That Strange Nebraskan Grove

[Remu]

It came from the sky! That was what Sean Peters said about the anomaly that landed just outside of his small farm in Nebraska. He was already dealing with enough stress after the incident with his eldest son and the tractor when a glowing thing crashed into the woods beyond the corn. If that wasn't strange enough on its, it started to grow a -- well, Mr. Peters had assumed it was
some kind of plantlife, but not like anything he had ever seen. It had grown aggressively within the woods, and local authorities were stumped. It wasn't long before people in town were mumbling speculation amongst themselves.

The news was on it the following morning, though no one dared ventured into the... well, they called it the 'strange grove', and one look at it would explain why. The trees were twisted things, more winding and bluer than you'd generally find, with heavy, drooping leaves, the mushrooms were all aglow, and some of those fruits were definitely moving. Sean Peters never was one for talking
with the media, but... "Now, my son [Son of Farmer] went to take a look and comes back screamin' and spittin' out leaves like he's been possessed by the dang spirit of Captain Planet himself. There's somethin' out there. That's what he said, somethin' other'n all the weird trees practically growin' in my backyard. What's all this gonna do to my crops?"

As it turned out, "Son of Farmer" was an avid fan of all things weird -- but from afar. When he started vomiting leaves, that was a bit much, so he went to his favorite message board and started posting about the incident against the direct orders of his father. Teenagers, right? Either way, word about the strange grove soon spread within a certain group of individuals who were into supposed supernatural happenings, UFOs, and all that. You know, nerds. But much to "Son of Farmer's" dismay, he was mostly met with Lots and Lots of claims of "fake" and "hoax", among others.

Luckily for him, he had thought to take pictures of the incident -- not just him vomiting leaves, but the grove itself, with its strange, unidentifiable plants and fungi, and had the presence of mind, or perhaps lack thereof, to upload them to the world wide web,

[Remu]

"There's somethin' out there!" The young son of Sean Peters did so declare to the agents, who obviously weren't about to confirm or deny either way. "It's just fortunate that you were unharmed by the crash." Was the general concensus, and they put the family up in a hotel for a few days. They did take some notes on the leaf-vomiting, however. The following day was a whirlwind of collecting samples and clearing away the grove. That was the plan, anyway, until a blood-curdling scream sent that all changing. They didn't actually expect to find anything within that grove, nor did they expect to have to tangle with the grove itself, the overgrowth becoming powerful and relentless while a haunting sound began to spill through the twisted blue trees. Maybe there was something out there on that tiny Nebraskan farm. A call was placed by one shaken man after he helped his friend with a... well, he wasn't entirely certain what kind of wound it was. "We're going to need a cell. A, uh, big one."

A cell and a few days to transport the... they weren't sure what it was. Its body was twisted and hooved, but by the time they managed to tranq it, bind it, and get a bag over its head, it... wasn't, anymore. But they were warned by the most wary and weathered among them as they loaded it into their armored truck. "Don't be fooled." Was it even unconscious? Did drugs even work on it? Was it playing a game? There was a lot of sedation involved on the way from Nebraska to Salem. Not enough to stop it from waking up on the high way leading to Cobalt Hill and sprouting a tree from just below the truck, flipping it violently.

Maybe it wasn't hooved, after all. Who the hell had the chance to pay attention to its feet? They just assumed it was some kind...not-deer. Anyway, the truck flipped, and now there was a large, winding blue tree growing in the middle of the highway! The one agent who was still conscious had the presence of mind to call the security office of the sanctum, but the creature they were transporting fled into the nearby trees. There were definitely several broken bones and a concussion or two involved for the agents in the truck, but they'd live.

[Remu]

News of a twisted blue tree covered in glowing mushrooms growing out of the middle of the highway was one of the local stories playing on the news for the evening, because...well, now they had to work around a whole huge-ass tree and traffic just was not having that. It was an absolute disaster for the commuters.