Author's Note: Not much to say here, I own nothing please review!
2. Take Down
The team regrouped as the plants slackened off their attack. Kid Flash grinned brushing the dirt of off his uniform. Superboy helped M'ggan to her feet, she had been struck pretty hard in the head severing their mental link.
"See Robin that wasn't so hard. Now all we have to do is find Ivy, right? Robin?" Kid Flash looked around and frowned. Artemis was frowning too nursing a few deep cuts.
"Anyone seen Robin at all since Superboy started the fight?" M'ggan shook her head and reached out mentally trying to find their youngest member. She felt something but it was wrong, like Robin's mind was muted or out of reach. She told the team as much and Superboy had the tact to look a bit guilty. They were about to start a search when the villainess they had forgotten about laughed from a tree above them.
"Welcome to my humble forest little kiddies! You seem to be missing a bitty baby bird." The team looked up and saw the flowery fem fatale sitting on a leaf twice her size looking down on them. Superboy growled up at the vine clad redhead. Kid Flash was the one who spoke however.
"What did you do to robin!?" Artemis glared up at Ivy as well grey blue eyes narrowing.
"Yeah give us back our friend!" Ivy laughed loudly.
"Very well you can have him back. Oh Robin!" A leaf just above Ivy unfolded and revealed Robin standing still as a statue. It barely looked like she was breathing at all. The leaf she was on glided on its vine down to Ivy who ran a hand through Robin's ebony hair. Robin didn't even twitch. The whites of her mask were glowing green and she wasn't moving even as Ivy continued to pet her head.
"Such a sweet little bird isn't he. He's a deadly little birdie too! Here I'll show you. Robin my sweet, kill them." Robin looked at her with a blank expression for a moment, then lunged down from the leaf catching the team completely off guard. Before Wally could move Robin hit him with a series of pinpointed hits to specific nerve clusters. He went down like a rock with a cry of surprise. He couldn't move. Robin moved in for the kill when Artemis tackled her away from him. Robin twisted as Superboy and M'ggan went after Ivy, only to be swatted away by her plants.
Robin pulled something from her belt and slapped it on Artemis's arm before twisting out of her grip. The device beeped and arched with electricity. Artemis screamed and writhed on the floor of the greenhouse. Robin turned toward M'ggan next. Superboy growled and lunged at the young crime fighter only to have her use him as a springboard to launch herself into the air and land on a higher branch of the large tree that served as the centerpiece of the greenhouse. Robin threw something from her belt towards Miss Martian. It exploded in mid air and M'ggan screamed as fire rained down on her. Superboy roared with anger as M'ggan passed out on the floor of the greenhouse. He punched the tree so hard branches rained down around him. Robin slipped and plummeted to the ground landing hard with a crack.
She didn't cry out. She just lay there her shoulder, on which she had landed, clearly dislocated. It was Ivy's turn to growl in frustration.
"Get up you useless bird brain! Get up! Finish them!" There was a crash from overhead and the giant shadow of Batman was cast on the floor of the greenhouse. Ivy shrieked in frustration as Robin pulled herself up, one arm dangling uselessly as she charged at Superboy. Batman spared a single glance at the team below, three of whom were laid out on the floor. Kid Flash was beginning to twitch slightly but he couldn't move just yet, Artemis was laid out with several electric burns running up and down her arm. M'ggan was unconscious and burned as well. Batman turned on Ivy and growled.
"Let him go Ivy!" Ivy grinned.
"Why would I do that? He's such the perfect pawn. Forget the baby boy scout, to me my little bird!" Robin changed direction mid flip and grabbed hold of one of the vines Ivy was controlling with her good arm and swung, slightly awkwardly but quickly up to Ivy to stand between her and Batman. Falling into a defensive stance Robin waited for orders. Batman didn't want to fight his protege. But it was looking like there wasn't much of a choice. Ivy glanced at the bat who was reaching for something in his belt. She sighed.
"You know Batman I don't feel like going back to Arkham today. So I think I'll take my leave but before I do, a parting gift for the dynamic duo." Ivy grabbed Robin by the shoulder and spun her around before grasping her chin and kissing her full on the lips. Batman cried out in anger, he knew what Ivy was doing. Her lips were filled with the deadliest mixture of plant venoms known. She released Robin who fell to her knees gasping for air. Black veins spread from her lips up across her face. Batman raced forward but Ivy tipped Robin backwards to fall out if the tree.
Batman dove after his partner without a second thought, he just barely caught her before she hit the ground. She was gasping like a fish out of water as the black veins spread across her entire face and down her neck. Batman grabbed a syringe from his belt and quickly uncapped it. He stabbed the needle into Robin's neck, injecting the anti venom directly into her system. Her breathing eased and she went limp in his arms. The black veins ceased their spreading and began to very slowly recede. The green glow faded leaving the eyes of her mask pure white for a moment before the eyes behind them slipped closed leaving only a sliver of white surrounded by black. Superboy was helping M'ggan to her feet as he glared at the limp form of their team member who had just tried, and nearly succeeded in killing most of them. Kid Flash stumbled to his feet and raced over to Robin.
"What happened? Is he ok?" Kid Flash looked imploringly up at Batman.
"We will have a full debriefing when we get back to the mountain. Miss Martian call the bioship." M'ggan, who had flown them to Gotham in the ship only four hours ago, nodded and did so. The ride back to Mount Justice was silent. Artemis woke up on the way to the bioship and insisted on staggering to the ship by herself. She kept glancing at Robin who still lay unmoving in her mentor's arms. The black veins were slowly receding but Robin looked like she was dying, maybe dead. Artemis knew all about Ivy's deadly lips, she had lived in Gotham her whole life after all. She'd seen people in body bags with the same black veins that were now fading from Robin's face. It was unnerving.
But what was more unnerving was the ease with which Robin had taken them down. They were all unnerved by that. Wally was helping her dress her burns and peel the device off her arm. M'ggan was driving the bioship while Superboy cleaned and wrapped her burns. Superboy kept throwing glares at the still prone Robin. Wally kept glancing at the acrobat but he didn't look mad, he looked upset and worried. None of them spoke as M'ggan pulled the bioship to a stop near the mountain.
"Aqualad, we're back. Could you open the bay doors?" Batman cut across Aqualad's reply.
"And prep the med bay. We have wounded. "the bay doors immediately began to open as Aqualad replied.
"Who was wounded?" Kid Flash rubbed his neck.
"Pretty much everybody Kaldur."
"Very well Red Tornado and I will have stretchers waiting in the landing bay. Aqualad out." True to his word there were stretchers waiting for each of them when M'ggan landed the bioship. Kid Flash raced, clumsily out of the bioship depositing a protesting Artemis on one of the stretchers before hopping onto one himself. He almost had his full freedom of movement back but it was still clumsy and slightly disjointed. Superboy helped M'ggan down the stairs and onto the stretcher glaring at the one that is clearly meant for him. He was fine. Kaldur gasped as Batman carried Robin down the ramp of the bioship.
She was still dead to the world in her mentor's arms. The veins had receded almost completely but they still stood out around Robin's slightly green lips in stark contrast to the paleness of her skin. She looked in bad shape as Batman carefully lay her down on the final stretcher and without a word wheeled the stretcher off towards the med bay. The rest of the team followed closely behind.