4684/Germination: Field Tests

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Germination: Field Tests
Date of Scene: 18 June 2018
Location: Unknown
Synopsis: Dr. Strange, Hulk, Luke Cage, and Tony get samples from mushroom monsters. Mostly.
Cast of Characters: Iron Man, Hulk, Luke Cage, Doctor Strange
Tinyplot: Germination


Iron Man has posed:
The golf course has closed down. A lot of people are very upset over this. Still, with two 'space mushroom' stalks present on the grounds, that really did have to happen. One is on the 8th hole grassy field, the other is out by several storage sheds and mowers. They are both roughly the same size: one is about 15 feet tall, the other 10. Both have shown signs of having the small plant monsters near them, and the ground squirrel and gopher population has reduced pretty much to zero! The zones aren't roped off so much as fenced: temporary chain link fence was put up, but the golf course and buildings are closed.

Those hired or invited to come help inspect or deal with the stalks, though? They have access as much as they'd like, of course.

Tony, on the communicator with Dr. Banner, is somewhat chatty, as usual. "I want to try a piece of stalk as well if we can, because I think I might have an idea about frying it, based on a teleportation mistake a few weeks ago," Tony is saying.

Hulk has posed:
"That was my plan anyway. I'll need one intact to confirm some theories, though." Bruce mentions over the transceiver on his ear as he takes a golf cart out to the 8th hole area. Attached to it is a field lab of sorts, along with a storage unit for some field equipment.

It doesn't take Bruce long to get nearby, and put on the gas mask, once within eyesight. "I miss the days when we only had to worry about the occasional meteor from space." Bruce half jokes, half laments, as he stops a few dozen feet off, beginning to setup the field lab. Dressed in a casual white shirt and blue 'sweatpants', a baseball cap keeps the sun out of his eyes as the modular lab folds out.

Say what you will about Tony, modular fold-out technology makes mobile science so much easier.

Luke Cage has posed:
Luke drives up to the golf course feeling less than certain about this newest job. He had been hired to clear out the golf course, something about killer fog and mould. Luke vaguely remembered hearing about a fight against some kind of plant monster at Central Park in the news, but he had been busy with other things. And plant monsters were not the usual job.

The parking lot is nearly deserted, of course. He parks close to the clubhouse, grabs the duffel bag on the passenger seat and gets out of the car. Luke shoulders the bag and starts walking.

"Christmas," he says when the mushroom comes into view. "That's a big mushroom." Up ahead he can see a golf cart with some equipment attached to it near the mushroom, and a man with a mask on getting to work. Luke decides the man probably has the right idea, and rummages around in his duffel bag and pulls out the cannistered mask he just bought. He checks the mask then pulls it on, which looks ridiculous with his black jeans and yellow hoodie.

"Hi," Luke says as he comes up on the man working at the golf cart. He can see it is some sort of high tech equipment thing now that he is much closer. "That's quite a set up you've got there," he comments and then holds out a hand. "I'm Luke Cage, mind if I join you...." he trails off, as if to prompt the other man to give his name.

Iron Man has posed:
"Someone dumped one on the table at the meeting I had with the JLA, in an ice cube," Tony comments to Bruce. "I'd suggested snacks; that really wasn't what I'd had in mind," he jokes. "I've brought the ice artillery." Tony is in mid-flight, gliding down over the golf course and doing a slow scanning pan over it before dropping out of the sky near the science set-up. Iron Man is not subtle, the whole thing was a blaze of red and gold: both the flight and the landing. It isn't one of his more 'usual' suits, it has blocky silver sections to it, but is still very Iron Man.

"By the way, I invited the grand master wizard. The more of us crushing these the merrier," Tony's voice emits from the mask, though he doesn't open it. "Hi," he adds, casually, to Luke Cage, as if this were totally normal.

Doctor Strange has posed:
As the mention of the "grand-master wizard" is mention, a ball of light above the mushroom pops into existance and it begins to snap, crackle and sparkle as it expands outward. A regal looking man with a billowing high collared cape floats through. He blinks at the monstrosity below him. He touches his ear his mystical "com-link" tuning into Stark's as he says, "By the Gods Stark. I was not expecting this..." He floats away from it slightly and to the left to get a better view of it, when his eyes catch Cage's movement. He is too far away to give the man a wave as he begins to float towards the small group, his eyes falling on Banner. He cocks his head to the side, as if he does not know who the man is.

As his feet gracefully touch the ground, "You have my attention." He turns to look back at the oversized fungus. His wrists flicking as the portal slams shut and glowing runes begin to swirl around his wrists.

Hulk has posed:
When the new guy comes around, Bruce gives him a once over. "I've heard about you. Invulnerable skin, likes to hire out?" Bruce offers in a searching inquiry. As the field lab unfolds, he takes his hands out of pockets and offers his right to the man, "Doctor Bruce Banner. We're here to do some field testing with these flora. We're looking to understand them better, and find ways to efficiently deal with them. I'm hoping to find a way to eliminate them without turning everything around it into ice cubes." Bruce himself has that unassuming, hunched posture one would expect of a shy recluse.

Then, Doctor Strange pops into existence above the mushroom, "Huh. Didn't expect to see that." Bruce notes as he goes back to the now completed lab. It's fairly hi-tech, and he takes a gun looking device from a slot on the side of it. "it might be more practical to just build some liquid nitrogen bombs for these, instead of direct vector contact equipment, in the meantime." Bruce muses to himself as he makes sure the 'cold gun' is functioning, "What brings you out here, Mr. Cage?"

Luke Cage has posed:
Cage's eyebrows go way up under the mask when the man gives his name. "That's right, Dr. Banner. It's an honour," he gets out and then looks up as Iron Man comes in and lands. "Christmas, and Iron Man, too?" he says, feeling suddenly deeply outclassed. That feeling only deepens when Doctor Strange appears above.

Luke shakes his head then turns his attention back to Bruce. "I got hired to come out here and clean this up," he explains and eyes the cold gun. "But I'm getting that this is a little out of my league."

Iron Man has posed:
Tony will be multi-tasking a little bit; he talks at Strange while he approaches the science area Bruce has unfolded. "Never let it be said I'd bore you. So, cliff notes," Tony says, rapidly, diverted to Strange. He flips open the front of his mask to talk. It also proves it actually is him, and not a remotely piloted suit.

"Don't throw energy at them. They absorb it and grow. The giant in Mexico was caused by that," Tony begins, tapping off each item on an armor finger as he names them off. "We saw they're not strong against magical use otherwise. I'm hoping you can hocus pocus a bit and we can test that theory against some different magic spells. Dr. Banner's grabbing some live samples, I'm doing a test to see if I can displace the stalks via a teleporter with deliberate mis-calibration. There's two stalks here; plenty of fungus for everybody." That last bit was clearly towards Luke Cage, with a casual ease. No suggestion that the arrival is, or isn't, outclassed. But then: "If you have ice powers, new guy, we're going to be new best friends," Tony teases.

The stalk itself hasn't moved at all during any of this. A few strange round white blobs stir in the bubbling, off-white, invested soil below the mushroom, though. One of them crawls out from under the mushroom slowly. It appears very much like a squishy white tentacle creature: no face, just a glob of white with five tentacle-like limbs that pulse as it explores a few feet away from the mushroom's area. It doesn't seem to have noticed them.

Doctor Strange has posed:
As he hmmms, "You? Boring? I didn't suspect you know what the word meant." As his eyes move to Cage he smiles, "Stick around...I am sure your talented will be needed. If you know anything about how things go when Iron-man is involved. I am sure we will piss someone or something off shortly." Stephen's cloak snaps as if irrated by Stark's presence but relaxes when it sees Cage.

"Ahhh Doctor Banner. I did not know it was you. You have lost some weight. My apolgizes..." As Stark explains the situation he taps the Eye around his neck and it begins to open. Stephen's eyes begin to glow, as the ruins around his wrist begin to glow a bit brighter. His glowing eyes get a far away stare to them as he says, "The stalk has intelligence...and it knows we are here. The squidlings seem to not matter but the aura of the stalk seems...arrogant and have an attitude that we are insignificant...like cattle. But one thing is for sure...they are extraterrestrail. I can summon one of the ice demons from the seven planes to see how it handles it...or pisses it off."

Hulk has posed:
"An honor? That's new." Bruce grins to Luke, "Well, I can appreciate it when people treat me like a person worth respect. So thank you." Then, the cold gun Bruce has is aimed at the squid, and Bruce starts to turn it into a giant ice cube. "Just keep this stalk intact for retrieval. The other one you can teleport glitch to your hearts content. I need one as advanced as I can get. Distributed intelligence that grows with body mass means nerve tissue generation in a league that could have a number of implications." Bruce is going full scientist, it looks like. "if you're here to clean this golf course up, Mr. Cage, it sounds like your help in keeping this contained while we handle this will complete your job quickly." Bruce offers as the gun continues.

Luke Cage has posed:
Cage laughs at Dr. Strange's comment and crosses his arms as the man gets to work, then he offers a wry smile to Ironman.

"Sorry, Mr. Stark. Ice ain't my thing," he says with a chuckle.

Then he looks to Bruce. "Just Luke," he says and nods. "I'll do my part," Cage assures Bruce.

He walks just a little closer to squidling, eyeing it suspiciously. "This is some creepy stuff. And it's from space? Why's it here, do we know?" he asks.

Iron Man has posed:
To the 'boring' quip, Tony replies, "To know what you ARE, you need to know what you're not," with a little grin as his mask closes again. Hardly boring. Tony is actively doing something with the side of the science station: prepping it for his own test. "Let's focus on the smaller one, Strange," Tony suggests. "Yell if you get overwhelmed, though, Bruce." He's pretty sure he'll hear the Hulk roar, but some warning is always good. "Supposedly someone spoke to it, and it's here to 'eat', Luke."

When ice hits the small squid, the mushroom stalk responds. With a flare through the base, almost an electric response in purple, at least a dozen small monsters begin to drop from the underside of the canopy, and in a twisting mass, abruptly start to skitter out on their whipping tentacles towards the threat.

"Or we could stay here. Let's see if they don't like cold feet," Tony says dryly, engaging his thrusters to pull back and upwards into the air, starting to freeze the ground around them in a half-arc with the ice cannon he'd added to his lower left arm.

The creatures don't like it, but there's a lot of them, they can just go around to the other side, and they'll be upon the group far quicker than they have any business being, and go after whoever is in front, hurling themselves and trying to strangle, attach, and drag their enemies towards the stalk.

Doctor Strange has posed:
As he looks over at Stark, the glow in his eyes fade as he rolls them at Stark's response. "You will never change Stark." As he begins to float up into the air, Stephen adds, "One small mushroom pop coming up..." He grins adding, "Have fun Cage...." As Strange flies higher and higher, the runes around his hands begin to swirl. His voice begins to gain a certain degree of power as he begins to move in arms in wide elegant arcs, "I summon forth the Icy Tendrils of Ikthalon...grasp and detain this foe so that it may harm no other."

With a clap of his hands, and a boom of thunder a blue light explodes from his hands as it slams into the smaller mushroom. The ice beginning to form almost instantly as the magic flows out of Strange.

Hulk has posed:
"Oh crap!" Bruce exclaims suddenly as there's suddenly a swarm coming after them. One squid might be iced, but the others are easily able to start to catch up to Doctor Banner, who starts to run. He was hoping to ice up the mushroom itself and one of the smaller ones... but this is his first up close and personal encounter with the spores... and as one leaps onto the physically inept Bruce, he tries to get it off of him before he loses himself to the transformation.

There are far too many for Bruce to reliably keep himself calm though, even with help... and the sound of tearing clothing can be heard as green skin starts to replace pink, and Doctor Banner starts to grow visibly larger.

Luke Cage has posed:
"Sweet Christmas," Luke says as the squidlings charge them.

He drills the first one they saw as hard as he can, right in the blob, while its tentacles reach out toward him. Then he notices the mob chasing Bruce. He has seen enough underground video of various incidents to know this is a bad thing.

"Hang on, Dr. BannerA" he calls. He grabs a section of the temporary fencing swings it sideways to knock the squidling off Bruce's back, even as the scientist starts to transform.

Iron Man has posed:
The unexpected attack on the second mushroom stalk by Strange causes an obvious response. The mushroom is slammed by the extreme cold magic. In a weak shudder, it drops the small creatures it had - small ones, similar to the size of the stalk: more like cat-sized little creatures. They roll around mostly uselessly in the explosion of cold as it floods over them as well. Nothing is dead, but they tumble, partially paralyzed, and start to burrow into the ground. A good guess could be made that burrowing into the writhing 'food zone' below the mushroom probably is a safe place for them. One of them proves it, coming back up, free of the ice, and starts to help drag the other ones in. The mushroom itself hunches down under the abuse, which makes it a little shorter. It is as if it is bracing for a particularly awful winter.

The monsters on Banner will probably help his transformation along, because they're trying to pull him into pieces. Having limbs ripped off (or attempted) is enough to make somebody angry. Luke's first target is slammed back and goes flying in a tumble. The one Luke swats off of Banner leaves two tentacles behind as the body is impaled on the fence. It doesn't go flying, it is now stuck to the fence, wiggling in confusion.

"Successful shiska-bob method, great, that'll work," Tony encourages, and begins to freeze out the monsters that haven't yet reached the hero group, forced to trust Luke to handle the ones that are extremely close to Banner.

Doctor Strange has posed:
As the mushroom buckles under the attack, Strange hmmms, "Fascinating...they seem to be burring to into the ground as a defense tactic. That means like hands...the nerves they have are connected to the Earth themselves." The blue beam ceases to exist as Stephen begins to fly higher and higher above the smaller stalk as he sees Banner's shade of green out of the corner of his eye. "They will have the ground settled soon enough. Between the Hulk and Luke. You should have no worries. Do you best stark to keep them off me...I am going to attempt to severe this mushroom's connection to the Earth...but I will need complete concentration."

With a snap of his fingers, and a flick of his wrist the glow ruins extend around Strange in a colorful light show that looks like a model atom. Stephen begins to chant softly as the glow begins to grow as he prepares his impromptu magical pruning.

Hulk has posed:
A growl is almost punctuated as a large green fist slams into one of the squids trying to swarm over the Hulk, sending the squid clear out of sight into the horizon. Then another. The Hulk roars in the face of another "HULK SMASH!" As a third is thrown into a building in the distance with an impact that produces a sonic boom.

Ten foot of green Hulk stands up as the rest start to swarm him and Luke Cage, and Hulk roars again as he /kicks/ another into a set of trees in the distance. "HULK HATE MUSHROOM THINGS!" Another two are grabbed and slammed into the ground hard enough to cause craters, then are slammed into /each other/ as Hulk vents his rage... already growing another foot to eleven as he turns the two squids in his hands to pulp over and over into the ground, each impact causing a fresh light tremor in the area from the sheer force.

Luke Cage has posed:
Luke blinks as the Hulk emerges and decimates the mushroom things nearest to him. But the moment passes quickly. He spikes the piece of fence with the wriggling squidling on it into the ground and leaves it there, then leans back as two tentacles reach for his arms. He pivots and boots the squidling that tried to grab him, sending it flying into the stalk.

Then he rips out a small tree out of the ground from between its wooden supports and uses it like a club. He swings it round over his head once and knocks a second squidling into the icy stalk, then hammers a second one with an overhand blow fast enough to cut it in two.

Iron Man has posed:
When the squidlings are crushed beyond their ability to continue by Luke's tree and Hulk fists, they deteriorate into a spore-like dust that drifts around, able to be inhaled by the unwary without masks. It doesn't last though, it will land and sink into the ground.

"Well, they don't seem to shoot anything, but I'll keep an eye on you. Concentrate away. I'm prepping my teleportation-turn-to-jello test," Tony says into the comm (and probably mostly to himself and Strange only, seeing as Banner is 'busy' being green). He lets up on the ice and tosses a different tech object down: about a shoebox sized item. It lands and Tony's then flipping it open. Two wands extend out either side, and a crackle of a hum of dimensional displacement ignites the air. He lays some ice on either side to connect up the ground he'd frozen before, clearly intending to herd them through to his device. Tony falls back to the science equipment.

In Strange's area, the creatures have all climbed the mushroom and are now huddling on top of it, protecting it with their mushy little selves, while the mushroom is slowly pulling down towards the earth. The stalk is rooting deeper, it isn't that it is shrinking: more of a burrowing.

One of the creatures runs over Tony's apparatus, and with a violent seizure of limbs and spasming, reappears about 20 yards away. It is also many times the size it was, and has twelve limbs now. It's bigger than an elephant.

"So. About my test. It could have gone better," Tony observes into the comm. "But I think I see the issue. I'll try another frequency in a moment." During this moment, though, another squid monster went through the portal. There's now two giants.

Doctor Strange has posed:
As he seems lost in his spell, the glowing runes begin to spin and spin faster and as the glow is spinning so fast the pattern becomes one glowing ball of light, Stephen can no longer be seen on the inside of the sphere as a pair of nasty looking claws explode outward from the sides and begin to grow in size. The hands begin to flow glowing claws of blue light that if touched anything that touches it will turn to ice in a flash much like liquid nitrogen but more kick. With a crackle of power the hands move in a flash of light and stab the ground on either side of the smaller mushroom. The ground around the hands turning to pure ice and extending outward like a scene from a movie as the hands move into the earth feeling around...like a shovel...or an oversized magical claw of ice fishing for it's prize.

Hulk has posed:
With all the squids in his immediate vicinity gone, turned to pulp, or just plain smashed, the Green Goliath stomps around as he takes in his surroundings. An aggressive posture is taken as he spots the two new giant squids... then promptly sneezes from the new spores in the air, before he sniffs... and claps his hands together to produce a shockwave, clearing the air around himself. "Mushroom things annoying." Hulk growls as he squats down, about to jump, "Hulk SMASH!"

The Hulk leaps the distance towards the two newcomers easily enough, his hands together for a downward attack as he brings down the green hammer on the one closest.

Luke Cage has posed:
Luke cocks his head and watches the Hulk leap the distance between himself and one of the giant squids in some awe. Then seeing the massive overhand smash coming, he braces his feet against the coming shockwave, sliding backward when it hits, leaving foot-wide scars in the turf.

"Christmas," he breathes, then he stomps off the connector between the lab and the golf cart, picks up the cart and swings it around in a circle before launching it toward the second giant squid. Not that it will do any harm, but might distract it while the Hulk finishes tearing the first to shreds.

Iron Man has posed:
The icy claws pick up and pluck the mushroom stalk out of the ground. It was frozen partially from the original attack, and the squidlings try to protect it but just end up clinging to it instead. The whole of it is uprooted, and as it is, the ground below goes quiet and starts to turn ashen. The zone of digestion is worthless without the mushroom. The bottom of the stalk is a huge pile of fat, bloated tubers. They pulse eerily. If it had an emotion, it would be rage.

Hulk leaps upon the first of the two giants, slamming it mostly flat. The other one, though, will come to the rescue, and attempt to face-hug on Hulk's upper torso, attempting to suffocate him or pull his head off, whichever comes first. They don't seem confused about being large, at all.

"Okay, so, my device should do the opposite now," Tony says, mostly directed to Luke. "Can you throw it under one of them, like you did the cart?" Tony moves towards the unguarded stalk, and begins to unload freeze on it: it was starting to make more squidlings.

The cart is now embedded in the one trying to peel pieces off of the Hulk, and has punctured three of the tentacles on that side, making them useless.

Doctor Strange has posed:
As the hands feel into the ground, the Doctor in his ball of light growls and mutters into his comm, "I can severe the connection but its gonna piss them off. So be prepared. When I have done it I will fly it out into space." As the ball of light begins to burn as bright as a sun, there is a nasty sounding crunch. The mushroom shutters and the ground around it begins to crack under the shifting ice. The entire smaller mushroom is suddenly encased in a glowing sphere of cold magic as the grounds moves and shifts as the hands can be seen entertwined under the base of the mushroom.

The sphere flowing above it begins to lift higher and higher as the smaller mushroom begins to pull away from the earth and lift into the sky. The larger mushroom left behind as Strange seems to be flying the beast up and out into space.

Hulk has posed:
The Hulk gets stronger the angrier he gets... but initially, he needs time to build up to do the incredible feats he's done in the past. When the other giant moves to grapple the Hulk, it does so mostly successfully, with the Hulk trying to burst out of the grapple as he is pinned there.

However, Hulk doesn't need oxygen to survive; he's been in space before, without ill effect. So, the only thing the giant manages to do... is keep the Hulk pinned while the Jade Giant grows angrier in it's grasp. The roars as Hulk tries to release himself would be heard for blocks if he had enough in his lungs to actually produce one. Instead, his rage builds.

Twelve feet..... thirteen feet... Hulk isn't doing enough damage to get out of the grasp, but he's being wound up quickly as he is kept pinned, his arms continuing to struggle to try and burst out of his grapple.

Luke Cage has posed:
"How is that thing still moving?!" Luke exclaims seeing the first giant squid somehow survived Hulk's attack.

"Sure thing," Luke says and grabs the gadget Tony was working on. He watches for a moment, getting a feel for how the downed squid is moving. Seeing it starting to rise again, Luke spins and tosses the gadget to land under the thing as it tries to pick itself up. Then he grabs another fence post and javelins it at the squid on Hulk's face.

"Hey, Squiddy! Bring it!" he yells between Hulk's roars, trying to get its attention.

Iron Man has posed:
Strange's uprooting method seems to be succeeding, as he takes his popsicle mushroom skyward. The little squidlings on it attempt to leap at Strange, sort of a last attempt to get at him and stop this. Not that they are very adept in the air, and many just plummet.

Hulk's face-hugger friend is trying to drag him towards the larger, non-airborne stalk that Tony is near. It shifts its weight to try to veer Hulk that way, rather intelligently. Size seems to impact their ability to think.

The grounded giant got up, and the teleporter slid under it. It abruptly vanishes in a reek of spores, and teleports 'back' with a surge, back to being small: in fact, smaller than before, near where Luke is. It is about the size of a cat; it doesn't seem aware of that fact and attempts to grab Luke's ankle, feisty.

"Let's just leave that first test off the record," Tony suggests, dodging a few squidlings as he continues to freeze the big stalk in sections. He has most of it now, and the squidling numbers are reducing between himself and the brawlers.

Doctor Strange has posed:
As he continues to lift into the air, the ice claws tightening their grip. Stephen looks upward as the sphere begins to shift and change under his direction. The burning golden light surrounding him Stephen as he breaks the atmosphere into the vast darkness of space. He looks down behind him as the mush reacts, and the lack of oxygen and the intense cold tempatures begin to affect it.

As he flies around and under the sphere, the Earth's protector of mystical mystery says into his comm, "As I suspected...it does not like the environment of space but...I am gonna give it a nudge towards the sun just to be safe...." And with a push the floating mushroom begins to move towards the sun. He looks back down at his favorite blue marble and snaps his fingers as a portal opens under his feet and he flies through it and is back on the scene in a flash. A little worse for the wear but not out for the count.

Hulk has posed:
The sound and gooey goodness of a set of giant squid tentacles popping as the Hulk grows to fifteen feet can be heard... and felt. Finally clear to take in air again, the Hulk can be heard for miles as he roars, a near mindless rage monster as localized shockwave after shockwave can be felt as the Hulk proceeds to pound into the body of the giant squidling that kept him grappled.

It'd almost be enough to feel pity for the squidling as a majorly pissed off Hulk hammered it with enough force to cause sonic booms with each hit.

"HULK SMASH! HULK HATE BEING CAGED!" The near mindless assault continues. Watching it, it's easy to see how the Hulk got his infamous reputation for being an engine of destruction for someone like Luke Cage who's seeing it for the first time.

Luke Cage has posed:
Luke stomps the now tiny squidling grapping his ankle almost absent-mindedly as he watches the Hulk... Lose it. It sends a chill down his spine. That much raw power, that much raw rage....

Tony's voice snaps him out of it. "Yeah, sure Mr. Stark," he says. Luke sees Bruce's dropped freeze gun and picks it up. He tests it out, firing at a squiddling coming his way and chuckles as it freezes. Then he launches into the few remaining ones, hammering each with a reverse punch or kick, then shooting them point blank with the freeze gun.

Iron Man has posed:
Hulk now is embracing a very shredded shell of a goop formerly known as giant mushroom-squid. It starts to oozingly melt into spore stuff; hopefully Hulk will be mindful to hold his breath instead of breathing the corrosive stuff.

"You can call me Tony, now that we've frozen alien spawn together," Tony quips aside to Luke.

Remaining enemies include various squidlings, and the large stalk itself, which is half frozen. "I have a feeling we're going to smash instead of bring this sample back," Tony observes mildly into his comm unit of the extremely overworked Hulk. At least it seems to be contained while they continue to pelt it with cold and ice.

"You didn't miss anything," Tony flippantly says to Strange as he returns. "Did it die up there?"

Doctor Strange has posed:
As his feet touch the ground, Stephen is standing next to Tony and says, "In a fashion...my commlink must have shorted while I was in space. Now that I know they do not handle space well. I can open a portal over it and slam it down on the large one, but when I close the portal it will only severe the root. If you freeze the root as I close the portal. We should be able to dig the rest of it up and you can have your samples for Dr. Banner when he has calmed down. Do you conjur with this Stark?"

Hulk has posed:
The Hulk is too busy literally turning the squid remains into a fine paste, eventually leaving a small crater in the golf course, as he vents his considerable rage on completely obliterating the creature.

After about ten seconds of this, the Hulk seems satisfied.

He slams the ground once in punctuation, sending a small earthquake through the local ground, before fifteen feet of Hulk stands up, growling as he looks around for more targets, "Hulk not like mushroom things." Looks like the Hulk is getting his bearings again. So far, he's not attacking the three, at leaast... and turns his attention on the big stalk. The giant Hulk starts to stomp over to it. Not being attacked by it yet, the Hulk doesn't appear to be in any hurry to smash it immediately. Still, his massive bulk can be felt through the ground as he goes.

Luke Cage has posed:
Luke finishes off the last of the squiddlings near him, then jogs over to recover Stark's teleporting gadget. He heads back toward Stark and Strange.

"So, Tony, what happens when we run out of mushrooms for Banner to smash?" Luke calls out.

Iron Man has posed:
"Shorted? I think we heard you. It's still drifting at the sun, then? Hopefully it doesn't eat planets AND suns. I'd have to fake tan." Tony then listens to the plot outlined by Strange. "Sure. The lower root on these big ones is a new thing to study. Make it so," Tony agrees, distractedly. Possibly paying some attention to the few squidlings still around and the green rage machine that he's hopeful isn't going to become worse than the alien mushroom invader. "If it doesn't work, there's certainly more of them we can use for samples." Strange has Tony's support.

"Hulk, if it attacks, smash," Tony directs.

A glance is sent towards Luke at the question. "...we ....find a puppy."

Doctor Strange has posed:
"You want a sample of that thing?" Strange looks at raging Hulk's direction and he presses his lips into a fine line. He looks at Tony and say in a sarcastic tone, "I'm going to have a hang over after this...if this doesn't work and one of those eats me. I am gonna be pissed Stark." As he begins to lift into the air, Stephen says in a confident tone, "I summon the Chains of Krakkan...to bind you. You shall harm no other...you shall break no more spores...this is my will!" With a clap of his hands, a golden chain like a serpent of light begins to explode from the ground. The chain sliters around the large mushroom. A grunt escapes Stephen's lips as he lets out a scream of rage as the spell is completed. As it reaches the top of the mushroom, the array of light is like a 60's grateful dead concert as millions of tendrils begin to encase the large spore into a magical coocoon binding it and placing it into a stasis of sorts. As the glow fades, the man's slumps forward and begins to fall towards the ground when the cape engulfs him and sets him gently instead.

Hulk has posed:
"Hulk not puny human like Banner, Tank Man." Hulk growls to Luke in an aside as he stomps past, "Don't compare Hulk to him." The request from Tony gets a grunt from the fifteen foot giant, with the Hulk starting to pace around the mushroom instead, since Doctor Strange is doing magic stuff, "Magic man like tentrils." Hulk notes, almost jokingly.

Luke Cage has posed:
"Gotcha, Hulk," Luke says with a slight chuckle. He puts Stark's gadget down and sets about cleaning up the few remaining squiddlings in the area so Stark and Strange aren't bothered.

Iron Man has posed:
"Being hungover without the drinking part does really sound unfair," Tony comments back to Doctor Strange with supposed empathy. Whether it's real or not is another matter. "We'll get some drinks in you after this, if you're upright," Tony offers. He draws back from freezing-mode when Strange does his big magical voodoo. He glides over to strange with a finessed use of repulsors, but doesn't move to like, catch or support him or anything. They're not THAT close, and Strange seems fine enough.

"Hulk can carry that magical cocoon safely, I'm hoping?" Tony asks him. "I'll call a transport for us and it." Because Tony Stark.

"You need a lift?" That was mostly at Strange, but it's harder to tell where Tony's directing things with the helmet on, could be Luke too.

If nobody argues, they'll get that bundle taken care of, and hey, if Luke wants a limo ride, he can have one, and a shiny Avengers commlink. For next time.

Luke Cage has posed:
Luke shakes his head and smiles. "Sure, Tony, a lift would be great," Luke says. .

Doctor Strange has posed:
As he shakes his head, looking over weakly at Stark, "I will be fine. Nothing a good night's rest and a bath will not handle. If you need anything else. You know how to contact me." He looks over at Luke and says softly, "Do you need a lift back to the city?" The cloak surrounds Stephen and forms itself into a chair as he sits back and rests. The portal opening behind him into the Sanctumn.