Weeding

"They're here."

Plant Master slipped out from the doorway of their cabin and onto the large bluestone. Professor Goldbloom and Poison Ivy were at the table beside it. The old professor wore a gas mask and was synthesizing tube after tube of pale-yellow liquid.

"I can feel them!"

Poison Ivy was tapping away at the keyboard.

"They're getting closer!"

Poison Ivy picked up a bottle of reagent and shook it, then stirred it with a glass rod before placing it in the case.

"Could you stop fidgeting like that? I need to concentrate."

She said, "Once we reach Louisiana, we won't have any of this equipment. We need to hurry and synthesize as many raw materials as possible!"

"Faster." Plant Master spoke in a muffled voice as he dropped onto a rock beside them. "They'll be here soon."

"We're here. Come on, this way."

Harley Quinn pointed at a log bridge that ran straight through the swamp. "I'll bet Poison Ivy and the others have their base on the other side of this bridge."

Robin lifted his leg and strode onto it. Deathshot and the others followed, while Chen Tao gave Harley Quinn a meaningful look.

"Oh, really? Harley? We'll meet Poison Ivy after crossing this bridge?"

"Ah, yes, yes, exactly."

Harley Quinn nodded enthusiastically.

Batman was still staring at her.

"Hmm... Is something wrong?"

Stare—

"Hahah—huh?"

Chen Tao gave an inexplicable laugh and walked onto the bridge as well, causing Harley Quinn to breathe a sigh of relief.

She deliberately dawdled behind the bridge, then silently counted in her heart:

3, 2, 1.

Boom!

Countless enormous vines and tree trunks burst up from the bottom of the lake. The wooden bridge beneath their feet instantly transformed into a winding, twisting wooden three-headed snake, binding everyone up.

"Damn it, what's going on?"

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Deathshot instinctively drew his gun and fired rapidly, shattering five or six vines reaching toward him. But the overturned bridge beneath his feet threw him off balance, and he ended up being bound tight.

Buzz buzz buzz buzz...

Harley Quinn nimbly flipped away from where she had been standing. "Don't waste your effort, Dizzy Earl. I know your ability gets stronger the closer you are. Ideally, you need a solid object with tightly packed molecules to help conduct that sort of sound in your brain."

She pointed at the disgusting water beneath them. "But you're already separated from the water, an excellent conductor for that sound. At this distance, you can't do anything to me."

Ms. Vick displayed astonishing flexibility. She compressed her body and dodged several attacking vines, then joined forces with Cheshire Cat. A few flashes of blades passed between the two women, and the vines around them snapped one after another.

But the wood beneath their feet vividly demonstrated what it meant for an old tree to bloom. Their feet were locked in place by tree trunks, and the two of them were quickly captured as well.

"Wh... why?" Ms. Vick struggled as the vines dragged her before a large tree. The tree split inch by inch down the middle, opening a sharp, pitch-black maw in its trunk.

"What the hell are you doing, Harley Quinn?!"

Robin shrieked, "I knew we shouldn't have trusted her!" While shouting as if he were hysterically losing his mind, he secretly clenched a plastic explosive behind his back.

Only Chen Tao and Welding Dog seemed utterly unconcerned, as though whatever happened was fine by them. They allowed the green plants to crawl over them and bind them up like dumplings.

The pale-faced girl hugged her arms and stared at Chen Tao. He sighed. Harley apparently hadn't seen even the slightest trace of surprise on his face, which instead surprised her.

"Harley Quinn, what are you doing again?"

"What am I doing?"

Harley Quinn suppressed the strange feeling in her heart and replied, "Exactly what you wanted, idiot."

"Because today is Thursday. And Thursdays are usually crazy."

Poison Ivy and Plant Master finally arrived, having sensed that their trap had been triggered.

"Harley?"

Poison Ivy said in surprise.

Harley Quinn bounced over and said in a saccharine voice:

"Hello, darling. Sorry for hanging around with Batman, but I had to make these guys think I was on their side. That way, I could lead them here and into your trap. You can continue with your plan! Great, huh?"

Poison Ivy walked up to her and stared at her blankly, seemingly unable to believe Harley Quinn had actually said something like that.

But soon, she heard Harley lean close and whisper:

"Darling Pam, please give up on this crazy plan. It's really, really, really unreliable. Don't turn all of us into vegetarians. There has to be another way. You're altering the ecosystem without humanity even knowing. I'm sure I can plead for you when you're put on trial, because your intentions are righteous, even if you did kill some people. But please, give up on the plan, sweet little Pam, my darling, please, please, please, give up on it!"

"What? No! Harley, the Earth is dying! I'm not destroying the Earth—I'm saving it! Saving it from those extractors and consumers—"

Harley Quinn's face fell.

"I've been surrounded by these humans my whole life, but we can change them, prune them, shape them, like gardeners. I don't want to do this, but I have to—"

Harley Quinn pulled a mournful face and sighed deeply.

"All right. You can't blame a girl who tried her best."

She abruptly leaped backward. Two weed-killing microcapsules flew from her hand, landed in the trap, and exploded.

The enormous trees toppled amid anguished wails, and Ms. Vick, Deathshot, and the others broke free one after another.

Poison Ivy: stunned.jpg

Harley's series of abrupt reversals had left her completely confused.

"These are specialized herbicides. You gave them to me, remember? Little Red."

Harley Quinn said, "I still think I should help them out, because of that lollipop incident."

Poison Ivy immediately grabbed her by the throat. "I thought we were friends!"

"Little Red, friends don't let friends butcher seven billion humans. You..."

"Ah—oh."

Harley Quinn saw Poison Ivy raise her fist.

Bang!

Harley Quinn took a punch to the eye and instantly grew frantic.

"Little Red! I'm helping you!"

Then the two women began wrestling right there.

"Ha!"

Plant Master lunged forward as well. Deathshot scrambled up from the ground and pulled out two Freeze Grenades, throwing them directly at him. "Damn it, everyone together—"

"Wait."

Chen Tao held out a hand to stop him.

"Wait a little longer."

"What are you trying to do?"

Deathshot was speechless. He watched as the two frost bombs landed on Plant Master. Amid a violent explosion, they somehow created countless patches of frost out of thin air, but the frost vanished completely in a very short time and failed to cause Plant Master any harm.

"Wait a little longer. Remember? The herbicide."

"What do you mean?"

Deathshot had not yet reacted when, in the next second, rain began to fall from the sky.

In an instant, countless trees dissolved beneath the pale-green rain. Hole after hole was corroded into Plant Master's body, and he let out a bloodcurdling scream.

Deathshot turned around and heard Batman say to him, "Why bother fighting? I'll just pour herbicide all over this area. Make sure even the air they fart out reeks of it."

My name is Bane. No matter where my gravestone is, I'm currently racing headlong toward it, utterly exhausted.

And while I chased lightning, stamped out fires, and drained myself completely dry, Batman was conserving his strength and enjoying this magnificent spectacle, calmly waiting at its center... waiting to defeat me before my own grave.

I knew I should pursue the mastermind behind all this, the cold, central figure around whom everything had raged—the Batman.

But if I wanted to reach him... I had to face this storm from within.

I am Bane. I am in action.

There was no time to breathe, no time to delay.

Thanks to Superman for the 100 Qidian Coins tip, QwQ.