Chapter 155: The Mad Plants
Author: Rowing Without Oars 233
One hour ago.
"Just a little longer... just a little bit..." Kara mumbled vaguely, turning over in her sleep.
Thump.
She fell onto the floor.
Of course, the fall damage was nothing given the Kryptonian girl's high durability, but the sensation of falling weightlessly still woke her up.
Kara sat up, bleary-eyed, and looked around.
Her eyes were met with... plants?
Faint light filtered into the room through a mess of plants. Tangled vines and towering ivy twisted and grew along the edges of the room. A giant cactus had split her bed, and it was from this cactus that she had just rolled off.
The girl blinked, then thought for a moment.
*No, I must still be asleep.*
So she closed her eyes and lay back down. After a moment of preparation, she abruptly sat up again and rubbed her eyes.
It was still a room full of plants.
What was going on?
Getting out of bed and leaving the room, she discovered this wasn't an isolated incident. It seemed as if the entire city of Gotham had changed in an instant.
Plants, nothing but plants. Abnormally massive plants were entrenched in every city block like monsters. Huge, tough thorns had broken through buildings, forcing their way out, their branches tearing walls and structures beyond recognition. Dense foliage covered the entire sky, blocking the sunlight. Giant thorny vines emerged from cracks in the ground, spreading wantonly, their branches swaying like the tentacles of a hungry demon on the hunt.
Cars on the streets were pierced, and sidewalks were shattered. People walked out onto the streets in panic and confusion, finding a scene of total chaos.
"Uh... what is happening?" Kara asked, walking into the kitchen and looking strangely at a forsythia that was squeezing its way out from a corner of the ceiling.
All the plants were as if they were on steroids; their size was staggering, and they defied the season and environment, sprouting from every imaginable corner.
"A minor scene, stay calm."
The Old Wizard was still there, flipping through a cookbook, completely ignoring the chaos behind him.
"It's nothing serious," he said without looking up.
Kara silently glanced behind him. The little monkey, Titano, was swinging like Tarzan among the branches and vines sprouting in the kitchen, chattering happily as if he were having a great time.
*So this is considered normal?*
"Hah, young people these days just can't keep their cool. They love to make a fuss over every little thing. It's just a few blades of grass."
The Old Wizard continued to hold the cookbook in his left hand while turning on the faucet with his right to fill his new pot with water.
"When you've lived long enough and seen enough, you'll find that nothing is a big deal. The important thing is a calm state of mind..."
As he spoke, a string of green vines snaked out of the faucet and wrapped around his pot.
The Old Wizard turned his head, saw it, and his expression changed drastically. He instantly threw down the cookbook and rolled up his sleeves, preparing to cast a spell.
"You foolish weed, how dare you touch 'The Wizard's' pot! You're finished!"
He followed with a string of spells, and a burst of dark flame instantly burned the pile of vines to a crisp.
As if that wasn't enough to vent his anger, he continued casting, shouting, "Die! Die! Die!"
He viciously blasted the already charred remains of the vines.
Kara watched the old man's back from behind, silently turned away, and took out her cellphone to dial Orin Vale's number.
It seemed the vine had been burned away, but the Old Wizard's new pot was probably ruined again...
A short while later, Orin Vale returned to the plant-occupied Gotham.
"What's the situation?"
"I don't know." Kara looked lost. "I just woke up and it was like this..."
As she spoke, a sliver of green stealthily emerged from a crack in the corner of the wall, silently and rapidly growing into a carnivorous plant in the shadow.
An upright, columnar stem shot up, its tall stalk covered in bumpy green leaves as sharp as blades, radiating an intense crimson red.
After observing from the dark for a moment, sensing the time was right, the carnivorous plant locked onto its target, lunged forward, and opened its enormous, blood-red mouth!
Its sharp, triangular teeth, and its interior as red as flesh, made it look like a long-starved beast pouncing on its prey!
Kara, who was talking to Orin Vale, tilted her head slightly, and fiery Heat Vision shot out. The ferocious carnivorous plant was instantly roasted to charcoal, crumbling into a shower of black dust.
She didn't even pause her conversation.
"...The Old Wizard said it was no big deal at first, but now he's shouting something about them invading his sacred kitchen and vowing to fight these plants to the death," Kara said with a helpless tone.
There were other carnivorous plants growing in the surrounding shadows. They had all been drooling over the taste of flesh and blood, eager to leap out. However, after witnessing the miserable death of their teammate who had been the first to fall, they all froze, remaining motionless in the darkness.
Although the plants, enhanced by extraordinary power, couldn't be said to possess much wisdom, they still had the instinct of a beast.
For example, they knew when to be brave and when to cower.
*Wait, the vibe of the people in this house seems a little different from everywhere else, doesn't it?*
At that moment, a Kryptonian orange cat that had just woken up, holding its food bowl in its mouth, ignored the swaying plants all around and the Old Wizard in the kitchen, who was surrounded by flashing lightning and flames as he battled the plants. The cat strolled past, preparing to find its own food.
As it passed a corner, it was immediately targeted by the salivating carnivorous plants hidden there.
*If we can't bully the two-legged beasts, surely we can bully you?*
Food, delivered right to our door!
One of the plants reacted with extreme speed, abruptly shooting two vines like tentacles toward the orange cat.
Then, the orange cat was seen lazily tilting its head, a red glow flashing in its eyes...
*Swoosh.*
The entire row of plants in the corner was burned to ash.
The other plants: (O_O)
The group of plants instantly behaved. Their roots stopped pushing out, their vines stopped waving around, and they all stood there motionless, as if standing at attention.
When Stryker flew to the front of a cabinet with his bowl, a plant peeking down from the ceiling even extended a vine to help him open the cabinet door.
It was a bit eerie, but you could clearly see a hint of a fawning expression in the way the flower bloomed...
They watched as Stryker unhurriedly poured a bowl of cat food, then flew back down to the ground to eat it with relish. Meanwhile, the crowd of carnivorous plants could only stand at attention behind him, their stomachs rumbling.
They didn't dare move. They absolutely didn't dare move.
At the same time, they felt nothing but humiliation.
Seriously, all of Gotham was a botanical free-for-all today. The plants in every other house were feasting like kings, so why was the vibe so different the moment they entered this place?
Orin Vale had actually seen this scene unfold, and he found it a little strange.
"These things... not only is their growth abnormal, but they also seem to have developed self-awareness?"
Orin Vale activated his scanner and performed a scan on the plants sprouting everywhere.
"It appears so, sir," said Pal. "They exhibit some anomalous characteristics. An external force may have stimulated their growth, or perhaps evolution would be a more fitting term."
At that moment, the Old Wizard, having finished his great battle, emerged from the kitchen and interjected.
"It's The Green."
(end of chapter )