The towering doors of the Wonder City Temple were no longer sealed shut.
Instead, they were forced open at the middle, the archaic barrier forced to yield to the overpowering force of monstrous vines capable of bending metal back like layers of an onion.
Through the parted double doors, there was darkness. Pitch black.
Few people would dare to even look into that unknown, ominous space.
Batman, however, wasted no time fitting through the slim opening made at the center, bringing him directly into the Chamber of the Demon, or at least the remnants of what once was.
His gas mask was on, the translucent lower covering clamped against his mouth as he stepped inside.
Solid concrete gave way to dirt and tall grass as the Dark Knight marched forward and toward his one goal.
Neutralizing the evil growing beneath Arkham City before it could go topsoil and corrupt the rest of Gotham.
He walked with purpose as the ground continued to shake beneath his boots, the air around him beginning to thicken.
"Bruce, you're about a hundred miles behind enemy territory now. Do what you have to do, but please be careful."
The detective kept walking, remaining ever vigilant.
His Detective Vision activated, filtering an X-ray worldview through his cowl that allowed him to see and hear the plants rumbling and roaming all around him.
But so far, there was no sign of her.
No sign of Fear Gas, either.
He had a feeling that both would reveal themselves to him, one way or another.
Undaunted, he continued his lone march through the floral hostility.
Looking. Listening.
And finally, making his presence known.
"No one is left to fight your battles, Ivy," he finally spoke out into the silence. "No Bane. No Robin. Just you and me."
And silence in turn greeted him.
One hand went inside his cape, reaching for one of his leather pouches.
"I said I was bringing you in. That hasn't changed. You can save this place by coming peacefully. If you don't-"
"We grow tired of your threats, Batman."
Her voice answered him, but it was amplified. Coming from everywhere at once.
The detective couldn't pinpoint it. Not yet.
"Give up, then," he replied. But he will.
Silence.
And then…
"Make me."
He adopted a grim scowl at the sneering challenge thrown at him.
Drawing a Batarang, the Dark Knight took another step forward. One more after that.
Then, he stopped.
He stopped and he listened.
Listened for anything. Anyone.
Nothing.
He took another step forward into the humid darkness.
And then there were footsteps. Footsteps from afar.
He slightly turned his head.
The footsteps were getting closer.
Bare feet on dirt and soil.
He stopped fully.
Footsteps getting closer and closer-
"Hah!" He threw the Batarang at the approaching hostile, his aim true…
… and his target dropped by the swift clang of steel projectile to human head.
Batman's attention was now drawn to the groaning sight laid before him, felled by his swift quickdraw.
Advancing carefully, he scrutinized the writhing figure illuminated by his augmented visor.
The assailant was unarmed but appeared to still be dangerous.
Remnants of a gray jumpsuit clung to his slender, almost gaunt physique.
His head was bald and his eyes were glowing green.
Glowing right at the detective.
Even worse, there seemed to be a stretch of mushrooms growing out of his skin, right where his right ear and cheek once were.
"RWAAAAA!" The crazed man made a sudden lunge at him, forcing Batman's (closed) hand.
Without hesitation, the Dark Knight pounded his fist against the lunatic's skull, knocking him back down against the dirt, this time for the count.
Taking some steps back, the detective called out to the darkness. "Pamela, this is sick."
"No, darling, this is science."
The rumbling underneath started up again, but it wasn't like before.
It felt different.
"The woman who once answered to that name was a woman of science, Batman. I'm sure you remember that."
He felt movement underneath his boots.
Violent, vigorous movement.
"And the man who killed her taught her the greatest lesson she would ever receive."
The ground felt alive.
He reached in his belt for another Batarang.
"No success in this life can come…"
There was a calm, and then, a knowing chuckle from the plant queen. "…without a little experimentation."
"RWWWAAAAA!"
Now came the storm.
He stepped forward- "Ngghh!"
Right as the ground itself seemingly lunged at him, two hands breaking out of the earthly floor and grabbing his ankle.
Holding him in place, but not for long.
Pulling on the leg, he quickly unearthed the slender figured, screaming owner with mushrooms also growing out of his facial features.
Grabbing at his lower body, the inarticulable psychotic was silenced only by a stiff punch slamming against his temple.
"RWWWAAAA!" But he was far from the last.
From all directions came the shrieking, animalistic lunatics of old Arkham, all highlighted in his Detective Vision.
He pinpointed one, two, too many former patients of the asylum rushing him at once.
Feral snarls and stampeding feet from all directions.
Left and right and even from down under, as even more of the lunatics crawled out of the dirt.
"Imagine my surprise when I discovered these poor souls neglected and abandoned in this forgotten place, Batman."
The ones who emerged from the ground ripped away vine 'masks' from their mouths that had apparently sustained them.
Sustained them with not just oxygen but, judging by the veins so visible against their gaunt bodies, a steady supply of ivy venom.
"Discarded by Strange, but not by Mother Nature. No, she loves all of her children. Even those shamed by your so-called civilized society."
He twirled around on his heel and dropped the closest lunatic with the Batarang.
Then came the rest.
One of them lunged at his rear, managing to take his back but barely for a second.
Instinctively, he twisted his hips and judo threw the brainwashed man off him.
He turned and slammed a heavy haymaker into the next one.
Backfist for the one running at his blindside.
Roundhouse for the one coming at his front.
One-two hit combo for another.
Another punch. Another kick. Another thro-
"Nggghh!" One of them wrapped a limp vine under his chin and attempted to strangle him with it from behind.
He slammed a sharp elbow into his midsection to force a release, right before grabbing that same attacker and hurling him into the others.
Then it was another punch. And another kick.
Knee to the gut. Stomp to the back of the leg.
The more he pummeled them, the more they screamed and hollered for more.
Punch. Kick. Punch. Kick.
The cycle repeated itself.
No matter the punishment, the feral horde did not slow down .
Smashing two heads together, Batman twirled and hurled a trio of Batarangs with one hand.
Each one made its target, but as those three fell, three more quickly took their place.
And so he kept it up.
More punches. More kicks. More-
"Arrgghh!" One of the lunatics managed to rip off his gas mask, baring the exposed flesh on his cowl.
Suddenly, he felt fingers clawing at his mouth and chin, prompting a swift thrust of the knee to fold that inmate up like an accordion.
But just as quickly, another lunatic was hugging his leg. Two more were latching on to his dominant arm.
He kept punching with his free arm, but that was quickly restrained as well.
Within seconds, the Dark Knight was swarmed by the multitude.
Incoherent voices snarled all around him as their deceptively strong bodies all wrapped around him.
One after the other, they overwhelmed the armored man through sheer numbers.
Against his considerable willpower and with all four limbs ultimately restrained, the caped crusader was forced to his knees.
"Oracle…" he managed to get out before one of the lunatics attempted to pry open his jaw with all ten fingers in his mouth.
"Already ahead of you. Manually activating suit countermeasures."
Within seconds, the lightning arrived.
Arcs of discharging, defensive voltage coursed through his suit, immediately shocking every lunatic clinging to his body.
The effect was immediate, sending all the raging former patients recoiling off of him in swift, shrieking fashion.
Still on one knee, the Batman grunted in a breath while readjusting, and ultimately resuming what he was doing.
Delivering a grounded punch to one lunatic writhing close by, he staggered to his feet surrounded by the lingering groans of all those still debilitated by the disabling voltage.
The pained sounds of the many would soon recede to the background in favor of one figure suddenly materializing in front of him.
Also unarmed, but perhaps more dangerous than any criminal he's ever encountered before.
Green lights from up and above suddenly shined down on them, gradually erasing the darkness with a floral luminescence.
He could see her, and she could see him.
"Bruce…Bruce, can you read me?"
Ignoring the voice in his cowl, he switched off his Detective Vision.
Poison Ivy was mere meters away.
Smug and seductive as she's always been.
The Dark Knight marched forward.
No more pawns. Just him and her.
"Bruce, I'm detecting something in the air."
He kept walking.
Meters turned to feet.
She didn't make a move.
Feet turned to inch-
"Nnggghh!" And then he was seized from behind, halting his near apprehension of the smiling seductress.
Slithering, squeezing vines wrapped themselves around his upper torso, stopping the Dark Knight and dragging him back a few paces.
The serpentine coils fought against his growling determination, their combined strength able to restrain his arms.
"Persistent, aren't we little Bat?" she taunted him, slowly and sensually sauntering towards him now.
The enticing scent of her pheromones once more failed to penetrate his shielded mind, as per usual.
But at such close range, her true weapon lay not in the words she spoke, but the lips that formed them.
She was soon right on him. Their bodies barely a poisoned breath apart.
"I've always admired that in you, darling. So defiant. You just don't know when to give-ngghh!" Then Batman knocked her down with a swift headbutt right between the eyes, taking advantage of that close range first.
She fell with a pained grunt, hands going to her face.
Taking advantage, Batman angled his gauntlet blades just right and cut through the floral restraints on either arm.
Vine by severed vine, he freed himself while she tried (futilely) to crawl away on all fours.
"Selina was right…" Cracking his neck, the caped crusader stalked over to her mobile form. "You do talk too much."
He grabbed her by the back of the hair, forcing another sharp yelp from the plant queen.
"Now get up."
He yanked the redheaded vixen up off her knees, and to her feet.
Then she turned to glower- no, grin at him.
With her lips open then pursed.
Forcing him to react fast.
"Ugghhhh!" But not fast enough.
Only a splitsecond quicker than his trained instincts could pick up, Poison Ivy blew a mist of yellowish pink right in his unprotected face.
Making him flinch and recoil immediately.
The Dark Knight staggered backwards, the intoxicants in the air finding purchase in the exposed skin of his chin and mouth.
"Bruce!"
He took another step backwards, his boots finally finding an unsteady balance in the grass.
"Stronger than my usual batch, hmmm love?" Ivy's sultry laughter rang out, intertwining with the concern of the hacker redhead in his ear in a disconcerting mixture of sounds all at once.
The Dark Knight checked himself.
Checked his vision, his hearing, everything.
So far, so…
He suddenly lost his footing, putting him down to a knee.
… not good.
Angrily, he pounded his fist against the ground, his world swiftly changing around him.
"Bruce can you read me?!" Starting first with Oracle's concerned voice twisting and distorting in his ear.
She was becoming more and more unrecognizable by the second.
"Batman do you copy?" Her voice kept changing.
He grimaced and grunted and ultimately, got up.
Still not steady on his feet, but the Dark Knight had risen, nonetheless.
"I just got an incoming transmission from Dick, Bruce. Something went wrong. A drug deal in the city. He's shot, and he's…he needs you." Oracle was still speaking in his ear, but it did not feel like Barbara Gordon at all.
"Can you hear me?" The masked man no longer recognized the voice in his channel. "He's…he's not gonna make it."
"No…" He took one step, two steps forward, and then fell forwards once again.
Flat on his face, the caped crusader tasted the dirt in his mouth.
"Bruce, we're losing him. We need you- now!" Oracle's voice called to him.
He had to get up. He had to try and do something. Anything.
"…I think he's gone."
"No." His voice resonated with more certainty this time. "Never…again."
He pushed up on his hands, then on his knees.
Looked up and saw the impossible.
"Need a hand?" A gloved hand was extended to him, belonging to someone who's supposed to be dead.
Jason Todd.
Batman stared, shocked silent at who now stood before him.
Wearing the tattered, battle-tested armor of the second Robin, his deceased, former partner in crime fighting stood before him now, seemingly as alive as ever.
His black hair unkempt and his domino mask still on, it was as if his former protégé hadn't aged a day since that fateful night all those years ago.
The night everything changed.
"It's been a while, Bruce." Jason withdrew the hand, offering only a grim, bittersweet smile to his once-mentor. "Not looking so hot, huh?"
Batman staggered to his feet on his own, almost at a loss for what to say.
His eyes were seeing something that felt as real as anything that happened to him tonight.
But his brain knew better. "How-?"
"Just like you always taught me. Can't keep a good Bat down." He was smiling, but there was no warmth to be found.
Nothing but cold irony reflecting the true reality.
"I couldn't…I couldn't save you." The words trickled out of Wayne's mouth, words he's held within himself for far too long.
"Yeah, I know." Jason nodded, finding some comfort in what he said. "You tried, Bruce. I know you did."
But not much. "But you failed."
The detective's expression, visibly emotional even behind his cowl, was his only response.
Jason continued, "I died because you wanted to be right and let evil live to maim and murder another day."
"He's dead now, Jason."
"And how many people had to die before that happened? How many graveyards did he fill, huh? How many of our friends did he have to cripple-?"
"Enough." Batman asserted himself over the cruel, pheromone-induced hallucination.
Jason held his tongue.
"Do not be so hard on your apprentice, beloved."
Only for someone else to speak. Behind him.
Turning around, Batman tried to keep his guard up, but the image of her alone stalled that effort.
Emerging from the darkness and into the floral-lit space, Talia al Ghul sauntered towards him.
Still dressed as she was in her final moments of life.
The long-sleeved leather jacket. Midriff-baring shirt. Skintight pants.
All that, complete with emerald eyes and brown hair nearly gave him pause.
Nearly.
"You're not-"
"Real? No wonder Father called you the detective," the woman teased him in her refined, European accent.
Out of the corner of his eye, the Dark Knight could see that the ghost of the second Boy Wonder had vanished.
Leaving just her.
"Ra's is dead. And so are you," Batman told her firmly, facing down the daughter of the Demon as she approached.
"Because of you, Bruce. I am no longer with my brothers and sisters in the League because you lacked the initiative to kill one man," she chided him sharply.
"He wasn't a man. He was something else, something you and Ra's never understood."
She gave him a look of expected derision. "Oh, I understand, beloved. Kill him and you become no better, right? That's what you always told me. A pity not even my death could wake you from your delusion, Bruce."
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you, Talia. But I didn't ask you to come to the Steel Mill."
"No, you never ask." The al Ghul woman stopped before him. "That's what I always admired in you, beloved. You give so much of yourself and never expect anything in return."
She leaned in closer, her womanly scent taking him back to Metropolis for a fleeting moment.
"We could've given you everything, Bruce. We could've ended your mission. Released your life's burden." She rose to whisper those last words at him. "Given you peace."
"I'll know peace when I'm dead," he responded to her in a defiant growl.
She tilted her head to the side ever slightly, a subtle smile growing across the face of his former lover.
"Then let me grant you this one last request…" Her hand daintily caressed his cheek, rubbing against his flesh.
"Meatsack." She finished with a sneer.
He reacted quickly-
"Aargghh!" But again, not quickly enough.
She nicked his face with the tip of her fingernail, opening the skin.
Batman stumbled back, wincing and grimacing.
The cut felt shallow yet deep at the same time.
"What did you…?" He felt a severe throbbing coming on, vision beginning to blur.
"Rest now, beloved." Talia's familiar purr caressed his ears, but her voice did not fit the body it was now coming from.
Squinting with his eyes, he could see the black leather starting to erode and vanish, revealing bare, green skin clothed mostly by a red jacket.
The straight brunette locks turning crimson and free flowing into the air.
"Ora…" He couldn't even finish the word as his jaw grew heavy and numb.
Her transformation was complete with the final voice switch. "Hello again, darling. Did you enjoy my little experiment?"
Ivy.
"That little treat I slipped into your bloodstream was only to prepare you. Get you more in the mood before our time together comes to its end," she purred with a haughty snicker.
He couldn't speak. Not in full sentences at least.
The poison was working fast. So he had to work faster.
Gritting his teeth, he started forward.
Chest was tightening. His stagger was more pronounced.
The plant queen merely laughed at his advancing menace.
"I'm killing him, Bruce. With or without you." Jason's last words.
He didn't stop.
"I'm sorry, beloved. I didn't know…" Talia's last words.
The Batman kept going.
He snarled and he staggered…and he finally succumbed.
One knee buckled, then the next, sending the masked man toppling down to the dirt before the smiling vixen.
His limbs, one by one, all failed him.
Not within moments, but seconds, the Dark Knight was disabled in his own body.
His fingers did not obey him. His feet did not obey him.
Laid out prone on the ground, the vigilante could barely even twitch a muscle.
"Poor, delusional man." Her mocking laughter rang out from above, pure disdain dripping off every word spoken. "That's what you always were to me, love. Just another arrogant male who thought he could silence the cries of thousands."
He couldn't reach his belt.
"But just like the others, you failed."
She was circling him. Sauntering, even.
Completely and utterly in control.
"Raise him, my child."
A slender vine coiled around his neck, peeling his face from the floor and lifting his upper half, slowly.
With his entire body numb and paralyzed by her poison, the Dark Knight could do nothing but let it happen.
As his worldview shifted upwards facing the descending beauty of the former botanist.
The once renowned and respected Dr. Pamela Isley.
But now, nothing but toxic death in the feminine form.
His capable arms dangled uselessly by his sides as Poison Ivy knelt in front of him, her legs elegantly folding underneath.
In her emerald eyes, there was only satisfaction.
"Now, before we were so rudely interrupted…" She cupped his chin, holding his jaw while daring to lean in further.
Her lips were inches, and then, centimeters away.
Batman didn't close his eyes once.
He didn't quiver, or shiver.
She wanted to taste his fear first.
He wasn't giving her that.
"Beg me." Her breath was hot against his face. "Beg me to make it quick."
"…" Even forcing the word out was an act of almost superhuman willpower.
It drew upon a level of resolve many men simply do not possess, even on their best day.
"…never." But the Batman was not most men.
Even in the end.
"Very well." Holding his chin with both hands, she leaned in just a little more…
"Mmmmmm."
… and moaned her pretty, poisoned lips against his.
In a searing, seductive flourish, her passion clashed against his will.
And won.
Holding him steady while thrusting into his mouth with her tongue, she kissed him like she had never kissed a man before.
It was erotic and energetic.
Determined and delighted and fulfilled.
Taking all of her emotions- the anger and anguish and outright hate- and jamming it all down his throat.
She orally serenaded the Dark Knight as his body feebly, futilely tried to pull away.
But again, her passion prevailed.
Poison Ivy's kiss became more and more aggressive as her venom entered his body, seeping down into the bloodstream.
Seconds would pass, and she would maintain the lustful liplock.
Relishing the beginning groans and grunts coming from the mouth of Gotham's watchful protector.
Until finally, the outside matched the inside.
Green lines appeared in the exposed half of his face, showing the fast-acting effects of her signature toxins.
He went from grimacing to gasping against her giggling lips as his skin complexion began to match hers.
Ivy gently sucked on his lower lip before finally breaking away to witness her great triumph.
Upon letting go of his chin, she watched with almost euphoric release as the armored man collapsed to the ground, paralyzed and now panting for breath as the poison ravaged his internal systems.
In his heightening state of disorientation, he was even starting to hallucinate.
At first it was Ivy standing above him.
Then it was Talia.
Jason.
Alfred.
Tim.
… Selina.
"As I told your soon-to-be dead sidekick, this poison I made especially for you, Batman." Then back to Ivy.
Her sneering, vindictive voice antagonized him further, "A quick death would've been merciful, but Mother Nature is not done punishing you yet."
The detective remained on his back, looking up with bleary, blinking eyes as the red-and-green blur of womanly malevolence leered down upon him.
"You left me to die in the dark, darling. Now you feel what I felt. Is that not 'justice', as you would say?"
He grunted out as she rested her bare foot down on his chest, his heart beating far more rapidly than it should.
"But I will leave you with these words, my little Bat."
He was going hoarse struggling for the barest of breath.
"No one will come to save you, meat-sack. You are going to wither and die in this spot. Alone. Selina will join you soon, as will all of the other oppressors of the natural world."
She moved her foot up, pressing it under his chin.
"In death, you will understand your true purpose. To feed and nourish the next generation of life in my city. One day, Batman, a beautiful flower shall grow from your bones. That is what your legacy will be to all the other meat-sacks."
Blood started trickling down his lip.
Leaning down, Ivy's gleaming, grinning visage was clearer than ever before.
"You lived for Gotham, lover, and now you get to die for her, too." She pushed his cheek against the dirt with her painted toes. One last insult.
"This was always destined to happen. After all…" Sliding her foot off his chin, she turned around, as if to leave.
But not before remarking with sultry finality over her shoulder, "Nature always wins."
Punctuating that with smug and triumphant laughter, the plant queen sauntered away into the darkness.
Leaving him in the dirt, struggling for breath.
Struggling for life.
Life that was slowly, painfully, being squeezed from his diaphragm the more and more he tried to summon oxygen from his lungs.
His eyes were dimming.
Fingers numb.
Ears hearing nothing but the slithering anticipation of plants nearby, all waiting to converge on his defenseless body.
And consume it into the earth below.
"Bruce!" There was a voice in his ear. Not like before.
It felt real.
"Bruce, I've been trying to get through to you. Look, your vitals are dropping and I…I need you to talk to me. Please. Say something."
His lips struggled but eventually, through the willpower that kept him going for this long, he formed the word. "Jim."
There was a pause as Oracle processed what he just said, "My dad? Okay, that's good. What do I tell him, Bruce?"
His chest was getting tighter.
Plants were getting closer.
"Evacuate…city," he managed out in a hoarse whisper.
"I'll pass it through the channel. What about you, Bruce? We need to get you out of-"
"Leave," he cut her off, his voice strained and barely even solid. "Protect…Gotham. That's…order."
"… I'm bringing in Dick. He'll get you out of this-"
"No," he grunted out, voicing his disagreement with as much will as he could still muster out. "Protect…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
"Bruce? Bruce, I need you to stay with me here."
The Batman had stopped moving.
All he saw from here on, was pitch bla-
BOOOOM!
- light?
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two bright headlights suddenly bursting through the wall, sending the vines scurrying away.
The engine roared like a beast.
It was the Batmobile.
Accelerating steadily over the centuries-old terrain, his armored vehicle stopped right in front of him.
The cockpit opened up, revealing…
"You're welcome. Again."
… Selina Kyle.
Pushing herself out of the opening, the battered brunette slid down to the floor and staggered her way over to him.
As she limped closer, he could see she had on one of his spare gas masks, protecting her from any residual exposure to any potentially airborne toxins.
"I…told you-"
"Yell later, live now. How about we just focus on that, 'kay?" she interrupted him, kneeling down at his side. "Now come on, big guy. We gotta get out of here."
"Selina…" He looked at her, a myriad of emotions running through his mind right now. "I…can't move."
"Of course." Sighing to herself, the master thief scoffed aloud, "Can't even do the right thing without complications."
"Need…to go."
But she didn't.
Kyle instead examined his face closer, seeing the visual proof of his poisoning for herself. "Yeah, she got you good. Shit."
"Go-"
"You got something in this belt to get you walking again?" Selina looked around, sharply aware of the earthly sounds all beginning to converge on them in all directions. "You know, before your stubbornness gets us both killed."
He was about to rebuff her again, but then he saw her eyes and saw a resolve that in some ways mirrored his own.
And in that instant, he made a decision. "In the back. There's…ngghh…pouch with a neural stimulant. Should be-"
"Good enough." Selina reached underneath his side, feeling her way to the pouch he was referring to.
Opening it, she produced the item in question, popping the lid…
"Come on."
… and injected the sharp needle under his chin!
Sensation flooded through the masked man's veins with the rush of sudden adrenaline.
From numb and near paralyzed to somewhat able to feel his fingers again. Able to breathe again.
His legs were much more of a challenge.
"Thank God." Throwing the spent canister away, the brunette woman grabbed around his upper body and raised him to a sitting position. "Get up, big guy."
Draping his arm over her shoulders, she lifted with every fiber of her being. Every ounce of strength within.
She pushed. He pushed along with her. She got him up…
"Nnnnggghhh…" And the Dark Knight stayed up as he compelled his feet to remain solid under him.
He held on to her for support- support she could hardly manage for herself.
Nevertheless, they both persisted.
Wincing with every step, Selina limped them both towards the Batmobile.
Even with poison in his veins, and eyes blurring his environment, the Dark Knight kept himself upright. For however long he could.
"Where's…Robin?" he grunted out, walking with her.
"Alive last I checked. Dropped him off at a safe distance before my dumbass decided to go against better judgment and came back. By the way, your magic potion sure did the trick," she told him.
"Not…nngh…magic…a cheat," he groaned out.
"Right, keep talking, big guy. Keep…" They arrived at the back of the Batmobile, with the rear doors opening automatically to reveal a sealed one-seat compartment.
Just enough space for one of them.
"Selina-"
"Get in." Not hearing any argument, she guided him into the seat, right before her own legs could give out.
The harness quickly closed in around his sternum, securing him.
Ivy's toxins were still showing all over his pale face, forcing the cat burglar to make a splitsecond decision.
"Alright, guess that means I'm driving, then." Cracking a slight smile, she started to stagger around the side and towards the cock-
"Selina."
He grasped her by the arm, grip still firm.
She stopped and looked at him.
He looked back at her.
"Autopilot…call…Alfred," Batman said, right before collapsing into the seat.
No more words came from his grimacing lips.
His fingers slipped from her forearm as the back-compartment sealed itself, leaving just her on the outside.
"Who the hell's Alfred?" she muttered to herself, the Cat's curiosity ultimately put on hold as the sounds of impending floral fury approached rapidly.
Circling around to the front, she lifted herself back into the open cockpit- and just in time too.
Thorny vines lashed out against the descending covering as it shielded the brunette woman.
Rubbing at her neck sorely, Selina took a breath before finally saying, "Alfred?"
"Good evening Miss Kyle." The lights on the controls lit up with a bright metallic hue.
The jet engine roared back into action.
"A pleasure to finally meet you."
"Good to meet new friends, I guess," she said, her curiosity right back.
"Indeed. Let's go home, shall we?"
And then the Batmobile rocketed out of the earthly hostility and through the remains of Wonder City.
Back home.
Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading! Certainly a lot to dissect here, but once again, I appreciate the continued support. Hopefully this chapter in particular has done much to really start connecting the dots between the events of Arkham City and Arkham Knight. If you've played both games, I'm sure you can pick out a healthy plethora of Easter eggs littered throughout. Next time, I think we'll check in on Batman's other former Robin, see what he's been up to. No promises on the release date, because you know, life happens sometimes. But for now, please feel free to comment, PM, or otherwise support the story in any way you'd like. Until next time!
