Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Chapter 3: Cooking in the Kitchen
Barbara couldn't believe her luck as Shuichi left the limo. When Alfred pulled the limo out of the parking lot she turned to Bruce, "That's him. The guy from the other night. He could give Poison Ivy lessons in manipulating plants." Then a slight frown creased her forehead, "Anything on the rose?"
Bruce shrugged, "It's a normal rose. No radiation or chemical traces. Poison Ivy used chemicals on her plants."
"Then how did he turn a rose into a thorny whip?"
Sitting cross legged in his new and finished green house, Kurama watched as new grass sprouted under him. Under the grass was a layer of potting soil, then a high-tech vapour locking sustance, then the old roofing material.
It had taken weeks of hard work to get the glass and steel enclosure just the way he wanted. Between classes, finals and working, he wasn't sure if he was coming of going sometimes. However, he was pleased with the end results. The electricians left some time ago. So now he was enjoying a cup of tea looking at empty planter boxes, deciding what should go where.
There were two doors to the greenhouse. One connected to the stairs leading down to his apartment, the other out onto the roof deck/patio. The deck will soon be decorated with planters with dwarf fruit trees and flowering shrubs with little hidden alcoves with benches and cushions. It'll probably take him a couple more years to get everything the way he wanted it but for now it was a good start.
His thoughts turn to Barbara Wilson. They've met for lunch a couple of times but not yet for dinner.
I don't why you haven't brought her back here yet, Red.
Kurama smiled. He wasn't ready to share his home with someone he hardly knows. Besides, he's still trying to figure out who's chasing who. Suddenly, breaking into his thoughts was the musical tones of his cell phone.
"Hello?"
"Shuichi? You need to come."
"What is it, Mother?" Growing alarmed at her panic voice, Shuichi headed for his apartment.
Shuichi paused outside the CCU doors, trying to calm both himself and Yoko, who was raging.
Inside, he found the unit to be in control chaos. His father wasn't the only one that was gassed. Most of the office building had been poisoned. Thankfully, if you could call it that, most of the employees had already gone home.
Finding his mother who was crying on his younger step brother's shoulder, "Mother?" Shuichi placed a hand on her shoulder. "I got here as fast as I could. Any change?"
Barbara along with Dick and Bruce arrive at the unit just in time to see Shuichi Minamino storm out with a very angry nurse on his heels.
"Young man! Stop! You just can't. . ."
"Shuichi?" Barbara called out as he dashed past her.
Pausing for a moment, Shuichi glared at her. Barbara looked into his angry emerald eyes as the nurse demanded he give the vial back. "What's going on?"
Taking a deep breathe, ignoring the nurse, he said in a low voice, "I need to get back to my apartment to make an antidote. And I need this for it to work." He held up a vial of blood.
"Antidote?" Bruce now interested in the conversation.
Shuichi bowed slightly to the man. "I've made a study of rare poisons over the years. I recognized the smell of the neurotoxin on my step father's clothing. It's rare fear toxin but it does give off a very distinctive odor. If an antidote isn't administered soon, he'll die. I will not allow my mother to go through that kind of pain again."
The nurse was calling security as Bruce and Barbara pondered on his statement. Both were watching his eyes which were flickering from gold to emerald green. The boy is radiating anger and distress and strangely enough, confidence that he knew what he was doing.
Bruce turned to Barbara, "Take him to where ever he needs to go. I'll calm things here." Turning to the nurse, raising a hand to calm her, oozing charm, "I'll take full responsibility," he said.
At the apartment, Kurama tossed his jacket on the nearby sofa as he headed for the kitchen area. One of the many designs he had made for the apartment was to knock down all the walls leaving only the huge I-beam support columns and pipes exposed. The kitchen is in the middle of the floor surrounded by counters tops with low hanging racks of pans, utensils and herbs.
"This shouldn't take long," he said as he pulled out a saucer, a mortar and pestle, several bottles of dried herbs. "Make yourself comfortable."
He had been silent all the way here. Yoko had been raging in the back of his mind ever since they had smelt the poison. The toxin was human made and quite deadly for humans, but for demons, it was as intoxicating as alcohol.
Dashing up to the greenhouse, he grabbed several seeds and forced them to grow before returning down to the kitchen. 'Are you sure about the ingredients?'
Sure, I'm sure! Stay focus Red. He may be our step father, he's still family.
Barbara was browsing through his living space. Thankfully, he had bought most of the furniture, TV and sound equipment at second hand and pawn shops. Nothing was relatively new except for the computer center off to one side. Plants of all varieties, flowering and vines graced the walls and windows. Hopefully she won't notice what he's doing.
Are you sure bringing her here is a good idea? Just be careful and not let her see you grow anything.
Working quickly and efficiently, Kurama grounded out the leafs and stems of his plants. He poured out a few drops of his step father's blood into a saucer, stirring it with his finger before tasting it. Yoko directed him on a few points but for the most part watched from the back of his mind.
"That's not very sanitary," Barbara said, as she came over to sit on one of the bar stools to watch him. Spitting out the blood into the sink, he shrugged as he added a couple more items to the mortar.
When he was ready, he strained the mixture into a clean vial, holding it up to the light. Taking an eyedropper, he dripped a few drops onto the blood, stirred it with his finger and tasted it.
Spitting that out into the sink, "Here. Hold this. I'll be right back," he said passing the closed vail to her as he started to clean up his mess. "Don't spill it."
"What's in it?"
"The antidote." He headed to his bedroom. 'When Father is better, we are going hunting.' he silently told the kitsune. 'We're going hunting.'
Now you're talking. We're going to feed him to my Death Tree?
'No Yoko, I have something better in mind for our prey.'
Returning a few moments later with a duffel, He grabbed the vial from her. "Let's go."
Somehow, Shuichi and Barbara managed to get into his step father's room without getting stopped. A nurse was checking vitals when Shuichi stepped closer, placing a couple of drops on his step father's lips.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" the nurse cried out, snatching at the vial as the patient took a deep breathe.
Barbara was changing into her batgirl costume in the cave under Wayne Manor. "If I hadn't been there, I would not have believed it. He just whipped that antidote up like a master chef whipping up an entree. His apartment is a single floor of an old office warehouse. He has plants everywhere. I think he has stock in Miracle-Gro, I've never seen plants so healthy."
"He's a freakazoid, if you ask me," said Robin. "Come on. We got to get going. Batman is waiting for us. What did the doctors say?"
"Oh, Mr. Hatanaka is expected to make a full recovery and Shuichi gave the antidote to the doctors for the rest of the patients." She revved up her custom built chopper.
"You know that guy would've been arrested if that stuff had failed?"
"What makes you think it would have?"
Well things are really starting to take a turn. Can you guess who's the arch villian will be? Remember, reviews are welcomed, flames aren't.--GF