One would imagine that, having survived an alien invasion and witnessed the attack of not one but four giant monsters, the girls would be completely prepared for something like this. The sad fact was, though, that all they could do was stand and gape in dumbfounded horror. As if apologetic for scaring them, the fog rolled back in and covered the monstrosity once more.

"Say, Koyomi?" Kurosawa asked when she finished laughing.

"Y-yeah?" Both voices were oddly casual, if a little high in pitch.

"You, ah, you can drive, can't you?"

"Well, I don't have a lis-"

"But you can drive?"

"Um. Yes."

"Good, 'cause we're in no condition to," Nyamo sounded so lucid that it was easy to doubt her, but one look at her bleary eyes and stooped posture would convince you that she was right. "Kagura, take Yukari's car. Yomi can drive mine. We're leaving."

"Now hold on a second!" Yukari protested angrily, "What are you playing at? I'm not gonna let a maniac like Kagura drive my car!"

"She could hardly do worse than you." In less strained circumstances, the others might have cried "Hear, hear!"

"Why are we in such a rush anyway? It's just sitting there! It's a big flower, for corn's sake!" The English teacher thrust a hand back towards the now-hidden giant. "What could it possibly do to--?"

Whup! Yukari vanished.

The girls stared in shock. A menacing hum rose in the air, the whistle of tens of dozens of somehow mobile vines lashing through the mist towards them, but it took the thump of Yukari's landing a few meters away and her loud curse to break the spell on them. There was time to take exactly one step towards safety before Tomo finally got her apocalypse—in this case, a vegetable apocalypse.

"I almost feel bad about our resolution…" the Man from SSS9 said lazily, "But you have to admit that it was rather clever of us." He put his feet up on his desk, regarding his subordinate benignly. The younger man had just entered with their lunch; after all, even terrorist overlords have to have a bite to eat every now and then.

"Yes, indeed," the other agreed readily, sitting across from him and handing over his food. "But I have to ask; why did we drop the creature in the middle of nowhere? Wouldn't Tokyo Bay have been better?"

"In the long run, perhaps. But you forget that I'm trying to prove a point to Mihama. That arrogant fool thinks that I wouldn't dare move against him, but he has sorely underestimated me. Our friend has a little daughter, did you know?"

"Er, yeah." The younger man blinked. "Hold on, we're not…?"

"Biollante, as you may know, was created by combining DNA culled from this rose, Godzilla, and young Ms. Chiyo Mihama… and a dash of kelp so that she's happy in salt water. Now, we've made it so that she's aware that she is not complete, and has an ardent desire to become so. Biollante is driven to find those creatures that are a part of her and take them into herself, thus becoming whole." Unbothered by his statement's ghastly implications, the Senior Man casually pulled the shrink-wrap from a bread-roll.

"And how… how does Biollante plan do this?" the Junior Man asked, disturbed.

"The finding? Oh, she'll attract Godzilla by pheromones and we've placed her so as to have access to the Mihama girl. As for the 'taking in…'" Instead of answering, he took a big bite out of the roll and chewed luxuriantly.

Suddenly, the Junior Man wasn't so hungry anymore.

If someone were to watch from a safe distance (probably through a telescope), the monster's design would have been obvious. The vines lashed and whirled in a wide circle about Chiyo, who stood absolutely frozen for terror with eyes the size of dinner plates, unable to move a muscle.

It wasn't quite a melee—to use that word would imply that our heroines had some way of fighting back. In just a few seconds, the young prodigy was alone, her only possible defenders sprawled all over a fairly wide radius, and before it even crossed her mind to escape, the plant's tentacles swiftly closed around her in a crushing embrace and bore her aloft.

"No!" Kurosawa sprinted towards her, heedless of the storm of hammering limbs, and just managed to grab Chiyo's ankles before she vanished into the mist. The gym teacher gave a mighty tug and, perhaps out of surprise, her verdant foe actually gave a few feet, allowing her feet to gain purchase. "I've got you!"

Chiyo didn't respond; in fact, she wasn't moving or struggling at all. Before Kurosawa's hangover-and-panic-warped mind could process this, though, a vine the size of her torso drubbed her across the face and she tumbled away. It seemed that all hope was lost, but then…

Osaka stood. She'd tripped and fallen entirely on her own in the first seconds of the plant being's attack, and so only ended up with a mildly savage beating. As Chiyo was carried skyward once more, the space cadet walked slowly along underneath her, clutching her arm to her side, looking upward with an oddly expectant expression.

Kurosawa tried to rise and make another sprint, but she noticed something that brought her up short. The vines weren't attacking Osaka--in fact, there was a clear space in the air above her, occupied only by something flickering and indistinct… but what on Earth could it--?

VOIP!

The vines encircling Chiyo-chan fell free and she hit the shallows with an unceremonious plop. By accident or design, Osaka was already by her side the moment she landed, and knelt to hold her head above water while the vines regrouped. "Oh, good…" Osaka murmured, "You're still breathin'… that's good…"

At some point Sakaki had found her feet as well, and now plodded unsteadily through the shallows towards them. She was the first to notice the monster's counterattack but her warning froze in her throat, along with her heart. Breaking through the mist above Osaka and Chiyo was a veritable skyscraper of twisted vines—a great net, a tangle, an unfathomable, seething mass of plant-matter, shrieking down on the two girls like a squirming comet…

"Os--!" Sakaki choked.

V-V-V-VO-VOIP!

…and it was hacked apart by something every bit as unfathomable. Sakaki tried vainly to blink the pink afterimages out of her eyes; she remembered that sound from her ill-fated visit to Sendai, but she'd never had the misfortune of looking directly into an Astral Blade before.

When her vision finally cleared to the point that she could distinguish shapes, Sakaki saw her two friends huddled in the midst of what looked like a pile of green beans of the Gods. There was utter silence; a distinct lack of humming menace in the air told Sakaki that the attack was over, at least for now.

"Wh-what?" Osaka suddenly gasped. "What is this? Chiyo-chan? Chiyo!"

At the desperate note in her friend's voice, Sakaki's heart leapt back to her throat and froze again. She started towards them, speeding up when she saw Osaka frantically do something that resulted in a tearing sound and a gout of blood. "Chiyo!"

Sakaki took Osaka's shoulders and pulled her back from the stricken child, but she resisted with lunatic strength. After hauling Sakaki forward a few incredible steps, though, Osaka's strength suddenly gave out and she collapsed in the knee-deep water. Thoroughly weirded out by the atmosphere and dreading what she would find, Sakaki edged around her towards the plant victim.

At first it didn't look so bad; the thicker limbs holding Chiyo had sloughed away in the water, drifting about her like grotesque streamers. But there were paler, thinner vines that still clung to her--no, on second thought, Sakaki realized they actually looked more like clear, flaccid roots. Her stomach turned when she saw the series of puncture wounds down her neck and arm where Osaka had torn one away.

Moving with gentle swiftness that would later serve her well as a veterinarian, Sakaki gathered the girl up in her arms and started for shore, Osaka shambling emptily in her wake. The rest of their party was recovering slowly, moving in a sort of daze that enhanced the surreal aspect the sunlit fog threw them into.

"Ms. Yukari!" Yukari jumped; she wasn't used to hearing Tomo address her so respectfully—or urgently. "What- what now?" The genki girl's eyes were wide, her face pale and bruised. Though she would have scoffed at the idea even ten minutes before, she was now just a child that needed to be told what to do.

"The hell if I know!" Unfortunately, at this juncture, so was Yukari.

"Sakaki, are you all right?" Kaori rushed to her idol. "Oh my God, you saved Chiyo-chan!"

"Er…" Sakaki glanced uncomfortably to Osaka, who disclaimed, "Wasn't me, neither."

"Is she okay? What happened to her a--?"

"Is everyone here? Say aye!" Kurosawa called forcefully.

"Aye," Yomi answered.

"Aye," Kaori was still preoccupied by Chiyo's strange wounds.

"Oww…" Sandra moaned, finally reaching her feet.

"AYE!" Tomo yelled, glad to finally have something to do.

"AYE!" Kagura yelled three times as loud. Though even she recognized that her competitive instincts were completely inappropriate at the moment, she was in no condition to try and rein them in.

"Not so loud!" Yukari moaned, rubbing her temples.

By way of response, Sakaki turned towards Kurosawa, showing her Chiyo as well. There was a good five-second pause, then finally Osaka said, "Yo."

"Okay, good…" Nyamo sighed heavily. "To the cars. March."

Apart from poor Chiyo-chan, the injuries from the Attack of Biollante were surprisingly minor. At Nyamo's ironclad insistence (set against the protests of Yukari, who just wanted to go home and go to bed,) they drove to the hospital straightaway. Chiyo was whisked away instantly, and the others checked over in their turn while parents were called and arrangements made.

Only two of the remainder had to stay; Yomi, who, apart from her particularly nasty beating, had been scraped by a thorn from one of the vines and come down with a mild case of poisoning, and Osaka, who'd suffered a broken collarbone and a mild concussion. Fortunately, their stay was a short one.

"Yomiiiii!" Tomo cried in exuberant greeting, throwing her arms around the taller girl and nearly toppling her. The scene caused quite a few heads to turn, but this sort of thing must happen fairly often around here. A pale blue sky shone through great skylights, taunting those still trapped in the hospital's bright-but-soulless halls.

"Agh! Bruised ribs! Idiot!" Yomi grunted in response, though even the insult sounded a little affectionate. She returned the hug a little haphazardly, greeting her mother over Tomo's head. "Thanks for coming so early."

"Don't worry about it, dear," Mrs. Mizuhara swept forth and embraced her daughter much more gently; Tomo had to squeak out of between them before she was squished. "Are you all right? You weren't lonely, were you?"

"Osaka was here, and our friends visited every day," Yomi smiled faintly. "It wasn't even a week. You shouldn't worry so much…"

"I shouldn't worry? I almost lose my only daughter to some carnivorous artichoke and you say I shouldn't worry? My word, to think that the last thing you heard from me would have been all those awful things I said about your grades…"

"It's okay, really."

Tomo wandered away, seeing no opening for her to worm into the conversation and become the center of attention. She'd left a sufficient impression on her best friend for the time being anyway. Glancing the lobby over, she quickly espied Osaka walking towards the front desk.

"Sorry, 'hon, no word on your friend," the receptionist said patiently before she even drew near. The space cadet sagged in place, looking so heartbreakingly fragile that Tomo was struck with the uncontrollable urge to rush over and sock her in the arm.

"Ow! Who-?" Osaka's panic melted into relieved calm when she saw Tomo. "Oh… shoulda guessed."

Suddenly remembering that her friend was injured, the Takinator gave one of her rare apologetic gestures. "Sorry, I didn't cripple you or anything, right?"

"Ah, I'm fine. Especially since I've got this," with a flourish, Osaka withdrew what looked like a retractable pen or a broken joystick and gave it a few clicks. Clicka-clicka-click! "Eeheehee…"

"Um… what is it?"

"It's a morphine clicker." Clicka-clicka-click!

"But it's not attached to anything."

"Then why am I so loopy right now?"

Tomo opened her mouth to give the obvious answer, but sometimes Osaka just made it too easy. "What were you gonna ask her about?" she asked instead, jerking a thumb towards the receptionist.

Osaka's expression fell. "It's Chiyo-chan… she's not better yet."

"Hey, don't worry. These things work themselves out, right? We all survived the alien invasion, right?" Tomo blinked, remembering who she was talking to. "Uh… sorta?"

"Mm…" In spite of the Takinator's artificial high spirits, the mood was dead.

"Oh, and Ayumu-dear?" Mrs. Mizuhara called, "Your father called and asked me to pick you up, as well." Mr. Kasuga was on a business trip just then; if Mrs. Mizuhara wondered why Osaka's mother couldn't come get her, she was too polite to ask.

"Actually," Tomo said almost-quietly as they started back towards the Mizuharas, "Maybe we should visit Chiyosuke before we…" It was instantly obvious that Osaka didn't like that idea one bit; in the face of that mighty cringe, even Tomo's nonexistent tact was stirred. "Well, sometime."

"Tomo, you can stay the night, if you like," Mrs. Mizuhara offered.

"Could I, too?" Osaka asked. Her fellow anti-Bonkura recognized the look about her: refuge. This made Tomo wonder a little--everyone was worried about Chiyo-chan, but Osaka seemed to be taking it particularly hard. Still, after having the snot beaten out of her by an ambulatory plant the size of the Chrysler Building, she agreed that there was plenty to take refuge from.

The sun was high in the sky, the wind rushed peacefully through Biollante's fronds, and it was almost impossible to imagine anything terrible happening on that beautiful stretch of beach. The obligatory swarm of military and scientific personnel had gathered, taking over the summer home as their base of operations, but they really didn't have a whole lot to do yet.

Mr. Mihama walked down to the very edge of the water and stared up at the gently stirring blue petals, ignoring the prattle and buzz of the useless experts surrounding him. "Damn," he muttered. "You actually did it. I underestimated you… Ogawa."