Fruiting Bodies, ch. 17

The trip to the island wasn’t as simple as stepping through a magical door.  Like the one that rescued Dave and Tom in the alley, an arcane gateway did appear and they did walk through it, but the familiar, mundane sensation of crossing a threshold was nowhere to be found.  Instead, after giving Shawn a stoic farewell, with the exception of Tyler who exchanged a prolonged kiss with the anxious brunette, the group plunged into a roiling abyss.  They’d been in a few storms together while out at sea searching for the cave, back before everything had gone so wrong, and the sensation was similar enough even if the visuals were a vast departure.  It was like floating unsheltered in a neon hurricane, their bodies buffeted about by day-glo tides that spun them head over heels through the kaleidoscopic, tie-dye maelstrom until their very bodies began to feel as fluid as their surroundings.

The pain of the abrupt impact that followed was a swift reminder of their still-corporeal forms, the air knocked from their lungs as they slammed into the spongy ground.  At first, when their dazed vision began to clear and they took in the sickly sweet sky overhead, they feared they were still stuck in the strange in-between place.  But as they sat up and looked around at the now-overgrown atoll and the titanic, spongy mass offshore, they were far more terrified by the fact that they weren’t.

Tom staggered to his feet first, wiping the layer of ochre spores from his broad, bare torso.  He was clad in a pair of spandex trunks, knowing full well that anything else would be redundant as soon as his body started changing.  “Shawn said it would be a rough trip.”

“Is that what we’re calling that,” Dave grunted, having a harder time hefting himself upright with only one arm as the other had a thumb wedged into his mouth.  “Everyone good?  I’m guessing all this growth is a bad…” He was cut off by Tyler’s sudden groan at his feet, looking back down to find the lithe blonde curled up next to Will, both in fetal bundles.  Clouds of pale yellow spores hovered over each of them, with thin tendrils of fungal growth snaking off across the ground in every direction from their prone frames.

“Oh…oh fuck…is this what you guys have been feeling…” Tyler stammered, his eyes flashing with internal radiance as he stared at the fog of spores swirling around his fingers.

“It’s everywhere…so big…all connected…I can sense each and every one of them…” Will gasped, rolling over onto his back.  He gave a drunken laugh when he turned his head from side to side and the spores hovering over him responded in kind, moving like a school of fish.

“Deep breaths, guys.”  Tom knelt next to Will, slipping a hand up under the bulky man’s loose muscle shirt to rub his belly.  “It’s a lot…but don’t get lost in it.”

“That…that might be easier said than done…” Tom looked up at Dave’s worried tone, seeing the same winding tentacles of fungal growth criss-crossing the ground from where each of them stood.  The beefy bear’s eyes were wide as he frantically sucked at his thumb, a growing cloud of spores forming around him.  “The Learned kept this all at bay in the safehouse, but now…here…”

Tom growled under his breath, his body inflating to meet the balding brute’s growing desire for security.  “Goddamnit, Dave!  We don’t have time for this,” he barked, grabbing the other man by his shoulders.  He felt the same surges of power creeping in at the edges of his awareness, but at the moment his unique attributes were keeping them at bay.  More than anything, the men around him desired a rock, something they could anchor to and get their bearings, and that’s exactly what he became.  “Look, guys, don’t fight it.  We can’t, alright?  Just let it wash over you, then come up for air,” Tom said, his tone gentle but firm as he tended to each of his friends.

“I think I understand what…happened with you guys on that…street…” Will panted, his frantic, wild-eyed expression slowly returning to normal after a few minutes.

Tom nodded.  “Consider yourselves lucky there’s no one else around.”

“But…shouldn’t there be,” Tyler asked, shaking his head.  Like Will he was slowly getting his bearings and hopped to his feet to make his way over to Dave, running a hand through the bigger man’s thinning hair and locking eyes.  “Babe…come on…come back to us,” he said, his own gift of persuasion helping to pull his former lover back from the brink.  He hated the effect he had on other men, intentional or otherwise, far more than he lamented the loss of his formerly athletic build, but in this instance he was happy to let the strange forces work their magic.  “Hey there,” he grinned when Dave’s dilated eyes began to clear.

The burly man shook his head, a bashful grin taking the place of his stricken, slack-jawed expression.  “I think I like Shawn,” he said, his hands resting on Tyler’s trim hips.

“I knew you would,” the slim twink nodded.  “He’s a total sweetheart.  When this is all over I’m excited for you guys to actually get to know each other.”

“Still the optimistic one,” Dave said with a short laugh.  He raised a hand and spun it in a small circle, causing the haze of spores to swirl like a small tornado around them.  “I don’t think we get to have a happy ending after what we…”

“You two didn’t do anything,” Tyler interrupted.  “This…thing…did it through you.  That’s not the same.  But look…this is where we fix it.  Or at the very least make sure it can’t happen to anyone else.  Hon, we’ve all made some pretty shit decisions over the last several years.  And yeah, Ethan was in our heads and people were pulling strings for some of those, but we’re the ones who started this and we’re the ones who have to end it.  That’s not me being optimistic; that’s me being accountable.  We don’t get to go down in some blaze of glory out here and leave the hard work of putting it right to other people.  We stop this here, now, once and for all…then we go clean up our mess.”

“Speaking of messes,” Will interjected, pointing to the massive cluster of fungus where a floating, city-sized rig should have been, “is that the harvesting center?”

Dave nodded, the brief swell of confidence he’d felt at Tyler’s words already fading.  “All those workers…”

“I…I think they’re still there,” Tom said, his eyes half-closed.  “Can you guys feel ‘em too?  All these little points of energy just tucked away inside.  It’s like a hive…”

“A cocoon is a more apt comparison.  Or maybe an egg sack.”  The four spun on their heels at the menacingly familiar voice, finding Ethan standing at the mouth of the cave.  His perfect, impossibly handsome frame was entirely on display, with creeping tendrils winding up from the ground at each step.  “But you’re right.  They’re all still in there, just waiting to be reborn.  Your beautiful brood,” he sighed, looking at Dave.  “Those lucky ones who’ve already felt the touch can guide the rest when they reawaken.  Guess we didn’t need to ride poor Weston so hard about his infection protocols after all, did we?”  Ethan laughed and shook his head, a cluster of vines wrapping around a muscular thigh.  “He was always so sharp and bony…I wonder what he’ll look like when he emerges?”

“You won’t be here to find out,” Tom spat, eliciting a deep, rousing laugh from the smug Adonis.  He reached out with his expanded awareness while Ethan chuckled, grabbing onto the veins of power pulsing beneath their feet and sending a bolt straight for their previous employer.

“Are we still pretending like this is a fight,” Ethan asked, his tone going from amused to disappointed.  He made a dismissive gesture with his hand to deflect the surge of energy, an explosion of mushrooms erupting from the ground a few feet away.  “Don’t mistake power for experience, young man.  You four might be brimming with raw, primordial chaos at the moment, but I’ve been doing this for a very, very long time.”  He waved a hand again as he spoke, the ground of the island wrapping itself around the surprised group up to their shoulders.  The cloud of spores grew into a thick haze around them, the casing of spongy ground blossoming with all manner of fruiting bodies as they instinctively tried to will it away to no avail.  “As much as I’d love to pull on these threads of power and repeat our little campus improvement initiative, we have more important matters to discuss.  I knew the four of you would be headed here, so why don’t we go inside?”  With a wet sucking sound, the spongy ground shifted the four cocooned men along behind the casually strolling Ethan towards the mouth of the cave.  They strained and flexed, the very air around them shimmering like a heat mirage as they tested their newfound abilities against the naked hunk’s superior wizardry, but the warm, moist shrouds wouldn’t budge.

Having more experience with strange forces through his time with the Learned, Tyler put it together first.  He looked over at Dave, the arcane illumination fading from his eyes.  “He’s using it against us,” he hissed.  “The more of this…energy…we pump out, the stronger he gets.”

“Someone HAS been paying attention to those boring scholars, haven’t they,” Ethan cooed, looking over a shoulder but not turning around.  “Though I thought the rest of you would have picked up on it by now, too.  This cave, and what lies on the other side, is feeding all of us.  Me.  You.  Our loyal customers.  The diligent employees on the harvesting rig…we’re all connected now.  What you use, I use.  What WE use, they take.  It feeds us and in turn we feed it.  All this glorious growth,” he purred, pausing at the entrance to run his hand along a bulbous cluster of bloated pods.  “The more power we use, the more we thin the veil.  So, by all means, keep trying.”

“Whatever it is you think we’re going to do inside, you can forget it,” Will grunted, trying to focus on as many arousing thoughts as he could.  His body managed to swell slightly in response, but the pliable, fleshy cage grew to compensate.  “We’re through doing your dirty work.”

“After all this time, after everything we’ve accomplished together, that’s what you call it?”  Ethan sounded genuinely hurt, his fallen expression matching the disappointed tone.  “There is no good or bad here, gentlemen.  Yes, I withheld some information from you and that wasn’t fair of me, I admit.  But compared to the grand scheme of things a few lies by omission hardly matter.  Why don’t we step inside and you can see for yourselves?”

Though it had been years since any of the four set foot inside the cave, the feeling was almost overwhelmingly familiar.  The constant sense of connection they’d felt for nearly a decade, the ever-present sensation of someone standing just behind them, pulsed like a gong being struck somewhere deep in their core.  It was like returning home after an extended trip away, the kind of belonging that couldn’t be manufactured, only built through time.

It would have been comforting if not for what they saw.  What should have been a spacious subterranean cavern was instead an open, sprawling fungal forest.  The bioluminescent moss that gave the impression of stars on the stone ceiling overhead had been replaced by an actual sky, and as they stood on the precipice looking down at the prehistoric jungle there was no end to the horrible, day-glo infestation.

“Where are we,” Dave stammered, stumbling on unsteady legs when the casing fell away without warning.  His beefy frame was naked underneath, a state shared by the rest of his friends when they were likewise liberated.

“Eden,” Ethan said, his tone proud and his smile beaming.  He spread his arms wide to gesture around the fungal expanse before motioning to the group.  “I thought we should be dressed for the occasion.”

“Doesn’t exactly explain why I’m looking at a sky where a ceiling should be,” Tom spat, wiping a clinging cluster of detritus from his chest.  “Really spruced up the place while we’ve been gone, haven’t you?”

“You’re looking at the source.  The cave was merely a few fallen flakes of skin.  This,” he sighed, his eyes closing, “is what waits for you to open the door.”

Tom shook his head, the enormity of what Ethan said making him dizzy.  If the other man was telling the truth, the question wasn’t so much about where they were, but upon whom they stood.  “Yeeeaaaaaah, no, turns out we’re good.  Right guys?  We’re all set on whatever the fuck this is.”

Will nodded.  “If I never see another goddamned mushroom in my life, it’ll still be too soon.”

Ethan opened his eyes, his gaze meeting Dave’s.  “And you all feel this way?”  The burly bear swallowed hard, hesitating as Ethan continued.  “You’re all willing to give up your ascendence?  Godhood?  Think of what you could accomplish with your new abilities fully unleashed.  The worlds you could visit.  The people you could save!  That’s how all this started, right?  Helping people?  If you truly believe anyone has been harmed by what we’ve done, you could undo it.  You could set it all right again!”

“Dave…bud…do we really need to bring up the dreams everyone just had?  That’s not how this works and you know it,” Will said, stepping slightly in front of the beefy bruiser.

Dave just blinked, Ethan’s voice still ringing in his head.  He knew Will was right, that there was likely nothing but devastation should they let the thing through.  But what if there was a chance they could control it?  What if things were only terrible because there were no guiding hands?  What if they could tend it like a garden?  His dream from the start had been a long shot, and people HAD been helped by Spore, even with all the “adverse effects.”  And were they even adverse?  People were left happy and looked after, just like Ethan said.  It wasn’t good or bad, only different.  Change was the natural course of everything, and like the towering fungus around them, something always grew from the remains of what came before.  Now, at the source, Dave started to think that it wouldn’t be an end at all if they let the thing through; only a beginning.

“For the record, I never liked you.”  Tyler interrupted Dave’s internal struggle by launching a plucked mushroom the size of a softball at Ethan’s face.  The handsome man sputtered, his smug grin shifting to a mask of rage as three of the four men chuckled.  “Been wanting to do that for years,” the lithe blonde said, a hand clamped on Dave’s shoulder.  “I think we’re all just about done here.”

The sensation of Tyler’s slender fingers was the anchor Dave needed.  Memories of his former lover’s body in all its incarnations flashed through his head, the sweet sound of the other man’s gentle voice and easy laugh pushing the honeyed words from his mind.  He clung to what Tyler had said when they’d arrived, that they had a mess to clean up, and if they really wanted to help people they couldn’t take any shortcuts.  Up until now they’d, for the most part, been well-intentioned pawns.  But if he gave in and listened to what Ethan and this thing wanted Dave knew he’d be an actual monster.  “I’ll send you my resignation in writing,” the naked bear said, placing a hand on top of Tyler’s.

“So do we just see ourselves out, or is there a…” Will broke off in a sharp, pained gasp, his body suddenly swelling.  On either side his friend’s spasmed in a similar fashion, a thick cloud of spores shooting up into the impossible sky overhead before rippling against an invisible barrier.

“I really did want us to do this together, but it was never required,” Ethan sighed.  “The four of you are keys, and if you won’t turn yourselves then I guess I’ll have to.”  He began a series of sweeping gestures while the four friends jerked and struggled to stay upright, the overwhelming energies coursing through them.  In that moment they were connected on a fundamental level to every person who’d ever taken a Spore product or been touched by the cave, a sprawling network of swarming consciousness that threatened to swallow them whole as they gelled into a single purpose.

“No…nope…not…happening…” Tom hissed through gritted teeth.  All those years ago he’d been the first to change and the first to adapt, and they’d all later agree it was fitting that the true end started with him.  Acting on the same instinctual level he always did, the former footballer did what he’d told his friends when they’d first arrived and stopped trying to fight the surging energy, instead focusing on redirecting it towards Ethan.  It wasn’t easy, but at least he wasn’t trying to stop a river with his bare hands.  “You want it?  You know so much about using all this power?  Then take it,” he grunted.

Before Ethan could force the flow back towards the sky, Will followed suit, and when the arrogant Adonis staggered, Dave and Tyler joined in.  The four friends had gone from trying to halt the energy to actively pulling on it, letting the internal doorways that Ethan had opened within them swing wide.  They didn’t yet have the skill to access that level of raw power themselves, but since their tormentor had taken it upon himself to get things started they didn’t need it.  All they had to do was focus and let it flow in the opposite direction.

“Think about…what…you’re doing…” Ethan howled, his handsome exterior rapidly crumbling.  He withered and wrinkled like old parchment, his single essence unable to contain the energy that should have been funneled through four.  He’d been certain that Dave would have come over to his side, and even if he hadn’t he’d expected the four to burn themselves out in the struggle.  He’d spent so much time working them up that he’d thought their anger and frustration would win out and do his work for him.  “You’ll lose…everything…”

“Oh, believe me, we are.  And we don’t care,” Tyler said.  “We’re quick learners, remember?  We’ll figure it out.”  As he spoke, the sky began to quiver, the starry expanse replaced by a familiar stone ceiling.  The titanic mushrooms around them remained, but the scale shrank back to that of the cave’s original proportions, and even that didn’t last long as the fungus began to dry out and crumble.  With Ethan’s remains falling away into dust and the four of them focused on closing and sealing the rift, the last dregs of power sputtered through them until they were left spent and panting in a cave full of nothing but dull gray silt.

“I don’t…I don’t feel it anymore,” Dave said, his barrel chest glistening with sweat.  “Do any of you?”

Will shook his head, his ears ringing from the encompassing silence now that his blood wasn’t thundering through his veins.  “No.  Whoa…that’s…didn’t realize how heavy that connection was until it’s not there anymore.  Does that mean we…” he trailed off as his body swelled in response to Tom’s naked bulk next to him, the other man’s cock suddenly expanding to match his unspoken desire.  “Guess it's same-old, same-old for us,” he laughed.

“I hope so,” the overly-hung hunk said, climbing back to his feet.  “If this is really over, does that mean people aren’t going to be so quick to overlook us?”

“The Learned can help with that, I’m sure.”  Tyler’s thin arms flexed as he pulled Dave to his feet, leaning in to give the bigger man a quick kiss.  “Never doubted you for a second.”

“You’re still a terrible liar,” the furry hulk smiled.  “Can we please get the fuck out of this cave now?”  He led the way up the slight incline and back outside, feeling a rush of relief at the sight of the harvesting center just offshore.  The fungal casing had dissolved like the contents of the cave and he could see a flurry of frantic motion happening on the deck.  What those people looked like he couldn’t tell exactly, but they were only one part of a long list that needed to be sorted out.

“So did anyone bring a phone or…” Tom looked down at his naked frame and then up at his equally bare friends.  “How do we get back home?  Gotta be honest, wasn’t really a question I thought we’d be in a position to answer.”

“You rang?”  The four of them jumped at the unexpected voice, thrilled to find Shawn standing a few feet away with a glowing door behind him.  He wrapped his arms around Tyler when the thin twink threw himself at him, exchanging a deep kiss before addressing the group.  “City’s back to normal.  Or at least the rift above the Spore building is gone.  Whatever you guys did here sealed it right up.”

“Uh…what exactly DID we do here?”  Will threw an arm around Tom and Dave, adding to his bulk in the process.

Shawn shrugged.  “Best guess?  Ethan thought one of you would crack.  That’s all it would’ve taken, and then that thing probably would’ve used what was left of the four of you to grow itself a new body in this reality before consuming everything.  Just a guess, though,” he grinned.

“And you couldn’t have given us a heads up on the whole ‘our powers combined’ thing,” Tom asked, folding his arms across his chest.  “Would’ve saved us some time.”

“Honestly?  We didn’t know how it would play out.  We had some pretty good guesses, but that’s the thing when this much raw chaos is involved…you never know what’s going to have an impact.  If I said the wrong thing and caused the situation to tilt in another direction, who knows what could’ve happened.  I had faith in you guys,” Shawn said, ruffling Tyler’s hair.

“So what now,” Dave asked, looking at his friends.  “No more reality-warping powers.  Just the usual weirdness.”

“I’ll gladly take the usual weird right now,” Will laughed, letting Dave slurp one of his fingers into his mouth.  The burly man blushed, then shrugged and sucked contentedly away.

Shawn looked at Tyler, then smiled when the blonde gave a quick nod.  “Well, for starters, I guess the four of you are in need of new jobs?”