“Blossom”

Chapter One

Robin stuck as close as he could to Batman's flowing black cape, looking around him in a mixture of worry and excitement. The entire building of the Gotham Central Bank had been overgrown with foreign vines, thin trees and leafy plants, making it look more like a dark, creepy green house than a place of business. The ceiling lights had been destroyed by the outburst of plants, and the glass littered the floor—or what had been the floor before strange flowers and tough roots had punched through the marble. Robin couldn't help but wonder nervously at how they could have done that.

“Stay close,” Batman said as they passed through a dense gathering of ferns. “It won't be hard to get lost in here.”

Robin grabbed onto the man's cape with one hand and followed him through the oppressive foliage. The plants scraped against his front and he could have sworn that they were moving of their own free will, deliberately clinging to him before he passed out of their reach. But that was crazy...

Batman led him out of the concentration of overgrowth and led Robin to the elevators. His black-gloved finger punched the Up button, but there wasn't a cute ding and the door didn't open.

“Elevators are dead,” Batman told him. “We're going to take the stairs. You can let go of me now, by the way.”

Robin let go. Batman headed for the stairwell, twisting the handle and pushing open the heavy door. The two started climbing, Robin struggling to keep up, suddenly grateful that the bank was only three stories tall. He was both excited and terrified of getting to the top floor to meet this new villain Batman had permanently listed on his “dangerous” files.

“Remember,” Batman told him, “let me handle Ivy. Keep up your guard in case she has any of her killer plants with her, but don't try to stop her.”

“But, Bruce—” Robin protested.

His mentor stopped a few stairs ahead of him, and Robin realized his mistake. Batman turned his cowled head and stared down at him. “Not on the job, Robin Or don't you remember the numerous talks we've had on this?”

“Sorry, I forgot,” Robin said.

“You don't have the luxury to forget. If they learn who I am, it's all over. Everything. Got it?”

“Yeah, sorry, I won't mess up again,” he answered quickly.

“Good. I don't want to lose you. And if the public were to find out, I would lose you.” Batman started walking again, and Robin followed, head hanging slightly. Absently, he adjusted his mask.

He was still getting used to the nighttime superhero job. In the last six months Robin had discovered his adopted father's identity and finally managed to win him over to the idea of Robin helping him in his personal vendetta against the criminals of Gotham City. Robin was pretty sure that he was the youngest superhero (or at least sidekick) at only nine years old, and that made him swell with pride.

But then he would sometimes mess up, since he was only nine years old, and suddenly he didn't feel as proud anymore.

They reached the top of the stairs. “Remember—I do the fighting,” Batman told him. “Don't talk to her, don't make eye contact with her.” Robin nodded quickly, trying to look professional and make Batman forget his earlier mistake.

His mentor's hand went to his belt and pulled out a the sleek, black batarang. Robin closed his fists and spread his legs slightly, readying himself. Batman forced the door open and in a flash of black cloth disappeared into the hallway. Robin followed after him and found himself in a lobby surrounded by offices...or at least, it used to be been a lobby. Giant flowers the size of cars were somehow suspended from their stalks, and they were everywhere, surrounded by plants and vines that grew together in a tangle that covered most of the floor. There was an actual humidity in the air—the heat had to be no less than eighty degrees. In the middle of the room, sitting within a large blossom that had been somehow turned into a thrown, sat a woman.

Robin stared blankly, his mouth opening and his eyes bulging behind his mask.

“That's Poison Ivy?” he said.

He wasn't sure what he had expected, but it wasn't...that. She was around thirty to thirty-five, with full red hair that fell around her bare, round shoulders. Her skin—and there was a lot of it showing, from her smooth arms to her long, thin legs—was green, the same color as the leaves that had been sewn together to clothe her middle. Two thigh-high green boots completed the look; one booted foot was tapping almost deliberately against the floor.

“Yes,” Batman said shortly. “Don't think she isn't dangerous just because—”

Ivy stirred in her seat, smiling, and two vines pushed her to her feet. “Oh, now don't frighten the boy, Batman,” she said, her voice husky and smooth. “My bark is worse than my bite, you know that.”

The corner of Batman's mouth twitched at the pun. “If you're so worried about frightening the boy, then give yourself up.”

Poison Ivy tilted her head slightly, and started walking towards them. Batman's spine straightened as she drew near. “Now, now,” she said, “aren't you going to properly introduce us? I've heard so much about your new...heh...partner in crime. Must say the reports never detailed how cute he was—” Poison Ivy took a few more steps toward, Robin, bending down to touch him. Batman grabbed her wrist, his glare narrowing into angry slits behind his mask. After a tense moment, Ivy gave a nervous chuckle.

“Protective, I see. That's good. I am protective of my babies too.”

Batman released her, and she took a step back. “I'm not in the mood for this tonight, Ivy. And the only reason I haven't cuffed you yet is because the boy is learning at your expense.”

“You're teaching the boy?” Ivy asked as she stepped away from him, her fingers massaging her wrist. “Did you ever bother to teach him about what is happening to the planet? How sick and greedy corporations are poisoning the water, and trees and plants are dying as a result? Or that millions of acres of forest are getting bulldozed to make from for more careless people who do nothing to help Mother Earth? So I am giving back to the plants what was taken from them, starting with this—”

“Enough with the ecology lesson, Ivy,” Batman snapped. “You want to make a change, you do it the right way. And now I'm going to show Robin how to apprehend eco-terrorists like yourself—”

Robin watched as Batman lunged for the woman, but Ivy pulled back, swinging one thin arm at him. In sync with her arm a vine lashed out from the floor, and Robin gasped shrilly as it wrapped around Batman's large form, yanking him off his feet. He fell to the floor with a dull thump that was soon swallowed up with the sound of more vines encircling him.

“Batman!” Robin cried. The man rolled over onto his back, and Robin saw the batarang he had taken out only a few minutes before cut through the vines. Robin watched the vines react like wounded snakes, drawing back and contorting as if in pain on the floor. Ivy backed away, eyes wide, as Batman got to his feet, his cape falling around his shoulders. “G-get him!” she yelled, pointing at Batman, and the entire room seemed to come alive with vines and massive flowers. Robin ran for the nearest wall, his cape flapping behind him. Batman told him not to fight anyway.

He hit the wall and turned around to see Batman dodging whip-like stalks and razor-sharp leaves, flaring his cape to keep the monstrosities at bay. Robin couldn't help but think how cool Batman looked. He looked like...well, like a superhero.

“Come on, Batman,” he heard Ivy taunting from a safe distance. “You can do better than that. Has fatherhood made you lose your touch?” In response, Batman sliced through a monstrous, six-eyed dandelion. The yellow bud toppled from its stalk, which spewed green juice before crumpling to the floor.

But Batman was slowly losing. Robin stared in shock as a large thorn stabbed into the man's shoulder, and blood almost instantly stained the surrounding fabric as it was jerked out from the skin and muscle it had penetrated.

“No!” Robin shoved off from the wall, half-tripping against a large, leafy stalk. “Batman! Behind you!” he yelled, gripping hold of the thick stalk. “Come on! You can do it! No one can beat you!”

The stalk moved.

Robin looked up. Something looked back at him. It reminded him of a Venus Fly Trap, its flat head at least the size of a table, with red peeking out from inside the mouth and thick hairs protruding from the lips like demented teeth... Robin backed away as the hairs perked slightly, and the mouth opened and slid through the air toward him.

Robin turned and ran, screaming. He ran like Batman had taught him to, in jagged pattern rather than a straight line, and the mouth snapped down on air next to him with impossible speed. He stumbled back, and scrambled away on the floor, and the plant didn't try to chomp down on him again. It must have reached the end of its reach. But when Robin turned around it was snaking toward him, and Robin saw that it wasn't stuck in the floor. Wherever its roots were, he could see it stalk trailing back into the shadows of the lobby.

“Robin!” Batman yelled, and stupidly Robin turned to him. Batman was being tied up like a fly in a web, but his yell wasn't for help. Robin had heard him yell it a hundred times, whenever he saw Robin in trouble. A few seconds later Batman was wrapped up completely, and Ivy pointed at him with a final gesture. One ugly-looking plant took as a signal to stab him with the sickly-yellow thorn at the end of one of its many tentacles. The thorn was as long as a pencil, and Batman's wrapped body seized up on impact, then slumped against the floor.

“NO!” Robin cried. “Batman!” Batman couldn't lose...he never lost...

A shadowy figure dove down at him from above. Robin looked up to see the flytrap's mouth spring open above him. The next thing he knew, he was being smothered. It was dark and he was pressed, almost squashed, between two large pads.

It took him a few seconds to realize. He was in its mouth. He'd been eaten. The freakish flytrap that was way too big had eaten him.

Robin started to scream. And thrash. But he could barely move, so he ended up screaming from help, because he knew he was going to be crushed to death, or that he was going to stop breathing, or that it was going to swallow him. “Batman, help, someone get me out of here! Help! HELP!”

After a few minutes of no room and little air his screaming had been reduced to pathetic whimpering. He realized that the thing was moving. Help, help...Batman..someone... He heard a voice speaking outside the plant, a feminine one. Ivy. Robin couldn't make out what she was saying, and wasn't sure if he cared.

Suddenly, there was light. Or at least more light than there had been. Robin gasped as the mouth opened and he fell out, hitting the compost-covered floor on his back. He looked up to see Poison Ivy staring down at him, a smirk on her face. “Sorry, baby. They're not very friendly...”

Robin shot upwards into a seating position. He saw Batman's limp form, still tied up, behind Ivy on the floor. Robin clumsily stood up and ran for him, but Poison Ivy intercepted him, grabbing the back of his cape tightly and yanking him to a stop.

“Let me go!” Robin yelled. “Let me go! I need to help him!”

“He'll be fine, eventually,” she said smoothly. “Let's talk about you, Robin.” She pulled Robin toward her, kneeling down and holding the boy's arms to keep him from pulling away. “That's you're name, right?”

“Let me go! He's dying! You're killing him!”

“He's only a little poisoned.”

“No!” Robin suddenly pulled with all his strength to get free. “Batman—!”

“Wrap the kid up,” Ivy muttered, letting go of his arms and Robin was rendered speechless as thin, leafy vines trapped his arms to his sides and tied themselves around his body with superhuman speed.

“Stop it! Get them off! He needs me!”

“He'll be fine,” Poison Ivy said, her tone of voice indicating that she really didn't care either way. “Just a little...sick...for a while.” She stroked her fingers through Robin's hair, and Robin started to tremble, wondering what she was going to do to him. “But let's forget about the Bat...I find you very interesting.”

“Please let me go...I just want to—”

“Shh...I won't hurt you, Robin.” She continued to stroke her fingers through his hair, her long nails scratching his scalp. Poison Ivy looked him over, tilting his head up to study his face, and smiled. “Wrap him up tighter,” she said, her dark, green eyes never leaving his masked ones. “Oh, and put him down. We have a ways to go and I don't want to hear him making noise the whole way there.”

Robin felt more thin vines twine around his body. His legs were eventually wrapped too tightly for him to keep his balance and he fell to the ground. Ivy chuckled above him. A strange, purple flower hovered on its stalk above him, and silently coughed a strange white dust in his face. Robin choked loudly as he inhaled the dust, and his vision blurred. “Wh—whuh—”

“Just a little beddy-bye until we get back to my hideout,” Ivy whispered to him. “Trust me, Robin...you're going to love it there.”

Her voice was the last thing he heard before everything faded away.

(To be continued)