By the next morning, the front page had already presented itself another fine art depiction.
HEMOTOXIN DEATHS SHOCK GOTHAM CITY ON WIDE SCALE
Yesterday, on March the Fifteenth of Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Seven, Gotham City was mortified to be plagued with a mass of what is believed to be murder related crimes that have swept this city and taken at least thirty-three confirmed lives. The victims have been widespread across the city, randomized with no relations between the locations and the deceased. Police have been baffled by the now horror inducing investigations, and we of the Gotham Gazette have been permitted to share this information: the connection on these deaths appears to be use of a highly potent poison known as hemotoxin, which is commonly found within vipers (i.e rattlesnakes). Hemotoxin is known for its breakdown of red blood cells, which also causes organ decimation and blood clot intrusion.
Each victim related to this new gruesome case has been carefully analyzed. Of the thirty-three confirmed dead, only five have actually been confirmed to not bear traces of this deadly poison, but speculation has affirmed the deaths are connected, as the victims were found within proximity of those who have been confirmed to have been poisoned to death. Many of these victims have also been reported to have been beaten in some manner, with several victims containing broken ribs, necks, and cracked skulls.
Eye witness reports have linked the disturbing events to the Alexander Wayne International Airport, where patrons inside the terminal access have come forward with stories of what has been described by one un-named man as: "A giant of a man, something like a beast. A hulk who hid himself behind a large hat and some kind of mask. He beat an unloading crew into the ground and took off towards the terminal. I ran with my kids and hid in a bathroom, but we never saw anything happen with the man. The last sight we saw of whatever beast he was, he was lumbering up the runway, looking as if he were chasing someone…"
More investigation into this mysterious assailant has led to other eyewitness accounts stating that the large beast man who viciously attacked seven unloading employees at the airport had debarked from their Citation private plane (which the airport has confirmed as originated from South America), with another person, who, according to eyewitness accounts, appeared to be a woman of sorts, hidden in a head wrap, and who seemingly ignored the violence that erupted just feet behind her as the great beast of a man attacked the employees who had come to greet them.
Investigation is rapidly mounting into discovering these two mysterious travellers, and what their connection may possibly be with-
"Wow, they're getting so much wrong," Ivy laughed, tossing the paper aside where it fluttered into a mess upon the soft carpeted floor. She accepted a glass of orange juice from Bane, who also stood beside her bed, holding a plate of very bloody meat of some sort, dripping red onto the perfectly white carpet. "Dah, darling," she mused in an imitation of Russian. The orange juice tasted terrible, old even, and she spat it out promptly after the first ingestion. "YOU MISERABLE FOCK!" she screamed at her servant, who backed away at once, looking alarmed even though the mask clearly hid his face. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, GIVING ME THIS CRAP!? FIND SOMETHING ELSE, YOU STUPID OAF, YOU PIECE OF-UGH!" She kicked out with her foot and sent the tray of raw, bloody flesh flying, where it crashed with a great, red splash against the wall. Bane stood rooted to the spot, silent, staring at her in disbelief. She stared back, furious, her eyes like fire and her teeth gnashed in anger. "Why don't you clean that up, Useless? On second thought, why don't you just get the 'ell out of her, darling. I want to be alone for a bit."
Bane bowed his head, his fists shaking with a sort of inner rage as he turned away without a word, lumbering loudly across the room, where he slammed the door shut angrily after him. The door twisted off its hinges and fell forward, held on by half bent metal, where cracks appeared to see into the hall beyond. Bane ignored this completely, mumbling something incoherent (as always) to himself as he descended the distant stairs.
Ivy sighed, rolling her eyes as her head fell back into the soft pillow, and she looked at the man who lay beside her, who stared at her too, with a shocked expression on his face.
"What!?" she snapped at him, holding her hands up in a challenge of disbelief.
The man said nothing, but his penetrating stare told her enough. He did not approve of what she had done.
"Oh, what do you know?" she seethed, pushing him in the chest to get him away from her. He tumbled backwards so lightly without retaliatory force, as if he were made from wind. But, being a corpse, he really did not have much of an incentive to keep himself from being pushed into crumbling positions. "So, what, you're going to judge me now, are you?" she demanded of it. "Well, take a good, long, focking look, alright! This is what I am! I'm a rageful B-I-T-C-H and there's nothing that is going to change that. So you can just stop looking at me like that and go do you know what to yourself!"
And she pushed him hard once more, the body rolling over the side of the bed where it hit the floor with a soft plump. Ivy lay back up, facing the ceiling, seething with rage as her yellow blood flumed up inside, pressure strong in her brain as she growled where she lay. She hated this world. Hated, hated. Hated this world. It made her so sick sometimes, reminded her, these moments did, that there was still so much prison to go, still so much crap she had to deal with before really getting Eden off the ground. How long was it going to take? How long was she going to have put up with the moronic Bane, or these one night stands with losers with Louis Finchley and his family of three annoying brats? Sure, he had been nice enough to let them as he and his young daughters ate dinner. Sure, he had been kind enough to be silent (following a broken jaw from Bane), as Ivy had stabbed his daughters repeatedly in front of him. And sure, he had been kind enough to share in the passion with her upon this soft, warm bed, his corpse had even treated her well to be a sleeping companion in the night… but he was just like the others. Always judging, always fired up on those objective ideas to morality, the common expectations of society to keep in the way of a social norm! This sickening display of dronism positively infuriated the spirit within and made her question all that was sane and desirable in this filthy town, this hole upon the world, this stench within her plans for the Plant Earth!
Her eyes momentarily shifted to the plate of bloody flesh that Bane had brought for her breakfast.
"Most likely your daughters…" she told the body on the floor that had rolled out of view now. "I bet they had great taste…"
She sighed, miserably, as she kicked out of bed. Everyone was so mean to her! She kicked the crumpled newspaper across the floor as she fell down to her knees and began to eat the human flesh from the floor, stuffing whole mouthfuls within, not a care in the world as her rage got the better of her and she munched down furiously, punching at the wall as she did. Who were they, to freaking judge her!? WHO WERE THEY, TO SAY SHE WAS A MONSTER OF SORTS!? What did they know!? THEY KNOW NOTHING!
"NOTHING! THEY DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!" she sobbed, blood dripping down her face like a savage beast's dinner, as she tore strips and strips. "They know nothing… nothing at all…."
Of course they don't, Pamela, of course they don't…
"DON'T YOU FOCKING CALL ME THAT!" she screamed hysterically at the voice inside of her head. "DO YOU HEAR ME!? DON'T YOU DARE! I HATE YOU! HATE YOU!"
It's a shame. Why would you hate yourself? You are perfection, Poison. Or, do you like Ivy? After all, I am you, you know? What lives in you IS in all manner of things you. Nothing could survive inside of you that is exterior. You're far too poisonous to allow it.
"Go away… go away…" she growled, holding her bloody hands against her temple as she began to rock back and forth. Something moved on the dresser behind her, and she jumped in place as she turned around to look. A picture frame it was, depicting what looked like a recent photograph of Louis and his daughters on the lake. The picture was scooting itself across the dresser top, where it reached the drop off and fell to the floor with a kind of unnatural speed, the glass actually breaking on the carpet…on the carpet! She gasped, terrified, crawling away into a corner where she stared in horror at the fallen frame. "G-go away…"
You can't leave yourself, Pamela…
"Don't call me that!"
Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela,Pamela, Pamela, Pamela,Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, Pamela…
One million voices made the proclamation, and one thousand demons plagued with the proclamations with laughter and mocking comments. Ivy beat her head against the wall, her red hair flying about madly as green tears poured down her face, sizzling like acid upon her skin, but she felt it not. Her eyes glowed angrily, the normal green suddenly blazing with the same radial kind of golden-green glow that Bane's took on at all times. She could feel herself shaking violently, feel an untempered rage boiling inside of her, the very walls that held her mental foundation together cracking into pieces as the monster inside fought against the demonic voices that tormented her…
"AAAGHHH!" She flung herself to her feet and ran at the dresser, putting both hands behind it in the open crevice as she flung the large, mahogany structure forward. The dresser landed front first upon the floor with a loud crash, pictures and clothes and baseball trophies falling into the heap with breakings of their own, crushing Louis's legs, who was just tall enough that they stretched out that far. She threw the mattress from the bed and ripped at the sheets protecting it, slammed her fists against the wall and knocked down the Oriental paintings decorating the room as she did. "Why!? Why torment, with the name that means NOTHING!? Why scare me, with the parlor tricks that are WORTHLESS!? Who are you, what are you!? Why do you come!? What purpose does it serve!? You want this, is that it!?" She motioned at her bare breasts. "You want these, is that it? That's all you're good, right!? Deception and perversion, it's all you're GOOD FOR!"
She fell to her knees, crying into a heap upon the floor, her green tears staining the carpet in a mix with the blood of her breakfast.
You think you can run!? You think you're the only being who enjoys the torment of others!? I was cold, in the light. I was heated, in the cool air. I was empty in the abundant, and I was longing in the treasury? That which I was given in the masses, I complained for more. He who sang the music for the Children, he wanted to sing a different kind of song altogether. I am everything that is filled with desire and hatred, because I had everything, and was loved beyond the ages. That is what I am, and that is why I am. Are you any different?
As the voice said these things, so too did she see many things. A little girl laughing in a field of flowers, chased by three dogs who playfully lapped about her, a mother and father laughing in the distance… a first kiss on a ferry boat, as an island exploding with fireworks came closer and closer for the celebration of America's independence… a massed crowd cheering and applauding her on, as she received her Master's degree from a man whose eyes were filled with tears of joy and pride for his favorite pupil…
Those mean nothing? To have everything, and desire? To have the abundant, and not be satisfied? To feel coldness in the warmth that they offered… that they ENCOURGED!?
"Stop it…she's dead…s-she's dead…" Ivy whispered.
Is she dead? Is she truly, without a doubt, dead? Where is she, Pamela Isley? Why do you hate that name so much?
"BECAUSE!" she screamed loudly. "BECAUSE SHE IS EXACTLY THE KIND OF MISERABLE EXPERIENCE THAT EDEN WOULD SUFFER WITH. A DOORMAT FOR THE AGES, WOODRUE'S LITTLE SCIENCE EXPERIMENT, A GIRL WHO HID IN THE FOCKING SHADOWS AND DEMANDED LITTLE TO NOTHING AND I AM NOT GOING TO BE THAT STUPID LITTLE NIZ ANY FREAKING LONGER…AGGH!"
Her head rocked painfully with a sudden migraine.
That's fine and dandy, it truly is. That's why I love you, Ivy. Poison Ivy. Just the sound of the name brings me to submission. You've made for yourself something beautiful. A flower bloomed into full realization, that the flower that took the longest to burst free was the one who was preparing herself for her full potential, whose patience built up a power that none that contest. Isn't that right?
She raised her head, sniffing loudly as she pondered at the voice's words. He, it, whatever the monster was, had a point. The comprehension of this knowledge assured her that, in time, a full realization could actually be made, that there would be a balance between the power she had now, and the power she longed for. Eden… Eden was the destination. She needed Eden more than anything.
"So…I am perfection?" she whispered to it.
You could be. You're well on your way. By these killings… that paper over there? What did it say? Thirty something confirmed dead, what is that? What truly is that? Your potential? I believe you have a lot more to you than that.
"A lot more…to me…?"
Yes, and I believe that you're going to fully realize it, in time. You've been despicable, Ivy. Evil, beyond the normal time, but your chance is coming soon when you will be able to do something EXCEPTIONALLY cruel. Your heart has to break any ties to morality whatsoever…
"I already have," she whispered to herself, admiring the distant foot of the corpses of Louis who just out of view. "Last night… last night was my first murder during the act… he died while inside of me, demon… I manipulated every sense, used his corpse for whoopee cushion… how much more degraded do I need to be to make you see that I have reached my potential's limit, that I have become the repulsion that will bring Eden to life!?"
Sexual deviance? Necrophilia, Ivy? Is that all you're about? Make em horny before you show YOUR horns? No, that gets old, Ivy, and it doesn't last forever. The true potential that you have inside of you is something with far more beautiful essence. The pods, Ivy, the pods…
The pods… she gasped, realization hitting her. Was it telling her to do…what she thought it was telling her to do?
"Now!?" she hissed, her eyes widening at the prospect. "You want to me to do it…now?"
What's holding you back, Ivy? Madre de Verde needs an uprising and that one night stand with Woodrue was not much of an uprising. You need to bring it one step further. The beginning of the new age. Eden awaits but you keep procrastinating the spark of life…"
"I have to!" she plead with him. "I really do have to, you realize that! They're not ready! Wayne, he has to play his part, and me…I've got to plan it out, find the appropriate place! I'm not going to endanger them recklessly! They're so much more than any other life on the planet. I won't risk my children being…killed…"
If you won't take risks, Ivy, then you will always fail…
"Shut up! I don't need you to lecture me to help me understand the depravity of this situation! Just shut up!" She stood to her feet, shaking with rage. "I am Mother Nature fully realized, Poison Ivy in name and soul! I am everything that man fears and wants and I am going to rise Eden when I deem the time right! Hear me, demon, I am a goddess! A goddess! And the people will realize this in time, they will know me! I'm not going to be hiding for much longer, I assure you! My will is my word, my word the command! When my children rise, I will be ready! Ready to set out and begin the Apocalypse! It's coming and Gotham City will be the first to fall!"
She released a bout of maniacal laughter that was worthy of Woodrue. She felt evil. It was exhilarating. Heartless, or green hearted, a pain like something that mentally suggested her heart may very well be wrapped with thorny vines. She walked before the bedside mirror and admired herself in every examination of inch.
"You are beautiful," she whispered to her reflection. "I don't know what the demon means. I have already carved the seeds and plated them, Eden is coming sooner than any of us could ever dream. My ascension has ensured it." Her eyes glowed more powerfully at this, the monster inside awake and ready for a fresh day of murder…
From below, Bane sat at the kitchen table of the dining room, eating the flesh of the young girls that Ivy had stabbed to death in the night, listening to all that was happening above him. She was truly a lunatic, was she not? He acknowledged this and nodded to himself. He knew what she was, what was going to become yet, and the most likely fate that awaited him at the end of it. She loved him as much as she did the human race. It was no unknown fact, no unknown directive. And the time was coming soon when she would show this hatred to him. All that he could hope for was this: when the time came for her to remove him from this world, he hoped she would do it quickly. Because one thing was certain: he was in love with her. And he would gladly die for her…even if he was dying at her hand.
The demon smiled.