"There's a foul wind in the air…like the Plague of Ages sweeping down…"

"Hold him, Bane, hold him still. Come here, you little piece of crap! You want to crush perfectly good flower beds? Here, have a focking kiss!"

"No one can see where it does descend…but the knowledge of its existence burns the air itself…. And it cannot be denied…

"Bane, crush her throat! Do it now. You want to smash your pretty little loafers all over these weeds, little girl? Well, you're fixing to learn what it feels like to be smashed. Kill her, Bane!"

"When the devil descends, and writhes himself in ecstasy, there lay the corpses…there lay the fields of waste…"

"I see you're smoking a cigarette, sir. Do you know how many plants are sacrificed monthly to produce your sick, lung degrading crap!? Bane, hold him!"

"He'll bring about executions in the masses, slaughter by the days, till all the world is shriveled, and the tragedy spawns timeless plays…"

"Do either of you two gentlemen know why my large friend here holds you as prisoners? Because I, dear boys, am focking Mother Nature, and you've focked with me for far too long. Mmmh…"

"Until the past becomes all meaning…and the world never carries on from its wounds…"

Twenty executions. It had been a busy, but very productive, day. An avenger of Mother Earth had taken the initiative and all was well in the world. Ivy and Bane sat within a thick grove of low hanging trees, situated in the northern part of Gotham Central Park. The mass expanse of land contained within the city spread a beautiful 790 acres, larger than even that of Central Park in Manhatten. They both were spread out across the grass, both of them contemplating on the next actions. Seven hours of scoring across the massive world of its own, this gargantuan park. Twenty executions, ranging from a small, five year old girl who had taken to trampling defenseless weeds when she had strayed from the path of her protective mother, to two young men who had bore the nerve to walk through a patch of lilies in front of her, crushing the very lives from their fragile bodies.

The executions were low in number themselves, and this bothered her. Although twenty murders, when added to those lives taken back at the airport, was in its own way satisfying, it was simply not enough. At this rate, Eden could never be realized, because the population of mammals would persist more ravenously. She could kill, and kill well. Her body would be producing the hemotoxin in an indefinite way, but she was still only part of a two-man army. More were needed.

The battle to save the planet could not be won with two alone.

"What are we going to do, Bane?" she lamented upon him, tears falling down onto her cheeks and she stroked the grass tenderly, loving it, whispering to it softly to let it know that it know that its Mother was there.

"Wayne…" was what the titan could muster.

"Wayne, yes, but that will be tactical. A time consuming thread of events, no less. This world is spoiled, Bane, and we're only to kill about thirty within a span of eight hours. Compiled with a need to sleep, eat, and rest, as well as procure the experiments to begin the roots of Eden, we'll start decreasing in productivity. Bane…Antonio…we need help."

"Control….control…them…."

Ivy's eyes widened, her mouth parting. "Oh…now that is an idea, isn't it, Bane? If I alone can secure a rigorous plane flight from South America to Gotham City, USA, with the pheromones…do you think that there are more extreme things I could do with it?" She rolled over on her side and looked at him. Bane nodded.

"Killers…."

"Killers, yes. We could make them see our ways, couldn't we, Bane? Make them understand. Oh, now there is an idea. We need to test it." She jumped to her feet, running quickly over to boisterous bushes surrounding the grove. Peering out of the thick brush, she looked around the mini-valley on the other side. A bicyclist was peddling his way up the concrete path towards where they were hidden. Behind him, racing at an equal, solitude of a speed, a friend. She heard Bane stepping his way from behind, felt him brush up against her like a dog in heart, and she glanced up at him, a mad expression over her face.

"Bane, there's a golden opportunity coming this way. Snatch them and drag him in, I'll take care of the rest."

She patted him gently on the chest and took off, and Bane wasted no time in rushing forward, crashing through the brush as he jumped out onto the path. Ivy heard screams as the two bicyclists crashed into the sudden giant who had seemingly teleported in front of them, but she knew that her titan enforcer would not be shaken in the slightest by their force. She reached into her purse and produced the leaf shaped make-up mirror. Eight hours of killing and produced for her enough hormones to produce another massive dose of the pheromones, and she had been quick to preserve the supplies needed. She turned around to face the ransacking brush as Bane crashed through, holding a struggling bicyclist in either hand by their shirts. They were kicking and yelling, demanding that he release them, but he had a firm grasp.

"Set them down, darling," Ivy commanded, and Bane obeyed, dropping them down at her feet. Both young men scrambled to their feet, but she was already blowing a very large dose of the pheromones into their frantic faces. The two men stopped rebelling at once, becoming docile as the effect rooted them to the spot. Ivy smiled seductively at the pair as she brought them in close to her, both of them ogling at the woman as they beheld her, completely enthralled beyond comprehension. "Welcome, dear boys, to our little grotto." She rubbed her fingers across one of their mouths, and her started trembling. "I need a little help from the pair of you. A science experiment, so to speak. Do you think I could hire the two of you for a moment?"

"Y-yeah…yeah…"

"Of course…sure….whatever…"

She had to force herself from bursting into hysterical, wicked laughter. This was too much for her. It was true entertainment, true pleasure in laughter's form. "Alright, do both of you want me?"

"Yes…"

"Hell yeah!" This time, he almost sounded as if he may cry, a tremor to his voice.

"How bad do you want me?" she asked them, her breath burning into the faces, their lips so close. Both men forced their faces forward but Ivy pushed them away gently. As much as she wanted to kill them, she needed to experiment with them first. Truly test the limits of their power through her power.

"I…want…want…I want…"

"Need…please…please, please, please…"

"Do you want me so badly that you would just kill to have me?" she whispered, blowing yet another strong dose of pheromones into their faces. Both men were getting overheated beyond the point of capability, beyond their means to cope with what was happening. Their breathing was as sprinting, a jogger contained within their lungs. And their eyes, tearing terrible and wildly, crossed to the other.

"Y-yes…"

"Oh, my goodness…yes…"

"Then kill each other. The winner gets me." She pushed them both away and stood over beside Bane to watch. The effect was almost instantaneous. Both men, best friends since high school, and well into their current college years, were suddenly tearing at each other, their claws ripping like rabid eagles as they attacked. The tallest of the two, being the first that Ivy had spotted coming down the way, threw his hands around his friend's neck and began to squeeze, his face filled with a most mad expression as his eyes bulged and his teeth gnashed. The smallest friend tried to grip around his attacker's hands and throw him off, but the taller man was just too strong. Ivy began to clap loudly, applauding with cheers appropriate to a drunk college co-ed as the two men fought. "YES! COME ON, COME ON! KILL HIM! KILL HIM FOR ME AND I'LL FOCK YOU RIGHT HERE IN THE GROVE!"

"Yes!" the taller man screamed insanely, strangling his friend harder as he practically picked up the man's head and began to slam it against the ground. The younger man jerked wildly but was losing strength and consciousness fast. Ivy looked up lovingly at Bane.

"This was a good idea, Bane, dear," she told him affectionately. He responded by placing a hand upon her shoulder, in soft adoration. She hugged him tightly, squeezing his chest with as much affection as she could give the great titan. After a minute, the fight upon the ground ceased, and the tall man stood up from his friend, who lay motionless and glassy eyed, staring into the sky with no way of truly seeing. Dead, as his killer was fixing to be…

"I…I killed…for you…" the tall man whispered to her, gazing at her glossy eyed, his mouth hanging open, sweat dripping down his face. Ivy approached him, her heart swelling with pride.

"That you did," she acknowledged lustfully, throwing her arms around the unfortunate man. Bane watched her kill once again, poisoning the poor man where he stood, and the cyclist fell dead, crumbling on top of his friend that she had forced him to kill. She glanced down at their bodies with satisfaction. "That was a wonderful test," she told herself, wiping his saliva from her lips, smiling softly. "So, Bane, your thoughts?"

"More…"

"Yeah, I agree, more. This worked well. They had no hesitation, no qualms about morality. I told them to kill, and they only had the idea to ask how many. I can use this, Bane, I really can. It's the same exact case with Jervis Tetch's work on neural suggestion to a dominant process. Although I never would have guessed that I could actually bring it that far through plant pheromones, it still doesn't escape notice I've stumbled across something new here."

She crouched down beside her purse, placing the mirror back inside of it, and standing to her feet. "Alright, we've gotten enough results from here, for the time being. As much as I would love to stay in this perfect place…" She stroked a low hanging bush with its Ferra-Flowers blooming strongly with an elegant touch. "…I really must press on. We won't be able to stay here, Bane, it's too well monitored by police overseers. We'll need to find a quiet, secluded place… Let's get back to the car."

Bane nodded. "Yes…"

"Don't you know, you're the only one who really matters… and don't you know, you're the only one who cares…" sang the radio as the two of them drove through Madison Central Street in the western downtown part of Gotham. Cars bustled by fast and people littered like the streets like ants as they passed by. Ivy held the hands of the businessman's corpse and danced about in the backseat with him, her head resting softly against his as she held him close, his body flumping side to side as she "slow-danced" to the beautiful song.

"' Don't you know, I can feel you cold,'" she sang soothingly to the dead man, taking in the scent of his oiled hair. "' Don't you know, our time together just doesn't get old…'"

Bane kept glancing into the backseat, not wanting to say anything to interrupt the two while on their date. She looked so happy, as she held him close, the most tender expression on her face as she smiled, and it broke his heart in a positive way to see her joy, that wondrous elation. He dare not cut in.

When the song finished, she pushed the dead body off of her once more, slamming it hard against the window, giggling uncontrollably when the corpse bounced right back off and landed face first into her lap. "Oh, you are naughty…" She giggled more so, taking another swig of vodka from the canteen she had founded stashed in his suit. "Alright…I really don't mind you there at all. Must smell great down there, huh? I am perfection, after all." She stroked his hair soothingly as she looked up at Bane. "Turn the station to something else, Bane."

The titan obeyed, switching the music station to GC-34. She pushed the dead man off of her once more, where he sunk down into the floorboard. She raised her feet to get him off of her and then, once he was lowered, used him as a footrest. A small black box was settled in the passenger seat beside Bane, and she reached forward, snatching it up. Now was the time, she supposed.

Inside of the black box was a light brown wig, cut short to a length that so very much resembled the dead Pamela Isley's hair. She would be impersonating Isley during her meeting with Wayne today, as Bane was driving them even now towards Wayne Enterprises in the Northern Kingdom District of Gotham. As she began to situated the wig upon her hair, to be followed soon with an application of brown contact lenses, a woman on the radio began to report.

"We're here live at Gotham Observatory, where billionaire Bruce Wayne, chairman of Wayne Enterprises-" Her eyes widened. "- is about to make yet another legendary contribution to the city…"

Inspiration of necessity. It was closer, and he was there!

"Gotham Observatory, Bane!" she said suddenly, knowing that this was her time, knowing that Mother Earth itself was directing her. "And step on it!"

"Um..step…" Bane managed. His head was getting groggy. He had gone so long without eating… But he dared not delay in the orders, and he promptly sped the limousine up, speeding it along the desolate street of Gotham, glancing up at the Map of Sites that the previous driver had conveniently had taped to the passenger seat mirror. Gotham Observatory was listed as a major site, along with its address….

She could practically feel her children screaming with joy now.

"This is the moment…" she whispered to the small black box beside her. For there was one more thing contained within. A small glass vial, holding prototypes that she had brought in from South America. They were fat, black, teardrop shaped pods… and they were just begging her for nutriment…