The transition from the sewers to Sector 3.5 wasn't marked by a wall, but by the air.
The heavy, metallic stench of the Industrial Belt faded, replaced by something sweet, cloying, and suffocating. It smelled like wet soil and rotting fruit left out in the sun for a month.
The caravan of three armored rovers trundled forward, their massive tires churning through a slurry of purple mud. The headlights cut through the gloom, revealing a landscape that belonged in a fever dream.
They were in the Fungal Forest.
Centuries ago, this layer had been a hydroponic garden designed to feed the millions in the Ark Cities. When the "Great Rejection" happened, the plants mutated. Now, mushrooms the size of skyscrapers held up the ceiling of the cavern. Their stalks were thick and fibrous, pulsing with bioluminescent veins. Ferns with razor-edged leaves carpeted the ground, twitching whenever the rovers vibrated past.
Varian sat on the reinforced running board of the second rover, clutching a handrail. He wore a heavy rubber gas mask he had scavenged from the pile Iron-Jaw sold. It was old, the filter cartridge rattling with every breath.
Hiss. Click. Hiss. Click.
Beside him, Rix was shivering, his rodent eyes darting wildly. Rix didn't have a mask; his mutant physiology was naturally resistant to most toxins, but he held a rag soaked in vinegar over his nose just in case.
"Bad air," Rix whispered, his voice muffled. "Trees are awake. Trees are hungry."
"Keep your head down," Varian ordered, his voice distorted by the mask.
He looked at the Symbiote on his left arm. The black metal scales were clamped tight, sealing the pores of his skin. The Symbiote didn't like this place. Varian could feel a low-level buzz of irritation in his mind—the biological equivalent of an allergic reaction.
[Environmental Hazard: Spore Density High.][Type: Hallucinogenic / Parasitic.][Filter Efficiency: 78%. Warning: Do not remove mask.]
Inside the rover, behind the thick steel plating, Elian sat in the dark.
"Varian?" Elian's voice crackled over the headset.
"I'm here, El. Right outside the door."
"My clicker," Elian whispered. "It's making weird sounds. The echoes... they aren't bouncing back right. The walls are soft."
"It's just the moss, El. Don't worry."
Ahead of them, the lead rover honked its horn—a deep, mournful sound that echoed through the forest of stalks.
"Hold formation!" Vara's voice barked over the general comms channel. "We are entering the Mycelium Web. If you see a flower, don't touch it. If you see a body... don't stop."
Varian tightened his grip on the rail. If you see a body.
As if on cue, the fog swirled, revealing a shape by the side of the trail.
It was a rusted jeep, half-swallowed by the earth. Sitting in the driver's seat was a skeleton. But it wasn't just bone. A vibrant, orange fungus had erupted from the skull, blooming like a majestic crown. Roots dangled from the ribcage, weaving into the seat.
It was beautiful. And terrifying.
"Look at that," grunted a mercenary sitting opposite Varian. It was Gorgon, the rock-skinned giant. He wasn't wearing a mask. His stone-like skin had no pores for the spores to enter. He sat there, chewing on a toothpick, looking bored. "Previous delivery crew. Weaklings."
"They had gas masks too," Varian noted, pointing to the rotting rubber hanging off the skeleton's neck.
Gorgon laughed, a sound like gravel in a mixer. "Masks don't save you when the Shamblers rip your throat out. You'd better hope your little metal arm works, kid. Or you'll just be fertilizer."
Varian didn't respond. He checked the pressure gauge on his Cryo-Gauntlet.
Pressure steady. Symbiote active.
Suddenly, the convoy lurched.
SCREEECH.
The lead rover slammed on its brakes, the tires skidding in the purple mud. The second rover—Varian's ride—rear-ended it with a metallic crunch.
Varian was thrown forward, barely catching himself on a cargo strap.
"Ambush?" Varian hissed, drawing his left hand into a fist.
"Engine trouble!" The driver shouted. "Something's wrapped around the axle!"
Varian looked down.
The mud wasn't just mud. Thick, white tendrils—like pale snakes—were erupting from the ground. They wrapped around the tires, tightening visibly.
[Analysis: Constrictor Roots.][Strength: High.][Trigger: Vibration.]
"It's the roots!" Vara screamed from the front. "Cut them loose! Gunners, eyes on the treeline!"
The mercenaries scrambled off the rovers. Gorgon jumped down, his massive stone hammer in hand. He smashed a root that was thick as a man's leg, pulverizing it into white pulp.
"Stupid weeds!" Gorgon roared.
But the forest didn't just have roots.
From the fog, a sound emerged. A wet, gurgling moan. It sounded like someone trying to scream with a mouth full of dirt.
Shhh... Shhh...
Shadows detached themselves from the giant mushroom stalks.
They were humanoid. Once.
Now, they were walking gardens. Their clothes were tattered rags fused with moss. Their heads were split open like overripe fruit, revealing pulsating fungal blooms where faces used to be.
[Enemy Detected: Mycelium Host (Type: Shambler).][Status: Deceased/Parasitized.][Quantity: 20... 40... Increasing.]
"Contact!" A mercenary shouted. "Right flank!"
Gunfire erupted.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT.
Bullets tore into the Shamblers. Chunks of fungus and rotten flesh flew into the air. But the Shamblers didn't stop. They didn't feel pain. Unless the brain-stem or the spinal column was severed, the fungus kept driving the body forward.
"Aim for the stalks! The heads!" Varian shouted, jumping off the rover.
A Shambler lunged at him from the mist. It wore the tattered uniform of a Union scientist. Its arms were elongated, ending in sharp, calcified bone-spurs.
Varian ducked under a clumsy swing.
"Mercury Whip!"
His left arm liquefied and lashed out. The black blade sliced through the Shambler's neck. The fungal head toppled off. The body took two more steps, then collapsed.
"Don't let them touch you!" Varian yelled to Rix. "One scratch and the spores get in the blood!"
Rix was on the roof of the rover, throwing sharpened scrap metal like shurikens. "Rix knows! Rix stay high!"
The battle was chaotic. The mercenaries were disciplined, but the enemy was relentless.
On the left flank, Gorgon was laughing. He waded into the horde like a tank. His stone skin deflected the bone-spurs. He swung his engine-block hammer, crushing three Shamblers with every blow.
"Is that all you got?" Gorgon bellowed. "Come on!"
He was strong. But he was arrogant.
He didn't notice the ground beneath him shifting.
A massive Spore-Pod—a bulbous growth the size of a barrel—was hidden in the ferns behind him.
One of the Shamblers didn't attack Gorgon. It threw itself onto the pod.
POP.
The pod exploded.
A cloud of dense, yellow pollen erupted, enveloping Gorgon.
"Gah!" Gorgon coughed, waving his hands. "Can't... see!"
The pollen wasn't just blinding. It was sticky. It coated his stone skin like glue. And then, it began to harden.
[Analysis: Resin Spores.][Effect: Rapid solidification upon contact with air.]
Gorgon froze. His joints locked up. The "Resin" turned his stone skin into a prison. He tried to swing his hammer, but his arm wouldn't move.
"Help!" Gorgon roared, panic finally cracking his bravado. "I'm stuck!"
Five Shamblers, seeing the giant immobilized, swarmed him. They began to hack at the resin, looking for a gap in his stone armor to plant their seeds.
Vara, the leader, was busy at the front. The other mercenaries were fighting for their own lives.
No one was coming for Gorgon.
Varian stood ten meters away. He watched the Shamblers crawling over the giant.
Let him die, a cold voice in his head whispered. He's a liability. He threatened you.
Varian looked at the Shamblers. If they turned Gorgon, they would have a Stone-Skin Tank Zombie. That would be bad for the convoy.
Varian sighed. "Business is business."
He sprinted forward.
"Hey! Rock-Head!" Varian shouted.
Gorgon's eyes, the only part of him not covered in resin, darted frantically to Varian.
"Get them off me!"
"That costs extra!" Varian yelled, sliding under the swipe of a Shambler. "1,000 Credits! Transferable now!"
"What?! You extortionist rat!"
"1,500!" Varian parried a bone-spur with his plated arm. Clang.
A Shambler was prying at Gorgon's neck.
"Deal! Deal! 1,500! Just kill them!"
Varian grinned behind his gas mask.
"X. Flash-Heat."
Varian didn't use the whip. He grabbed the copper wire coil he still had clipped to his belt—the one he used in the Sludge-Falls. He lashed it out, wrapping it around the necks of two Shamblers standing on Gorgon.
He channeled the Solar Core.
The wire glowed white-hot instantly.
FZZZZT.
The heat sliced through the fungal necks like a hot knife through butter. The heads rolled.
But the heat did something else. It radiated toward the resin covering Gorgon.
Resin melts under high heat.
"Move your arm when I say!" Varian commanded.
He slapped his glowing, superheated hand directly onto Gorgon's shoulder.
HISS.
The yellow glue bubbled and liquefied.
"NOW!"
Gorgon roared and wrenched his arm free. The hardened shell shattered.
With his arm free, Gorgon swung his hammer in a 360-degree arc. The remaining Shamblers were reduced to paste.
Gorgon stood there, panting, bits of smoking resin dripping from his rock skin. He looked at Varian.
"You burned me," Gorgon growled, looking at the scorch mark on his shoulder.
"I saved you," Varian corrected, stepping back and cooling his gauntlet. "And you owe me 1,500. I expect it when we reach the station."
Gorgon glared. For a second, Varian thought the giant would attack. Then, Gorgon spat a glob of yellow mucus on the ground.
"I pay my debts, Scavenger. But watch your back."
"Always do."
"Clear!" Vara shouted from the front. "Roots are cut! Mount up! We're leaving!"
The mercenaries scrambled back onto the moving rovers. Varian hauled himself onto the running board, pulling Rix up after him.
The convoy accelerated, crushing the remains of the Shamblers into the mud.
One Hour Later - The Safe Zone
The convoy stopped in a clearing where the fungal growth was thin. It was a "Dead Patch"—an area where the soil was too acidic even for the mushrooms.
"Ten minutes for repairs!" Vara ordered. "Check the cargo! If a single strap is loose, I'm docking your pay!"
Varian jumped down. His adrenaline was fading, leaving him with a headache.
"Rix, check the tires," Varian whispered. "Elian, you okay?"
"I'm okay," Elian said from inside. "But... Varian?"
"Yeah?"
"The boxes. The cargo boxes next to me."
"What about them?"
"They're... humming. Not like a machine. Like a person."
Varian frowned.
He climbed into the back of the rover. It was dark, illuminated only by the red emergency lights. The cargo hold was stacked with heavy, black polymer crates marked with the Bio-Alchemy Union hazard symbol, but spray-painted over with the Red Mycelium gang tag.
Varian approached the crate nearest to Elian.
[Genetic Archivist Scan.][Subject: Reinforced Containment Unit.][Contents: Biological Matter.]
"Eggs," Iron-Jaw had said. Rare beast eggs.
Varian placed his hand on the crate. He didn't use heat. He just used the Symbiote's sensory sensitivity.
He felt a vibration. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
It was a heartbeat. Too slow for a beast. Too rhythmic.
"System," Varian whispered. "Deep scan. What's inside?"
[Analyzing...][Material Density: High.][Penetrating outer shell...][Subject Detected.][Species: Human (Chimera Hybrid).][Age: Approx 4-6 years.][Status: Stasis Sleep.]
Varian's blood ran cold.
They weren't smuggling eggs.
He looked at the keypad on the crate. It was a simple magnetic lock. He shouldn't open it. If he opened it, he broke the contract. If he opened it, Vara would kill him.
He looked at Elian, sitting blindly in the corner.
If they are smuggling kids...
Varian pulled a small lockpick from his belt—one of Rix's tools. He worked the lock. Click.
He lifted the lid just an inch.
Inside, bathed in translucent blue nutrient gel, floated a small girl. She looked normal, except for the translucent, jellyfish-like tendrils growing from her hair. She was curled up, a breathing mask over her face.
A label on the glass read: [Project Siren - Subject 12. Defective. Sold to Red Mycelium for parts.]
Sold for parts.
Varian gently closed the lid. His hand was shaking. Not from fear. From rage.
Iron-Jaw didn't know. Or maybe he did.
But Varian knew one thing.
"Varian?" Elian whispered. "What is it? Is it a monster?"
Varian locked the crate. He turned to Elian, his voice devoid of emotion.
"No, El. It's just cargo."
He climbed out of the rover.
Gorgon was standing nearby, wiping slime off his hammer. He saw Varian come out.
"Hey," Gorgon grunted. He pulled a datapad from his belt and tapped it. "Transferred. 1,500. We're even."
Varian looked at the giant. A plan began to form in his mind. A dangerous, stupid plan.
"Gorgon," Varian said quietly.
"What?"
"You hate the Union, don't you? Most mutants do."
Gorgon frowned. "They made me like this. Why?"
"What if I told you," Varian stepped closer, lowering his voice so only the giant could hear, "that these crates aren't filled with eggs? What if I told you they're filled with kids like you used to be?"
Gorgon's stone face went still. "You playing games, Scavenger?"
"Ask Vara," Varian challenged. "Ask her why the 'Eggs' have heartbeats."
Gorgon stared at the lead rover where Vara was smoking a cigarette. His grip on his hammer tightened until the metal groaned.
"If you're lying," Gorgon rumbled, "I'll crush your skull."
"And if I'm right?"
Gorgon looked back at the rover. A murderous light ignited in his eyes.
"Then we don't finish the delivery," Gorgon growled. "We start a riot."
Varian nodded. He touched the Symbiote on his arm.
The Fungal Forest was dangerous. But the humans in the convoy were about to be much, much worse.
"Rix," Varian whispered into his headset. "Get ready. We're about to change the plan."