Over the next several years, Poison Ivy and Thorn wreaked havoc on Gotham City. They targeted any corporation threatening the environment, destroying factories, warehouses, and, on one memorable occasion, holding an entire skyscraper hostage as they sought to change the mind of a particularly stubborn executive in regards to how he dealt with toxic waste.
They crossed paths with Batman and Robin, along with several other vigilantes, in their misadventures, winning some confrontations, losing others. On the occasions when they lost, Ivy would be sent to Arkham Asylum, whilst Wally would spend weeks in a juvenile institution, having specialists attempt to determine whether or not he was criminally insane, as was his aunt, or merely led astray by a trusted relative.
Escape generally came soon enough. Usually only one of the duo would be captured at a time, and the other would release them within a week. On the one occasion when both were imprisoned, Ivy was lucky enough for the Joker to orchestrate a mass breakout (something which may possibly have been aided by Harley's involvement).
Harley herself rarely joined them after their first adventure, always preferring to stand by her Puddin'.
On this particular date, however, she had chosen to provide aid.
"Little Red?" Harley whispered loudly, entering the small grove in the forested region of Robinson Park, "You here?"
"Aunt Harley!" Wally grinned, jumping down from a low tree branch to embrace her.
"Whee!" She squealed, as the fifteen year old lifted her clear off the ground, waiting until he set her down before continuing, "How you been, kiddo?"
"Not great," he admitted reluctantly, "Aunt Ivy was arrested four days ago."
"I heard," Harley nodded, turning away from Wally as she started poking around the small enclosure of plants he had made for himself, "What happened?"
"I don't know," he shrugged, "She went out on some mission and lost a fight with Batman. My briars had a root fungus and I was out of it dealing with sympathetic symptoms."
Harley hummed her acceptance, before telling the chlorokinetic what she'd come to say, "Puddin's planning something. Tomorrow. It's gonna be big."
Wally nodded, well aware of what she was saying. With the police department and Batman distracted by the clown, he'd be able to slip into Arkham and free Ivy without any trouble.
He frowned though, "How big?"
Harley smiled proudly, "Big enough to get the whole of Gotham watching."
Wally honestly wasn't sure if he liked the sound of that.
Hours later, after Harley had left him to his grove, Wally tried to plan Ivy's escape. His thoughts constantly interrupted, however, by images of the Joker. Flashes of death of destruction as the hellish clown wreaked his own special brand of mayhem.
Wally, despite his status as a 'super-villain', considered himself and his aunt as environmental activists. Their actions may have been extreme, illegal, and outright destructive at times, but they all served a purpose. Thorn and Poison Ivy acted to better the world for plants.
The Joker was just a lunatic who liked to kill people in the most extravagant, and usually bloodiest, ways imaginable, all in what amounted to a gigantic game he believed himself to be playing with Batman.
Tomorrow, the Joker was planning something, likely involving kidnapping, torture and murder (his three favorite things besides explosives). Wally wasn't sure what exactly it would entail, but, thanks to Harley, he knew where it would be.
The police didn't know. The victims didn't know. Batman didn't know. Wally did.
Wally saw himself as an anti-hero, on an (at times) noble quest to save the environment. He didn't kill people, and, in all honesty, he wasn't sure if he could stand by and let innocent people be harmed when he knew he could do something.
Fretfully, he shook the thoughts from his head. Tomorrow, Wally was using the Joker's distraction to free Aunt Ivy. That was what was important. End of story.
Wally was waiting at Arkham Asylum the moment the sun began to rise, ready and waiting on the same grassy knoll that he had years before, a radio in his hand that would alert him to when the Joker began his rampage.
Wearing only a pair of old jeans, ripped in places, grass stains in others, he spent the morning soaking up sunlight through every inch of his exposed skin, ensuring that he would be at the peak of his power when the time came.
He watched, for hours, as guards came and went about their shifts, a transport vehicle arriving to drop off some new inmates, he even caught a glimpse of his aunt in the exercise yard at one point.
Through it all his ears were pricked, listening intently to every word spewed out by the radio, just waiting for the words 'special news bulletin'.
It neared three in the afternoon when he finally heard it.
"All across Gotham, citizens are panicking," the radio informed Wally, "As the Joker has been confirmed as the culprit behind the disappearances of ten, no, eleven children as of this morning."
"The children," the broadcaster continued, "Were taken almost simultaneously from various points throughout the city, and seem to share no connections other than the fact that they are all caucasian teenagers, aged between twelve and fourteen years old, with ebony hair and ties to gymnastic institutions."
Wally frowned, curious about what the Joker was doing, before the pieces clicked in his mind.
About a year ago, the Joker had spontaneously developed an obsession with learning the Batman's secret identity, and began randomly kidnapping men matching his body type off the street in an attempt to find him. It seemed that he was doing the same thing, only now he was after Robin.
For a moment, Wally was shocked. He'd been expecting explosions, robberies, maybe the murder of a government official or two. He didn't think Joker'd be going after kids.
Wally shook his head clear, it didn't matter what Joker was doing. Batman would deal with the clown. He was going to free Ivy...
But, Batman didn't know where the Joker was, did he?
Wally frowned. No, he wasn't going down that direction... but, well, it would take even the Batman's legendary intellect some time to find him, and everyone knew the damage the Joker could do in just five minutes, let alone a couple of hours.
And it's not like these were grown men, these were kids. Hell, according to the radio at least two of them were girls! Innocent kids... trapped with the Joker... who thought that one of them was Robin...
Wally's head slumped. Poison Ivy could wait, the kids couldn't. Turns out he was willing to defend more than just plants.
Getting through Gotham wasn't exactly easy for a barefoot green dude, especially when said green dude was a known eco-terrorist. But, by 'convincing' (and by 'convincing' I mean 'kissing and releasing a paralytic toxin into') the first motorcyclist he could find (thankfully a woman) to relinquish her leather jacket, her bright red helmet, and her vehicle, Wally was suitably covered and roaring down the city streets in no time.
Wally motored through the docks on his way to the warehouse district, breaking about seventeen different traffic laws on his way, speeding around corners and in and out of traffic with an expertise that only comes from all of your previous driving experience being from escaping and evading law enforcement.
He wondered, briefly, as he made his way to the Joker's lair, how this little incident would reflect on him in future escapades. After all, the criminals of Gotham sort of had an unwritten code, wherein, unless you want to spend the next ten years looking over your shoulder and jumping at shadows, you don't interfere with someone else's crime of choice. Wally figured that stopping the Joker from killing a bunch of kids counted as interfering, but decided that he'd just worry about it later.
The motorcycle skidded to a rough stop, with rubber burning against the asphalt, in front of the old 'Tidbits and Giggles' storage facility, and Wally looked around warily. They were in the middle of the warehouse district, which meant that the chances of a garden were minimal at best.
"I still can't believe I'm doing this," Wally moaned softly as he hurried to the side of the building, ditching the bulky helmet as he went.
Noting that entering through the front door would likely result in him getting somehow killed, Wally scooted round the side, finding a fire escape beginning just two meters above his head.
He looked around for a crate or a ladder, anything to help him reach his potential entry point, before he noticed a small crack in the asphalt where a tiny tuft of dandelions were poking through.
Wally grinned, and the small growth began to increase in size, asphalt cracking around it as the root system was strengthened and the stalk swiftly surpassing Wally's head, soon reaching the beginnings of the fire escape with little difficulty.
"And they call you guys weeds," he cooed to the plant, before shimmying up the stalk, grabbing onto the wrought iron structure, pulling himself up before moving onto the ladders.
Reaching the top of the warehouse, Wally peered in through one of the skylights, catching sight of the Joker's setup.
The ten kids were lined up in the center of the empty building, all of them bound, gagged, and lying helplessly on the floor as the Clown Prince of Crime himself paced around them, ranting from the looks of it. Harley herself was off to one side and, from the looks of it, she was supposed to be watching the perimeter, but was instead focussing on staring adoringly at her Puddin'.
Wally shuddered. Grown ups having relationships were just wrong, Harley and the Joker downright gave him the wiggins.
He shook his head clear of disturbing images, focussing on the kids below. Most of them were random faces, two or three baring maybe a passing resemblance to the Boy Wonder. He noted that he kind of recognized a few of them. One of the kids was on T.V. a few months back, when Wally had awaited Ivy to free him from the Gotham Juvenile Detention center, the other was Bruce Wayne's ward.
'Richard, but not Richard,' he thought idly, 'Rick?'
Wally moved on, the kid's name didn't matter, turning his focus on the rest of the room as he sought out something he could use. His eyes passed over an old conveyer belt setup, a number of large crates, a crowbar lying around and... there! In the corner!
Wally's lips pulled into a grin, "Perfect."
A grunt caught his attention, and Wally noted, with a wince, that Rick had spat out his gag, and had just earned himself a solid kick to the ribs. He sucked a breath in slowly through his teeth. That looked painful.
'Moving on,' Wally thought, as he focussed his attention on opening the skylight, noting the padlock with mild amusement, 'I wonder if it's ironic that Aunt Harley's the one who taught me to pick locks in the first place?'
Dick Grayson breathed deeply through his nose as the pain in his ribs dulled marginally, forcing himself to refrain from cussing the Joker out for fear of drawing more of the maniac's ire.
'Where the hell's Bruce?' He thought miserably, wishing that he wasn't the one currently hogtied, 'Why couldn't he be the one who needs rescuing, just this once!'
But, of course, he had to be the one kidnapped in his civilian identity. Again! What, was he giving off a telepathic signal to the Gotham criminal element? 'Helpless child! Huge ransom available! Kidnap please!'
Dick's internal ramblings cut off midstream when a glint of light caught his eye, drawing his attention to the skylight in the roof, where the glass plane was slowly being jiggled open.
'Who the hell...?' He wondered, knowing that Batman would never be so sloppy, as the window opened, and Dick saw the silhouette of a green figure throw something, which dispersed into pieces, to the ground, somehow managing to avoid the Joker's attention.
The green threw him a bit, as Robin was well aware that the Martian Manhunter would have simply entered through the walls, not bothering with a window. Green Arrow maybe? No, Dick was certain that he'd seen the outline of a leather jacket, so Ollie was out.
'Did Ollie and Dinah have a kid that I don't know about?' He asked silently, before the figure finally moved out of the sun's rays, giving him a decent look, which only served to confuse him even more. 'Is that... Thorn?'
Dick frowned, positive that he had to be misunderstanding things. Why would Thorn be sneaking around the Joker's lair?
Dick didn't have time to consider that line of inquiry further, as the appearance of green off to the side drew his eye, and he, along with everyone else present, was witness to the sudden growth of a small forrest appearing out of the exposed dirt in the eastern corner.
"Huh."
Wally watched with rapt concentration as his fistful of seeds began to grow, forming sinewy vines that reached out into the air, grasping at everything it could touch as Wally carefully directed them to grab the Joker.
"What are you doing, Ivy?" The Clown hollered, facing the vines as they writhed towards him, "I'm working here. Honestly, Harls, control your little friend before I turn her into mulch!"
"But, Red's still locked up in Arkham," Harley told him, looking at the growing vegetation in fear and confusion, addressing empty space as she called out, "Little Red? Are you there? What's going on, kiddo?"
Wally was almost saddened by the way his honorary aunt was actually scared of what was going on, but pushed through it as a number of his vines lashed out, latching onto the Joker's limbs, ripping away his prized carving knife.
"I didn't order the salad bar!" He yelled, struggling futilely in the plants' grip as the vines lifted him from the ground, "I just wanted the chicken!"
Harley leapt to her Puddin's defense, something Wally truly wished she hadn't done, as it forced him to restrain her also, though she certainly put up a much better fight than her lover.
Under Wally's direction, the vines hauled the criminally inclined clowns to the eastern wall, pinning them there as several appendages stretched up to the skylight.
Wally hopped in through the window, grabbing onto the vines easily with one hand, propping his foot against it as he slid down to ground level, crouching when he hit the ground to absorb the impact.
Harley and the Joker tried to respond to the appearance of Thorn in their midst, but Wally flicked his wrist as soon as they began, causing vines to tighten around their mouths, effectively gagging them.
With them taken care of, Wally walked over to the nearest of the kidnapped children and got to work untying them.
It kind of hurt, when he approached them, how they flinched away from him, but, he supposed, that was the price you pay when you become a known super-criminal.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he tried saying, as a vine reached out towards him and he knelt down to the child's level. It was one of the girls, he noted idly, and, as the vine met his hand, he coaxed it into growing a soft red rose.
"Here," he told her kindly, plucking the rose from its stem and placing it under the girl's nose, "Harmless."
She seemed to accept that, only for her eyes to widen in horror as, from the same vine which had sprouted the rose, a dagger-like thorn began to grow.
"Relax," Wally said softly, tugging the thorn free of the vine, before using it to cut through the girl's bonds, "I'm just horrible with knots."
She and the others calmed down considerably at that, and Wally soon had most of them freed. As he worked on the last one, 'Rick Wayne', though he may have been mistaken, someone asked him, "Why are you helping us?"
Wally cut the final strand of rope and looked at the crowd of ebony haired kids. He answered simply, "I'm not a bad guy."
He left almost immediately after, long before the police even knew where the Joker had been hiding, giving his vines leave to grow as they pleased and simply walking out the door, reclaiming the stolen motorcycle (canary yellow with scarlet red highlights which, for reasons Wally couldn't explain, somehow felt right) and driving off into the city, wondering all the while if he could still get to Arkham and free his aunt without too much trouble.
He didn't free her. With both the Joker and Harley on their way back to Arkham, security was quadrupled, a miracle given the overworked staff, and Wally's original methods of simply using overwhelming force hadn't been all that effective since the security guards started carrying flamethrowers.
Instead, he took his new bike (yes, he was keeping it) back to Robinson Park, where he tucked the bike deep in the brush and ducked himself back into his grove, only to find it occupied.
"Why did you stop the Joker?" The dark figure asked in a gravel tone that Wally had stopped being scared of years ago.
"Why do you care?" He asked, shrugging back into the leather jacket he had begun to remove, preparing to run. Now that he was looking, he could sense Robin in the trees around them, way too close to... wait.
"Hey!" Wally shouted, flashing an arm in the Boy Wonder's direction. Robin gave a startled 'eep' as the branch he'd been standing on suddenly moved out from under him, another limb reaching out to catch him as he begun to fall. "No touchie my stuff!"
Robin grinned cheekily, dangling from his ankles between Thorn and Batman, a few scattered magazines, some candy bars and an old Nintendo DS dropping to the floor below him.
"Pokemon?" Robin asked, pointing to the gaming device.
"Duh," Wally rolled his eyes.
"You went with Bulbasaur, didn't you?" He grinned cheekily, noting that a slight red tinge was rising in Thorn's usually green cheeks.
"And I'm guessing all of yours are flying or fighting?" Wally returned.
"...maybe," Robin said evasively, pouting mildly. He hadn't realized he was quite that predictable.
A low growl from Batman distracted the teens, as they remembered where exactly they were.
"Why are you here?" Wally asked, noting that Batman was holding a small flamethrower in his hand, which meant that trying to fight would not end pleasantly. "I haven't done anything wrong... recently."
"Why did you stop the Joker," Batman asked again.
"Yeah," Robin nodded, still dangling. "That was unexpected, and Bats kind of hates being surprised by super-villains."
"I'm not a super-villain," Wally said forcefully, the trees around him bristling as they felt his irritation.
"You're a meta-human who breaks the law on a regular basis," Batman informed him.
"That kinda qualifies you for a super-villain," Robin said simply.
Wally frowned, "But I'm not like them. Ivy and I are trying to make the world better for the environment, the Joker's just a monster."
"Okay, sure," Robin agreed, not really looking at Thorn as he pulled himself up so that he could see about releasing himself, "But you've never foiled his plans before. Why now?"
The emerald skinned teen was silent for a moment, before deciding it was safe to answer, "Harley showed up here yesterday and told me that the Joker was planning something. I was going to use it as a distraction to break into Arkham until I heard what it was."
Even with the cowl, Wally could tell that Batman was raising an eyebrow at him.
"Well it's not like I was gonna let him carve up a bunch of kids looking for Bird Boy!"
Batman and Robin watched as Thorn then proceeded to pinch the bridge of his nose, muttering about how he shouldn't have kept the bike because the thing probably had a GPS thing on it and of course they'd track him down.
As the chlorokinetic continued with berating himself, the Dynamic Duo shared a look, Robin momentarily abandoning his attempts at escape as he clasped his hands together in front of him and mouthed 'please' several times.
Behind the mask, Bruce Wayne sighed, he couldn't do what Dick was asking. He didn't have the authority.
"The police are on their way," he told the green boy, who nodded knowingly, "Are you going to come quietly?"
"Yeah," Thorn said dully, as the sound of sirens reached his ears, "Sure, whatever."