Swamp thing

Nightwing was leaping across the rooftops of Gotham with Red Robin. The two of them were patrolling Gotham while the others spent time with loved ones. He was doing so because honestly he needed a break from his parents. He was very happy, of course, that his parents were back, of course, but the moment the two were alone with him, their plans were made clear.

They were to bring back their old acrobat act to the world. Which he was fine with, as it would be great to bring smiles to his city of Bludhaven; the problem was he was out of practice. Not in acrobatics itself, as he hadn't stopped using those skills his entire life. No, the problem was he had diverged greatly from his original skill and purpose with acrobatics. He had been using acrobatics to put more force behind his kicks, not to impress an audience.

So he was having to relearn and quickly; his parents were relentless with their practice sessions. So jumping from rooftop to rooftop looking for criminals was far easier than being driven to exhaustion by his parents. His partner for Tim Drake or Red Robin was here for a similar but also very different reason. As it was parent-related, but it was more his mother's angry rants at his father.

Which wasn't nice to hear but was understandable, as before she died, they had been co-CEOs of a massive company; their son was going to inherit a massive company empire when they died. When she came back, she found out that her husband had dropped the ball entirely after her death and the company had gone belly up. The two of them had gone from high class to broke middle class in no time at all. This did not make Janet happy at all, so her husband was in the hot seat.

So Red Robin, wanting to get away from the draba, abandoned his father and went with Nightwing on patrol. Everything was an average day for Gotham, which was nice, as it was a sign that the gang war was at least on pause for the moment. So they only had to deal with the usual burglars and thieves for the night. Though that all changed when they heard large flapping sounds coming towards them.

They looked up in disbelief for a moment, being completely silent as they stared above. Nightwing finally broke the silence. "Red Robin, are those a bunch of plant dinosaurs in the sky?" Nightwing asked for the confusion to be clear in his voice. Red Robin took a moment before responding.

"Yes, they are in fact flying plant dinosaurs. Pterodactyls if I'm not mistaken." Red Robin said in a clear voice, to which Nightwing eyed him for a moment before responding.

"Good to know," Nightwing said in a tone of voice that said a lot more than his words. The two didn't get a chance to discuss why there were Pterodactyls in Gotham's skies as the Pterodactyls began to dive towards the citizens below who hadn't yet noticed the giant Pterodactyls, but they would in a second and badly at that if the two of them didn't intervene.

So without another word, the two leapt into action, throwing themselves at the flying fossils. This threw off the Pterodactyls, who had to break off their dive. The two heroes managed to land safely, their sudden appearance causing the crowd around to look up and notice the danger. They quickly scattered in all directions.

"Well, the people should be safe." Nightwing said, already leaping at a nearby building to get some height so he could fight the flying plants better. Red Robin was right behind him, not saying anything till they got to the top of the nearest building.

"So long as we keep their attention." Red Robin said and then had to dive out of the way, as instead of diving at them, they had the crowd before the plant Pterodactyls had stayed above them and had launched a barrage of plant spikes as they went by. Nightwing looked at that plant's spikes buried into the concrete roof and looked to Red Robin.

"I think we have their attention." Nightwing said with a large grin. Red Robin gave him a look that said he had some choice words to respond to that statement with. He didn't, though, as they had to deal with the constant barrage of the plant pterodactyls. Though both knew that wasn't going to be easy with them having to constantly dodge the latest barrage. They both knew this was going to be one of the more complicated fights.

Meanwhile back at Gotham Woods, the condiment wizard was building up his power, pouring more and more sauerkraut into the spell circle, creating the thistle pterodactyls. His dryads were building up defenses as much as they could given their limited experience in such things while his driver stood nearby.

Condiment Wizard was feeling great as wave after wave of thistle Pterodactyls were born, went out, attacked, and came back. He was taking over the skies of Gotham, and it was only a matter of time until the thistle Pterodactyls flying back gave his location away. Thought out of a small pond nearby, Swamp Thing himself burst out and charged.

He rushed towards the thistle Pterodactyls, who leaned down and fired the thistles on the top of their bodies. The sharp plant spikes did no damage to Swamp Thing. The dryads react immediately, with the white dryad ordering the naked plant clones into a mass charge at Swamp Thing. The red dryad is firing her thorns as fast as possible at Swamp Thing, trying her best to bring him down.

The yellow dryad rushed forward, moving as fast as her roots would carry her to get between Swamp Thing and her master. The driver performed a complicated backflip and landed directly in front of the condiment wizard. The thistle Pterodactyls were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer might of Swamp Thing's charge, and the dryads had been forming an outer perimeter, so they were too far to get to the condiment wizard in time.

The driver showed her worthy leaping at Swamp Thing and performing a ferocious series of attacks. He punched, kicked, and he even at one point, seemingly out of a combination of desperation and rage, wrapped himself around Swamp Thing and proceeded to try and tear Swamp Thing's throat out with his teeth. None of it worked, and the driver found himself picked up and thrown too far away, landing headfirst and going unconscious.

The time bought had not been wasted, and Condiment Wizard had used his sauerkraut to create a small jungle of white vines and razor bushes to keep Swamp Thing away. Though it didn't work as well as hoped, as his new plants proved to impede Swamp Thing very little. The rush of Swamp Thing had quickly happened in only a few moments despite how much longer it felt.

So for a moment it was just the two of them as the rest of his minions were still a few meters away. The condiment wizard stood there ready to defend as best he could with his plant magic, as that was the magic he was going with this time around. Though he didn't expect to outplant Swamp Thing. He was going to give it his best shot.

Swamp Thing stood there a few feet away, a sad and final look coming over his face as he looked at Condiment Wizard. "I'm sorry, but for the good of the green and humanity, you have to die." Swamp said in a sad but firm tone. Condiment Wizard was shocked, not wanting to believe a hero had come to kill him, but he saw the look in Swamp Thing's eyes.

They were the eyes of an executioner that had to perform a job he didn't want to do but knew had to be done. Condiment Wizard reacted immediately, gathering all the power of condiments he had learned of and shooting at Swamp Thing, as this wasn't his grand plan anymore; it was survival.