She evaluated the wall of moving vines. Claudia knew Artie was up there but had no idea what to do about it. "Screw it!" she said. She climbed on top of a crate and grabbed on to the next highest shelf. Using the central supports she climbed even with the lowest hanging vines. She grabbed one to help her up but let go quickly when it moved. She stared at it and suddenly wondered if her approach was- How would Artie put it? Ah yes- stupid. She was answered when a feeding tube swiped at her, tearing the shirt on her forearm. "Hey!" she protested. The barbed tube then stabbed at her hand. "OW!"
Claudia let go and dropped a few shelves to the warehouse floor. She wiped the blood away and squeezed her hand to stop the bleeding. "Ok. This changes things." she said. The vines lowered themselves and created a wiggling wall of defense in front of her. One vine slowly slipped towards her. Torn between running for help and not abandoning her boss, Claudia held her ground. She watched as the leaf carefully cupped her drop of blood up from the floor. It gracefully arced and maneuvered the drop to roll down towards it's stem. The stem turned red as the drop was absorbed into it's pores. Claudia's eyes went wide with understanding.
Breathing hard in excitement, she slowly backed up from the threat. She knew that as it was she couldn't do anything against the vines. She had no weapon on her either. What am I going to do? Plier them to death? She also knew that she had to help Artie. She needed something. She kept backing up until she thought was out of range of their grasp.
"Think Claudia! Where am I?" She knew there had to be something of use in the warehouse. She located her row number then racked her brain. Suddenly she remembered Artie's map. She drew it out of her pocket. She eyes went wide with recognition. "Score…." She started off at a dead sprint to the blade storage area.
(In the blade storage area)
Claudia skidded past the entrance, stumbled and doubled back. Breathless from her run, she smiled at the rows of deadly bladed weapons.
"Niiiice!" she breathed. She passed up poled weapons taller than she was for the shorter sword section. "Ok! Come on- useful!" she cheered. She started reading labels. Last thing she wanted was to get in more trouble than she already was by grabbing the wrong artifact.
"'Traps user in handle" N-no. 'Increases bloodlust" Pass. 'Makes wielder go insane', 'Causes blindness' Seriously?" she cried in frustration. The next in line were knives. She was drawn to a particularly wicked looking curved knife and prayed a little as she read the label. "'Never needs sharpening.' Good enough!" She grabbed the knife.
She took one last look around when she saw it. She knew instantly that this was her weapon. There, standing out from all the other impressive looking blades was a worn wood cutter ax.
"Level up!" she whispered.
Claudia approached wide eyed. She just knew this was what she was looking for. She read the artifact's note card. "'Instantly kills trees.'" An evil grin spread over Claudia's face. She pulled a set of locking pliers from the magnetized portion on the side of her tool belt. The wicked looking knife elegantly curved around her hip when she attached it to the magnet. Her freed hands reverently reached out for the ax. It was heavy but not overly so, and was well balanced in her hands. A savage look emerged in Claudia's eyes. She spun and faced the direction of the vines. Her lip curled.
"Time for some pruning."
(Elsewhere)
By using Leena's technique, Artie was able to lower his breathing and heart rate. He closed his eyes to help counter his panic. The vines responded by releasing the pressure squeezing the agent. Artie concentrated to remain calm against the pain that returning circulation brought to his limbs. He tried to keep count as he was bumped against shelves then drug over the top of the rows but he lost all reference when the vines seemed to change directions.
Artie decided to risk a peek to try to figure out where he was headed. He opened his eyes only to see the warehouse floor far below. His heart rate jumped and the vines responded by tightening their grip. Artie grimaced and shut his eyes again. His heart rate was slowing, but his brain was in full gear. From his glimpse, he was able to tell that he was heading south in the warehouse. What is down there to cause this? His thoughts raced through 30 years of artifact collecting and maintaining. He remembered the feeder tubes that collected his blood and instantly he knew. His eyes flicked open. "The Matis Jaguar" he whispered.
The Jaguar was a wooden figure from the Matis Indian Tribe from the Amazon. Although they were fierce warriors, they had one member who was insanely brutal. He turned cannibal and the tribe's Shaman had no choice but to entrap him in a figurine using the energies of the forest. But the Jaguar retained the cannibal's taste for blood. The energies the Shaman used to create the artifact also gave it influence over plant life. Artie had no idea how a plant got into the warehouse or how it came in contact with the Jaguar. This vine looked like a version of a vine commonly found in homes and offices, but this one was clearly twisted by the artifact. Not that it mattered though. He knew that the Jaguar had to have physical contact with the plants to control them. If he could somehow separate the plant from the artifact, that would break its influence. Exactly how he would do that, Artie had no idea.