Here is my Young Justice contest entry . . . Believe it or not, I started plotting this story exactly one week ago.

WARNING: Language . . .

It was supposed to be covert mission, but weren't they all? In and out, but since when has it ever been that simple? Wally didn't know if it was just bad luck or if they were cursed - or maybe they just needed to learn to be less impulsive. He kind of thought that might be the case with him. He glanced over at Superboy struggling to pull off the inhibitor collar around his neck and thought that it might be the case for Conner as well.

For Kid, this mission had started out as an adventure. He had never been to the tropical rainforests of Brazil before. Due to the remoteness of their target, they had been forced to hike in. Wally could have managed to get in and out twelve minutes, start to finish, except his expertise didn't include computers. Even Conner might have slogged the distance in a day, but again, his job was more about being the muscle than handling the tricky, delicate work of hacking and espionage. Wally looked to his other side at where Robin sat with his knees up and his arms resting on them. The disgusted look on his friend's face spoke volumes. Although, it might have taken the younger boy a few days to accomplish the task, he would have managed it without getting caught – if it weren't for the lack of subtlety of his more impulsive teammates.

Conner roared angrily, slamming his fists onto the concrete floor. With the inhibitor collar activated, he barely disturbed the dust. The clone blew out his breath and leaned back against the wall, his chains rattling with his movement.

Robin glanced over at Wally with concern. "How are you doing? Are you okay?"

Wally stretched out his leg carefully in front of him. One couldn't tell it by looking at it, but he had broken several bones in his foot and had a severely sprained ankle. He would have taken off his boot to check it out had Robin not warned him that he would never get it back on. At the moment, it felt like his foot was about to burst out of the boot on its own, but the footwear provided the support he needed to keep the worst of the pain in check. Besides, if they hoped to escape and hike back to civilization, he would need the protection it provided him.

One did not hike in a tropical rainforest barefoot if one was not a native . . . And, maybe not even then.

What was it they said about the rainforest? Oh yeah - everything in it was out to kill you!

And it had - almost succeeded, that is. Although, if the vines that he had tripped over hadn't been capable of movement, Wally might have managed to avoid them. The rumors that had Bats sending the three teammates into the wilds of the Amazonian rainforest had been about a facility that was reportedly creating weapons for bioterrorism, however, nobody had said anything about Poison Ivy being on the company payroll.

Surprise!

Easy on the eyes, but hard on the heart, Poison Ivy was facilitating the growth of plants to aid in the biological soup that the scientists were designing for their employers, people whose plans included the depopulation the planet. Like Anthrax and Influenza weren't bad enough on their own, these guys were adding to the already nasty effects of the diseases certain specialized poisons to the genetic mix to create a super-virulent death-strain that killed quickly and spread person-to-person in an aerosol form. Ivy had tried to describe the spread of the new biological weapon to them, explaining it as a type of pollination but, whatever . . . Wally liked science, but biology wasn't his subject of choice. What he took away from it was this, the stuff would kill you and the people over in the next town, taking anywhere from a few hours to a few days to do the deed. Not enough time for disaster teams to reverse engineer a cure before thousands - heck, hundreds of thousands, maybe more - would die.

"Kid?"

"Don't talk to me," Wally barked at him. "This is all my fault."

"How do you get that?" Robin asked him.

"You didn't get caught," Wally groused. "I did. If I hadn't screwed up my foot, you wouldn't have had to give yourself up."

Conner grunted. "You weren't the only one. Poison Ivy's vines entangled me as fast as I could break them. She just walked up and snapped on this damned collar on me like I was her damned dog and I couldn't do a thing to stop her!" His voice rose as he spoke.

Conner sharing the blame didn't make Wally feel any better. Sighing, Conner rested his head against the wall and looked up at the ceiling. There were cracks in it, put there by encroaching plants. Rain poured into their cell in streams. The three of them had sat in the damp, uncomfortable cell all night and all morning without seeing anyone but one guard who had thrown them chunks of stale flatbread. Ivy didn't even consider them dangerous enough to warrant even a guard each. Why would she when both Kid Flash and Superboy had been put out of commission with such ease.

Robin and Conner had given most of their food to Kid in hopes of the extra calories would stimulate his metabolism into healing him faster, but it hadn't done much toward that goal. In fact, Wally's stomach was growling again.

"I bet Superman wouldn't have gotten caught," Conner muttered in frustration.

Robin frowned at his defeatist tone. "No, you're right. Superman would have caught Ivy, but then, she would have kissed him and made him her slave."

Conner frowned back. "What?"

"It's happened before. Ivy's lips are poison," Robin told them. "She can kill you or enslave you with just a kiss. Superman nearly killed Batman the first time she tried it."

Wally thought about that. "So, why didn't she just enslave Superboy then? Why did she choose to use the collar?"

Robin shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe she thought . . ."

"Maybe, she thought she preferred men to little boys," Ivy interrupted, her voice echoing slightly in the barren room.

Wally's mouth dropped open as he gaped. He couldn't help it. She was amazingly beautiful while he was fifteen and hormonal. So what if her skin was tinged a pale, mint-green; she was built like a Greek goddess. She had vibrant red hair falling over her shoulders in luxurious waves and stood before them clothed in nothing but a few strategically-placed leaves.

Back in the States, it would be autumn right now, Wally thought dreamily. Falling leaves . . . He sighed. Mother Nature had never looked so good.

"I was feeling a little bored," she said. "I thought we might play a game."

"Not interested," Robin snapped, scowling.

Wally closed his mouth abruptly as reality intruded upon his fantasy. He had a feeling that Poison Ivy's idea of games and his idea of games weren't the same.

She pouted, and kneeled down beside the Boy Wonder. "Don't be like Bats," she cooed. "He's got that stick shoved so far up his . . . Well, let's just say, he needs to learn how to relax and have some fun." Ivy ran a hand through Robin's hair as she whispered in his ear seductively. "I bet you know how to have fun, don't you, little bird?"

Her other hand played with the fastenings on the boy's tunic, unhooking the top couple as her fingers walked their way across his exposed chest. Robin jerked himself away from her as far as his chains would allow.

Ivy stood up, laughing, amused by the reaction she had gotten from the young hero. "Oh, don't worry, Boy Wonder. Although, I might rob the occasional bank, I don't rob cradles."

Wally's mouth went dry when she stepped in front of him. She stared down at his foot. It wasn't difficult to tell that it was injured, what with the way the boot was strained around the swollen appendage. She set one delicate foot on the toe of his boot and smiled at him. Wally licked his lips nervously. What was she going to do? Women confused the hell out of him in the normal course of things. Poison Ivy, however, was in a league of her own.

"Does it hurt?" She asked him. "I could kiss it and make it all better," she offered innocently.

While Wally's head spun at the idea, Robin sputtered, "Only if he wants gangrene!"

She smirked at the younger boy and suddenly pushed on Wally's foot; forcing it down sideways. A sharp, grinding pain shot up his leg and he yelled. Conner jerked on his chains.

"Leave him alone!" Superboy shouted at her.

"Hmm," Ivy hummed as she moved toward the clone. "Yummy. What I wouldn't do to have your - daddy? - under my green thumb. The big blue and red is your daddy, isn't he?"

Conner's face flushed. Superman had yet to acknowledge him as his clone, let alone as something as intimate as his son.

"What do you think?" she asked him. "Do you think daddy would rush to rescue you, if I were to put you under my spell? What would he give me to get you back, I wonder?"

His eyes narrowed dangerously. "Not a damned thing."

One crimson eyebrow rose in patent disbelief. "The apple of his eye? Somehow, I doubt that very much."

Conner snorted. "Hardly. Shows how much you know, plant girl."

She shrugged her shoulders, unconcerned, and turned as though to leave. Her hips swayed alluringly as she walked back to the cell door. Wally swallowed audibly. It was almost enough to make him forget the pain in his foot . . . Almost, but not quite. His hormones weren't raging so much as to overwhelm his sense of self-preservation. He understood perfectly well that Poison Ivy was exactly that - poison.

"Okay, kiddies, here's what I propose." She smiled at them. "I'm going to let you go."

Wally's eyes widened in surprise. "Seriously?"

"What's the catch?" Robin frowned at her, ever suspicious.

"No catch," she promised, but then laughed again. "Oh, okay, maybe just one little catch. I'm going to let you all go," she repeated. "You can run away back to your mentors and parents," she glinted at Superboy. "I won't do anything to stop you. But remember, the rainforest is a very hazardous place, even without my influence. If the three of you can make it out of here alive, then your lives are my gift to you. Go in peace."

"And if not?" Robin asked.

"Why then, you'll die, of course." Ivy sputtered at the obvious. Sighing heavily, she said, "Look, I'm letting you go. If you live, good for you. If you die, it's no skin off my nose, but you'll do it under my conditions."

"And those are?" Conner asked, glaring.

"No utility belts." Ivy glanced at Robin as she ticked each condition off on her fingers. "No gloves and no boots."

"Kid's foot is broken!" Robin exclaimed. "He wouldn't stand a chance out in the jungle without his boots."

"Not my problem." She pursed her lips as she regarded Superboy next. "The collar stays put," she told him. "I have plenty more stashed away. Consider it a present in honor of your visit. If you make it out of here, you will do so without the benefit of your powers."

Robin was shaking his head. "Fine. I'll go without my boots, but Kid Flash keeps his. He's at a disadvantage as it is being injured."

"What makes you think this is a negotiation?" Ivy smirked.

"Everything is a negotiation," Robin countered. "What would you want in order to let Kid keep his boots?"

Wally looked at Robin in alarm. "Rob, no . . . It's okay. I can do this without my boots."

Robin didn't even glance in his direction. "Name it, Ivy."

"You don't have anything left to negotiate with, baby bird," Poison Ivy said, but even so, she was tapping her finger on her chin in thought. "But, I suppose we could up the ante a bit, make it more interesting."

"Rob, stop! What are you doing?" Wally hissed.

"KF, you need those boots." Robin insisted.

"I'm a fast healer," he reminded his friend. "I'll probably be back to normal in the time it takes us to get back to town." Although, not without extra calories . . . Wally kept that knowledge to himself. Besides, Robin and Conner already knew this about speedsters, but there was no reason to clue Poison Ivy in to his weaknesses.

"It's a deal. I'll even let all of you keep your boots," Ivy stated magnanimously. "And, in exchange for my generosity, you must find a plant."

"Why?" Conner asked, suspicious.

Ivy smiled. "Trust me. You'll want to find it."

"Trust you?" Wally sputtered incredulously.

"What plant?" Robin asked, pragmatic as always.

"The natives call it jaborandi," Ivy instructed them. "It is a shrubby tree that has star-shaped fruit and large, feathery leaves. You can find it in the surrounding jungle if you search hard enough for it."

"What do we need the plant for?" Conner asked. He had obviously had enough of Ivy's plants to last a lifetime.

"Because . . ." she sang happily.

Raising her hand to her lips, she appeared to blow a kiss at Robin. There was a whisper of a sound and, suddenly, Robin was slapping a hand over his collarbone with a hiss. He tugged, pulling free a tiny dart. He stared at it in surprise for a second before dropping it on the floor with nerveless fingers.

"Rob," Wally yelped.

"What did you do to him?" Conner snarled. He yanked at his chains futilely.

Smirking, Ivy held up a tiny blowgun in her fingers. "Because," she continued, "it is the antidote to belladonna poisoning, the lovely and quite deadly nightshade."

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A/N:

Okay, I bought a Writer's Guide to Poisons many years ago and have been dying to use it in one of my stories, but never seemed to come up with a plot for it - Until now! I chose belladonna (also known as deadly nightshade in some parts of the world) for several reasons.

One reason is because the symptoms are cool . . . Alright, not actually cool in real life, but fun to write about.

Another reason is because of the symptoms it doesn't have . . . Specifically, diarrhea. I so did not want to write about our boy having to cop a squat every 15 minutes behind a tree. I'm pretty sure you didn't want to read about it either.

Also, belladonna kills quickly, but not too quickly. It's toxicity level is a 6 which is considered to be the highest on the toxicity chart that runs from a 1 to level 6. Without treatment, you will die.

Lastly is because I could fit the antidote into my plot. Jaborandi is the name of a real plant found in the Brazilian jungles. It looks how it is described above. The antidote to belladonna is derived from the jaborandi plant's leaves. When refined the product produced is also listed as a medical poison. Jaborandi produces nearly the exact opposite symptoms of those of belladonna.

I'll explain more as the story goes along.