BATMAN: SUCCESSION

CHAPTER 1: REGROWTH

The name "Pamela Isley" meant nothing anymore. Just an echo through her mind. She sometimes whispered it to herself, and it contaminated the air around her. It was a decent name, sure. Any person who didn't know her would say it's the name of an innocent, probably beautiful woman. Any man who didn't know her would get the impression of an easy target. If she were one of the unfortunate women to be stupid enough to take an alley to get home after work, they could have her way with her.

They were mistaken.

Unfortunately for them, Pamela Isley didn't exist anymore. She died at the Gotham Botanical Gardens. Mostly, anyway. Jason Woodrue had paid for that dearly. The rest of her died a few months earlier than now. But her murderer hadn't paid yet. Her murderers hadn't paid yet.

Batman.

He was the man who foiled her revenge, and in doing so, killed the rest of Pamela Isley. Still though, her hand rose from the grave. Or rather...POISON IVY'S hand did.

Ivy thought she understood the green's pain before, but now, she knew pain. She felt every footstep. Every wild fire. Every massacre of the lumberjacks.

And it was killing her.

She had two men to blame for her pain. Batman, of course, and Lex Luthor. His chemicals ravaged her, and as she lie buried beneath his facility, she felt her body change. Ivy was growing, but not in a way she wanted. She was now a god of sorts. But Poison Ivy's mind was a philosophical one, and she knew that even gods could die. But that didn't mean she had to die all by herself...

CHAPTER 2: FATAL PHEREMONES

GOTHAM CITY, LEXCORP TOWER- 5:30 PM, AUGUST 11th

"Luthor! Luthor! Luthor!" The Gothamites chanted. Even with Lex Luthor's less than golden reputation, even Luthor's biggest business antagonist, Bruce Wayne, couldn't deny that Gotham needed the 6,000 jobs that would come with Lex opening a major tower here. Even if Wayne did deny it, Luthor didn't much care. Wayne Enterprises obviously didn't have much of a job program if Lexcorp could healthily compete Bruce Wayne on his own soil. Whatever happened to Wayne Enterprises, they deserved it. Advocating Superman's affairs in Metropolis. What nerve?

As Luthor walked across the stage before thousands of citizens, their applause intensified. Children cheered for him. "We love you, Mr. Luthor!" Someone among the children squeeled. How cute. Gotham children, to live in a city littered with crime, mania, and giant bats, were still so naive.

Lex smiled. Not at the children or the adoring crowd chanting his name thunderously and relentlessly, but at the idea that once Wayne Enterprises went under, he'd have their R and D budget in his pocket. His two favorite things were both green. Money, and Kryptonite.

"Friends. People of Gotham City, welcome, to your future!" Lex boomed over the microphone.

The alley behind him was vacant. Or so he thought. A woman in a trenchcoat exited the bar and began walking. "Hey there, beautiful...Where you headed in such a hurry...?"

"I stand before you today, not as a business man, not as a mogul, and certainly not as a schemer like the rubbish that Ms. Lane at the Metropolis Daily Planet would like you to believe about me..."

She didn't budge. She felt their footsteps approaching her, and their voices made her sick. "I said, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" One of them said. She spoke in a soft, but fierce tone. "Exactly where you are...but not nearly as quickly if you boys don't step away right this second." They laughed, and tossed her against the wall, struggling to get her trench coat off, exposing a dark green blouse, a verdant skirt, and boots made from...leaves?

"I stand before you as someone who cares for Gotham City. As someone who wants to lift you from the pool of poverty and utter desolation. Something that Mr. Wayne has tried but failed to do since the passing of Thomas and Martha. They were friends of mine as a child, and they both dreamed of helping the people of Gotham and beyond. A shame that their dream falls on their playboy son, Mr. Bruce Wayne..."

"Pretty outfit girlie..." the thug said. "Th...Thank you...Please, don't hurt me..." the woman quivered, keeping her face hidden. "Nah...We don't wanna hurt ya...Just a smooch!" The thug snapped her face toward him, and planted his lips on hers, and eventually she quit struggling...

"With Lexcorp's operations opening here in your city, I will succeed where Wayne has failed. I will bring hope back to Gotham!" The audience roared in approval for their new benefactor.

The man removed himself from her, and his pupils had a vacant stare at the crying woman. He pulled a switchblade from his pocket and gazed at it...

"Do not thank me, Gotham City. For I owe you all thanks! Thanks to you, I will honor my great friends."

The thug flew to his friends and stabbed them both. Their screaming was drowned out by Luthor's audience, and so was the woman's laughter, as two thick vines ripped through the concrete and snapped the man's neck. The men's blood soaked into her leaves, and like photosynthesis, she felt truly alive...Poison Ivy had returned...

CHAPTER 3: BEAUTIFUL WEEDS

"What did you do to him?!" A witness screamed. "I didn't do anything, darling. Simply hastened his fate. The cigarettes he smoked, literally burning the green! Is that not abhoring to you?!" Ivy's eyes glowed green as she glared at him. He pulled his cell phone and dialed for the police.

"GCPD, Detective Bullock. What's the problem?" A gruff voice answered.

Ivy smiled, and suddenly the man was swallowed by a storm of parasitic algae. The man grabbed a gun, but only barely, and unloaded a round into Ivy's stomach.

"AGH!" Ivy cried out. Green blood spilled onto the ground in front of her. She raised her head and smiled as the hole sealed itself. "Don't you know anything about botony, darling...?" She said seductively as she walked toward him. "So long as you don't kill the root, a flower can always grow back..." Ivy gave him a long kiss on the lips. His skin turned green and his veins puffed out, turning black. "And my root is very deep."

Ivy let him go, as he fell to her feet, choking, and eventually, dying.

"Hello? Hello?!" Detective Bullock growled. Ivy crushed the phone under her heel and watched Lex Luthor enter his building.

When Lex made it to his office, his secretary was waiting. "Mr. Luthor, someone had a floral basket sent to you. These are the strangest flowers I've ever seen. But they're so beautiful. It's waiting on your desk."

Lex scoffed, and sniffed one of the flowers...Then it grabbed him...

CHAPTER 4: WARNING FROM THE GREEN

GOTHAM CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT- AUGUST 12TH, 9:00 PM.

"A flower always grows back." The woman on the tape said.

"The audio men can't identify the voice. It doesn't match anyone in our data, Arkham, or otherwise. Any clue?" Commissioner Gordon asked. "I have. You said the bodies were surrounded by green fluids, and filled with poison?" Batman questioned. "That's right, but the other two were stabbed to death. Whoever did this had to have been a professional assassin! How else could they poison people, stab them to death, and snap their necks all in one encounter?" Jim inferred.

"You're thinking too narrowly, Jim. In order to do this, the assailent needed to be in complete control over the situation. They needed to have several different options to kill them without having to put up much of a fight. For example...being able to manipulate individual molecules around them..." Batman reasoned.

"Poison Ivy?" Jim gasped. "I thought she died in her attack on the illegal Lexcorp site months ago?"

"You heard what she said, Gordon..." Batman said as he turned to leave. "A flower always grows back..."

CHAPTER 5: THE BAT, THE BILLIONAIRE AND THE BOTANIST

"Wh...Where am I...?" Lex said as he came to. He was strung upside down over a pit of chemicals, suspended by a dark green vine. He felt thorns digging into his feet, but he tried not to show his pain.

"You're in the aftermath of your own evil. But more literally, you're in the remains of your monstrosity of a laboratory. The one where the rest of Pamela Isley died! Where you killed her!" Ivy growled. "What are you talking about?! I didn't kill anyone!" Lex snapped, trying to break free. "Everyone who isn't ready to shower you with blind worship knows that you're lying..." She turned to face him, her skin even greener now.

She laughed at Lex, and tightened her vine's grip. "AAAGGGH!" Luthor winced. "It's no use. So long as my hatred burns through my leaves, you'll never escape...never again..." Ivy taunted. "Young lady, just tell me what you want and I can make it so! This is a waste of both my time and yours I'm sure." Lex pleaded. Ivy snapped her head around to face Luthor again, savoring the fear in his eyes. "The world, Mr. Luthor! And don't talk to me about your wasted time! My life was wasted! All of my research...all of my work to protect this planet from people just like you, and my efforts got me killed! Wasted time...Dead men have no more time to waste..." Poison Ivy started to loosen the vine.

"No! Ms. Isley, please no!" Lex begged. A vine started to wrap around his neck and choke him. "She's dead! Your work killed her! And now you have the audacity to beg me for mercy! You beg out of fear...You don't deserve mercy, Luthor...just as you destroyed my work...I'll destroy yours..." Poison Ivy scoffed, and pointed in the distance...To Lexcorp Tower Gotham...Suddenly, a huhe plant ripped through the roof, and the building crumbled to pieces...People were dead, and Lexcorp Gotham destroyed.

"You're mad, Ivy!" A dark voice said from the shadows...Batman...

"I'm mad, Batman?! Me?! People like you are mad...You, Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne, all of them! You let this planet die, all to keep yourselves afloat! Don't you see, Batman...?" Ivy started to weep. "I'm the hero...I am saving this world like you, Superman and Wonder Woman never could! I'm destroying evil itself. Mankind. Mother Nature will regrow, and nobody will ever harm her again. I am her guardian, Batman. Let me do my job...AGH!" Ivy fell to her knees, and began to cough up her green blood. She looked behind her, and saw Lex Luthor free...taking advantage of Batman's presence being distracting.

"Luthor, stop!" Batman commanded. Lex was showering the area with a hose filled with the very same chemicals that drove Ivy to become this. Drowning all surrounding plant life in it.

Batman shot his grapple line, and yanked the hose away from Luthor, then pounced on him, wings spread, and knocked him into the wall.

"She had a point, Batman. If the Justice League won't destroy the problem, someone has to." Lex chuckled as he dusted himself off.

Batman grabbed him by his lapels, and slammed him into the wall again. "She did have another point, Luthor...You are a problem." Batman growled as he knocked Lex unconscious.

"Ivy..." Batman whispered. "It's alright, Batman...I'll become one with her...I'll always be here to protect...to protect her..." Ivy groaned as her eyes lost their light, and her body was swallowed by the soil beneath Batman's feet.

Batman felt something. Sympathy almost. He and Ivy weren't so difficult. They fought for what they believed in. But Ivy had a different approach. And it consumed her...Could the same thing happen to the crusades of the Batman?

For the sake of Gotham City, he hoped not...

THE END