A/N: Muse isn't cooperating on extending the chapters, so have two short ones instead of one long one.
DC 1
My appearance in Gotham was without much fanfare. Didn't want the Bat on my case
too early. For all that he was an effective hero (though not enough to beat Superman, no matter what some delusional fools may think), he was probably going to be a
right pain.
I'd had a rather interesting idea for my visit here: the power of adaption, much like Crawler, only less
holyfuckwhattheshitisthat and more Saiyan in that I wouldn't become more and more grotesque as time went on. I would start out relatively weak, but as I got into fights, got hurt and healed, I'd get stronger. It would be interesting to actually start at the low end of the spectrum for once – more so than usual.
Of course, I'd thrown a few twists in. I still had chakra, and my Sharinnegan and Tenseigan were there as well – but locked, for now. I'd have to work up through the stages of Sharingan, Mangekyō and Rinnegan to get back to the Shinju's eye, and while the Byakugan didn't have
levels, as such, it would still have to get stronger.
I had an eyepatch on, of course. Hopefully people would underestimate me, go for the 'blind' side. Not that it would avail them, considering what the Hyūga bloodline could do, but it was always good to be underestimated.
Unfortunately, my plans were shot down quite effectively before I'd even started. I was making some final tweaks to my body, synchronising the eyes so that they both worked alone just as well as an actual pair, fiddling with some of the specifics of my adaptive regeneration, settling my Aura in the new flesh - the usual adjustment routine - when Poison Ivy staggered out of an alleyway, completely oblivious to the suddenly terrified people fleeing down the pavement, lurched up to me and practically collapsed, forcing me to hold her up.
Why – oh. Shaper.
Now that I paid attention, I realised I could feel her
twice. There was the usual feedback from my biomanipulation power, of course, DNA and bone and blood and tissue and so forth, but there was also…
her. She was connected to nature on a fundamental level; I'd known that intellectually, but it hadn't occurred to me what that meant for Shaper.
I'd long since become strong enough that I could grow a tree on Pluto from right where I was standing on Earth without even a shred of effort – the planetary biosphere was, all in all, quite minor from my point of view. I think it was called the Green, here, the… realisation of the conceptualisation of nature? Not sure. Regardless, it was there, though small enough that I'd entirely missed it. I must have felt like some towering god to her.
"What… what
are you?"
Dilated eyes, flushed skin, heavy breathing… yeah, this was getting awkward, and… fuck. Bats is on the roof.
Really, Bruce? Can't you go bother the Joker or something? Ugh.
"I suppose you could call me Father Nature if you were feeling poetic. Perhaps we should take this conversation somewhere else… away from the overlarge ears of a certain flying mammal?"
She blinked slowly, possibly confused, but didn't bother questioning me. To be honest, she was so out of it that I wasn't entirely sure she'd have been
able to had she tried. Batsy had stiffened, up on the roof, and was starting to circle, obviously making ready to follow us. I gave him a jaunty wave, and punched a giant plant stem through the pavement, which enveloped us in a pod before retreating. I'd already displaced us into my pre-prepared base, so any attempt to track it was an entirely lost cause.
I'd enjoy watching his frustration, though.
~*~
Pamela Isley had been having a very strange day. She had been recovering from her latest bout with the Batman, from whom she had barely managed to escape, having no desire to go back to that damnable Asylum
again, when that ephemeral awareness of the Green that always hovered in the back of her mind was
eclipsed by a presence the likes of which she'd never felt.
It felt like life and growth and sunlight, a titanic monolith of viridian power. It did nothing, made no motion to reach out and change things, but that would have been unnecessary – it
was, and that was enough. She could feel the plants around her perking up, trees and grass across Gotham being purged of toxins simply by its very proximity. She herself was suddenly flush with energy; that slight ache in her hip that had lingered ever since that fight with the Bat a few months ago was gone, among several others.
The rush was almost like a narcotic high, but it just kept getting
stronger. It was active now, doing something – it was inspiring to see, something of that strength making changes so delicate – and she knew down to her bones that she had to find it, to find the one who was so immersed in the power of the Green.
Things passed in a blur for several minutes after that, and she honestly couldn't have told anyone who asked which way she went or how long for, until it was
there, right in front of her, and all the strength went out of her legs.
Large hands caught her – a man's? She couldn't bring herself to feel indignant, somehow, not in the face of…
that.
"What… what
are you?"
She barely managed to breathe out the question over her heart, hammering in her throat. The blurred face turned to her, and then – the full weight of
its attention settled on her, and a new rush of energy shot through her. She felt like she could singlehandedly cover the Sahara desert in new, green growth.
Honestly, she was of half a mind to try.
Just barely, she managed to collect herself enough to hear the response:
"I suppose you could call me Father Nature if you were feeling poetic. Perhaps we should take this conversation somewhere else… away from the overlarge ears of a certain flying mammal?"
Flying mammal? What was he talking about? The only mammal that flew was… oh. The bat – or, in this case, the Bat.
Then
it pulsed softly, even that scant flexing of power enough to send another far-too-strong wave of revitalising energy surging through her, and they were enveloped by a pod of some kind – but nothing she recognised, and she couldn't even reach out to it with her own abilities, firmly in the grip of…
that… as it was.
Vaguely, she wondered if she should be more worried about this, a man she didn't know taking her she didn't know where, but with
that right next to her, she couldn't muster even the slightest hint of apprehension.
Their surroundings had changed, she realised. She'd been set down on a
very comfortable chair that felt to be made out of living wood and moss, and the man was sitting opposite her. He made a rather disapproving noise.
"I suppose I should have expected this. Hold on a moment."
A few seconds passed, and then, abruptly,
it was gone – though not quite, because she could still feel it, a subtle warmth that enveloped her merely being in its presence. Everything came back into focus, and she realised she'd been lolling bonelessly to one side. Unaccountably embarrassed, she straightened herself up, and then took stock of the man sitting across from her.
He was extremely tall, approaching seven feet, and considering her own petite frame she'd probably barely even reach his chest. He was also very good-looking, even if she could only appreciate it aesthetically – almost too much so to be natural, even though he bore none of the hallmarks of surgery, and despite the patch that covered his left eye. The way he held himself reminded her uncomfortably of the one time she'd seen the Batman sitting down, ready to move at a moment's notice into a block or strike even despite the seemingly relaxed posture.
After a few moments, he raised an eyebrow, and she blushed a little as she realised he'd been quite aware of her examination. Not her finest moment, she would admit.
"I assume you would appreciate an explanation?"
Straightening up and taking a moment to compose herself, she nodded.
"Very well. The name I usually go by is Havelock Cobalt. To tell you everything of relevance would take some time, as it's a story that spans several thousand years and more than a few very different worlds across the multiverse, but a concise summary of what happened and why would be something along the lines of 'I have absolute control over any and all biomass within the radius of my power, to the point that I could create a functioning planetary ecosystem from, say, a single bacterium frozen in the carbon dioxide ice at Mars' poles in about ten seconds.' My ability to wield that level of power is probably why you found it so overwhelming; I'll admit I hadn't accounted for the possibility of feedback through the Green. That problem's solved now, though, so you shouldn't have any more trouble with it."
He paused, then frowned, eyes refocusing on something she was fairly sure wasn't anywhere near their present physical location.
"Wait. I think Mars is already inhabited in this universe, if I remember correctly. Oh, yeah, there they are. Martians. That is… a very interesting biology. Hm. I may have to borrow some of that next time I get to
actually hide myself as a mortal-" here, he gave her a playful glare "- but I guess I don't have much use for it now."
Looking off into the distance again, he hummed absently to himself.
"Tell you what. My daughter recently activated her own version of Shaper – the biomanipulation power I have, that is – and she's been badgering me for over a year to let her see some of her favourite worlds in person, since her Kaleidoscope is much weaker than mine and she can't get anywhere beyond divergent parallels of her own home universe. I'll make you a trade – teach my daughter what you know about plants and how best to work with them, and keep
out of any villainy in the process, and I'll fix your reproductive system and improve your control over the natural toxins you produce, as well as setting a few things in motions with the courts to get you exonerated so that you can start over and maybe do a little better this time – I don't know, start a nature preserve or something. Sound like a fair deal?"
She couldn't keep her jaw from dropping, despite the fact she had previously been sure that only happened in fiction.
"You… please tell me you're serious.
Please."
A gentle smile, and then
that touched the edge of her awareness again, reminding her just what sort of power this man wielded. "Deadly. I'll even throw in a free power-augmented therapy session for your jester friend to get her away from the Clown. Just between us, you were always one of my favourite characters."
What?
"Characters?"
"Oh, right. You wouldn't know. Law of Mutual Fictionality – the multiverse is infinite. Thus, everything is real somewhere, and so it logically follows that everything is also fictional somewhere
else. My homeworld had a comic company that published more than fifty different series about the various goings-on in this world. I don't…
think you were ever more than a side-character in the Batman comic, but then side-characters are sometimes more popular than the protagonists."
She stared.
~*~
Ah, I love the sound of broken minds in the morning. That was a
horribly butchered quote, but quite frankly I don't give a fuck. I'm a cosmic entity, deal with it.
Things went pretty smoothly after that, or at least once Pamela had put her brain back together. I reached out across time and space to snag Mia, who quite literally
squee'd at meeting her second-favourite villain ever (after Amazo, apparently, the strange girl. Everyone knew Joker was best, even if he was a massive bag of batshit-crazy dicks.)
I made a few tweaks to my daughter's new instructor with Shaper, which resulted in a tearful hug – and
damn did that surprise me; I think it might have had something to do with my being so connected to the power of nature or something, because there's no way in hell that
Poison Ivy would deign to hug a bloke otherwise – and then went to bug the Justice League.
As it turns out, the defence systems on the Watchtower are pretty impressive. Nothing that I couldn't bypass, of course, since by this point I had Tinker charges in
lawnmower engineering just for something to do with them, but still much more than I was expecting. Some of it appeared to be Oan, which I hadn't anticipated at all.
Maybe the Guardians are slightly less arsehole-ish in this world.
Pfft.
~*~
"Clark, I'm serious. This is a clear and present threat! Someone with the same sort of powers as Ivy on a scale even anywhere near as large as I fear could be catastrophic!"
"And what evidence of that do we have, Bruce? It's almost certainly just a pretentious name, like half the other villains we fight. If it isn't… we'll deal with it, like we always do. I'm sure you've already got contingencies in place-"
They both spun at a rustling noise behind them to find the potted plant on the windowsill visibly growing. After a few moments, it started to twist and twine, and took the shape of a man – which promptly solidified, revealing the figure of the mysterious newcomer who had been their topic of conversation.
"Afternoon, gents. Mind if we have a quick chat? I think there are some things that need straightening out."
