by Alana Melos
A flash of movement caught the corner of my eye and I turned just in time to see Tim go down under a hulking big beast. It bowled him over and they tumbled end over end, the beast snarling and snapping at him. They landed with the creature on top. It looked much like a dog, except the muscles had been expanded until they burst the seams of its skin. Green flesh shone underneath, glistening in the pale light. The mutated dog’s massive jowls clamped down around Tim’s arm. He grunted in pain. I went to push it off, but another mass jumped on me. I threw a shield up around me and pushed out, sending the plant hound flying back into the green where it had come from.
“Fucksticks!” Lethal swore, two guns in hand. “We’re gonna get eaten by zombie dogs!”
We stood there surrounded. Lethal began firing, each shot finding its home. Heads exploded in wet, green splatter a couple seconds after each bullet hit, like timed charges. I moved behind Regulus as he pushed through the foliage, which even now tried to close over. It knew we were coming. It knew we were here. And it was pissed.
As the pack of dogs lunged at us, Lethal kept firing, screaming his fool head off. His reflexes served him well, sharp and quick. Tim forced the dog off of him, the open wound already almost closed, and kicked it savagely in the ribs. It went flying as another leaped at him. He ducked and twisted at the same time, grabbing the back leg and jerking it to the side. The snap of the bone echoed through the clearing Regulus made. The wild animal crumpled, but immediately attempted to rise again, its jaws snapping with ferocious strength.
For myself, I kept the shield up on the sides, funneling them down the center to meet me. My blade slashed like quicksilver, and the metal parted the plant infused flesh. One ducked my swing and closed its teeth around my forearm. Wincing with pain, I split my concentration to pry the jaws open with my teke and fling the creature back. The armor had buckled under the assault, pinching my arm painfully.
Another came in, and I thrust my blade into its open mouth. The tip erupted from the back of its head, but it didn’t stop its lunge. It went all the way right up to the hilt, only dying and falling limp at the last second. I twisted around to avoid another attack, jostling Regulus by accident as he focused on the tunnel in the trees he was creating.
Watch it, he sent. This is harder than it looks!
Oh Jesus, you’re just making a hole, Ger, I mentally snapped at him.
It keeps growing back, he replied, his mental voice strained. We should switch spots, but if I take my concentration off of it, you’ll have to start all over again.
When I glanced behind me, beads of sweat had formed on his brow. Fine manipulation was beyond him. Probably imagining a tube for us to walk through was at the limit of his ability. My own ability to split attention was taxed as it was, and if I tried to help him, we’d be open for attack. Easiest to leave it as it was for the moment.
The entire exchange only took a couple seconds. In the meantime, I shouted mentally to Tim and Lethal to come closer, to help cover Regulus. Tim moved with the liquid grace of an accomplished martial artist, avoiding the animals if he could, but punching or kicking where he had to. Lethal kept shooting, edging backwards slowly. He kept spinning round to watch his own six, not trusting the rest of us to keep his back. I couldn’t hold the paranoia against him. We were villains after all.
Come on, come on, I insisted, putting urgency into my mental voice.
I see the main entrance, Regulus reported. With a look behind me, I saw that he had indeed smashed through what remained of the front doors. While there was still vegetation inside, it wasn’t nearly as thick or cumbersome as it was out here.
Skewering the last mutant beast to attack me, I sent again the urgency of the situation. Regulus and I already knew what was down there. It wasn’t going to be pretty. The other two didn’t and their lack of speed annoyed the crap out of me.
“Jesus fucked tits!” Lethal shouted. “I’m coming, mother fucker! Just shut the shit up already and get out of my head!” One of his guns ran dry and he backed up fast, clambering over the uneven ground and pile of exploded, punched, and slashed corpses to push me out of the way in his haste to get out of the line of fire for any incoming dangers.
Tim moved more slowly, but steadily. He joined our little group just a few seconds after Lethal, keeping watch for attacks. The animals surrounding us growled and snarled, but didn’t move past the threshold of the building once we had entered it. Regulus let go of the tunnel, and it grew back, quickly covering the tunnel he’d been holding open through the densest of plant.
“Whew,” Regulus sighed, letting the air whistle through his teeth. “That was fun.”
“Downstairs,” I ordered. “We’ve got to get this set up and fast.”
What must have been a thundering crash came from outside the building. The fight with the daikaiju still raged, though we couldn’t see any flashes or shapes anymore. Plants blocked us in, making the once large lobby feel small and stuffy.
“Yeah, they know where to stop driving it back, right?” Lethal asked, giving Septimus the stink eye. “We don’t need no shitstain monster stepping on us.”
“If things go right, I don’t even think they’ll make it back to the edge,” he replied with a weak smile. Lethal rolled his eyes and made high pitched sounds mimicking him. The white hat did his best to ignore him and turned to me instead. “Where’s down?”
“Stairwell,” I said, wiping my red and green stained blade off on my sleeve to keep the metal free and clear. Striding over, I looked down, frowning. It had been dark before, but light had been ambient from somewhere… Pangea itself maybe. Now, that ambient glow had been cranked up to eleven, and it looked like the downstairs was fully lit with a green ethereal glow. “Here.”
Someone should stay and watch the entrance, Regulus suggested. I don’t like the look of that wall of tree. It could come crashing in at any time.
When I looked to him, his masked face looked drawn and pale in the light. He’d put in more effort than I thought. Before I could speak to agree or not, Septimus asked, “Can you keep up the mental link with us out of sight?”
Sure, no problem, Regulus replied. I’ll keep watch for the mutant and the Siren too. I sense him nearby, but fighting. He’s not focusing on me. Sirene’s with him.
For a second, even through the twisted tangles of the plants obscuring our view of the outside, the night sky lit up with a white blast. Pangea’s manifestation roared in the distance, then the faint rough and tumble came back to us, but started to grow louder in increments. Every second, the fight came closer. They were pushing it back indeed.
“Then let’s go,” Tim said. “I don’t think we have much time.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Although I had finally gotten Lethal to shut his mouth in case there were any other animals in the facility itself, he kept up a stream of creatively impossible swears in our heads. God damn fucking puke fuckers making me come to this stupid dark shitty plant cave, he grumbled to all of us. What in the shitty ass hell was I thinking about? Going to get cock smoked here by these doorknob fucking shit gobblers, I just know it. Fuck me through a rotating pastry with a chainsaw! All of them are asshole tuna queens! Why did I ever….
And so on and so on. As they climbed down the precarious remains of the stairwell which had fallen even more since last I’d been here, I floated down trying to tune him out. The room seemed both wider and smaller since we’d been here. Any walls that had been here before had been knocked down and replaced with Pangea’s branches, which supported the floor above it. Regulus, seeing it through my eyes, took careful note and tried to position himself in a place where, if the support was withdrawn, he would be able to recover quickly.
A few scattered remnants of the lab it used to be lay on the last bits of the floor. Pangea had grown around the broken tables and chairs. This was its place now. I switched my attention to Regulus, How’s Wolf doing?
The mutant’s fine, he said, his thoughts only slightly stained wi
th a mental sneer. I think he’s on his way now.
You’re a mutant too, I pointed out as I crept along the floor with Tim and Lethal, pointing to the place where we’d found Rory strung up. The big tree stood there still, filling up the far end, just as it filled the lobby end upstairs.
No, I’m not, he replied, feeling offended. I’m the perfect human. Übermensch.
That’s not what übermensch means, you know. The other two saw where I pointed and nodded, heading that direction. The light pulsed around us, reminding me of a generator which was just getting started. The brightness came directly from the plants, the green part of them anyway. They glowed a putrescent green, bright, neon… a shade which almost hurt my eyes. Radioactive zombie puke green, I thought to myself.
What was that? Regulus sent, splitting our conversation to a private thread.
Nothing, I replied. The plants. They’re glowing bright. Infused with energy of some kind.
What about zombies and green? he asked again, pressing the issue.
Nothing important, Christ, Ger, I sent to him. We were almost at the main trunk now, and I brought out the control collar. In theory, this should work. In practice, who knew if it would? A long shot was better than no shot, though. Pay attention to the job, not my snark.
Listen, Reece, I think you had better stop and go back, he sent, his thoughts firm. Your mind is erratic. There’s something seriously wrong with you. What were you talking about?
I said it was nothing important, I replied as the left side of my face began to throb in time to my pinched arm. I hadn’t had time to try to uncrimp the armor. I could handle it for now even if I couldn’t shut off my pain receptors. I welcomed the warmth of the aches, trying to let it just tell me I was alive and that was a good thing. The headache ruined all that, making it impossible to ignore the rest of my aches and pains. I tried to put it aside as I searched for a way to connect the control band to the tree. I guessed around one of the branches would have to do. Lethal made a ‘hurry up’ gesture with his hand, and mimed pointing at a non-existent watch on his wrist.
God dammit, he swore. You need to listen to me. Even if I was wrong and your precious mage was right and your telepathy is still intact, you can’t use it. Isn’t that a tip off? Maybe you should try stopping and listening to me for once instead of ignoring me. If this keeps up, you’re going to go crazy.
Anger flared through me, washing out any pain or tiredness in my system. “I am not crazy!” I said, just on this side of shouting. As the words left my lips, both of the men with me turned to look at me, their eyes confused and worried, perhaps wondering if I should be put down now before I went batshit. A second later, the entire building rumbled, and the plant beneath us undulated, throwing all of us off balance. Tim recovered his footing first, but only for a second. The floor gave out underway and we all fell.
I scrambled for my teke, activating it just in time to cushion my long fall, then I was up and hovering, but the floor had already closed far overhead, resetting the trap. Septimus landed hard, but rolled with it, looking no worse for the wear. It was Lethal who crashed the hardest, not having powers like mine or the skills like Tim to avoid breaking something. A loud snap and a howl told me he’d snapped one of his limbs, and a second later his thoughts confirmed it.
My leg! Father sucking shit ass fucking cock damn! he screamed with his mind while his mouth was full of painful cries. He sucked in his breath and rocked his leg up against him, which only made the break hurt worse.
“Think the cover’s blown,” Tim said. “Where--”
His words were cut off by Pangea attacking. Before I had a chance to even look and see where we were, his and Lethal’s pain erupted over the mindlink, throwing my senses for a loop until Regulus expended some concentration to moderate the feelings from spilling over one another’s heads. The branches shot into him ala evil raping tree from The Evil Dead, piercing his body and holding him down. Just like they did with Rory, they shot shoots of plant life into him, trying to take over his body. The bulgy lines crept up his neck and into his face, making way for his brain. Pangea had learned a thing or two, and it was going for the fastest way to take him over.
I reached out and began severing the vines to free him, but a wall raised up before me, looming like the darkest tidal wave on the shores of hell before crashing down, encasing me in a wooden cocoon, cutting off my line of sight. Tim screamed in agony as I forced the branches away from me telekinetically. Panic filled me with a desperate need to be free, not to be held down. Strength filled me born from that panic, and even though Pangea exerted considerable might trying to keep me down, I forced it away, giving myself room to breathe. Once I had room to swing, I cut for all I was worth, sawing through the living wood until I was freed, swallowing in the air as if I had been caught for years instead of a few seconds.
Once freed, I kept my shield up. Lethal’s gun went off a few times, then I heard the click-click-click of him continuing to pull the trigger without ammo. “Fuck! I’m dry!” he shouted. He scooted away from the tentacles born of the mad experiment as best he could, but they were all around him.
Septimus, in the meantime, needed my help. I looked to him and reached out… but a golden glow erupted from his skin. He grunted and groaned with effort, but as I watched, the veiny bulges of the vines were forced down his face, down his neck. Slowly, but steadily, he did something to force the invader out of his body.
Healing, Regulus supplied. His body’s forcing the parasite out.
A blur of green fur and black leather swept into my field of vision as Wolf and the Siren dropped from the ceiling in front of me. Vines wrapped around my shield, trying to squeeze me, trying to find a way in. They didn’t seem to bother the plant-wolf. Maybe they thought he was one of them. Maybe not. Whenever they tried to ensnare the Siren, she shadowstepped.
With room to breathe, I looked around at our surroundings. Void, space… this was a huge cavern, under the ruined building, far under the earth. No wonder Lethal had broken something when we fell. We must have dropped at least a hundred feet, perhaps more. Good thing both of them were tougher than normal. If I hadn’t caught myself, that might have been the end for me. The tree trunk dominated the room, not far away, but more than that, I saw the beginning of the root system here, all of which spread out in all different directions. The tree itself glowed softly, and so did the rest of its vegetation here, making the room almost as bright as day… but between the roots, I saw a chamber even further down which held something large, round, and glowing very brightly.
Fuck, Regulus said, once again looking through my eyes. I know what that is.
What is it? I asked, narrowing my eyes, trying to get a better look.
One of Uptown’s old cold fusion reactors, he said. It must have been offline for a while, but something kicked it back on. Everyone thought all of them were destroyed, but this one must have sunk…. His thoughts went off on a meandering sideline which I wasn’t privy to. I’m not sure how it got here, but that’s where Pangea is sucking all the power from.
I looked at the control band in my hand, then back to the reactor. How do we shut it down?
We don’t, he said. It’s beyond me. I don’t think we can even scratch it, if the crash didn’t destroy it.
This isn’t going to work, I said. It’s not big enough.
Give it a try anyway, he urged. But work on another solution.
Knowing I couldn’t get close to it, not and keep my shield up anyway, I shouted, “Siren! Grab the collar!” I waved it in the air until I saw she saw it, then tossed it up. Pangea, smarter than I took it for, reached for it with vines, trying to catch it, but the Nacht Sirene ran and jumped into the air, shadowstepping in a puff of darkness and smoke. She reappeared to catch it, then shadowstepped away before the vines could wind themselves around her.
“Around something on the big tree!” I shouted, but she was already on her way there, having figured out who the big bad was. The floor roiled around m
e, wooden spiked tentacles shooting from it trying to catch her, to catch us. It wove a new forest here in the cavern, weaving around us and obscuring out view of each other. Each of the undulating branches were thick, covered with glistening sap and thorns. Although they couldn’t see us, the tentacles still struck at us with unnerving accuracy, forcing us further and further apart. I struggled to stay in view of the Siren, to watch what she was doing, but every time I cut down one of the tentacles, two more popped into place in a hydraic nightmare.
I flew up, slashing at the grabbing vines. They kept groping after me like a bad prom date, but the higher I went the more I saw. The Nacht Sirene had the collar in her one hand. She looked to be having trouble with securing it around a branch, but just as I decided to move over and help, she clicked it shut. The branches and vines ceased moving immediately, and the tree itself stopped pulsing. Instead, it grew brighter and brighter, until the light burned my eyes and I had to turn away.
In the sudden silence, I heard Tim and Lethal both panting heavily, and then a loud ‘pop’. “No! No!” the Sirene shouted. The light eased. When I cracked open my eyes, I saw the tree had begun pumping again, the energy in it flowing as it had before. The vines and branches came to life, causing the guys to jump out of the way as the attacks on them renewed. “It blew up!”
“Too much power,” I muttered to myself. That weirdly accented guy, Eraser or something, had tinkered with the best of the suppressive tech Imperius could get on short notice. He’d boosted it or something, made it work better--don’t blame me, I’m not a tech girl--or gave it more power. Without more time, that was all we had.
“Fuck you, grabby tree!” Lethal shouted. I looked down after swatting away another of the thorn-filled limbs. One of the vines had caught his arm, wrapped around it, and bit deep with its rough spikes. He tried to unwind it, but it had caught him fast, and he had to keep moving to keep the other parts of the tree from securing him in place.
