Mother Nature's Babies [Nightwing]

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

It's not very difficult for Poison Ivy to hoist herself over the fence surrounding the Wayne Botanical Garden, located in the northern end of the park, and from there avoiding the night watchmen is easy. The plants that grow here are not her plants and don't have many of the abilities that her own plants do, but she's far more connected to them than she used to be. And the carbon dioxide exhaled by the men as they patrol is enough for the plants to be able to tell when they're near and therefore tell Poison Ivy where they are. So avoiding them is a simple matter, and there's only a token number to begin with. A botanical garden is just not a... normal thing to rob. But that's simply because people are idiots and fail to realize just how valuable anything here is. Then again, the research areas of the gardens are probably more carefully secured.

But Poison Ivy will leave stealing from there for another night. After her little meeting with Batman she realized that she needs to step up her game even further before she does anything to attract more attention. Securing a better source for supplies from Cobblepot is one strong step in that direction, but one other thing she needs is plant DNA. And while the research area is where they no doubt house the rarest of specimens, at the moment she'll limit herself to taking the merely exotic since anything local she can easily get in a quieter fashion. She'll save the bigger heists for when she's exhausted what the easier stuff can do for her.

Given that she's being quiet and quick, she doesn't expect any interruptions tonight. Still, this is one of those things that may get more dangerous than average, so she has her wrist crossbow strapped to her arm and an assortment of tainted bolts in her quiver. Not to mention her larger vines that she carries wrapped around her. Though she hopes to avoid being spotted, she's in full costume so anyone who does see her will know exactly who they're messing with. However, she's not the most skilled at sneaking around so she makes her way toward the particular greenhouse that has what she most needs - a collection of various palm trees - relying mostly on her ability to sense where the guards are much more than on attempting to move without being visible. Far easier to choose a different path or to hide only when they walk past than to truly sneak around.

But though the odds seem in her favor, there's always the chance that luck won't be on her side. The only factor she doesn't know is if there's any alarms on the greenhouse itself - not something she was able to find out. But as she'll only be here a few minutes, she figures that she'll be in and out before any vigilantes can show up unless they happen to already be patrolling nearby and are quick to act.

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

Unfortunate for Ivy was that there was someone in the area at the time. Nightwing was on patrol. And as a matter of fact had been traveling the Wayne properties for safe keeping. There had been a few attempts on the facilities that Bruce Wayne owned.

Batman didn't have time for this type of investigation while he had other things to take care of that night. So Nightwing picked up the work that needed to be done for that night. And here he is, finding himself checking the locations.

And who does he spot from the rooftops? And old friend of his that is now going by Poison Ivy. And at the Wayne research division for plants. Of course a common place for a woman like her to strike. What were the chances.

Nightwing had swooped in close range, but stayed back. Giving Ivy her distance. He'd be out of range and out of sight for now. He was going to let her had a little chance of fun she could have breaking in. Maybe he could learn a few things about her new techniques.

That and it was more fun any how to catch them in the act and surprise them. Especially when they thought they had the upper hand.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

Given that her current method of sensing anyone else around is strongly focused at ground level, even when Nightwing comes in closer she doesn't sense him. But since she's not expecting to run into any vigilantes that seems like a small oversight. Her own plants are far more sensitive than the ones actually growing in the gardens anyway - they'll keep anyone from sneaking up behind her without her knowledge. But though she fails to sense that Nightwing is watching her, her movements through the gardens hint that she knows where the night watchmen are even though she can't see them from her own vantage. She's simply too good at picking which path to take and knowing when to conceal herself for it to be luck. Not that she'd mind killing them, but it would slow her down a little and attract too much attention.

It doesn't take her long to reach the door to the greenhouse. She tries the knob - locked, but it was worth a shot. But, not missing a beat, she reaches into a pocket and pulls out a very thin tendril of a plant. A lock-pick, or the plant equivalent of one, since she holds it up to the lock and it only takes a moment for a quiet click to signal that the door is open - it's so much easier when you can feel what you're doing rather than fumbling around with a metal object and hoping that you're guessing correctly about the inner workings of the lock. She quickly extracts it and replaces it in her pocket before letting herself inside the greenhouse, quietly closing the door behind her.

The first thing she notes is the lack of any alarms going off - either it's a silent alarm or they decided that locking the door was enough. Oh, except there's a camera in the corner. She smirks and blows a kiss at it, before firing her wrist crossbow at it to destroy it. Well, if that was linked to a security office, then they know she's here. Not a big deal - she'll have what she came for momentarily and will probably be long gone before they can really organize anyone to come after her. Though given her good luck so far tonight, more likely it's a simple surveillance camera that records what it sees for later viewing. But it's not like she minds if they know that she was here if it's after she's already left.

Either way, she means to be quick so she heads further in - she knows exactly where the plants she needs are - the back right corner. The many tropical palms, both short and tall, surround her and make her feel even more confident. This may not be her greenhouse or her plants, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't like it the feeling of being surrounded by so many green things. She weaves her way through them down the trail - normally guests to the gardens travel it as they try to gain some slim appreciation of the contents of the giant glass building. Poison Ivy walks down it like a queen through her kingdom - while it may not be hers, that doesn't mean that it by all rights shouldn't be. In a perfect world... But this world is far from perfect.

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

Nightwing got closer to the range of the greenhouse. Staying South of the building as he knew where Ivy was headed. There was only one place that would be interesting to her. And the main small build attached to the large green house would hold no such.

Computers and paper work had nothing to do with the plants or whatever it was she was after. And there was no real chemical lab for her to break into. There was a plant or so that probably held her interest in getting her hands on that night. And the Wayne's greenhouse had many of the rare plants trying to preserve them.

Nightwing got to the roof of the building as she had been working on the lock. He stayed away from her range of view. Using his grappling line to get to the roof, he climbed onto the top of the greenhouse. The glass was sturdy enough to protect the plants within from hurricane like weather. It had withstood the test a few summers ago. And the building was always looked over and inspected for the safety of the structure. So, his weight would be nothing against the top of it. He knew where the windows were to slide into the building. After all, Bruce did have the blue-prints to all his buildings. Not to mention a few others as well in Gotham City.

Nightwing got into the greenhouse by a skylight window along the sloping of the buildings roof. He took extra care to land withing the large trees that had been grown within the building over the years it had been placed at the park. He'd go unnoticed yet.

He sat still for a bit. Almost like a lion hunting for it's prey as he listened for the sound of surround rustling of the plants down below the large tree he was hiding in. It didn't take long for him to spot her once he switched his view in the mask to a thermal setting to pick up the heat of her body. Just because she was a plant lady didn't mean she wasn't still human.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

Actually, given the sheer size of the gardens, there's any number of places that Poison Ivy could easily be interested in. There's several different greenhouses, a separate research lab, and of course the grounds themselves - she's like a kid in a candy store here. Still, given that she's pretty much made a beeline right for the building she wants it isn't difficult to guess which one has what she wants tonight.

And now that she's inside of it, she similarly heads right for the corner where they grow - Lodoicea maldivica, both a male and a female of the species as it's one of those plants with separate genders. But just as she spots them, she becomes aware of something else. It may run contrary to logic, but where the plant life is the thickest is the absolute worst place to hide. It only makes it easier for the plants in the greenhouse, and therefore Poison Ivy herself, to sense that there's someone else in the building because of the carbon dioxide of his breath. And since the building was locked until she unlocked it and empty before she entered, she must have been followed. That she didn't hear a thing means that the person is skilled and probably not on her side.

Making several quick decisions, she forces herself to pretend that she didn't notice, continuing toward her prize. If it's an enemy, probably a vigilante, she's in for a fight to get out of here whether now or after she gets what she came here for, and she's more likely to leave empty-handed if she confronts whoever it is immediately. Better to delay it until she's ready to leave, if they don't try a sneak attack. She only hopes that it isn't Batman - she doesn't know that she's quite ready to face him yet.

Continuing to pretend to be none the wiser, she steps over a short barrier marking the edge of the path, now being careful with her feet to be sure that she doesn't step on any of the little plants growing along the way. "Don't worry, babies," she murmurs quietly, "I won't hurt any of you." And that includes what she's here to collect - the palms have many lingering dead petioles of leaves discarded long ago. Carefully taking a piece of one from each plant is no more harmful than taking a bit of someone's hair and yet will get her the DNA she needs.

But, though she keeps her manner completely calm as if she thinks that she's alone, she knows very well that whoever is around may well decide to try and attack her before she can get what she wants and while her back is apparently turned. But as she collects what she wants, the twin vines wrapped around her body loosen. They may be related to the ones from her greenhouse which she used to attack Nightwing before, but they're not only more intelligent but under her direct mental control. And they're faster. She's far from unprotected. Though if whoever is hiding in the bushes delays during the few moments it will take her to finish, that will simply give her a chance to attack them - she's not about to give anyone the chance to follow her any further than they already have, even if they didn't come here wanting a fight with her.

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

Nightwing was not aware of the full extent a which Poison Ivy's powers provided her. He would not notice that fact that she knew he was hear without noting her body language. That and he knew he had been quiet enough at sneaking into there to not have to work about being spotted.

At least for a normal human that would be the case or another other average crook he had fought against. It was just a instinct to the Bat-family members now.

He remained quiet for the time. Flowing her movements and stay back. He saw her collection samples from the plants around her. Though they were not toxin in a way, at least not these plants. So there was something more she was after. Maybe strength and durability of the plants was a part of that.

He couldn't be sure. But he was about to strike only a moment away. But he needed the best way. And being out and it the open would be easiest for his strike.

So, without any further thought and giving her the chance to finish her crime, Nightwing jumped down from the trees over head a distance away. Giving him the chance to sail for a moment before landing a good distance ahead of her.

Tumbling to catch himself and ready to throw the new modified blades of the wingdings at her and what ever plants she might have with her. No words spoken, just a attack at the moment against her.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

Forcing herself to appear relaxed on the outside, no matter how tense she is on the inside, collecting the samples that she needs from the giant palms is a very quick task. These particular plants are very good at growing seeds with a tremendously large amount of endosperm, and that's what she needs for the next step in her research. She'll be able to do so many things from what she learns from it.

And she can't let anyone get in her way, so even before she straightens she's placing a bolt into her wrist crossbow. And even as she does that, the vines wrapped around her loosen even further until they are arching over her, fastened to her around her waist and ready to defend her from whatever comes her way. There's a bit of a time delay in sensing where the vigilante is, so when she detects that he's suddenly moving again she directs her gaze ahead of that point and so is looking at exactly the right place when he comes out into the open and levels her weapon at him. Being out in the open may make it easier for him to fight, but it also gives her a clear shot.

And, seeing the weapons in his own hands, she pauses for an instant to see what he'll do given that his attack isn't as much of a surprise as he'd hope. She'd prefer to be more careful than to simply attack and hope she wins, but if her crossbow pointed directly at his chest doesn't cause him to hesitate in throwing whatever he calls those things, then she won't hesitate in firing - and as she's been practicing with her weapon since literally the last time she saw him, she's become a very good shot. She wouldn't bring a weapon with her if she didn't feel like she could rely on it. And the consequences of being hit by one of her tainted bolts is far more severe than the consequences of getting hit by a wingding.

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

The wingding blades were sharpened to be finer and to be able to be used to stab her plants if she really had any with her. And by the quick over view of her, she had taken on the life of the low lives of Gotham's criminal world.

He noted the new weapons on hand and the vines on her body. No doubt she would rely on them for capturing her prey. He was not fully aware of any of the upgrades she had probably made to the plants. But after a few encounters with her he was sure she would fix every flaw she could in her creations.

He smirked at her reaction. Her body language saying she knew he had been in there following her. It was easy to ready by how ready she was. Most crooks would not have noticed until mid way the jump. Nightwing stood for a second.

"I see we've joined a new crowd these days," he commented on her new getup since every time before that she had been one of Gotham's elite and had kept dressed to the role. But now that was lost. She couldn't go back to the old life.

He did not her arrows aim and before within the second of landing and commenting. He then threw a wingding at her hand to try and render the weapons useless as he threw a smoke pellet down to give him the chance to be out of view and avoid the arrow if it did go off. He made way for the trees again. It was best to have high ground at this point against her.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

Given that Poison Ivy was prepared to fire her crossbow at the slightest hint of fight from him, the release of the bolt is practically simultaneous to the thrown wingding and dropped smoke pellet. The smoke is quick to obscure whether or not her shot hit, but her aim is sure enough that she knows that if he managed to dodge it then it would be by a narrow margin.

His wingding arrives too late to stop her, but it also fails to hit her at all. She knows that he has them, after all, and that the Batman and his kid have those batarangs is common knowledge - she'd be a real idiot if she didn't have a plan for them. It wasn't hard to imprint her vines with an automatic reflex to any such item, and the obvious way of getting rid of a spinning, bladed object is to knock it away with a hit from the side to the center - easy throws it off course while avoiding any sharp edges. She wouldn't want her babies getting hurt, after all. No, even though she's new at this he'll have to try harder if he wants to stop her.

The smoke, on the other hand, is something she actually has to worry about. But only so much - she can't do anything to stop it from obscuring her vision. However, the vines wrapped around her also have a wonderful sense of smell and she's able to use that. So she suddenly charges into the cloud, dodging around the few palm trunks that get in her way. If he's stayed there, she'll be able to find him among the smoke quite easily and his own vision will be obscured so she'll have the advantage when she attacks.

But it's probably more likely that he'll use the smoke to hide his movements as he goes somewhere else. In that case, the smoke will make finding her difficult for a few moments - long enough for the plants in the greenhouse to help her discover where he's gone. Given just how full it is, there's nowhere for him to go that doesn't have a plant close enough to inform her of it, and if he's not still among the smoke she'll take the opportunity to arm her crossbow with another tainted bolt. And the fact that they're in a greenhouse rather than outside will also help her by the simple fact that in the windless indoors it will take longer for the smoke to dissipate.

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

Nightwing barely missed getting hit by the small arrows she had as weapons, but knew they were to come. He moved quickly taking advantage of the smoke since the pellet had been tossed more towards her.

This would give him the chance to have a clearer view for a short while. He'd have to back out again for a moment. Get a scene of what is around him. He turned on the body heat monitor again for his few for now to help keep her location in sight to him.

He retreated to the trees once again. Keeping to the medium high. He'd strike again. But as he had jumped up he had left an electric shock device to go off as she steps near it.

And soon he would pull out the escrima sticks for the next attack. He had take the time to make a few upgrades to his own weapon. Something not even Batman had known about at this time.

So for now he was in the trees waiting a moment to see if she'd make a move. And maybe to see how she takes to the situation.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

Of course, Poison Ivy is unaware that Nightwing has a way to detect her body heat, so she can't take that into account. Her temperature tends to run a bit cooler these days, but she's still a lot warmer than her surroundings. Her vines are another story, as they're pretty much the exact same temperature as the other plants in the greenhouse and therefore invisible to such a device.

And as she heads for the smoke, they pick up a recent scent of a human. Figuring that's Nightwing, Poison Ivy keeps her distance and sends a vine to attack it, but instead of grabbing the vigilante, her plant gets a sudden shock! Surprised, she quickly withdraws the vine, but her mental link with it indicates that it's largely unharmed and will recover soon - plants aren't nearly as vulnerable to electricity as people are. Still, she scowls to herself. Must have been some sort of booby trap - though the electrical device has some human scent on it, it's not nearly enough for Nightwing to actually still be by it.

No matter - the moment she confirms that her vine will be fine, she's arming another crossbow bolt and trying to sense where Nightwing has run off to. After a moment of thought, she decides to remain in the open area even after the smoke clears. She may have many strengths, but as agile as her vines are, she herself isn't. Nor is she fast. Being anywhere that the greenhouse's plants could get in the way would be more to his advantage than hers. Besides, she'd hate to see them get caught in the crossfire.

So she stands there and gets ready to attack or be attacked, using the tail-tale trail of the man's breath to aim her crossbow and be ready to fire the moment the smoke clears enough for her to see him and get in an accurate shot if he isn't behind cover. Though she does realize that he may also try to attack, and makes sure that her vines are ready to defend her. She's actually quite terrible at hand to hand combat personally, but her plants can more than make up for that.

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

Nightwing could see the lighting up of the strong electric shock going off. He knew it wasn't Ivy walking over it, he could not see her figure walking over toward it. The shadowing within the smoke showed something else moving.

His sensors did not pick up a trace of anything else over there. He took note and had seen some vines on her. This gave him a bit of concern. Those vines were fast. And he was sure she probably ungraded them since the last. He'd just have to move quicker.

The electric seemed to do a bit of the trick on them. He'd have to use his escrima sticks as a defense against them if needed. The electric shock that could be sent from the ends of the weapons would help for that. A little upgrade he had done to his own weapons as well.

It might help buy him some time when they attacked. He knew that would be Ivy's next line of defense along with her cross bow. Something else he was going to have to watch.

Nightwing stayed in the trees he'd have to do what he could to keep the cover he could. He couldn't take the risk right away. The trees would give him the advantage of safety for him at the time.

Nightwing waited for the smoke to clear before he took out a few wingdings. Four that were normal and he threw them in Ivy's direction from behind her, some distance away as he jumped from one tree to another a good distance away.

The fifth in the group of wingdings would stick or miss and it was a timed bomb to set off within a few seconds of getting thrown. He wasn't aiming that one at her, but towards the ground to help get her off her feet. To give him a chance to strike again.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

Though Poison Ivy is able to get a rough fix on the vigilante's location, when the smoke clears all she sees are palm leaves in the way. This is exactly why she's better off in a fight out in the open! Though at nearly the same moment wingdings start coming her way. However, rather than dodging them she takes the moment to plan - she trusts that the vines wrapped around her waist will protect her from them.

And indeed they do - what was hidden to Nightwing by the smoke before is now easily seen; her vines have most definitely been improved. They resemble the ones that were along the walls of her greenhouse the last time he saw her, but are just a bit smaller, and rather than being anchored to the ground their bases instead wrap around Poison Ivy's waist when she's out and about like this. Now fully unwrapped, both extend some fifteen feet around her and as they deal with the wingdings they reveal some of their abilities. Their ancestor attacked their target blindly - fast but with no real finesse. These ones even hint at intelligence as they knock each wingding aside, carefully twisting to hit them at an angle to avoid being cut by the sharp edges. Even the fifth one is knocked aside even though it isn't aimed directly at their master, as it hardly matters to them that it would miss, only that it's a projectile on too close of a course to the one they protect. Anything within reach of the vines is a threat, as far as they're concerned. Though if one observes carefully, they'd note that the one to her right is just a little slower than the one to the left. Still quick enough to knock aside something as slow moving as a thrown wingding, but the shock has left it weaker than its twin.

Now knowing what she wants to do about the hiding vigilante, Poison Ivy starts reaching into her pocket. However, at that moment the fifth wingding explodes. The vine knocked it far enough away from her to not harm her, but that's not what immediately bothers her - it landed by a small palm that's badly damaged by the explosion. "Damn you!" she yells at Nightwing. She's quick to sense that the palm will live in spite of that, but why did he have to go and throw a thing like that? It's bad enough that not all of the other deflected wingdings landed harmlessly, but that?! "Have you no respect for life?" she asks angrily, reaching again into her pocket. She fights the impulse to go tend to the injured plant - it will live even without her help, she's a bit busy fighting at the moment, and she needs to get away at some point.

She pulls out a small, multi-lobbed fruit and suddenly throws it as far as she can in the direction she knows that Nightwing is, even though she can't see him. It's a bomb of her own, sort of - it doesn't quite explode, but when it hits the ground it bursts open and releases a small, brown cloud of toxic gas comes out and quickly dissipates into the air. It's not nearly as immediately lethal as some of her creations, though if he gets too much of the gas in his system he'll be too busy trying to breathe to fight. After throwing it, she readies her crossbow again, hoping that if the gas doesn't get him, his movements to avoid it will give her a chance to shoot at him again with her bolts.

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

Nightwing continued on with his movements, As silent and with speed to match his athletic pace. Much like the Batman he could move. But the thing about being an acrobat, it had it's advantages when it came to getting through the trees.

He heard Ivy yell out. He stopped for a moment. Half tempted to reply to her. But not wanting to give away his position. He knew better. Nightwing wasn't rushing head first into this one. Not against her. He didn't know exactly what she carried with her this time.

Though he had a few tricks up his sleeve against some of her chemicals. There had been plenty of time to get some items from the labs she may have worked in. Not to mention the chemical she had infected him with long ago.

Nightwing watched her for a moment and saw he throw something in his direction. He sees the weapon of some kind come into view within seconds. His mind working in time to see what it might be and get out of range at the same time.

Anything thrown for a distance was never good to stick around to find out what it does. He was right to move. He got away as it sent out a toxic cloud. And he knew it was toxic right away. Dealing with Ivy always had some type of toxic or poison to it.

He got out of range, but was left a bit in the open. He knew he was now within her sights. Nightwing knew the dangers of this, but he could manage.

She had driven him from the safety of the trees and into a open second with very little over hang of trees. Though enough he could make do on his own. He'd be able to out do her. Anything she threw at him he'd get by.

Though he is only human and can only move so fast. But this needed to be done. She was stealing from something that was hitting too close to home for him. No one messed with any of the Wayne property.

[Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy]

Unfortunately for Nightwing, Poison Ivy hasn't worked in very many places. Before setting up her personal lab back at her estate, she worked in the lab at Gotham State - and that was largely Dr. Woodrue's projects, not hers. And her own lab, though it was raided by the FBI, was only so useful. She'd of course taken the best of what she'd had at the time with her when she left, and so much of her best stuff now is completely new - her entire pheromone compliment was redesigned, for example.

So were all her plants - what she'd left behind are merely the ancestors of what she has now. With her meeting with Batman always in the back of her head, she's taken full advantage of all the equipment and supplies that Oswald has gotten her to do her best to surpass the man. The only thing that's holding her back now is in getting the specimens that she needs to improve them even further - that's why she's here.

But just as she's always tampering with her plants to improve them, so she does with her assorted poisons and other chemicals. Anything formulated to protect against anything she had that many months ago is liable to at best weaken the effect of what she has now. A far better strategy is to avoid any of it altogether, if you can. But though her toxins are deadly, it's not actually her intention to kill him right now. If she manages to get him she'd rather take him alive - Oswald said that he'd be quite valuable if she caught him again. Though at the moment she'd be satisfied with driving him off.

Another thing that's new is her crossbow, and having known that it was likely that her poison gas would force him into a different position, she's ready for him the moment he's within sight. Though the weapon is new to her since the last time they met, she wouldn't have brought the thing if she hadn't practiced enough to be sure of her aim. The bolts are small, in keeping with the size of the crossbow, but though they have a very limited ability to injure it's not the damage that they cause but the poison that's on them that's deadly. It's not one of her fast-acting poisons though - it's meant to punish before it kills. For several days, actually. Quite the nasty little concoction, though she wasn't able to make it nearly as difficult to cure as she wanted. But that's only so much of a problem - the point of it is to punish, not kill.

After she's fired the first bolt, she immediately loads a second, hoping that he'll stay within view long enough for her to try again if the first one fails to hit. That's the real disadvantage to this weapon compared to a gun - the reload time actually takes a moment. But she's not that worried about what he may do in the meantime other than go out of view again - he's only thrown wingdings thus far, and clearly her vines are up to the task of handling those.