"Oh, my…" Cheetah slinked into the clearing, pawing slowly on all fours out of the trees. "Pamela, if you and I are both here…how will they continue to satisfy their redheaded villain quota?"
"Cheetah." Catwoman breathed, her mouth dry, her body stiff.
Ivy didn't turn around. She kept her eyes trained on the disturbed dirt at her feet.
"I must say I'm surprised you've made it this far, my dear." Cheetah purred. "I assumed Firefly's forest fire would be the end of you."
"He paid dearly for that." Ivy growled, her throat already raw from sorrow.
Cheetah smirked, her thick tail swaying as she came closer. "And Batman's house cat…Sorry, Love. I didn't see you there. I don't usually feed strays, is all."
"I'm not in the mood for this." Ivy mumbled, hearing Cheetah approach, but not turning to look.
"Aren't there usually three in your posse, Pamela?" The animal squinted, thinking. "The redhead, the brunette, and…" She stood up on her hind legs, taking the stance of the human portion of her hybrid. "Where's the bimbo?"
"What do you care?" Catwoman snapped.
"Well I happen to have a great deal of respect for Dr. Isley. She and I were on the same team once. Do you remember, Pamela?"
Ivy didn't respond. Her gaze remained focused on the ground.
"Both of us doctors, both hybrids…the hair…" Cheetah chuckled, now within ten feet of the other two. "Pamela and I have more in common than most. The difference is, I challenge myself. My hero is an immortal meta-human. Hers…yours as well, I suppose…is simply the typical male aggressor.
"Well that certainly sounds like something Ivy would say…" Selina grumbled, looking over Ivy's shoulder, past Cheetah to where her whip lay on the ground. She would never make it.
"For anyone else, three against one might seem like unfair odds," Cheetah grinned. "But unlike you two, I've been tested." Her claws glinted in the sunlight as she brought them up for examination. "How about you tell the blonde to come out from her hiding spot and I'll promise to make this quick. We're all tired, right?"
Ivy slowly turned to face her, her eyes- puffy from crying- betrayed surprisingly little emotion. "I'm not in the mood for this." She repeated.
"Oh, come now, Pamela." Cheetah tsked. "Why so forlorn? So void of jest? If it's a fear of death, I can assure you this will be over quickly."
"I said," Ivy's eyes blazed acid green, "I'M NOT IN THE MOOD!" Her arms shot up, and with them a thick root broke through the ground at Cheetah's feet, wrapping her legs and torso in its wooden grasp.
Catwoman saw her window of opportunity and sprinted past the subdued Cheetah to her whip.
Cheetah hissed as she swiped at the roots, leaving them in tatters. She was down on all fours now, stalking Ivy like the predator that she was, her eerie yellow eyes flickering with the adrenaline of a hunt.
Selina cracked her whip and it sliced painfully across the animal's back. Cheetah spun around. "That was a mistake, Kitty Cat." She growled, lunging at the Brunette with her incredible quickness.
Ivy thrust her hand forward and a root followed, grabbing Cheetah around the waist and slamming her onto her back like a rag doll. The root lifted her off the ground again, but Cheetah sliced the thing away as it held her in midair, sending her flying over Ivy's head and closer to the lake.
She was somehow able to land on her feet and gathered momentum as she raced at them back up the bank, displaying her famous speed. She went at Catwoman first, who ducked at the last moment to avoid her charge. But Selina wasn't quick enough to make Cheetah miss completely. One of the animal's powerful claws reached down and scratched deep lines across her face. Selina screeched and clasped her hand to her cheek as Cheetah turned on a dime for a second pass, this time aiming for Ivy.
The redhead picked up a stick from the ground and threw it at Cheetah's paws as she approached. The stick doubled in size and wrapped itself around her foreleg, tripping her up. Selina landed two quick strikes with her whip while Cheetah was on the ground, but was scratched down the length of her thigh when the animal broke free of her restraints once more.
Blood streamed down Catwoman's face, following the path of the tears she'd just cried, pooling on her chin or falling to the ground. Her scream of pain when her leg was sliced open angered Ivy. The redhead's hands shook with the emotion. Cheetah slashed Catwoman once more, across the back this time, as the brunette tried to get away.
Ivy let out a growl of frustration and two new roots erupted from the ground, one wrapping around Cheetah's neck and the other pushing Catwoman away from the immediate battle ground. The root slammed Cheetah onto her back and then onto her stomach without a moment's hesitation. Cheetah grunted in pain and Ivy repeated the movement, slamming her hand forward and then back, the root mirroring her movements for another rotation until it tossed Cheetah into the lake 30 feet away.
The redhead ran after her, stopping at the water's edge just after Cheetah broke the surface, sputtering. Her expression was hateful, her yellow eyes filled with rage. She started quick strokes back to the shore, but yelped when Ivy stepped into the water. Something had wrapped around her ankle. She struggled to continue making forward momentum, but another vine-like plant from the floor of the lake wrapped around her right wrist and then her other ankle.
Ivy made a fist above her head and pulled it swiftly into her chest. Cheetah drew a deep breath, realizing what would come next, and was pulled violently underwater. She flailed just below the surface as she clawed madly at her restraints. Ivy twisted her fist and another vine coiled itself around Cheetah's neck, dragging her further into the lake, deeper underwater.
The animal gurgled from the water in her lungs, breaking the surface for a moment, but unable to get any oxygen due to the ligature. Ivy waded in to her knees, feeling the power of the plant life all around her. The water began to ripple like there was a current as Ivy heard another groan of pain from the brunette on the bank. "AND SHE WASN'T A BIMBO!" Ivy screamed. Her voice served as the ultimate call to action. The waterweeds thickened around the drowning animal until they enveloped her completely, encased her in a living coffin as Cheetah came to her final resting place at the bottom of the lake.
Poison Ivy's chest heaved. All her anger, all her sadness…that's what cocooned Cheetah now. What was wound tight around her, squeezing mercilessly in her watery grave. That was the same thing Pamela felt inside. Like there was a vice grip on her heart. Harley's hands were still there, squeezing it like Ivy had forced her to do with Joker's.
Selina Kyle was laying behind her, injured. The last selection. Ivy could make it quick and painless, just like she'd done for Harley…but what then? Who would she have then? No one. Truly not another soul on the planet that would care if she lived or died. That wouldn't have mattered to Pamela in the past, it shouldn't have mattered now, but…
Ivy whipped around and limped up the bank, over to the bleeding Catwoman where a camera hovered above her.
"I'm not going to kill her!" Ivy delivered straight to camera. "I've done enough! I gave you a show and I repented my sins against your utterly useless race. I took the life of a woman I deeply respected," she pointed to the lake to indicate she meant Cheetah, "I took the life of the man who started all of this, and I took the life of the woman I loved." Her voice broke, but Ivy steeled her resolve and soldiered on. "You cannot ask me to now take the life of the only friend I have left. I will not do it." She stated emphatically. "Plan to punish me with more selections? Fine. I'll beat them. I'll beat them all, and I will increase the depravity of my violence with each murder until you are sick to your stomachs at even the thought of what I'm capable of, let alone the demonstration. This woman is too good to be here." Ivy pointed to Selina who was attempting to apply pressure to the cuts in her thigh. "She took Harley and I in when we'd lost direction. She showed us kindness when we deserved none and although I resent her for it, she would drop anything to fight alongside you for the right cause." Ivy's eyes quickly scanned Selina's wounds, assessing the damage. "If she dies, I don't want it to be in my arms. She will find no comfort in my embrace. Do not fail her, again, Batman. You coward. No hero I know would let his lover bleed out in the dirt."