Shiller followed Pamela to the botanical laboratory. After all, it was impolite to stand by and watch when trouble followed shortly after the gift-giving, especially for the recipient of the gift.
The botanical laboratory at Gotham University was located in the old laboratory building, separate from the cryogenic laboratory and the high energy physics laboratory. The recent events had fully justified the need for a new laboratory building.
The old lab building didn't contain any particularly high-value equipment, so the rampant plants didn't cause too much damage. If all the laboratories had been squeezed into one building, the aggressive plants would have been the main culprits for the decline in teaching quality at Gotham University.
Because the building was a bit old, there was some water accumulated at the front entrance. Pamela and Shiller took a detour and entered the lab through the side door. "I didn't just ignore the defense measures. I installed sprinklers in the warehouses and labs that contain special plant toxins. They only work on aggressive plants. Once they escape, the sprinklers will activate. The plants exposed to the toxins quiet down immediately, preventing extensive damage."
"That's very forward-thinking of you, Miss," Shiller commented, glancing out the window.
Once they reached the third floor, a male student called Landt seemed still a little frightened, not due to the defeated plants littering the floor. Students majoring in botany had grown accustomed to all this, since there were no plants Pamela couldn't handle.
Pamela was aware of this, so she immediately went to help Landt up and asked, "What happened? What scared you like this?"
"Someone..." Landt took a deep breath, but still seems somewhat panicked. Shiller quickly stepped in, pressing on his shoulder and saying, "Breathe deeply, calm down, don't think about what happened, focus on the current issue."
"Oh, Lord, are you Professor Rodriguez? What brings you here?"
"I came to check on things with Pamela."
Landt glanced at the plant corpses on the ground and looked regretful. He said, "I'm sorry, I made a mistake, the plants didn't escape, they were trying to protect me."
Pamela's expression quickly turned serious. She led Landt and Shiller into the botany lab, had Landt sit in front of the experiment table, and asked, "What exactly happened? Start from the moment you arrived."
"Haven't I been analysing plant toxin samples recently? Because I was having a hard time finishing my dissertation, I came to the lab an hour early in the hopes of catching up."
Landt glanced nervously at Shiller, aware of the professor's strict reputation at Gotham University. He wondered whether he would tell his professor about his rush to finish his dissertation.
Shiller's expression remained unchanged. In truth, he didn't care whether the students were rushing to finish their dissertations. If anything, he was glad that they had the dedication to do so. On the other hand...
"As soon as I entered the lab, I noticed that something wasn't right. The shelves by the window had been moved."
Shiller slightly furrowed his brow. Pamela explained, "Landt is a local of Gotham. He has a photographic memory. He can even remember the pattern of every plant leaf."
Landt let out a sheepish grin, "Yes, that condition used to bother me a lot. But now I've learned to use the patterns of the plant leaves to organise the information I gather, which has improved my condition significantly."
"That's good to hear," Shiller commented. He thought to himself that Landt was another Gotham-style genius. But he still added, "If you have any issues with remembering or organising information, feel free to ask me. Email would work."
"Thank you, professor. To continue, the person who did this was likely a professional. They did a great job restoring the scene, but they left a scratch on the vine we've been cultivating."
"I was checking the scratch when I suddenly heard a noise from the next room. I took a look and saw a shadow flitting past the door. Right then, he made a muffled groan. I saw a small bloodstain left on the thorn of a small thorn vine."
"I was scared stiff, but thankfully, the shadow appeared angry. He turned his attention towards the now-lively plants. I screamed out of fright, and more plants burst out of the warehouse door nearby. They drove him away."
"However, that person seemed quite formidable. He had a kind of spray, or perhaps it was a powder that killed a lot of plants. I went over to inspect the scene and realised that the plants that rushed out from the warehouse were those that I usually take care of. I think they were trying to protect me."
Landt's face turned sad. Shiller saw that due to his photographic memory, this boy might not be good at interacting with humans and had thus poured all his emotions into the plants. Hence, he was feeling grief for the death of the plants.
Pamela's face unusually showed signs of anger. She turned around and walked towards the adjacent rooms. Upon seeing more plant corpses, her anger flared.
Shiller, standing at the door, asked, "Did you sense anything?"
"The plants were poisoned." Pamela knelt down and lifted a leaf. "A strong toxin. It probably affects all life forms."
Upon hearing the word 'toxin', Shiller quickly thought of something. He turned to Pamela and asked, "What would be the symptoms in humans?"
"I'm not sure. I barely have any knowledge of internal medicine, and the reactions will be significantly different in plants and animals. It's hard to make the correlation." Pamela stood up, took a deep breath, and unclenched her fist. "The plants injured him and left a trace of plant toxin inside him. We can use this to track him down."
"Wait, Pamela, first we should get this student to the infirmary. No matter who it is, they wouldn't have been able to get out of Gotham so soon. This is our territory."
Pamela saw that Shiller had helped Landt up, she breathed a sigh of relief, shook her head, and suppressed some of her urgent emotions.
Rationality told her that being impulsive was not the best choice, she had been a bit too impulsive just now, wanting to directly pursue an unknown poisoner, and being poisoned was not a joking matter.
After calming down, Pamela found that the thinking of All Things Green was influencing her, she was extraordinarily furious over the death of plants, she knew this was the price of using plant power, but she had to stay as rational as possible, the danger of Gotham wouldn't diminish just because it saw the light of day once more.
Shiller sent the student named Landt to the medical room, Landt's condition had improved a bit by the time he arrived at the medical room, thus he told Shiller a more important clue.
"I have observed the epidermal cells of the melon vine under a microscope before, I remembered the arrangement of the cells, the damage left by that person on the melon vine was rather unique, his nails were thicker than ordinary people, I mean, there was a coating on the nails."
After settling Landt, Shiller and Pamela got in their car, Pamela sat in the passenger seat with her eyes closed, within her vision, everything was a shade of green, either dark or light, and from a certain direction, a green mist was wafting over like a ribbon.
"Turn right, Professor, then take the first exit on the left at the intersection."
Shiller kept driving forward according to Pamela's directions, and finally Pamela said: "About five hundred meters ahead, then turn right."
"Are you sure? Gotham Cathedral is up ahead."
"I'm sure of it." Pamela opened her eyes and said coldly: "He's there, he's trying to neutralize the plant toxin."
Shiller drove all the way to the front of Gotham Cathedral, but the old father was not there today, only a few helpers who came to clean the cathedral, Shiller ignored their obstructions, and directly entered the back of the cathedral with Pamela.
"No, not here." Pamela took a deep breath and closed her eyes again, suddenly, she opened her eyes, a glint flickering in them as she looked down at the ground.
"Underground?"
A name instantly lit up in Shiller's mind, his right hand caught at empty air, a black umbrella appeared in his hand, he turned his head and looked at Pamela, asking: "Miss, how is your combat ability?"
"Is the other party very strong?" Pamela was a bit nervous, she took a deep breath and said: "It's okay, no... I mean, quite capable."
"The other party is from the Assassin's Union." Shiller, along with Pamela, walked towards the passage leading to the underground, and said: "And it's very likely to be Talya Ogu, I should have figured it out when Bruce said he was hiding from a woman yesterday."
"Talya?" Pamela repeated the name with some confusion, then asked: "Who is she? And what is the Assassin's Union?"
"She is a woman who is obsessive about getting into bed with Batman and producing offspring, the Assassin's Union is the organization behind her, they want Batman's genes because they think Batman is outstanding enough."
"Then you'll have to stop them, Professor, otherwise in twenty years you'll have another student who doesn't write papers."
The hand Shiller had on the umbrella handle instantly tightened, he said: "What a shocking assumption, miss, but it's not impossible from a genetic point of view."
Watching Shiller speed up, Pamela breathed a sigh of relief, she knew that she was just an ordinary female college student now, had basically never been in a fight, although her theoretical power was powerful, she would likely be useless without combat experience.
The Assassin's Union sounded like a formidable entity, she alone would have a hard time dealing with them, but if this professor was willing to be a bit more serious about it, the enemy was nothing to fear.
Pamela had known Shiller for quite a long time now, she knew what this professor cared most about. A small manipulation technique, Pamela thought, was nothing to be proud of, after all not everyone was like Bruce, having spent so much time with Shiller and yet still having no understanding of psychology.
Shiller opened the door to the underground, a strong wine smell wafted over with the breeze, Pamela fanned her nose with her hand and said: "I didn't know there was a wine cellar underneath the cathedral, did the fathers secretly build this?"
"That's not wine, be careful, Talya probably understands that thing better than us, they're already using it."
Shiller went down and saw the familiar Dionysium pool beneath Gotham Cathedral, then as expected, he saw a woman's figure in front of the fluorescent pool.
"You're finally here, Bruce Wayne…"
"Bang!"
The tip of the umbrella hit the ground, fog gathered and formed a shape, Shiller's hands rested on the umbrella handle, looking at Talya who he had knocked into the pool, he said:
"Hello, Miss Talya, unfortunately, I am not Bruce Wayne, you can call me Schiller Rodriguez."