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"Nature itself is absurd. Humans are the only ones who whine about it."
- Takashi Natsu (Natsumi's Book of Friends)
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"Soone's been busy," I muttered, my voice low as my eyes swept over the strange sight—an overgrown forest hidden inside the city's sewers. Every corner of this section was consud by vegetation. Trees, shrubs, and herbs sprawled across the network of tunnels, while mushrooms and moss clung to the damp walls. Not a single inch was bare. And to top it all off, many of the plants carried an otherworldly presence, their shapes and colors looking too alien to have naturally sprouted from Earth.
"This place almost radiates life," Cortana reported, her tone precise, almost detached. "The energy is so strong that my sensors are failing to filter it out. I calibrated them to ignore most flora, but they're still overwheld."
"Then shut them down," I replied, my pace steady. "I'll recalibrate once I learn more about these plants." With that, I pressed forward towards the direction where the vegetation seed the thickest, the dim light catching glints of moisture on the twisting roots underfoot.
The deeper I went, the denser the growth beca. The tunnel shed its identity as a sewer and now mimicked a wild, untouched forest. "This should be it," I said while scanning the digital map of Gotham's underground sewer system projected across my visor. This part of the grid had been abandoned years ago, making it the perfect hideout for criminals with powers, as long as they could stomach the stench and toxins lingering in the air.
Rustle… rustle.
Creepy sounds crept in from all sides, low and serpentine, like a nest of snakes slithering over stone. It was a strange sensation—dozens of movents surrounding with unseen eyes following my every movent, and yet no clear target to lock onto. Still, I didn't stop since I knew that these weren't predators. They were just roots and vines, shifting of their own accord. Most people would panic, or at least flinch, at seeing living plants crawl around them. But I wasn't most people. The origin of these plants was why I'd co here in the first place.
"She's been busy," I muttered as the tunnel widened into a clearing that felt nothing like a sewer. Exotic trees stretched upward, their leaves glowing faintly. A small fountain trickled in the center like sothing out of a fable. And there, at the heart of it all, was a massive lotus, the size of a small bedroom, its petals sealed shut.
'How does she even live down here? And where does she even go when she has to use the restroom?' I couldn't help but wonder as I moved forward with silent and deliberate steps. Dr. Pala Isley, whom I now knew was actually the civilian identity of Poison Ivy, had made this place her sanctuary.
From what little I knew about her reputation from my previous life, she was a man-hating eco-terrorist, obsessed with plants. But she was dangerous nevertheless... probably even one of the strongest powered characters in Gotham. I'd seen her version on an old Batman film back in my old life—a bad one, at that—but even my half-forgotten mories were enough to tell she wasn't soone to underestimate, which basically ans she will definitely take lethal asures when she learns soone is invading her ho. The only question is what those asures will be...
I didn't have ti to finish the thought before the closed buds around snapped open and released clouds of thick pollen dust in my direction, coating the air around . Scores of vines surged from the ground, green and heavy, wrapping my body like bandages around a mummified corpse. In seconds, I was yanked upward, suspended while hanging upside down—trapped like so powerless prey.
"...That was unexpected," I calmly muttered in a composed voice as the vines coiled tighter around , their grip far beyond what any natural root or stem should be able to manage. A normal man's bones would already be splintered. But I wasn't normal— I was the perfect supersoldier, and I'd been pushed to the very limits of what the human body could endure.
"Oh my, what do we have here?" a sultry voice, which sounded both playful and sharp, suddenly echoed inside the subterranean tunnel. At the sa ti, the massive lotus shuddered, its petals unfurling with slow precision as the figure of a stunningly beautiful woman draped in a living gown made entirely of leaves and flower blossoms slowly erged from within it. "She looked a lot like Dr Pala Isley—only a hundred tis more beautiful, as if nature itself had perfected her. The tiara of blossoms tangled in her red hair and the strange tattoos of nature spread across her skin made her seem only more unreal, as if a fairy in real life. "Well, well... if it isn't the Dark Knight himself. Looks like my children just dragged in the biggest bat in Gotham." Her lips curved in amusent as her curious eyes assessed my form.
[{(Images from Discord)}]
"What are you doing down here in this abandoned sewer, Dr. Pala Isley?" I asked, my voice calm as the vines still hadn't covered my face or mouth. "And don't tell you're hiding out here just to do so gardening."
"Don't call that." Her voice was sharp, almost cutting. "I gave up that na the night my lab was attacked. The innocent Dr. Pala Isley, you are talking about, died that night along with her coworker. She couldn't survive being poisoned. So, I am not her. And I'm definitely not a human anymore. I am sothing more. I am... Poison Ivy." Her words dripped with venom as her eyes went distant, recalling that night. However, she regained her composure just as quickly. "Tell , what exactly do you plan to do now that you have found ? Lock up because you think I'm a freak of nature, destined to wreck your precious civilized world? Also, how DID you find ?"
"… I'm a very good detective," I said evenly with a straight face. "And I'm not here to hurt you. I want to help. Freak or not, nature isn't anyone's enemy, but it isn't anyone's friend either. It just exists, following its own rules and balance. It's on us to decide whether to grow with it or stand against it— though nature is one enemy one should never make." My eyes flicked to the vines holding as I ntally debated with myself whether I should use the laser systems in my armor to cut them. But after a mont, I let the thought go. Damaging her plants here would only provoke her— and sothing told she might be able to do more than just control them.
"Help ? No. You can't help . You can't silence the voices." She clicked her tongue. "No human can. You don't know how maddening it is to hear every plant speak all at once, to hear them scream. They call their mother, their protector. They need — but I can't save them." Her eyes shifted, narrowing. "However, my babies hate most humans… but they don't react to you. Why, I wonder, though? No, not just them— I feel it too. There's sothing in you that's an abomination to the balance of nature… yet sothing that binds you to it, as if you're one with nature itself. Such a duality. How?" She began to pace, muttering under her breath, while the plants around her swayed, mirroring her steps as if trying to match her pace.
"We can talk more about it if you let down," I said evenly. "I can even take you to a park full of real greenery. Better than a sewer, at least."
"Are you… flirting with ?" Poison Ivy tilted her head, stepping closer with a slow, feline grace. A suspicious, faint green glow flickered in her eyes as a sly smile curved her lips. "Such a fine specin of a human male. My babies think you're perfect for it… for us… for the Green." Her breath brushed my face as she ca within inches. "You have the potential to beco the perfect Avatar of the Green," she murmured dreamily, her lips drifting closer to mine.
'She's completely bipolar.' I exhaled tiredly, realizing she was either being controlled or at least partly influenced by her plants. In a single motion, I activated the lasers built into my armor and used my enhanced strength to tear free of the vines. Then, before she could react, I struck a sharp blow to her neck to knock her out since I had no interest in her plans for . But to my surprise, she didn't fall. She stayed upright, eyes flashing with pain before shoving back with unexpected, superhuman strength. 'And superhuman, too,' I thought grimly.
"Why do you resist? Can't you see?" she demanded, voice laced with conviction. "They wish to grant you the highest honor. To be their king, their guardian, their protector—most of all, their avatar. If you accept, you would beco the living will of the Green itself." She said before lifting her right arm to her lips and exhaling over it, releasing a cloud of pollen that surged toward , thicker and heavier than before.
I didn't move. There was no need. My armor's sealed filtration system was far too advanced to fail against sothing like this.
'She's far stronger than the Poison Ivy I had heard of in my previous life,' I noted. Enhanced strength, heightened durability—her skin likely bulletproof—on top of powers even more formidable than expected. In every way, she was much more super. And strangely enough, her skin wasn't even green. I was actually looking forward to it.
The Compound V was definitely strong in this one.
But maybe that's also why she was so much more unstable in this universe. The traces of Compound V in her veins didn't just give her more power than she should have had— they also deepened her bond with the plants, until there was no dividing line between her will and theirs. Without it, she might've been just a misanthropic eco-terrorist with a twisted love for greenery. But now, stronger than she was ever ant to be, her powers were turning on her mind. She wasn't just commanding the plants anymore… they were whispering back, digging into her thoughts, bending her from within. And with no ntal defenses in her mind to keep them out, Poison Ivy was no longer in control.
The Green was.
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