As time rolled by I adjusted to school. Being around teens never became pleasant, and I never regained my emotional responses, but I learned to deal with it. I definitely was looking forward to getting out of here, even if it wasn't as bad as last time.

I never got bullied, at least not physically. Everyone tended to ignore me though. I suspect it was mostly due to my lack of emotions. The expressionless way I reacted to everything meant I wasn't a fun target and despite being at the top of my class, no one felt threatened by me. To the people obsessed with grades it was obvious that I had some sort of mental disorder, so I didn't count in their mental rankings.

Thankfully, high school hadn't stopped me from making plenty of progress preparing for the future. I had managed to secure some great investments and make sure that more money was coming in than going out. My status as a minor had made things more complicated, but things went well as long as I jumped through the right hoops and greased the right palms. I wouldn't be able to go public for a while though.

A kid could start a business on their own, but without being a legal adult or having a legal guardian, I lacked certain advantages. I would be vulnerable to all the greedier, morally bankrupt businessmen. It just wasn't worth it.

I had my own space now, a nice little house way off at the edge of town. It gave me all the privacy I needed. It was under a different name since a minor like Norman Osborn buying a house would draw too much attention. I'd been very careful not to put all my eggs in one basket, which was much safer but made things awkward and inconvenient.

Of course, not everything I did was safe. I couldn't help occasionally doing stuff that was stupid or reckless. It was definitely a bad idea to have a scrapbook full of news articles about the fall of Daedalus incorporated. People would ask a lot of uncomfortable questions if they found it, but I liked keeping it around to read whenever I needed a pick-me-up. Apparently they couldn't figure out whether to place the creepy old man in an asylum or dose him up with antipsychotics and stuff him in an old folks' home.

It was wonderful just relaxing in my new living room and enjoying the schadenfreude of my enemies' fate or researching stuff for my plans. I could feel everything coming together.

I still preferred hanging out at Dr. Isley's though. There was something wonderfully peaceful and relaxing about spending time in a place filled with so much nature and vitality. Compared to the smog-filled atmosphere of the rest of the city, her home was literally a breath of fresh air.

I wasn't the only visitor though.

"Hey~! How's little Norm doing?"

I sat up and looked at Dr Harleen Quinzel as she strolled up the path, grinning widely. I'd known she was Harley Quinn from the start, but she hadn't tried very hard to hide it. She scrubbed off her makeup and wore less iconic clothes, but her attitude made it pretty obvious that she wasn't a normal doctor of any type.

"Hello Dr. Quinzel, I'm doing great, how are you?"

"Doin' fine! And I've already told you, call me Harleen!"

I nodded and patted the grass next to me.

"Dr Isley is working on something right now, she should be out in a bit though."

Harley pulled off her shoes before walking onto the grass. That was one of the rules in Ivy's home; no shoes on the grass. The reason was to avoid trampling any plants, but the feeling of the soft grass on bare feet was nice enough that no one thought to complain. Harley flopped down beside me and folded her arms behind her head.

"So, how's Red doing lately? You two have been working on something special, but both of you have been a bit sparse on the details."

I sighed and put my thoughts in order. She asked the question offhandedly, but I felt obligated to answer seriously. This was important, and I wasn't going to lie to Ivy's best friend.

"First, I have to ask you a question. What is Dr. Isley's ultimate goal?"

She twitched a bit at that.

"...Saving the Earth."

"Not quite. She wants to save all plant life. Specifically plant life. Anything else is a bonus. And thanks to all the pollution, well... As far as she's concerned, humanity is the enemy."

That got a flinch from Harley. She opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off.

"Save it. We both know she's an eco-terrorist and has some pretty bad mental issues. But she is a good person under those thorns and she's our friend."

"Yeah…"

Harley relaxed a bit at that. She still looked sad though. I tried to force a comforting smile on my face for a few seconds but gave up.

"Her goal is admirable, even if her methods are not. The problem is that she isn't making any progress. It doesn't matter how many pollution producing factories she destroys. Two more will pop up to replace them."

"...So, you've known this whole time?"

Oops… I hadn't meant to let that slip. It was easy to forget to watch my words. It might be because of the cube, but lately I noticed that my speech had changed. Lying without any tells was criminally easy with my lack of body language or expressions, but I tended to unconsciously hint or imply a lot of stuff. I supposedly was super-intelligent, but I was as subtle as a thrown brick and a bit too impulsive.

"Yes. I haven't said anything because I'm waiting for her to tell me. I know, and she knows that I know, and I'm pretty sure she knows I know she knows that… Um…"

Harley snickered at me.

"Don't hurt yourself there kid."

"Ahem, anyway... If she's more comfortable pretending to hide her identity, I'll let her. I owe her that much and more."

Harley relaxed back into the grass with a wide smile on her face.

"You're a good kid. Wait, do you know who I am too?"

I sat up and gave her a nod.

"Of course, it's obvious. What other woman with your joie de vivre would hang out with Poison Ivy?"

After a dramatic pause I continued.

"You're Catwoman."

I stared blankly at Harley's flabbergasted expression. She looked utterly gobsmacked for a few seconds before she started laughing. It started as tiny giggles that got louder and louder. Soon, she was rolling about on the grass, holding her stomach and kicking her legs. Her laughter echoed throughout the conservatory, filling the air.

It was amazing how... honest, her laughter was. Considering her origin story, it was almost a miracle. Part of me thought I should be jealous, I couldn't laugh like that, or at all without becoming the Goblin. But I could never feel bad when she laughed. It was too pure.

"Heehee~ Aww man, you really do surprise me sometimes."

"I can feel emotions, such that they are. It's just that I can't seem to manage to express them. I got out of the habit early on, and I lost the ability along the way."

Her expression got a little awkward for a moment before she forcibly changed the subject.

"Wait, we got off track! You were telling me what the two of you were up to."

"Oh right, it's pretty simple. The greedy people use methods that cause pollution because that way makes them the most money. Dr. Quinzel is developing methods of mass-producing fertilizer that produces no toxic waste and better variants of different crops. Once it's all ready and I'm a legal adult I'll create a company to market it.

"If we do it right, farms and companies around the world will fall over themselves trying to get our stuff. By tying it to 'my' new company we can avoid the stigma that comes with the eco-terrorist label. The money it makes will let us develop new technologies and fund or create organizations to improve the world. I don't know if it will save the environment, but at the very least it will help stop things from getting worse. Eventually, humanity will eventually figure out how to protect the environment and undo the damage that's already been done."

Harley let out a long, impressed whistle.

"You don't think small do you?"

"It's a big world."

She grinned and nodded. Before we could continue we caught sight of Ivy walking up. I gave a short wave too.

"Did you finish it?"

Ivy held out a hand and wobbled it back and forth.

"The potatoes are genetically robust enough to avoid most diseases. I've also managed to breed back in a lot of the positive traits of their wild ancestors to make it more resistant to drought and extreme temperatures as well. The problem is that there are too many problems that need to be solved before your plan is viable. The biggest issue is that removing the plant's toxins makes it vulnerable to parasites. Removing that so it can be mixed with livestock feed will cause more problems than it solves. Creating new versions of common nitrogen-fixing plants isn't that hard, but getting all the options you want is going to be impossible."

I sighed. That was a bummer.

"We may have to give up on that unless we find a new set of plants that will work."

Harley looked between us, looking confused.

"Can I get an explanation?"

I nodded. "Sure, but first you have to learn where I got the idea."

I coughed quietly to clear my throat and went into storyteller mode.

"A farmer, who had a mound in the middle of his field, resolved not to let it go to waste, and plowed it along with the flat ground. When he did, the troll who lived inside the hill came out and yelled at the farmer for plowing up his roof. Eventually, they decided that it was a shame not to use such good farmland, so the troll would let the farmer use the mound. In exchange, the troll would get half the crops."

Harley was sitting with her knees up and her hands under her chin, pretending to be a kid at storytime. I did see a twinkle of real interest under her silly act though so I kept going.

"The first year, it was decided that the troll would get the top half, and the farmer would get the bottom half. Unfortunately for the troll, the farmer grew carrots, so the troll was left with a load of useless bits while the farmer got the juicy carrots. The next year, they swapped halves, with the troll getting the bottom half and the farmer getting the top half."

I paused dramatically, although Harley seemed to know what was coming.

"So of course, the farmer grew wheat."

"So, the moral of the story is that farmers are dicks?"

Ivy snickered. I tried to smile, but my face still wasn't cooperating.

"Honestly, I think the moral of the story is to be careful about making deals with people, so you're technically right. Anyways, the story inspired me a bit. Crop rotation is vital for farming, and as the story stated 'half' always goes to waste. I figured that growing tubers and a 'top half' nitrogen fixer, like alfalfa, would allow farms to use their space much more efficiently and not have to bother with conventional crop rotation. Basically combining the benefits of polyculture and monoculture. It's turning out to be a lot harder than that though."

Harley looked at Ivy and me, interested if a little out of her depth.

"Yeah, how so?"

"Well, using potatoes and alfalfa as an example… they do better with different pollinators, different soil conditions, different harvest times, and different weather. Not to mention the fact that potato plants are toxic enough to kill livestock, so you wouldn't want it mixed in with the alfalfa."

Harley winced at that.

"Yeah, I can see why that wouldn't work well. So you two haven't found a compatible pair yet?"

"There are plenty with potential, but it's taking a while to work out the kinks. The problem is that there are way too many requirements that need to be fulfilled. Legumes and tubers would probably work, but they need to have matching growing conditions and should be harvested at close to the same time. It's making things really tricky. Of course, without Doctor Isley's expertise, it would be effectively impossible."

"Huh."

Ivy smiled happily, shaking her head. She looked happier than I'd ever seen her.

"Even if this plan fails, we'll still have plenty of products and methods that the industry bigwigs will sell their firstborn to get their hands on. Norman's ideas for hydroponics in particular will be revolutionary."

"Not really, most of it is taking advantage of old ideas and methods in new ways. Azolla really is a wonderful plant. And I'm still bummed that so many of my ideas have turned out to be duds. It sets back our goal of fixing the environment and solving world hunger back by decades."

Harley looked at us with an amused stare.

"Two at once? Isn't that a bit greedy?"

Ivy and I looked at each other and shrugged.

"I'm a rich businessman, greedy is in my blood."

"And I'm a supe- scientist. Um, of course I'm going to be ambitious"

Ivy hesitated slightly and glanced towards me, but I pretended not to notice her slip. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and chatting about random topics. I let myself flop back on the grass as Harley laughed at something Ivy said. I still couldn't laugh or smile, but that didn't matter as much anymore.

Even if it didn't show, I couldn't be happier.

Bit of an odd chapter, but don't blame me. It kinda wrote itself. The next chapter we get to see Norman throwing his weight around a bit, so look forward to it!