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THE CAVE

We stagger to the back of the cave.

True to her word, ATHENOS has left something special for us.

It’s a letter. And three items. The letter explains what each item is and how we should use it.

Dear Gork,

If you’re reading this, then that means you and Fribby found a way to defeat Dr. Terrible. Right now as I write this, I am chopping up Dr. Terrible with swords but he keeps putting himself together again. I don’t know how long I can hold out like this. Which is why I am writing you this letter, and is why I have teleported these three very important items to this cave. Now here is what I want you to do…

Fribby and I stand there and read the entire letter together. It’s two pages long, full of detailed instructions and words of encouragement. I won’t bother giving you the blow-by-blow of the letter.

But I will say my eyes get a little misty reading it.

Now the first item ATHENOS left us is a syringe filled with a nanobot solution. In the letter, ATHENOS says the nanobot solution will grow back each of our missing wings.

The second item is the Evolution Machine. It’s kind of eerie to see the machine here in the back of the cave. In the letter, ATHENOS says she wanted us to have it, in case me and Fribby decide to conquer Earth while wearing some other creatures’ bodies.

Now I turn my attention to the third item.

I pick it up and hold it in my talons, turning it this way and that. I recognize it. The flat gold disc with the red gem in the middle of it. From that first night when Dr. Terrible found me in my lair all those years ago.

It’s the Prophecy.

In the letter, ATHENOS explains that the Prophecy has a holovid recording my mother made for me in her last minutes before they crashed to Earth. In the letter, ATHENOS explains that the Prophecy disc is the most important thing and that I should handle it with great care. She says after I watch the holovid recording of my mother, then I will understand why.

I’m too tired to think about it.

I take the syringe and inject Fribby with the nanobot solution.

She instantly conks out on the cave floor.

I watch her sleep for a second.

Her new silver wing grows out of her back just like that.

She twitches in her sleep.

Two wings are definitely better than one.

She’s going to be one seriously happy robot fiend when she wakes up, that’s for sure.

Then I turn and leave her and walk to the front of the cave.

Because I have some more business to attend to.