So...I wanted to wait until the Olympics got started before continuing this story but at the moment this story was all I can think of right now, I think I reignited my passion for this story with the last chapter but here is where the story enters a magical 'Journey to the Underworld' as seen in many Hero's Journey stories where Glass Joe's experience with this extraordinary place changes him
It was when the twilight hours when they finally arrived at the cave...And Glass Joe shuddered when he saw it...Like something out every child's nightmares the cave's opening was shaped like the head of some horrible monster like an ogre! The mouth of the cave was lined with many 'teeth' of stalagmites and stalactites...Joe felt himself trembling at the idea of literally climbing into the mouth of a monster!
Dana noticed Joe's trembling and tried to sooth him by nuzzling her muzzle under his chin.
"Don't worry…" The Toad-Man Ferryman said "Despite how it looks...It's really just an appearance...All bluster to frighten those who shouldn't be here away...There are no actual monsters in the cave.
After Joe and Dana got off and perched on the 'lip' of the cave the Toad-Man wished them good luck in their quest and began turning his raft back home...Joe presumed the way they came into the cave was not they way they would get out…
Gingerly...Joe peeked over the edge of one of the stalagmite teeth and gasped! Not from horror but because he French sense of beauty had been activated!
The interior of the cave was not as horrifying as the monstrous cave mouth would lead one to believe! Looking down into the long drop from the cave mouth Joe could see it seemed the entire cave was made by beautiful jewels of every color of the rainbow! These jewels seemed to be glowing as the cave was brightly illuminated and he could see everything clearly!
"Enchante!" Joe gasped to express he was enchanted by the sheer beauty of what he saw "Never before have I seen a cave made entirely of jewels!" Indeed it really did seem like the mythical 'Cave of Wonders' as told of in One Thousand and One Nights
"I don't think we even need the headlamps we brought…" Joe said as he reached into his backpack to get out the ropes.
"What we can see here is brightly lit…" Dana said quietly "...But when we travel deeper it might get darker…"
Joe smiled, even though Dana was speaking in her too soft child-like voice the fact she was wasn't blindly agreeing to what he just said but instead was thinking about other possibilities was surely a sign her real mind, her real personality could still be rescued from the slave personality!
"You're right…" Joe said "...Better not to assume anything."
Meanwhile Douglas Gerbasi was playing poker with several of his fellow 'High Rollers' Bigwigs in New York City's sports scene and he complained about the 'Gobbledygook' his Boxers had gotten involved with that Glass Joe's 'Doggy Girlfriend' they claimed had been created as a sex slave and now that Glass Joe had had sex with her apparently she had a new 'sex slave' personality and apparently the only way to cure her was to get some 'weird stuff' to give to a witch to make a magic potion or some such Hocus Pocus…
Gerbasi said as this to his Poker buddies with no thought to any consequences...Indeed he had no idea that there was an embedded journalist, disguised as a waiter serving them drinks, who was just waiting for a scoop like this for the Tabloids!
DUN DUN DUN! So we have to set up for things to go horribly wrong in later chapters...Once again I feel the reason Gerbasi is so terrified of the strange supernatural ways of First Earth and of the Mutants' origins is because he fears any potential change to his Happy Go Lucky lifestyle he fears having to turn his attention away from merely running the WVBA to the serious matters of war and politics