AMEN XLVII: Who's the Leader, Again?

[5a Violista]

AMEN's Courtyard

Even though Harley has some onlookers, she continues on writing. Or, sometimes, thinking about what she should write. Writing is hard. While thinking, she does simple things like tapping the pencil's eraser on her lip or teeth, looking up at the clouds, stretching, ... and everything else imaginable.

Eventually she rolls her head back and looks towards the henchmen. "You don't have to just stand there!" she calls out. "I don't bite, not anymore."


Valcano Mountainside

The grey-colored witch continues examining and tossing stones, as the henchmen speaks to her. However, she stops talking to herself as the henchman speaks.

She picks up a new stone from the ground, and responds. "These rocks have raw untapped valcanic energy trapped in them," she says. "I think I could make their heart bleed." Confident that the rock in her hand is a good one, she turns towards the orange henchman.

As if to prove her point, she air-sketches out some geometric shapes along the surface of the rock she's holding. The rock starts glowing. It's a deep red, at first. Then it changes to a dark cherry color, before edging towards orange.

Maria tosses the rock towards the henchman, almost like it's a grenade.

The color reaches a pale orange....then sparks and fizzles. The stone stops glowing and returns to its normal igneous appearance, except now there's smoke coming off of the stone. Normal smoke, as if somebody just burnt some grass.

"See?" the madwoman calls out. "That one was faulty, but had left some sort of energy in its seed. I really want to characterize how its explosive power works, and what are its quirks. Then I can accomplish my deed."