Author's Note: This is an old story of mine that I completed a couple years back. It is my longest story ever. I do apologize if there's any grammar errors. I did do some editing to fix stuff up but I kinda stopped doing that about two years ago, so any mistakes I didn't fix, they're still there. Again I apologize.

Chapter 1: Responsible

The landscape was tranquil. The air flowed through the hundreds of trees that lined along the mountain side. Birds soared overhead, cawing out their calls to each other as they disappeared over the horizon. The sky was a perfect light blue, and clear save for one or two tiny white clouds, puffy and streaky at the same time. The sun lay directly overhead. Its yellow rays bathed the land in a warm glow, and a couple lizards crawled out of their den to sunbathe.

Then, without a single warning, the tranquility was destroyed as a roar echoed in the jungle.

RAAAAAAAAAAOOORRRR!

A large red foot stomped onto a tree, kicking it up from its roots and flattening it on the ground. The earth shook as this massive behemoth walked out. The creature was a Tyrannosaurus Rex, nearly solid red save for the couple white stripes that decorated its back. The creature's eyes glowed an unnatural yellow-orange, and it opened its massive jaws, revealing several different sized teeth. The lizards nearby looked up and quickly dashed underground before the monster could stomp its foot on them.

From underneath the T-Rex came another figure. This creature was much smaller and swifter, sporting a green hide with purple stripes and a white underside. It looked up at the enormous animal and screeched at it and attempted to look intimidating. It wasn't working. The Tyrannosaurus Rex merely looked at this animal, a Velociraptor, as though it were a meal, licking its scaly lips with anticipation.

The Velociraptor immediately retreated, running towards the safety of the jungle where the vines and thickly packed trees would surely slow down this behemoth. However it had little effect as the T-Rex effectively and efficiently cleared the path by using its body to push the trees aside so it could fit through. It snapped its jaws at the Velociraptor, but only ended up getting a mouth full of plants.

Wrinkling its nose in disgust, it opened up its maw quickly, allowing the leaves to spill out as it desperately drooled to get the awful taste out. As it hung out its tongue and shook its head, the green Velociraptor had managed to get away, heading towards a rock face that formed a mountain. When the giant dinosaur realized that its prey had gotten away, it looked up and spotted the raptor, apparently cornered. Almost grinning, the animal lumbered towards the helpless raptor.

The green raptor just hissed, backing up against the wall, as the larger predator stomped towards it. It let out another roar, one of triumph, and it gave into a sprint, and lunged at the Velociraptor. At the last second, the small carnivore jumped up, and landed on the big animal's head. It made a mad dash up the Tyrannosaurus's back and jumped off the end of its tail, and landed on the ground nearby. The T-Rex, looking infuriated, turned its body around to have another go. The green Velociraptor simply pointed a clawed finger towards the animal, and the T-Rex turned its head, and its eyes widened.

An ocean of orange ooze was erupting from the mountain. It was actually a volcano! The earth began to rumble as the eruption continued, and the ooze, burning hot to the touch, swept towards the T-Rex. It tried to run, but the ooze spread too fast. The raptor seemed to smirk as the strange lava now encircled the T-Rex, making even jumping an unlikely solution. The red-skinned T-Rex looked left to right, desperately trying to find an exit. But it could find none.

Then just as things could not get any worse, a massive eruption ejected several orange lava-covered boulders in the air, crashing in the area near the two theropods. The Velociraptor squealed as it narrowly dodged getting hit. The Tyrannosaurus Rex was not so lucky. Its massive bulk made it helpless to escape two boulders that slam into it. One smashes into its back, a second hits it in the head. The animal falls to the ground, and, in just a couple seconds, disappears into a short of pixels. A score is displayed.

10,000 POINTS

"What?!" came a groan. "That wasn't fair! You totally tricked me!" The voice came from a seventeen year old boy named Buzz. He wore an orange sleeveless shirt and dark green jeans. His head was bald except for a green mohawk that spiked along the middle of his head. He set his controller down, and leaned back in his chair. He turned to face his opponent, who sat in a desk on the other side of the room, a laptop set in the middle of it.

"I'm sorry, Buzz." The voice came, sounding feminine and elderly. She pulled the laptop cover down, turning off her computer. She appeared to be in her fifty's or sixty's. Her hair was gray and she appeared to be a bit overweight. She wore a green shirt with a purple vest and a long, dark purple shirt. She smiled sincerely at the young boy as she stood up from her desk, supporting herself with a wooden cane. "But it was important to teach you this lesson."

The punk teen groaned and folded his arms. "What lesson? The 'Do Not Dive After A Raptor' lesson?" He was not pleased to losing to a girl, especially since he played the game longer than his mentor, Moynihan, has. He only agreed to play with her because he thought he could win. After all, the old woman probably never played video games before and would probably have been easy to defeat. However, he had misjudged her, and paid for it.

Ms. Moynihan chuckled light-heartedly. "No. Don't you remember? This was supposed to teach you that you should be more aware of your surroundings. If you pay too much attention to your opponent, they could take advantage of that, and lead you straight into a trap." She pointed at the screen next to Buzz, which was now flashing Game Over in red letters. "Just like what happened in there."

"That was just luck." Buzz muttered, turning his head away.

"Oh don't be so sore about it." The old woman cooed as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Remember it is only a game."

"Yeah..I suppose you're right." The young teenager's frown turned into a smile. He looked at his teacher, and said, "It was a pretty cool trick you pulled. I guess you are better at games than I thought you were."

This was the first time Joanne Moynihan has trained any of her mutant students through the use of a video game. At first, she did not see any benefit of having such a game on her computer except for recreational reasons. But when she decided to play through the game herself, she saw a lot of potential in it for training, especially since the game contained the very dinosaurs they could transform into, and more. The training with Buzz was not a complete success, as he was not able to avoid the trap she set up for him. But it was not a total loss. He still learned something from it.

"So are you ready to join the others?" Joanne asked Buzz as she headed towards the spiral stairs. As she walked by, a small white dog with a few black spots lifted up his head. The dog wagged his tail as he quickly jumped up and dashed down the stairs. Moynihan did not fear him getting loose. The doors were all closed and the rest of the Dino Squad were down in the lap section of the lighthouse. Rump, the dog, would not be able to run off without one of the kids spotting him.

"Almost." Came Buzz's reply. "I'm just going to continue..training..on this online game." He picked up his controller again to start a new game on Multiplayer. Rodger had upgraded the game, so it now included far more dinosaurs and more levels to choose from. He selected his favorite avatar, the green Pteranodon.

Moynihan smiled gently. "All right then. You can play for twenty more minutes, then you have to get off." She started to climb down the stairs. "After all, you are not the only one I intend to train using that game."

"All right, Ms. M!" Buzz called out to her, although most of his focus was on this game. He flipped through the list of opponents that were online at this time. There was not a whole lot, which didn't surprise him. There was some sort of extreme sale going on in the mall nearby. He figured the locals would be attracted to it, so not many were near a computer to play this game.

Although Buzz did not mind. There was still a good number of people to challenge online, and he scrolled to try to find one that closely matched his skill level. When he came across one, he quickly put on his headset. He moved his mouse over the avatar, which looked like a raptor with a crest on its head. Buzz had never seen this kind of dinosaur before, but shrugged it off. A dinosaur was a dinosaur.

He clicked on the icon, allowing the avatar to enlargen. The dinosaur was a Guanlong Wucaii. It had a red crest with orange streaks. Its head was black in color with a red lower jaw, the color extending on the underside of its neck. A small feathery mane was centered on the nape of its neck, and a white streak went along the top and bottom of its eyes. Buzz clicked on Challenge, which would send an invitation to the user for a one on one battle.

"Hey! Raptor! Do you want fight me?" Buzz said into the speaker.

In a few seconds, the response came. "All right, sure. Ready whenever you are."

Buzz narrowed his eyes. The voice that came was feminine. "Another girl?" He was not looking forward getting tranced by another girl raptor.

The user, obviously annoyed and had taken offense to Buzz's remark, said, "And what's wrong with girl players? You think we can't play or something?"

Buzz's eyes widened. "Whoa! That's not what I meant at all!" The punk kid quickly said in an apologetic manner. "It's just that I got my tail kicked by two other users playing as Velociraptors, and they were both girls. I'm just afraid I'm going to lose again." Well that was only partially true. Buzz had been challenged by two Velociraptors, but he only lost against one of them. He won against the other, but he isn't sure if that could count, since it was really Victor Veloci.

Buzz frowned as the memories came back to him. When Rodger had first showed off the video game to the Dino Squad, Buzz had taken a huge risk and gave out more information than he should have. He should have realized he was being tricked by an online creep, but he was too busy having fun to realize that. And he was almost turned into Veloci's lab rat because of that. If Ms. Moynihan hadn't tricked Victor using the same technique as Victor did to trick him, Buzz probably would have never returned. He shuddered, not wanting to think about what it would be like to have Victor experiment on him.

"I'm sorry to hear that." The user responded. "But don't think this means I will go easy on you." She chuckled.

Buzz chuckled. "That's all right. I wouldn't have it any other way." The green-haired kid said, smiling in a determined way. "Now let's get this show on the road!"

The screen turned a bright blue for a few seconds, and quickly faded as the level loaded up. It was the ice level. Buzz groaned again. He had not trained for this level. He skipped that lesson, and now fully regrets it. In cold weather, his Pteranodon would lose body heat rapidly. But then again, so would the Guanlong Wucaii, so they were still on even playing terms.

The avatars loaded up. On one end, a green Pteranodon emerged, sporting an orange chest. It spread its wings proudly and screeched at the opponent, a Guanlong Wucaii, standing on the other end of the icy level. In edition to having an ebony body and red underside, it also had white rings around its tail and limbs. It responded with a cry of its own, sounding very raptor-like but had more of a growl to it than a raptor did.

"A..Gu-Gua..." Buzz started to ask, but couldn't get the word out.

"Guanlong Wucaii." The user responded, chuckling. "It was an ancient ancestor of Tyrannosaurus Rex."

Buzz grinned. "Whoa... That's wicked!" The punk teenager was surprised to hear this.

"Yeah. So..are we going to sit here chatting all day or are we going to play?" She asked.

"Oh yeah. I only have about twenty minutes to play so..." Buzz held up his controller and began his attack. The Pteranodon dove down towards the raptor-like dinosaur, its beak opening to try to cut into the smaller animal. The Guanlong Wucaii responded by jumping out of the way in time. It quickly whipped around and jumped on the pterosaur's back.

"No way!" Buzz said, his eyes wide with shock. The Guanlong Wucaii didn't waste anytime and sank its teeth into the neck of the Pteranodon. Buzz quickly maneuvered the flying dinosaur in between two closely grown trees. The theropod bonked its head against a low growing branch and fell off the pterosaur's back. "All right!" He quickly turned his pterosaur avatar around and dove towards the raptor again.

The Guanlong quickly ducked down, making the enormous dinosaur miss it by several inches. "Nice moves." The user playing as the Guanlong said. "But you will have to do better than that if you want to beat me."

"Oh don't worry, I will." Buzz said with confidence.

"By the way, I didn't catch your name. Er..your username I mean." She said quickly, sounding rather embarrassed. "My username is PreGuan20. That's short for Prehistoric Guanlong..I'm not sure why I added in the 20. Guess I thought it sounded cool. Anyway what's your username?"

"My username...?" Buzz said slowly.

"Don't tell me you aren't allowed to reveal your username." The voice came teasingly.

"Of course I can! It's Buzzinator." Buzz said.

"All right, Buzzinator," It was clear PreGuan20 found this username to be hilarious. "Either pick up the pace or you will end up like that poor creature over there." She was referring to a skeleton of a large sauropod that Rodger had programed into the game.

"In your dreams, Guan-girl! Time to get serious!" Buzz declared as he concentrated even more on the game, determined to defeat this girl.

Ms. Moynihan reached the bottom of the steps and approached the remainder of her students. Three of them were seated at the nearby table, looking over their weapons, or Rodger's Toys as Caruso would say. The students sitting down were Caruso, Fiona, and Max. Caruso was of a tall light build, wearing a white shirt and dark blue tie. He wore jeans of a reddish hue. His hair, as blue as his tie, spiked upwards through the use of hair gel.

Next to him sat Max, the jock of the team. He was the only member taller than Caruso. He was more muscular, and had very dark hair. He wear a white shirt with a green jacket and dark blue jeans. And next to him was Fiona, the active female member of the team. She had long red hair and wore a pale beige long-sleeved shirt with a dark brown open top and yellow-orangish pants.

The final member, Rodger, was over at another table, working on fixing one of the Chillers. Fiona had talked about it not shooting properly and Rodger suspected a clog of some sort. He was easily the largest of the team, and the only african-american. He wore a white sports shirt, sleeveless, with baggy black pants. His hair was black and extremely short.

The kids heard Ms. Moynihan's footsteps and turned to face her. Almost immediately, Caruso got up from his chair. "So is it my turn now?" He asked. Moynihan was planning on training the kids alphabetically, with Buzz being first. Caruso was next on the list, then Fiona, then Max, and finally Rodger. "It's been ten minutes already." The training sessions were to last only ten minutes each.

Ms. Moynihan frowned as she recalled that, and felt a little guilty. "I'm sorry, Caruso, but he wanted to play another round so I let him."

"What?!" Caruso exclaimed, his mouth open. "But you said this was only going to last ten minutes!"

Moynihan shook her head. "I know..." The woman said apologetically. "I'm sorry."

"So how much longer do I have to wait now?" Irwin Caruso asked, sitting back down in a pout.

Moynihan shook her head at this behavior. "Twenty minutes." She said.

"Twenty?! Oh man..." Caruso groaned, leaning back in his chair. "Now I'll never make it to the mall in time for the big sale! And I was so looking forward to that new hair gel too..." He earned a rough nudge from one of his team mates. He winced, and glared at Max. "Hey, what was that for?"

"For once, can't you just go through a training session without thinking about yourself?" Max scolded. "It's not like the world is going to end if you don't get that hair gel of yours in the next minute!" He groaned when Caruso turned his back on him.

"For me it will.." Caruso muttered.

"Come on, Caruso." Fiona joined in, showing her disapproval. "It's just hair gel. You can get it any day of the week. Perfect hair isn't as important as being ready to save the world. Why can't you ever understand that?"

Caruso whirled around to face her. "I do understand that! How can I not understand it when you guys keep shoving it down my throat every single day?!" He took in a few breaths before continuing. "Any time you guys want to do something for yourselves, everyone is fine with it! But whenever I want to do something for myself, you all scold me, saying how selfish I am!"

Max gripped the shorter teen by his shoulders and stared at him intently. "You know very well we only scold you if you put your own petty interests ahead of our mission, especially during a mission or training!"

Ms. Moynihan had seen enough. She walked towards the boys, swift for a woman her age, and pushed them apart. "That's enough you two." She said sternly. "I expect my Dino Squad team to behave better than that." She wasn't surprised in Caruso's behavior. He may have seemed vain, but he still cared about the team, and wasn't as selfish as he appeared. This was proven when he gave up being famous a couple times for the sake of the team. But she was a little disappointed in Max. She expected him to handle the situation better than that. "You two shouldn't waste your energy on each other."

"Ms. M is right, yo." Rodger said, finally looking up from the Chiller. "We should save that fighting energy when taking down Veloci and his goons, not wasting it on personal things, or on each other."

"Besides, Caruso," Joanne said gently, "twenty minutes isn't that long of a wait. It will even go by faster if you keep your mind occupied on something."

Caruso slowly sank back into his chair. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Well, I could tell you about my final battle with Victor Veloci." Moynihan suggested. It would be an entertaining story indeed, and could easily take twenty minutes, if not longer, to tell. She knew it would peak her students' interest, since she rarely talked about her early battles with the anthropomorphic Velociraptor. "I think you may find it quite entertaining." She said, smiling.

"Oh?" Caruso looked up.

"All right then, Ms. Moynihan, let's hear it." Max said. Rodger had set down his tools and came towards the table.

"You've peeked my interest, Ms." Rodger said, smiling as he sat down in a chair across from Max.

"All right." Moynihan sat down near the students. They all gave their full attention to her, waiting for her to start telling her story. "Here it goes." She said as she began her tale.

FLASHBACK:

"Hold still!" Yelled a man holding what appeared to be a gun. But instead of bullets it shot out a blue laser. "I can't neutralize your dinosaur powers if you keep moving around like that!" The man had long black hair with red streaks. He wore a red corporate outfit, looking like an important figure. But looks were deceiving. He was Victor Veloci. He was no friend to mankind. He dreamed of the day humanity was wiped from the face of the earth.

He blasted again, narrowly missing a swift moving green raptor. The raptor leaped over him, and lunged from behind, knocking Victor on the ground. She quickly grabbed the gun from his hand and tossed it away. She changed back. It was Ms. Moynihan, though at this age, she was a bit taller, skinnier, and had dark hair. She picked up the gun and pointed it towards Victor, who glared at her.

"What's the matter, Vic?" Joanne said mockingly. "Can't you fight without your precious toys?"

"How dare you say that, Joanne..." Victor seethed. "You should know me like a book now. I don't need that weapon to fight you."

"We'll see about that." Moynihan placed her finger on the trigger. When Victor started making a run towards her, she pulled it, but only heard a click. "What?" She looked at the gun carefully. She noticed the safety lock was on. Her eyes widened. Victor must have turned the safety on before she knocked it from his hands! It was a distraction, meant to preoccupy her long enough so he could...

Moynihan looked up, hoping she could prepare to dodge him, but she did so too late. As soon as she looked up, she felt herself being slammed into the ground. She looked up, and growled. She was now pinned to the ground by her former partner, Victor. "You tricked me."

Veloci laughed half-heartedly. "I had no choice, dear Joanne..." He leaned in a bit closer. "It was the only way to deal with a traitor like yourself..."

"I am no traitor, Victor." Moynihan declared, trying to get him off of her.

Victor bared his teeth, now transformed into sharp canine-like protrusions. "Liar! You betrayed me to be with the..the.. HUMANS!" He said the last word with pure hate in his voice. "You betrayed someone of your own species for these inferior monkeys!"

"If you would just open your eyes, you would see the humans are not as bad as you..." Moynihan tried to explain. She was stopped short when Veloci slapped her across the face, causing her to yelp, and look up at him in shock. He had never done that to her before.

Victor showed no remorse for what he's done. "I'm sick and tired of you saying that everything will work out! Don't you get it, you fool?! Nothing will work out until the humans are gone!"

"Why shouldn't we share the planet with them?" Joanne said cautiously. "After all, they didn't become dominant overnight. It was no fluke, don't you know. Why can't you see they were meant to rule the planet? If they weren't, they would have died out a long time ago."

"They were just lucky!" Victor spat out. "That's all there is to it. They got lucky! They should have died in the Ice Age! The world rightfully belongs to the dinosaurs." His eyes started to glow. "And I'm furious that one of my own BLOOD does not see that."

"The time of the dinosaurs is gone, Vic! Can't you see that? They are never coming back! Your mutant DNA will never be able to bring back the dinosaurs!" Joanne transformed her legs and kicked Victor in the stomach. The Velociraptor man fell to the ground. She slowly rose to her feet, and looked at Victor with determination. "And if you are going to continue to try to defy nature, I will continue to fight you. I will stop you!"

"Such foolishness coming from a once proud dinosaur." Victor said. "It seems these filthy humans have gotten to you. Look what happened to you. You've become just like THEM! All right then, if you're going to act like a human, then you will be treated like a human..." An orange symbol on the form of a Velociraptor, positioned on the left side of his chest, glowed a bright orange. He grew taller, his teeth grew sharper, his mouth grew longer. His clothes disappeared, replaced with scales. Now in Velociraptor form he licked his chops. 'I always thought humans tasted like chicken...'

Joanne took a fighting stance. "Bring it!" An orange symbol on her left shoulder, another Velociraptor, glowed, and she too changed form. Her clothes melted into green scales, a purple crest appeared on her head, and her hands and feet sharped into claws.

Now two Velociraptors stood on either end of the rocky and messy battle field. A green Velociraptor with purple stripes and white underside and a red Velociraptor with black stripes and a pale beige underside. They began to circle each other, their glowing eyes never leaving the other's. They growled and snarled, flexing their muscles. But neither made a move. They instead studied each other, trying to calculate the other's strength.

'Just because I've institutionalized myself with the humans, don't think I've grown weak.' Moynihan stated, her lips curling back to reveal her gums and razor sharp teeth.

Victor opened up his jaws in a dinosaur-style laugh. 'You've grown too soft... You don't have your primal advantage anymore...'

'Oh we'll see about that...' Moynihan held out her arms in a manner a human would if they wanted to hug someone. But to a Velociraptor, it was an invitation to battle, and a threatening posture. Victor accepted the challenge and ran towards her. His maw opened up, saliva spilling out the sides of his reptilian lips as he snapped his jaws at his opponent. Moynihan made a dodge to the left, and struck Victor with her hand, and managed to knock him to the ground.

The red raptor shook his head as he got back to his feet, and slammed against the green raptor's side, knocked her down. He quickly stepped on her and bent down. He tried to bite her, but she pushed his snout away with a clawed hand. She kicked him in the stomach again with her feet. But when she tried to get up, Victor managed to grab onto her back. She screeched as she felt his sharp talons dig into her skin as she fell back down with him.

She desperately kicked away at him, but because he was now on her back, she couldn't reach him with her feet. Struggling onto two legs, she turned her head around and tried to snap at Victor's head. She didn't quite managed to reach him, but managed to land a hit on one of his hands. His eyes snapped open as he let out a screech of pain.

RAAAAAAAAAAA!

He quickly let go of her and backed up a few steps. This gave Joanne the opportunity to head butt Victor in the chest, causing him to stumble backwards, but he did not fall down. Victor looked at his hand. It was a bit shredded, and blood was pouring out. He glared at Moynihan hatefully. He snarled as he gave her his next message, one that nearly sent chills down her spine.

'All right then, fool... I was considering in letting you live, but after this...' Victor held up his shredded paw. 'I will make sure you don't live to see your next birthday! I will make sure you don't leave this place.. alive! You will die at my feet!'

'Wait!' Joanne cried. 'It doesn't have to be this way!' She suddenly regretted attacking him like that. When Victor really gets angry, he only becomes stronger. And when he declares something, he means it, and won't stop until he's fulfilled that statement. She quickly sidestepped when Victor tried to tackle her.

'I'm sorry. But this is the way it has to be. This is what I must do..' Victor said calmly. 'It is what I must do...' He managed to tackle her this time, pushing her against the rocky earth. 'I'm not being cruel, Joanne. I'm just being reasonable.'

'If you're being reasonable, then you'd let me go!' Joanne said angrily.

Victor ignored her. He lowered his head towards her neck, intending on snapping it with his jaws. He opened up his mouth and set his jaws around her neck and began to apply pressure slowly. He could feel Moynihan struggling in his grasp, trying so hard to knock him off. He responded by sinking his teeth into her faster. He was getting close now. His grip was sturdy. All he needed to do was give one quick twist, and it was all over. But something..something just didn't feel right about it. Could he really go through with killing one of his own kind?

He felt like he had to. She did betray him. No, not only him, but all of dinokind. He would never be able to bring back the glorious dinosaur rule with this traitorous raptor around. She knew him too well. She could warn the humans about him. She knows too much. She had to be disposed off... But then again, she couldn't possibly reveal his secret identity without revealing her own. And what if he did something to her..something that if she were to explain would expose her secret? Victor knew how paranoid the human race was. He could get them to turn on Joanne, make her go back to him. He smiled. He liked that idea better.

Victor released his grip on her neck. 'I've got a better idea.. Why should I end your life when I can make you come over to me?' He lifted up his eyes, and started to find a more suitable target. He decided to go for a leg. A leg would do nicely.

'And how are you going to do that?' Joanne asked, her glowing eyes trying to see what he was about to do.

'I'll give you something to remember me by.' Victor sneered, then snapping his jaws on her left leg, at the ankle, at full force. Joanne roared as she felt the white hot pain in her leg. Victor worked his teeth deep into her leg, feeling and tasting the blood as it seeped from the female raptor's leg and into his mouth and along his lips. Once he had a good grip, he gave a sharp twist.

CRUNCH!

The sickening sound of bone snapping filled his head. A pain filled cry of agony escaped Joanne's mouth as Victor got off of her. Moynihan quickly changed back into her human form and pulled her leg towards her. Despite the transformation, her injury remained the same. Her left foot now faced an odd angle. She couldn't even touch it without crying out in pain. She looked up at Victor as tears of pain flowed down her face.

Victor changed back, and looked at her, his eyes narrowed unsympathetically. "Don't look at me like that. I had no choice..Maybe this will teach you a lesson..."

"You monster..." Moynihan managed to say through her pain. "You..you think this will stop me?"

Victor only chuckled in response. It was clear who won this battle today. Joanne hung her head in defeat, shivering from the intense pain she was in. Victor just stood victoriously, smiling down at her in satisfaction...

END FLASHBACK:

Ms. Moynihan finished her story. It was clear, from the look on her face, that this was a really hard story for her to tell. Even though it's been a few decades, the memory of it still haunts her, still pains her. She could still feel the pain of Veloci's jaws on her leg. This is why she carried out a cane. While it had healed, and she gained most use of it back, it still hurts sometimes when she walked, and now has to, sometimes, rely on the cane to help her.

The kids stared at her in awe, their mouths and eyes wide open. Moynihan was right. The story was entertaining. But it was also sad. In the end, the bad guy had won, despite Moynihan's determination. And she still had the scars of that battle.

Caruso opened up his mouth to say something, but only managed out one word. "...whoa..." Suddenly, hair gel and the computer game was no longer on his mind.

"Wait a minute..." Max spoke, pushing himself upwards from his chair with his strong hands. There was something about Moynihan's story that just didn't add up to him. "How could breaking your leg make you 'go back to him'? Wouldn't that just make you less willing to join up with him again?"

Joanne looked up. "A valid question, young Max. You see, Victor knew that I was an honest person. A bit too honest, really. And he knew I couldn't explain my injury to a doctor without lying, if I wanted to hide my and his secret identities. He was hoping that I would reveal the truth, and be forced to join him once more." She chuckled light-heartedly. "But as you can see, I didn't fall for the trick."

"So what happened afterward?" Fiona asked, her hand held out in a human mannerism that signified she wanted her to continue her story. "I mean, how did you manage to get to safety with such an injury?"

"I probably would have died there if some workers hadn't come onto the scene. They helped me to a hospital where my broken leg was treated." Moynihan explained. "They said I was really lucky. If my leg was twisted just a bit more, I would have likely lost the leg entirely."

"Ouch..." Rodger grimaced, eyeing the mentor's left leg sympathetically.

"Oh don't worry about it." Ms. Moynihan said, trying to lighten up the mood a bit. "It was about thirty years ago that happened. We shouldn't dwell on past matters now." She then remembered about Buzz. She looked up to glance at the clock hanging on the wall. She got up from her seat and headed towards the door. "Come on Caruso, it's your turn. The twenty minutes has passed." As she made her way towards the stairs, Caruso, a bit slowly at first, got up from his seat and followed her. He knew better than to disobey her, although she has never been harsh with them before.

"Ahhh!" Buzz screamed as he narrowly dodged one of PreGuan20's attacks. She had managed to get her avatar behind his and almost ripped one of the Pteranodon's wings to shreds. Luckily, at the last minute, he performed another maneuver, this one sending the Guanlong Wucaii smashing into a tree. "That was close!" He could feel his hands were getting really sweaty. This girl was even tougher than Veloci was! And he almost didn't believe that. "But it'll take more than a cheap trick to take down the Buzzinator!"

"Well, Buzzinator, prepare to lose!" PreGuan20 declared. The Guanlong Wucaii had already recovered from its headlong collision with the tree, and was now back in action. Screeching almost like an eagle, it made a dash to where the green pterosaur had retreated to. The Pteranodon had flew inside a slippery ice cavern. As the Guanlong entered, it struggled to stop as it started to slip along the ice.

Buzz grinned. This is exactly where he wanted to lead PreGuan20. If Ms. Moynihan could trick him into going too close to a volcano, he knew he could trick this female gamer into going into an ice cavern after him. He had judged the Guanlong's feet were not designed for such surfaces, and he knew that PreGuan20 had not had much experience in this level. She had told him so herself. And since he was playing as a flying dinosaur, he had the upper hand in the cave. "Got you right where I want you!" He quickly started mashing buttons on his controller, turning the Pteranodon around from a sharp and dark corner, right to where the raptor-like dino was slipping and sliding.

The opponent didn't have much of an option now. She could no longer defend herself, and she couldn't turn around fast enough or efficiently enough to stop him. The pterosaur flew in fast, the wings outstretched as it dove. Within seconds, the beak collided with the Guanlong Wucaii, and made a critical hit. The Guanlong Wucaii reared its head up and roared as the avatar disappeared, and a score appeared across the screen.

5,000 POINTS

"Yes! I just whooped your prehistoric tail!" Buzz exclaimed happily, leaning back in his chair, his arms outstretched as though he was preparing to give someone a big hug.

The user on the other side forced a chuckle. It was clear she was not happy about loosing. But it was a fair game and all. And she shouldn't expect to win all the time. "That was a good game, I admit." She said after several seconds. "That was some trick you pulled, luring me into that ice cavern. Maybe we could play again sometime?"

"Oh sure, of course!" Buzz said cheerfully. "It was a blast playing with you."

"It was a blast playing with who?" asked a voice behind Buzz. Eyes wide, Buzz whirled around to see Moynihan and Caruso emerging from the stairs. Caruso was trying hard not to laugh. "Did you meet a new girlfriend or something?"

Buzz glared at Caruso. Sometimes he just couldn't understand that boy. "She's not my girlfriend!"

Caruso grinned. "Ooo...but she's a giiiiirrrlll..." The blue-haired taunted playfully. "You should so give her your phone number!"

"Don't fight you two." Ms. Moynihan was again annoyed. She didn't want to have to deal with even more of these problems. She glanced over at Buzz. "It's Caruso's turn. He's waited long enough. You can go back downstairs with the others."

"All right." Buzz turned back to the monitor. "I've gotta get going now. So see ya later!"

"See ya." PreGuan20 said, and then the connection died. The screen went back to the main title screen. Caruso had that mischievous grin on his face, but quickly wiped it off when he earned a glare from Buzz.

Buzz got up from his seat. As Buzz went towards the stairs, Moynihan continued, "But don't tell them about the..surprise." She winked.

"Huh...? Oh! That surprise!" Buzz grinned sheepishly. "Don't worry, Ms. I won't." He began his descent down the stairs, chuckling to himself as he imagines Caruso falling into Moynihan's trap like he had, possibly even quicker. Knowing Caruso and his big ego, he was sure to slip up very easily. He noted to himself to take a picture of Caruso after his humiliating defeat. It would be a sort of revenge on Caruso's teasing just a few moments ago.

As Caruso went towards the chair, he looked out at Buzz with a quizzical look on his face. "A surprise..?" He looked at his old-aged mentor. "What surprise? What are you guys talking about?"

Joanne Moynihan gently pushed Irwin into the seat. "Sorry, but I can't reveal that. You will have to find out for yourself." She walked back towards her desk and opened up her laptop computer. She logged back onto the website, and prepared to set up the duel. "So are you ready, Caruso?"

Caruso tentatively picked up the controller. "Yes, I'm ready."

"So Buzz," Max asked as his punk friend sat back in his chair, "How was it?"

"It went well." Buzz said. "At least I passed anyway..I think.. I mean that..." He quickly stopped himself. He almost disobeyed Moynihan. Luckily the others didn't seem to notice the abrupt ending of his sentence. "She was right of course." He said quickly. "It was an excellent way to train."

Rodger chuckled. "I knew my video game wasn't a waste of time." He couldn't help but feel ecstatic that Moynihan had chosen his game to be part of their new training program. While it was not the same as training physically, it was a safer alternative. There were situations presented in the game they have not yet encountered, but may have to sometime in the future. Why risk their necks training in the real situation when they could just play a simulator and be better prepared that way? And who said video games were a waste of time?

"Sure wasn't." Buzz grinned at his large friend. "It was really helpful. I..."

"So Buzz, I hear you got yourself a girlfriend." Fiona said teasingly, though to a less extent than Caruso said it.

"No I don't I..." then it hit Buzz. "Wait a minute! How do you know I was playing against a female gamer?" Fiona chuckled as she pulled out her cellphone and opened it up. She sat it on the table and pushed it towards Buzz, who then picked it up. On the little screen, it had a picture of Caruso grinning, and next to it it said 'hey buzz has a grlfrnd online'. Buzz gritted his teeth. "Why that...I'll kill him!" He started towards the stairs when Max grabbed him by the arm.

"Just let it go." Max said. "He's just teasing you."

Buzz sighed. "All right..." He let Max guide him back to his seat. "So..." He said, trying to start up a conversation to pass the time. If Moynihan spent ten minutes on each of them, it means they'll be here for about an hour, longer most likely due to his extra time on the computer. "What did you guys talk about while I was up there?"

"Well..." Fiona said. "She told us about her final battle with Victor. He almost ripped her leg off."

"Whoa...no way..." Buzz said, eyes opened up wider. "How did that happen?"

"She was battling with him, and he managed pin her down, and broke her leg with his jaws." Max explained.

"The doctors said she was lucky she didn't lose it." Rodger said.

"Oh man..." Buzz grimaced, mentally picturing a near crippled woman in his mind. He stared down at his own legs, not wanting to imagine what it would be like to have a blood thirsty raptor tearing at them.

Without warning, a scream filled the air. The Dino Squad jerked up with a start, preparing for battle. Then another scream, this one sounding more like a word. When they recognized what it was, they started to giggle a bit.

"NOOO! NO IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!" Came Caruso's voice from upstairs. It was apparent that he had already lost to Moynihan. It has only been about three minutes too.

Buzz laughed, and took out his cellphone. "Oh I gotta take a picture of this!" He dashed back up the circular stair case. Fiona, Max, and Rodger looked at each other, not understanding why Buzz would want to take a picture of Caruso.

After a few seconds, they heard Caruso shouting, "HEY! COME BACK HERE WITH THAT!" Then they heard the pounding footsteps of people running down the stairs rapidly. In a matter of seconds, Buzz was back in the lab, holding his cellphone in his hand. Right behind him was Caruso, lunging at Buzz to get the cellphone. "YOU ARE NOT GOING TO SHOW THAT TO ANYONE!"

"But you told Fiona that I had a girlfriend!" Buzz said in a playful tone. "This is just me getting back at you!" He tossed the phone to Fiona. "Take a look!"

"DON'T LOOK!" Caruso screamed as he lunged at Fiona, who just sidestepped. He fell to the ground.

On the cellphone screen was Caruso. He was sitting in the seat, still staring at the monitor. His eyes were wide as saucers, his mouth wide open. His hair looked spikier, like a cat that felt threatened. His face was red in anger and frustration. Fiona chuckled. "Awww.. Caruso, you look so cute when you're angry!"

Caruso blushed intensely as she said this, and the others started to laugh about it. He glared at Buzz, and declared, "I will get you for this!"

"We're even now." Buzz said, grinning mischievously.

In another part of the United States, in a large city, bustling with activity, a red helicopter, armed with sharp teeth along the front, giving it the appearance of a dinosaur, casted a shadow over the city. It approached a tall building in particular, and landed on the roof. The doors opened up, revealing a tall, handsome-looking man. It was Victor Veloci. He had just gotten back from a search. He was attempting to locate his perfect dinosaurs in Maine. That is where that punk kid Buzz said he saw the perfect dinosaur.

But it wasn't like he could get information from him now. The kid was probably eaten by the Pteranodon, and when Victor tried getting back on the game, it told him he was banned. He was annoyed, but he shrugged it off. He would just have to find some other way to track down his perfect dinosaurs. He had to admit, it would have been nice to have captured Buzz too. He could have forced more information from him. Maybe he even knew where the dinosaurs' lair was.

But regardless of where the dinosaurs were, he found it puzzling that none of the humans have been giving any solid evidence or reports on it. Surely these creatures weren't stupid enough to miss a dinosaur, something that big. There had been some reports, but they were all talking about how there weren't any dinosaurs, that it was just a stunt, or balloons, or whatever. He seethed silently at this. Even when the evidence was out in their face, they still believe it was all fake. They refused to believe their own eyes.

But still, not all humans were that stupid, he had to admit. There would have been at least a few humans who would have tried to report the truth. But so far he found no such person. He had found no leads as to where his perfect dinosaurs were spotted. They appeared in various locations, not just in Maine. And they were the same ones as well. They were the same species, the same colors, the same sizes, and they always seemed to appear wherever his primordial ooze. They were the ones neutralizing his experiments. He theorized it was because of their perfect genes. They were probably canceling out the effected genes.

But what he didn't understand is how they could appear in so many states in such short periods of time. This wasn't normal migrating behavior for these dinosaurs. Maybe the landscape was just confusing them. It has been over sixty-five million years and a lot has changed in that time. Even if humans had never appeared on the planet, the continents would not have stayed the same. They would have shifted, and the weather would have changed as well.

Regardless, he had considered the puzzling issue of the dinosaurs traveling so far so quickly. There would have to be some logical reason. And why would they be traveling together? If anything, that T-Rex should have tried to eat the Stegosaurus or the Styracosaurus. The Pteranodon should have flown off and the Spinosaurus would either challenge the Tyrannosaurus Rex or attacked the Pteranodon. And yet in the times he's met up with the dinosaurs, this has yet to occur. It was very strange indeed.

He was pondering this as he entered his lab. It was a fusion of modern human technology and the prehistoric Mesozoic Era. Victor took pride in the design, as this was the closest to home he could feel in this modern world. He headed towards the computer and sat down in the chair. The huge monitor in front of him was displaying a map of the United States. He scanned all around, but the computer was not picking up anything on the dinosaurs he so longed to capture. "Still nothing..." He growled under his breath. "They always appear and disappear as though by magic. How is that possible?"

He slowly gazed up at Maine, and leaned back in his chair. He was sure the lair was there, somewhere. His thoughts slowly unraveled the events that occurred when he saw that yellow SUV. It had some sort of trace of something in it. He couldn't tell exactly what it was. He recalled how the Stegosaurus suddenly appeared, and gave away his position. Then the other perfect dinosaurs showed up and freed the Stegosaurus when he nearly captured it.

Why had the Stegosaurus showed up? All that lay ahead was some useless lighthouse. And it seemed as though it was trying to protect the SUV. That didn't make much sense to him either. A dinosaur would never protect a human... Well most dinosaurs wouldn't anyway. He knew of one dinosaur who would...

"Joanne Moynihan.. Somehow I'm sure she's involved with these dinosaurs." Victor said as he put his hands together. "And I'm sure she's the reason I can't track these dinosaurs. Anytime I get a clear shot of them on my monitor, it goes static. It can't be a coincidence." He chuckled darkly. "Oh you're clever, Moynihan. But not as clever as me."

If Moynihan really was the reason he couldn't track the dinosaurs, then all he would have to do is locate the source. If he could find out where the radio waves are coming from that are blocking his monitors, he could track down Moynihan and capture her. Or he could at least override her attempts to block him. Yes, that sounded a bit easier for him.

He looked around his lab and spotted the large containers of primordial ooze he had stored up. None of them contained genes perfect enough to accurately transform anything. He had already tested them. But something had to have perfectly mutated the dinosaurs. There had to be something that ooze had that the others did that. But just what was that? To find out, he needed to locate the dinosaurs and capture one of them, just one of them. Then he could perfect his experimental DNA and really change the face of the world.

Just then, his phone rang. He picked up the receiver and placed it against his ear. "Victor Veloci speaking. Who is this?" he said, trying to sound polite. Despite his hatred of humans, he hasn't shown too much hostility towards his henchmen, since they all agreed to turn into dinosaurs and help him take over the world. He didn't see the need of killing off humans who shared his vision, or submitted to his will. After a few seconds, he suddenly sat straight up. "What? Are you sure?" He asked carefully.

The voice on the other end confirmed their statement. "I'll be right there!" Victor quickly got up out of his seat and hung up the phone. He had just received a phone call from one his men. They had just interrogated some kid, who claimed to have been trying out for the Raptors football team. He had mentioned that he saw some kid transform his arm into the leg of something bluish purple, and scaly. He could be making this up, but he might as well talk to the kid to get more information from him. This was the biggest lead he has had in a long time. If this teen knows enough, he could soon capture all the perfect dinosaurs...

The flight took him back to Kittery High, where the football field lay. The helicopter landed nearby, since it would be strange for a dinosaur-like copter to land on school property. He climbed out of the helicopter and walked towards the mens' locker room, where one of his men was standing next to a teen, still in his football outfit. As he saw Victor walk in, he quickly stood up. "S-Sir, I..." He was unsure of how to talk to the high-ranking man standing before him.

"Please, no formalities." Victor raised his hand, making the young human stop. "Don't be nervous. Just tell me what you saw."

The teenager swallowed quickly. "W-Well, sir, I was trying to tackle this other player in front of me, and then he told me to talk to the hand, and then he changed his arm into a leg."

Victor cocked an eyebrow. "Could you describe it?"

"Well, it was scaly, purple..or maybe blue.. had really short stubby toes." The football player answered.

Victor recognized this description. He recalled his perfect Stegosaurus had such legs. "Tell me..did you see any..plates form on his back?"

"Now that you mention it..." the player said. "I did, for a split second. I heard someone say ouch, and thought I saw what appeared to be a reddish plate growing from his back."

Reddish plates were also present on the back of the perfect Stegosaurus. Victor was almost certain now. This football player could very well be his ticket to capturing all the perfect dinosaurs! But still, he would have to find someway to confirm this. He couldn't just walk up to the guy's house and ask for a blood sample. That would be too suspicious. And besides, he didn't even know what this guy looked like, or knew his name.

"Could you tell me anything about this guy? His name? His appearance?" Victor asked.

"Oh yes, of course. He's Irwin Caruso. He goes to this school, hangs out most of the time with some friends." The football player said, sitting back down. "He wears a white shirt with a dark blue tie, and his hair is spiked upwards, dyed blue. You'd recognize it."

"Irwin Caruso." Victor repeated, memorizing the name. "Thank you for the information." Now all Victor needed to do is figure out a plan to get a blood sample from Irwin to confirm his suspicions.

"That's enough of this childish behavior!" Moynihan said as she stood between Caruso and Buzz. For the past hour, they have been constantly bickering at each other. Moynihan tried to focus on training the other students upstairs, but sometimes the arguments go so loud it just distracted her from the training session. After she failed to complete the training with Rodger, she has had enough. She had stormed down the stairs, something she has never done before, especially given her weak leg.

Moynihan had also never really yelled at them before, but Caruso and Buzz had pushed her patience. She calmed herself down before continuing to speak with them, but they could tell she was still angry with them. Caruso and Buzz backed away from each other. "Is there any reason why you two are wasting so much energy fighting each other? You two aren't enemies, don't ya know? I would expect such childish behavior from two-year olds, but not from teenagers such as yourselves. You should be mature enough to know better."

"But, Ms. Moynihan, he won't erase that embarrassing picture he took of me!" Caruso complained.

"I only took it because you wouldn't stop calling PreGuan20 my girlfriend!" Buzz spat back.

"I was only teasing you! I can't believe you were taking me seriously!" Caruso exclaimed.

"And I can't believe you thought I was serious when I said I was going to post this on my blog! You know I agreed not to post any pictures of us on the web!" yelled Buzz.

Professor Moynihan groaned, rubbing her temples with her fingers. This arguing was starting to give her a headache. Trying so hard to keep herself calm, she gave both boys a stern but gentle look. This caused them to shut their mouths. When Moynihan looked at them like that, they knew they had better listen to her. They walked back to their seats, and sat back down. They refused to look at each other however. Moynihan smiled softly, but was still upset with their behavior. "You two seem to be forgetting that you are supposed to save your fighting energy for Victor Veloci. You will need all of it, don't you know?"

"Yeah yeah..." Buzz muttered.

"We know." Caruso said.

"If you ever have to fight Victor, remember this. You will need all the willpower you have. He has his ways to make humans like you submit to him. Don't waste all this energy on petty arguing. Save it up in case you need to use it against Victor." Moynihan tightened her grip on her cane. "I hope such a day never arrives, but if it does, remember what I just told you."

"Like Victor will ever find out about us." Caruso said, almost laughing.

"With the way you try to transform for fame, I wouldn't doubt he'll find out." Rodger said as he finally came back down the steps. He was busy testing out a new level in his game.

"Do you honestly believe that I will be the one responsible for Victor find out our secret?" Caruso asked, raising his arms in the air. Everyone in the room except Moynihan nodded their heads. "I can't believe this... I'm being blamed for something that hasn't happened yet!"

"Calm down Caruso." said Fiona. "No one is blaming you for anything. We're just saying..."

Caruso growled. "I know what you're saying. You're all saying that if Victor catches us, it'll be completely my fault!"

Moynihan placed a hand on Caruso's shoulder. "Perhaps it's time for you and the others to go home. It is getting late anyway. Perhaps sleep will help calm your nerves." She said in an almost motherly way. She hated to see the children upset. She smiled softly as she felt Caruso relax his shoulders and breathe a sigh of defeat.

"All right, Ms. Moynihan." Caruso said.

"Oh man, I promised my folks I would be home about ten minutes ago!" Fiona said, running towards her motorcycle and hopping on. "Goodnight!"

"And I need to help out my folks with the garage." Max said as he hopped on his motorcycle. "See ya, Professor Moynihan!"

As Buzz and Rodger got on their motorcycles and said their goodbyes, Caruso lingered behind a little. He placed his hand on his bike, and was about to get on. But something was stopping him. Something was on his mind. He turned back to Moynihan, who was still standing there. He sighed, and walked back towards her.

Moynihan frowned slightly. "Is something the matter, Caruso?" The woman inquired.

"Do you think they're right?" Caruso asked. "Do..you think Victor will find out the truth..because of me?"

"Oh don't worry about what the others said." Moynihan said in a comforting tone. "They're just as capable of exposing the secret as you are. All it would take is one slip up. Anyway don't worry so much about it. You should get some rest now."

"All right." Caruso said. "Goodnight, Ms. Moynihan." With that, Caruso got on his motorcycle and drove away.

Moynihan smiled, and closed the door. She heard some kind of beeping coming from the computer upstairs. She hurried up as fast as she could and made her way towards the computer she had used to train her students on. She closed down the game and opened up another menu. It was a map of the USA, similar to Victor's. The radar had picked up something.

She couldn't suppress a gasp as she recognized the symbol flashing on the screen. It was Victor's symbol. He was coming back to Maine. And to make matters worse, it looks like he was heading straight towards Kittery High. "Oh no..."

She swiftly picked up a phone and dialed Max. He was assigned second-in-command after all. The phone rang twice and she heard a click, and then a voice on the other side. "Hello?" Max asked. "Who is this?"

"This is Mothersaurus." Prof. Moynihan said.

"What is it?" Max asked.

"I just picked up something on the radar." Moynihan said, sounding concerned. "Victor is coming to Kittery High."

"What?!" Max said breathlessly. "Why? Is he going to try to spread his mutant monsters or mutant plants again?"

"I wish I knew, Max." Moynihan said. "But I regret to inform you that I do not know what he wants at Kittery High. Maybe he wants to interrogate some students and..." Her voice trailed off. Her eyes gazed on the date the monitor displayed. She started to shake visibly, and she almost dropped the phone in her hand.

Max noticed the abrupt stop and became concerned. "Is something wrong?"

"He isn't heading towards Kittery High... he's already here." Moynihan said, barely above a whisper.

Now it was Max's turn to gasp. "What?! He's already here? Why would he go to Kittery High?"

"He must know something, but..I can't think of what...except..." Moynihan trailed off again. There was something that happened at Kittery that Victor Veloci may have found out about. There was the football tryouts that Caruso and Max participated in. Caruso had been using his dinosaur powers to cheat so he could please his parents. He admitted to not using a whole lot, but could Victor of spotted him somehow anyway? Or could one of the students reported the strange behavior directly to Victor? "Oh no..." She breathed.

"Do you know why he came?" Max asked worriedly.

"I think I do..." She said. "I think he's coming for Caruso."

"What..but why... how did he... Oh no.. the football game!" Max slapped himself in the face. "Someone must have seen it..and they must have told Victor! What are we going to do, Ms. M?"

"I'm not sure at the moment. I doubt he knows where any of you kids live, so I suspect he'll be at the school tomorrow to find Caruso. Tell the others to keep an eye out for him. If you see him, try to behave like you normally would. Don't draw attention to yourself. " Moynihan explained. "Tell Caruso if he sees Victor, to just get away. Chances are whoever told Victor what they saw may have also given a description of him. We can't risk Caruso getting spotted."

"Will do, Moynihan. Max out." Max said. Then the phone went dead.

Moynihan hung up the phone, and looked out the window at the darkened sky. She felt her heart grow heavy. What were they to do if Victor knows the truth? And what if Victor found her there? He didn't know she worked as a teacher at Kittery High. Even in her old age, he'd still recognize her by scent. Would he single her out as well? She shook her head. She shouldn't have to worry. As long as Caruso stayed hidden, and she and the others acted casually, there would be no reason for Victor to suspect anything. She prayed he would be discouraged and leave disgruntled and disappointed.

"Good luck to us all." Moynihan said as she turned out the lights and headed to the bedroom. Rump ran up next to the couch and curled up next to it, and went to sleep.

The next day, the Dino Squad, now in Kittery High, were gathered in the library, where they hoped to discuss the situation without drawing attention to themselves. They all sat at one table together, a couple times looking around to make sure no one was watching. Caruso folded up his arms angrily.

"I still don't understand why I have to go running like a chicken." Caruso said a bit bitterly.

"Because, Caruso, Victor might know you can turn into a dinosaur, and if he catches you, he could force information from you." Max tried to explain.

"I doubt that player got a good enough look at me for..." Caruso started.

Fiona interrupted him. "But we can't take that risk, Caruso. Max is right. The best thing you can do is hide anytime you see Victor. Don't let him see you. Who knows? He might even recognize you from what the football player told him, provided that's what happened anyway.

"See?" Caruso stated. "Even you don't know if that really happened at all. Maybe Victor was here for another reason. Why should I get myself all worked up over nothing?" Buzz opened up his mouth to give a remark of his own, but stopped when Rodger gave him a nudge.

"Look, Caruso, this is serious. Victor is here, in our school. If he knows anything, anything at all about what what happened...we just can't risk it. We don't want you to get hurt." Max said as gently and firmly as he could. "And we don't want to jeopardize the team. If something happens to us..who'll save the world from Victor Veloci?"

Caruso growled softly. "I can take care of myself!" The blue-haired teen said, sitting up from his chair. "I don't need to be babysat!"

"We're not babysitting you, Caruso." Rodger said. "We just want you to keep out of harm's way. We're just trying to help you."

"Yeah, Caruso. Don't be so sour about." Fiona chimed in.

Caruso sank back in his chair. He had to admit, he did seem to make a big deal out of this. They were speaking the truth after all. They were just worried about his welfare. And not just his welfare, but the safety of themselves, and others. He didn't want to believe Victor might know he was a dinosaur. But if he did know, he couldn't really risk getting spotted. If Victor did know what he looked like, and if he saw him, he could come up with a valid excuse to get him alone.

"All right..." Caruso said softly, giving into his friends. "I promise I'll hide if I see Victor rearing his ugly head my way."

"Promise?" Max said, his hand on Caruso's shoulder.

"I promise." Caruso said, managing a small smile. "Don't worry about me. Victor won't know I'm here."

At that moment, the school bell rang. The group of teens looked up at the nearby clock. Science class was going to start soon. They knew they better pack up their things and get going. Prof. Moynihan didn't like to deal with tardy students. Max pushed himself away from the desk and slowly rose up to his feet. "Well, time for class." He said as the others got up from their seats as well. One by one, they started to walk out of the library doors. Science class was on the other side of the building. They would have to move quickly if they wanted to get there before the doors closed and the class started.

After Fiona, Buzz, and Rodger left, Max stopped in the doorway, and realized Caruso hadn't left yet. He turned around to see Caruso had sat back down. The jock groaned slightly. He didn't have much time to waste. He was about to walk out the door, but stopped himself. Giving another groan, the teen walked back to the table, and put his hands on it and leaned towards Caruso. "Hey, it's time to go class. Are you coming or what?"

Caruso looked up at Max, appearing confused. "I thought I was supposed to stay hidden."

"Not during Science class. Remember, we're all in that class. If Victor knows anything, he wouldn't try to..." Max tried to explain.

"Well you do have a good point there." Caruso said, smiling a bit. He then frowned a bit. "So what am I supposed to do the rest of the day? Maybe I should just call in sick and go home."

Max was growing a bit impatient. If they didn't hurry it up, they would be late for class. And what if Victor spotted them on the way there? It wasn't like he didn't have the power to make them come with him. Surely he would have spoken with the teachers, and they probably gave him permission to do that if he felt the need to. The only place they were really safe was Ms. Moynihan's class. And they only had a couple minutes now to get there.

"Listen, Caruso. We'll try to discuss this in Ms. Moynihan's classroom." Max said, trying to pull Caruso from his seat. "It's going to start soon, and we don't want to get caught in the hallway. Victor might spot you and try to take you with him. He's probably convinced the teachers to allow him to do that."

"So..why doesn't he just tell them to send me into an office alone with the vicious raptor?" Caruso said sarcastically, trying to hide a grin.

"Don't give him any ideas." Max hissed. He roughly pulled Caruso out of his seat and started to drag him out the door with him. "Now let's go."

"All right, but can you at least let me go?" Caruso complained. "I have legs you know."

Max released his grip on Caruso and they started down the hallway. Hordes of students were walking in every direction, heading to their respective classes. It was unusually crowded this day, making navigating the hallways even more difficult than usual. Max and Caruso had to push and squeeze their way past many other students who are trying just as hard to get through themselves. Caruso felt himself being pushed back a little. Grunting, he managed to squeeze through two more students, and Max was not having an easier time himself. He was nearly knocked in a whole new direction because of a student that wasn't paying attention to where he was going.

Caruso suddenly felt himself being pushed up against a locker due to another group of students walking his direction. He looked around to try to find Max, but he had already disappeared down the hallway. Caruso knew there had to be only about a minute left to get back to his class. He pushed his way through the crowd and tried to follow Max's direction. But with so many students desperately trying to reach their own class, Caruso didn't notice he was being herded in another direction, and towards another part of the school.

Max arrived at Moynihan's class just in time. As he walked in, the bell had rung again, and everyone else was already seated down. He made his way to his seat and sat down. He looked at Ms. Moynihan as she was starting the class. Today's subject seemed to be about DNA again. This past week she seemed to want to focus on DNA and genes in general. Max didn't mind. He was pretty good on this subject. So were the others, well except for Caruso. Caruso may have been good with sports, and good with looking good in general. But he was no whiz when it came to subjects like Science and Math.

He chuckled softly and looked behind him to greet Caruso. Caruso would sit next to Buzz in class, and they were at the top row. But his smile cleared away when he only saw an empty chair. Where was Caruso? He was right behind him in the hallway, and Caruso knows very well where Ms. Moynihan's room was. It wouldn't be like him to get lost. Maybe he was just lagging behind a bit, yes. That had to be it. Max tried to calm himself down and turned back to the teacher as she pulled out some slides to begin the class with.

The class had started now. The jock was trying to focus on the teacher, and tried to follow along with what she was telling them. But his thoughts kept going back to Caruso. About ten minutes had passed already, and there was still no sign of him. He was never this late. He would sometimes be caught in the bathroom, putting in hair gel for several minutes, trying to make it look good. But he wasn't vain enough to be more than ten minutes late, could he?

Max eyed the remaining team members. They each gave him the same worried look. Something just wasn't right. Caruso should have been here by now, and yet they hadn't heard the door open, or hear one of his usual excuses of being late. And Max could tell Ms. Moynihan was looking worried as well. Several times, she would quickly glance up at the door, expecting Caruso come in. But since she was in the middle of teaching, she couldn't just leave the class to find Caruso. This wasn't an elementary school. This was high school. The students were should be responsible enough to show up in class at the right time.

Ms. Moynihan was thinking of calling up the principal to let him know there was a student wandering the hallways. But she decided against that. She didn't know when or if Victor was going to be in the school at any given time. If she told the principal, the principal would speak over the intercom, telling Caruso to go the office. If Victor happened to be inside the building, he would hear that, and he could make his way towards the office to catch up to Irwin. She couldn't take that risk. She trusted Max had given Caruso the warning, so he would know to hide if he spotted Veloci.

Buzz fumbled with his pencil and glanced again over at the empty seat where Caruso was supposed to be sitting. He couldn't imagine what was taking him so long. The hallways indeed crowded today, but that shouldn't have been a problem, right? They've dealt with crowds like that before, and still made it to class on time. But on the other hand, he had noticed it was a bit too crowded today. He couldn't really figure out why, though. There weren't anymore students today...Then it hit him. He recalled some classes had switched, making more students go in one particular way, which would contribute to an increased difficulty of navigating the hallways. If Caruso was caught up in that crowd, he could have been pushed towards another part of the school...

"Hey, what's wrong?" asked a voice from someone below him.

"Oh..hey McFinn." Buzz greeted. McFinn had been moved to a new seat after the bullying incident, and he no longer picked on Buzz. While they hadn't been that close of friends, they now respected each other. "I'm just worried about Caruso. Have you seen him?"

McFinn, the chubby student, shook his head. "I'm sorry, I haven't. Why?"

"No reason. I'm just...a bit worried about him." Buzz said before turning his attention back on the teacher. He didn't want to get detention for talking in class, and neither did McFinn.

Caruso panted as he leaned against a broad door. "F-Finally..got here." He heaved slowly as he tried to catch his breath. The bell had already rang, and he knew he was so very late. But he hadn't run into Victor at all in the hallway, and once he entered the room, he would be out of Victor's sights, at least for the next hour or so. He fumbled with the door handle and turned it. He opened up, about to call out to Moynihan, but he shut his mouth at the site.

The room was completely dark and empty. The room didn't look anything like Moynihan's. Instead he saw instruments strewn across several desks and on the walls. Music sheets were plastered on the wall, and the room in general was of a different color. One of the windows was shattered due to a baseball incident. Caruso looked around the room. Unless Moynihan suddenly changed profession, he was clearly in the wrong room. The music class was nowhere near the Science room. He must have taken a wrong turn.

"Oh no..the guys are gonna kill me..." Caruso grumbled as he shut the door and turned around. He looked down the hallway, and tried to remember where he needed to go. He had gone to this school for a couple years now, so he should know his way around by now. But today, today was different. He must be getting as worried about Victor as the others are. He had to laugh it off. Although he agreed to hide from Victor if he saw him, he still refused to believe Victor would recognize him. Oh sure he's seen his face before, but not for very long. The first time Victor laid eyes on him and his friends was when he used a trick to fool Victor into thinking one of his own men was crazy. He remembered how Veloci reacted to that. He had scared off that one guy when he mentioned something about dinner. Caruso pondered what happened to that guy.

He suspected Victor probably ate the poor guy. Just the way he was looking at him just made him shudder a bit, feeling sorry for that guy. In a way, he couldn't blame him for running off like that. He felt relieved, at that moment, that Victor didn't know that they knew he was a Velociraptor. Victor was still hiding his secret identity from the world, and, despite how much it bothered him mentally, he had to continue acting like a human. The only ones who knew his secret identity was his own henchmen, the Dino Squad, and Ms. Moynihan. And they had to keep it a secret themselves, for if the truth were to come out, Moynihan had feared that more harm would come. The people may not understand, and label the Dino Squad, not just Victor and his goons, as the enemy.

But he pushed it aside. He had to stop thinking about that insane Velociraptor now. "Okay..so if Music class is here, then Science class should be..." He told himself as he made his way back towards the library where he had been about fifteen minutes ago. He stopped in front of the doorway, and looked down both hallways that branched out a few inches past the library doors. "Then Science class should be... down here." He made a turn to the right. "Man, how am I going to explain this to Ms. Moynihan?"

"Ms. Moynihan?" said a voice behind him. Caruso stopped short. He recognized that voice. But he couldn't act so suspiciously. He slowly turned around and saw Victor Veloci standing there, leaning against the wall. He was smiling at the young boy, and was making no threatening gestures. He didn't make a move towards the boy, nor did he try to lure the boy to come near him. Instead he just folded his arms, and asked, "Who is Ms. Moynihan? Is she your teacher?" Victor asked softly.

"I..." Caruso started, but Veloci interrupted him.

"And why aren't you in your class? Wouldn't she be angry with you?" Victor asked, trying to make himself sound concerned. He was trying his best not to sound angry or annoyed when talking about Moynihan. He was not expecting to hear her name while in this school. So this is where she was hiding the whole time. She had disguised herself as a school teacher. If he didn't think she was institutionalized before, this would surely change his mind. Moynihan had disappeared from his sights about thirty years ago. He wouldn't be surprised if this is where she was hiding the whole time.

Such a coward she was, Victor believed. He recalled how furious he was when his initial plan to bring her back hadn't worked. In fact, it only made her worse. It made her even more like the humans. She had become even closer to them than before. And this, working as a teacher, was proof. Teaching the next generation of humans... Victor couldn't think of anything lower for a Velociraptor to be part of. The Joanne he knew wouldn't waste time on humans. She would follow him, no matter where he went. And now the humans had brainwashed her... The thought of it sickened him.

"Well..." Caruso broke his train of thoughts. "You're probably right." He said hurriedly. "I'd better get back to class now. So if you don't mind, I best be going now." He suddenly felt someone stop him, a hand gripping his shoulder. He looked up at Victor, and asked, "What are you doing?"

Victor tried to look as concerned as he could without appearing suspicious. "You seem..troubled. Is something the matter?"

Irwin let out a sigh and turned his head away. "Oh nothing is the matter, sir. "

"Oh come now..surely there must be something bothering you." Victor said, trying to coax the teen to relax his shoulders. Victor didn't want to make his move if the teen was too tense. Drawing blood without being noticed wasn't going to be easy. He couldn't very well just order a blood draw from the kid. That would appear too suspicious. He would have to get a tiny amount. A tiny amount would be enough, and he could do that without the use of a needle. Oh sure he could have just sent a mutant mosquito after Caruso, but insects aren't known for their intelligence, and it would surely feed on more than one student.

"Well I should be heading back to class anyway." Caruso said, trying to get himself away from Victor.

"Then let me walk you to your class." Victor offered, gently pushing Caruso towards the door he was headed. Caruso gulped, but tried not to show his nervousness. Victor was just leading him to the door that's all. Maybe he really hadn't recognized him.

When Caruso wasn't looking, Victor slowly transformed three of his finger nails into raptor talons. He slowly applied pressure as they got closer and closer to the door. With a quick flick of the wrist, he broke the skin, and three small cuts were now present on Caruso's shoulder. Caruso let out a yelp. "What was that?" He said, looking at Victor in shock.

Victor attempted to look apologetic. "Oh dear..must have slipped." He said, his bloodied hand now behind his back. "I apologize." He backed up away from Caruso, and turned toward where a student would walk if they were going to exit the building. "This concludes my visit to Kittery High."

Caruso frowned slightly. "What were you doing here?" asked the young blue-haired student. "I thought big businessmen like yourself had better things to do than visit high schools."

Victor chortled at this remark. "Right you are, boy. But you see, I heard reports of something..strange going on here. But I guess I listened to the wrong reports." He shrugged. He had been disappointed many times before anyway. He just learned to deal with it. "Anyway, I must get back to my company, Raptor Dyne, before they begin a search party for me. Pleasure doing business with you, Irwin Caruso."

Caruso gaped. "Wait..how did you know my..." But when he turned around, Victor was gone. "..name..." Man, when he wanted to make an exit, he was really quick about it. And pleasure doing business with him? What was Victor talking about? He hadn't even gotten any important information. Maybe it was just his way of saying farewell. But..he hadn't said that the last time they had a run-in with him, or any other time.

Victor was already out of the door and walking towards his van. He smirked as he looked at his still transformed hand. There was some blood on them, enough to have his scientists test them for dinosaur DNA. He opened up the door to his van, and hopped in. "Let's head back to the lab. I have something I want the scientists there to test for me."

"Yes sir, Veloci." responded one of the drivers as they turned the vehicle on and drove away from the school.

Victor eyed the school one last time before closing his eyes and laughing to himself. "Caruso, truly you are the key to help me complete my dream." He was fighting against his raptor instincts to lick the blood on his fingers. The sheer smell was starting to get to him, but he would have to try his best to ignore it. This would probably be his only chance at getting a blood sample.

"And if you turn out be a Stegosaurus, just like that football player said, then you will be my first guinea pig..." Victor said silently, almost as though he was warning the student. "And with you, I will find the others..."

Caruso placed a finger where he felt the sharp pain. He winced a little. It wasn't that bad, but it still hurt nonetheless. He pulled his finger up and saw a few dots of red. That idiot had cut him! He couldn't understand why he would do that. Maybe he really did just slip up and accidentally cut him. Victor may have been feeling really angry and transformed involuntarily. No, that wasn't like Victor at all. As he pondered this, he reached for the door with his other hand.

Suddenly the door opened up, and he almost collided with another student. "Whoa..watch where you're going, you clumsy..." He stopped when he realized who it was. "Oh Max! I'm sorry! I didn't know it was you."

"Where have you been?" Max asked sternly. "Moynihan just sent me out to look for you."

"I was just...in the bathroom..." Caruso said.

"Caruso...don't lie." Max warned.

"Okay, I won't lie..." Caruso looked at Max straight in the eyes. "I'll tell you exactly what happened. I got lost, that's what happened! Thanks for leaving me behind."

Max narrowed his eyes. "Why didn't you try to keep up?" The jock folded his arms.

"What did you think I was trying to do?!" Caruso complained. "I was trying to catch up to you, but there was just so many people, and you disappeared so quickly...!"

"Why didn't you just call us on your cellphone?" Max asked.

"We aren't allowed to use our cellphones in class, remember?" Caruso folded his arms as well.

"Well that surely didn't stop you, now did it?" Max growled softly.

"I..." But he knew Max was right. Caruso had turned on his cellphone in class once. He was out of hair gel, and needed to order some more. But he couldn't wait until class was over. Instead, he had picked up the nearest phone, his cellphone, and called up a store that delivered. It was in the middle of one of Moynihan's lectures. Needless to say, he was caught shortly afterward and his cellphone was confiscated for the rest of the day. "Well I learned my lesson after that, so..."

Max had to laugh at this. "Oh no you didn't. Remember the time when you called the hospital in the middle of the class because you thought you were balding?" Caruso blushed a bit at this comment. He was right after all. Last month, he had done such a thing. He saw a few hairs on his desk and jumped to conclusions that he was balding. He considered it a medical emergency and had dialed up the hospital about it. People still joke about him involving that incident, and the hospital still doesn't take him that seriously because of that ridiculous phone call. While he didn't lose his cellphone, he had earned detention for disturbing the public or something like that. He couldn't remember what the reason was exactly.

"I would have been back in class sooner if Victor hadn't..." Caruso started, and this really caught Max's attention.

"Victor?! He was here?" Max looked a bit horrified, and relieved that nothing happened to Caruso. "Did he see you?" Caruso nodded his head solemnly. "Why didn't you hide?"

"Like I could. He saw me before I saw him, and if I ran away, that would just make him grow more suspicious. Anyway I didn't think he recognized me. He didn't try to lead me away or anything. He just..walked me up to the door." Caruso explained.

"And that's all he did?" Max said. "He didn't do anything else?"

"Well, he did call me Irwin Caruso..." Caruso explained.

"What?!" Max gripped his shoulders. "He knew your name? You didn't tell him your name did you?"

Caruso gritted his teeth in slight pain. The cuts were a bit more painful than he had initially believed. "No..I didn't." He tried to push Max's hand off his shoulder. "Ow! Don't touch me there, please." Once Max's hand was removed, he gently rubbed the sore area with his hand. "It stings." Max narrowed his eyes, and gripped Caruso's hand and pulled it from the shoulder. He pulled the collar of the shirt until he could see a reddish tinge in the skin, along with three small cuts. There was still a bit of blood coming from them, but it didn't look too serious. Still, this alarmed Max.

"Victor slashed you." Max released Caruso. "He walked right up and slashed you."

"I don't think it's that serious..." Caruso said. "It's just a little cut. It was probably just an accident."

"No..you know when it comes to Veloci, it's never an accident." Max said seriously.

"Still..." Caruso started, but a look form Max shut him up.

Max turned back to the door. "Come on, we should head back in class. Ms. Moynihan said she'll let this incident slide, just this once, considering the circumstances. When we get to the lighthouse today, tell Moynihan what happened."

The two students walked into the classroom. A few students look up at them, but most of them were continuing with their work. Moynihan temporarily stopped to look up at Max and Caruso. She gave a quick smile and nod, acknowledging them. She looked relieved that Caruso was now in the classroom. So she continued to focus on her work.

Caruso walked up to his seat and sat down next to Buzz, who gave him a quick nudge. "What is it?"

"So where have you been? We were worried about ya." Buzz asked, tapping his pencil on his paper. "I mean you were gone for a pretty long time. Did you run into Victor?"

"If you must know, then yes I did." Caruso replied after a few seconds. Buzz opened up his mouth to say something. "But I'll tell you about it when we get to the lighthouse okay?" Buzz nodded, and Caruso leaned back in his seat as Ms. Moynihan continued the class.

After ten more minutes, she stopped, and sat back down on her seat. She shuffled some papers on her desk and set them aside. She cleared her throat to address the students. They put down their pencils and looked at her, awaiting for her to say what she needed to tell them. She eyed the door, as though she was expecting company. "Class, I have an announcement today." She said, interlocking her fingers and placing her palms on her desk. "We have a new student starting today. She just moved in the neighborhood and this is her first day of class, so I hope you all make her feel welcome."

The door opened up, and a single figure walked in. She had short curly hear of an auburn shade. Despite the warm weather outside, she was dressed in a red sweatshirt and darker red sweatpants. She gave a friendly smile as she strode through the door, down the steps in the middle of the classroom, and walked up to Ms. Moynihan. "Hello am I in the right class?" She asked in a polite manner.

"Yes of course." Moynihan said before addressing the class. "This is Michelle. I would like one of you to volunteer to help her out on the assignment today. Do I have any volunteers?" She looked around the room, looking for someone she felt would be suitable for this task, although it was simple. She finally let her eyes fall on one student in particular. "Buzz, why don't you help out our new student?"

"Oh, sure, Professor Moynihan." Buzz said. Michelle made her way up the steps and sat in the empty seat next to Buzz. "Hello, Michelle. My name is Buzz and.."

"I know." Michelle interrupted him. "I heard the teacher call you by your name." She chuckled.

"Do you find my name funny?" Buzz asked.

"It reminds me of someone I met online yesterday. He had a name, very similar to that one." Michelle explained as she pulled out her new Science book and tried to find the chapter they were currently on. "Buzzinator or something, he called himself."

The punk teen gasped. He stared at the new student for several seconds, almost not believing what he had just heard. And that voice, it sounded so familiar... "Hey Buzz! What's wrong?" He heard Caruso ask him, who was shaking him a bit by the shoulders. Buzz shook himself back to his senses and looked at Caruso. "What's the matter with you? Why did you daze off like that?"

"Dude..it's her." Buzz whispered, pointing at Michelle. "She's the one I was fighting on that game yesterday."

"No way..." Caruso whispered, staring at Michelle for himself. "What are the odds of this?"

"Ten thousand to zero?" Buzz had said randomly, looking back at Michelle.

Noticing the two boys were staring at her for no apparent reason at all, Michelle frowned and folded her arms. "What are you two looking at?" She didn't like getting stared at, because when people would look at her that way, it was usually because they wanted something, and it would usually involve something she didn't want to do or have any part of. And to make things worse, this time it was two guys staring at at once.

"Nothing." Caruso and Buzz said in unison. Michelle just rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders in a manner that said she either didn't believe them or she didn't care. She picked up her book and started to skim through it.

"We're on this chapter." Buzz said as he leaned forward to show her his open book. She looked over and took note of the page numbers.

Michelle nodded and flipped through the pages until she got to the right one, page one hundred twenty. She narrowed her eyes as she read the chapter title. "DNA and Genes. Great, my weak subject."

"You can always ask for help, Pr—I mean, Michelle." Buzz offered, nearly calling her by her username. Luckily he caught himself and stopped. And Michelle didn't seem to notice. She just gave him a nod, and the class continued on as usual, with the occasional incident of Michelle having to ask Buzz for help. It was her first day, so it was permitted, but she knew that the next day or so she would have to be on her own. She couldn't keep asking for help.

Unbenownst to everyone in the room, except for Michelle herself, her foot glowed, and transformed into a scaly black leg with sharp talons. She stretched the talons, spreading the toes apart. As she glanced over at Buzz, she quickly changed her foot back, narrowly missing him catching her changing. She may tell someone about this secret, but for now, she'll have to keep her mouth shut. However, someone did see the transformation. Caruso's eyes widened but he kept himself quiet, except for a whisper.

"...another one...?" Caruso spoke softly.

After school was over, the Dino Squad walked out of the building. They headed towards the rack where their fancy motorcycles were. No one in the school questioned them about them. The usual comments were that they looked cool. Victor would most likely just think the kids were big dinosaur fans, and probably wouldn't make the connection between the bikes and the perfect dinosaurs. Fiona walked up to her Spino-Cycle and knelt down to unlock the chains connecting it and the other bikes to the rail.

Rodger was busy drinking a can of soda he got out of the school's soda machine. It had gotten hotter as the day went on, and he was dehydrated being in the school all day with little to drink. Once the last bit of soda was gone, he wiped his brow, crushed the soda can in his hand, and tossed it behind him. It landed in the trash can.

Max still had his sports uniform on, and his helmet was still on his head. He reached up and unbuckled it and pulled it off, carrying it on his side. He stood next to his Tyranno-Cycle and set down the football helment and picked up the motorcycle one instead, and placed it on his head. Fiona put her helmet on her head as well.

Buzz and Caruso were walking side by side. They were the last ones to reach the bike rack, and they weren't looking where they were going. Their eyes were on each other, glaring, focused. Max sighed. They were arguing about something again. As the bickering teens got closer, their words became more and more audible over the sound of other students bustling around.

"I'm telling you, I saw her change!" Caruso pointed at Buzz accusingly. "Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it didn't happen!"

"Look here, dude, just because she's new doesn't mean you have to go making up stories about her!" Buzz said, attempting to defend the new student, Michelle.

"All right you two." Max walked up to them, wanting to stop them before things got ugly. "What are you two arguing about now?"

"Knowing them," Fiona chuckled in her helmet, "it isn't anything that important. Probably have something to do with hair again."

"Or the cellphone." Rodger chimed in, his hand on his mouth as he giggled. "Maybe Caruso sent him another message."

"No!" Buzz pointed at Caruso. "He said Michelle transformed her leg during class!"

Caruso growled. "But it's true!" The blue-haired teen held out his hands as he tried to reason with the others. "It didn't last very long, but I saw one of her feet turn into a dino foot, black and scaly... You've got to believe me, I wouldn't make this up!"

"But..we're the only ones that got infected with that dinosaur DNA, remember?" Fiona inquired. They had all got infected by diving into that specific part of the water. And they didn't see anyone else dive in. No, if what Caruso said was true, there would have to have been another way. But what other way could there be other than direct contact with the contaminated ooze?

As Rodger picked up his helmet, he decided to have his input. He had his own idea of how it would be possible for someone else to have been infected. "There could be a way for that to happen, Fiona."

"What do you mean?" Max asked, walking back to his Tyranno-Cycle.

Rodger said, "What I mean is it might be possible to get second-hand exposure to the primordial ooze that infected us." When the others gave him a quizzical look, he gave a sigh. "Well it's like second-hand smoke. Even though you aren't smoking it, you can still get sick from inhaling the smoke from the cigarette."

"But I still don't understand." Buzz placed his helmet on his head. "How could she get second-hand exposure if she just moved here? We were the only ones who jumped into the water to go after that stray dog."

"Buzz has got a point there, Rodger." Fiona said thoughtfully.

"Is it possible she got it some other way?" Max asked.

Caruso threw his arms up in the air. "She must have! She transformed, I swear!"

"Well," Max jumped on his bike. "We'd better tell Moynihan about it. Let's roll!" The Dino Squad hopped on their motorcycles and made their way back to the lighthouse.