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...

23. Betrayal

"Leave me alone!" Peter shouted as he marched towards the exit of the hospital.

"You aren't supposed to leave yet!" A nurse, the some one in charge of cleaning his room, shouted back at him, trying to pull the man back towards his room. But Peter wouldn't have it and just kept pulling himself away from the woman, intent on getting out of this hospital. "Your injury hasn't healed enough for you to be permitted to leave! You've got to wait!"

Peter turned to look at her and gave her a scowl. "I've been in that hospital for two weeks! If I have to stay in there for one more night, I think I'll go crazy!" He didn't care what the doctors said. He didn't care what the nurses said. He didn't care if his arm was not completely healed or not. He wasn't going to let this slow him down. He was going to march back down to Raptor Dyne, resume his job there, and seek revenge on that darn kid who managed to trick him into thinking that those pitiful 'weapons' were of any threat to him.

The nurse, regardless of the man's resistance, continued to try and pull him back. She knew that she didn't stand much of a chance getting him back, but with his broken arm, she thought she would have some what of an advantage. But she was wrong. Even with the broken arm, the man continued to pull forward, forcing her to slide along the floor several times on the heels of her shoes. She said in a desperate voice, "Sir, please! You're not completely well enough to leave! If you leave now, you could injure that arm even more and you could end up with an amputation!" She hoped that she would get through to him with that warning. Indeed, Peter did pause, but he then continued to pull forward, unfazed by the warning, much to her shock.

"Thank you for the warning, miss." Peter said callously. "But I'll take that chance... I can't afford to stay here much longer." He stopped in his tracks and looked down at the woman. She looked up at him, confused. He could tell that she didn't know or understand why he wanted to leave so badly. But even if she did know the truth, she probably would still try to keep him from leaving. Nurses were so stubborn. Hospitals in general were stubborn as far as Peter was concerned. "Let's just say if I don't get back to my job soon, I could suffer dire consequences."

The nurse furrowed her brow suspiciously. "You mean you'll get fired? What kind of job could anyone have that requires them to ignore severe medical conditions?"

Peter closed his eyes. "Just don't worry about it, miss. It's..it's nothing you should concern yourself with." In a calm voice, he asked, "Now..can you please let me go?"

The nurse looked at him, still thinking that he was crazy. He did sound confident that leaving the hospital now was not going to create a problem. But what did he mean by 'dire consequences' if he didn't return to work soon? And why wouldn't he tell her about it? But then again, it wasn't any of her business. What right did she have to try to get hospital patience to tell her everything about their lives? If she weren't still holding onto Peter's arm, she would slap herself in the face for being too nosy with the man. Peter probably did know what he was doing and he was in the hospital for two weeks and within that amount of time at least some healing would have taken place. Maybe she could let him go, not that she could really stop him if she didn't.

The nurse slowly released her grip on him. "Okay, fine. If you really want to leave, go ahead." She felt a pang of guilt in her heart. If her boss found out about this, what was he going to say to her about it? What would he do to her? What was her punishment going to be? "...but if you get hurt again, don't say I didn't warn you."

"Thanks.." Peter said as he moved his unbroken arm away from the woman and towards his front. He then lifted it up and put it on the door that he was standing in front of. He paused again, and thought about what the woman had told him. He gave her a sideways glance. He wondered if he should heed her warning and stay in the hospital. Part of him did want to stay and fully heal. But the other part of him wanted to leave, largely because he wanted to get revenge on one particular member of the Dino Squad, as well as the team in general. They broke his leg, and that one kid had made him into a fool! They couldn't get away with that. They couldn't!

And yet... perhaps leaving now was not the best option for him. He was still healing, after all, and like the nurse said, if he suffered another bad injury, he could end up losing the arm if it is severe enough. He continued to think, wondering which was more important to him: his life or revenge. Well that was an easy question. Of course his life was more important. But even though he knew this, Peter couldn't bring himself to just stay put. He had this burning feeling inside of him, urging him to leave and go back to Raptor Dyne. And he was still worried about what Victor would think about his absence. He wondered if Victor was growing impatient with how long the healing process was taking. If not for his arm, he should get back to Raptor Dyne to save his job.

"Are you sure you aren't going to change your mind and stay here?" The nurse asked, sounding a bit hopeful. Maybe Peter would change his mind at the last second and decide to stay put. "It would save you a lot of trouble if you would just stay here."

"I'm sure.." Peter said, looking away from her. "I just..don't want to lose my job. I've been away long enough and I used up all my vacation time."

The nurse nodded her head. "Okay, mister." She took a few steps backwards. "Goodbye." She was about to turn around and walk away, but then something unexpected happened. Peter had turned around, took a few steps towards her, and planted a quick kiss in her cheek. The woman froze where she stood, startled by the kiss. Even though it was more of a farewell kiss than a romantic one, she couldn't stop herself from blushing. "Oh..."

"Don't worry about me, sweet cheeks." Peter said to her in a soft, surly voice. He winked at her and then said, "I'll be fine. Just return to your job and don't get all worked up over this, okay?"

The nurse touched her cheek where he had kissed her. "Okay...mister.." She managed to say.

Peter smiled at her, and then he turned around and made his way through the doors. Once he was out, he looked up towards the sun, something he hadn't seen in a couple weeks now, and smiled up at it. He gave in a sharp inhale of fresh air and exhaled. He looked back at the hospital. The nurse had already left, probably to go tend to another patient or report to her superiors. He shook his head. That nurse was so nagging and so annoying. At least his less-than-genuine kiss was enough to get her off of his back. He turned around again and made his way down the sidewalk. He started to make his way towards where he knew Raptor Dyne was, but then he realized something.

"I don't have a way to get there..." Peter said, feeling so stupid that he forget to get a mode of transportation. What was he going to do now?

"You need a ride?" A feminine voice asked. It was very faint, although it sounded louder a little bit with each word spoken. It sounded like it was coming off from the distance, and from what Peter could tell, it sounded like they were coming in fast, probably circling around the hospital or something along those lines. It didn't take too long for the person he had heard to show herself. When he saw that it was Oscura, he grimaced. She wasn't whom he was hoping to see. Oscura said, "Need a lift?"

Peter noticed that she was coming in on a motorcycle. It took him a double take to realize that its appearance was not like anything he usually sees in motorbikes. The appearance was custom made. It took on an appearance that was very Troodon-like. The bike itself reflected Oscura's dino colors, with the main parts of it a bright red while it had stripes of pink and orange on it. She was wearing a helmet, mostly red with some pink in coloration, and it was slightly shaped like that of a Troodon head. The bottom part of the helmet was lined with pointed triangles, shaped like teeth. The build of the bike suggested that it was made for speed rather than pure power. It was sturdy, but still quite thin and actually looked a little frail. He wondered how the teen had gotten a hold of such a motorcycle.

"How did you get that motorcycle?" Peter asked as Oscura came up to him.

Oscura twisted her wrists in towards herself, activating the brakes on her motorcycle. The wheels started to rapidly slow down and then quickly stop. The loud screech filled Peter's ears and he quickly covered one of his ears with his unbroken arm. As the motorcycle skidded to a stop, a gust of dark gray smoke rolled out from the exhaust pipe on the edge of the bike. Once she had stopped and was standing in one place, Oscura pulled her helmet off. Her hair was a little messed up from the ride and she quickly smoothed out her hair before greeting Peter. "Hello, Peter. I'm surprised to see you out of the hospital this fast."

Peter narrowed his eyes at her. He was going to ask her why she was out here, this far away from Raptor Dyne, but he decided not to ask her now. As much as he hated to admit it, she was her only ticket back to Raptor Dyne. He did need a ride after all, and he didn't have his cellphone with him. It had been broken back at the hospital much to his dismay. He would need to buy a new one and he'd have to do it as soon as possible. "I will ask you again, Oscura." He pointed his finger at the motorcycle. "Where did you get that bike?"

Oscura hopped off of her bike and leaned it on its stand once she kicked it out from the side. "Oh this thing?" She asked innocently, stroking the top of it as if it were some kind of weird pet. "Victor designed it for me. He hasn't finished one for Michelle yet, though."

"Where did he get the idea?" Peter asked.

"He got the idea from the Dino Squad." Oscura said. "He saw their motorcycles and thought they were a good idea. Motorcycles are a little easier to make than cars and other large vehicles. Though we already have motorcycles, he thought he should start designing a few dinosaur-like ones This is the first one that he designed. He made it specifically for me, and I happen to be the beta tester." She put her hands on her hips and straightened herself up, lifting up her head into the air as she said that, acting all proud and snobby just because she is the first to try out one of Victor's dinosaur-like motorcycles. "Of course, he did do one thing differently."

"And what is that?" Peter asked.

"He gave this one the traditional engine. You know, the one that makes the carbon exhaust stuff? The kind that increases global warming? Yes." Oscura chuckled softly as she glanced down at the exhaust pipe. "Victor dislikes these 'energy efficient' engines because they threaten to slow down, or even stop, global warming altogether. So he made sure to equip my motorcycle with such an engine to ensure that every time I use it, I bring him closer to the environment he lived in sixty-five million years ago."

Peter shook his head. He lifted up his hand towards the sky, his hand flat down. It was like he was holding a tiny cup or something, but there was nothing in the palm of his hand. "Isn't it enough that millions of humans are already contributing to global warming? Why would he need the extra help from someone like you?"

Oscura shrugged her shoulders. "Every little bit counts, or so he says." She then pulled her motorcycle back up and proceeded to jump back onto it. She looked back at the man and said, "Well? Don't you want a lift back to Raptor Dyne?"

Peter looked at her suspiciously. He knew of her reputation at Raptor Dyne and he wasn't sure if he should completely trust her. Even Victor is likely cautious around her because of her ambitious and trickster ways. If it weren't for her dinosaur morphing powers, she wouldn't even be a part of Raptor Dyne. "Okay then...but no tricks." He warned her. "If you try to fool me, I'll just go dino and squash you!"

Oscura was unfazed by the threat. She burst out laughing, eyeing his arm with an evil smile. "You? Go dino? While wearing that cast? Don't make me laugh!" She continued to laugh for several seconds before forcing herself to settle down. She moved herself further up towards the front of the bike, making a little bit of room on the back. "Okay, I won't try to trick you. Just jump on!" She quickly placed her helmet back on, completely concealing her face, and gripped onto the handlebars. The standing stick had been pushed back up so she was now supporting the bike with her own legs and feet.

Peter continued to eye her with a suspicious look in his eyes, but he figured he didn't have much of a choice. Letting Oscura take him back to Raptor Dyne was at least better than a total stranger, or even worse, traveling the distance on foot by himself with a broken arm. As he got on the bike with Oscura, he looked back at the hospital, and started wishing that he had stayed behind in the first place and not try to leave. But it was too late now. Oscura twisted her wrists and the motorcycle roared to life. Soon they were speeding off along the road. Peter tried his best to hang on with only one arm. Oscura offered some assistance by wrapping her Troodon tail around him.

"What if someone sees your tail?" Peter asked nervously.

But Oscura didn't seem concerned about it. "Oh calm down, will ya? Motorcycles go too fast for anyone to take notice of a tail. And besides, we're taking the back roads back to Raptor Dyne, limiting the amount of people that will see us." She eyed him quickly and said, "Besides, even if they did see the tail, how many people do you think will believe it? People will think they were crazy!" She turned her eyes back onto the road.

Then something struck Peter. "Hey, why were you at that hospital anyway?"

Oscura shrugged her shoulders. "I dunno. I was just riding around, testing out this new motorcycle, and didn't realize just how far out I actually was from Raptor Dyne." She closed her eyes and laughed a little. "I didn't even realize I was in Maine until I saw this hospital."

Peter narrowed his eyes. He was having a hard time believing this. Oscura wasn't the type to suddenly forget where she was. And even if she had forgotten, the signs alone would have reminded her of where she was. Unless she was taking back roads all the time, she should have seen the signs and posters and all that stuff on the road, which would have told her where she was. He believed that Oscura was lying to him. There must be another reason for her being at that hospital, but what?

"Now really, Oscura. That doesn't sound like you." Peter said, tightening his grip on her to support himself a little more. "You, an intelligent young person, forgetting where you were half the time and only realize you were in a different state until a few minutes ago?" He chuckled lightly. "Come on, do you really expect me to believe that? Now, what is the real reason you were here?"

Oscura opened her mouth to answer but then paused, contemplating what she was about to say. Was it really any of Peter's business of what she was doing at the hospital? Yes, she was out for a test drive and she had already told him that. But she was also out there looking for Michelle, whom hadn't gotten back to Raptor Dyne yet. Victor had told her that if she saw Michelle to give her a lift back to Raptor Dyne. As much as Oscura hated Michelle, she agreed to do it. It did give her an opportunity to twist some story about Michelle to make it look like she was doing, or attempting to do, something wrong, at least in Victor's eyes anyway. No, Peter didn't need to know that.

Shaking her head, Oscura finally answered Peter. "I'm sorry, but that is confidential. I cannot tell you anything. Victor made me swear not to tell anyone." That part was a lie, but she figured that Peter would be stupid enough to believe it. He was so loyal to Victor, as were many of his other followers. Though she wondered if it was because they respected him, or if it was because they wanted to stay on his good side and not get hurt. It was probably the second reason; humans were so pathetic sometimes. They would do anything to keep themselves out of trouble. That was probably the reason why so many people joined up with Victor. They wanted to ensure their own safety, and yet Victor could still turn on them at any time. Oscura wondered what would happen if Victor did do such a thing and how she, herself, would be effected.

"Victor said that?" Peter said almost absentmindedly after Oscura gave him her answer. While he wouldn't doubt that some things Victor wouldn't really want spread around Raptor Dyne, he was unsure whether or not he should believe Oscura. She hasn't always been known in telling the truth. She has even lied to Victor very recently in an attempt to get Michelle in trouble. The thought made him chuckle a little. He wondered how Oscura thought she could so easily trick Victor Veloci after working for him for such a good amount of time. "Okay..if you say so." He said, a tone of doubt in his voice. He didn't say anything further as Oscura continued to take him back to Raptor Dyne.

* * *

Later that night, Buzz was sitting down in his room back in his own house. He was holding a gaming controller in his hand and staring at his television screen. The screen was displaying some kind of title screen, but Buzz, for the first time in his life, didn't really feel like playing a video game. His mind kept going to Michelle and what she said, particularly about Caruso and Moynihan's fates. As much as he didn't trust her and hated her, he couldn't help but wonder if she really was telling the truth. If she was, he was frightened for he wouldn't know what to expect. They wouldn't know when Caruso would be attacked because they wouldn't recognize them without their costumes on. And as for Moynihan, how would they know when she would just suddenly attack with no provocation?

There was no way that they could really prepare for any of those scenarios. This meant that the only way to be completely safe is if they defeat Victor once and for all, or at least find some way to make him leave them alone for a very long time. But what could he and the others do to a powerful billionaire? It wasn't like they could just walk up to his hideout and plan a full-scale invasion. For one thing, Moynihan would forbid such a risky tactic, and the other thing was security; they were very lucky that the security at the warehouse was not as strong as it would have been at Raptor Dyne. To even think about trying to invade Raptor Dyne was suicide. There were just too many risks involved and the only way to succeed is to be very lucky, like how Caruso was when he used his lotion to control the ants. If the ants weren't there, he would have failed in rescuing his friends.

Thinking of Caruso and looking at his controller made Buzz realize something. He still hadn't gotten a rematch from Caruso. He narrowed his eyes and began to think about it. Caruso might not be in the mood to play a video game, but at the same time, it would offer some kind of relief, something else to think about besides the pain he was still in and it was something to keep his mind off of Dr. Veloci. He glanced at his cellphone, which was placed on a table where his pet tarantula was currently residing. He started to consider calling Caruso now and see if he would be interested in playing the online dinosaur game, but then something else came to mind. Was the game even still online? With the computers that had the game on it destroyed, although mostly repaired now, was there even any servers running the game now?

Buzz turned his gaze back to his video game. He had put in a dinosaur video game, but not just any dinosaur game. It happened to be the one that he was playing when he first realized he had Pteranodon wings. He hadn't really touched the game much ever since. This was one of the few times he dared put in it. He didn't know why, but something about the game, ever since that incident, frightened him. He considered starting a new game, but a pain in his gut told him to turn the game off. Giving in, Buzz got up and switched the console off. The TV screen instantly went black. He quickly thought better of it, being afraid of the dark and all, and quickly turned it back on, but muted it so that the sound would not bother him. He dropped the controller on the ground and went over to sit on his bed. He placed his head in his hands and rubbed his face, trying to think of what he should do.

But he didn't get much time to think. He started hearing voices coming down the hallway. He quickly got up and moved towards the door. He pressed his ear against the door to try and hear the voices better. He quickly recognized it as his father and mother talking. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but he thought he heard his dad say something about wanting to speak with him. Buzz took in a sharp gasp of breath. He wasn't expecting his father here at this time. He quickly looked at his room and realized how much of a mess it was, even more so than usual. He scolded himself for not picking up his stuff like his mom had told him earlier. He quickly ran over to put his console and controller away so that at least something was out of the way. The boy then returned to the door.

Pressing his ear against the door again, Buzz was no longer hearing the voices of his parents. Instead, his eardrums were filling up with the sound of footfalls heading towards his bedroom. He quickly backed away and sat down on his bed, and waited for his father to come in. As he waited for the few seconds that it would take his father to come in, Buzz started to ponder what his dad would want with him. It must be important if he would want to suddenly, unexpectedly, wanted to talk to him. But what he would want to talk to him about, Buzz couldn't think of anything that it could be. Maybe his dad wanted to try to get him a job at his workplace. Buzz flinched at the thought. The last thing he wanted was to go for a job that not only did he have no idea what it was, but would cut into his Dino Squad fighting days. It would increase the chances of him having to reveal his Pteranodon form to his family, something that he felt, now, that he should have done a long time ago.

The doorknob started to turn and the door quickly opened up, revealing Buzz's father, Drew Buzmati, who stepped into the room. Buzz was expecting his father to smile at him and give him a hug since they don't get to see each other too often because of the job. But to his surprise, there was no friendliness in his father's face. Instead of a smile, there was a frown. Not an angry frown, but a sad and confused one. His father looked more confused than happy or angry. He stood there in the doorway, looking as if he was pondering on what to say. He rubbed the back of his head nervously, giving his son a look that told him he wasn't sure what to say.

Finally, Drew took in a deep breath and stepped completely inside the room. He turned around briefly to close the door. He then turned around to face his son. He took a moment to look around the kid's room. He forced a chuckle. The room was as messy as it usually was. That was typical Buzz. He then turned his head to Buzz and wondered what he should say to him. He couldn't just outright ask his son if he was a dinosaur. That was just crazy and it would make him suspicious. And he didn't think he could just say that he wanted some of his blood. That would probably shock Neil and make him feel very nervous, especially if he really did have dino DNA in him.

Drew got himself to give his son a greeting, although it was not as happy as he had wanted it to be. "Hello, son..." He looked around his room once again before taking a few steps further into the bedroom. "How are you?"

Buzz felt a bit disappointed. This was not how he expected this meeting to go. His father didn't sound too sincere in his question. It was like he wanted to ask him something, but didn't have the heart nor courage to even ask him. "I'm fine dad..." Buzz then made a weak attempt at a conversation. "How was work today?"

Drew winced slightly at that. But he answered Neil nonetheless. "Oh it went all right, Neil... Just had to do some paperwork was all." It was a lie, but, for now, his son didn't know just whom he was really working for. And he felt it was best of Neil never found out. "You're..probably wondering why I'm here, aren't you, son?"

Buzz nodded his head. "Well yeah..I mean why wouldn't I? You and I hardly ever see each other anymore since you got that job at..." He narrowed his eyes as he realized that he still had no clue where his father was working. But where ever it was, he must be making a lot of money for them to be able to afford all the pets and games that Buzz had. "..just where do you work, dad? You never told me...or mom."

Drew blinked a few times, a little surprised Buzz asked him that. He didn't know why it surprised him though. He should have known that this question would have come up sooner or later. "I..I'm sorry, son..But I am not able to give you that information." He did wish that he could tell his son the truth, but there was no way that he could.

"But..but why not?" Buzz asked, sounding very confused. "Why can't you tell your own son where you work at? What is it going to hurt?"

Drew shook his head. "I'm sorry. But I can't tell you that. But..there is something you can tell me." He knew he still needed to somehow get blood from his son. But before he did, maybe he should ask him this unsettling question first. He moved towards the bed and sat down next to his son. He fumbled with his fingers for a few seconds before looking down at Buzz and asking slowly, "Do...do you know anything about those..dinosaur sightings that we sometimes see on the news?"

Buzz flinched visibly, hoping his father wouldn't see it. Unfortunately, Drew had seen the gesture, but decided to stay quiet about it. Buzz looked up at his father and said, "..yes. What about them?" Buzz wondered what his father would want to know about dinosaurs. He briefly wondered if his dad had seen a green Pteranodon fly near this house. The idea frightened him. What would his dad think of him if he knew he was a dinosaur?

"Well..." Drew started to say, trying to come up with the best way to ask the boy. "I was wondering if you..." He almost finished his sentence to ask him if he was a dinosaur, but he quickly stopped himself when he saw the expression on his son's face. His eyes were widened and his mouth was partially open as if he was going to gasp in shock. This indicated that what Victor had suspected was true. "..if you had seen them personally. You know..up close?"

Buzz almost let out a sigh of relief. His father just wanted to know if he had seen the dinosaurs. For a second there, he thought that he was going to get discovered before he was even ready to explain the situation. But something came to his mind. His father had actually paused before finishing the question. Was he nervous in asking him? Did he think that he was going to upset him by asking that? Or maybe... Buzz narrowed his eyes at the thought. But there was the chance, a slight chance, that his father was going to ask something else, then saw his expression and immediately changed the question. Was his father going to ask him if he was a dinosaur in the first place?

Buzz looked up at his dad again. "Well..no, not really. Is there any reason why you are asking me this?" His father flinched at the question and Buzz immediately sensed that something was very wrong about this. Without really thinking about it, he started to edge a little bit away from his father and as he looked at him, his eyes widened a little bit. "What...What is it that you have been hiding from me, dad?"

"I'm not hiding anything from you, son." Drew responded, trying to move a little closer to his son. "You've got to believe that. I would never hide anything from my own family." He wished he could say something to make the boy feel better, but the words slipped his mind.

Buzz wanted to believe his father, but one thing still gave him reason to doubt him. "Then why won't you tell me and mom where you work at? Why can't you tell your own family your career? It's not like we are going to judge you or anything."

If Buzz was indeed a Pteranodon, then he would judge his father for working for Victor, Drew thought as he stared at his son. He really wanted to tell him the truth, but threats from Victor held him back. If he revealed any information and it is found out, he could be severely punished for it. He couldn't risk losing his wife or his son, even if he was one of those 'perfect dinosaurs' that Victor has been wanting for so long.

"I'm sorry, Buzz. But if I..." Drew paused, biting his lip nervously. He didn't know if he should tell his son this, but if he didn't, then the boy would never truly understand why he can't reveal any information. "..if I reveal any information, and I'm found out..I'll suffer..consequences." He looked at his son with a worried look on his face. "I don't want you or your mother getting hurt because of me. So please...stop asking me where I work, okay?"

Buzz looked at his father in shock and became uneasily silent. His father couldn't tell him anything because if he did, someone at his job would hurt him or his family? Buzz was in denial at first, hoping that his father was just joking in order to scare him into not asking again, that it was just a cruel joke. But the longer that he looked into his father's eyes, trying to find some kind of hope that he was lying, he found nothing; his father looked dead serious about what he had told him. The gravity of the information started to weigh on him, making a sharp pain jab at him in the stomach, making him feel a little sick. He tried rubbing his stomach to make the ache go away, but it only got worse.

It just didn't make any sense. What kind of job could his father have that he couldn't tell anyone about what was going on? What kind of job would issue a punishment for that, involving the threat of family members? Maybe his father was a jewel thief or something, going to stores stealing jewelry for people and getting paid a bounty for them. Or maybe he was an assassin, going around killing people for large doses of cash. There were all sorts of disturbing jobs running through the punk kid's mind at that moment, jobs that would really put his father on the spot if he were found out.

But then one job in particular came to his mind. There was one job that he could think of that would force the employers and employees to swear to secrecy, a job where every precaution is taken to ensure that its true intentions are never found out by the public. The very thought sickened Buzz even more thinking his father was even involved with this group, but it was the only thing that would make sense to him. He looked up at his father, his eyes widening in shock. "You...you work for Victor Veloci..." His voice was full of dread and fear. He moved further away from his father. "..don't you?"

Drew closed his eyes and lowered his head in shame. His son figured it out and even though Drew himself didn't say anything, he could already sense the terror in his son's voice. His son was not very happy with the idea of him working for Victor. And if the kid knew anything about the guy, then he couldn't really blame him for it. Neil was right in fearing and distrusting Victor. The guy was crazy, trying to bring back the dinosaurs. Drew worked for him so he would have a chance at surviving the upcoming return of the dinosaurs. But now he was starting to feel guilty about joining in the first place. If his son was this upset with him for being a part of Raptor Dyne, then what hope would he have in convincing Buzz to at least be happy that he was thinking of the family?

Drew didn't answer Buzz right away. He, instead, starting to move towards Buzz, reaching out with his arms to try and hug him. But Buzz kept wrenching away from him, not allowing the man to even touch him. Buzz looked too afraid to let his ow father try to comfort him. Even though he hadn't verbally confirmed of whom he worked for, his actions alone confirmed Buzz's fears. He wasn't sure if he wanted to let his father get close to him at this point. He also felt too angry and upset with his dad to want to talk to him too much. How could his father keep this a secret from him for so long? And how could he, himself, fail to know that one of his own family members was working for Victor? How could he have been so ignorant?

Drew recalled Victor's words. He still needed a blood sample from his son. But at this point, there was no way he could get it willingly from the kid, and he couldn't hope to bring him to a doctor to get blood drawn. They would want to know why he wanted the blood to begin with, and how would he get his son to go to the doctor in the first place? Buzz would probably put up a fight and manage to get away before he could even get the kid into the car to go see the doctor. And if he could turn into a Pteranodon like Victor thought, then Buzz could easily fly away to get away from him. Drew sighed softly. There was only one thing left that he could do, but he wasn't going to like it very much and he knew that Buzz was not going to like it very much either.

Buzz narrowed his eyes at his father. "You should have told me about who you were working for..." Buzz hissed under his breath. Instead of yelling at his father like he wanted to, he turned his back on him and refused to make eye contact. However, this would quickly turn out to be a very big mistake. But how was he to know what was about to happen...?

Drew reached into his pocket, confident that his son wasn't going to see, or smell, what he had in his pocket. "I'm sorry you feel like that, son. And I'm sorry that I never told you this until now.." He moved a little closer, trying to be as quiet as he could. With one arm he reached forward slowly to grab him quickly. In the other hand, he held a small cloth, slightly damp and giving off a faint smell. He had put a little chloroform on it. Luckily for him, Buzz didn't pay any attention to it. "And I'm also sorry for this."

Without warning, before Buzz realized what was going on, his father grabbed onto him. One large, muscled arm was pressed against Buzz's chest, pinning his arms at his sides. The other arm, the one with the cloth, was quickly pressed against the boy's mouth. Panicked and shocked by what was going on, Buzz's eyes widened in horror and he started to struggle in his father's grasp. He wanted to go dino, but something was holding him back. The smell on this cloth, it was driving him insane, preventing him from thinking straight. It didn't take him long to realize what it was: it was chloroform. His struggles increased, and he started kicking wildly and tried frantically for free his arms. But his dad was too strong for him and he found himself being held pretty still, forced to breathe in the chloroform on the cloth. His mind started getting a little foggy, but regardless, he still fought back.

Drew didn't want to do this to his own son. He didn't want to do it to anyone. But it was the only thing he could think of doing that would reduce any chance of him really hurting Buzz and still getting the blood sample for Victor so that Victor wouldn't do anything to hurt him or his family. He continued to hold onto his son's struggling body, pressing the cloth against his mouth as hard as he could, doing his best to ignore his son's whimpers of fear. "I'm sorry it has to be this way... But I need to get a blood sample from you..." He whispered in his son's ear. "He wants to know if you are the Pteranodon...and if I don't get him the blood sample, he'll hurt me..or even you or your mother.. That's why it has to be this way..."

Shortly after, Buzz's mind quickly became foggy and he was unable to fight the chloroform for much longer. He quickly and suddenly stopped struggling. He fell limp in his father's arms. His mouth hung open loosely and his eyes were shut softly as if he had just fallen asleep. Drew quickly pulled the cloth away and stuffed it back into his pocket. He had to work fast. The chloroform was only going to keep Buzz knocked out for about an hour at best. He settled his son's body on the bed as if he were just sleeping. He pulled one out so that it was hanging off the side of the bed. He took out a leather strip and tight it tied around the boy's upper up to make the boy's veins pop closer to the surface so that it would be easier to draw blood out.

Drew pulled out a sharp needle. He looked down at this son and said, "I'm so sorry, Neil..I hope you can forgive me for this..." With that, he opened up the plastic cap to the needle. He inspected it for several seconds and then shoved it into Buzz's arm and began to draw out dark red blood...

* * *

Approximately forty-five minutes later, Drew had gotten the blood sample that he needed and had put it inside his pocket. He had stopped the bleeding in his son's arm, bandaged it as tightly as he could to keep it from bleeding again. The bandage that he used, white in color, stuck to the boy's skin. In the middle, where the needle had punctured, was a cloth, soft, pushing against the tiny hole. He then moved Neil a bit further onto the bed and lifted his arm up and rested it at his side. He pulled the blanket from underneath him and pulled it over his son's body, and then carefully rested the boy's head on the pillow. By the time he was finished, it looked like Neil was just sleeping.

Drew sat back down on the bed and stared at the sleeping boy's face and felt a sharp pang of guilt inside him. He couldn't believe he had just done this to his own child. Drew closed his eyes and lowered his head in shame. What kind of father was he? To knock out his own offspring like that... Even if he did have a reason, not everyone will be so understanding. What would his wife think when she found out about this? And when Buzz would come to, what would he think of his father? Would he be understanding? Or would he end up hating him for what he had done to him?

Drew felt it was better that he leave at that moment. After gently stroking Buzz's head, planting a quick, goodnight kiss on his forehead, and apologizing for his actions once again, Drew quickly got off of the bed and made his way towards the door. Opening it up, he gave one last sympathetic glance at Buzz before he turned off the light and shut the door behind him. He made his way back towards the front of the house and started walking towards the exit. Before he got to it, however, he was interrupted by his wife.

"Where are you going?" His wife asked, her eyes slightly narrowed. She was wearing oven mits and an apron, so the man suspected that she must be in the middle of cooking something, or at least close to being finished.

"Out, dear." Drew responded.

"Oh no you don't." His wife put her hands on her hips. "You haven't even eaten your supper yet! And it's almost done. You should stick around for a little while longer. It's been a while since we had a real family dinner." She turned around and headed back towards the kitchen. "I'm sure Neil would like it if you were to stay for dinner."

Drew gulped at that thought. He stammered, "N-No...I'd rather not..."

His wife was incredulous. "What? Why?" She thought that he would be happy to eat with the family. Before he got this mysterious job that he can't reveal any information about, they always enjoyed the family meals together, chatting and talking about what was going on with their lives and such. "You used to really enjoy them..."

"It's not that, Megan." Drew said as he moved his way into the kitchen so it would be easier to talk to his wife about this issue. He could smell the steamed vegetables cooking in the pots and Megan had something cooking in the oven. While it smelled of meat, it was most likely imitation meat. Buzz was a vegetarian. "It's just that, if I don't get back to my job, my boss will...fire me, for lack of a better word..."

Megan nodded her head. "Oh of course, your boss..." She said in a sarcastic tone. This wasn't the first time Drew had used that excuse to leave home as quickly as possible. "And just what is so scary about this boss of yours? You seem to be terrified of him. I know bosses can be harsh, but sometimes you act as if this boss of ours is a real monster!"

"You couldn't be more correct about that..." Drew muttered.

"What do you mean?" Megan asked.

"Oh nothing." Drew quickly said, realizing what he almost said. He hoped that this would discourage his wife from asking him further, but that was just wishful thinking. Once he made that statement, it was too late and how his wife started becoming a little suspicious as well.

"Don't 'oh nothing' me, Drew!" Megan said. She was starting to sound a little concerned. She wondered if her husband was being abused at work and if this was true, she wanted him to quit that job as soon as possible. "Did something happen at work? What is it that you are not telling me? Come on.." She placed her hand on his shoulder. "You're my husband. I'm your wife. You can tell me anything. Is your boss..abusing you?"

Drew answered, "Sort of..." But then he quickly answered with, "But it's nothing I can't handle! Look, don't worry about it. I'll be fine."

Megan didn't believe him. She reached up to touch his face, but pulled her hand back when her husband turned away from her. Something must really be upsetting him, but what? The woman wanted to ask him so badly. She wanted to let him know that he could tell her anything he need to, or wanted to. But in this case, he didn't seem to be in a talking mood at the moment, and she thought it would be best to not pressure him any further. She nodded to him, removed her other hand from his shoulder, and moved away from him.

"Okay, Drew..." Megan said as she returned to cooking dinner. She moved towards the oven. She pulled it open, closing her eyes for a few milliseconds as the wave of hot air hit against her face. She took a look inside. In the oven, on one of the two racks in it, sat a long dish with tin foil over it. She thought of taking the food out to inspect it, but thought it would be better if she waited a little while longer. She turned her attention back on Drew, how hadn't left the kitchen just yet. Since dinner was almost done, Megan wondered if she should get Buzz out now to get something to eat. He must be hungry by now. "Drew, could you go get Neil? Dinner's almost ready and I'm sure he is starving at this point." She picked up a couple cloths and was going to use them to wipe off the counter, which was a little messy at the moment.

Drew winced at the question, though she didn't see him do this. With the guilt he was feeling, he almost had the courage to tell her what he had done to him, but he quickly caught himself. He couldn't tell her what he had done to Neil. What would she think of him? "I...I don't think that's a good idea..." Drew managed to say, his voice low and somewhat fearful.

Fearing that something was wrong, Megan quickly turned to him, almost dropping the cloths that she was holding in her hand. "Did something happen to him?!" Her voice sounded so urgent and so scared. Drew started feeling guilty about what he'd said, but he couldn't bring himself to respond. His eyes slowly trailed towards the direction of where the boy's bedroom was. His gaze was broken when he felt his wife grab onto him. "Drew, answer me!" This time, her voice sounded a bit more forceful than she intended it to be.

Drew forced himself to let out a light chuckle, confusing Megan enough to make her let go of him, back away, and look at him with a perplexed expression. Drew continued to chuckle, offering her a smile as sincere as he could muster. "Oh, honey, you sometimes take things so seriously." He slowly shook his head. "Neil isn't in any danger; he is just sleeping! That's why I said it probably wasn't a good idea to call him out." Drew stopped chuckling, but the smile on his face continued to remain. His lips parted in a friendly grin. "I don't think it's wise to wake him up now. He might be hungry, but if he's too tired to get something to eat, well..just let him sleep then."

But instead of calming his wife down as he had expected, this only made her even more confused. At first, Drew couldn't think of why she would be confused. He gave a pretty good logical explanation for why Neil would be absent and why it would be a bad idea to call him out just yet. He thought that his explanation would relax his wife. He had no idea that it would make her even more confused. Then he realized why she was confused. Due to his video gaming habits, Neil sometimes tended to stay up very late at night. And it was still too early, at least to Neil, to be sleeping. He wouldn't be nodding off at this point; he would be in his room, lights out probably, and the TV turned on, either watching TV, or, more likely, playing a video game, probably one of those dinosaur ones he had gotten not too long ago.

"But Neil stays up till around midnight or so playing one of those darn video games of his." Megan said, her eyes narrowed. "I still don't know how he can stand playing one of those games for more than an hour.. but he manages to do it.." Megan was hardly a video games fanatic and generally regarded them as a waste of time. Nonetheless, she permitted Neil to play video games as much as he wanted to provided that he at least get his homework done and studied as much as possible to keep his grades up at school. But because he would stay up till around midnight, it would be very unlikely that Neil would be tired around this time. "But how could he possibly be tired now? It's not even nine o'clock yet!"

Drew did his best to act as confused as she was. He leaned back and lifted one arm to scratch the back of his head in a slow manner with a single finger. "That is a good question Megan. I'm not sure... I just went in there and he was very tired already." It hurt him having to lie to his wife, but it was the only thing he could do. He couldn't allow himself to get punished. He didn't want to lose his wife or his son. "I asked him why he was so tired and he said he just had a hard day and didn't want to talk about it. And before I could say anything else, he fell asleep. So I just picked him up and set him down in his bed and pulled the blankets on him. I shut off the light and turned the television set off and walked out."

"Why did you turn the lights and the television off?" Megan asked. It didn't have to do with what she was initially concerned about, but she was a little surprised that her husband would turn the lights off. Neil was quite afraid of the dark and didn't want his room to be completely dark. "You know Neil is afraid of the dark!" Her eyes were now narrowed a little.

"I know," Drew replied, "...but he needs to learn that he shouldn't be wasting electricity like that. And he was out like a light the last time I checked. I'm sure he'll be able to sleep just fine, regardless of how dark it is in his room." He quickly looked at the watch on his hand and realized he had stayed a little longer than he should have. At any minute, Neil was going to wake up and he didn't want to be around when that happened. And Victor wanted to see him as soon as possible. Patting the pocket that carried the blood sample gently, he turned to leave. "I'm sorry, but we can discuss this later. I have to get back to work now."

Megan let out a long sigh. She was disappointed that he had to go already. He wasn't home for very long. And she still wanted to talk to him about what had just happened. She still didn't understand completely why she couldn't know anything about her job. She didn't know why Neil would be sleeping this early, and she also didn't know why her husband turned off both the lights and the television set when he knew full well of the boy's fear of the dark. His notion of wanting to save electricity did actually make sense. She herself sometimes complained to Neil about his bad habit of wanting to keep both the TV and the lights on at night. The best she could do is get him to turn the lights off but leave the television on. But even then she wasn't pleased with the amount of electricity Neil would consume in just one day all because he refused to turn the TV off. But somehow, she couldn't be completely convinced that her husband's story was completely true. But who was she to doubt him?

"Okay, honey." Megan responded, giving him the best smile that she could force herself to make. As her husband opened up the door and made his way through it, she said loudly, "Goodbye!"

Although his back was turned towards Megan, Drew lifted up a hand and waved it and said, "Goodbye! I'll see you when I get back from work!" With that, he closed the door, leaving Megan to return to making dinner.

* * *

"Oooo..." Buzz moaned as he started to stir in his bed. His mind was very groggy and clouded up and he couldn't really remember much of what had happened. He felt a mild pain in his arm, but he sleepily thought that he had just slept on it wrong. For a while, he thought that he had fallen asleep, probably from playing his video game too long. He slowly pushed himself off the bed and sat straight up, his body hunched over and his head low, eyes closed. Then he slowly opened them up. It took him a few seconds to become aware enough of his surroundings to realize something was wrong. "Huh..what...?"

He looked around his room and slowly, quite slowly, he realized that it was too dark for him to see. The only light visible was from the small crack underneath the door, and even that was a little dim. He turned over towards his television set, which he usually has on. It was as black as the room. He looked up and the light was turned out. This he also usually has turned on. Even though he realized something was wrong, he didn't really make a full reaction just yet. He was still groggy and weak from what he thought was a short nap. He slowly got up from his bed and placed his head in his hands, trying to regain his bearings. "Man...why am I so tired...? And why is it I can't remember why I fell asleep in the first place?"

His eyes slowly traveled up to his digital clock. He had recently purchased it and he had placed it on top of his television set. He had done this so that he could easily see what time it was without having to put down the controller. His mother had called him lazy because of this, but he didn't really care. It suit him just fine. But as he read the numbers, Buzz noticed something else was wrong. The clock was reading eight fifty-four in the afternoon. This was odd, Buzz thought. He usually doesn't go to sleep until around midnight or a little bit after, although he sometimes went to sleep earlier than that, especially on a few school nights. But why would he go to sleep this early? By this time, he would usually be playing his video games...

Then something struck Buzz's mind and his eyes slowly widened. A few memories started flowing back to him. He glanced down at his gaming console. It was very hard to see it in the dark, but he could make out the shape just barely. He remembered he was playing something earlier, not very long ago. He was playing..or trying to play it, but then he put it away, but why? Buzz looked over towards the door, seeing the faint light on the ground. He was becoming more alert, and when he realized how dark it was in his room, he immediately rushed over to the switch and flipped it on. As the room quickly lit up with the brightness of the light bulb hanging from the ceiling, he let out a sigh of relief. He then walked over to his TV and turned it on, but kept it on mute. Soon his room was so brightly illuminated that it looked like it was daytime and that's just how Buzz liked it.

His mom sometimes complained to him about how his habits are going to run up the electricity bill, but Buzz didn't really care too much. He was terrified of the darkness, that fear more reinforced ever since the joined the Dino Squad. What if some mutantsaur suddenly burst into his room and he wouldn't be able to see it if the lights are off? How was he going to fight it and protect his mother and father if need be?

His father... That thought provoked more memories into Buzz's mind. He suddenly remembered that his father had come over to talk to him. He couldn't think of just what it was, but it was something important, or so he remembered. His father had seemed so nervous in telling him whatever it was. He had come right into this bedroom to talk to him. That was probably why Buzz had put away the game. Or maybe it was because he got bored of it. Buzz's mind was still a little big foggy, but the memories were coming back. And as he continued to think about what happened, he noticed a painful sensation in one of his arms, his right one to be precise. He tried to move it, but the sharp pain kept on shooting through his arm. It wasn't a terrible pain; more like a pricking feeling.

Then he slowly realized that there was another sensation on his arm. This sensation was soft and smooth, and yet tight at the same time. Something was wrapped around his arm. He looked down at his right arm and noticed something was wrapped tightly around it. He slowly leaned in towards it a little and gingerly touched it. It was a cloth of sorts. But why was it wrapped around his arm like this? He didn't get into any accident. He pressed against it carefully, and he felt the sharp pain again and he immediately pulled his hand away. He gently lifted up the cloth to take a look at the wound. After a few attempts, he eventually got it lifted up enough so that he could see a blood stain and what looked like a small hole in his arm, as if a needle was jabbed inside of him.

Suddenly, another memory hit him, almost like a freight train crashing through, plowing him down onto the hard surface of some broken road. Words flowed back to him, his father's words, and they made chills go down his spine. His father..he needed something..a blood sample, but why? Victor..the crazy scientist wanted a blood sample from him because he thought he was the Pteranodon... Buzz tried to keep himself standing as this shocking revelation struck him. His father had been working for Victor Veloci this whole time and he had taken blood out. But how could his dad have taken blood from him?

Then he realized what had happened. His father had grabbed onto him and held him firmly while he drugged him with a cloth soaked in some kind of smelly liquid. Chloroform, he thought. That was why he had felt so groggy when he woke up. That was why it was still so early in the afternoon, or night, at least for him. And the fact that his father had taken blood out of him was why there was a sharp pain in his arm. There was no other explanation for why he had blood a little and why there was a bandage there, coupled with a mild, sometimes sharp pain.

"...dad..." Buzz whispered, gently rubbing his arm as feelings of emotional pain set in. How could his own father do this to him? How could his dad have had enough courage to drug his own son and then take blood away from him? Buzz tried to fight the feelings of betrayal and pain, but he couldn't hold them back for much longer. He dropped down on the ground, his body hunched over, and started to cry. It wasn't like him to cry, but he just couldn't help it. The fact that his father had betrayed him like this stung him deep. The pain that he was feeling was as strong as when he thought that Caruso was dead. He tried to make himself stop crying and tried to feel better. But the emotional pain was too much and he found himself going from crying to sobbing uncontrollably.

Why? Why did his father do this to him? Why would he betray his trust like this? Buzz had thought that his father loved him and cared about him. But if his father truly loved him, would he have drugged him like he had? Buzz shook his head to answer his own question. No, he would not have. But instead, his father had went on with his plan. He had apparently only come to talk to him to try and get a blood sample from him for his boss, Victor Veloci. His father didn't care about him. He didn't care what pain he was causing him. He only cared about his own safety. As Buzz continued to sob, letting out all his pain, a new emotion started to take form inside his mind. A burning sensation in his heart and head spread, growing more intense as each second passed. It was feelings of anger that he had towards his father for what he had done. As his tears slowly stopped, he clenched his teeth and squeezed his hands into tight fists.

"He betrayed me...that selfish jerk! He betrayed me!" Buzz pounded the floor with one fist angrily. He didn't care if his mother could hear what he was doing. He didn't care if he was acting immaturely at that moment. All he could think about was how his father had betrayed him without much hesitation. All that was on his mind was his anger and bitterness towards the man that he had called 'father'. "And being tricked by some stupid girl online..I thought that was bad enough..." Neil growled in frustration again and pounded the floor. How could he have not seen the signs? How could he have been so stupid and trusted this man?! Was there anyone else he knew that wasn't trustworthy? His eyes widened. "Mom...?"

Megan looked over towards the bedroom where her son would have been sleeping. She narrowed her eyes slightly. She thought she was hearing noises. She couldn't make out what it was at first, but when she heard the sounds again, she became convinced that they weren't in her mind; they were real. And judging from the sound of them, it sounded like someone was pounding the floor, or kicking it or something along those lines. The only thing she could think of was that it was Neil. But how could that be? Her husband had just told her that their son was fast asleep. Could he have just woken up? Yes, that was probably what happened. Neil woke up and he was probably hungry.

Megan had already gotten the food out of the oven. Steam, colored a pale white, almost transparent, rose off the food, giving off a steady wave of heat. Using the fork that she was holding, she poked into the food to make sure it was cooked thoroughly. Satisfied that it was finished, she placed the fork on the table next to the plate of food and turned around. She decided to go inform Neil that the food was complete and that he could come eat now. But when she reached the door, and the sounds became louder, another sound also became apparent. It almost sounded like Neil was...crying.

Widening her eyes, Megan immediately grabbed the doorknob and rushed into the room to see what was going on. She was shocked to see Neil on the ground, on his knees, supporting himself with his arms. His head was low and he had a scary-looking scowl on his face, but tears were flowing from his eyes as if he was just starting to cry. But that wasn't what shocked her the most. Megan took a glance at his right arm and realized it was bandaged. That bandage wasn't there when her son had gotten back home...

"Neil..." Megan said carefully, reaching a hand towards her son, but she stopped when he looked up at her. His eyes were bloodshot, his cheeks were reddish in color, and the same scowl was still on his face. When she looked closer, she also noticed that he was shaking visibly in anger. It was clear something was bothering him, but what could it be? Megan moved a little closer to her son and knelt down onto the ground in front of him. "Neil..what's wrong? What happened here?" She looked at his arm. "What happened to your arm?"

Buzz stared at her for several seconds, continuing to shake in rage at the thought of what his father had done to him. Eventually his expression softened up and his anger melted away, replaced with sadness and hurt. His tears started to flow faster and he was trying hard not to sob in front of his mother. "It's...it's d-dad..he..." He stammered, closing his eyes tightly. "I mean..I never thought...that he..."

Upon hearing this, Megan felt her heart start racing. At first, she thought something had happened to her husband. This was unlikely, though, as she didn't hear anyone enter the house. And her husband just walked out the door. But if this isn't want Buzz was trying to tell her, there was only one other possibility, but she hoped that she was wrong. She didn't want to think that something like that could happen, not here, not to them. "What about your dad? What does he have to do with..."

Buzz cut her off, speaking in a pained, cracking voice. "He did this to me... He knocked me out...and he did this to me.." He gestured to his arm. He wanted to tell her that his dad took a blood sample from him, but he refrained from that. He knew that if he did, he would have to expose his secret to her. And he didn't think that now was a good time. "I..I don't know why he did it, mom...but he did..." He lowered his head again and started to cry once more, unable to look into his mother's stunned face.

Megan was at first stunned by what Buzz told her. At first, she didn't want to believe it. This didn't seem like the Drew that she had known all these years. He had never shown any notion of being mean to anyone. She didn't think that he would have the capacity to be cruel to their own son. He had never done this in the past. If he had, Neil wouldn't have been excited to see his father whenever he would have time to be with the family. Perhaps it was all just a mistake. Perhaps Neil was just so upset with his father having to leave so soon that he was just making up a story to vent out his anger into. Perhaps the bandage wasn't really covering a wound. Maybe it was just for looks. Carefully, Megan reached forward to inspect what she thought was a fake wound. But upon seeing the blood and hearing her son yelp in pain, she knew that he was telling the truth.

Megan swallowed hard, trying her best to handle this situation as maturely as possible and to accept this new information. The thought of her husband doing such a thing stung her deeply. But what was hurting her the most was how her son was taking it. He was crying, something he usually would never do. She didn't like seeing him hurting like this. She moved even closer to him and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a gentle hug. Neil didn't try to fight back, and he didn't try to hug her. He just leaned against his mother, his face pressed against her shoulder, and continued to try. Despite the fact that her shirt was getting moist from Neil's sobbing, she continued to hug him.

"Shhh..." Megan whispered softly, trying to calm Buzz down.

Buzz spoke, but his voice sounded muffled because it was still pushed against her shoulder. "How could he do this to me...? How..?"

"It's all right now..." Megan whispered as she started to gently rock him back and forth to settle him down. As Buzz's cries started to quiet down, she said, "We'll get through this..I promise."

* * *

Zoom sat back in his chair. He was back in his apartment after spending almost the entire day with O'Ryan, discussing how they were going to make their little plan work. Zoom's computer was turned on and he was checking his e-mail. Upon seeing that nothing interesting was sent, he logged out and leaned back in his chair, thinking about what O'Ryan had told him earlier. He had claimed to have known which kid was the T-Rex, or at least what he looked like. Zoom was a little doubtful because there could be a million kids that could fit the description. How could he be so certain that this kid was the one? Yes, he was in one of the general locations where there were a lot of sightings of dinosaurs, but that didn't mean that this one particular kid was the one.

But if he was the one, Zoom knew that if he captured him, he could get a huge reward from Victor. He knew the man was very interested in getting the T-Rex, even obsessed as he heard some of Victor's men say. Victor was so desperate in getting the purebred Tyrannosaurus that he even once left behind the other dinosaurs after he caught it, or so he had heard from one of the employees who were there to witness it. They had also commented, in a low whisper, that they were glad that the Tyrannosaurus Rex got away because they were afraid of what might happen if Victor was able to succeed in developing a perfect primordial ooze. That statement made Zoom laugh. He thought that, after all those years they worked for him, that they would realize, or at least have some idea of, what would happen.

Zoom contemplated about how he was going to catch the kid, provided that he was the T-Rex that Victor was searching for. If he truly was the one, then Zoom would have to be cautious. It was likely that the kid would know who he was, being a member of the Dino Squad. He wouldn't be able to just walk up to his house and convince him to take a walk with him or anything. The kid wouldn't trust him and his parents would surely become suspicious of the whole ordeal. Zoom would need to be more subtle and find some way to trap him. He could discuss this with O'Ryan, but O'Ryan was interested in getting revenge. He wasn't interested in getting praise from some billionaire, especially since he didn't even work for Victor Veloci and he probably didn't have plans to either.

The photographer quickly realized that he would need to find some way to get to the T-Rex before O'Ryan did while at the same time maintaining his alliance with the guy. He wanted to capture the T-Rex for himself to win more of Victor's trust, perhaps even letting him use some of his more..dangerous ideas, like the bomb. But he also wanted to make sure that O'Ryan was still willing to work with him and wouldn't get too angry with him. Zoom knew he would require help in getting revenge on all five of the kids. Getting the Tyrannosaurus Rex kid caught and imprisoned by Victor would be a good enough revenge for him.

But O'Ryan was different. It wasn't just Caruso that he was after. He also wanted the Tyrannosaurus. After learning that the T-Rex was part of the group called Dino Squad, he suspected that it was this kid that had sent him the false phone call that make him look like a fool. But even though this angered him greatly, his focus was still on Caruso for destroying his precious video camera, or specifically the camera that his cameraman used before O'Ryan fired him. Zoom suspected that the man would not be at all interested in trying to capture the T-Rex to give to Veloci. O'Ryan's idea of revenge would likely consist of exploiting the kid to become rich and famous.

"What should I do..?" Zoom said to himself, resting his elbows on his desk and leaning forward, staring at the computer screen. He was trying to think of what he should do now. He didn't want to linger too much on the subject of the T-Rex. His thoughts slowly shifted towards one particular member of the Dino Squad, the boy with the green hair. As O'Ryan wanted to get Caruso, Zoom wanted to get his hands on this particular punk teenager that stole his CD and gave a very bad first impression of himself to Victor Veloci. It was a little satisfying that Victor has given him another chance, but the fact that the switch happened at all still angered him.

Just then, his thoughts were interrupted by a knocking on his door. He groaned softly. He wondered who could be at his door at this hour. It was past nine o'clock, going on ten o'clock soon. Usually he himself would be sleeping at this hour and he figured almost everyone else was as well. So who could be wanting to see him this late at night? There was only one way to find out. Zoom got up out of his computer chair and quickly made his way towards the door. The knocking had increased in volume and was growing increasingly more rapid. Zoom said angrily to himself, "Sheesh..don't they know how to wait?" He was certain it was O'Ryan knocking on the door. Zoom rolled his eyes. Why does this guy insist on bothering him right now?

Zoom gripped the doorknob and turned it and quickly pushed it open. Thinking that it was O'Ryan, he said, "Now what do you want now, O'Ryan?! I'm very busy here!" But when he realized who it was, he faltered and took a few steps back. He immediately regretted yelling. "V-Victor Veloci?! I'm..I'm sorry, sir! I-I didn't know it was you.. I..."

Victor just smiled, not looking all that offended. He lifted up a hand. "No need for apologies, Mr. O'Donnell. I want to come inside and have a little word with you." His eyes narrowed slightly. "If that is all right with you."

"Oh..oh sure." Zoom stammered, still feeling stupid about yelling at a superior. He moved off to the side and motioned for Victor to get inside. "Please, come on in." He said as politely as he could. Victor walked in slowly and looked around the room. He stared at the computer for a few minutes before moving on. Zoom followed him. Eventually they went into the living room. Victor sat down on the couch on one end while Zoom sat down on the other end. Despite this, they were only a few feet away from each other. "So..what brings you here?" Zoom asked cautiously.

Victor leaned back into the couch, turning his head up towards the ceiling. He didn't answer Zoom right away. He wanted to build up the tension a little bit. He wanted to make the man feel a little afraid of his presence, to allow him to accept who was in charge here. He heard the man's heart pounding his chest and he heard his breathing quicken a little. Of course, Zoom would not have noticed this. Humans often don't notice when their bodily function changes. But Victor had a much easier time noticing this when he listened closely enough. He turned his head to one side, the side closest to Zoom, and spoke without looking at the photographer. "So did Kista tell you anything?"

"Did Kista tell me anything?" Zoom echoed the question. "When would she have told me anything? She hasn't talked to me since..." He then realized what Victor was asking about. He was probably referring to the phone call he had gotten earlier in the day, when Kista was still working at the school. Zoom nodded his head once. "Well yes. She did say something to me a few hours ago. She thinks she might have found something that would..no I'm sure it would interest you, sir."

Victor nodded his head. He thinks he knows what Zoom was going to tell him, but he figured he should let the man talk anyway. It wasn't going to hurt to receive old information. "Oh really? And what did she say, O'Donnell? And how would it interest me?"

Zoom said, "Well, sir, it seems that she thinks she has identified the..no wait..." He lowered his gaze, trying to recall the exact words spoken to him only a few hours ago. But he was having a hard time remembering. Why couldn't he recall them? He growled in frustration. While he was doing his best to hold back his anger, it was hard to keep himself from wanting to throw something to the ground, to lash out at something or someone, even Victor.

"What did she say?" Victor repeated himself, sounding a little frustrated himself.

"Let me think." Zoom said almost callously. He leaned forward and pressed his head against one of his hands, gently massaging his temples as he tried to think of what Kista said. He remembered her saying something about spotting two kids there that she thought was the Dino Squad. But did she tell him their names? He thought that she described their looks, but most of the description was alluding him. He recalled something about one of them being an african-american, or at least dark-skinned. The other one, the only details he remembered was that he was wearing a green jacket, which was not going to do much good.

Victor narrowed his eyes. His patience was starting to wear down. Answering a simple question should not be this difficult. It shouldn't take Zoom long to repeat whatever Kista had told him. Even a baby Apatosaurus would have no trouble in answering a simple question, spoken in the right language anyway. Only a pathetic human monkey like Zoom could possibly complicate such an easy question. "I will ask you this one last time, Zoom. My patience is wearing thin. What did Kista tell you?"

Zoom's eyes widened slightly. Victor's voice sounded much more menacing and forceful than it had before, frightening Zoom. Victor didn't seem to be in too good of a mood today. Either that, or he was in a hurry and wanted to get an answer as soon as possible. Not wanting to keep the man waiting much longer, Zoom struggled to try and put together a response in his head. As he did so, he recalled that some of the information was not given to him by Kista, but by O'Ryan. That made him pause, worried about how he was going to tell Victor. He didn't want to bring up O'Ryan, but he wasn't sure if he could lie and say that Kista was the one who told him that the identity of the Tyrannosaurus might be known.

Zoom made up his mind, noting the increasing frustration in Victor's eyes. He didn't want to know what would have happened if he continued to wear down the raptor's patience with him. "W-Well, sir, she called me while she was still on duty at the library. She wanted to tell me that she had spotted two kids that seemed to be in association with..what was his name, Caruso?" Victor nodded his head. Zoom continued, "Well I think they were probably members of the Dino Squad."

"And what makes you certain that they are?" Victor asked, shifting his body around so that he was facing Zoom directly. "How are you sure that they weren't just other friends of his?"

"I..I don't know... It's what Kista suspected." Zoom explained. "She said that she believes that they were members of the Dino Squad just by the way that they were acting. They were spending a lot of time looking through medical books and she listened in on them a few times and picked up a few times where they talked about their concern about Caruso. I think she said that they mentioned you too..."

Victor nodded his head, not sounding too surprised by this. "Yes, that could make it possible that they were the Dino Squad, if it weren't for one little detail." As he said this, he lifted up one hand and moved two fingers very close to one another. After he finished he relaxed his hand and lowered it down to his side. A knowing smile spread across the mad scientist's face. "I'm quite well known among the populations of the filthy human species. There is not many humans that do not know my name, and if they don't know it, they at least know what I look like. Just because those brats you mentioned talked about me does not mean that they know what I really am, and it certainly doesn't mean that they are the Dino Squad."

Suddenly feeling desperate in convincing Victor that he was telling the truth, Zoom decided to tell a lie. He didn't know what came over him. He just found himself spewing out words without really thinking about it, forgetting about O'Ryan's ambitions entirely. "Well, Veloci, sir, Kista had also mentioned that these two kids were talking about..what was it, primordial ooze? And how they wanted to try to stop you from taking over the world? Yeah, I'm certain she said this. And if they did, I think it's pretty safe to assume they are the Dino Squad, or at least know about your little secret."

At this, Victor suddenly paused, his eyes widened with interest. If these students knew his secret, perhaps here was a chance that they could be the Dino Squad. And if they were part of the Dino Squad, then now he knew where to find more of the members for sure. He had suspected that Caruso's teammates would be in that school, but he couldn't be too sure. Even though he had told Michelle that her assignment weeks ago was to spy on Caruso and any of his close friends, he could not have been able to verify if they were truly the Dino Squad members. Now he had some evidence that this was true. He already knew Caruso was part of this group, and perhaps the son of one of his employees, Drew. Now he might know the identity of two more.

Perfect, Victor thought as he felt a smile spreading across his face. That means he might now know the identity of four of the Dino Squad members, and he already knew of Moynihan. Now there was only one dino member left to identify. And once he figures that out, then he can proceed with devising a plan to capture all of them. Their DNA will prove useful in his plans, speeding up the production of a perfected primordial ooze so that it could be completed within a few months, maybe even shorter than that. He had plans on just killing off the teens once he had extracted enough blood from them, but then he wondered if he really wanted to do that. After all, it's not everyday that a human, let alone a group of them, can stand up to him and be able to outwit him several times, even though it was largely due to the fact that he didn't know they were humans. Perhaps he should let them live, perhaps stripping them of their humanity somehow, turning them into real dinosaurs.

But then he realized there was a problem. How was he going to pull this off? How was he going to capture them? Capturing them now was going to be rather difficult. In the past, he had employed some tricks into luring them in one spot and catching them that way. But now that he knew their secret, now that they knew that he knew the truth, trying to trap them was going to become even harder. The traditional methods using mutantsaurs to attract them might not work now. They would probably realize it was a trap set up for them. They would probably try to escape, perhaps being bold enough to shift back to their normal human forms to try to get away. He could still trap them in a cage that was large enough for dino mode, but impossible to escape in human mode. They would not be able to escape in either form, but even that might prove difficult. He would need to actually catch them first.

Victor briefly thought of figuring out where they lived and then invading their homes. This method might prove to be the most effective. At night, humans are generally asleep. If he and his men were quiet enough, they could sneak into the homes and capture the kids before they had time to wake up and put them in their cages before they could go dino or alert the family. But while this seemed to be the most likely to work, it was also riddled with risks. What if the kids woke up before they had time to transport them and called out for help, thus revealing his presence to the family? What if someone in the household besides the targeted human saw them and called the police? If the public found out that he was involved in a kidnapping, his public view would be dramatically altered, damaged beyond repair. And if he doesn't retain the favor of these filthy humans and lose their trust, it would become harder and harder to get funding for his research, making his dream of bringing back the dinosaurs an even more distant dream. He could not let that happen.

Victor looked back at Zoom. Perhaps this man could come up with some kind of plan. Zoom didn't seem to be the best qualified for kidnapping though, but he might still prove to be useful. He could trick humans using photography, so perhaps there could be something he could do to help him capture a bunch of teenagers without much of a struggle. "So..they know my secret eh?" He said, nodding his head slowly. His smile broadened. "Say, Zoom? Do you know anything about kidnapping?"

Zoom blinked a few times. "No... Well sort of, a bit...why?"

Victor continued to smile eerily at the man. "Because I want your input on this..."

* * *

Drew paused in front of the door that led into the huge building of Raptor Dyne. He narrowed his eyes as he looked down at the vial that he was holding in his hands. It contained a decent amount of his son's blood, which was retaining a very dark color since it was not exposed to oxygen. Then he glanced up at the door in front of him. He wasn't sure if he could go through with this. There wasn't anything holding him back. No one was there telling him that he couldn't proceed any further. All he had to do was walk into the building and give the blood to Victor Veloci or to one of his closer workers. And if he did this, Victor would probably see no reason to further torment his family and himself.

Yet something was still holding him back. A thought, a terrible feeling, it continued to nag at him in the stomach, creating a constant, dull yet sickening pain. Feelings of anger and guilt overwhelmed him. He felt angry that he had to do this to his family. He was furious that Victor made him do such a thing, furious of what he made him put Neil through. And if he turned out to be one of the perfect dinos, Drew knew that Victor would expect him to help him capture the boy. If Drew refused to help, then things would probably become worse for him and his family. Yet what difference would there be? If Neil is the Pteranodon, it would not matter if he helped or not; his son would still get caught by this man and tested on, or worse.

His guilt was not making him feel any better. He could only imagine the reaction Neil probably had after he woke up from the chloroform and realizing what had taken place. The boy was probably hurt and devastated by what he had done to him. Buzz probably hated him now and he couldn't blame him. Even though Drew had never intended on hurting the boy, he still betrayed his trust and he wasn't sure if he could face Buzz anytime soon, or if ever again. And his wife..did she knew? Did Buzz tell her what happened? Or was he too scared to tell her anything? If his wife knew, what did she think of him? Did she consider him a traitor? Did she loathe him? Did she want him out of her life?

Drew groaned in emotional pain, clutching his stomach as he tried to fight off the feelings of anger and guilt. They were making him feel nauseous. The sensation of this atrocious vial in his hands made his face turn red in anger. He wanted so much to smash it on the floor and let the blood get washed away in the next rain storm and just tell Victor he lost the vial and that he quit the job. But fear held him back. Fear kept him in check. Victor would find a way to ensure that he didn't leave Raptor Dyne unless he wanted him gone. And if he told Victor that he lost the vial, he would just tell him to try again. There was no escaping this. As much as Drew didn't want to go through with this, he had no choice. He never had a choice at all, not ever since he joined. It was always Victor's decision and he was forced to follow.

Drew continued to stare at the vial. He wasn't sure if Victor's suspicions were true, but one thing was for certain. He hoped that the tests would come back negative. It would mean that Victor would not proceed to investigate further, although he might be frustrated that his suspicions turned out to be incorrect. And yet there was a problem with this. If he turned out to be wrong, then Drew was forced to go through all that for nothing. His stomach ached horribly as he tried to think of something to tell his family if the tests turned out negative. What was he going to say to them? That he hurt them emotionally all for a blood test that turned out to be negative? Like they were going to forgive him that easily. No, he would have to beg them for forgiveness. There was no excuse for what he did. No excuse.

But what if he could cure him? What if Buzz turned out to be positive? That was the worst case scenario. He didn't want his son to get hurt more than he already was. He didn't want to go back to that house just to kidnap his own son and bring him to Victor, and he knew that's exactly what Victor would expect him to do. Victor didn't care if the boy was his son or not. Why would he care at all? He was a Velociraptor! They were nothing but heartless beasts. They only ever cared about themselves and Victor proved this. Intelligent creatures they were, but they were also cruel and cold-hearted. They would eat their own young if given the chance! No, Victor would not understand his reluctance in capturing his son if he turned out to be the Pteranodon.

But if Drew were to find someway to cure his son if he turned out to be positive, then there wouldn't be anything to worry about, at least on Victor's end. He wouldn't be able to hurt Buzz any further if he turned out to be just a normal kid, or at least as normal as humans in general go. But how was he going to develop a cure? The only way he could was if he kept this blood sample he got, or at least part of it. Drew was not as good with biology as some of the other workers, but he could probably come up with something that could work. Yes, he could take this blood and try to find a cure himself, and save his son from potentially being subjected to horrific experiments.

A few minutes later, Drew found himself walking down the hallways of Raptor Dyne, making his way towards the elevator that lead to Victor's office. He kept asking himself why he was doing this. He shouldn't be giving Victor this vial of blood. He should be trying to find a way to save his family! Yet his legs wouldn't obey him. They kept moving him forward towards Victor's large room where he is often at in Raptor Dyne. He swiped a card in the door blocking the path towards the elevator. It was located in a restricted area so that newcomers didn't stumble upon it by accident. He walked through the large doors and as he went towards the elevator close by, the doors behind him slowly closed behind him, making a clearly audible thud sound as the metal collided with one another. Victor claimed that he had done his best to make the door as quiet as possible while retaining the strength that he needed to make sure that no intruders happen by. How much of that was true, Drew was not sure himself.

Another few minutes later, Drew was now inside Victor's large office. It always frightened him coming in here because almost everything seemed to have a shade of red. He wondered why Victor would choose such a color for his office. Could it have something to do with the fact that Victor himself was red in color while in raptor mode and he thought that his office should somewhat resemble himself? That could have been the reason. It would make sense. Victor did seem to have some kind of ego, believing that he was smarter than every human on the planet. He also believed that dinosaurs were superior to humans despite the fact that dinosaurs and humans never actually lived at the same time, so how would Victor know that dinosaurs were superior? Longevity does not mean superiority.

Drew reached Victor's chair. He looked up at it. This was probably the scariest thing in the room. It was basically a Tyrannosaurus skull split in half. The top part of it hung overhead, shielding whoever was sitting down. Then the lower jaw was pushed downward to allow access to the chair inside. The teeth of the T-Rex rose up from both sides, almost encasing whoever sat here in it. Then the whole thing was kept together by a Tyrannosaurus tail that was jetting out from the back. Sometimes he felt compelled in asking Victor about this clearly customized chair, but he never really asked about it. There probably was no reason for it except Victor's love of dinosaurs. Even his vehicles, such as his helicopter, were modeled to resemble dinosaurs more so than anything else. He didn't see what the point was though. Drew was surprised that no one thought that this was suspicious. Then again, humans, or as Victor would say, weren't exactly always intelligent and sometimes are downright gullible.

Drew looked at the vial of blood and then at Victor's chair. Victor had expected him to leave the blood there and then quickly be on his way. He looked around the room. He didn't see anyone in the room other than a few scientists at the table nearby. They either hadn't noticed him or they were just paying no mind to him. Drew briefly wondered what they were working on, but he thought he knew what it was. It was probably either a new batch of primordial ooze or it was something else entirely. Most likely primordial ooze though. That is usually what Victor has them create, or at least experiment with what chemicals they could work with to enhance the mutations. Drew shook his head slowly. He couldn't think of why these people would willingly work for Victor unless they were threatened just as he was. And if that were the case, he felt sorry for him.

As Drew backed away from the chair, vial still in hand, and turned to walk away, hoping he wouldn't get spotted, he stopped in his tracks when one of the doctor's called out for him. "Hey, Mr. Buzmati!" Drew winced. They must have spotted him. Judging from the masculine sound of the voice, it was probably one of the older doctors that had spotted him. He hesitated, but then he slowly turned around and looked at the table. The scientists there were all looking at him, some taking notice to the vial that he had in his hands. The person who had spoke before, a scientist with white hair and clearly the oldest looking in the group, spoke again. "Come over here, Mr. Buzmati!" The man jestured with his arm for Drew to come over to the table. Reluctantly, Drew went over.

"What do you have in your hand?" A young scientist, probably in his early or mid-twenties, at most thirties, asked as he pointed at the vial in Drew's hands.

Drew almost instinctively pulled the vial away as if he was attempting to hide it from them. "Nothing! It's nothing!"

The same scientist responded with a chuckle. "Oh come now, Buzmati. You can't expect us to believe that, now can you?"

"I see the vial as plain as day, Mr. Buzmati." The oldest scientist said, adjusting the glasses on his face. "We've been told to be expecting you to bring the vial down there. Victor wants us to test it." Drew's eyes widened slightly. "So it is best if you just hand over the vial to us and we will do the rest."

"I thought he..." Drew stammered. "I thought he wanted me to just leave it at his chair. That's what he told me before..."

"I'd hate to disagree with you." A female scientist said. She was one of the few female scientists that worked for Victor. Most of the others were young males, although there were some older males as well. "But Victor had told us specifically to take the vial once you brought it down here." She patted the table lightly to indicate where she wanted it to go. "So just set the vial down here, or hand it to one of us, and then you can be on your way."

Drew started to hold out to bottle to the old scientist standing not too far from him, but then he hesitated, not bringing the vial any closer to the man. Something was holding him back. He couldn't simply hand over this vial. He thought that he could get out of here without getting spotted, but he turned out to be wrong. If he refused to hand over the vial, though, he would get into trouble. These scientists were very loyal to Dr. Veloci. Any sign of defiance from him would be reported almost immediately. But if he did hand it over, wouldn't he be betraying his family? Wouldn't he be betraying humanity itself? What did he fear more? Betraying his own species? Or betraying a dangerous predator that could kill him in seconds?

Noticing him spacing out, the same woman scientist spoke up in a loud voice to try and snap him out of it. "Sir! Are you going to give us that vial or not?" Drew blinked a few times, a little surprised that she snapped at him like that. Then Drew narrowed his eyes a little and pulled the vial close to himself and backed away and shook his head slowly. The woman narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Sir, I suggest you hand over that vial unless you want to suffer the consequences."

But Drew had already made up his mind. There was no turning back now. He was going to do what he believed was right. He narrowed his eyes back at the woman and bared his teeth. He positioned himself to face the scientists, who were probably just as insane as Victor. "Make me.."

Drew almost immediately regretted saying that. It didn't take very long for the scientists, a total of six, to surround him quickly, cutting off all possible escape routes. He stood his ground, glaring at them. He looked left to right, hoping to find a way out, but all paths were blocked. The scientists didn't do anything to him, but their eyes were narrowed angrily, showing that they were clearly angry at his decision to turn on Victor. Drew pulled the vial closer to his chest and took a step back, almost bumping into one of the scientists. Before the scientist could grab him, Drew immediately moved forward and turned around to face that scientist, backing away again. He kept repeating this, avoiding scientist after scientist until he finally stopped and planted his feet firmly in the middle of the tight circle that he was in.

The scientists continued to scowl at him, but they didn't make a move towards him. They remained where they were, doing little more than just growling and hissing at him to show their contempt at his decision to turn against Victor Veloci. The only thing keeping them from attacking is that they still had some respect for Drew as a fellow member of Raptor Dyne. They couldn't bring themselves to outright attack him. And Victor wouldn't want them to attack unless they had a good reason. While this seemed to be a good reason, they still held back, partly because of the delicate vial that Drew had in his hands. If they attacked too quickly, he could drop it and they could lose that blood sample.

Suddenly, in desperation to get away, Drew ran forwards towards the oldest scientist and kocked him into the ground. With the scientist temporarily subdued and there being an opening for him, though only for a short time, Drew dove through it. He crashed into the ground, almost breaking the vial that he had. He scrambled onto his feet as quickly as he could and started running towards the door as fast as he could, hoping to make it before the other scientists could catch him. Unfortunately, he was cut off by one of the younger scientists, who ran out in front of him and blocked his path. Drew immediately skidded to a halt. The two exchanged glares for a couple seconds, and then Drew pushed him away with his free arm. The scientist landed on the ground, but quickly got back up again. He reached forward and grabbed Drew by the ankle and roughly pulled him down. Drew screamed in surprise as he lost his footing and hit his chin pretty hard on the concrete floor.

The vial was still not shattered, although now it was pressing painfully into his stomach. He struggled to rise up enough to pull it out. But once the vial became visible, the young scientist seized it and proceeded to try and pry it out of Drew's hands. Drew immediately flipped onto his back and grabbed the vial with his other hand and pulled it back, ripping it out of the youngster's hands. He then proceeded to kicking the scientist in the stomach with his foot, knocking the scientist onto his back. Drew climbed up to his feet and continued to make his retreat towards the door, hoping that the two downed scientists would be enough to distract the others.

Suddenly two of the scientists came out from both sides, completely taking Drew off guard. Both of them were men, slightly more built than he was, but not by much. They both seized one of his arms. Drew grunted and tried to pull himself free, but the two scientists were unrelenting. They continued to hang onto each arm and then proceeded to pull Drew onto his knees on the ground. As they held him in that position, the female scientist approached him, a disapproving look in her eyes as she reached forward and tried to grab the vial from his hand. Despite his predicament, Drew continued to defy them, holding the bottle as tightly as he good and moving his arm away from her as far as he could with the other scientists holding onto him as tightly as they were.

"Mr. Buzmati." The woman said in a dangerous tone. "Either you relinquish that vial and we'll forget this ever happened, or we will report you to Dr. Veloci and you will wish you never even came here to Raptor Dyne!"

Drew narrowed his eyes and spoke bitterly, "Yeah..I already regret ever coming here!" With that, he did the only thing he could think of doing to keep them from analyzing the blood. He thrusted it into the ground. The scientists watched in horror as the glass shattered and the blood spilled all over the ground, staining the concrete and becoming absolutely useless to them. The blood was contaminated now.

"You have just made a huge mistake!" The woman snapped at him, gripping him roughly by the collar of his neck. She put her face very close to his, so close that he could feel her breath against his face as she spoke to him. "Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you are now in?! Victor is going to be so...!"

Drew cut her off with a rude remark. "Pissed off? Good. I'm tired of working for that rancid scaly monster!"

One of the scientists holding his arms gasped at that remark. It took someone with a lot of guts to say that about Veloci, especially in front of one of his more loyal workers. "You'd best shut your mouth, Buzmati, or you could end up as Dr. Veloci's next experiment!"

"Is that supposed to scare me?" Drew chuckled bitterly. "The scariest thing I ever experienced was having to knock out my son and take that putrid vial here!" His struggles increased and he almost managed to free one arm. "There isn't anything Victor can do to me that could possibly be worse!"

"Do you really want to take that chance?" One of the scientists asked him.

"Yes..do you?" The old scientist that Drew knocked down before was now approaching him. He didn't seem to badly hurt outside of a few scratches. "I recommend you go back to that family of yours and bring back another vial. Agree to do this, and we won't tell Dr. Veloci of your atrocious behavior. Disagree, and not only will we inform him, we will hand deliver you to him personally." He leaned in closely, lowing his head so he could look Drew in the eyes. "So tell me, Mr. Buzmati... which is it going to be?"

Drew grinded his teeth. "I don't want to betray my family again!"

The old scientist's face twisted into a slightly evil, creepy smile. "If you continue to show defiance, you won't have a family to go home to..." Drew's eyes widened in fear. "The choice is up to you. Either you cooperate, or something terrible could either happen to you..or your precious family. I cannot tell you the details of what will happen, but believe me, young man, you don't want to cross the line. You don't want to find out what could happen."

Drew moved his head back. "Grr..." He couldn't think of what else to say. He was really stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"So what's it going to be?" The female scientist asked, folding up her arms and smirking down at Drew.

Drew remained quiet for a few minutes, thinking about his options. They were really putting him on the spot here. If he continued to defy them, they were either going to threaten himself or his family. But if he did agree to what they were saying, it would still mean that his family would suffer. So what would the difference be? Neither decision would ensure their safety. His son could be in grave danger if he permitted them to test his blood. But if he did defy them, he could risk losing his family forever. They could be captured, tortured, or even worse: killed.

Noticing his awkward silence, another scientist decided to encourage him. "If you need a little..encouragement... Maybe this would help." He pulled something from his pocket that looked like a vial, similar to the one that Buzmati had earlier. But this one was filled with the orange fluid known as primordial ooze. Drew eyed it and then looked back up at the scientist, giving him a confused look. "Refuse to bring us another vial, and you might become our test subject for this new primordial ooze that we developed for Victor Veloci. It's really unique actually..." The scientist said, sounding a little boastful. "It's been designed so that it's no longer susceptible to being removed by the Dino Squad's 'weapons', so to speak."

Drew narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean? I thought Victor's experiments were failing on their own..."

The scientist speaking to him shook his head. "No, not really. They were doing just fine, but those pesky kids kept taking away the ooze. After Victor got a good look at the weapons, he realized what was happening. The ooze was reacting to the cold air, coming back up to the surface so it could easily be extracted. But now, if this ooze works, they won't be able to do that anymore."

"And why would you want to test it on me? Victor dislikes experimenting on humans." Drew said, his eyes narrowed a little. From experience, he learned Victor wouldn't waste much time on humans. He already knew he could mutate them. He was interested in mutating animal and plant life mostly. If Victor were here, he would probably make sure that the scientists do not ooze him. "And if Victor found out, he would..."

"Victor would probably praise us." The scientist said arrogantly. "He doesn't need to know that you were a human. And even if he knew, he probably wouldn't care after we tell him about your traitorous actions. Mutating you is the only usefulness that you have left in you! Unless, of course, you agree to do as we say."

Drew struggled. "Never!"

The scientist narrowed his eyes. "Then you give me no choice..."

* * *

The following day, after school was over, the Dino Squad were relaxing, or at least trying to relax, at the lighthouse. Moynihan was upstairs working on the scans while the group remained downstairs in the living room. So far, the scanners weren't really going off and Moynihan had insisted that they try to relax by watching some TV or chat about whatever they wanted to. Moynihan could handle the scanners on her own for a while. If it got too overwhelming for her, and unlikely that it would, she would call for one of them to come up to assist her. As she kept an eye on the scanners, Rump laying down by her side in the same room, the kids were trying to come up with a topic to discuss. They didn't want to choose anything too scary, though. They didn't want to make themselves feel even worse, especially after what has happened recently.

Though it was very hard for him to talk to them about it, Buzz had confessed about what his father had done to him last night and about his discovery of how his father was one of Veloci's henchmen. The news came as a shock to the team and they sympathized with Buzz, feeling bad about how his father treated him that night. The incident was a heavy blow to Buzz and made him feel even worse. For a while, he wondered if he could even trust his friends. If his father could betray him like that, his friends could do so as well, much more easily than his father could have. Trust was becoming more difficult for the punk teenager. He had already had his trust broken with Michelle and now his father. What else could possibly go wrong?

They tried not to think of how things could get worse. They've been proven wrong many times when they thought that things couldn't get any worse. They learned, from their attempts at finding Caruso, that anything could happen to make the situation worse, like how they thought they had a working computer but it exploded because it didn't have a fan installed or when they found Caruso, knowing that he was going to be in bad shape, but he was in a far worse condition than they had been anticipating. Things just keep going downhill for the team. Ever since their first, although not really aggressive, encounter with Michelle Brown, their lives have started to rapidly spiral downward, effecting each of them emotionally. Even Moynihan has been effected, and she was usually even more level-headed than Max was.

They wondered if things would start getting better. They could not believe that this was happening to them. They never thought that, in all their missions to stop Victor Veloci, they would be struck with a constant feeling of terror each and every day, constantly looking over their shoulder to see where the next obstacle might be coming from. They thought that after they got Caruso back that life would start getting better for them. They knew that things might never be the same again, but they thought that things would start looking up after they rescued Caruso. But even though he was back with them, safe and sound, his life was probably still in danger. And their lives, as a whole, were all in jeopardy because Victor knew they were human now. And the crazy scientist also knew where their hideout was as well. It would only be a matter of time before he comes up with a plan to take them all away.

If Michelle's warning was true, then things were only going to get worse very soon. But they weren't sure whether or not to trust her words. If they listened to her or didn't listen to her, it could have very different consequences depending on which they choose and which one was actually true. If they didn't listen to her and it turned out that she was lying, things might not go as far downhill as they thought it might. But that did not mean that they were out of the woods and it would leave some questions unanswered, such as what was going on with Moynihan. But if they did listen to her and it turned out that she was telling the truth, they could have a fighting chance and prepare for the worst. They could try to help Moynihan and protect Caruso and the group as a whole against Victor's future assaults. Though if they didn't listen to her and she was telling the truth, they could let themselves get into deeper trouble. But if they did listen and she wasn't telling the truth, they could be falling for yet another trap, just like the one Michelle set up with her Troodon partner.

Even though not all of them truly believed Michelle, they all had the same uneasy feeling as they sat in the lighthouse. This was the first time they actually felt pure dread in being in the same building, relatively small compared to the school, as Ms. Moynihan. Even if Michelle was lying about what was really going on, one thing had remained true. Ms. Moynihan was still growing more violent. She had yelled at a student at school that day and she was found stalking yet again. She hadn't caused any harm to anyone and she did apologize for her behavior and tried to come up with the best excuse as possible. Fortunately, the school believed her and pretty much forgot about it. But the Dino Squad knew she was lying and no comforting lie would be enough to soothe them of their growing fear of being near the old woman. They were all dreading that Moynihan would call one of them up and then that would mean that one of them would be stuck with her alone for an extended amount of time. And with her changing behavior, who knows how it might go?

Moynihan could not do anything the whole time and they could leave without incident. Despite the scares they had been experiencing with her, most of the time, Moynihan was still acting like her usual self. She didn't act or look as if she was intentionally causing any harm and, despite her growing tension of being near them for fear she might hurt them, she still showed her compassion and caring nature towards them, sympathizing with them when they expressed fear either towards her or toward other immediate issues. Yet despite this, there was still that chance that something could go wrong. Moynihan's change in behavior would happen suddenly and without any kind of warning. One minute, she could be talking to them, and the next she could be yelling at them in what they interpreted as raptor foul language. They could not always understand her at this point, but they were glad that they could not.

Unable to take the silence for much longer, Max spoke up, expressing his concern about what was going on recently. "Things just keep getting better and better, don't they, guys...?" He let out a deep sigh. "First we almost lost Caruso, now Moynihan is getting increasingly aggressive... I wonder what could happen next. Maybe we could all kept captured, tortured..or even worse..." He winced at the thought of being tortured in a similar manner as Caruso had endured.

Buzz narrowed his eyes. He was clearly not happy with Max's attitude. "Way to make us feel even worse, Maxwell!"

Max lowered his head. "I'm sorry. It's just that..I can't think of anything else to think about, you know? I mean, all that has been happening to us, it's hard to think of anything other than what might happen to us next."

"But that's no reason to act all emo." Buzz said, his eyes still narrowed. "I mean, you're the leader! Shouldn't you be like..encouraging us or something?"

Max didn't have an answer for that. He remained quiet, unsure of what to say. Anything he could come up with might make the situation worse. He had already made the others feel bad by talking about such things. Moynihan had wanted them to avoid these topics, but it was so hard to do so. So many thoughts plagued not only his mind, but his friends' minds as well. It wasn't easy trying to ignore the obvious danger that they were in. And it was even more difficult to ignore the cuts on Caruso's face, each one reminding them of the torment that both Caruso and they all went through just a few weeks ago. Despite the days that had went by since then, the memories of what happened were still fresh on everyone's mind as if it only happened yesterday.

As silence fell upon the group again, Fiona found herself turning her head towards Caruso. She felt a little bad that she hadn't talked to him yet like Moynihan wanted her to. Joanne had suggested that she go on a date with Caruso so they could have a chance to talk to each other privately about their feelings towards one another. But she has yet to work up the courage to ask the boy. She wasn't sure how he was going to react. Would he laugh at her? Would he be too shocked to even respond? Was he going to think she was weird for her to fall in love with him? She knew that the only way to find out was to ask him, but she couldn't do it now, even if she had the courage to do so. She didn't want to ask in front of the other guys. And she wasn't sure if it was even appropriate for her to ask this of Caruso while he was still in a frightened state.

Caruso looked over and noticed Fiona was staring at him. Blushing a little, he quickly turned his head away, wondering why Fiona was looking at him like that. She was staring at him in a way that either meant that she wanted to tell him something or she seemed to really like how he looked. Caruso thought it was a mixture of both, though he couldn't imagine why Fiona would think he was good-looking, not with this darn scars on his face, ruining his once perfect appearance. Caruso motioned one hand to touch a scar again, recoiling from how it felt and put his hand back down. He couldn't stand feeling these scars and wished they would just disappear. But he knew that some of these scars would stay with him for the rest of his life. Caruso tried to get rid of these dark thoughts by looking over at Fiona again. This time, she had looked away, probably feeling embarrassed for staring at him like that.

Caruso had started to develop some feelings for Fiona, although he didn't think she really returned the favor. She probably liked him a little more than she had before, probably a result of almost losing him. But did she love him? Caruso didn't think so. Who could possibly fall in love with him now? With these scars on his face? With him acting like a coward all the time now? No one could possibly love a scarred coward, could they? Yet despite his doubts about what Fiona might feel for him. Caruso could not lie to himself about how he felt about Fiona. He was becoming a little attracted to her and liked being with her more than he did in the past. Was it because he felt horrible about what he inadvertently put her through when she thought that he was dead? Her words still echoed in his mind, making his stomach tie in a painful knot.

Caruso was interrupted from this thoughts by Buzz, who had decided to speak up after the group fell silent once more. "So..is there anything you guys want to do?"

Rodger shrugged his shoulders. "I really don't know. I can't think of anything we could do at this time, Buzz. Except talk, and you know what's on everyone's minds right now."

Buzz nodded his head, understanding where Rodger was coming from. "Yes, I know that, Rodger. But we could at least try to think of something. I mean, this talk is just making us feel even worse." He placed his hand on his stomach as he tried to soothe the emotional pain that was wracking it. "I'm not sure how much more of it I could take..."