Now that the story's dark enough, I decided to rewrite this chapter to begin ending the story on a high note. There are some other chapters that will be re-written beforehand as well, so be watching.
Chapter 9: Fireclaw's Reality
Visions flashed before Fireclaw's eyes. He couldn't tell if he was awake or unconsious anymore. It all seemed so real, yet so imaginary all at once. The visions of his military training back on Reptillon to get into the higher factions of the military, from Dinosaucer to Dinosquad 6. The pain, blood, sweat, and tears all seemed so real to him again. He could feel his muscles burning as he pushed himself physically to become as strong as he could. He could hear the drill sergeant screaming insults and orders, swearing at anyone who failed to do a task.
Like a film switching reels, he was now in the main chamber of the Dinosorcer and Dinosorceress. He was kneeling before them, being sworn into the highest rank of military status possible, the most elite soldiers of all. Dinosquad 6 was no easy status to achieve. Not everyone made it, and those who did were the most powerful and deadliest soldiers to live. Fireclaw ranked among them, being able to kill with only two claws quickly and effeciently. He recieved his uniform and insignia from Allo, the Dinosorcer's nephew. In a way, Allo admired how hard Fireclaw worked to obtain his status, but at the same time wasn't exactly sure he was doing it for the right reasons. Allo never wanted war, death, destruction, and the suffering caused by war. As much as it pained him, he chose to turn a blind eye towards it all for sake is his Aunt and Uncle.
A white flash switched to his next memory. The atmosphere was tense around the palace. Fireclaw was called in on a special assignment. He had been personally selected to accompany the Dinosaucers to Earth on their expedition for Reptilonian expansion. Fireclaw took the opportunity immediately. He looked to Allo, who was standing on the platform to the right of the Dinosorceror. He didn't like the idea that he'd be leaving Reptillon, but he had no choice at this point. Allo didn't like the idea of having a somewhat secret agent guarding the whole operation, but after many arguments over it, Allo figured he'd make things clear beforehand and allow Fireclaw to go. Besides, Fireclaw already offered himself, and he's willing to do the best he can at protecting the Dinosaucers at whatever cost, even if it's his own life.
His mind flashed to his next important memory, leaving Reptillon. Two weeks later, Fireclaw was to set off on the journey that would ultimately shape him to be who he is now. No premonition could prepare him for the fact that he would eventually become a powerful supernatural being. This job didn't seem huge at all. Retrieving his armor and gear from the royal armory, he followed Allo to the Dinocraft that was scheduled to leave for Earth. As they waved their final goodbyes, Fireclaw paid no attention to the crowd around him. He looked at Allo's heels as he walked, thinking of everything he's leaving behind.
Fireclaw's life beforehand was ironically a fairly easy one. Fireclaw wasn't ever hateful at all, though his actions in the recent past could damage that image. Fireclaw came from a wealthy family who cared very much for him, but due to the long running military history in his family, he felt that breaking that cycle would only bring shame to his bloodline and heritage. No one in his family had ever actually made it as far as Dinosquad 6 though, and by bearing that title he brought more honor to his family than anyone before him.
Fireclaw had some alliances just before he'd left. Coming home from a bar one night after meeting a mutual friend to discuss how things would be different, and swap stories, he'd met a peculiar dinosaur walking down the street from a well known restaurant. He was of a common duck-bill lineage, about Fireclaw's height and seemed all around humble. Walking with some of his friends, they continued on their way, swapping quick glances and thinking nothing of it.
"Excuse me!" He called to Fireclaw.
"Yes? Can I help you?" Fireclaw said back.
"You're the new initiate, right? To Dinosquad six?" The duck-billed dinosaur said.
"Yea, I was just sworn in a couple days ago."
"Really now?" The duck-bill asked with great interest.
He offered his hand to Fireclaw, and Fireclaw shook it firmly.
"I'm Quackpot," he said.
"This is Mia," he said whilst gesturing to the woman on his left.
"And this is Aron," he said gesturing to the man on his right. They were also Duck-bills.
"Ahh, pleasure to meet you." Fireclaw said.
"Well, best of luck on the Earth mission!" Quackpot called as they parted ways.
Fast forward to Earth. Fireclaw came down from the balcony in the hanger of the mothership. Allo put the ship down in a field just outside of a small town.
"What are we doing here? I thought we were supposed to be heading to the coordinates we got earlier." Fireclaw asked.
"If we're going to be staying here, we might as well try and make some friends, shouldn't we?" Allo replied.
"Are you sure that's even a good idea? You've never even been here, or even seen this planet for that matter, and already you want to socialize?" Fireclaw asked wearily.
The conversation was cut short by the hangar door being opened. Fireclaw hated it when the doors were being opened because of how loud they were. Once the doors were raised and the loading platform was lowered to the ground, everyone stepped off. Everyone but Fireclaw. He decided to stay back, just in case something went wrong. Fireclaw noticed that Allo had small rings in his pocket as he walked off. As they introduced themselves, Allo handed them the rings Fireclaw noticed. After a minute of pondering, Fireclaw decided to make himself known. He walked down the ramp and introduced himself as well.
"Wow, if only Reptillon were this green." Fireclaw said interestedly.
"I thought Dinosaurs went extinct millions of years ago! This is the best thing that's ever happened!" One of the teens said.
"You'd be surprised what the youth of Reptillon's going through right now. They'd have a stroke if they saw a real human. Weird how that works."
"My name's David." He replied. He was about 5"11 compared to Fireclaw's 8"10 height.
"I'm Sarah, and this is my brother Ryan." Sarah said.
"And I'm Paul! Sorry we didn't introduce ourselves to you earlier." Paul said.
"Its cool. I'm Fireclaw, and I'm sure Allo's already introduced himself to-"
"Fireclaw, could you come here for a sec?" Teryx called from the top of the ramp.
After a little more idle conversation, the Dinosaucers reboarded the ship to finally seek out their original destination.
Fireclaw's conscious vision faded once more, then refocused itself on a memory Fireclaw thought he'd forgotten by now.
Fireclaw's flight skills with a newer aircraft weren't as honed as what he was used to with standard battle cruisers and starfighters. The Epsilon's engines were very different than the standard setups most ships came equipped with on Reptillon, which usually consisted of a primary thrust-propulsion engine, and four smaller afterburners. Epsilon had four separate thrust-propulsion engines that all pivoted on their own axes, with six afterburners to either expand or contract. Fireclaw thought he had it figured out until a buzzer went off on one of the rear thrusters. Fireclaw's troubleshooting led him into more problems, as all the engines began to fail and he couldn't figure out why. The Epsilon lost altitude quickly, and soon he'd fallen faster and faster back to earth. Buzzers and alarms rang in Fireclaw's head as he braced for the inevitable impact.
It must have been hours since he'd last made impact. The communications board was too damaged to be useful, and his locator couldn't pick up any signal at all. The geo-location system he had could only gauge him to be somewhere around the bottom tip of South America, on a remote island closer to Antarctica. Oddly enough, the climate was rather warm.
Fireclaw kicked the side door open and inspected the damage. The front of the ship was pushed back into the cockpit, one wing was still attached while the other lay about forty yards from the ship itself. Two engines were smoldering, one was right next to the door he kicked open, and the other was totally dead.
"Shit, Allo's going to be so pissed." Fireclaw said under his breath.
He climbed back in and found a small survival kit under the pilot's chair. Inside it contained a flashlight, a survival knife, some flares, a lighter, first aid supplies and the gun given to him by one of the secret scouts, a 9mm Beretta with two magazines taped to it. Fireclaw still has no idea how David got the gun, or for that matter why he had it.
Trying to establish communications with the portable com-link wasn't very easy. He landed in the middle of what looked like a wasteland. Volcanic vents spewed thick black smoke into the air, the water looked like acid and boiled hot. A geyser or two would make him jump from time to time. There was something that caught his attention of all things, though. It was the sound of a fight. A sound Fireclaw knew all too well. Following the drifting noise, he trudged through tough terrain, over lava pits, through quicksand and hot water, and a geyser that nearly steamed him like a vegetable.
Atop a large hill was an Apatosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus squaring off against each other. Fireclaw made out a smaller figure below the Apatosaur, probably her child. Fireclaw knew it was now or never. He charged up the hill and pulled the pistol. He wasn't sure what a small caliber bullet would do to a huge beast like the T-rex, but he charged on anyway. The hill tired Fireclaw out quickly, and as much as he didn't want to slow down his body wasn't wanting to work with him. By the time he'd reached the top, it was too late. The most he could do just before the Apatosaurus went down was to dive and tackle the smaller one out of the way. After a hard landing by a rock, Fireclaw took cover for a brief moment while the baby went over to it's dying mother. She didn't have long left, and she knew it. Fireclaw didn't want to face this reality. Being a dinosaur himself, it was a pain he felt close to home as well. Fireclaw decided to follow without directly intervening. He wouldn't allow this one to die the way his mother just did.
This time, Fireclaw was remembering watching over the children as they made their way to the "Great Valley," a place that the baby Apatosaur described as being so wonderful, he couldn't pass the chance up to see it himself. The two had gotten along nicely after a day or so of stalking, and Fireclaw learned that the Apatosaur's name was Littlefoot. They talked about hardships that life has, Fireclaw offered advice along the way, and provided a way for Littlefoot to vent about the loss of his mother. It was a hard time for him, and Fireclaw understood that. Unfortunately, the Com-link still produced no results of an adequate signal to try to radio back to Lavadome of his situation. Along the way, they met Petrie, a small Pterosaur who's mother was separated during a massive earthquake Fireclaw missed by minutes, Ducky and Spike, also split from her mother during the earthquake, and Cera, who's situation wasn't any different minus the fact that it was her father she temporarily lost. Fireclaw couldn't help but notice the fact that Ducky and Spike were brother and sister, yet they weren't even the same species. He wouldn't judge, but still found it odd.
Hours went by where nothing changed. A few canyons here, a few passes there, it was as if the world itself had died and it's corpse was left to forever decay as a reminder of what it once was. They'd come to a small clearing with a single dying tree. There were still some treestars left on the tree, which impressed Fireclaw seeing that the rest of the place had been dead and barren. Littlefoot tried to knock the treestars down unsuccessfully, and after about the fourth attempt, the tree gave up the food they'd been longing for. While the kids ate, Fireclaw paid close attention to things around him. Clutching the pistol, he watched the treeline around them. If there was one thing he'd learned from training, it's that things don't ever come easy. Ever. It wouldn't be long before Fireclaw's suspicions were confirmed.
Three small Raptors began to show up from the bushes not too far from him. Chaos ensued. The kids hid behind the tree while Fireclaw raised his pistol to a firing stance. Clearly a warning call isn't going to be enough. He fired a warning shot into the air and shouted for them to get back. His warnings went unheeded, as expected.
"Littlefoot, Petrie, Ducky, Cera, Spike, don't move! I'll come get you!" Fireclaw shouted.
He emptied six of the eight rounds the magazine had. The first two struck the first Raptor in the chest, dropping him cold. The next two were more lethal. One round grazed the eye socket of the second raptor and the other struck him in the throat. He writhed on the ground before finally gurgling out one last breath. The final raptor was hit once in the face, and once in the chest. It fell before it knew what happened.
"Oh shit, shit I knew this would happen! Guys, let's go. It's not safe here anymore!"
Another flash brought him to the Great Valley after the journey had been made. Everyone was reunited and happy, all but Fireclaw. As far as he could tell, the Com-link probably wouldn't work unless he had more power, but where exactly would he get a power source strong enough to keep it alive long enough to radio a distress call? That's if he even could get signal. Still, he had to try. Fireclaw snuck away from the crowd and set up the small Com-link on a hill. Fiddling with frequencies, he tried desperately to fire off that one signal that would get picked up, even if it was faint, they'd know something was up. Again and again he tried to get it to work, and finally, after one last attempt, the small signal meter that showed it's strength began to react.
"Yes! Got it!" Fireclaw exclaimed.
His memory jumped him to when he'd first seen Chomper. Fireclaw managed to learn how to pilot the Epsilon after it had been repaired. Allo wasn't very happy when they had to retrieve it, but Fireclaw managed to convince him to teach him to pilot the craft so that he didn't take it into the ground like he did the first time. Now that he'd had a way to go back and forth between the Great Valley, Fireclaw made frequent visits between Lavadome and the Valley. Fireclaw had established himself enough that everyone trusted him, and he did nothing to betray that trust. Keeping sharpeeth away and helping the general well being of the Valley made him appear better than what they'd first thought of him.
Fireclaw one morning was talking with Grandma and Grandpa Longneck by the watering hole about the Great Valley when Littlefoot came running from the bushes.
"Grandma, Grandpa!" Littlefoot called out.
"Yes, what is it Littlefoot?" Grandpa Longneck asked.
"I- I want to know about babies..."
Fireclaw's smile quickly turned sour upon hearing this. Grandma and Grandpa Longneck both looked at each other equally in horror.
"Littlefoot what the hell? What- What the hell did you just say?" Fireclaw asked in a demanding tone.
"Why do you want to know about babies, Littlefoot?" Grandma Longneck asked.
"Well, I want to know what they eat." Littlefoot said.
"That's still better than what I thought you were about to say, Littlefoot." Fireclaw replied somewhat relieved.
"Well, they eat green food. That's we fed you when you were little." Grandpa Longneck told Littlefoot in his usually calm tone.
"Thanks Grandpa!" Littlefoot said before anyone else had a chance to add anything.
"Kids, they grow up so fast." Grandma Longneck said with a chuckle.
"I really hope he didn't... Ugh, after that I think I need a drink or eight." Fireclaw said sarcastically.
Another jump brought him to the memory where Chomper bit Cera's tail after they were for some reason singing near a volcano. Fireclaw wouldn't really question their logic and left the situation alone. He took notice to the two so called egg thieves who had stalked them there before and followed them after they took a leap of faith over the side. Fireclaw was armed with a combat shotgun that he'd brought from Lavadome a week prior. He preferred shotguns at times when he needed crowd control. Bird shot was usually a preference if he was keeping things quiet without any fatality, but slugs could be swapped if someone just wouldn't cooperate. There wasn't much else he could remember of this point.
Fireclaw's next memory was when he'd come across the sharptooth attack in the valley, and they were nearly outnumbering Grandpa Longneck. Fireclaw wouldn't learn about who Grandpa Longneck really is or what he's truly capable of until much later on in his life. Fireclaw kept quiet and stuck to the trees. He didn't want to draw attention to himself yet. It was then that he'd noticed Ozzy and Strut trying to run away. He'd kept hot on their trail and followed them up to the top of a cliff. They'd hidden in a bush, and Fireclaw took cover behind a tree. He wouldn't blow his cover just yet. He needed to get the Sharpteeth out, and if by chance something happened that they'd seen him, they'd try to run right back into the Great Valley, further complicating things.
Fireclaw's memory shifted to about fifteen minutes later, when Ozzy and Strut held Littlefoot over the edge of the Great Wall. As Ozzy held Littlefoot over the edge, Fireclaw moved out and grabbed Strut and put him in a head lock while aiming the shotgun over his shoulder at Ozzy.
"You best not let go, Ozzy." Fireclaw said coldly between clenched teeth.
"Strut! Let him go you ignorant-"
Fireclaw cocked the shotgun with one hand and put it under Strut's chin.
"I don't give a shit what happens to either of you. If you hurt him, I'll blow this bastard's head straight across the Valley. Do you really want me to do that? Do you?" Fireclaw taunted.
Ozzy put Littlefoot back on the cliff. Fireclaw released Strut and kicked him in the back. The Sharpteeth caught wind of the egg thieves and chased them out, Chomper following closely behind them.
Fireclaw's memory began to get fuzzy, probably a sign that he was regaining consiousness. His final memory was Chomper's training as a Dinosaucer, and his initiation. Once Chomper had grown old enough, Fireclaw took him in and trained him vigorously. Day and night Fireclaw ran through drills with him, trained him how to fight, and once the time was right, how to correctly use a firearm. In order to correct his arm length, he offered Chomper the option of correcting his form through an experiment Teryx managed to devise over the course of about three years. Fireclaw warned him that it could kill him if it failed, but Chomper was eager to go through with the experiment anyway. Fireclaw took him back to Lavadome and began the procedure upon arrival. The operation itself was a long and painful one. Chomper had to remain awake while he was transformed to monitor his brainwave functions as he underwent the entire rewriting of his genetic code. This medical experiment was highly dangerous, as genetic experimentation was a very rare thing to attempt anywhere on Reptillon due to the risk factors involved. Teryx had believed she had perfected it, and she was right! Many hours after being stabbed with long needles, electrocuted many times and even being stretched out some, Chomper's transformation was complete. As he'd walked out of the final stasis chamber to complete the operation Fireclaw couldn't believe what he'd become. He walked exactly as a Dinosaucer would, and his arms were now the length of Allo's as well. Fireclaw began to train him in weapon combat and firearms as soon as he possibly could.
Fireclaw's memory blurred and faded as he began to regain consciousness The real world was beginning to set in again as he felt the cold metal floor beneath him. He felt as though he was moving and felt very dizzy as his vision focused itself. Fireclaw could see bars in front of him and heard the sound of crowds cheering.
"What the hell? What's that noise?" Fireclaw asked groggily. He sat up and looked around at the other cages containing Littlefoot, Petrie, Ducky, Cera, Spike, Chomper. Fireclaw didn't see Redclaw and hoped Rex hadn't killed him. A very loud roar broke his train of thought telling Fireclaw Redclaw was alive, but probably not in a good position. He knew this was Genghis Rex at work here, but how did he get into human possession without Rex selling himself out as well? The workers who were moving the cages stopped in a small room that looked like the off-stage area of a theater.
"Alright, this is it! You're going to be so famous! Just think, real live dinosaurs! All those people waiting to see you out there!" A shorter girl told him, unaware he could understand her. She had to have been high school aged, Fireclaw figured. She didn't look any older than the secret scouts did. Much to his horror he'd noticed that he had no armor, actually nothing on at all. This wasn't helping make him any happier at all.
"What the..." Fireclaw said under his breath.
Looking to his right he saw a possible way out. The door hinges were very poorly made, and the simple pins could be removed easily. Once he's escaped the cage, his next task was saving everyone else and finding Genghis Rex.