Chapter Twelve

The four beamed into the closest zeta-tube nearest to the El Paso Movie Theater. Bart surprised everyone with tickets to see The Avengers.

"Thanks for buying the tickets, Bart." Valentina said before noticing her sister not paying attention to anything going on.

"Ow!" Aster shouted as Valentina elbowed her. "Uh…Oh, yeah. Thanks for paying, Bart."

Valentina walked a few steps to the center of the room they were in. There were no doors or hallways leading to any screening rooms.

"Uh…where are all the theaters?" Valentina questioned.

"We have to go across the court yard to the screening rooms. Come on. Follow me." Jaime explained.

The four walked out into the court yard where there were flowers of different kinds and different colors.

"Wow…It's so beautiful out here." Valentina said as she sat on a stone bench.

"You really think so?" Jaime questioned.

"She's really just saying that because of her powers." Aster smirked.

"Am not!...Maybe a little. But look at these flowers! There's even some bamboo!" Valentina said as she started smelling some of the flowers.

"Milargo picked that out." Jaime replied.

Valentina turned around, realizing who did all of the planting she was standing in.

"This was all done…by you?"

"Actually, my family and I help with public gardening around the city. Last summer the theater wanted us to do something out here." Jaime explained as he felt embarrassment flow over his body.

"You and your family are very good, Jaime." Aster complimented.

"Thanks, Aster."

"Hey! Movie…starting in two minutes? Let's go!" Bart said as he rushed his friends.

"Oh, right. Come on. We'll miss it if we don't hurry." Jaime remembered.

Aster pulled Valentina from a rose bush she was smelling and followed the boys to the screening room. No one else was in the entire room. The four sat quietly through the movie of a different universe of superheroes until the army of other worlders made its way through the screen. (If you've ever seen the movie, you'll know what I mean…) Valentina and Aster looked away for several minutes, horrible memories rushing through their minds. After a long moment, Jaime noticed Valentina and Aster crying silent and looking away from the movie.

"Hey, everything alright?" He asked after leaning over to Valentina.

"I—I can't…I can't watch this anymore." Valentina replied rather loudly and rushed out.

Aster followed soon after and the boys looked at each other shortly before going out of the darkened room. The two boys looked around, but the girls had disappeared.

"Where'd they go?" Bart questioned.

"Scanners show the two females had escaped to the courtyard." The scarab said.

"Scarab says in the court yard. Come on…"

The two boys ran out to the court yard, Valentina and Aster sitting on a bench together.

"There you two are. What happened back there?" Jaime questioned.

"It was nothing. We were just reminded of…something." Aster replied.

"You'll be alright?" Bart questioned.

Aster nodded before looking down at her sister she was hugging closely.

"Valentina?" She questioned.

Valentina sat up, pulling some loose hair behind her ear.

"Yeah, I think so." She said as the same piece of hair fell from behind her ear.

"Come on. Let's get some food."

"Oh, smoothies!" Valentina clapped as she bounced up.

Jaime just smiled softly and everyone agreed to the idea. Later on at a close smoothie place, the four sat outside under the sun…after Valentina practically begged them to.

"So, Valentina…we know where Mirabella and Aster come from but what you? Where'd you grow up?" Jaime questioned, trying to break some tension between the group, mostly between Aster and Bart though.

Valentina looked up from her phone, obviously not paying attention to anyone.

"Uh…well…I grew up…in a…" She trailed off, not really wanting to reply.

"Valentina?" Bart questioned.

She just played with the straw in her drink, trying to hide her life. Aster was upset, she didn't like it when Valentina hid herself.

"Valentina's from a rich family."

"Aster!" Valentina snapped.

"It's true! Why don't you like telling people?"

"Oh, I wonder!" Valentina sarcastically shouted.

"Wait…You're rich?" Bart questioned.

"Was rich." Valentina corrected.

"What happened?" Jaime asked.

"My parents…forgot about…me."

"How do your parents forget about you?"

"I don't know. I didn't have friends, homeschooled, had everything I asked for the second I did. My parents spoiled me, but then…one night they just up and packed and left me in the house alone. The next thing I know, the police are arresting me for trespassing and endangering the people that lived there."

"Didn't you tell them you lived there?" Bart asked.

"I tried to, but they wouldn't listen to me. I got out for being a minor and not doing any real damage. They were going to put me in a foster home, but I ran. I don't want to go to a foster home, but…now I think about it, it probably would've saved me. I lived off the streets for four years by myself."

"Oh…wow…That must've been so horrible to wake up to." Jaime said before remembering Aster's life. "Except…I think Aster had it harder."

"She did." Valentina replied as she rested her head on her folded arms on the table.

"Hey, hey! Let's not go there, okay?" Bart said. "Let's talk about something happier instead. Like…what was your favorite part of the movie?"

"I liked the Hulk and Loki smack down." Aster replied, a smile forming across her face.

"Same here!" Jaime agreed.

"I liked when Tony told Captain what he would be without his Ironman suit." Valentina added in on the conversation.

They all laughed.

"Robert Downey Jr. is hilarious." Bart said as he smacked the table with his hand.

"Yeah." Jaime agreed.

The group's happy mood was shattered when ear splitting screams of terror began to fill the air. An explosion rocked the very earth and knocked the team off their feet.

"What is that?" Aster questioned over the all noise.

Valentina had turned white faced with terror as she quietly replied to herself, "Ivy…She's back."

The four looked around, nobody paying attention. The girls ran inside the shop and the boys changed quickly. Using the sonic blaster, Blue blew Ivy off her vine that she was standing on. Impulse ran around her in a tight circle, suffocating Ivy. Falling on her knees, Ivy thrusted her arm up, making a vine pop up out of the ground and knock Impulse down, then wrap around him and lift him in the air. Blue tried to help, but a vine wrapped around him too. When the pressure of the vines seemed to become too much, two balls of light burned through the vines. The boys started to falling until two black vines caught them and set them safely on the ground where the girls ran over to help.

"Are you two okay?" Solara asked.

The two boys groaned.

"I think so. Thanks for the save." Impulse replied.

"Good. Now, let's—Ah!"

Before Aster could finish, a wall of thick, thorny vines trapped three of them. Valentina's eyes stopped glowing as the vines had trapped them. Inside the trap, Solara had a small ball of light form on her hand, giving light to the three of them.

"What's going on here?" Blue questioned.

"I warned you not to trust the Black Thorn. She has now trapped you three in vines that even the Impulse cannot vibrate himself through." The scarab explained.

"Why would Black Thorn do this?" Blue questioned, forgetting about the other two.

"Black Thorn didn't do this! She wouldn't!" Solara denied.

"Impulse, can you vibrate through these things?" Blue asked as he tried to touch one. "Ow…"

Impulse tried to vibrate through the vines, but was thrown back in pain. Solara ran over, holding Impulse up for support from the pain.

"Are you alright? What happened?" She asked quickly.

"Ah…I can feel the thorns when I vibrate. They seriously hurt. I think I'll be okay…not that you really care anyways."

"My powers won't work either. She's never made so much of her vines before. She must've been practicing. And I do care…I care more than you think."

"Really? And how's that? You don't even care how I really feel!"

"I do!"

The two fell quiet in shock, but Blue remained focused as he wasn't even paying attention was going on.

"Our armor has no attacks effective enough to free us, Jaime Reyes."

Blue sighed heavily in defeat.

"My scarab says I don't have anything effective either. We're stuck in here." Then he noticed how Impulse and Solara weren't talking, but looking away from each other in embarrassment. "What? What happened?"

Outside the trap Black Thorn sprung, she was trying to fight Ivy, who was just dodging all of the attacks that came her way and threw vines in front of herself for a shield.

"Oh, Black Thorn, why do try to attack me? You know I'm better than you on every level of your powers." Ivy said before making a giant vine slam down on Thorn, knocking her to the ground.

Thorn sat up in pain, she held her left arm in udder pain. Her uniform was torn and her arm was limp with pain, and probably dislocated as she stood up weakly.

"You tried to kill my sisters!" She screamed, making a vine attack Ivy. "I trusted you!" The vine wrapped around Ivy, and squeezed. "You said you would meet with Nightwing! Meet with him and tell him you were going to help with my powers!" Ivy made the vine explode around her, not a scratch was on Ivy. "You were going to turn a new leaf, you said!" Thorn screamed as she continued to attempt her attacking against Ivy.

"I say a lot of things that aren't true, darling. You should've known that before I was secretly training you. I mean…did you even tell your leader about any of them? About the talk we had, the secret missions, the training? Did you tell him you were secretly training to be a spy?"

"Spy? No…I—I—I…wouldn't. I would never be a spy against the team! They're my family!" Thorn argued, trying to deny everything Ivy was spilling into her head.

"Oh, really? Well, that's not really true is it?"

"What are you talking about? What did you do?"

"Oh, I didn't do anything." Ivy came down and walked over to Thorn. "It was all you, darling." She walked behind Thorn, placing both hands on Thorn's shoulders, and leaned her head in close next to Thorn's ear before whispering, "Who knew you would be such a great villain…and not even know it?"

"No, I'm nothing like you!" Ivy snapped.

"You have the same powers, the same likings I do…Who's to say you aren't my child? I mean…you did read my file, didn't you? You know I have children all over."

"I did…but M'Gann said…"

"You mean you believe her more than your own mother?"

Thorn stood ready to fight Ivy, her hands glowed a black light, brighter than before.

"Leave me alone!" Thorn screamed.

A black vine popped up and started for Ivy.

"Ah-ah-ah…What about your friends?" Ivy said as the trap Thorn made started closing tighter and tighter.

The vine stopped and moved back to Thorn.

"No! Leave them alone!" Thorn shouted, almost pleading.

"Then…make a decision, rose. Either come with me, or…" The trap was getting tighter. "…you can watch as I make your friends into plant mulch."

Thorn stood there in anger as the trap was getting smaller and smaller.

"Well, what's it gonna be?" Ivy asked, becoming impatient.

All Thorn could think of was Blue inside there, about to die because of her. All the things he's done for her...with her. Meeting Tye and skating with them, meeting him that day at the Cave when she was becoming a member of the team, training, missions, taking care of Mirabella, and today at the movies and drinking smoothies…All of it rushed in her mind, but she still couldn't decide which to take. Watch them die and not become evil, or save them and become Ivy's protégé. What would she pick?