As we stepped into the next room Cleetus once again fumbled with switch on the wall. The lights were soon turned on and we found ourselves in a much larger space than we had been in with the spirit summoner.

We also quickly spied the assumed broken-down dragon resting against the back wall.

Up close in the lighting it was quite the engineering marvel to behold. As with some of the active dragons, this one had some rust at its joints but otherwise looked to be a shiny red metal. It had large knife-like claws tucked under its feet, attached to powerfully built legs. Its body was like a tank and its head square with two curved metal horns. Its eye sockets were big, but because it was not working, they were not the bright red as the active dragons. Its teeth looked very sharp.

"Ugly, aren't they?" remarked Laurence, examining the metallic creature up close.

LaLouf started to slowly examine the creature at well. "I can't believe there WOULD be directions just stuck on for how to program these dragons, but if there were...where would it be?"

I was still focused on the dragon's claws. "If these things ever run out of fire, they'll still find a way to murder us all." I was glad the dragon that had come out of the right tunnel eaelier never saw us- I didn't know if being burned to death or ripped to pieces would've been a worse fate.

"The Martians seemed to put directions on everything," said Cleetus, answering LaLouf, "so they probably put directions on the mecha dragons too. It's not like every Martian knew how to program every dragon. They'dve needed a guide."

"I doubt if any could get close enough to ever read the instructions, wherever they are," mused Laurence, "they'dve been burned to a crisp."

"Well, at some point they DID serve the Martians. It's just recently they decided servitude wasn't their thing. Well, recently enough, anyway."

"Hmm, not on the soles of their feet," remarked Detective LaLouf, still hunting for directions.

"Check the butt," I volunteered.

"What?"

"Check the butt."

"Why?" The detective seemed a bit put off but my suggestion.

"They're robots and don't have to poop?" I reasoned, "The butt seems like a good place for directions."

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"That's dumb," the detective rolled her eyes, but she did follow the lifeless form up its back legs. Its tail was down but with a bit of struggling she moved it...and froze.

"There's directions there, aren't there," I said.

"Right over where the butthole would be," the detective nodded, disbelief to her voice.

"They don't poop," I replied.

"Wait," cut in Cleetus, "I thought the patches of oil we found were their equivalent of taking a dump."

"That was conjecture," corrected Laurence, "and maybe they dispose of waste product another way, such as through their mouths. You didn't actually see any of them lose oil, did you?"

We all shook our heads.

"So, maybe they don't expel waste. Incidentally, at least not through their behinds." Her turned to his wife. "Can you read what it says? Do we have a shot at using this thing- and quick- to save New Earth One?"

The detective squinted at the plaque over the pucker. "There's alot here and it's written pretty small," she confessed.

"Durdumples said this one's core was bad," Cleetus remarked, "do we even know what a dragon's core looks like? And how to fix it?"

"It says here the core is the round thing inside the center of the dragon," LaLouf answered. "There's a drawing. Looks like a floating circle."

"That plaque is illustrated?"

"Like I mentioned, there's alot here."

"Any idea how to bring it back online- but, say, under our control?" questioned Laurence.

"Hmmm." The detective paused a moment. "It says 'one who has touched the lives many' must do it."

"Must do what?"

She paused again. "It seems you have to physically crawl into the dragon and hold the core for, like, 5 minutes in your hand. If it decides to catch a fire will ignite, bringing the dragon back to life. It also notes, however, there's a less than 10% chance of this succeeding."

"So, hold up," said Cleetus, "the way to get this dragon working again is for one of us to physically climb inside, try to ignite a fire with our hands, and then get out before we get burned up by fact of being in there?"

"...yup, that sums it up."

"That seems like a pretty shitty mecha design."

The detective shrugged. "It was designed by Martians. I don't begin to pretend I understand their design logic."

"Probably why this guy's been put in storage and not brought back when his core stopped working," suggested Laurence, "no Martian wanted to take the gamble of the fiery death turning him back on when there were nineteen others working fine."

They all then turned to look at me.

"You understand what needs to be done, right, Cole?" LaLouf asked.

I blinked. "What?"

"To start the core up."

"Why me?" I was confused, yet everyone else seemed certain.

"It said it has to be the one who touched the lives of many," continued LaLouf, "I'd think blowing up Earth certainly touched many lives."

"That...that was an accident," I protested.

Cleetus crossed his arms. "This will allow you to atone for your 'accident'. If you do this, you'll be saving what's left of humanity. That shows commitment a to right your past wrong."

"But..."

"New Earth One could already be under attack," added Laurence, "are you really going to be the guy who destroyed humanity twice?"

I swallowed hard as I looked over the lifeless dragon. I had already noted how dangerous it was on the outside- did I really want to discover how dangerous it was on the inside?

Yet there was little I could say in the matter. Laurence, LaLouf, and Cleetus all stared at me expectantly.