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

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.

From:

joan_of_bark

Ivy paused, halfway up the next flight of stairs, and looked down. "Careful."

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia gave a vague grunt, both acknowledgement and a mask for the second or two it took her to gather herself, like shaking off a dream.

(Nightmare. Nightmare, right?)

And then she was moving again, to catch up.

From:

joan_of_bark

That brief pause had been enough to make those footsteps a whole lot louder.

One more floor to go.

Ivy moved faster, ignoring the yelling below.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia paid it no particular mind either. Just let it boost the adrenaline already coursing in her veins.

She did her best to stay at Ivy's heels, ignoring the way her thighs were beginning to tell her she was pushing too far. One more floor was easy.

From:

joan_of_bark

And there was the landing. Ivy whirled to the left, her ponytail flicking with her, a point of red in the dark.

She pushed open a door. Light shone out into the corridor. (Of course the CEO had a generator.)

"What on Earth--?" There was a small (he seemed small) dark-haired man at the desk, his eyes huge. "Security!"

"They're on the way," she said dryly. "They won't save you."

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia made sure the door closed after her, then scanned the room for something to push in front of it for good measure. Slow down the loud people still on the stairs.

This wasn't her moment for pithy comments.

From:

knightinshinarmor

Remy had taken his time on his way from the server room, careful not to draw any attention from the folks now running around the facility. He paused by the vent in the CEO’s office again, surprised — but somehow not — to see who was busting in.

“I’d take her word for that,” he said, dropping from the vent into a crouch on the far side of the CEO from the two women. “She seems pretty serious.”

From:

joan_of_bark

Ivy's gaze snapped away from the man behind the counter to the newcomer who'd just-- come out of nowhere. In that split second, the little black-haired man took off, rushing towards the door.

(Nice job, Remy.)

Maybe he could get there before Octavia got to that half-sized wooden cabinet two feet away?

From:

okteiviakom

Well, he could try.

And he could also get his legs kicked out from underneath him by Octavia's boot connecting with the side of his knee.

"Don't think so."

From:

knightinshinarmor

Remy noted the skill of that attack with a slight tilt of his head. He wasn’t sure exactly what these two had planned or which side of it he preferred to be on — but considering it had been talking to Pam that had inspired him to rob this place in the first place, he was willing to see where it was going rather than rush into any heroing.

“Have a seat, mon ami.” Well. He was already on the floor. Remy went ahead and telescoped his bo staff, planting the end by the CEO’s hand to discourage him from getting up. “Let’s hear these ladies out, hmm?”

From:

joan_of_bark

Ivy made a noise - disdainful, irritated - and walked over to join them.

"You've been dumping illegal waste into the water for decades," she said. "Now, we've already done enough damage that you won't be able to get this facility working again for some time."

She squatted down, looking him right in his terrified face. "You're not going to try. Or we'll come back."

On the other side of the door, a set of boots landed on the fourth floor.

"You're psychos!" the man roared. "I'm going to have you all arrested!"

From:

okteiviakom

"We could do worse," Octavia rasped, the cabinet now blocking the door some of the way. Enough to slow down the people on the other side, without being too much of a problem for getting out. "You should be grateful."

From:

knightinshinarmor

Remy tsked. “Here I was hoping we’d be friends.” He pulled out his phone and shook his head. “Though I guess I ruined that chance when I took all your money.”

He showed the man the phone screen. And the app, showing the company’s accounts draining to zero.

From:

joan_of_bark

The man tried to scramble back towards the door. "Guards!" he yelled. "Guards!"

Well, Ivy reflected. This was some unexpected teamwork.

"What did I tell you?" she said idly, as her hair seemed to catch flame, as hyphae wound its way around her body and fruiting bodies of fungus sprouted from her chest. Her voice twisted into something wet and dark, like the deep soil of the forest. "They won't save you."

He screamed.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia was still at the door, too. Guy had to be desperate to think he ever had a chance - and that was without anyone knowing Ivy could do that.

Not that Octavia knew what the guy with the eyes knew or didn't know. She had a vague guess that she might have served him at the club one time, but that was it, and it wasn't like she even remembered he was in the room right now at all, because...

Because she was staring up at Ivy in awe. Textbook definition, too, every version. Veneration, wonder, and a sprinkling of the sort of fear prey animals probably felt.