The Saga of Swamp Thing Issue 10
Battlefield: Louisiana Part 3
By James Brady
15 years ago
Alec stands in his brother's bedroom craning his neck over Leopold's incubator. Inside is a damp lust circus of genetically engineered plants made by Edward. Alec is fascinated by them, along with anything his older brother does. He watches as them intently as they synthesis the light into energy, he watches the mass of strange and unusual plant life from above through a magnifying glass. He feels safe here as if the plants are looking up to him admiringly. All around Edward's room is pictures and charts all about plants and other scientific experiments. He has a massive poster of a green flower logo with an Einstein quote under it. He hears the voices of his mother and brother coming up the stairs and he instantly goes to put the lid back on the tank but it's too heavy for him. He hears their voices closer now, the lid still not fitting on properly. His brother swings open the door with a surprised look on his face.
"Alec. Ah c'mon man I've told you before; they need to stay warm. Lemme help you with that."
He walks over and instantly fits the lid back onto the incubator. He dumps his college bag on the bed.
"Sorry. I just wanted to take a closer look," Alec replies feeling pretty guilty.
"It's okay, don't worry about it. I know you're as interested as me in Botany but y'know respect my stuff, man."
"Can you tell me about this one?" Alec pushes his finger against the glass frame pointing at a small oval cactus like plant.
"I call that one the Avatar. You see this isn't an ordinary garden; it's a machine with different parts and devices that all help each other survive. I've made a miniature eco system. That one in the middle is the one that takes in the temperature of all of its surroundings and the types of soil and sends signals to the other plants that help them decide where best to lay their roots and where to face towards. It's their protector in a way. I've been changing their environment ever so slightly every day and taken notes as the Avatar and sends different signals in the pheromones it sends off. The Avatar is working really well and has managed to overcome ever change I've made to the eco system but part of the course is to find the breaking point. Soon I'm going to have to change the soil in ways that make it impossible for the Avatar to predict the best course of action, and soon it's going to lose and the eco system will be killed."
"But why?" Alec asks, looking up at his brother as the pair sits on the bed looking at the incubator.
"For my research."
Louisiana Swamps, Now:
Abigail Arcane swoops over the burning fields of the once picture esc landscape of the Louisiana Swamps; she searches the Rot for the centre point of the destruction. She searches through the eyes of a burning near death swamp rat as it desperately attempts to scamper to freedom. She takes control through the Rot in its body and has it search through the burning undergrowth forcing it to prolong its painful demise. As the rat begins to die it finds the epicentre of the maelstrom, a beautiful silver man covered in ugly orange flames. The flames seem to be pulsating from him like an exploding volcano with the Atomic symbol on his chest being the match that lights the flame.
The vision cuts out as the rats brain turns to along with the rest of its body but she knows where to look. She swoops down, her Bat-like wings leaving a trail of pitch-black track lines as she goes. From her dark energy she creates large tekko-kagi claws and descends into the burning forests after the burning man.
Elsewhere in the Swamps:
The Green Team stand around the edge of pond still waiting for their team member to return, one of the women decides to break the silence.
"He's been down there for 3 minutes now. We've got a job to do."
"The job is to capture Swamp Thing," One of the men replies. "If whatever is in the swamp is causing him to keep regenerating bodies then this pond is the objective."
"We should at least do something. Who knows how long the walking Manhattan Project is gonna keep whoever off our backs."
"We wait for the word from Waller then we move. Until then we stay pu-"
With a booming splash something erupts from the swamp, vines and roots erupting along with it. The water quickly falls back down as the group get a good look at the frantic shamble of roots and violence before them. Their green team leader is being attacked by a mass of roots erupting from the swamp. He valiantly cuts and slices away at them, through brute strength being able to fend them off. He falls back onto the banks with a thud as the roots sink back into the swamps. The other members of the Green Team rush to help him to his feet.
"Huff- huff... I... think we've found it. Heff," He says through bated breath.
"Are you alright?" One of the men asks.
"I'm fine. It's some kind of cocoon down there. It's pretty big, about the size of a small car."
"Damn. All right, you go rest up. We'll get the copter to come over here and help us lift it out," One of the men says.
One of the women pulls out a walkie-talkie and begins to talk to the Helicopter pilot. The rest of them continue to speculate about the swamp while the man goes and sits down on a log at the side watching the others intently. He slowly goes to remove his gas mask unlicking the latches as he goes. His mouth and nose seem to have turned a sort of light green with a vine running down his nose and across his chest. He takes off his helmet to reveal a set of deep red eyes. He cracks his knuckles while watching the others and plays with a patch of weeds while he waits.
The Green
Alec and Sunny look up the stairs of the ornate oak and moss house to see a pair of red eyes looking down at them. Sunny steps forward.
"I'm assuming you're the one they're callin the Wolf then?"
"I am indeed," He replies in his thick French accent. "And I cannot help but notice you've decided to murder my guards and waltz on into my mansion."
"We're looking for answers, Mr. Wolf. We're trying to find the Parliament of Trees as they haven't been seen since the attack on the Green last month and you're apparently the most connected person in the Green, sir."
The Wolf begins to descend the stair case, we see him as a short fat man wearing what appears to be a 17th Centaury Dining suit with thick curled hair, a carefully trimmed beard.
"That I am but the Parliament have been rather quiet, so my... sources have been running dry with information, but apparently there is a new presence in the Green; a new force."
"You have any leads?"
"As of yet no, but hrm. You were connected to the Avatar, correct?"
"Uh yeah. Not anymore, but yeah."
"Excellent. Come, come." He beacons as he leads them through the creaky old house down into the basement.
They see a large operating table made out of wood and moss with delicately made surgical tools beside it on a tray. The head of the table is facing towards one of the large cocoons about the size of a small car. The cocoon is propped up on a pulls system where it is held in place with vines. The opening of the cocoon has long vines with flowers at the top searching around like a lost puppy for something to grasp.
"You may still have the 'direct line' to the Parliament that all Avatars have. This could allow you to if not communicate with them get an idea of where they are. It's almost like a broadcasting unit; you'll be able to contact all the other Avatars to see if they'll help. This lack of any sort of leadership or focus for the Green is good for no one. Pop yourself up on the table, Doctor and we shall begin," The Wolf says.
"Wha-what're you gonna do to me?" asked Alec nervously.
"Give you a signal booster," He says holding a long sharpened wooden knife while looking at Alec.
Louisiana, Swamps:
Abbie plunges her claws into the back of the decorated hero, Captain Atom, before he has time to retaliate. She attempts to lift him from the ground, flapping her wings rapidly but Captain Atom proves too strong. He reaches back quickly and in a swift movement tears both her arms off and flings them to the ground. He turns to light her up with a Atomic blast but misses as she flies out of the way in time. She recreates her arms feeding on the Rot all around her to make her arms even bigger than last time, slamming Captain Atom over the head with them and down into the Earth. She stands over him triumphantly.
"It's over," She says wiping blood from her chin.
She transforms her arm into a massive blade and stabs it into Captain At-
BWOOOM!
Abbie is thrown a hundred feet into the air by the sheer force of the explosion. The Agent Orange is released like never before across the Swamps and quickly spreads into the town.
Elsewhere in the Swamps
The helicopter hovers above the swamps as the crane is slowly lowered towards the Green Team who watches from the clearing. The man who was pulled from the swamps slowly gets to his feet and begins to rhythmically click his fingers. "One, two, three, four," He hums under his breath, slowly titling his head to the sky. "Five."
He stops clicking and turns his head to one of the male Green Team members. He suddenly begins to cough rapidly and falls to his knees trying to take off his gas mask. He eventually does as the other Green Team members begin to crowd around him. He vomits out a massive ball of vines and moss. Another member of the Green Team suddenly removes their gloves as bark begins to forcibly grow out of their fingernails tearing their hands apart. Others are strangled to death by vines and others have their vital organs explode inside their bodies through the flora in their lungs.
The man walks through the carnage towards the swamp as he goes he takes off the Green Team outfit revealing his naked body. He hears the helicopter pilot desperately trying to find out what's going on through the walkie-talkie shouting, "Come In! Over!" over and over again. The man, now completely stripped of his clothes steps into the swamp, as he slowly lowers into the water, he breathes in and looks up at the helicopter. He raises his arms high into the air and long thick roots follow springing from the water up to the sky reaching for the Helicopter. The pilot freaks out as the roots begin to wrap themselves around the copter. He tries desperately to gain altitude but they're too strong. The man in the swamp watches like a cat toying with a dead mouse before swinging his arms down brining the copter with him. The helicopter falls directly onto him resulting in a large explosion.
The burning helicopter continues to fizzle and spit for another five minutes before slowly burning out. A great strength from beneath the helicopter slowly begins to push it up wards, and out from the wreckage comes SWAMP THING!
Cadmus Labs
Amanda Waller watches the explosion of Captain Atom and the murder of the Green Team from screens in front of a large control room. She watches as her millions of government dollars crunched and destroyed and goes right down the drain. She tears off her Bluetooth headset and throws it to the ground in a rage. She storms out of the control room and through a dark hallway. She opens a door and goes into Edward's room.
"Holland! What on Earth was that measly display?! Do you know how much money-"
Edward slowly gets out of his chair taking off his Cerebro esc helmet off and turns to Amanda.
"Yes, well done. It has all gone to #*&^! Now we either go home empty handed or we make one last ditch effort to take Alec down!"
"What do you propose? We've already spent all of our extended budget."
"Do whatever you have to do. Planes, tanks, bombs. We wear him down and then you send me in."
"You?"
"Yes. You send me in and it's all over. Tell the board of directors whatever they need to hear to give you the weaponry we need. Tell them he's gotten out of control and has started murdering hundreds of people. Tell them that he's about to set off an Apocalypse. Get the Justice League involved for all I care. Just take him down."
High above the Swamps
"WAKE UP YOU LAZY BITCH! C'MON YOU FAT PIECE OF HUMAN # &^! YOU ARE NOT WREACKING THIS BODY! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TAKES TO RE MAKE AN ENTIRE ROT BODY! YOU ARE NOT MAKING ME LOOK LIKE A FOOL ON OUR FIRST # *&ING OUTTING! WAKE UUUPP!" The Rot screams at the unconscious Abby as she rockets back to Earth. She slowly begins to regain consciousness. She quickly realises how close she is to the Earth.
"C'mon! Wings! Go open em!" The Rot yells.
"No time- !" Suddenly Abby lifted up by an unknown force, swooping across the planes of the Swamp before settling down. Abbie is gently placed down on the ground before looking to see Swamp Thing standing over her with his magnificent new wings. She gets to her feet.
"Wings, huh? That's new." She says still reeling from the force of the explosion.
"I needed to help you, you'd be-" Swamp Thing begins with Abbie reaches forward and begins to kiss him. He quickly grabs her by her wrists and pulls her off of him.
"What're you doing?!" He asks.
"I was kissing you, Alec. I haven't seen you in ages. We're-"
"I'm not Alec. I have nothing of Alec inside me. I'm Cantacium De Terra; I'm from the Green. I have nothing to do with you."
"Then why did you rescue me? I'm the Avatar of the Rot. There must be something of Alec in the-"
Cantacium opens his wings and Swoosh! He's off into the sky. She looks after him with a sense of confusion and scorn in her eyes. She opens her wings again and is off after him.
She follows him as he floats along the breeze towards the huge steaming crater where the explosion happened. They lose altitude and head down towards the swamps again. They land with a thump against the dusty soil that once was thick marshland. In the middle of the crater lies Captain Atom trying to pull himself up but seems weak. Cantacium puts his hand out and roots suddenly erupt from the soil and cast themselves around Captain Atom holding him down to the Earth he struggles to escape. He looks up to see the two Avatars standing over him.
"I don't know who you are and I don't care. You've come to my Swamp and destroyed acres of green life. That is something I cannot tolerate. You will tell me who sent you and where I can find them. This is an act of War against the Green!" Cantacium bellows.
"Alright, cool your jets. Yeah you're not Alec. He wouldn't talk like that for sure," Abbie says brushing Cantacium as she passes him before crouching down in front of Atom. "Tell us who sent you and explode you again." She turns back to Cantacium. "And you. No declaring War till we figure this whole thing out."
Captain Atom begins to talk. "M-m-m Mayday. I've been ca-ptured. Need back up!"
"Alright then." Abbie returns to her full height and puts out her hand. The ground below Captain Atom suddenly begins to erode and fall to dust causing him to begin to fall down into the thick dirt burying him away.
"We can keep him down there for now. He'll get out eventually. What's the plan then?"
"This is an act of War. I was attacked by a group of humans that had weaponry that could affect the green. They cut off my connection to the Green and I had to create a cocoon to keep my mind intact. I was able to make rudimental bodies but no real connection. I was able to drop my consciousness into one of the humans and from there I was able to regain my connection."
"Where are they?"
"I killed them and then made myself a new body."
"All of them?!"
"Hrm, let me see." Swamp Thing's body suddenly begins to peel away to reveal a shrivelled damaged body inside. The body falls out onto the ground.
"Aww gross!" Abbie says hold her hand to her nose to keep the smell away.
"Can you use your Rot powers to read his mind?" Cantacium asks.
"Probably. He can't have been dead for long."
She holds out her hand and tendrils begin to form as they dip down into the skull of the body and into his mind. She searches through the past memories watching his induction into the Green Team and the tests they did on him. She eventually gets images of Cadmus Labs and Amanda Waller and... Edward Holland?
She comes out of his mind and instantly looks at Cantacium.
"We need to find Alec!"
"Alec is in the Green. I cannot contact him for the time being," Cantaciums says coldly.
"Okay. We should begin to focus on stopping the Agent Orange. I've managed to hold it off for the time being but with your help we should be able to keep it away from the town."
"Why? What does it matter? They're just humans."
"Urgh, just, c'mon!"
Abbie takes off into the sky and Cantacium follows. They gain a good amount of altitude and as Abbie is about to descend towards the town she realises that Canatcium has suddenly stopped. She turns back to see him staring angrily with clenches fists. She follows his line of sight to see a massive platoon of about a hundred armed military helicopters pouring over the Louisiana skyline as the sun descends into the swamps.
"And you said this wasn't War?" Cantacium says through gritted teeth.
The Green
Alec's brain is attached to the giant cocoon in The Wolf's cellar as he begins to descend into another plane of existence. He falls through the Green watching as hundreds of his predecessors float past him like leaves down a stream. He floats peacefully through the eternal life that is the green.
Within you without you seem to play on repeat. Time has no meaning. Everything is connected. We are all one massive blade of grass moving and contorting as one. We're all beings of stardust and celestial opium- Wait? What am I saying?
Alec suddenly sees a portal of blue light and feels drawn towards it. He falls through and lands in a huge grassy field. Before him he sees the Parliament of Trees, all some of the greatest Avatars that have ever lived together governing all that is Green. He approaches them. However they're all standing in a sort of limp fashion with nothing in their eyes like puppets on a string. The grassy field is all blue.
What is happening here?
The Parliament still has greenish bodies but the backs of their heads are attached to long strands of cables all reaching up into another portal. They watch Alec intently.
"Hi. I'm uh, Alec Holland. I assume you're the Parliament of Trees. We've only met once before I used to be the Avatar. I, um, was wondering basically, what's going on? How come the Green is still pretty barren and uh, where are all the other Avatars?"
The Parliament speaks as one. "The Green is as it should be. These matters are of none of your business. Allow the great Parliament to govern the Green and you shall be taken care of. The other Avatars will be minding their own business as you should be little human."
"That's not really the answer I was looking for. Could we maybe have more of an open discussion about this stuff? I mean no one knows what's going on. Why is it all blue in here also?"
"Your time here is up, little human! Return to your area of the Green and you shall be taken care of by the state. Do not return."
"Hey! What're you attached to! This isn't what the Parliament usually is like. Wha-"
Alec suddenly feels a huge power on his shoulder as he turns he sees Wood-Rue a.k.a The Floronic Man looking down on him.
"Wood-Rue?" Alec asks confused.
Wood-Rue suddenly turns and thrown Alec back into the portal that he come from with him suddenly waking up on The Wolf's table. Sunny and the Wolf watch him intently as he slowly gets a bearing of his surroundings.
"What happened?" The Wolf asks.
"Something is wrong. Something is controlling the Parliament." Alec replies.
High above Louisiana
Cantacium begins to grow a large sword from his right hand and a massive shield from his left as he stares determinedly at the Helicopters. He suddenly feels Abbie's hand on his shoulder.
"Ale- I mean Cantacium. War means that there are at least two different factions against each other. You don't have to do this. The Swamp will be destroyed, and the town also. Imagine all those that will be harmed. We should just leave. Go somewhere else. This has gone far enough as it is."
Cantacium slowly begins to calm down and he allows the sword and shield to turn to leaves and blow away in the wind.
"Okay. Let's get ou- Aarrggh!" Cantacium suddenly beings to writhe in pain holding his head as he does. Abbie tries to calm him down.
"Cantacium! What's happening? What is it?"
"E-E- Errrghh" He groans before looking up again he turns to Abbie and she sees the deep blue in his eyes.
"Enemy!" He shouts before with a powerful blow punching Abbie away from him. She begins to hurtle towards the Earth as he regrows his sword and shield bigger than last time and flies towards the helicopters as the war begins!
Next Issue! The final part of Battlefield: Louisiana! Swamp Thing VS. The US Government and Civil War in the Green!