## Chapter 27: Weeding
“They’re coming.”
Plant Master strolled from their wooden cabin to the large blue stone outside. Professor Goldblum and Poison Ivy were at a table beside the stone. The old professor wore a gas mask and was synthesizing vials of pale yellow liquid.
“I can feel it!”
Poison Ivy was hammering away on the keyboard.
“They’re getting closer!”
Poison Ivy picked up a vial, shook it, stirred it with a mixing rod, and put it in a box.
“Can you stop fidgeting? I need to concentrate.” She said, “We won’t have these instruments in Louisiana, we need to synthesize more raw materials quickly!”
“Hurry up.” Plant Master said in a low voice, plopping down on a nearby rock. “They’re coming.”
…
…
…
“We’re here, come on, take this path.”
Harley Quinn pointed to a log bridge that crossed directly through the swamp. “I bet if we cross this bridge, we’ll find Poison Ivy’s base.”
Robin stepped onto the bridge. Deathstroke and the others followed. Chen Tao looked at Harley Quinn with a knowing smile.
“Oh, really? Harley? Crossing this wooden bridge will lead us to Poison Ivy?”
“Oh, yeah, yeah.”
Harley Quinn nodded readily.
Batman was still staring at her.
“Um… is something wrong?”
Stare –
“Hahaha, huh?”
Chen Tao smiled inexplicably and stepped onto the bridge as well. This put Harley Quinn at ease.
She deliberately lingered behind on the bridge, then silently counted in her mind:
3, 2, 1.
Boom!
Countless giant vines and tree trunks surged out of the lakebed. The wooden bridge beneath their feet instantly transformed into a winding, writhing, wooden serpent, binding everyone up.
“What the hell’s going on?!”
Everything happened in a flash. Deathstroke instinctively drew his gun and shot, shattering five or six vines heading towards him, but he lost his balance due to the crumbling bridge underfoot and ended up tightly bound.
Buzz buzz buzz…
Harley Quinn rolled a few times with surprising agility, escaping her original position. “Don’t bother, Vertigo. I know your power is stronger up close, especially with dense solids to help transmit the sound in your head.”
She pointed to the disgusting water source below. “But you’re separated from the water, which is a good conductor of that sound. At this distance, you can’t do anything to me.”
Miss Vick demonstrated incredible flexibility. She shrank herself and dodged several vines. Then, she and Cheshire worked together, their blades flashing, and the surrounding vines snapped.
But in the next second, the wood beneath their feet vividly demonstrated what “old trees blooming” meant. The two women were quickly captured when their feet were entangled by the trunks.
“Wh… why?” Miss Vick struggled, pulled by the vines toward a large tree. The tree split in half, its trunk opening into a gaping, sharp-toothed maw.
“What are you doing, you crazy Harley Quinn?!”
Robin screamed, “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted her!” While seeming to have a hysterical mental breakdown, he secretly clenched the plastic explosives in his hand.
Only Chen Tao and Welding Dog Hero seemed unconcerned. They allowed the green plants to climb onto them, wrapping them into bundles.
The pale-faced little girl crossed her arms and looked at Chen Tao. He sighed. Harley seemed to see no surprise in his face, which actually surprised Harley.
“Harley Quinn, what are you doing?”
“What am I doing?”
Harley suppressed the strange feeling in her heart and replied, “Just what you want, dummy.”
“Because today is Thursday. And Thursdays are usually crazy.”
Feeling their trap triggered, Poison Ivy and Plant Master finally arrived.
“Harley?”
Poison Ivy said in shock.
Harley Quinn skipped over and said in a voice sweet enough to kill:
“Hello, darling. I’m sorry for hanging out with Batman, but I had to make these guys think I’m on their side, so I could bring them here to your trap. You can continue your plan! It’s great, huh?”
Poison Ivy walked over to her and stared at her, dazed, seemingly unable to believe that Harley Quinn would actually say something like that.
But soon, she heard Harley lean in and say to her:
“Darling Pammy, you have to give up this crazy plan. It’s really, really, really unreliable. Don’t turn us all into vegetarians. There must be other ways. You’re altering the ecosystem right now, and humans don’t even know. I’m sure I can plead for you when you’re put on trial, because after all, your heart is righteous. Even if you killed some people, please give up the plan, Pammy, little darling, my sweet baby, please, please, please, give up the plan!”
“What? No! Harley, Earth is dying. I’m not destroying Earth, I’m saving it! Saving it from those who mine and use it – ”
Harley Quinn drooped her face.
“I’ve been surrounded by these humans my whole life, but we can change them, prune them, shape them, like gardeners. I don’t want to do it, but I have to – ”
Harley Quinn sighed sadly.
“Well, you can’t blame a girl for trying.”
She suddenly stepped back, and two mini herbicide capsules flew out of her hand, landing at the trap site and exploding.
The giant trees fell with a groan, and Miss Vick and Deathstroke were freed.
Poison Ivy: Dazed.jpg
Harley’s constant flip-flopping confused her.
“These are specialized herbicides, you gave them to me, remember? Little Red.”
Harley Quinn said, “I still think I should help them. Because of that lollipop incident.”
Then, she was immediately grabbed by the neck by Poison Ivy: “I thought we were friends!”
“Little Red, friends don’t let friends slaughter 7 billion humans, you…”
“Ah – oh.”
Harley Quinn saw Poison Ivy raise her fist.
Bang!
Harley Quinn was punched in the eye, and she immediately panicked.
“Little Red! I’m helping you!”
Then the two women started brawling.
“Ha!”
Plant Master also pounced. Deathstroke scrambled to his feet, pulled out two ice grenades and threw them. “Damn it, everyone together – ”
“Wait.”
Chen Tao stopped him.
“Wait a minute.”
“What are you doing?”
Deathstroke was speechless. He saw the two ice bombs land on Plant Master, and with a loud explosion, they created countless frost. But this frost quickly dissipated, causing no harm to Plant Master.
“Wait a minute. Remember? Herbicides.”
“What do you mean?”
Deathstroke hadn’t understood, but the next second, it started to rain.
In an instant, countless trees melted under the pale green rain. Plant Master’s body was corroded with holes, emitting a heart-wrenching scream.
Deathstroke turned around and heard Batman say to him:
“Stop fighting, I’m going to dump herbicides directly into this area, make sure they taste like herbicide even when they fart.”
…
…
…
My name is Bane. Wherever my tombstone lies, I’m currently racing towards it, already exhausted.
As I chase the lightning, extinguish fires everywhere, and wear myself down to the bone, Batman is recharging, enjoying this scene, leisurely waiting in the heart of it… waiting to crush me at my grave.
I know I should go after the mastermind behind this, the cold, central figure around whom everything is raging – Batman.
But to reach him… I must face this storm within it.
I am Bane, I am in action.
Unstoppable, inexorable.
Thanks to Superman100 starting coins for the reward QwQ
(End of Chapter)
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