14: War of the Worlds

The weed was tough. Normally it would envelop and drag someone under, infect them and release them. The trouble was Illyana was Colossus, and although she was still organic, she was also made of steel. On an instinctive level the red weed knew there was a problem, it could not infect this person so it just piled on. And when someone started incinerating the stuff it looked for the source of the threat.
It rose in a wave and surged towards Starbolt, he of course shifted target and let loose turning the weed to cinders.
Beyond the wall of fire before him there was an earsplitting yell and a string of Russian expletives. As the smoke cleared Starbolt saw Illyana, Colossus, standing bloodied and soot stained and furious. None of the blood was hers of course that was the ‘sap’ the weed harvested from people.
“This is Alchemy, I am squad leader.”
“Who is this?”
He got the answer over his comm.
“Starbolt target that warmachine, go for a leg, the one without Dust around it. We don’t need him turning to glass again.”