The plants surrounding Wayne Manor were anything but ordinary.
Lorna realized that the moment she stepped onto the estate grounds. Carnivorous plants that should've only existed in fantasy novels were growing unchecked across the entire property.
They were everywhere.
Thankfully, while Lorna wasn't as powerful as her father, Magneto, she could still control magnetic fields well enough to use metals to fend off the plants with sharp teeth and snapping jaws.
It wasn't easy, though.
Magnetic control wasn't something Lorna had fully mastered yet. Sometimes, when an attack came from a blind spot, she couldn't react in time. If it weren't for the green combat suit she wore—her father's final gift to his daughter—she probably would've already been badly injured.
"Out of my way!" With a sharp yell, Lorna compressed the metal floating around her into thin, sharp blades and sliced through the plant tendrils lunging at her.
But even after her attack, she didn't let her guard down. From the earlier fights, she had already noticed how unnaturally fast these plants grew. Each time she cut them, new ones emerged from the severed stumps within seconds.
This time, however, she waited cautiously for several minutes, yet the surrounding plants remained still.
"Finally... did they stop?" Lorna gasped for breath. This was the first time she had used her mutant powers at such intensity. She never expected that the abilities her teachers at the academy praised as superior to humans could leave her so exhausted just from fighting plants.
"Then up ahead... that is Wayne Manor."
She tried to keep moving forward slowly. But once the tension from battle eased, it was hard for her body to stay alert. Her nerves had relaxed too much to respond as quickly to sudden danger.
Just as her guard was at its lowest, a bright flower dropped from the bushes nearby.
It didn't belong to any known species. And the moment it fell near her, a burst of yellow pollen sprayed from its center.
Before she could react, Lorna inhaled it. In an instant, a surge of paralysis hit her body like an electric current. Her limbs gave out, and she collapsed to the ground, unable to move.
"Looks like our guest has arrived." A teasing yet lazy voice drifted over.
A woman emerged, her skin a vivid shade of green like a plant, with only a few strands of ivy covering the necessary parts of her body. She slowly pushed open the gates of Wayne Manor and walked up to where Lorna lay.
Pamela Lillian Isley. Or, as she was better known, Poison Ivy.
Years ago, when Reid was still operating solely under the identity of Alfred, he had already discovered her name in Gotham's data archives. Alongside it, he had also found the man responsible for creating her: the deranged botanist, Dr. Jason Woodrue.
Poison Ivy had been on Reid's radar ever since.
Unlike most of Gotham's villains, Ivy could even be considered an anti-hero. She didn't go out of her way to do heroic deeds, but she also wasn't the type to casually disregard human life like the others.
Besides being a staunch environmentalist, Ivy's personality wasn't all that different from a regular person's. That's why, from the very beginning, Reid had planned to recruit her into his own ranks.
And the way to win her over was surprisingly simple.
It was during the time when Woodrue had been injecting her with various plant-based toxins for his human experiments. If someone had stepped in and avenged her before she fully awakened, that would've been enough.
She had once grown fond of Batman because he took a bullet for her. So when 'Bruce' personally killed Jason Woodrue to avenge her, if not for the fact those experiments had left her permanently infertile, she might have offered herself to him right then and there.
Naturally, helping 'Bruce' capture the lone intruder who had made it all the way into Wayne Manor was only fitting.
"A... mutant...?"
Lorna barely managed to lift her head, staring at the strange-looking woman before her. She didn't have the ability to distinguish between mutants and enhanced humans. To her, anyone with powers fell into the same category.
But Ivy only let out a dry laugh.
"Kid, not everyone with a little something special is a mutant. With that kind of thinking, it's no surprise you've ended up like this. Now, get some sleep."
With a flick of her wrist, a vine with blooming flowers shot up beside her.
As the petals opened, a fresh puff of pollen sprayed across the fallen mutant's face. And with that, she completely lost consciousness.
...
After a long while, Lorna slowly woke up. As she glanced around, she realized she was now inside Wayne Manor. But her body was tightly bound by vines, and she no longer had any strength to resist.
She could feel it clearly, these vines were alive. If she made even the slightest move, they could tear her fragile body apart without hesitation.
"Haha! Our little guest is finally awake."
With a wild laugh, Joker stepped out from the shadows. In his hand was a wine glass, but instead of a vintage 1982 Lafite, it was filled with freshly brewed liquid Joker Venom.
"How about it, kid? Want some juice?" he grinned, holding the glass out toward her.
Terrified, Lorna leaned back as far as she could, doing everything in her power to keep the volatile substance away from her face. Even if it got close, she held her breath. Drink it? Only a lunatic would do that.
And the next second, Joker did exactly that. He downed the entire glass of Joker Venom in one gulp. In the whole world, only he and Reid had the kind of immunity to it that allowed something so insane.
Even Aquaman wouldn't dare take a sip.
"So boring," Joker muttered, wiping his mouth. "Without my Batsy, Gotham just isn't any fun at all."
Disappointed, he wandered back into the shadows.
It was only then that Lorna realized he wasn't the only one hiding in the darkness.
Harley Quinn, Deathstroke, Solomon Grundy, Killer Croc. Members of the Joker Gang who had long made Gotham tremble were all gathered here in the manor.
Lorna had always known that Gotham didn't truly have heroes or villains. What it had was the Wayne family, who controlled the entire city from behind the scenes. But even knowing that, seeing it with her own eyes left her speechless.
Mutants had struggled since Charles was young. Even after all these years, they still didn't have a single city to call their home base.
Yet the Waynes, this family that 'Bruce Wayne' had only just returned to five years ago, had already accomplished what the mutants never could.
"Joker, enough with the nonsense." A voice rang out from the second-floor.
'Bruce' slowly stepped into view. Walking beside him, lightly holding onto his arm, was none other than Poison Ivy, the same woman who had effortlessly captured Lorna.
"Lorna Dane," he said calmly from above. "Daughter of Magneto. Do you want to know what happened to your friends?"
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