[i][u]Valjean Vaseal, Ben, Claire Voss, & Jago Javuant[/u][/i]
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Whips of sand had traveled up Valjean's leg and surrounded his hands in a orb of sand. His transformation into a scorpion was almost complete, actually. His face were two strong mandibles, and his eyes were several black orbs. Couldn't see worth shit, but his seismic sense was so great that it barely mattered. He knew exactly where Ben was, and where to attack. His stinger was raised over his head, as he twitched his legs. "... Now [i]this[/i] is what I'm talking about, eh?" With that transformation finished, he could focus on turning the joint into a desert. He raised his hands into the air like some triumphant pose, before slamming them together right above his chest. Creating a whirling mass of sand. Looks like the big chump is hiding behind his plants. Pttf. Typical. Little does he know that those plants will be dead any second now. Valjean has looong activated his desert conversion ability. The place was getting much hotter, and the water was drying up. He [i]barely[/i] payed attention in class, but he does know that plants need water! 

Time for the first show of force! Since the ground ten meters of himself was covered in sand, he had plenty to work with. He made a chirping sound that rumbled through the air. "Can't hide forever..." Valjean sound, he barely sounded human anymore, now he sounds insectian. He swiped his arm in Ben's direction as all the sand he had created so far went towards him in one fast moving blast of sand. It went right into his coochie.

"Leave it to the big man to hit an easy target!" Claire shouted, her arm coming around and smacking Valjean's pincer out of the way, but unfortunately this didn't alter the direction of the sand, which smashed into Ben's spawn. It almost effortlessly bounched off of the cacoon of branches and earth, which was now being covered by a thick layer of sand and stone. Claire stepped back and kept her fighting position, and kept her mind in sync with Valjean's. It was hot, she couldn't do this for long. She whiped her brow, removing the sweat from her bangs and forehead. She couldn't do this for long. She could only hope Valjean's armor and power useage would tire him out faster than she would.

Air temperature was rising fast. The island was normally warm itself, and he was just pushing it in the right direction. Everyone without a heat resistance couldn't take it. That said, Claire wouldn't last for long. She had the balls to try to pull something on him. Just throwing his arm out of the way, unfortunately that didn't do anything, but still! The nerve she had! He turned to face her, and planted his foot hard into the ground. Right now his scorpion body was far superior than any human body - so he didn't know what the hell she was hoping to even accomplish. He stared her down... Ahhh... Nah. He [i]could[/i] give her a beat down, but his beef was with the Big Man. Kick his ass to win her heart. Still, he thought doing this would be pretty funny! He crossed his arms, and the sand slowly went from Ben's defense, over towards Claire gently.

The sand impacted Claire square in the torso, and sent her to the ground in her already weakened state due to heat exhaustion. It wasn't as much the sand, but more of the straw that broke the camel's back. As she fell, her head hit roughly on the floor with a rather loud bang. She didn't think to attempt to fall better than she did. She couldn't think much of anything really. She more of passed out as well as being put out due to the environmental factors. It was easily about 120F in the garden by now, and in combination with the greenhouse effect that occured in the glass building, it was even worse. She did not get up. This left Ben's cacoon completely exposed.

While Claire was doing her dramatics, Valjean was pissing on some bushes. Unfortunately his urine is sand :(. "Oh, wait?" Valjean turned his head towards Claire just when he was shaking it. "You're out?" He asked her... Expecting to get an answer. Oh yeah! With her out, he could beat down the giant behind his little puss-shell. He was standing on a good foot of sand right now, and he has [i]plenty[/i] to work with now. Valjean raised his hand into the air high, then slammed his pincer into the floor so hard that he caused a crack. All the sand went [i]wild[/i]. It whirled up like a massive sandstorm. That spun extremely fast. Then it all funneled into a shape right above Ben's cocoon. The shape of a massive scorpion. He tossed it all at Ben when....

... A transparent, dark-purple, shield had appeared between Ben and the sand scorpion.

"... Damn, Jean." A young male voice approached from the bushes - being none other than Jago Javuant. Holding a bottle of gatorade. "Yo' [i]puss[/i] must be the only thing dryer than this." He smiled smugly. But Jesus christ in heaven it was hot. Jago wondered what the hell was going on. Until he looked and saw Chinatown... Oh, yeah. That's the Big-Man's wife. So that means Big-Man must be in the branches. Huh? Bitching out when his lady is in danger? Laaaaaaaame. Looks like it's a job for Jago. Normally he wouldn't care. But he wants to knee Valjean in the nuts really hard. So why not lend a hand and kick ass? The shield faded away.

"You?!" Valjean shouted - but it sounded more like a hiss with his insect accent.

"... Motherfuckin' me." Jago needed to scope out a plan of attack. Because he has no way to attack, and Valjean has plenty. And he needs to do it fast. The longer the fight goes on, the hotter it'll get... Oh man. It feels like he's going to pass out any second now, but gotta focus. A dark-purple aura surrounded Jago, and he started moving forward, sliding along the ground. Right towards Jean. The Scorpion man dropped into stance, anticipating the young boy. He swung a haymaker towards Jago's face - but Jago dodged, he ducked underneath the fist and grinned. He dove down towards Valjean's leg, using his telekinesis to enhance his movements, and grabbed onto his leg with a tight grip and just kept moving. He managed to throw off Valjean's balance, and the Scorpion man landed face first onto the ground. Jago himself had let go.

"You shit!" Valjean willed the sand around himself - it quickly flew towards him through the air - into a ball. Once it was all together, it all shot outwards in a explosion motion and created a cloud of dust. It managed to catch Jago off guard.

"Aw, fuc-" Jago loudly coughed as sand filled his mouth. He could barely talk right now. There was just so much sand! Not cool. He stumbled away, hoping to get out of the cloud. But he heard someone running towards him... Jago quickly whipped around to defend himself, but by then it was too late. A pincer was swung in his direction and hit him right in his arm. He was sent flying through the air, and when he collided with the ground - thankfully out of the cloud - he skid alongside it for a moment. Before coming to a rest.

"Little shit." Valjean hissed as he stood over him...

[hider=The Humbling River][youtube]O0YxeTjFn70[/youtube][/hider]

The ground shook for a moment.

The pod split, and erupted erupted from the ground.

But that was literally, the tip of the iceberg. Something slowly lifted out of the ground. It was huge. Far larger than most had ever seen or ever will seen. The size of a whale. As it slowly raised out of the ground it could be seen that it's body had branched out from where Ben orignally was, like an intricate root system that had warped into an almost skeleton like system. Plants and sand and stone had erupted from the wood, very quickly eveloping the skeletal system, layering over it as if it was muscle and organs. Along the creature's back the plant life turned red, and small stones and pebbles and slabs or rock erupted. Some forming armor that covered the creature's red back, while some instead erupted from joints and along it's back, black and sharp like obsidian. Huge slabs of sharpened grey stone trailed down it's neck and went down it's belly, displaying a sleek red and grey appearance. From the creature's gargantuan skull two huge black horns split their skull at the snout, huge, curved and black. One at the chin, and the other on the top jaw. It's jaws had no teeth, instead having slabs of jagged grey stone forming a horrifying set of huge stone scissors. It had two relatively small arms, chich had three fingered hands. Each arm being about four feet long, the claws each at least six inches. It's legs were two huge pillars of muscle and strength. Armored and thick. The three huge claws at the end of each foot each being well over a foot long and thick as a tire was wide. It had a huge and thick counterbalance tail, making up at least half it's body length if not more. It was spined and armored like that of the rest of it's body. It ended an arrowhead like shape, like that of a dragons.

Smoke erupted from holes in it's back, billowing out thick black gass and CO2 that was recycled by it's plant/animal exterior almost immediately. It's six eyes opened, their slitted pupils looking over the scene for a moment, silently watching as the creature breathed for a moment, it's body undergoing photosynthesis and cellular respiration at the same time.

The monster stood before them all.

Fifty feet long, and twenty feet tall.

It lifted it's foot, and opened it's mouth.

There was the sound of thunder.

As it's body arched and it's jaw fell open a roar of the gods ripped through the air, the inside of it's throat showing nothing but being yellow and red from being a walking furnace. The sound alone shook the whole building, and eventually caused the glass surrounding the garden to shatter, resulting in a glass shower. Valjean covered his ears as the monster's roar ripped through their beings and vibrated the very air, to prevent them from going death due to the sheer volume of the sound. Jago made a shield.

The great beast shook it's body, causing excess dirt and glass to shower off of it's body in a cascade of waterfall, and it stepped out of the crater it had created during it's formation, and onto the groundlevel that Valjean, Jago, and the unconcious Claire were standing on. 

"Oh shit!" Valjean shouted as he turned over towards what Ben had become. Looks like he was storing himself to transform... Just more fun for him. From the way he saw it, Ben might be giantic, but Valjean has the size advantage. The glass falling barely did any damage to his hard shell - all it did was cause some light scratches. But it was time to fight! Valjean gathered his sand together and blew it all around himself to create an obscuring cloud. He had to be quick here. He didn't know what would bother the giant T-Rex thing, but he would have to come up with something! Valjean gathered all the sand together yet again and shot it all at Ben's gaping maw in one sand stream.

The sand flew into the monster's maw, immediately an odd smell inveloped the air as the pores on it's back began to leak liquid glass, which bubbled up and out rather quickly. Replaced soon after by an especially large billow of black smoke. The monster snarled, and the smoke on it's back billowed again. It was so slow and heavy and large, it was as if it was moving in slow motion for a few seconds before it's second legs pushed off after it, pistoning the gigantic creature along like a juggernaut, forcing twelve tons of monster along in Valjean's general direction like a freight train. It picked up speed in a few steps, reaching twenty miles an hour only about thirty feet, or one footstep, away from Valjean's cloud. The ground itself shook as the creature's feet planted into the ground and rocketed it forward, leaving huge six inch deep footprints in it's wake.

Instead of doing the usual movie tactic of "keep running straight and hope to outrun it!" Valjean was having none of that. He jumped to the side, rolling over his shoulder, and landing in a crouched position. He couldn't keep running around forever! Some point he's gonna have to face this thing head on. He quickly turned towards Ben and shouted, "Fuck it!" As he ran towards Ben with impunity. Hoping to at least get one good hit in. The sand gathered at his feet into a pile, which he stepped on and used as a surf board. When he was close, the sand exploded upwards out of his ass to give him a boost towards Ben. He arched back his claw and sent it staight into Ben's monster face.

The monster barreled past Valjean into the metal supports of the garden, which very nearly caved in and brought the whole building down. However, it stopped his charge. It turned around just in time for Valjean's clawed hand to snap around his snout painfully. It roared it's hellish roar in pain and rage and slammed the side of it's face that Valjean clung to into the bent metal framing of the building and then whipped it's skull again, throwing Valjean off of him and sending him sailing outside of the garden. Ben was incapable of reaching him, for risk of taking down the building, and so slowly stalked along the walls of the framing, it's many eyes trained on Valjean as it did so. Each footfall thundering down, undoubtably alerting anyone nearby if the sound hadn't been enough.

Valjean's "Fuuuuuuuuuuuck!" Echoed across the school grounds. The very impact of Ben's counter attack sent Valjean flying. Thankfully, Ben had already broken the glass. But he was being sent flying across the goddamn school. He felt himself slow down.. fortunately he didn't hit anything - but he stopped and skid along the ground. He hit the hard pavement and saw himself roll... Seeing the ground, then the sky, the ground, then the sky.... Coming to a stop shortly.

The monster eventually drew it's attention away from Valjean and to Claire. The primal urge to help his mate overtook the urge to defend her. He didn't know Jago was there yet, he only stumbled across him as he ran by to Claire, who had been in the cloud. He scooped the boy up with one of his huge arms as softly as he could, and thundered over to his wife and deposited Jago down as carefully as he could next to her. Shit, someone needed to wake up. Claire had been scraped up and cut up by the glass that had fallen. She was overall okay, but she needed to get taken care of fast or risk having permanent scarring and injury. Not to mention she was no doubt dehydrated. Jago looked better. He wasn't in the cloud. He couldn't get out of the garden yet though. He had already caused thousands of dollars of damage, no doubt. He couldn't cause millions.

"Argh..." Jago muttered as he got up. "God damn Big Man..." He whistled as he looked to what Ben had become. Jago looked up and dispelled his shield. He would have been shredded by glass shards, but he managed to use his telekinesis to lift them up to give him a second to get the hell out the way. Jago rolled, then stopped as they dropped. He jumped right up to his feet aaaand... clutched his arm. It hurt like all hell... it stung, and... he didn't know how to describe it. It just hurt. He let out a sigh. While he was delegated to the side-lines, he's seen it all, and he's quite impressed. Though, Chinatown right there might need to get patched up a bit. Jago pointed his hand at Claire and lifted up a finger like a "get up" gesture. A dark-purple aura surrounded Claire as he floated a few feet. Almost like she was weightless! They should be able to move her easier. "Yo, Big-Man, I'll help you get her... help." That sounded more awkward now that he's saying it out loud. Ben's body rumbled, and he licked Valjean with his tongue in thanks. Like a dog. "I'm going to kick your ass for that." Jago muttered, throwing as much slobber off his body as he could.

As for Valjean? Fuck that guy. He crossed the line this time. And if it wasn't for Jago, Ben and his wifey would have gotten wrecked!