Sixth Sin: The Blooming Beasts (Pt. 3): Conservatory Conflicts

--- Mercer ---

“So how are we doing this, tol?” Kur’Silo asked as they sat on a building overlooking the sixty acres that made up the conservatory nearest to the Way.

“What kind of kit are you carrying these days?” He doubted it had changed much since the last time he’d worked with the Inferni but given how Tris was arguably one of the most versatile practitioners in the Way, (that could change really fast.)

“Still got my Magnums from Clocks.” Kur’Silo told him pulling one out to it off, the handle of the gun having been modified to fit the Inferni’s larger than human hands with ease and carrying a charm on the end. (Not too different from how mine were built for mine.) “Baks, made these charms to add fire to my rounds but I need to channel magic for them.”

“Got any other charms on you?” He wondered, more than missing the variety of ammo he usually carried.

“Yeah, got plenty.” The Inferni nodded, pulling out a handful of the charms from inside of his suit jacket. “Won’t work for your guns though. Need a sympathetic connection.”

“And there’s no sympathy for wanting to torch a place?” He sighed.

“No, but we’ve got this?” Kur’Silo offered, shaking the container of magical gasoline they’d brought with them.

He shook his head. “Save it for when we find wherever they’re growing these things. We’re going to want that place to be cinder and ash as soon as possible.”

“Fair enough.” Kur’Silo shrugged, before looking the garden over. “See anything noteworthy on that fancy helmet of yours?”

“Helmet’s cracked still.” He answered with a tap to his head before explaining that he’d, “Fixed the basics but I don’t have any of my fancy stuff. How about your Mask?”

Kur’Silo pulled a simple rounded face mask with two holes near the top before sliding it down his horns so that his entire face was covered. “Not seeing any magic out here. At least no more than was floating around the last time we were here.”

“Shame, having some more intel on what we’re walking into would be nice.” He admitted, before firing a grappling line at the garden and another near his footing. “Let’s sneak in through the roof and see if we can’t find anything inside.”

Kur’Silo gave him a nod before using his Inferni physiology to easily make the leap that he needed his grappling hooks to manage with twice as much effort and time. Upon rejoining his accomplice tonight he opened a skylight that he knew was always open from his days running with the Vigils. (Wonder how many people realize just how easy their heroes have made it to break into public buildings?)

Quietly they both dropped onto one of the support beams holding up the glass walls and ceilings of the garden and took the place in.

The entire building was filled with far more green than could be seen anywhere else in the concrete jungle that was the city. A number of colorful flowers that neither of them knew the names of littered the green that was broken up only by small paths and sidewalks for the guests to walk between it all.

After a moment they both looked at each other before shaking their heads, neither seeing anything like the feral flowers they’d fought back at the library.

“Where’d you guys find the flower before?” He asked, figuring that that was the best place to start.

“Over there, near where they’ve got those weird trees.” Kur’Silo answered, pointing a fair bit deeper into the garden before beginning to hop along the support beams.

He frowned, seeing no easy path there. (At least not without being as agile as an Inferni.)

“Actually, you stick to the high road. If they’ve really got a trap of some kind set up here, I’ll spring it myself. You only jump in when the big bad comes out to play.” A perk of being an ex-Vigil was that every Mask he ran into outside of the Way always wanted to talk to him about them. “Hopefully, I can get something out of them or just stall them until Tris finishes up her thing.”

Kur’Silo gave him a thumbs up. “Sounds good, tol.”

With that plan established he hooked his line on the rafter before slowly dropping to the ground and retracting the line as he dusted himself off.

Looking around he couldn’t help but frown to himself, the whole place being harder to navigate from ground level. (Eh, nothing major, but I’m still not seeing much of anyone.)

It was still early enough that there should’ve been someone here, a groundskeeper or guests of some kind. (Then again most of the richies can’t stand coming anywhere near the Way and they’re the only ones who’d come here outside of schools.)

Still it was enough of a red flag that he’d have been on guard even without knowing he was about to spring some kind of trap. More so the longer he went without anything happening even as he stepped into the grouping of trees that Kur’Silo had pointed out to him.

The ground in the center of the trees had been dug up recently, and sloppily enough that he doubted it was just for collecting the ones that had gone crazy at the library. (If Tris was right, the one running this show should know I’m here and be watching me by now. Question is how to get them to attack me…)

(Back right.) He drew his Rhapsody and aimed it where something had just moved, only to watch a handful of leaves fall to the ground.

He took a calming breath, before forcing himself to walk forward rather than pulling the trigger on his gun. Rejecting his every instinct he slowly looked around, before a faint snapping had him reflexively leaping forward unable to let himself get caught by such an obvious ambush.

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Spinning so he fell on his back as he drew his second gun he aimed them both on another blooming beast, this one notably different from the sunflower looking thing he’d fought at the library. Namely in how this one seemed to be bundling its vines around its main body rather than spreading them out, this one looking like a pair of large venus flytraps had grown out of an even larger tumbleweed.

He narrowed his eyes at the dog sized plant before pulling the trigger on one of his guns.

The Tumble Trap easily avoided the concussive blast, small vines shooting off from the bottom of the plant and allowing it to quickly skitter out of range unless he charged a shot that wasn’t worth the ammo just yet.

Making a show of checking to see if there was another one of the plants hiding in the tree, he actually glanced past it to see Kur’Silo looking down from above. The Inferni pointed to his eyes and the direction the weed had scampered off while counting up and down with his fingers.

(Well, I knew there was going to be more than one of these things in here.) He grimaced, part of him wishing he knew just how many there were if they were all going to come in different strains but more than used to not having that wish granted.

On the right track he move to follow the plant deeper into its trap, not needing long to realize that the plants around him were looking a bit big, even for a conservatory full of exotic plants. (Meaning someone ‘s been busy…)

Regardless, he still wasn’t at the center of whatever was causing all this nor had he seen any actual sign of the one responsible for it all.

“Come on… where are you…?” He grumbled under his breath, the foliage around him giving him the distinct feeling of being surrounded under the current circumstances.

Unlike he’d hoped, asking that didn’t tempt any of the creatures he knew to be lurking to take their shot at him.

Instead they waited another three minutes to jump him while he was halfway down a one way path with no exits that weren’t in the middle of the green.

Not that saved the first Tumble Trap he blasted to bits or the second that he stomped under foot. Though it did allow a number of vines to wrap around him from behind while he was distracted.

The moment he realized what was happening, he was ripped off his feet and dragged into the foliage, before finding himself staring into a large eye and an open mouth.

A concussive round to the eye was enough to have the Blooming Beast rearing back, but not enough to get it to let go of him. For that he was forced to drop one of his Rhapsodies -unable to holster it with the way the vines had wrapped around him- before grabbing his knife and cleaving himself free as he held the trigger on his gun down.

Spinning on his heel he released the trigger, unleashing the charged shot he’d been building at the cost of burning through the last of the rounds in that gun. A price that was relatively worth it when at point blank range it blew the carnivorous sunflower’s head off.

More than aware that he wasn’t clear of the threat, he ripped the last of the limp vines from him and swapped his spent Rhapsody for the one that was still loaded on the ground. The knife in his hand having proved itself more valuable than dual wielding, especially given just how difficult he knew it was to reload these things one handed.

Something he wouldn’t have had time to do anyway, given how he promptly found himself being knocked to the ground by something the size of a dog before it disappeared back into the foliage around him.

A place that a trio of Tumble Traps were happy to jump on him from, the teeth of their traps latching onto him hard enough that he was sure they were starting to tear holes in the jackets.

“Back off! I just got this thing!” He growled, grabbing one of the weeds on his chest by their stems and cutting both off as he sat up before dropping all of his weight onto the one trying to eat his helmet.

His knife stabbed into the core before ripping it open and spraying his shirt with a sappy sludge inside the pest. Shoving the corpse away and idly shooting the one he’d mutilated he watched the third run off disappearing into the rest of the surrounding flora, escaping his wrath.

“Shit like this is why I stick to the concrete jungle.” He cursed, forcing his way through the brush while hacking away with his knife. The blade’s heated edge glowing brighter and brighter as he was forced to keep it active for a lot longer than recommended.

(Not going to be able to use this thing for like a week after this mess…) That or see if he could steal another one from one of the Vigil’s safehouses.

He kept expecting whatever had knocked him off his feet before to try it again, but eventually he managed to make it back to the main path of the garden. Only to pause as he noticed a faint trail just a little to his left, one that while not pronounced did stand out when compared to the density of the flora around him.

Which is why after making sure there were no other Blooming Beasts near him -and that Kur’Silo was still following from above despite being unable to see much through the foliage- he went ahead and reloaded his rhapsodies before starting down the path that had to lead to somewhere someone here wanted easier access to.

Something that was more than apparent given how little had to fight the natural plants in spite of how wild everything else in the area was. Especially with the fact that even with more than one of the feral flora lurking nearby none of them came at him while on the path. The one massive eye he’d seen, near promptly dismissing him.

(Yeah, definitely something important at the end of this.)

After a few more minutes of walking he found what he thought that was, as he paused to look over an oddly assembled pile of flora. A pile that he almost would’ve dismissed if he hadn’t had to build more than one shelter in the wild during the less ‘urban’ bouts of training his mother had insisted on after taking him under her wing.

He glanced upward and considered getting Kur’Silo, before deciding, (Nah. The mastermind hasn’t shown up yet. Best to stick to the plan until he does.) And entering the hut on his own.

Inside he found a large spell circuit on the ground alongside a number of books, jarred flowers, seeds, and other magical catalysts. Which was all to be expected, given how this was Tris and Kur’Silo case.

What wasn’t expected however was what was very clearly a chemistry station.

At first he was prepared to dismiss it as a modern ‘potion’ station of some kind, but then he noticed a number of sealed containers with chemical formula on them. (Interesting…)

It wasn’t particularly uncommon for people to mix magic and science, especially given how the current ‘Arcane Era’ (or whatever pretentious title those assholes are using) was born by the near extinct Arcane lines taking on modern apprentices who in turn applied modern science to learn more about magic. It was however rare to find someone who mixed them beyond applying the scientific method to magic, or using science as a jumping board for their magic.

Whatever was going on here though was clearly a lot more in depth than that though.

(Hopefully, these photos will help Tris figure out the magic side of things at least.) He frowned as he went ahead and sent the Hunter photos of everything in the room, hoping that it would speed up her time table a fair bit.

Of course, he only got to the fourth photo before the entire hut began to shake.

“Alright. We finally doing this?” He asked the room, having been looking for the ‘trap’ to really spring for a while now.

In response the door to the room snapped shut and his phone light revealed the walls to have begun leaking a steaming sap like substance.

“Yep.” He nodded to the plant he was currently in the stomach before his helmet flashed his double tap skull in the dark. “We’re doing this.”

Out of curiosity, which should Mercer do?

[]-Put up a token fight and then let himself be captured.

[]-Put up a real fight until he wins or is captured.