RPM
Emma
Morden Man
KactusPunch
Dezuel
Guardian Angel Haruki
Antlers
Cyrania
Captain Uni
The animals of the forest did not scurry or run as the moving mass of green raised and lowered the trunklike legs and slowly made its way through the wood. Small, prey animals instincitvely run from danger, their nature overtakes them in all situations they feel threatened. A squirrel is just as likely to run from a wolf as it is a human trying to help it. And yet, no animal ran from the lumbering thing that had made their ecosystem its home. Perhaps because it had been his home far longer.
He couldn't remember who he was, not fully. Brief glimpses of a strangers life danced through his dreams and thoughts, nothing he could make sense of, but nothing he didn't feel familiar to.
The Swamp Thing knelt by the spring, his feet naturally growing roots and burrowing into the dirt below as he stopped. He could feel the life energy of nature pulsing through him, empowering him and connecting him to everything around him and further away. A large moss covered hand cupped water and raised it to his mouth. The water rippled with this interruption, and eventually calmed and settled, reflecting the face of the being in front.
A ridged nose below a face shaped not by flesh but by bark and moss, where deep-set amber eyes glowed faintly beneath a brow overgrown with lichen.
He stared into his reflection, not out of vanity - such things had long since left him, but in a desperate, wordless search for identity. The ripples distorted the image, twisting man and monster together until neither could be told apart.
He let out a long, slow sigh as he turned from the grim visage before him. As his breath hit the fertile soil a tiny bed of flowers sprouted and stared back at him. This elicited a smile, despite his lack of memory he was happy in the knowledge he was here to create rather than destroy.
The forest, as always, had no answer. Only the whisper of wind through branches that bowed reverently in his presence.
Then suddenly, disarray.
Birds began fleeing from their trees in the distance, branches from trees fell to the floor and were snapped in half, finally came the deer.
A young doe burst through the undergrowth not twenty feet from the spring, its chest heaving, eyes wide with terror. It wasn't running from him, it never did. It was running through him, its instincts overriding even the natural reverence of the creatures in his domain.
The Swamp Thing turned slowly, following the creature's line of flight. He could feel it now. The deep, steady pulse of disturbance traveling through the soil. A vibration out of rhythm with the Green. It was heavy, unnatural, automatic.
Engines.
His amber eyes narrowed, glowing faintly beneath the moss and vine. He crouched, laying a hand against the earth. The roots whispered to him, crying out in pain. Metal teeth were chewing through the dirt. Oil was seeping into the groundwater. Here they came, the monsters hellbent on destroying his home. Humans. armed ones.
He could feel their heartbeats as they trampled the underbrush, each step landing like a hammer strike against his chest. The forest stirred uneasily, a low rustling that passed through the canopy like a shiver. The air thickened with spores and mist, and the water at the spring rippled again.
The deer had long since vanished into the haze, but the message it carried lingered - the forest was afraid.
And so, it called to its guardian.
He moved over to a nearby tree, placing a hand against its bark as you would on a friend's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, old friend, but now is the time for action. Please lend me your co-operation."
The tree replied in a language only he could understand, and their forms became one. The Swamp Thing's consciousness transferring through the tree down to its roots and deep into the soil. His mind tangled with the mycorrhizal network and travelled through it, the thousands of interconnected beings all screaming out to him in fear and anger.
The whine of engines grew louder until they cut abruptly. Then came the hiss of hydraulics, the crunch of boots, and the hum of powered armor.
"Squad Alpha, spread out! Sweep formation!" barked a voice through a modulated mask. The men fanned out in disciplined lines, flamethrowers and pulse rifles at the ready. Their armor gleamed dull grey in the dim light, the Alchemax insignia stamped over their chests like a brand.
"Motion sensors picking up nothing." said one soldier, his visor flickering. "Could be interference-"
His sentence was cut short by a sound. A low, guttural creak, like the forest itself let out a sigh. He spun, torch beam slicing through the mist. Nothing. Only the silhouettes of trees looming close together, their trunks slick with rain and moss.
Then something moved, a silhouette, half-visible, slipped through the fog behind him. He turned again, finger tightening on the trigger.
"Contact?"
"Negative, sir. Just...I thought I saw-"
The tree behind him opened like the maw of some prehistoric beast. Bark split soundlessly, and a massive green hand shot out, wrapping around his helmeted head. His scream muffled almost instantly as the tree swallowed him whole. The trunk sealed shut again, leaving only a faint smear of blood and his rifle, cut in half by the closing tree.
The rest of the unit froze.
"Bravo-Seven, report!"
Their answer was static. Leaves rustled overhead. One of them fired upward in panic, bolts of plasma burning holes in the canopy. Charred leaves drifted down like black snow.
"Equip thermal optics! Movement on all sides!"
They turned in circles, sensors pinging red. The air grew humid, thick, choking. Steam rose from the damp soil as unseen vines crept through the underbrush. A flamethrower burst to life, washing fire across the ferns. The blaze illuminated something immense moving between the trees, a shape too big to be human.
Then came the sound, a crack and thud as a vine thicker than a man's torso lashed through the clearing, striking two of them off their feet. One hit a tree, spine snapping with a sickening crunch. The other disappeared into a bed of green, muffled cries fading beneath the dirt that rose up to trap him and filled his lungs.
The squad began to panic. Despite all their training, all their encounters with other humans, nothing could prepare them for this.
"Fall back! All units, regroup at the dropship!"
They fired wildly into the mist, bolts of plasma lighting the fog in strobing flashes. Shapes moved just outside their range of sight, shadows flowing through trees, crawling through the soil, wrapping around their legs and pulling them under.
Swamp Thing emerged from the earth itself, towering over the last three soldiers. Mud and moss fell from his shoulders like rain. His amber eyes burned through the haze.
"Fire!" screamed the squad leader.
Flamethrowers roared, but the fire bent away, curling harmlessly around him as vines erupted from the ground, ripping the weapons free. The heat only made him angrier, each layer of his bark shield that was stripped away only fuelling his rage.
He slammed a fist into the nearest man, the blow crumpling his armor like it was paper. Another swung his rifle, a vine coiled around his throat and yanked him upward into the branches.
The last soldier stumbled backward, trembling, visor fogged. "Please! Please, I was just following orders-!"
Swamp Thing loomed over him, staring through him with his orange eyes. For a moment he said nothing, as if he'd forgotten how to speak. The he opened his mouth, and his voice that sounded like the yawning of an avalanche tumbled out.
"Following orders..." He glanced down at his chestplate and the company name etched across it. "You would burn down this whole forest for your orders...unacceptable."
Roots surged from the soil, wrapping around the man and dragging him down through the forest and towards the muddy water of the swamp until only his screams remained. Then finally, silence again.
He stood among the wreckage of men and machines, the flames still burning softly as plants grew to snuff them out, the forest started to revive itself.
"Forgive me." he said quietly, as flowers began to bloom where blood had fallen.