Catwoman snorted coldly, then pulled out a lock picking tool from her uniform and, after a short while, she pried open the back door of the warehouse. She squeezed herself out through the door gap, looked at the ice sculptures inside the warehouse, thought for a moment, and then relocked the door.
Having sneaked out, Catwoman planned to find a vantage point to observe patrol routes and find any blind spots to make an easy escape.
Fortunately, from the top of the warehouse she was in, she could jump to the balcony of the second floor of another building. Catwoman swiftly climbed to the top of the warehouse, jumped to another building, and, following the drainpipe next to the balcony, made her way to the rooftop.
From here, she could see the whole picture. Catwoman quickly figured out her escape route. First, she needed to exit from the east door of this building, so she picked the lock of the rooftop door again and entered the building.
As soon as she entered, she regretted it somewhat, because she discovered that this seemed to be a biology lab. A few of the labs that were not closed were filled with various strange-looking specimens.
Feeling a chill on her back, Catwoman quickened her pace, planning to leave quickly. But just then, she heard a whimper from downstairs, as if a girl was crying.
Dark hallways, bizarre experimental specimens, ephemeral sobs... Catwoman's hair stood on end. She sprinted down the stairs, wanting to get out as quickly as possible.
However, as she rushed past the corridor downstairs, she saw several bodies lying across it, vines thrust into their chests.
Catwoman wanted to cross them, but she heard faint cries for help coming from the room next door, seemingly from the girl who was crying earlier.
Catwoman hesitated for a moment, but still peered into the room from the doorway, and was shocked to find a girl tied to a chair next to the lab table.
Almost instinctively, Catwoman threw a dagger and severed the vines. This seemed to anger the plants, and they all rushed towards her.
When the fight really started, Catwoman was not afraid. She pulled out the whip coiled around her waist, the cracking sound of the whip echoed through the night. After a few swings, the vines were beaten aside by her. The thrown dagger severed the roots.
However, more and more vines were surging towards her, and Catwoman was also somewhat overwhelmed.
Suddenly, the girl tied to the chair let out a piercing scream. Catwoman's attention was drawn to her. She saw the girl's head shaking in a certain direction constantly.
Catwoman looked in that direction and saw a liquid incubator. She instantly understood the girl's intention and threw a dagger at the incubator.
With a splash, the glass of the incubator shattered and the culture fluid splattered all over the place. What confused Catwoman was that as soon as the fluid touched the plants, the vines became still.
Catwoman put away her whip and went in, tearing off the tape from the girl's mouth. The girl gasped heavily, her face showing pain.
"Who are you? How did you end up here?" Catwoman asked, while scanning the lab.
"I am... I'm a freshman in the Department of Biology... cough, cough..." The girl coughed heavily a few times, the pain making her voice weak. She asked, "And who are you? Why would you come here at this time? Hasn't everyone in this building run away?"
"I am... just consider me a student here." Catwoman hesitated for a moment, but didn't reveal her true identity. She took out a dagger and cut the rope binding the girl.
She had already confirmed that the girl was indeed telling the truth, as besides the freshmen at Gotham University, no one else would be so weak that they couldn't even untie the simplest of knots.
After her hands were freed, the girl kept coughing while clutching her chest. Before Catwoman could ask, she introduced herself: "You can call me Pamela. I am a freshman who just started this semester in September."
She breathed heavily and spoke with difficulty. Catwoman sniffed, frowned, stretched out her hand, and pulled open the collar of her sweatshirt to discover that Pamela had been scratched on her shoulder.
Catwoman frowned and said: "Stop talking for a moment, you are injured, you need to be bandaged. Good thing, I have first aid supplies..."
Having said this, Catwoman pulled out disinfectant cotton and a small roll of bandage from her pocket, but the pale-faced Pamela shook her head and said, "No need to dress it. It's useless. Haven't you noticed? I've already been infected..."
"Infection? You mean, you're becoming like the madmen on the streets? How do you know? Aren't you sane right now?" Catwoman said, while disinfecting her wound.
Smiling mockingly, Pamela replied, "Right now, I am sane. But in five minutes, I will want to bite a chunk of flesh from you…"
She closed her eyes in pain, her face twisted, and she whispered, "When the disaster broke, I was doing an experiment with my classmates. A madman burst in and scratched one of us, and we started running…"
"Myself and three classmates hid in this lab…" Pamela gritted her teeth. "They realized the madmen would only attack one person at a time, so they tied me up here as bait…"
Catwoman paused, "What about the three of them? Did they get out?"
"Haven't you seen the bodies outside? After humans went mad, the plants started acting up too. They were killed by the vines climbing in through the window, but I'm not sure why I was spared, then... you arrived…"
Looking at her wound, Catwoman asked, "Why is this wound so swollen? I can't even stop it from bleeding, this..."
"Stop wasting time, if you really want to help me, go to the drawer over there, get a syringe. From the tube of the culture vat you just smashed, there's a small glass container attached. Extract the solution from there and inject me..." Pamela shook her head hard, saying, "If you want to save me... hurry…"
Not even having time to ask the reason, Catwoman, seeing the certainty in Pamela's words, did as she was told. She got a syringe, extracted liquid from the glass container, and then returned to Pamela, reluctantly saying, "You sure you want to inject this into yourself? It looks corrosive…"
"It's plant toxin…" Pamela's breath became heavy. She weakly said, "This kind of infection probably spreads all over the body via the bloodstream. I need to change the composition of my blood in order to survive and not go mad…"
"Hurry… there's no time left!!!" Pamela started roaring, a crazed gleam in her eyes. Looking out at the fog outside, she gritted her teeth and said,
"If this crazy world is destined to be destroyed, it deserves it. But I will not be destroyed, because I will make those who betrayed me pay for their actions!!!"
Catwoman thrust the needle into Pamela's neck. The life in Pamela's eyes gradually faded, but soon, a different kind of vitality, unlike any found in humans or other animals, blossomed within her pupils.
As the agonized scream tore through the night, the swaying tree shadows, the twisting vines, and the various greens hidden in the fog, all lowered their heads in a blink of an eye, as if greeting their king.
When the silent sound wave spread out, all the mad plants deep in the fog halted and started to stretch their stems towards one direction with all their might, praying.
In a dimly lit alley, sparks splashed as a leftover cigarette hit the ground and burned the leaves of a plant, which didn't flinch. Constantine turned his head, looking up at the sky of Gotham, he murmured quietly,
"All Things Green…"
At the same moment his words fell, Shiller, who was standing on the roof, suddenly turned his eyes towards the direction of the Biological Laboratory.
The figure in a suit disappeared into the fog on the roof, to appear in front of Pamela the next second.
The rain outside the window froze in place with the arrival of the lightning. The brilliance of the thunder filled the room, capturing this moment.
A rain umbrella appeared in mid-air, spinning once before being grabbed by a hand. Shiller, coming down from above, pressed the handle of the umbrella against Pamela's forehead.
"Get out of her body!"
As soon as the words fell, branches swayed, vines shot up, and countless plants shrieked.
The green of the cosmos started to boil up. The surging waves of green, like the tides in a storm, surged up, in an instant, swallowing Shiller's figure.