E P I S O D E I: R E B I R T H
L O U I S I A N A :17 juillet 2017 - 19:54:00 Musée Stonechat - St. Roch
En entrant dans le musée, Rose a immédiatement commencé à analyser ses environs. La réception était vide, les taches de sang sur la chaîne indiquaient qu'un corps s'était endormi sous le bureau ou avait été traîné hors de la chaise. Les gardes de sécurité étaient éparpillés autour de la pièce, beaucoup d'entre eux désemboîtés, les griffes du lionnier, sûrement l'arme du crime.
Soudain le silence assourdissant fut brisé par une toux tandis que Rose tourna vers le son. Ses mains maintenaient son arme alors qu'elle la dirigeait vers la source du bruit, voyant un gardien qui s'accroche encore à la vie. Sa poitrine se levait lentement et descendait pendant qu'il toussait à nouveau, cramoisi en sanglant les lèvres pendant qu'il luttait pour respirer.
-- Rapidement... à lui, murmura Lizard, pointant sur leur garde de sécurité à moitié respirant. Comme Lizard a bientôt laissé ses sens devenir plus in-tune avec son entourage. Son sens 'gator', devenir plus actif - laisser ses iris jaunes se déplacer lentement en fentes. Comme tout son corps s'est rapidement concentré et prêt. "Si tu as besoin de quelque chose, dis... sinon, je suis plus serré que la source d'une arme... prête à tirer... alors s'il te plaît... personne ne m'arrête sur l'épaule. M'kay?"
Elle a notamment couvert ses coéquipiers, afin qu'ils puissent fournir des soins médicaux - pendant qu'elle attendait que le Lion-Man se montre. Son nez renifle encore l'air - et essaie de trouver quelque chose qui sort de l'ordinaire.
La question se dirigea vers le garde de sécurité blessé, s'agenouillant et le regardant. « Ne pas dire clairement, mais avoir besoin de soins médicaux, » s'est-il tourné vers Rose et le directeur, « ont une expertise médicale? »
Le directeur secoua la tête, gardant les yeux sur les environs. « Ce n'est pas utile pour quelque chose d'aussi grave », dit-il en réponse à la question, puis se tourne vers le garde de sécurité. « Je suis désolé monsieur, mais peut-être pourriez-vous aider à trouver cet homme lion? A-t-il parlé de ses projets? Allez n'importe où de la note?"
"Je peux l'habiller." Rose a déclaré qu'elle avait caché son arme et s'était agenouillée pour regarder l'homme blessé. "Mais il va avoir besoin d'un putain d'hôpital, putain de static. L'un de nous devra l'y emmener." Rose s'est tournée vers Lizard.
"Vous êtes les plus forts d'entre nous, si quelqu'un peut le porter à l'hôpital le plus proche à temps, ce sera vous." Rose a ordonné avant de réaliser que Batman avait explicitement mis Question en charge de la mission. Éclairant sa gorge avec une légère toux, Rose a fait de son mieux pour subtiliser la main les règnes de retour au héros enduit de tranchée.
C'est pas vrai.
"Sauf si vous avez une autre idée bien sûr, Q."
"Non. C'est une bonne idée. Lizard, amène-le à l'hôpital une fois que Ravager a soigné ses blessures." Question posée.
Penchant vers le bas, Rose a atteint sa ceinture en regardant à travers ses provisions pour quelque chose pour ralentir l'hémorragie afin de permettre à Lizard d'emmener le gardien à l'hôpital. Trouver un rouleau de gaze, Rose a commencé à habiller la blessure quand soudain un pouls a tiré à travers son front. Ses yeux vitrifiés comme une multitude d'images et de nombres ont traversé son esprit. Une lance a percé la tête de la garde avant que la vision de Rose ne s'éclaircisse et elle s'est soudainement levée en tirant son épée d'énergie.
La lame s'enflamme avec un sifflement car il était parfaitement chronométré pour trancher à travers une lance aéroportée, les deux moitiés tombant inoffensifment de chaque côté de Rose et du garde. Une fois de plus, ses pouvoirs lui avaient permis d'intervenir juste à temps.
Le lobby du musée était une femme à peau foncée vêtue de vêtements rituels et recouverte de peinture du corps de guerrier. Sa tenue a été thématique pour représenter une lionne et cela n'a laissé aucun doute dans l'esprit de Rose que cette mystérieuse femme guerrière était associée à leur lion humanoïde.
"Pousse-toi!" Rose cria alors que deux autres femmes se jetaient sur le groupe, leurs lances pointaient vers l'intérieur alors qu'elles formaient un périmètre autour des héros, les dents bardées et ronflantes avant qu'on ne parle enfin.
"Husband a dit que tu allais venir, que la Ligue ne pouvait pas le laisser seul."
Name: 
Alias: The Warden
Age: 
Personality: Defender, Patient, Quiet, Watchful, Stubborn
Archetype: Alien
Powers: The Warden’s symbiotic relationship with the alien plant form growing in his back gives him a number of remarkable abilities.
-Heightened humanity: The Warden is capable of lifting over a ton, does not need to sleep, can breath either as a plant or human (intaking either CO2 or O2 – can also go without any respiration for a day), and can photosynthesize in absence of food. His skin is somewhat bark-like and highly resistant to piercing (sustained gunfire should be avoided), and he regenerates from major injuries within a day or so, assuming he doesn’t die first. He has much smaller resistance to cold, explosions, falling, etc. (though he is overall still tougher than a normal human). Seems to age rather slowly, as well.
-Plant Body: The warden has 3 prehensile vines coiled on his back with an effective range of about 30 feet; one of them is covered in brambles, looking like a blackberry bush, while the other two look like, well, vines. He also flowers and grows apple-sized fruits that taste roughly like wet sand; they offer no benefit (other than being useful food), but he is convinced that they accelerate healing and may offer them up to others. He’s taken to canning them, and has quite a few stored at this point, so the fact that he’s not in bloom won’t stop him! Poisons that would usually affect humans do not affect him, but may make his next batch of fruits actually toxic.
-Plant Affinity: Can speak any plant-based language, is almost always able to identify useful aspects of plants (including toxicity of fruit and other factors of edibility), and is a very talented gardener.
Weaknesses:
-Not impervious: still rather weak to fire, explosions, potent weed killers, etc.; anything dangerous to a human or plant to which he has no resistances can still harm him. Additionally, separating the host human from the plant would certainly kill both, though he’s so interconnected that it’s probably more trouble than just killing him normally.
-different priorities: The Warden sees it as his job to protect all animal and plant life; threatening a forest is just as effective against him as threatening a city.
-Open mind: already a shared mind, The Warden is especially vulnerable to mind-based attacks.
Appearance:
 (thank you Member 00492!)
Height: 6’4”
Weight: 255lbs
A hulking and intimidating man, The Warden is a relatively light-skinned black man, in prime physical shape. He has long cornrows, rather small brown eyes, small ears, and a wide nose. His beard is also long, and his eyebrows are bushy. Scars are visible all over his back, and some wrap around onto his arms.
The warden is permanently bonded with an alien plant form, and as such has some rather unique features. The plant growth is mostly green, and vaguely dome shaped; a large coil of spikey brambles, with the flowers hanging off the end. The majority of the mass of coils start at his neck and end just above his rear end, though a single thick bramble on each side moves around to the front and extends down to cover his kneecap, forcing him to wear only baggy clothing over his entire body (since he hasn’t the funds for specialized gear). The brambles also extend to the middle of his upper arm, especially thick and spikey at the shoulders and around the back of his neck, protecting it, though not restricting his head movement.
He really hates shirts, and they’re next to impossible to wear, so usually doesn’t even bother. If he’s not trying to do hero work he might wear one just to avoid catching too much attention. He is wearing jeans though, with a very high quality pair of work boots on his feet (the only gift from someone he’s rescued that he’s agreed to keep, and man have they been useful).
Character Evolution: The Warden is very shy and has in general stayed near to the forests around Evergreen City, do gooding when he can, living off the land the rest of the time. Learning how to interact with others, communicate properly and work as a team will be a challenge for him; he’s still not sure how he built up the courage to come do this in the first place.
BRIEF Bio: The Warden knows nothing of his life before he became what he is. The first thing he remembers is lying dying in the woods, his back scraped, scratched, and torn, his spine broken in multiple locations, his innards eviscerated. His second memory is of pain. His brain, screeching. His legs, convulsing. His torso… healing? There’s more spurts and flashes as he regained consciousness and the plant symbiont bonded with him, forming a new spinal column, replacing the internal damage, and linking itself with him. The now bonded being began to wander the forest until he ran into civilization, where the police promptly tried to take him in, partially to figure out what or who he was, partially because they wanted to arrest him for public indecency (he had taken off all of his clothing at some point). He decided to join them (how the hell else was he going to figure out what to do?). Once he had explained what he knew, and they explained to him what public indecency was, they both decided it was probably fair to drop the charge.
He apparently had no family, and didn’t register on their databases, so they just sent him on his way after giving him some pants and a very large jacket, directing him to the library. They took to calling him Warden while holding him, for the way he would just sit and watch everything, constantly interested. He liked it, and started calling himself that. What followed was a few years of learning how society worked again. He attempted to find some jobs, though none really panned out, and he decided to re-abandon society to go live in the woods. He found a cave, started growing plants (he likes them!), and was able to become self-sufficient, but felt a pull to use his abilities for good – something towards which both parts of him felt. So he started superheroing pretty much 24/7, with some breaks for solitude, and has been doing that for a few years.
While the warden dislikes wanton murder, he does not see himself as above killing someone who is a threat after he tries to pacify them, which does put him at odds with law enforcement on occasion. He’s still done enough good to have caught the eye of Green Lantern, who extended the invitation to him.
Notes: The Warden owns a smartphone, which he uses to monitor the police spotter; he stores it in his back coils, or in a front pocket.
Sample Post:
A beautiful day, really; a little cloudy, some drizzle earlier. Rejuvenating. He had heard that you could access police radio using these smartphone things; something that would be quite useful, help him know where things are happening more quickly. With some money left in his bank from his last job, he figured he probably had enough to buy it. The Warden had come across an AT&T store downtown that would carry those. He pulls at his sweater a bit, trying to get more comfortable… but it’s not a day for that… keep it on… at least for now. He sighs, looks around at the road sign, and takes a left down the corner. A little ways down the road, and he takes a left into the phone store.
“hello! How can we help you?”
“Smartphone? You do sell those, yes?”
“oh certainly sir; which make and model are you looking for? And what plan?”
“what.”
“do you want an iPhone? An Android?”
“I have no idea what these things mean. I just need a smartphone.”
The salesman looks a tad exasperated already… it’s one of those customers. “ok so how about this iPhone…”
As he attempts to explain to The Warden the different types of smartphones, a few men with bandanas over their faces file into the store. The Warden’s eyes move immediately to watch them, but he keeps nominally listening, ready for them to yell-
“EVERYONE. ON THE GROUND. NOW!” and people quickly comply... Well, everyone but The Warden. The apparent leader gestures over to him with his gun. “YOU. YOU DEAF? DOWN. NOW.” He says, waving his gun between The Warden and the ground.
The Warden cocks his head to the side. “I am here to get a smartphone. Not to have things pointed at me, nor have people yelling at me.” He says slowly, mock-confused, buying time and attention as his vines move out from under his sweater and towards the other two.
“What… What do you… GET THE FUCK DOWN YOU IDIOT! I WILL SHOOT YOU. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”
“Oh but of course I understand. I simply don’t want to.”
The man is incredulous, at a loss for words for a few seconds“…I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS! he finally decides, and fires at the warden. The bullet bounces off.
“this is going to ruin another perfectly good sweater.” The Warden sighs, as his vines rip the guns from the hands of the other two, tearing his sweater from the movement. The Warden rushes the third, tackling him after taking another shot. The man was strong, but not as strong as him. The fight is really no challenge, and the attacker is, in short order, unconscious. The other two attempt to run off, but vines quickly whip out and stop their progress, wrapping around their legs and dragging them back. he knocks them unconscious, and moves their guns well out of reach.
now where did that salesman go?


// ♥ Crush ♥ // ☮ Friend ☮ // ☯ Acquaintance ☯ // ⚜ Rival ⚜ // § Love/Hate § // ☠ Enemy ☠ //
☯ Argyle, Chester aka Whiplash:
The Warden has yet to interact with Chester Argyle.
☯ Barr, James aka The Bulleteer:
The Warden has yet to interact with James Barr.
☯ Campen, Lexi aka Apollex:
The Warden has yet to interact with Lexi Campen.
☯ Carter, Najee aka Captain Marvel (II):
The Warden has yet to interact with Najee Carter.
☯ Jester, Jessica aka The Lizard:
Talks too much, has a funny accent, doesn’t focus on work. Seems nice otherwise. 
☯ Kent, Lara aka Supergirl:
The Warden has yet to interact with Lara Kent, though he has a high opinion of Supergirl.
☯Light, Lucy aka Toon Girl: 
The Warden has yet to interact with Lucy Light
☯ MacAodhan, Duncan aka The Rookie:
The Warden has yet to interact with Duncan MacAodhan.
☯ Monster, Monny aka Clayface:
The Warden has yet to interact with Monny Monster.
☯ Reynolds, Cynthia aka Gypsy:
The Warden has yet to interact with Cynthia Reynolds.
☯ Ryker, James aka Mr. Clutch:
The Warden has yet to interact with James Ryker.
☮ Sage, Victor aka The Question:
Carries himself with confidence, and only says what is needed. Knows how to lead, impressive bravery in fighting without any powers, approves of his opinions on lethal force. Sees him as someone to protect and follow. Isn’t bothered by his strange mannerisms or apparent obsession with the illuminati. 
☯ Trainor, Lieutenant Lawrence aka Polarity Man:
The Warden has yet to interact with Lieutenant Lawrence Trainor.
☯ Wilson, Rose aka Ravager:
Doesn’t like how she treats Question, but seems nice otherwise. Certainly useful in combat.