4:18 PM
Greenpeak Forest; Outskirts of Hub CityHarris
Harris barely noticed Shawn leaping away from him, he was too busy arguing with himself and acting like an angsty teenager. Well, at least that's what he thought about himself. Harris pushed his head back and used his wings to pull his body upwards, entering an upright position and managing to maintain what was basically a stationary position.
Staring over the city, he noticed a sudden outpouring of water from a waterlogged apartment complex, seemed like the workers had blown a hole in the side. This had killed a small number of plants, but Harris ignored their pleas for now, there was nothing to be done for them, some small sacrifices had to be made.
Small, very small sacrifices, he doubted he could handle the pain of being connected to a forest during a wildfire, but this was small, nothing he couldn't handle, and due to his flight, he had a lessened connection to the ground anyway... or something? He still wasn't sure how this all worked. He could be very wrong.
Harris realized then that he had successfully distracted himself for just that little moment, but in doing so, his mind immediately went back to the initial train of thought. Again suffering from angst, Harris simply watched from above, sighing.
Lady Arcana
Karen hadn't wasted any time after finally figuring out how to help
The Wedge in the long term. While knocking measured holes in the walls of flooded structures was one thing, if she really wanted to help them actually
repair the damage, they would all need raw materials.
She was now flying away from
The Wedge, away from Hub City, towards the nearby Greenpeak Forest. She'd been out there a few times when she saw younger, it was pretty scenic and relaxing. It also had trees aplenty, naturally. While she lacked the skill to properly carve the wood into usable construction materials or furniture, she could still provide them to the lumber mill free-of-charge in exchange for them using at least
some of them to help
The Wedge.
Staring down at the tree tops below, Karen grinned. "Alright, let's Paul Bunyan this shit!"
Swooping down, she quickly located her first piece of lumber, knifing her hand as she drew her arm back. With one swift
chop, she cleaved the tree from its base, sending it crashing to the ground. Her eyes were soon set on another, and then yet another after that, as she began to fell them in rapid succession.
She would need enough that it would be worthwhile for the lumber mill to honor their deal, in exchange for possibly more help in the future.
Harris
Harris continued staring downwards at the city moving on without his help, they didn't even need him, he was worrying about nothing! Harris knew that wasn't true, he was just trying to convince himself that everything was okay, that his reluctance was justified-
A scream rang through Harris' skull, followed by a splitting pain in his head worse than any migraine. Then another, and another, his head throbbed in pain as more and more screams filled his head. Harris grasped the sides of his head out of primal instinct, unable to process anything.
Killing us
Murdering us
Stop her
Help us
Any means
Humanity is a cancer
You should have known this.The screams in his head finally assembled into tangible sentence-fragments, all furiously screaming in agony more brutal than any nightmare. Harris had to stop this, the pain, the horror, it was too much. Harris' eyes opened wide and he let out a scream, unknowingly, as if an invisible force had seized his body. He screamed louder than any human had a right to, a primal fury, that of every tree that had been cut down. He was in too much pain to think, to speak, to do anything but mindlessly dive.
And dive he did. Directly at the source of this pain, the source of the screams. He cleared the distance, teeth bared and fury in his eyes. He crashed into the ground, but barely reacted outside a soft crouch. Gone was Harris Herzog, all that was left was nature's fury, Gaia's vengeance. The Vine Stalker screeched once more, then lunged forwards towards the human who had caused this, grasping through the air wildly.
Lady Arcana
Karen had been making good progress.
With her speed, she had already done the work of a small army of lumberjacks, and she'd barely even gotten started! She should have plenty of lumber in the end, enough that they'd just
have to make a deal with her. Now, the only remaining question would be how she should effectively transport all of this-
"Woah?!" She gasped in surprise when something crashed into her while she was flying towards another tree, throwing her to the ground.
Glancing about the area in confusion from her prone state, she was quick to spot...eeugh.
"Ewww, what the hell is
that? And it
touched me, gross!" Karen floated to her feet, quickly drifting away from the disgusting bug monster. It was easily the nastiest looking whateverthefuck she'd ever seen.
Vine Stalker
The Vine Stalker growled as he looked at the human, seemingly attempting to evade him.
She cannot evade you.
Nature cannot be escaped.The Vine Stalker grunted, but did not move, instead crouching and clenching his hands tight enough to create a wooden creaking. Then full-on snapping as the plating on his body was stretched and bent by a sudden expansion in his body mass. His upper torso doubled in size, and his legs grew slightly. He reached ten feet in height after two seconds of this.
The Vine Stalker let out an animalistic roaring as it continued to bulk up, his skin twisting in unnatural ways as he grew more "muscular". Around his joints, his exoskeleton began to fall off, but it stayed in position on the rest of his body.
As the Vine Stalker grew, a number of plants did the same, vines shot from the ground, thorns larger than on any plant resting upon them, these vines shot towards the human, attempting to wrap themselves around her whilst also shredding her body to pieces, they closed within seconds, and it would take immense reaction time to evade them, or immense endurance to ignore them. Unbeknownst to the Vine Stalker, these were both traits that this human possessed.
Lady Arcana
Karen's eyes widened when it began to grow
even bigger than it already was, reaching almost dinosaur-size. All she'd wanted to do was collect some lumber, why was this happening? Was this how her life was going to be from now on? Attacked by random monsters whenever she tried to do something to help people?
Distracted by his transformation as well as her own thoughts, she didn't quite manage to react in time to the first wave of vines as they swiftly coiled around her, enveloping and binding her. Glancing down in shock and horror, she quickly regained her composure when she remember that she was no longer a helpless little girl.
"Oh
hell no, I've seen this hentai!" She snarled, quickly flexing her muscles to rip her way from the vines with a powerful shout of her own.
More vines had quickly tried to take their place, of course, but this time she was ready. Using her immense speed and reflexes, she evaded each and every one before flying towards the creature. Much as she was loath to touch him, Karen knew she couldn't afford to be so squeamish. After all, it was apparently her
job to fight horrible monsters, and she couldn't let this one roam free so close to the city.
One benefit to having the vines bind her is that it gave her at least an idea of how strong this guy probably was, and so she roughly put in about fifty percent more force into her punch than the vines had used against her, slamming her fist into it's chest.
Vine Stalker
A loud crack echoed through the air as the punch hit home, completely shattering the Vine Stalker's exoskeletal chestplate and leaving an imprint in the flesh behind it. The creature growled in fury as it sailed backwards through the air, crashing into and snapping a tree due to his immense weight.
The creature's pupils fully faded into the white behind them, and what once were square teeth grew into fierce triangular fangs. The creature stood, seemingly unharmed by the blow despite the clear evidence of a fight-ending hit. Suddenly, the indent in his chest was filled, and the exoskeletal armor reassembled right where it was. The creature snarled its breaths through barred teeth, a fluid leaking from its mouth as it reassumed its stance.
The Vine Stalker roared once more, throwing its body back and roaring into the sky. As it did so, a number of fully-grown trees sprang from the dirt in front of it, two at a time, growing closer and closer to Lady Arcana. Just as trees sprang from the row in front of her, one shattered into a great number of wood splinters, producing the creature from within. The Vine Stalker shot from the ruined tree and grabbed the woman by the head, smashing her into the ground and landing in a crouch on top of her.
Lady Arcana
That punch should have definitely knocked him out.
Given the damage that it had clearly done, the monster should've been incapacitated for
at least an hour or so. But - against all her expectations - it had healed, and proceeded to...grow a new forest? Logic, where you go?
She now found her head pressed against the ground by the
thing. The gross, gross thing, with it's hand on her face.
"I'm going to be sick," she muttered, driving her fist up into it's torso again with the same force, mainly just to knock it off of her. Floating upright in an instant, she followed this up with several more blows to the chest and face, each powerful punch sending him sailing through the sky as she quickly outpaced his backwards momentum to deliver a follow up strike.
Finally, she flew directly above him, clasping her hands together to deliver a hard axe handle strike to the head that would send him careening back to the forest with enough force to leave a decent-size crater and send a large plume of dirt and foliage high into the sky, visible for all in the nearby Hub City to see.
"Hopefully
that did something..." She muttered, drifting down to observe the aftermath of her last attack.
Vine Stalker
As the dust cleared, what was revealed was a severely damaged Vine Stalker. All of his limbs had been detached at the joints, and he had been decapitated by the force of the hammer-like blow. His head was alive, however, if quite dazed. The Vine Stalker growled as his body dissipated into the dirt, reassembling beneath his head, but back to normal size once more.
He struggled to get into a kneel, panting heavily. He turned slowly towards his assailant, his eyes widening and his mouth opening slightly. He looked almost afraid. But once again his humanity faded and he returned to animalistically roaring. It was weak, the head blows it had sustained were enough to cause it to slow and pant. Regenerating its whole body from the neck down also took a toll, and it desperately attempted to enter the sunlight for nourishment.
It readied itself for one last attack, growling softly. It held a fist off to the side, prepared for a punch. This fist immensely grew in size, at least as large as the Vine Stalker's torso.
With surprising speed, it slammed this fist into the woman, sending her skyward. As she flew, it raised its arms towards the sky. A tree grew beneath it, propelling it skywards. Unnaturally growing at a ninety-degree angle, it snapped like a sling-shot, tossing it into the air at great speed. It collided with the woman, grabbing her as he flew. He growled in her face in one final act of rage, then smashed her earthwards with one massive-fisted punch. A small number of trees grew on the ground beneath as she fell in an attempt to impale her, but somehow the collective consciousness of all plant life in the area doubted it would work.
The Vine Stalker, out of energy, smashed into the ground before the woman did, his weight immense enough to cause a sizeable difference.
Lady Arcana
"Oh crap, I'm sorry!" Karen grasped her face in horror when she saw that she'd
literally broken him into pieces, and even decapitated him! Bug-man or no, he was still clearly a thinking creature and she had never wanted to kill him. She thought she'd been using an appropriate amount of strength, but it seemed she'd gotten carried away with that final attack...
Floating down to his side, she solemnly lowered her head in guilt...only to watch as his body disintegrated into the earth and began to regrow. Taking a step back in disbelief when he once again climbed to his feet, she slowly extended her hands.
"Hey, maybe we should try and talk things oveEEER~" her voice trailed off as she was sent skyward by his sudden strike.
Feeling him swiftly catch up to her, and smelling his...eccentric breath in her face when he roared, she was then throw back to the forest where she smashed through some uncannily hostile trees before tumbling to a halt, a large groove left in the ground along her path.
"Okay..." Karen muttered, slowly standing and reflexively shaking her head. "You're a lot stronger than the Nazi guy was, I'll give you that much."
Quietly floating over to where the creature had landed, she knew well enough to stay on her guard this time as she observed him. "Even so, you should definitely stay down. I don't want to hurt you anymore if I don't have to, you....weird bug-tree-guy."
Vine Stalker
The creature huffed and growled, but was clearly out of strength. He groaned and growled as if he were still fighting, however, and he covered his head with his hands and rolled slightly from side to side.
"...Hit... me," he said slowly, as if the words were difficult to form. "...Again...I'm..." he managed to stutter out before turning back to growling and rolling.
Harris' mind finally took back control of his body, no plants were in pain, the trees couldn't find another use for his tired body, all was well, except for the immense pain and fatigue he felt.
"Nevermind, I did it," he said with a sigh. "Sorry, I'm just as clueless as you are." he explained, hiding his face in embarrassment.
"I don't know what happened, but it's over now, I'm sorry," he once again apologized. "Thanks for not killing me," he said with a small smile.
Lady Arcana
He could talk! Quite a lot, it would seem. And he didn't seem intent on fighting anymore, which she was quite thankful for. She really didn't know too many more ways to beat on him without killing him.
"I would've never, not if I could help it," she assured him, returning his smile. "And I'm kind of confused myself in that regard. I was gathering some lumber to help with repairs after the fire, and then 'boom', you slammed into me."
She scratched at the back of her head, glancing at the forest that was now marred by their brief but intense battle. "You weren't really in a talkative mood at the time, so..."
Harris
Harris sighed once more.
"Yeah, all I remember was watching you guys work, then feeling incredible pain, then anger like I'd never felt before. I lost control completely, I remember every action but there was no thought behind any of it, it was instinct..."
Harris realized he had yet to explain what in the hell he even was.
"Oh, um, my name is Harris, I used to be a biologist but now..." He was unable to gesture, so he simply tilted his chin towards the rest of his body. "You see."
Harris couldn't tell if he was in a dream or if he was awake, everything seemed so unreal, what was this woman, what had happened to him, he had so many questions.
"And you?"
That was a good one to start with.
Lady Arcana
"Oh, me? Umm..." Karen tilted her head to the side for a moment.
Actually, since her 'Lady in Red' identity had been shredded by Wilhelm, she hadn't really been calling herself anything. She kind of needed a superhero identity, right? She couldn't just tell everyone her name.
Wait.
The Wizard had called her something back then. Yeah,
that name! She liked the sound of it. Which was good, since it apparently came from her heart, or some sappy shit.
She stared down at Harris, offering him a hand up.
Heheh, sappy...
"I'm Lady Arcana. It's nice to meet you, Harris. Are you going to be alright?"
Harris
Well, that was certainly a name. Harris was totally dreaming, that settled that.
He looked up at Lady Arcana as she offered him her hand, impressed and yet bewildered by this... enigma of a woman, he doubted anyone would fully understand her, never mind he who barely understood himself. Harris shakily raised a hand, clasping hers tightly and pushing himself to his feet.
"I'll be fine, I did just survive decapitation."
Why can I survive decapitation?Harris' brow furrowed as he looked around for Shawn, nowhere to be seen. He found himself getting worried, even if it was totally irrational to be worried about a grown man, but still, he was worried. Hopefully he hadn't accidentally hurt him in his rampage, he couldn't imagine looking at himself. Perhaps he should ask.
"I came here with a... friend, we'll go with friend, he's about yay-high, bushy beard, tattoo here," Harris stated as he stood at full height, gesturing around his body to illustrate his definition. "Have you seen him anywhere?"
Lady Arcana
Lady Arcana slowly shook her head, "Afraid not. You were by yourself when you attacked. If he's a normal human, I imagine he would've gotten far away from our battle."
She certainly knew that
she would've done so if she'd seen what just transpired prior to getting her powers. Taking on a mugger is one thing, but there came a time when you had to realize that you'd just be in the way.
"If you like, though, I could maybe help you find him?" She offered, continuing to offer him a comforting smile to hopefully assuage his worries.
Harris
Harris cautiously examined the area as Arcana spoke, but responded with a soft nod when she had finished.
"I would appreciate that very much, though I wouldn't want to be a bother," he said, waving his hand in a dismissive fashion. "If you would rather help with the reconstruction I would be fine with looking for him myself."
"But..." he said with a sigh. "Please don't cut down anymore trees."
He immediately assumed that she'd rather go help with the rebuilding than help some tree man who just attacked her find his boyfriend, and he understood that completely, it never even crossed his mind that she may actually go with him.
Lady Arcana
"Oh no, was
that why you were acting that way? I'm really, really sorry!" Arcana apologized, quickly raising the hood of her cloak to hide her embarrassment and shame. "If I'd known you...well,
existed, or that it would have that effect on you, I wouldn't have cut any down."
Well, she'd already chopped down quite a few, so maybe that would be enough. She didn't want to risk hurting or upsetting Harris any further.
"And nah, it's fine. I've already put the reconstruction way ahead of schedule, so they can wait just a little bit. Let's go see where your friend has gotten to!" She grinned, lifting off the ground, and once again offering him a hand in case he was too weak to fly.
Harris
Harris smiled in response to her willingness to help, taking her hand gratefully.
"Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it," he said with a smile. "I'll have to work twice as hard to make up for being such a prick to such a nice woman."
Harris really did appreciate her help, and the fact that she was treating him like a person, perhaps Shawn wasn't the only one who would see the humanity in him, perhaps he was wrong to be afraid. Harris smiled at the thought. There was no need to hide anymore, for certain.
Simple Unicycle
Alfhedil