Disclaimer: I don't own Witch's House or any of the IPs from which my imported characters originate.
Why Cute Witches Should Deal With Outsiders (And Their Lairs)
Chapter 9: The Greenhouse
Beta: AllForFire
Hans and his team walked cautiously through the charred remains of the Hedge Maze. Swinging his shotgun from side to side as he swept their surroundings for any sign of an ambush.
They might have killed the area's boss, but most of his minions had survived and the squad were all wary for the possibility that the monsters would regroup and counterattack. A task which would be made all the easier by the regenerating hedge rows. The plants were recovering unnaturally fast, literally going through months of growth in minutes.
"These plants are getting really big, really fast." Frank commented absently from up ahead where he was taking point.
"The House is fixing itself." Viola explained, sounding odd. Hans couldn't quite place her tone, but it seemed like a cross between pride and worry.
Yet another strange reaction to things to chalk up on the ever-growing list. Hans noted with annoyance, primarily at the incapacity to build up an urge to confront Viola about it. Every time he tried, an artificial sense of forgetful calm would come over him.
Sighing in frustration at his inability to resist whatever the House was doing to him, he instead focused on what Viola had to say. Considering her wealth of knowledge on everything that had to do with the House, whatever it was would probably prove useful.
"Nothing destroyed within the House's domain stays dead and gone permanently, unless Ellen wills it. They all just repair themselves or get revived over time." The teenage powerhouse said as she glared at Marcus and her father.
She's still upset over them setting fire to the Maze. Hans concluded. The girl certainly knows how to hold a grudge.
It wasn't a good idea though, not in their current situation. They needed to work as a team if they wanted to survive this.
No one's saying anything?
Hans was correct, none of his teammates seemed willing to confront Viola on her hostility.
Sighing, the sniper realized it would be up to him to fix this.
"Viola," Hans addressed the girl. "Whatever you have to say, just say it. It's not going to do anyone any good if you keep it all bottled up inside."
She shot him an incredulous look, but he ignored it and barreled ahead.
"I assure you that it's better to just let it all out in the open then to let it fester. Especially when we're on a mission like this."
The teenager looked at him searchingly for a moment before nodding. With a deep breath to steady her nerves, she turned to Marcus.
"It was a mistake to burn down the Hedge Maze earlier," the spatial mage informed their team leader. "All it managed to do was make the Kennel Master angry and fight harder than he would have."
"Are you saying that it would have gone easy on us if we hadn't flushed him out?"
Viola hesitated in thought for a moment, before shaking her head.
"No, but as a being who essentially cannot die, he wouldn't feel the need to fight with his all just to avoid death like other beings. As such, when facing intruders he would only put in enough effort to get away with it. Ellen then either lets him get killed temporarily or has him retreat and let them pass."
"Viola," the girl's father cut in, sounding stern. "How do you know so much about how it would behave. It almost sounds like you know the monster personally. Does your connection to the House really run that deep?"
The teenager bit her bottom lip uncertainly for a moment before nervously replying, "I dunno whether you'd call it deep, but I dream of the House almost every night. I even get to talk to its residents sometimes."
Hans immediately shot his regular teammates startled looks.
"I guess that's why she's on this mission." Marcus said with certainty.
Hans had to agree. In the higher ups' place, if he'd learned of Viola's connection to the House, he'd have thrown her at it too. It would probably be their best hope at taking out the menace. Though he'd really have appreciated if they'd actually told them about it beforehand.
"Yo Viola! What do you do the rest of the time you're dreaming of this place? I mean besides chatting up the monsters." Frank asked from up front while he gestured at their eerie surroundings.
"I spend time with Ellen mainly." The girl admitted and Hans couldn't suppress the shiver down his spine at the casual way she referred to the House's Mistress. It was like they were best friends, a prospect that was unnerving in and of itself.
While he was getting scared out of his wits though, Viola kept going.
"The House doesn't look like his in my dreams. It's actually quite beautiful, and the people living here aren't monsters. Well, most of the time anyways."
The whole team were silent for a long time as they processed this and Hans imagined they were, like him, trying to puzzle out just what exactly was Viola's connection to the House and its Mistress.
"Viola," Paul's pained voice finally broke the silence. "What kind of relationship do you have with this Ellen girl?"
At the question, Viola blushed and looked down to hide her face.
"Friends," she added in a whisper. "Best friends, but still just friends."
Hazel looked at the younger woman like she was an idiot, which Hans thought was a tad unfair. Viola was young after all, it was understandable that she wouldn't understand her own feelings as well as someone older and more experienced.
Well, at least she's not being blunt about it.
Unfortunately, not all of their teammates had the same level of tact.
"Oh bullshit!" Frank said with exasperation. "Listen to yourself girl! You're sounding all lovestruck and you still say the two of you are 'just friends'? Who are you kidding?"
Viola just blushed even more brilliantly in response.
"Frank," Marcus told the man warningly.
"Yeah, yeah." The heavy said with a contrite grunt. "Sorry for the ribbing kid, but you know I'm right."
"Frank!" Marcus said more sternly. "Can it."
The minigunner sighed but nodded and shut up.
"The rest of you too, keep the chatter down. I know we're all tense and need to vent but remember that we're still in a hot zone."
There were agreeing acknowledgements from everyone and things quietened down for a moment.
You just did that to get everyone off Viola's case. Hans thought to himself at Marcus' unsubtle move.
His team had never been the quiet type. They were more the "go and break things" type of outfit. Asking them to hold their tongues for long was pretty much an exercise in futility.
As if to prove that point, Hazel soon struck up a conversation with him.
"Hans, isn't this whole mission shaping up to be an elaborate attempt to spirit Viola away." The woman said in whisper, a frown on her face. "I know it seems absurd but-"
"What!?" Viola sputtered at the suggestion.
"But that's exactly what it feels like." Marcus agreed, ignoring the teenager like everyone else and jumping into the conversation. "But whatever the Mistress of the House's intentions are, our mission remains unchanged. We're here to stop the threat posed by the Witch's House and that's what we're going to do."
Hans and Hazel nodded.
"Yes sir," Frank playfully replied, breaking his uncharacteristic silence.
That Hans expected, but Paul's response startled him.
"Agreed," the summoner said in a voice that burned with determination and a raw, fiery hatred.
What's got him so riled up?
He shook his curiosity off though, nudging the still silent Viola with a gentle shake of her shoulder.
"Okay," the spatial mage squeaked out.
Marcus didn't look satisfied with the girl's clearly half-hearted response, but let it slide.
"Hey Viola, that the Greenhouse?" Frank asked as he gestured to a massive glasshouse just up ahead.
"Yes," the teenager confirmed with a nod. "We'll need to be on guard. If we get any closer we'll be passing out of the Hedge Maze and that means the attacks will pick up again."
Ordering a stop, Marcus spun to face the girl with an angry look that demanded answers.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I didn't explain earlier?" Viola asked looking apologetic. "Whenever an area is cleared, the House takes time to reset its defenses. During that time, unless specifically ordered otherwise, the area's local monsters will stand down."
"So if we enter a new area, like say the Greenhouse, we're fair game again?" Hans asked, thoroughly surprised at how fair that sounded. Real life, especially in combat, rarely ever was.
"Pretty much." Viola confirmed.
"And you never told us this till now?" Hazel demanded from the girl, her fists clenched in anger.
"It slipped my mind?" The younger mage said while scratching the back of her neck nervously.
"Leave it." Marcus ordered as he sighed in resignation. "We've got to remember for all her skill, Viola is still practically a civilian. She's going to make rookie mistakes."
"Sorry!" The girl apologized as the team nodded in acknowledgement of their leader's order.
Marcus was about them to get moving again but Frank raised a hand to stop him.
"I've got a question for you, Viola." The heavy said, turning to face the girl. "Just to get some context and help us understand what to expect, where did your girlfriend get this system from? 'Cos it sounds like something out of a bad video game."
"Ellen isn't my girlfriend." Viola replied automatically, blushing hard.
Hans curiously noted that Paul was nodding vehemently at his daughter's denial.
I can understand why. If I had a daughter who seemed to be dating an eldritch abomination I'd be against it too.
"Just answer the question." Marcus told the distracted spatial mage.
"Oh, um, sorry." The flustered girl apologized. "The area system? Yeah, you're pretty much correct Frank. The general idea behind it is from video games."
"You talked to the Mistress about it?" Paul asked, his simmering anger over his daughter's apparent relationship with the creature slipping into his tone.
Not that his daughter even noticed.
Blushing like a schoolgirl, which Hans idly recalled she was still entirely young enough to be, the spatial mage replied.
"I suggested the feature actually." Viola revealed to everyone's shock, though she seemed oblivious to it as she continued with a fond smile on her face. "Ellen thought like it sounded like it could be fun, so she implemented it to deal with minor threats. She said it was amusing to watch how they struggled."
With a sigh of fond exasperation the girl continued, still unaware of how everyone was looking at her in horror. "I told her she was being sadistic, but Ellen was so taken with the idea that I didn't object beyond that."
She actually giggled as she finished recounting what to her was clearly a happy memory. Giggled! They were being run through hell thanks to her suggestion and she found it amusing?
Was this girl insane?
For a moment Hans was consumed by rage and a strong desire to wipe that smile off Viola's face. Before he could act on it however, his mind blanked out on him.
Huh? What happened? Hans thought to himself as he blinked in confusion. What's going on?
"We're minor threats are we?" Frank snorted. "Well, we'll show her. Oh, and Viola, your girlfriend is a bitch."
"Ellen is not my girlfriend!" Viola protested.
"Keep telling yourself that." Frank retorted.
Hans finally finished piecing together what had happened and couldn't help but frown. There was a gap in his memory. Not about what happened. He remembered their conversation well enough, but in how he felt. In fact, it seemed like a whole chunk of his emotional range had gone numb. He couldn't pinpoint to what extent that was but he could feel it nonetheless.
And that unsettled him.
"Hans, you okay?" Hazel asked, sounding concerned. "You look out of sorts."
The sniper nodded to his longtime teammate's concern, before turning to Viola. He might have had his mind manipulated by the House but it seemed like he still had his free will. And that meant he had to have his question answered.
"Viola, did you know your dreams were real?"
"Not at first," the spatial mage replied easily with that nostalgic smile still on her face. "But recently I've started to suspect they are. And ever since we've entered the House? I've been certain."
"How long have you been dreaming of the House?" Hazel asked, sounding both wary and intrigued.
"I've had dreams about it for as long as I can remember."
"That long?" Hazel muttered to herself. "What does that mean?"
"We can save our questions about this bombshell till later." Marcus cut in, having finished recovering from the revelation himself. "For now we need to focus on what's in front of us and that means we need to know what we're going to be facing inside that greenhouse. Viola, care to share?"
"Uh, right." The girl said, the smile finally falling from her face as she began to explain the hazards ahead.
A detailed rundown of future threats and a short, tense walk later, the team found themselves standing outside the large greenhouse, whose interior looked from the outside to have been overrun by plants and transformed into a jungle.
"Remember to be careful inside," Viola reminded everyone one last time as they prepared for the trail ahead. "The place is crawling with Spore Carriers."
Hans winced at the mention of the creatures and offered a prayer for the poor souls who had become the monsters. Even as he did his best to psyche himself up for the ordeal that facing them would undoubtedly be. According to their resident expert, they were a variant of the Zombie with green moss covering every inch of their skin and a set of plant like growths on their backs and who walked on all fours while being constantly surrounded by a cloud of poisonous miasma that made fighting them up close dangerous.
But that wasn't what made the prospect of encountering them so harrowing. No, that honor went to the fact that apparently they were nearly perfectly camouflaged by the overgrown vegetation of the Greenhouse.
Hans hated fighting ambushers. It usually meant close quarter combat that made it impossible to use his musket. While he was confident in his skill with his shotgun, it was still a far cry from his marksmanship with his magic bullets.
"Thanks for the reminder," Marcus said with an absent nod as he addressed Paul. "Summon us a pack of hellhounds. We can have them scout ahead."
As the demon tamer did as ordered, the team leader turned to Viola.
"These Spore Carriers. Can they hide their scent?"
"I'm not sure, but I don't think so."
"Good idea with the hounds, Marcus." Hans told his leader sincerely.
"I thought it up on the walk over." Marcus informed him distantly, his mind probably churning as he thought up tactics on how best to proceed. "We'll use the hounds to flush out as many of the Spore Carriers as we can. Hans, then I want you-"
"-to snipe them." Hans finished for him. "Count on me."
"I know I can." Marcus said sincerely. "Hopefully, this way we can avoid getting swarmed like in the last few fights."
"Damn, that means less work for me." Frank groaned in disappointment. "It's a good plan though."
"Hans, I'll support you with truesight spells." Hazel chimed in, jokingly.
"My aim is perfect as is." The sniper shot back with an annoyed look at the familiar tease.
"A little help will make sure that it stays that way." Hazel shot back with a smirk.
Hans growled in irritation, but let it go. As much as he hated to admit it, Hazel had a point.
"Frank, you and I will hold back and step in only if things look like it might get nasty." Marcus told the heavy and earning a nod in reply. "We'll save our firepower for the boss."
"What should I do then?" Viola asked sheepishly.
"You'll hang back with us and be our final trump card." Marcus told the girl seriously. "You're our heaviest hitter at the moment, so your job will be to kill anything that we can't."
Viola blushed at the praise, but the team leader ignored it.
"You sure you don't know where this Gardener creature might be?"
The teenager shook her head and slapped her cheeks to get her head on straight. Hans couldn't help but find the admittedly rather childish gesture adorable.
It seemed to work for Viola though, as she replied to Marcus with all the seriousness of a professional.
"He could be anywhere. It's his job to wander the Greenhouse tending to its plants."
"Well, he's doing a shit job." Frank said gesturing at the Greenhouse's interior. "The place looks like a mess."
"Shut up Frank," Marcus shot back back. "We don't need to piss off another boss monster."
"Yeah, well, I wasn't the genius who did that the last time was I?" The heavy taunted back.
Marcus pretended not to have heard the comeback and instead moved to push the doors to the Greenhouse open, gesturing for Frank to follow suit.
As they did, the team was hit by a blast of warm, humid air.
"It feels like it's an actual jungle in there." Hazel observed with a frown.
"It told you it would be," Viola reminded them.
"I was hoping you were exaggerating," Hazel said with a resigned sigh. "I hate jungles."
"You're not the only one." Paul said absently as he ordered his hellhounds ahead of the team and into the green hell that lay in front of them.
What followed was an ironically repetitive series of encounters.
First, Paul's hellhounds would sniff out one of the Spore Carriers, and then attack them to flush them out of their well-camouflaged hiding spots.
And damn! Viola hadn't been exaggerating about how well-hidden in the foliage they were. Thanks to their skin color and ability to just stay still, they were practically invisible.
Fortunately, thanks to Paul's pet demons distracting the plant zombies by getting themselves torn apart - quite literally in most cases - Hans could line up a shot with his musket while they were busy and let his magic bullet do its deadly work.
After the way everyone had been so worried about entering this zone, the actual thing was kind of anti-climatic.
They must have had done the same thing at least twenty times and Marcus and Frank only had to open fire a couple of times when there were a few more Spore Carriers than Hans could handle alone.
As a result, this trip through the Greenhouse was looking all around to be as close to a walk in the park as they'd had this whole mission. Well, except for Paul who had been forced to keep summoning replacement hellhounds because they kept getting taken out.
Shit! I just jinxed us didn't I? The sniper realized with horror.
As if to prove it, just ahead of them a gaunt man with elongated limbs and no face stepped out from behind a tree.
He must be the Gardener. Marcus thought as the atypical monster started walking towards them.
It was dressed rather normally in a flannel shirt and jeans, but that sense of normality was shattered by the pair of massively oversized shears he was opening and closing menacingly as he advanced on them.
Those aren't normal shears. Marcus noted as he readied himself for the fight ahead. They're not making any sound.
"Be alert," Viola whispered in warning. "Remember that everything Mr Garth does is completely silent. Don't let him sneak up on you."
She was about to say more but was stopped when the monster teleported directly in front of Marcus with its shears open and ready to decapitate him.
With a wordless curse, the black man dropped to the ground just in time to avoid losing his head.
"Watch out for his teleporting too!" Viola reminded them belatedly.
Ignoring the girl, Marcus raised his gun at the monster and fired a burst only to have it teleport away.
The bark of Hans' shotgun told him where it had reappeared and as he jumped back to his feet, saw the Gardener staggering back from the sniper, a wound to its chest, for a few steps before vanishing.
"We'll need to hit him harder than that." Viola said, once more belatedly. "He's extremely durable."
"Viola, less talking! More fighting!" Marcus barked. "Stop its teleporting."
"I'll try!" The girl shouted back as she threw a spatial cage in front of Frank just as the Gardener materialized in front of the minigunner, his shears poised to cut the weapon in half. Unfortunately, even as the distorted space started to take effect, the monster teleported away.
"He's too fast!"
"Then we just need to speed up. Mass Haste!"
Hazel's spell immediately paid off, as the improved time perception and reaction time allowed Frank to react just as the Gardener appeared next to him again and shove his minigun into its gut, forcing it back before it could snap off his right arm with its shears. He even managed to get off a burst into the thing before it vanished just as Viola's spatial trap was about to catch it.
The Gardener seemed fully aware of whom had turned the tide and targeted Hazel next, appearing behind her and snapping his shears shut seemingly before she could respond.
Only to be sent flying when the body he cut in half exploded.
The real Hazel shimmered into view next to Paul and offered the man a nod, "Thanks for the assist."
"I'm out of imploding imps." The summoner replied, completely ignoring her gratitude.
"No worries," Hazel replied, showing none of the agitation she must have felt. "We shouldn't need it again."
Their reprieve was interrupted when the Gardener blinked in next to the two distracted magic users with its shears ready to bisect them both at the same time.
They were saved from an unexpected quartering when Viola, of all people, charged the monster from behind and shoved a blade of distorted space into its back. It froze at this, giving Hazel and Paul enough time to get away from the reach of its massive weapon.
Meanwhile, the Gardener had apparently decided to borrow from the horror movies and turned its head a hundred and eighty degrees to look at Viola face to face. Its grotesque pale-skinned face, with its stitched up mouth, empty eye sockets and snake-like slits for nostrils looked down at the girl's youthful face with undeniable surprise.
"Sorry Mr Garth." The spatial mage apologized to the monster .
Why the hell are you apologizing to a monster that's trying to kill us? Marcus screamed in his mind as he tried to get a clean shot.
Before he could manage, the Gardener seemed to give an understanding nod to Viola before lashing out with a powerful kick that sent her flying. This left it open and Marcus and Frank promptly opened fire.
Though it seemed unaffected by the barrage, instead choosing to look down quizzically at Viola's spatial blade that had remained lodged in its chest.
"Thundara!" Hazel shouted as she joined in the assault by sending a bolt of electricity slamming into the Gardener.
This was shortly joined by a fireball from Paul and one of Hans' magic bullets.
None of it seemed to faze the creature though, as it continued to look curiously at the shard of twisted space stabbed into its chest. This, despite the fact it was starting to accumulate actual damage, with chunks of its flesh having been blown off by the sheer volume of power they were unleashing against it.
"It isn't teleporting away," Hazel shouted even as she sent a barrage of icicles at the creature. "The blade must be locking it down."
Hazel's words seemed to have caught its attention however, and the Gardener finally began to move. Spinning its head to face forward again, it began advancing with slow, deliberate steps toward the mage, all the while ignoring the damage it was sustaining even as parts of its body started to become mush. This made it seem like it was melting under the barrage the team was subjecting it to, even as it advanced on Hazel relentlessly.
Said mage began backing away from the monster, without once letting up on her spell casting as she breathed a cone of fire on the thing. This unfortunately meant she wasn't looking where she was going and tripped over a root.
The Gardener seemed to take this an opportunity, and snapping its shears closed proceeded to throw it like a spear at the downed mage. It flew with unerring accuracy and would have undoubtedly killed the disorientated mage, if not for her disappearing seconds before it would have impaled her.
Repeating the neck twisting trick from earlier, the Gardener turned its head and looked past where Marcus was kneeling and firing at it. Taking a quick glance at what it was looking at, the soldier saw a disheveled looking Viola standing next to a perfectly safe Hazel.
"Keep it up! We've almost got it!"
Frank's cheer had Marcus turning his attention back towards the Gardener where it seemed the damage was finally proving too much. The creature was gradually losing what remained of its coherence and collapsing into a pile of mush, but not before it shrugged its shoulders and offered Viola a smile.
"Bye Mr Garth," Marcus heard Viola whisper. "See you later."
And done!
Not too sure about the ending there. It feels abrupt. If anyone has suggestions on how to fix it, let me know.
AllForFire: Gardener (Internally: "Aaahhh, I'm meeeltiiing. What a world!..." X)) Sorry, couldn't resist.
Other than that? Well, nothing to say really.
So that being the case… Till next time. Peace out!