THE CORPS issue 22: Sister Gaia in "The Word for World is Forest" by Michael Norwitz

Frederic Alexander Schist looked at his watch. "He said they'd be here any time now. I trust him to be as good as his word. I don't take lightly to contractors who don't live up to their promises."

The foreman looked up again as something passed overhead, briefly blocking the sunlight... it swooped down low, dropping the package which crashed through the treetops and landed in the small clearing that Schist’s employees had carved out. Accompanying it was a tall, powerful man. His head was covered and his face was obscured by a helmet, and he was dressed in a red and purple costume.

Schist approached the box rubbing his hands gleefully as the workman tore into it, released the machine it contained. The foreman looked at the complicated instructions. "What's this thing supposed to do again?"

"Nanomachines,” said the newcomer. “Billions of them, and even more as they create duplicates of themselves. They will pore through the Amazon rainforest. Every one of the undiscovered plants, insects and animals will be broken down into its component parts, and genetically analysed by Monsanto, Master of Mechanism!”

The Earth’s intelligence ran vaster than empires but more slow, nerve impulses being disseminated through root systems until finally coalescing into awareness. It took days to register what humans would call pain.

Humans … its sensory apparatus brought to it the taste of technology. Part of it remembered the initiation of the experiment, borne of loneliness, of evolving a species on itself which did not partake of the planetary consciousness. As their accelerated activity and increased brain size required greater resources, it had even augmented the protein level of some of its mosses and fungi.

Free will brought conflicts as well as companionship, and a recent evolutionary surge had given rise to mutants of great power. A young woman named Serena Foster had been contacted by an extradimensional alien named Merlyn, and she now acted as protector of the Earth’s continued stability. She had donned the mantle of Sister Gaia, and her allies banded together as Athshaliber, named after the weapon carried by a great human leader whom Merlyn had chosen to advise in the past.

The foreman went through the trucks, checking off each one as his mechanics approved them as being in running order, after their long treks back and forth to Monsanto headquarters, carrying valuable genetic samples. He rubbed his eyes and called the chief mechanic over. "Yes sir?" the man said.

"The invoice is all wrong ... there's supposed to be 15 trucks here and there's an extra one. Did someone not make the scheduled run? You know how time-sensitive this operation is."

The chief mechanic shook his head, "No, I've been keeping track of the drivers, I ... say, what's that one by the end, with the funny gold paint job? Is that one of ours?"

They approached the truck, and as they did so it started to shimmer ... soon reconfiguring into a woman as a crowd of bizarre figures emerged from the back of the truck. "You brutes! Polluters!" shouted an angry voice. "This is just a typical Monsanto trick ... polluting the environment in the name of profit!" Sister Gaia strode forth, waving her finger angrily.

"Good lord!" shouted the foreman. "Get Schist, now!" He jumped back in shock as a green-furred man bounded over to him, then howled as a disgusting-smelling sulpheric stench accompanied the man’s teleporting behind him and pinching him on the behind." Sister Gaia shouted, "Creepycrawler, stay in formation!"

Arizona, a young man clad in skintight crimson clothes, shouted down at Sister Gaia, "See? Ariel's hunch was right!" He hugged the young teenage girl who grinned bashfully back at him, "She knew where Monsanto's operation would be!"

The mechanics fled as Arizona unleashed his power, the fiery shape of a section of the colonial landmass erupting behind him, disintegrating the rest of the fleet. "You, you can't do this!" shouted the foreman.

Sister Gaia flew over to the foreman. "Where's Monsanto?" She scowled, "Tell me now, or you face the penalty for environmental degradation … and remember this is a capital crime."

The foreman, his hands shaking in fear and disgust, pointed to the command center ... just as Schist appeared from inside it, to face down the team. "Ahh ... Athshaliber ... I've been expecting you."

Creepycrawler's jaw dropped down to his knees. "You were?"

Schist laughed, "Yes, and I've come prepared ... behold!" And from the center strode a team of costumed figures, which the reader may recognise as Thor, the Black Knight, and Spider-Girl.

Sister Gaia gasped, "The Avengers! Unhand our Colonial counterparts, you fiend!"

Schist cackled and guffawed, "They are mine now, blonde bimbo!" He manipulated the alien machinery, drawing the still-active nanomachines towards the hapless Avengers, until they absorbed the very essence of the rainforest.

Ariel shouted, "We're going to filter those nanobots out of the Avengers the same way kidneys filter the blood of waste," and then she kneeled by the machine, using her sophisticated scientific skills to attempt to assess its construction.

Schist snickered and chortled, "And, with their most powerful members under my command, you are at my mercy!"

"Oh, shut up, Schist," Sister Gaia said, stuffing a clod of soil into Schist's mouth.

The sky grew violent as Arizona sought to contain the thunder-god summoned lightning storm. Meggan engaged in battle against the Black Knight’s weaponry which contained elements of both magic and science, and Creepycrawler bounded from tree to tree in a series of set-tos against Spider-Girl.

Their own formidable abilities augmented by the life-force of the forest, the Avengers started to overcome the heroes. "Hey boss," Creepycrawler shouted, "We need help here."

Sister Gaia made a breathing hole for Schist. "How do we turn the machine off?"

Schist gulped hard. "I ... I don't know! Monsanto said the program would end automatically once the rainforest was completely analysed!"

Ariel stood over the alien mechanism. "I can't figure out this damn kidney-poisoning machine! I don't even think it's from this planet! Who knows if aliens even have kidneys!"

"You'll have to do better than that, Schist." Sister Gaia shouted again.

“Oh, the heck with it,” Ariel said, and phased intangibly through the nanomachine generator. Sparks flew as the generator started to short out, and the nanomachines started to retract. The Avengers paused in action, slowly returned to their own minds as they were released.

Sister Gaia looked balefully at Ariel. "We still need to track down that fiend Monsanto, not to mention his Brotherhood of Capitalist Mutants. Another successful case, solved by Athshaliber!"