Ode to Nightwing

Chapter 26: Vines Suck

        "What happened?" Dick asked over the phone as Amy drove us back to the precinct. We were driving right behind the van Poison Ivy was in. "Cal." 

        I snapped out my daze, my head still pounding. "Huh?" 

        He sighed. "What happened? With Poison Ivy." 

        "Oh. She had some plant pods around the place, and some vines coming up from places, and.... umm." I squeezed my eyes shut, the pounding hurting. 

        "Are you okay? Did something happen?" Dick sounded worried, and I hated that I couldn't think straight and tell him I was fine when I wasn't. "Thirty seconds." 

        "What?" I whispered, but he hung up. I pulled the phone away and glanced at the screen, really confused. 

        

        "You can just live with me. Get away from your uncle and live with me." Pamela whispered to me as she patted my head. I had snuck out to go to her apartment and get away from my uncle, who had been getting drunk. I hadn't wanted to stick around for the beating. 

        "I can't. He doesn't know how to take care of himself." I mumbled. 

        Pamela sighed slightly. "Men should be left to deal with themselves. All they do is treat us girls badly. They use us. They don't deserve us women."

        "What is he doing here?" Amy's voice snaps me out of m- my memory? Maybe? I glance up to see a motorcycle next to my side of the cop car. I blink a few more times until I realize that it's Dick on the motorcycle, or Nightwing, really. 

        "Maybe he's here for Poison Ivy." I mumble, leaning my head against the glass. I could feel his gaze on me. He kept glancing over. I reached up and placed my hand against the glass, feeling the coolness of it beneath every fingertip. 

        Amy just sighs at my comment. "Then he should've gotten her to begin with. Not let her destroy an apartment building and part of the streets." 

        "Maybe he was busy?" I lift my eyes to look at him, his body and muscles taut.

        "Contact Dick to have the underground cell prepared for Poison Ivy, the cell is the best at containing her." Amy says to me and I grab my phone, dialing his number. He turns his helmeted head to look at me before answering, even though no one could see that Nightwing's lips were moving. 

        "What's wrong?" Dick questions softly as he picks up the line. 

        "Hey, Dick. It's Callie. Amy wanted me to call you to tell you to prep the underground cell for Poison Ivy." I whisper and he sighed softly. 

        "Put me on speaker." He whispers back and I do. It was amazing how his helmet managed to tune out the sirens in the call. "Amy. I'm out scouting a possible sighting of the Tarantula." Dick says and Amy nods to herself. 

        "Will do. I'll contact Officer Malloy." Amy murmurs before I take it off of speaker. 

        "Are you hurt?" Dick questions, him watching me through the glass slightly. I shake my head, even though it was pounding. "Something's wrong. Are you positive?"

        "Later." I mumble into the phone. "No, no. I'll tell you later." I faked a giggle.

        "Gotcha. I love you, Cal."

        "I love you, too." 

        He hangs up and I continue to stare out the window. I gasped as a gigantic vine sprung up from the road in front of our cruiser, causing Amy to curse as she veered to the left. More vines rocketed out of the asphalt. One shot out right in the back of the car, lifting the cruiser up into the air as I scream in surprise. 

        "Look, it's just a routine mission. Us two are just supposed to scope out the botanical gardens to make sure that Poison Ivy hasn't taken residence here again after her escape." Tim explained as we got off of his bike. This was one of my very first missions, and Tim wanted to drag me along so that he wouldn't be alone. I was wearing the Batgirl suit, since mine wasn't ready at the moment. 

        I glance up at the Botanical Gardens. I had never been this close to it. "And if she is in here?" I whisper to him as I follow him over to it. 

        "Then we knock her out and call in Batman." Robin murmurs before holding the door open for me. "It should be easy peasy, but I had to bring you, because she has this certain.... charming effect sometimes on males." 

        "So, you needed a woman here because of hormones." I say as a matter-of-fact. "Okay, that sounded a little dirty."

        Robin laughs, still leading me through the gardens. There were so many plants growing under heat lamps. Shelves upon shelves of them. Some plants were hanging from the ceiling, vines stretching out everywhere. 

        Something rustled and suddenly, the vines were wrapped around my ankles, knocking me down to the floor and dragging me through the gardens, Tim fighting off some vines that were threatening to grab him. 

        I try not to scream as I'm dragged down some stairs into a basement. Vines shot out and grabbed my wrists, hauling me up into a star-shape. I shake my head, glaring as Poison Ivy slowly walked out of the shadows towards me, vines creeping behind her. "I hate masks." She says in a velvety voice before taking the mask off of my eyes. "Do you remember me, Callie?" She questions and I stiffen. What was she talking about? "I suppose the pollen hasn't worn off yet...." She walks around me, trailing a finger along my stomach to my back and then back again. "You won't remember me at all, not even Poison Ivy, after this." She whispers with a small smile. She opens her hand to blow some powder into my face, knocking me out as the vines released me to the floor.

        "Callie!" Tim's voice and touch woke me as he shook me. I blink repeatedly as I try to remember what we were doing here. "Are you okay? Where is she?"

        "Where are we?" I ask instead. Confused. "Can we go home? I'm tired." 

        Tim looks at me as if I had lost my mind. "Did you see her?" 

        "See who? I came down here and immediately felt really, really sleepy. I suppose I fell asleep." 

        Tim frowns at me before helping me up. "Where's your mask?" He suddenly asks, not spotting it around on the floor. 

        I shrug, yawning. "I must've dropped it. I should get a mask that is very hard to get off. Maybe finger-print recognition. That'd be cool." 

        Amy was cursing from beside me as she glanced down at the street below, her radio in her hand as she called for more backup. The van with Poison Ivy was still going, but Nightwing screeched to a stop, streak marks appearing on the road. He was watching me, prepared to help, but I waved him off, even though I was terrified. He needed to go and put Poison Ivy in prison. 

        He shook his head, reaching to take off his helmet. I open the door, ignoring the drop below me as I climbed down to dangle from the edge of the car, swinging my legs so that they tethered to the vine that had pierced the car. I get a hold on it and begin to climb down, turning to see Nightwing nodding at me before screeching away, burning rubber as he tried to catch up with the van.