Dark Green Knight

The earth is a fine place and worth fighting for.

The python dropped a long coil onto the wheelchair that was passing underneath the branch it was wrapped around.

“Snake!” The old man in the wheelchair whispered hoarsely to alert his staff.

A powerfully built young man grabbed the coil from his employer’s shoulder and then seized the neck of the python as is its head descended. He pulled it off the tree branch and threw it into the swamp water beside the path.

“Damn! These things are everywhere. That one must have been twelve feet long. Heavy bugger!”

“Just another reason why these swamps have such an unhealthy ecosystem.” The man in the chair pointed out. “Pythons aren’t the only invasive species that was dumped in the everglades. Let’s keep going gentlemen. We’ll take a break in half an hour.”

They were a group of seven and it would have been a difficult and dangerous journey if they were all healthy and able bodied. Pushing a quadriplegic’s wheelchair through the sucking and sinking quagmire was just short of impossible. There was a path but it was full of sinkholes and covered with a thick layer of mud.

They made slow and exhausting progress by laying sections of a plastic walkway one after another in a continuous cycle of movement. The half hour passed quickly and the six men sat down gratefully on the plastic ramp that was already starting to be overrun with mud. They drank carefully measured amounts of water from the two large canteens each of them carried. They were surrounded by water but drinking the brackish swamp water was probably more dangerous than the alligators that watched them with unblinking eyes that barely broke through the surface of the water.

The man in the wheelchair was over a hundred years old and he had waited the last three decades of his life for today’s journey. He had extensive knowledge of secrets that powerful people would have killed for. The secret he pursued today was the location of a secret grove in the middle of the Florida Everglades. The event he pursued was the emergence of a plant in the grove that only occurred once every 100 years. He also knew it was much more than just a simple plant he sought today.

The six strong, young men that accompanied him finished their break and started the

difficult task of pulling the last plastic ramp out of the mud and carrying it to the front of the line. The process was repeated and they made steady progress toward their destination.

Eventually they arrived at an elevated clearing lined with mangoes and bald cypress trees. The ground was so firm they no longer needed the plastic ramps and they wheeled the chair into the middle of the grove.

As if their arrival had been expected, there was a flurry of activity from one of the mangroves at the end of the clearing. Something grew out of the moist, rich soil that at first resembled a large shrub and quickly grew to eight feet in height. Legs and arms started to emerge from the amorphous plant.

Voices whispered in the hot, humid wind and the cypress trees shook their branches and twisted their trunks in distress. “The world is dying because the humans are killing it. Our Guardian of the Green has failed us and he has failed the world. A more capable guardian is needed before it is too late for the Green and the human race as well.”

Red eyes opened and a green seven foot monster constructed of vines, lichen and tree trunks stepped out of the ground. The plant creature turned angrily toward the trees that surrounded the clearing. “Yes, I know. I know you want to replace me. Nothing I do is good enough for you. Do you really think this pathetic, crippled old man can do better than I have?”

The pathetic old man broke his silence. “Hello Alec.”

The plant monster froze and looked uneasy, almost as if he recognized the voice. “How did you know my name?”

“Because we’ve met before Alec.”

“It’s you! It can’t be you! You died thirty years ago when he dropped a tank on you. You would be over a hundred years old by now.”

“The suit kept me alive, but just barely as you can probably tell by the chair.”

The trees seemed to lean toward the man in the wheelchair as if he suddenly interested them.

“No!” Alex shouted. “You don’t know what he’s like. He’s ruthless. He’ll break any rule, break any law.”

“That’s right. You’ve described me accurately. I do what it takes to win and if the Green wants to save this planet, that’s exactly what they need.”

He addressed the trees that surrounded his withered and immobile body. “These swamps are your home and they’re disappearing into the rising ocean. Its so hot now entire species are vanishing every year. Smoke from forest fires cloaks our atmosphere. The green needs a warrior who can fight, not some punk that wrings his hands and makes excuses. You need me.”

Alec loomed threateningly over the wheelchair and six men stepped forward to confront him. The man in the chair ordered them back and stared at the monstrous plant being with a complete lack of fear.

“You always were a punk Alec. You’re the most powerful being on Earth, right? Why is it that I could always slap you down when I needed to? Go ahead, be the tough guy. Kill the 110 year old quadriplegic. I can probably still beat you if I spit hard enough.”

He ignored Alec and spoke to the trees again. “I relied on my opponents underestimating me. After all, I had no powers or magical gimmicks. I was just a regular guy with fancy toys and a big bank account. I’ve lost a lot of battles and I’ve got the scars to prove it. But I never quit. I never stop thinking about what I have to change so I can win the next time. I never lose the final round. I’ve fought opponents who can punch through planets and I’ve kicked their ass.”

The ancient man paused to carefully wrap his dry lips around a nearby straw and take a swallow of water. “There’s not much left of me except my mind, but that’s all you need. You need a warrior and I’m the best damn warrior this planet has ever produced.” He shifted his watery eyes to the plant based humanoid towering over his wheelchair. “Ask Clark if you don’t believe me, or your present Guardian.”

“Ever since my parents were killed, I have fought a war. It’s all I am. It’s all I want to be. Give me a new war. Let me fight your war for you.”

The trees around the clearing seemed to whisper in agreement and Alec looked at them with alarm. “This is insane! Remember what he did when he was only human. Imagine if he was the most powerful being on Earth!”

His protests were noted but overruled. Green tendrils left his body and entered the open mouth of the old man strapped into the wheelchair. Alec’s body quickly withered away as the tendrils invaded the man’s body and replaced his human flesh with plant-based biomass. His skin split off him and peeled away as he stepped out of the wheelchair in a powerful green body that writhed with strangler figs and was festooned with orchids and sawgrass. He looked up at the trees with gratitude.

Alec had always adopted a slumped over posture as if he were bent over with his responsibilities. His replacement stood ram rod straight and his stone grey eyes burned with a confidence that contrasted with Alec’s haunted gaze. The trees sighed with approval.

Bruce looked toward his staff and pushed aside the wheelchair that had been his prison for over thirty years. “Return home and tell them that my body fell into the swamp and you couldn’t retrieve it. Thank you for your service.”

“Are you sure you don’t need anything else sir?”

“I have everything I need. I have a war to fight and this time I’m going to win.”

There was an explosion of sound as a cloud of bats descended from the trees and flew around him to assume the form of a large black cape.