Greened Lifeforms

"You'll help me. Otherwise, peace in this world will cease to exist."

Harley Quinn thought to herself, As if Bane, Joker, Two-Face, and Riddler are such kindhearted women.

"Even a lunatic like you still enjoys being alive, right?"

"How about giving me a little sweetener as part of the deal? Treat me to a day at the spa, then get my little cousin an autographed photo of Batman. He's seriously ill."

Chen Tao walked straight past her and headed toward the other side of the Batmobile.

Chen Tao silently counted down in his mind.

3.

"Hey, Bat! Only I can—"

2.

"Bat? Batman?"

1.

"Fine, fine, whatever. You're the boss."

Harley Quinn finally gave up and jumped straight into the passenger seat.

Third Generation Robin Tim, who had witnessed the entire scene, scratched his head in frustration.

"...Wait, Harley Quinn is coming with us?"

He blocked Chen Tao's path. "Is this really a good idea?"

"She wasn't my first choice." He heard Batman answer him. "But we can't let her out of our sight."

"She might tip Poison Ivy off that we're looking for her."

"Ha! Exactly!"

Harley Quinn said irritably. She crossed her eyes, pressed a finger to her temple, and made a stupid face.

"The dangerous lunatic is right here! No one knows what she'll do."

The three of them got into the car.

"Harley, all I need is for you to help me find Poison Ivy. That's enough. We'll handle the rest ourselves."

Chen Tao sat in the driver's seat, pretending to operate the steering wheel.

He wasn't the real Batman and had no idea how to drive this thing that was called a car but was actually a tank. From beginning to end, the AI had been doing the driving.

"We're going somewhere first. Then we'll set out to find Poison Ivy."

"Okay, okay. So, what exactly does Ivy want to do?"

"Based on Professor Goldbloom's field of expertise, the ideologies of Plant Master and Poison Ivy, and the attack on the Institute for Advanced Metahuman Joint Research, STAR Labs—"

"I reached a conclusion. They're definitely going to use a synthetic formula to create Swamp Thing, turn it into a rapidly spreading virus, then cleanse the Earth and transform humans into plant-animal hybrids."

"What? Ugh!"

Harley Quinn stretched out her neck and made an exaggerated disgusted face before saying, "Um, don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely not a racist—"

She patted her chest with her pale little hand and continued, "I mean, some of my good friends are plants."

"Well, at least looking on the bright side, they won't kill everyone," Robin said.

"Maybe," Chen Tao replied. "But if they succeed, we're finished. We'll all have to live like plants from then on."

He glanced at Harley Quinn and deliberately emphasized his next words. "And if something goes wrong with their plan, even just a little, within a few weeks—or even a few days—we could see every living thing on Earth wiped out."

"Wow, that's pretty impressive." Harley sounded like she didn't care in the slightest.

"But wait," Third Generation Robin Tim said. "Why do they need Professor Goldbloom? Why don't they just release the virus themselves?"

"Obviously, this is a shortcut." He quickly answered his own question. "Achieving genetic imprinting engineering could take years, even decades. Once they started, they wouldn't be able to remain fully human. She's a naturally occurring mutation, while he's a super-monster from another dimension, a tree spirit that came here to merge with ordinary humans before ultimately submitting to The Green."

"A tree spirit from another dimension? Are you kidding me?" Harley said theatrically.

Chen Tao answered Harley, "It's not as if you've never seen supernatural lifeforms. Clayface, Killer Croc—are they not—"

"Forget it," he said. "We only need you to help us find Poison Ivy."

The Batmobile took several winding turns before stopping in front of a dilapidated apartment building.

Slaughter Swamp.

Inside a wooden cabin.

All kinds of experimental equipment could be found there.

Mua~

Poison Ivy was kissing Professor Goldbloom.

"Oh, that's disgusting! Absolutely revolting!"

Plant Master was a walking tree. Lush vegetation and bark formed his body, along with a furry, green head bearing a pair of elf-like ears. At that moment, he stood nearby, looking thoroughly disgusted.

After a long while, the two parted lips.

Green light flickered in Professor Goldbloom's eyes. He stood up blankly, walked over to the table, and began synthesizing the potion.

"Do you think I enjoy this? Swapping saliva with him every six hours?"

Poison Ivy wiped her mouth and spat on the floor.

She said irritably:

"If you have a better way to make him obey us, I'm all ears."

"Tsk."

Plant Master crossed his arms. "Life is full of hardships."

"I don't want hardships."

"There are seven billion bags of meat in this world. Our plan will be their hardship...at the very least, a horrific hardship."

Poison Ivy said:

"No. Our plan is purification—to purify every organism on Earth. It's an extremely noble and benevolent act."

"'Noble and benevolent.' What an ironic phrase." Plant Master said, "A word created by a bunch of heartless creatures who disregard other species and constantly fight among themselves."

Poison Ivy picked up where he left off. "Exactly. They're always talking about climate change, but weren't they the ones who caused it all?"

At least on this point, she and Plant Master saw eye to eye. It was also the foundation of their cooperation.

"In fact, they did this themselves."

Plant Master replied, "They doubled their greenhouse gas emissions, recklessly cut down forests, and ravaged this planet. You once said something, Pamela. Let me quote you: Humans won't care about any of this unless we force them to."

The two plant-based villains reached a consensus and smiled at each other.

The two of them stood together in front of the professor, gazing at the magnificent blueprint of their plan.

"All right. Once our virus activates, everyone on this planet will receive one enormous benefit: everything will be greened!"

Professor Goldbloom used his rubber-gloved hand to retrieve a small white mouse from a box, then aimed the gun-shaped injector in his hand at it.

"You'll feel a little...pressure. Little one, everything will be all right."

He injected the pale green substance.

Under the watchful eyes of the two plant-based villains, the small white mouse gradually turned green. Green plants eventually sprouted all over its body, transforming it completely into a green mouse.

"It worked! It's stable!"

Plant Master shouted, his voice filled with manic delight. "Good heavens, look how beautiful he is!"

Poison Ivy also struggled to contain her excitement as she cradled it in her palm. "Come on, come to Mommy—"

Plant Master raised both hands.

"This isn't an ordinary green-leaf mouse. It heralds the dawn of a new age! Those damn human factories will be replaced by enormous cathedrals like giant redwoods—the lush green will cover the entire Earth—it will erupt—"

With a splut, the little green mouse exploded into a disgusting lump of viscous green sludge.