There had been a slight change in plans. Originally, the Dino Squad were told they would leave in the early morning, but Donovan suggested that they should leave even earlier. And by earlier, he meant sometime around midnight. His reasoning is that most of the Darkarians would be asleep at this point and would not easily notice them wandering around outside. It took him a while to convince Stone of this idea, but soon the leader did come to agree that leaving around the middle of the night was best, even if it meant not getting as much sleep.
The Dino Squad were, unfortunately, not warned of this change until after they had fallen asleep. They had only gotten about 4 hours of sleep when they were rudely awakened by Fluke, who nudged them roughly with his nose to make them get up. It was from him that they learned of the time change. Some were angry and asked why they weren't warned earlier so they could get more sleep. But Fluke could only shrug his shoulders as he did not have an answer.
Groggily, the Dino Squad picked up their things into a neat pile. They picked up their sleeping bags and shoved them into their bags. They changed and pushed their dirty clothes into their bags as well. They took showers as well so that they didn't leave as much of a smell. Donovan had even brought them special shampoo that would mask their smell for a few hours. After they were finished, they went into the living room area to wait for the others to get ready as well.
Moynihan took the longest to get ready. It wasn't because she had a lot of stuff. She claims to be able to make do with less stuff than others, being a velociraptor and all. But she did have two pets to worry about. And one of them, Rump, could transform into a mutantsaur. She had thought about getting a babysitter for them, but she didn't know of anyone available at the time that could take care of two pets for an extended period of time. Plus with Rump's transforming, she didn't think she wanted to risk it. What would people say if they saw a normal dog turn into what they would view as a monster?
Instead, Moynihan opted to bring them along. Some people, including Cobalt, Donovan, Rodger, and Max, objected to this idea. It would be extra mouths to feed, and none of them knew how to take care of them while they were to be at war. Moynihan wasn't sure herself. She did admit how crazy her plan was, but she said that she had no choice but to bring them along. She couldn't just leave them alone in the lighthouse. Even when Cobalt assured her that the lighthouse would be protected, Moynihan still wasn't entirely happy with the idea of leaving them there.
Stone finally stepped in. He wasn't crazy about the idea either, but he did offer Moynihan a suggestion. He said that Rump can some with only under the condition that he is well behaved and participates in battle. He says that Rump's form has a powerful bite that would be useful against the Darkarians. Moynihan was horrified with the idea of Rump being trained to be a killer, but Stone says it was either that, or Rump stayed behind.
When questioned about Cerulean, the bird, Stone had less of an idea. The bird was a mutantsaur at one point, but he had lost that form when the Dino Squad de-oozed him. So he would be useless as a fighter. The bird wasn't intelligent enough to be a scout either. It wasn't that it couldn't be trained to fly over enemy grounds, but even if they managed that, there was no way for Cerulean to relay information. They could try tying messages to his feet, but he wasn't sure of what use that would be when they had other means of communication.
Moynihan started to feel even more guilty, so she decided to let Cerulean remain at the lighthouse. Stone smiled at this and said it would work out perfectly. He turned to Cobalt and declared him to be Cerulean's temporary official caretaker. Cobalt didn't like the idea, but he couldn't object his father's wishes. He nodded his head and went upstairs to being taking care of the bird. Now that the problem of the pets was solved, the Dino Squad said they were ready to leave now.
They all headed outside, carrying their things. Donovan said they won't need a car to get to the tunnel. He said it was only a few feet along the side of the lighthouse. The group headed down the side of the lighthouse. The hill was very steep and it was all too easy to fall down. So they had to walk down the length. The hillside slowly lowered down. They were careful not to get too close to the edge, or else they'll fall down and die or get seriously hurt from the height alone.
As they got down lower, they could see the gates, water flowing through it, that they had exited before using the seafaring machine the first time they had joined together as a team. The tunnel lead into Moynihan's laboratory. Some had expressed confusion and told Donovan that this tunnel of his was actually one of their own. But this caused Donovan to laugh and reminded them that the other tunnel was further along the side and more well hidden then the gated tunnel.
They soon reached the bottom. It was difficult walking with their things along the edge of the water. They had to be careful not to fall in. The water was deep even at this area. The edges were thin and rocky, making it easy to trip. They walked in a single file along the edge. Stone was in the front with Donovan directly behind him. They walked along the edge until they reached the watery area where the gate was. They stopped and stared at the water, realizing how difficult it was going to be to cross without a problem occurring.
There was only one viable solution any of them could see. Stone pointed his head at the rock face above them. There was some leverage there that they could take advantage of. Although it took the others some convincing, they reluctantly agreed. Stone and Donovan offered to help them since they were carrying large bags. They escorted each human across one by one. They stood on each side of the person, offering support. With their sharp talons, they clung easily to the rock face. Slowly, but surely, they managed to get everyone across without much of a problem. A bag did fall into the water, but it was insignificant and Stone says they could leave it behind.
They continued walking, getting nervous at how even narrower the ledges were getting now. It soon got the point where Stone and Donovan had to start walking on the side while the Dino Squad had to resort to walking with one foot out in front of them like they were trying to walk a straight line. This way was getting uncomfortable and a few opted to go dino instead. This was quickly forbidden as transforming would reveal their location. Sighing, they continued to walk along the edge for about ten minutes.
Finally, after about forty feet along the edge, they saw strange anomaly. No one bothered telling Stone that forty feet wasn't a couple; they were just glad they had found something. They moved towards it. There was a large indention in the side. Several vines covered the front of it, giving it a solid, mossy kind of look. This had to be the hole Donovan was talking about, and they were proven right when Donovan moved closer to the opening. Using his claws, the black alimon moved the vegetation out of the way, and the Dino Squad quickly saw another reason for why it was so well hidden.
Inside, there was wide, flat disk. It almost looked like there was no tunnel at all. Instead, on the flat surface, they saw that it was painted dark. Donovan explained that he wasn't sure how long this would fool the Darkarians, but it worked the two times the Darkarians had been in this area. The dark brown fools their minds mentally, making it look like the tunnel ended suddenly. The brown was decorative, giving the illusion of a rocky inside. And being scentless, it wouldn't draw Darkarian attention as easily.
Stone gave a nod to Donovan, who went to open up the shaft. It slowly sank into the ground after a hidden button was pushed. The tunnel was exposed. The Dino Squad were expecting to be greeted by darkness, but they were shocked at how well lit the tunnel actually was. A series of tiny white lights, on both sides, filled the tunnel. With encouragement from the two alimons that were going with them, they entered the tunnel one by one.
The path was about twice as wide as what they were in before. So this was something of a relief to them. They still walked in single file. Rump's ears perked up and he was turning his nose left and right, sniffing the tunnel. He was being held by Moynihan so he wouldn't run away. The dog was getting frustrated and wanting to explore more, causing Moynihan to tighten her grip on him. She stroked the top of his head and told him to calm down.
The tunnel was made of earth. It wasn't smooth at all, and dirt and mud easily kicked up as they walked. There was some moistness as well, causing some people to feel a little damp as they walked through. The tunnels were about four feet taller than them, giving about just enough room for Donovan and Stone. After a few minutes of walking, they came across something strange. It was a metallic looking lining in the ground, circling all the way around. It gave off a low humming sound.
Rodger walked up close to it, pushing his way around the others. He stood in front of the device, knelt down, and stared at it. "This is some weird looking tech. I can't even tell what it does. It's not a barrier I don't think..."
"And you would be right on that." Stone said. "It's an invisible shield of sorts. Not the kind to keep anything out; but to block most signals. As soon as you walk past it, you'll be safe to go to dino mode..not that you'd want to in here." He chuckled at that statement. "Now, let's proceed."
As they walked through the dirt tunnel, it started to bend upwards and down. Trekking through was difficult and was so exhausting that even Max, the athlete of the group, was getting tired from it. The Dino Squad noted that the alimons were likely all in very good shape since Donovan and Stone didn't seem fazed by the tunnel twisting and turning the way that it was. Some, especially Rodger and Buzz, were tempted to stop and rest, but Donovan warned them that they will not wait up for them. This encouraged the two to keep up pace, even as their hearts started to beat faster and sweat began to form.
Eventually the tunnel stopped twisting, much to their relief, and split off into three directions. Stone and Donovan stopped at this intersection and looked at each other. They began whispering, too soft for them to hear. The Dino Squad wondered what they were talking about and if they were lost. This was answered when the alimons gestured for them to keep going straight. As they walked by the tunnels, they saw why they wanted to go straight: one tunnel was a dead end with what appeared to be a bunch of files and the other tunnel headed in the opposite direction, perhaps to a completely different location than what they wanted.
They headed straight for several minutes, perhaps around fifteen minutes, before they started realizing there was a bright light shining just ahead of them. The tunnel seemed to stop and there ahead was the source of the light. Being in dimly lit tunnels made them shield their eyes as they walked through. Buzz bumped into Caruso, Max accidentally stepped on Michelle's foot, and Rump's struggles caused Terri to fall over. Donovan chastised them for a few seconds before gesturing for them to continue walking forward.
They soon stepped through the opening. They found themselves entering, for a lack of a better term, a large hole in the ground. The ceiling was very high here, held in place naturally by a dome shape. It seemed large enough to allow Max to go dino. But they soon saw why Stone suggested not to go dino here. The room was filled with alimons, both male and female, of different colors, walking around, some carrying papers, others pushing devices along, some tending to machinery, and some chatting with each other.
The room looked almost like a business room, except there were no separation walls; the alimons seemed to work together as a whole rather than separate each other behind what they probably felt as useless walls. There were no desks or chairs either. The alimons did their work either on a naturally raised platform or on the ground. They seemed content on sitting on the ground as it was. Perhaps they were just used to sitting like that and saw no need for chairs. There were no normal lightbulbs either; instead there was a bright, glowing strip along the ceiling, which provided sufficient light for the working alimons.
Caruso was the first one to notice something else about the room. Overhead, there appeared to be several small, clustered tunnels jetting out of the ceiling. They almost reminded him of instruments that people at school would play. "Hey, what are those for?" He asked Stone, pointing up towards the ceiling.
Stone turned his head up at what Caruso pointed at. Upon seeing the structure, he smiled and looked back at Caruso. "That's our communication system here. Er, well our announcement system that is. We use that to send urgent orders through. And if you're worried about it being intercepted, I told you about the field earlier. That prevents leakage."
"But why not use more high tech gear?" Rodger asked. He pointed at one of the machinery sitting against the wall. "Like that? Whatever it is..."
"That's one of our several data containment computers." Stone explained. "Not really that much more advanced than what you humans use at school."
"And our cave talkers, as we like to call them, easy name to remember, are a better choice because they don't require any power." Donovan explained. "So if the power goes out, instead of being defenseless like the time you guys lost your light house shield, or pretty much doomed like the submarine we were originally going to take, we can still operate pretty well."
Moynihan narrowed her eyes. She had been proud of her submarine, and was tempted to inform Donovan that they would have had a shield on them at all times if they had taken it. She didn't understand the sudden change in plans. The alimons didn't fully explain it to her, other than they thought of another tunnel they could take. She didn't say anything to Donovan, not seeing it worth a fight.
Donovan noticed this and shook his head. "You really must keep your temper under control, Ms. Moynihan. We wouldn't want another incident, now would we?"
Moynihan gritted her teeth, but caught herself before she made a snide remark. "Yes...I understand." She rubbed her head. She didn't understand what was happening to her. "I apologize."
Stone, who was watching with an uncomfortable expression on his face, straightened his head and cleared his throat. "Now we should continue on. This isn't where we should be." Stone said. "This is our data interpretation room. The meeting room is where we want to be and it's not that far away. We're right next to it actually."
Stone and his adviser led the Dino Squad alongside the wall of the room towards the left. They noticed there was another opening. This one was slightly higher than the last tunnel they were in, which made them feel a little more comfortable. The tunnel had an upward slope and was slippery in a few places, making it hard for the Dino Squad to navigate without tripping over, hitting against the hard surface. The tunnel didn't stay like this for long, thankfully, and it quickly opened up to another room.
This room was stark different than the other room. This was the first thing that the team of dinosaur morphing humans had noticed. While the other room was a little technical, this room was mostly plain save for a few flags and pictures on the walls, placed there with sharp bones stuck into the walls. The room also had a high ceiling, but was more heavily decorated with stalactites than the other room. Another ring of light was present here.
Unlike the last room, this one did have some kind of furniture. There were many rows of what appeared to be hastily cut logs on the ground, positioned in a way that would be comfortable for alimons, but not as comfortable for two legged creatures like humans. And out in front of the rows of logs, there was a large rock jetting out, hanging over the rows of log seats. There was a passageway beside it, which the Dino Squad assumed headed upwards. They also noticed another cave talker located further back on the jetted rock, obscured partially by the shadows.
"This is where we hold meetings. We apologize for the seats. They are pretty knew." Stone explained as he guided the Dino Squad forward in a passageway through the seats. "We only recently thought of them. We alimons are not used to what you humans call seats. The ground is enough for us."
"Yeah we can tell." Caruso grumbled, his legs aching from the rough walking.
"You humans, sit in the front row here." Donovan said. He pointed to a front row of log seats placed quite close to the jetted rock overhead. "Stone and I will gather up some of our most important alimon members to discuss what needs to be done." As the Dino Squad sat down, shifting to get comfortable, he added, "And do not speak unless you are asked to speak. This is very important, and the last thing we need are any smart alack remarks." His eyes fell on Caruso. "This includes you too, pretty boy."
Caruso narrowed his eyes. "Okay I get it."
sss
At the conquered business building, Axel held onto the struggling Raptor Dyne survivor. It wasn't any of the dinosaur transformers, but she didn't care about that. She had found him trying to crawl past defenses. How he survived, she wouldn't know. But that didn't matter anymore. He wouldn't be alive for very long. She set her jaws on his head and bit down hard. His skull cracked open easily. Blood poured heavily on her body and on the ground. His brains splattered in her mouth and dripped down. She pulled his brain out and swallowed it in seconds. She released the body and it fell to the ground in a heap.
She was about to walk away from it, but she paused, thinking to herself. "Hmm..I shouldn't just waste this meat..." She told herself. She wasn't really hungry at the moment, but the brain did taste delicious. She wondered if the rest of him would as well. She grabbed the human by his neck and lifted him up again. She opened her jaws again and shut them tightly around the throat and ripped off a chunk of meat.
As she swallowed, she was interrupted by another Darkarian. She hissed softly as she turned towards the intruder. It was only Blanco. She almost laughed at the sight of him. He was one of the most cowardly of the Darkarians, and it showed. He was not even that close to her and he was already trembling. Then again, that was probably because he knew how dangerous she was.
"E-Excuse me Axel, b-b-but our leaders wanted to speak to you." Blanco said, his tail twitching nervously. Axel glared at him and cocked an eyebrow. Without waiting for her to chastise him to continue, he said, "They wanted to know if you did your task they had asked of you."
Axel groaned and rolled her eyes. She didn't like doing the leaders' work, especially when it was her idea to begin with and they claim it was theirs. They loved to steal ideas, but she was used to that. It just didn't surprise her. "Well of course I did. Why else would I corner those humans' parents and force them to do my bidding? Oh it was a thrill though! The look in their eyes!" She laughed.
Blanco gulped at this. He lowered his head and took a step backwards. He wasn't thrilled with what they were doing, and he wasn't alone. A few others, including Axel's own sister, Tana, had no interest in fighting the Darkarians. Tana herself had supposedly escaped. He wished he had gone with her to help her, but he was stuck here instead. He was sick of being pushed around by the other Darkarians simply because he didn't fall into their hive mind set. But what could he do? He was too weak to fight any of them, and too much of a coward.
Before he could say anything to Axel, he nearly jumped aside as another alimon brushed passed him without looking. It was Haze and he didn't look very happy. Blanco's feathers fell flat against his neck. He knew how Haze could get when he wasn't happy. Not wanting to be a part of what was going to go down and knowing his task was complete, Blanco raced away from the room and down the stair case.
"Oh Haze, what do you want?" Axel said in a matter-of-fact kind of voice. She smirked at the Darkarian, knowing how jealous he was that he wasn't a leader yet. "Don't think you can instigate me into a fight. I don't need to waste my time with the likes of you. Not a very good fighter, are you?"
"Oh shut your trap!" Haze said. Axel looked offended, but said nothing. "That's better." Haze said, pretending to believe that the yellow female would listen to him. "Why did you have to do such a foolish thing and try something like that? Using an untested device for..whatever it is you want? Do you have any idea how much danger that could put us all in?"
Axel blinked at him. Then she burst out laughing. "This is too rich! You, actually concerned with safety?!" She placed her head against her front paw, her claws pressed against her skin as she laughed. Haze just glared at her. "I don't believe it. This isn't like you, Haze! Oh! Is this another of your attempts to suck up to the leaders and make them give you a chance?"
"No! I've always been worried about procedures!" Haze said. He couldn't make this statement sound more like a lie if he tried. He growled softly, oblivious to this fact, and said, "It is you who has always been reckless. And yet the council prefers you over me! Why?!"
Axel huffed and tossed the human carcass away. She was no longer interested in eating it. She said, "It is a waste pleasing those leaders. Do you honestly care about what they want? They're nothing to me." She got close in Haze's face, her blue eyes staring deeply into his. Haze instinctively backed away from her. "If you want to continue kissing their claws, you can be my guest. As for me, the only reason I'm sticking around with those losers is because they give me want I want: a chance to kill, and I love to kill."
Standing away from the pair, hidden in shadow, was Stormwhite. His dual colored eyes widened at what Axel was saying, and yet something about his expression said that he was not too surprised by her behavior. Being as quiet as he could, he turned around and took off running in the opposite direction.
sss
Moynihan wandered through the thin hallway. The meeting hadn't officially begun yet, but she said she had to use the restroom. Stone instructed her on which way to go, and she followed his instructions to the best of her ability. However, she had lied about why she wanted to leave. She didn't need to go yet. She just wanted some quiet time to herself. These tunnels were quiet enough for her.
Something had been bothering her, some nagging feeling. It wasn't her slow change in attitude she was experiencing, the whole snapping more easily. No, something else was on her mind, something she hadn't really shared with anyone. And it had to do with Stone. There was something so familiar about him when he was in alimon form, but she couldn't pinpoint it. She couldn't help but feel she had met him somewhere before in that form, but that was impossible right? She had only recently seen his alimon form. There was no way she had met him before that...or was it?
Seeing Stone's face seemed to bring forth flashbacks. Or were they flashbacks at all? Either way, she had visions in her mind walking beside a smiling Stone. She couldn't help it. Even though she knew it made no sense at all, she found herself feeling an almost parental connection to Stone. But all her life, she never remembered being a part of any family other than a raptor family. So what could explain these supposed memories? She wondered if she should just dismiss them as false. After all, she knew of humans who develop false memories. One couldn't always trust their mind. But then, would that mean her own memories she believed to be real...were not?
Lost in her thoughts, the old woman did not notice an alimon walking in her direction. She didn't react in time and she slammed against the large animal. The alimon, a male with orange and mostly light blue skin, stumbled back. Moynihan took a step back and stared at him. He glared at her, looking very displeased with her.
"Hey, why don't you watch where you're going!" The alimon shouted at her, raising his tail in a challenge.
"I'm sorry, Mudrock." Moynihan said. She stopped herself, blinking. How did she knew the alimon's name?
Confirming his name was indeed Mudrock, he said, "I'm surprised you still remember my name after all these years." He let out an unusually cold laugh for a Rock Ranger. "I guess Stone wasn't so foolish after all taking you in."
Moynihan was surprised and taken aback by this Rock Ranger's rude behavior. But she found herself more intrigued by what he said. "What did you mean by taking me in? Oh you mean bringing me and my students here?"
"What did Stone ever see in you?" Mudrock muttered, rolling his eyes. "No, he brought you with our pack before. But let me guess, you don't remember do you?" He said, grinning. Moynihan, confused, shook her head slowly. "Well let me fill you in. Stone raised you."
Flabbergasted, Moynihan said in a slightly shaky voice, "He..he what?"
"You heard me. He raised you." Mudrock said before he decided to leave Moynihan alone.