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.

[bord]

I think that the interpretation of stanzas 3 & 4 are correct and the alter egos are the bases for the numbers.

With the clue, stanza 2 could refer to the partnership of the Green Arrow and Green Lantern. If this is the case then you have their alter egos of Oliver Queen (11) and Harold Jordan (12). That would make the final base 23.

Edited August 14, 2012 by bord

[vistaptb]

That's impressive, but it still doesn't explain the first two lines of the last two stanzas. It seems to me that the first two lines of each stanza are describing something else, maybe a character trait. Then, I'm guessing that we probably add those letters to those of each superhero. I can't think of anything that would fit any of those clues, though.

[fabpig]

I can't tie it in with the number clues, but could it be the 1st 2 lines of stanzas 2-4 are prefixes of "GREEN" and possibly unrelated to lines 3 & 4? eg . stanza 3 could be METHYL green which is used to track DNA. Things seem to have come to a bit of a halt, so I'm suggesting it on the off-chance that it may set someone's thought process in the right direction.

[DudleyDude]

I've pretty much hit a wall on this one. The way I've been looking at the poem so for is that the first stanza sort of give directions. I think the "Get in position..." line somehow refers to the first 2 lines of each stanze while the "And take it to..." line refers to the last 2 lines of each stanza. So I think each stanza should somehow correspond to a number raised to the power of a 2nd number (x^y) and that will equal one of the 6 available numbers for us to choose. I think we have the word answers for each of the last lines in each stanza, but I haven't found a way to map those to the available numbers.

Also, if the above is at all right then it might help to look at the available numbers in terms of x^y. They are:

23^5

12^5

18^4

3^10

14^4

5^6

[Yoruichi-san]

As the other agents carefully examined the three locks on the ivy 'chains', Orin lowered his eyes, away from the dancing leprechaun, thinking. The inexplicable leprechaun's hints had seemed to be on the mark so far, but the creature seemed to mean some his lines literally, particularly the last...

[Yoruichi-san]

Yes, the agents determined, the three locks were indeed distinctive and would require the three separate keys.

Meanwhile, Orin ran over the woman's lines in his mind once more. The second stanza stirred something of recollection in him...there was a similar phrase he'd heard before, he believed, something that seemed appropriate to this entire venture...there's no...in..

[DudleyDude]

I'm still not totally clear on the encoding, but I am starting to thing the last 3 verses are broken into the first couplet referring to a letter and the last couplet referring to a specific "green" (arrow, goblin, hornet). The last clue (there's no...in..) reminds me of "there's no I in team'. I think the first two lines of the goblin verse (You won't find it in yourselves, but to express individuality it delves) similarly refer to the letter I (not found in the word 'yourselves', the letter used as a pronoun refers directly to individuality). I is the 9th letter and 59049 is 9^5. Similarly, I think the wordplay in the final verse's couplet could refer to W (twice intoned) and W is the 23rd letter and 6436343 is 23^5. I can't explain how "goblin" and "hornet" translate to 5, but I think I'd like to try those 2 keys on the 2nd and 3rd locks to see if they fit. If so, we could focus on the final couplet and see if we can make it fit for either of 'L', 'R', 'N' or 'E'

[vistaptb]

I think I got it! The first one is 6436343 (23^5), because W is the 23rd letter, and it is in the fifth place of ARROW. The second one is 59049 (9^5) because I, the 9th letter, is in the 5th place of GOBLIN. The third one is 38416 (14^4) because N, the 14th letter, is in the fourth place of HORNET.

[Yoruichi-san]

Sorry, I've been fighting a (mostly losing) battle with a virus, and going though some strange things...and struggling with what I think are called *cough* emotions...(yes, I know, the Imperturbable Society of Machiavellian Princes is going to have to revoke my membership), so there's going to be a delay . I'll try to get the next segment up sometime when my head stops trying to explode.

For those who haven't gotten the wordplay yet, it's pretty literal .

Thanks for your patience.

[Yoruichi-san]

...To the letter...Orin’s mind reached, and he felt something click into place. “...Come this way...not be on this day...”

The other agents were on a similar line, it appeared. Confidently they approached the selected plants. As her “babies” yielded the sought-after keys to the agents’ eager palms, an expression of pain shot across her face and she doubled over.

Captain Wraith grinned at the woman as the locks were undone. “Looks like we w-i-n,” he quipped, and Orin stepped towards the gate.

“Nooo!” the woman cried, clutching her midsection. Using her last bit of strength, she threw out her arm and summoned the power of nature.

Vines flew up and wrapped themselves around Orin’s legs and torso. He grunted and jerked against them, but they held him firmly in place.

Letting out a high-pitched laugh, the woman crumpled to her knees, breathing heavily. “You...won’t...get past...I...won’t...let you...”

Suddenly Orin sensed a green glow and turned. The young man they had met before was coming towards them, surrounded by a green aura.

“It’s all right, Ivy,” said the young man in a halcyon tone.

With concentrated effort, the woman crawled towards him. She clung to his leg and stared up at him with hungry eyes. “Master...”

He placed a gentle hand atop her head and nodded. “You did well. You may rest now”. He stroked her red hair slowly, and as he did so, her image wavered and then seemed to disintegrate into a million green particles, which scattered outward for a decisecond before being drawn back and assimilated into the young man’s green glow.

The vines around Orin unanimated and fell limply to the ground. He took a step towards the green aura-ed young man. “We defeated your minions, now it’s your turn.”

The young man smiled. His own form wavered and then stretched horizontally into a green mass, from which six head shapes emerged. The six heads moved away from each other, and the forms of six identical young men proceeded to surround the group.

“Which one is the real one?” an agent asked, his glance vacillating furtively between the six figures.

Orin frowned. They appeared identical in every way he could tell...they had the same height, build, hair cut, features, skin tone, clothing, accessories...wait...

“Umi,” he said to the control center. “Their bracelets, there appears to be an inscription. Can you magnify the image you’re receiving from us and read them?”

There was only the slightest delay before the images were transmitted to him and the rest of the agents. The inscriptions read:

(Pirate’s execution unchanging) (Not old, borrowed or blue)

(Nuts’ companion + not the fairer half unchanging) (Earl grey or chamomile)

(Spanish ‘the’) (up to date, made fair) over (Latin ‘you’)

(Line) over (moderate + task)

(Sunday service) (severity) (sneeze - second person pronoun)

(Sixth state) (French ‘life’, made fair) over (not from)

“Good thinking,” the captain smiled at him, then stroked his stubbly chin. “Based on what we’ve seen so far, the doubles are probably booby-trapped in some way and I’m going to guess that guessing is not a good option. So...which of these things is not like the others...”

[flamebirde]

maybe the italicized segments mean something more than the others? Also in the first line, The second part, I think that it has something to do with "new"- the only part of the old saying not allowed.

[vistaptb]

Maybe the italicized parts are letters? I see nu (new), T (tea), V (vie), and L (el).

[flamebirde]

I see 2 pluses, 2 () right next to each other, and 2 overs. Is it something to do with 2?

[Prof. Templeton]

I have not been following along with this thread, but I saw Y-san's code here and thought I would give it an analysis

(Pirate’s execution unchanging)

Plank and Constant

Planck constant

maybe "H"

(Not old, borrowed or blue)

New (or knew)

Maybe Nu which is "N"

(Nuts’ companion + not the fairer half unchanging)

Bolts and Man and Constant

Boltzmann Constant

maybe "K" or "KB"

(Earl grey or chamomile)

Tea or maybe "T"

(Spanish ‘the’)

el or maybe "L"

(up to date, made fair)

Current or maybe "I"

made fair could be equal "="

over (Latin ‘you’)

Could be the Latin word for you Agis or maybe the Latin U which would actually be "V"

(Line)

? maybe minus sign

over (moderate + task)

Average

Task could be work or Force or "F"

(Sunday service)

Mass or maybe "M"

(severity)

Severity could be degree or "O"

(sneeze - second person pronoun)

Achoo minus "you" or just Ach

(Sixth state)

? or could also be Mass (the sixth state to join)

(French ‘life’, made fair)

Vie or "V"

made fair could be equal "="

over (not from)

to or "2"

Just some thoughts

[vistaptb]

So it's definitely a science theme. So far we have:

hn (or ht)

KBt

l x (the current equation) over v

(Line) over some kind of work

Mass x (amplitude? force?) x (sneeze - second person pronoun)

Mass x (v equation) over 2

[flamebirde]

for the sneeze-second person pronoun, I got sneeze-you or sneeze minus u. dunno what that means, though...

[Pickett]

(Sixth state) (French ‘life’, made fair) over (not from)

That's the formula for Kinetic Energy: E=mv²/2

[Pickett]

(Pirate’s execution unchanging) (Not old, borrowed or blue)

That's the formula for the planck relation: E=hν

(Nuts’ companion + not the fairer half unchanging) (Earl grey or chamomile)

That's the Energy of an atom at temperature T: E=kT

So, three of the lines are equations for Energy...I'll be honest, I haven't read all of the posts, just started with the latest from Ysan...so don't know if that actually helps people trying to solve the original post or not...just thought I'd throw them out there....

Edited October 5, 2012 by Pickett

[Prof. Templeton]

I get the feeling that we're

"E"s

E=hv

E=kT

E=Li²/v

E=mv²/2

[vistaptb]

E=mgh is the fifth one (energy=mass x gravity x either ach or height)

Edited October 5, 2012 by vistaptb

[vistaptb]

So does that mean

(Line) over (moderate + task)

is the odd one out, or is there an equation there as well?

[Yoruichi-san]

The agents had deciphered most of the inscriptions, but the last eluded them. Should they try that one as the real one? "No, we can't risk it," the captain said out loud. "We have to figure out what it means, and then we'll know which is real."

Orin nodded in agreement. They had come too far to lose now on an unnecessary gamble.

As if hearing his thoughts, the helpful leprechaun tapped his feet.

"The general method has been hit,

Letters in italics challenge your wit,

Look not to math,

Take a different path,

For the last think like a Brit!"

[Prof. Templeton]

For the last think like a Brit!"

"Line" is queue or "Q". Maybe some form of Gauss' Law?

[flamebirde]

average for the second word? I dunno, I suck at puzzles. that can't be right, though, because of Mr.Leprechaun's 3rd and 4th line...

The 3rd and 4th line could also mean it's not an equation.

EDIT:

Q/average+charge=E? science was never my strong suit...

Edited October 11, 2012 by flamebirde

[Prof. Templeton]

Q/average+charge=E? science was never my strong suit...

that average charge fit the clue word of "moderate + task" very well. However, in the previous when a "+" was used the two clue words joined into one word (bolts + man = Boltzmann) so I wasn't sure average charge would be correct.

If it is then they are all E equals equations and we need to determine which is different.

E=hv

E=kT

E=Li²/v

E=q/ ϵ₀

E=mgh

E=mv²/2

Energy of a photon

Energy of an atom

Energy of a capacitor

Energy of an electric field

Potential Energy

Kinetic Energy

Have I got those right?