“Don’t I know it!” Bumblebee said. What was it that made the Supers think they could do it all? “We’re trained to help others. But we’re not so good about asking others for help.”
Batgirl nodded. She picked up two pairs of laser-shield goggles and handed one to Bumblebee. “Safety first!” Both slipped them on. Then Bumblebee pressed the glowing yellow button.
Instantly, an alarm sounded. Red lights flashed as the two Supers stared at an object the size of a bowling ball. It rested on a stand inside the triple-glass enclosure that Bumblebee had fabricated using ultra-aerodynamic levitation to form the world’s highest and strongest protective barrier. Lasers spun before they all focused and hit the object. It lit up, then began to sizzle, until—BOOM! And then the room went dark.
Batgirl took off her goggles and said dejectedly, “Lights, on.” The room lit up.
Bumblebee was staring at what was left of the burnt object. Smoke billowed from it. “So much for that battery,” she said. Using Bumblebee’s engineering calculations and Batgirl’s computer wizardry, they had been trying various batteries for her super suit. But none had worked the way Bumblebee needed it to.
There was a knock on the door. “Hello,” a voice said outside the Bat-Bunker. “Everything all right in there?”
Batgirl looked at the security monitor and buzzed Poison Ivy in.
“Good news!” Ivy announced. Her face was flushed with excitement. “I’ve finally narrowed down the search for an assistant! But I could really use your help testing the finalists tomorrow.”
Hundreds of people had applied to work with Ivy, but now there were only three: Petey Bogg, Jason Woodrue, and Karena Tisk. Each was given a written test, a plant problem, and a worst-case scenario.
The written test consisted of identifying some of the rarer and more exotic plants, and all three scored well. The plant problem proved more challenging.
Ivy had set up an obstacle course for the applicants. With Batgirl manning the timers, they each were challenged with watering, feeding, and caring for dozens of plants from different parts of the world. Petey Bogg slipped up and spread fertilizer over the cactus garden, but Jason Woodrue and Karena Tisk each managed to weave through the obstacle course, picking just-ripened fruits and pulling weeds, without any problems. However, when they were getting ready for the worst-case scenario, a real worst-case scenario began to materialize.
Poison Ivy wanted to see how they would respond when a plant was in danger of being overwatered. Bumblebee had just created an indoor arch-gravity dam and tributaries to create a flood, when what sounded like an engine humming got louder and louder. She checked the dam, but it wasn’t coming from there. That was when Petey Bogg pointed up. “Bug! Big bug comin’ at us!” he yelled, and ran out of the greenhouse.
Sure enough, a man-sized bug was perched on the glass roof. He smiled menacingly and waved at Poison Ivy, Batgirl, and Bumblebee.
“Firefly!” Poison Ivy gasped. “He hates beautiful gardens and is always trying to burn them down.”
“I’ll handle this,” Bumblebee said, pressing her power button. Nothing happened. The last five times they had tested the battery pack in the Bat-Bunker, it had worked beautifully. She pressed the button again. Nothing.
Meanwhile, Firefly had used his fusion laser to cut through the glass and was flapping his metallic wings as he flew around the greenhouse.
“HELP!” yelled Karena Tisk when she saw him. She was in such a panic she ran right into the rare, sticky, and stinky Koloff tree and got stuck. “I’m scared of bugs,” she wailed. “Get me out of here!”
Keeping her eyes on Firefly, Batgirl reached for her Batarang. “I got this,” she said, sprinting toward him.
“Right behind you,” said Poison Ivy as they raced toward Firefly.
“Me too?” said Bumblebee. As she ran behind her friends, Bumblebee was flooded with memories of little Karen Andrena-Beecher running around her backyard, pretending to be a super hero.
Just then, Firefly used an energy weapon to release a stream of fire and began torching the greenhouse. Batgirl flung her Batarang, knocking him over, and Poison Ivy summoned the kudzu plants from the Southeast Asia garden to envelop him.
Bumblebee charged over to the fire. She was hoping to activate the sprinkler system when she felt the spray of a large amount of water rushing by her and putting the fire out. Jason Woodrue, knee-deep in the flood, was smiling.
“I merely opened the dam,” he said, looking proud of himself. “All in the line of duty.”