Gotham City Heroes (rewritten version)

by Batfan98

Chapter 14 Green Thumbs

Scootaloo's first night out as Robin seemed to be pretty active, to say the least. Her and Batman have had a series of stopping criminals doing petty crimes. Crimes such as a car robbery, a few muggings, and Scootaloo even stopped a pick pocket single handedly. Even though this night was seemingly simple to Batman, it was about to get even more exciting for his young ward.

"Well," Robin said, stretching her arms. "I don't know about you, but all that crime fighting can take a lot out of you."

"It can on the first few nights," Batman stated. "You think you're ready to go home?"

"Are you kidding? We haven't been out here that long, I'm up for anything."

Batman smirked, "If that's the case, I hope you're ready for whatever lies ahead." He pointed his finger out, as if it were gesturing to something behind her.

Robin looked over her shoulder and gasped. Shining up in the sky was a light, forming the shape of a bat, the very same symbol on Batman's chest. It was non other than the Bat-Signal, Scootaloo has seen it a few times outside her window and heard that it would shine whenever the police needed Batman's help.

"Welp, looks like the police need us. Come on, Bossman, let's go save the city." Robin immediately ran in the Signal's direction, Batman smirked and soon followed her.

---

Atop the roof stood Commissioner James Gordon beside the Bat-Signal. The silver haired man lit his pipe as he awaited his vigilante ally to come.

"Commissioner," Having working with Batman a long time he has grown used to someone appearing out of nowhere and addressing him and became less startling. The grey haired man turned around to see Batman, as expected, but standing beside him this time was a new Robin.

"Huh," He said, eyeing the sidekick. "You know, when I heard Bruce Wayne adopted a new ward I didn't think it would take long for you to become Robin."

Scootaloo averted her eyes underneath the mask. "Uhh, what are you talking about? I don't know who Bruce Wayne is?" She smiled nervously.

"Relax," Batman reassured. "Jim knows my identity, he can keep a secret."

"Yep, and I can keep yours."

Robin sighed in relief. "Then, it's nice to meet you sir, Ashlyn Phillips, or as you know, Robin."

Gordon tilted his hat, "Commissioner James Gordon, glad to meet you."

"You called us here, Jim." Batman stated.

The Commissioner nodded, "Yeah, as you probably heard, Poison Ivy has escaped from Arkham Asylum a week ago. Just six hours ago, famous explorer Boris Franklin has been kidnapped from his apartment."

"You think Poison Ivy could be connected?"

Gordon nodded, "He brought back a rare plant from his latest expedition, the African Zebra Flower. Also, the woman at the front desk claims she doesn't remember a thing and forensics have found traces of Ivy's mind control powder on her face."

"Ivy must have made her tell her where Boris' address was." Batman theorized. "We'll look into it and see if we can recover Franklin."

Gordon nodded, "Good luck, Batman." He eyed Robin. "Both of you."

The Dynamic Duo proceeded to glide off the rooftop an route to the Batmobile. As they glided, Scootaloo began to admire the feel. She was high above the ground and the air soared across her face. It was as though she was actually flying, like she always wanted when she was a pony, but never got due to her wing disability.

After a while of gliding, they landed in the Batmobile. "So, did the Commissioner always know your identity?"

"Not at first," Batman clarified. "It wasn't until long into my career when he found out."

"How'd you take it?"

"I was surprised, but I knew I could trust him with my secret."

The Batmobile then took off into the city.

---

"We're here." Batman and Robin exited the Batmobile and entered the apartment building. Upon entering, they made their way up to the apartment.

"So, how do we know which apartment it is?" Robin asked.

"I typed Boris Franklin's name into the Batmobile's computer, it was how I was able to find his address."

The two reached the right apartment under the correct number as they made their way Inside.

"Alright, let's split up and see if we can find anything."

"You got it, Bossman." Robin replied as she and her boss began to search. Now was the time for investigating, as Scootaloo was taught in her training. From what she remembered, she had to look everywhere, especially in places unlikely.

She entered the bedroom as she extended her search. Robin looked into the drawers and found nothing, aside from clothes. She tried looking under the bed, where she saw what appeared to be a fox of some kind. She pulled the object from under the bed and saw that it was some kind of safe box. Robin had no idea what could be in here, but perhaps it might be something beneficial in their case.

Scootaloo remembered the part of her training where she had to crack a safe combination. She leaned her ear gainst the safe, listening intently as she rotated the lock. After a few clicks, she was able to open the box. In it she found some kind of documents, hopefully they are somewhat useful.

"Did you find anything?" Batman asked.

Robin nodded, "Yeah, I found these." She handed the papers to her mentor.

Batman scanned the papers with his detective vision. "It looks like Franklin isn't entirely innocent. According to these documents, he's been stealing oil off of sights protected by their country's governments."

"Why would he steal oil?"

"Oil is a source of energy used for various things people need, such as transportation and electricity."

"Oh, so Poison Ivy wanted to take some of the oil Boris Franklin stole?" Robin guessed.

Batman shook his head, "No, oil is a natural resource and it is often over used by humans. While Poison Ivy has a sick kind she would never indulge in anything that would potentially harm the planet. She's obsessed with nature, particularly plants."

Robin nodded, "Ok, so Poison Ivy kidnapped the guy, because he's stealing oil from places he's not supposed to take it?"

Batman nodded, "Yes, she wants to make him pay. My guess is that Boris Franklin took on the career as an explorer so he can find places to steal oil from and sell it on the Black Market."

"So, how do we find Poison Ivy?"

"I had Oracle look at the building's security feed. Ivy came in here with two men, both of which I recognize their names. Josh Lance and Giles Will, I apprehended them once as they operated a meth lab underneath a flower shop."

"How do you know Ivy will be there?"

"When you think about her gimmic being related to plants, it sounds possible. Plus, it's the only lead we have."

Robin shrugged, "Alright, let's go."

"Well, it looks like old long ears beat us here." They heard a voice. Batman and Robin looked to the door frame and saw two figures standing there. One was a pudgy man in a trench coat and fedora, had a lit cigar in his mouth. The other a Latina woman in a blue trench coat and her hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Bullock, Montoya." Batman said.

"Found anything?" The woman known as Montoya asked.

"Yeah, we did actually." Robin said.

The two officers eyed the young girl, "Well," The pudgy one, Bullock, took the cigar from his mouth. "Looks like the Bat's got a new sidekick." He held out his hand, "Detectives Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya."

Robin shook his hand, accepting the gesture. "Robin, the new one."

"So," Montoya eyed the Batman. "What did you find?"

"We found these," The Caped Crusader held out the documents, handing them over to the detective. "Show them to Commissioner Gordon, he's going to need to see them."

Montoya nodded, "Sure thing. Good work."

"Actually, Robin found them."

"Yeah, and it's my first day on the job too." Robin crossed her arms, smirking.

"Well then, not bad for a first timer." Bullock commented. "I'd give you a cigar, but you know..."

---

The Batmobile screeched to a halt as it arrived in front of the Dynamic Duo's intended destination: Sam's Flowers. The two exited the vehicle and made their way in. The shop looked abandoned, the Windows were cracked, cobwebs raided the shelfs, and dusk laid on the floor's corners.

"So, how do we find where Ivy's hiding?" Robin asked.

"It's pretty simple." Batman pointed ahead, "It's just behind that door."

Across the room from them stood the afromentioned door. The detective and girl wonder made their way and Batman quietly opened the door as he lead the way down the stairs into the dark basement. As they made their way down, Robin Jose began to detect a scent of flowers as though there was a garden. Once they reached their way down, it indeed was a garden. Grass covered the floor and vines crawled up the walls as flowers of various kinds were planted across the room.

Across from them was Boris Franklin, sitting on his knees, tied up and gagged. Beside him, sitting on a flower bed was a young woman of stunning beauty. Her red hair hanging over her shoulders and her leafy one piece outfit showed much of her figure and much skin. What made her seem different from other humans was her skin, it wasn't pale or brown or any other color of skin that would look normal on a human being. It was in fact green, green as nature itself.

"Batman." She said in the most beautiful and seductive of voices, yet it was menacing.

"Poison Ivy." Batman growled.

The woman smiled as she was stroking the African Zebra Flower placed on her lap, as though she were a spy villain stroking their cat. "I see you have a new Robin."

"Where are your men?" Batman demanded.

"Who? Giles and Josh? Well, my pollen was beginning to wear off and they were snapping out of my control. If you want to know where they've gone, well their digesting."

Robin's eyes grew, "You...you mean you...ate them?"

Poison Ivy eyed the girl in surprise for a moment before laughing out loud, "No, Jenny did."

"Jenny?"

"Robin, look out!" Batman yelled. Before Robin had time to understand, Batman leapt and pushed her out of the way of an oncoming vine. The two looked to see the vine retract to a giant stem. At first it looked to be a giant plant, but upon closer inspection it appeared to have a head like that of a Venus Fly Trap with fangs.

Robin gulped as the plant monster growled.

"Before Jenny will eat Boris, she'll be eating you two." Poison Ivy stated.

The creature sent another vine in the Dynamic Duo's direction, both leaping out of it's way. Another vine swung at Robin's way, she ducked as it whooshed above her head. The monster growled and struck it's vine, Robin dodged. Batman threw three batarangs to it's head as they exploded on impact. Unfortunately they didn't do much damage and only drew the creatures attention to Batman.

The monster slammed it's vine downward as Batman leapt out of the way. There had to be some way of taking this monster down. It was then Batman had an idea. He reached into his belt.

"Robin, reach into your belt. Second compartment on the left."

Robin did as she was told and found that she had pulled out smoke pellets. The creature roared.

"Now throw!" The two threw their pellets into the creature's mouth. They heard a loud pop as several pellets exploded and the creature rose it's head upward, roaring in pain as smoke was emmitting from it's mouth. Batman took a batarang and his explosive gell from his belt as he took the moment of the creature's distraction to charge. He stabbed his batarang into the stem, it didn't leave much of a gash, but it was sizable enough for Batman to spray the explosive gell in there. A vine swapped the superhero away as he hit the wall.

"Batman!" Robin yelled as she ran to her mentor.

Poison Ivy laughed, "Did you think that would really stop Jenny?"

"No," Batman held up the explosive gel, resting his finger on the detonator. "But this will." Be pressed the button, upon doing so the stem holding the creature exploded, detaching the stem in half as the creature landed on it's face dying.

"NOOO!!" Poison Ivy yelled. "My baby! You monster! You and this Boy Wonder!" Unfortunately for her, She was met with a batarang, knocking her out.

"Did she just call me a boy?" Robin was dumbfounded.

Boris struggled to speak as he was gagged, but Batman removed the cloth. "Thank you." He said as Batman begun untying him. He stood up fully, "If it wasn't for you, she could've killed me."

"You're about to wish she did."

"What?" Boris asked, confused.

"You became an explorer to steal oil from illegal sights."

Boris gulped, dread overtaking him. "Now, Batman I'm sure we can work something out." Unfortunately his only reply was a pair of cuffs placed on his wrists.

Author's Note:

The reason I'm having Gordon know Batman is Bruce Wayne is because I feel like it would make their relationship all the more trust worthy and I felt since we are this long into Batman's career it would make sense. And he knows Barbra was Batgirl and is the Oracle too. I've also been thinking of giving Scoots and Bullock somewhat of a Gordon and Batman type of relationship. By the way, as for the next villain, well I won't say much, but he is a real coin flipper.

Comments

[badninja]

I am torn on having Gordon knowing the truth. He has stated, to my knowledge in the comics, that he shouldn’t know it because if he is ever required to answer under oath or under mind control who Batman is he can say he doesn’t know because he simply doesn’t. Now he strongly suspects Bruce is Batman but he doesn’t want to look because of how important Brie is to the city. Still this is your story and I want to see how you move forward with this choice.