A Nobody

by Jebest4781

Living a new life in another reality, Naruto now must handle a lot of complications of him interacting with various heroes, villains and anti-heroes. How will things go with them interacting with a Nobody. NarutoXHarem Rated M for language, violence and lemons. NarutoXDC ComicsXKingdom Hearts Please leave reviews. On Hiatus.

48. Batgirl Begins

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

"Headset/Flashback"

-Scene Shift-

Chapter 48: Batgirl Begins

It was a cold night as crime was afoot. It is a constant and is everywhere no matter where it hides. High or low, it's eventually found when you look hard enough.

Especially when you look at the warehouse district where it's happens quite often.

Inside of the export building, struggling crime lord Rupert Thorne was supervising an operation. He was doing this in hopes of possibly acquiring the necessary funds and product to get back into the game. It was rather harsh once he got out of prison several months ago through questionable means.

Rupert thought things would've been easier for him when several crime lords were taken out of the picture in the past months. These included a boarding school director named Faye 'Ma' Gunn, Vinnie Ricorso and Louie the Lilac. Yet because of how easy many of the mentioned crime lords were taken down, Rupert realized he was now having a much harder time to run his operations.

This is the reason why Thorne had to come here with only a handful of his hired lackies. He had to keep his kept funds tight and secure while being extra careful on his operations.

'God, I wish this could be a simple run.' Rupert thought before he heard one of his hired men yelp in fright.

"Dammit." A goon muttered as he finished prying off a crate lid. "This place gives me the creeps."

"Heh. No kidding." Spoke a second one. "Why do we gotta do this stuff in the middle of the flipping night?"

Getting tired of their yammering, Thorne came up to them and growled as he caused them to jump in their spots. "Maybe you'd prefer moving contraband in broad daylight when the cops might notice."

"Jeez, boss. You shouldn't sneak up on guys like that." Complained the first goon.

"Just get this stuff loaded." Ordered the crime lord as he started walking away. "I never liked this place."

Just when he made it several feet away, lights were blared into the warehouse from the outside. The little gang looked over in response before hearing someone speak through speakers. "This is the police! We have you surrounded! Come out with your hands up!"

'Dammit!' Thorne growled in thought before looking at his hired goons. "I can't be seen here.
Hold them off." He said before running to the nearby ladder without seeing the goons' response.

As he was climbing towards the roof, Rupert heard the police breaking through the warehouse entrance with gunfire heard soon after. Once on the rooftop, the struggling crime lord jogged to the skylight and saw his hired men were now in cuffs and escorted away.

'I never liked this place.' Came Thorne's thought as he tried to look around for a proper way to escape.

Yet his action came to a halt when he saw a pair of all too familiar shadows sweeping over his form.

Quickly pulling out his gun, Rupert started firing rounds into the darkness as he made a break for it. "Come on, then!" He yelled out. "You're not taking Rupert Thorne without a fight!"

The crime lord rushed for some cover before peaking over to see if the coast was clear. There was no activity at all for several moments and briefly thought he was fine to leave. But as he was about to flee for safety, he saw the Dark Knight standing several feet away.

"You!" Growled the crime lord as he pointed his gun at the bat-themed hero. Looking the other way, Rupert saw Vanitas to show he's now cornered. "If I gotta go down, I'm taking you two with me!"

As the sounds of gunfire was heard once more, the police bursted through the rooftop entrance doors. They carefully moved around so neither of them would get hurt by any stray bullets.

When Gordon was moving forward with his glock in his hand, he looked over and held a man back. "Careful, Gil." The commissioner warned. "Thorne is a tricky fellow."

Gil Mason is a tall, red haired man in his late twenties. He had strong features with seemingly cold blue eyes as he wore his bullet proof vest over his clothes. Gil rose through the ranks with lots of blood, sweat and tears before gaining the position as the deputy commissioner of the GCPD.

The deputy commissioner nodded in agreement before yelling out into the darkness. "Don't make this hard on yourself, Thorne! Step out where we can see you!"

There was no response at all as the rooftop was placed in an eerie silence.

When the officers roamed the area, Bullock was the one to respond first. "Hey! I found him!"

The group ran to Bullock's position and saw the tied up and unconscious form of Rupert Thorne. The crime lord was lying on the ground with what appeared to be Vanitas' scarf. And sticking out of the material was a blank card with a pair of chibi drawings of Batman and Vanitas saying 'Enjoy your gift'.

Chuckling to himself, Gordon put his gun away. "Don't you just love it when they give them to you gift wrapped?" He rhetorically asked as he motioned the officers to cuff the unconscious man.

-Morning, Naruto and Pam's Loft-

"...The deputy commissioner, Gil Mason, who last night was instrumental in capturing Rupert Thorne." Spoke the news anchor, Summer Gleeson. "Mason attributed the incriminating evidence against Thorne to a mysterious informant."

The footage was then switched to seeing Gil Mason speaking to the camera in front of the GCPD. "...And the commissioner and I won't rest until every crime kingpin hustler and two-bit crook is off the streets!" Was all the man said as many supporters cheered the man on.

The TV set was then turned off by Naruto as he heard a resounding 'Hey!' from his blonde girlfriend. "Aren't you supposed to go to work soon, Harley?"

"Yes, I am, puddin." She responded before trying to snatch the remote from his grasp, yet failing. "I was just catching up on the news."

"Sure, you were."

"But c'mon~ You gotta admit that Rupert Thorne back in jail would bring a smile to your face." Harley said as she stood up from the couch. "I can even imagine Brucey doing the same thing."

"True, but I'd love to know who this mysterious informant is." Said the publisher. "I mean, this is the forth ganglord Mason's brought down in as many months."

The Arkham psychologist nodded in agreement. "Yeah~ It's quite alarming. But do you have any ideas who it is?" She saw her boyfriend shake his head 'no'. "Then does Kurama?"

Naruto groaned a little as he rubbed the bridge between his eyes. "I think he does, but doesn't want to tell me when I went to see him last night before taking Thorne down."

This got Harley to adopt a confused look. "Why wouldn't he tell ya, Naru?"

"Kurama said that I ran out of the 'favors' he owed me." He said with an eye roll. "I call bull on that and think he does know who the man is, but doesn't want to sell him out."

"Ain't that annoying."

"Yeah, but the old fuzzbutt seemed happy when learning Thorne was going back to jail and even on the others that was put away."

"How so?"

Naruto scratched his silver hair when answering. "If I remember correctly, they were some crime lords that didn't sign on with Kurama and I think he just wanted to get rid of the competition that he was neutral with."

Harley shrugged before grabbing her purse. "Regardless, if this continues, you might even be forced into taking a vacation from crime fighting."

He chuckled before he was brought into a chaste kiss. "Hope you have a good day at work, Harl."

"You too."

"And are you still gonna head over to Gordons after work?"

"Yeup~" She said with a smirk. "Gotta say, once again, that it still feels rewarding teaching such a fine pupil. Not to mention that I look forward to the tasty meal afterwards."

"Well don't kill her like the last several times."

"Oh, I won't." Was all she said as she headed towards the door. "Anyways, give Rachel my hugs before she goes to school today."

"I will."

Once Harley was out of the door, Naruto went up the stairs to check up on his ward.

It's been two weeks since Rachel's birthday and things have been rather iffy since then. Celebrating her birthday was quite good with just him, his girlfriends and the ashen ward. Nothing bad really happened, but Naruto saw Rachel was having a hard time keeping things contained on her special day.

But once the pair were in the Dreaming, the floodgates Rachel held back broke loose as she told her tale.

Naruto learned that she was born in an inter-dimensional realm called Azarath after her mother was taken by some of its resident monks from Jump City. They were peaceful folk that wanted to help protect the realms. But they took notice of Angela/Arella Roth once she was pregnant with Rachel and had to take them both to safety.

Reason being: Angela got impregnated by a demon. Not just any demon, but a Demonic War-God named Trigon.

Obviously, Naruto was floored and skeptic on there being such a title. This caused the Uzumaki to seek out Jason Blood if he knew of anything…

And~ Naruto wished he could've done a far better approach.

-Flashback-

"Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"I do feel rather offended you came to me in asking about the subject."

Naruto rose a brow in confusion. "How so?"

"Because you bluntly asked if I had known about Rachel's father because of Etrigan being my 'roommate'." Was Jason's response. "I… I somewhat feel that was rather racist."

"...Eh…"

"You could've just asked me since I'm an occult and demonologist expert. Yet you, came here and asked on what I knew… because of Etrigan."

"...Uhhhhhhhhhhhh… Sorry?"

Jason pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed. "I'll forgive you on this as long as you don't do it again."

Naruto nodded so fast that he could've imitated a bobble head.

"I mean, I already knew of Trigon before becoming Etrigan's mortal vessel."

"Really? How?"

"By being Merlin's personal scribe."

Naruto blinked in confusion before letting out a surprised 'EH~!'.

"Yes, I was." Jason chuckled out as he went into a little bit of nostalgia. "It was my first job when I started living in Camelot before I became a Knight in Arthur's court. It was a great honor as I learned quite a lot of spells and had a better understanding of both the occult and demons." He then had a downcasted look. "Though when Camelot fell, I took possession of all that I could take with me from Merlin's tower so no one would be corrupted from such great power."

"Huh… Would've thought you got into magic after being Etrigan's roommate."

Jason nodded in understanding before recomposing himself and went back to the topic at hand. "Now, what do you know about Trigon?"

Getting into a serious expression, the former shinobi answered. "Only as much on what Rachel knows and had told me like Azarath, how she found out about her father and how her home was destroyed."

"Then what about of him being a Demonic War-God that invaded, conquered and corrupted all of the worlds he came across." Jason said with a straight face. "Whom has grown stronger with each conquest. Commands a large portion of the Hell dimension. And his gluttony for ruling all life would never be sated."

Naruto swallowed a little lump in his throat. "Yes on the first bit, but not on the last three."

"Then I have the unfortunate news that they're all true." It felt like a large weight was placed onto Naruto's chest when hearing this from Jason. "Mind telling me how this came up? I didn't think Rachel would tell you about this so soon."

It was then Naruto spoke of the details on how he and Rachel were trapped in the Dreaming… once telling the immortal man what it was from his knowledge from Dream of the Endless. Fighting through various Nightmares that were controlled by an unknown force. And by it's end, the one 'S' sigil was burnt into the ground which caused the ward to be very weary.

"Hmm, yes. The Mark of Skath: his signature symbol with his cult of worshippers."

"So was it Trigon himself or one of his followers that got Rachel and I trapped in there?"

Jason adopted a thinking pose before responding. "Hard to say. If I could've been there, then I would've figured things out a whole lot better. But all I can say now that Rachel is going to be targeted more frequently as the next several years pass on by."

A small feeling of dread crept over the Uzumaki before asking the simple question. "Why?"

"You see, Naruto, Trigon can't just fully come into a world on his own power. He needs a gateway to get him through. Trigon would only appear for a brief time in order to spread his influence and create a gem."

"...I'm sorry, but what?"

Coughing into his hand, Jason recited a poem-like prophecy. "The Gem was born of evil's fire. The Gem shall be his portal. He comes to claim. He comes to sire. The end of all things mortal." Once he was done, the immortal man saw the Uzumaki look on with a bit more confusion, causing him to explain. "Thing is, Naruto, in order for Trigon to come into the world is for him to create a 'gem' and use said 'gem' as his passageway here."

Naruto looked away as he slowly processed this. It took some moments to piece things together before dread crept over him once more. Looking back at his ward's teacher, the Uzumaki tried to voice his revelation. "Y-You mean… Rachel…"

"Yes." Jason grimly said. "Trigon uses his spawn as his gateways."

"...Is there anyway to stop this?"

"I wish I knew, Naruto. All we could do is hopefully prepare in time for his arrival and figure things out before then. And it's really tough to know when she is ready to become the portal."

"What do you mean?"

"From what I do know, each of Trigon's children are ready to become his portals to each respective world when they are between the ages of 14 and 18. And it's really hard to tell as each vary when they're at the proper time to have that occur."

"But Rachel just turned eleven!"

"Then that means we have either three to seven years to get ready for his arrival."

-Flashback End-

...Along with the fact that now Naruto was going to become more protective of his ward as he'll go through Hell and back to keep her safe from her father.

Now Rachel was really scared when sign of her father started rearing his ugly head, even if it was just by his signature sigil. She didn't want to leave her new home with the people deeply caring for her.

Yet Naruto felt saddened when hearing all of this information and comforted her before telling his true past to her. From the very day he was born to how he came into this world. He did not leave anything out and by the time he was done, the guardian/ward pair felt much closer than before.

Coming to his ward's bedroom, he knocked and opened to see Rachel finish getting dressed with Isis walking out of the bedroom

"Hey, you ready, Rachel?"

"Just about." Was her response. "Just need to have breakfast."

Naruto nodded as the pair soon descended the stairs and went to the kitchen. "Any preference you want?"

"Just yogurt and granola. Not really hungry this morning."

The publisher got the desired food items to her before he started working on her lunch for the day. Wasn't long after till he got Isis' bowl filled with cat food.

"Hey, Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"When will Selina and Pam get back?" She said before eating a spoonful of her breakfast.

"They did leave for some stuff for their jobs two days ago." He reminded her. "So they won't be back till later this week."

With Pam, she was out of town -on Dr. Cruz's orders- to acquire more plants for the botanical garden. There was someone from out of the country that wanted to donate several rare species to the establishment. But said person wanted to meet a representative from the Gotham gardens to see if it's actually worth it.

With Selina, she's out for a business opportunity but not much was mentioned as to what it was exactly. It was rather sketchy, yet the ravenette took the job out of boredom. But she did promise she'll be careful.

Rachel nodded as she went back into her morning meal as her guardian was finishing up her lunch before taking her to school for the day.

-Evening, Gordon Residence-

"...Okay Babs, let's see the routine."

Barbara nodded at Harley's order as she stood some feet away from the balance beam. She wore a simple gymnastic outfit as it was primarily light purple in color from the neck to her wrists and lower waist. With her legs, it was a simple light nylon color that merely darkened her leg color slightly while wearing a pair of black gymnastic shoes. And to finish off her appearance, Barbara wore contacts so her glasses would stay off for her practice with her hair put into a high ponytail.

Her attire hugged her fit and slim figure extremely well as it showed her toned arms and legs, slim waist and wide hips, decent sized bust and tight butt. If one were to see Barbara, in her current appearance, it can be arguable that said person could get rather hot and bothered when laying their eyes upon the red haired college student. She was already beautiful in her normal day to day appearance, but seeing her in her gymnastics attire leaves little imagination on her naked glory.

...Yet that would be rather hard as her father, Commissioner Gordon, was currently present in the work out room to oversee the training.

Once taking her time, Barbara ran several steps before leaping into the air and landing hands first on the balance beam. She twisted her body around before flipping over several times across the board. Once back onto her feet, Barbara spun around in her spot with double and triple L turns.

They would seem all easy for her at this point once Harley got her leg work and posture correct. Her center is kept well as her full, reverse and half turns on the four inch beam have been done well. The red head then flips several times across the beam as her arches are kept nice, sturdy and precise.

"Looking good, Babs." Harley spoke out as the college student walked forward on the beam. "Now if we could get some nice styles into the routine then maybe if the Olympics come around, you can enter if ya want."

"Thanks, Harley." Came Barbara's response as she quickly turned around and started walking backwards. "Hey, dad."

"Yes, Barbara?"

"With the stuff going on lately, people are gonna mistake you and Gil for Batman and Robin if you and Gil keep nailing bad guys."

James chuckled as he got off from the nearby wall. "What can I say? Gil is a godsend." He said as he saw his daughter do several flips towards the one of the beam. "And he's not bad-looking, either."

This got Barbara to groan. "Dad~ I just got you to stop treating me like a kid and now you're trying to marry me off."

"Oh don't think I didn't see you two at that fundraiser last week. Thick as thieves, you were."

Barbara rolled her eyes on what her father was implying.

Yes, she was chatting it up with Gil Mason at said event last week. But she was merely being nice and appreciative on what the deputy commissioner has done so far. Barbara had no interests in the man in any romantic fashion.

Yet it seemed that Mason had gotten the wrong idea as he was trying to get her attention.

But she was glad that Naruto was able to save her from her little suffocating debacle. He had the excuse of talking more to her about her Binary Beast novel. It was a good excuse to do it in a private setting as the red haired college student was able to relax more before having some quality time with the man she grew to admire and possibly developed feelings for.

Back in the current time, Barbara soon jumped off the balance beam and flipped in the air several times before landing with no stumble in her step. And not too far away, Harley seemingly brought out a scorecard with a 9.6 printed on it.

Seeing the scorecard, Barbara rose a brow. "Okay, first off, why did I get a 9.6? And second, I don't know how you got that from out of nowhere."

"Well Babs, you didn't have some good 'umph' when jumping off." Was Harley's odd excuse. "And with these things, you'll never know."

Barbara rolled her eyes as she grabbed her towel to wipe off the sweat from her face.

Suddenly, the doorbell started ringing off several times.

"Now who could that be?" Gordon said as the three made their way towards the front door. Along the way, Harley tossed her gymnastics student a pair of sweatpants and sweater to cover her sweating form.

When coming to the front door, James looked through the peephole before opening the entrance to reveal Gil Mason with a pair of officers behind him.

"Oh hey, Mason, you must be psychic." Gordon said with a smile. "We were just talking about you." Seeing who was at the door, Barbara said a brief 'hello' with Harley doing a simple hand wave. "So what are you here for? Another tip on a case?"

Mason merely sighed as he walked into the home. His facial expression and body language screamed that something bad just happened. "Believe me, Jim, I don't wanna be here." Gil said. But I thought it would be best coming from me."

This left the Gordons and Harley in a state of confusion. Though it was Barbara that voiced the question. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Pulling out a sheet of paper from his coat pocket, the deputy commissioner spoke. "James Gordon, I have a warrant for your arrest."

James, Barbara and Harley widened their eyes in alarm when hearing this.

"This is a joke, right?" Barbara asked.

"On what charges?" Spoke the Arkham doctor.

Snatching the warrant from Gil's hands, Gordon sped read through the detail before speaking in a confused tone. "Accepting bribes? You can't be serious."

"The department has reason to believe that you've been taking money from Rupert Thorne for years." Gil said, getting wide eyed looks from Barbara and Harley as he was getting handcuffed by the officers. "Especially once we found certain evidence from the recent raid."

Barbara was absolutely appalled when hearing this. "What?! Dad's never taken a bribe in his life!"

"I'm sorry, Barb." Mason said in a sad tone before he had to straighten himself out by speaking directly to Gordon. "You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right, anything you say-"

"I know my rights, Gil." Gordon interrupted as he was starting to be escorted out of his home.

When this happened, Harley and Barbara got a clear view that news reporters and photographers were right on the front lawn.

"Oh God." Harley muttered. "This is gonna get worse."

"Dad!" Cried out the redhead as tears were starting to form in her eyes.

Seeing this happen, he called out to his daughter as reporters started swarming the handcuffed commissioner. "Don't worry, Barbara. It's all a mistake, you'll see." James was then brought into a police car and placed in the back seat before driven away.

Feeling the distress on her junior, Harley brought Barbara into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry, Barbara. I really am."

"I know, Harley. I know." Was Barbara's response as she needed good support on this tragic time right now.

Though the moment seemed to quickly end as the reporters started rushing towards the entrance of the Gordon residence as they tried to get statements from the distressed redhead.

Not wanting this to happen, Harley pushed Barbara behind her before quickly pulling out a baseball bat from out of nowhere. calling out to the reporters. "BACK! BACK, YOU STINKIN VULTURES!" She called out to the reporters. "DON'T MAKE ME USE THIS!" Said the Arkham doctor before shutting the door in front of their faces.

"Oh, Harley. What am I gonna do?" Barbara said in duress before she was brought into a hug once more.

As Harley brushed the college student's hair, she spoke in a comforting tone. "I don't know, Babs, but I sure as Hell know that it won't be just us who'll see about this. I promise you that."

-Morning, City Hall-

Things have become rather busy inside of City Hall as to what happened last night. Reporters occasionally stopped on by in order to get more information about Gordon's allegations. And even city officials were working over time to hopefully fix this public mess.

Like at the current time, Barbara Gordon was walking down the hallways while chatting with the current District Attorney, Janet Van Dorn, who replaced after Harvey 'Two Face' Dent was disgraced back in March. She was quite the prestigious lawyer of superb skill who could acquit a client even in an impossibly prejudiced court. And part of that ability came from Janet's brilliance in questioning witnesses, such as goaded them and reacting to ways to what is really needed for the jury to go to her side.

Said woman was in her early to mid thirties as her light brown hair was tied into a low ponytail with some puff towards the top of her head. Her wire framed spectacles sat in front of her blue, calculating eyes. And to finish off her attire, she wore a blue business suit with a suitcase on hand.

"...But you're the DA, Janet. You've worked with my father." Pleaded the spectacled redhead. "There must be something you-"

"The evidence is solid, Barbara." Interrupted the DA in a slightly calm tone. "Money deposited to your father's name in laundered accounts witnesses who swear they saw him take bribes."

"That's not sufficient cause to deny bail."

"True. But we also found deposit receipts for a South American bank." Janet brought up, causing Barbara to halter in her step. "We have to consider him a flight risk that if he did get bail, he'd flee the country."

Barbara wanted to pull out her hair at this point. "This is crazy. My father would never-"

"Maybe you don't know your father as well as you think." Said the brunette as she had a bit of a downcasted look. "Maybe none of us do." Janet looked over to Barbara and continued. "Look, I know your father is innocent, but my hands are tied. I wish I could help, but right now I can't."

Before Barbara could properly respond, the DA had to leave in order to take care of other matters that have come across her desk. The college student looked on and didn't know what to do on this situation. All other thoughts came to a halt when she felt a hand placed on her shoulder. Looking over, she saw Detective Bullock give her a small smile.

"Hey, don't you believe her, kid. Your pop's the best there is." He said before his smile grew a bit more. "That's why the department's putting on a rally for him tomorrow night."

Barbara brightened when hearing this. "Harvey, that's a wonderful idea."

The plump detective scratched his head in response. "Yeah… Wish I could say it was mine."

The spectacled redhead was going to ask when someone beat her to the punch. "Just because I have a job to do doesn't mean I'm not on your side, Barbara." Looking over, Barbara saw Gil walking towards them. "I'm going to see your father gets all the public support we can muster."

Bullock nodded in agreement. "Yup. All the top cops will be there, including yours truly. So don't worry your pretty little head. It should be quite a show."

Barbara nodded as she walked away from the two so she can get back to campus and take her classes for the day. Though as she left, a thought crossed her mind: if she can get the infamous vigilante's to appear at the rally, then there will be nothing to stop her father from going to jail.

-Evening, City Jail-

Lying across the small cot of his prison cell, James Gordon was bored out of his mind.

'Wished I had something to read.' He thought before rising from his bed and pacing around the confined space. 'Would've helped take my mind off things.'

As he was kept here since last night, Gordon didn't have much to do at all. No crossword puzzle to do, no book or newspaper to read, or any past-time lesures. Gordon did admit the officers were just doing their job and couldn't do anything to help him in the simplest things.

Turning around from his cell window, for the upteenth time, he felt something flew right past his face with a following *Clang* against the cement wall. Looking towards the source, he saw it was a batarang… with something hanging off from it's center.

Taking a closer look, Gordon saw it was an earpiece.

"Huh… I was wondering when you'd get around to me." James muttered as he pried the batarang out of the wall before placing the earpiece into his ear. Tapping it a few times, he spoke. "Can you hear me?"

"I do, Commissioner." Came Batman's voice through the earpiece. "I got a look at the evidence."

Gordon nodded as he went to his cell window and tossed the batarang through the bars so it wouldn't be on his person. "What did you find?"

"Those deposit receipts were perfect forgeries dated months ago. But it doesn't look like Thorne's handiwork."

Walking back to his cot, the spectacled man asked the obvious question. "Then who?"

"Word on the street is a new syndicate is moving in with the vacant spots made as of late." Was the Bat's response. "Could be a connection which I'll be sure to check out."

Gordon nodded in understanding. Whenever a major or minor player in the crime world is taken out, a power vacuum is formed. Either someone higher in the crime food chain takes over the vacancy or a new player would fill it in. It's always a known constant in this sort of field.

"Before I go, is there anything you need?"

For a brief moment, James had thought of asking Batman to get him something good to read to pass the time. But the man shoved that down as he remembered his daughter. The arrested commissioner was worried for her and hoped for her to be okay.

With his mind made up, Gordon spoke his request. "Yes. Check on Barbara. And please, keep her out of this."

-Gordon Residence-

"Thanks for you guys coming over, Naruto. It means a lot."

"Hey, it's no problem, Barbara." He said as he vacuumed the living room floor of crushed popcorn. Harley helped out earlier with the dishes, but she was currently using the restroom.

After seeing the news report last night of Commissioner Gordon being arrested on his bribery allegations, he quickly got a call from Harley before asking him if he saw the news. Things were not looking good and Naruto came over to see Barbara as soon as he could. She was a total wreck and the redhead needed the extra support. And once he got off from work earlier today, Naruto went to check up on her once again while bringing Harley and Rachel along.

Barbara appeared to be a whole lot better than from last night and he was glad to see some improvements. She was a bit more upbeat and he thought that something might've happened to make her act that way. When questioning about it, Barbara told him that the GCPD is going to be having a rally tomorrow night in order to help support her father.

Naruto was obviously glad when hearing this and promised he'll be attending the rally.

Rachel and Harley had the same mindsets and wished Barbara the best of luck. Yet the ward and psychologist had to let Barbara know they wouldn't be attending the event. With Harley, she had a shift to cover that night while Rachel had school in the morning. Barbara understood and was fine with them not attending, but it's the thought that counts.

Asides from that, the four spent the evening together by having Barbara's home cooked meal. It was a delicious dinner and they chatted amongst each other while entertaining the spectacled redhead for the past several hours. Whether it was playing Yahtzee or Uno for several rounds to watching a movie.

The college student had her spirits raised and was happy as she didn't have to be alone for the night.

"And I'm glad that Harley picked out the movie earlier." Barbara said as she lifted up her feet so Naruto can pick up the remaining crumbs.

"Since you were in a dark time, she thought seeing a romantic comedy would've helped out getting you out of your funk."

"Which it did." She said with a small smile.

Harley had brought over several movies from her collection and had let Barbara choose which one to watch. The redhead chose 'When Harry Met Sally' as it was the more appropriate one the psychologist offered. She would've picked 'Die Hard' or 'Goldfinger', but she didn't want to get Rachel uncomfortable seeing some of the specific content shown in that.

Anyways, Barbara was able to enjoy her place beside her secret crush while watching the movie. She had a good amount of laughs and enjoyed how the romance had built up over the two character's lives. Sure, most moments were cheesy, but they were a bit real to her on how it things went.

"So when do you need to head on out, Naruto?"

"Probably soon." He said after turning off the vacuum. "As much as I'd like to be here more, I have work in the morning and Harley's pulling a double." Naruto then motioned to the drosing child on the recliner. "And I believe Rachel is starting to fall asleep."

Barbara nodded as she saw the publisher gently shake Rachel awake. Though a thought briefly came to mind. "Hey, Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think Batman and Vanitas would show up at the rally tomorrow?"

The Uzumaki looked back when hearing this. "Excuse me?" He asked.

"It's just an honest thought."

Naruto adopted a mock thinking pose before answering. "I wouldn't see why Vanitas wouldn't show up to the rally. He supports your father and I believe he wouldn't want to see an honest man be in jail for a crime he didn't commit."

Barbara smiled a little when hearing that. "And what do you think about Batman?" Was her next question.

The whiskered man was going to answer when a voice surprised them both. "I'm afraid I won't attend."

Whirling around to a dark corner of the room, the pair saw the Bat of Gotham step out.

Naruto merely gave his masked friend a dry look. "How long have you been here?"

"Just moments ago." Was the simple response.

"Right~"

Ignoring this bit of conversation, Barbara spoke towards the cowled hero. "What do you mean you won't attend?"

"It is what I said, Miss Gordon."

"B-But you have to come to the rally." She said in a raised voice. "The public respects you. And if they see you there, they'll know Dad's innocent."

"Sorry, but there's more to this than a simple frame-up. And I'm not gonna find out by appearing at rallies."

"But don't you see-"

Batman soon interrupted her. "The best thing you can do for him is to keep out of it." Turning around, he made his way towards the nearby window and opened it. "The people behind this are dangerous."

Naruto wanted to say something to his friend, but Batman was a bit too fast to react by jumping out and heading over to his batmobile. He then groaned in thought. 'I'm definitely gonna need to talk to him when I have a moment.' Turning towards Barbara, the former shinobi ended up seeing her glaring at the vigilante's shrinking form. "Uh, Barbara?"

"Tch! 'I'm a professional. Don't try this at home', huh?" She muttered with disdain.

"He's just looking after you, ya'know." He said, causing her to briefly glance at him. "He and your father have been good friends for years. The Bat's probably trying to keep you safe for his sakes."

"But why doesn't he want to come to the rally?" Barbara asked with tightened fists. "He doesn't have to be there long. Just a few moments, that's all." Looking back at Naruto, he could see the frustration slowly creep up in her gaze. "Him being at the rally could decide if Dad goes free."

Naruto sighed as he scratched his head. "I wish I knew, Barbara. I wish I knew."

-Unknown Location-

In a secluded part of Gotham, a man sat by himself as he read from the newspaper. There wasn't much to really do for the time being, especially as to where he resided.

Part of his little past time was interrupted when the door to the room was opened. The man looked up to see who it was before his eyes went back into the newspaper. The new arrival was a tall man with a slight hunch to his back. Not much could be said about his characteristics, asides from the large buck teeth he had sticking out from his mouth.

"Hello, Buck." Came the man's gruff voice before he coughed a few times.

"Hey, uh… You called for me, boss?"

"Yes. The rally's tomorrow night and everything's in place." Looking back up from his newspaper once more, the man looked at his lackie. "Is it?"

"Yeah, boss." Buck responded with a nod of his head. "We's got everything ready."

"Good… You know what to do."

-Next Day, Wayne Manor-

"...You are a real piece of work, Bruce."

"Why would you say that, Naruto?"

"Because you bluntly crushed Barbara's hope of seeing you at the rally." Was the Uzumaki's response. "She was really counting on you."

Bruce didn't say anything as he was getting some worn out clothes on.

"I mean, you are her father's biggest supporter and you being at the rally could helped out on public moral."

Off to the side, Dick was looking at at the conversation taking place and decided to input his thoughts. "Naruto's right, ya'know. I kept hearing people at campus talk about that all day." Walking up to his mentor, the acrobat gave some examples. "'Would Batman show up?', 'Of course he is, why wouldn't he.' and stuff along those lines. And you should realize that by now, people are expecting you to show up in his time of need; especially after what happened weeks ago when he was shot."

Once again, the billionaire didn't say anything as he was applying some makeup on his face.

Naruto and Dick sighed in slight frustration in knowing that Bruce's mind was made up at this point and not gonna change it.

"Will you at least wear a transceiver?" Asked the college student. "I can monitor from here in case they try to-"

"No." Bruce interrupted with a scratchy voice. "It's too easy to detect."

On what Bruce was doing exactly was going undercover with his alias: Matches Malone, a two bit, low-rent muscle-for-hire crook. The appearance included some facial scars, dark glasses, slight change of hair color and style, a matchstick for his nickname, bad breath, and a scratchy voice. But most of all, it was the mustache that finishes off the look to pass himself on his role.

Yet this 'role' of his wasn't made up at all.

You see… The identity was Bruce's important in his war against crime as once he applies the makeup and scars, no one can ever tell he was Bruce Wayne at all. Asides from this fact, it's really hard for the billionaire to look at his own reflection.

The resemblance was really haunting to him…

Matches Malone was a real life person that was gunned down years ago when Batman and Robin was on a particular case. They came across his body in his rundown apartment in hopes of finding clues. When inspecting the body, the Dynamic Duo froze in fear of what they saw once pulling away the man's dark glasses.

If you take away the scars, one would've mistaken Matches for Bruce's own father -Thomas Wayne- back when he was in his prime. Before be was gunned down on that tragic night.

Dick merely rolled his eyes. "I didn't miss a Bogart festival in film class just to sit on my butt here while you hit the streets." He groaned out. "There has to be something I can do."

Looking at his protege, Bruce spoke up. "Do you make public appearances, Dick?"

-GCPD-

The area in front of the police headquarters was jammed packed with many supporters. There would have been a whole lot more, for obvious reasons, but there could be so much an area could hold. News cameras were stationed to do a live feed to the Gothamites at home, offices and at diners all over the city.

Several people already spoke their speeches throughout the event: Harvey Bullock, Mayor Hill, and several other people of big importance.

Currently standing on a temporary stage, Gil Mason was speaking in a microphone behind a podium to rile up the citizens while finishing up his speech. "...After all Commissioner Gordon has done for Gotham City, the least the city can do for him is grant him bail!"

The crowds went wild as they cheered on for Gordon's release. And in that crowd, Naruto was cheering alongside them.

Though throughout the rally, the Uzumaki was looking all over the place in hopes of finding a particular, spectacled redhead.

'Where is she?' He thought as he scratched his head. 'Barbara should've been here.'

Naruto tried calling her cell several times throughout the rally, but there was no answer. He moved throughout the crowd, but there was no sign of her. The Uzumaki even checked some of the nearby porta potties.

Yet nothing.

Shaking his head, Naruto looked up towards a nearby building where his clone and Robin were stationed at in order to make their 'public appearance'. It's simple really: swoop in for several moments before leaving. And if either of them wanted to, they could stand on that stage and give a small speech if they were comfortable with it.

Looking at his watch, Naruto checked the time before looking back up at the stage. 'It's probably showtime now.'

Seeing a particular shadow fly past a spotlight, Naruto looked up and expected his clone and Robin. Yet he was thrown off guard when he saw… 'Bruce?' He thought with widened eyes. 'He came?'

People were muttering amongst themselves as the figure landing on the far off building. The dark silhouette was seen by all as spotlights and news cameras tried to reach Batman's form. Though the results were instant as people's morals were risen that they know the imprisoned commissioner has Batman's support.

'...Something seems off.' Naruto thought with a narrowed glance. 'Bruce would've told us if he changed his mind and would've pulled this off.'

Over at the far off building, the Batman ran across the ledge before leaping towards a rooftop. Landing in a recovery roll, the hero slowly rose up before hiding away from any bright areas. Creeping towards it's edge, Batman jumped down and let out a feminine 'oomph' once landing on the ground.

...Wait, what?

The 'Batman' let out a feminine chuckle. 'Touchdown.' Peeking out of the alley's entrance, she smirked at the enthusiastic reactions from the citizens people towards her arrival. 'And the crowd goes wild.' Ducking back into the darkness, she reached her hands into certain areas of her outfit and pulled out pads and stuffings from her chest, arms, legs and groin areas. 'Man, these things were starting to itch.'

After Naruto left with Rachel last night, Barbara immediately went into her bedroom and pulled out her Batwoman costume from Halloween. A thought came to mind that if Batman wasn't really going to show at the rally, then she would do the next best thing: impersonate him.

She had the costume and with several adjustments from some extra cloth and pads she had stored away, Barbara made a close resemblance towards the Dark Knight. Problem was, she can not be seen up close or else her role would be blown and would get people to know Batman didn't show at all.

Sitting on the ground, Barbara took off her boots and pulled out the pads so she could be a little more comfortable. They were needed from the leaps earlier that without them, her feet could've been hurt really badly.

Creeping out of the ally, the 'Batgirl' was going to slip away and sneak back towards her car. But this act was put on hold as sounds of screeching tires filled the air. Looking towards the source, Barbara saw a car speeding down the street with it's windshields down.

And poking out of them were several guns.

Many citizens saw this and screamed while running away so neither of them would get hit by the upcoming bullets. The car swerved a bit in order to fire rounds onto the stage. People ducked and dashed off the stage while avoiding broken glass, due to spotlights being destroyed by the gunfire.

'I need to do something.' Barbara thought. 'People might get hurt.

And before she knew it, the disguised redhead ran into the action.

After running a good distance, the 'Batgirl' saw the car turning around in order to flee the scene. Not wanting to get hit, she leapt into the air before latching her hands onto one of the rally banners hanging high into the air, all thanks to Harley's training. The support wasn't all that great as the banner was ripped off it's ends, causing her to fall down.

'Oh crap!' She yelled out in her mind as she wasn't able to quickly move to recover in her fall. Closing her eyes for her eventual painful landing, Barbara braced herself. Though it was all for naught as she felt someone catch her before rolling across the pavement.

Shaking her head a bit, the 'Batgirl' looked from behind her white mask lenses to see Naruto's face.

"Hey. Are you okay?" He asked out of concern.

Barbara could only nod as she was extremely glad her mask was covering up a massive blush forming on her face with how he saved her. She had to hold back talking to him as she didn't want Naruto to know it was her. Even then, the masked redhead had to bite down a moan as she felt several of his muscles through his clothing along along with his hand unintentionally groping her firm ass.

'Oh~ that feels soooo good.' She thought before she heard a resounding crash.

The pair looked off to the side and saw what happened to the one car. The banner fell over the car's windshield and possibly blinded the driver. Thus they crashed into a nearby wall. When the vehicle's occupants got out of the car, who were wearing ski masks, they quickly pointed their weapons at the pair.

Quickly acting, Naruto covered the masked woman with his body as the bullets flew through the air. In his arms, Barbara widened her hidden eyes on the selfless act, but also feared for the worst on his safety.

Though it was all for naught as Vanitas landed onto the ground and formed a protective barrier around the two as bullets either bounced off or were destroyed on impact.

"Sorry I'm late." Said the helmeted hero. "Had to be sure the other citizens were protected."

The 'Batgirl' briefly nodded before fighting her way out of Naruto's hold. The act surprised him as she got free, started running away and out of the barrier. Seeing this happen, the publisher was about to go after her when Robin swooped in and gave chase.

"Hey!" Robin called out. "Wait!"

The 'Boy' Wonder pushed his legs to the limit as he came closer and closer to the person in front of him. Just as he was close enough, Robin grasped the back of her cowl before he tripped on the street, resulting in freeing a large portion of her reddened locks into the cold, Gotham air.

'Wait? A girl?' Robin thought with widened eyes.

The masked Gordon looked back for a brief moment before running further away, not noticing Summer Gleeson seeing the act before her. Quickly scrambling to her news camera, the Gotham reporter aimed her equipment at the new vigilante trying to flee the scene.

Though 'Batgirl' was halted in her act as she almost ran into an armed man who aimed his handgun at her.

Acting quickly, she backflipped away as the man tried to fire several rounds at her. Once back onto her feet, Barbara ran forward and punched the man's face before delivering a roundhouse kick towards his stomach. The goon heaved over as he fell onto the ground.

Just as she was about to leave once more, she spotted a pair of goons rushing towards her. Barbara was about to fight when Robin and Vanitas tackled them to the ground.

"Sorry boys, but she's with us." Vanitas said as he pulled out handcuffs for him and Robin to restrain the ski-masked men. Looking back up at the masked woman, he spoke up. "Are you crazy? You're lucky you didn't get killed."

The masked Gordon didn't respond as she looked off to the side and saw one of the men run away from the scene. Without thinking clearly, she gave chase while leaving the two heroes to take care of the others.

From his position on the street, Naruto saw the masked woman's retreating form. Well more towards her free flowing red hair.

'That… hair…' He thought. 'It looks nice.'

...Yeah… Naruto and his interesting attraction to red hair everybody… Just like his dad…

Back with 'Batgirl', she ran into an alleyway where the assailant went into. Seeing as he was a good distance away from her, Barbara picked up a trash can lid and tossed it at him. And fortunately for her, her impromptu weapon landed it's mark as he fell onto the ground.

She ran up to him and turned him over before taking off his ski-mask. There she got a good look of his features, especially the buck teeth, before being punched in the face. She scrambled back and fell into several garbage cans, resulting in the man quickly getting up and fleeing from the scene.

As Barbara got back up onto her feet, the masked redhead saw the grime on her costume and felt some liquid coming through the back of her head. Reaching back, she saw various moldy liquids getting into her hair.

'Yeuk!' She thought in disgust. 'Now I need to wash this and take a shower when I get home.'

Looking towards the alley entrance she came from, Barbara saw several police cars rushing towards the scene. Knowing it's bad to stick around any longer, the masked Gordon fled in order to get back to her car and get back home.

If she were to stick around any longer, she would've been confronted by Robin and Vanitas as they barely rushed into the alley.

"Well that's just great. She's gone too." Robin said out in frustration.

"You know what's funny, Robin," Vanitas said as they walked back out of the alley in order to call it a night. "I don't remember a Batgirl in our little club."

The masked Grayson nodded. "You're telling me. I mean we got Harley, Catwoman and Ivy helping out as new additions; but no one else."

-Morning, Batcave-

Walking into the lair underneath Wayne Manor, Alfred had a tray of breakfast for Dick and Naruto. The later arrived not too long ago after he dropped off his ward at school for the day. Reason why they were here was to go over not only just the current case but to what happened last night.

"...All of Gotham is talking about the mysterious Batgirl who foiled an assassination attempt on acting Commissioner, Gil Mason." Spoke news anchor Summer Gleeson from the bat computer monitor. "Even though Robin and Vanitas apprehended several suspects on the alleged attempt, they committed suicide via cyanide pills in order to escape questioning."

"Expanding membership in the crime-fighting club?" Came Alfred's witty question.

"In the unintentional way, yeah." Naruto said as he paced around the expensive piece of equipment. "People join for the right and wrong reasons, Alfred."

From his seat in front of the computer, Dick voiced his frustrated thoughts. "If I find out who she is, I'll-" The college student suddenly stopped as his eyes caught onto something on the monitor. "Hey… Wait a second."

"What is it, Dick?"

Typing away on the keyboard, the news footage quickly paused before rewinding a good portion and stopped when the armed men were about to fire at the stage. Dick then played the video at 1/4th speed as the scene was played out to them. The three quickly saw a large error on what was happening before their eyes.

"Would you look at that?" Voiced the butler in astonishment. "Mr. Mason ducked before he saw the guns."

"Almost as though he expected it." Naruto said with a narrowed glance.

Dick nodded in agreement as he seemingly adopted thinking pose number 5 from his mentor. It was quite uncanny on how the Grayson was able to replicate it. But after years of living with Bruce, it's probably hard not to.

"Question is: what is Gil involved in?"

-GCPD-

From his desk, Bullock had a look of disgust across his features. He was reading the newspaper from last night's events and the majority of it focused on the vigilante newcomer Batgirl.

"Batgirl?" Spoke the detective as he crumpled up the newspaper. "What's next, Weasel Woman?" Once he was done, Bullock saw Barbara walking towards him as she smiled and waved at him a little. He was about to respond in kind when he noticed something odd. "Hey, Babs, where'd you get that shiner?"

In reaction, Barbara brought her hand towards her blackened eye as it was still recovering from last night and forgot to put on makeup before leaving her home.

When she got home, Barbara immediately tossed her costume into the wash before taking a lengthy shower to get herself clean from both garbage grime and sweat. When she got out, the spectacled redhead saw her eye was starting to bruise. So while she slept, Barbara kept an ice pack on her eye to help with the swelling.

The act worked, but there were still hints of the bruise.

"I ended up getting it last night at the rally." She said before mentally facepalming herself on letting that bit slip. Barbara recovered with a lie. "Got it when I tried to get away from those shooters and I ran into a pole on accident."

Bullock didn't say anything else as he seemingly bought her lie. The detective quickly excused himself to use the restroom while cursing himself on eating a certain burrito this morning with how fast he was walking.

Barbara looked onward to see the detective leave his desk before opening his drawers to pull out the mug books where previously arrested felons are placed for witnesses for later crimes. Flipping through the pages, the spectacled redhead occasionally looked off to the side as a precaution during her search.

The redhead thought her search would take longer, but it was surprisingly short as she saw the picture of the thug she tackled last night. It was rather hard to not remember with his large buck teeth he had sticking out from his mouth. And checking on the name, the man was called 'Bucky Mad Dog'.

Smirking to herself on her find, Barbara quickly placed the mug books back into their resting place before quickly leaving the department to head to her next destination.

-Gil Mason's Apartment-

A series of knocks came across Gil's door, causing the acting police commissioner to answer it. When he checked who it was from the peephole, Mason was surprised to see Barbara there. He opened the door and was going to greet her when she started to talk without a proper greeting.

"Gil!" She said with a chipper voice as she walked into his apartment. "You know those guys who shot at you? Well, I think I know who one of…"

Gil rose a brow when Barbara suddenly trailed off and became rather quiet. In response, he asked out of concern. "Is something wrong, Barbara?"

The spectacled redhead looked onwards and saw Bucky 'Mad Dog' sitting on the living room couch. Thoughts overcame her mind as she wondered why that thug was in Gil's apartment in the first place. Realizing she needed to speak, Barbara turned her attention back to Mason. "Uh, sorry. I didn't know you had company."

Blinking a bit, Gil momentarily forgot who he had in his home. "Oh, no problem. My friend here was just leaving."

Realizing it was not a good time to be here, Bucky looked at his watch. "Oh, yeah." He spoke. "Hey, ah, gotta run now." Bucky got up from the couch and made his way towards the door. "Listen, I'll see you at the business meeting, Gil." The thug said before turning to Barbara and gave her a curt nod out of politeness. "Miss."

As Bucky exited his apartment, Gil felt a little awkward but composed himself to act all charming to his new guest. "So… welcome to my humble abode."

Snapping out of her thoughts, Barbara turned over to the acting commissioner. "I just came over to… to see if you're okay." She lied while trying to divert her intentions from earlier. "I was worried about you."

Mason smiled at this and felt a little touched. "Hey, I appreciate that. I really do." He said as he came up to her and brought his arm around her shoulder. Being ignorant on her shuddering look on his recent act, he asked her a question. "Would you like a drink? Water? Soda? Beer?"

The spectacled redhead shook her head while carefully prying Gil's arm off of her to not seem offensive. "Oh, I'm sorry, I was just on my way to see Dad." Stepping away from him, Barbara made her way towards the door. "But I'm sure I'll catch you again."

As she left his apartment, Gil had adopted a look of confusion on his face.

-Gordon Residence-

Entering her bedroom, Barbara groaned as she plopped herself onto her bed.

"Ugh! What am I gonna do?!" She yelled out in complete frustration. "If Gil's involved in this, there's nobody I can trust." The redhead flipped herself over before staring up at the ceiling. "I could try to reach out to Vanitas or Robin, but I have no idea how to reach them; especially with my access towards the GCPD rooftop now limited." She said with reference towards the Bat Signal.

Pulling out her phone, Barbara looked through her contact list and scrolled towards Naruto's number. She was about to press send, but paused in her actions. She could call him and ask for his help in some manner, but didn't know of how far his reach could be. He was a famous publisher and owns a newspaper company as well. Without all of the facts, then her little attempt would be useless. If he sends out investigators, then they might not be fast enough to respond before his father is fully incarcerated for his alleged crime.

"And if Batman's not around-" Barbara muttered before she suddenly stopped and widened her eyes. She whipped her head around towards her Halloween costume, which was hanging by the door to dry out from last evening. Getting off the bed, the redhead made her way towards it and inspected it.

After the outfit was cleaned up from the wash, Barbara saw there were more rips and tears than she would've liked. Sure, they are mendable, but the redhead knew the fabric wasn't going to be all that great if she decided to go out again… as Batgirl… which the name is now stuck by public knowledge.

Craning her head off to the side, she saw her leather biker jacket in her closet as an idea formed in her mind. Turning back towards her old teddy bear, she spoke. "What do you think, Freddie? Could use some work, huh?"

-Evening, Stacked Deck-

Playing pool for the upteenth time in a row today, 'Matches Malone' sighed as he drank from his cup of beer.

There has been no luck on finding out who was behind Gordon's frame up and the events of last night. The disguised Wayne has been at a loss as he'd been going to every underbelly area he could get into to find information. Yet whoever has been behind all of this has been keeping things rather tight.

Rolling his shoulders, 'Matches' was finishing up this current round of pool when his eyes caught onto someone. The buck toothed man seemed a bit too sketchy as he entered the bar. Especially when the man made a b-line towards the phone booth and started putting change inside of it once closing the glass door.

Moving around the table, the disguised Wayne narrowed his eyes to get a good look at the man's mouth in order to read it. Just in time too as he picked up on something quite interesting.

"...Yeah, boss, like Batman, only a dame." Was the man's words via lip-reading, causing Matches to raise a brow. "She almost screwed up everything… Oh, don't worry. No one can hear me… Right, boss… I'm heading back right now."

Once the call was done, the buck toothed man hung up the phone and exited the phone booth. As he did so, 'Matches' quickly ended the game before grabbing his coat and paying his tab to the barkeep. From there, the disguised Wayne exited the bar in order to tail the man in order to find out what is going on exactly.

-Later, Park Row-

After driving for quite some time, the disguised Bruce was able to finish tailing the man all the way over to Park Row. Having to loop around the area and park at a good distance away, 'Matches' exited his vehicle and made his way towards the building where the buck toothed man entered.

Knowing it would be stupid to bluntly enter from the front door, he pulled out a grappling hook and swung it several times before tossing it upwards. The hook snagged onto a ledge and once giving it a few good tugs, 'Matches' made his climb.

It took several minutes to reach its end, but the disguised Wayne's task was complete. When he got onto his feet, he quickly rolled up the grappling hook and tucked it away into his coat. From there, he carefully opened up the window in order to make his way inside.

But the very moment he opened the window wide enough, 'Matches' was electrocuted as he yelled out in pain before collapsing inside and groaned in pain.

"It appears we have a prowler." Came a gravelly voice.

The disguised Wayne was roughly flipped over before being slapped across the face several times. "Okay, please stop that." 'Matches' said as he swatted the offending hand away.

Seeing as he's responsive at this time, 'Matches' was roughly brought onto his feet by several men. The disguised man's vision was blurry, after being electrocuted, as he looked at the men holding him up. 'Matches' must be hallucinating as he was seeing double.

Correction, he was seeing a pair of twins.

Both were in light brown suits with one half seemingly darker than the other half. They were fair-skinned and straight, shoulder length grey hair with a light blue tint to them with long bangs covering each different eye of their bangs being polar opposite from the other. They both had dark markings around their eyes along with odd marks around their mouths, giving them an androgynous appearance.

'I swear I've seen them before.' Bruce thought before he was slapped again. "Okay, I'm up already." He growled out. "So stop slapping me!"

"Who are you?" Spoke the twin on his left.

"What are you doing here?" Said the twin on his right.

Roughly prying his arms away, the disguised man spoke up. "Name's Matches Malone. I heard about a new mob and thought I could make some more dough."

"Is that so?" Came a familiar voice to Bruce's memory. "Well, you heard right." 'Matches' looked into the darkness and saw a figure stepping closer and closer into what available light peering through the boarded up windows. As the man's details were slowly being revealed, the disguised Wayne slowly widened his eyes. "In fact, you can double your take on the jobs we're pulling assuming I let you live to join my gang."

He was a fairly tall man with combed black hair with light grey eyes. But that was what seemed normal with the man on the right side of his body until you would focus on the other. With the burnt red skin with his gaping eye without an eyelid making people wonder how it's still in there along with showing most of his teeth. His suit was custom tailored being white and pristine with the sleeve rolled up with the black button up shirt underneath on the right side. But when looking at the right showed that it was black with various parts of it scorched and the left sleeve seemed to be ripped off along the elbow to show the red skin of the arm.

"Matches Malone, huh? I swear I heard of you before, from some place... and time." Spoke the former Gotham DA said as he scratched the right side of his head before his gravelly voice came up. "But there's something about you that I don't like. Nothing I can put my finger on, but I… trust my hunches." Pulling out his signature coin, with one side normal while the other was heavily scratched, Two Face flipped it several times. "Kind of like second sight, you know?" The scarred man stopped flipping his coin and presented it to the two-bit thug. "Now this will be real simple: Good heads, you live. Bad heads, you don't."

Without any further notice, Harvey 'Two Face' Dent flipped the coin into the air as anticipation filled the space around them.

-Gordon Residence-

After working throughout the rest of her day, Barbara was finishing tying up her black laced, dark yellow combat boots onto her feet before standing up and stretching to get a good feel of her newly made outfit.

Her outfit was very much like the Batman's in terms of design, but Barbara had her own take on the iconic costume with what she scrounge up from around her home and in the armory her father kept here in case of anything. The redhead even went out and purchased a good number of things to help finish things off since her Halloween costume was hardly salvageable, asides from several items, and it wouldn't protect her very well in fights. So she used what she could on the armor from her home's armory to be worn underneath her clothing like elbow, knee, arm and shin pads.

It was primarily black in design from the black leather biker jacket and black matte leather pants. The jacket's collar was stand-up with a snap-belt with a hidden zipper right above the collar seam and below the collar belt. Her dark yellow, wrist length leather gloves have snaps on their ends to make things snug and won't fall out easily. Her irregular jagged triangle sectioned black cape, with snaps on the shoulders, went down to her mid thighs as the lining was primarily a dark yellow. Barbara still kept her utility belt from her costume, but made some improvements like adding in a hip-holster purse. She salvaged the Batgirl cowl from her Halloween costume, due to the white functioning lenses over the eye holes, with her red hair flowing out from the back.

And to finish off the look was the yellow spray painted Bat logo on the chest as it was also incorporated into the zipper seams.

"So… if Batman can't help me. Well fine." Barbara said as she inspected herself in front of her mirror. "In that case, let's see what Batgirl can do."

-Rooftop overlooking Gil Mason's Apartment-

From his position on the rooftop, Vanitas kept a close eye on Mason's form with his 'Zooming' ability. Said man in question was pacing back and forth on his patio like he was either a nervous wreck or rather impatient as he occasionally glanced at the phone on the table.

'What are you waiting for, Mason?' Thought the helmeted Uzumaki. His train of thought ended when he heard a slight step onto the rooftop before calling out. "Took your time getting here, Robin."

"Sorry if I don't have powers of getting here so easily, ya'know." Robin grumbled out as he walked to his friend's position. "Anything?"

"It looks like he's waiting for something, but I believe it has to deal with getting a phone call."

Robin nodded as he waited alongside Vanitas.

Reason why they were here was because of them noticing the oddity in the news footage earlier today. The act made them theorize that Mason knew he was going to get shot at and probably knows more on what's going on.

So for most of the day, Naruto has had clones occasionally look over the place for anything suspicious, but nothing at all. He did get memories of Gil meeting up with a buck toothed man for a few minutes in his apartment before Barbara showed up. And when the clone saw the look on her face, Naruto had a feeling she possibly knew something.

But if he tried to confront her about it as either himself or Vanitas, then things might become too suspicious for her so he left her be.

The helmeted hero was so focused on his task, he didn't notice someone else appearing at the nearby rooftop… But Robin did.

She appeared at the corner of his eye and rose a brow on who she was. He would've mistaken her for someone else, but then did a double take when seeing the outfit she wore. Despite the fact that it was something entirely new, it was the same woman from last night.

'Her again?' Robin thought in surprise. 'What's she doing here?'

The 'Boy' Wonder made his way towards her position as she was looking over Mason's apartment. It took less than a minute to get there before he krept up to her.

When he got close to her, Batgirl suddenly spun around and kicked Robin away. The protege recovered before he went down and swept kicked her legs. She fell down and bounced a little off the rooftop with a groan.

Batgirl quickly got up and went into a fighting position. The two would've fought if it wasn't for Vanitas appearing between the two and made them stop.

"Will you two stop?" Vanitas demandedly asked as he looked at the costumed pair. "And what is going on here… Batgirl, was it?"

Before Batgirl could speak up, the 'Boy' Wonder interrupted her. "Hey, she started it." Robin accusingly said.

She glared at Robin. "By you coming up at me from behind." Was her defense. "I have every right to defend myself."

Vanitas rolled his eyes under his glass dome helm. "Look, under normal circumstances you two can argue all you want, but we've got a job to do." He said while taking the leadership role of the situation.

Robin and Batgirl looked at each other before quickly turning their heads away with their arms crossed.

"Well, I don't have time to baby-sit amateurs." Robin said.

Batgirl scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself. I may not have a diploma from crime-fighting school but I can do fine on my own, thanks."

Vanitas really wished he could melt away his glass dome helm for a brief moment to massage his temples. 'It's going to be like this all night long, isn't it?' He asked to himself before turning his attention bat to the costumed redhead. "Batgirl."

She snapped out of her scowl before responding to the helmeted hero. "Yeah?"

"What are you doing here anyways?"

"Same as you two." Was Batgirl's answer. "We already suspect Mason of-"

Their conversation was put on hold when they heard a phone ring. The three costumed individuals quickly focused their attention towards the source to see it was coming from Mason's patio. They then saw the acting police commissioner head back towards his phone.

Not wanting to miss this opportunity, Robin quickly pulled out a transceiver gun and fired a round towards the pillar some feet above Gil's head. It lodged into the rock as the radio was going to pick up on the conversation. Once it was ready, Robin detached a small ear bud from the gadget and placed it into his ear.

As this went on, Vanitas placed his attention back at Mason with his 'Hawkeye' ability to see if he can lip-read the man's mouth.

"Mason here." Gil said. "You wanna meet?... Okay, where?"

Feeling left out on what's happening, Batgirl turned to Robin and asked the obvious question "What's he saying?" All she got in response was a quick 'Shh!' before focusing on the call. The costumed redhead then clicked her tongue. 'Ass.'

An idea soon formed as quickly pulled out a pair of collapsible binoculars from her utility belt. It's the only thing she could work with at the current time. Good thing too as she saw Mason write something on a notepad.

Focusing more towards that now, Batgirl was able to get down what Gil wrote: South Gotham subway, the old river entrance and in one hour. Once getting her information, she quickly put away her binoculars so neither Robin or Vanitas would notice.

Just in time too as the masked Gordon heard Robin speak up as he put his equipment away. "Well, show's over. You can run along home now."

Batgirl glared at Robin's back and wanted to snap at him. Though she decided to act a little… in all too sweet tone. "Okay~"

Robin paused his actions, along with Vanitas, as they turned over to see Batgirl's expression.

"Okay?" Asked the 'Boy' Wonder.

"If you won't let me help you, what else can I do?"

Robin could only smirk to himself. "Good." He said in a cocky tone. "You've got some sense after all."

Robin ran off and jumped off of the rooftop towards his motorcycle on the street. Vanitas merely walked away but paused in his step and turned around to face the costumed redhead.

"Robin… means well, just so you know. He just doesn't want others to be put in danger."

Batgirl snorted. "Yeah~ Real nice guy, but a few bats short of a belfry."

Vanitas chuckled. "True, with who he trained under for years, but he still has a lot to learn." He said, getting her to close her eyes and nod. "Like knowing you already got information on the meeting from Mason's notepad."

The costumed redhead quickly froze and widened her eyes in response. "Wait. How'd you-"

"I multitask."

"...Okay…"

Vanitas sighed a little. "Look, I can understand that you want to help out on whatever is going on exactly, as I assume it's probably related to Commissioner Gordon's allegations and whatever happened at the rally yesterday, right?"

Batgirl nodded with a smile forming on her face, clearly getting the helmeted hero to know she might've found something was off as well.

"But you need to understand that something big is happening and you might get hurt in the process if you try to tread this path." He said as he quickly noticed her facial expression was turning a little sour. "I have a feeling you don't like being put down like that, but I'm just putting this out there. This isn't just some situation that you might go unscathed. You can possibly die with what goes on."

"I understand that, Vanitas, I really do."

"I don't think you do." He said in an even tone. "You must understand that when us costumed folks go out every night, a lot of men try to kill us. And all it takes is one mistake… one lucky shot… one blow and it's over." Vanitas stated, not noticing her expression changing into something else. "I know people admire us for what we do, but they shouldn't envy us. Nobody should."

'...Wow… It feels like deja vu.' She thought when remembering of what her father told her on Halloween.

Not knowing her present thoughts, the helmeted Uzumaki spoke up. "Though I do have to say you did a good job some weeks ago."

This knocked the masked Gordon out of her thoughts. "I'm sorry, but what?"

"I heard of what you did on that Halloween party." He said, surprising her on that. "And I appreciate on you trying to save the Vanocouver heiress from Scarecrow."

Batgirl blinked several times in confusion. "Wait… How'd you know I was there? She didn't tell the police on-"

"You can thank Poison Ivy and Catwoman on telling me." He interrupted her, getting a wide eyed look from underneath her cowl. "Sure, you weren't put in the newspaper on that incident, but Ivy and Kitty helped fill in some blanks when we last chatted."

Things came into questioning on that Sunday morning -Rachel's Birthday- when Gordon showed up at his loft and wanted to talk to Pamela in private. Once he left, Naruto immediately asked what was going on, causing her to explain the events of the one Halloween party at the Moulton Towers.

The masked Gordon merely nodded a little while scratching the back of her head and blushed on the praise. Despite the little lecture he gave her, this compliment elevated her spirits a bit.

"Oh and one more thing."

Batgirl stopped her action and focused back at the hero before her. "Yes?"

"Has anyone told you, you have really beautiful red hair?"

"...W-W-Wh-What?" She stuttered out as her hands quickly reached for her red locks.

He nervously chuckled as he rubbed the back of his helmet. "Sorry about that. It's just that red hair seems to stand out to me a lot and you have a perfect blend of red and orange."

The masked Gordon thanked her lucky stars her cowl covered up her growing blush. And just when Batgirl spoke out a hesitant 'Thanks', Vanitas jumped off of the rooftop and quickly summoned a Kazekage lance to fly into the night.

She was lost to herself that she soon realized what happened. Batgirl snapped out of her thoughts and wanted to talk to Vanitas, only to realize he was gone.

'That was really odd.' She thought as she fumbled in getting out the grappling gun she had in her utility belt. 'He's the second person to compliment me on my hair, asides from my father… and fat pigs trying to get in my pants.' A smile then formed on her face. 'And I gotta say, it felt nice.'

Aiming her gadget to a nearby flag pole, she fired it and watched the hook fly. 'Though something with how Vanitas said it seemed oddly similar to how Naruto-' Batgirl quickly shook her head while giving the grappling gun a good tug to know the line is secure. 'Nah~ It's just a coincidence. Nothing more.'

Once tugging the line one more time, Batgirl jumped off the rooftop while mentally screaming on what she was doing. 'SHIIIIIIT!' She quickly closed her eyes for a brief moment before remembering what was going on. Forcing herself to open her optics, she saw herself descending towards the street below instead of swinging. 'How the fucking hell can Batman, Robin and Vanitas do so well on this?!'

Her fingers jumbled on the grappling gun and pressed a button that disconnected the only cable from the gun, causing her to fully drop onto the roof of a supply truck. She skidded a little and grasped onto the container's edge while trying to control her breathing and heartbeats.

'Gotta work on that landing, girl.' She thought to herself as she hanged on for dear life. 'And note to self: train how to use a grappling gun, in a proper way, and consider getting yourself a motorcycle for better travel.' Were her thoughts as she won't be anyway close to her car anytime soon.

-One Hour Later, South Gotham Subway-

Sounds of the old river running with the passing trams filled the area when Batgirl arrived. It took a while to get here on her own, but she made it. Though she did have some bad luck along the way with certain vehicles going where she didn't want to-to having to car hop quite often.

'I hope I don't do that for quite a while.' Was the masked Gordon's thoughts as she crept towards the old metro entrance. 'Or else I might get screwed in the long run.' As she ventured past the entrance, Batgirl saw a good number of men knocked unconscious with them tucked into a corner. 'Huh. I guess the party's started without me.'

Walking further in, the masked Gordon saw a broken up escalator. Now this would've been a hindrance of finding a way down a level. But Barbara Gordon was creative as she saw part of the escalator was still in tact.

Going back several steps, Batgirl went to a running start before leaping into the air and landing on the smooth gap between the escalators and slid on down. The costumed redhead saw towards the end of her little trail, the metal started to get rather jagged. She then noticed she was picking up speed while at the halfway point, causing her to jump into the air and over the jagged area before landing on the ground with a very soft 'thud'.

'And she sticks it.' She thought to herself before hearing something some distance away from her.

"You sure you haven't seen him at the department?" Came a gravelly voice. "He could be an undercover cop."

Batgirl hid behind a large, stone pillar and saw a large gathering of men as they questioned a scared up man with a thick moustache on his upper lip. Though one of them was rather recognizable being the infamous Harvey 'Two Face' Dent, causing her to wonder what he was doing here.

This question was put to a halt when Batgirl saw Gil Mason step forward and inspected the scar-faced man. "I'd remember that face." Said the acting police commissioner. "Who is he?"

"In a few minutes, nobody's gonna care." Two face said before his voice went from gravely to normal. "Okay, you're done here. Go home and rest, Mason"

Gil was rather livid when hearing this, causing the man to speak out with annoyance laced in his voice. "So that's it? You bring me all the way to South Gotham to ID some two-bit hood?"

Two Face didn't like hearing this, making the former DA to growl at Gil. "Don't get wise with me, Mason. Remember who got you set up as Gordon's assistant and your informant."

Mason wanted to snap back, but held his tongue. He only looked away before answering back. "Right, Harvey, right."

The acting commissioner was suddenly yanked and was forced to face the heavily burnt man he was currently working for. "Don't call me that!" Yelled the former DA. "It's Two Face to you, pretty boy!"

"Okay, okay!" Gil said in order for Harvey to stop his actions. "Two Face, take it easy. You're the man."

Letting out a 'humph', Two Face shoved Mason away before adjusting his suit. "Don't you forget it." As Gil balanced himself out, the former DA continued talking. "Since our little stunt at the rally, I got this city thinking you're the best thing since the Batman and Vanitas." He then pulled out his coin and started flipping it. "Once Gordon's out of the picture you'll be a shoo-in to take his place." Two Face then chuckled. "In fact, they could be calling you 'Commissioner' by tomorrow."

From her hidden place in the room, Batgirl held back a gasp on what's happening.

Things were starting to click and fit into place inside Barbara's mind. She remembered that Gil was initiated by Dent as her father's assistant before he became Two Face. And now in return for Harvey's favor, Mason would help take out gang lords -in a legal fashion- in order to boost his popularity while Two Face absorbs their assets and becomes a powerful crime boss.

But that's not just it. The former DA wants to have Gil, his lacky, to replace his father! Making a corrupt man as commissioner and controlling him from behind the scenes? It was just like what happened with the former Commissioner Loeb and Carmine Falcone, except the crime lord sold him out to save his own skin to shave off years from his prison at least a decade ago.

'Wait… did Dent say 'tomorrow'?' Barbara thought with widened eyes.

Mason blinked in surprise and voiced his thoughts, along with Batgirl's. "What do you mean 'tomorrow'?"

"I'm stepping up the timetable." Was Dent's response. "Too many people nosing around. This guy," pointing to Matches, "that Batgirl chick. I'm not taking any chances. My men will bust Gordon out of jail tonight. Then we'll dump him off Bayshore Wharf."

The masked Gordon gritted her teeth at what they were planning. 'Not if I have any say about that.' She thought while pulling out several smoke bombs from her utility belt and was about to throw them. But Batgirl paused in her actions when she felt something crawl up her body.

Looking down, she saw a large ass rat scurrying up her leg.

...And as a result, she involuntarily shrieked.

"EEEEEEEK!" She yelled out as she shook the rat off her. And in the process, Batgirl dropped the smoke bombs as they rolled across the ground and exploded soon after to fill up the space with smoke.

"Hey! Someone's here!" Said one of Two Face's goons as he quickly pulled out his gun.

"We got company!" Two Face said as he put away his coin and pulled out his gun. The former DA then saw a figure in the shadows and pointed in that general direction. "Over there!"

'Shit!' Batgirl yelled out as she ran for better cover.

As she did, she quickly pulled out what homemade batarangs she had -which were not fun to make bytheway- and threw them at the thugs. Some landed their marks at either legs or arms while others were laughably missed. Regardless, Batgirl was a bit unprepared at the current time as she was going to get overwhelmed by Two Face's men.

Fortunately for her, help arrived as Robin and Vanitas dropped down from the darkened ceiling.

Vanitas drop kicked one of the thugs before grabbing him and tossing the man into a small cluster of goons. From there, the helmeted hero dashed forward with escrima sticks to knock their weapons out of their hands before punching their lights out.

With Robin, he leapt over a goon and punched his exposed back in a rapid succession. Once that man was down, the 'Boy' Wonder quickly pulled out his grappling gun and fired a round to a thug across the way. Retracting the line, Robin flew across the area and kicked a man into a concrete wall before elbowing a man's face.

Not wanting to be left out and to help do her part, Batgirl took a risk by fleeing from her cover and slid across the floor to knock over a pair of goons. Using what momentum she had left, the masked Gordon bounced off the floor and delivered an uppercut to an unsuspecting thug. She did have to roll away once or twice for some distance before backflipping and kicking a man's chest and made him collide into one of his cohorts.

As this all happened, the disguised Wayne saw several goons were approaching a very distracted Robin. He even saw several thugs aim their weapons towards him. Not wanting this to happen, 'Matches' ran forward and knocked them down.

"Robin, look out!" 'Matches' yelled out over the fighting.

The masked Grayson heard Bruce's warning, causing him to quickly duck and spin around to sweep the men off their feet before focusing on other goons in the subway.

From his place in the impromptu battlefield, Two Face blinked on the recent warning. "Robin?" Questioned the burnt man. "Wait a second." Turning his attention towards Matches, Two Face hotly glared at him. "Then that makes you-"

The former DA couldn't say anything else as he knocked onto the ground by one of his defeated goons. The burnt man growled and pushed the man away before scrambling onto his feet. His eyes were still trained on 'Matches' and fired several rounds towards the man's general direction.

The disguised Wayne grunted as he had to quickly roll into the subway line and crawl into a crevice so he wouldn't be noticed any further.

'Seems I'll have to retire Matches for a while.' Bruce thought as sounds of fighting still filled the air.

As this was all going on, Gil ran up to Two Face and called out to him. "We need to get outta here!"

The former DA nodded as he and many of his lackies fled from the abandoned subway. As they reached the surface, he ordered Bucky a simple order. "BLOW IT!"

The buck toothed thug nodded as he pulled out several grenades from his coat, pulled the pins and tossed them into the tunnel. They bounced off each escalator step for several seconds before-

*KABOOM*

When the explosion went off, Vanitas acted quickly and pulled Batgirl into a protective hug due to how close they were to the blast. The pair was sent flying into a support pillar as Vanitas took the majority of the hit. Once landing on the ground, the masked Uzumaki still protected Batgirl as debrie started collapsing and blocked the subway entrance.

As things settled, Batgirl groaned as she tried to lift the weight off of her. She then realized what was on her and gasped to see Vanitas' prone body and he wasn't responding. There were even a large amount of cracks forming on the glass dome helmet to show much damage was shown.

'Oh god! Please be alive!' The masked Gordon thought as she tried shaking the black/white themed hero awake, but there was no movement at all.

Getting himself off the ground, Robin glared at Batgirl. "Shouldn't you have stayed home? We had this handled." He then glanced at his friend's unconscious body, which seemed to add more fuel to the flames. "If you hadn't show up then this might not have happened."

Before the masked Gordon could retort, the scar-faced man she saw earlier walk up to them. "Robin, enough." He ordered. "It wasn't her fault."

The masked Grayson grubingly stood down as he tried to calm himself.

Turning his attention to the costumed redhead, the disguised Wayne spoke. "I believe you're the so-called Batgirl?"

Robin looked at his mentor in confusion before speaking. "I thought she was with you."

"She clearly isn't, Robin."

The 'Boy' Wonder rolled his eyes. "Well I mean she's got your taste in clothes." He muttered in reference to the style. "Oh yeah, speaking of which…" Robin then pulled out a package from his back and handed it to his mentor. "Brought these for ya."

The disguised Wayne was about to change outfits when he noticed Batgirl was still looking at them. Turning towards her, he spoke. "Do you mind?"

Batgirl blinked before realizing what the man was about to do. She chuckled a little before focusing her attention on the hero that protected her from the explosion.

Back up on the surface, Gil was arguing with Two Face.

"Well, this is just great." Mason growled out. "Now Batman, Robin and Vanitas know what's going on."

"The Batchick too." Bucky said, getting their attention. "I saw her down there."

The former DA stroked his chin to contemplate on what happened. "The explosion probably took care of them." He then pulled out a remote and flipped over the protective covering. "But just in case…"

Back in the subway, Batman had his arms crossed as he was severely speaking to the rookie crime fighter.

"...I don't know who you are or why you're doing this, but let's get one thing straight." He said as Batgirl flinched under his tone. "It takes more than a costume and an attitude to do this work."

Trying to keep herself together, Batgirl spoke up as she kept Vanitas up against the wall. "Look, I've got a reason for being here so-"

"You've already fouled up once." Batman said as he referenced their current predicament. "So stay out of our way so it doesn't happen again."

Batgirl gritted her teeth, but didn't say anything as she checked back on the unconscious Vanitas once more as she saw several small dark holes form in his protective covering. It was really hard to tell if the helmeted hero was alive, or at least breathing, but there was some very subtle hints with the feint rising of his chest to show he was indeed alive.

Walking up to his protege, who was trying to find a way out, Batman spoke. "I should've known it would be Two Face. It's a perfect two-part plan. He consolidates the gangs while Mason takes over the police."

"What he said about the commissioner," Batgirl said, getting Batman and Robin's attention, "will… will he-?"

"You saw him flip his coin." Spoke the Dark Knight. "It's judge, jury and executioner."

Without seeing Batgirl's expression, the Dynamic Duo ventured further into the tunnel.

"...And here we sit with no way to get out of here with Vanitas uncons-"

*KABOOM*

The area shook once more as they heard the loud sounds of water rushing through the tunnels.

"OH CRAP!"

The Dynamic Duo rushed through the opposite end of the tunnel and tried to get onto the upper level. Batman was the lucky one while Robin ended up caught by the rushing water. The protege was going to be swept under the water if it wasn't for Batgirl quickly throwing a rope as it wrapped around his arm.

"Hold on!" She cried out. "I got ya!"

Batgirl struggled to pull Robin up to the upper level, but with Batman's help they were successful in getting him out of the water.

"Not… Bad…" Robin panted out as he looked at the costumed redhead. "Maybe there's hope for you after all." He then noticed the water was rising higher and higher in the abandoned subway. "Well crap."

Batgirl gasped and quickly turned her head towards Vanitas' unconscious body. Rushing towards his side, she tried to pick him up when they were knocked over and swept by the large current of water. The group struggled to keep themselves upright, but it was rather hard with how fast things were going.

Though things have come to a brief resting period when they were swept to a large area of the subway that at least helped level out the water.

"If you have any ideas, Batman, that would be great." Batgirl said as she did her best to keep the helmeted hero upright in the water.

The Dark Knight nodded as he pulled out his grappling gun and some C4 puddy from his utility belt. Placing the puddy onto the hook, the Bat aimed up towards the high ceiling and fired. The puddy covered hook soared and once coming into contact with the ceiling, a large hole was formed after a brief explosion.

"Great." She briefly said. "Only how do we get to it?"

Robin then pulled out another grappling gun. "Always carry a spare." He said before aiming upwards and fired towards the large hole. Once the hook disappeared from view, the 'Boy' Wonder gave it a few good tugs to show that it was secure.

Robin then handed the grapple gun to Batman who then handed it off to Batgirl. "You first." He said, getting a surprised look from her. "Press this button here to send it back down to us."

"But what about Vanitas?" She asked as she looked at his floating body.

"We'll worry about that next."

The masked Gordon hesitantly nodded before pressing the button to rise her out of the water.

"Wait!" Robin called out, causing her to stop. He then pulled out several batarang and handed them to her. "Just in case you run into trouble up there."

She nodded and placed them into her utility belt. "Thanks." Was all Batgirl said before pressing the button once more, rose out of the water and headed straight towards the opened ceiling.

Once on the surface, Batgirl looked down into the hole before holding onto the cable. Pressing the one button, she saw the device lower itself towards the Dynamic Duo and the unconscious hero down below.

Just when the grappling gun was within their grasps, a large section of the subway wall bursted open causing them to be swept under by another surge of water.

Widening her eyes, Batgirl cried out in absolute shock. "NO!"

The masked Gordon didn't know what to do on saving them. A heavy weight was suddenly dropped onto her shoulders and her gut that three great heroes possibly perished in the subway below… and it was all her fault!

Her body shook as she gritted her teeth. 'I… I should've done something…' Barbara thought as she formed fists from her hands. 'I should've done more!' Tears were beginning to form under her cowl. 'I… I shouldn't have come! They were right! I screwed up and I'm paying for it!'

Barbara sniffled several times before eventually remembering why she was on the surface in the first place.

'I… I need to warn the police.' She thought as she stood up with the grappling gun. As she unhooked and retracted the cable, Batgirl ran through the streets. 'I need to warn them of dad.'

As the masked Gordon ran, she looked all over for a payphone. The costumed redhead would've used her cell phone, but it was damaged due to the water from earlier. Besides, she needed to do an anonymous call as doing it from her cell might have caused problems.

After searching for what felt like forever, which was really several minutes, Barbara found a phone box.

Once closing the door, Batgirl pulled out her little change purse from her utility belt and inserted the desired amount before dialing 911. From there, she waited for several moments before a masculine voice was heard from the other end.

"Hello? GCPD here. How may I direct your call?"

"Hello. I need to warn you-"

"Hey! Can you speak up?!"

The redhead groaned before yelling into the phone. "I need to warn you! Commissioner Gordon is in danger!"

"I can barely hear you!" Spoke the officer. "The phone lines must've been damaged by the explosion! So speak up!"

She blinked and wondered on what the officer meant by explosion. Shaking her head, Batgirl spoke up once more. "I said Commissioner Gordon is in danger!"

"I still can't hear you! Look… If you want the story on Gordon's breakout, come down here!" Was all the officer said before he ended the call.

"...Breakout?" Barbara questioned before her eyes widened with realized horror. "Oh god, they've got him."

-Earlier, City Jail-

"...Bullock."

"Yeah?"

The spectacle man sighed as he lifted up a fork full of… something from a meal tray in his cell before putting it back down. "If I ever get reinstated, remind me to do something about the food in here."

Bullock chuckled a little when his boss learned of the kind of food that was served in the city jail. It wasn't great, but it did fill up prisoners for the day.

Swallowing a bite from a slice of pizza, the detective spoke up. "Relax, commish. We got the judge to reconsider bail, didn't we?"

Gordon nodded as the rally yesterday did get the judge to look back over the case. He did inform the GCPD this morning on the good news. So that's at least some silver lining.

Finishing up the rest of his pizza slice, Bullock was going to speak up again when he heard something. "Commish?"

"Yes?"

"Are you hearing… ticking?"

Gordon blinked a few times before looking for the source. His ears caught it from… his prison window?

The detective and incarcerated commissioner looked over to the window and gasped when seeing a bomb was placed there. The pair tried to quickly move, but it was too late…

*KABOOM*

...As the bomb quickly went off, sending Gordon into the cell bars while some debris hit Bullock in the face to render him unconscious.

The spectacled man groaned as his vision blurred while a loud ringing was being heard in his ears.

"..me…, commi….."

"W-What?" Gordon muttered out as he saw two blurred men quickly lift him up.

"...said: Come on, commissioner." Said one of the thugs as James was roughly dragged out of his cell and into the city streets. "It's time for your just deserts."

-Back in the Subway-

Batman, Robin and the unconscious Vanitas were dragged through the currents as the Dynamic Duo did what they could to keep their friend upright. It wasn't an easy task, but they did what they could.

Coming across a submerged train car, Robin dived down and latched onto the doors before prying them open as hard as he could. His arms were getting rather sore with the building pressure, but after several moments they were spread open wide enough for Batman to quickly shove Vanitas' body inside with them following right in.

Closing the door right behind him, Robin panted for air before looking around and seeing water was slowly rising in the confined space. "Do… Do you think she made it?" Robin asked.

"I hope so." Batman said as he panted for air as well.

"And… do you think we'll make it?"

"In time."

"Well do you have any ideas?"

"I've got an idea." Came a familiar voice. Looking to the side, they saw Vanitas was now starting to stir. He looked all around him and rose a hidden brow. "...What the hell happened? And how long was I knocked out?"

Robin chuckled. "It's about damn time."

"Can you get us out of here?" Came the Bat's request.

Situating himself onto his feet, the costumed Uzumaki melted his helmet away to expel the built up water inside of it. Shaking his head a little, the hero reformed his protective covering before answering. "Give me a moment."

More and more water formed in the confined space, causing Robin to speak up. "Can that moment come sooner?"

Vanitas rolled his eyes before spreading his arms out and concentrated. His head still felt the explosion from earlier, so it took some extra time to get his power in working order.

Before long, a large Fair Play card formed underneath them before they started to rise towards the subway car's ceiling.

"You two better hold your breath."

Batman and Robin nodded before pulling out a pair of portable oxygen tubes from their utility belts and placed them into their mouths.

"...Or you could do that."

Once they were ready, the three were soon phased right out of the old subway car and rose through the layers of concrete before rising into the surface. The Dynamic Duo saw this, causing them to take out their devices from their mouths to get a bit of fresh air… after coughing for a few moments.

"Think they got the commissioner by now?" Asked the 'Boy' Wonder.

"Most likely."

"I'm sorry, but what?" Vanitas asked with hidden, widened eyes. "What happened to Gordon?"

"We'll explain on the way." Spoke the Bat. "But now, get us to Bayshore Wharf."

Vanitas nodded as he directed his floating card platform to their desired destination.

…..

"Hey Bruce."

"Yes, Dick?"

"Why didn't we use these while in the flooded tunnels earlier?" Robin asked, in referencing to their portable oxygen tubes. "They… would've helped."

All Vanitas and Robin heard in response was a small groan coming from the Bat.

-Bayshore Wharf-

Standing on the wooden dock at the wharf, Gordon glared at Two Face and his gang surrounding him. More so towards the acting commissioner.

"I trusted you, Mason." James growled out as he was held back by Sakon and Ukon, Two Face's twin lackies. "Ever since you joined the force and rose through the ranks, I trusted you. And this is how you-"

"It's just business, Jim." Gil spoke up as he came up to the restrained man. "Nothing personal. Hell, as a matter of fact, I respect you." All he got back from Gordon was a glare. "I do! But a fella has to take his opportunities where he finds them. And with you out of the way, I'll be mayor inside of a year."

"You're sick, Gil." James spat out before directing his head towards the former DA. "A lot sicker than him. At least I can see his bad half."

Mason sighed. "Sorry you feel that way, Jim." The man then formed a smirk that made Gordon feel sick. "At least you won't have to worry about Barbara." This caused the confined man to widen his eyes. "In fact, I'll take good care of her. After all, she's very fond of me, you know."

In a surprise bit of strength, Gordon pried himself free from Sakon and Ukon grasps before leaping at Mason and punched him across the face. "You bastard!" James was then pulled back by the twins once more as the spectacled man hotly glared at Gil. "Like I'll ever let you lay a hand on my daughter!"

Straightening out his suit, Mason walked back towards Gordon before punching the man across the face. The blow was hard enough for his glasses fly off his face and land onto the ground.

"Well you won't be around long enough to do that." Said the acting commissioner as he flexed his hand from the delivered blow. "Since you'll be put down for good and there will be nothing you'll do to stop that."

Gordon merely growled in response. "I may not be around to stop you, but I know some people who will.

"I wouldn't count on it, Jim." Pulling out a gun from his coat pocket, Mason aimed his weapon towards James' head. "There's been a recent decline in the hero population."

Just when Gil was about to pull the trigger, a batarang knocked the weapon out of the acting commissioner's hand.

"What the-"

Wasn't long before a can of tear gas was tossed in the middle of the gathering of men. Each of them wheezed and coughed while a figure rushed into the smoke.

James was having a hard time focusing on what was happening before he heard pained yelps from Two Face's twin lackeys. And before he knew it, Gordon was dragged out of the smoke as he was forced to run in the process.

"We need to run, commissioner!" Came a female voice.

Gordon had a hard time seeing who the woman was, due to the tear gas and losing his glasses. But by the general shape and attire, he had a good idea who it was.

"Batgirl, I presume." He stated, causing her to nod in the process as they quickly behind a closed up kiosk.

"Don't worry, Mr. Gordon, I'll get you out of this… somehow." She said as the sounds of bullets filled the air as Two Face's goons opened fire upon their position.

If either groups paid more attention to their surroundings, they would've seen a large shadow crossing over the armed gang. Though it was too late for them as several batarangs and daggers knocked the assault rifles and handguns out of the hands of some thugs.

Looking towards the source, they saw the Dynamic Duo dropping down from above.

Hearing a decrease of bullet fire, Batgirl peaked out of cover and came face to face with Vanitas.

"Hiya." Spoke the helmeted hero in a chipper tone. "Did you miss me?"

Batgirl smiled brightly and quickly hugged the black/white themed hero. "I thought you guys were-"

"It'll take much more than what happened in the subway to take us down." Vanitas said while returning the hug for a brief moment. Though he had to quickly ending it by pushing her back into cover to avoid some stray shots. "Sorry to cut this short, but I've got an appointment with some thugs."

Batgirl nodded as she saw Vanitas run back into the fray to help out the Dynamic Duo. Turning her attention to her father, she spoke. "I think you're safe now, sir."

Gordon could only chuckle in response.

"Get them!" Two Face roared out as he fired rounds at the evading vigilantes. "Kill them all!"

Bucky tried to rush towards Batgirl and Commissioner Gordon, but Robin saw this happen and quickly acted to stop him. Pulling out bolas, he threw them at the buck toothed man's legs to trip him up. Bucky tried to move forward once entangled, but with a good tug of the rope from Robin sent the man into the water.

Leaping into the air, Vanitas dive bombed a pair of goons by slamming them into the ground. When several thugs tried shooting at him, the helmeted hero quickly formed his ice shield to block the bullets as he rolled towards them. And with the same momentum, he dashed forward and smacked each of them with his weapon as they were quickly frozen in place.

As for the Bat, he slid across the wooden dock to sweep a man off his feet. From there, he spun around and delivered an uppercut towards another's chest before punching him into the water. And using the same momentum, the Bat grappled a shooter's head and spun him around to make the man fly into another thug.

"You've screwed up my plans for the last time, Batman!" Two Face growled out as he emptied his clip at the Caped Crusader. Seeing it was useless, the former DA tossed it at the Bat before delivering several punches which were easily avoidable.

The burnt man then grasped the Batman's hands as the pair soon struggled for dominance over the other. It appeared that the vigilante was winning over the little bout. But in a surprising move, Two Face headbutted the Bat. He then used the disordinating attack to his advantage and grasped Batman's shoulders before tossing him to the side.

Seeing as it was his chance to flee, Two Face ran off and went past Batgirl and Gordon.

The costumed redhead was about to run after the former DA when she noticed Batman rush past her. And it was at this moment when Batgirl caught Gil Mason, at the corner of her eye, flee to the far side of the wooden bridge in hopes of getting away.

'Oh no, you don't.' She thought before bolting from her cover.

Mason ran down the wooden stairs to get to the getaway boat on the lower level. He quickly fumbled through the keys to start up the engine. Once untying the mooring rope, Gil took off and didn't look back.

If he did, then he would've noticed Batgirl jump into the water and grasp the rope that Mason forgot to pull into the speed boat.

Back at the docks, Two Face was nearing a building with a large display of a silver dollar hanging above the gates. Seeing as he isn't going to reach the former DA fast enough, Batman quickly saw a target and took it by pulling out a batarang and throwing it into the air. Two Face briefly saw this happen and pushed himself harder in his run, thinking he could outrun the thrown weapon.

What he should've realized was that the batarang wasn't aimed towards him, but the display above him.

The wood suspending the coin display underneath gave way once a small explosion went off. With its massive weight, the fake coin fell down and collided with the wooden dock, causing it to cave in and shake. And with how close he was to the coin once it fell, Two Face was pole vaulting into the air and fell onto the ground.

Once impacting on the wooden ground, the little quake caused the coin to topple backward, landed on top of Two Face and entrapped him there.

"Well ain't that a first." Gordon said as he chuckled at the blurry sight before him. "A coin flips Two Face."

Both Vanitas and Robin jogged onto the little scene and chuckled a little on what they saw before them.

Though this little moment quickly died as the 'Boy' Wonder looked all over for Batgirl. "Where's Batgirl?" He asked.

"Out there." Responded the Bat as he gazed at the watery distance. "On her own."

"I'll go get her." Was all Vanitas said before he quickly formed his wind lance and took off into the air.

A mile or two away from the wharf, Batgirl was struggling as she pulled her way closer and closer to the boat via mooring rope. As she got closer, Gil seemed to turn back and saw what she was doing. Pulling out his gun, Mason emptied her gun at her, but he missed his shots.

Though one of the shots hit the tank, causing flames to start forming from the newly made hole.

Releasing the steering wheel, Gil rushed towards the back in hopes of taking care of Batgirl. When he got close, he tried to fire his gun only for the resounding *Click* to be heard. This gave the costumed redhead enough time to quickly pull herself into the boat and kick the man away.

With the boat losing control on where it's going, the constant rocking caused Batgirl to fall back. Gil took this opportunity to tackle her down as they struggled for dominance.

"Now, let's see who you really are!" Mason quickly grasped Batgirl's mask and pulled it away to reveal- "Barbara?!" He said in absolute shock. "I-I didn't know it was you."

Barbara hotly glared at the man before her. "Would it have made a difference, Gil?" She spat out before delivering an upward kick towards his jaw.

The impact knocked the man back and fall onto the boat's railing. This resulted in Gil's head impacting the transom so hard that he lost consciousness.

Barbara was quite satisfied with this and let out a bit of breath she seemed to have kept in her chest. Though her momentary bit of peace came to an abrupt end when she noticed the boat was careening towards Gotham's Statue of Justice.

The unmasked Gordon gritted her teeth once her eyes landed back onto Mason's prone body. Grasping his coat, she struggled in lifting him up. "I ought to leave you here." She struggled out before tossing him off the boat before she jumped off soon after.

And just at the very last moment as the boat crashed into the statue, causing it to explode soon after.

Moments later, Barbara gasped for air as she broke the surface and held Gil's body up so the corrupt man wouldn't die by drowning. Panting soon after, she looked around and saw the burning wreckage not far away from her. She then realized that trying to get back to dry land was going to be a total pain in the ass while dragging Mason's body with her.

If only she had some help…

"Need a lift?"

Before she could register who spoke, Barbara felt herself get lifted from the water. Looking down, she saw a giant playing card as it was a surprisingly good surface. It was even stable enough to keep the unconscious Gil balanced on it.

Barbara then realized who exactly saved her.

"Yes." She answered with a tired smile. "I'd very much appreciate it."

"Then you're welcome, Miss Gordon."

Barbara blinked in shock on hearing her name. She then remembered that Gil took off her mask moments earlier.

"...Are you going to tell my father?"

Vanitas looked towards the shore before back to her. "Nah~"

"...What?"

"For one, your father might get a heart attack if he knew you did this." He said, getting her to let out a nervous chuckle as she knew he was right. "And second, it's not my little secret to tell."

"Wait… You mean…"

"Yeup~" He said as he expanded the card platform so he can hop on. "Your secret's safe with me, Barbara."

She let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank god." Then a thought resurfaced to the forefront of her mind. "Hey, Vanitas."

"Yes?"

"I'm… I'm sorry on what happened earlier… at the subway."

He sighed as he realized that must've eaten her up a lot. "All is forgive, Miss Gordon." This got her to brighten up a little. "Whatever happened, happened. An uncontrollable instance that could've happened to anyone."

"But Batman said-"

"He can be quite the hardass prude." He suddenly said, getting a wide eyed look from her on him saying such a thing to the infamous Batman. "But he does mean well as he's just wants to protect others. Even if that means he has to be rough to get his point across." Vanitas groaned soon after. 'Then again, with how he's brought up, it's hard not to see that.' Was his thought.

Barbara nodded a little in understanding.

"Though he should realize this city doesn't have it's fair share of times of being unsafe." Vanitas said, getting her to briefly nod again. "So… if you'd like… I could help you know how to defend yourself."

The red haired beauty widened her amethyst eyes when hearing this. "Wait, what?"

"It's not much and I-"

"THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" She yelled out in joy while hugging him rather tightly.

This was a great opportunity for her! Her being trained by Vanitas himself! Oh it's a dream come true… in some way or another.

Soon realizing what was still happening, the redhead quickly pulled away and coughed into her hand. "Uh, sorry about that."

Vanitas chuckled as he 'drove' his card platform to the city. "Now do you need me to drop you off somewhere?"

"Yeah, my car. It's parked a block away from Mason's apartment." She said before looking at said man's body. "And are you-"

"After dropping you off."

-Morning, City Hall-

A large gathering of news reporters stood in front of the City Hall steps as they broadcasted the event while interviewing the now released James Gordon as he was reinstated as Commissioner of the GCPD. All of the false charges were obviously dropped and Gordon had received a public apology on live television on what has happened.

Behind the man was Mayor Hill, District Attorney Janet Van Dorne, many representatives of the GCPD in full uniform, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, Naruto Uzumaki and the commissioner's very own daughter a few steps away from the whiskered publisher.

"...Commissioner, I understand that Gil Mason is still in a coma." Summer Gleeson asked as she held the microphone to the spectacled man.

Gordon nodded. "Yes he is, Summer. But even so, he has been indicted."

'Not to mention his memories wiped on Batgirl's identity.' Was Naruto's thoughts as he noticed Barbara inched a bit closer to him.

After dropping Barbara off at her car, Naruto took Mason to the GCPD so he can be properly arrested. Though to be on the safe side of things, the Uzumaki erased the man's memories on the moments before his coma so Barbara would be kept safe if Gil were to ever wake back up.

"So how does it feel to be behind your desk again?"

James smiled before answering Summer's question. "A heck of a lot better than it felt being behind bars. And the foods better as well."

This got several laughs from the crowd.

"And what of the mysterious Batgirl?" Asked the Gotham reporter as she was still the latest topic as of late. "Who is she and where has she vanished to? Any thoughts you'd like to share?"

The spectacled commissioner took a moment to think before answering. "As far as I'm concerned, she's as welcome in Gotham City as any of the heroes residing here and doing their part to make it safe for all."

Off to the side, Dick whispered to his mentor. "How do you think Batman will feel about that?"

Bruce merely smiled. "I suppose there's always room for one more. And I have a feeling we'll be seeing her again."

Overhearing the conversation, Naruto smirked as he looked at Barbara's cheerful expression beside him. 'I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see her quite soon.' Was the Uzumaki's thoughts as he witnessed the public event before him.

-End Chapter-

AN:

Sorry on the update being late. Would've gotten this out sooner if I haven't been going to several job interviews within several days and doing more job applications. Having to prepare for each one as they ate up a lot of my time. Even though I have a temp job, which just started today, I still want to get a permanent job and hopefully quit the temp job a bit early.

Who knows.

...So we have finally gotten to Batgirl's true debut into crime fighting. Sure there was Barbara's thing last chapter, but this is her official start.

Now I kept getting reviews and PMs about Barbara if she's going to be changing outfits… Obviously she got an outfit change on this chapter with her later 'New 52' look. It's just that in the last chapter, she didn't really have much of a choice on what she had at the time on her situation.

With her chosen outfit here, I think this one's a more practical and functional in my opinion than the more spandex and armored ones we are all used to… especially with her limited access to things at the current time. She may or may not get the armored and high techy outfits later on, but at current time the later 'New 52' look is her current outfit.

With that out of the way, I should address Barbara's relationship with the Bat family. In the past, she has been on an on and off again association/partnership with them. She took on the moniker of Batgirl out of respect on what Batman has done for the city. Also she hasn't always lived in Gotham exactly as she did her crime fighting in several other places like in Japan and National City for a time. Sure she did her primary work in Burnside, but that's just a district in Gotham.

Point is, if I want Barbara to take a more active role as Batgirl, she doesn't have to just stay and be restricted to the Gotham borders.

...Now with the stuff mentioned earlier with Jason Blood, it is stated in the new 52 that before becoming a knight in King Arthur's court that he was actually Merlin's scribe. I just wanted to bring this out there for you readers since I found that interesting. Jason had gotten into magic after becoming Etrigan's mortal vessel in many past iterations, but having him be knowledgeable to the mystic arts prior to the two becoming 'roommates' made things better. Especially with what I have planned for the story.

…..

Came across an interesting show on Netflix called AggRetsuko and I'm already hooked as it's really relating to my life right now with stuff pertaining to work and whatnot.

Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!

R&R