Nadie

Chapter 57: A Cycle of Life and Death

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

"Headset/Flashback"

-Scene Shift-

Chapter 52: A Cycle of Life and Death

How did Life begin? There can hardly be a bigger question to start out with, huh? For much of human history on this planet, almost everyone believed some variation of 'the gods did it'. And any other explanation was inconceivable from then on for centuries.

For one example, there are those of the religious sorts as they're so closed minded to the scientific aspects on how this came to be. In Judeo-Christianity, believed the Earth has been around for at least several thousand years and that He created Adam, Lilith and Eve as the first forms of man. And in the Roman-Greek side of things, there were the different Ages based on metals with different methods on how the Titans and Gods created man.

...Let's just say that the religious concepts on how this occurred are very complicated, with each one having their own interpretation and leave it at that. After all, it's quite the can of worms to get into, right?

But with the scientific view, all Life on this planet began when all continents were as one: Pangea. Both theorists and scientists on this Earth agreed on this, yet they argued where exactly in this supercontinent had the event occured. They've mainly guessed it all happened at some unknown shoreline as a little grey fish heaved itself up on the beach and things progressed from there. It could've been at the continent's connecting edge at the unifying ocean or at some water channel leading to the very heart of it the enlarged mass.

To the scientific community, no matter where exactly it all took place within its borders, the Cradle of Life on the planet Earth was located in Africa…

And in this part of the story, it is where we start our tale as Pamela Isley rode shotgun in a jeep speeding through a desert.

"Welcome to Southern Angola, Dr. Isley." Spoke the driver as he briefly looked at the map at his side. "Some of the Earth's most spectacular and oldest ecosystems are here."

The driver was of african descent in his mid-late fifties with his receding gray hairline. He wore a short button up shirt with khaki shorts and mountain boots. And tucked between his legs was his beaten up straw hat that would have flown away into the wind, due to him speeding across the barren lands around them.

"I'm pretty sure we can find what you're looking for-"

"I have." Pam interrupted as she gazed off to the side. "Now would you kindly slow down the car, Dr. Nepolo. I believe I see it not far ahead."

Said man nodded as he complied with the request. And after slowing down to a complete stop, the two doctors of their respective fields exited the vehicle and walked around a little. It only took a minute to find their desired target as it was behind a rocky slope.

"Hello~ beautiful~" Spoke the red haired botanist with a pleasant smile as she took off her sunglasses.

Pamela currently wore a loose, green button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and several buttons undone to show a white t-shirt underneath. She too wore khaki shorts -with multiple pockets- and mountain boots while having a water canteen slung across her shoulder.

What was before the pair's gazes was a giant plant with its many leaves laid across the ground. It was primarily yellowish-green in color, due to the sweltering heat and lack of moisture. There were pinkish-orange flowers barely blooming at every other spot, but they were mainly located at the plant's center.

"Indeed it is beautiful, Dr. Isley." Dr. Nepolo said as he fanned himself with his hat. "Old as well."

"Finally, the living fossil: Welwitschia Mirabilis." Pam said as she carefully stepped down the slope.

"Heh~ This one must be at least 2,000 years old. It's an extremely good find."

"Actually it's much older than that."

Dr. Nepolo rose a brow from above the rocky slope. "Oh? How can you tell?"

"Like a human, this suffers from dementia and it's lost count on it's years living."

"...Whatever you say, Dr. Isley." He then saw her kneel down and placed her hands on both the surrounding dirt and the plant itself. "What are you doing?"

The redhead lifted up the hand previously on the dirt to motion her companion to stay quiet. "Sorry, but I'm having a conversation here." The african doctor blinked in confusion and looked at Isley like she was crazy. After several moments, Pam spoke up with a pleasant expression across her features. "Okay, we're good. Let's get to work."

Her companion merely shrugged as he went back to the jeep to grab their equipment to extract the living fossil. Once returning with their tools, Dr. Nepolo tossed one of the shovels to her to start the next part of their job here.

...You might be wondering why Pam was in this African country in the first place.

You see, the Green contacted their Gothamite champion and informed her of the living fossil's current location and condition. They wished for her to extract and relocate it to a better location -preferably back at her home in Gotham- so it'll live exist some time longer for it's retirement years.

Pam took advantage of this and informed Dr. Cruz of her contact's information in order to have permission to retrieve the ancient specimen. Luisa compiled and thought it would be a great addition to the botanical garden. After contacting the right channels, Pam's superior gave her the go ahead to legally move the ancient plant from the African country.

After digging into the dirt for several minutes, Pam's companion took off his hat and wiped away the sweat off his face with a bandana he had on hand. "Whew~ You should wear a hat or at least some sunscreen, Dr. Isley. This sun and heat can kill you."

All this did got a chuckle out of her. "The sun won't kill me, it likes me." She stopped digging before unscrewing her canteen lid and drank some water. "Though the heat might cause some hydration problems."

The African doctor gave out a smirk as he figured Pam was one of those people that liked the blazing sun but not enjoying the particular temperature in question. Just when he was about to continue digging into the earth, a sound permeated the air.

"What was that?" She asked.

Her companion focused on said sound before adopting a worried expression. "I think we may have company."

Pam merely looked at him and asked a question crossing her mind. "Who would be out here in the middle of the desert?"

"Bad men, from the diamond mines nearby." Came the response as an armored truck came towards the two scientists. "You saw them movies, right? They torture and murder. And they destroy the environment all around them."

All this got out of Pam was a distasteful look from her face. "They're interrupting our work."

Once the armored truck came to a stop a few feet away from them, two men got out of the vehicle with assault rifles in their grasps while another stayed in the driver's seat. One of them hanged back while the other came up to the two scientists.

""You two. You are trespassing." The armed man said in broken english.

"No, we have permission from the university-" The african doctor was quickly interrupted and silenced by the armed man slamming the butt of his weapon at his head.

"You don't have our permission, old man."

As this happened, Pam clenched her fists as her eyes started glowing in an eerie light. "You shouldn't have done that." She said in her dual tone.

"Shut the fuck up, woman!" The armed man yelled out before the ground beneath them started to shake. "What the fuck-?!"

Suddenly, the ground opened up as large plants bursted from underneath and shot towards the armed men both inside and outside of the armored truck. They were quickly ensnared before Pam commanded the plants to dispose of them in a proper manner. The plants compiled as they went back down below with the screaming, armed men before the earth swallowed them whole.

"W-What the hell just happened?" Dr. Nepolo asked as he barely saw what occured before his eyes.

"I believe Mother Nature wanted to protect us in our current job." Pam said as her voice went back to its normal state. She helped up her companion and gave him some of her water. "Now come on, this old gal won't dig itself out."

-Two Days Later, Gotham Botanical Gardens-

"There ya go, young lady." Pam said with a soft smile as she petted some of the leaves. "Welcome to the Gotham Botanical Gardens, your new retirement home."

Standing off to the side, Luisa was taking a sip from her mug. Once her mouth was clear of her beverage, the hispanic woman spoke in a pleased tone. "It's still great to have you on staff, Pam."

The redhead stood up and picked up a watering can to help a little on the garden's new addition. Her green eyes darted not far away to see a wheelchair bound man, who was in his 80's. "Tell that to Grimley."

Dr. Cruz looked over and saw the chair of the research department was looking this way as he inspected the new plant in his own, unique way. "Oh, ignore him. He still thinks women have no place in sciences. Especially plant sciences."

Placing the watering can away, Pam spoke to her colleague. "Luisa, I sometimes wonder on how you got me hired with him involved."

"I merely showed him your research on transgenic hybrids." The hispanic scientist then leaned over and whispered into the redhead's ear with a smirk. "He thought P.I. Isley, PhD was a man. I didn't exactly correct him."

The Green champion merely snorted.

"Okay, class, gather around." Said a sudden voice.

Luisa perked up. "Oh good, they're finally here."

"I'm sorry, but what?" Pam asked before looking in her superior's general direction. "Are those... students?"

"College students to be exact."

"...I didn't know this was supposed to happen today."

"Well you should've. This class was scheduled to come here for the end of the Fall semester before getting ready for the next course in the Spring. Though I think you forgot when you were in Africa." Pam didn't say anything about that and tried to walk away. "Where ya going?"

"I need to check on my experiments."

Luisa grasped her hand to hold her back. "Oh no you don't. I'm not doing this alone. Your friend funds us, remember?"

"Bruce isn't exactly my friend." Pam corrected. "He's more like an acquaintance."

"And he's friends with your boyfriend." This got the redhead botanist to roll her eyes, but Dr. Cruz ignored that and addressed the visiting class. "Hello, class, I'm Dr. Luisa Cruz, one of the plant sciences specialists here. You're just in time to see Dr. Pamela Isley, one of our researchers, planting our latest acquisition. It's called Welwitschia Mirabilis, the Living Fossil. Anyone know why?"

"Cuz it's old?" Asked a female student.

"Exactly. Thousands of years old, in fact. Lots of plants live longer than animals. Birch, maple ash... these trees can live between 100-120 years. Willows can even live up to 400 years." The hispanic scientist then escorted the college class through the area and showed them one of the trees planted here. "Taxus Baccata, the Yew. Anyone want to guess how long this tree can live?"

"500 years?" Asked another.

"Try five thousand."

Pam hanged back and had hoped she could escape this, but Luisa caught her eye and gave the look that spoke 'you have no choice in the matter'. The changed botanist sighed before her green eyes saw one student about to touch some poisonous plant. Coming up to him, she spoke near his ear. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." The male student jumped, getting a small smirk from her lips. "Those berries there are very poisonous."

The student yelped and retreated back to his class just when Luisa spoke again. "Now Dr. Isley will show you what we're working on together." Dr. Cruz said as she swiped her keycard at a locked door before opening it up. "Let's go into the lab, shall we?"

Seeing as she didn't have much of a choice now, Pam sped up her walk and entered into the floral lab first. Once some distance away, the red haired scientist spoke. "Imagine if we could take the most desirable traits of all species, plant or animal, and combine them."

"But aren't plants and animals really different?" Asked another student. Pam waved her hand in a 'so and so' motion. "Well, yes and no. All living organisms share similar DNA. Sixty percent of human DNA is actually the same..." she plucked a banana out of Winston's hand "as this banana here."

"Hey, that's my lunch!" Said the 'office pig' as he snatched his meal back.

Pam just rolled her eyes. "I was merely using it as a demonstration." She ignored his annoying behavior as she focused back to the visiting college class. Pam then noticed one of the students briefly raise their hand. "Yes? You have a question?"

"Well, that's all nice in theory, Dr. Isley. But are you creating new GMO hybrids?"

"It's more than theoretical." Pam answered before gesturing to a mice cage not far away. "Mice like these normally die after six or so months. But these little guys have been injected with a serum derived from a combination of the plants you saw outside. We've tested them and they'll probably be able to live at least a year or so."

"There's still a lot of unknowns here, but the good news is, Albertus Eric Grimley, our head, just announced we've received a sizable grant from an anonymous donor to expand our research in this direction." Luisa turned her attention to the redhead scientist in the room and gave her the floor. "Dr. Isley, why don't you tell the students about your experiments."

Pam mentally sighed. "Well, I've been exploring a new form of genetic engineering to produce-"

"Hands off, bub." Came a familiar voice in the Green champion's ear. "Don't ya see I have a visitor's badge here?"

"I do, ma'am, but you're not supposed to go in there without permission."

Pam, Luisa and the visiting college class turned their heads to the source and saw a spectacled blonde getting into the lab with a security guard trying to keep her out.

The redhead scientist was ready to walk up to her shared girlfriend when her superior came up to the Arkham psychologist. "Hello there, may I help you?"

"Not really." Harley said with a smirk. "I was just stopping by."

"For what reason?"

Pam soon came up to them and grabbed Harley by the arms and slowly escorted her away. "Sorry about that, Luisa, my friend here tends to do her own thing at times."

This clicked in the hispanic scientist's head as she voiced her thought. "Oh~ So you're Harley, the one Pam talked a lot about."

Harley smiled more when hearing this. "Really? Like what?"

Pam once again interrupted the small conversation as she quickly excused themselves. "May I have a word with you?" As the pair were some distance away from the class visit, the Green champion hissed at Harley in a hushed tone. "Harley? What the hell are you doing?"

"You weren't answering my calls, Red."

"I've been busy working."

"Too busy to let us know you came back to the states."

"Harley, you can't just drop into my workplace whenever you feel like it."

"And why not?" Harley whined out.

"It's not like I have all the time in the world."

*Poke*

"Harley…"

*Poke* *Poke*

"Harley…"

*Poke* *Poke* *Poke*

Pam had enough and swatted Harley's hands away. "Would you stop that?!"

"Make me."

"And why were you doing that?"

The psychologist scrunched up her face and crossed her arms. "I don't think I know you... Are you you or are you one of your plant clones and your just taking a dirt nap at the greenhouse?"

"You know I don't want to abuse using that when it comes to working here."

"And yet you seemed fine when Naruto does it on occasion."

"Because I know he can handle the situation and no accidents really happen at his office." Pam said before blowing out a puff of air in her chest. "And I really can't use those here because certain experiments I have to do might end up harming them and expose who I am."

"But you said your mentor here knows who and what you are."

"But not the others, Harl." The Green champion let out a frustrated sigh as she rubbed her eyes. "Look, can we finish talking about this later? I don't feel comfortable doing it right now."

Harley narrowed her eyes for a moment before relaxing. "Okay, Red. But I'll be picking you up after work so we can talk this out." Said the changed blond. "And there is no backing out of that."

Pam ran her hand through her hair before adopting a defeated look across her features. Just one look from Harley got her to know she got her gal pal right where she wants her. The Arkham psychologist then left the lab to finish up the rest of her errands for the day.

Harley did look back for a brief moment -with a worried glance- at Pam returning to the class visit and wondered what seemed to be eating her up.

-Evening, Stacked Deck-

"PHWAH~! This is what makes life worth living!"

"I wouldn't say that."

"Oh c'mon, Babs." Morgan started out as she brought the glass cup filled with ice to the table's wooden surface. "Don't be such a prude."

The Commissioner's daughter could only sigh as she drank her third sangria for the night.

Her new friend -which is loosely termed at the early part of their relationship- decided to take her out for drinks to help celebrate Barbara's success on what finals she finished so far. The spectacled redhead said it would've been better to actually celebrate when she finished all of them, which is later this week. Yet Morgan felt rather impatient and really bored on not doing anything fun without her new friend.

And this wasn't the only time this happened ever since they first met. Mordred showed up at the library each day and sometimes hunted her down at campus in hopes of hanging out when things were done for the redhead.

At one point after their hangouts, Barbara had to ask why Morgan kept bugging her.

"I just hate dilly-dallying all day and night and hardly doing anything." Complained the wild blonde. "Riding my bike, going out for walks and hiking and reading can only saite myself for so long before I get bored. And even running errands for my mom doesn't help either."

"So why don't you find something else to do other than bugging me while I'm at work or class?"

"IT'S JUST SO BORING ALONE!" Morgan whined out as she rolled around the ground in an odd, childish fashion.

Barbara could only sigh from the brief memory. 'It was like dealing with a child.' Thought the college student before a bitter bit of info crossed her mind. 'Then again… she admitted she didn't have that many friends anymore which somewhat made her like that.'

It wasn't much of the old cliche fact that moving around would cause one to lose contact with their friends. This could be partially remedied by calling them or at least sending letters to the respective parties to keep things together.

No. The fact as to why Morgan doesn't have many friends anymore was simple: their dead.

It was shocking for the wild blond to admit that to her and felt sorry for that to occur. Morgan waved it off and said she had time to heal. Yet she kept the details on her friends' deaths to herself as it was merely her story to tell and Barbara has no right to pry for such information.

It was only a few days ago when Morgan told Barbara that she thought of the redhead as a good friend -or at least an acquaintance- after spending much time together. Reason why the wild blonde also sought her out was because the college student reminded her a lot of one of her departed friends. It was a bit creepy on this tidbit, but Morgan doesn't want to see and compare the commissioner's daughter with someone from her past. The wild blonde merely sees the spectacled redhead as her own person and left it at that.

And in Barbara's mind, Morgan would've been considered an interesting friend of hers as she hardly has any as well. The wild blonde oddly grew on her with the short time they knew each other. She admits that… despite the unique faults Morgan has…

Speaking of…

"Hey! Hey Hey Hey! I've got a joke for ya!" Said the wild blonde as she downed another glass of rum. "What was the God of Thunder like when he's in a bar and getting his ass wasted since he can't get enough of his prefered ale?"

"...What?"

"He was just so Thorsty! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Okay." Barbara drowled out as she didn't think the joke wasn't all that funny. "I think you had enough to drink tonight."

"Nonsense. I'm not even wasted like half of these boys here." Morgan smirked at the bikers sitting at the other side of the building, who were indeed drunk off their asses.

"I don't even understand how you're not even drunk yet since that's your second bottle of Bacardi."

"Shoot~ I enjoy drinking this stuff -among other brands- since a good lot of them is just concocted piss water." Morgan muttered with a smile as she sipped the rest of her glass as it was just melted ice at this point. "I mean, I wonder how many people back in the old West handled some of that shit since it was supposedly water, roots and some other crap. Just slap a label on 'em and serve it as a desired drink… or a stupid medical solvent. And even during the medieval times -and prior to that- wine's very much comparable to grape or apple juice these days."

"...You really do know your drinks and enjoying them…"

"Hells~ yeah~ Even rum more than most." The wild blonde poured herself another glass of the bottle of Bacardi she purchased. "If you ask me; rum, absinthe and really good scotch -like Ardbeg Provenance- are the only things to actually get me drunk… after three or so bottles. And before ya ask, yes I've tested it myself in a controlled environment."

Barbara merely rose a brow as she drank the rest of her sangria. "And I can tell your mother wasn't all too happy about that."

"No kidding." Morgan drawled out. "You wouldn't believe how pissed she was. Of how her sweet, sweet beloved child ended up wrecking some of her stuff." She shook her head as she chuckled. "Regardless, no other man can ever have the balls to keep it up with a woman."

The secret identity of Batgirl could only roll her eyes as she munched on the peanuts and pretzels on the table before calling out to the bar's owner for more sangria.

As this went on, Harley and Pam walked into the semi-packed bar and walked up to the main bar before sitting down.

Looking up from preparing a new sangria, Moxxi saw two of her favorite customers. She gave them a smile before speaking to them. "Hiya Harley, Pam."

"Hey/Hi Moxxi." The two friends voiced out.

"What can I get ya two?"

"I'll have a margarita with extra lime." Said the Arkham doctor.

"And I'll get a virgin bloody caesar." Came the botanist's order.

"Ya got it."

As Moxxi finished up the next sangria, she walked away to deliver the drink before working on the recent orders.

When the bar owner left, Pam munched on some peanuts as her green eyes looked upon the alcohol display before her.

The Green champion had been rather curious on what the lot of them taste like. If she wasn't part plant, then she would've drank a good number of them by now. Enjoying the flavors and at least having an enjoyable time being drunk like the very few times she was indeed like that during come parts in college.

But this had to come to an end upon the realization that Pam can get really drunk after not getting her job back at STAR labs. She got a 6-pack of cheap beer and got wasted from those alone. So with her being the plant hybrid, she can only handle a certain amount of alcohol for the rest of her days.

Pam had actually experimented on the different alcoholic beverages after being brought into this bar months ago. The botanist now had to set herself carefully that every time she went out for drinks, Pam can only handle one glass each and every time. If not having alcohol, she'd only drink club soda or virgin drinks in general.

Harley saw the long distant stair and loudly coughed to snap Pam out of her thoughts. Once getting the redhead's attention, the changed blonde leaned back into her seat before getting into the topic at hand. "Okay, Red, we didn't really talk at all on the ride over here."

"And?"

"And~ it's time to continue our chat from earlier. So spill."

The Green champion sighed before using her tongue to pick out some peanut residue. This gave her a few moments to collect herself, despite thinking things over throughout the day. Once done, Pam spoke up. "You know I'm a hybrid in a lot of ways."

"I know. After all, I was your doctor for like five months back at Arkham." Responded the psychologist. "But you weren't always like that."

"Please, stop trying to classify me."

"I won't, Red. All I'm just trying to do is to find out what's going on." Harley said as she grabbed some pretzels and popped one into her mouth. "Go ahead, Red, let it out. Talk about your feelings as of late."

"I don't need to talk, Harl. I'm connected to the Green, remember?"

"Well~ you still have at least a good amount of human feelings..."

"...You drawled out there… You think I'm not really human anymore."

"I know you're not entirely human, but I'm just concerned if you still have your humanity intact."

"The exact percentage is imprecise."

"I don't care about the percentage, Pam. I'm just concerned of your well-being." Harley moved her hand over to her girlfriend and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Naruto and I are worried… and I don't know what I can do to help if you don't let me in." The psychologist gave her a saddened look. "Please…"

The Green champion looked down and sighed. "Humans... are so complicated." Muttered out the botanist, making Harley adopt a confused expression while having her full attention. "Recently, I often wonder if I'm better off being by myself. How humans manage to communicate is clearly beyond me as of late." She then squeezed Harley's hand. "Being so frail and limited. Yet they cause so much pain." Pam swallowed a lump in her throat as her eyes stung a little. "But... But I feel... afraid and wonder if I really need anyone anymore."

"Red..."

"You and Naruto know so much about me with only Selina trudging not far behind." Tears were welling up and slowly spilled out. "My... My heart is all out for you. Yet there are times if that's just really me or just phantom feelings of my humanity still wanting to feel alive. I truly felt like I died on that day earlier this year and I was given new life because of the Green. Yet because of that, I don't know if I'll ever fit in the human world anymore."

"But you have us, Pam." Harley said as she moved her former patient around in her seat. "We love and care for you. And it's not just us three, but think about Rachel. She sees you as the second chance at having a mother." The blond then grasped the redhead's other hand and squeezed that as well before forming a smile. "Speaking of, you have your upcoming babies. You of all people should be super excited for that."

"I know, Harl, but…"

"But what?"

"I don't know if they'll turn out alright."

Harley gave Pam a skeptic look. "What are you talking about? You saw puddin's memory with Didi." She said as she tried not saying Her real identity in a public place. "She said the Waters aren't gonna cause problems with the solution being that of a pure source."

"I'm not talking about that." Corrected the botanist. "I'm talking about… not being a good parent for them." The psychologist gave her a look that said 'explain, now'. "I don't know if I'll make them happy, always be there for them, do the right things…"

Harley let out a frustrated sigh as she took her hands back. "Geez, Red. Is that what's upsetting ya on that? Being a perfect parent?" The blonde gave out a bitter chuckle. "Listen, no parent is perfect. There never is and ever will be. My parents weren't perfect when I was growing up with my dad going in and out of jail for being a con-artist while my mom had to focus on my siblings. And then there's-"

"Mine?" Pam interjected with a small glare. "You were going to say mine?"

Harley reared back and tried to correct her. "Pam, I-"

"My mother was a saint and was always there for me and there's nothing that can ever take that away from me." The redhead's tone then went darker as her eyes glowed a little. "Then my bastard of a father ruined my childhood with what he did to her and I will never forgive him on that."

Harley then rose her voice as spoke in a strict tone. "Pamela, will you shut up for a moment and listen to me?" This paused Pam's actions as Harley never called her by her full first name, even during their sessions back in Arkham. "I was never going to bring up your parents, especially your father. I know quite well on how bad that can of worms is with you. I agreed to never talk about that subject as I respected your wishes ever since our sessions together."

Pam settled down as her eyes faded back to its natural form. She slinked back into her seat and took several breaths before speaking back to her former doctor. "Harley, I'm sorry…"

The blonde merely smiled a little as she took one of her hands again and gave it a reaffirming squeeze. "It's okay, Pam. I don't blame you." She sighed as Moxxi came over with their drinks.

"Is everything okay, girls?" Asked the bar owner. "You two seemed like something bad happened."

"Everything's fine, Moxxi." Harley said. "Just a small misunderstanding that merely went sideways."

Moxxi merely gave them a look before nodding in acceptance. "Well don't cause any problems, you two."

"We won't."

Once Moxxi went to her own devices, Pam spoke up. "So what were you going to say anyways before… I jumped the gun?"

"About other not-perfect parents? Well there are my neighbors that they fight quite often. I do what I can to help, but it takes time to fix their problems." Harley said before partaking more of her beverage. "Though I do question why Paula and Lawrence seem distant to me ever since the whole Demon's Quest debacle."

"Have you asked about that?"

"Sort of, but I don't want to push it or else I might end up making it worse." Taking another sip, the blonde placed the drink down before putting down some other facts. "There are the deadbeat parents and there are those that does well to make their children happy, despite their current environment. Each person has skeletons in their closets and children don't really see those unless circumstances present them before others. So what any parent out there is seen by their children, they'll never be truly seen perfect for perfection is merely an illusion being placed by others."

Harley gave out a sigh as she took her drink and sipped some of it to quench her dry mouth. "From what I'm trying to get at, Pammy, is that you'll be a great mother. I guarantee you'll love and care for them like no other since you've worked so hard to accomplish your goal on having children. And Naruto will do everything he can to help you raise them and won't resort into doing anything stupid like what Didi exactly told him."

Pam gave out a small smile on all that, plus what Harley was referring to. "Thanks. I needed that." She said before drinking her virgin Bloody Caesar.

Harley nodded and was about to drink her margarita when she noticed two things. One was Barbara and possibly some friend of hers sitting at a booth not far away from them. Sure it was odd for her to see her student here of all places, but what seemed to stick out was the one she was having drinks with. It might've been her imagination, but the Arkham doctor briefly swore she saw the wild blonde focusing her attention towards their direction…

...As if she was listening into their conversation with utmost attention before the pair left the booth to head to god knows where.

'What's up with her?' Harley thought before she focused her attention back to Pam before speaking her thought. "Is there something else bugging you, Red?"

Placing her drink down onto the bar's surface, Pam let out a sigh. "Yeah, there is."

"Then what is it?"

"...When we saw Naruto's memories of meeting Her," she scratched her scalp and cringed a little, "I thought I was imagining things."

"About what?"

"Me seeing Didi before."

Harley gave Pam a perplexed look. "I'm sorry, but what?"

"I… saw her before."

"How?"

"I thought it was just my imagination at the time, due to the circumstance, but after seeing her again through Naruto's memory got things to come back and made me realize it was all real. As if like it was some sort of repressed memory."

Harley readjusted into her seat before speaking with her utmost attention. "Well… we got nothing else to do for now. So you might as well tell me."

Pam took a large swig of her virgin cocktail since she knew explaining all of this will dry out her throat. Once the glass was practically empty -asides from the ice and celery stick- the Green champion spoke. "It happened after my accident earlier this year when I met Her."

"...When exactly?"

"While I was in my coma."

-Flashback; 11 Months Ago, Gotham General Hospital-

The sounds of machines were heard throughout the hospital room as Pam looked at Naruto, who appeared to be a recovering wreck. And in the bed was… her… all wrapped up in bandages with tubes inserted into her to help keep her alive.

Pam briefly wondered what was going on and thought this must've been some sick dream. All the botanist could do was to witness the scene before her. The only sounds she could ever hear were both the hospital equipment and that of her lover's voice.

And then, quite suddenly, all other sounds appeared to have gone silent. Pam soon heard a noise which seemed familiar, yet she'd never heard it before. From what she could make out of it, the sound was like wind blowing the pages of a very large book. Either that or the beating of mighty wings.

With a blink of an eye, Pam saw there was another person in the room who appeared from out of nowhere.

"Sad, isn't it." Spoke the gothic woman as she looked at the scene right across from her. "Having to see this before you and can't do a thing about it."

Pam didn't know how to properly respond to this as she kept standing there. Many thoughts crossed her mind as she wondered who this goth was exactly. Yet something about her seemed familiar.

The goth moved around Naruto's sitting form and around the hospital bed to stand a foot away from the red haired botanist. "You're wondering if this is a dream, correct?" Pam looked over and opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything. "Sorry to say, but it's not. This is really happening."

"W-What do you mean?" Pam stuttered out. "H-How could I be here," pointing to her current spot before pointing to the prone form on the bed in front of her, "and yet there?"

"It's simple really: you've been having an outer body experience for roughly a week."

Pam's scientific portion of her mind took over as she shook her head. "That's ridiculous." She muttered out. "That can't be the case. I mean..." She widened her eyes as tears ran down her cheeks with memories rushing through. "Oh god... I... I remember fighting Woodrue in my lab and... the burning..." She wiped the tears away before shaking her head. "Whatever I'm seeing here must be a dream and a really bad one."

The goth shook her head. "Like I said before, this is not a dream-"

"And I'm having an outer body experience." Pam finished off with a sideways glance. "And... I suppose you're claiming to be… Death? You don't even look like him."

""Are you looking for the scythe? Or the skis? Well sorry to disappoint you. It's just me. But you're right about my job. I'm Death."

Pam merely blinked in absolute astonishment. "You're telling me Death is a woman?" 'Death' nodded her head with a smile. "Huh... Not only does that feel original, but I feel that a big score was made towards women everywhere." She quickly shook her head to get back into things before looking straight into 'Death's' eyes. "Give me one reason I should believe you."

The gothic woman didn't say anything. All she did was reach forward and bopped the redhead's nose, which she oddly felt before said feeling seemed to spread to the rest of her face. From the corner of her eye, Pam saw in the room's mirror black veins quickly forming from the center of her nose to all over her body. And after several seconds, they receded and faded away before her widened gaze shifted back to the woman standing next to her.

"Believe me now?"

The botanist could only nod in absolute shock.

"Okay, so there's this thing I can do... which can sometimes sort of clarify the situation for people." Pam rose a brow on where Death was getting at. "It's called the Life Review. You know when you're dying and your whole life flashes before your eyes? It's like that only later... usually."

Pam didn't like hearing this and tried to decline the offer. "Please, I-I don't want-"

"Don't be scared, Pamela. You might even enjoy it." The nearby light seemed to grow in intensity as the redhead had to shield her eyes. "Hmm~ There's quite a lot to choose from." Said the gothic woman as she peered into the light. "I can see all your life from here. And it looks like I thought it would."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Pam asked as she looked at Death. "I don't want to see-" The moment she looked away from Death's form, the redhead saw everything. Moments after her birth, her childhood, her mother's death, her following school years, her time at work, being with the Hollands... meeting Naruto and having the time of her life being with him. "...My life?"

"Yup~ It's all there, Pamela."

"...Please." Pam pleaded with watering eyes that were filled with mixed feelings. "Please turn it off."

"And why not?"

"You wouldn't understand!" Yelled out the botanist with anger filling her very being.

"I understand just fine, Pamela. I'm a really good understander." Death scratched her ebony locks before speaking once more. "Look... Y'know, this would be so much easier if you'd please stop looking at me like some supervillain trying to take you away."

Pam's anger quickly faded away as all that remained was her widened eyes. "...You're not?"

"I'm not. After all, it's not your time yet." Death then leaned back as she stretched out her arms. "Besides, I'm rather busy with me meeting a hundred and fifty thousand humans every day... on this planet alone. Not counting cats, birds or goldfish as examples. And you people are always dying of something. It's what you do. Sometimes you get killed one way or another, but in the end y'all come back to me."

Pam fidgeted in her spot as she was under Death's gaze. "Sorry... about yelling at you. Anger's not really a constructive response to this kind of situation."

The goth merely gave the redhead a small smile. "Obviously."

"So... What would it take for you to change this?" Pam emphasized to her current state in the hospital bed. "What do you need?"

Death pondered for a moment before giving a response. "A pony."

"A pony?"

"A magic pony. A magic pony who sings."

"...Do you mean that literally? Is there really one out there that-?"

Death started to laugh for a moment before settling down. "Sorry. I was joking. I've met lots of magic ponies that sing quite often. And there's one that tends to break the 4th wall and oddly breaks reality and physics, all due to my youngest sister's influence." Her smile still remained after her laughter died down. "I mean, I've met everybody… and in the Equestrian case, everypony."

"...I don't get it."

"It's just a play on words." Pam rose a brow and somewhat wanted to know more, but Death moved onto other things. "Now... You meant on what did I need?" The goth let out a sigh. "It'd be nice if there was something. Sorry, but at the current time: no. Besides, I always find 'bargaining' the hardest of these stages to deal with."

"Stages? Like this whole thing is some sort of process?" Pam's gaze moved from Death to the scene before her. "I... can tell you've seen this more times than anyone can ever could." The red haired botanist swallowed a lump in her throat as tears started to form again. "This is... happening... and I feel helpless." She brought her hands onto her face as she cried. "E-Even though yo-you said it's n-not my time, I've never been more scared in my entire life!"

Pam soon felt an embracing hug, stiffening upon the contact. She had heard Death's embrace was a mixed bag in terms of reactions, but this was rather comforting. Its as if she was hugged by a sister she never had… or even a caring lover.

"Shhh~ It's okay. I'm here."

The pair merely stood there in what felt like eternity in Pam's perspective, even though it was just a minute or two. Opening her eyes, the redhead asked a simple question. "Can… Can you help me?"

"You know, I've been doing this for a very long time. I've seen every different reaction. And you're not the first person who's tried to engage my sympathy."

Pam sniffled a little as she pulled away from the embrace. "I'm guessing it doesn't work all that often."

"No." Death surprisingly said to her. "It always does, yet it doesn't make any difference." She tilted her head a little as she stared at her. "You're getting through these 'stages of grief' quite well. And the next stage is meant to be acceptance. So-"

"But I can't accept this!" Pam spoke out before slowly lowering her head and looked at her prone form and Naruto looking at it with almost lifeless eyes. "I... I don't want to leave him. He's the love of my life and I am his. And… just seeing this breaks my heart."

"...I understand what you're feeling. It's hard for many coma patients to feel this way if they would live through another day and hopefully wake up. Not just to be with their loved ones, but to also get back there and live out their life by either changing it or just going back into their same routine." Death walked over to one of the empty seats and sat in it before patting the neighboring one. "How about you sit down and we can talk."

"About... what?"

"You're opinions about, y'know, the afterlife?" Pam was bewildered on the request. It was oddly hard to say no on the matter. She slowly walked to the empty seat and sat down. "Now some people think that whatever happens after you die, you'll go where you're meant to go. From the ultimate resort above, the kingdom below, the 'seemingly' empty void in between, or one of the many places one believes in."

Pam twiddled her thumbs for several moments before giving out her thoughts on the matter. "Well... Who says so? I mean... if not you, then who has the right to judge me or anyone else? They'd have to have some... objective point of view of the ever expanding universe. And we... well… most of the scientific community -since I know some scientists that are oddly religious- know there is no such point of view." Pam scratched her head and let out a frustrated sigh. "To tell you the truth, I was never much of a religious person at all and sometimes bordered on being an atheist. Hard to really tell at times." Her green eyes met with Death's. "Yet this chat we're having... might change that."

"It happens quite often with one changing their perspectives on the 'higher' and 'lower' powers out there."

"True and believers always seemed to waine on their responsibilities."

Death merely shrugged. "Sure... Kind of. But not in the way you're thinking it."

"Then I'm sure you have a point of view of the cosmos as a whole. I mean if you accept the whole 'Big Bang Theory' was merely a small part of something grander than what one thought to believe in as the universe's origin; deciding on atheism isn't a logical choice. It tends to be an ethical one." Pam rubbed her eyes as her mind seemed to get a headache on thinking about all of this. "Point I'm trying to get across is... if there is a God, do I at least get the chance to put forth my case? Do I get to argue when I meet Him… or Her?" Death tilted her head when hearing that tidbit. "What? I generally thought Death was a man and yet here you are as very attractive woman and that changed my thought of the subject."

"Why thank you for the compliment."

"You're welcome."

"...And back to the matter at hand. What would've you done to put out your case when your time came?"

Pam felt rather stuck when asked about that. She scrunched up her face and felt at a loss. "I… honestly don't know."

"No one's really prepared if it becomes rather sudden, Pamela." Said the gothic woman. "Many people out there prepare themselves for that 'big important meeting' for years or practically their entire lives. Yet at the last moment, it's a mixed bag. Things go well for some and others… not so much. They end up choking it and the results vary."

Pam snorted a little. "I can imagine that. But… what would they typically say to make up for not being unprepared on said meeting?" She asked. "It's just a curious thought."

"Mostly 'sorry'."

"Sorry? Sorry for what? Sorry for what they've done in life with all of the crimes they've committed?" Pam said with a raised brow. "Like officers taking lives while in the line of duty or with soldiers while out on the battlefield? With them having nightmares of what they've done and truly having a hard time coping with them?"

"Basically and much more." Death leaned back in her seat and stared at the sealing. "Most individuals tend to grovel and think it's required for their pleas. But in fact that's not really the requirement at all." She ran her fingers through her darkened locks before continuing her explanation. "You know, Pamela, I don't normally deal in hypotheticals. I mean, I'm when you find out. But we could at least imagine your options. What do you think of your own hedonistic paradise?"

Pam thought real hard as a smile formed on her face. "From what I can imagine right now? It's mostly being married, with Naruto as my husband, and us having several children to raise. We're both orphans due to circumstances and I believe we'll do everything in our power to make our children happy so they won't experience the pain we suffered." Soon tears rolled down her cheeks as she wiped them away. "But if I want my ideal paradise, I would've had my mother still alive so I could've introduced Naruto to her and possibly the same on his end. And outside of that, nature came back in full swing and people didn't abuse Earth's resources. Nature and man being in harmony like all those years ago."

Death smiled and placed a hand on Pam's. "That's quite understandable and it's what makes things so interesting."

Pam once again adopted a curious expression. "How so?"

"Everyone has their own form of paradise and it's interesting for me to see what each and everyone of them is like as their different in their unique, respective fashion." Pam nodded in understanding. "Now here's a biggie for ya." Death said, getting the botanist's attention. "What if I said you could have brilliant, lovely bliss forever. A continual best-ever warm bath of awesomeness. With a perpetual side order of familial, romantic, and even pet love and acceptance. A Summer's day in a meadow with an everlasting cup of every tea and book you can ever get your hands on." The gothic woman looked over and saw the smile on the redhead's face as she imagined it as best as she could. "No worries, no tension, just... truckloads of joy! And it's not just for you, but for everyone?"

After several more moments, Pam let out a snorted chuckle and rubbed the back of her neck. And before long, her one smile slowly faded away. "I'd say 'what's the catch'? I mean, there's always gotta be something for all that you just said. And I think I'd spend forever looking for one. And if I do, I've gotta work my ass off to make that happen."

"Which is true, Pamela. Nothing can truly be given freely." Death stood up and popped her back a little. "Well, I gotta get going?"

"Going... where?"

"Need to keep on working, silly."

"...Then why did you come and see me then?"

"There was someone that died earlier in this hospital and after taking him to his next destination, I thought I'd kill some time chatting with you for a preliminary check on something."

"...Excuse me?"

"Eh~ Don't worry about it. And I'll see you later."

Just when Death was about to leave the room, Pam felt a small shift in the area and voiced her thoughts. "What was that?"

"Oh, that? Yeah, that's you waking up." Pam's expression said it all. "Yeah~ Sometimes when I do this with a coma patient, they end up waking up sooner or later if it's not really their time." Turning back around, Pam swore she saw large black wings sprout from the gothic woman's back to show off her majestic presence. "Oh and just a fair warning, you might~ freak out on where you'll wake up to and whatnot…"

-Flashback End-

"...And the next thing I knew, I woke up in a flower pod and soaked in a vat of green slime." Pam said as she drank some of her second virgin Bloody Caesar. "Once out, I got all of these other memories of me chatting with the Green having an extreme crash course on everything I needed to know as one of their champions."

"And you said that chat of yours with Didi was a repressed memory?"

"Correct."

"How?"

Pam scratched the back of her head to think of an answer. "I believe that since I had my split personality -because of the accident- that when I woke up, all that influx memories from my darker half overwhelmed what memories I had of that encounter. Burying it deep until who knows how long." She then started chewing on the celery stick. "And seeing Didi through Naruto's memories must've resurfaced my chat with her."

Harley nodded as she processed everything as to what Pam told her in what could possibly happen after dying.

"Even though the whole process with the Green changed a bit more on my perspective on religion, since the group influences the other religious pantheons one way or another, this didn't mean I was gonna start practicing 'beliefs' right away."

"Yeah. Culture shock to the max is putting it mildly."

The pair were going to continue the rest of their evening in the bar when they heard it.

"...I know I can make you two purr."

"Would you please leave us alone."

Pam and Harley looked over and saw a pair of women getting harassed by some biker punks. Not liking how this might turn out, Harley got up from her seat and decided to make her way over.

"You're pissed, aren't ya?"

"No. I just wanna teach them boys some manners."

"...Yeah, you're pissed."

"Okay, fine. I just need to work out a little aggression. That's all." The changed blonde cracked her knuckles as she got closer to the biker punks harassing the women. "Hey, boys~"

Pam let out a small groan. "Great~ Here we go." She quickly grabbed their glasses and downed their contents, despite what alcohol was left in Harley's. Once done, Pam grabbed the extra lime wedges from her girlfriend's drink as vines started to grow from them. "I guess I should help her out."

By the time she turned around, Pam saw Harley block a kick with her foot and a punch with her forearm. She retaliated by kicking the man's grounded foot away before slamming his head into the nearby table. Harley then backflipped to avoid a knife being thrusted her way and used her legs to lock onto the man's arm before spinning him around and tossed him into one of his biker palls.

Some of the other punks didn't like this and pulled out their guns. Not wanting her friend into getting hurt, Pam used her vine whips and struck their arms. The changed botanist then flung them across the bar and impacted the pool tables.

And as this fight occured, the harassed women fled from the scene so neither would get hurt. From the tossed bikers, the broken pool sticks, bullets flying and the furniture.

"WHEE~" Harley let out in glee as she weaved through the biker punks. "Glad you decided to join the fun!" She punched away one of the punks that tried to get her from behind. "And here I thought you're just too work obsessed, sometimes."

Pam merely rolled her eyes as she vine whipped another one of them. "Life isn't always just about fun, Harley."

After knocking some teeth in, the Arkham doctor looked over to see Pam taking care of a pair of men rather quickly. "You know, Red, I think you might be taking too much influence from Kitty."

"Why's that?"

"Because you really know your way around a whip and it seems very creepy."

"Seriously, people!" Moxxi yelled out with a twitch of her eye from behind the bar. "STOP WRECKING MY BAR!" She then pulled out a shotgun from underneath the counter and cocked it. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW BAD MY INSURANCE GETS WITH YOU LOT FUCKING UP MY PLACE?!"

Seeing this happen, Pam groaned a little. "This is getting tedious. And this should end now." Pam used her vines to wrap up the remaining biker gang members still standing before pulling out a spray canister from her pocket. "Let's try something else."

"What the hell ya gonna do, ya freaks?!"

Harley looked over and saw the item in Pam's grasp. "What's that?"

"Something I whipped up at work while I was bored one day." Once spraying the biker gang with the solution, Pam looked at her watch and counted down the seconds. "...Five... Six..." It wasn't long after when the group of men started getting frisky with each other and started making out.

"...The fuck was that?" Harley asked in bewilderment.

"New pheromone recipe. What do you think?"

Harley tilted her head as she scratched her head. "I honestly don't know what to say, Red."

"Well I say you two need to help pay for the damages!" Moxxi yelled out as she slammed her shotgun on the counter.

"B-But those guys started it by harrassen 'em girls!" Harley pointed out.

"And yet you two caused most of the damage."

Harley and Pam looked around and indeed saw the state the bar was in. Furniture was wrecked, the jukebox possibly needed to be replaced and most of the pool table equipment was now in splinters (asides from the pool balls). The only thing intact of the bar as a whole was where the drinks were served and put in displayed.

"...Can't you just take the money out of these biker's?"

"I will, as usual, but you two will need to fork over some dough by doing all this shit."

Pam and Harley quickly looked into their wallets and saw what cash they had on hand. And it was the Arkham employee who spoke up. "Can ya just bill, puddin?"

"Maybe and I can tell he's not gonna be happy."

"No kidding." Pam breathed out.

When things started settling down, the pair exited the bar as they saw it was starting to rain.

"Do you need a ride, Red?"

"No. I… just need to be alone and think things over." Came Pam's response. "Besides, I need to check up on the 'kids' at my greenhouse."

Harley gave a brief nod before cupping her shared girlfriend's cheek. Her blue eyes held a lot of emotion as they peered into the green ones. And for a brief moment, Pam thought and feared Harley would've brought out her 'nuclear option' to make her cry as well.

But this was really hard to tell with the pouring rain. Harley's makeup covering was starting to run down her face to stain parts of her clothes, yet it seemed the psychologist didn't care at the present time.

"Pammy, I love you." Harley said in sadness. "Puddin loves you. Rae Rae loves you and even Selina in her own unique way. Just don't shove us out. Keep us in, please."

After kissing her Pam on the lips for several moments, Harley backed away and made her way towards her car to head back to her apartment. Being left in the rain, Pam let out a sigh and looked towards the sky before the ground underneath her opened up with a flower pod swallowing her whole. Once secure, Pam ordered the plant to take her to her greenhouse outside of Gotham.

-Gotham Grand Greenhouse-

The ground shook as the flower pod bursted out of the earth. It's petals opened up as Pam stepped out to touch part of the muddy ground before her. Her green eyes gazed upward and saw parts of the broken covering that left the rain to seap on through.

"Wonder how much it'll cost to replace all of those broken glass." She muttered out her thoughts. "Probably quite a bit." The changed botanist strolled onward as she started to undress one article of clothing at a time. And with each part of her clothing, vines grasped them so they can be properly hung in the closet not far away. "I need to do that soon before the snow starts falling."

Nearing her lab, Pam's green eyes looked over the two sporeling pods -holding her unborn children- hanging over a desk. The size of them now were that of her fists. And it was too soon to tell how long it'll be before they would fully blossom for her to hold her children for the first time.

...LIfe can be a beautiful and priceless experience to obtain. And as a woman, she had the opportunity on giving life to a future generation. But after her accident earlier this year, she was robbed of such an opportunity as her womb and body might cause complications. So with these 'babies' of hers in the flower pods before her, she'd be able to have that opportunity with the man she loves with her entire being.

So would it be of the typical 9 months total like any pregnancy or would it be less upon their true arrival?

Upon their agreement, Luisa was babysitting the third of her sporeling pods back at the botanical gardens. It was mostly seen as a controlled experiment on the different environments with the one in Luisa's possession wasn't soaked in the Lazarus Waters as long as the other two. And once they were born, Pam thought she could keep them all in her greenhouse to be raised here as opposed to the loft. After all, that living space can only hold so much at a time, despite the extra rooms there are.

The Green champion had sometimes thought on buying a house with Naruto so they can have all the room they could ever need. A nice suburban one would be idyllic with a white picket fence and a tire swing set hanging off a mighty tree in the backyard. And in both the front and backyards of the residence will have a flower garden.

It was what she envisioned and dreamed to have ever since she was a little girl when her mother was still alive. That dream went into a deep slumber after her death, but it was reawakened during the time when the changed botanist started dating Naruto.

Taking another look of her 'babies' a thought crossed her mind in wondering about the current state of the third flower pod. "I should probably check in with Luisa on her kept plant in the morning." She muttered out as she grasped some documents from the desk. Once in her bed, Pam situated herself underneath her covers before shifting through the pages. "More breakthroughs in crispr techniques… I should also follow-up with her about this…"

And like that, Pam fell into a dreamless sleep as the sounds of rain helped drift her away.

-Morning-

*RIIING* *RIIING* *RIIING*

"Okay, I'm up." Groaned out the botanist as she slapped her alarm clock off. Adjusting herself up in her bed, Pam rubbed the grime off from her eyelids. Once done, she peered over to her cellphone and checked both the time and to see if there were messages.

Flipping open her phone, she saw there was one message made as she slept.

'Might as well hear them.' She thought as she played it on speaker while on her way to the sink to brush her teeth.

"Hey, Pam, it's Naruto. Hey, I got a call from Moxxi earlier about you and Harley trashing her bar along with the fact that I'm getting a bill on the remaining damage. Have no clue what it's gonna be, but I hope it's not too bad. I can only handle paying Moxxi's damages for so long with us involved before my finance guys start questioning it.

Asides from that, I… I wanted to see if you were alright. You didn't call us when you got back from Africa and I only heard about it from Harley. I miss you and Rachel does as well. I respect if you want some privacy, but I just wanna hear your voice… maybe even hold and kiss you."

At the end of the message, Pam felt like crap now after remembering what was talked about from last night.

'I should see them today.' She thought as she spat out the toothpaste into the sink. Slurping up some mouthwash, she swirled it around as her thoughts continued. 'It is my day off. So I think I should have some fun with them when possible.'

She made her way towards her impromptu closet and picked out her clothes for the day. She then went over to grab her coffee pot to pour herself a fresh cup, which was prepared by her plants… What? Even though she's part plant, Pam still has human cravings and coffee's one of them.

Upon taking a sip, her eyes briefly glanced at her flower pods-

*COUGH* *CHOKING* *COUGH*

...That…

"What the hell?" She spoke with widened eyes.

When she saw the flower pods last night, they were the size of her fists. But now they were the size of her torso!

Quickly downing the rest of her drink, she commanded a flower pod to arise from the ground and swallowed her whole before taking her to her destination.

She needed to inform Luisa of this! The flower pods grew so much under so little time without her help!

-Gotham Botanical Gardens-

Walking into the garage, Pam thought it was odd to see Luisa's car was here so early.

'Did she pull another late-nighter on something?' Pam thought as she made her way through the building. Once at her office, the Green champion knocked the door several times. "Hey, Luisa! You there! I've got some great…"

The door slowly opened as it showed it was unlocked. A feeling of dread slowly grew within the botanist as she pushed the door a bit further in to see the darkened office. Reaching inside, she moved her hand around to find the light switch.

Once flipping the switch, the lights turned on before gasping in fright.

"LUISA?!"

Lying face first on the ground was her superior and mentor with parts of her desk tossed onto the ground.

Rushing over to her side, Pam flipped her over to see if she was okay. But upon doing so, the changed botanist recoiled in absolute horror when seeing Luisa's skin was in an unhealthy green color with green veins being seen.

"LUISA!"

-Later-

"Poison?"

"Dr. Cruz was studying yew samples. Very poisonous."

Pam blankly looked off to the side as the police carefully placed her supervisor into the body bag before rolling it down the hallway.

This was not right. This should not have happened at all. Why was Luisa poisoned?

It didn't take much for Pam to realize the reason: their shared research. The evidence: the missing flower pod left in Luisa's office and their joint research notes. But one revolving question remained for the changed botanist: did someone know who she really was and what the flower pod really was?

'I feel so violated.' She thought as a chill ran down her spine. Tears slowly formed and fell down her face at not just seeing Luisa's body being taken away, but not knowing where her unborn child was at.

"Gotham Botanical gardens is a prestigious institution." Victor Lee said to the police. "What if this gets into the news?"

"Oh shut up, Victor, and calm down." Spoke the wheelchair bound chairman.

"And who are you?" Asked Detective Bullock.

"Victor Lee, head administrator here at the lab." Victor motioned his hand towards his superior next to him in his motorized wheelchair. "This here is Dr. Eric Grimley, chair of the research department. And I'm sure your superiors will agree, this is clearly an accident, detective."

"We'll be the judge of that, Mr. Lee." Bullock said as he wrote down some details in his small flipbook. "Now, who was the last person to see Dr. Cruz alive?"

Pam moved forward and got close to the plump detective. "That would be me."

"And you are?"

"Dr. Pamela Isley, one of the researchers here and I found... her… this morning." She said while steadying herself. "I work here and when I left the lab last night, she was completely fine."

"Okay, good to know."

"But why the hell do you think this was an accident. Luisa... Dr. Cruz was not a careless person. There's no way she would have poisoned herself."

"And how would you know?"

"I work closely with her on several transgenic experiments. She was practically a great mentor."

Bullock nodded as he wrote this down. "Well~ If I were to guess, this all happened sometime during the night. And while you're here, where were you after leaving the labs?"

"I was having drinks with my friend at the Stacked Deck after a long day here. From handling a class visit from the university to working on several tasks… after said friend stopped by for a brief visit." Pam answered truthfully before putting out a lie. "After that I went home and spent the rest of the night with my boyfriend."

"Okay, so who was this friend of yours?"

"Dr. Harleen Quinzel, she works at Arkham."

"...And your boyfriend's name is?"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

Bullock cringed a little on that tidbit and knew dealing with him is gonna be... unique. He coughed into his hand before speaking once more. "Before we head on out, was there anything missing?"

Before Pam could answer, Victor beat her to the punch. "There was nothing, detective. So stop trying to make this into a crime scene."

"Okay then, I believe we're done here." Bullock said as he put his flipbook away. "But we'll come back later if we need to ask anymore questions."

Just as the police left, Pam soon followed in order to get back to the loft. Though as she retreated away, the red haired botanist looked back and glared at Victor's retreating form.

He was hiding something and she'll be damned if she didn't find it out.

-Naruto and Pam's Loft-

"...What are you doing?"

"Putting up security, Rachael." Pam responded as she placed venus fly traps along the patio door.

The ashen ward looked at the half dozen potted plants stationed at the sliding doors before shifting her purple eyes to the loft's front door. Looking back at Pam, Rachel spoke her thought. "Doesn't look like good security."

"To a normal person's perspective, yes." The redhead went over to the kitchen counter to grab some portable, small security cameras. "But these boys are rather vicious if you know their capabilities."

The violet haired child then looked upstairs to see the guest bedroom door was opened with hints of vines peeking through. It wasn't long after as her guardian stepped out before heading into the neighboring bathroom to wash his hands of dirt and grime. She soon scratched her head and thought back to what happened quite recently.

Rachel was currently on the start of her three day weekend from school and wondered what she could've done for today before going to her lessons at Jason Blood's place tomorrow. After getting ready for the day, Pam returned to the loft with a stuffed duffle bag in each hand and an extra large hiking backpack slung on her back. The guardian/ward pair were going to greet her until seeing the look in the redhead's face like she was a woman on a mission.

It was there that the half-demon and former shinobi learned on what happened recently: not only was Pam's supervisor murdered by poison but their joint research was stolen.

Reason why the botanist didn't head over here right away was her needing to head straight to her greenhouse and grab her two 'baby' pods and the now identified 'security system' of hers. Pam stated that someone from work is a killer and a thief and she feared she might get framed for it.

A wild thought was brought up that said thief and killer might know what Pam exactly was. Luisa was the only person at work that knew Pam's secret, but she never showed any evidence to anyone else. Even details about their secret project -the sporeling children- as the one flower pod was stolen.

Said project was practically apart of selective gene technology as it's now possible to combine plant and animal DNA. Mostly theorized for years when scientists used hybridization to breed plants with other plants for decades to make new strains and the like. Like one example, vineyards making stronger and better product for their respective beverages over the years.

And with the jump of technology and scientific knowledge in recent years, this could be fully applied by splicing many forms of DNA to make different species -both floral and fauna alike- stronger than ever before.

So what did Luisa's killer exactly want with their genetic research? And was said person planning to throw the changed botanist under the bus to get away from it all?

...So many questions with so little time to find some answers.

This happened before in Pam's life with Woodrue having the Holland's killed for their Nobel Prize winning research before trying to steal it from the red haired botanist upon completion. All of this resulted into Pam becoming what she is today as a champion of the Green.

"Question." Rachel said, getting Pam's attention. "Why are you keeping them," pointing to the pods upstairs, "here instead of your greenhouse?"

"Few things really." Pam said once putting up the last of the reattachable security cameras. "If my superior's killer knows what I am then I think they'd know of me using the greenhouse outside of Gotham. If anything gets stolen from there, then it'll be hard for me to talk to the police."

"How so?"

Pam was going to answer when Naruto beat her to the punch, who was walking down the stairs. "You need to remember, Rachel, the Grand Greenhouse is considered condemned and 'private property'," he said with air quotes. "Being spotted or reported being there without 'proper' permission would get one charged with trespass would be the least of our worries right now. Investigations would be made and with Pam already having a record with her episode earlier this year, things would not turn out well in both the process and end results."

Said woman nodded in bitterment as her boyfriend was right on the nose.

"It's not just that, isn't it?" Rachel questioned.

Pam sat down at the kitchen counter before explaining. "You see, the facts Naruto mentioned are true, which made me have to move my two sporeling pods here, the only place I would feel they would be safe at."

"Which, despite the last minute preparation, I'll have a good number of my summons watching this place over for anything amiss." Naruto said before turning to his first girlfriend. "Speaking of things being amiss, how in the world are the pods half your size now instead of your fists in over a night?"

"I've been wondering about that as well." Said the ashen child.

All the botanist did was give out an expression that mainly read as 'I don't really know'. "Possibly the plant DNA inside of them helped accelerate their growth. After all, plants have a different life span that than of humans and animals."

Rachel blinked at this before asking a possible fact. "So would they end up becoming like the Replicants in Blade Runner?" She ended up receiving looks from her guardian and his first girlfriend. "What? I saw the movie the other day and I thought it was great." The half-demon then let out a little sigh. "I mean if they're possibly growing faster than a typical rate than other babies out there, how long will they really live after being born? Would it be a handful of years or like that of a tree by living for decades, centuries or even millenia."

This got Pam and Naruto worried on the mere thought of a simple, yet complicated detail.

"That's... right." Pam muttered. "If they grow at a fast rate, their brain chemistry would have problems on the rapid growth and change in maturity. Possibly getting smarter at a fraction of the time than any normal being out there."

Naruto groaned. "And here I thought Didi saying they'll not have the Lazarus Pits' bad side effects would be a good thing."

"Then what are you gonna do now, Pam?"

"In this situation, I would probably pull a Bruce and research everything I can get into." The Green champion then paused and thought for a moment. "But…"

"But what?" Asked the guardian/ward pair in synch.

For Naruto, he was getting worried on Pam with her current mentality. She might become Batman-leveled obsessed in getting through this problem. And with how Bruce dealt with things like this, he would be at it for days on end with little to no contact with the outside world.

As for Rachel, she had missed her pseudo-mother. For a while now, Pam felt rather distant with everyone she was close with and it made the ashen child sad. She missed the little gardening moments they had together -both here and at the greenhouse- among other things.

Before either of the pair could think of anything else, Pam spoke up. "But stressing over this -at short notice- would probably cloud my thought process. And I… need a clear head before working further into this." She then turned to Naruto and Rachel while forming a small smile. "And I believe the only way I could do that is to relax and do something… fun."

Both Naruto and Rachel brightened when hearing this. As they tried to plan things out for the day, the Uzumaki summoned a good amount of his Nobodies to guard the loft. And to possibly help out in guarding their residence, the half-demon had worked in on a spell to help defend the fort as they were gone. It won't be strong, due to Luisa's killer not being of magical nature, but it will be of good strength for the time being.

-Next Day, Gotham Botanical Gardens-

Bureaucrats… the worst kind of human many can agree upon. All Victor can think about is rules, regulations and reputation in that sexist head of his.

"...Last item on the agenda -in light of recent events- I've scheduled a mandatory review on safety for all lab staff." Victor voiced out in the cafeteria.

Everyone on staff was currently here, from being on the clock to having the day off. This sudden meeting was placed at the end of the work day so everyone could be able to make it, if possible. And there were -of course- varied reactions like any normal situation on said meeting. Many were in agreement, others were neutral and others…

"Mandatory?" Winston groaned out. "C'mon, Victor."

...bitched and moaned…

As everyone disbursed, Pam was finishing up her meal as she briefly thought over things from yesterday as a whole.

Sure, the day didn't start out all that well with her mentor's death and having to move her sporeling pods into the loft. She was honestly planning in getting into the Batcave and using the batcomputer to the best of its ability to help out in solving Lusia's death. But she remembered her discussion with Harley in the previous night, which fully made her go with her original plan for her day off in spending time with her loved ones.

Pam had a nice lunch with the guardian/ward pair before going to see a movie. Rachel decided to have them see Ms. Doubtfire and it was honestly a pretty good film. Afterwards, the three went out for a really good walk to burn off some excess energy before heading back to the loft.

Harley was a little upset that she couldn't spend a lot of time with them for the day due to her shift at Arkham. Yet this was made up after she got off and had dinner with them. The psychologist did freak out when learning about the death of Pam's supervisor and even more so when seeing the current states of her puddin and Reds' babies.

To finish off the day, the three adults had some good passionate, raunchy sex to help release some built up stress that accumulated over the past week or so… Well more so towards Pam since Harley gets a good fucking like every other day, unless she has some good time off.

Once done with her meal, Pam got up and tossed away her disposable containers and put away the meal tray before making a b-line to Victor's office. After several minutes of travel, Pam knocked on the office door before Victor cracked open the door.

"Yes?"

"Victor, I need a word with you."

The head administrator widened the opening and showed the red haired botanist in. "Is there some trouble, Dr. Isley?" He asked as he sat back down behind his desk.

Pam hotly glared at the head administrator. "Yes, there is. You know perfectly well Luisa wouldn't have poisoned herself. And what about our missing research?"

"Ah~ about that." Victor leaned against the back of his chair as he narrowed his eyes at her. "Would you like me to call the police back in? Because I can."

"Then why haven't you?"

She wasn't budging, causing him to lean forward and interlocked his fingers in front of him. "You see, Ms. Isley, Dr. Grimley and I have kept a close eye on you for quite some time now." He said in an even tone. "Curious we were when you were suddenly brought on and your expertise made us wondering what else you had to offer."

Hearing this -and the man's tone of voice with a certain 'glint'- got Pam to realize Victor and Grimley paid very close attention to her whenever she worked here at the labs. They must've noticed something that she wasn't aware of towards a slip up when using her powers. Pam then guessed they could've researched on her on what exactly got her into Arkham in the first place and either one of them is just waiting to pull out the blackmail card on her.

Wanting to slightly change topic, Pam spoke the next question on her list. "And what of our research? You didn't bother answering that."

"I would love to tell you were it went, but I honestly don't know." Victor said as Pam looked into his eyes. "And even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you since it's company property."

All this got was the Green champion narrowing her eyes before she abruptly leaving his office.

'I could easily kill you right now, Victor. But then suspicion over Luisa's death will shift to me.' Came the botanists thought as she gritted her teeth. 'And you're definitely lying. I can see that particular glint in your eye.' She tightened her fists as she went to grab her belongings before heading back home. 'I just need something good right now to help lighten my mood.'

Ask and you shall receive.

Once acquiring her purse, Pam heard her cell phone go off. Fishing it out, she saw it was Rachel who was calling her.

At one point or another, Rachel kept using the loft's phone to call Artemis and Perdita quite often. It became cumbersome when the ashen child surprisingly hogged it all to herself. And after some discussions, Naruto decided to get his ward a cell phone of her own so she wouldn't hog the loft's line at all.

Answering the call, Pam spoke up. "Yes, Rachel, what is it?"

"Hey, um… so… I already called Naruto and Harley about this before calling you." This got Pam a tad confused on what was going on before the young ward continued talking. "And he's heading back to the loft now. Harley though will try to get over once done with her shift."

"...For what exactly?"

"Um… I think… the pods in the guest bedroom are leaking."

-Naruto and Pam's Loft-

Pam bursted through the patio entrance and hurried her pace to the guest bedroom. The plants that raised her to the current level receded to the earth below as their master didn't want to wait through being in an elevator for what could've felt like ages in this crucial time. She did trip and fell on the stairs but shrugged it off while scrambling upwards.

Making it to the occupied guest bedroom, her green eyes instantly landed to the hanging sporeling pods. The pair were leaking a pinkish liquid from their tops as they were draped over an inflatable kiddie pool to catch said birthing material.

And sitting on the bed were the guardian/ward pair before standing up upon seeing Pam's arrival.

It was Naruto -who was currently a nervous wreck- that broke the small silence first. "So are they…?"

"Yes." Pam breathed out with a smile.

"But so soon?" Came Rachel's question, which her guardian nodded in agreement. "At their size, I would've thought they wouldn't be do for another week."

"So did I." Said the Green champion, walking to the pods with a shaky hand. "But… infants aren't always predictable when it pertains to their due dates."

"Obviously." Muttered the Uzumaki. He walked up to his red haired lover and looked into her eyes. "Are you alright, honey?"

Pam gave an awkward shrug as she slowly opened up the spoorling pods. "Well… this is gonna be weird."

"Why's that?"

"I never delivered a pregnant plant before." She joked. "Much less of my own flesh and blood."

"There's a first for everything." He said. "Do you need some help?"

All Pam gave him was a warm smile and that was all he needed as he cupped his hands towards the pod on the right as she took the right.

As Rachel gazed at the sight before her, she felt the ankh necklace around her neck getting rather warm out of nowhere.

"One of the things I enjoy about my job is witnessing this and I'm always there for each and every one of them." Rachel whirled her head around and jumped a little when seeing Didi sitting right next to her. "Seeing Life being brought into the world before your very eyes -despite the situations where it occurs- is always such a beautiful and wonderful thing." Death said to the ashen child. "Even if it's saddening on the complicated births."

Rachel looked over to the couple and gave a brief smile at the scene before her. Two baby girls were born in the room just now with their own distinct features. A pinkish skinned girl with green hair laid in Pamela's arms while in Naruto's laid an oddly mocha skinned child with a tuft of blond hair. Both cried in their parent's arms as said couple shed tears of joy as they greeted their first born children into the world.

The ashen child soon remembered her mother telling her that despite Rachel being brought into the world as being Trigon's daughter, Arella still loved her. From the time she was pregnant, to the very first moment she looked into her innocent purple eyes as a babe and onwards. For she could never hate her child despite how she came to be.

A thought then crossed her mind and looked over to Didi. The gothic woman saw the look Rachel was giving her that screamed 'why can't they hear you?'. All Death did was smile. "They can't hear or see me right now, Rachel." The half demon was about to ask when the goth beat her to the punch. "Only you can -at the present time- due to that necklace of mine." She stood up and patted Rachel's shoulder before walking out of the room. "Sorry if I can't stay and chat, but I've got places to be; little Raven."

The ashen ward could only wave Death goodbye as said woman returned the gesture before standing up to grab the couple some towels to wrap the newborn spoorlings in.

-Meanwhile, Gotham Botanical Gardens-

Winston groaned a little as he ended the call of one of his booty calls. "Man~ I really need some action tonight."

The 'office pig' chose to stay in a tad late to finish up a project here at the labs so he can get off early tomorrow. Now he was practically regretting it that once done with said project, he thought of hooking up with one of his girls-with-benefits for the evening. Unluckily for Winston, each and every one of them had something else going on by the time he called each of them. If he called earlier, then he would've been lucky for tonight.

The blonde scientist would've thought about trying to have a one night stand with one of his female co-workers, but they were either in a relationship with someone or was an intern. Winston tried hooking up with interns in the past, but those went horribly wrong so he had to keep his distance away for some time. And you wouldn't believe the mess he went through on that last one.

Pretty much involved the girl was in an internship program from highschool and not from college, which Winston mistook the class being from the later. And oh boy was that complicated in the aftermath that he was lucky on keeping his job at the time and not being in jail by a technicality.

But he still has the restraining order on him, so there's that.

Walking by the chairman's office, Winston heard a series of thumps coming from said room. The 'office pig' felt a tad worried while thinking his boss' boss might've fallen off his motorized wheelchair. It wasn't the first time this happened and others came to his aide, despite his stubborn nature in wanting to get back into his moveable piece of furniture on his own.

Winston faced the doorway and knocked it several times. "Hey, Dr. Grimley!" He yelled out. "Are you okay in there?!"

The blonde scientist then heard a loud crash and several things possibly breaking on the other side. Quickly opening the door, Winston was about to step inside when something large swatted aside. The 'office pig' tumbled across the small distance in the hallway before coming to an abrupt stop.

Getting back up onto his feet; Winston rushed into the office and widened his eyes upon the office's wrecked state. The bookshelves, the desk and other furniture was all broken apart with loose material scattered about.

Winston's gaze then saw a body lying on the ground behind a large portion of the desk. Rushing over, the scientist was about to check and see if the chairman was alright.

"HOLY SHIT!"

Yet he recoiled in fright upon seeing Grimley's shriveled up corpse.

-Half Hour Later-

"Damn." Bullock muttered in disgust as he gazed at the sight before him. "We're going to need a shovel, not a body bag."

It wasn't that long ago when the police were informed about the recent murder at the Botanical Gardens. Bullock, Montoya and Uchiha were sent over -with it relating to their current case- didn't know what to make of how the recently deceased became like this.

"I know, Bullock." Officer Uchiha said as he carefully took pictures of Grimley's body. "I mean, what does that to a man?"

"Not a clue, Sasuke. And we don't even need a shovel." Montoya lifted up a simple part of the corpse's clothes and saw it practically falling apart into dust by touching it, yet alone a simple breeze. "We'd rather get a dustpan and broom with it just flaky skin at this point." Picking up an arm, it entirely crumbled into dust. "And no bone's either."

"Who and how old was this guy again?" Bullock asked as he waved his hand so he wouldn't inhale the dusty residue.

"Eric Grimley, chairman of the plant sciences department here, was in his 80's." Sasuke answered. "Would've kicked the bucket sooner than later. But not through this fashion."

The heavy weighted detective groaned as he rubbed his eyes. "Well ain't this great. A big shot is just what we needed." Bullock looked to the side to see the shaken up blonde scientist. "Wouldn't blame the guy being like that."

"So what you think we should do?" Sasuke said as he stood back up. "Good cop/Bad cop? Bad Cop/Bad Cop? Good cop/Good cop?"

"We might just get this over with." Montoya said as she walked over to Winston. "Guy's so shaken up he'd sing like a canary."

Bullock merely chuckled a little. "My thoughts exactly." Coming up to the huddled scientist, who was drinking some coffee to help settle his nerves, the detective spoke. "So mind telling us what went down, er… Winston?"

Winston hesitantly nodded as he kept his eyes away from Grimley's office. "I'm… not sure. I-It all happened so fast."

Montoya came up to the witness' side. "You don't have to rush it all, sir. Just start from the beginning when you can." After a few more moments -once drinking the rest of his beverage, Winston nodded. "Now, how did you find Dr. Grimley?"

"W-Well… I was staying in late in order to wrap up some stuff in the lab so I could hopefully get off early tomorrow. A-After that, I was calling some people to see if they'd like to ha-hang out for the night, but they were rather busy. And on my way to grab my things before heading home, I-I heard noise coming from Grimley's office." Winston nervously said. "I thought that Grimley fell out of his wheelchair again or something else. When I was about to go in to see what's wrong, someone swatted me aside and out of the room. I-I couldn't really see who -or what- it was."

The three officers rose a brow, yet it was Bullock who voiced their shared thought. "What do you mean 'what'?"

"W-Well, I mean, I can't say for sure it was… human?" Winston said unsurely as he racked his brain on the memory. "I swear, detective, it was like a… monster…"

Bullock groaned once more. "You've gotta be kidding me." He then looked over to the two officers with him. "Okay, we're gonna need to shut down this whole area."

As this little interrogation took place, Pam was coming up to the facility and saw the few police cars parked outside. "Okay~ Why are they here?" She thought out loud. "Did Victor call them just to spite me and to cover his tracks? But why so late?"

Reason why the Green champion decided to come back here -instead of staying longer with her two newborns- was to sneak around in order to find any clues inside the offices of both Victor and Grimley. She could try to use her plants to directly search through them. Combing through the desk drawers and sorting through the files, both hard copy and digital, for anything relevant. An easy way for her to hopefully find answers.

Yet when she was in Victor's office earlier, Pam noticed the few plants he previously had in there were gone. From the snake plant tucked off to the side to the little cactus plant placed on his desk. The redhead had a suspicion Victor removed them recently -along with Grimley in his office space- in thinking she would've controlled them for her present purposes.

'Wish Selina could've been here.' She thought as she went through the opening hallway. 'She can do things a whole lot better than I could.' Once rounding a corner she saw several officers questioning Winston, who was looking worse for wear. "The hell is going on here?" She asked.

Winston looked over and saw his coworker, alongside the detective and officers. "Grimley's dead, Pam."

The changed botanist could only stand there in shock. "What?"

"Yeah and your coworker here ran smack into his assailant." Bullock said as he walked up to her. "Now since you're here, we'd like to ask ya a few questions. For one, what's your relation with Eric Grimley? And two, why'd ya show up here so late?"

Pam can only swallow down her annoyance, despite what just occurred. "This is ridiculous."

"Just answer the question, Ms. Isley." Officer Montoya asked as she stood next to Bullock. "The sooner you answer them, the sooner we'll be on our way."

The redhead could only massage her head before answering. "Grimley is the chairman here and is practically my boss' boss. And the reason why I'm here was that I needed to check up on my current work." She then saw the questioning looks from Bullock and Montoya on that.

"Doesn't that sound like it's in the same league as 'I left something in my office or lab'?" Officer Uchiha asked, which got Bullock to nod in agreement.

Pam let out a sigh. "My experiments are time sensitive and I have to check up on them during the off hours."

"She's right, you know." Winston said from behind the police, drawing the group's attention as he was still a nervous wreck. "Caught her several times in the past doing that. Pretty much Luisa's influence rubbing off on her."

Pam sent Winston an appreciated look, despite him still seen as the 'office pig' he is in her eyes. But with the current situation, she'll let it slide this one time.

"Regardless of the situation," Officer Uchiha said to the Green champion, "we can't let you enter, Dr. Isley."

"And why not?"

"The whole wing's going to be closed until further notice."

Pam let out a frustrated groan before whirling back around. Bullock was the one to speak up. "And where'd you think you're going?"

"I'm going back home."

As she left, Bullock rubbed his cheek before pulling out his phone. "Well this night is getting rather annoying, if ya ask me."

"Indeed it is." Montoya muttered out as several other officers entered the building to help take care of the crime scene while Officer Uchiha helped Winston get back to his car.

"Still no word from getting in contact with Victor Lee?"

"Nadda, Bullock. Tried calling him again and still not answering."

"Probably he's driving."

"Or probably something else. If he doesn't want to return calls from the police, then that'll leave more suspicion on his part."

-Back in the Loft-

"...Is it just me or are these two developing rather quickly?"

"It's not just you, Rachel."

"Good, because I was getting a tad worried." Said the ashen child as she and her guardian watched the little activities taking place before them.

Shortly after their birth, Pam decided on giving the sporelings their names, which matched their personalities at the get go. Naruto and Rachel were confused by this, but the botanist stated it was just a feeling and somewhat left it at that. But afterwards, Pam had to heartfully leave for the time being to personally check the botanical gardens to find any clues of the current situation. Naruto wanted to send a clone with her, but she assured him she can take care of it by herself before leaving.

And it was not long after her departure when Harley bursted into the loft and started interacted with the newborns as the 'fun' aunt of the family. Once introductions were made, the psychologist instantly fell in love with the sporelings and started showering with love and kisses. They either loved it or fussed over Harley's actions, but the blonde didn't care.

Now to describe the newborns, they are… unique to say the least. And a common feature the two have are the two whisker-like birthmarks on both sides of their cheeks which both showed they were indeed Naruto's daughters to just add more of their adorableness.

Rose, the blonde pinkish skinned and green eyed infant, seems quite active as Harley was currently chasing her around the loft; who was already on stumbling with her steps right now. She has a natural talent to communicate with plants; like her having them ensnare Harley when she got too close to the infant in the little playtime.

And Hazel, the oddly mocha skinned, hazel eyed and blonde infant; is actually more quiet and a bit recluse. Yet she is already displaying an amazing ability to grow vegetation without any help. Like having a nearby potted plant grow towards the ceiling by just staring at it or having an apple break apart and grow into a bonsai sized tree from its seeds.

And said child was sitting in her father's lap while she read a picture book.

"I'm a little sad, yet happy, that I only had to show Hazel here the alphabet before she started reading." Naruto said as he looked at his daughter flipping to the next page.

"Either that or she's just trying to fully grasp it." Rachel said as she closed a 'how to' baby book. "Hard to tell, if you ask me."

"And Red's gonna be pissed that she wasn't here to witness that for her first time." Harley said as she carried Rose in her arms. "Along with Rosy here taking her first steps."

"No, she'll be really pissed if she wasn't here to hear them speak for the first time; plus walking."

"Oh yeah~ that'll definitely be worse."

Naruto chuckled while envisioning Pam unknowingly acting like his mother; from what memories he saw of course from years ago. It would be rather scary if that were to happen and he might fear for his life -in some comedic fashion- were his first girlfriend not able to see their newborn's developing acts first hand. From seeing an evil spectre behind her to a suffocating aura that'll cause her hair to levitate in a ghostly fashion.

Just when everything seemed fine within the loft, the patio windows bursted open with glass spreading everywhere.

Naruto was the first to react by forming a barrier around themselves so the shattered glass wouldn't impact them. He was about to lower it when large vines shot towards the group and impacted the defensive field. They tried forcing their way through, but the force behind the rapid blows were causing it to crack.

The Uzumaki gritted his teeth as his two daughters started crying. Looking back, Harley and Rachel were trying to comfort and protect them in their respective embraces.

"Get out of the loft!" He called out to them. "Get to safety!"

"But what about you?!" Rachel spoke out over the constant banging sounds against the barrier.

"I'll take care of the source of this! Now get out of here with Rose and Hazel!" He ordered. "I'll cover you both!"

Harley and Rachel hesitantly nodded, got onto their feet and was ready to book it. Forming his ice shield, Haku, around his arm, Naruto slammed the weapon into the floor just when his barrier fell. Once this occured, ice spikes penetrated the enlarged opposing vinces. This gave Harley and Rachel the opening they needed as they ran towards the loft door and left the home to get themselves and the infants to safety in a floor or two below.

As they were gone from the residence, Naruto switched out Haku for Lunar Rose before swiping his blade to cut down the vines. Focusing through his scythe, the Uzumaki activated Pam's security system. The act caused them to grow and start chomping onto the incoming vines coming from outside.

Wanting to take care of the source of the attack, Naruto rushed towards the patio opening and saw the vines were coming from. With a mighty heave, the publisher threw his weapon upwards as it climbed a vast distance towards the roof. As it got close enough, Naruto teleported to his scythe's position, grasped it and slammed his bladed weapon into an opposing vine that tried to skewer him.

Naruto hotly glared at the being standing on the rooftop. The Uzumaki was able to make out it's hulking size -of 12 or so feet tall- with the opposing vines originating from its back. It's skin was muddy brown with large leafs protruding around its head. And to finish off the look were the beedy, sickly yellow eyes peering down at him from his mangled, deformed face.

And with Lunar Rose in his grasp, the Uzumaki felt the horrible, perverted taint radiating off it's form.

"Who… What the hell are you?" Naruto questioned. Quickly slicing through the vine, the former shinobi slashed at the other ones. "And why are you here?!"

"WHHHERRRE ARRRE THEYYY?!" Growled out the hulkish being with a warped, monstrous voice.

"Where are who?"

"THE SPOOOOOORELINGS, UZUUUMAAAKIII!"

And like that, the hulkish monster charged forward.

With each mighty step, the rooftop shook as the monster roared. Lunar Rose sliced through each of the incoming vines before it's wielder dodged the incoming tackle. Once coming up from the recovering roll, Naruto sliced through part of the monster's arm as it's blood splashed across the rooftops surface. The publisher hotly glared at his opponent, who was roaring in pain.

"You are not going to touch my daughters! You hear-!"

The monster interrupted the Uzumaki by batting him away. Soaring away from the building's rooftop at an extremely fast pace, the whiskered man threw his scythe towards it before teleporting to it's position.

By the time he got back, Naruto the monster morph and shrink through what appeared to be… the remains of a potted plant? Running up to it, he inspected the object and saw the plant was all withered and dead.

"Dammit!" He growled out before pausing as he heard the sounds of something sizzling. Looking off to the side, Naruto saw the splattered blood was bubbling like it was some sort of acid before disappearing like it was not even there to begin with. "Well there goes that."

Seeing as the threat was gone -for now- Naruto phased through the rooftop and went through the many floors before ending back up in his loft. Upon arrival, he saw the current state it was in from the decapitated vines lying on the living room's broken and thrown furniture. It wouldn't take long for him to clean this up, with his clones and summons, along with knowing how much it'll cost to replace the damaged goods.

But none of that mattered as long as his loved ones were safe.

Just when he pulled out his phone to call Harley so they can get back in here, he heard Pam's voice behind him. "Oh my god!" She cried out. "What the hell happened? And where are-"

"They're safe, Pam." He said before he heard Harley pick up the call. "You girls can get back now. The attacker's gone."

"W-Who attacked?" The botanist asked in distress.

"I don't know, but the… monster was after our daughters." Naruto said after hanging up. He looked towards his first lover and saw her wrathful expression.

"Where is he?!"

"The attacker got away, Pam. Used the same kind of high tier plant traveling technique you showed me once."

"...You mean of traveling across a city or the glove in a snap?" She shockingly asked as her voice went back to normal. "But how could-?"

"Found the remains of a dead potted plant on the rooftop." Naruto answered. "And it seemed he sucked up it's remaining lifeforce so he wouldn't get tracked by you."

"But was there anything else he left behind?"

"Some blood when we fought, but it corroded away like acid back on the rooftop."

It wasn't long before Harley and Rachel came back with the sporeling newborns in their arms did Pam come up to them and hugged the life out of them. "Thank goodness you two are safe."

"It's nothing, Red." Said the psychologist once out of Pam's grasp. "And look, we kept your babies safe."

Once ending the embrace with Rachel, she took hold of her two daughters and gave a small smile at her friend and pseudo ward. "Don't worry sweeties." She cooed at them as they gave out small whimpers. "No monsters going to hurt you."

"Then we'll need to increase the security here, Pam." He said in a stern expression. "The attack came when we least expected it and this might not have happened if I had my summons out."

"Or my magic barrier." Rachel timidly said.

The Green champion looked at them and gave them a reassuring expression. "It's not your fault, you two. Neither of you knew this would have occurred so soon."

"But what are we gonna do, Pam?" Naruto asked. "The attacker might come back for Rose and Hazel."

"Rose and Hazel?" Spoke a familiar voice. Whirling around, Naruto Pam and Rachel saw Selina standing in the doorway. "Okay… What the hell happened here?" The ravenette thief then saw the infants in Pam's arms and gained a surprised look in response. "The kids are here?! Already?!"

"This surprised us as well, Selina. Which we'll happily catch you up on." Naruto said as he came up to her. "But now… are you okay? How were things while you were gone?"

"Um… Things are good, Naruto." Selina said as she scratched the side of her head. "And I can talk about what happened later." The Red champion then motioned towards the loft before her. "So mind telling me what's going on?"

After situating themselves at the kitchen counter; Naruto, Rachel, Pam and Harley filled in Selina of recent events. And it didn't take long for Selina to get brought up to speed.

"So let me get this straight," Selina started off, "someone stole all of your joint research at your lab and is poisoning and killing the top scientists." She then looked at the two newborns. "Said research is related to these two… cute little girls. And some monster came here for them." The Red champion then looked over to Green counterpart. "I have a question, Red. If this guy was controlling plants, can't you just sense him through the Green and locate him through there?"

Pam blinked before realizing her dark haired girlfriend was right. The redhead closed her eyes and focused everything she can to get in touch with the Green. But for some reason... there is some kind of interference... and it's rather strong.

Naruto saw something was off and voiced his concern. "Pam, are you alright?"

"I'm... not." She struggled out. "I can't reach them or even Yggdrasil." Pam opened her eyes and looked at him. "Something's blocking me and I couldn't hear anything."

Both Selina and Naruto exchanged worried glances upon hearing this as it was highly unusual for this to occur with the Nature group. And it was Naruto who voiced it. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. And it's not right."

Naruto sighed and scratched his head as that possible idea became a dead end. "Then if we can't find that guy, then what about Victor Lee?" He asked.

"Hmm… Maybe his home?"

Harley shook her head on that. "I don't think he'll be there." She then explained her thoughts. "By my guess, a creep like that won't bluntly hideout at his place if he's trying to hide something this big. Hell, I bet he has some hidey hole he'll camp out at until this'll all blow over."

"Harley's right, Red." Selina said in agreement. "Someone that high profile has got to have a place to hide all of his crap so it'll be hard for anyone to find it. So if there's any place this Victor person is keeping your research, then where do you think it might be located?"

Pam thought for a moment or two before giving out a frustrated sigh. "We might need to look up the information to see if I'm correct."

"Where at?"

-Batcave-

"What are you doing exactly?"

"Hacking into the Gotham Permits Department to find the information I'm looking for." Said the Green champion to the Arkham employee as she typed away through the batcomputer.

Pam had told them they needed to borrow the infamous batcomputer for the time; for it being the best way to find what she might be looking for. She would've had the resident thief break into the permits department as she was the most experienced out of all of them to get in and out quite easily with the desired information.

Yet Pam wanted to quickly get this over with and to do that required using the best hacking tool they could get their hands on. Thus Bruce's batcomputer.

Right before Naruto, Harley, Pam and Selina left; Rachel volunteered to stay behind to watch over Rose and Hazel with a magical barrier set up as we speak. And to help out his ward in the task, Naruto had a horde of summons watching over them just in case of anything.

After several more keystrokes, several windows came up. "Here we go." Pam spoke out.

They looked at the details and saw it was the blueprints and layouts of the Gotham Botanical Gardens. "These don't look the same like the ones at your work, Pam."

"Because these are for the previous location the Gardens were located." She said while pulling out a laser pointer and aiming it at the date. "Built in 1888, the original Gotham Botanical Gardens competed against the Grand Greenhouse. Yet it got converted into a visitor's center back in the 70's when the better and current version of the Gardens was built around the ancient tree we typically see everyday now."

"And why bring this up, Pammy?" Harley asked.

"Because the original one became a storage facility for the Gardens after the visitor's center closed down in order to save money or whatever." Pam then pulled up what appeared to be an updated version of said building. "And according to this, for some reason, the current layout of the location has one particular problem."

Selina looked at the schematics and gave out her thoughts. "You might be right. There's quite a lot of state-of-the-art security for just a storage facility."

"Do you think we can get around it?" Pam asked.

"If it's just by myself, that'll be tricky." The Red champion then smirked. "But with all of us, then we'll do just fine."

-Gotham Botanical Gardens, The Old Abandoned Facility-

"...And what do you see, you two?"

Currently in their 'nightly' garbs, Vanitas and his three costumed lovers overlooked the area. Harley was leaning on her large mallet for support with an absolute bored expression and Ivy was pacing back and forth while Selina and their shared lover were inspecting the sight below with their binoculars and 'zoom' ability respectively.

"I see activity down there." Said the Catwoman.

"At least we know that's definitely not an empty building, Ivy." Vanitas said with a narrowed glance. "Especially with the heavily armed security at every entrance I can possibly see."

"I'm not sure how we're gonna get through the traditional-"

The conversation was cut short as they heard the skidding of dirt and rocks not far away. Ivy, Catwoman and Vanitas saw the source was coming from Harley and wondered what the hell she was doing. Redirecting their respective equipment, the thief and the hero saw the costumed psychologist eventually stop some distance away from the building. She then started looking around and then jumped a little before crouching down at one spot and prying open what appeared to be…

"Are those," Selina muttered before widening her optics, "steam tunnels?" She then slapped for forehead a little. "Of course, why didn't I think of those."

The three eventually caught up with Harley before they entered the steam tunnels connected to the storage facility.

"How did you know these were here, Harl?"

"A lot of buildings built in the 19th century have these, Kitty." Answered the bubbly blonde. "I remember Guy taking me through these one time back in college in order to break into the professor's offices just for kicks." Ducking under an enlarged pipe, Harley soon turned left at a branching section. "And if I remember correctly from the blueprints, there should be an old service entrance just around here."

After navigating through several corners, the group was able to fully stand up before trekking down a small hallway. Coming across a sealed door, Vanitas held Ivy's and Catwoman's hand -with Harley latching onto his back- before phasing them right through. Once on the other side, the Red champion felt a tingle in her nose before sniffing the air.

"Is it just me or do you guys smell smoke?"

Harley took a whiff and gave a reply. "It's like something's burning or someone took too many joints here often."

Ivy was going to say something when-

'...H-Hello?'

-she felt and heard something from the Green… The redhead soon snapped her head to the side as she distinguished the voice. Ivy then started walking away from the others.

Vanitas noticed her action and was going to call out to her when the alarms blared to life.

*BWEEP* *BWEEP* *BWEEP*

"...I hope we didn't trip the alarms!" Harley spoke out as she whirled her head at every other direction. "Or get spotted by the cameras!"

"Level 6 emergency! All personnel must evacuate!" A man spoke out through the intercoms. "I repeat, all personnel must evacuate immediately! This is not a drill!"

"Oh! Nevermind!" The masked blonde then felt her arm getting yanked by Selina. "Hey!"

"We need to move!" She yelled out. "I hear people running this way!"

Vanitas copied Catwoman's action by pulling Ivy into a different hallway before the four saw half a dozen scientists running away with expressions of pure fright.

"God help us!"

"It's a nightmare!"

"Run for your lives!"

"Lockdown in progress." Spoke an electronic voice this time. "Repeat: Lockdown in progress."

Vanitas, Catwoman and Harley had bewildered looks on their faces and wondered what was going on. The only person who didn't adopt the expression for the current moment was Ivy, who was looking upwards like she was paying attention to something.

Vanitas noticed this again and spoke to her. "Ivy? What's wrong?"

'...Hello? C-Can you hear m-me?' Spoke a child's voice. 'I-I'm… afraid.'

"Can't you hear it, honey?"

"Hear what?" Vanitas asked as Harley and Catwoman picked up on this and were curious as well.

"A… little girl." Ivy answered. "She's scared. Afraid."

"Where?"

"I can hear her… from the Green." Responded the Green champion. She then walked at a quickened pace down a hallway while motioning them to follow her. "This way!"

They complied with Ivy's request and followed after her. As they did, each took notice of the scorch marks along the metal walls with various dents along the way. This got the entire group to realize that something bad recently happened.

Venturing further into the storage facility, Ivy kept in contact with the little girl through the Green. 'Can you hear me, little one?' She asked. 'Who and where are you?'

'They were… bad men.' Said the scared child as she didn't answer Ivy's questions. 'They... they tried to hurt me. But I escaped.'

'...What did you do?'

After rounding the corner, the entire group froze in their spots as they saw several dead men lying on the ground. Each of them had a automatic weapon on hand... and a flamethrower for some reason. But what truly stood out were the exposed skin taking on the appearance of demented and twisted wood with thorns and blood coming out from their mouths.

'I had to hurt them back.'

"I think I may hurl." Harley spoke as she felt queasy at the sight before her. And from the corner of her eye, she saw Catwoman holding her mouth.

"I think I might, too."

Vanitas came up to the bodies and inspected them. 'How the hell did this happen?' He thought as he lifted up a changed limb. 'What could possibly change flesh into wood?'

"We must get going." Ivy spoke out, snapping Vanitas out of his thoughts and the other women from their disgusted moment. "The source is somewhere upstairs. I can feel it."

Vanitas stood up from his spot and nodded at his red haired lover. Looking back, he saw Harley and Catwoman look and moved away from the deformed bodies in order to follow Ivy down the hallway.

After a minute of travel, the group went up a flight of stairs before entering a mirror facility of the lab at the Botanical Gardens. It was state-of-the-art in the research variety. And a shared thought was formed within the group members' minds: there was no way this place could've been constructed without higher-up approval.

Hell, this was practically from the very top.

On the far off side, there was a multi-monitoring system set throughout this building... and the main one Pam works at.

"Ivy." Harley spoke with a narrowed glance. "Someone's indeed been watching you at work and it's been all done here."

The Green champion nodded in anger before she heard Catwoman speak up. "Hey! I think I found your research!" Ivy turned her head around and saw the thief was rummaging through a file cabinet and started pulling out handfuls of folders and books.

Marching over, Ivy wanted to confirm they were hers and Luisa's work. Upon seeing the covers, they were indeed theirs. "My missing notebooks… Luisa's… and our HR files!" Ivy then let out a growl. "Where the hell is Victor?!" She then shoved down her anger as she started flipping through the pages just in case anything was missing. "I understand he never liked Luisa -and vice versa- or me for that matter."

"But wasn't he close to Grimley for years?" Vanitas asked. "Why would Victor possibly kill him?"

"Too soon to tell." She let out a frustrated sigh. "But I don't understand. This doesn't make sense." Ivy looked over to her male lover with the large stack of notes, journals and documents next to her. "Would you be a dear and make something for me to carry all of these?"

Vanitas nodded as she formed a large backpack with his powers. He handed it to her before Ivy started shoving them into the backpack.

"Hey. There's another room over here and it's sealed." Harley spoke out as she pointed to a high tech locking system. "Puddin, mind getting us through? I've got a feeling more of our answers are behind here"

"Sure thing."

Summoning Lunar Rose, the helmeted Uzumaki was about to quickly slice through the security door when he felt and heard something familiar.

"ISSSLLLEEEY… UZUUUMAAAKIII… TOO CLOSE… MUST FIND…"

Quickly noticing his hesitation, Harley spoke the same thought as Ivy and Catwoman. "Is something wrong?"

"...It's here."

"What?/Huh?/Excuse me?"

"The monster I fought earlier, it's hear." Vanitas answered as he tightened his grip. "I can feel it's taint… through the Green."

"But how can you feel it instead of me?"

"I don't know." Said the vigilante as he raised his scythe and brought it down to break through the door. "But we've got other matters to attend to."

The moment the security door fell onto the ground, the group once again adopted the same expressions from earlier in the hallways. Underneath the red light shining from above, a litter of dead scientists were deformed with wood and blood coming out of their bodies. And in the center of the room was a destroyed medical bed with snapped, leather restraints.

"Ugh! Not again!" Harley groaned out.

"The hell happened here?" Spoke the Catwoman.

These scientists were experimenting on something." Muttered the black/white themed hero. "Or someone… and they didn't like it."

'Could it be...?' Ivy's thoughts went to that girl's voice through the Green.

*BANG* *THUMP* "HELP!" *BUMP* *BANG* "PLEASE!"

The group heard the muffled sounds coming from within the room. They walked in and started searching for the source.

Yet as they did, each of them horribly saw what they couldn't see from outside of the room. That lining the far right side of the room were rows of dead, plant-like fetus' lined up in either glass beakers or glass cages.

The masked psychologist dry heaved several times before rushing to the nearest trash can and threw up her evening meal. The cat-themed thief tightened her fists in disgusted anger on the destroyed forms of life before her.

And as for Ivy, she flurred through a rainbow of emotions. The men responsible stole her research to create their own sporelings. There were many tries with an equal amount of failures. For they disregarded life who knows how many times.

With Vanitas, he could only grit his teeth in anger and wanted to destroy something for a while. Yet he had to shove down the feeling -for the time being- as he held his beloved red haired girlfriend to comfort her.

The group turned their gazes away from the horrific sight in the room to resume the search as the muffled pleas for help were still heard. In that time, Selina quickly took out a camera from her belt and took pictures of the sight before her in order to gather evidence for the police. And it didn't take long for Harley to notice the source of the noise was coming from the freezer installed into the room.

"Hey guys! Someone's alive!" Harley called out.

As the masked blonde was marching towards the freezer, Ivy -and now Vanitas- heard the girl's voice from the Green. 'I hated needles.' She weeped out. 'I had to change the bad men to stop them.' The moment Harley opened the door, Victor Lee fell down as he was almost frozen to death. 'And he was a very bad man.'

"HOLY SHIZNO!" Harley yelped out as Victor tried to warm himself up in a fetal position. "Is he dead?!"

"He might as well be." Ivy growled out. Marching towards the head administrator, the Green champion yanked him off the ground to hotly glare at the man's blue face. "You stole my shared research and work with Luisa, killed her and Grimley, broke into my home and threatened my daughters! WHY?!"

All Victor could do was wheeze out a chuckle. "Y-Y-You th-think yo-you're s-so-so sm-smart, Isley. B-But you ha-have no idea what's happening... Wh-What you've unleashed."

Ivy was about to lash out on Victor when Vanitas grasped her shoulder. "It's not him, Ivy." He said, causing her to look at him in confusion. "He is involved in this -no doubt about it- but something's off." The hero turned his gaze to the soon to be former head administrator, with said man feeling the heavy feeling placed on him that would make the freezer seem like child's play. "You're working for someone… something and you want a big slice of the ending profits, aren't you?"

Before Vanitas and Ivy could properly interrogate him, Selina spoke up. "Ivy, Vanitas, you've gotta see this."

The pair looked over and saw Harley and Catwoman crouched next to a vent. The Green champion soon tossed Victor to the broken medical bed where he was soon rendered unconscious. Ivy and Vanitas then made their way towards the others' position to see some form hiding behind the vent.

"How'd she get herself in there?" Harley asked.

"Hiding like a smart girl. That's what." Said the Catwoman.

"I know that, but still: how?" As the thief pried off the vent, the masked blonde spoke in a soft, gentle voice. "Hey, it's okay. Don't be scared. We're not going to hurt you."

Once Vanitas and Ivy got close, they saw what appeared to be a small girl barely peeking out from the vent's shadows.

"Hey, it's alright." Ivy spoke in a gentle tone. "You can come out now. The bad men are gone."

The child hesitantly moved further out of the vent. She kept herself cautious just in case the people before here were bad. When the adults saw this, they knew they wouldn't blame her at all. And as the light showed more of her details, the costumed individuals held their breath and widened their eyes.

The little girl -who wore an oversized shirt to cover up her body- appeared to be physically close to two years of age. Her yellow-green skin complexion was an odd trait to have, but it showed that she was indeed part plant. Her raggedy brown hair reached to the bottom half of her back with thorny vines mixed in the whole mess. The little girl's green eyes held a lot of pain and sorrow as they shifted to each of the adults.

Yet the one trait that stood out the most was the two whisker-like birthmarks on her cheeks… just like Rose and Hazel.

The sight before him made the costumed Uzumaki melt his glass domed helmet away to reveal his features onto her. Both looked at each other, but Naruto had one out of shock which opposed the curious one. And the vigilante wasn't the only one as the three women shared their male lover's expression.

"Y-You have marks," said the frightened sporeling as she placed her hands on his cheeks, "like mine." She then saw tears well up in his eyes. "W-Who are you?"

The sporeling flinched when the whiskered man before her wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. Before the yellow-green skinned girl could say anything, he beat her to it. "I'm… I'm your father. Your daddy." He said with tears falling down his cheeks. Pulling away after several moments, he motioned for Pam to introduce herself.

Pulling down her hood and face mask, the redhead botanist shed tears as well. "And… And I'm your mother."

The sporeling looked at the two and could only voice the only thought that crossed her mind. "W-Why?" The couple looked at her as she swallowed a lump in her throat. "Why weren't you there for me?" She asked, causing them to feel extremely hurt. "Why weren't you there for me when the bad men hurt me?"

"You… You were taken from us." Pam heartfully said. "Before you were born, you were taken from us." The redhead then took hold of what appeared to be her eldest daughter as tears kept flowing down her face. "But I promise you, your father and I will be sure the bad men will never bother and harm you ever again."

The sporeling saw her father nod to show he's making the same promise as well. He then joined the embrace as Harley and Selina softly smiled at the scene before them. And it was there the young hybrid possibly felt the peace she dearly wished for.

-Insert Dark Souls 3: Curse-rotted Greatwood-

Yet this moment came to a sudden end as enlarged vines burst through the ceiling, knocking the two standing women away from the hugging individuals. And before they could react, the couple was smacked onto the ground as their sporeling daughter tumbled away from them.

"FOUND YOU!" Growled out a monstrous voice. The vines ensnared the frightened sporeling as she screamed for help. "I WAS LOOKING ALL OVER FOR YOU!"

"LET HER GO!" Naruto roared out as he reformed his darkened helmet. This was ignored as the vine shot up through with the sporeling child in its grasp. Growling, Vanitas ran towards the opening above and threw his scythe upwards in hopes of catching up to whoever was behind this mess.

"I'm coming with you!" Pam called out as she latched onto her boyfriends arm. Just as she did, they were teleported to the scythe's location.

Being left in the lab, Harley and Catwoman clicked their tongues.

"We need to get up there."

"I know, Harl, but we have other pressing matters."

Harley looked over to Selina's line of sight and saw both Victor's unconscious body and the backpack containing all of Pam's research. Nothing had to be said as Harley quickly grabbed the sack before helping her friend get the unconscious man out of the building. After all, the man involved with the crime needed to be kept safe -for the time being- before being handed into police custody.

With Vanitas and Ivy, they quickly zipped through the floors in order to reach their stolen child. They zigzagged through broken walls and ceilings before reaching the rooftop. Once landing, they hotly glared at the monster with their weeping child now within its grasp.

Upon laying her eyes at it's hulking form, the Green champion immediately sensed this being-being the one blocking her attempts to talk to the Green… somehow. She felt it's nasty taint and every fiber of her being wanted to kill this beast.

"This is going to be our only and final warning!" Vanitas growled out. "Let her go or get the beating of a lifetime!"

"HIGHLY UNLIKELY, UZUUUMAAAKIII." Spoke out the monster.

Despite the voice sounding warped and demented, it sounded familiar to the Green champion. With widened eyes, it clicked. "Dr. Grimley?!" She yelled out in shock. "But you're dead! Winston found you at the lab!"

"NO. I AM ALIVE." Said the now identified 'dead man'. "AND YESSS, I AM GRIM. JUST OUTGREW… MY… OLD… SKIN…"

"How-?"

"YOURRR RRESSEARCHHHH…" Answered the changed man. "ALL MY LIFE, I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THE ANSWER TO IMMORTALITY. AND I KNEW SCIENCE HAD THAT ANSWER." The sporeling struggled in his grasp as he kept talking. "I ROSE TO THE TOP OF MY FIELD. BECAME THE HEAD OF THE BOTANICAL GARDENS LAB. BUT FOR YEARS THE ANSWER ELUDED ME."

The monster used his unoccupied hand to tap his head. "MY MIND REMAINED SHARP, BUT MY BODY... BEGAN TO DIE. ONLY VICTOR KNEW AND HE DID EVERYTHING HE COULD TO STOP MY STAGE FOUR CANCER… WHICH STARTED REACHING MY BRAIN AND LUNGS."

Grimley started pacing back on the rooftop as the couple opposingly moved in front of him. "BUT THEN THE IDEA OF LONGEVITY CAME ALONG. YEW AND TAXUS BACCATA WERE SOURCES FOR TAANES, A CANCER-FIGHTING TREATMENT. AND YOUR JOINT RESEARCH HAD SO MANY POSSIBILITIES." The creature before them chuckled darkly. "FOR IT'S WHY I ALLOWED YOU TO… GROW YOUR CREATURES ALL THOSE MONTHS AGO. ALL SO I COULD USE THE EMBRYONIC FLUID OF YOUR GENE-EDITING EXPERIMENT."

The Green champion widened her eyes on what Grimley meant. "Stem cells. You're talking about stem cells. From my sporelings!"

Stem cell therapy is considered a working theory in the scientific community -at the current point of time- with it heavily researched; for it requires raw genetic material. Practically generating new cells -of any kind- and using them to replace damaged ones. With the right chemical and genetic signals, they can form anything: size, shape and function.

For example, have a really bad heart? Then introduce stem cells onto the organ and many of the damaged muscles could get repaired and make them stronger.

Acquiring stem cells vary as they can be found in almost all of the body's organs and tissue matter. Whether they be from the brain, bone marrow, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin and teeth as examples. And gaining these are normally done through human donors -and animals- for the research.

Yet other means of getting stem cells can be taken from amniotic fluids after a pregnancy like using the umbilical cord to harvest these cells… or from dead infants… like what Vanitas and Ivy seen in the labs below.

"YESSS. STEMMM CELLSSSS. SOOO SSMART, ISSSLEY." Grimly then held up the sporeling child in his grasp. "KEPT THIS ONE ALIVE AND TOOK WHAT I NEEDED OVER THE MONTHS EVER SINCE YOU GAVE LUISA THAT ONE POD IN ORDER TO MAKE OTHERS. ONLY SMALL AMOUNTS AT A TIME SO THIS CHILD WOULDN'T DIE."

"There could've been other ways, Grimley!" Yelled out the Green champion as she started planning in ways on how to get their daughter back.

"I HAD NO CHOICE! CELL REGENERATION WAS THE ONLY ANSWER!" Shot back The Grim. "I RISKED IT AND AFTER TENN YEARRSS OF SELF IMPRRISONMENT, I WAS FRREE!" The monster said with glee in his warped, demented voice. Yet it quickly soured as he glared at Ivy. "BUT THERRE WERRE UNUSUAL SSIDE EFFECTSS... AND IT WAS GETTING HARDER AND HARDER TO HIDE… THE CHANGES!"

"And how could that happen?" Vanitas asked out of sheer curiosity. "You were in a bloody wheelchair for years. You could've easily hid…" He looked over and saw his botanist girlfriend giving him a particular look. "What? I'm just stating a fact."

"TRUE, BUT IT WAS THAT LUISA… SSUSPECTED SSOMETHING. TRROUBLESSOME WOMAN." The Grim spat out in annoyance. "VICTORRR AND I HAD JUST FINISHED SSETTING UP THE SSECRET RRESEARCH FACILITY HERE, AWAYY FROM PRRYING EYES. BUT LUISA FOUND IRREGULARITIES WITH THE WAYNE BUDGET FOR THE GARDENS."

Grimley then chuckled in a menacing tone. "FORTUNATELY, YEW BERRIES… VERRRY TOXIC. POISONING CAN TAKE SOME TIME… AS YOU KNOW." He said, causing Pam to let out a gasp in realization. "ENOUGH TIME FOR ME TO GO THROUGH AND TAKE THE FILES I NEEDED TO DEVELOP MY OWN SPORELING CELL SUPPLY, WITH YOUR UNBORN CHILD BEING A MAIN PART TO SUPPLY WHAT I COULD NOT DO IN THE LATER EXPERIMENTS."

"So it was you all along!" She roared out in anger in her dual voice.

"YESSS. YOU SAVED MY LIIIIFFFE, ISSSLLLEEEY. BUT I NEED MORE CELLLSSSS…"

Ivy was going to question this until she saw the tumors growing on the underside of Grimley's neck. "Your cancer came back, hasn't it?"

There can be a problem involved if one introduces stem cells to cancer and tumor cells. In theory, they are supposed to help stop the cancer and tumor cells' growth rate and terminate them at a faster rate than from your typical cancer treatments with radiation and surgery.

Yet without the proper means of correctly applying the stem cells, the newly introduced material could either get converted and enhance the problem or suppress it for an unknown amount of time. Much less the low possibility of getting rejected.

"YESSS… THE ONES DOWN BELOW COULD ONLY HELP ME FOR SO LONG UNDER SO LITTLE TIME. I NEED MOOORRRE!"

Life and Death, it's a cycle. For plants. For animals. For all living beings out there. This creature -this monster- seeks to leave the Cycle between Life and Death in order to gain Immortality. This cannot stand with what he's done to reach that state.

But it wasn't just that. Grimley not only tried to kidnap his two daughters, but also harmed and tortured his stolen third... Something inside of him flipped as primal emotions of a newly made father made Vanitas want to make Grimley pay dearly…

-Insert Bloodborne The Old Hunters: Living Failures Extended-

Darkened whisps radiated off his body as he charged forward in hopes of striking down this monster hard and fast in order to save his daughter. Behind his glass domed helmet, the Uzumaki's eyes brightly glowed with rage fueling his movements. And energy leaked out of Lunar Rose's ivory blade with the first slash he made, which was severing the hand which held his daughter.

"AHHHH!" Grimley roared out. "THAT WAS JUST A STING! A FLESSSH WOUND!"

Just when the monster tried to reach out to take back his prize, wooden pillars bolted from the rooftops bottom and smacked the monster away. Vanitas quickly reached his daughter and phased her out of the animated limb's grasp before forming a clone and handing her to it. It then took off running to get her to safety.

Looking back, Vanitas saw he wasn't the only one feeling this way as Ivy roared while calling upon the surrounding plant life. They answered as they sprouted from around the building and slammed at The Grim in a repeated fashion. And with her beloved boyfriend's help -who started sending energy blades from his scythe- most of the former botanical garden building started crumbling down.

Seeing the building collapse onto itself, Vanitas quickly caught Ivy and leaped away so neither would get harmed from the debrie. Landing back onto the ground, the Green champion yelled out to the pile in hopes the monster died in the process. "That was for Luisa, you bastard!"

The wreckage shook before The Grim's massive form bolted out of the ground with debris flying everywhere.

"Hey! You walking tumor!" Vanitas taunted, causing The Grim to glare. "Yeah, I'm talking to you, you science hack job!" The monster lashed out at the vigilante, yet he kept missing. Even sliding underneath the massive pile of mutated flesh before slicing through it's legs. "Heh~ too slow."

The Grim fell down with the temporary lack of legs holding him up. "YOU LITTLE-" The monster focused on regenerating and reconnecting his severed limbs before standing back up to attack Vanitas. Yet there was no sign of him. "WHERRRE ARE YOU?!"

"Right here!" Came the sudden call before the Green monster was slammed into the ground by the hero's Rasengan. The attack started shredding through as it's acidic blood sprayed all over and quickly corroded once impacting different surfaces.

Despite the heavy damage upon him, enlarged vines sprung from his back and smacked the vigilante away. Getting back up on his feet, The Grim had two of his vines dug into the earth as he lashed out. Even using his other attached vines to knock away the plants which were controlled by Ivy.

"You're going down, Grimley." Ivy spoke out as she stomped her feet. Enlarged roots sprung from the ground, crashing into the monster's form in a twisted wave of wood.

As The Grim fell, the earth shook around. The vigilante and champion steadied themselves, yet they too fell with plants smacking the pair into each other. The couple tumbled across the ground for a few moments before they both saw their opponent get back up and stalk towards them in a quickened pace.

Before Grimley could get close enough, his head snapped towards the side as a powered kick was delivered by the resident Red champion. The changed scientist stumbled in his steps before a whip ensnared his neck and was soon pulled back as it's owner pulled with all her might.

"Now!" Called out Catwoman.

"Ya got it, Kitty!"

Vanitas and Ivy soon heard the sounds of whistling flying through the air. Whipping their heads, the couple saw a rocket flying towards the briefly restrained Grimley. At the last moment, Selina used the monster as a springboard to leap away. Grimley saw this, but was too late to act as got an explosion in his deformed face.

"Okay I'm sorry," Vanitas spoke out as he helped Ivy stand back up, "but where and how did you get that?!"

"What~? You thought I just had my trusty mallet?" Harley called out to them as she loaded up her launcher before taking aim. "You should've known that by now." Firing another round, the group soon heard Grimley roar out in pain from the next explosion. "Oh and before you two ask, Thorn's being sent back to the loft by puddin's clone as we speak."

Glowing green eyes blinked in confusion, alongside hidden hazel ones. "Thorn?/Thorn?" Asked Vanitas and Ivy.

They received a shrug from the masked blonde. "Thought it was appropriate with the thorns growing out of her head." She then glared at them. "Oh don't look at me like that! You two already named Rose and Hazel! So why can't Aunty Harley have her choice?!"

Ivy shook her head on her former doctor's antics while Vanitas merely chuckled.

"Hey, Harl!" Called out the Green champion.

"Yeah, Ivy?!"

"Can you, Selina and Vanitas distract Grimley?" Ivy said while pulling up her hood and face mask. "I need some time wrestling dominance over the surrounding plant life from him."

"Ya got it!" Saluted bubbly blonde.

The helmeted Uzumaki didn't say anything, only giving his red haired lover a complying nod. Rushing forward with scythe in hand, Vanitas sent energy blade swings at the changed scientist to deliver more damage for their distraction. Getting close enough, the hero slammed the ivory blade into the earth before a newly created tree struck Grimley.

The former human grunted in pain from the attack. He retaliated by reforming his hands into giant hammers to break the tree. Grimley then slammed them to the ground in hopes of killing the vigilante. Though this was not meant to be as the hero slid to the side to evade the attack before slashing at the monster's arms.

Leaping into the air to dodge another blow, Vanitas saw Catwoman charging. Grimley saw this as well as he commanded many flora to attack both her and the costumed blonde, who was firing bullets from afar.

Selina weaved, slid, jumped and maneuvered her way around the incoming enemy plants with her enhanced agility and speed in order to get in close. Harley was in a similar boat, but it was more towards staying from afar to keep up with the supporting fire. But with her current arsenal of giant mallet, a rocket launcher (which has a few rounds left) and her pistols; the costumed blonde will be forced to start fighting at close range very soon. And this was proven to be true as vines shot out of the ground and shot towards the masked Arkham employee.

"Nuh uh! No way!" She cried out as she bolted away from the incoming vines. "I'm not gonna get roped into that!" Harley brought out her mallet and slammed it at one of them before sliding over a car's hood. "Only Red has the right to use those in the-"

"HARLEY!" Ivy yelled out from across the battlefield, who was concentrating from behind a broken tree.

"Oh, right! Sorry!"

While dealing with his attackers, Grimley felt the control he had over the surrounding flora starting to wane. He quickly noticed the source, causing him to charge at Isley in hopes of killing her. Yet he was held back for a time by Vanitas slamming a Rasengan at his legs.

As she ran towards her prey; Selina's muscles expanded, then condensed before sharp claws poked out from her gloves. Her green eyes sharpened alongside her teeth as she briefly roared at Grimley. The monster turned his attention towards the ravenette thief before receiving an assault of strengthened strikes at both his head and torso.

Starting to get weak, Grimley slammed his massive hands into the ground and formed a massive barrier of thickened roots, branches and vines. He then heard and felt the continued assault on his defense. Needing more support, Grimley dug his hands into the earth. One went to absorb some of the surrounding flora's life energy and sent it to his barrier. The other quickly went underground to the possibly destroyed lab where dead sporelings were kept.

'I MUST HAVE MORE STRENGTH…' Came the monster's thoughts.

Before Catwoman threw her next punch, two giant vines smashed into the sides of Grimley's thick, plant dome. Two more slammed down on it from above, caused it to crack. It soon fell apart once an explosion impacted the enemy barrier, courtesy of Harley's rocket launcher for added support.

Said explosion caused Selina to tumble away until her back hit something solid and very dense. The Red champion grunted out in pain once hitting the building's debrie. Pushing off the ground, she quickly- if not woozily- stood up.

'Harley should've paid attention that I was right fucking there!' Catwoman groaned in thought. Grabbing her side, Selina saw Grimley's barrier start to reform itself as she steadied herself while shaking the haze from her brain.

Just when the enemy barrier was about to completely repair itself, Catwoman saw what appeared to be a giant beanstalk completely slam into the barrier. It shattered completely under the massive weight that fell upon it.

The Red champion looked at the source and spotted Vanitas not too far from the base of it. With the way he moved his scythe, the recently made beanstalk moved in synch to show he was the one to control it. And it was pretty clear to Selina -and possibly Harley, wherever she may be now- that the beanstalk and the vines from earlier were probably in full control by their male lover.

'Naruto…' She thought as the ringing in her ears finally left.

It was still easy for her to forget that Naruto had more access using the Green whenever using that scythe of his. Selina and Pam called bullshit when told about this, but seeing Naruto's memories back in India, they realized this was indeed true. And Harley thought it was really cool this happened and wondered if he could use that in the bedroom…

Yeah~ the bubbly blonde has quite the naughty set of thoughts to their shared love life.

Just when Selina was about to move forward, a defining roar was heard as Grimley bursted out of the destroyed barrier, seemingly larger and stronger than before.

'The hell?!' Came the shared thoughts of Grimley's opponents.

As the monster before them stood several feet taller, the group saw Grimley toss several small objects into his mouth and chewed. "AW~ THAT'S THE STUFF!" He spoke out as he popped more into his gullet.

Curious as to what they were, Vanitas used his Hawkeye ability to zoom for a better look. What he saw caused him to stiffen before boiling rage filled his entire being. "You sick bastard!" Yelled out the helmeted hero.

"What's going on?!" Harley yelled out from behind a destroyed car.

"He's eating them. He's eating the failed sporeling corpses!"

The three women stood there in shock and felt absolutely disgusted what was happening.

"THEY'VE SERVED THEIR PURPOSES BEFORE." Said the changed scientist. "NOW THEY'LL DO IT AGAIN, IN FULL."

With fierce determination; Selina lurched forward, leapt into the air and started punching the monster with gusto. Each hit hurts The Grim and it was very satisfying to her. Yet each blow wasn't fully effective as she would've thought.

Gritting her teeth, the Catwoman eventually got onto the monster's head and started clawing at his face. "I'm going to enjoy cutting you apart with my claws."

"GAAAH! I WILL RIIIP YOU APAAART, YOU MANGY CAT!" He said, grabbing Selina and tried to squeeze the life out of her.

This act was haltered by another rocket whizzing through the air and impacting Grimley's back. The former human lurched forward, giving Vanitas an opening to come in and slash right through The Grim's wrist. There was difficulty -due to how thick the hide was- but after another swing, the ivory blade fully went through once it was fully charged up.

Grimley roared again as he held his stump of a hand, which soon fell upon the ground with a large thud. Phasing Selina out, Vanitas spoke to her. "Get back to Harley, now." He ordered.

"Yeah cuz I don't know if I'll handle him like he is now." Said the thief as she rushed to the costumed blonde's position.

As she ran away, Vanitas was soon swatted away by their monstrous opponent. The hero tumbled away once more before quickly forming claws from his fingertips and slammed them into the earth to slow him down. Lurching back up, Vanitas summoned Lunar Rose back into his hand before focusing power into his weapon.

"Well you grumpy, ugly giant." Spoke the hero as a loud groan was heard from his towering plant. "Even though I'm not Jack, my beanstalk's gonna kick your ass into the ground."

Slamming the ivory blade into the ground, Vanitas' beanstalk soon attacked the former human. As his plant creation preoccupied the former human, the costumed Uzumaki ran over to Ivy's hiding spot. Said woman had glowing green lines traveling up and down her arms as she kept her concentration.

"Still having problems?"

"Yes. He ate too much of… those all at once, making him too strong." She answered. "But I sense something is happening to him as we speak."

"Such as?"

"The dead sporelings… are acting like a drug now and he's burning through them rather quickly.

"So we need something really big and powerful to help finish him off, huh?" He asked before pointing to his beanstalk. "Something bigger and tougher than that?" Peeking over her cover, she nodded in confirmation. Ivy leaned back when Vanitas held out his scythe in front of her. "Wanna contribute then?"

The Green champion blinked before smirking underneath her facemask. Lifting one hand off the earth, she used the same appendage to grasp the ivory weapon and channeled her energy into it.

With their combined power through Lunar Rose, Vanitas and Ivy morphed the beanstalk into something quite extraordinary. Loud creaks and groans could be heard as the very top of the towering plant formed a head with a beak-like snout. It's body condensed as roots, thorns and branches formed around the vines to create a giant serpent-like dragon.

In the end of it's transformation, it opened up it's maw to show it's rows of sharpened before giving out a loud, ferocious roar.

"▄▅▄▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅!"

Without any warning, the newly made Green dragon lurched itself forward to pounce at its prey. It quickly wrapped around Grimley's body and constricted, earning loud groans from the former human. He tried fighting back, but the wooden dragon quickly shot up before slamming it's form into the ground. Thick thorns dug into Grimley's hide with acidic blood pouring out. The plant dragon didn't bother as it followed it's creators' commands to pummel the Green abomination into nothing.

Off to the sidelines, Harley and Selina could only stare in shocked awe as to what was happening. Neither knew what to do to contribute to the fight now. All they could really do was heading over to Ivy and Vanitas' location.

After several more moments of the battle of the Green monsters, the serpentine plant dragon tightened its grip around Grimley. The former human could only open his mouth and let out another roar of pain. Yet this final act would be his downfall as the Green dragon opened it's maw as green sparks started flickered to life.

And before Grimley could react, a beam of green energy shot into his gullet and tore right through him. Any openings there were in the former human's body glowed a green light as everything seemed to burn within him.

Once seesing it's attack, the wooden dragon roared once more before uncoiling it's prey. As soon as Grimley crashed into the earth, the Green serpentine beast shot into the ground and left to parts unknown.

Once all back together, the group soon noticed the earth beneath Grimley start degrading, but a moment later they heard a primal cry of pain. They saw Grimley's body start to wilt and turn into sickly shades of green and brown. The large roots and vines connected to him limply fell to the ground, sliding off it also showing prominent signs of rot and becoming moldy as hell.

"THIIISSS WASSS NOT… SUPPOSSED TO… haaapeeen!" Were Grimley's last words as his head separated from his degrading body and fell into the nearby hole. No doubt decomposing like the rest of his destroyed carcass.

The group let out a sigh of relief as the adrenaline was slowly leaving them. Harley took it the best as she didn't have to fight that much, yet had Selina lean against her. Vanitas and Ivy soon fell on their asses as they were heavily drained by pouring much of their power into their joint creation to finish off Grimley.

As the group rested, the sounds of sirens filled the air and they figured the police were finally making their arrival; no doubt with citizen sightings. And it appeared they brought company with an ambulance car and a news van joining in for the fun of the fight's aftermath.

-Later-

"So mind telling me what happened, Ms. Isley?" Asked Commissioner Gordon as he spoke to the Green champion away from prying ears.

"Grimley, he was behind Luisa's death and he stole our joint research." Pam answered as her voice was no longer in it's dual-tone. "He was dying and he figured there was nothing to lose by testing our research on himself. And he convinced Victor Lee to help him to earn the benefits in the end."

Gordon scratched the back of his head while letting out a frustrated sigh. "Never would've expected Grimley was behind it once he supposedly died. And for some reason, this feels quite a lot like a Scooby Doo episode." He then shook his head before staring at the redhead. "Then what do you explain with that?" Gordon asked, pointing to the quickly rotting body parts.

"Other side effects." Came a quick answer. Gordon wasn't buying it, causing her to explain. "The sporeling fluid acts like the theoretical stem cell treatments for they have amazing regenerative properties. But his cancer also regenerated. And Grimley believed he thought a transfusion of… my eldest child's fluids and what failed experiments he devoured would rid him of his abnormalities. But like any drug, it had its downsides and possibly ended him."

Once again, Gordon let out a frustrated sigh. "Well this is gonna be one for the books." He looked over and saw Victor Lee get placed into a medical stretcher before getting sent to the hospital. "Once he wakes up, we'll properly interrogate him before sending his ass to jail. Though if we had evidence, things would get by much quicker."

"Would these help?" Asked the Catwoman as she handed Gordon a camera. "Those have pictures from what we found in the labs. Highly doubt you could dig them up with the place demolished."

"Thanks." Said the spectacled police commissioner. He then looked over to the Green champion. "And about your research…"

"What about it?" Pam said back.

"We'll need to take in your notes since they're apart of the investigation now." Gordon saw the look in her face, causing him to hold up his hands. "You'll get them back once this is over, I swear." He then blinked in rememberance when hearing Pamela saying about her taken child. Gordon soon asked about them, causing her to give a brief explanation on what they were exactly.

After her explanation, Pam spoke one question that soon came to mind. "And… And what about them? My children?"

Gordon looked at her and understood Pam was just being protective. He merely rubbed the back of his head before speaking his mind. "If what you said is true about your joint project with Dr. Cruz is right, then I'd like to see them personally as extra proof." He responded. "Besides, your kid dealt with enough trouble as it is, Ms. Isley. It would be wrong if we took her in for questioning for what she didn't know."

Pam smiled at him. "Thank you."

"Though I recommend you having someone do a psych evaluation on her and send the reports to me."

Selina merely smirked as she practically read Pam's thoughts. "I'm probably sure she'll think of someone."

Gordon nodded and made his way towards his car. Yet he stopped and briefly turned around to address the costumed redhead. "Oh and before I forget, be sure you tell your boyfriend about this. I would imagine he would not be happy to find out you had a kid now, right?"

Pam softly smiled. "Of course."

Walking once more, he made his way to his car before ending up talking to some of his officers to start wrapping things up and ordering people to search through the wrecked building for further evidence.

Seeing as no one else was going to question them, the thief and botanist walked over to where Vanitas and Harley were at. They were currently being questioned by Summer Gleeson as to what occurred earlier. And it was at this point the small interview was over as the news crew vacated the area.

As the masked publisher and psychologist got closer to Selena and Pam, Harley asked a question. "So… where to now, puddin?"

"Home." Responded the costumed Uzumaki with a hidden smile which matched the others. "We're going home."

-End Chapter-

AN:

Would've had this out sooner, but trying to find a job ate a lot of time as usual in these past two weeks; along with writer's blocks. Though on the bright side, I was able to get a job that'll last longer than a few months as it'll be for a year. Hopefully it'll turn out to become something more permanent or something.

And I really hate Summer, especially the hot nights that it's just muggy as hell in my own apartment. I would crack open my windows to circulate the air, but the screen windows are cracked along the side and stupid box elder bugs end up crawling in if I do. And I don't want to keep using my central air conditioner plugged into the wall or else my electric bill goes up.

...Like I said, I hate Summer. So sorry Olaf.

O: No biggy.

...What the fuck? How'd you get in here?

H: Because of me ^_^

Oh, hey Harley… And why'd you do that?

H: Thought you would need to nice cold hug from the 'warmable' Olaf.

...Why thank you. I appreciate that.

H: You're welcome. And I gotta say it's been a while since I've been here.

Indeed it has.

H: Yuppers! And I'm so glad you got Puddin's and Pammy's kiddys here now!

Well I wanted to do this specific chapter to show more on Pam's character since looking back there wasn't much I've written that focuses mainly towards her. I've also wanted to finally introduce her children with Naruto. The three daughters are indeed DC property and there will be some interesting topics I'll be sure to use in developing their outlooks on things.

Onto other news… found out that a California judge recently repealed Stan 'The Man' Lee's Protection order. 'The Man' has been harassed and things have been stolen from him for the past several years. Stan is very vulnerable right now, especially since his beloved wife passed away last year. His only child -a woman in her 60's- has not worked a day in her life and many men are going after her by doing the gold digging route.

Now I don't know how I could properly help out the man, but I wanna at least spread the word of this recent problem in the comic fan base community. He brought joy to many of us for the past several generations with what he helped bring into the world through Marvel comics. All that I want to see from Stan Lee now is for him to enjoy what time he has left in his twilight years before joining his wife in the sky.

Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!

R&R

-Omake-

All was right in the Heavenly Afterlife. People were singing, dancing, frollicing and doing whatever they please in paradise. And nothing was wrong in the ever expanding land-

"BUT DEATH-SAMA! I WANNA BE A REAPER!"

...except for that.

In a far off area of Paradise, Didi was trying to pry off Kushina off of her legs. Yet the energetic Uzumaki's was very clingy and wouldn't let go. Even with the combined efforts of Lilian, Arella/Angela (Rachel's mother), Jiraiya and Minato; there was no way they can get Kushina to let go.

"How the hell can she be so damn strong?!" Lilian grunted out before her hands slipped from the energetic redhead's leg, causing Pamela's mother to fall on her ass.

"Uzumaki's are fucking stubborn, that's why!" Jiraiya yelled out.

Arella was struggling alongside her new friends and briefly wondered how she got into this predicament.

The mother of Rachel Roth first met them -by chance- on her daughter's birthday. It was mostly Kushina who was able to finally track her down in the ever expanding Paradise. Once this happened, Arella truly enjoyed having real friends -once joined up with the others- instead of ones she had back at Azarath.

For the ones back there, Trigon's baby mama could barely tolerate them as they told their children to stay away from hers. Arella knew they talked badly about the mother/daughter pair when they weren't looking. Yet Rachel's mother couldn't lash out or else things might get worse for them with Azarath's council breathing down her neck.

So the former cultist had to suck things up for her daughter's safety.

With her new friends, Arella was slightly hesitant about them until learning that her daughter's guardian was related to them from parents and god-parents respectively; even with Lillian's daughter being Rachel's pseudo-mother. And it was from then on that she truly felt at peace by having great friends to be with after so many years.

...Now you might be wondering what exactly is going on.

You see, Kushina started freaking out when Pam and Naruto's three babies were born way earlier than anyone would've expected. Blame it on how exactly they were made, but it didn't really matter in the end. The energetic Uzumaki went loose once more across Paradise and proclaiming how joyous she was on their arrival.

And in that devastating time, Kushina ran into Death -sometimes prefers being called Didi- before requesting to become a Reaper.

Now to simply fill you in, a Reaper is one of Didi's employees. Their job: help escort souls to their destination and help keep the 'natural order' of Life and Death on the mortal plane due to the many occurences out there. For it's quite honestly quite hard for Didi to cover so much ground at a time, even with her Aspects and her clones.

Unlike their boss, they're limited on their abilities -like having a small fraction on what she can really do- while getting assigned to either work under Didi herself or one of her Aspects.

Their assignments vary, like any normal job. Helping out their respective bosses in transporting souls if they prove troublesome as one example. Another pertains to mass gatherings in prelude to a great disaster, such as the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii or the destruction of a planet like Krypton in the neighboring star system to help ferry the large surplus of the departed.

"Why aren't you helping, Tsunade?!" Jiraiya struggled out before he fell over and received a powerful kick to his chest, causing him to fly several feet away.

"Yeah! You could easily get Kushina off of Death-sama!" Minato said in agreement with his teacher.

Sitting not far away, Tsunade was casually sipping some bottles of sake while letting out an occasional chuckle. "Because, this is outright funny as Hell."

"I don't think it is!" Didi and Lillian spoke out in synch.

The gothic woman struggled as she was starting to lose feeling in her entraped leg. "I'm sorry, Kushina, but I can't make you a Reaper."

"But… But… But you made Konan one of your Reapers." Weeped out the Uzumaki.

"Because she *sorry* wanted to fully *sorry* repent for her misdeeds." Didi spoke out as she kicked Kushina in the face several times while saying 'sorry' on every blow. "Will you let go?!"

The oldest female of the Endless doesn't like harming others. But this time, Death made an exception.

"NOT UNTIL YOU MAKE ME A REAPER!"

The formation of a new Reaper is honestly rare at best. Any soul could become one and it's all done by Didi's hands as she's the only one to make it so. Whether they be from Hell, Purgatory, Heaven or any of the other forms of the Afterlife.

A contract would be forged for one to serve the time in such a position. And each contract is unique, pertaining as to where exactly the current soul resides and of what happened when they were alive to how long they so wishfully want to serve in the position.

But a common factor is in each and every one of them: they can leave the Afterlife and roam the Mortal realm whenever they are on the clock.

"You just wanna be a Reaper so you could skip work and be with your grandkids." Tsunade said from the sidelines.

"DON'T TELL HER THAT!" Kushina bawled out before looking back at Lillian and Minato. "Why aren't you two helping me so we can be with our grandbabies?!"

"Because I know I can see them just fine from up here." Came Lillian's response.

"And I know it's best not to antagonize Death-sama." Was Minato answer.

"And doing this isn't helping in possibly making you one of my employees." Didi spoke out as she fell to the ground and tried to crawl away with the added weight on her limb. "Seriously, let go! I need to get back to work!"

The sounds of frustrated yells and screams could then be heard throughout Paradise as Kushina Uzumaki kept pleading Death for the position, yet it was becoming a lost cause at this point in time