Raptin: IS THERE BY CHANCE ANYTHING YOU COULD DO TO HELP ME?
Me: Uh... NOPE. -fingers crossed behind back-
Jkonna: -is still biting his arm, though dragged around the place and highly tousled by the actions now-
Me: pbbt. Hey, that reminds me, when I was first planning or starting to write The Lost Fossil Fighter, Jkonna was going to be a highly unstable girl that for some reason met Dino and THEN SHE WAS TO COMMIT SUICIDE. Let's say I am extremely happy with the outcome.
Jkonna: -stares at me like I just told her to get off Raptin's arm-
Me: OOH! ALSOALSO! The tacky idols, or dolls, weren't going to do much of anything! They'd just... sit there... do nothing... BE EXISTENT I GUESS. So it's really fun to see how it all came out in the end! :D Course, those are just two tiny aspects I ended up changing... You got no idea how much I changed up from the original plan that I'm also happy I changed because this story would not be the same without everything I put into it.
Raptin: I am guessing you did not write any love into this text... -_-
Me: LIARRRRRRRR..! -bites his other arm-
The Lost Fossil Fighter
Chapter 28: Not the Good Uh Oh
We're still spinning in the ugly, brown spinny chairs in his basement. Since there's no windows in this spacy and really drab room, I have no clue how long it's been or how late or if a month just passed. No, not really; couldn't have been more than a few hours. I don't think it's night just yet. Besides, if it'd really been that long, I'm sure one of more of my vivosaurs would've tried to escape into fresh air already. All I've been doing this entire time is spinning around and around and around on this brown chair with wheels and falling off the brown chair with wheels and then getting back on the brown chair with wheels, only to start spinning all over again. You really kill your sense of direction after enough time. I can't remember which way is north and what all the other points are... which is probably really sad, but I'm busy completely wasting time on this spinny chair.
Next to me, Jkonna keeps on riding that other brown one. Her hair looks like flames the way it gets flung all over the place, which makes me nervous every time and immediately check quickly that Iggy's still in his respective medal and not setting fire to the basement of the Fossil Center. He might get bored anytime soon; hey, I'm not the one that told him to stay right here in this gigantic basement as Diggins does who knows what over in the other corner. This thing's so huge I can hardly hear the doc and his vivosaurs clanging whatever the heck that is together as they try to make something out of something else. Basically, I have absolutely no idea what's going on over there besides the fact that Diggins must've reacted very strongly or something when I told him that stupid Duna and her buddy Raptin stole my freaking dolls and called them sub-something or another and they are gone and that makes me very angry.
"You bored too, diga?" Jkonna's icy eyes flash at me. She's stopped her spinny chair. "I mean, I'm crazy bored, diga-Dino. We should like diga-do something fuuuun." With those last words she falls off her seat and crashes into the cement another time. We hear another "I TOLD YOU TWO TO BE SAFE BACK THERE" from good ol' Diggins. But dude, we're being completely safe. Can't you tell? Jkonna just acts like an idiot all the time so she fell over again.
Rmmblermmblermmble-CLANG~ My spinny chair smacks against something after being rolled around against its will, tossing me off my own chair. "YOU NEED TO LEARN TO BE SAFER" calls the expectant Diggins from wherever he is and whatever he's doing over there. Gosh, we act like little kids so much that he's gonna have to get someone to watch over us or something. Well, I guess that's not so bad, long as it isn't Woolbeard the turd or McJunker who thought I was a BB Bandit that one time and made me his manservant to go find his tools. Those two were like really annoying. But now that I take a good look at how extremely focused the turquoise-haired dude over there looks, I'm guessing we aren't getting a babysitter anytime soon.
"Diga-Dino? Wanna diga-do those spinny wars again, diga? The ones where we crash against each other like idiots until someone falls off?" That does sound really tempting, but I also wanna do something else right now. Something that I'm reminded of by those squinting, turquoise orbs in the doc's eyes. "Diga-dude. You're staring at diga-Diggins real creepy, diga. Heck's that about." She is met with my really stupid laughter as I cover my hands and just plain smirk about the idea I just got.
It's all in the turquoise. "Hey, wanna go look for-"
"I thought we were playing spinny wa-"
"HEY LET ME SUGGEST SOMETHING, YOU DIGADIG." She shoves a dark-colored hand in her mouth to stop the stupid giggles. Doubt that was an insult, then. "So... my plan is that we go sneak out of here while Diggins is way too focused to notice anything, we get out all our vivosaurs, and we search for Vivian!" She shouldn't be too hard to find. After she and her buddies Rex and Snivels got outta their roles as the BB Bandit commander things, they've been having to do all these stupid errands all around the island for anyone that asks until some guys -I think the police department and me, since I'm the guy that busted and fought them a ton in the first place- decide when they've finished up their duties and can go on being actual people. Last I checked, Diggins had stumbled on some really, really bad mess in one of the Fossil Center rooms and had the three of them clean it out. So all we gotta do is tell Vivian to come follow us, and she will, since anything must be better than whatever the heck those poor souls are cleaning if Diggins didn't just sic the staff members on it, and then get her to ask the other turquoise-haired and turquoise-eyed person here out on a date or something and then either laugh really hard when he says no or laugh really hard when he says yes. I'm pretty sure that kinda question only has two answers.
"Wait, digadig, what the heck are you suggesting?"
I giggle, slapping my mouth and trying again. "Vivian. Plus. Diggins. Equals... you know..." She stares at me for a moment, her icy blue eyes fogged out, but then gets the idea of what I'm implying and smirks heartily as she shoves her brown spinny chair my way and I get ran over by a sitting utensil. Wincing, I glare at the thuds of bruises just waiting to break skin. Jkonna giggles back like a complete ninny.
"Gotta admit, sounds way more fun than getting beat up by a bunch of inanimate objects, digadig!" Gotta admit, I am never going to get used to you saying that. The digadig stuff. I'm just too used to the Jkonna that fell on top of me in the middle of a trap in the Digadigamid, not this newer one. But that's okay, I guess. I like digadig Jkonna more than a... I dunno, some crazy, suicidal girl. That wouldn't be fun, or good for anyone's health, on that matter. Doubt I'd ever be friends with her if she was- OKAY. Enough with the suicidal. That doesn't exist anyways. Not for Jkonna. Not for my screaming redhead friend that has the shortest temper a redhead could ever have. Gah, I don't even know what part of my brain that came from. Just, poof, I guess.
Backing away from that little booger of a thought, I look over at my crazy digadig friend whose face is pointed at dark-faced Diggins, still hunched over his gigantic machine with a few vivosaurs ambling around it and himself, adjusting stuff with their tails or whatever. Cupping her hands around my ear, Jkonna quite loudly whispers, "He'll notice we're not making noise."
Before she can move away, I shove my face into those hands and squeak a quick, "We'll be fast or something." She nods at this, flaming colored bangs bobbing around face, and snatches my arm, dragging me to the gigantic garage door of a door whose hallway, also gigantic, is conveniently placed right behind her form. I keep glancing back stupidly, hoping Diggins won't question the fact that we're disobeying him again, though I wonder if he expected this to happen eventually since I can't recall a time I have fully listened and done every little thing he told me to do. Hah. I didn't get the right discipline because of that orphanage- I practically owned the place at times. Ah, that was the life.
Thinking quick, I grapple onto those spinny chairs, managing to wrangle my one arm Jkonna's got out of her grasp for a quick moment, and slam their brown, cushioned selves all the way to the other edge of the basement, letting my still awesome though digadig bro drag me away from the awesome scene as the two chairs connect with wall and screech to a halt, toppling all over the place and flipping around like Droplet's tail when she's angry. The sound's so bad, so loud, and the mess is so big that even if Diggins doesn't hear the loud crash, he'll take one look at the chairs and assume we got all tangled up there, and it was bad. So we should be fine now. "Can't believe I'm saying this, but..." Jkonna puts her cup hands up again and whisper-screams, "GOOD JOB." Her voice nearly knocks me over, so she makes quick work stabbing my arm with those nails and getting me out of the scene. As we make our jailbreak for it, running like crazy to that gigantic garage door of a door that opens upon the footsteps coming up, we run out and laugh loudly and real stupidly and crash over like the chairs before remembering that we're supposed to be looking for Vivian.
Thankfully, a voice meets us: "You twerps? Huh. Diggins is smarter than he looks to've guessed you two'd try to escape like that- and in fact, you did." Hi Vivian. Awesome to know that the smarty also just set our plan up perfectly. "Now's the time I'm supposed to tell you two to go back in the basement like the good idiots you're specifically not, and you do that, and we're done here." We glance up at her. "Oh, I'm here on orders." Must be why she's in the sea blue jumpsuit. "Snivels and Rex are still cleaning up that mess some vivosaur left all over the place... Jeez, who fed the poor thing something with tree roots in it? The thing got sick all over that room."
Oh. Guess that was my fault then. Didn't realize vivosaurs really couldn't hold down much, including the shoes I stole from Jkonna. Sorry, Droplet. "Well whatever you're here that's great diga-Dino explain the plan." Jkonna, pulling herself onto her knees, tacks me there alongside her and jabs me in the ribs a few times. "You know. The. Plan. Digadig. The plan, diga-doofus." Yes, I know. Shut up, you're making me feel stupid. "Go on, then! Digadig!" Okay, now you're just rubbing it in.
"Vivian! We hereby command you to ask Dr. Doug Diggins on a date!" I jump up from the floor before Jkonna can jab me again or something. "Because you both have turquoise hair and turquoise eyes! So it has to be destiny! Right..? Yeah, duh! Totally right! You can't be related just because you both have the same color hair!"
She smirks down on me, her waves of light blue-green hair shivering as she shakes with the pent-up giggles. "Well, that is true. I'm not related to the man in any way. It's not a Snivels-Travers relationship. Those two... you can just tell they're twins." Oh, they are? Funny. I hate Travers, but Snivels has the coolest accent, though the nose thing is kinda creepy. "Naaaah, not Doug and I though," she continues on with a flick of her fair hand. I bet she's blushing in the depths of her mushy heart. "He's an only child. I have... how many was... four siblings, right. Ah, can't keep track of them. I'm the baby of our family." She blinks her now-dark turquoise eyes our way. "They didn't pay much attention to me. Grew up. Left me. Now I'm here. And no, if that's what you're thinking, I didn't meet either of Rex or Snivels because I was attracted to them like that, ew."
That's actually not what I was thinking. Complete opposite, just about. "So that obviously means you're in love with Diggins. Since you don't find attraction to any of your awesome bros." Jkonna gives me this look that says I just stole the words right out of her mouth.
"Why would you think that, now?" Vivian's face gets all pinched together. I knew it. Nailed it. Totally.
My redheaded friend, built with a competitive atmosphere, forces her hand in my mouth before I get to continue and shouts, "You know him so well! You got the turquoise! YOU DIGA-DON'T FIND ATTRACTION TO THEM! TOTALLY! YOU! AND! HIM! OH MY ANCIENTS I DIGA-DARN SHIP IT! DIGADIG!" Her fist of death sends me to the ground with a flop, but not for long. I craft my own slap of terror as I raise once more, shocking the loud girl off her knees and back on the steel ground.
Clearing my throat, I say, "Oh, and you totally need someone like him. It's like obvious." Eyes sparking with some sort of deadly emotion, Vivian jumps up like the madwoman we've made her until she's frozen in place by a pair of golden arms slinging her back. Love ya, Harei~ The all-knowing ourano smiles giddily in response, gently tugging the struggling Vivian up to her chest like she's a tacky doll. Eh, if the gold-butted girl wants, she can have. Her dark blue eyes brighten like a little pond instead of dark waters as she carries in poor Vivian the manservant after Jkonna and I waltz back into the basement without even having to use our coverup story with the crash and the spinny chairs. Giggling even more like the weirdos we are, Jkonna and I run up to the turquoise-haired guy squinting through his glasses at a blueprint unevenly tacked to the cement -though roughly painted random colors in certain areas that cover the thick gray nicely and make my gray self feel a little more original- on the wall like he can't see the perfectly straight lines or something though they're perfectly white and right there and stuff.
"Hey, digadig! We gotcha something real special!" Jkonna stares up at my ourano like she's hers expectantly. I smirk when nothing happens for the next couple of seconds besides Diggins actually turning his head toward us like we really matter and aren't prisoners. Nodding up to my Harei, I mumble a, "See?" and duck away from Jkonna's growling as obedient goldie drops Vivian in front of Diggins, in her blue jumpsuit and all, though her hair's a bit ruffled, but she's there. All for the guy to take in. He awkwardly blinks a few times, looking at the BB girl like she's a very interesting fossil bone, then grunts and turns back to his work, mumbling something to the green-feathered biped beside him. Judging by the lime beak and scatter of scales the thing has, it must be a hypsi. Those things aren't as messed up as Lone, but they're up there. After somehow understanding the drawl Diggins spewed, the stick-like thing nods and steps back toward the machine thingy she and the other vivosaurs are making.
His turquoise eyes risk a glance at the girl on the floor before back to his blueprints, mumbling something or another about... I don't even know what. Something. He mumbled something. Words fell out of his mouth and hit the air, but no one could figure out what it meant. Jkonna must agree with me; her face got all pinched up after the warbling. "Uh... Then... uh... Diga-Dino, the heck should we ask him about if he's got no taste in Vivian?"
"I think he likes Vivian," I scowl at the ground almost silently. Stupid Diggins. "Just too focused in his work." The girl next to me nods slowly, brown toga rusting angrily with her upset pacing in place. She grumbles to herself about the incident too as the turquoise-haired girl of the group, letting out a dejected sigh, crawls out from under our huddle and escapes from the huge, concrete room. A few seconds later, the garage door slams shut again.
BAMMMMmmmmm...
Jkonna leaps to her feet with a sudden idea. "Diga! Diga! Diga! Diga!" She jumps onto his lab-coated shoulders after kicking over me like I'm some launch pad and wraps her arms around his spike-haired face as I sink to the floor dramatically, flopping over quickly. "Diiiiiggggggggaaaaaaaa-"
"WHAT DO YOU WANT JKONNA." Gosh, is it just me, or is this thing he's building really set him on edge? He either yells at us about safety or mumbles stuff we couldn't even begin to understand.
We both set off the giggling again after his fast response that's quick enough to even cut through her moan. Dang, I should've thought of doing that earlier. "What're you maaaaaaakiiiiiing, digaaaaa?"
"What do you think I'm making..?" The way his lighter but still dark hands claw at her arms is funny. Seeing my friend wobble, I jump up again, totter to the side with that linger of her kick earlier, and start slapping at his hands. I think the predator has become confused. Good.
She stops for a moment, thinking. "Uh... A diga-death ray? Awesome, digadig! Awesome!"
He sighs, removing his hands from her scrawny arms and patting my olive-colored ones away. "Really, the two of you make quite a rambunctious bunch. After you alerted me of what those dinaurians were up to with their stealing your, well, sub-idolcomps, as I've researched their name to be, I'd remembered this transport I was starting up for... I was never sure what at the time, but the more I compare this to the explanations you've been giving me, Dino," he ends abruptly, looking down at me with that warm, ocean-like gaze, "the more I think it, and them, them too, this is all connected to that strange ship out in space that's been orbiting Vivaldi-Isles for as long as any research or data goes back to... So I'm apparently building a transport to get us there, which is quite good since your idolcomps are there along with the dinaurians... and something tells me... that's not a good thing."
"Wait. The thing's been following us for how long, and you didn't tell us." Wow, Diggins. Just wow.
"Yep, pretty much."
"DIGA-DARN YOU AND YOUR CRAZY-" Getting the idea Jkonna's got some words in her head, I get my hands on her locked up arms and manage to pry the crazy things apart before she kills Diggins: accident or on purpose, I dunno, but I got the feeling he'd be screwed in that position.
Diggins blinks warmly in my direction again. "Thank you." I just mumble turd at the floor and drag Jkonna away from the blueprints before she pees on them or something. That look in her eyes, symbolized by a snapped temper and hot, angry face, tells me she just might to get back at him. "Don't you two stray too far, Dino! I'm almost done fixing this old thing up- there's a reason I didn't want you to leave the room, you know!" Uh huh. Whatever. I stop where I am and flop over, handing my writhing friend over to Harei who proceeds to tie the struggling digadig in her golden tail securely and tightly. She blinks my way. I shrug. She stretches out that awkwardly-framed body of hers and begins shaking that blue-marked tail like it's a hurricane. I can kinda, kinda hear Jkonna still yelling and screaming and stuff, but not really. This actually works pretty well. I'm proud of you, Harei.
Since Jkonna's busy getting tugged around like that by my ourano, I decide to waste the rest of my time not on the vivosaurs in my pocket, who all don't seem to care about what's happening at the moment -anticipation does this to people. Stupid dinaurians and Duna who I don't want to call stupid because, uh, because she's Duna, but I do it anyways because they stole my dolls, ruining it for Jkonna and me and all our vivosaurs too. Instead, I pull out one of the browns chairs, roll on it back toward my hip-shaking biped that balances well between such and shaking my bro Jkonna good too, and spin around some more. It's very peaceful once you get past the motion sickness. Plus, it looks all weird and loony and cool while you're spinning around on that spinny chair. I don't think it's a waste of time to spin around like this; my best friend's getting shaken up by one of my vivosaurs, so what choice did I have in the first place?
Diggins works for some time, this stretch nowhere near around as many hours as before, more like twenty minutes or something, I'd say. Meanwhile, I'm stuck here, spinning in an old, brown, cushioned chair like my life depends on it as the digadig from above spins too, just not to her own will. His clanging and mumbling to the vivosaurs, and losing some track of time too, is a really funny backdrop to listen to while spinning on a chair. Probably be better if Jkonna was screaming to rhythm, since she's just shouting whenever she feels like it and totally ruining the soft hum of Diggins and his vivosaurs rambling back there. Then again, I guess the whole reason she's stuck like that was my fault in the first place. Well, her fault for having a short temper. No, it's the first ever redhead's fault, because they had a short temper and it got passed all the way down here to Jkonna, darn it.
"Okay..." My chair abruptly stops spinning and I get flung onto concrete once more. "It's done..." Voice halting, I can hear Diggins's flip-flops flapping his feet as he walks over to my crumpled figure. A light thump suggests that caring Harei gently let my bro Jkonna fall onto the cement without busting whatever the heck I busted. She then enters her medal and lands in my gray pocket calmly. "It's... finally... finally... all done! Oh, joy! I finished years of a standby project in those hours! It's all... all finally... Oh, thank you two!" And like that, I'm not on the ground anymore but a lab coat's pushing all against my face and body and clothes and soon Jkonna's shoved up here too and that guy is really, really, really happy right now. Like, no joke. Diggins is gonna pop me open if he hugs any harder. Funny that I don't even care his hair's stabbing my eyes like it does to his glasses or anything. Too bad he's not my real dad: I wouldn't mind that.
Eventually, the guy lets go and we both weakly spill out onto the ground a second time. "Ugh..." I moan. "Where's left again..?" Everything's all swirly. It doesn't feel very good now... Ugh, my stomach's like I don't think so stupid... Ew... Yuck... I don't like this very much... Course, Jkonna's eyes are squeezed shut. Heh. Her cheeks are swelling kinda green... mine probably are too... Aw, Ancients...
I hate you Dino. Ugh... Droplet... Ugghhhhhhhhhhh... I can feel the motion sickness just roiling right off of you, poor thing. Yuck. Yuck indeed. Ugh. Darn it, it's trying to infect mee... And I can't leave my freaking medal because you're going to go see Duna and marry her. Blargh... Just... wait for the room to stop... spinning... You didn't even react. Someone's under the weather. Five minutes. You already had fifteen. Same thing. No it's not.
Scowling, I shove some of the side effects under my head and focus on Droplet, through the new headache, through my dizzy outsides, through my flying innards... ugh... It has not been fifteen minutes, Dropp...ie...
Wow, you can hardly speak to me. Maybe we should just not even look for those dolls at a-
OKAY ALL BETTER. I try jolting myself up and am met with the floor a second time, but I think the sickly dizziness is wearing off. I know where right and left are again- from my perspective, at least. And whoa, right in front of me is this really, really large and white and long, shimmery, bright hexagon that holds all that light together. It also looks fuzzy. I like fuzzy. Not only is that crazy, but surrounding all that, protecting the inner stuff, are four rectangles, all purple with funky carvings on them, that revolve and rotate around the white spot in the ground. I can feel the thickly laced energy practically swarming the pad. It's through shaky feet and a still-kinda-dizzy head that I get up with. And... whoa, that pad, it reminds me of something...The clouds outside on those really bright days at Greenhorn Plains? I think so, yeah. Wow, if only a sun was in here. That'd make the white, shimmery pad thing almost impossible to look at.
Jkonna manages to shake next to me in sight of the transport thing. "Wow." And that's is: a simple wow. It voices all of our awe in the room, sucks it out, and pours into that simple syllable. Just... wow. That thing. Now, if I'd trust anything to get us into the space ship, it'd be that thing.
"Yes... I think that's a word worthy for what we stand in front of right now... Labeled well for this transporter that can potentially take us to the mysterious space craft that's been orbiting Vivaldi-Isles since all data knows of..." Diggins murmurs quietly, by our side, height difference not mattering right now. "This space craft, as my research has showed, is not only the home of those dinaurians, but where your... dolls, where they originated from, too." Oh boy. Diggins's usually chipper and kinda relaxed for a scientist's voice just slanted into full-on nerd mode. We're in for a ride. "How the two are specifically connected, I'm not sure, but they hold a match somewhere along the line... We picked up that much. So this has to be where your precious dolls went, along with every single dinaurian we've met along the way... well, that's saying Duna and Raptin in a fancy way. Though most likely every single dinaurian is there too. At least, that's what data reads." That insane man somehow realizes that I'm starting to not listen to his very lulling voice and seconds later those turquoise-shielding glasses are in my face. "Dino. This next part is very important. So listen." Hi. Your breath smells like vivo-cakes, crazy man.
He steps back, flip-flops clacking on the cement floor until he's right in front of the fancy, glowing machine. His lab coat gets tugged at by the energy and air. "Okay, you two. I'm assuming you'll want to come with me on our little adventure to save your dolls, so I'd better show you the ropes." His feet clack some more on the ground as he moves around his nifty little invention. It's almost like a vivosaur, just a docile one that glows creepily at irregular times. "So..." His chocolate hands poke at through air, but don't directly touch, one of the purple rectangles that circle the pad. "This doodad here is one of the four pieces that holds you into the transporter itself, kind of like strapping you in. Making sure you're there, won't get cut off anyway. Also..." His fingers lightly, gently trace a few of those funky carvings. "This data here can recreate your physical form, well, in hologram, that is, to temporarily either make you look like a dinaurian... or, if we wrangle one of them while in their form, they look like one of... us. It's really helpful that way."
Finally, he points at that glowing pad itself. "This here literally takes you there. To the entrance room of the dinaurian space ship. I only know that because one of my vivosaurs accidentally stumbled over here and she told me the whole story." That right there sounds exactly like what either Lone or Pippy would do. I don't know why they popped up in my head, but that happened. Love those guys. "So all we have to do is get on the pad together and we'll be taken there. But-" he announces quickly, halting both Jkonna and me before we run like rabid fans of Saurhead on the pad like it's him, "-we have. To stick. Together. No buts. We don't want to get lost in here, my friends. Not in enemy territory, surely, surely not like that. So this whole time we're there, no one leaves anyone's sight. Understood?" We force our necks to bob in unison and make a break for the white pad, only being stopped once more abruptly. "Hey! Don't you want to know what our plan is?" Oh yeah. If anyone knows the plan, it'd be Diggins. I literally would not trust anyone else in our trio to make a good plan for getting the dolls except for him.
"Okay." We bundle up right in front of that freaking portal I so want to just jump all over, but I gotta control myself. Gotta be cool for now. "So, the plan is that first, we figure out how to navigate this ship. Then, we'll do either or both find those idols and, or possibly, if we can, scrounge around and pick up some facts on these guys. I have some feelings about them that I'm not sure are so good." That light in his eyes... Oh, he knew. He knew we'd love running around like complete Lones in search for knowledge about these guys. He knew. Diggins, my respect for you has now bypassed almost every person I know. That may or may not include my dead parents- hey, not my fault I know almost nothing about my family. At least I think. It might've been me that killed them. Memories like those get all mixed up when you get older.
Finally, finally, finally we're about to release ourselves into that glowing pad and get the heck out of this huge, huge basement that could easily fit more than one Pippy, which is an accomplishment alone. Though the room is real spacy, I have no need to waste more time in here when I can save those dolls from the clutches of the evil dinaurians that want to take my beloved creatures away. I bet those dolls, if they were alive, would be crying so bad right now because they wanna see their Dino, and maybe even their Jkonna, thought I doubt it, again. We must save our greatest possessions, like, now.
Diggins does it. He finally unclasps his hands from our arms, releasing us to go on. After the two of us stand securely on the squishy pad, very squishy and shiny beneath our bare toes, he hops on too. And those purple rectangles start spinning. They're like blades or creepily rotating walls or something. The faster they go, the more obvious it is that we're not gonna get outta here if we have second thoughts, but not even that creepy thought can chase away the trill in my stomach that we're gonna do this, we're gonna save our dolls and run around the place and spy on weirdo dinorans and Duna. Ugh, I just can't find it in myself to call her a weirdo. I think some of Pippy's or Harei's niceness is getting to me. Someone please turn it off before I go crazy.
Jkonna instinctively lets out a sharp squeal before her hands grapple over mine. "Woo, diga! We're going on an adventure, man!" She bounces excitedly on the pad until the thing, probably really angry with all her movements, sends out a zap of energy and straps all that joy inside of her to the cottony ground. "Aha! I knew this thing was smart! Digadig!" She tugs at her feet, harder, until she's bouncing again and then gets zapped a second time. I'm thinking of joining her in that little game, but then Diggins gives her this side look like you're-even-worse-than-Dino-right-now, which gets not only her to stop but me to regret life. I don't even know what. That look though... I'm gonna have nightmares.
The swirling of those purple rectangles intensifies and intensifies as substances, hollow substances cloak around the three of us. I officially can't see anything except for those colors that mob and swarm and completely swamp my figure, embedding not into my skin but the air around it, making me probably look like one of those weirdo dinaurians and not letting anyone realize who I actually am: the kid with the dolls. The kid with the dolls that were brutally robbed and stolen from him. Yeah, I'm going that far. Stupid space people. All their fault.
I'd reach out an arm, but the bones just snap back at me and freeze there, letting the hologram pixel things morph it some more. We gotta make these costumes look completely real, or we're screwed. We're wandering into the belly of the hoplo with no idea how the insane thing's gonna react. Those vivosaurs tend to do whatever comes to them, since they have like no brains, a really long neck, huge, huge claws, and then they're a biped all the same. I don't even know what's wrong with the things. It's like they were bred with a bunch of physically creepy nasaurs -well, they're cute it you get used to it- and mentally creepy megalos. Just... boom. Problem. And that problem is exactly what we're letting ourselves walk into. I mean, we're like disguised and stuff, but what happens when something we go in there happens and, I don't know, Duna sees us and she's got the that's-Dino-and-his-weird-friend-with-the-long-hair look at us?
"Diga-Dino... diga-Dino! Open your eyes, digadig! You look weird and we're about to take our trip!" No, I don't wanna. I wanna keep worrying about when we run into Duna. I think I like her or something. Eh, she wouldn't make a bad friend, I guess. Not any worse than that one kid that wanted my autograph so I wrote it somewhere hard to see... oh yeah, Clem. He had the jacket I wanted. Red with all those signatures. Heh, now that I think about it, I did see the more common ones, but as usual, not even he was good enough to get that Rupert guy's- he's super cool and stuff, and by cool I mean cold. But everyone thinks he's so amazing and stuff. Gah. I'm one of everyone. "Diga-Dino... you're smiling... Ooh! Thinking about kissing Rosie when we get back, digadig?"
My eyes snap open faster than Jkonna could say something else. "Ew! And don't you mean mouth-thing, diga-Jkonna?"
She smirks by my side. Her face is absolutely covered in orange scales. I will be haunted by that look for the rest of my life. "That's not how it goes, diga-dummy! It's before the sound like diga-D, and at random pauses, diga! Not even I know how it happens, digadig! The words just pour out!" Whatever. I like diga-Jkonna more than diga-Din-Din. "Oh, by the way, diga-Din-Din, your face is a really nice light orange. It actually makes you look kinda cute, digadig! Ha ha!" Shut up.
"Yeah, well your face is all bright orange! It's gonna give me nightmares or something! And not only that, but..." My eyes stuff in all of Jkonna's temporary features so that I'll remember them for later and tell... hah, yeah, I'll tell Rosie about it all and we can make fun of Jkkie or something. Don't care if Lone doesn't like that idea. "You've got a really icy, light blue upper-chest area thing, and those looping rings on your shoulders and knees and elbows... and stomach... and tail... and... y'know, the markings?" Thankfully, she nods, knowing what I mean. "Yeah, they're the same color. And... your stomach's like the orange your face is... arms are a lighter red... almost, hey, almost pink. Same with your legs, and the rest of your tail. Hah, you have pointy, orange ears! They're so adorable!" She instinctively flicks my own to show it's the same deal with me.
"Oh my gosh I just made your ear orange, diga." Okay. Let's not do to that again. "Hah, now one of my fingers is partially the lighter orange you are. Looks like I have skin problems in that diga-dang area. Anyways... your face is that orange, and so are your... markings, digadig. The highlights all over, diga, yeah?" Yeah. "Gray stomach. Black arms and legs and tail tip, digadig. Your eyes are still that annoying gr- no, diga, wait. They're black now. But your hair's very much gray still... just a bit of... whoa. Digadig. There's an orange streak in your hair, digadig. That is creepy. Kinda cool, but, whoa. Hello." I'll take it she has no idea what to think about that either. Well, makes two of us.
"Does it look awesome?"
"Uh, sure. I diga-dunno. Digadig."
I stare at her hair as it morphs. "Hah. Your hair's light blue. It looks funny." Jkonna smirks at this, tugging the hair band out and letting all that icy blue billow around like it's snowy air.
"I should date Diggins."
"But Vivian likes him!"
"Oh yeah." Giggling and sneaking glances at Diggins, we fall silent again. I'd love to tell him that the color combination of purple and yellow is scaring me, but I mean come on, how to you tell someone that? It's just... creepy. The oddly bright turquoise hair isn't doing him any favors, either. And then all those markings, the same color, all over him... Okay, now I literally am scarred. Jkonna's, I'll probably forget at some point... but those colors. Their overlaps and just... I literally am scarred. For life. Oh Ancients why.
"What're you two looking at?" We just start shaking out heads like crazy and turn back from him.
Jkonna cups her red hands around my ear carefully, to not let my scales get messed up again, and whispers, "He looks so creepy without his glasses, digadig." I have no idea how to respond to those glasses. This girl is completely right, I now realize, staring at the scientist that's now a really demented hoplo of a dinaurian. Never thought that original analogy would come in handy like that. And then we're suddenly shoved to the ground, choking on cotton.
All of us.
I can't see. Hard to breathe. Stupid throat.
RrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM~ That transporter sounds a little more demented than Diggins looks right now... I can't believe I'm doing this why did I trust Diggins can't breathe hear screeches by my vivosaurs see those starts those black stars painted in the sky and flashes and cotton and oh my gosh space and poof no space no stars... just... Wow. That white flooring right in front of us? It's like super duper shiny. And white... and... oh dear Ancients it's not just white but it's humming and colors are vibrating from the freaking surface, it's like a rainbow. I am in love. With the floor. It's just too beautiful.
The crunching sound of big Diggins feet -even the sandals disguised along with all of other clothes- alerts me to get up and shake myself out. Jkonna and I, though stumbling like dizzy pteras after a crash flight, manage to pull our feet onto the ground and stand, trying to pretend to be actual dinaurians. "Do you think we're pulling it off?" I squeak through the corner of my mouth.
"Not even close, diga," she responds back. Jkonna's as reassuring as usual. But with the big steps of our leader alerting us, I step to the side of the cramped room, off the pad, past a floating purple rectangle, and stand quietly on the soft, white blocks of floor that hum with rainbows regularly. This place is so... so... weird, I guess. I don't know how to describe the white-yet-rainbow room, a square block of an entrance with open hallways, no doors, pouring straight out. Jkonna's icy eyes follow my own and we stare like a pent-up shanshan at the opening. Diggins gives another checkup over the machine, decides it's safe where it is, as those dinaurians just found my dolls and surely won't show up here anytime soon, and, with him in front of us like he's our actual dad or something, we set out over the pristine, white blocks. I swear, I could waste my life staring at one for as long as I live and feel no regrets.
Under his instruction and careful eye, we carefully navigate through the white spaceship, looping around back to the pad every once in awhile to make sure no one's lost and we know what we're doing. From this, Diggins decides that the entrance, a three-way wall, the fourth facing the back of the ship, is in the exact middle of this white-and-rainbow ship. Also, the weird purple things, those gaps in certain walls, are doors into dorms. Like, rooms where people stay. They're regularly scattered around the ship. We pass by some and a few dinaurians, but make no eye contact under his instruction once more to make sure that no one sees us as funny. Even the creepy purple one that's way taller than the other two. Another thing we're learning is that there aren't a ton of dinaurians on this ship here. They probably know each other pretty well. We gotta act like we don't exist to get through. It'd be so much easier for me if I was still gray Dino instead of orange and gray and black-limbs Dino.
To the far right and left of the ship, looping around the whole thing like the fence, and also possibly extra protection, is this... this dim-lit hallway. There's imprints all over the place, like dinaurians slept in here or something, and we even see a few of the scaled bipeds snoozing in similar imprints, but the odd thing is that Jkonna and I'd counted at least like a hundred, a huge hundred spots for people to sleep in before we got bored. It's like there were way more dinaurians than the measly... what, ten, less than ten we saw around the place? And that's including Duna and Raptin. Wow. Looks like something not good happened to these guys. Just... ouch. Burn. They lost like tons of dinaurians. And now I understand why Diggins's so curious about he place: what the heck happened to these guys, and how have they been circling us for so long? There really has to be an actual reason. And now I'm in on this... I feel this... this kinda... tug... to find it out. Yeah, it's a tug alright... Ow, the pulling hurts.
My vivosaurs giggle. I think Iggy tries to, but those yellow eyes are just so sad right now. Stupid Thomas had to go and be killed another time. Makes me feel so bad. Oh well. I got an idea to try and slap a smile on his face: Guys. GUYS. SHUT UP AGAIN OR WE'LL BE SPOTTED, DARN IT. DON'T LAUGH. Darn it, I overestimated how funny I am. Didn't help the sad guy at all.
After traveling around through those sleep holes some, we pop out through the left side and search around some more. At the front of the ship, the literal front, there's gigantic windows here. And... whoa. Diggins and the rest of us learn that there's some really, really big murals plastered on the walls. Not only that, but we can understand some of the words. Course we don't need the words, since pictures all over the place show enough to prove that this is the heritage of the kings and stuff for the dinaurians. There's also a ton more plastered around them, but we gotta go before those dolls can't be taken back again. Jkonna's got this burn in her icy eyes like she wants to just stay here and search around, but a yank on her hair and reminding of the dolls sets her on the right track again.
Of course, this logically means that the very back of this super cool and shiny ship is none other than where the king must lie, right? Actually... yeah. That's right. We wander all the way back again after following Diggins through some corridors I doubt I'll remember the right way through, and finally, the three of us reach the very, very back of the ship, which is exactly where I'm guessing those dolls are. Doubt the dinaurians have them hiding in their rooms. So it's with our hesitant feet, until I'm shoved in the larger-than-normal, swirly, purple fluid that transports me through and into a very gigantic room. The floor's shimmery with actual rainbows caught in, actual colors, and the walls are all windows except for the one my back now faces. At the very front, up over a little rise in the ground, are table things where all four of my dolls sit, along with a very fat one in the middle. There's a really, really big, fluffy-looking pillow on the ground for sitting, duh, and three of the scaled bipeds that almost resemble us humans or nomadistinians or even tabula rasas a little bit, and even a couple vivosaurs, well, they're there. One's got the magenta markings and dark blue arms with the lighter blue stomach and that magenta upper-chest area and the twitching tail. She looks kinda upset about something. Then near her is the bigger guy with the kinda-spiked but really cool looking blue hair, then the purple marks and his old yellow chest and eyes. And finally, there's some new guy in the middle that is bigger than Duna, bigger than Raptin, and I think kinda bigger than Diggins too.
He looks familiar.
Must be the guy that adopted Ganny, who looks like Raptin. Duna's just Duna still.
He looks... oh my gosh. Amazing. I love that style. The guy, the king, if the murals are right, is just so... cool. First, I notice his pearly gray face and ears and chest area. His limbs and tail are mainly a thick, dark violet that curls around him so cool... His markings are snow-white like his long, long, billowing hair. And his eyes are a piercing purple that glance at me and seem to stare right through my soul. His white-tipped tail just twitches when I enter, purple eyes hardening... His eyes. Whoa. I look back at them and... they're so dark. He doesn't look happy at all. His eyes are so... cold. Those orbs. I don't see such as a glimmer of light in those pupils.
Oh, he's also got deep magenta -what is it with these guys and magenta?- spines sticking out of his limbs that suggest he means business. And floor-length... oh dang, he's got dark purple wings. Those there look evil. Just. Uh oh.
And then Jkonna and Diggins pop in and the screeching begins. I turn around and take a step back as the loudest screaming sound just emanates from their fake scales... And whoa. Dear Ancients. Those holograms just... they're dying off. They're disappearing. It's like someone got a big, fat eraser and took off all that technology the doc was working so hard on. Jkonna's got her red hair again, and the dark-skinned face, along with Diggins, who finally looks not scary. He's also wearing glasses. Jkonna stares at my eyes and points to the side, giving me the idea to turn around as the king walks right at us. No, right toward us. OH MY.
HE HAS SOMETHING REALLY SHARP RIGH- No! Don't you dare, weirdo! And then the pointy thing goes right in Lone's purple-butted area. She releases a shrill squeak, but I don't see any blood. She doesn't see any blood. Just a warning, I'd say. Like oh my gosh you bruised me, stupid, of a warning. But... whoa. Now this guy means business.
His purple curls of vengeful eyes stab at me. "My name is King Dynal," he murmurs in an ice-cold tone softly. "Mortal, I can see now that you are a human like your friends... a filthy human lying dirty among more of the mongrels..." Uh oh. "My hologram deconstructing machinery at the front did not catch you after your little push... but I know that your vivosaurs have no chance to stop us." Uh oh. Oh no. That's not good.
"Duna. Start Project: Mother Vivaldi as I make a show of this foolish child." Uh oh. Oh no. That is really, really, really not good. He's talking to me. Those poisonous orbs are staring right at me. And thankfully, he doesn't start glowing or anything to show that he's gonna fight me. I am suddenly very, very happy he doesn't just cut me up right here and now. Instead... King Dynal, he pulls out a strange mechanism that immediately releases some crazy contraption, sending out a single monster.
Lone?
Gotcha, non purple'un! I'll save your butt!
Love you too, weirdo.
Love you tooooooooooooOOOoooOOOOO-
Please. Lone.
Aha! Her cyan eyes sparkle some, but then the monster holds up creepily huge claws that nearly slice her in half right then and there if I hadn't let out this insane screech. Okay. Okay. That guy wasn't kidding when he said he'd sic his white and gray mechanical biped with the big claws against us, when he said we'd be turned into bits of dead meat. Just... uh oh. I have no idea what to think about this situation.
That is, until I turn my face to one side and Duna's looking at me like oh-gosh-it's-Dino-I'm-doing-nothing and Raptin stares at her like she's a dropping fossil. "Little sister... you dare disobey the king?"
"H-he is killi-"
"No, Duna! He is killing a useless boy that is not, not whoever you assume he is! I know he is not, you know he is not, he knows he is not, even the sludge boy knows he is not! Listen to the man of high for once, sister! You know nothing about him!"
"N-no, brother! Y-you are wr-"
"Fine." His voice is deadly soft. It makes me want to wet my pants, but I can't even see my pants since the stupid hologram's still on. Darn it, Diggins screwed up on my technology and now I'm stuck like an ugly dinoran. "I will do as he asks." Footsteps. Yelling. Lone giggling stupidly. Running, slams, snarls, quiet voices filled with poison... all of this combines like a really bad mess.
And the biggest, brightest light consumes the two guys at the back of the room. A turquoise-haired man and a blue-haired dinaurian. Oh my gosh. Oh my. Turd. They both touched the big, white doll, the one I hadn't gotten yet... and... oh gosh. My dolls grow dark now, and that fifth one utterly BOOM.
BOOM.
It breaks into chunks and those chunks go flying. I turn around to ask Jkonna for help, please, and... That butthead. That... She went back to the freaking mural, that Jkonna head. Okay, Lone. Get ready to run...
Because Diggins and Jkonna are both gone, Raptin went poof too, and the Dynal guy is staring at Duna like uh oh. And not the happy uh oh.
Turd.
Me: BOOM ENDING. YAAY.
This is probably the second-most explosive chapter of the whole story.
What, you ask, is the most? Ehe. Not the next one, though it's pretty big. Next one after. I HOPE YOU'RE HANGING ONTO YOUR SEAT LIKE CREPES STARRY I MUST. XD
Hweh. If you'd like to know, I forgot Jkonna was a digadig almost every single time I wrote a Jkonna-speaking-part. I had to keep deleting what she said and adding digadig of diga WHATEVER. Blarghgg. WHY DID I SPEND MY CHRISTMAS MORNING WRITNG, OF ALL THINGS? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? xwx
