Chapter 34: Good Teammates
The solvent produced by Lu Wei Gen could kill any plant. When Chen Tao transformed back from the Batmobile, he saw the Plant Master, who had been unstoppable just moments ago, lying on the ground, fast asleep, as peaceful as a baby.
“It’s over,” he said.
Everyone was exhausted, both physically and mentally. They gathered around Ivy, who was still unconscious, while Harley was tearfully bandaging her wounds, even though there weren’t any visible injuries on her body.
Death Marksman and Clayface stood together, panting heavily, carefully removing their protective suits stained with green solvent.
“This is crazy, Batman! If you could’ve directly poured that acid rain here, why didn’t you do it from the start?”
“Even if we had to rescue that professor, we could’ve just saved him and then poured the defoliant. Why did we have to go through all that trouble and have a direct confrontation—”
Death Marksman muttered to himself, but refrained from speaking out against Batman.
But then, he suddenly realized something:
Is Batman an idiot?
Death Marksman looked around at the swampy terrain, where almost all the plants had died. With two waves of defoliants, the Lu Wei Gen solvent was essentially sulfuric acid to the plants. Even iron trees couldn’t withstand such destruction.
Ivy was still unconscious, having eaten a punch from the Plant Master without any defense. Death Marksman didn’t think she could wake up anytime soon.
Everyone’s attention seemed to be focused on Ivy.
“At least for now, the power of Greenification has reached its lowest point,” Chen Tao thought to himself.
He turned around, seemingly to approach Ivy, but actually observed the other team members’ positions.
Death Marksman and Clayface stood together, a short distance away. Welding Dog Hero sat on the ground, straightening his twisted limbs. Lord of Vertigo stood beside Ivy, saying to Harley, “If you want to wake her up, I think you should…”
Could it be him?
Was it possible?
Was it Lord of Vertigo?
No… there was another candidate.
Chen Tao slightly turned his head, his peripheral vision catching Miss Vick emerging from the woods.
The beautiful English mercenary looked exhausted, with a dark red bruise on her snow-white thigh, like a plastic bottle left on the pristine snow after the first snowfall in January.
Her golden hair, covered with an eye mask, gazed at Chen Tao with deep fatigue, as if lamenting her miserable mercenary life.
This woman, who had been sidelined throughout the battle, rushed to Chen Tao’s side, her eyes fixed on the Plant Master lying on the ground.
“Ha! You finally got what was coming to you!”
She swiftly kicked the Plant Master’s battered body, her serene eyes gazing at the motionless form: “I was almost driven mad by you, you damn pest, with your filthy, rotten green vitality—”
She kept kicking, Chen Tao watching her coldly.
Everyone else was distracted by Harley’s loud protests, except for Death Marksman, who secretly placed his hand on his gun.
“I hate you, you disgusting green creature!”
The beautiful, elegant English aristocrat was venting her anger in a most unladylike manner.
“I want to puke just looking at you!”
Suddenly, one of her eyes dropped, the blood vessels in her eyeball stretched like a spider’s web, barely holding on to the eyeball. Her delicate face seemed to melt away, revealing the dark red, rotting flesh underneath.
Her legs transformed into sharp, insect-like limbs, and her voice changed to a mix of multiple echoes, filled with hatred and resentment, like a night owl’s screech:
“I really want to—”
“Kill you!!”
No one seemed to have reacted to this sudden transformation. The woman’s teeth, like a goat’s, burst out of her mouth, ready to pounce on the Plant Master’s immobile body…
Then…
A massive electric current coursed through her body, causing her to stumble backward: “What’s going on, you—”
Suddenly, an icy blast from the Ice Emperor exploded on her body, freezing half of her torso; immediately after, a violent explosion erupted from her chest, burning the other half of her body into a torch.
The monster rolled around on the ground, wailing: “Impossible! How could this be, you—”
“Didn’t anyone tell you? Never randomly catch Batman’s batarang!”
In the midst of the roaring flames and the freezing chill, the monster’s gray, dead-like eyes stared at another emotionless monster.
“Since you can’t even catch Batman’s batarang, what makes you think you can handle the weapon Batman gave you?”
Death Marksman looked like he wanted to abandon all his weapons, realizing he was carrying around these potentially deadly devices.
No wonder Batman insisted they all be armed to the teeth, even forcing the Welding Dog Hero and Lord of Vertigo to carry explosives and hand grenades, citing the need to increase their ammo reserves.
It turned out they were all waiting here! Death Marksman knew Batman was up to no good, but he never thought he’d install self-destruct mechanisms on their own weapons.
“You’re prepared, Batman, aren’t you? You can do it anytime—”
Kill your own teammates?
“Let me see… ultrasonic wave gun.”
“Ice-hand grenade, mini flamethrower…”
“Ah, and the supersonic rocket launcher.”
Chen Tao snapped his fingers, and the rocket launcher exploded on the monster’s body, its intense ultrasonic waves shattering half of its face:
“You foolish creature. Why didn’t you ever suspect those weapons were that heavy?”
“You never noticed, you’re just stupid. And why didn’t you notice the precision-planted soybean seed beneath your feet?”
Ivy opened her eyes.
(Final chapter)
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