Frozen tendencies.
A bulk like no other, and a fear that resonated a crown of cruelty. He was inhuman, beyond the limitations of humanity. He was so much more than mankind in its weakness, another ascended beauty crafted in the armor of his purpose, his name sailing throughout the clouds of icy mist that emitted from his tank, and from his crystal-like armor.
She had never seen anything more beautiful.
"Hello, Sorry about the door. Is the party over?" He grinned malevolently as he cocked the gun loudly. People began to scream in unison, running in every direction as the man in the armor began to fire. Ice! Ice was it that came out of the end of that gun, a straight stream of frozen water that shot out with a force not unlike that of a bullet's capabilities. When it struck its target, the first being a couple of elderly party goers in most expensive nightly wear near the back of the crowd, they were enveloped at once into statues of crystal ice, their horrified screams frozen with them. "Cool party," the madman sang as he blasted at the crowd once more. Men were breaking free of the tank, doors swinging open as what appeared to be the madman's enforcers of sorts carrying knives and guns.
As Ivy watched, her eyes wide with the memorization of the creature's intents, Batman and Robin both moved in unison, running forward to meet against the icy enforcers that were making their way onto the stage. Three of these men, hidden behind black eyemasks and heavy fur coats, carried what looked like hunting knives in hand, and leapt upon the stage, one of them muttering to the others as he pointed at Ivy. She put a hand on her heart, mocking a look of concern at him, before she smiled as Robin stood to block their way and threw a kick into the closest one's chest, throwing him off the stage and into the crowd below.
The madman in the crystal armor was using his large ice gun as a melee, whipping both security guards and party goers who had the misfortune to stand in his way. One man went flying across the room, smashing head first into a neon sign reading Jungle Lovas, where he vanished in a blast of sparks. Ivy grinned madly, her heart racing at the beautiful sight. She was close to tears of laughter. She looked around in the opposite way, observing as Batman intercepted a man holding what looked like a wooden shield to protect himself from the Dark Crusader, watched as Batman punched through the wooden shield, saw the enforcer drop down onto the ground as unconsciousness came for him.
"Night," Batman muttered, as he and Robin ran to intercept the frozen warlord who had set off this party. This was so much more interesting now. Quick sets of footsteps, and Ivy turned to see two men walking from the stage left, knives in their hands as well as they approached her. She flicked open her hand held mirror, blowing the pheromones in their direction at once, and the two crooks who came for her stopped dead in their tracks, their heads spinning.
"Kill some of these annoying guests, will you?" she asked them sweetly, her eyes swelling with fake tears for more dramatic effect as she sucked on her finger for max emphasis. The two goons laughed maniacally, turning at once on the crowd of wealthy victims before them as they leapt from the stage and began to slaughter as she had wished. Ivy laughed to herself. Even in chaos, she was in control.
As she watched the carnage blowing about, ten henchmen of the ice king engaging Batman and Robin both in a mass of ambush, she noticed not that the large commander in his frozen attire had made his way onto the stage. The tall, brooding man of ice and fury towered over her in an intense, threatening way, his eyes boring into the diamond that she had wrapped around her neck. She stared, innocently enough, into his eyes as well, wondering what must be said… what must be done. She did not want to have to kill this wondrous man. He was performing too beautifully. There was far too much potential to his cause and ability.
"Let me guess, Plant Girl? Vine Lady? Ms. Moss?" Ms. Moss? Ten points from Frozendore for that terrible pun. "Hand over the diamonds, plant gal… or I'll turn you into mulch." His words were dark enough, and truly promising, could not be disbelieved in the slightest, but that was fine and well. She was welcome to new ideas, new pleas, and to throw herself before a situation like this that called for a little risk… it was like a story. Only briefly did she note Batman and Robin both swinging about intently, their blows and kicks landing perfectly well but fine enough to distract from the man before her, and she quickly blew pheromones into the man's face, her face burning with a seductive expression as she tried to thaw the ice sculpture before her. But…
He closed his eyes for a moment, smelling at the air about him, and a small smirk appeared upon his face. She gasped. That smile, this collectiveness…
"Pheromone dust. Designed to heat a man's blood."
Her heart stopped. No! He was going to kill her. Make her into an ice sculpture as he had the others. She was dead. Where was Bane? She looked around frantically, searching for any indication of a pin gorilla heading her way… " Doesn't work on the cold hearted. Now, if you please..." The madman's voice became very urgent. He was pleading with her, an obsessive begging burning inside of him. She felt almost sorry for him as his blue eyes bore into her, a dog begging for scraps or something far more. She had no idea what this diamond could do for him, but he had obviously needed it.
Batman and Robin had both made it public that they would be appearing at this place. Their history in dealing with men such as this was very well quite known. There were so many people here tonight that robbing so many other jewelry stores could have served a drastic purpose and without the risk of the two vigilantes who were pulverizing his men before him… so why this particular event, this particular diamond?
She decided her irritation swelling for a moment, to give in. This man knew something about pheromone dust. Had he worked with arboreal anomalies before, as she did? Who was this amazing man!?
Tilting her neck up, her face calm and pleasant to a respect, she offered, "If you insist…" Perhaps she could kiss him as he bent down… But no… The man ripped the necklace from her, his hand gripping the chain hard as her jerked it off with an arse of force. She twung for a moment, flinching in a slight pain as he took it.
"Clever little clover," he offered her, holding up the diamonds with a satisfied (and was it extremely relieved) expression upon his face. Just then, one of his enforcers screamed, falling face first onto the stage beside them. Both he and Ivy looked down at the fallen crook, and then the cold one's face settled. "That's my exit cue," he said quickly. He held the diamond again. "Thank," he offered, a small smile of appreciation upon his face, before he quickly turned and began to punch his way through the crowd, back towards his tank. Batman and Robin, who had been pushed away to the side of the stage, saw him making the escape and the two of them began to run after him.
As they passed close to where Ivy stood, Robin stopped in his tracks, turning back to stare up at her. She smiled, pursing her lips in a blow of a kiss as she took advantage of his sudden attention. The way he gazed at her, his eyes glistening with a strange longingness that distracted him from the events of the rest of the world…
"Come on!" Batman snapped gruffly, as the large tank began to back away out of the hole in the wall. Robin hesitated for a moment, and Batman had practically been forced to drag the man away, for his attention, all ambition and desire, was still attached to the beautiful red headed woman on the stage…
When the two of them had vanished, Ivy grinned, knowing that she had gotten through. A success… but only half way. Her mind was still reeling around the cold man, and the chaos that he had brought upon this night. The artistic way he had ravaged these people, the brutal power he had commanded… the inhumanity of it all!
She noticed a small compensation gift upon a nearby table: a snow globe, with a miniature Gotham model on the inside, bearing the words Welcome to Gotham. She picked it up thoughtfully, her mind fixated upon the cold man as she shook it, watching the ice and fake snow cover the city within.
"Miss Ivy, you've just met one of the most sinister men in Gotham," a man suddenly said, breaking her from her trance. She looked around and saw that he was a large, beefy bearded man adorned in a well medaled police uniform, as he nodded quickly and ran to tend to the wounded and the frozen. She smiled to herself.
"That's not a man," she said softly, her voice filled with a lovingness. "That was a god…"
Loud, thunderous footsteps behind, and she saw Bane approaching out of the corner of her eye, removing the monkey mask while still wearing the rest of the pink gorilla suit. And just where have you been, you useless meat sack…?
"Enough monkey business," she snapped at him, her eyes glowing for a moment as her anger swelled. "We've got work to do…"
She could feel the potential of anticipation rising up inside of her, and truly whispered to herself the events that were to come. The cold one… he refused to leave her mind…
Out through the back alley, and back into the limo. She wondered even now if the cold man had properly escaped. What had been his name, she wondered? Why had he chosen that spot, on that night? And why had he treated her with such respect? His ruthlessness had shown its course. He had frozen people, probably to fatal limits, and yet he had only snatched away her necklace and left her intact? Had she perhaps assisted him in some secret, beautiful way? He had wanted that diamond for a reason… and his eyes…
His eyes had shown some kind of compassion.
As sickening as that was, it was also rather refreshing. To see something like that, burning with fresh life inside. She needed that kind of love, that kind of commitment, because the eyes shared everything. Men wore their hearts in their eyes all the time. Where was his heart? Surely buried beneath a fat layer of ice and crystal… crystal…
"Bane," she said quickly, laying her head against the businessman's body once more. She felt drained. "Remember the address?"
Bane knew exactly what address she was referring to. They had discussed it promptly the night before. Before she had murdered Louis during their little intercourse moment, she had seduced the mesmerized man into telling her all he knew about abandoned buildings in Gotham. The man had been a well-known contractor, he had told her, and there were several buildings in the Shiviar Poor District that had been vacated for years. Now had come the time to remove themselves from the confines of the limo and what homes that could steal temporarily from the families they had murdered. She needed permanent, unquestionable residence to claim. Eden's time had come. The seeds were growing restless now. For every sexual experience she had shared with both Bane and the dead Louis, she had received bodily seed. And that bodily seed had undergone a rather wondrous transformation…
She fingered the box on the floorboard, pondering as to what lay concealed in the black pods that her body had produced…
She was turning semen into literal seeds. Crafted from her DNA, the potential was invigorating… but she needed somewhere private to see what lay in store for her. And one such location had been a point of reference, Louis had given it to them with interest: an old arboreal complex known as Blossom St. Turkish Baths. The establishment, as Louis had told her, had been abandoned years before, boarded away and forgotten by the owners who had once cared for it.
And it was going to serve a beautiful purpose now. Bane began the drive into the west for the poor district, as Ivy confided with the corpse beside her of all that had transpired at the party. "Oh, you should have seen him, he was beautiful! He crashed into the fray and froze people into living statues with that gun of his. Do you think it was painful for them?" she asked urgently, hoping that the dead body thought so. "Oh, I do hope so… I hope they were in so much pain…" She stared out of the window mellow faced like a teenage girl in love, her voice softening into an almost whisper. "The thought of them in pain… it makes a girl want to pollenate."
She squeezed George's hand. "You're always so good at listening, you really are. I can't stop thinking about him, you know… the way he took what he wanted, the power of it all… so much more than Bane could ever be."
Bane heard this, and he turned his head for a moment, the titan's heart breaking at her words. She knew that she hated him… but it never stop hurting. Because he was in love too… but she would never return the sentiment in the way that Antonio Diego needed. Nonetheless, he would continue to serve his love, Poison in all that she was, until she disposed of him, which he knew she would…
"I've been thinking too small," she said to herself, clawing at the window. "I can't do this alone. Mother Nature has always required her servants and worshippers. Thugs off the street, they're easy, they can be destroyed, replaced… but a man like that…"
She wrapped her arms around herself. "It's every girl's dream come true…" She gazed at George in the dark. "Soon you'll have a new home, I promise," she whispered to the corpse. "Just wait a little longer. We'll begin Eden's roots soon, and then, you will be displayed for the world to see, George. We'll build a home together. Isn't that right, Worthless?" she added, stroking Bane's ear with a loving hand.
If only she could see the green tears leaking from his glowing eyes…
"A girl's in the mood, Bane, a girl's in the mood. Eden's so close, I can smell it. Can taste it for its splendors. I need it, Bane, more than you could ever understand…"
The limo came to a halt outside of the building that stood tall before them, boarded up and forgotten into timelessness. It was eerie to behold, the dead quietness of it in this gloomy, ghost part of town. Few people blessed this district with their presence. It was almost as if Gotham had forgotten about it, that it lived in its own little world… its own existence… it was wonderful. Solitude.
She opened her door with pleasure, happy to take a short break from George's odor. He had been cooped up in the hot car for so very long now that his body was beginning to smell. Soon the maggots would be eating him, if they were not already. But she intended to keep him. He was her friend, her lover… she had no intention of breaking up with him. The air out here, of course, smelled just as rank, that terrible old building smell overwhelming. But home sweet home, it would be smelling fine soon. The fragrance of a thousand flowers. Quite literally.
As she began to walk, her mind reeled back to Freeze, and to Batman and Robin. It all revolved around the pheromones…
"Batface and Birdbrain turned out to be more resistant to my love dust than expected. No matter, I'll give them a stronger dose. Next time, they'll literally be dying for me…" She voiced this aloud to Bane, for she had to kill them. It was no longer precaution, and no longer sexual desire on her part. There was just no other way life could go on. Their death was a necessity, because she deemed it as such, herself being her own "goddess". When she deemed a death necessary, she would have it. And Batman and Robin both were needed dead. Not for Eden's sake: they had no power to stop it coming. No… she needed them dead because they existed. Existing was perhaps the move grievous of crimes…
"This looks promising," she noted, eyeing the St. Blossom Turkish Baths sign crowning the door before them. A large sign was plastered over this, in thick white lettering: DO NOT ENTER. Well, that sounded welcoming. "Bane," she said, nodding at it. Bane strode forward at once, and when he reached the door his fist came forward, breaking through the framework of the door as he did, the smashing powerful and sending ripples through the air. The smash pulverized it as it went flying forward, crashing into the floor inside of the room.
And here, now, came the critters who crawled in the dark. A blast of heavy metal met their ears as Ivy and Bane stepped in. She observed the dusty, decrepit tombs that were the Baths with distaste, feeling a sickness come over her at the thought of no plants in this throne room. That had to be changed.
Shadows appeared before them, mites of men in neon paint, no less. The neon was plastered upon their faces and glowed green and red in the pitch dark, resembling glowing skulls. The thugs were well numbered, all settled around a small campfire and blasting radio, at least nine of them.
"A fixer upper, no less, yet a minus: current tenants." She shook her head sadly, smiling at what she knew was coming next. Even without having to use the pheromones, the painted, glowing thugs were staring hungrily at her body. One of them, presumably the leader, his voice scratchy and wicked, slobbered the offer, "Hello, my little pretty pretty…"
She almost snorted. Pretty pretty? What was this, Oz? Was he perhaps the Wicked Warlock of the West? He certainly looked like one. But she would rather label him to one of the flying monkeys. All that was needed now was to give him his wings. Fly, my pretty, fly…
"Hello yourself," she scorned, but in a teasing sort of way. The man's eyed widened.
"You look good enough to eat…" Was this a threat, or some kind of sexual offer? Either way, it came off as awkward. The thought of eating people… It made her stomach growl.
She pulled back the lace green cloak she wore, to reveal her chest, glistening even in the dim light. This set the monkeys to howling. "That I am. Come and get me… if you can." And she slapped the Turbo upon Bane's chest. As the Venom began to pump with incredible pressure, Bane growled loudly. The leader of these dark creatures grinned, with a promise of "With pleasure."
He, and his amusing comrades, drew weapons at once, glow in the dark, neon green and pink chains. How stupid…
The closer of the nine swung their chains around Bane's arm, wrapping tightly, and for a moment, it looked as if Bane had been captured… but then Bane's smashed his foot down upon a loose board and the two creatures were bounded into the air by the other end of it, flying over his shoulder and past Ivy as they crashed out of the open door. Bane moved forward quickly and smashed his fists against three of them, throwing them into a nearby wall, where they crashed through the wood in a terrible, bone breaking way, their screams echoing into the night…
The thugs were fleeing, running as fast as they could from the terrible beast, pushing their way past Bane and Ivy as they flung themselves into the night. Ivy allowed them to pass, bowing them out with a kind smile as satisfaction overwhelmed her. She would have to locate them, after this was all done, and recruit them into the army… they were skilled, that was for sure, and when turned against her enemies… the possibilities were endless.
She held up her arms. "Let's re-decorate."
She strode forward, stepping over the one thug still in view, unconscious at Bane's feet. She would kill him in a moment. He was the leader, the one who had wished to "eat her". He would get a taste of her, alright…
"Light," she command of Bane, and the titan promptly turned where he stood and ripped from the wall several boards, and as they crashed into a heap upon the floor, pink light from the stands outside flooded inside. "Water!" she cried, even louder. Bane reached up, where pipes that had been once connected for use in the bath filling hung, and twisted the metal that made up their frame work. Water began to flood out at once, crashing down onto the dirty wooden floor and turning the dense yellow a moldy brown.
Ivy stopped in place, tapping at the floor with her heel. "What is this floor?" she asked in disgust. Bane took the hint at once, smashing through the floor with his own foot, to create a whole, fresh earth revealed just beneath. Ivy grinned. A swell of pride and anticipation took over her body as she prepared her heart and soul. She bent down, taking from her side the pouch of black pods that held the roots of Eden within…
And then, the demon spoke with utter blasphemy, a most evil sentence that contested Big Man Upstairs and the consequences He would bring upon her for her evil ways…
"It took God seven days to create Paradise," she sighed, holding the black pods in hand. She looked up at Bane, a drunken expression upon her face, and then she spoke the evil words that, unknowingly to her, truly did seal her fate. "Let's see if I can do better..."
Even Bane felt the slightest bit of discomfort at her words, but it passed quickly. He already knew the path that he had tread down. His corruption would not be touched with righteous guilt so easily…
She dropped the seeds onto the earthy patch, where they combined with the flooded water and the dirt in such a beautiful way. When they made the connection, the transformation was almost instantaneous. Small sprouts burst forth from the dirt at once, vines and tendrils bright green and blooming with small flower petals. She released every seed pod that she had on her, and allowed Mother Nature's will to work for it…
Red buds and yellow buds rose, twisting in place like snakes being charmed from their baskets as they took in the scent of the air and drunk in the fresh oxygen that had been allowed for them upon the escape from the black pods… heavy vines and fresh blooms of poison ivy began to sprout free and wind their ways up the walls, strangling the wall posters of Neon Skulls that the monkeys had left behind. Ivy began to circle the "throne" chair, a lavish seat with a neon blanket strewn across it, as her plants began to bloom by the decas and overtake the room at once.
She took seat upon the throne as the jungle around her grew, overtaking the building in a mass of vines, ivy, flowers of every exotic taste, blooming with the ultimate ripeness and squeezing a powerful green to hide the walls. Eden!
The chair was very comfortable and well cushioned. It would be fitting for the Queen of the New World to make peace with these lavish offerings before the decimation could commence. But first, she would have to establish the most useful tool she could imagine… and as she thought of the new beginning, her mind turned to the cold one. Again.
"Bane, I've found a fellow who strikes my fancy. A cool customer, yes. Icy demeanor, no question. But I detect a certain ruthless charm I may be able to use to my advantage."
"Clean up this mess, Bane. We've got company coming…" Bane nodded. "Company…" he moaned, wondering as to what her plans were, and how the fruition of it could be achieved…
Poison Ivy had a dream that night. A wondrous dream that haunted her in the most passionate way. As she slept upon the floral pedestal that she had created in a main office upstairs, covered in thick vines of poison ivy and blooming lilies, she dreamed of Gotham City, wasted as it was crushed beneath the power of a thousand vines and a million deadly flowers. People were screaming and children were crying… but the plants were only half the fun…
That the cold one came to secure a grave upon the souls who had defied her and him for far too long… they were frozen beneath the ice fields as vines strangled their throats and buried pods in their impaled eyes…
A happy dream. She was going to have find him again… and soon.
By the next morning, the Gotham Gazette had given her what she needed.
Frozen Madman, Mr. Freeze, Incarcerated at Arkham!