Robin landed in a puddle of something wet.
Maybe it was water. Maybe even blood.
But he didn't stop to find out which, running through the underground system with his cape dancing behind him.
Heading towards the sound of shooting guns and screaming voices.
Then just screaming voices.
He vaulted through a monster-sized hole in the wall where Ivy's earlier brutes had perhaps smashed their way through en route to the courthouse.
Finding himself in a new corridor, he continued to the right where the way to the left was blocked off.
And then there was just silence.
Dead silence.
"C'mon." Robin hastened his speed. Faster and faster.
Around a corner and then…
"Oh God."
…there they were.
Every man on the team was laid out. Writhing. Wincing.
The smell of blood permeated the air.
Guns were discarded around them. Some weapons were bent, others were broken entirely in half.
The officers were all laid out in what looked like a large control room with various vine-covered pipes adorning the infrastructure.
And in the middle of it all was a towering being that had long shed the skin of humanity.
Orange prison pants with bullet holes in them. Scaly green skin.
Killer Croc.
He was holding an incapacitated officer upside-down with one hand on his ankle, his monstrous maw open as he prepared to take a bite out of the man's head.
In this moment, basic survival instinct would dictate doing anything to avoid attracting the attention of this cannibalistic, reptilian killer.
But that wasn't the mission.
That wasn't what Bruce trained him to do.
"Drop him!" Quickdrawing a shuriken, he hurled it at the gargantuan former inmate.
It bounced harmlessly off the skin, ricocheting and clinging against the nearby wall.
But it did its job.
The monstrous man-eater turned his slitted eyes towards the hooded hero.
And across his mouth formed a smile that could unnerve Victor Zsasz.
Carelessly, he flung the inverted officer to the side and gave the Boy Wonder his full, leering attention.
"Where's Ivy?" Robin demanded, brandishing his fully extended bo staff.
The man once known as Waylon Jones took a predatory sniff in his direction. One was all he needed.
"You belong to the Bat," Croc growled and grinned all at once.
Keeping composure in front of an eight foot tall crocodile man was a tall ask for anyone, but Robin did his best. "Well, I like to think it's more of a partnership but-"
"If I can't have Batman, killing you will be the next best thing." Croc's grin widened even more, if that was even possible.
"Yeah, haven't been told that before," Robin muttered under his breath sarcastically, backing away.
"Tick tock." The former inmate started towards him, the bulking mass of scales and sinister intentions filling almost the entirety of the young man's vision.
"Oh boy." He turned and ran. Ran like his life-
"Time to feed the croc."
Ran like his life depended on it.
His cape danced as the Boy Wonder sprinted back the way he came.
Moving fast. But so was Killer Croc.
The former inmate was making the corridor shake with every stomping footstep, his grisly maw open with a malicious laugh that simply chilled the spine.
Robin ran faster. The monster was still keeping up.
Seeing the dead end he encountered earlier, he knew he was close-
"Ugghhh!" Or maybe not as a blunt force from behind bludgeoned against the back of his head.
He went tumbling down from what felt like a steel-wrapped forearm.
Rolling over on his back, Robin had no time to think.
Only react as Jones pounced down on him with plunging razor sharp teeth.
Instinctively, he wedged his staff against the jaws of Killer Croc.
What felt like rows of gleaming daggers chomped down against his metal shaft.
Literal inches away from certain death, Robin drew from strength upon strength to hold the monster at bay.
But Croc wasn't to be denied, pushing down on him more and more.
Testing his self-preservation beyond its normal limits. Beyond limits he even knew existed.
"No…not like this," he muttered aloud, feeling the heat and hunger from the malevolent man's mouth.
Croc was getting closer…closer…
"Nyaah!" With a Herculean effort, Robin pushed Croc off- only to end up empty-handed.
Still gripping the staff between his staff, Waylon gripped both ends of the staff with both hands and seamlessly bent the Boy Wonder's signature staff into a horseshoe right before his very eyes.
Then, he spat it out with growling disdain.
"Dammit." Robin reached for his belt.
Croc lunged back in, one clawed hand slashing at the young man's chest.
But Robin rolled out of the way, leaving something on the ground in his place.
Something small yet power-
"Aarrgghhh!" A Snap Flash that exploded instantly, catching Killer Croc point-blank right in its disorienting blast radius.
Staggering backwards, the crocodile man snarled and spat with his vision momentarily impaired by the gadget.
"YOU THINK I NEED EYES TO RIP YOU APART?!" he roared, lashing out with one arm with the force of a battering ram and slamming it against the wall.
On his feet, the Boy Wonder backed up and reactivated his comlink: "Oracle, I'm fighting Croc."
"What?"
"Tell me what to do."
"Run, Tim. Run now," came her blunt response.
"Yeah I tried that. Didn't really work. Open to other ideas," he told her.
"Tim, this isn't a joke. You need to get out of there right-
"I CAN STILL SMELL YOU!" Croc turned back in his direction and swung violently at him.
Instinctively, the vigilante ducked and rolled out of bludgeoning range.
At least for now.
"You were saying?" he prompted her again, hastily racking his mind for something- anything that could be used to his advantage.
"...get distance between him and you. You can't take him head-on."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Barb," he deadpanned, before switching on his Detective Vision.
As his world became filtered through blue, he scanned his surroundings quickly.
He looked up. Around. Down…and stayed down.
Underneath his boots, the ground was structurally weak. Compromised, but to what end?
Robin was about to find out as he hurriedly produced his Explosive Gel and sprayed around him.
No time to be intricate, he laid it out in a circle just as Croc had recovered- and not a moment too soon.
He squeezed the trigger right as the crocodile man lunged.
"I'LL RIP YOUR-"
The ground exploded beneath their feet, interrupting him mid-snarl and dropping the two into an even greater depth of darkness within the antiquated sewer system.
Robin pulled out his specialized grapple gun just as Waylon's murderous growls suddenly ended in a sizable splash down below.
Firing the metal hook overhead, his descent was sharply halted once the hook caught on to an exposed pipe on the level above.
The cable held firm, thankfully.
Leaving him to look down at the murky waters while dangling in mid-air.
"Well hopefully that's the last we see out of him tonight," he remarked before addressing the hacker directly, "Barb, what's the ETA on that cure? They're gonna need to step it u-"
"RAAAWWWRRR!" Killer Croc suddenly lunged out of the water like a prehistoric sea monster, grabbing Robin's ankles and dragging him right down.
Down into darkness.
The Boy Wonder's face was stricken with panic and fear as he was forcibly submerged.
His grapple gun slipped out of his reach mid-fall.
"Tim?! Tim, do you copy?!"
He was underwater and not alone.
With every training exercise he'd ever had with Bruce, Robin ducked the snapping jaws of Killer Croc.
He knew how to hold his breath, but the task was made all the more difficult with the mutated man clawing and gnawing at him.
On pure instinct, he pulled one last hail mary from his utility belt.
Smoke pellet.
Croc kept biting at him even under the water.
So Robin gave him something.
And the second he let it float right into Croc's jaw, it exploded into a dense cloud of camouflage.
Waylon recoiled as he was disoriented once more.
It enveloped them both for a bit, but not for very long.
The Boy Wonder swam for his life now.
Swam as fast as he could.
Eventually popping his head up for fresh air, Robin maneuvered through the waters before finally grabbing onto a solid surface in front of him.
Pushing up on his forearms, the hooded hero lifted himself onto a platform and kept running.
Just behind him, Croc was snarling out in frustration and fury.
"RUN ALL YOU WANT! I HAVE YOUR SCENT!"
"Knew I should've put on deodorant," he grumbled, trying to make light out of a terrifying situation.
Going around a corner, Robin quickly ascended up some stairs and burst through a doorway that was thankfully sized for a normal man.
He ended up in what seemed like another control room, only smaller than before and even more conspicuous was the creeping vines and flora growing out of the infrastructure.
Somewhat shaken, he rested his hands briefly on the dilapidated control panel.
"Kid, you there?"
Hearing the urgent-sounding transmission of Maggie Sawyer, Robin took in a breath before answering, "Yeah. Your men were attacked by Killer Croc, detective. I managed to get his attention but I don't know for how long. You need to get them evacuated."
"Unfortunately, that's the least of our worries right now. A giant tree just sprouted out of the damn ground in front of the inmate evacuation center. Looks like you're out of time."
"Are all the inmates out?"
"There's dozens that still haven't been processed out."
"I'll be there as soon as I-"
"Oh God, what's that? Richards, you see that? You see…shit we gotta get to cover. Now." Maggie's voice went from cynical curiosity to outright terror.
"Detective," he called out.
"Everyone- masks back on! I see spores coming…everywhere."
"What's happening?"
"...kid, take care of yourself." Then static.
"Barb, I lost contact with GCPD," he reported in the other channel. "Give me an update on the cave."
Static from her end too.
"Barb? Barbara?"
No response.
Just dead air.
Cursing under his breath, he thought of contacting Alfred next at the Batcave.
But then he stopped for a second and listened.
He listened, and he heard her.
Pushing off the panel, the masked man took a better inventory of his surroundings.
He saw plants, plants, even more plants…and a doorway that led elsewhere.
Not wanting to come back the way he came, that prompted the Boy Wonder to walk onwards.
Through the door. Down another set of steps.
Where he saw her.
At the center of a fluorescent lit area where industrial metal had succumbed to overflowing flora from every direction, stood the mistress of the night's malevolent machinations.
Her back to him, Poison Ivy was kneeling in the midst of what seemed to be a snakepit of vines all converging around her presence.
Slithering around her limbs and waist, the serpentine creations all extended from every which direction as she serenaded them with a gentle, wordless lullaby.
Upon touching down on the ground, Robin instantly triggered an increased hostility amongst the plantlife.
Hostility that surely did not go unnoticed…
"You're supposed to be dead, lover," she spoke without turning around.
Without fear, without pause, Robin continued walking.
"Guess you didn't try hard enough," came his stoic response, steeling himself to block out all the emotions that threatened to explode into the forefront.
Her answer came first in a snicker. Sinister yet seductive.
Then, came her words that followed, "With the spores you've already ingested in this place, Robin, I could render your lungs shriveled husks and watch you choke from within."
He finally stopped.
Right as she leered over one shoulder, fixing him with a taunting look, "But what fun would that be?"
Sans his bo staff now, Robin wielded his determination as its own weapon. "This has gone on long enough, Ivy."
"I agree. Man's time has come." Rising with sinuous ease, Ivy turned to him with one hip cocked. "The meat will wither and die soon. And nature's true children, shall inherit the earth."
"What did you just do up there?" he demanded.
"I set the timer, my darling. A timer on humanity's extinction," she told him gleefully. "And our liberation."
"There is no liberation, no higher purpose in what you think you're doing. Like I said before you hijacked me, you're trying to get vengeance on men too dead to care," he retorted. "Being a victim of someone else's crimes doesn't give you the right to victimize people who had nothing to do with it."
Unsurprisingly, her response was a dismissive one. "The sins of the few are the sins of all. The Bat paid for his arrogance, and now so must the rest."
"Well, on behalf of the millions you're about to put at risk, that's not gonna happen," he growled. "I'm taking you in, Ivy."
"Oh, where have I heard that before?" she mocked him with another derisive laugh. "Honestly, Boy Wonder, you were so much more tolerable when Mother Nature was thinking for you."
"That wasn't me." His fists balled. "You used my body to get what you wanted."
"What we wanted, darling. Look at all the good you did for the world." Spreading her arms, she gestured at the nature-consumed area all around.
"Your world is twigs and leaves. Mine is people. Good people who've suffered enough because of delusional psychopaths like you," came his stoic, staunch retort.
Ivy's sneer turned cold as Artic ice now. "I once thought there were good people too. Now I know there is only good food for my babies."
He was done listening.
People have suffered because of her. People have died.
No more.
"Hands behind your back." He started towards her.
"Of course." Surprisingly, she would comply.
He was nearly there.
Smirking, her feet didn't move but her mouth certainly did. "I'm sure you miss your dear, dead Dark Knight, Robin, but not to worry..."
With a resolved expression, he started towards her. "You're coming with m-"
CRRAASSSHH!
The wall to the left of him exploded, and with it came an animalistic blur of sharp teeth and scaly skin.
Robin turned and reacted- just not fast enough.
"Ugggghhh!" Not fast enough to evade being struck with the battering ram that was Killer Croc's forearm knocking him off his feet and several feet away.
Hitting the ground, he tumbled and rolled with the momentum until finally righting himself on one knee.
On instinct, he went for his staff. Again, not there.
Bricks scattered in front of the monster-sized opening in the wall as the reptilian behemoth grinned at him savagely.
"FOUND YOU!" Sadism and satisfaction were palpable in his voice.
"You're about to see him again so very soon." Sauntering from behind the crocodile man, she turned her back to him once again. "Goodbye, Boy Wonder."
"Ivy!" he called after her, but she had already started up the steps he had initially descended down.
And right after she disappeared, vines suddenly exploded from the infrastructure and wrapped around that doorway, preventing him from pursuing her further.
But apprehension of the plant queen was no longer the overriding priority in his mind.
Now, it was pure and simple.
"Tick tock." The cannibalistic serial killer began his march towards him.
Survival.
"Think, Tim, think." Muttering hastily under his breath, Robin rose to full height and started to back away. Trying to get some distance from the overwhelming size and stature of Killer Croc.
"DIE!" But Croc reached him quickly and slashed at him.
On instinct, he rolled to the side and sprung to his feet.
Just in time to throw himself in the opposite direction to avoid being clobbered again.
"You may think you're something else when- if you look in a mirror, but to her you're just another man, Croc. A man she won't hesitate to take out at the earliest opportunity," he tried the reasoning route again.
"Hehe…I'll rip her apart if she tries." Laughing it off, the former inmate advanced on him once more.
Again Croc tried to slash at him and just narrowly, he avoided contact with a smooth duck-and-roll.
Springing back up, Robin quickly assessed his options.
Run or fight.
There was no level of fight he could feasibly give to Killer Croc in the moment, so that left only the one option left.
"RRAAHH!" The reptilian man was nearly on him when the Boy Wonder threw down another smoke pellet, enveloping his body in a thick smoke radius once again.
Barely a second later, the former inmate barreled through the smoke only to find the vigilante not in his grasp.
Nor was he anywhere nearby.
Snarling out his frustration, Croc looked in all directions only to see a flicker of a cape disappearing through the giant crater in the wall that he initially broke through.
Booted feet splashed through shallow puddles as Robin ran through another circular sewer passageway.
He was running fast. Full steam ahea-
CRAAASSHHH! The wall exploded behind him as Killer Croc burst into his peripheral view.
With a feral roar, Croc bounded after him with footsteps bordering on seismic.
Robin turned a corner. Kept running.
Killer Croc was still after him. And gaining.
Up ahead, the path was blocked by rusted pipes across the center. No way over.
Croc was getting closer.
But there was space underneath.
"Got you now!" Even closer.
Sensing the heat of the crocodile man's breath nearly on his neck, Robin made his move.
He slid across the wet floor. Directly underneath the protruding metal.
On the other side, he rolled.
And finally came up with his head (barely) still attached.
"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE!" With growing indignation, Croc started clawing and prying at the pipes that now separated them. For now.
Allowing his breath to catch up with the rest of his body now, the hooded hero stood up and naturally moved away from the enraged reptilian giant starting to bend steel in order to force entry.
With a hastening pace, he went around one more corner and finally came to see…
"Tim- Tim, are you there?"
He saw what looked like a mutated tree trunk with sizable roots stemming out of its round center.
The top was crowned in an intricate, acorn-like shape with something clearly bubbling and building from within.
"For now, but no promises," he finally answered back, taking in more of this peculiar...thing.
"I'm sorry for the radio silence. My dad called to see if anything had happened in Gotham yet. What's your status?"
"That's how she's doing it," he muttered to himself, pieces of information once remote and distant now connecting to solve the mental puzzle in his head.
"Barb, I think I figured out her mechanism for how she's going to spread the toxins across Arkham City."
Right as he said that, the sound of metal bending filled his ears.
"That's great but I'm picking up on some serious activity underground."
"Yeah I'm picking up on that too." Thinking quickly, he tossed a tracer device right next to the tree trunk before scanning his surroundings.
His eyes caught onto something.
The sound quickly evolved from metal bending to metal breaking.
Then came the footsteps once again.
Every stomping impact further heralding the presence…
"WHERE ARE YOU?!" Of Killer Croc who entered that same area, only to find the Boy Wonder nowhere to be seen.
He craned his head left to right. Right back to left.
Still no sign of him.
But he did see something else.
An open vent to an air duct with the lid on the ground.
"Haarggghh!" Stalking over, Croc could smell the Boy Wonder more strongly now.
But he couldn't see him.
A yell of animalistic frustration chilled the young man in his bones as he crawled, several yards through the narrow duct and ultimately far from the crocodile man's immediate reach.
Eventually, the he came through on the other side, pushing his body out and into a new area of the underground.
Free from being pursued. For now.
Touching down on the floor, Robin immediately reactivated the connection. "Okay, not dead yet. Barb, what's going on up there?"
"…when's the soonest you can get above ground?"
Walking and walking until he finally spotted a ladder ahead, Robin almost dreaded what response would come next. "How bad is it?"
"You have no idea."
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Feedback always appreciated. Next chapter...the return!