We kick the mission off with a Cyber Sunset solo!

Which is a really good way to start the mission, by the way. Cyber Sunset, far more so than even Dash, is a hero created with the city specifically in mind. Like Dash, he's a transfer from City of Heroes.

Unlike Dash, he's still very much a part of the city as this story starts, and he makes that clear here. He also establishes the city- and several of the threats to it.

 
Cyber Sunset took a moment to reflect on his avoidance issues. The people from Loathing would be leaving soon with their rescued foreign delegates in tow, and as a participant in the grand adventure and as someone who had helped with the rescues, it was customary to make an appearance and send them off. You were supposed to be there for the end of the story. One could make the argument that the boat was stocked with heroes and he wasn't truly needed there, and Cyber Sunset had said that to himself when rumors of trouble brewing had come to his ears. But other heroes were assembled to deal with that.

As the gigantic creature's tentacle slammed into the side of his face, throwing him twenty feet away from where he had been standing, he admitted to himself that he should have been at the docks instead. His only real reason for not going was Dash.

It was fine to see Dash during a field mission...enjoyable, even. It came as a pleasant surprise, and for a brief moment it felt just like old times. But Dash had to leave then just as he was leaving now. And that made sense. Dash's place was in this "Loathing" Kingdom, and it was just serendipity that brought him back. After The Burrowing, a lot of people left Honorburg. The event changed people, the heroes on the scene more than anyone else. Cyber Sunset had certainly changed a lot since then. But the mission, as always, was what mattered.

He groggily stood up and glared back at the Ya-Te-Veo tree that Dr. Cryptid had released. It was a marvelous tree in its own way, apparently a tree from a biologically diverse island that had a number of unique flora and fauna, and the tribes that lived there claimed to the various pith-helmet wearing explorers that the carnivorous trees of legend had been completely exterminated by the tribes in an act of self-defense. And yet the large, giant trees were continuously unleashed by Dr. Cryptid whenever he felt it might further his goals (or merely amuse him in some fashion.)

Heroes all across the city wished that they could find what lab Dr. Cryptid grew the demonic things in, or the stash of seeds that they came from. How he continuously grew the allegedly extinct things with their snakelike, tentacular branches and surprisingly rapidly walking roots that reminded certain observers of nightmarish mangrove trees, was a mystery that infuriated the entire city's population (ignoring, of course, the Doctor himself and the few insane cryptozoologists who agreed with his goals and methods).

Cyber Sunset wasn't the only defender of the city to have issues with Ya-Te-Veo's serpentine branches. Four other heroes were slowly standing up and three others were being lifted in the air as more and more branches and vines began winding around their limbs and torsos, pulling them closer to whatever horrible digestive maw lay at the center of the tangled mass. Half a dozen members of the brave crowd were doing their part to try and pull their captured friends in arms free, while the same number of others were continuing their assault on the tree, eager to bring it down quickly before anyone else could be grabbed by its hungry boughs.

Cyber Sunset sighed and made peace with his life up to this point and focused on a spot near the crown of the tree where the branches seemed to be just a shade less lively. Weeks ago a fortune teller member of the Dusk Brigade had given him some "tribal poison" collected from a medicine man in a distant land meant to combat a variety of flytrap in the region, saying that Cyber Sunset might need it soon. He'd been waiting for an encounter with a gigantic flytrap...an occurance that, on reflection, he'd had to deal with far more often than a normal person should...but decided that based on how this event was going he would have to try needing it now.

Taking just a moment to pull the bottle (was it the right bottle? Oh, he prayed it was the right bottle, and not the Miraculous Plant Growth formula provided to him by a scientific researcher last month) from his belt, he poured the substace onto his sword and vanished in a blinding corona of green light. He stabbed downwards before reality had a chance to fully cohere around him and heard the scream of the gigantic monster before any of his other senses truly kicked in. The boughs were flailing wildly, almost without purpose, but some had taken note of the hero standing at the spot where it hurt the most and a dozen vines surrounded his legs. Ignoring them, Cyber Sunset slashed at the loosening vines surrounding the other heroes to ensure that they would make it to safety.

Just as he freed the last vigilant defender, more vines snapped into place around Cyber Sunset's torso and arms, slowly slithering around them like a number of constricter snakes working as a team. He could feel some of the spikes on the vines sliding across his combat armor, failing to penetrate its defenses and infect his bloodstream with the venom that could weaken and daze the strongest prey. However, his circulation was beginning to get cut off and breathing was becoming difficult as with every exhale the branches around his chest squeezed tighter to prevent more air from entering his lungs with every inhale. The combination of stresses worked together amid the frantic branches fighting the frantic heroes, and soon Cyber Sunset's vision faded to black.

Cyber Sunset woke with a pounding headache and snapped to a sitting position. A large number of the heroes were standing around him and at the sight of movement they all began applauding. He looked around and found other heroes, more concerned with the job at hand than a potentially fallen comrade, were slowly dragging the remains of Ya-Te-Veo off the road and into a truck provided by the city's brave police (the police always did a good job protecting the city, often superior to the jobs done by the heroes. The vast number of heroes in the city, however, meant that the odds of police being on the scene of a crime or disaster before the heroes was slim.) Cyber Sunset smiled and, shakily, stood up, shaking the hands of the other concerned warriors who had felled the massive tree while Cyber Sunset was unconcious (and noted a few were taking small branches, bark, and even what looked like a jar of the poisonous sap home as souvenirs.) One hero, however, wearing a helmet that looked like one of the aerodynamically bladed ones worn by the heroes who claimed to be active in "outer space" above the sky (an assertion helped by the large jetpack on his back and the strange looking gun surrounded by circles around its business end), was standing apart from all of the activity, and just staring vacantly at the corpse of the monstrous plant. Cyber Sunset walked away from the crowd and approached the lone figure, grinning.

"New to town?" Cyber Sunset asked.

"What?" said the man. "Uh, n...yes. It'll be a fortnight tomorrow. How did you know?"

"Some of the stranger monsters that frequent this town can have that affect on people, even if they've experienced all manner of disasters before," said Cyber Sunset. "I didn't want to leave my apartment for a week after The Burrowing."

"You were at the Burrowing?" asked the hero. "That's...wow. What kept you going?"

"The job needed doing," said Cyber Sunset with a smile. "People needed help. And the horrible monsters were gone. Only horrible medical problems remained. So, tell me, what was the worst part of facing your first Ya-Te-Veo tree?"

"Ya-Te...uh...the scream. Did you hear that? It...it Screamed when you zipped in and stabbed it. I didn't...trees shouldn't scream. And nothing should scream like that...that scream willl...I shouldn't sleep, I'll hear that scream..."

"Yeah," said Cyber Sunset, clapping him on the shoulder. "It's the stuff like that that'll haunt you. But you've gotta keep going, okay? The mission never ends. It just gets better for a while. My name's Cyber Sunset, look me up if you ever need a hand."

"Spectrum," said the man. "I've not officially registered yet, but I like the sound of Spectrum. My pack flies by gliding along solar packets and my lazer pistol can vibrate at frequencies from microwave to ultra-violet."

"It's a good name," said Cyber Sunset. "Take care."

He walked away from the new hero, still stumbling a bit from the near death experience and looked back as the fallen Ya-Te-Veo. The mission was over. Now everyone went home. Except for the people who were waiting to just move on to the next job.

Cyber Sunset teleported to the top of a nearby roof and began jumping along the waterfront, looking for more trouble wherever it might be found, ignoring the nagging voice in the back of his head saying that he should go see off the pirate ship as it left port, not knowing the related trouble that he was heading straight for.

The reflection on Dash, the Hallowing, and the plant monster (and unregistered hero's response) adds so much to this one! Next up is an epic two parter with Sebastian Dash, Aleena and the Whiteclaw siblings in the center of some real controversy, with a silly Becky Joy piece in between.

We've got some wild stories ahead from a variety of AiL'ers!