13801/A Winter's Nightmare

A Winter's Nightmare
Date of Scene:	10 January 2023
Location:	The Hanging Tree - Park
Synopsis:	Pamela has one hell of a nightmare that Gotham joins in and others have to save her from.
Cast of Characters:	Pamela Isley, Detective Chimp, Lonnie Machin, Jean-Paul Valley, Wally West

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Pamela Isley has posed:
    The season has been a mix of bitterly cold and balmy winter days and night. It can cause some confusion as to how one should dress and if spring is closer then it may really seem. Either way the tree stands tall and proud in the park, free of snow at the moment, and a place for many to enjoy a bit of sun before the gray clouds of Winter return. That was what Pamela was hoping to do when she went to the old tree, and climbed up into its boughs high into the branches. Trying for some sun and taking a small nap.
    That was hours ago, and the sun wanes, the pollution and noise of the city starts to choke out the fading light and only a few die hard citizens are still here in the park. As darkness comes, so do some dark dreams for the deeply sleeping woman connected to the green. So connect it seems that the park begins to subtly shift. The first change is a quiet one. Dead brown grass begins to grow stiff and pointed. The softness replaced with hard edges. The paths begin to get pressed in on either side with branches ending in sharp green sprouts.
    The first real sign is as one guy who's outside, smoking a hand rolled cigarette starts to cough. It isn't his smoking that cause it though. A strange flower is blooming with a long thick style poking up surrounded by a single large leave that is red on the inside and a foul looking green on the outside. It reeks of rotten meat as well. "Cripes that is FOUL! Someone die?!" The man looking for the source of the stench as he keeps coughing and stands to walk way. "Someone should take their dog to the vet."

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp was stopping by one of the convenience store to pick up a few things on his way home from working a case. He sniffs the air and while he is still a bit away from the plant, his enhanced scene of smell picks up the oddness. He will start to head that way, as he gets closer a cigar is pulled out and lit to help blunt the smell of the corpse flower. Luckily while his nose can smell more things, he is used to more odd smells than humans as well.

Lonnie Machin has posed:
    A red-haired man walking his dog (a spunky terrier-mix mutt wearing a little punk vest that has a patch on the back that says 'Kill The Masters' looks at the flower, and then reaches up to adjust his glasses. He's wearing fingerless gloves and a winter coat currently worn open over a T-Shirt that looks like it was merch from a band called 'IHateClowns'.
    "...Amorphophallus Titanium." He says, wrinkling his nose. "There's a big one at the Gotham City Botanical Gardens. But this... is not where they're supposed to be growing." Lonnie Machin reaches down and picks up his dog, to get him away from the edge of the path.

Jean-Paul Valley has posed:
Jean-Paul Valley has a hood pulled up to cover his head, obviously layered with several pieces of clothing, most notably a bulky overcoat. He has a large napsack on his back, criss-cross strapped to his body. A close look at one idem, wrapped in cloth, tied to his back probably makes it pretty obvious it's a large broadsword. Not your avereage joe.

But he still went to the coffee shop, it seems, gloved hands holding the steaming cup up to his mouth as he lets the steam wash over him. His hair is long and blond, spilling out a bit to frame his face. He sees Lonnie and nods, "Nice dog," he says quietly.

Pamela Isley has posed:
    The plant is growing faster then it should and the scent grows more pungent. The reservoir inside the flower's base fills with a sticky fluid and already the flies that aren't gone for the winter are starting to be drawn to it. The man is already turning to leave, he has lived in Gotham long enough to know when odd people and strange stuff happens. Get out!
    Along the paths the plants twist, growing thick heads of purple and white striped leaves layered upon each other. Looking much like cabbage heads. Only these are surrounded by stems and a tangle of thorn covered vines. The guy walking away steps on one, his shoes protecting him as there's a snap of the vine though. All hangs silent for a pregnant second.
    One of the cabbage heads turns toward the man and splits open. A chin of sharp thin needles grows from the base as the leaves open to show ridges of white looking teeth inside. The thorns all start to vibrate in this high pitched giggle of a sound. "What the absolute FU," he doesn't get to finish. Because the plant just struck and there's a thorned vine wrapped around his neck. The bulb chittering happily as it opens and closes the man being dragged in toward it as more and more 'bulbs' begin to open.
    The grass that was brown and stiff stretches to grow longer without getting that healthy green. The great tree creaks and groans to folly artist's dream for any horror movie. There's a whining cry of another dog that bolted from it's owner cut short with a wet sick ripping sound not long after and a woman screams "NOOOOOOO!"

Wally West has posed:
    It is not necessarily often that Gotham City is conveniently between two spots given the traffic and the sheer annoyance that is the city, but when one does not need to worry about traffic, or roads, or anything else, sometimes it IS the fastest path along a line. Such it is tonight where Wally West is sprinting, as he tends to do, in search of donuts. Not just any donuts, but some of the most spectacular donuts one can find. In true little hole in the wall, the sort of place that is just too far off the beaten trail to be convenient. But everything is convenient when you can get there in the blink of an eye.

    Laden with donuts to share with his friends, Wally is blazing back through Gotham City when he catches a whiff of the corpse flower. Admittedly, he has smelled this before, but somehow it just seems out of place enough to catch the attention of the mile a minute brain of his. His feet draw to a quick stop as he heads to its souce, and it would seem as if it is just in enough time as the odor is soon joined by a scream.

    Donut delivery will have to wait.

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp sees the plant drawing the man towards the other bulbs, he calls out "Hey stop that." It maybe weird for someone to do, but Hey this is a talking Chimp wearing a Sherlock Holmes style hat and an overcoat over his t-shirt that reads "Everyone sucks but me" He can also talk to all living creatures, so he is hoping the plants may actually understand him, and maybe at least hesitate. Plants might not normally be considered creatures but hey they also don't normally take being stepped on personal.

Lonnie Machin has posed:
    Aaaaaaaaaaaaand this has just gone too far. Lonnie steps back, holding his dog, and then he glowers - when a vine slithers over his shoulder his hand slips free of his pocket with a very sharp knife. He steps away from the vine, and then says, "...Okay." He sets Yap down and then he kneels down to pet the dog.
    "No staying to sniff, boy. Back to the bike. Wait for me there." He gets up as Yap sets off at a run down the path to the edge of the park where Lonnie's motorcycle is chained up. Then he looks at Jean-Paul, and shrugs. "...Smart dog." Then he looks around, before he says, "Man-eating plants don't just erupt from the ground without cause, not even in Gotham City."

Jean-Paul Valley has posed:
Jean-Paul Valley sees the sudden havoc breaking out with the plants and shrinks back a little bit, that scream curdling his blood a little. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, feeling the angel within him fluttering, those great wings beating in his soul as Azrael awakens to the siren call of violence.

He opens his striking blue eyes as Lonnie addresses him but the voice that comes out of him seems deeper, richer.

"Devils can rise even from the earth, stranger," he says, his voice almost husky as he pulls his bandanna up to cover his face and reaches back to grasp his sword, drawing it free and shaking off the cloth before it bursts in to flames.

"SO SAYS AZRAEL!"

Pamela Isley has posed:
    The well trained dog is able to sprint away, fairing far better then the man Chimp is attempting to help. His hands show the signs of those thorns as he struggles at the one around his neck. The one who has its pray doesn't listen to Chimp in the slightest, plants aren't animals sadly. The others though do turn to toward him. Vines laden with thorns writhing as they get ready to reach to welcome Chimp if he gets too close.
    Not far from where Lonnie stands a new plant start to sprout from the ground. A single thick stock of ruddy brown, about the size of a saucer dish grows, and from it wide jagged leaves. The striking thing is that out of the top, once the plant reaches about 7' up in the air it starts to split and grow thin stock all ending in pretty white flowers. Forming an umbrella like effect. It's almost lovely, until you see the thousands of small hairs lining the plant and if you know your plants you know that the 'Giant Hogweed' is NOT something to touch. Also it isn't native to this continent either.
    The woman who screamed is not far from Wally and he can see her freaking out as it seems some sort of almost pine cone shaped thorned seed pod has opened, and split in four, the center of it filled with black pods dripping a red fresh ichor. Tufts of fur around the thorns tell the rest of the tale as much as the broken and stained collar at this plants base.

Wally West has posed:
    Sometimes, you wait for things to happen. Sometimes, you just do. The Flash bursts into action and moves the woman away from the plant. There is no telling if and when any of the plant's secretions will go airborne, and he does not want that anywhere near here. Or anyone, for that matter. He mumbles a quick apology after getting her out of the park and on the doorstep of the nearest hospital (just in case) and then is back staring at the plant within the blink of an eye.

    "Huh." He /does/ have the reflexes to avoid any outpouring from the plant, so for the moment he watches and observes until he can figure out just what is going on.

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp mutters softly "I really gotta get a sword or something." He is pulling out a knife, but he uses his more natural weaponry for now. His fangs are bared and he bites through the vine holding the man, and grunts out, as he starts spitting out thorns "Get out, follow the dog." He says to the man, with a bit of a lisp ashe reaches up to pulls a few thorns from his tongue, and lips.

Lonnie Machin has posed:
    Lonnie watches Jean-Paul suddenly transform into the Avenging Angel.
    "Uh-huh." Says the avowed skeptic. "Right."
    He turns back, and says, "Well, I guess a flaming sword is ONE WAY to solve this problem, but I feel like there's got to be..." He notices the Giant Hogweed, "Why is whatever's behind this growing the *nastiest possible plants*? What about... you know, those little white flowers that look like daisies but aren't? Why not grow those instead of man-eating cabbages and phototoxic hogweed!?"

Jean-Paul Valley has posed:
Azrael probably has a great deal of plant knowledge buried within the system, regarding poisons, healing, antidotes, medieval wisdom long lost to the modern world. Unfortunately, all of it is buried deep down inside the burning, aching need to kill everything he sees. Damn fanatical monks and their mind control.

Jean-Paul's blue eyes flash as he just hacks at the nearest plant, the Sword of Sins magical blade combined with its flames to cleave through with savage ease, the flames sprouting and spreading on any stray foliage.

"Where's the serpent in this garden?"

Pamela Isley has posed:
    The woman is shocked and Wally is gone before she can stutter out a thank you. Fortunately a nurse saw the sudden arrival and is already sending someone to look after the woman in question. As for Chimps rescue, he doesn't have to be told twice. He springs after the way Lonnie's dog went, trying to pull thorns from his neck and making a mess of his hands in the process.
    Poor Chimp's lips and tongue can only guess how bad it was to be wrapped in that. Those thorns at least are not barbed and will fall out easily. The severed vine that he bit through snaps back toward the cabbage maw and leaves a trail of brackish red sap along the way. Seemingly hurt and angry as the plant... almost seems to coil up to flex?! The thorns on the vines shooting to grow from small and annoying to a solid five inches of YOWCHIES.
    Far as Lonnie's comments, someone maybe is listening. Because between his feet a new plant begins to grow. It's short and low to the ground. The leaves are a pretty oval shape, and from the center ruddy pink stocks grow and they all end in white... berries? Only every berry has a black point in the center making it look like a cluster of eyes looking up at someone. They aren't quiet flowers, but they are white. Oh... and don't eat them. They're VERY poisonous as well.
    Nobody answers Azrael to give his wrath a clear target. There seems to be danger all around them in this garden of horrors. The civilians seem to be escaping, but that also seems to be them getting isolated as more of those cabbage maws grow. The few few who failed to escape, a few humans and animals, are finding themselves dragged to the Devil's Snare plants and the Corpse flowers. A bird that was skewered drops into the corpse flower as it starts to melt and dissolve into the fluid.
    The final addition to this mess is near the base of the great tree. Wide spade shaped leaves grow to form a ring. The seem totally harmless. Big leaves is all, not even tropical looking. The only danger seeming to be the serrated edge of the leaf. But the educated may recognize it. This would be the Gympie plant. Also known as 'The Suicide Plant' The start to form a phalanx of shields around the tree.

Wally West has posed:
    Yeah. This is bad.

    Once Wally sees that the plants are continuing to encroach, and even new ones are popping up now, his priority becomes a simple one. Get as many of them out as possible. And lucky for him, he has nearly all the time he needs.

    Blazing a path through the garden, Wally darts around pulling every man, woman, child, and pet out of the area, detaching them from plans as needed and racing them all over to the same hospital as the first woman. He pauses just long enough to tell a nurse "plant attack" before continuing the rapid escape.

    He realizes, however, that the effort of doing so is starting to get rougher. Is it because the people he is rescuing are closer to the plants? No, that should not make it harder, he can cross distances with the greatest of ease.

    It is not until he makes it back after the last rescue that he sees the remains and trails of the various plants that had been trying to exert their will over the people. Each of which he, in some cases, had to physically pull off them. And he has now done that for...all of these plant? And more than once?

    Maybe now is not a good time for an accelerated metabolism, because all of those toxins are going straight into his bloodsteam and...

    Yeah. This is way bad.

Lonnie Machin has posed:
    Lonnie notices the plants forming around the tree and - "That's it. The tree. Whatever's doing this, it's in the tree." He looks at Detective Chimp, and then says, "A chimpanzee has over three times the strength of an adult human male. I apologize -"
    He trots over to the Chimpanzee in the Deerstalker hat, and then kneels down. "I need you to throw me over those plants and into the branches of the Hanging Tree. Do you think you could do that?"

Pamela Isley has posed:
    Azreal is able to find plenty to 'fight' and burn around the park's edge as he and his flaming sword being to carve and slash at the plants growing all around them. The sword able to clear the exit Wally needs to drop off all his victims at the hospital near by. His hands are NOT looking good though, as he's been covered in cuts and punctures from the various plants. Some of the people he's pulling free are getting dark veins. Others show signs of foaming at the mouth and likely that hospital is going to be calling every type of anti-poison they can think off to try and save these people. The hardest part for Wally is that some of these plants can give powerful hallucinations. Which may explain why, for him, he starts to see a flying giraffe playing a saxophone and being chased by a parade of crabs only for them to get gunned down by Deathstroke in an apron and tutu.
    While Lonnie and Chimp are coordinating it becomes odd that several of the plants, no with no victims or humans, are starting to turn on each other. The cabbage maws start to snarl and lash at the doll eyes. The corpse flower and devil's snare get in tug of wars tufts of grass. Lastly the Gympie plants leaves grow longer spines and start to interlock.

Wally West has posed:
    There is a split second of conscious thought that Wally has before the hallucinations take hold. For a normal person, that might not be enough. For A Flash, it is an eternity. And it gives him time to enact the only possible plan to combat this.

    "I down sit gotta, out it wait. Minute, seconds, give me."

    Wally slumps down and falls into a seat off to the side, leaning back and hopefully out of the range of the plants. The toxins hit him quickly, but that also means they will run their course quickly. Will it be like he is taken all of the drugs taken by the Grateful Dead all at once? Probably.

    But that also means that within a minute or so, he should be back to being useful again. Assuming that they aren't all over run within that minute...

    His head lolls to the side as he stares at Azrael. Who knows what that image is /actually/ translating to in Wally's mind, but whatever it is, his eyes follow the movement of the flaming sword with rapt attention.

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp hmmms and nods his head a bit and says "Climb on my shoulders." He tells the young man, and if he does. Chimp starts to make his way towards the tree, getting as close as he can, before bringing his hands up and launching the man towards the tree as he calls out "Try not to George of the Jungle this."

Lonnie Machin has posed:
    "I can honestly say this has NEVER happened to me befoOOOOOooOOoooOOoooree-!" Fortunately Lonnie's been freerunning and dodging the Batman since he was twelve. And this tree has very sturdy branches. He goes flying over those awful gympie plants, and grabs a low-hanging branch, before he begins to clamber down toward the ground so that he can see what the cause of all this... this is. "Come on, it's got to be here SOMEWHERE..."

Pamela Isley has posed:
    But what is a minute for someone that lives at Wally's pace?! What experience and thoughts can happen as hands that heal too late after soaking in poison from crushed berries or toxic 'hair' make the mind see all wonder of things. The sky rains red sound all around him at the pace of syrup. Each drop fracturing the ground to erupt into a cloud of stained glass that dance and form images more complex then description. His body responds as it often does to these things, triggering a retching reaction, sweats, fevers. All, pardon the pun, happening in a flash of a moment for the speedster again and again. His head pounds as the entire Justice League turn into elephants to put on costumes and perform Cats in Klingon. All, in one second. Only fifty nine to go.
    Lonnie is able to safely land on a low hanging branch and sees not far from him is a squirrel that did not survive the brush with the leaves. He also sees this grand old tree has begun to sprout 'beach apples' all around it. The wrong fruit to say the least and definitely not a tasty treat. Some of them start to crack open as sap drips from them and falls near Chimp and him. The tree starting to twist into what in Spanish is known as arbol de la muerte. The Tree of Death.
    To anyone not immune to poison that tree's base is becoming a literal killing field and it's growing thicker. The only safe place left is to climb. To get up at the tree. Vines of ivy with leaves of literally every color known in the plant kingdom burst from the ground to begin reaching for the tree and the leaves. The park becoming almost as surreal as Wally's visions.

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp will leap up to follow the kid, while some may think he is in his natural habitat in a tree, they would be wrong DC's natural habitat is a bar, but he can move pretty well in a tree, he lets the kid lead pulling his jacket off wrapping it around his arm to push anything he needs to out of the way.

Lonnie Machin has posed:
    "This is a PINE tree, it doesn't have flowers!" Lonnie says. He watches those plants begin to surge upward, and then he begins to climb, grabbing branches as he goes hand over hand up the tree. He can't climb as well as a chimp, even one who prefers to keep his feeto n the ground, but instead he goes up. "They're reaching for the - source - of whatever this is."
    For some reason he remembers the few bars of an old song. She's pretty as a daisy... but look out man, she's crazy...

Wally West has posed:
    Slowly, the visions fade, and Wally starts to be able to have some semblance of sanity. "No more donuts before..." He trails off, a brief wave of vertigo moving over him. "I need air. And perspective." He takes off away from the tree and outside the park, running up the side of the nearest building. Maybe there is some explanation he can find as to why this tree is spreading the way it is -is it the source, or just caught in the wave. Something, maybe.

    His path is erratic, but he eventually finds himself weaving his way up a building and looking down at the park. He rubs his eyes, wondering if he is still hallucinating...

Pamela Isley has posed:
    The plants tear at each other and seem to get at a war that happens every day in nature. Only this one is more intense and doesn't need stop motion over a month to see what is happening. As the tree climbers go higher, evidence of scarred bark from many others having done so start to mark a bit of a trail. Higher and higher up on the tree's branches and trunk.
    Wally is able to get out and up to the building and see just what a writhing madhouse the park has become. The whole are seems to toss and thrash, the distance helping him see the last traces of a hallucination of a woman's face outlined in the chaos. Eyes closed and in pain as she tosses her head.
    Sleeping in a makeshift cradle of the west side of the trunk. Near the tree's top where the branches are thin and springy is a woman. She's wearing basic tights, a sweater and asleep. She is far higher then most would dare to climb the huge tree. She makes soft sounds of pain and fear. Tossing and turning as she's locked in some sort of dream.

Lonnie Machin has posed:
    Lonnie looks up, and then he says, "Well, I can fall and break my neck or I can get eaten by whatever the heck's crawling up the tree - breaking my neck might be less painful." He continues climbing, trying to stay near the trunk of the huge old tree and only grab secure handfuls. This is harder than it sounds, and his progress is frustrating.
    "This is Gotham," He says through gritted teeth, "We climb buildings and fences, not trees..."

Wally West has posed:
    "Eureka!" exclaims Wally, and then he is off in a ... Flash.

    Blazing a trail down the building, he runs at the tree with the sort of speed only a few can really muster and then leaps with all of his momentum as he draws closer to the tree. Yes, his body is going through some of the leaves and yes, that means he is going to have another bout of colorful pachyderms wearing Batman's cowl.

    But it will be worth it, he figures, as he is able to scoop his arms around the woman at the canopy of the tree, and hopefully take her with him as he arcs over it.

    Landing back be a different story, but he has done this enough times that if he is successful at rescuing her from the tree, his natural twist will send him skidding along the ground on his back, but keep her protected until he can slide to a halt.

    And if he is /really/ lucky...maybe the tree's first victim was actually its power source. But will Wally have enough sense to know what is going on by the time he gets any signs? Here comes those c0LoUrs...

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp chuckles a bit as he makes his way up behind the other. "Hey you will be able to get your forest merit badge after this." He says as he makes his way up towards the top as well. He then sees the flash come up and take the woman. "Show off." He mutters to himself.

Pamela Isley has posed:
    Needless to say several things are happening at once. Wally's costume protects him from the leaves, then he proceeds to grab a woman and have all those poisoned needles end up in the woman. Fortunately she's immune. Chimp and Lonnie are well up the branches just as Ivy starts to feel she is falling with Wally's leap. This means that both Chimp and Lonnie who are carried away by the wind of Wally's passing benefit from her instincts. AS a net of springy, non toxic vines, catch them to land in a pillow soft bush covered in white snow drop flowers.
     Pam is jarred awake with the landing she and Wally take and the plants instantly loose that 'teether' to what was making them grow. The poison, the needles, the thorns, the leaves, all just turn to fine dust and fall to the ground. The aftermath is likely a bit chaotic but it's quiet. Almost anti-climatic as the four 'falling' humans find themselves in a park deserted of people and with a few unfortunate animals around. Not much to show for the results in the end. But the danger is passed.