joan_of_bark | A Chemical Plant Near the Chesapeake Bay, Thursday Evening

Unmakings took time.

She knew that. Had always known that. Poison Ivy had spent weeks feeding spores into the systems that supplied a place just like this, not even a year ago, letting them spread into the bodies and bones of those inside. Letting them pull together, however unwittingly, into a colony, into something she could mold.

Unmake.

(But then there had been a young blonde woman on the floor, so achingly resembling--)

(Why... why do you want to hurt me?)

But she had made Janet a promise, of sorts. To be a monster, but only to those who deserved it. Not to the little ants running around inside that hulking cage of metal and acrid smoke, with their little lives that harmed little in the space of all things. To embrace some humanity (sentimentality), for once.

(She knew herself better than that. Knew that it wasn't about the promise to Janet, but the promise to herself, to grow, to rise, to genuinely improve what could be improved, instead of lashing out.)

So out in the marshes, she waited. An access pass sat snugly within a pocket on her overalls, stolen from some poor sap in a bar who couldn't believe his luck. (He was alive, too.) Should she wait for that dark-haired woman with her dangerous hands?

Probably not. She always worked best alone, and the vegetation here stood tall, vulnerable to deadly fingers. So Ivy righted herself, and let the vegetation move with her as she walked the last half-mile into the belly of the beast.

Not an unmaking, but a precision strike.

It was a place to start.

[[ nfb due to distance. open for interaction only to those aware of the situation, if they wish ]]

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From:

joan_of_bark

Ivy turned her head, and narrowed her eyes.

"Yes," she said.

She moved quickly, after that. Flooding the camera with lamia.

"There," she said. "Now we can overload the systems running this place."

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia moved further into the room once the camera was fully covered, looking around, trying to make sense of the systems in question.

This was not a part that she held any delusions about being very helpful with.

From:

joan_of_bark

"This facility is old. It won't take much," Ivy said coolly. She walked over to the terminal. She held no illusions about doing anything particularly intricate to it-- but with a swipe of the card, she got in, and she could at least bring the power down to zero.

Stop the heart from pumping.

"There," she said. "And now we do it the old-fashioned way-- we break things."

She reached for a pipe. Gripped it tightly. And let the lamia push into its weaknesses, wrenching it open.

From:

knightinshinarmor

The facility was old, yes, and full of large, dusty duct work along with all those pipes.

In one of the ducts, a figure in black paused, red-on-black eyes narrowing as he listened to the all-too-familiar sounds of tearing metal.

Looked like he wasn't the only one who'd had the idea to infiltrate this place tonight.

He picked up the pace, crawling past the vent to the CEO's office on his way to the server room, where he would plant his bug.

You know, assuming the server room was still functioning when he got there.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia hadn't moved yet. She was eyeing the newly torn metal.

"You think breaking the pipes like that is safe now?"

As much as any of this was safe for them.

From:

joan_of_bark

"Gas pressure sits at zero percent," Ivy said clinically. "But you're free to wait outside, if you want."

From:

okteiviakom

It was occurring to Octavia that she should have demanded a better mission briefing. Oh well. "Not all of us can read this shit," she rasped, with a nod towards the terminals.

Followed by grabbing the most convenient heavy-looking thing near her.

From:

joan_of_bark

"I wasn't planning to get you killed." Ivy's voice was a shrug, though, even if that heavy length of pipe Octavia had found got a nod of approval.

She moved on to the next pipe.

(She was trying to get as few people as possible killed, for once.)

From:

okteiviakom

"I don't know you."

Octavia's voice was about as dispassionate as Ivy's had been. (Only a faint noise in the back of her brain trying to say she should have cared more about that.)

She went to town on some of the pipes on her side of the room. Destructive aggression was easy. So was swinging a heavy thing of metal, even if that obviously took more effort for Octavia than it would've been for Ivy.

From:

joan_of_bark

"No, but if I wanted to kill you, I have more straightforward ways."

She let the fungus slip into the electrical systems.

"And blowing myself up seems like a stupid idea."

From:

okteiviakom

"Depends on the motive," Octavia replied, wrenching a pipe open.

No point in commenting on the wide range of things between not planning to get someone killed, and actively wanting them dead. But she still thought about it.

From:

joan_of_bark

"My motive is making sure this place shuts down with minimal loss of life," Ivy replied. The wires above sparked and frayed, a red light in the corner lit up...

...and then the room went dark as the power shut off.

From:

knightinshinarmor

Remy bit back a curse as the server room went dark.

Well. He was reasonably certain his program had taken hold.

Either way, time to make his way out of here!

From:

okteiviakom

And where the darkness had started, Octavia blinked into it, a reflexive effort to force her eyes to adjust before her hand went for her phone.

"Well. That worked."

From:

joan_of_bark

It had. Good. Ivy turned around, her own pheromones guiding the way - she didn't need sight.

"And now what little security this place has is probably on its way," she said. "Time to move. Upstairs. Fast."

She was already heading for the door.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia was not so blessed, so it took her a second longer. The screen on her phone lit up first, then the flashlight.

Then she was moving to follow.

From:

joan_of_bark

"What the hell is going on there?!"

Another flashlight pierced through the darkness, from the other side of the hallway they'd come in through. Clearly a lone security guard, barging his way down the stairs.

Ivy sighed. She turned into the corridor anyway, approaching. "Nothing you need to worry about."

A soft scent of something special carried on the air, drifting towards the man. No need to make this painful.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia wondered, idly, whether she should've kept the pipe she'd been wielding and had left behind for being cumbersome.

She was on alert, staying behind Ivy, but --

Something in her was curious about how this would play out.

From:

joan_of_bark

Something in the guard's face shifted abruptly. The alarm faded away, and left behind... something besotted?

"Of course not," he said, dreamily. "I'm so sorry, you beautiful, incredible creature!"

He stepped out of Ivy's way. "Anything you want..."

She offered him a businesslike smile. And then headed past him, up the stairs.

From:

okteiviakom

... Whatever Octavia had been expecting, it wasn't that.

She looked wary - not that anyone was watching her - as she slipped past the man onto the stairs, giving him a wide berth just in case, as incapacitated and distracted as he seemed. "How long before that wears off?"

From:

joan_of_bark

"It'll be a while, depending on his constitution," Ivy said. She was moving fast. "Enough time for us to get to the top floor, and hopefully make our escape."

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia had no problem keeping up, even with the cone of light showing her the way swinging a little with every hurried step.

"Good."

She could have asked what it was Ivy had actually done, but it didn't feel relevant.

From:

joan_of_bark

The sound of more footsteps. Two people? Three. They became louder as Ivy hit the second floor. "Two more floors up," she said, voice low, so it wouldn't carry.

Hopefully, they could outpace these people.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia sure seemed willing to give it her best go. Not that she felt particularly worried about two or three people. She'd faced worse - and thought, in a flash, about the stretch of corridor right outside the hydroponic farm, where she'd dealt with the uprising, body after body hitting the floor.

With the limited vision provided by the flashlight, all flashes of metal and concrete floor, it was easy to feel like she was right back in the b--

She stumbled, on the last step onto the second floor, but caught herself. Just barely.