Takami joined the Sekirei in Smallville for an impromptu celebration and to collect her winnings on the betting pool. It was Brunhilde that had pointed out that Aphrodite more often than not appeared to Clark. She came when others needed her or it was her duty but as Lana had confirmed, she was often there to give Clark advice. The five Smallville based Amazons couldn't be happier for their goddess.

Soon after Takami had returned home Bruce teleported into the castle, not an unusual occurrence during the day, but not something he did in his bat suit.

"This can't be good." Lorna commented as Bruce conjured a chair and pulled back his cowl.

"There's a fairly big problem in Gotham, a new super criminal has emerged going by the name 'Poison Ivy'. She has displayed strong control over plants to the point that she can make them grow at a mutated rate." Bruce explained.

"Goals and motives?" Laura asked.

"Eco-Terrorist. She appears to have bonded her genetics with plant DNA. From what I could deduce she is looking to eradicate mankind. I was hoping that Neville with his talents in plants or maybe even Kusano could help.

"You said Kusano has a connection to the Earth and the last thing I want to do is use poisons on the plant if they could also hurt people like Kusano."

"Your respect will earn you the favour of the gods Bruce Wayne."

Bruce and the others immediately stood as they heard the voice of Aphrodite in the room. She was standing there in an elegant red dress that fell to the floor; Clark was next to her looking dashing in a tuxedo.

"Relax my friends. I was just bringing Clark home after our date." She smiled happily.

Clark was desperately trying not to blush.

"You do realise we can't willingly let you leave without getting the details, my goddess?" Kyla grinned as she gave a small bow.

"Of course child. Let us retire to a more private location whilst Clark discusses the current Gotham crisis with the others."

"Astronomy tower?" Kyla asked the room.

They all nodded and the room was suddenly much emptier as the women teleported out.

All the women. Any magical seated next to a Sekirei grabbed them as well.

"That can't be good." Clark muttered as he looked in the direction of the tower.

"Clark, the Goddess of Love was smiling after you took her on a date." Neville smirked. "That should be classed as 'very' good."

"Not that, I'm talking about all the women up there talking about it."

"Fact of life Clark. Just be glad they didn't go straight to- oh… "

Clark's eyes widened in horror as Harry trailed off. "What?! Where did they go?!"

"Themiscyra." Harry said with a wince.

The others cringed.

"Oh god… I'm going to have a whole island of mystically empowered warrior women out for my blood."

"Only if you fail to ask her on a second date." Xander pointed out.

"He's right, she looked very happy when you arrived." Scott agreed. "Make sure you don't forget to follow up with a second date."

"That is, assuming you enjoyed the date yourself and wanted to continue the relationship." Bruce said cautiously.

All eyes turned to Clark expectantly.

"Of course I enjoyed it!" Clark snapped impatiently. "I know I can be slow when picking up on the signals regarding women but I was able to figure out Aphrodite wanted to… go out with me. I asked her because I wanted to as well… as soon as I realised I was… in her league, so to speak.

"The date was good, fun. I enjoyed it and I enjoy talking to her. It would be nice to talk to her in a more relaxed setting though, a high priced restaurant still makes me nervous."

"You already know what she likes Clark, she's mentioned it enough and you've seen her around enough." Harry pointed out.

"You could always just take her up to your room and get on with it." Logan said slightly impatiently.

"She's the Goddess of Love, not sex and lust!" Clark argued slightly defensive.

Xander just grinned at Logan. "Which is why she's dating him and not you."


Any plans for a second date were put on hold as Neville decided Clark could do with more exposure to super criminals… the smart ones at least.

Bruce was able to discover that Poison Ivy was formerly Doctor Pamela Lillian Isley, a scientist skilled in advanced biochemical botany. Her professor at university had experimented her on after he seduced her. She was left in a coma for six months before she awoke and began to display severe, almost bi-polar type behaviour.

She vanished for a few months before suddenly appearing in Gotham and declaring war on mankind.

"These plants are being naughty." Kusano frowned.

They had arrived in Gotham and headed straight for the nearest scene of 'plant based crime', as the police were calling it. They were standing outside Gotham City Hall, which was completely sealed off by giant plants that practically begged for a boy named Jack to chop them down with an axe. Ku had gone straight for the plants and gasped before she turned to Bruce, Clark and Neville and made her accusation.

"Why is that sweetie?" Neville asked as he knelt down in front of his littlest friend.

"They are saying bad words and doing bad things." She whispered conspiratorially.

"That's because someone is controlling them and teaching them bad things."

"Clark needs to teach them manners." She said resolutely.

Bruce looked at Clark with a raised eyebrow.

"She means that literally. She had a tendency to sit down without adjusting her dress, I had to teach her how to do it properly." Clark blushed, it wouldn't have been so bad if one of the girls had been there, he had taken her out for a walk and they sat down but her knickers were showing.

Bruce was suddenly very glad he wasn't in costume at the moment… the last thing he needed was people seeing Batman trying not to laugh.

"Why don't we try and find this person then so Clark and Uncle Bruce can start their lessons, ok?" Neville suggested with a smile.

Ku nodded with confidence. There was nothing her Ashikabi couldn't do.

"Can you ask the plants if the person controlling them would meet with us?" Clark asked Kusano.

Ku nodded happily and placed a hand on the large stalk that was sticking out of the ground outside city hall.

Kusano gasped. "You are a very bad tree!" She wagged a finger at the plant.

She turned to the others. "We need Shiina. He always deals with the bad plants." She said firmly.

"Is it that bad, Kusano?" Bruce asked with a frown. He was up to date on all the Sekirei and knew that Shiina was the counterpart to Kusano.

"They are very bad and want to hurt people."

"I'll head back to the castle, do you think you could try and track down Ivy whilst I'm gone?" Bruce asked Ku.

"My plants will find hers." She said adamantly.

The directions given by Kusano's own plants were roughly translated by the little girl into: 'Go that way'.

Seeing as it was first thing in the morning they had to find some place a little less conspicuous for Clark to change his costume and then to take flight.

Superman was absolutely disgusted when they realised where Ivy was hiding. The Arkham Botanical Gardens. The Gardens were on the very grounds of the Asylum, he would definitely be looking into how no one noticed or reported this.

"Harry and Bruce really need to do something about this." Superman said in frustration. "Do you know how many times Batman has had to capture the Joker since we first put him here? Three! And he's only been in there for about a year."

"Why hasn't he been executed?" Neville asked curiously.

"One of the corrupt judges of Gotham had him declared insane, so he's not eligible for the Death Penalty. The man isn't technically insane, he's just evil and sadistic."

"Are they coming to say hello?" Kusano asked curiously as she pointed to a large number of guards and prisoners storming out of the actual Asylum towards them, most of them were brandishing some sort of weapon.

"I don't think so, Kusano." Neville sighed.

"What the devil is going on here?" Batman demanded as he appeared with Shiina and Yukari.

"Did Uncle Bruce just swear?" Kusano asked with a frown.

"Just a little, we can deal with it later though, remember, he's Batman when he looks like that." Superman reminded her.

Shiina looked horrified that Ku was about to berate the famous Batman whilst Yukari had to turn away to hide her laughter.

"Everybody fly up." Neville ordered as he picked up Kusano.

Superman grabbed Shiina and took off whilst Yukari and Batman followed under their own power.

"I don't like using magic as Batman." Bruce grumbled.

"What were you going to do? Stand there and fight the entire mob?" Yukari demanded.

"Yukari! That's Batman!" Shiina pleaded with his Ashikabi.

"Shiina, it's Bruce in a costume. He is definitely not allowed to set a bad example in front of Ku." Yukari countered.

"Actually, I would have used stealth and knocked out the guards and prisoners one by one." Batman explained. "Of course I also wouldn't have landed in the middle of the asylum." He added with a glare at Neville and Superman.

"Can one of you call for Harry?" Superman requested, ignoring the grumpy bat.

A second later Harry appeared next to them.

A second later he landed on the floor from fifty feet up and was pummelled mercilessly by the mob.

"Is someone going to help him?" Shiina asked worriedly.

"He's fine, he'll be back-"

Neville was interrupted by the emergence of Harry's massive dragon form roaring angrily.

"See."

"And he is not a god?" Shiina asked carefully.

"Shiina, all gods are inferior to Harry, and I tell you that as a god." Superman smiled.

"Next time you call a person in, let them know you are flying!" Harry's dragon form complained grumpily.

"I'm so sorry!" Yukari blushed.

"I don't blame you, Yukari. You wouldn't have realised, but Mister Phoenix and the genius Bat over there should know better!" He glared at Neville and Batman.

"You threw me off a tower three times as high everyday for more than a year… deal with it." Superman smirked. "Now, can you put the mob to sleep so we can get to work?"

"Fine, but you might want to leave the area, you know I'll wind up putting you all to sleep as well." Dragon Harry warned.

Neville vanished with Ku along with Yukari and Batman.

Nobody thought to bring Superman who was holding Shiina.

"A little help please Harry." Superman sighed.

Dragon Harry just chuckled as he made the pair vanish.

Down at his feet the various, and obviously mind-controlled members of the mob were smashing and hacking away at Harry's dragon leg ineffectually.

"Would you lot just take a nap!"

There was a fairly loud thud as more than two hundred people dropped to the floor unconscious.

"That's going to take some sorting out." Yukari muttered as they all reappeared. Batman had remembered to bring Shiina and Superman this time.

"How about Manuel?" Superman suggested.

"I'll see if he's up for it." Harry nodded. "I still need to get back to work. It's a good job you're a genius Clark, what with all the classes you keep missing."

"You're lucky I wasn't in a lecture!" Yukari pointed out.

"I'll leave you to it whilst I get Manuel." Harry said before teleporting out.

"This is your territory Batman, how do you want to do this?" Superman asked the Dark Knight.

"I will go in alone and attempt to reason with or disable Poison Ivy. If I fail I will call for help." Batman said after a moment's thought.

"Try not to do any thing rash." Superman called after Batman.

"I'm not the one with eight girlfriends whilst trying to woo the Goddess of Love." Batman's voice floated back as he vanished.

Superman just glared at the shadows.

"He forgot the fact that one of your girlfriends is trying to set you up-"

"Leave it alone Neville." Superman sighed.

Neville just chuckled.

An impressed whistle sounded behind them. "You certainly no how to make a mess amigo."

"Well, in fairness, I didn't let them out, I just stopped them from getting any further." Harry explained to Manuel as they walked towards the others.

"I can do the job but I'll need to read up on their systems before I do. That way my dupes will know what I know." Manuel told them.

"Clark, you've been here before, can you show him around?"

"Sure. Ku, stay with Neville ok?"

"Ok."

"Great, I need to get back to Smallville before Dani attempts to seduce Felice again."


Batman made his way through the botanical gardens making sure to avoid touching any plants. They didn't have eyes or ears but they could probably react to sound and touch. Some plants where known to respond to sound and touch, and of course… light.

He was a little disappointed that he had to make use of some of the gadgets he carried like the Bat-Claw; a grappling hook fired from a gas-powered gun. Unfortunately it was the only way to accomplish this without magic, he much preferred to achieve his goals using nothing but his wits and physique.

Aside from Harry's advice not to use Magic to actively combat criminals, Batman personally believed that magic was something that Bruce Wayne could do, not the Batman. If worst came to worse it would be his ace in the hole.

Most of the garden was made up of corridors of over grown concrete planters. It had been decades since the place had been properly kept. In the centre of the building was a large indoor area with glass ceilings, a place where trees where meant to grow.

This is where he found Ivy, seated on a throne made of vines as she stroked a black rose that grew next to her.

"So the Batman has come. Such a shame you didn't bring Superman with you." She pouted. "Now he is a sight for sore eyes."

"You know why I'm here Ivy." The Batman said in his deep gravelly voice.

"You want me to let the humans destroy the world, destroy my friends, my family." She said dismissively. She stood and walked down the vine steps of her throne, she was dressed in nothing but a few well placed leaves over her green skin as her red hair flowed down her back.

"I want you to stop threatening people. You haven't killed anyone yet; you haven't crossed that line. You still have a chance."

"Tell me Batman, have the humans stopped killing my plants?" She asked as she stalked towards him seductively. "No? Then I will not stop what I have started, and believe me, there will be dead humans. For every plant they kill, one of them shall die until they are all gone… and then this world will be a paradise again."

"Why not work with the humans, there are others out there who are like you."

Ivy spun on him angrily. "There is no one like me!"

"You're wrong. Not only are there people like you, there are people far more powerful than you. They don't like what you are trying to do and they will stop you… unlike me, they have no qualms about killing." Batman warned.

"I have the entirety of Mother Nature at my beck and call, no one can stand against my powers." She said dismissively. "I will allow you to leave, take a message back to your human leaders, they can surrender or they can die."

Batman shook his head in disappointment.

"You are a weed."

Both Batman and Ivy spun to see a woman in her mid-twenties with dark brown, almost black hair flowing to her waist. She was dressed in a white gown that was almost sheer. She was astoundingly beautiful with a wreath of flowers on her crown. She stood there regally, her face impassive.

"How dare you! You come to my throne room and dare insult me!" Ivy hissed angrily.

The woman ignored Ivy and turned to Batman.

"Please call in your friends Dark Knight. Kal-El will recognise me." She requested.

"How dare you ignore me!" Ivy screeched as she stomped towards the woman but her plants blocked her path causing a distraction.

Batman frowned but pulled out a communicator, it was one of the ones Harry had procured from the Avengers to enable Clark to communicate with others in the field.

"Superman, come in. This is Batman."

There was a pause before the response came through.

"Go ahead Batman."

"I am at an impasse with Poison Ivy. A new player has arrived and has requested your presence. She used your name: Kal-El."

There was a longer pause before the Superman, Neville, Kusano, Shiina and Yukari appeared next to Bruce.

Superman's eyebrow rose and he inclined his head. "Goddess." He said respectfully.

"Lord Kal-El, greetings, I am Gaia."

"Lady Gaia, allow me to introduce Neville Longbottom, Yukari Sahashi, Shiina and Kusano, you've already met Batman."

Gaia smiled. "I have and I know your true natures and am honoured to meet you."

"How may we help you?" Neville asked politely.

"No My Lord, I have come to lend my aid. This child-"

"CHILD?!"

"-had the potential to be the face of the Earth, but the manner in which she acquired her current state was fraught with the misdeeds of men. They have affected her mind. Instead I have chosen another." She said with a fond look at Kusano.

Superman stiffened slightly.

Gaia noticed this and looked horrified at the mistake. "No, no! I do not mean to take or burden the child, merely that as she grows in wisdom she will find the crown of the May Queen waiting for her if she desires it. With yourselves as her teachers and guides there can really be no other." She said as though it were obvious.

"I am the May Queen! You are nothing but a fraud!" Ivy screamed angrily.

"Neville, would you… ?" Superman requested with a wince at the screaming harpy.

There was a flash of red light and Poison Ivy fell to the floor unconscious.

"Do you have any suggestions as to handle the lady?" Superman asked respectfully.

Gaia shook her head sadly. "No, she is misguided and fuelled by rage at what was done to her and the damage it caused her mind. Lord Death is her best hope with his gift of healing."

"Without a clean sample of DNA he may not be able to remove the plant matter and powers." Superman warned.

"Before she became like this she was a sweet young woman, worthy of the title of May Queen. If Lord Death can heal her mind she will be a good handmaiden for Kusano as May Queen."

"We will do all we can." Neville said with a respectful incline of his head.

"Thank you. Before I go, there is another who knew Pamela Isley at university. He is a good man who has been horrifically altered for a human. He is connected to The Green and would be a wonderful knight for the court of the May Queen. He, unlike Pamela, was not affected mentally, other than the depression caused by his forced separation from humanity."

"Can you tell us where he is, My Lady?" Batman asked respectfully.

"The Louisiana Swamps. He is made of plant life now, his body destroyed, again, his only hope may be Lord Death."

"Do you have any recommendations on how to deal with these plants? They seem to be quite dangerous." Neville noted.

"They are rogues, like weeds. Kusano is only one half of the puzzle, the one who plants and nurtures. Shiina is the pruner." Gaia said as she faded out of view.

Everyone turned to a very nervous looking Shiina.

"You can do it Shiina!" Ku said enthusiastically.

"I don't know Ku, the plants here are easy enough, but what about the rest of them. We saw the news reports, they are all over the place."

"You could use your Norito." Yukari offered.

Superman suppressed a small smile as he recalled Harry's revelation regarding the Noritos being made up.

"I can try." Shiina said, still uncertain.

"Pucker up handsome!" Yukari grinned as she leaned in.

Shiina's wings lit up the room and he placed his hands on the largest stalk before incanting. "By the corpse of my pact, may my Ashikabi's perils wither!"

A huge wind blew up as the plants immediately began to wither, the dust was everywhere and Neville quickly cast the bubblehead charm on all of them.

It was nearly two minutes later when it all finished and the plants were nothing more than dust.

Shiina dropped to the floor unconscious with exhaustion.

"Did it work?" Superman asked as he picked the boy up with Yukari stroking his hair proudly but with some concern.

"I'll check." Neville offered as he teleported out.

"It worked." Batman said with a grimace. "It worked too well. He eradicated every plant in the city. Alfred is telling me that the manor grounds are like a wasteland. He isn't happy about his gardens."

"Kiss me Clark! I can make them grow!" Kusano jumped on the spot happily.

"You just want to play kissy-face, don't you Ku." Yukari teased.

"I normally would say let nature take its course." Neville spoke up as he reappeared and took Shiina from Superman's arms. "But Gotham is quite literally barren, that won't be good at all for the world."

"Alright Ku, come on then." Superman smiled as he knelt down in front of his littlest and youngest Sekirei.

Kusano bounced forward as she clasped her hands behind her back and gave her Ashikabi a sweet closed mouth kiss that had Yukari cooing and even Batman had a slight smile at the scene.

As Kusano's wings faded she placed both hands on the ground, closed her eyes and concentrated.

All around them the plants sprang to life, flowers grew and bloomed in seconds, trees grew from nearly nothing to strong trees, years old.

After a few minutes Kusano collapsed into Superman's waiting arms fast asleep.

"Alfred reports that his garden is once again flourishing and has invited you all over for dinner." Batman said dryly.


Poison Ivy was placed in a detention cell in the dungeon whilst Harry worked on her. Eventually Jean would take over counselling once Harry had repaired all he could. He didn't have access to any clean DNA belonging to Pamela Isley so creating a new body was out of the question.

Clark took Shiina out on patrol in Metropolis so he could compare it with Tokyo. Yukari was enjoying a sleep over with the rest of women and girls in the castle.

They were all in Clark and his girl's room, which meant that Clark would be relegated to a spare room or the common room couch.

"Ok, this is really beginning to bug me… why is there a TV on the ceiling?" Yukari asked.

"Because my breasts are too big!" Musubi whined pitifully.

The others just laughed.

Eventually their mirth subsided and Kazehana took up the explanation. "Whilst some men prefer large breasts on a woman, they do come with more drawbacks than limited clothing options, gawking and bad backs. The only way I can see my toes is moving my breasts to the side or sticking my feet in the air." She chuckled.

"Wow… I never thought of that." Yukari giggled. "And to think, I was always jealous of women with bigger breasts."

"It is nice to be admired, but at the same time they can draw too much attention." Emma added.

All the girls were in pyjamas, nightgowns and in the case of Emma, Musubi, Uzume and Yume… nothing.

"How big will my breasts be?" Jean asked curiously.

"Somewhere between Yume and myself dear." Emma answered.

"And me? How big will I be?" Kusano asked excitedly.

"You will be a surprise sweetheart." Emma smiled. "Jean was an adult before so we know what she will look like. This will be your first time being an adult so we will have to wait and see."

"I think she will be a perfectly proportioned woman." Kyla said as she looked at Kusano with smile and a wink.

"What is the definition of a perfect woman?" Chloe countered.

"Whatever Clark likes." Kyla retorted with a smirk.