CHAPTER 23: SHADOWS OF THE GREEN
The wreckage of the alien vessel floated silently in the orbit of a dying star. Flames shimmered within the vacuum, stubbornly refusing to fade—unnatural, corrupted, alive. Billy's eyes flickered open inside his containment chamber, the green energy coursing faintly through his veins like veins of emerald lightning. The pain in his chest was different now—colder, deeper—as if something had taken root within him.
He remembered the explosion, the chaos, and the sound of thousands of voices whispering through the void. "You are not alone." That voice wasn't his power—it was something older. Something that had lived long before humanity learned to fear the dark.
Billy clenched his fist, watching a faint shimmer of vines curl from his wrist. But they were… off. Not the same gentle, responsive tendrils that once obeyed his will. These vines pulsed with a strange red hue, corrupted by something foreign.
He rose from the pod and stepped onto the metal floor. His boots echoed in the empty chamber. Beyond the reinforced window, stars bled green light across the endless black. And then, faintly, he saw it—fragments of the alien ship reforming, vines knitting through its metal like veins rebuilding a body.
"Root infection spreading again," murmured Tony Stark's AI voice from the intercom. "Estimated contamination at thirty percent and climbing. You good, kid?"
Billy took a breath, still dizzy. "I don't know. I feel… connected. To everything. But not in the same way as before. Something's wrong."
The door hissed open, and Nebula entered, eyes sharp. "It's not just you," she said. "We traced your energy signatures through space. They're alive—feeding. You may have started something you can't control."
Billy frowned, his voice shaking slightly. "I didn't mean to—"
"You don't have to mean it," she interrupted. "It's what the universe does when it senses imbalance. It adapts. Evolves."
He turned toward her, the green aura flaring around him. "You think I caused this?"
Nebula's eyes narrowed. "I think you're the key to stopping it… or the reason it never ends."
Back on Earth, in the ruins of Stark Tower, something stirred beneath the soil. What used to be metal roots from Billy's earlier fights began to shift again—whispering, moving, growing. Within the shadows, a tall figure stood, watching through a screen of holographic distortion.
Dr. Kain—the scientist who had once dreamed of saving humanity through his "Dark Science"—smiled beneath his steel mask. His hands moved across a console, activating deep-space sensors tuned to Billy's frequency.
He'd studied Ironroot's biology from afar, learning to mimic its energy patterns. And now, through his fusion of corrupted technology and parasitic lifeforms, he'd found something new: The Null Bloom—a dark evolution of Billy's gift, one that thrived on destruction rather than creation.
As he placed the black mask on his face, it hissed with life. Metallic vines crawled around his neck, merging with his skin. His reflection in the broken glass was almost human—almost. "You took my chance at being a hero," he muttered, staring at the glowing data of Billy's powers. "But don't worry, boy. I'll take it back. I'll take everything."
Meanwhile, Billy stood before the viewing window of the Guardians' ship. The stars shimmered like old memories, but his heart was heavy. "I can feel him," he whispered.
"Who?" asked Rocket, cleaning his plasma blaster.
"The scientist. The one the tree warned me about. He's awake."
Rocket blinked. "You mean the dead guy you fried six months ago?"
"He never died," Billy replied softly. "He just went underground. The vines… they carried a piece of him. And now he's growing again."
The ship shuddered violently. Alarms blared. Gamora rushed to the cockpit. "We've got company! Something's pulling us off-course—magnetic field interference!"
Through the window, they saw it: a giant structure drifting in space, pulsating like a living organism. Its form was neither metal nor flesh but something in between. The surface rippled with vines and circuitry—alive, breathing, monstrous.
"Uh… that's new," Rocket said, stepping back.
Billy's eyes glowed green. "It's him. He's merging his tech with the infection."
Nebula armed her blade. "Then let's finish what he started."
The ship broke through the outer membrane of the monstrous construct. The interior glowed with eerie red light. Echoes of whispers filled the air—voices of machines learning to dream. The vines slithered along the walls, reacting to Billy's presence, calling to him.
As they stepped inside, the temperature dropped. Billy's senses screamed. Every heartbeat around him echoed like thunder, and the vines from his own arms began to grow wildly, uncontrollably.
"Billy!" Gamora yelled. "You're losing control—"
"I can't stop it!" he shouted. "It's like it's feeding off me!"
The walls shifted. Metallic tendrils erupted from the floor, wrapping around their legs. Billy screamed as green lightning exploded from his body, tearing through the structure. The entire place trembled.
And then, from the far end of the corridor, a shadow appeared. The tall, masked figure of Dr. Kain stepped out, eyes burning crimson through the steel mask.
"Welcome home, Ironroot," he said calmly, his voice both human and machine. "You've done well keeping my power safe."
Billy's heart stopped. "Kain…"
The scientist smiled. "You and I are bound by the same root. You were chosen by nature. I, by evolution. Together, we could be gods."
Billy's hands ignited with energy. "Never."
Kain raised his arm. The mask shimmered, and from the shadows, a swarm of biomechanical vines erupted, each tipped with glowing blades. "Then you'll be compost for the new world."
The fight began in a storm of green and red light.
Vines clashed, metal screamed, and energy tore through the corridors. Billy hurled Kain backward with a blast of force, but the scientist twisted midair, his mask splitting open like a living creature. From within, streams of nanites poured out, wrapping around Billy's arms.
"You're fighting nature itself, boy!" Kain laughed. "And nature always wins!"
Billy gritted his teeth, pushing back with everything he had. The green light from his core exploded outward, tearing through the vines. "Then I'll rewrite it!"
The explosion rocked the entire structure, sending fragments into space.
As the smoke cleared, Billy fell to one knee, exhausted, eyes dimming. Kain's mask flickered nearby, cracked but still alive, whispering through the debris.
"This isn't over," the voice echoed faintly. "Roots run deep, boy. Deeper than you'll ever reach."
Billy looked out into space, his breathing shallow. "Then I'll burn them all down if I have to."