Raven
The first tiny buttercups sprouted in minutes as the first rush of water spread out across the land, naturally grown flowers responding to the call of three very power supers, all with plant powers. Briar, Quinn, and their mother Poison Ivy.
Penny's initial weapons worked well, they appeared to be Nerf guns firing plastic grenades but those grenades burst in the air scattering seeds.
With the initial flood delivered and green matter growing under our arrival point, Jesse and I split up, each following our plant sprouting friends as the local guards responded. The system of turrets that lined the dome was down, but as expected if the guards were prepared for Ivy they were prepared for the little kids.
Flame-throwers are annoying. Yes, I could make shields to protect the kids, but they chewed through the plants, which still grew and spread like an uncontrolled wave of green across the prison. People yelped, screamed, called for help and those were just the prisoners!
Lucyfar was on prison duty "I'm on it, I'm on it! Clayface! Are you still a floor or have you got muscle yet!"
"Oh Darling! The best muscle is the brain, and I have BOTH!" Slowly the water in the ground began shifting, moving as the soil beneath it coalesced together. Fifteen foot tall and made of mud, a schmoozing villain emerged by Lucyfar's side. "So, Do I have you to thank, or am I just a side-character in some other villain's big act!" The two villains were basically trying to draw the guards towards them while we targeted the other goals.
First hit for us was Charybdis, Sharkie's grandfather, Jesse was going for Metallo then we'd all meet up for the grand finale.
Quinn used their vines to wall off the guards, but also fired gas grenades, they contained some kind of poison similar to the kind the kids used. The guards froze, paralysed on the side lines.
"Charybdis. Your grandson says hi!" I told him as we came upon his location. Charybdis part of the prison was no doubt intended to be really dry, and while our flood of water hadn't reached this far it had left the ground damp. He stood now with bare feet, his thin limbs looking awkward as he stood, one chain on each leg and another connecting to a cuff on his neck.
"Hey, kiddos!" He stomped his feet lightly. "Hey, how high am I right now, I'm imagining water. This can't be water, can it?"
We swooped in and, fishing for a spell I tried to rot the supporting towers he was attached to.
"You're not imagining it, old man!" Quinn insisted, trying to grow something that would help break the shelter. A red wood at a glance, though it struggled to push against the curved ceiling.
"Were in the middle of a Break Out, you and a few other prisoners!" I explained, before making a dent. The stickers the chains connected to hollowed out, leaving the chains loose.
"Charlie? Char - My newly grandson? Sharkie's boy?" We nodded, and the man beamed at us.
Then he swelled.
He had already been tall by human standards but as he hyped himself up the water sucked out of the ground, clean and clear and soaked into him. Wrinkly skin went smooth, hair fell out as scales grew and he doubled, tripled, turning bright red in place, silver in others.
The cuffs holding him burst under the swell, his eyes went glassy but his voice was clear. "So... were we just planning to smash our way out?"
"We have one more on our list, then we meet the gang back near the central spire." Quinn asserted.
"We have transportation!"
Having got our muscles sorted, we ran to meet Lucy at Ivy's cell. It was near the middle and completely different from the outer cells. One of the specialty ones. A deep hole in the ground, with a retractable cover that revealed smooth metal surfaces all the way and a rubber floor. Now a damp rubber floor.
She must have felt or heard her kids coming, calling out "Briar! Quinn! How'd you get here, I swear if this is one of Harley's hair brained stunts!"
"Got it in one!" They looked over the ledge, myself and Jesse hovering over the hole.
"The prison asked for a test of their security. You were on a shortlist to try saving!" Jesse called down.
"Do you need a hand? We have seeds if that helps".
"What kind!"
"All, kinds!" Briar tried to bust open a seed grenade, and a metal man (who had also been on the list) took it, smashed it between his hands, then shook them out.
The metal man then looked at Charybdis and said, "Let's go clear the path to the tower!" when the fish man nodded, they stomped off at speed.
I've looked graceful as the run of quickly growing plants lifted her, a mix of vines, bushes, small trees, roses, begonia and of course Poison Ivy failed to find purchase on the walls and instead grew upon each other until like an elevator raising it the hole the mother of our plant siblings stepped up to her freedom.
Along with warm hugs. The spread of green continued outwards as mother and children embraced, networks of pumpkin and melon flowers carpeting the ground.
We walked back spreading the carpet of green past the hollers, hoots, curses and swearing of still captured prisoners. The main tower however was a mess and as Jesse and I approached we felt the push back of magic. Cold magic, not the hot demonic type we used. Magic built around the cold chaotic depths of sanity.
Bad Penny had been captured, Vera was desperately trying to save her creator, and in front of them a Fallen Angel confronted the world's greatest Magician. Zantanna.
YOU ARE READING
Villains Club Training Camp (5)
FanfictionIn a Little Golden Age, After the accident to a child during an Inscrutable Machine operation, a senior villain decides to train the Machine's newest members. This is Book 5 of my Little Golden Age. Lucifer spends a day with the Inscrutable Machine...