2012-11-01 You Reap What You Sow Part 2

The early hours of the 1st of November. If there were any justice in the world, the horrors of Halloween would have faded from memory entirely by now. But this is not a world where justice is a given. It is Gotham City. It is cold, and dark, and miserable. And about forty minutes ago, the two remaining members of the raid on the D&G warehouse made it to this place. 
The building was once a chemical factory in its own right, but that was clearly long ago. The brickwork is studded and cracked with plants that have coiled around the ancient heart of the structure over the years. Nature reclaims everything, given time, and in this dilapidated ruin, the laws of men have been suspended even more firmly than elsewhere. 
What's most worrying of all, though, is that whilst the gaunt building has the exterior look of a place just months from collapse... as of thirty minutes ago, it has sprung back into life. There's a subtle whining hum of interior, private generators. Lights filter through windows covered in a virulent strain of ivy, and the homeless who bed down in the alley outside have moved on, as a subtle, chemical scent oozes from underneath the doors and through broken, shattered glass.
The first step of the plan has not gone as smoothly as it could have... but nature is nothing if not adaptable.
The chill wind, the early hour, these things do nothing to forestall the Dark Knight's pursuit. With Oracle providing surveillance and tracking support after the fleeing duo's little run-in with the angry(?!?) batmobile, Batman quickly picks up the trail, shadowing Ivy's hooligans through the city. With their rather substantial payload slowing them down, their emotions running high as adrenaline levels dip in the aftermath of the confrontation, it's not a difficult pursuit-- even if the Bat is rather notably off his game, that game is played at an exceptional level. 
Muscles ache and protest, leaps that would normally be child's play for Gotham's Knight threaten to drop him to the street, requiring creative application of line and momentum to keep pace, to stay out of sight.. at least from the prey he tracks below. That it leads -here- is hardly a surprise.. not for anything special about the building, but for the trace aroma of customized chemical compounds, the abundant and sudden overinfestation of vines and limbs, the absence of most human company deep in the inner workings of darkest Gotham. 
Blank, unyielding eyeslits narrow dangerously, and perhaps against his better judgement, the Caped Crusader swings in towards the dilapidated structure, conducting a careful scan of its perimeter on his course to that particular rooftop.
Normally such things as fighting crime and investigations are left to Batman and others of a more heroic bent, Catwoman more the type to break laws instead of trying to uphold them. But she's curious. Just what is going on here? She does not really know, only having what details the news had given to go by, those numbering in just enough to pique her curiosity without enough to sate it.
That is why she's here.
Perched upon a roof ledge not far from the old warehouse, Selina watches at first, her attention solely on the ruined building, her mind working in over time as she tries to puzzle this out. After a moment she realizes that she will need to go inside and take a look before anything can be figured out, that being what drives her on, the cat burglar falling from the top of the building in a graceful dive that becomes a slow arching swing, the fall broken as her whip is used as means to slow her descent. Batman's presence is currently unnoticed.
The perimeter is largely clear; the rooftop is covered in moss and twisting ivy, but thankfully that is not in a literal sense. It is what is going on inside the building proper which is ... likely somewhat disturbing to Gotham City's defender (and Catwoman too). 
The chemical factory has had many of its larger remnants cleared aside, and a smaller lab set up in the middle. There, is the barrel of stolen chemicals; bright orange, placed in a carefully monitored storage tank, designed to keep it frozen, and thus keep the contents liquid. Agent Orange is definitely NOT something that Poison Ivy wants getting all over the place. 
Already, though, tubes have been threaded into the barrel, completing a twisting path around and through various colored vials, and the colorless liquid is completing a long distilation process, coming out in a second barrel at the far end of the table. This one, is a bright green. But barely any of the fluid has completed the entire trip. 
In front of the makeshift lab, there is a huge plant some nine feet tall, which Batman most likely recognizes. It is similar to one that Ivy had in her original hideout; a large, closed bulb which is used for the disposal of ... individuals that Ivy no longer has a use for. 
But Ivy seems relatively undefended aside from that. No more hulking plant monsters, at least, even if vines and roots spread out across the former factory. Of the two men who had worked so hard to bring her the bounty she requested, only one is visible, his back to the main entrance to the factory, staring into Ivy's eyes slack-jawed. 
Ivy seems more amused, than anything else. "There is, just one more thing you can do for me, Samuel." She whispers. 
"Anything..." Comes the dumbstruck reply. 
And her lips move in slowly, parting in preparation...
There's a grim set to the Dark Knight's jaw as he surveys the situation as well as he can from outside the hideout, opening a fairly detailed control pad concealed in his glove and setting several quick programs into motion; somewhere in the distance, the refueled Batwing cycles its engines and conducts a detailed systems diagnostic prior to lifting off and heading into the city. |"I'm transmitting payload information for the jet."| The Bat transmits in a low, intent murmur. |"I need it armed yesterday."| When are Batman's mandates -not- urgent? Most of his compatriots would likely say seldom-- if ever. 
Rappelling off the roof's edge and down the side of the factory, the Caped Crusader makes a quick sweep of the circumference of the building, spraying no small amount-- several cannisters worth, if one's counting-- of a particular gel here and there at key structural points. Much of it, nestled in the creeping, invasive, some would say unnatural foliage. It's a process only forestalled by the plight of the last living man he detects in the hideout, at which point the Bat's choices are made for him; it's a phenomenon he's illustrated to Selina before, only catching a glance of the cat burglar before circumstances force his hand, tonight. 
Looking from her, to the scene unfolding behind the ivy-covered window, back to her, Batman simply mouths, "Go." before a sweep of one mighty arm clears enough space for him to tumble into the makeshift lab, immediately disappearing (after the decidedly loud crash of an entrance) into the crumbling floor above Ivy's experiment. "Ivy." The Dark Knight demands, more commandingly; confidently. "Stop this, now. You of all people know where dioxin experimentation ends!" Problem is? She's also /psychotic/. 
The Bat keeps a hand hidden within his cape, near his utility belt, as he carefully creeps... tonight, he's more concerned about moving plant matter than hostile thugs. Only a select few weaponize celery.
Selina's own entry is less dramatic, her own methods less about show and intimidation and more about stealth, all part of her training. Batman is more than fine with making his presence known but she clings to the shadows, moving quietly and swiftly inside. Not that she expects to be totally unnoticed. No, she is more than expecting for Ivy to have some form of security here, something that'll clue the woman into her entering the building proper.
Skirting around the edge of the room, she can hear Batman speak when he tells Ivy to stop, that enough to help her position herself as she bides her time, trying very hard to keep the advantage tipped in her favor. Better for her to remain the wild card, the ace up Batman's sleeve if he's to need it.
"Be a distraction." 
The woman's motion is sudden, violent, and the startled scream of her would-be lover echoes in the warehouse as he is flung to the depridations of the man-eating plant. Vines coil around him, and the giant bulb parts, revealing something far too fleshy, too much like a maw, to be entirely natural. 
Ivy makes no sign of having noticed Selina yet, though. Batman's words have angered her, and the woman responds with her own bluster. Fully expecting him to come and try to save the fool who she had bent to her will, and thus seal his own fate into the bargain. 
"YES, BATMAN." She bellows, "I /KNOW/ where dioxin experimentation ends! This ... filth, would have poisoned, maimed, MURDERED millions of innocent plants. Don't presume to lecture me on this evil." 
Every plant in the building responds to her intense outburst, quivering as though with indignant rage, though there is no immediate attack. If she could concentrate, it is likely Ivy could pinpoint the location of both intruders simply through their proximity to her 'children', but in her current emotional turmoil, there's no chance of that. 
"GO. Leave now. I promise that the only people I'll punish for this, are the ones responsible for producing it. Perhaps..." And now there come the words which solidify, beyond all reasonable doubt, that Poison Ivy really is completely insane. 
"You could help me, lover. We could make sure nobody ever thinks Gotham is a good place to bury their dirty, dangerous secrets ever again."
It's unlikely that Batman meant 'go' in the sense of 'slink stealthily into danger too', but when has Selina ever really listened to him, in the first place? Unlike Ivy, he does detect the catburglar's stealthy defiance, but there's no comment or motion towards it now-- she is, after all, a wildcard. Unlike the other of Gotham's foremost sirens in this nefarious and ominous abode, the Dark Knight is relatively sure that at the least.. Selina doesn't want him dead. "You /know/ I can't let you do that, Isley." There's just a touch of sympathy in the deep resonance that instantly refuses her terms-- it's a tone she's heard before, one shared with few of the Bat's foes. Perhaps only Victor Fries, more prevelantly. 
"Tell me who stored the toxins, I'll make -sure- they're taken down." His version may not be as brutal and final as hers, but she knows he doesn't go easy, either. The Caped Crusader's voice seems to echo off the walls, bouncing here and there as the honed ventriloquism skill he perfected early in his career gives the impression that the Batman can translocate-- or perhaps that there are several of him. "It's not just plants that suffer for it, it's /every/ living thing." 
After all, she's unlikely to believe he's anything but a carrot-hating human lover in the first place. Nonetheless, her predictions are not inaccurate-- as the last of her ill-fated henchmen careens towards the gaping floral maw, the Dark Knight erupts through the ceiling in a shower of rotting wood and splintering crossbeams, landing in the midst of her laboratory with an oversized batarang already flipping open in his hand. 
It's released in a whirring arc, intent on severing the vines drawing the man to his death, "This doesn't have to end this way, Isley!" He never stops trying, does he?
No, Sel rarely listens to Batman, not when she feels he might need her. She remains where she is until she notices that he disappears, that causing her to grit her teeth and draw in a hissing breath in annoyance. "Damn you," she mutters before coming around the support pillar she tucked herself behind, her expression incredulous. "We are going to have a talk once we are through here," she adds before taking to turning on her heel and running.
New plan: try to get to where Batman is now and maybe put a thorn in Ivy's backside in the process. And maybe she'll be lucky and not get turned into plant food at the same time.
The plant-thing actually shrieks when the vines are cut, sticky sap spraying out in all directions as the oversized man-eater thrashes and writhes in immobile agony. The frantic henchman flees as fast as he can. It is a funny thing, but almost being devoured tends to focus the mind somewhat, and all the pheromones in the world won't convince a man to stay around after that. Ivy is more horrified by the damage to her plant, than she is concerned about making sure her former henchman doesn't escape. 
And Batman is really doing a very good job of ensuring that her attention stays on him. 
Vines whip up, slashing forwards to try and wrap around the Dark Knight, whilst Ivy stalks forward. "I almost believed you." She hisses, "But you're just as bad as the rest of them. Hurting my poor baby. ALWAYS putting the lives of the undeserving above the very thing which makes those lives possible." 
The ivy on the floor around Selina whips alarmingly, apparently trying to snare her purely out of bind, imbued instinct; though for a woman of her reflexes it is unlikely she can be caught by undirected shrubbery. 
"Why should I let you, or them, inhabit this world, when you care so little about it?!"
"Life isn't about who /deserves/ it, Isley." The Dark Knight moves fast, faster than almost anyone could manage-- not as fast as he might normally, however, and not fast enough. One vine lashes a wrist, another an ankle. Batman severs the former with his opposite gauntlet's swordbreakers before he's snared from several new directions, "That's.. /not/ my call to make." Muscles strain, but the man-eating plant is rather mighty itself, and the Caped Crusader is already weary from the battle at the warehouse. Every movement burns-- flexing and fighting is straightforward agony. 
Not that any complaint is evident beyond the grit of Batman's teeth, the terse undertone of pain in his voice, if one knows just where to look. "It's not /yours/ either. You need help, Isley. Hasn't the world been soaked in enough blood already? How far has it really taken us?" Rational words come steadily despite his state, mental acuity not (yet?) suffering. At some point the Dark Knight stops really fighting the plant, instead just holding his ground, digging in his heels clear of the angry maw. 
"If I didn't care, I wouldn't be in here." The Bat points out steadily, locking cowled gaze on Ivy. Why doesn't he struggle harder? Well. "I've already put a plan in motion to bring this place down, contain and neutralize your chemical agents, and in the process it would exterminate every mutated plant -here-." Beat. "It would have been a lot easier to handle that from /outside/." For a vigilante so skilled in theatricality and deception... sometimes the Batman is just -brutally- honest.
It takes longer than Catwoman likes but she eventually finds Batman and Ivy, her efforts in doing so hindered some by the writhing plantlife that whipped about her legs. Once she's arrived she's pissy and not entirely feeling up to playing nice, that furthered when she sees Batman's snared and Ivy is there as well, her body tensing as the anger within her grows hotter. "Oh Ivy. When will you learn that you might be able to catch a man but with that ugly attitude of yours..."
Her hand drops to her hip and her whip is pulled from its place on her person, the length of which is allowed to uncoil upon the ground. "Let Batman go and we will leave your plants alone." And if Ivy doesn't? Chances are things will go from bad to fugly in no time flat.
"What did you do?" 
For a psychotic eco-terrorist, Ivy is surprisingly easy to manipulate. The threat to her beloved plantlife; the implication that even if she does finish it, here and now, her plants will pay the price, does not unnoticed. The plant ceases trying to reel Batman in, instead holding the caped crusader as steadily as it can. 
When Selina makes herself known, though, the green woman turns on the spot. Her eyes narrow, and she shakes her head. "/I/ don't want him here." She spits, "I don't know what game you're playing, little kitten, but this doesn't concern you. I just need six more hours to complete the distilation process, and then you can have your little bat toy back." 
She turns, suddenly, to face Batman. Which leaves her quite open to the woman with the whip, but perhaps she just doesn't see a whip as that much of a threat. Or maybe she trusts that her proximity to the man will keep her safe. "Now call off whatever you've set in motion!"
It's something that Batman may have come to rely on, where Ivy is concerned, where Freeze is concerned-- they have a cause, and twisted as it may have become, it's still at the core of what makes them tick. There's an all but unseen wince when Catwoman steps out of the shadows and interjects into the conversation, a wildcard indeed. The Dark Knight shifts his gaze to her only a moment, before turning that unreadable stare back Ivy's way, "You don't have six hours, Isley. You don't have six -minutes-." That may well be as close as the Caped Crusader gets to answering her question directly. What did he do, indeed? 
"Tell me who was storing the Agent beside the Harbor." /There's/ the vengeful intonation that the Bat is most famous for. It's all too clear that he hates the very idea of it. "Maybe I'd rather burn us /all/ out of here than let you finish your plans with that toxin." She was, he's keenly aware, after a MUCH larger payload than what she got-- he has to entertain the likelihood that the agents in charge of the haphazard storage operation is a refocused consolation prize. 
The Bat's muscles remain taut, not so much struggling against the fearsome foliage of his foe, as doing his damndest to give no more ground to the deadly plant; either deadly plant. "You're in no position to be making demands here, Ivy." There's a surface level of irony, given the Dark Knight's state. "Even if you -could- beat us both, you'd be too late."
"Batman's right, Ivy. You have ran out of time." The whip is still held in hand but Selina doesn't use it yet, the thief instead hoping her being here as well as Batman will convince the plant-aligned women to spill the beans. Her attention is divided, however as she has one eye on Ivy and the other on Batman, the latter so she can make sure he'll be okay. "Might as well just tell him what you want. If you're lucky, you'll get a cell in Arkham that has some kind of southern exposure."
For a few seconds, there is silence. Ivy looks between Catwoman and Batman, and her expression darkens considerably. Things had been going, if not perfectly, at least well enough. Now, she is placed in an impossible position. 
"You'd do it, too." She says, and her voice matches her mood. She's never known Batman to make an idle threat, and she's got no intention of being Selina's scratching post. 
"No man can resist me. No man... except you. The one man who I, can't have." There's a long, slow exhale. Does she even need to breathe? And she tosses her hair back. 
"I'll give you all the evidence I have. Including the sample." She says, at last. "But despite what the kitty says, I'm not going back to Arkham. I want your word that you, and her, will leave. And that you won't do anything to this warehouse." Batman might /say/ that she can't bargain... but she could always leave, if it came to it. If he's set plans in motion to burn this place to the ground anyway, she might as well tie them up and leave them to whatever fate he had in mind for her children!
There's no sign in the Bat's stern visage that he -wouldn't- do it, that's for sure. It's a gamble one has to make carefully, threats are a weapon with only a single shot, called on it? One either has to shoot, and lose their leverage; or not shoot, and lose their leverage. Either way, the gambit plays out to its end perhaps sooner than the Dark Knight might prefer. "I may be the first, Isley, but I won't be the last." It's somewhere closer to warning than any murmur of pride-- if she continues on her path, not every mind is so pliable as the ones she's made her henchcrew out of. The Dark Knight is /certain/ of that much. 
"You know how this ends." He begins, answering her offered bargain, "The men.." the gender-specific term is likely very consciously chosen, "you're after are criminals, possibly even war criminals. You know I won't rest until they're brought down. You know I won't rest until you are, either, if you continue this mad crusade." 
Still, Batman is keenly aware of the precarious nature of his own bargaining position-- not only would he be reluctant to set explosive fire to the entire warehouse with Selina (more than himself) inside, releasing Agent Orange and the chlorine and alkaloid payload necessary to neutralize its spread? Just a bad night all around. "Consider this your one chance to walk away." It's agreement, after a fashion. "/After/ I have that information."
Batman's demeanor and threats are not unfamiliar to Selina, someone else he has used similar tactics on in the past. She doesn't interrupt now, letting him work his magic on the crazy one while she looks around, trying to figure out just what she can do to help. Assuming there is anything she can do, of course.
Ivy is inched a bit closer to although Sel takes great pains in making herself come across as non-threatening as possible, her own intention being to make her casually-paced approache look like nervous pacing. In the end she concludes that the only thing she can do is make a grab for her if it looks like Isley might try to bolt, her own speed something that just might help in detaining her if necessary. "I know you don't want it to end like this, Ivy," she recommends gently once Bats is done. "Give him the information and then we can go. All three of us. On our seperate ways."
Ivy gives Selina a long look. Her bearing could not be much more tense, or threatening. In the end, though, she turns. Slow, measured steps take her towards an older computer, certainly nothing so extravagant as the sort used by Batman, but then, you can't easily steal supercomputers. A small USB stick is tugged from the back, and she, oh-so-very-carefully, lifts the canister of concentrated death from its confinement. 
Both are placed down in front of Batman, and only then do the vines retract. 
"The chemical marking indicates the factory." She says, "But not the batch. De'Gayle and Gype Chemicals. I couldn't find out who their customer is. If they're manufacturing this, though..." 
She turns sharply on her heel, and walks back to the bulb of the plant. The oozing, slashed vines. Her eyes close, and she presses her lips against them, stroking over the body of the beast tenderly. "Get out of my sight." She whispers, "BOTH, of you. Just, go. Before I change my mind." 
An empty, weak threat, which doesn't even sound convincing to her own ears. It isn't that she doesn't trust Batman to do what he believes he must. She's confident that he'll do just that; that the criminals will face the full penalty of the law. 
She just doesn't believe that justice will be served, at all.
As the vines release him, the Dark Knight takes a moment to shrug off the tension and lingering hurt, rubbing one arm with the opposite hand, and then repeating the process inverted-- get the blood flowing, loosen the injured muscles, keep him from doing something unseemly like succumbing to painful spasms in the midst of this uneasy alliance built on a rather dangerous bluff. The flash drive is plucked up first, and tucked away in a secure compartment near the back of his utility belt, hidden within the flowing borders of his cape. "I'll find them. The extract, as well." He wants to know what she's making out of it, after all; more than that, the Caped Crusader doesn't want to leave her with the refined weapon. He's not the only master chemist in Gotham City. 
It's impossible to hide a bit of the strain in dragging the barrel of ultra lethal toxin towards the nearest window, however, the sound of the Batmobile audible somewhere beyond. "Think about what I said, Isley." Batman doesn't hesitate to press his luck, just a little-- besides, it adds to the illusion that he was completely in control of the situation the entire time! No really. "There's always room for more death in the world, it's endless." Not justice, not in the Bat's book. 
Batman's attention shifts to Selina as he rights his stance and awaits the final piece of this particular puzzle, "I had this under control, you know." Batman asides, more quietly. Which is to say it was only his own life at tremendous risk, and thanks for the help anyway.
"We are not your enemies, Ivy," Selina points out as she turns away, her eyes lowered as she prepares to leave. "All you need to do is... change your ways," she adds, mimicking Batman by dropping her voice, adding a slight gruffness to her words. Yes, she's doing it to jab a bit at Gotham's hero, a little joke although he'll probably see it as being anything /but/ funny.
When they start to head out and Batman speaks to her she can not help but to snort, a derisive sounds that erupts from her. "I could tell," she grumbles in annoyance, the taller figure looked at only briefly. "You can thank me for..." Realizing that she really didn't do anything to help this time, Selina shrugs and merely says, "You know where to find me." A quick glance is tossed over a shoulder to make sure Ivy isn't going to try something while their backs are turned before Selina runs off, the whip allowed to trail behind.
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