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...

26. Nightmares

Furious with the Dino Squad's behavior, Moynihan suddenly pounded her can into the ground several times as hard as she could. "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!" It wasn't like her to yell at this level, but she was so angry with the teenagers for what they were doing that she couldn't help it. The combination of her cane hitting the ground and Moynihan's rage-filled voice was enough to make the Dino Squad freeze with what they were doing. They looked over and spotted Moynihan. Michelle also saw her and just looked away, trembling, though Moynihan wasn't sure if it was from the pain she was in or from the terror she was probably feeling. Moynihan returned her gaze on her students, her eyes narrowed dangerously.

Still digging his claws into Michelle's arm, Buzz worked up the courage to speak. The others were so startled by Moynihan's sudden appearance to say anything. "Ms..Ms. Moynihan.." He said softly, sounding like he didn't know what he was doing wrong. "What are you doing here?"

Moynihan didn't respond except with a soft growl. At first, the team thought that she was doing to go feral again and prepared for an attack. But Moynihan's eyes never glowed and her claws and teeth were never extended. Moynihan gripped her cane so tightly that she thought it would burst in her grasp. Rump was scared of Moynihan's change in demeanor and ran a distance away from her. Moynihan walked towards the team where they had Michelle pinned down. With each step she took, she slammed the cane as hard as she could into the ground, a way of letting the team know that she was very angry with them, as if her yelling and glaring at them wasn't evidence enough. Once she reached them, she lifted up her cane. She then shoved the sharp tip normally on the ground in their direction. She spoke again, but this time she kept her voice more under control. "Get off of her! Now!"

"But...Moynihan..." Buzz said. "She..." He looked back down at her, but immediately flinched when Moynihan slammed her cane into the ground again.

"NOW!" Moynihan demanded, her voice loud enough so they would know she was being serious. Although they didn't know what was going on, one by one, the team got off of Michelle, releasing her from their grip. Once they were off, Michelle still remained on the ground, groaning in pain, moving her legs a little. But she had used up so much energy she could barely manage that. She finally managed to get up to her feet, but she stumbled back, luckily landing in the couch. Moynihan's expression softened as she looked at Michelle. Even though Michelle had caused them a lot of trouble, she did still took a risk in helping them find Caruso, not to mention Moynihan didn't like to see anyone in pain. Perhaps that was part the reason she couldn't bring herself to kill Veloci.

As Michelle leaned back on the couch, Moynihan turned her attention on the Dino Squad. She couldn't understand why they would do this to someone, even if they were the enemy. She spoke again, this time keeping her voice low, and as controlled as possible. "What were you kids doing to her..?" She looked over at Michelle. "Why did you tie her up and bring her here...?"

"Well..we were just going to interrogate her..." Max said, feeling guilty about letting his anger get the better of him.

"By hurting her?" Moynihan's eyes narrowed. "And why did you bring her here in the first place? I never told you kids to go out capturing our enemies!" She shook her head. "You kids should have come to me before doing something as cruel as this."

"Cruel?!" Buzz growled, sounding offended. "She's the one who helped capture Caruso! She's the one who tricked us into letting her in the lighthouse before! She's the one who tossed you down the stairs! And you're saying that we're the ones who are being cruel?!"

Moynihan made eye contact with Buzz. "Did Michelle tie your arms behind your back? Did she drag you off somewhere even though you had not done anything to her for weeks? The last I checked, Michelle hadn't actually caused any problems recently." She adjusted her glasses. "And further more, did she have some of her fellow workers pin you down and continuously attack you, giving you no chance to defend yourselves?" Buzz's eyes softened and then widened. "You don't call that cruelty?"

Buzz let out a soft sigh and lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Ms. Moynihan. I thought..I thought we were doing the right thing..by teaching her a lesson..."

Moynihan looked over at the battered Michelle. "That was not necessary, Buzz. Michelle already feared you kids before. She had already felt what would happen if she crossed you kids. There was no reason to beat her up like this." She glared at all of them, except for Caruso who had hung back and watched the whole thing. "All four of you should be ashamed of yourselves."

The Dino Squad lowered their heads. They knew Moynihan was right. Why did they act in such a childish manner? Why had they gone through with capturing Michelle and bringing her here? Why did they lose their temper and attack her like that, when she had no way of defending herself? They thought they were doing the right thing. They thought that they were just doing what they thought was justice, but now they realize that it was not justice, but just cruelty. They were supposed to be the Dino Squad, not some torture team bent on simply causing pain to others for no reason. They glanced over at Michelle. They were still angry with her, but now they looked at her in a slightly new light. She no longer looked like a threatening transformer, but a frightened, defenseless girl. She couldn't even transform with her arms bound like that.

Michelle looked up and saw everyone staring at her. She glanced up at Moynihan. She didn't know why the woman had forced the Dino Squad off of her. After all, they were enemies, weren't they? But regardless of the reason, Michelle was grateful that Moynihan did that for her. The brunette glanced down at her body. Particularly on her arms there were little trinkles of blood. She saw a lot of scratch marks as well and many areas were red and sore. Memories of Victor came flooding back to her. This is the kind of thing he would expect from Victor, but not from the Dino Squad. Perhaps she had misjudged them, been wrong about them. Perhaps there really was no difference between the two sides. Perhaps she had wasted her time in trying to help them. Look at how they repaid her...

Breathing heavily, Michelle said, "I..I thought you guys were different. I thought you weren't like Veloci..." She lowered her head. "But I was wrong..." She looked up again, a harsh glare on her face. "You ARE like Veloci! Just like him!" Buzz tried to get at her, but Rodger was able to stop him. He didn't want to further anger Moynihan. Michelle continued on and said, "You go off, thinking that you're doing the right thing! But let me tell you something, you vigilantes! Going out, capturing someone who wasn't even causing trouble at that time, tying them up, dragging them off somewhere, and then beating them up just because they made one mistake is something Victor Veloci would do!"

"How dare you compare us to him...!" Rodger said, but was careful to hold back. "We're nothing like him!"

"Yeah! We only did what we thought was right! How is that so wrong?" Buzz joined in. He would have done more, but Rodger kept him in line.

"Nothing like him, huh?" Michelle said in a somewhat mocking tone of voice. She glanced down at the rope that was strapped across her chest and she could feel the rope entangled around her arms behind her back. "You don't think this is something Victor would do? And attacking me when I couldn't even defend myself, you don't think that isn't something Victor would do?"

Fiona stepped up. "But you're the one who told us that Caruso deserved everything that he went through! Didn't you not think that..."

Moynihan interrupted her. "Hold on..." Moynihan glanced over at Michelle. Her eyes weren't filled with anger, but rather shock and curiosity. After what Michelle had gone through to help them get Caruso back, she was having a hard time believing that Michelle would just condemn Caruso like that. Something else must have happened. She moved in a little closer to Michelle, who instinctively moved back as far as she could go. Moynihan said, "Relax..I'm not going to harm you. I just want to ask you a question." Michelle looked up at Moynihan. "Tell me..what happened?"

Michelle blinked a few times and glanced towards the ground. She wasn't sure if telling Moynihan anything would change anything. But there was no harm in telling her, she supposed. "Well, ma'am..I was just at the library, checking out a book. I swear that's all I was doing, checking out a book and then I was going to leave.. Then I accidentally collided with Caruso. I didn't know he was there! I tried to calm him down. I didn't get any closer to him and I didn't threaten him. But he overreacted..then I found myself surrounded by the other teens. I tried to explain the situation to them, but they wouldn't believe me..especially that one..." She pointed to Buzz. "I got so scared..that I transformed and threw Max out of the way. I..I didn't mean to hurt him. But I was so scared, I..." She stopped herself.

Moynihan urged her on. "Please continue."

"Well I ran away. I just wanted to get away from them. I didn't want any trouble... really I didn't. I just wanted to be left alone. I didn't go to the library deliberately looking for trouble." Michelle explained. "They chased me through the streets, a mall..and then finally knocked me down in a patch of woods... They pushed me into the ground and tied me up. Then they..threatened me... Max showed his teeth to me as a warning of what would happen if I didn't cooperate..." That made Moynihan's eyes go wide with shock. "Then they took me here and started asking me questions... But some refused to believe what I said..and I eventually lost my temper.. I said some..things about Caruso..how he deserved what he got.." She closed her eyes, letting a few tears escape. "But..but I swear I didn't mean a word of it! I just..lost it, you know? But I didn't mean anything I said about him! I tried to apologize to them..but they said I had my chance and blew it..and then they attacked me..."

Moynihan was in shock from what Michelle had told her. She looked over at her team and asked, "Is this true?"

"Well..yes..." Max said, lowering his head in shame.

"But you can't believe her, Moynihan! She's a liar!" Buzz declared. "She just told you a bunch of lies!"

Moynihan's eyes narrowed angrily. "Judging from I'm seeing, Buzz, the way she's bound up, cut up, beaten up, and frightened, she's been telling the truth. The way that she acted, it was out of self defense. After what you kids were doing to her, cornering her, not allowing her to get away, tying her up then continue to press her like that..." Moynihan shook her head. "Did you not expect her to react in such a way to defend herself?" The Dino Squad tried to answer, but they couldn't think of anything to say and they immediately fell silent again. "I didn't think so." Moynihan said, her eyes narrowed. She then looked back at Michelle.

"What..what are you doing to do to me..?" Michelle asked, sounding very frightened as she looked up at Moynihan. The old woman didn't know why the girl sounded so scared of her. She hadn't tried to hurt her and she hadn't yelled at her. Moynihan tried to get a little closer, but Michelle quickly moved away. She struggled to get her arms free, but they were tied up too tightly behind her back. "No..leave me alone!" Michelle cried as Moynihan just got closer, lifting up an arm and reaching out towards her. Thoughts of Victor ran through Michelle's mind and she found herself saying, "Please...don't hurt me again, Veloci..."

That statement made the others look at her in shock, their eyes widened. Moynihan was so surprised that she almost tripped, almost fell forward. The Dino Squad looked at Michelle, trembling in fear from Moynihan, and suddenly felt very guilty for how they acted. It seems Michelle truly was afraid of Victor, truly was as frightened as she looked. Perhaps she wasn't lying to them after all. Even though she was their enemy, they couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She sounded more scared of Victor than any of them were, save for Caruso, who was tortured by the man. Caruso looked at Michelle, probably feeling the most sympathy for her. He knew what it was like living in fear of Victor. He had suffered under the madman's cruelty before and he could tell that Michelle suffered just like he had, just from the way she was acting. He lowered his head, wishing that he hadn't called out his friends when he saw Michelle in that library.

Max felt horrible for how he treated Michelle. How could he have let them do this? How could he have done it? They had chased Michelle down, even though it was clear that she hadn't meant any harm to them. He had even threatened to hurt her if she didn't cooperate with them. That wasn't how a leader should have acted. He should have kept his cool and he should have assessed the situation much better than he had. His own fear for Caruso's safety and his own anger had caused him to act irrationally along with the others. They were supposed to be the good guys, after all. Max glanced over at the others. Fiona and Caruso both looked very guilty, their heads lowered in shame. He then glanced over at Rodger. The computer geek looked a little guilty, but not to the same degree as the others. He still looked angry with Michelle. Buzz's face, on the other hand, showed little sympathy, mostly anger. Max glared at him. Even after all this, Buzz still couldn't bring himself to give Michelle a chance. The same applied for Rodger.

Moynihan couldn't believe that Michelle had just called her Veloci. Why had she done that? Was Michelle so frightened of Victor that she had hallucinated, thinking that she was Victor? Moynihan was a Velociraptor, just like Victor was. Did that have something to do with it? Did Michelle think that all Velociraptors were the same? Moynihan moved in a little closer to Michelle. She reached her hand towards her again. The girl cringed back, baring her teeth in self defense. But Moynihan ignored the warning and said, "Relax..I'm not going to hurt you..." With that, she gently placed her hand on the girl's head. In an attempt to calm her down, she gently stroked her hair.

Although still frightened, the gentle touch did help Michelle calm herself down a little. After a few seconds, she looked at Moynihan, looking confused and almost frightened by this foreign touch. She hadn't experienced anything like it before. Why wasn't Moynihan trying to hurt her? That's what Victor would have done. "Why...why aren't you biting my shoulder? That's how Victor punished me when I nearly ruined his plans a few weeks ago..."

Horrified by what Michelle said, Moynihan gasped and said, "Dear..I'm not like Veloci..." How could Michelle even think that she would do such a thing to her? Why would she rip into her shoulder for doing something that she didn't see as wrong?

"But..but you're a Velociraptor..." Michelle said, trembling. "..just like he was. He said..he said that all Velociraptors punish their pack members like that..."

Moynihan narrowed her eyes slightly. "I can assure you that I'm nothing like that. I would never do anything like that to my team, even if they did misbehave. I care about them..I love them.. Why would I subject them to horrible pain for no reason?"

Michelle bit her lip. "I..I don't know..." She lowered her gaze.

Still stroking her hair, Moynihan said, "I can tell you are frightened of Victor..." Michelle looked up at her, a little surprised. "The way you're acting, what you just said earlier, it's evident that you are afraid of him. And it's okay to be afraid, but please don't compare me to Victor. I'm nothing like him, I can assure you that."

Michelle managed a weak smile. "I..I can see that now..." Moynihan smiled back at her. Then Michelle lowered her gaze. She remembered how she had thrown Moynihan down the stairs. She could have killed her back then..but despite that, the old woman was right here, comforting her, even saving her from her own team. Michelle felt guilty for what she had done. "I'm..I'm sorry..."

"Sorry? For what?" Moynihan asked.

"For throwing you down the stairs a few weeks ago.." Michelle said, her head lowered in shame. "I..I shouldn't have done it. I'm so sorry...so very sorry.."

Moynihan was a little surprised by this apology. But she smiled at Michelle. She moved her hand from her head to her shoulder, the one that Victor hadn't injured, and gently squeezed it to comfort Michelle. "It's okay.. I forgive you."

Michelle looked shocked. "You..you do..?" Moynihan simply smiled and nodded her head. Michelle was speechless and wasn't sure what to say. She didn't expect Moynihan to forgive her so quickly, if at all.

Max watched the scene unfold in front of him. He was surprised that Michelle had actually apologized for what she did to Moynihan. She sounded so sincere too, and apologizing wasn't an easy thing to do. And she wasn't trying to hide anything from them; she did acknowledge earlier what she had done. She didn't try to deny it. Max had to respect her for her courage in not only admitting she was wrong, but apologizing for what she did. Perhaps they all had misjudged her. Moynihan seemed to trust her well enough at this point. And seeing Moynihan willing to forgive Michelle did make him feel more relaxed. He could sense that both Fiona and Caruso were starting to feel more relaxed now. But he wasn't sure about Buzz or Rodger. They still seemed a little tense, particularly Buzz.

Rolf felt someone tapping him on the shoulder. He looked over. Much to his surprise, Irwin had walked up to him and had a devious smile on his face. That was a good sign. That meant that some of Caruso's personality was starting to show through again. He was starting to get back to his old self again. Caruso whispered to Max, "I know why she doesn't want to hurt me."

"Why?" Max whispered hoarsely.

"She thinks I'm cute!" Caruso whispered, stifling a giggle. Max just looked at him, but didn't say anything. Michelle had overheard what Caruso said and was giving him a shocked expression. Caruso just smirked at her and said, "You're not denying it." Michelle slowly shook her head and rolled her eyes. That was Caruso, all right.

After Caruso was done laughing, Max walked up to Michelle. He gestured for Moynihan to move out of the way. Moynihan was a little confused at first, but one look from Max suggested to her what he was about to do. She immediately moved back and Max stood in front of Michelle. The brunette didn't know what he was going to do with her. He didn't have a hostile look on his face, but he also didn't have a happy expression either. She didn't know what to expect. Then Max reached into his pocket. Michelle, Moynihan, and the others watched intently as Max pulled out a knife. Michelle's eyes widened and she looked away. But the knife blow never came. Instead, Max gripped the rope that went across her chest, pulled it a little, and slipped the knife underneath. With a little more effort, the knife sliced through the rope and it fell to the ground.

Buzz looked alarmed by this. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"I'm freeing her. She already showed us that she meant no harm." Max said, his eyes narrowed. "You have a problem with that, Buzz?"

"Well yeah! What if she turns on us as soon as you cut her free?" Buzz said quickly. "She's probably just acting nice just so that one of us would cut her free, and as soon as she is, she'll go dino and attack!"

Max slowly shook his head. "I'm willing to take that chance." Max gently moved Michelle over so he could see her back. As he moved in with the knife, Rodger and Buzz braced themselves for another fight. They were certain that Michelle was going to try to escape once her arms were free. Max placed the knife against the rope. Being very careful not to cut her skin, he managed to saw through the rope. As soon as her arms were free, Michelle pulled them loose and brought her hands forward. The relief of the pressure and the pain felt wonderful to her. She looked down at her hands, seeing the red marks on her skin where the rope was. Max saw them and flinched. Had they really tied her arms up that tightly? Michelle started to rub her hands, but she made no attempt to get up and walk away.

Buzz and Rodger, upon seeing that Michelle wasn't trying to get away, let themselves relax a little. But they still felt tense. They couldn't completely relax, thinking that Michelle could just bolt at any time. Perhaps she was just biding her time, waiting for the right moment where she can make a mad dash towards the exit. Michelle looked over at them and could sense their hostility. She quickly averted her gaze from them, not wanting to agitate them further. The two did see her look at them and they would have said something, but they stopped themselves quickly. They didn't want to start a confrontation with Max or Moynihan, especially Moynihan. They had seen how angry she had gotten earlier. It was best not to do something to provoke her again.

Michelle glanced over at Caruso, careful not to make direct eye contact as to not frighten him again. She did notice something strange about him, the way that he was acting. He would sometimes move his mouth in an odd way, and he would sometimes do the same thing with his neck. He looked as if he was in pain, but whatever was causing it, either he didn't know or he was trying to ignore it the best that he could. Recalling the time when she had to wear a bridle, she had an idea of what was wrong with Caruso. She immediately got up out of her seat. The others watched her intently to see what she was going to do. Caruso noticed her looking at him and took a step back, unsure what to expect from her.

Michelle said, "..don't move. I'm not going to hurt you." With that, she closed her eyes, her body glowed, and she transformed into a Guanlong Wucaii. She reopened her eyes and stared over at Caruso, who was shocked by this transformation. The Dino Squad were also shocked, as well as Moynihan. They immediately thought the worst. Perhaps this was indeed all a trick and she had been just luring them into a false sense of security. Max started feeling regrets in letting her go, wondering if he had incorrectly judged her yet again, given her too much credit. Michelle made her way towards Caruso, keeping her head low and softened up her expression as best as she could. She was trying to make herself appear as least intimidating as possible.

Caruso took another step back, trying not to allow himself to become afraid again. "What are you going to do?" He asked.

Michelle's eyes narrowed slightly. 'Help you.' She was now about a foot away from the kid. She lowered her head a little so she could sniff him a few times, as if she were trying to detect something. After a couple whiffs, she lifted up a dinosaur hand and moved it forward. She did the est she could to maneuver it behind his neck without accidentally cutting anything. She closed her claw tips around something very small, but solid. 'This might hurt a little...' She warned him. Caruso closed his eyes tightly and waited. With a swift flick of the hand, Michelle pulled out something very thin and very sharp from his neck. Caruso winced in pain, but didn't cry out. Michelle held the small piece of metallic material. It came from the war bridle. She could see that it was almost completely covered in blood.

Max walked up to her. "What is that?" He pointed at the object in Michelle's claws.

Michelle looked at him. 'It's a piece from the bridle your friend was wearing. A small shard must've dislodged somehow and gotten stuck in his neck.' She glanced back at him. 'I believe there's still one more piece that's left, but it'll be a little..tricky for me to get out.' She dropped the shard in Max's hand so he could look at it and made her way towards Caruso again. She gently pressed a claw tip against his lips. 'Open as wide as you can.'

"...why?" Caruso asked.

'There's one more shard in your mouth. Now please, open up.' Michelle said. Although reluctant to allow Michelle, or anyone, reach their razor sharp claws inside his still painful mouth, Caruso obliged and opened his mouth as wide as he could without causing himself too much pain. Michelle looked inside. A human would not be able to see inside a mouth cavity without a flashlight, but a dinosaur could see perfectly fine. It didn't take her long to see something glinting in his mouth. She memorized its location the best that she could and put two claws into his mouth. Within a few moments, she yanked something out, causing Caruso to yelp in pain. Michelle brought her hand out and held another shard, slightly larger than the other one. 'This was stuck near the back of your mouth. You were lucky it didn't break loose and get anywhere else to cause further damage.'

Caruso glanced at the shard that Michelle just pulled out. "That..what was inside of my mouth..?" His eyes grew wide with fear.

'I'm afraid so.' Michelle said, lowering her head a little.

"So..how did you know those pieces would be there?" Fiona asked as she walked up to Michelle. "We've looked and we never saw them there."

Michelle looked at her and shifted back into human form. "I know..because I was subjected to the war bridle as well." Everyone looked at her in shock. "Yes..it's true. I wasn't subjected to the bridle as long as Caruso was, but I had given in too easily. I don't know if it was because I was smart enough to give up, or I was too weak to keep on trying." She looked over at Caruso. "That's what impresses Victor about you, Caruso. You withstood the bridle longer than anyone else did." She narrowed her eyes a little. "That's also what makes him..a little afraid of you. You're tougher than you look." She looked at every member of the Dino Squad, Moynihan and Rump included, and said, "You all are. You just have to believe that..."

"Well we believe that..." Rodger said. He and Buzz were walking towards Michelle. She quickly turned to face them.

"And we also believe that you should watch your back..." Buzz hissed. He leaned in closely and whispered in a low voice that only Michelle could hear. "You may have fooled the others, but you haven't fooled us." Rodger nodded his head and Michelle's eyes widened.

Rodger whispered, "We won't do anything...yet... But we can see right through you, Michelle. So if I were you, I'd be careful..."

Before they could say anything else, Max, noticing that Michelle was getting uncomfortable, stormed over towards the two. He placed a hand on both of their shoulders and said, "Knock it off, you guys. Why must you keep antagonizing her?" Before they could respond, he interrupted them. "Look, I don't want to hear it. Not anymore. Just..just give her a chance, okay? We've already suffered enough. How could taking a chance with Michelle possibly be any worse than what we, as a team, experienced?" Rodger and Buzz were unable to answer and Max just nodded his head. "I didn't think so." He turned back to Michelle. "Okay..you're free to go."

* * *

"I wonder what they could be doing..." Kista said to herself. She had come over to the cafeteria room of Raptor Dyne to get something to eat. But she had stopped in front of the door, hearing familiar voices on the other side. Since the door lacked mirrors on it, she couldn't see who was in the large room. But two voices, oh so familiar, filled her ears. She'd recognize them anywhere. Peter and Zoom were talking about something. She couldn't discern what they were saying from out here; the door was obscuring some of the woods that they were saying. But she picked up a few words, including Dino Squad, her own name, Victor, and something about revenge. She had an idea what they were saying, but it was simply an educated guess. She could be completely wrong.

She carefully pushed the door open, softly enough so it didn't make a loud sound, and peered inside. She could see Peter sitting right beside Zoom. It looked like they were both eating something, but they were either done with it or had been so busy talking that they had forgotten there was food on their plate. She shook her head. Some humans were so wasteful. But that didn't concern her right now. Kista stepped into the room. So far, Peter nor Zoom had spotted her. Their eyes were away from her direction, facing towards each other instead. Kista took a few steps in and folded up her arms. The words were coming in more clear now that she didn't have any obstructions in her way. It seemed that Zoom was going to go against protocol after all, going to seek vengeance on the kids even though Victor didn't want them to be killed...yet.

And it also seemed that Zoom was going to have Peter allow him access to areas that are still restricted to Zoom himself. What he wants in those areas, Kista was not entirely sure. Her eyes still narrowed. All the same, he was still going to disobey the rules. She would have to find some way to make sure that she doesn't. And what of Peter? He was not supposed to be back until his arm had completely healed. Kista smirked. Perhaps she should relieve him of it, rip it from his body so he didn't have to worry about the long healing process. And it would serve as a good punishment in her eyes. She was certain he was warned not to leave the hospital yet, but he still did anyway. He should have realized the consequences of such an act.

No, she couldn't do that. If she did, Victor would be after her for unauthorized punishment. It was usually Victor himself who would carry out the punishments and those who carried them out without his permission were punished as well. Kista was not all that afraid of Victor, but she decided it was best not to provoke the raptor. Right now, she had more urgent matters at hand. She had to stop Zoom from going through with his plans. She started to wonder if other people were involved with this. She knew Peter wanted revenge as well. She had told him about how he was apparently tricked by one of the kids and she saw how angry he got as a result. But could there be someone else that she was missing? Oscura? Michelle? Victor? No, she already knew those three might want revenge. But for some reason, she thinks there might be one other person, but she can't quite put her finger on it...

"Kista?" Zoom asked, sounding stunned, and snapping Kista from her thoughts. "How long have you been standing there?"

Peter added in, "And how much have you heard?" He was sounding a little more angry than shocked. He didn't like people spying on him.

Kista's arms were still folded up. A dark smile spread across her face and she chuckled. She walked over to them, positioning herself between the two men. She looked at Peter first and then at Zoom. Then she moved her head back and closed her eyes, her face facing the table. "I haven't been here long. Don't worry, you two..." She raised her head up, her eyes open now, facing the ceiling. "But I have a question for you two. What do you two think you're doing? Do you want to provoke Victor, eh? Give up on your pathetic vengeance trip!"

"You can't tell us what we can do!" Peter said, standing up quickly despite his broken arm. Kista looked over at him and continued to smile. "Don't smirk at me like that! You know as well as I do that I do not need to take orders from you! You're not the boss of this place!" Kista only laughed at him, her eyes locking onto his arm. Peter felt a little insecure about his arm being stared at and he instinctively moved it away. 'Why are you looking at my cast like that?"

"It will be..such a shame if something happened to your arm, now wouldn't it..?" Kista said slyly, baring razor sharp teeth.

Zoom gasped and almost fell onto the ground, but Peter remained calm as if nothing was going on. He simply shook his head. He was surprised that Zoom had reacted in such a way to Kista. She did this to himself a few times and he learned to pretty much ignore it. Kista liked to boast her dinosaur side once in a while, but, at least to her, it was usually just harmless fun. Kista's comment about his arm, on the other hand, did anger him. It sounded like an outright threat and the way she was baring her teeth at him suggested that she wanted to rip his arm off. Well she wasn't going to go through with it, that's for sure. He would make sure of that. "If that was a threat, Kista..." He pulled his arm away from her. "..you'll have to do better than that. If Victor found out what you did, he'd..."

Kista chuckled. "Who said anything about Victor finding out? He doesn't need to know about this.." She pointed at his arm. "I could pull off ripping it away and Victor will never know I'm the one who did it. I could just tell him one of the Dino Squad kids did it. He'd believe that, now wouldn't he?" She placed a hand on her chest and said, "But he would never suspect me of doing such a thing. After all..." Her claws extended. "..we have a lot in common..."

Peter rolled his eyes. "Oh please! The only thing you two have in common is you two have a dinosaur form, and so do I and those darn kids and I think their mentor too!"

Kista put her hand on her hip and slowly shook her head. "Peter, Peter... you have forgotten already, didn't you?" She said, a dark smile on her face.

"Forgotten what?" Zoom asked, who had finally worked up the courage to say something to Kista since she had started showing some of her dinosaur features to him again. It wasn't as bad as what she had done to him before, but it was still a very scary sight, at least for him, someone who wasn't accustomed to such a thing.

Kista slowly turned her head over to Zoom. "Well, of course you wouldn't have known this, Zoomie boy.." Zoom winced at the pet name and, despite his anger, made Peter chuckle a little. "..since you're just a recent member of Raptor Dyne. But I'm surprised Peter seems to have forgotten." She eyed him. "He, out of the two of you..humans, should have known."

"Why don't you just tell us already?" Peter said, rolling his eyes. "Why do you go on like this? You've done this before. You say you know something, and when someone asks you what it is, you go off on a little rant like this." He narrowed his eyes. "Why don't you just spit it out already?"

"Oh and miss out on messing with you two?" Kista grinned. "You're no fun!"

Peter bared his teeth. "That's something I would usually expect Oscura to say..."

Zoom looked over at Peter. "Oscura? Isn't she that other teen that works here?"

Peter nodded his head. "Yes. She can turn into a Troodon. She's..such a nuisance that girl. If you have not met her, consider yourself lucky. If she doesn't drive you insane first, she might try to attack you." Zoom's eyes widened in fear.

Kista chuckled. "Well she isn't all that bad..." She glanced over at Zoom. "But yes, if I scared you, she'd definitely scare you. She does not exercise as much...restrain." As she said 'restrain', her claws extended further for a few seconds and then completely retracted. She then gave a sneer to the two men and decided to tell them what Peter must have forgotten or was choosing to ignore. "What Victor and I both have in common..is that he and I are both from the Cretaceous Period. We're both dinosaur survivors, and so is that old woman..what was her name..Moynihan? Yes, that was it."

Zoom's eyes went wide. "So you're, like...a real dinosaur? I thought you were like the Dino Squad, having obtained a form from the ooze." He gulped. Maybe this was why she and Victor scared him more easily than the kids did.

Kista said, "No, I've always had my dinosaur form. This was why Victor wanted me on the team so badly. To have another dinosaur by his side was probably a dream come true for him." Kista shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not as keen on this plan of his as he is, but I don't really care..so long as I can get a challenge..." She smirked. "Life has been so boring. Working at Raptor Dyne has always been so..tedious for me. Victor would often have me track down former members of Raptor Dyne, such as Donald and Michael."

"Donald and Michael?" Zoom asked.

"Yes." Kista nodded her head once. "They used to work at Raptor Dyne, but their idiocy and incompetence caused them to get fired. After hearing what they did, I can't blame Victor for firing them. The two idiots not only failed to contaminate more than five pets, a very simple task, but they also didn't recognize Victor, thinking he was a 'perfect dinosaur'!"

Zoom was shocked. How could anyone not recognize Victor in dino mode? It wasn't like there were a lot of other Velociraptors out there. And none of the Dino Squad could turn into a Velociraptor, at least not from what he could remember. "So..why were you spying on them?"

"Oh, Victor didn't want them spilling the secret of Raptor Dyne." Kista ran her fingers through her blond hair. "I can't imagine why they would even think of doing such a thing though. No one will listen to them. They will just get laughed at. Humans are such ignorant creatures sometimes..and yet also so gullible too." Then her eyes started to glow. "And yet, sometimes they can be..unpredictable and uncontrollable. Sometimes they will do things that they will soon..regret." She looked over at Zoom and Peter as her voice started getting a little more dino-like in sound. "Isn't that right, my two little deluges?"

Zoom was taken aback by that comment. "..excuse me?"

Peter shook his head. "I hate it when you do that, Kista. Stop using words that are irrelevant to the conversation! What you said makes absolutely no sense at all! And that wasn't the only thing you've said over the years that doesn't make sense!"

Kista smirked. "You're just jealous because of my superior intellect!" She said aloud, sounding proud of herself. "No humans can match my vocabulary! I deserve to be able to show it off once in a while."

"But when it's actually relevant to the conversation and makes sense!" Peter snapped. "Even Victor can't understand you at times!"

Now it was Kista's turn to get a little annoyed. How dare this pathetic human challenge her intelligence?! How dare he?! In anger, she raised up one of her hands, light-colored sharp-tipped claws fully extended, and put them in front of Peter's face, only inches away. "One more crack like that, and I will tear off that arm of yours..." A silence fell onto the room.

* * *

Michelle and Max stood outside of the lighthouse. Max was standing right in front of the closed door. Michelle was standing a little further away from him. They were looking at each other, but they weren't saying anything. Both were wondering if they could trust the other. Max had told Michelle that he'll make sure that his friends, particularly Buzz and Rodger, don't come after her again. And Michelle had promised not to get in their way again. But would they really hold up to their promises? They both still weren't completely sure if they could trust the other, but they were willing to give each other a chance.

Max had convinced the others to let her go. It wasn't easy to convince them, however. Rodger and Buzz put up a good argument. They stated that if they let Michelle go, even if she meant them no harm, Victor could get her to talk or perhaps force her to fight them again. If she was as afraid of Victor as she claimed she was, it wouldn't be too hard for Victor to force her into fighting them again in the future. They also claim that if they kept Michelle as a hostage, if Victor did put some value in her just because she can transform into a dinosaur, they could force Victor into some kind of surrendering. But Moynihan had opposed to the idea, claiming that one hostage, or any number of hostages, wouldn't be enough to convince Victor to just give up. He wasn't the type of guy who can be reasoned with in such a manner. She also didn't like the idea of having a hostage in general. She didn't want to stoop down to Victor's level.

Even Caruso and Fiona were a bit apprehensive about letting Michelle go, but they agreed to it faster than Rodger and Buzz did. They took a little more convincing, but they eventually agreed to let her go as well, provided that she keeps to her word and stays away from them, especially Caruso. Michelle said that she'd try the best that she could, but she knew something could still happen, such as the accidental run-in at the library. But she was now more concerned about what to tell to Victor than she was with what the Dino Squad could do to her. What was Victor going to say? He would surely smell all these scents on her body and know she was around the Dino Squad, or at least Caruso. And when he doesn't smell any blood on her, he'd know something was wrong, at least in his eyes.

Michelle looked out into the forested region close to the lighthouse. She started to make her way towards it, but stopped herself. She looked back over at Max, who was still staring at her. The look in his eyes told her that there was something he probably wanted to say to her, but she couldn't think of what it could be other than for her to hurry up and leave already. Michelle took a few steps towards him. "Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something that you wanted to say to me or something?"

Max bit his lip a little and started to look a little nervous. "Well..yes..there was something I wanted to say..but I don't know how to put it..."

"You don't?" Michelle asked, sounding a little curious. "Is it really that difficult to say?"

Max thought for a moment, and then said, "Yes." He was feeling guilty about what he had put Michelle through within the past few hours. He had let himself give into his anger and had actually threatened her. He had helped with everything that happened, her capture, bringing her to the lighthouse, binding her, everything. And after the way he saw her react when Moynihan started getting close, Max realized the true gravity of the situation, learning just how much Michelle truly feared Victor. And Moynihan didn't make them feel any better. Even Buzz and Rodger were ultimately feeling at least a little guilty for how they treated Michelle and how similar it was to how Victor would have acted.

Moynihan herself had stated that they were acting like Victor Veloci himself. That did hurt the Dino Squad a little, but Moynihan went on to say that she didn't want to scold them or make them feel bad. But she was disappointed that they would act in such a way. After that, Michelle did apologize for what she said, claiming that she was so angry with them for beating her up that she lost control of herself. At this point, Max couldn't really blame her. He would have done the same thing if he were in that same situation. Thinking back on it, Max couldn't believe that he and his friends had acted so cruelly to someone. Even if it were an enemy, he knew they shouldn't have acted like that. Moynihan still gave him some praise, though, claiming that he did try to stop the others beforehand and he had the marks of a true leader.

But he still couldn't shake off these feelings of guilt. Every time Max looked at Michelle, he could feel the memories of what happened to her flood through his mind. Would she even have the heart to forgive him for what he had done? "I..I just wanted to wish you..good luck.." Max finally said. It wasn't what he wanted to say, but he was still telling the truth.

Michelle was slightly surprised. "Oh, well..thank you.." She responded, although it was slightly delayed. She wasn't sure what to make of what Max said. She didn't know for sure whether or not he truly meant it. "So...I suppose I should wish you guys luck too. Good luck."

"Thanks." Max said. He was a little surprised himself that Michelle wished him luck. Perhaps she was just returning the favor.

A silence fell onto them again for a few moments. Then Michelle finally decided it was time for her to leave. The others were probably waiting for Max to come back inside, alone, and for her to be on her way. She knew Buzz and Rodger definitely wanted her away from the lighthouse and so did she, at least for now. She wasn't sure if there would come a time when she could come back, either by her own will or by some other reason, perhaps by force. "Well...I better get going." She gestured behind her with a thumb. "If I stay here too long, Victor is going to wonder where I am. He's already curious about my..disappearances lately."

Max tiled his head in confusion. "..disappearances? You've been running off?"

"I've been..coming to Kittery Point a lot.." Michelle smiled weakly. "I guess the urge to make up for what I did was..a little strong."

"Yeah, I'll say.." Max said. He agreed that coming to this town multiple times was going to look suspicious. But he was still grateful that she came anyway. At least she was nice enough and brave enough to tell them what was actually going on. If it weren't for her, they would probably have never been able to come up with something to help Moynihan regain control of herself, even if it were just for a short time.

"Well...see ya around..I think." Michelle said. She then turned and walked away.

As Michelle made her way towards the forest, Max finally worked up the courage to say what he wanted to earlier. "I'm..I'm sorry..about what happened. I'm truly..very sorry..."

Upon hearing that, Michelle stopped her tracks, wondering if she heard right. Without turning around all the way, she looked back at Max. He smiled at her, indicating that he really did just say that. Michelle wondered if she should turn back and abandon Raptor Dyne. But her better judgment told her to go back; now wasn't the time to switch sides completely. She simply nodded her head at Max and then transformed into a Gualong Wucaii and ran off into the distance.

Seeing Michelle look back at him like that did give Max a sense of hope. Perhaps there was still good inside of Michelle and maybe it was enough to turn her around. Maybe she could even become a new ally. She's already done something to help them out. "I'll see you soon, hopefully, Michelle. Bye." He said, even though he knew that she couldn't hear him now. He turned and walked back into the lighthouse.

* * *

"So, is she gone?" Buzz said. It was the first thing Max heard when he walked into the living room. Buzz didn't sound all too happy about letting her go.

"Yes, Buzz." Max said, sounding a little annoyed. "She is gone."

Buzz didn't like the way Max was talking to him. "What are you so upset about? I'm the one who should be upset. You just let a potential killer loose!"

"Hey, you agreed to it!" Max said angrily.

"Only because you forced me to!" Buzz said.

"If I were in charge, I would have went with Buzz's idea and kept her here." Rodger said, though in a less hostile way than Buzz was talking. "We probably could have gotten something from it..."

Moynihan, who was still in the room, shook her head. "No, you would not have, Rodg. There was nothing to gain from having her as a hostage. The only thing that would have come out of it was that Victor may have come over to the lighthouse and destroyed it so he could have her back on his side."

"Yeah, you guys." Fiona said in a calm voice. "I believe Max did the right thing in letting her go. She did seem really sorry for what she did. The least we can do is give her another chance."

"We already gave her a chance!" Rodger said.

"And look what happened!" Buzz joined in.

"If you continue to blame her for something that's already happened..." Fiona started to say, but stopped herself when Moynihan put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head.

"Please don't argue, you kids." Moynihan said softly. She adjusted her glasses with her other hand. "There has been enough fighting for one day. You kids should be relaxing now, not getting so worked up over this." She then focused her attention on Rodger and Buzz. Out of the kids, she was the most disappointed in these two, particularly Buzz. "And as for you two, if you don't learn to give Michelle a break, you'll only make yourselves feel worse. After all, forgiveness is the first step to recovery."

"Forgiveness?" Buzz said, sounding shocked. "You expect us to forgive Michelle for what she did?"

Moynihan nodded her head. "Not now anyway. But in the future, I would like to see that happen. Judging from what I've seen here, I predict that she might not work for Victor for much longer. It seems she really wants out of that company. And another reason I want you to forgive her is for your own sake. If you continue on with how you are, talking of revenge, you'll only bring yourself down further. You'll only hurt yourself." She put her hand on Buzz's shoulder. "Even if you don't want to forgive her, at least do it for yourself." Her other hand when on Rodger. "It's not good for your health to think of such things for very long."

"But..I just don't think we can forgive her so easily.." Rodger said slowly. "I mean..after all she did..It's hard to bring myself to totally forgive her for all of this. She almost killed you..."

"I know, Rodg. Forgiveness doesn't come easily. But I know that, one day, you two will find it in your hearts to forgive her. Even though she almost killed me, I found the courage to forgive her." Moynihan said, hoping to set an example out of herself. She figured that if she, who was almost killed by Michelle, could find the courage to forgive this girl, so should Rodger and Buzz.

"I'm still shocked that you could forgive her." Buzz muttered softly.

"And I'm still shocked that you still want to go after her." Max said as he walked over towards them. "What do you want out of this, Buzz? Michelle won't do us much good as a hostage. You don't like it when she's around, and yet when I tried to let her go, you attempted to stop me. What's the big deal? What do you want us to do with her? Kill her?"

Buzz narrowed his eyes. He opened up his mouth to respond, but suddenly lost his voice, not knowing what to say. He almost said 'yes', but realized if he did say that, he would have sounded cold-hearted. When he tried to search his mind for what he wanted, he realized that he didn't have a reason for why he didn't want her to go. He didn't even know what he wanted to do with Michelle other than capture her. "I...I don't know..."

Max wasn't finished. This time, he addressed Rodger. "What did you think we should do with Michelle? Did you think we should torture her? Kill her?" Like Buzz, Rodger was not able to make a response. Max then addressed both teens. "And on top of that, why did you two continue to insist that Michelle was lying? What did you want her to say that you thought was truthful? If you continue to believe that everything she says is a lie, then why even bother trying to get information from her? What would you have wanted her to say?"

"Well...I..." Rodger started to say, but he couldn't think of anything. Max had a good point. Why were they interrogating her if they thought everything she said was a lie? What was the point of it?

Buzz tried to say something, but he only managed to say, "It's because..." Then his voice trailed off. He couldn't think of a good comeback, or a good explanation for why he interrogated Michelle despite believing that she did nothing but lie. Perhaps he was taking this a little too far. Perhaps he should have given Michelle more of a chance.

Moynihan looked over at Buzz. She recalled him, once, trying to explain something to her, but she had wanted to put it off. Well perhaps now was a good time for him to tell her. "Buzz..why is it that you have this undying hatred for Michelle? Is there a reason why you continue to rant on her, wanting revenge, even when it is not necessary? Even when she seems to understand what she did wrong and even apologized for it? You even accused her of lying when she was risking her own life trying to help us find Caruso." Buzz opened up his mouth, but didn't say anything. Moynihan urged him on. "Go on. Just tell me how you feel." She looked over at Rodger. "You too, Rodger."

Buzz hesitated. Moynihan was giving him a chance to explain himself like he tried to before but never got to finish. But now he wasn't so sure if he wanted to tell her everything. Maybe she already knew about it. But if she did, why would she even be asking him these questions? Maybe just for confirmation? No, that wouldn't make sense. Maybe she really didn't know. Buzz looked over at Rodger. He looked just as uncomfortable and unsure as he did. They've been ranting on about Michelle lately and they had already given their reasons for distrusting her. But now they had to explain on a deeper level why they were acting like this. They had to explain how they felt, not what they think should be done with Michelle.

"Well...how should I explain this...?" Buzz rubbed the back of his head. He still wasn't sure how to explain, but what other choice did he have? If he refused to answer, Moynihan was just going to keep on urging him until he said something. "I guess when I look at Michelle..I see Victor. I see what happened to myself when Victor had tricked me.. It feels like the past had repeated itself. Victor had tricked me using that online game that Rodger made...and I believed him..and he led me into a trap." Buzz sighed. "So when I might this person.. PreGuan20 I think was her username, turned out to be Michelle, I had believed her. I thought she could have been a potential friend, but it turned out to be yet another trap... I can't help but associate Michelle with Victor because of that..That's why I can't trust her. I had already learned my lesson on that..."

Moynihan nodded her head, understanding what he was saying. It did make sense now. Moynihan felt a little stupid that she had forgotten about it. Buzz was captured by Victor for a short time because he had been foolish enough to believe Victor's lies through the internet. It was a good thing that they had gotten back from the dinosaur hockey game when they did, otherwise it might have been too late to save Neil from Victor. Michelle had been introduced to him in a similar fashion, and not long afterwards, a trap had been set and they fell for it. It would make sense for Buzz to react the way he had. But there was still one thing that didn't quite make sense, one thing that he said that didn't add up completely.

"If you had learned your lesson because of Victor..." Joanne said, one eyebrow cocked curiously. "..then why did you, at first, believe Michelle when you met her online and then first met her at the school? And when she was being 'attacked' by her partner?" Buzz opened up his mouth, but no words came out. "It seems to me, Buzz, that you had not really learned your lesson. You had fallen for the same trap as you had before.." She turned her head to Rodger this time. "And what's your reasoning behind your hatred for Michelle?"

Rodger gulped. He wasn't sure what to say. He didn't know how to explain himself. He didn't have a reason like Buzz did. He was just following along with him, wanting to be cautious. After what Michelle had done to them, he didn't want to take any chances. He cared too much about this team to let anything bad happen to them. Moynihan understood that, he was sure. But from the way she was looking at him, it seemed like she was expecting him to say something else, as if she thought there was another driving force behind his actions.

Noticing how silent Rodger had gotten, Moynihan spoke up. "Rodger, I asked you a question. Are you having a difficult time answering me?"

Rodger shook his head. "No..." That was, of course, a lie. But how would she know that?

"Then..please, answer the question." Moynihan said gently. "I'm not trying to be mean to you two. I just want to help."

"Well..I guess...I guess it is because of Buzz.." Rodger finally said. Moynihan nodded her head, but Buzz and the others looked at him in surprise. Buzz couldn't help but feel a little guilty. He was the reason Rodger had also been acting like this? "I mean..just seeing him like that..so distressed over this...this..Michelle person... I can't help but feel anger towards her... I..I'm angry at Michelle for making Buzz feel the way he had been over the past few weeks. It hurts me seeing him like this." Rodger looked over at Buzz, and then back at Moynihan. "I guess I was being a little..overprotective.."

Fiona felt the faintest of a smile tug at her mouth. "If that was his idea of being a little overprotective, I'd hate to see his idea of being too overprotective..." She whispered to Max.

"Yeah.." Max whispered back. He didn't like talking about Rodger behind his back, but he couldn't help but be concerned about him, and Buzz too.

Moynihan said to Rodger, "You need to learn some self control there, Rodg. It's okay if you feel protective about someone, even a little overprotective. But you shouldn't be acting the way they are. That won't help solve the problem. It will actually make it worse." She placed a hand on his shoulder and gently squeezed it. "If you really wanted to help Buzz, you should have talked to him and help him settle down. If you were feeling troubled about this situation and you didn't feel comfortable talking to Buzz, then you should have come to me."

Rodger bowed his head, feeling ashamed. "Yes..I know that."

Moynihan frowned slightly, concerned. "Don't feel bad, Rodger." She gently lifted up his head. "We all make mistakes now and then. There's no need to get upset over them once you understand what you did wrong." She smiled. "And now that you do, it's time to move on. Don't dwell on your mistakes too much. You do remember the last time you did, right?"

Rodger gulped. "Yes..I do..." Rodger had made so many mistakes one time that he had lost confidence in himself and almost gave up. But his friends managed to help him get his confidence back. He was grateful for that, and it was just in time for him to rescue Buzz from Victor. Buzz was trapped on a train, a mutant snake on one side, Victor on the other. With his genius, they managed to cure the snake and saved Buzz from Victor.

* * *

Several hours later, Michelle was panting heavily as she reached the Raptor Dyne building. She took a few moments to catch her breath, then turned the knob and walked inside. Though it was starting to get dark outside, she still had to write in her journal. Surely, Victor would be expecting her to do that. She quickly made her way down the halls, the stairs, and more halls until she finally reached the room she was looking for. She looked inside the room to make sure no one was in there. She then reached for the door, but before she could grab it, she suddenly felt the presence of someone behind her. Her eyes widened and she gulped as she heard a soft growl, although it didn't sound too menacing. She turned around and spotted Victor, walking towards her with his hands behind his back. Was he trying to hide something from her?

Victor's eyes narrowed slightly as he got closer to her. When he finally reached her, he relaxed one arm against his side and raised the other. He pointed at her and asked, "Where have you been? Do you have any idea what time it is?" He didn't sound too happy with her. "You should have been back hours ago!" He had a feeling he knew what had went on, but he wanted to get her to confess it herself. And it shouldn't take much persuasion to get her to confess what had happened to slow her down.

Michelle fumbled with her fingers. Her eyes darted around the room as she tried to find an explanation to give him. She couldn't tell him the truth. If she did, he was going to wonder why she hadn't tried to kill Caruso; she was free part of the time there and had every opportunity to try. "I was..no where, sir. I was just..looking around..and I lost track of time. I apologize..."

But Victor wasn't buying it. "Don't give me that!" Michelle took a step back in fear. "I know you better than that, Michelle. You've never done something like that before! You, losing track of time? You'll have to think of a better excuse than that!" Victor folded up his arms and waited for her to give the real explanation.

Michelle swallowed hard. Victor was able to see right through her lying. What was she going to do now? Should she just confess the truth and hope he won't take action? No, the Dino Squad, specifically Max, were willing to give her another chance. She didn't want to blow it. "I was..just shopping...?" She smiled nervously at him and raised her arms as if she doesn't know what the right answer was. Victor growled at her, this time with more force, and she flinched, moving away from him.

"Stop lying to me!" Victor said. Finally, he decided to show her that he knew where she was. He took another step towards her. "I caught a whiff of you when you walked in here. I could smell that you were with the Dino Squad." Michelle's eyes widened in shock. "Why are you so surprised? You didn't notice that their horrible stench is all over you?" He smirked slightly, a little amused by the fact that Michelle was probably in too much of a hurry to get back to realize that the smell was still, indeed, still there. He and Michelle heard footsteps coming towards them. They turned to see Oscura coming towards them.

Oscura smirked evilly at Michelle, looking as if she found a new opportunity to get rid of her once and for all. Oscura had overheard part of the conversation and was able to catch the bit about the scent of the Dino Squad being all over her. If Oscura could convince Victor that Michelle was hanging out with the Dino Squad on purpose, maybe then Victor will do something about her. "If you want to know what I think, Dr. Veloci..." Oscura eyed Michelle evilly before looking back at Victor. "..I think she had deliberately went to the Dino Squad and spent some..time with them for a while. She probably told them everything."

Victor's eyes narrowed further. "And what proof do you have to back up your claim, Oscura?"

Oscura's expression changed from happiness to a look of confusion. "Come again?"

"I'm not going to accuse Michelle of treachery unless you can provide me some evidence to back up your claims." Victor said. "I'm not going to punish her just because you think she did something wrong." He paused, and then added in, "And I definitely won't do it just because you don't like her. I don't like most of the humans working for me, but you don't see me running around trying to kill them, do you? Show some self control, Oscura!"

Oscura frowned a little. She overheard Michelle laughing at her. Oscura glared in her direction. "Oh shut up, you!"

Victor was going to say something to Oscura but decided to let it go for now. Right now, he was still talking with Michelle. He still wanted to know for sure where she was and what she was doing there to begin with. "Okay, Michelle. What were you doing near the Dino Squad? And don't try to tell me you weren't with them. Remember..." He pointed to his nose. "I can smell them. And my nose is never wrong."

Michelle gulped and said, "Okay..I didn't want to tell you..but I was captured by the Dino Squad." At least that part she knew was correct. "They had ambushed me and managed to subdue me long enough to tie me up. If you want to know why I didn't go dino, it happened too fast... They bound my arms behind my back so if I tried to transform, it would only break them, well if I transformed completely though. I had no choice but to go with them to the lighthouse."

Victor cocked an eyebrow. "You were at the lighthouse? How did you manage to escape?" Maybe she had managed to kill Caruso while she had gotten herself free. But then he realized something. There was a scent missing from her if this were the case. "And why didn't you try to kill Caruso?"

Michelle froze at that question. That was the very question that she was hoping she would be able to avoid. She was hoping that he wouldn't ask her that, hoping that she wouldn't need to answer it. But now she had to. "W-Well, sir...I..." But she couldn't think of anything to say to that. What lie could she tell him that would be convincing enough for him to believe her?

Oscura chuckled. "You see? She can't even come up with a clever lie for that one! She must have been plotting with them or something!"

"Oscura, keep your mouth shut." Michelle said, getting aggravated that Oscura was hanging around here. She didn't know why Victor permitted her to stay here, in this hallway, as she tried to talk to him. She was just going to try and come up with ways to twist her story every chance that she got.

"You can't tell me what to do!" Oscura retorted.

"But I can." Victor said, sounding annoyed. He glared at her. "Will you please be quiet so Michelle can tell her side of the story?" Although he was trying to sound as polite as he could despite his anger, Oscura and Michelle could tell from the tone of his voice that he was really stressing himself trying to sound polite. The words might have been polite, but his tone was that of anger and frustration.

Before Michelle tried again to explain herself, she realized there was something else she had forgotten about. Victor had likely taken notice to it, but decided not to say anything. She still had some dried blood on her body from the attacks she got from the Dino Squad. Even though it wasn't a lot of blood, it was likely enough for Victor to pick up if he were in raptor mode. And even if he didn't smell it, he was likely to have seen it on her skin. Red shows up very well on light-colored skin. She gingerly pressed a hand against several lacerations she got on one arm and said, "Well..I did try, sir..I really did. But they..they outnumbered me..and I was beaten. As much as I hate to admit it, I was defeated by them."

Victor stared at her for several seconds, taking in this information. He wasn't sure if she was telling the truth or not. He had seen the way she handled the Dino Squad before. They didn't stand much of a chance against her speed and agility. Then again, she had Oscura to back her up. Combined as a team, they were able to outmaneuver the Dino Squad and had defeated them pretty easily. But in this confrontation, apparently she had been alone this time. So it would make sense that some of the tricks she used before wouldn't work this time around. The wounds that covered part of her body seem to support her claim. It did look like she was in quite a struggle. Still, something didn't seem right about what she said. It was starting to feel as if she was hiding something. Victor was determined to find out what it was.

Eyes narrowing a little further, Victor said, "How come those wounds look like they came from humans?" He pointed at some of the cuts on her body. They weren't very deep and looked more like a nail had gone across them. There were areas that were deeper, but that was only because, at some point, the Dino Squad started slashing her with their dinosaur claws. "Some do look like they came from dinosaurs, yes. But the others look like they came from humans..." Then he realized what it had meant. It was impossible for a human to inflict damage on a dinosaur, but they could inflict damage on a human. "You claim that they ambushed you, but those wounds suggest that you did have enough time to go dino. And yet you didn't..." His eyes glowed slightly. "Is there something that you are hiding from me?"

Michelle quickly shook her head. "No sir! I'm not trying to hide anything from you!"

"Then what really happened?" Victor asked, lifting his head up slightly as he stared down at her. "And don't try telling me that they ambushed you. Your wounds already give away that you are lying about that..."

Michelle gulped. She wasn't sure what she should do now. She wished she could just turn around and walk away, but Victor would see to it that she stays put until she explains everything to him. Michelle could see Oscura smiling at her. She was enjoying this, she could tell. Michelle looked back at Victor, whose glowing eyes stared down at her with an expression that told her that lying wasn't an option. Michelle could only think of one more lie and she prayed that it would work. "Okay, sir...Here's what happened..." And she began to tell him her story.

* * *

The next day, later into the afternoon, Fiona stood outside the door to Caruso's house, her arm raised up, hand readied to knock on the door. But she hesitated. She had come here only on Moynihan's encouragement. She had consulted with her again and Moynihan encouraged her yet again to go talk to Caruso. For added privacy, she had suggested that she talk to Caruso at his own home, perhaps up in his bedroom. Fiona wasn't sure if his parents would like that, but Moynihan assured her that Caruso's parents knew who she was and would trust her in his room alone. But that wasn't what was concerning Fiona. She already knew that Caruso's parents trusted her. But after what happened before, she wondered if some of that trust had been broken...

Finally, Fiona worked up the courage to knock on the door. After a couple thumps onto the door, she saw the knob turning, opening up the door. Fiona found herself looking at Caruso's father, Jack. He didn't seem particularly happy, but she wasn't sure if it was because of her presence or if something else was going on. Either way, Fiona offered her best smile despite the circumstances. "Hello, Mr. Caruso..." She lowered her head slightly. "I-Is Irwin there..?"

Upon the mention of Irwin, Jack narrowed his eyes slightly. But he didn't look angry; surprisingly, he looked sad. "Well..yes he is..But he..." He seemed nervous and unsure of what he was going to say. He looked away from Fiona, who was staring to look worried, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "..I'm not sure if he's in a talkative mood right now." He said at last.

That only made Fiona feel even more worried about the boy. "What's..what's wrong with him? Did something happen to him?"

"Sort of.." Jack said, lowering his gaze. "You see...I'm not sure if he's been telling you this.. But he's been having nightmares recently." Jack looked back into the house to see if Irwin was nearby. When he was able to confirm that he wasn't, he continued, "He would thrash in his sleep, crying out as if he were in pain.. Often I'd see him claw at his mouth as if that..that thing was still on him.. He would sometimes mistake me and his mother for Veloci." Fiona's eyes widened in horror. "We didn't say anything to you or your friends before because we thought that he had told you. But I suppose that he hadn't..."

Fiona slowly shook her head. "No, sir.. He hadn't said a word about this to any of us. I wonder why..." The only thing that she could think of is that maybe Irwin was worried that she'd think less of him if he told her about these nightmares, and the same applied for the others. Caruso had probably wanted to make the team believe that he was being strong, and feared what would happen if they saw him acting so weak. Fiona felt a little hurt that Caruso didn't trust her enough to tell her about these horrible dreams. She could have helped him.

"He didn't tell us straight away." Jack said. Fiona looked up at him in surprise. "We noticed, in the mornings, he'd look like a mess. We would try to get him to talk about what happened, but he refused, stating that nothing was wrong. We finally found out about the dreams when he was screaming in his sleep. After we managed to wake him up, he finally broke down and told us that he's been having nightmares about Veloci and what had happened to him at that warehouse you kids found him at."

Fiona swallowed hard. Caruso's stay must have been far more horrific than she thought if he's having such vivid nightmares about it. But then again, she wasn't too surprised. She had seen that device on his head and she had seen how it had cut into his body. That was likely enough to give even the strongest person nightmares. "Where is he now? C-Can I talk to him...?" Fiona asked softly. "Maybe I can help him feel better."

Jack hesitated, staring at Fiona and considered her offer. On one hand, he didn't want her with Irwin specifically because he was worried that Irwin might mistake her for Veloci and attack her. But on the other hand, she might be able to help calm him down. Jack didn't want his son to continue acting like this. It was hurting both him and his wife, and it seems to be having an impact on his friends as well. He wondered how Moynihan was taking this. "All right then..." He stepped back and allowed Fiona to come into the house. Once he shut the door, he pointed towards where Caruso's bedroom was. "He's in his bedroom. You may go talk to him."

"Can I talk to him alone?" Fiona requested, a faint blush appearing on her face. Although she tried to hide it from Jack, he still spotted it and smiled.

"Why of course you can." Jack said, chuckling lightly. It seems that this girl has a crush on Caruso, he thought.

Fiona smiled back. "Thanks, Mr. Caruso!" With that, she took off towards Irwin's room. It wasn't too hard to find. It was the only one that was completely closed. The others were partway open. Why, Fiona wasn't too sure. But that was none of her concern, especially at this time. She grabbed the door and slowly opened it. She didn't hear anything inside, but she was certain Caruso was in here. She peered inside. The room was dark, although still lit because of the light from outside. She couldn't see Caruso anywhere, but still stepped into the room. "Caruso..? Caruso, are you in here?" She asked.

"G-Go away..." A voice said from what sounded like on the other side of the bed. Fiona knew what it was Caruso. There was no mistaking that voice. "Leave me alone..."

"Caruso..I just want to help you..." Fiona said as she walked towards the bed, towards the source of the voice. "I'm not leaving you. Please..just let me help you.." She reached the other side of the bed. Caruso was sitting down, his arms wrapped around his legs and pulled tightly to his chest. She gasped. Jack wasn't kidding when he said that the boy was a mess. Caruso's hair was all messed up and spiky-looking. His eyes were puffy red as if he were crying. His clothes were a little torn up. When Fiona looked hard enough, she could see some tiny red lines along his arms as legs. It was like Caruso was scratching himself to get away from whatever he thought he was seeing, as if he thought there was rope around his legs and harms and he was trying to get free. "Caruso..."

Irwin looked up at Fiona. There were still tears streaming down his face. His mouth was part-way open, his lips trembling in fear. His eyes widened slightly as he saw Fiona. For a brief moment, he thought he saw Victor staring down at him again. But he realized a little when he realized it was only Fiona. But then his face contorted into mild anger. Fiona gasped and took a step back, preparing for the boy to attack her in a blind panic. But the attack never came. "What..what are you doing here, Fiona? I-It's not safe...I-I could..." Fiona ignored him and gently grabbed one of his arms. She pulled him up to his feet and motioned for him to sit on the bed. Caruso did so and Fiona sat down next to him. She remained as close as she could to him without making the boy feel uncomfortable.

After a couple minutes of silence, Fiona said in a small voice, "Your..dad told me what has been happening."

Caruso looked over at her. "H-He did...?"

Fiona nodded her head. She then looked over at him, her face filled with hurt. "Caruso..why didn't you tell us you were having these nightmares?"

"I-I thought I did..." Caruso said softly.

"Maybe you did.." Fiona said, looking away. "I..I can't remember. But still, you could have talked to us if these dreams were still bothering you. We're your friends, Caruso. We would have helped you if you gave us the chance.."

"I-I know..." Caruso felt more tears streaming down his face. He lifted up his arm and wiped away his tears as best as he could. But more tears just appeared, making his face constantly wet and moist despite his best efforts. He took in a shaky breath, stifling a sob. "I-I was just so..so s-s-scared..and f-frightened.. I-I didn't want you g-guys to worry about me.." Caruso was doing his best to ignore the pain inside his mouth as he spoke. "I-I thought you guys would..g-give up on me..."

Shocked by this statement, Fiona put one arm around Caruso and pulled him closer to her. "Caruso, we would never do something like that.. We..We care about you too much to just give up on you. You can tell us anything. You've got to believe that..." Caruso turned around and wrapped his arms around Fiona, catching her by surprise, and hugged her tightly. Fiona was shocked at first, but put her other arm around him and hugged him back. Caruso trembled and cried as he continued to hug Fiona, resting his head on her shoulder.

"I-It was h-horrible..V-Victor would just..stand over me..laughing.. I'd have that horrible bridle b-back on me..and the p-pain was far worse than before..." Caruso said through his sobs. "H-He said he k-killed you guys and..n-no one would h-help me... I would..try to fight back, but he-he was too s-strong for me... He a-almost kills me too, but-but that is when I'd..w-wake up..." He couldn't bring himself to say anymore. His words slowly broke into short, sharp gasps and whimpers.

"Shhh..." Fiona whispered to him, trying to gently shush him. She gently rubbed his back with one hand and pulled him as close as she could with the other. "It's all right...everything will be okay, you'll see..." She wasn't sure if that was true or not, but for his sake, she hoped it would be. She didn't want to see Caruso remain like this for the rest of his life. "Victor will never harm you again..me and the others..we'll see to it that he never gets near you again...I promise..."

Caruso just kept on crying. He was gripping Fiona as tightly as he could without causing her pain. He was afraid to let go, afraid to speak, afraid to look at her. All he wanted to do was hug her and cry. He wanted to let out all the emotion that he had tried to keep backed up all this time. His body convulsed almost violently as he continued to sob and whimper. Although he was still frightened, Fiona's gentle touch and words helped soothe him a little and he started to calm down a little. But he still refused to let go. He was afraid that if he did, she would get up and leave him, and break her promise to him. Although he knew that she would never do that to him, he couldn't help but be paranoid that it might happen. He was terrified to just let her go now. He finally managed to say, "Th-Thank you..."

"You're welcome...Caruso..." Fiona whispered gently, smiling softly. She was glad that Caruso was sounding like he was starting to calm down a little. His body wasn't shaking as much and his sobs and whimpers were coming less and less frequent. But he still clung onto her tightly as if he was afraid of letting her go. Fiona didn't mind, of course. She continued to hug him, letting him calm down further. Then she pulled her head away from him, but still hugged him. Caruso looked up at her for a few seconds before lowering his head, still crying. She wasn't sure if it was from happiness or sadness. "Shhhhhh...it's okay..." Then Fiona found herself doing something she hadn't meant to before.

Fiona leaned forward, moving her head towards Caruso's. Without hesitating much, she pressed her lips against his and kissed him.

Caruso's eyes widened in shock and he quickly pulled away. He stared at Fiona, a bewildered expression on his face. Fiona looked up at him, at first a little hurt that he had reacted in such a way. And then her gaze lowered as she felt a slight blush spread onto her face. Caruso didn't know what to say. He was left completely shocked by the kiss. He had never expected her to do that. He had already accepted that he had a crush on her, kept secret all this time, but he didn't think she had a crush on him. Maybe this kiss was proof of that...

Caruso found himself asking an awkward question, despite his better judgment. "Why...why did you do that...?" He then flinched slightly. He wondered if he had offended her. She might have kissed him to try and help him feel better. Then again, that didn't seem to make much sense. But still, he couldn't wrap his head around the idea that Fiona had fallen for him.

Fiona smiled weakly. She knew that it was going to come to this sooner or later. There was no way she could simply hide the truth now. She had to admit how she truly felt about him. If she ran away now, she didn't want to think how Caruso would think of her after that. He might not even want to speak to her again for a while. "I..I did it because I..." She trailed off for a few seconds, leaving Caruso in a curious silence as he leaned in a little bit to try to understand what she was saying. She was speaking in a voice so soft that it was a little hard to hear, even when he leaned in. "...I love you..." Fiona finally said, her smile becoming a little stronger and more sincere.

Caruso straightened up, shocked by this confession. He felt a wave of emotion come over him. Many emotions played with his mind. Happiness, shock, confusion, and others clouded his mind. He felt his body shake a little, not from fear, but from excitement. After all this time of wanting to hear Fiona say those words to him, it finally came true. But he never thought he'd feel like this. He narrowed his eyes slightly. He had to be sure he had heard right. "You...love me..?" He asked in a curious tone of voice. Fiona looked up at him, her blush now a deep shade of red. She slowly nodded her head and a smile came onto Caruso's face. "I love you, too..." He whispered softly.

Now it was Fiona's turn to be shocked. She hadn't expected Caruso to offer a confession. But while it did surprise her, it also filled her with joy. It seemed that she was not the only one hiding a little secret from someone else. But while she could easily think of how this might effect future missions, she knew they could think of that later. "Really...?" She asked him.

Caruso continued to smile as he moved one arm back and then gently cupped Fiona's chin and tilted it upwards slightly. "Yes, I do.."

Fiona's smile broadened and she and Caruso hugged each other again, this time more affectionately rather than simply trying to comfort the other. Fiona rested her head on Caruso's shoulder, gently rubbing her cheek against his. Caruso reached up and gently stroked Fiona's long, red hair, running his fingers through it. They remained in each other's arms for a few minutes, taking comfort in the warmth and affection of the other. They were afraid to let each other go, almost afraid that if they did, they would lose one another, like they had when Victor captured Caruso. Finally, they pulled apart and stared into each other's eyes. They didn't say anything. Instead, they started to lean towards each other, their minds completely blank on everything except what was happening right now.

Then, they closed their eyes and moved in even closer. They hesitated for only a second, and then gently kissed each other on the lips. And it felt like all their worries, their fears, everything around them completely left their minds in that moment. All they could think about was each other. They broke apart for only a second and found themselves kissing each other again, passionately.

* * *

About two hours later, Caruso was going through his dressers, trying to find something nice to wear. Fiona had left about an hour ago to go get ready herself. She had asked him if he wanted to go on a date with her and Caruso had accepted. They agreed to go to a diner that was in town. They had been able to get their motorcycles to their house so they would have a mode of transportation without having to rely on family. Caruso had already cleaned up earlier today so he didn't have to worry about jumping in the shower. But he still wanted to look nice for the occasion. He had a lot of nice suits in his closet, but for some reason he couldn't pick out one he thought would be the best. He wanted to look perfect for tonight.

"No..not this one.." Caruso whispered softly to himself, holding a dark red suit he found in his closet. He tossed it away and it landed on the floor next to his bed. The floor had a couple other outfits just laying on the floor as well, making his room look like a mess. This wasn't like him. Caruso would usually make sure his room looked as clean as possible and as neat as possible. But he was so worried about looking so perfect for Fiona that he wasn't paying attention to what his room was looking like. He rummaged through his dresser a little longer, but he still couldn't find anything that satisfied him. "I don't want Fiona to think I'm a slob.." He said to himself as he looked down at his shirt. While it looked pretty much clean, Caruso thought the shirt was very dirty and had too many wrinkles. He wanted to wear something special, something eye-catching.

But where was he going to find such an outfit in this house? He knew he had a bunch of new clothes that he could try to wear. He had done a little shopping several weeks ago before he was captured. Surely, there was something there that he could wear. Caruso went over to his closet where he kept some of his nicest clothes and began looking through there. He found a couple things that he thought he might like to wear, but he wasn't sure if Fiona would want to see him dressed up in them. One particular outfit that caught his attention looked like his usual outfit, but it was black in color and a space where one could put a flower. The pants weren't black, but instead a dark shade of gray. Perhaps he could wear this outfit. Caruso took a closer look and noticed that there was a hole on one of the sleeves. He frowned and immediately put it away. Even though the hole was tiny, it looked too noticeable to him and he wanted the outfit to be perfect, no holes.

Caruso found another outfit that looked a little more promising. He looked it over to ensure that there was no holes in it. When he found none, he took a look at the outfit itself. It looked sort of like the shirt he had on now, but was a slightly darker color and had much longer sleeves. The shirt itself looked like it was also made of thinner material than the shirt he had on now. The outfit had a button-up black-colored suit to go with it. Despite owning it for months, there didn't seem to be much faded areas and it still looked relatively new. Along with the suit and shirt, it also had a pair of relatively thin black paints that slightly flared at the bottom. Caruso wasn't sure if this outfit would due the trick and he considered looking further into his closet. But he glanced at the outfit again. It did look the most professional of the outfits he looked through so far and he was going on a date. Fiona would probably like this outfit as well.

"I guess this will due..." Caruso grabbed the outfit and pulled it out of his closet. He removed the hanger and made his way towards the bathroom. While he didn't need to take a shower, he still needed to clean up a bit before Fiona returned. His hair was still a mess, he needed to clean up his face, his teeth needed to be brushed, and of course, he needed to change his clothes. He hoped that he wouldn't mess up their first date.

After about fifteen minutes in the bathroom, Caruso had managed to get his teeth brushed and had changed his clothes. He straighted and brushed the outfit with his hands, trying to get as much of the wrinkles out of it as possible. As he reached for his brush, he heard his mom calling out to him from the living room.

"Caruso! Your date is here!" Amanda shouted.

"She's here already..?" Caruso said, his eyes widening slightly, still gripping the brush in his now shaky hand. He wasn't even ready yet! He couldn't go down there looking like this! Despite his pain, Caruso managed to shout, "Tell her I'll be down there in a couple minutes!" Caruso wasn't sure if he'd be ready in a few minutes, but it would at least buy him some time. Caruso quickly began brushing his hair, trying to get out all the knots that had tangled his hair. Originally he was going to have his hair the way he normally liked it, pointing upward. It was unusual and unique and he liked it that way. But tonight was a special occasion, so he decided to go for a new look.

Caruso liked the way his hair was when he had to help the others trick Veloci with the Trojan Dinosaur plan that they came up with to save Moynihan. Originally, Caruso had only taken on the look to make sure he wouldn't be easily recognized by Victor. But now thinking about it, he did look kinda cool with his hair down like that. Trying to remember exactly how the hairdo looked, Caruso flattened his hair against his head and moved his hand back. When he was finished, his hair looked just like it did when he had to wear that disguise. He smiled, loving how it looked on him. He then grabbed a cloth and drenched it with warm water and wrung it tightly with both hands. He took a few moments to carefully wash his face with the cloth, trying his best not to hurt himself.

When he was finished, he took a moment to look at himself. He thought he looked handsome, attractive, even professional almost. But something ruined the image. There were several cuts still visible on his face. He narrowed his eyes. He couldn't go out in public with this kind of appearance, especially with Fiona. What would she think of him if he allowed himself in public with these ugly scars? Caruso opened up a drawer and found some make-up he thought might help. His mom would probably wonder why he was going through her make-up, but he felt that she'd understand since this was an emergency. Well at least to him it was.

Caruso quickly applied the make up to his scars, trying to make them as less noticeable as possible. Once he was finished, it was still a little noticeable, but only if one would look very closely. Caruso reached over and grab some breath freshener and sprayed the inside of his mouth so his breath wouldn't stink. He took a moment to brush his hair a few more times and brushed himself off a little more before he felt he looked fine. After quickly applying some deodorant, he quickly got out of the bathroom and went into the living room where Fiona was probably waiting for him. He hoped she wasn't' too upset with him for making her wait.

When he got into the living room, he immediately froze in his tracks. Fiona was sitting down on the couch, looking his direction. He couldn't believe how beautiful Fiona looked. He almost never seen Fiona wear anything very feminine before, considering that she was a tomboy. But since they were going on a date, she probably figured she should wear something nice instead of her usual clothing. Instead of jeans, she wear a relatively long skirt that went down to her knees, the thin cloth colored a light shade of red although not quite pink. To match with it, she wore a pink button-up blouse, which surprised Caruso because he had never thought Fiona would actually wear pink. Her hair had been pulled back behind her, her bangs out of her face and off her shoulders. She had put on bright red lipstick and, though it was a little hard to tell, it looked like she also had mascara on. Caruso just stood there, stunned.

Fiona looked equally surprised at how well dressed Caruso was. She knew that he could dress up for the occasion, but she didn't realize that he could clean up this well. She loved the outfit that he was wearing. It made him look very handsome. And she loved what he had done with his hair. She immediately recognized it because it was the hairdo he had take on in order to fool Victor. She hadn't realized it back then, but he looked really good with that kind of hairstyle. Maybe she should convince him to use that hairstyle more often. She quickly noticed his scars were not very visible and realized that he must have put on make-up to try to hide them. She wondered if it was because he was worried how she would feel about him if he didn't put on the make-up to hide the scars while they were out in public together.

Deciding to break the silence, Caruso adjusted his shirt a little and walked towards Fiona. "W-Well..are you ready?" He said, almost choking on the words due to his nervousness about today's evening. He reached out one arm towards her to take her hand.

Fiona giggled and reached out and put her hand in his. As he helped her off the couch even though she didn't really need it, she said, "Sure I am. And are you ready..Irwin..?" She said in a slightly teasing tone of voice. She knew it irritated Caruso to have someone other than his parents call him Irwin. When he looked at her in slight surprise and blushed in embarrassment, she giggled playfully again.

"W-Well of course.." Caruso responded, still very nervous about tonight. Why wouldn't he be nervous? This was his first date. He can't screw this up!

Fiona moved towards him and put on arm around him and pulled him close. "Don't be so nervous, Irwin... This evening will go fine! And why are you acting nervous around me? I'm not going to bite." She grinned almost seductively, making Caruso grin nervously at her, moving his head away as she leaned in closer to him.

As the two made their way towards the door, Amanda called out to them, "Make sure to stay away from strangers and try to be back before dark!" Caruso smiled and shook his head. Typical mom wanting to make sure he came home safe and sound.

"Have a great time, you two!" Jack called out, putting an arm around his wife as he watched their son and his girlfriend walk out the door together. Jack couldn't believe how much his son had grown. It seemed like yesterday, he was just a toddler running around the house. Now he was going on his first date. Where did the years go?

"Don't worry. We'll be back soon!" Caruso said as he and Fiona waved them goodbye. Then they got onto their motorbikes and made their way towards the restaurant they had both agreed to go to on their first date.

* * *

As they road off, they were unaware of a pair of eyes watching them from the shadows. A pair of glowing yellow eyes glared at them as they sped off into the distance. The eyes belonged to Kista, who had been around this house, listening in on their conversations. She had originally come over to sneak into the house and kill off Caruso. But perhaps this would be a better time than any other to make her move. She could go over to the restaurant and wait for the right moment to strike. She didn't recognize Fiona, but there was something about her that told her to be cautious. She had a feeling that the girl would become a problem with this mission.

But Kista didn't feel she had to worry. It wouldn't take long to finish off Caruso anyway. He wouldn't even have enough time to react once she had her claws on him. She looked down at her hands and they slowly changed. White scales speckled all over the fingers as they merged into two strong digits. Long, sharp claws stretched from them, the tip so sharp it could easily slice through the boy's throat. She shifted her hand back and laughed. This was going to be a piece of cake, a very easy mission. She frowned at that thought. Perhaps it was going to be too easy...

"No sense in worrying about that now.." Kista told herself, shaking her head. She had to start moving if she wanted to catch up to the teenagers and get into the restaurant for an opportunity to kill Caruso, just as Victor had ordered her and everyone else to do. Kista hoped that the boy would try to put up some sort of fight to defend himself. It would be no fun if he completely surrendered right away. But then thoughts of that girl came back to her. What was she going to do with her? Victor never mentioned this girl to her before. On top of that, he didn't tell her what to do if Caruso wasn't alone; what to do with his friends or family that might be with him at the time. Kista narrowed her eyes. "I guess I have to kill her too..."

* * *

About an hour later, Fiona and Caruso were sitting at one of the tables at the restaurant. They had ordered their food about half an hour ago and it had just arrived. Caruso had gotten a steak with garlic mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley. Fiona decided to go with one of the pasta meals; spaghetti with meatballs. It also came with a couple of bread sticks, which she would dip in the sauce and proceed to eat it. For drinks, they both got the fancy wine glasses, but instead of wine, they had soda. Not very special, but they didn't want to spend too much money on this place.

"This is a beautiful evening..isn't it?" Fiona managed to say after swallowing another small meatball. She sighed contently, feeling pleased with how the evening was turning out so far.

"Yes.." Caruso said, a little cautious for fear he would say something stupid and ruin the date. "It sure is..." He then looked into Fiona's eyes and smiled. "But not as beautiful as you are.." Fiona giggled lightly, a deep blush spreading onto her face.

They didn't talk too much while they ate. It wasn't because they found this place to be boring and it wasn't because they didn't have anything interesting to talk about. It was because they were too distracted by how handsome or beautiful the other person looked and they didn't want to say anything for fear of ruining the moment. Despite the restaurant being relatively packed, it wasn't very noisy. Oh sure, they did hear the occasional child's cry or some comments from other people who were talking to one another. But for the most part, all they could hear was the faint sound of music in the background. It was so peaceful and tranquil here. It almost felt as if talking would completely ruin this beautiful moment together. But while they ate and made a few quick small talks, they didn't notice that they were being watched by someone on the other end of the room. The figure was a waiter, the same one who had brought over their food. But underneath the disguise was a hidden danger: Kista Bakar.

Kista narrowed her eyes as she watched the two eating and talking to each other. She also looked at all the people that were around. How was she going to execute this plan flawlessly? She couldn't simply walk up to the boy and kill him; someone was going to see her and report her to the police. She had to come up with some kind of plan to get near the boy without raising suspicion upon herself. But how was she going to pull this off? She didn't even have much time to plan. Because she had disguised herself as a waiter, she had to take orders from so many people here in order to fool everyone in this restaurant. She found herself constantly moving around, only able to glance over at Caruso and his girlfriend for only a few seconds before someone called out for her.

Then an evil smile spread onto her face as she went to take someone else's order. Perhaps there was something she could do to get rid of Caruso and not have anyone be suspicious of her. It was still risky, but she could try going dino. She could sneak off into the bathroom and transform unnoticed. There were no cameras there anyway and what are the odds of anyone being in the bathroom at this time? From what she could see, everyone was at their tables or leaving; she hadn't seen anyone go into the bathroom for a while. Then after transforming, she could rush out and target Caruso. Upon seeing a dinosaur, the pathetic humans would scream and run away. They wouldn't even think to try and figure out what was going on. They'd just run. And, alone except for his girlfriend, that would leave Caruso more vulnerable and easier to kill.

Kista chuckled darkly. "You will be mine, kid. You will be mine..."

* * *

A few minutes later, perhaps thirty minutes; they weren't sure, Caruso and Fiona were finished with their meal. Their plates weren't completely empty, but they had eaten their fill. They placed their silverware down and leaned back in their seats. They could just get up and walk away, but they found themselves remaining where they were. They continued to stare at one another, smiling, but not able to come up with anything for small talk. They had ideas on what they wanted to talk about, but they couldn't think of how to say it. They wanted to tell each other how beautiful or handsome they looked, but they stopped themselves, worried that they would make a fool out of themselves. They didn't want to look or sound foolish to the other, especially since this is their first date.

But then dark thoughts started to invade Caruso's mind. He tried his best to keep his smile up, but it slowly disintegrated into a concerned frown. He started wondering about Victor and what he would do if he ever found him. Caruso hoped he was doing as best as he could to hide from the raptor, to make sure that he never got the chance to kill him off. But he was still worried about him. He knew he would continue to have these nightmares about Veloci until something was done soon. He kept replaying Michelle's warning in his head over and over again. She had warned him to watch his back and to never let his guard down. And Caruso could not get over the feeling that he was being watched. He looked over his shoulder, trying to see if anyone was watching him intently. Not seeing anyone, he looked back at Fiona.

Noticing the change in his demeanor, Fiona frowned slightly and leaned forward a little. "Caruso...what's wrong?" She sensed something was wrong. He had looked behind him as if he was worried someone was nearby. Instinctively, Fiona looked around as well, trying to find any potential danger. But she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. All she saw were people coming and going, eating, sitting at their tables talking, or waiters going around taking orders or bringing people their food.

Caruso lowered his gaze. "It's Veloci..." He said softly, fumbling around with a fork for no apparent reason.

Fiona leaned back into her seat. "Veloci? Caruso, you shouldn't be constantly thinking about that...monster. It's not going to make you feel any better."

"I know..but..." Caruso started to say.

Fiona leaned forward and gently pressed a finger against his lips to silence him. "But nothing." She said a little sternly. She then spoke in a softer voice and said, "Caruso, you've got to relax, please... This is supposed to be a special night for the two of us.." She gently caressed his cheek with her hand. "Please don't ruin it by getting worried and worked up about all this.. I promised you..we won't let Victor hurt you again. You have nothing to worry about. You have us to back you up." She offered him a small smile, hoping to lighten up his mood a little.

Caruso averted his gaze from her for several seconds, thinking about what she had said. He did feel a little guilty about almost ruining their evening together. But at the same time, he knew that she was right. He couldn't help but remain worried and fearful, but he did acknowledge that he had his friend and family to keep him safe. They'd never let anything bad happen to him if they could help it. He knew he could rely on them for protection. He looked back at Fiona and smiled back at her. He gently gripped her hand and held it in his own, squeezing it gently. "Thanks, Fiona..." He said to her, unable to hide his tears. He wiped them away. But then he suddenly frowned again. He started to sense something wasn't quite right.

Fiona noticed his concern and asked, "What's wrong? It's not Victor, is it?"

Caruso slowly shook his head. "No, no..it's not him." He looked around the restaurant, but again couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. He frowned slightly and leaned towards Fiona so he could whisper something to her. She moved in closer and turned her ear towards him so she'd have a better time understanding what he was saying. "Do you have the feeling that we are being watched..?"

Fiona looked a little surprised. But she couldn't deny it; she had also sensed that someone was constantly watching them. But she hadn't said anything earlier because she didn't want to ruin the evening. And she didn't want to frighten Caruso either. But now it didn't matter; he had sensed the strange presence as well. "Well yeah I do... Strange isn't it? I look around and I see no one. But that feeling doesn't go away..." She let out a soft sigh. "I would have said something to you earlier, but I..I didn't want to upset you."

Caruso looked cautiously from his left and then looked over at his right. Even though he couldn't see anyone, he couldn't shake off the feeling that he should be prepared for an attack. "Do you..think that we're in danger..?"

"I don't know, Caruso.." Fiona said, unable to come up with anything to cheer the boy up. "I don't know..."

Just then, something answered their question for them. There was a loud bang. Suddenly, people were screaming. Tables were being pushed onto the floor. Silverware crashed into the ground, glass broke as it hit the hard floor. Caruso and Fiona immediately stood up as chaos began engulfing the restaurant. They couldn't see what was causing it at first, but they could see people running out the doors and the mess made as people struggled to get away. Then they heard loud thumps. The floor was shaking with each thump, and they knew it had to be footsteps. Something was in the restaurant and whatever it was, it was huge. They quickly turned over to where people were running from and they could see a shadow casted on the ground. The figure was almost as tall as the ceiling of the restaurant, of not even taller. They gulped and moved back. They wanted to transform, but they had to wait until there was no one left in the restaurant.

Then the figure came into view. Their eyes widened in shock at what they were looking at. It looked a lot like Max, but the coloration and design was very different. The dinosaur's head was spiky at the top and there were spikes on its back as well. Even the tail had spikes on it, along with the dinosaur's calves and the side of its jaws. These features were absent from Max. The dinosaur also had a horn-like structure similar to what Max had, except there was only one point, whereas Max had two. The dinosaur was white in color, but had gray splotched on its face and underside. Its legs, sides, and arms were colored gold and it had blue stripes on its arms, legs, and back. And there was a yellow diamond in the middle of its forehead. The dinosaur looked like it could be even larger than Max, and more muscular as well.

From their experience, they suspected that there was a huge possibility that this could be another morpher like they were, like Oscura and Michelle were. The dinosaur looked over at them and opened up its jaws. Drool dripped from them and it let out a hungry growl. Caruso muttered under his breath. "I..I wonder if this is what Michelle was trying to warn me about..."

"Don't just stand there. Go dino!" Fiona ordered, not taking her eyes off the white dinosaur.