//------------------------------// // Behind the Alien: Bushwhacker // Story: The Omnitrix Hero // by Banshee531 //------------------------------// Good evening, explorers and omni-planetary travellers. Welcome back to the next stage of our planet hopping adventure. What amazing sights and sounds will we find this go around? Only time will tell. Today, we will be taking a look at the homeworld of Flash Sentry's greenest alien. Bushwhacker. Please refrain from using all lighters and any other flametary devices. The locals are not big fans of fire and I don't want to be responsible for losing any explorers, especially since I'm still on notice from the last time it happened. Let's go. The scene opens on a planet that looks just like earth, with an equal amount of land and water. Herbagarden. A lush and vibrant planet in a perfect goldilocks zone in its system. This zone is closer to the system's sun due to said sun being much smaller than many others, but being just as strong. Because of this, the planet rotates around the sun at a much faster rate and spins on its own axis much faster. This results in days and nights that only last around six or seven hours each. But the most amazing part of this planet is a strange energy field that radiates through every part of it. This energy is not found in any other place in the universe and has a strong psycho-kinetic effect on the creatures that have developed there. This energy, dubbed Flower-Power, allows those that can harness it to connect to and control any form of non-sapient flora around them. This includes the main focus of our expedition here today. The camera zooms in on a planet, flying down towards the planet that is completely covered in trees. But one such tree stands out amongst the rest. This tree is brown but instead of being round, it had grown in a hexagon shape with no branches. Instead, it had a bunch of large black leaves on the top. The Psychloro Tree, an unusual type of tree that has evolved upon Hebagarden. Taking usually twenty years to reach its full ten meter height, this tree requires three components to grow. Sunlight, water and Flower-Power. The psychic energy that flows through the soil of the planet is the most important nourishment for this tree. Without it, the tree will die. But if it is able to absorb enough of this energy, it will start to develop conscious thought once fully grown. Zooming in on the tree, a crack can be seen in the side of trunk. A crack that is letting out a mild glow. Taking another twenty five years or so for this consciousness to form, the process will lead to the Psychloro Tree to break apart. The crack goes all the way up the trunk and once it reached the top and bottom, the whole thing broke in half. As the tree fell in two different directions, something that had been inside the tree falls free. A twelve sided wooden die, which falls to the forest floor and lands in several bushes. Name: Psychloron Alien Type: Intelligent Plant Intelligence: 7/20 Abilities: Photosynthesis. Chlorokinesis Form: A twelve-sided wooden die with two glowing eye holes and a mouth. After a few moments, a hole in two of the die's sides appeared and glowed white. Another hole appeared on the side below them, as the flowers and plants around the die began to move towards it. Psychlorons, an oddity in the universe that's completely dependant of the surrounding plant life to survive. Its body only consists of a twelve-sided die-shaped head roughly the size of a basketball, which is full of all the Flower-Power that the Psychloro Tree managed to absorb during its time. Nobody is sure whether its consciousness is the Flower-Power itself, or just being fuelled by it. However, it uses this Flower-Power to fuel its chlorokinesis. This allows it to manipulate the vegetation around it, which allows it to form a body that it can use to move around and defend itself with. The plants form a small body for the Psychloron, made out of vines and a few pieces of wood, which ends up only being the size of a human baby. Despite having large amounts of Flower-Power within its mind, its cholokinesis is still weak. This ability will increase with time, allowing it to form larger and larger bodies as it ages, but until that time it is as weak and defenceless as human babies. The small Psychloron drags itself through the woods, trying to find some place it can remain safe until it is strong enough to defend itself. However, there was nothing in sight. And as the sun begins to go down, the baby plant alien begins to grow worried that something might attack it. Its fears grew as a sound filled the air. A beautiful, but haunting sound that felt like a siren song. But as the forest is dropped into a great amount of darkness, something does appear out of the shadows. More Psychlorons, who are all different from one another due to having their plant bodies made up of different plants and trees. Some of them were seven foot tall and some were two. There were some with four arms, some with none. Some with short legs, some with long ones. They all looked completely different and the only part that looked the same, were the twelve-sides heads they all had. One of the Psychlorons, which seemed to have a more feminine body, stepped forward and picked the baby one up. Holding it like a mother would, she rocked it in her vine-like arms and comforted the child. It had found its home. Due to their slow growth rate in gaining more powerful chlorokinesis, Psychlorons will live in large tribes that protect the weaker members until they grow strong enough to protect themselves. The tribe of waking trees marched through the woods, looking very active as they searched for a safe place to remain. Fast forward to the next morning and the tribe find a large clearing which the sun is shining brightly into. They rush to the centre of the clearing and as the sun climbs higher and higher, their feet begin to dig into the ground and root themselves into the soil before pointing as much of their bodies up into the sun's light. Despite the plant bodies not being part of their physiology, the vegetation still requires sunlight and water so as to not whiffer and die. As such, the Psychlorons have adopted a nocturnal lifestyle and spend the planet's days sleeping as they soak up the sun. And when the sun sets, they are constantly on the move. At night, the Psychlorons pull themselves from the soil and starts travelling into the forest. All the while, they look absolutely terrified. The beautiful music began playing again, sounding like it was coming from the forest itself. They cannot remain in place for too long. For as soon as the sun sets, they are constantly in danger of being attacked by Hebagarden's most dangerous predator. The tribe continue through the forest and come across a long grassy lump in the forest floor that was covered in flowers. But as they climbed over it, the lump suddenly started growing. They all looked scared at this and begin to run, as the lump pushes itself up to reveal it had three pairs of legs. And from it, ten brown tendrils appear out of the darkness. The Psychloron Vampire. Name: Psychloron Vampire Alien Type: Predatory Reptile Intelligence: 0/20 Abilities: Mental energy draining. Form: A twelve meter long reptile-like alien with six legs. Green sunflower-shaped head surrounded by red leaf-shaped fins, with long brown whisker-like tendrils sticking out of the face instead of eyes and a mouth. Grass-like fur growing out of its body and legs, covered in flower-shaped adornments of different colours. Root-like toes coming off the feet and two long root-like tails sticking out its rear. The Psychloron Vampire. Despite looking like a plant, this giant lizard is the only form of organic life on the planet. Having developed a plant-like appearance, this creature hides in wait for its prey walk by it so that it can attack. Despite not having a mouth, nose or eyes, it can see perfectly well using a form of echo location that uses its Flower-Power instead of sound. Its tendrils can unleash a weak wave of this energy, as well as suck up water from the ground as well as its main source of food. A mixture of Flower-Power and psychic energy. And as you may recall, Psychlorons are made up entirely of those two things. The tendrils thrust themselves at the Psychlorons, who either fight or flee. Those that attempt to fight begin to command the trees around them, using them to grab the tendrils or attack the main body. This seems to work and the Vampire is unable to get to them. Once it's tied up and trapped beneath the vines, the Psychloron run away as fast as they can. The vampire thrashes about at this, angry that it lost its meal. Fast forwarding back to the daytime again, where we find another Psychlorons Vampire marching through the forest. Using its echo location, it is able to navigate through it without worry of accidently slammed into trees. As it does, it senses movement up above and its tendrils move closer to take a...'look'. And when it does, it finds a group of creatures hanging from the branches. Name: Wiggulbus Alien Type: Intelligent Plant Intelligence: 2/20 Abilities: Photosynthesis. Vine growth Form: Round pink radish-like alien of around one foot in height, with six short pink tendrils on its bottom and a large blue and yellow flower on its head just above its eyes and mouth. fifteen inch long red vine in the centre of said flower. A group of Wiggulbus are hanging from the trees, not looking at all worried that the most dangerous predator on their planet was beneath them. Wiggulbus. A low intelligence species that survive using a mixture of photosynthesis and using their long head vine to suck the nutrients out of trees. Large colonies of these creatures can be found near lakes and ponds, where their vine can also be used as a straw to suck up as much water as it wants. A Wiggulbus moved along the ground, its tiny foot tendrils wiggling around and allowing it to shuffle forwards. It then spotted the Vampire and its friends up on a tree. When the reptile walked away, the little radish moved under the branch. As it did, its head vine suddenly extended until it reached the branch. Wrapping around the branch, the vine began to shrink lifting it into the air until it was hanging next to the rest of its friends. Fast forward to that night as as the sun began to set, the Wiggulbus in the tree, on the ground and all over the planet huddled together for warmth. As they did, they started singing in unison. Wiggulbus live in clusters for protection, so when the night comes they begin to sing in order to attract others of their kind to themselves. Sure enough, the music caught the attention of another Wiggulbus that was all on its own. That Wiggulbus waddled over to the tree and when it found the cause of the music, it used its vine to pull itself up to the branch. Once up there, the plants pushed themselves together to stay warm and wrapped their head vines around one another so one wouldn't be lost. This singing as become known as Hebagarden's Lullaby and is one of the most beautiful sounds throughout the universe. It once again turns to day and the Wiggulbus have come down from the trees and made their way through the forest towards a lake, where many more Wiggulbus are hanging around and enjoying the water there. In some areas of the lake-shore, the same blue and yellow flowers were sticking out of the ground but all were closed up. One Wiggulbus stopped by the lake shore and started shaking its entire body. Doing so caused a bunch of tiny seeds to fly out of its flower and hit the ground. A single Wiggulbus will develop around ten to twenty seeds a month and scatter them near places close to water. Out of these seeds, around seventy percent of them will be able to take root. And only fifty will manage to survive to full flowering age. One of the buds began to bloom, as the light of the sun began to shine down on it. A minute or so later, the soil beneath the floor began to shift as the Wiggulbus pulled itself free of the earth. Once out of the soil, the alien plant opened its eyes and looked around. The other Wiggulbus all smiled at it, as the newborn's flower began to grow the vine on the top of its head. One of the reasons Habegarden is so fertile is due to there being absolutely no salt on the planet. Even the oceans are completely salt free, making them as safe to drink as what you would get out of your taps. This has allowed plant life to grow, even in the darkest depths of the planet. The camera shifts to under the ocean, where a bunch of different plants were growing under it. Living amongst these plants were a bunch of alien fish, which are all fish-like plants, that are swimming around. One of these fish, which has a flower on its forehead, moves over to a bunch of seaweed and starts pecking at it. But as it did so, it was completely unaware that something was within that seaweed. And before it realised what was happening, something shot out of weeds and grabbed it. It wrapped around the fish and pulled it into the weeds, as the other fish swam away in fear. Moments later, the one responsible swam out of the weeds. Name: Selafolian Alien Type: Intelligent Plant Intelligence: 4/20 Abilities: Swimming. Breathing underwater. Extendable vine tongue Form: Green shark-like alien between four and five feet in length, with leaf-shaped fins on its sides and on the tip of its tail. Grass-like fur running along its back with a dorsal fin that appears to be made of wood. The plant shark swam around, using its leafy fins to move through the water with amazing speed. As it got close to another plant fish, it opened its mouth and its tongue shot out at incredible velocity. Selafolian. This living plant acts like a venus flytrap, using its incredibly stretchy tongue-like vine to capture prey and pull them into its mouth. It does this to steal the nutrients in the prey, allowing it to survive without needing to stay rooted in place. Once the Selafolian had its fill, it swam up to the surface. The water's surface worked to magnify the sun's rays, increasing the amount of photosynthesis the alien shark plant managed to produce. Back on the surface, Psychloron Vampire is making its way through the forest when it comes across an open field. There its special sight detects a bunch of Psychlorons, all asleep as they took in sunlight. The vampire moved closer and reaches out to try and grab one. But as soon as its tendril entered the sunlight, the limb started smoking as the brown parts of it turned white. If it had a mouth, it probably would have screamed as it pulled its tendril back. For some unknown reason, the Psychloron Vampires cannot stand even the dullest of sunlights. This is partly why the Psychloron adopted their nocturnal lifestyle, since they can easily sleep so long as they are in the sunlight. However, sometimes the world decides to make things difficult for them. In that moment, a cloud drifts in the way of the sun. This causes the sun to be almost completely blocked out, leading to the Psychlorons to all wake up. And they are not the only ones who noticed the lack of sunlight. The Vampire rushes out of the trees, scaring the Psychlorons as they attempt to run for their lives. But the Vampire manages to reach them before they can and a tendrils flies down towards one of the older Psychlorons. The sucker on the end of the tendril slams down on one of its die sides and sticks to it, allowing the Vampire to pull it away from the body. The others are shocked by this, as the Psychloron cries out. All they can do is watch as a light flows out of its head and into the tendril. It flows all the way down the whisker until it reaches the Vampire's body, causing the Vampire to glow. Some attempt to save their brethren, but stop when the other tendrils attempt to grab them and do the same thing. Eventually, the Psychloron is completely drained of its Flower-Power and the sucker releases it. The head falls to the ground, its eyes and mouth no longer glowing as the Vampire turned its attention to the others. However, in that moment the sun came out from behind the cloud. The sunlight struck the Vampire and made it feel intense pain as it runs back towards the forest and leaves the Psychlorons safe. A terrible tragedy for the Psychlorons. But such is an every day, and night, occurance on such a planet. However, the death of the Psychloron does not mean the end of it. For it will live on in the next generation. The Psychlorons gather around the remains of their fallen friend and as they reach down and pick the head up, the wood that made it up began to slowly crack and break apart. As it crumbled, something was revealed to be inside the head. A seed. As the sun begins to set, the Psychlorons head back into the forest. They search for the most Flower-Power rich area of soil they can find and when they do, they dig a hole deep enough for the seed to be safe in. Once that is done, the Psychlorons listen to the Forest's Lullaby as they talk about all the good times with their friend. And like a funeral service, they lay their friend to rest within the earth before burying it. They all say their final farewells before leaving, since they can't stay too long for fear of a Vampire arriving to hunt them down. That seed would one day grow into a hexagon-shaped tree and within that tree, a new Psychloron would begin to form. The circle of life. There is many debate about the lifecycle of the Psychlorons. Many believe that when the seed is freed from the head, that is when the new Psychloron's life begins. Others believe that Psychloro Tree is actually the final stage of life for the Psychloron, which ends once the head inside manages to gain enough Flower-Power and the tree breaks apart. Others still believe that the Psychloron never truly die, but instead are in a constant cycle of death and rebirth. The truth may never be revealed, but what do you think is the correct answer. As the Psychloron tribe continue to move through the forest, they eventually come across something they hadn't been expecting. Another Psychloro Tree. The leader stepped up to the tree and could feel it was close to being ready to open. Another year or two and the Psychloron would be free. But why wait? They stood in a circle around the tree and reached out to touch it, closing their eyes and causing some of their power spark around their heads. That energy then flew through their bodies and into the tree they were touching. This caused the tree to start glowing as a crack appeared inside it, which grew larger and larger until it completely broke in half. As the tree-halves fall to the ground, the Psychloron head falls to the ground only to be caught by one of its own kind. As its eyes open, the tribe smile at it before placing it down on the ground. The plants begin to form around it and create its new body, the Psychlorons happy they were able to help a newborn not be alone. They may have lost a member, but they had gained a new one. Life continued on. Habegarden. A beautiful place to live, but one filled with many dangers. Now we can head off to the final planet on our tour. Hope you didn't pack any fresh meat, cause this place's residents have a pretty good sense of smell. Onwards, to our next big adventure.