After defeating their enemies, Batman, Penny, and Ben continued onward, traversing the damaged elevator shaft, heading through a door, and emerging somewhere in Arkham West, Penny cut down a weak wall in their way, giving them a bird's eye view of Ivy's plants almost taking complete control over the island.
"Ivy's gotten stronger. We have to stop her now." Batman said, also contacting Oracle.
"I think she's still in the Gardens where you left her. But she'll be in control of it now. You'll be walking into a trap."
"That's what she thinks."
"We'd best brace ourselves..." Penny frowned.
With that, the three of them made their way to Arkham East and entered The Gardens. It was there that Poison Ivy could be heard speaking through the plants.
"So you're here at last. Do you like what I've done with the place?"
"Well, I'm not really a practitioner of Feng Shui but this is not what I'd call good karma," Ben noted.
"My babies are growing, Batman. Come and see."
"Awww, have you come up with names for them yet?" Penny asked.
Ben faltered. "Wow...did...did you just tell a joke?!"
Penny blushed while Batman shook his head, hiding a small smirk as the trio proceeded on, destroying a few pods along the way, which served to further infuriate Ivy in the process. They reached the room where Joker had electrified the water, the hallway previously blocked off by Joker's explosion, but a giant vine suddenly smashed through the debris, clearing a path, before waving to the three vigilantes.
"Are you ready for me? Do you think you can handle me? I'm waiting in here. Come to me!" She sensually challenged the heroes. They followed the vine as it seemed to continue to taunt them. "Are you scared, Batman? You should be. You're only a man."
"Excuse you, but Penny here is a woman!" Ben said. "And may I just say this; she's more of a woman than you!"
"Oh really...I'm just DYING to get to know her better then~"
Penny shivered slightly but also felt a blush on her freckled cheeks. As they made their way deeper inside, they saw several security guards brainwashed by Ivy.
"I've got myself a little security. They'll just die if anything happens to me!"
"That's just awful!" Penny gasped.
"Try not to do any serious damage." Batman advised.
"Or we could do THIS!" Ben shouted.
Thrusting out his hands, the Elemental Metahuman released a powerful psychic burst that caused the guards to seize up before falling down in a daze. The green glow in their eyes indicated Ivy's control of them had vanished.
"I'm sure they'll be fine. Let's take down that bitch!"
The trio made their way back across the large gap and burst into the room where they found Ivy before. Batman looked around and noticed a plant that seemed to be producing even more Titan. He went over in an attempt to administer the cure to it, but a vine came out of nowhere and smacked the cure out of his hand. Luckily, Penny was able to catch it.
"I won't let you destroy it, Batman. Or you two, either." Ivy said, appearing in the middle of the room, her irises glowing bright green from the Titan.
"I told you to go to your cell." Batman said.
"I was a fool. I thought the plants were in pain. Now I realize they were evolving, growing stronger!" Ivy boasted as vines burst from the ground around her and wrapped around her. Suddenly, a giant mass of vines plowed through the ground toward her, lifting her higher and higher into the air. Then, a MASSIVE flower suddenly bloomed and roared at them.
"Uh, guys, I think I need to change my pants...or get a massive bottle of weed killer." Ben gulped.
"And now we'll grow together!" Ivy said as the vines lifted her towards the flower that lunged at her, swallowing her. A few moments later, the bud opened, revealing Ivy alive and well behind a powerful protective membrane.
The three heroes dodged out of the way before Ivy created a column of powerful vines to attack them. Batman quickly threw a batarang at the membrane, which appeared to have scratched it but bounced off, not doing much damage.
Penny quickly sent out her Floating Array blades, stabbing into several parts of the membrane and actually causing small cracks to form from the impacts.
"AAGH! How dare you! I will squeeze the life out of you!" Ivy roared, sending two more waves of vines at Penny, who quickly flew out of the way.
"Hey Ivy, you're missing a key part of the earth! Have some!" Ben said, forming a giant boulder and throwing it with all his might, further damaging the membrane.
Batman nodded in approval. "Good work. Keep pressing the attack. She'll start to panic. She's not good at taking pain."
Ivy suddenly opened up the membrane as her smaller, thinner flowers sprouting from her giant one fired a barrage of pollen at the heroes. Fortunately, Ben made a wall of pure crystalized glass to block them.
"Give in, Batman. I am a force of nature." Ivy boasted.
Batman narrowed his eyes as he rolled out from behind cover before twisting towards her and flinging a batarang at her that hit her right in the face, causing her to scream and the plant to rear back in pain.
"Alright, forget this!" Ben snapped as he thrust his hands out and increased the gravitational pull on Ivy's giant plant, forcing it down to the ground.
"It's working! She's going down!" Penny exclaimed.
Batman quickly moved up to the membrane, pulling out his explosive gel and spraying it on the membrane before stepping back and pressing the trigger just as the flower closed itself, amplifying the blast in the closed space and sending a spiderweb of cracks through the membrane, causing Ivy to scream in pain.
"Ooooh, that had to hurt!" Ben winced.
"You cannot defeat me. You're only making me angrier." Ivy said, dropping eight brainwashed security guards down with them, surrounding the trio before rushing in to attack.
"Penny, now!" Batman ordered.
"You got it!"
Penny activated her Winter Maiden powers and released a massive thunderstorm that struck down all the security guards while avoiding striking Batman and Ben. Batman then quickly pulled out a number of batarangs and hit them all in the head, knocking them out before they could recover and get back up.
"Hmmm, you're strong, little girl. What I wouldn't give to have something like that on my side~" Ivy crooned as she suddenly lashed vines at Penny to enter her circuits and try to infect her with her mind-control spores.
"NO!" Ben shouted, pushing Penny out of the way and being caught instead.
"BEN!" Penny and Batman exclaimed as Ben struggled.
"Well, not what I had in mind, but I'll take it." Ivy chuckled as she began to reach into Ben's mind with her spores. "Just relax and let me in, sweetie~"
Ben began struggling more violently before suddenly letting out a roar that sounded like that of a dragon. Ivy gasped when she suddenly found herself in an all-encompassing black void before several giant figures loomed overhead, making her back away in shock as they glared at her.
"You...are not worthy to command this vessel!"
"In the old days...there were dragons...and in those days...people like you...WERE PREY!"
The sixteen giant figures revealed themselves to be mighty dragons, all of whom converged as Ivy as she let out a scream of abject terror. In the real world, Ben was dropped down as Penny gently caught him while Ivy's giant flower flailed around, smashing the greenhouse before collapsing, the woman tumbling out and curling up in a shivering heap.
"What happened?" Batman asked.
"Dragons...Prey...Not worthy...Weak...The Green..." Ivy stuttered out in short rapid bursts as she looked at Ben before backing away, screaming in abject terror.
"I...I don't know what I just did..." Ben groaned, rubbing his head. "It's like...my powers went haywire to try and get her out of me."
"Regardless, Ivy won't be causing any more problems." Batman said as he made sure to keep the villainess detained. "Come on, all that's left is Joker."
"Wait..." Penny spoke up. "Wasn't there the Riddler as well?"
Batman smirked. "Don't worry, I managed to reverse-hack the chips in the trophies he had left behind to lead the police right to his hideout."
(Meanwhile...)
"Down on the ground! Down on the ground!" A police officer ordered Riddler as he was detained.
"No!" Riddler roared in anger and desperation as he tried to pull away from the cops. "How did Batman work out where I was?!"
Looks like we killed two birds with one stone. Yeah, we're not dealing with Riddler's trophy bullcrap in this story or in any other story.
Also, it seems there's more to Ben's powers than one might think. Just what are they entailing for the young metahuman? Only time will tell.
