Cactus awoke. He... was a cactus, in a bedroom of a slummy house in Miami, being cuddled by a particularly filthy addict; he could see. He focused... and felt something there. If he just awakened... it was certain! What people called around this area... a stand! He named it [Give Life Back To Music] in honor of how it gave him life. True life, sentience. Now... he thought. Let's focus on mobility. He swelled, and swelled... gaining arms and legs... then a mouth, and eye patches - the addict fell away, knocking over the old lawn chair she was sitting on.

Naturally, she screamed.

No one heard her. Strange.

Cactus, panicking, struck her unconscious by elongating his arm into a salvo of punches from [Give Life Back]. "ANDANDANDANDANDANDANDALE!" He shouted. He walked back and forth, scared if anyone had heard. As time passed, He eventually decided to open the door at the other side of the room, heading into the next room.

===

Cactus was worried. He was very loud in the other room... and no one appeared to be in this hallway. Well - there appeared to be some flowers in a vase placed on a table... but no humans. He mulled over the situation that just occurred. Hopefully, the awakened plant's previous owner would think that this was all some crazy hallucination. Shaking it off, he thought about the situation... this all seemed rather suspicious to him. He reached over and grabbed one of the flowers - poking the stem around the corner.

Using [Give Life Back], he accelerated its life cycle... to the point where it grew into his biology. Growing another photosensitive patch, he looked around. It seemed like there was actually quite a few more addicts waiting around... he was going to have to be muy subtle about this, wasn't he? Snipping off his hand with [Give Life Back To Music]'s precision, he connected a bunch of flowers to his arm's stump.

Sharpening the ends, he took a closer look as he aimed. What was this... an enemy stand! It appeared there were... chimpanzees? Yes, chimpanzees latching onto the drug addicts' back. He used [Give Life Back]'s shapeshifting abilities to build firing pins in his arm, as he braced himself for fire. BANG! One by one, they fired off like miniature rockets. Cactus was sure he could at least thin their numbers before he had to result to brute force.

They didn't seem to be affected. Strange.

===

The owner came out of hiding, a shaggily dressed man. "Not cool, cactus dude... not cool. Ha, who thought that those things worked, eh? Danny Brown."

He pointed at his head, with a finger gun. "Hope rides alone, [Protomen - Act 1]!" He blasted, and his stand came out of hiding. Looked decrepit...

Cactus figured that most of its body parts were split up among the addicts. In that case... "Hombre... you've outed yourself." He shrugged, shaking his head.

Suddenly, the flowers grew into massive heavy vines, wrapping around the chimpanzees.

"GGG--RRRK!" Brown spat out blood.

"You shouldn't have came out. Part of [Give Life Back]'s powers is rapid plant growth." He tapped the man's forehead. "Now, recall and run, mi amigo, si?"

Danny repostured himself, pointing at Cactus. "...f-FINE, DAMNIT!" He scuttled away, like a crab.

Cactus turned. "Now, about that other syringe..."

---Continuará--->