Chương 67: Rebel

Christian and Jairo were informed over their earpieces of a strange tree appearing out of nowhere in town, courtesy of direct contact from the police department. One of the few hangovers of what little curried favor they had given the chief and their boss' tenuous relationship. Frankly, with how mundane it was of an obvious ADU plot, they were thankful. A bit less excitement went a long way. Getting their costumes on was, at this point, a simple formula. No different than getting dressed in the morning.

Though most people don't start their mornings picking which weapons they're going to carry to the job site. They met in the tunnels leading to their exit, Flowstate shouldering what appeared to be a hatchet over his shoulder. Teiú cocked his helmeted head at this.

"Thought you used like... Japanese weapons. Ninja and samurai stuff." Flowstate glanced at his axe, before nodding.

"I do."

"But that's an axe. Ninjas don't use axes."

"Samurai do! This is called a fuetsu," he explained as he held up the axe, turning it in his hand.

"It's a lot more triangular than you see in a Western axe, since they were repurposed carpentry equipment. That wide, flat end was normally meant for hammering wooden pegs, but it's pretty good as a blunt weapon."

"You're not worried about hurting a guy too much with it?" The redhead shook his head as he started walking down the tunnel towards the police station.

"Not at all. I never hit any harder than I need to, and I'd only be using the blunt side for people. The axe is just for clearing Wyrdwood bark, to be honest. And there's no guarantee it'll work, but I need to at least try for it." The other, more reptilian hero hummed in thought as he followed after the leader of the presently-fractured team. It sounded almost like boiling water whenever he did that. Especially with the helmet, which gave him teapot-like acoustics.

"I mean that makes sense. But most of your stuff is like... ninja weapons. There's not much that'd really be of use anyway, would there?"

"That's where you're not entirely right!" Flowstate called out. With a flick of his arm, a wooden rod shot out of his sleeve, bearing a prominent handle sticking out of the side. He gripped onto the handle as he brandished the weapon, revealing the underside and the tip to be covered in metal.

"I requested some simple upgrades for my heavier weapons. So I've got some Dumb Metal on my tonfas," he explained before sweeping it back into his sleeve. How it stayed in that sleeve appeared to be a well-guarded secret by the hero.

"On top of that, I've also got new nunchaku and a quick-and-dirty surujin made from entirely Dumb Metal."

"What's a surujin?" Flowstate reached into the labels of his orange shirt, yanking out a metal ball connected to a long length of chain. The length continued back into his clothes.

"There's another metal ball at the end. Another name for it is the meteor hammer, but that's the Chinese version. Kobudo uses Japanese weapons."

"What's the difference?" Teiú seemed unimpressed, though the lack of face made any assertions one way or another rather impossible. Flowstate's lips pursed, his eyes unviewable behind the goggles attached to his headwear.

"... The country, I guess." The two of them shrugged to each other.

"It's honestly just because... I can't exactly fight the ADU guys who use wood stuff. You and Hercules can just break through it, and Spectroma can burn it, but I'm still a regular Joe!" Teiú just stared at him for a few seconds, shaking his head.

"I wouldn't be putting myself down like that, man. You fought off a supervillain with super strength already with that fuzzy air guy." The redhead nodded, sighing.

"Yeah, I guess. A lot of it was just me getting knocked around. I kind of wish I was actually stronger. Some people get all the luck."

"I mean getting to open the pickle jars in one turn is lucky but you can't let that really get to you! You're a good leader, you figure out how to do stuff all the time." From there, they far more mundane conversation until finally arriving at the police station. When they poked their heads out, they saw a police car was already waiting nearby. The officer called them over, before a puzzled face was pointed at Flowstate.

"... You're going to have to not brandish that around civilians, you know that, right?" Flowstate glanced at the axe, before looking a bit sheepish and slipping it into the belt of his attire, making sure the axehead was tucked in.

"Didn't think of that. I just wanted to be ready for any tree issues." The cop's puzzled face turned into a frown.

"We're going to have the Virginia Department of Forestry handle that, since we need to identify its species and make sure we're legally allowed to even take it down." Teiú cocked his head.

"That sounds like the easiest thing in the world, though. It's clearly ADU, why not just cut it down?"

"We can't be doing things that way," the police officer began to explain as he opened the doors to the cruiser to let the two heroes in before he got into the driver's seat.

"You know how many people would be using that as an excuse to get all sorts of trees cut down? Worst case if we do it the legal way, it goes up to VDACS and they relocate it."

"That sounds super dangerous," Teiú called out afterwards.

"If it's from the ADU that's just moving the bomb instead of disarming it!" As the car purred to life, they began driving off to the location.

"I can't tell you what happens after it gets moved. I get twenty three bucks an hour. The desk jockey stuff is way over my paygrade. I just know about the VDACS stuff because I've had to argue with old people about their neighbors' trees before." A hum came from Teiú, sounding like someone poured marbles into molasses.

"Well, okay I guess." The police officer's eyebrows raised.

"Huh. Just like that? Man, you guys are a lot less confrontational than your buddy."

"Buddy?"

"Yeah, uh, Hercules. I tried small talk with him and he was like 'Mask stays on' when I offered him water. Lucked out that the chief told me to get out of there." Flowstate cocked his head.

"When did that happen?"

"Oh uh, he had to get taken in for questioning because he forgot his SIN. He not tell you that?" This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Oh-!" the hero stammered, nodding.

"Oh right, yeah. Completely forgot. So much has happened in such a short time. That was over the convenience store thing, right?" The officer nodded.

"Yeah. Took down a bunch of perps by himself, no kills. Took a bullet for the cashier, even. Multiple." Teiú and Flowstate exchanged a glance over the mention of no kills, before Teiú spoke up at probably the wrong time.

"Yeah, he's honestly really good at his job! The new stuff is like.. not really him," he stated quite impressively, given how much of his foot was in his mouth with that.

"Oh, the raid thing. I'm gonna be honest, I'm on Team Herc. The tree guys are a cult, and we had no missing persons cases in the entire county! We reach out to Chesapeake and Richmond constantly and none of them reported any missing persons they didn't already resolve. Anyone in there probably signed on for it. Not very popular for that opinion, but oh well." Flowstate's lips pursed.

"Not popular?"

"I..." the police officer sigh.

"I probably shouldn't tell you." His hand slid across the dashboard, pressing a button on it.

"Oh no, oh no! I slipped and hit the dashcam reset button. They're not gonna have footage for the next like eight minutes because this thing is a piece of crap!" The two heroes just stared at the police officer.

"Well, if I won't be on record for it... I'll give a bit of inside baseball. Most of the cops don't really like you guys. I don't think it's personal, but you're a big obstacle for procedure. For example, let's say we've got an obvious aggressive menacing charge from some guy making threats. If you two get involved, even legally, it bungles up all the paperwork. Most of us, me included, don't really like filling out the papers."

"It's not really our fault that you guys need to do your jobs like that," Teiú added, prompting a tap on the shoulder from Flowstate.

"Well, I definitely appreciate the consideration there. But uh, that tension was already there. And with Hercules' situation, it's seen less like a weird deputization and more like some sort of judge-jury-executioner problem we don't need right now. We're in good fortune the Charlottesville PD isn't corrupt thanks to Chief Tancred yanking all the greaseballs out, but that doesn't mean cops aren't gonna look out for cops."

"But we're not trying to be judge, jury, and executioner," Flowstate argued.

"What happened was an accident, anyone with eyes can figure that out."

"I agree. I argue that with them all the time about it. But that doesn't suddenly make them like having their authority undermined by killers. All I can say is don't bring up your buddy at the scene and try to listen to the sergeant. It might undo some tensions if you can prove you guys are more than happy to cooperate with us. We're not equipped for superterrorists and could really use that help."

"But the police department won't admit it?" asked Flowstate.

"You're more likely to get how much they spend on doughnuts out of them," he explained with a morbid chuckle. Arriving on the scene, the group clambered out of the vehicle. At either end of the road were more patrol cars cordoning off the road, as multiple police officers engaged in the classic taxpayer-funded method of problem-solving by putting their hands on their hips and staring at the large tree broken out of the concrete. One of the officers, a portly one, saw the three's arrival and called out.

"Bennett, I get you were interested in the circus bein' in town, but you didn't need to bring the clowns!" he yelled, prompting him and a few other officers to chuckle. The police officer, now verified as being named Bennett, shot back immediately.

"Well unlike you welfare queens, these guys have superpowers. If there's any signs of the ecoterrorists here, I'd rather they be available than not."

"There is a sign, ignoramus." The obese police officer gestured to the tree. Bennett shook his head.

"No, genius, that's not considered anything until some sort of evidence corroborating the two is made." The two policemen began arguing over pointless minutiae related to procedures, as the Dojo Stormers took the opportunity to wander over to the tree proper. It was thick, about as wide as it was tall. One could likely live inside it as a small shack if they were truly out of their minds. Feeling along the bark, Flowstate spoke up.

"Hey, Teiú. You okay with turning your eyes on for a second?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Just... I dunno. Call it a hunch." There was no real sound or signal of Teiú changing to his more monstrous form until you heard his voice, where it sounded like the inside of a wasp's nest when fully given into the transformation.

"That's weird. The entire thing is lit up."

"Do trees not do that normally?"

"They kinda like... have a bit of like an outline I guess? It's really dim normally. This one is lit up almost like the guy we fought. Just solid energy all throughout." Flowstate took a step closer.

"That... that means it's-" The bark cracked and scrunched as suddenly a knot bubbled out of it. And from that knot, more, smaller knots. Each one contorted the shape of the initial protrusion, until it took the form of a human face, about the size of a soccer ball. Then, it spoke.

"I was beginning to think your ilk would not arrive." Taking a moment to utter a quiet prayer to himself, either out of shock or fear — Flowstate wasn't sure himself — the hero answered.

"You were waiting for us?"

"Yes. I was given the role of serving as the first warning to the costumed menagerie who raided one of the bases of operation our group used, and greatly wounded Brother Gleditsia."

"And what warning is that?"

"Is it not apparent? None of you knew this tree would appear here until it was already erupted from the ground. There are all sorts of utility systems underground. Electric cabling for hospitals, gas lines. And then there's the fact we could simply sprout these trees in your homes. We can be anywhere." Flowstate shook his head.

"I'm not really impressed by that warning. Are you stuck in this tree?"

"I've been bonded to this Wyrdwood directly. There is no 'stuck.' I am part of it. The only way to remove me will take my life." The redhead pursed his lips.

"I kind of have bad news for you there. They're planning on just... digging you out and relocating you elsewhere. We're not going to be making martyrs out of people." The literally wooden face remained expressionless.

"If that is the choice they wish to make, though I suppose I could make it clear that is not a wise idea. You never know what these trees could harbor." More crackling and breaking of wood as a humanoid mass of wood lunged out towards Flowstate from his side. Routine and training with his weapons had him perfectly set for this, as he already had his meteor hammer pulled from his outfit in one swift motion.

Coiling the chains around the pouncing creature, the redhead quickly ducked down and leaned forward, causing the Wyrdwooden humanoid to slam head-first into the concrete.

"Teiú!" No further words needed to be said as the monstrous hero lept over Flowstate's head, contorting his body around and thrusting a fist straight down onto the now-upside-down Wyrdwood figure. With a KRAK the form split in half, sending woodchips and dew flying everywhere. Thankfully, no blood to be seen. The two stood up, seeing the police officers gawking at them. While walkie-talkies and radios began buzzing to alert the appropriate authorities, Flowstate whispered over to Teiú.

"How did you know that wasn't going to kill someone?"

"Didn't have the same kind of energy people do. Was an outline like a tree's supposed to have when I look at it like this," he croaked out, already back to his human state.

"That's... honestly good news. Means we might be able to confirm who we can and can't hurt easily. We gotta get this over to Sam." Teiú held a fist up to Flowstate.

"Dojo Stormers did it again."

"Dojo Stormers." The fist-bump was returned, letting the sensation hide the sickening swell in their stomachs over what was just unveiled to them. Internally, both of them were wishing the whole team were back together for this.