Chapter 37: You said learn to ask for help
Dick spent the day running to the designated places to step on the spot, and after clearing out a few locations along the shoreline, he finally settled on an abandoned warehouse on a river channel.
"Hmph, you can really hide, no wonder Batman hasn't been found"
One of Gotham's many waterways leading to the coast, the city has a sizable area of forest cover that is listed as a nature reserve by the city and funded by Wayne's Environmental Protection Fund.
But there is also a lack of the most important thing in the transportation of goods – transportation.
Transportation is indispensable for whatever you want to sell, but at the moment, the narrow river on the map is much wider than expected, and it seems that someone has taken a break from it. Dick squinted at the obvious artificialities and furrowed his brows.
"Speaking of which, this is Poison Ivy's favorite, how could she allow the Scarecrow to plant chemicals here?"
Dick sneaked through the moonlight towards his destination, and when he saw the heavily guarded warehouse, a doubt came to him.
Shielded by the tall tree trunks, Dick was as close to the warehouse as he could. The small size of the warehouse, which was originally a lumber yard, was closed after the government designated it as a protected area, and the warehouse was naturally left unused.
"I don't know how much poison gas the scarecrow has produced"
In the abandoned factory over there, Dick didn't see any canned poison gas, and the rest of the man's mouth probably meant the equipment, and transporting such a large piece of equipment would have been eye-catching, and Dick had been monitoring the chemical plant's movements, but nothing had been achieved at all.
Dick knew that it was probably the result of asking Superman to save people, and the man's disappearance made the scarecrow lurk again in fear, and the people who were originally guarding the chemical plant were also removed, although he didn't expect to find the scarecrow by spying on those minions, but this still made Dick regret his recklessness a little.
Dick was concentrating on observing the storehouse's every move when he suddenly felt something behind him, and was ready to turn around, but the dart in his hand was held in his hand. Although there was not enough light here at the moment, Nightwing's mask had night vision, so he was very sure that it was not a human being, nor a snake, but a vine, a vine that swam around on the branches like a snake...
“.. Strange, are poison ivy and scarecrow teaming up? ”
This conclusion is almost like saying that Poison Ivy is not a fanatical love of plants, Dick can't believe that Poison Ivy may team up with any Gotham villain, including the Joker, but definitely not with Scarecrow, because she wants to! Detest! Change! Learn! Try! Dose!
But apart from Poison Ivy, as far as Dick can remember, there hasn't been a guy in Gotham who has the ability to make plants obey.
“... It would be a bit bad if Poison Ivy joined forces with the Scarecrow."
Dick took a look at the situation and decided to go to the warehouse to find out, after all, there was still a possibility, that is, the scarecrow coerced Poison Ivy and used her plant abilities to hide the stronghold.
Carefully avoiding the probe-like vines, Dick took advantage of the darkness to reach the bushes near the warehouse. After observing for a while and summing up the rules of patrolling, he quickly came to the roof while a patrol was in a gap. The roof in disrepair didn't require Dick to do anything to see the whole thing inside the warehouse through the cracks and skylights. In order to prevent himself from accidentally stepping on the air and falling, Dick moved carefully on all fours on the roof, but thankfully the main frame of the warehouses was still sturdy.
Through the cracks, Dick carefully searched the warehouse for what he was looking for.
Whether Poison Ivy is active or passive, she can't be too far from here, so he must be in these warehouses, and he must determine whether Poison Ivy is teaming up with the Scarecrow or not.
The first warehouse was empty with only piles of containers, and Dick thought for a moment, then climbed to the nearest skylight, which was easily removed with a portable screwdriver. Quietly descending the warehouse, he pried open the nearest container, which was as he expected to be a well-packed metal can, and if he guessed correctly, it was the scarecrow's new poison gas.
"Looks like delivery is already ongoing"
However, the scarecrow certainly gave it not to Elsa, but to Luther.
There was a hint of movement at the door of the warehouse, and Dick immediately hid his figure as much as possible in the dark, observing the movement at the door.
A man walked in, walking slowly through the warehouse with a flashlight, Dick carefully avoided the light of the flashlight, and he was not noticed until the visitor left.
Dick crept close to the window and looked out, and everything was still normal outside, nothing unusual.
"It looks like there will be regular patrols in the warehouse as well"
Dick pulled out his grappling gun and returned to the rooftop. Cautiously approaching the second warehouse, what you can see through the cracks and skylights is similar to the one in the first warehouse. When he arrives at the third warehouse, Dick finally finds one of the things he was looking for - Poison Ivy.
The Poison Ivy Girl was covered in a huge glass cover, and the person was lying on the ground and couldn't see the state clearly, and there were three people sitting around in the warehouse playing cards, judging from the costumes, they were the scarecrow's men, who were supposed to be in charge of guarding the poison ivy.
Seeing that the three of them were playing cards in full swing, Dick didn't bother, quietly hung down from the skylight farther away from them, and slowly approached the location of the poison ivy with the help of the container.
After getting some distance closer, Dick noticed that some kind of green gas loomed in the glass cover containing the poison ivy.
"Fear of gassing? No, poison ivy is immune to most poison gases, and there is no reason for a scarecrow to use fear poison ivy to control poison ivy..."
There was a knock at the door, and one of the three players stood up and opened the door, and after talking to the people outside the door, he turned around and asked one of the remaining two to stay behind and leave the warehouse with the other.
Dick saw the opportunity, quietly touched the guy who was left alone, and knocked him out quickly and decisively, without even giving him a chance to struggle.
Although he didn't know when the two people who went out would return, Dick decided to see the state of Poison Ivy first. It wouldn't be good news if the Scarecrow developed a new type of poison gas to which Poison Ivy is not immune.
"Hey! Poison ivy, hey! ”
Dick tapped lightly on the glass in an attempt to wake up the Poison Ivy inside, but the Poison Ivy was completely unresponsive. Dick pulled out a portable breathing apparatus and took it with him, although he didn't know what the gas was inside, whether it was a scarecrow or poison ivy, it was certainly not a good thing.
After manipulating the console of the giant glass bottle, Dick finally released the poison ivy from the bottle.
"Hey! Poison ivy"
Dick patted Poisonivy in the face, but Poisonivy didn't react at all. Staring at Poison Ivy's pink lips, Dick still refused to give her artificial respiration, God knows what would be on Poison Ivy's lips.
"I thought it was the big bat, but it was just a little of his sidekick."
A familiar hoarse voice suddenly came from behind, causing Dick to immediately go on alert, roll around and hide behind a nearby container.
"That's not a good place, little followers, these were originally for that bat, but forget it"
As soon as the words fell, the container in front of Dick was immediately attacked by a shuttle of bullets, and almost instantly Dick sensed the other party's purpose, and the gas bottle full of air pressure made some subtle sounds under the dense fire.
"Oh . . . Nope."
Dick jumped out of hiding as fast as he could, but the impact slammed him into the wall. Trying to get up from the ground, he caused a sharp pain in his back.
"Damn, there's no metal shards going to get in there."
Dick's uniform has a certain degree of impact resistance, can protect against conventional bullets other than some special sniper bullets, and small explosions can also be handled, but at such a close distance, Dick is not sure if it can resist the explosion of metal chips, and worse than metal chips are the gases that were originally compressed in the bottle, those are not compressed air....
After the explosion, Dick heard the footsteps of the scarecrow slowly walking towards him. Drag your body as hard as you can to hide it as much as possible.
"It's fast, but I think you should know that the gas can be absorbed through the skin, although it won't work quickly."
From the smoke and dust, the Scarecrow didn't see Nightwing, after all, it was brought out by Batman, so he didn't think that a shuttle bullet and a few exploding gas bottles would allow him to find a Nightwing's body in the ruins after a puff of smoke.
The scarecrow said that Dick knew that he had already felt his body begin to become numb, and he didn't know if it was the effect of the injury behind him or the effect of the poison gas.
"If you had known, you would have ordered an antidote first"
Dick laughed at himself as he pondered how to get out of here.
"Got You"
At some point, a vine crept around Dick's feet, and before he could react, he was completely hung upside down.
"Boy, where's Batman?"
"I'm sorry, he didn't come"
Throwing a dart at the scarecrow, he turned around and cut off the vines tied to his feet, and after landing on the ground, he rolled around and ran towards the nearest window, but before he could take two steps, his left foot was weak and he fell heavily to the ground.
"Let me guess, why are you wondering why the gas is coming on so quickly?"
The scarecrow spoke Dick's question in a tone that he had already grasped the whole picture.
"Skin absorption, respiratory absorption, but not as fast as intravenous injection, of course, intramuscular injection is also very fast"
A vine slowly floated to the side of the scarecrow and set up, and the moonlight reflected a strange luster on the tip of the vine....
[Damn! 】
Dick couldn't help but curse in his heart, knowing that he should have asked Lucius if the antidote had been made.
As the scarecrow approached step by step, Dick's increasingly infunctional brain was still trying to figure out what else could be done.
The sound of broken glass, something coming down from above, and some kind of familiar light voice seemed to be saying something, there was a gunshot, but there was only one, maybe he didn't hear it. Dick felt that his facial features had lost their function.
He saw a familiar figure, and then someone ran towards him, as if he saw it and as if he didn't see it. But in the end, he could not resist the effect of the poison gas and fell into a coma.
When Dick opened his eyes again, it was in the emergency room in the bat cave.
It took him a moment to make sure his sight had returned, but it still felt weird. I tried to get up, but the cells in my body seemed to be cut off from my brain and couldn't function at all.
"You'd better not move, Ah Fu said that the piece of metal behind you is a bit dangerous"
The familiar voice came from the side, and it took Dick a moment to digest the meaning, as it seemed that his senses and brain cells had not fully recovered.
Trying to roll his eyes, he saw that it was Jason's familiar face, and Dick seemed to see a worried look in those green eyes.
“... Are you messing with him? ”
The brain doesn't have good control over the tongue either, and Dick is a little worried about what to do if he turns into a big tongue.
Jason didn't answer, Dick knew this was his acquiescence, and while it wasn't strange that the controlling man would know his whereabouts, there was only one reason to know so quickly, Jason said.
"I told you I won."
"Yes, but you also said that learning to ask for help is a sign of maturity"
Jason interrupted Dick, refuting him with what he had said. Dick did tell him that he wanted to catch the scarecrow himself, and Bruce looked like he could handle it, but Jason finally decided to tell Bruce about his progress with Dick because he always felt that Bruce was not as confident as he appeared.
Dick rolled his eyes, then digressed:
"Got him?"
Jason certainly knew who Dick was talking about.
"Well, caught, poison ivy caught"
This is the first time Jason has come into contact with two of Gotham's bigwigs so closely.
The self-professed fearful scarecrow didn't seem to be so terrifying when he looked closely, at least not as terrifying as Bruce was when he was angry. And the Poison Ivy Girl, Jason was stopped by Bruce when he wanted to touch her hair to see if it was also a plant, and then Jason learned a basic common sense in the face of the Poison Ivy Girl - never have any physical contact with the Poison Ivy Girl, you never know what is attached to her skin.
"Oh . . . yes, congratulations, you've grabbed the scarecrow again."
Dick only had to listen to the voice to know who it was, and said a little unwillingly.
Bruce came over and heard Dick say this, and after a slight pause, he said:
"Scarecrow and poison ivy are not two people you can handle alone"
"It's the scarecrow alone, and the poison ivy faints at all"
"The Scarecrow uses chemical agents and poison ivy's pheromones to manipulate plants, and strictly speaking, you're dealing with two people at the same time"
Dick didn't speak, he couldn't contradict Bruce, he shouldn't have taken the risk unprepared when he sensed that Poison Ivy and the Scarecrow were together.
“... Have a good rest"
Bruce said this and left the infirmary.
"Humph! He's always so arrogant! ”
As soon as Bruce left, Dick couldn't help but complain.
"Really? I think he's upset."
"I'm not glad I messed things up."
"No, I think he's upset that he didn't find the exact location of the scarecrow's nest"
“..... What do you mean? ”
Jason's words aroused Dick's curiosity.
"When I received the message from Superman, Bruce and I were searching for several places on the coastline that Bruce had circled."
"Superman?"
"Hmm... I think it must be him, and then Bruce asked me, "How far did you find out?"
"And then he found there?"
"Yes..."
Jason's words made Dick suddenly feel a lot better, well, at least he found the scarecrow before Bruce.
Well!