Red Goes Green
Chapter 1 - Investigating Another Meta
When Barry and Joe had been called to the crime scene the case had seemed at first glance like it would be simple enough. The victim looked as if they'd been strangled by the perpetrator. But in Central City things rarely worked out quite so simple. And on closer inspection the marks around the victims neck looked more like they'd been strangled using some sort of rope. Yet on a further inspection of the body Barry noticed a number of pricks that seemed like the type caused by briar or bramble thorns. Barry even noticed that a couple of thorns where left in the victims body. Not rope then, the perp had killed using a thorned vine it seemed and that led Barry to notice there also seemed to be rather a lot of leaves surrounding the body. Whoever had done this was also smart enough to destroy the CCTV unit too. Barry moved to place the sheeting back over the corpse and gave Joe the 'We're gonna have to take this one back to STAR Labs' look.
So that was what had lead Barry and Joe to be standing in the cortex in front of Caitlin and Cisco explaining the latest case.
"So what do you guys think? Do we have a metahuman who can control plants on our hands?"
"Certainly a possibility."
"Can you get us a few samples to test?"
"Already got them." Barry reached in his pocket and pulled out a couple of evidence bags that he handed over to Caitlin. Just as he handed over the sample his phone vibrated and Barry saw that it was a message from Iris. "That's Iris, she's got a story the Flash might need to know about. Can you let me know when you're done testing?"
Caitlin nodded in confirmation. Barry speeded out of the cortex and headed over to Jitters to meet up with Iris. He slowed down just before and entered the coffee shop as civilian Barry Allen. He saw Iris and headed over to the table where she was sat. "Hey, I got your message. What's the story?"
"Hey, I don't have much to go on yet but there's been a series off break-ins at various botanical research facilities in and around Central City."
"I'm guessing that because you asked for the Flash you're thinking it's a metahuman breaking-in?"
Iris nodded in confirmation. "Every time the only thing to go missing was rare plant pheromones. They're rare but they've also got low resale value. And no equipment or anything else was missing from any of the facilities. Whoever or whatever is doing this knows about plants."
"Funny, Joe and me were at a crime scene this morning and we think the perpetrator might be a metahuman who can control plants."
"Looks like there's a green fingered meta out there Central City. Though there wasn't a single dead body at any of the facilities."
"So whoever is doing this isn't looking for revenge if they've only just started killing."
"But given they're willing to kill they must be determined to get whatever it is they want."
Some time later Caitlin had finished her analysis of the evidence provided by Barry. Cisco had been working on trying to hack into the back up of the CCTV from the crime scene and see if they could gather any info from it. With the new information Team Flash once more assembled in the STAR Labs cortex.
"I ran various tests on the thorn you gave me from the crime scene and it seems to have traces of human DNA in it at a base level."
"I guess that confirms our earlier suspicion, there's someone who there who can control plants on a cellular level. How'd you get on with the CCTV?"
"It's not much but..."
Cisco pressed play on his keyboard and the cortex screens showed distorted footage of the attack. Cisco had been working from a destroyed back up so Team Flash were lucky to get any footage even if it was such low quality. The poor quality video looked like it showed that the perpetrator was a women. But the surprising part was that the footage seemed to show her being able to control vines. Not just control, the way she and her vines acted looked like the two of them were one entity.
"Meet Poison Ivy." Cisco had a smile that showed how pleased he was with his latest metahuman name. Barry gave Cisco a look questioning how he'd already named her. "I've been saving that one in case we ever encountered anyone who could control plants. Or if the particle accelerator had created some sort of Triffid."
"Okay. Well what's our next move to catch her?" asked Joe.
Barry thought back to his earlier conversation with Iris. "Iris mentioned various break-ins at botanical research facilities. Said she thought the suspect - Poison Ivy - must be knowledgeable about plants, do you think that could give us any clues?"
"Maybe. I'll put Felicity's facial recognition software to work on seeing if it's capable of deciphering Poison Ivy's identity from the footage we've got. Though it would be awesome if you could get me something better quality."
"Iris might be able to help us with that. I'll see if she's got anything."
"Did Iris tell you what was taken from the facilities?" Asked Caitlin.
"Yeah, she said various plant pheromones. Why?"
"Oh... That's bad. If Poison Ivy can control plants then it's a safe bet that she can also control plant pheromones. She might be gathering them as some sort of biological weapon and she might also try to use them against the Flash."
"Okay. I'll also ask Iris if she can tell me what she knows was taken."
Joe interjected into the conversation. "I'll go over the cold cases down at the precinct. See if we've got anything that might give us an idea of how long this Poison Ivy has been active."
The version of Poison Ivy who will appear in this story is being written as I imagine she might be if she was to appear in an episode of The Flash. This particular Ivy is not directly based on any one version from any of her many appearances over the years.