A/N: Hey y'all I'm back!

Now for Yusuke's Nightwing uniform, I decided to go with the look from Arkham Knight. Mainly because out of all the suits that Nightwing has worn, that looks to be the most futuristic.

I do not own Batman Beyond or Persona 5. They are works of Warner Brothers Animation and Atlus.

So, let's begin.

It was the dead of night in Nippon-Gotham.

That meant its everyday normal citizens retired for the night, preparing themselves for another day of grueling hard work in the morning. Trying their best to provide for their families in this forsaken city.

Night was also the time where this city's parasites come out and begin to leech off its inhabitants in attempts to sustain themselves, turning the streets red with blood.

But as the parasites came out at this time, so too did their predators.

And currently, the most dangerous group of hunters were leaping across the rooftops, a new member of their line up making his debut.

Yusuke Kitaguwa, now known as Nightwing, was leaping from rooftops to rooftop with such ease and grace, much more than his new companions that is. His years practicing gymnastics and acrobatics made such feats look easy.

His most impressive display yet was when he lept from a high elevation, caught a line of laundry connected between two buildings, did several rotations before he released his grip, did a somersault in midair as he then fired a grapple at a nearby building and continued.

"Show off." Red Hood muttered under his breath. Though even he, along with the rest of the Knights, had to admit that it was impressive what their new member was capable of.

"I doubt you could even catch the laundry line." Robin shot back with a smirk on his face.

"Oh really? Then let's see if you can do it bird boy!"

"Knock it off you two! Save your energy for fighting Madarame!" Batman chastised the two.

"Brushogun." Nightwing said as he rejoined the group as he continued sprinting across rooftops. "His name is no longer Ichiryusai Madarame. To me, and to us as a whole, he should only be known as the villain Brushogun."

Some of the Knights, particularly Batman and Catwoman, looked in sympathy at Nightwing. They couldn't imagine how hard it must be for Yusuke to come to terms with his teacher and adoptive father to be revealed as a villain. But the young artist pushed forward, thinking that in order for him to make up for his sin of doing nothing while others suffered.

The Knights had decided to infiltrate Madarame's shack and to take photos of and gather evidence of Madarame's forgery operation. They decided to move now, because now with Yusuke being framed for plagiarism and wanted for questioning, they didn't have a lot of time.

Soon, they arrived at Madarame's shack. After confirming that there was no one inside the building with detective vision, the Knights entered the shack. Madarame must be with the police, giving a false statement about what happened earlier that day. That made things easier.

Making their way towards the locked door, Robin pulled out the Voice Synthesizer and pointed it at the console. "Madarame. Open." The door beeped. "Access denied." It chimed out.

"What?!" Robin shouted in shock as he hit the gadget in his hand several times, wondering if something was broken.

"Why isn't the door opening?" Red Hood asked.

"Madarame must've changed the voice command after we got ourselves in earlier today." Catwoman theorized.

"So how are we gonna get in now?" Red Hood asked the obvious question.

"Please, allow me." Nightwing offered as he walked up to the keypad. He then reached over his shoulder and pulled out of his escrima sticks, he activated the electricity on it, before stabbing it into the keypad. The electric current overloaded the keypad, causing it to shut down.

"How is breaking the lock gonna help us get inside?!" Red Hood asked in clear confusion.

"Because now that the lock is disable, the door can be forced open." Nightwing explained as he put away his escrima stick. "Batman, if you would be so kind?" He asked as he stepped out of the way, gesturing to the door.

"Gladly." Batman said as he walked up to the door and extended his claws. He then dug the sharp weapons in between the small opening made by the destroyed keypad door and began to pull. Thanks to the suit enhancing his strength, he was able to easily pry open the door. When he finished opening the door, he and the other Knights were met with a shocking sight.

The room that was supposed to be storing all the forged art was completely empty! There was no trace of any sort of evidence of such in the whole room.

"What the slag!" Red Hood shouted as he and the other Knights looked around the room. "Where'd all the art go?!"

"Brushogun must've moved it." Batman theorized as he walked around the room. "He must've not wanted the cops to see it once they did a search of his house."

"But how did he manage to get all of the art out of here before the police were able to search it? And how'd he do it without anybody noticing" Robin asked.

"Must've used his ink goons to do so." Batman answered the first. "As for the second, I don't know. Maybe there's a secret passageway."

As the Knights continued searching, Nightwing's nose began to pick up a scent as he began to sniff repeatedly.

"What's up Nightwing?" Catwoman asked, being the first to notice.

"I smell something…"

Red Hood looked embarrassed. "Oh yeah. Sorry, that was me. I had a bean burrito for lunch today. That stuff makes me gassy." The other Knights cringe in disgust.

"Not that! Though I will admit that your body is producing a foul stench." Nightwing admitted, ignoring Red Hood's angered scowl, not that he could really see it behind his mask. "But I smell a lot of ink in here. The same type of ink from those cat girls we fought."

"You can distinguish between different types of ink?" Batman asked, clearly impressed.

"Yes. Being an artist all your life comes with such skills." Nightwing answered. "And the smell I was able to gather from those two was unlike any sort of ink I smelled before. It was almost like the ink had been bathing in a pool of blood, causing the two to mix."

"That makes sense. After all, according to the story Bruce told us, Madarame's blood did become ink when he performed that dark magic." Catwoman pointed out.

"I thought that stuff was made up." Red Hood spoke up.

"Regardless if it's true or not, it's a lead." Batman said. He didn't really care if magic was real or not. All that mattered was stopping Madarame. "What else do you smell, Nightwing?"

Nightwing took a few more whiffs before he looked and pointed at the wall furthest from the entrance. "The smell is strongest coming from that wall." He said as he walked up and sniffed along the wall, much to the confusion and bewilderment of his companions. "And I sense even more of it from beyond the wall."

"Beyond the wall?" Batman muttered to himself as he switched on detective vision and switched the scanner to pick up traces of ink. Soon enough, he found faint traces of footsteps making their way from and to the wall before stopping midway. He then switched his vision to x-ray mode and found a panel.

He walked over and pressed on the panel, causing the door to slide open, revealing a staircase that led downward.

"Woah! A secret passageway hidden in a secret room!? That's so schway! I thought that stuff only happens in the movies!" Red Hood exclaimed in excitement. Catwoman rolled her eyes at his childish excitement, though even she found it slightly cool.

"Well, looks like we found the answer to your second question, Robin." Batman told the Boy Wonder.

"The smell is definitely stronger the further down." Nightwing said as they traveled downward.

After traveling further down the hidden passageway, they entered the old Nippon-Gotham tunnel network.

"Now which way?" Red Hood asked as they all turned to Nightwing. The new knight took several whiffs and sniffs but came up with nothing.

"I can't pick up the scent." Nightwing reported with a sigh as he turned to his fellow Knights. "I can definitely still smell it, but there are too many other smells down here, it's keeping me from picking out where the smell is strongest."

Batman activated his scanner to try and see if he could pick up any sort of trace. But same with Nightwing, all the other substances in the tunnels kept him from picking up a specific trail to follow. "I can't find a trail now."

"Great! What do we do now?" Robin complained. "It's not like we got our own high tech smell tracker!"

Batman's eyes widened as an idea came to mind. He then smirked as he turned back to the others. "Yes we do." He said, much to their confusion. He then went back up to the surface and made contact with Bruce.

"Amamiya, how is the hunt?" Bruce asked from the other end.

"Not good." Batman admitted. "Madarame cleared out his shack and had his ink minions escape with the forgeries down the old tunnel system. But I have an idea how to track them, I just have one question."

"What is it?"

"How good is Ace's sense of smell?"

Ace, the Bat-Hound, as the others took to calling him, was currently leading the Gotham Knights down the tunnel, stopping every now and then to pick up the unique mix of blood and ink, before continuing down the tunnel.

"Can't believe we're trusting a dog to help us find a supervillain." Red Hood muttered in disbelief.

"For once, I agree with Red Hood." Robin said in distrust. Despite being the one to be around Ace the longest, the bat-hound had refused to warm up to the boy, no matter what he tried. "I can't believe we're trusting a mutt to be our navigator!"

Ace seemed to understand what they were talking about as it turned its head and looked at them, causing them to jump. Despite being a dog and not able to speak human language, the glare it was giving made it worthy of being Batman's dog.

"Well if you guys are so insistent on wandering these tunnels for days and getting more of a stink, then by all means, do so on your own. I want to get this over with as soon as possible." Catwoman complained, already telling she was starting to smell from being down here. She would need a long shower when this was over.

Ace continued to lead the Knights through the tunnels for a long while. He then stopped as he ran over to the ladder and began barking up it. "Up here?" Batman asked, pointing toward the ladder. Ace barked in confirmation. Batman smiled as he gave the dog a good scratch behind the ears. "Good bad dog."

Soon enough, the Knight's exited the tunnel, leading them into a deserted alley. After making sure the coast was clear, Batman signaled for the others to follow. After lifting Ace out of the tunnel, the rest of the Knights followed.

Ace took a moment to pick up the smell again before he began to lead the Knights out of the alley and down the streets. It was the middle of the night and a storm was coming, indicated by the flash of lighting and sound of thunder in the sky, so thankfully there would not be many people out on the streets, and the Knights were experts in hiding in the shadows. So if anyone did turn in their direction, they would only see a lonely dog walking along the streets looking for food, a common sight in this city.

As Ace continued to leave them down the street, Batman looked up and saw what was in front of them. "Ace! You can stop now." He told the bat-hound. "I know where the trail leads."

The other Knights followed his gaze and saw the building he was looking at.

"Brushogun's hideout is the comic book factory?!" Red Hood cried in disbelief.

"I mean, it makes sense when you think about it." Catwoman pointed out. "I mean, it's a little too obvious. So no one would really take a good look if it's so obvious."

"Indeed. He hides like his paintings, plain." Nightwing said, hoping to get a reaction out of them. The other Knights looked at him, saying nothing.

"Did you all not hear me? I said 'he hides like his paintings, plain'."

Still nothing.

"Perhaps you misunderstood me." Nightwing thought as he then explained. "You see, plain means something that is unremarkable and not fascinating. And the phrase hiding in plain sight means that being unnoticed in a setting that makes you visible for everyone to see. So when I said plain it was to allude…"

"We get it Nightwing." Batman interrupted him. Yusuke's strange and dry sense of humor would take some getting used to. "Let's get to work!"

As the Gotham Knights made their way to the comic book factory, Robin hung back a bit as he tried to avoid looking Ace in the eye. He then sighed. "Okay I admit it! You did a good job you dumb mut! Now get out of here while we take care of this!" Robin told the dog as he followed the others.

Ace sat there for a few moments, wagging his tail before he decided to follow them.

After making their way into the factory, they search for any signs of Brushogun or his ink goons. Using their scanners and Nightwing's sense of smell, they were able to find their way to the basement. They entered the room and began to look for any sign of Madrame.

They walked deeper into the basement till they found a chair turned toward a large number of monitors, and they could see someone was sitting in.

"It's over Brushogun!" Batman said as the other Knights drew their weapons: Catwoman her whip, Red Hood his guns, Robin his staff, and Nightwing his erasmic sticks.

The man in the chair, Madarame AKA Brushogun laughed as he turned to face them. "I must say, hearing that name come from the legendary Batman gives me a sense of giddiness. Makes it seem like my true identity has some validity when you say it. Hearing the name as if it was a myth and a folktale was starting to get boring."

"Well if it's the excitement you want, I got a gun loaded with a ton of ammunition to turn this whole building into a wild party!" Red Hood said as he pointed his gun to Madarame for emphasis. He would have pulled the trigger, but Nightwing stepped forward and used one of his batons to move the gun down.

"There is one thing I want to know, Brushogun." Nightwing said as he walked closer to his former teacher, now a villain, putting away his weapons briefly. "The Sayuri, where is the true painting? I know you must've hidden it somewhere close to you!"

Madarame smiled. "I see. Well, since you've made it this far, I suppose it's only fair I show it to you." He then pressed a button on his control chair. A holographic projector activated and created a 3D image of the Sayuri. But something was different about this version. Gone was the blue mist surrounding the woman's chest, and its place was a baby.

"That's right!" Madarame declared as he saw the expression on all their faces, despite the masks. "This is the true form of the painting that won me fame and fortune, the only self portrait of a female pupil of mine." At that last part, Nightwing's eyes widened in realization as Madarame continued. "Behold her face overflowing with affection, with yet a hint of grief, a reflection of her state of mind."

Nightwing continued to look at the painting with shaking eyes as all the pieces began to fall into place. "Female pupil… could she… mother?" His words caused the Knights to gasp as they turned to him. Batman's eyes then widened as he remembered what he overheard Madarame saying when he infiltrated the shack alone.

"Precisely." Madarame confirmed with a sick smile. "Knowing her death was looming over her, your mother put her heart and soul into this painting. A symbol of love to pass onto her son. The truth behind her expression has fascinated the world!"

"How could you steal something that personal!" Batman shouted, his anger rising. "That goes beyond just plagiarism and fraud! It's like you took a piece of his mother's soul away from him!"

"I knew it from the beginning," Madarame continued, not even fazed by Batman's words. "After creating a replica using the original as a template, adding a few touches of my own and my name attached, its success was guaranteed."

"So even your most famous work is plagiarized, you sick dreg!" Red Hood shouted as he raised his guns back up at Madarame, a small part of him hoping he had real bullets.

"I would have argued that without my revisions the work would have been incomplete."

"No one wants to hear your worthless excuses!" Robin shouted as he pointed the end of his staff at Madarame.

"What did you do with the real Sayuri?" Catwoman asked.

"Oh, that old thing, I sold it." He revealed to the shock of others. "I was able to sell the original to an old friend of mine, for a hefty price. Of course I had to bargain for him to keep his silence."

"Why would you paint over the baby?" Nightwing asked, still in disbelief and shocked horror.

"Mystique." Madarame answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Without the baby the woman's expression would become a mystery. I knew that would stir the general public. Everything your mother created belongs to me. Her work has served my career most handsomely. All my pupils share this contract." He then pointed at Nightwing. "That includes you Yusuke. And make no mistake, I will paint over anyone who gets in my way, that includes your friends."

"I'd like to see you try!" Red Hood challenged.

"You treated Nightwing and his mother like objects! You're so inhuman! You must be a demon!" Catwoman declared. Madarame just laughed.

"Wait." Nightwing's words stopped him. He turned to his former pupil, now turned against him. He was looking down, clenching his hands in anger. "You'd said you paint over anyone who got in your way. Did that include my mother?" His question surprised the Knights while Madarame smirked.

"Your mother had a seizure, and then an interesting thought came to mind." Madarame explained with a sick smile on his face. "If I did nothing and let nature take its course, the painting would be mine with no strings attached."

"Hold on! You let her die?!" Catwomanh cried in horror, an emotion mirrored by the other Knights.

"At first I kept you around so you wouldn't find out the truth about Sayuri." Madarame explained as he turned to Nightwing. "But when I saw your artistic talents flourishing I then decided that it would be easier to take the works of brats who don't fight back compared to adults." He then stood from the chair and held his arms out wide in a grande gesture. "I am grateful to you Yusuke! You and your mother made all this possible!"

"You sick son of a…" Red Hood gritted his teeth.

"You're such a monster!" Catwoman cried.

Robin tightened his grip on his staff. People like him were the reason he donned the mask.

Batman's hands clenched in fury as memories of his abusive foster family bubbled to the surface. His experience was bad, but compared to Yusuke's level of torment, he hated to admit it, but he had it easy.

Then, someone started chuckling, and it wasn't Madarame, much to everyone's surprise.

They then turned to the source and saw Nightwing chuckling with his body shaking as he did so. Before he erupted into full blown laughter. "Nightwing?" Catwoman said as she and the others looked at him in worry.

"I should be thanking you." He said as Madarame turned towards him. "Any reason I would have had to forgive you has now vanished completely." He then reached behind his back and pulled out his escrima sticks. "I see the truth now. You're not an untalented artist. Just a monstrous demon who wears the skin of one." He then brought his batons together, causing them to spark as he got into a stance. "And I swear, that I, Nightwing, will do whatever I must to stop you once and for all!"

"Shut up!" Madarame yelled, losing his cool after Yusuke insulted him. "You children don't know anything! Only the rich and powerful make the rules in this world!" He then flipped a switch on his chair and the lights in the basement began to flicker on, revealing a large group of ink goons that had surrounded them.

Soon, the Gotham Knights got back to back in a circle. "Remember, they're not real. Which means that we don't have to hold back!" Batman reminded his team as he pulled out several Batarangs.

"Good. I need to vent anyway." Red Hood said with a smirk.

"Once again, I agree with you." Robin said with a matching smirk.

"DESTROY THEM!" Madarmane, no, Brushogun ordered his minions as they charged.

Batman attacked the enemies in front of him, unleashing a series of quick and fierce slashes with his claws on these ink creatures. When he was done, all that was left was a series of ink bodies with numerous slashes and cuts across their bodies and his claws stained in ink.

Red Hood had activated the newly installed water gun setting on his handguns and fired streams of water towards the ink goons. While this was embarrassing, he couldn't deny the advantage it gave him, as the ink goons bodies began to melt, as if they were hit with a spray of acid.

Catwoman ran into a crowd of the ink goons before she stopped in the center of them. Taking out her whip, she then spun around in a 360 degree spin, swinging her whip whilst doing so. The weapon managed to knock down all the surviving ink goons, leaving them with large and deep slashes on their bodies.

Robin was currently fighting off a group of ink goons by himself, his small size helped him avoid the larger creatures attacks. He then manages to trip one up before stabbing it through the body with his staff and burying it in the ground. He then began to pole swing and kicked outward with his feet to knock other ink creatures back.

Nightwing was blocking and attacking with his escrima sticks against the ink goons that attacked him. Using his stick fighting and acrobatic skills allowed him to dodge and counter all of the ink goons attacks, and the flexibility this suit provided him with a range of free movement. Whoever wore this suit previously must've been an amazing acrobat.

His escrima sticks then lit up with electricity and he struck one of the ink goons. The ink creature began to twitch violently before it then collapsed and became a puddle of ink.

Brushogun looked in shock. "How did you do that?!" He demanded.

Nightwing looked at him with a devious smirk that was shared by the other Knights, as they thought back to the conversation they had before coming here.

Flashback - Batcave

"What are you doing?" Ren asked Bruce as the older man had numerous of the Knight's equipment in front of him on his workbench. The equipment included Ann's whip, Ryuji's guns, several of Ren's Batarangs, and Yusuke's escrima sticks.

"I noticed something while analyzing the ink from your uniforms." Bruce explained as he continued working on equipment as the other Knights walked up to join him. "The molecules that hold Brushogun's creations together are very fragile. If they come into contact with the right amount of voltage, they could break apart and collapse."

"Well how does that help us?" Ryuji asked.

Bruce looked toward Ryuji with a frown. "If the molecules holding them together break apart, then so do they." He answered. It took a whole five seconds before Ryuji found out what he meant and his eyes widened in realization.

"So you're modifying our weapons to generate the same amount of electricity needed to disrupt Brushogun's ink goons. How do you know if you have the correct voltage?" Yusuke asked.

"I studied the ink and believed I had found the correct amount. But there's only one way to find out." Bruce said as he handed an Electric Batarang to Ren.

Flashback End

"Looks like we found out!" Batman said as he reached into his belt and pulled out of a handful of his specially modified Electric Batarangs. "Let's shock things up!" He declared as he leapt into the air and threw his Batarangs at the ink creatures. The sharp objects made contact, sending the electrical current through the ink goons bodies before they collapsed and became a puddle of ink.

"About time!" Red Hood declared as he switched his guns over to electric mode. "I was getting too embarrassed to keep shooting a water gun at these guys!" He then aimed and fired orbs of electricity that hit several ink goons before they too became a puddle.

Catwoman pressed a button on her whip that sent a wave of electricity traveling down the whip. She then cracked it several times before swinging it towards other ink whip made contact and melted any ink creatures it made contact with.

Nightwing continued to hit the ink goons with his escrima sticks, any contact he made with the end of them caused them to collapse and turn into a puddle. As he saw that he was about to be surrounded by them, he bent his knees and brought the ends of his sticks together. The two electric points meeting sent lines of lightning towards the surrounding enemies. After getting hit by the lightning, they all collapsed into a puddle of ink.

Robin dodged the thrown objects from the ink goons before he lept up into the air and pulled out a bat stunner from his belt. He then threw the stunner on the group in the middle of the ink goons. The stunner released an electric current across the floor within a diameter of about 5 feet. The current caused the ink goons to twitch before they also collapsed into a puddle.

Robin smirked as he then turned toward Brushogun. "Is that all you got, you old geezer?!" He asked with a cocky smile. To his surprise, Madarame had a smirk on his face.

"No, the best is yet to come." Madarame said as he stood beside a large scale printing machine before he turned it on. He then placed his hands across the moving paper, screaming in pain as his eyes lit up in blue. Lines of different colored ink began to form as the paper traveled down and onto the floor. The ink began to take form as several versions of Saico-Tek, Tikoto, the cat girl, a small blue robot, and strang shadow creatures began to surround the Knights.

"You just had to open your big mouth, didn't you bird boy?" Red Hood complained as he pointed his guns at the surrounding enemies.

"I didn't think this would happen!" Robin argued as he readied his staff.

"Knock it off! We have bigger issues." Batman told them as he pulled out several more Electric Batarangs.

The ink minions then all charged at the Gotham Knights, who moved to intercept them.

Batman threw his electric Batarangs toward a pair of ink goons before engaging them in close combat. He took advantage of his suit's enhanced strength and weapons to blow apart these ink goons, at one point blowing a hole through one of them with a blast from his rocket boots.

He even stabbed straight through the chest of a Saico-Tek, however, his hand got stuck when the creature's body started to regenerate. The other ink goons around him took advantage and began to pile on, burying him. Batman gritted his teeth as he tried to reach his utility belt, hindered by being buried under a ton of ink bodies. When he finally reached it, he pressed a button located on the center of the belt, which released an electrical discharge that shocked all the ink goons on him. The voltage discharged matched the amount on his Electric Batarangs, causing the ink goons to collapse into a puddle of ink.

He groaned as his suit was covered in ink. Bruce was probably gonna blow a gasket when he got back.

Red Hood fired off more electric orbs from his guns as more ink goons surrounded him. After he was completely surrounded, the ink goons moved to pounce on him. But Red Hood was faster as he shot a grapple from one of his guns toward the ceiling, which pulled him up just in time to avoid the attack.

He then reached into his belt and pulled out a Freeze Cluster Grenade. He threw the grenade at the pile of ink goons and they were all frozen when the grenade made contact. Red Hood then released the grapple line and fell down on the frozen enemies, breaking them as he landed.

Before he could take the time to bask in his achievement, a tentacle from a Tikoto came in and hit him in the chest, sending him flying toward a stack of crates, hitting them with a hard crash.

Catwoman herself was facing off against a group of the cat girls. She had extended her claws and tried to slash at the cat girls. But thanks to their cat-like reflexes (more so than Catwoman had), they were able to dodge much of Catwoman's attacks and even counter with their own strikes and claws. Catwoman hunched over and was breathing heavily as she glared at the cat-girls, one of them licking her lips in supposed excitement.

She soon straightened herself and spoke to the lifeless girls. "I think it's time to show you cheap knockoffs the difference between a cat girl," She began as she then pulled out her whip, "And a cat woman!" She then activated the whip and it lit up with electricity. She cracked it a couple times before she went on the attack and managed to hit most of the cat girls with the whip, causing them to break apart.

One cat girl tried to get the jump on her, but Catwoman anticipated the attack and did a backflip to avoid the attack. She then landed on top of the soulless cat girl and dug her heels into her head. "Do you see the difference now?" She asked mockingly before she squished further with her heels to stab them into her head.

Robin had just knocked one of those flying blue boys back when he turned and looked over at Catwoman, drool coming from his mouth. "Lady Catwoman…" He said with a dreamy smile.

He was so enamored with her that he failed to notice a Saico-Tek coming from above. Batman turned to look at him and his eyes widened. "Robin! Behind you!" His warning came too late as Saico-Tek had already leapt down and was ready to impale Robin with one of his Sais.

"Arf! Arf! Arf!"

Thankfully, Robin's salvation came in the form of Ace, who had followed the Knights into the comic book factory. The faithful bat-hound jumped up on multiple crates, using them as stepping stones before leaping and colliding with the Saico-Tek, sending them both crashing to the ground.

"Ace?!" Robin cried in shock, more so that the bat-hound chose to save him of all people, given how the dog treated him.

Ace got back to his feet as he growled at Saico-Tek. He then lunged at the ink creature, but Saico-Tek swung his hand viciously across the dog's face, sending it tumbling on the ground. Ace began to whimper as Saico-Tek loomed over him, raising his sai high then bringing it down.

However, Robin's staff intercepted the sai in time, stopping it from hitting Ace. As Saico-Tek looked Robin in the eyes, as best it could with the mask, the soulless creation couldn't help but feel a slight sense of terror at the glare Robin was giving him, despite not feeling any emotion whatsoever.

"Don't. Touch. Our. Dog!" Robin said with a menacing voice that could even rival Bruce's. He then sent the sai flying to the other side of the room before viciously attacking Saico-Tek with his staff. His attacks caused large and deep gashes across the ink thief's body before stabbing the staff through Saico-Tek's stomach, then dragging it upwards straight past his chest and through his head.

As Saico-Tek's destroyed body fell to the ground, Robin and his weapon were covered in ink. If the others didn't know that these creations were lifeless to begin with, they would have thought Robin was secretly a brutal killer underneath his innocent face.

Robin began breathing heavily, trembling as he looked down at the body in front of him. His mind nearly went blank as an image of a bloody corpse, similar to this ink corpse, appeared in his mind. He was about to go crazy when he felt something rubbing against his hand.

He woke from his dazed state as he saw Ace standing beside him, snuggling his head into his free hand. Robin smiled as he kneeled next to the dog and gave Ace a good rub on the head. "Hey Ace. You okay?" He asked. Ace gave a sound that seemed like he was saying yes, which caused Robin's smile to grow. "That's good. You're such a good bad dog!" He said with a small laugh as he scratched behind his ears, much to the dog's pleasure.

Ace, however, began growling and Robin turned his head to see more ink goons approaching them. Robin then got to his feet then spun his staff and held it at the ready. "Are you ready to do this buddy?"

"Arf!" Ace barked in yes. Robin smirked as he and the bat-hound charged.

Nightwing was proving to be the most effective at destroying these ink goons, his escrima stick allowing him to dissolve them with one hit. However, he knew that if this continued, he and the others would end up exhausting themselves. They needed to stop Brushogun.

Nightwing looked over to where he last was, but found he disappeared. He looked around for a moment before he glanced upward and saw Madarame walking across the catwalks. He narrowed his eyes as he glared at the man.

As Madarame made his escape, the older man couldn't help but panic slightly. This wasn't going according to plan. This wasn't what he promised! He was promised that if he used his art forgery operation to help smuggle his goods into the city, then he would make sure the cops, or even the slagging Batman and his cohorts, wouldn't find him. So how were things falling apart so fast.

As he was halfway across the catwalk to the exit, his path was blocked by Nightwing, who suddenly appeared from below. "It's over Brushogun!" He declared.

Madarame tried to go back, but his path then became blocked by Batman, who flew up to the catwalk with his jet boots. "You have nowhere to run now!" He said, cracking his knuckles as he walked toward him. Nightwing had even drawn his escrima stick and they began to spark with electricity.

Madarame began panicking. There was no way he could take these two on in a straight-up fight. And even if he had time to craft more of his ink minions, they now knew their weakness, making it impossible for them to hold off the two long enough for him to escape. He then looked around frantically, trying to find anything to help him escape.

He then glanced over the catwalk downward and saw that he was above the large printer the factory used. It was then that he got an idea. He'd never tested this before, and there was no guarantee he would survive, but it was better than being cornered by these two demons. Deciding to take his chances, he then jumped over the railing.

Batman and Nightwing's eyes widened as they raced over. They saw Madarame looked back up at them with a smirk on his face as he fell into a small opening of the giant printer.

They all then heard Madarame's shrill scream of pain coming from the printer, which began sparking violently. The other Knights looked in concern before the ground beneath them started to crack and large tubes erupted from the ground. Even some of the ink goons moved away in fear as more tubes burst from the ground, all leaking ink.

The tubes then began to move on their own as they jammed into the walls, sparks of orange electricity coming from the pipes. All the while, Madarame's painful scream was never silent.

BOOM!

The entrance and lower part of the comic book factory explode!

Emerging from the explosion, a little worse for wear but still alive, were the Gotham Knights. They were flown from the air by the force of the explosion, grunting as they hit the ground one by one.

Taking a moment to get their bearings, they all got back to their feet. Robin took the moment to check on Ace as Batman looked back to the factory, explosions continuing to go off and move to the upper floors. For a moment, Batman wondered if Madarame could have survived falling into the printer, then the following explosion.

He got his answer when a pair of giant long ink cover hands emerged from the cloud of smoke in the factory. Emerging from the smoke was an ink covered giant as tall as a skyscraper, many pipes and tubes flailing around on its upper and lower back. It's eyes and the inside of its mouth was blood red.

"The power is mine!" The giant declared as it stood up straight and loomed over them.

"That's a whole lot of ink." Robin said as he and the other Knights backed away in fear.

"Gonna have one heck of a stain when this is over." Red Hood joked, trying to alleviate some of the fear and tension in the others and himself. It didn't work.

The giant, identified as Brushogun, raised his hands. Ink began to fall and land on the ground, before beginning to form into his creations, all of them having mixed colors across their bodies. It wasn't long before they surrounded the Knights.

"What do we do?!" Catwoman asked as she turned to Batman.

"You're asking me?!" Batman responds, not having a clue how to stop this himself.

"Amamiya!" Bruce's voice came through the comms. Batman's eyes widened as he moved his hand up to his ear.

"Bruce! Madarame's-"

The Batcave

"I see it!" Bruce interrupted the boy as he saw the ink monster appearing on the Batcomptur's main screen, which was linked to Batman's cowl. He then began to type away on the keyboard. "I'm working on trying to find a way to stop it now."

"What do we do in the meantime?!" His protege asked.

"Survive!"

"Easy for you to say!"

Zenkichi gave a yawn as he sat in his squad car alone. His partner went out for some food.

Currently, they were on a stake out in front of the famous painter Madarame's shack. Given that this was where Batman was last sighted, the N.G.P.D. had him and his partner stay on lookout in case Batman ever came back.

Zenkichi doubted Batman would. After all, what would a vigilante want with a painter anyway?

He then sighed. He didn't have time for this. He should be home looking after Akane, and looking into the case files of his wife. But thanks to this new Batman, work just became busier and busier, especially after he killed that thief known as Saico-Tek. To be honest, Zenkichi thought the whole thing was a bit suspicious.

Unlike all the other Batman copycats over the years, this one seemed to be the closest to the original in terms of method and morality. So for him to just kill some low-level thief seemed out of place. And not only that, but the autopsy results of the thief were kept under lock and key. Almost like no one wanted to know the truth about the whole thing.

Knock Knock

Zenkichi gasped as he turned to the door to see his partner with a bag of takeout. He sighed as he unlocked the door and let him in.

"Hey partner. How's it going? Anything interesting or out of the ordinary?" He asked as he handed Zenkichi his food.

"No. Just some photographer taking pictures of the shack every now and then. Must be some reporter." Zenkichi thought as he bit into his food. He sighed again. "Seriously, why couldn't they get one of the night shift guys to handle this?"

"Well we were the first cops on the scene when this new Batman showed up. So it only makes sense that we get stuck on any case that involves him." His partner pointed out as he bit into his food.

Zenkichi had to admit his partner was right. After that first case involving Kamoshida, he and his partner had been assigned to nearly every case involving this new Batman, all because they were the first officers on the scene of the school. All this just made his workload even heavier, making him come home later and later.

Zenkichi was about to say something when their police radio chirped.

"Any available units please respond. We have an ink giant currently traveling down Reeves street in pursuit of Batman and his cohorts. Any available units please respond."

Zenkichi and his partner stared at the radio, then each other, then back to the radio. Did they hear that right?

Zenkichi then grabbed the radio. "Dispatch this is squad car B21. Could you please repeat that last order?"

"I need all available units to proceed to Reeves Street. Priority target Batman and his accomplices are being currently chased by a giant ink monster."

Zenkichi and his partner looked back to each other before the former responded. "Roger." He then hung up the radio. "You know," He began as he started the car and looked at his partner. "For a city that has a history of criminals with the ability to control plants, zombies, human sized crocodiles, and a psychotic clown, stuff like this still shocks me."

He then pulled the car out of their hiding spot and moved to the appropriate street.

Makoto was walking down the street on her way home from a late meeting of the Student Council, listening to a lecture about an upcoming topic for a history test with earphones. But her mind was too preoccupied with other things to truly focus on it.

Her thoughts were currently occupied with the most recent news regarding the Batman. The police put out an arrest warrant for his arrest after he supposedly killed that thief, Saico-Tek was it? Her sister also was a part of the manhunt, so she overheard some of the details of the case while she was supposedly studying.

But she didn't know what to believe. After all, if her suspicions about who he was under that mask were correct, then from her encounters with him, there was no way he would kill someone. However, it also worked against him if it was indeed him under the mask. He was, after all, on probation for assaulting someone. He could have finally snapped and just killed someone in a fit of rage.

Makoto didn't know what to believe, and it caused her no end to the stress she felt. So she tried to push those thoughts out of her mind by focusing on her lessons. However, as she took a brief moment to look up from her phone, she saw that so many people began to run in front of her, most even abandoning their vehicles as they did so, some even frozen in fear from something behind them. Makoto had a look of confusion as she took out her earphones and looked behind her.

And gasped.

A giant monster made of ink made its way down the street, it's footsteps causing the ground to shake violently, it was hard to believe she never noticed it till now! From its hands, ink fell and monsters formed from it.

Deciding that getting off the street was the best choice, Makoto took off running, following the movement of the crowd of people. However, she then noticed an old lady tripping. Acting on instinct, She rushed over and helped her up.

"Are you okay?" She asked as she did her best to hurry up and help her, to which the old woman nodded, both in affirmation and gratitude. When they both got back to their feet, a man came up and offered to help the elderly woman himself.

Makoto was about to thank them but was cut off by a loud crash from above. Looking up her eyes widened as she saw a billboard, most likely knocked down by the giant's monsters at some point falling toward them.

Again acting on instinct. She pushed the man and elderly out of the way off the falling debris as she braced herself with her hands. She noticed before she closed her eyes a black shadow racing for her.

CRASH!

When Makoto thought she heard the crash, she thought when she opened her eyes, she would be in either Heaven or Hell. And that thought was further fueled by the fact she couldn't feel the ground beneath her feet, meaning she was floating. However, she also felt a pair of strong hands holding her by her upper back and the back of her knees.

"Are you okay Mak-Uhhh Ma'am?" A voice quickly corrected, one that she was sure didn't belong to God or the Devil, it sounded familiar. Deciding to take a chance to open her eyes, she saw that she was indeed not dead, but flying over the city. And being held in the arms of none other than-

"Batman!?" She screamed as she recognized her savior, this being the first time seeing him in person, and so close as well.

"That's my name, now don't wear it out." He told her, surprising her. From the stories she heard about Batman, she pictured his voice as a dark, husky brooding voice that could send a chill down someone's spine. However, this sounded more like a teenage boy trying to impress a girl, not that she knew what that sounded like from her own experiences, only having seen similar things in dramas that played in the background.

She then realized that the way she was being held was much like that of a princess from those cartoons she watched as a kid. The revelation caused her to blush slightly. "Can you please put me down on the ground?" She asked politely as she looked away in embarrassment.

"Certainly Ma'am." He said a tad bit too quickly as he too looked away from her, his expression mirroring her if she was looking at him. It then became serious as he looked behind him. "On second thought, you might want to hold on tight ma'am."

Confused, Makoto was about to ask why when she looked behind him and saw multiple ink monsters flying toward them, some of them resembling the thief Saico-Tek he supposedly killed. Before she could ask, she felt her whole body shift as she was then held in front of Batman, wrapping her arms around his neck, as he looked her dead in her blood red eyes with his soulless white ones.

"Hang on tight and don't even think about letting go! This is gonna get a little bumpy!" He warned. Before Makoto could as what he meant, the afterburner on his rocket boots fired off as he picked up speed, causing Makoto to tighten her grip around his neck and wrap her legs around him.

Batman was glad he had the mask to hide his blush, before quickly shaking it off as he focused. He then began to lead them on a chase of cat and mouse through the city. Be could take them on himself, but Makoto with him, he didn't want to risk placing her in danger, so he had to be smart about this.

He saw out of the corner of his eye a crane looming over a construction site. And the crane was suspending a thing of heavy metal bars. Smirking as an idea came to mind, he flew over to the construction site, the flying ink minions following him.

He then passed under the suspended heavy bars and then turned around and aimed his arm at the cable holding it in the air, waiting for the perfect moment. Seeing that the ink minions began to fly under the bars, he fired off one of his Batdisks and cut the line. The collection of bars began to fall, catching some, if not most, of the flying ink minions off guard and falling to the ground, being crushed.

Makoto looked in horror at what he did as he turned toward Batman. "What did you do?! You just-"

"Sorry ma'am not a good time to explain myself right now!" Batman interrupted her as he accessed his comms. "Hey, uh, Boss!" Batman said into the comm, trying not to leak any sensitive information to Makoto. "I got a passenger and a bunch of bogies on my six! I need a way to take them all out at once!"

"Give me a minute! I'm working on it!" Bruce said as Batman continued to run away from the remaining ink minions with Makoto holding tight to him.

"Watch out!" Makoto yelled as Batman looked behind him to see a sharp object thrown at him. He acted quickly and dodged by performing a barrel roll. He looked back and saw that a Saico-Tek, and other ink monsters, began to create more throwing objects.

"Oh slaggit!" Batman cursed as he went into evasive maneuvers to avoid the thrown objects, some of them even exploded as they missed him. Others even managed to cut him, but his suit took the most of it.

'Come on old man!' Batman thought as he gritted his teeth as he continued to dodge and weave his way around the city.

"Got it!" Bruce's voice came over the cowl. "I'm sending the information to your cowl now. Head for these coordinates and fast." As his mask began to receive the information, it then showed a map of the city with a blinking dot over a specific location nearby and a countdown clock, counting down from three minutes. As Batman recognized the location and the countdown clock, his eyes widened in realization.

"Are you serious?" He asked in disbelief, his tone catching Makoto's attention.

"I am." Came Bruce's reply. And Batman could tell from his tone he was 100% serious.

He then sighed. "You got it boss!" He said as he then began to make his way to the coordinates as fast as he could.

As he arrived at Shibuya Station, he entered the station by the main entrance and flew as fast as he could despite the crowds of people. Thankfully, the station was large enough for him to fly in, just barely anyway. The ink minions followed after him, too struggling with the tight if large space. Thankfully the people parted immediately when they saw him and the ink minions, so no one was hurt.

He then arrived at the train platform before taking a sharp left turn into the tunnel with the ink goons following after him. He then glanced at the timer in his cowl. He had less than a minute now, he had to go faster.

"What are you doing?" Makoto asked. Before he could say anything, they all heard the sound of an approaching train. Her eyes widened as she realized what he was planning as she looked at him. "No! Nononononono! No! You can't be serious!"

"Makoto!" Him shouting her name shocked her out of her panicked state. She then looked into his soulless white eyes and saw a warmth there behind them. A warmth and reassurance that calmed her down. "Trust me!"

His voice pleaded with her, and all she could do was nod as she held even tighter to him, and he too wrapped his arms around her, keeping her close.

Even though he asked, Batman was unsure if he could pull this off. He had to time this absolutely perfectly. Too fast and he wouldn't get rid of all the ink goons. Too slow and he and Makoto would end up joining them. He had only one chance!

20 seconds left!

The train horn got louder as Batman saw the end of the tunnel. And about to enter it was a speeding train, honking at them to stop or turn around, but Batman didn't listen and pushed his thrusters faster.

15 seconds!

The ink goons were gaining on him and Makoto, a Saico-Tek reaching out his hand to grab Batman by the foot.

10 seconds!

The train was coming closer to the tunnel entrance, it's headlights nearly blinding Batman but he pushed on.

5 seconds!

Makoto still clung tightly to Batman, placing all her trust into a man she didn't even know. He would not let her down.

4…

The train was about to enter…

3…

…Saico-Tek was nearly on his leg…

2…

…Batman was just about at the exit…

1…

…And a blinding white light enveloped his vision…

0!

…And then he jerked upwards just in the nick of time through a small opening in the tunnel entrance, his back scraping against the ceiling of the tunnel exit, as the train came in at blinding speed, colliding with the collection of ink goons!

Saico-Tek's arm, which was about to latch onto Batman's leg, had been torn off from its body when the train collided with them.

Batman then turned around to face the tunnel where the train was entering. As he saw the train disappear in the tunnel, he couldn't help but let out a weak and exhausted chuckle, his heartbeat slowing and the adrenaline leaving his system.

"I can't believe that work!" He shouted out loud with a wide smile as he continued laughing. He stopped when he then felt the woman in his arms trembling slightly. Deciding that this was enough for her, he then flew to a nearby rooftop and set down. However, Makoto still refused to let go of him, holding him tightly. And while he wouldn't say it was something he disliked, he still felt a little uncomfortable.

"Uhhh. Ma'am, you can let go now." He said bluntly. Makoto's eyes then widened as he faced flushed in embarrassment as she then let go of Batman and pushed him as far away from her as possible.

"Uh-uh-uh… th-thank you." Makoto said as he twirled a strand of her head nervously.

"No problem." Batman said as he looked away, grateful that the mask covered his red face.

Makoto's eyes widened as she glared at him. "Hey wait a minute! You owe me some answers!" Batman was caught off guard by her sudden mood shift as she began to walk towards him with that glare that was both terrifying and exciting at the same time.

"You claim that you don't kill, but you just killed several people just now! Even if it was just to protect me! How do you explain that?!" Makoto asked.

Batman frowned, which caused Makoto to back away. Thinking she was gonna be hit, she quickly got into an Aikido stance and prepared to defend herself. However, she was surprised when the vigilante only sighed.

"I didn't kill anyone." He told her. As Makoto looked at him in confusion, he explained. "Those 'people' weren't even alive to begin with. They're just ink given human form."

Makoto's eyes widened at the information. They were made of ink!? As she looked down and placed a hand on her chin in thought, it began to make sense. That monster was made from ink, as far as she could tell, so it only made sense that those he created were also ink, and therefore not alive.

Her eyes then widened further. One of them resembled the thief Saico-Tek! "Does that also mean the thief you supposedly killed was also made out of ink?" Batman nodded. She stared at him for a moment before she asked her next question, almost afraid to do so. "Did you know he was made of ink?"

Batman didn't respond, which was all the answer Makoto needed.

An awkward silence enveloped the two for a long moment. Batman looked like he was about to speak, but the communication in his cowl chirped. "One moment." He told her as he brought his hand to his ear. "What's up?"

"Stop messing around and get back to the others!" Bruce's strict tone entered his eyes, causing him to wince. "I think I found a way to stop Brushogun." Batman's eyes widened at that sentence before he got serious.

"Understood." Batman said as the comm channel closed. He then turned back to Makoto. "Stay here! We're far enough away so you shouldn't be caught up in this anymore if you stay put."

"What about you?" Makoto asked as Batman turned back to the city, the monstrous Brushogun in his sight.

"I got a stain to wash out!" Batman said as he moved to the ledge.

"Wait! You're going back after that thing!?" Makoto asked in shock. "You just went through something that would make a normal person collapse for a whole week, and now you want to jump back into the fire without even an hour's rest?! Why would you do that?!"

Batman eye'd Makoto for a moment before he answered. "Because this is my job." He answered as he turned back toward Brushogun. "Because…" He paused for a moment as his eyes narrowed and fists clenched. "I'm Batman!"

He then jumped off the roof, extending his wings and flew off toward the battle to put an end to this once and for all.

As Makoto watched him fly off with an awe in her eyes, she failed to notice a figure was watching from the shadows. A figure, who was clenching his hands and gritting his teeth in anger.

"Alright Bruce! How do we stop this thing?!" Batman asked as he reunited with his fellow Knights, who were currently busy rescuing civilians and taking down any ink minions they came across.

"The key is Madarame." Bruce explained to them all. "You need to remove him from the main body, that way the giant and the rest of his ink creations will collapse."

"So we just need to get Madarame out of that thing? How are we gonna do that?! We don't even know where he is?!" Catwoman pointed out.

"Use your masks' deep scan thermal imaging. It should be able to pick up on Madarame's body heat in the behemoth." Bruce explained. The Knights did so and they all began scanning the monster in hopes of finding Madarame, dodging the flailing pipes and ink goons Brushogun sent their way.

"I found him!" Robin shouted after a minute of deep scanning. He then sent the coordinates to the others. Madarame was located where the monster's heart would be, if it ever had one to begin with.

"That's great and all, but he looks like he's pretty deep in there. How are we gonna get him out?" Red Hood asked.

Batman flew up to where Madarame was and fired off the bat claw into the giant's 'heart'. The line entered the body. However, Brushogun manipulated the ink around it's 'heart' to keep the claw from going any deeper. Batman gritted his teeth as he had to release the claw to keep himself from getting sucked in.

The Knights then all regrouped on a nearby rooftop, but far enough away from Brushogun to give them a chance to come up with a plan. "He's too deep into the monster! I can't get him out with the claw." Batman reported before he sighed. "Which leaves only one option. I'm going in!"

"Are you crazy!" Catwoman, Red Hood, and Robin all shouted in disbelief, even Ace, who was with Robin, was barking in disapproval.

"I can't get him out with the line, he'll just manipulate the ink to either force the grapple out or try to drag me in anyway. If I go in by my own accord, I can try to force my way to Madarame and get out!" Batman explained.

"But you could totally drown in all that ink!" Red Hood argued.

"Yes! It is crazy for you to do such an action… When the burden should be mine to bear!" Nightwing declared, shocking his fellow Knights. "Madarame was once my teacher. I knew what he was doing was wrong, but I was blinded by false concepts of debts and gratitude to a man that only took me in as a way to get more profits. If anyone should have to perform such a dangerous task, it should be me!"

"But there's no way you could survive, you have even less of a chance than Batman!" Catwoman argued.

"I do have this." He then pulled out his escrima sticks and caused it to spark. "I can use my escrima sticks to force the ink away as I make my way towards Madarame. And it's less energy consuming than Batman's electric discharge."

All eyes turned to Batman as he held the final say over the matter. While he did admit that it made sense for Nightwing to want to take down Madarame, after all he did to him. And his argument about his escrima sticks being a more effective wave to ward off the ink made sense, he was already low on power as is in the suit. A few more electric discharges and it may power down mid way in his attempt to remove Madarame.

However, if he agreed, he would be sending Yusuke to his death. He promised Bruce that all the lives of anyone who joined the Gotham Knights would be his responsibility. But could he bear sending a new member to his death, just because he made such a good argument?

"Batman." He was pulled out of his thoughts when he looked toward Nightwing, who had such a pleading and desperate expression in his eyes behind the mask. "Please. Trust me." He begged as he outstretched his hand

His words and his pleading tone fully convinced Ren. If they were gonna be a team that would protect this city, they had to trust in each other, and share the burdens. He couldn't keep doing things the way Bruce was, closely guarded and wary of everyone, not fully trusting in others. That wasn't Ren, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't be the Batman Bruce once was, and to be honest, he didn't want to be. He had, and wants, to be his own Batman, and that meant doing things that felt right to him, such as placing trust in his teammates to share the burden.

With his resolve solid as steel, he shook Nightwing's hand and nodded.

"That's great and all, but there's one problem." Red Hood said, interrupting the two. "How in the slag are you gonna get up to Madarame?!"

"I have a plan, I only require a megaphone!"

Brushogun continued to walk across the street, crushing cars and destroying buildings as he did so. The metal tubes all along his back flailed around, colliding with buildings and causing debris to fall.

"Attention Ichiryusai Madarame!" A loud voice spoke out. Brushogun turned to see Nightwing, standing on the edge of a building with a megaphone in hand. Other citizens on the streets looked up at the costumed figure and pulled out their phones to record. "Or do you prefer your true identity as Brushogun! A great sinner of vanity whose talent has been exhausted. You are an artist that uses your authority to shamelessly steal the ideas of your pupils. And not only that, you now place innocent people in danger as a monster made of ink and paper! We, the Gotham Knights, sworn protectors of this city, have decided to take your heart here and now!"

That seemed to set Brushogun off as he roared in rage and sent multiple tubs straight towards Nightwing. However, the other Knights emerged from the shadows and threw multiple explosive projectiles at a majority of the tubes, destroying them, all save one.

Nightwing then leapt into the air with a backflip to dodge the attack. He then landed on the tube and began to run up the pipe to get closer to the 'heart'. Brushogun tried to stop him by slamming his hands down on the tube, however, the others drew Brushogun's attention with attacks aimed all over his body.

Many ink goons stood in Nightwing's way, but he paid them no concern as he took out his escrima sticks and went on the offensive. He tore through any who stood in his way, vaulting over them with impressive displays of acrobatic flips and spins, knocking many to the ground and even some to dissolve from the electricity from his escrima sticks.

After getting past the last sentry, Nightwing leapt high into the air. As he came down close to the 'heart', he brought the ends of his escrima sticks together and made an opening with the electricity. He then began to dig his way into the body with his sticks, the electricity pushing the ink away, allowing him to get deeper into the body. Soon enough, his whole figure was enveloped by the ink monster.

"Will he be alright?" Robin asked the others.

"The suit keeps track of his vital signs." Bruce explained. "As long as it keeps transmitting, we know he's alive."

However, at that moment, Nightwing's signal went dead!

"We just lost Nightwing's signal?! Bruce, what does that mean?!" Batman asked frantically.

"The abnormal composition of Brushogun must be interfering with the signal!" Bruce explained, trying to calm them down. "He should still be fine."

"But how do we know for sure?!" Catwoman asked in worry.

"That's it! I'm going in!" Batman declared as he extended his wing and prepared to fly up to get in.

"You said you'd trust him Amamiya! So trust him now!" Bruce told him. Before Batman could argue, Red Hood shouted and pointed upward.

"Hey! Look up there!"

The Knights looked in the direction and saw a black gloved hand sticking out of the area where the heart was.

"It's Nightwing!" Batman shouted as he flew up without a second word and made his way to the outstretched hand. However, other tubes flew in his direction in an attempt to stop him. He did his best to dodge and evade the attacks, but this distraction cost him the opportunity to grasp Nightwing's hand as it sank back into Brushogun's body.

Grimacing as he pulled back to get some distance between himself and Brushogun, Batman realized he had one last option. "I'm going in!" He declared.

Ignoring the cries of protest from his teammates, he performed a back flip to avoid pipes that were shot in his direction before he hit the afterburners on his boots at maximum power, sending him flying like a bullet straight towards Brushogun's 'heart'. He extended his wings out in front of him, using them to stab his way in as he also activated the electrical discharge in his suit and set it on continuously instead of a short burst.

He then dived into Brushogun's body with ease, the electricity given off by his suit pushing away the ink and his thrusters allowed him to enter with much ease, much to the shock of the onlookers and his teammates.

"He's gonna be okay, right?" Robin asked, his tone uncharacteristically worried.

"Yeah! He'll be fine! He's Batman after all!" Red Hood tried to lift their spirits, but even he too, despite his words, sounded worried.

"I'm tracking his suit's vitals now. So far they're all green." Bruce said into the comm to assure them. The other Knights saw the information in their masks, and did indeed see Batman's vitals read that he was okay.

But suddenly, his information went blank as it reported that the signal was now lost.

"What happened?! Is he okay?!" Catwoman shouted in concern as the others too held worried looks.

"We just lost his signal, it doesn't mean anything!" Bruce tried to assure them.

"HAHAHAHA!" The group looked upward to see Brushogun began laughing in what appeared to be victory. The action caused the Knights to glare up at Brushogun in anger, as if he was boasting how he just killed Batman. Red Hood has pulled out his guns, along with Robin's staff and Catwoman's whip. Ace even growled at the monster before them.

Brushogun continued laughing as if he had won, however, he stopped suddenly as his mouth went wide in shock. Suddenly, from where his 'heart' would be, a pair of black and red wings emerged, and then popped up Batman's head as he gasped for air. He then gritted his teeth as he struggled to get the rest of his body out.

He then managed to pull his feet out, which were still firing off at full power. His hands were still stuck in the monster as he struggled to pull something or someone out. Nightwing's head then emerged from the ink body, taking a gasp of air. He then gritted his teeth and he and Batman continued to pull, Batman's arms hooked underneath Nightwing's shoulders, and Nightwing's hands and feet still buried in the ink monster's body.

With one final tug, they managed to pull Madarame out of the Brushogun's ink giant. Batman tried to stabilize them in the air, but with the amount of power he used up getting in then out of the behemoth, he had run out of juice in the suit, which caused its thrusters to suddenly cut out and the three began falling.

But acting quickly, Nightwing fired off a grapple towards a nearby building. Then hanging upside down from the line, he grasped Batman's hand as the latter then gripped Madarame's leg. Their descent slowed down and they tumbled as they landed on the ground, rolling around as they landed.

As Batman began to massage the injuried parts of his body after the landing, he then looked back up when he notice large portions of ink began falling from the sky. The giant ink monster Brushogun himself began to suddenly bubble up and expand, much like a water balloon being given too much water. The giant seemed to scream out in pain before it then burst and the street became flooded with ink.

Batman then emerged from under a pile of ink, his suit covered in it. He then looked around and saw his fellow Knights, along with many citizens, also covered in ink, but none of them looked too hurt, which caused him to sigh in relief.

"Why did you go in after me?!" Nightwing asked as he walked up to Batman, a look of displeasure on his face. "I asked you to trust me! But you didn't and sought to handle this on your own! Why?! Why don't you trust me!?"

Batman stared at Nightwing in shock. He then placed a hand on his chin and thought for a long moment before he answered.

"It's not a matter of whether I trust you or not." Batman began explaining. "It's just… when I see a hand outstretched, I can't help but reach out my own hand to help them, even if they don't want it."

Nightwing's look softened at his words. "I see. Then in that case, I apologize for my words." He said with a bow.

"You got nothing to apologize for." Batman assured as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "I trust you to do the same for me if I'm ever in need of help." Nightwing smiled.

"Hey!" They both turned to see the other Knights moving toward them. They both smiled, however it quickly turned to shock when Catwoman suddenly punched both of them in the stomach.

"How could you two be so reckless and stupid like that?!" She said in a tone much like a mother disciplining her child.

"Yes! How dare you do such a thing to Lady Ca-I mean us!?" Robin shouted as he pointed a finger at them.

Red Hood then threw both his arms around Batman and Nightwing and pulled them close. "Still, it was still pretty schway to see you guys in action, especially you Nightwing! Not bad for your first time!"

"Thank you for your words." Nightwing said with a grateful smile. "However, I feel as if I was lacking in this performance. I promise my future performances, like my art, will be masterpieces!"

The other Knights sweatdropped slightly. This would take some getting used to.

CRACKLE! BOOM!

They then looked up in the sky and saw lightning flash and heard thunder booming. Rain soon followed as it came hitting the ground, washing off the ink from the civilians and the street.

Robin then looked around. "Hey, where's Madarame?"

At the mention of his name, the other Knights began to look around the area, worried that he might've slipped away in the chaos. However, they soon found him kneeling down, his face being one of defeat.

"How could this have happened?" He muttered in disbelief. "He promised that he would protect me. He promised that no matter what, he wouldn't abandon me. After all I did for him, this is how he repays me?!"

"What's he talking about?" Catwoman asked as the Knights looked at him in confusion.

"I don't know." Red Hood said with a shrug. Their conversation drew Madarame's attention to them as he glared at each of them, especially Nightwing, with looks of pure rage.

"This is all your fault!" He cried, throwing away his persona of ever being a kind old man. "If not for you, then none of this would have happened! I could have continued on as I was, without anyone to interrupt me! I could have-"

POW!

He was silenced from the strong right hook thrown at his face from none other than Nightwing. He landed on the ground and looked up at his former pupil turned Knight with shock.

"Shut. Up!" Nightwing said in such a low and chilling tone that it seemed very unlike him. "You don't even feel the slightest remorse for what you've done?! All the people you've hurt, the dreams you've crushed, the things you've stolen! You feel no remorse whatsoever?!"

At this point, many citizens had taken out their phones and began livestreaming what was happening.

"Why should I?!" Madarame questioned. "I brought those useless pieces of students in! I taught them all they should know! Of course they should repay me with their own works! It's only fair!"

POW

"Fair?!" Nightwing cried as he struck Madarame across the face once again. "You manipulated them, forced them to work to the bone like slaves under some misguided sense of gratitude! All so you could steal the credit that should have been theirs! You are no teacher of the arts! You're a disgrace to the title of artist!"

Madarame would have crafted more ink minions to stop Nightwing's rampage, but with how exhausted he was after becoming that giant, and with the rain washing away any ink he could use to create them, he was completely at Nightwing's mercy. And that terrified him.

"And not only that," Nightwing continued, his body shaking as he remembered his words. "You caused my mother to suffer while she was at her weakest and after letting her die, stole her last piece of work and used it to gain fame. And then you simply sold her work like it didn't even have value after you copied it! And for that you will pay!"

Madarame tried to shield himself from Nightwing's attack, but before the latter could throw his punch, a hand stopped him. He turned to see Batman, with a look of understanding on his face, as he shook his head.

"He's not worth it." He told his friend and teammate. He then gestured to all the people watching with their phones pulled out.

Seeing as he was right, Nightwing relaxed as he put his arm down, causing Madarame to sigh in relief. However, Nightwing then reached behind his back and pulled out an escrima stick. The stick charged with electricity before Nightwing swung it across Madarame's face, knocking him out cold.

He then put the stick away as he turned to his companions. "Just to make sure he doesn't try and run away." He explained. The others accepted the reason as multiple police cars arrived on the scene.

Without another word spoken, they made their exit.

The Next Day - SIU Headquarters

The SIU Director was currently laying back in the chair behind his desk reading the morning newspaper (he still preferred the paper compared to the new high-tech way they got information these days). The headline read 'Madarame: The Monster Behind The Painter'. There was also a smaller headline which read 'Batman Innocent: Masked Vigilante's Only Crime is Vandalism. Written By: Ichiko Ohya'.

"The autopsy was leaked to the press." Sae Niijima explained. When they learned that Batman had 'killed' a body made out of ink, the higher ups had decided to keep quiet and use this as a way to take down the vigilante. But someone let slip that Saico-Tek wasn't even real, and the reporter who wrote the story capitalized on it.

"It's of little consequence." The Director said as he put the paper down and looked at the woman. She was the youngest and most promising member he had here at the organization. She was ambitious, desperate to prove herself, and that made her easy to use. "Sooner or later the truth would have come out. It always does. And so too will the truth about Batman emerge. That he's nothing more than a plague on this city, even more dangerous than the criminals he draws to it."

"I couldn't agree more sir." Niijima said. The Director smiled. It helped that this woman was also so anti-vigilante, so long as he made moves that would lead to the end of vigilantes in this city.

"If I recall, you lost your father when he had an encounter with a Batman copycat, is that correct?"

Sae seemed to stiffen for a moment before she narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. "Yes, that's true." She admitted.

"I'm sorry for your loss." He said, his tone sounding sincere, but underneath, there was a certain glee. "If you're interested, I think I may have a way you can get justice for your father."

Sae's eyes widened at his words. "What do you mean?"

"Given that this most recent copycat has yet to make his exit, I, along with other like-minded individuals, have been discussing the creation of a special task force." The Director explained. "This task force would be composed of our best and brightest, and those who have personal histories with Batman, whether it be the original, this new one, or any one of the copycats over the past two decades. Their sole purpose would be to bring the Batman to justice, and to show the people of this city that they don't need to rely on a masked vigilante to keep them safe."

Sae seemed shocked at such a task force, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't interested. "How would such a force be funded, or get approval?" She asked, knowing such ambitious proposals needed the support to function.

"Medic would provide us with the necessary funds." The Director explained. Medic was a tech company formed by Akira Konoe. The company focused on A.I. development and robotics, it even rivaled Wayne-Okumura in terms of profit. "As for approval, Mayoral Candidate Masayoshi Shido has given his full support of the task force. He too believes that vigilantes cause more harm than good. It will take time to get the task force up and running, but we should be able to have it ready before the end of the year."

He then reached into his desk and pulled out a contract for the task force and slid it over to Sae.

"Well, Ms. Niijima, are you interested in joining us?"

Wayne Manor

"What do you think the old geezer wants to show us?"

"I don't know, but he said it was important."

Those were the words spoken by the Knights as they sat in the living room waiting for Bruce to show himself. Morgana was busying himself by playing around with Ace, their recent interaction being much more friendly since they stopped Brushogun a few days prior.

When Brushogun had woken up, the Knights feared that he would have exposed Yusuke as Nightwing in an attempt to take the boy with him. However, thankfully, after turning himself into a skyscraper tall monster and being hit by Yusuke, he managed to lose his memory of his encounters with Nightwing, causing his identity to be safe.

Bruce then released an audio file of Madarame's confession that he heard over the suits when the Knights confronted him before he transformed into a monster. After editing any parts out that would endanger their identities, he gave it to the press. That, and with other numerous testimonies, including Yusuke, whose charges about being a plagiarist and thief were dropped, Madarame was sent off to Arkham, placed in a specialized cell that would keep him from creating any more ink monsters.

Also with that press release that the person Batman beat to 'death' wasn't even alive in the first place, the heat against Batman had died down, much to Ren's relief.

Soon, Bruce entered the living room with an object covered by a white sheet.

"Hey Bruce." Ren said, causing the others to look at him. "What's with the sheet?"

Insteads of answering, Bruce then grabbed an end of the sheet and tugged. The Knights gasped.

It was a painting of a familiar looking woman holding a small baby in her arms, a warm smile on her face as she looked at the baby. It was a painting they all knew too well, but thought was lost forever.

"Sayuri…" Yusuke muttered as he walked up to the painting to see if it was indeed real, almost tempted to pinch himself to see if he was dreaming. As he ran his hands across the surface, he shuddered when he indeed confirmed it was real. He then turned to Bruce. "H-How…?"

"After hearing Madarame's confession of his crimes, I did some investigation into his dealings during the time he supposedly painted it." Bruce explained. "I managed to find the man he sold the painting to. After contacting him and offering a large sum of money, I was able to buy the painting."

"This… this is… I can't even…" Without another word spoken, Yusuke ran and gave Bruce a strong hug. "Thank you! Thank you…!" Bruce stood still awkwardly as he gave Yusuke a pat on the back. The other Knights had teasing smiles on their faces.

"I guess Batman's a big softy after all." Ryuji said with a smirk.

"Awe that's so sweet of you Bruce." Ann had a smile on her face.

"Why is he never this nice to me?" Ren wondered aloud, slightly jealous Bruce seemed to treat the other Knights better than him, but nonetheless happy for Yusuke.

After the waterworks, Yusuke finally let go of Bruce. "Don't think this is a free handout." Bruce told Yusuke. "I expect you to work harder than ever to keep this city safe, understand?"

"Yes Mr. Wayne!" Yusuke said with such determination as he stood up straight. "I promise, I, Yusuke Kitagawa, Nightwing, will work to make this blank canvas of a city into a masterpiece of art!"

"And he's back." Morgana said with a smirk as he continued to pet Ace.

"So anyway, where will you be staying?" Ryuji then asked Yusuke. "Are you thinking of going back to that shack?"

Yusuke smiled as he shook his head. "No. I can't find inspiration in a place like that anymore, too many memories will keep me clouded. But I don't think I'm ready to move into the dorms at my school either." His eyes then widened as an idea came to mind. "I know, I can stay with Takamaki!"

"WHAT?!"

His statement sent shocks through all of them. Some in horror, like Ren and Ann, others in anger, like Ryuji and Morgana.

"How can you be so shameless?!" Ryuji cried in disbelief.

"What's so shameless about staying at Takamaki's house, she's a friend after all." Yusuke said, clearly missing the point.

"That's not the point!" Morgana shouted as he and Ryuji tried to get the point across Yusuke's dense skull. Ann was too shocked by the proposal to do anything, and Ren found the situation too humorous to change it.

"He can stay at the Manor." Bruce suddenly spoke up, causing them all to shut up. "Are you all happy now?" Ann, Ryuji, and Morgana all sighed in relief, while Yusuke continued to just be confused as to what just happened. Ren just smiled and chuckled.

Times like these made him grateful he chose to try and stop Shido that night.

Elsewhere

"Brushogun has been taken off the board." A tall muscular man wearing an unbuttoned collared shirt that revealed glimpses of his tattoos said as he stood behind a bald man dressed in a business suit as they stood in an elevator descending downwards.

"I know, I saw the news." Shido said as he tugged on his tie to make it easier to breathe. "But he already accomplished his mission. I had originally planned to remove him later, but I suppose the sooner the better, even if it wasn't in the way I would have liked to get rid of him." Shido would have much prefered to use him instead of those wild masked freaks. "Have the supplies arrived?"

"Yes sir," The tattooed man said as the elevator came to a stop and opened to their desired floor. "Our moles in the police managed to get them out of custody and delivered them here without any hiccups." He then moved to flip on the lights to the room. "However, I have to ask… Why are you so interested in fakes?"

The lights revealed a whole room filled with dozens upon dozens of forgeries of the Sayuri, the same ones that were at the docks the night Batman and his so-called Knights interrupted the shipment. Thankfully, they were too concerned with the decoys to look at the real prize, which were these forgeries.

Shido sighed. "My dear Cleaner." Shido muttered as he walked up to the switch and then flipped the lights off. "It's not the paintings themselves," He then flipped on a switch that illuminated the room again, but with black light instead. The man known as Cleaner gasped. "But what's hidden that interests me."

All across the different paintings of Sayuri were blueprints, schematics, instructions, etc. Shido walked through them all as he made his way to the center one, the one titled 'Yaldabaoth'.

He then reached out with his hand and dragged it across the word. "Soon… this city… no, the world… will be mine!"

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Sorry it took me so long to get it out, I've been stuck with morning shifts at work, and I usually do most, if not all, of my writing in the morning before lunch, that's when my brain is most active.

I hope I did a good job with Madarame with Brushogun, but with him being both the creator and mastermind behind his schemes, it made it all quite difficult to write, and some of it may not make sense. Please forgive me for that.

Also the chase scene I did with Batman and the ink minions, I didn't originally planned to do that, but I figured it would be a little exciting to do. Most of the chase is up to your imagination, but I did some parts which I hope you will include in your visual of it. Hope you guys enjoyed it.

I also included Ace in this adventure. Cause I felt I haven't been doing enough with the loyal Bat-Hound, because hey, Ace is as much a part of the Bat-Family as Nightwing and Robin are. So I hope you guys enjoyed his moments.

Also with the Sayuri, I changed how the original was recovered. Cause without the Metaverse, they couldn't have gotten the original painting before Madarame painted over it. So I just had him create the fake from scratch and sell the original, that way Bruce could buy it back and return it to Yusuke, hope that works for you guys.

The next few chapters I'm gonna have Ren explore more confidants, some even now being among his fellow Knights. Here's a preview of the next one.

Operation Maid Watch:

When he discovers his homeroom teacher moonlights as a maid, Ren decides to help her out by calling on her to clean his room while he's 'out', giving her the money she needs. However, Ren soon discovers that the maid service his teacher's part of isn't on the up and up as it claims.

Hope you all have a great Holiday. Merry Christmas! Or Happy Hanaka!