Infinity Crisis: Overgrowth

Disclaimer: "Look what you made me do to my defenseless tree!"

Chapter 2: The Brave and the Bat!

Arkham Asylum, Earth-51

"How did this happen?!" A broad-shouldered man with blond hair in a buzzcut snapped at the two guards. He wore a uniform indicating he was the head of security in the Asylum.

"We don't know, Commander Cash." The elder guard said. Max Cash sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He then glanced at another man standing in the office: Commissioner James Gordon. "This is a disaster."

"Indeed." Gordon agreed. "Every second Isley is free, there's going to be deaths. And the number will only grow. I got Batman in there, checking the cell now."

"We checked the footage." The elder guard told the policeman. "There was no way it was altered. She literally just seemingly walked into a portal."

"Just like we said!" The younger guard nodded.

"A portal, huh?" Gordon muttered, rubbing his chin. He glanced at the Dark Knight examining the cell on a monitor. I got a feeling this is connected to that misadventure you had with the League sometime back. The one where you went to another universe... True to Gordon's statement, the Caped Crusader was looking around, examining Ivy's cell.

Hmmmm... The Gotham Guardian thought as he looked around. No sign of any outside tampering...

The Justice League member felt a slight chill. He turned around and saw a familiar figure, dressed in a blue suit with a white turtleneck sweater, a gold medallion around his neck. His outfit was completed by a dark blue cape and blue fedora that seemed to put his eyes under a never-fading shadow.

"The Phantom Stranger." Batman said.

"Indeed, Batman." The stranger nodded. "I know what happened to the former Dr. Isley."

"I'm listening."

"She was spirited away. To an alternate Earth." The Stranger explained. "The reason for this is unknown, even to me."

That is concerning. Batman thought. The Phantom Stranger is supposedly omnipotent. If he doesn't know the answer...

As if the Stranger could read his mind (and considering his abilities, he probably could), the mysterious being did have something else to tell the Gotham Guardian.

"I can take you to this world. It's one that is not unfamiliar to you." The Stranger said. "Observe." He held out his hand, and an image appeared over it, like his hand was a three-dimensional holographic projector. Batman blinked at the "footage" the Stranger was showing. It showed a Native Hawaiian woman flying through the sky. And she was wearing a Green Lantern uniform.

A Green Lantern? Well, it's not implausible to parse that other universes would have them... "You said this world was not unfamiliar to me." Batman reminded.

"Indeed." The Phantom Stranger confirmed with a nod. "Dr. Isley was spirited away to the world you and the League faced off against Thanos in alongside the Avengers, Supergirl of Earth-38, and those heroes from Earth-1."

The Dark Knight's frown deepened. Why would Ivy end up there? What could be there that would peak her interest? In fact, how does she even know about that world? Somebody would have had to have taken her there. But who? And why? "I will have to make some preparations, if that's alright with you."

"Of course."

The Batcave, some time later

The Dark Knight pushed a metal box into the trunk of the Batmobile and then pushed the lid down, closing the compartment.

"Who would spirit Isley to another Earth?" Alfred asked.

"That's the mystery, Alfred." Bruce said. "There has to be a reason for it."

"Perhaps someone has recruited her." Alfred suggested. He turned to the Phantom Stranger...who was sipping some tea. "Enjoying the tea, sir?"

"It is wonderful, thank you." The Phantom Stranger complimented, a small smile on his face.

"I doubt it." Bruce said. "Ivy doesn't play well with others. She hates humans far too much." The Batman found himself flashing back, this conversation triggering a memory...

Wayne Enterprises. The Past.

Bruce Wayne walked up to the makeshift podium in front of the scrum of reporters.

"Good day, everyone." He greeted. "As you all know, Wayne Enterprises has been working in response to issues regarding the climate crises. We are happy to announce that-"

"WAYNE!" A voice yelled out. The crowd turned and saw a woman marching towards them. Her red hair was in a ponytail and she wore glasses. She was clad in a green blouse, brown skirt and blazer, and black tights and shoes. "WAYNE!" She yelled, holding up a file folder. A couple of security guards ran up to her.

"Lady, you can't just march up-!"

"Don't you impede me, you low-paid low-IQ gorilla!" She hollered at the guard. "I want to speak to your master! Or do I need to say it in smaller words so your tiny lizard brain can attempt to comprehend it?"

"Is there a problem here?" Bruce asked.

"Wayne, this planet is in peril!" She snapped as she tried to struggle herself free from the guards. "The climate crisis is upon us! Are you even aware of this?"

"Yes, I am." Bruce nodded. "Gentlemen, let her go."

"You sure, boss?" One of the guards asked. The reporters watched this in fascination.

"It's fine." Bruce assured. The guards released her, and the redhead sneered at them.

Mindless muscleheaded morons...The woman mentally muttered as Bruce walked over to her.

"Now, Miss..."

The redhead grit her teeth and shook. She looked like she was about to explode with rage.

"DOCTOR!" She snapped. "Doctor Pamela Isley! I did not get doctorates just so you can patronize me by saying 'Miss'!"

"My apologies, Doctor Isley." Bruce said, making a calming gesture with his hands. This woman is really high-strung. "What can I help you with?"

"I'm certain you are aware that the Earth is on the verge of ecological collapse because of climate change, right?" She said.

"I have an interest in science. My sadly late mother was an amateur astronomer." Bruce nodded. She would have loved meeting Clark. "And yes, I have been aware of this."

"Humanity must take action now!" Isley said. "We don't have much time left." She handed Bruce her file folder. "I have created this plan of action. If humanity follows this plan, it may have a chance." The billionaire looked over the contents of her file.

"Doctor Isley...what you are proposing here is...well, for lack of a better term, lunacy."

"Lunacy?!" Isley yelled in outrage.

"Quite frankly, yes." Bruce nodded. "What you're proposing is beyond radical. You are basically asking humanity to abandon any sort of modern convenience. People could die from this."

"So a few humans will die." Isley snorted. "The Earth will survive without them. In fact, humanity is arguably a cancer on this world. Less of them, the more Earth can heal."

"Doctor Isley, I live on this planet, too." Bruce said. "I do believe humanity needs to make changes as well. But your proposal is far too extreme. I believe that there are solutions that-"

Isley barked out a bitter laugh. "Typical corporate speak. You don't care about saving this planet at all. You are perfectly willing to let this planet be destroyed just so you can own another yacht that you won't use!" She angrily stomped away. "You'll all see! You will regret this, Wayne!"

The Batcave, the present.

Batman shook his head. Not long after that, Isley somehow became a superhuman criminal, calling herself Poison Ivy. Claiming to be Gaia's sword of vengeance, her first appearance had her massacre all the people inside of a chemical factory. And the ensuing fight showed that she did not care in the least if civilians got killed. If anything, Ivy was trying to get more people killed.

"I admit, I find it amusing that that other world has a Green Lantern." Alfred noted.

"It makes sense." Batman responded. "We know that other universes exist, and as we know, superheroes can exist on them as well."

"From what you told me about the Avengers' Earth, it can be assumed they did not have a Green Lantern Corps." Alfred pointed out. He turned to the Phantom Stranger. "And that young woman you showed me was wearing the Corps uniform."

"That was because of me." The Stranger admitted. Alfred and Batman shot him an inquisitive look. "She was needed during a crisis."

"If you mean that Dusting crisis, why wasn't she in New York during that fight against Thanos? I had no idea that Earth had a Green Lantern." Batman inquired.

"While you and your allies were fighting Thanos, an alien race native to that universe known as the Kree had chosen that moment to attack there."

"I'm assuming that these 'Kree' assumed someone in Hawaii was responsible for the Dusting." Alfred deduced.

"In a way, yes." The Stranger said. "The Kree were hit by the Dusting as well, and they believed that Hawaii was the starting point. I gave her the ring to help save that world's Honolulu from them."

"And you think Poison Ivy ended up there?" Alfred asked. The Phantom Stranger nodded.

"I haven't heard anything about her in two months before the Dusting." Batman remembered.

"A part of me honestly hoped that she was taken by the Dusting." Alfred shook his head. "Sadly, that turned out to not be the case. She reappeared and rampaged in Gotham while you were away, sir. Thankfully, the gentleman calling himself 'Starman' handled her."

Batman blinked at that. "Starman? I thought Ted was still in Opal City."

"Ted Knight was, sir. At least before he got Dusted. I was referring to the extraterrestrial. Mister Tomas."

"Ah, right." Batman nodded. I remember him now. Mikaal Tomas. Alien conqueror turned defender of Earth. Talokian, I believe. Former Justice Experience member, then was an honorary member of Infinity Inc. I really have to call him up some time to thank him again for watching over Gotham in my absence and see how he and Tony are doing. I heard they were working on adopting a child. Maybe I can help speed the process up for them. "I'm ready to go, Stranger."

"Indeed." The Stranger smiled. "Let's get going."

Honolulu, Hawaii, Earth-199999

A police officer sat in his car, the car parked in the parking lot in front of a Dunkin' Donuts. He smiled as he saw his partner walk out with a white box and a couple cups of coffee.

Yeah, cops enjoying donuts is stereotypical, but darn it, donuts are great. The policeman thought as he watched his partner walk towards the car from the store, holding a box of donuts.

"We're lucky, partner." The other cop said, opening the box and revealing its doughy treasures. "They had plenty of chocolate donuts left."

"Lucky us! Those things tend to go quick." The first cop said, licking his lips and rubbing his hands.

THUD!

"What the-?!" The two cops yelled and jumped up as they heard something land on the car's roof. They turned and saw a tied-up thief on the roof. Amusingly, he was tied up with what appeared to be a bunch of purses.

"The green chick dropped me here." He groaned. One of the cops looked out the window and upwards. True to the criminal's statement, Tana Moon, the Green Lantern, was floating in the air. She smiled and waved down at the cops.

"Hi, fellas." She pointed at the thief. "This nice guy here thought he'd help himself to some purses. You're welcome!" The Emerald Knight noticed the box. "May I?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure." He opened the box. Tana created a construct of a hand. The hand took a donut, then gave it to her.

"Thanks, fellas!" Tana gave the cops a salute, then flew off with a smile on her face. The cops and the robber watched her fly away.

"...can I have a donut, too?" The robber asked. The two cops glared at him.

"Well, ring. I thing we did a nice bit of crimefighting today." Tana said.

"Indeed." The ring intoned. "We must discuss that plant."

"Ah right, the plant from another dimension." Tana nodded. "Yeah. How did a plant from another dimension end up here? Could it have been from the Dusting? I mean, maybe when it was undone, something got glitched up, and it ended up here?"

"A valid possibility." The ring said. "We should talk to Bond about that plant. And yy the way, it is almost time to head to the studio."

"Right. Got a talk show to film." Tana nodded. "Let's go!" She flew off towards the studio where her talk show was being filmed.

That night

I must be nuts for doing this. Tana thought as she flew over the night sky. But I have to admit, I love flying around. And I don't have to worry about laundering the outfit.

Her ring beeped. "Lantern 2814, I have picked up a silent alarm from the bank. There is a robbery being attempted."

"Well, I was just flying to help me relax, but what the hey." Tana shrugged. "Let's take a look." Meanwhile, at the bank, a certain group of men were drilling into the vault. The Domino Group were at it again. (Author's Note: The Domino Group, or the Domino Gang, first appeared in Infinity Crisis Aftermath: A Flashy Debut.)

"The drill is almost through, One." Two announced. He was operating a core drill that was cutting into the vault's door.

"Alright, Two." One nodded.

"Man, we are going to be rich!" Three grinned, rubbing his hands gleefully.

"I'm going to get that big-ass Lego castle I've been eyeing on Amazon." Four noted.

KRESH!

A figure crashed through the skylight, landing on the ground.

"The hell?!" One exclaimed. Batman rose to his feet.

"Awww, crud." Four groaned.

"First the Lantern chick, then the Flash chick, and now...this guy!" Three facepalmed. Batman raised an eyebrow.

This Earth has a Flash as well? Huh. Next thing you know, this world has a Starman, too. The Dark Knight noted.

"Tranq his goofy ass!" One ordered. The Domino Gang pulled out their tranq guns, but Batman was quicker on the draw. He whipped out a batarang and tossed it. The boomerang-like projectile whacked the tranq guns out of their hands.

"Agh, my hand! My beautiful hand!" Three squealed. The Caped Crusader leapt at the men. Meanwhile, Tana flew towards the bank. The talk show host noticed the broken skylight.

"Looks like someone beat us to it." She noted.

"Proceed with caution." Her ring warned. "I detect five lifeforms in the building."

"You got it." Tana nodded. The woman flew into the building and saw the four members of the Domino Gang unconscious and tied up. "Ring, you said you detected five figures in the building, right?"

"Affirmative."

Tana looked around. "Sooooo, where is number five?"

"Behind you." The ring informed. The Hawaiian woman heard a footstep.

"The hell?!" She pointed her ring, said jewelry glowing brightly at the shadows behind her. "Alright, jackwagon! If you don't want a green fist in the mouth, you'll step out here!" The Dark Knight stepped out of said shadows. The talk show host blinked. "Who are you supposed to be? A wannabe Nighthawk?"

"I take it you are the Green Lantern of this Earth." The Batman stated. Tana looked over his costume. It was a gray outfit with a yellow utility belt, a black scalloped cape and cowl with two pointed ears, and black gloves and boots. His costume had a chest emblem of a stylized black bat in a yellow oval. The costume also showed that the wearer was quite muscular.

"Nice outfit." Tana scowled. "What do we call you? Spooky Shadow Man?"

"Lantern 2814, this one of the premier defender of my native universe's Earth. The Batman." Tana's ring introduced.

"Batman?" Tana scoffed. "You look like a dork."

Bruce frowned at this. Jordan said the same thing the first time we met.

"This ring indicated that you're from its native universe." Tana said. "How'd you get here?"

"A friend brought me here. One of my old enemies found her way to your world." The two heard sirens. "I think we should talk somewhere else."

"Good idea." Tana nodded. She covered Batman in a green bubble. "Come on, I know a place." She flew off.

"Lantern, my car!" Batman exclaimed.

"You have a car?"

"It's parked behind the bank." Batman told her. Tana flew towards it. She noted the sleek black vehicle with the two large bat wing themed-tailfins, the afterburner in the back, and the turbine on the front.

"Awww, your car is dressed up like a bat, too. That's adorable." Tana grinned. "Kudos to you for sticking with the gimmick." Batman rolled his eyes.

Jordan also said something like that the first time we met. He recalled. Tana created another bubble, this one enveloping the Batmobile. The bubble lifted the car off the ground, and then Tana flew off with her cargo. Later, the two superheroes were sitting on top of a coffee shop, enjoying some, well...coffee.

"So, this Poison Ivy chick." Tana said. "She's a loony with plant powers."

"More than that." Batman said grimly. "She's one of the more dangerous of my Rogues Gallery. Only another villain of mine called the Joker has a bigger body count than her. She believes she's saving the Earth, but she's willing to commit genocide to do it."

Tana winced. "Yeesh. Sounds like you attract the real nuts."

"I have that reputation." Batman said. "But in my years of crimefighting, I have learned that we all have our 'nuts'." He sipped his coffee. "I did some research on you when I arrived here. I noticed that you recently encountered someone calling himself the Scarecrow."

"...yeah." Tana shuddered. "Ebenezer Laughton. He was a serial killer. Liked to dress up as a scarecrow to frighten his victims before he killed them. He was Dusted when that whole thing went down. When he came back, he ended with powers."

"He was able to tap into the yellow energy of fear." Her ring added. "It is believed that the Dusting somehow empowered him. He claimed so himself." Tana fought down a second shudder as she recalled fighting the Scarecrow for the first time. Thankfully, she had those other three Green Lanterns helping her out.

Fascinating. Bruce thought. One of Hal's regular punching bags was Sinestro. He used a ring like Hal's, but it had yellow energy instead of green. Hal said something about yellow energy representing fear... "There's a Scarecrow in my universe, similar MO." Batman explained. "Jonathan Crane. He was a professor of psychology. He used that knowledge to terrorize people with his fear gas."

"Huh." Tana sipped her coffee. "I guess our worlds really aren't that different in some ways."

"No, they are not." Batman admitted. He decided to change the subject. He wasn't here to sight-see, after all. "What I wonder is why Poison Ivy is here."

"Maybe she wanted to take a vacation." Tana joked. The Dark Knight shook his head.

"No. I know Ivy. The woman is too much of a fanatic. The only reason I can think of she'd come here is she's after something."

"Perhaps we can help solve that mystery." Tana's ring offered.

"Yeah, it talks." Tana smiled. "Never shuts up, but you get used to it."

"I see." Batman nodded. Jordan's ring spoke, too.

"You see, when I'm not doing the Green Lantern thing, I'm a talk show host." Tana explained. "On a recent episode I filmed, I interviewed a botanist named Thomas Bond."

"Mr. Bond had discovered a new plant species in the Amazon rainforest." The ring added.

"Thing was, it was the only sample he found." Tana continued. "And when my ring scanned it, it discovered that the plant vibrated at a strange frequency."

"Its vibrational frequency did not match either this universe or yours and my own, Batman." The ring finished.

"Which means the plant did not come from either of our Earths." Batman frowned, rubbing his chin. He looked at the ring. "Could you identify the Earth the plant was from?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot." The ring confessed. "My knowledge of multiversal vibrational frequencies is rather limited. I cannot identify the home universe of the plant."

"Terrific." Tana sighed.

"We'll have to meet up with Mr. Bond." Batman said. "Do you know where this man is?"

"I think he may work at the University." Tana suggested. "University of Hawaii at Manoa. That was my alma mater."

"Gotham University was mine."

"Gotham?" Tana blinked. "You mean New York City?"

"Gotham City is a city in the U.S. State of New Jersey in my native universe." The ring explained.

"Huh." Tana blinked. "No such place in my world's Jersey. In my world, Gotham is a nickname for New York City."

University of Hawaii at Manoa

"Such a fascinating plant." Thomas Bond muttered to himself as he looked over the petals of the tulip-like lifeform. "I wonder how you got there..."

"That's what we'd like to know." A woman's voice said. Bond turned around and yelped as he saw Green Lantern and Batman.

"Wah! Green Lantern!" He eyed Batman. "And...this guy!"

"Yeah, he has that effect on people." Tana grinned, jerking her thumb at the Dark Knight. "It's alright, Batman here is cool."

"Batman?" Bond looked the Caped Crusader over. "Is that what this cheap Nighthawk ripoff calls himself?"

"I was told you found this plant in the Amazon rain forest. Is that true?" Batman looked at the plant.

"Yes." Bond confirmed with a nod. "It's a strange plant."

"It looks more like a tulip." The Dark Knight observed. "Wild tulips don't grow in the Amazon."

"Indeed. Which is why I found it strange that it was there." Bond noted.

"Could it be an invasive species?" Tana suggested.

"Possibly." Bond frowned, scratching his chin. "But this was the only sample of the species I found."

"Sounds like somebody wanted you to find this thing." Batman guessed.

"But...why?" Bond asked. "I mean, I'm hardly anything special."

"That's the mystery." Batman said. "Did you discover anything else unusual about this plant?"

"Actually, yes." Bond answered. "Come over here and take a look at this." He waved the two heroes over to a microscope. "Look at this." He pointed at the tool.

"Yeah, it's a microscope." Tana noted. Batman shot her a look. She shrugged. "I'm not a botanist."

The Dark Knight fought the urge to roll his eyes. Just like Jordan. He looked in the microscope, and noted what he saw in the slide.

"These chloroplasts do not match that of any tulip species." Batman noted.

"Chloroplast? Like chlorophyll?" Tana blinked.

"Chloroplasts are organelles that allow plants to conduct photosynthesis." The ring explained.

"Indeed." Bond nodded. "Also, I managed to extract some of the seeds of the plant."

"Let me guess." Tana said. "They're not tulip seeds."

"You got it." Bond confirmed. "That was very strange. If this was a tulip, it wouldn't have seeds. Tulips grow from bulbs."

"If you say so." Tana shrugged. Bond handed a small clear plastic bag to the Dark Knight. He held up the bag and looked at it.

"Unusual looking seeds..." He noted. Tana blinked at them. The seeds were pink with what looked like glowing blue veins on them.

"The hell?" The Hawaiian woman blinked. "Are those what plant seeds would look like in a cyberpunk garden?"

"There are bioluminescent plants, but those do not occur in nature." Bond said. "They're given the gene that allows it from certain species of mushrooms."

"There are many planets that do have naturally occurring bioluminescent plant species." Tana's ring added. "But Bond's assertion is correct when applied to Earth. Both this one and mine."

"Well, the ring told me that its vibrational frequency did not match any known universe." Tana said.

"Wait, what?" A confused Bond blinked.

"It's a whole thing."

"Every universe vibrates at a unique frequency." Tana's ring explained. "What that basically means is that this plant is from another universe."

"Mr. Bond, you are in danger." The Dark Knight warned. "A maniac from my world is after this plant."

"Wait, what?!" The confused botanist asked.

"She calls herself Poison Ivy." Tana continued. "She is a world-class nutjob. She's an ecoterrorist and an omnicidal maniac."

Bond blinked in disbelief. "Omnici-!"

"That means she seeks to eliminate all life." The ring explained.

"All human life, anyway." Tana clarified.

Batman glared at the talk show host. "Not. Helping."

"Gimme a break! I'm still new to this stuff."

"How would this plant do that?" Bond asked.

"The person after this plant is an expert on botany and genetics." Batman answered. "She would find a way."

"Indeed, I am. And I would." The three turned and saw Poison Ivy standing at the door. She wore a green swimsuit/leotard-style outfit decorated with green leaves. Framed around her fiery red hair was a crown of leaves and thorns. It reminded Tana of the crown of leaves the Ancient Romans wore. "Give me that plant, humans."

So, yeah. This was a long time coming. I do want to apologize for taking so long to update this. There was a bunch of factors involved. Real life, other stories kept popping up (mainly the next chapter of The Super Starr Chronicles), and I also had got a major bit of writer's block when it comes to this story. And there are still two other Infinity Crisis stories I want to do: The Omega Sanction, following up on Omega the Unknown's debut in Distant Cousins Aftermath, and Future Shock, a team-up between Spider-Man of Earth-199999 and Killraven of Earth-199691 inspired by Marvel Team-Up #45(May 1976). Maybe I can get a co-writer for those. Not to mention Christmas coming up.

Max Cash first appeared in the Wildstorm Universe in Savage Dragon #13 (October 1994), and in the DC Universe in Grifter #3 (November 2011), created by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi.