Chapter 17: The Battle Rages On:
The situation at the GCPD was growing increasingly complicated by the minute. Ivy could hear the Militia screaming and cheering in excitement as the battle raged on.
Every blow from the tanks shook the entire building. Nearby furniture inside fell on the ground, with some of them even breaking apart. The walls were even starting to crack due to outside damage coming from the tanks that were deployed.
The situation was getting progressively worse with each time the building shook. It was comparable to that of a vibration. Albeit much more intense and powerful.
Cash was becoming increasingly angry at what was happening, but he knew there was little that could be done as there were few officers inside of the building.
They wouldn't stand a chance against the Militia's advanced weapons and technology.
A far worse case scenario , of course, was if the main detainment cell was broken, allowing Penguin, Two-Face, and the others to escape, or worse, allow pick up weapons and kill GCPD officers from within the building.
That would be a blood bath that no one would want to see. Especially the reformed Ivy. She was on standby ready to do anything she could to help save lives.
Ivy looked over to see Barbara anxiously fiddling on her computer screen. "What are you doing, Miss Gordon?"
"Nothing much, just bypassing the Militia's entire drone and tank fleet. So many viruses to choose from. These guys network are really sloppy. Idiots."
Ivy was taken by surprise, and by a lot. How in the world did Barbara figure out the drones' weaknesses so quickly? Was she really as good as they say? How high was her level of expertise regarding the world of technology? Ivy could only dream of being that good with technology. "That's amazing, how did you do that so fast?"
The Tech genius explained, "I began analyzing the drones when the Knight's men took me to temporarily deny Batman the advantage. However, what I'm really worried about is that the battle outside could just be a distraction, as Crane might end up sending more soldiers via the rooftop."
Ivy had to think quickly. She couldn't just sit idly by and let all these brave men and woman die at the hands of the Scarecrow, via the Milita.
"I won't allow that to happen."
Barbara eyed Ivy with curiosity, wondering just what she was planning. "What are you planning?" Barbara asks straight forward.
Ivy was pacing around back and forth. She was still forming a plan in her head. Ivy even smiled at the thought of wondering if this is what Batman usually does. A small blush even formed.
She quickly put it out of her mind to remain focused.
Her plan was finally formed, She turned over to the nearby Officer Joana, who was still on standby with his assault rifle, guarding the two, "Joana, I need you to do something, it requires immediate action or else the officers will die."
"Of course, Miss Isley, what is it?"
"I need you to hurry up and get gas masks for all the officers. I have a plan that'll save everyone."
"But Miss Isley, gas masks won't work against Crane's toxins. It's been proven by our research and he even said so himself."
"It's not for the toxin Joana, it's for my pheromones, if they get inside the building, my pheromones will take care of them, and they'll be under my control, just hurry, Joana. We won't have much time. There's no telling where they'll enter the building from, and your colleagues could get caught in it."
"On it, I'll tell Cash right away." Joana ran off from Ivy and Barbara to immediately alert Cash of Ivy's orders.
As Joana, Cash and the other officers rushed to get the gas masks, Barbara detected a breach in the building, although it was very far away from where she and Ivy were.
"Stay here, Miss Gordon."
"Where are you going?" Barbara says, questioning Ivy.
Ivy grabbed one of the houseplants in the vicinity, "I'm going to show our unwanted guests the hospitality they deserve." Ivy was now going to confront the soldiers.
Upon reaching them, Ivy threw the plant around a corner, before using her powers to mutate it.
The vines grew out of control, and grabbed the soldiers before they had a chance to act. "What the?! What is this?!" One of them yelled out.
Some of the other vines were used to rip their gas masks off, before Ivy showed herself from behind the corner. "What the hell?! Poison Ivy? I thought she was dead!"
"How is she still alive?! I was for sure Crane and the Knight got her!"
Ivy then began blowing her sleep chemical pheromones into their faces, rendering them now unconscious. Ivy then radioed to Barbara, "These men are taken care of Miss Gordon, they won't be a problem anymore."
"Good, now get back to my location, now!" Barbara sounded very distressed and urgent, whatever the reason was, Ivy knew that she had to get to her side immediately. There wasn't a second that she could waste.
She quickly realized that the militia were trying to break down the GCPD doors to her location. Ivy raced to get back to the wheelchair bound young woman. She was going to save Barbara Gordon.
Just as Ivy returned, the militia had smashed the door down and had broken into the building.
The terrified Barbara placed her hands up to shield her face out of instinct, even though it wouldn't make a difference.
But before they had a chance to open fire, Ivy mutated another one of the houseplants in the area. This time she mutated it into a defensive bark wall, shielding Barbara, Joana, Cash and the others as it absorbed the militia's gunfire.
Surprised at this, some of the soldiers brought out their flamethrowers to burn the plant, but unfortunately for them, Ivy was much quicker.
"Boys, you've really got to work on that speed of yours," Ivy sarcastically and sassily says to them.
"Don't just stand there you idiots, KILL HER!"
The Militia nearly began shooting.
Ivy ran towards them, gathered up her energy, and blew a HUGE amount of her pheromones towards them. As the militia soldiers didn't have any gas masks on, they quickly inhaled her pheromones and fell under her control.
"Again boys, you've got to be quicker than that if you want to catch Poison Ivy."
Ivy looked around and saw that only a few GCPD officers were affected by her pheromones, as the militia breach came too quickly and Joanna and the others didn't have enough time to put gas masks on everybody.
Nevertheless, the militia breaches have now been taken care of.
Ivy checked up on Barbara first. "Miss Gordon, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks for the save, Ivy."
"Are you certainly sure?"
"Positive, one hundred percent."
Ivy then immediately went to check up on her friend, Officer Joana. "Hey Joana, are you okay?"
"Never better, Pamela, thank goodness for you, you saved my life, I'm forever in your debt."
Ivy smiled, "Don't mention it, Hon. You don't owe me anything, I was just doing the right thing."
"Keep on doing that, Miss Isley."
Ivy smiled, "Of course, that I promise you."
And finally, Ivy went to check in on Cash, "Officer Cash, are you alright?"
"Other than just experiencing a pretty awful remake of the Joker's takeover of Arkham Island at the GCPD, I'm all good over here. Thanks."
"You're most welcome, Officer Cash."
After making sure Joana, Cash and Barbara were okay, Ivy now had to take care of the mind controlled Militia soldiers. With the soldiers under her control, Ivy told them to follow Cash's orders as if they were her own. "Now, boys? Can you please do me a big favor?"
"Yessss Ivy?" They said in a zombified tone.
"Follower Officer Cash's orders for me, will you?"
Cash then spoke up, "Alright, do me a favor, it's really simple, even you can understand what to do, just get your asses inside the cells, got that?"
Cash thus ordered all the soldiers into the few unoccupied cells still in the building, before Ivy released her pheromone hold on them.
With the Militia now dealt with, and free of Ivy's mind controlling pheromones, some of them reacted to Ivy's actions and her overall presence. And Ivy knew that it wasn't going to be a warm welcoming environment.
"I don't believe it, how the hell is the walking salad still alive?!" One soldier angrily exclaimed.
"I was for sure Crane eliminated her ass with the CloudBurst earlier!" Another one said.
Ivy ignored these two Soldiers as she walked away from their Cell.
Others couldn't believe that she's still on Batman's side. Others who had been briefed by Scarecrow on Ivy's hatred for humanity, were outraged to see that she went against everything she stood for all those years.
"I don't believe it, the plant bitch is still working free range for the Bat. I was for sure she'd betray the Bat and come work for us."
"Scarecrow said a lot of things about you, Ivy. I guess they were all true, your gonna burn in hell for turning on us." Another Soldier replied.
"Is Batman your sugar daddy or something, did he slut you out to get you on his side?! What made you become the Batman's personal little bitch?"
This particular comment made Ivy irate on the inside, if this had been a couple of hours earlier, she would've wasted no time in torturing, maybe even killing this man, but because of her newfound beliefs and because of Batman specifically, she chose to be the bigger person and ignore his foolish words.
The more rational and mature soldiers were outraged at Batman for turning Ivy into his ally.
"I don't believe it, The Bat and Ivy, working together, next they'll tell us that their dating each other, what a waste."
"The new boss, he's a respected assassin. he is Scarecrow's way of making sure that if everything went wrong, the Bat still dies. Now you die to, Ivy. That I can promise you."
"There's what, a thousand of us? Maybe even more. And there's only two of you. This, locking us up means nothing, we'll get out of here and we'll come at you and the Bat hard, we'll march up and down the streets and paint every wall, every street, every sidewalk, every corner, and every building with both of your blood, I wonder how good red blood would look with green blood. HAHA, we're all going to get that answer soon enough. We don't give up easily, if you think you've seen the last of us, think again bitch! WE OWN THIS STINKING TOWN NOW!"
"Don't worry Ivy, it's not long now. New boss will kick Batman's ass. Kill you, then we go home. Look, we haven't lost, ok? Isn't it obvious? The new boss we'll definitely take care of Batman, he's a master at everything that he does."
"This is the true Gotham, all those other people couldn't face it, it's why they left. This is how things oughta be. You should've either joined up with us or left with the other scared losers, Plant Lady."
"Yeah, he's right, you made a really stupid decision helping Batman, you'll pay for it!"
"You hear that? This is our city now. We get to do whatever we want. That includes beating you to death, we'll murder you, Ivy!"
"You wanna know what we want? You really wanna know? We want chaos! We want destruction! Most of all, we want you and the Bat-Freak to suffer."
Ivy ignored this annoying remark and continued onwards.
"These streets are ours! Not even the cops wanna mess with us. You shouldn't have messed with us either."
"Your mentally challenged boyfriend represents everything about this city I hate. Law, order. Justice. They've never done nothing for me, but lock me up, Ivy. I used to respect you, now not so much. It's a shame really, we all could've done really good things together, but you've squandered that for some hopeless redemption story, well news flash, the cops hate you just as much as we do, they'll never accept you as a human being, they'll never let you have a shot at being a normal person. They'll forever ridicule you, they'll continue to see you as some freak who's overly obsessed with flowers and other crap like that. This city will never accept you as apart of their weird family. But us Militia, we're like one big family, we're loyal to each other, we've been disciplined, we all look out for one another no matter what."
This comment actually got to Ivy a little bit, she never really did take it into consideration. Would Gotham as a whole accept her as one of them? Would she be considered as one with them? Ivy only took a deep breath and moved on.
"You know, Ivy, you would've been a good asset to us, Scarecrow & The Knight, we all could've done great things together, we could've eliminated the Bat and Gotham would've been ours for the taking, no one could tell you no at a Bank, no one would make you pay for anything at the mall, everyone would've had to answer to us, but you decided to squander that all by working with the mentally unstable vigilante."
"All that crap we did, just for it to be revealed that the Bat-Freak payed off Ivy, after tonight, I'm done with all this Militia shit, after I get a compensation check for all this crap, I'm retiring."
"The Bat really has loaded pockets, wonder how much he payed off Ivy as his insurance policy."
"I knew we should've just shot her when we had the chance, but no, Scarecrow wanted her to suffer and now she's on The Bat's side, I don't know if Scarecrow can handle these two freaks on the same side."
More Soldiers had some more words for Ivy and Batman as well.
"So what'd he get to make you join his side? By you some stupid flowers? Plant a garden in this shitty town? What did he do to get you on his side Ivy? TELL ME NOW!"
"You know, I had my eyes on Gotham for a while, but thanks a lot for ruining it for me, Ivy. You and the Bat can go to hell with each other."
"It ain't that hard to imagine, The Bat's always got some sort of backup plan in case things don't go right the first time. We should've seen something like this coming from a mile away, next Scarecrow will tell us that we shouldn't have any fear, that she's nothing to worry about, that she won't get in the way of his plans, yeah right, what a freaking joke."
Another Soldier replied to the previous comment made, "Even if he gets rid of Batman, he's still got Ivy and the other freaks to worry about. Ivy's loyal to the bat, but those other freaks won't stay loyal to Crane forever, they'll eventually want their cut, their own territory, they'll have the desire rule this stinkin' city on their own, it's all downhill from here and nobody's gonna tell me otherwise."
"When I get out of here, the first thing I'm gonna do is find the Bat, beat him half to death, then find Ivy, and make the Bat watch me kill her." The Soldier laughed.
Ivy was naturally annoyed by this comment, but ignored it, these men were so full of themselves that they actually believed in the delusions they were spouting about. She'd never allow these idiots the chance of killing her, and especially Batman.
"You know what, Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight can kiss my ass, I'm loving the new boss, The Bat and Flower Lady aren't gonna be alive within the next couple of hours. You here me Plant Lady? Enjoy your last few hours of breathing, you aren't gonna live to see the next day!"
"Screw our orders, the boss said not to make things personal during a job, well I'm doing that, nobody makes me their slave and gets away with it. You think Batman's gonna protect you forever, fat chance, he'll be dead soon, just like you. We'll take our vengeance soon enough lady, better stay on your feet and grow eyes behind your head, because once we get out of here, we'll come looking for you especially, you traitor."
Another soldier made something perfectly clear to Ivy, "Ivy be advised," The Soldier said spitefully, "Your now an alpha target just like Batman, guess you really should've joined us instead of him."
Ivy still felt no fear in spite of all their efforts to spook her. She just didn't care about them enough.
"Plan A was ACE Chemicals, Ivy. There'd be no hiding from the gas. We're Plan freaking B. You just got lucky, and you know what? I bet there's a I bet there's a Plan C waiting if we don't work out. I just know it Ivy, don't get to full of yourself, mark my words."
"Tonight's not over Ivy, it's just getting started!"
"So How'd it feel, plant bitch? Having Scarecrow truly wriggling around in your nooks and crannies with his Fear Toxin? You've gotta admit it was probably one hell of a rush."
This comment annoyed Ivy a bit, she did not like being reminded about Scarecrow nearly killing her with his vile chemicals.
"Hey Ivy, I had salad for lunch. I kept thinking about you while eating it, so I decided to flush it down how toilet, I hate plants, especially the breathing kinds."
"We're high alert enough here that we can easily hunt you down, Ivy So that's what we're gonna do when we get out of here. We'll tear you and him to pieces and we'll all take bets on how long it takes and how many pieces we'll end up with. Got it?"
Ivy merely rolled her eyes.
"So explain it to me again. Scarecrow's gas got sucked away by a giant made by this freak right here, I don't believe."
Ivy ignored this delusional comment as well. She merely moved on.
"So your telling me that Ivy was inside the plant the whole time?"
"Yep."
"And she supposedly died, but in reality actually survived, right?"
"Pretty much."
"So it was pretty much her plants attacking all the tanks we've deployed the entire time?"
"Yes you idiot, you've pretty much answered all of your own questions, now do me a favor and shut the hell up."
"Screw you."
As those two soldiers argued, Ivy ignored them and continued listening to her newfound enemies attempt to berate and scare her into submission from their cells.
"I've been shot, stabbed, set on fire. Nothing can stop me. I ain't scared of no freak dressed up as a Bat and his eco-themed slutty sidekick."
Ivy restrained herself from attacking the man making vulgar comments about her.
"Look, all these freaks - Riddler, that flying flamethrower maniac, the split personality guy - we want them here tonight, doing their thing, wearing Batman out. But you CAN'T trust them. I mean, just look at you, you betrayed us and went to work for the Bat."
"You may give these guys botanophobia, but you don't scare me, I'll use your head as a paper weight. Mark my words, your mines when I get out of here."
"You'll never be able to truly keep us captured and imprisoned, at some point we will get out of here and we will run this town, mark my words, Gotham City will be under our control in due time."
"What's the matter? Getting all squeamish about operating on the good side? Scared you might have to fight the new boss without Batman to save you? Or just scared of Scarecrow? Or are you scared of us all?" This soldier laughed manically as Ivy just glared at him in return.
"You made a big mistake when you signed up with The Bat. Your at the top of the hit list. Knight said he'd kill you for helping out Batman. Seeing how he ain't around no more, It's Something worth fighting for AND the money's worth working for. Gonna have one helluva time hunting you down and killing you."
Ivy was growing bored of listening to the Militia rant and threaten her, "It's been the same boring song you've all sung since I've come over here, you all should become musicians, the Musical Militia."
"Yeah, you think your funny, just wait until the boss finds you, he's gonna have fun with you, the Bat's just icing on the cake, soon the both of you will be dead before midnight."
Ivy scoffed, "Like your boss would ever be able to kill me or Batman, he won't get the chance to harm either one of us, he's just another man behind a mask and tactical gear."
The cocky militia soldier chuckled. "You'll see soon enough."
"I bet I will." Ivy sarcastically and spitefully replied.
Most of the Militia now absolutely hated her. Having heard enough of the Militia's reaction and berating of her still on Batman's side, she walked away from the cells, deciding that she shouldn't waste anymore time with them.
Still, a good majority of soldiers were terrified of her. Ivy's actions here finally convinced them that she was MUCH more capable than they had all thought.
Most of the soldiers had assumed Ivy's talent for seduction and mind control were nothing more than flashing her prized assets and making men drool, and then taking her time to mutate her plants to kill them.
Now it was clear to them that she was a lot more than that.
Barbara and Ivy were now sitting down, trying to rest after a hard fought battle on both of their ends. They could rest easily for now, being that the Militia were now all subdued and in police custody.
"I can't believe we actually did it." Barbara says, stretching her arms to relieve them.
"We did, you were amazing, Miss Gordon. It was thanks to your amazing talent with technology that a lot of good men and women are still alive and well today."
Barbara took a moment to look at Ivy cautiously. Ivy wondered what could be the reasoning for this, but chose to let young woman go about it. She finally spoke up. "Ivy, while there still is much more work to be done with you, I'll have to admit, you did hold your own and protect all of us when needed, so for that, I am grateful."
"Your welcome, Miss Gordon, I'm trying my hardest to earn your trust and be a better person."
Ivy was relieved. She could now rest peacefully knowing that herself and Barbara Gordon were on better terms, or at least on the path to getting there. Whatever it was, Ivy wasn't going to take it for granted.
Another loose end could finally be taken off of Ivy's long list of mistakes from her past that she needed to correct herself for. And for that, Ivy smiled to herself.
At this point, Batman radioed to Barbara that the militia tanks had been taken care of, so now it's time to go after Deathstroke's planted deathtraps around Gotham.
"Oracle, the Militia's tanks are dealt with, the GCPD is safe for now, I'm hunting down Deathstroke, he's ordered more obstacles around Gotham to stop me."
Barbara smiled. "You know they won't stop you, you've beaten them countless times, you'll damn sure do it again."
"How'd Ivy do during the attack?" He asks, being straight forward. This even took Ivy by surprise. Batman wanted a report of her brief encounter with the Militia.
Secretly, Ivy hoped he was impressed with her. This would help make Batman see her as a more valuable ally to him. And more...
Barbara finally replied to Batman's question, "Ivy helped me and the GCPD officers deal with the breaches. They nearly killed me, Cash and Joana, but Ivy saved our lives and dealt with the ones that broke into the building, I say she did good today."
Ivy crossed her fingers, awaiting Batman's answer. He was really handsome when he was acting serious, but Ivy would never tell anyone that.
The Dark Knight focused his attention to Ivy and gave her more instructions.
"Ivy, I need you to interrogate the Militia for me, and see if you can get any leads and information on Scarecrow and his current whereabouts."
Ivy was initially surprised that Batman would allow that, as he had always been against her doing such a thing. "Really? Batman, you were always against me using me doing things of that nature, why now?"
Batman replied to this with his explanation, "Crane wasn't wrong when he said the militia were trained, disciplined and loyal, which would make it harder for him to get info out of them. But none of them had been trained to deal with your pheromones, and as long as you promise to only uses them for getting information out of them, I'll accept it for the time being."
Ivy smiled at the thought. Getting some form of payback on the Militia was good enough for her. She was already smiling at some of ways she'd interrogate the soldiers.
They may know who she is, but they had absolutely no idea how scary and intimidating she could be when under extreme circumstances.
It looked like Batman understood her quite well. She knew she had to show restraint now that she's reformed, but Batman was still allowing her to stretch her legs.
"I'll do it, I won't let you down, Batman."
"I know you won't, good luck Ivy."
"Same to you, go save your city, Batman. we're all counting on you, Dark Knight."
The radio channel between them had closed down.
With her task now being clear, she began walking towards the militia soldiers' cells again, gathering her strength to mind control them again.
This was gonna be fun for Ivy.