The Dino Rogue

"Talking"

:Talking through the Dino Daggers:

"Phone calls or recordings"

'Thoughts'

As Stego ran towards the quarry they had found earlier with Diana—this strange Australian girl whom he had never seen before in his existence—on his back, Ptera flew overhead which Arch—who has been somehow turned human and is now severely injured—in her arms.

Halfway to their destination, Stego called up to her "How's it going up there, Ptera?"

After a moment she called down "Stego… Arch isn't looking so good. He's really pale and clammy and he's starting to sound like he's in a lot of pain,"

Diana took out her Dino Dagger, a black and blue one with an Allosaurus in the center, and called the Pterodactyl Dino Knight. :Is he still unconscious or is he becoming more responsive?:

Ptera carefully nudged his shoulder with her finger and only got another whimper like the ones Arch was already emitting "He's still pretty out of it but I think he's starting to feel where he got hit,"

:Figured he might, although I was kind of hoping it wouldn't be until we got him checked over.:

Stego looked out the corner of his eyes at the girl on his back "How do you know all of this? Are you some kind of doctor or something?"

Diana smiled with a soft laugh "Kind of, I'm goin' to school to be a vet but I know how to handle human injuries too. Which might come in handy since we don't know if he's completely human now or if there are still some parts of him that are still Dino Knight,"

When they made it to an area in the mountains where the forest made it somewhat difficult for Stego to run at full speed Diana said "These mountains are called 'the high country', There's a small town called Briar Bowl at the base of the foot hills,"

Suddenly Diana slipped off of Stego and held up her hands "Whoa, hold up,"

Stego stopped and Ptera dropped below the tree line to hover above them. "What is it?"

Diana pointed in the direction she was walking. "Our ranch is over there, I'm going to go see if anyone's out and about before the others get here,"

She disappeared into the brush, Stego carefully followed her until they came to a spot where the forest just ended, revealing a good sized ranch with a farmhouse, a barn, a couple out buildings and wooden fencing.

Stego stayed in the trees to stay out of sight while Diana went out into the open to look around and saw a black dog with pointed ears and a curved, bushy tail run out from behind one of the out buildings.

Diana knelt to greet the dog as it ran towards her. "Hey, boy, where's everyone else?" but the dog ran right past her and right up to the tree line and started barking at the trees Stego was hiding behind.

Stego tried to shoo the dog away in case anyone was around and came to investigate and the dog was annoying him. "Shoo, get out of here,"

Diana grabbed the dog by the collar. "Bolo, down boy! Down!" she pressed on the dog's back until he sat down at her feet. "Sorry 'bout that. He gets excitable sometimes. Come on out, looks like Mum and Dad aren't going to be back for a while now,"

Stego cautiously stepped out of hiding, though he didn't actually step out into the yard so he didn't leave dinosaur tracks anywhere, while Ptera landed in the yard and started to follow Diana to the house but Bolo the dog managed to escape her grip and ran for Ptera's legs, nearly tripping her.

"Hey!" Ptera managed to keep her balance but the dog kept running around her legs, preventing her from going anywhere, as he barked for all he was worth.

Diana huffed in frustration and grabbed the dog by the collar again, this time dragging him with her as she went to the house. "Sorry 'bout that, the reason we call him 'Bolo' is because he's a hunting dog and he likes to wrap himself around people's legs,"

After placing the dog on the porch, which was surrounded by a bug screen, Diana blocked the screen door with her body so that she was facing Ptera.

"Hmm, I'm going to need a little help carrying him in, but it looks like you won't fit inside the house,"

Ptera nodded "Looks like we're going to have to wait until the others get here,"

"Or bring him into the barn,"

Stego called over "Tyranno and the others will be here in a minute, just wait until they get here,"

The two females nodded and waited until they heard heavy footfalls out in the brush, out of which the other Dino Knights stepped a few minutes later.

Tyranno and Mammoth jumped off of the Dino Knights they were riding as soon as they stopped and went over to where Ptera and Diana were waiting while everyone else carefully climbed off and followed.

"What's wrong?"

Diana looked up at them "We were gonna bring him in the house but… Ptera was it?... well, she won't fit through the door with those wings of hers and I didn't want to try carrying him myself and risk hurting him more by dropping him or something like that,"

Tyranno and Mammoth nodded and both reached up to take Arch from Ptera and carried him inside between them.

Diana held the door and led them into what appeared to be the living room. "If you gents would set him on the couch I can get started,"

She thanked them as they carefully set Arch on the old leather couch set in the corner of the room and left as Naomi and Theo came in to see if there was any way they could help.

"Okay, first we need to see what we're dealing with…"

After examining Arch more thoroughly and using her Dino Dagger as an X-ray wand, Diana noticed two of the three kids the other Dino Knights brought with them were hovering in the room while the taller cowboy teen was outside with the Dino Knights that were still normal.

"Can I help you?"

Kaito and Rena realized they were caught loitering and Rena rubbed her neck, laughing nervously, while Kaito held up his hands "Oh sorry, hope we're not in your way or anything, we just…"

Naomi realized what was probably going on. "You two need something to do?"

Rena and Kaito looked at each other and then nodded. Diana thought about it then snapped her fingers and went into the room across the hall from the living room. "I think I know something that can help with that,"

Kaito and Rena followed her and saw she had gone into the kitchen to retrieve a couple of empty ice cream pails which she carried out with her. "You two ever picked berries before?"

Rena nodded "Yeah, we have,"

Diana edged her way past them and gestured for them to follow her outside.

They went out onto the porch where Tyranno and Tricera were leaning against the railing, Mammoth was sitting on the steps with the screen door propped against him and Rick was sitting on the porch swing scratching Bolo's ears and Sabre and Ptera were peering through the screen that wrapped around the porch while the other Dino Knights were just hanging out in the front yard.

Diana closed her eyes and handed Kaito and Rena each a bucket and said "I know you were listening in,"

When they all sighed and stopped pretending to be enjoying the scenery now that they knew the jig was up, she turned to Kaito and Rena. "There's a raspberry patch on the other side of that fence, I was going to pick the berries today so they don't ripen too much and fall on the ground, think you two can get them for me?"

"Okay"

While they were walking away, Tyranno told Kaito and Rena "Be careful out there you two,"

Kaito looked up at him "Don't worry, we will,"

Tyranno watched them go before turning to Diana. "How is Arch?"

Diana looked at him and sighed "He'll live, I was just finishing up his examination when the lil ankle-biters wandered in looking for something to do,"

Pachy and Kenty stepped forward "Can we see him?"

"Yeah, he's like a brother to us,"

Diana looked at them both then jerked her thumb towards the side of the house. "Windows, you two," She looked at the human Dino Knights "If you lot want to see him too you can, just don't crowd him and stay out of the way,"

Sabre looked at Diana "What about us? What can we do?"

Diana looked up at him and then at all the other Dino Knights in her yard. "Hmm, probably wouldn't be the best idea for you lot to be about when the folks get back. Out here you would be exposed, the quarry on the other hand is far enough off the beaten path no one would stop by on a passing fancy. You can go there, if you like,"

Diana added as she went back in the house "Just watch out for Mr. McGroocher. He always has a fit if anyone goes on his property but that doesn't mean he won't go on anyone else's,"

She went inside, followed by Tyranno, while Pachy and Kenty went around the side of the house and the others looked up at Brachio—since he was second-in-command and actually knew where the quarry was.

"Come, we will go to the quarry for now and check back with them later,"

Mammoth stood and walked up to them "I'll go too, there's not much I can do here anyway,"

Tricera caught the screen door before it hit the door frame. "Me too,"

Seeing Rick coming behind him he held the door while the teen jumped down the porch steps after him "I'll go too, I probably won't be much help here anyway and I can help make sure no one finds you guys,"

Styraco smiled at his little brother "We'll be happy to have you, Rick,"

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Inside the house

Diana led Tyranno back into the living room. "Oh, almost forgot, shoes off in the house please,"

Tyranno was confused and looked down at his feet. Diana did the same and noticed something she hadn't before. "Oh, you're all barefoot. Strange… would you mind wiping your feet? Mum gets upset whenever someone tracks dirt in the house,"

Tyranno wiped his feet on the rough mat that was set inside the door and followed Diana into the living room where Naomi and Theo were looking after Arch and stood off to the side while the young woman knelt down next to the injured young man who was a Dino Knight less than an hour before.

"After doing a visual and tactile examination, I used my Dino Dagger to check for internal injuries,"

After pulling back Arch's shirt to give better access to his injuries, Diana took out the pen light she had shown in his eyes to check for concussion at the battle field and pressed a second button on the side, revealing that the pen light was also a laser pointer.

Naomi noticed this and asked "Why do you have a laser pointer?"

Diana grasped the laser pointer in her hand and said "As Dr. House once said 'Why the hell not? We cannot take this seriously without a laser pointer',"

They all looked at her with confusion. "That's from an American television program I watch sometimes. Also, I don't want to have to prod him to point out where he is injured to the rest of you,"

They saw how that made sense and Tyranno asked "Just what sort of injuries does he have?"

Diana turned the laser pointer back on and pointed to various parts of Arch's body as she explained how they were injured. "In addition to a mild concussion, Arch has six bruised ribs, this one here…" she pointed to a spot on Arch's left side. "…is also cracked. And he has some notable bruising anywhere the Dragozaur's tail and the boulder he was thrown against made an impact,"

She turned off the laser pointer and starting adjusting the throw pillows on the couch so Arch would be more comfortable. "He will heal, it will just take time,"

Seeing as he wasn't much help there, Tyranno excused himself, "I'm going to go check on the others and let them know how he's doing,"

Theo and Diana just nodded, focused on making sure Arch was comfortable, and Naomi stood up. "I'll go too, you all still have a LOT of explaining to do,"

After the two of them left, Diana put everything away and carefully covered Arch in a blanket to keep him warm in case of shock. She looked at Theo, unsure of what to say to this person whom she barely knew. "Erm… can I get you anything?"

Theo shook her head and said nothing so Diana set the first aid kit on an end table and left the room, pausing at the door. "I'll be right in the next room if you need anything, alright?"

Theo nodded absently and leaned against the side of the couch, lost in thought.

She had known Arch had a crush on her—and in a way she liked him too—ever since Kaito and Rena told her they found Arch in the mountains shortly after the two of them met and how he admitted he had a huge crush on her and said all these nice things and even carved her likeness in the mountainside.

Problem was the two children never actually said what these sweet nothings he said were and when the two actually talked two each other all he did was brag about how he was so much better than her.

Also, carving her likeness meant nothing to her; the city of Atlantis was dotted with carvings of her by the Atlantians who were merely paying homage to their protector which lead her to believe it was not a sign of real love at all, just a means of getting her attention.

Males lie and females are skeptical. Which was why she had him retrieve the ruby from the volcano; that ruby was special to her.

It was the one Allo had brought back for her from a mission to keep the life force of a volcanic area away from the Dragozaurs when they had first became Dino Knights and she was still unused to being on land so she stayed behind.

He brought her a ruby he had found in the volcanic crevasse they ended up fighting in as a souvenir, that was the first time he had called her "Little sister".

However, at that last battle they all fought together… something horrible happened and Theo needed someone to blame and since Allo was the one that told her the bad news when she finally got to the scene of the atrocity she picked him as the scapegoat.

In her fury, she had thrown the precious stone that she had always kept with her at him but missed and it went right into the volcano.

She had offhandedly mentioned it mostly because Kaito and Rena kept bugging her about giving Arch a chance to prove himself, she didn't think he would take her seriously but the fact that he did attempt to get it for her spoke volumes about him and how far he would go for her.

But now he was hurt because of her callousness, would he still like her once he recovers… if he recovers.

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Arch stirred in his sleep and noticed something was off. He started to sit up but instantly regretted it, he ached all over but his torso hurt like hell.

He felt something warm pressed against his side and looked down to see a woman with wavy dark hair and flawless fair skin sitting on the floor next to him leaning against the couch he was on.

At first he wondered who she was, more importantly where he was, but then he noticed the outfit the woman wore and how much it looked like Theo's armor and now that he was really looking he noticed a few familiar features. 'It can't be… can it?'

Then he looked at himself and saw he was also human and remembered what happened earlier that day; fighting to protect the life force at Uluru Rock, being turned human by Dark Dragon's Gloom bats, the Dragozaur attacking Theo.

Theo…

Arch slowly raised his hand to brush a lock of dark hair of the woman's… no, off of Theo's face. This roused her from her thoughts and she looked up at Arch. "Hey, you're up. It's about time,"

Arch just sat there with his hand frozen inches away from the side of her head, unable to comprehend what was going on enough to react.

Theo saw his hand and grabbed it, pinning it down on the couch cushion.

Arch started to pull away until he realized Theo wasn't trying to beat him up for touching her, she was not only holding his hand but her own hand was shaking as she gripped his until her knuckles turned white.

Arch looked at their hands and then at Theo as she spoke to him like she was scolding a child. "Don't you ever do something like that again, I… we almost lost you," she quickly corrected herself when she realized what she almost said.

Arch wasn't fooled and he smiled "I was just doing my job, being a shield and all…"

Theo released his hand and shook her head as she turned away, muttering the word "Idiot" under her breath.

They sat there for a moment just staring at each other until they heard the screen door slam and someone come in as Kaito and Rena came in carrying the two buckets they had been sent out with.

Rena laughed loudly "I can't believe you screamed like a little girl, Kaito,"

Kaito shoved his friend "Cut it out Rena, that snake was HUGE! Besides, you screamed too,"

"Hey, I AM a girl, what's your excuse?"

Diana slammed her hand into the doorframe of the kitchen and said "Would you two be a tad quieter? Arch is still out on the couch,"

"Not anymore," they heard Arch call out and looked to see he was very much awake.

The three of them apologized and crept into the kitchen where Kaito and Rena placed their buckets on the counter.

Rena looked at the two buckets "That's a lot of raspberries. What are you going to do with them all?"

Diana took out a couple of cookie sheets and set them on the counter top. "Well, originally I was gonna pick them so they don't over ripen and go to waste but the reason I sent you two out there was to give you two something to do and…"

She looked in the direction of the living room and lowered her voice "…and so I had something for Theo to do while Arch rested,"

Kaito lowered his voice to match her tone "What are you going to do with Theo that involves this many raspberries?"

The woman didn't answer as she carefully poured the berries onto the cookie sheets.

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Meanwhile

Tyranno and Naomi walked through the forest to meet up with the others. As they walked, Tyranno found himself wishing he could use his Dino Knight speed to get there quicker but kept such thoughts to himself.

Naomi filled the silence with questions, mostly about what life was like in prehistoric times.

Tyranno answered her questions honestly to the best of his ability as his memories of before he became a Dino Knight had become fuzzy over time.

After a while she started asking questions about more recent events. "What were those… Dragozaurs after when you were fighting them?"

Tyranno shrugged. "Same as usual, life force. Every living thing needs it but the Dragozaurs actually feed off of it. They are supposed to be harvesting it for their leader, Diamond Ryugu, but they are greedy and gorge themselves on it instead,"

He held some branches that had grown across the path out of the way to let Naomi pass and let them snap back. "If they take too much the planet starts to die and Diamond Ryugu and her Dragozaurs have no problem with draining planets dry and moving on to the next one. That's why the Ancients created us, the Dino Knights, to stop them millions of years ago,"

Naomi looked up at the tall Dino-Knight-turned-man walking beside her. "How come you never told us there were others out there?"

Tyranno looked straight ahead to make sure they were heading the right direction. "The Cerazaur brothers awakened sometime after us and have been traveling with Rick,"

He smiled at Naomi "And had you not been so busy chasing giant dragonflies and getting eaten by carnivorous plants when you were on that island you would have met the Dino weapons,"

Naomi blushed and looked at the ground "Oh, you heard about that?"

Tyranno laughed as he looked forward again. "We went out there after you guys when Kaito and Rena called and told us that there were rivers of life force that would attract Dragozaurs and that a group of poachers was after the Dino Weapons…"

"WHAT?"

Tyranno jumped at Naomi's shrill cry and tried to calm her down. "Don't worry, we got away from the second one and dealt with the first one. Everyone walked away from that okay,"

Naomi sighed with relief. "Good"

The two continued walking and Tyranno continued telling her about the other Dino Knights. "And Dino Icthyo, or Theo as she prefers to be called, somehow ended up as a deity in Atlantis where they worshiped her fossil,"

Naomi's eyes widened "Atlantis? You mean it's real?"

Tyranno nodded "Yep" he made a popping noise with his mouth at the end of his response.

He stopped there and Naomi looked at him expectantly as they continued walking. "What about…"

Tyranno sighed tiredly, like he suddenly felt the millennia in age he actually was. "It's a long story, Naomi…"

Naomi gave him a look that said "You're not getting off that easy" and Tyranno nodded. "…so we'd better wait until everyone is present so I don't have to repeat it,"

This only stoked Naomi's curiosity even more but she saw Tyranno was troubled by whatever she was apparently asking him to tell her so she let it drop for now.

She crossed her arms and looked up at the late morning sky—it was afternoon back home but it was morning in the time zone they were in—as they walked. "Ooh, this is all so surreal. To think that the planet would choose fifteen dinosaurs to protect it and…"

Tyranno stopped walking and shut his eyes. Naomi almost didn't notice it through her musings and almost walked past him until he said "Sixteen,"

Naomi stopped and looked back. "What?"

Tyranno looked at her then walked past her. "There were originally sixteen of us,"

Naomi started to follow him, concerned and curious. "What happened…"

"LOOK OUT!"

Tyranno jumped back when something big ran in front of them as the warning was shouted at them.

Naomi screamed thinking it was an animal attacking them but both of them stopped when they realized it was only Allo on Diana's horse.

Tyranno glared his former team mate. "What was that for, Allo?"

Allo climbed off the horse and grabbed a stick "There are traps scattered all over this area to ward off intruders," he used the stick to push a few fern fronds aside, revealing a steel trap underneath. "You guys almost stepped in one,"

Naomi brought a hand to her mouth as she looked at the trap. "Oh my, who could have put that there?"

Allo shrugged as he carefully covered the trap back up. "We did," he stood up and pushed the horse back so it wouldn't step on the trap.

Tyranno looked at him. "We?"

Allo nodded not looking at him "Diana and myself," he threw the stick he was holding into the brush. "This land is my protectorate and I'll be damned if I let a bunch of humans destroy it,"

Tyranno shook his head in disappointment. "We're supposed to protect the humans too,"

Allo smiled at him in a know-it-all manner. "How ironic that I need to use one of their inventions to protect them from themselves," he loosened the girth on the horse's saddle and led him away by the reins. "I'd better get Zodiac back to Diana's,"

He turned back. "Speaking of which… how's Arch?"

Tyranno listed off the injuries in a clipped tone. "Concussion, bruised ribs, one cracked rib and lots of bruises,"

The former Allosaurus winced in sympathy. "Damn, he's gonna be feeling that for a while," He smiled at them and did a two fingered salute as he walked away. "Well, see you later. Watch out for traps!"

AN: Quick shout out to the people that reviewed and/or added; Skyress98, McCrane55 and battlecruiser03 and one unnamed guest review.