Contains headcanon first names (Dr. Ancient=Trias, Dr. Drake=Ryunanaka, Mrs. Drake=Amano) and LGBTQ+ headcanons; that stuff isn't canon.
—
It was the middle of the night in a cold Persian desert; the group was on its way to a nearby oasis, or at least that's what a map on the ship told them, in an attempt to get as far away from their prison as possible. Each step soon felt heavy and dragged behind them like dead weights, but after some time a wave of safety covered them. Like they were far enough from Spectre's ship to finally relax. That's what they all optimistically thought. Cretacia pointed out how clear the sky was, everyone was comfortable stopping and glancing up, taking in the view.
"It's breathtaking," Aki exclaimed, holding her hands together.
"An awesome sight," Spike agreed, standing beside her.
"They're everywhere," Trias added as they all stargazed, smiles on their faces, "it's almost as though we're completely surrounded by them."
It was then that they heard footsteps approaching them, slowly. When they glanced back they saw a hoard of Gel Jarks—pink gelatinous robots belonging to the Space Pirates—heading their way. An immediate panic washed over them.
They can't be caught! They can't let themselves be trapped again!
The six of them started running as fast as they could in hopes that there truly is an oasis lying ahead, and that they can be safe there.
Spike glanced back, seeing the Gel Jarks still following them. "Hurry!"
"Easier said than done!" Ryunanaka snapped at him, his feet slipping on the sand.
"Maybe if you weren't wearing sandals!" Cretacia pointed out.
"Now isn't the time for this, guys," Aki told them in between sharp breaths.
They ran over a hill and finally spotted something in the distance.
"The oasis!" Amano exclaimed. It was really there; palm trees, a pond, even light from a small bonfire, and what at first seemed to be a giant rock. They sped up if that was even possible and when they got a little closer, they noticed that the rock was moving. It was breathing!
"That's a dinosaur!" Trias realized.
Suddenly, some of the Gel Jarks absorbed their gel into the metal plates and turned into balls that rolled down the hill. Once they stopped rolling, they formed into their full bodies, cutting the parents off.
Cretacia was already running at full speed and charged at one of them with an angry cry—a cry so loud that it carried over to the oasis.
Sitting around the fire, the D-Team jumped to their feet as soon as they heard the cry and rushed to the edge of the oasis. They saw a group of people in the distance; they couldn't recognize them and figured that it must've been the 39 thieves—or now known as 'Dr. Z and his 42 thieves'.
"Do you think that's the thieves again?" Max asked his friends.
"I don't know," Rex admitted, "but either way I-...we gotta protect the Princess!"
"Right!"
Hearing the boys made Zoe groan and cringe a bit. The boys pressed a button on their Dino Bracers, turning Chomp and Ace into cards.
Zoe put her camera goggles over her eyes and zoomed in on the group. That's when her heart dropped; it wasn't the thieves, but the ones they'd been so desperately chasing after all this time.
"Wait!" she stopped the other two.
"Why?"
"Not all of them are enemies. Our parents are there."
"They are?!" they both gasped.
"Yes! And it looks like they're in trouble."
The three of them swiped their cards and called their dinos out. Chomp, Ace, and Paris charged forward. They trampled some Gel Jarks, keeping them away from the parents. Seeing the three dinosaurs formed smiles on the humans' faces—if these three are here, that means the kids are nearby too. The dinos roared at them, nagging them to run over to the oasis. They obeyed, however, a few Gel Jarks managed to get past the dinos and followed the parents.
The kids raced towards them, waving their arms and calling out to them. They ran into their parents' arms. Aki hugged Max and Spike then scooped the two of them. Trias and Cretacia just held Rex's shoulders before Cretacia pulled their son in and ruffled his hair. Zoe, who was crying, wrapped her arms around Amano's neck while Ryu dropped the needle and joined the hug.
But the happy reunion was cut short by the remaining Gel Jarks who were still determined to recapture the parents.
"Hey, back off!" Zoe yelled at the Gel Jarks.
"You're not taking them away again," Rex snapped out, however, the robots did not move.
"Chomp! Stop them!" Max called out. The three dinosaurs headed over to the group, but before they made it there, the Gel Jarks got smacked away by a green tail; it was Genie. He roared at the Gel Jarks, scaring them away.
"An Isisaurus?" So that was the sleeping dinosaur they saw.
"Rex!" The Princess rushed over to them with worries in her eyes. "What's going on?"
"Zahrah! You don't have to worry about anything," Rex replied, giving her a reassuring smile, "we took care of everything."
"Genie actually did," Zoe commented under her breath. Zahrah's glance then shifted from the blond boy to the adult strangers.
But before she could open her mouth, Max spoke up: "Princess, these are our parents; they... managed to find us since they were worried about us. Everyone, this is Princess Zahrah; we're helping her get back home."
The Princess smiled brightly. "It's nice to meet you a-" She got interrupted by the Isisaurus' roar. She looked up at him. "We should go back to sleep; I know, Genie. Good night, everyone."
"Night, Princess!" Max and Rex said in unison, waving at her as she and Genie headed back to the oasis. Zoe just groaned as she watched.
The parents glanced at her. "Did we miss something?" Spike asked her.
"Nothing important."
The D-Team turned their dinos into chibis and they all headed back to the fire. They sat down and were handed blankets and cookies by Aki who brought them from the house in a backpack—gotta come prepared.
As they were sitting around, Cretacia noticed what the kids were wearing on their wrists. "The Dino Bracers are functional?" they wondered, examining Rex's Dino Bracer as they grabbed his left arm.
"O-oh...yeah, Reese finished them before we set off," Rex replied, caught off guard by his parent.
"She did it? Impressive! Especially for someone untouched by our technology."
"That is nothing surprising," Ryu told them in a braggy tone, "Reese's skills are incredible."
"Really? I really need to talk to her!"
"Speaking of, where is Reese?" Amano asked her daughter.
"She was left behind at the D-Lab with Rod, Laura, Dr. Owen, and Patrick," Zoe said.
"We did have an abrupt exit from the present in attempts to find you as quickly as possible," Rex explained, "we trusted the Alpha Gang and Dr. Z did make the Backland able to travel through time again, but he also made us take off early and we're unable to control where we go in time."
"Not again," Trias let out, "where's the Alpha Gang?"
"With the 39 thieves who are after Zahrah," Max said, "the Alpha Gang got captured by them and joined them because Dr. Z is a prick."
"Max! Language!" Aki hissed at him, "don't use words like that."
"Yeah! I can teach you some better swear words," Cretacia chuckled.
"Cretacia, no!"
They pouted when the brunette told them off.
"Either way," Max continued, "they are causing problems again; we need to protect the Princess while we help her back to the palace."
"We mainly have to find the Cosmos Stone there," Zoe reminded him, "we might not need it to get our parents back, but we still gotta keep it away from the Space Pirates."
"Unfortunately, that won't be so easy since now the pirates have a Cosmos Stones locator," Trias informed them, "we didn't have a choice, but to build it..." He then fell into silence which his spouse quickly broke.
"Well, at least now that it's done, they won't need us and might not try to capture us again!"
"And now that we're here, we could help with searching for the remaining stones," Spike added.
The D-Team just smiled; they still couldn't believe that this happened—their parents were right there, safe and sound, with them... It all felt like a dream.
Max looked up at his father and softly said: "It's great to have you all back." Spike grinned back and ruffled Max's hair.
"One thing still bothers me though," Rex spoke up, "Genie. He's a wild dinosaur; his card came with a capsule. I thought we collected all of the original cards.
"That's what I thought as well," Trias admitted, "however, Dr. Z's secret dinosaurs messed with the card count. We weren't even aware of some of them, so, when we counted 37 cards, we didn't realize it wasn't the correct 37. The Isisaurus is for sure the last card we created."
"So, does that mean that all the other ones were made by the Space Pirates?" Zoe questioned. Trias nodded.
"They still have a bunch of them on the ship," Ryu said, "but now they're all rampaging all over it; that should keep them busy for a bit!"
They all continued talking for a while until the kids fell asleep. The parents followed soon after.
The next morning started with quite an unpleasant wake-up call. A group of Gel Jarks walked up to sleeping Zahrah, but before they could do anything, Genie opened his eyes. He roared at the robots, scaring them away and waking everyone else up in the process.
"We've got company!" Max exclaimed.
"Those Gel Jarks are back!" Spike growled, pulling out his whip.
"Princess! Hide!" Rex called out to Zahrah.
Max then summoned Chomp, who charged at the gel robots, ramming them away from the Princess. Some switched into their ball forms and rolled over to a heeled boot that stepped on one of them.
"Hope you liked your morning wake-up call," said Foolscap with a devilish smirk on his face.
"Foolscap? What do you want?" Max snapped at him.
"Tell you what. I'll give you three guesses," the slim alien continued, "a breakfast sandwich, a group hug, or the Cosmos Stone. Yes, you're right, the Cosmos Stone."
"Too bad 'cause we don't have it," Rex replied.
"And even if we did, we wouldn't give it to you!" Zoe added and blew a raspberry.
"We could try giving you the breakfast sandwich," Aki suggested.
That was when it hit him; Foolscap finally realized that the parents were right there. "What are you doing here?! You're supposed to be locked down on the ship! How did you even get out?"
"With a foolproof plan," Cretacia told him, shrugging.
"Doesn't matter. If you excuse me, I'll be taking your Cosmos Stone! Pachyrhinosaurus!" Foolscap placed a card to his headband summoner.
The Pachyrhinosaurus charged towards Genie, but Chomp got in its way, headbutting it. It managed to shove him. Seeing this, Zahrah hid behind Genie's leg.
Ace then joined the battle. "Hurry, Ace, go protect Zahrah and Genie!"
"Try protecting against this!" Foolscap mocked them as he activated Spectral Armor.
"They have armor?" The parents watched in disbelief. Now fully armored, the Pachyrhinosaurus rammed into Ace and then spun around, slapping him with its tail.
"Ace, no!"
"Chomp! Take it to that dino!" Max ordered his dinosaur, but when Chomp tried to take a step, he couldn't. Some of the Gel Jarks melted into puddles around Chomp's feet, trapping him. "Oh no, he's stuck!"
"And now, let's take this to the air!" Foolscap pulled out another card. "Anhanguera Dive!" An Anhanguera emerged from a swirl of dust. It flew around Ace before coming down and hitting him from all sides, mimicking the Ninja Attack or Mayfly moves, and then flew up to and collided with him for the last time. That was enough to make Ace fall. It was a surprisingly useful move.
"Oh no! Ace is through!"
The Anhanguera headed at Chomp, landing one hit right after the other, similar to before; yet Chomp survived. Zoe didn't hesitate and called out to Paris, putting on Dinotector immediately.
"You have armor too?!" the parents gasped once they first laid their eyes on the green leaf-like armor covering the Parasaurolophus.
"The best thing Dr. Z's made," Max admitted.
Paris smacked the Anhanguera away from Chomp with her tail while Gel Jarks approached Zahrah. She yelped in fear but grabbed a stick from the ground in hopes that it would protect her.
"Stay back, or else-! Or else-!" Genie roared at them loudly and knocked them away. "That." The Princess smiled at him.
"Looks like the Princess and Genie have things under control over there," Max noticed, however, their group didn't have it under control... Trias got grabbed by one of the Gel Jarks.
"Back off!" Cretacia screamed at it as they and Ryu impaled it with scissors and the needle respectively. It did nothing; the Gel Jarks can't be hurt in this way.
"I forgot..."
The robots even tried to take Spike and Aki, but when they did, Chomp raised on his hind legs with all his strength, breaking free from his restraints. He rammed into the Gel Jarks, throwing some of them in the air.
"Great job, Chomp!"
"It's time Paris and I take care of things here! Green Impulse!" Zoe swiped a move card, calling out a Tupuxuara. It and Foolscap's Anhanguera raced and collided with one another. Tupuxuara grabbed the Anhanguera, looped in the air, and smacked it into the ground, defeating it.
"Yeah!" Zoe cheered, "now for the Pachyrhinosaurus! Ultimate Leaf!" As she slashed a card, Paris' body started to glow. She charged forward, a spiral of leaves made out of green light trailing behind her, and rammed into the Pachyrhinosaurus at full speed, knocking it away, and turning it back into a card.
"Got it!" Zoe sang as she picked up all the cards.
"I'll be back," Foolscap growled, "and when I am, you're gonna be very sorry. All of you!" He then took off, leaving the group of humans.
Not long after, they all headed out of the oasis. They were riding on Genie's back as he was walking through the desert.
"I wonder why Foolscap was so certain that we had the Cosmos Stone," Max brought up.
"Maybe it's because you're getting closer to finding it, Max," Zahrah suggested.
"It doesn't make sense," Trias mumbled in the back, "with the radar, the Space Pirates should be able to locate the Cosmos Stones no problem. Why would they go to a false location?"
"Hopefully we messed something up while building it," Cretacia told him, "you know how easy it is to make a programming mistake; especially with your spaghetti code." Trias' cheeks turned red in embarrassment at his spouse's comment.
"Well, let's hope that thanks to that it won't fall into the wrong hands," Spike joined in; everyone in the front, including Zahrah, heard that very clearly as he was sitting closer to them.
"And there are plenty of those around here," Rex added, referring to not only the Space Pirates but Zayid and his thieves, Rasheed, who they assumed was behind everything, and possibly even the Alpha Gang or more so Dr. Z.
"Yes, I'm afraid this is true," the Princess agreed, "which is why there's no time to spare! To save the kingdom and find the stone, we must get to the palace!" However, right after her determined speech, Genie stopped dead in his tracks.
"Then why are we stopping?" Zoe wondered.
"Something's wrong with Genie," Zahrah explained.
"I'll go calm him down," Max decided and went to slowly climb down the Isisaurus' neck.
"Do you think he can sense danger?" Aki asked.
"Well, some animals can. Technically," Ryu replied, "they could recognize if a swamp is too deep or if a natural disaster is coming or if there is quicksa-" His eyes widened in a sudden realization. "Max! Wait!"
But the boy already jumped off. "It's okay, there's no danger ahead, see?" He motioned his hands as if he was luring the beast to him, however, Drake was right and the ground below Max's feet started to move!
The boy screamed out as he began to sink into the sand.
—
So this is Escape the Fate, an AU of something I wish we could have seen. This is only the first chapter with just a few scenes, but from now on, they're gonna get pretty long since the D-Team has some long scenes. You can expect something similar to One More Pirate from this; just new characters joining canon events. Unfortunately, this time I cannot bully Zahrah with these characters though.
You could technically take this as an AU for Unseen Events, but you don't have to read it since that story doesn't change the course of events that much at that point.
Anyways, yes, Cretacia uses they/them in this chapter and will for a while. I headcanon Cretacia as genderfluid, so I will stick to that. For those of you who don't know, spaghetti code is referring to a messing programming code.
Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter.
