The Blood Stained Rose & A Dragon with a Heart of Stone (Thistle/Blood Weaver VS Sul-Fury/Xiaolongnu)

If it wasn't for the distance he put between him and this sul man Yumo would've been recovering from a bum rush from hell.  Yumo grabbed the car next to him without thinking and leaned a little out of sul's way.  If he was as fast as he was letting on to be then this was going to surprise him, at least yumo thought so.

It was clear that this guy saw him as no threat, heck the bum rush that was aimed at yumo wasn't even meant to harm yumo just make him run, and that was something he didn't like.  Once Sul was close enough Yumo swung the car at full strength in the opposite direction that Sul was running.  If this move worked it was going to connect a clean an violent blow to Sul's upper region.

The engine of fury embodied by Xia’s dragon form thrashed and roared against its bonds, in a constant cycle of cutting through and being bound up again. Plants strained and snapped, only to be replaced by more. The bridge shook slightly with each angry step the dragon took, her claws digging into the concrete in an attempt to resist these plants, parting it like dry earth. As the vegetative bonds fought to pin Xia, dragon Sharp scales and bony spines began to dig into the bridge as well, breaking its surface. Wrath filled her eyes as Xia was fixated on the injured prey before her, but a single pounce away, yet still so far.

With every enemy she faces, Xia’s faced two battles- Thistle without, and the turmoil of her blood and nature within. The dragon form gave her strength and power beyond compare, but it had a fury, an instinct of its own, and Xia’s tenuous grip slipped whenever she did not hold on with all her will. Tactics and strategems flew out the window, giving her a critical weakness. As Ellie once said, the mind is the greatest power of them all. The dragon was a bludgeoning tool; deadly when delivered, but heavy and awkward to wield. It was like a dream always, to become the dragon. Slipping into the murky unconscious, Xia did not realize she was asleep, did not realize her actions, only silently witnessing it like watching a silent film in slow motion. Performing actions beyond rampaging was like dreaming within the dream... it felt like an eternity ago that Xia plotted a more intelligent approach, to draw Thistle’s attention, to lower her guard; to fly around and skirmish, and cut away at the plants that enveloped the bridge. Instead, the dragon took over, and attacked its prey, and Xia forgot herself a time. wrote:

The beast looked about, driven by predatory instinct. It locked eyes with Xia’s foe, the one who brought the plants to this bridge. It growled as the plants grew their own large thorns and began to dig into her scales. The piercing spear dug into the impenetrable shield; Xia’s scales did not yield, but neither did the thorns, but given the situation, it was Xia who was being harmed, as the immense pressure built up and hurt her flesh.
Unable to move, the dragon picked up the nearest object with her jaw- a damaged motorcycle- and tossed it at Thistle, before plants coiled her down further.

The bike smacked into the floor and then bounced upwards in a barrel roll. Thistle flung herself to the floor and covered her face with her hand - the motorcycle flying over her, sparks spraying her and stinging her skin. Ugh! she sat up and looked at the dragon who was stuggling under the plant life, a wicked idea flustering into her mind. Keeping her eyes on the dragon she scuttled backwards into the plant bloackade, which parted and allowed her through. She turned around and ran towards Sul-Fury.

-------

"Hey leave her alo-" the statue man said. He was clearly unaware that she was in league with Vexus as well. The plants in the surrounding area whispered his disposition to Thistle before she retreated - she ran towards him with hand extended and took a deep breath, aware of how much she was going to degrade herself. "Look out!" she cried, raising her arm to grow a tree from the floor, blocking the car. The tree took most of the explosion and she shot a glance at Bloodweaver which said ' Do nothing ' in a blunt manner. "You! you have to help me! I am trying to stop Elena Vexus from escaping and the dragon is trying to stop me!" she felt sickened, pleading like some sort of... well like some sort of human. "I've managed to restrain it but it's going to break free!" While she spoke the plants around him receeded, like a dog doing as they are told.

If all went to plan, soon her enemies would be fighting themselves. Perfect.

While trying to pass through or by Blood Weaver, he decided to step aside, leaning on a nearby car. He somewhat expected him to attack, considering how often he mentioned that it was his job to stop him from getting to Vexus. The side-step came on as a bonus, really, since he didn't really want to engage someone while he felt it was so crucial that he not only stop Vexus, but prevent the dragon from eating the girl being protected by the strange plants that seemed to have a life of their own.

Almost as expected, a sneak attack was forced last minute as Sul tried to pass Blood Weaver. He swung the car that he was leaning on at Sul's upper body in an attempt to knock him reeling backwards. However, before any impacts were made, a tree sprouted to block the attack. Thistle came running towards him, being pursued by the ferocious dragon. Strangely, she too claimed to be en route to stopping Elena Vexus. However, her struggle with the dragon was a fight that the plants were having difficulty protecting her in. But besides that, he needed to deal with this 'Blood Weaver' as well. He was cunning enough to get Sul to lower his guard, but he wasn't going to get that chance again. He was now engaged with Sul-Fury, now that he had thrown the first punch. Sul was just going to have to juggle fighting two opponents at once. The dragon, and the Blood Weaver.

"You're safe now. I can handle these two." Sul replied, as she came up closer towards him. Now that she was closer, he noticed how very beautiful she was in appearance. Sul-Fury put his fists up closer to his face in a fighting stance, as he was now standing in the way of both Blood Weaver and the Dragon from approaching Thistle. Blood Weaver would be first to go. He shifted his feet a few steps forward and thrust forward a heavy fist to punch aimed to hit Blood Weaver square in the face.

"This is sooo F'd up." Yumo said with a strain in his voice as he jumped as far back as he could from the arm of Sul.

He flipped onto a car and let a large amount of blood seep out of the viles all over his body. The blood pooled into a large sphere very quickly over Yumos head, and then it quickly exploded rushing out everywhere it could, touching all the objects it could, oozing off the cars in a large puddled mess. Yumo looked behind him and noticed that a dragon was charging at him.

"You bitch." Yumo called in the air, but it was directed at thistle who was now using Yumo as a decoy to get the two of these people to fight one another.

It wasn't hard to figure out once you connect her very out of the ordinary behavior when she ran to sul with the wounds on her body and this crazy dragon running towards them.

With her attention elsewhere, Thistle's plants snapped and yielded as the mighty dragon moved forward, relentless and furious to pursue its prey. Xia trundled along the bridge, heavy steps sending shockwaves as she confronted Thistle once more, but this time protected by Sul, her would be ally except that they never spoke before this situation began.

Since he had yet to prove hostile, Xia reared up her head, and spread out her wings beating them and kicking up dust. She roars at Sul, warning him to back away like a predator would, her prey hiding behind him.

Having pulled herself out of the water and remaining fairly dry thanks to her special uniform, Bernadette sprinted through the now streets packing only her side arm, climbing up over the plants towards the lethal battleground. She sprinted towards the metahuman confrontation. Internally, Bernadette wished she was wearing power armor.

"Xiao! Snap out of it! Focus on clearing the bridge! We have to get to the White House! We're running out of time!" She shouted, causing the dragon's attention to be diverted to the mercenary dressed as an Air Force soldier.

Bernadette then turned to Sul. "Oi! Don't fight the dragon, she's with the... Air Force! She's here to clear the bridge! She's with the U.S!" Bernadette couldn't quite come up with a better story than that, though she hoped her ragged attire as an airman would be enough.

Fantastic. Another obstacle. A human no less, was running across the bridge and screaming some gibberish. US air force? What the hell is that. She would have to adapt she would have to be quick. Perfect!

"Regardless, she must be stopped! She's already caused more harm than good!" Thistle shouted, before turning to Sul-Fury with eyes filled with water. "You need to do something!" she spoke out, trying to sound as desperate as possible. All this playing weak made her want to hurt something. And vomit. How the humans manage it all the time is beyond her. Whilse this masquerade continued on top of the bridge, things were getting far more agressive underneath. The supports for the bridge were slowly getting infested with vines, roots and flowers - and then they contiued to grow on the underside of the bridge too, forming an upside down woodland. The roots of the trees remained stunted, shorter than they should be. All of them waiting for a single to tell them to break through the bridge and kill them all! Yes! Perfect.

And the human who would dare approach her. A special fate awaited that one. Underneath the bridge a large pod like plant split in half, the rim of it's insides covered with teeth and spewing acid. The soon-to-be coffin on 'Bernadette.'

There was only one thing that could go wrong with this plan; Yumo's incompetance.

(Soory for the crap post; needed to blast this out quickly.)

Blood Weaver evaded his attack, leaping onto a nearby vehicle. Sul could have leapt right up there with him, but it would mean feeding Thistle to the dragon that was approaching. Further, he used vials of blood to cover some nearby cars in blood. Why, Sul-Fury didn't know, but he decided to ignore it, focusing on both Yumo and the dragon girl as threats. Shifting his stance and keeping his arms up, the dragon progressed its advancement towards them.

Bernadette, as bold as she was, put herself in the fray as she intervened with the battle. She tried to calm the raging dragon that seemed to have no end to it's destructive nature. Sul glanced quickly behind him, noting Thistles wounds, before returning his gaze towards Bernadette and Xia. He noted the hesitation in Bernadette's voice.

"The government is using 'that' to battle Vexus? If it weren't for the dragon I would be there already. You're putting everyone in danger. That thing isn't controlled." As a former military officer, he found it hard to believe they would risk civilians and government property to let a dragon loose on the bridge. Thistle's wounds and tears seemed more likely to be truth. All the same, the bridge's stability was being tested with the nature taking over the bridge's support columns. He stood between them until someone moved.

Yumo rolled his eyes as the dragon stopped and a human ran into her path along with sul's. She was trying to tell sul that the dragon was a good guy but he wasn't having it. He told the girl that the dragon was the reason he wasn't at the area where vexus could be found. Yumo rolled his eyes and heaved a big sigh as he could feel the stare of Thistle. He got up and brushed his pants off before swinging his arms in a ring shape around his body.

His blood crept across the ground quickly and spiraled around thistle. The blood reached towards the sky and attempted to incase her in a cone of red.

Even the low cunning creature Dragon!Xia was beginning to realize the bridge as a location was a waste of time. It took Bernadette's intervention to calm her down, to keep her from attacking.

"Well... uh.... I um... alright, Let me prove it then. We... all of us can fly on Xia's back to get there. Right now." Bernadette was a soldier and a leader, but she lacked the ability to bluff like her boss, that poker face that could slide a lie past the heaviest armor like a rapier. She settled on action and truth, somethings she was more comfortable with.

Something was off though; Xia paced around the bridge uneasily like an animal feeling something was about to go wrong- like a housepet locked up too long, and no amount of calming words was going to soothe this savage beast. Truth be told, Xia's enhanced senses detected the massive amounts of plant life beneath the bridge, growing at an exponential rate, and making the dragon a nervous wreck, like a predator who stumbled into a bad position.

"Xia...come on lass...Don't make auntie look bad..." Bernadette's american accent slipped fairly quick, and her Glasgow pub accent was plain as day.

Xia suddenly barreled towards Bernadette's location, causing even Bernadette to shiver with dragonfear; she was a baseline human after all, and dragons inspired terror in the lesser species. Bernadette performed a life saving barrel roll, as the massive creature smashed through through bridge and clamped its jaws around the vicious plant that hid beneath Bernadette. Its vicious, acid filled maw spilling out ontop of the bridge, dissolving concrete and steel reinforcements.

Xia made sure to kill it to death.

Xia pulled and pulled, dragging more mutant vegetation from beneath the bridge, their roots clearly embedded in the bridge and taking more of the concrete with it. Bernadette called out to Xia to stop.

The dragon suffered for her efforts, coughing up the potent acid, gagging as her jaws smoked with the toxic stuff. She plunged into the river to take a drink. Bernadette assessed the situation, the truth now hopefully exposed as to who was doing what. "...Fuckin... plants are growing into the bridge... we need to get off it now!"

The dragon was smarter than it seemed. It began tearing up the bridge, sending shredded plants everywhere, which flopped on the floor and eventually lay dormant. The bridge began crumbling, and Thistle threw her arms out to either side, hardening the plant's stance. The crumbling and wobbling of the bridge stopped with nature taking over as it's natural support so it didn't fall in the water. Or atleast, it would have if Yumo hadn't put her inside of a cone of red liquid. With an infruriated grunt she flicked a finger and a root burst up from the ground at her feet, curling around her wrist. Activating her floraportation, her body was absorbed into the root and on the underside of the bridge a tree began to form a cradle which she rose from, suspended above the water. "Fool."

Throwing her arms into the air, they pressed against the bottom of the bridge. The trees growing along the underside migrated towards her and began to extend their roots through the concrete, forming a large twisted spire of vegetation on the other side. Then, pulling her arms apart the spire broke into 5 smaller ones which pulled a hole through the bridge's surface. Rising through it, she sat in the cradle which acted as another throne and narrowed her eyes towards the maggots spawning it. There was only one who seemed worth preserving. The figure of beauty and stone. Thistle sighed before she allowed herself to rise to a stand.

"Enough games. Bloodweaver. Annihilate the human." she said, with a cold stare at Bernadette, before turning her attention to the dragon standing near the edge of the bridge. She thrust her arm towards it and the tree throne she was on stabbed roots through the concrete which swam through the rock. They exploded from the stone in a semi circle around the beast, cutting the dragon of from the rest of the bridge. Hopefully it's collusus weight would allow it to fall into the water easily. Then, she turned her attention to the man of stone.

"You are such a beautiful creature... why do you choose the wrong side? Elena Vexus has got nature's best interests at heart. She cares, and she would care about you. The tyrants that reign? I've heard what they do to your kind. 'Meta Humans'. She will stop that." She smiled, tilting her head. "Join us." she offered, giving a pleasant gaze from her harsh throne.

The next few events cleared up a few things for Sul-Fury, however. These plants, were a direct result of Thistle's manipulation abilities. He had met metahumans who could manipulate elements, but not quite like this. Still, it was her who was starting to become the real threat to all of them. The bridge rocked and creaked with instability. The concrete pavement beneath their feet was cracking due to the shifting of the bridge's positioning. Though Blood Weaver tried to trap Thistle, she somehow moved her position to a safer place, creating a throne for her to sit on made of the same vegetation.

Giving an order to Blood Weaver to kill Bernadette, she decided to converse with Sul-Fury, who only moments later was trying to protect her. Now he realized that she had been siding with Vexus all along, just as Bernadette had said. It seemed he was wrong all along, she was the obstacle here. Not the dragon. He had let his own observations judge the dragon merely out of it's appearance. Similar to how others viewed Sul as grotesque, he felt guilty of doing the same thing in judging Xia by her appearance alone. Still, it was hard not to when she seemed so feral.

"Don't move a muscle." He extended his hand to Blood Weaver, but kept his gaze on Thistle. He could move faster than the Blood Manipulator, and even if he got to Bernadette before Sul could intervene, he would beat him within an inch of his life if he killed Bernadette. He needed to try and be sincere with his words with Thistle, someone who he had tried to befriend. Was it too late? He wouldn't give up now. They could stop Vexus together.

"Humans, true, aren't perfect. They do some horrible things to our kind. But, we can sometimes be no different. These plants are harming random people who had no hand in harming us at all. Does that make us any better?

Vexus is taking control of the government by force. If she does, that will be a true tyrant. It will be a government based off strength and fear, not off what is good for the people. And it won't just effect the humans, but it will effect people like you and me. It's the right thing, I just know it. We don't have to make a 'side' as if it's a line in the sand that divides us. Come on, we can resolve this. We can be friends. My friends call me Sul."

Yumo sat there....and watched as sul put his hand up to him and began to talk to Thistle. He was still being underestimated...maybe because he was slower than this man, but that wasn't such a drastic reason to just throw him to the side. Then the way he was talking to thistle it was as if she was the only important one worth saving here. Yumo's anger rose and rose until it reached the top of its limit, and then it broke through and yumo snapped.

"Screw you and all the people on this bridge." Yumo called in an angered tone.

His voice was morphed between several tones as his inner demon spilt out of him. He looked around at all the dead bodies and then took the streams of blood he didn't use earlier to put themselves in the bodies of the cadavers. He did this quietly as to not draw too much attention to himself. The blood he controlled quickly dispursed through the bodies and set itself at home, in a way reviving the bodies to how they were before they were mutilated.

"Don't die thistle." Yumo said with a sweet yet sinister whisper.

He put his hand towards the giant wall of spikes he made earlier and yanked his hand back to his body. Spikes off the wall bursted from the wall and rushed across the bridge, tearing through the cars and concrete like it was air. Some even spun a little causing a small current to rush off of them injuring nearby people. Yumo was done being toyed with, if this move didn't severly harm of kill anybody his next plan of action surley will.

Xia would’ve returned to the bridge after taking a drink, but found Thistle was now determined to keep her off of it. Still a bit unsteady, the dragon was nudged off the bridge by the massive plants, trying to cling on like a cat about to fall off the edge but failing, making a big splash in the water. The moving plants seemed like they were keeping her out.

Bernadette cursed her situation now. She was relieved the big man surmised who was on whose side, but the third player here just got so angry and started performing abominable things with blood and the dead, transforming them into profane, fleshy marionettes. Bernadette cursed religiously. Here she was a human mercenary on a battle with vicious metahumans, fighting for the fate of the world... and for what, quarter of a million euros a year?

She whipped out her .44 magnum revolver, and shot *BLAM* at a few of the *BLAM* marionettes then *BLAM* the Bloody puppeteer himself *BLAM* *BLAM*, with high-explosive rounds meant to deal with hardened targets, blowing holes in the dead bodies so they couldn’t be used... Then the spikes started flying, maiming the few remaining survivors on the bridge, cutting through them like wet sacks of flesh, their cries of fear and agony cut short in a bloom of scarlet.

Bernadette sprinted through the carnage all around her, as she has through countless battlefields. She took cover behind the most durable thing on the bridge, which was Sul, as an alternative to vehicles being turned to swiss cheese. A spike sliced into her shoulder, causing her to grimace. She nearly dropped her gun, but held on and waited for the spikes to stop flying. "...We don't even need to fight them... we can just get onto the dragon and fly away. What say you, fancy a swim big man?"

The dragon fell into the water, scratching at the road in desperation. A smirk grew along Thistle's lips when the sound of it splashing into the liquid abyss hit her ears. That was one of the fools out of the way, now she just had to deal with the stone man who decided to try and convince her of humanity's good points, and that Elena might go against her words. What a moron, it was pitiful. He was such a beautiful creation.

"You speak to me as if I am one of your kind. As if I am a metahuman. I am not.' she spoke, proudly, rising from her seated pose. 'I am Thistle, goddess of nature. And you. Are outmatched, Stone ma- What?!" she looked upwards at the dead rising and swirling around the place, and then the blood briars which were tearing across the bridge's surface. The human seemed to be the first to react, sprinting and firing at the bodies with her revolver magnum. Then, she took cover behind the stone man praying that his body would save her from the onslaught of blood. Speaking of taking cover, Thistle lifted her wrist over her head and the top of the pillar she was stood on rapidly began to genetically alter. From the top of it sprouted bright pink petals, larger in length than the average car and then folded over, creating the appearance of a flower yet to bloom and acting like a shield.

At a lower part of the pillar, Thistle used her ability to see through plants to guide her next attempt. A very thin green stalk, about the size of a pencil began to slither from the wooden mass, along the floor like a snake. It's length increased while it moved along and it's tip began to secrete a pitch black, tar like poison. The poison's effects were narcotic, strong enough to render the average human unconscious. It ambitiously coiled in a circle around Bernadette's foot before it launched like a viper and tried to stab it's razor sharp poisonous edge into her thigh, trying to take her out of this fight!

Despite his efforts, she wasn't convinced. His offer of friendship and end the conflict went unheard, but most of all, it angered Blood Weaver. He began a dual attack, creating an army out of the civilians who had perished, and slinging an assault of spikes made of his blood collections detaching off the wall. Sul-Fury looked at the grotesque creatures who began limping and lurking towards them, some of them being destroyed by the spikes. Some survivors also were injured further or slain by the spikes as well.

Sul-Fury's nostrils flared, as he lowered his head and formed wrinkles in his forehead. The absolute lack of care for human life made his blood boil. Blood Weaver must have had a lot of concentration with his metahuman abilities in order to keep a wall formed, spikes thrown, and a horde approaching him and Bernadette. Soon to be broken by Sul's wrath. Bernadette dealt with a few of the undead before taking cover behind Sul-Fury. She offered a solution but it wasn't going to be heard this time.

As the spikes drew closer, Sul-Fury stretched his arms wide and slammed them together in the direction of the attack resulting in a thunderous clap. The shockwave effect of the attack burst through the air, knocking over several of the undead, but making the spikes waver in the air as they lost momentum. Swinging his arms wide, he puffed out his chest and allowed the spikes to bounce and break over his chest and legs, as he let out a roar of anger at the top of his lungs. He blocked most of the attacks from Bernadette., but not all, as she was slightly injured.

"There's no way I'm going to let him get away with this!" They won't win!!" Now was his time to act, and he was thoroughly done with Blood Weaver's antics. He took off sprinting at him, throwing punch after punch. He did hold back The weight of his punches so as not to kill him, however. [8 Strength] This time, a simple backflip would not make him back down. He would leap forward and pursue him until he had him in submission.