The Hero

<Door opens, footsteps as speaker enters>

Alright team. I've got a new dossier for you all to go over. This one is fairly important, so you need to go over it quite thoroughly.

<Papers being passed around the table>

This case before us...well. For some of you that have been here awhile, it's going to be quite personal. If we need to take a break, or you need to step out for a moment...well, I won't stop you. I'm not even sure I can get through this in one go.

We've been assigned an elimination task this week. It is our only mission, and further assignments will not come until this one is completed.

I didn't want to take this case. I really didn't. But the higher-ups demanded that our team is the one to do it...

[Sigh]

Save questions until the end. I'll try to cover as much as I can coherently.

[Struggling] Our target is...a twenty-six year old caucasian male, with blonde hair and green eyes. Approximately 6'2", and a generally lean build. Specializes in enhancement and biological magic. Has an affinity towards plants. Last seen March 18th, after an extended disappearance. His name is Brian Foster...aliases include...Greenskeeper. 

<Optionally, gasps from rest of the team; shock and fear>

[Really struggling] Objectives are to locate Brian Foster and ensure he is discreetely eliminated. The subject should not be neutralized or contained. He should be treated as openly hostile and exceedingly dangerous to the public at large. His threat level is designated at Radon, having recently been upgraded from Xenon as of April 21st.

[Sigh]

I'll...I'll go off script a bit.

Greenskeeper, as some of you already are well aware of, was a hero that was formerly on this very team. He was a very gentle individual, who just wanted to keep the world a safe, calm place. His affinity for gardening and plant life carried over into his set of powers, which could cause rapid growth of plant life and other similar biological matter.

He was such a nice boy...

He was taken in October of last year. Greenskeeper was captured by the villain Mesmera, working in tandem with the lesser villains Chainweaver and The Financier. As a result of the fight, Chainweaver is currently imprisoned in Inglewood Penitentiary, while The Financier is dead.

Mesmera seemed to have been targeting Greenskeeper, though we have not been able to figure out why she specifically wanted him.

What we know now is that Mesmera's mission was to use concentrated brainwashing against Greenskeeper in order to use him.

Mesmera's plan failed. Greenskeeper struggled for hours, trying to do anything he could to break free. Screaming plant names as a distraction. Thrashing about as much as possible. Trying to beg and reason for the brainwashing ray to stop. 

To his fortune or ours, perhaps, this degree of mind control takes an exceedingly long time to work. Days, maybe. It must have been torture to endure for so long.

Ultimately, though, Greenskeeper's resolve started to crack. He knew this was a fight and he was losing. He should have just given up, but instead he tried one final plan.

What I'm about to tell you is considered contraband. Please do not repeat it outside of here.

Power inhibitor bands have a unique flaw. They are excellent at preventing the use of powers, but...they can only prevent powers that take place outside of the human body. This is why some heroes like Victor Coils or Captain Ferro are immune to them—their powers are internally generated and exerted.

Greenskeeper knew this. I'm not actually sure when he learned about it, but it was something he knew for quite awhile.

I guess he had an idea. A reckless, stupid, dangerous idea.

He would use his powers...inside of himself.

[Sharp inhale]

He...he...

Gods above.

[Collect oneself]

He caused a thornbush to grow directly in between his brain, severing the sections the brainwashing ray targeted, from the rest of them.

He...self-lobotomized.

<More optional gasps, crying, etc>

It erupted from the rest of his skull. Mesmera stopped the ray immediately. The plan was over.

She tried to give aid or do anything to preserve his life, but...[softly] what can you do in a situation like that?

She left him for dead. Unmoving and unresponsive, with only a mild breath pattern. She knew that nature was his love, and chose to place him in a small, abandoned greenhouse on the outskirts of town.

{Pause}

We know all of this happened, because she told us. She wrote a letter notifying us of his death, and a weak apology for having killed him. The remainder of information was uncovered through personal journals and research notes.

Her base was infiltrated by Team Bravo yesterday. Mesmera is dead. She was found having been brutally murdered in her lab, impaled hundreds of times over, across every section of her body.

Covered in weed and mushroom growth.

For someone that was so obsessed with running an evil lair, Mesmera didn't have great security camera coverage. What we did find, though...

...was Brian. He looks...a lot different now. His skin is pale and graying, with some of it being replaced by what seems like tree bark. His hair appears stale and lifeless. His movement is less of a walk, and more of a lurch.

Greenskeeper is no more. Whatever he is now, it isn't the same thing as he used to be.

He's violent and calculated, which is probably what caught Mesmera by surprise. Even then, her powers probably were no match for whatever he did to cause that much damage.

If his lobotomy was really as severe as Mesmera said, then Brian is probably no longer capable of speech.

It's almost like he's just a vessel for plant life, now...

{Pause; drift off a bit}

A-anyways. The higher-ups have insisted he needs to be destroyed.

We initially believed this was an effort for revenge. Going after the person who made him the way he is...made sense.

But he's still a threat out there. We do not know his motives—or if he even has the consciousness to have motives.

That being said...two vehicles were found destroyed recently. The first was a police cruiser, and the second was an Inglewood prison bus. Both were partially on fire, and partially covered in various wildflowers and carnivorous plants.

One police officer is now dead from the exchange, having been impaled mostly the same way.

We don't know where Brian is trying to go, but it's paramount that he is eliminated before he gets there.

[A little motivational] He doesn't seem to be moving that fast, and it seems fairly reasonable he is around or in the abandoned greenhouse. Our search will start there.

We probably have the advantage here, both in numbers and with Pewter's long range attacks added to Mr. Butane's fire powers.

Still, it's best to be cautious of what is to come.

Please try to ask them slowly, but does anybody have any questions?

END.