4765/Germination: Just use Tinactin

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Germination: Just use Tinactin
Date of Scene: 29 June 2018
Location: Gotham Zoo, Gotham City
Synopsis: A mix of heroes (and others?) engage a mushroom alien stalk at the Gotham zoo.
Cast of Characters: Iron Man, Harley Quinn, Green Arrow, Carrie Kelley, Shadow, Lucky Day
Tinyplot: Germination


Iron Man has posed:
    The location? The gotham zoo. A mushroom stalk has been sighted there, and it is extremely well fueled, because it showed up in the middle of an area rich in small animals to devour. It is in the petting zoo area, and the sheep and creatures are fewer in number than they were, now, as the thing expands.
    The eerie alien 'mushroom' stalk stands roughly fifteen feet in height, though the broad canopy stretches that same distance as well. The ground all around it was already scarred and destroyed from signs of struggles, but directly under the shadow of the stalk, the ground crawls with a mold-like white fungus. It churns, like the top of a beer, with a few shapes moving in it. The white plant 'squidlings' are present, emerging in groups now and then to go after a new animal or target. A zookeeper recently fled the scene with several chasing him, until they oriented instead on the Africa exhibit. Six of them are headed that way now, while a group of giraffe and zebra go berserk.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Stepping out of the shadows behind (but not beneath!) the giant mushroom is one pigtailed blonde wearing a women's cut tuxedo coat with tails and a bright green bow tie and cummerbund, but a sequined kaleodoscope bodysuit beneath. Bare legs down to bedazzled shoes. A microphone. A top hat. And a smile.

"Step right up and pet the AMAZING LIVING FUNGUS. It LOVES affection, so don't be shy, folks!"

Green Arrow has posed:
It isn't often that Green Arrow is out of Starling for long periods of time... but these mushrooms are a global threat, and he's been sighted helping against various stalks in the last few weeks in various cities.

With the day giving way to night, Green Arrow has taken a trip to Gotham to do what he can to help out the civilians... and he's already receiving a call for help at the Zoo over his commlink, "Always nice when they label them." Green Arrow quips to himself as he switches his motorcycle to Skycycle mode and starts to fly in that direction at top speed.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
When you grow up in Gotham you learn to expect disaster at most turns. The Joker blowing things up, Scarecrow spreading fear and panic, the Penguin doing... whatever he does but it probably involves ice somehow. There's a certain level of apathy that develops after awhile. Sure, you want to survive, but that something like this is happening in the first place? Yeah, that's par for the course. At least there were people in the city willing to fight back.

Carrie Kelley had begun to want to be one of those people herself. While she was biding her time learning what she could, when the world-wide threat of Alien Mushrooms comes to town biding time becomes far less an option. Following the path of the chaos into the zoo toward the petting zoo area she tries to stick to the fringes. There was no fancy suit or gar for her: Just a bodysuit, an Asian dust mask with ventilator over her lower face, and a belt with several items on it as well as a hunting slingshot. There was no way she was getting in close if she could avoid it.

Shadow has posed:
    As the Zoo management is doing its best to conduct an orderly evacuation of the area, Natasha resists the urge to swear. This was /not/ at all what she'd had in mind when she decided to spend an evening taking her mind off things. She lets the earnest, serious-faced zoo worker direct her toward the exit even as she pulls out her phone and dials Benny's number, sending out a ripple of her will to ensure no one pays attention to what she's saying.

    "Benny? People in need of evacuation at Gotham Zoo, ASAP. Bring my gear."

Iron Man has posed:
    The megaphone attracts the squid creatures that are local to the stalk. Apparently they heard Harley's loud vibrations, because three of them drop from the canopy of the stalk, and orient upon her. They are silent globs of wriggling off-white mass, without heads or faces or eyes. Just bundles of horrible stretchy limbs. They're quick, though, able to hurl themselves in squishy launches towards her, reaching out eagerly.

The spawned creatures in the Africa paddock have attached themselves to the hindquarters of a zebra and are being dragged in circles. It might be humorous if the poor animal wasn't screaming and whinnying so horribly as the squid creatures try to rip it apart.

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom has wanted to be friends with these horrible monsters for a reason. Tonight? Tonight he is pulling out all the stops and the crowd of people who are panicking hate him for a reason. He has a tshirt that says, "I love Space Mold Monsters" and has his friend the imaginary indestructable dog that he kicks from time to time or Orphans from the bratzwort gang that he is 'kicking' and screaming in pain as he screams again how much he likes the monster. "HOORAY FOR THE SPACE MOLD!" He's working a major rite tonight but it will take time to properly build.

Harley Quinn has posed:
"HI GUUUYYYS!!" Harley chirps to the creatures beginning to hurtle toward her. She calls out through the megaphone to them as she swiftly starts to backpedal. "Come one, come all, step right up and join the tour! Next stop...the Penguin exhibit!!"

Green Arrow has posed:
Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it's a man on a flying skybike. Green Arrow gets within visual distance of the zoo... and freeze arrows promptly lock themselves onto the creatures in the Africa paddock, exploding in finely tuned liquid nitrogen bombs. Green Arrow has had experience with the squidlings now, and has adjusted his payloads for maximum coverage and slowdown. He's focusing on priority threats right now... and the poor zebras and other animals can't defend themselves. One after another, his quivers mechanical elements build them as fast as he can launch them.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie Kelley glances over at the sound of the megaphone. Was that...? "What am I getting myself into?" She mutters to herself as she ducks behind a tree, taking care to look up and ensure there wasn't anything spore related in it. So far. Yet. She hoped. Pulling out her slingshot she loads up to pull back and fire a few white pellets at one of the spores that Harley was attempting to lure away to cause more chaos.

Shadow has posed:
    A lot of civilians are leaving the zoo in a more or less orderly fashion, getting into cars and cabs rather than spend more time than necessary waiting for public transit. No one much pays attention at another cab slowing down to pick up a passenger... Or bother watching it drive off. And even if they did, they wouldn't have noticed that it arrived empty and left empty...

    Meanwhile, the Shadow vaults the outer wall of the zoo, taking care not to land in the wrong kind of enclosure, before making her way to the scene.

Iron Man has posed:
Green arrow's icy arrows find marks on the squids riding the zebra, but some of the ice also moves onto the animal. It slows the whole of them down, the zebra topples onto its side, squalling in pain. The monsters on it are iced, and are trying to wriggle or escape from being frozen. One of the ones that was on the far side of the zebra attacks the animal, ignoring the plight of its friends in favor of harming the creature, until an ice arrow also immobilizes it. They all pulse and wriggle, trying to get free of the ice encasing them, but it clearly will take them a few minutes to do so.

Harley's entourage of disgusting white blobs hurry after her, willing to follow the sound, and also to try to grab at her legs if she even thinks of slowing down. One of them diverts left and climbs into a popcorn cart.

The creature hit by Carrie's sling shot pulls away from the stuff she launched at it, but doesn't seem injured: just avoidant, like she shot a bad smell at it.

The remaining zoo visitors will do exactly what the officials say, for the most part. There are a few panicked lost children here and there that are being taken to their parents, some general disarray from slower moving elderly patrons, but nothing serious; the squid monsters mostly are interested in the easier trapped animal prey.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Harley chimes and chirps encouragement, now trotting swiftly through the zoo. At a brisk pace, she starts a chant, pausing at the end of each line for the repetition of her wards, but there are only squishing and squashing noises behind her to fill the silence.

"I don't know what I been told!" Squish, squash, squishity squash. Past the otter enclosure. "I like my friends covered in mold!"

"Souuund off!" Squash, squash. Right through the throngs of people trying to escape.

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom is dressed in a black shiny top hat, a plasticy twirling mustache and a montebank coat. He moves toward his friends the Mold people and looks to help Harley. "YAY! Follow this intelligent person who is looking to help you find mold!" He grins at Harley easily leaping about though not quite as dextrous as her. The Dog follows but rolls its eyes. The Orphans can see that this is bad business and vanish into the crowd faster than butter on a griddle.

Green Arrow has posed:
When it becomes clear Harley is trying to herd the squidlings... Green Arrow diverts his skybike over in that direction, "Gotham crazies..." Green Arrow mutters to himself, before he activates his quiver, ordering it to build containment bomb arrows.

Taking careful aim from above, Green Arrow launches a set of arrows in rapid succession, globs of a blue substance expand and start to work to envelop the squidlings and harden... typically being able to grab 2-3 at once in close proximity.

Civilians first... then the animals. Hopefully, he can manage both.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie Kelley mentaly marks down the results of the Penicillin she shot at the mushrooms. Mild success. It didn't like it, but it also didn't harm or anger it. Her attention skims over the crowd as it becomes more obvious who is staying versus who is leaving. Tom, and the newly arrived Green Arrow who gains a large grin. On to the next test! Pulling out one of the spray cans she launches into a run toward one of the fungus-squidlings to spray it. The can says 'Tinactin.' It's not like she could really afford expensive chemicals... but anti-fungals was worth trying out. She does take care to dodge as much as possible.

Shadow has posed:
    Now present, the Shadow has something of a dilemma. The ablity to cloud minds is somewhat less useful against an enemy that does not appear to /have/ a mind -- or a discernible body to injure with gunfire. Still, she makes her way to the scene, a few well-aimed shots severing pseudopods, forcing the creatures to expend energy and motion reassembling themselves rather than pursue their prey, before blurring into partial visibility near Carrie. "I trust you have something stronger than drug store antibiotics?" she asks.

Iron Man has posed:
    Harley's new friends, dragged into a crowd, go every which direction. One of them leaps onto a small family all dressed in matching 'I love the zoo' shirts, and the elderly man starts to get dragged towards the stalk by one leg, hanging onto his wife, who gets pulled too. A few people running end up trampling one of the squid's tentacles, luckily, and the squid is forced to let go of the man. Another one of them continues on Harley's trail, but almost seems to go after Tom, then back to Harley's yell, trying to find the better sounding target closest to it, but it has slowed, as if aware it has ranged pretty far now. The last one rolled to the right side by a gift shop but diverted into a bathroom. When you gotta go, you gotta go.

Green arrow's arrows are best used on the squid grouped near the stalk and in the animal pens; they can be caught most efficiently there. The elephant in danger is now safe, thanks to those swift icy arrows, and it reacts, smashing its squid with tusk and trunk when it unluckily ends up in a bad spot. It trumpets and breaks out of the pen where the squid entered, walking out into the main path area. A group of giraffe huddle back from where the bad things are, protecting a baby giraffe.

Carrie is noticed, and one of the creatures leaps for her. It gets a snoot full of her weird spray, and clearly isn't pleased: it jerks limbs out of her spray, but it will still try to grapple at her legs, low, or anything else it can grab, including the spray cans. The behavior is much of that it is trying NOT to be hit by it, but may be commanded to do so anyway: run into danger, really. It ends up stumbling, though, and getting more of the can on it, and seems confused and lost. It managed to rip the can from her hand only to bash itself with it. Pretty unlucky.

The Shadow's bullets and attacks sheer limbs off of various creatures, though it doesn't slow them much. Shooting the iced ones, though? Those are kills. They can't recover, while frozen, and can be destroyed.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Harley, noticing that the squidlings are dispersing, squeals with glee. But that only encourages the one behind her, and it speeds up. She pulls her bat from the sling on her back, leaving one leather-sleeved...something...still firmly mounted there. Harley swings for the fences, knocking the squidling rolling right into a flock of flamingos off the path. With a squishy sound she takes to be jubilation, it fastens onto the legs (well, leg) of one dozing, apparently used to the clamor if the zoo.

"NO squishy buddy, that's a BAD SQUISHY BUDDY!!" Harley unsheaths her second weapon. Something that looks like a fire extinguisher, but is clearly marked "Liquid Nitrogen." She sprays down the squidling, which has already torn the flamingo to pink fluff, then bashes it with her bat. "FOOOORE!" Flamingos everywhere. Flailing to get out of the way.

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom is of course horrified that his good friends are dying, "Wait...this isnt right. Geeze you guys, these aliens have needs too.." his empathy to his dying friends only increases their bad luck even more. He looks at Harley, frowning, "You lied! You LIED that you were their friend!" He weeps with frustration but Harley should enjoy a boost of luck as well as would anyone he sees hurting the squid mold

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie Kelley glances over sharply at the figure and voice that suddenly appears only for her attention to be jerked away again. The mushroomy tendrils that lash out at her cause her to bob, weave, and even jump when they attempt for her legs. The can is liberally used though making that spraycloud bigger as she attacks it with the over-the-counter drugstore treatment. One does finally hit though knocking the can loose from her grasp and causing her to stagger back a step before she can recover and backpedal more accurately.

"Yep," she finally answers the Shadow as she pulls two trigger pull bottles off of her belt. "It's fungus from space. Wasn't sure which kind of antifungal would be most effective so I went for all of them." That she could get her hands on at least. The spray bottles, with wide-spray nozzles, are pulled up next to shoot gun-like at the fungus. These at least were Fungus Control for Lawn (professional strength). A step up.

"Seems I've got the right idea if not the right concentration so far!"

Green Arrow has posed:
From above, Green Arrow is being fairly efficient fire support. Freeze arrows are great for long term single control... but when you're dealing with crowds, you need to break out the specialized containment foam. At this point, the Skybike is put on autopilot as Green Arrow directs it here and there, trying to catch as many groupings as possible as he goes. When solo squidlings are going after civilians though, he builds a freeze arrow for them in between containment arrow bombardment.

The sound of his compound bow working overtime can be heard overhead as Green Arrow works on dealing with the chaos, shouting to civilians with his voice mask, "Go! I have this!" When they panic from being chased.

Shadow has posed:
    The Shadow's aim shifts, shattering frozen critters into harmless shards as the dark blur shifts position to cover Carrie's flank, then looks up at the green-clad vigilante hovering above.

    "Lay a freeze patch over there," the figure instructs, indicating an entirely empty area... Even as the stalk sprouts new minions that start making their way towards it for no apparent reason.

Iron Man has posed:
    The disarray away from the main stalk is primarily contained due to the fire support from above. The only ones ranging pretty far are the three that accompanied Harley (and Tom) out further. One of them returns from the restroom dragging a clearly unconscious middle aged woman in a blue jumper and a streamer of toilet paper. The one in the flamingos is engaged in 'battle' with Harley now, but can't seem to stand up in the slippery flamingo pool, and she's just able to pummel it with a series of lucky strikes that remove all of its limbs.

Carrie's targets seem to kind of forget about her, and go towards where that patch is supposed to be. It's like the creatures decided it was time to have a town hall meeting over there. The stalk spawns a series of a dozen of them, and they begin to mob on that spot in an eerie twisting patch of horrors. If Carrie pursues them, they seem to mostly ignore her and her current spray.

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom continues crying and lamenting the destruction of his good friends. "It's not fair! Don't you understand its just hungry? You are all so CRUEL!"

Green Arrow has posed:
Just as Green Arrow is launching another freeze arrow, he hears the shout, and the green clad man turns his head towards the source. The green hood makes it hard to see features, and the white lensed domino mask makes it impossible to tell his expression from that distance. The request has him looking over... and seeing the strategic opportunity, he builds one of his ice bomb arrows and nooks it on the compound bow.

There's a brief moment as Green Arrow waits for as many as possible... before the arrow is launched. A loud *POP* occurs in the area that can be heard throughout the Zoo as a very expensive, very specialized arrow releases an ice bomb... turning a good few dozen square feet where the squidling convention is into an ice paradise. An uneven, completely random column of ice forms up to about half a dozen feet -give or take a few feet here and there- as one of his more powerful and specialist arrows gets used in this /war/ for the first time.

"I think that'll work." Green Arrow quips back to The Shadow, "Good call." On those words, Green Arrow starts to head back to the civilians and animals, continuing his containment fire support. How many arrows does Green Arrow have in that thing?

Harley Quinn has posed:
Harley is armed with a cylinder of liquid nitrogen and a baseball bat. There are targets everywhere, but they seem to be meandering off. She stands over the same squid, bashing it to a pulp with her bat for a good while, grunts punctuating the sickening squishy thuds until she notices she is quite alone, save for a wad of highly-scandalized flamingos in the corner of the enclosure, giving her the stink-eye. "SHUT UP!" she screams at them, and she runs off toward the one dragging toilet paper (oh, and some chick) and begins kicking at it in frustration. Cylinder and bat in hand. Kicking.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie Kelley was rather glad that she had a mask of her own on to hide her face as she feels her cheeks redden from embarassment watching Shadow and Arrow. Man, compared to her? They were pros. Still, she'd learned a little bit about these things. Some antifungals did offer a benefit at least proving her thoughts were on the right track to some extent.

Tom's yelling reaches her ears earning a stern frown. "Are you serious!? What are you, a mushroom's right activist? Worse than PETA," she muters darkly as her attention turns to the now-frozen fungi. The bottles are abandoned in favor of her slingshot and steel pellets which she draws back to fire at the frozen mushrooms intending to break as many as possible.

Shadow has posed:
        he minion dragging the unconscious woman back to the stalk's digesting pool suddenly makes a sharp turn to the left, laying the body down in a mud puddle before lurching off in search of more food. Meanwhile, the Shadow's guns continue to roar, shattering the frozen fungi as they pile up.

    "The infirmary by the Reptile House should contain liquid nitrogen," she tells Carrie. "Some venoms are best countered by immediately cooling the affected area. Go."

Iron Man has posed:
    There aren't very many squid spawned creatures left anymore. Fewer as the pellets from the sling shot begin to shatter them. There's some very lucky shots, too: Carrie appears to be a really strong shot with those things, with her own ability plus the ambient luck all the hero-ish people are enjoying.

Harley has two near her: one specifically that she engaged (that the Shadow just directed to go off into a puddle), and another one that recently recovered from being trampled. The recovered one intended to help its kicked friend, and Harley abruptly has a tentacle attack from behind, as the spare one, with its two remaining vines, attempts to flip her backwards off her feet onto the pavement, so that the two of them can work on pulling her kicking kickers off. Obviously one of them is off in a puddle, though, but it is still strong enough to exact some of this plan!

The Stalk itself is strained for resources, it hasn't spawned any creatures recently, and seems to be bending over a little bit. If it is doing something new, hard to tell.

Harley Quinn has posed:
From the direction of the flamingos and the bathroom comes a blood curdling scream. Instead of stopping, however, in continues, only growing louder. Appearing around the bend comes the most triumphant-looking squidling ever, dragging a flailing, pigtailed ringmaster as it comes. Harley is beyond panicked. The stream of obscenities fairly paints a blue streak in their wake as she tries to scramble in the direction that ISN'T toward the hungry patch of goo and a handful of people who'd like to see her put there.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie Kelley tenses at the sound of gunfire though it's far more productive than her own slingshot. Alas, being on a budget... Plus she knew the reputation of The Bat and guns. When The Shadow informs her of the liquid nitrogen she gives a sharp nod at the command. This she could do, easily so. Sprinting at a dead run, leaping over frozen and fallen fungi with far more skill than her fighting the mushrooms themselves, she makes a short trip of the distance to the reptile house and it's infirmary.

The door gets a yank proving it to be locked earning a quick curse. Without skipping a beat she reaches into a pocket to pull out what appears to be a key blank that she shoves into the door lock. She steps back, lifts a leg and kicks her heel out to hammer the key in before moving back to twist and unlock it. Nothing beat a bump key for opening locks in a pinch.

Just before she vanishes inside the newly unlocked door she hears the screams of Harley sending a chill up her spine. Her head whips around to see Harley being dragged along with a sickening feeling in her stomach. Ugh. Gritting her teeth she grabs another can of Tinactin off her belt making it far emptier than before. It's lobbed toward the shrieking Harley with a cry of, "Hey, catch! It's not great but they don't seem to like this!" She doesn't stick around to see if it worked though; she's inside the building a split second later to search for the far more useful liquid nitrogen that may be found there.

Green Arrow has posed:
*TWIP* A containment arrow lands right on the squidling grabbing Harley. The payload is enough to encase Harley as well, if she's not quite quick enough to get away. Of course, the can from Carrie might get her attention more.

More freeze arrows are launched from up high as the archer vigilante deals with the stragglers. With the mushroom war going on, Green Arrow does a sweep over the police perimeter as they use their own liquid nitrogen based weapons, before he flies back into the Zoo, looking for anymore stragglers or animals in danger first. The stalk itself can be dealt with in a moment.

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom groans and looks at Carrie, "Are you kidding me? This poor alien visits our world and do we show it compassion? Oh NO! we kill it and smash it and poison it. It is so hungry and we deny it again as he groans and starts to ramble off. It's too much. Too much for his poor old heart to take. The luck is getting a bit insane for those who are cursed or helped...but Tom is slowly moving away.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Harley manages to pull away from the squidling that has her in its grip. When she tries to get up, however, she goes down like a sack of potatoes. Sitting next to the contained and captive squidling, she takes the can of tinactin and EMPTIES IT right in what she perceives to be the squidling's face. "YOU BROKE MY ANKLE, YOU SORRY--" and the string of obscenities continues.

Green Arrow has posed:
With no more priority threats, Green Arrow eyes the source: the stalk itself. Taking the Skybike and programming in a circular pattern around it, Green Arrow makes ready his second -and last- ice bomb arrow. Waiting to find a niche on it that'll spread easily down into the roots, the arrow is launched, and a second *POP* can be heard as the ice explodes over the lower and center portions of the stalk.

"That's my last ice bomb, make it count!" Green Arrow instructs down to those below him, before he starts to cycle his remaining freeze arrows as he aims for perceived critical points on the stalk, trying to cripple and topple it with precision.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie Kelley butt-bumps the door open again as she steps out carrying the nitrogen cannister in both hands. It wasn't too large, just about the size of a gas cannister you could get for a grill, but it was enough that she couldn't one-hand it easily. Seeing Harley get free she turns her attention to the stalk watching as Green Arrow informs of his last ice bomb. A deep breath is taken, and she jogs toward the stalk angling her approach to the side that doesn't have the most of the ice coverage. "Hey!" She calls out, a bit breathlessly-- Got to work on the strength training-- and she stops well short of the goo puddle. "See if this'll work!"

The cannister is dropped down to hold with arms outstretched as she spins in place. Once, twice, thrice... And then the cannister is hammer-thrown the rest of the distance toward the stalk. "Finally a use for track and field!"

Shadow has posed:
    The Shadow nods approvingly, one gun already tracking the canister's arc as it tumbles through the air. "Well done. Take cover - NOW!" Both guns roar just as the stalk suddenly lunges upwards to engulf the canister, the heavy rounds only barely slowed by the material they pass through...

Iron Man has posed:
    The goo started to attempt to eat the canister as it came into range, but finds it isn't so tasty. With the combination of ice and other physical assault, the stalk itself splinters. It leans a little, as if trying to shield the bottom from the attacks by using the upper area of the stalk. But then, it splinters under the harsh blows, and the top collapses, frozen shards breaking apart as the mushroom monster collapses into a pile that looks quite defeated indeed.

Lucky Day has posed:
Tom slowly begins to move off crying. All his friends are dead. This is a horrible day. All life is horrible.

Harley Quinn has posed:
"I coulda done that," Harley mutters under her breath, as she sits helplessly next to a pile of definitely not itchy squid, looking around for some means of escape.