So, not sure if anyone knows or remembers this show. I know I didn't start watching it until recently! However, once it was introduced to me I quickly got into it for reasons I didn't at first understand. But on closer inspection, I've realized that there are two very significant reasons that I like this silly cartoon so much, and those are: Scott McNeil and Garry Chalk! These guys are awesome! :D
The sun beat down with it's searing, hot rays as Alexa gingerly climbed out of her car. She'd just pulled into the parking lot of the Dinosaur Museum, finally ready to get started on her senior project. She'd always been interested in excavation and fossils, so much so that it was what she aspired for her career. What better place to conduct her research? She was also hoping to be able to do the internship portion of her project here as well. Hopefully the rumors about the curator being nice were true.
As she made her way inside, she couldn't help but be taken back to all of her fond memories. She used to come here a lot as a little girl. It had always been her favorite place to visit, even more so than the water parks and video arcades that the other kids would rave about. She'd take a field trip to here over Fiesta Fun any day!
However, as she stepped through the front gate, she was a little disappointed to see how run-down the place looked. Almost as though it had been completely shut down! The outer area was full of junk. Things like old cars and broken electronics littered the grounds. She knew it had been a few years since she'd last visited, but she hadn't heard anything about it being turned into a junk yard!
The main building that housed most of the exhibits seemed to still be standing. Alexa stepped through the entrance doors, not surprised to find that the ticket counter was unmanned. The gift shop was in disarray with old cheesy toys and colored rocks strewn about. The exhibits beyond, and just about everything else, was covered in a layer of dust and cobwebs. It really did look abandoned.
She had a small hope that there was still someone who took care of the place. She figured they wouldn't just leave the doors unlocked like that otherwise.
"Hello?" she called out with uncertainty. Her voice sounded echo-y in the large, empty building. "Is there anyone here?"
When she didn't get a response, she began to move deeper through the museum. Little did she know, that there actually was someone there. Someone watching her from the shadows.
. . .
This girl – she looked like she was too young to be wandering around on her own. Not that Bullzeye was an expert on human ages or anything. She was dressed in khaki shorts, and blue tank-top, tennis shoes, and had a backpack that looked like a blue turtle shell with spikes on it. Her dark, auburn hair was pulled back into a curly pony-tail, and her bangs swished back and forth across her forehead as she glanced around.
He decided he should probably go let someone know. It would be bad if she accidentally wandered into their home!
He snuck as quietly as he could out of the museum and made a beeline for the house. He burst into the living room to find that most everyone was already gathered there. All eyes turned to him.
"Hey, guess what? There's a girl wandering around in the museum! Probably should go see what she wants, Pork," he said to them, a bit breathlessly. Clearly having no idea how to handle the situation.
"A girl, huh?" he said, rising to his feet. "Wonder what she could be doin' here? Should be interesting." He flashed them all a grin before stepping out of the room.
. . .
Alexa had almost made it to the other side of the building, when she heard a door open. An old man came into her view, dressed in worn out jeans and a vest with a fuzzy, gray beard.
"Well hey there, little lady. What can I do ya for?" he asked her as he came closer.
"Oh, hello. You wouldn't happen to be the owner of the museum, would you? Because I'm looking for him," she told him matter-of-factly.
"Porcupine Duvall, at your service," he said flamboyantly, taking off his hat and making a mock bow. "And who might you be?" he asked.
"Alexa Blake. I'm a high school student. I'm doing my senior project on paleontology, and I had hoped that maybe. . ." she trailed. This was proving to be harder than she thought. She felt nervous about asking now, sort of scared that he might say no.
However, he was just smiling at her, waiting for her to continue. So she took a deep breath and finished with gumption.
"I was hoping that you'd allow me to work for you," she stated.
His response was to give her a quizzical brow.
"I mean, as an intern. You wouldn't have to pay me or anything. I just need a certain amount of internship hours for my project, and also, I thought this would be the perfect place for me to do my research. I would be really, really grateful," she continued quickly, hoping the added info would help sway him in her favor.
"Well," he said after a slight pause. "Not sure if ya noticed, but business ain't exactly boomin' at the moment." He glanced around at the empty building.
"Yeah, it was kinda hard to miss. I used to come here a lot when I was little, and it was always full of people. What happened?" she wondered.
"People just ain't into dinosaurs like they used to be. Everything's all about the future now. The newest and most excitin' tech. That's what all the buzz is about these days. You're the first visitor we've had in a long while now," he explained, sounding kind of sad.
"Oh, I guess I hadn't thought of that. How is it still here if you never have any customers?" she asked.
"Government funding. They still give me grants. Probably just do it for the tax write off," he muttered.
There was a long moment of silence. Alexa wasn't sure what she should do. He hadn't exactly given her an answer, however she could feel her hopes falling. Her chances didn't seem good. She thought about pressing him, but he seemed deep in thought, so she remained respectfully silent.
He must have realized she was still waiting for a response, because he looked back up at her, seeming a bit surprised she was still there.
"Um, I'm not sure what I'd have ya do. . ." he trailed.
"Oh, I'd be willing to do anything! I'd even be willing to – clean," she told him, gazing around at the run down exhibits. "Maybe if I could help get this place cleaned-up, and spread the word about it, people might start visiting again," she suggested. Her eyes shone with optimism.
He chuckled at her enthusiasm. His only concern was – what was he going to do about the Extreme Dinosaurs? Would they be able to stay hidden from her if she was going to be hanging around on a regular basis?
He glanced back up at her. She seemed so sincere and passionate about wanting to do this. How could he crush her dream by telling her no? Where else was she going to intern for a paleontology project?
"Alright, I guess it would be nice ta see the ol' place get a spit-shine. It might not bring the crowds back like it used to, but it'll be good for the artifacts. You've got a deal," he told her, holding out his hand.
She clasped his hand with exuberance, giving it a nice, firm shake.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Duvall. I promise you won't regret it!"
"No need to be all formal. You can just call me Porky," he told her with a grin.
"Oh, okay. Would you mind if I got started right now?" she asked excitedly.
"Uh, no. I suppose that'll be alright," he said.
"Great! Where do you keep the cleaning supplies?" she asked, peering around.
"In that closet there," he said, gesturing to a door that read: Employees Only. "But you're gonna need a key," he told her.
He reached down to his belt and pulled a slightly worn, sliver key off of a ring and handed it to her.
"Just start with the general maintenance cleaning. We'll need to use more specialized equipment for the actual exhibits," he explained.
"Yeah, of course," she said, thinking that should be obvious.
"Just holler if ya need anythin'. I'll be by to check back in a little while," he told her and left.
Alexa had to suppress the urge to squeal! This was like a dream come true – almost, she realized as she looked down at the filthy floor before heading over the closet.
. . .
Porky wandered back into the living room of his home, and was met with the expectant faces of his house guests. However, Bullzeye didn't even give him a chance to explain before pelting him with questions.
"Well, who is she? What was she doing here? Did she drive here herself?" he rambled.
"Slow down and I'll tell ya!" he protested.
He then explained who she was, and about the internship, and how he'd – kind of – agreed to it.
"You did what?!" They all demanded in unison.
"She can't be hanging around here! What if she discovers the dinosaurs?" Chedra demanded. "She could blow our cover!"
"Well, as long as she stays in the museum, and ya'll stay in the house while she's here. I figured it would be alright," he defended.
"And what happens if we need to leave cuz the Raptors are causing trouble?" T-Bone pointed out. "I'm betting she's going to notice the flying vehicles."
"If she stays busy, maybe puts on some music, she might not," he attempted to reason.
They all just responded with skeptical looks.
"Come on fellas. How was I supposed to say no to another buddin' paleontologist? Reminds me o' me at that age," he said a bit dreamily.
"It would be a shame to have to ruin her academic future," Stegz agreed.
"And what happens if the world gets ruined by the Raptors because we can't sneak outta here?" Spike asked sarcastically.
"It won't be forever, just until her project's done. It'll be fine!" Porky reassured them. Although nobody felt all that reassured.
. . .
Hours past while Alexa worked. They seemed to almost fly by due to her keeping so busy. The only thing she would have liked was maybe some music to help break up the monotony. She needed to remember to bring a boombox when she came back tomorrow.
She heard the door open and close and Mr. Duvall waltzed in with a couple of glasses in his hand.
"Hey, it's lookin' better in here already! Thought you could use a lemonade break," he told her, handing her the cool glass.
"Wow, yes! Thank you!" she told him, and greedily chugged down half the glass. A water bottle would probably be another good idea to add to her list of supplies to bring.
She then surveyed her handiwork along with him. She had started with the closet itself, organizing and cleaning it before wiping down the door and frame, using the handle to hang her backpack. Then she had moved onto the other surfaces, wiping down glass and table tops. She had been about to start on the floor when he'd come in.
Mr. Duvall took a swig of his own lemonade, and then checked his watch.
"You done good work today, kid. It's about time most folks'll be clocking out. Why don't ya head on home? Your parents'll probably be wonderin' about cha soon," he told her.
"Huh, yeah – sure," she said dismissively. It made Porky wonder what that was about.
"Plus, you got school tomorrow, right?" he asked.
"Yeah, but Friday's are my easy days. Would you mind if I came back in the afternoon, say around 1:30?" she wondered.
"Sure kid, that'll be fine," he told her.
"Sounds good!" She finished her lemonade and handed the cup back to him before grabbing her backpack. "See you tomorrow, Mr. Duvall – uh, I mean, Porky," she corrected, remembering his request. Although it felt strange calling him that.
"Alright, see ya tomorrow."
And with that, she exited the building and headed back to her car.
Today had been a resounding success! She just couldn't wait until the cleaning was done so that she could get to the project part of her project.
. . .
The day just didn't seem to move fast enough, as Alexa impatiently waited for her final bell to ring, so she could head back to the museum. After classes, she stayed just long enough to wolf down some lunch in the cafeteria before rushing out to the parking lot.
Mr. Duvall was waiting in the museum when she hustled through the doors. He was busy hooking up a stereo on one of the tables, which she was really glad for. Because in her haste this morning, she'd completely forgotten about bringing any music. At least she'd remembered a water bottle!
"Good afternoon," she chimed. "Is that for me?"
"Yup. Thought it might help the cleanin' go a bit easier for ya," he explained.
"It certainly will! I really appreciate it, thank you!" she told him.
"Ain't no trouble," he said. "This here is where to adjust the radio, and if you ever wanna bring your own music, here's where the CD's go." He was gesturing to different buttons, showing her how it worked.
"Great! I guess I'll get started then."
Mr. Duvall once again left her to her own devices. She set the radio to a local station and then went to work on the floors.
It didn't take her quite as long as she'd thought. Since there really weren't many obstacles she had to clean under and around, it was pretty straightforward. Now, however, there wasn't much of the general cleaning left. She supposed she could work on the gift shop area, but what she really wanted was to get started on the exhibits. Although, she knew better than to try and tackle those without proper instruction. Well, Mr. Duvall had told her that if she needed anything just to holler, so she set out to find him.
She strolled out into the outer courtyard.
"Excuse me, Mr. Porky?" she called out, but there was no answer. Just the whistling of the desert wind.
Alexa wandered across the yard to the other building, which she guessed was where he lived. She moved up to the front door and knocked. There was no immediate response.
"Hello? Is anybody home?!" she called out and knocked again, but there was still no answer.
What she didn't know was that Porky had also overestimated the amount of time it would take her to finish, and had taken the opportunity to go to the store for groceries with Chedra. So he might not have been home, but someone else was. . .
The dinosaurs were inside alright, but the TV was blaring so loudly that nobody could hear her.
Feeling frustrated, and not liking to waste time, Alexa decided to just try the door. It was unlocked. She slowly poked her head inside and peered around. There wasn't anyone there, but she could hear the TV coming from the other room. She guessed that was probably why he couldn't hear her, and he was on the elderly side, after all.
She followed the sound of the TV, and turned the corner into a living room. She was planning on jokingly scolding him about having the TV too loud. However, the image that met her eyes caused her words to die in her throat!
In the room sat, what appeared to be, four giant, anthropomorphic, mutant dinosaurs! Two of them were sitting on a couch watching the TV, and the other two were seated at a computer – using it!
Alexa was stunned with shock as all their eyes turned to look at her with equal surprise.
"Oh crap!" One of them spoke – spoke?! And they could talk!?
Well, that was about the last straw for Alexa! She let out an ear-piercing scream of terror, flipped on her heels, and made a mad dash for the door, running for dear life!
. . .
Bullzeye was the first to react. He leapt up from the couch and flew through the nearby window to cut her off at the front door. He knew that they couldn't let her get away, now that she'd seen them!
The girl threw open the door, but froze once she saw him blocking her path. He wanted to say something to her, but she immediately whipped around and ran in the opposite direction, deeper into the house. The other guys were hurrying after her as she made her way into the bedrooms.
Alexa ran all the way to the very end bedroom, and saw to her horror that it was a dead end! Her eyes darted around the room to try and find another way. There was a window, but it was too small for her to squeeze through quickly, and the dinosaur mutants were almost to her!
In her panicked state, the only solution she could devise was diving underneath the bed. Never mind that they could probably just lift the whole thing up to get to her! But logic wasn't exactly at the forefront of her reasoning right now.
She began to try and worm her way in between all the junk that had been stashed under there, frantically shoving things aside. She heard them come into the room, and glanced back to see the one who had blocked her way before, peering under the bed at her, and reaching out to grab her! She screamed again and began throwing whatever she could get her hands on at him!
"Hey, wait – we're not gonna – ouch!" he exclaimed, as a small desk fan slammed into his face.
Bullzeye instinctively reared back and stood up, rubbing his throbbing nose.
"Man, this girl means business," he said, with a hiss of pain.
"Here, why don't you let me try?" Stegz suggested.
He leaned down to take a look. The girl had managed to work her way to the far corner against the wall, and had set up a barricade of the random things Porky had under his bed to block them from trying to reach her again.
"Listen, you don't have to be afraid," he tried to tell her.
"Stay away from me, you monster!" she screamed at him, clearing not listening to anything he was saying.
He felt the monster comment sting his feelings a little bit, but he knew it was only because she didn't know any better. Realizing that this was obviously a fruitless battle, he stood back up with the others. They all paused for a moment, and as the shock and confusion began to die down a bit, they all heard the girl start crying. Her muffled sobbing coming out from underneath the bed.
"Great, so what do we do now?" T-Bone asked.
"Don't look at me! I don't want another fan to the face." Bullzeye put up his hands defensively.
"Oh God – please God. I don't wanna die! Please just let this be a dream! Wake up Alexa, please wake up!" They all heard her say quietly through her sobbing.
Bullzeye winced at the heartbreaking tone to her voice.
"Guys, she sounds like she's really scared," he commented.
"Yeah? Chasing her around the house probably didn't help," T-Bone added.
"Well, what were we supposed to do? It's not like we could just let her run out and start blabbing to the whole city about us," Spike reasoned.
"True, however, we've made better first impressions," Stegz said with a sigh. They waited for another moment before he suggested, "Maybe we should just give her some time to calm down a little?"
"Alright. Not much else we can do, anyway," T-Bone agreed, rubbing his head with his hand. "But I don't want her trying to sneak outta here without us knowing. So, someone needs to watch the door, at least until Porky and Chedra get back," he ordered.
No one immediately jumped at the assignment, so Stegz finally decided to give in.
"Very well, I will watch out for her," he consented.
"Oh good, cuz I'm not sure I can take much more of that crying," Spike said, before the rest of them moseyed back to the living room.
. . .
Hours seemed to pass while Alexa cowered under the bed. Honestly though, she had no idea how long it had been. She still hadn't woken up, so obviously this wasn't a dream. But still, humanoid, talking dinosaurs?! She knew there had been weird sightings lately, this was Roswell after all, but even in her wildest dreams she never thought this would be possible! She should never have watched all those Jurassic Park movies!
She hadn't been paying too much attention to their conversation. Just enough to know that she was being guarded, so there was no way for her to sneak out of here. However, now that she had stopped crying and calmed down a bit, she began to wonder why they gave up chasing her so easily. And why they hadn't tried anything further.
Despite still feeling scared, Alexa couldn't continue to ignore the burning ache that was moving up and down her cramped legs. She decided to take a chance and stretch out a bit. The movement didn't seem to cause a reaction from her guard, so she rolled over and began to weigh her options.
She didn't get far though, before she heard a door open and close and voices coming from down the hall. As they came closer, she began to make out what they were saying.
"We tried to explain, but I guess she was too scared to listen."
"Yeah, instead she decided to scream and throw stuff."
"I knew this was going to happen! This is why you should listen to me. Let me try and talk to her." It was a woman's voice.
Alexa rolled back over to see some normal sized shoes standing at the end of the bed, and then a face appeared. But it wasn't a normal face! Why would she have expected it to be? It was a lady with blue skin and pointed ears! She let out a cry and tried to scoot even further away, despite there being no more room. What was she? An alien? Guess that might help to explain the talking dinosaurs.
"Hello, Alexa? My name is Chedra. I can understand that you're feeling scared right now, but I want to assure you that nobody here is going to hurt you. I know these guys look big and scary, but they are really very nice," she tried to explain.
"Oh, yeah right! And that's why they won't let me leave!" Alexa croaked out, her voice raw from all the crying.
"They just want to make sure that you won't tell anybody that they're here. There are some – bad people – who are after them, and they can't find out that this is where they live. We'll explain everything to you, if you'd like. So, how about you come out from under the bed?" the blue lady suggested with a smile.
"So you can torture me to death with weird, alien experiments? No way!" she protested.
"I would do no such thing! It violates section 12 – sub paragraph 4 of Quadrainian law in regards to interaction with other species," she seemed to quote.
"I don't believe you!" Alexa yelled at her.
The alien lady sighed in exasperation, and she stood back up to address the others.
"I give up! This girl's impossible!" she ranted.
"Oh, come on Alexa. I'm sorry I got ya into this mess, but look. Ain't nobody done any weird experiments on me or nothin'." It was Mr. Duvall. She recognized his voice.
"For all I know, you're an alien too! I bet this was all just part of your plan. I just wanna go home!" Alexa wailed.
"Ya can't go home. Not till you swear ya won't tell nobody 'bout my friends," he replied sternly.
"If I ever get out of here alive, I'm going to tell absolutely everybody!" she yelled and felt hot tears choking at her throat. She couldn't seem to help it, and started crying again.
"If she's gonna be like that, then I say she can just stay under there until she starves," she heard one of them say.
"Spike! That's unkind," another one responded.
"Yeah? Well, she started it," he mumbled and she heard him tromp out of the room.
"Come on guys, this isn't working. We can't force her to do anything she doesn't want to do," another one said.
After that, it sounded like all of them had left the room again. Alexa listened hard to try and find out if there was someone still keeping guard. She didn't hear anything for another long while, so she decided that it may be now or never.
Trying to be as quiet as she possibly could, she began to army crawl back towards the end of the bed to take a look. However, there apparently was still someone in the room. They must have heard her moving, because she heard loud footsteps coming towards the end of the bed.
The face of the green dinosaur appeared in front of her, and she let out a gasp and hunkered down. He visibly sighed.
"Look, Alexa. Don't you think that if we wanted to harm you, we would have done it already?" he reasoned.
Alexa wasn't sure, but he seemed to be a little – sad?
"I– I don't–" She wasn't sure how to respond to that. He did have a point, after all.
"I swear, we're not going to hurt you. So, will you please come out? You can't stay under there forever," he said softly, and gave her a kind smile.
She thought it over and realized that he was right. They could have caught her and eaten her long before this if they wanted to. Not to mention that she was getting super sore from cowering under the bed for so long, and he seemed like he was being sincere. Also she felt tired, really tired.
"Yeah, okay," she consented wearily and crawled towards him. He backed up so she had some room.
"And, you won't tell anyone about us, will you?" he asked hopefully.
"No, I–," she attempted to stand up, but she suddenly felt an overwhelming wave of dizziness wash over her, like all the blood was rushing out of her head.
She felt herself falling, but the dinosaur stuck out his arm, breaking her fall before everything went black.
I felt like this was a much more logical reaction for someone to have when faced with actual live dinosaurs! It always felt like the people in the show were too calm and casual at the first introductions. So, I thought to remedy that. :)