"Ah, the man of the hour. I've been looking to introduce you two all evening! Eve, this is Bruce Wayne. Mr Wayne, this is Eve Carter; her research and experiments will benefit greatly from your generous donation to the GCSI."
Dr Phillip Mortimer looked on benevolently as the two strangers exchanged nods of greeting. Eve cleared her throat and held out her hand. "Mr Wayne – I've heard so much about you."
"Not everything, I hope," said the billionaire, briefly flashing her that million-watt smile that was portrayed in the Gotham Gazette's social section at least three times a week. "And please, call me Bruce." He took hold of her outstretched hand and kissed it.
Against her best efforts, Eve couldn't help blushing. She was new to Gotham City, having transferred there from Chicago barely a week before. Thankfully, Mortimer had taken her under his wing and helped her get to know everybody he knew, but she'd never have guessed one of them to be Bruce Wayne, of all people. "Oh, err…thank you, Bruce. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"The pleasure's all mine. Might I say, Eve, you look very beautiful this evening. I'm ashamed to say I wouldn't have thought you to be a scientist."
Again with the blushing! Embarrassed, she looked down at the dress she was wearing in an attempt to hide her red face. Granted, it was quite low cut, much more than it had appeared on the dummy in the shop window, when she'd bought it for the sole purpose of being the dress she wore to fancy events. Still, it clung in all the right places, and it was black, so if anybody spilt their champagne on her it wouldn't matter. She wished she could have made some kind of snappy comeback, but Bruce had already excused himself politely and walked away to touch some bimbo on the shoulder, making her squeal with delight and throw her arms around him.
Eve raised an eyebrow. She's hated the idea of even coming to this gala thing ever since Mortimer had mentioned it to her, two days ago now. It was basically a big fancy event celebrating Wayne Enterprises funding the GCSI, and while she greatly appreciated the chance to do her research thanks to the funding, she couldn't help thinking there was no need for the theatrics. She shrugged to herself and started to walk aimlessly through the glamorous crowds, occasionally greeting someone she vaguely knew with a nod and a smile. She wanted to go home, and thankfully nobody tried to stop her from leaving. She collected her coat from the cloakroom, gave the doorman a small smile and a nod of thanks, and walked out into the cold night.
Normally, most women would think twice about walking alone through the dark streets of Gotham City, but Eve didn't care. She knew how to defend herself. She drew her coat more tightly around her shoulders and walked casually down the street, knowing it would only be a few minutes before she could shut the door of her cosy apartment and collapse on the bed with a good book. Her first genuine smile of the evening spread across her face at the thought. Eve's apartment was nothing special; small but perfectly formed, she liked to say. It had everything she needed – bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, small living room area – and that was enough. That said, she had attempted to personalise it; there were a few pictures up, she'd painted the walls of the kitchen a pleasant pale green, and the bathroom had a shower curtain that resembled a tropical rainforest. It was the bedroom, however, that had received the majority of the renovation and had become her sanctuary.
She couldn't wait to get into bed and relax as soon as she got in the door. She threw her coat and stupid sparkly evening bag to the floor, kicked off her heels and padded into the kitchen in her stockinged feet to make herself a cup of tea. While it was brewing, she went to her bedroom to change.
Looking in the mirror as she removed her makeup and jewellery, she made a face. Without the vast amounts of foundation, blusher and eyeliner, her face was fairly nondescript. Pale skin, free from any major blemishes; a small nose that turned up slightly at the tip; blue eyes surrounded by long black lashes. She could have been anyone. "Beautiful? Wayne needs his eyes tested." She sighed and turned away from her dressing table, unzipping the slinky black evening gown and letting it fall into a heap on the floor. She would hang it up later. Reaching into the drawer of her bedside table, she pulled out an oversized t-shirt and put it on over her head, freeing her hair from its sparkling entrapments and sending it tumbling down over her shoulders in the process.
Once she was changed, a sudden wave of fatigue swept over her and she willingly crawled into her bed, settling down and falling asleep within minutes. Her dreams were tinged with green.
She awoke promptly at six am the next morning, as usual, and got straight out of bed to do some stretches, as usual. Her body flowed easily through all the yoga positions she knew by heart, getting her blood pumping, waking her up. Refreshed and energised, she opened the bedroom curtains and gently brushed her fingertips over the mimosa pudica, or touch-me-not plant, that sat beside her bed. It was her favourite plant out of all the ones she kept in her home, of which there were quite a few; she loved the way that even the slightest touch to the leaves caused them to ripple closed down the pinnae, lying flat and making the pretty little fern turn into what looked like a few prickly twigs in seconds. She smiled and left the plant to its own devices, heading to the kitchen to make some breakfast, tipping the cold brown tea that she'd started making the night before down the sink.
As she sat at the table hungrily devouring a bowl of cereal, Eve switched her laptop on and went straight to the news pages to look at the headlines. There was a bit about the GCSI gala the night before – more sucking up to Bruce Wayne – some sports things, some financials. She clicked through the online newspaper and suddenly drew in a short breath.
There she was – the other reason she had wanted to transfer to Gotham, the one nobody knew about. It was nothing to do with superior botanical experimentation facilities.
Poison Ivy.
She'd first encountered Poison Ivy when a news story had reached Chicago about five months previous – the woman had gone on an ecological rampage, appearing in any city that harboured factories or businesses that were harmful to the environment. After each attack, she had disappeared again for a few days, only to re-emerge somewhere else with the same intent. The papers had been full of it, speculation and fear had been high, and Eve had been fascinated. In all her years of botanical study, the possibility of being able to control plants, of bestowing upon them something like sentience, had never even occurred to her. She had been intrigued from the word go, immensely attracted to the idea of studying Ivy, learning her behaviour, how she managed to maintain the balance of human and plant, how her incredible powers worked. When the opportunity of transferring to Gotham had risen in her department, she had been the first to apply.
She hadn't told a single person about this, not even Mortimer, and she wanted to keep it that way; if she was going to track Ivy down, then the less people knew about it the better. She knew they would only caution her, warn her about Ivy's criminal activities, and while she had always considered that, she also felt that there was another side to her; a much more interesting side. And now here she was, once again in Gotham, wreaking her own particular brand of botanical havoc. Whoever the photographer had been for the story had managed to get a killer shot, showing Ivy leaping gracefully from a window that was easily four storeys up. Her arms were extended back, her toes pointed forwards as she anticipated her landing on a large vine that sprouted from under the tarmac. The police spotlights illuminated the intent expression on her face, her scantily-clad green body and streaming scarlet hair; she looked astonishing. Eve stared at the picture, drinking in every detail, ignoring the generic headline and short article that were placed below it. This amazing woman was why she was here. She smiled excitedly.