[center][img=http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u118/EBJ05/RPG%20Banners/mantislogo2.png][/center]

[b]A GROWING PROBLEM – PART IV[/b]

A deft leap is all that prevents me from becoming a Mantis sized splatter on the bleachers. As I twist and turn in the air, I fire a barrage of stingers at Foliage’s vine. The darn thing’s too thick. It twitches as the little bursts of bio-electricity land, but I doubt I’m doing anything more than tickling it. I think I’ll have to adopt a different strategy.

I land somewhere in the nosebleed section of Conway-Kane Memorial Stadium. Down on the field, Foliage is standing atop an oversized leaf, a good twenty-five feet or more above the ground. I call down to him, “Come on, Foliage. It doesn’t have to be like this. You and me, we’re both guys who clearly have an appreciation for the color green… can’t we just talk this out?”

“What did talking ever get me?” Foliage scoffs. He motions to his prisoner, the barely conscious football player, still hanging from the field goal post by a web of vines. “Guys like him? They only respond to strength. Well, I’ll show them [i]all[/i] just how strong I am!”

Foliage throws his hand in my direction, and a veritable swarm of leaves flies at me. I twist and turn as best I can, but there are too many leaves to dodge them all. The few that get through to me are thin and razor-sharp. They slice through the green spandex of my costume, cutting into the skin beneath just as easily. One of them catches me flush on the side, an inch or two below my armpit. I reach for the wound instinctually, and in that moment’s hesitation Foliage blindsides me with his vine.

The hit knocks me down from the bleachers and sends me hurtling towards the field below. Hitting the turf hard, I no longer envy football players. This surface has absolutely no give. I nearly dislocate my shoulder from the force of impact alone. I have no time to react before Foliage is on me again. He summons thorny branches up from the ground which wrap themselves my ankles. I wince as the thorns pierce my skin.

“You are seriously—ouch—making me rethink whether saving the environment is such a good idea,” I grimace. I fire stingers at the thorny branches, and this time it works. The branches recoil, freeing up my legs once more. Not a moment too soon, either, as Foliage was preparing to bring down his vine on me. I dart to the side, popping my exoskeletal blades once more. When the vine hits the turf, I throw myself blades first at it. The blades dig into the side of the vine, and Foliage lets out a cry.

“You shouldn’t have done that!”

I glance over my shoulder at him. “Oh? Then you’re [i]really[/i] going to be upset about this!” I pull my arms apart, and the exoskeletal blades cleave the vine nearly in half along its diameter. The inside of the vine is fluorescent green and glistening. Retracting my blades, I fire charged stingers from each hand at the exposed core.

The vine recoils so violently that I’m thrown backwards through the air. I crash into the visitor team’s bench, knocking over an empty Gatorade cooler. Foliage, meanwhile, holds his hands to his head and shrieks as his vine withers. The dying plant collapses on the field lifelessly. Foliage lowers himself to the turf, mouth still agape. When he turns to me at last, his eyes are burning with rage. “You’ll pay for that, insect!” he seethes.

The ground begins to shake, and suddenly more than a dozen smaller vines burst through the turf. The vines whip through the air erratically, no doubt reflecting Foliage’s unstable mental state. He’s getting stronger as time goes on. It’s not enough for me to deal with his creations. If I want to bring this insanity to an end, I have to go for the guy pulling the strings. And it looks like that means fighting my way through a thicket of angry plants.

“I always did hate weeding,” I mutter to myself.

Foliage launches his vines at the same time that I begin charging for him. I duck under the first one, only to take a sharp slap across the face from another. A third vine catches my ankle and pulls my weight out from under me. As I’m falling, yet another vine wraps itself around my throat. I reach for it, but both my wrists are quickly tangled up as well. Foliage kneels down in front of me.

“You know what I admire most about plants?” he asks, a sinister gleam in his eyes. “Their resiliency. You see, long after we’re gone, the plants will reclaim the earth. And all this?” He motions to the stadium. “Everything mankind has built? It will all be forgotten.” He glares at me. “Not unlike you.”

As Foliage stands, a bright purple flower sprouts from the dirt in front of me. The flower slithers like a snake until it’s at eye level. The bud opens slowly, revealing an intricate pattern of yellow and white across the flower’s petals. Suddenly, the flower turns to face me. There’s a soft puff, and a cloud of yellow bursts from the center of the flower. As soon as the cloud reaches my nose and mouth, I begin coughing and gasping for air. The last thing I remember seeing is Foliage’s smug expression as more and more vines begin to envelop me…