Twisted shadows danced across the walls as the predominant source of light now flickered behind Rex as he fought the plant-guard. Not that it was much of a fight. It moved too slowly, too stiffly. It clutched at his back but Rex banged it’s head into the desk once, twice, three times. Then he grabbed it by the mass of vines trailing down its chest and swung it around before releasing it into a cinderblock wall.

The creature smashed into the wall and collapsed to the floor. It was still moving, arms and legs raising and lowering, but for all that it seemed like a turtle flipped over on its back. For the single moment Rex watched it, it seemed to have no understanding of how to simply roll over and push itself up.

Whatever was done to these people, it wasn’t efficient.

Then the shadows quelled as another light appeared, one Rex knew all too well. “Hercules! By God, am I glad to see you!” he shouted. “There is evil in this place! Come, we need to…”

His voice trailed off as Hercules moved closer, revealing his own flowering growth. “Dios mio,” Rex breathed.

Then the other creature, the one with the bent neck, wrapped its hands around Rex’s throat.

----------------------

“All right!” Dr. Cama cried as the last of his preparations finished up. He had the materials he believed he needed. Everything was set. Now he just needed Hercules. “Come to me, my monster, come to me!” he called out, his fingers dancing in the air and sending his magic reaching across floors and rooms to reach Hercules and his parasite. “Return to me now!”

“I put a spell on you,” he sang under his breath.

>>>“Hercules! By God, am I glad to see you!” he shouted. “There is evil in this place! Come, we need to…”


At hearing his name, green eyes flashed to life for a second as the plant creature once again lost control of the impressive muscle bound host. It seems it hadn’t dug deep enough for the roots. The flesh was tough to dig through. There was so much magic however even a little bit helped speed the growth.

The green eyes flickered however and glossed over again. Hercules’s head turned towards the man who wielded the flames and he stared as if trying to recall the man.

’It wasn’t her who called to me. The flames were orange. Life giving, hers were... something else. I pause as I look to Prometheus, a titan by all rights and one that had sacrificed more for humanity than even I. He was once someone I held in such high regards however. I cannot disappoint my father.’

Hercules’s hand reached out ready to destroy until the call came. It stopped and the flower turned first then followed by Herc’s head and body. It was being summoned. Soon, it would break free, once there was enough magic the one who beckoned would also fall.

’I hear my father, Zeus call to me. He addressed me as his son. I heed the call.’

Seconds pass, a smile falls upon the demigod’s face as a vine digs into his cheek breaking flesh while tears of joy reflect the firelight.

Stiff, rigid fingers closed around Rex’s neck and he immediately tried to reach behind him to grab the wrists. His hands brushed against something silky and oddly smooth and with a stab of horror realized he was touching the petals of the flower. His mouth dropped open and his own hands dropped to the wrists that were clutching at him.

“Aaah!” he shouted before fingers choked off the sound. He quickly bent forward and pulled violently.

The creature swung like an upside-down pendulum and slammed bodily on the ground not far from his light. Against any normal person, this would’ve been enough to break the hold on Rex’s throat. These were abominations though.

My God! Rex thought as the fingers continued to tighten and the hands yanked him forward to the ground.

He fell face-first into the mass of vines on the thing’s chest. He could feel tiny leaves, bristles, and tendrils caressing him, as well as the cool feeling of the man beneath the plant.

Panic fought to seize Rex even as he felt his air supply closing. “Dios…” he gasped before that got choked off. The creature wasn’t fast or dextrous, but it was strong. It was like something else was controlling it like a puppet, not used to having independent limbs. It was, however, used to cracking rocks.

What was a throat compared to that?

’I pass the flames, the bright warmth reminding me I am alive making me feel whole again. Like I belong. It is a strange thing really. Simple. Pure. However my father beckons and you never make the king of Olympus waiting.

The flower attached to Hercules frilled it’s petals once and then guided the hosts body forward to the summons of the master. The one who calls. Leaving it’s brothers behind. They could surely take control of such a potential host. Even if it had magical ability. Which was the most fruitful soil to grow in.

The beds in hand, Hercules moved back to the operating room Dr. Cama had established as his new place of work. Setting each bed down the plant’s petals shifted slightly waiting for more orders. Not thinking about what came next for it’s brothers but of what seeds the could spore after the host died off. The one who summoned them wanted the body. Which was fine. They could have it. If they could spore.

The music matched Dr. Cama’s words as Hercules and the plant entered the room, “Because you’re mine, you better stop the things that you’re doing... Oh perfect!” he finished singing along as he looked at the scapple in hand. “I trust it was an easy find. So many beds, such...” he looked around seeing the disheveled room but still smiled, “History. Honestly this was a no brainer.” he said talking to the giant with tears and a smile. “Interesting, I’m dying to know what you are seeing right now... but alas. One of life's great mysteries. I’m more curious about these ruins and how you channel your powers. Something I intend to find out. My benefactors are paying me handsomely to figure it out and I’d hate to disappoint. Now... lay down on one of the beds please and... stop that annoying glow.”

Hercules’s didn’t move for a moment until one of the tendrils protruded from his chest. Only then did the behemoth of a host did what was requested.

Rex started panicking and gasping for as much air as he could get, but the fingers were crushing his throat. He grabbed and twisted at the hands but he couldn’t budge them. He didn’t have the leverage. He was losing air fast. The symptoms of asphyxiation coursed through his mind unbidden, his training coming to the surface.

His vision was already going. His heart was beating. He tried to call an inferno but he could barely open his mouth, but less get the words to quote a passage from the Bible. The fireball blazed in his vision and he had a vague thought about how it was soaking up the oxygen in the room.

Then two neurons connected.

The fireball was still there. It hadn’t burned out.

With a surge of focus, Rex yanked on the mental tether that connected the fireball to him, the one that continuously fed extranormal energy into the burning specter and that he use to move it around, albeit only near the floor.

Thank the Lord Rex was on the floor.

The fireball whizzed over and smashed into the flower on the side of the creature’s head. The hands immediately released Rex and every single vine and plant part began writhing and reeling in a torrid mess. Rex rolled off the creature and immediately and painfully gasped. Then he rolled again to get some more distance.

The body was convulsing and twitching and jerking, almost like a spider, as vines contracted and whipped around. Rex had the impression that the plant was screaming. The fireball didn’t ignite the plant, for better or worse, but Rex moved it around between him and the creature. The creature shied away from it even as Rex started to push himself to his feet.

The flower did as requested, the glowing died down to almost nothing. The room became darker, only the old florescent lights hummed giving the room a old and ancient yellow look. Hercules walked over to the bed and laid down on it. The vines now covered a good portion of the demi-god's torso. He felt nothing of it. His mind was somewhere else. In a long forgotten time.

’’It is summer, 1080 BC I am laying next to a woman, she is beautiful and fierce. She tells me she wants me and I her. Our hands touch in a moment that sparks the flames of wonder and passion I felt faded over the years secluded amongst my ‘peers’. I feel human again and all the feelings with it. I feel love.’

“Excellent.” the doctor nodded his head in approval looking to the other bed. He should have hoped to practice cutting open his prized subject by seeing what the other plants did to the host. He knew of the brain damage, the burrowing into veins and the nervous system. Seeing it was different than knowing it though. This was uncharted waters for the medical mystic and if he didn’t record all his findings how would his peers and predecessors know of the heights he climbed?

“I wonder where the others are... they should have been back by now.” there was a pause and then the tones of song came from the lips of the doctor once again as he put on some gloves and lowered his mask. “I ain’t gonna take none of your, fooling around.” he picked up a scapple and dug into the massive walking cadaver starting with the forearm.

When the flesh was cut any glowing in that area faded to nothing. Etched into the skin, a single ship captained by a young greek became lifeless. “I ain’t gonna take none of your putting me down. I put a spell on you.... becausssseee your miiiiiine!”

Rex coughed and hitched his breath immediately. His throat felt like it was on fire and breathing was agonizing. Still, he had to do it. He sucked in a painful bout of air and stumbled against the wall. The creature was still writhing and Rex kept the fire burning close to it, preferring to keep it in quiet convulsions rather than attempting to pick itself up and attack again.

Like the other creature was doing.

Alien intelligence had adapted to a bipedal form and it had learned how to orient itself and regain balance. The abomination Rex had slammed into the wall was back on ungainly feet and Rex gasped in pain as it took a halting, clumsy step toward him. Petals had fallen from the flower and a couple of vines hung limply, as did an arm, but it kept coming.

Rex sized up the situation. The hallway seemed both short and wide at the same time. He was moving slower, but so was the creature.

He slammed it into the wall again. Then he did it again. When it fell, he kicked the plant-side of the creature’s head and watched it stop moving.

The other creature’s contortions were slowly down. Its neck rolled around on the floor in a sickening fashion.

There was no time for triage though. The immediate threat was down. The larger threat?

Hercules was still in the building.

“Lord, lead me to my friend.”

The skin was held up to the light and studied for a moment. Dr. Cama had removed the flesh of the Greek god before. It was relatively easy once you got him under control. Last time it was chains, this way was far more effective however, the plant that was growing into the behemoth was also putting a time crunch on it so he didn’t get as much time to study the etching as he’d like.

The flower trilled slightly and closed it’s petals momentarily when it felt the death of the others. It seems that potential host was enough to dispatch them. “Oh hush! Can’t you see I’m discovering ancient wisdom?” Dr. Cama growled as he looked at a single ruin from the flesh he just removed. It was one he had never seen before which was saying a lot. The man had studied Greek and Roman texts when he discovered what he had seen.

A god among mortals. One who could channel power unlike anyone else in this time. It was... remarkable and nothing would stop him from learning more.

The forearm now limp and bloodied laid still at the giants side, he was dying.

’All of my searching for my father, my history the search for who and what I am... all of it means nothing now that I had found her. It is spring 1078 BC and I am overjoyed. Never had I felt this surge of pride and meaning. I have saved thousands before and dispatched more. All of it means nothing as the young infant still fresh from his mother grips my hand so tightly I feel pain. This is my son. I am a father.’

On the table the once powerful now dying Greek hero’s finger twitches by an invisible force as more tears flow from the man’s glossed over eyes.

The sense of warmth surrounded Rex as he stopped in front of a grimy door labeled “Operating Room.” His lip curled in disgust. Then his brow furrowed. He hadn’t been imagining things, had he?

“Did I not see Hercules, infested with one of those flowers?”

A moment later, he felt a surety that he had indeed seen that. He didn’t know what that meant, although he knew in his gut that it wasn’t good, especially if he was going to end up like those other people.

“This is why I’m here,” he said. He gently tried the handle of the door. It was unlocked. Interesting. As quietly as he could, he twisted the knob and opened the door half an inch.

Then he leaned back and kicked the door in, a loud BAM echoing through the halls.

A cloud of dust erupted and lit up in the firelight of the hovering orb in front of his knee, a twisted parallel to the bright lights coming from the operating room. Rex didn’t dawdle, looking at the sights however. He had a mission to do.

Rex burst into the room and immediately caught sight of that man holding up…skin. Skin with some of Hercules’s tattoos. “Get away from him!” Rex snarled, firelight glowing in his eyes.

Silent tears streak down Hercules’s face as he laid on the gurney his smile, frozen in memories of centuries long ago. Oblivious to what was happening around him. The plant trilled excitedly knowing it was almost done with the host. It took longer than usual but it was such a burly one. Soon they’d both die and the air around them would be filled with spores. Ones that were light and would carry on the wind searching for new hosts.

The door kicked open and the plant turned slowly in the direction of the commotion and frilled it’s petals. If it could attack it would. However it wasn’t directed to do so. “Hmmmm?” the doctor raised his eyebrows almost unfazed by the command and commotion. He was a man who could get lost in his work. “Why would I do that?” he asked curiously holding the skin up to the light and stepping a little to place the skin gently on another table one that would soon be filled with the god’s exploits.

Only after did he set it down he gave Rex the attention the man had earned. “Oh! You! How dare you break into my operating room! Escort our guest out... you know what! They both ruined my experiments last time!” The doctor said more than miffed, “All that research! My spell book! Gone to the flames. I haven’t forgotten you. I figured I’d track you down after I finished up with him.” he thumbed towards Hercules who was smiling on the table his forearm covered in blood.

“I have decided you can collect that other host as well.” he said to the plant who turned toward Rex and flexed it’s petals towards the man. Only then did Hercules stir, his glossed eyes staring eerily into the past while the smile of overwhelming pride on his face.

With a bloodied outstretched hand Hercules staggered forward towards the man he called friend.

It was a macabre sight, seeing a partially flayed Hercules exposed on a table, a plant growing in his head. Tendrils and leaves shuddered in the dead, dusty air. Rex’s lip unconsciously curled up a hint in revulsion.

The feeling grew as Dr. Cama continued working, as nonchalantly as could be, before finally commanding Hercules to attack Rex. Rex took a single step back, leaving the fireball burning at knee height between him and the now lumbering Hercules. Rex knew the man’s power and he believed he had a benchmark of the power these plants could bring to bear. Unlike those poor souls in the hallway, Hercules did not look like he was one step from the grave already. The only salvation Rex could see was the lack of awareness in Hercules' eyes.

Good. That meant he wasn’t in control of his actions.

Rex lobbed the hovering fireball up toward Hercules’s plant. The fire burst into a quick flash of flame and then vanished before it could touch anything, having exceeded the boundaries of Rex’s spell. The firefighter wasn’t concerned - he didn’t need it anymore.

Rex was already ducking around Hercules and lunging at the mad doctor. Hercules was normally quick, but Rex was betting his life that controlling him through the grapevine and a non-bipedal plant would leave Hercules every bit as awkward and slow as the guards Rex had already faced.

The parasite controlling Hercules swiped one hand then another towards Rex, both of which missed. It was aggravating to move so slow. Even in weaker hosts the plants moved slow but the Doctor thought the bumbling oaf would at least be able to move faster. Was it because of the damage the creature did to the nervous system? It burrowed into it ,but he had thought it would have had more control in motor functions.

“Oh no.” the doctor said holding a rusted and bloodied knife towards the man that was about to charge him. The doctor was precise years of medical malpractice. He could make short work of anyone should he choose. It was how his career got started.

A loud sigh, “Keep in mind if I die, no one would be able to control the thing in your friend. I’m the only thinking keeping that plant from fully destroying the nervous system. It’s quite fascinating really.” the doctor took a step back so he could put the table of flayed flesh between them. Knife still outstretched, “Hercules, I’m in danger. Be a good ‘god’ and protect me.”

The words were heard, the call for help activated another memory and the god’s happy smile faded into a look of disappointment. His eyes flashed briefly from blurred to bright green and the creature on his back trilled in irritation as suddenly the host it was inhabiting started to heal. Vines throughout his body stopped burrowing as if they grew to concrete.

’It is 400 BC. Today is the first time I ever had to deal with a former master tracking me down and trying to kill my current master. I have chosen poorly in the mortal I once called master. He was from a different time. Cruel and jealous. I thought he would have changed over the years but I was wrong. Not every mortal should be forgiven. I openly weep at the thought of what I must do. Someone I once loved...’

A glowing hand still bloodied smacked the gurney Hercules was once laying on towards the man who evaded him now that the Doctor stepped back.

“It seems there is still a little of him left in there. Otherwise he wouldn’t be able to channel his power the way he still is. In fact I’m surprised it has taken this long for the plant not to devour him completely. Interesting indeed.” the doctor said still wielding the knife even though he was out of reach from Rex. Such a shame he didn’t have more time to fully explore this experiment.

Rex arrested his forward momentum when he saw the knife. Very quickly, Hercules was brought around and now Rex faced two opponents. It seemed the doctor was not unprepared for such an encounter. Rex was cut off from the door and he was unarmed.

“Nobody said anything about killing you,” Rex said to Cama. “Even if it is just penance for your actions.” Rex stared at the man and his eyes flicked to the knife and then Hercules. Firelight still glinted in his eyes as he focused on the plant. A tickling of suspicion crossed his mind as he now saw it fully in the light and in the presence of Dr. Cama. He frowned and concentrated.

“Father, is this Cama’s work?” he whispered, seemingly to nobody.

Yes.

It wasn’t a word, per se, that he heard. It was more of a feeling. It was enough, though.

Confirmation resounded in Rex’s mind. He had seen this before, if not in person than in a book. Cama’s book of mad science and sorcery. Rex had perused it from time to time, always saying each time would be his last, but constantly coming back to it. Parts of it made sense. The anatomy drawings, the scientific principles it was founded upon, but then it would start going awry in ways that mostly made no sense at all to Rex. That was the part where the magic began.

Amidst the many machinations, there were sections on plantforms and hortiurgy, the magic of plant-shaping. What Cama had made looked somewhat like the drawings of a person infested with Gravevine.

It also seemed Cama did not have full knowledge of his own creation.

“Hercules is tough,” Rex said. “You are not.” He grabbed the gurney that was thrust lengthwise toward him and slipped around it just enough to grab the handles of one end, the other end aimed right at the dark doctor. Then Rex dug his heels into the floor and shoved the gurney violently at Cama’s midsection.

Oh how the doctor wished he had more time to study the effects of his creation, or summon. The doctor wasn’t sure what this thing was at this point. Did he dream it? All he knew was the ideas were in his head at one point and a basic understanding of it was imparted on him. The rest of the knowledge escaped him. It was something he wished to fully explore at a later date. One where the man before him, the one who had ruined so many experiments before lay next to Hercules on a gurney.

One that was launched into the Doctor. Unprepared for the attack the knife laid flat on the table along with his hands as the doctor caught the bed and tried to slow it. It knocked the wind out of him. Glaring at the fire wielder he looked to Hercules who seemed to stop at his name. The color green flickered into existence once again.

The giant stopped moving as if trying to recall something. That should have been impossible at this point the damage the plant did to the body should have prevented him from recognizing anyone or anything. The other subjects were dead within minutes. Hercules had been holding out for hours. The doctor caught his breath and pushed the bed back towards his attacker.

“Hercules! I command you stop this man! Save me!” he did his best to sound frantic before scowling at Rex again. Hercules expression turned towards Rex and he charged.

Rex released the gurney as soon as he felt it sink satisfyingly into the doctor’s stomach, a sudden expulsion of air being music to his ears. By the time the bed was shoved back in his direction, Rex was moving. He crossed the short distance to the doctor, yanked the doctor forward while sliding behind him and pulled him into a chokehold.

Rex swiveled, so the doctor and the gurney were between him and Hercules, now that Rex had gotten out of the brawny man’s way.

“Back off, Hercules,” Rex said as he started to squeeze Cama’s throat between his bicep and forearm. He fully expected nothing to happen, but he had to make the warning anyway.

Taking his own advice, Rex backed up a few steps, taking Cama with him, in order to keep Cama out of the way of any other sharp items. “Okay, Cama, it’s time to shut all this down. Turn off the Gravevine,” he barked into the man’s ear.