When superhero Rob turns to villainy to complete his mission, he wasn't expecting to unmask the heroic monster threatening the city, nor to fall again for the supervillain he once betrayed.
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Superhero Roberto Tapir, a.k.a. Grizzly Bear, has a m...
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— Roberto —
"This is the farm," Satina said, stepping into the rusty-white platform surrounded by dirty glass. It stood at least twenty meters above the ground, towering over the plantation like a sentinel.
A shiver crawled up Rob's spine. The scene was nothing like the images shown inside the elevator. For a druid like him, this was Hell.
Rusty machines raised meters above the platform, plowing the ashen, lifeless earth and ravishing the plantation with mechanized claws and iron rollers. Thick tubes—hundreds of them—sprouted from the ground, drilling and wrapping the machinery, wiring it like capillaries filled with a purple-red iridescent liquid. It dripped, here and there, forming sanguine puddles along the metallic bones of an undead creature.
Around the machinery, a thick layer of whitish fog spread like a disease. As if it really were one, the leaves of the plants on the ground were covered with white or black blotches.
"What do you think?" Satina asked.
Rob couldn't find the words to answer; he stuttered one or two before shaking his head. His voice came breathless and weak. "The plants are dying and... shouldn't there be people working? Farmhands? What the bloody hell is all this?"
Mary propped her elbows on the handrail and her chin on her hands. "There are a lot of people here. In the HQ, I mean." She glanced at Rob and chuckled. "You seem so lost, Bear!"
He spent a moment in silence as the machines worked with loud, metallic wails and screeches. When Rob finally found his voice, it came hard and blunt. "What are they doing there and not here?"
"Feeding the machines, of course." Mary smiled.
"W-What?" A cold wave of goosebumps spread across Rob's back.
A crow hovered the fields and plummeted towards the crops. It hit something—a transparent barrier, meters above their heads—and disappeared into a cloud of dried blood, bones, and black feathers.
"They feed the machines with Vitus. Energy. Life Force," Léon answered. His eyes were set on the crimson mist the crow had turned into, watching as the feathers wafted down. The vapor of blood settled onto the invisible barrier, which rippled like the surface of a lake. "It has many names and many purposes, too. Iara and her associates developed this tech that can absorb raw Life Force. They inject it into the machines all right, but it needs to be refined first if we want to consume it. The raw thing is just too strong. It destroys you."
The muscles on Rob's neck strained. "Life Force." His breathing quickened, his words escaping in clipped streams. "The plants. Bloody hell, the marks on them! A-and... and Life Force! And the workers!"
Léon turned around to look at Roberto. "They're okay if that's what you're worried about. Also, the crops just... don't need to photosynthesize anymore, so the chlorophyll is useless. We are feeding them." His eyes rested on the plants, meters below. "They're evolving."
