Jason really couldn't fault Dick for wanting to finish the analysis of everything that was running through Tim's system-not when quite a few of the substances were easily traced. Apparently, it was far harder to hide the transportation of certain illegal, endangered, and dangerous plants than either one of them had originally anticipated. That didn't, however, mean that Jason had to be happy about it. Dick's gloating that it had been the right move to make didn't improve Jason's mood any. Fortunately for them and unfortunately for whomever was receiving these plants, it hadn't actually taken them very long at all to find the warehouse where the shipments were being kept. Still, that was just one piece of the puzzle. There were still quite a few substances that they had no idea where they came from or how they came into play. Not to mention, they still had to figure out how someone was getting a hold of Bane's venom and why.
Despite all of that, Jason was still perfectly content with sitting on a rooftop overlooking a warehouse, if it got him away from Dick for awhile. His propensity to hover over the pretender's unconscious form was really starting to grate on Jason's nerves, and the last thing that he needed to deal with right now was Dick's habit of never shutting up. That said, Jason was itching for something to do right now. He had been sitting on this rooftop-freezing his butt off-for what felt like an eternity, and he hadn't seen anyone yet. The cold certainly wasn't making him any less irate, and it wasn't as though he ever really enjoyed surveillance to begin with. Honestly, he just wished that Tim would wake up already, so the kid could get back to being an obnoxious know-it-all, and Jason could back to not caring and not dealing with any of this.
He watched, silently grumbling to himself, as a figure approached the main entrance of the warehouse. Jason got into a crouch, waiting for the person to make a move. By the time the figure in question had finally entered the warehouse, Jason had decided he had had enough of this sitting around doing nothing bullshit, so he quickly followed the person in. It was almost surprisingly easy for him to slip past the security on the building, which only aggravated Jason further. He couldn't understand why someone had bothered to go to such an effort only to lax on security.
The reasoning for that, however, became apparent when he made it to the rafters, and saw what looked to be a florist's dreamland. There weren't a lot of people in Gotham who would bother stealing plants, no matter how valuable some of these things were. Jason inched his way across the beam he had perched on, and decided to take a look around. The warehouse had been turned into an effective greenhouse, but, given the time of year, artificial lightening was required to keep the plants alive. It was actually one of the ways they had discovered this place. That much electricity was sure to draw someone's attention, even if all of the windows in the place had been boarded up.
Jason paused when he noticed that the individual from before was standing in the middle of the warehouse. He wasn't actually all that surprised when the person removed their big, heavy, winter coat, and it turned out to be Poison Ivy standing there, stroking one of the plants. He just growled under his breath at Dick for being stupid, and reminded himself to shove that one in his brother's face later. It certainly might improve his night slightly. Jason continued spying on her from the rafters. He wasn't foolish, even if he hadn't been absolutely convinced that this was all Ivy's doing from the start, Jason had read enough about the side effects of some of these plants to come in prepared. He already made sure none of his skin had been exposed before he entered the building, and he was sure that his Red Hood mask would easily protect him from any airborne toxins.
Jason was about to leap down and interrogate her, when all of a sudden a green liquid began to rain down on the plants from the sprinkler system. Ivy made sure to stay out of way of the spray, which was a telling sign all on it's own. Jason was just happy to be above whatever that stuff was. He waited until the spray had died down, and then jumped off of his perch. He landed with a heavy thud behind her, just to see that moment of fear before she turned to face him. Her eyes narrowed when she caught sight of him. "You, what are you doing here?"
Jason glowered back, even though she couldn't see it behind his mask. "Why don't we just skip the usual back and forth, and you just tell me what the hell your plan is?"
Ivy glared at him mockingly. "You really don't understand how this game is played, do you?"
Jason had started off his night agitated, and it was only getting worse by the second. "Fine, why don't you just tell me what the hell the green spray was, and then I can kick your ass, and we can all get back to our regularly scheduled evening."
She smiled sourly at him, and then moved to brush her fingers over one of the nearby plants. "Oh, that? Nothing much. Just some nutrients for my babies-with a little of Bane's venom mixed in, of course. I find it just makes them so much more feisty."
Jason's eyes widen at that. They had assumed that the venom was used to specifically make people more aggressive...not the plants. This was definitely going to be a problem, especially now that Jason was surrounded by the overgrown vegetation. He braced for a fight as he reached for his guns, but before he even got a chance to wrap his fingers around one of them, the plants started attacking. He flipped backwards, out of the way of a couple of them coming at him from the sides, ducked three of them trying to take his head off, and then started shooting at the ones trying to curl around his legs. Between the vines attempting to coil around him, the noxious gasses some of the plants were secreting, and the deadly looking thorns various others were shooting at him, Jason knew that he was in trouble.
He realized before this fight had even started that there was no way that he was going to be able take on all of the plants, especially now that they had Bane's venom pumping through their every cell, but that didn't mean that he wasn't going to try. Jason made his way back up to the rafters, shooting at the plants trying to twist around his legs to immobilize him. Then he turned his attention to the climbing plants making their way up the walls. He wasn't surprised that Ivy had slipped out while he was in the midst of trying to stay alive, but, unfortunately, he didn't have time to worry about that right now. Jason was really starting to wish that he had come here with some flame throwers, or, at the very least, some backup. He was just about to make his exit through one of the skylights-and hopefully catch Ivy-when Jason realized that the plants would probably follow him through his escape route. The last thing that Jason felt like dealing with right now was tracking down a bunch of deadly plants running around the city while Ivy was on the loose.
He sighed to himself as he took a moment to reload his guns. It didn't matter that he was severely out numbered, or that he didn't exactly have the right equipment to deal with unnaturally vicious plants. Jason had absolutely no intention of being beaten by a bunch of overgrown flowers. He figured that if he could just thin out their numbers a little bit, by focusing on the truly dangerous looking ones, then he could take care of the less life-threatening ones with his knives. Jason aimed for the largest plants with thorns, and began firing at them as he moved across the rafters. He then turned his guns on the even larger ones expelling some sort of gas. He wasn't exactly expecting the gas to ignite, but that really only worked in his favor. At least, that was until the sprinkler system kicked on.
Jason cursed loudly as the plants grew even larger, thanks to the venom filled water spraying down on them. This was certainly not his night, and now he was going to have to go through the decontamination process, if he somehow managed to make it out of this. Jason growled as he pulled a handful of explosive pellets from one of his hidden pockets. He threw them at the plants still spewing toxins, and then made his way to the ground once more. He pulled out his knives, and began slicing and hacking at anything green that came close enough to attack. It wasn't enough, and Jason knew that it wasn't going to be before he had even started. However, that didn't stop him.
He felt something curl around his left ankle, but before he could reach down to slice it off there was another tendril twisting around his right wrist. Jason spun as much as he could in order to avoid the plant trying to wrap itself around his other wrist, and moved to cut himself out the grasp of the other two plants. He had freed his wrist, and bent to remove the vegetation from his ankle, when suddenly there was something coiling around his neck, and choking him as he was pulled to the floor. He tried to bring one of the knives up, in order to cut himself free, but the plants had already restrained both of his hands. Jason struggled against the green appendages trapping him, but to no avail.
It was getting hard to focus, and he was starting to see dark spots form at the edges of his vision. He needed to get a hand free or something, and soon. Jason tried twisting one of his arms free, but the tendril around his wrist only tightened its hold. Jason was infuriated, there was no way that he was going to allow a plant to be responsible for his second death, and certainly not by asphyxiating him. He continued straining against the various plants holding onto him, but nothing seemed to work. Jason was honestly considering just giving up, when he heard the distinctive sound of a blade slicing through foliage.
Jason's head abruptly hit the floor with a small thud as he sucked in oxygen. Coughing past his sore throat, he turned his head just enough to see Nightwing land in front of him, and start kicking plant ass. Jason didn't waste any time before cutting himself free and rolling back onto his feet. "Not that I'm complaining, but what the hell are you doing here?"
Dick slashed through the plant in front of him with one knife, flipped over another, and threw three batarangs at the one attacking Jason. "You didn't answer your comm. So, I came to see what kind of trouble you got yourself into this time."
Jason huffed out a breath as he dodged another plant from behind. He was just happy that the sprinkler system had shut off before Nightwing had jumped into the fray, given that Dick's mask left most of his face exposed. "I didn't answer it, because I left it at the cave. I didn't want you getting bored and deciding that talking my ear off was a good way to past time."
Dick kicked out at one plant, twisted underneath the reach of another, and then stabbed the one right in front of him until it was lying on the floor in pieces. "You realize that had you brought your comm, then you could have called for backup, right?"
Jason would have turned around and glared had he not been in the middle of trying not to fall on the wet floor, while evading multiple plants. "Could you maybe lecture me about comm protocol when we're not being attacked by a bunch of Ivy's mutant plants that have been doused in Bane's venom?"
Dick slid out of the way of a strike that probably would have incapacitated him had it connected, and then started hacking away at the offending vegetation. "Wait, Ivy's using Bane's venom on her plants? Well, that explains why they're so vicious."
Jason rolled his eyes behind his mask, as he pull out more explosive pellets, and tossed them at the plants moving to ambush Dick. "Yeah, yeah, a little less talking and a little more plant killing."
Dick laughed as he spun away from another plant attack. "Why can't I do both?"
Jason growled as he sprang forward, and began mutilating a plant that had been shooting seedpods at them. "I'm starting to think that it really would kill you to shut up for awhile."
Dick smirked as he moved to take out a plant that was just about to stab Jason with its thorns. "Who knows? It might, so why risk it?"
Jason rolled his eyes again and resumed cutting down all of the plants surrounding him. "You know, if we make it out of this, I'm going to kick your ass later."
Dick spun away from a plant trying to strangle him, as he tossed a few explosive pellets of his own toward a group of plants trying to crowd him from the left side of the warehouse. "Why? I'm not the one who got in over his head with a bunch of plants."
Jason simply ignored him as they continued to fight. It wasn't as though he could necessarily argue that, and now wasn't really the time anyway. It felt like it took forever, and Jason was angry at how sore he was after the fight-after all, they were just plants-but together they had managed to take down every last one of the overgrown flowers. Jason had decided to let Dick gather the information from the office, while he made sure all of the plants were down for good.
When Dick finished gathering everything he could find, he wiped the computers, and then made his way back to the cave with Jason in tow. Neither one of them was pleased that they had to go through the decontamination process, but it was a necessary evil after everything they had gone through. They were both tired and sore, but they still spent hours going over every scrap of information they had collected from the warehouse. It was a long and tedious process of comparing the new information to everything they already had, including Tim's blood work, and it only aggravated Jason more.
He suddenly pushed away from the desk, and began rubbing his eyes. "If I have to look at one more chemical analysis, I'm going to put my fist through this computer screen."
Dick paused in what he was doing long enough to glance over at Jason. This case was eating up pretty much all of their time. Neither one of them had taken a real break yet, and it was obviously taking its toll on them. Dick tentatively laid a hand on Jason's shoulder, clearly not sure how the other man would react to the physical contact. "You should probably take a break. Maybe get some sleep. I've got this covered, and Alfred is taking care of Tim."
Jason shook his head. It was one thing being here when he was awake, but Jason really didn't feel comfortable being unconscious in this place. "Nah, I'm fine. I just hate this part of the job."
Dick laughed at that, as he turned back towards his work. "You always did."
Jason could feel the silence turning into an uncomfortable one, and he couldn't stand it. It was difficult enough to be here when things were going well between them. "I guess we're lucky that Ivy decided to slip out without all of this stuff, huh?"
Dick smiled slightly at the change of subject, before his face suddenly fell. "You don't think that she left this stuff for us to deliberately find, do you?"
Jason shook his head. "No, I doubt it. I mean, she seemed genuinely surprised and enraged when I showed up. Not to mention, I really don't think that she expected me to survive, let alone escape with all of this stuff."
Dick shrugged at that. "If you say so. I'm not looking forward to tracking her down, but we've got to figure out what else is still running through Tim's system if we have any intention of concocting an antidote. At least we know what Bane's venom is being used for now."
Jason sighed heavily as he slumped further into his chair. "Yeah, but we still don't know how she's getting her hands on it."
"I think we should focus on one problem at a time, don't you?"
Jason shrugged as he sat forward again. "I don't know. It might be time to pay Bane a visit. It's not like they couldn't be working together, you know?"
Dick shook his head at that idea. "Let's not go tracking him down until we at least have Poison Ivy back in custody. The last thing we need right now is another heavy hitter on our hands."
Jason's eyes narrowed at that. "If this is your way of putting this off until Bruce and the demon spawn are back in town..."
Dick held up his hand to stop Jason from continuing on his rant. "Look, this isn't a conspiracy. I'm not suicidal enough to trap you and Bruce in a room alone together. It's just factual. There's only so much that the two of us can handle alone, and with Tim out of commission, Bruce and Damian off world, and the two of us at our wits' ends I'd rather not get in over our heads."
Jason couldn't argue that logic, but he really wanted to. This was turning into the case from hell, and quite frankly, Jason was starting to wonder why he was even bothering to stick around. Sure, he owed Tim, but he was beginning to question how much he really owed him. "Yeah, fine, whatever. Let's just get back to work."
The two of them were silent for another three hours while they worked until suddenly Dick pushed his chair away from the desk, and flipped into a headstand. He began pacing the length of the cave while Jason just stared at him. "Problem, Dickie?"
Dick rolled down into a controlled fall, sprung back up, flipped twice, landed on his feet, and then resumed walking around on his hands. "I just need to move. It doesn't make any sense. We've been working for hours. We've identified almost everything that's in Tim's system, except for those last few substances. We figured out where it's all coming from, and how Ivy is getting a hold of it, except for Bane's venom, and those other unidentified chemicals. What I don't get is the end goal here? What's it all for?"
Jason was just about to suggest that they both take a break for a while when one name in particular stuck out on one of the shipping reports that Dick had been looking over. "I think I know."
Dick flipped back onto his feet and rushed over to Jason. "You do?"
Jason nodded as he pointed to one of the many printouts spread out on the desk. "Yeah, I recognize this particular company's name."
Dick glanced at the paper before staring at Jason with a raised eyebrow. "Oh? How do you recognize it?"
Jason glared at him for a moment. "What? Surprised I know something?"
Dick shook his head as he sunk down into his seat. "I didn't say that. It's just..."
Jason made a motion with his hand for Dick to stop. "You know what? It doesn't matter. The company is a logging company that I've been looking into. They've been selling drugs in their off hours. I was planning to go bust some heads once this case was dealt with, but it looks like Ivy got there before me."
Dick stared at him for a moment disbelievingly. "So, what? Ivy just happened to be sending these Bane venom infused plants to the same logging company that you were planing to take down? That seems a little convenient."
Jason shrugged as he continued looking over the paperwork. "Well, I doubt she knew anything about the drug operation. She was probably just upset over the whole killing trees thing."
Dick sighed. "Well, it is her MO, but it still seems a little too convenient."
Jason slumped back into his chair as he yawned. "Hey, weren't you the one who said we should focus on one problem at a time? Besides, we should probably just be grateful that thanks to our little impromptu plant shredding, we stopped the shipment of killer plants to this place."
Dick nodded as he leaned further into his own chair. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It just seems a little strange, that's all."
Jason shrugged again. He was tired and more than a little frustrated with everything going on. "Look, short of paying that place a visit I don't really see what we can do."
Dick sighed heavily once more. "I know, I know, and we should probably focus on figuring out what else is in Tim's system and how it got there before we do anything else."
Jason stared at Dick for a moment. He didn't like seeing that dejected look on the other man's face, but he wasn't really sure what to do about it. After a moment of indecision, Jason slowly lifted his hand, and placed it on Dick's shoulder, before squeezing gently. It was awkward, but Jason didn't know what else to do. "We'll figure it out, Dick."
Dick smiled slightly at the reassurance. "I know we will, Jason. I know we will."
The End (for now)
