[M&M 3e] Defying the Future IC

[Zelphas]

Round 5

Uriel's eyes widen slightly as Floral's burst of sudden power washes over her. When it fades, she hardly seems to notice the effect it's had on her opponents, her eyes on the other person changed by Manchineel in front of her. "What a lovely choice you just made, to even attempt to heal your enemy," she says softly, even as one of her many veils fizzles out like static on an ancient television, courtesy of Nope's efforts. She waits calmly for Helios' pyre to subside, hardly seeming to notice the flames that still dance over her veils and seek to burn at her. "Choice means nothing, if you don't know what you are doing. But then, if anyone is at fault for Manchineel, it would be me; after all, she made me in part to inform her choices, and I have failed."

Ariadne's threads lash across Uriel, binding and biting, and she winces as more of her veils are shredded away. "But I think the problem with Manchineel is more complicated than that. Have you ever heard of the mantis shrimp?" She summons a sword of light to her hand, already beginning to glow brighter. "Human eyes have three photoreceptors; we can see red, blue, and green light, and all the other colors come from there. Dogs only have two--blue and green--which is why dogs are colorblind." Another sword, brighter, follows the first. "Mantis shrimp have 16 photoreceptors. Even if you could talk to a mantis shrimp, could it explain to you what it saw? We don't even have the right words." A third sword appears, and Uriel begins to braid them together. "Manchineel.... lacks something, I think. I don't know if it's dormant, or gone, but when she speaks, when she tries to reason... it is like she can't see what is obvious to you and me, clear paths to get what she wants without causing the problems she causes." Somehow, in the middle of her braiding, a fourth sword has joined the increasingly-bright bundle in Uriel's arms. "That is why I compare her to a dog, or a tiger. A tiger doesn't know the difference between a human pointing a camera at it and one pointing a gun. A dog doesn't understand how a veterinarian makes it healthier, and would avoid them if it had the power to choose."

Uriel hefts the braided, shining bundle in her hands, as though testing its weight. "All of this might be pure speculation on my part; maybe I'm giving her too much of the benefit of the doubt. None of it matters at the moment, anyways. Shall we continue?" Uriel throws the spear into the air, where it explodes into multiple shards, hammering the space all around her--where Nope and Floral still remain--while bathing her in beatific light.

Spoiler: OOC

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Uriel

Move Action: Dazed.

Free Action: Reconfigure Reluctant Angel Array.

Standard Action: Use Sword of Dominating Light, Power Attacking for 3. Nope and Floral are caught in the radius.

Floral: (1d20+11)[27] Hit, full Multiattack; DC becomes 37.
Nope: (1d20+11)[25] Hit, +2 Multiattack; DC becomes 34.

On a hit, Resistance DC 32 + Multiattack vs. Damage.

Uriel heals at: (1d20+14)[30] 20 RP; 1 Bruise healed, 6 RP towards healing 2nd Bruise

All PCs are up.

[Quellian-dyrae]

That explosion of pure Life energy was unlike anything Lily had ever done before. And she could feel it, still, lying ready within her. She could unleash it anew, or maintain its effects. She wasn't sure how to do anything else with it, yet. But that didn't mean she didn't know what she could do with it. Healing, yes, of course, and growth. Those were the purposes Raphael had put the power to. Those were the purposes Life energy went to naturally in all manner of fictional and mystical traditions. Clerics and white mages, healers and protectors, all wielders of power along a similar vein.

But that was only one piece of it. Lily Woods was who she was, and though she may be no mage, science had its own understanding of Life. Viruses, bacteria, parasites, microbials of all sorts were living things, however invisible they might have been, and all but omnipresent. She didn't know how to do it, off the top of her head in the heat of battle, but she didn't doubt that she could. Used the right(?) way, Life could be one of the deadliest weapons of all.

To say nothing for simple energy output. Chi blasts were a classic for a reason. Part of her mind was already running down paths of possibility for using that energy to fortify her own body. Though gentle at heart, Raphael had been incredibly strong, likely beyond what would have been expected even of her size. Certainly, her toughness had been all out of proportion to anything a mortal ox could achieve. Maybe Hannah would stop being quite so overprotective of her if she could shatter concrete with a single punch, and take a hail of military-grade weapons fire without a scratch.

It was everything she had been missing. Power with a capital P, enough to stand alongside Ariadne, Helios, and Nope on raw strength, which could then be refined with tactics and cunning. She wouldn't be dependent on sunlight, or the limits of how much energy she could store in her cells. Plants were living things too. And it wasn't like her powers weren't already fundamentally derived from Manchineel's.

She could have all the power she had been yearning for. She could wield it to heal her people and strike down her foes. She could be ten times the superhero she ever envisioned Floral to be!

And all it would take would be embracing the power of the Menagerie.

Lily was still staring down at her hands, as dozens of thoughts whirled through her head at the realization of what she had done. She didn't react quickly enough to Uriel's attack. Beams of light lanced through her body in a dozen places, a barrage that even her supernaturally powerful photosynthesis could barely blunt. The scent of woodsmoke filled the air as the plant fibers that had replaced her flesh smoldered and charred.

But Lily didn't scream, even though a tear of nectar rolled down one cheek. She didn't know if wielding Raphael's power would make her subject to Manchineel's control. She didn't know if refraining from using it would offer her any protection. She didn't know if it was already too late.

She knew the risk existed.

Which meant she knew what she had to do.

"I didn't choose any of this," Lily answered Uriel quietly, as the nectar that was seeping from the half-dozen charred holes in her body transmuted to a medicinal salve, as plant cells began to divide and multiply, her injuries beginning to close, supernaturally swiftly, and yet more slowly than they probably needed to. "But Uriel, I can understand that a mantis shrimp can see colors I can't, even if I can't understand what those colors are. If someone warns me that what I'm doing is wrong because of considerations I don't fully comprehend, I can still take their warning of that into account. And if I choose to ignore their warning just because I don't fully understand it, any harm caused is still on me."

Because at the end of the day...

"Ignorance is not the same thing as innocence!" she finished heatedly, thrusting her spear at the humanoid mushroom, the haft elongating to lash at her like a striking snake, before snapping back and shooting out again, and again, a barrage of attacks that was nonetheless nowhere near fast enough to hit her, as fast as she was, and probably wasn't powerful enough to do more than scratch her, as powerful as she was.

But the spear tip still dripped with some sort of toxin, so she couldn't necessarily afford to just take that scratch, which would hopefully offer an opening to one of her friends.

Spoiler

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Free: Reconfigure Flower Power (+10). Power stunt expires. 5 points (attack bonus ranks) into Acidic Nectar, 1 point into Floral Thorn, 3 points into Petal Wings, 3 points into Photosynthetic Regeneration, 3 points into Enhanced Regeneration, 20 points into Healing Nectar, 10 points into Solar Nectar, 5 points (Limited SE) into Utility Nectar, 10 points into Floral Blood.

Move: Staggered.

Standard: Aid Ariadne's next attack against Uriel (+5 for Teamwork, -2 for Exhausted) at (1d20+13)[33] with Acidic Nectar, Linked to Persistent Secondary Effect Healing on self at (1d20+8)[24]. +5 to Ariadne's next attack. 14+5 RP. Heals the Bruise, 9/10 RP towards reducing Staggered to Woozy.

End of Turn: Regenerate 3 RP to finish triggering Recover condition, removing Exhausted.

Current Status: Staggered (9/10 RP), Fatigued, Floral Blood (-5 Def/+5 Res), SE (Persistent Healing +8). Recover used.
Healing Rerolls: 1/2.

[Ridai]

While Uriel and Floral are having lengthy existential debates in the middle of mortal combat, Nope is racing towards the point of exhaustion (and once again getting burned for several minutes straight!). Head is pounding, thoughts getting hazier and more erratic. Just keep focusing.

Spoiler: Actions

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Doing the same thing as last round. AoA -2/+2

Standard (1d20+10)[24]

EE Standard (1d20+10)[26] Crit

[Zelphas]

Round End

Uriel weaves her way through Floral's many jabs, turning each motion into a sort of dance. She is able to confuse the attacks by fading into and out of her veils, even as she begins to glow once again, her mouth opening to continue the debate--

And then, Reality blinks twice and scratches its nose, and when it focuses back on the situation, all of Uriel's veils are gone.

"You... whatever you can do, it really is beyond her, isn't it? She has been trying so hard to grow a proper counter..." Uriel murmurs, her elongated head turning towards Nope. Without her veils, her ethereal beauty is twisted and odd, every limb stretched beyond where it should be and slightly off kilter. Even as she speaks, her form begins to wither, wrinkles racing out from her extremities to cover over her entire form. "I don't have much time before I lose consciousness. When Manchineel bound me to her, she bound herself to me as well; she claimed that it was so that she could not 'forget to listen' to me. I honestly don't think she realized that she could simply make another form to fit her, or eliminate the dependency that she had created within herself, but she'll consider it soon."

Behind Uriel, a line of grass springs to abrupt, verdant life, before crumbling to dry winter brown before your eyes. The line reaches the nearest tree, which abruptly bursts into glorious spring flower. "The reason I'm still conscious is because of Manchineel's signal; she put a burst of growth in me, which will find its way back to her when I take more damage than I can handle and warn her that her Uriel has fallen. The connection feels more like hunger than thirst, and it might have a similar time limit; if so, you have a week before she does everything she can to find me, or makes another Uriel in my place."

The tree's flowers fall, replaced by thick, dark green summer leaves. Uriel, so withered that she has shrunk to nearly half her height, closes her eyes for a moment. A moment later, Ntombi Peters opens her deep brown eyes, straightening up as much as she can. She looks utterly and completely human, just as she did before. "Ignorance is not the same as innocence. But it's not the same as malice either. If an ignorant person is waving a gun, they need to be stopped, with force if necessary, but there's no need to--"

Ntombi's eyes roll back, and she crumples to the ground without a sound. Her silent fall is underscored by the crackling rush of leaves as they are shed from the nearest tree, whose bark is now withered and cracked as if with great age.

Spoiler: OOC

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Battle over! Everyone take a Hero Point!

In addition, everyone gets 2 Downtime Actions before the next Scene; I'll post the Scene choices once all Downtimes are in, as usual.

[Ridai]

At Uriel's question/musings towards Nope, he just groggily shakes his head with a shrug. "I don't know," he says, his indistinct speech still notably slurred. He promptly collapses onto a knee, redirecting things haphazardly to sit in the grass instead. He is retching again at the memory of bees crawling down his throat and being cooked and burned. The experience is going to haunt him for a while. It also doesn't help that he is barely staying conscious, alongside a pounding head and his limbs feeling shaky and sluggish.

Ntombi collapsing the way she did really doesn't help. Any considerations whether she is some sort of angelic dryad mashup can wait as Nope tries to get back on his feet to check if he did something terrible. It takes a few attempts to get anywhere.

"Are you all alright?" He asks his team, Floral especially, voice riding a wave of distress.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily's flurry of spear thrusts halted...fairly quickly when Uriel's veils just vanished and the readiness left her stance. A more skilled, more experienced, cooler version of Floral might have halted on a dime with her spear hovering a bare millimeter from Uriel's cheek, or something. Lily mostly just lucked into her spear being retracted at the moment it happened and managed to stop herself from actually extending it again.

One day, Lily. One day.

Lily was definitely 100% completely smug about Nope being so powerful that even Manchineel was concerned about facing him, and unable to find a counter for him. Yes, definitely smug and not in any way gritting her teeth in wounded pride at the gulf in their powers. So what if she was the only member of the team who hadn't so much as managed to scratch a single enemy and the biggest contribution she made to the entire battle was by using Raphael's powers rather than her own? Probably nobody had even noticed. She sure hadn't. This is just general unbiased narration and not anything like a direct output of the thoughts running through her head on a loop, and neither I nor any of my characters have ever protested too much in my life!

The corner of her lip did twitch in the slightest hint of a smirk when Uriel warned them that Manchineel would likely replace or seek to find her in about a week. She still had some experiments to conduct and tests to run, but she was pretty sure her Blight would be complete before then.

Lily just sighed - the ability to do so wasn't really any part of the reason she retained at least the capacity to breathe normally, but to be fair it was a convenient side-benefit - when Uriel got halfway through her final remark and collapsed. Lily could figure out the rest easy enough. It wasn't even wrong, but it was largely irrelevant.

Maybe a sufficiently good person could have found it in themselves to forgive a man who had shot them - and several other people, some of whom they knew - because he hadn't really been aware that shooting off a gun in a public place could hurt people, and was wrong. Sure, she'd grant that. Forgiveness was a virtue.

Lily Woods was not that good a person.

In the aftermath of the battle, for all the power she had output and healing she had done, Lily actually wasn't as tired as she might have been. Not completely fresh by any means, but a lot of the energy she had spent had been subsidized by absorbing Uriel's sunlight-based attacks, and Raphael's power had come from a different source - it had been a strain to use it, but it hadn't really depleted her reserves. While she was still leaking nectar from several scorched holes in her body, they were already rapidly closing. So her answer to Nope was a gentle, "All good, give or take a nap. You okay?"

She sniffed about some to try and figure out where Watcher's nearest bird was. It occurred to her that maybe they should invest in a somewhat more convenient method of contacting him. Seemed weird that it had taken her this long to think of that, but she supposed when the guy's whole schtick was "probably about half the birds in the dome are my personal drones" it really wasn't all that big of a priority.

"Oh um, the light thing," she said, her voice casual, as if it were just some random tactical consideration worth addressing. "Probably not anything to worry about relative to our existing knowledge. I'm fairly sure it's a Raphael thing and may or may not mean some level of increased vulnerability to Manchineel's control, but we were already operating on the assumption that that would be an issue and I don't see any reason to believe it should invalidate my existing plans for dealing with it. Triggered it unintentionally, but I'm not going to try to use it intentionally going forward, just in case. Might try experimenting with it once Manchineel's off the board, maybe."

Spoiler: Insight DC 20, 25 if Lily's Attractive advantage applies

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She's playing it cool, but it's a bigger deal to her than she's making it out to be. She's definitely more than a little shaken up by it, though she does believe her tactical assessment to be accurate. And while she sincerely doesn't intend to try to use it, you get the sense that there's a pretty big part of her that wants to.

[Ridai]

"Removals hard. Failed a lot until 'lucky hit'. Brain doesn't like Removals. Reality doesn't either." There is much in Nope's slurred words that screams for "I need a very long nap". With Ntombi... hopefully... okay-ish (?), Nope tries to get onto his feet. "You're not- you're not Raphael. Gonna beat Manchineel. Then figure things out."

[Abracadangit]

"I agree with Nope," Kal says to Floral, as she weaves a mesh of threads behind Nope to help buoy him to his feet. "These 'angels,' they speak as though Manchineel carries some profound truth. We are awash in a sea of truths, are we not? I do not think hers will be so special, hnn, hnn, hnn."

"Exceptional work, Nope, against a foe my thread could not..." The words catch strangely in Kal's throat; Ariadne always swerves away from admitting vulnerability, almost like magnetic repulsion. "...against a formidable opponent. You have my thanks."

[Ridai]

"Y-you all did the- the heavy lifting. Vespers and Uriel ignored most of what I tried. No idea why that last one got through. While they cooked me and shoved bees down my throat." There's another, stronger retching sound. That experience is going to haunt him.

[Zelphas]

Watcher's pigeon drone becomes unnaturally still as Lily speaks, watching her with an unblinking gaze that for once, seems slightly mechanical. But the moment passes, and Watcher doesn't press the issue; he simply prepares to transport Uriel's unconscious body as he has for all of the other various and sundry superpowered enemies you've all taken down. "I'll keep renovating as needed; maybe I should make a visitor's lounge..." Watcher comments idly to himself, the pigeon preening one wing as he does so.

---

Belling the Cat

September 21st, 2018.

With the clock running down on the time before Manchineel makes a drastic move, the four of you decide to act quickly to neutralize the last member of Manchineel's Menagerie: Michael, the enormous leonine figure that seems to act as her bodyguard. Manchineel can be seen without Michael from time to time, but the only times Michael has been reported without Manchineel are when someone decided to hunt in the Manitou Forest--a much more common occurrence in the earlier days of the Dome, but there was still the occasional story of the headstrong or desperate person who grew tired of the nutritious paste made by Watcher and went hunting for their own food. Lily's connections within her family allowed her to procure a hunting rifle fairly easily, and so now you are in the woods in the early afternoon, waving a gun around in an attempt to look like you're hunting for something, and hoping that Michael will pay you a visit.

You've been wandering the woods for more than fifteen minutes now. The air is still, the forest quiet. Maybe you need to fire off a few shots to call the cat?

Spoiler: Perception DC 32 (DC 27 if you are using enhanced senses; Mystic Sense does not apply)

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You noticed him only a minute or two ago, but he may have been there far longer. A flash of gold that could be mistaken for the reflection of the sun; a tree branch, swaying slightly, but in the wrong direction from the wind; a tree that gives off its own scent and one of a tree like it, but not the same; the lightest whisper of noise, like a bird shifting in its nest. All of these separate things come together to reveal that Michael has been stalking you from the treetops, staying downwind and leaping from tree to tree too fast for your eyes to follow.

[Abracadangit]

Kal watches the foliage uncomfortably; this entire setup is very alien to her usual process. Subterfuge, being stalked on purpose, and guns.

"Be not afraid," Ariadne echoes from within, in an uncharacteristically supportive tone of voice. "This is not so different from the Minotaur, that dogged my steps in the Labyrinth. There is always some beast, that dreams himself your hunter. But you are not prey, are you?"

"No -- I am Ariadne," Kal says out loud, under her breath. She turns to Lily, and nods. "Ready when you are. Let us be done with this business."

[Ridai]

Making sure he stays well out of the way of wherever the barrel of the gun may or may not get accidentally pointed at, Nope additionally resigns himself to another coming nightmare scenario. Namely Michael suddenly being in their face and actively wanting to murder them very dead. Normally, Nope likes to stay out of sight when entering the forest (or any enemy territory, that is). Can't be helped. Hopefully there won't be any bees involved.

"Please let's do this sooner than later."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"No, I'm not," Lily agreed with a serene smile.

Yet, a thought echoed in her head.

--

For somebody whose big brother was a Navy SEAL and whose big sister was a SWAT sniper, Lily could not have looked more awkward carrying a gun around. She was, at least, significantly cognizant of the existence of trigger discipline to not have her finger on the trigger and to avoid accidentally pointing the weapon at any of her friends, although she'd be honest she was just as glad that they all had various means of superhuman-level defenses just in case. But she had it aiming mostly at the ground in front of her and her grip on it seemed to shift every couple minutes. She was also holding it out fairly far from her body; a weird side effect of the League all having various modestly-superpowered minions and such was that in her time as a hero she hadn't actually faced many guns before. She knew logically that they weren't any particular danger to her, but she hadn't really had a chance to internalize that fact, so she handled the weapon with the same wariness she would have a year ago, if a year ago she had had any reason whatsoever to pick up a gun. Anyone with any actual firearms experience could tell you that it was a bog-standard hunting rifle, but Lily was not such a person and was entirely convinced that Andrew had gotten her the bulkiest, heaviest, most awkward gun he knew of as some big-brotherly form of teasing she could not rightly parse.

It probably didn't help that she was holding the hunting rifle one-handed, with her staff in her left hand. Because she didn't want to be deprived of her actual weapon, you see.

She had originally described this plan as "getting a gun from somewhere, going into the forest, and shooting it off a few times". She had not in fact actually shot it off yet, for a couple reasons. The first was that even though she was aware that recoil was a thing that existed, she wasn't entirely certain how to properly adjust for it and was completely convinced that if she actually tried to fire the weapon she would be knocked flat on her butt in front of her teammates which would be the most embarrassing thing ever and knowing her luck Michael would pick that exact moment to attack them and she needed to make sure she didn't begin combat at a tactical disadvantage.

The second reason was that she had picked up the strange scent. There wasn't any need to fire the gun. Michael was already stalking them.

The question was how to alert her teammates to that fact without revealing to Michael that he had been detected. Michael was created from a cat and might not understand English, but the Saplings seemed to and if they could there was no reason to assume Michael couldn't. Cats were known for their hearing so she didn't think whispering would do the job. She could transform the back of her costume to display a written message, betting on the idea that the guardian created from a housecat hadn't been instilled with the ability to read, but the fact of the transformation would still be visible, and might alert him that something was off. They really needed some sort of telepathic mindlink. She wondered if Helios or Ariadne could pull off such a thing with their magic...

Fortunately, Ariadne and Nope's prompting gave her the opportunity to, well, sort of do it, anyway. She would have preferred more of an opportunity to inform them clearly and coordinate a combined opening attack, but this would have to do. Better than ceding the initiative to Michael, anyway. "Yeah okay. Get ready; Michael presumably has super-speed so it's entirely possible he'll be able to zip over here from wherever he is basically instantly."

She'd give the team a couple moments to prepare for battle, raise the rifle up a bit, put her finger on the trigger...and then her hair would suddenly elongate and snap up and back, shooting towards the hidden Michael dripping with a debilitating venom. "He's there go go!" she shouted to her team.

Spoiler

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Flower Power (+10, since I'm assuming it's daylight since we're the ones who chose when to do this) begins on full Olfactory Clarity [10], Scent Processing [5], Commune with Nature [5], Scent Intensification [10], Floral Blood [10], Petal Wings [10], annnnnd I dunno let's say Transmute Plants [10]. Favored Environment begins on Defense.

Deception to help sell her not seeming aware of Michael in case that helps get me some surprise or something (+5 for Attractive with Humanoid Plant, +5 for Scent Intensification, +2 for Favored Foe [Manchineel's Minions]): (1d20+22)[33].

Assuming I can initiate combat with an attack/get a surprise round/whatever:

Free: Reconfigure Flower Power (+10). 5 points to Olfactory Clarity (Ranged Acute Accurate Analytical Smell), 10 points to Scent Intensification, 5 points to Floral Thorn, 10 points to Floral Blood, 5 points to Overpowering Scent, 5 points to Overwhelming Scent, 10 points to Potent Scents, 10 points to Concentrated Scent. Descriptor Feature set to [Physiological] [Poison].

Free: Set Favored Environment (Forest) to Attack.

Move: N/A since this may or may not be a surprise round.

Standard: Attack Michael with Poisoned Hair, All Out Attacking for 5, +2 for Favored Environment, at (1d20+12)[20]. Resistance DC 25+Penetrating-Perception vs. Impaired+Vulnerable Affliction.

Current Status: Normal, AoA -5*, Floral Blood (-5 Def/+5 Res).
*Assuming action is valid. Otherwise no AoA and +2 Defense from Favored Environment.

[Ridai]

"Wha- oh shi-" Nope was expecting sudden violence soon, but not this soon and them getting to strike first. Okay okay okay got this somehow, whip around, think hard and fast at Michael!

Spoiler: Actions

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Free Switch to Remove Second Guessing, and Remove Hit Points

Standard Try to subdue Michael with DC 27/22/22 Damage (Ranged, Improved Critical 4), Linked Affliction (Impaired+Vulnerable/Disabled+Defenseless/Incapacitated; Extra Condition), Linked Weaken Resistance. All-Out Attack -2/+2
(1d20+12)[15] Rerolled to 29

[Abracadangit]

Like Nope, Ariadne hadn't expected Michael to arrive so quickly, but that didn't change her plans by much.

"Another of Manchineel's potted plants, hnn, hnn," she says, sourly. Red threads begin to twine and twist around the group, as her needle flickers and thrusts."Let us give this cat a proper scratching post."


[post nullified, turn taken out of order]

Spoiler: OOC

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Action: Dropping a Silken Shields on the party, to start things off.

[Zelphas]

Floral's hair-spike launches backwards, piercing into a nearby tree canopy. It is followed by a yowl that is... pretty much identical to that of a housecat that has just been inconvenienced, if you downshifted the sound an octave or two and overlaid the creaking of heavy branches in the wind. A moment later, Michael leaps down from the tree.

It would be easy to believe that the massive figure falling towards the ground was made entirely from plant matter with only the shape of an animal, at first glance. Thick plates of roughened, deep golden bark held together by dark brown tree roots form the body of an enormous cat, the plates shifting smoothly like muscles as Michael drops towards you. More dark brown roots form tangles of claws, a nest of teeth in the creature's snarling mouth, a long lashing tail, and a thick, writhing "mane" pouring between the plates in the back of his head and coiling around his shoulders like it has its own consciousness. It is only a moment later that the golden, slitted, angry eyes, the hints of pink in the depths of the mouth, and the simple, fluid elegance of Michael's pounce--still graceful, despite Floral's hair embedded between two plates and dripping poison--confirm to you that there is indeed still something animal within Michael, buried under layer after layer of plant-life made to mimic flesh.

Michael lands upon the forest floor with another aggrieved yowl, his claws digging deeply into the cold earth. Brown roots rip out from the point of contact, tearing from the ground and attempting to crush and ensnare everything nearby--which, at the moment, includes the four of you.

Spoiler: OOC

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Map is here.

Initiative was rolled in the OOc.

Michael

Move Action: Leap down from the tree to Z21.

Standard Action: Use Root Crush. All PCs are in range.

Nope: (1d20+10)[25] Hit
Helios: (1d20+10)[16] Miss
Floral: (1d20+10)[11] Hit
Ariadne: (1d20+10)[23] Hit

On a hit, Resistance DC 31/26 vs. Damage Linked Immobilized/Stunned.

All PCs are on turn.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily's control over plants was greatly diminished when those plants were not composed of her own cells. Without the massive stored solar energy that her cells contained, she couldn't produce any kinetic force, and she couldn't perform fast large-scale transformations. Faced with Michael's massive phytokinetic assault, two pounds per second just wasn't going to cut it.

It mattered little, though. Lily leaped between Michael and Nope, crossing her arms defensively before her and taking blow after blow from the roots and vines. Her flesh was more-or-less as tough as wood and much less brittle. Between it and her self-healing powers, she came out of it little worse for wear, the charge of Life magic that Helios had imbued her with already going to work to repair what damage did manage to get through.

Lily tossed the gun aside and charged the enormous cat unhesitatingly. There was something different in her movements today. More...confidence? Determination? ...Honestly it was more like recklessness. Seeking to burn down the enemy as quickly as possible, heedless of any risk.

Manchineel was next. The Blight was nearly complete.

And Michael was in her way.

She rushed him, heedless of his enormous claws and deadly teeth, lunging her spear, dripping with even more poison, at his throat, even as her hair lashed forward with a nest of serpents, more poison dripping from its tips.

Spoiler

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Triggered: Helios's Healing triggers at (1d20+10)[16]. 6 RP

Free: Reconfigure Flower Power (+10). 5 points to Overpowering Scent, 5 points to Overwhelming Scent, 10 points to Miasmic Scent, 10 points to Poisonous Nectar, 10 points to Potent Scents, 10 points to Tactical Scents, 10 points to Tactical Poison. Descriptor feature set to [Physiological] [Poison].

Free: Favored Environment set to Attack.

Move: Into AB22.

Standard: Aid my next attack against Michael, All Out Attacking for 5, +5 for Teamwork, +2 for Favored Environment, at (1d20+22)[38]. Can't fail to provide +5.

Reaction: Since Michael has both an attack roll penalty (Impaired) and a defense penalty (Vulnerable), Reactions trigger. Attack Michael with Tactical Poison, +5 since AoA remains on, +5 for Aid, +2 for Favored Environment, Power Attacking for 5, at (1d20+17)[35]. On a hit, Resistance DC 25+Penetrating/25 vs. Cumulative Impaired+Vulnerable/Disabled+Defenseless Affliction Linked Weaken Resistance. Pretty sure that's a hit with full Penetrating after the Vulnerable.

Extra Effort - Additional Standard Action: Aid my next attack against Michael, +5 since AoA remains on, +5 for Teamwork, +2 for Favored Environment, at (1d20+22)[25]. Still can't fail to provide +5.

Reaction: They trigger again. Attack Michael with Tactical Poison, +5 for AoA, +5 for Aid, +2 for Favored Environment, Power Attack remains active for 5, at (1d20+17)[19]. On a hit, Resistance DC 25+Penetrating/25 vs. Cumulative Impaired+Vulnerable/Disabled+Defenseless Affliction Linked Weaken Resistance. Pretty sure that hits thanks to Vulnerable, and if he's Defenseless at this point from above it will auto-crit with +2 Penetrating.

Current Status: 1 Bruise (6/10 RP), Fatigued as of next turn, AoA -5, SE (Healing 6).

[Dorni]

Helios reached for Fire. Michael was Manchineel's bodyguard. Unlike the other members of the menagerie, who while certainly capable in battle were still shaped for other primary purposes, Michael's primary purpose was battle. And to top it off, Michael was never too far away from Manchineel herself. They had to hit Michael hard and fast.

And so he readied Fire to put the monster down. At first sight Michael was exactly what he'd imagined. A mountain of armored bark, wicked roots for claws and teeth, powerful vine muscles.

The eyes stopped him. Golden, slitted eyes. He knew those eyes. Feo could be a real brat sometimes. Well, she used to be. She'd mellowed out over the years. But those were unmistakably cat eyes. The animal Michael had used to be was still there.

Helios hesitated. Then unwove his Fire.

Instead he reached for Life, forming the familiar spell to drain the cat's vitality. He'd painlessly put it to sleep. It had a mixed track record against Manchineel's creations, but he had an idea that gave him hope. Though he hadn't called the fey, he could still feel his connection to Ila Sith. In ways he still didn't completely understand, Ila Sith was bound to the changing nature of the seasons, his own aetherial aspect rotating almost by the day. Today he bore the aspect of winter. Death.

Helios reached through his connection to Ila, borrowing a bit of that Death. Death and Life didn't get along, so he didn't even try braiding them together. Instead he wrapped it around his working like a glove. Death, to drill through the Life-aspected Michael's defenses, to deliver enervation spell draining the creature's energy into its core.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Free: Set Spells to Progressive Affliction [Fatigued / Stunned / Incap], Penetrating Weaken [Resistance]

Standard: Cast on Michael, AoA/PA 5. (1d20+10)[18]. On hit, DC 25/25+Pen (+5 to both if not crit immune) vs Progressive Affliction & Penetrating Weaken [Resistance]

Fine, Triggered Healing, Death aspect, -5 AoA

[Ridai]

Michael appears, Nope is not prepared, but Floral evidently was, not only attacking the giant terrifying tree-cat, but also keeping the Surprise Roots from mulching Nope. All while not looking much worse for wear. So since he was mostly pinned in place last fight, Nope tries to learn and moves into... well the approximation of cover in the form of a tree, but there is no real cover fighting any of the Menagerie, let's be honest.

It feels like doing Removals has gotten harder recently, and he struggles trying to keep the focus on Michael intact to incapacitate the beast. There's substantially less fire and bees used against him this time around, but he really doesn't want to be the guy who stands around for minutes accomplishing nothing again. And Nope has to work quick, because if this is basically a buffed up cat, said cat is going to act and react fast.

No pressure or anything.

Spoiler: Actions

Show

Move from AE22 to AF18

Standard Attack Michael with Remove Hit Points. DC 27/22/22 Damage (Ranged, Improved Crit 4), Linked Weaken Resistance, Linked Affliction (Impaired+Vulnerable/Disabled+Defenseless/Incapacitated; Extra Condition)
(1d20+8)[10] Rerolled to 19

[Abracadangit]

Kal feels the snarl of entangling roots wrap around her legs and her waist, twisting, coiling, crushing--

--and then promptly decides this will not do. In a strange maneuver, red thread coats her entire body in an instant, then Kal herself becomes a bolt of thread, zigzagging away from the roots and landing in a patch of grass some distance back, quickly reforming into herself as the roots begin to pursue.

With flicks of her needle left and right, the remaining roots are either bound or minced by thread, moving fast as lightning. Kal fixes her masked gaze on Michael next, limping and hurting from the team's combined assault. "Cats operate under the same principles, big or small. Relentlessly confident..."

A ball of red yarn appears, not too far away from Michael's front paws. Michael looks at the yarn, then looks at Kal, with an acerbic sort of "You've got to be kidding me" energy. Irritably, Michael swats the ball of yarn away.

Just as his paw connects with the yarn, the ball explodes with the sound of a million rustling strings, into a cloud of arcing thread bolts that encircle Michael completely. There's a roar of desperate frustration as the threads continue to twist and twine, securing Michael's limbs, then torso, then head.

"...and insatiably curious," Kal says, as she waggles her fingers, and her sewing needles vanish.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

AoA/PA for 5, on Thread Lash (Multiattack, Homing, Secondary Effect) twice, using Extra Effort.
Thread Lash 1 against Michael: (1d20+10)[21]
Thread Lash 2 against Michael: (1d20+10)[16]

[Zelphas]

This is technically Round 1

Michael's yowl of anger turns into a mewl of dismay as Floral stabs him in the mouth with a spear and in the face with several of her hairs, his dark brown roots blackening as the blight's effects spread through them. He manages to chomp down on the spear and break it away, but the poison is still clearly working.

Yesssss.... A voice hisses in Helios' mind as he weaves Death and Life carefully over one another, pulling away even more of the large cat's vitality. The golden plates of bark dull to a muted gleam, greying in some patches, and Michael settles into a more braced stance to keep his footing.

The world contemplates a donut shape before deciding it would be too ostentatious, and when it returns Michael has settled even lower to the ground, his yellow eyes flickering, the pupils dilating and dilating again.

And then Ariadne tosses a ball of yarn at the large cat, who seems to bat at it on impulse, receiving a cocoon of entangling threads for his efforts. The large cat falls to the ground, barely even struggling before settling into unconsciousness.

Several feet away, a Sapling appears, seeming to simply pop out of the roots of a nearby tree. The roots of said tree writhe and shift around it, raising up steadily into angular formations that do not seem entirely natural. The Sapling takes a moment to get its bearings, then freezes as it sees the four of you standing over the bound and unconscious form of Michael, none of you being all that much the worse for wear.

It looks like it didn't expect to be noticed so soon.

Still, the roots stop their odd movements, remaining exposed to the air in an unnatural formation, and the Sapling immediately bounds backwards into the tree, disappearing into the tree's bark in mere moments.

Spoiler: The Roots

Show

From where you're standing, the roots look odd, but don't seem to have any other meaning. As you approach them, you begin to see the shape of letters, until you stand above them and can read what's written there:

SEE YOU SOON
MY NEW MENAGERIE

---

When Lily gets home, Andrew lets her know that her information network really helped out; with them on the lookout, they were able to round up most of the cultists involved and get back the majority of the stolen inventory. Odd thing, though; the Suneaters had apparently only been interested in grabbing audio supplies, and then only more "retro" or outdated models. It probably wasn't that important. What could the Suneaters really do with a couple of boomboxes and a portable CD player or two?

---

There isn't much direct information you can get from Lockdown's contest--it seems like those people who want to leave the Chain Gang mostly opted out of the contest out of fear of proximity to Lockdown himself--but the winners make themselves known fairly quickly. The first is a woman who seems to have taken the place of Pride, ivory skin and all, and is working towards recruiting the Chain Gang once again; she calls herself Vanity. The second has not been seen directly, but his presence has been felt, especially by those business owners in the Industrial Block who have still been holding out against the Chain Gang's "protection" demands. It seems that he goes by Fear.

[Quellian-dyrae]

In a lot of cases, Lily might have been surprised to see Michael go down so quickly. Or at least elated that her poison had done so well - granted, it hadn't taken him out on its own, and it had taken three separate doses to really do the job, but it had definitely weakened him significantly. At the very least, she should have complimented Ariadne on taking him down with a ball of yarn, because that was just perfect.

Instead she just eyed the fallen cat, nodded, gave a little kinda-birdish whistle (she'd been practicing) to signal Watcher, and basically just turned around and started heading for home, telling the team, "I should be ready in about two- uh, two days."

The little stutter in her speech came as she caught sight of the message in the changing roots. That should have worried her. Manchineel didn't just want her to replace Raphael. She was after all of them, now.

In the back of her mind, the train of thought played out. She spreading Manchineel's forests wielding both Raphael's powers of life and her own vegetative transmutation, extending her dominion everywhere the sun touched. Helios, another outsider like Ntombi, advising her on matters tactical and magical, infiltrating the populace the same way he had the Cult, his already powerful magic only enhanced by Uriel's command of solar fire. Ariadne replacing Michael at Manchineel's side, her tremendously powerful defensive threadwork woven with catlike agility, halting any possible threat. And Nope to replace the treacherous Gabriel, not to seek out weaknesses in the Watcher's barrier - but simply to remove it outright.

It was a horrifying vision...but it caused no more than a momentary stutter in her speech, as she took one more look at the fallen Michael and thought, Yeah. Good luck with that.

And then unless any of the others stopped or wanted to speak with her, Lily Woods headed for home, to go put the finishing touches on her Blight.

[Ridai]

Nope is just glad the fight is over so quickly. He is not going to dwell on it, he'll just take it. He calls over a quick "Thanks" to Floral for the interpose, before he sees the message. He stares at it for a moment, followed by "Yeah no, nope, mh-mh." Aaand the mental images are already there. Great.

As Floral leaves, Nope says "Hey um, keep us posted. If we can do anything or... something..." A way with words still eludes Nope to this day.

[Abracadangit]

"I wish you only good fortune, in your research," Kal says to Lily, as they talk briefly following Michael's defeat. "If I can be helpful in some way, do not hesitate to contact me. As for Manchineel..."

Kal regards the roots, with a measure of scorn.

"...she tries to speak bravely, for a gardener without her plants. I detect fear; let us seize on it."

[Zelphas]

Manchineel

September 23, 2018. Sunday.

One by one, Manchineel's Menagerie has been stripped away. Raphael fell first, practically the opening action of the little group the four of you have made together; a simple heifer going about what her Manchineel-crafted instincts bade her to do, she was pacified and taken in by Watcher into his Obelisk. Time passed, and then Abel was next. You discovered Abel's past life--Zephyr Magro--freed his family from the twisted actions of his would-be murderer, and returned to Abel his speech and some scraps of his memory. In return, he has promised to remain far away, to ignore the siren call of Manchineel's pheromones and let you take your chances with his 'creator'. More time, and you battled eldritch forces in an unexpected place to uncover the identity of Gabriel: Cosme Muto. She also shook free of Manchineel's influence under your guidance, but where Abel wished for avoidance, Gabriel swore revenge. You uncovered Manchineel's hidden angel and subdued her, placing her in Watcher's care as well. Finally, you hunted the hunter, Michael, who fell with a whimper rather than a roar. Now, Manchineel is alone.

Or, at least, without her Menagerie.

According to Watcher's pigeon-bots, Manchineel had not moved from a location in the southwest of the Manitou Forest for the last two days. She has been waiting, it seems; perhaps expecting you. You all meet at a tumbledown little coffee shop that seems to have misplaced its name even before the Dome came down on the southern edge of the Industrial Block, just past noon. The shop has few patrons, and a few discreetly leave shortly after you arrive; possibly Bronze Links (word from your sources is that Lockdown's ordered a hands-off approach for the four of you for the moment), possibly just normal people going about their day as best they can. The day is overcast with intermittent bursts of sunlight, and warm for the season, in the low to mid sixties; the last breath of anything like summer before autumn and winter roll in entirely.

There are five members of the League of the Future. One claims to be your ally. Four still oppose you.

For now.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

All right, go ahead and prepare! I'll note right now that this is the final Scene for this arc. Your Hero Points will reset after this Scene, so use 'em or lose 'em! (or save 'em for Downtimes I guess, I can't tell you what to do)

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily stood up from her computer desk, and wiped a tear from her eyes.

Since she first took up the mantle of Floral, she had rarely really felt like she was in particular danger, save that one time with the Vespers. Oh, sure, she logically recognized that what she was doing was dangerous, because she wasn't an idiot. But deep down, emotionally, it hadn't really impacted her much. Partly that was because of her powers, partly because of her teammates.

And partly it was just because no cultist or robot or undead monster, no Link of any color, no minion or servant the League of the Future could throw at her, could ever possibly be worse than Manchineel.

Well, today they were going to fight Manchineel. They had prepared well, had isolated her from her most powerful minions, had learned her weaknesses and developed methods to exploit them. They were ready.

And Lily's room was thick with the smell of honey (tinged some by cinnamon and just a hint of mint). However much they may have prepared, this was still Manchineel. It was still the next best thing to trying to overcome a volcano or tornado in personal combat.

(As she had several times so far today, Lily glanced over at the simple wooden spear leaning against the wall, drawing calm from the memory of its new contents.)

This was different than every other time. This was dangerous. She was all too aware of the fact that she could die today, or worse. It wasn't certain, they had prepared well, but the possibility was still too high not to prepare for.

She had written emails, that would be sent out in three days if she didn't cancel them before hand. One to her teammates. One to her parents. One to...

Well, one to her siblings. Strictly speaking it had been supposed to be to her brother, with a separate one to her sister. In the end, she had just made a couple tweaks to the first and addressed it to both of them.

When she tried to write one to Hannah specifically, the only words that seemed to come to her for it were, "Well. If you're reading this, I guess you were right."

Whatever. She had duties to attend to. Lily turned decisively away from her computer and strode to her door, grabbing her spear and a little cotton bag that was hanging on the doorknob beside it.

As she headed out of her house and took to the air, inside the bag, there was a little jangling sound of metal clanking against metal.

--

Lily arrived at the coffee shop in full costume, game face on, spear in one hand, a cotton bag undoubtedly containing something biochemically devious in another...and a perfectly normal swimming-pool style noseplug on her nose.

It did not escape her notice that she was literally going to be fighting her archnemesis like that. One day, she promised herself. If she managed to survive this, then one brave and glorious day, she was going to become cool.

But it was not this day.

"Hey guys," she said, once the others had arrived (and...most of the rest of the shop had cleared out, I guess). "Okay so, I've been working on stuff!" she told them with a cheery excitement that almost certainly wasn't being forced at all. "First, logistics." She reached into the bag and pulled out what looked more-or-less like four test tubes, only made of metal, each one stoppered with a cork. She stuck one in her belt, and handed the others out to them. "These are in case of emergency. You know, on the off chance that the pinnacle of olfactory defense technology I've got here somehow manages to fail when faced with one of the most powerful supervillains in the Dome." She gestured with the test tube she was currently holding at her noseplug. "No judging, by the way. Anyway, we're still not certain whether or not I'm actually subject to Manchineel's control or whatever, so I wouldn't say to use them like immediately if the noseplug comes off. But if I start acting weird and you don't have a better or faster way to neutralize me, just uncork the test tube and as long as I'm within about fifty yards it should knock me out pretty much instantly. It's-" a biochemical solution which releases scented particles into the air that, when they interact with olfactory cells, catalyze a reaction that produces a powerful herbicide derived from a variant on bee venom that also induces severe desiccation when introduced to living plant cells "-basically super-chloroform for plants. Um...just, one tube should be sufficient. No need for all of you to do it at once. Although two doses shouldn't cause any long-term damage. Probably."

"Those probably won't have much effect on Manchineel though. For her I've got this!" The tip of Lily's spear kinda unfolded almost like a blooming flower itself, revealing held within it was a kinda elaborate-looking device almost like a syringe but bigger and more complex, connected to a tube of kinda purplish-green liquid that seemed to extend all the way down the spear's haft. "It's an herbicidal poison, optimized for debilitating creatures with both plant and human DNA. I'm thinking it should pack a punch even against Manchineel, and it's plant-based itself, I used my nectar for the base, so I should be able to enhance it with my powers. I didn't...really know how to get it in a format that would apply easily to, you know, arbitrary hit point removal and magically conjured threads and solar fire magic..." is it weird that she kinda sounds disappointed with herself because of that? "But the delivery mechanism is connected to the spear tip so if I'm unable to fight for whatever reason...just grab and stab, I guess!"

Spoiler

Show

The test tubes are basically just fluff for the Herbicide benefits that if Lily gets Compelled or Controlled, anyone can spend a Hero Point to change her to Incapacitated.

Current Status: Olfactorily Unaware.

[Abracadangit]

"This is incredible work," Kal says, looking at the vials and the spear. "At some point, science truly becomes a magic of its own. Laws that must be observed, wonders to behold. Hopefully, it will not come to us forcing you to sleep."

"We have waited a long time for this, and with one of them felled, the others may be soon to follow. I trust in your abilities, and I also trust in our team. Let us be rid of this loathsome weed."

[Ridai]

Remy sits down with Uncle Bruno and Nora, lets them know that the group will be fighting Manchineel soon. It's the most dangerous thing they've attempted thus far. And if he is not going to be back soon, if he looks or acts different than before, if Manchineel has a new Menagerie, it'll mean they'll have lost. And there won't be a Remy as they knew him anymore, just a monster. They have tackled bad odds before and won. But he can't say how this one will go down. All Remy can say is that he loves his family very much and that he will be back as soon as he can.

-----------------------

At the coffee shop, Nope enters as a normal person would, sitting down and waiting as the shop clears out. Hands in hoodie pockets, staring out at his worn sneakers on his legs stretching beneath the table. Pants are feeling pretty baggy at this point, and so does his hoodie. Used to fill them out a bit more a few months ago. He's been noticing things like this more frequently recently, his current state now significantly apart from how he started. He can see how his appearance is scrambled for people on the outside and it feels like it is slowly going more "cryptic". Being in the calm before the storm, he doesn't feel nervous right now, just having this weird empty feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Once everyone else arrives, he listens, quietly takes the vial, and looks at it. He doesn't like it. He listens to the explanation of the spear, and he nods. Afterwards, he is quiet for a while. Something's been nagging at him for a while, never really found the courage.

"You need to promise me something, for once we get through the fight. You're brilliant and committed. Cut this bull**** of apologizing or talking down about what you can do. Take it from someone who's spent a good chunk of his life with low self-esteem, no real achievements prior to all this starting, and no idea what to even do with his life, who knows what that **** does to you. Stop it." He still remembers Lily from the D&D games Uncle Bruno ran, before all the crap with the Dome went down, before Manchineel did what she did to Lily, even if it was just contact and he doubts he left much of an impression or saw many facets of her. She's not the same woman as she was before as well, after all that happened. But he can't just watch a good person slowly break herself down. Maybe he can at least help prevent that from happening.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily gave Ariadne a little appreciative smile. Although if she were honest, sometimes she wished science worked more like magic (even counting the fact that in some ways her powers let her apply a fair measure of what most people would probably call magic to her science.)

The look she gave to Nope was, at first, confused. For a second she was about to wave his concerns off. "Low self esteem" was not a phrase that had been used to describe Lily much - ever at all, really - in her life. If anything it was the opposite. Back before her parents had let her move ahead in school, day after day and year after year of breezing through her classes had instilled in her a burning sense of pride that bordered on open hostility to anything that would dare try to present a meaningful challenge to her. When she had finally demanded it at eleven years old, she had challenged her father - a brilliant and experienced attorney - to a challenge of law if they didn't get out of her way, and to this day she still thought she could have won. When asked her childhood ambition, she had declared it to be solving world hunger, and developing superpowers that would be a tremendous asset in that goal didn't make her think it was now suddenly possible - it merely shortened her timelines. If she was disappointed in herself that she couldn't somehow manage to create a poison that could be efficiently applied in the heat of battle to literal magic and arbitrary reality-alterations, that was just because she felt like she should have been able to do that. Generally speaking, Lily would expect herself to be overconfident rather than underconfident. (Well, more precisely, she would expect herself to have properly calibrated high expectations, but close enough).

At the end of the day, her internal experience wasn't one of low self-esteem. Her internal experience was...

Was...

...Come to think of it, her internal experience these days was, often and explicitly...

That of a constant war between an idealized version of Floral, the image of a badass confident warrior-scientist that you don't actually believe you can live up to.

And the panicky, helpless Flower Girl that you constantly worry you actually are. Yeah.

Nice of you to finally notice.

The realization swept though her, tearing down little obfuscations and justifications as it went. Lily had long taken it as a given that what you said you believed, even what you thought you believed, wasn't strong evidence. What provided strong evidence of what you actually believed, what you actually expected to happen, was the actions you took. Lily hadn't sat down with her family, hadn't told them that they were about to take the fight to Manchineel. She had written emails and set them on a timer. Lily had been poking and prodding and agitating her own biological weaknesses, making sure there were ways to neutralize her easily if she turned...and having developed a way to neutralize herself easily, she hadn't undone the damage. She had tried...but she could have tried harder. She had spent the entire past week building a weapon to fight Manchineel, a substance to take herself out if she fell to her control, but the sum total effort she had put into defending herself against Manchineel was buying a noseplug at the dollar store.

And most damningly, she had hidden almost all of it. Her team knew she was working on stuff, but they didn't know how she had been doing it, didn't know that she had cut eating and sleeping and showering entirely out of her schedule, had cut back dramatically on her hero work, had basically been avoiding communicating with her family by anything other than single-word text message for a week.

And there were reasons for all of it. Lots of good reasons about how Manchineel needed to be stopped, how she was hurting people, how if this time leading up to the fight needed to be spent on preparation, how she was powerful and one had to be prepared for the worst and on and on. But if Lily looked back on her actions without using that reasoning as a shield, without assuming it correctly justified them rather than merely excusing them...

They were clearly the actions of somebody who did not expect to survive the coming battle, and was merely trying to weaken Manchineel enough before she died that the real heroes would be able to stop her.

...**** that.

It didn't look like much, outwardly. It didn't take much time. Lily's brain was not superhumanly fast, but it was still about as fast as an unenhanced human brain could be.

(Somewhere in there, the flicker of a thought, the seed of a question. Lily noted it consciously, and set it aside for later consideration.)

She closed her eyes, but only for a few seconds. There was a whiff of mint, and a fainter hint of cinnamon in the air. And then it all faded back into the normal scent of lilies that always seemed to hang around her like a perfume as she opened her eyes.

"Right," she finally replied to Nope, with a slightly awkward smile, but sincerity and...perhaps somewhat more sentiment than maybe on the face of it the exchange would seem to deserve, to someone who was not privy to the full effect his words had had on her thoughts, and her outlook. "I'll work on that. Promise."

[Dorni]

Flint, as Helios, tried to banish his unease. Part of him wished they'd skipped the short break they'd taken to prepare for their battle against Manchineel. It wasn't that he'd squandered it. He hadn't - he'd built on the principles of manipulating Life energy and, with a few hints from Iala Sith, had developed and practiced a spell to conjure a toxic cloud that he hoped Manchineel's plant-based physiology would be especially susceptible to. He wished he could do more, but if he tried for more it might end up slap-dash and be useless against Manchineel. If the amount of aether in Rapheal and the rest of the menagerie were any indication, half-measures weren't going to have much effect on their progenitor.

No, it wasn't his preparations. It was the waiting and the wondering. Wondering how the fight would play out. Wondering if they'd prevail. Wondering if he should have said more good-byes. But who would he say good-bye to? His familiar would be there beside him, and probably be banished should he perish. Sarah would probably want to help if she knew, but she was still trying to master her summoning spells. She had a real knack for it, but he wasn't sure if the beings she called obey her in a crisis, or if they'd be reliable if she commanded them to obey him. And Dante, well, he couldn't tell him.

Which hurt more than he'd expected. He'd been so close with his brother before coming to Forester's Bay. Now he was constantly lying to him, to his face and by omission. It was ironic, in a way. In stories and movies the heros might struggle but at the end of the day they stood for virtues, truth, the right thing, and all that. Flint had never lied and deceived as much as he had since he'd gained his powers.

He banished the thought. It wouldn't help.

"Yeah Floral, don't be so hard on yourself. You've done all you could. Its far more than any of us could in your situation. We're going to be fine."