NU: Red-X Redux Chapter 10: Laughing Mad PT1, 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 8: Laughing Mad PT. 1…

(?)

A familiar girl with white hair leans back in her father's former chair. Her feet are propped up on the computer in front of her. She idly twiddles her thumbs as she looks at a number of different screens. On one it shows the Titans, together in a group. In several others it shows each of the individual members. Yet her sole eye was trained on another screen, one that showed a number of statistics for each of the titans.

"Quite the interesting specimens, aren't they," Wintergreen remarked as he approached her from behind. He placed a tray down onto a small table next to her, a steaming hot cup placed on it. The girl glanced at him from the corner of her eye and then silently picked the cup up and took a sip. "Careful, it's still hot," the man remarked. She ignored him as she sipped the coffee and then narrowed her eye.

"Is there anything in particular you're interested in?" the man questioned. The girl took another sip of her coffee and then hummed.

"Not particularly, just trying to understand him," she murmured. Wintergreen arched a brow.

"Pardon?" he questioned.

"My father," she responded as she crossed her legs and frowned. "All this intell, all this surveillance, graphs and charts, techniques and weaknesses," the girl remarked as she waved her arm to the side. "All this, for a bunch of punk kids," she stated flatly, despite the fact a few of them were technically older than her. Wintergreen frowned in response and then tightened his features.

"The Titans are hardly your ordinary children ma'am," he noted pointedly. The girl glanced at him and hummed softly.

"Perhaps," she allowed then sighed, "but do you agree that his clear obsession with them was unhealthy?" she questioned. The butler was notably silent at that and she smirked. "Thought so," she chirped in a cheerful singsong and then turned to the monitors with a frown. "That said, my father's death is an insult," she remarked and took another sip of her coffee. "One we can't simply let go unpunished," she stated with a frown.

"Like what happened after your brother's death miss Rose," Wintergreen questioned. The girl stiffened at that and then reached to the side of the chair to press a few buttons on the armrest. Instantly one of the screens changed, upon it the image of a dried up husk of a teen, lying on the rain covered streets of Jump City. Her sole eye softened as she saw it, and then darkened at the headline.

-The Death of The Ravager-

"I suppose his obsession started with this," she murmured and Wintergreen nodded.

"They took his heir from him, so he tried to take something from them in turn," the old man replied, "The city, their leader, their friend, it didn't matter what it was that he took from them, he just wanted them to hurt, at that point," he intoned with an incline of his head. Rose simply hummed and then traced the edge of her coffee mug.

"Perhaps," she murmured and then reached to the side to bring up several other images. These showed Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, and Kaldur in the Tower. The photos were taken by a number of spy-bugs planted in the Tower by the traitorous once Titan known simply as 'Terra'. "But it looks like they've decided to recruit new members," she remarked as she took another sip of her coffee.

"Indeed, they could prove to be a problem," Wintergreen remarked. Rose idly glanced at the pictures of the three and clicked her tongue.

"We have a generalized idea of what two of them can do based on reports of Wonder Woman and Flash," she noted as she brought up files on the two in question. She then frowned at the sight of Kaldur. "But that one is a total unknown," she remarked bluntly and Wintergreen hummed.

"Perhaps we could assume a similar skill set as Aquaman," he suggested. However Rose shook her head in response.

"Too much room for error," she replied with a flippant wave, "what we need is concrete evidence of his skills and abilities, as well as the other two," she stated. "While we could just assume they're the same as their older counterparts there is also the possibility that they have a few tricks up their sleeves," she noted. Wintergreen nodded his head in agreement and rubbed his chin.

"Further," Rose began and Wintergreen looked to her curiously, "we potentially have this one to contend with as well," she added as she began to type on the control once more. In doing so she brought up several images and video feeds of Red-X. Wintergreen watched them all with a quiet hum while Rose narrowed her eye. She then drummed her fingers as she watched Red-X's speed and strength seemingly increase at a moments notice.

"Impressive," Wintergreen admitted. Rose grunted and frowned.

"He's a complete unknown, no data on him or his abilities, he popped up after Father passed so no surveillance of any kind, his mask and suit completely hide his features and a lot of his body language, his voice is masked by the suit, and to top it all off no one is willing to 'sell him out' if they even have any information on who he is under that mask for fear of his reprisal," the white haired lass explained and Wintergreen nodded slowly.

"And given what abilities he's shown thus far, attempting to predict them may be next to impossible without further data," the elder man mused aloud. Rose simply grunted in agreement as she continued to watch what little video they had of the thief. "So what would you suggest?" he questioned. Rose hummed and then downed her coffee in one gulp before she gasped and then look to Wintergreen.

"First we need to get in contact with our 'friend' in Dayton Industries," she replied crisply. Wintergreen nodded and then looked at her curiously.

"Then what ma'am?" he questioned. Rose laced her fingers together and stretched her arms over her head before she answered.

"Then we sit back and watch the fireworks Wintergreen…"

(Jump City, California…)

Uzumaki Namikaze Naruto was completely and utterly bored… when he was bored, he had a tendency to go on walks. Unfortunately those same walks tended to be what he would call 'enthusiastic walks'. The H.I.V.E. had learned the hard way that letting him go out without supervision was the quickest way for weird things to happen. Though thankfully he was so bored he didn't feel like causing mayhem at the moment…

Instead he was out and about Jump City, as he'd tried Titans Tower, but the kids seemed to be away and couldn't come out to play. Although the newbies looked interesting, he planned to 'introduce' himself to them when his suit was finally fixed. For now he was more interested in alleviating his boredom. Unfortunately the number of 'fun' things for him to do was surprisingly lacking in Jump City.

'Partially because I prefer being out in nature,' the blond admitted to himself with a sigh. It was one of the things he genuinely hated about Jump City, that it was so 'modern' and had strayed so far from nature. In the Elemental Nations the only comparable village was Ame no Kuni, but even they were closer to nature than the people of this world. Tech seemed to rule this world, while nature ruled his own…

'Hmm… maybe that actually means something,' the blond considered then shrugged, 'I'll mention it to Giz later,' he decided with a yawned. He had ultimately decided to head back to his old apartment to clear it out. If for no other reason then because he still had stuff there he wanted to keep. There was no earthly way in hell he'd leave anything of value behind for someone, most likely the Teme, to find and track him with.

'Should probably scrub the place down while I'm at it,' he decided with a frown, 'just in case Kiba came along with that asshat,' he noted with a nod of his head. He knew, he just knew, that Sasuke couldn't be alone in this world. Konoha wasn't exactly going to send one man to retrieve him after all, especially not someone with Sasuke's track record for putting him in terminal condition.

He paused his thoughts as he noticed a moving van in front of his apartment building. 'New tenants?' he briefly wondered then smiled, 'sweet, we needed some new faces 'round here,' he noted to himself. He then placed his hands in his pockets and approached the back of the van. He heard someone swear in the van and arched a brow; it was a girl with a low voice.

'Well well well, what have we here?' he thought to himself. He chanced a glance inside and saw a slender girl with olive skin and waist length thick blond hair in a ponytail. The blond instantly took note of her athletic build and dark grey eyes. She was dressed in a black tank top, blue jeans, and brown boots. 'Not bad,' the blond thought to himself as the girl started to come out of the van.

The girl saw him and raised a brow. Naruto was instantly struck with an eerie sense of daja'vu as soon as he saw her face. 'Do I know her from somewhere?' he briefly wondered. As he did the girl looked at him appreciatively for a moment then frowned. "Who are you?" she questioned. The blond shook his head and smirked in response as he tipped his hat in her direction.

"Names Naruto, I'm movin' out," he replied, "but I saw you were movin' in an' thought I might offer you a hand," he replied. The blond girl frowned in response. She admitted that the boy was pretty good looking, from what she could see, but she didn't want some random stranger touching her stuff…

"Thanks, but I got it," she responded as she brushed passed the other blond. 'Still seems a bit familiar,' Naruto thought as he watched her walk away.

"Artemis, is everything alright out here?" the girl turned as a dark haired woman in a wheelchair made her way down a ramp. 'Huh… I always forget this place is wheelchair accessible,' Naruto noted to himself as he glanced at the woman. He also took a look at the girl, Artemis apparently, and noted they had a relatively similar facial structure. 'Either her sister, mother, or aunt,' the blond decided to himself.

"I'm fine mom," the blond girl replied. 'Nailed it,' the blond thought to himself, 'though why do they both seem so familiar? I feel like I'm missing something seriously obvious here,' the blond haired youth thought with a frown. The dark haired woman wheeled herself over and focused on Naruto intently.

"Who's this?" she questioned with a glance at Artemis. However before the girl could answer Naruto offered a hand to her as well as a smile.

"Names Naruto, I'm movin' out," he explained once more. The elder woman arched a brow then smiled and accepted his hand. They briefly shook hands and then stepped back from one another while Artemis watched on.

"It is nice to meet you, Naruto," she replied then smirked, "given your accent I'm going to guess your name is Japanese?" she questioned. The blond silently nodded his head. Technically he was from an alternate universe but Japan had a similar enough culture that it was basically interchangeable. Plus it was one hell of a lot easier to explain… wait, accent?

"I have an accent?" he questioned curiously. The woman nodded her head.

"It's very slight, but still noticeable," she replied. Naruto frowned to himself at that. 'Huh… so is that why Giz kept the vocal synthesizer?' he briefly considered and then shook his head. That was a thought for later. Meanwhile Artemis rolled her eyes and turned to the apartment building.

"Yeah whatever," Artemis noted withb a shake of her head, "Anyways mom I'm going to put this stuff up in the apartment," she declared with an incline of her head. Her mother nodded as the girl made her way inside. As she did the elder woman glanced at Naruto curiously.

"So you're moving out?" she questioned. Naruto nodded his head. "Any reason why?" she questioned. She asked mostly because the rent was cheap and she was worried that there was something wrong with the apartments, but also because something seemed a bit off with the blond haired boy.

"I just felt like bunking with some friends," Naruto responded with a shrug, "Y' know, save some money and all that," he replied. The woman nodded her head slowly and then wheeled herself to the truck. Naruto instantly walked with her and picked up a box she tried to lift up. "Here, let me," he bade and the woman smirked.

"Well aren't you helpful," she teased. The blond boy grinned in response.

"Just doesn't seem right not to help if I'm able," he replied. The woman shook her head and then held out her hands.

"You can help, but I'm not an invalid," she noted pointedly. The blond shrugged and placed the box in her hands. She placed it on her lap then looked to a large box with a frown. "That one however…" she began only to widen her eyes as the blond picked it up and onto his shoulder with one arm. "Is full of weights…" she murmured softly. Naruto just grinned and scratched the side of his head.

"Heh, I'm stronger than I look," he admitted as he picked up another large box. The woman slowly nodded her head then frowned. She looked the blond up, then down and hummed in thought.

"Metahuman?" she questioned. Naruto smirked in response.

"Well I'm no alien," he quipped playfully. 'Not from space anyways,' he mused to himself. "'Sides that, this city is sick with 'em," he stated with a firm nod. Not that he was one it was, again, easier to say that than to try and explain what he actually was. Especially since he was apparently a lot stronger, faster, and tougher than a normal human at base level. The woman slowly nodded her head then sighed.

"I knew that when I decided that we should move here," she admitted as she wheeled her way out of the truck. Naruto followed behind her as she went up the ramp and into the apartment building. "I just didn't think I'd see ones who weren't either super villains or common thugs," she admitted and Naruto chuckled in response.

"Trust me, I've never been common," the blond remarked with a mischievous glint in his eyes. He then paused and hummed thoughtfully. "Although I have been called super a few times before," he quipped and the older woman rolled her eyes.

"I don't want to know," she stated pointedly. The blond rolled his eyes as they moved up to the third floor on an elevator.

"So why'd you decide to move to Jump?" Naruto questioned curiously.

"It's safer here," she responded. Naruto glanced at her strangely, but the elevator stopped and she wheeled out before he could ask. He followed her to her apartment with a frown. It was one he recognized as belonging to some guy he'd only seen once or twice since moving in. 'Huh… I guess he finally moved out or something,' the blond decided with a mental shrug. As they entered he saw the blond girl was opening one box.

"Hey mom, have you seen my…" she began then abruptly cut herself off when she saw the blond. "Wait… so you weren't just flirting with me?" she questioned. Naruto blinked and then raised a brow.

"Why would I," he began then shook his head and frowned, "no, I really did want to help," he stated with a sigh. 'Why does every woman I meet think I'm flirting when I offer 'em a hand?' he wondered to himself. He was honestly just trying to be nice! Why was that such a big deal and why didn't anyone believe it? Were the guys in this universe really that bad that they didn't offer to help without other motives?

Upon seeing the look of frustrated confusion on Naruto's face, Artemis' mother took pity on the blond and offered an explanation. "We're from Gotham," she explained. That caused Naruto to snap out of his thoughts and visibly grimace.

"Yikes… that explains a lot," he admitted. Especially since it made sense if they came to Jump because it was safer. Metropolis, Gotham, Keystone, Jump City, Central City and such were ripe with villains. But Gotham was by far the worst of them. It was one of the few places he'd been too in recent years he was in no hurry to go back. Though he had made a friend there she was a bit off kilter… and that was honestly putting it mildly.

"Gee thanks," Artemis deadpanned and then walked to the blond with a sigh. "I'll take those," she stated and held out her hands. Naruto glanced at the girl's mother and she smirked and nodded her head. Naruto shrugged in response and handed her the box with weights. Artemis, unprepared for the amount of weight in the box, very nearly fell to her knees but caught herself and stared at the blond with wide eyes.

"What the," she began and her mother chuckled.

"He's a meta," the woman stated. Artemis looked at the blond strangely for a moment then sighed. The blond then turned with a grunt as she stubbornly carried the weights to the side while Naruto looked on with clear amusement. He then glanced to the mother as she touched his arm and pointed to the side. "You can set that over there," the woman remarked. The blond responded with a mock salute and did as bade.

An hour later and Naruto whistled to himself as he literally carried a bed frame on his shoulders into the apartment for the 'Crocks'. The blond girl had a cup in her hands and looked at him strangely. He'd since removed his hat, flak jacket, and shirt, revealing the sleeveless black compression shirt he wore underneath. She'd already thought the blond was attractive; his impressive physique simply added to that fact…

'Me like,' she thought to herself with a smirk. She then hummed as he carried the bed frame to what was designated as her 'room' in the apartment. Technically she'd have to share it with her mother but that wasn't too bad. 'Better than having to worry about random vagrants and criminals all night in Gotham,' she admitted to herself. Sure it kept her senses sharp, but it was hell trying to get a good night sleep.

That said she glanced at Naruto as he put the frame down and brushed his hands off.

"So are you always such a Good Samaritan?" she questioned curiously. The blond scratched at his hair with a sheepish grin.

"Me? Nah, just thought I'd offer a little help to the new tenants before I leave," he replied and Artemis slowly nodded her head. She then watched as the blond rolled his arms for a moment and walked out of her room. 'Shared room,' she reminded herself with a mental frown. That was going to take some getting used too, even if it was only until they got fully settled in and could afford a bigger place.

She shook her head as she followed the blond into the main room where her mother was nursing her own cup of coffee. The elder woman idly noticed her daughter was checking the young blond out from behind and smirked. "Having fun?" she teased and Artemis blushed. Naruto, ever oblivious to anyone else's romantic feelings towards him, just grinned at the older woman.

"Well I wouldn't call it fun," Naruto remarked with a scratch of his head, "but it was a decent enough work out," he noted with a nod. Artemis stared at him strangely as he crossed his arms behind his neck with a wide grin. "And it was better than me aimlessly wandering 'round town to alleviate my boredom," he added with a nod. The last time that happened… well the 'Motor Heads' had found out what a bored Naruto did to gangsters.

"Well I'm sorry I can't offer much in return," Paula Crock admitted. Naruto waved that off with a pleasant smile.

"It's no problem, I was just being nice," he responded. He then glanced at their stuff and hummed softly. "You guys probably don't have any food right?" he questioned. Paula shook her head in response.

"I was planning on ordering a pizza if you want to stay for dinner," she responded. However the blond shook his head as he gathered up his things.

"Nah, I wouldn't want to impose anymore than I already have," he replied. Artemis snorted in response and looked at him with a smile.

"If you helping us get our stuff inside in a third the time it'd normally take is imposing," she began and then grinned, "then by all means please impose some more," she stated cheekily. However Naruto shook his head in response and placed his hat onto his head.

"Sorry I do have to clear out my place too," he reminded her. Artemis pouted and Paula nodded her head in understanding. She then wheeled herself over to the blond and offered her hand.

"It was nice meeting you," the wheelchair bound lady stated. Naruto nodded in agreement and accepted the hand.

"You too," he responded kindly. He then clicked his tongue as he pulled his wallet out and offered the lady a card. "Here, in case you ever need me for something," he offered and the woman accepted. She looked at the card and noted an orange spiral shape with the name 'Uzumaki Namikaze Naruto' beneath and a phone number.

"Business card?" she questioned curiously. Naruto chuckled in response.

"I tend to do odd jobs around town every now and then," he responded. Which was actually true, he'd earned most of his legitimate cash that way. Hell, with his clones he had a fairly decent business model with it… 'Maybe I should focus more on that kind of work,' he considered to himself and then shook his head when he noticed a look on Paula's face as she regarded him carefully.

"So a mercenary of sorts?" she questioned. However Naruto shook his head.

"Nah, just odd jobs," he responded. "I do a little landscaping, cooking and stuff like that," he responded. Artemis paused at that and looked at him in shock.

"Wait, landscaping? As in you work with plants and such?" she demanded. Naruto blinked and slowly nodded his head. "And you cook too?" she questioned slowly, seriously wondering where this guy had come from. 'And if they have any more,' she added mentally. The blond nodded his head in response.

"I am a man of many talents," he declared with an incline of his head. Artemis smirked.

"Is modest one of them," she mocked. Naruto simply chuckled and then clicked his tongue.

"Well on that note, it was really nice to meet the both of you," he stated then gave a mock salute, "take care," and with that he turned on his heel and walked off. As he did Paula couldn't help but notice her daughter's eyes following him and smirked mischievously.

"He seems nice," she noted and Artemis nodded, "and cute," she added only for Artmis to groan.

"Mom, please don't start," she pleaded. However Paula smirked in response.

"So you weren't just checking him out?" she questioned. The blond girl groaned and tried to bury her face in her hands…

(Tartarus HQ…)

Mikron O'Jeneus Junior, better known as Gizmo, grumbled to himself as he tried to patch up the Red-X Suit. The extensive level of damage it'd sustained was far beyond anything the tiny terror had ever anticipated. Though as he thought about it, he could admit that it was probably just a matter of time before he did find trouble. He was basically a magnet for trouble after all, even when he wasn't the direct cause…

The Tiny Terror wasn't sure what to make of Naruto's apparent enemy. Especially since he was clearly a significant threat. The Titans had gone full force on Naruto and the blond had literally made them look like idiots. Meanwhile this new guy could fight toe to toe with Naruto and nearly gut him on top of it. That painted a very vivid and honestly terrifying picture of just what the guy was capable of doing.

Despite his coarse language and all around bad attitude Gizmo was not an idiot. He knew that if push came to shove Naruto could take out a fair number of individual super heroes on his own. Not just the Titans, but actual big name heroes. Gizmo had ran a fair few simulations on the matter and if Naruto went full force on Batman without giving him any time to plan or learn his tricks, he'd win outright.

The problem was that Batman was an asshole, a fucking stubborn asshole that didn't want to stay dead! He'd eventually get back up and find some crazy way to take Naruto out, either with a machine or by sheer luck! The guy had a track record and it was going strong for a reason. Worse, Naruto still had a few hang-ups with outright killing someone that wasn't psychotic, which Gizmo hated to admit but he agreed with.

Killing random people was silly in his opinion, at least when they hadn't done anything to him beforehand. Further, it was just going to put them higher on the priorities of the big league heroes and that was something Gizmo wanted to stay away from. His father had been of the same opinion, which was perhaps why the vast majority of tech used by villains was typically bought from the man…

'Huh, maybe I should call Dad and see what he's up too,' the tiny terror considered for a moment then quickly shook his head of the thought. His father had never been much for support; he'd always believed that he was too dependent on advanced tech. His dad could make a lethal weapon out of a stapler on a moments notice, he preferred to make a laser out of a game console or something… needless to say it was a bit of a sore spot.

Regardless, Naruto could almost definitely overpower some of the other big name heroes. Though, from his simulations Gizmo could say that if Naruto did fight them he would eventually lose by proxy of them getting used to him. At that point Gizmo wasn't certain what Naruto would have left to use against a hero, if he had anything, but it would have to be pretty epic to save him.

Gizmo quickly shook his head of those errant thoughts and returned to his point. That being that whoever fought Naruto clearly didn't have the same kind of restraint as the blond. That lack of restraint was frightening, for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that he was someone on par with Naruto. Needless to say, anyone on par with their heavy hitter was bad news, especially for the Titans.

'They beat Slade on a fluke last time, this guy won't go down so easily,' the tiny terror mused to himself. He also looked at the, admittedly, useless armor he put on the X-Suit with a frown as he wracked his brain to think of a solution. Unfortunately most of the mundane ways, IE a tougher metal, would weigh the suit down or were simply too rare for him to get his hands on expediently.

Which meant he had to try and think of a more esoteric way to fix the armor.

'Mother of fucking Christ why does this shit have to be such a fucking pain in my goddamn ass?!' the Tiny Terror mentally complained as he ran his hands over his bald head. His internal desire for a beard also reasserted itself and he made a note to allow all the hair to grow on his face so he could pull on it. That aside he tried to think of anything that could strengthen the suit without being too out there.

After a moment the bald boy grunted and crossed his arms in a huff. "Fuck this shit I'm watching TV," he grumbled as he reached for his remote. He then turned to a screen, which then blared to life on the news. "Aw man, why do I always," he began only to pause when he saw the words 'Volatile Promethium' in the caption boxes. 'Wait, what?' he wondered and then reached to the side to turn up the volume.

[-and its nice to know that even in the absence of our usual heroes, Jump City can be at ease. Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, and Aqualad are on the job,] the news anchor reported and Gizmo rolled his eyes. He honestly didn't care. [And in other news, early this evening Dayton Industries announced that they would be re-conducting experiments on the synthetic alloy known as Volatile Promethium,] the man said and tapped his papers.

[For those who don't know, Volatile Promethium was a controversial alloy created by none other than Steve Dayton, the current CEO of Dayton industries five years ago. The alloy was shown to absorb and generate great amounts of energy, but the chances of the alloy being abused were too great and so mister Dayton had the bulk of it destroyed,] the man explained. Gizmo rolled his eyes in response.

[Despite this some has survived, and several scientists at Dayton Industries hope to run a battery of tests on the sole remaining piece of Volatile Promethium before its radioactive half-life ends and it turns inert,] the man continued and Gizmo paused. When Volatile Promethium turned inert it was called 'Depleted Promethium' instead. The applications of Depleted Promethium, even a small bit…

"HA!" he exclaimed and shot to his feet, "I can totally work with that!" he declared and hurried out of his lab to find Naruto. Elsewhere a certain pink haired girl was crawling around in the vents of the former H.A.E.Y.P. She briefly paused at a grate and pushed it open before she glanced around. She also pulled a note pad out and made a few observations before she moved on.

'Well getting this place back in order is going to be a chore,' she thought with a mental sigh. They would need Mammoth to move the rubble, Kyd Wykkyd to teleport it out of the facility, and Gizmo to make most of the repairs, meanwhile Angel could focus on any of the 'high up' areas in need of repair. Given her own powers and abilities, she was going to be doing little to help… which is why she'd decided to scout the place instead.

'God why couldn't I get a more useful power?' she wondered with a sigh. Probability based powers sounded awesome, until you realized how hard it was to control them. This was especially true for her own as they seemed to go wonky whenever she was in the same general area as something like a broken mirror or walking under a ladder. It was far worse on Friday The Thirteenth however, as her powers just went insane for no reason.

The H.A.E.Y.P. had even tried to use this sudden flux of her powers to their advantage, only to realize that alongside the power boost was a total lack of control, which tended to crush, smash, or generally destroy things. As a result the H.A.E.Y.P. decided her wonky powers were too dangerous and sent her out to the middle of the desert, completely alone, every Friday the thirteenth to wait for it to end.

'Please let Gizmo have finally figured out a way to fix that,' the girl inwardly pleaded. She was honestly sick of her powers causing her just as much trouble as they caused everyone else. Plus it sucked not being able to carry a phone since they literally exploded in her hands. Gizmo had made their communicators heavily shielded to protect them from her powers, but it also made them bulky and heavy…

The girl paused when she heard a metallic groan around her. She then looked down and realized she was on one of the large grates in the vent over an empty hallway. Unfortunately while she was thin and light, she wasn't light enough for the grate to support her weight. 'Oh shit,' she thought and with a scream fell out of the vent. Yet before she could hit the ground she felt a pair of arms scoop her out of her fall.

She immediately opened her eyes to see Naruto looking at her worriedly.

"You okay?" he questioned and she slowly nodded her head. The blond breathed a sigh of relief then grinned cheekily, "Good, I mean I know the sky looked a little funny today but I didn't expect this kind of rain," he noted. Jinx just murmured something under her breath as the blond placed her back on her feet. She braced herself with the boy's arm as she tried to catch her breath and recover from her scare.

"Th-Thanks Tempest," the girl began and exhaled a shaky breath. Naruto smiled and patted her shoulder comfortingly as she recovered from the near spill. Meanwhile Jinx was looking at the blond nervously. "S-So where did you run off too today?" she questioned curiously.

"I went to clear out my apartment," he replied with a shrug, "I figure it's cheaper living here," he noted with a sly look. Jinx idly nodded her head then frowned as a thought suddenly occurred to her.

"Wait, you have clones, why did it take you so long to get that done?" she questioned. The blond idly scratched the back of his head.

"I also scrubbed the place down, on the off chance someone found out I was there," he admitted. Jinx hummed in response and nodded her head in understanding. "So did you need anything else?" the blond questioned. The rosette was silent for a moment as she fidgeted in place and looked around nervously. 'Okay, now is as good a time as any to tell him you like him,' she thought to herself.

'Just take a deep breath, calm down, and,' she began only to pause at a noise. She and Naruto both looked down the hall to see Gizmo hurrying their way. 'Damn it Gizmo,' she thought as the tiny terror scurried to his friends. He came to a halt with panting breaths and then grumbled about short legs. After a moment he'd caught his breath and looked up at both of his friends with a wide grin.

"Tempest I have great news!" their diminutive friend declared. Naruto arched a brow and then glanced behind him when he saw Angel, who walked towards them with an impassive expression, though to be fair it was her most usual expression. "Tempest I think I found a way to make your armor," he paused when he noticed the odd tension in the air around his friends.

"Uhh… am I interrupting something?" he questioned curiously. Jinx gave a nervous grin and shook her head, although inwardly she was screaming in frustration.

"No, we're fine," she stated a bit too cheerfully. Gizmo also noticed an odd twitch to her eye, which he knew meant she was lying to him. Though to be perfectly honest he didn't care. "What'd you have for us Gizmo?" the rosette questioned. Gizmo stared at the both of them strangely while Angel hid a smirk behind her hand.

"Eh… right," Gizmo murmured with a scratch of his head. He then looked up to Naruto with a wide grin on his face, "Anyways Temp, I figured out a way to make your armor nigh indestructible!" the tiny terror declared with a grin. Naruto raised a brow and looked to Angel who shrugged.

"For once the troll is actually right," she stated with a wave of her hand, "He's found a way to improve your suit's exoskeleton without having to make it obscenely heavy," she admitted. Gizmo shot the Thanagarian a look while Naruto grinned widely.

"Lay it on me Giz," Naruto ordered however Gizmo shook his head.

"Be better if I just show you," he stated and then scurried off on his spider legs. Naruto looked to Angel and Jinx for a moment then followed after him. As he did Angel looked to Jinx with a wry smirk.

"Still can't talk to him about your feelings?" she guessed with a teasing smirk, which caused Jinx to glare at her heatedly.

"Not one word," she growled and then stomped after the boys. Angel arched a brow and then followed after the other girl with a smirk. She whistled a tune to herself as they followed them into one of the old mad science labs. On one of the screens around the room Gizmo displayed a material known as 'Depleted Promethium'. Angel and Jinx looked at it curiously while Naruto leaned back with a frown.

"So this stuff is what we'll need for my new suit?" Naruto questioned and Gizmo nodded his head.

"This and a little something something from Angel," Gizmo replied with a grin. Naruto glanced back at Angel curiously and the woman produced a metal sphere from her belt. She tossed it to the blond who caught it and then looked at her with a raised brow.

"And this is?" the blond questioned," he questioned.

"Nth Metal, extremely light and also works as something of a magical nullifier," the thanagarian medic explained. Naruto looked to the metal ball with interest while Jinx all but gaped at the girl.

"How long have you had that?!" she demanded incredulously. Angel mutely rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Long enough," she responded. Jinx narrowed her eyes in response.

"Then why didn't you use it on Tempest's old suit?" she demanded. Angel frowned in response.

"Aside from the fact I have a limited supply," she remarked, "because I knew Gizmo's design for the suit was subpar and likely to be destroyed within a week of use," she responded bluntly. She then glanced at Gizmo who was busying himself with the computer. "Which it literally was," she stated. Jinx frowned at the crack against her friend's abilities while Gizmo scoffed and waved the woman off.

"Who cares?" Gizmo demanded and then leaped into the air with a grin. His spider-legs then shot out of his backpack and he sat on them while he pulled out his controller. The tiny terror then started to maneuver it and eventually the X-suit, with a modified design, appeared on the screen. "With this and some Depleted Promethium the X-Suit will be literally unbreakable and resistant to magic!" he crowed with a mad laugh.

Naruto hummed softly as he looked at the sphere of Nth-metal and then clicked his tongue thoughtfully. He idly glanced at his friend with a raised brow and then tossed the ball of Nth metal his way. Gizmo yelped as he reached out and grabbed the ball of metal out of the air. He breathed a sigh of relief while Naruto stepped forward with his arms crossed over his chest and a frown across his face.

"Alright so we need some of this stuff to start with," he guessed. Gizmo grunted but nodded his head in the affirmative. Naruto frowned at that and then glanced at Gizmo. "So where exactly do we get it?" he questioned. His friend grunted as he crossed his legs and placed the Nth Metal in his lap. He then started to bring up images on the screens as Naruto watched on with interest.

"Normally Depleted Promethium is exceedingly rare," the tiny terror admitted as he brought up images of what looked like men in green serpent styled costumes. "This is mostly due to the fact the Cobra Cult once tried to us Volatile Promethim to make a bomb and so production of the metal ceased," he explained. Naruto frowned in response and looked at his friend curiously.

"Volatile? Isn't that another word for explosive?" the blond questioned. Gizmo shrugged in response.

"Not really, but in this case it kind of is," he admitted. Naruto hummed in response as the tiny terror brought up a few more images. Jinx idly hopped up and sat on a desk while Angel narrowed her eyes on the screen. "Volatile Promethium is known to absorb and generate large amounts of energy," Gizmo began then grimaced, "this makes it useful when making bombs as it basically multiplies the yield," he explained.

"By how much?" Jinx questioned and Gizmo looked at her sheepishly.

"Theoretically… at the very least it would quintuple it if not more," he admitted. He also ignored the incredulous expressions of Angel and Jinx. He cleared his throat and brought up several more images on the screen. "Unfortunately on top of that and being mildly radioactive, the shit is also absurdly mutagenic," he admitted. Angel's wings flared and she narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"Mutagenic?" Naruto questioned. Angels sucked in a breath and explained instead.

"Essentially the metal causes normal humans to mutate, potentially giving them powers or damaging them on a cellular level, perhaps even both," she replied and then bit her thumb with a frown. "I can imagine that whoever discovered this property did so either by accident or was just sick and actively experimented with the radioactive properties of it," she murmured while Gizmo nodded his head with a frown.

"Pretty much," the tiny terror explained and then clicked his tongue. "Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your point of view, Depleted Promethium is rare because it's only available after Volatile Promethium has been rendered inert after it's radioactive half-life ends," Gizmo explained as he then brought up a new image on the screen of the Dayton Industries building on the outskirts of Jump City.

"Luckily for us some idiot scientists have started experimenting on the sole remaining samples of Volatile Promethium over at Dayton Industries," he explained and then grinned widely. "And with the Titans away and only the new guys to deal with I'd say you have a pretty good shot of getting in and out without any problems," the tiny terror remarked and Naruto idly nodded his head.

He could get in and out easily enough; he'd actually had to let the Titans follow him when they 'first met'. He'd only done so because he thought it would be fun to play with them. He honestly didn't want to hurt any of them too badly, they were just kids after all… barring Starfire, but that was just semantics. Regardless, he was a master of stealth and infiltration, so he could easily break into Dayton Industries.

But that begged the obvious question.

"Is my old suit ready to go?" he questioned curiously. While he could go as is, he kind of liked the whole masked ninja thing. Plus it was fun being able to walk around Jump City without the Titans trying to take him in. The Troika had learned the hard way that their ability to be social was basically non-existent after the Titans saw their faces. In response to Naruto's query Gizmo grimaced while Angel rolled her eyes with a frown.

"We repaired what we could," Angel replied and glanced at Gizmo. The tiny terror started to mutter under his breath as he brought up an image of the current X-suit. The extensive damage caused Naruto to grimace, especially given all the red lines that seemed to crisscross over to the affected systems. "Unfortunately the old suit wasn't designed to sustain this kind of damage," the thanagarian medic remarked pointedly.

"But," Gizmo began with a glare at the girl, "We did manage to get it mostly functional again," he replied with a nod. He then noticed a look from Angel and cleared his throat, "and I cut out the alarm," he finished with a sheepish expression. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that. That stupid klaxon ringing in his ears had been more annoying than actually fighting Sasuke!

"Nice," the blond declared then tipped his hat to Gizmo, "so where'd you put my suit?" he asked. Rather than answer Gizmo used his spider legs to carry him over to a console, which he then started to type on. A few moments later there was a hiss of air before a lid rose up. As it did it revealed the recently patched up X-suit, which Naruto approached. His suit was repaired, but it was clearly just a patch job.

Naruto idly traced his hand across one such patch with a frown. It looked like a matte-grey material with a hexagon pattern had been slapped over the holes and stood out from the rest of the suit rather jarringly. 'Jeez, the teme really did a number on the it,' he thought to himself. "Is there anything I should know?" he questioned with a glance at his friend. Gizmo clicked his tongue and then slowly nodded his head.

"A lot of systems are inoperable right now, the optic camo is offline, I had to remove the thermal blasters, and the shruiken don't work," the tiny terror replied. "I got the static-gauntlets to work and your wrist blades, but that was a near miss all things considered," the midget remarked. He then crossed his arms over his chest and then closed his eyes tiredly. Naruto put a hand on his friend's shoulders and smirked.

"Look Giz, I probably don't say this enough, but thanks man," he stated. The tiny terror rolled his eyes and brushed the blond's hand from his shoulder.

"You can thank me by getting that Promethium before some other ass hat does," he replied. Naruto raised a brow and Gizmo grunted. "The idiots over at Dayton actually went and announced that they'll be experimenting on the stuff again. Given how many villains know how to use the internet and I just bet some of 'em are going to be out for this stuff as well," he replied. Naruto hummed in response and cupped his chin.

"Meaning the new set of kids will probably be busy with most of 'em and I can sneak in and take what I want," he remarked and Gizmo nodded his head.

"Exactly, so get going now before someone else slips by 'em!" the tiny terror ordered. Naruto raised his wrists with an amused chuckle and nodded his head. He then pulled the X-Suit from it's casing and slung it over his shoulder as a thought occurred to him.

"I'mma go and grab some things," he stated and hurried off to his room. As he did Jinx looked to Gizmo curiously.

"So why aren't the rest of us going out?" she questioned. Gizmo sighed while Angel decided to answer for him.

"We want to keep the Titans and the rest of the city ignorant to our group for the time being," she responded and then hummed softly. "As it is, we're an unknown and the longer we keep it that way, the longer before the Titans can come up with a potential plan to take us down," the thanagarian medic murmured. Gizmo nodded his head and Jinx frowned deeply.

"But aren't we supposed to watch Tempest back?" she reminded and the tiny terror rolled his eyes.

"Temp 'll be fine bitch, the guy is trickier than Cheshire and more tenacious than Slade," he reminded and then rubbed his chin. "As it is we want to keep this little group a secret from the Titans until we're actually ready to take 'em on," he stated with a nod. Angel hummed her agreement as she made a few modifications to the design Gizmo had set up for the new X-Suit.

"But," Jinx tried to argue, only for Gizmo to grunt.

"Look, we all know you have a crush on Temp, but he's a big boy and he can take care of himself," the tiny terror snarked. Jinx narrowed her eyes in response and then snapped her fingers. A spark of pink energy flew from her hand and Gizmo swore loudly as one of his spider-legs broke and he fell over. Angel smirked slightly at that, and then schooled her features and returned to work…

(Elsewhere…)

A familiar blond girl exited from the bathroom of her and her mother's apartment, a towel wrapped around her with another in her hair. She idly rubbed a hand over her head and then glanced to her mother. "Shower's open mom," she called out. Paula nodded in response while Artemis looked at her curiously. "Need some help?" she questioned, however her mother glanced at her with a smile.

"No I'll be fine on my own Artemis," she suggested. The blond girl nodded her head as she walked into their shared room. She briefly tossed her towels to the side and approached her bed as she heard the sound of the shower starting. However as she did she paused when she saw a long box lying on her bed. 'What?' she wondered and glanced around worriedly. She then knelt down and pulled the box close with a frown.

She looked over the box curiously, and then pulled a note free to scan it with narrowed eyes. -From a friend- the note stated simply enough. Artemis slowly raised a brow then pulled open the box to find a set of clothes and what looked like archery gear such as a compound bow, arrows, and quiver. She then stood up and pulled the clothes out first and held them to her body.

'Well it certainly looks like it'll fit me,' she noted to herself. She then idly pulled on the material and raised a brow. 'Tear resistant,' she mused and hummed quietly as she felt the material and then clicked her tongue. 'Tear resistant and extremely well made,' she decided. 'Hmm, did dad send this stuff?' she considered for a moment, only to pause as another note fell loose from the clothes.

She idly knelt down and picked up this note then scowled deeply. -The grinning cat and master of games, wait where they've hidden Prometheus flames- the note stated. Artemis didn't need to be a detective to know whom the note was referring too. 'Cheshire and Sports Master,' she decided then frowned. 'But what are Prometheus flames supposed to be?' she wondered to herself and idly picked up one of the arrows.

She idly twirled the arrow in her hand as she thought over the clue. 'Prometheus' flames,' she thought with a hum. She then paused as she recalled a news report she'd seen on TV earlier in the day. 'Something about an alloy they called 'Promethium',' she recalled as she tapped the arrow against her lower lip. 'Oh right they called it Volatile Promethium,' she noted to herself and then walked to her dresser.

She idly pulled her phone out of the dresser and sat on her bed. She connected to the Internet and then started a quick search for Volatile Promethium. Soon she found a page on the stuff and briefly read it over. 'Alright lets see here, highly mutagenic, mildly radioactive, absorbs and generates tremendous amounts of power,' she murmured and then paused at the last part.

'And it can be used to increase the yield of any bomb it's made into,' she noted with a twitch of her eye. 'By how much!?' she inwardly demanded and paled. She could imagine a few reasons why someone would want the stuff, but she just bet that her father and sister wanted to sell the stuff to the highest bidder. She could also imagine that the highest bidders would be villains with 'world domination' in mind…

'Yeah, so not happening,' she decided as she got up and pulled the rest of the outfit and weapons out of the box. However she paused and looked down at the outfit with a frown on her face. 'So then, do I wear the outfit of dubious origins or wear my street clothes to fight my sister and father?' she considered and frowned. She briefly mentally weighed the pros and cons of both, and then sighed tiredly.

'This is literally the only outfit mom doesn't know about so wouldn't notice if its ruined,' she decided and looked down at a sleeveless dark grey top with a stylized green arrow-tip design on the chest; it also had a mask attached to it. She pulled the shirt on, noted it stopped at her ribs and bared her midriff, and then pulled the mask up to her hairline. She paused to move around a bit and then glanced down at her chest with a raised brow.

'Okay… this thing actually fits better and supports more than any bra I own,' the girl noted, and couldn't help but feel more than a little creeped out by that fact. She quickly shook off the feeling and reached into the box to pull out a pair of dark grey pants with green stripes on the sides. She briefly considered a pair of panties, then sighed as she looked down at the pants with a frown.

'Given the top, these are probably too tight for 'em,' she noted as she pulled them on. She wasn't surprised to find that the pants were all but molded to her figure and felt her eyebrow twitch in irritation. 'Okay, whoever sent this stuff had way too much time on their fucking hands!' she decided as she turned back to the box. She pulled out a pair of fingerless dark grey gloves, black kneepads, and combat boots.

'Well at least none of this is all that scarily made,' Artemis decided until she pulled the boots on, 'fuck, custom fit, this stuff was literally tailor made for me,' she noted with a deep frown as she slipped the boots on. 'Alright fact, someone tailor made me a tear resistant compression outfit and a bunch of weapons, fact, they sent me information that's most likely about Cheshire and dad,' she noted and then looked around warily.

'Fact, this is well and beyond simply creepy at this point and hitting at stalker-ish levels of disturbing,' she noted with a shudder. She'd lived in Gotham for most of her life, in that time she'd heard stories of similar things happening. The major difference was that in most of those stories, The Mad Hatter was usually stalking the girl and had left a nasty little surprise in whatever 'gift' was sent her way.

On reflex Artemis pulled the mask down and checked around the temples, only to sigh in relief when she didn't find anything. 'No tech in the mask, so it isn't The Mad hatter, thank god, but it's still creepy as hell,' she noted to herself. She sighed as she then pulled a black utility belt, leg pouch, and quiver from the box and slipped them on. She fixed the harness attached to the quiver then pulled the compound bow from it.

'Hmm, nice,' she noted to herself, 'not really my usual speed but I can adapt,' she decided as she slung the bow around her torso. She then started to pull arrows out of the box, only to pause at a few of the more esoterically designed ones. "The hell?" she whispered and then shook her head. 'Better stick to what I know, test out the others later,' she paused and frowned, 'if I decide this stuff is legit and keep them,' she finished.

That decided she fished the 'normal' arrows out of the box and slipped them into her quiver before she closed the box and looked around. Unfortunately the room was small and there were few places she could hide the box of strange arrows. 'Crap,' she thought and then walked to the closet. She looked up and then sighed as she put the box out of reach for her mother.

'Sorry about this mom, but something tells me that you'll like this set up even less than I do,' the blond girl thought with a frown. She then marched off, only to pause and glance at herself in a nearby mirror. She then frowned as she touched the mask, which honestly barely covered anything. 'Okay, someone made me a tear resistant outfit that shows off my figure and supports everything… but makes a shit mask?' she questioned incredulously.

She shook her head of those thoughts and looked herself over once more. 'List of the top five reasons this stuff was definitely not from dad,' she thought and sighed. 'One, the mask is shit,' she noted with a frown, 'two, no real armor of any kind,' she mused with a glance down at herself. 'Three, he wouldn't send me a bow and a bunch of weird arrows, a riffle or sword, maybe, but not a bow,' she continued to mentally list to herself.

'Four, dad would've called me 'Baby-Girl' somewhere on the card at least one time,' she noted with a frown. She wasn't particularly fond of her father's little nickname for her, mostly because of all the times he'd used it mockingly. 'Five, the fact my midriff is bare,' she finished with a look at her bared midriff. Her father was many things, but he was in no way a fashion designer, things had to be practical with him.

In his mind her bared midriff was just asking for a knife in her guts, her father would've called it stupid, he would've called the mask pointless, and he would've said the green was too bright even with the dark gray of the 'costume'. The bow and arrows were fine, but again, he wasn't really into them so he likely wouldn't have thought to send them to her. That in mind she knew that someone sent the outfit, it just couldn't be her father…

'But who did then?' she wondered. She then sighed and brushed her hand through her thick blond hair. 'Too loose,' she noted and walked over to her dresser. She quickly fished out a green ribbon and then a brush and started to pull her hair back. Once it was all pulled back she swiftly tied the ribbon around the base of her hair. Once she was finished she shook her head as the thick ponytail swept around behind her.

'Much better,' she decided and then made her way out of the room. She briefly glanced around and then exhaled. 'I can't just vanish or mom'll know something is up,' she decided. Much as she liked using her stealth training, now was not the time. "Mom I'm heading out!" she called out as she made her way towards the window.

"Is everything alright?" she heard her mom call from the shower. Artemis breathed softly.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna explore a little,' she responded.

"Alright, but be careful and take your phone!" Paula called out from the shower.

"Yeah sure," the blond girl called out as she gabbed her phone. She then walked to the door, opened and closed it as if she had left. Once she had she snuck to the window and slipped out onto the fire escape and up to the roof. 'Alright, now lets see where I'm going,' Artemis thought as she used her phone's GPS to locate the 'Dayton Industries' building and smirked.

'Gotcha,' she thought to herself as she ran into the night…

(Jump City…)

The night was calm and cool, and it was a perfect night for a heist. At least in Naruto's own personal opinion anyways. Said blond rested on a building across the way from Dayton Industries. He narrowed his eyes from his perch and the HUD in his mask brought up an enlarged image of the courtyard of the building. There he saw a veritable menagerie of villains as well as the 'new teen titans' fighting them.

'Wow a regular who's who of villains down there,' the masked blond noted to himself as he saw several H.I.V.E. agents, including several of his former classmates. 'Wait a sec, is that I.N.S.T.I.G.A.T.O.R.?' he mentally questioned then snorted and snickered into his closed fist. 'Of all people, they sent him?' he had to question with a shake of his head. The oversized head in a robotic suit was… well; he honestly liked making fun of the guy.

'Him and his robotic speech, and his stupidly big words,' the blond thought with a snicker and then looked back down there. He frowned as he took note of the other villains and clicked his tongue. 'Professor Chang, Cinderblock, Plasmus, Overload, Doctor Light, Atlas, Adonis, Johnny Rancid… what the fuck is Control Freak doing here?' in internally demanded with a shake of his head.

In his opinion, the overweight couch potato didn't need to be anywhere like this…

He shook his head of such thoughts and frowned deeply at several others he saw fighting with the New Teen Titans. However he then snorted and had to hold his ribs as he started to laugh uproariously. He calmed down after a moment just to make sure he wasn't seeing things and then exhaled several breaths. He then raised a hand to his earpiece and sat back with a wide grin.

"Hey Giz, you guys have got to check this out!" the blond declared and Gizmo grunted.

[What is it Temp, and can it wait?] the tiny terror questioned. [I'm busy making some modifications for your suit,] he remarked pointedly. Instead of answering Naruto sent a live feed to his friend who was silent for a moment. He then started to laugh just as loudly, if not louder, than the blond. [Oh my fucking god! Is that Rock, Paper, Scissors?] he demanded and Naruto exhaled a breath and grinned.

"Looks like it Giz," the blond replied cheerfully.

[Jinx c'mere and take a look at this shit!] Gizmo shouted to their female friend.

[What's so…] the girl began then snorted, [is that fucking Rock, Paper, Scissors?!] she demanded then started to laugh just as hard as Gizmo and Naruto had. [Oh god I knew the H.I.V.E. was running out of talent but that's just sad!] she exclaimed laughingly, Gizmo laughed as well while Naruto rolled his eyes. [Wait… is that I.N.S.T.I.G.A.T.O.R. too?!] she demanded and the two started to laugh even harder.

[What have you two found so… oh… oh my,] Angel began then snorted and giggled into her hand. [I have to say, if this is the best the H.I.V.E. can muster then they have really fallen on hard times,] she noted and walked away. Naruto could just imagine the winged lass would break down into laughter when she found Kyd Wykkyd, so that she didn't let anyone else see her break down into peels of laughter.

[Oh fucking lord! There's Control Freak and Adonis too!] Gizmo exclaimed laughingly while it sounded like Jinx was running out of breath.

[C-Can't breathe!] Jinx declared through her laughter. Naruto rolled his eyes at that and killed the feed to save Jinx from the hilarity of the situation. The blond then exhaled a sigh as he stood up and checked his gear. He'd left his usual coat behind, but with the lack of weapons in his suit this time he'd decided to go 'back to basics' and collected some of his Shinobi gear. That in mind he'd also done a little… modifying.

He'd found a simple belt and then put several equipment pouches onto it, which he now wore over his suit. Each was filled with Kunai, shuriken, razor wire, lock picks, or any number of other things he might need. He'd also put seals on the Kunai and shuriken, so that with a bit of chakra he could recall them to the seals he'd put on the pouches. It was a close second to the infinite number of shurikens his X-Suit usually made.

He'd also grabbed his old Wakizashi and sheathed it at the back of his waist, on the off chance that someone of any real skill managed to corner him into a fight he was going to be ready. If that someone was Sasuke, well, the blond had decided he might have to bust out a few new tricks to get the ass hat off of his tail. He paused those thoughts when he saw someone scaling the building and narrowed his eyes.

'Well well, what have we here?' he wondered to himself. Most of the villains were running head long at the building without trying the stealth approach. Then again it was a sad fact that very few Jump City villains could be construed as 'stealthy'. It seemed as if Gotham had broken the bank on Stealthy villains, but then again with some of the weird powers available that wasn't too surprising.

Still, it begged the question of who his guests were tonight.

'So then, lets get a good long look at you,' the blond thought as he zoomed in with his optic lenses. There he saw a familiar babe, using hand claws and foot spikes to scale the building, as well as a large green / grey robotic man using the tentacles that extended out of his wrists to do the same… 'Fuck, its Cheshire and Cypher… somehow I should've expected that to come back and bite me in the ass,' he thought with a frown.

He glanced down at the spectacle that was the fighting villains and new teen titans, then shrugged and leaped off of his perch and into the night. He briefly fell then seemed to vanish in a plume of smoke. 'Shunshin for the fucking win!' Naruto declared as he reappeared on top of the Dayton Industries building. He then swiftly headed to the vents and pried the cover loose. Just as he was about to slip inside he turned at a sound.

There he saw Cheshire with Cypher coming up behind her. The masked thief idly raised two fingers in a mock salute and grinned beneath his mask. "Catch me if you can," he quipped playfully. With that he lunged into the vent and all but slid through them. He heard Cheshire and Cypher follow him but kept ahead of them all the same. The blond briefly glanced at his H.U.D. as a map came up and followed it.

He occasionally glanced back towards where Cheshire and Cypher were then grinned sneakily. 'Lets have a little fun with the kitty,' he decided as he quickly formed a couple of clones to briefly hang back at an intersection. He and the clones then split up in order to confuse Cheshire and her cybernetic helper. With an amused snicker the real blond continued on course to his target…

(Elsewhere…)

Artemis made her way up the side of the Dayton Industries Building. She idly glanced down at 'Titans' as they dealt with the numerous 'villains' who were also attempting to enter the building. Though to be honest she used the term 'villain' very loosely with what she saw down below. They were blunt and attempted to storm the building instead of trying to sneak in.

'I'll say a lot about my dad, but at least he taught me the value of subtlety,' the blond girl thought as she climbed the side of the building. She then climbed onto the roof and took a quick look around. She spotted the open vent and frowned deeply. 'Well I know where they went,' she noted to herself and hurried into the vent. She slid inside and sighed as she tried to navigate her way through the vents.

'Ugh, really wish I'd been able to scope out this place,' she thought as she quickly became almost hopelessly lost. However she paused when she noticed what looked vaguely like claw marks in the vents. 'So someone did manage to get in,' she realized and then quickly followed the marks. She soon came to a stop as she heard a ruckus and looked out of the vent to see her sister, Jade, AKA Cheshire.

'Well well, looks like I found you Jade,' the blond thought with narrowed eyes. She paused those thoughts at the sight of Jade's companion, a tall robotic figure in shades of green and grey. 'What the… is that Cypher!?' the blond demanded with wide eyes. Having lived in gotham for many years, she'd heard of the cybernetic mind controlling cyber criminal on more than a few occasions.

'Okay, Cypher, that's really bad,' the blond thought to herself. Jade on her own was a force to be reckoned with, but add Cypher and you had a big problem. 'Well that's just great,' Artemis thought with a frown. She also had to wonder if her sister had actually joined the League of Shadows. If she had then she had to give her sister at least some props, that was an exceedingly difficult thing to do after all.

Artemis shook her head of those thoughts and slowly followed Jade and Cypher as they made their way through the facility and listened in on the two. "You took care of all the guards right?" the emerald assassin questioned the cybernetic cyber-terrorist. Cypher silently nodded his head in reply. 'Well that answers that question,' Artemis mused to herself with a frown. Jade mutely nodded in ascent and then narrowed her eyes.

"Good, now find X before he gets to the Promethium," the girl ordered and Cypher nodded once more. The machine man then turned and pointed a hand towards a camera. Instantly a wire shot from it's wrist and plugged itself into the camera. The machine man was silent as its eyes began to glow, and then nodded down a nearby corridor. "He's that way?" Cheshire questioned and Cypher nodded. "Then lets go!" she declared and ran off.

Cypher tilted its head briefly then followed, although it glanced back as if it knew it was being watched. It took a moment to stare behind it, and then slowly turned back around to follow after Cheshire. Artemis breathed a sigh of relief, more than a little worried that the machine man had noticed her. Instead she took a moment to calm herself down, and then frowned as a question popped into her mind.

'Who the hell is X?' Artemis wondered to herself. She shook the question off for a later date and continued to follow the two as they made their way through the halls. The two came to an open door that looked as if someone had somehow cut it out of the wall, rather than trying to cut the door… 'Okay someone really wanted in there,' Artemis thought as she also tried to figure out how someone cut the door out…

It was a wall that was also a few feet thick; the questioned needed to be asked…

"Wonderful, he's here," Cheshire grumbled. Cypher looked at her and tilted its head, causing the emerald assassin to turn to him with a scowl. "Just c'mon!" she ordered and ran into the room. Cypher nodded its head and followed after the emerald assassin while Artemis followed the vent into the room. There she found a vent cover and placed her foot against it before bracing herself on the sides of the vent.

She inhaled a quick breath and then kicked the cover loose and slipped out into the room. It was a large room, she idly noticed it was an extremely open, not to mention empty, with several safes at one end of the room. 'Okay… but which is the right one?' Artemis wondered to herself then ducked to the side as a shuriken nearly impaled her head. She quickly calmed her nerves and looked to the shuriken, only to pause.

'What the hell…' she murmured and reached out for one of the weapons. She grasped it and inspected it intently, noticed the weight, the metal, and most importantly all the scratches and dings on the thing. Of those things the weight struck her instantly, the shuriken was abnormally heavy for a throwing weapon. Someone would need above average strength to hurl the thing with any skill or accuracy.

Artemis was pulled from her thoughts as the weapon vanished in a plume of smoke and quickly looked around for it. Instead she saw Cheshire and Cypher across from a man in a nearly all black suit with grey padding. It also had an old grey utility belt with a chain hanging from it, and a death's-head mask and bold red-x's all over it, which clearly told her who it was. 'Oh, so that's X,' Artemis guessed.

Meanwhile, Cheshire lunged at the masked thief and leaped into a flying kick. However Naruto chuckled as he grabbed her leg out of midair and tossed her to the side. As he did he felt something try to attach to the back of his neck and grinned nastily. The blond grabbed the wire and tugged on it, yanking Cypher forward and allowing the blond to leap into a flying roundhouse kick that sent the machine man flying.

"Fucking love body armor!" Naruto declared with a laugh. Cheshire looked to Cypher then turned to the blond with a roll of her eyes. 'Of course he wouldn't be that easy to deal with,' the emerald assassin thought to herself. "Cypher," she began as she pulled her sai from her kimono. The cyber assassin looked up to her as she narrowed her eyes on X with a deep scowl, "get the Promethium," she ordered.

Cypher gave a silent nod and she lunged at the thief. The cat masked assassin lashed out at the thief who dodged and weaved around her attacks with practiced ease. He hummed as he ducked under a swipe from the sai and then leaned back and kicked Cheshire away with a double kick. The blond then rolled back into a crouch while Cheshire was sent sprawling and growled in frustration.

"Aw watsamatter Cheshire," Naruto teased, "you getting frustrated?" he questioned. He then sidestepped as the girl hurled one of her sai at his head. "Now you know you shouldn't throw those," he teased with a shake of his head, "you might put some ones eye out," he noted with a nod of his head. Cheshire felt her brow twitch and narrowed her eyes on the masked thief.

"Yeah, yours!" the girl declared and lunged at the thief. He mentally rolled his eyes as she twisted into a kick which he caught with one hand.

"Aw, not in a playful mood today?" he mocked. Cheshire twitched and then twisted into a kick at his head, which he blocked with one hand. She then placed her hands on the ground and used her leverage to toss the blond away. She landed in a crouch and watched him vanish in a plume of smoke and appear on the ground with his arms crossed and a smirk clearly beneath his mask.

'You're the one who isn't playing,' Cheshire noted warily. While she'd always despised how he seemed to treat her with kid gloves, she could admit that when he wasn't playing with her it was just infuriating how far beyond her he was. With a shake of her head Cheshire twirled her sai in hand and lunged at the blond once more. She stabbed at him with the sai, but he effortlessly sidestepped each stab, the grabbed her arm and forced her to the ground in a single move.

"I didn't think you liked to play rough X," she grit out as he twisted her arm back.

"Not usually, but I'm flexible," he quipped in response. Cheshire rolled her eyes at that and struggled against his grip. As she did, Cypher hurried to the back of the room and started to open the lock boxes in order to find the Promethium. Upon seeing this, Artemis narrowed her eyes and notched an arrow in her bow. 'Well since that 'X' guy clearly has Cheshire in hand,' Artemis noted and narrowed her eyes, 'I'll take Cypher,' she decided.

With that the blond girl let an arrow fly towards the cyber criminal. However Cypher turned and caught the arrow in mid-flight, then snapped it in one hand. 'Crap,' Artemis thought as she quickly notched another arrow and fired it at the cybernetic criminal. Cypher silently rose to his feet and avoided the arrow and then crouched down and hurried towards the blond girl. 'Double crap!' Artemis thought with wide eyes.

She ducked out of the way as Cypher came lunging at her and then rolled into a crouch with her bow drawn and an arrow notched. She let the arrow fly at Cypher and was briefly surprised to see it pierce his armor and cause him to stumble back a ways. 'Oh wow, I really need to find out what those are made of,' the blond girl decided. She then swore aloud as Cypher came at her with a swipe of his claws.

As she did both Naruto and Cheshire looked up and were surprised to see the girl.

"Wait a second," Naruto murmured to himself. The low voice was very familiar, as was the girl's physique. There was also the fact her mask didn't really cover much of anything as well. Literally, it left her chin, lips, nose, ears, and eyes all exposed, not to mention her long golden blond hair… 'Okay whose idea was that mask? Also, I know I've seen her before,' he decided and then snapped his fingers. "Right, that's," he began quietly.

"Artemis?" the blond heard Cheshire questioned incredulously and glanced down at her.

"Wait, how do you know Artemis?" he questioned. Cheshire turned and looked up at him with suspicious eyes.

"I could ask the same," she stated accusingly. Naruto tilted his head in response.

"I helped her and her mom move into their new apartment this morning," he admitted with a shrug. Cheshire looked at the blond dubiously for a moment then rolled her eyes. 'Somehow I'm not even surprised by that,' she thought to herself. It wasn't even a surprise if she were honest with herself. It was almost painfully obvious the blond had, at some point, been a hero.

"She's my little sister," she then deadpanned in answer. Naruto blinked at the admission and snapped his fingers.

"Oh, so that's why they looked so familiar," he murmured with a nod. The family resemblance between the three women was pretty strong after all. He then paused and noticed that Cypher was trying to grab Artemis with its wrist cords. Naruto frowned at that; he could clearly recall what'd happened to Starfire when the future Cypher managed to grab her with its 'tentacles'.

'Mind control, and I'm so not letting that happen,' he decided firmly. With that he placed a knee on Cheshire's arm and back to hold her down and quickly formed a familiar T shaped hand seal. A shadow clone instantly popped into existence at his side. Naruto then turned to the clone with a serious expression.

"Go get 'em," he ordered and the clone vanished in a plume of smoke. However the blond himself grunted as Cheshire used his distraction to kick him off of her and then rolled to the side and tried to stab him with a sai. The blond quickly grabbed the sai and the girl's arm and narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Is this any way to treat someone who's trying to help your sister?" he questioned darkly. Cheshire scoffed.

"She can take care of herself," the black haired girl remarked, "Trust me, Sportsmaster made sure of that," she stated with a frown in her voice. 'Who?' Naruto wondered as he then head butted Cheshire, cracking her mask and dazing the girl at the same time. 'She really needs to think about getting a better mask,' he decided as he tossed the girl off of himself and rolled into a crouch. As he did Cheshire got up and glared at him…

Meanwhile, Naruto's clone lunged at and grabbed Cypher from behind as it tried to grab hold of Artemis. The clone then grabbed the back of Cypher's head and started to pull on it with gritted teeth. Sparks started to shoot off from Cypher's neck and the man machine instantly ceased its attack on Artemis to bat the clone off of itself and focus on him instead.

The clone landed on the ground in a crouch and noticed Artemis notch another arrow at Cypher's back. 'That's clearly not working,' the clone thought to itself. Her arrows could pierce Cypher's armor, but that was useless if she didn't know where to hit the machine man. 'We need to find a weak spot,' the clone decided as he looked over the machine man's body with a frown.

It was, unfortunately, extremely plain and any vulnerable systems were likely double plated to keep Cypher from being easily defeated. 'But, maybe if Artemis can get her arrow stuck in him,' the blond considered as he looked to his hand. 'Yeah, Static Gauntlets!' he decided and then lunged at Cypher. He then dodged around a quick strike from the man machine and leaped behind him to land next to Artemis.

"Get an arrow in 'em, I'll do the rest," he stated quickly, and before she could tell him not to order her around he had already lunged at the cyber criminal once more to build up a charge in his gauntlets. Artemis felt her eye twitch and then narrowed her eyes on the fighting criminals. 'Can't believe I'm following his stupid plan,' she thought to herself as she narrowed her eyes. 'There!' she thought and let her arrow fly.

The arrow soared quick and true and then plunged deep into the armor on Cypher's back. The man machine lurched forward on impact and Naruto's clone ducked into a roll and grabbed the arrow. 'Here goes everything,' the clone thought as his hands and forearms began to spark with electricity. The man machine stood stock still as electricity arched along his body and he shuddered in a silent scream before falling over.

Naruto's clone stood up and then brushed himself off. 'Huh… so is he down for the count?' the clone wondered to itself as it idly tapped Cypher with his foot while Artemis walked to his side. The machine man didn't move and the clone grinned widely and turned to Artemis with a raised hand. "High five?" he suggested. Artemis gave the clone a dubious look and then sighed as she placed her palm against his.

"Yes!" he declared with a pump of his fist. 'This guy is so weird,' Artemis decided then looked to the Red-X fighting Cheshire. She then turned back to the clone with wide eyes.

"There're two of you?!" she demanded. The clone looked at her strangely then glanced at the original and grinned.

"Nah, I'm just a clone," he stated and vanished in a plume of smoke. Artemis felt her eye twitch as she turned back to where Cheshire was and looked at 'X' warily. 'Okay so not only is the guy really weird, but he can apparently multiply on the drop of a dime,' she thought with a shudder. She then pulled an arrow from her quiver and ran to attack Cheshire, and probably the thief as well.

She first fired an arrow at the two, Naruto leaped back out of the way while Cheshire ducked beneath the arrow. As they did Artemis pulled another pair of arrows and fired them off in rapid succession. Cheshire rolled out of the way of her's and then lunged at Artemis. As she did Naruto pulled his wakizashi from the back of his waist and batted it into the air silently.

Artemis dodged around Cheshire and batted her to the side with her bow, then fired another arrow at the skull-masked thief. Naruto crouched as the arrow came at him and then swung his wakizashi. The sword sliced through the arrow, cutting it in half lengthwise and causing it to land in two spots behind him. Artemis paused and looked at the masked blond incredulously.

"The fuck?" she demanded, "no I'm so calling bullshit!" she snarled and pointed at the now very amused blond thief, "No one can cut an arrow in half in mid flight like some kind of anime ninja reject!" she declared with a twitch of her eye. Cheshire rolled her eyes and smirked.

"Yeah, he has a bad habit of doing the impossible," the emerald assassin remarked. She then kicked her sister to the side and lunged at Naruto. The masked blond smirked as he used his wakizashi to block her sai and she hummed. "Ooh, that's a really nice sword," she remarked, "kind of small though," she noted teasingly. Naruto rolled his eyes in response and then pulled back to get Cheshire in arm's reach.

"True 'nough, but size isn't everything," he stated as he knocked Cheshire on her back. The girl grunted and flipped back to her feet, then ducked to the side as Artemis came swinging with her bow. "You do realize that isn't a club, right?" Naruto questioned as Artemis looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"Yes, but it's not like I have a weapon to," she began only for the blond to toss her a pair of Kunai from his belt. She caught one with wide eyes and stared at him incredulously. "Why the hell are you giving me weapons?!" she demanded. Naruto hummed and slunk around a stab from Cheshire, then grabbed her arm and pulled it into a painful hold.

"Mostly I'm just bored and hoping for a little more fun between the two of you," he admitted with a sigh. Cheshire growled at that and glared at him from over her shoulder.

"I don't do threesomes," she growled at the blond. Naruto grinned in response.

"Good, cause I still don't know where you've been," he stated cheekily. Artemis snorted and had to hold back laughter as Jade snarled and tried to elbow the blond. However he vanished in a plume of smoke and landed next to her, arms crossed and a clear smirk in his voice. "Do you even know how to use those?" he asked with a nudge to the kunai. In response Artemis started to twirl the kunai, tossed them into the air, then caught them.

She then looked at the masked blond with a smirk.

"I think I can manage," she remarked. Naruto whistled in response then looked back to Cheshire, who had recovered her second sai.

"So," the masked thief began, "has she always been this easy to rile up?" he questioned surreptitiously. The blond girl grinned in response.

"No, I think you just got under her skin," she remarked. Naruto hummed in response.

"Must be thin skinned then," he noted with a nod, then sidestepped a throwing knife from the now clearly livid cat-masked girl. She then lunged at the blonds; Artemis ducked to the side while Naruto caught her sai with his wakizashi. "Oooh, testy," he noted as he kicked her back. She grunted and flipped to her feet, eyes narrowed on the masked thief. "What? Don't like me talking to other girls?" he questioned with a teasing tone.

"No, just not when it's my little sister!" she snapped. Artemis rolled her eyes in response and came at the older girl from behind. Naruto saw this and vanished in a plume of smoke while the blond landed a roundhouse on Cheshire from behind. Cheshire fell to the side and then flipped into a crouch and narrowed her eyes. Artemis looked at her with a smirk, and idly twirled the Kunai in her hands.

"Thanks for that Jade, but you know I can take care of myself," she quipped dryly. As she did Naruto focused on the name 'Jade' and looked to Cheshire with an amused grin.

"So your real name is actually, Jade," the blond thief noted with a tap of his chin. He then clapped his hands together and tilted his head to the side, "Aw, that's such a nice name," he remarked. Cheshire felt her brow twitch and glared at the both of them.

"Oh I hate you both so much," she grumbled softly. She then lunged forward and leaped at Naruto, only for the blond to grab her from midair. She tried to stab him but he vanished in a plume of smoke then appeared behind her and kicked her to the side. She was given nearly no time to react as Artemis lunged at her and caught her sai with the two Kunai the masked thief had given to her.

Cheshire grunted as she held the blond girl back and warily noted she was being double teamed by the duo of blonds. She looked between the two of them and briefly glanced at the downed Cypher. 'Shit,' she thought to herself, 'I can't retreat, not from these two,' she decided as she crouched low and twirled her sai in her hand. However she paused at the sound of someone clapping.

As one, Naruto, Cheshire, and Artemis all turned to see a man approaching them. 'Oh great him,' Cheshire thought with a scowl. The man was a tall burly fellow with blond hair; he wore a steel hockey mask, a black short sleeves compression shirt, black pants, black combat boots, a dark blue flak jacket with a steel shoulder pad, black knee / elbow pads, a black utility belt, a steel plate on his left forearm, and fingerless black gloves.

"Well well," the man intoned. Instantly Cheshire and Artemis pulled away from one another and glared at him, "Doesn't this seem like a lovely family reunion," the man remarked with his arms spread wide. "Both my little girls are here," after all. Naruto looked at the two and then to the man and hummed.

"So this is the father," he murmured, "well at least that explains Artemis' blond hair anyways," he murmured to himself. Cheshire then kicked Artemis to the side and flipped back a ways. She came out in a crouch, eyes narrowed on the man and hands clenched tightly on her sai.

"This is just great," she remarked with a glance from Naruto, to Artemis, and finally on Sportsmaster, "all of my least favorite blond people in one room," the girl grumbled. This caused Artemis to look at Naruto curiously as she got back on her feet. 'So he's blond then,' she noted and stowed that information away for later. As she did their Sportsmaster turned to regard the skull-masked thief with a curious expression.

"So who're you supposed to be?" Sportsmaster questioned with a look at Naruto.

"X," Naruto began, "Red-X," he stated with a mock bow. He then straightened up and tapped on his chin with a hum "So," he began as he idly twirled his wakizashi in his free hand, "given the mask and other gear I'mma take a wild guess that you're some kind of a 'hockey enthusiast'," the blond quipped playfully. The blond man looked at the thief and idly chuckled.

"Cute," he stated as he pulled something from his belt, "I'm actually into a lot of things, though mostly I'm just a humble mercenary," he admitted. "Most know me as simply Sportsmaster," he declared as a heavy weight fell from his hand and impacted with the ground. It was attached to what looked like a thin metal cord and caused Naruto to raise a brow. Without warning Sportsmaster lunged at the blond with a swing of his weapon…

A familiar purple eyed girl whistled the tune of 'if I only had a brain' to herself as she climbed through the vents of Dayton Industries. She paused at an intersection and reached into her black white-furred cat-suit to pull out a set of blueprints. Strangely they were the plans for the Dayton Industries building with a small note -To Duela courtesy of 'mister author dude'- printed near the bottom of it in black sharpie.

Aside from that were many other doodles and drawings of random things in black sharpie, which the girl had clearly done while she was bored. At the moment however she hummed softly and lifted her cats-eye goggles to her forehead to get a better look at the plans. She raised a finger and idly traced the path she needed to take before she heard the sounds of fighting from somewhere in the building.

"Oh, I guess I'm close," the redhead mused as she folded the blueprints up and slipped them into her cleavage. With that stowed away she continued to whistle to herself and crawled to the sounds of fighting. She briefly pulled her goggles back down over her eyes and pressed a small button on the frames. It caused the world around her to turn an odd yellow color and let her look through the walls.

"Heh, Thief Vision for the win!" the girl declared with a grin. She then raised the goggles back to her forehead and crawled her way to where she'd seen four people fighting one another. She then clambered out of the vents in a familiar room where Cheshire, Artemis, Naruto, and Sportsmaster were fighting one another. The thief giggled to herself as she stood up and brushed herself off.

She glanced around for a moment and then slunk to the side, keeping close to the walls and stealthily made her way to the rear of the room. As she did the three combatants continued to fight one another fiercely. Duela paused, only once, in order to take a picture of them fighting, and then continued on her way. She idly bobbed her head as she palmed her way to the wall of safe-boxes with a frown.

She reached back into the open front of her cat-suit to pull out the blueprints again and looked at a doodle of the wall that had one safe in particular blacked out. "Gotcha," she stated as she looked for the box in particular. She noticed that it had a num-pad and an electronic lock and frowned deeply. "This could take some work," she admitted to herself and then snapped her fingers as an idea came to her.

"Or I could completely bypass all that since Cypher already killed the alarms," she stated with a nod. She then reached into her backpack and pulled out a fake flower with a long tube, which led into a squeezable pouch. She idly aimed the flower at the safe, stuck her tongue out to one side with one eye closed, and then squeezed the pouch tightly. A green stream of acid shot from the flower and quickly began to eat away at the safe.

The crazy crimson haired dame idly whistled to herself and pulled a file from her backpack. She then used the file to slowly file the claws on her gloves while the acid continued to eat at the metal door to the safe. She glanced at it a moment, then sighed as it continued on slowly. "Now I remember why I don't use that stuff," she mumbled to herself and started to tap her foot impatiently.

She paused that and glanced over at the still fighting people and couldn't help an amused smirk as she ducked under a stray shuriken from a certain blond. "Man, none of them are very observant when they're fighting each other," she noted and glanced to the side, "Are they?" she asked seemingly no one with a wink. She then sighed and looked to the claws on her gloves with a frown before she blew a breath into her messy bangs.

After a while, in which she busied herself watching X and the others fight and silently cheered for the skull masked thief, the lock on the safe was finally eaten away by the acid and the girl grinned widely and reached inside to pluck out a locked briefcase. The crazy redhead grinned as she put the briefcase to the side and pulled another out from behind her back from… somewhere… and held it over her head.

The new briefcase was jet-black in color with a number of bright neon-green exclamation and question marks dotted across its surface. Duela looked to the briefcase with a smile as she put it down on the floor and set a timer on it. She briefly glanced at the still fighting thieves / mercenaries / heroes in the room and tapped her chin in thought then snapped her fingers and set the time for a minute or two.

"That should be more than enough time for the Titans to notice that someone is robbing the place and for me to get away," she decided with a nod of her head. That done she picked up the briefcase of Volatile Promethium, only to pause and frown in thought. "Maybe I should check just to be sure," she considered and then opened the briefcase. Inside she saw several bars of white metal and quickly closed the lead-lined case.

"Yeah, that's the stuff alright," she stated and quickly locked the briefcase to prevent any radiation from getting out of it. With that done she then put the briefcase behind her back, where it vanished and she stood up and brushed her hands off. "Time for me to go," the crazy redhead stated and then slunk back to the vent where she'd entered from. She then looked up to it and leaped up onto the wall, using her claws to climb over to the vent.

She then opened then grate and slipped inside, feet first, before pausing to wave to seemingly no one. She stopped when she heard a crash and looked to the side to see a large man in red armor laid out. Atop the man was a clearly annoyed Wonder-Girl, who saw the four fighting 'villains' and lunged to attack. "And that's my cue to beat it!" Duela commented before she slipped into the duct and vanished into the vents…

(Naruto Vs Sportsmaster…)

Naruto ducked and rolled out of the way as Sportsmaster came at him with a swing of his weighted weapon. 'What is that thing, some kind of bola or something?' the blond once Shinobi idly wondered to himself. He then ducked beneath another swing of the weapon and lashed out with a low roundhouse kick. Sportsmaster leaped up over the kick and swung his weighted weapon down at the blond.

Naruto vanished in a plume of smoke only to reappear behind the blond man.

"Fun fact," the blond began as he palmed several shuriken in his off hand, "never let me out of your sight," he quipped and hurled the shuriken at the older man. Sportsmaster quickly rolled out of the way and narrowed his eyes on the blond haired thief. He idly twirled his weighted weapon at his side and slowly circled around Naruto. The blond did the same, eyes narrowed as he kept the elder blond in his sights.

Naruto idly twirled his wakizashi in his hand then slowly sheathed it behind his waist and dropped into a stance. Sportsmaster saw this and lunged at the blond with a swing of the weighted cord. Naruto ducked under the attack and lashed out with a quick hook. Sportsmaster sidestepped it and lashed at the blond with an overhead swing of his weighted weapon.

Naruto ducked to the side and tossed several Shuriken at Sportsmaster in retaliation. However the hockey-masked man used his weighted cord to block several of the shuriken, only to grunt as a few managed to find purchase and dig into his flesh. The blond man yanked one of them out and flung it back at the blond thief, only for Naruto to snap his finger. Then shuriken vanished in a plume of smoke and reappeared in his hand.

"Nice huh?" Naruto quipped as he tossed the shuriken into the air and caught it in his hand. "Sorry chuckles, but none of my personal weapon's can be used against me," he remarked as he flung the shuriken at Sportsmaster once more. The blond man grunted and batted the shuriken to the side with the steel bracer on his left forearm. He then took several panting breaths and chuckled to himself.

"Alright kid, I'll admit you have some neat tricks," he admitted and twirled his weighted cord at his side. "But without those your just a punk kid in a fancy suit," the man accused, however Naruto snickered to himself. He then grinned widely as he pulled a kunai from his belt in one hand and a chain in the other. He then attached the chain to the kunai and twirled the kn\ife in his grip.

"Ya know chuckles, that trick might've worked on me in my younger days," he admitted as he let go of the kunai. However it held aloft, leaving Sportsmaster to raise a brow as the kunai and chain started to rise into the air seemingly of their own accord. "But here's the thing," he began in a deadly serious tone, eyes narrowed and nary a trace of mirth in his voice.

Sportsmaster stepped back and he watched the floating kunai with chain circle around the blond. 'The hell is this?' Sportsmaster wondered with wide eyes. Naruto himself simply focused all of his concentration on the chakra string connected to kunai and chain. It was the closest approximation he could make to his mother's chakra chains at present. He was working on a pure chakra variant, but for now this would have to do.

"I'm not a kid, no matter my age," he asserted firmly. Sportsmaster lunged forward and twirled his weighted cord at the blond. However the floating chain lashed out, wrapped around the cord and pulled it down. Sportsmaster was given a moment to widen his eyes before Naruto landed an uppercut that sent the blond man flying back. Sportsmaster maneuvered himself into a backwards roll and came out in a low crouch.

"I've nearly died more times than I can count," Naruto stated as his chain started to circle around him like a coiled snake. "I've been betrayed and very nearly killed by the man I considered my best friend several times," he continued as the chain started to slam into the ground. "I've fought in a fucking war, seen friends die, and killed more people than I honestly care to admit," the blond continued in a low angry voice.

Sportsmaster narrowed his eyes warily, and then quickly dodged to the side with a curse as the chain suddenly lashed out at him. It shot forward and tore through the ground where he had been while Naruto turned to him with narrowed eyes. His chain seemed to return to him and coiled around him once more. The blond idly raised his hand and the chain coiled around the outside of his arm.

"So don't call me kid, and I couldn't give one fuck what you or anyone else thinks of how I do business," the blond intoned as the chain shot out towards Sportsmaster. The blond man rolled out of the way and then flipped onto his feet. "Sure I use a lot of tricks and I like to play and mock you people when I fight you, but I'm still holding back every time," he remarked and then flipped the kunai in his hand into a reverse grip.

"This chain trick for instance, it's literally the bare bones of what I can really do when I put my mind to it, one one-hundredth of the scope of my full abilities," he remarked and narrowed his eyes. "But that's just 'cause I'm being nice and giving you idiots as fair a fight as I possibly can, instead of mowing you down and attracting the big guns," he continued with a shrug while Sportsmaster slowly stood up and faced the younger blond.

"That said old man, you really want to see me off the chain, then by all means I'll be happy to oblige," he remarked with his arms outstretched and then fixed a look on the other man. Sportsmaster was silent for a moment and then let out a low chuckle and grinned towards the blond haired thief.

"Fine then, X," he began then cracked his neck. "I can respect being discreet," he stated and pulled a stick from his belt. He flicked it to the side and the stick lengthened into a baton, which he then flipped in the air and caught in his hand. "I honestly hate all the punks running around blowing up buildings for shits and giggles nowadays, it's refreshing to see a man with a good head on his shoulders again," he admitted.

"So lets have some fun with this, shall we?" he suggested. Naruto smirked in response but before they could do anything the far wall exploded inwards. Both blond men turned to see Adonis stumble forward for a moment then fall face forward. Behind the armored man was the form of Donna Troy, AKA Wonder-Girl, who had a sword and shield in hand, only she then leaped at the two men when she saw them…

(Artemis Vs Cheshire…)

The blond haired girl blocked Cheshire's sai with the Kunai Naruto gave her and grit her teeth as the older girl tried to physically overpower her. Which was unfortunately not too difficult for her as she was clearly much stronger than when they last met. 'Christ, what the hell has Jade been eating to get this strong?' the blond wondered. She then pulled Cheshire's sai to the side and head butted the older girl.

Unfortunately for the girl, unlike X she didn't have a helmet and so hurt her face as well.

"Son of a bitch!" she swore as she grabbed her face while Cheshire shook off her daze and lunged at the blond. Artemis grunted as Cheshire rammed into her, and carried her to the far wall. Artemis impacted with the wall with a grunt then kicked Cheshire off of herself and narrowed her eyes on the older girl. Cheshire meanwhile landed in a crouch and looked at the younger girl with a smirk.

"You getting angry, hun?" she asked playfully. Artemis felt her eye twitch then dropped into a low stance and leaped at her sister with a roundhouse kick. Cheshire ducked under the kick and then lashed out with one of her own, knocking Artemis to the side. "Oh wow, you know what you're really out of practice sweetie," the elder girl noted with a bit of a teasing tone. Artemis blinked and shook her head.

Though oddly enough she could almost swear she saw someone moving in the shadows. She shook off the errant thought and rolled onto her hands and feet and flipped back up and lunged at Cheshire once more. The elder girl dodged a few swings from her kunai and then grabbed her arm and twisted it back painfully. Artemis hissed in pain for a moment then threw a punch at Cheshire's head, knocking her to the side.

As Cheshire stumbled to the side Artemis lunged at her and lashed out with the kunai, only for Cheshire to duck under the swipes and then sweep Artemis legs out from under her. "You seriously need to get back in shape," Cheshire mocked as she turned and brought her heel down, only for Artemis to roll out of the way and fling one of the kunai at the older girl.

Cheshire moved out of the way only to grunt as Artemis rammed into her from the side and pressed her head against the wall. The blond girl held onto her elder sibling tightly and narrowed her eyes. "Not bad for someone who's out of shape, huh?" she grit out with a nasty smirk, "more than enough to take you down," she accused; however Cheshire merely chuckled in response.

"Aww, you're so cute Artemis," the girl teased, she then lifted her feet and then pushed off of the wall. Artemis gave a cry as the both fell over. Cheshire rolled off of Artemis only to quickly stab her sai down into the ground next to the blond girl's head. The blond girl looked up with wide eyes while Cheshire grinned. "But face facts, your out of your depth," she declared firmly.

However Artemis instead focused on the person in the vents above them.

It was a redheaded girl in a black cat suit with white fur, the girl also had a pair of cats eye goggles and seemed to give her a friendly wave. "The hell?" Artemis questioned. Cheshire raised a brow, and then looked up to see the redheaded girl, then turned as the wall to the side suddenly exploded. From it they saw Adonis fall forward and Wonder-Girl leap at Red-X and Sportsmaster with a roar.

"Shit," Cheshire muttered then grimaced as she saw a yellow / red blur run in. The blur then slowed down to reveal Kid Flash. "Oh of course," she muttered and pulled her Sai up and looked at the redheaded boy. "Why can't anything be simple?" she wondered to herself, only to pause when she saw Cypher finally getting back up. "What took you so long to get back up tin soldier?" she demanded of the silent cyber criminal.

Cypher didn't answer, instead he focused on Kid Flash who looked around in surprise and then sighed tiredly. "Of course not all of them were outside," he muttered and then blurred out of the way as Cypher tried to grab him with his cords. Cypher was briefly surprised, then was knocked to the ground by Kid Flash, who looked at him with a clearly amused smirk.

"You know big guy," Kid Flash began and then zipped out of the way as Cypher lashed out at him, "I've heard girls like the strong silent type," he continued as he knocked on the cyber criminal's head. Cypher seemed to twitch as he lashed out with a fist only for the speedster to blur out of the way. "But I really think you're taking it a bit too far," the redhead remarked conspiratorially.

Cypher lashed out with his cords again, yet the speedster had already blurred out of the way. The young speedster looked to Cypher with a smirk while Cheshire palmed her face and grunted as Artemis kicked her legs out from under her. "Don't forget about me!" the blond declared as she kicked the older girl to the side. Cheshire rolled for a few moments and then flipped onto her feet and twirled her sai in hand.

"Ooh I'm so scared," she mocked then leaped back as a stream of water separated the two of them. Both girls looked to the side to see Kaldur, the marks on his arms glowing blue and the water literally bending and moving around him. "Well that's a new one on me," Cheshire murmured softly. Kaldur gave a bemused expression as he raised his arms and then sent a stream of water surging towards the girls.

Artemis swore as she rolled out of the way while Cheshire flipped back and pulled several throwing darts from her belt. 'Wait, he's an atlantean, meaning his skin hardens while it's wet,' the dark haired girl realized with a frown. She then stowed her darts back in her belt and narrowed her eyes on the blond teen. 'Right, so I'll just get to play with him the old fashioned way,' she decided and then lunged at the teen…

Meanwhile Naruto batted Donna away as she lunged at him and Sportsmaster. Said elder blond flung his baton at the girl but she batted it away with her shield. The Amazon then flipped and turned in the air and landed in a low crouch across from them. The girl twirled her sword at her side and narrowed her eyes on the two blond thieves while Sportsmaster glanced at Naruto.

"Think you can take her?" the elder blond questioned and Naruto hummed and rubbed his chin in mock thought.

"To dinner? Cause honestly with a body like that I'd be crazy not too!" he quipped with a wide grin. To be totally honest he was only being half playful and half serious, cause he really would take her out to dinner with her looks. 'God what is it with this world and all the hot women in it?' the younger blond briefly wondered to himself. Sportsmaster couldn't help a slight chuckle while Donna rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, I don't date criminals," the girl stated and then lunged forward. Naruto rolled his eyes as he pulled his Wakizashi out to block her sword and dug his heels in the ground. 'Kaimon Kai!' Naruto thought as he opened the first gate to help match the girl's strength. He couldn't help a satisfied smirk as the Amazon looked at him in surprise when he not only managed to match her strength.

"Aww really?" he complained teasingly, "and here I thought we could go and get to know each other better," he noted with a dramatic sigh. As he did Sportsmaster chuckled and made his way to the lock boxes and started to open them. 'Going to have to bring this guy with me on a few jobs in the future,' the elder blond decided. As he did Naruto deflected Donna to the side and flipped back as she swung her sword at him.

"A long walk at the beach," the blond remarked with a hand to the side as he landed on his feet. He then rolled to the side as she came at him with a swing of her sword. "A candle lit dinner by the bay," he suggested as he flipped over the girl. Donna growled low in her throat and lunged at him once more. However he grabbed her hand and wrapped an arm around her waist in a twirl.

He then swung her out and pulled her close in what could only be a mock dance move as he faced her nose to nose. "Maybe a little dancing under the moon," he suggested with a hidden wiggle of his eyebrows. Donna frowned and narrowed her eyes on the skull masked theif.

"Hmmm, sounds romantic," Donna remarked and swung her shield at the blond. Naruto released her and rolled back into a low crouch. Donna then twirled her sword at her side and narrowed her eyes on the blond, "but only if you're planning on dining in jail," she declared firmly. Naruto shrugged and shook his head in response as he got back up and kept his eyes trained on the dark haired beauty.

"Nah, I hear the service there is lousy," he remarked and Donna smirked.

"Well before the night is out," she began as she dropped into a stance, "you'll be able to find out," she declared firmly. She then lunged at the blond with a swing of her sword, which the blond blocked with his wakizashi.

"Aww, I bet you say that to all the thieves," the blond quipped. Donna just looked at the masked blond with a bemused expression before she nearly slammed her shield into his face. Naruto yelped and ducked back to avoid the shield and hummed. "You know, that shield really brings out the color of your eyes," he remarked playfully. Donna frowned and then lunged forward to ram her shoulder into the blond, only for him to vanish in a plume of smoke.

"Ugh I'm starting to understand why Robin hates you so much," the Amazonian beauty remarked bluntly. She then yelped and leaped away as Naruto appeared and looked at her from over her shoulder. "How did you!?" she demanded and Naruto grinned.

"Well first of all, thief, stealth is kind of my thing doll," he reminded her as if it was obvious, which it was, "second, aww so the kid does think about me," he stated and then chuckled to himself. "And here I was starting to think he didn't care," he quipped and then flipped back as Donna launched at him. She swung her sword at him several times and then grunted as they locked swords yet again.

"Do you ever shut up?" the amazon demanded bluntly and Naruto grinned cheekily.

"Not while I'm awake!" he declared playfully and then shoved Donna back. As he did he heard a loud bang that drew the attention of everyone in the room. As one they looked to the wall of safes and saw a bright light rise into the air.

[Greet - Greet - Greetings everyone!] a girl's voice declared as a woman appeared on the wall as if it were a screen. The girl was a redhead with her hair slicked back into a mess of spikes, a green domino mask over her eyes and a green top with purple question marks. [I am The Rid - Rid - Riddler's D - D - Daughter!] She declared with her arms stretched wide and an almost insane grin across her lips.

Donna and Wally both groaned when they saw her while Naruto narrowed his eyes at that and placed a hand to his ear to call Gizmo. "Giz we might have a problem," the thief mumbled as he watched the girl grin.

[It is my esteemed pl - pl - pleasure to invite all of you - all of you to acquire the Volatile Promethium,] the girl declared while Naruto heard Gizmo groan.

[Oh fuck its her,] the tiny terror moaned. Naruto blinked and arched a brow.

"You know her?" the skull masked thief questioned.

[Of her,] Gizmo corrected. [She's a crazy little nut case who thinks she's the daughter of random villains from Gotham,] he explained and Naruto raised a brow. He then looked back to the screen as it flashed and the girl leaned forward on her cane.

[Of course it would - would - wouldn't be much fun if I just invited you to my lair - lair - lair,] the girl remarked with a nod of her head. [So that in mind here's a little rid - rid - riddle to wet your appetite!] she exclaimed. [This place of knowledge always begins with a lie - lie - lie!] she stated with an eerie grin. Almost instantly Naruto saw Cheshire and Cypher lunge to the window and leap outside, closely followed by Sportsmaster.

[Now it's been a real joy - joy - joy talking to you all,] Duela noted and Naruto frowned. 'Why is there so much emphasis on Joy?' the blond wondered. [But I can't give you any more of a helping hand - hand - hand,] she continued, emphasizing 'hand' for some reason. [So be sure to keep your sanity - sanity - sanity, if you want to find me!] she exclaimed and then started to laugh as the projection shut off…

"Well guess it's time to hit the streets," Artemis remarked only for Kid Flash to grab her with a frown.

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere blondie," the young speedster stated, "you've got a lot of questions to answer," he declared. Artemis looked at him incredulously before she noticed her kunai vanish in a plume of smoke. "What the?" Kid Flash demanded. Naruto had already recalled his weapons to his belt and then formed a hand seal as he saw Donna and Kaldur try to box him in and smirked.

"Later kids, better luck next time," he stated with a mock bow and then grinned, "if there even is a next time…" he intoned as he used a quick Shunshin to vanish in a plume of smoke. The blond reappeared outside of the Dayton Industries Building and frowned deeply. "Great, now I need to go out and find the crazy chick who has the metal we need," he remarked as he cupped his chin, "Got anything for me Giz?" he questioned.

[Well technically the riddle she left would point to the Library but I'm not sure if it really means anything,] the tiny terror replied. Naruto idly nodded his head, something about all the emphasis she put on those words at the end had sounded like a clue to him.

"Yeah… didn't she put a lot of emphasis on three words in particular," he remarked and Gizmo grunted.

[Yeah I noticed that too,] he admitted and hummed softly. [She specifically put a lot of emphasis on joy, hand, and sanity,] Gizmo muttered and snapped his fingers. [Ah I see what she did there; the Library is a red fucking herring! She's at the abandoned Happy Hands Sanitarium out on the outskirts of town!] the tiny terror deduced. Naruto frowned in response.

"You sure about that giz?" Naruto questioned lowly.

[She said and meant 'this place of knowledge begins with a lie' and is dressed like the Riddler before she put emphasis on three specific words. This is a word puzzle, a pretty good one too,] the tiny terror admitted. [Most people think that Riddler is always literal when he sends riddles, but sometimes he likes to get really creative and send a riddle in a riddle,] he remarked and Naruto nodded his head in understanding.

"Right then Giz," the blond remarked and narrowed his eyes. "So how do I get this place I need to be?" he questioned. A few moments later and a map appeared on his HUD with a Red-X on a spot outside of town. "Gizmo you rock!" the blond declared with an amused laugh. He then lunged forward and seemed to blur into motion before vanishing in a plume of smoke…

(Meanwhile…)

As the Titans left Dayton Industries, and dragged Artemis with them, three figures looked into the building from the hole in the wall. "Well damn, this was a bust," Killer Moth remarked and pouted. "And I really wanted to see what I could do with the mutagenic properties of that Promethium too," he noted with a sigh. Willow, clad in her base armor with an LC2 Olive-Drab Pistol Belt and Butt-Pouch around her waist, and silk-shooters on her wrists, idly patted his shoulder from her spot hanging from the wall beside him by her hands and feet.

The girl had managed to scale the wall of the building using a combination of her chitin and slime. She did so by creating the same 'hairs' on her limbs out of chitin that actual bugs used to climb walls. However in order to make them stickier and thereby support her weight she'd also allowed them to be coated in her slime. This had given her enough adhesion to stick to the walls and climb them like a real insect.

Of course Killer Moth himself could simply scale the walls like a bug without such a complicated method.

"It's alright Uncle Drury, we'll get the next batch or something," she suggested in a placating tone. The mutated mothman sighed but nodded his head in agreement. As he did Kitten, dressed in a mostly black costume with Pink-X's on her chest, hands, feet, and skull-mask groaned and palmed her face. She was riding on Killer Moth's back, seeing as she didn't have the ability to adhere to walls like her father and cousin.

"But I wanted to try out my new outfit!" she complained and pouted beside her father. Willow looked between her relatives and then shook her head. She looked Kitten's 'suit' up and down and then clicked her tongue. 'Spandex was the worst idea she could have possibly had for a suit,' the armored girl noted to herself. Though perhaps that was just cause she was used to forming armor and using it… meh.

"You do know your suit is kind of… bad, right," she told her cousin honestly. Kitten rounded on her, however Killer Moth nodded his head in agreement.

"Yeah she's right," he noted. Kitten looked at the man with a clearly hurt expression and he huffed. "Don't give me that look Kitten, I've used a spandex costume before," he reminded her and then rubbed his head. "No fucking protection and believe me when I say you want some kind of padding for when people punch you," he noted with a shudder, his numerous encounters with Batman and Batgirl coming to mind.

"Well," Kitten began and then sighed, "Okay maybe you have a point," she allowed. Killer Moth nodded and then rubbed his chin as he looked at his daughter's outfit. While he wasn't sure he liked her inspiration for it, he did admit it had some potential. Especially since Red-X clearly wore a lot of padding and armor. Any kind of costume that provided his little girl protection was good in his mind.

"Say, why don't I get in contact with Scarab and Firefly and see about getting your outfit upgraded," the man offered. He and the other insect themed villains were almost like friends when they met up. He'd actually had their help busting Willow out of the 'H.I.V.E.' and had actually considered calling Queen Bee for help as well. Not the actual queen of Bialya of course, but the 'alien' known as Queen Bee, but that seemed like overkill…

"Wait, you mean it?" Kitten asked brightly. Killer Moth smiled and nodded his head. "Aw thank you daddy!" she declared and hugged him around his neck. The Mutated Mothman chuckled in response and grinned to himself. While it was true he kind of wanted Kitten to be normal, if she chose to be a villain then he'd help her be the best villain she could possibly be!

"Yeah… but we might want to get out of here before the guards wake up," Willow noted, breaking the two from their moment. They looked at her and then quickly agreed as the three swiftly left the Dayton Industries Building to return home. While they hadn't managed to get any Promethium, or even a clue as to where Duela was, they could at the very least say they'd managed to avoid the Titans.

That was way more than most of the other villains out tonight could boast!

TBC…

AN:

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A girl dropped into her room from the ceiling with a wide grin on her face. "Hello readers and reviewers, we're sorry we were away for so long, but the author had a lot of stuff to do," the girl stated with a bow. She was a familiar girl, albeit with long wavy blond hair and tanned skin. She was dressed in an odd outfit, a red mask with a yellow diamond on the forehead that left her purple eyes and nose down to her chin completely bare.

She also wore a high collared red midriff baring top with a diamond shaped cleavage window, forearm length crimson red gloves, a familiar brown backpack on her back, a pair of red and black striped briefs with yellow tights over her athletic legs, and cuffed crimson knee high boots. "Normally," the girl began as she sat on her usual desk, "I'd pretend to do someone else's intro," she remarked and frowned.

"Unfortunately the author couldn't think of one for this chapter," she noted with a shake of her head and a sigh. She then started to glance around shiftily before she stage whispered to her camera. "If any of you have any suggestions, feel free to make them," she offered. She then stretched her arms up and sighed as she crossed her legs. "In any case, I'm the Card Queen!" she exclaimed then grinned.

"Like my new uniform?" she questioned and hopped onto her feet and did a little twirl, "I used it back in the day when a bunch of bad guys tried to convince me to help 'em take out Robin," the girl explained. She then sat back down with her arms crossed over her chest. "But funny story I was technically working with the Titans at that point," she noted with an amused smirk. "So of course I helped put 'em in jail," she stated with a nod.

"And just in case you're wondering, no I am not related to the royal flush gang," she stated with a firm nod and crossed her arms. "I'm a queen of all cards, not a single suit!" she stated as she pulled a deck of cards from her back. "See! I have razor cards for everyone!" she declared and flung several of said cards to the side. Most of the cards impacted with several pictures of her 'fathers' and she grinned darkly.

"What can I say, fathers suck!" she declared with a nod. She then crossed her legs once more and idly tapped her fingers on her thighs. "So anyways, those who will likely complain that this wasn't technically my origin be calm. This chapter is more of a set up for the next one, which will really get into the meat of my origins," she stated with a nod of her head and idly looked to her phone.

"Also, the author wanted me to mention he's posted a few new pieces of art for this story on his deviantart page so feel free to check 'em out if you want," the normally redheaded jester stated and then tapped her lower lip. "Isn't that kind of a shameless plug though?" she wondered to herself and then shrugged her shoulders. "Meh, who cares," she decided and then stretched her arms into the air.

"Also, fun fact, Volatile Promethium and Depleted Promethium are both cannon metal alloys in DC," the redhead began with a nod of her head. "To the author's knowledge they first showed up in the eighties in 'The New Teen Titans' and were created by Steve Dayton, BB's adopted Father Mento. The metals were used to make a bomb, and is what Slade's armor is supposed to be made of," she explained then frowned.

"Yeah… apparently someone at Deathbattle wasn't aware of that fact when they tried to match Deadpool against Deathstroke. His armor is made of Volatile Promethium, which was named in honor of 'Prometheus Fire' and has nothing to do with the element of the same name. Volatile Promethium can absorb tremendous amounts of energy, but is also highly mutagenic," the redhead began to explain as she buffed her knuckles on her chest.

"Slade's regenerative factor actually prevents him from mutating, and for all those who are curious, Slade can't re-grow his eye because he got his healing factor AFTER he had already lost it!" the girl stated and shook her head, "Seriously, so many people over look that obvious fact," she murmured and then sighed. "Anyways, other characters who have made armor of the stuff include Arsenal, AKA Roy Harper," she noted and grinned.

"Yep, Roy totally took Depleted Promethium and combined it with Kevlar to make a light and flexible yet near indestructible suit," she explained and then frowned as a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Wait… why the fuck has no one else used that shit in all of DC's lore? I mean it's rare yeah but not that rare, and especially not when they know the guy who makes the shit," she noted and then pulled her phone out and smiled.

"Now for my favorite part of the story, Q and A!" she exclaimed cheerfully. However after a moment she paused and held up her index finger. "One second," she stated and then pulled off her mask, alongside the mask was a blond wig, which she happily removed and then ran a hand through her messy hair. "Oh that is so much better," she decided and then cleared her throat.

"Alright first for tonight is," she began only to pause and look to her Baby-Ursa. Today the Baby-Ursa was chewing on a doll of Robin, which the crazy clown girl had given to it after feeling randomly vindictive against the dark squire for some reason. "Drum roll please my Ursa friend!" she pleaded. However she pouted when the Ursa ignored her yet again. "Oh fine," she grumbled and used her phone to find a drum roll instead.

"Dut duh duh duh! prototype gear!" she exclaimed and then looked to his review with a soft hum. "Pink-X will likely appear a bit more if the author feels like he can fit her in, and she even did appear in this chapter, it was the costume that Kitten was wearing while she was out with Killer Moth and Chitin," the redheaded crazy explained with a nod. She then looked to the next review curiously.

"Aw thanks zack silverstone," the clown girl stated with a smile, "love all you guys too!" she declared and blew a kiss to her camera. Duela then flicked her phone and shook her head at the next review. "Oh Devilscreed, there's no need to worry, while work does get in the way we'll eventually get these chapters out," she noted with a nod of her head, only to pause and tap her chin.

"Although," she considered for a moment then shook her head, "no! Nevermind!" she declared. She then read the rest of the review and hummed softly. "To be honest that all depends on how well the author knows a specific hero. Most of the characters he's used thus far are Teen Titans exclusives or started that way and he was able to locate them in their lore and learn about them, it'd be harder for the lesser known leaguers," she noted.

"Sorry tamagat, but the pairing is still up in the air, the author isn't sure what he wants to settle on," Duela replied and then looked back to the reviews. "Well D N Walker if you want to get technically it's an alternate timeline so it still counts as a flashback for Starfire since it happened in her past," she replied and then hummed in thought, "but at the same time it might be the future so could be a flash forward," she admitted then shrugged.

"I'mma just say I don't know and time travel hurts my brain," she declared as she rubbed at her temples. "Actually PFMF, Jinx's powers are the same in this story, including the weird weakness she had when it came to superstitious things that cause bad luck," the crazy clown girl explained. She then looked to her phone and paused at the next review, her eyes glassed over for a moment and a frown crossed her lips.

"Honestly reven228, I don't remember back then all that well," she admitted and a grimace crossed her lips. "Sometimes I remember it one way," she admitted and then winced and grabbed her head with both hands, "sometimes I remember it another," she continued and let out a strangled laugh. "P-Personally, if I have to have a past, I'd prefer it ta be multiple choice!" she declared and then clenched her eyes shut tight.

The girl was silent for a moment before she shook her head and focused once more.

"M-Moving on," she stated quickly and looked back to her phone. She paused and raised a brow at the next review then glanced to her camera strangely. "Uhhh… the author says thanks Fencer22, if you're complementing him that is," the girl offered and then shrugged and laid down on her desk. She hummed a tune to herself as she looked to the next review with a hum.

"Well NeoNazo356, the Author tried the robot Deadpools but their programming caused them to explode," the girl noted as she pulled a random robot arm from seemingly out of nowhere and tossed it to the side. "He also says I'm an 'unpaid intern / figment of his warped imagination' so I don't get a raise either," she continued then frowned, "and finally he refuses to give me Deadpools," she stated and crossed her arms with a pout.

"Besides that it's not so bad renovating the place since I get to do whatever I want to the place and at least he isn't breathing down my neck to finish things up," the redhead noted with a nod and then flicked the screen on her phone. She hummed as she came to the next review and clicked her tongue. "No problem Toa Naruto, sorry you weren't first this time but here's hoping for next time," she stated with a wink to her camera.

"As for Cypher zero point three," Duela began and then grimaced, "Yes, she did in fact commit suicide," she admitted awkwardly. "The author felt that, given decades of abuse and torture she would be well within the point of insanity where, in her mind, suicide was her only viable option for escape. Naruto actually hasn't been able to follow any of what Starfire has told Raven thus far, he's still on earth after all," the girl explained then moved on.

"Sorry WindyCitySlayer1, but there will be NO Naruto Raven in this story," the girl stated with a slow shake of her head, then narrowed her eyes, "I mean I've said it before and I'm saying it again," she remarked with a sigh. She then moved on and hummed softly with a tap of her chin. "Actually Kid Coheed, Kaldur wasn't trained by Aquaman, he's not quite as awesome as the Kaldur in YJ is," she remarked.

"Also, if you look back in the comics from the Eighties you'll find that Mammoth IS actually just as strong, if not stronger, than Wonder Girl and Starfire both. The shows have never really shown how strong he actually is but he can in fact go toe to toe with Donna when he's properly motivated. You also forgot about Kyd and his teleport Hax," the girl explained and then looked back to the phone.

"Hello again OBSERVER01!" Duela stated with a smile, "Most of your questions are a 'wait and see' I'm afraid. However I have never actually claimed to be a superheroes daughter, I mean I'm the Joker's Daughter, not Batman's daughter or Superman's Daughter or Flash's daughter!" the girl declared with a smile and a shake of her head and then looked back to her phone and hummed.

"Actually no he doesn't, Naruto is completely in the dark about the stuff Starfire is telling Raven right now V01dSw0rd. There is no bug on the planet that could have a range long enough to follow the Titans to the Vega System. And yes, that is where they are, it's where Tamaran is supposed to be as well," the crazy redhead explained and then looked back to her phone and clicked her tongue.

"Sorry InfamousFox, the author doesn't know Bayonetta enough to feel comfortable writing a story about it. He doesn't have the game is why," she replied with an apologetic smile. She then looked back to her phone and tilted her head to one side, "A Crisis Ryuunoshin, for now we're going to focus on this story, a Crisis might be way too much for the author to handle," the girl replied then moved on once more.

"Um, thank you for that Edrick Twilight Legend," the redhead began and then glanced at her camera. "To be honest the author was never sure about pairing me with Naruto because he figured most people would consider me more an 'OC' since I'm not identical to the traditional 'Duela' from the Comics," she admitted, then frowned, "Though the New 52 bitch is hardly comparable either," she grumbled irritably.

"Hey PugTheMagician! First of all not sure what you mean about the Authors suit, but anyways in the chapter Roy mentioned he'd moved their ship when he was talking to Barbara. It was a minor detail but it was there, their Bio-Ship landed in nearly the same spot afterwards so that might've confused you. Yes it's a RWBY Baby-Ursa, DocSlendy sent 'em to me a couple chapters ago!" the girl stated as she reached over to pet the Ursa.

It looked up at her strangely, then returned to chewing on the Robin doll while Duela sighed. "Unfortunately the little guy is pretty wild and untamable," she noted and then grinned widely. "Kind of like me!" she declared cheerfully and then looked back to her phone with narrowed eyes. "You'll just have to wait and see OMAC001," the crazy redhead replied and then hopped off of her desk.

She took a brief moment to stretch her arms up over her head and then started to do a few stretches to limber up. Once she was finished she leaned back and looked back to the reviews on her phone with a quiet hum. "Well FrustratedReader, sorry you feel that way but to be honest the 'future' story was originally going to be it's own story alone but then the author thought of a few problems with that," the girl and admitted and sighed.

"First and foremost was that if he wrote the 'future' story without the context of this new story he'd be bombarded with way too many confused people who believed that it was a sequel to Red-X Rising. As much as you might complain about it, you can't say some people wouldn't think it was a sequel to Rising if it wasn't a part of this one?" the girl stated with a shake of her head and then leaned back.

"And anyways, there will be at least one more jump into the future to finish it off, we think, maybe two, but honestly the author wanted to write that part of the story and will continue to do so. It is his story after all," she remarked with a shrug. "And to you, Drust, the reason he didn't make a direct sequel is because he honestly can't get himself back into the mindset he had back then to write it," she finished and then sighed.

"Anyways I guess that's all for today guys," the redhead stated and then looked around with a hum. She then clicked her tongue and focused on her camera. "I've got to put the last few finishing touches on this place before Naruto and the 'New Titan's' come in to get that Promethium from me," she noted with a nod and then sauntered over to the camera and picked it up with a wide smile.

"My real origin will finally be explained whenever the author updates," she stated and felt a shudder crawl along the length of her spine. She paused to look around warily and then chuckled nervously. "Maybe I'll finally figure out why that seems to scare me so much," she remarked and then cleared her throat. "But for now, until next time, I'll say buh-bye!" she declared and cut the feed out…

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