Good Teammate

A solvent made from reed roots could kill any plant.

When Chen Tao turned back from the Bat-Monster Truck into his human form, he saw that Plant Master, who had been so arrogant just a moment ago, lying peacefully on the ground and sleeping soundly, as tranquil as a baby.

"It's over."

He said.

Everyone was physically and mentally exhausted. They gathered around the unconscious Poison Ivy, with Harley tearfully bandaging her wounds. Although Poison Ivy had merely been knocked out and had no obvious wounds requiring a bandage, Harley clearly didn't think so.

Deathshot and Cheshire Cat stood together, panting heavily, and carefully took off their protective suits stained with green solvent.

"Damn it, Batman, if you could just pour that acid rain right here, why didn't you just pour it down from the start?"

"Even if we had to save that professor or whatever, we could have just rescued the person and run, then poured weedkiller here afterwards. Why go through all the trouble of a head-on clash—"

Deathshot silently grumbled to himself. Given his personality, if it were any other employer, he would have started cursing out loud long ago, but facing Batman, he didn't dare voice these thoughts—

Wait.

Deathshot suddenly jolted in realization:

Was Batman an idiot?

Deathshot looked at the surrounding swamp terrain; the plants around here were almost completely dead.

Two consecutive rounds of weedkiller had been deployed. If the initial saltwater weedkiller still left a chance of survival, the reed root solution was practically sulfuric acid to these plants, and even iron trees couldn't withstand such devastation.

Poison Ivy was unconscious.

She had taken a direct hit from Plant Master head-on while completely unprepared, and it looked like... she had been knocked into a full-blown state of shock. Deathshot didn't think she could wake up in a short time.

Everyone's attention seemed to be focused on Poison Ivy.

And at least here and now, the power of The Green has plummeted to its lowest point, Chen Tao thought silently.

He seemingly turned to walk toward Poison Ivy, leaving Plant Master behind him, but secretly observed everyone else's positioning.

Deathshot and Cheshire Cat stood together, both lingering at a distance.

Welding Dog was sitting on the ground, straightening his distorted limbs.

Dizzy Earl had walked over to Poison Ivy's side and was saying to Harley, "If you want to wake her up, I think you should—"

Could it be him?

Could it possibly be him?

Could it be Dizzy Earl?

No... there was another candidate.

Chen Tao turned slightly, catching Ms. Vick walking out of the woods from the corner of his eye.

The beautiful mercenary from England looked physically and mentally exhausted. A circle of dark red indentation marks appeared on her athletic, fair thighs, like a plastic token dropped on pristine snow after an early January snowfall.

Beneath her blindfolded blonde head, the deep blue eyes on her pretty face revealed a profound weariness, as if lamenting her own ill-fated mercenary career.

This lady, who had been slacking off, coasting, and acting as the unluckiest and most inconspicuous presence throughout the entire battle, had just walked over to Chen Tao and the others when she saw Plant Master lying on the ground.

"Ha, you bastard are getting a taste of your own medicine!"

She trotted quickly over to Plant Master's side, looked at the motionless Plant Master with eyes as serene as a pool of spring water, and then kicked his riddled body: "You're driving me crazy, you damned, ghost-like green, dirty and stinking vitality—"

She kicked him over and over, while Chen Tao watched her performance with indifference.

Everyone else's attention was drawn by the wailing Harley Quinn. Only Deathshot looked like he was watching Poison Ivy on the surface, while secretly resting his hand on his gun.

"I hate it, I hate it. You disgusting green!"

The beautiful and elegant English noblewoman vented her anger without a shred of dignity.

"Looking at you makes me want to throw up!"

One, two, three...

Gurgle!

One of the beautiful woman's eyes suddenly popped out, the veins of the eyeball stretching fiercely like a spiderweb, barely holding the eyeball in place. Half of her tender, delicate face collapsed like melting wax, exposing the rotting, foul-smelling dark red tendons underneath. At that exact moment, her high-kicking leg also transformed into some kind of insect-like, sharp arthropod.

The sound that rang out this time was no longer the soft, charming voice of a woman, but a howl mixed with multiple reverberations, filled with hysterical hatred and sounding just like an owl:

"I really, really want to—"

"Kill you!!!"

Everyone seemed completely unprepared for this sudden turn of events. Canine teeth, like goat fangs, burst out one by one from the mouth of the monster wearing a woman's skin. The skin tore apart as it prepared to pounce on Plant Master's immobile body—this was the opportunity he had schemed and waited for, and then—

Hiss!

Sizzle-la-la-la-la!

A massive electric current coursed through his body in an instant, and he staggered back two steps: "What is this, you—"

Swish!!

Frost from Mr. Freeze erupted onto his body, freezing half of his body before he could launch an attack. Following that, violently exploding flames burst from his chest, white phosphorus piercing skin and flesh, burning his other half into a torch.

The monster rolled and tumbled, collapsing onto the ground and writhing: "Impossible! What is this, how could you—"

"Did anyone ever tell you—never randomly catch Batman's Batarang?"

Amidst the raging flames and bone-chilling cold, the monster's dark gray pupils—like a dead man's, or rather, simply a dead man's—stared fixedly at another impassive monster.

"Since you can't even catch Batman's Batarang, what gives you the courage to take the weapons Batman handed you?"

Deathshot looked on, wishing he could throw away the entire pile of weapons on his body. Just thinking about running around with such lethal gadgets made the calves of his legs tremble.

No wonder Batman strongly demanded that each of them be armed to the teeth, forcing even Welding Dog and Dizzy Earl—two contenders not skilled in using firearms—to hang explosives and grenades on themselves under the guise of increasing ammunition reserves.

So it was all waiting right here! He had known Batman harbored ill intentions, but no matter how low he estimated Batman's moral bottom line, he still hadn't anticipated this angle—we're teammates, for crying out loud???

Installing self-destruction countermeasures directly into the weapons given to teammates, was that even reasonable?

Batman! You're ready for it, aren't you? You could do it at any moment—

That kind of thing, killing a teammate!

"Let me see... the Pulse Wave Gun."

"Freeze Grenade, mini flame-thrower pistol..."

"Ah, and the Ultrasonic Rocket Launcher."

Chen Tao snapped his fingers, and the next second, the rocket launcher detonated directly on the monster's body, the intense ultrasound tearing half of his cheek to pieces:

"Stupid fool. Why did you never suspect that all those weapons were so heavy?"

"You didn't notice a thing; you died stupidly. Just like now, why didn't you also notice that under your feet, there is..."

"A carefully buried soybean seed?"

Poison Ivy opened her eyes.