Gone Native: Way Forward (ch. 55) (Patreon)

“I will give you this, Pamela Isley -- you’re brave,” I muttered with a snarl etched into my face. Every muscle was taut as I stared at the hologram projector that gave me the alert. The planet was on the very edge of my empire, nearly on the exact opposite end away from Earth. Due to that, it wasn’t particularly developed, which was a blessing. However, it was also the homeworld for a race called Methanosians. One of their members had been among the 501st, at one point, I recalled.

They were a plant-based species with a very wild variety of natural abilities. The most notable was fire generation caused by producing methane and pyrokinesis. Their subtler abilities included sleeping spores, regeneration, and seed generation that could produce a wide variety of effects with proper gene-edited seeds to act as an example.

“She’s insane,” Batman informed, standing behind me. “Her connection to the Green radically changed her worldview. In her eyes, a single blade of grass is worth more than the lives of everyone on Earth.” He stated, his voice gruff, but his displeasure bleed through. He was unhappy with the situation. I think even more than I might be. “She’s still capable of empathizing with non-plant lifeforms, but they are the exception to the rule.”

I brought him here because he would know best. Poison Ivy was an old enemy of his. The moment that I had received the alert that she managed to take an entire planet hostage, I immediately turned on the time dilation effect on my office and summoned people that knew her. People who knew how to fight her. And no one knew how to fight her better than Batman. He could offer insight that the after-action reports would fail to glean, assuming they weren't outright fabricated.

“Can she be reasoned with?” I asked him, not entirely certain that I could be reasoned with at the moment.

“To a degree,” Batman admitted. “Her perspective is colored by the Green. In her eyes, she’s at war with anything that would harm nature in any capacity. Eating vegetation is acceptable to a degree as it aids in the reproduction of plant life by spreading seeds. Anything beyond that, however, is treated as an attack on the Green -- industrialization, waste, or urbanization. Prior to your arrival, as global warming reached a point of no return, Pamela…”

He paused for a moment, his gaze drifting to the holograms that detailed her actions -- the ones that the media had learned about, at least. There was a rather sharp uptick in activity in the years prior to my arrival. “She acted as if the Green was in danger of being eradicated, and as a result, she acted as if she were in a war of genocide. Over three dozen attempts to eradicate the human race were made.” He informed me, telling me that he did his job rather well.

The media only knew of two attempts.

I didn’t trust Batman. Not in the same way that I was beginning to trust Robin. He didn’t like me, and I couldn’t say I cared about him one way or the other beyond that he was someone important to a friend. I could say, however, that Batman was effective when dealing with threats that should be outside his means to deal with.

“I fixed global warming on Earth,” I growled out. The temperature had leveled out, the ozone layer was repaired. All it took was a few geo-disks in the sky and a month.

“I’m aware,” Batman remarked, his tone dry. I liked the sarcasm infinitely less than when Raven did it. “By all rights, that should have solved the issue. It’s why I made her a lower priority in comparison to other villains that escaped into your empire,” he continued, a frown in his voice. “This behavior is in line with her modus operandi, but it's an escalation when she should be… content.”

Meaning that something else was at play here. Was she receiving orders? Was Cooler behind this? Our shadow war had been going on for a number of months at this point, slowly escalating in scope, but it very much remained in the shadows. Something like this was akin to a slap in the face where previously we had been kicking each other under the table. As far as I was aware, Cooler wasn’t willing to commit to that level of overt action.

“She didn’t issue any demands,” I muttered, my arms crossed over my chest. This felt like a failure on my part. I had been searching for the rogues that were released into my empire, but there was little luck in finding them. My empire numbered hundreds of millions of planets and hundreds of thousands of space stations. Simply put -- there was a lot of room to hide within my empire and the rogues showed me exactly how large my blindspots were.

It was an issue that I was correcting, but it wasn’t as simple as slapping trillions of cameras throughout the Empire. There was too much empty space. I wish it were that simple.

“She’s expecting you to come to her. To put you at a disadvantage,” Batman supplied, sounding like he was well used to how she acted. “She’s fond of grandeur when there are men involved.”

Pamela wanted me to go to her? Part of me wanted to give her exactly that. To go to New Methanos and rip her limb from limb for her audacity. Another part wanted to stay where I was specifically to spite her and refuse to play in her little games. Indignant anger simmered in my chest. It took all of six months for a planet-wide act of terrorism to transpire. I wasn’t certain if I was surprised that it took so long or surprised that it happened at all.

I turned around, fixing my gaze upon Batman. His suit had seen a number of upgrades in the past months. It was far more mechanical now, I noticed, with clear armor plating and paneling. Yet, it didn’t make him bulky. I had scanned him when he arrived to discover that his suit contained a number of nanites, among other interesting things. Humans advanced rather quickly when the pressure was on them, I thought, and not for the first time.

I wonder exactly how many advancements Batman made for that suit -- a suit that was designed to fight me.

“This requires an answer,” I decided, looking back at the alert that was given. A citizen of New Methanos had issued it before the entire planet went silent -- there was no chatter coming out of it. No online presence, nor anyone leaving the planet. Similarly, incoming traffic was rebuffed for the stated reason of a sacred holiday for the Methanosians. An excuse that Pamela had to know wouldn’t hold for long, but I didn’t know if she knew about the alert. Did I have the element of surprise?

My instincts demanded decisive action. To seize the initiative and the element of surprise. Only it could be a trap.

“She didn’t issue any demands,” I repeated myself -- that fact stood out. Pamela had taken an entire planet hostage. She had to know that secret wouldn’t last for long, so it would only make sense to issue your demands the moment you knew the planet was secure. It would put me on the backfoot and it would minimize my time for a response. It was possible that the demands were incoming and time dilation had slowed them down, but that didn’t seem likely to me.

This entire situation didn’t feel right to me the more that I thought about it. Pamela went to a world of plant people to take it hostage. Were they even hostages? Pamela could manipulate plant life. Was she mind controlling them? Did they welcome her? What was her goal? What did she expect to get out of this? By now, she must realize that I wouldn’t participate in Earth’s game of cops and robbers.

If I didn’t kill her, then she would go into a cell for the rest of her natural life.

It begged the question of why now? For what?

“Is the Justice League available?” I asked Batman, still looking at the holograms, my mind racing. In theory, I had all the time in the world to come up with a solution or a plan of attack, but I knew from experience that too much time to think could be just as dangerous as not enough. What Raven said to me was echoing in the back of my mind and I knew I was hesitating on taking a serious step forward. She wasn’t wrong about that.

Right now, the Justice League existed in a limbo state -- Acknowledged, yet unofficial. Part of that was because of the divide in the League. In the past months, the divide wasn’t as harsh and defined as it once was, but I wouldn’t say that I should expect any dinner invites from that half of the League. For the most part, the League operated as normal for them -- stopping crime and accidents for the most part, but they were far less active than they had been. Mostly because they were needed less.

“In what capacity?” Batman questioned, his tone decidedly even. He was testing the waters. I suspected that he saw this conversation coming. That wasn’t surprising. It wasn’t as if I made my intentions a secret. However, it was a very different thing foreseeing something coming and another thing entirely actually dealing with it. Batman was known for his caution and it wasn’t by accident that he was wearing the latest suit he had developed to deal with me if it did come down to a fight.

“An official one,” I answered. It was time to follow though, I thought. Raven was right to call me out on it. If she didn’t, I would have been far less prepared to allow the Justice League to have an official say in the proceedings of my empire. “I suspect that the League has proposals ready, and we can debate the fine print at a later date.”

Batman offered a small nod, “Lives are at stake.” He agreed without issue. That was his priority that he wanted to focus on, even if we did have all the time in the world. And I imagine it wasn’t a conversation that he wanted to have alone. The Justice League had another election for its co-presidents, and Batman was only one of the leaders. The other, unsurprisingly, was Aquaman.

I tried to not look at that as a sign of intent.

“I have specialized chemicals for dealing with Poison Ivy, however, I’m uncertain how they would interact with the plant-based natives. It seems less than ideal to find out. I believe our efforts should be focused on subduing Poison Ivy herself. In prior engagements, disabling her relinquishes her control over all nearby plant-life,” Batman put forward. Something that Poison Ivy would expect, even if it did mirror my own thoughts. I had memorized her ki signature, so hiding wasn’t a possibility.

Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I could be walking into a trap.

“Make whatever preparations you require,” I decided, nodding at Batman before disabling the time dilation effect. As soon as the alert had been given, I had satellites sent to the planet via slipstream to monitor the situation. They would be arriving shortly since the drive on them wasn’t as precise. With them, I could make sure that the situation wasn’t devolving into chaos, which would force my hand.

I could tell that Batman wanted to say something more, but whatever it was, he chose to swallow it. Instead, he simply offered a curt nod before turning on a heel to make his preparations. And, very likely, to inform the Justice League that they had been called upon. I watched him go through a camera, the door closing behind him. It was only then that I made a snap decision.

“Call Raven,” I instructed my systems.

I had a feeling that before this situation ended, I would need her.

…

The Justice League wanted to put its best foot forward, I learned. When I gave a meeting point, I felt a number of them moving to respond -- Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman. The Trinity, as Earth had taken to calling them. Raven stood by my side as we waited for them to arrive, the silence between us could best be described as terse. I’m not entirely certain why beyond the nature of the conversation we had, to her, about an hour ago.

Still, any attempt to talk to her was met with stilted answers, so I gave up trying and instead kept an active eye on the situation. My satellites had arrived outside of New Methanos and they were feeding me an active view of the planet’s surface. Security cameras weren’t available due to the fact that the Methanosians actively spurned the use of technology -- or metal in general. The handful of magical scryers that I had at my disposal were better spent on keeping an eye on the Trade Organization and our borders.

However, the scans showed that the planet was picking up in activity, but it was all below the surface. I got an outline, but the exact inner workings of what was going on was lost on me.

“King Tarble,” Wonder Woman greeted me, lightly touching down on the platform and seemingly unbothered by the arctic winds. I hadn’t seen her since the rather disastrous holiday celebration on Themyscira, but from a glance, it didn’t seem that she held that against me.

“Wonder Woman,” I returned, nodding at her before I looked to Clark, who offered a friendly smile. “Time is of the essence,” I stated, walking onto a ship that was docked into my space elevator. “We’ll be utilizing a Wink drive to avoid any complications and to keep a live feed on the planet.”

“Do we know what we’re going into?” Clark asked, floating behind me as he spared Raven a small greeting nod.

“No,” I answered, going through the flight checklist. The door closed behind the Trinity and Raven, putting us under the ship's internal gravity so it was hardly noticed when the ship began to slide into the space elevator. The ship was more than capable of breaching Earth's atmosphere, but the elevator… well, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that it doubled as a cannon. While the others made themselves comfortable, idly familiarizing themselves with the ship, it was catapulted from the space elevator at 50% the speed of light.

All without so much as a bump in the ship itself.

"How long will this take?" Batman questioned and I noticed that he was even more armed up with a number of canisters at his utility belt. Based on his tone, it was clear that there was a correct answer to the question, but I shook my head.

"Unknown," I admitted, the ship going through its first wink, teleporting us a good chunk of the way there. "That entirely depends on Ivy."

"Do you intend to kill her?" Wonder Woman asked, sounding ambivalent about it.

"Also unknown," I confessed. The entire situation was odd enough that I wasn't entirely certain what I would be going into. I wanted to keep my options open. "It entirely depends on if she can be reasoned with."

"She'll resist if you intend to imprison her," Batman stated, staring hard in my direction. He didn't stress the word if, but I could hear him doing it all the same. I met his gaze unflinchingly. "I understand that it's ultimately your decision, but you created a hyper secure prison precisely for individuals such as Pamela. With our combined abilities, killing her seems unnecessary."

I grunted, acknowledging the point even if I didn't entirely agree with it. "That," I repeated, "is entirely up to her."

"No matter what, we won't allow anything to happen to the citizens of New Methanos," Clark spoke up, sounding like he meant it as he gave me a firm nod. The words shouldn't have had an effect on me. That wasn't a promise anyone could make, or keep. All the same, though, I found myself reassured and a little more confident. Superman was a good man to have in your corner.

"Speed is what matters most here. I doubt she would imagine that all of us would come, so even if it is a trap, she'll be out gunned. I want all of us back Earthside as soon as possible," I said, my gaze sliding to Wonder Woman. The ship winked once again, taking us another chunk of the way there. Wonder Woman met my gaze and offered an acknowledging nod.

"The gods have been silent since the harvest celebration," she confirmed. I had requested to be kept in the loop, but I also understood that her loyalty would be first to the gods that she kept. However unimpressive they seemed. "Unusually so. They make their will known to us through signs, but as of late, there have been none. It is a… troubling sign," she admitted. At least she didn't sugar coat it.

"One enemy at a time," Batman coached as the last wink happened, and New Methanos came into view. It was a dark green planet that was almost entirely landmass with only a small fluorescent blue ocean. The satellites locked in on our new position, and nothing had changed in the slightest. Nearly everyone was below the planet's surface, leaving the plant-based cities abandoned.

The air wasn't breathable for Batman nor Wonder Woman, who were forced to wear masks. Clark decided to simply take a deep breath over a mask and Raven used magic while I had my Nth metal necklace. As the ship lowered down directly above one of the clusters, I felt something off. According to my reports, New Methanos had a population in the mid hundred thousands. However, across the planet, I felt a population of about three million. More than that, I didn't really feel Poison Ivy's ki signature. I felt something like it below, but not a one for one match.

"I'm taking us down," I informed, creating a Ki ball around all of us before I forced our way down through the ground, heading directly for the cluster. It was fairly far down -- several hundred feet before we emerged in a cavern held together by millions of vines to make almost a cocoon.

My stomach clenched when I saw what the cavern was filled with.

Saibamen.

Poison Ivy stood at the center of them all, her gaze going up to meet mine, and I saw her eye glowing with power.

"King Tarble. I've been expecting you."

...

So, I have a small confession to make and I wanted to get some general feedback before I make a decision on anything to make sure I'm not overthinking it. 

I've been struggling a bit with Gone Native. Writer's block isn't unknown to me, but it's the first time that it's lasted this long of like two months. Normally, I can just power through it with no issue but it's sticking around this time. And, to be clear, it's not because I don't like the story. Which is part of why it's so frustrating. 

I still really want to write Gone Native because I'm finally closing in on some of the ideas that made me want to write the story in the first place. The issue is two things as far as I can tell -- I've been updating this story weekly for about four years now. That's a long time. 

Secondly, I'm kind of burnt out on DC. This is completely my fault. 110% percent. For about two years, I had three stories set in DC, and I'm still writing two in the setting, so it was bound to happen eventually. Between the two, it made writing Gone Native a bit difficult and there have been chapters that feel like I phoned it in, and that really upsets me because I've spent the past four years writing the story. And it's disrespectful to all of you who are paying to see advanced chapters.

There aren't any real plans to cancel or pause the story as of yet. This is basically a wellness check to see what all of you think and how you all feel. Depending on the feedback that I get, I'll make a decision on what to do.