The basement stayed quiet for another beat too long.
Poison Ivy's body lay slumped across the couch like a discarded doll, red hair spilling over the cushions, green tank top stained darker where the dagger had gone in. The vines that had once writhed with hungry life now sagged limply across the floor, as if the will animating them had simply blinked out.
Barbara capped the vial of blood she'd drawn and slid it carefully into a reinforced pouch at her belt. Her expression had shifted from shock to clinical focus. She'd already compartmentalized the death.
Lex Williams, on the other hand, was busy trying not to grin like an idiot.
Five hundred experience points.
The notification had burned across his vision only seconds ago, bright and intoxicating. Compared to the Penguin's measly two hundred, this was a leap. A surge. A confirmation that he was climbing the ladder faster than he'd expected.
Immunity to all poisons.
Plant control.
Toxin secretion.
Mind control.
And—most interesting of all—an exclusive vine.
He flexed his fingers subtly.
Nothing happened.
Not yet.
The system abilities didn't always manifest instantly in obvious ways. Some required intent. Familiarity. A trigger.
He filed it away.
Across the room, Selena—still bound—twisted violently against the vines that pinned her to the far wall.
"Lex! I swear to God—"
"Relax," he cut in lightly. "You're going to pop a blood vessel."
Her glare could have melted steel.
"You stabbed her."
"She was trying to mind-control me."
"She was trying to seduce you."
"And then mind-control me."
Barbara stood and adjusted her glasses. "For the record, she absolutely would have controlled you. The pheromone density in this room was insane."
Lex gave her a sideways look. "Appreciate the vote of confidence."
John Black rubbed the back of his neck. "I still don't remember what happened."
"You don't," Barbara confirmed. "You were compromised in under three seconds."
John blinked. "That's… not great."
"No," Lex agreed. "It's really not."
Selena finally stopped struggling long enough to narrow her eyes at Lex. "Untie me."
"Tempting," he said. "But last time I did you a favor, you tried to feed me to killer shrubbery."
"That was strategy."
"That was betrayal."
"That was survival."
He tilted his head. "See? We're back to betrayal."
Barbara sighed. "Lex. Let her down. We need to move. The noise from earlier probably drew half the infected in the building."
As if on cue, something thudded faintly against a distant wall upstairs.
Then another.
Low, guttural moans echoed through the ventilation shafts.
John's posture snapped into readiness. "That's not good."
"No," Barbara agreed calmly. "It isn't."
Lex glanced at Poison Ivy's corpse one more time.
A thought flickered through his mind.
Plant control.
He focused.
Not on the vines across the room.
On the ones still rooted in the cracks along the basement walls. The ones that had grown wild when Ivy first fortified this place.
He exhaled slowly.
Nothing dramatic happened. No cinematic surge.
But one thin vine near the ceiling trembled.
Just slightly.
His pulse quickened.
So it works.
He didn't push further. Not yet. Too many witnesses. Too much risk of questions.
Instead, he walked over to Selena and crouched in front of her.
She watched him warily.
"Here's the deal," he said quietly. "You don't try to stab me. I don't leave you here as zombie bait."
Her jaw tightened.
"Fine."
"Say it like you mean it."
"I will not stab you," she hissed.
"Today."
Her eyes flashed. "Today."
"Good enough."
He rose and sliced through the vines binding her torso. The moment her arms came free, she shoved him hard in the chest.
He didn't move.
She stared at him, recalibrating.
"You're stronger than you look," she muttered.
"You have no idea."
The last of the vines dropped away, and Selena rolled her shoulders, testing mobility. She shot one final glance at Ivy's body.
There was something complicated in her expression.
Not grief. Not exactly.
History.
"We need to burn the body," she said abruptly.
Barbara stiffened. "Why?"
"Because if that virus reanimates her, you're not dealing with a seductress anymore. You're dealing with a corpse that can still control half the plant life in Gotham."
That silenced the room.
John swallowed. "That's… a nightmare."
Lex considered it.
She was right.
The system had confirmed Ivy was dead. Experience gained. Abilities transferred.
But the virus?
Unpredictable.
If she came back as something worse—
"Do it," he said.
John moved first, gathering broken wood from smashed shelving. Selena located a bottle of high-proof liquor from a cabinet and doused the couch without ceremony.
Barbara hesitated only a second before stepping back.
Lex struck a lighter.
For a brief moment, Ivy's face looked almost peaceful in the flickering glow.
Then the flames took her.
They didn't stay to watch long.
Smoke curled rapidly toward the ceiling, thick and acrid. The fire spread faster than expected, catching old curtains, dried plant matter, cracked wooden beams.
"Time to go," John said.
They moved for the stairs.
Halfway up, the first infected burst through a side corridor—skin gray, eyes clouded, jaw working uselessly.
John fired twice.
Clean shots.
The body dropped.
More followed.
Too many.
Lex felt something shift inside him—instinct and calculation blending.
He stepped slightly ahead of the group.
Focused.
The vines lining the stairwell trembled again.
Move.
This time, they obeyed.
Thin strands snapped downward from the walls, wrapping around the legs of two rushing infected. The creatures toppled, snarling, tangling further as the vines tightened.
John froze mid-step.
"Did you see—"
"Don't ask," Lex said sharply.
They pushed forward.
The corridor above was chaos.
Fire alarms wailed.
Smoke seeped through cracks.
Infected staggered from broken rooms, drawn by sound and heat.
Selena moved like liquid shadow, leaping over debris, kicking one attacker square in the jaw before finishing it with a blade to the temple.
Barbara stayed close behind John, directing movements.
"Left hall's blocked. Take the east exit!"
Lex brought up the rear.
A cluster of infected surged from a side room.
Too many for bullets alone.
He inhaled once.
Then let go.
The vines exploded from the walls this time.
Not dramatically—but decisively.
They lashed around wrists, throats, ankles. Yanked bodies sideways. Slammed skulls against concrete.
Selena skidded to a stop.
"Okay," she said slowly. "Now I'm asking."
"Later," Lex replied.
They burst through the emergency exit into the cold night air.
Behind them, flames licked through Arkham's shattered windows.
The asylum—once a fortress for madness—was becoming a pyre.
They didn't stop running until they'd put three blocks between themselves and the burning building.
Only then did they slow.
Barbara bent slightly, catching her breath. John scanned rooftops.
Selena turned to Lex.
"All right," she said. "You're going to explain."
"About?"
"The vines. The dagger. The fact that you walked straight into Ivy's pheromone cloud and didn't even blink."
Barbara looked up sharply. "Yes. That too."
John added, "And how you knew to burn the body that fast."
Lex glanced at the dark skyline of Gotham—smoke rising in the distance, sirens faint and far away.
He couldn't tell them about the system.
Not yet.
"Call it intuition," he said.
Selena folded her arms. "I don't like mysteries."
"That's funny," he replied. "Because you are one."
She stared at him for a long moment.
Then—unexpectedly—she smirked.
"Fine. Keep your secrets. But if you ever try to tie me up again—"
"You started it."
Her smirk widened. "Next time, I won't underestimate you."
He met her gaze evenly.
"Next time," he said, "I won't pretend."
For a brief second, something unspoken passed between them.
Then Barbara straightened.
"We should move. If Ivy was holed up there, others might have sensed the disturbance."
"Others?" John asked.
Barbara's voice was steady.
"Scarecrow. Freeze. Anyone with enough brainpower to survive this outbreak."
Gotham wasn't just infected.
It was evolving.
Lex felt the weight of his newly gained abilities settle inside him like a coiled weapon.
Five hundred experience points closer to whatever came next.
He looked at the burning silhouette of Arkham one last time.
Poison Ivy was gone.
But the game had just escalated.
"Let's go," he said.
And this time, when the vines along the alley walls rustled faintly as he passed—
No one missed it.