Inside of a darkened room, a small pedestal was situated with a light casted upon it. On top of said pedestal, a ballerina effigy was dancing to the music box tune being played inside of her snowing glass dome. While the figure inside looked beautiful, the music playing seemed to depict a saddened tune to make one wonder who would choose such a thing.
"This is how I will always remember you." An electronic voice called out from the darkness. "Surrounded by winter, forever young…. Forever beautiful." Soon a metallic, gloved hand reached into the light and placed it's palm against the glass in a caring fashion. Not wanting to break the glass with how fragile it might've been. "Rest well my love, for the monster who took you from me will soon learn that revenge is a dish… best served cold."
-Batcave-
"In the midst of the hottest June day on record, a rash of bizarre cold related crimes have chilled Gotham to the bone." Summer Gleeson said as she walked through a snow covered crime scene. "And once again the target is a GothCorp facility. Attacked by an assailant wielding, to which witnesses called, a freezing gun. The attacker's motives are unclear; but we have spoken with GothCorp CEO, Ferris Boyle, who offered these comments."
The news report soon switched towards Ferris Boyle in his office for the brief interview. "I have no idea what this person has against GothCorp, but we've always looked upon ourselves as 'the People Company'. If this man has a problem, then we are willing to listen."
It soon cut back to Summer, who was currently patting her face with a handkerchief due to the hot weather outside. Though she seemed to be a bit oblivious to see a handful of kids playing in the snow to cool themselves off while a security guard tries to get them to leave, but fails every time. "A heartfelt plea from the chairman of GothCorp, 'the People Company'. So this is Summer Gleeson of Gotham Insider signing out."
Once the news report ended, the monitor was switched back to the standard desktop on the batcomputer. From there, Batman's fingers flew across the keyboard to pull up several schematics of the stolen GothCorp property. When they fully appeared onto his screen, Alfred walked up towards his costumed charge with a mild interest in his eyes.
"Taking up video games, are we sir?" The Wayne butler asked in an amused tone with a cane on hand to help steady himself. "I wouldn't imagine Master Dick to have rubbed off one of his pastimes onto you Master Bruce."
Batman could only chuckle a little on his old friend trying to lighten his spirits as of late. But it can only go so far with what happened. "I accessed police files on the GothCorp raids and these are the stolen objects."
"I'm guessing that just by themselves aren't worth much to anything. Let alone on their appearances."
"Right. But if you put them into this reconfiguration..." Batman started out before he typed through a series of commands to rearrange and combine the schematics to form what appeared to be a giant gun or cannon. Upon the sight on the screen, Alfred could only mutter in worry on what the device might do.
"My word."
"They combine into a weapon that emits intense cold. Large enough to possibly become a city-wide threat if left unchecked." The Dark Knight said before he rubbed his 5 o'clock shadow underneath his cowl. "But there is only one component left to complete this weapon and only one GothCorp plant makes it."
"To which the perpetrators will strike in the cover of night, as per usual M.O." Alfred stated as he got closer to the costumed billionaire. "And this means you should properly rest this time until you go out and stop this cold related theft."
Bruce mostly ignored the former British agent as he started to type away to get back onto a previous case he was working on: the death of Bethanie Ravencroft. Alfred could only sigh in a mixture of frustration and worry towards his old charge. He'd been like this for at least a week and it was starting to show onto the dark haired billionaire. With the days of not properly shaving, the eye bags to show lack of sleep and the deeper drive to get a case done.
When police have found the bruised corpse in an alleyway, several blocks away from her apartment building, they were dealing with a mugging gone wrong. Some of Bethanie's neighbors stated that she tends to walk around on her own; within a certain block radius, while beyond that the blonde would either take a taxi or use her car. So the good doctor had been unfortunate on coming across a certain place at a certain time.
The police were able to track down her possible killer, due to fingerprints from the knife the perp used on the slashes and stab wounds. They were able to find the man holled up in his apartment and was found dead with him overdosed on drugs. To help more on the claim, the man had Bethanie's purse on the side with the money cleaned out to be used for said drugs. It pretty much ended as an open and shut case, but not for Batman…
When Bruce heard of the murder, he delved deep into the search to find out the cause of the whole mess. Going through many scenarios to possibly figure out if there was more to this than from public knowledge. Batman knew that something seemed fishy on the details, but he couldn't fully pin it. With the murder weapon, he thought there were some irregularities on the cuts and stab wounds. Even with the small motive of death, he could only think of one possible suspect to have done this: Magpie.
Batman went to see if she was involved, due to her being the mostly likely subject in wanting to kill Bethanie for what she'd done to the crazed woman. But when going into Arkham to see if there was any proof of her involvement, Magpie had the alibi of being in her cell all night long. So with that out of the way, Bruce went onward with his personal assignment to bring Bethanie's killer to justice.
Alfred could sigh as he walked towards the stairs to get back to the study room above. Taking a bit of time getting back up due to his injured foot with one thought passing through his mind. The Wayne butler hoped that this case of his won't drive Bruce forward and fall into the abyss.
-On the Streets-
"Man… This heat is getting unbearable." Naruto muttered as he walked beside Pamela with Rachel while Harley was roller blading some feet away, but at a close distance. He was currently wearing an orange short sleeve, button up with khaki shorts and shoes while patting his face away of the sweat with a bandana. Even had a backpack on carrying several bottles of water and their lunches for the day. "I don't know if the sun will kill me or not with this heat."
"You're over exaggerating honey." Pamela said as she wore a blue short sleeve, button up with a regular pair of jean shorts and sandals. "I am actually quite enjoying this heat."
"With the sun actually loving you."
"Exactly."
"Then again your part plant." He said with an eye roll. "So yeah have fun soaking up the sun and be all energetic while I die from exhaustion."
*Giggle* "Will do." She responded before looking down towards the young ward. "Though are you doing alright Rachel? Do you need another ice cream cone?"
"Nah-uh." The purplette responded as she finished up the last of her cone. She was currently wearing a light yellow sundress with a white belt and a pair of sandals. "Though I would like some more water."
"That's fine kiddo," Naruto said as he pulled out a water bottle from his bag. "Here you go."
"Thank you."
As the young ward was drinking her water, she was reflecting back on what was going on for the day. She and her primary guardian, Naruto, had to go to child services for a monthly meeting to see how things were doing well in the Uzumaki household… well technically loft. Pamela came along for her input on things, due to her living in the loft; and Harley was completely bored at her place so she wanted to spend the day with them. Selina couldn't come along due to her being out of town with Shizune for work and wouldn't be back till sometime next week.
The meeting turned out well, like the last one, but a certain topic came up pertaining her education. With grade school starting up in mid-late August or early September, depending on which school district Rachel gets assigned to, she'll need to attend to show additional progress on her stay with Naruto. To properly prepare her, Rachel will need to come back in another weeks time to do testing on what her education level currently is and place her in said grade level when school is coming closer in the fall.
This did make the purplette nervous; but when Harley heard of this, she promised to use some of her free time to help tutor her third favorite kid in her life (first and second were Jade and Artemis). Though not as enthusiastic as the changed blonde, Naruto and Pamela promised Rachel that they'll help the young ward prepare for the coming test so she wouldn't be so nervous and whatnot. So after the meeting, the four went out to see what they can do for the day with how nice it was outside, despite how hot it was.
During the walk throughout Gotham, Rachel also thought back on the other things in her life a the present time. Even after the topic of school coming up, Rachel was feeling scared on what was going to happen to her when she attended school. Would she make friends or will she be all alone by herself just like when she was at her previous home? Would she be able to go to the same school as Artemis and Jade? Would her powers act up like back at the previous school she attended?
Ah… yes… her powers, Rachel almost forgot her powers… of the magical variety. The young ward has never mentioned and used her powers once since she unintentionally left her previous home. It was mostly out of fear on what others might think of her when she uses her powers, even though the people she's currently living with have powers of their own they might think differently about it, but it was primarily out of him finding her. Rachel would shudder at times when that thought crosses her mind, so she tries to not think of it at all.
But even then, Rachel was pretty limited on her skill in the magic arts due to her previous teachers hardly helping her at all. Fearing if they do teach her well enough, she might become too strong for them to handle and she'd possibly assist him in harming others. So they would only teach Rachel either the bare minimum or hardly anything at all. Though the only thing they truly taught her was controlling and suppressing her emotions so he would have a harder time in finding her.
'I just hope that this new school can teach me more on what I really need now that I'm here instead of there.' The ashen child thought while she nervously played with part of her dress. Rachel was brought out of her musings when Pamela pulled her back a bit.
"Harley!" Pam scolded towards her friend. "You almost ran over Rachel!"
"Sorry Red, but these skates aren't all that great on the breaks." The changed psychologist said in an apologetic tone. She was currently wearing a white sleeveless, button up shirt with the bottom tied into a knot to show off her toned stomach and unintentionally pushing up her breasts. There was also a pair of red short-shorts to show off her long toned legs, which ended with a pair of white rollerblades. She also had a white purse around her shoulder with her hair tied into high pigtails. To finish off her appearance was her sprayed on skin tone so she could try and look natural in public.
"Well you should've done a better job doing so." The botanist said with a narrowed glance before looking back at Rachel with a worried look. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine Pam." Rachel said to reassure her elder housemate. "I was just distracted, that's all."
The redhead could only raise a brow on the answer, but shortly replied back to the child with a question. "By what exactly?"
"Just different things really. Nothing to really worry about."
"...If you say so."
"So asides from me almost running into Rachel, you still didn't answer my question Red."
"Which was what exactly? I was a little distracted in being sure my cute little housemate wasn't run over by you." The Green champion said while hugging Rachel close and rubbing her cheek against the young child. This got said child all fussy and tried to pull away, but the older woman was a bit strong on the hold.
"Whatever you say Red." Was all Harley could say with an eye roll before she asked her question again. "So you turn in your thesis paper yet? The one for the botanical garden position?"
"Yeah, I was wondering about that as well Pam." Naruto said as he pulled out another water bottle from his backpack for not just himself, but for his girlfriends as well. "You've been putting a lot of work into that for a while now."
"I have and yes, I have turned it in. *Sigh* Now I just need to wait for their response if they'll hire me."
"And what was your thesis paper about anyways?"
Turning towards her the young ward, Pam responded back with a small smile. "Something that might be a bit hard for you to understand Rachel, but it's something that'll hopefully help improve the relationships between plant and animal life." 'And possibly even more than that.'
"...Okay." Short was the answer given since the child would have possibly agreed on not wanting to know on the big sciency stuff. If it was in the field of magic, then she'd be more than happy to learn more on it. But for now she'll settle with what she got.
"Enough about me Harley, let's talk about you now."
"Say what now?" Harley asked as she tried to stop herself from tripping over via skate crashing.
"Since you've brought up work, how are things on your end Harl?"
Regaining her balance, with a bit of help from her puddin, Harley spoke up while skating alongside them. "It's been doing alright for the most part. Routine sessions here and there, lots and lots of paperwork, the usual."
"Really?" The publisher asked as he casually walked with his precious companions. "Nothing else asides from those?"
"...Well~ There is one person that tries to make things interesting at Arkham."
"And who would that be?"
"He goes by Hugo Strange." Harley replied as she kept her eyes on the sidewalk. "Transferred from Blackgate due to what happened on the Joker Breakout. He does well on his job to try and keep things afloat until we can get back to a full staff."
"I'm sensing a 'but' coming." Naruto added in, making the changed blonde sigh a little.
"But there seems something strange about him that I can't quite put it…. Heh… Strange." The blonde said with a snort for her unintentional joke.
"You're not the only one Harl." Pam said towards backing up her friend's claim. "The last time I came on by for my 'parole' meeting with Joan, ended up chatting with the man. And I agree… something seemed odd about him."
"Like what?"
"It is pretty hard to tell with how he talks, but there seems to be something behind all of that and I can't quite place it."
"You want me to check on him?" The Uzumaki suggested, but only got a negative response in return.
"It's probably nothing puddin, but if something comes up I'll give you the go ahead. Okay?~"
"That's fine."
"Great!" Harley enthusiastically said before she saw her boyfriend stop dead in his tracks. "Puddin? Is something wrong?"
He didn't say anything and this concerned not only her, but also Rachel and Pam. The three were confused in what was going on, but soon turned their heads towards where Naruto was facing. It was a painted ladies house with a faded blue paint job on the exterior of the building. It seemed pretty homey for the most part from what the girls can see from across the street, but something about it seemed to get Naruto to walk towards it. Not wanting to be left behind, the three girls went after him with caution so they wouldn't get hit by any cars.
"Is something wrong puddin?" Harley asked as she didn't get a response at all. All he did was going towards the one building before coming to a full stop right in front of it. "Okay… I know this is a nice house and all, but what's so important that you had to literally go jaywalking with dozens of cars going through this street buster?!"
"Harl please." Pam said as she tried to calm down her friend, but also wondered the same question as well.
"I lived here."
"What?" Pam and Harley asked while Rachel gained a questioning look on her face.
Naruto walked up the steps of the home and traced his fingers on the numbered address on the wall. Then traveled towards the mailbox by the door with a small sense of nostalgia filling his very being. "I used to live here when I first came into Gotham."
-Flashback, Five Years Ago-
*Sigh* "Why can't I find a good place to live in this kami-forsaken city?" Naruto asked as he strolled through one of the many streets of Gotham. "That was the ninth place I went to and it was really, falsely advertised."
He moved into Gotham just a week ago and was currently staying at a hotel building until he can find a good place to live at while getting his company up and running. The majority of his belongings were currently in Metropolis, all nicely packed up and ready to ship out, but asked Lois and Cat to hold onto them until he got a nice roof over his head. They were nice to hold onto them, even though they wanted him to stay in the city.
So a bit after coming into Gotham, to start up his idea of a publishing company, he went out and checked various places available. There were many on the advertisements he found at the newspaper stands, some big and some small, but Naruto had filtered through a lot on his current price range. Once that was done, the silver haired male went out to go apartment window shopping and it seemed fine... at first.
Naruto called and set up several appointments, while others were just plain walk-ins, to see the conditions on the various available residences. The first, promising handfuls ended up having him on a waiting list to see if the owners would get him to end up taking him in, but he knew it'll take too long and very unlikely for him to nab the place. The next few were okay at best, but the occupants for the shared apartment were a combined mixture of annoying and stressful to possibly deal with. The last handfuls were not pleasant at all with the conditions were absolutely horrid.
"Why did that last place not get properly cleaned up by the time I got over there?" Grumbled the former shinobi as he ran his hand through his hair. "I swear it smelled so badly and must've stung my eyes that I had to run out of that place. *Groan* Not only that, but it was a total dump. Made me think of one of those home meth labs I ran into with Cat and Lois for that one assignment."
As he was in his personal musings, he accidentally knocked over a woman that was carrying two large bags of groceries.
"Gah!" The woman cried out as she fell down with most of her purchased goods fell onto the sidewalk.
"Oh kami I'm so sorry." Naruto apologetically stated as he went down to the ground and checked to see her condition. "Are you alright?"
"Yes I am. Thank you." The woman mumbled as she rubbed her head on the recent ache. "I just couldn't see where I was properly going. *Sigh* Shouldn't get the big loads anymore or else I might end up in something worse.
Feeling a little satisfied on the woman's condition, he went to pick up the scattered groceries to try and make up on what he unintentionally did. It took a few minutes, but everything seemed to be good without anything being broken at all. Without telling her, the Uzumaki grabbed one of the large bags and held it close to his chest.
"Let me help you out and get these back to your place ma'am. It's the least I can do." He said as he soon took a good look at her. She was a mid-back length blonde woman with darkened eyes that seemed to hold a lot of happiness. She was about half a head shorter than him in terms of height with her being in her late 20's/early 30's. Asides from her physical appearance, she wore a pair of pants with a dark green sweater.
She was hesitant on the offer, but she struggled a little on carrying the two bags and her arms were hurting a little. "Okay, you can help me out till I get back. But no funny buisness sir or else I'm calling the police."
Naruto could only nod his head as he followed the woman towards her home. Not much was said between the two of them as they only had small talk during the several block walk. The Uzumaki learned the woman's name was Nora and she was happily married towards her husband of six years so far. For Nora she learned on what Naruto was trying to do so far, but kept the little information for herself. But overall, the conversation was pleasant enough that the two got a decent read out of the other.
By the time they arrived at Nora's home, they saw a man walk out of the front door to sign something for the delivery man before receiving a package from said man. Once the postal worker went away, the man saw Nora off to the side and gained a questioning look on his face. From there he placed the package inside before walking down the steps and came towards her.
"Eh Nora, who's this?"
"Sorry Victor, we ran into each other and Naruto here wanted to help me out to get these groceries back."
The now identified Victor nodded and turned towards the silver haired male. "Well thanks for helping out a little."
"No problem at all sir." Naruto responded back as he got a good look at who he quickly assumed to be Nora's husband. He was clearly in his early thirties and was around the whiskered male's height. His receding brown hair on top of his head with a pair of glasses to compliment his look of a tucked in polo shirt and shorts.
"Victor, are we still renting out that one room of ours?" Nora asked as Naruto ended up confused on the sudden question.
"Why yes. Why you ask dear?"
"Yeah why bring this up ma'am?"
"Well... Naruto here seems like a nice kid during our small chat walking over here. Ended up telling me his current problem and I'd thought we could kill two birds with one stone. Him renting a room from us and we ending up with some nice company."
"But are you sure about that Nora?" Victor said as he seemed worried on his wife's suggestion. "You just met him not half an hour or so ago."
"Yes I'm sure dear, but question is what about you Naruto?"
Naruto could only scratch his head, with his available arm, before replying back to them. "...I don't know on that for sure ma'am. And I agree with your husband since we have only met roughly half an hour ago." When seeing the look on her face, he could tell she won't settle down on the offer quite just yet. "But we could head inside and talk things over on what you're offering on the price range Nora."
Nora could only let out a smile that seemed infectious before she pulled the former blonde male with her husband not far behind. "Great."
-Flashback End-
"...And that was how I met my landlords." The publisher finished off retelling on how he met Nora and Victor Fries. "Lived with them for about three years before I decided to move out and into my current loft when my publishing company went really well. Been pretty good friends with them even after I moved out."
"And do they still live here?" Rachel asked as she voiced the older two woman's thoughts. She looked at the place that it seemed fine on the condition, but something seemed off about it. But their answer was soon received as Naruto sighed and shook his head 'no'.
"They… Aren't around here anymore Rachel." He somberly said as he walked down the steps. "Come on, we should probably get going."
Rachel could only stand there for a brief moment before looking up towards Pam and Harley. "What did he mean by that?"
*Sigh* "He probably means that they're gone Rachel." Pam said as Harley carefully came down the steps with her rollerblades. "They must've died sometime before I met him and this is actually the first time I'm hearing about this."
After that, the three girls went towards Naruto to try and be in better spirits after the bit of a depressing tone. They could tell that he tried to hide the bit of pain resurfacing inside of him with his joking and bright personality. But for the rest of the day the three could tell that something else was going on that Naruto wouldn't want to tell them.
-Evening, GothCorp Installation Plant-
It seemed to be quite a silent night so far. Nothing amiss in the surrounding area for the security guards to be weary of. The only thing that would occasionally pass by the company complex were some cars here and there. But with the latest string of robberies towards GothCorp, security had to be very attentive on any possible attacks.
And one is possibly happening right now, with an armored vehicle speeding towards the gate.
"Halt!" One of the guards yelled out into the megaphone as he went out to stop the vehicle. "Stand where you are!"
The demand was obviously ignored as the armored vehicle crashed through the gated entrance. Luckily none of the guards were hurt in the process as they jumped out of the way just in time. Though when they were getting back up, one of the guards pushed the other out of the way as the batmobile sped right past the two men.
The pursuit wasn't unnoticed as the thug driving the armored vehicle saw the batmobile from the side view mirror. He knew that if they tried to ignore the Bat, then their hired goal for the evening would be ruined and everyone sent to the slammer. So said driver called out towards the occupants in the vehicle.
"We got company!"
"Keep your mind on your business." An electronic voice called out from the back. "I'll handle this."
The driver complied as he kept focused on his current task. As for the one who spoke out a few moments ago, he got up from his seat in the darkened space and went towards the back of the vehicle. He opened a small window from the back door, pulled out a gun and aimed at the road below before firing. It was then that a ray emanated from the gun and once it hit the concrete road, it was soon covered with a thick layer of ice.
'The hell?!' The Bat thought from what he was seeing before his batmobile came in contact with the icy road. It caused the bat themed vehicle to swerve out of control as the hero tried to keep his ride steady. For extra good measure, he pressed a few buttons to launch a grappling hook from the back to latch onto a good, sturdy surface to hopefully slow the batmobile down. But the attempt was futile as this made things worse with the Bat's car soon crashing to a nearby wall.
Back with the armored vehicle, the top hatch opened up before the same ice gun used before fired upon the oncoming gate of the building. It wasn't long before it was covered with a thick layer of ice as the armored vehicle soon crashed right through it. With the occupants inside safe, they were soon signaled by the man who hired them to exit out and complete their task for the evening.
*BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE*
Once all of the thugs left the armored vehicle, except for the driver, the man who hired them stepped out into the light. He appeared to be in a suit of armor that had a black and silver color scheme with glowing blue lights, along with a tank strapped onto his back. In his right hand had the large ice gun that was previously used. To finish off the man's appearance, there was a glass dome that seemed foggy on the covering. But what one could make out of the man's appearance was of him being bald with palish blue skin tone and a pair of glowing red, flare goggles over his eyes.
"Load those canisters into the car." The man said in his electronic voice, clearly showing that he was the ringleader of this operation. The thugs complied as they rushed towards said objects. "Hurry before the Batman shows up."
The ringleader was watching the hired muscle doing their task to be sure everything went according to plan. As he scanned the area, he saw a pair of security guards about to open up the doors into the current room. The ringleader soon fired his weapon towards the door so they wouldn't interfere, leaving a wall of ice in the process.
"Are you done?"
"We're all set boss!" One of the thugs called out before something grabbed his shoulders and pulled him up into the air. "AAAAAHHH!"
"Shit it's the Batman!"
"Hey put me down!" The one thug cried out.
"If you insist."
And just like that, the Batman unlatched his grappling hook and the one thug fell towards the ground and onto one of the other thugs before a smoke pellet came down and exploded. In the midst of the confusion, the Dark Knight landed in the middle of a large portion of thugs and attacked them one by one. Quickly sending punches and kicks to immobilize each of the hired men. With some of the stragglers, Batman dashed towards them and dealt with them by the time the smoke cleared out.
With the thugs defeated, Batman turned his attention towards the armored ringleader. "Freeze!"
"That's Mr. Freeze to you Batman." The armored man spoke out as he clarified his identity towards the masked vigilante. Mr. Freeze then pointed his gun towards the Bat, whom responded by quickly throwing a batarang to hopefully disarm the ringleader. But this proved futile as the gun fired it's ice ray towards the thrown weapon and encasing it in an icy shell. The moment it fell onto the ground, due to the sudden addition of weight, it broke instantaneously
'That's not good.' The Bat thought since metal breaking into smaller pieces shouldn't be possible unless it was under certain conditions. And being quickly frozen from that weapon made that happen.
"This is a personal vendetta Batman." Warned the armored being with his gun still trained at the Bat. "It doesn't concern you."
"It's my concern now."
"...Since you ally yourself with my enemy, then you leave me no choice."
The man then pulled the trigger of the ice gun as the beam traveled through the air towards it's target. Batman rolled out of the way as he narrowly escaped the icy blast, which quickly curved upwards to leave a large pillar of ice. Once recovering, Batman fired his grappling gun towards the ceiling to try and hide from his opponent.
"Hiding is useless Batman." Mr. Freeze stated as he fired upon the facility's ceiling. "I have studied many of your way of combat for my eventual confrontation with you."
'I can't let that blast hit me.' Batman thought as he quickly moved through the catwalk above. 'I need to figure out on how to stop him.'
As he was trying to figure out his strategy, the Caped Crusader turned on his detective vision to try and see the varying option in the room that could help him out. He used his grappling gun and swung his way towards the other side of the room so Mr. Freeze wouldn't spot him. Batman waited his time until the ringleader was right underneath him. By the time his target was in position, Batman swooped down and delivered an ax kick onto the armored man.
"GAH!" Freeze cried out before he was assaulted by several punches that seemed to not harm him that much. Though the blow that did affect him slightly was when the Bat slammed his glass dome onto the ground to make it ring inside of it. "A slight mishap. I can change my strategies, but can you do the same?"
Freeze then fired his weapon at many high places in the room that would originally give Batman the good advantage of the higher ground and now it was useless. The hero had to quickly move out of the way as several blasts were following him, which landed against varying canisters lying about. It was at this time that several thugs were slowly getting back up.
"Shit. I don't want to be in this mess."
"Right man." One of the thugs nodded as he slowly moved towards the armored truck. "We need to be careful or else we'll get hit."
Batman was creeping against one of the larger sections of walls that hid himself from the armored man's peripheral vision. The Dark Knight does have one small advantage that the ringleader possibly doesn't know, which is his detective vision. So this piece of technology could help him out in this fight, but the question is for how long?
Just as Freeze was coming closer towards the Bat's position, the armored man spoke out. "I understand your strategies and I shall defeat them all."
'We'll see about that.' Was all Batman thought before he threw an exploding batarang at the ringleader. Like before, Mr. Freeze was caught off guard which left him wide open for an assault. Batman dashed towards Freeze and delivered several blows onto the ringleader before his attempt to get away.
"You will not escape this time." Freeze growled out before he fired his weapon.
The moment Batman moved out of the way, the ice ray impacted the legs of one of the thugs, causing him to cry out in pain.
"Johnny!" One of the thugs cried out as he tried to help his friend.
After the failed attempt on hitting the Batman, Mr. Freeze anticipated where the Dark Knight will eventually end up at. He soon fired his freeze gun towards the guessed spot, leaving an icy section on the catwalk above. The moment Batman landed on it, it gave way and made the hero fall towards the stacked canisters with a crashing thud.
Not wanting the Batman to interfere more than he has so far this evening, the ringleader fired his gun towards the spot to leave a thick layer of ice in the surrounding area. Knowing that he won't escape in time, Batman covered himself in his durable cape so he could possibly escape once the others leave. Not knowing of the Batman's plan, Mr. Freeze was satisfied with his latest action and walked towards the armored vehicle.
"Don't worry Johnny, we're getting you out of here." One of the thugs said as he tried to help his friend up.
"Leave him."
"What?!" The thug yelled out in shock. "But boss-!"
"He should've been more careful." Freeze stated as he stepped into the vehicle. "And now he's paid the price for his incompetence."
"But he's one of us!"
The ringleader soon pointed his weapon towards the one thug, causing him to back away in fear a bit with some of the others. "Then would you like to share his fate?"
Not wanting this to happen, the thugs lowered their heads and decided to leave their comrade behind. This made Johnny widen his eyes in both pain and in shock on what just happened. He tried to crawl his way towards the others and called out to them with tears in his eyes.
"P-Please! Don't leave me guys!" Johnny pleaded as he missed grabbing ahold of one of the men's legs. He tried to make it towards the armored vehicle, but the doors soon closed and the engine started up. "PLEASE! COME BACK!"
By the time the vehicle was backing out of the icy room, Batman broke out of his frozen entrapment. He struggled a few times to break free but it soon costed him on time. Since the moment he started running towards the escaping vehicle, the one thug cried out and gained the Batman's attention.
"Help! P-Please!" The man weeped as the pain was becoming too much for him.
The Bat contemplated to himself if he should go after the armored truck and see where they were going or go help the fallen thug. If he went to chase after the others, then the hero would stop whatever they were planning. But this would cause the hero to leave the thug to die from hypothermia in the process….
And Batman couldn't let that happen.
-Later, Batcave-
Alfred was coming towards a certain section of the cave where a large machine was currently active with a man inside of it. It's an experimental healing tank that Marva Cooper made at the R&D division of Wayne Industries. She stated that she was inspired of the bacta tank from the Star Wars franchise and wanted to see if it could work in real life. Using it to help accelerate healing and fix major injuries would possibly be a big boom in the medical field. But it was still in it's experimental phases so not a lot could be done until all of the kinks could be fixed.
Bruce found potential out of the device and had one installed inside of the Batcave in case of emergencies if it presented itself. And this was a good of a time as any to really use this as Batman was using said device to help heal the thug he brought in to rid of the ice on his legs. For security measures, the man was blindfolded and sedated so the injured thug wouldn't know where was at.
"I must say that I'm surprised you're showing much compassion for this poor fellow." Alfred stated as he looked around the experimental equipment. "Considering that he would've left you behind if you were in his place."
"True, but I couldn't let that happen." Bruce stated as he fully activated the machine. The generators went to full blast with electricity sparking left and right causing the liquid inside of the tank to bubble and boil. It was a steady process and the costumed billionaire couldn't rush the procedure.
"You know, with all those compartments on your belt, you'd think there would've been one for tissues or a handkerchief for that cold of yours." The butler said as he steadily walked towards his old charge with a handkerchief on hand.
*Sniff* "T-Thanks." Bruce then took the offered cloth and blew his nose into it. It was not a great feeling he was experiencing as he soon developed a cold, due to him being encased in ice in the earlier confrontation.
It was at this time that the ice encasing the poor thug's legs started to crumble due to the chemicals inside of the tank. Bruce smiled at this as it was a good success on a bit of the trial run he was doing for his R&D employee. Though he will need to do more testing when the time comes, but for now…
"AAAACHOO!"
The sound of the sneeze echoed throughout the cave, causing many bats to wake up and flutter about.
"I think you should get some rest sir after a nice hot bath." Alfred offered as he walked away slightly so he can draw Bruce said bath.
*Sniffle* "I'll get one later Alfred, but for now I need to get our unconscious guest to the GCPD. *Cough* *Cough* And after that I need to go see if I can get a meeting with Mr. Ferris Boyle."
"Which I believe will be in the morning sir." The Wayne butler added in as he really did want Bruce to get some good sleep after not only recent events, but on the murder investigation on Bethanie Ravencroft. "You've exhausted yourself quite enough and you need your rest or else you'll harm yourself without realizing it. So once you're back taking this poor chap where he belongs, you need to take your bath and go to sleep."
The caped billionaire wanted to argue and get out of the demand, but the way Alfred was staring him down reminded him of the first time he had developed a cold. It was not that great when he was a child and both his parents and butler were very adamant on him taking his medicine and rest. Bruce was fussy about it and refused several times before he got quite unwell as an end result.
Sucking up his pride, Bruce complied with his old friend's suggestion… right after he dropped off the thug since he did not want to risk the man waking up in his cave.
-Morning, GothCorp-
It was slightly cloudy throughout most of Gotham, resulting of the weather becoming rather muggy. It seemed to help on the uneasy feeling as of late for most people if they couldn't fully handle the heat. Even more so with GothCorp on the string of robberies, but they are doing what they can to keep things in a better light in the darkened mood.
When Bruce arrived at the corporate building, he was still feeling unwell due to the flu and it seemed to get a tad worse because of the current weather. Though a lot of cough syrup, cough drops and liquids helped a bit, but they can only do so far. This little bug of his won't be getting in the way with his goal in mind for the morning as he hoped this could be resolved as soon as possible.
*Ding*
The elevator opened up, to which Bruce stepped out and made his way towards the secretary desk. By the time the billionaire got closer, the stationed secretary was finishing up a phone call before looking towards the new arrival. He gave the woman one of his charming smiles to keep up his appearances so nothing would seem amiss.
"Hello there ma'am."
"Hello." The secretary responded back with a small smile. "Do you have an appointment with Mr. Boyle sir?"
"I'm afraid not, but I was wondering if there was an opened spot at the moment."
"Eh… Let me see." The secretary looked towards the schedule sheet and alligned it towards the current time before looking back up. "Well you're in luck sir. Mr. Boyle doesn't have a scheduled appointment till about half an hour from now. So I think it's good if you could go in."
"Great to hear on that."
"Though let me page him to see if he'd want to see you Mr…"
"Wayne, Bruce Wayne."
She nodded at this before picking up the phone on the desk and called Boyle's office. "...Sir. Bruce Wayne is here and he'd like to see you."
…..
"Okay, I'll let him know." She said before hanging up the phone. "He said you can go right in Mr. Wayne."
"Thank you."
When reaching the door, Bruce prepared himself for the coming meeting so that he wouldn't let anything seem out of the ordinary. Once opening the door, he was greeted with the sight of the GothCorp CEO at his desk writing through several documents. When hearing the door open, Ferris looked up and wore a smile on his face when seeing the dark haired 'playboy'.
"Well if it isn't Bruce Wayne." Ferris stated as he rose from his office chair to greet the successful billionaire. "It's been forever. How you been? Still the terror of the night scene?"
*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough* "I get around." Bruce simply answered as he walked towards one of the empty cushioned seats near the main office desk. "Speaking of terror, *Cough* *Cough* what's this I hear about someone causing trouble for your company Ferris?"
*Sigh* "Beats me. Probably some fruitcake trying to get out for me. Though I don't know why."
*Cough* *Cough* "Maybe it's an investor who lost money." Bruce suggested as he wanted to possibly probe for information on the identity of the ice themed ringleader he fought last night. "Or an angry ex-employee."
"Well… There's only one man who'd hate GothCorp that much." The CEO said in a grim tone before adding in one last detail. "If he were alive that is."
This seemed to get Bruce quite curious on this bit of information. It wasn't the first time someone could've faked their own demise and come back later for revenge. But the 'playboy' had to keep up his little act. "Who?"
"One of our scientists, an obsessed wacko if you ask me." Ferris stated as he walked back into his office chair and sat back down. "He was caught using company equipment for personal reasons. I had to send in security to shut him down. A fight occurred and an explosion that soon followed. And in the end we lost him."
*Cough* *Cough* "And what was he doing anyways?"
Ferris soon got peeved as he narrowed his eyes in disgust before responding. "Wasting company money. My money." He soon calmed down for a brief moment before getting back into a better mood. "Look, Bruce, that 'People Company' line is great PR and all, but when the wage slaves start acting like they own the place, it's time to pull the plug. Know what I mean?"
This got Bruce a little on edge and gritted his teeth, but didn't show it all that much. This man was apparently like any other company CEO that was truly corrupt one way or another. Only doing good deeds to keep up appearances for what the man could really be hiding behind the happy facade.
"I get what you mean to say Ferris."
"Good to know." The CEO said with a small smile before it went into a frown. "Though there was one little hiccup that went on shortly afterwards. A friend of my late scientist came on by and was proclaiming threats on what happened towards his departed friend."
"And who would that be?" Bruce asked since this person could give him a bit of information on what happened exactly.
"That Spiral Publishing owner Naruto Uzumaki." Ferris replied with a small sneer. He pretty much missed the slight widening of Bruce's eyes on the new piece of information.
Soon the intercom speaker on Boyle's desk went off, making the company owner press the button to answer the call. "Sir. The Humanitarian Committee is here."
Ferris pressed another button before responding back to his secretary. "Thank you for letting me know. I'll be right down as soon as possible." Once the small call ended, Ferris brought his attention back towards Bruce. "We're hosting a ceremony tonight for Gotham's Humanitarian Industrialist of the Year. *Chuckle* And guess who's winning."
"I feel ill." Bruce lowly growled out, making the GothCorp CEO look at him in confusion. "Sorry. *Cough* *Cough* I caught the summer cold due to the change of weather and working a lot lately hasn't really helped." Seemingly buying into the lie, Ferris nodded as he ushered the billionaire out of his office. "Also congrats on winning the award. I'm sure it's well deserved."
"Thanks for that Bruce and be sure to get some rest. Don't want that cold to get worse mind you."
As Bruce was going down the elevator, several thoughts were running through his mind. How was one of his friends involved with this case of his and what could've possibly happened at that time. Several more went on through by the time Bruce reached the bottom floor. When he got outside and walked towards his parked car, he spotted a familiar vehicle slowly stopping due to the current traffic.
"Is that Naruto?" Bruce muttered as he looked from his position to see the silver haired publisher glaring at the GothCorp building with a mixture of sadness and disdain. He wondered what was going on before Bruce saw his friend drive off. The billionaire tried to call him out to see if he could speak with him, but he needed answers.
-Gotham Cemetery-
"Why is he here of all places?" Bruce questioned as he parked his car some distance away and carefully walked towards the cemetery. It took a bit of effort to tail him, but he was surprised on where he was going. He had guessed that Naruto could've stopped on by to place flowers on the gravestone of Pamela's mother, but that didn't seem to be the case.
Naruto made a brief stop towards the grave marker of Thomas and Martha Wayne and placed a few roses there before patting it's side as he moved onwards. Bruce appreciated the gesture, but he shook it off as he silently moved so he wouldn't reveal his location. After some more feet away, the dark haired billionaire saw his friend standing in front of a grave marker before placing a bouquet of flowers on it.
"Sorry that I haven't been here for a while you two." The Uzumaki somberly said as he patted the top of the tombstone. "A lot has happened since I came here last and I wish I could've made time to see you more often. *Sigh* But I guess I have a lot to catch you guys up on."
'Who is he talking to?' Bruce thought as he moved around a little to try and get a better look of who was resting there.
*Sigh* "You can come out now Bruce." Naruto said as he seemed to startle his friend. "I promise that they won't bite you at all."
Seeing as his cover was blown, the Wayne moved from his position and came towards his friend. "How did you know I was here?"
"I noticed you were tailing me a while ago and the car didn't help to hide who was the driver."
"I see."
"Though why were you following me anyways?" The silver haired publisher questioned as he turned towards his friend's direction.
"I saw the look you were giving the GothCorp building as you passed by and I was wondering what got you so upset."
"And why were you there at GothCorp anyways?"
Wanting to come up with a little lie, he couldn't come up with a good one on short notice. "I was wondering about the recent string of robberies towards the GothCorp and I sought answers for anything to settle my curiosity." He said before silently pleading towards himself. 'Come on, buy it.'
Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly before they softened as he nodded his head. Bruce mentally patted himself on the back on the little success on the bought lie. With that out of the way, he turned towards the grave marker and saw that it was somewhat unkempt after god knows how long. Naruto squatted down and started to pick off some of the weeds and unkempt grass, which started to clear out more of the details of the grave markers. After a few more moments, Bruce got an eyeful on the gravemarkers details.
'Nora and Victor Fries.' He thought as he soon looked at the years on said marker. 'They died last year?'
"You're probably wondering why I'm here of all places Bruce." The publisher said as he kept pulling off the weeds with his bare hands. "And I can tell you if you'd like."
Not wanting to be rude on the gesture, Bruce spoke out towards his friend. "As much as I would like to, it's fine if you don't want to talk about it."
"Nah. It's fine really. Though to tell you the truth, I've been a bad friend on not seeing these two since last Autumn. I guess they must hate me on that, but who knows for sure."
"And who are they exactly and how do you know them?"
*Sigh* "When I first moved into Gotham five years ago, I eventually got a place to live at and these two were my landlords." Naruto said with a small smile before continuing with his explanation. "I eventually became great friends with the couple and I had a great time living underneath their roof. Playing countless chess matches with Victor while helping Nora out around the house during the time when I was getting my publishing company started up."
"And how didn't I get the chance in meeting them?"
"...Even though they were a 'people couple', they tended to keep towards themselves and within a small circle of friends and family. Takes a while to earn a place in the friend category, but I apparently got into it quite easily. And I respected their privacy enough that I didn't want to introduce them to others if they didn't want to." The publisher said as he got up from his crouched position and dusted himself off a little. "Lived with them for about three years before I moved into my loft. But even after I moved out, I would always go over there to spend time with the couple. Those were some of the nicest times I would cherish for a long time."
"And… And what happened?"
*Sigh* "Nora was getting sick after their eighth year anniversary. We didn't know what the disease was at the time, as the doctors were even baffled by the mystery. It was later called MacGregor's Syndrome to at least put a name on the disease. A genetic defect that creates fluid build up in the lungs, which leads to oxygen deprivation and multi-system organ failure. But Victor and I thought there must've been much more than just that, leading him towards hopefully finding a cure for the love of his life."
-Flashback, One Year Ago. Insert Gotham OST: Meet Nora Fries-
*Sigh* "Man Victor, you weren't kidding that you had a lot of groceries to get today." Naruto said as he helped his former landlord out on the one errand. He had come by earlier to spend time with the couple and the scientist had asked to help him out on the grocery shopping.
"Well our supplies were running low so I needed to go out sometime and restock our pantries."
"All so very true." The former tenant stated as he helped open up the front door to the Fries residence.
"I still can't thank you enough on helping us with our bills Naruto." The scientist said as he brought in the first load of groceries into the kitchen.
"It's no problem Victor and it's the least that I can do for my favorite landlords ever."
The unloading went by quickly for the two men before they made their way towards the guest bedroom where Nora was sleeping. After her being diagnosed with the rare disease, she was moved into Naruto's former room with some medical equipment to help stabilize the frail blonde woman. It was heartbreaking for the Uzumaki in seeing this happen and wished he could do more to fix their problems as he looked at the nearby table of the many empty pill bottles Nora had to consume to keep her alright.
"Hey you two." Nora weakly said as she turned her head towards the doorway. "How was shopping?"
"It was decent Nora like every other time." Her loving husband stated as he moved some strands of hair out of the way from her face.
"I was having a dream about you." She said with a small smile on her face. "We were at that little red cabin by the beach. Remember?"
"Yes…. I remember. About nine years ago." Victor said with a small smile with him remembering that fateful day. "God you looked like a movie star. Sometimes I wonder how I was so lucky into dating you in the first place."
"And I never regretted it, since it lead towards the best years of my life." Her smile soon turned into a frown as she saw the bags underneath his eyes. "You look tired dear."
"The combination of your health and that bastard Ferris breathing down his neck on projects have been keeping him away from a lot of his sleep. Though you should mostly put a lot of the blame on the later Nora." Naruto said as he came up to the ill blonde woman.
"Naruto…"
"No it's alright Victor and he's right." The wife said in a weakly stern tone. "Ferris should've laid off on all that work you've been doing. *Growl* And he says that he's a humanitarian."
The moment she stopped speaking, Nora started to harshly cough which soon panicked the two men in the room. Especially with blood coming out of her mouth.
"Shit!" Naruto said as he went towards the pill bottles. "This is too soon!"
"I know that Naruto!" Victor yelled out as he went to grab the oxygen pump. "Nora. Breathe, Nora. I'm right here. Look at me honey." He then looked at his former tenant and spoke out. "Where the hell is the formoterol?!"
"I'm looking Victor!" The Uzumaki harshly said before he was able to find some pills. "Here we are!" He then brought the pills towards Nora and placed them into her mouth. She carefully swallowed them before her husband placed the oxygen pump towards her mouth to help her breathe.
*Crying* "Oh god… That was the worst one yet." She said as she spoke through the oxygen mask.
"Nora…. That was the last set of pills." The former shinobi said, which soon alarmed the scientist. "Why did you tell us?"
*Gasping for breath* "I-I'm so sorry. I-I forgot. I have so many. God there's so many."
Victor soon grasped Nora's hand into his own and gave it a firm squeeze, but not too tight so that he wouldn't harm the light of his life. "If you have another attack and you don't have this medication, you could die. Please Nora, you can't let this happen again. You should've told us sooner."
*Sobbing* "Why… Why does it matter?"
"It matters Nora since we care very much about you and it would deeply hurt us if you were gone." Naruto stated before he moved from his position and headed out of the current room.
"And where are you going?"
Turning towards the scientist, the publisher had a determined look on his face before answering his friend's question. "I'm going out to get more of her prescription Victor. You stay here and keep an eye on her."
-Flashback End-
"...Luckily for me, the one pharmacy I went to had a sleazy worker there." Naruto recounted as he told his friend the story. "Flashed him some money for a bribe, along with a fake doctor's note, and I was able to nab their whole, available supply of formoterol."
"Isn't that illegal?" Bruce questioned with a raised brow. He felt sorry on what happened to Nora and wished he could've helped back then if he would've known about this. But he knew there was more to this story than what his friend was telling at the moment.
"For the most part yes, but I didn't want to see Nora die too soon. And there was no way in hell I was going to let Victor go to the pharmacy in that kind of mood. He would've done something drastic and could've gotten him in trouble. I mean, imagine yourself married with the love of your life practically dying. What would've you done to be sure she would be safe? I would've moved heaven and earth to see her well."
"...I can already imagine that Naruto... But what happened afterwards?"
*Sigh* "Victor was getting desperate. He proposed a project to Ferris that would've made the company a pretty penny. Victor couldn't tell me what it was, especially since I was busy for most of that time for work, but he was sure that it'll at least help prolong Nora's life. The only time Victor came to me for help was requesting some outside funding due to the original funding being cut after a certain amount of time."
"And did you?"
"You bet I did Bruce and I told him to not pay me back one cent, despite him saying he'll repay me someday. *Sigh* The last time I saw them was a day or two before their deaths and when I heard of what happened, I wanted to sue them and expose of their lack of humanity their company really had."
"And why didn't you?" Bruce questioned as he felt his friend was justified in doing what he intended to do.
"I really wanted to Bruce. I really did, but with the lack of evidence would only hurt me in the process. Didn't help when Boyle had many of his best lawyers hounding me down to drop my attempts. Now all that I have left of them are the memories of them, along with their belongings in a storage unit." Naruto said before he looked back at the grave marker he paid for with a silent conversation towards the dead.
Bruce felt sorry for his friend's loss as it truly taken a toll on him. Possibly the attacks at GothCorp brought up those memories and reopened some wounds. Who knows for sure.
"I should probably get going Naruto." Bruce said as snapped Naruto out of his thoughts. "I have things to do and I don't want to ruin any of your private time."
"That's fine Bruce... And thanks for listening. Tried to tell the girls about this, but I needed to come here first… to help clear my sorrows. Even if it's just a little bit."
The 'playboy' nodded as he made his way out of the graveyard, but not making a small stop towards his parent's gravesite so he too can pay his respects. Bruce knew he needed to gather more information on what's going on so he'll need to go to GothCorp tonight when the security is mostly laxed. Until then, he had a lot to think about and properly mourn the dead at a better time. Even with Bethanie's death for example.
-Hours Later, Unknown Location-
"...And I want to say that these… unwarranted attacks against GothCorp have no way changed our personal commitment towards the community." Ferris Boyle spoke out at the award ceremony inside of his corporate building.
"Inspirational words from the Humanitarian Industrialist of the Year. This is Summer Gleeson from Gotham Insider and we'll come back for the award ceremony tonight."
Once that was said; an icy ray impacted the TV set in a high intensity, causing it to ice over and crumble into pieces shortly after.
"Humanity…" The electronic voice of Mr. Freeze spoke out in disgust as he was sitting in a icy throne at his hideout. "Compassion. Charity. Where were those pretty words from Boyle when she needed to hear them."
The sounds of work were emanating through the lair as Freeze scanned over the work being done. The hired help he acquired were wearing weather protection so they wouldn't die from the intensive cold. Seeing that the machine he'd planned out was not fully completed, the armored man got off of his seat and went towards the thugs.
"Faster!" He called out as the thugs were a mixed bag of listening to not really giving a damn on their work speed. "The cannon must be completed tonight and I have my own warm wishes to bestow onto Mr. Boy