As the two men walked out of the door, the Dino Squad kept their eyes on them. There was something odd about the two men, but they didn't know what it was. They had never seen these two men before, not just in the school, but anywhere else. But they didn't dwell on it for too long. Seeing someone in the school they had never seen before didn't come off as too strange for them. It happened all the time. Right now, they wanted to focus on more urgent issues.

"I understand where you guys are coming from. I admit I'm not entirely sure myself of these alimons." Max said. He let out a soft sigh. "But I still feel we should be at least willing to talk to them if they are willing to speak with us."

"Yeah, but the keyword there is 'if', Max." Caruso said, gesturing with his hand. "So far, none of the alimons we encountered showed any interest in wanting to speak with us."

"And besides," Rodger said, joining in. "..even if they wanted to speak to us, how can we be sure they are being sincere? They could lead us into a state of false security and then strike."

Max shook his head slowly. He wasn't sure if there was anything he could say to convince his friends. Still he felt he should at least try. He remembered when Michelle was trying to help them and Rodger and Buzz refusing to give her a second chance caused more problems than it solved. He was determined to make sure they didn't suffer a repeat of that. He interlocked his fingers and rested his two hands on the table. "I hate to bring this up, especially to you, Buzz and Rodger, but remember when, before Michelle joined us, she tried to offer her help, but you two wouldn't listen to her? You kept insisting that she was trying to trick us, that we shouldn't trust anything she said regardless of what it was, unless it fit your view of how she was. Yet as it turns out, her efforts to help us had been sincere, and she even almost lost her life trying to protect Caruso."

Buzz and Rodger looked at each other and lowered their heads. Michelle's eyes widened slightly and she turned to Buzz and Rodger. The three of them still remembered how they used to treat her and never completely forgot it. Fiona and Caruso also remembered, looking at Buzz, then Rodger, then Michelle. They looked back at Max, their expressions having softened up a little. The only one who didn't remember this as well was Terri since she wasn't a full-time member of the Dino Squad at the time.

Thinking he had their attention, Max continued with his speech. "Do you think it's wise for us to risk to have something similar happen again? Michelle tried to help us, yet you two..." He looked at Buzz and Rodger. "..kept telling us how she was too dangerous and were so determined to get even with her, and if we had listened to you, know what would have happened? It's very possible we all would have been killed!" Buzz and Rodger lowered their heads. "And I know what you might be thinking, that it's different because Michelle is a human and the alimons are some strange dinos. But Moynihan is a dinosaur too, and you don't seem to hold any prejudice against her because of it. It's clear that the alimons are just as sentient as she is, just like all of us, and if the leader didn't want to attack us, maybe they do have a sense of morals. The least we can do is to give them the benefit of the doubt. It may seem too late because of our recent fights, but I still believe there's still time."

Buzz rubbed the back of his head. "I think I get your point. But I'm still not so sure about these alimons. I'm sorry, Max."

"Yeah..I agree with Buzz. But if it makes you feel better, if an alimon wants to talk to me, I'll talk with them." Rodger said.

Max sighed. This was probably as far as he was going to get with these guys. "Okay then..." He was about to continue when the bell rang. The meeting was over. They had to get back to class. "Well see you guys back in class." He said as he and the others got out of their seats and left the library.

sss

Later that night, after the Dino Squad left after another afternoon of training, Michelle decided to talk to Moynihan about the men from the library. Moynihan hadn't really mentioned anything about meeting with someone, so she wondered if she had gotten the word or not. After she was finished sweeping the kitchen and vacuuming the living room, she headed up the stairs. She knew Moynihan would be up there, watching the monitors. She had been doing this more often since the first alimon attack.

Michelle made her way up the long, spiral staircase until she reached the top room. Sure enough, Moynihan was sitting at the monitors, a cup of tea sitting next to her. On the floor near her was Rump. The white dog had his head down and appeared to be asleep. But when Michelle got close, Rump perked his head up to look at her before putting his head back down.

"What is it, Michelle?" Moynihan asked without turning around.

Michelle blinked in surprise. "How did you know it was me?"

Moynihan turned around. "You're the only one here." She said, smiling. "Who else could it be?"

Michelle smiled back, chuckling. "Oh..yeah... How silly of me..."

"So was there something you wanted to tell me?" Moynihan asked.

Michelle nodded her head. She pulled over a spare chair and sat down near the old woman. "Have you gotten word about a couple of men wanting to meet with you?"

Moynihan nodded. "Yes, I have. The spoke with the principal before I left the school. He informed me of those two. He said they wanted to speak with me because of a kid... but..."

Michelle tilted her head slightly. "But what?"

Moynihan replied, "I don't have a student with the last name of Asymal. Perhaps the child is adopted, but still, you would think I would have seen them before, like during parent teacher conferences."

Michelle nodded her head. "Yeah...that's true. And you say you never saw them before?"

The old woman shook her head. "No, never did. Strange isn't it?"

"Yes, that is strange..." Michelle said, her voice sounding concerned. "Does that seem..suspicious to you? Two men you never saw before wanting to speak to you about a student of yours?"

Moynihan thought for a moment. "Well I suppose it can be viewed as suspicious. But I have heard of parents who refuse to attend parent teacher conferences, or coming to the school in general. So it's not too unusual to never see a child's parent or guardian."

Michelle nodded her head. She knew Moynihan had a good point. There was probably nothing to be too concerned about with the two men. Yet there was still something about them she didn't like. "I just..don't know if I like the idea of them speaking with you alone. What if they are up to no good? What if they tried to..do something?"

Moynihan could sense the concern in Michelle's voice. She got up from her chair and walked over to Michelle. "Are you worried they might try to..hurt me?"

Michelle nodded her head. "Yeah I know it's silly of me to think that. There had been many other people who wanted to talk to you and they never tried to hurt you. But I guess the past alimon attacks have put me more on edge. I know these men aren't alimons, but still..." She sighed. "I-I just don't think they should speak to you alone..not now."

Moynihan looked at her sympathetically. She understood how Michelle was feeling. Ever since she adopted Michelle after she risked her life to save them from Veloci, the girl had grown more protective of her. It was not overbearing, and Michelle understood that she could take care of herself. But that didn't stop Michelle from showing concern, sometimes more than what was necessary.

She took a step closer to Michelle and put a hand on her shoulder. "Nothing will happen to me. I promise that. You don't need to worry about me."

Michelle lowered her head. "Yeah..I know... I just don't want anything to happen to you."

Moynihan smiled softly. "If it will make you feel better, I'll take some precautions before meeting with these people."

Michelle nodded her head. "Yeah, that makes me feel better." She wrapped her arms around Moynihan and hugged her. "Thank you..."

"You're welcome." Moynihan whispered as she hugged Michelle back. She planted a kiss on Michelle's forehead before pulling away from her, but kept her hands on her shoulders. "Now why don't you go to bed now? A good night's sleep may help you feel better."

"Yeah..good idea." Michelle said. She got up from her seat. "Goodnight, Ms. Moynihan."

"Goodnight, Michelle." Moynihan said, watching Michelle leave the room. When she was gone, she turned back to the monitor. Her mind went back to what Michelle had said. She frowned softly. She glanced down at Rump. "Looks like you're coming with me to the meeting. I think I can convince the principal to let me bring you in." She said, smirking. Rump just twitched his ear and slept.

sss

Veloci sat in his dinosaur chair, waiting with anticipation as Kista and Peter were returning from their latest mission. The radars had detected the presence of another one of those creatures, an alimon as Axel liked to refer to them too. He wanted Kista and Peter to bring in the alimon before Dr. Axel arrived so she would be able to examine a live specimen. In preparation for the meeting possibly taking place down here, Veloci had his men hide all of his experiments and weapons in a secluded area so she wouldn't know about them.

He had half-expected the mission to be a failure again. But to his delight and surprise, Peter had called him and told him it was a success. They tranquilized the alimon and placed it in a large cage complete with thick bars with electricity running through them. Veloci told them to bring the animal in immediately. This was about half an hour ago. They would be arriving any moment. Dr. Axel would be arriving shortly after if she sticks to her schedule.

He heard the sound of the large doors opening up. He turned his head to see Peter and Kista coming in, pulling a large cage behind them. Inside the cage was, just as they said, an alimon. It was curled up, its eyes closed. Obviously it was still under the effect of the drug. He got up from his chair and walked over.

The animal appeared to be black in color with some white coloring. It had stiff feathers sticking out the back of its neck. He noticed the long, somewhat square-off muzzle with three teeth poking out on each side. It had a somewhat long neck and an even longer tail. It had four claws on each paw. It had an opposable digit on its two front paws. There was no doubt about it.

This was the same animal that Dr. Axel had studied fossils from. "Interesting..." He muttered to himself. Unlike him, Moynihan, and Kista, there was no evidence of the alimons having a human form. They must have survived millions of years undetected without the use of a disguise. He smirked. He wouldn't have expected less from a fellow dinosaur.

Just then, the alimon seemed to come to. Its eyes opened up and stared up at him, one glowing light blue and the other glowing light grey. The alimon slowly stood up, albeit slightly shaky from the drug, and stared around at its surroundings. It looked genuinely pissed off and bared its teeth. It quickly moved towards where Veloci was, but then immediately stopped. It stared at the bars for several moments, a quizzical look on its face. It was as if it sensed something wrong with the bars. As if to prove this, the alimon brought its tail towards one of the bars and lightly touched it. It winced as electricity crackled, stinging it. It hissed and backed away from the bars immediately, keeping its limbs well out of reach.

"Fascinating." Veloci said, looking impressed. "This creature seems to recognize a potential hazard far quicker than most animals I've dealt with, and learns from the first try. Instead of injuring itself further from repeated attempts, it gives up right away, probably to wait until a more..opportune time."

Peter wiped his brow. "I hope this was worth it. This animal was not that easy to catch."

Kista chuckled. "True, but it was still exciting! I can see why the Dino Squad had a difficult time with fighting one of these things."

Peter rolled his eyes. He turned his head towards the alimon. "I'm not sure why you were so happy about fighting this thing." He would never understand Kista. She just had a bizarre personality that even sometimes took Veloci himself by surprise. He almost felt sorry for Oscura who had to live with her. He then sniffed something bad and covered his nose. "Couldn't we at least give this thing a bath? It smells like it rolled in roadkill."

The alimon's eyes dilated and it brought its face as close to the bars as it could and let out a loud hiss. It pulled its lips back, exposing its large teeth and gums. Peter looked at the animal in shock and quickly backed away. The alimon continued to stare at him, its eyes narrowed. It growled for several moments before it finally looked away and laid back down.

Kista chuckled at this. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that animal could understand you." She said, amused.

"Impossible. It probably just doesn't like me." Peter said, glaring softly at the alimon. "It's not intelligent enough to understand human speech."

"Nonsense." Veloci said as he moved in a bit closer. He looked at the alimon as he spoke. "There are animals today who can learn to understand human speech."

"Yes, but those animals are trained to. There's no telling if this creature ever encountered humans before." Peter said.

Veloci turned to him. "And there's still a chance that it did encounter humans." He looked back at the creature. "Dinosaurs are a lot smarter than what you humans think. Don't underestimate their intelligence."

The elevator doors, just then, opened up. Dr. Axel walked inside. She quickly noticed the cage with the black and white alimon in it. Her eyes widened slightly and she walked towards it. She was about to touch the cage when she noticed a sign on it that said it was electrified. She pulled her hand back. Without bothering with a proper greeting, she looked over at Veloci and said, "I thought you weren't able to capture on of them."

Veloci nodded. "Yes, that is true. However we spotted one earlier today and I sent two of my people out to get it." He gestured to Kista and Peter. "They were successful and brought it back here."

Axel cocked an eyebrow. "What for? You going to dissect it or something?"

"Tempting..." Veloci said, smirking. "But no. I was going to allow you to examine the animal here with me. There won't be any interferences."

"Hmm..." Axel glanced at the alimon, looking it up and down. "Are you sure it's safe to have an alimon here in your..laboratory or whatever this place is?" She smiled almost creepily. "You never know when it might escape..."

Veloci chuckled at this. "There's no chance! The cage is electrified. And even if it did escape, there's enough security measures here to keep it from getting too far."

The alimon snorted at him, causing Axel to laugh. "Doesn't look like he likes you that much."

Veloci looked at her. "He?"

Dr. Axel nodded. "Just a guess. I'm assuming it's a male because those feathers look like they could be used to attract mates or to show off to other males in ritual confrontations." After a few moments of staring at the alimon in the cage, as if she couldn't believe it was really there, she turned back to Veloci. "Now..where can we go with this creature in peace?"

Veloci gestured for her to follow. "Come with me. I know where we can continue this meeting without interruption." He gave a sideways glance at Peter and Kista. "You two, come with us. I need to you bring the animal with."

sss

At the high school, Moynihan waited patiently in her classroom. She waited for Mr. Asymal and Mr. Haze to come by. They should show up any minute. She said they could come by her class at this time because she didn't have a class at this time. Next to her was a small carrier case where Rump was in. She didn't like keeping him in it, but the principal wouldn't let her bring him with unless he was kept in a cage. Rump didn't like it, but Moynihan kept him occupied with some treats and a chew toy. She also put in some water in case he was thirsty.

Within minutes, she heard the classroom door open. She looked up and saw two men walking in. She took quick notice of the scar on one of the men's faces. She smiled in greeting. "Hello, you two must be Mr. Haze and Mr. Asymal, am I correct?"

The two men reached her desk in no time. One of the men, the one with the scar, smirked. "Yes, I am Mr. Asymal. And he is Mr. Haze." He pointed at the man standing next to him, who waved half-heartedly at Moynihan. "I take it you are Ms. Moynihan?"

The old woman nodded. "Yes, that I am."

"You wondering why we are here?" Mr. Asymal asked.

Moynihan looked at him, slightly confused. "No..of course not. The principal said you wanted to talk to me about your child in my classroom. Is that not why you came?"

Mr. Asymal stared at her for a few seconds, then laughed a bit. "I must apologize. I know this may sound..unconventional, to say the least, to you. But I had to make up some kind of lie so I can speak with you." Moynihan's eyes narrowed slightly. "Yes, I know, I should have told the truth to begin with. But in all honestly, I didn't think I could speak to you quickly enough if I used the truth."

Mr. Haze nodded. He folded his arms behind his back and stretched. "I know, this seems all strange to you, but don't worry, it'll all make sense soon."

Moynihan still frowned at them. She didn't like that these men had lied just to get in touch with her. She glanced at Rump briefly before gesturing towards the two chairs she had sitting in front of her desk. "Go on, sit down." As the two men sat down, she clasped her hands together and placed them on the table. She adjusted herself in her seat. "Now what is it you want to speak to me about?"

Haze opened his mouth to speak, but Asymal cut him off. "First, how long do we have to talk to you?"

Moynihan glanced quickly at the clock. "I'd say about an hour before my next class."

Haze smirked. "A full sixty minutes then?"

Moynihan nodded, looking a bit perplexed. "Yes, that's right. Sixty minutes. One hour."

Asymal chuckled. He tapped his fingers together eagerly, licking his lips as if he was hungry. "That'll be plenty of time..."

Moynihan suddenly had a very bad feeling about these two men. "For what..?"

Asymal grinned. "To eliminate you..." Moynihan widened her eyes, gasped, and leaned back in her chair quickly. Asymal closed his eyes and reopened them, his iris changing to red and pupils became slits. "Prepare to die..."

sss

Veloci and Axel were now in a room deep in the back of Raptor Dyne's cave laboratory. Veloci had been careful to choose a different location than where his weapons were located. As soon as Kista and Peter pulled the alimon in the room, he sent them off. He insisted that he and Dr. Axel worked alone. He had several tools laid out for Axel to use. Set above the alimon was a contraption with different devices attached to it. There was a computer terminal nearby that operated it.

He glanced at the alimon, supposedly male. It seemed to grow a little restless. It was constantly pacing back and forth in the cage. It eyed him multiple times, but seemed to eye Axel a lot more often. He couldn't figure out why. Maybe Axel just looked more appetizing to it. He snarled in disgust. The thought of eating a human always made him feel a bit sick to his stomach.

"Shall we begin?" Veloci asked. He was eager to learn more about these creatures. He hoped they would prove useful for his global dinosaur domination plans.

Dr. Axel got up from her seat. She walked up to the alimon and stared at it some more. The alimon stared back at her, its grey and blue eyes almost unblinking. She turned her head towards Veloci. "Are you sure we're alone? Completely alone? As in, no interruptions?"

Veloci replied, "Yes. I told my men to stay away from this area until I said they could come. They are not going to interrupt us. Now.." He gestured towards the alimon. "...shall we begin? You know I hate repeating the same question twice."

Dr. Axel nodded her head. "Yes, I'm ready."

"Good then." Veloci turned towards the table full of tools. He walked up to them and picked a couple of them up. Without looking back, he said, "Which one do you want to start with?"

Instead of getting an answer from Axel, however, he suddenly found himself being slammed into the ground by a great force. He grunted in pain. He looked up and was shocked to see another alimon, this one with a short mane and being yellow in color, standing over him, baring its teeth at him. Thinking fast, he extended his raptor talons and slashed the alimon across the foot. It screeched as it pulled its foot away, allowing Veloci to get away.

Up on his feet again, Veloci looked around to try to find Dr. Axel. He quickly realized she had completely disappeared. He turned his attention back to the yellow alimon. "Of all the times for Dr. Axel to disappear on me..."

"Oh she didn't leave you. Don't worry." The alimon in the cage suddenly spoke. It's voice gave away it was indeed a male.

Veloci looked at the animal, utterly shocked that he had spoken. He would have expected telepathy if the animal had any way of talking. He never would have imagined it learning how to speak a human language vocally. Trying to shake himself out of the initial shock, he said, "What do you mean?"

Just then, the alimon laughed and spoke in an all too familiar voice. "Don't tell me you don't recognize me, not after all we've been through."

Veloci's eyes slowly widened. "Axel...?"

The female alimon nodded, grinning. "Yes, it's me..." She turned her head towards the black and white male. "Now!"

At her command, the black male nodded his head and turned to the side. He extended his long tail out of the cage and used the tip of his tail to undo the latch that held him in. Even though his tail still touched the electrified bars, this time he seemed to be able to ignore them long enough to undo the latch. He pushed the door open and jumped out. He shook his body as he walked up to Axel. "Finally, I was getting tired of my little act."

"Act?" Veloci asked.

The male sneered at him. "Certainly! Did you really think anyone can capture one of us alimons that easily? I only pretended to get captured so I would be brought here."

"Oh can it, Paradox!" Axel hissed at him. The male, Paradox, lowered his head in submission. She gave Veloci a sideways glance, an evil smile spreading on her face. "Just be glad that, in a few moments, it'll all be over. Our leader will be pleased with us."

Veloci couldn't believe what was happening. His mind was racing, trying to make sense of what was going on. He started to realize it was a bad idea to ask to be alone back here. Even if he hadn't told his men not to come back, they still rarely came back here anyway. In most situations, he wouldn't care, but he had seen how these alimons had fought and knew he would have great difficulty fighting him.

He couldn't believe that, after all this time, Dr. Axel was really an alimon. Suddenly some things about her made sense, namely her running off or disappearing without telling anyone and her interest in the alimon fossils. It also explained how she knew that Paradox was male. Not knowing what to expect, he backed away a couple of steps, narrowing his eyes.

"What do you two intend to do?" He demanded angrily.

"I'd tell you..but you aren't going to like it." Axel said, narrowing her eyes. "So..let me just show you." She bared her sharp teeth and lowered her haunches. Then she lunged forward towards Veloci, mouth split wide open, teeth fully exposed.

sss

Ms. Moynihan felt a tail strike her on her legs, knocking her into the ground. She grunted in pain and struggled to get up. She looked out at Haze and Asymal, both of which had turned into alimons, advancing towards her, snarling viciously. Drool dripped from their jaws. She managed to get out of the way as Haze ran towards her, snapping at her. She nearly tripped over a desk as she run to get away from them.

Asymal lunged towards her. Before he could bite her, she brought her cane forward. He snagged onto that as he pushed her into the ground. Moynihan pushed as hard as she could, but the alimon was stronger than she was. In a flash, he pulled the cane from her and tossed it away. He then turned his attention towards her, licking his chops. He snapped his jaws towards her. Moynihan attempted to move away, but winced in pain as the alimon's teeth lightly slashed the side of her cheek.

Haze walked up towards them. He sneered down at Moynihan. "Why don't you just hold still so this will go by much more quickly? Here, I'll help you." He lifted a paw and pushed it against Moynihan's head, roughly turning her head upwards so her throat was exposed. "Just hold still. This won't take long." He opened his jaws and prepared to rip the old woman's throat out.

Moynihan's growled. "I won't let you..."

Glowing brightly, she transformed into her velociraptor self, taking the two alimons by surprise. She pulled her legs back and kicked Asymal in the stomach. She wrapped her tail around Haze's leg and tripped him onto the ground. Now freed, she hopped onto her feet and ran across the room. She turned back to them and opened her mouth threateningly, hissing. She held her hand claws in front of her in a vicious manner.

'I didn't want to resort to this..but you left me no choice!' Moynihan hissed as she ran towards the two alimons. She jumped on top of Asymal's back and bit into him. She held on tightly as Asymal thrashed around to get her off. After a few moments, she was knocked off of Asymal's back. She was about to get back up when she suddenly felt a horrible pain in her leg. She looked over and saw that Haze had grabbed her leg, the same one that was injured years ago. It still hurt her to this day.

"Perhaps this will knock some sense into you.." Haze said, smirking evilly.

'How did you know about...?' Moynihan tried to say, but Haze silenced her by squeezing her leg tighter and twisting it roughly. She hissed in pain.

Asymal walked over to her. "Why don't you just die like a dinosaur?" He lifted a paw above her head and swung it downwards.