starfire. He noted how she rubbed her neck and frowned. He quickly went through a few hand signs as he approached the girl and then placed a hand onto the back of her neck. "Wh-what are you…?" she started to question, only for him to interrupt.

"I'm using a technique my people developed, it stimulates cellular growth to encourage rapid healing," he replied. 'Shosen Jutsu, (Mystic Palm Technique,)' he thought as green energy formed over the palm of his hand and seeped into the girl's neck. She shuddered as she felt the eerie sensation of her flesh knitting itself back together. A moment later the masked blond removed his hand and stepped away from the girl.

"There you go all better now," he offered casually. Starfire idly reached back to rub at her neck in surprise; she then looked at him curiously.

"D-does your 'technique' have th-the limit?" she questioned. Naruto nodded his head.

"Severe overuse of the technique actually causes rapid aging," he noted with a tick of his fingers, "it's also useless for major injuries or poisons, though I have separate jutsu for that last one," he continued with another tick and then frowned deeply, "it's also ridiculously hard to use, normally requiring perfect chakra control," he explained. It'd actually taken him the better part of a year to figure out a work around for that last bit.

Basically he shoved as much chakra into it as he was able… which was honestly a lot.

"Anyways," the thief noted as he sat down on the couch. He offered the girl a seat as well but she mutely frowned and then hovered in the air in front of him. She crossed her legs beneath herself while Naruto awkwardly looked away from her. "You wanted to know why I haven't helped Cypher," he noted. Starfire silently nodded her head, eyes narrowed on the thief who let out a sigh of annoyance.

"Well first of all, I have tried to help her," he began. Starfire raised a brow. She found it hard to believe he'd 'tried' all that hard given she was still a captive. "Look I know it sounds sketchy, but Cypher isn't in a good position to be saved," the blond explained and then sighed at the girl's look. Really, he was trying not to explain just how messed up Cypher's situation was, it would likely put the girl on a rampage of epic proportions…

… Or depress her to the point where her powers were useless…

"Okay look, Cypher's brain was removed," the blond explained with a sigh. "Originally I even thought that the Crime Doctor had a hand in it, but he said it was a barbaric bit of surgery and had wanted no part of it. I ended up finding out they went to Doctor Hugo Strange to get it done in the end," he noted with a scowl. If fucking Ras Al'ghul hadn't already killed that fucking prick during the Arkham City incident he would have…

"Anyways," he said with a shake of his head. Getting angry at what Strange did was pointless seeing as he was already dead and what was done was done. "After they took her brain out they dumped the body and put her brain in a cybernetic brain-case," the blond continued. He paused and then glanced at the horrified girl's expression. 'This probably won't make that any better,' he admitted to himself as he continued.

"In case you're wondering, the brain case was co-developed by Tartarus Inc and Wayne Industries, it's designed to plug you directly into the internet and assist with controlling cybernetic limbs, it was actually an offshoot of some tech to help give the paralyzed the ability to walk again," he explained. Said tech had of course been a hit, though when they offered to use it on Oracle she'd vehemently refused. She'd been of the mind that if she had something like that in her spine, someone could hack it to control her legs…

'Not a bad call,' he admitted to himself. More than a few people had had such tech hacked since it first came out, though thankfully newer forms of security was always in development for it. He shook such thoughts away and leaned back, eyes closed as he thought back to Cypher. Specifically the first time he'd tried to save the poor thing from her horrible situation.

"The reason they did this is because the human mind can't normally handle having multiple bodies running around. It just wasn't built for that kind of sensory overload, so they had to modify her brain using the braincase. It lets her comprehend what is going on around her, though I'm of the opinion she tries to block out the other bodies if she's using more than one at any given time," the blond continued then sighed.

"But because she's in a braincase and not some huge system, Cypher is easy to move, but also completely defenseless without a full set of guards watching her," the masked thief continued softly. "The first time I encountered her, I didn't even know she was as bad off as she is, so of course I didn't think to help her. When I did learn what happened my first thought was to save her, but that proved to be difficult," he noted with a frown.

"The first few times, Cypher subtly helped me find her, but every time I got close to getting her out her 'masters' would make a big spectacle of attacking the city or my friends. With some of my abilities this didn't matter but it was enough time to unplug Cypher then escape," he noted with a frown. Starfire shook her head; her breathing was heavy as she tried to wrap her mind around what had happened to the girl.

It was one thing to be held against your will, it was another to be forced to work for those captors, but Cypher had also been mutilated on top of it all. She wasn't just a slave; she was a victim of the most cruel and monstrous sort of villains. The kind of villains that had absolutely no remorse for the horrible things they did. Starfire admitted, if only to herself, that even the Gordanians at their worst were never so cruel…

"S-surely it is not s-so easy to m-move her," she pleaded. Naruto was silent for a moment and then sighed tiredly.

"Her braincase is small enough that it fits inside of a large briefcase," he responded, "they can literally move her whenever they want then just plug her into another wireless interface for those mobile platforms of hers to move around," he remarked tiredly. "Further, when her 'masters' found out she was helping me… well lets just say they made her pay for it," the blond whispered and closed his eyes.

"W-what do you mean?" Starfire questioned softly. Naruto palmed his face and sighed.

"Her braincase was wired different to normal, they literally wired it up so they had direct access to the pain centers of her brain," he explained. He grimaced as he recalled an hour long video of Cypher screaming they had once left for him, having set her up with a voice box for the soul purpose of showing him just how effective it was. After a moment he shook his head to banish those horrible sounds and looked back at the girl.

"Essentially its like they've put a cattle prod directly to her brain," he remarked with a shudder. He then rubbed the back of his neck while the redheaded girl stared at him in a combination of shock and horror. Though to be fair he didn't expect she knew how to react to this. Tamaraneans were all highly emotional beings; they weren't typically logical or pragmatic, although with Blackfire being the obvious exception to the rule.

"D-do you know her n-name?" Starfire asked softly. Naruto blinked and then nodded.

"Before she was Cypher, her name was Willow," he replied softly. Starfire nodded and then began to whisper in Tamaranean. Thanks to Blackfire, Naruto was well versed in the Tamaranean language. His knowledge was partly due to her and he having a very… close… relationship at the time. Though that relationship had soured greatly after he found out her plans for her sister.

Regardless, the blond could understand what the redhead was saying.

Some of the words unfortunately would not translate into English or Japanese well. Naruto knew that a third of the words in the Tamaranean language were basically just meant to express or denote feelings. For example was the word 'Zota' which was used to express the desire or readiness for battle. Given that Tamaraneans were highly emotional, not logical, and the word structure made sense to them.

It roughly translated to: *'I ask that you find peace Willow, and that X'hol watches over you, till your given freedom.'* Again, without the emotional connotations denoted by the other words in the sentence, it wasn't a very good translation. It was also why Starfire talked so strangely, she was directly word for word translating Tamaranean to English. Hence why what she said didn't always make sense.

As she finished Starfire's eyes hardened and she clenched her fists.

"Who are th-these 'm-masters' you spoke of?" she questioned. It was not a calm tone, it was the kind of tone Naruto heard from someone about to go on a manhunt. She was sad, she was angry, and she knew exactly who she wanted to take it out on. With how she'd been a slave herself, her empathy for Cypher was obvious. The masked blond would've even helped the girl on her justified crusade.

However they were distracted when the lights flickered then suddenly powered down.

Naruto frowned. The buildings lights' going out was not normal for a number of reasons. Gizmo had developed his own generator for the building, giving them year round power while also selling a fair bit to the city. Number two, when the lights did occasionally go out it was due to maintenance on the generator, which wasn't very often. Three, the backup generators would've come on by now if something simple had happened.

All that in mind Naruto knew that something was amiss, but it never hurt to be sure. He raised a hand to his earpiece while Starfire looked all around them in surprise. She didn't know as much about this building as Naruto, but even she knew the lights suddenly going out was unusual. She formed a Starbolt in her hand to cast an eerie green glow around the room and noticed that everything seemed to have powered down.

"Hey Giz, did you do something to the generator recently? If not then did Cypher's chit have a ghost in it?" he questioned as he got back onto his feet. He moved around the room to check on a few devices and confirmed it wasn't just the lights, but the entire power grid. "Cause I think the power grid just went offline," he noted aloud. He heard Gizmo swear a few times before he replied.

(No! I'm down in an isolated part of the building and so is her chit,) the tiny terror responded. Naruto hummed in response and walked over to a nearby widow. As he (Have the backup generators come on?) he questioned. Naruto glanced outside and spotted a vehicle above the building, it was quiet, way too quiet for anything but a stealth transport, and it caused the blond to grunt.

"No, but we do got a stealth vehicle heading our way," he replied with a frown. Gizmo grunted on the other end of the line. "Were you expecting company?" Naruto questioned. Gizmo had on very rare occasion had company over without telling him. He doubted this was one of those situations but again, it never hurt to be sure. Gizmo was silent for a moment while Naruto homed in on the vehicle in the air.

(No,) he finally replied. Naruto narrowed his eyes in response.

"Giz, get up here and take the Cutie with you to check on the generator," the blond stated. He idly checked his suits systems to make sure Cypher hadn't slipped any surprises in. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that everything was a-ok with it. 'Great, that means she had a spare body,' he realized and growled. 'I should've known she wouldn't be that easy to deal with,' he internally grumbled.

He felt sorry for Cypher, but she was still fucking annoying to deal with…

(Why do I need to take the bitch with me?) Gizmo demanded.

"Cause I think Cypher is in the system," he replied. Gizmo cursed and slammed a hand down.

(How? I can't find any ghosts on the chit!) Gizmo reminded. Naruto grunted in response.

"She probably had a spare body back with your servers, I'd say when I gave the all clear they reestablished the connection and she broke into our systems… again," the blond responded. Gizmo proceeded to swear quite loudly and violently, while promising swift unyielding vengeance on Cypher. Naruto ignored his friend's rand to glance at Starfire, who looked at him worriedly.

"Th-the Cypher is he-here?" she questioned. Naruto silently nodded his head and cracked his neck.

"Giz focus," the masked blond ordered. The tiny terror continued to grumble angrily but ceased his loud rant. "Now get up here and take the cutie down to the generator, I'ma go greet our uninvited guests," the once-thief ordered his friend. He heard Gizmo grunt his ascent.

(Right… so exactly how much damage am I looking to have to have repaired after this?) the tiny terror deadpanned. Naruto mentally calculated the number of ways he was going to beat their intruders in his head. This was mostly calculated by way of how annoyed Naruto felt at the moment, how many jutsu he was willing to use when annoyed, and how much he really hated the idiots involved in all this…

"Just have a few grand ready," the blond responded casually. Gizmo groaned and Naruto cut the connection to his friend. He looked to Starfire and narrowed his eyes. "Stay here and wait for Giz, he'll probably need help," the blond ordered. The girl made to argue but he placed a hand over her mouth. "No! No arguing, I get that you want to help but I really don't need it," he insisted.

"Gizmo hasn't seen actual field work in over a decade," he noted with a mental frown. He knew Gizmo preferred a more sedate environment, but he really did need to get out more as well. "So if you want to help me, then help keep my friend safe," the masked thief pleaded. Starfire pensively looked at the thief then nodded with a sigh. With that done, he removed his hand from her mouth and nodded his head.

"Good," Naruto noted and turned on his heel, "then I think its high time I show these assholes exactly who they've pissed off…" he stated ominously as he marched out of the Ops Center…

(Roof…)

Cypher 0.3, or rather another of her mobile platforms, sat in the flying stealth transport above the Tartarus Technologies HQ. Her luminescent green optics turned to several men in yellow armor with wooden masks and then to several 'cyborg ninja', finally her optics fell on a cloak, which seemed to hover in midair unaided, hooks and chains dangling from it, and an eerie black mask placed where its face should've been.

Cypher raised her arm and produced a series of holograms. She pointed to the men in yellow armor and pointed to the hallway leading to the Ops Center of the building, where she produced a picture of Red-X. She then pointed at the cloak and motioned 'behind' the men in armor. Finally she pointed to the Cyborg Ninja and motioned to herself, before she pointed at a large section near the bottom of the building.

Their was a collective nod from all but the cloak, which let out a haunting laugh as it surged out of the vehicle like a wraith, moving through the walls of the vehicle and down towards the building. Cypher twitched before she motioned to the door, which opened and they leaped out after the living cloak. She lunged forward and landed in a crouch, followed by the Cyborg Ninja. The men in armor lowered lines to get down.

Cypher paused as she moved her attention to her other mobile platform in Gizmo's R&D facility…

Her other body jerked it's head up as her conscious mind took control. She was knelt in front of the servers, her body having remained there since X and Starfire had left. She idly looked to the side to see a man held up with her off tentacle. He gripped at the tentacle with a pained expression, clearly short of breath. She tilted her head to one side then hurled him to the other side of the room.

She turned back to the servers and continued to hack them for the information they wanted. She attached her off tentacle to another server to hack it, seeking out more data. As her body did the busy work, Cypher allowed her conscious mind to back up and shift to yet another of her mobile platforms. The body in the server room continued with its mission unabated, one of her 'Ghost Programs' having been given control…

Cypher opened her optics once more, this time in a transport truck that was speeding towards the Tartarus Technologies building from ground level. She instantly noticed she was on board with the 'Steel Clan'. She was not fond of the group despite enlisting their aide on a number of her missions. Actually, given the number of them that were cut to pieces that actually made a deranged form of sense.

If she'd liked them, she wouldn't bring them on missions likely to end with them in pieces after all. Her distaste for them probably stemmed from their desire to remove or destroy their organic bodies. Having been forced into her current form, the fools who desired to be as she were, well… she actually didn't have a word for it… and she refused to look up a word on the net, it wasn't worth the effort.

Despite that Cypher held back her annoyance.

She looked to the leader of this group and held out her hand. She formed a holographic map of the Tartarus Technologies building. She pointed at the leader of the Steel Clan and then she pointed to the main doors. Their job was simply to cause mayhem, but the Steel Clan didn't know that. They thought they were going to storm the place and get some new tech for their bodies… idiots.

She'd send them into a firefight with Tartarus' security guards, while her 'allies' up top dealt with X… or at least tried too anyways. None of them were trained to handle a warrior of X's caliber. Further, none of them were equipped to handle even Gizmo, of the strike team up top she wouldn't be surprised, or saddened, if everyone else was lost. She was assured survival by way of being in a braincase and not truly on the field.

Although she had a feeling Masquerade would also survive that encounter. Though granted, Masquerade was a magical ghost; he could basically survive anything short of and potentially including nuclear weapons. He'd been chosen due to X's fear of ghosts, which was rather well known in most circles that dealt with him. Further, Tartarus' Anti-Ghost tech was sorely limited in scope, and Fenton Works had closed down years ago.

Cypher deleted her errant thoughts and returned to the present. Being just a brain seemed to cause her mind to wander more often than not. Getting lost in her thoughts as she had too few other sensations to occupy her attention. It was certainly better than thinking about her situation. Regardless, she had a job to do and the Steel Clan seemed ready to play their part in it. As a distraction sure, but it wasn't like she liked the fools.

She was tortured and butchered to become the thing she was now, the Steel Clan cut their bodies apart willingly. As far as she was concerned, they deserved whatever they got. She set a timer for self-detonation for the platform. Her optics flashed as she allowed her mind to leave the mobile platform and return to her body on Tartarus Tech's rooftop. Her optics flared as she reestablished control of the platform and nodded to the building.

The men in armor hurried forward to the doors. Masquerade, the 'living' cloak gave a haunting laugh as it sank through the floor… or was it a ceiling? Either way, it left and Cypher looked to her 'guards'. The Cyborg Ninja were elite members of the Steel Clan, one clearly female, one clearly male, and one… she wasn't sure. That final one seemed to have eradicated all traces of gender from their frame…

… had she mentioned just how strange the Steel Clan were before? Well if not, then they were strange. Really, really, really strange. Removing a sense of pain… okay she'd like that one, but removing their gender? That just seemed asinine. Sure it was probably for a reason… like… err… maybe to remove sexual desire? Or something… Well whatever reason it was, she was just going to say that one was stupid, or a eunuch if nothing else.

'Never trust a eunuch,' she thought with an internal snicker. That went double with Ninja Eunuchs in her opinion. Ninja were always sneaky, and you didn't trust sneaky people on principle. She swiftly deleted her errant thoughts. Her mind went to such weird places sometimes. She refocused on the mission as she followed the Ninja to the edge of the building and then started to climb down the side of it.

With how X was no doubt ready for them, it was just easier to climb down the walls than it was to try and get passed him. If he didn't go ham and start spamming those 'jutsu' of his, or cut them to bloody pieces with that sword he liked to carry around, then he'd go ahead and just tear them apart limb from limb with his bare hands for well and truly pissing him off. She knew that from personal experience…

(With Naruto…)

Naruto marched forward silently; he cracked his neck as he saw men in yellow armor approach. They opened fire on him as soon as they spotted him and the blond unsheathed his wakizashi to block the bullets. 'Oi, do these amateurs even know who they're shooting at right now?' he wondered to himself. Bullets might work on a lesser Shinobi, but he was by no means a lesser Shinobi.

'Cutie isn't here to complain or get in the way… so no more mister nice guy,' He idly raised his hands and went through several hand seals as he continued to walk forward. 'Ram, Dog, Boar, Hare, Bird, Tiger, Ox, Dog, Rat, Horse, Serpent, Monkey, Ram, Ox, Dragon,' the blond thought as his eyes narrowed. He could've shortened the seals needed, but he wanted to get the point across that you did not fuck with him…

"Fuuton: Fuuryudan no Jutsu! (Wind-Release: Wind Dragon Bullet Technique!)" the blond exclaimed as a dragon of condensed air, which looked to be made of clouds, roared to life and surged forward. The jutsu was at full power, and given his wind-affinity was his strongest and the jutsu was more than enough to tear forward, ripping the hallway and anything else it encountered to pieces.

Several of the armored soldiers spotted it coming and lunged out of the way. Two weren't so lucky as the dragon seemed to tear through them with the full force of a hurricane. Neither man got back up from their injuries and Naruto smirked. 'Alright the rest of 'em should,' he paused with a curse as he blocked more bullets from the remaining soldiers. 'Nani?' he internally demanded.

'Did… did they not just see what I did to their friends?' he demanded incredulously. Usually he didn't need to use more than one jutsu before idiots like that got the message and went away. Still, if they were this stubborn he'd oblige them! With that he held his left hand to his side. 'Giz is going to be pissed… but whatever,' he decided as he formed a violet ball of chakra in his hand, as the ring formed around it he reared his arm back.

"Rasenringu! (Spiraling Fear Wheel!)" he snarled as he hurled the ball forward. It soon hit a wall and exploded outwards, grinding and shredding everything it encountered into dust. The ball managed to catch three of the remaining soldiers in its wake, leaving literally no trace of them behind. It also removed a large section of the hallway, as the blond could now see down a few floors.

'Yikes… probably shouldn't have done that,' the blond admitted to himself. Gizmo was going to start yelling at him for all the damage. He liked his friend when he didn't yell at him for such things. He paused his thoughts as the remaining soldiers started to fire at him once more. He idly raised a brow. 'What the fuck? I just tore the others apart and they still aren't running away?' he wondered in disbelief.

Usually all it took was a Rasenringu and people ran away screaming…

Still if they wanted to piss him off then he'd oblige. He went through several more hand seals. When he finally finished his entire body began to spark with electricity. "Raiton: Raijuu Jutsu! (Lightning Release: Thunder Beast Technique!)" he exclaimed. Instantly the electricity around his body took the vague form of a tiger with twin tails. He crouched forward as the soldiers backed up down the hall.

He surged forward like a living lightning bolt, ripping and tearing through the men's armor with lightning infused claws. He darted from man to man and roared at each. He ended his technique as he slammed the final soldier's head through a wall and paused. The electricity around his body simmered and faded as he did so. He lifted the soldier up and raised a brow. He idly pushed the man's helmet back to see sunken discolored dried up skin.

'What the hell… are they Zombies? Well that'd explain why they didn't run away… they didn't know any better,' the blond internally remarked. Stranger than that however was that he was also wearing an old wooden mask. 'Why does that seem familiar?' he wondered with a scratch of his head. He paused his thoughts when he saw a green ball of energy form from the body and rise up alongside the wooden mask.

'What the hell, hitodama (Human souls)?' Naruto internally demanded as he turned to see more of the balls form where the other soldiers had fallen and more masks form as well. The masks then seemed to surge into the darkness, a brief bout of haunting laughter echoing in the halls. 'Okay… so I have more to deal with than soldiers,' he internally remarked. He swore as he gripped a hooked chain as it tried to wrap around his neck.

He then grunted as the owner of the chain yanked on it and tore him off of his feet. The blond once-shinobi cursed as he was dragged down into the hole he'd made in the floor with the Rasenringu. He grunted as he was slammed into the floor below, and the chain unraveled from around his neck and surged into the darkness. Naruto groaned lightly and got up, a hand held to his head.

"Alright, who's the dead man?" he demanded furiously. He paused when he saw several more hook tipped chains surged at him from the shadows. "Oh shit!" he swore as he ducked under the first then flipped out of the way of the next. He then went into a series of back flips to avoid the remaining chains and came out in a low crouch. He looked to see the chains return to the shadows, and a cloaked figure to appear.

"Alright asshole, just who the fuck do you think you are?" Naruto demanded. He paused however when he saw a wooden mask inside the torn tattered and stitched up cloak, alongside several hook tipped chains… and nothing else. He blinked and then took notice of the subtle luminescent green glow that surrounded the figure. "Oh… so a literal dead man," he murmured then widened his eyes as the figure raised it's hook tipped chains.

Naruto swore as the ghost sent its chains at him, hurling them like whips at the blond once-Shinobi. Naruto leaped and lunged out of the way of the chains. He ducked under one and rolled forward then scurried behind a broken piece of wall for cover. He tried to catch his breath, only to pause at a haunting laugh. He looked up to see the ghost looking down at him… from where it was half phased through the wall to do so.

"Oh that is so cheap!" the blond complained as the ghost knocked him back with a chain. He groaned as he slammed into the far wall with a grunt and made a t shaped seal with his hands. "Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu!" he snarled. Several clones appeared beside him in plumes of smoke and launched forward. The clones maneuvered their bodies around the ghost as it turned to regard them and swung its chains.

The chains lashed out like whips while the clones leaped and dodged around them, then leaped at the ghost. Naruto himself had also gotten up and ran towards the ghost, leaping from back to back on his clones. He leaped the final bit of the way and twisted out of the way of one of the hooked chains as he tried to punch the ghost, however his hand passed through it instead, and it gave a haunting laugh.

Naruto landed on the ground and looked from the ghost to his hand, then scowled. 'Why did it have to be a ghost, I hate ghosts! I can't punch ghosts!' the blond thought as he ducked out of the way of another chain from the specter. His clones moved around to attack from behind, but the ghost turned into a spin, its numerous chains lashed out and ripped and tore threw most of them.

Naruto grimaced as he got their memories of it. Being impaled normally was bad enough, but with hooked chains? 'Urgh, well that just went way up on my list of ways I do not want to die,' he inwardly remarked. With a shake of his head he returned his attention to his clones as they struggled against the ghost. He tried to see any kind of weaknesses it might have, but thus far his clones were being destroyed.

This was mostly due to how the specter was able to phase in and out of existence too fast for any of them to actually harm it. 'Maybe I just need to destroy it so fast that it doesn't have a chance to phase out,' he considered to himself. With an admittedly shaky plan in mind, he quickly formed a rasenringu in his off hand. He then turned to watch the ghost for an opening. He saw one as it lashed out at his final clone.

The blond ducked out and hurled the Rasenringu at the specter then watched it explode.

The rasenringu created yet another massive sphere of destruction where the spirit had been, the blond once-shinobi grinned as it did. "Ha!" he crowed only to pause when he saw several more of the green hitodama form in the air. They spun around in midair, causing cloth and metal shards, and wooden splinters to form in midair. The bits and pieces were then pulled inward to reform the ghost.

It hovered in midair, it's ghastly green aura flaring brightly while horrible crimson eyes burned within its mask. It seemed to shoot him an amused look when it finished and he twitched. 'Of fucking course it couldn't be that easy,' he thought with a scowl. He then watched as several familiar wooden masks formed around the creature, they spun around its body for a moment before they shot out all over the room.

Naruto blinked and looked to each of them with a raised brow.

'What new hell is this?' he wondered. He then swore as the masks cracked in half, which formed demented 'grins' across their surfaces, and proceeded to fire neon green beams of energy at him from said mouths. He leaped out of the way of the first few beams, and then poured on the speed. He seemed to blur around the room as he avoided the beams. However that simply caused the ghost to fire his beams even faster.

Naruto swore as he heard Gizmo message him while he was avoiding the beams of green ghostly energy. He raised a hand to his ear as he came to a stop. "What is it Gizmo?!" he demanded then continued to evade the beams of energy. "I'm kinda busy right now!" he snarled at his friend. He then leaped over a hook tipped chain as the ghost lashed at him with it low to the ground.

(What the fuck are you doing up there?! I can hear the explosions from down here!) Gizmo snarled in response. Naruto grunted as he ducked another chain then flipped back from a beam of energy. 'This is ridiculous!' the blond thought to himself. How was he supposed to fight a fucking ghost?! He couldn't even touch them! Not to mention that Dani was off to who the fuck knows where right now.

"Giz I'm dealing with a fucking ghost is what I'm doing!" the blond responded as he formed a mini-rasenringu in his hand. They were useful for hitting targets precisely with the least amount of damage. Naruto just hoped they'd work on the fucked up masks that were shooting at him with ghost energy.

(A ghost? Anyone we know?) the Tiny Terror questioned. Naruto grunted in response as he cartwheeled out of the way of a chain and ghost-ray combo. He flipped out of his cartwheel to avoid another ecto-ray and landed on all fours. He sucked in a breath through his teeth and then hurled his mini-rasenringu at one of the masks on the walls. It exploded against one of the masks and reduced it to dust.

"Ha!" he crowed only to pause as the mask reformed a second later and the ghost looked at him with amusement… "Oh you cheap ass bastard!" the blond acused. He then yelped as a chain wrapped around his leg and lifted him up then slammed down into the ground, leaving a crater in his wake. "I hate ghosts so much…" he muttered under his breath. He then raised his hand to his ear to reply to Gizmo.

"He has a mask… cloak… chains… kind of dick thus far," the blond remarked blandly.

(Huh… sounds like Masquerade,) Gizmo noted after a beat. Naruto grunted in response then swore as a chain wrapped around his neck and yanked him back. He gripped the chain as he was dragged around the room. He then dug his heels into the ground and gripped the chain with a furious snarl.

"Alright no more of this chain swinging bullshit!" the blond grit out as he formed a ball of violet energy into his hand. "RASENGAN! (Spiraling Sphere!)" he roared as he slammed the ball of energy into the chain. It snapped the chain where it hit and the blond looked at 'Masquerade' with narrowed eyes. However he twitched violently when he saw the chain reform as well… he then proceeded to yell every curse he knew at the ghost…

(Elsewhere…)

Gizmo felt the ground shake beneath his boots and explosions sound in the distance. Given that Tempest was currently having problems with Masquerade and it was painfully obvious the blond wasn't causing them. 'Well I owe him an apology later…' he briefly considered then scoffed, 'nah, he'd get a big head if I did,' he decided with a nod. He paused his thoughts as he felt still more explosions sound.

"What the fuck is happening out there?" he demanded. He and Starfire were heading through the building. Gizmo on foot alongside the tamaranean, he wondered why she wasn't flying for only a moment before he realized she probably couldn't right now. His info on Tamaraneans said they needed to experience 'the joy of flight' to fly, which felt like some kind of Peter Pan bull shit to him.

Still, that likely meant the mess with Cypher had her all torn up… he plainly didn't care.

'Bitch better not slow me down,' he thought as they turned a corner. He then paused those thoughts as another explosion sounded and grit his teeth. "Alright that is fucking it!" he snarled and raised his hand to his left arm. He started to rapidly type on a mobile he carried with him and pulled up his security chief's number. He swiftly dialed it and waited for it to connect.

A moment later the man's face appeared on a holographic screen. Unfortunately he wasn't alone; the man seemed to be with several other guards at the front door. From what little Gizmo could see they were fighting a bunch of Steel Clan cyborgs. Normally this wouldn't be much of a problem, but with the power out their security systems were down as well, meaning the guards were on their own with whatever weapons they had.

(Boss we have some problems down here,) the security chief remarked then ducked as a blaster bolt passed over his head. He turned and returned fire, which amused Gizmo to see as the Cyborg in question literally lose his head a moment later, while the man turned back to Gizmo. (We have Steel Clan sending out explosive drones all over the building, which is making evacuation next to impossible,) he swiftly explained.

The man paused to knock the butt of his riffle against a cyborg's face, then pulled a taser from his side and jabbed it into the Steel Clan's neck. The cyborg screamed in pain before the security chief kicked him to the side and turned back to Gizmo. Gizmo himself internally made a note to raise the man's pay, he was worth every scent. (Would it be too much trouble to ask for Red-X to make an intervention?) the chief questioned through labored breathes. Gizmo grunted in response.

"He's busy fighting a ghost upstairs," the tiny terror replied. The security chief grimaced.

(Who is it?) he questioned with a look of dread.

"Masquerade," Gizmo replied. The chief breathed a relieved sigh.

(Oh thank god, I was afraid it was one of the old Amity Park ghosts,) he muttered, (I had more than enough of them back during my glory days in high school,) he remarked. Gizmo didn't both to ask, already knowing that the man had lived in Amity Park prior to coming into his employ.

"Whatever Baxter, just keep those assholes off my back while I get to the generator and get the security back online," he ordered. The blond security chief raised his hand in salute and then yelped as several cyborgs dog piled on him. He returned fire while Gizmo cut the feed and scowled. "Mother fucking Steel Clan bastards!" he roared and then shot a look at Starfire when she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"W-will he be the alr-right?" she questioned. Gizmo briefly wondered why the girl didn't have subtitles then roughly brushed her hand from his shoulder.

"Baxter 'ill be fine, I hired him cause he can take a fucking hit better than most," Gizmo admitted. Which was the honest truth, well that and Baxter had more experience with Ghosts than just about anyone else he could find. In an age were Ghosts were known to exist, that kind of experience was well received. Although he did wonder why Dani had found it so hilarious that Gizmo, who was a bald midget genius, got to boss him around…

… he'd wonder about that later.

"Sh-should we not h-help the R-red-X? He s-seemed to be in the tr-trouble," Starfire remarked. Gizmo grunted in response. Sure X had kind of been in trouble but he'd be fine when he remembered he had a Specter Deflector and Ghost Gauntlets built into his suit… wait… did he ever mention he'd installed those? 'Oh crap, with how little we deal with ghosts I forgot to tell him about 'em,' Gizmo admitted as he palmed his face.

He'd really dropped the ball this time…

He raised his hand and dialed Naruto on his mobile, but paused as they turned another corner. He and Starfire spotted several Steel Clan cyborgs at an elevator. They glanced to one another and then ducked out of the way as the Steel Clan opened fire on them. Starfire grunted and formed a Starbolt in her hand while Gizmo looked at his palm-top with an impatient snarl.

'Pick up Temp, I don't have time to wait around,' he thought with a glance at Starfire. The red head was hurling starbolts down the hall at the Steel Clan where they exploded in the distance. 'Ugh… well… I guess I get to renovate the building,' Gizmo inwardly remarked with a flat look. He then paused as he considered a few modifications he'd actually wanted to make to the building for a while now…

(What the fuck is going on out there Giz?) Naruto demanded from the other end of the line. (I'm hearing a lot of explosions and I know for a fact they're not from this asshole ghost or me!) the thief exclaimed. Gizmo grunted in response and muttered to himself. Naruto honestly worried too much. He'd been through a lot over the years, just like the blond Shinobi after all.

"Temp shut up and do as I say," Gizmo stated flatly, "Turn your buckle counter clockwise and press the buttons on the side, then turn your bracelets to the plates with the green bands," he ordered. He then leaped from cover and fired a series of rockets from his backpack at the Steel Clan. As he did the cyborgs ducked out of the way and Starfire leaped out and hurled more Starbolts at them as they came out.

(Uh Giz, why am I suddenly Green-X?) Naruto questioned in confusion. Gizmo ignored him for a moment as he leaped to Starfire's side as the Steel Clan returned fire on them. The Tiny Terror swiftly started to type on his mobile and created a force field from his backpack around them both. The field took the brunt of shots from the Steel Clan before Starfire ran forward with Gizmo.

"Your green because your suit is using Ectoplasm right now instead of chakra," he replied as he and Starfire split up. The tiny terror disabled the shield and unlocked his Spider Legs from his backpack. He then twisted around a shot from a cyborg, and then knocked him to the ground with one of his legs. The tiny terror then leaped up with his spider legs and stab ed them down into the cyborg's back with a laugh.

(Why?) Naruto questioned slowly. However Gizmo wasn't able to answer as he was shot at from the side. With a growl the tiny terror unlocked a taser line from his wrist and fired it at the cyborg. The steel clan flunkie started to spasm as he was charged with over a thousand volts of electricity then fell over. 'Really need better surge protectors,' Gizmo noted to himself as he rewound his taser into his wrist.

As Gizmo dealt with a cyborg Starfire ducked into a sweeping kick to the next and then slammed her fist into the cyborg's face. He fell over as another took aim and fired at her, but she ducked out of the way and then lunged forward. She formed a Starbolt in her hand and tossed it into the face of the next cyborg before she grabbed him and literally shoved him through the doors of the elevator where he fell down the empty shaft.

The tamaranean powerhouse then brushed her hands off. Gizmo grunted as he placed himself back to the ground and glanced around. 'All clear,' he noted to himself. With the Steel clan dealt with, Gizmo breathed a relieved sigh and raised his hand to his ear. Starfire approached from the side and looked at him curiously, but the tiny terror just glared at her in response.

"It's to power a Specter Deflector and Ghost Gauntlets I lifted from the ruins of Fenton Works," he finally replied after a beat. He then smirked when he heard a sound like something getting punched, and Naruto started to howl with mad laughter. He sometimes wondered why his friend was so amused with the simplest things. Then again he was getting to punch a ghost, what wasn't there to love about that?

(Oh ho ho wha ha ha ha! Now it's on asshole!) the once-shinobi crowed. Gizmo rolled his eyes and cut the connection after that while Starifre looked at him curiously.

"Is the R-red-X alright?" she questioned. Gizmo snorted.

"Better than alright, he's getting to punch a ghost," he responded. Starfire raised a brow.

"The gh-ghost?" she muttered under her breath. "Is that n-not being the spirit of the de-deceased?" she questioned, she also frowned as the stutter was beginning to annoy her.

"Yeah, so?" Gizmo responded plainly.

"Do n-not the d-dead normally st-stay dead?" she replied in a questioning tone. Gizmo stared at her for a long while and then shook his head. He'd actually forgotten that in Starfire's time, dead people didn't tend to get back up from being dead. Meanwhile he and the rest of Tartarus had dealt with people coming back from the dead so often that they were desensitized to it ages ago…

… he honestly envied the girl's naivety right now.

"I wish," he muttered under his breath then glanced at her. "Sides, how many people have you seen die," he replied. Starfire shot him a flat look in response.

"M-more than I care to admit," she muttered then frowned at Gizmo's sudden look, "Wh-when I first arrived on th-this w-world, my f-friends and I d-disabled many of the Gordanians. The G-gordanians have suicide ch-chips in their b-bodies that activate when th-they are f-falling unc-conscious," she replied bluntly. Gizmo openly stared at her as she then crossed her arms. Gizmo blinked in response.

"No shit?" he questioned. The girl rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Well fuck… I didn't expect that," he admitted to himself then frowned, "Wait… did the other Titans know about that?" he questioned. Starfire grimaced in response and rubbed her biceps nervously.

"N-no, I am believing that th-they thought the Gor-d-danians were te-teleporting away to an-nother ship," she admitted. Which wasn't a completely off basis idea… but then they had to factor in the fact the Gordanians ship had been the only one in the area, not to mention it was grounded so they had nowhere to teleport too, especially since transmats typically had a limit on how far they could reach.

Earth was simply too far from the Citadel for them to be transmitted that far. Not to mention those had been Gordanian Soldiers, who were all implanted with a chip, which disintegrated their bodies when they fell unconscious. It was a precaution taken by their people to prevent them from being interrogated… it was also why no one had thought to retrieve her until Blackfire 'visited' the earth; they likely thought she was dead as well.

(Present…)

Raven openly gaped at the alien. She hadn't actually thought about it since they first met Starfire, but the Gordanians hadn't really tried to recapture the girl. Given she was a 'prize' and they should've at least made a token attempted to reclaim her. Instead they had been oddly silent and no one save for Blackfire had bothered to visit her. Still, the fact remained that that meant they had literally slaughtered an entire ship worth of aliens while protecting Starfire and the city…

"We killed all those Gordanians!?" she demanded softly. Starfire blinked and then arched a brow and tilted her head.

"Technically they were committing the suicide," Starfire noted. Raven palmed her face.

"Did we or did we not directly cause the Gordanians to disintegrate?" she questioned firmly. Starfire rolled her eyes in response.

"Yes," she replied bluntly, not bothering to try and soften the blow for the younger girl, "and also stole their ship to build our tower," she remarked with a glance around. Raven twitched at the tidbit, as she hadn't considered that either. 'Not only did we murder dozens of people, but apparently we robbed them too… great, dad would be so proud,' she thought sarcastically. She then shook her head and then narrowed her eyes.

"Why didn't you tell us?" she demanded hotly. Her eyes flared red before she took several deep-calming breaths. Starfire seemed genuinely confused by this as she looked at Raven askance.

"Did you never wonder where all the bodies went too?" she remarked. Raven had, but she had also simply assumed a teleport was involved, and that the Green Lantern had moved the remaining Gordanians on the ship or else they were taken by Hawk Girl… 'Although with the Thanagarian Gordanian war that'd be a death sentence all its own,' she admitted to herself while Starfire looked at her with a sigh.

"Bodies do not normally vanish like they did friend, and transmats have a limited range which we were well outside of for them to reach the Citadel. Further, those were all lesser Gordanian soldiers, relegated to guard duty and the transport of criminals and slaves. The Citadel does not care if they die, they merely add the suicide-chip to prevent them from being captured and interrogated for secrets," she explained with a shrug.

Raven openly stared at the girl; this was honestly a side of her she didn't see very often. She knew at the back of her mind that Starfire was from a warrior people, but it never registered that meant she had a very different mindset when it came to life and death. "D-don't you feel the least bit sorry?" she questioned slowly. Starfire's eyes narrowed.

"Friend Raven, how long do you think I was held by them?" she questioned. Raven blinked and then thought back to when they first met. The girl had been dressed in a style more akin to what Blackfire wore, but she had also seemed… well…

"I don't really know," she admitted after a beat. Starfire inhaled through her nose and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Then I shall tell you," she stated and closed her eyes, "I was twelve of your years old when I was first taken, I had just completed my training with the warlords of Okaara," she noted and saw a question on Raven's face. "It is a tradition for my family, we are sent to train with the warlords at a young age, Blackfire was with me," she admitted and then grimaced as she recalled training with her sister… it had not been fun.

'I always was the better fighter,' she recalled her sister saying back when she visited them. It was true as well, but only because Blackfire was a ruthless fighter who showed no mercy even to her sibling. She would win by any means necessary, which included petty tricks and outright cheating. Judging simply by the way she had behaved when she visited them, Starfire was certain that Blackfire had not changed since then.

"Wait," Raven murmured and openly stared at the redhead, "you weren't even twelve when they trained you to fight?" she demanded incredulously. Raven was from Azarath, which was a land of true peace and the people there were true pacifists. Raven was actually by far the closest thing they had to a 'rebel' in terms of how she thought. Starfire blinked and then tilted her head.

"Yes… is that really so strange?" she questioned. On her world it was common to receive training much earlier. In fact her canorfka Galfore had technically started her training at a much younger age, albeit he focused on the natural abilities of all Tamaraneans, referred to collectively by her people as the 'Gift of X'hol' of which Blackfire lacked. It was only by way of her armor that the dark haired tamaranean could even use her powers.

"I just never thought you were a fully trained warrior," Raven admitted. Starfire blinked in response and then snorted. She then brought a hand to her mouth to cover a giggle.

"Friend I was not and still am not fully trained," she remarked with a shake of her head. "No amount of training makes a warrior, it is the experience that is the true mark of the warrior," she stated sagely. "I was trained due to the traditions of my family line, most Tamaraneans do not receive the wisdom of the Warlords of Okaara," she explained. Raven wondered what the difference was, but decided not to ask.

'I'm kind of afraid of what else I'll find out about her,' she admitted to herself. She then shifted on her spot and cleared her throat. "So you were telling me how long you were taken captive," Raven remarked. She then saw Starfire's face twitch and her eyes close. Raven didn't need to be an empath to realize she'd said something wrong. "Uh… what did I say?" the dark bird questioned slowly. Starfire sighed in response.

"I once told you friend, that I was not prisoner, I was prize," she reminded. "When the Gordanians attacked Tamaran the did so without warning, the bombarded my world from orbit rather than try to fight us where we would have the advantage. My people are not technologically advanced so they made quick work of us. In an effort to stem the carnage my father was forced to surrender to the Gordanians," she explained.

"In exchange for leaving Tamaran in peace, the Gordanians demanded he and all the other kings of Tamaran give up their first born daughters to them," she explained. Raven openly stared at the girl and then sat back.

"But Blackfire is," she muttered. Starfire sighed.

"Blackfire was off world at the time, exploring the galaxy as you likely recall," she explained, Raven did recall that. She'd spent enough time listening to her gush about it when she visited after all. "As such I was taken by the Gordanians, and I have not seen the rest of my family since," the alien powerhouse murmured as she lowered her head and then clenched her fists at her sides.

"I was held for five years, but I am more sorry for the others that were taken. They were all much older than I was at the time, and you can likely imagine the sort of things that were done to them. As for myself, I was put through hard labor until I came of age, at which point they planned to do unspeakable things to me," she continued and then smiled, "until I escaped to Earth and met all of you of course," she remarked.

Raven just winced and looked away. Though a small part of her admitted that it explained a lot about her friends 'naivety'. Such as how Starfire was clueless about the tamaranean 'transformation', which acted almost like puberty for their species. She hadn't really grown up with other Tamaraneans so wouldn't know what to expect from it. She knew of it, but not what it really entailed.

Further, it explained why she didn't really talk about herself. She talked about Tamaran in general, her people's culture and traditions, but not once had Starfire volunteered any kind of personal information about herself. It also explained why she seemed so worried for Cypher despite not really knowing her; she could understand her in a way that none of them possibly could. Raven shook such thoughts off and looked back to her friend.

"So that would be why you were so empathetic to Cypher," Raven also realized. Starfire mutely nodded her head and looked to the side. She rubbed her bicep for a moment and breathed out a sigh.

"I cherish my freedom friend and the freedom of others, if ever I was forced, it is the one thing I would kill for," she admitted. "But I wish no longer to dwell on such depressing thoughts, I have left what happened to me in the past. I would much rather focus on the now and the future instead," the girl explained and smiled brightly. "I have good friends and a wonderful home here after all, why should I think of such badness?" she remarked with a tilt of her head.

Raven just stared at the girl for a moment then looked down. After a beat she looked back up to the older girl. "So you were dealing with the Steel Clan in Gizmo's building," she recalled. Starfire nodded and returned to her story…

(20 years in the future…)

"Right… why are you suddenly hotter?" Gizmo wondered with a scratch of his head. A bemused look crossed Starfire's face while the tiny terror turned with a wave of his hand. "Whatever, we still need to get to the generator," he stated. The alien powerhouse nodded her head in response while Gizmo looked down the elevator shaft. He looked up to see that the car had been cut off so they'd need to drop down to get to the generator…

"It is b-being down there y-yes?" she questioned. Gizmo nodded his head.

"Lets drop," he remarked with a sigh. He leaped into the shaft with his spider-legs, followed by the redheaded alien. Starfire fell swiftly then grunted as Gizmo grabbed her with his spider-legs at the appropriate floor. "Here we are," he started and Starfire nodded her head.

"Allow m-me to open the d-door," she offered. She then gripped the doors of the elevator and ripped them open. She then saw a long hallway leading to a massive machine at the end from which a light dimly lit up the room. The machine was sparking wildly and a familiar figure was standing at a console in front of it. "Th-the Cypher!" Starfire declared. Gizmo scowled and then launched himself into the hall and dropped the girl.

"You are so dead bitch!" Gizmo snarled as he leaped at Cypher. However he yelped as a seemingly invisible sword-wielding assailant cut off one of his spider-legs. 'Oh hell nah, I only let one ninja in my place!' the tiny terror thought and reached for his goggles and turned them to thermal. 'Please be anything but Thermoptics or Octo-camo,' he mentally pleaded. He then grinned as he spotted a bright white figure with his goggles.

"Ha! Pay dirt baby!" he exclaimed and then rapidly typed on his mobile. He fired several projectiles from his backpack that soared around and attached to two figures. Both sparked and became visible as a result. "Bitch that one is yours!" Gizmo shouted with a nudge to the female cyborg. Starfire didn't need further instruction before she lunged at the sword wielding mecha-femme.

Starfire ducked under a swing from the cyborg woman that was aimed at her neck. She turned only to hiss in pain as the cyborg turned swiftly to cut her across the back. With narrowed eyes the tamaranean powerhouse formed a starbolt in both hands. Her assailant crouched back and then lunged forward with another swing. Starfire ducked to the side to avoid a stab from the blade and slammed a starbolt into the cyborgs back.

She was knocked to the side, only to duck into a cartwheel and landed in a low crouch. The Cyborg then twirled her sword and lunged at Starfire once more. She rapidly swung her sword at the redhead, who hissed and grimaced as the cyborg managed to cut her skin a few times. She then shook her head and then knocked the sword to the side and then slammed a Starbolt into the side of her face.

The cyborg stumbled to the side and Starfire leaped into a kick to her head, which knocked her down. The cyborg sluggishly tried to get up but Starfire brought her heel down on her head to hopefully knock her out. The redhead breathed a relieved sigh when the mech-femme didn't get up and instead looked to Cypher…

Meanwhile, Gizmo dodged around the other Cyborg Ninja. He leaped over it with his spiderlegs and cursed as the ninja cut off another of them. 'God dammit those are fucking expensive!' he mentally snarled. He stumbled on his remaining spider-legs for a moment, then placed his feet on the ground and used them to block the ninja's sword as he lunged at him. The legs were slowly cut down until only a pair of stumps remained.

Gizmo cursed under his breath and ducked out of the way as the ninja slashed at him. He dropped a cube onto the floor and then smirked as it exploded into a bright flash of light. The ninja didn't seem bothered by the light or as several more Gizmo's appeared. The ninja just tapped the side of his head and then leaped up and lunged at the real one. Gizmo himself gave a scream as the ninja bared down on him.

Thankfully, Starfire intervened.

While the redhead didn't like Gizmo, she wouldn't just watch him die. She lunged at the ninja from the side and rammed her shoulder into him. He was sent skidding to the side while the girl formed her starbolts into her hands. The ninja flipped back onto his feet and lunged at her. The orange skinned girl dodged a swing of the man's sword and then pushed a Starbolt into his sternum that sent him flying high into the air.

Starfire then started to lob starbolts at the ninja with a roar. The Ninja turned in midair to weave around several of the starbolts and then hurled his sword at the girl. Starfire moved to the side, but hissed as the blade cut through her left side. She brought a hand to the wound as it spilled purple blood and growled darkly. The ninja landed on the ground on his feet and lunged at Starfire to retrieve his sword.

However the girl snarled, her eyes gave off a bright luminescent green glow as she formed a massive starbolt into her hands. As she did the ninja formed several shuriken into his hand and made to throw them at her, however paused and shook as Gizmo fired a taser at him from behind. The tiny terror then laughed and ducked out of the way as Starfire hurled her starbolt at him.

The bolt of green energy slammed into the ninja and exploded. The force of the explosion sent him flying back into the far wall. Starfire then grabbed his sword, flipped it up into her hand and hurled it at the ninja. It shot at him and stabbed him through the shoulder, pinning him to the wall and causing him to spark wildly. Starfire waited for the ninja to get back up and attack again, but he thankfully remained pinned.

Starfire breathed a relieved sigh at that and turned to Gizmo with a hand to her injured side. She noticed the tiny terror was heading for Cypher and followed after him, however she turned at a sound and found Red-X and a third ninja. The masked thief had blocked a sword aimed at her head with both hands. He narrowed his eyes on the ninja, which had no visible gender, and snapped his sword with his hands.

The thief then stabbed the shard of sword it into the cyborg's neck before he slammed a Rasengan into its sternum and sent it flying back into a wall. It shook and sparked wildly as the ball of swirling energy didn't stop however as it eventually ground through the cyborg's sternum and left a large hole in its torso. Naruto silently cracked his neck after that and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Fucking ninja wannabes," he muttered with a shake of his head, "bad enough I had to deal with a kami damned ghost that ran away just when I started winning, but I find out we've got fucking ninja wannabes running around as well?" he grumbled then threw his hands into the air, "Fuck my life I hate this shit!" he exclaimed. He then inhaled a breath and exhaled out a sigh. He then shook his head and glanced at Starfire.

"You okay there cutie?" he questioned. The girl silently nodded her head, though wondered about the ball of light he'd hit the ninja with. "Good, then lets get Giz and deal with Cypher," he noted with a nod to the side. Starfire nodded in agreement and they went to join with Gizmo. The tiny terror muttered as he marched towards Cypher, he paused only to glare at Naruto and Starfire, and then continued onwards.

They walked together as they approached Cypher from behind. Naruto was the first to approach and tapped her side, which caused her body to fall over. Her arms still moved as if she was typing on a console and Naruto felt his eye twitch in irritation. "What the fuck, did she run away too!?" he demanded. Gizmo grunted in response as he hopped to work on the console to get their power back online.

"Fucking fuckity fuck fuck fuck," Gizmo muttered as he worked. Naruto dropped down by Cypher and then quickly pried open the back of her head, only to scowl. The mass of wires and bits of tech he could see inside were completely different to what'd been inside the other Cypher. That meant only one thing and it irritated the hell out of the thief.

"It's a fucking drone," he noted. Gizmo grunted in response and continued to work.

"Th-then the Cypher was n-not really here?" Starfire questioned in clear confusion. Naruto grunted in response and shoved the drone to the side.

"No she was definitely here, but she got what she wanted and left these others behind to distract us while she escaped," he replied with a scowl. He then shook his head and walked over to the girl to use the Shosen jutsu on her for her injuries. As he did Gizmo chuckled as the power suddenly came back on, fully lighting up the otherwise dimly lit room. Starfire glanced around for a moment then watched Gizmo sigh in relief.

"The powers back online, the security is hopefully dealing with whatever few assholes are still around," he muttered then raised a hand. He formed a holographic display and started to type on a few buttons. "I'm gonna have to wipe the entire fucking system to get rid of Cypher's ghosts after this, I just know it," he grumbled irritably. Naruto shook his head in response as he finished patching up Starfire. He then patted her shoulder gently.

"Better?" he questioned. The girl silently nodded her head. "Good," the man responded and looked to his friend. "Giz I'm taking the cutie to find a change of clothes and get cleaned up," he stated. Gizmo waved him off.

"Whatever Temp, I'm busy," he remarked distractedly. Naruto smirked.

"Right, just be sure to check around for whatever Cypher lifted from us while we're gone," he ordered. Gizmo raised a hand to flip the bird at his friend and Naruto shook his head. He then turned to Starfire and placed a hand on her shoulder. "C'mon, lets get you cleaned up," he offered. Starfire glanced down at herself with a grimace and nodded in agreement. Between several days in the same clothes and all the sweat and blood she was covered in, she'd be grateful for a shower…

(Later…)

Naruto idly sifted through the clothes in his closet as Starfire showered in his bathroom. On normal circumstances it'd be weird that he had women's clothes in his closet, but truth be told most of them belonged to former girlfriends. Some from Raven, some from Blackfire, and oddly enough even some from Duela. Despite the fact he and Duela had never gone beyond flirting… she'd still decided to dump some of her old clothes in his closet, he swore she only did it to mess with him.

'I will never understand that girl,' he admitted to himself with a shake of his head. He hadn't seen the crazed clown in a little over five years actually. The last time they had worked together Duela had been oddly… quiet, not too long after that she'd just seized up and gone immobile. He'd taken her to a hospital but she hadn't moved in all the time she'd been there, essentially being comatose.

'I hope she's okay,' Naruto admitted to himself. While they were only friends he did care for the crazy redhead's safety. He also admitted she'd helped him deal with a few of his issues over the years, mostly the death and then rebirth of Raven which screwed with his head something fierce at the time. He shook his head of such thoughts and focused on finding something for Starfire to wear.

He mainly stuck with Blackfire's old threads since he knew she was roughly the same size as her older sister. 'Although Blackie did fill out a bit more in the long run,' the blond admitted to himself. He knew this from personal and intimate experience. Thankfully Blackfire's clothes were all essentially one size fits all. He shook his head of such thoughts and frowned as he went back to looking through Blackfire's old clothes.

She of course favored black and even white for some reason, with a few shades of grey and blue thrown in. The extremely rare few purple clothes that she had were from when she was going through a phase. Naruto remembered that Blackfire had heard that purple was the color of royalty on Earth and so, being a queen, she thought it'd make her look more royal or something if she wore purple instead of black.

Needless to say, the phase passed relatively quickly, but she'd left a few purple clothes with him as a result. Unfortunately, by that point Blackfire was also experimenting with her look in the extreme. She'd gone from the simple outfit of the past to one with pants and spiked armor, one that was literally nothing but a cape and skin-tight curve-hugging body suit, one that was made of chitin, and a few that were just bizarre in his opinion.

'I'll give Blackie this, she was really open to experimenting,' the blond inwardly noted and snickered to himself, 'in more ways than one,' he mused. He then shook his head to rid him of such thoughts. He and Blackie hadn't really parted on the best of terms, in his opinion anyway. She'd actually been genuinely hurt that he dumped her; it wasn't something he was used too from her either…

But in his defense, he'd left her because the girl had done some pretty horrible things.

He paused his thoughts as he found a few purple clothes that'd suit Starfire. He checked around but frowned when he couldn't find any skirts or pants for the outfit in question. 'Of course Blackie wouldn't have any of those in purple,' he inwardly remarked. Then again Tamaraneans were extremely comfortable in their skin. Hell, he'd seen a few who wore next to nothing without a care in the world…

He was so retiring to tamaran some day.

He shook his head of such thoughts and walked out of his closet with the bundle of clothes, though grabbed some long purple boots on his way out. As he walked out he idly noted that the sound of the shower had ceased, so Starfire would likely be out soon. That gave the thief a moment to pause as he wondered something, 'Did Kara-Chan ever explain to her that she shouldn't walk around in the nude?'

He only wondered because Tamaraneans had communal bathing and saw one another in the nude all the time. They literally had no nudity taboo and he wondered if that had ever been a problem. If so then hopefully Raven had explained it well, or at least told her not to walk around in the buff. If she hadn't then… well it wasn't like Blackfire hadn't done the same thing all the damn time.

Then again Blackfire had shared numerous showers and bathes with him without anything perverted being involved. She was literally unaware that it wasn't normal to openly bathe together like that. Despite being more mature than Starfire, Blackfire was still a Tamaranean. She hid her confusion on some subjects better than Starfire, but she had occasionally asked him why Earthlings did certain things.

Idly the blond checked around to make sure he'd put away all of his photos. Cute as Starfire was, he wasn't about to blow his secret identity to her before she'd eventually met him in the past. It was probably the only reason he'd worn his suit as long as he had, though admittedly he'd had a few moments to breathe. Starfire passing out had been the last time he'd taken the suit off.

He paused his thoughts as he noticed a message from Gizmo.

"Talk to me," he stated with his fingers pressed to his earpiece.

(I've shut off the computers Temp, we have Ghosts out the wazoo and I'll need some help to clean 'em,) the tiny terror admitted. Naruto frowned in response, although that at least gave them an excuse to call on Oracle and Red-Arrow to help clear their system. (Anyways, I did check around as well, and it looks like Cypher lifted Warp's palm-top and the flash-drive you and the bitch picked up,) he explained.

"Did she get her chit back too?" Naruto questioned with a frown. If he'd been the robo-hacker that'd be the first thing he'd get back. Then again he wasn't any good at cyber warfare so maybe it wasn't a good idea.

(Nah, I had that with me,) the tiny terror replied. Naruto hummed in response and glanced up as he rubbed his chin.

"Why would she want those things then?" he wondered aloud. He idly glanced to the side as the bathroom door opened. Starfire walked out with a towel in her hands to dry her hair and not a stitch more… He shot a look at the girl and she blinked.

"I was not finding the robe anywhere," she stated as if it explained everything. Naruto palmed his face with a groan. Well at least that explained how they got around her walking around naked. Still, 'Kara-Chan you're seriously dropping the ball here,' he thought briefly then tossed the redhead the clothes he'd found for her. She caught them and Naruto turned away from her to focus on what Gizmo was telling him.

(I don't know why she took 'em. Ask those goddamned fucktards that control her if you want to know. I still have most of the data from the palm-top saved on a closed server, but I never really got a chance to de-encrypt the flash-drive and find out what was on it,) Gizmo replied. Naruto hummed in response and closed his eyes. Behind him Starfire had started to pull on her clothes, though stared at him with a curious frown.

"So do you think that whatever she wanted was on the flash-drive?" he questioned. However Gizmo grunted in response.

(I don't know Temp, I just know she lifted them, not why she did it,) he responded. Naruto muttered quietly and then palmed his face. It didn't help having his mask on but it was force of habit at this point.

"Right… guess that means we're going to be paying them a visit," he remarked. Starfire blinked and arched a brow curiously.

(Temp you know that that's a bad idea, last time you tried it they decided it'd be fun to sic fucking Hammer and Sickle on me,) Gizmo reminded with a shudder. Naruto did remember and it made him frown in response. Hammer and Sickle were Russian agents given powers by a paramilitary group bent on restoring the socialist regime. They were also former classmates of theirs, but then again, so was Cypher…

"Gizmo are you going to get in touch with Oracle to help clean the systems," he questioned. He heard a snort from the other end.

(Do you mean am I going to call the hot red head to help clean the system while I ogle her?) he asked sarcastically, (is that a fucking rhetorical question Tempest? Of course I'm going to fucking call her!) he declared with a grin in his voice. Naruto rolled his eyes and frowned.

"She's married," he deadpanned.

(She's still fucking hot,) Gizmo replied with a grin.

"Whatever," the blond responded, "Anyways since you're obviously calling her I need you to call the Outlaws in as well," he replied. He heard Gizmo groan in response and narrowed his eyes. "Giz do not start with me, the Outlaws have Roy and he's good with computers," the blond reminded but Gizmo grumbled in response.

(Temp you know that I fucking hate dealing with those assholes!) he snarled. He hated dealing with the Outlaws; well he was fine with all but one of them. Jason was okay, he and Cheshire knew not to bother one another, and Xyannis was basically sex on legs and he liked looking at her for obvious reasons. So more specifically, he couldn't stand Roy Harper, AKA Red-Arrow. The fucker seemed to think he was smarter than him!

Unfortunately he'd managed to prove it a couple of times as well… the bastard…

"Giz swallow your pride and get it done," Naruto ordered. He then narrowed his eyes dangerously. "The assholes who control Cypher clearly wanted Warp's stuff, and if they wanted Warp's stuff, what else do you think they'd want?" the blond questioned with a frown on his face.

(Wait, are you telling me you think they have Warp? How in fucks name do you think they managed that?) he demanded. Naruto snorted in response and narrowed his eyes.

"They got Cypher didn't they?" he remarked in return. Gizmo made a noise of agreement while the blond narrowed his eyes. "Besides that, Warp's the only one who knows how any of his tech really works Giz, given they went through all this trouble just to grab data his work then I wouldn't be surprised if they have him under lock and key or something," the blond replied. It also didn't hurt that it'd explain where the man had been for all this time.

If anyone could keep Warp in captivity it was definitely the H.I.V.E.

(Right… I guess that makes sense,) Gizmo admitted. Grab Warp then grab his research and force him to use it for whatever goals they had in mind this time. Granted that Warp was a man who built a time machine and those goals could literally be just about anything. (So we're calling the Outlaws to go to war then?) the tiny terror guessed. Naruto hummed his ascent and glanced at Starfire.

Her 'new' outfit was a long sleeved high necked zip-up purple shirt with holes cut at the shoulders and chest with a green gemstone at her collarbone, a pair of simple purple briefs with a grey belt around her waist with a green gemstone, a pair of simple grey wrist protectors, and thigh length purple boots. Overall it wasn't too terribly different from her usual outfit, though of course it lacked her miniskirt.

'Not that the lack of a skirt actually makes too much of a difference in the long run,' Naruto admitted to himself. It had just been a mini-skirt after all. He also noticed that the girl had found the display cases for all of his old suits and had focused on one of them in particular. He ignored that for the moment and replied to Gizmo's question. "Yeah we're going to war Giz, it's high time we taught those assholes not to fuck with us anymore," he replied and Gizmo snickered to himself.

(Almost makes me wish that the others were around to join in,) he remarked. Naruto made a noise of agreement and then cut the connection. He then walked over to Starfire and glanced at the suit she was staring at. It was the most beat up of all his suits, being torn, scorched, and cut in several places. The mask was even cracked, and Naruto recalled how that happened…

He shook such thoughts from his head and placed a hand on Starfire's shoulder. She started and turned to him and he turned to the suit. "That's my first suit," he remarked and then placed a hand to the display case. It gave a hiss as he pulled the glass door open and reached for the helmet from the suit. He then placed his fingers between the teeth and pried it open a few moments later to show the crushed red glass beneath it.

"I had a little… accident and needed to get it replaced," he remarked with a frown. He had been lucky he hadn't lost an eye from that shit… or worse now that he stopped to think about it. He shook his head at the thought and put the helmet back into the display and closed it. "So how do the clothes feel?" he questioned. Starfire blinked and then looked down at herself, before she smiled.

"They are fitting quite well," she replied. Naruto couldn't help but feel glad her stutter had finally gone away. He then noticed the girl glance down at her clothes and pull on the shirt for a moment before she looked back up to him. "Although I question why you had clothes that fit me," she admitted with a frown. Naruto idly hummed and crossed his arms behind his neck.

"They used to belong to your sister," he remarked. Starfire blinked then glanced down at the purple clothes and looked at him with a confused frown. "She had a phase where she thought wearing purple would make her look more royal," he admitted. Starfire made an 'oh' with her mouth and rolled her eyes. That did sound like Blackfire after all.

"Anyways cutie, we're going to have some guests over soon Cutie," he remarked and the girl tilted her head to the side.

"What is happening?" she questioned.

"We're calling in some back up, seeing as we're about to go pay the ones who sent Cypher after us a little visit," he responded. Starfire blinked and then narrowed her eyes.

"Ah, I see," she replied and then realized something, "but you have yet to tell me who it is that controls the Cypher," she remarked. Naruto hummed in response and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You already know them, or at least you know of them. They're known as the Hierarchy of Vengeance and Elimination," he remarked and then glanced at her with narrowed eyes. "Better known, as the H.I.V.E.," he noted with a scowl. Starfire widened her eyes and then shook her head.

"But the Gizmo," she remarked and Naruto snorted.

"Was part of the 'H.A.Y.E.P.' or H.I.V.E. Academy for Extraordinary Young People," the blond responded, "The H.I.V.E. set the place up as a legitimate school for meta's, with government funding in exchange for soldiers, they also used it to recruit promising students into their organization, while most of the rest went to work as either villains or mercenaries. It's also how they got Cypher," the blond explained.

"I see," Starfire remarked darkly. She would certainly have to remember that when she returned to the past. If for no other reason then so she could dismantle the H.I.V.E. as quickly as possible.

"Anyways we need to meet up with Gizmo before the Outlaws get her," the blond noted then chuckled, "something tells me you and Goldie will have a lot to talk about," he remarked with a smirk. Although he also hoped that the two didn't get into a fight… that had happened between Blackie and Goldie after all. While amusing to watch it was also not something he wanted a repeat performance of.

He paused his thoughts and glanced at the girl as she held his wrist.

"I agree," she admitted and then sighed, "However I fear that I have been quite rude to you and have realized that you did not deserve it," she noted and bowed her eyes. "So I ask that you please forgive me for my rudeness to you friend," she pleaded. Naruto arched a brow then shrugged his shoulders.

"It's no problem, I know that Tamaraneans are always pretty emotional about things," he remarked with a shrug. He then marched out of the room, only to pause at his doorway and turn to the girl. "Hell, to be perfectly honest, Komand'r wasn't much better," he remarked as he walked away. Starfire blinked for a moment and then followed behind the masked blond…

(Titans Tower…)

Starfire and Raven sat across from one another, the alien lost in thought while the dark bird frowned. "Komand'r?" she questioned. It sounded like 'Commander' but she was fairly certain it wasn't what had actually been said. "Also, do you still have that outfit?" she questioned. If the girl did then it was proof that she'd been lying about the future…

"Komand'r is Blackfire's name when spoken in the Tamaranean tongue," Starfire responded, "and yes I do still have the outfit, but I was told to change before I returned to this time," she admitted. She wasn't sure why but they hadn't thought it was a good idea for the young Titans to worry about the future. While Starfire had prevented Cypher's fall, it was through the most simplistic way possible, essentially all she'd had to do was get her uncle to pull her from the H.A.Y.E.P. ahead of time.

Though it was still surprising to her that Cypher's uncle happened to be Killer Moth…

"So what happened next?" Raven questioned. She was honestly curious about what had happened in the future. Although the fact she learned more about Starfire than X thus far was kind of a surprise. 'As is all that stuff about her home,' she admitted to herself. It certainly explained why she didn't like to talk about herself. Which was ironic now that she thought about it, she probably knew more about Robin than she did Starfire.

However Starfire yawned, breaking her from her thoughts, then stretched out her arms into the air. She smacked her lips and glanced to Raven's window. The curtains were drawn closed but it was clear that it was getting late. Starfire turned back to her friend with an apologetic smile.

"Forgive me friend Raven," she began and then placed her feet onto the ground. "But I am afraid that it is getting rather late and I am needing the sleep," she explained. She then strode over to the younger girl and wrapped her in a hug. "But we shall certainly continue with the story later dear friend," she declared then shot off out of the room. Raven watched her leave and then crossed her arms with a pout.

She honestly hated it when she couldn't finish a story she was into…

As for Starfire, the redhead flew the halls of Titans Tower and smiled to herself. Telling the story of what happened in the future felt good. It helped her to remember not only what happened, but also the friends she made in that future. Sure she and X had a bit of a rocky start, but she felt they had become good friends by the end of it all. Starfire smiled at the memory as she moved into her room to prepare for bed.

As she did a black clad thief looked down at her door from within a vent. Following the girl had been the only way he'd been able to continue listening to her 'story' to Raven. Unfortunately he wasn't going to be able to hang out in the vents all night to listen for the next part of it. 'Pity that, I'm starting to like older me,' he admitted to himself. He certainly had a newfound respect for the 'cutie' if nothing else.

He shook his head and started to quietly move through the vents. He was thankful that the titans still hadn't put in any motion sensors. 'Kid or Stone-head really need to get on the ball,' he thought to himself. He made his way to the roof and looked out for a moment, then vanished in a static flash. He reappeared in Jump City proper and turned to look at Titans Tower from across the bay.

'Well, that's my excitement for the night,' he thought to himself. He then vanished once more and reappeared outside of his apartment. With a sudden nod of his head, the thief slipped into his apartment, only to be bowled over by a green ball of swears.

"Do you have any fucking idea how long we've been looking for you Temp?" the tiny terror known as Gizmo demanded. X arched a brow at the 'we' bit then turned to the side to see Mammoth leaning into the wall. He raised a hand in greeting to the burly teen, who in turn returned the gesture. "Focus!" Gizmo demanded as he forcibly turned Naruto's head to face him. Naruto rolled his eyes in response.

"Giz calm down," he ordered. Gizmo growled at him but he picked him up off of himself and stood up. Gizmo started to swear violent retribution as Naruto brushed off his suit and then looked at his friend with a frown. "Okay now what's got you all in a tizzy?" he questioned. The tiny terror crossed his arms and growled low in his throat.

"Jinx is fucking missing ass hat!" he snarled. Naruto paused and looked at him in concern. Jinx was his friend, sure they didn't hang out much since he ditched the H.I.V.E. but that didn't mean he didn't still consider the old gang his friends.

"What happened?" he questioned. Gizmo gave him a scathing look and he sat him down with a roll of his eyes. Gizmo started to mutter curses under his breath and then pulled out a disk. From the disk a holographic map of Jump City was formed.

"The Headmaster sent her on a job in town. She didn't report in for a while, but since it was such a simple job I figured she was just running late. Now it's almost been a day and Mammoth is getting worried about her," Gizmo began, Naruto watched as he formed a pink triangle over a building in the west side of Jump. Before Gizmo could continue Mammoth stepped forward and knelt down.

"She went to deliver a flash drive to some H.I.V.E. Agents downtown," he stated. Naruto narrowed his eyes on the map while Mammoth continued. "That was about twenty hours ago and we still haven't heard back from her," he explained concisely. Gizmo grunted then nodded his head. Naruto reached up a hand to rub his chin as he looked at the map and mentally did a few calculations.

'Time to leave their place and get back, roughly two hours if she didn't make any stops,' he noted to himself. 'Lets see, anywhere of interest between the two that would keep her busy? No, nothing that she likes anyways, no museums to case, no jewelry stores, nothing that would interest her,' he continued. 'So she had nothing that would hold her up, she really should've been back hours ago,' he noted and clicked his tongue.

"Alright," he began with narrowed eyes, "this reeks of foul play, I'm going to go check these guys out and look for Jinx," he stated. However Gizmo waved his arms wildly.

"Are you fucking crazy?!" he demanded, "These are real H.I.V.E. Agents temp, genuine grade A bad ass assassins! Even Mammoth can't make these guys flinch and he's fucking huge! Do you honestly think you can intimidate fuckers like them?!" he demanded. Naruto merely smirked in response.

"Oh ye of little faith," he stated and playfully patted Gizmo on the head. The tiny terror growled and snarled at his friend while Mammoth chuckled to himself. Gizmo tore the older teen's hand from his head and Naruto stepped back towards his window. "In case you've forgotten," the masked blond began as he half stepped out of his window, "I have my ways," he stated and then vanished in a static flash…

TBC…

AN: Yes, the outfit Starfire wore in the future is in fact based on Starfire's outfit in New 52, not the Red-Hood and the Outlaws version but the one from her own 12 issue solo series, it just felt like something the TT version of Starfire would actually wear if given a chance. As for the 'lack' of a nudity taboo, that's just a Tamaranean thing, though I also assume that Raven got her the robe she wears and told her it was an earth custom to wear it, but didn't bother to explain you weren't supposed to walk around naked if you didn't have one.

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A grinning face appears, bright red lips, chalk white skin, bright purple eyes, and short / messy fire truck red hair. The face belongs to a girl who briefly giggles as she straightens out her purple jacket and then leans back in a leather chair. "Hello Internet! Welcome to Game Theory!" she declared jocularly then giggled. "Oh wait, that's not me!" she noted and then covered her mouth as she laughed once more.

After a moment she breathed a sigh of relief and wiped a mock tear from her eye. She then turned to the 'camera' with a wide manic grin on her face. "Hello readers and reviewers!" she exclaimed with her arms stretched wide, "Guess what guys?" she questioned with a wide grin, "I'm BAAACCCKKK!" she exclaimed and then leaned back to hold her stomach with a giggle.

"Oh boy," she murmured with a smile, "It's so great to be able to do the fourth wall breaking I know you missed from the other stories," she remarked and then pouted. "But the author insists that it'd be too distracting if I do it during the main story for some reason, so he's decided that I can have the AN's to play around in so that no one will get all butt hurt about me stealing Deadpool's shtick or something," she remarked. She then pushed her chair back with a hum as she stared at the ceiling.

"Oh well," she sighed and then smiled brightly. "Seeing as I'm in charge of all AN's from now on I get to be the one to reply to all your reviews!" she exclaimed as she happily threw her arms into the air. She then leaned forward with a wide grin and gripped the sides of the camera, "Isn't that just awesome?" she questioned. She listened for a moment and then pouted when no one replied to her.

She blew a breath into her messy bangs and leaned back in her seat.

"Oh fine, I know you guys can't talk to me in real time, but at least be enthusiastic," she remarked with a twinkle in her eyes. "Anyways lets start things off with the first ever Duela answered review!" she declared as she threw her arms and legs out with a giggle. She then yelped as she fell back and out of her chair. "I'm okay!" she exclaimed then sat up and started to type on a nearby computer. "First up is…" she mumbled to herself.

"DarkLord98! Hi there, and thanks for being so enthusiastic to see me again," the redhead declared with a cheerful wave. "Also, is it just me, or does it seem like Duela remembers the old fanfic? Anyways yes, yes I do remember the old fic, but it'll be more subtle in the main story, meanwhile when I'm in the AN I'm allowed to have free reign of my memories, basically think of it as me being alone in my room talking to myself," she explained with a nod.

"Next up, DannyPhantom619 asks 'Do you do harems?'" Duela paused and then snickered to herself. "He's a red blooded heterosexual male so I'd certainly hope so!" she stated with a laugh. She then patted her chest as she calmed down. "Might want to word that differently next time bucko! Anyways, yes he's written harem stories before, but he's not sure if it'd fit this one in the long run or if another triad pairing will be good or not," she noted with a shrug then moved on, only to sigh and cover her face dramatically.

"Oh DragonPony022, I just have to say that I'm nothing like my dad," Duela began and then frowned, "the jackass," she grumbled then smiled brightly. "I'm more closely modeled after the original Duela, not the one you see in New 52. Fun fact about her and me, we dated Richard for a while!" she declared and then snickered to herself. "No seriously, the original Duela and Dick Grayson dated for a little while when he was going to Gotham Academy, we're even the same age, funny huh?"

The girl then leaned forward and stage whispers to the camera.

"So yeah here's another fun fact I find totally hilarious is that he's dated me, a redhead, Barbara Gordon, another redhead, and Starfire, yet another redhead, so yeah, he's got a major thing for redheads!" she noted and then snickered to herself as she turned and spun around for a moment in her leather chair. "Now to PFMF, FateBurn, prototype gear, and anyone else who missed me so much but didn't review," she began then sniffled and looked to the camera with teary eyes.

"I'm so glad you all missed me so much," she remarked with another sniffle and wiped at her eyes, "It feels so wonderful to be loved! I mean the authors of the original comics just hated me and had me killed off because they didn't know how to deal with me, then they replaced me with Harley Quinn and I didn't even get a backstory until I was already dead, yeah… it's so nice to feel the love for once," she noted and then wiped at her eyes. "Uh anyways," she remarked as she returned to her computer.

"nightmaster000, wow, everyone is really showing me the love! Anyways, this chapter answered more than a few of your questions already, now didn't it? As for gimme a break and the living zoo, well we'll see how things go from here, but with Kori saving her cousin from a fate literally worse than death who knows!" She noted with a shrug of her shoulders and then started to hum a tune to herself.

"Oh and Masquerade is an OC, Cypher 0.3 and her original self also are, and technically you can kind of count me as one in a way. Or maybe I should just be considered as a re-imagining of my character. I'm not the same as the original Pre-Flashpoint Duela, nor am I like the Ami-Comi version, the Bombshells version, or the New 52 version. I'm a variant created by the author because he could never find any definitive info on the actual character," Duela explained then hummed with a shrug.

"But he doesn't think he can do other people's OC's justice and tries not to write 'em, so sorry but thems the breaks. Maybe in the future he'll reconsider, but for the moment he's a little shy about that kind of thing. It takes a lot to convince him to do almost anything…" she noted then frowned, "trust me, I know from experience," she stated with a stiff nod, then snorted and snickered to herself.

"Again, glad to be back, and there's actually a reason for that Shinku Ryuuga, a few have actually used me in their stories, but typically they model me more closely on the Pre-Flashpoint Duela from the early comics. The Author ironically had no access to those comics when he originally wrote me, so I ended up becoming a more own unique variant of the 'Duela' slash Joker's Daughter character in general," she noted with a shrug.

"So the reason you've never seen 'me', as in the way I act in Lord-Pain's stories, anywhere else is because I'm kind of his version of me," she remarked and then hummed quietly. "Although since he's read about other versions of me expect at least a few hints of them in me," she remarked. She then reached to the side to pick up a dapper looking top hat with a bow / ribbon around it, which she then plopped onto her head with a wink.

"Well Guest, I think I answered your question about which version of me I am with the above," Duela remarked with a mad twinkle in her eyes. She then propped her spat clad feet on the table next to her computer and stretched her arms over her head. "That's a good question Cerulean Knight, technically he's both. Naruto's species appear to be descended from both Oni and the Shinju, not monkeys like me," the girl replied.

"Oh Kiue Jin, ye of so little faith," Duela remarked with a shake of her head and took her top hat off to place it against her breast. "I promise you I have plans, but," she noted with a raised finger, "they certainly won't be a rip off of dear old dad's idea," she stated with a firm nod of her head. She then turned to her computer and noticed the next entry, which she then grinned at the camera once more.

"To Noctus Of The Thousand Blades, the Author wanted me to personally address you and say he knows how that feels. Ironically it just hit him one day that he wanted to post this story and suddenly he felt energized again!" the girl declared. "While he isn't sure if that would help you as well, he does want me to say that he's hoping you keep at it and find your muse again," the girl stated cheerfully, eyes closed as she held up a revolver.

"Meanwhile I'll literally be holding a gun to my authors head to keep him going!" she noted with a click of the hammer. "PugTheMagician, wow I get so much love lately, it's like you people actually like me!" the girl declared and accidentally shot her revolver at the cieling. She looked up and then blinked as she held up the gun. "Huh… should've put the safety on," she remarked and tossed the gun to the side…

Which of course caused it to fire again.

The crazy clown girl yelped and hopped out of her seat in response to the sudden loud bang. She glanced at the revolver for a moment then cautiously sat back down in her chair. She then cleared her throat and straightened her purple jacket, then checked to make sure her orange corset was on straight. Finally she turned back to the camera with a smile on her face.

"Well anyways, Nox733, the author hasn't decided if he wants to try and continue the original one or not, part of him does, but another part feels like it'd be difficult to get back into the mindset he had when he first wrote it. Which is probably why he made this redux when you think about it," the girl noted with a shrug of her shoulders, "I'm just saying… wait, how do you spell Saiyen?" the girl wondered with a tap of her chin.

"Well anyways, only time for one more so lets see now…" she remarked as she looked over her computer screen. She then placed a hand over her eyes and randomly pointed at the screen. She looked at the screen between her fingers and frowned. "Nope, doesn't work," she muttered to herself and then closed her fingers to hide her vision as she started to point once more.

"Eennie meanie minie moe, catch a tiger by the toe, if he yells, let him go, eenie, meanie, minie, moe!" she declared and then checked once more. With a grin she turned back to her camera and crossed her arms behind her head. "Finally to ortizale317, the author hasn't decided, he also figured most people would think I'd be too crazy to date Naruto or just wouldn't like the idea in general," she remarked with a shrug then leaned forward to stage whisper once more. "Although that didn't stop me and Richard huh?" she noted then sat back with a snicker.

With a brief sigh of relief she then leaned back in her chair and yawned. "Well I guess that's all for now folks," she mused to herself and offered a mock wave. "Till next time readers and reviewers, this is Duela saying 'Peace'!" she declared as she raised her hands to form two peace signs in the air. However she ended up kicking her camera in the process knocking it over and causing the lens to crack.

"Uuh… oopsies," she murmured as she came back into view, "whelp, I better get this fixed before the next chapter releases, so till then, bye bye now!" she stated and turned the camera off…