Part Three
Oh, the simple mortals. Always asking for a demonstration like Carly was so freak show, like her powers hadn't cost her everything. People assume that all superheroes are like Thor, born into it. Truth was, most of them came into their powers by accident. Or through deliberate acts with unintended consequences. And sometimes through some inexplicable mutation.
Carly wondered if someday she'd forget what it was like to be human, to not have skin that didn't move on its own, to go places without being noticed. Or even sleep in a bed without having to pull out roots every morning.
"Let me down! Come on!"
Carly reached up with vines and carried him to the ground, keeping him wrapped. "Listen, José. I may be a freak, but I'm not a sideshow. Besides, you don't want to see my true power. You wouldn't want what I'd leave behind."
"You talk big, Chica."
Carly could see how brave he was trying to be. Macho. It was cute.
"Take me to this Green Monster. Now."
José struggled, but Carly resisted. He stopped. "Okay. No problem."
Carly let him go.
José dusted himself off, nodded to his friend who just held his hands up whenever Carly eyed him. "This way, Chica."
Carly parted the jungle before them so they could walk without having to swing their machetes and accidently hack her. They came across a clearing that contained smashed jeeps and Humvees, broken equipment, and trees with trunks that looked like they had been punched.
"What happened here?"
"A week ago," said José. "The Green Monster Woman. Someone had stolen supplies from the Clinic. Green Monster no like that."
"Wow." The equipment had been literally ripped apart. Like someone was mad at it. Engines cracked, drive trains thrown around. Bullet casings everywhere. "How many died?"
"Died? Oh, so many. A bath of blood. Men torn limb from limb, bitten in half, stomped like bugs."
"I don't think I like this Green Monster." Had to be why she was here. Find out the Green Monster's secrets, see if she could be recruited. Damn Dad, never telling her the truth about anything.
"But compared to you, Jungle Goddess, this Green Monster like bug, no?"
Carly eyed the wreckage. "She seems pretty strong."
"But you are destroyer of cities."
"I'm just a girl, José. A chica, as you say."
"Sure, Chica."
They traveled down the same road the vehicles had been on. They passed into a ramshackle village, all plywood and corrugated metal shacks. Carly retracted all her vines until she was just a mossy girl. All she needed was one of the villages with a cell or sat phone to call it in, but she heard whispers of "Green Monster" and they kept their distance. Good. Local legend, no one's going to call CNN or S.H.I.E.L.D.
They arrived at a compound with a rifle-bearing guard.
"Chica wants to see the La Abrogada." The girl lawyer?
The guard eyed them like he saw green monsters every day. He told them to wait and entered the locked compound. A woman emerged, red hair pulled back into a long ponytail. "This better be good," she said in English. She wore a white lab coat. Glasses dangled at the end of her nose. Mid-thirties, freckles. Smarts. Her eyes went wide when she noticed Carly.
Carly extended a hand dripping with green tendrils. "Carly." She didn't want to use the name 'Wild Flower' unless she had to.
"Jennifer Walters." The woman eyed the hand and gripped it. Firm. "What do want? I'm trying to run a clinic here."
"What kind of clinic?"
The woman sighed, waved Carly through the gate. José excused himself, claiming he needed to deal with something. Carly thanked him and followed the woman. Inside the gate, laying outside but under shade, were dozens of cots. Mostly children, some adults.
"A hospital?"
"Yes," said the woman. "I'm watching this facility for my cousin while he's away. Now, what is your business here?"
One of the kids coughed violently, wiped blood from his mouth.
"Is he going to be okay?" Poor kid looked miserable.
"Without medicine? Hard to say."
"May I?" Carly moved to the boy.
Jennifer put a hand on her chest. "Not so fast, Carly. I'm not unaware of who you are."
Carly frowned. Damn her reputation. "I can help him."
"I'm sure you can. But not in this clinic. Now I'm going to have to insist that you leave."
The boy coughed again, his tiny body spasming. "He needs help!"
Carly moved, but the woman intercepted her. "Wild Flower. Walk away. Please. I can only guess what brought you here, but you really need to leave. You are not welcome."
The boy gasped, unable to draw breath. A doctor called to Jennifer. "We're going to have to intubate."
"We're out of kits," Jennifer called back. "Dammit."
Carly ran a tendril from her foot along the ground, over to the boy. But the woman was sharp.
"Hey! I'm warning you, do not interfere with this clinic."
Carly withdrew the tendril. She pointed a finger at the woman. "If he dies, it's on you."
"If he dies, it's on the government who's trying to destroy region by blocking all shipments of medicine and supplies."
"But he'll still be dead."
The boy was turning blue. The doctor rushed to him, clapped his back, but he was fading. Carly could feel it.
