-Three Weeks Later-
It was rather quiet in the darkened streets of Gotham with only very little sounds being present. The quiet atmosphere was soon broken as a car was driving through. It kept going on like this for a few more moments before it came to a complete stop once it pulled to the side of the road.
"This is it boss." The driver said as he looked into the rearview mirror. "Rupert Thorne's booking joint."
The shadowy figure just looked on ahead as the man contemplated on what to do next. The next thing the man did was reach into his coat pocket to pull out a double sided coin. It seemed different from the rest as one side seemed rather normal with it's normal face. But on the other side was rather charred and scratched out.
"Good heads…. We leave them alone. Bad heads…. We hit'em hard." Was all he said, getting the driver and the man riding shotgun to nod their heads in agreement. The man flipped the coin up in the confined space before it landed back down into the palm of his hand before bringing it down onto his other hand. Once opening it back up, the man saw the result. "Bad heads it is then."
Inside of the booking joint, things were pretty normal as to what one would see inside of an establishment like this. Seeing races or matches going on through the television screens, drinking and laughing at the various tables while on the far side of the room were people handling the bets and money. Everything seemed rather peaceful on what was going on until…
*KABOOM*
The front door to the business was blown wide open due to a small explosive attached to the door. The man guarding the door was knocked back with splinters of the door were all over the place. Anyone else that was nearby were coughing from the smoke and were ducked down for their own safety.
"Everybody down! And nobody move!" Two voices called out before firing their assault rifles into the air getting everyone to do what they said. As the smoke was cleared, everyone saw who was the cause of this being a pair of twins 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.
Both of the twins looked around to see if there was anyone going to resist or any other form of security, but they found none.
"Coast is clear boss." "You can come in now." Both twins said after the other getting man of the hour to walk on into the establishment which caused several people to gasp at the sight of him.
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.
"Don't bother to do anything at all people. So don't touch the dials or switches at all. For the next five minutes, Two Face is in control." The unidentified man announced with an assault rifle in his hand. "Now go get the money."
"Right boss." The twins said as they went towards the back of the room where the money was being kept. Once over there, one of the twins started emptying out the cash registers and drawers of anything of value as the other went towards the safe to crack it open. Then one of the twins noticed something at the corner of his eye.
"Hey boss. Look at this."
"Yes. What is it Ukon?" Two Face said as he got closer while keeping an eye on most of the people present.
Said twin lifted up a wooden tray and presented it to his boss. "There must be a couple hundred silver dollars here."
"Then bring it." The scarred man growled out getting the twin to nod and placed the tray to the side before he kept doing what he was doing before.
As this was going on, the other twin was finally able to crack the safe and opened it up before emptying its contents. That was until he spotted an expensive looking ring on one of the man's hands.
"Well lookie here." The twin said as he slipped it off of the man's finger. "I'll take that."
"Taking jewerly wasn't apart of the plan Sakon." Two Face said as he glared at said twin. "You got to flip for it if you want that ring." The scarred man pulled out his coin and flipped it into the air before catching it. Once opening up his palm, he saw that it was the good heads. "Leave the ring."
"But boss-" "I said leave it!" The man yelled out getting the twin to comply and place the ring on the ground by the man's body. It wasn't long until the three men got everything they came for and the twins ran out of the door to get the car started. Just as Two Face was leaving the establishment, he turned back around to announce something. "Now before I go, I want you all to give Rupert Thorne a message." He then brought his assault rifle up and started firing at the TV monitors to end up destroying them in the process.
"That I'm him taking him down." Two Face growled out before going to the getaway car and he and the twins drove off into the night.
-Rupert Thorne's Office-
*Bam* "God!" *Bam* "Fucking!" *Bam* "Dammit!" *Bam*
Those were the sounds present in the office as the crime overlord was cursing up a storm. He had gotten the latest reports of his establishments earlier that he had been hit again by Harvey Dent, or what he now calls himself Two Face.
"How much did he take this time?" Thorne growled out.
"Two hundred thousand sir." Candice simply stated.
"But I thought we got rid of this guy?" One of the thugs said getting the assistant to look at him with a slight glare.
"If you forgot, we actually created him that night three weeks back."
It has been indeed that long as Rupert was glaring at the newspaper with the headline 'Two Face's Wave of Armed Robbery'. He was completely pissed on what the former DA was doing to him as of late. From hitting his nightclubs and gambling rings, that it ended up costing him a fortune along with it being utterly humiliating.
Two Face Harvey kept on hitting various establishments he owned in this city and things were starting to come down hill for him. It got to the point that he decided to seek out help from his fellow crime lords in the city. But none of them would even budge a finger due to the man they work alongside with. The man who practically controls a lot of their actions as their allied group leader: Kurama Otsutsuki.
He came onto the scene a decade ago after killing off Gato and absorbing his group and assets over in the Asian territories before moving to Gotham a year or so later. At first he was not that noticeable, but things started to escalate as he changed things drastically towards his liking. In the end, Kurama had gained complete control of drug trafficking in Gotham and had eliminated human trafficking as a whole. This made him a threat towards several competitions trying to muscle their way in and had sought to eliminate him, but that was their downfall. The red haired drug lord had taken care of those problems personally just to make a statement: don't fuck with him.
Then one day, he had sought out the various crime lords in Gotham and offered them an alliance so that things could be easier to handle. The smaller ones had joined and were eventually absorbed into Kurama's network. Reason being was that those smaller groups couldn't handle too much pressure and it was easier for them to report to someone higher than them. Eventually he came and offered the deal to the major crime lords of Gotham: Rupert Thorne, Roman Sionis, Carmine Falcone, Sal Maroni and Oswald Cobblepot; that he won't absorb their groups but just have a good relationship with each of them. Thorne and Sionis had turned down the deal and the feral crime lord had left them be while Falcone and Cobblepot had joined in on the allied force.
As for Maroni, well he felt right out insulted and did an assassination attempt on his life along with his two snake themed girlfriends. Well that caused a bit of a problem and Kurama brought down his entire fury on the man and his followers. Suffice to say, he truly lived up to his statement. For good compensation, he had let the other major crime lords of Gotham take whatever they wanted from the late Maroni group. Everyone was fine with it and things went on with their separate ways since it was shown as a sign of good will.
Now one might wonder why bring up Kurama into the explanation? Well Thorne had contacted Kurama the previous week due to Two Face making things difficult for Rupert. He wanted to discuss the offer the crime lord offered back then so the redhead could help him out. But the feral man had said the offer went off the table the moment Thorne and Sionis had refused to join the group. He tried to get into the man's good graces, but the man refused especially with the heat coming down on the man as of late among other things. So with that, Rupert was practically on his own.
With the stress getting to him, Rupert rubbed his chest in remembrance of this event is just adding onto the pile of crap heap he had been dealing with ever since his brother Matthew left his employ. After his brother helped get rid of the tumor near his heart with the help of his old schoolmate Leslie Thompkins, the man left and was placed into protective custody with his newly registered medical license. Without his brother being the 'crime doctor', moral for his group dropped along with problems with health and medical were getting too risky in the end.
"Three weeks have been long enough." The crime lord said as he stabbed a knife into the newspaper a few times before settling down. "Spread the word that I'm putting out a contract. One million…." He said before pausing for a brief moment. "Actually make that two million dollars. One for each 'face' for the man who brings me Two Face."
-Unknown Location-
The sounds of running and panting could be heard in the darkness as Harvey started to weave through the streets of Gotham.
"Harvey!" A voice called out getting the DA to run faster before realizing he is now standing on a rickety bridge. He went back around to get off of the bridge until he saw a shadowy figure coming closer to him.
"NO! Stay back!" Harvey said in worry.
The figure kept on walking forward until it came under the nearby lamppost to reveal that it was Batman with a truly worried look on his face.
"Harvey, please. Let me help you." The masked hero pleaded only for the man on the bridge to scoff at him.
"You?! Help me?!" Harvey said as he walked closer with an accusing finger pointed straight at him. "You saw what was going on! You knew that something was terribly wrong with me! But I thought you were my friend, my closest ally here in Gotham! You should've helped me more! Yet you didn't!" He yelled out as he covered his face during most of the accusations before revealing his scarred face towards the hero. "NOW LOOK AT ME!"
"But I tried Harvey. I truly have. I-" Bruce said to his oldest friend. He then heard the sound of rope snapping, making the hero realize what's going to happen. He ran towards the rickety bridge but it seemed to be farther away than he realized or was kept in place. Bruce pushed himself to his limits to hopefully make it in time, but the bridge gave out letting his friend fall. "HARVEY!"
"WHY COULDN'T YOU SAVE MEEEE?!" The man cried out as he fell into the fiery pit below.
Once coming towards the ledge, Bruce peered down below to hopefully see his friend down there. The only thing he saw was something that truly scared him the most. Making him collapse onto his knees as he felt truly young and helpless like he was eight years old again.
"No…. No…." He said at the sight before him... Seeing his parents lying down on the ground with their eyes staring right back at him.
"Why couldn't you save us son?" His father, Thomas Wayne, said to him in disappointment.
"NO!" Bruce cried out as he woke up from his sleep in the batcave. With the intensity and volume of the yell echoed throughout the cave, making all of the bats wake up and flutter all about. He tried to control his breathing as he placed his hand on his sweaty brow.
"Get it together Bruce… It was just a dream." The 'playboy' said to himself before his eyes met the various documents laid out on the bat computer's desktop from various psychology newspapers, books and even copied reports of Dr. Harleen Quinzel that he acquired from Arkham. The last one was a little difficult with him breaking into her office and taking photos of her evaluations on Pamela Isley and Margaret Sorrow/Magpie from her locked cabinet, but it was something he has done before. He just needed to know everything he could about multiple personalities to try and understand his friend more.
"So... What are you dreaming about this time Harvey?" Bruce asked in slight curiosity, as he finally controlled his breathing to a good pace. "Peaceful dreams…. And nightmares all at once? Could be possible with his two personas. Especially with what Dr. Quinzel has stated in her notes…. But whatever the case may be, I hope you sleep well my friend. No matter what you have become, I will save you…. I swear."
He then gazed at the clock nearby and saw that it was time for him to get ready for the day and head to his morning 'job'. Getting up, he stretched about and made his way towards his bedroom with the previous thoughts still present in his mind. It was going to be one of those days he figured.
-Morning, Grace Lamont's Apartment-
The sounds of sobbing and moaning could be heard in the residence as Naruto was present to help console his friend. Ever since Harvey's disappearance from the hospital and his crime wave three weeks ago, the blonde lawyer has been a total wreck. Naruto, with some occasional visits from Selina, have checked up on her so that she wouldn't do anything rash.
"I know that this has been difficult Grace, but you shouldn't give up hope."
"H-How can I when Harvey hasn't bothered to see me o-or doing all of these things." She said as she continued to sop with her reddened eyes.
He didn't know what to say exactly since she was right. For all this time, Naruto had been wracking his brain over with everything, but nothing could work for a good response. He just sat there for her to have a good friend to hold onto. She didn't have that many social or work friends and her relatives lived on the other side of the country so it was hard for her to get better support.
"Just…. Just keep holding onto what you have Grace and things might pull through to the end." The publisher said as he broke the hug and grabbed her a few more tissues. "I need to get going now Grace. Like I asked before: If anything comes up, please let me know okay?"
*Sniff* "Okay." The blonde weakly said as Naruto gave her one last hug before exiting the apartment.
She got up on her feet to at least stretch her legs as she walked over to the far side of the room. There she picked up a framed photo of both her and Harvey on the day he proposed to her. It was practically one of the happiest days of her life with her being so much in love with him.
*Knock Knock*
'Who could that be?' Grace thought as she put down the picture frame back down and walked towards the door. Once opening it, she was greeted with the site of a redhead police officer with some dark haired woman in a detective looking attire with the trench coat and business suit and glasses. "Yes…. May I help you?"
"Grace Lamont. I'm detective Leopold." The identified detective stated. "It's about your fiance. I would like to talk more, but I would like to do so outside of prying ears."
*Sniff* "Right. Of course. Come on in." The lawyer gestured as she ushered the two to come in. "May I offer you some tea or some water?"
"As kind of an offer Miss Lamont, but we hopefully don't want to take up too much time." The female detective said as she sat down on the couch while the officer stood not too far away.
"So mind telling me what this is all about?"
"Of course…." The woman said as she through various details pertaining to the scarred man and Rupert Thorne. Most were a bit detailed while others quite simple, but Grace was getting the gist of it all. "...So we would like to get to Harvey before Thorne does since he won't have much of a chance."
"I wish I could help, but I haven't seen or heard from him since that terrible day at the hospital. So I don't know where he is."
"I understand that Miss Lamont, but it is possible that he might come around at some point and contact you." Detective Leopold said before pulling out a device from her pocket. "If he ever does, activate this beeper and we'll trace the signal wherever you are."
Grace didn't know what to do at this point, but what choice did she have in the matter at this point. Her response wasn't immediate but she hesitantly held out her hand and grabbed ahold of the device making the detective smile at the action.
"Then it's all in your hands Miss Lamont. So for now get some rest ma'am." The woman said as she and her partner left the grieving lawyer in her apartment.
Once outside of the building, the police officer and detective got into their car and slowly drove off. At that time, the officer pulled off his hat and partial disguise to reveal some scars present as the detective pulled down her hair and removed her glasses.
"So what makes you so sure that he'll show up Candice?" The thuggish looking man questioned as the now identified Candice gave him a smirk.
"Oh trust me, men tend to always come back to the ones they really care about."
-Unknown Location-
"Sixty-four eight… Sixty-four nine… Sixty-five thousand." Harvey 'Two Face' spoke out as he was organizing the money piles for both him and the twins. One of them, sometimes hard to tell for the scarred man with them switching outfits and parting their hair differently at times, reached out to grab a pile. To which the scarred man intercepted by grasping the hand before giving it a firm squeeze. "Don't touch anything until I tell you to."
"Sorry boss." The twin said as the man let go, making the grey haired twin rub his wrist to ease the pain.
*Sigh* "You two have always been greedy, haven't you Sakon and Ukon? Even when I prosecuted you two as DA." Harvey said as he remembered taking on their case a few years back.
Sakon and Ukon were trouble making kids that tended to steal off of the street and from various stores. The two were sent to juvenile hall for a year or so until they were released. When Harvey had gotten out of the hospital, he came across them as they were trying to find work. He offered them to work for him and explained the benefits of doing this. They agreed since they were a bit desperate for money and they wanted to get back at Thorne for screwing them over at a previous time.
Once Harvey pulled out his wallet to put most of his pile away, his eyes caught the glimpse of a photo with him and Grace. Just seeing her face, even from a photo, made his one good eye well up with tears while the other just dripped on down right away without an eyelid.
On the side, the twins looked at their boss with slight worry as they already guessed what was going through the scarred man's head.
Two Face broke out of his concentration as the corner of his eye caught onto them looking at him. He placed the wallet onto the table and gave them a dirty scowl. "What the hell are you looking at?"
"Sorry boss." "But if you miss her so much." "Why don't you go see her?" The twins spoke to finish each part of the sentence. The two of them nodded at this as they could see their boss at least be happy and get off their case at times. "We could even bring her over if you want."
Harvey contemplated on this as he looked back onto the photo before reaching into his jacket to pull out his coin. 'Good heads, she comes. Bat heads, we leave her be.' He thought as the coin was flipped into the air and landed onto the table with the bad heads up. "Forget it you two…. We got other matters to attend to."
Seeing this, both of them sighed before one of them spoke out. "What would that be boss?"
"I've decided that it's time to finish off Thorne once and for all."
"Really?" "How?" "You gonna finally kill the bastard?"
Their response was a shake of the head that it wasn't what he had thought. Even though it would've been a quicker solution. "No… Let's just say that I'll do to him what he did to me."
"Even the whole 'burn' thing boss?"
"Possibly. If I'm lucky."
-Naruto's Office-
*Sigh* "What a day. What a day." The publisher said while stretching his arms. It's been a decent so far with him going over the various documents for the day. From usual magazine workings, progress reports on remodeling the Metropolis branch location, to possible novels that need to be approved before sent to editing.
Nothing unusual or interesting has come up recently for work asides from one of his authors wanting to get his latest book out. What made it interesting was it being American McGee's rendition of Lewis Carol's 'Alice in Wonderland' novels. Naruto read the entire first book and he thought it was an interesting take in a darker tone than from the original works. Very much so that the former shinobi approved it and had it sent to the editor to have the book hit shelves within the next few months.
Another thing that came up was when one Masamune Shirow came from Japan to see him. Reason being was the writer was hoping to make a deal with the former shinobi for an english publication of several series of his. From Black Magic, Appleseed, to Ghost in the Shell. It was appealing on the idea with Naruto buying some of the original translations from overseas and he'll need to discuss the offer with some of his staff if they would like to work on the project.
Naruto looked towards the clock and noticed that it was near lunch time. He rubbed his stomach with slight anticipation as he pulled out his lunch box. Normally the Uzumaki wouldn't be that excited for a home cooked meal, even if it's one of his own home cooked ones, but this one was made by Selina this morning.
Before both of them left for work this morning, she gave him a boxed lunch she made without him noticing. Then again, it would explain why she wasn't in the shower with him this morning. It was rather cute to see the thief give it to him with a slight blush on her face. Saying that she wanted to pay him back for all of the home cooked lunches he made for her and wanted to start making him ones.
WIth the past dinners Selina made in their 'home dates', Naruto wondered what he'd get for a lunch. So before he could even open up the box, a voice called out from behind him. Scaring the living shit out of him.
"My oh my." A familiar voice said getting Naruto to fall out of his seat with a slight yelp. "A boxed lunch, from Selina no less. How cute."
Getting up from his placement on the floor, the former shinobi glared daggers into the bijuu hybrid. "What are you doing here Kurama? Wouldn't you normally make an 'unannounced appointment' with Jillian before coming on by for a chat of some sort."
"Oh I would but I wanted to have slight pleasure of scaring you." Kurama said with a cocky smirk that made Naruto's eyebrow start twitching. "As for me being here, wanted to discuss a few things."
"Which would be what exactly?"
"For one, congrats on getting back your wind element after a decade." The redhead stated as he sat down on the couch several away from the office desk. Once sitting down, he lifted up his hand and a small swirl of fire came about before it died down to reveal a bag of Big Belly Burger. He turned to the side and saw Naruto give him a quizzical look, making the hybrid roll his eyes. "What. I eat."
The publisher only threw his hands up in the air before replying to him. "I wasn't judging really."
"Yeah well it's one of the only places that gives me enough calories and is delicious to help me go through a third of the day." Kurama said as he took a bite out of a few fries. "Most of the time, I just three orders of the stuff and be fine for the day."
*Chuckles* "Seems that you found your 'ramen' Kurama."
"Shut up."
"Well getting back on topic, thanks." Naruto said as he popped open his box lunch to see the nice little spread. 'Mmmmm. Looks good.'
"Must not have been easy given what reports I saw on how you got that back."
The former blonde nodded as he took his first bite out of the meal and mentally sighed in bliss before speaking. *Gulp* "Falling several hundred feet in the air and getting desperate will do that. *Sigh* Reminded me of the time when Jiraiya threw me off of that cliff and had to summon Gamabunta in the end. *Groan* Not a fun experience."
*Gulp* *Cough* "No shit Sherlock."
"But I got this out of it." Naruto said as he held out his hand and summoned Kazekage into his grasp to get Kurama to look at quizzically.
"Huh… Interesting lance you got there." The hybrid said as he got up from the seat on the couch to come closer for an inspection. He didn't touch it, but his eyes looked through every detail and felt the power coming from it. "So how much training have you worked on this thing."
"Well asides from riding this puppy, I've been looking up bo staff and lance fighting styles and try to work from there. Obviously can't try to find someone to teach me or else things might seem suspicious. So have been going through instincts on how I should fight at least."
Nodding at this, Kurama ushered Naruto to continue with his explanation as he went back to his seat and eating his meal.
"As for the wind based stuff, had to go to the mountain ranges to see what I could do exactly. For my training so far I was able to find out that I could summon more of these, up to six in total to be exact. Don't know why that number, but not complaining. Been able to experiment on some wind based techniques that I remember from back in the home reality."
"I'm sensing a 'but'..."
*Sigh* "But I found out that when I tried using those powers when I don't have the weapon out, it doesn't show up at all. No matter how hard I tried. Even tried using what I know so far with my scythe without having it out and nothing came out at all."
Getting that bit of the explanation made Kurama hum in thought on the implications. "Possibly your 'toys' don't like you using their powers if you don't let them out to play. They could but it'll be a long road till you could maybe use them without having your 'toys' out."
Hearing this made Naruto scratch his head on this bit of realization that his former tenant might've hit it dead center on that one. If he does unlock other weapons, he'll need to start figuring out a better way on his fighting style when trying to switch them out during certain fights down the road. Even with all of the training he has been doing with his weapons and powers, he still has a long way to go.
"I guess you're right Kurama." The Uzumaki said as he dispersed his lance. "So asides from talking about my powers, what did you want to discuss?"
"About what's going on with Harvey 'Two Face' Dent." As the hybrid said this, Naruto tensed a little bit before getting back into a relaxed mood.
"Why do you want to talk about Harvey Kurama?"
"From what I have noticed is that he's targeting various fronts of Rupert Thorne's businesses." Kurama stated as he ate some more fries before holding out his hand to motion of counting things off. "Club 22, Gemini's Jewelers, Two's Company and several other places. Some people might speculate that Dent has a thing for robbing places with a relation of 'two' in the title like his next stop being the Second National Band, but he's only targeting Thorne specifically."
"Wanting to hurt the man hard where it hurts the most, his wallet." Naruto surmised getting the redhead to nod.
"Yup and I'm actually glad that Thorne is getting humiliated in such a way."
Naruto raised a brow at this and couldn't help but ask. "Why?"
"Well Rupert has been trying to slink his way into my businesses and thought I wouldn't notice. Even with him asking if I could help him out from one crime lord to another from what Two Face has been doing lately. But in fact I'm actually enjoying how this is turning out so far. *Chuckles* Harvey is practically doing me a favor of ruining Thorne in the way he is doing. So I thought I would want to owe the man a favor or two down the road. Especially since he's one of your friends Naruto."
"And he is still a friend of mine Kurama. Deep inside his scarred form is still the friend I've known since I moved here to Gotham."
Kurama didn't say anything right away as he finished the last of his meal before speaking. "Well you better keep your guard up since he might not be the man you know anymore. It'll make him more dangerous to you if you let it down." The crime lord simply stated as he got up from his seat. "Don't want him to end up like the duck butted asshole of an Uchiha we both despise and have him stab you through the chest."
As he said this, Kurama went up in a pillar of fire before disappearing from the room. Keeping his eyes on his former tenant's placement, Naruto kept on thinking about what was just spoken to him as he was eating the rest of his meal. He hoped that Kurama was wrong to keep his damaged friend at arm's length or more so that he won't be hurt again, but he is probably right.
But asides from that, Naruto realized from what the crime lord said that Thorne has been humiliated for a while now and his businesses have been hit hard. Sooner or later Harvey will run out of places to hit to the point that he'll want to get rid of Thorne for good. And as a trained man of the law, the only way to really get rid of a crime lord is through cold hard evidence.
So with nothing else to do for now, until Jillian comes in with more things for Naruto to take care of, he went onto his computer and started looking up details about Rupert Thorne on where Harvey will finish things off for good.
-Night, Office of Thorne's Attorney-
Small spots of light were shown through a broken office door late at night. When one would look inside, the lights were revealed to be a pair of individuals with flashlights in their hands. One would ask on what they are doing exactly and to simply put it, they were searching through the office for something as they were going through the attorney's desk and filing cabinets.
"Hey boss."
"Yes Ukon." A voice growled out to reveal Two Face, even as a flashlight was pointed towards his face on accident.
"Take a look at this. I think it's Rupert Thorne's confidential file." Ukon stated waving the file in his hand.
"Let me see that." Harvey said as he was handed the file. Once opening it up for confirmation, his eyes were scanning through the pages as he was growing an ever present smile. "For years I've been trying to subpoena all of this. Money laundering, payoffs, blackmail and it's all here. Two Face said as he started to laugh a bit in joy. "Now I'll destroy Thorne with his file like he destroyed mine."
"Well that's great and all boss, but we should probably get out of here." Ukon said as he made his way towards the door, only for it to be blocked by someone else. "Shit! It's Batman!"
The twin pulled out his gun and was ready to fire, but the hero of Gotham grabbed ahold of it and tossed it out of the way. Ukon then lunged at the Bat, but he dodged out of the way getting the grey haired man to hit the wall instead.
"You're coming with me Harvey." Batman said as he approached the scarred lawyer. "I just want to help you."
"Help me?!" The former DA surprisingly asked before growling out at the man. "But you don't even know me!"
"I know that you have friends Harvey. Friends that love and care about you."
"Well Harvey's friends are no friends of mine." Two Face said as he grabbed ahold of the table lamp and was ready to bash Batman's skull in.
"But what about Grace?" Batman asked getting Two Face to pause in his advancement.
"G-Grace." Harvey said as he placed the lamp back down on the table. "What do you know about Grace?"
"I know that she still loves you Harvey. She keeps your picture and everyday she waits and prays for you to come back to her." The disguised billionaire said to him. "There is so much that some of her closest friends can do to help, but only you can help put things at ease for her. All that she wants now is just wanting you back."
It seemed that things were pulling through for the Bat, that he might be able to get his friend to comply. But that came crashing down as someone came into the room.
"Hey what's taking you two so long?" Sakon asked as he peered inside and saw Batman standing in front of his boss.
Batman turned around on instinct to take care of the other twin, but was hit from behind by his scarred friend to get him to tumble onto the ground.
"Come on. Let's get out of here." Two Face said as he ran out of the office with the file on hand while the twins were ahead of him.
"Harvey! Come back here!" The Bat called out and grabbed ahold of his coat pocket.
Feeling the snag on his coat, Two Face turned around and snarled at him. "Let go of me!"
In response, he kicked the hero in the chest to send him into the nearby janitorial cart. Upon impact, Batman had been hit on the same spot as the kick to get him to get knocked out in the process. Seeing as the hero was down for the count, Harvey ran off to catch up towards the twins to make their getaway.
It's been about ten or so minutes later when Vanitas came down through the hallway when he came across the prone form of Batman on the ground. Along the way, he had seen the one attorney's office in shambles and realized that he came by too late to stop Harvey from what he was planning on doing. So once coming to the Bat's form, he tried to nudge him awake.
"Hey Bat's, you okay?" Vanitas asked as he hoped for a response, but didn't get one. "Come on Bat's you better wake up." He said as he tried to shake him a bit. "If you don't wake up then, I'll paint your batbike pink." No response as well on this.
"Okay then…. Seems that I'll have to do this the hard way. It's going to hurt me more than it hurts you." Vanitas said as he popped the knuckles in his hand. "So It's time to wake up Batsy!"
*Slap*
"Rise and shine!"
*Slap*
"Wake up!"
*Slap*
"Up and at 'em!"
*Slap*
"Fine then."
*Slap*
"Be a brooding asshole."
*Slap*
"See what I care."
*Slap*
"I'm not doing this to replace you for the fucking teme."
*Slap*
"I just feel like it."
*Slap*
"Not like you deserve it."
*Slap*
"SO!"
*Slap*
"WHY!"
*Slap*
"WON'T"
*Slap*
"YOU!"
*Slap*
"WAKE!"
*Slap*
"UP?!"
As one last bitch slap was about to come on down to the Bat's cheek, the appendage was grabbed by said man's hand as he scowled at the man hovering over him.
"Why are you slapping me?!" Batman yelled out making Vanitas phase his hand out of the hero's grip.
"I was just trying to wake you up."
"I was halfway through." The Bat growled out.
"Well why didn't you say anything?" Vanitas innocently asked.
"You kept on slapping me!"
"Geez... you don't need to shout you know."
Batman tried to get up but groaned out in response. He brought his hand to the side to feel for where the pain was coming from and found out that he possibly has a cracked rib or two.
"Hey you shouldn't get up with your injuries man." The masked Uzumaki said getting a dirty look in response. "What?"
"Like you have room to talk with you giving me slaps across the face."
"Oh will you just let that go already." The man said as he wanted to change the subject. "Seems I came in too late seeing as the office was wrecked."
Hearing this made Batman remember what happened earlier and quickly turn to Vanitas and spoke. "Have you seen Two Face?"
"No, I'm sorry on that Bats."
Batman respond well to that as he started walking down the hallway so that he could get back to his motorcycle to keep on searching for Harvey. On the way over there, he looked down into his hand and opened it up to see a matchcase with the 2 of Hearts printed on it. In a brief moment, Vanitas saw the case as well, making him guess that he got it from either of the twins or Harvey himself.
-On the Streets-
The getaway car containing Sakon, Ukon and 'Two Face' Dent was calmly going down the streets of Gotham so that nothing could be drawn towards them. Whether it being the police, citizens, Batman or Vanitas. Eventually the group stopped at a red light when the small silence was broken by one of the twins.
"Wait until the police get a load of this stuff." Sakon said as he rode shotgun while Ukon drove the vehicle. "It's even got his Cayman Island and Swiss Bank accounts in here."
"Nice."
As this little chatter was going on, Harvey was blankly looking around through the passenger window when his eyes glanced upon something. Something that made his eyes slowly widen and start to well up a little in tears with his left eye already shredded them: a wedding shop. He didn't know what was going on, but he saw himself and Grace replace the mannequins on display in a wedding ceremony scene. Envisioning himself and his beloved fiance saying their vows and placing their wedding bands into the other's hands before sealing things with a kiss.
The little scene playing through his head started to end as the car was starting to move forward to turn around the corner. Shaking out of his stupor, Harvey soon told Ukon to pull the car over. Following his boss' sudden order, the driver did so as the scarred lawyer pulled out his coin and flipped it into the air.
-Grace Lamont's Apartment-
*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*
Grace was in the kitchen getting something to drink when the phone started to go off. She wasn't expecting any calls that she could think of and it's just been a tiresome day so far, or rather a tiresome few weeks. Crying throughout most days and nights, having her mind feel depleted after a long day at work with both her work tasks and worries plaguing it. She just wished that things could be over and her worries put to rest.
*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*
"I'm coming." She said towards the phone as she walked over towards it before picking it up to answer the call. "Hello? Grace Lamont speaking."
There was no indefinite response on the line as the silence seemed to pass for several moments. With how exhausted and tired she was for the day Grace seemed to get a little upset at this and spoke out. "If this is a wrong number, then I'm sorry you dialed it wrong. But if this is a prank call, then I'm not happy on what you're doing." She said as she was going to hang up the phone when a voice spoke from the other end.
"Grace?"
This made her pause as the voice was really familiar to her. Her eyes started to well up in tears as her breath felt caught up in her throat along with her hands seemingly shook a little. The only thing that she could say didn't filter through her mind as it came out instinctively. "H-Harvey? I-Is that you?"
"Yes Grace. It's me."
Once getting the confirmation, her legs gave out as she fell onto the nearby couch for support. Just hearing his voice made her heart quake in joy. As a result, she started to sob a little as she couldn't contain it any longer with her tears starting to finally shed.
"Grace," he said in a sorrowed tone, "I'm sorry that I haven't seen you."
"Harvey…. Where are you?" Grace spoke out as she wanted to see him so badly. To at least have him hold her in comfort and for her to be with him again. "Please. I want to see you honey. I miss you so much."
"I want to see you too dear." Harvey said as Grace could hear it cracking a little making her know that was truly upset as well. "No. Not want. I need to see you."
"Yes! Yes of course!" She cried out in joy. "Where Harvey and I'll come on over as soon as I can."
"Look out of your window Grace." He said, getting her to comply on the slight request. Once pulling the curtain back a little, she saw a car parked on the empty street. "The men in the car will bring you to me. They won't lay a hand on you, but I swear if they do-"
"I-I understand what you're saying Harvey and I'm sure they won't." She spoke into the phone as her eyes soon landed upon the device detective Leopold gave to her earlier this morning. The blonde lawyer picked it up and didn't know what to do with it now, but she needed to say something. "Harvey…. No matter what happens, you know that I always love you right?"
"...I'll see you soon Grace." Was all that was said before the line went dead.
Once hanging up the phone she immediately grabbed her coat and went out of the door as she activated the device before placing it in her purse. With nothing else but seeing her beloved fiance, nothing else seemed to come to the forefront of her mind. But of course, she would end up forgetting the promise she had made to a certain publisher this morning for her to call him if anything came up.
-Meanwhile, Rupert Thorne's Office-
"HE DID WHAT?!" Rupert Thorne yelled out as he was starting to go red in the face in anger. Without anything else being spoken, the crime lord started pulling on the phone connection to the wall until it broke free and threw the device to the other side of the room. "DAMN THAT SON OF A BITCH!"
"Cool your jets boss." One of the thugs said as he tried to get his boss to calm down.
"I don't want to hear it!" Thorne said as he slammed his fists onto the table. "If he brings those files to the police, then I'm completely ruined! We need to stop him now!"
"But how boss, we don't even know where the guy is." Another thug said before a sound started to fill the air.
*Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep*
"What the hell is that?" A thug said as he pulled out his gun on instinct.
"That would be my insurance policy." Candice said as she pulled out her device from her purse.
"What insurance policy?" Her boss asked as she gave him an ever present smirk on her lips.
-Wild Deuce Club-
It was rather odd that it started to rain suddenly during the drive over to Harvey's residence, but it didn't matter to Grace as she kept her mind focused on seeing him after so long. Once pulling to the side of the road, the twins got out of the car and opened her door with an umbrella on hand.
"Thank you Ukon."
"I'm Sakon, he's Ukon." The twin said as his brother went to the door of the abandoned establishment and unlocked the door.
"I'm sorry." She apologized, but the twin waved her off.
"It's fine Miss Lamont. We do this all the time to confuse everyone so we're used to it." Sakon said as he helped get the blonde inside. "Right this way ma'am. Harvey's been waiting."
"Thank you two for bringing me here."
"You're welcome." They both said as they got inside, out of the rain. Once inside from the dry rain, Ukon had then locked the door behind them to be sure that no one would get in that easily.
"He's right in there ma'am." "We can take your belongings if you want." Both of them said to her which she started to take off her coat and handed it to one of the twins.
Once passing through the doors, she was greeted with an odd sight with one half of the large room being carefully groomed, neat and organized while the other is violently destroyed with the dark atmosphere of destroyed floorboards, carpet and tables. After scanning the room, she wondered where her beloved Harvey was located. It wasn't long as she saw the door at the far side of the room open up showing Harvey walking through it. Upon closer inspection, Grace saw that part of his face was covered up with a sheet with an eyehole cut out for him to see her.
"Hello Grace." He said to her with his kind, gentle voice.
"H-Harvey." She said as she slowly walked up to him with a growing smile on her face. She was going to hug him, but when she was within arm's length he stopped her. "W-What's wrong."
"I'm not Harvey anymore Grace. It's Two Face now." He said, getting her to shake off the odd growling voice coming from him.
"No Harvey, it's not. Your name is Harvey Dent, the man that I love. A man that is a big part of my world." Grace said to him. He shook his head towards her in response to this.
"I'm sorry to say this, but this is my world now." Two Face stated as he gestured her the oddly designed room. "A world of order and chaos. Just like me."
"Harvey," she said to him with a look that made her think he was crazy, "what happened to your mind? Your feelings? You used to listen to your feelings."
Nothing immediate was said as the man she still loves pulled out a coin from his pocket and started to flip it in the air. "This is what I listen to now: chance. Chance is everything I listen to now Grace. Whether you are born or not. Whether you live or die. Whether you're good or bad." He said to her before he stopped playing with his coin. "It's all obertrarie."
"That's complete and utter nonsense Harvey!" She said to him with a raised voice. "Was it chance that made you district attorney?! Was it chance that we had met?! Was it chance that made you fall in love with me and me with you?!"
"G-Grace I-" "Please. Just take control of your life Harvey. You don't need a coin." She interrupted him as she grabbed his scarred hand and brought it to her face. He trembled in the process but kept it in. "You don't need this mask either."
"Grace, don't." He said to her, making her stop from taking off the sheet. "I-I don't want you to see."
"Harvey…. You know you never had to hide anything from me." She told him as she brought her hand to the sheet and slowly took it off, to reveal his damaged face to her. "I love you Harvey Dent, no matter what has happened to you."
Just hearing all of that made him start to shed tears as he started to choke and sob a little. He even started to smile as he brought his hands around her face. "Grace. I… I…"
*Bang* "Boss!" One of the twins called out with the other following him into the room.
"What is it?!" Harvey yelled out as he was going to berate him for ruining this moment.
"You two need to go now!" The other twin said before he was shot from behind and stumbled onto the ground holding his leg with his brother doing the same.
"Fuck you, you son of a bitch." One of the twins said before a thug came on through the door and kicked both of the twin's heads to knock them out.
"Oh shut up." The man said before he ushered the other thugs to enter the room and surrounded the couple.
"So…. This is where you have been hiding Dent." Thorne said as he calmly walked into the room. "We finally meet at last. Face, to face, to face."
Grace didn't know what was going on and how Rupert Thorne found them. Her eyes went around in confusion before her eyes landed upon a familiar face. "You?!"
"Hello Miss Lamont." Candice said as she walked closer to the blonde.
"Grace? What's going on?" Two Face asked seeing his love's face drain of all color.
"You did well to lead us right to him Grace." The secretary said as she grabbed Grace's purse and pulled out the tracking device.
"Grace?!" Harvey questioned in shock as her eyes were welling up in tears with her shaking like a leaf.
"You should know that she thought she was leading the police here." Thorne said with a growing smile on his face. "She thought that she could save you."
"Harvey. I'm so sorry. You have to believe me." Grace said to him as she hugged him to try and make him know that she didn't mean it. In response, Two Face broke the embrace and turned her back to her, making her silently cry on the action.
"So much on control. Huh Grace." He said to her as Thorne actioned for his goons to search the place for what he came for. It took a while as each thug went through every nook and cranny to find the file, even went through the safe kept in the one large room, but it was nowhere in sight.
"Can't find that file of yours boss." One thug said as he placed the wooden tray of silver dollars onto the nearby table.
"Oh I know that file is here alright." Thorne said as he glared at the man that has ruined him these past weeks. "Now where is it?!"
"Not a chance asshole." The scarred man growled out. Thorne still glared at him before turning his attention towards the blonde woman in the room. "NO! DON'T YOU DARE!" He tried to reach her but the thugs came up from behind and grabbed the man by the arms to keep him in place. "GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!"
*Chuckles* "My oh my." Rupert said as he came up to the scared blonde as she tried to back away from the crime lord. "You've got a such a pretty face. Would hate to see it all messed up."
"GET YOUR DISGUSTING HANDS OFF OF HER!" Harvey yelled out as he tried to get free.
"Then give me the file Dent."
Nothing was said as Harvey 'Two Face' looked at the love of his life before hanging his head downwards and motioned that he'll comply. The thugs let go of him before the scarred man went to the roulette table and opened up a hidden compartment to retrieve the file in question.
"Here's your stinking file." Harvey said as he handed it towards the crime lord. The man opened it up and started to inspect it to see if it was the real deal or not.
"This is genuine. Even has my lawyer's handwriting. Hard to possibly copy that." Thorne stated as he closed the file. "Get rid of them."
"But you said-" Harvey growled out as several guns were quickly aimed towards him with Grace pushed towards the side.
*Chuckles* "You'd think that I would let you two live after all of the mess you caused me Dent. No, I'm going to have you both killed."
"I suggest the ugly boyfriend should die first." One of the thugs said as he came closer to the scarred man. He was going to fire, but a figure dropped from above and kicked him onto the ground to render him unconscious.
"Not today assholes." Vanitas said as he dashed towards the nearby thug. At this sudden action, several thugs aimed their weapons at the arrived hero only for smoke pellets to explode underneath them and a figure came from it to attack them.
"Shit it's Batman!" One thug said before he was punched by said man.
"This is the last time you messed with me Batman." Thorne said as he grabbed the fallen assault rifle and aimed it towards the hero. He was about to open fire, but Two Face came from behind and kicked his leg in to end up having the crime lord shoot the hanging chandelier. With the hanging support damaged, it came crashing down and collapsed onto the crime lord, capturing him in it's metal embrace.
With the downed Two Face, several thugs tried to dog pile the scarred man but Vanitas and Batman pulled them out of the way and threw them into the other thugs before making quick work with them. Once Harvey got up from his place on the floor, he decided to join in on the fighting to take care of Thorne's men for some displaced aggression. During the scuffle, Batman started to hold onto his injured side as his ribs were starting to get to him. That momentary distraction costed him with a thug knocking him onto the ground and was about to shoot him if it wasn't for Vanitas' intervention on knocking the weapon out of the man's hand before knocking him out.
"Thanks." The Bat said as Vanitas held out a hand for him to grab ahold of.
"No problem." The masked Uzumaki simply said before going to another one of the thugs.
As this was going on, Harvey was dodging and evading several punches and kicks from several thugs. Without him knowing, Candice was coming up from behind with a vase in her hands to knock the scarred man out. She would've succeeded if someone didn't pull her hair from behind.
"You fucking bitch!" Grace said as she pulled the dark haired woman to the side. "You tricked me by playing with my feelings!" Nothing else was said as Grace kicked the woman from behind to send her crashing to the nearby wall to drop the vase overhead. The piece of pottery crashed onto her head and with the impact, it ended up knocking her out. "Damn that felt good." She said before seeing Batman holding his side and went to him to help support the hero.
It didn't take much longer for the remaining thugs to be subdued. When everything had calmed down, Two Face grabbed ahold of one of the thugs' weapons and aimed it towards the trapped Thorne.
"N-No! Please don't!" The downed crime lord pleaded as he didn't want to die this way."
"Shut up!" The scarred man yelled out with the weapon still aimed towards him.
"Don't do this Harvey!" Pleaded the masked publisher as Grace and Batman looked onward to see what was going on.
"What are you doing?!" The blonde lawyer asked.
"Taking control of my life." Harvey said as he glared daggers at Rupert Thorne. "He took away my life, so I'm taking away his."
"Let the law handle this Harvey." Batman said getting Two Face to look at him with a snarl.
"The Law?!" He said as he pulled out his damaged coin. "This is the only law I follow. The law of averages. The great equalizer." As the scarred man said this, he flipped the coin into the air to do his next course of action on Thorne's fate.
When it came tumbling down, Batman saw the nearby wooden tray of silver dollars and threw the container to mix those coins with Two Face's.
"NOOOO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Two face cried out as the coins laid on the ground. "My coin! Where is my coin?! Where is it?! I can't decide without it!" He said as he was running his hands through the coins in hopes of finding it while screaming out in the process.
As this went on Grace had to turn her head away from the event happening before her as she didn't want to see her love be this way. Harvey was crying out in frustration during this whole process, thus getting Grace to let go of Batman to come towards her love. The hero stumbled a little but Vanitas came up and grabbed his side to help support him.
"It's alright now Harvey." Grace said to the scarred man as she brought him into a hug. "I'm here. I'm here."
It wasn't long until the police started to arrive due to Vanitas calling them ahead when he got to the building earlier. Thorne and his men were in handcuffs and were escorted into the police vans. The ambulances showed up as well to help take Sakon and Ukon to the hospital with their wrists handcuffed to the stretchers so they won't escape custody. Soon Harvey was escorted out of the building with Grace holding one of his arms with a doctor in an Arkham Asylum uniform to get him into another car to head towards the mental institution.
"Poor Harvey. So filled up with anger for all these years." Gordon said as he watched the scene before him. "Do you two think that there is any hope?"
"Where there's hope, there's love Commissioner." Vanitas said as Batman walked towards the nearby fountain and held out a coin in his hand. But not just any coin, Harvey's coin. The Dark Knight flipped it into the air before he spoke out.
"But a little bit of luck wouldn't hurt." The bat themed hero turned away as the coin landed face up in the water as both heroes silently prayed that their friend will be saved.
-Unknown Location-
Search lights were present in the sky as they moved across the various surfaces in the darkened night. Roaming around in spotting anything out of the ordinary asides from the various guards doing their patrols. After one of the search lights went past a certain point, a figure then ran out from the shadows to get to the next point of coverage.
It zipped through cover to cover in the open area before getting inside of the compound before knocking out one of the guards and taking his keys to get further into the building. Watching for any guard and security camera present, the mysterious figure kept on moving towards his objective.
The person eventually made it to the security room and looked for what he was looking for before typing several commands to turn off the security camera in front of one particular cell. Before leaving the room, he grabbed a device from the nearby table before going to his destination. Once left the room, he quickly made his way towards his destination to see the man in the cell loudly snoring.
"Seems that after you left, you let yourself go." The person outside of the cell said getting the snoring to stop.
"Oh I haven't let myself go. It's just a force of habit of snoring in front of guards checking up on me. Trying to pull a Ferris Bueler here without a mannequin to buy out the act." The person said as he got up from the cot before seeing the person he was speaking with. "Oh… It's you monkey butt."
"I'm not talking about the snoring habit you idiot. I'm talking about you breaking out of here." The now revealed monkey themed assassin stated making the person in the cell roll his eyes.
"No shit Sherlock. I knew what you were talking about."
"Then why haven't you broken out before."
"Well this collar on me for starters." The man said as he gestured the collar around his neck. "If you forgot, a lot of my skills were based around my powers."
"Then why not use your other skills acquired from the league?"
"This place is so tight that it could've rivaled a tight virgin asshole you prick." The man said with a slight growl towards Silver Monkey. "During the times I've been let out of the cell to do my 'recess time', there were guards everywhere with those fucking remotes of them just in case if I tried to escape. Even watching me and strip searching me whenever I get out of a certain room if I tried to smuggle something out."
This made the assassin to hum at this before chuckling a little bit. "Seems that this place is good enough to actually do that now."
*Sigh* "Tell me about it. Missed those days where most prisons didn't have the power dampening crap so that it'll make things easier to escape."
"Well tonight's your lucky night. I'm here to get you out." Silver Monkey said as he unlocked the cell getting the person inside to raise an eyebrow at him.
"Why the fuck would you want to do that? Since I left the league, no one has bothered to come and get me. Figured that Ra's didn't want to deal with me anymore and hoped I get killed off on my own."
"Oh trust me, he still has that mindset."
"Then why bust me out monkey nuts?"
Ignoring the usual jib against him, due to him being used to the man for several years, he opened up the cell before entering it. "I have a proposition for you."
"Which would be what exactly?"
"Have you heard about the new hero in Gotham?"
"That Vanitas character I heard on the news? Yeah I have." The person said before growing a cocky smirk. "You have the hots for him or something?"
"No. He's the reason why I'm getting you out and before you ask, no. Ra's or Shiva doesn't know I'm doing this."
"Okay. I'm confused."
"I want to get back at him for what he did on my last assignment. Both him and Batman. Normally I would be fine taking care of the Bat, but with that metahuman in Gotham will make things difficult. So I'm here to get you to help even out the playing field."
"And what would I get if I help you out on this?" The man asked getting Silver Monkey to chuckle a little.
"Why getting my help on killing the man that helped get you in here of course." Qarrad Alfidd said getting the man to flinch at the man before snarling a little. "He humiliated you on your attempt to kill him for glory and getting more contracts. A simple celebrity that somehow bested a trained meta-assassin of the league. So if you help me on getting rid of Batman and Vanitas, then I'll help you get rid of Naruto Uzumaki."
Hearing this, the man in question stepped closer to reveal himself as a familiar blonde haired assassin with months of facial growth on his face with a more shaggier hair. Silver Monkey then pulled out the device on his hand and aimed it towards the man to deactivate the power dampeners. Once they were fully deactivated, the man started to chuckle a little as his power coursed through his system after these past months.
"You got yourself a deal Silver Monkey." Minato 'Hiraishin' Namikaze said with a growing smirk coming from his lips and exited the cell so both would leave the prison.
If the blonde assassin had bothered to look back at the man who got him out, he would've seen a faint green glow coming from the mask's eye holes before they faded away in the darkness.