The Hillington Brother's Brew was cold, and quite satisfying. A toast, she simply thought, to the end of the world…and the beginning of her Eden, as she dreamed it. It was too clear, what had to be done. She sat at one of her old desks, among the beakers filled with various toxic chemicals and test tubes filled with pheromone and chloroplast. Her old world, and tools to build the new.
"There's so much to do, and all the time in the world," Ivy mused. Ivy. She loved reminding herself of that new name. That new existence. She had crawled from the Earth… a child of Mother Nature. A child of herself. A budding flower so exhilarated by new breath. She glanced over quite casually at the body of Jason Woodrue, still lying where she had left him, to be overtaken soon by the devastation she would bring upon this place. He was so beautiful like this.
AAGH!
She looked up slowly, smiling. Oh, but your creature lives on, doesn't it, Jason? She could hear the beast of a man moving around in the distant Gilgamesh wing, and she wondered what the Frankenstein was intending to do. Surely, if the beast was free, so too was its knowledge and desire to continue to be free. Whatever Jason had been planning to do with this "Bane" was no longer its directive: without Woodrue, what would he do? Had Jason thought that far ahead?
"What do you think?" she asked the viper that was steadily making its way down the table before her. The yellow serpent had somehow broken free of her grave as well, breathing in the fresh air of life above. She gently picked it up in hand, and the moment she did, the creature twisted, writhing and spitting as its head doubled over and its fang sunk deep into her arm. She smiled, closing her eyes as she felt the sudden rush of fresh venom overtake her bloodstream. It no longer pained her. Indeed, the toxins were like fresh oxygen. She could breath the stuff in forever, if she desired… "Now, now, don't be an idiot," she whispered, grabbing the creature by its neck and holding its face close to hers. "Whose the deadlier? The serpent, or the product of the serpent's own poison?" She pressed her lips against the mouth of the struggling viper, forcing a lethal dose of poison through her lips and into the creature. The snake jerked wildly, its tail whipping back and forth frantically, but she maintained her hold, rubbing her leg as a heat rush overcame her. The snake stopped jerking after a few more seconds, and she released it calmly, watching it contentedly as it fell dead with a hard plump upon the tabletop. "Obviously, I'm the more poisonous."
She raised a hand and brought the glass bottle of beer down hard upon the dead snake, glass flying everywhere as the thing shattered. Alcohol poured everywhere but she paid no notice. She stood up from where she sat, gazing around the jungle-like room, a fresh elation rising up inside of her chest. A fury like no other.
"I am poison! Poison incarnate! A deadly toxin upon the Earth, to taint those who have squandered upon it for far too long!" She kicked over the chair she had sat upon, feeling arousal at her sudden fury. There was a fire inside of her, her blood simply boiling. "I am the black moon that brings to this world darkness!" She picked up several pages worth of her notes, giving them a disgusted look as she began to shred them to pieces. "I am the queen of corpses!" She flung the countless shreds of paper into the air like confetti, spinning around happily as it snowed down upon her. She began to move about the lab, doubling around into a small corridor of her workstation. "I am nature's arm!" She smashed her arm across a cabinet top, flinging beakers off of it as it hit the wall and shattered. "Her fury! Her will!" She smashed another couple of beakers on her right, an intense feeling of utter joy at the destruction.
"Hell…I am Mother Nature." Yes, you are… you so very much are indeed. Acknowledge it, Ivy. Acknowledge your divinity! Seek it out! "And the time has come to take back the world most rightfully ours." As she declared it, she picked up two beakers, one filled with a thick, dark violet colored toxin derived from a South American Phero-rat, while the other was alight with a kindred flame. "Because it's not nice-" She began to pour the toxin at her feet. "- to fool with Mother Nature!" She imagined the toxin upon the ground as Woodrue's face once more, and threw down the flaming beaker into the its mass. Flames exploded up at once, a grin flashing across her face as she gazed into its orange depths. She picked up another beaker, ready to toss it into the flames as well.
But then, something about it caught her eye. She held the beaker back, observing the logo imprinted upon the glass. A large W, the words Wayne Enterprises printed underneath the logo.
What?
"Hmm….Wayne Enterprises…" As in the company that she had poured several years worth of sweat and extensive research into at an alarming rate. Inspiration! Yes. That had to be it, the first steps to creating the new Eden. The power of Bruce Wayne, playboy extremist and billionaire, to finance her road to the uprising: he had provided Woodrue with funding and instrumental clause grants in order to bring about his work. Wayne Enterprises had power unimaginable, its influence massed about the world, able to change destines with command alone in instantaneous ways.
The heat of the flames impassioned her and she smiled.
"Ruggggh!"
She heard him calling out from the distant Gilgamesh wing. Heard his cries for freedom, and for prey. Of course… Her smile matched almost the warmth of the fire itself, as inspiration overtook her.
"Coming Bane darling…we've got a plane to catch." She turned around and threw the beaker into the flames, allowing the fire to burn high and it rose with a passion not unlike that which she felt for her goal at hand. The pheromones… She raised an arm, examining her veins fondly. What contamination lingered in there? The speculation was moving. She lightly brushed her arm with a tender care, and saw the small flakes of pink spore fly up. She was still covered in pheromones. Woodrue truly had been dead from the moment she rose. How many more would she be able to kill? The thought was heaven in her stride.
She approached the Gilgamesh door with confidence, bare feet trampling over dirty concrete but she cared not. The earth was hers. She longed for its embrace. She placed her hand upon the door, and pushed open lightly, the smile still plastered onto her face. There was a voice issuing in the room beyond, frantic and scared. A young man, pleading with an unknown force. She walked gracefully into Woodrue's large wing, the stale smell of the chemicals used for Bane's uprising still strong about the air.
A young man indeed it was. She entered the large chamber and saw with amusement the man kneeling before the giant Bane, who towered with a dark presence, who breathed with a ragged hatred. Anticipation of the lion's leap before the prey's consumption. A preparation of a feast, to be bloody and slow. The beast of a man was shaking with fury, the Venom pumping rapidly into his body with a strong de-suction from the tanks built onto his back.
The young, dark haired man of Brazilian origin was terrified, whimpering and begging in his own language. For the most intense moment, she had the sudden impulse to run to the man, and subject him to her newfound passion for murder via poisonous kiss. She wanted to kill again. Needed to kill again. He would have cash on him, surely. Cash, among other essentials to prepare for the trip to America that must be undertaken.
She twiddled her flaming red hair in hand, wondering if and when she should kill the man, but something held her back. The way Bane the Atronach beheld the man. She could feel it, smell it in the air, even. He was letting of the strangest scent, something like cleaning fluid. And somehow, she just knew it preceded obliteration.
"DO IT!" she cried suddenly, her heart breaking with joy and anticipation. She had become cheerleader to the skirmisher. She waved her arms in the air, the vines and heavy leaves that clung to her acting as makeshift palm palms. Bane and the young man looked around at her. She winked at the man on the floor, blowing him a kiss. "I just have to see you crushed," she told him softly, her voice mellow as if inspired by very deep poetry. "Bane, darling, slaughter him for me."
"¿Qué demonios!?" the man shouted, wide eyed as his mouth dropped at the sight of her. He made an involuntary move towards her, and Bane noticed. Bane cared about such actions in this moment. And Bane struck. The giant's hand struck forward and fat, iron-like green fingers wrapped around the Spanish man's neck. The man made a fierce guttural of a sound, his eyes widening in horror as Bane pulled him forward and squeezed.
She grinned as a loud crack sounded off throughout the room. Blood squirted from his eyes as Bane obliterated his throat with a single force of a squeeze. She rubbed her leg thoughtfully, aroused by Bane's pest control. She watched with girlish enthusiasm as the body crumpled to the floor, and that alone was enjoyable entertainment. The way it made a loud plump upon the dusty concrete, the way the eyes stared outward even though they could not see, and the stillness of it. Life itself stopped and suspended for an eternity within ice. She and Bane were one in that moment, both absorbed in the power of their own degradation and insanity. They were both in death as they had been in their old lives: conquerors. It had taken one key ingredient, of course, to realize it, and that had been Woodrue. He had been the tool, instigated by the will of nature that she so desperately craved to worship, to bring these chained events into being.
O Muse! the causes and the crimes relate;
What goddess was provok'd, and whence her hate
She approached him, though only slowly in caution. He turned gaze towards her, grumbling deeply as the masked man looked intently at the approaching vision of ethereal grace. She smiled, a soft smile, confident as to assure both him and herself that this was okay, that they were safe, that in union their power would be unstoppable. He craved the hunt, and she craved to be hunted, for they both had ways of devouring that could simply not be denied.
"Bane, he calls you. "Bane of Humanity." Such a stupid name. A stupid wonderful name, more like. He's right, Bane. It's beautiful. Bane of all humanity. Because I see it, I saw it. The kill. You love the kill. And do you know what?" She stopped before her, brave, assured that she could survive this. Bane made no move against her. Not yet. She could definitely feel the impulses burning inside of him, desiring to crack her in half as he had done to the young lab assistant, but she felt confident she could win a spare of her life over. And if not…well, now, what a way to die, destroyed by the hand of nature itself. He had come from the plant toxins too, her plant toxins. He was as much a child of nature as she was, and she would respect his aspirations. "Do you know what, Bane of Humanity? I like the sound of that. And I know you do too. You had no reason to kill this man before us, now did you?" She rolled over the dead man with her foot, so that he looked skyward, at his conquerors. "There was no reason to take from him what was rightfully to be taken… but there was an earthly reason. Because the earth commands that its enemies be used for soil, does it not?"
Bane shifted, stepping forward and breathing hard. His hands were twitching. She grinned.
"I can feel power radiating out of you but something else as well. Desire. You have desire. And what, may I ask, is that desire? By the looks of this," she noted, kicking the dead man hard in the ribs, "I say you're looking for a pack to hunt. You're a wild animal, and you did not even need my chemical studies and Woodrue's corruption to see it, now did you? "Antonio Diego, serial murderer serving life," as he put it. Well, Antonio, I bet you killed because you enjoyed killing. Remorseless. It was sport, a much needed hobby…and then the hobby turned to breath. You had to kill in order to breath; there was just no other way. The power you have over someone, to control them with a mental leash before you extinguish them: it's poetry. A fundamental basic need. You want power over an individual because having your way pretty much sets up a self-proclaimed divinity, doesn't it?"
She tapped him lightly on the chest, just above the Turbo button that Woodrue had installed onto his tank. He did not react violently. He did move his hand, however, a slow but heavy movement, grabbing at her wrist. She showed him no fear, however, but gazed confidently into his eye holds. Her free hand came to rest upon his right cheek.
"You kill because you get a thrill out of it. I'd love to read your police file some time. These days it might come off as an erotic novel to me, but we're all nuts, aren't we? I admire that characteristic. And much more, I sympathize with you. You need a hunting ground, and Bane dear, I have a big one that will give you the hunt of your life." Her hand moved down his cheek and slid down his chest. She could feel the pheromones lingering in the air as she focused her body on emitting them. Could smell them burning the room's very atmosphere. And Bane…she knew he could smell them too. That was the reason for his docile form. A beautiful, half naked woman with beauty such as hers would stand little chance against the advances of a titan like him, but here was, calm and held back. How far would she tempt him?
Her fingers found what she sought: the trigger point. The centerpiece of the groin, no less. Crown jewels for the taking, should anyone dare to use such a primitive tactic on such a boisterous being. But he seized in place, a statue where he stood, and she nodded wisely. Expected.
"Interesting that you still have so much formal drawing to the old ways, huh? It's the corruption that nature has not spared us of. Those human ways. Disgusting as they are, you need human corruption in order to remove it, don't you? The two of us…we can remove so much human corruption. Namely, humans, as they are corruption. Corruption upon my earth, the world of Mother Nature. Corpses, Bane, I'm talking corpses by the masses. Let me tempt you, Bane… tempt you by appealing to your most admirable trait: your need to kill, as I need to kill. Let's kill together."
She moved in on him now, wrapping a leg around him as she forced herself against the growth that, even corrupted into a beast as he was, was still there, still apparent. He released her wrist, and as painful as his hold had been, the throbbingness of it noted right away like a small fire, she fought the temptation to scold and growl. Forcing her care about the pain in her arm to subside for the moment, she lifted her hands to his mask and pushed upward.
The man that she had seen strapped to the table, being subjected to Jason Woodrue's corrupting experimentations, was completely gone. No child-like scorn or fear in the structure, but a swollen face, spoiled green, the veins thickly protruding out to resemble a man who may have very well been stung by a thousand mutated bees. And yet…he was beautiful. Those eyes… they burned a crisp golden color. More of a golden green, something lime and yet glowing. Inhuman. So very inhuman. She felt a bond rise up between the two of them, admiring the inhumanity for something to be written about and acknowledged in tale, when her children would one day begin a descent back into literature. When all the Earth was dead and gone, she would have this beautiful creature. And much more, there would be sons and daughter to branch off from the Mother Tree, to ensure that the Plant Earth never forgot the legend of the great Bane, and his Queen.
She had to risk it. The temptation was far too great. He was glazed over, swayed by her irresistible charm, and she had to see. She pulled his face and kissed all too passionately the swollen green lips of the beast before her. Much more, in her madness, she focused all energy upon inducing the hemotoxin into his system. She felt that rush, a living river of poison that rushed from her body and broke its way into his system, burning at his blood vessels and swiftly pumping heart.
Bane moaned, a sound that suggested pain, she felt, but she did not let up. And he did not fight her. If she was correct in believing that the Venom had corrupted him in that special way, all would be well with this action. She released herself after several seconds, only after she felt a great rush of fatigue overcome her by the massive dose that she had administered to Bane. The giant and the flower both reeled back on the spot, her vision dazing for a moment, while he opened his mouth, green venom dripping from lips and down onto his shirt. His breathing was ragged, but he did not fall. Bane placed his hands upon his knees, bending over slightly, but still he held his form up.
Shaking her head to focus from the daze, she beheld the great beast of a man who fought hard against her poison. He was still alive. Not choking or gagging as Woodrue had. Alive, and only slightly overwhelmed by her poison. It was almost instantaneous that she felt an arousing heat rise up inside of her from the experimental attempted murder she had just tried on the man beast. She placed hand upon her own chest, feeling her heartbeat, caught in a rapid race behind her ribs.
"Bane…of humanity…" she whispered, her teeth flashing as she grinned at the potential enforcer. Bane's glowing eyes gazed up at her, as he fell down onto one knee. Still fighting. She bent down as well, stroking his chin with one hand, and placing her other hand, fingertips first, upon her lips. Focusing on the pheromones to enter him as well, as her fingertips went just inside, slightly past his lips. Bane made a strange noise, his head swaying on the spot. She nodded, understanding rising up inside of her. "The lab's burning in there, you know. But I'm sure Jason's left me a couple of things to work with in here, hasn't he?"
She looked around the room, examining the worktables that Woodrue had left behind. "How about we ensure that these pheromones stay with you always, Bane of Humanity?" she whispered to him, kissing him again, a quick two second of a kiss. Bane fell onto both knees now, his head shaking like a drunken man after far too much booze. That was satisfying enough. The holding tanks that Woodrue had constructed onto his back could supply well several days worth of the Venom compound. How easy would it be to have the pheromone spores bond with the appropriate core element used to trigger the Venom's effects? "I'll make you grovel for me, Bane. And then… then the two of us move forward. America is a hunting ground all on its own, a source of pollution and vagrance that simply must be eradicated. Do you want to help?"
She stood up, confidence now in this moment more than she ever had been. "Let's get hitched."