Harleen Quinzel crawled out from beneath a tangle of vines, bits of leaves and unidentified berries caught in her hair. She wore a green vest woven from branches and leaves, with a few thin vines still wrapped around the hem, not yet withdrawn.
"I hate earthquakes," she said.
"I have to say, that's a pretty mainstream opinion."
Poison Ivy's voice came from behind her. As she spoke, her fingers traced subtle arcs through the air. A fresh vine broke through the ground and climbed the surrounding ruins, wrapping tightly around walls that could collapse again at any moment and securing them in place.
They were on the edge of Robinson Park. Gotham's largest urban park had become a bizarre green island amid the disaster. The earthquake had torn open the lawns and uprooted trees, but in the areas occupied by Poison Ivy's plants, roots reached dozens of meters underground, making them sturdier than the surrounding reinforced concrete.
"Our date's ruined! Where's my makeup bag?"
Harleen complained loudly. They had been lying close together on an enormous rubber tree leaf, telling jokes about Batman and the police, when the ground suddenly dropped and they slid down the tilted leaf.
Amid a string of screams, layer upon layer of leaves wrapped around them. Green vines as thick as pythons wove together in the air, forming a thick cocoon around the two of them within seconds.
"At least neither of us got hurt."
"Uh-huh." Harleen's gaze fell on an intersection nearby. "There are people over there."
An overturned bus lay across the road. A concrete floor slab that had fallen from a neighboring building had struck it, crushing the middle inward. The windows were shattered, and seats protruded from the broken section. Blood mingled with broken glass, reflecting a deep crimson.
Someone was