The tree thing was taking it's time getting to the hospital. What it seemed really eager to do was cause destruction, and there were plenty of sheds, ambulances, and cars in the parking lot for it to smash through. Benny didn't even consider his furious charge, just ran in with his fist raised and punched it across the face. Honestly he should have found that part odd all by itself, since before he hadn't even been able to get close to it. But it finally occurred to him something was weird when his punch not only sent the tree creature flying, it cracked the wood across its face and down it's twisted, gnarled neck.

“Hey,” Benny said. “I don't think I could do that before...oh crap!”

Whether he could or could not have done that before, what he could now, indisputably, was get the big tree beasts' attention. It clambered to it's feet in a flailing tangle of branchy limbs and stomped in his direction. Benny went with his first instinct to run away, but something stopped him. And he didn't mean he just had a feeling like he shouldn't, or he reconsidered. It was like something inside his body rebelled at the thought.

Which was weird, since it also seemed not too fond of the thought of rebellion, as a general concept.

Still, he turned back to face the oncoming tree monster. It swung for him, but this time he caught it's club-hand with his forearm and threw it aside, punching it in the...gut? Did trees have guts? They didn't have a stomach or intestines...of course they didn't usually have faces, either. And even when they did they didn't stomp around and roar as a general rule.

Benny was thinking about random things to distract himself from the fact that whatever else was going on somehow, for some reason he could not understand, he was suddenly stronger than the tree.

But to hell with it. He was trying to protect the hospital, right? Might as well make use of it. Maybe he could get rid of it. He grabbed it by the...chest? Sure, let's go with chest, and tried to throw it. That didn't work out so well. Just because he was strong enough to haul the thing around didn't mean it was light, and a tree with branches and limbs at odd angles is pretty unwieldy to throw, and it doesn't get any easier when those limbs are flailing angrily around. He got it a couple of feet.

He rushed it while it was getting up and started punching it away from the hospital as best he could gradually pushing it away. The creature roared and burbled, but he'd gotten enough stronger that there wasn't much it could do about it. Of course, Benny was also discovering there wasn't much he could do to the tree either. Sure, his punches split wood and shattered bark, but there was always a waft of green glowing smoke and the whole thing healed up again. It felt like this fight could go on forever.

Part of him almost didn't mind. It felt like he could go on forever. Like getting tired or worn out was something that happened to other people. Still, it did occur to him that there were other things he would want to do, eventually, than engage a tree monster in a perpetual battle. He was just wishing for someone he could ask for advice when that very thing popped out of the bushes...in the form of that creepy woman from the government. The one with the impossible hourglass figure, who didn't move right.

He wasn't so sure he was glad to see her, especially once she started talking.

“Hey kid!” She said. “Good work! But you can't keep pushing him this way, you're gonna put him outside the perimeter.”

“What perimeter?” Benny demanded, planting his fist in roaring oaken face again.

“The one we put up around this whole mess,” government woman said. “Gotta keep this whole thing a secret. We've got specialists coming in who can kill the tree, just keep it busy until they show up. And move it away from the edge of the perimeter!”

“Back towards the hospital?”

“No you should probably protect the hospital,” she said with an irritating shrug. “Oh, and when this is over we're going to have a real conversation about what happened with Danny O'Brian, and after. You've been lying to your government kid. But save the hospital and I think we'll call it even.”

“Oh thank you!” Benny snapped sarcastically. Alright, alright, fine. He'd been too suspicious to go to them before, but if they had specialists who dealt with this kind of thing they probably had answers too, about what the hell was happening. All he had to do was keep the tree thing busy...and away from the perimeter. He did not want to find out what the government had set up at the perimeter, so he changed directions.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

What do you do with a tree monster? Plant it. Sounded logical. So instead of back towards the hospital, or further towards the perimeter, he started punching down. Burying the thing in the dirt with blow after blow. It snarled and screamed, but as the soft earth started to pile on top of it it quieted, it's struggles stilling, until it wasn't moving underneath him at all. Benny realized belatedly that he'd buried himself, as well, so he crawled out of the dirt and collapsed on top of the heap. The woman walked up to stand beside him.

“Hey nice work!” She said. “I think you killed it! We'll wait for the experts though. I've never fought a treant before. I'd shake you hand, but you know. You're covered in dirt and I'm wearing a very nice suit.”

“Why does your voice sound like that?” He said. “Like you're purring all the time. It sends shivers up my spine.”

“Thanks, but you're a little young for me kid.”

“That's not what I...”

“Julia Nunez,” she said. “Special agent. My agency doesn't have a name.”

“You handle all the spooky shit,” Benny said. “I figured that much out myself.”

“We do indeed handle all the spooky shit!” she said. “Well done! I actually heard we were originally...hold that thought, I need to take this call. Yeah? Hey! You can hold off on the rush, I think the kid handled it. Oh, a person of interest with active nodes he will be explaining to me in the very near future. Yeah, it was pretty cool to watch he punched it over and over until he buried it in the dirt. You what? Yeah, I said...oh, alright. I'll tell him.”

She turned to look at Benny.

“My druid guys are telling me that was actually a really bad idea.”

She both did not have time to elaborate and did not need it, because at that moment a horrifying mass of branches and tendrils exploded from the ground beneath them, towering over the hospital. In the center of it was the tree monsters face, grown horrifically, screaming and howling as it lashed out at everything around. Nunez dodged the lashing branches nimbly, but even with his newfound powers Benny was anything but nimble. The tree caught him, and he learned the answer to a question.

He'd wondered, all fight, whether he was beating up a helpless scared animal. Vegetable. Whatever. If the creature actually had a will of its own, or if it was just following its instincts in the wrong environment, resulting in destruction. The old King Kong problem. Actually it was unethical wildlife handling practices that killed the beast.

Now he could safely say no. No, it was not just an animal. It had the capacity to hate. It had the capacity to seek revenge. And it had a sense of irony, because it sought revenge by lifting Benny up and beating him viciously against the ground, over and over and over, until he was being buried in the dirt. Then it ground into him, roots growing over and around his body.

As it buried him Benny got a few flashes. Agent Nunez...moving. Her movements did not look human. He could only make out shadows, but they looked like something else...and so much more natural for her. Also, whenever the branches got close to her she did something to them, and they shattered. Her not being a human didn't shock him too much, considering the day, but it did raise the question of what exactly she was.

All of which was secondary to the question of how he was going to survive this, because as he was learning the very hard way whatever strange power he'd found didn't make it so he didn't have to breath. He struggled and fought under the roots, even snapping them, but more and more grew in, burying him deeper until all light was lost and he began to black out. His vision went dark.

And in the dark, pictures. Words. Both. Hieroglyphs. Egyptian hieroglyphs. What the actual hell...

Read it! A voice screamed inside his mind.

He thought of telling the voice he couldn't read hieroglyphs, but honestly at this point it just seemed silly. Without any trouble, he read the inscription.

“He whom victory was forged as he came from the womb,”

Strength surged inside him, and he shrugged off the roots confining him and made his way to the surface.

“Whom valor was given while in the egg!”

He burst from the dirt into the chaos of the screaming, roaring plant creature, the eerie shadow of Agent Nunez darting barely seen between the angry branches and destroying them as it passed.

“But firm of heart as he treads the arena!”

Benny charged ahead through the branches, into the center mass of the creature, grabbing its enormous face by the top and bottom jaw.

“Godly king going forth like Montu on the victory day!”

And with that last defiant bellow, the lightning flowed from his fingers again. It formed a shape, the shape of an enormous bird, that burst forth until it towered over the town like a second sun, tearing every piece of the plant monster apart as it passed, reducing it to chunks of wood and falling sawdust. Benny collapsed on his ass, panting heavily, not even noticing his skin losing the golden hue it had grown before. Agent Nunez landed beside him, slipping her sunglasses back on and fixing her hair.

“I'll say it again, pretty good kid. I think you really got it this time.”

“Yeah uh...” Benny shook his head. “Do your eyes....did I just see them glowing green?”

“Not gonna answer that. Got any questions I can answer?”

“Yeah,” Benny said. “Who the hell is Montu?”

“No idea whatsoever,” she shrugged. “Could be a god.”

“A god,” Benny nodded. “Right. Yeah.”

“You owe me some answers,” she pointed at him.

“You owe me some,” he came back. “But uh, I just fought a giant tree monster and maybe talked to a god and I'm kinda supposed to be in the hospital right now so uhhhhhh I'm gonna pass out.”

He fell back against the dirt, unconscious.