(Thwack!)
Bi-Clops staggers around, blind and crackling electric arcs all over everything.
"I, the most optically gifted of all cyclopes, bested! If only Verman Vunderbar is similarly defeated, so that he has not the power to punish my failure."
Moving at the speed of...well, even faster than that, Swift picks up some rocks, moves past the various baddies and lets go of the rocks.
Then, she circles back, watching. Whoever is affected by being beaned by a super-fast moving rock...great. Whoever is not...she'll start planning something more sophisticated.
Zip! Zip! Rocks bounce off Botanifex' wooden hide. He grows a few more limbs.
Ding! Ding! Rocks clang off Bi-Clops' armor, having passed harmlessly through his electrical defenses, because rocks.
"Ah! I am already defeated!" Bi-Clops insists.
Meanwhile, Kanto has disarmed Verman Vunderbar and slashed the monocle from his eye without hurting either the eye or, what is even more amazing, the monocle.
"Ladies!" he declares. "The living tree is yet our enemy, but his master lies at my feet! If we can but overcome the might of Botanifex, then Armaghetto is ours!"
He grins.
"Not the most triumphant of prizes, I'll grant you. But, the first step to bigger and better things? Does the Flash want a share of the eventual spoils, as well as Thanagar's Hawk Police?"
Hawkgirl puts Bi-Clops in cuffs, so that he will be well and truly defeated.
ReplyDelete"I suppose you'll have to take that up with my mom and dad, and I'm happy to help you defeat the monocled menace here, but what happens when the real boss gets back?" She has taken up a defensive position vs. the tree with a sword.
Swift gives Bi-Clops an apologetic look, but...no harm done.
ReplyDeleteWhat is Botanifex doing...and is there anything around like cable or rope?
Swift says, "No spoils necessary. Justice is its own reward."
Kanto says, "Is it? I hadn't noticed. Of course, justice is a rare bird around here."
ReplyDeleteBotanifex has finished growing a dozen small limbs and three very big ones, and is looking around, hefting his sword.
No cable or rope, but there certainly are chains, wrapped around each crumbling pastel-cement tenement.
Botanifex studies each of his three opponents, then nods gravely and closes his eyes. Massive blooms of small blue flowers, hundreds of them, break out along his head and back, and down his front, like a beard.
Hawkgirl, who was dressed in safari gear, pulls a raw silk scarf over her mouth, nose and ears. Hopefully she can convince the others to do likewise.
DeleteYou know, there IS a distinctive floral scent ...
ReplyDeleteSwift will pick up a chain and try to wrap it around our tree menace at high speed.
ReplyDeleteIf one side of the chain is attached to something...all tye better.
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ReplyDeleteSwift will run out of the area each time she feels loke breathing.
ReplyDeleteKssshCHING!
ReplyDeleteOr whatever sound a chain makes going very fast. I'm sticking with kssshCHING!
Botanifex is chained up! He cannot escape. His floral scent is strong.
Thousands of insects, of different types, flock to his blooms. They also sting anyone in their path. Swift is in their path, but whoosh! then she's not.
Also, the tenement the chain was wrapped around starts sagging sideways, as though about to fall over.
Swift looks at the listing tenement. "That's not good!"
ReplyDeleteShe grabs Hawkgirl and moves her out of the way of the stinging insects. As she does so, she points at the tenement and asks, "Any suggestions?"
(Sorry about the extra comment...whatever that was. Tablet is always wonky.)
Hawkgirl will also try to grab Canto to get him out of the way. Because she's chivalrous. I guess. Is there anybody in that tenement?
DeleteSure there are, hundreds of bleak Hunger Dogs.
DeleteSo everyone, in turn, whisks everyone else out of the path of the insects. Because Kanto, you see, whirled his cloak to keep Hawkgirl safe from them while turning her vulnerable face away from them.
Thanagarians hunt with dogs sometimes, right? A dog is a medieval's best friend, I'm guessing. Well, a cat by rights should be. Plague and all. Hawkgirl has nothing against insects (unless she happened to bring bear spray along--because of the safari--and they don't make lion spray in America). But. dogs. She whistles for the bleak Hunger Dogs, to get them out of the soon-to-be-crashing tenement. For better or worse.
Delete