A/N: I'll be honest and admit that this has been kind of a backburner project for a while and I'm releasing it into the wild because it just wasn't too any damn good hanging out on my hard drive. Both me and my co-writer are pressed for free time these days, so... not trying to be the "ten comments or I don't update!" asshole here... but if there isn't any interest in it, I'll probably let it die, at least for the foreseeable future. So if you like it, you want to see more, let me know, otherwise, go back to whatever it is you were doing before this story came into your life. Probably watching cat videos. I don't know.
CHAPTER 1: WHERE DOES AN EIGHT HUNDRED POUND GORILLA SIT?
Were anyone watching, they would not believe that Mari Jiwe McCabe was a supermodel. It wasn't a lack of beauty that was the issue. Even in a sports bra and track pants, her dark skin covered in sweat, a quick photograph of her could be hung in an art gallery in the world. Nor was it her age. Although mature by industry standards, she had a grace and elegance that only came with experience, and was not wanting for contracts, even with her rigorous standards for how she and any other models on a shoot with her would be treated.
No, the problem would be seeing Mari in the first place. She was running so fast that her arms and legs blurred together, her torso and head a shimmer of vibrant motion. Her treadmill, though specifically designed by Kord Industries, was hard-pressed to keep up, and it was only the fact that she was running in place that kept her by and large visible. Were she running outside, and a random camera phone or camcorder happened to catch her, a layperson's first thought would be of the Flash family.
Mari was the costumed superhero Vixen, a Justice Leaguer whose vodun animal spirits allowed her to channel their power through her Tantu Totem. Usually, she used this power to fight injustice, but occasionally—when there was free food and few cameras—she appropriated the appetite of a panda bear and packed on the pounds. And after a comfortable interval of laziness, she took on the metabolism of a hummingbird and ran the weight off in a few hours. And that redheaded snip of a model thought she was bulimic. What was her name again? She'd had almost the same initials as Mari...
Stopping abruptly, she leapt smoothly off the treadmill before it could propel her through the back wall. She landed cleanly as the high-tech exercise machine automatically powered down, and patted her stomach—once more flat as North Dakota. She habitually kept her ears slightly pointed with the summoned hearing of a wolf, wanting to hear any possible danger before it got within six miles, as well as the ring of her JLA communicator. On scantily-clad photoshoots, she often couldn't keep it on her person.
Not a problem now. She'd left it on the floor beside the treadmill. Toweling off, she tapped it with her toe. "This is Vixen. What's up, Peej? Just feeling lonesome?"
Knowing her friend well, she could feel Power Girl's amused blush over the comm channel. "There's a break-in at the Hub City division of STAR Labs. Seems like just one assailant. You want to handle it or should I call in the Big Seven?"
"Hub City's my hunting ground. Let the League sleep, this one's all mine. Unless you want to beam down here. Watch my ass."
Power Girl giggled. I knew it, Mari thought to herself. A straight woman with cleavage like that shouldn't have any trouble getting a boyfriend—not to mention all that time she'd spent with Oracle, the biggest power dyke outside of Regina Mills. Yeah, she and Peej were on more than one of the same teams.
"I can keep an eye on your ass from up here."
"That's why I wear the skintight suit, babe."
***
Old favorite: flying squirrel. Sure, she could fly, but there was just something about gliding—letting gravity have a hold on her and just ignoring it to jump from rooftop to rooftop.
In record time, she was in the little market district that STAR Labs ruled over; a mall with packs of storefronts and parking spaces to tend to the needs of the science campus's several hundred employees. The campus itself was dominated by a trademark laboratory—a great cylinder of self-contained arcology, supposedly impregnable. Nothing got in and nothing got out, not without forms filled out in triplicate.
Vixen supposed whoever'd put the smoldering hole in the side of the building hadn't heard that part. Stretching out her limbs, she glided down to the fence separating the building from the forest beyond, perching and channeling eagle eyes to scout out the area. No sign of injured parties, nor could she pick up irregular heartbeats or other signs of trauma. STAR Labs' protocol had worked; the employees must've all retreated to panic rooms. Of course, that also meant on-site security had decided to live to guard another day. Whoever she was up against was not a C-lister.
She thumbed on her belt-mounted communicator. "Peej, you seeing this?"
"Uh-huh. Want back-up now?"
"I have every animal you've ever seen on the Discovery Channel for back-up. But keep your finger on the button."
"Consider the button fingered."
Was she flirting back? Well now. Maybe she would be seeing some nightcap to go with her thrilling heroics. Assuming she didn't happen upon some stunningly beautiful damsel in need of undistressing.
Grasshopper: She jumped the proportionate distance to the hole mid-way up the building, landing on the debris sprayed inside the hallway. It was hard to balance on, which was why when the gorilla charged, she couldn't pull a roadrunner.
Tiger: she clawed the shit out of his chest as he collided with her, carrying them both right back out the building. Tossed her aside in mid-air and, by rote, she assumed Cat to land on her feet.
So did he.
Vixen checked him out in the damaged parking lot of the arcology, amidst a fleet of cars hailed on by rubble. Far too large for a normal gorilla, without the hue of the Ultra-Humanite, and with a score of old scars covering his thick hide.
Grodd.
He set aside some whatever-it-was from a sling around his back... looked like a telescope from the set of Star Trek. Unencumbered, he stumped his big hairy fists on the ground. "Soon, gorilla will take the world from man, as it always should've been!" Blah blah blah. "When the takeover comes, which shall you be: foodstuff or... toy?"
He was staring at her breasts. Mari supposed she should've been flattered that her sex appeal transcended species but hell, she wasn't Starfire or anything. "You know, you've ruined Planet of the Apes for me? I used to think a planet ruled by monkeys would be kinda neat. But you are just no Dr. Zaius."
Again, the 'King Kong pounding on the pavement' bit. It cracked. Mari gulped. Still, no need to look bad in front of Power Girl. She put all her totem into Gorilla, her arms elongating and thickening until they settled on the ground. "Okay, Magilla. Let's make this a fair fight. You animal enough to face me?"
The sustained roar answered her. She would've responded in kind, but she was a lady after all. He rushed her, clambering over the cars in the way, and she charged him.
In the Watchtower, Power Girl watched on satellite read-out as the two collided, circled each other, pounded their own chests. With tits like Vixen's, that had to hurt.
Poison Ivy too watched as they pounded into each other, meaty fists flailing, flinging each other about like rag dolls into parked cars and chunks of scattered masonry. But she was far closer. And somewhat more appreciative of Vixen's charms.
Grodd was the veteran when it came to fighting in this form. Picking up Vixen, he slammed her down on a cherry Corvette once, twice, three times.
"Fight well," he admonished. "I may allow you to become my mate."
Vixen kicked out with her boot, catching him in the thigh and sending him staggering back. "Man, I know about gorillas and their 'proportions'. If your action figure was anatomically correct, it'd still be a Ken doll."
With a roar, Grodd struck out with his mind. Telekinetic force hit Vixen and drove her back, rolling her off the car and onto a ground strewn with shattered glass. Only the body armor of an abalone saved her from shredding her skin.
"Oh, so we're doing the psychic thing?" she asked. As long as he was cheating...
Channeling the jaw of a hyena, Vixen leapt for him. He swung at her, a backhand that would've taken a man's head off, but she was too fast all on her own. She ducked under it and bit into his arm.
Hyena's jaws were stronger than those of lions, tigers, or wolves. They could crush elephant bones. Hers easily sunk into Grodd's hide deep enough to snap the bone. He shrieked in agony as she drew back, now calling on the strength of a blue whale. People didn't commonly think of whales as strong, but it took a lot of power to survive the water pressure of the depths, to move all that blubber. One swing punched him through four cars.
When he came to a stop, wolf's ears told her he was snoring. Now to check on the tech. She looked over where Grodd had set it down—she was sure it hadn't shifted in the fight—but all she saw was a bit of moss growing on the car door it'd been leaning against. I don't suppose it's some kind of agricultural experiment...
Quick as a whip, a tentacle snagged her foot and pulled it out from under her. Her chin bounced off the hood of a car before she hit the ground, looked down to see it was a vine right out of the rain forest.
Poison Ivy.
The woman herself came strolling out of the woods, through a hole her vines had made in the fence. She was just the kind of woman Mari might've gone for under different circumstances. Women in the circles she traveled in tended to be either tall and lean, like herself, or big and muscular like Big Barda. Either could be fun, but damnit, she was shallow. It was her right to be, she was a model. And sometimes, she wanted a lover, not a fighter.
Ivy was certainly that. Her body seemed built for nothing but sex. Long, toned legs that led inexorably up to a heart-shaped ass, her breasts full and firm and overflowing from her body into her clothes, though her skin was covered only in the curlicuing vines of her namesake. Her green-tinted skin and red-burnished hair lent her an exotic quality that Mari would've loved to explore further.
With each approaching step, the leaves on her vines shifted in the wind, flashing at Mari hints of nipples and other lusciously bared flesh. She even thought she could see Ivy's clover-toe.
"Mmmm. Vixen." Ivy chewed on a fingernail. "Thank you for taking out Grodd. I thought I really would have to follow through with his plan and help him take over the world. I'm sure you'll agree, anything is better than men in charge, but at the end of the day, a bunch of gorillas running things is pretty much just people with worse body odor." She batted her eyelashes. "Now, however can I reward you?"
Mari wasn't stupid. She could feel Ivy's pheromones going to work on her. Nipples tingling. Pulse racing. Clit hardening. It was like Wonder Woman had walked into the room. "Not gonna work, Ivy. I'd die first."
Ivy ran her finger from her full lips down to... oh God... she moved the vines right out of the way with that finger. "Then why not go out with a bang?"
