X-Men Mission: Skull Island 9
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xp_logsThe science team faces a literally hostile jungle.
The Blackbird was mostly back up to snuff, thanks to the combined efforts of the team on the repairs. The problem was that the island's vegetation was aggressive enough, it almost seemed to be growing in front of their eyes into the clearing. Christian Kane's team had indicated they'd be making landfall soon, having cleared the worst of the storms and reefs in the churning seas. More importantly (at least to a few of them), even a few hours work had produced a wealth of interesting specimens and readings for them to study. Skull Island wasn't just a clumsy legend; there was something fundamentally different about the ecosystem and the local biosphere.
That might have been why the long green tendrils were able to crept along the ground and deep into the camp before they struck, trying to coil around the people working.
Sue had worked on projects in the middle of a warzone, rebuilt systems while bullets streamed around them and governments faced off, but this island was certainly becoming her least favorite vacation spot ever. A forcefield flickered to life around the young woman, distorting the air around her as she instinctively shied away from the green tentacle reaching out for her, a sharp cry escaping her lips as she scrabbled back towards the Blackbird.
Hank was so engrossed in poring over a particularly strange-looking mossy growth that his first warning that things had gone amiss was Sue's shriek. He was on alert in an instant, pushing his glasses up his nose as he swung around to face her. "What's wr--oh, rapid florakinesis, how unusual! Is it in response to touch stimuli, or--" His questions were bitten off with an exclamation of his own as a vine began to curl around his ankle, putting paid to the hypothesis that this a benign phenomenon.
Whipping his head towards the sounds of his friends, Reed watched in a curious horror at the plants. He knew he'd been seeing weird readings, but this was beyond what he expected. When a vine wrapped around his leg, he let it, wondering exactly what this was about. Hank's words echoed around and Reed nodded in agreement. "Yes, this makes sense now, with the results we were getting. I wonder what the material is actually made of. It can't be regular organic matter, I wouldn't think, considering there is no actual brain stem in -- mmph!" He was cut off when a vine wrapped itself around his mouth.
At the exclamations from all three scientists, Nica spun around from where she was and gave a little scream as more vines appeared, wrapping themselves around her leg and waist. She instinctively ghosted, hovering intangibly several feet up as she took in the scene. "Woah!" she gasped. "Are these plants moving on their own?!"
Sooraya reacted without thinking, shifting into her sand form without hesitation. Razor sharp tendrils lashed out, shearing through the vines keeping her friends captive. Shifting focus, she spread out into a thin wall of sand, giving everyone the chance to retreat and regroup.
"You know, I think they might be." Safe within the protection of her forcefield Sue skipped back a few steps, letting her forcefield drop as she pulled a coin out of her pocket, holding it up in her hand as she seemed to leap forward. The young woman travelled forward maybe a centimeter before her she seemed to stop in the middle of the air, the coin racing forward, shearing through a bunch of tendrils before impacting the ground with a loud crash, the tendrils reactiong to the impact. "Interesting."
The three women were in some ways lucky - their powers rendered them more or less impervious to the vine's advances. Reed and Hank were less fortunate, however, as was the Blackbird, which was slowly succumbing to the creeping foilage, its landing gear disappearing under a mass of leaves and vines. With a huff Hank sprang away from a grasping tendril and caught hold of a branch, pulling himself up to balance on it. "We need to locate the epicenter of the shoots," he called down. "Perhaps that will give us an idea of what is propelling it - and how to halt its movements."
"I can!" Nica, eager to do something useful, was about to take off into the heart of the jungle where the vines were emanating from.
The annoyance of not having a telepath around was she had to shift back and forth to communicate. Sooraya refected as she soared up to land on the Blackbird and shifted back. "Sue, I need you to keep the blackbird in one piece in case we do need to leave quickly. Reed, McCoy, I need answers in case Nica doesn't find any. I'll keep the vines away from as much as I can."
"I don't have any answers," Reed admitted, running his hands over his face. The tendrils had left a strange, sticky residue that burned slightly. "Poison, probably, or some type of neuroparalytic compound," he murmured out loud. Looking towards the vines, still creeping, he wondered ... "Hank, how quickly do you think we could create an electric transmitter? The vines, they retract towards the centre. If we can blast them enough, they'd all go rushing to regroup, allowing us to have a better sense of where they are. Then, Nica, Sue and Sooraya can focus their attacks directly there. There also seems to be a poison, which leads me to believe there's multiple ways this plant captures its victims. We can't afford to get cocky." He bounced up and hacked at some vines covering the loading bay of the plane. "I think there's some extra batteries in here...."
"We may have to borrow from the jet a little," Hank said, knowing he was risking the wrath of their engineer by suggesting this. "Sue, could we reroute the carrier signal from the modulator in the communications array in order to-- blast!" A bevy of vines had found their way up to the branch he squatted on and made quick work of his attempts to escape them. "I can help... in a minute..."
She was going to have to start carrying coins with her, or some kind of projectile that she could you to throw out at people, but right now...the blonde glanced back at the plane before looking back at the others as what could only be an evil grin spread across her face. "We can probably use the communications array to boost the signal but we do have something close to hand as it were." she gestured at Nica, at her ear, "Those communicators have to have a pretty capable powersource...I bet we could use them as grenades if we need to, use the carrier signal from the generator to trigger the detonation".
Reed was battling his own vines, swatting away at them with a random metal piece he'd found. "Well, how about you three take off into the jungle, and Hank and I will convert your communicators. We will save our own so that the team can find us again....but hurry. It won't take long for this jet to be overcome...we can come up with some sort of incendiary device to take care of the residual vines perhaps if we have time ....."
"Let me go first - I can fly and it can't touch me at all." Nica had been practically vibrating on the spot, so eager was she to do something "useful". She shot off into the jungle, a blur of light that passed through the foliage without a rustle or hint of movement. Then there was a yelp and Nica reappeared, looking panicked. "So, um, I found it? Only, um, it saw me? Or my light at least, and it really started getting mad. I came right back, but..." She glanced over her shoulder. "I think it followed me."
Out of the jungle shuffled the monstrous plant. Or possibly plant-like monster. Either way, it was big, at least ten feet tall, vines waving angrily around it and three leg-like clumps of roots dragging it forward. In the middle was a large bulb-like structure, like an enormous flower bud. As they watched, it cracked open, revealing rows of spines that looked for all the world like teeth.
That thing was... unlike something she'd fought before in her years as an X-man. "Nica, if the damn thing liked you enough to follow you here, get it away from here. Now! I'll help you keep it busy. You three, whatever it is you were talking about, do it fast. And keep the jet in one piece as much as possible before you get Cyclops on your ass." Sooraya called out before shifting and diving forward.
She was just in time to stop another wave of vines creeping towards the jet, chopping them little pieces before lashing out as the bulb-like structure. Razor sharp tendrils of sand cut deep into the flesh of the thing and it let out a strange sound between a moan and a scream.
"Yes ma'am!" Nica dove at the monster plant, glad she was intangible at least even if it meant she couldn't do much to hurt it. Unfortunately, it seemed to have decided the other mutants made for good snacks and it ignored her. Nettled, Nica blasted it with one of her light beams - that got its attention. The plant reared up, pulling its vines from the Blackbird and surrounds to try and snag the teen X-Man who was glowing like a strobe light.
"Well that's not disturbing at all, the thing is obviously alive and feels pain, and now she wants us to kill it." Not that Sue had much of a compunction about killing someone who was threatening her and her friends, but this was meant to be a rescue mission and the X-men were meant to be the good guys. If this was what their missions were normally like, well she was glad team science wasn't called up more often. "Ok, so while they're playing tag, we'll need a way to extract the fuel to act as an explosive, and a way to direct it and detonate it. Reed, can you and Hank rig up something to get it where we need it to go and explode while I try not to leave us stranded here with a working jet with nothing to move it?"
Reed was already on it. He ignored what everyone was saying, his hands moving frantically alongside Hank. Having a shared lab space for several years had the two working in almost perfect synchronicity. Although only a few minutes had gone by, the two scientists weren't considered the top of their field for nothing -- soon, a working prototype of their flame cattle prod..whatever (Reed was never good with names) was complete. "It won't last long," he warned, pulling the trigger of what used to be a fire extinguisher. The irony wasn't lost on him. A blue flame leaped from the top, and Reed frowned. He could actually feel the charge, which again, probably not the safest but this wasn't going to take long. "Whoever is using this needs gloves."
Sooraya sheared of another tangle of vines heading to the jet before checking the status of the science crew. Seeing the flame she shot upwards, reforming crouching on a branch. "Nica, let's herd the damn thing towards the flame thrower. You guys be ready when we get it close enough." Dissolving once more she dove to the side, this time lashing out with a multitude of sharp whips. With a loud screech the creature changed course and slowly start moving towards where Reed was standing.
In true Reed fashion, he was working frantically on another device, finishing a type of long knife just in time to attack the vines at his feet. "Um, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but we really need someone to take this machine." He looked around and widened his eyes as a thought came to him. "Sue! Use your forcefields to protect your hands! It should absorb the electrical charge long enough to use this safely." Without waiting for an answer, he tossed the machine in Sue's direction.
"Whaaa?" The young woman barely had time to throw something up juggling the device between her hands as forcefields flared between them "A little more warning next time!" Slowly, bounce by painful bounce she managed to stabilise her gloves until she could grip the extinguisher. The blonde could still feel the charge surging through her body as she hefted the device up into line with the plant monster, "Work it this way a little."
"Trying!" was Nica's somewhat harried reply. Even though it couldn't grab her while she was ghosting, it was still disconcerting to have all those vines flailing at her. Plus she had to make sure it didn't hit the Blackbird or any of the others as a result of the flailing. "C'mon, plant. you want light? I've got all the light for you..." she crooned, flashing her glow on and off as she tried to lead the monster towards Sue. "Ah, Dr. Hank? A little help here? I think it's working out it can't grab me..."
Hank had been very happy to let the others take the lead on interacting with the ambulatory plant monster, given the amount of concentration creating the makeshift weapon had taken. Now that it was done, however, it was only fair that he should help with the efforts to herd it, even though his mutation did not lend itself to such feats the way that Sooraya and Nica's did. Still, it seemed to follow a target well enough...
With a grunt he threw himself in between a whipping tangle of leaves and then leaped up to a nearby branch, waiting long enough for several of the plant's arms to 'reach' for him before propelling himself to ricochet off another tree trunk. It was hard, exhausting work, especially for someone who spent most of their time bent over a microscope, but little by little he helped manoeuver the monstrous creature closer to Sue's position.
Sue dropped down to one knee, bracing the device against the ground as she closed one eye, lining up her shot as she felt the crackle of energy racing along her forcefield, leaving red marks along her skin as she took a deep breath, relaxing her shoulders as she waited. Slowly slowly...now! A single finger flicked out, the weapon bucking against her hold as the energy contained within seemed to explode. More energy than she'd expected raced up her gauntlets as her breath came rushing out of her body in a soft cry of pain and discomfort while the rest of the energy raced forward, spearing at the monster that had been attacking them. Had been.
Sooraya soared up to get out of the range of the energy, still feeling the heat at the distance she was at now. Still, she remained close enough to start chopping again if need be. When the energy had faded and nothing had moved for half a minutes she reformed on a tree branch. "Looks like that thing is toast. Everyone okay?"
"Sue!" Reed rushed to her side,, his eyes scanning her body quickly. As predicted, there were burns, but thankfully nothing too serious. "It looks like some first degree burns," he mumbled, looking around, feeling bad that his invention had injured her but with the time constraint..well, it was the best they could come up with. Not for the first time, he wished he had a different mutation. Leaving Sue's side for a moment, he went to a first aid kit before returning and starting the process of medicating her wounds. "Anyone else injured?"
"Nope. Just a bit tingly from whatever part of the EM spectrum that was." Nica let herself drift closer to the smoldering pile of burnt vines, scrunching up her nose. "Wow, what a mess. But yep, it's dead." She looked around the rest of the group. "So, what now?"
"We probably ought to redouble our efforts to prepare the jet for transport," Hank said, suddenly feeling rather exposed as the smoke began to drift upward towards the canopy of trees. "And contact the other teams. If this is what we have been faced with there's no telling what they have encountered. Our visit here might be cut short after all."
The Blackbird was mostly back up to snuff, thanks to the combined efforts of the team on the repairs. The problem was that the island's vegetation was aggressive enough, it almost seemed to be growing in front of their eyes into the clearing. Christian Kane's team had indicated they'd be making landfall soon, having cleared the worst of the storms and reefs in the churning seas. More importantly (at least to a few of them), even a few hours work had produced a wealth of interesting specimens and readings for them to study. Skull Island wasn't just a clumsy legend; there was something fundamentally different about the ecosystem and the local biosphere.
That might have been why the long green tendrils were able to crept along the ground and deep into the camp before they struck, trying to coil around the people working.
Sue had worked on projects in the middle of a warzone, rebuilt systems while bullets streamed around them and governments faced off, but this island was certainly becoming her least favorite vacation spot ever. A forcefield flickered to life around the young woman, distorting the air around her as she instinctively shied away from the green tentacle reaching out for her, a sharp cry escaping her lips as she scrabbled back towards the Blackbird.
Hank was so engrossed in poring over a particularly strange-looking mossy growth that his first warning that things had gone amiss was Sue's shriek. He was on alert in an instant, pushing his glasses up his nose as he swung around to face her. "What's wr--oh, rapid florakinesis, how unusual! Is it in response to touch stimuli, or--" His questions were bitten off with an exclamation of his own as a vine began to curl around his ankle, putting paid to the hypothesis that this a benign phenomenon.
Whipping his head towards the sounds of his friends, Reed watched in a curious horror at the plants. He knew he'd been seeing weird readings, but this was beyond what he expected. When a vine wrapped around his leg, he let it, wondering exactly what this was about. Hank's words echoed around and Reed nodded in agreement. "Yes, this makes sense now, with the results we were getting. I wonder what the material is actually made of. It can't be regular organic matter, I wouldn't think, considering there is no actual brain stem in -- mmph!" He was cut off when a vine wrapped itself around his mouth.
At the exclamations from all three scientists, Nica spun around from where she was and gave a little scream as more vines appeared, wrapping themselves around her leg and waist. She instinctively ghosted, hovering intangibly several feet up as she took in the scene. "Woah!" she gasped. "Are these plants moving on their own?!"
Sooraya reacted without thinking, shifting into her sand form without hesitation. Razor sharp tendrils lashed out, shearing through the vines keeping her friends captive. Shifting focus, she spread out into a thin wall of sand, giving everyone the chance to retreat and regroup.
"You know, I think they might be." Safe within the protection of her forcefield Sue skipped back a few steps, letting her forcefield drop as she pulled a coin out of her pocket, holding it up in her hand as she seemed to leap forward. The young woman travelled forward maybe a centimeter before her she seemed to stop in the middle of the air, the coin racing forward, shearing through a bunch of tendrils before impacting the ground with a loud crash, the tendrils reactiong to the impact. "Interesting."
The three women were in some ways lucky - their powers rendered them more or less impervious to the vine's advances. Reed and Hank were less fortunate, however, as was the Blackbird, which was slowly succumbing to the creeping foilage, its landing gear disappearing under a mass of leaves and vines. With a huff Hank sprang away from a grasping tendril and caught hold of a branch, pulling himself up to balance on it. "We need to locate the epicenter of the shoots," he called down. "Perhaps that will give us an idea of what is propelling it - and how to halt its movements."
"I can!" Nica, eager to do something useful, was about to take off into the heart of the jungle where the vines were emanating from.
The annoyance of not having a telepath around was she had to shift back and forth to communicate. Sooraya refected as she soared up to land on the Blackbird and shifted back. "Sue, I need you to keep the blackbird in one piece in case we do need to leave quickly. Reed, McCoy, I need answers in case Nica doesn't find any. I'll keep the vines away from as much as I can."
"I don't have any answers," Reed admitted, running his hands over his face. The tendrils had left a strange, sticky residue that burned slightly. "Poison, probably, or some type of neuroparalytic compound," he murmured out loud. Looking towards the vines, still creeping, he wondered ... "Hank, how quickly do you think we could create an electric transmitter? The vines, they retract towards the centre. If we can blast them enough, they'd all go rushing to regroup, allowing us to have a better sense of where they are. Then, Nica, Sue and Sooraya can focus their attacks directly there. There also seems to be a poison, which leads me to believe there's multiple ways this plant captures its victims. We can't afford to get cocky." He bounced up and hacked at some vines covering the loading bay of the plane. "I think there's some extra batteries in here...."
"We may have to borrow from the jet a little," Hank said, knowing he was risking the wrath of their engineer by suggesting this. "Sue, could we reroute the carrier signal from the modulator in the communications array in order to-- blast!" A bevy of vines had found their way up to the branch he squatted on and made quick work of his attempts to escape them. "I can help... in a minute..."
She was going to have to start carrying coins with her, or some kind of projectile that she could you to throw out at people, but right now...the blonde glanced back at the plane before looking back at the others as what could only be an evil grin spread across her face. "We can probably use the communications array to boost the signal but we do have something close to hand as it were." she gestured at Nica, at her ear, "Those communicators have to have a pretty capable powersource...I bet we could use them as grenades if we need to, use the carrier signal from the generator to trigger the detonation".
Reed was battling his own vines, swatting away at them with a random metal piece he'd found. "Well, how about you three take off into the jungle, and Hank and I will convert your communicators. We will save our own so that the team can find us again....but hurry. It won't take long for this jet to be overcome...we can come up with some sort of incendiary device to take care of the residual vines perhaps if we have time ....."
"Let me go first - I can fly and it can't touch me at all." Nica had been practically vibrating on the spot, so eager was she to do something "useful". She shot off into the jungle, a blur of light that passed through the foliage without a rustle or hint of movement. Then there was a yelp and Nica reappeared, looking panicked. "So, um, I found it? Only, um, it saw me? Or my light at least, and it really started getting mad. I came right back, but..." She glanced over her shoulder. "I think it followed me."
Out of the jungle shuffled the monstrous plant. Or possibly plant-like monster. Either way, it was big, at least ten feet tall, vines waving angrily around it and three leg-like clumps of roots dragging it forward. In the middle was a large bulb-like structure, like an enormous flower bud. As they watched, it cracked open, revealing rows of spines that looked for all the world like teeth.
That thing was... unlike something she'd fought before in her years as an X-man. "Nica, if the damn thing liked you enough to follow you here, get it away from here. Now! I'll help you keep it busy. You three, whatever it is you were talking about, do it fast. And keep the jet in one piece as much as possible before you get Cyclops on your ass." Sooraya called out before shifting and diving forward.
She was just in time to stop another wave of vines creeping towards the jet, chopping them little pieces before lashing out as the bulb-like structure. Razor sharp tendrils of sand cut deep into the flesh of the thing and it let out a strange sound between a moan and a scream.
"Yes ma'am!" Nica dove at the monster plant, glad she was intangible at least even if it meant she couldn't do much to hurt it. Unfortunately, it seemed to have decided the other mutants made for good snacks and it ignored her. Nettled, Nica blasted it with one of her light beams - that got its attention. The plant reared up, pulling its vines from the Blackbird and surrounds to try and snag the teen X-Man who was glowing like a strobe light.
"Well that's not disturbing at all, the thing is obviously alive and feels pain, and now she wants us to kill it." Not that Sue had much of a compunction about killing someone who was threatening her and her friends, but this was meant to be a rescue mission and the X-men were meant to be the good guys. If this was what their missions were normally like, well she was glad team science wasn't called up more often. "Ok, so while they're playing tag, we'll need a way to extract the fuel to act as an explosive, and a way to direct it and detonate it. Reed, can you and Hank rig up something to get it where we need it to go and explode while I try not to leave us stranded here with a working jet with nothing to move it?"
Reed was already on it. He ignored what everyone was saying, his hands moving frantically alongside Hank. Having a shared lab space for several years had the two working in almost perfect synchronicity. Although only a few minutes had gone by, the two scientists weren't considered the top of their field for nothing -- soon, a working prototype of their flame cattle prod..whatever (Reed was never good with names) was complete. "It won't last long," he warned, pulling the trigger of what used to be a fire extinguisher. The irony wasn't lost on him. A blue flame leaped from the top, and Reed frowned. He could actually feel the charge, which again, probably not the safest but this wasn't going to take long. "Whoever is using this needs gloves."
Sooraya sheared of another tangle of vines heading to the jet before checking the status of the science crew. Seeing the flame she shot upwards, reforming crouching on a branch. "Nica, let's herd the damn thing towards the flame thrower. You guys be ready when we get it close enough." Dissolving once more she dove to the side, this time lashing out with a multitude of sharp whips. With a loud screech the creature changed course and slowly start moving towards where Reed was standing.
In true Reed fashion, he was working frantically on another device, finishing a type of long knife just in time to attack the vines at his feet. "Um, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but we really need someone to take this machine." He looked around and widened his eyes as a thought came to him. "Sue! Use your forcefields to protect your hands! It should absorb the electrical charge long enough to use this safely." Without waiting for an answer, he tossed the machine in Sue's direction.
"Whaaa?" The young woman barely had time to throw something up juggling the device between her hands as forcefields flared between them "A little more warning next time!" Slowly, bounce by painful bounce she managed to stabilise her gloves until she could grip the extinguisher. The blonde could still feel the charge surging through her body as she hefted the device up into line with the plant monster, "Work it this way a little."
"Trying!" was Nica's somewhat harried reply. Even though it couldn't grab her while she was ghosting, it was still disconcerting to have all those vines flailing at her. Plus she had to make sure it didn't hit the Blackbird or any of the others as a result of the flailing. "C'mon, plant. you want light? I've got all the light for you..." she crooned, flashing her glow on and off as she tried to lead the monster towards Sue. "Ah, Dr. Hank? A little help here? I think it's working out it can't grab me..."
Hank had been very happy to let the others take the lead on interacting with the ambulatory plant monster, given the amount of concentration creating the makeshift weapon had taken. Now that it was done, however, it was only fair that he should help with the efforts to herd it, even though his mutation did not lend itself to such feats the way that Sooraya and Nica's did. Still, it seemed to follow a target well enough...
With a grunt he threw himself in between a whipping tangle of leaves and then leaped up to a nearby branch, waiting long enough for several of the plant's arms to 'reach' for him before propelling himself to ricochet off another tree trunk. It was hard, exhausting work, especially for someone who spent most of their time bent over a microscope, but little by little he helped manoeuver the monstrous creature closer to Sue's position.
Sue dropped down to one knee, bracing the device against the ground as she closed one eye, lining up her shot as she felt the crackle of energy racing along her forcefield, leaving red marks along her skin as she took a deep breath, relaxing her shoulders as she waited. Slowly slowly...now! A single finger flicked out, the weapon bucking against her hold as the energy contained within seemed to explode. More energy than she'd expected raced up her gauntlets as her breath came rushing out of her body in a soft cry of pain and discomfort while the rest of the energy raced forward, spearing at the monster that had been attacking them. Had been.
Sooraya soared up to get out of the range of the energy, still feeling the heat at the distance she was at now. Still, she remained close enough to start chopping again if need be. When the energy had faded and nothing had moved for half a minutes she reformed on a tree branch. "Looks like that thing is toast. Everyone okay?"
"Sue!" Reed rushed to her side,, his eyes scanning her body quickly. As predicted, there were burns, but thankfully nothing too serious. "It looks like some first degree burns," he mumbled, looking around, feeling bad that his invention had injured her but with the time constraint..well, it was the best they could come up with. Not for the first time, he wished he had a different mutation. Leaving Sue's side for a moment, he went to a first aid kit before returning and starting the process of medicating her wounds. "Anyone else injured?"
"Nope. Just a bit tingly from whatever part of the EM spectrum that was." Nica let herself drift closer to the smoldering pile of burnt vines, scrunching up her nose. "Wow, what a mess. But yep, it's dead." She looked around the rest of the group. "So, what now?"
"We probably ought to redouble our efforts to prepare the jet for transport," Hank said, suddenly feeling rather exposed as the smoke began to drift upward towards the canopy of trees. "And contact the other teams. If this is what we have been faced with there's no telling what they have encountered. Our visit here might be cut short after all."
