Summary: YJ S1 Ep 14 I see some of you are leaving suggestions, which is great, and I'll explain my plan with those at the end of the chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own DC
Dick and the others were busy sparring in the training room of the cave, Captain Marvel eagerly watching. Dick was confused as to why he and the team were stuck in training when giant plant creatures were busy attacking multiple large-scale cities. It's obviously Ivy's schtick, but why isn't Bats letting us help? Why are we stuck here training instead of getting some action? Dick was currently casually sparring against Artemis and was winning without much effort. They were interrupted when the Zeta tubes announced Bruce and Zatara's arrival. Finally! Batman walked up to the team and pulled up a holo-screen with the news playing.
"As you've likely heard, giant plant creatures have been attacking Gotham, Metropolis, Star City, and other major landmarks. The signs all point to Poison Ivy being behind this, but even she isn't capable of an attack this large-scale."
"You want us to get out there?"
"Negative, the League will soon have this under control. That's not why I'm here. If Ivy is indeed behind this, as all logic points to, she would need a massive power boost in order to achieve this attack, and she would need a central base of operations to conduct her attack. We need to find that base and-" Bruce was interrupted by the news being hijacked to show Ivy and her backup. Oh, that's not good! The camera panned out to show Black Adam, Wotan, Atomic Skull, Ultra-Humanite, Poison Ivy, Count Vertigo, and, worst of all, the Joker himself. Bruce and Dick both scowled as they saw the clown.
"We are responsible for the attacks on your cities. Any attempt to stop us will lead to greater retaliation. If you wish for us to withhold further conflict, a ransom of 1 billion U.S. dollars must be paid to us, the Injustice League." Seriously? THAT'S your plan?! You do realize that now that you've outed yourselves that the U.N. and Justice League will have you as high priority targets, right? How exactly will you spend that money when the world's largest superpowers are lookin' for you? Didn't exactly think this one through, Mister J.
Bruce radioed to Aquaman to have the U.N. prepare the ransom just in case before turning to Zatara.
"Wotan's magic indicates that dark sorcery is involved. Robin, if you could bring up the holo-map." Dick brought the map up and Zatara uttered an enchantment to hone in on the source of the magic. "There!"
"Coordinates locked. The Louisiana Bayou."
"Let's go." The team ran off to get ready while the 3 Leaguers departed.
The flight to the base was tense. Everyone was getting ready for quite possibly the biggest fight they had faced yet. As Dick checked his utility belt for the 3rd time, he contemplated the possibility of facing both Joker and Ivy. While Ivy wouldn't be much of an issue, he had...less than asterous prior experience with the Joker. Dick slightly cringed as he remembered the several wounds he had from Joker's switchblades, crowbars, and explosives. He's given me more scars than anyone else. Not exactly the most pleasant guy to fight. A shiver went down his spine as he remembered the last time Joker tortured him. It had taken Bruce 30 minutes to find him, and Dick was half-dead by that point. C'mon bird-brain, get it together. Bruce isn't scared of Joker, and you shouldn't be either. As the team flew in, the ship suddenly swerved around and de-camo'd. Everyone screamed and held on to the railings as Black Adam punched into the ship, sending it flying into the river. How did they know we were-crap! Motion sensors! Adam ripped a hole in the top of the ship before being punched out by Connor. The ship started to sink, water flooding the team, as Megan linked them all.
-Everyone, out! Now!- Dick put on his rebreather as he exited the ship with the others.
"Sh-she's in shock. She'll need time to-" Everyone screamed again and dropped to their knees as Vertigo approached them. Kaldur let off a stray blast of mystical lightning to knock Vertigo back, breaking his concentration on the sonic attack.
-Miss Martian, Robin, Disappear! We will hold them off here- Megan camo'd and Dick ninja'd away as the others braced for combat. They made their way into the woods, approaching the signal Dick was tracking, as the sky got darker and darker.
-I-I've lost contact with the others! Should we-
-Sorry, that's not the gig. This is. The Injustice League's central control plant. I've got explosives to take it out- As they approached the plant, vines erupted out and wrapped around them. Ah shit! Can't say I wasn't expecting this, but still not exactly whelmed to see you, Ivy! Poison Ivy squeezed the vines' grip on the two and they groaned and tried to squirm out. Ultra-Humanite walked out, and Ivy pointed to Dick.
"Start with him. I've been waiting to clip this bird's wings for a loooong time." The gorilla aimed his rifle at Robin's head and a horrified expression made its way to Megan's face. She brain-blasted him to make him miss, and his stray shot broke through Dick's containment. As he fell to the floor, he tossed a birdarang to cut the vines holding Megan.
-Go! I'll handle them!-
-You sure?- Megan nodded as she took on Humanite. Dick started to make a run for the plant, but Ivy used her powers to send vines after him. He felt the ground shake as he looked back to see the attacks coming. Oh, boy! Here we go again. Dick performed flawless flips and twirls to dodge the vines, but a stray one knocked him onto the floor. He quickly got up to jump out of the way of an oncoming slam, and he and Megan started to back away, hiding behind trees to avoid Humanite's gun. Megan looked to Dick.
-Robin! She's made contact!-
She? -Artemis?-
-No- Megan looked up, and Dick followed her gaze to see the Bio-ship knock Wotan and Adam out of the sky, breaking the magical prison holding their teammates. As the others landed on their feet, Dick smirked before looking to Megan.
-Let's go! They'll only distract them for so long!- He ran off to the plant with Miss M as the others took on the Injustice League. Dick watched from the corner of his eyes as Adam broke Wally's arm before getting knocked back by Connor. He tensed up at his friend's wound but forced himself to stick to the task at hand. Alright, we've got Ivy, Humanite, Wotan, Adam, and Vertigo. Only missing Skull and...Joker. Dick planted his explosives on the tree as he and Megan made their way up to the top of the building. Ivy looked behind as she heard the bombs ticking and gasped as her plant went up in flames. Timber. Ivy roared with anger before sending a dozen vines flying at the two. Megan flew down to help Connor against Black Adam while Dick flipped around the vines and leapt down to attack Ivy. She knocked him out of the way with a vine, but he landed on his feet and leapt back to fight her.
Dick had plenty of practice taking on Ivy, so normally he would have little issue with this fight. The only problem was that she was particularly enraged at this moment and they were fighting in a FOREST. Needless to say, Dick was having a bit of trouble taking her down. He hurled a handful of birdarangs at her, but she put up a wall of vines to block it. Oh, c'mon! You're never this annoying when I'm with Bats! She tried to unload a handful of pheromone dust in his face, but he quickly put on his rebreather to keep the spores out, flipping away and sending more birdarangs back at her, which got blocked. Once he determined she had no more spores, he took off the rebreather but kept it close to hand. Kinda hard to breathe in that thing, but better than getting mind-controlled! Before Dick could do anything, Wotan rose to the sky and blasted the entire team with mystical lightning. Dick screamed and went flying into a wall as the lightning surged through him. He looked to the side to see Wally, Wolf, Connor, and Artemis also pinned. However, Kaldur was using his own magic to absorb the blasts meant for him and Megan, who reached out to instruct Bio-ship to drop a duffel bag next to Kal. He reached into the bag to pull out a golden helmet, and Dick's eyes went wide. Crap! That's the Helmet of Fate! If what Wally told me is true, and Kal puts that on, he'll never take it off! He heard Wally scream for Kal, who ignored him and donned the helmet. A golden glow disoriented everyone as Dr. Fate rose up into the sky. Dick and the others reeled as the lightning strike relented, and Dick saw Fate go up to take on Wotan.
"Wotan, you are mine!" Dick got up to his feet, but heard the thing he was fearing the most. He turned to the laughing madman, who pulled out a switchblade.
"Wonder Boy, you are mine!" Oh, this ain't gonna be good. Joker swung at Dick, who flipped out of the way only for Ivy to knock him into a tree. He stood up to face both the Arkham escapees as they grinned devilishly at him.
"This is gonna be fun, wouldn't ya say Red?"
"Agreed. It's about time we killed this brat. I'll enjoy sending Batman pieces of you, birdie." Dick had gotten used to taking on multiple villais at once, but the odds were stacked heavily against him. They were fighting on Ivy's turf, and Batman wasn't there to back him up this time. He looked for his team, but he saw them all busy with their own foes. Artemis was taking on Vertigo, Wally, with a broken arm in a handmade sling, was struggling to dodge Atomic Skull's blasts, Connor and Wolf were brawling with Black Adam, and Megan was fighting Ultra-Humanite. No backup. I'm on my own. Could reeeally use Bats right about now. Dick pulled out his staff to take on Joker in a fight while Ivy summoned giant, mutated plants to blast acidic spores at Robin. He kicked Joker to the ground before flipping out of the way of the acid. Ivy continued to blast acid at him, and to make matters worse, Joker pulled out his revolver to fire at Dick. He used his superior acrobatics to dodge almost everything, but a stray bullet just barely scraped his side and his hip got shot by a small spray of acid. He gritted his teeth after a quick yelp of pain escaped his mouth. Crap! I gotta get rid of that plant! Think fast, Grayson! Dick threw a pellet at Ivy, which rolled to her feet.
"Smoke? Ha! Is that really supposed to-" Ivy coughed as the pelled sprayed out not smoke, but a specialized herbicide that Bruce had Lucious prepare just for Ivy. Ha! It works! Score one for Lucious! The herbicide crippled her plant and neutralized Ivy's powers as Dick charged at her. He flipped towards her before landing a heavy blow to her skull, knocking her out clean as he landed on his feet. One down, one to go. Dick turned to the Joker, who frowned.
"Now that's not very nice, bird-brain! Didn't old Daddy-Bats teach you not to hit women like that?!" Tell that to Harley. Joker grinned as he flung his knives at Dick, who ducked to let the projectiles hit the tree behind him.
"What? No gun?"
"Silly bird! You know I prefer to do things nice and slow!" Joker laughed his psychotic laugh as he pulled out a crowbar. Dick tensed as he recognized the crowbar from the last time Joker tortured him. How the hell does he even carry that thing around without showing it off?! "What's the matter? Didn't you miss our old friend here?" Joker cackled as he lunged at Dick, who barely dodged each swing. The clown got one good hit in, which sent Dick dropping to his knees and gasping for breath. Joker grinned as Dick struggled to stand. He raised the crowbar over his head before it got knocked out of his hands by a Batarang. About time! Batman and the other Leaguers surrounded the Injustice League as the team got to their feet. The villains looked around to see the heroes outnumber them 10 to one, and so they raised their hands with the intent of surrender. That is, except for Joker, who attempted to toss a canister of Joker gas before getting knocked out by a rather ferocious punch thrown by Bruce. Dick looked up to his mentor and smiled.
The cleanup went pretty well. Kaldur somehow managed to take the helmet off, thanks to the spirit of Kent Nelson convincing Nabu to let the boy go. Batman approached the team.
"The Injustice League is being sent off to Blackgate, Belle Reve, and Arkham respectively. Their plants have been neutralized and the threat is over. As for your performance," Oh, here we go. How exactly did we screw up this time? "it was satisfactory." Wait, what now?! Dick smiled as Bruce signaled him to return to the Batwing.
"See ya guys tomorrow." Robin departed from the team as he made his way to Batman.
"So, Ivy and Joker. Not half-bad."
"Thanks. The new pesticide worked perfectly. Depowered Ivy without a problem."
"That's good to hear. Lucious will be pleased. You took some pretty big hits from Joker, though."
"How did you-"
"You're trying to hide your limp and you've been clutching your side discreetly for a while now, not to mention the bleeding from your arm and the cuts on your suit. Spill."
Dick sighed as he told Bruce. "Joker hit me with a crowbar right in the ribs and Ivy may have flung me at a tree one too many times. The bleeding's a bullet that just grazed my arm, and the cuts are from a few knife swings and thorny vines, but I'm fine."
"Even so, report to Alfred for medical duty once we get home." Dick slumped in acknowledgement, and the rest of the flight was rather quiet. As they landed in the Batcave's hangar, Dick jumped out and made his way to Alfred's medical station. "You did good today, Dick. Joker and Ivy in one go is nothing to scoff at. Nice work." Dick smiled.
"Thanks. So does this mean I can skip training tomorrow?"
"Not on your life, mister. Training at 5:00 sharp, just like the usual." Dick sighed and walked away before Bruce grinned. "But maaaaybe I'll have Al bake some cookies, and a few extra pancakes." Dick smirked.
"You've got yourself a deal, Bats. By the way, how's the Tornado hunt going? It's been like a week since he ditched us."
"Slow. I'll give you a progress update once I make actual progress. Now get going. Alfred won't want to be kept waiting." Dick jogged away as he thought to himself. Damn, STILL no sign of Tornado? It's been like a week now, you'da thought that would be enough for the World's Greatest Detective to find a walking tin-can!
"Ah, Master Dick. How kind of you to finally show up. Now, if you would be so generous as to remove your tunic so we may have a look at what we're dealing with?" Dick did as he was told and laid down onto the medical table. "So, I hear you and your band of merry warriors bested the vile Injustice League. Most impressive, Master Dick."
"I've got one hell of a story for ya this time, Al."
Sorry I couldn't upload yesterday. I got my second covid shot and was absolutely hammered. I had literally 0 energy. It didn't hurt, but I couldn't really move any part of my body without putting in a ton of effort. I could barely walk without falling apart. I coulda tried to write, but in the state I was in, the chapter was gonna be horrible. But I'm back now, so I'll go back to my regular uploading schedule going forward. To make up for it, I'll try to double upload today. Anyways, I tried to add as much of my own into this one as I could. It was easier than normal since Dick was hardly looked at in this ep so I could have free reign with him. I'm having a lot of fun with these types of chapters where I can come up with it all myself, but the more summary-based ones are normally a pain to write. Next chapter is ep 15, which finally introduces Zatanna. The next few chapters will follow S1 episodes, but these ones will be a lot less boring(hopefully) because they delve into Dick's psyche a lot more, specifically him realizing he doesn't wanna be Batman anymore. The fluff and non-plot-driven chapters will come in multitudes after Zatanna officially joins the team (these chapters will include any suggestions you leave. I would write them right now, but it would be weird considering some suggestions take place after Zatanna joins, so we would be hopping all around the timeline in a weird way. I thought it would be better to delay any of these types of suggestions until after Zatanna joins), so until then it's more or less just episode-based, but these episodes will have much more of Dick's thoughts in them, so it'll be much less of a summary dump, which is nice. Feel free to review and leave suggestions or thoughts. Next chapter up soon.