The Chromatic Witch, Ep 2: The Power of Green

[Yoruichi-san]

Gritting her teeth tightly, the girl pushed herself up off the ground. Sweat beaded near her temples and dripped down the side of her face and off her nose onto the linoleum below. Ninety-nine, she counted, then took a deep breath and lowered herself back down.

Her arms trembled with the exertion as she pushed up once again. There came a knock at the door. The girl allowed herself to collapse onto the floor. “Come in,” she said, catching her breath.

A lean, clean-cut young man with dark brown entered, carrying a tray. When he saw her, he frowned. “Shouldn’t you be resting?”

The girl shook her head. “I must be strong.” Her tone was tired, but steadied by conviction. “Besides, this might be my last chance to...” Her voice trailed off as a sad look came into her eyes.

The young man bit his lip. “You know,” he began after a moment, “you don’t have to go through with this. It’s not too late...”

The girl shook her head resolutely. “No, I have to do this.”

“Your family hasn’t cashed the check yet, you can still back out and simply return the money...”

“That’s not what...I mean...” The girl let out a long sigh. “I have to this, because I have to do this. This is who I am, who I want to be, who I can finally choose to be. This is my opportunity to truly be me, my only opportunity. There is nothing for me here, but there...”

The young man looked as if he wanted to say more, but he seemed to struggle inside. Finally, his shoulders fell and he capitulated. “Alright, I’ll leave you to it then.” He set the tray down on a nearby table. “You should eat it before it gets cold.”

The Chromatic Witch

EPISODE 2:

The Power of Green

“In brightest day, in blackest night,

No evil shall escape my sight

Let those who worship evil's might,

Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!!!”

The Green Lantern Oath

Warmed by the effusive sunlight streaming in through his window, Orin yawned and pulled himself out of his bed. Through his mind flitted fragments of last night’s dreams, memories of picnics at the park, splashing in the lake, and playing with his dog spot, who had met such an unfortunate end, and other scenes which were already beginning to fade.

As he yawned off the last remnants of drowsiness, an envelope icon popped up in his field of vision. “You have one new message. Read?” an automated voice asked.

“Yes,” he replied, and words began scrawling themselves in his view:

The Green Gateway has been found. All agents please be ready to depart by 0800 hours. Meet in the hangar.

Orin couldn’t keep the boyish grin off his face. The hanger...that means we’re taking the...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blades of grass cowered, oppressed by the streamlines around the landing jet. Its sleek obsidian-hued surface gleamed cooly under the hot sun. After its elegant contours finally slid to a stop, the hatch door on its side lowered, allowing the energetic agents to exit.

They shuffled out, greeting the scene with huge grins plastered upon their faces. To one side stood a forest whose luxurious green foliage shimmered in the bright sun. On the other side was a green sea of grass as far as the eye could see.

“According to the readings, we’re at the Gateway.” Wraith commented, his brows furrowed.

The agents exchanged perplexed looks. “But there’s nothing here but nature...”

“All you need is nature and will,” an unfamiliar voice said. All the agents turned abruptly towards it.

A handsome dark haired young man in a fitted black and green costume stood in front of them, surveying them with marked interest.

“Kyle Rayner, I expected as much,” Father’s voice murmured over the neuro-link.

“Are you an agent of the Chromatic Witch?” Orin asked, his hand inching towards his phaser.

The young man smiled. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” As he spoke, he held up a fist towards them, from which a green beam of light shot out, expanding as it approached. It surrounded the group and formed into a translucent green box.

In the middle of one side of the box were some transcribed some characters:

GP1.doc

In the middle of the opposite side was an image:

GP2.doc

Wraith put his hand up to the translucent green wall and felt its resistance. “Looks like we’re going to have to figure out how to get out of here.”

The young man smiled and nodded. “If you do, I’ll be waiting.” Then he turned and disappeared into the forest.

[Yoruichi-san]

An idea the shape of a lightbulb went on inside Agent Vistaptb’s mind, and Agent Flamebirde was happy to coordinate the details. He morphed his hang glider into a hot air balloon, which he embarked on with Agent Vistaptb’s water of life filled gun, and proceeded to quench the ever-lasting thirst of the Flower of Destiny.

As it absorbed the life-giving waters, the bud began to tremble. Suddenly, it stiffened straight up and its immense petals. They were outlined in a rich, deep purple, with a golden-orange speckled yellow interior. Upon reaching full bloom, a deep green oval appeared in its center, which began to grow in size until it was large enough for the agents to step through: a portal.

The agents exchanged wary looks, but they had come too far to be having second thoughts now. Nodding encouragement to each other, the team stepped through, and found themselves...

...in a strange room with a square base. There was some static over the neuro-link, then Janine's voice: "Um...we're getting some readings...there's some things you should know..."

Task: Escape the room.

Notes: The room is filled with a volatile gas that will explode if it comes in contact with fire, electricity, or potential sparks. The walls are made of a material that cannot be cut into by any known means. The only way out is through the hatch on the ceiling, which is booby-trapped and will cause the room to explode if attempts are made to open it without the key. The key is in a block of ice that will not melt by itself within a reasonable amount of time.

*********************************

Supplementary rule: The maximum amount of a liquid one agent may create is the volume (100 m)^3 at the temperature and pressure of the level.

Edited June 23, 2013 by Yoruichi-san

[flamebirde]

create Chisel and Hammer, break the ice and claim the key.

[flamebirde]

Create Rope 100m long and throw it up to the ceiling, catching it in the key hole. *waits for someone else to create another rope or two*

[Yoruichi-san]

The intrepid agent Flamebirde summoned a hammer and chisel and prepared to strike...

"Wait!" shrieked Janine in his head. "The sparks created by metal on metal contact could trigger the explosion!"

Wincing, Agent Flamebirde let the hammer and chisel go and willed up a rope. He wanted to latch it in to the keyhole, but alas, there was no method for the rope to latch on, and, not having specialized training, he could throw a rope 300 meters in the air into a small, key-sized hole.

The Agents would have to get more creative...

[Aaryan]

Hint: Her supplementary rule suggests quite a bit, and a quick search of the ever-handy Google, brought to you by neuro-link suggests that ice melts faster in water than in air of the same temperature. Something to do with the amount of molecules and all the other lark. The point is, I summon 100 cubic liters(or meters, whatever) of water to help melt the ice. Hope y'all can swim.

[Brainy Binary]

The volume of the box is 6.75 million *** of water while an agent can make 100 *** . Create agent multiplicator

[Yoruichi-san]

The volume of the box is 6.75 million *** of water while an agent can make 100 *** . Create agent multiplicator

??? The volume of the box is 150m x 150m x 300m, the agent can make 100m x 100m x 100m.

[Yoruichi-san]

Agent Aaryan cleverly surmised that perhaps thermodynamics was the key to, well, the key. So he summoned up the maximum amount of water he could with his will to speed up the ice melting.

A new agent, Binary, was originally confused about the strength of his own will, and attempted to create an 'agent multiplicator', which, since summoning intelligent creatures was against the Green Gate's rules, did not work as he had planned, but instead, only served to agitate the water, which in turn, sped up the convective heat transfer process.

The key was now free. Now they just had to get to the top. Agent Aaryan had already considered a way to do this, but he would need some help. There were other ways as well, and the agents pondered which path to take.

[Aaryan]

Let's everyone just create a ton of water and float to the top.

[flamebirde]

Make as much water as I can to help aaryan.

[vistaptb]

Make as much water as I can to help aaryan.

[flamebirde]

actually: get rid of water, create wall and stand it parallel to a different wall, such that any water placed in the gap between the original wall and the created wall will stay there, and not move into the room proper.

EDIT: also, this wall will stand 100 m away from one wall, so that it is two thirds of the way over to the next wall. This wall is just sufficiently thick enough to contain the water. Said wall also is as long as I can create to stretch from one wall to the other, so it is perpendicular to two walls but also parallel to the other two walls. When properly placed, it should make a kind of messed up capital i shape, with the connecting part moved over about 16.66666...% left or right. Said wall may or may not be long enough to cover the whole 150m, but it should stretch about 2/3 of the way across.

This wall should lessen the amount of water needed to reach the top by one third.

Edited July 3, 2013 by flamebirde

[flamebirde]

This should clarify what I mean.

[Yoruichi-san]

The agents worked together to create water to float to the top. Then Agent Flamebirde had a great idea...create a wall to lessen the space needed, to lessen the amount of water they would need to create. However, the maximum dimensions of the wall were 100m, so it would fully encompass the 150m room...

"Wait..." Orin murmured slowly, as an idea came to him. "Who said we were confined to two dimensions? Remember the first thing the Witch created, when we got here..."

[flamebirde]

well, going by Yoruichi's hint, create a box with an opening at the top and position it so that it is right below the hatch. the sides go up as far as possible. we are positioned inside the box once I create it so any type of apparatus to enter is unnecessary.

Edited July 4, 2013 by flamebirde

[Yoruichi-san]

"Aha!" Agent Flamebirde had an idea. He created a 100 m high box underneath the door. Constructing a structure in this manner would allow the agents to float to the top on the will generated water of one agent, based on the idea of Agent Aaryan. Now they would just need some help getting the water the rest of the way up...

Captain Wraith smiled to himself as he studied Orin. He will make a good captain someday, if something were to happen to me...

[Brainy Binary]

I add my 100³ cu.m of water..the key is in the bottom..ill fetch it

[vistaptb]

We need to make another box on top of flamebirde's, correct? I'll do that.

[Yoruichi-san]

Agent vistaptb added his own 100m high box to agent flamebirde's. 100 m to go on the tower and they would reach the hatch...

[flamebirde]

C'mon, people!

[OmegaScales]

I add water, everyone gets on the top of the walls (assuming they are thick enough to stand on), get rid off all the water and create a floor/slab. Everyone gets on the floor, another box, more water.

Any takers to help with that?

[flamebirde]

I would try, but since I'm the one who created the walls, I don't know if I could keep enough concentration to simultaneously leap on to the newly created platform before the wall fades.

[OmegaScales]

[flamebirde]

but then how would vista and I get up through the red block?

[OmegaScales]

You can still climb out; you shouldn't need to stay still to keep the walls up. You only need that much concentration to create it, after that you only need enough to maintain it. It's like turning on the lights: the moment it takes to turn on takes more energy than it does to keep it on.