Sea of Green
By Zebeckras
A/N: Well, my goal was to get the 8th chapter of this up before 2010 came to a close and I did it! Unfortunately when I made that goal I thought this fic would be 8 chapters long. Instead it's going to have a 9th chapter (and I think the final chapter is going to be a little longer than the others just so I can be sure I cram everything in). Ah, well. I got this far! I'll have the final chapter up no later than January 27, I promise! Earlier if possible. Thanks for reading, thanks for reviewing, please review this chapter (please?), and see you next time!
Act III, Chapter 2
There wasn't a lot to eat that was readily prepared, and none of the plants seemed ready to cook anything, so Beth was getting hungry. On the other hand, somehow or other Bushroot managed to get them operating a helium tank and so within fifteen minutes everyone in the area had at least one balloon (with the exception of the smaller flowers, who had had theirs confiscated when it became clear they were prone to floating away).
The whole image was quite surreal to Beth: a park full of sentient plants and their balloons. She'd nearly turned hers down, but then decided it would look rude, and she was still hoping to keep things as cordial as possible.
So far, so good. Bushroot seemed responsive to the little conversation she was able to provide, and she was starting to think that she might even be able to talk him into reversing whatever he'd done to the plants and letting everyone out again. Surely he didn't really intend to keep them inside forever...
But he'd killed his colleagues, a voice at the back of her head reminded her. Accidental or not, he'd killed them...
She shook her head. She couldn't think of that, or else she might not be able to keep up her pleasant attitude with him. She had to stay friendly.
The plant thing - her honest liking of them, his inquiring about that - had been lucky. She could play that up. She turned and looked at him; he was walking about holding a pink balloon, which brought a smile to her face.
"So, Dr- Um, Reggie," she began, with the intent of making another stab at friendly conversation, "what's it like? The, the whole plant-duck thing, I mean."
Bushroot cocked his head, evidently considering the question, and said thoughtfully, "Oh, you know... It's new, exciting, different... You've got to get used to a whole different kind of eating, drinking through your roots, so on... then there's the telepathy, the regeneration, the being in constant touch with nature - that's all pretty great. A few things are little inconveniences, like the dependence on the sun, the constant risk of leaf mites... The crushing loneliness of knowing you're the only one of your kind..."
He looked at her, then, right into her eyes; and she found that she didn't have anything to say in response. After a moment, he smiled and shrugged. "Just like any other kind of life, I guess," he said lightly. The look in his eyes was not so light.
She had to think of something to say, but nothing was coming; so she was still standing there with her mouth slightly open just staring when the hibiscus bush came up and gestured wildly. Bushroot's eyes narrowed. "He was? Did they get him?" More gesturing, and then Bushroot clenched his lefthand leaf into a fist and practically growled. "I knew he'd show up sooner or later! I just knew he couldn't keep his giant bill out of my life!"
"Who? What's happened?" Beth asked urgently; any sign of negative emotion made her nervous, and Bushroot seemed able to flip on a switch at pretty much any given time.
"Oh, who else. Darkwing Duck is out and about, ready to ruin my life yet again. He's already ransacked my greenhouse." He sighed. "He won't stop at anything to track us down. Hate to cut things short, but it looks like we'll have to get going."
She noticed the "us" and felt uncomfortable. "Oh. Um. Going? Where would we go? Should I... should I go home?" The idea that this might be her chance, at last, was so appealing that she could scarcely keep the eagerness from creeping into her voice.
He shook his head. "Nah, stick with me. The best place to go is the greenhouse - it's cozy, you'll love it, and I've even got it kind of furnished!" He took her hand and started walking, and she was forced to follow, albeit reluctantly.
"Well - wait, didn't you just say Darkwing had ransacked...?"
"That's why it's the best place," Bushroot explained as they went. "He won't think to look there again for a while, so we'll have some time to get ready for him. Although..." He paused, thought for a moment, and then addressed the hibiscus. "Tell everyone to keep an eye out for Darkwing, wherever he might turn up, and if they see him to just pull him into pieces."
"NO!" Beth said, surprising even herself. She tugged at Bushroot desperately. "You can't do that! You can't just kill things! No killing!" When she saw how he was staring at her, she quailed just slightly. "Um... please."
He remained silent a moment longer, then said gently, "Beth, I know where you're coming from, and believe me... I'm a pacifist too! But with Darkwing you have to make an exception. Darkwing just doesn't *stop*. I've tangled with him before and he's like crabgrass... the only way to get rid of him is to wipe him out completely."
She shook her head forcefully. "I'll talk to him. I'll talk to him for you and... and I'll vouch for you. Then you can put everything back the way it was, and he'll have to leave you alone!"
Bushroot smiled at her almost fondly. "Gee, you'd do that for me?"
"Sure!" Now that she'd said that she would, she'd have to, although given the option she'd much prefer to write a strongly-worded letter. Still, though, if it would help... She was no longer sure if she was more interested in helping Bushroot, or herself at this point.
He shifted his grip on her hand so that he was holding it fully instead of just gripping it to pull her along. "If only that would work," he said softly. "Well, for you... I'll try. We can't reason with Darkwing, but we'll see what else we can do." Addressing the hibiscus, he said, "Cancel that 'pull him apart' order and just keep an eye out for him. Slow him down any way you can, and report back to me regularly with any news about his location." He turned back to Beth. "That should give us some time to get ready. I've got an idea."
His tone sounded much more positive, and Beth's hopes buoyed. She was in so far over her head, but maybe this was about to take a better turn; she couldn't help hoping that Darkwing Duck's involvement would be good for her, and at least, maybe she could minimize the impact it would have on Bushroot. She let herself be led to Bushroot's greenhouse.
The island city of St. Canard was not small, but it could be covered quickly by jet. If all you needed was to get from one side of the city to another, a jaunt in the ThunderQuack could get you there in under ten minutes, assuming that the wind conditions were right and that you didn't mind a very sudden, rough, potentially life-threatening landing.
Patrolling was different, though. Patrolling had to be done at a lower altitude to catch the details, more slowly to be sure you didn't skip important parts, and with several passes so that you knew you were seeing what you thought you were seeing. In the evenings Darkwing usually contented himself with a general extended ride-around so that he could investigate anything that looked out of place.
Right now, in the mid-afternoon searching for a single plant in the middle of a city of plants, a different kind of patrolling was needed. This was a case for serious scrutiny, for multiple examinations of minutiae, for absolute attention to any article of interest. They were criss-crossing each area multiple times in order to be sure of the environment; it was time-consuming and deeply, deeply boring.
But Darkwing knew that he alone stood the possibility of noticing the kind of tiny clue they were looking for - that no one else could possibly... He cut himself off abruptly and raised his binoculars to his eyes as they passed over an amusement park. "It-"
"Hey Dad, check it out!" said Gosalyn, at the same moment that Launchpad put in, "Look DW, that ferris wheel's moving!"
"I know! I was just about to say that!" Darkwing threw down the binoculars and turned to glare at them. "Don't point things out until I get the chance to!"
"Uh, okay..." Launchpad said, scratching his head.
"Brother," Gosalyn muttered.
Darkwing ignored them and turned back to the windshield. "Take us down, LP, we need to check that out."
The amusement park was active, with the rides running, but essentially empty. There were a few scattered leaves all over the park, but no live plants in sight. "They were here, though," said Darkwing as they walked through the park. "He was here."
"Too bad they didn't leave footprints so we could figure out where he went," Launchpad said.
"Or a breadcrumb trail," added Gosalyn. "Dad, what do we do? Just get back in the plane and keep flying around? This isn't telling us anything."
"We'll find something," said Darkwing, who was not about to admit that they weren't going to find anything. He pulled out his magnifying glass and scoured the ground with it. "Everyone leaves some kind of a trail, and all it takes is a trained eye to locate that trail and follow it to its logical end."
Gosalyn and Launchpad followed him silently for a few moments as he half-walked, half-crawled down the streets of the park. After about five minutes, Gosalyn asked, "Um, Dad? Do you... actually have any particular thing you're looking for?"
"I'll know it when I see it," Darkwing answered in a mutter. His back was starting to hurt.
Launchpad pointed across the street. "Is it that? 'Cause if not, uh, maybe we oughta get moving."
Darkwing looked up to see another swarm of plant life coming their way. He resisted the urge to throw the magnifying glass at them before making a run for it, and instead replaced it inside his cape and pulled out his gas gun with the chopper attachment he'd put on earlier. "Keep behind me, both of you," he said authoritatively, "this is going to get messy."
The air was filled with a persistant buzzing, and then a moment later, with a lot of small pieces of leaves.
It was messy. But it was relatively quick.
"Keen gear, Dad, that was wicked!" said Gosalyn exuberantly as the air cleared.
Darkwing put the gun away, but looked around warily. "I don't think that'll be the last of them. Let's get back to the ThunderQuack and get airborne before Round 2." Movement caught his eye and he turned to see a single, smaller bush making a run for it.
"That little guy's getting away!" Launchpad said, but Darkwing shook his head.
"Let him go. We need to get in the air right away - that little guy is going to take us straight to the Vegetable In Charge."
His greenhouse had a gaping hole in it when he arrived home, and Bushroot frowned but said nothing. He led Beth inside with as gentlemanly an air as he could muster, and asked if there was anything she needed.
"Um, well..." She looked around, as if for inspiration, and then she asked, "Do you have any herbal tea?"
"Herbal tea?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, and she turned slightly pink.
"Oh - oh, I guess you wouldn't, would you? Well... um... anything to drink at all, then?"
"Well, I have some coffee but it's made from fertilizer... Y'know, once you get used to the taste it's really addictive."
She made a face. "That's okay. I'm not much for coffee anyway."
He smiled; Rhoda had been a coffee fiend, he remembered. She would only drink it with two sugars, though, and cream, and if possible she always preferred a latte. He shook himself out of the memory. "Uh, there is plenty of water around... Hold on and I'll find you a cup or something..."
Once he'd unearthed something that was vaguely cup-shaped, she took it and insisted on washing it out herself so that he could put things in order. After that she wandered around and he heard her periodically gasping or speaking quietly. At one point she called to him, "You have cuttings from a scoliopus hallii?"
"Oh, oh yeah... I was hoping to breed a hybrid with Eminium regelii so that it could seed better but I haven't gotten around to it yet."
She appeared from behind a hanging of garden hose, wide-eyed and smiling. "This is amazing! You have everything! It's - it's like being in a candy store!"
Bushroot grinned. "Aw, I don't even have half of the things I'd really like," he said modestly. "But I'm working on that."
"You don't mind if I keep looking around, do you?"
"Hey, of course not! Make yourself at home!" He watched her disappear into the wilds of the greenhouse again, and then turned back to the formula he'd been working on for the past few minutes.
It was nearly ten minutes before he was finished, and it was longer than that before she turned up again, this time holding a potted, half-formed growth of pleione and looking at him in questioning amazement.
"Like it?"
"You can't even get this here!" she said breathlessly.
He shrugged. "I have friends in low places."
"Gosh." She put the pot down, very gently, and joined him at his workbench. "What're you doing?"
"Just finishing something up. Hey, you hungry?"
Beth looked relieved, and for some reason, guilty. "Oh boy, am I glad you asked that. I didn't want to be rude or anything but I haven't eaten in hours and sometimes if I don't eat I get kind of light-headed, and I think it might be happening now, and I hope you don't mind my doing this but I checked and I didn't see anything around here that looked like, um, people food..."
"Yeah... we don't keep a lot of that here." He lifted the vial of formula he'd just completed. "You could try this..."
She looked around the greenhouse again, only half-attending to him. Her answer didn't seem to be in response to what he'd just offered. "I was thinking, also, you know, speaking of getting hungry - I left Stella at home alone, she's my plant-"
"Really? Just one plant?"
"Oh, well no, not really. But Stella is a Tropical Blue Blossom and she has a funky watering schedule where she only needs watering every two-"
"Two-and-a-half days," he put in, and she nodded.
"Right! So anyway, this morning was the watering day and I missed it, and I'm getting worried..."
The stammer was gone, he noticed. On the other hand, it seemed to have been replaced by what she called 'light-headedness', and so her sentences were all twice as long as they needed to be. He put a hand on her shoulder, trying to focus her a little. "Okay, tell you what. Once we get everything straightened out with Darkwing Duck, we'll go by your place and take care of Stella."
She blinked at him, and then her eyes lowered away from him. "Oh. Um, sure, we could do that."
She didn't say that she wanted to go home by herself, and she didn't have to. He could tell anyway. He withdrew his hand, and looked over the rim of the vial he'd been working with, at the bright green formula within. All the time they'd spent together all day, and she still wanted to leave him... No matter what, she'd always want to leave him. There was no way to make her want to stay.
He looked back up at her, and held up the vial again. "So - you should really drink this."
Beth's attention was caught this time. "That? It's awfully... green," she said dubiously. "Um, what is it?"
He had nothing to lose, he figured, by telling her the truth. "It's a chlorophyllic formula that would... well, it'd basically alter your cells and turn them from animal to plant."
She didn't speak or move.
"You know, like me," he added.
She still didn't move, she just stared at him. Her eyes were wide and, he noticed now, very very blue.
In a weak attempt at joke, he said, "It'd solve your hunger problems..."
"I-" Beth spoke just one syllable, and then stopped, and then started again. Her voice was very low. "I... don't want to be a plant."
"It's really not a bad thing! In fact it has a lot of advantages!"
"But I don't want to," she said again, slightly louder this time.
He lowered the vial and stared at her, pleading with his eyes. "You said you'd help me against Darkwing Duck."
"Of course I will! But I, I don't have to be a *plant* to talk to him!"
"Talking won't work! Believe me, I oughta know!"
She frowned. "Then I don't know what you expect me to-"
Bushroot waved his hands, gesturing at himself. "All this stuff I can do? You'll be able to do it too! And there's no way he could fight two of us! And, and we wouldn't need to kill him," he added, anticipating her argument. "Once he sees we're unstoppable he'll have to let us go, and we can... go wherever we want." He slowed as he finished, because she was looking at him like she didn't know who he was. Like she'd mistaken him for someone else and was just now realizing that.
After a few moments of silence, Beth broke eye contact and stared at the floor. With her arms crossed tightly across her chest she said, "I'm not going to drink that, Reggie. I'll still help you but I'm not going to do that for you."
Bushroot looked down as well, and he saw her feet, just inches away from his own roots. He watched as vines crept around them, and started up her legs, and then he sighed as she gave an alarmed squeak when she realized what was happening. "Wow. Boy, I wish you hadn't said that," he said sadly.
She was restrained quickly, but she was terrified, pulling at the plants pinning her arms to her body. "Wait! Reggie! Reggie, please-"
He stepped forward and waved his hands. "No no, don't be scared! Beth, Beth, I'm not going to hurt you! I promise!"
"...No..?" she asked, slowing a little but still clearly frightened.
Smiling a little, he cupped her face in his hand. "I promise. I'm not that kind of guy."
"Okay..."
He gestured to the plants that they should move her over to the operation tables he had never gotten rid of, the ones he'd looked at so many times after Rhoda and thought he should just uproot them and throw them out, but had kept out of a vague sense that he might have use for them one day. As they transported her he said, "It just means we're going to have to do this the hard way."