Nyridius barrels forward and attacks one of the yetis, but they yeti panics when it receives fire damage and lashes out brutally at Nyridius. The yeti's heavy club knocks Nyridius unconscious. The elderly couple in the back attempts to help the group by firing simple electricity pistols at the yetis. Unfortunately, any adventurer standing in the same puddle as a yeti gets shocked as well by the elderly couple's gunfire.
Vagabot comes to Nyridius' aid, and the party fights hard enough to knock some sense into the yetis. The yetis shake off their blind terror, and Cuddlepunch asks them what has caused such behavior. The yetis grunt out to her, "Big trouble in the Valley. Bad man. Come help. Big trouble." They wander off, leaving Cuddlepunch and the rest of the party concerned.
Vargas reappears before the party in a flash of light. Duke begins to challenge Vargas, but Vargas shushes him quickly. Vargas, with a heavy heart, begins his speech. "I must admit, it has been good to see all of you again. You've done much better than I did when I was at your level. But you need to know that you're being played. Everything that you've done hasn't been your idea, because you're being manipulated. RICARDO IS REAPER. The tasks that he's had you do have all been to solidify his position. This rain that you've started? It won't ever stop, and it's going to turn Dusttown and the sand dunes into a swampy bog. You just did exactly what Reaper wanted you to."
"You could have told us that, like, any other time we saw you!" shouts Nyridius.
"Yes, and maybe I should have. But when Reaper tricked ME into activating the antenna and flooding Dusttown, I remember how angry it made me. It took away my naivete. That sense of betrayal and that rage has fueled me, and I didn't want to rob you of it."
Confused, Defendomax interjects, "Wait, you activated the antenna before?"
"Yes." Vargas opens his helmet to reveal a familiar face... that of Duke, but older, more haggard, more worn-down. "Like I said, you've done much better than I did at your level. When I and my friends were ambushed by Grinner and his thugs outside Vagabot's shack... not all of us made it. Grinner killed Vagabot that day. She died without ever knowing who she really was. Then, we went to the Valley of Sorrow to help the yetis, but by the time we got back to Dusttown, Reaper was ready and waiting for us. We were way out-gunned. That's where Professor Cuddlepunch was killed. There wasn't much keeping the three of us together, so we split up. Nyridius and Defendomax went back to the Valley of Sorrow to bury Cuddlepunch. I went out East, where I wandered and tried to solve problems... but I couldn't accomplish anything by myself. I just made most things worse. It wasn't until I found the Vargas Armor several years later that I remembered where it all went wrong, and got up the nerve to come back and change it."
Vargas sighs heavily, and says, "You may have pictured yourself fighting Reaper much later, but we need to do this right now. If you wait any longer, he'll be ready for you, and things will end up just like they did before. There are many possible futures, and we never know to which our actions will lead. I want to give you the chance for a better one. So don't fuck this up."
"Come with us and help us." Defendomax implores. "I will," says Vargas, "but I only have a charge of a few more hours in this armor. This armor stretches me outside of time, like a rubber band. Once it snaps back, I will snap back to my future timeline, which, if we do this right, will no longer exist. Meaning that, when my charge runs out, I will no longer exist."
The party agrees to confront Reaper. Along with Duke from the future, the adventurers travel off, and begin their return to Dusttown.
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