Scars

by DarkHououmon

Ever since their formation, the Dino Squad have always managed to keep Veloci in the dark about their secret. But what would happen if he did find out? And what if he was far more capable than they initially thought? Despite what fairy tales may say, the bad guys don't always lose...

4. Gone

Just then they heard their phone ring. "I wonder who that could be..." Jack said as he reached for the phone sitting on the table. He picked it up and pressed the Talk button and spoke into it. "Hello, Jack Caruso speaking." He heard Moynihan's voice on the other line, and he smiled. "Oh, Professor Moynihan, hello!" He said, greeting the voice on the other end. Ms. Moynihan asked Jack if he had recalled her wanting his kid as well as the four other students at the lighthouse for training. He gave a nod. "Oh sure, I remember. How did it go? ...what? You didn't? Why?"

As Jack's voice started to sound a bit urgent, Amanda tried to calm herself down. But she grew more and more curious, wanting to know what they were talking about. It was surely about Irwin. "Jack..what is it?" She asked, leaning in close.

"You were?" Jack asked. Moynihan had explained to him about how Michelle had gotten inside the lighthouse and thrown her down the stairs. Jack winced as he imagined what that must have felt like. "So that's why you couldn't train. I'm sorry to hear that." He said, sympathizing with the professor's pain. Then Moynihan said she brought more news. "Hmm? Oh? What?" As the voice on the other line kept talking, Jack's eyes narrowed at first, then they suddenly flew open as did his mouth. He let in a sharp gasp, placing his hand on his mouth. "What...?" He managed to say.

Amanda was feeling even more concerned now. She grasped her husband's hand, and looked up at him, her eyes filled with fear. "What's going on?"

"Would we like to come over... Sure..." Jack said. Ms. Moynihan wanted them to come over so they can continue to discuss this matter face-to-face in a private location. Jack rubbed his forehead. "We'll be there shortly..." He slowly placed the phone back on its hook, and gave a sigh.

"Dear..what's going on?" Amanda asked, feeling the fear inside her grow.

Jack looked at her. He placed his hands on her shoulders once more, and it was easy to tell he was struggling to find the words to say. He sighed again, bowing his head in despair. "That was Professor Moynihan on the phone. There's been a...terrible incident that occurred at the lighthouse." He told her.

"W-What happened?" Amanda asked.

Jack swallowed hard. "Irwin's been... kidnapped by Victor Veloci." Amanda's eyes flew open wide like saucers and her hands pressed against her mouth as she stifled a scream. "And their equipment was destroyed by some girl named Michelle, so they can't track him..and they have no idea where he is..."

"Oh Jack..." Amanda said as she felt tears welling up in her eyes. She flew her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. She sobbed into his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and tried to comfort her as best as he could. But he could not hold back his own tears as they were building up in his eyes. Their only son was being forced to travel with a deranged dinosaur to an unknown location, and they would have no idea where he was without tracking equipment. Jack was a bit handy with tools so he decided, as he hugged his wife, that he would help Fiona and Rodger build a new tracking device.

"Don't worry..." Jack assured his frightened wife. "We'll find him...we'll find him."

Ms. Moynihan exhaled slowly as she closed Fiona's cellphone and handed it back to her. She knew it was going to be difficult to tell Caruso's parents what happened, but she didn't think it would be that difficult. She could barely hear the concerned voice of Amanda Caruso on the other side. She could only imagine how she must have felt when her husband would break the news to her. She looked out the window, knowing that in a short period of time, they'd be here. Oh what to do when they get here.. It was going to be difficult to talk about the situation with them. A worrying thought gnawed at the back of her mind. What if they blamed her, or the other kids, for their son's disappearance?

Her thoughts were quickly discontinued when she heard Buzz's concerned voice asking her a question. "Ms. M...are you sure it was a good idea to bring Caruso's parents here?"

"And what is wrong with that?" Joanne asked.

"Nothing..it's just that.." Buzz sighed. "I'm sure they're going to want to know more. What are we going to tell them?"

"The truth, Buzz. The truth." Moynihan responded as she waited nervously and patiently for Irwin's parents to arrive.

Caruso bolted up when he heard the door slamming, and quickly looked to see who it was. Michelle was walking towards his cell, carrying what appeared to be a tray with a small cup of fluid and a sandwich. Caruso glared at her as she got closer. She knelt by his cage, and placed the tray down on the floor, backed up against the bars. She stood up and backed away a couple steps. She and Caruso locked eyes on one another, as though cautious of the other. Michelle quickly broke from the stare and turned back to the door.

Caruso slowly eyed the food and drink suspiciously. They were probably trying to poison him. Or maybe they were trying to get him to trust them, so he could be better manipulated. Well, he was not going to fall for that trick. He roughly pushed the tray a ways from the cage, startling Michelle a bit by this action. He turned his head away and folded up his arms. He acted as though he were a child that was just given time out.

"What on Earth did you do that for?" Michelle asked as she went over to pick up the tray.

"I'm not falling for your tricks again, Michelle." Caruso said bitterly without looking at her.

"What are you talking about?" Michelle asked. "I was sent here to give you food and water because Victor thought you might be hungry or thirsty..."

The mention of Victor's name caused Caruso to seethe through his teeth, "Oh yeah right! Since when would he care about the state of a human?!" The tone of his voice made Michelle cringe a little, but she tried not to show it. "Victor could care less what happens to the human race, let alone a teenager!" Michelle gritted her teeth as Caruso continued to speak about Victor in such a manner. "The insane madman, the same guy who pretends to be a humanitarian, the same guy who has been hunting me and my friends, the same guy who wants to rid the world of humans, and let dinosaurs rule again, that's the same guy who sent food and water to me because he thought I was hungry...or thirsty?! That's a laugh! But then again it should not surprise me Victor would send someone else to do his work for him! Victor always seems to send out someone else to do his dirty work for him!" He scoffed. "How predictable..."

Gritting her teeth tighter, Michelle clenched one of the bars of Caruso's cage and said, "Just be glad you get any food at all..." She said in a low voice. "We can easily cut off your food and water supply and let you slowly starve to death and dehydrate..." She said in a threatening voice. The tone of her voice made Caruso's face soften up, and slowly give way to a little fear, but he continued to stand his ground. "Victor is not above allowing you to die if you refuse to eat anything. And he is also not above killing you himself if he sees a good reason to."

"Oh yeah right... Like Victor would have the guts to..." Caruso started.

"Don't test him..." Michelle interrupted. "For your own good..don't test him.." Caruso didn't respond, instead simply turning his head away once more. Her expression softened slowly as a few seconds passed by of complete silence. "I've been working for Victor for..a good time now and.. I know what he's capable of." She spoke in a soft voice, with a tinge of concern. "You'll live to regret testing his patience."

Irwin rolled his eyes and shook his head. It was clear he did not believe her words. "And why should I trust you? Remember when we shook hands? You planted that tracker on me that let me get caught!" He pointed an accusing finger at her. "And you also attacked Ms. Moynihan! You nearly broke her leg! How could you do something so cruel..? Sending an old woman toppling down the stairs like that?!"

Michelle sighed, knowing that Caruso was going to bring this up sooner or later. She recalled the moment that she grabbed Moynihan by the throat and tossing her down the stairs. She had taken sometime to regret that decision. She was too wiled up to realize exactly what she had done at the time. Her excuse would have been she was just defending herself, but who would believe that? And besides Moynihan was defending herself as well. It was Michelle who had sparked the fight initially.

In the long run, Michelle really had no excuse for what she had done. All she could do was agree with Caruso on the manner. "Y-Yes... that's true. I did throw her down the stairs. But..but I only did that to..." She said, trying to find someway to defend herself in the least.

"Only did that to what...?" Caruso asked, interrupting her rudely. "To leave us a message telling us that you were there? To break Moynihan's leg so she won't be a threat?"

"No.. I did that to..." Michelle sighed. "..to keep her out of my way." She admitted sincerely. "She was in the way of my completing my mission, so I had no choice but to toss her down the staircase."

"What a horrible excuse..." Caruso seethed, baring his teeth. "And attacking Rump..."

"I was just defending myself!" Michelle snapped. "The little monster tried to attack me!"

"So..it's all right for you to defend yourself, but not Moynihan...?" Caruso asked in an incriminating tone.

"I..." But Michelle couldn't think of a remark to defend herself against this statement. The boy was right. He had a valid point. She was only defending herself against Rump's assault just as Moynihan was only defending herself during the raid. And the way she said that she attacked Moynihan just because she was 'in the way' made it seem like she felt the old woman had no right to defend herself. Michelle bowed her head a bit, feeling a little guilty.

There was an awkward silence between the two for the next few minutes. Michelle sat down a few inches from the cage, and crossed her legs in an indian style. Caruso did the same, although he stayed a good distance from Michelle. The two teenagers simply stared at each other quietly, waiting for the other to make a move, or speak up. It had gotten so quiet that all they could hear were the tires grinding against the road. And occasionally they would hear Victor making one of his speeches about dinosaurs ruling again.

Michelle shook her head slowly at this. Victor did have a habit of boasting about how his plan will work and how he was so sure the dinosaurs will come back. But now it seems like he was doing it more often, maybe because he now has Caruso. There seemed to be something special about Caruso that made Victor feel as though he had to have him. Most likely it was just for his perfect Stegosaurus DNA. But if Victor had already gotten a DNA sample, why did he need Caruso again?

But she did not question Victor's orders. There would have to be a logical explanation for wanting Caruso so badly. She would just have to accept Victor's earlier reasoning of getting Caruso; that he was going to be part of the plan of bringing the Earth back to the dinosaurs, or bringing the dinosaurs back to Earth, whichever way it was. She finally broke away from Caruso's stare as it was making her feel a little uncomfortable. But even when looked away, she could still feel Caruso's glare going right through her.

She had realized she stayed in the room too long, and Victor would wonder where she was and what took her so long. She knew she had to get up and leave, but something was keeping her in, something about the boy, Caruso, that made her want to stay. Was it sympathy? Was it guilt? She shook those thoughts out of her mind. She quickly realized that Caruso's words had started to make her doubt her own mission. She glanced back at Caruso and returned his glare with a frown. She decided that the silence must be broken. She spoke up, "Clever boy aren't you? Playing with my emotions like that. Very clever.."

"What are you talking about?" Caruso asked, sounding more confused than angry.

"You were trying to... oh never mind it." Michelle said in a slight tone of bitterness. She needed to clear her head of these confusing thoughts. They were affecting her decision-making as well as making it difficult for her to think clearly. "I'd better get going."

"Yeah...you should." Caruso told her, turning his head away.

Michelle got up off the ground and made her way towards the door. She didn't bother picking up the tray that she had originally brought in. She figured that Caruso would sooner or later give into his hunger. No one can resist the temptation of hunger and thirst for very long. It would only be a matter of time. She would probably come back in a few hours to pick up the tray and perhaps bring more food to him. They wouldn't be at their destination in several hours, anyway. Caruso would indeed submit to the offer, she was positive of that. She did not mention this and for good reason, but the reason Victor wanted her to bring food was not simply because he felt he was hungry. It was part of Victor's plan to make Caruso submit to them.

Victor believed that he could probably use food to help increase his chances of controlling Caruso. Now that he has been captured, he'd control the food and water supply. He could punish Caruso by not feeding him for a few days, which would weaken Caruso's state of mind as well as his human body. The Stegosaurus half of the boy could take this abuse though, so Victor was not worried.

But Michelle did hear Victor say something about thinking about abandoning the idea and use another way to control Caruso. Well he already did have another way, although he did not really give her the full details on it yet. But the information that she did know had mentioned something involving pain, and lots of it. This did not seem entirely like Victor, who had used fear and motivation, not pain, to control his followers. And using food seemed a bit unlike himself, but oh well, who was she to judge?

Michelle slowly grasped the door handle, and turned it. She looked back at Caruso, wearing a smile on her face. "Why don't you eat now? You look hungry..."

Caruso gritted his teeth. "I am not going to eat that garbage!"

Michelle just shrugged her shoulders. She didn't believe him. He would give in sooner or later. "Oh well. Suit yourself..." She disappeared through the doorway and closed the door behind her.

Caruso was now alone in the room again. He sighed softly and pulled his legs up to his chest. He was feeling a little cold all of a sudden, even though it was not winter time yet. He rubbed his arms roughly to create heat friction to hopefully warm himself up again. But it seemed no matter how fast he rubbed or anything else he did, he just kept on shivering. "Why am I so cold...?" He asked himself as he pushed himself against the cage bars. "It's not even that cold in here..."

Then he realized the truth. He wasn't really shivering due to cold. He was shivering due to emotion. His anger, and his fear, were what was making him tremble. Although he hadn't thought about it much, he was still feeling afraid, and wondered just what Victor was truly capable of. Perhaps he should abide by Michelle's warning and do what the guy asked him to do.. No! No, he shouldn't do that! He must not give in! That's exactly what Victor wanted him to do! If he gave in, then Victor would win! Caruso felt he had to continue to stand his ground, to put up a resistance against his captors.

He then felt his stomach growling, and he winced. "Oh great..." He muttered under his breath. He slowly glanced over at the food, which continued to look more and more inviting as time passed. He placed his hand on his stomach and slowly rubbed it as he finally noticed the smell of the sandwich lingering in the air. The sandwich had been heated, and from the smell of it, it had hamburger meat in it. He slowly licked his lips, and tried to resist.

"No, don't even think about it Caruso...! Don't eat that sandwich!" He scolded himself, gripping his head. "That's exactly what they want you to do!"

But the smell of the hamburger sandwich continued to taunt him, continued to mess with his mind. Caruso groaned softly as he realized he would not be able to resist the sandwich for too long. The growls in his stomach were growing louder and longer, and the sight and smell of the sandwich only made it worse. He could feel the inside of his mouth slowly water, and he finally gave in. He quickly reached out of the cage and snapped the sandwich up and bit into it. As he swallowed his first bite, he couldn't help but glance up at the window, and wondered how long he would have to stay here.

He turned back to his sandwich and took another bite. He felt stupid falling into this so quickly. And yet he continued to eat the sandwich, because he would have sooner or later anyway, and he knew that, and he was sure Victor knew that. He started to wonder about his friends as he continued to eat. His thoughts then went to his family. His mother..his father... had the Dino Squad told them what happened? And how were they taking the news? These two questions gnawed at the back of his mind, and he felt a pang of guilt inside of him. He hadn't even said goodbye to his parents today.

He had left in such a hurry today... And he hadn't said much to his parents other than he had to get at Moynihan's lighthouse. He did not say goodbye to them, but then, he didn't know he was going to get captured by Veloci. If he had known, surely he would have told his parents goodbye. As he was thinking about this, he was starting to feel not so hungry anymore. He stared at the sandwich and sighed, and he set it back on the tray. He picked up the cup of water and sipped from it, his mind still wandering, thinking about his parents as well as his friends and teacher.

"Why was I such an idiot and went outside?" Caruso asked himself as he set the cup back down. "I should have just stayed inside." He scolded himself mentally, wanting to slap himself in the face, but stopping himself.

"Yes, you should have." He was startled by the voice coming from the door once again. Now who could it be this time? It couldn't be Michelle. She had just left a few minutes ago, and she had no reason to be coming back. "But even if you were inside that pathetic lighthouse, I would have gotten you out somehow anyway." Caruso narrowed his eyes when he realized that voice was coming from Victor Veloci. He had come back into the room. Caruso stood straight up and got into a fighting stance even though he had no hope of landing a move while behind the bars. Victor chuckled softly. "My, my. Aren't we a little defensive today?"

"What do you want, Victor?" Caruso demanded. "What did you come back here for?"

"Just to talk." Victor answered the boy as he walked up to the cage without hesitation. Caruso backed up a little ways. "Are you afraid of me, child?" He sounded almost hopeful. Caruso was not surprised. The stupid Velociraptor would want him to say yes. Well, he was not going to give in like that.

"No!" Caruso shouted. "I'm not afraid of you!"

Victor turned his head to the side, glancing at Caruso in a sideways kind of manner. He chuckled, and sneered, "Well you should be..." His voice was sarcastic, and didn't sound particularly threatening.

The blue-haired teen folded up his arms, and scoffed. "Why should I be afraid of a coward?"

Victor's eyes suddenly glowed, and he turned his head back towards the boy. His teeth were now mutated into the raptor fangs traditional to his species. Caruso backed up, feeling a bit frightened. But he still held his ground. He returned Victor's glare. "You don't know who you are messing with, kid." He said, restraining himself from slashing the boy. "There is so much I can do to you right now, and I won't regret any of it... So unless you don't value your life, you'd better be a good boy and listen to your 'host'." His hands were shaking from anger, and was doing his best to not loose his temper with the boy.

"Tch... You don't scare me..." Caruso retorted.

"I can give you a good reason to fear me..." Victor said, his eyes continuing to glow. "I can become your nightmare if you force my hand..." He warned the boy, talons growing from his fingers. Victor quickly calmed himself down. He was letting himself become a little desperate in controlling the child. He retracted his claws and smirked. All humans were the same to him. He could persuade the boy to obey him, just like how he got an army of humans to listen to his commands. He shouldn't let a little thing like the boy's attitude get to him.

"Ooo... I'm shaking!" Caruso said in a taunting manner, his arms tucked tightly to his chest and his hands clasping together. His eyes were wide with fear, but Victor knew better. The boy was just trying to taunt him. "Oh spare me your wrath, oh terrible one!"

Victor chortled softly, occasionally giving off his recognizable raptor growl. "Think what you want, child, but your attitude will change soon enough. I'll be sure of that."

Caruso growled. "Oh sure you will." The young teen responded as he rolled his eyes. "Just like how you were so sure your little cloud-infection plan would bring back the dinosaurs, only to be foiled by a bunch of teenagers." Caruso realized too late that he had said too much. His hands to his mouth, he muttered a single word, and gazed at Victor for a reaction. Victor didn't seem fazed by what he had said. He just continued to smile at him calmly. It wasn't a genuinely evil smile, but still, something about it was creeping him out.

"I was aware that you and your friends were behind that sabotage." Victor said as he leaned against the wall and folded his arms. "I must admit, that was pretty clever, especially for humans. Up until then, I did not think you monkeys had the brain capacity to be able to plan out an effective counterattack, trace me to the location, and then shoot rockets at the precise moment and freeze the primordial ooze inside. I hate to admit it..but I'm impressed." Victor said. While he was still smiling, his voice was a dead give away that it seemed to hurt him to say that about the very humans that have gotten in his way time and time again.

Caruso was a little stunned, and surprised at this. How had Victor found out? Maybe he had just taken his newfound knowledge that the perfect dinosaurs were human and put the pieces together. But then, how had he found out about the rockets? Victor was hidden above a thick cloud cover, and Ms. Moynihan had blocked Victor's equipment from seeing them. Was it possible she slipped up and Victor HAD seen them? No, if he had, he would have acted much faster.

Caruso tried to hide the fact that he was surprised. He frowned. "How did you know we did that?"

"After you 'perfect dinosaurs' fled the scene, I had ordered my men to search the area and inform me if they found anything. Well they did find something, human." Victor said, his smile broadening a little. "They found remains of five missiles." Caruso's eyes widened. Why hadn't they checked to make sure the missiles would leave no remains behind? "Sure it was just a few scraps here or there, but enough to confirm they were missiles. Ice missiles to be exact. And I knew whoever shot them must have known about the primordial ooze's weakness to cold. I had originally suspected that my old 'friend', Joanne Moynihan, was behind the sabotage, but my theory was...disproved quickly when I found the tracks of five motorcycles..."

"Oh yeah?" Caruso asked slowly as Victor gave him this information.

"Oh yes. And they appeared to be the very same tracks I had found before." Victor said. He did not know why he was telling the child this. But he saw no harm in it anyway. It wasn't like he was giving out future plans or anything. Well he could end up telling his teammates.. No! No he would not! There's no way for the little boy to escape, and even if he does and tells his teammates, all that would do was prove to them that he is not one to be underestimated. As Victor told Caruso about how he had seen the tracks before, Caruso gasped sharply, catching Victor's attention. "Hmm. Did I frighten you now?"

"More like..surprised." Caruso said quickly, raising a pointer finger up, but not pointing at anything in particular. "You said you saw these five tracks before?"

"Yes. When my mutant bird migration plan failed, I went to investigate. You kids may have moved fast enough to escape my eyes, but you weren't fast enough to escape my nose. I knew that someone, someone human, had sabotaged my plan. But..." Victor laughed a little, feeling amused by the idea of minors getting in his way. "..I never would have thought, or believed, that it was just a bunch of teenagers, high school students in fact, who were behind that sabotage as well as others."

"You should not underestimate humans." Caruso told Victor. "You've already seen what we're capable of doing. Humans stopped your plans, not dinosaurs."

"And yet you were only able to pull it off because you had the ability to change into a dinosaur." Victor said. "You would not have been able to stop the mutant birds if you couldn't turn into dinosaurs. And you would not have gotten away after you ruined my primordial ooze rain plan if you hadn't turned into dinosaurs."

Caruso opened up his mouth to disagree. "I..." But he couldn't find anything to say in defense. Victor had been right. They wouldn't have gotten away from Veloci's men if they hadn't turned into dinosaurs. Had they been spotted as humans, they can only guess what Veloci would have done. And they would have been easier to catch. He hated to admit it, but Victor was very right in what he had said. And Victor knew it.

"I'm right aren't I?" Victor sneered. "You can't deny it." He only got a glowered look from Caruso. Victor's smile disappeared, and his eyes slowly narrowing, but not in a threatening manner. He looked more puzzled than angry. "There is one thing I do not understand, however. If you humans have tasted the glory of being dinosaurs, why do you continue to vainly fight for your species? If you have felt what it's like to be the superior species, why continue to stand by these weaklings?"

Caruso's eyes started to glow, his pupils dilating like a cat's would in bright light. "Why don't you let me out and I'll show you just how 'weak' we humans really are!" Victor didn't answer the boy with anything but a laugh...

Near the front of the truck, just behind the driver's section of the Raptor Dyne Semi, sat Michelle and Oscura. They were glaring at each other with some level of intensity. It was clear that they were not on the best of terms at that moment. Michelle's eyes were wide, and a little red from anger. Oscura was hardly much different, though her eyes were narrowed so much that if they narrowed any further her eyes would close. They sat on opposite ends of the semi truck and their eyes bore into each other. If it weren't for the fact that they were forbidden to fight inside the truck, they would be each other's throats.

They had gotten into a fight in the truck before, once. They were both so angry at the time that now they completely forgot just what they were arguing about. But one thing apparently led to another, and the next thing they knew, they were in dino mode, wrestling each other. They caused a bit of damage, and nearly destroyed some of Victor's precious equipment that he had stored in there at the time. The girls' dispute had also temporarily distracted the driver and they nearly crashed. Victor was furious, but instead of firing the girls, he gave them a warning, telling them if they fought inside his semi again, they may face the consequences. They weren't sure if he had truly meant it, but they could not take the chances. They agreed and promised Victor they wouldn't do it again.

But now, it seemed like that promise was going to be broken if they didn't settle down soon. Michelle's eyes were already glowing like they would if she was going to transform. Her teeth were bared, her teeth mutated into fangs now. Her hand was clenched in a fist, and she stared haughtily at the younger teen before her. Oscura's eyes weren't glowing, but her hands at mutated, now scaly three-fingered hands, a long talon extending from each of them. She was using one of her reptilian hands to point a shaky claw at Michelle.

"Why would you show sympathy to that brat?!" Oscura spat. "He doesn't deserve sympathy! No human does!"

"Why are you acting like such a..a.. monster?!" Michelle snapped. "What's wrong with showing some kindness to the boy? It's not like I was bonding with him or anything..!"

"That's exactly what you were doing!" Oscura growled, her teeth bared and lips curled up in an animalistic style, a habit she picked up from being a Troodon. A bit of drool dribbled from the side. "You were associating with him! Talking to him! You were growing soft as you spoke to him! Continue to talk to him like that, Michelle, and who knows what Victor might..."

"I wasn't..." Michelle said to try to defend herself, but Oscura cut her off.

"Oh, don't even think about lying!" Oscura said with venom in her voice. "Victor overheard you talking to Caruso, and he was not that happy with what you were telling him! And he had told me about it too."

"W-Well if that's true, then why didn't he say anything to me?" Michelle asked, her voice just a tad shaky. Perhaps she was growing sympathetic for the boy. She didn't have so much doubt anymore. Victor believed she was growing a bit attached to the boy in some form or other.

Oscura's expression softened up, but only by the slightest. She said, "He's decided to let it slide this time. But he does not want you getting attached to that boy. As a precaution, he's requested that when we get to the lab that only he may have contact with the child. You, me, and everyone else are ordered to stay away from him." Oscura cautiously eyed the door that Victor had disappeared into before continuing her explanation. "The boy will be kept in isolation, his only visitor being Victor."

"Isolate him?!" Michelle snapped her head back.

"Yes...isolate him. Why? Is that a problem with you?" Oscura asked as she narrowed her eyes back to the way they were just a few moments ago.

"Well, it's just that humans don't always cope well in isolation for too long." Michelle explained. "And almost any human can break if they are kept in isolation long enough..."

Before she could continue, she heard Oscura chuckle. "That's exactly what Victor wants." She said. "Don't you remember? I thought he told you he wanted to break Caruso's will to make him submit to him, to obey him."

"Yes he did tell me that." Michelle said, the anger in her voice starting to die down as she started to submit to Oscura's words. She was running out of options to defend herself, and slowly realizing that Oscura was indeed correct after all. And she should not have acted so surprised when Oscura had told her Victor was going to isolate Caruso from all contact except his. Victor was the type of person who usually wanted other people to do his job for him, but when the matter is urgent enough, he wants to tackle it himself. As the saying goes, if you want something done right, you do it yourself. "Still..." She managed to say. "What if the isolation does little to affect his mind?"

Oscura chuckled. "Oh don't worry about that." Oscura said as she shifted her claws back to normal. Michelle did likewise, turning her eyes and teeth back to normal as well. "Victor has a plan. I believe he mentioned it to you."

"Yes..." Michelle said slowly, sinking down onto the floor. Like Oscura had moments ago, she looked over at the door, expecting Victor to come out. "But he didn't tell me what it was."

Oscura chuckled lightly, smiling in an almost creepy way. "Oh didn't he know..?" She asked in taunting voice.

"Would you mind telling me what he plans on doing?" Michelle inquired. It felt almost amazing to her that the hostility between her and Oscura had died down so quickly. Their relationship was like that. The fire would be ignited, and burn fiercely, but just as quickly as it would start, it would put itself out.

Oscura sat down as well, her arms crossed. "I am sorry, but I've been advised not to tell you for the time being. Victor believes it might..complicate things." She said coolly before turning her head to the door as she heard it open up, and Victor stepped out, a pissed off look on his face...

The drive up to the lighthouse had only taken about ten minutes, but it felt like an eternity for the parents of Irwin. Their minds were clouded with worrying and desperate questions on their son's location. Will they ever see him again? Where was he? Was he all right? The world seemed to slow down for them, the ride up the lighthouse taking longer than ever before, from their perspective anyway. Jack had tried his best to calm his wife down, but he could not get her to settle down. She would continue to break down, and he could not blame her. He was trying to be strong for the both of them, but he did not know how long he could hold out. He gripped the steering wheel tightly and sighed.

He began to wonder if it was a good idea to allow Irwin to continue running around with the Dino Squad everyday. Perhaps he should have used his better judgment and forbidden it. If he had, maybe Irwin would be safe at home right now, eating the breakfast his mother made him, which was still in the fridge. But then again, Irwin had made a convincing argument. Although he and the others did not become a team by choice, they had still worked together for the greater good. They and their mentor were the only ones that stood between Victor and his plans. And Irwin had helped thwart Victor before, as well as fought against his men and mutantsaurs and made it out all right.

His Stegosaurus form had given him an advantage. A fully grown adult Stegosaurus at that, with a spiked tail and plates. That made him a formidable and imposing opponent. Jack felt thankful that his son was blessed with this dinosaur form, although it was a bit hard to accept at first. The thought of his son turning into some prehistoric monster sounded scary, and his wife, Amanda, had an even harder time accepting it. She had almost fainted when she first laid eyes on Irwin's plates. And when he had transformed into the real thing...

"We're almost at the lighthouse, dear." He said, breaking the silence that had settled in the car. He glanced over at his wife, who was staring vacantly out the front window. She was staring out at the watery horizon that stretched out far beyond the lighthouse, which was now within sight. She did not immediately respond to him. "Dear..?" He said, nudging her with one elbow while he used the other to keep steering straight.

"Oh..hmm...?" Amanda said softly, her attention not yet completely on him.

"We're almost at the lighthouse." Jack said, repeating the same thing he said just a few seconds prior.

She broke her gaze from the horizon and turned to her husband. Her eyes were still red from her crying, but she had settled down now. Crying was not going to help, she knew. Her mind should be focused on getting her son back, not mourn over him like he was dead. The word dead stuck in her mind, and stung like a bee sting. Her worst fear was someone finding Irwin and using the word dead in any sentence.

"Do you..." Amanda said, finally speaking in the last ten minutes. "Do you think that...we'll be able to find Irwin before..." She could not bring herself to finish her question. She was getting choked up again.

Jack wanted to hug her, to comfort her in his embrace, but he couldn't now, not while he was driving. He gave her a comforting smile, trying his best to hide his own fears. "Don't worry. We'll find him and bring him back." He said as they neared the lighthouse. They would be there in a couple minutes.

A couple minutes later, Buzz heard the sound of a car pulling up to the lighthouse. He went to the window and peered through it. He saw Caruso's parents' car parking in front, the lights on the front shutting off as the engine died. The door opened up, and the man and woman stepped out slowly. Buzz turned to Ms. Moynihan. "They're here, Ms. M."

Ms. Moynihan nodded once, and attempted to stand up again. She lifted herself up using her stronger right leg and pushing on the couch. She gingerly placed her left leg on the ground, slowly applying pressure on the foot. She had managed to overcome the pain before only because the commotion outside had raised the adrenaline inside of her. But there was no danger present at the moment. She managed to take one step before succumbing to the pain, and she fell back in her couch.

"That's one nasty strained ankle..." Buzz commented, noting how red the ankle still looked despite treatment from Rodger and Moynihan's dino DNA. "I thought you said it would have healed quicker."

"That's what I was thinking too." Ms. Moynihan said as she gently rubbed the swollen ankle. "I guess I hit it harder than I thought." She let out a small grunt of pain before nodding in Max's direction. "Can you bring me my cane? It's upstairs, in the room where the equipment is..or was." She gazed up in an almost nervous manner, recalling how she had been knocked down from that floor to this floor. She was a bit amazed she survived the fall with no mortal wounds.

Max turned to the spiral staircase, giving a nod to his teacher. "I'll be back down soon." With that, the jock disappeared up the staircase. And as he walked up the staircase, a knock came from the door to the lighthouse.

"It must be them." Ms. Moynihan said. She looked at the door and could make out the silhouettes of Caruso's parents just outside of the door.

"I'll get it." Rodger said as he got up and made his way to the door. He stopped a couple inches in front of it and raised his hand. He hesitated for a few seconds, and drew in a deep breath. The african-american squeezed his hand around the doorknob, turned it, and opened it up. He was greeted with the sight of two worried parents. The wife, he could tell, had done some crying. Her eyes had a reddish coloration to them. The husband seemed to be better composed, but he had a downcast look in his eyes which told him he was very upset too. "Hello, Mr. and Ms. Caruso." He greeted them solemnly. "Please, come on." He stepped aside and held his free hand out straight, a signal for them to come inside.

Max made his way up the stairs at a slow but steady pace. He noticed that the top of the staircase, usually illuminated by the computers that were arranged up in the top floor, was mostly dark, with the occasional brief lighting. He gave a sigh as he recalled what Moynihan had told him took place up here. It was a bit eerie to think that, just a few days ago, everything in this place was pretty much normal. Well normal by Dino Squad standards anyway. It was just a few days ago when Caruso and Buzz had that fight over a picture.

He winced a little. Thinking about Caruso right now seemed to hurt him. He had never gotten a chance to talk to Caruso about earlier. While he had apologized, he never truly settled things with the boy. Now it seems like that chance was snatched away from him. Irwin was now with Victor, and now they don't know where his location is. Max clenched his teeth at the thought of losing his best friend.

He was so preoccupied with his own guilt he failed to notice he had reached the top of the staircase. He lifted up his foot too high, expecting another step to be there. The miscalculation caused him to trip, and he fell to the ground. "Ow!" He moaned as his chin slammed into the hard surface. He put his hands flat on the ground, like he would if he was doing sit-ups, and pushed himself off the ground, shaking his head a few times, and slowly rose onto his feet. He placed his hand on his chin and rubbed it gingerly. "That's gonna leave a mark." He murmured.

He opened up his eyes, and gasped at the sight that lay before him.

The computers were all smashed, broken and torn open. They lay on the floor, the monitors smashed open. He could see smoke still rising from the wreckage. The scent got into Max's nose, and he wrinkled his nostrils in disgust. Sparks were still shooting out, though harmless, from many openings in the computers. The place was just a mess. There was no terminal left undamaged. Even Moynihan's laptop computer lay broken up on the ground.

Max could hear the sizzling sound of the sparks as they kept shooting outward. He looked the room over once more. The biggest damage was from the computers, but much of the other parts of the room seemed in tact, such as the couch that was up against a large window. Max could visualize himself and his friends on that couch, chatting about something to pass the time, or telling jokes, just having a good time. He smiled softly at the memory. It felt good to have his mind on something else for a while. It caused a feeling of happiness rise up inside of him. He started to talk towards the couch, but he didn't take more than three steps before his foot caught on something and he nearly fell again.

But this time he caught himself, flailing his arms quickly to catch his balance. "Whoa!" He shouted before his body finally found its balance again, and he was able to relax. "Now what did I trip on...?" He gazed down to find just what his foot got caught on, and noticed something long and wooden. "Ms. Moynihan's cane!" He knelt down and gripped it.

Looking it over, he couldn't see anything wrong with it. No bite marks, no scratch marks, no blood stains. He held it in his hands and started to walk back to the staircase when something else caught his eye. He knelt down at a spot parallel to where he found the cane. There was something on the ground, but he couldn't tell what it was at first. It looked rather dark in color, some sort of splotch on the ground. And it wasn't the only one. Around it were a couple more. There wasn't a large pile, so it didn't alarm Maxwell, but it still was unexpected.

As he examined closer, he could see that there was a tinge of red in the blackness of the small spots on the ground. He then realized the blood most likely came from Moynihan during her struggle with Michelle. Moynihan did say Michelle had bitten her on the ankle and pulled her off. It was obvious that Michelle did not need to bite too hard nor needed too much strength. There was little to no wound left behind and the bleeding stopped pretty quickly it seems.

"I better not keep her waiting." He told himself. He forgot about the blood on the ground, and forgot about the computers. He made his way back to the staircase, and began to descend down the steps, where he knew Ms. Moynihan would be waiting for him.

In the several minutes that had passed since Victor had left the room and returned to the front seat, things were eerily silent in the Raptor Dyne SUV. Victor hadn't said anything about what was bothering him, but Michelle and Oscura were sure it had to do with Caruso. Michelle wasn't surprised. She had witnessed some of Caruso's behavior first-hand, and he does seem like the kind of person who would say things just to get on one's nerves. The brat must've made a wise-crack comment at Victor and that's why the multi-billionaire was steamed.

"I wonder what got him so steamed." Oscura asked again, not being the first time she stated this question.

"I already told you." Michelle groaned. "It's because of Caruso."

"And how do you know?" Oscura inquired. While she did agree that it had to do with Caruso, she decided to act like she didn't understand, just to get on Michelle's nerves a bit. She liked annoying her partner.

"Because he seems like someone who likes to get on other people's nerves. He probably made some stupid comment back in there, and Victor overreacted to it." Michelle explained as she eyed Victor nervously. She didn't want him to hear her.

Oscura chuckled, shrugging off Michelle's idea like it were a leaf on her shoulder. "Well even if Caruso did say something stupid, Victor would ensure he never do that again. Sooner or later, Caruso will regret his words." It was true. Victor didn't tolerate much, if any, mocking comments about himself or about dinosaurs in general. Especially Velociraptors, he's more protective of that race than any other dinosaurs. That makes sense. He is, after all, a Velociraptor himself.

"So very true. For his own sake, that Caruso kid had better watch his yap." Michelle noted, slowly turning her gaze to the door that held Caruso inside. "Who knows what Victor will do to him if he keeps up that attitude."

"Oh who cares?" Oscura rolled her eyes. Oscura wasn't the type to be really concerned about anyone but herself. She didn't really care what Victor did to the boy. It's his own business anyway. "Caruso should consider himself lucky I'm following Victor's orders anyway. I'm not allowed to harm the boy." She gave Michelle a strange look. "But trust me, if I had total freedom, I'd do a number on that boy, just for the heck of it."

"Heh." That was typical Oscura, Michelle thought. "Well I honestly hope he keeps himself out of trouble."

"And why would you care?" Oscura narrowed her eyes. "Are you actually concerned about him? You barely even know him!" Her voice sounded like a combination of accusation, a bit of confusion, but mostly anger.

"No! No, of course not!" Michelle said defensively, on her feet and hands formed into fists. "I don't care about him! I'm just worried that he might cause Victor to waste too much time and energy on him, that's all." Michelle started to make her way towards the door, not wanting to hear another wise crack from Oscura. There were days she could tolerate Oscura's attitude, and some days when she just couldn't. And today was one of those days. Oscura always knew what to say to get on another's nerves. That reminded her of what she's seen so far of Caruso.

For a brief moment, she wondered if the two were, in fact, related. She laughed at the idea. If she found out this to be true, she'd never let either of them live it down. Oh if only she had a camcorder if it were true! It would be a Kodak moment! Maybe she could even upload the footage on the internet to further their humiliation. She grinned evilly at the thought. This would be her payback to those two idiots. They would be begging for her mercy.

Oscura didn't say anything. She was finally growing a bit weary from pestering Michelle this time around. She was more interested in pestering Caruso. Only Victor's orders kept her at bay. She wondered how long Caruso was going to last in the laboratory. She wondered how long he could endure the experiments that were going to be conducted on him. Their results would prove vital for Victor's quest. She admired Victor ever since she was younger. Even before she had known he was a dinosaur, she thought he was cute looking.

Her crush on Victor was just a bit of puppy love, minor. She had no real desire to marry him; she thought that would be weird. But she still liked being around him. Back at home, she didn't really talk to anyone. She didn't have a real hatred towards them. She just didn't feel all that close to them. They did know of where Oscura goes during the day, and did not really object to it. Oscura didn't know if it was because they trusted Victor or because they didn't care if she was around or not. She closed her eyes. Being around Victor and causing havoc were the only things that made her feel happy.

She opened up her eyes and saw that Michelle had reached the door that lead into Caruso's little prison. Her eyes narrowing, she pondered what Michelle was going to do in there. She was probably just going to have a quick chat with the boy, or perhaps bring him more food. She didn't see the reason to that though. The teen must have eaten not too long ago. Unless he had a big appetite, he shouldn't be hungry already. She decided to ask anyway. She saw no harm in it. "Michelle, what are you doing?"

Michelle groaned. She was hoping to enter the room without being disturbed. She glanced in Oscura's direction with an annoyed look on her face. "Well if you really have to know, Oscura, I'm just going to check up on Caruso."

"Heheheh. Worried about your little boyfriend?" Oscura sneered, not able to resist a taunting retort.

"He is not my boyfriend!" Michelle snapped, her eyes showing the slightest hint of a glow.

Oscura only shrugged at this statement. "With the way you're acting, it almost seems like you consider him your boyfriend."

"Oooh!" Michelle moaned, but said nothing more. She turned around swiftly and held up her hand to grab the door knob. She would have grabbed it had it not been for Victor's voice that suddenly shouted from the front of the vehicle.

"DON'T EVEN THINK OF GOING BACK HERE! LET THE LITTLE BRAT BE ALONE!" Victor said in a cold tone. The shout caused a tingle to go up Michelle's spine. Just what had Caruso said to piss Victor off so much? The tone of Victor's voice scared her. She almost never sees Victor this upset. And whenever she does, she wishes she hadn't. She was grateful that Victor didn't show up in person this time. She was grateful that his head was turned and she was facing the door. She gulped, and slowly lowered her arm and backed away.

She turned to her sitting position near Oscura. Exhaling deeply, she leaned against the wall and lowered herself slowly to the ground. She placed her head on her hands and looked to the ground, unsure of what to do now other than wait for them to reach their destination.

"Awww... is poor wittle Michelle thinking about her poor wittle boyfriend?" Oscura teased.

"Shut up!" Michelle yelled. "He's not my boyfriend!"

"Ooo so scary..." Oscura mockingly said. Michelle groaned, but didn't say anything.

Caruso was leaning against the wall of his cage, his legs crossed and his arms resting on his thighs. His head was bowed, looking at the ground. He was deep in thought. Just moments ago, before he had pissed off Victor, the Velociraptor had, for whatever reason, brought up Ms. Moynihan, and had asked a few questions about her. He didn't know if Victor was actually being serious or not. He wasn't sure if Victor really wanted him to answer those questions.

Victor was asking things like how Moynihan was doing, what has she been doing at the school, how does she train them, how she managed to interfere with him for so long without getting caught, and other questions as well. Caruso hadn't answered them, and he wondered if that could have contributed to Victor becoming upset. No, that wasn't it, he knew. It was something he had said to Victor after all the questions were asked. It was a question rather than a statement, though. He had asked Victor why he had broken Ms. Moynihan's ankle. In spite of being told from Moynihan herself, he had asked Victor himself why he did that.

Victor looked pretty angry at the question. Caruso wasn't sure if it was because he had asked, or if it was because Victor was upset that Moynihan had told someone about it. Victor hadn't actually responded to him. Instead he had just groaned, looking a bit steamed, and stormed out of the room. The response wasn't what he was expecting and took him by surprise. Victor wasn't the type to just become angry like that. In this encounters with the crazy raptor, he had rarely shown true anger. Then again the encounters with Victor in the past were brief and seldom. Perhaps there was a side of Victor he hadn't seen yet, or so little of.

Then his thoughts drifted away from Victor and to Moynihan herself. To this day, he didn't really understand how Ms. Moynihan could ever have been involved with Victor. He didn't really know what she did when she used to be Victor's partner. Moynihan didn't really discuss this topic that much, and he was sure he would not get any answers from Victor. He seems a bit hostile towards Moynihan, and has long considered her a traitor, from what the Dino Squad's mentor had told Caruso. And yet there seemed to be a somewhat longing look in his eyes, like he wants Moynihan back. But Caruso knew the old woman would never rejoin Victor.

And that got him thinking. Just what had Moynihan done to betray Victor? Join the humans yes, but he didn't think that was the cataclysm. If Moynihan had once agreed with Victor, what made her disagree with him? What turned her against him? Caruso wondered if he should ask Victor, but shook that thought out of his mind as he recalled Victor's reaction to his earlier question. He didn't really know why he felt compelled to ask these questions, though. Was he feeling doubt about his mentor?

No, that couldn't be it. Caruso trusted Moynihan, as well as the Dino Squad. He didn't see much reason to be suspicious of them. And yet he can't shake off the feelings he endured when he first acquired his dinosaur genes, before he learned to control them, and before there was any Dino Squad. He and the others had gone to Moynihan's classroom after school after they had failed their tide pool assignment. Ms. Moynihan wasn't too thrilled with them when she learned they weren't acting like a team at all, and wanted to talk to them about it.

And that's when the old woman found out they had dinosaur DNA in their blood. She had witnessed their bodies spontaneously transforming, showing a bit of the dinosaur that was now inside of them all. And when she confronted them about it, they quickly tried to hide it. But they couldn't fool Ms. Moynihan. Caruso was worried about what she was going to say, but instead of freaking out or reporting them, Ms. Moynihan seemed very understanding, and knew what was going on. She was willing to open up to them and reveal to them the truth about herself.

That must have taken a lot of guts, Caruso thought. The female raptor had probably kept her secret safe from all humans for so long. He didn't know what exactly compelled her to tell them the truth. Was it because she wanted to protect them from Victor? If they hadn't gone to Ms. Moynihan that night and never gotten control of their powers, Victor would have spotted them quickly and taken them to his lab.

But one thing had bothered Caruso back then. He had felt quite uneasy when Moynihan had revealed that she was a Velociraptor. He remembered the feeling of terror he had when he found out. He had packed away from her, and accused her of being a vicious carnivore. He felt a little calmer when she assured him she evolved beyond that a long time ago, but it took a little time before he felt calm around her again. It was hard to imagine Moynihan once being this vicious predator of the Cretaceous period. She certainly didn't act like he would think a Velociraptor would.

He gazed up at the barred window again. He didn't know what was compelling him to keep looking there. Maybe it was because it was his only view of the outside world now. Maybe it was because he felt a tinge of hope every time he looked there. He began to wonder what was going on at the lighthouse right now. He couldn't stop thinking about his friends, family, and mentor for very long. They kept returning to his thoughts. He sighed softly. "I wonder if they have a plan yet." He whispered to himself.

He was confident his friends would find them. They would figure out a plan soon and come rescue him. That he was sure of. But he also wondered if Victor had been right. Maybe his friends would never find him until Victor wants him to be found. They didn't know where his secret lair was anyway. Ms. Moynihan might know, but what if he had relocated since their broken partnership? Or what if there was no secret lair when they were partners? If so, then Moynihan would have no knowledge of any secret locations anywhere, at least when it comes to Victor.

Caruso suddenly felt a little sleepy. His eyelids began to droop, and it was becoming difficult to keep them open. His vision was a bit blurry now, and his mind was becoming foggy. He glanced down at the tray, where the sandwich once was and were the drink still sits. He began to wonder if he had been drugged, or if the stress of all this was causing him to become sleepy. But he didn't have long to think. He slumped onto the floor and closed his eyes, succumbing to the darkness.

Above Caruso's cage, where it was hidden from his view, there was a small vent. It was usually closed with three thick bars straight across, but now they had opened up. A very light gray, almost invisible, smoke seeped through and spread around the room. The gas had traveled along a small network of thin pipes running in the structure of the truck, although its true source is unknown. The cloudy gas continued to fill the room. Finally the vents had closed up tightly, and any new gas couldn't get through. But whatever had gotten into the room, it still lingered in the air.

Up in the front of the Raptor Dyne SUV, Victor had his finger pressed tightly against one of the buttons, a small green one. He slowly lifted up his finger, and leaned back in his chair. "That should keep him quiet for the rest of the trip." He said to no one in particular, though his driver had heard him loud and clear. The man at the wheel didn't bother to look over at Victor, instead just keeping his eye on the road, hands gripping the wheel gently but firmly.

"Mr. Veloci," he said in a polite tone, "I don't want to question your methods, but why did you see it necessary to tranquilize the kid? He can't see where he is back there."

"Why do you question me, Peter?" Veloci asked.

Sitting next to him in the driver's seat was Peter. He had joined the team the same day that the perfect dinosaurs had first appeared. He showed a lot of great potential and had been working for Victor for a few years in his pseudo-company before Victor trusted him enough to let him in on his true goals. Peter wasn't a man of violence, and was at first unwilling to accept the truth of his employer. But Victor had quickly gotten the man to change his mind when he promised him power, and had also promised that he wouldn't hurt his family.

But the true motivation of Peter to change sides was the hope of revenge. At his previous job, Peter had been a scientist, working with another company similar to Raptor Dyne, although this company was more focused on speeding up the process of evolution itself rather than reversing it. He was the head scientist there, and had impressed his old employers time and again, until one little slip up got him fired. He had accidentally caused a fire in the laboratory, and as a result a few employees were killed. Despite his best efforts to keep his job, the company no longer wanted him, and he was thrown out into the streets.

It was Victor who had quickly found him. Having heard of him and his work, he took him into his company, Raptor Dyne. After being told the truth, and growing used to the idea, Peter decided he could use this to his advantage and take revenge on the employers who had him fired. While he admitted it seemed a little silly for him to still be upset about that, since it happened almost five years ago, he still held a vendetta against that company.

Victor had given Peter some experimental DNA. It was swimming with Peter's nanobots, which were designed to alter the DNA pattern of any living creature it was inserted into. It did not harm the host, but did change its appearance as amino acids were altered and transformed. The small amount that was in the syringe, as Victor had told him sometime afterward, contained the only amount of perfect DNA he had. When Peter asked him why he didn't just use that amount to mass produce the perfected DNA, Victor said that he did not know the DNA was perfected until after it was injected, and efforts to repeat the process were unsuccessful.

Peter had learned that he was the only adult employee of Vic's who could transform into a dinosaur, at least at the time. But he had been forbidden to use that technique because Victor was not sure of the effects the nanobots may have. His fear was that they would take control of Peter's mind and cause him to run amuck and destroy precious equipment or cause unnecessary destruction that could be tied to his company. And the last thing Victor really needed was getting sued by a multitude of people, which would drain his company's money reserve and slow him down.

"I'm sorry, sir." Peter said. "I just don't really understand the purpose of silencing him. He can't call anyone, and it's not like he can climb out of the cage and out the window..."

"You just concentrate on driving, and leave the scheming to me." Victor said, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Yes sir." Peter had said nervously, gripping the wheel a little tighter.

Peter's dinosaur form would come in handy though, Victor thought to himself as he sensed they were getting close to his company's secret hideout. After he obtained a sample, he discovered that Peter had the perfect DNA pattern of a large sauropod, an Apatosaurus to be exact. Sauropod DNA, for unknown reasons, were among some of the most difficult to duplicate. Victor had not yet been able to reproduce this DNA, must to his frustration.

An Apatosaurus would be more than a match for the perfect dinosaurs that keep getting in his way. Sauropods were among the largest of all dinosaurs, and even the mighty T-Rex would succumb to their power. He had considered allowing Peter to transform to face off with the Dino Squad, but thought better of it. While the rewards were satisfactory, the risks were still enormous and he just couldn't risk it yet. He hadn't helped Peter gain control of the beast within him because he wasn't sure if he actually needed any help. Peter had never transformed, and Victor didn't want to take the chance of him transforming and going wild.

But still... perhaps he could take that risk, if Peter were to be located far away from Raptor Dyne and any of his other employers. The pesky Dino Squad would probably be on his trail soon anyway. They were probably making a plot right now to take back their friend. And the lighthouse still posed a threat to his mission. The destruction of the equipment was temporary of course. They could get new equipment at anytime. The only way to ensure that would never happen was to destroy the lighthouse completely.

And that's where Peter could come in.

"Peter..." Veloci spoke up, his eyes transforming to that of a raptor's.

"Y-Yes sir?" Peter asked nervously, unsure of what to expect.

"Why don't you stop the truck for a minute?" Victor ordered softly, eyeing the side of the road.

Peter did as he was asked, pulling the car up to the side of the road. He pulled the stick down to Park and lifted his foot off the pedal. He turned to face Victor, and pulled off his Raptor Dyne mask. Underneath was the face of a young man, about as handsome as Victor. He had a beard stereotypical of that of an Italian artist. His hear was short and smooth, a rich dark black with a single reddish stripe down the middle. At first glance it would almost seem like he and Victor were brothers, or related in some other way.

"So..why did you want me to stop?" Peter asked, an eyebrow cocked up a little.

"Why don't you pay the lighthouse a visit..as a dinosaur?" Victor asked, but Peter knew it was an order, and he did not have a choice in the matter.

"What...?" Peter asked, a bit stunned. "But..I thought I wasn't allowed to transform. You said there could be dire consequences if..."

"I know what I said. But the lighthouse remains a threat, and it must be destroyed. And you just might be the man..or dinosaur in this case, to pull off that job." Victor responded, cutting off Peter before he could finish. "Yes there is a risk involved, but the chance of destroying Joanne's little hideout and ensuring my victory is worth it."

Peter blinked a few times, wondering if he was hearing Victor correctly. He wondered, briefly, what was compelling Victor to go against his own advice. And the way he was saying that there was a risk involved, and the possible result of victory being worth it, he quickly wondered if Victor was sacrificing him. But that thought was shook out of his mind. Victor wasn't the type to needlessly sacrifice his own men if they served a special purpose to Raptor Dyne.

"Understood, Veloci." Peter finally responded. "But who's gonna..." He eyed the wheel of the vehicle. He needn't continue for Victor to know what the rest of the question was going to say.

"I'll drive." Victor said to him. "Only return back to Raptor Dyne when you are successful."

Peter stepped out of the vehicle and Victor quickly climbed into the drive's seat. Peter quickly realized he had no mode of transportation. He held up a finger at Veloci, a gesture, characteristic of humans, that meant 'Hold on!'. Victor's hand was gripping the handle on the door, but he held it in place, waiting patiently for Victor to say something.

"I have no mode of transportation..." Peter explained. "How am I supposed to get to the lighthouse?"

Dr. Veloci just smiled. "Why not give your dinosaur form a test drive?" He slammed the door shut and pressed his foot on the accelerator, having pushed the stick back up to Drive. The vehicle picked up speed quickly, screeching as it went back into the lane it was in previously and continued down the road to where Raptor Dyne was.

Peter slumped his shoulders and sighed. Looks like he was going to have to walk all the way back there. He turned in the direction where they had just come from. They had been driving for a considerable amount of time, and the lighthouse was far behind them. He couldn't even see the shoreline from here. But he did know the area well, and knew what roads to take. Walking as a human would take days. He would ultimately fail in his task this way. By then the Dino Squad would have recovered enough to find Victor.

Peter had not encountered the Dino Squad that much. But he had heard stories about them, and what they were capable of. Some of his comrades described to them how these perfect dinosaurs seemed to have a human level of intelligence. At first, Peter only laughed it off. But his mind was slowly changed after the incident in the park, after the primordial ooze rain had failed. A close friend of Peter's had been on that team that hunted the dinosaurs, and he was amazed at his friend's description of what happened. The way the dinosaurs had avoided the traps, and tricked the ground team like that, it could only have been possible if they were very intelligent. After all, normal dinosaurs would have been pretty easy to catch, considering their puny brain size.

Peter hesitated in transforming. He felt a bit concerned of what would happen when his body, and brain, transformed. Would he still be himself? Would he still have his own memories, his own thoughts? Or would they, too, be altered as he changed form? Perhaps he would become dinosaur one hundred percent, in both mind and body. And if that happened, there was little hope of him changing back. He doubt Victor would create an antidote for his experimental DNA.

He gulped once, knowing that time was of the essence. "Okay..here goes nothing." He said, and he concentrated on his dinosaur form. He closed his eyes tightly for a few seconds, then snapped them open, revealing a yellow iris with lizard-like pupils. The eyes started to glow as Peter's body was overtaken by a bluish glow. His body rapidly grew in height as his clothes dematerialized. His hands and feet soon resembled that of an elephant's, but lacking any evidence of hair. A long tail appeared from behind, stretching out several feet. His neck stretched so much he almost looked like a giraffe. His back teeth disappeared and his incisors stretched to resemble pegs.

When he had finished, he had become an Apatosaurus, solid gray in color. He could easily tower over the largest of T-Rexes. His massive body stretched over seventy feet in length, and he easily tipped the scale at over twenty-two metric tons. He raised his elongated neck to look over the horizon. He still couldn't see the lighthouse, but nevertheless, without fear, he began to walk towards the lighthouse. Despite his huge size, Peter's strides were much longer now, covering a distance of a few yards in just one step. He would reach the lighthouse soon, he sensed. And when he got there, the fun would begin.

'I just hope I do not fail.' Peter thought to himself, a dread filling his mind. He knew he must succeed, or never return.

A few hours passed by. In the lighthouse, Jack was still helping Rodger and Fiona with building a tracking device to help locate Victor, and more importantly, their son. Max was busy talking with Amanda, trying to calm her down. Buzz was tending to Rump and Moynihan's wounds. He wasn't much of an expert on how to treat an injury, but he at least knew how to change the bandages, under Rodger's previous guidance. Max had come down earlier with Moynihan's cane and handed it to her. The woman had used the cane to help her walk around a little, but even with the support of the cane, it was still painful to walk. The swelling gone down slightly, though, so that was a bit of good news.

Moynihan lay seated again, but this time in her recliner. This is where she would usually do her knitting, but today she wasn't in the mood. Her knitting equipment was next to her, but she paid it no mind. Her attention was focused on the table in front of her. On it where some computer equipment, and sitting in the chairs were Rodger, Fiona, and Jack. They were busy putting together a whole new computer from scratch. They had been working on it for an hour now, and they looked like they were almost done.

"There." Jack said, wiping his brow. "It's finished." He put his hands on the table and pushed himself back to get out of his seat.

"But the question is, will it work?" Fiona said, eyeing the computer. It was smaller than most she'd grown accustomed to. It was a mixture of black and light gray parts and the monitor was slightly cracked but still functional. There was a small keyboard attached to it and a square mouse, reminiscent of the old computers from the 80's.

"I'm sure it will." Jack said with confidence in his voice.

"Mr. Caruso is right, Fiona. This computer may not look like much, but it has enough processing power and capabilities to find Caruso. All we need to do is turn it on..." Rodger said as he hovered his finger near the power button.

"But what if it doesn't?" Fiona said, feeling worried. "We weren't able to get new or up-to-date parts from that store. Maybe we should have actually gone to a computer store to get new parts."

"But we already told you, Ms. Moynihan was not able to spare enough money for us to get any computer in Computer King." Rodger pointed out. "And the only other store nearby was that pawn shop. We were lucky they were having a special on computer parts."

"Yeah, from, like, a million years ago." Fiona said as she held up a rusted piece of metal in disgust. "Most of this belongs in the garbage."

"Well, here goes nothing." Rodger said, and he pushed the button. Everyone else watched in anticipation. They were hoping the screen would light up, and from there be able to show them where Victor is currently heading. They heard the computer's gears starting to whir to life. The screen started to glow, faintly, but still a glow, and white text started to appear on the screen.

"It's working!" Max said, grinning happily.

"Yes!" Rodger exclaimed. "I knew it was going to work!" Jack smiled, impressed with Rodger and Fiona's ingenuity. He glanced over at his wife, and smiled as her eyes were filled with newfound hope. Ms. Moynihan hadn't gotten up from her seat to get a better view, but she was excited all the same. She waited patiently for the computer to start doing its job, as was everyone else.

But then, just as things were starting to look up, something was going terribly wrong. A weird beeping sound sounded out from the computer, and smoke started to emerge from the back of the monitor. Sparks started to fly out through the tiny cracks in the monitor as the screen started to wobble and sizzle, displaying an array of colors and numbers.

Rodger's eyes widened in horror. "No..please..no!" He tried to turn the computer off, but when he pushed the button an electrical shock caught him off guard. "Yeow!" He screamed as he pulled his finger back, clutching it to his chest.

The computer's beeping sound grew louder, and the monitor started to crack a bit more. The monitor continued to display numbers and colors, flashing even faster now. Then just when they thought it was going to explode, the computer just died, the screen disappearing in the flash of a bright light, and the crackling slowly stopped. Jack quickly sat back in, pulling the computer towards him and frantically pushing the buttons to try to turn it on again, but no dice. The computer had just overheated and died right in front of them.

"No...no..." Amanda whispered, holding her hands to her mouth in dread.

"Not now! We were so close!" Fiona said, dismayed at the site of the smoke billowing from the ruined computer.

Jack closely examined the computer and quickly discovered the problem. "Darn it!" He cursed, clutching his fist into a hand. "We forgot to put in the fan in the monitor! No wonder it overheated quickly and blew!" He dug his fingers into the skin of his head in frustration, gritting his teeth. They were back to square one again.

Ms. Moynihan bowed her head slightly in despair. Their attempt at locating Caruso had failed. The computer had quickly ceased to function due to a simple error. Moynihan, sadly, didn't have any extra spare money to give them anymore. Getting more parts was out of the question. And the computers upstairs were damaged beyond repair. Max had gotten a better look at them. While he was no computer technician, what he described seemed to tell Moynihan repairing them was hopeless. Every method of tracking was now lost, either destroyed or non-functioning.

Rodger was hunched over the table. The same furious look he got when his friends laughed at him when the project failed was back. His fists were squeezed tightly, and the muscles in his arms tensed up. He let out a disgruntled groan of frustration, and suddenly raised his arms in the air and slammed them hard on the table. The force of the slam made a sound loud enough to startle everyone in the room.

Moynihan let out a sharp startled gasp at Rodger's behavior. "Rodger!" She exclaimed. "What did you do that for?" She couldn't believe that Rodger would do such a thing. Well she shouldn't be surprised, she thought. Rodger must have felt like a failure.

"It's just not fair!" Rodger yelled, ignoring Moynihan's question. "This should have worked!"

Max walked slowly over to his huge friend. Tentatively, he placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to help calm him down. "Hey, Rodg, calm down will you? It's not your fault..." But Rodger shoved his hand away, but didn't bother turning around to look at Max in the eyes. "Rodger..."

Amanda made her way towards her husband. She was fighting to hold back her tears. She knew she had to try to be stronger, like her husband. She slowly grabbed his hand, and squeezed it gently. He squeezed it in return, and draped an arm around her as they watched the unsettling scene of Rodger blaming himself and Max trying to snap him out of it. Her eyes lingered on the computer, their one hope of locating Caruso, still billowing out gray smoke. She coughed a few times as the smoke began to fill the room.

"Open up the windows!" Moynihan ordered, the smoke having reached her. She covered her mouth and coughed a few times.

Fiona, having pulled the collar of her shirt over her nose to protect herself from the smoke, dashed towards one of the windows and quickly pulled it open. Buzz did likewise, and rushed to another window and quickly pulled it up. A wind rushed into the room through the window Buzz had just opened up, and caused the smoke to head towards the window Fiona had opened. As the smoke exited the lighthouse and the air became cleaner, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Phew! That's better..." Buzz said.

Ms. Moynihan took in a deep breath. "Yes. But I fear that we aren't out of the woods yet."

"What makes you say that?" Buzz asked, his hand held out in a gesture of confusion. He felt Fiona poking him on the shoulder. As he turned to her, she quickly pointed a finger at the smoking computer. Smoke was still rising from it, and it didn't take a genius to realize there was a real fire danger. The sparks that were shooting out could easily catch the table, or the floor, on fire. "Oh, right." He said.

"We can't move it out now." Jack said, slowly shaking his head. "It's too hot. If we were to try to move it, we would burn our hands."

"But if we don't move it, Mr. Caruso," Moynihan said sternly, "that computer could catch the table on fire. Now you don't want that to happen, now do you?"

Max nodded, acknowledging Moynihan's words. But he knew Caruso's father had a point. How were they going to get this stuff outside without burning themselves, or accidentally dropping it to the floor and causing a fire? He wasn't sure how Moynihan expected them to pull off the task. Perhaps if they quickly got a fire extinguisher...no. That wouldn't do. The fire extinguishers were located on another floor. Suppose that he got them too late, and a fire started rage in the lighthouse? He could still put out the fire, but so much would be damaged. And with Moynihan still unable to walk on her own, he couldn't afford to let even a spark light up.

Joanne seemed to sense the dilemma, and spoke up. "Might I make a suggestion, Max?" The jock turned to her. "Why not use your T-Rex arms?" When he looked at her in confusion she smiled. "I thought you would get that reaction. Don't worry, it's safe."

"How do you know?" Jack asked, narrowing his eyes at the sparkling, destroyed computer. "Wouldn't he still burn his hands?"

"Yeah...reptiles are susceptible to fire, just like the rest of us." Rodger spoke up, though the sound of his voice suggested he was still not in a chipper mood. Then again, no one in the room was.

"Tyrannosaurs lived in extremely hot places." Moynihan explained to everyone. She attempted to sit up in the chair, and began to explain further. She mentally wished that she had mentioned this advantage earlier. "The regions they lived in were often hot and dry, and fires could start easily. To adapt to this, Tyrannosaurus Rex developed a strong hide, with scales that were far more resistant to fire than modern reptiles are now. It takes a lot more heat to burn a T-Rex."

She glanced around the room, looking at the expressions on everyone's faces as she was telling them this. They seemed rather surprised, just what she was expecting. The old woman wondered why she never mentioned this before. Maybe it was because it never crossed her mind. She never thought they would be in a situation like this, the possibility of a real fire.

"So...why haven't you told us this before?" Max asked, slowly narrowing his eyes at his mentor. Moynihan flinched very slightly at this. Max had never looked at her that way before. She could feel the guilt in her rising. "Were you just going to keep it a secret until a real fire started or something?" His voice was straining not to sound accusatory, but Max felt he had failed in doing so. He saw Moynihan bow her head, and not responding to his question. The jock let out a small sigh, starting to feel a bit guilty himself.

"Dude, don't be too hard on her." Buzz said to Max.

"I'm not..." Max said with a slight defiant tone in his voice. He quickly realized this, and let his arms fall to his sides. He turned to Ms. Moynihan. "I'm sorry if I sounded like I was accusing you, Ms. M." He didn't want to start another fight, like he had with Irwin Caruso. The jock walked up to Ms. Moynihan and stood a few inches in front of her. He gazed down at her, a softened expression on his face. He knew the old woman cared about them. He knew she wouldn't do anything if she thought it would get themselves in trouble. "I'm just..surprised you hadn't mentioned this ability beforehand."

"Oh it's quite alright, Maxwell." Joanne said as she slowly turned her head up to look at the young teen standing before her. She offered a small smile, an attempt to hide her true emotion inside. But her eyes gave that away. She was still feeling rather guilty, even though she knew she didn't have to feel that way. No one was really angry at her for not saying something earlier. No one was accusing her of hiding a vital secret. No one was calling her a traitor. Then again, why would anyone consider her a traitor? She had never done anything to warrant such a suspicion. She couldn't help but laugh to herself. "I hadn't said anything before because I did not think that there would ever come a time when that ability would have been needed."

"But what about what you taught us before?" Max asked her gently, trying his best not to make her feel any worse than she already felt. "To expect the unexpected?"

"So very true..." Moynihan spoke softly, closing her eyes. She had ignored her own advice. "I'm sorry, Max." How could she have forgotten about that lesson that she had taught them? How could she go against her own advice?

"Oh it's quite all right, ma'am." Max said. He gave a friendly smile. "It's nothing to worry about. I..."

"Umm..Max?" He turned around to face Fiona. Fiona was giving him a worried look. Her gloved hand was pointing in the direction of the computer. "I know you're busy having a heart-to-heart with Moynihan and all..but.." She glanced at the smoking electronic. "Could you please do something about that?" The smoking had started to increase for some reason, and the sparks were shooting out at a more rapid pace.

Max slapped himself in the face. "Oh! Right!" The jock rushed over, feeling a bit stupid of having forgotten about this situation. He held out his arms as they started to grow and bulge. Green, tough scales spread across his arm from fingertip to shoulder. The muscles flexed and grew in size and his fingers fused to form three muscular fingers with talons growing out of the end of each one. He hesitating, his hands hovering above the wreckage. Then he gripped the computer in his hands, flinching as he expected the searing pain to come with touching something very hot. But to his surprise, he felt almost nothing. Moynihan was right.

He quickly picked up the smoking computer and started to head towards the door to the garage. He couldn't just simply toss it out of a window. The delicate grass outside could easily catch on fire, and they could become trapped inside. The garage would be a safer place. The metal floor couldn't catch on fire, and there was plenty of space inside that was vacant, with nothing close enough for the sparks to reach. He lifted up his foot and tried to kick the door open, but realized the door was still locked. The jock groaned in frustration. How was he going to get through now?

He then got an idea. Very carefully, he lifted up one of his feet and tried to level it in front of the door knob. As he transformed his foot into that of a T-Rex, he felt himself start to lose his balance. Quickly, he brought out his T-Rex tail and held it straight out in an attempt to balance himself. He then pressed a talon against a button on the door, and he heard it unlock. He slowly closed his foot around the doorknob, and turned it. Slowly placing his foot on the ground, he pushed the door open and walked inside. When he reached a satisfactory location in the garage, he set the smoking computer back and headed back into the room where the others were waiting.

As he re-entered the room, he noticed that Rodger was sitting on the couch now, with Fiona sitting next to him. Her hand was on his back. His head was resting on the palm of his hands. He still looked down, and Max sighed softly. He didn't understand why Rodger was suddenly feeling guilty. It wasn't his fault the computer blew. Wasn't it Jack who was putting the monitor together? Wait, was Max putting the blame on Caruso's own father? He shook the thought quickly out of his head. If there's one thing they did not need right now, it was the blame game.

"Rodger, you shouldn't blame yourself." Fiona said, trying to cheer up the african-american. "You did your best. That's what counts."

"I know that...but still..." Rodger said, his voice trailing off.

"But nothing, Rodger." Max said as he headed towards the couch. "Why are you blaming yourself for this?"

"I'm sorry guys. I guess I...I just wish I hadn't lost that handheld tracker a couple days back. If we had that, we could find Caruso..." A few days ago, Rodger had been working on the tracker, upgrading its GPS and installing other things on it as well. But he had dropped it somewhere in the lighthouse and that's how it had gone missing in the first place. But it wasn't a high priority at the time, so no desperate effort was put into finding its location. "If only I knew where I dropped it..."

"Oh that wasn't your fault." Max said, giving him a friendly smile. "We were all really busy that day, remember? We had little time to pack up and go to another area where primordial ooze was spotted." It was true. That same day, there was not one, but two areas that Moynihan's tracking system had picked up, containing the glowing ooze that obviously belonged to Raptor Dyne. It had happened to suddenly that Rodger literally had to drop what he was doing and rush to join the others. His mind was so focused on the mission he had forgotten exactly where he was when he was working on the handheld tracker.

"Yeah...I know." Rodger said, starting to feel a little better now. "But I still wish we knew where that tracker was."

"We all do, Rodger." Fiona said with an understanding tone. "We all do..."

"Where am I?!" Caruso cried. He looked frantically around the room. It was a bit large, with a reddish hue, but was very dark. He could barely see the walls around him before walking smack into one. He reeled back, holding his nose in pain. He could not remember how he came to be in this darkened room. The last thing he could remember was falling asleep in his cell. When he woke up, he could no longer see any bars around him, but instead was enclosed in a good-sized room with no obvious way out.

The room was a bit chilly, but still warm enough that he didn't need a jacket on, not that he even had one to begin with. Some weird smell hung in the air. It wasn't a necessarily bad smell, but it was unfamiliar to him. And that unfamiliarity scared him a bit. What if it's some sort of poison gas that seeped into the room?

"Hello?!" He called out again but getting no response. "Hello?!" He could have sworn he heard his voice reverberating off the sides of the walls. That was his only answer back to his cries. Realizing that no one was going to answer him, Irwin felt his way to a wall and put his back to it. He slid down to the floor, crossing his legs and holding his arms tightly to his chest. He began reflecting on how it all led up to this. It had all started with Michelle...

He knew she was trouble from the start, but the others didn't listen to his warnings. He was hurt, still hurt now, that they didn't listen to him, and didn't take him seriously. His own friends just bypassed his warnings without a second thought. If they had listened to him, maybe, just maybe, this chain of events would never have happened. Maybe he wouldn't be in this mess right now.

But then, it wasn't Michelle that had caused him to go outside today. No, it was Max. The words he had spoken to him still stung, even after all these hours had gone by. He hadn't been able to speak to Max about it either. And Caruso began to wonder if he ever will get the chance again to speak to Max, or any of his friends for that matter. From the feel of the walls, he judged that he wouldn't be able to break through them even in Stegosaurus mode. The only way he could get out is if someone opened up the door. But who would be stupid enough to do that.

Well his captors of course. If they wanted, or intended to, keep him alive. They would have to come in and give him something to eat and drink. Yes, someone would open up the door soon, and then he could bolt out, and be free from this place.

Then another thought crossed his mind. Would he even know where to go? He had no idea where he was, or how far they traveled, or even how long they've been traveling. And he was sure Victor wasn't going to tell him. Perfect, just perfect, Caruso cursed to himself. Even if he could get out, without a cellphone, there was no way to contact any one, and Victor could always just recapture him and place him in an even more secure room. And perhaps the situation could get worse after that. Victor could do something far worse.

But then again, what could a coward do? Victor was not as actively engaged in his work as his own men were. Caruso did not consider Victor, himself, to be much of a threat. How could he be? Caruso himself had never witnessed Victor transforming even once. He had heard from Buzz that Victor did transform when he was trying to box him into a corner, but that was only one time. In all their missions, Victor normally stayed on the sidelines, rarely getting up out of his seat to investigate anything. He certainly didn't go out of his way to track him and his friends down. He did not attempt to pursue them all the way to the lighthouse and nab one of them.

That is, until today...

"Why hello there." He heard a voice and turned around. A sliding door, opening up from the middle, slid open, and a tall, slender figure stepped into the room. Caruso squinted, trying to get a good look at the figure. It was hard to tell who it was in the darkness. Then the figure held up a hand, and pushed on something on the wall. Within seconds, a single row of fluorescent lights flickered on, illuminating the room. The light quickly enveloped the figure and revealed their identity. It was Victor! "Sleep well, I presume?"

Caruso quickly stood up and prepared to fight. "I told you I was going to show you how weak we humans are!" He declared before charging towards Victor. But he hardly took a few steps before something slammed into him. It looked like a blue energy with white streaks. It didn't cause much pain, but it did slam him against the wall he had been leaning on before. He felt himself falling to the ground with a loud thud. He looked up and saw Victor held some kind of weapon in his hands.

The weapon had the general appearance of the Chiller and Spiller. But this thing had a reddish coloration to it with black stripes. The gun itself had a more raptor-like appearance to it than the Chiller and Spiller. It appeared to fire a streak of blue and white energy at a low frequency and intensity. It didn't seemed to be designed to be a lethal weapon, and it didn't look effective enough for combat. Caruso wondered why Victor would have such a weak weapon in his possession.

"You like it?" Victor asked, smirking. He held up the weapon closer to himself as though he were going to examine it closer. "It's called the Killer, or at least it's going to be once all the kinks are worked out of it." He chuckled as he put the weapon away. "Consider yourself lucky I didn't test the completed model on you, hairless monkey."

"How is that thing going to kill anyone?" Caruso asked, ignoring his initial fear of what Veloci said seconds ago. "It didn't even cause much pain, let alone much damage."

"Excellent question, mammal." The Velociraptor-in-disguise proceeded in explaining why the weapon was going to be lethal once it was completed. "The Killer spews out a bluish white energy, as you have seen. It goes straight through the body of any living organism, passing through all cells. Once it is completed, the energy will disrupt cells and cause them to simply self destruct. And if aimed at the heart or brain, an instant kill."

Caruso winced, glancing nervously back at his chest, where the beam had previously struck him. He shuddered at the thought of seeing himself falling flat on the ground, lifeless, and having his friends finding him like that. "Oh man..." He managed to say involuntarily.

Victor heard this, and chuckled. "I knew you'd like it, boy..."

Caruso managed to put the fear of dying aside and glared at Victor. "Where am I...?"

"What does it matter? It's not like you are going to be leaving anytime soon." Victor noted as he turned back to the door. He was about to press the button, but stopped, his finger hovering inches in front of the switch. He thought about Caruso's question for a moment, and began to wonder if it really mattered if he told the boy or not. It wasn't like he was going anywhere anytime soon. "Well if you really must know, you're in a secured room in a warehouse close to Raptor Dyne." He pressed his finger against the button, but not enough to open up the sliding doors. "I have many untested, unfinished, and unsuccessful weapons stored here. Many from years ago. Some more recent."

Caruso looked around his room. The reddish color had come from the color of the walls themselves. They were coated in a red paint. But given the right light, it looked a lot more like...blood. "And you brought me here because..?"

Victor grinned. "Because, boy, you are going to help me..test out these weapons."

Caruso's eyes widened slightly as he realized what this had meant. Victor was going to use him as a guinea pig for his experiments! Victor couldn't possibly be expecting him to just sit still during all this, does he? He narrowed his eyes and took a few confident steps towards Victor. His eyes started to glow as if inviting him to a challenge. "And what makes you think I am going to cooperate? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just transform now and run you down like the coward you are?!" He snapped.

"Oh don't you worry, Little Caruso." Victor smirked evilly. "I know how to break you humans..."

Caruso flinched at the pet name Victor had just given him. But he still stood his ground, his feet planted firmly on the floor. He wasn't going to submit to Victor without a fight. And he was sure Victor knew that as well. "I am not afraid of you!" He declared in a brave tone of voice. "And I have no reason to be. After all, you are just a coward that hides behind a hundred men! Men..the very thing you hate so much. How pathetic..."

Victor's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

"I think I'm talking to a coward." Caruso jeered mockingly. "Someone who isn't dark enough to do his own dirty deeds! Someone who is so oblivious that he wouldn't be able to recognize a perfect dinosaur if it came and bit him on the nose!"

Victor's lips curled back in a snarl. Had he been a raptor when he did this, it would have appeared deathly threatening. "You have no idea what you are going to get yourself into, do you, Caruso?"

"Oh I know what I'm getting myself into." Caruso said, rolling his eyes. "And frankly, it doesn't scare me one bit. I know my friends will find me soon. They will bust me out of here. And they will chase your sorry tail to a land far, far away. And with your puny dinosaur brain, you probably wouldn't even be able to figure out a means of escape if it was staring at you right under your nose!"

"Oh my." Victor said, letting his anger slowly melt into a humored tone of voice. "Well I better not let happen, shall I?" It was a rhetorical question. He did not expect Caruso to answer him. But knowing the small child before him, he'd probably answer anyway. The youngster probably never learned what a rhetorical question was.

"Yes." Caruso answered him, his hands on his hips in proud defiance. "You should be careful, yellow belly."

Victor, who had his back turned to the boy, felt his eyes beginning to glow. But a quick shake of the head and they were back to normal. He chortled at the boy's comment, and simply ignored him. He pushed the button that opened up the door, and stepped out. Caruso, taking this opportunity to try to escape, made a mad dash to the door. His captor turned to face him, and lifted his arm, probably to press another button. Caruso tensed the muscles in his legs and lunged into the air, his arms outstretched. It was like he was playing football, and the door was the goalie. If he had timed his jump perfectly, he could just make it through the door, just maybe...

SLAM!

Caruso smacked right into the door. It had just shut, only a second before he had reached it. He was so close. He slid back onto the ground, held his hands to his face in pain. "Ow..." He would probably get a black eye from this. He gingerly rubbed his face and picked himself off the ground. He glared at the door, searching around it to find the button. Victor had pressed something to open it up, didn't he? He looked around the outer frame of the door, easily seen by the yellowish outline with black bars striping across it.

He finally spotted something that looked promising. It was in the shape of an outlet box, or a fuse box, like the kind he would see in his own house. This one was rather small, only about the size of a book. It had a metallic shine to it, and it was hinged by a few screws to the wall. But when he took a closer look, he could see that the box does open up. He could see a small opening, where he believed he put his finger and pry it open.

"Well well..." Caruso said in his usual cocky voice. "Looks like I'll be getting out of here sooner than I thought." He placed his hand on the box, curving his fingers over it. He placed his pointer finger in the hole, and then began to pull. The box seemed closed tightly. He pulled harder on it, gritting his teeth against the strain. But the little door wasn't budging. He gave one final tug, but his fingers slipped across the metal, and off the object, causing him to topple backward. His pointer had gotten caught on something, and scraped across the bottom.

"Ow!" Caruso cried, bringing his finger to his chest and looked at it. He could see the whitish streak typical of a scrape, and a few reddish spots. But he saw no steady flow of blood. He carefully flexed the finger to make sure it was all right. It hurt a little to move, but he was all right.

He glanced back at the door, confused as to why he couldn't open it up. "I don't get it.. Victor was able to do it. I mean so what if he's bigger and stronger..." He took a closer look at the box. He still couldn't find anything different about it, nothing that really caught his attention. The only thing he can think of is that the door locks from the inside. Victor hadn't left the door open up during his little visit, so how could he have gotten out? Only one thing could make sense: Victor had a switch on the outside that locked the door opener on his side.

"Figures..." Irwin muttered to himself. "Looks like I spoke too soon."

He put his back to the wall and supported his weight on one foot while he lifted the other and crossed it over his other leg. His arms folded, he frowned and closed his eyes, trying to think of what he should do. "Come on..think Caruso...Think! There's gotta be a way out of here..." Then inspiration struck him. "I know! I'll just go dino and nail him!"

No sooner had he said this did the door open up again. He snapped his head up, his eyes wide open, as the door slide open from the middle once more. Victor came inside, holding a handful of different gadgets in his hands. They all seemed to have been modeled after the carnivorous heads of different dinosaur species. But one in particular stood out among all the others. As Victor set the weapons on the ground, this one particular weapon remained in his hands. Two long daggers jetted out from one end, going down the sides of the musket. It lacked a reptilian look. Instead it looked more reminiscent of a mammal. The place where the nose would be was the opening where the energy or whatever would be shot out.

Victor held the weapon up, leveling it perfectly with Caruso. Caruso gulped quietly, and tried to step back, only to realize he was already up against the wall. He clenched his teeth as he prepared for the blow. Despite the size of the room, Victor had already got a lock on him, and his finger was on the trigger. He wouldn't be able to get out of the way even if he tried.