Solomon Grundy part 2

Gotham Botanical Gardens-

"Not that I mind Naruto, but why did you bring me here?"

"I don't know what you mean Pam." The Uzumaki said as he walked beside his girlfriend through the garden.

"Don't play dumb since I know what is probably going through your head right now."

"Which would be what exactly?" He asked as the two were passing some of the flowers on display.

After leaving their loft, Naruto had taken her out on a stroll through some parts of Gotham that they had enjoyed going to during some of their past dates. Going through the park and eating at one of the small diners Pam enjoys every so often to make things ever so presently great. It would've been better if the sun was shining, but with the current overcast they had to make due.

"You brought me here to distract me enough to possibly get me to consider working here." She said with a narrowed gaze towards her lover.

"Don't be putting words into my mouth hun, since you are probably not guessing my motivations right."

She was partially correct in what he was doing. The Uzumaki had originally wanted to bring Pam here to help make her feel at home with her powers. Feeling connected with how healthy and strong the varying plants were ever since they were last here on April Fools Day when they bonded with the ancient tree here.

He realized this when coming over one time during it's closed hours and meditated there with his scythe. When the tree got rejuvenated, it must've affected the surrounding plant life greatly to the point that it changed them in most aspects. Reason why when he came on by in it's open hours a lot of the scientists working there were taking so much of their time studying the new flora appearances, even more so on the ancient tree with the most drastic changes.

But getting back onto the part of what she was assuming was partially correct. During the date so far, some thoughts had been going back to what he learned last night of Pam not getting her old job back. Naruto didn't want to see the depressed aura of sorts radiating off of her with her not having a job at the current time. He wanted to see the beautiful glint and sparkle in her eyes when it pertained to working with plants. To see what she can do with her new found knowledge in plant life with her current connection to the Green.

*Pouting noise* "I'll get you to tell me sooner or later Naruto. Mark my words."

"And what will you do exactly Pam?" He asked as he walked behind her and wrapped his arms around her front to bring her closer to his form. Pam ended up leaning her body onto his on instinct as her hands grasped his. "Will you take control and force it out of me?" He then brought his mouth closer to her ear and spoke out, making her shiver on what was said next. "Possibly dominating me while having fun doing so?"

'Oh Ho~ This is getting hot!' Ivy spoke out as she was getting giddy with excitement. This wasn't helping really as Pam's heart was slightly quickening and her cheeks burning up as various images were showing up. Dominating her lover in several ways made her want to be very compliant with the idea. 'Don't know if we should thank Selina or not on this new side of our king.'

'I'd rather kill her for corrupting him.'

Before anything else could be brought up, someone walked up to them and coughed into their hand.

"Am I interrupting something?" A woman asked, getting Pam to jump a little and out of Naruto's hold on her.

"N-No!" The changed botanist said with a stutter with her ever present blush. Of course it was hard for it to go down with Naruto laughing a little, making her glare at him to quickly shut up. "Just my boyfriend teasing me about something."

"I see." The woman said with a smirk on her lips before bringing a porcelain mug to her lips.

From what the couple inspected from the woman, she appeared to be of hispanic descent with her being roughly a decade or so older than Pam. She had fair skin that seemed to match with her dark brunette features. Currently wearing a purple button up shirt, dark pants and a lab coat with an employee pass on the pocket. She also has a 'happy face' mug in her hand with a pair of glasses on top of her head to finish off her appearance.

"So are you two enjoying your time here so far?" The woman asked getting the couple to nod their heads.

"Yes we are. Thank you for asking."

"It's been quite some time since I've been here and got a good look at the place." The redhead said as she looked around to see how different many of the plants looked. She didn't voice it before, but she distinctly remembers that the ones currently shown were not that exotic looking or giving off a more better feeling from the Green.

"Well depending on when you last came here, we've been quite busy ever since the Joker fiasco."

"...How so?" Pam asked as she was a bit curious on the woman's explanation.

"If you may not have noticed, these plants were not this extravagant as they appear to be before the incident." The employee said as she waved her free hand towards one of the nearby flower beds. "Take for example these hawaiian flowers we have growing here. We had them planted back in March as saplings, but whatever happened caused them to rapidly grow and appear much differently than we expected. We don't know how this happened, but it possibly had to do when Vanitas brought that mysterious metahuman here back on April Fools Day."

"Yes I've heard of what happened and glad that the two were able to save the day." Naruto said with a bit of a smile, getting his lover to nudge his side. Something that went unnoticed by the female employee, due to her looking away for a brief moment or two.

"Well after that event happened, many scientists and botanists made their way over here to study our main attraction here to figure out what those two did to it." She said as she seemed to usher the couple towards the outside of the building where the ancient tree resided.

"I'm sorry, but what's your name ma'am?"

Turning towards the publisher, the woman decided to answer his question. "Ah yes, sorry that I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Dr. Luisa Cruz and I'm one of the plant sciences specialists working here at the gardens."

"Then it's nice to meet you doctor." Pam said as she and Naruto kept following the doctor while looking at the various plants along the path.

Once the two made it outside, they were greeted with the sight of the ancient tree in all it's glory. Being healthier than before as it seemed to revert back into it's prime with the gigantic flowers receding back into buds. The changed botanist could practically feel it without trying to reach out and connect to the ancient tree.

"I've studied this tree for quite some time and I could only scratch part of the surface on what it did." Luisa said as she took a sip from her mug. "It still won't explain how it affected the other plant life here at the gardens."

"Possibly the tree had some latent properties that reacted very well with the other plant life." The botanist said, getting the garden employee's attention. "After all, it has been around for millenia and no one would fully understand what it can do when it came back to it's prime." 'Well except for me and the Green that is.'

"Hmm… That is true Ms…"

"Isley." Pam said to introduce herself. "Dr. Pamela Isley."

"And how would you know a bit about this?"

"I'm a botanist myself." The Green champion said with pride. "I've extensively studied plant life for the majority of my life and centered my career around it. I can very well name off every type of flora in different regions of the world and be able to know of their properties."

"Really? And how would you possibly explain a bit more with the plants in and out of this building on how they've changed?" Dr. Cruz said to possibly challenge the botanist in front of her.

"Like I said before." Pam first started out as she walked closer to the tree and touched it slightly without wanting to give away her abilities. "This tree has been around for millennia, 'possibly' before the time of man walked the earth. It should have spores inside of this beauty to bring out the latent ancestry on varying plants through genetics. Reason why the trees and flowers within the building's grounds look different should because of showing their earliest form of ancestry in a manner of speaking…."

Naruto's lover was quite honest in her little explanation as the time she entered this ancient being, she had gotten a lot of it's history to know how powerful it can be. Even after Naruto explained to her on how truly important this tree was of it connecting to a ley line nexus. It made her know how truly unique this tree was from the rest of it's kind that supposedly existed.

Off to the side, Naruto was looking onwards with a smile on his face. He was happy to see his girlfriend get into her 'botanist groove', something he nicknamed when the two first started dating, and it seemed to lighten up her rich green eyes. He had to give himself a pat on the back on bringing her here that it.

Back with the science specialist, she gained a little intrigue towards the redheaded woman as she started going on and on about the plants without herself saying a thing. Listening to a good amount of detail about possibly taking the best traits of different plant species and blending them together to make stronger plants to be able to survive through different climates. Ways on improving the environment through splicing different stains together that would save varying areas.

"Pam."

"Y-Yes."

"You're getting into your 'groove' again." Naruto said with a small smile.

"Oh… Sorry on that." Pamela said with a little embarrassed look as she turned back towards the specialist. "I tend to ramble on with my research and really get into it."

"No it's quite alright Ms. Isley." Luisa said as she waved off the guest on the apology. "It was quite interesting to hear all that. Where do you work at anyways?"

"Well… That's the thing. I'm, sort of, in between jobs at the moment. I just don't want to get too much into detail though."

"It's quite alright." Luisa said before taking a sip from her drink. "Though we are a bit short on staff at the moment."

"Really?"

A nod was the only answer given at the moment from the specialist before clearing her throat. "A married couple working here are currently on maternity/paternity leave with their newborn. So some projects and assignments are either put on hold or delayed on progress."

"But why would you want to possibly hire me?" Pam said with a perplexed look.

"You seem pretty good on your explanation, with good details, earlier and it might be good to help out. If that could be possible."

"Well… Give me some thought on the subject please."

"That's fine Dr. Isley. Though there should be one thing you need to do when your going to apply here as a possible specialist." Luisa said getting looks from the visiting couple. "For most potential hires used to work for other companies, we would be asking for a good research paper or so on how to possibly make things interesting in the plant world as it were. If you were just someone fresh on the market, you would've just needed a good recommendation and thesis paper. Though since you're in the former category, you get the idea."

"I pretty much do Dr. Cruz." The Green champion said as she started to think a little on some idea on what to possibly do exactly.

"Take all the time you need though since there's no rush." Was all the plant specialist said as she left the couple alone near the ancient tree. Once the employee went back inside; Naruto turned towards Pam and gave her a nice hug before spinning her around, much to her little annoyance at the moment.

"You did it Pam." He spoke out as her annoyance soon turned into little giggles. "You possibly landed yourself a good job."

"Yes Naruto, I think I might've." She said as she broke out of his grasp and landed her feet onto the ground. "Though I do need to think of a good research topic to possibly get me in though."

"At least you'll be with a whole lot more plants than with your previous job. And I do have to admit that you working back at Star Labs was a tad suffocating in that one room of yours."

"True."

"I would suggest your old life's work, but it would only cause a lot of problems."

"I know. So I'll be racking my mind for a while though." The redhead said before her lips were captured by the love of her life. Once breaking away, he gave her a reassuring smile as he wrapped his hand around hers.

"And I'll be there every step of the way."

"Thank you."

"Besides… I didn't urge you at all to apply here." He said with a smile. Which only met with a twitching brow from his lover's face.

"...You had to ruin the moment... didn't you?"

This just got the publisher to nervously chuckle as he muttered 'sorry' several times over.

-Gotham National Bank-

There wasn't that much activity going on inside of the bank. Just the average, quiet moments of people idly chatting with either the tellers or the assistants at the cubicle like offices. Asides from that, people were just standing or sitting around for their respective turns on why they came by to the bank in the first place.

As this went on, a large figure entered through the entrance of the bank with a cloak over his form before making his way upstairs. With some people nearby gave the man a weary look as the cloaked man seemed to turn his head all over the place. Even scratching his head to possibly indicate him being quite confused for the time being.

"Eh… May I help you sir?" A guard came up to the large man as he was weary of the larger man, just like everyone else.

"Grundy... need money."

"Well you've come to the right place… I think." The guard said as he guessed the larger man seemed not that smart at all. "You could… stand in line or sit down in one couches till someone could help you."

"...Okay." Grundy roughly said as he idly moved his head between the line to the couch. Eventually he moved his way to the couch before he sat down on it, earning a bit of a creaking noise coming off of it. Obviously due to his weight.

Nothing much happened after that as people went on with their business. Though every so often people would stare at the largely cloaked man

*Bang*

A sound of a shotgun going off startled off the occupants in the wide opened room of the bank. Many turned towards the source to see five people wearing red ski masks near the entrance wielding a mixture of assault rifles and shotguns. One of the guards was about to fire upon them until one of the masked men punched his lights out while another shot a nearby guard. This caused more panic from the occupants in the building with some people screaming.

*Bang*

"Alright listen up!" One of the red ski masked men yelled out with his shotgun in the air. "We are not here for your money, we're here for the bank's money! Just get on the ground nice and tight and no one will get hurt!"

"So don't be brave or else we'll unload a payload of lead into one of ya'll." Another ski mask wearing men said as he trained his weapon at a pair of guards so they wouldn't stop their robbery.

"Do what you're told and this will be over quicker than the time I hooked up with a cheerleader back on prom night!" Another thug called out as he was going through several registers and dumping the money into bags. Of course some of the other thugs looked at the one thug oddly on what he just said, to which said man caught onto. "Too much?"

"Yes." Was the resounding answer from the other ski masked men.

"Ninety seconds guys!" One of the men called out as he briefly looked at his watch. It appeared they were on the clock.

"Anyways… we're the Red Hood gang and we hope you have a pleasant day." The first man said as he was checking the occupants in the room just in case they weren't going to try and attack them. Of course his eyes soon landed upon the large cloaked man sitting on the couch and didn't seem to react to anything at all. "Hey! We said to get on the ground!"

There was no response from the larger man as he just sat there without moving an inch.

"I was talking to you!" The one thug said as he got up and close to the man.

"Sixty seconds!" The watch thief said before turning his head towards the first thief. "Just leave the guy alone man."

The first thug ignored the watch thief as he aimed his gun at the large man. "I said get on the ground!"

"...Huh?" The large man said as he turned his head towards the thief. "Were you talking to Grundy?"

"Yes I was!" The man said as he jammed his weapon at the larger one's chest. "What are you?! Deaf?! Stupid?!"

This seemed to rile something inside of Grundy as he was told of him being stupid. Instincts telling him to be rid of the man in front of him before getting the money that he previously sought out for. But he didn't know what to do really on how to fully engage with the situation at hand.

Kill the mortal Grundy. The voice called out inside of the cloaked man's mind. Stand up and kill him.

Grundy complied with the voice's command and got up from his place in the lobby couch. With his height and stature, he seemed pretty intimidating to the man pointing the gun at him. Even more so with the cloak around his form.

"Hey! No funny ideas!" The first thug yelled out as he and several others trained their weapons at the man.

"Thirty seconds!" The watch thief called out before he waved his weapon towards the bank entrance. "It's time to move guys!"

"Don't point gun at Grundy!" The larger man growled out as he stepped towards the man in front of him.

*Bang*

The larger man looked down to see part of his cloak was shredded, but didn't really feel much from that shotgun blast to the chest. Not even any blood came out from the blow. Though it did seem to piss him off for some reason.

"What the fuck?!" The first thug said as he looked back between his gun and the man in front of him. "I just shot you point blank!"

*Growl* "Grundy not like that at all." He said as he swatted the man to the side.

His action soon shocked the various people in the lobby as the first thief was sent flying to the other side of the room. Upon impact, the man left a large dent onto the wall before falling to the ground. Onlookers didn't know if the thief was either dead or barely alive.

"Shoot him!" One of the thieves yelled out as the others seemed to follow the command and open fired on the large man. But all they ended up doing was pissing Grundy off.

Kill them Grundy… Do it now!

Grundy followed with with the voice's command and charged right at the thieves and either punched or swatted them to leave things as an absolute mess of things. The various onlookers were very shaken up on what they have just seen of the large man possibly killing the Red Hood gang members. Though one seemed to survive and tried to run away…

Keyword tried.

Especially when the couch that Grundy was sitting on earlier was thrown at the remaining Red Hood gang member. It was a direct hit towards the man's back and sent him tumbling down the stairs in a bad heap of pain. Then again from both the couch hitting his back and falling down the stairs, it was a surprise the man lived… or dying very very soon.

When all that was done, the cloaked man looked around to see everyone was literally scared of the man. Even the remaining, conscious guards were and they were pretty conflicted if they should open fire on him or just stand down so they can prolong their lives. Though it didn't matter really as Grundy was ignoring them entirely.

Now open the vault and get the money Grundy. There might even be gold in there. The voice spoke out as it seemed to bring a little smile on the man's face. Even as a little feeling seemed to surface at the mention of gold came to mind.

"Gold… Yes…. Grundy like gold." The man said as he walked towards the vault. Once there, he grabbed the sides of the door and ripped it off with minimal ease. This shocked the onlookers even more, but had to move out of the way as Grundy tossed the door behind him to leave a resounding *Thud* on the floor. Leaving a large dent on the tiled floor.

'What the hell is he?' One of the tellers thought as he kept pressing the silent alarm button underneath his station. 'Is he a metahuman?'

"Oh~ Pretty gold." The large man said as he grabbed handfuls of gold but didn't know how to take more with him. But a small thought came to mind as he pulled off the cloak off of his body to use as a makeshift bag. Doing so revealed his body to the current occupants in the bank.

Grundy appeared to be a large, statured man of eight feet or so with his enlarged muscles. His skin was pure white, matching his short shaggy white hair. The sclera of his eyes were yellow instead of the typical white along with his teeth being jaggedly yellow. To finish off the man's appearance, Grundy wore a tattered black jacket and pants with an opened grey button up shirt underneath along with black boots straining by the seem.

"This could work." Grundy muttered as he placed a good amount of gold onto the tarp he used as a cloak and wrapped it up before heading out of the vault. On his way towards the bank entrance, he also picked up one of the bags of money before making his way down the stairs. When he did make it at the end of the steps, he came across the site of the remaining thief staring up at him, barely moving at all with a handgun aimed at the pale man's head.

"Who… What the fuck are you?" The man asked out in fear.

His answer was met with a raised boot, hovering over his head before the towering man spoke.

"Solomon Grundy…. Born on a Monday."

All that was heard next was the moist crunch of the robber's head being stepped on, leaving it's matter on the floor.

-Meanwhile, On the streets of Gotham-

"...I don't know how we can get that to possibly work Pam."

"It's easy beloved." Pam briefly said as the two of them were walking down the street hand in hand. "Just take out all of the furniture in the one guest room and let me have my way with it."

After the two had left the Botanical Gardens, the couple went towards the nearest bookstore and looked around for a while. It was a little activity the two had seemed to get into that stemmed off of Naruto checking out the publishing competition. It would be fun at times of the two exchanging opinions with different works along with Pam suggesting him to try and hire an underdog writer or something of the sorts. The two recently left the establishment and were just wandering around to see what they can do next before heading home.

"But turning it into a greenhouse room isn't going to really work out you know."

"And how would you know?"

"Well for one, our home is a loft for starters." He said as they reached a stop light. "Sure there can be potted plants and the like in the loft, but it's not designed to function as a greenhouse."

"But we could if we put our minds into it." She said with a little pout that her lover wasn't getting reeled into.

"That's another thing Pam. Greenhouses would be fine to use at a home, if it wasn't an apartment building. There are rules for that and I don't want to get us in trouble if reports are brought up of water leaking from the ceiling. Among other things."

"But Selina lives right under us and I'm sure she won't mind." The botanist defensively said in hopes of getting him to reconsider. The two soon started to cross the street as their conversation continued.

"Trust me Pam, but Selina would very much mind. And I'm fine with her opinions, but I do not want her to complain about us having excess water seemingly coming through her ceiling."

"...Maybe she won't mind once I use some experimental pheromones." His lover muttered, getting him to roll his eyes on the comment.

"You're not going to mind control her Pam."

"But I would very much like a greenhouse."

"Then what about the one outside of Gotham. The one where you rested at once you got your powers and kidnapped me…. No offence by the way for any unpleasant memories."

"None taken."

"Good and besides, that place has been abandoned for years and you could do your thing there if you'd like on most days."

"Hmm… True."

"Though I am surprised no one has bothered trying to do anything about that place." The Uzumaki stated as they kept walking through varying people. "People of Old Gotham or Wonder City, as it was back then, put a lot of money into that place to transport many rare plants there. Such a shame no one bothers going over there anymore."

"Also true."

"Maybe you could set up shop there if you want Pam. After all, it'll be possibly be the biggest greenhouse you could ever get your hands on."

*Giggle* "That would be nice."

*BOOM*

The couple, along with varying people nearby, flinched when the nearby bank entrance was destroyed. It didn't sound like a typical explosion from a bomb, it was more like a wrecking ball at close range. This resulted in a large cloud of dust coming from the wrecked entrance.

"What the hell?!" Naruto questioned as he held Pam close for her safety.

"Is it a robbery?"

"Pretty much." He said as the dust started to settle a little from his view. "But most robberies with destroyed entrances would be from the side, not from the front. So something must be different about this."

It didn't take long for the two to make out the figure in the dust cloud until it started to move away with loud steps on the pavement. Soon the sounds of police sirens were starting to come nearby to help deal with the robbery. Most people would assume that the criminal(s) would be taken in quite easily, to a certain extent, with the response time like this. But not in this case…

*CRASH*

...Especially when a dumpster literally thrown at the police vehicles.

"...You were saying." Pam simply said with widened eyes on what she possibly just saw.

"Yeah… this is really different." He said as he looked around to find a nearby alley to change into. "Please stay away from the action Pam. I don't want you to get hurt in the crossfire."

"...Just be careful and come back to me."

"I promise Pam." Was all he said as he gave her a quick kiss before running into the nearby alley to change into his Vanitas attire. From there he summoned a Kazekage spear and took off into the air to make his way towards the action.

Back with Pam, she was worried for her beloved as something didn't feel right about this. She knew he could take care of himself with how long he's been doing this sort of thing. But this nagging feeling that was starting to rise up in her gut made her want to be by her lover's side in this conflict.

"Pamela Lillian Isley."

"What?" The redhead asked as she looked around towards the sound of the voice. It was familiar to her, but she couldn't quite place it. "Who are you?"

"It is I, Yggdrasil." The ancient tree spoke out inside of her head, making her widen her eyes on the Parliament of Tree members talking to her.

"Why are you talking to me Lord Yggdrasill?"

"You need to be with your mate and help him."

"But… But why?" She asked in confusion. "Surely he can be able to handle this situation himself."

"True, but not in this case." The Parliament Tree spoke out with concern laced in his voice. "Not when he's about to confront one of the Rot's champions.

"Man this guy is pretty quick." Vanitas muttered as he was soaring through the air to catch up with the bank robber. It was somewhat easy to find him with the bit of chaos going through the streets, but hasn't been able to get a good look of him from above. "I need to either find out where's he's going or lead him to a less populated area."

So with this little goal in mind, he aimed his wind lance downwards to get towards his target quicker. With the large tarp like sack getting larger and larger in his peripheral vision, he knew he was gonna end up slamming into something hard pretty quickly. Not wanting to let this happen, he jumped off of his lance to let the conjured weapon slice through the sack to spill it's contents onto the streets along with the dufflebag from the other hand.

"He was carrying gold?" The masked publisher muttered in surprise as he saw how many gold bricks the man seemed to carry.

Feeling the weight being lifted off of him, with the clattering of gold behind him and the duffle bag on the ground, Grundy turned around to see what the cause of this was. He just wanted to bring this money to those nice people that gave him these clothes he was wearing. This seemed to piss him off as he eyed the black and white man in front of him.

He's not the Green champion we're looking for Grundy. The voice in the Rot champion's mind said with slight disappointment in it's voice. Though there are traces of the Green inside of that man. He might lead us to the target.

'That is one big robber.' Naruto thought as he took on the man's appearance before speaking out. "Hey ugly! I wonder if that was the face you were born with or you just made it that way!"

Once that was said, the disguised hero summoned a wind spear and hopped on before he took off into the sky in hopes of making the large man following him.

*Growl* "Grundy no like helmet man!" The champion spoke out as he ran towards the masked Uzumaki.

"Okay good. He bought the bait." Naruto muttered as he kept an eye out on the large pale man. "Didn't know he would take it that easily."

As Vanitas was trying to navigate his way to a good, safe area to stop this guy; the batmobile was racing through the streets to stop the same person.

"Are you sure we can take this guy down Batman?" Robin asked as he sat in the passenger seat. "From the police reports, they said this guy killed all of the robbers and didn't get fazed when he took a shotgun blast to the chest."

"Maybe, but we need to be sure we can hold him off until reinforcements arrive to help us."

"If you say so." The teenaged Grayson said as he double checked his arsenal in his seat.

Finals were done and over with for college and he'd pass with good grades that he'll be able to move forward onto the next set of classes in the Fall. So Dick decided to go out and celebrate with some of his college friends out of town for a while. Though when he got back to Wayne Manor last night, he was extremely surprised to hear of what happened to Alfred.

Dick berated himself on not coming back from his little vacation sooner, but the two older men didn't fault him at all. Even Bruce blamed himself on what happened yesterday when tracking down Pyg and Toad, but he had to move on with what happened. Of course Alfred will be off his feet until the cast on his leg came off due to his ankle being broken. It was all fine and dandy really and both Bruce and Dick can clean up the manor to help the former British agent out until the cast was off.

Things seemed to settle down for the day until the batcomputer went off and reported what happened at the Gotham National Bank. Bruce and Dick quickly suited up and made their way to the city to possibly stop this giant of a man. Problem is though they don't know where the man was going anyways. Either follow the path of destruction or…

"Attention all units. Attention all units." A voice from the police radio came through. "Bank perpetrator is going Eastbound. Following Vanitas. Possibly for less populated areas."

"Well that solves one question in mind." Dick muttered as Bruce swerved the car a bit to head in the right direction.

-Insert Kingdom Hearts 2.5: Rage Awakened Extended-

It took them a few minutes, but they soon realized they were on the right track when they saw the damage on most parts of the road. Parts of the sidewalks and pavement were caved in from some damage done by whoever is the cause of this. Even thrown dumpsters, pulled out lamp posts and toppled cars were evident that they passed through here.

"STOP THROWING SHIT AT ME!" A voice yelled out making the Dynamic Duo realize they were near their target.

"Helmet man stop dodging then!"

Batman and Robin then saw a lamp post coming towards them and the Dark Knight swerved out of the way on instinct. Once coming to a stop, they peered of the side to see Vanitas riding one of his lances while dodging the pale man's attempts to subdue him. The helmeted hero was keeping his distance in the air, but that'll keep causing more problems if he kept doing his current actions. Though it wasn't that much as this was happening in an abandoned part of the city.

'Time to take care of this.' Vanitas thought as he jumped down, not before grabbing his lance and slamming it towards the earth. A large gust of wind impacted the pale man, making him stagger back. The masked Uzumaki didn't wait for Grundy to recover as he dashed towards the man before slamming his lance to the larger man's side.

Vanitas soon saw the blade of his weapon pierce the man's side on accident as he didn't mean to do so. Though much to his shock, Grundy didn't bleed at all. Only seeing rotten flesh and meat underneath the clothing. Before he could fully react, Grundy swatted the hero away before pulling out the lance as it soon dispersed.

*Growl* "You hurt Grundy! So Grundy will hurt you!"

And with that, Grundy charged forward to nab the fallen hero. Vanitas had to quickly phase himself out of the broken wall and roll out of the way so he wouldn't get hit by the pale giant. Even though he missed his target, Grundy then pulled out a nearby lamp post out of the ground and swung it towards the helmeted Uzumaki. Vanitas quickly disarmed him by throwing several exploding cards at the pale man's hands before jumping up into the air and dive kicking him to the ground. Grundy rebounded and showed himself just as dangerous without a weapon as he grabbed the hero by the legs and punched him hard before throwing him away.

Grundy slammed his fists onto the street before digging his hands underneath to lift up a large chunk of pavement. He was going to throw it at the downed hero in hopes of causing major damage to him. Possibly squashing the helmeted man.

"Christened on a Tuesday!" Grundy bellowed out as he was about to throw his impromptu weapon. Though it didn't take long for something to intercept him from his little goal.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

"GAH!" Grundy bellowed out as explosions impacted him at several parts of his body. Even some of the explosions caused him to end up dropping the piece of street ontop of him to cause some damage onto himself. He then looked around for the source of the attack upon him. "WHO HURT GRUNDY?!"

"We did big guy!" Robin said as he and Batman some distance behind the giant of a man. "Hope you enjoy those since we've got more for you!"

*Growl* "GRUNDY SMASH!"

Seemingly leaping towards the Dynamic Duo, the two separated as they had to move out of the way from the giant's lunge. Both started to throw batarangs at the rotting man with a bit more force than they normally did. They would've held back if he was a normal person, but after seeing Vanitas' weapon pierce his side and the rotten flesh, the two realized that Grundy was no ordinary living being.

Some of the throwing weapons imbedded themselves into Grundy's arms and back, but he just swiped them off with one of his hands. He was getting quickly annoyed by the two as some of the sharp weapons exploded, leaving varying gaps into his body. Though they did heal up quickly, much to the Duo's surprise, it seemed to leave scars in the end.

Grundy charged yet again and this time towards the Dark Knight. The deadman was intercepted from some flash pellets, temporarily blinding him from his intended target before slamming into the nearby building. Once his vision cleared, he was barely successful in grabbing the Batman's cape and swung him around before slamming him onto the ground. He didn't stop there as he picked up the Bat by his chest, punching him into the air and hitting him several times before grabbing his sides and slamming him to a nearby car.

"Batman!" Robin cried out as he raced towards Grundy to protect his foster father's aide. He had thrown little bombs at the giant's feet, distracting and injuring his legs in the process. This gave the disguised Grayson to slide underneath before pivoting himself to upper kick the zombie from down below. Grundy then charged forward in his blind rage and slammed his fists towards them, only to miss as the Dynamic Duo dived out of the way. This caused the pale man to destroy the car in the process.

"There's got to be a way to stop him." Robin said as both he and Batman were thinking of various ideas at the present time.

"Married on a Wednesday!" Solomon yelled out as he picked up the ruined car and threw it towards the heroes.

Batman and Robin didn't react quick enough and they braced for impact. But they soon saw Vanitas land in front of the two and erected a barrier around them to stop the oncoming car. The two were relieved, but got a tad worried when they saw Vanitas' body language that he seemed to be really beaten up.

"Thanks for the save man."

"No problem Robin." The helmeted Uzumaki said as he kept his stance so the barrier would be kept in place. "Though I suggest we move pretty soon."

"Why?"

*SLAM* *SLAM* *SLAM*

"That's why!" Grunted out the helmeted hero as Grundy was slamming his fists onto the barrier in hopes of getting through. "I don't know how strong this guy is, but I won't hold this up for long!"

"Will you be alright Vanitas?"

"Yes I will Batman, but you get out of here now!" Vanitas said as he focused more power into his barrier from breaking apart. "Get out of here and think of something while I distract this guy!"

"Right."

The Dynamic Duo then left the barrier and used their grappling guns to get to higher ground to not only recover, but to also figure out their next move.

As for the helmeted publisher…

'Okay… Got a eight-foot tall zombie here. You would think he'd be the easiest thing in the world to take down.' Vanitas thought as he saw how Grundy was able to heal himself from the exploding batarangs and from his lance piercing his side. 'So what the hell is going on with this guy?'

"He is a champion of the Black young sapling."

'Yggdrasil?' Naruto thought in surprise as he staggered from the continuous blows onto his barrier. 'Why are you contacting me now?!'

"To tell you about this current fight." The ancient tree spoke out inside of the publisher's mind. "Like I've stated before, to which you must've ignored, that your opponent is a champion of the Black."

"Damn… No wonder he's so damn strong along with him having rotting flesh." Naruto muttered as cracks were starting appear on the barrier. He'll need to move out of the way very soon. "So is there any way in stopping this guy?"

"Just hold out a little longer until help arrives."

"And how do I do that exactly?"

"Using your scythe would obviously help." Was all Yggdrasil said before he ended the connection.

"Not much help there." Vanitas muttered as he saw Grundy bring down his fists one more time to break the barrier. The masked Uzumaki then dropped the barrier and jumped out of the way to not be pummeled by the zombie's attack. Vanitas then summoned Lunar Rose into his hands before he jumped over Grundy and slashed against the zombie's back.

"GAH! THAT HURT!"

"That was the idea!"

Vanitas had to jumped back several feet when the larger opponent tried to attack him once again. Several blows were missed or parried, but a lot of strength and effort was exhausted from such hits. Though some little help from above occurred as several exploding batarangs caused some good damage to distract the zombie for the moment.

"Who did that?!" Grundy grunted out as he looked for the source of the attack.

"Did you forget about us?!" Robin said from on top of one of the buildings with Batman standing parallel from the other side of the street.

"He probably did since he's actually a zombie Robin!"

"Good to know and thanks for the info Vanitas!" The boy wonder said before he had to move out of the way as a piece of road was thrown at him. "WHOA THERE! Watch where you're throwing that thing!"

"ROBIN FOCUS!"

"Right! Sorry Batman!"

The Dynamic Duo started to throw more batarangs at the zombie as the pale man started to run away from them in hopes they'll stop their little attacks. Even was trying to nab the helmeted hero in the process, but his attempts were futile with his quick reflexes. The attacks were getting really annoying for the pale zombie, even as several bladed swipes were being present on his body.

"GRUNDY WILL HURT YOU TWO THROWING PEOPLE!" Grundy bellowed out as he picked up a dumpster and threw it at Batman.

"NO!" Vanitas yelled out as he threw his scythe at the thrown object. It soon impacted it, getting the disguised Uzumaki to teleport to it before slicing it in half. When both pieces landed onto the street below, Naruto ended up on top of the building right next to Batman.

"We need to distract Solomon Grundy just a bit longer until help arrives."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Just trust me Bats."

"If you say so."

Their conversation soon ended as Grundy lept into the air and landed onto the same rooftop as the two heroes before swinging his arms at them. Both heroes quickly moved out of the way before they gave each other an unspoken gesture to possibly take turns for the offensive. Even Batman giving a hand signal for Robin to come to the assist.

As Robin made his way towards the two other heroes, Grundy slammed his hands onto the rooftop before Batman came in close to deliver a series of punches and kicks. Some of the blows were mostly focused on the arms in precise areas to try and stop certain nerve endings or joints. It seemed successful as Grundy had some difficulty trying to move his arms, but he didn't waste time in swinging them around in a wild fashion.

Vanitas soon caught one of the arms in the curvature of his scythe in hopes of locking it in place with his grappling scarfs shooting out of his arms to help holding him down. Even Batman and the newly arrived Robin fired their grappling guns to hold onto the other arm. It was the only thing they could try to think of for the time being as the three struggled a little of the zombie's strength pulling them in.

"So you say this man's name is Solomon Grundy?"

"Well he kept saying Grundy along with pieces of the old poem of the cycle of life." Vanitas struggled out as his feet were starting to slip a little. "So it seemed appropriate to call him that name, I think."

*Grunting* "As much as I'd like to discuss poetry and name calling here like everyone else." Robin started off as his arms felt they would pop out of their sockets. *Grunt* "We need to focus on NOT LETTING GO!"

Things came to a turn for the worse as Grundy started to spin around in place, lifting the three up into the air from their respective grappling equipments. It seemed to place the three in a merry-go-round of nausea and disorientation as the three were being spun in quickening speeds that one by one, each hero eventually lost slack and shot off towards one of the nearby buildings.

*Groan* "You were saying."

"Oh shut up."

When the three heroes tried to pry themselves out of the building's exterior wall, Grundy lept into the air and landed in front of them with a snarl on his face.

"Grundy will crush you all like bugs!" The pale zombie said as he walked closer to the three heroes.

Of course his progression ended as something shot out of the ground and knocked the Black champion away several feet. This left him in a daze before he shook his head for a few moments. When Grundy's vision got better; he, along with the other heroes then saw had just arrived. It appeared to be a giant orchid of sorts with green and pink markings all over the petals. This left the four men in a sense of confusion before something happened to the plant.

The giant flower soon opened up its flower petals as a plumb of pink spores were released in a smokey coverage. It wasn't long for the figure stepped out and off of the large flower before it receded back into the earth wits it came; making Vanitas, Batman and Robin somewhat recognize who this was. It took them a few moments in their thought processes on the new arrival, but they came to the same conclusion that this was Pamela Isley, otherwise known as Poison Ivy.

Pamela appeared to be wearing a black bodysuit of sorts that practically covered her entire form up to her head where a facemask was present. There were varying green markings on the black attire that were moss or leaf like on the legs, arms and torso areas while thorn like markings were present on the facemask. Even had branches and vines wrapped around certain parts of her body to help compliment her present look. To finish things off, she had green eyeshadow to help pop out her fierce glowing green eyes along with leaves in her hair.

The Green Champion! The voice in Grundy's head yelled out. She's finally here! Kill her Grundy! Kill her!

-Insert Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep: Dark Impetus Extended-

"Grundy smash Green lady!"

"I'd like to see you try." Ivy stated with a narrowed glance.

"RRAAAAAHH!"

And with that, Grundy charged at the new arrival with the voice in his head, telling him to destroy the woman in front of her. He raised his hands into the air before bringing them down hard in the attempt to breaking her bones in the attack. She moved out of the way in the last few moments before she raised her hand up and a large vine stock shot out of the ground to knock the zombie back.

With the ever present vine, Ivy controlled said vine to whip itself around the Rot's champion and start swinging him all over the place to deal with some good damage. It was a little funny in her eyes if she wasn't so serious at the present time. She then commanded it to let go, sending Grundy flying into the air and a good distance away. Seeing as things were in the clear, for now, she stepped forward towards the three heroes and helped get them out of their holdings with plants pushing/pulling them out.

"I hope I'm not too late for the party."

'She must've been who Yggdrasil was talking about.' Naruto thought in realization as he had a hidden smile behind his helmet of seeing her. Though part of him was extremely worried now for her safety.

"Nah… You just came in while things were getting good." Robin said as he dusted himself off and stretching out his back to get rid of a kink or two.

"What are you doing here Ivy?" Batman questioned the new arrival with a narrowed glance. He was going to call her out on her real name, but saw the news crew at the corner of his eye. 'They must've arrived sometime during the fight.'

"Just helping out and taking care of a common enemy Batman."

"Which would be what exactly?"

"Hmm…. Not telling." She replied with a joking tone and a tilt to her head.

"We can talk about this later Bats, but it seems our zombie friend is back to play." Vanitas said as he summoned back Lunar Rose into his hand.

Just as he said this, Grundy came flying into the air via giant leap and landed in front of the four people.

*Growl* "GRUNDY WILL CRUSH YOU ALL!"

The pale man rushed towards Ivy and tried to take her out, as she was the primary target from the voice in his head. He was intercepted from exploding batarangs nailing Grundy in the side of the head. The zombie shook off the blow and went back on the chase as he lifted up a nearby car over his head and hurled it at their general direction.

The men separated and moved out of the way while Ivy kept her place before summoning a giant vine from the earth to wrap it around the motor vehicle. Once secured, Ivy brought it down on the Rot champion several times until it was a pile of scrap heap. Though it seemed to hardly damage the monster, it'll take more than that to take him down, even as he doubled over a little.

Batman and Robin came in close and delivered several punches and kicks in rapid fire like fashion on the zombie's back. When they had to move away, they left behind a present for Grundy, whether he would want it or not. Grundy soon heard some beeping on his back and tried to reach for it with the bit of annoyance of the sound before it soon exploded, sending him forward from his position.

*Growl* "Grew ill on a Thursday." Grundy spoke out as he slammed one of his feet hard to the ground, giving off a miniature earthquake of sorts to shake up a lot of the present people. He did so again to leave a big enough crack in the ground so he could dig into the earth and pull out a large piece of road and chucked it at the heroes.

Batarangs soon pierced the back of the zombie's neck and exploded to rock Grundy forward. This made him howl in agony before turning around to see Batman with more of his weapons on hand. He roared and ran towards the Dark Knight as his attention was on him once again.

"How many of those do you have?!" Vanitas said as he ran to intercept the incoming charge.

"I'm not telling." Batman chimed back as he lept over the zombie and placed possibly the last of his exploding piece of arsenal on the pale man's back.

*BOOM* "GAH! ENOUGH OF THIS!"

"I believe that is what I can agree with the likes of you." Ivy said as she brought her arms back and whipped them forward to have wooden lances grow out of her arm and pierced one of the zombie's arms. They soon wrapped around the appendage and Ivy used a lot of her strength to lift the zombie up before slamming him down several times. More would've happened if Grundy didn't rip the plant out of his arm in a violent fashion, making the onlookers have varying reactions out of the action.

This distracted him enough for Vanitas to come around and swipe his scythe several times in a pinwheel styled attack before bringing the blade around the zombie's legs. He then swiped them back to tumble the Black champion down to the ground as Robin landed on top of the man to place the rest of his explosives on him. The attempt failed as Grundy got up and started to move around in a wild fashion to get the disguised Grayson off of him.

"GAH!" Robin cried out as he was being whipped around with his legs flailing about. "It's like fighting a bear!"

"And how would you know?!" Vanitas questioned, only to be met with Robin's colliding form against him as the two slammed against a nearby car.

"GOT WORSE ON FRIDAY!"

"Oh will you just shut up already!" Ivy yelled out as she continued her assault on the zombie. She got more plants to shoot out of the ground to send Grundy into the air before shooting vines out of her arm to wrap on his legs and brought him down. When colliding to the ground, he seemed to bounce right back and quickly snag Ivy into his grasps and started to squeeze her in a rough fashion.

"Grundy will destroy Green lady for voice in head!"

"Not going to happen." Ivy struggled out as she focused a lot of her power to get herself out of his predicament. "I've got a boyfriend to get home to."

With a bit on her strength, she focused and shot the building energy outward from her form to have giant thorns and spikes shooting out of several places in her body. They pierced through Grundy's hands and he bellowed out in agony, causing him to let go of her. The spikes receded as the Green champion ran back for a bit of breathing room away from the decaying man the group was facing.

"DIED ON A SATURDAY!"

"You're probably right on that Grundy." Vanitas muttered to himself. He then thrown his Lunar Rose to the highest part of the surrounding area before teleporting towards its location. From there, Vanitas lept off of it's surface to dive towards the zombie with a lot of strength behind his arms to give one hell of a swipe against his back. Grundy eventually saw this coming and tried to get away, but Ivy brought up several vines to keep his legs in place. Grundy tried to move, but was met with a powerful blow against his back as Lunar Rose dug deep inside.

With one last move, Ivy summoned forth several plants before they encircled around her arms and shot forward. They eventually pierced the zombie's chest and into the being's heart in hopes of finally finishing him off. It seemed successful as two blows of Green power was going through Grundy's system and started to break him down.

"Buried on a Sunday." The zombie muttered as his body slowly decayed and turned into dust. Leaving only the ruined clothes on the street.

'And that's the end of Solomon Grundy.' Was the unknowingly shared thought between the three male heroes.

Even though the day has been won, the heroes didn't realize that this won't be the last of them facing Solomon Grundy. As his essence has been sent back to Slaughter Swamp for him to recover and reform for the Black's purpose. For it's eventual revenge against the Green champion and her allies….

But why ruin the moment for them to know that little tidbit right now.

*Panting* "Well… That was crazy." Vanitas said as he tried to catch his breath from the difficulty of the fight.

"No kidding." Robin said in agreement as he rotated his arm and shoulder to get rid of some of the pain. "Man I think I must've pulled something with those constant throwing."

"You'll get used to it Robin." Chimed the helmeted hero.

"Whatever you say."

"I don't know about you boys, but I'd rather get out of here."

"Why's that?" Robin asked with little bewilderment. All that he got was a pointed finger from the changed botanist.

"Because of them."

"Oh…"

Soon varying news reports started to come rushing in with the attempt of asking the group on what happened and other unnecessary questions. Not wanting to deal with such a thing, the group left in their own separate methods. From Vanitas switching from his Lunar Rose to his Kazekage lance and taking off into the air, Ivy summoning a giant plant from one of the many holes in the street to get her a good distance away, while Batman and Robin ran towards the Batmobile and drove off.

Though with the later group, Batman nabbed the remains of Solomon Grundy so he could study the articles of clothing. Wanting to know who that zombie really was and what was going on. Though when things settle down, he'll confront Pamela and ask her on what she knows and why she involved herself with the fight.

-End Chapter-