17807/Flowers in Bloom

Flowers in Bloom
Date of Scene:	07 May 2024
Location:	A Farm in New Hampshire
Synopsis:	The monocaine is destroyed.
Cast of Characters:	Alfred Pennyworth, Talia al Ghul, Stephanie Brown, Michael Hannigan
Tinyplot:	The Monocaine Conspiracy

---

Alfred Pennyworth has posed:
Alfred has reached out to as many allies as he could to help deal with this nonsense. Unfortunately, between the Starport situation, investigations into the cabal behind it by the League and several other items going on, the assault wasnt as complete as he would have liked. Speed was of the issue. "You must understand," he said on the phone to those who volunteered to help, "This is incredibly dangerous...any strain of the plant left alive will give others the temptation to use it to become invisible...we need to eradicate it root and branch but on reviewing the documents we got from their corporate server, ironically they put all their eggs in one basket for security. While its impossible to know if this is all locations for the flower, it is definitely the only one for the folks responsible for the incident at the museum."

Alfred himself is joining in this, having driven to just outside of the perimeter of the farm. A light investigation reveals that there are vast hydroponics deep beneath the Corn Farm, which also has large livestock pens. A satilite scan reveals large numbers of heat signatures, and a well known disgraced geneticis, Alvin "Farmer" Brown has been hired to perform experimenents with the monocaine itself.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
There are too many things going on. Too many crisises. But ultimately only one that Talia feels like requires her personal engageemnt. One that she feels duty bound to follow up on. The others are ones that do not concern her. So she's come with Alfred and whomever else can come with them to finish this once and for all. "Be careful not to breathe it in." She has several vials with her. What few counteragents they've had for the disease (if any).. And several pouches filled with rather nasty things. Potent ones. Heavy ones.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The Batcycle's arrival is almost disturbingly quiet, the speed kept low to avoid raising any dust that might draw attention even at this distance. Batgirl - blond hair not red - parks the bike and climbs off, moving over near to Alfred's side to study the distant farm.

"Any other overly effective options for destroying the plants besides fire?" she asks. Her hand strays down to her utility belt as if thinking about the question. There are also a pair of pods on the sides of her Batcycle that aren't normally there, something capable of carrying other equipment.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike was likely not a first choice. Nor a second choice. Maybe not even a third choice. But he has an ability others seemed to be lacking.

The ability to answer the goddamn phone.

Oh and technically he can use his ability to achieve varying forms of tangibility and visibility... Well.

The attire of the one using the general alias of Phantasm right now is pretty bland. It just looks like something a central park jogger might wear. Only with every inch of him covered. Gloves over the hands and added fabric where the opening of the hoody is provides no actual visual of the man's features. There does appear to be a bit of an added lump around the mouth area under the mask. As to what it is, we may not know.

The ways of Phantasm are mysteeerriiiooouuussss.....

It's a mask under a mask. Don't ask why, don't ask how. Just mark it up to planning.

He also has a stick. It is a manageable sized stick. But one probably would not want to be whacked with it.

A gloved hand seems pressed against the fabric of the hood, seemingly messing with something underneath around the ear region. A commm perhaps?

Who knows?

Alfred Pennyworth has posed:
"Any method you can use to destroy them is viable. I did bring some Kryptonite from the cave...I dont know but since it is Kryptonian in origin, it might actually work on the plants, but I dont know for sure...."

Alfred considers his options for entry, and finally points to a vent on the plans in the nearby field, "I intend to go in here. We can either split up and do a frontal assault and go in the side or go all in for stealth and enter this way...As long as we kill the plants, I am highly flexible."

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would fold her hands together over. "Whatever it is, the plant isn't invulnerable. I'd suggest application of heat. Intense, intense heat. leave nothing to chance. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Burn it thoroughly so that there is no recovery. No genetic material, no soil to take samples from. Scorch the earth and salt it. Whatever records there are, wipe them and then burn the solid state mainframes. They won't have this sort of data up in the cloud. Too vulnerable. Records will be hard copy. Take the entire facility, and level every single bit of it."

She goes to carry with her several heavy things designed to apply fire. Very, very nasty fire. Phosphorous, Greek Fire.. And a nasty pot called Alchemist's Stew taken as her exchange from the Justice League Dark.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl pulls out a pair of binoculars and looks around the area, hands shielding the lenses from any chance of reflecting a light that might betray them. "I'd suggest quiet. Until we aren't. Perhaps we," Batgirl says, motioning to Talia and herself, "Might try to silently subdue what opposition we can, while the two of you plant incendiaries on any areas we've opened up?" she suggests.

The caped crusaderette looks over to Phantasm. "Not as sure of your capabilities. If you're good at dealing with opponents stealthily, can include you in the mix there of course."

Batgirl opens up one of the pods on the bike, revealing a few packs which mostly consist of incendiary bombs strapped into harnesses in a way they are easy to remove.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
The masked figure tilts his head in consideration of the offered approaches. "To risk sounding like an El Paso spokesperson..."

There's a general shifting to the form. With the solid color scheme of the outfit it is hard to notice had he not spoken earlier. But as he fades from view with just the stick in hand floating there, it definitely becomes noticeable he did something.

The stick lifts up betraying a shrugging motion from the unseen ally, "Why not both?"

Alfred Pennyworth has posed:
The four of them are able to sneak to the panel, which Alfred picks the lock from without hesitation, disabling the security system, as he attaches a grappling hook and slowly rappels down into the shaft. Its aluminum and well hidden among the large, unusually high ears of swaying Corn, also very mature for this early in the season for this far North.

The stick triggers infrared sensors in a tight perimeter, which lights a console. That light triggers another alarm and then a third silent alarm where a man at a desk says to himself, petting an invisible cat...."I've been expecting you ...." though he shifts from camera to camera only seeing the stick, sure that he will see the intruders soon enough. Deep in the Earth, gates lift and large numbers of invisible giant Preying Mantises, giant invisible chickens and giant invisible man eating cows with bull horns all invisibly march up a ramp and towards the road that will spill out into the nearby town and, by proxy, attack anything and everything in the fields.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
There's a twisted smile as the group goes underground and Talia Al Ghul goes to work over on the nasty little toys. "Make sure you all have breathmasks on." She can't bring any of her truly nasty things along with this - not with one of the Bats here, but she'll make due. She goes to slide down along with the rest and sees the man eating cows.

"Bessie, I /TOLD/ you to keep it in your udders Hellcow!"

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown straps on a pair of tanks to her back, and grabs one of the packs with incendiaries over the other shoulder. The extra weight isn't tremendous, but more than the lithe caped heroine normally takes into battle. "Good thing I didn't skip leg day," she comments. And then a mask slides down from her cowl, sealing over her mouth, making her breathing airtight with it's rebreathing system.

"Ok," she says, following the others forward. "There's also some wide dispersal grenades that should coat invisible critters in those packs," she says, assuming anyone else took one. "Just be sure to get behind cover or at least turn away before they go off."

Michael Hannigan has posed:
...Oops.

At some point the phantasm abilities encompass the stick, bringing it too into the land of the unseen. To the mention of grenades that may coat the creatures. Talia's warning gets a nod in response. But one will have to trust the narrative that it did happen due to the lack of visual confirmation. "Covered." He replies.

Where did he-?"

Don't ask.

Stephanie's warning is appreciated which gets another unseen nod.

Honestly it's happening. Really!

"Noted." Phantasm responds. Selective tangibility it is.

Alfred Pennyworth has posed:
The three intruders moving down the shaft enter a large room with artificial sunlight lamps, a blue painted sky and row on row of 10 foot tall sunflowers, where three buildings all open up to a massive ramp to allow invisible cows, mantises and raptor chickens starving for flesh to attack the town only a mile away. Mechanical harvesters come to live and begin to try to gather all the Monocaine growing amidst the flowers.

From his angle, Phantasm is able to see a huge ramp and hear a veritable hoard of animals slowly coming up it....

The group is powerful and potent but highly outnumbered for a situation like this....but well placed bombs could likely at least take care of the monocaine..

There is ONE problem, however.

The Glassblower ignored Farmer Brown when he warned him about certain elemental precautions...figuring that the attacking metahumans and aliens would be distracted enough to allow the harvest....

Anywho, the flaw is really simple, wo uld have been worth the extra twenty thousand in pens, but you see when you put man eating chicken raptors, man eating cows and man eating Mantises next to each other....they are all, quite literally ....meat.

Aside from flecks of multicolored blood and screaming the mass slaugter is not, thankfully visible but very VERY VERY loud as someone with an invisible cat swears in his invisible office.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia goes to smile ever sadistically and chipperly. Then she goes to take out a large gas mask and goes to slide it down firmly. Instead of incendiary agents, she brought Greek Fire. She goes to take out one of the pouches, and goes to hand it over to Alfred. She doubts that Stephanie would accept one but the offer is there as her hand goes down in a gestur eof being willing to hand it over if wanted. Or if Stephanie waves her off with a 'don't you dare do that' bit.

Talia's other hand is on a katana just in case they get charged at. And ready to start flaming. Bracing with her companions and ready to attack.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown looks over the situation, her rebreather a whisper quiet hiss as it recycles the air within her cowl. She glances up at the sunlamps overhead. << We can stay above them. Get up in the sun lamps and plant incendiaries there. As well as down among the plants. Just take out the entire room and burn it down. >>

The suggestion made, she checks with the others before firing off her grapple line up into the superstructure supporting the sunlamps. She jets up through the air to the nearest portion to avoid being spotted easily. << Do we need to take out servers too? Where are they? >>

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Hearing the sounds of animals moving but not seeing them, the unseen stick is held up and ready, but as the screeches of the creatures attacking each other fill the room, the stick wavers just slightly.

Well thank goodness for villains not thinking out their own plans.

Glancing over to catch Talia's smile, there's a bit of a chuckle coming from her side. When your messed up childhood is the product of both Gotham and Hell's Kitchen, dark humor will develop at some point.

As Stephanie reminds them of the goodies she supplied earlier, the chuckle ceases. << Right. On it. >>

While Stephanie uses the grapple line up. Phantasm stomps down, pushing himself off like a swimmer would do from a pool wall. But with the way he's angled he goes upwards, swimming over to potentially good spots to place the devices.

With each one he sets up, they reappear as soon as his hands leave them.

Alfred Pennyworth has posed:
Alfred Pennyworth considers and says, "If we can get the servers, then its a bonus but the priority is taking out the Monocaine..." he begins placing the Greek Fire on the plants, and spreading it in a concentric spiral that will ensure the fire burns bright and unstopable once lit. As the group keeps placing down the incidinaries, they find the Monocaine is concentrated (as near as they can tell) in only about a quarter of the vast field, supposedly hidden.

By covering the other angle from the ramp (though as he hears smells and FEELS the absolute slaughter all around him) he is able to cover the other angle of the monocaine. In short order, the group has placed enough bombs to blow the entire place.

The Glassblower sneers, and injects himself with a vial....and...changes....

It seems too easy...WAY too easy.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
As a backup, she has the phosphorous. That she won't be taking out until they're on their way out. It's the type of thing that can melt through heavy, reinforced steel after all, so hot it incinerates the air around it. It's something that she'll use if she gets the opportunity. Talia goes to watch carefully, looking where the wires were and the power sources as they plant flame and explosives. Checking to see where the connectors were and to try and pinpoint the tracks towards the main energy source..

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown is moving from one light fixture to another. Tossing down incendiaries that can be remotely triggered. Also putting them on the lights above to literally rain fire down on that Greek fire that is being spread about so liberally and make sure it all goes up.

<< Making good progress up here. I can make an attempt on the servers if you think you have it here. >> She hooks up another one, looking down and shaking her head at the animals killing each other. "Someone really needs to pay," she murmurs to herself. She swings acrobatically to put a few a bombs on the ramps up and out. After moment's hesitation, she pulls out some components from her utility belt, and rigs a couple of the paint grenades up there on a separate detonator in case they just want to paint anything invisible that makes it that way.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Having finished dispersing the incendiaries in his possession, Phantasm floats away from them, leaving him with nothing put paint grenades. He's not quite as flexible with rigging those. Oddly enough the other explosives had more instructions associated with it.

Step 1: Point this side at enemy.

Step 2: Run away

Step 3: kaboom.

<< Mine are set up >>

Alfred Pennyworth has posed:
Talia is able to follow the wires to the power plant and the invisible office. Its a simple matter of triangulation and the deotonators are easily placed around it. The explosives are all placed in the right place, after giving his team mates a heads up, he pressed the button and rappels up the shaft, encouraging the others to leave before the timer goes off.

The animals hurt each other but making a kill when invisible is rather hard. As they run up the shaft, they are trapped in the tunnel on either side to allow backup to treat wounds and let them live out the rest of their mad tortured lives somewhere else, but the monocaine goes up in flames.

The Glassblower regrets not having Farmer Brown or his insanely strong daughter here, but injecting himself with a stolen does of the Hyde formula mixed with Farmer Browns growth hormone, he grows to a huge size, that of a small building....

But as he moves to rip off the side of the invisible office and monolog, "BEHOLD heroes! I AM THE GLASS BLOWER ! FEAR MY...oh crap!" As the explosives go off with the heroes moving away and the building collapsing.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia Al Ghul goes to smile ever so sadistically, ever so sinisterly, and with that hint of malice that she rarely lets out. She goes to take out the small sphere and container she's brought with her for a final purge, if need be.. And goes to set it down. Then she's off with the others as they go to evade and disengage, letting out morbid cackles and cries of mad glee that are unnerving to the very soul. Her laughter booms, ehcoing through the explosions, the flames, and the cries of surprise and possible terror as plants are burnt, power melts, and the building starts to flow like acid.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl is cutting it close after getting a last few explosives over nearer to the office. Thankfully those power lines have to go somewhere so give a good idea of where else might be worth some charges.

She takes one last look out at the fields and then shoots her grapple line back up the silo. She's wooshing upwards through though air as the explosions go off below. She just clears the top, cape flapping as the blast of heat rises up the silo.

Batgirl perches on a wall nearby, looking back down and reeling the last of her grapple line in.

"Invisible guy buys the beers tonight."

Michael Hannigan has posed:
As the display of destruction is starting to go off, Phantasm zoots over to where Alfred is. "Time for the express ride!" Within moments a few things happen. The first thing is the stick Phantasm was holding earlier is now in the Butler's hands. The second thing is Alfred ends up getting a boost of speed away from the explosions as he's being carried by someone who is apparently an insanely good jumper.

It's almost like a weird dream.

Alfred Pennyworth has posed:
"Thanks for the lift...." He smiles, knowing that he really cant keep doing these physical excursions. Its more than his body can handle. As it is, they all get out of the compound, and the last of the Monocaine, so far as anyone knows anyway, is incinerated. "Capital....thanks to each of you..."