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Chapter 39: But Why?
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"The Joker huh," Ian muttered.
"Yeah, he's a very successful new criminal. He doesn't seem to be much but he seems to like stealing from the crime families, probably a crazy person.
There were even rumors that he was once in Arkham Asylum, but he just escaped. There was someone like him who was operating in Gotham but was caught by batman I think? I am not really sure. It shouldn't be hard to find out if we investigate him thoroughly." Mike added before taking a sip of coffee.
"It makes you think really, how much of a shithole this city is to give birth to maniacs every day. Every kind of degeneracy occurs every day as if it's a common occurrence, yeah, it's freaking cursed." Barney also stated his opinion before taking a huge bite from the massive hamburger in his hands.
"So what should we do about him? The Falcones commissioned us to find any information about him, specifically his location." Ralf asked.
The Rose family network of information was understandably terrifying. What happens when thousands of the homeless work for you, and spread throughout the city, keeping an eye if anything happens? Very few things become unknown to you.
And the thing is that the information network is only getting larger and larger, especially since the Rose family came to officially rule half of the east end of Gotham.
"Keep an eye on his whereabouts, but don't tell the Falcones anything. Let him mess with them for a while, as long as he doesn't target us of course, and he has yet to do that." Ian contemplated it for a bit before instructing.
All the boys were assembled in the middle of the night in Cat's rest. Despite how far they've come, each of them still lives in the same building, the second floor.
"Ian..." Ralf strangely said while staring at his phone, seemingly seeing something bizarre, "I think we might've something strange."
"Oh, where?" Ian directly asked, his eyes were almost shining with curiosity.
"The message has been sent by the 9th group, so it should be near the central city, but still in the east end."
"Ok, let's see what it's about." Ian didn't bother to ask any more questions, he just started making his way there.
Ralf himself didn't have the answers because that's not how it works. He was simply sent a coded message that means something bizarre has happened.
The information in the Rose family moves mainly by letters, writings, not through the internet because Ian knows the risk of the latter.
So many powers in the world can get access to his entire information network if he were to go with that route.
The letters most often than not get destroyed after they've been read, the ones that are too important are saved in the collection chamber.
They traveled directly towards a secondary Rose base near the area, and one of the family members was already waiting for them there. He was fidgeting and moving around in nervousness.
Ian knows the man and knows his current behavior is unusual for him. That could only mean that what they found was that bizarre.
Ian got out of the car, and so did the others, attracting everyone's attention. There were many people around, but all worked for them, it was that late at night.
"Calm down, and tell me what you found and where it is," Ian stated, calming the man's mind a bit.
"Well... She's inside..."
Ian raised his brow in interest, "She? Start from the beginning, tell me what's happened."
"Right... Today days ago, a nearby experimental facility has exploded, I think they were experimenting on some kind of botanist shit or something, I don't really know what that means though."
"Yeah, get to the point."
"Right... We already informed you of the explosion and started investigating the area before the police arrive, but we didn't have enough time to find anything, so we had to retreat for the moment until they finish their investigation. You know how the police commissioner is, hardworking and honest right?"
Ian's face almost flinched seeing the guy still going on a tandem of unnecessary information, "Make it quick."
"I am almost there, so don't worry. Anyway, the police did their fair share of investigation before leaving only a few officers on the scene with the rescue team as they had to take all the wreckage out in search for survivors." He seemed to have no common sense, perhaps because of how he grew up amidst the homeless.
"Ralf left the handling of the situation to me, so I just used our influence to forc... instruct some of the rescue team to inform us if they found anything, for a price of course. They found several scientists' bodies, and they also found her."
Ian followed after the man inside into a specific room. A few underlings were guarding and only he and the group could get in.
"Her appearance is... bizarre to say the least, but the strange thing is what happened when they tried to come close to her. We were only able to transport her here because of Marry." The man further added.
Ian got to see what they found right after that. He found Marry already inside. She is one of the core family members and is responsible for looking over their side of the territory, overseeing the airhead next to him.
"Marry." Ian nodded at her.
"Boss!" Marry seemed to be just an average looking late thirty years old lady. She bowed before him and warned, "Please don't approach her, it's dangerous."
"Explain." Ian kept his eyes on the sleeping lady on the bed as he instructed.
"She responds violently if any man even came close to her." She let out a sigh of relief seeing he didn't misunderstand her and started explaining.
"Isn't she asleep, and what is she wearing??" Barney questioned with curiosity.
Marry started approaching the sleeping lady while saying, "She doesn't let any man get close to her at all, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for women except if they try to touch her. We had to carefully push a stretcher underneath her to transport her here."
Her hand then approached the lady, trying to touch her. Before she can react however, she found green vines tightly surrounding her hand but also her neck.
Mike instantly pulled out his gun and aimed at the lady only to be stopped by Ian. The latter just watched as Marry slowly retreated and so did the vines.
"She somehow is able to generate those things from her clothes which I think are created by plants." Marry was strangely not finding all of this that weird, I guess growing up in such a strange world can do that to people.
'Poison Ivy huh.' Ian thought as he started approaching the lady, "Ralf, take over the situation here and get everything that's found in the explosion site.
The thing that turned her to this might still be there, or perhaps some kind of research that we can use. Just find why the explosion happened in the first place."
Ian still approached as many more vines appeared surrounding her, just waiting for him to come closer.
"Boss??" Marry questioned, a bit baffled by his actions.
"Will it kill me?" Ian curiously questioned.
"No? The ones who approached her were just pushed back violently. Only one of them ended up breaking a bone, the rest were only mildly injured." She explained in hope he doesn't do anything unnecessary.
She succeeded because Ian expected the opposite, 'They survived? Too bad, I guess I'd survive as well and end up just hurting myself. If it was the opposite though, I'd be curious to see how my power would reverse that.'
Just as Ian wanted to retreat, he noticed something peculiar. The vines that were surrounding her started approaching him themselves, slowly but surely.
It was like they had a life of their own as they slowly closed the distance, seeming unsure and in hesitation.
One of the vines seemed to have gathered courage and reached him all alone. It gently came in contact with his skin which triggered it to hastily surround his hand as if it had sensed something.
That was the Cue for the rest of the vines to approach him and surround him from all around.
Before anyone in the room can act, Ian stopped them as he instructed, "Don't do anything. Just leave the room."
"But?" "Just do as I say. You know I will be okay."
They were forced to leave seeing him frowning at their hesitation. No one wants to go against a fucking maniac.
'This is certainly strange. What attracted them to act in such a way.' Ian was very curious about that question as he observed some other vines act as legs for the lady bringing her to his embrace, and making sure her skin touches his.
"Ahh, ok. But why?"
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