"AAAGGH!" Henry Killis screamed, grabbing his head in pain, his eyes bulging. Lissa, laughing maniacally, cartwheeled away, leaping upon a nurse and forcing him to the ground. She flicked her wrist, streaming out a surge of black gas from her arm-launcher, a cruel device hidden beneath her sleeve. The male nurse screamed alongside Killis, grabbing at his head as well, as visions of spider-dogs and snake-birds swum about in his mind. Their brains molded. Their instincts of a most wild nature kicked in. They lashed at each other viciously, barking like dogs, growling like lions.
"No more minds, lose your minds, no more miiiiinnnndssssssss…." Lissa hissed, crawling on all fours for Linda Kersch, one of the Arkham doctors on staff, who had just been leaving a session with her patient. The intensive wing housed some of Gotham's most notorious. Serial killers and rapists were an understatement. Lissa had shot the woman in the leg as she had exited the cell of one Raymond Calcite, who was standing at the window of his cell even now, cheering and whooping on the show taking place outside. "No more nosing around!" Lissa cried, sitting atop the woman's back and jerking her head backwards. Lissa dug both fingers into the doctor's nostrils, and proceeded to pull the woman's nose apart with tremendous strength. Dr. Kersch's scream penetrated through even that of the male nurse and Killis.
Lissa ripped apart the woman's nose, and then proceeded to gouge the doctor's eyes out. "No more seeing what can't be seen," Lissa sighed, eating the woman's hair from the top of her head as she de-eyed the poor soul. She ripped out shreds by the tuft-fulls, and after removing the woman's eyes, Lissa proceeded to brutally smash Kirsch's head into the stone floor, again and again, over and over in dark, dark purpose, until the life went out of her and she was left a bloodied, destroyed mess in a crumpled heap. "Sleep!" Lissa hissed, breaking her neck for good measure with one strong, focused twist.
Calcite was still screaming madly behind his door, his face pressed against the bars, whooping and encouraging Lissa on. Lissa, her gaze snapping up to him, leapt to her feet and bolted for the door. She dug her hands through the window and forced her lips against Calcite, the black poison saturating his lips and spreading down his throat. Calcite pulled back, grabbing at his head, screaming as his brain began to fry, several nerves severing, his mind breaking as the hallucinations began.
"Mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah," Lissa sang, clapping her hands and jumping up and down. "Your mind is gooooooooooooooone!" She cartwheeled away with a loud, "Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!" and daydreamed of flying fish and sneaking dog heads attached to chains. When Lissa reached the next hall, an isolation ward for the mentally catatonic, she was met with a barrage of intense laughter. Several Arkham guards were on their knees, laughing insanely, a green haze floating about the room around them. Their faces stretched into mad, Cheshire grins. Quinn was in the far distance, fighting with a guard who had stayed her distance from the little black ball that lay in the middle of the corridor, letting off a constant stream of Smilex gas.
The guard threw a punch at Quinn, who bent backwards in a very flexible fashion. Quinn cartwheeled backwards, a gas mask strapped tightly to her face as she entered the poisonous fog. She ran forward then, frontflipping through the air and skidding across the floor. Before the guard could react, Quinn twisted on the floor, throwing her legs up and wrapping them around the woman's neck. Quinn twisted her entire body, snapping the guard's neck with it. As the guard fell dead, Quinn spun on the spot. Three more guards were running up the way, armed with automatic rifles.
"Fire in the hole!" Quinn screamed, snatching her overlarge pistol from the ground. She aimed at the guards and fired off a single shot. A black mini cannonball shot across the hall and rolled at the guards' feet. The three pursuers stopped in their tracks, one of them screaming about a bomb. Indeed, the black ball did exploded at that moment, overwhelming the hall with Smilex gas. The gas seeped into the cell windows of the many doors of the hall, and within moments, there were several screams of constant laughter, men and women falling down left and right as their features were corrupted into gruesome, jester-like phantasms. "For you, Mr. J," Quinn sighed.
She took out her phone and checked off a few more names on the virtual list that Sionis had made for her. Between her and Lissa, the twenty bounties were almost completely taken care of. There were two remaining names on the list: Jonathon Crane and Victor Fries. Quinn was satisfied, having saved these two for last. They were both notable names, and both had severely pissed off the boss to an intense degree. Crane, known in Gotham as the notorious Scarecrow, had attempted a raid on the Poisoners Guild just last year. The mad man had set fire to the guild basement, intending to take out the alchemical lab beneath, in order to eliminate competition in the hallucinogenic market. A fool who would die for a foolish cause.
And Fries… Fries had screwed everyone over. For ten minutes worth of an iced over city the previous year, Sionis had lost over two animal preservations in Gotham, several aquatic conservatories and a docking manufacturer on the east side. It had all sank to the bottom of the river after his attack. Millions in damages had been the reward. Sionis, of course, had been willing to spare Fries's life in exchange for the man's diamond stockpile, a most gracious acquirement after the final raid on Snowey Cones… but Quinn suspected that this most recent change in plans had come as a result of Uma's presence: Uma had some kind of power over Roman Sionis, and Abigail had Freeze's murder on her mind, for his antagonistic advances against her "goddess…" Quinn felt Uma's hand over this without a doubt. Tying up lose ends, in the name of the "goddess…" Goddess, goddess… it's all she ever called Pamela Isley. The woman was obsessed to an unnaturally destructive length. Why? Why did Abigail have such an obsession with Poison Ivy?
Why do you have such an obsession with the Joker!?
Quinn shook her head, forcing the sudden, invasive thoughts out of her mind. She spun on the spot and looked Lissa-ward. Lissa had been taught better than to enter the Smilex haze, and she was walking back and forth, back and forth, her head bent low, muttering to herself something silent and secret.
"Lissa!" Quinn called from across the way. "Do you remember where the map is?"
"In the foyer," Lissa cried, swaying on the spot. "Under the dead cat, wearing a hat, smiling like a bat, it's fat-"
"It's under the stairway we took to get onto this floor, remember!?" Quinn called out, clenching her fist. "You remember that, right?"
"Under the stairs, run away hares… run away White Rabbit…"
Quinn gulped. "Hold on!" she sighed, making sure her gas mask was secure before running across the hall through the fog. Lissa could not be trusted to wander about on her own in this place. Her condition had indeed worsened since their last big mission. This was going to slow things down.
"This is Quinn to Heximal, do you read?" Quinn said urgently, pressing a small red button on her wristwatch down. A static voice responded out of the watch speakers.
"I hear you. What's your status?" Heximal sounded odd. Drunk and slightly disoriented… Quinn had immediate suspicions.
"We've gotten the targets in Isolation A and B, but we need to make our way to Special Accommodations for Fries. Crane was transferred to Yellow Wing on the west side, so we're going to save him for last, since SA is closer. I'm taking Lissa with me. She can't function on her own in this place."
"If you're going to SA," Heximal said slowly, "you don't want to take Lissa."
"And why the hell not!?" Quinn snapped.
"Because Jervis Tetch was transferred there three weeks ago, that's why."
Quinn froze. Lissa had suddenly turned stiff as well. That name… it stung her brain on a mentally jeopardizing level. She knew it. Could feel it, could smell it.
"Whaaaaaaaaaat?" Lissa hissed. "Whaaaaaaaaat!?" She began to reach for Quinn's arm, who jerked away, holding up her hands desperately.
"Lissa, dear," Quinn begged. "Please… please, don't do anything rash. Calm down…"
"Tetch," Lissa snapped, her head jerking hard when she said it. "Tetch!" Her head jerked again. "Tetch, Tetch, Tetch!" Again. Again. Again. Her eyes darkened. "Special…Accommodations…" She turned on her heel.
"Lissa, no!"
But Lissa was already running at full speed, howling wildly. Swearing, Quinn bolted after her, squeezing her gun tightly. She had one round left before it needed a reload. She was not sure how she was going to manage tracking Lissa down and still stay on top of those who would try to impede her. She did not want to kill Lissa. Not now. She did not want this to be the moment. But if Lissa made the mission impossible…
Damn it! We shouldn't even be here right now! This is all Uma's fault! If she hadn't come along…
"What…are you…?" Ivy whispered, shakily crawling forward and gazing up at the triumphant Abigail. Her eyes kept flickering from the red-headed savior to Perce's body, poisoned and discarded upon the floor. Abigail, wiping her lips dry and breathing raggedly, fell to her knees and turned to face her goddess. She exalted herself before Ivy, bowing with her arms stretched forward, her eyes closed in submission.
"I am your warrior," Abigail told her, blinking back her tears. Her voice shook with happiness. "Yes, I am your sword where your hand is stayed. I am your avenger and rescuer." She dared a look into the goddess's shining, green, beautiful eyes. "I am your worshipper."
Ivy was stunned, sitting back and staring out of disbelief and awe. She had forgotten the bruises, and the cuts, and the blood that flowed from her. This young woman had just murdered Perce in front of her. This young woman had just-
"Did you kiss him? Is that what you just did?" Ivy whispered, not able to comprehend evident truth. Abigail smiled, still blinking back heavy tears.
"Yes," she gasped. "Nyrox poisoning… I developed it… I followed in your ways, goddess! I studied your methods. I studied your lifestyle, and your presentation! I… became Poison Ivy in your place… I could not let the mammals of Gotham…no, the mammals of the entire planet…sleep one more night, knowing that you were behind bars! You're Mother Nature! You're Eden! You belong out there, pruning this world of its filthy mammals! I slaughtered for you. I killed so many mammals for you! All for you…all for you…" She fell forward and clawed at the dirt. "And I enjoyed it," she whispered. "I enjoy taking their lives. It was sexual! It was empowering! It was erotic! Are you proud of me!?"
"Proud?" Ivy whispered, blinking rapidly. "I…I don't know what to…Oh…" Realization suddenly hit her:
Dear Poison Ivy,
I hope this letter finds you well. I can't tell you how difficult it was, getting the proper names to ensure that this reaches you safely. I had to bribe the right guys, and bribery doesn't always involve money, if you know what I mean. It is my dear hope that this letter reaches you unopened, but in the case that someone does peek, I will already have left Gotham City, and begun the Movement.
I write to you now, Poison Ivy, to tell you this: I love you. I love you so very much. Quite psychologically speaking, I am obsessed with you. I've dyed my hair to match your red, it used to be blonde. I've also taken to wearing green contacts, as blue hardly seems fitting for your successor. Yes, that's right. I want you to know how much I admired your work. The day that truly got to me was when you displayed that so very beautiful video on GCN. The poisonings, the necrophilia, the ambitions, and the confidence… it's all so very arousing. I myself love nature, and I love chemistry. In fact, it's my major in college at the moment.
Used to, when we were kids, we were asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Well, I have my answer at last: I want to be you, Poison Ivy. I'll take on your name for myself, and I will continue your work. The work of Mother Nature should never end. I will poison men in your name, and I will do my best to revive your studies into botany. I will strive to be a true successor. I've already killed people. My college professor, along with a few boys at my school… and I even strung their bodies up, just like you did on TV! Isn't that cool!? It was scary at first, but then, it started to become REALLY fun, lol. 3
I like, totally am going to become Poison Ivy, and I'm going to go on a massive killing spree, just like you. I've already dealt with my parents, as well, as they won't be able to interfere. I truly love you, and I truly admire you, Ivy. I hope that in time, I can come to live up to your unholy name. They may have your physical body locked away in Arkham, but your spirit shall live on inside of me. I am going to make you proud. I promise. I promise I will make you proud. I do, I promise.
I promise.
This letter will be short, but know that I shall be writing again. And soon. I am your dearest fan, your most adamant worshipper. You spoke to me in such a beautiful way, Poison Ivy. You have served us well… now, let me serve you. I will write again, sometime in the next month. I'll send some enclosed pictures of my new costume, too, I'm modeling it after you. Just know that I am here to carry on your name and legacy forever. And if I am blessed with a daughter, then she too will carry on your legacy. One day, the mammals of this Earth will be cleansed… and your paradise, your Eden, will be realized.
I write this in love, my goddess,
A.R.
P.S. =)
"So that was you!?" Ivy whispered, trembling madly. "You…wrote that letter…to me…?"
"I did write you. Over a tear ago," Abigail sobbed. "I wanted you to know my intentions. My feelings. My transformation. I wanted you to know…you had not lost."
"So you're…A.R.?"
"Abigail Robinson," Abigail sighed, gazing lovingly into her goddess's eyes. "Your most devout worshipper."
Ivy gasped, excitedly now, her eyes widening, her teeth flashing. "Oh, my goodness… it was real. It was always going to be real. You…you were real. And your goals were real. You…you became Poison Ivy in my place."
"I murdered for you, goddess," Abigail breathed, pressing her lips against Ivy's hand. It tasted like paradise. Ivy's skin was dirty and bitter and cold. Abigail felt her heart springing inside of her chest. "So many boys…so many boys… And I brought you sacrifices, goddess…" She drug over the black mini-duffle she had carried dutifully, and now unzipped it, spilling out the contents within. Her various, collected jars rolled across the dirt before Ivy, who gazed in awe and wonder at the severed penises, eyes, noses and vials of blood that Abigail had collected, all to offer as tribute to her goddess. "For you, goddess," Abigail sighed. "For you."
Ivy picked up one of the containers, stroking the glass lovingly, eyeing the severed penis inside with hungry desire.
"Did he die in agony?" she asked her worshipper, her tone malevolent.
"Yes. They all did," Abigail swore, filled with equal, savage lust. "I ensured that your legacy survived."
"You've done so well," Ivy hissed, grinning madly. "So well! So very well! You're real!" She tossed the container aside, where it smashed upon the ground. Her fingers tenderly raised Abigail's head upward, and Ivy gazed intently into her eyes. Abigail's heart was on fire. "You are a worthy worshipper."
Abigail laughed nervously, her tears of joy and true happiness. Ivy stood up, and slowly walked over to Perce's corpse, stripping away what was left of her destroyed suit. Abigail watched in admiration as Ivy crawled over the man's body and snuggled against him, moaning as she did.
"How does it feel?" Ivy asked the dead man, fulfilling her long awaited dream of kissing the man. As her lips sucked in his, her heart exploded with triumph. Memories of Jason Woodrue's murder came to light. Her first victory, and the most important one of all. "How does it feel to be dead and forgotten, Perce, baby? To have my follower's poison rushing through your very veins? Is it everything you hoped it would be?" She was shaking hard. Abigail wanted her goddess to violate the man's body, to do the most horrible, despicable things to his corpse… and she wanted to help.
"You've come…to rescue me…?" Ivy asked her, clawing Perce's face and drawing blood.
"I have, goddess," Abigail whispered. "I have done much to prepare for your rescue from this place. My carnal manipulations ran firm and deep."
"How did you manage this?" Ivy asked her, tracing the tainted veins of Perce's face with her finger. She began to dig the man's eyes out.
"I had beautiful inspiration," Abigail replied admirably, lying down beside Perce's body as well. She began to rip tufts of his hair out. "I started my killing spree not long after your incarceration. My first victims, for a long while, were of Bludhaven. That's where I went to school. I was majoring in chemistry, and I had a long-time love for botany, like you, goddess. So much so that, as a side project, I began to study how you extracted pheromones from plants. I started researching different specimens, learning their biological abilities. I learned how to siphon."
"Which plants did you begin with?"
"The first one was a Tigress-empira. The pheromones extracted from that plant were what started my research into strengthening the procedure. I studied charts of the brain and read about its susceptibilities."
"And the poison? This poison from your lips…?"
"Nyrox-5 was a development from studies into the poisons exhumed by Radicar and Mormaiden flowers from the Arigoyn region. Getting samples of these flowers was no easy task, believe me. It took fine manipulation of Bludhaven's most valuable members. You see, the pheromone extraction was an easy enough task. Learning who was susceptible to them was another matter altogether." She stopped her barber-play and pulled out her knife. She began to carve Perce's nose away, as Ivy popped one of his eyes into her mouth. She chewed with an intense, pleasured expression upon her face. "But I overcame the trials. Using the pheromones, I seduced the president of my college and the director of botanical affairs at BSU. At first, I used them for more innocent notions: I stole money from them, used them for sex when I was feeling down… Under the influence of the pheromones, they would not refuse me. If I wanted sex, they have me sex. If I wanted money, they gave me money. They served me under the influence."
"Of course, I would vanish almost as fast as I came. The pheromones don't cause full-memory loss, but they do disorient the mind. A few bottles of their preferred drink left on the scene, and I was able to ensure that they were convinced of it all being a bad drunk dream."
"You're talented," Ivy praised. She held out a hand, her eyes on Abigail's knife. Abigail gave it to her gladly, and Ivy stabbed Perce right in the heart. Blood flew up, tainted with Abigail's poison, but Ivy, in a sexual frenzy of dark excitement, stabbed again and again, breathing harder with each strike. Abigail looked upon her goddess and desired transcendence into the woman's soul.
"You're so beautiful," she breathed.
"Yes, I am," Ivy agreed, bending down and drinking the blood from the gaping wound in his chest. Abigail watched in amazement as Ivy's own veins became tainted with the Nyrox poison. Ivy seemed to be absorbing it without any ill effects. She truly was poisonous. Pulling her head back, her face stained with blood, Ivy asked, "You began to kill in my name?"
"Over and over again," Abigail sighed passionately, gazing up at the sky dreamily. "I just couldn't stop in the end. I made the suit. My first victims were my parents. Dad was also weak against the pheromones. I seduced him with ease. But at that time, I was using a knife. My later victims would, however, feel the wrath of arsenic and, of course…your venom."
"My venom?"
"You see, I took a short trip to Gotham in those days. I studied the obituaries of your victims. I found their graves, and dug their bodies up. Your poison was still stored away in their veins. I stole their bodies away. I extracted the poison from them. And then, I used it as my ultimate weapon, reserved for only the most beautiful of victims. I was entranced by your aspirations for Eden, and I would see it restored, for you." She groveled desperately before Ivy, burning red in her fear that she could not exalt herself enough.
Ivy's dark smile was fiery. Her nails clawed at the dirt. She bit her lip hard, suddenly alive with this worshipper's words. So I have a worshipper… and she did not even have to be forced. She's done all of this, in my name. She's gotten so much accomplished. And now she's come and opened a door for me to escape this Hell… She can be useful.
She raised Abigail's head upward, stroking the worshipper's cheek. "I am proud of you," Ivy whispered. "You have pleased me."
Abigail's breathing intensified, and she made a sound that mixed like a laugh and a guttural hacking. Her head twisted as she bent backwards and laughed aloud.
"You hear that, world?" Abigail whispered, her eyes rolling into the back of her head. "She is proud of me."
"I am," Ivy sighed, standing tall now. Tall and alive. "I feel power in me. I feel alive. I've wandered in darkness for a year now. The things they did to me… I shall repay to Gotham ten-fold."
"And I will be your sword," Abigail plead, kissing the ground at Ivy's feet. "Let me your hidden knife, that strikes terror and misery into the souls of these mammals. Let me give you your freedom."
"Accepted," Ivy agreed, and she reached out her hand. Abigail took it in hold, pulling herself up, to where she stood equal with her goddess, alive and able. A dark understanding passed between them. Their hearts were set. "I haven't killed in so long… A girl's desperate."
"We must get you out of this place," Abigail insisted. "Now!"
"And we shall… how did you manage this?"
"I have friends, goddess. Friends who brought me here to save you. You have friends in the False Face Society."
"The False Face Society," Ivy repeated. "I see. That name sounds familiar."
"It's headed by Roman Sionis. He owns Arkham, behind the papers, you see. Almost all Arkham staff are his, you see."
Ivy's eyes flashed. "Oh really?" she whispered.
"Yes. I had to seduce him, you see, to get his help. I had to perform a great feat of murder for him to secure this rescue. It's…been kind of fear-setting."
"I see. And you regret your service?"
"Not a damn minute of it."
"Then good. I am pleased. You may escort me to your friends, then." She bent down and began to strip Perce. Abigail watched, fascinated, as Ivy removed the man's clothing, one layer at a time.
"I understand what you are doing, I think…"
She was right. Within a few minutes, Ivy had fit herself awkwardly into the man's uniform, bundling her hair up and hiding it within the confines of Perce's hat. Abigail drug the man's body into the brush, making sure to hide every inch of him beneath ivy and flowers. Ivy herself was still very beautiful, and she looked neat and secure under the guise of an Arkham guard. She removed Perce's nametag, tossing it into the brush with his corpse. His gun rested lightly in her hand.
"Are you ready to return to your victims, goddess?" Abigail asked darkly, relishing the thought of the new murders that were to come. Ivy nodded.
"Bring me before your friends and get me the hell out of this place."
"By your word, goddess."
Ivy smirked. "Don't ever call me anything, dear," she sighed. "I'll give you the name "Poison Ivy." I prefer goddess."
"That is what you are, goddess," Abigail whispered. "And I gladly take on the name of Poison Ivy for you."
A strong moment of silence passed between the two as both set their hearts on their dark purposes.
BOOM!
Ivy and Abigail broke away from their understanding, jerked by a sudden, violent shaking. Something had exploded in the distance. Abigail, tense and alert, readied her weapon. "We have to go," she said.
Nodding, Ivy took point as the two of them sped for the greenhouse exit. Heximal and his gang had grouped up outside, waiting for them. Heximal looked as if he had been about to enter the greenhouse.
"This her, then?" Heximal asked frantically, only giving Ivy a quick glance. "We gotta get out of here now. It's the Bat."
"What!?" Ivy hissed, stepping forward and grabbing the front of his shirt. He looked at her oddly. "What do you mean!?"
"He just flew over the asylum. He's got a jet and-"
BOOM! The floor shook again, this time more violently, and far off, in the distance down the way, the ceiling caved in. Huge chunks of rock crashed down into the corridor. Ivy gasped, backing away several feet. "No," she whimpered, green tears suddenly feeling her eyes. "No, no, no, no…"
Abigail stood in front of her, aiming her gun in the direction of the ceiling hole, Heximal and his guard doing the same.
"Stay behind me, goddess," Abigail hissed. "We'll not let him get you."
"We have to run for it," one of Heximal's men said frantically. "Now!"
"I'm with him!" Ivy agreed. "Let's go now…"
But suddenly, a dark shape landed in the middle of the hall, flying in fast and landing just as quickly. Abigail was suddenly aware of something small and fast flying right at them, the dark figure throwing it with accurate steadiness.
"Damn it!" Heximal screamed, jumping to his left. Abigail forced Ivy against the wall. The batarang came close to hitting her in the head, just barely grazing her from behind. She felt the wind of it whip at her hard. Ivy was shaking in terror, her eyes bulging.
In the middle of the corridor…there he stood. He was as dark and terrible as Abigail remembered him being. Clad all in black, the Bat rose steadily, glaring at them from behind his dark mask.
"That's far enough," he warned in a gruff voice, coming forward.
"Is it!?" Abigail hissed, twisting around and aiming her gun. She fired off a shot too early, though, and it missed him by several feet. Her hand was shaking hard. Heximal, swearing, jumped forward, screaming, "Fuck it… attack!"
He and his men took aim. The Bat moved fast, rolling forward as Heximal and his guard opened fire. Abigail did not hesitate to move. She grabbed Ivy by the hand and bolted in the opposite direction, leaving Heximal to distract the Bat. Batman straightened himself from his roll, and in his hand he held a small, metal, disc-shaped gun. He pulled the trigger, aiming it at the three men.
"Fuck you!" Heximal screamed, aiming at Batman's head and pulling the trigger. His gun did nothing. From either side of him, his guards were pulling their own triggers. Nothing was happening. Heximal caught the dark smile on Batman's face, who stood up straight, still aiming the disc-like gun at them. Suddenly, Heximal felt something shake inside of his gun. She desperately pulled at the trigger, but his gun was hopelessly jammed.
"Copper's expanded," said Batman. "My apologies." He pocketed the disc-gun and surged forward. Heximal, swearing loudly again, turned on his heel and fled. Batman's fist collided with one of Heximal's guards, bringing him down almost at once. The other threw a desperate punch at him, but Batman caught it in hand. The man was slow. Not releasing the man's hand, he raised his arm up and forced him down, bringing the attacker to his knees. The man began to sweat badly, shaking. "Go to sleep," Batman said quietly, before he raised his knee and slammed the end of his boot into the man's face. The thug went flying, hitting the wall hard as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Batman turned. Heximal was vanishing around the distant corner. He had seen Ivy, though. He could not let her escape.
The Dark Knight would hunt her down. The both of them.