#1 - Root of the Problem

A Mid May Thursday, 8PM - Downtown Halcyon City

High above the city

Professor Uranium, famed nuclear themed supervillain is locked in mortal combat with his hated rival, The Silver Sparrow. Channel 18 News Drones are circling the fight, capturing as much of it as possible for breaking news and livestreaming. Police helicopters are keeping their distance both from Uranium's silver-age themed uranium rays and the sonic echos Silver Sparrow makes when she launches herself at Mach 3 to rain down another punch upon her adversary.

On the ground it's a different story. HCPD are on standby to deal with a silver age power situation or potential team up contingency, and have gathered on rooftops or on main roads to deal with curious onlookers who are likely to be endangered when the fight comes to an end. Which means they're distracted.

Exterior - Pike Jewelers, on 8th and MacIntyre

Eight figures with balaclavas burst out of the jewelery store, some with small guns, some with crowbars, most with sacks on their backs. Alarm bells bark out loudly into the streets. All of them are wearing bulletproofed vests under black jackets with a white patch on the back with a red tree. Civilians on the street scream, panic and run away as the one of them who has an automatic weapon fires some rounds into the sky to give his group some room.

As the crowd parts the robbers can see something they weren't counting on. Six teenage superheroes between them and their getaway van.

"Out of the way kids" the one nearest one to you shouts above the noise, looking at each one of you in turn, obviously trying to work out if he recognises any of you. Coming up short, he decides pointing his gun towards the most dangerous looking one of you, Rosethorn, is the safest course of action, "You don't want any part of the nine of us"

The eight thugs out here are just humans. Well armed and dangerous, but just regular toughs. A modest display of your powers and some violence would be the fastest way to get things under control. You could also step aside and give them their van since that's what they want (but I assume you're not considering that)

Mist phases into the van but it's not exactly unnoticed by the gang. Now they're pretty sure at least half of you are dangerous rather than a group of wannabes and their scary friend. The heavy duty delivery van isn't running and no one's in it (and neither are the keys). The team now has the gang's undivided attention, and they look pretty itchy on those trigger fingers.

Light flares out in all directions catching everyone off guard. One of the goons is momentarily blinded and fires a shot from their shotgun off harmlessly up into the sky. The rest manage to avert their eyes just as the flare lights up. They're scattering for whatever cover they can find; an alleyway, a newspaper dispenser, a parked car and the like. Any hope of this one being wrapped up in a single burst is out the window at this point.There's a loud smashing noise coming from the back room of the jewellery shop; sounds like a heavy duty safe just got torn apart.

The thugs now now they've bitten off more than they can chew with Quasar powering up; you can see one of them who's pushed their bandanna up above their mouth to breath muttering "The Art District..." and rapidly trying to chamber a round into her pistol. Looks like they now recognise you. Shaken as they are then, identifying their ringleader, beating them up, and keeping them cornered until the cops turn up will end the fight fastest.

Rosethorn stepping forward gets the thug with the automatic weapon's attention, but he hears the noises from inside the jewellery shop stop, and chuckles "Sounds like the boss is done. He's gonna make kindling outta you, freak". He's choosing pointing his gun square in the direction of Quasar, who he's figuring is the biggest threat right now.

The automatic weapon ganger is getting pretty shaky. They all are; Rosethorn is the scariest thing they've seen up close and so they're simultaneously sizing him up and trying not to look like the first person Rosethorn will put on the end of his spikes.Mist phases back out and starts off towards the building while the others are distracted by Rosethorn. Inside the building, even from this distance Mist can see that amongst the shattered cash registers and display cases there are... discarded willow leafs? Branches?

Mist gets to the door just as a safe crashes through it, scattering parcels of small gems and... some kind of technology? It's marked with the RANSEUR logo.

Mist doesn't have much time to focus on it because vines grapple around the door frame and pull through approximately twelve foot of humanoid tree, pulling himself with great force through the door frame. His face, encrusted with bark, looks ancient and wizened, an ancient beard of ivy stretches from his face, what would be his hair is a red mess of the serated, long leaves of a willow tree in autumn.

Grasped around the branch that forms his right arm is a colossal ruby about the size of Mist's head. The treeman's face ponderously turns to look at Mist "... children" he yawns, his voice ancient and slow "Haven't you got a derelict to be vandalising?"

The gigantic tree man looks down at Mist and Cammy. He's barely acknowledging you, and definitely not treating you seriously and is planning to simply push his way past you. A lumbering branch of an arm swoops towards both of you, likely to push you out of the way.

There is indeed a large crowd gathering. Quite a few screams of panic and awe, and not just from the bank robbers. They weren't prepared for this and look around desperately looking for an exit. The one with an automatic weapon who called out Rosethorn has dropped his gun entirely and has collapsed to the floor as he flexes his thorns.

The rest of his team split up and break, similarly freaked out. The woman with the handgun springs out from behind her cover and is trying to run into the crowd. The two with a shotguns are trying to run down an alleyway that you know leads to a dead end (must not be locals) and one decides to chance his way to the van carrying as much loot as he can; which does mean running past at least one of Rosethorn, Kingfisher, Quasar and Whimsey.

What's the plan team?

Cammy takes on the form of the floor, a mixture of linoleum and concrete. It's not the greatest defense against the branches but it takes the brunt of the branch, bending the wood around you, and it gently comes to a stop landing between you both. However, you now have his full attention. The branches fix themselves to the floor and sprout additional branches of their own, separating you both, putting Mist outside the store with the rest of the treeman and trapping Cammy inside of it.

The thug goes hurtling through the air and bounces, almost comically, off of the treeman in the doorframe. He turns to face you; you have his full attention. "Run along now sapling, unless you want Old Willow show you a thing or two". He stomps towards you, slowly but angrily, leaving a line of roots chewing through the concrete as he does so.
It's still a weird experience for you to phase through living matter; even if it's just mostly plant matter there's that uncomfortable feeling as your molecules pass through cell matter, connected to what's ostensibly a living being with a heartbeat behind it. Nevertheless you pass through, reach out for Cammy and get through fine.

You really, really don't want to do that again; not for a while. You're going to take a powerful blow if you phase through any part of Old Willow again this scene.

What now?