During Doctor Robotnik's dictatorship of Mobius, Robotnik used the Gum Tree Zone as the location of a trap for the Freedom Fighters. Using one of his loyal subjects as a false informant, he fed information to the Freedom Fighters that a platoon of Troopers would transport a "secret weapon" through the Gum Tree Zone. When the Freedom Fighters attacked the convoy, the Troopers allowed the Freedom Fighters to defeat them, after which the secret weapon was revealed to be a new Cybernik called Vermin the Cybernik.