Wildfire: Was it Just a Dream?

[dans]

Was it Just a Dream?

Part 1

Mr. Fire only gradually became aware of the most interesting and exciting event in decades, probably. It was hard for him to compare the magnitude of interesting events - Mr. Fire didn't have much of a long term memory, but lived almost entirely in the present moment (kind of like a fire...). Somewhere in North America, a fire was burning out of control. It had started small, as almost all fires do, and grown quickly, as many fires do. It was soon the largest fire he could sense anywhere, and he decided to go see! He held out his hand and gazed intently into the geyser of flame that gushed up from his palm - and then he vanished!

Mr. Bittergreen, the Plant Elemental formerly known as Mr Green, had just been 'born', in the same sense that a butterfly just out of its cocoon was a newborn, after almost 40 years of holometabolism as he evolved from a mutated human into a force of nature. And seconds after his rebirth, he already sensed a disaster threatening one of the new jungles that had recently taken over Earth X! Far to the west, the new Death Valley Jungle was threatened by a quickly growing fire. He needed to get there instantly! His huge, vaguely humanoid body slowly collapsed into a heap of jumbled vegetation as his consciousness flowed into and through the interconnected 'Green Network' of plants. When he arrived in the Death Valley Jungle, well away from the threatening fire, he quickly commanded the incredibly fecund and densely overgrown jungle to produce him a new body. The Avenger of the Green was here!

So who are these guys - and what's with up the Death Valley Jungle?!

These guys:

Mr. Fire

Mr. Green / Bittergreen, Avenger of the Green

Not much is known about Mr. Fire, other than that he is a Fire Elemental, and he granted the super-heroine Wildfire her fire control powers equal to his own in his first recorded appearance on Earth X in Smash Comics #25, August 1941.

Mr. Green had been dead and buried for almost 40 years; at least, that's what humans had assumed! (See Police Comics #58, September 1946, "The Green Terror"). He was a botanist who had hated humanity all his life, and managed to transform himself into a vegetable being with considerable plant-control powers to begin his plan for revenge. His enhanced powers proved to be not quite a match for Plastic Man, though, and Mr. Green had 'died' of a spear through the heart. But plants don't need hearts, and a WOODEN spear couldn't kill him, though the spearing had caused the cessation of his human life processes. So they'd thought he was dead, and given him a villain's burial - in a cheap coffin in a poorly-tended, soon abandoned field, with nothing more than a flimsy wooden cross to mark his grave, a cross quickly destroyed by weather. His coffin decayed even more quickly, and soon Mr. Green's body was pervasively perforated and permeated by the roots of the plants in the overgrown, forgotten burial grounds above. For almost 40 years, still driven by the continuing effects of his own experiments, Mr. Green had continued to evolve, fed by his plants. The sudden subjugation of Earth X just before the Crisis on Infinite Earths by an army of supervillains, using wildly out of control plants and weather control, had accelerated his evolution, and a few days after the rebirth of Earth X, he emerged from his grave - no longer human, or even a mutated human, but a new type of being - a Plant Elemental.

Death Valley Jungle

A few days before the final events of the Crisis, in August of 1985, an army of supervillains recruited from many Earths invaded the Earth of Mr. Green - Earth X. Many villains, armed with plant controlling powers, weather control, many other superpowers and a lot of just plain-old evil villainyness, destroyed the planet's environment and mutated the global vegetation so that it ran amuck, engulfing the world in out-of-control plant life (see the Earth X Timeline for August, 1985). One of the places a jungle sprang up was Death Valley. When the Spectre removed the villains from Earth X to the beginning of time, much of the unnatural vegetation began to die... but it continued to survive in the Death Valley Jungle - at least for a while...

[johnreiter902]

This sound like a good beginning to a story.

I'm not sure is the weather patterns of Death Valley can sustain a jungle long term. Maybe it will gradually turn into savanna?

[dans]

Feb 27, 2021 13:12:28 GMT johnreiter902 said:

This sound like a good beginning to a story.

I'm not sure is the weather patterns of Death Valley can sustain a jungle long term. Maybe it will gradually turn into savanna?

It ain't gonna be around long!

[DocQuantum]

As I noted in the Earth-X timeline question thread, the California-Nevada border is guarded by American soldiers on the Nevada side, and Japanese soldiers on the California side, as of late summer/fall 1985/1986, with skirmishes happening along the border all the time. Death Valley National Park runs along the border.

Stories referencing the border (though not Death Valley specifically) are:

Blackhawk: Cry of the Hawk
Freedom Fighters: The Fight Continues
Feature: The Blue Tracer: Blue Traces

Possibly others.

[dans]

Was it Just a Dream?

Part 2

Bittergreen stood amongst his plants, many miles from the fire, reveling momentarily in their worshipful adulation and the incredible power he now derived from them. Then, "You can't just stand here, Green! You have WORK to do!" He remembered some of the results of years-ago research and set the jungle to work, ordering the plants to begin making massive, rapid modifications to their own physiology throughout the entire jungle, and then he made some some similar modifications to his own plant body. Now armed and armored, he set out towards the fire. In spite of his massive, ragged body and lumbering gait, he slipped through the impassible vegetation easily, as plants swayed aside to grant him passage through even the densest thickets.

Mr. Fire wandered through the burning jungle inferno, unerringly seeking out the hottest hot spots, basking for a short time, and then moving on. The roaring and crackling of the flames washed over and soothed him like the applause of a giant, enthusiastic audience for their favorite superstar; the tremendous heat, ubiquitous flames, and billowing surges of superheated air caressed him like a gentle lover. Around him, living things died in the conflagration; he was barely aware of it. It was the natural order of things: all living things die, and there is always an unending torrent of new living replacements!

Mr. Fire was stunned to see something approaching him through the fire; something living, something as tall and massive as he was. A shaggy, plant-green humanoid, shambling inexorably forward, crashing over all the burned debris, and seemingly ignoring the roaring, scorching flames.

"YOU! Fire thing! This fire is KILLING my jungle! Stop it, NOW!" Bittergreen demanded. He wasn't actually speaking; the incredible thunderous roaring of the fire would have drowned out any actual sound. The message was mystically presented on a higher plane of existence. And the message he conveyed was much stronger than could be expressed by human language. There were overtones of hatred and contempt, immediacy and threat.

"Who are you?" the Flame Elemental replied. "Why do you want me to kill this fire? It will die on its own soon enough... and the plants will grow back after the fire is gone."

"If you won't stop this fire, I will kill YOU!" Bittergreen roared.

Mr. Fire was dumbfounded. Kill him? The concept was inconceivable. As long as there had been fire, there had been Mr. Fire; as long as there was fire, Mr. Fire would continue. At least, that's what he believed. "I never start fires; I never stop fires," he finally replied slowly.

"Then, you die!" Bittergreen screamed as he attacked!

Thousands of poison thorns blasted out from his sweeping gesture, accompanied by billowing clouds of poison spores - which instantly flashed into an explosion. This rocked both combatants but harmed neither, and the thorns were burned to ash by the aura of flame surrounding Mr. Fire, and for a few instants, Mr. Fire was surrounded by a cloud of ash, which was instantly blown away by the hurricane-force updrafts created by the fire.

Another scream, this one of wordless rage, and Bittergreen lumbered forward, moving much more quickly than one would expect from his size. Mr. Fire was still somewhat befuddled by being attacked, and he didn't even attempt to dodge. Of course, he didn't yet believe that Bittergreen would be able to reach him - he was surrounded by an incredibly potent aura of fire and Bittergreen was a plant; he was just incinerating himself...

Except, the massive Plant Elemental smashed violently into the somewhat less massive Flame Elemental and knocked him to the ground, and immediately rearranged his body so that Mr. Fire was completely covered by fireproof vegetation - bark, leaves and vines. "I've incorporated asbestos into every cell in my body, fool! I'm now fireproof. And I have other weapons. I am smothering you in carbon dioxide emitted by my plant body!"

(Yes, while plants are famous for emitting oxygen, they also emit carbon dioxide. Bittergreen is using his elemental powers to enhance that capability to super levels.)

Mr. Fire was wrapped in darkness, wrapped in stuff he couldn't burn, and as his metabolism was based on fire, the cloud of carbon dioxide was killing him! And he had no idea how to escape; all his struggles did was make him weaker! In his desperation, he remembered his protegee - if only she could help him!

"WILDFIRE, COME TO ME IN ALL YOUR POWER!" he put as much power as he had left into the command.

[dans]

Was it Just a Dream?

Part 3

Carol <Martin, unless she has been married> was awakened by a strange sensation, and when she opened her eyes, she saw a candle in her bedroom flare suddenly into flame, and then she screamed as her body deformed and stretched toward the flame, and then her hand disappeared, and before she could react further, she vanished from her bedroom and reappeared instantly in a forest fire! Adrenaline surged through her and she was fully awake and she heard a voice in her head, pleading with her to rescue the supplicant. She recognized the dry, raspy voice instantly, even though she hadn't heard it since she was three - it was Mr. Fire! She was instantly aware of his dire situation, wrapped in an fireproof trap under that pile that was impossibly leafy green, when every other remnant of vegetation was charred black or powder on the ground, lit with brilliant yellow, orange and red flames. And he was being smothered to death!

Carol raced to the impossible heap and began tearing it apart, frantically exerting all her flame-powered super strength! She realized vaguely that she had never felt so strong; she was tearing thick vines easily and breaking thick branches like twigs!

Mr. Fire had never faced death before, and he was terrified. He was straining to use his powers to burn free, desperately exerting his will to produce flames more powerful than he ever had before - and suddenly Carol ripped away a layer of the fireproof asbestos-enhanced vegetation that was smothering him, and he was exposed to air with oxygen in it, and he EXPLODED!

Carol was thrown high into the air, but the heat of the explosion couldn't harm her, and she drew healing power from the intense flames engulfing her and the remnants of the forest and within seconds she had recovered. And again, she was surprised at the strength of her powers. She gained control of her flight and circled back to the site of the explosion. There was a massive crater, debris was still raining down, there was no sign of the heap of green, and Mr. Fire was standing in the center of the devastation, laughing!

He saw her approaching and gestured... and again her body elongated, and she was drawn into a flame - and an instant later, she was back in her bedroom!

[johnreiter902]

Well. That as a neat little story. Is their more to come? I feel like Bittergreen will not give up easily.

[dans]

Well, my thinking is this.
* It could have been a dream by Carol.
* It could be real and used to rejuvenate Wildfire and bring her into the present much younger, and she hasn't realized the extent of the change yet, but will when she looks at herself in a mirror tomorrow. Doc mentioned plans to rejuvenate Wildfire by a different method.

* It could be real and increase wildfire's powers without changing her age

* Also could be a prelude to, she lost her memory back in 1943 when she was mind-controlled by Dr. Doome, and now her memory is back - and she will realize tonight or tomorrow that she has lived the last 40 years not remembering her secret identity

* It can just be ignored, if it gets in the way of Doc's story

I agree, I don't think Bittergreen is done for. I suspect his mind is back under the cemetery, perhaps temporarily dormant from the trauma of having his body exploded. But, by the time he gets back to Death Valley Jungle, it is going to be totally burned out and back on its way to being a desert. So unless he holds a grudge (and he undoubtedly does) he has no further reason for a feud with Mr. Fire. (Mr. Fire was totally embarrassed by needing to call for help, BTW, which is why he sent Carol home without thanking her. He doesn't really understand the concept of 'thank you' anyway...)

[DocQuantum]

I'm just reading the first chapter and had a comment about Bittergreen: I know with Swamp Thing we have this idea that a plant elemental can travel through the plant world 'consciousness' and create a new body just anywhere, but remember in the Swamp Thing comics it took YEARS for Alec Holland just to discover that he could do this at all, and it took a lot of training and assisting by a mystic (John Constantine) to help him figure out the full extent of his abilities (and I've reduced those godlike abilities in a Swamp Thing story, since I wanted to return Swamp Thing to his muck-monster "roots" so to speak, instead of just retreading the stories of Alan Moore and Rick Veitch, and I explained his new abilities as being temporarily granted to him by the Parliament of Trees, to be used at time when the world is greatly threatened). Originally, Swamp Thing had to get to places the same way anyone else would, by walking or hitching a ride (on a plane, train, or other mode of transport).

Given that Earth-X doesn't really have any history of cosmic-level beings, perhaps this kind of power for Mr. Green/Bittergreen can be left for later on. Perhaps the Villain War awakened Mr. Green then, and he was drawn toward the West, ending up in Death Valley by the time of this story, explaining why this is virtually the only place in the world that retained its plant overgrowth. He could have fallen asleep again prior to the fire starting, and when the fire begins it wakes him up and causes him to blame the fire elemental known as Mr. Fire (a name given to him by Carol when she was a child -- he likely has no human name).

[DocQuantum]

Finished the story: pretty good, though I think it needs an epilogue since it ends so abruptly.

More thoughts about Bittergreen: If this is his original body being killed/destroyed (for the second time), it likely won't take another 40 years for him to resurrect himself. His consciousness could have passed into the Earth-X equivalent of "the Green" and is dormant there until such time as he's brought back for another story. It's only then that he figures out the trick of creating new bodies for himself. Just a suggestion, as I think his having figured out that new power was a little too abrupt for reasons I stated above.

[dans]

Suppose instead of not knowing the 'move into a new body at some other location' trick until some later story, the next time he tried it in a future story, he is unable to utilize the trick. It was easy for him this time around because much of the vegetation around the world had recently been empowered by Poison Ivy and Plant Master, and likely a bunch of other plant-controlling villains who never appeared on-panel, and this empowerment is fading, even as this story takes place. So if he ever comes back again, it won't work, and he will have to figure out how to make it work with 'normal' plants rather than 'recently-empowered' plants?

[johnreiter902]

That could ework