She lifted the darkness. Phil had almost reached the door. The security guards had emptied their guns and still looked glazed. A forest was forming in the hallway.
    "Get the trees and get those guys out of there!" Powerhouse ordered, taking hold of a root and hauling with all his considerable strength; the tree had already burst through the ceiling. Fibers snapped. He flew up with it; more roots extended out, flailing out in search of something to grip. One knocked his shoes off. What was needed here was several cubic feet of some powerful corrosives; fortunately, he knew someone who could provide those. He headed out toward the docks. The roots were trying to get INTO him. He spotted the boat just before a root grew across his face.
    Scott hauled people out through a long, snake-like tube of himself. Cedar had managed to push himself all the way through the wall and gotten away.
    "Dammit, no one told me Eclipse was here," Phil muttered to himself--apparently he had a really bad habit of doing that. "This will solve the problem." He wafted a dose of pollen at her. It blinded and choked her; she barely saw the door open and staggered after him. Chlora flung himself into his heavily modified FTD delivery van and sped away. Despite the pollen, she managed to spring at just the right moment and grab hold, riding the back bumper while she coughed and turned on the tracking mechanism of her communicator.

Alchemy received the briefest blip of an emergency signal from Powerhouse as the boat hove in to the dock.
    "Help, I have a giant tree and I—"
    She fished out another cigarette and wondered what she did, in that past life, to deserve this.
    Yes, that was a giant tree. She contemplated it for a moment. That would have to be Powerhouse driving it, although she could only see one hand.
    More acid seemed to be in order.
    Powerhouse exploded out from the mass as bits of flaming wood rained down into the sea; the people on the boat clapped and cheered.
    "I didn't realize you had such an interest in horticulture," Alchemy observed, raising an eyebrow at her teammate, who was looking a bit the worse for wear. The emergency signal came again. "Shall we be going?" She started to place a call to the mainland police to give them their instructions for the people on the boat.
    "Hey!" Powerhouse shouted at the crowd; everyone turned toward him for a surprised moment. "Thank you." He had just memorized every face there.

Scott managed to clear out the building unaided; once they had been out in the fresh air for a few moments, the pollen's effects wore off the security guards. He found the rubber mask Phil had used to disguise himself and the spent pollen grenades. It looked as if Cedar had managed to double back and rescue Geranium. Shoot.
    "Did anyone happen to get the license number on that delivery truck?" Eclipse was following it, he assumed, but he had no way to get in touch with her. He was saved some fruitless searching when someone poked their head out of the building and told him Alchemy was on the line. She and Powerhouse were crisscrossing the city, slowly getting a fix on Eclipse's position.

After a while the van stopped, which was a good thing for Eclipse. The evil pollen's effects had stopped, at least. She dropped off the bumper, invisible. The door opened and Phil stepped out, careful not to catch his Venus fly trap on the door. There were several people standing around in front of what looked like a delivery service.
    "Are you sure this is going to work?" one asked.
    "Of course it will work. So far everything has gone according to plan. Oh, that vile, hideous darkness! But still they can't stop me. They'll never be able to stop me! Let me douse each one of these plants." He tossed something onto each in a row of small, potted trees. "Perfect. Now when the time is right, they will do exactly what we need."
    "We? There's just you."
    "I have henchmen now, you idiot."
    "Oh. We didn't realize you were in the henchmen business."
    "Of course not, you are merely the thugs, the army through which our grand war has been fought all these years. But I'll show him now! I'll show Commander Cardboard—all of this will become a rain forest under my control!"
    "It's not warm enough to have a rain forest," one of the others objected.
    "Yeah, and we don't get nearly enough--"
    "Yes, but the climate is perfect!" Chlora insisted. "Look at all the rain!"
    "You're mad," the man suggested with a sidelong look.
    "Yes, but I am paying you well," Phil pointed out.
    "Well, yeah."
    "Now, get these to the proper position, and then, it will be ours. We'll have the advantage we need in order to see my plans fulfilled!"
    "Whatever, we'll get these into the right position, and you cross my palm with the right amount of green," the man sighed.
    "Green I do very well," Phil smiled, handing over the cash.
    "It is real money this time, Phil?"
    "Would I lie to you?"
    "Yes, you would. It is real money this time, isn't it?"
    "Yes, yes. I have determined that this is made from pulp, and since money is the root of all evil, then this is evil plants, and I will control all money, too!"
    "Yeah, whatever. Load this stuff into the vans, guys," he told the others.
    There were two more vans and twelve plants. Phil got back into his own van; Eclipse decided to stick with him and slipped inside as he began driving away, muttering to himself.
    "Now I've got them, I've got them all. What?" Something beeped rapidly. "Yes?" Vague hints of someone else speaking. "What? ....Yes! All right.... You say a ship picked you up, well that's excellent.... Oh, good.... are you sure about that? They're tracking me? How are they—that invisible girl's in here, isn't she!"
    Darkness enveloped the entire van. Tires screamed as they veered across the road. Eclipse picked up a potted plant and brought it down quite smartly on Phil's head, stunning him.
    "Dark! Hurt!" he moaned to himself as Eclipse reached over his slumped form to grab the steering wheel. She brought the van under control just as it reached the end of a long wooden pier and slid to an unsteady halt.
    The other three caught up a few moments later as Eclipse appeared from the van, dragging Phil behind her with a good bit of effort. He was shaking off the effects of the planter to the head, so she reached for another one. At the same time, he reached into his costume and pulled something out; she grabbed hold of his wrist and found him holding a root, just a few inches long. She wasn't strong enough to keep her grip, and the root sailed from his hand, hit the pier and began growing through it. The already rickety structure began disintegrating rapidly, dumping both them and the van into the water.
    Phil grabbed hold of the side of the van, sinking with it. Eclipse let go and bobbed to the surface. "He's sinking! Get him!"

| Top |