#roxy rocket

THE MAN IN THE SKY: Part 7

Half an hour earlier, Lex Luthor and Prof. Edward Nigel Manchester sat in Lex’s office, sipping tea and playing chess with each other. As they battled on the board with armies of black and white glass, they were also debating the worth and value of Brains and Brawn in designing robots, mechanized enhancements, and weapons. As they were midway through their debate, Lex remembered something from earlier and told Edward that he had solved the riddle he had given him when they first met. “A knight leaps over the tower, and the tower vanishes. Why? Because the Tower has been captured,” said Lex, as he moved his knight piece and knocked over Edward’s rook piece. Edward set down his cup of chai on its plate and applauded Lex’s expert move, especially his panache in topping it off by finishing the riddle from days ago, even calling him a cheeky bastard. But then Edward made a simple move, a discovered Checkmate that slipped completely under Lex’s radar, winning the game and completely stealing his thunder. While Lex sat there fuming in disbelief and embarrassment over his loss, Edward held out his gloved hands and activated his holographic-palm-projectors to simulate question-mark-fireworks exploding over his head to celebrate his victory. Before Lex could properly formulate a revenge plan, he got a call from his assistant/bodyguard, Mercy Graves, telling him to turn on the news. Lex turned on the hologram TV in the center of his office, projecting helicopter news footage of what was happening downtown. A massive overgrowth of plants covered John Francis Moore Avenue, the smell of seaweed and saltwater filling the air as it spread across the road and buildings. In the center of the expanding mass of flora was a red-haired woman wearing a tattered green trenchcoat. Upon seeing this, Lex noticed Edward was watching the footage with knowledge of what was happening and who was involved. Lex turned to look at the footage, then realized which street this was on, and ran to his massive office window, which was at least 3 stories high. He looked on in horror as the plant woman rode the wave of plants straight toward his tower. He turned to ask Edward what was going on, only to see that Edward had vanished without a sound. “Aw, you coward!” shouted Lex into his empty office. He then initiated the lockdown sequence, activating the steel barriers that rose and shielded the building’s doors and windows. Unfortunately for him, Lex had no idea what on earth he was dealing with.

Pamela Isley stood in front of Batman, whose arms and legs were rendered useless by the vines increasing their grip around them. She didn’t look down at him with sadistic cruelty like his other villains, instead looking at him with regret and guilt, as if she knew deep down that this wasn’t right. Superman was still gagging on the ground, the poisonous spores still in his lungs and making every breath an agonizing experience, like sucking a grapefruit through a garden hose. Pamela looked at Superman in shame, clearly unhappy with everything she was doing. Given how she was from Metropolis, she’d seen Superman before and had even been saved by him a few times. And now he was infected and suffering from a sickness she inflicted upon him to stop him from stopping her from killing Lex Luthor. She walked over to Superman and tried to comfort him, telling him the spores won’t kill him and that the effects will only last about 50 minutes. But rather than be angry about this, all Superman did was try to reason with her between his gagging for air. “Please…you don’t…need to…do this…we can help you…find peace with…whatever you’ve…been through,” he said, his face and eyes turning a sickly green. Isley turned away, either in fear of being betrayed again or in shame and not believing she deserved it. “I’m sorry, Superman. But I do,” she said. At that moment, Batman managed to chew through the seaweed covering his mouth, wishing to god the entire time that he was in that expensive sushi restaurant downtown eating a bowl of Wakami salad instead. “Why are you after Lex, anyway? I thought you were after Riddler,” he asked her in an attempt to stall for time. “Jason Woodrue worked for LexCorp as a corporate spy within STAR Labs. It’s because of that eggheaded bastard’s schemes that I got turned into…THIS! And then I found myself stuck on a hellish island left desolate by that punctuation prick, and that’s what filled me with this… this rage inside!” she screamed at him, tears in her eyes as the vines around her sprouted spikes to match her mood. Inside Lex’s office, his emergency elevator was blocked by a swarm of vines that barred the door and prevented him from getting in. Thinking fast, Lex leaped behind his desk and called his satellite, Nemesis, which launched a payload rocket towards him. Within a minute, the rocket disassembled into a purple and green metallic suit that flew to Lex’s window, its front pilot seat opening for him. Quickly, he stripped off his white blazer and tie before jumping in. Before Isley could react, he activated his flame throwers and started burning all of her plants surrounding his tower. He then launched a missile towards her, which she attempted to divert with a shield of thorny vines. Unfortunately, the blast was too great, and it sent her flying backwards into the still tied-up Batman. At that moment, a helicopter bedazzled in green and purple question marks flew onto the scene, with The Riddler announcing himself with a holographic projection of his mask. “So, it seems I truly am bad at pulling weeds. No matter how many I find, I still miss the worst ones,” he said, his voice modulated with an 8-bit arcade style like he was talking through a video game out of the 90s. He then jumped out of the helicopter, attached to a rope ladder and armed with his question-mark-sceptor, which started glowing with a green ball of electricity. Isley stood up defiantly, her face brimming with rage and hatred. Her red hair started glowing as the vines around her body began to swirl around her arm until they formed into a massive 10-feet-long thorn covered sword. The vines under her feet swarmed into a tidal wave that hurled her into the sky towards the two men who turned her into a monster.

While Isley, Lex, and Riddler were busy fighting each other in the sky, Batman’s reinforcements arrived on the scene. Katana and Cavalier chopped their way through the vines like a pair of human lawnmowers, while Lady Shiva, Black Bat, Robin, and Anarky helped with burning and fighting away the ones attacking them. Katana quickly cut Batman down, allowing him to help Lady Shiva with carrying the weakened Superman to safety. They all watched the battle from the ground, thinking of ways to stop this madness. Once they were a full block away from the mass of writhing plants, they headed into a nearby coffee shop and laid Superman on the longest table. Batman ordered Shiva to grab the largest magnifying glass she could find and for Anarky to charge his taser-staff to maximum voltage. Shiva returned with a section of a window while Batman whipped out his Ultra-violet Flashlight. Batman then told everyone to cover their eyes while he activated his suit’s blinders, covering his eye holes. He then used his improvised solar lamp to supercharge Superman’s healing factor, having done his research on Superman’s powers and using public knowledge of his solar-powered nature to quickly formulate this insane plan in a minute. After an agonizing minute of Superman screaming his lungs out while the spores were purged from his system with internal sun fire, it was all over. Superman rolled onto his side, his body and suit still steaming from the intense heat. He slowly rolled off the table and picked himself up, cracking his back like a professional athlete whose been fighting for years. Batman attempted to help him up, only for Superman to stop him with a simple stretching out of his hand. He then walked over to the bathroom and puked the spores into a toilet, the sound excruciating to hear from outside. Once he was done, he asked Batman for a quick rundown on what was going on outside, with Batman pulling up news footage to show him of the battle between Pam, who the media had dubbed “Poison Ivy”, and the combined forces of “A Lexcorp Drone” and The Riddler. Most people watching were cheering for “The Drone” to triumph, while others were cheering for Poison Ivy to kill both of them, and then the rest, who were just there to watch something cool.

Seeing this, Superman rocketed out of the diner in a blur of red, blue, and yellow before Batman and the others could react. Launching himself into the battle, Superman did what he did best: Remain neutral and try to minimize damage and casualties. While he was busy stopping Ivy, Lex, and Riddler’s missed attacks from hitting and destroying buildings, Batman and the Batfamily did their best to get all civilians out of the way. Assuming that Superman was siding with Ivy against him, Lex charged up a Kryptonite blast to send Superman’s way. But as it was launched, Riddler used his scepter like a baseball bat to send the blast towards Ivy instead. But before it could hit her, Superman blasted it with his heat vision, evaporating it before it could touch him. He then rocketed forward and tackled Lex into the sky above the next neighborhood over. The two proceeded to trade blows all over Gotham’s skyways, just narrowly avoiding airplanes and skyscrapers in the way. Since Lex had spent years studying Superman’s powers and using them to improve the skills of his robots and weaponry, he managed to keep up with the Man of Steel’s incredible speed. Above, the two seemed like nothing more than clashing blurs of purple, green, blue, and red. Back on the scene of the disaster, Batman and his allies did their best to stop Riddler and Ivy from killing each other. Batman and Robin used their grapple guns to swing up to the Riddler’s helicopter and take him out of the sky. Riddler sent a flurry of Jigsaw-rangs and green electric blasts their way, only for Batman and Robin to swing, dodge, and counter the attacks. While Batman was busy fighting The Riddler personally, Robin knocked out Query so he could take over flying, which was no easy feat due to his inexperience and the constantly shifting weight of the passengers. On the ground, Katana and Lady Shiva cut through many of Ivy’s vines to stop her from gaining anymore ground so she could follow her hated adversaries. While Katana was busy on the ground, chopping away at the vines that made up Ivy’s moving mountain, Lady Shiva climbed up and tackled Ivy from behind, knocking her down and flipping her in front of her. Before Shiva could hit her with a jump kick, Ivy sprouted thorns in front to block, only to discover that Shiva’s leg muscles seemed to be made of fleshy steel. Shiva punched and kicked every thorny vine and ferocious bug-eater Ivy sent her way with near superhuman speed, cutting through it all in a man-made storm of plant viscera. Unfortunately for her, Ivy managed to trap her leg in the wrapping vines under her feet. But just as the vines flung her off the plant wave, Ivy was hit in the face by a flashbang from Roxy’s flash pistol. She looked up to see Roxy Rocket flying down towards her with Batwoman riding perched on her rocket pack. Batwoman leaped off and dropkicked Ivy off her plant wave while Roxy flew down and caught Shiva before she hit the ground.

Back in the helicopter, Robin made a bad turn, sending the rudder and tail rotor into a nearby Gargoyle and causing the helicopter to spin out. Realizing this, Batman kicked Riddler off him and almost out the open side hatch. He then grabbed Robin and leaped out of the helicopter as fast as he could, grapple-swinging onto a nearby rooftop. Riddler saw the helicopter was spinning back towards Lex Tower and quickly leaped out, using his question-mark scepter to hook and swing off a nearby angel statue before crashing through a window. The helicopter crashed right into the side of Lex Tower, taking out the bottom corner of the massive 25-foot steel Lexcorp logo sign. Unfortunately, it also dislodged the sign, causing it to fall towards the ground, where Ivy, Batwoman, and the rest were. Just before it hit the ground, Ivy used her vines to catch the falling sign, saving everyone who would’ve been crushed. Before Batwoman and Shiva could think about thanking her, Superman appeared above them, having abandoned his fight with Lex to try and catch the sign, only to arrive in time to see Ivy save everyone. But before he could say anything, Lex blasted him in the back with a Kryptonite blast and sent him crashing to the ground. Fortunately for Lex, he’d designed his suit with a mask, which prevented everyone watching without context from thinking it was him piloting it. With Superman temporarily subdued, Lex shot forward like a missile and tackled Ivy to the ground. Before she could get up, Lex used his suit’s force-field projector to grab the collapsed sign and smash it repeatedly on her, turning her into constantly reforming plant mush. Before Lex could finish her off, Batman and Robin tackled him from behind and stabbed his suit with Robin’s taser-staff in an open spot, frying the armor’s circuitry and temporarily knocking him out. This allowed Ivy to regrow her body while Batman and Robin checked on Superman, who was still lying on the ground in a small crater. Fortunately, it was only artificial Kryptonite, which wasn’t as harmful or toxic as the genuine stuff. Unfortunately, a sudden green Jigsaw-Puzzle laser net fell from the sky and formed around Superman, Batman, and Robin. Riddler ziplined in on his scepter on a power line, jumping and tucking and rolling onto the ground. “What is composed of many strings, yet plays no music? A NET! Well, a laser net, to be precise. Sorry for the inconvenience, my dearest enemies. But I would hate for you to spoil my revenge duel,” he said, as he charged up his Question-Mark Laser Scythe. Ivy stood up and took off her newly broken glasses before removing her green coat, revealing her scarred ebony skin with glowing green undertones and vines across her torso, like pulsating veins. “Leaves of three, let her be, for touching her brings misery. Who is it? You, Poison Ivy,” said Riddler. Ivy then formed another rose-thorn sword from her body’s vines, the two of them eyeing each other with pure hatred. “Oh, trust me, Riddler, your misery has just begun.”

The two charged at each other, both crashing their weapons together. While Riddler’s scythe would normally cut through vines like sliced bread, Ivy’s powers made the sword regenerate from all sustained damage. Eventually, she managed to slow Riddler enough to wrap her vines around his scythe and yank it out of his hands, snapping it to bits like a celery stalk before tossing it away. This gave Batwoman and Shiva an opening to grab Riddler from behind and try to knock him out. But Ivy wouldn’t give them the chance, using her vines to pull the two of them away while screaming, “HE'S MINE!” Her vines wrapped around Riddler’s ankles and cemented him in place, allowing her the chance to tackle him to the ground and start punching the crap out of him. Unfortunately, his helmet was reinforced and booby-trapped like Batman, which shocked her when she tried to pull it off his head. The shock distracted Ivy, causing her vines to loosen, and allowed Riddler the chance to escape his bindings. But before he could pounce on her, Superman zipped in front and knocked him back with a single backhand. Batman and Robin then pounced on Riddler and slapped the cuffs on him, all while Riddler was screaming, “NO FAIR! YOU CHEATED!!!” Ivy tried to push Superman aside, but he remained a stalwart brick wall, standing between her and revenge. She started pounding her fists on Superman’s chest as she screamed that he’ll never understand what she’s been through. “WHY WON’T YOU LET ME DO THIS?! THEY DESERVE TO DIE FOR EVERYTHING THEY’VE DONE TO ME! THEY HAVE TO PAY! THEY HAVE TO PAY!!!” She screamed up at his face, green tears streaming down her face as her expression of fury turned into anguish and sorrow. “Pamela, stop this, please! I know you’re a good person, but you’re making all of the wrong choices! Is this really what you want the rest of your life to be?! Just Hatred and Revenge?!” pleaded Superman. “I DON’T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO!!!... I don’t know what else to do,” screamed Pamela, confessing how lost she truly was. With that, her fists lost their strength to pound on Superman’s chest, resting on them as she stopped her angry tantrum. Superman warmly gripped her hands, reassuringly, looking at her with desperate empathy. “It’s over, Pamela. You need to let it end. Whatever you’ve been through, it’ll only end when you let go of your hatred. Because nothing good comes from hatred,” said Superman, as he pointed to all of the destruction she’d caused due to her battle. All of the damaged buildings that were smothered in plants, wrecked cars, the fires, destroyed fire hydrants, and the wreckage from the explosions. Ivy finally saw everything clearly for the first time in years. Overcome with guilt and shame, Pamela collapsed into Superman’s embrace, crying out so much pain she’d held for 5 long years in isolation. Superman held her close, doing everything he could to reassure her that she wasn’t alone anymore. Batman and everyone else watched, surprised that someone as powerful as Superman had ended the grand threat by talking to her like a human, not a monster.

Like, I'm not even kidding. 85% of my brain has been putting these little shts into animatics and edits on the daily and I can't stop, it's a real issue. IVE SEEN THEM IN MY SLEEP, NOT JUST FROM WEIRD MELATONIN DREAMS, JUST MY REGULAR ONES