Chapter 116 - My SI Stash #16 - Stranglevine by Timthecarp (Young Justice) (2/2)

”Okay mommy, just come back soon okay? Auntie and Uncle get weird when they stay here for too long.”

She hugs me tightly for a few moments, and although I can't see her face I imagine she looks conflicted. Bringing my face into her hands, she bends down and kisses me on the cheek.

”Alright Buttercup, I can cut my trip a little short if you want. Maybe when I get back we can start working on your powers again?”

My face lights up, a smile that would do Uncle proud stretching across my visage at the good news.

”Can we!? Yes yes YES!”

I bodily launch myself at Ivy, latching onto her front like the dreaded Australian Drop Bear. And if my hands wandered off in some inappropriate directions it's not my fault, it's 'accidental'. After all, in the words of Harley, I'm just a 'cute little puddin pop'.

Ivy smirks and rolls her eyes before rubbing my back in small circles, then, moving her mouth to my ear she huskily whispers ”Do you want to get off yourself, or do I have to help you.”

Sensing that I had perhaps overplayed my hand, I swiftly dropped down. Finally free of my constricting grip, my mother stands back upright. With a minute gesture her brainwashed servants quickly exit the room while she slowly walks towards the doorway, her full curvaceous a_s_s looking enticing as it jiggles with each exaggerated motion. When she crosses the threshold of the doorway she turns back slightly, then winks and blows a kiss.

”Bye, dear. Harley and Jay should be here any minute now, I trust that you won't get in any trouble before they get here?”

Gulping down a mouth full of saliva, I shakily reply while sweat rolls down my brow and drips onto my c_h_e_s_t.

”A-Ah y-yeah, no trouble here, nothi-nothing at all. Hahaha...”

Her resulting smile shone brighter than the sun, it's warmth far surpassing anything that came before it, despite looking the exact same as every other time she had smiled at me in that manner. Then, as her smile faded into wondrous memory, she was gone.

Plopping myself onto the grassy carpet, I stared holes into my hands. After a few ponderous moments I covered my face with my grubby little mitts and sighed deeply. Christ, I had it bad, didn't I? Stupid stupid stupid, risking my relationship with Ivy, with my own mother, all because I couldn't keep it in my damn pants. This isn't even the first time something like this has happened either, me wildly falling out of my depth and losing my goddamn f_u_c_k_i_n_g mind. She just has that effect on me, that aura of raw sensuality and s_e_x appeal that drives my newly acquired instincts mad. That drives me to grope and squeeze and even lick and suck if I think I can get away with it at the time.

Except I don't get away with it. I haven't gotten away with it after the first few times, after that, she's always cottoned on to the fact that there's something weird and wrong with me. She never looks at me in shock, or disgust, she just calmly indulges me while remaining in complete utter control the entire time, always getting the last laugh and inflaming my l_u_s_t to greater heights. Goading me on, probably trying to see how bad the damage is.

And I loath myself for it, this bottomless pit that is my libido. This great gnawing beast that stokes the fire in my b_r_e_a_s_t and gives me the courage of a thousand, nay, a million men. I loath the way I lose control of myself, the way I disregard reality in the moment until it all comes crashing back down on me afterward. Already I am only four months old and I understand this basic fact, this central part of the new person I've become. I am a bad son. A son who l_u_s_ts after his mother like a man lost in the desert who suddenly discovers an oasis paradise, no matter what that man does he can't help but take drink after drink. Eventually he'll drown himself in it, that splendid dreamlike paradise, just like I am now.

Hhhaaaggghhhh, don't think about it. Think about something else.

Already I can think of a few topics besides that, that dreadful dreary c_u_mbersome thing. My appearance for one, my abilities as they stand now are another.

Thankfully, Ivy allows some man made objects into our secluded home, if only out of convenience if nothing else. Organic hygiene products, some few electronic devices like a landline phone and a television set, and the item most relevant to my current needs. A mirror, set inside a frame surrounded by exotic and mutated flowers of my mother's own creation.

As has become my ritual for when I needed to run away from my problems, I gaze inside the mirror and see what I usually see. A young lad of what appears to be seven or eight years gazes back at me, his skin a vibrant glowing emerald, his lower body covered in tastefully crafted leaves, eyes a chilling blue, hair appearing as if it was on fire, and the one thing that stuck out the most. The long jagged birthmark on his stomach, on my stomach. A reminder of the man I used to be, the person I can never be again.

I sense myself beginning to mope again and draw my attention to a doorway across the room. The training room, a place where I could go all out at my current strength and not be able to permanently damage anything. I almost sprint inside, ever more eager to take my mind off thinking. So, my powers… where to begin? Perhaps with the simplest thing in my ever expanding tool belt, my pheromones. They're not all that strong, certainly not even anywhere near the mastery my mother shows with hers, but they're mine. With them I can make tiny suggestions and expect most people to follow through with them, that is, if they can justify it to themselves in their head. Something like ”Look to the left” is a hell of a lot easier than ”Do the robot while n_a_k_e_d”.

The more out of place it is for that person to do, the harder I have to work my body to produce more and stronger pheromones. As I am now, there's absolutely no way for me to brainwash or mind control someone without straining myself to the point of bone deep exhaustion and beyond.

As for the other things I can do, there's plant manipulation, which includes genetically modifying plants and ordering them around. The modifications I can make aren't too fantastical, mostly limited to things found in nature, but…

Snapping my fingers, a thick vine peels off the wall, quickly growing thick thorns. Soon after a bright red bulb dotted in white appears on the tip, growing to near human size in around thirty seconds before splitting down the middle, revealing rows of sharp green faux teeth with a wiggling worm like 'tongue' coming from the back of the acid filled mouth.

See head-people? I can make a near sapient real life piranha plant with stuff naturally found in plants around the world. All those teeth? Modified rose thorns. The acid? Stuff already found in carnivorous plants, just beefed up like everything else I can make. The 'tongue' is how it sees and smells things, also taken from plants. Because plants are bullshit anyway, It doesn't matter if I can't make shit up from nothing yet, I can just find something almost as good naturally.

Now the drawback with this kind of this thing is I can't just make huge sweeping changes like this in a respectable time frame normally, the only reason this didn't take hours is because the training room is packed to the brim with stored nutrients to accelerate plant growth, and to keep the things I make alive. If I wanted to make this out in the real world I'd have to increase how large the roots and leaves are, and be prepared to wait a good while for my minions to grow. The more severe the modification, the longer it takes to make and the more nutrients they require.

Now, while this last one doesn't sound that amazing compared to the other things I can do, I hear plants sort of… 'speak' for a lack of a better term. They don't 'talk' through sounds, or motion, or even pheromones. It's a deeper, almost magical connection, the shine of their combined overwhelming will telling me the want and whim of a thousand thousand different plants, each offering suggestions and advice on how to best help them through their limited perspectives.

Honestly, I can see why mom is so insistent on the rights of plants. When you can 'talk' to them, listen to their problems, feel their suffering through the connection, no matter how faint, I'd probably be pissed if I saw someone stomp all over a single flower, much less an entire forest or what have you. It's like seeing some prick stomp a kitten to death, a stupid, not at all sentient kitten. But it's still a kitten getting hurt in front of you, how would that make you feel?

As I think to myself, I guide and order the various plants in the room around, vines twist and snake through the air like eastern dragons, grass grows wildly, alternating between a soft silky carpet, and a field of deadly spikes. Some plants I even form from what seems to be nothing, in reality just random miscellaneous seeds changed into the currently d_e_s_i_r_ed plant. And with a stray thought every surface of the room is covered in flowers of every species I could think of, and even some I couldn't.

Finally, soaked in sweat and panting in exhaustion, I lay down on the soft grass. Moments like this make me feel alive, they fill me with a kind of energy nothing else can. Without even having to ask, a stray vine sn_a_k_e_d out of the room and across the house, into the only room absent of any foliage. It grabs a few towels and a large bucket of water that it filled, bringing the back to the training room. Then it dunked the towel in the cool water and got to work on wiping all over my body.

”Ooohhh that's nice.”

It's times like this that remind me that I've hit the superpower lottery. Sure, I'm no superman, but I have no major weaknesses other than the cold and fire, but most people with powers are vulnerable to those in some way. I'm probably immune to most poisons, considering the fact that I'm a plant person, but I'm sure as hell not going to test it out unless I really need to.

I lay sprawled spread eagle on the comforting grass until Auntie and Uncle arrive thirty minutes later, the roaring of a large vehicle alerting me to their arrival.

Initially I'm unconcerned, they arrive in getaway vehicles like this whenever some harebrained scheme doesn't work out and they manage to slip away from Batd_i_c_k, but this time my concern is raised when the vehicle doesn't turn off and I hear the front door slam open. By the time the frantic stomping reaches the training room I'm already upright, backing away from the door while my chlorophyll filled minions crowded around the entrance.

I needn't have bothered, Harley came in looking battered, her clothes torn and her skin slightly bruised. Even in her battered state she was able to flip and slide past any defense I could have constructed, and before I could blink I was held in a death grip and she was sprinting back out of the room. I could sense my minions trying to follow before I sent an order for them to fall back, then I looked at Harley's face, only to be met with a face filled with fright.

”Auntie, what's going on!? Where are we going!?”

Harley looks down at me as we swiftly exit the house, giving me a view of the outside world for the first time in this new life, Ivy too paranoid to allow me so much as a glimpse outside a window, perhaps fearful someone would see me. What I see isn't too surprising, an apartment building in a shitty neighborhood with boarded up windows, the only lights coming from the building shining from the bottom floor which I lived on.

As we enter the back of a sleek black van and sit down on some rather comfy seats, my a_s_s planted firmly in her l_a_p, she finally answers me with a whisper.

”A bad evil man found out where you live sweetness. Red- Ivy… let it slip that you… existed, in a moment of… passion. She was mad, steaming, she wanted to make the bad guy angry.”

She kissed me on the top of my head and snuggled me deeper before continuing.

”I… I'm sorry cutie, she's been put in Arkham.”

In that moment it feels like my heart drops all the way to my feet, sweat starts to form on my brow as I start to breath faster and deeper, trying to stay calm. Harley's solemn voice fades as my vision goes red and starts to blur with unshed tears.

”W-What!? How- Why did this-”

My panicked exclamation is cut off by the sound of a loud thunderous roar coming from behind us, the screeching of tires sounding out, echoing in the quiet streets of Gothham. Auntie freezes up, her face screwing up with worry before she yells loudly up to the front seat.

”We have to go fastah Mistah J!”

Uncle's exhausted voice comes from the front seat, filled with a sense of defeat, with frustration and anger.

”I'm already going as fast as this hunk of junk can! It can't go any faster!”

Harley looks ready to break out into wild sobs, only holding herself back because she's in my presence.

”I-It's going to be okay puddin, we'll get out of this, mean ol' Batman isn't going to get his hands on you!”

And then the back tires pop, the screech of metal on pavement announcing their loss for all to hear. Moments later what looks like a harpoon spears through the back doors, and with a lurch the van slows down immensely. The ensuing tug of war ends with the van's defeat, the engine unable to stand up to the over engineered might of what I presume to be the Batmobile. Silence follows while Harley sits me gently down on the seat and she stands up, preparing her hammer for a confrontation.

She moves slowly to the door s and opens them, peering out into the dark street and at the intimidating form of a silent Batmobile. Suddenly, a pair of dark hands grabs her from above, dragging her away screaming onto the car roof! I hear a loud slam come from above, a slight indent appearing in the metal roof. Joker looks back at you, sadness filling his eyes.

”When I tell you to run, run. Okay kid?”

I just nod at him, my eyes stinging from the tears that begin to fall down my cheeks. Uncle Jay gets out of the car, shouting and hollering.

”Come out Bats! I know you're around! You can't hide in the dark forever!”

I hear a whoosh from outside, followed by the mad laughter of my uncle. I hear the sound of gloved fists pounding against flesh, pained wheezing following after each blow.

”GO! RUN! DON'T LOOK BA-gagh!”

I do as he says and try to run out of the back of the van, only to run straight into firm muscled c_h_e_s_t and fall backwards onto my ass. I look up slowly, and see the figure that would feature prominently in my nightmares for the rest of my days.

Batman's steely gaze meets mine, his five o' clock shadow the only indication of his humanity. His face softens slightly as he reaches down towards me, but, I crawl backwards frantically until my back hits the cool metal of the van. Tears stream down my cheeks as my mind goes from panic into full-blown hysteria. He comes closer, and closer, and closer.

”N-NO! S-STAY AWAY! GO AWAY!”

When he comes close to me and an outstretched hand grabs my arm, my eyes roll into the back of my head, fear overwhelming me and knocking me unconscious.

The next time I would wake up, would mark the beginning of the rest of my life.