Chapter 3
A couple of days later and it is the night of Lana's show. Clark hadn't been sure about coming. He wasn't sure what use he could be and honestly thought he would be out of place and in the way but Lana asked him to come to support her using the word please and that was it. Clark could never refuse her when she said please.
Clark has to say it is some sight to watch Lana fully immersed in her chosen profession. Seeing her scurry around making sure everyone is where they should be when they should be there yet the small town charm was still there. In fact the small town charm probably helped make it all go smoother.
Clark has absolutely no skill in judging fashion but he knows that critics and the general populace alike rave about Lana's designs. She really is very skilled and he is immensely proud of what she has accomplished. She went out there and made a life for herself. The very thing Clark is currently trying to do now with his life.
During a small break he hands Lana a bottle of water to make sure she doesn't dehydrate. It was a warm evening.
"Thanks Clark," she says gratefully as she gulps down some water. "So what do you think of what I do?"
"I'm amazed at how you keep track of everything," he admits because at times it has seemed like chaos to him.
"That's what Mel is for."
Clark had seen Lana's assistant stalking around acting like a prison camp commandant, barking orders. It was scary. Clark wouldn't like to meet her in a dark alley. "I can't believe how many famous people are here," Clark comments at how all the...um how to phrase it?...oh yes how all the movers and shakers are here. All of Metropolis' great and good were here from the Mayor to various celebrities to Lex Luthor himself.
Lana rolls her eyes at the mention of all the famous people. "Most of them are only here for the good PR they can get."
"Now when did you get so cynical?"
"Since I have spent the last 8 years living in Metropolis and the past 4 dealing with those type of people. You develop a very thick, very cynical skin unless you are of course talking to them. Then you butter them up like there is no tomorrow."
Clark looks at Lana confused, not really understanding how that works.
Lana pats him on the arm. "Metropolis isn't like Smallville Clark. Those values that you and I were brought up on don't apply in this city."
"They should."
"Yes they should," Lana says in agreement. "But they don't and you just have to learn to adapt."
Clark frowns slightly. It doesn't seem right somehow. His musings are interrupted by the feel of the ground vibrating. "Do you feel that?" he asks Lana.
"Feel what?" Lana asks back having no clue what Clark is on about.
Clark bends down and places his right hand flat down on the ground. The vibrations are getting more intense and that means he thinks that the source of them is getting closer. Clark's eyes flash electric blue as he peers through the ground with his x-ray vision as he calls it. At what he sees his eyes widen in alarm.
"Lana!" he shouts the second before he pulls her into his arms. Just the second after a giant green vine bursts through the ground exactly where Lana had been standing moments ago.
Screams fill the air as the ground shakes more and dozens more vines break through the ground but not randomly Clark notices. They are herding people, him and Lana, included out to the stage area. Clark could of course escape with Lana but what about everyone else?
So he decides to stay for now and see what this is about.
Clark holds an arm around Lana making sure to keep her safe as they stand with all the others. Models, guests, press and alike all herded together in a giant group. They are surrounded by men with guns. Men wearing clown make-up and not just men but women too dressed in some kind of green dresses that seem to resemble plant leaves.
The ground rumbles and bursting out through the catwalk comes a giant plant bulb whose petals fold back one by one to reveal two women within. One with green skin and scarlet red hair that falls loosely around her shoulders dressed like the other women in the green costume although hers is skimpier and seems to have been designed more to emphasise her generous curves. The other woman is dressed in a red and back jester outfit with white face paint and a black domino mask.
"Hi everyone!" the jester greets them with a wave of her hand. The jester, Harley Quinn, full name Harleen Frances Quinzel one time psychiatrist and now sometimes sidekick and love interest to the Joker. Harley looks around. "Gee what a swell looking crowd. If only Mistah J was here," she says regretfully. "He would have loved it."
The green skinned woman rolls her eyes. "Harley stop," she says in total exasperation at her partner. "You and Joker broke up. Get over it already!" she says coldly.
Poison Ivy, eco-terrorist; once upon a time a brilliant botanist called Dr Pamela Lillian Isley until an accident in her lab transformed her into a plant/human hybrid. Her tissues became saturated with chlorophyll hence her skin's green pigment. She also gained an unnatural ability to control plants.
Ivy strides forward deliberately adding a sway to her curvy hips. She takes in the group and notes that many of the men are already succumbing to another effect of her transformation. She gives off powerful pheromones that has most men literally on their knees before her and already many of them are staring at her in rapture practically drooling.
Ah men are always so easy. It is almost boring. Women are different. It takes a bit longer for starters because women unlike men aren't driven by their libidos but given enough time and exposure her pheromones eventually have the same effect on the fairer sex as well. If Ivy hadn't injected Harley with the counter even her friend would eventually succumb and it is only because Harley is her friend that Ivy was that generous.
Ivy address the gathered masses. "Well now what do we have here. Metropolis' finest...most wealthy...most powerful...most greedy...most deceitful...most destructive people. You," she points at them sounding quite venomous by now. "You destroy and rape this planet. Every day I hear Mother Nature's screams of pain all because of you and your political lapdogs. You think you can get away with this? You think no-one will make you pay? Well no longer because Mother Nature got a helping hand. A hand of vengeance." Ivy's lips curl up into a cruel cool smile. "Me!"
"Now where shall we start?" she asks.
At which point a security guard who had managed to avoid detection points his gun at Ivy. "Freeze!" he demands.
Ivy arches one delicate green eyebrow. Someone with more willpower than the average man. Luckily it does not matter as an extendo boxing glove courtesy of her partner in crime disarms the man and a quick snap of her fingers has him entwined in vines.
Back to the game in hand Ivy turns her attentions to the crowd. Who to start with?
Oh she knows. Her vines wrap her chosen victim around the ankles and lifts him into the air and brings him dangling upside down in front of her.
"Lex Luthor," she says the name with particular glee. "As I recall I still have to get you back for the last time we met."
Last time they met Luthor had captured her so he could extract the mind control spores she also generates since her transformation to use for his own nefarious ends in one of his own plans to destroy the Justice League. The Justice League stopped him of course. Not that you could prove he had anything to do with it. As far as the majority of the world goes they saw Lex Luthor as just another super wealthy businessman and head of the conglomerate Lex named after himself; Lexcorp. They did not realise Lex was the power behind the Justice League's enemies, the Injustice League, in some attempt to take over the world or something. Really Ivy found the whole thing tedious. She had little care for their meaningless battles for control. Her only interest was in saving the planet...normally. However the procedure Lex used on Ivy to extract the spores was most...unpleasant. Ivy had not forgotten the pain or humiliation and it was on her list to make him pay at some point after her recent escape from Arkham Asylum and fortune has decided to smile on her tonight as she gets her chance right here and now.
Ivy places her hand on Lex's bald head and holds it steady. "How about a kiss Pretty Boy?"
Lex's eyes widen as Ivy's ruby lips move towards his own as he knows full well her lips are the deadliest of poisons which will kill him in seconds. Poison Ivy isn't merely a theatrical name. It is literally what she is if she chooses to be.
"That isn't the answer!"
Ivy stops mere millimetres from Lex's lips at that shouted out statement much to Lex's relief. Her brow knits together. The voice was male and obviously not under her control. Interesting.
She turns in the direction the voice came from and walks forward, waving her hands in command at the people to step back which they do without question. She is looking for the one whose gaze remains defiant to her will.
As the people clear a path she spots him. At her command vines wrap around his wrists and ankles and bring him forward to her where she looks him over from head to toe. "Oh Lexy dear!" she shouts out. "I think you may have to relinquish that title of Pretty Boy. I think we have a new champion," she announces with a extremely pleased looking smile at the vision of the man in front of her.
She looks deeply into the cerulean blue eyes and sees the steel will resisting her even this close. "Hmm strong willed certainly," she says intrigued at how he is resisting her. Lex...well Lex is a unique case. Few others can resist her spell.
Ivy runs her hands down his front. "Strong bodied too," she says sounding more than a little pleased at what she feels. She leans forward and inhales deeply his scent. "And you smell of the earth and of sunshine and wheat and animals. My guess would be a farmer right?"
The man says nothing only glares at her defiantly. She waves him off. "Oh you don't need to speak. Being a child of the Earth I can sense these things and people say Batman is the world's greatest detective," she says dismissively of Gotham's Dark Knight.
"He's got nothin' on you Red!" Harley says in support of her friend.
"No man has anything on me," Ivy proclaims arrogantly. She turns her focus on to the matter at hand and address the man who found the courage to interrupt her. An act she could have killed him for already but her curiosity is piqued and she wants an answer. "Now tell me since you obviously knew you were risking your life what it is that is so important you felt the need to speak up."
Ok so Clark knows this so wasn't his best idea but he couldn't just stand there and let an innocent man die so he had to do something. He couldn't use his powers without risk of being seen so speaking up was the next best option. "Killing is not the answer," Clark says to her.
"Is that a fact? Please tell me why that is the case?"
"Because life is precious," Clark says, his words tinged with more heartfelt meaning after losing the two most important people in his life.
"And is human life more precious than plant life?" she asks him back believing he will give the answer she expects that humans are more important when they are not. Humans are transitory, only one minor species. If humans die off the world would carry on without a second thought.
"All life is precious. You have to learn to live in harmony with the natural world," Clark says, his words coming from his upbringing. His father was an organic father and explained to Clark many times about not overusing the land, about learning how to work with its natural properties.
Ivy smiles in delighted surprise. Ooh she was starting to like this one. She trails a finger across his chiselled jaw. "Well you see the problem here is that very few people agree with your philosophy. Take the people here for instant. In fact lets take one particular example in dear old Lexy there. You see he sells his company as seeking 'sustainable growth,'" she finger quotes one of those, to her, annoying buzz terms that mean nothing. "In reality it is all PR. As we speak companies linked to Lexcorp are raping and pillaging this planet. In fact as we speak he is personally responsible for the loss of acres and acres of irreplaceable rainforest," Ivy says, the rage slowly building within her at the thought of so many of her beloved plants lost forever, like a mother losing her children.
"I agree people need to change but through persuasion and example. If you inspire people enough they can do anything they set their minds to," Clark argues.
Ivy chuckles softly, her laugh almost erotic in its quality, amused by his optimistic but futilely totally naïve opinion of mankind. "Now here is where we must disagree. People only change when they are forced to and I will be the one that forces them to. You see I understand people too, better than you do. Given the choice between changing and dying people will always take the selfish choice of living. However there are those that will never change and those people I will use to make an example. A different kind of example than you were referring to. Starting right here tonight I will make an example!" she says loudly, her voice harsh and cold. "And I will keep making examples until the governments and corporations of this world are brought to their knees and agree to every single one of my demands!" she proclaims.
"Ooh it always makes me so tingly when you get all political Red," Harvey says with a mock shudder.
Ivy smiles and runs her fingers across Clark's lips. "You know it's a shame," she says sadly at what she will have to do next. Her fingers slip down over Clark's chin down his throat until her hand comes to a stop at the top of his shirt. "I enjoy a good intellectual debate..." she then rips his button-up shirt open sending all the buttons flying. "Almost as much as I love rock hard abs," she says with a salacious smile as she drags her fingernails down Clark's now exposed chest and over his abs.
Ivy was right. They are rock hard. Definitely a shame what comes next. "Hmm," she says with an erotic moan as she playfully bites her index finger while looking him over. It was quite a sight. "Definitely going to have award you the Pretty Boy title. What do you say Harley?"
"I don't know Red. I like their skin to be paler and their hair to be a bit more...green."
Ivy pinches the bridge of her nose and closes her eyes in exasperation. She doesn't get why Harley is so hung up on that psychopath. She looks at Harley. "You're pathetic Harl. You know that right?"
Harley just shrugs it off.
Ivy looks up at Clark. "You see what I have to put with? I have to wonder some days why we're friends."
Ivy sighs and wraps her arms around Clark's neck, bringing her hips in contact with him and grinding against him slightly. She smiles when she hears a suppressed moan. Very resistant to her control he may be but she can feel a certain part of his anatomy that shows he is not entirely immune to her influence. She brings her face near to Clark's until their noses are virtually touching. "It's a shame we won't get to talk some more but I came here to make an example and I can't let you get away with interrupting me. If it means anything I think I will be genuinely sorry."
'Not sorry enough not to do it,' Clark thinks to himself along with 'Is it hot in here or is it just him?' and a treacherous thought about how good it feels to have a woman's body pressed up against his own despite the fact she is an insane super-villain bent on killing him apparently. Clark can smell the potent pheromones Ivy gives off but really he should have better self-control than this. It has only been...uh ok it has been 5 years since Lori left but that isn't that long.
Ivy's lips start to descent towards his and Clark has read enough in the papers to know what Ivy's kiss can do. It was why he spoke up in the first place to save Lex Luthor. Ok so this is a problem. He could break free. That has always been a possibility. That would reveal his powers though. He could do nothing and when she kisses him...uh Clark isn't sure what would happen. He is pretty sure poisons don't affect him which if that were to happen would reveal he was abnormal at least. There is no point in faking it because what happens afterwards. Does he explain it off as a miraculous recovery?
It's lucky Clark's brain works quickly or the few seconds he has wouldn't be enough to think through all this stuff except of course he is caught in a dilemma he has no way out of without revealing himself.
Well to hell with that then. If revealing himself means he can save these people then that is what Clark will do. He'll deal with the consequences later.
Clark clenches his fists about to break the vines holding him when there a whizzing sound and suddenly the vines are cut, which leaves Clark falling to the ground with Ivy on top of him and as she moves to stand up she rubs herself right against his groin and a groan escapes him. Ignoring how good that felt Clark's gaze falls to his side where he spots what cut the vines. Flying metal disks in the shape of bats.
"Batman!" Ivy hisses when she too spots the implements. Her eyes immediately look around for any sign of him. This show was being held in a park. Her guess would be Batman would be in the trees where he could hide in shadow. "Harley. Go find and destroy him."
"Me?" Harley asks in complete surprise at being asked to do that while pointing at herself.
"Yes you. Take your posse of jokerz and get him. I'll stay here with my girls and keep our guests company."
Or in other words they will be good hostages in case...no scratch that when Harley fails but at least they will wear Batman down a bit and buy Ivy a little more time.
With his would be murderer now distracted Clark has managed to disappear back into the crowd while doing his best to do something with his ruined shirt as he tucks it his waistband and tries to get his body to cool down. That was closer than he would have liked but now what?
Clark watches Harley and her gang run into the surrounding park and contemplates what to do next. Surely there must be some way he can help that would ensure all these people are kept safe. Clark thinks on it. Well he supposes he could...he would have to be careful not to be seen...and Lana...from the blank expression seems to have fallen under Ivy's control as well. She'll be fine for the moment and with no-one paying him any attention he vanishes in a gust of wind.
"Batsy!" Harley calls out. "Olly olly oxen free! Marco Polo! Oh come on Batsy! Come out and play fair!" she pouts.
"So what happened Harley?" a gruff voice calls out from somewhere unseen. "Joker throw you away?"
"No!" she says in vehement denial. "We're just having some...relational difficulties. That's all."
"It was only a matter of time Harley until an irrational mind like his saw you as an impediment to him," the same voice says from a different location.
"Shut up!" Harley snaps angrily, her voice low. It then lightens up again. "He'll take me back. Y-You'll see!" she tells him although she doesn't sound very sure of that.
"You're delusional Harley. You need help," the voice says from yet another location.
A tree branch shakes slightly and leaves fall to the ground. "There!" Harley shouts at the goons, point at the spot and the goons open up with their guns shooting the tree up but hitting nothing and seeing no-one.
The goons all look around nervously. They all knew Batman's reputation.
"You missed," the voice dead-pans in what could almost be interrupted as humour.
"You think this is funny Bats!" Harley screams. She then grabs a comical looking but extremely deadly grenade launcher from one of the goons. "Try this on for size!" Harley screams as she fires wildly into the trees.
Explosions light up the park, tree trunks blow to pieces, a couple of trees topple over.
When it is over Harley stands there breathing hard. Nothing. She didn't hit anything...but then he comes tumbling out of a tree. A figure in black dressed like a bat.
Harley grins widely. Finally. She got 'im! If only her beloved puddin' was here to see it.
Batman starts to move. Harley snarls her lip. "Boys! Take aim!" she commands her goons to finish off Batman once and for all.
One of the explosions had hit too close and Batman was hit by shrapnel. It had penetrated his armour. Luckily it hadn't gotten in deeply or hit anything vital but it hurt and his head is ringing. He starts to get to his feet and can see he has fallen directly into plain sight of Harley and co. That is not a good position to be in.
Then...Batman has to blink as a blurred figure snatches away one of the men at the back. For a second he wonders if he is imagining it or if he has a partial concussion until it happens again. Then a 3rd time and still no-one else notices.
Batman's quick mind realises all he needs to do is buy some time for his mysterious ally and to keep Harley's focus on him. He gets to his feet.
"Not so smug now are you Batman!" Harley crows triumphantly. "Just wait until I tell Mistah J I finally gotcha!"
Batman grunts. "And what do you think he'll do Harley? Pat you on the back and say job well done...or more likely he will kill you for stealing away that pleasure for himself."
Harley hesitates. "No...he wouldn't," she says with almost no strength to that argument.
"You don't sound so sure Harley," Batman says as his ally reduces the odds all the time. Half of the men are gone now.
"Well...he might be a little incy wincy teensy bit angry...I suppose," Harley just about is willing to concede.
"And you don't want to make him angry Harley," Batman says laying his psychological warfare on her. "Wouldn't it be better to take me alive. I'm sure Joker would be pleased with you if you did that and delivered me to him."
A smile starts to form on Harley's face as her mind drifts off as she imagines that. Joker would be so pleased with her and they can put all their current difficulties away and get back together. Yes. That is a much better idea. "Ok. Boys. Tie him up!" she orders. Nothing happens. "Boys!" she shouts and when again nothing happens Harley turns around to find that she is all alone. She scratches her head puzzled. "I coulda sworn I had a whole gang there," she mutters confused which isn't a terribly difficult thing to do to confuse her.
Batman simply waits for Harley to make her move. His mind is of course detailing every theory about his new ally but for the moment his main concern is Harley and then Poison Ivy who is by far the more dangerous one.
Harley turns back round to face Batman. "You know what Bats. I don't need anyone. I can take ya by myself!" she proclaims with misplaced confidence.
Batman holds his hand out and gestures for her to come get him.
Harley runs at him before flipping head over heels a few times. She launches a spinning kick through the air...only for Batman to grab her leg and throw her hard into a tree trunk. The sound when she shits the trunk is quite audible and hurts a lot as Harley groans in pain on the ground.
Batman strides forward, picks Harley up by her throat and slams her into the tree trunk and before she can recover he ties her to the tree trunk for safe keeping. "Take a rest," he tells her. "I'll be back."
Harley shakes the cobwebs free. "It's not fair," she complains. "I try and try and try but its never good enough for him." Him being Joker. She then starts to quietly sob.
It does not affect Batman who turns to deal with his more serious problem; Ivy.
From some distance away behind some bushes Clark watches Batman start to head back to where Poison Ivy and the hostages are. Like on this occasion Clark reckons the best idea would be to wait and see what opportunity presents itself when everyone is distracted where he can discretely help and not be seen...at least not clearly.
"Oh Batman!" Ivy's voice can be heard loud and clear. "By now I'm guessing you've taken care of Harley. If you don't show yourself in the next 10 seconds I will take care of these oh so good people of Metropolis that are currently keeping me company."
Clark can hear a low murmur from Batman which sounds like it is being made in annoyance.
Batman does not like being in a situation where he does not have the upper hand. Ivy unfortunately knows this. This is her manoeuvring herself into the ascendency of this contest. However he has little choice as she will carry out her threat without as much as a pang of conscious.
Batman strides out into clear view where he sees Ivy's girls have their planet based weapons aimed at the captive people. Captive in more way than one as the pheromones Ivy produces pretty much has the whole group under her control.
"Ah there you are!" Ivy greets him cheerfully. "You know Batman my day is almost not complete without locking wits with you," she says with a mixture of sarcasm and it being a half-truth. She knows the day she finally beats him will be a very satisfying one.
"Give this up Pamela. You know how it ends," Batman tells her.
"Oh is this the part where you tell me my motives are right but my methods are wrong. Sorry you've tried that one before and if you recall it didn't get you anywhere. My methods are the only practical option left and yes I have no doubt you already have 10 different ways planned out in that brilliant mind of yours on how you are going to stop me."
Ivy smiles coldly. "But it's not me you have to stop. Harley at least bought enough time for my sway over these people to be complete. Well apart from him," she says jerking her thumb in Lex's direction. Lex who by the way is still being held upside down by his ankles.
Ivy addresses her new minions. "Destroy Batman!" she commands them and they obey as they march towards him.
Considering there must be a hundred people at least Batman is a little outnumbered but then his ally reappears only this time moving at speeds that seem to be able to rival the Flash as one moment the crowd is moving in. The next moment the supporting metal braces of the stage have been ripped out and slammed into the ground all around the crowd penning them in.
Ivy becomes incandescent with rage. "Girls!" she screams. "Kill them all!" she decides in her anger but they don't get a chance as they are all disarmed, rounded up and tied up using street lamps from the park by the same blurred figure all in a matter of seconds.
Ivy blinks and then stares at Batman. "You!" she accuses pointing an accusatory finger at him. "This is your doing somehow. Who is it? Your Justice League friends?"
"It's called karma Pamela," Batman says flatly.
Ivy holds her right hand out to the side and growing out of the ground comes essentially a brown staff with a bulbous head. She takes it in hand and points it in Batman's direction. "You think you've won?" she asks him. "You haven't," she darkly utters her threat.
Batman readies himself though to look at him you could not tell that as he hides his intents completely. He feels the ground beneath his feet vibrate and he jumps out of the way as vines burst through trying to grab him but it has him off balance which is when Ivy attacks.
Ivy strikes Batman across the face and jabs him in the gut with the other end. She twirls the staff with all the precision and skill of an expert fighter and continues to press her attack with quick hard hits. She manages to smash the staff into the back of Batman's legs knocking him down onto his back. Sharp lethal spikes pop out of the bulbous head of Ivy's staff and she raises it intent to finish this once and for all.
Two red beams appear from nowhere and slice the head off the staff. It is all the distraction Batman needs as he kicks Ivy in the stomach and flips to his feet. He knocks what remains of her staff out of her hand and the two engage in a skilful fight.
Batman has to say he thinks Ivy has either been practising or been getting some expert training because he has to grudgingly admit she is better than last time he fought her. In fact it seems to get progressively more difficult to win every time he faces off against her but this time he has his hopefully still ally although Batman hates relying on unpredictable factors that he hasn't added into the calculation beforehand.
Slowly Batman gets the upper hand and with a spinning kick to her head knocks Ivy down where she stays making some pain generated groaning sounds. "Enough of this," he commands in his deep gruff voice.
"I agree," Ivy says but the way she says it instantly has Batman on alert. It had a triumphant undertone.
Ivy gets up to a kneeling position. "The great Batman. Always knowing the enemy's move before they have even thought of it," she says mocking him. "But you haven't calculated it this time," she tells him. "After all do you think I did this on a whim. I have been planning this for weeks. Planting little clues for you to follow like I planted my children in this park. Want to see my newest creation?"
Batman's eyes narrow to slits. Ivy spent her time trying to create plants that could fight back like animals and they were always extremely dangerous.
"Meet Georgia," Ivy announces and the ground starts to shake violently. The ground next to the penned in people erupts and what springs through is a giant flower bulb. Has to be a good 7-8 feet tall which means when it opens the flower could be 15-16 feet across. The petals fold back to reveal a giant purple flower with teeth along the petal edges and in the centre a mouth with more razor sharp teeth.
The flower then hovers over the people ready to devour them. Batman makes moves to intervene when vines rise up and wrap around his ankles.
Ivy laughs darkly. "Have you worked it out yet Batman? The whole fight I was drawing you away from the people you spend so much time trying to save."
Batman wants to kick himself hard because Ivy has duped him. During their fight she has managed to draw him far across the park out of range of his weapons and in no way could he get back to the people in time to save them even when he breaks free.
Ivy gets to her feet. "Not even your mysterious friend can help you this time," she tells him. "Georgia's leaves and stem are tougher than tank armour."
And as if to prove her point two beams strike Georgia with no effect.
'Damn!' is Clark's thought. He can't keep doing this and not be seen unless...well if heat won't work he could try cold. No matter how tough something might be if you get it cold enough it becomes brittle. He quickly scans the area for a good place where he can't be seen. He zips to it, inhales deeply and unleashes what he had come to call his freeze breath.
As Georgia's planet fibres begin to solidify, the water within the cells freezes rupturing the cell membranes. Georgia roars out in pain as does Ivy who can hear and feel it. "My baby!" she screams in anguish as she grabs her head in pain.
This is all the distraction Batman needs. He flicks out a Batarang and uses its sharp edge to cut the vines around his ankles.
Georgia freezes solid and then a blurred figure smashes into the oversized plant which shatters into hundreds if not thousands of pieces.
"Noooo!" Ivy's anguished screams echo as she runs towards her beloved child. Batman swoops in, grabs her by the hair, pulling her head and exposing her neck into which he jabs a needle and injects a orangery-red liquid.
Batman releases Ivy and she chokes and gasps as her hand goes to the injection point. She falls to the ground as does Lex as the vines holding him suddenly wither and die. "My children," she whispers in horror. "I can't...I can't hear them. No! My children!" she wails.
Batman looks down on her his expression, what you can see of it under his mask, stoic. Ivy looks up at him, her expression that of someone who is broken. "What did you do?"
"A chemical agent that suppresses your altered genes," Batman informs her. This essentially renders her powerless.
Ivy looks at her hands and the green pigment is visibly fading. She starts to cry, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Why?" she asks unable to fathom his actions. "Why do you keep defending them? I'm only doing what has to be done to save the world."
"I know."
Batman looks at Ivy with some pity as she lays there on the grass desperately trying to 'talk' to it and sobbing over and over about losing her children. This confrontation was over. Now Batman could turn his attention to his mysterious ally and trust him he will get the answers he wants about who or what this person is. Batman always gets his answers no matter what he has to do or what it takes. It is only a question of time.
Author's Note: I was just trying to show Clark's inherent do-gooderness with this chapter and showing that he wouldn't just stand by and let innocents suffer when he has the power to help. A bit of a prelude to Clark making a more conscious choice about using his powers more proactively. Thanks for the reviews. Next up; In the aftermath of this Clark has to deal with the Agents from DOMA including a certain Diana Prince.
