Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Young Justice.
A/N: Sorry for nothing else lately, I think I just hit a little burnout and needed a break. Remember to vote if you haven't!
Beta: Jebest4781 and Chaos-PSD.
Chapter XXVI: Unknown Factors.
Last Time.
"Well, as I said, it's more for Megan and Zatanna, you're just along for the ride," Naruto replied as they got in the line.
"Lucky me." Crystal deadpanned as Naruto pulled her against him.
"Yeah, you are."
Hollywood January 18, 17:19 PST.
"OK finished your homework?" Naruto asked the teens who were still in school before getting a groan back. "Good! Let's get to training!" That got a louder groan from all but Wonder Girl who pumped her fist and grinned. "Come on, the sooner you start, the sooner you're done!" Naruto yelled while walking to the gym.
"Cassie, Static, and Jaime. We're working on your cardio, so treadmills." Naruto pointed a thumb at said equipment before turning to the others. "Bart, Ed, Tara, Violet, Brion let's work on strength training. Find a machine and go for thirty minutes."
"We're not on the Outsiders," Tara said as Naruto nodded.
"Yeah, but you are living here. So get to it!" Naruto yelled, getting Tara and Violet to groan as they walked to the other side of the room.
Now.
Hollywood January 20, 20:26 PST.
Nightwing and Black Lightning in their Darkwear stood in the woods looking at Gretchen's single storied house before Nightwing saw a live video feed of Cat Grant interviewing Gretchen at the premiere of the studio's newest movie before Oracle texted him.
Live Feed Confirmed.
Granny's away…
Time to play.
"Got it."
"Got what?"
"Confirmation, Granny's away for real, just got a live feed confirmed by our computer." Nightwing lied before looking back at the house.
"Isn't this just a simple recon of Granny's house?"
"Recon yes. But I never said simply." Nightwing replied pulling up the Motherbox Dreamer left them.
"Dreamer didn't take that back?"
"She hasn't returned for it yet, no. I asked Motherbox to ping in case there's any Apokoliptan tech inside. And ping, she did."
"Hey." Lightning spoke stopping Nightwing. "You're not suggesting an illegal search here."
"That ping was probable cause. Besides, we can't leave old Granny alone with Apokoliptian tech. She might hurt herself." Nightwing said walking to the house having Lightning groan as he followed.
Once getting to the house, Oracle texted Nightwing again.
Your Darkwear's picking up Granny's wireless security network.
Activating counter-frequencies pulse from your Darkwear transmitter.
The camera's down.
videos from the surrounding camera suddenly went blank before the two went to the door, hacked the lock, and went inside.
Boom!
Just as a Boom Tube opened up underneath them.
Gotham City; Naruto's Penthouse January 21, 20:29.
Naruto stood behind his couch reading a report from Kaldur on the girl they took to Atlantis choosing the name Dolphin before he heard a chime on his comm. Turning his vision on, he saw Oracle messaging him.
Nw & BL missing almost 24 hours on a recon from Goode's home.
"(Sigh.) With them being there illegally, the League can't do anything." Naruto said aloud what he said came up in a blue text box before it was sent. "There anyone else on our secret team who can provide backup for me?"
No the- wait…
You're going?
"Yes, why else would you contact me? Everyone else is on the Team or Outsiders now."
Right… I'll provide backup.
"OK, I'll get my Darkwear out, you ready the Bat-Jet."
Bat Plane.
"Jet's more accurate," Naruto said before his vision turned off and he left to his office to change.
Ivy Town January 21, 20:30 EST.
(A/N: These scenes will be canon, feel free to skip.)
A heavily pregnant Karen and Mal are driving down the road as snow falls in the air.
"So... I did it. I tested for the Meta-Gene." Mal said as Karen sighed.
"Mal, we talked about this."
"You got tested."
"That was for my dissertation. I had to test my blood sample as a control. Before, you know, I shrunk down to study and alter the Gnome." Karen said as Mal glanced at her.
"You wanna hear my results or not?"
"No… Y-Yes. No, no, no. Ye-Oh just tell me!"
"No Meta-Gene. Just a regular guy."
"So, we both tested negative," Karen said holding her stomach. "That's fine."
"Yeah, but wouldn't it have been cool if Karen Jr. would have had it?" Malcolm asked, glancing over.
"Malcolm Jr. doesn't have to be Meta to be cool." She said looking over before looking forward.
"Of course not… Most parents would've freaked! But we could have handled it."
"We have a lot of experience babysitting Meta's."
"Meta or not… I hope our daughter has your big beautiful brain." Mal said, looking to her for a second.
"Your brain's beautiful too. And our Son will be blessed to get it." She said before looking forward. "Anyway, it's all luck of the draw."
"Does it have to be?" Mal asked, glancing over. "I mean, in a world that's genetically evolving so rapidly… You said Gnomes can be altered. Maybe a little of your science can give our girl an edge. At least make sure she can keep up."
"Let's just leave that to mother nature," Karen said as the snowstorm picked up before speaking after a moment. "Mal…"
"Yeah?"
"I think my water just broke."
Hollywood January 21, 17:32 PST.
"You sure you don't want to come home, Victor?"
"Thanks, dad, but this is really where I need to be," Victor replied as he and his father were patching things up as Beast Boy and Geo-Force walked in through the elevator. "Whoa!" Victor yelled out seeing Beast Boy was covered in red holding his right wrist up. "Is that blood?"
"Not blood… Ketchup." Beast Boy replied in an annoyed tone. "And bar-be-que sauce, and hoisin sauce. Which I slipped on and landed on my wrist wrong too!"
Geo-Force grinned as he put his hands on Beast Boy's shoulder. "One could say the restaurant's hostage crisis became a sticky situation, and Beast Boy couldn't cut the mustard against the new villain calling himself 'The Condiment King'."
Terra and Forager with his helmet on ran to the elevator for a mission with M'gann as Helga told them good-bye as well as to be careful before the door closed.
Kage; Gretchen's House January 21, 17:35 PST.
"I won't need you to keep Granny occupied," Kage said in his Darkwear to Oracle before knocking on Gretchen's door before she answered. "Good evening, I believe you have some friend's of mine," Naruto said with his voice distorted.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"I know you've talked to Desaad so cut the act," Naruto said as she narrowed her eyes.
"You mean that your friends broke into my home illegally?" Gretchen said before Naruto quickly threw shurikens hitting the windows and walls as he walked inside.
"Oh, look, you were attacked by the League of Shadows, I think my friends just came in to make sure you were OK. Now I like to see them."
"As you wish. Overlord." Gretchen said as Naruto noticed a handheld blue box on a table on the far side of the room light up red before he and Gretchen dropped into a red elevator into what looked like a gold energy dimension.
Ivy Town January 21, 20:36 EST.
"You're doing great. Push."
A female assisting nurse said as Karen was giving birth. Karen groaned as she held Malcolm's hand as well as a male nurse. "You're doing great. And hey, if you hurry, our baby could still be born on Martin Luthor king's birthday… Well, on his holiday anyway-!"
Karen reached up and pulled Malcolm to her. "You did not just tell me to hurry!?"
"No, no! Definitely not!"
"Focus Karen, one last push!" The nurse said as Karen screamed before they heard a baby cry.
"Well hello there. Welcome to the world, baby girl!"
"Hear that Mal? A baby girl."
"You did it!" Malcolm said before the doctor took the baby and gave her to the nurse.
"Wh-What's wrong?"
"Karen, Mal… Stay calm, there's a problem with your baby girl."
Hollywood January 21, 17:43 PST.
Victor and Garfield are both in the gym with Gar on an exercise bike.
"I'm telling you Gar, it's like a fog's clear. I'm finally getting how to live with this tech. Donna and M'gann say it's just my 5 stages of the grief healing process, that I'm at the final stage, acceptance." Victor said as he brought his left hand up and the hand-folded down and his arm opened up into a canon.
"Whoa!"
"Yeah, Beetle taught me that one!" Vic said, bringing his hand back to normal.
They then went to a bicep curl machine where Gar puts it at 225 pounds.
"No way!"
"Indulge me."
Victor's eye and lines on his left arm glowed as he started and on his first attempt caused him to throw the weights clean through the ceiling. "Crash!/Crash!"
Brion is on the roof, looking at the Halloween picture of himself and Violet. He is interrupted by Helga, to whom he confides that he had been avoiding Violet and made himself very difficult to talk to. He leaves to talk to her, but Helga dissuades him from doing so. Violet feels out of control, she tells him, and Violet needs to be in control first.
She distracts him by showing him the Outsiders' social media feed on her phone, encouraging him to respond to the Outsiders' fans, especially the ones from Markovia.
Ivy Town January 21, 20:46 EST.
Karen is in her super suit which is a form-fitting black and yellow costume that resembles a bumblebee as she puts on scuba gear over it.
"Karen, you just gave birth!" Malcolm said as their daughter had breathing tubes on her after finding out she has a hole in her heart. "When I let Ryan go to get your gear from Dr. Palmer's lab I thought I was humoring you. I didn't think you seriously tried to use it!"
"I wasn't playing Mal. You know me better than that."
"Doc back me up, any news on that heart surgeon?" Malcolm asked before Karen turned to him.
"He opens hearts, not snow-covered roads, he'll be too late."
"Then how about Naruto? He has that healing power?" (1.)
"He's not answering his cell and I forgot his knife that calls him! Now, I'm doing this!"
Karen then shrinks down small enough to fly into the syringe of the assisting nurse and is injected into her daughter.
Hollywood January 21, 17:41 PST.
Naruto looked to see both Nightwing and Lightning without their masks screaming as they faded in and out.
"Those that require correction and discipline are brought here, to my X-Pit," Gretchen said as they stopped by the two. "These two naughty boys required much of both."
"Let them go."
"You're welcome to take your two friends. Simply step through the walls."
"OK." Naruto shrugged before walking through the wall and swam to them, nothing happening to him before pulling them and the Motherbox back in. "Take us back." Naruto finished looking at the shocked Gretchen who brought them back up. "Have a good night," Naruto said before walking to the door.
"Not with the Motherbox," Gretchen said as Naruto looked over his shoulder.
"Not in the bargain."
"Such behavior requires correction," Gretchen said as Nightwing and Black Lighting let go of Naruto and walked to Gretchen.
"Now, obey your granny. My command is Darkseid's will. Teach your naughty friend a lesson." The two then turned to Naruto who had a slight shock look and got in a stance.
"(Sigh) Really, is this all of your group's go-to method? It's getting really tiring." Naruto said before punching Nightwing to the floor, knocking him out as his arm glowed blue.
Ivy Town January 21, 20:43 EST.
Bumblebee finished the patch on her daughter's heart, which stabilized the baby. Karen asks for a minute to rest before she comes out and deactivates the field. She then shrinks down to the subatomic level, where she examines her daughter's DNA helix.
She remembers back to her dissertation, where she isolated her own genome and added genes that would enhance the subject's physiology. She submitted the dissertation to help spark a debate on the ethics of artificially enhancing the genes of humanity. A debate that she now faces internally as she holds a strand of genetic sequence while beholding her daughter's DNA.
Hollywood January 21, 17:50 PST.
Naruto then dropped the Motherbox as he dodged lightning that hit the computer before Naruto jumped over to Lightning and brought his knee up to his face and then grabbed his head before throwing him down on the floor to knock him out.
BOOM!
A Boom Tube opened up having Victor, Brion, Violet, and Garfield run in the room. Violet heals the Motherbox and then bathes Nightwing and Lightning in a purple aura while incanting in what Gretchen Goode recognizes as the tongue of the Old Gods, removing their brainwashing.
"Garfield, you are long overdue for discipline. All of-!"
BOOM!
Gretchen yells at Garfield, and just then, the Batplane fires a missile towards her, cutting her off in mid-sentence.
Lightning catches a glimpse of a Bat-drone before everyone quickly departs in a boom tube made by Victor. "Yes, run away, children. Run for your insignificant little lives. I had my fun, and I hope for your sake that you all learned a lesson!" Alone, Gretchen lifts the small bluish box from the floor, revealing the contents to be a miniature robot computer. She comforts it, telling it that everything will be alright.
Ivy Town January 22, 00:16 EST.
An exhausted Karen looks at her daughter, telling her that everything will be alright. When Mal questioned her as to what she had done, she only answered that she did the right thing.
Hollywood January 21, 18:18 PST.
Back at the Hub, Jefferson has seemingly recovered from his ordeal, but Dick is suffering from the aftereffects as he's covered in sweat and shaking. Starfire is by his side, telling him he'll be alright. "OK, maybe this will help," Naruto said, showing a white circle on his right hand.
"Maybe?"
"Yeah, it doesn't cure illnesses' so it may not work, OK?" Naruto asked before putting his palm on Dick's head and after a moment, he stopped moving before falling asleep. "That's not our problem anyway."
"And what is?" Star asked as Naruto pulled Dick's right sleeve up.
"Whatever Gretchen did to him… Removed my seal. The one that protects you all from mind control." (2.)
At the same time, Brion finally gets the courage to approach Violet. He apologizes for his behavior, and they hug. Helga, however, does not seem to be pleased with the reconciliation. She immediately sends a text message on her phone
Complications
I need to get my kids out.
Western Mongolia January 22, 12:18 ICT.
Ultra Humanite looked at the text Helga just sent him before typing himself.
Arrangements made.
Be ready. I Will contact you soon.
Hollywood January 21, 19:01 PST.
Gretchen was kneeling in front of a red hologram of Darkseid. "Good news, sire. Tonight I found the Anti-Life Equation." She said as he narrowed his eyes.
To Be Continued.
A/N: Thanks for reading and let me know of any mistakes.
Beta: Jebest4781 and Chaos-PSD.
The Gretchen talking to Darkseid as the last thing in the Ch. That was an after credit scene if you didn't know... Now DC's doing them.
Again sorry for not much being updated, I guess I hit burnout and needed a break as whenever I sat down to work on a story, I wanted to do anything but work on my stories. Of course, it could be due to how much time being at home is like when it rains all you wanted to do was go outside, being stuck at home all I want to do is anything but sit at the computer.
1. Just a refresher he still has his healing power/real arm due to starting the original before he got the power and lost his arm.
2. As you saw, we did decide on his seal not working against the device/Anti-Life Equation. But for those that thought it should/could have, I decided on the seal being burnt off during the process.
Remember to vote in the poll if you haven't!
Nothing else to say.
Talk To You Later,
Lone Wolf Out.