Classified Ministry of Defense Research Facility, Rangerville Crater, Thursday, May 20th, 2021, 7:10 PM
As the door to the Mother's chamber slid open, Molly grabbed her gear and charged through.
"Everyone in position," she shouted. "Surround Her!"
Molly refused to give herself time to think. She was sure that if she did, she would run the other way. Seriously, what kind of lunatic charged into the underground lair of a sixty-foot mind controlling alien plant monster armed only with a so-called weapon kitbashed out of a leaf-blower and loaded with a freaking magic potion? What kind of person led her friends into a situation like this?
Lucius had called her a hero. Looking up at the eldritch horror of the Mother of Flowers, Molly was pretty sure heroes weren't supposed to be this terrified.
"Get Her!" Molly shouted,
Praying to whoever might be listening that the thing actually worked, she pulled back the lever on her potion-sprayer. Sure, they'd tested them back at the trailer park, but Molly had worked on enough projects to know that works-during-test and works-in-the-field were two completely different things.
She was shocked and grateful when the gadget thrummed to life, spraying out a thick stream of the viscous, bubbling potion. Struggling, she aimed the spray at the massive monster.
The Mother's gnarled skin blistered where the potion struck. The titanic beast's bellow of pain and rage was deafening. Huge tentacles lashed the air, swinging within inches of Molly's head.
Distantly, she was aware that they weren't alone in the massive chamber.
Lucius had said that the Mother would call her thralls to defend her. Fortunately, he'd also been right when he said that She would be distracted and confused by the potion. So far, the thralls shambled around but made no effective attempt to stop Molly and her little band of would-be heroes.
"This will teach you to mind-frell a guy with a potion-sprayer," Dylan shouted, mangling a perfectly good Ghostbusters quote.
Some part of his mind was screaming in gibbering terror, but he refused to listen to it. Without really realizing it, he simply refused to believe any of this was real. Hiding behind the illusion that he was the hero of a really weird action movie, he wildly sprayed the incomprehensible horror in front of him.
Aim and fire, soldier, Jess thought to herself. Aim and fire.
She'd served King and Country for eight years, but she'd never been called upon to face combat. This certainly wasn't the first battle she'd expected or feared, but her training held. Discipline kept her focused, kept her firing, despite the pants-wetting terror. Underneath the training and the terror was the lone thought - Protect Christie!
"Give Her all you've got!" Molly shouted.
Doggedly, she stood her ground, holding the sprayer on target.
The Mother's thick blue skin was blistered and burned, but the titanic horror was untiring. Another frond/branch/tentacle lashed within inches of Molly's head.
We're not doing enough damage, Molly thought even as she heard her sprayer sputter. She was running out of potion.
"IS LIOMSA AN RÉIMSE SEO!" The Mother roared.
"Eat this!" Molly yelled back.
Throwing her sprayer aside, she grabbed her last jar of the potion and hurled it at the monster.
The Mother of Flowers reared up, green steam bursting from the ruptured, delicate inner petals of Her mouth.
The wordless screech reverberated through the cavern, a sound of pure rage and denial.
The massive creature shuddered...
... and fell.
"Holy shit, I didn't think would work!" Molly shouted. "Hell, yeah!"
She could hear the others shouting in victory and the thralls groaning.
"Molly!" Dylan shouted. "Molly, come quick!"
"What is.. No," she gasped, running toward him. "No, no, no."
This wasn't happening. This couldn't happen.
"Lucius!"
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