ic Green with Envy (IC)

[Gizmo]

"Hey, I was trying to, but teenagers, amirite?" Jack pointed out as he deftly flipped and tumbled his way through the chaos to stand next to the Green Man. "Making me feel like an old man; I should just stock up on cardigans and sweater-vests now." With a theatrical snap, the energy manipulating swashbuckler pulled a tongue of flame from the bonfire to solidify into a wicked looking blade in his hand. "You wanna talk? Talk. You got about five seconds before Dead Head and I find out how many limbs we have to chop off to really slow you down."

[quotemyname]

"And I suggest you make it the truth this time. All of it." Breakdown was suddenly standing on the rock once more. He was poised with his feet spread wide and one of his palms outstretched towards the hostile trees.

"I don't suppose I have to tell you that if you try anything stupid, you're gonna get it."

[Dariusprime]

The Green Man grinned. Oh yes, a true, maniacal grin that villains practice. This one was a doozy one, aimed directly at the scintillating swordsman. Ignoring Breakdown and the zombie man, the tree leaned down slightly, "Good...good."

Sprig rumbled as Jack approached his master, but seemed to be otherwise occupied just keeping track of him. The animated trees just stood there. Their little minds were completely overwhelmed by the situation, and since The Green Man didn't give them many smarts, they continued being stupid.

Drawing up to his full height and haughtiness, he changed to full preacher mode, only slightly patronizing, "You all have keen ears for mammals. You want the truth? Very well! The Prophecy is afoot this very night! The Prophecy of the Green Star! You have all seen it. A meteorite with a green tail split into many and crashed into this very forest! The power held within it is not of this world or even universe. Long before humans or even animals walked this earth, a piece of the Green Star entered our world and crashed onto the barren land. From that rock came The Green and all the life the followed from it!"

After a suitably dramatic pause, the Master of Plants continued, gaining enthusiasm and volume, "The Star is all consuming! Either we consume the Green Star now or it will destroy us all. Just imagine resetting this world's evolution back to the time of the first land plants. Only this time, all the plants will make this vine monstrosity seem like a dandelion." The great tree gnashed its teeth, "And since so few know about the existence of the Prophecy, the Star's power, or the ability to control it, I'm your only real option for containing a world-destroying plague."

Meanwhile, on the back swing of Dead Head's shovel, the handle warped. By the time he could get a look at it, the handle started leafing out, shimmying like a snake, and a large orange flower opened with a primitive eye staring out at him. Small tendrils began wrapping around the zombie's arm and trying to burrow inside! Well, he would make great fertilizer...

[Gizmo]

Jack let out a low whistle and shook his head slowly. "Wow, yeah, that sound like some rough stuff. Guess we'd better let you do your thing." A beat later, he snapped his fingers facetiously. "Ooh, or hey, Plan B!" The swashbuckler turned to Hellion. "Kid! One order of space-squick sauté!"

[quotemyname]

"Wait!" Breakdown called out from on top of the rock in an attempt to forestall his teammates. "He may not be telling the whole truth, but if he's not lying then it means we could be in worse trouble without him.

Without dropping his hands which were poised to attack, Breakdown turned back to the Green Man. "Explain. Or we will fry you."

[Dr Archeville]

"Dagnabbit, I just got this shovel, too," the zombie muttered.

From a dumpster full of discarded defective shovels, yes -- the paint used on those shovels was from a bad batch -- but it was still new to him!

"What're you lookin' at?," he deadpanned to the eye-flower.

He seemed unconcerned, for the moment, that it as growing into him.

I should probably be more concerned about that... but we got bigger things to worry about right now.

[Cyroa]

James just nodded at Jack in agreement. The Green Man was about wiping people out and stuff. Anything he wanted, couldn't be good for anyone but him. And if this other plant thing was a problem, well, the heroes would just deal with that too. He seriously doubted the Green Man had anything productive to offer. And if they did need some plant expertise to pull this off, Fleur was standing right there. And she was way more attractice that bark brain over there.

But instead of voicing any of that, he lunged forward, summoning the Blade to his hand as he swung with all his strength. he wasn't some uber-goodie-goodie who needed to shout out loud or play fair. James was perfectly happy with a sneak attack if it got the job done.

[Dariusprime]

Hellion's attack may or may not have been a sneak attack, but it certainly got the job done. The Green Man opened his mouth to elaborate when large, cindered pieces of his new bark sparkled in front of his eyes. Instead of saying anything, he simply froze up and toppled over backwards into the arms of Sprig. Oh, no, the behemoth wasn't dead. The Black Blade was incredibly lethal, yes, but the massive creature managed to shrug off the worst of its effects. Still he was certainly down for the count.

Sprig cradled The Green Man almost reverently. "Father? Father. Father! Wake!" The animated trees began milling about, looking at each other as if trying to decide what, if anything, to do now that their master was incapacitated.

Meanwhile the flower-eye bobbed up-and-down as Dead Head spoke to it. The roots continued burrowing into his rotting flesh, but narrow, long leaves followed the flower. They wove around his arm and touched his chin. Yes, well, uhm, the flower seemed to really like Dead Head...that way.

[Dr Archeville]

Dead Head glared at the eye-flower, and wagged a finger at it. "Hey now: I'm tellin' you what I've told all them Goth girls, I ain't not biophiliac!"

Now he started tearing out the roots from his flesh.

Looks like Hell-Boy's got this under control, an' what he don't burn or Eddie don't blast, Fleur can manage.

"Let go, ya varmint! I'd let ya be my dog, but not my girl!"

[Dariusprime]

As if consciously defying the zombie, the plant animated the full handle of the shovel and wrapped it around his arm. Tightly. Thankfully he didn't have to worry about blood flow. Nonetheless the little beast seemed disappointed at Dead Head's response, and willingly uprooted itself only to sprout more flowers. They looked around the clearing.

The main flower twisted as if somehow understanding a little of the zombie's speech. If left to its own devices, the plant-infected 'sat' like a good dog, on his arm, and behaved.

[Dariusprime]

"Father! Father!" Sprig cradled the injured Green Man, but his father and master didn't quickly stir. The tree looked down at Hellion with eyes of pure, unbridled hatred. Unceremoniously dropping its father, hate replacing love, murderous intent glared at the hellspawn. If the over-sized monstrosity could cry, tears would be streaming down its barked face.

"Ignorant! Stupid!" Raising a huge leg, it tried stomping the evil insect. Not once but over-and-over again until there was no escape. All thoughts of finesse or safety were out the window. All it wanted to do was crush the monster that injured its father! Yeah, that thing was really and truly pissed.

With the first stomp, Sprig screamed, "Kill!", the second, "The!" and on the third, "Monsters!"

Realization slowly dawned on the animated trees that, with the Green Man incapacitated, as well as Twig, Sprig was their new commander. With the agonizingly drawn-out speed of a leafing tree, the animated trees turned to face the heroes. The ones further out, still rooted in the spring soil, began ripping themselves loose.

"Destroy!" echoed the uniform chant.

And somewhere, in the strange aura permeating the woods, a feeling like something watching, a malevolent presence, turned its evil attention toward the bonfire and battle.

[quotemyname]

"Called it!" Breakdown said. He wound up and threw his palm out toward the living tree. "Watch out everyone!"

The blast of sound flew out of his hand and rocketted towards sprig.

[Gizmo]

"Gee, looks like meaningful dialogue has broken down into senseless violence," Jack drawled as he feinted to one side before bringing his searing blade into the animated tree's bark with a single powerful thrust. "Woulda thunk it?" The fiery rapier cut through the plant matter with ease, burying itself deep into the swashbuckler's opponent before he withdrew it in a brutal arc, sap and wooden fragments trailing in its wake.

[Cyroa]

James just grinned. "Well, we know violence works." He summoned forth a ball of fire, bouncing it idly in his hands. "And sometimes it's fun too!" He whipped his hand forward, sending a stream of little balls of fire at the last leafy combatant.

[Dariusprime]

Sprig whipped its mighty arms in front of its face even as Jack's blade bit in deep along its side. The powerful blade hurt tremendously, but the great beast wasn't about to go down from a fiery blast. Unfortunately, the swashbuckler proved too competent for the big lug of a tree. The blade carved off a large hunk of bark and wood, leaving the monster completely vulnerable to attack.

Somehow the hellfire flamethrower didn't instantly incinerate. Instead leaves curled and crisped, but the bulk of the Sprig remained unmolested. The blast did knock it gravely off balance and set it reeling. Given the pounding it just received, and the subsequent disorientation, Sprig was not long for this world at the hands of such powerful heroes!

Meanwhile, the weird shovel-plant creature watched with almost sapient curiosity. Slowly but surely it continued to development, eventually dropping to the ground and increasing in mass until it looked vaguely like a shrub dog. The remaining wood of the handle warped into a stubby tail. Still it showed no signs of aggression.

[Electra]

Stesha watched the fight from the back of the group, still a little dazed and distracted. The hostages were safe, tucked away in the furthest corner of her pocket, and the grotesque greenhouse plant was still contained. That was a good thing. The Green Man, however, was still radiating that sickly alien energy, for all he was unconscious and laying on the ground. Given how he was talking about the energy he'd sucked up, she didn't think it was a good idea for him to be left loose. One of the vines laying on the ground next to him twitched, then sprouted a pale purple lily, its trumpet opening to the sky as the stem lengthened. It grew and grew, bigger and bigger, until the slender stem seemed unable to support the huge blossom. The lily tipped, bell down, and fell right over the Green Man like a candle snuffer.

[Dariusprime]

With nary a thump, the lily consumed The Green Man and quarantined inside another realm. Although Mama Nasty caused a bit of indigestion, this fellow, or more importantly the bits of green meteor inside him, really caused some strange reactions. Their interactions with Stesha's powers were an unknown factor. From what had already been witnessed, the likely effects included a power increase and twisting of the growth and regenerative properties of her powers. Which could be very interesting indeed.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Sprig was recovering from the dual assaults. Not an easy task considering the strength of the two heroes tormenting him. As he went out, Twig finally, slowly began to move a bit more. The tree really couldn't moan, per say, but it creaked and shifted like a punch drunk boxer. Given a few more seconds and a recovery of comprehension would be made. Probably wouldn't be happy with what happened to The Green Man either. Or for that matter, what happened to him at all.

With The Green Man out of this world, literally, the animated trees seemed to diminish, shrinking in girth and slipping roots into the wet soil. Within moments all of them looked as they did before, simple spring trees. As a bonus though they formed an interesting circular pattern visible from the air.

The plant-dog-thing looked up at Dead Head and turned its head to the side. Creepy.

[Cyroa]

James fought by Jack, trying to put down the petulant plant but the thing refused to give up. Out of the corner of his eye, he say Twig starting to star. "Hey now! Where do ya think you're going? Back to bed!" He thrust out his hand, sending out a lance of fire to slam into the thing. "Who knew that plants were tougher to take down the supervillains. Weird," he said to himself.

[Dariusprime]

Twig wasn't really defending all that well. It was looking around, trying to gain its bearings. Hellion's yell alerted the beast, which caused it to look up right into the blaze. Barely an peep escaped before the thing went down again. More bark blackened and leaves curled. The ground rumbled as the bulk crumbled. It certainly wasn't down for good, but the weird tree creature did get bitten hard.

Yes, these two were tough brutes. The weird part of the equation came in the form of why they were vulnerable to overwhelming force. The smaller animated trees, if any heroes had previous experience, were basically immune to getting knocked silly. Either they died fighting or stood impervious to pain or disruption. These two were also way more intelligent than animated trees. What sort of power did the Green Man utilize to create these abominations? Were they even created? In any case they were good body guards.

Once again an eerie, fiery silence fell over the clearing. The animated trees were haphazardly replanted, a few with recognizable signs of animation. The Green Man was in another world, literally, and his two loyal body guards were down for the count. They stirred, yes, but slowly, and these heroes knew that time was of the essence!

The bizarre dog-vine continued to slowly mutate, looking more like a bush by the moment and taking a real liking to the zombie.

[Dr Archeville]

"Well, wood's tougher'n normal human flesh," the zombie replied as Twig fell, "so it makes senses t'me that a super-tree'd be tougher'n a super-human."

Dead Head looked down at the shovel-dog-thing, then back to the others. "So there's, what, four more'a those meteor things what fell? Gotta be some way we can- oh!"

Maybe... jussst maybe....

The zombie knelt down and looked at the shovel-dog-thing. He spoke to it in the same light, even tone one would use in addressing any pet, even reaching out to scratch behind its 'ears'. "Who's a good boy? You's a good boy, yes you are! Do you know where those other space-rocks are? The other plant-critters? Do ya, boy?" He pointed in the general direction where he believed the meteor fragments would be, "fetch!"

[Dariusprime]

Sapped of The Green Man's strength, the trees went down and stayed down this time. Maybe they were just tired of being beaten up so badly. Either way the clearing was still once more, save for the techno-bonfire. The strange feeling remained, only this time much distant and diminished.

The tree-dog creature actually cocked it's head to the side, enjoying the scratch and attention. The request seemed to bounce around in what past for it's head, and momentarily, it turned, 'sniffed' about, and trotted deeper into the forest in the direction Dead Head indicated. From the very direction of the strange emanations it seemed.

With the two tree guards in la-la land, the little creature was the only meteor-influenced thing still standing. And strangely, yes, it looked as it it would be helping. Maybe it wasn't that smart after all. Turncoat!

[quotemyname]

Breakdown hopped down from the rock where he had been standing. "Yo, DH, who's your new pal?" He shot a quick glance towards the others, and the scene around them. "Also, shotgun not doing cleanups." He smiled jokingly as he placed his finger against his nose.

With a look at Fluer he asked, "How are you holding up? Think there's any more of these nasty plant dudes to bring down? After green man, who else could really be that tough?" He shrugged offhandedly.