Chapter 6: Fear

Scared by Three Days Grace

Wayne Enterprise

We see Naruto hummed in thought as the elevator goes down and looks foward to heading home for the day after long meetings. It was tiresome but it had to be done and the blonde was fine with it as the things he has planned are going great. So it was worth it and Fox brothers were a big help in the company. Now the blonde was heading down to meet Veronica for another date/hang out.

The young man looks outside the window to see a rainstorm was happening and know it will be a long one. But for some reason and due to his training, Naruto could not help himself feel that something bad was going to happen. He can feel it was going to happen and just hope that he and his freinds are ready for it.

Meanwhile with Terry (Red Hood)

Terry or Red Hood jumped from rooftop to rooftop trying not to let the sudden rainfall mess up his balance. He quickly got to his destination. A small warehouse in one of the richer districts of neo Gotham. He had been using the detective vision and the detective scanner to hear on a few criminals conversations. One, in particular, had mentioned a warehouse in their district.

A warehouse that is was used to contain a few inventions made by a star laboratory's branch in Gotham. Red Hood climbed in through the roof hatch and descended into the warehouse. He landed on a catwalk closer to the ceiling and saw the warehouse guards tied up with gags in their mouths. They had red and wide eyes as the kept screaming into their gags. Not out of anger for being trapped but from pure fear.

There were 4 armed men in the warehouse. Two were searching through crates and containers while the other two stood guard over another person. A person wearing brown robes concealing their identity as they sat in a chair writing down things on a clipboard while looking over the tied up guards.

"Hey is this what we're looking for?!" One of the guards searching for something asked.

The hooded figure stopped their writing before standing up. They turned toward the guard and looked at the device they had found.

"Yes, that is what we need," The hooded figure said with a modulated voice.

Terry decided to take this moment to drop down from the catwalk. He immediately pulled his stun pistols off of his belt and shot at two of the armed guards, sending them into unconsciousness.

The other two guards immediately fired upon Red Hood.

Terry dove behind a crate to avoid the laser bullets.

The two guards started getting closer to the crate that Red Hood hid behind. The hooded hero then waited until they were on either side of the crate before springing up over the crate in a backflip. As he flipped, he pushed the barrels of both guards guns away from him as he started to land. Just as soon as he landed he pulled both his stun pistols up and fired at them knocking them to the ground unconscious.

As soon as the guards hit the ground, Red Hood turned his attention to the hooded individual. The hooded figure just applauded Red Hood for his efforts.

"Well done Red Hood. You managed to incapacitate 4 guards. Clearly you are a force to be reckoned with," the modulated voice cut through with what seemed to be sarcasm.

"Listen, you Jedi knockoff, I don't have time for jokes. I'm taking you in," Red Hood told the hooded figure as he pointed his stun pistols at the hooded figure.

"Heh. You can try Red Hood," The hooded figure said as they dashed at Red Hood sucking under his stun laser blasts.

The hooded figure tried to strike at Red Hood with a claw-like attack. He grabbed the extended arm and threw the hooded figure over his shoulders. As the hooded figure turned their body to land on their feet, the robe fell off their body and fell to the ground.

Revealing the figure's true looks which were a shock as the person dress like a living scarecrow. The top part of the outfit was yellow with scarecrow theme on and brown frame out. The button was brown with rope wrap around the waist and wrist.

"I suppose I should introduce myself, Red Hood. I'm the Scarecrow," The modulated voice cut through the air once again.

Before Red Hood could react, he felt something pierce into his body. He looked down to see Scarecrow jabbing a syringe into his body, injecting him with a yellow liquid.

"As much as I would love to study what effects will have on you, but I'm afraid I must leave. Till our next meeting...Red Hood," The Neo Scarecrow said as they walked over and picked up the device they were after and left the warehouse, leaving their henchmen unconscious, the warehouse guards tied up, and Red Hood to start hallucinating.

"Batman, Huntress, come to my location! I've been injected with something by Scarecrow," He said as he finally started to succumb to the fear toxin.

Terry blinked and suddenly his vision changed.

"You let me die, son!" The voice of his father shouted throughout his mind. He looked over to his right and saw his father as a walking corpse insulting him. On the ground were the bodies of his mother, brother, Dana, and even Naruto and Helena.

The corpses started to spring to life and glare at terry. They have surrounded him.

"You're a terrible brother"

"A worthless son"

"I should've dated Nelson over you"

"A delinquent playing vigilante"

"The disgrace of the batfamily"

Terry started to shake and hold his head at the sight of all of these Hallucinations.

"I am not a failure. I am not a failure. I am not a failure!" Terry started repeating to himself before finally stopping the grip on his head and turning his vision to the Hallucinations.

"I am not a failure. I am the embodiment of redemption. I am the hope of the hopeless. I am Red Hood!" Terry shouted as the fear toxin finally made its way out of his system.

The last thing he noticed was the Hallucinations of his friends and family's corpses as they slowly faded, changing their expressions from glares to small smiles.

As soon a the hallucinations ended, Terry found himself back in the Batcave with Helena and Naruto in their costumes but unmasked.

Terry was lying on a table and slowly sat up.

Naruto and Helena rushed to his side to help him up with Ace coming in with barks to now awake Terry.

"Terry, what happened? We heard you mention Scarecrow?" Helena asked, being confused about how one of her dad's most famous enemies was now back.

"Ah, my head! Yeah someone dressed like Scarecrow showed up. Had a voice modulator so I doubt it's actually Crane. They injected me with something from a syringe. I assume it's their own fear toxin strain. Didn't feel like it lasted very long," Terry replied as he slowly started getting up on his feet.

"You were only out for an hour. We immediately changed into costume and came to grab you," Naruto told him.

"Ok then. Anyway yeah, the Scarecrow copycat injected me with their fear toxin and then they made off with some device leaving me, their underlings, and the warehouse guards by ourselves." Terry said as he slowly stood up and started walking around to get used to some movement.

Those hallucinations really had messed with him so he wanted to take things slow.

"If this Scarecrow creates their own fear toxin then it might have been based off the old one," Naruto said as he runs a test on Terry's blood and showed the last remaining toxins in, running the scans in.

"You sure you are alright?" Helena asked, making sure Terry is alright and know how bad fear geas can do to someone from her parents' adventures back in the day.

"Yeah, just need to walk it off. Feel like I went through some kind of work out rush and now cooling down," Terry admitted, feeling a bit better as he got his moment back and went to his gear on the table to get it set up as he knows that they going out to stop this new Scarecrow.

The computer beeped which showed that the fear toxin now was similar to the fear gas that Jonathan Crane created all those years ago. Naruto hummed in thought as he petted Ace on the head that was sitting next to him.

"Yeah, we have the same yet different vision of the fear gas but this stern has a stronger effect and seems to have more chemicals in, hmmm," Naruto said before typing away the location of the different chemical planets in Gotham.

Helena saw what Naruto was doing and spoke, "Seeing if Scarecrow would go to the next planet to create more fear toxin for a large scale?"

"Yes. Computer, run scans on the chemicals planets that have the chemicals required to make fear gear," Naruto ordered, having the computer highlighting the planets and locations for Scarecrow's next target.

"Scan complete. South of Gotham has the old chemical planet that was once owned by Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow but was shut down and reopen years later," The bat computer informed.

Terry had finished putting his gear on and suit up with his red helmet coming down.

"So we're ready to take this new Scarecrow down?" Red Hood asked as he put his gloves on.

"I think we plan that, Red Hood," Huntress said as she put her mask on and loaded her crossbow.

"Let's go," Batman said having his mask on and lock-in for patrol.

Time Skip

South of Gotham (Crane's Chem)

In the chemical planet, we see the guards and workers suffering the fear toxins that Scarecrow unleashed to them who grabbed the chemics they need for their large scale to Gotham and suffer the pain they felt all those years ago.

"Good, very good," Scarecrow said with a smirk appearing upon their face and was looking foward to their plan coming to motion but that's when...

CRASH!

The window broke, having glass coming down from the ceiling and three masked vigilantes coming in, Red Hood, Huntress, and Batman himself.

"Oh, we have company. Boys give them some fun, we have work to do," Scarecrow said as they went back to work and have the men rushing in with crowbars and street thug weapons.

Batman easily took down the two thugs coming at him and kept walking towards the Neo Scarcrow while Red Hood and Huntress deal with the rest of thugs.

Scarecrow then grabbed one of the fear gas bombs from the belt and throw it to the Neo Dark Knight but won't work as the bat had a built-in gas mask to protect him from any gas that can harm him. He still walks to this copy cat scarecrow.

Behind the Neo Dark Knight, Red Hood and Huntress were close on finishing the thugs which they had their gas mask on when hearing the hissing sound of gas. The hood punches one thug in the face before grabbing him by the throat and choke slammed him into a table, knocking him out. The female hero jump kick one thug in the face before sending punches to another one that was coming behind her and dragged that thug into another one which her partner slammed them into the wall.

Batman then brought his attention to the Scarecrow who looked calm but was afraid of seeing the very thing of their fear and hate.

"Ahh, Batman. And a gas mask, you are very well equipped as they say," Scarecrow remarked before grabbing a gun and knife in hands.

"Who are you?" Batman asked, getting ready

"I am the creation of fear. I am Gotham's nightmare come to life once more. I am the Scarecrow!" Scarecrow shouted before dashing foward to cut the bat in pieces which he dodged the swings of the blade.

Scarecrow then brought her fire away to shot the bat which Batman dodged the gunfire and disarmed the so-called master of fear. Then the knife thrust foward to stab but the Dark Knight grabbed the arm before breaking the wrist and send a punch to the face, sending the new fear maker away and crashed into a table.

Batman walked to the Scarecrow who crashed into the table of chemicals that fear gas linking out.

Scarecrow coughed as the gas got through the protection of their mask and started to see something that terrified them.

Batman grabbed the thug by their coat and saw fear & terror coming in their eyes.

"What's the matter? Scared?" Batman asked, bring the Neo Scarecrow closer which caused them to panic and saw the demonic bat creature coming to take their soul.

"No, no, no, NOOOO!" Scarecrow shouted in panic.

"Oh yes," Batman said before punching Scarecrow's lights out and cuffed them up by the table for the police to take away.

The Neo Dark Knight saw that his partners have finished up beating the thugs and cuffing them up.

"And done," Red Hood said.

"We should leave, the police would be here soon as the silent alarm was triggered," Huntress informed as she picks the police radio in from her coms.

"We will but first some light onto this Scarecrow," The Dark Knight said as he unmasked the new Scarecrow which the three were surprised who it was.

The new Scarecrow was a young woman with black skin and short black hair. Her eyes seem to be grey but were only shown once when she tried to open but fall back down. This was interesting and the voice changer fools them a bit.

"I don't know her," Batman said as he took some hair from the fallen woman for the computer to figure out the identity of the new Scarecrow.

"Me either," Huntress admitted as she grabbed her grappling hook to her crossbow which Red Hood and Batman did the same on grabbing their grappling hook guns.

The three masked heroes left the area for GCPD to pick the thugs and new Scarecrow.

Wayne Manor - Batcave

"Her name is Adalyn Stern, a former inmate from institutional care before being assigned to a few doctors as their student. Her father was a notorious gang leader back in the day but was stopped by Bruce and lock away back in the old days," Naruto read off from the file he found on the bat computer and had his suit up for the night.

The blonde then put Adalyn's file in the Scarecrow file which had side news showing the new so-call master of fear being sent to Arkham. He then trun the news off and allowed the computer to run the last scans before turning it off for the night.

Helena was at the stars waiting for Naruto as the pair were calling a night. Terry had head back home for the night as well.

"You believe that Miss Stern was a student of Crane?" Helena asked as they walk upstairs.

"Unlikely as the records show that Crane was suffering a bad case of fear gas from his last fight with Batman and was transported to a new place for better care. So unlikely he could have trained Adalyn to take his place. The most likely cause would be one of his disciples might have handed the technology that he created for a new Scarecrow come when he dies. Her fear and hatred for Batman were most driven to take her revenge onto the city. If she would have gained more fear gas, she could unleash onto a large scale but now is stopped and she's behind bars," Naruto explained.

"Indeed and maybe they can cure her of her problems."

"Maybe but it's a long shot."

"Agree."

The pair were now in the study and saw Ace barking at them with his tail swing from side to side in happiness to see them which they smiled and pet the good-bad dog.

Helena smiled and said, "Good boy. Well, I should get some sleep as we have some busy days ahead of us, Naruto."

"Agree and thanks for the help, Helena. You have been a great help," Naruto said with a smile on his face, feeling happy around the black-haired beauty.

Helena smiled at that before coming foward and placed a kiss on the blonde's cheeks which surprised him and blushed at the sudden action.

"You're welcome whisker. It has been fun and purfect," Helena said with a purr as she left with a sway of her hips and smirked on getting Naruto in a blushing mess.

Naruto coughed into his hand and shook his head to get those thoughts out of his head but would admit that Helena is an amazing and interesting woman. Ace tilted his head at the action and looked at the blonde.

"Yeah, I know. She is something alright," Naruto agreed as he and Ace head to the room for the night.

Naruto had a feeling that his luck would be interesting for now on as it has built up over the years in this new world he has called home and enjoys it. He smiled as he enters his room and gets ready for bed.

Before the blonde could go to bed, his phone buzzed and got his attention to see that Veronica was texting him, seeing if he was still open for their date tomorrow which caused him to smile and replied with yes as he will pick her up. She responded with a smiling face and a happy message for the blonde as he looks foward to their day.

Tonight has been a good night and more things to come down the road.

Previews:

"Batman, show yourself! Come out and face me like a man! I will kill you and show you who rules Gotham City!"

"Okay, punk. Show me."

...

"Nobody care who I was until I put on my mask of my old friend and vowed to finished his work on breaking the Bat!"

...

"A better question; Did he create heroes or villains?"

...

Naruto's Harem: Veronica Vale, Amy, Wonder Woman (Jessica Wayne), Huntress (Helena Wayne), Black Canary (Olivia Queen), Nightstar, Aquagirl, Spoiler (Melanie Walker), Catwoman (Vanessa Black), Nightwing (Dawn Grayson), Max Gibson, Chelsea Cunningham, The Dee-Dee's, Inque (Irene Clay), Black Cat (Blade), Supergirl (Kara In-Ze), and a few more TBA as surprises which yes ideas and how they fall for Naruto can help.