He sat cross-legged near the gate. It was the first time in a long time that he'd chosen to actually practice using his powers. The incident in the park was the first time in a long time that his powers had gotten away from him. Hence, the practicing. And away from people so that in case anything did go wrong...

“Well I was the one they grabbed last time, anyway,” he mumbled. But it was still a good idea to steer clear of people when he thought that he might lose control. “Who'da thought that you guys could be dangerous?” he murmured to the bush that he was planning to work with.

It shook slightly in response.

Kai sighed. Bushes weren't supposed to shake when you walked by them or spoke to them. Not unless you actually touched them. He was used to plants wanting to greet him or being more active when he was around, but not this much. Not without his instigation or knowledge. Or even more intimidating, against his wishes.

The bruises on his ribs twinged as a reminder that the last time they'd moved on their own, they did more than rustle.

He clenched his jaw. That wasn't going to happen today. Today he'd be extra polite to the plants. He wouldn't order them around, but he also wouldn't let his powers get away from him and make them extra... well... unplantlike. Kai closed his eyes. The bush waved slightly. Not too bad.

Unbeknownst to him, however, the poison ivy plants behind the bush were moving. More than slightly. And he wasn't the only one out there...

“I am going to kill him.”

Mister Swift was going to get it. Not only did he take away Jude’s cell phone (shiny new cell phone!) during Economics, he put it outside. Under the ground. And told Jude that if he ever brought his shiny new cell phone around during class again he would bury it a whole lot deeper next time. Worst of all, Papa Swift wouldn’t tell him where he had hidden his phone.

It was new! How could Papa Swift do this to his beautiful new phone? He’d only just convinced Ghost that he needed one! How was he supposed to convince her that he needed another one so soon?

Jude lamented to himself as he dug at some vines that he had noticed had loose dirt near the roots. Things could NOT get worse.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he looked behind him. Ah. a vine had just fallen loose from climbing the wall. It sort of sounded like someone was up there, but it wan’t unusual for the Mansion kids to be on top of things they shouldn’t. He brushed the vine off and turned back to the dirt in front of him... and more vines. Had those been there before? He cleared them away with a quick swat. They swatted back.

“Not funny plantmaker!” Jude hopped up and more vines fell toward his shoulders. With the plant behaving so oddly it had to be a mutant behind this. He flung his arms around his head and only got tangled worse. “Hey! Hey!” He struggled to put his arms down, but he never felt out of control of the situation. Not until he felt something close around his ankles. “HEY!”

Yes. Eleven year old Jude Coilin Csendes was hauled up by the ankle by a vine. It had been a battle of strength and sadly, he lost.

Sveta was sent to pick Jude up from school, and she felt all kinds of important and responsible.
All right, so maybe Maya and Sebastian didn't have time. But still, they sent her, without a babysitter. That was good. That was a start.
She liked Jude. Jude was smart, and although he was still very much a kid, inside and out, he was less annoying than other kids. And even though he was a human (for now) he seemed to understand exactly how she felt, with her mutation. Jude was all right.

Sveta checked in, and walked up to the Mansion building; school was over, ecept for evening classes, and she could see students leaving, some of them going home, others going outside to play or walk. She looked around for Jude; he was nowhere to be seen. She waited; she walked around, feeling a bit of nostalgia. Still no Jude. She went inside and looked around; definitely no Jude. She came back outside; she heard a cry.
Definitely Jude.

She ran as fast as she could; as she rounded the corner of the building, she could see Jude being yanked into the air by a bunch of vines. She stepped back; maybe the vines were not part of the mutant who was moving them, but that didn't mean it would have been a good idea to touch them. Last thing she wanted was to accidentaly give them a boost.
Taking another step back, she glared at the vines.

"Let him go!!!" she yelled, half scared and half pissed. That didn't come out righ. "... put him down!!!"

It was going relatively well. Until the screaming started. And the yelling. The three branches that he was focusing on were happily making circles. In opposite directions. He was very proud of his concentration skills and his vine-eye coordination. Until the screaming.

The branches started circling wildly, but that was the least of his problems.

Kai stood up, trying to figure out where all the noise was coming from. Where'd that lady come from? And who is the flying bush...?

For indeed, there was a figure suspended in the air, covered by vines. Some of those vines and tendrils were from the bush the he was working with but there was also another kind. He was pretty certain that the other kind was poison ivy. Pretty certain for Kai on what kind of plant a plant was... well he was pretty much an expert on plants.

Apparently his concentration exercises weren't doing a whole lot for him because he was completely scatter brained at the moment. So the only logical question that he could ask was “What are you doing up there?” even as more and more vines snaked around him.

Oh of course Svetty had to show up when his shirt was falling down... which really meant up since he was upside down. Jude reached out to Svetlana with one hand and with his other smoothed his shirt up (which was really down) to cover any exposed tummy.

"I can take care of zis, Svetty! Don't worry!" It was time to show his mettle and strangle this vine. He shoved the end of his shirt in his pants to free his hands and went about crushing or breaking vines as much as he could reach. Of course vine did not like being crushed or broken. More and more vines piled on him like football players tackling someone to the turf.

> “What are you doing up there?”

Jude stopped fighting and tried to twist himself to see behind. Which didn't work so well considering his numerous restraints. So... an unknown assailant too cowardly to face him like a man?

"En guarde you nave! Fight me face to face if you dare! Dog! Coward! Stop using your dirty vines and fight with honor!" So what if a musketeer had said it first, Jude meant it too. And his accent just completed the picture of a tiny musketeer struggling (upside-down) in the wilderness.

>>“What are you doing up there?”

So there was indeed someone behind the vines. Sveta was not surprised. Whoever it was, he apparently had a thing for stupid questions.

"Vat do you think he does? He fights for his life. Idiot." she fumed, trying to find a way around the vines to look at the guy.

>>"I can take care of zis, Svetty! Don't worry! En guarde you nave! Fight me face to face if you dare! Dog! Coward! Stop using your dirty vines and fight with honor!"

"Oh, no, no fighting." Sveta shook her head, hands on her hips "Not when I am here. Just... put Jude down. Nobody fight nobody." she looked up at the boy struggling against the vines "Jude did you do something?"

He'd better not. Maya would not be pleased to learn something got messed up the very first time Sveta was trusted with bringing Jude home form school. Nobody would want that.

>>"En guarde you nave! Fight me face to face if you dare! Dog! Coward! Stop using your dirty vines and fight with honor!"

A challenge like that could be taken one of two ways. Either Kai could be annoyed and offended... or he could slip into a British accent and play the part. "I accept your challenge-" he started to announce, but he had barely gotten a word out when the other lady continued to fume and rant.

Kai peered up at the situation. "Well... You see, there is a slight problem with the whole 'put him down thing'... I'm not doing that. At least, I don't think I am. They seem to be doing that on their own..." His eyes roved, determined to look anywhere but at the adult in charge who was most probably going to get him in trouble. Or yell at him some more. For some reason when people of authority did that, he got really embarrassed and ashamed. Even if he hadn't done anything wrong. Though in this case, he was pretty sure that he had, so Kai mumbled and averted his eyes and grasped frantically about in his mind for a way to make things right.

Maybe if I can just regain control. He screwed up his eyes with effort, but couldn't even hear the plant. Any plant. ...Don't panic, don't panic. The crazy rogue plant just seems to have stolen your powers. No biggie... PANICKING!

Kai set his jaw. If he had to, he would pry those vines off the poor boy, he would get him free! He placed a hand on the towering vine mass, feeling very much like he was re-enacting a scene from Jack and the Bean Stalk. Then he tugged, but found that he was travelling towards the plant rather than away. "Ah! I'm being sucked in!!"

No fighting? NO FIGHTING? "How can you say no fighting? I am already in zis! Stand aside, Svetty. I don't want you hurt."

He pulled a few of the pointiest leaves and threw them like ninja stars at the boy as he approached. And then he grabbed a vine and... and whoah... he was getting dizzy being upside down.

No. He would not be defeated! The vine in his hand was somehow already wrapped around the boy. Ha! He was better at this than he thought. Jude pulled the vine with all his might to pull the boy up to his level.

"If I knock your block off, then I bet it stop."

He got his other arm free and ready to punch Kai like a punching bag.

Things were graduating from bad to worse. Both kids were tangled up now, and beside fighting the vines and plants, they were also trying to fight each other. Sveta ran her fingers through her hair and shook her head desperately.

"Both of you, stop it!" she yelled "You can fight all dat you want when you are down here. Just... try to get out of the plants first, okay?"

>>"Well... You see, there is a slight problem with the whole 'put him down thing'... I'm not doing that. At least, I don't think I am. They seem to be doing that on their own..."

That was what the stranger told her a few moments before. Now, she might have misunderstood, but there was a slight chance in there that he was capable of cintrolling plants like that.

"Hey, you!" she called out, stepping closer "Can you control them? Or, could you if you were strong enough?" she asked hurriedly "Is dat your power?"

Kai snorted. "I'm not fighting..." But he could see the plant feeding off of his frustration and acting out what he imagined in his head was an epic battle between boy and plant-boy. And plant-boy was totally winning!

Except that was bad. Because he didn't want to fight this poor innocent kid.

"If I were... yeah I can usually control them- Wait how did you know that?" Kai asked. Then he felt stupid because the answer was right in front of them. "I mean, I'm kind of drained right now because I've been practicing, but normally they... I can talk to the plants and they usually listen to what I ask them. But... but I can't..."

Please, please, set him down? Gently? He pleaded. Then the vines lurched forward, as though anxious to show him their exciting prize. So now the boy was suspending inches from his face.

The plants wiggled so Jude stubbornly waggled. A fat lot of good it did him though because when vine boy screwed up his eyes, Jude went swinging toward him as if the plant wanted to bludgeon its own commanding mutant.

Well! There was only one thing to be done.

Jude closed his eyes and held his breath and… came to a stop?

When he opened his eyes again, plant boy was just as surprised as him. He didn't seem to know exactly what was going on, but Jude knew juuuuust how to stop the plants from misbehaving.

WHACK

Jude's first punch missed and he hit his hand against a rather large five-pointed leaf. He tried again!

>>"If I were... yeah I can usually control them- Wait how did you know that? I mean, I'm kind of drained right now because I've been practicing, but normally they... I can talk to the plants and they usually listen to what I ask them. But... but I can't..."

Juda was still hanging upside down, putting up a heroic fight, and the guy with the plants really did have the ability to control them. He just didn't have the juice. If there was ever a problem in the world Sveta could deal with, it was exactly that.

"Please don't freak out." she told him as she stepped closer "Get Jude out of dere."

With that, she touched her gloved hand to his shoulder, and then pulled it back. The contact lasted for a mere second or two; it was just a try. If it didn't work - it would not last long. If it did - she could do it again.

"Be careful, Jude" she called out to the boy. He was her responsibility now, after all.