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...

18. Realization

Two weeks had gone by, although it felt like an eternity for some people, especially those who were either excited for something that was about to come, or, for the unlucky few, those anxious because of some hidden danger lurking in the shadows. Caruso had made a slow recovery, although he was not yet completely better. The pain had lessened some, but it was still agonizing in his mouth. Talking was still prohibited for fear that he might reopen the wounds inside. Caruso's parents had decided against a hospital stay for fear of the doctors discovering his dinosaur DNA. To make up for not being able to take him to get professional help, Amanda and Jack, along with the Dino Squad, had helped treat Caruso's injuries more, to the best of their ability.

The smaller cuts had disappeared completely and there was no signs of them left. Some of the cuts on his face had disappeared as well. But the majority of the cuts on his face, particularly ones on his cheeks, remained. The scab of dead skin that sealed the wounds shut was still present, and if Caruso pressed his hand against them, he would flinch in pain. Everyone became concerned that these wounds would not heal properly, leaving Caruso with visual reminders of what had happened to him. And no one was more frightened of this than Caruso himself. For someone whose dream is to become famous and rich, having these ugly scars ruining their faces was torture. Caruso was still interested in achieving his dream, but he feared he would never be able to realize his full potential. Who would want to see someone with scars?

The time to pass between when they got Caruso back and now had been mostly the same. They were fearing what was going to happen next, and some had their guard up for a short time. But after two weeks had gone and no signs from Victor or anyone from Raptor Dyne, the gang started to relax. There hadn't even been any mutantsaur sightings. While this was a sigh of relief from the team since they could relax more, it only made Moynihan more concerned. It was unusual for Victor go to this long without some kind of experiment going on. Well she mentally corrected herself. Victor had gone this long in between experimentations before. But still, she couldn't help but become very concerned. She had a feeling that Victor was plotting something sinister, but she couldn't think of what it was yet.

Something else was worrying Moynihan as well. She had noticed a change in her own behavior. Ever since they had brought Caruso back from that horrid warehouse, she had noticed herself becoming less able to control her emotions. She has a harder time keeping herself from snapping at not only her students, but her superiors as well. She had almost gotten fired at least twice within the two week span. This wasn't like her at all and she couldn't understand what was happening. She had also noticed her memory loss was becoming worse and worse as the days passed by. She was starting to forget where her house was, locations that she had been to before, and she had even forgotten some of their students' names. Up until a few days ago, memory loss and increased aggression where the only symptoms that she appeared to be suffering from. But not too long ago, she suffered a third, more frightening symptom.

Moynihan had started noticing that she was starting to enter stalking phases where she would follow someone and not take her eyes off of them. It never went beyond that, but it frightened her. She had never done something like that before, not ever since the dinosaur extinction that is. She had stalked at least twice since the symptom first showed up. The first time it happened, she was outside overseeing another field trip to the tide pools. She noticed one of her students, a young female teenager, walking along the shore and Moynihan suddenly felt the urge to follow her intently. She was able to stop herself before anyone could see what she was doing. The second time had occurred when she was in the cafeteria and she saw a student walk passed her. She had started following them and this time people did notice her. She was able to cover it up by saying that she wanted to see the student after class. She had to quickly come up with a good explanation afterwards.

As Moynihan was worrying about her own condition, the team was growing concerned about Caruso's behavior. His parents did not notice as much of the behavior as the team did. Caruso would stay in the house all day and, unless they went out somewhere, would not show many, if any, signs of fear because he was within his own element where he felt safe and secure. When he was at school, however, his demeanor would change. He would constantly do his best to avoid anyone whenever and where ever he could. He refused to talk to anyone except for the Dino Squad and Ms. Moynihan. And he seemed to be showing an increasing fear of being alone anywhere. Whenever the team asked him about this, Caruso would simply say that he was just catching up to them or that nothing was really wrong.

But his explanation was not going to work for long. The more times he seemed to show uneasiness in general, the more obvious it became to his friends that he was afraid of something. They would continue confronting him about it, but he would never offer an explanation. They had eventually gave up trying to get information from him and had spoken to his parents and Moynihan about what they were seeing. Amanda, Jack, and Moynihan were all equally concerned about Caruso's change in attitude. Moynihan had suggested in giving Caruso some more time. He was probably still frightened about what had happened to him. That would explain his desire to keep close to those he trusted, even if it drove them insane. If Irwin didn't improve soon, Joanne suggested that they all have a talk with him.

There was something else that Moynihan had started to realize. Despite the fact that Michelle had been enrolled in the school, she has not shown up for class since the incident at the lighthouse. She has been continually marked absent and the principal was considering expelling her. Moynihan thought that was a little harsh even though she knew what Michelle had done to her and her team. The principal was getting tired of Michelle's lack of response. Whenever she was called, she never picked up. They would only get a voice-answering machine and no return phone call. Moynihan wasn't at all too surprised that Michelle would disappear. She probably only joined to spy on the team, but since she revealed her true colors, there would be no way that she could be able to fool them. Her scent alone would give her away.

But it wasn't Michelle that Moynihan was worried about. Other than Victor Veloci, she was more concerned about Oscura Witter. The sly, obnoxious Troodon, the same one that had poisoned her students, was clearly the most vicious of the two small dinosaurs. She showed an aggression that she felt surpassed even Victor's. She couldn't help but briefly feel sorry for Victor for having such a violent dinosaur on his side. If Oscura were to run the place, Moynihan was certain that Raptor Dyne would become a more hostile, dangerous place to work and they would see an increase in dino mutants. They would probably also see an extreme increase in violence from both the mutants and the workers there. Not even Victor was that crazy, and that was saying something. Moynihan would keep an eye out for Oscura in the future.

The lighthouse shield was back up, but extremely weak and would not block out all of Victor's attempts to scan the lighthouse. She was able to get the shield back up and running with help from Fiona's little sister, Terri. After she found out what had happened, Terri had willingly volunteered to help rebuild the lighthouse shield, with her parents' permission first of course. With Terri's help, the shield was put back online within a few days. Despite her computer savvy skills, the teen was not able to make the shield as operational as it once was. She had apologized for that, but Moynihan said that the lighthouse shield was working again and that all that mattered was that she had tried her best. While Moynihan and the others considered Terri a semi-member of the team, she didn't visit too often because she had to study.

Moynihan was sitting at her desk in the classroom. The students had been recently dismissed for lunch. Her next class was going to start soon. She was sitting in her chair, pulled up close to her desk. Among all the stuff she had on it, the one she paid the most attention to was a stack of papers, presumably homework from the recently dismissed class. She examined them one at a time, writing down a grade as she oversaw what they had wrote. As time went on and the stack of papers got smaller, she looked up at the clock. It was almost time for her to leave for her lunch break. She would have to hurry. If she waited too long, her next class would start and she would not have to skip lunch. Swiftly, she shuffled the papers she hadn't graded yet and put them in her desk to deal with later. She pushed her chair back and got up from her seat and walked up the stairs to the door. She opened it and then walked outside.

She walked down the hallway, greeted by other teachers once in a while as well as seeing some of the students from her next science class. She didn't say much back to them. She just swiftly walked by, making brief greetings herself to avoid being rude. She just didn't have the time to chit chat for very long. Her next class was going to start in about twenty minutes, so she needed to hurry and get into the cafeteria and get her food before time ran out. It was not incredibly urgent as she had gone a few times skipping lunch at the cafeteria. But today, she was feeling unusually hungry and did not want to skip out this time.

When Moynihan reached the cafeteria, she completely bypassed the student entrance to the cafeteria. Instead, she made her way towards another entrance, which lead straight into the kitchen. Since she was a teacher, she was permitted back here to get her food so she didn't have to wait in line with the students. She walked through the kitchen, wiping her brow as she felt the heat of food being cooked hitting her face. It seemed the school was making some steak. It wasn't something they usually cook, but it wasn't unheard of at this school. Moynihan could also hear the sound of vegetables being fried on a skillet for the students along with the sound of potatoes being mashed with a mixer. The different smells mixed in with one another as they entered Moynihan's nose, causing her to feel even more hungry. She immediately grabbed a plate and went to get her food.

But when she went over to where the vegetables were and grabbed the large spoon to scoop some onto her plate, she paused. She stared at the vegetables for several long seconds, hesitating. For some reason, she was starting to feel nauseous about putting vegetables on her plate. She didn't know why, as she had loved vegetables for a long time, especially the ones that the school had made. But now, staring at these plants was making her feel sick. In disgust, she pushed the spoon back in the vegetables and swiftly moved away, trying to find something else more appetizing.

A familiar scent caught her attention, causing her mouth to water a little. She followed the smell to the back part of the kitchen where food was stored until it would be cooked for the students. She made her way towards the large refrigerator where they kept the thawed food that was going to be cooked within the next day or so. She opened it up and immediately found the source of the small. There was a large plate of raw, uncooked steaks piled onto one plate, a plastic covering blanketing over the slices of meat, but not tightly enough to escape her sense of smell. Without hesitating, she ripped the plastic off swiftly, and seized one of the large, raw steaks and put it onto her plate. She reached in and grabbed another one, and then another. She decided to grab one more, but instead of putting it onto her plate right away, she sniffed it and licked her lips.

Moynihan managed to slip out of the kitchen without being seen by any of the cafeteria workers or by any other teacher. She went out of the door and entered the main cafeteria room. There were still a bunch of students in there having lunch, including the members of the Dino Squad, who were hanging out at one of the tables, talking to each other about certain topics. She took brief notice that Liam was also with them, probably talking about Maine again. Liam was another student that would sometimes visit the lighthouse, although more infrequently than Terri did. Liam's different way of thinking sometimes helped, but usually his advice is misunderstood so he rarely makes suggestions nowadays.

Moynihan quickly sat down at one of the long tables and set her plate down. There were no teachers at this table. She looked left to right, making sure that no one was around to see her. She didn't notice anyone looking in her general direction and there was no one relatively close to her. Satisfied that no one was going to see her, she turned her attention back to the plate of steaks. Her stomach growled and her mouth filled with more saliva as she continued to stare at the suddenly appetizing raw steaks. Licking her lips again, she seized one of the steaks in one hand. Opening her human jaws as wide as she could, she bit down onto the uncooked meat, ripping off a good sized piece, and began chewing it. Red liquid flowed from her mouth and dripped onto her plate. She took another bite, enjoying the feel of the liquid against her mouth and chin, flowing through her fingers. She was about to take a third bite when a shocked voice got her attention.

"...Professor Moynihan...?" Moynihan immediately recognzied that voice as belonging to McFinn, the former bully who used to pick on Neil Buzmati. She swallowed the piece of meat still in her mouth and turned to look at him. The kid was looking at her with an expression mixed with fear and shock. McFinn, stammering, said, "Wh-What are you doing...?" He pointed at the raw steak that was still in her hand and his eyes were locked at the red fluid all over the woman's hand and mouth and on the plate as well. It looked almost like blood, but thinner.

Realizing what she was doing, Moynihan quickly took the steak out of her mouth. She tried to come up with a good explanation for her actions. "N-Nothing, McFinn." Moynihan said quickly, offering the best smile that she could. Realizing that she was only scaring the kid more with her mouth covered in red, she picked up a napkin that was close by and wiped her hands and mouth. "I just..suddenly got a very weird craving for..rare steak. Yeah..that's it. Just a craving, nothing to get concerned about." She smiled again.

McFinn wasn't sure what to think about this. He had never heard of anyone getting a taste for raw meat before, ever. And wouldn't it make people sick if they ate them? "If..if you say so..."

Sensing the boy was still feeing uneasy, Joanne said, "Look..why don't you just go back to your table? Just forget what you saw, okay?"

"O-Okay..." McFinn said, immediately turning and getting out of there as fast as he could. As soon as he was gone, Moynihan immediately returned to eating the raw meat, cautiously looking around to see if anyone else was watching.

Feeling rather embarrassed about what she did, Moynihan quickened her eating pace to try to avoid getting spotted by anyone else. She also was careful about how she ate so that the red liquid from the steak didn't drip down as much. Red on skin was something that was very noticeable, and especially noticeable on her green shirt if any drops should land on it. As she took bite after bite, she looked around to make sure no one was watching her intently. At the same time she was wondering why she was even eating the raw steak in the first place. Being human for so long has made her accustomed to eating what humans did, and she had lost any interest in raw meat. But here she was now, wolfing down bite after bite of an uncooked piece of meat. For some reason, it tasted so good to her where before it would disgust her due to her acquired taste she developed over the years of being a human.

* * *

The rest of lunch went without incident. No one else had stopped by to ask her what she was doing and she did not see anyone giving her a weird look. She sighed with relief as she finished the last bit of meat. She leaned back in her chair and picked up the napkin again to wipe herself off and the plate. But as she stared at the plate, she found an overwhelming desire to lap up the red liquid that had collected at one portion of the plate. She licked and smacked her lips as she leaned in a little close, feeling her mouth water up with anticipation. She heard someone walking up beside her and she immediately straightened up, moving her gaze away from the plate.

"Hello, Ms. Moynihan." The voice said. Moynihan immediately recognized it as Fiona. She turned to look at the girl in the eyes, offering a smile in greeting. Fiona seemed to take no notice of what little redness remained. In fact, she acted as if she had not seen what Moynihan had done, which relieved the old woman. Fiona smiled in return, although it was small and not completely genuine, which worried Moynihan a little bit. "May I..sit down with you?" Fiona asked almost timidly.

Moynihan blinked a few times. No one had ever asked to sit with her before, at least none of her students anyway. The only time she usually has someone ask this is if a teacher wanted to talk to her, either about her performance as a teacher or if something important was about to happen, or had happened. But no student had asked to sit down with her, not from what she can recall anyway. She would have said no due to what was happening to her lately, but she couldn't bring herself to refuse Fiona's request. Nodding her head slowly once, she said, "Sure..go ahead." She gestured towards the round blue seat next to her.

"Thanks." Fiona said with gratitude in her voice. She moved towards the seat and quickly sat down on it. She rested her head on her hands, her elbows supporting the weight.

"So what brings you here?" Moynihan asked. "Why did you want to sit down with me?" Fiona didn't respond. Instead, she just looked at Joanne with eyes filled with confusion and perhaps even sorrow. It was obvious that there was something on her mind, something that was upsetting her or worrying her. "...is there something you wish to talk to me about?"

After delaying herself for a few seconds, Fiona finally answered. "..yes."

This didn't surprise Moynihan. She had worked with her Dino Squad students for a long enough time to know when something was bothering them and when they wanted to talk about something. She suspected Fiona was probably still worrying over what Victor was going to do and what to do with Caruso. Lifting her head a little, she noticed Caruso was sitting down with Max, Rodger, and Buzz. He seemed to be doing pretty okay with eating more food than he could before, and it didn't look like anything was troubling the boys. They were laughing, probably having a pretty jolly conversation. While she wasn't surprised something was bothering Fiona, it was a little confusing that she wasn't with the guys, laughing with them.

Then she started to wonder if it was another topic that Fiona wanted to talk about. But what could she want to talk about? Was she being bullied? Was she having family problems? Was she having issues with school projects? Was she starting to feel less confident in battle after being defeated by Michelle and Oscura? Moynihan couldn't tell for sure unless Fiona said so herself. The old woman hoped that Fiona did feel comfortable enough to talk to her about it. Moynihan cared about Fiona and would do whatever she could to comfort her. And she was certain Fiona knew that too, especially after the way the teacher had comforted her when they all thought Caruso was deceased.

"Fiona..what is troubling you?" Moynihan asked, reaching out with one hand and gently placed it on Fiona's shoulder and squeezed it gently. "I don't like to see any of you kids like this."

Fiona wasn't sure how to tell Moynihan. She could have talked to the guys about it, but she didn't feel comfortable about it, especially with Caruso around. Irwin wasn't really the problem..or was he? He was the topic of the subject that she wanted to talk to Moynihan about. But it had nothing to do with him being in danger. This was something she felt most comfortable talking to Moynihan about. After all, while Moynihan might be old and really a dinosaur, she was still a female just like she was. She would probably be able to help her more than some guy could.

"Well it's..it's about Caruso..." Fiona started to say.

Moynihan nodded in an understanding manner. "Are you still worried he might still be in danger?" Fiona slowly shook her head. This surprised Joanne a little, but it did relieve her a little, knowing that Fiona probably wasn't worrying herself too much regarding Caruso's safety. They would all make sure he was safe. But then, if that wasn't the reason Fiona was troubled, then what else could be bothering her that involves Irwin? "Then why are you worrying about him?"

Fiona fumbled around with her fingers nervously. Moynihan noticed a faint blush develop on the young teen's cheeks and almost immediately she suspected what the 'problem' might be. But she waited for Fiona to say something before she could confirm her suspicious. Fiona bit her lip, unsure of what to say. She could feel Moynihan's eyes boring through her as she waited for her to answer. Fiona couldn't just squeeze her way out of this. She had already stated that something was bothering her involving Caruso. To walk away, she wasn't sure if she could do that. She finally managed to give Moynihan an answer. "Well it's just that...I...well.. I think I..."

"You think..what?" Moynihan asked, gently encouraging Fiona to continue.

The blush deepened on Fiona's face slightly as she answered. "I think I might..have a crush on Caruso..." Fiona looked at Moynihan to see her reaction. To her surprise, Moynihan was just smiling back at her. She had expected Moynihan to at least be a little confused by this confession.

"Is that what was bothering you?" Moynihan said sympathetically. She moved her hand further across Fiona's back and pulled her into a half hug to comfort her some more. "Oh Fiona, that's nothing to be ashamed of. Why is it upsetting you so much?"

"I-I don't know..." Fiona looked away. "I mean...after all this time, I thought he was..just a friend you know? And that's all I thought he was. But..but when I thought he was dead..." She tried to hold back her tears. "I began to realize that..I was wrong.. He meant more to me than I thought so in the past..."

Moynihan nodded her head as she listened to Fiona telling her this. She had thought that Fiona would be a little more positive about this new development. And yet here she was, talking with her, sounding like a lost little kid who didn't know what to do or where to go. Fiona had acknowledged that she had, indeed, developed a small yet developing crush on Caruso. Moynihan had noticed this a bit herself over the past few days. She noticed how she spent a little more time with Caruso and vice versa than she ever had before. One thing in particular came to her mind. Had the two kids talked to each other about this? Probably not, otherwise why would Fiona turn to her, a Velociraptor, for advice?

The two sat at the table, exchanging thoughts to one another, sharing their feelings about the situation. When Moynihan had asked the girl if she had spoken to Caruso about how she felt, Fiona was quick to say no. She felt too unsure about it, and didn't feel comfortable with it. Moynihan took it as Fiona being too afraid to admit her feelings, or perhaps she felt too proud to succumb to such an emotion like love. As far as Joanne knows, Fiona had always been the tough tomboy who rarely showed a weak, emotional side. The one of the few times that she had seen this rarely seen side of her was when she was comforting her for Caruso's supposed death. Even before that, there were a few times that Fiona did display a sense of insecurity. But this was one of the few times that insecurity was focused on the subject of love.

While Joanne would have loved to help all that she could, she knew there wasn't much she could do outside of giving her advice. She couldn't really make Fiona feel much better. She was not her mother and she was not Caruso. If Fiona wanted to get over this sense of insecurity, the only thing that she could do was talk to Irwin herself, alone. She was confident that the two could work this out together far better than they could alone or with anyone else. Moynihan had some ideas on how to get the two by themselves so that they could talk. But convincing them probably was not going to be very easy. They might get the wrong idea. But who knows? Maybe they might like the idea.

Placing her hand back on Fiona's shoulder, Joanne said in a calm voice, "Well, I think I just might know what you two kids could do so you can sort this whole thing out."

"What do you mean?" Fiona asked, tilting her head slightly. "I thought you were..."

Moynihan slowly shook her head. "I am sorry. But while I can provide some advice, I am not the one you should be talking to about this." She turned her head to look over at where Caruso was sitting with the other boys in the team. "He is the one you should be talking to. You should be sorting this out with Mr. Caruso."

Fiona immediately shook her head. "No..no I can't talk to him about this! I mean..what would I say..? And I don't want to talk to the other guys about it!" She immediately stopped when Moynihan gently cupped her chin and looked into her eyes.

"Fiona, you are making this more difficult than it should be." Moynihan said gently, a smile spread across her face. "I know that it is going to be difficult nonetheless, if you fret over it too much, you will find that you have a harder and harder time dealing with this. Irwin Caruso is your best friend. You should not be too afraid to tell him how you feel." Fiona bit her lip and tried to look away, but Moynihan wouldn't let her. "Look, if you want my advice, here's what I think you should do." Fiona looked up at her. Moynihan took a deep breath, hoping Fiona wouldn't cry out or anything when she told her. "Go on a date with him."

If Fiona were eating or drinking something right now, she'd be joking on it. She was so startled by Moynihan's suggestion that she almost fell back and onto the hard cafeteria floor. She looked at the elderly teacher as if she had lost her mind and had gone crazy. "What?!" She snapped in a low voice so no one else could hear her. "Have you lost it? I can't go on a date with him! I mean..we're not ready..It's too sudden..."

"You wanted my advice." Moynihan simply said, not fazed by Fiona's reaction. "And I gave it to you."

"But..to go on a date just like that.. I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I mean, wouldn't he think I'd be rushing it?" Fiona said, glancing nervously over to where Caruso was. "And what if he thinks the idea is ridiculous? What if he laughs at me?"

Moynihan slowly narrowed her eyes. "After what he's been through, I don't think he'd be laughing at something like this, dear Fiona." She leaned a little closer to the teenager. "Look, just go talk to him when you get a chance to see him alone. Call him on the phone if you have to. He might like the idea. This date could help him get his mind off of his worrying about getting attacked again." Moynihan smiled a little more at the last statement. This date could be mentally good for both the kids.

Fiona looked downwards a little as she thought about this. Perhaps Moynihan was right. Maybe the date could be good for Caruso's mental state. And it would help her feel better as well. The date would give them a chance to talk to each other alone and she could tell Caruso how she felt, even though she was still feeling nervous about the whole idea. "Well..I suppose you are right..."

Moynihan withdrew her hand, but continued to smile at the young teenager. She felt happy that Fiona was at least considering her advice. "If you do decide to take my advice, I wish you the best of luck, dear." She then slowly got up off the blue seat, holding her plate in hand. "Well I should take this back up, eh? Class is going to start soon." She said, eyeing the clock nervously. She had only a few minutes to get to the class before the bell rang.

Fiona nodded her head. "Yeah. I'd better get going as well." She glanced up at the clock as well. She didn't realize how swiftly the time had gone by. "I don't want to be late for my next class." She got up as well and started to head towards the exit. The bell hadn't run yet, but Fiona, the kind of person for the need of speed, wanted to get to her next class as swiftly as possible. Moynihan watched her go, shaking her head and thinking how fortunate everyone was that Fiona had stopped using her roller skates to get to classes faster.

Moynihan walked over towards the front of the cafeteria and carefully placed her plate down with the others. This is where the plates were supposed to be put so that the cafeteria workers could take them and wash them off for tomorrow. Then Moynihan proceeded to grab some napkins and wiped her hands off a little more, then moved towards the garbage can and threw the piece of paper inside. Her next science class was going to start in a few minutes, so she immediately want out the exit and made her way towards the classroom before the bell rang. But as she walked out of the door, something that happened earlier slowly crept back into her mind, almost freezing her in place. She had just eating a raw steak, and not only that but she wanted to lap up the red liquid as if it was...blood. Her heart started to race, but she struggled to calm it back down and keep the disturbing thought in the back of her mind. But the thought kept returning, and then she started to wonder something. Could this be what Victor said about the next few days being 'unforgettable'...?

* * *

About two minutes later, Moynihan pushed the door to her class open. The classroom was already filled with her students, who were chatting as usual. As she made her way down the staircase, the class grew silent, watching her as she made her way towards her desk. Moynihan glanced up at the clock. Class would start in about a minute. She turned around to face her class, leaning against her desk. They all watched her intently, a few of them looking back towards the door as a few more students hurried inside before the bell rang. As soon as the bell rang, Moynihan moved over to the light switch. "Okay, class, yesterday we talked the controversy of cloning, the advancements it has undertaken, and how it could one day be used to save lives." Moynihan said, the class having officially begun.

* * *

After a couple more hours of school, the final bell had rung. The doors immediately flew open and teenagers poured out, eager to get back home or to hang out at their favorite places. A few did stay behind, mostly for sports. But the majority of the students left school immediately and disappeared down the streets. After the huge wave of students went through the doors, the door closed only to open up again, slowly but surely. Caruso cautiously looked out of the door, looking left to right trying to look for someone familiar. He could feel his heart racing in his chest as he couldn't see any of his friends nearby. He started to feel himself become a little sweaty. Where were his friends? They would usually be over by the rack that was relatively close by, where their motorcycles would be. But they weren't there.

They are probably still in class, he thought, or at least somewhere in the school. Sucking in a deep breath, Irwin moved backwards and closed the door, feeling somewhat more secure inside a large building than out of it. He turned around to walk down the hall to see if they were in one of the nearby classrooms. But as he turned, he slammed into something firm and nearly fell down. He backed up immediately, tensing up as he prepared himself to face what he thought was his adversary. But his demeanor quickly settled down as he recognized who it was that he had just run into.

"Liam?" Caruso asked, a little bewildered. He wasn't expecting to see Liam here at this time. He knew it was Liam because he recognized the short tawny hair, the orange-brown t-shirt and the light brown-colored jeans.

Liam was brushing himself off, but other than that he seemed just fine and he didn't look very angry. But Liam didn't act like most of the teenagers Caruso knew about, so he couldn't really be one hundred percent certain that the kid wasn't upset with him. After Liam was finished brushing himself off, he looked up at Caruso, making eye contact. Liam was doing his best to keep eye contact, knowing that if he looked away, he would be rude. But it still wasn't too easy for him to do this. "Hello, Caruso." He said in his usual, quick-paced manner of talking.

"Hey..hi Liam." Caruso said, greeting the autistic teenager. "What are you doing here?"

Liam stared at him for several seconds, ignoring Caruso's question. His eyes seemed locked on Caruso's face, more more specifically, what was on his face. Lifting up a finger and pointing it at Caruso, Liam asked, "What are those on your face? Are they scars? Did something happen to you? If something did happen, then what happened?" If he had spoken any faster, Caruso would not have been able to understand him that well.

Caruso slowly lifted his hand touched his cheek. He felt his heart skip as he felt the familiar formation of the scars on his cheeks. He was a little surprised that Liam had noticed the scars. He had put as much make-up as he could on them to make them as unnoticeable as possible. He looked back at Liam, who was looking at him, waiting for his answer. While he waited, Liam would rub his hands together repeatedly, or tap one of his fingers against his chest, both of which were habits he had a hard time breaking. Caruso gulped, and managed to choke out, "W-Well I'm fine..i-i-it's nothing really..."

"Are you certain? You do not look fine. No, you look like you are hiding something." Liam said quickly, taking a step forward towards Caruso. "Too much adrenaline perhaps? You play sports a lot? They can make you tired. Are you tired?"

Caruso held out a hand to silence Liam. "Look, I said I'm fine, all right? Just leave it at that!" But as he started to clench his teeth in frustration, he accidentally bit his tongue where the deep cut was. His eyes opened and he let out a quick cry of pain before holding his mouth tightly. "Ow..." He yelped, trying to make the pain go away.

Liam looked at him as sympathetically as he could. "You should really see the nurse. Do you want me to walk you over there? I will help you if you want me to."

"N-No thanks.." Caruso said as tears of pain started to form in his eyes. "I can..I can bear through it."

Before Liam could say anything more, the two heard rapid footsteps coming from down the hallway. They both looked over and saw Rodger running towards them, a horrified look on his face. Liam immediately moved out of the way as Rodger rushed passed him and up to Caruso. The computer geek looked Caruso over, trying to see if there were any new injuries on him. Within a few seconds, Rodger looked over at Liam.

"What happened to him?" Rodger asked, a sense of urgency in his voice. "Why did he cry out in pain."

"Something with his mouth. He talked and then he yelped in agony. I did not do anything to him." Liam opened his mouth and pointed inside to emphasize that the pain Irwin was feeling was coming inside his mouth.

"The mouth?" Rodger wasted no time in getting Caruso to open his mouth so that he could get a good look inside. Caruso, at first, absolutely refused. He kept turning his head away. A few times, Rodger tried to pry the boy's mouth open himself, but Caruso managed to wrench free of the larger boy's grasp. Finally, Rodger leaned back, frowning at Irwin. "I'm only trying to help you. Why won't you open your mouth so I can take a look? I'm not going to hurt you." Caruso seemed to think about this for a few seconds before finally complying to Rodger, slowly opening his mouth. Rodger pressed a finger against the top of the lower incisors to keep Caruso's mouth open as he reached out for a flash light and shined it in the boy's mouth, looking at the wound on the tongue. Although the wound had started to heal, it still looked very inflamed. And what scared Rodger more is that he could see signs of bleeding again, and he began to fear the wound would become infected this time. "Oh no..."

Eyes widening in fear, Caruso immediately wrenched his way from Rodger and backed up. "What?" He asked in a frightened voice. "What did you see? What's wrong?" He was speaking so fast now that Rodger wondered if Liam had rubbed off on Caruso. "Did you see something bad?" He would have said something else, but the sharp pain he had felt returned with a vengeance, causing him to hold his mouth once more. It wasn't as bad as it was when he had the bridle in his mouth, but it came pretty close.

"I don't think you should be talking, Caruso." Rodger said in a serious tone, eyes slightly narrowed. "It seems you have reopened part of the gash on your tongue. If you keep talking like that, it's only going to get worse." He placed a firm hand on Caruso's shoulder. "You have to be more careful, do you understand me?"

Caruso managed to nod and say, "Y-Yes..I understand..." He felt relieved when saying that didn't cause another bout of pain in his mouth.

"What is the matter with him?" Liam asked in a quick-paced manner, gently tapping Rodger on the back. This startled Rodger, causing him to jolt in shock. Realizing he had done something wrong, Liam took a step back and rubbed his hands together apologetically. "I am sorry." He lowered his gaze as he said that. "I should not have done that."

Rodger rubbed his face, shaking his head. "No..no it's all right, Liam. You just startled me is all. Nothing to apologize for." Realizing that Liam had asked him a question regarding Caruso, the dark-skinned teen turned around, his expression still retaining the serious look it had when he was speaking to Caruso. Liam didn't seem to react too much to the expression, but this didn't surprise Rodger. He had read a bit on Asperger's Syndrome after meeting Liam, so anything out of the ordinary the teenager did, Rodger wasn't going to hold it against him. He thought about telling Liam straight out what happened. The teen did know about the lighthouse, after all, and he did know that they were dinosaurs. Maybe there wouldn't be any harm in telling him. But on the other hand, Liam might not be able to understand perhaps tell other students about it.

No, he wouldn't do that. Liam would probably be too afraid to mention it to anyone else. Liam had never told anyone about them being dinosaurs for fear of being ridiculed even more than he already was. The idea of kids turning into dinosaurs did seem far-fetched and silly, so Rodger couldn't blame him for not wanting to tell anyone, even if the temptation was great. Rodger decided to tell the boy, but he would have to be sure that Liam kept it to himself. The computer whiz wasn't sure what the consequences would be if this information had gotten out to the other students. He was certain that Caruso had a few enemies in the school who would jump on the opportunity to ruin Caruso's reputation if they found out about what had happened to him.

"Okay..I'll tell you." Rodger said. "But you have to promise not to tell anyone about this. You hear me? Absolutely no one. Not even your folks."

Liam nodded quickly. "I understand. I won't tell anyone. I promise you that. I won't tell."

Rodger smiled. "Good." Then the smile quickly faded, and a frown appeared on his face. "Caruso was..captured by Victor Veloci." He hesitated saying that. It wasn't like they hadn't told Liam about Victor. He found out about him during one of his visits to the lighthouse. But still, he felt a little uneasy talking about what happened with someone else. Still, he continued to explain the situation to Liam, hoping he would understand. "Victor had tortured him with some kind of bridle that cut up in the inside of his mouth. It hasn't healed completely yet, and Caruso had just reopened part of the wound. That's why he's in pain."

Liam flinched a little, glancing at Caruso as sympathetically as he could. "I am sorry to hear about that. I hope he gets better as quickly as possible. The longer that cut remains bleeding, the greater the chance it will become infected with bacteria and viruses." Despite Caruso's eyes widening in fear, Liam just continued on with his explanation. "If the tongue gets infected, it will hurt even more and it will have to be treated. It might even need to get amputated, and..." He stopped himself when Rodger placed a firm hand on his shoulder to silence him.

"I know. I don't think we need a very detailed description, Liam." Rodger said quickly. He gestured towards where Caruso was, and Liam slowly shut his mouth when he noticed the look on Caruso's face. "That's why we don't want Caruso talking too much until his mouth gets a chance to heal completely." Rodger closed his eyes. "And we are also trying to help him get over his fears. You're..not exactly making things better, Liam."

Liam lowered his gaze. "I am so sorry. I didn't mean to upset you guys."

"It's all right..." Rodger said, smiling a little. "Look, it's time for us to go to the lighthouse." Rodger said, looking towards the door. He wasn't sure what time it was, exactly, but he knew that Professor Moynihan would be expecting him and Caruso, along with the others, at the lighthouse. They usually go there straight after school. "We'll..talk to you later, okay?"

Liam nodded, his eyes slightly averted away from Rodger's eyes. "All right. Goodbye you guys. I wish you the best of luck. Bye." He said quickly before walking past the two and exited the building, leaving Rodger and Caruso behind alone, looking back at where Liam had disappeared. As soon as the door closed, they returned their gaze to one another.

"I...I can't believe he started to say th-those things..." Irwin said softly, wincing as he gently rubbed his lower jaw, thinking about what would happen if his tongue did get infected and had to be amputated as Liam said. "I-I don't w-want my tongue cut o-off..."

"It won't get cut off." Rodger said. "Don't get so worked up over it. As long as you are careful, the cuts will heal just fine. Just..give it some more time, okay?"

"Okay..." Caruso said, still feeling a little bit unsure. He trusted Rodger's input, but he can't help but still feel worried and fearful. After the two remained silent for about a minute or so, Caruso spoke up again, speaking a little more slowly than before. "S-So..aren't we g-going to leave?"

"Yes, of course." Rodger said, rubbing his head a little. He wondered why he had briefly zoned out like that. Then again, so did Caruso. Maybe they were letting their fear get the best of them. He gestured towards the door with his head, his eyes remaining on the blue-haired teen. "Come on. Let's go."

With that, the two teens made their way towards the door. Rodger pushed his hand against the door, and, using all the strength he could muster in his one, huge arm, he pushed the door wide open and quickly walked out of it. He turned around and waited for Caruso to get out of the door as well. Once he was out, they made their way down the sidewalk to where their motorcycles were waiting. Upon reaching there, they found that Max, Fiona, and Buzz were standing there, waiting for them. Judging from the expression on their faces, they were waiting for a decent amount of time and looked at Caruso and Rodger as if they couldn't believe it took them that long to leave the building.

"I'm sorry, guys." Rodger said, smiling apologetically. "We had a little run-in with Liam."

"W-Well I a-actually bumped into h-him..." Caruso said, rubbing the back of his head, feeling a little embarrassed. He still felt a bit silly about bumping into someone like that. He was usually more careful than that.

"We knew that. We saw him walking out of the door, remember?" Max said, pointing his thumb in the direction of the school.

"Oh yeah..." Rodger said, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"What I'd like to know is what was Liam doing there?" Buzz said, rubbing the underneath of his chin in a thoughtful manner. "He's usually not in the hallway at the end of the school day."

"Yeah, I was wondering that too." Rodger said, holding up one hand to get attention as he spoke. "Liam's usually in one of the classes, isn't he? I think he said he is usually with a social worker when school is dismissed to help him with his communication skills. I was surprised to see that he was in the hallway at that time." He then focused his attention on Max. He wondered if Max would have any ideas. Out of all of them, the jock did spend the most time with the autistic teenager. "Do you have any ideas, Max?"

But Max didn't have any answer either. He just shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really know, to be honest. He probably got lost, or maybe he forgot something." But that idea was quickly rejected. "But he left the school. So that couldn't be it." Max was just as confused as the others were. They had never seen Liam where he was today before. Then something came to Max's mind. "You know what I think it is? His social worker's probably sick and there was no substitute. So Liam figured that, since there was nowhere to go after school, he just decided to leave." He looked over at Irwin. "That's probably why you and Rodger spotted him in the hallway."

Caruso narrowed his eyes slightly and looked downward, thinking. "That d-d-does make s-sense..." He said in a low, calm voice. He was starting to feel a little better about what happened earlier when Liam had unintentionally frightened him. "S-Still I was s-s-surprised to see him..."

"I know." Rodger said.

Tapping her foot a little impatiently, Fiona said, "Look guys, I think it's time we get going." She sounded a little annoyed and slightly restrained as if she wanted to speak louder but was preventing herself from doing so. "We don't want to be late to the lighthouse."

Buzz titled his head. "Late? I thought Ms. Moynihan didn't set up a specific time for us to arrive at the light house."

"Yeah. We don't have a schedule there or anything." Max said.

"You know what I mean!" Fiona snapped, but then quickly settled herself down when she saw the boys looking at her, a bit surprised. She started to feel bad. She hadn't meant to react in that manner towards them. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that." She said quickly, apologizing for her behavior. "Anyway, I just don't want Ms. Moynihan to be upset with us for staying at the school longer than we should be."

Forgetting about Fiona's little temper snap, Max let out a series of short chuckles. "Moynihan? Upset over that? Oh come now Fiona." Max grinned in her direction. "We've been a little later than this at the lighthouse before and Moynihan was never upset. What makes you think she'll be upset this time?"

Fiona bit her lip nervously. "Well..with what has been happening to her lately..well..." She couldn't finish her sentence. But she had said enough for the others to understand what she was talking about.

"Ooohh..." Max said, lifting his head up slowly and nodding. He understood now why Fiona was so anxious. But he still felt like they shouldn't be getting too worked up over this. "I see... Well I don't see why she would be upset over something like this. I mean..it's not like we..."

"Provoked her?" Fiona interrupted, her eyes slightly narrowed. "We didn't provoke her before, and she still got angry. What about how she reacted to Caruso's mother?" She said, her voice increasing in strength and speed. "And what about you?" She said, pointing a finger in Max's direction. "Remember what she did to you?"

"I..." Max started to say in an attempt to defend himself. But he couldn't think of anything to say. He slowly shut his mouth, his gaze lowering. He knew what Fiona was talking about. She was referring to how Moynihan had snapped at him when he was talking with Caruso. He never would have known that Moynihan would ever react like that to any of them. He felt hurt and confused and even angry at the same time. "Okay...you're right Fiona." He said finally, admitting defeat. Before Fiona could say anything else, he quickly moved over to his motorcycle and placed a hand on it. "Look, let's just get going, okay?"

Realizing what she had just said, Fiona's angry face was quickly replaced with a look of guilt and horror. She quickly made her way towards Max and placed a hand on his upper back gently. "Max..I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

But Max cut her off swiftly. "It's..it's okay, Fiona." He said, trying to sound as understanding as he could. But Fiona could tell that, from the sound of his voice, he was a little upset with her. "Anyway, you're right. We should be leaving now."

"Yeah..." Buzz said, eyeing Fiona cautiously. "As you said, Moynihan might get upset with us if we are late." He had a little anger in his voice as he said that. He couldn't believe Fiona had reacted like that, but he couldn't bring himself to be too angry with her. She was his friend after all. They didn't want a repeat of what happened two weeks ago. Buzz quickly moved over to his bike. The other students did likewise, going over to their respective bikes and grabbed onto them. Pulling them away and setting them straight up, they each hopped on, gripping the handlebars tightly.

"Okay..everyone ready?" Max asked.

"Yes." Rodger responded.

"I'm ready." Fiona said, still sounding a little ashamed of herself.

"Me too." Caruso managed to say through the pain in his mouth.

"Sure." Buzz said.

Max nodded. "Okay, let's go." He said, turning his motorcycle on, hearing the engine roar. The others did likewise, and the sound of a motor filled Max's ears. Within a few minutes, the teens drove off the school grounds and started to make their way towards where the lighthouse was.

* * *

Ms. Moynihan hadn't left the school yet. She was about to walk out of the door at the usual time that she does, but she was immediately stopped by the principal, who escorted her to his office to talk to her about something. Moynihan was fearful that it was going to be about the raw steaks she had eaten earlier. But to her relief, the principal didn't mention anything about the meat. In fact, the reason he wanted to talk to her had nothing to do with the cafeteria period. Instead, he wanted to talk to her about a new teacher that might come on within a few days. Moynihan asked him why he had wanted to talk to her specifically about it and the principal simply said that since Moynihan was here longer than most of the other students, and was one of the most highly respected teachers, he felt that she should be the one to decide whether or not this person should be hired or not. Moynihan wasn't familiar with schools doing this, but she still felt a little flattered by the compliments and that the principal valued her input that much.

When she asked about the woman, the principal said that the woman had no past experience working in a school, but had claimed to be pretty good with teenagers. The woman had called up on the phone earlier and asked about getting hired in the school. When asked about her name, the woman refused to give it out, saying that she would rather wait until she was hired before she'd give out a name. Normally, this would disqualify her for the job, but the woman's talents seemed to make up for that. The principal had decided that he would give her a chance. But he wanted a second opinion. That was why he had brought in Joanne. He felt that, if anyone could decide whether or not to hire this woman, it was Joanne. He had apologized earlier to her on putting this weight on her shoulders, but he trusted that she would make the right decision. They could only do one of two things: hire the person and risk making a huge mistake, or not hire the person and risk losing a possible hard-working individual.

Joanne was suspicious at first. She couldn't figure out why the person would refuse to give out their name unless they were hired. Just what were they afraid of anyway? It seemed very strange and out-of-the-ordinary for someone to call up about a job but not leave any kind of identification. The only thing that she had left was her cell phone number and that wasn't good enough for the school to find out who she was. Joanne wondered if this person was trust worthy at all. Should they risk hiring her and be prepared for whatever consequences that would bring? Or should they reject her and perhaps lose the help they would have had if they hired her. Maybe this person wasn't at all half bad. They could actually be a big help around the school. They were in need of a substitute teacher, anyway. Or perhaps a librarian could work.

Joanne knew she would have to make a decision soon. She glanced up at the clock and saw the time. Her students would probably be at the lighthouse, waiting for her. The Dino Squad wouldn't be too concerned about her absence. She had been away from the lighthouse before and never really caused an issue. Her students knew what to do if she wasn't there. She imagined they were working on their equipment, scanning, looking out for mutants, perhaps doing homework, or just hanging out, or anything else they could come up with. But she still wanted to get back there. She had wanted to try and resume the online game simulation training she had done with Caruso and Buzz a few weeks ago before all this had happened. She realized she hadn't gotten around to training Max, Fiona, or Rodger, or did she? She couldn't really remember, but she was certain she had trained Buzz and Caruso at least. She wondered if the online game was even still working. After the computers were destroyed, she wondered if the main server was taken down or if the game was erased completely.

If that was the case, then it was such a shame and a waste. The game would have greatly benefited the training process by providing scenarios for the kids to face without actually getting harmed. She had noticed how well Buzz performed in the fight with Michelle. He had claimed to utilize things he learned in the online game to help him win the battle. He didn't think it would work at first, but it did, and he was grateful for the online game Rodger had made. This wouldn't be the first time one of Rodger's inventions made a great improvement on something. Many of his other inventiosn made their mark, including the monitor he had made that showed information on their precious organs. Unfortunately, it wasn't working right now and hadn't been for a few weeks. Rodger was still working on what was wrong with it. If only they could have had it working when they found Caruso cut up on the ground, Joanne thought. Then they never would have thought he was dead.

"Well?" Joanne's thoughts were interrupted by the principal, who was staring at her intently, arms folded up. "Aren't you going to say something or am I going to have to read your mind?" He was starting to sound a little annoyed and the smile he had on before had completely faded away. Joanne had drifted off into her thoughts and had remained silent for several minutes, which was working on the principals' patience, especially since he had wanted to get home soon. "Have you thought of an answer yet?"

Moynihan nodded her head. "Yes, I have."

"Well...?" The principal asked, wanting to hear her answer.

"Well, there is a risk involved." Moynihan started to explain. "She might not be trustworthy enough to get this job. If she won't even give out her name, then how can we know if we can trust her or not?" She adjusted her glasses, pushing them back against her face. "But on the other hand, we could use the help around here. I know of a few areas in the school that could use more help. And who knows? She might be a great help."

The principal clasped his fingers together and rested his chin on his hands. "But that still doesn't answer my question. So I shall ask you again. Do you or do you not think she should be hired? Don't have me reasons why or why not she should or should not be." The principal narrowed his eyes slightly. "Just tell me yes or no."

"Okay, sorry." Moynihan responded, sounding slightly irritated. She decided it would be wise not to antagonize the principal further. She didn't want to risk losing her job. She had a hard time choosing which decision would be the best one. She wanted to say no, but what if this person was just shy? No, that was no excuse to not give a name. But on the other hand, this person could be a big help. Either way, would she be making the right decision? Judging from the expression in her boss's eyes, he was not going to wait much longer, so she blurted out an answer without much thinking. "Yes."

The principal leaned back in his chair, his frown replaced with a broad smile. "Well I'm glad to hear that." He turned to his phone and picked the phone off the hook. He had to make a phone call now. He looked over at Joanne and gestured for her to leave. "You can leave now." He then turned away, facing the computer that was sitting at his desk as he dialed a number and held the phone to his hear. Moynihan nodded, and quickly got up out of the chair and exited the room.

Moynihan walked down the hallway, once briefly looking back at the office, wondering if she had made the right choice. She shook her head. She shouldn't be worried about it. What was the worst that could happen anyway? She had to get to the lighthouse now anyway. The safety of the world was more important at this moment than one wrong answer regarding a school. Victor might have been silent for the past few weeks, but that didn't mean he wouldn't start up again soon. She wanted to look at the scans for herself and see if she can spot anything. Without a second's thought, she immediately left the building and made her way towards her vehicle. Within a few minutes, she was driving on the road, making her way quickly towards the lighthouse.

* * *

Back in the office, the principal was on the phone, talking with the woman who had wanted a job at the school. He sounded a little happy about hiring someone new onto the school board. The woman seemed pretty happy that she was accepted herself. She seemed almost eager to start as soon as possible. This was a good sign, the principal thought. It showed that she had a great deal of worth ethic and would probably do a very good job. She didn't seem to be the type that was just getting the job to earn money. She honestly sounded like she really wanted to work because she thought she might enjoy this kind of job.

The principal looked through his computer, trying to find where the job listings for the school were. The woman had asked what kind of job she would be doing. The principal managed to find the list. When he found it, he looked through it, trying to find something that a newcomer would not mind doing. He found two suitable jobs that might work. He leaned away from the screen a little when he felt his eyes hurting a little from staring at it for too long. "Okay, we have two openings that might interest you, miss. We have an opening for a substitute teacher for one of our geometry teachers, and another opening for a librarian for our school library." The woman considered her options. She seemed unsure of which to pick. Eventually the woman came up with her answer.

"Ah, a librarian. Okay. I'll mark you down, and you can come over for an interview, okay? ...All right then. G-..." The principal quickly stopped himself. He had almost forgotten to ask the woman for her name. He would not be able to mark her down if he didn't know her name. "Excuse me, miss? I need to know your name now. ..Yes I know you said you didn't want to tell me, but if I don't have your name, then you won't get the job." The woman seemed a little irritated, but since she seemed to want the job so badly, she gave into his request. She told him her name. The principal's eyes cocked up as he heard her name. "Kista Bakar?" That was a very strange name. But he wrote it down anyway. "Okay, thanks. You can come in tomorrow for an interview. Good day to you. Bye." As she said goodbye, he hung up the phone.

The principal quickly turned back to his desk and pulled out a large calendar he had in his desk. He looked for tomorrow's date and quickly wrote Kista's name into the date so that he would remember there was an interview with her tomorrow. If all went well, then Ms. Bakar would be the new school librarian, which was good. The library was big and they could use at least one more librarian to help run it. After he was done, he returned to his usual daily duties to help run the school as a whole.

* * *

"I was accepted..." Kista said to no one in particular. She stared at her cell phone, which she still had open even though the principal had long since hung up on her. An evil smile made its away across her face. "Perfect..." She quickly closed her cell phone and pushed it into her pocket. She leaned back against the driver's seat. She was sitting inside her car, parked in a large parking lot for some kind of store. No one seemed to take notice to her and walked by without giving her mouth trouble. She wanted to be in a location such as this in case the school tried to trace her call. Whether or not this would work, she was not entirely certain. But it was worth a try, at least in her eyes.

Kista looked around the parking lot. It was a little less full than it was earlier. There were fewer people going in and out of the stores. She sighed. There was not much to do around here except watch humans go in and out of the stores. It got really boring really fast. She wanted Victor to give her some kind of exciting assignment. She knew she would see some action once she was accepted into the school, but until then, she would have to lay low and not do anything that would make the Dino Squad suspicious. Being accepted into the school was only the first step. She had two special tasks that Victor wanted her to perform, and if she failed at gaining the Dino Squad's trust, then she knew she would be severely punished by Victor Veloci. She couldn't let that happen.

She wondered why Victor had decided to hold off on his next assault for so long. For her, it did not make a lot of sense. The Dino Squad were weak and more vulnerable than they were before. They could have easily went to the lighthouse and finish them off, especially Caruso, who was the most vulnerable of them all. They had a huge opportunity to wipe out their enemy, but Victor refused to take it. He insisted on waiting for a good amount of time before making their next move. Victor had said it was so that their guard would be down. If he refused to attack, they might think he had given up, but Kista laughed at that, saying that it would only make them suspicious of the silence and they would be on higher alert. Victor refused to listen to her argument, however, and forbade her from deviating from the plan. Although upset, Kista had no choice but to comply.

This isn't the only thing that confused her. Victor had at least once told her about how he had found a virus, one from the ancient past, in the melted ice up at the Arctic Circle. He had explained how humans would not be so tolerant of it and would get sick very easily. He had seemed almost excited about the discovery, which kind of surprised Kista. She had thought that Victor would want to try and reclaim the Earth while claiming as little human life as possible. But the Velociraptor did have a strong hatred against humanity, so it might make sense for him to want the virus. But what got Kista is why he had never used the virus to begin with. If he did try the virus, she knows nothing about it. But as far as she knows, Victor had never used it, and she couldn't figure out why. If he was so interested in bringing back the dinosaurs and bringing about the fall of man, couldn't he have just spread the virus himself?

When she had confronted Victor about this, he had explained he had a good reason for not spreading the virus, well more than one reason. The virus could infect dinosaurs as well and he did not wish to harm any of the perfect dinosaurs or they would be useless for his study. He also explained how the global warming would spread the virus itself, slowly but surely, introducing it into the water and infecting many lifeforms that way, including the humans. But yet another reason Victor didn't want to spread the virus yet was because he still needed the humans. As much as he hated to admit it, he still needed humans to further his plans and help him perfect the primordial ooze before he could transform the planet. If he did away with the humans now, he would not have the chance to create a new world.

That did make sense, Kista thought. Victor shouldn't be so quick to wipe out the humans if he still needed them to get his work done. Still, she couldn't help but wonder if Victor would actually wipe out the humans or just transform them. Even he had admitted it would be a lot easier to just transform the humans rather than kill them off. Kista decided to put the whole virus thing out of her mind for the moment. That was one subject she didn't really need to concern herself with at this time. There were other matters at hand that she should be more concerned about anyway, more specifically the Dino Squad themselves. They still posed the biggest threat to Victor's righteous mission. She couldn't wait until she would have her first battle with the students. She particularly looked forward to facing off with the T-Rex.

Suddenly her cell phone lit up and a loud ring sounded out. She winced and immediately opened up her cell phone. She looked at the number and recognized it as Victor. She pressed a button and held the phone to her ear. "Hello, Dr. Veloci." Kista said dutifully. "How may I help you? ...did they hire me? Oh yes they did. Suspicious? Naw! He seemed almost glad to hire me." Kista wasn't telling the full truth. She wasn't hired; she was just called in to have an interview. But she felt Victor didn't really need to know that. Chances were in her favor that she would get hired. "It was almost too easy getting into the school, I...Oh, okay. I'll be sure to do that. And they won't find out, trust me..." Kista's eyes narrowed as she closed her cell phone and made her way towards her home.

* * *

In the lighthouse, two large arms, both belonging to Rodger Blair, were wrapped around Caruso's body, firmly held in place. Caruso struggled quite a bit to get away, but he was no match for Rodger. There was no way Caruso was going to go dino on his friend, so he relied on his human strength. But the computer geek had the advantage due to his size. But even with his size advantage, it was a struggle and took all of his strength to hold Caruso in place on his lap. He hated treating the teen like he was only five years old, but he was putting up quite a fight, and all they were trying to do was help him.

Caruso tried fighting back, but his arms were pinned at his sides. Not able to use his hands to defend himself, he immediately resorted to using his jaws instead. He snapped wildly from side to side, desperately trying to reach Rodger. But all his bites landed on empty air, saliva dripping on the ground almost each time. Caruso let out a few screams of fear as he kicked his legs on the ground, digging at the floor with his feet as he tried again, in vain, to get away. But the longer he struggled, the tighter Rodger held onto him, although the geek couldn't hang onto him too tightly or he'd risk choking him to death.

In front of them, the remaining Dino Squad kept their distance, watching the scene unfold. It was painful for them to watch this. Caruso did not go on another pain-filled rampage, but he was doing the next worst thing: panic. Rodger was trying to calm him down. They didn't want him to go dino and attack them. They didn't want him to hurt himself or anyone else, like how he had bitten and torn up Fiona's shoulder. Thinking about what happened, Fiona couldn't help but look at her shoulder worriedly. The wound had almost healed, but it still hurt to touch it. She glanced back at Caruso. She wished there was something she or anyone else could do to settle him down.

Buzz winced as Rodger gripped Caruso even tighter and jerked him to one side to keep him from escaping. The green-haired teen looked over at Max, who was just as hurt to see this happen as he was. But Max still held a serious look on his face, knowing that this had to be done for Irwin's sake. "Is this really necessary?" Buzz asked, giving an uncertain glance in Rodger and Caruso's direction.

"...yes." Max responded, not moving his fixated gaze from the two teens struggling on the table in front of them. The teenagers were aboard the submarine that Moynihan had showed them before. She had told them to go there so she could take a look at Caruso's injuries. The only reason why she hadn't thought of using the sub before was because she couldn't locate it without her specialized scanner. She had made a scanner that would detect her 'invisible' submarine and guide her to it. But when Michelle destroyed the scanners and computers, she had prevented Moynihan from finding this contraption.

"But why?" Buzz asked, holding out his hands in confusion. "Wouldn't it just be easier to strap him down to something?"

Max shook his head, eyes closed. "No... Moynihan said that would be a bad idea. It might frighten him more and he would fight harder, and in the process hurt himself or one of us." Moynihan had told them to hold Caruso still physically while she went and got some of her medical supplies she had aboard the ship. Caruso, knowing that what Moynihan might do would hurt, started to panic a little and tried to get away. "She thinks it might be a little less frightening of one of us holds him."

"How would it be less frightening? Wouldn't he just start to associate us with the pain?" Buzz asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Max's eyes widened a bit when he heard that. Buzz was making a good point. Moynihan's plan might only made Caruso more afraid, and that was the last thing they wanted. But he still trusted her plan and decided not to deviate from it, especially since Moynihan was in the room with them, trying to get close to Caruso but keeping her distance when Caruso started to strike at her with his foot. She didn't seem to notice the conversation that was going on between him and Buzz. "Makes sense. Still..Moynihan hasn't really steered us wrong before..."

"Ms. Moynihan hasn't been herself lately!" Buzz hissed in a low voice. "She might have said those things without thinking! You never know!" He made sure his voice was too low for Moynihan to hear them. Caruso's fear-filled screams also helped to muffle their voices. "Look, it's not that I don't trust Moynihan, but given the circumstances..I'm not sure if it is wise to listen to her until she's feeling completely better."

"She hasn't really snapped once today..." Max said, sounding a little surprised. He was pleasantly surprised that Moynihan's temper hadn't really snap today, or if it had, he wasn't around to see it.

"No, but McFinn told me about how he saw her eating a raw steak!" Buzz said in an urgent tone of voice. Max's eyes widened in shock. Before he continued, he glanced over at Joanne to make sure she wasn't looking at them. Then he turned to Max, speaking in a very low tone. "It's true. He saw her chowing down on an uncooked steak and she seemed to be enjoying it."

Max shook his head in complete disbelief. Was Moynihan going to tell them about this? This is not normal, completely out-of-the-ordinary for Moynihan. If she were still a Velociraptor in both body and mind, then it would seem normal. Max could imagine Victor eating a raw steak. But not his own teacher! No, this has to be some huge mistake. Maybe McFinn had been mistaken. Maybe he thought he saw her eat a raw steak. Maybe it was just done rare like some steaks are. Yeah, that had to be it. "Maybe McFinn was mistaken, Buzz. Moynihan could have just had the meat cooked rare or something, making it look like it was raw..."

Buzz shook his head. "There was no steam coming off of the steaks, Max. And there was no hint of brown on it anywhere, or from what McFinn told me anyway. And the steak was dripping with that red liquid it sometimes has when it's not cooked all the way, or at all. It was dripping off the meat almost like it was blood." Buzz was sounding a little freaked out at the idea of Moynihan eating raw steaks, and Max couldn't blame him. It was starting to creep him out as well. It was almost like she was obtaining a taste for flesh. "He sounded frightened as he told me, and from what he told me..I would be frightened too..."

"Did she..do anything else?" Max asked hesitantly. Buzz shook his head. "Well that's good at least... Maybe she is just getting those weird cravings like what pregnant woman get when they..well..."

Buzz smirked slightly. "You know how ridiculous that sounds? Do you really think Moynihan is pregnant?"

"Well no..." Max said. "I was just using that to describe the kind of craving she was getting. I don't' think it's anything too serious." Max glanced over at Moynihan, who was still trying to get at Caruso. "I don't think we should concern ourselves with it. For now, we should focus on Caruso."

"Hold still, Caruso!" Rodger shouted, holding Caruso as tightly as he could. Several times, he almost lost his grip on the boy when he thrashed around enough to loosen Rodger's grip. He almost slipped through, but Rodger managed to grab onto him again and held him in place. He didn't want to do this, but he had no choice. He was merely following orders from Moynihan.

"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" Caruso shouted, shaking his head violently from side to side. He bared his teeth at Moynihan, who continued to try and get close to him. He narrowed his eyes and kicked his feet at her again, almost making his mark.

Moynihan looked a little hurt when he kept on doing that. It pained her to see him acting like this, especially when all she wanted to do was help him. She wanted Rodger to hold him still while she checked on the injuries in his mouth, particularly the big one on his tongue. When Rodger told her about what happened, she immediately wanted to check it out for herself. But she knew that, since it was going to be very painful, that Caruso would fight back, or panic like he was doing now. She wanted Rodger to hold onto him instead of having him strapped down. She didn't want to appear to be the bad guy. And she didn't want to be like Dr. Veloci. Tying someone down is something he would have done.

"Irwin Caruso." Moynihan said in a loud yet soothing voice. "Please, calm down. I just want to help you." She slowly approached him again, but he kicked at her again and she took a step back. But she continued to try to advance on him. She tried to make herself appear as less menacing as she could. "Shh... I just want to help you. Please..calm down..." She said in a softer voice, and smiled, hoping it would help Caruso relax.

"Listen to her." Rodger said. He was holding Caruso so tightly that he could feel the boy's heart pounding loudly in his chest. "We only want to help you. Just settle down and it will be over with soon."

But Caruso refused to listen. His struggles increased when Moynihan took a step forward. He wasn't mad at her or any of them. He just didn't want his mouth to be touched. He didn't want to have to bear the pain once again. It was just too horrible for him. He didn't know how much longer he could withstand the pain in his mouth. And he would do anything to get away from it, including disobeying his mentor. "Just get away from me! Don't touch me!"

"Settle down." Moynihan said again, a little more firmly this time.

Caruso continued to struggle in Rodger's strong arms. But as a few minutes passed by, his struggles seemed to lose more and more strength. He was starting to wear out. Rodger relaxed his arms just slightly so he wasn't holding Caruso as tightly. He didn't want to hurt him. Slowly, Caruso stopped struggling, but his face was still contorted into a fearful glare and his teeth were now bared, threatening to bite anyone who came close to him. If he had more energy, he would be trying to bite Rodger now.

Feeling a little more confident, Moynihan slowly approached. This time, Irwin didn't try to attack her. He just glared at her as she got closer. Lifting up one hand, she slowly brought it over to Caruso. Despite his low growling, she continued to get closer until her hand was on his head, carefully avoiding the area where he had the large head wound. As she stroked his hair to calm him down, Caruso's expression slowly softened and he was starting to relax a little more. Eventually, he lowered his head in submission, finally giving in. Moynihan smiled softly. "There..." She said in a gentle voice. "That wasn't so hard, was it? Feeling better now?"

Caruso slowly nodded his head. "Yes... S-Sorry about..."

"No need to apologize, Caruso." Moynihan said, smiling. "I understand what you are going through." With that, she moved her hand away from his head, now focusing her attention on his mouth. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a flashlight and some gloves. She immediately put her gloves on and turned the flashlight on. "Now..open up your mouth so I can have a look inside." Reluctantly, Caruso opened up his mouth. Moynihan pressed a finger against his front teeth just like Rodger had to open his mouth a little more so she could get a better look. She shined the flightlight inside and had a good look around. She was horrified by what she saw. "Oh my..."

"Wha...? Wha ih it?" Caruso said, his words slurred and incoherent due to his mouth being wide open. "What you hee?"

But Moynihan didn't respond to him. She was seeing what Rodger was seeing earlier at the school, and now she fully understood why he was so concerned. Most of the cuts inside the mouth had healed and were closed completely. But a few were still red and bleeding a little, probably from Caruso using his jaws too much. But one wound in particular caught her attention. The deep cut in his tongue had reopened, having been split open a little wider than before but not bleeding as much as it was before. This could only have happened from excessive use of the tongue, which she sure Caruso was doing because the boy loved to talk. She saw the beginning signs of an infection and she knew that he needed to be treated as soon as possible or he would get sick.

Joanne leaned back, moving her hands away from Caruso as she gave him a solemn look. "The deep cut on your tongue has reopened, Caruso, and has resumed bleeding. I thought you were told not to speak so much." Caruso's eyes widened, and he became unable to respond to what Moynihan said. The other kids looked shocked as well. Rodger closed his eyes, knowing his suspicion was just confirmed. "It's not only bleeding again, but it looks very swollen and it has split open once more. I also saw signs of it becoming infected." Moynihan wasn't sure if she could do anything for it. She didn't have too many things for mouth injuries like this. And she knew if she put anything on it, it would put Caruso through excruciating pain. But if she didn't do something, then the wound was only going to get worse. "We have to get that treated."

Caruso cringed back, almost knocking Rodger down onto the table as he did so. He quickly shook his head rapidly, not wanting Moynihan to touch him on that area. He didn't want to experience even more pain than he already was now, despite the fact that the wound could become infected. He didn't want that to happen, but he just didn't know if he could stand even more pain. He knew that Moynihan meant well. As she said, the 'mothersaurus' knew best. He knew he should trust her on this, but for some reason, he was finding it more and more difficult to completely trust her. He wondered if it was because of the change in her behavior or what he had experienced with Victor, who was a Velociraptor just like Moynihan was.

When Moynihan reached towards him again, Caruso started to struggle again, forcing Rodger to hold onto him tightly. Despite that, though, Caruso still struggled, hoping that he would get free this time. "No..no..don't touch me!" Caruso cried out when Moynihan managed to grip him by his lower jaw and carefully, yet somewhat forcefully, position his head so that he was looking at her, and not shaking his head from side to side like he was before. Caruso bared his teeth at her again and said, "Let me go... OW!" He yelped and closed his eyes tightly. A few tears of agony flowed from his eyes. The wound on his tongue had stung him once again.

"Shhh..." Moynihan said in a calm voice, doing her best not to be shaken by what was happening to Caruso. She needed to keep herself level-headed so that she could help him feel better. "I only want to help you. I know the treatment might hurt, but in the end, it might help you feel better..."

"Yeah..." Rodger said. "She's only trying to help you. But if you keep panicking like you are, then you will only get worse. You do want to feel better, don't you?" Caruso opened his eyes slowly and nodded his head. "Then listen to Ms. Moynihan. Just settle down and let her help you."

"I do not blame him for panicking, Rodger." Moynihan said in a calm, understanding voice. She slowly released her grip on Caruso, not wanting to make him feel like she was going to deliberately hurt him or anything like that. "He went through so much when he was Victor's prisoner. It's obvious that he doesn't want to experience anything like what he had then ever again. The pain he might feel could send him back into that state, and make him panic. That's why he doesn't want me to treat him."

"Then..." Buzz interjected. "..if it just sends him back, would it be better to just let the wound heal on its own?"

"That's a worse idea than trying to treat him and risk making him panic." Max explained, sounding a little more serious than he usually does. "Don't you get it? If we don't treat it, the wound could kill him!"

Buzz winced, glancing back over at Caruso. He and the others had gone through so much to get their friend back. He didn't want their efforts to be in vain all because of one wound. He didn't want Caruso to end up dying from something he suffered while in Victor's hideout, not after everything they did to try and save him. But he still wondered how they could treat a wound that was inside someone's mouth. On an arm or a leg, he could understand. But he knew little to nothing on how wounds inside the mouth could be treated. "How are we going to treat him anyway?"

Fiona stepped forward. "Yeah. The wound is inside his mouth. How can we treat something there?" She shrugged her shoulders, her eyes slightly wide with fear and apprehension.

"I have some medicine I could smear on the wound." Moynihan said softly, not taking her eyes off of Caruso. It was hurting her to see him like this, so full of pain and misery, and to top it all of, he was becoming terrified, though for a very good reason. She did have something that could help make the wound heal faster, but she knew Caruso was not going to enjoy it. "Unfortunately, it will sting. It's almost like pouring lemon juice into an open wound." Caruso's eyes widened so much that Moynihan could have sworn she could see the blood vessels in his eyes. She quickly shifted her gaze over to Rodger. "You will have to hold him still so I can treat the wound."

Rodger nodded, but he thought of a better idea that might work better and relieve Caruso of having to experience the agony of having such medicine being put on an open wound. "Professor Moynihan, not to question you or anything, but wouldn't it be easier just to have Caruso go dino? We then could shoot him with the Chiller and make him go dormant and then treat the wound while he's asleep. That way, he won't have to experience nearly as much pain, if any at all."

Max nodded his approval. He liked this idea. It would allow them to treat Caruso's wounds without having to restrain him. And Caruso would benefit from it too, as he would not feel any pain while he was unconscious. He turned his head to Joanne and said, "Yeah..I like that idea. What do you think, Ms. Moynihan? Do you think it could work?"

"Hmmm..." Joanne turned her gaze towards the ground, her eyes narrowed a little. She was thinking about what she should do. Should she go on with what she had mind? Or should she go for the plan that Rodger had proposed? She did she the benefits of Rodger's plan. It would make it a lot easier to treat Caruso's mouth wounds. But at the same time, it would create a problem. They wouldn't know how long he would stay unconscious and they couldn't keep him dormant for too long, or he could die. But if she went with her plan, they might not be able to do much for the boy. He would be lashing out at them to try to stop the pain. She started to rub her forehead as she started to get a mild headache from thinking about this too hard. She was having a hard time deciding, just like she did when she had to decide whether or not to allow that one woman to be hired into the school. What was wrong with her? She usually doesn't take this much time to make a decision.

Caruso had relaxed once again, still being held by Rodger. He did feel bad about the way he was acting. He didn't want to do this. But every time he felt a little afraid, he would end up overreacting, and panic. He felt a little grateful that Moynihan did not really blame him for his actions. After what had happened to him while with Victor, it was understandable. Victor had inflicted excruciating pain on him in an attempt to break his will and his spirit. And unfortunately for Caruso, even though he has been away from that horrid place for two weeks now, he still hadn't completely gotten over what had happened. And every time he panics, he fears that he will regain control after he already sank his teeth into one of his teammates, like he had with Fiona.

Fiona had forgiven him for what he had done, of course. He hadn't really meant to do it. He wasn't in complete control of himself. He was panicking, and was merely trying to defend himself. She couldn't blame him for that. But Caruso still felt horrible about it. Fiona had to go to the doctor about a week and a half ago. Her parents had insisted on it. They wanted to make sure that the wound did not become infected, especially since Caruso had been grinding his teeth into her to do more damage. Fiona's wound was disinfected and treated once she reached the doctor's office. Luckily, they did not try to draw a blood sample to see what the problem was. If they had, they would have spotted the dinosaur DNA that mingled with her own human DNA.

Buzz wasn't sure what to say at this point. He did like what Rodger had suggested. But part of him wasn't sure if it was a good idea. He remembered what the others told him about what happened at the dinosaur hockey game that he had missed out on. It seemed kind of scary to him that the team could not wake up Rodger, no matter what they did, until they breathed heavily on him that is. Buzz wondered if they would be able to wake up Caruso so easily after he went dormant, and what could happen to him if he stayed dormant for too long. And they couldn't be one hundred percent sure that Caruso would not react to the treatments, even if he was unconscious. He might still feel the pain and still react, perhaps clamping his jaws down on whoever is touching him and do some gruesome damage. In order to prevent that, they would have to wire his jaws wide open, but where would they get such a device large enough for a Stegosaurus?

Fiona hardly moved her eyes away from where Caruso was sitting. She bit her lip as the others, particularly Moynihan, were trying to decide whether or not to have Caruso go dino so they could make him go dormant. Fiona wasn't sure if she wanted that to happen. Seeing the boy on the ground again, and in Stegosaur form, would bring back so many bad memories from what horrible warehouse they were in before. Even though she would know he was just sleeping, those old feelings of hurt, devastation, and being heartbroken, they would all come flooding back to her. But that wasn't the only thing on her mind. Although she wasn't feeling entirely up for it, she did want to take Moynihan's advice and speak to Caruso when she had the chance to get him alone, away from the others. She wanted to tell him how she felt before fate would again intervene.

After what seemed to be a long silence, Moynihan finally made her decision. She decided to go with the easier option, the one involving shooting Caruso with the chiller while he was a Stegosaurus. There were still risks involved, but it was probably their best chance at helping the boy feel a lot better. "Okay, Rodger. We'll go with your plan." She said, nodding her head. "You can release Caruso. We need to give him some room." Rodger nodded and immediately released Caruso, who quickly stood up, but didn't try to run away. The others did the same thing as Rodger was doing, backing up away from Caruso in order to give him some space to transform. Moynihan gave a sideways glance to Fiona. "Fiona! Get the Chiller!" She then turned back to Caruso. "Caruso, go dino!"

Fiona hesitated for a few seconds, but quickly decided it was best not to question Moynihan. "Okay, Ms. M!" She quickly left the room to locate the Chiller, which she had somewhere near her motorcycle. They had brought their dinocycles with them. They thought it would be easier going to the submarine with their dinocycles instead of the Dino SUV because the dinocycles were easier to hide and store in the underwater ship.

Caruso hesitated, but complied to Moynihan's command. He closed his eyes and his entire body glowed. He rapidly grew in size, starting to take up the majority of the space in the room. Some of his teammates fell onto the ground to avoid being pushed by his large feet or knocked down by his massive spiked tail. When he reopened his eyes, he was completely transformed. He cast his almost glaring eyes down at this teammates, feeling bad about him taking up so much room. 'Sorry guys.' He thought spoke to them, lowering his head a little.

"It's all right, dear." Moynihan said, using one hand to gently stroke the top of Caruso's Stegosaur head, careful to avoid the cuts that were still visible. It was frustrating that the wounds would not heal once they transformed. Instead, the wounds would remain in some way. For example, if Buzz's wing membrane was torn, lacerations would appear on the underside of his arms and perhaps his sides. "You don't need to apologize."

Within a few minutes, Fiona returned, Chiller in hand. She made her way towards Moynihan. Once she was standing behind her, Fiona held out the device and said, "Here's the Chiller, Ms. M."

"Thank you." Moyihan turned around and grabbed it from the young redhead. She then turned her attention onto Caruso, who was eyeing the device with nervous, glowing eyes. "Okay, Caruso. This won't hurt a bit. Just hold still." She said as she leveled the weapon up, one eye closed as she tried to make it right on target. Caruso didn't say anything. He just closed his eyes tightly and waited for the blow. He knew this was not going to hurt, but he still braced himself, part of him thinking that he will experience pain from the Chiller. Moynihan's finger pressed against the trigger, and then a foggy substance shot out at a very high speed.

Caruso bellowed loudly as the cloud-like material struck him in the face. He shook his head wildly, unable to open his eyes because of how fast the material was striking him, although he could feel no pain. He felt an overwhelming chilly sensation overcome him as Moynihan continued to spray him in the face. She then started to move onto his sides, spraying his back, his legs, and his tail. Caruso's whole body started to shiver as his body temperature rapidly dropped. Caruso started to curl up onto a massive, plated ball to try to get warm. But Moynihan just continued using the Chiller on him, making it useless for him to try to warm up. Finally, he started to feel drowsy. He shook his head, trying to fight the feeling of wanting to go to sleep. But the drowsiness wouldn't let him fight back for long. Caruso's jaws slip wide for a yawn, and then he slumped to the ground, his eyes closed softly. He laid on his side now, one leg crossover the other as he started to snore, the tell tale sign that he was now unconscious.

Moynihan removed her finger from the trigger, satisfied that Caruso was now out, unconscious. She lowered the Chiller at her side and then turned to Max. "Okay, he's out cold. No pun intended. Max, go get the equipment."

"What equipment?" Max asked.

"The medical equipment." Moynihan responded. "They are in the cabinets over there." She pointed a finger in the direction where the cabinets were. "Please be a dear and fetch them for me."

"Oh, okay." Max nodded and proceeded over to the cabinets.

Moynihan then turned to Fiona. "Fiona, go get me the mouth brace. We need to make sure he doesn't close his mouth during the procedure." Fiona gave her a look that made Moynihan feel bad about what she said, even though it wasn't the same thing as what Victor did. "Don't worry...It won't hurt him."

"I know." Fiona said, her eyes slightly downcast. "Just that...the name reminds me of that...that thing that was in his mouth when we found him."

"The human bridle." Moynihan said, a bit of anger in her voice. "I remember Victor designing a similar device before I parted ways with him. I'm not entirely sure why he designed it back when, as he did not work with humans. But I am certain that, recently, he created that horrid thing to break the spirit of any rebellious humans. That thing should be destroyed." Fiona narrowed her eyes and nodded. "Anyway, I just want to make sure his mouth does not close on me when I'm treating the wound on his tongue. So, can you please get the mouth brace for me?"

"Sure." Fiona said as she turned and walked away to get the brace for her mentor.

Moynihan turned her attention back onto Caruso. She didn't have anything else that she needed at the moment, so she had no orders to give to Rodger or Buzz. The two teens just stood there, watching her as she turned her attention on the large Stegosaurus in the room. Moynihan placed a gentle hand on Caruso's head, just behind his eye. "You poor dear..." She whispered as she eyed the scars that now covered his face. They were still noticeable, both by sight and by touch. She gently stroked his head. "You'll feel better soon.."

At first, the faint scent of blood coming from his mouth was worrying her deeply. She wondered if he had lost a significant amount of blood between the hours he was at school and now. She also wondered exactly how she was going to stop the bleeding. She could try to disinfect the wound with some kind of cream or medicine. But she couldn't bandage the tongue up. The saliva would weaken any adhesive she had available and cause the bandage to slip down or be torn off. She could only hope that it wound seal up on its own soon so that the wound couldn't become infected or inflamed again. She also had to make a note to herself to contact her herpetologist friend, just in case Caruso didn't get any better soon, and have her help out with the situation.

But as she stood there, waiting, the scent of blood was starting to arouse something else inside of her, something that almost frightened her. The feeling of hunger was starting to get to her. She had already eaten, but for some reason, she was feeling hungry all over again. The scent of blood was enticing her, taunting her, mocking her. It played around with her emotions, making her feel conflicted and confused. She shook her head and moved her head away a bit away from Caruso's head. But the scent of blood was still clinging in the air. Her eyes slowly widened as she felt herself drool a little, a response that many animals had in anticipation of food. Without realizing what she was doing, she slowly leaned in towards Caruso, her eyes locked onto his throat. She briefly licked her lips, and opened up her mouth...

"Okay, I got the medical stuff, Ms. Moynihan!" Max shouted as he walked back towards the old woman, in his hand carrying a box of medical supplies. Moynihan was quickly snapped back into attention, breaking the trance that she had just previously been in. She placed her hand on her chest and breathed a little quickly, realizing what she was about to do. Max noticed her anxiety and gave her a concerned look. "Hey...are you okay?" He placed the box down and moved towards her to help her. "Maybe I can help..."

Moynihan quickly held a hand in front of him, rejecting his help. "No..no, Max. I'm fine..." She said, not moving her gaze from Irwin. "I don't need any help."

"Well...okay..." Max said, turning a little to pick up the medical supplies and handed it to her. "Here are the supplies that you wanted."

"Thank you." Moynihan grabbed the box from him and set it at her side. She made sure it was a good distance away from Caruso in case he moved in his sleep. But she kept it close enough so that she wouldn't have to strain herself too much trying to reach for the supplies.

Not long afterward, Fiona came back into the room, holding something large in her hand. It was a bright white color that bared a very vague resemblance to the human bridle. But this one was clearly of a different function. There were strong strings and two thick bars. It was designed to keep a huge mouth like a Stegosaur's wide open, but not too wide so that they didn't break the jaws. The leather and metal was smooth, not jagged like the bridle was. It was designed to fit comfortably on whoever was wearing it, and was even slightly padded in some areas. This reduced the amount of discomfort that the brace might put the wearer through. It looked to be about the right size for Caruso, but if it wasn't, there was no way to adjust the size.

Fiona carried the large brace over to Moynihan. "Here's that brace that you wanted, Ms. M." She was about to set it down, but Moynihan held up a hand to stop her. "What do you want me to do with it?"

"Put it on him." Moynihan pointed towards Caruso, whose mouth was already open. But regardless, Moynihan gently pulled the mouth open a little wider and held it in place to give Fiona the chance to slip it on him. Fiona moved in closer and carefully put the brace on, gently pressing the two bars against the top and lower jaw without causing any damage. Once it was on, she stepped back and Joanne let go of his mouth. They needed to make sure that the brace wouldn't fail during the procedure. When Caruso's mouth remained firmly wide open, they relaxed a little. But there was still work to be done. Moynihan turned to Buzz and said, "Buzz, go get me some large cloths! You know where to find them, don't you?"

Buzz nodded his head. "Yes I do." With that, he quickly left the room to go fetch the cloths.

As soon as he left, Moynihan turned her attention back onto Caruso. She reached into the kit, and pulled out a large tube filled with a type of cream. It would help disinfect the wound and might also help seal the wound long enough for the bleeding to stop and the wound could heal. But before she could even put it on, she would need something to wipe the blood away from the tongue. And for that, she would have to wait until Buzz returned with the cloths. But as she was waiting, a dreadful thought plagued her mind. What would she have done if Max hadn't gotten her attention? Would she have bitten Caruso? She quickly shook her head, trying to keep focused at the task at hand, especially when Buzz had quickly returned with the cloths she had asked for.

"Thanks, Buzz." Joanne said. She then proceeded to treat Caruso's wounds, hoping that they had started just in time. It was crucial that she get this done as soon as possible. But she still couldn't help but wonder about her behavior recently. She couldn't get it out of her mind. She knew there was something terribly wrong with her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She gazed down at her hand as she reached into the mouth to begin padding the wound to soak up the blood and was horrified. The kids didn't notice it, but she did, almost right away. Her claws had popped out from her fingers. "Oh..my..." She whispered, terrified.

"What do you mean I missed them?!" A tall blond man yelled, holding a relatively large video camera. The man wore a brand new outfit, a solid black jacket and an inner dark gray shirt, along with long dark blue jeans. He was standing in front of a construction worker, who was dressed in a bright orange outfit. The construction worker was giving him a hard look, holding onto his shovel tightly. The blond man was O'Ryan, a scheming newscaster obsessed with getting footage of dinosaurs. He was now working solo, having fired his cameraman, who kept complaining to him about how he always took all the credit. He liked it better this way. He could make all the decisions without anyone holding him back.

"I'm sorry." The construction worker told him, sounding just as agitated as O'Ryan did. "The attack here occurred about two weeks ago. Where have you been all this time?"

O'Ryan growled, grinding his teeth from side to side. "Well it's not my fault that the stupid news station here decided to wait so long to let people outside this city know about what happened!"

From what O'Ryan is hearing from this construction worker, the news team from this city had decided to keep the dinosaur attack a secret to just this city until a certain amount of time has passed. It was probably done to avoid a panic attack across the nation. But it still annoyed O'Ryan to no end. He had been looking for a worthy, legit dino attack for a long time and he comes here just to find out he's too late! He growled under his breath again. He wanted to lash out at the worker, but he held back, knowing it was not going to get him anywhere. He would have to try again to find another dinosaur attack. He knew of five particular dinosaurs that constantly showed up, but he never did seem to get to the area in time. He would always miss them. If only he could just move a little faster, maybe he'd be able to get footage. Then no one can mock him again!

Being this close and then failing was bringing back some old, vengeful feelings he had locked up inside of him. He recalled how some annoying kid kept bugging him every time he and his former cameraman were trying to shoot some footage of the dinosaurs. He had to admit, though, the kid was persistent. Even after multiple times he's tried to lose the kid, he kept showing up. But that was the teen's only positive point. O'Ryan was still pissed off at how the kid had thrown his camera down into the ditch. He was certain that the boy had done that on purpose. And the footage contained something more than just dinosaurs. It contained someone actually transforming into a dinosaur! He could have become a millionaire with that!

The footage could not recovered at all. The camera was too far damaged. All that work, all his work, it was now gone for good. There was no way to get the tape fixed. It was charred by the electric current that flowed through it when it smashed. If the kids' darn friends hadn't shown up, he would have strangled him. He could have gotten away with it too. No one but his cameraman was around, and he could have always bribed his cameraman to keep his mouth shut. But, then again, what good would killing the kid have done? It wouldn't have gotten his precious footage back anyway. And if anyone had found out, he would have gone to prison. Maybe it wasn't really worth it.

But then again, maybe it was. The kid had lost him footage that would have stunned even the most skeptical of scientists. Maybe he could have sent it in to Victor Veloci. Even though Victor was a humanitarian and not a paleontologist, he might have been interested in such footage. He had heard the man has some interest in dinosaurs. O'Ryan, himself, was shocked by the footage. He was absolutely stunned to see some normal-looking teenager transform into a dinosaur. He wondered if the other dinosaurs were actually humans in disguise. That would explain why no one's been able to track them or even confirm they were actually dinosaurs. O'Ryan could visualize himself winning some kind of award for his discovery.

"Excuse me, sir." The construction worker said. "I know you might be fascinated by what we are doing, but we have to get finished rebuilding this road. And you standing there is not going to make it go any faster."

As he turned and left the construction site, a thought soon dawned on him. His thoughts had trailed back to that kid that was bugging him before. He recalled how he had seen a dinosaur, a large Stegosaurus, appear out of nowhere and just block the small, narrow road that he was on. And then it just disappeared. Then, out of nowhere, the kid shows up, acting as if he was tracking the animal. But O'Ryan nor his cameraman had seen any signs of the kid before the dinosaur showed up. They had noticed the kid after the Stegosaurus disappeared. O'Ryan thought it was a little strange that the kid would just appear out of nowhere like that after something as big as a dinosaur disappeared. He started to wonder something. Could this kid have been one of them? One of the dinosaurs?

His eyes slowly narrowed. That would explain why they had only seen the kid after the Stegosaurus disappeared. They were nowhere together in the same field of vision. They had not been there at the same time. And the Stegosaur did have similar colors as the kid. He could have sworn the kid's pants and the Stegosaur's plates were the same shade of red. And the kid's hair was the same shade of purplish blue as the Stegosaur's large body. Could that have been just a mere coincidence? Perhaps, but still, O'Ryan was becoming certain that the kid was a dinosaur. That could be why he destroyed his camera. He was protecting his T-Rex friend!

As he gritted his teeth a little harder as he made his way towards his car, another thought came to his mind. He knew he had to find this kid again. He must find him! He was the proof that he needed that dinosaurs existed! But where was he to look? He wasn't sure. They could be anywhere. He didn't know where this blue-haired boy lived, nor the other kids either. He could search for months, even years with no results. And he was not able to get to a dinosaur sighting fast enough to get a hold of them. He started to wonder if it would be pointless for him to even try. He probably had no chance on getting in contact with that kid or any of his friends again unless he got extremely lucky.

But as he placed a hand on his car door, pushing it open, he happened to look back at the wreckage and noticed something. Whatever dinosaur made this was heading in a specific direction. There were a few areas where it seemed to go off course, but it still seemed to be going in roughly one direction. It started to look as if the dinosaur knew where it wanted to go and was relentless on getting there. His eyes trailed up to follow the tracks of the large dinosaur. They seemed to be headed in the general direction of what appeared to be a large white and red lighthouse, although it was so far away he couldn't make it out one hundred percent clearly. At first, O'Ryan wasn't entirely sure if this was where the animal was headed. Maybe it was headed in the same general area, but not towards the lighthouse.

But as he examined the tracks and their general direction over and over again in his mind, he slowly started to become convinced that the creature was probably retreating and heading towards the lighthouse. That building was probably their hideout, where these so-called dinosaurs went to rest and replenish their energy, and whatever else it is that they do. If this was their hideout, O'Ryan had to admit that it was pretty good. No one would suspect dinosaurs hiding in a lighthouse. And the place looked pretty isolated as well, a good distance away from civilization, far enough away from them to even be dinos outside the lighthouse without being noticed by many people.

Grinning, O'Ryan got inside his car and quickly shut the door. He turned the key in the ignition and the engine roared to life. He quickly pulled the shift back so that he pulled out of the spot he was previously in. He then pushed the shift forward so that he was on his way, back down a back road he had taken to reach this spot as quickly as possible. He knew just what he was going to do. But he had to get home first and look up a specific phone number. And then he had to set up an appointment. His smile widened as he thought of his potential discovery. "Okay, kid...you wanted to be a star? Well..then so be it..." He chuckled as he patted his camera that was sitting next to him. He continued to drive off as the lighthouse and the construction work went completely out of sight.