So, Dino Squad (or DinoSquad, according to Wikipedia) is garbage... But it's the kind of garbage that's so bad it's good, and a redeemable concept to boot. So I'm taking it upon myself to fix the garbage, with my own twists.

NOTE: I do not write stories with the intent of appealing to other people. I write them based on what I want to do. So if you want to complain about how my story "panders to SJWs" or something:
a) That's a false statement, as I write stories to appeal to me with side effects of other people liking it,
b) You're implicitly wanting the story to cater to you, and
c) YOU CAN SCRAM. THIS STORY IS A RE-IMAGINING SO I CAN WRITE IT HOWEVER I DAMN PLEASE.

Do note that the classroom scene will drag on for a bit. I just want the characters to know each other better so that they don't act like a bunch of jerkasses to each other later.

Also, I'm only assuming you're here because you also watched it. This fic is really going to make more sense if you've already seen it.

Also, plenty of concepts in this are linked to my own original works. I'm planning on releasing my original works on FictionPress if you want to understand what anything is.


Long, long ago, Earth was very different. Dinosaurs, giant insects, and strange fauna... Many animals that we do not have a complete understanding of. First the Triassic Period, then the Jurassic Period, and then finally the Cretaceous Period. There were many disasters, many extinction events... They should have all died out, but...


66 Million Years Ago, Day of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event

Two different specimens of Dromaeosaurs glanced at each other face-to-face. One is a male Utahraptor, the biggest of the Dromaeosaurs, and the other a female Austroraptor. Why are these two specimens, that are normally separated by many miles, in contact with each other? Perhaps it was fate... The both of them felt something in this area that they knew was big... Something not of this world. They both felt that the end was near, and what led them here felt safe... and it came from a mountainous cavern.

The Utahraptor growled at the Austroraptor like a crocodile, glaring down at her and baring his teeth. The Austroraptor backed up but did not attack, being more interested in whatever this force that had brought them here was. She ran towards the cavern, and he gave chase. While the Utahraptor may have run faster, the Austroraptor had the head start, and soon passed through a barrier that was once invisible. The Utahraptor was startled, his primal brain not knowing how something could appear from nothing. He soon went through the field, proceeding with caution now, following the Austroraptor into the cavern.

Deep inside the cavern, they followed the source of the otherworldly energy. They felt at peace, but soon heard a giant crash from above the surface. They heard the cavern collapsing behind them and they fled deeper into the cave. Deeper, deeper, yet deeper... but despite going deeper, it soon got brighter, with a light that was a strong shade of cyan emanating from a tunnel. Naturally, they followed this tunnel to the light.

And when they made it to the end, they couldn't believe their eyes. A pillar of light shined from a peculiar shape in the ground. It was like a geyser, shooting energy from the very Earth. This light had such a calming effect. Such a tempting one as well... The raptors went closer to the light until the light completely surrounded them. They felt their surroundings change... As well as themselves...


Biddeford, York County, Maine: Barnum Brown High School

March 17, 2022

A girl rolled down the hallway, wearing roller skates despite the rules not allowing such a thing. She was smirking and looking forward, biting into a sour green apple just to make herself look like even more of an asshole. Going fast by virtue of there being very little people in her way, she got to her classroom in the nick of time. She zoomed through the door, and next to her chair, and the instant that happened, the bell rang.

"Oh yeah! I am good!"

Fiona Astabanderas
Age:
18
Gender:
Female
Sexuality: Lesbian (Not quite "out" yet)
Skin Tone: Medium Olive
Heritage: African-Cuban
Hair: Long, straight, reddish-brown hair
Personality: Loves to live life in the fast lane, tomboy
Talent(s): Good with machinery
Weakness(es): Rushes headlong into danger
Backstory: Working class student. Fiona's dad is currently looking for a job while her mom works from home as well. They do it to support her education, as well as her sister Terri's. She has a crush on a classmate of hers, named Destiny Moira. She's often nervous about talking to her.

While she was happy for herself, her teacher didn't share her feelings.

"You may have may have made it to class this time, Fiona, but you broke three rule to do so..."

Ms. Joanna Moynihan
Age: Unknown (She seems to be 62)
Gender:
Female
Sexuality: Asexual, Aromantic
Skin Tone: Very Fair
Heritage: Unknown (Seems to be Irish, from the twang in her voice)
Hair: Grey-white (comes from her old age), it looks styled in the same way as an undercut, but none of it is cut. We'll call it the "waning crescent style".
Personality: No-nonsense, serious, seems cold, but is actually very nice when you get to know her well
Talent(s): She seems to have a lot. She specifically chose Science and Biology so students can appreciate environmentalism.
Weakness(es): Her old age is catching up with her, so she can't really fight on her own.
Backstory: A mysterious woman who doesn't seem like she's hiding much at first, but there's a lot about her that not even the school's staff knows.

"No skates in school, and no food in class."

"That's only two..." Fiona took her half-eaten apple and tossed it towards the trash can from her seat. "Kobe!"

It hit the rim and rolled onto the floor.

"Littering," the teacher said in a deadpan voice, "That's three rules."

"Sorry, Ms. Moynihan..." The class laughed a bit as Fiona got up to throw her apple in the trash. Surprisingly, Ms. Moynihan didn't give her any penalty.

"Settle down, everyone. Don't forget, tomorrow we'll be going to the tide pools and I'll be needing your release forms." Ms. Moynihan picked up a remote controller and turned on the projector, and it showed the notes about the trip, and the objective: a group effort to find as much different marine species as possible.

"For now, I'm giving you a little bit more time to finish your worksheets on how animals help each other, whether they are all in the same colony, or are two different species entirely." The phone rang, and Ms. Moynihan answered it. "Hello? Yes... Uh-huh... I see... I'll be there in a minute." She hung up. "I'll have to step out of class for a bit. Hopefully, when I get back, you'll all be behaved... or you'll be finished working. Or you'll be behaved and finished working. The latter is the most preferred outcome."

After the teacher stepped out of class, everyone was chatting, trading worksheets for answers, and doing other things... Fiona, sitting at an edge seat, looked over at the guy next to her. He wasn't someone she'd call a friend, but rather an acquaintance.

"Hey, Max, you know the answer to 3?" Fiona asked.

"Well, it should be easy... But if you really don't know, it's the honey badger."

Rolf "Max" Maxwell
Age: 18
Gender:
Male
Sexuality: Straight
Skin Tone: Medium
Heritage: Scottish-American and Mediterranean
Hair: Dark brown, typical jock hairstyle
Personality: By-the-book team player.
Talent(s): Natural leadership skills
Weakness(es): Can be honestly bossy at times.
Backstory: An average guy with an average life. He's just a high school jock who likes sports, but he's also very nice and can prove to be a good leader. He wants to go to the University of Southern Maine when he graduates so he can be a quarterback for the Southern Maine Huskies, and eventually the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"Well, thanks," Fiona sighed. She looked over at some other students, but only two caught her eye. Destiny, the girl she has a crush on, and Liam, who looked like he was working on something that was obviously not the worksheet...

"He's always done with his work," said Max, "Honestly, I envy him, because not even I have that level of... non-procrastination he has. But I can never read that guy. Either he does it because he wants to do what he wants, or he's just a good student."

"You tried getting to know him?" asked Fiona.

"Well, I usually ask if he wants to hang out with me and my friends, but he always says he doesn't want to because he's afraid he'll do something embarrassing in front of us. I know he has Asperger's and all, and we're... what's the word again? 'Allistic'? But I'm not that judgmental, and neither are the other guys..."

Meanwhile, Liam was drawing, having finished his work at home like Max said he had.

Liam Doyll
Age: 16
Gender:
Male
Sexuality: Bi (out about it, in the Gender and Sexuality Alliance)
Skin Tone: Fair
Heritage: Pennsylvania Dutch
Hair: Dirty blond, corporate cut hair, swished to the right
Personality: Quiet, smart, attentive to detail
Talent(s): Gets work done fast, can draw very good, and his attention to detail can help out a lot.
Weakness(es): Has a hard time connecting with others who don't share his special interests, sometimes doesn't follow orders because he thinks the way he's doing it is perfectly fine.
Backstory: Liam is on the Austism Spectrum, has a talent for drawing and gaming. His father disappeared under mysterious circumstances when he was still a baby, leaving his mother single. He can note a number of details due to his condition, but he's not quite a savant. He has audio processing issues, sometimes requiring the use of soundproof headphones in order to keep himself from melting down from sensory overload.

Liam heard a chair rolling towards him. He looked over to his left...

"Hey, Liam bud! What're you drawing?"

Neil "Buzz" Buzmati
Age: 17, going on 18
Gender:
Trans Male
Sexuality: Pansexual
Skin Tone: Fair
Heritage: It's a mystery to everyone (His last name doesn't even exist in real life, but the way it sounds, let's go Italian-American)
Hair: Green-dyed hair, styled into a mohawk, with everything around it completely shaved.
Personality: A punk through and through, rebellious, lone wolf, connects with only a few people.
Talent(s): Knows how to fight, can handle situations where others would feel squeamish.
Weakness(es): He doesn't like working with other people, and is rather cowardly.
Backstory: With a hatred for the system and a taste for anything that doesn't conform to the standards of society, Buzz has only a few, but true friends. He's a little bit shorter than normal, but he's still got a big attitude. Buzz started HRT when he was 14, and he's been using testosterone for 3.5 years now. He had grown facial hair and shaved it into a goat patch.

"Oh, hi Buzz. It's just another character of mine. Here." Liam showed the work in progress drawing from what was put down on the paper, it was a unique take on a female vampire, with her "dress" looking like a vampire squid.

"Yo, looking rad so far!" Buzz was one of the few people who could actually connect with Liam, sharing his interest in fantasy, music, games, and animation. "You got a name for her?"

"Well, I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure if I'm going to name her something made up, real, or made up yet incredibly witty. Or real yet incredibly witty..."

Someone tapped on Liam's shoulder and spoke to him. "Hey, can I see that?"

Rodger Blair
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Questioning/Queer (He's in the Gender and Sexuality Alliance to find himself)
Skin Tone: Black
Heritage: African-American
Hair: Black, crew cut
Personality: Really smart, prankster, nice
Talent(s): He's a young inventor, and he's very knowledgeable about paleontology.
Weakness(es): He's not the best strategist, his creations sometimes fail, and he's also a bit haughty.
Backstory: A big guy with a big brain, Rodger aims to do the best he can with his inventions. Though they may not always work, Rodger's inventions are nothing to sneeze at in the slightest. Rodger has a huge interest in paleontology, including living fossils

Liam looked at him and nodded. "Alright, but please give it back when you're done."

Rodger looked at what was drawn and inspected it. "You know," said Rodger, "Vampire squids don't actually drink blood."

"I know, I know, I thought it'd just be a clever pun..." Liam was getting a little impatient.

"No, I like it, but I just wanted to say. I'm not telling you how to write your characters."

"As long as we're clear on that..." Liam accepted constructive criticism but didn't really like people nitpicking the small things.

"Actually," continued Rodger, "Vampire squids are the only living specimens of Vampyromorphida, and I'm doing a project on them. It's nice to see someone else who knows about them."

The guy next to Rodger leaned in and looked at it. "So, is the dress, like, alive or something?"

Erwin Caruso
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Gay (He plans on coming out, but there honestly never was a closet in the first place.)
Skin Tone: Lightly suntanned
Heritage: Italian
Hair: Dyed navy blue, spiked-up
Personality: Vain, obsessed with his good looks, wants to be famous
Talent(s): He's charismatic, and nimble as well.
Weakness(es): Very arrogant, and lies to get out of trouble.
Backstory: Caruso was born to an upper-middle-class family. He became a small-town celebrity after he became the face of his dad's moisturizer line. He likes soap operas, designer clothes, reality TV, and theater, and is incredibly vain about his looks.

"It's less a dress and more of an extension of her own body." Liam didn't really know Rodger and Caruso, but they seemed okay.

"So if the squid is a part of her, then does that mean-" Caruso had a feeling that it would be disgusting.

"Yes, that means the squid's beak is her-"

"Okay, I heard enough..." Caruso didn't like thinking of women's nether-regions.

"And it's one way she sucks blood, too!" Liam just innocently went on.

Caruso, quietly, yet forcefully, let out a cry of, "Gyaaaawd!" He didn't want to drag attention to Liam, so he spoke normally yet sternly. "I said I heard enough..."

Buzz snickered and taunted Caruso, "I bet you think Teeth is the scariest movie ever, don't you?"

"Piss off..."


Portland, Maine

March 18, 2022

Deeper within the city, there was a huge building... A skyscraper, only known as VelociDyne.

"Thank you for joining our company, Peter. I think you'll enjoy working here..."

Victor V. Dakota
Age: Over 66,000 millennia old
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Incomprehensible
Skin Tone: Olive
Heritage: Cretaceous Period
Hair: Long, straight, black hair that goes down to mid-back. At the side of his head, it's shoulder-length, and it's combed over so that it's all going to the left of his head. There are red streaks in his hair.
Personality: Cold, calculating, nihilistic, hates humanity, and will only like you if you hate humanity as well.
Talent(s): He's an accomplished scientist, able to create marvels beyond that a normal human could make using a combination of magic and technology... He doesn't share these inventions with the populace, however.
Weakness(es): He doesn't do much in the way of direct action. The times he does get directly involved in his plans is generally where it gets serious.
Backstory: What used to be a Utahraptor was transformed by magic during the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event, becoming virtually immortal and obtaining the ability to shapeshift into other dinosaurs as well as a human form. He is also able to create duplicates of himself, primarily to track down and swarm others in smaller forms, as well as completely change his human appearance so no one can trace him properly. He even subtly named himself after the Dakotaraptor. While he prefers the forms of Dromaeosaurs, he can turn into literally any other prehistoric animal.

"Thank you, Mr. Dakota. I'm sure I will."

Pedrinho "Peter" Astabanderas
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Straight
Skin Tone: Olive
Heritage: African-Cuban
Hair: Short, brown hair, combed back. Slightly balding.
Personality: He's kind, gentle... You wouldn't assume anything would drive him to go against the world.
Talent(s): He's a loving father and a loyal husband. He's willing to do anything to keep his family afloat.
Weakness(es): He's willing to do anything...
Backstory: Father of Fiona and Terri, Peter's family has hit rocky times, economically-wise. Peter has been trying to pick up any job he could while his wife works from home. He doesn't know what he gets himself into sometimes.

The elevator opened up. And what a sight to behold... There were scientists working at computers and large test tubes containing strange half-reptile creatures.

"What is this place?" Peter marveled at this admittedly scary scene; it looked like something that would haunt a conspiracy theorist's nightmares.

Victor began to explain what this all was. "This place is where my real work is done." He picked up a vial of a thick fluid that glowed orange. "These vials contain nanomachines and a form of experimental DNA that I created. We'll call it 'Primordial Ooze', after the Primordial Soup in which the first polymers, and ultimately the first lifeforms, were created... The nanomachines help speed up the process of perfecting the DNA. Together, they will help me reconstruct all lifeforms on Earth, and turn them back into what they should rightfully still be. Dinosaurs. Nay, any and all prehistoric life, before the humans showed up."

Victor showed Peter video footage... One showed a whale, under the effects of the Primordial Ooze, turn into a Mosasaurus. Then another video clip played, which showed a rhinoceros getting splattered with the orange fluid from the vials, and then it turned into a triceratops. The DNA seemed to transform the animals at random, with only loose connections to their former selves.

"But... That's impossible..." Peter trembled in his boots. He couldn't believe his eyes. Surely, this wasn't real at all...

"Is it?" Victor growled. His eyes turned into those of a reptile as his skin grew red and scaly before growing feathers over it. His hands and feet began turning into claws as his body started getting bigger. His head began growing and his mouth and nose began moving forward. Victor had demonstrated the half-transformation, the state between his dinosaur form and human form. "So, what do you say?" Victor asked menacingly, his voice now deeper. "Would you rather ascend beyond a human, or go extinct with the rest of them?" Victor came up close and began caressing Peter's face with his cold, clawed hand.

"I... I came here to help my family live... They are my everything. I'll make a deal. You leave my family alone... and I'll join you." Peter didn't even try to resist. He didn't care if the world would die. As long as he had his family, he could be happy.

"Alright, but in exchange for letting your family live, they must eventually become part of our new species once nothing is able to stand in my way."

"...I'm in." Peter closed his eyes as his new boss slid his hand off of his face. Victor then quickly jabbed a syringe of the Ooze into Peter's jugular vein. As soon as Victor took the syringe out, Peter started bleeding out of his neck, but the wound quickly healed up because of the nanomachines.

Peter grinned with malice. He had never felt this high before. His eyes glowed the same as Victor's, and he started to morph into a new form. With his entire skeleton changing, Peter had morphed into an Irritator. And when Victor placed his hand on Peter's head, he morphed into a half-transformed state, and then back to his original human form. For some reason, Peter's clothes grew back as well. Perhaps the nanomachines did more than perfect the DNA.

"Welcome to the team..." Victor turned back into human form and began putting his plan into action...

Victor went up to what seemed to be a pool of water and dumped an entire vial of Primordial Ooze into it. The fluid began spreading throughout the water and soon overtook it.

"This is the first test run I have done outside of a controlled environment. This pool will drain through a pipe which my men have constructed, and it will end up in the tide pools of Biddeford."

"Wait, Biddeford?!" Peter panicked. "My daughters are taking a field trip to the tide pools there today!"

Victor only snickered coldly. "Then perhaps they'll evolve into our new species sooner than expected..."


Biddeford, York County, Maine: Tide Pools

"Okay, roll call!"

Ms. Moynihan called upon the students one by one, so they could go into their pre-established groups. But something wasn't quite right.

"Oh, my... It seems two students are absent. Alright, let's see. We only have 16 students now. If all 18 were here, I would have split them into three groups of six. But since there's only 16, we'll split you up into two groups of eight. Terri? Destiny? Why don't you join Group A?"

Group A. That was the group Max, Fiona, Rodger, Caruso, Buzz, and Liam were in. Fiona was nervous now. She crossed her arms and looked down as Destiny and her younger sister joined her group.

"What's the matter, sis? You look a little off."

Terri Astabanderas
Age: 15 (skipped a few grades because of her intelligence)
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Straight
Skin Tone: Very Fair (she inherited Albinism from two mutated recessive genes her parents had without them being albino themselves)
Heritage: African-Cuban
Hair: Low-hanging loose ponytail. She dyed her hair an orange color; it's naturally a very pale blonde.
Personality: She's a very quiet, but nice girl. She likes to read more than anything else.
Talent(s): She's almost as smart as Rodger, and is incredibly tech savvy.
Weakness(es): She can get incredibly envious, and she lacks good judgment a lot of the time.
Backstory: A child prodigy, Terri was able to skip to Senior year, the same as her sister, because she was so intelligent. Her father is working hard to allow them to pay for their education, with Terri contemplating getting a job with technology and computer code as well.

"Oh, what? Nothing!" Fiona was caught off-guard by Terri asking her that question. In reality, she was nervous, because Destiny was in the group. She was afraid of doing something embarrassing again like she did yesterday.

"Well, if you say so. If there's anything you need to get off your chest, I'm right here." Terri smiled. She was very supportive of her sister and wanted only the best of her. But Fiona wasn't sure about coming out to Terri about her crush on Destiny. She never thought her ability to hide her crush would be tested as much as it would be today. Especially since Destiny began to talk to her.

"So, Fiona, you think we'll find a lot of things?"

Destiny Moira
Age:
17
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Bisexual (she's not quite "out" yet)
Skin Tone: Black
Heritage: Jamaican-American
Hair: Natural afro. It's dyed a dark shade of purple; the purple is dark enough that you might mistake it for black at first.
Personality: Carefree, joyful, loves talking with other people. She also loves helping others.
Talent(s): She actually has first-aid training, and is looking to become a doctor.
Weakness(es): As much as she's good at first-aid, she can be a bit of a ditz
Backstory: She is an average girl in a seemingly average world. She has had a romantic and optimistic view of life since she was a child, and no matter what, she always views things through rose-tinted glasses. Her will to help others is why she wants to be a doctor. She only recently discovered she was bisexual.

"Um..." Fiona didn't know what to say.

"You're not sure?" asked Destiny.

Fiona raised her head and looked at Destiny. "Y-Yeah, I'm not sure... But we might find a few things though. A few is something." Outside, Fiona looked calm. But inside, she was celebrating the fact she actually talked to Destiny and even made eye contact with her. Fiona: 1, Social Anxiety: 3,942,681.

"That's the spirit!" Destiny smiled at her and Fiona smiled back, wishing her heart would just explode already instead of painfully beating so fast in her chest.

Ms. Moynihan began to explain the assignment. "You have two hours to find and identify as many different species as you can. And remember, if you work as a team, you can get more done in less time."

The two teams split up and went in different directions. As they went together, Buzz walked ahead of the group and to a pond filled with the ocean's water.

"Team, schmeam," Buzz said coldly, "I'm here to check out all the cool creatures, not to be a poster boy for cooperation..."

Liam walked beside Buzz and looked in the pond. "Well, the point is to find the creatures, except we also have to know what they are and then write them down."

Max began to speak as the team's leader. "Okay, let's do this. Fiona, Buzz, and Caruso will find them. Rodger, Terri, and Liam will identify them. Destiny and I will write them down. You all got that?"

Fiona threw a skipping stone into the water with a loud "YEET!" The stone skipped three times before sinking, then responded to Max. "Sure, got it." Fiona was only going to search for animals so that she would look a bit better in front of Destiny.

Liam did seem a bit hopeful. "Buzz and I found a sea star. We could be filling our papers in no time."

"Wishful thinking..." Caruso groaned. He shuffled through the pocket of his varsity jacket. "That is, I would be saying that, but I got this covered. A little surfing on the internet last night." Caruso handed Max a folded-up paper. When Max opened it up...

"This is a sushi menu!" Max exclaimed.

"Sushi, fish, species... What's the difference?" Caruso seemed indifferent.

"Speaking of species, we're all going to be Biologicus Flunkimus if we don't get our act together and work as a team!" Rodger was one of the voices of reason.

"Speak for yourself, I've got my act totally together-" Caruso tripped and fell into the shallow part of the water.

"With an emphasis on the act," Fiona said condescendingly.

Liam pulled a paper out of his own pocket. He gave that one to Max. Only this time, it was an actual list of species they could logically find without going into the water.

"Here. I knew Caruso was going to be useless so I printed my own list."

"Wow, Liam... You didn't strike me as that pragmatic..." Max was shocked. The list was within reason. It didn't include deep-sea creatures, as they weren't allowed to go in the water.

"Well, I did say that we could be filling our papers in no time," Liam said with a smirk.

"Hmm... I'll use this list if we don't find much by ourselves." Max folded the paper up and put it in his pocket. As much as he hated to admit it, he wasn't too keen on doing this, but he wanted a good grade.


After a bit of time, around half an hour, they did find a few things, but it wasn't a lot. Caruso was bending over to look into the water, having taken off his jacket because it was warming up. However, he leaned over a bit too far and his jacket fell off his shoulder, into the water.

"Aw man..." Caruso took his jacket out of the water and tried wringing it out, and flapping it, then laid it beside him.

But then they all heard a noise.

"Arf! Arf!"

A dog came running down the hillside to where they were.

"Hey, where'd that dog come from?" Terri asked.

"Awww, he's so cute!" Destiny looked at the little guy. A purebred male Bull Terrier with three black spots: one on his eye, one on his back, and one on his tail end.

"Hold on! He might be aggressive!" Liam alerted them, which caused everyone to stand in place. But the dog didn't do anything. He wagged his tail excitedly and panted. It was apparent now that the dog didn't have a collar or tag. He must have been a stray.

"Well, he isn't mean, that's good." Fiona patted the ground in front of her, trying to get the dog to come to her. "C'mere, boy!"

The dog looked at Fiona, but then ignored her in exchange for running towards Caruso. The dog grabbed Caruso's jacket with his mouth and started running.

"Hey! Stop slobbering up my new jacket, ya ugly mutt!" Caruso gave chase. Caruso tried to sidestep and trip up the Bull Terrier, but he ended up tripping himself as the dog bounced off of his butt and ran towards the water.

"Hey! Come back here!" Caruso tried to grab the dog, but the dog leaped into the water. This seemed to be a part of the shore where the water was damn well deep. The dog held onto his jacket as it paddled out into the ocean.

"COME BACK, YOU CUR!" Caruso yelled at the dog. Just then, the waters started getting rough and the dog was pushed under by the waves, dropping Caruso's jacket... As the Bull Terrier tried to grab Caruso's jacket underwater, he saw something there... A shark. A blue shark. The dog, scared, swam up to the surface and tried to get back to shore.

"Hey, fleabag! You forgot my jacket!" Caruso yelled at the dog again.

"Who cares about your stupid jacket?! The poor thing's in trouble!" Fiona said sternly. "C'mon, let's go rescue him!" Fiona took off her own jacket and dived into the water, not knowing about the shark.

"Fiona, wait!" Max tried to stop her, but it was too late. Then he started planning again. "Liam, Terri, stay at the shore and watch for us. Destiny, alert Ms. Moynihan about this. The rest of us will help Fiona." Max took off his own jacket and followed Fiona into the water. Destiny ran off to tell their teacher about the dog.

"You gonna save the dog, too?" Buzz asked Caruso.

"No, I'm gonna save my jacket." Caruso didn't care about the dog, diving into the water only to heal his pride.

"Well, last one in's a rotten egg!" Rodger started towards the water but then he ran back towards Buzz. "That's you, eggplant head!" Being a big guy, Rodger picked up Buzz effortlessly.

"Hey, put me down, bigass!" Buzz tried to get free, but Rodger threw him far out into the water and then dived in after him, as Terri and Liam stayed behind to keep watch over them.


As they were swimming, the Primordial Ooze made its way out of the underwater pipe that Victor's men had built. The orange fluid began rising up towards the surface, where the sharks, the dog, and the students were. They didn't notice at first, with Fiona grabbing the dog with no distraction.

"Don't worry, boy, I gotcha..." Fiona tried to calm the dog down, making shushing noises as she began swimming for the shore.

As they tried to make their way back, they saw the glowing orange ooze.

"What is this stuff?!" Fiona was disgusted but still swam through it to get the dog to safety.

Meanwhile, Caruso reached outwards and felt... his jacket? He took it and expected it to have been a human. "Thanks!" But he only saw a dorsal fin sticking out of the water... Caruso gasped, and dropped his jacket as the shark had already circled around him and tried to chomp down on him, but only getting the dropped item.

"SHARK!"

As this scene was unfolding, with Terri and Liam looking on with horrified looks, Destiny and Ms. Moynihan came in.

"I heard screaming! What's going on now?!" Ms. Moynihan asked in a panicked tone.

"Caruso said there's a shark! And there's this orange ooze, too..."

"What...? No, this can't be right..." Ms. Moynihan started shouting at them. "All of you! Get the dog and yourselves out of the water!"

Liam was confused and panicky. "Sharks don't act like that... They usually don't actively try to eat humans..."

Ms. Moynihan didn't say anything. But she knew about the Primordial Ooze and correctly assumed it was causing the shark to turn into something ferocious.

Fiona came close to the shore and tried to push the dog towards the four people on the shore, letting go of the dog to let the others bring it up. The dog paddled towards the shore, and just then, Fiona felt the shark bite down on her leg and pull her under.

"FIONAAAAA!" Terri screamed and splashed the surface of the water, trying to grab Fiona's hand, but could not. "Max! You've got to help her!"

"I'm on it!" Max dived under and swam towards the shark. Its still had a death grip on Fiona's leg, but it wasn't too late. He had seen documentaries on how to survive wild animal attacks. He knew what to do for sharks.

Just then, the shark's eyes started glowing as the Primordial Ooze went into its gills. Max couldn't believe his own eyes. The shark was growing bigger and bigger, and its bite became stronger. This was bad, Max thought. He swam to the shark and then decked it square in the eye, but that caused the shark to thrash from side to side.

With that thrashing, it tore off Fiona's leg and swam off.


Fiona tried to get up to the surface, but her vision was fading fast, with Terri reaching into the water to try and grab her hands... She was able to hold on, but when she was pulled onto the surface, the students and the teacher were met with a grisly site...

"Fiona! Oh my god, this can't be happening!" Terri hugged Fiona, trying to shake her awake, but her sister was unresponsive. The Ooze on Fiona's body rubbed off on Terri when she held her tight. "Please, hang in there! Someone, call 911 now!"

Liam saw the orange substance splattered across Fiona. "What is this stuff...?" Liam reached to touch it.

"Wait, Liam!" Ms. Moynihan yelled, "Don't touch-" But it was too late. Liam's hand was covered in it. "-that... Ooze..."

"Huh...? Why?" Liam was confused. The other four guys came up to shore, also covered in the Ooze, panting hard as they have expended their energy.

Ms. Moynihan stayed silent for a bit, then turned to Destiny. "Destiny, I want you to run. Run as fast as you can and get the other students to the bus."

"Wait, why?!" Destiny was distressed and confused. Fiona had lost their leg and now everyone, including the dog, was covered with the Ooze.

"Don't ask. And please, don't call 911. What's about to happen, 911 won't be able to fix..."

"What?!" Destiny was confused, wondering if Ms. Moynihan had lost her mind, but then she looked back. Fiona began retching, and then she expelled the water from her lungs with one forceful upchuck. At the same time, her leg was growing back at a fast rate, just like how her father's neck wound healed up. Everyone looked at that with shock.

"I SAID RUN!" Ms. Moynihan took her cane and whacked Destiny in the side to get her to get out of there.

"Ms. Moynihan, what's happening?! I-I feel like I'm on fire!" Fiona cried out in fear. Her leg had grown back, including her pants and her boot. It was all so confusing... And then the Ooze started getting absorbed into the skin of the victims it has covered.

"Remain calm. This might be painful at first, but it will be over before you know it..."

The seven students and the dog all started changing... Max, Buzz, Liam, and Rodger tried to hide that they were in pain. Fiona was trying to hide the pain, but nothing could hide her fear. Terri, Caruso, and the dog were more vocal about their pain. In all cases, they started growing in size of varying degrees.

Max's arms began shrinking in size, his hands grew two vicious claws, and his jaw extended. His teeth turned from flat to jagged, and his breath started smelling horrible as bacteria multiplied at a rate not possible under normal conditions. His skin started turning scaly, all colored an emerald green with some purple stripes here and there. Max had turned into a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Fiona's spine started growing spikes out of her back, extending to extreme degrees. Her mouth started stretching into something reassembling a crocodile's face as her teeth also became dagger-like. Her skin grew scaly, yellow in color with brown areas. Her vertebrae's spikes started growing skin over itself until she had a fin on her back. Fiona had changed into a Spinosaurus.

Terri started changing in a similar way to Fiona, with the crocodile-like face, the scaly skin, and sharp teeth, but her spine didn't begin to jut out her back to the extreme degrees Fiona's did. Her scale color was more of an orange, and she grew smaller spikes out her back that her skin didn't grow over. Terri had morphed into a Baryonyx.

Liam's neck started stretching out as his face extended into something more snake-like. All of his teeth grew flat and thin, going to the front of his mouth. He was growing a tail, almost as long as his neck, and his hands and feet began morphing and became flat, broad, and cylindrical, and his fingers and toes became round nubs at the end of them. His skin's scales were greenish-cyan with some darker blue stripes along his neck and back. Liam had transformed into an Apatosaurus.

Rodger began growing bigger than he already was, and his hand and feet grew in a similar way to Liam's. His head started growing a large frill with horns all along the top sides of it, both and left and right had six. His mouth grew outward, his lips growing harder and pointier until they turned into a beak. His nose started growing a large, curved horn that pointed up into the sky, and his skin grew scales that were white with dark red around the eyes and all along his back. Rodger had shifted into a Styracosaurus.

Buzz's arms looked the same for a bit, but his index and middle fingers fused together and his pinky finger started extending outwards with flaps of skin growing between them and the rest of his body. His mohawk began pointing backward, and then his skin started growing over it, turning it into a cranial crest. His mouth also extended into a beak, and webbing grew between his toes. His skin had scales that were green like his mohawk, with black stripes going along his back, face, and crest. Buzz had morphed into a Pteranodon.

Caruso's spine grew spikes like Fiona's, but instead of being long and thin, they were wide triangular shapes. As Caruso fell on the ground, his limbs morphed into legs with short digits like the previous two herbivores. His mouth extended outward and his lips turned into a beak, not unlike what happened with Rodger. He also grew a tail, and at the end of his tail, he grew four spikes on it. The scales Caruso grew were a dark shade of grey with a lighter grey underbelly, and the spikes were a muted crimson. Caruso had changed into a Stegosaurus.

The dog grew bigger. Much bigger. His muzzle grew longer and more teeth grew in his mouth. The dog's back turned more hunched, his legs grew longer with more gnarly claws, and his ears grew rounder. Unlike the others, the dog actually had fur which was white and had black spots with some stripes here and there. The poor thing didn't even look like a canine anymore. The dog turned into an Andrewsarchus.

"It really is what I think it is..." Ms. Moynihan looked on as the seven of her students and the dog have all turned into dinosaurs. But she didn't give up hope. Ms. Moynihan began holding her fingers up to her head and... She began talking to the students through her mind. "Calm down, all of you... you won't be like this forever." She tapped her cane on the ground, and the crystal ball at the end of it began to glow. The light that came from it began to turn the dinosaurs back into their original forms, with symbols glowing on them that reassembled the fossils of what they turned into. The pain in all of their bodies from the transformations soon went away as well... This all happened so fast that they were all confused.

"What... What just happened...?" Max was baffled by what had transpired. The same question was on everyone else's minds. "Did we just turn into dinosaurs...?"

"Well, technically, some of you became prehistoric animals that weren't dinosaurs. But still, I suppose I owe you an explanation of what happened. Meet me in my classroom during 8th period when we get back and I'll tell you everything you want to know." Ms. Moynihan picked up the Bull Terrier and held it close to her. "It was very brave of you to rescue a creature in need. I'll take him with us for now."


Barnum Brown High School

"So tell us, Ms. Moynihan... what the f- HECK... was all of that...?" Caruso had to remember to watch his language in a school setting, no matter how crazy things go.

Ms. Moynihan got up, holding the dog in her arms. "You were all turned into prehistoric animals. Would you just accept anything I said on the matter after such a thing happened?"

"Nothing's remotely crazy anymore. Just give us an explanation."

"That ooze you were all covered in has been dubbed Primordial Ooze. It infects anything it touches and turns it into a prehistoric animal like you have all just experienced. However, it isn't just something that just appears out of nowhere. No, it was artificially made by the man known as Victor V. Dakota."

"Victor Dakota...?!" Max was shocked to hear such a thing. "But how's that possible?! The guy's a civic leader!"

"Yeah," Rodger chimed in, "He owns that big biogenetics company in Portland... VelociDyne. How's he been able to keep this all hidden from the public? And why is he doing all of this in the first place?"

"M-My dad..." Fiona stuttered, looking at Terri as well. "OUR dad... he went to get a job there..."

Ms. Moynihan shook her head solemnly. "If your father returns to you, then that will mean he'll be just like you... Only, he won't be a good person anymore." She looked at all of them. "As for why Victor is doing all of this... let me explain to you. It's a very long story, so please, listen carefully."

"Will it explain how you were able to turn us back?" asked Liam.

"Yes..." Ms. Moynihan tapped her cane on the ground and the crystal ball at the end of it glowed, and the room changed into what was almost like a magical hologram.


The students looked at what the room had become. A familiar scene was showing to them...

The Utahraptor was chasing the Austroraptor.

"These two raptors you see here? That Utahraptor is Victor. And that Austroraptor... is me."


Please give me constructive criticism. I want to fix my damn mistakes.

(Though I'm keeping the characters how they are.)

Also, please don't expect me to post regularly. I wish I could, but depression's a bitch, you know?