It was all over the news. "Oh my God" Alfred was forced to say, "that is just impossible."
Bruce was too angry to answer Alfred. This could not have happened. Who could do this? What bastards.
Bruce Wayne, Lucius Fox and Alfred Pennyworth were all in Bruce's living room of the top level of his condo building, which he owned the entirety of. On Bruce's fifty-inch HD plasma-screen TV, they all see the story of the day: apparently, an indescribably, enormous one hundred foot tall tree that looked like it was torn right out of the screen and pages of Jurassic Park had grown overnight in the exact location of the Downing Tower's downfall.
"I… I…I…" reporter Vicki Vale stammered at the site, staring at the tree, half-turned to the camera, over the background of firefighters and police attempting to clear the streets of onlookers.
"Will you just spit it out, already" Bruce found himself shouting at her, the screen really.
"That isn't very professional of her" Alfred noted.
"I am speechless" Vicki found herself admitting onscreen. "I truly am speechless. I know viewers of NBC can expect my searing wit and jarring remarks, but right now, I am truly drained. What can I possibly say to this? Look at it, people of Gotham, it is truly beyond words. In exactly the same place Downing Tower was attacked yesterday. Is this part of a terrorist attack? Or is it an act of God?"
"Bullshit" Bruce Wayne seethed.
That was really convenient, wasn't it, he thought. It wasn't there yesterday. Now, a giant tree as tall as the tallest building and three times as thick has grown in my city. Coincidently, the results of Project GENESIS are either stolen or destroyed, including the Alpha Vector and all of its incarnations. A device that can rapidly regenerate cells at an rate never before seen or imagined is suddenly stolen. The very next morning, the largest tree man has ever seen suddenly appeared in the place of a recently bombed communications tower. Obviously, the bastards who had taken the Alpha Vector were none other than the terrorists or at least associated with them. Two of them, according to Ramona Stowalters through Lucius Fox, had been Dr. Heather Allister and Dr. Victor Naughton, two geneticists on Dr. Stowalter's staff. She had trusted them. Well, it was a lead. First, he do a thorough background check, then he would go after them in the daylight, if he had to. Damn, I have enough on my plate. This Catwoman has the Frozen Bunny and I can't let her get away with that. Also, Gordon has a growing distrust of me. Why? I don't know where it started but every time we meet, I can see always studying, as if he thinks I'll eventually break under the pressure. He's wrong. I'll never break.
Dr. Ramona Stowalters was in the hospital now with eight broken bones and fractures to her body, including her ribs, nose, breast bone, several fingers on her left hand. Bruce Wayne intended to visit her sometime this morning. That was if he could ever make it through the traffic. Bruce was driving himself in his Mercedez Benz. Everything was held back because of that damn tree. The Wayne Foundation was looking to help rebuild the Downing Network Tower. That couldn't happen if there was a giant tree there. Using his Bluetooth, he answered his phone.
"This better be good" Bruce said immediately.
"Oh it is, old friend" his lawyer, Thomas Elliot offered. "Your empire just expanded in girth. A very lucrative venture, I might add. Sionis Cosmetics. You ever heard of it?"
"Tommy, I don't have time for this."
"Well, you just acquired it. All the paperwork is done and signed, not without a little difficulty of course. I don't know much about it except it's a big up and comer in the makeup and fashion industry, and that all the models and actors seem to use the shit."
"Tommy" Bruce breathe and exhaled, "You handle my side investments and dealings. I would give you my usual pat on the back for your good work but I have more important matters at the moment. Goodbye."
"Wait…" Elliot tried to continue, only Bruce hung up. He didn't answer the phone again, although it rang quite a few more times.
"What are you going to do" Lucius asked Bruce, who sat on his sofa, silently watching the remainder of the news. He wasn't actually watching the news but just so deep in his thoughts to care whether the TV was on or off. He was absorbing everything that had happened in such a short time. He had just put an end to the mob in Gotham once and for all. Now, he was dealing with terrorists. He had already hacked into Arkham Asylum's database. The Joker was still there. He would have already made himself known anyway. He heard Lucius' question.
"First" Bruce said at last, "I'm going to go visit Dr. Stowalters in the hospital. I have to find out the full capabilities of the Alpha Vector. I think its very obvious that it was used on the Downing Tower."
"Yes" Lucius admitted.
"How it grew a prehistoric tree out of the ground" Bruce said, "I don't know. The seeds must have already been there, all they needed was the means to grow it. I need some samples of it. I'll do that. Also, I need to know if that thermal-stealth tech suit you've been working on is complete."
"Has been for a while, Mr. Wayne" Lucius said with a smile.
"Good" Bruce said, "I'll have Alfred pick it up."
"Well, I'll be off then" Lucius said, checking his watch. "Give Dr. Stowalters my apology for not coming. Tell her I wish her to get well."
An hour later, Bruce was at Gotham Medical Center, in Ramona Stowalters' room with a bouquet of Tulips.
"Oh, for me, Mr. Wayne" Dr. Stowalters said with a sideways glance and lighting a cigarette in her hospital bed. "I must have declined to tell you but I hate flowers."
Bruce nodded and threw the tulips into the trashcan bin. "I didn't take you for a smoker" he noted.
"I don't usually" she said, inhaling it. "I just need to calm down a little bit, I think. It just makes me so angry. That bitch, Heather Allister took everything I've worked so hard on for so many years. It was the product of the blood and sweat of my father and I. It pisses me off so much when I even begin to think of all the sadistic shit she's doing with my creation right now."
The SunKing Corporation is a very profitable corporate giant that owns three of the leading gas suppliers in the world. Their headquarters, like Wayne Inc., was based in Gotham City. Today, was the day that the Board of Directors was scheduled to meet and though the topic was hard to avoid, the recent incident that had occurred that morning involving a terrorist attack and a giant tree, was largely avoided.
The Board consisted of a Congressman, an worldwide investor, among eight other just as financially-wealthy leaders and investors. They had their honest conversations, sidebars and long gulps of iced water going when four armed-mercenary types stormed the board room.
"Nobody move" one of them shouted, as they all aimed their rifles at the Board members, who were shocked. Some of the women were screaming and the men were largely left motionless.
"Please" Greg Parker, "a doctor from New York begged. "We have money. Just name your price."
"Don't worry, Doctor" said a woman from behind the mercenaries, who made her way through, along with a man, "This won't take up too much of your time. I just have a few words to share and you can continue your little destructive campaign." The woman was Dr. Heather Allister and the man was Dr. Victor Naughton. They wore camoflauge pants like the mercenaries and black body armor like the mercenaries they now employed.
"Why" she asked, approaching them with her armed men in tow, whose weapons were steadily trained on them. "Why are you trying to destroy everything that was given to you?!" She walked around them, circling them with a dangerous hunger of a vulture in her eyes.
"Lady…" Frank Pearson, a real estate developer from Ohio. His movement attracted all of her men to draw their weapons on him. Everybody cowered away from them.
"Let's just talk about this" Rebecca Mader, the CEO of Wachovia Banking waving her hands to calm everything down.
"Shut up" shouted Dr. Allister. "Don't interrupt me again, any of you, or you'll regret it. Not until I have said what I have to say. Nobody's going to save you. We have already disconnected all lines and dispatched all of your security. Now, answer me. Why do you want to kill this world that has been given to us?"
"If you're one of those damn eco-terrorist sons of bitches" William Buchannan warned.
"No" Victor Naughton cut in, "we're so much more than that. We're IVY."
"Who" asked Frank Pearson.
"Its what we call ourselves" Allister said. "We're the ones who bombed the Downing Tower. And we made it better. All that you did was dig into the earth and suck its nutrient and its blood! You have caused war, death and terror all over the world. Entire countries are dying because of you! Not anymore! You will pay for your murderous ways!"
"Us" Parker asked. "How many people died in that bombing of Downing Tower, do you think?!"
Heather Allister smiled and rolled up her sleeves to reveal a specialized version of the Alpha Vector that was bonded to her skin and hardwired directly into her nervous system. Its many wires were punctured into her skin all over her body and she could send out the Divinity Gene at any moment. A miniature version of the Alpha Vector was hardwired into her heart. This was created by Dr. Ramona Stowalters, something not even Lucius Fox knew about.
"Far more than you" she said. "By the way, I hope you enjoyed your water. I had my people plant some very special plant cells, courtesy of Wayne Botanicals. I know how much you love Mother Nature. Now you can be even closer to her."
After that, they all heard a low, ominous ringing noise in their ears that steadily rose in volume until they couldn't hear anything else. Then, they all felt very similar immense pressure in the pit of their stomachs that rose up to their chests, arms, fingers and eventually heads. Those that were lucky died from the growing plants inside them puncturing their brains. Some had their eyes popped open as vines and leaves wrapped around their heads. Dr. Greg Parker was screaming when a bloody vine expanded out of both of his ears and tore his head off of his body. Allister and the others left the room which was filled with cries of agony and screams until it became the sounds of thick vines reaching to devour the entire room and eventually all of the SunKing Corporation building.
"Just what is Dr. Allister capable of now that she has the Alpha Vector" Bruce asked Stowalters.
"Do you want a smoke" Stowalters asked Bruce.
"No" Bruce declined, shaking his head.
Stowalters exhaled and told him, "The Alpha Vector wasn't exactly complete so I couldn't balance it."
"What do you mean 'balance it'?"
"I couldn't… get its effects to a stable level. It works too damn good, Mr. Wayne. I just wanted to cure disease with the damn thing. With the Alpha Vector the way it is now, she could change the world itself. Mr. Wayne… there are no limits to what she can do with it."
There were no limits to what Dr. Heather Allister and IVY could do with the Alpha Vector, as ten minutes after their assault and murder of the Board of the SunKing Corporation, the entire building was torn in two and in its place was a gradually growing grove of vines that seemed to reach towards the sky.
It was eight PM. Alfred had driven to Bruce Wayne's safe house in a container near the docks. Using his key, he unlocked it and made his way inside.
He found Bruce Wayne dressed as Batman, only he wasn't wearing the mask, hard at work on his massive computer that held about twenty five screens and expanded across the entire wall. Of the screens was every news channel running in Gotham, a police scanner and a hacked emergency hotline, along with audio and video feeds from criminal contacts all around the city. Bruce was currently digging up background information on Heather Allister and Victor Naughton.
Alfred approached him. Without looking and still typing, Bruce said, "Heather Elizabeth Allister and Victor Emmit Naughton. She graduated summa cum laude from Brown University with a major in Genetic Biology. He graduated magna cum laude from Berkeley in New York with a major in Philosophy. Considering they're terrorists with a God complex, they deserve each other. I hate how they worked for my company. I employed terrorists, right under my nose."
"You can't blame yourself for this, sir" Alfred told him. "Who could have known? Nobody could've seen this coming. Not even Lucius Fox."
"I should have" Bruce told him. "Thousands of people died yesterday and close to that amount died today over at SunKing. I have their addresses. I'm going to pay them a visit tonight, and I will have to try very hard to not live up to my reputation."
"Well" Alfred said simply and dropped the bag he had slung over his shoulder to the floor, "that's all fine and dandy but how are you going to do that without your thieving gear?"
Bruce looked back at him and told him, "No, it looks like the old bat-suit will have to go on the rack for tonight. Thanks, Alfred, you can leave that there."
What Lucius had designed for Bruce Wayne wasn't just thermal equipment, but an entirely new suit. It held Batman' basic look: a Batman-designed mask, stealth armor and a cape. That was where the similarities ended. There were no detracting spikes on his arms, or even any spikes at all, and the suit wasn't even night black. There was also even less protection to allow for even more mobility than the last suit. It was a burnt rose-red color that seemed to blend in even more into the night even though it seemed it shouldn't. To add to this, Batman's vision could be switched between normal, night and thermal vision to allow better hiding in darkness and the shadows. He had sacrificed even more defense for mobility and stealth. He realized sourly with each improvement to his armor, just how much of the League of Shadows' training really had on him. It was far more than his physical abilities in combat.
He first visited Victor Naughton's home. Picking the back door lock was easy enough. Creeping through the house without making a sound, he made it to Victor's living room. It was a one-story home in a nice neighborhood. He didn't seem to worry about robbers, which is why he didn't have a more advanced security system, or one at all. Using night vision, he carefully checked every room, including the kitchen, the bedroom, the bathroom, the office and the basement. Naughton wasn't a particularly neat man. His bedroom was very messy for one. Clothes and trash were strewn all around the room, almost hopelessly. Same with the office, as computer paper and wadded up paper was rolled up and thrown all about. There was a table and it was full of paper and books, not organized at all. He looked through some of these things, only there was nothing important. It was all philosophy and genetic research. There was one wad of paper that caught his eye. It was a diary entry dated November 7th 2009.
I met Dr. Ramona Stowalters today. She is a pretty one. So full of brilliance. So full of purpose. So full of well, SOMETHING! Yet, there's something missing from her. I can see it. She seems sad sometimes. I think she needs to get laid, but Heather thinks its because she knows that her research is going nowhere. She wants to take Stowalter's place. She says that the Alpha Vector is a waste of time and impractical. She seems to hate Stowalters. I'm indifferent to her, really, though I must admit that she is an interesting subject. I would like to watch a little more closely. She is certainly more interesting than this ridiculous Alpha Vector she has us study. To think that Wayne Enterprises would fund this crap. My mind could be put to much better uses than this. Oh God, now I'm starting to sound like her. I think I might be in love with her.
After throwing the paper away again, he searched the drawers, finding a book on theology, the Odyssey and the Bible. This is a strange book collection, he thought. There was something significant about this and he already guessed what it must be. For some reason, Naughton believed that whatever he was doing was benefiting to someone. How he could get that idea, he didn't know. He looked in the basement and found nothing but scattered cardboard, a bookcase, and a tiny refrigerator/freezer. He looked inside the refrigerator to find it was empty. He looked into the freezer to find what he had been looking for. It had about ten labeled test tubes with variable numbers with a jelly-like liquid inside.
Back at his safe house, Bruce Wayne studied the test tubes he had found in Naughton's freezer under a microscope. They were plant cells, he determined as he found they had a cell wall. What plant they were, he had no idea. He only knew they were they belonged to a plant. On the way back to his hideout on the Bat-pod, he had sliced off a piece of the Downing Tree, as it was now being called, with a dagger. He now pulled that out now, which was a vine and set it on the table. Using protective equipment, he burned the vine with some hydrochloric acid. He then put the dissolved the sample ot the tree under the microscope and studied. They were identical. In fact, they were the same species. Before he could ponder it, his computer bleeped behind him as one of the networks doubled as a phone. He went to it, taking his gloves off and distilling his hands, before pressing the Enter button, answering the call which the screen referred to as GORDON.
"Batman" Gordon said, "I got it. I know where the tape is, if you're still interested. The same place where we met last night. I'll wait for an hour."
Batman wanted to see the tape. Naughton wasn't at home and it didn't look like he had been home for days. He had the feeling visiting Allister's home would yield similar results. He would still visit it tonight but after he had retrieved the tape that would reveal their intentions. He met Gordon on the same rooftop across the street from Ballard Hall.
Gordon was smoking a cigarette.
"I didn't know you smoked" Batman noted.
Gordon jumped and drew his gun at the sound of his voice. "Where are you" he demanded.
Batman stepped out from the shadows and got almost face to face with Gordon until he holstered his gun.
"Damn" Gordon noted, "you're getting too good at this. I couldn't see you and you were right in front of my face!"
"The tape" Batman said, "where is it?"
"Are you fine with committing a minor crime?"
"I'm fine with committing anything short of murder."
Batman would have to break into the 57th Precinct Gotham City Police Station. He would have to break the evidence room. Specifically, he would have to break into locker 557, where he could find the tape. He might have to commit a few acts of assault on the way, but he made peace with that. He had to assault cops before to do the right thing. He had convinced himself this was the right thing and the only way. Only this time, it was a little harder.
Batman propelled to the top of the police station, using a powerful, prehensile grappling wire that Lucius had recently developed for him. It was the same material he had used to snare Gino Malroni and his goons. He shot it on the rooftop and it caught underneath the ledge. Using it, he lunged himself up halfway up the wall and pulled himself the rest of the way. After putting it away, he jumped down to a third story window, noting that it was already open.
He made his way, down to the evidence locker, finding unconscious cops in various rooms. Just like last night, he thought to himself. Only more people this time. Why would she be here? I don't care, I'll deal with her later. This takes precedence over her.
He made his way to the evidence room to find the door strewn open. The light was off. Turning his night vision with a small button on the inside of his left bat ear, he ventured inside to find that the room was clear. He simply followed the locker numbers until he came to 557. Afterwards, he took a pressure gun from his belt and put it to the lock and pressed the release valve. It knocked it off, obliterating the locker and opened it. Just as he was about to reach for the envelope inside, he felt cold steel on the back of his neck."
"You are just trying so hard to be a criminal , aren't you" Catwoman snickered at him, holding her Glock to the back of his neck.
"I'm already starting to get tired of you" Batman hissed at her.
"Aaaah" she pouted, "because I am really starting to warm up to you. Two times in two nights. A coincidence? I think not."
"You're right. It's not a coincidence. You're a criminal and I'm the one who puts you away."
"You really should stop with that voice. It's not as sexy as the rest of you. Wait, there's something different about you. Did you get a new costume?"
Having enough, Batman spun out of the way of her gun and slid the gun from her hand before she punched him in the throat. He stumbled backwards, choking, away from the locker. She followed him, kicking him twice in the gut, once in the chest and flipped backwards with her hands, uppercutting him with her heels in the process and driving him up into the air. He fell to the ground, choking. She grabbed the enveloped tape from the locker, walked to him and stomped on his chest, forcing a grunt from him. She grind her heel into his chest, back and forth.
"Batman" she said with suave seduction, playing with the word, "resolving to thievery? I would have thought it was beneath you. Beg for it, and I might give it back."
He tried to grab her ankle, only she pressed down with her heel again, causing him to grunt in more pain. "Uh uh uh" she warned, "there are rules to this little game. You have to beg."
Batman realized that his spikes would have come in handy in this situation. Instead, what he did was extend his grappling wire, which was lined against his inner arms and spun around his back for over a hundred feet, though it was lightweight and very transportable, hidden in his cape. The wire wrapped along her ankle and with a twitch of his wrist, she fell off of him and landed next time. He quickly spun it around her wrists in quick motion, got up and wrapped it around her neck, choking her. He then dragged her backwards, forcing her to run with him as he slammed her against the locker. He then kept her against the row of lockers by pulling on the wire strung around her neck, choking her again. Keeping it loose, he ran around the row of lockers eight times in fifteen seconds, using the wire to constrict her body to the row of lockers in ten binds. He then tied it off at the end of the row and came back to look at her. She was in pain, as the wire was infinitely strong and it was very tight against her body. She could seriously hurt herself trying to get out. She was uncomfortable already. He watched her as she winced with her head turned away from him. She still held his tape, still in its package. He snatched it from her. That was when she finally looked at him. The pain in her eyes was gone now, now there was only pure anger and hate. She looked like a modified cruxificition.
"I'm going to kill you for this" she told him, "you know that, right? I am going to claw your heart right out of your chest and all you'll be able to do is watch me do it."
"Maybe when you get out of prison" Batman told her, before he walked out of the door, holding his envelope. He walked back upstairs and prepared to climb back out of the window, before he heard crashing from downstairs. Damn, he thought. she did get out. I'm going to have to handle this. Oh well, I can beat her. I know how to handle her now.
He readied himself in his traditional Karate defense, listening to the loud rumblings getting louder and louder as she was running upstairs to get to him. She finally kicked open the door. She crept into the room. Her claws were extended and there were several slashes across her body, where her flesh was exposed and bleeding. Her lips were pursed with anger and her eyes were filled with murderous rage. She had cut the wire with her claws, only she had been forced to struggle a lot and had deeply cut herself.
"I decided to keep my promise tonight" she told him, before running full speed at him.
Commissioner Gordon was smoking another cigarette, only this time outside of the 57th Precinct Gotham Police Station. Batman wasn't intending for him to be there. That was because Gordon wasn't following the plan and there was a reason for that. There was also a reason why he had picked up smoking for the first time in twelve years. He was parked across the street in the backseat of Agent Ronnie Flanagan's car, with Agent Renee Montoya in the passenger seat.
"Oh, that's okay" Montoya stated sarcastically, "yeah, sure you can smoke in here! Go right ahead!"
"Montoya, Montoya" Flanagan looked at her and soothed, "Leave it alone. It's understandable. Betrayal is a very delicate subject."
Gordon silently exhaled and puffed on the cancer-stick again. He just looked out of the window towards the police station. Without warning, a window on the third floor crashed and Batman, along with another dark figure on top of him, fell out to the ground below.
"Who is that, with Batman" Gordon asked.
"Oh, that's just our girl" Montoya said, "She's our anti-Batman, you can say."
Batman flung Catwoman off of him to the side and got up. She got up as well.
"What exactly are you trying to steal, anyway" she asked.
"I'm not about to tell you" he yelled at her.
"That's okay" she said, coming towards her, "I'll just cut it out of you."
She threw a kick and when he went to parry it, she pulled it back and tried to slash him in the face. He punched her arm away and threw his own punch, only she ducked and stepped away from him. She tried to kick him three times, only he dodged all three. She tried to send a left spin kick, only he catches her leg and kicks her other leg out from under her and slams her on the ground. Bringing her legs up to her legs and uses the leverage to push him off of her. She then hops to her feet and back kicks him in the face. He staggers backwards and she follows him and claws at him, slashing diagonally across his left cheek. She tries to uppercut him with the other claw, before he dodges, punches her in the ribs, then the gut. She grunts and bends downwards with the blows, he then grabs her arms and throws him over him, sending her rolling.
Gordon watched all of this with wide eyes.
"Commissioner" Flanagan called to him from the front seat, "just when are you going to call for some backup?"
Gordon shook his head to snap back out of blankness and pulled out his cell phone. He dialed Major Robertson's number.
"Major" he said when Robertson answered, "get some squads from the 30th and 1st Precinct to 57th Precinct Police Station. I have the Batman here and he isn't going anywhere."
Catwoman stood up on wobbly legs, as Batman jumped and back kicked her in the chest, knocking her down again. She rolled away from him before he stomped at her head. She then rolls beneath him and kicks his legs in two opposite directions, causing him to fall to his knees. She takes the opportunity to kick him in the face. He simply stands up and grabs her by the wrists before she can slash his face again. She struggles against him, but all she can manage to do scratch and cut his hands and wrists. He ignores this, holding her, even lifting her in the air by her wrists before she struggles and forces herself back to the ground. He squeezes her wrists, trying to crush them. She, in turn, is slashing at his wrists, attempting to cut into his hands, even cut them off if she can.
They barely notice the cop cars that speed down the street and surround them.