Joseph was not just a miserable child, at the age of 15, he was a miserable teenager. Gone was the once round face full of baby fat, gone were the wide eyes full of childhood wonder. What replaced them were a thinning maturing face with sharp eyes that seemed to follow you everywhere. Standing a 4'8, Joseph wasn't the most frightening figure that that you would run into in Gotham, but he was dangerous as any thug you would find on the street.

And like any teenager that didn't have a positive role model, Joseph Bruce or JB decided to turn his attention to the only way to make money in a city like Gotham.

Walking through the hallways of his school, JB smirked as he dapped up one his friends and was quickly passed a roll of cash.

Palming the roll, JB frowned.

"Do I look a fool to you, Ricardo?" hissed JB

"Nah man, but EJ hasn't come in with his half of the cash man" explained his Hispanic worker

"EJ? That retard skipping out on paying what he owes Penguin?" Joseph questioned as he shook his head.

"I guess bruh" said one of the lesser members of the gang

With an eye roll JB turned around and left the school, not carrying about the fact that it had just started for the day. Walking several blocks south, he came up on Grand Ave and Martha Street. Making a left he walked right up to the broken down house that EJ.

Not bothering to knock, JB kicked the door in and set the door flying through the open hallway.

"EJ, you got 3 seconds to pay what you owe or ya ass is mine" said JB

His threat heard despite him not raising his voice as footsteps were heard on the floor above him. Scoffing at the sound a door opening, Joseph bent his knees slightly and jumped up, crashing through the 10 foot ceiling above him and allowing it to become his new floor.

"EJ, you didn't have to do all this if you wanted out" said JB as he looked at his white friend EJ, his blond hair dreading from lack of washing it.

"JB, I was just on my way to hand deliver the money to Penguin." said whiny voice of EJ

"Don't worry, I will take that off your hands" said JB before he snatched the money out of EJ's hand and pocketing it.

"So we good?" whimpered EJ

JB chuckled and shook his head no, "Absolutely not"

JB's eyes flashed red and he blurred in front of EJ and slammed his foot into the bottom of EJ's head. Said head popped clean off and with a snarl JB closed his eyes and focused on the power within. Opening his eyes, a burst of flames shot out of JB's hand and lit the entire room on fire. Jumping through the hole that he created, Joseph walked out the front door, his work here done.

Later at that same location:

Batman growled as he looked over the burnt down home, Jason was away on a school trip and thus the Dark Knight was patrolling solo on this night

"Another known gang housing burned down, it doesn't make any sense. Why would someone burn down the home of their gang members?" questioned the Dark Knight as he looked around for clues.

"Sir, this was the home of one Eric Johnson Jr, someone who had recently become an informant against the South Gotham Penguin chapter gang. It seems that they silenced him the best they could, by killing him and destroying any and all evidence." answered Alfred in his ear from the Batcave.

"Hmm, what are the chances that a gang member turned informant would be found out within a single week?" question Batman

"Not very likely sir, perhaps this wasn't the gang getting rid of a rat as they say, but rather that young Eric here wasn't able to live up to his portion of whatever deal he had with the gang" Suggested Alfred

"Sounds good Alfred, you dig up anything else that you can on him, I will put my ear to the street and see what I can dig up myself" said Batman before he cut the communication line, his eyes were glowing blue, showing that they were analyzing the area.

"A metahuman capable of flames this strong will be a serious threat to Gotham, I better asked around to see if anyone else has encountered one this powerful" Batman muttered to himself before leaving the charred building.

But he didn't need to travel more than a trio of buildings before he grabbed his trailer by the throat and slammed them into a wall, knocking the absolute wind out of the individual.

"You treat every lady this good or am I special?" wheezed Zatanna, struggling to make the joke as her air supply was cut off.

"Where have you been?" growled Batman as he released his hold on her, her hand moving to rub the bruised spot on her neck

"Doing what you asked me to do ya grouch" replied Zatanna

Batman let out a hmph and turned away from her, "Well?"

Zatanna's hand glowed with magic as she healed herself, "He's doing as well as you would want him to. His team called the Justice League for assistance and the Flash arrived, but he didn't take over. Richard laid out the plan and it worked, the Flash followed the plan and it resulted in the Joker and Harley Quinn being captured as they managed to stop the bombs they had planted all over the town"

Batman said nothing

"You don't have to hold in front of me Bruce, I am an empath, I can feel the surge of pride that welled up inside of you" said Zatanna

"Did you feel how annoyed I was at you?" said Batman

"Nope" said Zatanna cheerily

"You're too good to be in Gotham"

"Maybe, but this is where I want to be"

"Then perhaps you could be of assistance, I am tracking an unregistered metahuman who can control fire"

"Do I look like a robin to you?"

"No, you're more of a crow"

"Fine, I guess I can help you"

...

"How did he look? Was he healthy? Was he really ok or was he still putting up a front?"

"He's healing Bruce, but he's doing better with his trauma than you are"

"Good"

Across Gotham:

"You know what brat? I thought there would be this huge risk bringing you into the family, but to my surprise, you are as valuable as they come" said a short fat pan in a tuxedo with a monocle and a top hat, an umbrella tucked under his right arm.

JB scratched the back of his head and shrugged. "I do what I can and what you pay me to do, Mr. Cobblepot."

Mr. Cobblepot chuckled and replied with "Please, call me the Penguin. As for you doing your job, Joseph, you will be surprised at how unbelievably incompetent the average henchman is. Makes me wonder why I bother to pay them when most of their pay goes towards cleaning up their fuck ups. Overall, I am happy that you are on the team"

Clap! Clap! Clap!

"Bravo, quite the amazing speech from boss to henchmen" said another voice causing the assembled Penguin gang to turn and see Naruto standing there, his hands still clapping at them mockingly.

"Oh, don't let me stop you" said Naruto, his long sleeved orange and blue hoodie covering his Kurama branding on his forearm, his eyes looked onto Penguin and JB's form, ignoring everything else around him.

"The two of you should bask in the praise of one another, it's your last moments of life after all" tsk'd Naruto

"Who the fuck is this guy" asked Cobblepot, "Fucking waste him"

The snarled command was followed upon instantly and Naruto rolled his eyes and the room full of men pulled out guns and pointed them at him. He wasn't overly concerned about them, his business was with the top hat wearing bitch

The shots rang out as everyone opened fire on him and Naruto had to resist smiling as he slowly walked forward, the bullets hitting his form and bouncing to the ground harmlessly, making everyone in the room not named Naruto slowly grow more and more fearful as the blond teenage marched through the flurry of bullets, each step bringing him ever so closer to the Penguin.

But as Naruto got within a trio of steps on the crime boss, a smoke bomb went off in the room and Naruto felt a strange energy fill the room. It was unlike anything that he had ever experienced in his life, it felt nothing like the burning coarse lava of Kurama's power that flowed through his body and nothing like the infinite well of energy that fueled his own body.

No, this was soft and malleable as if it was seeking not to control or over power him or anyone else. No it was like flowing water, finding every crack, every hole, every gap that it could find and slip inside and fill them up. But again, not to control them or force them to do anything, but to simply nudge them in the right direction.

It was intoxicating to Naruto until the energy passed over Kurama's brand and pain unlike anything Naruto had ever felt exploded through his body. He felt his knees crash with the stone floor as he collapsed to the ground, his entire body shivering as the pain overtook him.

What the fuck is going on?"

Kid, this is what pure magic feels like

Meaning?

That you are too unholy to deal with magic that comes from the purest thing out there, this is the magic of a pure human soul. It can only belong to someone who has only the best intentions

Really

No, you fucking idiot, the bitch whose magic flooded the room is casting a purification spell that is like poison to the demonic energy that flows throws you and I. She is just doing what priest have been doing to me and my kind for as long as I can remember

Oh ... so what do I do?

This might come as a shocker, but try to stay with me on this one, get off your knees like a common whore and get the fuck out

Naruto snarled as he tried to push the feeling of the purity magic out of his body and he could feel it pool in his stomach as if it was being drawn into him. The pain stopped as his core greedily started to suck up all of the magic in the room and Naruto heard a gasp of what could only be pain as he put it together that he was absorbing all of the magic of the girl who was releasing it. It took him a moment to realize that if he was probably absorbing more magic than the poor girl had to offer.

The smoke started to clear and Naruto's eyes bounced around, his eyes landing on nothing but knocked out henchmen. Turning around back to Cobblepot, Naruto wheezed as he saw Batman lifting the smaller man up by front of his shirt, leasing bringing the man a foot off the ground with ease.

The man was tall, much taller than Naruto had thought he would be. Standing at an imposing 6 foot 2 inches tall, the ears probably giving him closer to 6 foot 6 inches. The surprisingly thin armor that he wore revealed that he was in excellent shape, all of his muscles were highlighted.

The infamous scowl covering his face revealed his mouth and his eyes ... and my God did the eyes reveal how empty that man's soul was. He was an empty husk of a human being and Naruto could feel the bubbling ocean of nothingness that threatened to consume everything roaring inside of the man.

The scary part was that JB, the man that Naruto had followed here was knocked out on the ground at Batman's feet. He had knocked out what Naruto was led to believe was a rather strong metahuman

A soft wheezing breath caught his attention and he looked sideways, making sure to keep an eye on the Batman, and he found himself looking at what was objectively the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen.

Whoever this girl was, she has medium length black hair and bright cyan colored eyes with a slender yet curvy figure. She was wearing a a white single-breasted shirt with a tie, a what he thought was weird, white bow tie, a black jacket and a black skirt with fishnet stockings under it, with a pair of glossy short heels.

This Vegas magician dressed girl was grasping at her stomach in pain as she softly panted on the ground, it was clearly that she was losing more magic than she had to give, Naruto was not completely used to or all that knowledgeable the whole mystic arts thing, but he was taking a verbal lesson from Kurama on it every night before bed.

She is the one who was using the magic that was able to harm you, you need to be extra careful right not brat

Why do you say that?

Because if they knew to use that specific purifying spell, then that means they were about to sense my presence here which would be very concerning, Either that or they knew that you and I would be here and that is also very concerning

Fuck

I know

Naruto looked at the girl who floated off the ground and back onto her feet, why had he simply stood there and allowed her to recover. That was the dumbest thing that he could have done in this situation.

Suddenly, he understood how she had been able to recover seemingly instantly, the flow of magic that he had been absorbing into his stomach region was no longer pouring into him, she had cut the cord on it.

"Zatanna, restrain him" growled Batman or was that his normal speaking method?

"Wait what? I haven't done a single thing wrong" said Naruto, "Don't I need to commit a reported crime"

"Breaking and entering is a crime" replied Batman as slammed Cobblepot to the ground, putting him to sleep as well.

"Well are you going to arrest yourself then?" asked Naruto

"Why would I do that?" inquired Batman

"You just broke into this warehouse as well and unlike me, you assaulted the owner of said warehouse" countered Naruto

Brat, that magic you absorbed into your body is changing things a bit inside of here, I think it might be time for you to realize who you actually are

What the actual fuck does that even mean? I'm me

Eh ... there is more to you than you know

I thought you worked for me? You keeping secrets from me?

Shut the fuck up you whiny fucking pathetic brat, just listen to what I have to say once and keep your stupid thoughts to yourself

Naruto listened to the hurried explanation of what he was supposed to do to escape fucking BATMAN and his apparently really hot and not male at all sidekick, this Zatanna babe. The same babe who had the ability to cause him more pain than anything else in the world by simply saying a few words.

Naruto was not a big fan of his odds but Kurama had not really let him down all that much in life, so if there was going to be someone that Naruto just blindly trusted, it was going to be the demon that lived in his arm.

"That's different" said Batman as his spoken words pulled Naruto out of his mental conversation with Kurama.

"Eh, why because you're Batman" retorted Naruto with a twisted face of disbelief causing Zatanna to giggled behind the dark and gloomy hero.

"Precisely" said Batman as he reached into his utility belt and pulled out another gas bomb, but Naruto didn't stand still. He immediately took off, sprinting off to his left and he knew that with the pier on that side, he would be able to put Kurama's crazy ass plan into life.

Naruto lowered his shoulder as he reached his top speed and plowed right through the stone wall of the warehouse and glanced over his shoulder to see a sea of magic glowing chains racing after him.

Continuing his getaway sprint, Naruto could heard the clanking of Batman's boots following him and the rattling of the chains. But he never looked back over his shoulder at them again, mostly because while he was sure that he could handle both of them without too much effort, he was not interested in bringing the entire Justice League down on his own head.

Reaching a section of the pier that led directly out into the ocean, there was in theory nowhere left for him to run,

"You're running out of road son, give up" demanded Batman, but Naruto just kept running.

Nobody swam in the Gotham Pier, because the water was ice cold all year round, the bottom of the water was sharp and deadly rocks, the current was very much anti-people as it was impossibly strong. But none of that really mattered to Naruto at this moment as he neared the end of his dock.

Doing as Kurama had instructed him, Naruto pushed all of the pure feeling energy from the well in his stomach that had greedily taken it in and pushed out of his body.

"DON'T!" screamed Batman as Naruto reached the end and at full speed jumped over the end, but instead of falling like someone ... anyone should have, bright golden wings exploded out of the back of his back and they flapped as he raced away at speeds faster than any jet could have ever hoped to.

Zatanna floated down next to Batman, the magically generated chains slowly reeling back into her body as she landed.

"Did you know that he could do this?" asked Batman

"No, did you?" replied Zatanna

"I was unaware that he would wings as well. His father didn't seem to be all that certain that he would have wings or even the ability to fly" replied Batman honestly, his mind moving a thousand miles a second at this point.

How was he going to contend with the son of Lucifer if he was unable to capture him, he was incredibly strong. His strength was bullets bouncing off his skin, showing that he was clearly above Metahuman level. His speed was not overly superhuman, but his stamina allowed him to keep that top speed far longer than anyone else who was not currently a speedster.

"Did you mention his father? Have you managed to figure out who this metahuman is?" questioned Zatanna

That was a great question, one that Bruce actually had the answer to for once. The question for him was whether or not he shared what he knew with the rest of the league, where they ready to know what he knew. The back tingling knowledge that the Devil, a being known as Lucifer Morningstar, not only walked the very same earth that they did but also that he had managed to procreate.

The Son of the Devil was every bit as terrifying as Batman thought as he realized that the young man had been strong enough to power through stone walls with ease, could apparently sprout the same angelic wings that his father could and they could be used to fly. Only God and Lucifer knew what other abilities the blond teenager was capable of at this time.

There was no plan for someone like this as far as Batman knew, Superman had a weakness, Batman kept it in a special lead lined pouch on his belt. Martian Manhunter was taken out by fire, the Flash could be stopped in a cold enough environment, Wonder Woman was one of the only super powered individuals that Bruce knew that was truly without weakness. But she didn't have unlimited strength like Superman, she didn't have the speed of the Flash, she was super human in every way but also clearly limited in some aspects.

But Naruto had pushed the magic that should have harmed his demonic part aside with ease, absorbing it and taking on the look of an angel as he flew away. An Angel of Death was what the bible would say about this, but was that actually true? Either way, he was simply too dangerous to be left alive without something in his way to check him.

"He is the son of Lucifer Morningstar" answered Batman as he came to the conclusion that the best way to handle this situation would be to tell the truth to his magic wielding friend.

"The Son of Who Now?" asked Zatanna in equal parts confusion and disbelief, "Bruce, tell me that you didn't say that was the son of Lucifer fucking Morningstar"

Batman nodded in confirmation and Zatanna's hands slid up into her long flowing raven locks and she tugged on them in frustration.

"Do you have any idea what we just did? We just chased after the son of one of the most power beings in the universe Bruce" stammered Zatanna, "He could think it and we would stop existing"

"Don't worry about that, the father of the boy has been handled" said Batman

"You spoke to the man? Lucifer?" asked Zatanna with wide eyes, "How?"

"I took a trip to London-" started Bruce

"Of course, John "I am beyond irresponsible with magic" Constantine" said Zatanna as she clinched her hands at Bruce as if she was envisioning choking him out, "Not a single soul on this planet is dumb enough to help you summon the literal Devil besides him"

"Don't give him too much credit love" said a confident male voice from behind them, causing both of them to whirl around and looked at the perfectly dressed Lucifer standing behind them

Zatanna was caught between trying to apologize, kneel, and bow to him but Lucifer dismissed the notions in a wave of his hand.

"None of that child" said Lucifer before he turned his attention to Batman, "Just the bat suit wearing man that i was looking for"

The bright smile seemed like it could be a promising conversation but the flash of red in Lucifer's eyes and the lifetime of pain and torture that flashed before Bruce's eyes made him think otherwise.

"Nice to see you again " said Batman, trying to be as polite and mannered as possible

Lucifer sighed "16 years old and already with wings, it warms this father's heart to see it. But atlas, my time on this realm is going to be rather limited for the time being, which is where your lot come in"

Batman frowned "God is kicking you off Earth?"

Zatanna stiffened at his side

Lucifer let out an amused chuckle, "The Presence kicking me off Earth? Don't make such funny jokes, lay off the pints Bats. God, Father, The Presence, or whatever you want to call him doesn't really care two squirts of piss about this shit stain of a planet. He probably has an infinite number of Earths that he can play with, trillions exactly like this one but the colors of people's socks are different.

No, he doesn't care, but he is starting to think about retirement, believe it or not. Yours truly of course is throwing his hat in the ring so to speak"

"And He doesn't like that?" asked Zatanna

"Oh he doesn't care, he's the one who told me to do so. My siblings are little on the other side, they would rather see me not exist than ascend to the throne" answered Lucifer

"You're leaving Earth to fight them" realized Batman

"Bingo, you might actually be a good detective after all" joked Lucifer, "One of my brothers has already attacked my son to try and get to me. I can't allow such slights to continue, but I release even a fraction of my true power, I might destroy the universe. So, I am going to take the battle to a dimension between time and space, where I am not sure how long the battle will last in this world" admitted Lucifer

"I'm sorry to hear that, I'm sure that you want to keep an eye on your son" said Batman as he through of his own ward that was across country

"Actually quite the opposite, I want you to stay away from him" said Lucifer

"He's a criminal" said Batman immediately

"He's an Arch Angel, who is growing stronger by the day. Mind your tongue" hissed Lucifer and the darkness around them sucked up the light and there was only a void of chilling darkness.

"I have people to keep an eye on my son, you are to leave him alone. I could be gone for 1 second or 6 months, no matter the time, leave him alone. I can traverse time and space Bruce Wayne, i can be anywhere at anytime. I can make your entire life miserable form the second you're born to the second your soul leaves your body where I will personally drag you down into the deepest darkest nastiest pit of Hell and oversee your torturing your soul for the rest of eternity"

Lucifer finished by licking his lips as an insanity filled his eyes before he blinked and the lamps returned to shining lights on them and Lucifer blew them a kiss before sinking into the shadows.

"We are fucked" said Zatanna

Batman nodded, "Right in the down under"

"I thought he sounded more British than Australian" said Zatanna as Batman turned and stalked off.

A/N: First chapter in about 3 weeks but this felt good. Hopefully not to many spelling errors in this one. This story was picked by my discord chat on Wednesday and I did my best to hopefully meet their demands.

If you wish to join that chat, use invite code: SMR69ZS4

I don't have anything else to say, Lucifer is about to start the war from his comic books and Batman's investigation is hauled, enjoy your weekend y'all.

Until Next Time, HighKey_Mars out