January 21, 1995

12:01 PM

Gotham City Hall

Finally, someone outside of Gordon was going to help me. That was all I could think as I watched Harvey Dent take his oath as he was being sworn in as District Attorney of Gotham City. While I wasn't in my typical attire, I wasn't really watching this as Bruce Wayne. Only a very small part of Bruce Wayne actually cared who the District Attorney was. However, for Batman, this was everything. For the passed six months, I had been doing research on each of the candidates and Dent definitely seemed to be the only one that would really work with me. He should have won the election two years ago but he was forced out of the running by a lack of funds.

Needless to say, The Wayne Foundation made sure that was not a problem this time around.

"I make a promise to you all that the days of The Joker and his like running this city are over. From now on, criminals won't get away with paying public officials. Anyone that makes a deal with a criminal is a criminal as well and will be prosecuted to the fullest extend of the law. No one, and I mean no one, gets a free pass!"

Dent's speech was impassioned and caused an uproar within the crowd. Now, it was just up to me to determine whether or not he meant it.

Later that evening, Dent made the mistake of leaving his office for a couple minutes. That gave Robin and me the time we needed to slip inside and conceal ourselves. A few minutes later, Dent came back in and took his seat behind his desk. Instantly, I stepped forward and gave a small cough.

The effect was as desired. Dent nearly fell out of his chair. Within moments, he had done his best to try and remain calm while placing everything that he had knocked over when he fell back in its rightful place.

"Gordon told me to be expecting you. I thought I was." he replied softly. His voice was much less forced when he wasn't speaking to a large crowd. As hard as it may be to believe, it sounded more sincere this way.

"We need to talk."

"About what?" Dent asked.

"You spoke today about a city on trial. Did you mean it?"

"Of course I meant it. All I want to see is Gotham returned to the glory that it enjoyed when the Waynes were alive. Since their death, this place has gone to hell. All I want is to bring that back."

"Good. Now, I trust that you have no problem with my arrangement with Gordon."

"None."

"Fine. I'll give you any information that I give to Gordon."

"How often can I expect to hear from you?"

It was Robin that answered.

"As often as you need to."

January 24, 1995

4:59 AM

The Batcave

"Dick, if I have to tell you once, I'll tell you a million times, my orders are orders. You don't get to pick and choose which ones you listen to and which ones you ignore." I growled at Dick.

He had once again gone against my implicit orders. This time, we had gone against a relatively new foe: Poison Ivy. Up until a few years ago, she had been Dr. Pamela Isley, a botanist working in Coast City. However, Dr. Jason Woodrue, her boss on the project she was working on, experimented and tortured her for months in their laboratory in Indonesia. When he was done with her, Pamela Isley was gone. The toxins that he had run through her system had had an horrifying effect. Her blood had somehow absorbed the qualities of the poisons and she was now incredibly toxic to other humans. Even her saliva could kill a fully grown man in less than two minutes if he ingested it.

Woodrue had made the mistake of letting Ivy's restraints go during one of his experiments. During her imprisonment, her mind had been addled. Whether this was a result of torture, captivity or the toxins, we will never be sure. However, we do know that she killed Woodrue and escaped with a hatred for men and anyone that dared hurt her "kin," otherwise known to people as plants.

She had really started to become known to the public within the last year. Last March, she tried to take over The First National Bank in Gotham by using another ability granted to her by Woodrue. She could secrete a pheromone that is irresistible to the average person. Using this ability, she convinced everyone within the bank to become a human shield for her as she attempted to steal money so she could fund her future criminal activities. Thankfully, Robin and I aren't what you would consider "average" and we were able to resist her allure and take her down.

However, due to the miscommunication between Jeremiah Arkham and one of his psychiatrists, she was released to an out-patient treatment program at Gotham General Hospital. Needless to say, she never showed up for those. She had been out for almost three months when decided that last night, she wanted to own Robinson Park. While we managed to capture her, things didn't necessarily go exactly as planned.

11:22 PM

Robinson Park

"Batman, Gordon said that Ivy called Mayor Hill about fifteen minutes ago." Robin said to me. Apparently the radio had gone off. I had been too busy trying to plan our assault on Robinson Park.

"And?"

"Apparently her only request is that we stay away from the Park." I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was surprised by her small request. So was I.

"Who's we?"

"Just us."

"She specifically said the two of us?" I asked him.

"Batman and Robin are to stay away from Robinson Park. That's what Gordon said she told the Mayor."

"Great."

We sat for several minutes as I did what I could to formulate a plan. Suddenly, Robin spoke up again.

"Do you think the rumors are true?"

"What?"

"Well, there are rumors that her powers have continued to mutate and they've given her the ability to control plants for a limited amount of time. Do you think it's true?"

"What do you think?" I asked him, encouraging him to think more.

"I think that we've seen some pretty weird stuff. All I'm saying is a woman who could control plants and spit poison wouldn't be the weirdest thing we've been up against."

"That's it?" I asked him, trying not to sound too disappointed with his apparent lack of interest in thinking things more thoroughly. Apparently, I did a poor job of hiding it.

"If she survived having numerous lethal doses of plant poison shoved into her body, I think there is also a high probability that she could have limited control over plants. Better?"

"Much. Now, listen up. We're going to have to go in separate and silent. Now, if she does have control over plants, then we're probably going to be sensed the moment we enter the park. However, I believe that she will let us get to her."

"Why? If she really controls the plants, she could just down us the second we tried to get close."

"True. But as crazy as she is, she's also vain. She enjoys the attention she gets from the two of us. She'll let us get close and then she'll attack. I have a feeling she'll go for you first."

"What?"

"You aren't her age. I am. As much as she is out to control everyone else, she is largely out of control. Her actions are usually controlled by what her body feels."

"Great. So because I'm not her type, I'm gonna get wrapped up into some crazy Venus Flytrap."

"It's possible. So have a Batarang in your hand at all times. Whatever you do, don't drop them."

"OK. So what is the plan, other than "don't drop them" of course?" he said with a smirk.

"We'll separate and come from opposite ends of the park. I'm going to go in quick and try and get there first. I want you to go in slow and watch your surroundings. Try and find the emptiest location you can and set a heat bomb there. Worst case scenario we have to blow it up. She'll be so concerned with the plants that we'll be able to take her down easy."

"That's it? Just go in separate?" Robin asked in surprise.

"She's picked a good location that she can control. There's no special way of getting there other than on foot."

"Fine. Let's do it."

About twenty minutes later, I had glided towards the south end of the park with Robin heading north. The park was long and I knew it would take me some time to get to the center where she was sure to be located. Of course with me it would take significantly less time than the usual person. Once I made sure that I wasn't going to get attacked by some crazy petunias, I took off at a hard jog.

After about six minutes of running and seeing nothing, I came upon something very strange. In the time it had taken me to run from the edge of the park, a large dome made of thick vines had been formed around the center of the park. It seems that the rumors of her cholorkinesis was true.

However, I noticed something else. Something even more strange. At the base of the done was an arch, a small void of space just big enough for a person to get through. I immediately made my way towards it and sure enough, I looked inside and there was Poison Ivy standing there in all her leafy glory. All she wore was a green unitard that seemed to be made of leaves.

Unfortunately, I had been so caught up in noticing her that I had failed to see something else initially. She had Robin strung up from the ceiling. In fact, it seemed that she had made a gallows out of plant life and then suspended it twenty-five feet in the air. I had a sneaking suspicion that Robin hadn't been as patient as I wanted him to be.

"Come out, Batman. I know you're there. I've always known." Ivy said from her platform. Her silky voice was already getting to me and she had only said one thing.

Not wanting to give her any reason to drop Robin, I moved through the arch and into the center of the domed area.

"What do you want, Ivy?" I snarled at the red head.

Instead of answering me, she stood up from her plant throne and made her way down towards me. As she slunk her way towards me, I noticed Robin shifting up above me. Maybe he did have a way to salvage what mistake he had probably made to get himself into this mess.

Up close, Ivy was beautiful. And not because her pheromone said so, although that didn't hurt her cause. She placed her hand on my chest and slowly started trying to caress my face. Needless to say, I was not excited about this.

"I just want a kiss." she said, her voice dropping to a sultry alto.

"We've been through this Ivy. I've said no before and I'll say it again." I replied quickly.

She immediately hardened up and I knew that I had probably just made things difficult for myself.

"Fine. Then, I guess I'll just have to drop the Boy Blunder."

"You don't have to do that."

"Oh but I do Batman." she snarled at me.

Suddenly, she turned away from me and threw her arms towards Robin. That when a few things happened very quickly. Robin had obviously stashed a Batarang somewhere because before she could lower the platform and drop Robin to his death, he was able to cut himself free. Secondly, Robin had obviously not hidden his heat bomb somewhere outside the dome. Instead, he must have thrown it behind him and attached it to the wall as he was being strung up. Finally, with a swift, hard blow to the head, Poison Ivy was out cold.

"See! It all works out in the end!" Robin yelled from his perch.

"Get down here now! We'll be trapped in here to die if we don't get moving!"

Without a moment's hesitation, he launched himself towards the dome's exit. Thankfully, Ivy seemed to truly be unconscious and Robin was able to get through. I deftly picked up Ivy and sprinted towards the hole.

Moments later, Robin and I were far enough away that we were able to turn and watch as the whole dome went up in flames. I turned to Robin, enraged.

"We'll talk about this later." I whispered, doing my best to control the fury that burned within me. "Take Ivy back to Arkham. I'll talk to Gordon and work with the GCFD to get this fire out. When you get her back, you tell them that she needs to go in a contained cell. I'll give Arkham the money he needs to make sure she's kept. Once you're done with that, you go home."

"WHAT? It's only a little after midnight!" Robin screamed at me in protest.

"You ignored my orders again. We'll talk about it when I get home. You are to go back to the Cave and operate the computers until I get back."

Without saying another word, Robin grabbed Ivy and took off, leaving me alone with Robinson Park slowly burning to the ground.

4:59 AM

The Batcave

Finally, I was back. I had to admit that I was surprised to still see Dick sitting at the computer, filtering through evidence of recent cases. I will also admit that during the rest of my evening out, my anger at him at most subsided. However, seeing him again sparked it up. So, once I showered and changed, I laid into him.

"Dick, if I have to tell you once, I'll tell you a million times, my orders are orders. You don't get to pick and choose which ones you listen to and which ones you ignore." I growled at Dick.

Instantly, he stopped what he was doing turned and stood up. I knew that this was going to be unpleasant.

"It worked, didn't it? You said she was probably going to try and go after me. So, I made sure I got there first so she wouldn't have any choice." Dick said as he tried to explain himself.

"It doesn't matter that it worked, Dick, and it's not even that I don't trust you to make the right choice or that you can't handle it." I replied.

"Well, then what is it?" Dick screamed at me.

"It's that we had a plan already in place. One that we had both agreed upon. Then, without any notification, you decided that you wanted to change the plan."

"My plan was better." Dick muttered softly.

"YOUR PLAN BURNED A LARGE MAJORITY OF ROBINSON PARK TO THE GROUND, DICK!"

"So what? I burned some trees down. You can afford to replace them." Dick replied like the wise-ass he was.

"You can't replace something like that, Dick. Robinson Park was a Gotham City Historical Landmark. Now, it's just a big pile of ash. Millions of people use that park every year. How many of them can afford to replace the park? One? Two, maybe three? Dick, I'm not trying to tell you that your plan didn't work. It did. Ivy is back in Arkham and at the end of the day, that's the most important thing."

"But?" Dick said obviously sensing it coming.

"You can't just consider the end. You have to consider the means to the end. In some cases, blowing up a park or a building may be our only option. However, I strongly believe that we could have easily taken down Ivy without blowing up Robinson Park. Plus, I asked you to put it away from the center of the park for a reason. The center of the park had the most dense forest area in the whole park. More trees to burn."

"What's your point, Bruce? I know that I shouldn't have blown the heat bomb up in the center of the park, but other than that, what's your point?"

"Dick, my point is that if you keep abandoning orders, or at the very least leaving me in the dark about what your new plans are, I can't trust you completely. Don't get me wrong. I trust you implicitly. I do. But if you want to change the plan, you can't just do it. As much as I know you hate it, this is still my ship to pilot. You knew that when you got into this."

Dick stood there in silence for a few moments. Finally, he appeared to collect himself and speak up.

"I just wanted to get her. That's it." Dick said softly.

"I know you did. That's why I'm not suspending you. In the end, I know that you had the best interests in mind. Now go to bed. You still have to go to school tomorrow. Don't even both asking Alfred."

"I know."

Dick was upstairs and probably in bed before I even sat down at computer. I worked until eight and then went upstairs and showered. Finally by ten, I was at the office, working on how it would be possible to buy out LexCorp.

No rest for the person stopping the wicked, either.