"Thank you, for your generosity," Ivy praised the man who fell dead onto the floor, picking bits of fur from her new coat, a wondrous mass of green colored wolf hair that spread far down past her ankles, something like a coat and a cloak combined. She spun around in the middle of the tailor's shop, admiring herself in a tall oval mirror as she fixed up her hair. "I really am the most beautiful being in all of Mother Nature's creation, aren't I?" she asked the body. "Just perfect in every way."
She left the shop with a new jump to her stride, humming softly as she swiveled the CLOSED sign to OPEN. The sooner they found the body the better. Now that the world knew of Poison Ivy and what she could do, she needed people to find her artwork. They would post pictures upon the Internet, write long, erotic news articles of her murderous exploits… of course, she would help them with that. She was going to prepare a video tape, and send it to the news agencies as soon as she could, demanding that they report in long, sensual detail as to the state of her victims and how she killed for pleasure. Art for art's sake. She would add, of course, that if they refused, the body count would sky rocket by one hundred within a day… and of course, when they did report it, it still would. Oh, yes, it still would.
One less human… one less human… it was getting harder and harder to stop killing. She now knew that she could not go a single day without taking life itself. It was impossible, something that only existed within a nightmare. Killing meant everything to her.
She waved at Bane to follow behind, the titan sitting impatiently in the limo. As she strolled up the sidewalk down the Poor District, Bane commanded the road slowly, not daring to drive past his mistress. But mentally daring himself to drive into his mistress. She had no need to ride in the car. The Garden was seven blocks from here. She would hunt the entire way. She had sworn to herself that every last man, woman, and child that she encountered whilst on her way would die. Tonight, sexuality meant nothing for the murderess. Children could succumb to poison just as much as adults could. Oh, how she hoped she would find one… killing children had been fun, during her first true day in Gotham…
Nora's dead, Nora's dead, oh my goodness, Nora's dead! she celebrated in her mind, skipping a few steps here and there (which made her stumble terribly in her heels), but she cared not. Tonight was a beautiful night. It was a night of sacrifice. Nora's dead, Nora's dead, oh I just can't believe it, but Nora's DEAD!
A figure loomed in the distance, walking up the way towards her. Her heart leapt. The tenth! Ten in one night, oh please make it twenty! It was a teenage boy, jogging up the sidewalk while headphones boomed metal into his ears. Ivy gave him no subtle seduction. She positively ran up to the boy and threw her arms around him, startling the young man as she swooped him off of his feet and kissed him passionately. She felt his feeble body jerk but she held onto him for the longest second, before allowing the teen to drop dead to the ground. His music kept blasting even into his deceased ears…
But she was not done! Oh, no, she was not! Even as she giggled madly, spinning around like a dancer in the most passionate twirl, she saw two more people jogging closely behind, an older man and an older woman. They looked as if they were the boy's parents. Delicious!
When they saw their son lying on the ground, however, with Ivy grinning at the pair with the most malicious smile, they stopped in their tracks, their panting faces suddenly turning to horror as their minds processed what they were seeing. But Ivy was already running forward, unsheathing her knife as she came.
"POLLY WANT A KISS!?" she screamed, jumping into the man as she pressed her lips against his, whilst simultaneously slashing at the woman beside him, who had just begun to scream at realizing that her son was lying dead upon the ground at their feet. The knife entered the woman's neck, and even as the man jerked, choking viciously upon Ivy's poison, the murderess stabbed several times in quick motions, killing them both simultaneously.
Both of them fell to the ground, the man dying instantly and the woman thrashing about, blood pouring from her open wound as she opened her mouth in an attempt to scream, green goo gushing from her lips. Ivy laughed insanely, leaping down onto the woman's stomach and stabbing her repeatedly in the forehead.
"MARY-HAD-A-LITTLE-LAMB!" she sang, punctuating each word with a stab into the woman's chest. "WHOSE-FUR-WAS-RED-WITH-BLOOD!" The woman stopped twitching, her empty eyes staring into empty void. Ivy rolled onto her back, beaming up at the blanket of stars that witnessed her art with pride. "And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to die," she whispered passionately to the dead man beside her. She took her knife once more and cut deep gashes into his cheeks. On the right cheek, she carved a P. On the left, she carved an I. "There, you look perfect," she told him.
Bane was wondering as to whether or not he should call out to her. They needed to hurry back to the lair. Time was ticking on so many accounts.
Ivy jumped to her feet, her eyes deranged, a grin plastered there that was not unlike the Glasgow of a man who had once terrorized Gotham in very much the same way she did now. Ever dance with the Devil in the full moon light?
"Bane, look at all the mammal blood!" she snorted, holding up her knife and bloody gloves. "Look at all of it! Isn't it exciting!? That's twelve, Bane! Twelve mammals exterminated in one night! We can do this, Bane! We can do this!"
Bane shook his head. Idiotic woman. Such a very foolish, idiotic woman…
She skipped quite merrily up the way, leaving the bodies where they were. Oh, the news was going to report on tonight with extreme care! She would be praised! She would be worshipped!
An elderly lady was walking dead her steps, looking about fearfully as she did. The recent gang murders that had occurred in this district still set people on edge, and when Ivy saw her on the sidewalk, moving as quickly as she could to deposit a garbage bag into the nearby can, she beamed. Thirteen…
"Let me help you with that, ma'am!" she cried out, making the woman jump out of her skin. Ivy snatched the bag from her grasp, and then, hoisting it in both hands, she reared back and slammed it against the woman's head. The old woman fell onto the sidewalk, screaming as she hit the hard concrete, accompanied by a terrible snap! "Oh… I am sorry, miss… broken hip. You'll probably need it amputated." She wiggled the knife in the woman's face.
I'm very good with amputation!"
"N-no! PLEASE!" the elder sobbed hysterically, but this was only music to Ivy's ears. Yes, scream! Scream so loudly! Please, scream! Scream!
The knife stabbed down several times, entering the woman's eye sockets. Her screams intensified so horrendously, and lights were switching on in all of the surrounding houses. Ivy, sensing danger, quickly took the woman by the scruff of the neck and ran the blade across her throat, slitting the withered skin open, and she allowed the woman to die slowly upon the concrete as she dashed off into a nearby alleyway. Bane drove forward as fast as he could, hoping to escape the people who were running from their houses even now, as well as hoping to meet Ivy on the other side of the street.
Ivy had never felt more alive! When she ran, she ran with grace! When she panted, it was a lover's sight! So many people to kill, and so little time! So many people to kill, and so little time… So many people to kill, and so little time… So many people to kill, and so little time… So many people to kill, and so little time… So many people to kill, and so little time… So many people to kill, and so little time…
Three local kids were exchanging cigarettes underneath a nearby streetlight. Ivy ran for them at once, slashing through the air at a teenage girl's throat. The girl gasped, catching her throat with her hands as it split open, during which time Ivy managed to sink the knife into another teenage boy's cranium, grabbing the third in and kissing him as passionately as she had the joggers. The one that she kissed fell dead as quickly as any other victim did, but the other two fell to the ground and she had to work quickly, polishing them both off with delicate sawing motions to their throats, adding only a more deeper wound to the girl that she had deprived of continuation.
There were several shouts in the distance behind her, and now she knew that the fun was soon going to have to end. Fortunately, a set of headlights illuminated from her right, and she gratefully turned to see Bane driving up her way. She ran as fast as she could for the car, throwing the front passenger seat open as she tossed herself inside.
"Step on it, Bane!" she gasped hurriedly, giving unto herself a pleasurable hand to satisfy her lustful hungers as Bane slammed a foot upon the accelerator, speeding off at a madman's pace down the road. A blur of lights met them in their haste, and it broke Ivy's heart, even as she pleasured herself to the murders that she had just committed, to not be able to stay and hear the screams of the people who would find the dead ones… Children! Oh, yes… YES! CHILDREN! Little mammals, lying dead, poisoned and stabbed and sliced! "Oh, Bane… Oh, Bane…"
Bane's arms were shaking. He refused to speak to her. She was out of control!
She opened her eyes from her self-passion in time to see another pedestrian walking the sidewalk on the right. More mad inspiration! Quickly, before she lost her chance, she grabbed the wheel that Bane held and jerked it to the right. Bane froze in place as Ivy steered the wheel, the car barreling at ninety miles per hour towards the unfortunate man who only looked up when it was too late. His stunned face was the last thing they saw before blood splattered across the window shield and the car bumped violently onto the sidewalk as the limo crushed the man underneath.
"ONE HUNDRED POINTS!" Ivy screamed as she jerked the wheel back onto the road. Bane snapped. He slammed his foot upon the breaks, and the car came to a dead halt in the middle of the road. Ivy looked at him incredulously, silently demanding to know why he had done that. The titan, his hands shaking beyond all comprehension to attempt control, seized the mask that he wore and ripped it from his face. The furious swollen face and those piercing, glowing green eyes bored so furiously into Ivy, and the murdering psychopath had a sudden urge of the greatest fear overtake her.
"WHAT…DO…YOU THINK…YOU'RE DOING!?" Bane screamed, slamming his fist hard against the window shield. Glass shattered and flew everywhere, several small pieces pelting Ivy as she screamed, throwing her hands in front of her to attempt cover. "WHO…DO…YOU THINK…YOU ARE!?"
His massive hands reached forward and wrapped around her neck. Ivy sobbed, her eyes watering at once as she trembled in terror, screaming through her tears and sobbing. "PLEASE, BANE! NO! DON'T YOU DARE! DO YOU HEAR ME!? DON'T YOU DARE!?"
"DON'T…I…DARE!?" he screamed back, furious…maddeningly lost… "YOU…MURDERING…BITCH!"
She gasped, her eyes widening as she realized that he had just taken the dare of the nerve to call her such a thing. She raged in expression, her fangs clenched together furiously.
"How…dare…you!"
His massive fist reared back and came flying. The force of his slap was an impact of true fire, pain unimaginable. The force of it all was so great that she screamed as she hit the window hard with her head, cracking the glass upon this impact as she slumped in the seat. Bane pressed a finger against her throat, and she knew too well, as she looked at him in horror, that he would not hesitate to crush her windpipe.
"YOU… STAY… SILENT! YOU…DON'T TALK… UNTIL YOU ARE… SPOKEN TO!"
Ivy whimpered loudly, nodding quickly. Her tears were positively drenching Bane's arm, but she dared not make a move. He withdrew his hand, and once more turned back to wheel, pressing the accelerator as he began to drive once more. He felt good. So very, very good. What he had just done, that kind of display… it had been so beautiful. It had been so magical. He had finally worked up the nerve to do it, and now, he felt no regrets… he felt no fear or guilt. He had contested the witch and paid her a proper burning in full, and it pleased him. Pleased him to the point of where he could genuinely speak in coherent meaning once more.
They drove in silence for several minutes, making their way carefully around the various wide blocks. The Garden was just around the corner now, and the street lights were completely out. When they pulled up to the alleyway that led to the Turkish Baths, Ivy clambered out quickly, her green fur coat swaying against dirty ground in her haste. She loathed it! She loathed him! She pressed a hand against her cheek where he had slapped her… no… where he had pulverized her!
Bane got out of the car first, slamming the door so hard that the metal framework broke off of its hinges, but he ignored it. The titan stomped away, not saying a word to her as he vanished into the darkness of the alleyway. Ivy stood there for several seconds, whimpering uncontrollably as she tried to force herself to regain control. She was not going to walk in there crying in front of Victor. She absolutely refused. Oh, how I hate this stupid world… I need Bane dead. I need him dead now!
Madly, several theories came to mind as to how she could effectively remove him, each one more gruesome than the next. He was not fully immune to her kiss. If she just held him long enough… her poison could eventually kill him.
Yes, that's exactly what I'll do… one last fock for Useless…
She brushed her fur coat about her, stiffening her shoulders as she marched straight forward, proud and tall as she ever was. Bane was not going to get away with this! He had signed an early death warrant. Antonio, you've just committed your LAST crime.
How she thought back to that night with Woodrue as she walked, and what it would have been like if she had joined the mad man in his experiments. How many people like Antonio Diego could she have tortured? Just how many?
The jungle of her home was such a welcoming sight after all that had transpired this evening, and as she brushed past the thick vines and foul smelling trees with their poisonous fumes, she felt a peace wash over that actually helped to take away, only briefly, the thought of what had just happened to her in the car.
"Hello, babies… mama's home," she whispered to some Orchids that hung nearby. She kissed lightly a vastly blooming set of Bromeliads, which wilted at her gesture, turning black and pruned away. She did not care. Killing was what mattered to her. Nature, these days, only had to come second, at least tonight… at least right now. Wheras Ivy was the signature of her purpose and promise to Madre de Verde, Poison was all she could focus upon at the moment.
A coldness hit her in the most odd way as she entered the main throne room. Startled, she came to a halt before the most unruly of sights. A section to the left of the throne had been covered in thick ice, and freezing steam was floating about the air as Freeze worked away at some lab tables and equipment that had seemingly appeared out of thin air. Annoyance overtook her at once. What right had he bore!?
"Make yourself right at home," she snapped sarcastically. Freeze turned, looking startled to see her standing there. He looked at Bane, who stood some feet behind Ivy, silent once more, and looked around the floor at their feet.
"Where's my wife!?" he asked intently, his face stricken with grief when he saw that Nora was missing.
Alright, Ivy, time to play the tragic victim…
"There was nothing I could do," Ivy plead, her voice strained with heartbreak. "Batman… deactivated her…. I'm sorry, but she's…dead…"
Freeze's eyes widened madly. "YOU LIE!"
In response, Ivy held up the snowflake necklace. It twinkled with a dark sort of lie as Freeze stood rooted to the spot, staring in horror as he beheld the small trinket. His arm shaking, lips trembling, he reached forward, and Ivy dropped the necklace into his hand, putting on the most sincere face of compassion that she could fake…
His hand trembling as he held the necklace, his eyes closed as a single tear drop fell down his face, which was almost immediately frozen, and by the pressure of the sub-zero streams, whisked away into floating powder.
"I'm sorry," Ivy whispered, fighting hard to contain her smirk. Go ahead, Freeze… cry… I love seeing men in torment…
"Their blood…" he whispered to himself, shaking with the most absolute horror of interior rage. "…their blood will melt in my HANDS!" He screamed horrendously as he threw his arm backwards into the table of equipment, shattering beakers and several instruments in the process. Ivy grinned. She was reminded so clearly of the night of her own Ascension, when she had destroyed the lab… oh how good it had felt.
"They will pay for sentencing me to a life without the warmth of human comfort!" he raged, overturning a table without a care in the world. "They'll die… they'll die…" he whispered to himself.
"Kill them of course, but why stop there?" she asked rather pointedly. "Why should only Batman and Robin die, while the society that created them remains unpunished." Yes. Planting seeds was her specialty, and this seed would grow to bear the most beautiful of fruit. Now was the time to corrupt him fully.
Freeze turned to face her, a mad smile upon his face, and a terribly mad twinkle in his eyes. "Yes," he whispered, as if he had never heard of a more beautiful idea. "If I must suffer… humanity will suffer with me!" He looked about the room, suddenly intensely inspired. Ivy was grinning, as she stripped off her gloves. Partly naked. Soon to be one with nature again. "I will cover the city in endless winter! First, Gotham…"
He picked up a snow globe that remained on the table, showing a miniaturized Gotham City. It was hers, the one she had taken from the Flower Ball that night. He turned to her, his expression truly insane. "And then… THE WORLD!" He could not have looked happier.
Ivy gave him the most seductive, hungry look. "Just what I had in mind. Everything dead on Earth except us. A chance for-" She gestured to herself, to the devil horns that she had curled her hair into. "-Mother Nature, to start again. Behold!"
Bane had come creeping up behind her, as had been the plan for when she approached Freeze on this topic. Even after what had transpired in the car, he was still loyal to her commands. It was a beautifully crafted glass care, not unlike the one portrayed in the Disney classic of Beauty in the Beast. But the flower inside was not a precious, enchanted rose. It was a monstrosity of change, a terror of mutated abomination. She gazed at her beautiful child within and loved it. Loved it so very, very much. The stem and leaves were those of a large wild rose, but the head… the head was that of a large rattlesnake. It licked at the glass lovingly as it saw its mother peering inside, and she herself admired it for all that it was. Her life's work, perfected. "The dawn of a new age," Ivy whispered. She sighed. "My mutant plants have the strength of the deadliest animals," she promised Freeze, who was suddenly looking amazed. Enthralled by the very sight before him. "Once you've frozen mankind, these babies will overrun the globe."
She beamed back at the flower. "And we shall rule them," she cooed at it as one would do to a child, wagging her tongue at the glass as the creature inside did the same, "for we will be," she smiled menacingly at Freeze, "the only two people left in the world."
"Yes!" Freeze grinned. "Adam… and Evil."
"Yes," Ivy agreed, loving all too well the name of Evil being given to someone as truly demented as her.
"You distract the Bat and the Bird," he suggested to her. "While I prepare to freeze Gotham!" He clutched the snow globe once more, gazing into its depths madly. Ivy sighed with relief. She had won. Victory… was at last hers.
She turned away from him, handing Bane the glass jar carefully. As she began to strip the rest of her attire off, she walked by the titan one last time, and as she did, she whispered, "You'll soon be dead." It was a promise. And it was a promise that Bane expected her to keep.