This was heavily inspired by dizdoodz and his drawing of Batman. If you haven't seen it, check it out and support him. He's awesome!
==
"Is it ready?" A woman asked, making the man working alone in the laboratory jump from her unexpected entrance.
"Nearly, Mistress... Um, the trails have been very promising," the scientist replied, keeping his head down.
He daren't look her in the eyes, not without her permission. He had made the mistake once, and she had made him eat a herb that gave him temporary blindness. Cliff, his old superior, hadn't been so lucky. He was now in Arkham.
"Then what is stopping me from using it?" She said, her voice dripping with venom.
Gulping, the scientist pushed up his safety glasses and tried to control his trembling, "um... sorry, um..."
"Spit it out, man!" She snapped, and the older man cowered in fear.
"Well, we... I... um, we haven't tried it on a human subject... yet so... so we don't know whether it would work and... and I want it to be perfect for you, Mistress."
Huffing, the ginger-haired woman turned away from the bench and back to the door.
"You can test it on him," she said, pointing at the burly man standing at the door.
Though he was big and holding a machine gun, he visibly wilted. Yet it didn't cross his mind to argue. There was no point. When she made her mind up, it was best to just go along with it.
"Of course, Mistress. Right away!" The scientist babbled while bowing.
Leaving the small laboratory, she stepped out onto a high platform that gave her sweeping views of her huge glass conservatory. It was her secret hideout, and it was perfect.
On the ground floor, numerous plants grew from the floor to over thirty feet high, almost touching the ceiling. Meanwhile, on the first floor were numerous laboratories where scientists conducted experiments on flora to help their boss in her criminal activities.
Seeing numerous men and women in lab coats bustling around, she allowed herself a little smile. The man she had just spoken to was going to make her deepest desires come true.
Soon, she would have Batman as her plaything.
If this spray worked as well as it did with the mice, then the caped crusader would be crawling after her, begging to please his mistress.
Then what fun she would have!
"Mistress, I'm sorry to interrupt." A man called.
He was a striking looking man, but then all her goons were. Though he was large and well-muscled, that wasn't what made him remarkable. All of her men were forced to have a flower embedded in their cheeks. Depending on the flower and how many stems it had, showed her how trusted the subordinate was.
"What is it, Rose Two?"
"My nephew is here and ready to indoctrinate himself into serving you."
"He's eighteen and already willing to die for me?" She smirked.
"Of course. He knows he would be lucky to just be in your presence. Just doing that would make him more fortunate than any boy his age!"
While the flattery was over the top, she liked it. This man was high up in her command for a reason. She had seen him kill indiscriminately for her, and she knew he would do it again.
"Very well. I shall see him short..."
Bang Bang Bang
A series of mini explosions caused the glass ceiling to shatter, making sharp shards of glass rain down on everyone in the conservatory.
"Poison Ivy, you are surrounded! Surrender yourself to the justice of the Gotham police department!"
"Kill them all!!" Screamed Ivy, pushing Rose Two towards the abseiling police troops, "Kill them!"
Throwing open the laboratory door, Ivy ran inside and jammed it shut.
She was safer now. In here, she had enough potions, herbs, vials, and sprays to disable the entire police force. Some would die, but more would turn and serve her.
While she was grinning, she suddenly realised that her guard she ordered to be a lab rat just minutes before wasn't there.
"Lily three?"
"Give yourself up, Ivy!" a deep voice growled.
"Batman!"
Spinning from the door, she saw that both the scientist and guard were tied together with string and a bat symbol imprinted on the forehead of Lily three.
"Damn you!" Ivy began, before letting out a pathetic whimper.
"Why do you hate me so? All I want to do is have you for myself. I could make you so happy. You think that Catwoman has moves in bed? Wait until you see what I can do!"
Moving forward, she tried to reach out her hand to stroke Batman's mask, yet he grabbed her, turned her around and tried to pin her down.
With her one free hand, Ivy strained and clutched for anything she could get on the desk.
Even though she was struggling wildly, she was no match for Batman's superior strength. They wrestled on the floor and then suddenly she went limp. The abrupt change from a fighting to a placid opponent made Batman lose his balance, and they both fell back.
Landing heavily on the ground, Ivy used that moment to smash the glass vial she had in her hand over the superhero's head.
He let out a frustrated groan and instinctively let go of the woman to try to claw the liquid from his eyes.
"Bye, bye my love! Maybe next time, we'll meet in better circumstances!" Ivy sang.
Blowing a kiss, the villain pushed open a window and slipped through the small opening. Grabbing the guttering, she pulled herself up on the roof.
Her hideout was destroyed and she could hear her men bravely fighting the superior numbers of Gotham PD but that was a sacrifice worth making if the mist had wormed its way into Batman's system.
Grinning, she began to run over the roof and to her backup lair.
==
Kicking a rock against a wall, I wondered again why I was standing outside Poison Ivy's secret lair. While my uncle was high up in her command, her temper was infamous. One wrong move and I would be plant feed.
That's not even to mention that even if I pleased Ivy, there was the risk of getting caught. My mom had often warned me about that.
"Batman or that Justice League will get you. You'll be caught in the crossfire, or maybe Ivy will just get bored and decide to experiment on you. Do you want that?" She would say.
Obviously, I didn't want that, and yet I wanted to join an organisation. It hadn't been too long ago that my best friend had been taken hostage while he had been out putting in a bank deposit. While he had been lucky to survive, Batman had come to the rescue. He told me that three guys had been let go the instant they had shown their tattooed arms.
Criminals respected criminals and in Gotham, it was inevitable that you would have to choose between the good and bad, eventually. With the villains not afraid to kill and the superheroes morally bound to save a life, it made perfect sense in my head who to join.
This is why I asked my uncle to become a flower in Poison Ivy's organisation. I figured that I would be safe with my uncle looking out for me and then I could work my way up. Growing up, I had seen him progress within the organisation. Driving expensive cars, and hoarding large amounts of money and weapons, he was cool.
The other thing that made the job attractive was that he wasn't the focus of the superhero's attention. Poison Ivy was. More often than not he was let go and, being a grunt in the organisation, I definitely wouldn't be of any interest to the superheroes...
Suddenly, a cat screamed, shaking me from my arguing thoughts. Looking down the alleyway, I saw nothing. That was definitely unusual.
Ill and homeless people were everywhere in this area of Gotham. Lured by the food, Ivy grew and the potential reward of getting cured by her plants, they swarmed the area.
Frowning, I decided to trust my instinct. If my uncle needed me, he could call me, I reasoned as I climbed onto the dumpster opposite Ivy's hideout. Jumping up, I managed to grab the bottom of the fire escape steps. Pulling myself up, I got to the metal ledge.
Breathing hard, I missed the whoosh of a cape soaring above me to land on the glass roof of Ivy's huge greenhouse.
Quickly I ran up the steps, and then I saw the touches on the ground. Cops. Dozens of cops were swarming around the old building. They didn't make much noise, clearly wanting to be stealthy.
This definitely wasn't the right time to join Ivy's organisation. Feeling exposed on the metal steps, I decided to hide on the rooftop. Figuring that once the police had cleared out, then I could leave and join another day.
When I only had another two floors to go, I heard the sound of shattering glass. Freezing, I suddenly heard yelling. Not looking down, I sprinted to the roof before turning around to see the glass greenhouse roof had been shattered.
"Looks like mom ain't going to see her brother for a while," I sighed.
Suddenly, a bright light swirled around to shine on the building I was hiding on. Falling back, I found a huge metal extractor hood and hid under it. Peering up, I saw the thing that fueled the nightmares of criminals in Gotham. There in the sky was the bat symbol.
"Fuck!"
Loud crashes and swearing littered the air. I daren't look to see what was going on. Instead, I tried to work out what I would say when I was inevitably caught. It would take a lot of crying to bullshit my way out of this, I thought.
A rush of feet to my left made me glance up to see the shapely ass of Poison Ivy sprinting across the roof. She launched herself off the side and I held my breath until I heard the sound of a body crashing onto another roof over twenty feet away.
Clearly, her plants gave her some sort of enhanced powers. That would be something that could come in useful for myself and I made a note to ask her if I ever got out of this.
==
"Clear!"
"Clear!"
The shouts echoed in the air from police officer to police officer. Glancing at my watch, I saw it had been close to an hour since I had first climbed up the steps and another fifteen since Ivy had run away.
I briefly wondered what had happened to my uncle, yet I knew that expecting him to save me was pointless. He was in jail, though he wouldn't be there for long. My mom had bailed him out of jail before, and this would just be another time.
Edging out from under the hood, I got to my feet and walked over to the other side of the building, hoping to find the streets clear and another set of stairs down.
Walking along, I was blissfully unaware of my surroundings. Only steps away from the edge, I heard a loud groan. Instantly freezing, I held my breath. Hoping it was just a stray cat, I began edging forward slowly in the wishful hope that I would go unnoticed.
"Help me..."
Full of nerves, I looked to where the voice came from to see a huge man curled into a ball. I couldn't see much as he wore all black. Thinking it was one of Ivy's henchmen, I tried to see his face.
