Inside the small cabin, two terrified twins explained the situation. Their camp had been overrun by "mushroom monsters," and the adults had been dragged into the woods.
"Mushroom monsters? Is that what the watch was screaming about?" Ben asked, looking toward the window. Outside, the night was lit by bursts of green flame and the sound of muffled explosions.
"Tyler's out there! We have to help!" Gwen shouted, pushing toward the door.
In the Rustbucket, the chubby kid Tyler had saved finally woke up. Seeing the flames outside, he panicked. "Fire! Monsters! I'm getting out of here!" He threw open the RV door just as Ben and Gwen burst out of the cabin.
They stopped dead in their tracks.
Rain fell through a thick, aromatic mist. In the center of the clearing, Tyler was casually sitting on a charred log. He held a massive wooden branch over a flickering green fire. Skewered on the branch were several large, mutated mushrooms, sizzling and releasing a savory, mouth-watering scent.
CHOMP.
Tyler took a massive bite, his face lit by the green fire. "Delicious. Honestly, mutated fungi have a much better texture than the regular ones. Being the Feral Swamp-Wraith means I don't have to worry about the toxins. It's pure protein."
"Tyler... you're eating the monsters?" Gwen asked, her voice trembling.
Ben slowly lowered his hand, his face pale. "I remember what he said once. Everything can be roasted. He wasn't kidding."
The chubby kid took one look at Tyler—looking more like a Demon King than a hero—and fainted for the second time that night.
"Want a bite?" Tyler offered, holding out a skewer.
"Tyler, stop being a creep," Max said, sighing as he stepped into his Plumber persona. "How can you eat those without any seasoning? Also, we have a camp to save."
Tyler snapped his fingers. The "Predatory Pulse" he had sent out earlier intensified. The dark, terrifying forest was instantly transformed into a neon-green paradise. Trees shifted, roots coiled, and the path to the fungal heart was literally laid out for them.
"With me leading," Tyler said, his voice echoing with the authority of the forest, "nothing in these woods will touch you."
As they walked, mushroom monsters lunged from the shadows. Before they could even get close, the very trees they passed would come alive, lashing out with vine-tentacles to crush the fungal intruders. Tyler had turned the entire ecosystem into his personal guard.
Ben joined in as Wildvine, and together, they were unstoppable. They soon reached a massive underground lair. The entrance pulsed with purple spores and writhing hyphae.
"Ben, stay here. Protect the others," Tyler instructed, looking down into the dark abyss.
"Why do you insist on cornering me? We are both of the green world! Why kill your own kind?" A cold, telepathic voice hissed inside Tyler's mind.
Tyler smiled. "We aren't killing our own kind. This is just a predator thinning the weeds."
Tyler leaped into the hole. He landed in a sea of mushroom monsters, their caps glowing with a toxic light. The Mastermind's voice grew frantic. "I will rot your soul!"
Tyler looked at the Carnitrix. It clicked over to The Thistle-Stalker.
The transformation was horrific—a mass of blood-red vines covered in jagged thorns. Tyler released a pheromone gas that didn't just smell; it commanded. The mushroom monsters stopped mid-charge. Their loyalty shifted instantly. In the war of plant-based minds, the Carnitrix was the supreme authority.
"My children," Tyler whispered to the fungal army. "Let's meet your creator."
In the deepest chamber, a massive, beating fungal heart—the Prime Spore—was rooted into the earth. It laughed telepathically, feeling safe in its size. "You cannot kill me! I am the earth itself!"
Tyler looked at his watch. The dial flickered between The Fallout-Forge and The Cosmic Horror.
"My way is a bit... messier," Tyler noted.
Ten minutes later, Max and the kids were a safe distance away when a pillar of radioactive fire shot out of the lair, piercing the clouds. A mushroom cloud—literal and figurative—bloomed over the forest.
From the heart of the explosion, The Cosmic Horror (Way Big) rose, shielding the area from the fallout with its massive frame before shrinking back down.
"Problem solved," Tyler said, walking back to the group. He checked his progress. No points. "Tough break. I guess that overgrown mushroom wasn't even worth the system's time."
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