Roxy arrived downtown. Detective Smith waved to her. Next to him she saw a strange creature. It was eating out of a garbage can.
"A mushroom monster!" Roxy thought.
"Burp!"
"Excuse yourself, Detective," Roxy said.
Detective Smith rolled his eyes. "I didn't burp, Rocket Girl. That thing did."
"Why is it eating garbage?" Roxy asked.
"Who knows?" Detective Smith said.
"Mayor Bloom said there are lots of mushroom monsters around," Roxy said. "Do you know where they came from?"
Detective Smith shrugged. "An explorer in Waxcap Cave got slime on her boot. By the next morning, the slime had turned into a mushroom monster. Now they're everywhere."
The monster kept eating. Roxy noticed a lump growing out of its back. Pop! The lump fell to the ground. Now it was a baby mushroom monster with arms and legs!
"Gorp!" it said.
"Aww," Roxy said. "It's kind of cute."
"It's not cute, Rocket Girl!" Detective Smith frowned. "These things grow fast. How are we going to get rid of them?"
A man was walking down the street, eating an apple. Another mushroom monster appeared. It snatched the apple out of his hand. Crunch!
"Ahh!" People screamed in fear and ran away.
Detective Smith grabbed the creature's arm. "All right, buddy. That's enough!" The mushroom monster yanked it away.
"Whoa!" Detective Smith lost his balance and fell.
"Stop that, mushroom monster!" Roxy said.
The creature turned to Roxy, looking scared. "Gorp! Gorp!"
"Eating garbage is one thing," Roxy said. "But you need to be careful around people. You might hurt someone."
The creature looked confused.
"You're coming with me!" Detective Smith tried to grab the monster again. But the monster ran away.
Detective Smith sighed. "Rocket Girl, we need to . . . Rocket Girl?"
A garbage truck was on its way to the dump. When it stopped at a light, a mushroom monster ran over. It jumped into the back. Thunk!
"Did you hear something, Grover?" the driver asked.
"No, Ernie." The other garbage collector shrugged. "Let's just get to the dump and get rid of this garbage."
At the dump Ernie tilted the container. Slorp! The mushroom monster slid out with the garbage.
It looked around and grinned. There was garbage everywhere!
"Gorp!"
As the truck left, the mushroom monster started running around, eating garbage. Lumps appeared on its back.
Pop! Pop! Pop! The lumps popped off—and turned into baby mushroom monsters!