"How could you..."
The Green still could not make sense of it. Schiller and Barbatos had worked together? But why? What did Barbatos have that could attract him?
The Green first suppressed its own thoughts. It knew perfectly well that whatever came later could wait; it needed to sort out the current mess first. It was not taking the blame for this.
At its level, it could also learn about major events unfolding in the universe. For example, it had heard of Battleworld's opening. This was a colossal event spanning several universes, even worlds beyond them, and the participants included agents from various universes.
When the time came, if Pamela from this universe went out and told everyone that The Green was the root of all evil, what would become of its reputation? What would become of plants' reputation?
The Green could no longer be bothered with figuring out what that lunatic Schiller was trying to do. It told Schiller to wake Pamela up immediately and get this straightened out.
The Green had already checked the facts. With Schiller's round of hypnosis, it could not merely be called embellishment—it was like making an entire meal just to have something to dip in vinegar.
Pamela's background had indeed been somewhat tragic, but it had nothing to do with cults or magic. Her parents really had been ordinary victims of gangland revenge. They had laundered too much money for others and swallowed it all, refusing to cough it up. Those people chased them all the way to Chicago to recover the stolen money. Her parents stubbornly refused to pay, and the result was, naturally, not much different from two gunshots ringing out in an alley.
Pamela's adoptive mother had indeed been a little unstable, but her feelings for that man had been