Chapter 13: The Boy Who Broke Nature
Thunder split the sky.
For the first time in history, it wasn't a weather event — it was a warning.
New York had fallen into silence after the battle. Not the peaceful kind, but the kind that follows after a scream. The streets were buried under vines and steel, corpses of machines fused with bark. The air itself shimmered, thick with glowing spores that drifted like ash.
At the heart of the chaos stood Billy — the Ironroot.
Bare-chested, breathing heavily, his skin still cracked with faint green light. The vines that had once crawled over his body were gone, but the marks they left behind pulsed like veins of emerald fire.
He looked around.
Everywhere he turned, life and death were at war — trees still growing out of buildings, cars melting into black metal, humans fused halfway into bark or glass. He had saved the world from Maskborn… but in doing so, he'd changed it forever.
Then, the sound came.
A low, mechanical hum overhead.
Billy raised his head — and saw them.
Quinjets.
Five of them, hovering above the city like vultures over a carcass. Their searchlights cut through the spores, painting the streets white.
A voice boomed through a loudspeaker.
"This is Commander Maria Hill of S.H.I.E.L.D.! Stand down! You are entering containment zone Echo-One!"
Billy's fists clenched. His pulse quickened. He'd heard of S.H.I.E.L.D. — the organization that cleaned up after gods and monsters. But to him, they were just another system trying to cage what they didn't understand.
"Billy Rowan of Queens," Hill continued. "You are classified as a Level-Seven Bio-Anomaly. You are under quarantine. Do not resist."
Billy took a slow breath. The air smelled of smoke and pollen.
He whispered to himself, "They think I'm the problem."
Then he heard footsteps.
From the shadows emerged a small squad of armored agents, their weapons humming with energy. They surrounded him in seconds, rifles aimed steady.
"Hands where we can see them," one barked.
Billy raised his hands slowly. Vines stirred at his feet like restless snakes.
"I don't want to fight," he said calmly.
The nearest agent scoffed. "Yeah, sure. Tell that to the hundred-meter tree in Midtown."
Billy's eyes glowed faintly. "That wasn't me. That was him."
"Who?"
Before Billy could answer, the ground trembled.
A deep, distant boom echoed across the ruins. The agents spun around — the light from their weapons dancing against shattered walls.
And then they saw it.
Something massive moved through the fog — a shadow with too many limbs, its surface shifting like wet steel. The agents opened fire, but the bullets vanished into it like pebbles thrown into a river.
The creature screamed. A sound not made for human ears.
Helena's voice crackled in Billy's earpiece.
"Billy! You need to move! The infection's spreading faster — that thing's part of the Titan's remains!"
Billy's eyes widened. "Maskborn?"
"Fragments of him, maybe. We're detecting signatures everywhere."
The creature lunged, smashing through a jet bridge. Agents scattered, some screaming, others firing wildly. The street became chaos.
Billy made his choice.
He slammed his palms into the ground — roots exploded upward, wrapping around the monster's limbs. The vines glowed bright green, but the creature countered with black spikes that tore through them.
The clash of the two energies was violent — nature's life force against mechanical corruption. Sparks and sap flew like shrapnel.
Maria Hill watched from the Quinjet's window, her jaw tightening.
"He's not attacking the city… he's protecting it."
A voice behind her spoke — calm, commanding.
"He's doing both."
Hill turned.
Nick Fury stepped out of the shadows, his coat flaring behind him. His one good eye studied the battlefield below — the boy and the beast locked in a war that no human weapon could contain.
"Get a team ready," Fury said. "If that kid survives this, I want him alive."
Hill frowned. "You really think he'll cooperate?"
Fury smirked faintly. "Kid like that? He's not our enemy — not yet."
The Street Below
Billy was on one knee, panting, as the creature's screech echoed through the ruins. His body burned — the Green inside him fighting to keep balance. He pushed harder, feeling the vines burrow into the ground, feeding from the city's power lines, the soil, the roots of forgotten parks.
"Hold it together," Helena's voice urged through static. "You're drawing from everything alive around you — if you lose focus, you'll drain them all."
Billy gritted his teeth. "If I don't, that thing kills everyone here!"
The vines tightened, glowing brighter, wrapping the monster's torso. The black spikes thrashed, shattering concrete.
Billy screamed — a raw, guttural sound — and the ground beneath him erupted in light.
When the light faded, the creature was gone. Only a pool of black ash remained, hissing faintly.
Billy collapsed, breathing hard. His hands were shaking. His heartbeat echoed in his skull like war drums.
"Billy," Helena said softly. "You're losing control."
He looked at his hands — green energy crawling up his arms like cracks in glass.
"No… I'm fine."
But the voice in his mind whispered otherwise.
"Every seed must choose what it grows into… savior or parasite…"
He pressed his palms to his temples. "Get out of my head!"
"Billy!" Helena shouted.
Before he could respond, something hit him from behind — a sharp electric sting. He gasped as his vision went white.
He fell forward, convulsing. The vines shriveled instantly.
Hill approached slowly, weapon still raised — an electromagnetic rifle calibrated for mutants.
Fury followed, eye fixed on the boy twitching on the ground.
"Careful," Hill warned. "We don't know what—"
Billy's body jerked — and the air breathed.
Green light burst outward, throwing the agents back. Fury shielded his face, his coat whipping in the wind.
When the light faded, Billy was gone. Only a trail of green spores drifted upward into the night.
Fury's jaw tightened. "He's learning to move through the network."
Hill turned to him. "You mean—"
"Yeah." He looked at the glowing veins spreading across the city skyline. "The kid doesn't just control nature anymore. He is nature."
Somewhere Beneath the Hudson
Billy gasped awake in darkness.
Water dripped around him. The walls pulsed faintly green, alive. He wasn't sure if it was a cave or a living root system.
Then he heard a voice.
Soft. Familiar.
"Welcome back, Ironroot."
He turned sharply — and froze.
A woman stood there, barefoot, her body glowing faintly gold. Her eyes shimmered like sunlight through leaves. She wasn't human — at least, not anymore.
"Who are you?" he asked.
She smiled faintly. "The first seed. The one who came before you."
He took a step back. "You mean… you're one of them?"
She shook her head. "Not like Maskborn. Not corrupted. I was chosen by the Green before humanity even learned to walk upright. I watched civilizations rise and burn. And now, I've watched you tear the veil apart."
Billy's hands trembled. "I didn't mean to—"
"I know," she said gently. "But intent doesn't undo consequence."
She walked closer, placing a hand over his chest. "Your heart still beats like a man's, but your roots are spreading through the soil of the world. You are no longer bound to one body. You're a force. A growing storm."
Billy swallowed hard. "Then how do I stop it?"
Her eyes darkened. "You don't. You balance it. Before the Black Root consumes everything."
"The Black Root?"
Her voice dropped to a whisper. "The infection Maskborn left behind. It's no longer him — it's becoming something new. Something older. Something that remembers before the Green."
A chill ran down Billy's spine. "Then I have to destroy it."
She smiled faintly — sad, almost maternal. "You can't destroy what was born with creation itself. But maybe… you can choose which world survives."
He looked up, eyes burning. "Then show me how."
The cavern began to tremble. The walls split, revealing a glowing chamber beneath — a heart made of light and root, pulsing like a living engine.
She stepped back into the glow, her form dissolving into golden mist.
"Find me in the core, Ironroot. Before they do."
Above Ground – S.H.I.E.L.D. Command Center
Hill slammed a folder onto the table.
"Fury, we can't contain this. The city's becoming part of him. We've got reports of bio-electric storms from Jersey to Boston!"
Fury stood silent, watching the hologram of Billy's glowing energy signature expand across the map like spreading veins.
Finally, he said, "Call the Council. We're moving to Level Eight."
Hill blinked. "Level Eight? That's for—"
"World-end scenarios," he finished.
She hesitated. "And the kid?"
Fury's voice was calm but cold.
"If we can't control him… we neutralize him."
He turned toward the window, watching the skyline pulse with faint, living light.
"God help us all if that boy ever decides we're the weeds."