Well this took a while huh? sorry for the time it took posting. I was hit by the 'rona virus, I'm okay now but it delayed some stuff. I would like to mention that I've started to post this fic in Ao3 and I'm not sure why, maybe I just wanna check out the people in both websites? Anyway the first chapters are already there and I'm planning on updating the two sites at the same time. I'm staying in both places unless I find something that really bothers me on one site or the other.
Actually there's something you can do for me: I'm pretty new with writing fanfics so Idk which site ( or Ao3) is better or if they have any advantages, so if anyone could give me the cons and pros of the two sites I would appreciate it. I'm not going to stop uploading on both sites but I wanna know, it makes me really curious.
Anyway here's the fic in Ao3 go give it some love if you /works/36557347
Shout out to Ultimateheatblast4 for the review and for telling me I could rate this fic T, thank you pal
Extra long chapter for the time it took me to post this! With some action scenes (finally)
The usual crap:
If you could send me a review that would be great! (not that I´m forcing you), all feedback is appreciated!
English isn't my first language , please tell me if you spot any mistakes!.
Disclaimer: I don't own the owl house, all the characters belong to Disney and Danna Terrace. This AU idea belongs to moringmark.
:Gravesfield streets / July 9st 10:00 AM:
-Luz-
Luz rolled into the ground and dodged just in time as a thorny vine shot through her head and grabbed a person that was standing behind her, the human that was trying to record the whole thing with their phone screamed at the top of their lungs as the plant lifted tem in the air.
That wasn't the only person: several bystanders who got close to inspect the crack on the pavement had vines lunged at them, most of them weren't prepared like Luz and weren't able to dodge them so they ended up suspended in the air by the plant. This commotion managed to grab the attention of the people in the traffic, the plant's appearance was so sudden that several people didn't notice it at first and went along with their days, but the screams made them come closer to investigate what was going on.
It was a big mistake.
The plant seemed to react to them and it did not like the amount of people getting near, it twisted and turned while making the people caught on it's branches look like they were in a ride from an amusement park. At this point the people in the cars noticed it and started to drive away in panic or at least attempted to: since this was a really crowded street in the middle of a traffic jam it wasn't easy for them to drive away, not to mention that only the people in the nearby blocks were aware of the emergency while others were wondering why people were screaming. Some of them gave up on trying to drive away and just abandoned their vehicles to escape from the plant but this was a popular street, there were a lot of cars that were trying to drive away and now they had to dodge the people running in the street.
To make things worse the plant stopped twisting for a second and stood still, making everyone think it was over, only for the ground to shake once more as several roots appeared from cracks in many spots from below the streets and started grabbing cars.
It was a nightmare.
Luz saw how a boy a few years older than her was walking aimlessly in the street, he had those cables that humans put in their ears to listen to music and was behaving as if nothing was happening. Luz had tried that particular contraption once when Eda showed her how to use it and it had been really overwhelming for her but she understood that basically the boy had no way of knowing what was happening around him. She saw how one of the branches suddenly twirled in his direction ready to strike at him and… Before she knew it Luz was running towards him.
Luz had no idea why or when she started running, all that she knew was that one second she was standing in the middle of the road and the next she was dashing towards the guy. She managed to tackle him to the ground before the plant got him and once she got up the displeased teenager gave her an annoyed look.
"Hey! What gives?" Luz was too tired to answer so she just pointed at the humongous plant with an exasperated huff "WhoaaaAAAHH! What the hell is that?" The guy rubbed his eyes for a bit to check if he was actually dreaming before getting up to run away screaming.
"You are welcome by the way!" Luz called at him in anger.
"Mommy?" Luz heard a voice behind her and she turned in that direction. She saw how a little girl no older than eight was stuck inside a car, she was struggling against those straps humans put inside the cars as a safety measure. "Mommy, where are you?"
"Uuh hi I'm coming!" Luz again rushed towards the little girl in the car, the plant wasn't near it but it was better to be safe than sorry "Hi hello! Do you… uh… Know where your parents are?"
"Dang I'm bad at this!"
"My mommy left to buy something, she left me with daddy but he's gone!" The girl was practically crying at this point "I want to get out!"
"Oh uhm yeah" Luz attempted to force the door to no avail, she still was getting used to cars and wasn't completely sure how they worked. Deciding that this was an emergency she drew a glyph in the air with her finger to unlock the door, once she was inside Luz stepped in to try to free the girl.
"No! Go away!"
"What? What did I do?" Did the girl somehow see her doing magic? Luz made sure to do it away from her field of vision!
"You are a stranger! Mom always tells me that I should get away from strangers! You are going to take me away" The girl managed to release herself from the seatbelt but moved further away from the door.
"Ahh" Luz facepalmed because that was a good reason and she should have seen this coming "But I'm not bad I promise, I came here to rescue you from the plant, see? Do I look like someone that would hurt you?" And then she gave the girl the most innocent look that she could muster.
But that seemed to scare the girl even more as she sunk deeper into the seat "That's what a bad guy would say!"
"Ok listen we don't have much time until that plant comes here, I'm sorry but you'll have to trust me" She reached forward to grab the girl but the entire car shook and made her lose balance, once she recovered Luz looked outside to see what happened. One of the tiny roots was growing just below the car and if it behaved like the others she saw it would be a matter of time until this vehicle was tossed in the air "Wow ok now we really don't have time, we need to go now"
"Noooo, I want my mommy!"
"We have to-" but then Luz saw something in the girl that might help her with this situation and decided to change tactics "Is that, an Azura fan club T-shirt?"
The girl blinked her eyes, totally stunned by the change of subject.
Luz was always amazed at how much the two world were so different yet so similar at the same time: both had the same language and written runes, similar concepts and objects, even the history of both places seemed to repeat the same cycles but what made Luz fill with wonder was when she discovered that her favorite thing ever was here too. It was one day after she came from doing some errands for Eda that she saw it, right in front of the Owl house was a bookshop and exhibited at the front of it was something Luz thought she would never see: The book 6 of the Good witch Azura series.
Luz had always been an avid fan of the series ever since she was 12 years old and stumbled upon the first book, what made everyone really like this series was the fact that the author was unknown to everyone, no one knew about 'Teressa Collins' her biography was a mystery and the people who owned the books did not know where did they came from. The version that most people agreed with was that one night near bonesborough a bunch of the copies of the first three books appeared in the middle of the main plaza, people couldn't explain it and just read them. It was a massive success and everyone wanted to read the next number but due to the way of acquiring the books it turned out to be difficult.
Along the years several people managed to get their hands on a few copies of the next numbers and were sold in the black market for a huge price. Luz called herself the biggest Azura fan and managed to get the books 4 and 5 in unconventional means. After she read the first three books and learned that they were holding the next two in the black market she made her personal mission to get them no matter the cost, she managed to get the number 4 by winning in a street fight tournament against colossal demons, she stole the number 5 from a mansion that belonged to a wealthy family. She was saddened to learn that no one knew about the sixth book and had given up years ago.
Until she saw it in the shop and made the connection: The books came from the human world! That's why no one knew anything about the author or the location of the books, they must've come through a random portal. Such an occurrence was rare but not impossible, sometimes trash from the human world ended up in all sorts of places without anyone knowing where it came from. That day she came back to the Owl house with sparks in her eyes and proudly announced to Eda that she would do any task she gave her if she brought her that book. The older woman took one look at the price tag and told her it was going to take her a while.
"I love those books too! My favorite character is Azura" She said, trying not to show the girl how distressed hse actually was "What's your name?"
"I'm… I'm cassie"
"Hello Cassie, my name is Luz" She extended a hand towards her "I'm a total azura fan"
*Sniff* "You are?" She still had mistrust in her voice but looked at her with curiosity.
"Yeah totally I'm a herzura shipper! I think that their interactions at the end of book four are more than definite proof that they will end up together!"
"Really?" The girl's eyes lit up when she heard this "That's what I tell all my friends! But they tell me that Hercate is going to end up dating Maximus"
"Pft, that guy? Hercate is too good for her"
"I know right?"
The moment was ruined when the car shook violently, the tiny root that was underneath it managed to grow a bit faster than Luz had anticipated and started to tip the car to the side, causing both Luz and the girl to fall forward. The vine grew and lifted the car into the air with the two of them inside.
"Eeep!" The girl cried.
"Cassie quickly, grab my hand!"
"But… where are we going to go?"
"There's no time to explain, just do it!" Seeing that the girl still wasn't convinced she added something else "It's just like Azura and Jake at the end of book three, sometimes you gotta believe! Please Cassie we don't have much time"
It sounded really cheesy even in her ears but it somehow worked and the girl took her hand. Luz did not wait a second and pulled her into a hug as she jumped out of the car, she casted a glyph as they were in the air and a light enveloped them.
Five minutes later
"Excuse me! Sir!" Luz called a policeman.
The man turned towards her with a stern glare and stopped her "Miss this is a dangerous area, you need to back away" And he pointed to the yellow lines blocking the street.
"I know but ahh… She lost her parents!" Luz said óinting at Cassie who was hiding behind her "And I was wondering if… uhh"
*Sigh*"Leave her with us then, we'll help find them" The man then pointed to another group of police that were standing nearby. "However we are kind of busy right now, she'll have to wait here"
"Thank you" She nodded to the policeman and kneeled to speak with Cassie "There you go, you are going to be fine with the police"
"Are you going to leave me as well?" The little girl's eyes were teary and Luz remembered that her father left her when the plant incident happened, she probably didn't like people leaving her.
"I have to go and uhh, deal with something" She looked back at how the plant was wreaking havoc down the street "don't worry I'll be back as soon as I can and we can talk about Azura as long as you want"
"Do you promise?"
"Of course!"
Then the girl raised her pinky finger and looked towards Luz like expecting something, she was unsure on what to do so she just grabbed the finger and shook it. That seemed to just anger the girl, she took Luz's own left pinky finger and laced it with her own.
"It's a promise" With that the girl left and went towards the policemen.
Luz stood there a while and smiled before turning around and running towards the nearest alley, the whole place was a mess: cars were piled over each other, the police had made barricades and a bunch of curious pedestrians were watching alongside a few reporters. Since everyone's attention was on the affected streets no one paid her any mind when she snuck up from behind. Luz ran until she was sure it was safe from prying eyes and hid behind a column to catch her breath, right now she needed to decide what was going to do: She could do something to help them, it wouldn't be easy and she would definitely be seen and recorded by the people at the scene, didn't she and Eda agreed that it would be better if she kept a low profile? But then again this was her fault. That plant clearly was magical and, as far as Luz could tell, nothing magical existed in this realm before the staff incident, her incident. Everything that was happening here was her fault, every dead or injured person was entirely her fault.
This was on her.
Without a second thought she summoned her palisman and robes, she figured that her cloak would be useful to hide her identity. She used another spell to put them on, a circle of light appeared at her feet and moved up her body, as it passed her clothes changed until she was fully clothed with her wild witch attire that she used in the boiling isles (A/N Imagine how Danny Phantom transforms and then you got a good visual). Grabbing her palisman she leaped and flew over the buildings, it would be idiotic to stick close to the ground with so many people watching. Before going to fight she breathed and took a moment to enjoy this, it has been a while since the last time she flew and who knew when she was going to be able to again, so she better enjoyed it now. She soared higher than the buildings and the city noises, she flew as high as the clouds and looked down to admire the view; This place was really different than the one she used to call home but she had gotten used to it somehow
After a few seconds of basking on the feeling of being able to fly she aimed her staff towards the ground and went forward, after descending for a couple seconds she could distinguish the shape of the plant and the humans attempting to fight it with little success. She accelerated and prepared a fire spell on her hand as she dove past the barricade made by the police, she dodged the vines coming from the ground and launched a huge fireball at the plant's main body. It exploded on impact causing all the vines to stop moving and allowing the people trapped in them to run away.
A collective gasp could be heard below her: The policemen fighting against the plant and the onlookers were looking and pointing at her, several reporters could be seen aiming their recording devices towards Luz and people were screaming at her.
"Well this isn't good, I gotta do something about it" then she casted an illusion spell to slightly change her appearance: Her skin complexion became darker and her hair acquired a darker color "That's better, at least I won't get recognized so easily anymore" Even if her cowl covered the lower part of her face she didn't want to take any chances.
She turned around to face the plant and with a twirl of her staff several fireballs were blasted towards the roots that were holding cars in the street (Luz was very careful to not aim close to the vehicles), the branches released them when they felt pain and went back underground. Luz made signals to the people trapped in the cars and shouted for them to get out, then she pointed towards the group of policemen that were carefully approaching behind her. The people got the message: as soon as the roots were completely underground they left their cars and bolted towards the safe area behind the armed men, the plant seemed to not like this and a group of vines lunged at them but Luz was prepared for it; she stepped in front of the attack and slammed her staff into the ground, a massive earth wall emerged from the point she was standing and shielded the group of humans. Luz looked back and saw how the people were received by the police and were put in a safe place, she also saw how some officers were getting near with their weapons aimed at her.
"Put your hands up and back away from the plant!" an old man holding one of those guns she had seen in her shows was glaring at her.
"I'm here to help! I'm not your enemy!" She was surprised by the confidence of her own voice and wondered where that was when she tried to order pizza a few days back.
"Who are you! And why should we trust you?"
"It doesn't matter who I am, the only thing you need to know is that I'm the only one who can stop that thing" Luz even forced her voice to sound older.
"She's right Evan, our boys weren't able to put up a fight at all, and now she managed to rescue like a dozen people! We should at least give her a chance…"
"Are you kidding me? Didn't you see what she just did? She's a freak! I bet this is all a show for…"
Luz decided to ignore the rambling man and turned around, something wasn't right. That plant managed to dig through concrete and her wall was made of the same thing, if it was interested in attacking it would have easily penetrated it by now. Deciding to risk the officer's wrath she leaped into her staff and flew up to the top of her wall and just like she expected the plant wasn't making any attempts to go to the other side, it still was moving around trying to catch cars and passerbys moving around but overall… wait.
"That 's it! Movement of course! It's a plant so it doesn't have the senses of sight or smell that a normal animal would, it responds to the movement of cars and people, that's why it didn't pursue past the wall! It stopped sensing movement"
She looked back at the angry man that was shouting at her for having the audacity to leave while he was trying to detain her. With a sigh she dropped down so they could hear her (But not close enough so they could shoot her).
"The plant responds to movement!" She screamed at the top of her lungs towards the law enforcers "Do not get your troops near or it will get even more aggressive! I'm going to free the people and take care of it but you need to stand down and help evacuate!"
"I ain't gotta do nutting that you say girly! Now tear down that wall so we can burn that weed or I'll blow it up myself!"
"Ugh why do I even bother, they are even stupider than the emperor's coven!" Luz rolled her eyes and somehow the guy below saw it.
"Just you wait missy, I called the army already and they are on their way! It's their job to deal with this alien bullshit not yours! If I were you I would fly away before they blast you off the sky!"
"Wait, the army?" Luz had never seen them in action but she saw shows about it and heard stories from Eda, apparently they came in those giant vehicles that have a cannon incorporated and their only response was to blow everything up. Luz wasn't sure if they would be able to destroy the plant but it was possible that several people would get injured in the fight. "Now I have a time limit, great"
Without wasting any second Luz flew away from the yelling man and addressed the situation, several people were running away from the vines without realizing that they were triggering more by doing that, at least three cars with people inside were held high in the air and… oh wow, the plant managed to grab a whole school bus filled with children. Luz decided to do one thing at the time so she leaped down and went straight for the people moving on the ground, she realized that even if the fire was really effective against the plant it was just a temporary solution: Those vines had regenerative qualities and it just made the branches back away for a second, so she needed a new strategy. While she ran Luz quickly drew an ice glyph in the air and she froze the branches chasing the people running.
"Follow me! Now!" Luz tried to project as much security as she could to the people, to be honest she was feeling really nervous inside.
The people were tired and confused but they did as asked and ran towards her. She jumped into her staff and acted as a shepherd dog guiding the herd from the air, whenever a root or a branch appeared she would freeze it immediately and repeat the citizens to not stop. Once they arrived at the earth wall she made a tunnel with an earth glyph to allow them to pass, once everyone was on the other side she collapsed the tunnel.
"Hey look boss, the girl is back! Heck she rescued more people!"
"I see it Jones, and don't let that fool you! She's probably doing that to…"
Luz didn't even give the policeman a chance to keep speaking and flew away again to do the same procedure as before: She would fly around in search of civilians in danger, gather a huge group of people, and defend them with ice spells while guiding them to safety. She asked many of them to tell her if some people were hidden and searched the whole area herself, but the branches that tried to grab her while she flew were making that hard. Finally after five minutes of constantly flying everyone that was on the ground was safe behind her wall, Luz even created more walls in other streets to make a more effective barricade, that only left the people trapped in cars.
"Ok, now for the hard part"
The people in their cars had been held twenty meters or more in the air for the last fifteen minutes or so, some of them were upside down. Luz had wanted to start there but she deduced that the people in the ground were in more danger, at the beginning the vines had grabbed a lot of people and she hadn't seen those yet, it was still too early to assume but she feared the worst. Compared to that the people in cars were relatively safer: The roots that were holding them were quite strong and as thick as a big tree, they didn't move around like the branches and they have not made any attempt on harming them yet. So besides the fact that they were suspended several feet in the air by a murderous weed, they were fine.
Luz attempted to get closer to one of the cars but the root holding it moved away from her making the people inside shake, making it way too risky for her to attempt anything. Then she thought she might be able to cut the root in half and catch the car before it hit the ground, but it turns out that the thick roots were made of something different than the branches; it resisted her ice, fire, and air glyphs without even a scratch. In fact after she attempted her last attack a section of the root opened and a bunch of smaller vines came out of it to attack her.
"Ouch! What the heck?" Luz cursed and weaved in the air to dodge them, she avoided getting tangled but still came out with a few scratches "How am I supposed to do something about this? Nothing I do is enough to even make a dent on it! I guess I need to go all out in this one because I can't risk getting closer"
After dodging the vines Luz flew out of their reach and stood quiet in the air, she figured that if the plant perceived movement as a threat the best option was to not move. The young witch started channeling her magic and drew an ice glyph, this one was way bigger than the ones she used before, ever bigger than herself. Once she was ready Luz concentrated on the spell "Intent" she thought "Come on, think of something cold, the coldest thing you ever had!" She remembered when Eda introduced her to those cold drinks and she had her first brain freeze, or when Raine took them all on an expedition to the knee and she had a snowball fight with the other kids. Or maybe that time when she first casted her first cold spell in front of her mom and Camila told her how proud she was… Yeah that would do it. Then she positioned herself so that the spell would be able to hit the three roots at the same time, it would be harder to break this way but Luz felt that if she prolonged this fight by rescuing them one by one would make things harder for the people in the cars.
Once she felt like the spell was big enough she tapped the glyph with her staff and an arctic blizzard of snow and ice blasted towards the plant's root. Her supposition was correct, since she didn't move the plant did not detect her and wasn't ready for the attack: The full extent of the ice attack hit the three roots and froze them all in the middle, immediately the plant started to shake in order to get the ice off, but Luz was ready for it. She was aware that the root wasn't going to fall in one hit no matter how strong the attack was, so the plan was to weaken it with the ice, and then make it burst with a full glyph combo!
As soon as the attack hit she started drawing another glyph, but this time there were two of them: Her fire and wind were drawn together being connected by some lines (A/N Imagine the way she drew the ice and fire glyphs connected to create the mist in hunting palismen) Once the spell was formed she tapped it and a huge wave of hot air and fire forming an arch crashed against the frozen parts of the plants.
Now it may be able to heal itself and resist small amounts of fire and ice, but receiving a high-pressured heatwave after being completely frozen was too much for the root. It broke into two halves on the exact point the fire striked against it, the cars trapped in the vines were released and started falling but there was no way that Luz was going to allow that.
She flew towards the falling cars and sent one wind glyph placed below them, the vehicles fully stopped in the ground gently and she opened the doors with magic. The people exited in a panicked state and attempted to scramble everywhere but that only triggered the nearby branches, Luz was ready for it and protected them with an ice wall.
"Don't run off! You'll only get caught again" She said to the people who looked terrified of being there, Luz checked the sides to see if there were more going to attack them but so far nothing. She saw that the vines weren't attached to the car anymore and it still looked functional so she came up with an idea "Stay together behind me, when I give you the signal start running towards that wall and don't stop!"
The people looked like a group of families, two children that looked younger than Luz and were crying while hugging their mother, a man who was looking like he was having the worst day of his life (Which was pretty accurate), but her looked at Luz and gave her a single nod to tell her they were ready.
Luz used a wind glyph to push the cars in the opposite direction, she figured that if the plant reacted to movement it wouldn't be able to differentiate between a bait or a real person moving. It worked perfectly; The vines lunged towards the moving cars and left the path open for them.
"Go now!" She yelled and the families started running alongside her, Luz jumped on her staff to have a better view of the field and guided them towards the wall. Since they were a large group of people moving the distraction that she made with the cars wasn't enough, several vines attempted to restrain them but Luz defended the humans with fire and ice.
They arrived at the wall and several of the people started yelling at Luz because it seemed that she led them into a corner to be trapped, without saying anything she tapped the wall and turned to see the astonished eyes of the people. She gave the person that accused her of trapping them a smug look and entered the tunnel, once everyone was inside she closed the side of the wall so that the plant wouldn't reach them.
"Look boss!" One of the policemen pointed in her direction "She did it again!"
"Step away and let the people come, Milo! You are blocking the way!"
"I'm telling you she can't be trusted, I bet that she is the one that caused this whole thing"
Luz took this moment to rest against the wall, she didn't notice it these past minutes due to the adrenaline but she was tired. The amount of high leveled magic spells that the witch had used was too much on it's own, but she hasn't used magic at all since she arrived at this realm and that made things worse. Magic was like moving a muscle: The more you use it the better you become at it, and if you don't use it for a while it becomes harder for you later.
"Are you okay?" A worried voice with a strange accent asked her, Luz looked up and saw a woman, whose head was covered in a strange cloth. was looking at her with worry in her eyes "Do you need help?"
"Thanks ma'am" Luz forced herself to stand up while attempting to change her voice to sound older. She also wondered where her usual shyness had gone "But I'm fine, you need to go to the police so that they can escort you out of here"
"I wanted to thank you" The woman gave her a soft smile "You saved me and my family, we would be dead if it wasn't for you"
"I just did what anyone with my capabilities would've done" She said while pretending that she wasn't dying inside due to exhaustion "No big deal"
That only made the woman's smile widen. "The fact that you can even say that tells me you are a good person, tell me what's your name? And how are you able to do these things?"
Luz was about to shrug it off when she fell a tug in her stomach and kneeled in pain, she had felt this before: It was the magic version of getting a cramp, something that she should've seen coming but still managed to catch her by surprise. Before the woman could worry about her she shook her off and mounted her palisman to fly again.
"Wait! You are in no condition to go back! You need to see a doctor!"
"It's fine, it'll only last a couple seconds" She wasn't saying this to comfort the woman, magic cramps were usually brief and berable "Besides there's people who are still in danger, I need to go" And with that she took off.
The vines and branches were moving around searching for people but there was no one around, the roots were starting to penetrate the buildings but luckily those had been evacuated previously. It seemed that every person in the vicinity was saved, well almost everyone.
The main body of the plant (Which at this point had grown in the size of a small building) was holding a school bus full of children. It looked like it was tougher than the roots and faster than the vines, with lots of appendages that resembled mouths. Luz was seriously doubting she could cut it down like the others, especially in her weakened state, which meant it was time for plan B.
"Oh man I suck at plant magic! Why didn't I study more herbology?" It was true, even if she had mastered the plant glyph all she could do was summon some vines or control small plants. Great plant mages could control all aspects of herboreal life, no matter how big. She always slacked in that part of her studies because she considered plants boring unlike animals. "At least I could try to communicate with it, I don't think it will achieve much but I'll try…"
Luz got near the plant and before any of its appendages could harm her, she drew a green glyph and touched the plant. Immediately Luz suffered from sensory overload, the glyph allowed witches to establish a link between their mind and a plant but did not regulate the amount of information that could pass through it, so it could be really overwhelming. Luz recoiled while she tried to make sense to whatever the plant was trying to send her, several concepts flashed through while her brain struggled to turn those into words; It was a bit broken but she got nutrition, pain, awaken, hunger, strange, and ground, it wasn't optimal but she could work with it. Luz forced her whole being into trying to communicate the plant that she was there to help. It did seem to work a little bit, considering that so far she wasn't grabbed by a vine or something.
The young witch poured whatever was left of her magic into making the link stable and asked one question:What's. The. Problem. It wasn't exactly what she wanted to ask but it worked.
Nutrition.
"Nutrition? Does it want to be fed? But it didn't eat anyone…"
Can't. Eat. People. She sent that through the link and she got a negative answer, it wasn't precisely words but rather feelings and concepts.
"Okayyyy, so it doesn't want to eat people? Then why does it trap them? Think Luz think!" She composed herself and released a breath she wasn't aware she was holding "Of course! Normally plants survive on water, sunlight, and the grund!" Luz looked around and saw how the ground was made from concrete, it wasn't ideal for a plant and the water… "Now that I think about it, where did it get the water from? There's nothing nearby"
Need. Water? She received a sense of eagerness and enthusiasm at this question. Luz figured it wouldn't hurt to try so she closed the link and drew a water glyph as big as she could and summoned a wave, it wasn't much compared to the size of the plant but it was all she could do in her current state. The plant seemed to deeply enjoy it judging by the way it shaked, which of course made the people in the bus scream louder.
Need. More.
Release. Captives. I. Will. Feed. Luz got a bit of uncertainty as an answer, like the plant wasn't willing to let them go. When she inquired further Luz received only one word: Pain alongside the feelings of extreme cold and heat, like if she was burning and freezing at the same time.
"Ohhhh, it's blaming them for my fire and ice attacks? Well that's not fair, the plant grabbed them first! Okay relax, I just need to try a different route" Just then it occurred to her, why was this plant here? It was obvious that it was from the boiling isles but the portal opened a week ago. It should have been wreaking havoc since she arrived in this dimension.
Why. Awake. Luz heard the plant use this word to describe its current situation before.
Conditions. Apropiate. So it emerged because it got the right conditions? Then an Idea came to her.
Can. Sleep. Again? She got an affirmative notion and breathed a sigh of relief. Even if Luz sucked at her plant magic class she still retained some information, after interacting so much with it she had already identified the plant: It was a rare species that were able to grow as big as mountains, she didn't remember the name but what she really did remember was that they could shrink back and become a seed if the situation required it. This particular species will keep growing as long as they get enough space and nutrients, but they would stop if they were confined in a small space.
Go. sleep. again. I. protect. She received a feeling of doubt through the link as if the plant didn't fully trust her. Which it was completely fair, after all she did attempt to destroy it several times. Luz focused and did her best to transmit her good intentions in the link. Please.
At first nothing happened then the plant and all of it's vines started to shake, the roots that were digging into the nearby buildings retracted and sunk underground and the branches that were moving around to look for people folded back into the main body. The plant itself started reducing its size once all of its appendages were retracted into its main body, the bus on top of it was lowered down gently and the vines released as soon as it touched the ground. The bus driver did not waste any time and started driving as fast as he could to get away from there, Luz made a mental note to make a tunnel for them later.
The plant kept shrinking until it sank through the first crack it made in the ground, Luz dropped down with difficulty to follow it. It seemed that they were in an unused section of the subway (Yes Eda had shown it to Luz and the concept still baffled her) and she saw how many people were held here by some roots, Luz touched them and they were quickly released by the retreating plant. She followed the vines and saw how all of them were collapsing into a single point: A broken pipe from the drain.
Every part of the plant shrinked even more until it was the size of an acorn, then a round seed was formed to cover the vines inside of it and just like that the plant was dormant again.
"Ewww it was drinking from the sewers? Ok now I know why it was so mad, the quality of this water is terrible!" Luz kneeled on the floor and grabbed the small seed "Don't worry little guy, I'm going to give you real water, once I find a flower pot strong enough for you…"
Luz put the seed in her pocket and flew upwards into the street to help the schoolbus get out, since she erected earth walls in every single direction to contain the plant they were effectively trapped. After getting nearly ran over by the bus and making a tunnel big enough for them to cross to the other side she collapsed from exhaustion, Luz looked around to asses the damage that was made during the fight and gulped, the place was a mess: The street had several cracks from the plant digging on it, Luz could count almost twenty cars that were absolutely destroyed, many of the surrounding buildings had holes in them from when the roots were trying to grow in there, an enormous hole was in the in the middle of the road with several unconscious and/or injured people. Not to mention the four gigantic walls she made out of concrete were starting to collapse now that she was running out of magic. Now usually she would love to help fix this, but she just was so tired…
"The army can deal with this right?"
A government warehouse in Eastville / July 9th 12:00 AM
-Marcus-
"No wait please! I can help you get to them!" The active begged as he was pushed into the containment chamber "I know things! Please!"
"Was that the sound your victims made before you killed them? huh!?" One of the more enthusiastic rookies hit the active with a taser baton and it screamed in pain "Yeah take that!"
Marcus watched from a distance with disappointment written on his facial features, the amount of racism and xenophobia present on his organization never ceased to dissapoint him but he guessed it was a part of the job at this point.
He and his crew were in Eastville following the reports of sudden disappearances in the area, so far in the last four days they managed to secure ten magic relics (Some of those were being used by stupid people that did not know what was in their hands) and contained four actives (Two were agressive, one wasn't sentient enough to establish comunication, and the other one turned out to be paceful), this was their fifth one and was being treated harshly by their rookies. Normally Marcus would intervene and scold these new recruits, after all the main goal of their organization was to integrate magic creatures to human society. This kind of behavior was usually looked down upon by their organization and if an agent was reported to to have this kind of accidents more than once they would surely get fired.
But the old man knew why they were doing this and it wasn't due to plan xenophobia, well at least he was sure it wasn't the only reason. They've been tracking this active for the last two days and they have seen in person the things it had done in their world: Several deaths and mutilations of children that it lured by shapeshifting into their parents, several crime scenes looked like a bloodbath with the limbs of the victims tossed into a pile of flesh. Some of his men couldn't hold it in and puked to the side or cried, he had seen worse stuff before but it still impacted him.
They finally caught the active after days of chasing and now were in the process of putting him into stasis for later containment and analysis, the active was making one desperate last attempt by shapeshifting into a more inofensive form and trying to look innocent but it wasn't fooling anyone. After a few moments Marcus decided that he should intervene, deserved or not this punishment was taking up their time.
"Ok that's enough, put him inside already" Marcus stepped in.
"But sir!"
"That's an order" And the recruits complied.
"Senior, didn't you see what this monster did?" One of the agents came to him once the active was secured "You know he deserved more, why did you stop us?"
"It isn't our duty to determine who deserves what, nor is it to punish those who actually deserve it. Our only duties are to protect, conceal, and contain, anything more is out of our jurisdiction. If you want to ensure that the guilty receive their adequate punishment you picked the wrong unit to work for son, besides you know that if a higher up sees you treating an active like that they would confiscate your badge and your memories in the blink of an eye"
"I know, but still"
"Son I get it, you are filled with rage for what that bastard did and it's completely understandable. But sometimes in our line of work we can't let our emotions cloud our judgement, sometimes it's better to just let them go, do you understand?"
"I-Yes, I understand sir"
Marcus smiled and patted the young man's shoulder, if there was something positive that came from this whole disaster was that he recovered the respect from the young people in his unit. Apparently when the word got out that Jacob's technique not only didn't work, but also generated an unprecedented crisis, he lost all the support he gained during the last week. Not to mention that all of the rookies that were against Marcus had no idea how to deal with this crisis, so they came back to him with their tails between their legs asking for his guidance.
Honestly if they weren't so fucked he would have laughed at their faces for hours. Unluckily he did not have time for that, so he sighed and took command of the whole thing, but he was sure that he was going to remind them of this forever.
"Sir!" He heard a familiar voice and turned to see Lawrance running towards him with a paper in his hand.
"Ah Lawrance! Good to see you lad" The young man had been a relief to work with between all of the rookies of his division. Sure he was also lacking experience, but he made up for it with his diligence and fast learning "Do you bring news from the deposit? I assume that they have already secured the magic items we sent them yesterday morning"
"I- I wish I could tell you sir but" He gulped "I'm afraid I bring dire news"
"Oh great, what now?"
"Spill it"
"I… well it's hard to say"
"Son the best way to say bad news it's to just rip the band-aid off"
"Well, last night the warehouse was raided, we didn't lose any agents but they were completely overwhelmed. Several ended up in the hospital"
"The hospital? Are you telling me that our men who are trained in the best techniques of personal defense and equipped with technology of the best quality were robbed? Who did that?"
"That's the issue sir, according to several reports three actives assaulted them"
"Three magical creatures? Still it should not have been that one-sided, they are trained for-"
"Three Witches sir, not magical creatures"
It was like the world suddenly stopped moving and he was suddenly gasping for air. Three witches? Here? In the middle of the biggest crisis they had in the last ten years? And they were searching for magical items? Attacking his people? That could not be a good sign.
"Damn you Belos! Why aren't you fulfilling your end of the deal?"
"Sir?"
"I'm fine, just" He took a moment to breathe "How many magic items were there?"
"Besides the ten that our unit gathered and sent there? Other units managed to grab other five"
"So fifteen in total, that can't be good" Lawrance made an affirmative nod at that.
"We are still working on tracking them but according to our estimates they can't be far. Our people only saw one staff for the three of them and one of the witches seemed to be injured, not to mention that none of the relics were useful for transport"
"That we know off. Don't discard that possibility, we weren't done investigating those relics" Marcus rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance "But overall it's not that bad, bring all of our field agents here and tell HQ to hurry up with those reinforcements, they've been promising those for days now"
"But sir if we bring all of our forces here we will leave Gravesfield unprotected! We still do not know all the names of the people that went to that party"
"That would be unwise if it were a normal case, but this isn't normal. three witches with a load of magic relics? We are going to need all the help we can get, and besides, Gravesfield has been really quiet in magical activity after more than a week of that portal opening"
"But maybe we haven't detected anything in Gravesfield because we don't have enough men searching there! After all most of them were sent to Eastville"
"Son I know you are trying to help but these are witches, trust me we can't take any chances. Besides I'm pretty sure that if there were any magical beings in Gravesfield we would've heard of them by now, mark my words! We are needed more here, in Eastville"
"Boss!" Another agent came down running with a report on their hands "Ugent news!"
"Oh great, what now?" "What is it Tom?"
"New orders from HQ, it is required to all of our forces to leave this area and set operations upon Gravesfield as soon as possible!"
Lawrance shot him an annoying look upon hearing this and Marcus sighed, knowing that a headache was coming.
"Can you just send a message to HQ and tell them how bad the situation is here? I'm sure they'll understand"
"They were already informed of the warehouse robbery but they insist that the situation there is more dangerous, and honestly I agree with them"
"Really? What's the situation there then?"
"A powerful witch was seen fighting a magical plant by numerous groups of people this morning and the video is on the local news, it's a code omega"
Marcus could feel Lawrance's glare coming from behind him.
HOLY CRAP THAT WAS INSANE, ok even if it doesn't feel like it I ended this whole chapter in two days, the inspiration struck.
Also you guys have to know that this is the longest chapter that I'll ever write. I wanted to do more scenes for the chapter but it was so long! Now I want to hear feedback even more: Did you guys like that action scene? Do you want me to do action in a different way? Do you want more or less action? I swear that the action scenes are gonna be shorter in the future.
Well that's all for this time, remember that I'm going to post the next chapter in between the next two week or so Idk.
Take care!