Artemis pulled down the hem of her shirt, making sure her clothes were comfortably fitted. You never knew when you needed to be ready for a fight, so she made sure to wear loose clothing that was she could move around in easily at all times. She definitely did not want to be caught in something impractical if a fight broke out.
Of course, not everyone would think that a cheap Sailor Moon knock off outfit was practical. But when you're twenty years old and just starting out on the path of a super hero, you don't have a lot of resources for something more original. And wearing blue jeans and a sweatshirt wouldn't work either. Superheroes had to stand out.
The men she was watching were finishing up with whatever deal they were working on. Two guys had just put the last of the wooden crates in the back of a nondescript van. There was a hand-off of a brown envelope as them men closed up the van and got it ready to go. The lone guy was busy counting the dollar bills in the envelope, and was eventually satisfied with its contents.
If Artemis was going to make a move on them, now was the time, before the van trundled off. But there was no actual evidence of anything illegal going down. It was shady, sure, but it could have been anything. Besides, these guys were obviously small fries. If there was anything truly nefarious going on, the local police could handle it.
If Artemis wanted to make a name for herself, she was going to have to hunt down something much more noteworthy. She slowly stood up from her crouch and glanced around in the alley she was hiding out in. The day was still early, but she definitely needed to find some action soon, otherwise she would waste yet another day looking for criminals to thwart.
At that moment, her junior hero's league communicator watch buzzed to life.
"There's a disturbance at the botanical gardens. Reports indicate that large plants are coming to life. Are there any heroes in the area to investigate?"
Artemis wasn't even a true hero yet, at least not according to the Guild. She was just a junior associate member. She wasn't even supposed to have a communicator watch, but she had managed to finagle one anyway. And she was restless to prove herself to the Guild and work her way up the ranks.
So, the botanical gardens? If she was going to make a name for herself as a hero, she was going to need to take down some noteworthy bad guys. She barely thought about it before jogging off in the direction of the gardens.
As it turned out, it was only a few blocks away, and she had probably beat any other heroes to the spot. As Artemis stopped in front of the gardens, she could hear screams coming from inside. People were still spilling forth from the grounds obviously trying to escape whatever was within.
Artemis went over options in her head for a moment while getting her breath back. She couldn't remember any of the local villains who specialized in manipulating plants. It didn't seem likely that any of the big time major villains would have moved to town recently, there wasn't enough going on in her small city to attract the attention of the more powerful superpowers.
She was probably up against a new villain, one just coming into his powers. Given the fact that she was somewhat inexperienced herself, this was probably the best scenario Artemis could hope for. Either way, she needed to get in there before any more innocent people got hurt.
She forced her way through the throng of escaping people and into a bizarre mess. Inside the giant greenhouse plants had overgrown the place, hanging from the ceiling and all over the walls. The greenhouse, usually a bright and airy place, was dark and creepy due to the overgrown plants blocking all the light coming through the glass.
Artemis took a quick look around and noticed an unhealthy number of vines coming from underneath the door to the desert environment. She carefully stalked to the door and peeked through the open slot. A giant sized carnivorous plant occupied the majority of the desert room. Vines snaked away from the oversized Venus fly trap, moving freely along the grounds and displays.
Artemis shivered. She did not want to get wrapped up by one of those oversized vines. So creepy!
She slinked away from the doorway. The large creepy looking plant looked dangerous, but it didn't seem to be able to leave the desert room. Artemis decided that clearing the rest of the gardens out of civilians was more important right now. She'd go back to face down the monstrous plant when she was done with that.
Artemis made her way into the exotic plants section of the gardens. Unfortunately, this section was built like a maze, with various paths crisscrossing around the large room. She forced herself to look behind every hedge and display to make sure no one else was around. As she searched, a strange cloying scent began to fill her nostrils. It was a bit of a distraction at first, but given the fact that she was in the exotic area, strange and unfamiliar scents should be expected.
Behind a series of brightly flowering bushes a middle-aged woman lay on the ground, paralyzed in fear. Grunting to herself, Artemis grabbed the woman by the arm and tried to pull her to her feet.
"Come on, lady! It's time to get out of here!" She urged the woman up.
The woman was about average build, but for some reason, Artemis was having a hard time dragging her to her feet. She seemed to be muttering to herself, but nothing came out that was intelligible.
With lots of swearing, and cajoling, Artemis finally managed to get the woman to stand up and ushered her to the door.
"Go through the far door to the exit, and don't stop until you're at least a full block away, alright?" Artemis pushed the woman through the door towards the exit.
"Now go!" She stood and watched the woman as she stumbled forward, making sure she made it to the exit. With one good deed done, Artemis returned to her search of the room.
Focusing back on the room she was in, there were still many areas that she hadn't searched yet. She forced herself to keep moving. The deeper she moved into the exotic plants section, the more noticeable that strange smell was. She shrugged it off as unimportant and she continued to search behind every bush and bench in the area.
She finally noticed that she was moving slower and slower the longer she stayed in the area. It had already gotten to the point where she was dragging her feet across the ground, and she was beginning to get worried. At this point she was relatively sure that no one else was in the exotic plants section, so it was time to leave. Unfortunately, the exit was on the other side of the room from her current position. Skipping most of the maze-like corridors, Artemis choose to move straight through the center of the room.
Halfway through the room Artemis's movement had almost come to a standstill. Her legs were only barely shuffling along, and her arms were heavy and motionless. She had the entirety of her mental focus bent on keeping herself moving forward. She was sure that all she had to do was get out of this room and she'd recover quickly enough.
With all of her concentration focused inward, she didn't notice the vines moving around on their own. Two vines grappled her legs and began to slowly wind their way around them, working their way up the limbs and solidifying their grip on her. The same effect that was weakening her body also made Artemis's limbs numb, which kept her from noticing the plants entrapping her.
Finally, with both legs thoroughly wrapped up, the vines began to completely arrest her movement. Artemis glanced down at her feet to will them to move forward again, and immediately freaked out when she noticed the vines tightly wrapped around her.
She tried to move her hands down to tear herself free, but more vines had started to wrap up her arms as well. Combined with the paralysis in her body, she was completely unable to move. Her mind raced as the fear began to grip her tighter than the vines that were now tugging her back towards a large congregation of plants.
Artemis struggled hard as she could, but the paralysis was keeping her weak and ineffectual. The strange cloying scent was growing stronger the closer she got to the plants. That was apparently what was weakening her body, and for as long as she'd been in the room, she had breathed in quite a bit of it. How had she not noticed how the scent was affecting her earlier?
She was pulled off the ground by the vines and lifted into the air, suspended and completely helpless. She struggled as hard as she could, but there was nothing she could do. She could feel her heart beating quickly in her chest as the fear threatened to consume her.
More vines came out of the various plants and snaked their way across the ground to her. She watched helplessly as they climbed up into the air and began to circle her body. Two of the vines snaked up her shirt and began to lift it up, exposing her to the air.
Artemis's face began to grow red with embarrassment as her body was exposed for all to see. The fact that there were no other humans present did help a little, but she was beginning to feel incredibly uncomfortable now. She vainly tried to struggle against the vines, putting as much as her superhuman abilities into it as she could, but it wasn't enough. The vines on her legs and arms tightened up, solidifying their grip on her even further.
RIIIIIIIP!
Artemis's shirt was ripped off, and the remains gently floated down to the dirt path. Two small white flowers grew out of the offending vines and hovered ominously just beyond her bra covered breasts. She did not like the look of those seemingly innocent appearing flowers. A warm breeze rolled across her now naked stomach causing her to feel butterflies under her skin.
Vines snaked around her cream-colored sports bra, pulling and tugging on it from every angle. She could feel the plant tentacles slivering over her skin, brushing up against her breasts as they tried to unclothe her. She felt a shudder move down her paralyzed body. This was NOT turning her on. Definitely not. Plants with tentacles were creepy.
*CLICK*
