"So talk," an incongruously normal, feminine voice said.

To be perfectly honest, Tammy hadn't really thought past this part. She'd sort of assumed that she wouldn't get this far. But she only had to talk. That wasn't hard.

"So, first off, sorry for crashing into you, but it was the fastest way up here. And thanks for not eating me," Tammy said brightly. She tried to smile, then realized without lips that didn't really work. Her mouth sort of just got wider, without the masses of muscle that gave it the implied upward curve at the ends. She closed her mouth again, hoping they didn't thing she was being sarcastic or threatening. "I mean, you ate a little bit of me, but nothing important. Nothing I couldn't grow back."

"Is that what that was?" the yellow one said, tilting their head in a surprisingly normal gesture. "I was wondering what tasted like toothpicks."

Tammy didn't think she tasted like toothpicks– she was a young green sapling! She probably tasted like celery at best– but didn’t' argue the point. "So… are you human?"

"Are you?"

"I'm human!" Tammy said hastily. She held out her hand. "Plants don't have thumbs! Or talk! Or argue whether they're a member of the human race."

"Or need to justify they're human."

"You just ate a dog, that's not exactly something humans do."

"Maybe I like asocena."

"Off the street?"

"Asocena and street food." Teeth showed in a wide line.

Well, at least they sounded amused. And bantering! Tammy was actually bantering!

"Anyway, thanks for your help back there," Tammy said, relaxing. She didn't have muscles that could relax, but if she did, her shoulders would be loosening. "We were afraid it was going to get away again. It's learned to go after people to distract us."

"I was just passing through and saw it," Yellow said. "It looked like something I could beat, so I did."

"We're still thankful," Tammy said. She hesitated. "Are you… like us?"

"You'll have to be more specific," Yellow said.

"Did you just… wake up and…" Tammy trailed off.

"Found myself like this?" Yellow said easily. "Yeah. I'm glad I live alone, or that would have been awkward." She looked at her hand, and Tammy saw the intricate, interlocking shells that made them bend like human fingers. "It took some adjusting."

"When?" Tammy asked. "When did it happen for you?"

Shell-covered fingers tapped on mouth plate. "Um… during the night after the first reports of people in Baseco getting weird fungal infections showed up on TV? Before it turned into a mushroom zombie forest? And no, before you ask, I never went there. I didn't used to go farther than Makati."

"Used to?" Tammy asked.

The mouth opened again, showing teeth. "I've got new ways to get around now," Yellow said, looking very smug for some reason. "But no, whatever caused it, it wasn't because I got close to Baseco. I didn't go anywhere but home, work and groceries." Head tilt. "Was that what you wanted to know?"

"Not even close," Tammy said. "Can… do you have a phone? An email? A social media I can contact you on?"

"I don't just randomly give out my information, you know," Yellow said. "Especially when I'm not wearing my face specifically so people can't work out who I am. Besides, no offense, but we just met."

"Then I'll give you mine!" Tammy said. She held up her left arms and started scratching contact data on her inner forearm with one finger, the thorn on the tip hardened and the bark softened to help with the writing. She put in her cell number, her casual email, and one of her social media accounts, the ones she used for logging in to games that demanded it for bonuses. Carefully, she peeled off the bark so she wouldn't have to write it again, trying to suppress the shiver at the absence of pain as she essentially flayed herself, revealing the pale wood underneath.

"Seriously? You're giving your contact data to a bug person you just met?" Yellow said.

Tammy held it out. "Look, you're the only other person we've met who's like us. Most of the rest that's out there seem to be monsters. The mushrooms, the dog, those insects that ate all those people–!"

"Don't worry, I got those," Yellow said. Their tongue briefly licked out, before they winced. "Ach! Bleeding tongue, bleeding tongue! Teeth too sharp!"

"That!" Tammy exclaimed. "Look, you clearly know what you're doing! I don't even know how I'd handle bugs that can do that. The two of us couldn't even take down a dog. Sure, it was a huge dog, but it was still one dog. And you beat it!"

"Aw, crap, I think I bit the tip of my tongue off," Yellow said. "Ugh, I hate it when I accidentally eat pieces of myself, it always feels like cannibalism. This is probably why sharks don't have tongues."

"Can we, like… learn from you? On the job training? Some pointers? Please, anything! We're really bad at this!"

"This what?" Yellow said, voice sounding a little off, it's flapping mouth letting Tammy see that their tongue was indeed noticeably shorter.

"This! Heroing!"

Yellow paused and stared. At least, Tammy assumed so, since she was getting both compound eyes straight on again. "Come again?"

"Heroing!" Tammy said. "Great power, great responsibility, using our power to protect the weak and helpless, be protectors of the right, save people from these evil forces… you know, the whole comic book gig. I mean, pretty much all you need is a magic barbell."

"Okay, first off, heroism is not just something you can be, it is a pursuit with uncertain ends," Yellow said, one hand up with finger upraised in a lecturing pose, the other at her waist. "It is an accolade awarded by others in reaction and recognition to one's deeds, and as a result means one is admired for those deeds or qualities presented. One cannot just 'become' a hero, or claim to be a hero. To be a hero is to be recognized by others, and such recognition is purely arbitrary and semi-political. The same act that gets one person called a hero can result in another becoming forgotten in the annals of history. While one can act in a way that corresponds to the present heroic ideal of a culture, this does not make one a hero, merely someone seeking to be like a hero, which is not the same thing."

"…" Tammy said. "What?"

"Sorry," Yellow said. "It's a peeve of mine. You were saying?"

"You're… not doing this to be a hero?" Tammy said. "But then… why…?"

"Why go after these things?" Yellow finished. Tammy nodded a bit numbly. "Why do you?"

"Because… it's the right thing to do…" Tammy said lamely. She gestured at herself, at her body of bark and wood and thorns. "I mean, I can… this. What else would I do with it?"

"Hide it? Live a normal life, not putting yourself in danger?" Yellow said bluntly. "Do whatever you want, because you can? Do plant-related things for money? Something other than fighting dogs in the street and… did I see that right? You grew a tree in the middle of the road?"

"They were going after people," Tammy said, shuffling nervously. "I think they had rabies."

Yellow turned, looking towards where the top of the tree that Tammy had been was just barely visible. "Yeah… I think so. I'm not sure what I can do for them. Hopefully they can get shots before it really sets in, but…" Yellow shook her head, then shrugged.

"Why did you do it, then?" Tammy said. "Why go after the plague dog?"

"Plague dog?" Yellows mused. "Well, it fits." She looked at Tammy. "Do you ever get an urge, in the back of your head?"

Tammy went still like only a plant could. Eventually, she said, "What urge?"

"An urge. It comes from the back of your head, makes you want," Yellow said. Her compound eyes glittered. "Want things. Do things…"

Tammy realized her bark was getting very, very dense. Denser than oak, than mahogany, than palo santo. She felt the thorns on her fingers lengthening, hardening, felt more thorns growing along her arms…

"Urges," Tammy said, talking as much to herself as much as Yellow. Were her claws… yes, they were getting longer, sharper. "Yeah, I know about urges. Get them all the time. Getting some now, in fact. But you know the thing about urges?"

"What?" Yellow said, and her voice was no longer normal and feminine. It buzzed like a cheap audio effect, holding hints of growls and vibrations. Her tail was over her head, Tammy noticed, the point curved and sharp and pointing at her.

"Urges are stupid!" Tammy said. "Plants have urges! Dogs have urges! Animals have urges. But people… people tell their urges what's going to happen. Not the other way around. And I'm not a plant. My urges don't get a say in what I'm going to do. They can offer suggestions, but generally I don't listen, because they're stupid suggestions. That's what people… what humans do with their urges."

She met those compound eyes. "So, I'm going to ask you again… are you human?"

Very deliberately, she held up her arm still holding the sheet of bark, studded with thorns, glistening with agonizing white sap… and pulled the thorns back in.

Yellow shuddered… and then the claws seemed to fall off her fingertips, replaced by rapidly grown and very pinkish and human fingertips and nails, incongruously melded to hard yellow shell. The tail fell to the ground behind her, severed at the base like a lizard's. Teeth, triangular and shark-like teeth, fell from her mouth, revealing bleeding gums that were quickly growing more squared, human teeth. "I'm human," she said, her voicing sounding deep and raw.

"Say it with me," Tammy said. "I'm a human, not a plant."

A wide line, showing bleeding, but human teeth. "I'm a human… not an animal."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"People are friends, not food," Tammy said.

"Isn't that fish?"

"We're not fish, we're people. Don't argue."

A chuckle. "People are friends, not food."

Carefully, Tammy walked forward, covering half the distance to Yellow. Despite everything, Yellow tensed, crouching slightly. The tail behind her twitched, and the ragged flesh at the base of the tail started growing teeth before stopping and the teeth were pulled back in.

Tammy stood there, exactly half of the distance from Yellow and held out the bark again. Her fingers were soft, pinkish, with dull, useless nails.

Cautiously, Yellow stepped forward, her armored, boot-like legs clicking strangely on the gray cement of the roof they were on. The foot wasn't a single piece, Tammy saw. Instead it was segmented, adjusting like a human foot but covered in yellow shell. She tried not to look nervous and draw back as Yellow kept coming closer, seeming to loom until they stopped just outside of Tammy's reach. Tammy held out the bark. One elongated arm reached for it, then paused.

Abruptly that hand writhed, and Tammy watched in morbid fascination as the yellow shell seemed to fall off like scab, revealing a plain, human hand. Carefully, gingerly, they took the bark.

"So… call me?" Tammy said.

Yellow nodded, turning the slightly bark over in her hand. "Yeah, I will. I… yeah. I think I've been alone with my thoughts about this too long. Need to get some perspective." She held out her human hand. "I'm Sanny. Nice to meet you."

Tammy beamed, even if it was just the slit on her face opening wide. "Tammy," she said, taking the hand. "Nice to meet you too."

They shook hands. The lipless slits on their faces opened wide, showing teeth.

"Why is my hand blistering?" Sanny asked.

Tammy gasped. "Ah! The sap! Sorry, sorry, sorry!"

––––––––––––––––––

Yellow– Sanny– flew off from there. It was fascinating to watch, seeing her body break apart into a flock of yellow birds that slowly turned brown to blend in with the local mayas, taking to the air and pretty much vanishing. Two of them were carrying the piece of bark with the contact information, holding on to a bit of vine Tammy had grown on either end. She really wished she could do that. Fly, not break apart into bits. Though she was pretty sure she could do that too, as soon as she figured out what those bits were…

Getting home was… problematic. While Tammy and Yellow– Sanny– were talking, apparently police from the nearby police station outside of Eastwood had arrived. And then soldiers from the engineering brigade at nearby Camp Atienza had arrived. And the soldiers stationed at Camp Aguinaldo had arrived. Only the ridiculous amount of traffic involved kept the police in Camp Crame on the other side of EDSA from joining in on time too.

Fortunately, water laughs in the face of threats of bullets, and Willy was never all that communicative anyway. Apparently she'd just stood there in the middle of the road, looking up towards where she'd thrown Tammy and ignored all the guns pointed at her, ignored all the demands that she lie down on the ground and surrender, ignored the policemen who'd charged her with batons, ignored the ones who tried to tackle her to the ground. She hadn't been able to ignore the ones who'd desperately grabbed at her sodden clothes in the vain hope they could pull her around with them because, as she'd explained to Tammy afterwards when they'd made their getaway, Tammy had once taught her that was a 'BAD TOUCH' and she was not supposed to let strange people just take off her clothes.

That meant that Willy had still had clothes on– if with some random bullet damage– when Tammy had leapt down from the roof and onto the sidewalk. Actually, she missed the sidewalk and landed in the dirt of the plant bed beside it, but that was fine, since she was pretty sure she'd have cracked the cement falling from that height, even with a body made of light, springy wood meant to absorb the impact that had bent and vibrated like a cartoon character smacked by cymbals. She'd been shot at but even fresh, wet sapling wood takes bullets better than meat does.

She'd stumbled shakily, still vibrating, Sanny's contact info etched into the bark of her forearm– one she'd made sure didn't have any sap in it, just in case, even when she'd changed out all her sap for some that wasn't a manchineel-derivative– before Willy had grabbed her and launched them both into the Marikina river.

It was disgusting. It was after the rainy season, so the river wasn't running low and stinking from all the years of garbage and factory pollutants staining the river bed, but the root fibers Tammy had instinctively– unconsciously?– grown when she'd hit water had the plant equivalent of spiting and throwing up when they'd tasted it, before they'd been enveloped by Willy pure, clean, clear water and been trust along the river at high velocity. They'd gotten out as soon as they were out of direct sight, just in time to avoid the helicopters in the air.

After that, it had been a matter of Tammy, to her consternation, hiding as an actual tree along the river bank while Willy had gone to where they'd stashed their wallets and phones– inside another tree, of course– and bought a shirt, pants and slippers for Tammy to go around in so they could commute home.

Three hours later, wearing cheap second hand clothes, Tammy and Willy, mostly human and tired, finally managed to get back home. The house was in one of the many subdivisions that had been put up near the end of Ortigas Avenue Extension during the 80's and 90's, a nice quiet place that was still a fairly safe and secure community.

"Manang Zeny, we're home!" she called. She could hear their katulong cooking the in the kitchen, the little radio there playing a local FM station.

"We're home," Willy mimicked her, since that was what Tammy had long ago told her she should do when she came back home.

"Welcome back," was the absent reply. Manang Zeny was either focusing on the food– it smelled like chicken adobo– or the music.

The two went upstairs to their room. Technically it was Tammy's room, and Willy's room was what had once been the guest room, but that was just were she kept her clothes so it wouldn't crowd Tammy's closet. As Willy closed the door, finally making them private again, Tammy sighed in relief, turning around and falling back to sit down on her bed with a practiced bounce that let her rebound so she was leaning on the wall her bed was shoved against.

"Haaaaaay," she sighed. "What a day." But they'd finally done it! They'd stopped a monster! Now, people were safer, without having to worry about mangy, epidemic-spreading dogs! She looked at her cousin, who was peeling off the hoodie. There were at least three bullet holes in the hood itself, with more spread around the back and front. It looked vaguely like some kind of cosplay. "Put it next on my desk Willy, I'll fix it later."

Willy nodded dutifully, neatly folding it and setting it on Tammy's desk, then opened the drawer containing the sewing stuff and took out a blue thread that matched the hoodie. Tammy nodded in approval at her cousin's initiative. She'd get to it with her sewing machine later. Right now she just lay back and enjoyed the feeling of having blood and bones and muscles and taking in oxygen instead of carbon dioxide.

She felt Willy sit down next to her, felt her taller cousin's weight shift the mattress. Pushing herself up, Tammy let her cousin lay her head down on her lap. "You did good today, Willy," Tammy said, stroking her cousin's hair. It was time for a haircut, she noted. Any longer and it would start looking untidy, since after all these years Tammy still couldn't get her cousin to take care of her hair properly. Oh well. "Do you want to watch something? Do you want to watch a movie before we do our homework?"

"News," Willy said. "I want to find out what happened today."

Tammy had to sigh, but it was a fond sigh. Sometimes she regretted explaining what the news was to her cousin. "Okay," Tammy said, reaching for the remote and turning on the TV in her room, switching it to a local channel, where the news was just coming on. Willy didn't move from Tammy's lap, but the taller girl was no doubt watching the show intently.

Tammy, for her part, couldn't stand the news. Sure, it was probably full of important current events, but the way it was presented, full of what she called Human Misery Stories (not Human Interest Stories), presenting the day's human suffering in an almost pornographic way, full of crying people futilely calling out the people who'd hurt them on the air…

It was probably hypocritical of her, wanting to use her powers to stop monsters so they wouldn't hurt people, while being utterly disdainful of news footage of people who've been hurt. She told herself it was the portrayal, how the news seemed to take a nearly voyeuristic approach to interviewing people to get them to cry, but…

Sometimes Tammy wondered if she was a terrible human being even before she could stop being one. Was she really the best person to be teaching her cousin how to be a functional, responsible adult? Yes, she knew about imposter syndrome– she'd done a lot of reading on the internet once her cousin started living with them, trying to figure out what she was beyond 'special', before she realized she was trying to put her cousin in a box and stopped– but she felt justified in this instance, since she was trying to be an impostor. She was trying to be a good, responsible person so her cousin would have an example of what sort of person she should act like, and every time she was reminded she was doing this for that purpose, she felt like a sham.

She blinked as she felt a hand patting her awkwardly on the head, and looked down to find the side of Willy's head had turned to clear water in lieu of turning to look up at Tammy. "You're… sad?" Willy said tentatively.

Tammy had to remind herself she could no longer lie to Willy about her feeling, that she should set a good example to her cousin by being honest, and that it was a good thing her cousin was showing social and emotional sensitivity by identifying other's emotions– even if she was cheating now– and reacting to them in an empathetic manner. "A little," Tammy said. "I was just thinking I might not be a very good person."

"Tammy is the best person," Willy said instantly, as emphatic now as she'd been when they'd been little kids and she'd started following Tammy around. "So you don't need to be sad."

Tammy stroked her cousin's head and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "You're sweet to say so Willy. Thank you." Across from them, the news droned on. People who died in freak motorcycle accidents. People dead from 'fighting back against the police'. People dead because they were drug users or drug dealers or involved in drugs in general. News about a woman raped and found dead, because the news cycle was incomplete without one of those. Monsters being driven back by heroic members of the Philippine National Police and Philippine Army, who were 'killed while fleeing'…

"Wait, what did they say?" Tammy said.

"They say the police killed two monsters and drove away a third who'd caused a disturbance in Quezeon City," Willy repeated dutifully. "But that's a lie. It's very shoddy reporting." On-screen, the chief of police was praising the police officers on their quick response and saying that the police were fearless even in the face of monsters. Because this was Philippine TV, the next story immediately after was an update on the situation in Baseco– still barricaded, locked down, and full of fungus-infected zombie people– followed by reports of more 'alleged' monsters sighted. For alleged, there sure were a lot of cellphone videos and casualty counts.

Tammy listened as emotional witnesses frantically described a large dog everyone kept approaching and petting and cuddling, even as it started biting and eating them. People who'd rushed in to help had found themselves approaching like slavish zombies, even as they were covered in blood by the people being devoured. It had gotten away because no one had been able to stop it, and it had left the area, carrying a bleeding person in its mouth that still kept petting and cooing at it…

Currently it was somewhere in Pasay, although they wouldn't be more specific than that.

There was a giant spider climbing the buildings of Makati, leaving trails of webs everywhere. So far it didn't seem to have any intention of breaking into the buildings and eating the people inside, or descending down to ground level to eat the people down there. It was just… climbing and building, weaving an elaborate web between the buildings, slowly blocking off the sun…

Along Katipunan Avenue, something was apparently roaming the sewers and causing great geysers of superheated water to explode from manholes and drainage holes, which had already led to severe burns and injures from the various sewer covers being sent flying through the air. The exclusion zone in Tagaytay was growing as more and more bees were being born from the giant queen, with estimates of literally millions of bees in the air, attacking animals and people like some kind of cheap horror movie. Also, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology was warning of seismic activity in Taal Volcano, and people were talking about how such an eruption might potentially kill the bees…

More people had been killed along Manila Baywalk from something that had reached out from the water, plucked them from the sidewalk and quickly dragged them down. Since people had finally gotten the message and not walking on the sidewalk near the water anymore, it was now pulling in cars as they idled in traffic, and distant cellphone videos showed that the disturbingly human-like hand doing the grabbing was getting bigger, moving from the water in burts of speed that raised up obstructing waves of water before turning back with the cars plucked from the road. Also, the Galleria was once more insisting that they did not have a giant snake in the basement that they fed people to via the changing rooms, as the sudden rash of monsters had brought those old stories surging back, now more plausible than ever…

Every day, Tammy feared she'd hear about a monster close to her house. So far, none seemed to have been reported closer than the Marikina River…

But there was so much…

She reached for her cellphone, where she'd already put in Sanny's contact information.

Hey. Watching the news. Wanna meet up Saturday? Can't just do nothing.

A few minutes later, as government officials spoke of how they needed to maintain the state of emergency to maintain order, and others accused them of using the emergency as an excuse to conduct political killings, the response came.

Why Saturday? Was about to go hunting now. Going to Makati.

Live in Rizal, too far away. Also, have school tomorrow.

Cant you just send a part of you?

Tammy stared at that message as the program switched to mindless celebrity news and Willy took the remote to switch to another news channel.

What? You can do that? Can we do that?

Maybe? I can control parts of myself I remove. Turn the part into a full body, operate it remotely. Or… be in it the same time im in other body. You cant do it?

Tammy stared at her hand. Concentrating, she made a little leafy stalk bud from her finger. Gently, she pinched off the stalk, which grew roots. She stared at it, and it began to shudder…