"Cobanuuuuutttttt!" Lasetta Rilee cried in exasperation, throwing her arms out wildly with a manic expression as green tears flooded from her eyes, dripping onto the floor and sizzling the ground with their acidic effect. The woman sat naked in the middle of a very large greenhouse, surrounded by abundant, colorful flora, isolated from the large crowd of researchers who stood on a walkway above the cage, writing down notes and whispering amongst one another.
Jason Woodrue was leading Anassa up a spiral staircase to join the watchers on the walkway, Albert following close behind. The transaction had been settled, and Joker had been paid his due, along with Woodrue: the Leviathan virus had been distributed equally. Now, Anassa had been permitted into Woodrue's facility, which was hidden beneath the old observatory in northern Gotham. Jamsem Orbital Headquarters had once been the center of Gotham's astronomical studies, a front for Wayne Enterprise employees, but the place had been shut down and abandoned after the newly updated headquarters on the west side of the city had been set up for more room and enhanced wiring. This place was as good as any to maintain a base of operations as Woodrue and Joker planned their first attack on Gotham.
Anassa had been very impressed with the place from the moment she stepped in. The walls and floor were covered in ivy, vines, flower and bushes. An entire ecosystem of plant-life had been established, a kingdom of flora. The elevator down into the main part of the facility smelled heavily of honeysuckle, and she felt right at home. Botany, after all, was her main field of study. Her work had, to Woodrue's observations, greatly caught the eye of W… and when W recommended something, Woodrue felt it wise to heed the recommendation. W always seemed to know who was needed and how they could help Woodrue's research…
Anassa now stood watching Lasetta. The creature (as Anassa first regarded Lasetta) was desperately trying to say something, straining in speech with a very bothered expression.
"COBANUUUUUUUTTTT!" she sobbed, becoming hysterical and slamming her fists down into the dirt in rage. She was throwing a fierce tantrum. As she slammed her fists into the ground, the dirt around her suddenly became very violently affected. Thick, dark, thorny vines exploded out of the ground, hissing loudly and whipping about through the air in a mad form. Green gas was positively pouring out of Lasetta's body. Flowers were simultaneously sprouting almost instantaneously…
The researchers around the walkway remained calm. By now, many of them had fallen victim to Lasetta's accidental tantrum killing sprees. Whenever she became too upset, the spores that her body continually produced would enhance and trigger a defense mechanism in the cellular growth, creating new forms of flora that could fight whatever was causing the distress. The poisonous cloud that came from her pores would amplify. Wesker, Woodrue and the others had, by this point, managed to pin these destructive, life-destroying tantrums to great annoyances and other strong causes of emotion, such as fear. Because of this, they had developed her greenhouse containment center with powerful reinforced glass and other security measures to contain her… At this stage…
"At this stage," Wesker told Anassa, "she has the mental capacity of a four year old, though a severely underdeveloped four year old. The process is slow. We've been having difficulty re-educating her, as close human contact is an essential element in learning. Woodrue himself has worked alongside her… he's the only one who can get close."
"Fascinating," Anassa breathed, bending down and studying the woman closely as she took out a black, electronic tablet and began to type in notes, setting a camera implanted within the device to record. "The spores… you mentioned spores…"
"Her body is constantly emitting these powerful spores. To humans, they are extremely lethal. They are constantly spreading, purifying the ground and growing new life. Watch her now…"
Lasetta had finally calmed, and was reaching down towards the dirt with her hand, still sniffling and blinking back heavy tears. A prod of her finger, and the dirt shifted at once. A flower burst out of the ground, blooming instantly and growing to a length of at least two feet. The flower looked something like Helianthus, but was a vibrant shade of seafoam. When the flower bloomed before Lasetta, the young woman suddenly began to laugh joyously, clapping her hands and shouting, "Yay!" and she proceeded to dab the ground in random places. At each touch, flowers exploded into life, given existence by the woman's glee and touch. Lasetta wiped away her toxic tears, and beamed up at the walkway. Woodrue, who was standing some feet away from the two Weskers, stretched out one of his branch-like arms and gave Lasetta a thumbs up.
"TRY IT AGAIN, LASETTA. TRY IT AGAIN, NOW. 'CO- - CO- - NUT."
"Coobannuuttt!" Lasetta strained, and once more, she became very distressed, clenching her hands into a claw form as she bowed her head. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… sorry, Daddy….sorry, Daddy…" She grabbed her head and desperately beat her hands against it. "I'M SORRY, DADDY!" she wailed, sobbing again and crumpling into a mess upon the ground. As she did, new vines exploded out of the earth. These vines were of a dark magenta in shade, and they collapsed down upon Lasetta, forming something like a living, writhing tent over her, shielding her from the view of everyone as she sobbed…
"She can't pronounce 'coconut?'" Anassa frowned. "A relatively simple term."
"PRONOUNCIATION HAS BEEN AN ISSUE WITH HER," Woodrue admitted, shaking his head sadly, "WE STARTED HER WITH SMALL, SIMPLE WORDS. SOMETHING IN HER NEURAL DEVELOPMENT HAS GONE WRONG. THE TREATMENTS WE'VE ADMINISTERED ARE WORKING SLOWLY."
"What treatments?"
"Hormones," Wesker answered, "designed to stimulate neurons. Something about the poison running through her body has counteracted the hormones. Her body has seen it as an attack."
"And the hormone is an artificial, untested treatment?" Anassa raised an eyebrow. Woodrue shook his head.
"EVERY HUMAN SUBJECT HAS DIED. THE HORMONE IS DERIVED DIRECTLY FROM MY BODY. ITS INCOMPATIBILITY WITH A HUMAN BODY HAS HAD SEVERE EFFECTS."
"In other words, the brains were dissolved after the injections," Wesker told her. "Lasetta, however, has the necessary immunity, obviously. But even her body rejects it as an alien substance."
"What do you call it?"
"Aterium. And she has rejected it continuously. We've had to educate her in the old fashioned methods… but it's too slow. At the rate we're moving, Lasetta's mental state will improve very, very slowly. It will take years for her to reach her original intellect."
"HER TRANSFORMATION CAME WITH AS MANY BAD SIDE EFFECTS AS IT DID GOOD," said Woodrue, his head bowed. "LOSS OF MEMORY AND NEURAL RESET WERE AMONG THEM. THE REVERT BACK INTO AN INFANT STAGE HAS SET US BACK… SO, ANASSA BLACKWOOD, THIS IS WHY WE NEED YOU."
"I understand now. If I can get close to her… I could find a way of to make her body accept the hormone…" Anassa was rubbing her hands together. She had put away the tablet. "No time like the present, then. I wish to go down to her."
"You cannot," Wesker told her at once. "You would not survive the cloud of spores around her body. Their toxicity rate exceeds Strychnine in effect."
"What range?"
"Range?"
"Yes. What range?"
Wesker considered her question for a moment. Woodrue looked over to one of his researchers, a woman, who piped up at once, "Charles only died after getting within three foot radius…" Another researcher put his arm around her and patted her gently. Wesker nodded.
"Yes… I'm still sorry about that, Elaine." He looked at Anassa. "Three feet seems to be the minimal excess range. However… during her tantrums, it amplifies beyond ten. Even twenty, at one point. It's why she'll make such an effective weapon against Gotham. She is unpredictable and limitless when enraged or disturbed."
"Alright, then… three feet for smiles, and who the hell knows for all the rest." Anassa sounded confident, and she looked excited. "Now bring me down there. I want to meet her."
"ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT, MISS BLACKWOOD?"
Anassa turned to Woodrue at once, looking annoyed. "No. No, no, no. No, I'm not. I'm just…saying all of this for my health…" Her expression was cold. Woodrue turned away from her.
"VERY WELL. WE'LL PLAY ALONG. W…BRING HER DOWN TO LASETTA."
"As you wish." He, however, did not sound happy about it. Begrudgingly, he led Anassa down the walkway to an elevator, and once inside, and the doors had closed, he turned to her at once and said, "What are you thinking? Taking risks this early…"
"I'm not afraid of her, love," Anassa whispered, pecking him on the lips. She lightly slapped him, and jerked her head at the buttons. "Take me down."
Wesker, looking annoyed, sighed and said, "Don't be an idiot when you're in there…"
The elevator rocketed downward, and Anassa smiled. "You know me: I play the part of idiot well."
"Selectively, I've noticed…"
"Understand this, love: if she has a temper tantrum… it's my problem. Not yours."
"As a matter of fact, it's both," Wesker snapped as the elevator halted at the bottom of its venture. The doors sprang open. A narrow corridor between the elevator and the greenhouse doors spread out before them, encased in the same reinforced glass. Anassa could see a small room beyond the doors, which she could only assume was for sterilization prior to entry into the greenhouse. Anassa gave Wesker a small wave and proceeded silently down the way, but before she reached the doors at the end, she looked around and called back, "I'll expect you to take notes, the lot of you. Learn from a woman how to handle a woman." And with a sneer at Wesker's furious expression, Anassa entered the doors and was sealed in the small room. Wesker vanished into the elevator and was away at once.
The room was at least four feet in length, compressively tiny. The walls, floor and ceiling were metal grates with hundreds of little dark holes, out from which sprayed a colossal amount of light blue gas, enveloping Anassa. She could feel the chemicals eating away any potential bacteria on her skin, sterilizing her… It was like a fine bath in a drizzle day. A little green light above the door to the greenhouse switched on, indicating a clean subject, and the doors whizzed open at once.
Anassa stepped forward into the vibrant, slightly humid and warm utopia of flora. The flowers in here were unique creations that she had never beheld. Green sunflowers and purple glories, vines that seemed to snake along the ground on their own and multi-headed, crimson Venus flytraps that twisted about on the ceiling above, dribbling green goo from their open mouths, their bulbs sporting white circles ingrained…
It was perfect in this place. Peaceful isolation, devoid of human life. She could stay here for hours and study the creatures within, taking notes on each and theorizing new ways of treating them, growing them, perfecting them…
She walked along a dirt path towards the center of the greenhouse, and found the swathe of purple vines that protected Lasetta from the eyes of others. The clump was so massive that it was difficult to pinpoint just where Lasetta herself was, and so Anassa kept her distance, glancing upward. She saw Woodrue, Wesker and the others staring down at her intently, Wesker actually sweating a little. She smiled. He's concerned about me, the softie… She gave them a little wave, and turned her attention back to Lasetta's cocoon.
Above, Woodrue turned to Wesker and said, "SHE'S VERY UNIQUE. YOU'VE CHOSEN AN INTERESTING HELPER."
Wesker nodded. "She'll do her job well. I guarantee that."
"AND IF SHE DIES?"
"She won't… trust me, I've tried killing her. She just doesn't die."
Below, Anassa kicked off her heels so that she could feel the cold dirt beneath her feet, and sat down, tracing her finger throughout the soil, doodling little people and flowers, keeping an eye on the cocoon some feet away. She drew a little house, and a family standing beside it, and then when she had finished, she called out, in a soft, tender voice, "Lasetta, love… why not come out of there now?"
The vines around Lasetta shook wildly, and Anassa heard a soft moaning. Anassa, smiling, said again, in an even softer voice, "Lasetta, dear… I want to meet you. I want to meet you, Lasetta, and play with you. How about it?"
Two vines peeled apart, and Anassa some shining, glowing green eyes peering out at her from the darkness of the cover of the vines. Curious eyes. Anassa waved a little, smiling softly, and patted the ground lightly with a hand. "Come and see what I've drawn here. I want your opinion on it." She scooted away, patting the earth again. "Come and see…"
A hand came out, dirty and covered in little green vines. Anassa suddenly caught the scent of something secretive and foul. Just barely, she saw the air around the hand haze. The spores… eternal spores, eternal excess… Very well. The game begins.
A messy clump of black hair, and Lasetta emerged from the vines, willing them to fall away, crawling slowly with wide, staring eyes through the dirt towards Anassa, who pointed at the doodles upon the ground and said, gently, "What do you think?"
Lasetta crawled over to the doodles, and studied each one carefully. The family was four: a little girl with long hair and flowers all over her body, a tall tree-like figure with a smiley face, a second man with sunglasses and a long coat, and finally a woman with slightly shorter hair, a fine dress and a large grin. Lasetta pointed at the tree man with excitement, and exclaimed aloud, "Daddy!"
Anassa studied the haze as she said it. The air seemed to become more so affected as Lasetta recognized Woodrue. So… the spores spread out during excitement as much as shock. As Lasetta moved about on the ground, she saw little buds of flowers popping up everywhere. Anassa was fascinated. It seemed like any contact that Lasetta had with the soil… created new life wherever she touched. The spores were designed for that purpose: Lasetta was a walking Garden of Eden Creation Kit.
"Your flowers are beautiful," Anassa told her, wishing she could reach out and pick one up… but she dared not go close to Lasetta, and for that matter, the flowers that her body produced, either… which brought even more panic to her in that moment. Just how much of this greenhouse was produced from her spores? Were they all poisonous? What could she touch safely in this place?
"Ismee!" Lasetta cried, and she actually clapped her hands. Anassa blinked.
"Eh?"
"Ismee! Ismee!" Lasetta cried happily again, prodding hard at the doodles. She was poking at the little girl with flowers, and Anassa nodded, smiling, translating "ismee" as "It's me!"
"Wonderful, wonderful… and what about that one, way over there?" She pointed, without getting her hand too close to the air around Lasetta, at the doodle of Wesker, and Lasetta giggled loudly, exclaiming, "Grandpa!"
Anassa choked, stifling her laughter at once, exploding into a series of silent snorts. Above, Wesker's mouth twitched. "That's right," Anassa said, trying to keep a straight face, "it's grandpa. A great old prune. Washed up and insecure…" She smiled sheepishly up at Wesker, who was shaking his head. "Though he's not so bad, once you get to know him, I suppose."
"Grandpa looks funny!" Lasetta snorted, drawing little flowers around him with her finger… and she did drew the little flowers into the dirt, real ones sprouted up at her touch. Vibrant greens and pinks, with twisting little black tendrils…
Anassa was content now. Lasetta was not so bad…
"Who!?" Lasetta cried, suddenly pointing at the doodle of the woman.
"Why, that's me!" said Anassa. "My name is Anassa, Lasetta. Anassa. Can you say Anassa?"
Lasetta stared at her with wide eyes, her lips pursed and her fingers doing a little dance. "OH!?"
"Anassa. Can you say the name, 'Anassa?'"
"OH! OH! OH! OH! OH! Ansa! Ansa… Ansa…"
Did Wesker say she had a four year old mentality? More like two or three…
"Well, dear, all in good time."
"Ansa!" Lasetta cried, her face strained.
Anassa, sensing danger, nodded. "Yes, that's right. Ansa! You got it right!"
"ANSA!" Lasetta cried, her grin so wide and prominent, clapping her hands together and blinking back tears of joy… the spores were moving forward, and Anassa leapt up at once, backing away slowly, still nodding and grinning. The air dissipated after a few seconds, saturating the ground… sprouting more and more flowers…
Lasetta had jumped to her feet, grinning at Anassa, her arms wide open. She wanted to hug Anassa. Anassa's heart broke… she wanted to hug Lasetta too… "I want to be your friend, Lasetta," she said quickly, trying to distract Lasetta from the woman's desire for a hug. "Do you want to be mine?"
"FRIEND!" Lasetta cried, giggling and giggling. She bounced up and down, and as she did, vines exploded out of the ground, dancing merrily about with her, thrashing wildly through the air. Anassa grinned, back flipping away as the vines swung further and further, taking to the air with such grace. She landed with cat-like promise, and Lasetta was cheering, screaming with joy.
"ANSA'S FUN! ANSA'S FUN! I LOVE YOU ANSA!" She meant it. Her face meant it.
Anassa smiled, deciding that because of the thrashing vines, it was not safe to retrieve her heels. Therefore, she held up a hand, and called out to Lasetta, "I'm going to come back, with toys and treats! Would you like to play some more games, Lasetta?"
"PLAY! I WANT TO PLAY WITH ANSA!"
"Alright, then! We will!" Anassa promised. "I'll be back…"
"Ansa… I love Ansa…" Lasetta was moving forward, her arms outstretched. The large vines were moving with her. The haze in the air was becoming more and more overwhelming. It was time to go. Lasetta was not going to stop… and if Anassa ordered her away, it would break the connection early. Anassa hurried into the sterilization room, closing the doors behind her, and after another bath in the blue gas, entered the elevator, Wesker waiting for her within. When the doors closed, Anassa leaned against the wall, breathing excitedly at the near miss. Wesker was looking unhappy, as she expected.
"Had enough?" he demanded.
Anassa shook her head. "No, no, no… not even close! I'm going out right now to buy her toys and treats, as I promised her. I want to come back and play a game with her."
"But why!?" Wesker demanded, punching the button to send them back up. Anassa stood her ground.
"Because she needs interaction beyond Jason Woodrue, that is why! Because she requires it! It is essential that she have other people in there, around her, educating her. I need to get close. I can solve the solution, Albert. I can solve the solution as to how to make her able to absorb the hormone that Woodrue has offered her. I intend to work very closely with her."
The elevator came to a halt, and Woodrue was waiting for them outside of the doors.
"YOU'VE DONE VERY WELL. YOU'RE CAREFUL. YOU'RE CALMING TO HER. ANY DOUBT ABOUT YOU THAT I PREVIOUSLY HELD IS LONG GONE."
"Good, because I'm not finished. Not even close. Can I see her again, tonight? I want to buy her some toys and candy. Do you think she can eat candy?" She walked over to the edge of the walkway and looked down. Lasetta had noticed her, and was jumping up and down, waving frantically at her, her face strained. She already missed Anassa. Anassa waved back, smiling, and saw that Lasetta's vines were hugging the top of the greenhouse… as if intent on grabbing Anassa and pulling her back down to Lasetta.
"If you wish to visit with her, we must always be in observation," Wesker said at once, firmly, his eyes glowing fiercely from behind his sunshades. Woodrue nodded.
"AGREED. I WANT TO SEE FOR MYSELF THE DIFFERENCE YOU MAKE IN HER LIFE. I WANT TO OBSERVE YOUR METHODS."
"And you may, but I'm going to need you to do so in a very subtle manner," she warned them both. She was studying Lasetta, who had found Anassa's heels. She was poking at them with curiosity, as if Anassa may burst out of them at any moment and surprise her… "I don't want Lasetta seeing you both all the time. You have both left an impression upon her, but she needs the association of other people, without you both. If you are to observe, do so in secrecy. Let her feel isolation with different individuals. And I assure you that my work with her will be so much more affective."
"I SEE NO REASON TO DENY YOUR REQUEST," said Woodrue. "AS LONG AS YOU ARE SURE THAT YOU CAN HANDLE HER. SHE IS UNPREDICTABLY DANGEROUS, AS YOU SAW FOR YOURSELF. YOU CANNOT JUDGE, EFFECTIVELY, THE RANGE OF HER SPORES."
"I love games, Mr. Woodrue," Anassa told him at once, smirking. "Games are a cornerstone of my existence. Believe me when I say, the anticipation of the danger will be enough to keep me enthralled. I want to work with Lasetta and help her. You've seen for yourself her talents. What she is capable of. It's perfection, and she has realized it. I want to see that talent grow. Don't you agree that she needs to be able to leave this greenhouse and experience more things?"
"WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU HAVE IN MIND?"
Anassa grinned. "Oh, I don't know… how about taking her out to dinner… to a movie… and perhaps even a carnival."
Wesker stared madly at her. But Anassa… Anassa was writhing in confidence.