genessia | TREE OF WOE with COLE and CASSIAN

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TREE OF WOE with COLE and CASSIAN

Another wonderfully samey day. He'd grown to become rather fond of normalcy, as normal as it could possibly be in fucking Everglade.

At least in this subgate in Everglade.

The shop was stocked, the house was clean, and Cassian was out to the greenhouse to see how the first batch of herbs was coming along for spring. Wandering past the new Honedge in the shop, past Tuna the Primarina, busily splashing and singing in its tin tub, past the eternally dozing Vileplume, to poke around at the beginnings of agrimony and babies breath.

Not... really expecting much out of today, and currently lost in his own thoughts, humming some soft tune as he dug through a small bag at his side for the plant food.

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And here was Cole to make the day a lot less normal. He shuffled into the greenhouse just a few minutes after Cassian had, wringing his hands together furiously as he went, head down so that the hat hid his face even from the shorter man. Muttering to himself, but loud enough to pick up on as he drew near.

"...Twisting, tearing, threading through muscle and veins and make it stop, please someone--"

Then he lifted his head to stare at Cassian with wide eyes.

"We have to help."

He'd heard Cole come in of course. Heard the mumbling, but... well at this point, he was used to such sounds from the spirit. He didn't do much, at first at least, just letting him know he was there with a pleasant, but idle "'Lo, Cole."

Oh, but then there Cole was. With a request, no less.

He'd missed the first half of what the spirit had said, but the latter half?

'We have to help'?

"... What are we helpin' with?"

"They caught her and put a seed inside that grew and grew and it won't stop unless we stop it," Cole's hand-wringing only intensified, "I d-don't know if we can save her, but we can stop it. I-I can't by myself."

Of course, Cassian had no idea what was going on, or who Cole was talking about or... well frankly anything.

Still, everything was set aside for the moment. He wasn't about to assume any of this was idle prattle, not when he at least had a basic idea as to what Cole's nature was.

"Her who? Where, lad?" The whats and hows could be dealt with later.

"Out... out there," and Cole lifted a gloved hand to point directly toward the way into Everglade proper. "Her name is... Maryanne, but she's losing that too."

Well.

"Alright, tell ye what I'll do." Everything down, and he started heading back to the shop.

"Ye lead the way, I'll see what I can do for Miss Maryanne then." Because whatever the hell was going on.... it.... sounded really dire. Really, really, horrifyingly dire.

He was going to need a few things.

"Yes," Cole's relief was obvious enough in the way his shoulders dropped and his somewhat breathless voice warmed. He followed after Cassian, of course. "Thank you. There... there will be fighting."

Then the shotgun was necessary, as well as a few of the more explosive wards and charms.

No need for the knife. Not anymore. With Hastur no longer present, the dagger was little more than a very ugly and impractical kitchen knife.

He was more than happy to barely think of it before heading out the door, shotgun in hand.

"Right, lead on, lad."

And off they went, Cole leading the way like some kind of weird shuffling blood-hound, those shuffling steps punctuated by jogging whenever he could get away with it-- he'd know if they were pushing Cassian's lungs too far, after all.

He could feel it too.

Into the city and straight toward the trouble happening at the outskirts, the sounds of wood crunching and twisting audible shortly before the screaming of bystanders. Cole sped up into a run, knowing Cassian didn't need a guide now, and he vanished into thin air even as he reached up for the daggers sheathed high up on his back.

A mostly rural intersection, where forest met with houses and some small shops. And in the middle of it, lifting a car full of screaming people into the air, was a Big Damn Tree.

He appreciated the occasional slower jog, honestly. Lord knew his lungs were still far from okay with too much work.

Yeah, by the time they actually reached the city, it was impossible for Cassian to not find the creature. All that fucking sound was far too easy to follow. Gun was out and loaded, one ward pulled off his belt and held in his hand as Cole just seemed to up and evaporate.

And there it was. Was that supposed to be Maryanne?

... Shit. Oh, he didn't think there'd be much left of her to save in there.

Unwilling to lob the ward at the tree beast as it lifted a car into the air, Cassian jammed the ward back into his pocket, pumped the action on the shotgun, aimed.

And fired.

The full elephant shot silver cast payload emptied out at the massive creature, not many other places for it to scatter with that large of a target.

Naturally, the huge tree monster didn't merely drop the car full of screaming people, but instead with a roar it flung the car at Cassian. Because of course it did. Think fast!

And there was Cole, appearing in a flash to sink both glowing, crackling daggers into the 'back' of the tree where the growth was good and thick, high up the trunk.

Edited 2018-04-01 04:46 (UTC)

THINKIN' FAST.

He scrambled out of the way, getting just clear of the car as it hit the ground.

A glance back at the tree (and by proxy, Cole) seemed to indicate that the tree itself might be a touch busy... right now.

Gonna check on those people then. The fewer casualties, the better.

Don't mind Cole, hanging from his daggers like a monkey as the tree thrashed around wildly, swinging the spirit from side to side like he weighed nothing. At least the tree was indeed busy for the moment, giving Cassian time to help pry injured people out of slightly-crumpled metal.

HE IS GETTING THERE, PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE.

They all looked fine, thank goodness, no children in there, everyone out, car didn't explode?

Good, back to business.

Pump, reload, aim-

The tree would eat another load of red hot silver, the priest snatching the ward he'd stuffed away before, now hurling it at the beast like a grenade.

A word of command was shouted seconds before impact and...

Well Cole would, at least, be blocked from the blast by the tree itself.

Cole disengaged finally, yanking his daggers out and jumping a full thirty feet or so backward before lobbing a bomb of his own--

Which hit the tree and shattered, releasing a knockout gas that did... jack shit.

W h e l p.

The tree began to lumber toward Cassian, and then... oddly, it seemed to lose track of him.

"Hidden," Cole hadn't been near Cassian a second ago, but here he was now! Knives out and crackling with red energy, but somehow also not catching the tree's attention. "Won't last. What do we do?"

Oh shit here it came. Well of course the knock out gas didn't do shit, it was a tree.

Trees don't have lungs or complex neural networks, it's a tree!

He was fully prepared to book it, but... then the tree seemed to just... not see him anymo-

Oh that'd explain it. There he was, right there next to him. He had no idea that invisibility trick could be made mutual. What do we do indeed.

"Tis a tree, innit? ... Bet if we get a good spark on it goin' it could light right up." Good spark being understatement-ese for 'set the fucker on fire' of course.

"I think I got a charm for helpin' start campfire's on me somewhere. Tisn't like the explosive though. It'll need to be in it and then activated to take."

"She's still alive inside it!" Cole was suitably horrified. Look, Maryanne didn't have much chance of living through this but Cole wanted to help either save her or put her out of her misery, not cook her to death first.

Goddamnit. He wasn't going to argue with Cole either.

"I don't know how to turn things off nice-like, Cole. Unless ye know how to put a tree to sleep, t'will be a difficult task cuttin' her from a swingin', screamin', roarin' oak."

It wasn't an argument, it was a desperate plea for input.

How else could they stop it?

Cole fretted visibly, lifting his knife-clutching hands to his hat and dragging the brim down while he tried to think. Faster! He had to think faster!

--Oh look the Cloak of Shadows is wearing off and the tree's charging them.

Cole, you should have picked someone other than the tiny little five foot five terrorist to help you nicely put a tree beast to rest.

Cass has one spell with a lot of variations and they're all variations of shit that blows up.

Shit here comes the tree.

"Here now!"

He grabbed at Cole, yanking off to the side and towards the trees still yet rooted in the ground.

At the very least, the huge fucking monster would have some issue navigating the forest quickly and efficiently. Give them some time to think.

"--Oh!" And Cole was yanked accordingly, running along with the priest into cover. "This is a good idea!"

Cole not now honey.

And yeah, the tree monster was quite a bit bigger than the normal trees, which meant all those branches and roots were sure to get caught up in the normal foliage. "Let's... try to get it tangled up!"

"Tangle-" Oh wait.

Well, yes. That would immobilize the beast pretty well, wouldn't it? Why didn't he think of that? Goddamnit, now he has to work on an entanglement charm when he got back.

"Aye, tangle it, got it."

Off and running into the woods, where the branches grew thicker, the undergrowth more wild, vines dangling like so many helpful, grasping little ropes.

"Don't get too far ahead of it."

"Kiting it!" Cole sounded so enthusiastic about the idea, too! Or relieved. Or both. "That's what she'd have done!"

She? Well. Probably his boss, that. Of course if a creature couldn't be taken down on the spot, leading it to better ground was a pretty solid idea!

The tree monster crashed and clambered through the forest on their trail, picking up snapped branches and brush and vines as they went like a big angry katamari ball.

"How do we get her out once it stops?" Cole asked while dodging around a boulder. He had his daggers, but if Cassian had any better ideas--

Ones that didn't involve fire--

He was all ears!

Kite the beast. He could only guess who 'she' was. He had a pretty good idea, in all honesty.

Deeper into the forest they went, Cassian hearing the sound of trees and shrubs and logs being kicked aside, ripped down or uprooted... And so many of them being dragged behind the monster.

It should be far too overburdened to move soon.

"We cut her out is what we do."

A few more minutes and a few more big logs and scraggly trees and there was finally a big crunch as the whole monster came down. Cole wasted no time in reversing course to jump onto the trunk again despite all the branches whipping around trying to claw at everything around it, including the spirit.

With a thunderous crash, the tree came down, and Cassian turned on his heel, ignoring how his chest attempted to tighten, wheezing softly as he aimed the gun again.

Rasping, he gave his warning:

"Stand clear!" After all, that elephant shot was going to go everywhere, and everywhere it went, silver pellets the size of shooter marbles embedding itself in whatever the hell it could manage to land in, ripping apart bark like paper off a pinata.

At the warning, Cole dove out of the way with a yelp, his hat fluttering to the ground just out of the way.

Look, at least there were no people inside the branches! Go wild tiny boom mage!

That tree was eating silver tonight!

Without an ax, well, there really was no other way to cut the poor girl out, not with what paltry implements these two heroes carried.

Bark flew this way and that, wood pulp everywhere!

Look they weren't the best equipped people for this but they were the only people this poor fucker had.

Cole snatched his hat up and appeared a moment later beside Cassian. "Almost."

Almost what? Almost damaged the tree enough?

"Almost what then? Almost out? I bloody hope so, I only got two rounds left."

All silver too, that's a lot of money in that stupid tree he was going to have to dig out later.

"What's her state?"

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TREE OF WOE with COLE and CASSIAN

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