"Good evening Gotham, this is Vicki Vale reporting live from outside the Gotham Entertainment Centre, currently hosting this year's Street Kids charity event. The richest and wealthiest people across America have been invited to the event with all proceeds being used to take kids off of the streets and giving them a home, education and life. Guests include Tony Stark, Lex Luthor and Oliver Queen. Despite being unable to attend Bruce Wayne has already donated an incredible ten million dollars to the charity."
Lex Luthor walked towards the entrance to the entertainment centre, the paparazzi's cameras flashed as they took dozens of photos of him and his fiancé Lana Lang. Suddenly, all the paparazzi turned as a white Audi pulled up.
"It's him!" One of the paparazzi called out. The camera's flashed as the door to the car opened and Tony Stark stepped out.
"Evening everyone!" Tony called out as he smiled at the crowd. Tony handed his keys to the valet and walked over to Lex, the smile never leaving his face.
"Lex, good to see you old buddy. Sorry to hear about your factories." Referencing the Luthorcorp factories that kept blowing up. "Do you have any idea who's behind the attacks?"
"We're closing in on the culprits," Lex replied coldly.
"And this must be your fiancé, Lana Lang. It's a pleasure to meet you Ms Lang."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr Stark."
"Please call me Tony," he requested.
"We really should be getting inside." Lex stated and led Lana to the entrance. Tony watched with a smile before heading inside himself.
From high up above, hidden by the clouds, Superman floated watching as Tony entered the building. Clark new something was going to happen tonight. An event with this many rich people in Gotham was sure to draw unwanted attention. It turned out he wasn't the only one with the same thought as he noticed a figure on top of a nearby building unseen by anyone but himself.
Batman watched from the shadows as Olive Queen arrived at the event.
"Batman." Without turning around Batman replied.
"Superman."
"You had the same thought as me. Someone's going to attack the place tonight."
"Of course, this is Gotham."
"I've been wanting to meet you for a while now. I wanted to thank you for your help in Manhattan. You were the one who closed the portal after all."
"I'm not the one who flew a nuclear missile through a portal."
"Yeah well, it couldn't have been done if we didn't work as a team. That's the second reason I wanted to speak to you. I wanted to offer you a position in the Avengers."
"No," Batman immediately replied. Clark looked surprised by his answer.
"No?"
"No."
"How come?"
"I work better alone. The rest of you would just get in my way."
"Well I'm not going to force you to join. Just wanted to make the offer incase you were interested. I was researching some of Gotham's most wanted. Do you have any idea who's going to attack tonight? Two face, Riddler, Scarecrow."
"Do you always talk this much?" Batman asked.
"I don't usually talk at all. Who would hear me at thirty thousand feet."
In the distance a loud thumping noise could be heard.
"You hear that?" Clark asked.
Without a word Batman looked in the direction of the sound.
"It's some kind of plant monster, looks like a giant fly trap" Clark explained, deactivating his x-ray vision.
"Ivy," Batman mumbled. "It's a distraction, she's trying to draw me out so she can attack the charity."
"Good thing there's two of us." Clark shot through the air, racing towards the monster as Batman turned back to the charity event.
Inside Tony made his way to the bar. "One single-malt scotch on the rocks," he requested.
"Make that two," came a voice. Tony smiled as Oliver Queen came to his side.
"Oliver Queen, it's been too long, how's business?"
"Oh you know the usual."
"Your drinks gentlemen."
"Thank you." The two billionare's tipped the bartender with a hundred-dollar bill each.
"Any news on the alien weapons?" Tony asked quietly.
"How do you know about that?"
"Because I'm me," Tony stated obviously.
"Still no word on them. Fury's been looking for them non-stop."
Much to Oliver's surprise who else but Lois Lane walked up to them notepad and pen in hand.
"Lois?"
"You two know each other?" Tony asked.
"We dated for a bit," Oliver explained.
"But it didn't work out because one of us has a commitment problem."
"Why are you here? How did you even get in?" Oliver asked desperately attempting to get away from the current topic of conversation.
"I have my ways," Lois replied with a smug smile. "And as for why, I'm here for work." Just as she said this Oliver recognised someone across the room.
"Well I'm sure Mr Stark would love to answer all your questions. If you'll excuse me."
"There he goes, running off again." Lois shook her head as Oliver left them.
"You look lovely." Oliver complimented a familiar red head. Natasha Romanov faced the blonde billionaire.
"Thank you Mr Queen."
"Would you care for a dance?" Oliver suggested holding out his hand. Natasha silently took his hand and let him lead her to the dance floor.
"What are you doing here?" Oliver whispered into her ear as they began to slow dance.
"Fury sent me and a team of agents as extra security," she explained.
"Really?" Oliver gave her a questioning look. "Fury sent you here for the sole purpose of extra security for this charity event."
"That's what I just said."
"Now why am I having such a hard time believing you? Surely you coming here doesn't have anything to do with a certain masked vigilante dressed as a bat."
Before Natasha could answer giant vines burst through the ground, causing panic and chaos. Black Widow reached for her leg holster, concealed by her dress and pulled out a gun. She began firing at the vines as did all the other security guards. However, their guns had little effect on the giant vines which struck at them. In a matter of seconds, the guards had been taken out. A vine raced for Natasha, however she rolled out of the way just in time to save herself.
Through a massive hole in the wall a vine had created walked the green skinned beauty, Poison Ivy.
"Evening everyone," she greeted the room. "Man," she spat in disgust, "you stand here claiming to be heroes by helping poor children all across America. But how can you call yourselves heroes when you destroy the very Earth we live on. You are not heroes, you are monsters! And for that you will all pay. Razor sharp thorns began to grow out of a vines and headed for Black Widow.
"Starting with you," she smiled wickedly. Just as the vine was about to strike the heroine a batarang dug deep into the side of it. The batarang flashed red for two seconds before exploding , destroying the vine. Batman flew into the room tackling Ivy to the ground.
"Let them go," Batman ordered.
"Oh Batman deer," Ivy laughed. "You never learn." A pair of vines raced towards him but were blasted away by a beam of energy. Everyone looked to see a suit of Iron Man armour fly into the room, controlled by Tony from his phone. The suit landed and Tony climbed inside of it.
"How are you going to do against two of us?" he asked.
"Men, you think your machines can solve everything." The vines attacked Tony, swiping at his suit. Batman jumped into the air, narrowly avoiding an incoming vine.
"Everybody out!" Oliver ordered leading people to the exit as Batman and Iron Man fought Ivy and her plants. Amidst all the chaos Lois managed to climb behind the bar. This was the story of a life time.
"Ivy's controlling the plants!" Batman shouted, throwing explosive batarangs into a nearby vine.
"We take her out we stop the vines." Batman tried to get close to Ivy but every time he did a new vine would attack him.
On the other side of town Clark battled Ivy's plant monster. A giant vine smashed into him, the sheer force of it sending him crashing into the ground. As he stood up the vine attacked again. However, this time he shot out a blast of heat vision incinerating the vine. The monster let out a painful wail before attacking again. Clark managed to dodge almost every attack. He smiled triumphantly as he slammed two vines together. What he didn't realise was the vine behind him. The vine wrapped around Superman and chucked the hero into its mouth. A few moments passed and it seemed like the plant creature had beaten the man of steel.
Suddenly the creature began to wail and thrash about, clearly in great pain. A beam of heat vision shot out from the top of the monster. The monster fell over lifeless. Out of the hole flew a victorious Superman
'I've battled meteor freaks, witches, androids, aliens and now giant plant monsters. I have officially seen it all.'
A barbed vine smashed into Iron Man sending him crashing into the wall.
"The suit can't take many more hits like that," Jarvis reported.
"Thanks for the info," Tony replied sarcastically as he picked himself up.
He looked up to see a vine about to attack him. Tony prepared to fight when it suddenly fell lifelessly to the ground. Iron Man looked around, noticing Batman looking similarly confused. Then he saw Natasha, standing over an unconscious Poison Ivy.
"Men," she smiled just as Superman arrived landing beside his friends.
Ten minutes later the GCPD arrived and took Ivy into custody. Superman, Iron man, Green arrow and Black Widow stood on a nearby rooftop.
"Where will Ivy be taken?" Tony asked.
"Arkham Asylum, it's a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane," Widow replied.
"And let's hope she stays locked up. Did you see what she did to my suit!" Tony exclaimed.
"Hey, anyone know where Batman went?" Oliver asked, realising Batman was no longer with them.
A look of realisation came over Clark's face and he was about to take off when Romanov stopped him.
"Kent, Furry wants me to bring the Batman in for questioning. If you find him you have to bring him in."
"Ah ha!" Oliver exclaimed. "I knew there was another reason why you were in Gotham."
"Why does Furry want to question him?" Clark asked.
"That not for you to know," she replied.
"Well seeing as Furry didn't order me to bring him in I don't see why I have to." Natasha was about to reply when Clark took off, rocketing into the sky.
"That intolerable red and blue basted. Aren't you going to go after him?" she asked looking to Tony.
"Me? I'm exhausted. The only thing I'm doing is going home."
Clark smiled as his super hearing picked up on the rest of Natasha's comment. As he raced through the sky he noticed a black jet in the distance. The truth was he'd never lost track of Batman he'd been listening to the jet's engine since he left.
Batman flew through the night sky, thinking over Ivy's attack. Suddenly there was a knock on his windshield. Without even looking he already knew who it was. Switching the jet to auto pilot Batman ejected from the plane. He then began to race towards the ground. As he broke through the clouds he began to glide, landing safely on a nearby building. Superman landed gently beside him.
"SHIELD's looking for you," Clark warned. "I probably shouldn't be telling you this but they've got their best operative out to retrieve you, Black Widow."
"She doesn't concern me," Batman stated.
"You may not want to join the team but you can't deny the fact that you needed our help tonight. If you ever need any of us, we'll be there." Clark stuck out his hand offering it to the Dark Knight.
"Likewise." Batman took Clark's hand and they shook.
The next day Lex Luthor sat in his office reading an article in the Inquisitor written by Lois Lane. The title read World's Finest. It was followed by a photo of Superman and Batman standing next to each other. Lex watched his computer screen as it showed news footage of the attack. He paid particular attention to Poison Ivy.
'Very interesting,' he thought to himself. 'She'll go nicely with the others."
Author's Note:
This chapter was extremely hard to write. Every time I wrote it I would hate it and rewrite it all over again. Finally, after numerous re-writes I came to the chapter you read, hopefully you all liked it.
I've started a poll on who Clark should be paired. I didn't put Black Widow as an option because it's done in a fair amount of other stories and writing that relationship doesn't interest me at the moment. Not saying it can't happen in the future, just saying it won't happen now. If there's a character that you aren't able to vote for leave a review with your suggestion.