A/N: This story is most probably not canon with the timeline of the comics. I've read so many of them under so many different titles that I can no longer remember what happened when or who died or who became what etcetera etcetera...
A/N 2: To answer my good man pyromania101, I am using the Arkhamverse version of Ivy. (Arkhamverse is a term used to reference the Arkham video-games, i.e. Asylum and City.) In fact all the DCU characters in this story have their appearances from the Arkhamverse, with a few exceptions: Harley and Penguin have their New 52 looks, Joker looks as he does in Arkham Asylum (so basically he's not poisoned) and Bane looks as he does in Justice League: Doom.
Oh crap... I just gave all of you a spoiler, didn't I?
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"I know it's somewhat abrupt my darlings, but your new home is going to be so much more bigger and cleaner. And once Alex gets rid of that disgusting gigantic block of ice in the middle of it, you'll have a bountiful supply of water." Poison Ivy sitting on one of the enormous vines in the condemned warehouse she and Mercer had first... encountered one another talking to her self-grown plants, sensing that they were in pain after not being looked after whilst she was incarcerated inside Arkham.
"Still talking to nothing but your 'babies' I see," a playfully teasing voice said behind her. Ivy lifted her head up to see Catwoman smiling at her through her goggles.
"What do you want, Cat?" Ivy said with a hint of annoyance.
"I've heard through the grapevine..." She smirked at her intended pun. "That you've got an actual man in your life, and I just wanted to see if it were true." She looked around the large room. "Judging by the fact you and I are the only living things in here, I'm guessing they were just telling stories."
"You know that you and I are not the only living things in here! And secondly..." She trailed off and froze. She didn't know how to respond to the part about her and Mercer because she didn't know exactly what type of relationship theirs was. She could tell that he had feelings towards her since he had chosen saving her over killing the Joker even when he knew exactly where to find the Harlequin of Havoc; she just didn't know how strong those feelings were. He wasn't human at all, and she wasn't far behind, but he was still essentially a person. She definitely knew that she was attracted to him, but she hadn't yet told him, mostly because she had never gotten him to stand still long enough to talk about it; he was too busy going about his business and agenda and posing as the Penguin signing over Cobblepot's bussinesses, properties, and bank accounts to Alex Mercer. After all that was said and done and Alex was a very wealthy and powerful man, Mercer boarded a plane in the guise of Penguin to Asia, and then flew back to Gotham the next day disguised as a random drug addict nobody would miss he had run into in The Far East.
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't," Ivy finally said in regards to Catwoman's assumption of her being with Alex. "What's it to you anyway?"
"Just curious is all." Catwoman said with a small smile.
"You know what curiosity does to cats," Ivy stated.
"Nine lives Ivy. Nine lives." Catwoman did a few backflips out of the wide door and was soon out of Ivy's sight.
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On the other side of the world Rā's Al Ghūl was sitting in one of his many lairs observing two pictures of Alexander J. Mercer, one from Manhattan and the other from his stay in Arkham Asylum. Unlike Batman and Cadmus, Rā's had far more connections in everything, but even his influence and sources could only gather pieces of information on Blacklight and project ZEUS, but he had more than both of them combined. Blackwatch had gone to a lot of trouble to try and keep the breakout very esoteric.
"This Mercer person... he seems to be beyond life and death itself..." He murmurered to his daughter Talia, who could tell he had an interest in Mercer.
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"We are going to wait and try to find out more about him. And then, perhaps we should go and get a sample... a very big sample of him..."
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"What is it Dad?" Damian asked as he ran into the Cave. Alfred had just told him that his father wished to speak to him immediately.
"The police have found a lead on where they might be able to find Killer Croc." His father answered as he put on his cowl, completing his Batsuit.
"Okay, so you're going out to help them. So what, you wanted to let me know it's just me, Tim and Alfred who'll be eating dinner?"
"Not quite on either of those. It's just Tim and Alfred staying tonight."
Damian instantly knew what he was saying and got into his Robin costume and slipped on the huge light-grey hood and cape. "So how was I off on the first part?"
"The main reason we are going isn't to go after Croc, but to try to find and tail Mercer, because I can guarantee that he will try to get to Croc first."
"You mean... I get to finally help you with Zeus?" Damian asked excitedly. Ever since they had first heard of Zeus, Bruce had refused to even let him accompany him on patrol in the fear of them running into the murderous redeemer.
Damian didn't know why, but the main reason his father had made him stay in the manor was because Bruce knew that Damian would begin attacking Mercer on assassin instinct and slight impulse. If he did that, he would undoubtedly make Zeus incredibly aggravated and would be attacked by the hooded predator. Even though he had been raised to be a killer since birth, Bruce knew that his son stood no chance of winning a straight up fight against Mercer. But tonight, Batman finally decided to allow Damian to accompany him on a search for Mercer on one condiction...
"Do NOT attack Mercer at all," Bruce said to his ward as they sped along in the Batmobile.
"Why not?" Damian asked quizzically. "Aren't we trying to stop him?"
"Yes, but not right now."
"Why not?" Damian was now legitemently confused.
"Because we don't know nearly enough about him or his weakness... if he even as one. And I have a feeling that even though he took out Zsasz and Penguin, gained all of the Cobblepots' fortune, and singlehandedly fended of Waller and Cadmus, he hasn't even begun to show Gotham what he can do..."
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Commissioner James Gordon was riding in a police helicopter headed towards Killer Croc's possible lair. The helicopter descended and landed in the middle of a closed off street not far from five empty armored trucks and about thirty police officers including a SWAT team.
Gordon climbed out of the chopper, leaving the pilot alone in the aircraft, and began to address and brief his strike force.
"Now listen up! We've got reason to believe that Killer Croc is somewhere in the area with a new homefront somewhere under the ground. We're going to try and find him and bring him in. If he attacks, you all have shoot-to-kill permission. If we run into Batman, don't delay him in assisting us, we need all the help we can get. Now let's go find that animal!"
The pilot inside the chopper watched all the men go down into the sewer system.
"You should have warned them about running into me if I find him first," the pilot said as he turned completely black. A second later Alex Mercer looked like himself again. He was about to climb out of the helicopter, but he reached back into it and grabbed a shotgun to take with him. He wasn't above using weapons that weren't a part of him since they got the job done, plus Croc was just an animal, so basically Alex was going on a hunting trip so a gun seemed appropriate. He climbed out of the chopper, walked over to a manhole cover, and stomped on it, sending it down into the sewer system in pieces. He cracked his neck a few times and jumped down into Croc's domain.
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He was casually walking along a narrow walkway next to an underground river. In his right hand was the high-caliber shotgun and his claws were on his left arm. He didn't bother trying to be quiet like he knew Gordon and his men were somewhere else in the subterranean maze. Why should he? He didn't care if he wound up surprising Croc or if Croc was the one who capitalized on the element of surprise; either way the Apex Predator was going to kill the crocodile, but had decided not consume him.
"Why would I ever have to go around looking like a gigantic green freak?" Mercer had asked himself.
He continued walking down the dimly lit tunnel. The only sounds he could hear were the echos of the occasional drop of water falling onto the concrete walkway or the now still water and the almost metallic clangs of his claws when he pressed them together and then fanned them out. He flexed his weaponized fingers for an actual reason, and it was because he wanted to make the noise they created echo through the tunnels and draw Croc's attention to him. He was drawing his prey right to him.
Suddenly, a faint growl sounded from behind him. Instantly, Mercer turned his hips and shoulders so that his gun was pointing right behind him, but he found nothing.
"Hmm, I guess my ears are playing tricks on me," he said to himself rather loudly, hoping that Croc would hear his words and the alligator wrestler would come to his own demise. He continued on, clanging his talons together. After about five minutes of nothing, he heard a swishing sound in the resting water. He stopped for a moment, and then turned and walked over to the edge of the walkway. He leaned forward and looked into the water. It was very dark and the dim lighting didn't help. Even though he could see nothing, he had an uneasy feeling and aimed his shotgun at the water. As he prepared to pull the trigger, something huge sprang out of the water. Mercer jumped back a few yards and saw an extremely tall and muscular... something. It had scaly green skin, teeth like knives, and yellow reptilian eyes. Mercer raised his gun and let off a round into the thing that was obviously Killer Croc's stomach. Croc didn't even stumble or look down to observe his wound, not that it mattered since the shot hadn't even pierced his scaled hide.
"The scent on you is... different," Croc said to Mercer in a very frightening and raspy voice. In response Mercer fired off another round into him, mostly because he wanted to make the freak angry enough to attack him. "You don't learn, do you?" Croc let out a roar and charged. Mercer waited for his prey to get close, and then he jumped over Croc's right shoulder. As he passed over Croc, he brought up the hand with the gun up to his chest, and then he swung it backwards onto Croc's skull. Mercer couldn't tell if he had done any actual damage to Croc, but he had hit his prey so hard the gun shattered into pieces. As he landed, he changed his arms into his musclemass ability, knowing that using claws or the blade would take a while to get into the animal's skin, and the hammerfist would cause the roof of the tunnels to collapse around a good portion of the area. He turned around and waited until Croc got close to him again, and then gave Croc a bone-shattering punch on his chest. The huge man went flying over the river and landed in the wall across it. He slid out of the indent his body had made and collapsed onto the other walkway across the water from Mercer. Alex changed one arm into claws and the other into the whipfist, planning to grasp Croc with the whip and then make him come flying over to Mercer's claws.
After Mercer reared his whipfist back and prepared to launch it at Croc, something suddenly embedded itself into his right shoulder. He put his whipfist down and looked over to see a black shard of metal inside him. He plucked it out of him to look at it, and saw that it was crudely shaped like a bat. It didn't take a genius to figure out who thrown it at him.
"Hello once again... Batman." He turned his entire body to look at the Dark Knight with a young teenage boy wearing a very big grey hood with a cape on it standing next to him. "Who's the kid?"
"Robin." the boy answered as he pulled out a few throwing weapons of his own.
"You know Batman, it'll take more than a piece of metal to stop me," Mercer said as he began to twirl the projectile between his claws.
"I'm not trying to stop you. Only distract you."
"Distract me from what?"
Batman responded by pointing at the spot where Croc had landed. Mercer looked over and saw that his prey was gone; he must have slid back into the water and swam off. Mercer didn't really care though since Croc was just a brainless animal and it wouldn't take Alex all that long to find him again. He turned his head back to the duo to find that they hadn't moved.
"Job well done Batman. This round goes to you," Mercer said to him.
"But it's not quite over yet Mercer." He moved his hand and pressed one of the many buttons on his utility belt. Mercer looked at him quizzically and then heard a beeping sound coming from his left hand. Confused, he brought the claw up to his face and saw a red light go on and off with the rhythm of the beeping, which was rapidly increasing its pace.
"Nice job again Batman." Mercer said without looking away from the weapon as he realized what it was about to do. Seconds later the tunnels were filled with an almost deafening blast and Mercer was thrown back a fair distance onto his back. He picked himself up and saw that Batman and Robin were gone. "Why must he incessantly delay me? If he saw what I've seen..."
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Inside Arkham Asylum, a maintenance work was putting the finishing touches on Poison Ivy custom cell by welding a new intercom onto the glass. After sealing it on, he knelt down to put down his welding torch, and noticed a strange black slime half as big as a dime on one of his pant legs. Curiosity took over and he touched his pointer finger onto the ooze and then brought it up to his eyes to get a good and close look at it. After observing it for not even a second, the black ooze seemed to be absorbed into his skin. He then broke out into a small fit of rough coughs. He had no idea what had just happened, but he had seen far more stranger things inside of Arkham so he shrugged it off. He gathered up his tools and left the cell. As he made his way for the door, a guard he was friends with stopped him. They had a short chit-chat, and then shook hands as they bid each other a safe night. Seconds later the guard coughed violently a few times, and looked at his palm to see a few black droplets disappear into his skin.