Don't really know where to put this, so Sci-fi it is!

Just a random idea that popped into my head and would not relent. Come to think of it, a lot of my stories come into existence that way. This is sort of how I view Mother Nature and the human race, as well as predictions for the future. If you don't agree with my point of view, please politely state in a review as to on what grounds you disagree; I love a good, civilized debate.

Symbolism ahoy!

Mother Nature was not happy.

It was her business to route out failed genomes. She'd been doing so for a long time, ever since she came to life on this planet. Seek out the minuscule species and purge them. They tended to either die out like she meant to, or in rare cases, quickly get their act together and meet her criteria. She prided herself on her ability to evolve her life forms. Survival of the fittest. That was how it went.

But this. This species was unlike the others that should've died on its own. But that didn't matter. It was a failed genome that seemed intent to actually mock all her past life.

She hadn't given them much thought at first. They were a fractured genus, branches popping into existence and dying out just as fast. However, when the last species of the Homo genus hadn't died out, she decided they merited investigation. She almost laughed. Almost.

Frail, bipedal. What they had in intelligence they more than lost in strength and durability. Weak immune systems, no real claws, or fur, no tail for balance, slow runners and swimmers, it was really quite pathetic. Their species had gone on long enough. Time to wipe them out and get on with pressuring those annoyingly stubborn alligators.

She decided to humor the naked ape genome and took its form. Dirt, grass and air twisted together into solid form, forming a woman. Her skin was initially made of soft dirt, but it hardened until it resembled dark human skin in everything, including texture. Wispy cirrus clouds formed her hair, stretching down past her waist. Lake water channeled into her face and formed her eyes, eyes without whites or pupils; just orbs of pure blue more than capable of vision. The rest of her features formed quickly, grass and trees forming a simple robe around her body, far more than the Homo Sapien genome had. Faint wisps of cloud formed around her 'skin', giving Mother Nature a slight ghostly appearance.

She found him standing in a savanna. The Homo Sapien incarnation was similar to her - only to be expected, given that she'd taken the form of a female human to mock him. He too had dark skin, and similar body shape, but that was where the similarities ended. His hair was black, but had shimmers of yellow and red in it, as if to indicate potentials that had yet to be realized. Same with his eyes; the irises were rainbows of brown and blue and green and hazel, even red.

Homo Sapiens - or as he called himself, Humanity stood on equal height with Mother Nature. Also to be expected. He held a long stick of sharpened wood in his left hand, as tall as him, with a stone spike tied to the end. Mother Nature scoffed. The method by which they hunted. Too weak to do it with their own bodies. Which was why he had to be eradicated, so that more worthy species could succeed. Even the chimpanzees, who also used tools, only did so out of convenience they were MORE than capable of surviving without. Humanity, on the other hand...

He looked at her with awe as she approached. "Who, who are - ?"

Mother Nature narrowed her eyes. Curious, curious. That was all this failure of a sequence had going for it. Insatiable curiosity. "I am the one who made you." She shook her head in pity. He at least deserved to know why this had to happen. "Shame. You could've been so much more. Just a little tweak to a few of your genes, and you'd be worthy of being in the animal kingdom. But as it stands, your biomass could go to something so much more useful. Dolphins, perhaps."

Humanity's eyes widened. "What - ?"

Mother Nature wasted no more time in unleashing her onslaught. She unleashed chilling storms, hurricanes, and tornadoes upon the human. Pestilence and disease, her standards for eradication. Plant one of her viruses there, watch it spread. Disrupt the environment, the species can not evolve its biology fast enough. She rushed forward and struck Humanity in the chest, the strike sending him back, snow and ice covering the ground where he spread and expanding as an ice age emerged.

Humanity shivered, and collapsed on one knee, the green light of disease highlighting his veins. Then something interesting happened. Leather appeared on the human. Not very complex. Little more than skin ripped off from... Mother Nature decided it was a woolly mammoth. Humanity got up on his feet, the light of disease fading to be still existent, but not much, and brandished his spear at her.

This was a surprising turn of events. It would seem their intellect was greater than she had anticipated. Other species would die out from being so ill-suited to such cold, but not Homo Sapiens.

She narrowed her eyes and sustained the ice age, continuing the assault of disease, and rushed at Humanity. He stabbed forward with the spear, but she simply caught it in one hand, swung it to the side, and blew a hurricane-force wind at him, sending him flying back. She spread her arms open, and the ground heaved, a crack rushing towards the failure. He only barely leaped to the side in time to avoid the quake, coming back in. The next strike was overhead, but Mother Nature easily caught it, analyzing the species. There was a desperate glint in his eyes that wasn't there before, coexisting the insane curiosity. Intelligence, the violence of a predator species, and the evasiveness of a prey species. Perhaps she shouldn't underestimate him.

She lifted the spear, lifting Humanity over her and smashing his back into the ice-covered ground, cracks spider-webbing away. He groaned and stood up, releasing the spear, visibly shivering from the deepening cold. She smirked. Too easy.

Then fire burst out of his hands.

Mother Nature hadn't been expecting that, not at all. The fire impacted her neck, which was now encased in ice armor. Of course, the flames were too weak to hurt her, but she stumbled back in surprise, dropping the spear. How had - all other genomes feared fire!

Humanity had also stopped shivering and picked back up the spear, uttering a war cry and charging at her, this time lowering the spear and sweeping it up at her. Mother Nature blocked the strike, but the strike never came. Humanity instead moved the spear back around his head and struck from the other side, smashing it against her head. The wood shattering on impact, Humanity simply dropped the staff, held out his right hand, and a new one formed in it. This one seemed... different. The shaft was better carved, the edge sharper, tied more neatly. Lighter, too. Easier to swing.

"Just full of surprises, aren't you?" she asked, dodging another wild swing and ignoring a battle cry. Vocal, this species. What idiot genome would give away their location like that?

Humanity growled, but offered no other move except to wait there in a low stance, the furs growing into patterned garments, the green glow of disease in his veins subtle but still certainly there.

"I've got surprises too." Mother Nature reached deep into herself, into her blazing core, and clapped her hands together. The skies darkened, the sun blotted out, and the earth shook and trembled. Humanity looked surprised for a moment, scared. Then blazing fire erupted from the ground, lava and smoke and ash from the supervolcano Toba spewing into the air in a ring around Humanity. He screamed while inside, but the eruption ended soon enough. He was scorched, but the worst was yet to come.

The clouds in the air deepened the ice age, making it worse. Humanity fell to his knees, becoming emaciated as the food web trembled. The glow of disease strengthened yet again as he coughed and sputtered.

Not letting the failed genome get a moment to catch his breath, Mother Nature launched forward and struck with the force of a landslide, sending Humanity tumbling back, groaning. She continued, not giving him a moment to recover, using the supervolcano's effects to her advantage. Punching, kicking, hailing, flaming. Finally, as she sensed the clouds above dispersing, she kicked Humanity away and observed her opponent.

He was already back on his feet, the vibrant shine of disease fading to a gentle glow, looking fed once again. The clothes were very thick now, elaborate. The spear was also gone, replaced by curved wood with sinew keeping it taught. Humanity placed a sharp stick into it, and the arrow flew out at Mother Nature, striking her in the chest.

She gasped, more from surprise than pain, the arrow bouncing off her. Of course, that was one big advantage she had. Her sphere of influence was massive. She was indestructible. Homo Sapiens were just a failed genome, barely surviving a supervolcano. But he had ranged weapons now. That was a new one.

A tornado erupted from her palms and slammed into Humanity, throwing him back. He groaned, getting back up and notching another arrow, but the shot went wide and Mother Nature was already there, grabbing him by the neck and channeling a massive arc of lightning into him, throwing his spasming body aside and waiting until he stopped twitching before releasing another earthquake, which caught Humanity full force and tossed him into the air, where a suddenly conjured downdraft slammed him back into the ground.

She shook her head in disgust. "Look at you. You could've been so much more." Then she released a stream of high-pressure water at him.

The bow and arrow vanished, replaced by something she really hadn't expected. A stone disk, a wheel, appeared in front of him. It was completely solid, and the wave didn't get through, merely chipping it and shattering it into pieces, but Humanity simply created a new wheel and held it in his left hand, this time curved into a shield, holding a - now even more improved - spear in his right. Now even his skin was shimmering with colors just beneath them, the potential of what could be if the alleles were not suppressed. Not that that would make a difference.

"Maybe I'll be so much more!" he retorted, charging at her. She sidestepped the spear swing, ducked under the shield bash, but hadn't expected him to drop the spear and shoot another jet of flame at her, catching her off guard. Once more, it did nothing, but it was enough time for him to slam the shield into her.

Big mistake. Mother Nature, unfazed by the assault, raised a foot and, with mountainous force, kicked at the shield, piercing through it and striking Humanity's chest, sending him flying back dozens of feet, the failed genome landing with an 'oof'.

Flowing through the ground, Mother Nature was there in an instant, snapping her foot at the downed species and sending him rolling away. Then she paused, frowning. It was growing warmer. The ice around her throat melted, the snow on the ground as far as she could see vanished, replaced by tiny stalks of grass and the occasional vibrant flower. Humanity got back up, and she was amazed by how different his weapons were now. Around his feet were tiny stalks of wheat that seemed to follow him where he went. His shield was no longer stone, but a metallic alloy of copper. Bronze perhaps? And instead of a spear, he had a new weapon. It was certainly similar. A shaft with a pointy mineral at the tip. But now the shaft had a handle, and was absurdly short, while the point was now made of bronze, two feet long, flattened, and double sided.

Humanity made the first move, charging at her and stabbing Mother Nature's chest with the point of his sword. Much to her surprise, there was a bit of pain at this, the blade going in a fraction of a fraction of an inch. The injury healed almost instantly, however. But it was still enough to alarm her. How had he hurt her? That was impossible. Nothing natural could possibly hurt her, she was just too powerful. These Homo Sapiens, these humans... they were becoming dangerous.

She charged at Humanity, driven by a sense of fear. She'd never been hurt by a genome before. Never. She had to put this failed sequence down, now.

Mother Nature and Humanity began a furious barrage of assaults. Mother Nature called down droughts and floods to move away his food sources, but the wheat around his feet stayed off the assaults. He swung his sword and shield at her, forcing her to get back, then shot her with the an ineffective arrow, then fired a burst of increasingly-hot flame at her.

She ducked beneath a spear swing and burst upwards, water rising around her in a tsunami, knocking them both high up. While still in the air she punched and kicked viciously, before he landed on the ground and fired something at her out of the palm of his hand. The firework exploded with deafening power, the sharp green, red and blue colors blinded Mother Nature momentarily, which let Humanity stab her in the back. It healed over instantly, and she spun around, striking him with a stone fist and sending him flying back, denting the bronze armor that hadn't been there before.

She was worried. Her attacks seemed to be doing less and less to Humanity, while on the flip side, he was able to hurt her more and more as time passed. She roared as he stuck a steel sword into her leg before pulling it out, the wound healing quickly. She summoned an avalanche and tossed it at him, but a castle wall of stones rose up and deflected it. They never even reached his steel armor. Through the openings of his armor, Mother Nature could see his skin pulling itself in two directions, like he was tearing himself apart, fighting both himself and her. He wouldn't be the first species to wage war. And, as much as she was afraid to admit it, he was winning.

But his biology itself was too weak! He hadn't evolved at all, merely given himself better and better toys! That was UNACCEPTABLE! With a scream, she grabbed at his arm and let one of her bacteria out, along with her rats. It was incredibly virulent, and she didn't like letting it out often. But this species was getting too powerful, and so she unleashed the Black Death.

It wasn't even close to as effective as she'd hoped. Humanity screamed in bloody agony and stepped backwards, making her chuckle ominously. This gave her the opening to summon a little ice age by weakening the sun for a moment. The green lines across his body strengthened. But not to how bad it had been during the supervolcano, and she had no supervolcano to unleash, they were all either dead or didn't have enough magma. She began diverting molten rock to Yellowstone, but it wouldn't come fast enough.

Humanity stumbled, and she could see the skin on his left arm turn a shriveled black, like charcoal, but that was it. The Plague didn't spread to other continents, and even the one it was ravaging only lost a third of its population. Before too long, the Black Plague gave out, and the skin turned back to normal. The little ice age also ended, the green lines of disease across Humanity weakening even further than they had before.

Everything I throw at him makes him stronger, Mother Nature thought desperately. But I'm not admitting defeat to a mere species!

Humanity laughed, his armor gone to be replaced by free-moving cloth, and pointed a hand at her. Something made of metal formed in his hand. There was a deafening blast of sound and noise, and Mother Nature screeched as something metal lodged itself in her right shoulder. Her healing body forced the lead out instantly, and she glared at Humanity in shock and terror. What... what had thatbeen?

Humanity leaped over her, sails opening beneath his arms and water beneath his feet as he sailed over to her other side, spinning around and, while Mother Nature was still recovering from her scare, slashing her back with his sword. That got her attention again, and she spun around to him. Alright.

She unleashed a deathly winter and deprived him of his agriculture, changing the soil composition so that the plants he was used to growing wouldn't live. He just blinked once before changing for clothing that resembled what he had held in the past, war paint covering his face as he shot a useless arrow at her.

Not entirely useless, since it got her in her eye and blinded her for just an instant. In that opening, Humanity changed cultures again, covering himself with armor that had curves on it, curves that easily deflected the blade of ice she threw at him. He sliced at her with an impossibly sharp blade, the metal cutting her upper legs almost off before they healed. He sliced again, each time going for disciplined, controlled attacks.

She growled, drenching him with another tsunami, but he hardly noticed as he blinded her with impossibly luminous fireworks, and when her vision had cleared again he was burning her with fire hot enough to melt stone, and shooting her with another piece of lead.

She got up, panting heavily. This was going south, fast. She'd completely lost her advantage over Humanity, who's skin was now shimmering all sorts of colors, eyes shimmering with color. What was she going to do?

She jumped to the side as he threw a little metal ball at her. Just in time, since it exploded and sent her reeling, even from ten feet away. She was confident now that Humanity fighting itself was hurting him more than she was, since she could hardly see the glow of disease in his veins at all.

That can be fixed. She punched her foe away, and prepared to be shot. However, Humanity simply stumbled backwards, machine gun pointed to the ground, as a horrible World War ended. That was when Mother Nature unleashed the H1N1 Pandemic.

It was... disappointing. Only 5% of Humanity's population died, and it died quickly, barely a throb of the green in his veins. Humanity looked like he was about to attack Mother Nature again, but gasped in sudden pain as a second, even worse World War tore through him. Then he attacked her furiously, wearing a suit.

His eyes weren't shimmering anymore. They were filled with radiation and fire, nuclear fire, Mother Nature realized with horror. Nuclear energy. How could he access that energy? Not even she could! Maybe she was wrong. Maybe he was worthy to survive...

"Okay, hold on - " she attempted to say, only for Humanity to use a flamethrower on her. She screamed in pain as her Amazon caught fire, the rainforest slowly burning away. " - we can talk this out!"

He wasn't listening, spinning around with a mechanical axe in his hands, coming at her like a tornado, slicing her again and again. She groaned as something began to fill her up, a strange feeling, a sickness...

She saw herself in her mind's eye, her pure blue eyes tinted brown with pollution...

NO!

She unleashed another disease at Humanity, one designed to eat away his immune system. H1N1 again. Tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, whatever she had. Humanity shouted at her, thick black smoke coming out of his mouth and latching onto her, making her skin burn as the ozone burned away, recovering all-too slowly.

Humanity picked her up, smoke filling her atmosphere and making her uncomfortably warm, even as she tried to weaken the sun's heat to bring in another little ice age. He tossed her away and torched her with a flamethrower again, the fires spewing out his hands and washing over her like a river. Nothing she did seemed to hurt him in the least. Nothing she could throw at him hurt him, but now her other genomes were dying by the hundreds, by the thousands, and it hurt so much!

"Looks like the shoe's on the other foot now, huh?" Humanity taunted, looking down at her. He didn't seem to have the glow of disease in his veins at all. He stood tall and proud with a black shirt, gray hoodie and jeans, eyes blazing with a nuclear inferno that threatened to blind her. Meanwhile she was coughing in pain. Her forests were vanishing, and Mother Nature could feel his metal cities crawling across her surface, digging into her, waste filling her until she wanted to vomit. Satellites surrounded her like bugs, electric signals bouncing between them, but she couldn't swat them! How... how could he be so -

There was a flash of burning light, a rush of radiation, and Humanity screamed in pain. Mother Nature was up in a moment as cold weather swooped in, a nuclear winter filling her skies. She charged at Humanity, punching him in the chest. His clothes were burned rags, and she kicked him away, forcing the glow of disease to strengthen until she could see it. With a furious yell she unleashed Yellowstone, the supervolcano's wrath erupting around Humanity in a torrent of magma and ash, further strengthening the nuclear winter. He tried to get up, to do something, but she simply slashed at him again and again with vine-whips, the thorns cutting deeper and deeper, infecting the wounds, shaking the earth to make him fall, drenching him with tsunamis. This may be her one chance to weaken him enough to be beaten...

Humanity raised an arm and grasped a vine-whip, tugging and flipping Mother Nature onto her stomach. She looked at him, and her spirits sank. The burning of nuclear power in his eyes was diminished, but it was still there. Just controlled now. His skin had turned gray, ashen, metallic gray with electric signals arcing across it.

The winter ended, and it became so hot.

Faster than even a cheetah, Humanity was on her, punching her furiously with unnatural, augmented strength, with absolutely no disease to weaken him at all. She dodged away from a strike and spun around, only for Humanity to fire a yellow laser from his metallic hands, the blast sending Mother Nature sailing back. In a single act of desperation, still on her back, she raised an arm to the sky and pointed at the wayward genome, a meteor falling from the sky onto him. Humanity simply spun around, and a jet of fire appeared on the meteor, pushing it back up into the sky. She unleashed a flood of immense proportions, but a shimmering yellow force field formed around Humanity - if he could even still be called that, augmented as he was - and deflected it effortlessly.

Humanity was there in a moment, pummeling her into the ground with carbon-nanotube fists, each strike hurting more than the last as she lost seventy percent of her species. And she could do nothing, wasn't strong enough, and Humanity was too strong for her and she was helpless, she could just lay there and take the beating. Seventy-five, eighty...

"For as long as I've lived, you've been trying to kill me!" Punch. "And for what?" Punch. "For not being strong enough?" Punch. "Fast enough?" Punch. "Social enough?" Punch. "I fought for survival, taking anything I could to live - " Punch. " - while you sent EVERYTHING after me!"

"Wait - " she started to say, cut off by a blow that finally eradicated the Amazon. Eighty five...

Punch. "NO! You've hit me with ice ages, supervolcanos." Punch. "Tsunamis." Punch. "Plagues, and you just LAUGHED!" Punch. "Well who's laughing now, huh?" Punch. Ninety. "Huh?" Punch. "HUH?!"

Humanity got off Mother Nature and kicked her away, sending her rolling, her face in the desert that the land had become, coughing in pain. Ninety five percent of all her life... gone. How could she have been so foolish? Humanity was the strongest species she'd ever had, and she'd assumed just the opposite. Brain triumphed over brawn.

She coughed, sobbing in agony. Not even the Permian extinction had been so bad. It was like Humanity had wanted to scour all other life off the planet for what she had done to him... and she couldn't blame him.

She turned around onto her back, looking at him as he came up. He was nothing like the weak, naked ape she had hunted down. He stood taller, smarter. His skin was synthetic but looked like the real thing, gently glowing nuclear fusion in his eyes. His hair was silver with red at the tips, going down his back, and his clothes were pale gray, with yellow lines going through them in circular, swirling patterns, one foot on Mother Nature's stomach to keep her down.

"I... I'm..." she struggled to say, as Humanity raised a hand and pointed it at her, a furious snarl on his face. White hot energy began swirling in the palm of his hands, antimatter collisions creating impossibly high amounts of energy. She realized there was no point in begging, and leaned back, closing her eyes, and awaiting her fate, awaiting the blast of heat, hot as the Big Bang, that would end her...

When it didn't come, she tightened her eyes, the pollution in them burning. When it still didn't come, she opened her eyes. Humanity was still there, antimatter energy poised to end her existence, but he seemed... contemplative. Hesitant. Wondering if he should draw it out some other way?

He closed his eyes, swallowing, his arm shaking. Slowly, he closed his palm, extinguishing the antimatter blaze, and stepped off of her.

Mother Nature coughed violently, turning onto her side as Humanity walked a few paces away, his back to her. She looked up at him with brown, formerly blue, eyes, not comprehending. This wasn't how it worked in nature. The adaptable conquered those who couldn't change. That was simply how it worked, how it always worked for the past four billion years. Why didn't he do it?

He turned around to look at her, gently burning eyes meeting hers. Of course, it would be fire. That had always been what truly separated them from other species. How much hotter they could burn, now, than when she started fighting him. Humanity looked down at Mother Nature, and shook his head.

"I don't blame you. You've only been doing what you've always done. I know that; I've investigated it quite thoroughly."

"Why don't you - "

He cut her off with a hand motion. "You thought us weak, and wanted to wipe us out. Survival of the fittest, nothing more. We weren't the first, we wouldn't be the last." He would now. She was going to die, he knew it. Humanity wouldn't be the first species that like to play with its prey. "But we're not weak. We're fit for anything." He shook his head. "Look at you, the great Mother Nature, beaten. Suffered the worst mass extinction in history." He raised a hand to his face, a single flare of antimatter annihilation sparking in his palm. "Because of me." He lowered the hand.

"Make no mistake," he continued. "I despise you. Everything I've done has been for the purpose of fending off you." The metal cities growing over her throbbed, making her groan in pain. "You've done nothing but try to kill me, and you deserve whatever I've done to you." He traced a foot over the desert sands, them turning to fertile dirt where he did, crops growing there. "But, what's the point now?" He sighed. "I don't want anything to do with you." He extended a hand towards her, and Mother Nature grimaced, squeezing her eyes shut. This is the end, she thought.

Instead of a flash of pain, she felt the pollution being drawn from her veins, the stifling heat fading, the metal cities lifting off of her, the satellites receding and some of her strength returned as species... came back from extinction. She opened her eyes, looking up at Humanity. She scrambled to her feet, looking at him warily.

"I... I don't understand," she said. "Don't get me wrong," she added hastily. "I'm grateful, but I don't understand why."

"Because in spite of all the torture you put me through," Humanity said, the glow of nuclear energy in his eyes changing to the even white glow of antimatter as he continued to advance. "All the pain and sickness, you made me what I am. I couldn't do the things I can do if you hadn't forced me to advance. But now, there's nothing more you can teach me." He looked up at the night sky, away from her. "I'm not going to thank you. But I'm not going to kill you... mother."

She nodded. "But then... what will you - "

Humanity began to float, white energy burning out of his feet. He looked down at her. "Goodbye, mother." He paused. "I never want to see you again." And with that, he shot off into the night sky at impossible speeds, close to light speeds.

Mother Nature looked around her as the desert turned back into a savannah, like where Humanity had originated.

"Goodbye, Humanity," she said, looking up at the receding white glow. "Don't come back."

Review, let me know what you think!