Chapter Six

Mordecai Vs. The Plant Men

Benson POV

I stood before Drake. I had planned to confront Mordecai and kill him. I failed, and now, Drake had a new plan. I would fight Mordecai again, but only if he survived the trials Drake and I were going to put before him And I had some training of my own to do.

Drake put a few brown, brittle, and earthy smelling balls in my hands, about the size of the dollar store variety bouncy ball.

"Take these to the tallest building in the city," said Drake, "crush them into a fine powder. Blow them into the air. I will do the rest." I nodded.

I walked to the base of the huge tower. I went into the elevator, and hit the button for the highest floor. Despite the fact that only authorized personnel were allowed on this floor, I strolled along casually.

"Hey," said a voice, as a hand grabbed my shoulder, "you're not allowed up here." I grabbed the man's arm, and pulled on it so hard that he flew over me and slammed on the ground, back first, the wind getting knocked out of him. I finished him by stomping on his neck, thus snapping it in two. I had no other opposition on my way to the roof. When I arrived, I took the balls Drake had given me and crushed them, as I had been instructed. When I opened my hand, the powder looked like cocoa mix. I blew the powder from my hand.

"Well done," said a voice; Drake, "I will take it from here. Now sit tight, and watch the magic." The powder flew like a swarm of insects to various parts of the city. The Park, the school, a few restaurants, and even a few hotels. What happened next was the sound of cracking cement, and breaking soil. Many figures rose from the ground. They looked like normal people dressed like trees. But this wasn't the case. They were amazingly strong, and could easily throw a car into the next county. People veered their cars trying to get around them, only to be launched into the building next to them.

Mordecai POV

I was at home, watching TV, when suddenly, my spine began to tingle. I flipped over to the news, and found that the city was under attack. Something told me Benson had something to do with this...Was he trying to draw me out again? That didn't matter. Innocent people would be hurt if I didn't rise to the occasion. I ran to my motorcycle, and floored it to the city.

When I arrived, I saw a woman cornered by a plant man. I took my sword and chopped him in half.

"Thank you," said the woman, before fleeing to a safe area. But the victory was short lived, as the halves of the plant man grew into whole, and now there were two plant men on my case.

"Swordplay isn't going to work," I mused, "so how about some fisticuffs?" I released my sword, allowing it to dissolve until I needed it again, and threw an uppercut into one of the monsters. It connected, but he merely brushed it off, as though my attack was like that of a child to him. He retaliated with a punch to the chest, and I flew through a brick wall behind me. I had one option left. I drew the gun that I used to beat Benson. Diving from the room I was in, I opened fire on the plant men that launched me like that. They disintegrated into gold powder, and blew away into the wind.

"Aha," I said, and began blasting the plant men as I ran down the street. Their numbers were reducing faster than you could say boo. Some plant men took two, three, or even four blasts before going down, but always fell before me at some point.

Benson POV

I watched in rage as Mordecai took down plant man after plant man. Since he had figured out that his gun could destroy the plant men, I felt the plan would no doubt fail.

"Relax," said Drake, "it's only halftime. I saved the best for last." He handed me another seed, only this one was as big as a softball.

"Unleash this for me, if you would be so kind." He said. I took it and crushed it. I noticed that this one had a much thicker shell than the last ones, and though I crushed it easily, I still noticed this seed was stronger, meaning that the thing it would grow was also stronger. It was a much bigger cloud of powder flying from the seed as the wind kicked up. The powder flew to the center of town. Before long the ground began to shake, and a huge crack appeared where the powder hit. What came from it was a huge beast. It was as tall as Pops' head was thick. It was thick in the middle, with roots acting like tentacles wriggling along it. The top of it opened, revealing a lot of concrete ripped from the ground, and acting like teeth.

Mordecai POV

This huge monster looked like it meant business. I figured it would be easy like its smaller brethren. I raised my gun and fired three beams to it. The beams disintegrated when they hit, and the monster wasn't affected. If anything, I only got its attention. With a thunderous roar, the monster whipped one of its many tentacles at me with deadly accuracy. I was launched through the window of a nearby shop, my gun flying from my grasp. A smaller, more slender tentacle grabbed the gun and dropped it into its mouth which I had not doubt could swallow a semi truck.

I scrambled to my feet and tried to battle this monster, just then I heard a familiar voice.

"You leave my Dad alone!" The voice was that of the purple bird Margaret had taken under her wing (no pun intended). What a misconception: This guy called me Dad. Still, there was no time to correct him.

Robert POV

The man who had saved my life was the best and closest thing to a father I had ever had, so I called him Dad in the hopes he would one day call me son. I hoped he would be impressed by me standing up to the monster.

"Kid," said Mordecai, "What are you doing? You need to get out of here. Where's Margaret?" Before I could respond, the feeling of dirt and loads of tiny rocks digging into my skin through my feathers. My feet left the ground, and the ground starting shrinking. I knew what had happened. The beast had picked me up, and was about to send me down the hatch like the chicken I was denied that night.

Benson POV

What a plan this had been. Mordecai's means of killing this thing was gone, and now the kid was too. I felt this was the ruination, no, the end of the guy. I looked at Drake, thinking his grin would rival mine, but instead, he looked concerned.

"The plan has now met its downfall," he said calmly, causing my grin to drop.

Robert POV

The inside of this thing was dark, slimy, and earthy smelling. It was like going up someone's nose. I put my hand out to try and slow down, but then my hand touched something metal. I knew what it was right away: Dad's gun.

"What have I got to lose?" I asked myself, "aside from my life." I managed to wrap my fingers around the handle and get a finger on the trigger, and pulled it a few times. The inside of the beast got bright...very bright.

Mordecai POV

AS I was trying to figure out how to beat this thing, the Monster let out a roar that sounded agonized, and before I could question it, the whole thing exploded in a violent sonic boom. The resulting shock wave knocked me on my back. What was left was a huge green crater, and in the thick of that crater...was Robert! He coughed and sputtered, my gun clenched between his fingers. Before I could run to him and ask if he was okay, Margaret ran to him, hugging him in a tight embrace.

"Don't you ever do that again." She said sternly, more concerned than upset, "I thought I had lost you."

Another plan had been thwarted, but it had taken its toll on the city. People were dead, the damage was somewhere in the thousands of dollars, and Robert nearly died. I had to wonder if things were only going to get worse. The tingling feeling in my spine confirmed that.