Tyler National Bank, Jump City
"Hands up!" Huntress pointed her crossbow at the first teller she saw as she and her impromptu gang ("the Hunters") strolled through the front door of the bank. The teller held their hands up, face fairly blank but a slight drop of sweat dripping from their brow.
"Hello ma'am. How much would you like to withdraw today?" The teller said nonchalantly.
"The whole vault, please." Huntress said, playing along with the teller's calmness. They were likely insured up the wazzoo, it made sense to just do what Huntress said.
"Cops are probably already on their way. Hey! Hands where I can see you, fatty." Snart appeared next to Huntress and pointed his laser rifle at the only security guard who was sitting at a nearby table. He set down his coffee that he had been holding, sighing.
"You're up, guys." Huntress said the to the two behind her. Without much ado Blockbuster barreled forward, ripping his way through the bars of the bank vault. Together with Croc, he ripped off the vault door. Croc slipped inside and began gathering up as much cash as she could, making a strange animal-like chipping sound as she did. Helena thought it might be laughter.
She looked at her watch as the muscle piled up bags and bags of cash by the door, while Huntress and Leonard moved all the employees and patrons to one single part of the bank where they could be held as "hostages".
"They're taking a while." Huntress said with a frown.
"What was that?" Leonard said from nearby with a raised eyebrow. Huntress shook her head.
"Nothing. Let's get out of here." Huntress said, and with a wave the gang moved right out the front door.
"Thank you for visiting Tyler National Bank." The teller said blankly as the robbers moved out of the bank. Huntress smiled and waved as she left, following her gang out of the front door and turning just in time to see Blockbuster and Killer Croc launching two police cars out of the blockade. She joined Leonard in providing covering fire as the group moved across the street towards an alleyway.
"Where the hell is Oliver? He loves this kind of stuff." She thought to herself with a frown as the group moved towards a nearby man-hole. They jumped down the hole, Blockbuster going last as he threw a dumpster at the various police officers that were firing at them.
"Where the hell are the vigilantes?" Ra's asked over the comm in Helena's ear. She shrugged.
"No clue. Maybe they're taking a vacation?" She whispered as the group advanced towards a more open area - one that Leonard recognized as the place where Agent Napier had originally planned to take The Green Arrow to torture him into revealing information about the man who killed Mick Rory.
"Hello, my name is Lex and I'll be your guide for this tour." A voice suddenly called out from above. The group stopped in their tracks, all looking around.
"What the hell was that?" Leonard said while Croc was sniffing the walls nearby him.
"Can't tell. Smell of shit is too strong down here." Croc said.
"That's probably just your B.O." A new voice called from the blackness, which moments later was illuminated with a brilliant green light. It rushed towards the group, impacting them like a car crash. Huntress fell over, vision getting foggy as she tried to gain her bearings. There was a splash behind her, she spun around, just in time for a sword to slice her crossbow in two, quickly following by Snart's own gun.
"Did you miss me?" The silver armored woman from earlier said with a smile. Leonard reached for a back-up weapon, but there was a *swoosh* sound from behind the armored woman and suddenly Huntress and Snart found themselves tied up in a rope that tied very tightly around them.
"Ollie!" Helena said with conflicted emotion as the Green Arrow appeared next to Athene. Blockbuster and Croc both moved towards the duo, but the green light from before came out shaped like a hammer. Croc narrowly got ahead of it, but Blockbuster was caught by the hammer and slammed into the wall once, twice, then three times. The hammer formed into a giant hand holding Blockbuster as John Stewart stepped out of the darkness with his hands on his sides and a smile on his face.
"Move!" Athene said, throwing Green Arrow out of the way as Croc landed on her. Once again she was reminded that this reptilian creature was stronger than she thought, and she felt the air leave her lungs as she pushed back hard against the attack. Croc growled as a trick arrow hit her foot, wrapping it up. With a grunt Croc broke the rope and lunged again at Athene in a blind fury, for which she was rewarded with a sharp cut to the arm.
Green Arrow narrowed his eyes as he fired the same trick arrow once, twice, and then three times, now wrapping Croc's feet even more to the nearby wall. This time she was slowed down for longer, and she looked down at her feet to remove the rope with her talons. This gave Athene the perfect opportunity as she barreled right at Croc, impacting her with her shield and sending the creature flying backwards - right into John's glowing hammer fist which sent the crocodilian creature crashing to the cold and smelly floor of the sewer.
"That was fun!" John said, and the new trio turned to survey the damage they had caused - this was a lot better than the bank, which they would later find out was thoroughly booby trapped in anticipation of Arrow and Athene attacking.
"Don't celebrate yet." Snart said and suddenly there was a flash of light. Though none of them could react in time to cover their eyes, all three focused their eyes to try to catch the escape path of the villain as Snart inevitably sprinted away from the scene. Oliver felt a small rush of air right past him, but was not fast enough to grab Snart as he quickly disappeared.
Their eyesight recovered a few moments later, and Oliver saw that Athene's boot was on Huntress's throat, John had Blockbuster tied up, and Croc was still groggy from the beating she had gotten from the group.
"Three out of four isn't bad, all things considered." Lex said over the comms.
"So I can still open the bottle of champagne?" Harley's voice followed, although distantly.
"Uh, this is my headset. I offered you one earlier but -" Lex tried to explain, but he was cut off by a popping sound and loud cheering.
"Harley, that's my computer!" Barbara was heard rushing in the background.
"Don't party too much without us. We still got to drop these uglies off for the police." John said with a smile as the trio dragged their various villain catches out of the sewers to the waiting police squadron above. Officer Grant appeared at the head of the group to give a nod to the vigilantes.
"I don't know who the hell most of you are, but I'm glad you guys are here. Thanks." Grant said.
"Yeah." Athene said, jumping to a nearby roof and disappearing.
"Sure thing!" Green Lantern responded to the officer with a smile before flying away.
"I guess that's my cue." Green Arrow said with a shrug, launching a grappling arrow in the distance and flying away.
"What a colorful group." Ted said with a soft smile.
"Yeah, what a bunch of assholes." Laurel said, standing next to him with her arms folded.
Elsewhere...
"Wake up…" the voice tugged at Selina Kyle's brain like a fishhook.
"Uhhhh…"
"Wake up, Ms Kyle. It's all over."
Slowly, painfully, Selina opened her eyes, fighting not to shrink away. She couldn't remember much of the last…however much time had passed, or even know how long she'd been in this place. But she could remember the pain, the oceans of pain that had threatened to drown her before she'd finally passed out.
As her vision cleared, she saw Pamela Isley standing over her. "It's all over," the scientist repeated. "And it was a complete success, better than I'd ever hoped for."
Selina coughed slightly. "Water. Please…"
Isley frowned, then nodded quickly. "Oh! Of course. I quite forgot – you must be thirsty indeed, you poor dear. You'd have become quite dehydrated."
She disappeared briefly, then reappeared, a tall glass in her right hand. Gently, almost tenderly, she reached behind Selina's head with her left hand and lifted her up slightly, carefully tipping the water into her mouth. A little dripped down onto Selina's neck…but somehow, that seemed to be soaked up by Selina, adding to the water she was drinking.
"What…" Selina began, then froze.
She'd caught sight of her arms, still tethered to the sides of her gurney. Her mind shrieked at her as she realised that her skin had turned deep, dark green. "What have you done to me?" she growled, fear and anger welling up inside her in equal measure.
"Have a look…"
Suddenly, the gurney was rising again, propping Selina up into a sitting position. The wall opposite now had a mirror hanging from it. Selina stared, eyes wide open.
Every part of her that she could see – her arms, her feet, her head and shoulders – her skin was the same deep green. And…she gasped. Her dark, glossy hair was gone, leaving an entirely smooth head and scalp.
"My initial mistake," Isley said, "was to work with large plants – flowers, cacti, creepers, that kind of thing. And my early experiments were regrettably crude. But as I refined my techniques, I also refined the material used. In this case: the material was a genetically-engineered lichen, minute enough to thrive and spread within the body without interfering with functioning." She smiled. "And rather than being an 'add-on', the lichen has reacted exactly as I'd hoped. It's effectively become a part of you, joined in a mutual, symbiotic fusion."
Selina was still staring. "What…what happened to my hair?"
To her surprise, Isley looked somewhat abashed. "That was…an unforeseen consequence. Unfortunately, it seems that the lichen prevents hair from growing, and destroys the roots of any already present." She forced a small smile. "Though on the plus side, it'll mean you never have to shave your legs again."
Selina felt rage wash through her, and she flailed her right arm in an angry motion.
She wasn't expecting the handcuff restraining her arm to break. Or for a beaker to suddenly go flying across the room.
Isley beamed. "Ah, now you see what the procedure did besides the cosmetic."
Selina looked down at her arms. Then, experimentally, yanked against the other cuff. It gave easily with a loud popping sound, chain breaking. Reaching over, she took hold of one of the safety bars on the side of the gurney and pulled at it. It cracked apart.
"You've…boosted my strength," she said, voice stunned.
"By quite a remarkable degree. You may need some time to train a bit, but…I'd guess you'll be as strong as that wretched Athene. Certainly, you'll be considerably stronger than my failed experiments, who were themselves superior in strength to any normal human."
As Selina looked down at her hands, she heard Isley continue. "But that's only one of the options now available to you. For one: while the lichen is perfectly safe for you, when you focus you can exude a highly powerful neurotoxin through your pores. I'll teach you how, of course. For another…well, as you just saw with the beaker, the process has considerably altered your brain chemistry. In particular, it mutated that part of the brain that governs certain abilities once thought impossible."
"You mean…telekinesis?" Selina's mind was racing.
"Just so. Now, this does require a great deal of energy, but here we come to the absolute beauty of your modification. While you can still eat if you want, you can take in energy directly through UV light, you can absorb nutrients from soil – in fact, I'd recommend that you immerse yourself in nutrient-rich mud at least once or twice a week – and you don't need to drink water, you can simply absorb it. So as long as you have access to soil, UV light and water, you could go without food indefinitely…and you'll always have a large surplus of energy to allow you to use telekinetic abilities.
Selina nodded. "Can I ask a question?" she asked, forcing her voice to remain steady.
"Of course."
"Did you really think you could…change me, warp my body against my will, violate me…and trust me not to use these abilities on you?"
She was grabbing for Isley's neck even as she said that, ready to see just how strong she was, ready to unleash her hatred…when suddenly, she felt her her limbs fall limp of their own accord.
"Not really. But I did trust in my own abilities." Isley smiled brightly. "Among my other talents, one is being able to…well, there's a long explanation involving pheromones, but the upshot is that I can control plants. Now, with normal, unaltered plants, it's a fairly useless ability – all I can really make them do is grow faster, go into bloom early, that kind of thing – but I can issue all sorts of commands to plants that I engineered. And right now, your body is inextricably linked with one such plant." Her smile turned slightly wicked. "Also…"
Suddenly, Selina felt her hatred flow away. No, she didn't want to kill Isley, she admired her, she'd be willing to lay down her life to see Isley's aims met…
As suddenly as it had come, the feeling was gone. "By issuing commands to the lichen linked to your brain, I can control your thoughts, your emotions, everything. Now, I prefer not to – you're of use to me as you are – but if you were to misbehave, I'd make such control permanent."
Selina hissed. "What now, then? More experiments? Or do you just want to torture me for the hell of it?"
She wasn't expecting the slap that followed. "Keep a civil tongue in your head, or I'll disable your speech centre," Isley said coldly. "I'm willing to do anything to advance my research or to further my ultimate mission, but I'm not a sadist. I don't inflict pain for its own sake." She took a deep breath, then continued more calmly. "Having improved you, there are two things I desire from you now. One is to monitor you, to observe you in preparation for making this process more widely available. This won't be anything too onerous: a few questions each day; recording and filming you at times; blood samples at intervals. The other…well, with your abilities, you represent a major asset to my cause. So: I paid you five million dollars for a mission you failed to complete, so now you owe me five years."
"Five years of…" Selina paused. "Five years of assassinations."
"Assassinations, theft, infiltration…whatever I deem necessary. You'll remain here, under my supervision, when not carrying out the missions I give you. Once the five years are over, then you may leave. By that stage I'll have others like you ready, so you won't be a great loss."
"Will I be leaving alive?"
"Of course. I won't have any need to kill you. And quite frankly, I wouldn't want to kill my greatest triumph unless you left me no other alternative. You may leave after the five years, with transport to anywhere in the world you want to go. And your money will be untouched, you can easily start over."
Selina seethed. But… "I don't really have any other choice. Well, I do, but not one that I'd like." She nodded. "All right. I agree."
"Excellent." Isley smiled widely. "Now, regarding your new abilities…"