"I will also guide you to your destiny."
"What do you guys think that is?" Rex asked.
"Some kind of dinosaur," Ren replied instantly without needing a second moment to think it over.
"It looks like a Pterosaur, and I say we follow it!" Max declared and pointed at the mystical light.
"We're not following some weird-looking, wacko bird!" Dr. Z scowled at Max.
"I think it's pretty," Ursula pouted.
"Hmph, you remember Jennifer?" Ed asked Zander.
"Yeah," Zander replied, before he turned to the rest of the group. "She was pretty, and Ed followed her right off a cliff."
"Well, I think we can trust it!" Max told the Alpha Gang. "Her voice reminds me of the one we heard in the stones."
"Trust her with your fate, not mine," Dr. Z huffed down to the brunette from the higher row of seats. Upon seeing the Pterosaur, Chomp, Terry, Ace, Spiny, Paris, Tank, Odis, and Ebony all gather around the glass of the front windshield excitedly.
"This might just be a horrible observation, but I think the dinosaurs are trying to tell us that following her is a good idea," Ren pointed out.
"We can't control where the time machine takes us anyways, so we might as well follow her, right?" Max suggested.
"That's crazy talk! You're going to blindly follow this glowing, dinosaur thing just because it tells you that she knows how to get you to your fate?" Gabriel asked.
"Why not?" Zoe asked.
"I agree. Johnathan, take us to our destiny," Rex told the android.
"Right away, Master Rex!" Johnathan replied. The Pterosaur created a rift in the Time-Space Continuum for the Backlander. Johnathan turned the steering mechanism to follow the dinosaur out of the swirling tunnel out into the open sky of a new timeline.
Well, not quite. The blue of the sky faded away to tall walls of a gorge. The Backlander was heading towards the course of crashing straight into the ridges of the canyon! Johnathan yanked on steering controls and got the ship turned just in time to miss hitting the walls, but not in time to avoid crashing into the ground. The passengers of the Backlander scattered amongst the front room with the abrupt landing.
"Ugh, we've got to stop crashing like that," Ren groaned.
"Tell me about it," Rex agreed as he groggily sat up.
"Is everyone okay?" Zoe asked.
"I think so," Max piped up as he looked around to see everyone climbing back into their seats. "Where are we?" Max asked open looking out the front windshield.
"Probably in the Pterosaur's nest," Ursula sneered.
"And we're probably about to become its dinner!" Zander cried.
"What does the TPS say, Rex?" Zoe asked the boy. Rex pulled out the little handheld device.
"Somewhere around the years 60-70 BC," Rex replied as he examined the device. Ren looked over his shoulder at the small contraption.
"According to the time machine, the time is 73 BCE and we've reached down near Ancient Rome," Johnathan read from a screen aloud.
"That's sort of the time," Zoe shrugged.
"Ha! No, it isn't. That TPS contraption is no better than a Ouija board!" Dr. Z cackled.
"Well, modern Rome is a part of Italy you know," Rex frowned.
"Are you sure you didn't get that thing from a gumball machine? I guess that's to be expected when it was made by a couple of losers like the Ancients," Dr. Z snarked.
"Shut up, it's your fault that the Ancients had to go through the trouble in the first place," Zoe hissed.
"The Ancients made this time machine and the dinosaur cards, what have you done that's so special?" Max added on.
"Plus, there's the fact that you sent the Alpha Gang and I out to locations based on where some dinosaur bones landed on a map," Gabriel pointed out. "If that's better than a Ouija board to you, I want to know what a modern cell phone is."
"Who asked you?" Dr. Z scoffed.
"Rome, huh? That's one heck of a place to end up for this time," Ren commented. She was just staring blankly out the windshield dismissing the whole argument going on in the background.
"What's up with Rome in 73 BC?" Gabriel asked, looking to Ren.
"You've surely learned about the Roman Coliseum, right? Gladiators, mock naval battles, that sort of thing? Yeah, that's really common for this time period," Ren informed. "Romans would go around kidnapping potential gladiators from the poorer families or even asking the families if they'd be willing to sell their sons to fight for entertainment in exchange for money. Best to stay vigilant, everyone."
The TPS started to beep in Rex's hand. The boy looked down at it.
"What is it, Rex?" Max asked.
"It looks like we found our parents!" Rex informed the others.
"For real?" Zoe asked.
"Yeah, they're close by and in this time period," Rex added.
"You're sure?" Max pressed in, trying to get a peek at the TPS.
"Yeah," Rex nodded.
"Then did the Pterosaur know they were here or something?" Ren asked.
"Isn't that convenient?" Gabriel mused.
"Where exactly does it say they're located?" Max asked. Ren leaned over Rex's shoulder as he tried to zoom in to pinpoint a location.
"Can't tell," Ren frowned.
"Why not?" Max questioned the blonde female. Ren just shrugged.
"Something seems to be interfering with our connection somehow," she continued. "The people who attacked us had some pretty high-tech stuff. I wouldn't put it past them to have some kind of barrier or forcefield to throw off tracking devices like this one."
"That complicates things," Zoe huffed.
"You can't believe that hunk of junk!" Dr. Z scowled. "Johnathan, fire up the engines immediately! Take us back to the time of the dinosaurs!"
"How can you even suggest that? Our parents were time-napped, and we don't even know who done it! We have to find them!" Max retorted Dr. Z's idea.
"And besides, Dr. Z the ship and Johnathan don't belong to you. Who are you to give him orders like that?" Ren growled.
"Besides our crash landing has us stuck here for a while," Gabriel shrugged.
"Well, if I didn't fix the time machine in the first place, you would still be where the shrimp's house used to be!" Dr. Z yelled as he pointed at Max.
"Shrimp? Look who's talking parasite!" Max shot back at Dr. Z.
"Fixed it? More like you and the Alpha Gang mess it up! Now we're racing uncontrollably through time and all over the world!" Zoe exclaimed.
"You're just a bad scientist, that's all," Rex huffed.
"You take that back!" Dr. Z screeched. He turned towards the Alpha Gang. "Tell them what a great scientist I am." Ursula looked between Zander and Ed.
"Well, the truth is, Dr. Z, we really don't have control of the ship," Ursula meekly told him.
"Which seems to be kind of dangerous," Ed piped up.
"And scary too," Zander frowned. Dr. Z simply crossed his arms and turned his nose away from the Alpha Gang.
"You're all a bunch of traitors," he told them. Just then, Helga walked into the room and marched straight up to the self-proclaimed evil scientist.
"There you are," Helga told him in a frustrated tone.
"Helga, those three traitors, Ursula, Zander, and Ed have all taken sides against me. You've got to help me," Dr. Z pleaded to the maid, hoping that he would have someone in his favor.
"You're just tired. It's past your nap time," Helga blatantly stated to the old scientist, who returned her statement with a devastating look of betrayal.
"Nap time?" Dr. Z asked her.
"You're being cranky. Now, go to your room, put your head on your pillow, and go Beddie-bye!" Helga told Dr. Z sternly.
"I- uh. Yes, Ma'am," Dr. Z stammered. Ursula tried to withhold her laughter. However, her small snickers got the all-hearing ears of Helga. The android snapped around to face the green-haired girl and made Ursula quiver in her boots.
"That goes for you too, missy," Helga hissed at her.
"Huh?" Ursula questioned, but without another moment of hesitation, Helga was sending Dr. Z and the rest of the Alpha Gang to their rooms to take a nap. The D-Team and Gabriel just sat quietly and blinked as Helga dragged them all off.
"Well, if Helga's going to be keeping an eye on them, I should stay here with Johnathan and help him with any repairs the Backlander might need after that crash landing," Gabriel told the D-Team. "Perhaps we can even fix the time destination mechanism while we're at it."
"Sounds like a plan," Max nodded to the boy. He then turned to the rest of the D-Team. "What do you guys say that we get down there are try to find our parents?"
"What are we waiting for?" Ren smirked.
"Shall I transport you four down to the surface?" Johnathan asked the D-Team.
"Yes. Be sure to keep the Alpha Gang here," Rex instructed.
"No kidding. Who knows what kind of time catastrophe they could cause?" Zoe shook her head, almost with embarrassment.
"Yes, sir. I'll do that," Johnathan told Rex. He began to poke some buttons on the controls for the time machine. Gabriel gave the D-Team a warming smile.
"Good luck, you guys," he said. The D-Team was surrounded with a white light before they and their dinosaurs were transported down to the ground. Above their heads, the Backlander then disappeared as it vanished into its stealth mode.
The D-Team took in their surroundings to see where they should start looking. There was nothing but the forest around them and the gorge in the near distance. It seemed rather peaceful. Birds were chirping. A stream could be vaguely heard running nearby. The kids were confused.
"That's weird. I didn't think it would be just a forest," Max told the rest of the team.
"Well, it is Ancient Rome, maybe there's just hardly anything here," Zoe suggested.
"Nah, even Ancient Rome was a bustling city," Ren interrupted. "There should have been plenty of buildings and people in the streets. There might be a road around here somewhere that might point us in the right direction."
"Well, let's start looking around then," Rex suggested.
"Good idea, Rex," Max nodded. But before the D-Team could do anything, Chomp leapt out of Max's arms and began to run downhill following a path. "Hey, Chomp! Come back here!" Max called after him. "Chomp! Stop!"
The D-Team were quick to follow the small Triceratops down the small path. It ended by a small stream. Chomp disappeared behind a bush and rock. Max sighed with relief.
"I guess you were just thirsty and wanted to get some water, huh? Max slowly began the descent down a steeper part of the slope towards the area that Chomp had darted off in. Max looked to where Chomp had disappeared to. He had found Chomp barking at a young girl with dirty-blonde hair wearing a blue dress that was lined with white accents that had seemed to collapse against a large rock.
"Find him, Max?" Rex called from the top of the slope. Max didn't answer. The rest of the D-Team slid down the slope to meet up with Max, who was standing, gaping at the girl.
"What's wrong, Max?" Zoe asked.
"That girl looks like she's hurt," Max said as he pointed to the girl that was out, leaning against the rock. Chomp climbed up and put his front legs on the girl's shoulders. He leaned in to start licking her face, trying to wake the girl up.
"Stop, Chomp," Max told his Triceratops as he went to pick the dinosaur up. The girl flinched and squinted her eyes. She looked around at first, before she laid her blue eyes on the D-Team.
"Miss, are you alright?" Zoe asked.
"Are you with the army?" the girl asked warily. The D-Team glanced at each other.
"No, we're travelers from a nearby village," Ren greeted as she pushes past Max and extended a hand towards to the girl to help her to her feet. The girl suddenly flinched and held her head.
"What happened? Did you hurt your head?" Zoe questioned the girl.
"Yes, but at least I escaped the monster," the girl replied.
"Monster?" Max raised an eyebrow. "What kind of monster was it?"
"They used all sorts of creatures in those Coliseum battles. Lions, tigers, elephants, you name it, they probably had it," Ren informed.
"You've been to the Coliseum?" the girl suddenly perked and backed up, as though she was scared.
"Me? Oh, no. Just uh... heard stories about it," Ren replied. This seemed to ease the girl's anxieties.
"This monster I was running from was round and it flies in the sky," the girl replied. The kids all glanced at each other with the same guilty look. This girl was talking about the Backlander. "I sure hope it's not hiding somewhere in the forest."
"Perhaps you were just having some sort of bad dream," Max suggested.
"You think?" the girl asked.
"Oh, yeah! Round monsters that fly in the sky," Rex shrugged it off. "You must have quite the imagination."
The conversation was interrupted by the sound of Chomp sniffing a bad that sat at the girl's side. The girl was quick to react and pick of the bang, yanking it out of the Triceratops' reach.
"No, stop! Don't do that!" the girl scolded. Chomp blinked up at her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell. It's just that there's something very important in here. Oh, you are a cutie pie, yes you are." The girl began to stroke Chomp under his chin.
"That's Chomp. He's uh... our dog," Max told the girl, who just looked back up at him with a curious glint in her eye.
"What an unusual dog," she exclaimed.
"Yeah, he's a rare breed. Almost extinct," Ren nodded along with the story.
"Anyways, my name's Max," the brunette introduced.
"Nice to meet you, Max. My name is Sofia," the girl exchanged names.
"My name is Rex. This is my buddy, Ace," Rex piped up. He then gestured down to the Carnotaurus by his side.
"And I'm Zoe. Her name is Paris," the pink-haired girl chimed in and pointed down to her Parasaurolophus.
"Then I'm Ren. This is Ebony. I'm Rex's sister," Ren told her, motioning down to her Stegosaurus.
Outside a nearby town, the same red colored, winged creature with the bad haircut flew up to the gate that protected the town. There were two guards standing watch.
"State your business!" one of the guards demanded, aiming a spear at the flying creature.
"I'm into pirate business," the creature replied.
"What is a pirate?" the second guard questioned.
"Pirates go around and take things of value from others," the creature dumbfoundedly told them before he tried to enter through the gates. The guards' spears blocked him.
"Halt, you!" the guards chanted.
"I forgot, Earthlings like to greet by having battles," the creature said as he lightly poked the end of one of the spears. He then backed up a bit before he pulled several ball-shaped objects from out of his pocket. He tossed them onto the ground. The objects unfolded to become pinkish purple lackies that served the same purpose as the Alpha Gang's Alpha Droids. They seemed to be made out of some kind of goo. "Here you go!"
The guards stood their ground in front of the gates. One guard tried to stab one of the sentient goo monsters with his spear, but his spear just got sucked into it. The goop creatures then proceeded to gang up on the guards and beat them up. The winged creature simply flew past them with a smile on his face.
"I hope that greeting was more to your liking," he chuckled before he slipped through the front gate of the town and began to look around the place. He was looking for a specific building that looked like it could be a repurposed barn for his mission. Sooner than later, he spotted the building that matched the description that he was given. He flew up to it and confronted two people, and elderly man and woman, that were carrying a rather large vase outside. The creature took the vase from them and threw it against the ground, shattering it to pieces.
"Please don't hurt us. We'll give you anything you want," the elderly man told the flying creature.
"Good. Then tell me where the girl is that lives here," the creature demanded.
"Are you talking about Sofia?" the man asked.
"I am if she's the one who has the jewel," the flying creature replied.
"Jewel? Well, she has the Cosmos Stone," the man told the flying creature.
"Hush," the woman scowled at the man. Both the man and the woman were quiet. The frowned to the ground. This made the alien-like creature with the wings upset. He turned around and punched the building. The building crumbled and turned to dust from the impact of just one punch from the creature.
"Tell me where this girl Sofia is. Right now," the creature ordered as he cracked his knuckles.
"She left here yesterday to go on a long journey," the elderly woman informed the flying man.
"Where'd she go?" the strange man asked the couple. The creature's interrogation was cut short by the sound of a horse whinny. The flying man looked over to see a troop of horseback riding men charging in his direction. "Stay here, I'll be right back."
The red colored, winged creature then flew off to counter this excuse of an army that was coming to challenge him. The leader of the charge pointed up to him.
"That's the invader!" he called to his men. "All together, men! Attack him, now!"
A small army of men ran towards the winged man with swords in their hand. The creature just blinked at all of the people that were rushing towards him.
"It's so hard to greet so many of you at once," the creature said as he pulled a dinosaur card out of his pocket. "Torvosaurus, say hello for me." The creature put the dinosaur card against a hexagon shape that was on his chest. The card got swallowed up by the hexagon. The hexagon showed the same emblem that showed up on the dinosaur's forehead as it was being summoned. The small army stood, paralyzed in fear.
"You all dress differently and even talk differently. Where are you from?" Sofia questioned the D-Team.
"Somewhere," Max began.
"Far," Rex added onto the statement.
"Away!" Ren blurted, followed by a nod. "Somewhere far away."
"We came searching for our parents," Zoe told the girl.
"Your parents?" Sofia asked. She then got this horrified look in her eyes as she leaned in towards the D-Team. "Did the Roman army take your family away as well?"
The D-Team blinked at her, before turning to each other and exchanging glances. Yes, their family was taken, but not by the Roman army. How did they explain their situation? Before one of the kids could come up with some answer that would have made a little sense to the girl, their Dino Bracers all began to beep. They all raised their wrists towards their faces to look at their screens. The all froze when they realized what it was: a dinosaur has just appeared somewhere around them in Ancient Rome!
"No way," Max mumbled.
"Yes way, Max, and it's nearby," Rex replied. This statement made Sofia very concerned.
"What's nearby? What are those things?" Sofia asked pointing to their Dino Bracers.
"Nothing you need to be concerned about, I promise," Ren gave Sofia a gentle, yet nervous grin.
Back inside of the small town, the miniature army faced off against the winged creature's Torvosaurus. Many of the members of the platoon cowered before the dinosaur.
"It's just a lizard, men! Go get it!" The commander ordered as he pointed his spear towards the Torvosaurus. The rest of the men continued to stand in paralyzed fear, as if they were frozen in time. For being "just a lizard," it was a rather large one at that. However, their commander gave them an order to act on, so act on they will. One by one, the soldiers unfroze themselves and began to charge in towards the Torvosaurus.
"Time for the Magma Blaster," the red colored, flying creature announced as he put a move card up to the hexagon shape on his chest. The move card materialized into the hexagon, allowing the Torvosaurus to use the move. The large dinosaur reared back its head before throwing its head forward again. As it did so, a large beam of fire shot out at the army, causing panic amongst its ranks.
The attack dissipated, but a large trail of brunt grass and strewn about soldiers lied in its wake. One by one, the members of the little platoon picked themselves up, terrified at the monster that had come to attack them.
"Retreat!" the commander demanded. The commander was the first to run from the battle, but his men did not waste much time in following him away from the alien and his monster lizard.
"Bye-bye!" the winged creature called off to them as his Torvosaurus roared after them fleeing army. The winged man with the bad haircut turned around to the elderly man and woman who watched everything unfold with terror. "Now, where did Sofia go on a journey?"
The D-Team felt like they had to cue Sofia in on some of the logistics of their magical, beeping machines, so they told her exactly what it does: it locates dinosaurs.
"A dinosaur?" Sofia asked them. The D-Team nodded.
"They're a type of ancient creature," Rex informed. Suddenly, the beeping on their Dino Bracers stopped. The kids looked at their screens, but the blinking dot where the dinosaur was vanished.
"It's gone," Max furrowed in eyebrows in frustration.
"You think the Alpha Gang got away and called out one of theirs?" Ren questioned.
"Maybe Johnathan will know," Zoe suggested.
"Great idea," Rex said. He pushed a button on his Dino Bracer that got him in touch with the android. "Come in, Johnathan. You know anything about a dinosaur that just appeared?"
"Yes," Johnathan answered. "The instruments up here are giving me similar readings. The dinosaur appeared briefly as is now gone."
"Is the Alpha Gang still on the ship?" Max asked.
"Indeed," Johnathan replied, pulling up video footage from the Alpha Gang's room of them sitting there with a deck of cards playing Spoons, but instead of spoons, they were using a coin, a paperclip, and a candy wrapper.
"How are the repairs coming along?" Ren inquired.
"Slower than we would like," Gabriel's voice was heard from the background. He sounded almost defeated. "We may be stuck in this timeline here for a while."
"Can you pinpoint where the dinosaur was?" Max questioned.
"I'm zeroing in on it now," Johnathan stated. "It appeared to be in a sleepy village called Trichia."
"Trichia?" Sofia gasped.
"I take it you've been there before?" Rex looked at her.
"Trichia is the village that I come from! Is there some sort of danger from these ancient creatures there?" Sofia worriedly asked the D-Team. Ren shook her head.
"The dinosaur is gone now. You should have nothing to worry about," she said.
"What a relief. The people of my town have already suffered way too much," Sofia sighed.
"Something happen there?" Max asked Sofia.
"What took place in Trichia was the most awful thing I've even seen in my life," Sofia told him, before she began to recount the horrors that she witnessed. "The Roman army invaded our village. They burned the homes and businesses of anyone who resisted. Then they rounded up half the people in the village and took them away. My brother was among those taken away. Then he was taken to Rome to be trained as a gladiator."
Though Ren had already informed the ground that attacks like these were common, hearing about it from a live source that witnessed it and had their life impacted, was a whole new perspective.
"Gladiators are put into an arena and forced to fight for their lives just to entertain a crowd," Sofia went on. "Do you think that the Roman army could be forcing gladiators to fight against this dinosaur creature?"
"Not likely," Rex shook his head.
Just then, Chomp leapt for the bag that Sofia had around her shoulders. Unable to pull it off of her, Chomp clamped his jaws onto the bag and hung on. The swinging motion from the sudden dinosaur attack made a cloth-wrapped sphere fall out of the bag. It landed on the ground and the cloth fell down around, revealing the yellow, glowing orb it was protecting.
"Stop it, Chomp. Let go of her bag," Max told the Triceratops. Chomp released his grip and tumbled onto the ground below. Max reached down for the orb to pick it up for Sofia.
"No! Don't touch it!" Sophie lashed out. Sofia knelt down beside Max and gently picked up the corners of the cloth and wrapped the orb back up. "This is what I'm taking to my brother. No one else can touch it with their bare hands."
"Why not?" Rex curiously asked.
"It is a Yellow Cosmos Stone, and it can grant amazing strength and power to the one who holds it," Sofia explained. She held the stone in her hand, allowing the cloth to drape off of it and reveal the stone in her hand with the cloth beneath it. "It has been in my family for generations."
"It looks powerful," Max commented.
"My brother didn't have it on him when the Roman army attacked our village. If he had, he might have been able to stop them, and now as a gladiator, I'm afraid that this jewel is his only chance of survival," Sofia told the kids.
"Don't worry, Sofia. We'll get that jewel to your brother in Rome," Zoe told the girl.
"It's a very long journey, and there are many dangers along the way," Sofia frowned. Rex's Dino Bracer began to beep, but it was a different beep from when the dinosaur appeared. This time, it indicated an incoming call from Johnathan.
"What's up, Johnathan?" the boy asked upon answering.
"There seems to be and unidentified flying object approaching your location at supersonic speeds," the android replied.
"Say what now?" Ren leaned in towards Rex's Dino Bracer to look at Johnathan.
"Up in the sky!" Zoe said as she pointed to a spherical shape in the sky.
"That shouldn't belong here," Rex stated observing the strange looking ship.
"Of course not. Technology like that doesn't exist," Ren replied with a scowl on her face.
"Maybe they're the ones who took our parents," Max growled.
"Are they the Roman army?" Sofia asked the D-Team.
"Far from it," Rex answered. "Whatever you do, stay close to us."
"We'll protect you, Sofia," Max added on. Sofia took another look at the ship before she ran behind the D-Team. Only, she didn't stop running and stay close like Max and Rex had told her to do. Chomp noticed this and began to run after the girl.
"Wait, come back!" Max called for his dinosaur.
"He's going after Sofia!" Zoe said as she pointed at the girl fleeing from the flying vehicle. The ship zoomed right over the kids' heads.
"It's not here for us. It's going after Sofia!" Ren exclaimed. Ren was right, the ship zipped past Sofia and landed in her path. Sofia stopped to stare up at the ship in fear. The ship opened up, and the same red skinned, winged creature with the bad haircut flew out of the ship. Chomp jumped in front of Sofia defensively. This gave time for the D-Team to catch up with everyone.
"Who are you?" Max demanded the winged man.
"Yeah! and what do you want from us?" Zoe added on.
"Ugh. Earth greetings are so tiring," the flying creature groaned.
"Do you know where our parents are?" Rex questioned the creature.
"Or rather, are you the one who took them?" Ren attached to the previous inquiry.
"Took them where?" the creature had a look of genuine confusion on his face.
"Don't you play dumb with us!" Rex scowled.
"We were playing a game? I didn't know that. I wasn't playing any game. We have the Ancients and some of their associates," the creature shrugged.
"Well, those are our parents, and you better tell us where they are!" Max ordered.
"Yeah, who even are you anyway?" Ren interrogated.
"Me? I'm a space pirate," the red monster replied. "Wait a minute. Why are we even talking about this when I have an important assignment?"
"Enough stalling! Are our parents on your ship?" Zoe asked with a sharp tone in her voice. The creature didn't answer. Rather, he looked between a drawing on his hand and the kids. The drawing was that of his target: Sofia. The creature smiled as he got the match. He went in towards her.
"Hey! Stop!" Max yelled at him as he stood in the creature's way.
"Hello to you too," the brute told Max before he swung his arm and simply batted Max out of the way like he was a baseball. The creature continued to advance towards Sofia, however there was a smaller hurdle than Max in his way: Chomp. The small Triceratops growled menacingly at the winged man and was ready to attack. The flying creature was dumbfounded by the small Chomp, and he hovered down lower to get on the Triceratops' level.
"Oh, you want to mess with Chomp? Go right ahead," Max hissed as he poked some buttons on his Dino Bracer. Chomp turned into a card in Max's hand. The brunette slashed the card in his Dino Bracer. "Dino slash! Go, Triceratops! ROAR!"
The once chibi dinosaur transformed into a full-sized Triceratops in front of the small crowd. The winged creature stared blankly at Chomp before shrugged.
"Alright, let's see how you like this," the creature with the bad haircut took his Torvosaurus card and summoned it through the hexagon shape that was strapped to his chest. The fire aligned carnivore roared at the opposing Triceratops.
"You have to be kidding me. He has a dinosaur too?" Ren groaned.
"That must be the dinosaur from earlier!" Rex concluded with a shock of realization.
"A Torvosaurus," Max informed.
"Take a look at its forehead! There's some kind of mark there!" Zoe pointed out the hexagonal emblem that was plastered onto the Torvosaurus' skull.
The Torvosaurus roared before it charged in at Chomp. Chomp lowered his head to collide with the Torvosaurus in a headlock. The two dinosaurs pushed back and forth. The battle commenced.
"You can do it, Chomp!" Max cheered on. Chomp suddenly pushed in with his horns hitting the Torvosaurus' lower belly. The carnivore backed up. Chomp hit the dinosaur with his horns again. The fire dinosaur backed up more, gaining some distance between it and the Triceratops. The two returned to a standoff.
"Let's add in a little Spectral Armor!" the winged alien stated as he took a greyscale copy of the Torvosaurus card and put it against the hexagon on his chest. The card was swallowed up into the emblem. The emblem on the dinosaur's forehead began to shine. The monster's dinosaur began to glow with a reddish-purple light, starting from its forehead then covering the rest of its body.
When the light disappeared, the Torvosaurus was decked out with armor along its skull, shoulders, and tail. This armor was a dark purple color with red spikes coming off the sides.
"What the heck is that?" Ren asked.
"Is that even allowed?" Zoe added.
"Watch out, Max," Rex told his best friend.
"And to heat things up, a little Magma Blaster," the flying man with the bad haircut said as he swiped a move card against the same emblem on his chest. The Torvosaurus began to use its move, but Max pulled out a move card of his own.
"Oh yeah? Thunder Bakzooka!" Max called as he swiped the move card into his Dino Bracer. Chomp sprung into the air, spinning as electricity surrounded him. Chomp spun straight through the Magma Blaster attack and made contact with the Torvosaurus. However, Thunder Bazooka seemed to have no effect as the carnivore simply shook the Triceratops off of him. Chomp landed harshly against the ground.
"Ok Ace, it's time to help Chomp!" Rex told his Carnotaurus as he began to press some buttons on his Dino Bracer to turn Ace into a card. Rex held out his arm and swiped the dinosaur card. "Dino slash! Go, Carnotaurus! Blow them away!"
As soon as he was on the battlefield, Ace ran into to charge down the Torvosaurus. The larger theropod maneuvered swiftly out of the way. The Torvosaurus continued the motion of its turn and used its momentum as power as it swung its tail at Ace. The Carnotaurus breezily jumped over the tail of the attacking dinosaur. The two then locked heads, though because of its superior size and power, the Torvosaurus was pushing Ace backwards.
The alien creature used this moment to try to capture Sofia again, making his advances toward her. Sofia noticed him coming closer, and she began to run from him.
"Sofia!" Zoe called as she turned to chase after them. "Come on, Ren!"
"Right," Ren nodded and began to follow after Sofia, the alien, and Zoe.
Meanwhile in the Backlander, Johnathan was watching everything in the fight against the Torvosaurus unfold through a screen in the control panel of the time machine. Gabriel was unscrewing a panel nearby to check to see if the systems seemed to be intact. The Alpha Gang, along with Dr. Z walked into the front control room.
"Nothing like a good nap to make one ready for time travel," Dr. Z smiled brightly.
"Oh boy. Here we go," Gabriel muttered as he got the panel unscrewed and laid it by his side.
"Ooh, check out the Torvosaurus!" Dr. Z beamed like a little kid and pointed to the video monitor that Johnathan was watching the fight on.
"It's got body jewelry. We should get Terry some!" Ursula clapped her hands together at her idea.
"That might look good on him," Zander stated as he studied the armor on the Torvosaurus.
"I think it would look great, but maybe in blue," Ed told them.
"Oh yeah! Or maybe in a nice green?" Ursula suggested.
"We're not going to dress up Terry like he's some girl at a tea party!" Dr. Z scowled. The scientist paused as he noticed the emblem on the Torvosaurus' skull. "Hey, check out that mark on its head."
"What do you think it means, Dr. Z?" Ursula asked.
"Why would you ask me that?" Dr. Z screeched at Urusla. This just earned a groan from Gabriel.
"I just caught bits and pieces of it, but apparently that mark thing is what gives it the ability to have the 'body jewelry' or whatever you could it," Gabriel told them while having his nose stuck up the inside of the control center.
"Hey, what are you doing to my time machine, you quitter?" Dr. Z shrieked at Gabriel. Gabriel pulled out from the panel to deadpan look at the evil scientist.
"First of all, it's not yours. It's the Ancients'," Gabriel sighed with frustration. "Second of all, I'm just so happening to be fixing it, because someone screwed it up in the first place. Repairs would be going quicker if I actually had more of an idea of what I was doing, but I don't. I'm just going off of what little knowledge I acquired when I was helping Seth. Maybe if you would help me instead of judging me, we could actually be getting this piece of junk moving and under control."
"Help, schmelp. You seem to be getting the idea. There are more pressing matters to attend to, like the Torvosaurus that's down there," Dr. Z waved Gabriel off. He then turned to the android butler. "Johnathan, get me and the Alpha Gang down to the surface this instant!"
"Oh no you don't!" Gabriel snapped back at Dr. Z.
"And what does a punk like you think he's doing talking to Dr. Z like that?" Ursula stood up to Gabriel.
"How about preventing you idiots from screwing up the timeline!" Gabriel rose to his feet and confronted Ursula.
"We don't take orders from you," Dr. Z told Gabriel. "Johnathan, get us down there!"
"I'm sorry, Dr. Z, but I can't do that," Johnathan replied.
"And why not?" Dr. Z fumed at the android.
"Because I have strict orders from Master Rex to not let you four leave the ship," Johnathan informed Dr. Z and the Alpha Gang.
"Well, when that Torvosaurus finishes him off, I'm sure he'll thank you for keeping us here!" Dr. Z scowled. Gabriel scoffed, trying to hold back his laughter.
"There's only one dinosaur down there and four of them. You really think that Torvosaurus is going to be the entire D-Team?" Gabriel chuckled.
"That D-Team is no more than a pack of losers! They need us to come to their rescue," Dr. Z boasted to Gabriel, posing in a heroic fashion.
"Pfft! More like they'll end up rescuing you clowns," Gabriel sneered.
As if Gabriel's statement couldn't have had any worse timing, the video monitor showed a Magma Blaster attack just fired from the Torvosaurus and made direct contact with both Chomp and Ace.
Max and Rex winced as their dinosaurs were pushed back a great distance as they absorbed the blow from the Mamga Blaster.
"Chomp! Ace!" Max called out to them.
"Are you two okay?" Rex hollered.
Meanwhile, Ren and Zoe were running after the winged alien as he chased after Sofia. The two girls were beginning to lose their ground on him. After all, flying was faster than running.
"Hey get back here!" Ren yelled at the flying man with the bad haircut.
"Big guy with the wings! Leave Sofia alone! Do you hear us?" Zoe hissed. The monster stopped to turn around to face the two D-Team girls.
"Yes, I hear you. You are both screaming very loudly," he groaned.
"Good because I have five words for you!" Zoe called, as she took out her Parasaurolophus card and held her arm high above her head and slashed her card in the slot of her Dino Bracer. "Dino slash! Spring up, Parasaurolophus!"
"And I have some for you to!" Ren growled. She held her vertically right in front of her and slashed her Stegosaurus card. "Dino slash! Let's rock and roll, Stegosaurus!"
The two herbivores appeared ready to fight. They stood in between the winged monster and Sofia, blocking the strange creature's way.
"Ready, Zoe. Let's do a fusion move and show this creep what's what," Ren told her teammate.
"Sounds good to me!" Zoe said. Both girls pulled out a move card from their Dino Gadgets and slashed them in their Dino Bracers.
"Wing Spiker!" Both of the girls chimed in at once. Ebony began to use Spike Arrows and the three Pteranodons from Metal Wing landed on Ebony's tail spikes. Each ready to take off with an arrow. The Stegosaurus aimed her tail at the alien.
"I think it's time to get out of here!" he exclaimed. The monster began to fly back towards where the boys were having their battle with the Torvosaurus. The Pteranodon/spike fusion move followed close in pursuit. Ren and Zoe gave chase to the monster as he fled. Just in the distance, the two girls could hear the boys call out,
"ThunderStorm Bazooka!"
It wasn't too much longer until the three arrived at the scene, just in time to bear witness to the Torvosaurs' armor shattering to pieces before collapsing to the ground. The dinosaur shone red before it shrunk down and was replaced with its card.
"Beat by a bunch of kids. This isn't going to go over well," the alien said as he fled to his ship, successfully dodging the Wing Spiker attack as the Pteranodons gave up after the ship zoomed away into the sky.
"Hey come back here!" Max called after the aircraft.
"He's already gotten away," Rex frowned. All four members of the D-Team pushed buttons on their Dino Bracers to turn their dinosaurs back into their chibi forms.
"And our chance to see our parents," Zoe added with a frown.
Just as it seemed the excitement was over, Terry landed on the ground with a thud. The Alpha Gang appeared in a beam of light from the Backlander with Gabriel on top of Dr. Z, as if he were trying to pull him away from something.
"You go down there!" Gabriel yelled as if he were finishing a cut off sentence.
"Get off of me!" Dr. Z shrieked.
"Get that Torvosaurus, Terry!" Ursula cheered. The Alpha Gang blinked as the realized that the Torvosaurus was gone. Gabriel got off of Dr. Z and folded his arms.
"See, the D-Team handled it. Back we go," Gabriel frustratedly groaned. Dr. Z was about to cave in and return to the Backlander when he spotted a glint of something on the ground.
"What is this? A piece of that Torvosaurus' armor?" the scientist asked as he examined it. That's exactly what it was, as mysterious as it seemed to be.
"Can I have it?" Ursula pleaded as her peered at it over Dr. Z's shoulder.
"It's not jewelry, it's for important research," Dr. Z scowled at Ursula.
"He called it Spectral Armor," Rex informed Dr. Z. Nearby, Max picked up a set of cards that the alien left behind in his hurried escape.
"The Torvosaurus turned into a card," Max said, flaunting around the cards.
"No, really? I thought it turned into the answer for our missing parents," Ren groaned sarcastically. "Of course, it turned into a card! What else would it have turned into?"
"Take it easy, Ren. I know we were close to our parents, but we'll get our chance again," Zoe tried to mitigate the situation.
"I still find it strange that guy had a dinosaur card," Rex pondered the idea of it in his head.
"Alright, back we go then?" Gabriel asked the Alpha Gang. "I still have repairs to do if we want to get the time machine moving."
"Back we go," the Alpha Gang groaned as Dr. Z turned Terry into a card. A beam of light came down from the sky and zapped the Alpha Gang and Gabriel back to the Backlander.
"Woah, who were those people?" Sofia asked upon joining the D-Team.
"Just Dr. Z, Gabriel, and the Alpha Gang," Zoe sighed in exhaustion just from watching them argue like that. Sofia just nodded wordless as if she wanted to say she understood, but her facial expressions showed that she clearly still did not understand anything.
"Thank you all for taking such good care of me, I really must be going now," Sofia told the D-Team.
"Take care of yourself, now," Zoe told the girl.
"And good luck to all of you. I hope you find your parents very soon," Sofia smiled to them.
"And good luck to you too," Max gave the girl a grin.
"We hope that you find your brother," Rex added.
"Seeing you all tame dinosaurs, it gave me hope that I can save my brother, Spartacus. Well, bye for now!" Sofia waved to them and then she was off. Ren waited for a bit until Sofia was out of ear shot.
"Her brother is Spartacus?" Ren asked, obviously peeved that this information what withheld from her until this moment.
"There was someone famous with that name," Rex pointed out.
"Duh! He was a famous gladiator who led an escape of the enslaved people who were forced to be gladiators! Don't any of you pay attention in history class?" Ren asked.
"That's nice, Ren, but I'm focused on that time traveler guy and where he's keeping our parents," Max replied.
"Right, we'll find them," Rex nodded. Max then looked down to his side, then he chanced around.
"Wait, where's Chomp?" Max asked. The kids looked around, but Max was right, the only dinosaurs around where Paris, Ace, and Ebony. They seemed to be looking over a steep drop.
"Do you three know where Chomp went?" Zoe asked. The dinosaurs stayed unmoving, staring down the long drop.
"Don't tell me, did Chomp fall?" Ma said horrified. He rushed to the edge of the cliff and looked down. He didn't see the Triceratops but yelling for him wouldn't hurt. "Chomp! Chomp!"