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...

27. Assassin

As if on cue, the white dinosaur let out an Earth-shaking roar and charged towards them. Fiona glanced over at Caruso, who looked too frightened to think of transformation. She turned her attention back on the charging dino. No way was she going to let this monster take her friend away from her! Fiona transformed into a Spinosaurus. She was still smaller than the white Tyrannosaurus-like dinosaur, but she still held her ground, opening her long jaws and baring her sharp teeth. She let out a few warning hisses, hoping to make the strange dinosaur stop its charge.

But it just kept on coming.

Fiona let out a loud roar, her eyes glowing so brightly it was nearly impossible to see her pupils. She lowered her head and ran forward to meet the dinosaur's charge. The white dinosaur just kept on coming, but at the last second, it stopped. Then it moved its head to one side and struck Fiona. The force of the strike was strong enough to send Fiona flying across the room. She crashed into the ground, tables and chairs covering her body as she came to a halt against the wall. The white dinosaur stared at her for a few seconds to make sure she wasn't getting up anytime soon, and then turned its attention towards Irwin.

Irwin looked at the mess in horror. "Fiona!" He called out, rushing towards her. But he was instantly stopped by the white dinosaur, who had lowered its head close to his. Irwin looked up at it in horror. He tried to go dino, but he found himself petrified with fear as the dinosaur stared at him with those big, glowing eyes. The dinosaur took advantage of the boy's hesitation. It leaned its head back and then lifted up a massive clawed foot. It quickly positioned the foot over Caruso's body and prepared to slam down on him. It was all happening so fast that Caruso didn't have time to react.

Fiona shook her head and managed to get the debris off of her. She looked over and noticed the dinosaur was about to stomp down on her boyfriend. Her eyes widened in fear. 'CARUSO! MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!' She cried out to him, trying to get up as fast as she could, but knowing that she would probably be too late in saving him. Luckily, Caruso managed to regain his senses just in time. He quickly dodged out of the way. A split second later, the foot came down, crushing the ground beneath it. That's when Fiona was certain the dinosaur was not trying to capture Caruso. It was trying to kill him! 'You..monster!' She shouted at the white dinosaur as she finally managed to get up onto her feet.

The white dinosaur looked towards Fiona and let out another loud roar. Its eyes narrowed further and it bared its teeth. It was looking very pissed that Fiona was interrupting its hunt once again. This time, it was going to make sure that she stayed out of its way. It lowered its head and charged forward. Fiona braced herself for impact, raising up her arms to defend herself. But it proved useless as the dinosaur slammed its head against her chest, causing her to fall onto her side again. The white dinosaur wasn't finished. It then stomped its foot onto her head. It was not strong enough to kill her, but it was enough to knock Fiona unconscious. Fiona's body went limp and her eyes closed. Satisfied that Fiona wasn't going to interrupted again, it turned its attention back on Caruso.

Although horrified by what happened to Fiona, Caruso started to back away from the white dinosaur. He couldn't bring himself to go dino and do anything. He started to feel worthless. What good was he if he was too frightened to go dino and save his best friend? He continued to back away as the massive dinosaur started coming towards him, licking its large chops with its massive, slimy tongue. "Who...who are you...?"

The dinosaur let out a series of snorts that Caruso swore sounding like laughter. 'I am your assassin, kid. Take a good look at me and your surroundings. This will be the last thing you will ever see before you die!' It said in a feminine voice, revealing her gender. Then she charged forward, her feet shaking the ground with each step.

Caruso let out a scream and ran away before the dinosaur's jaws could snap down on his small, fragile body. He almost slipped on some of the debris littering the floor. He managed to keep his footing long enough to make it to the other side of the room. Mercifully, there was a couple doors, both unlocked. Caruso quickly turned it, opened up the door, ran inside, and shut it behind him. He felt confident that the white dinosaur would be too big to get inside here and her human form would be weak enough so he could hold the door shut on his own. He waited inside the dark room, shaking in fear as he saw a shadow below his feet, indicating the white dinosaur was just outside the door. He backed up as far as he could bring himself to go. He ignored the horrible smell, more worried about his own life than small things such as smells.

Suddenly there was a loud banging sound and Caruso found himself thrust onto the ground. He looked up and gasped in horror. To his shock, the dinosaur had ripped the door from its hinges, pulling part of the walls with her! She tossed away the door, now leaving a space big enough for her to fit her head through. Caruso was now completely trapped. There was no room to go dino in here and he couldn't rush out because the white dinosaur blocked his path. Caruso tried to push himself further into the room, which turned out to be a storage room of some kind. He pressed his back against the wall next to a rack of different cleaning items. He looked up at the dinosaur, his body trembling fiercely. The white dinosaur easily pushed her head in further, reaching far enough that she could easily snatch the boy in her jaws. And there was no more room left for Caruso to back up into. The dinosaur seemed to smirk, knowing that her job was almost finished. She opened up her massive jaws.

Caruso's eyes went wide and he shouted, "HELP! SOMEBODY! HELP ME!" He then cried out in pain and held his mouth with both of his hands. An intense pain had struck him in his mouth, specifically on his still-healing tongue. Tears of pain streamed down his face.

'It's no use calling for help..' The dinosaur said, her mouth still wide open. 'No one can save you now!' She then proceeded to snatch Caruso in her jaws. The boy struggled to get free but she only tightened her grip, just enough to keep him in her jaws. Then she moved out of the room, holding him up in the air. 'Don't worry. I promise this won't hurt you...much.' She then proceeded to apply pressure slowly, wanting to slowly crush him to death, driving her teeth into his body, impaling him as well.

"FIONA! HELP ME!" Caruso called out again before he felt his body stiffen and twitch as the teeth pressed further against his body, the jaws slowly shutting tighter, threatening to crush him completely.

Fiona groaned as she slowly opened up her eyes. She felt a horrible pain on her head and gently rubbed it with one of her Spinosaurus arms. She heard a cry from Caruso and her eyes snapped open as far as they could go. She lifted up her head as fast as she could and lifted her muzzle towards where the white dinosaur was. She was horrified to see Caruso in the jaws of the dinosaur. He was still alive and was struggling in the monster's jaws. But he couldn't get free and the white dinosaur was slowly shutting her jaws, slowly crushing Caruso to death. Fiona remained frozen where she was, terrified by this turn of events. Then she narrowed her eyes and opened up her long muzzle, exposing her sharp teeth. She quickly got up to her feet. Without hesitation, she charged towards the white dinosaur.

'LET HIM GO, YOU MONSTER!' Fiona clamped her jaws onto the white dinosaur's neck. The neck was so thick that she couldn't get a good grip, but she managed to sink some of her teeth into the skin and scales. The white dinosaur let out a roar of pain and she released Caruso, who fell to the ground. Caruso tried to get up, but he was still frozen in fear as he looked up at the two large dinosaurs going against each other. Fiona looked down at Caruso for a few seconds to make sure that he was all right. Then she turned her attention back on the white dinosaur. Fiona still hung onto the dinosaur's neck, trying to dig her teeth as far as they could go. She then tried to push the white dinosaur onto her side, using as much of her body strength as she could.

Then the white dinosaur's head started to turn to one side so that one of the glowing eyes could look over at Fiona. The eye narrowed and the dinosaur let out a long, low hiss, teeth bared as they glinted in the light of the restaurant. 'What do you think you are doing, you malignant pulchritude?! Release me this instant!'

Fiona was taken aback briefly by the dinosaur's strange use of words. But the realization that both she and Caruso were still in danger brought her back to reality. 'No! I won't let you kill my friend!' She declared, biting down as hard as she could with her dinosaur jaws. But it wasn't enough to cause much damage to the white dinosaur, who started to move her neck back and forth swiftly to dislodge Fiona. Eventually, with one big thrust, Fiona found herself knocked into the ground, her jaws slipping from the dinosaur's neck. Luckily, the teeth had stuck into the skin long enough so that when the white dinosaur thrown her off, her teeth had left long, somewhat deep, somewhat shallow cuts in the neck. The dinosaur's eyes widened and she let out a roar of pain, blood dripping from the cuts on her neck.

The white dinosaur shook her head a few times, trying to shake off the pain. Then she turned her head towards Fiona, growling angrily. 'Why you conflagration..! I was considering letting you live after I finish off your pathetic little friend...' Her jaws opened up wide as she roared again. 'BUT NOW YOU WILL BE THE FIRST TO DIE!' The dinosaur charged towards Fiona, knocking her back onto the ground. But this time, she wasn't going to simply knock her out. She was going to kill her. The white dinosaur positioned her jaws around Fiona's head and clamped down before Fiona could react. Fiona's eyes closed and she tried to knock the white dinosaur off of her, but the jaws only clamped down tighter, causing her severe pain. 'Hold still and this will go quickly.' The white dinosaur hissed.

Just then, something large and soft struck the white dinosaur on her side. She roared in pain, releasing Fiona as she tumbled backwards. Fiona shook her head slowly and looked over to see who had saved her. Her eyes widened. 'Caruso...?'

Caruso stood in a defensive posture, now in Stegosaurus mode. His front half was lowered to the ground and his massive tail was held up high into the air, motioned for another strike. 'Leave her alone!' He demanded, his eyes narrowed. But the white dinosaur didn't seem fazed. Caruso took another step forward, poised to strike again.

The white dinosaur chuckled in a dinosaurian manner. 'You don't have the guts to attack me, kid. I can smell your fear..your hesitation.' She took a step forward, acting as if she was never struck by that massive tail. 'Why don't you just give up now and save yourself the trouble? If you surrender now, I promise to make your death and your friend's death as swift and as painless as I can manage...' Her eyes narrowed as she said this. She waited for Caruso's answer, but she already knew what it was going to be.

'NO!' Caruso shouted, slamming his tail into the ground in anger.

'Then die...' The white dinosaur hissed.

All of a sudden, before the white dinosaur could react, something thick, black, and sticky covered her body. She howled in frustration as she tried to move, but she ended up falling forward, her chin slamming into the ground with tremendous force. Caruso's eyes went wide with shock. Who had done that? He had not even made a move yet and already the white dinosaur was down! A closer look revealed that the black, sticky stuff that had struck the white dino was tar. But where did the tar come from? From his experience, only Veloci's men would carry such weapons. Caruso looked over towards the possible source, prepared to fight.

But to Caruso's surprise, it wasn't one of Veloci's men; it was Mrs. Krell. She was wielding one of the weapons that Victor's men used to shoot out tar to trap dinosaurs and mutantsaurs. The old woman still held the gun in the air, leveling it up to take another shot at the white dinosaur in case she broke free from the tar. Mrs. Krell looked over at Caruso. "Go on! Get out of here! I'll slow it down!"

'But..Mrs. Krell...' Fiona said, slowly struggling to her feet.

"But nothing! Just get out of here while you can!" Mrs. Krell shouted, not taking no for an answer. "Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself!" She smiled slightly. "After all..I've been taking care of myself for years..."

'Mrs. Krell!' Fiona tried to move towards her, but Caruso stopped her. 'Caruso! Get out of the way!'

Caruso shook his head. 'I'm sorry, Fiona. But she gave us orders. We have to get out now!'

Fiona's eyes narrowed slightly. 'And what about Mrs. Krell? Are we supposed to just leave her here with this monster?'

'I think she'll be fine, Fiona.' Caruso said, although there was a slight pang of doubt in his voice.

'Fine? Fine?! How can you think she'd be fine?!' Fiona growled at Caruso. 'She can't even transform into a dinosaur like we can! If that dinosaur gets loose, she won't stand a chance!'

'But...' Caruso tried to say, but stopped himself. He lowered his head, feeling ashamed of himself.

'If you want to get out of here, you can.' Fiona said, trying to sound calmer. 'But I'm staying there and helping Mrs. Krell.'

'WHAT?!' Caruso's dinosaur eyes opened up as wide as they could go. 'That dinosaur almost killed you! You want to face it alone?!'

Fiona looked away from him and started to walk towards the white dinosaur, still trapped under the tar. 'Well..I wouldn't have to face it alone if you help me.' She stopped and looked back over at him as if she were expecting him to come to her side.

Caruso hesitated. Part of him did want to assist Fiona. He didn't want to leave her here alone to face the mysterious yet dangerous white dinosaur, especially after how she managed to get the better of her twice, almost killing her the second time. And yet, he wanted to heed Mrs. Krell's demand. She wanted them to get out of there and she claimed she could handle herself. While she could not transform, Mrs. Krell was pretty crafty and she was no pushover. And yet, he could understand why Fiona didn't want to leave the old woman alone. Unlike Ms. Moynihan, Mrs. Krell had no transforming abilities. Finally coming to a decision, Caruso made his way towards Fiona. 'All right then, I'll stay and help you.'

Fiona gave a dinosaur-like smirk with her jaws. 'I knew you would. Don't want to leave me all by myself, now do ya?' She chuckled.

Caruso narrowed his eyes, but offered a small laugh as well, despite the situation. 'Yeah, yeah..sure...' He said.

"Why are you two still here?!" Mrs. Krell shouted at them, looking at Fiona and Caruso over her shoulder. She still held the gun towards the white dinosaur.

'Like it nor not, Mrs. Krell, we're staying here to help you!' Fiona said, her voice filled with determination. There was no way Mrs. Krell could make a Spinosaurus leave.

'There's no way you can take on this dinosaur all by yourself!' Caruso said, backing Fiona up. 'You'll get clobbered!'

"I'm not as frail as I look!" Mrs. Krell said angrily. "Don't treat me like I am!"

The white dinosaur managed to free her head. She lifted it up and shook it, trying to get whatever tar she could off of her chin. She looked over at the old woman, both furious that she interrupted her hunt and curious as to how she had gotten a hold of that tar gun. She hadn't brought one with her to the restaurant, so how could this woman have gotten a hold of one? 'Hey you, you old hag! How did you get that weapon?'

Mrs. Krell's eyes narrowed. "That is none of your business, you horrid reptile!"

The dinosaur's eyes widened slightly. She was a little impressed with the woman's bravery. But that still didn't change the fact that this woman was in her way. She hadn't counted in killing a third person. But what would it matter anyway? Who would miss an old woman like this hag? 'You have no idea what you are up against...' The white dinosaur slowly rose to her feet. Mustering up all the energy she could, she pulled herself out of the tar trap. Tar still stuck to her skin and scales, but she ignored it. Before Mrs. Krell had time to shoot the dinosaur again, the dinosaur swung her massive head forward, knocking the woman into the ground. The gun was knocked from her hands and was sent flying away, landing several feet away. Mrs. Krell tried to get up to her feet, but the white dinosaur quickly grabbed her into her jaws and slammed her down. She then placed her foot on the old woman to keep her down.

"Get your filthy foot off of me!" Mrs. Krell demanded, still showing bravery despite being pinned down by a dinosaur that could easily crush her if she were to press down just a little harder. She put her hands on the dinosaur's foot and, even though it would be fruitless, she tried to pry the dinosaur's foot off of her body.

'You should have listened to me...' The white dinosaur pushed harder on Mrs. Krell, causing her to grunt in pain. 'Now you will join the fate of your dinosaur pals!' She pushed down a little harder. She smirked. Only a little more and the woman would be crushed to death. She could feel the woman still struggling, but those struggles were weakening.

'Let her go!' Fiona let out a loud roar and charged forward. Using her body mass and size, she slammed against the white dinosaur and sent her flying across the room. Once Mrs. Krell was free, Fiona lowered her head and let the woman cling around her neck and lifted her up. Fiona looked over to the white dinosaur. She had already recovered from her fall and was now running towards her, mouth slip wide open. Fiona's eyes widened. There was less of a chance for her to defend herself if Mrs. Krell was still latched onto her neck.

'Get away!' Caruso let out a loud bellow and quickly moved forward as fast as he could go. Before the white dinosaur could reach them, he quickly turned around, raising his massive tail and slamming it down. The tail made contact with the white dinosaur and once again, the white dinosaur found herself being thrown backwards. She slammed her back against the wall, causing a chandelier to fall down, striking her with enough force to slam her chin into the ground. Caruso turned his head back toward Fiona. 'Now can we get out of here? I suggest we leave now before that dinosaur gets on her feet again!'

Fiona's eyes went from Caruso to Mrs. Krell. The only reason she had stayed was to protect her. But now that she had Mrs. Krell with her, there was nothing left keeping her here to face the white Tyrannosaurus-like dinosaur. She nodded her head. 'Yes. Let's go!' She then turned her head towards the front of the restaurant and took off towards it. Caruso followed quickly behind her. They easily smashed through the doors. Normally they would have detransformed, but they just didn't have the time. Ignoring screams of horror as people ran away from them, Fiona and Caruso continued to run until they could reach a place secluded enough so that they could detransform.

The white dinosaur lifted up her head and looked around. She realized that the dinosaurs and old woman had escaped her. Growling in frustration, she closed her eyes and her body glowed. She quickly shrunk down to the form of a woman, Kista Bakar herself, and stepped from the debris. She brushed herself off and straighted up her clothes the best that she could. This evening hadn't turned out exactly how she wanted it. It was not supposed to be this hard to kill off a cowardly kid!

"That's right..run...you cowards... I'll come find you, and next time you won't be so lucky..." Kista said, her glowing yellow eyes narrowed into slits.

"Did you get all of that?" O'Ryan asked, sounding very excited. He and Zoom were standing in the alleyway across the street of the restaurant. With the camera that Zoom had, he was able to zoom in to see enough detail of what was going on in the restaurant. If they had enough luck with them, they may have even gotten a clear shot of the children transforming. Once this got out to the public, everyone in town would know they were dinosaurs!

Zoom smirked as he looked at the footage. "You bet I did!" He was impressed with the footage. Despite being further away and the glass that was in the way, the footage was pretty sharp and clear. It was a little easy to tell who the kids were that transformed, which was a plus for them. That meant that once they transferred this video, it would reveal the identity of another Dino Squad member, which is probably what Victor wants. Zoom was still worried that Victor might get angry with him, but the idea of getting even with the Dino Squad for what they did to him made it seem all worth it.

The two hadn't even planned on filming that day. They had just planned on a walk through town, trying to come up with ideas for how they could go about the plan. They were also keeping an eye out for the 'perfect dinosaurs' in case they had gotten any surprises, although they wouldn't record since it wouldn't be the 'right moment', as O'Ryan would have said. But they were both taken by surprise when they saw people running out of this particular restaurant. O'Ryan knew it had to be something big and he had ordered Zoom to start recording right that instant. It was lucky for them that they did for about a few seconds after O'Ryan had gave that command, a strange white dinosaur appeared. Zoom seemed to recognize the dinosaur and nearly dropped his camera in fear, but he quickly came to his senses and continued to record.

When they saw the two children still inside transform, they were further excited, especially since they got it on film. The destruction inside the building, the fact that an old woman was in there in the midst of it all, and the fact that the old woman was 'taken' by two of the dinosaurs, who had stormed out of the building and ran off, that made the story even more convincing. Zoom became convinced that perhaps O'Ryan was correct. He didn't need the bomb and frame the dinosaurs to make the public think the dinosaurs were the bad guys. The footage of the old woman in the jaws of Kista would terrify and convince anyone. And if that didn't work, the old woman being taken 'hostage' by the Spinosaurus and Stegosaurus, who then proceed to break out of the building and take off running, just might be enough to convince even the most skeptical.

"So what do we do now?" Zoom asked as he finished watching the footage. They got all the footage that they needed. He looked over at O'Ryan, waiting for him to make the next call.

O'Ryan looked over at Zoom, a dark smile on his face. "What do you think is next?"

That smile on the man's face creeped Zoom out, but he still managed to ask, "What do you mean?"

"The editing, stupid!" O'Ryan barked, feeling a little angry at Zoom's stupidity. He pointed at the camera that Zoom held in his arms. "How could you forget? Weren't you the one who suggested editing the footage?" Before Zoom could respond, O'Ryan continued, "Then stop being lazy and get the work with the editing, cameraman! And make it convincing."

Zoom tilted his head. "But I thought it was already convincing enough as it was. I mean, a dinosaur grabbing someone in its jaws and two dinosaurs running off with someone.." Zoom shrugged his shoulders. "Isn't that convincing enough? What else could it possibly need to make it more convincing then that?"

O'Ryan frowned slightly. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. The man did seem to have a point there. How could they get more convincing than what they had gotten in the footage? He wasn't entirely sure if anyone would be unconvinced by it. He wondered if his past failure was effecting him. He was used to being laughed at and turned down because of his 'ridiculous dinosaur notions'. But back then, he had used costumes that were so obviously fake he couldn't think for the life of him how he thought anyone would be fooled by it. But in this situation, it was so authentically real, he couldn't think of how any one would think it was faked.

O'Ryan smiled at Zoom. "I suppose you are right."

"Come on, why do..." Zoom stopped and looked at Zoom in surprise. Did he hear right? Did O'Ryan say what he thought he said? "..what? What did you say? Did you just..agree with me?" Zoom asked, sounding perplexed.

"Well yes of course. Thinking about it, you did make a good point, Zoom. After all that had happened, perhaps editing is not really required." O'Ryan said, glancing over at the wrecked restaurant. How long it was going to take to rebuild the place wasn't his concern. He didn't even like this particular restaurant. "Perhaps the footage, on its own, will be enough to convince anyone. And who knows?" He glanced back at Zoom. "A couple of little brats just might recognize the two kids inside that restaurant." O'Ryan had recognized Caruso in the building and he was tempted to go in and do something to him, but he was able to restrain himself for the sake of the footage.

Zoom looked back the restaurant. He could see Kista still inside. He wondered why she hadn't come out yet. After all, she was in human form now. But then he realized that perhaps she was afraid she would be linked to this incident. She was probably going to either come out some other way or just storm out of there as a dinosaur. Either way, Zoom was a little disappointed that she wasn't coming out yet. He would have loved to see her getting linked to this crime, or getting in trouble in general. He wanted her to pay for what she did to him. And yet, he couldn't help but feel somewhat attracted to her. He didn't know what it was. Just something about her was attracting him. But what was it?

O'Ryan took notice of Zoom's zoning out and walked over, nudging him a bit with his elbow. Zoom looked over and glared at O'Ryan, wondering why he had done that. "Why are you zoning out? Thinking about your girlfriend?"

Zoom blushed in embarrassment and anger. "She is not my girlfriend!"

O'Ryan held up his hands dismissively and said, "Sure, whatever you say, pal..."

Zoom growled softly, but decided to ignore what O'Ryan said. He glanced down at the camera he held in his hands again. "So should we leave now? Or is there something else you wanted to get footage of first?"

O'Ryan thought for a moment and then slowly shook his head. "No, we can go now." With that, the two turned around and walked away, heading towards the vehicle that they hid back there. As they walked away, they were unaware that Kista had spotted them and was watching them from the restaurant, hiding behind a part of the building so they would not see her.

Kista's eyes narrowed. She didn't know why Zoom and O'Ryan were there at first. But it was very unlikely that they were sight-seeing, not after what she heard about their plans on exposing the Dino Squad. That's likely what they were doing there. Her eyes widened as she realized that they probably had recorded the fight she had with the two brats. What was she going to do now? Kista did have some choices. She could either allow the men to run away and post up the footage or she could try to stop them.

She could just let them post up the footage. What was the worst that could happen? There could be some benefits to doing that. Exposing the Dino Squad could make them more vulnerable and easier to catch. They could be constantly hunted down by the police or even the FBI. And if people knew what their humans forms looked like, they couldn't even hide that way. Classmates even could start hunting them down and trying to capture them, or even destroy them if they felt they were a big enough threat. The Dino Squad might ultimately be forced to come to Victor simply because it was likely safer than being among people who want them dead. Every day, the team might have to be running for their lives or hiding in fear because everywhere they turn, there might be someone pointing a gun or tazer in their direction. There might even be people who see them as nothing but evil monsters who need to be destroyed in order to save the city.

And yet, Kista was not entirely sure about this. Victor might be furious about this. If the humans succeeded in catching the Dino Squad, or even killing them, then Victor would never get the chance to obtain a sample of their DNA. And without that sample, he would not be able to perfect his primordial ooze. Sure, Victor could post as a 'hero' of sorts and say that he is going to capture all the dinosaurs so save the town, but there was still running that risk that someone might find out what he was. People might start wondering why he would be interested in dinosaurs, for one thing. And the opposite could occur. If people became aware of the Dino Squad and accepted them as heroes rather than the bad guys, they might be more willing to protect them. And with that added protection, Victor might have a harder time getting to them. And if the dinosaurs are seen as heroes, then they might see Victor as a bad guy if he tried to capture them.

Kista knew what she must do now. She would have to capture Zoom and O'Ryan and stop them, for her boss's sake. She just couldn't allow that footage to make it out into the public. If she dare allow that, it could have more consequences than benefits. And Victor might find out what she knew about it and would demand her to tell him why she had kept quiet about it. Kista's eyes glowed and she took a step back, her body becoming concealed in the darkness. Then a blue glow illuminated the room and a huge white form appeared from the darkness. Kista's eyes narrowed as she locked her eyes on her intended target. She let out a loud roar and stormed out of the building, taking off after Zoom and O'Ryan.

Fiona, Caruso, and Mrs. Krell arrived at the lighthouse, exhausted and tired from the constant running. They were so busy trying to get away quickly enough that they had forgotten how weary their bodies were, and they had also forgotten about the motorcycles. But Fiona and Caruso didn't worry about that too much. They can just talk to Moynihan and they'll pick them up for them. Right now, they had to get Mrs. Krell into the lighthouse. She suffered a few injuries after being inside that monster's jaws. Mrs. Krell could walk on her own, but Fiona and Caruso had insisted on helping her towards the lighthouse. Caruso held one arm while Fiona held the other and they helped to support her weight.

"Thanks, you two.." Mrs. Krell said, a little weary. "But you kids don't have to do this. I can still walk by myself..."

"We're not taking any chances." Fiona said sternly, tightening her grip. "You're hurt. We're not going to let you hurt yourself more by trying to walk on your own."

Mrs. Krell couldn't help but chuckle. Kids nowadays, she thought. They often don't realize the potential of another person, especially if that person was either 'too old' or 'too different'. People place stereotypes on people and base their judgments off of that. Mrs. Krell herself knew too well how much it hurt to have someone ridicule her for being different without even giving themselves the chance to get to know her better. "Yes, of course. I know that. I still could have made it on my own, though." Mrs. Krell said, hoping to keep herself sounding tough; she didn't want to get the appearance of someone who was helpless and needed assistance all the time. She may be old, but she is certainly no pushover.

Fiona smiled slightly. "Yeah, I'm sure you knew that, Mrs. Krell."

When they reached the door, Fiona couldn't let go of Mrs. Krell or risk letting her fall down. Caruso was having the same problems as well. He quickly solved this by lifting up one foot and slamming it against the door as loud as he could. Even if the others weren't at the lighthouse, they were certain that at least one person would be. After a couple seconds, Caruso banged his foot against the door again, this time trying to be even louder than he was the last time. They heard the sound of someone talking from inside the building. They couldn't make out the words though. And then there was the sound of footsteps heading towards the door. They saw a shadow appearing at the bottom of the door and then they saw the door knob turning. It opened up to reveal Ms. Moynihan, who was supporting herself with her cane with one hand and holding the door open with the other.

Upon seeing Mrs. Krell, Moynihan's eyes went wide. What had happened to this woman? She looked like she really went through something terrible. She quickly looked at her legs, trying to find any signs of damage. With the way Caruso and Fiona were holding her up, she suspected that perhaps there was some trauma to the legs. She couldn't find anything of significant damage, but she could see some blood stains on the old woman's body. Mrs. Moynihan looked at Caruso first, but then turned to Fiona, thinking it was better to ask her considering Caruso's condition. "Fiona..what happened here? What happened to Mrs. Krell?"

Fiona swallowed hard, not sure of how to explain it to Moynihan. She would just have to be blunt about it. No need to go into too much detail about it. "We were attacked."

Moynihan gasped, her eyes widening further. She quickly looked Fiona and Caruso up and down to see if there were any injuries on them as well. "What? Attacked by what? Or who? Are you two all right?"

Fiona nodded her head. "We'll tell you more about it inside."

After a few minutes, Fiona and Caruso managed to help Mrs. Krell inside the lighthouse and escorted her into the living room. The other Dino Squad members had gone home already, so the only living beings in the lighthouse at this time were Rump, Cerulean, and, of course, Moynihan. After settling herself down on her usual chair, Moynihan leaned back and interlocked her fingers. She had calmed herself down quickly. She needed to remain relaxed in situations like this. She didn't want to stress herself too much or risk letting herself go crazy once again. Caruso and Fiona both took a spot beside Mrs. Krell, their heads turned towards Moynihan.

Moynihan, after a couple seconds, said, "So..can one of you three tell me what happened? And where this took place?"

"It took place at the restaurant Caruso and I went to for our..." Fiona hesitated, and then finished, "..date."

Moynihan nodded. It seemed that their first date didn't go over too good. But there was a more important issue at hand. She needed to know what had happened at the place where Fiona and Caruso went on a date. "What, or who, had attacked you three?"

"It was a dinosaur." Mrs. Krell said. "A very large one. I reckon it's even bigger than that T-Rex boy of yours. White mostly, with some grays and yellows too. Blue stripes and a yellow diamond on its forehead." Caruso and Fiona looked at her in surprise. "What? You think that, just because I'm old, I'd forget details like that?" She frowned for a few seconds, and then smiled softly. But when she looked back at Moynihan, her face grew solemn. "It was unlike anything I have ever seen... It almost took their lives."

"And she almost took your life. She had you in her jaws and just threw you like a rag doll.." Fiona said. When she realized what she said, she quickly added, "The dinosaur was a female. Anyway, I tried to fight her, but she was too strong. Mrs. Krell even shot her with the tar trap gun that Victor's men often use and she was able to break away from it without problem! It was no worse than a mildly sticky situation for her."

Moynihan was shocked to learn that not one, but two of her own students had nearly been killed by a dinosaur. It reminded her of what happened a few weeks ago when they were all trying to find Caruso, but when they found him, he was, or so they thought, already dead. Moynihan didn't know what she would do if she lost him again, not to mention another of her students or anyone else that she cared about. "What did she want? Did she say?" When she asked this, she found herself looking over at Mrs. Krell.

Mrs. Krell shrugged her shoulders. "Ask them. I don't have a clue what she wanted. She did not tell me."

Moynihan turned her head towards Fiona. "Well...?"

But it was Caruso who answered her. "She...she w-wanted to k-k-kill me.." Moynihan looked over at him, her eyes slightly widened in fear. "She said she..she was my a-a-assassin."

"Assassin...?" Moynihan whispered, hoping that Caruso didn't say that, hoping it was just a mistake. If it was truly an assassin, then things just got more complicated than they already were. How were they going to deal with an assassin? Not even Victor, their number one enemy, qualified as an assassin. As sneaky as he could be at times, he often had people who were even craftier than he was pull off assassin jobs. Moynihan was convinced that this dinosaur worked for Victor Veloci, and she was sure that the kids suspected this as well.

"Y-Yeah..." Caruso said, shuddering at the memory. "Sh-She told me that..everything i-in the restaurant w-would be the last things I-I would see before I d-died.." He closed his eyes tightly, wanting to shake the memory from his head. And it wasn't just the threat of his own life that frightened him. "A-And she was going to k-kill Fiona and M-Mrs. Krell as well.."

Moynihan looked horrified. "Oh my! What happened to this dinosaur? How did you guys manage to get away?"

"We ran." Fiona said. "After she was knocked away, we managed to grab Mrs. Krell, who was bravely facing off with the dinosaur, and took off running. I am ashamed to admit that we didn't detransform, but we didn't have time, Ms. Moynihan. We just didn't! If we detransformed, that dinosaur would have seen us! We had to get out of there as quickly as we could!"

Moynihan nodded. She was angry that they did not detransform after leaving the restaurant, but she was also glad that they didn't as it might have caused more harm than good. And it would have wasted precious time too. Who knew how quickly that dinosaur moved? She might have been upon the trio before they could get very far if Fiona and Caruso had changed back. "I understand, Fiona."

"S-So..wh-what are we going to do..?" Caruso asked cautiously. Despite acting brave back there, he was still rather terrified for not only his life but his friends' and family's as well. And he was still terrified of being alone. He didn't know what he was going to do when he went home to his mom and dad. They were bound to ask him how the evening went. What was he going to tell him? They were worried enough about him with what Victor had done to him. He didn't want to frighten them more by saying that an assassin had tried to murder him.

Moynihan frowned slightly. This was a serious situation, indeed. And what made it even worse was that they were attacked in a restaurant, in a public area. Suppose someone had seen them? Fiona and Caruso were probably certain that the restaurant was empty before dealing with the dinosaur. Moynihan, however, was still concerned. Someone easily could have seen them, especially the wrong people, those who might put them at risk just to get a good story. And the Dino Squad knew a few people who were just like that like. Could they have been there? "Did you kids happen to see anyone nearby?"

Fiona shook her head. "I didn't see anyone." She was going to say that she wasn't exactly looking, but she kept her mouth shut. She didn't want Moynihan to get upset with her.

Moynihan then turned to Mrs. Krell. Perhaps she had seen something on the way into the restaurant, provided that she had arrived after everyone else had left. Moynihan knew that not many humans would stick around if a big predatory dinosaur was in the same room as they were. "What about you, Mrs. Krell? Was there anyone outside the restaurant looking in? Did the fight catch unwanted attention?"

Mrs. Krell rubbed her head. "The only one I knew was nearby was one of those blasted costumed men that you say Victor works for. I knocked him out and stole the tar gun. And I rushed in to try and save these two kids. I didn't bother to look to see if anyone was watching." Her voice was laced with regret, realizing the mistake she had made in going in the restaurant without looking to make sure no one was watching. What if someone thought she was being taken prisoner by the dinosaurs, or even be working with them as an accomplice of some kind? "I admit, it was bad judgment on my part for not looking. But everything was happening so fast, I did not have time to look back."

Moynihan grew more concerned. If Mrs. Krell hadn't looked, she suspected that Fiona and Caruso would not have. She couldn't really blame them though. Being attacked by a carnivore, how could she expect them to take their time and look out the restaurant to make sure the coast was clear? But she still couldn't help but feel worried about this. Nowadays, after how Victor invaded the lighthouse, it didn't hurt to be extra cautious about situations like this. "I am worried that someone might have seen you kids in there."

Fiona narrowed her eyes in confusion. "What do you mean? How could any one have.." Then she stopped herself and realized what Moynihan was saying. It wasn't that hard to see into the restaurant after the dinosaur had stormed in. Provided, the view would not have been very crisp or anything, but it might have been good enough for anyone close by to see what was going on inside. And if people were watching what was going on, that also meant that they had also seen both her and Caruso go dino. "Oh no..."

"Something wrong?" Moynihan asked.

"Caruso and I both went dino..." Fiona said, lowering her head. "If someone had seen that..." Her voice trailed off.

"I-I hope n-no one saw us.." Caruso said, stating the obvious. This reminded him of how he had transformed right on one of Victor's surveillance cameras. He had managed to destroy the footage before Victor got to it, but he was just lucky. If it weren't for his lotion that he had brought with him, he wouldn't have been able to control the ants and he wouldn't have been able to save his friends.

"I'm sure no one did." Mrs. Krell said, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder to try and comfort him. "Most of the people I had seen myself were running away. I don't know of many people who would stick around long enough to see what was going on if they were going to get eaten by a T-Rex."

"She was not a T-Rex." Fiona said quickly, then added, "But I understand what you mean."

"What do you mean she wasn't a T-Rex?" Mrs. Krell blinked a few times. "She sure looked like a T-Rex... What made you certain that she wasn't a T-Rex?"

"Max is a Tyrannosaurus as well, and his body shape is a bit different from hers." Fiona explained. "More spiny on her head, tail, back, jaws, and legs."

"Did she have a dewlap on her lower jaw?" Moynihan suddenly asked, leaning forward on her seat.

Fiona looked over at Moynihan, a quizzical look on her face. "Well, not... She didn't have a dewlap on her lower jaw. Why?"

Moynihan didn't answer. Instead, she asked another question. "Was the top of her head smooth, without any horn-like structures?"

Fiona shook her head slowly. "No. She had something close to what Max has, but there was only one 'horn', so-to-speak. There wasn't a ridge or a second point like Max has."

Moynihan rubbed her chin thoughtfully. It was like she had not encountered something like this before. "Interesting..."

"Wh-What is interesting?" Caruso asked, not sure why Moynihan was taking an interest in the assassin that had tried to kill him.

"She has the spiny features of a Tarbosaurus, but a head more reminiscent of that of a Tyrannosaurus Rex's..." Moynihan said, frowning a little. "She must be a hybrid of sorts... And that makes this situation even worse."

"Why?" Caruso asked before he could stop himself. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know how the situation had gotten worse.

"That means that not only does she have the power of a T-Rex, she has the speed of a Tarbosaurus, which was basically a smaller T-Rex." Moynihan said. "She's going to be a tough opponent, that's for sure..." Caruso gulped, now feeling even more scared than he already was. Why did Moynihan have to tell them these things? Why did she just have to make the situation worse than it already was. Moynihan noticed Caruso's fear and said, "I apologize, Caruso. But it is important to know your opponent before you face them. You two had never encountered a Tarbosaurus before. That's why you had lost."

"And how do you suppose they fight this..hybrid?" Mrs. Krell said, folding up her arms and glaring at Moynihan. "You say that the dinosaur is as strong as a Tyrannosaurus Rex. You also say she is very fast. A combination of speed and strength..how are they supposed to beat that should they encounter this hybrid again?"

Joanne shook her head. "I..really don't know. Teamwork may be the only way to take her down. There's no way they can take her down by themselves, or even with a partner." Joanne then looked over at Caruso, and then looked at Fiona before saying, "I strongly advice you kids to watch your backs. If you encounter this dinosaur again, just run. Don't try to fight her if you are alone. If you are all together and you choose to fight, be careful. Don't let her get a hold of you or it will be all over."

"Yeah, I think we could have guessed that.." Fiona said softly. She glanced over at Caruso as she said that. Caruso had been inside that dinosaur's jaws. She had been lucky that she was able to save him when she could. A few seconds later and he would have been killed. Then she remembered something. Buzz, Rodger, and Max weren't in the lighthouse. Should she call them up and tell them what had happened? She didn't want to worry them, but she felt that they needed to know anyway. "What about the others, Mrs. M? Should we call up and tell them what happened?"

Moynihan nodded her head. "Yes." She said. She was just about to ask Fiona about that. It seemed the two were on the same mind track. Moynihan was going to ask Fiona to call them, but she decided that she should call the boys up herself. She was in charge of taking care of this team. She felt that it was her responsibility to tell the kids situations like this. She slowly got up to her feet, gripping her cane. She made her way towards the telephone, and picked up the phone. As Fiona, Caruso, and Mrs. Krell watched, Moynihan began to dial a number.

As Moynihan dialed the number, Caruso looked over at Fiona. A blush was developing on his face. He didn't know why, but he had the urge to say something to Fiona. "..de-despite what happened...I had a..g-g-good time with you..Fiona.."

Fiona blushed as well. "I had a good time with you, too, Caruso.." All the while, Mrs. Krell watched them and then smiled softly, glad to see that these two had a good time together. That was something that she had never been able to experience for herself.

After the phone rang a few times, Joanne heard a clicking sound, and then a voice on the other end spoke to her. She immediately recognized it as Rodger. When Rodger had said his hello to her, Moynihan said, "Rodger? It's me, Moynihan. We've got a situation..."

A couple stray cats sniffed around a garbage can at the side of the road. There weren't many houses out this way since it was out of town. But there were still a few garbage cans for the neighborhood strays to wander up to and try to find a scrap of food to eat. One of the cats jumped up, poking its furry head into the can to try and snag what looked like a rotting fish from the trash can. A couple cats walked up, their heads craned up in anticipation, hoping the cat was going to drop something down for them to eat. They were all quite thin and looked as if they hadn't eaten in days.

Just then a bright light shined in their eyes. The cats let out a screech, their fur standing on end. The two cats that were watching the first cat now bolted off into the distance. The cat on the trash can jolted in fear, dropping the fish onto the ground. It, too, took off as the lights grew brighter, illuminating the entire yard for a few seconds. Then a car zipped by, going at nearly full speed. A cloud of thick gray gas spewed all over the place and the sound of tires screeching filled the air. The loud sound caused one of the windows of the house to light up. A dark figure opened up the window and peered outside, rubbing their eyes with one hand. It was a man.

The man, whose skin was so dark it was hard to see him in the darkness of the night, rubbed his eyes. "Now what could that be...?" He sounded irritated. He noticed the car speeding in his front yard. He grumbled angrily. "Darn drivers..." He was about to close the window when something else raced across his yard as well. It took him by such surprise that he nearly fell out of the window. There was a white dinosaur out there! And it was chasing the car! The man's eyes grew wide. "What the..what was that?!" He muttered under his breath. Did he just see what he thought he saw? Or were his eyes playing tricks on him? "..I think I need to stop putting so much hot sauce on my tacos..."

"Faster!" Zoom shouted. He stuck his head out the window to see if they were still being followed by Kista. And they were. He let out a scream of fear. "She's getting closer! Step on those accelerators! Go faster!" Zoom commanded, gripping his seat tightly in fear.

O'Ryan bared his teeth and tightened his grip on the wheel. "I'm going as fast as this car can go, all right?! I can't make it go any faster than this!"

"You must go faster!" Zoom yelled.

"I'm trying! I've been trying!" O'Ryan yelled back at him. "What do you want me to do about it? Magically have the car grow wings so it can fly?!"

"It would help..." Zoom muttered under his breath. O'Ryan just growled and rolled his eyes.

The two had spent about an hour trying to get away from Kista. She had shown up first at the alley as they were getting in the car. Before she managed to get them, O'Ryan started up the car and zipped off. After a while, they thought they were home free, but the white dinosaur suddenly showed up again, chasing them down. And after all this time, she was still coming at them. She was either so angry or upset with them that she didn't care she was wearing herself down or her kind really could run like this for a very long time. Either way, it didn't help that she was getting closer to them with every second that passed. O'Ryan had tried losing her several times, but Kista always managed to find them again. It was like she knew all the back roads there and knew just how to catch up to them.

When the white dinosaur had first appeared, O'Ryan didn't know for sure who she was. When he saw Zoom react in a strange way, he made Zoom tell him who that was. When he had revealed that it was Kista, it took O'Ryan by surprise. He hadn't expected Kista was a dinosaur. But that would explain how she was able to frighten Zoom so might, or now she was able to restrain Zoom so easily. And after knowing this information, O'Ryan understood why Zoom was so upset. At first, he thought it was because Zoom was a coward. But a dinosaur is a very good reason to be afraid, especially one that had all those sharp claws and sharp teeth...

O'Ryan snapped out of his thoughts when Kista let out a loud roar behind them. She sounded as if she was right beside them. But when O'Ryan checked his mirrors, she was still a good distance behind them, although she was closing in the gap rather quickly. He couldn't make the car to any faster though. He cursed himself for using this old, out-of-date car. It was apparently too hold to 'out-drive' a sixty-five million year old dinosaur! And after how he couldn't get the car to catch up to the Tyrannosaurus Rex when he first saw it, it was a wonder that he didn't learn his lesson back then.

Zoom looked out the window again. His eyes widened in horror when Kista turned her head towards him. Her mouth was wide open, exposing her sharp teeth to him. Her tongue hung out, saliva dripping from her jaws and flying in the air. The eyes narrowed, focusing on him alone. Then she spoke, her voice sending chills down the man's spine. 'Come back here, Zoomie boy. I just want to talk to you..' Zoom screamed and pulled his head back into the car.

"She really freaks me out.." Zoom said, trying to calm himself down. He could feel his heart racing.

O'Ryan shook his head in disgust. "Then don't stick your head out the window, man! Or do you like giving yourself a heart attack every five seconds?!"

Zoom retorted, "Well someone has to keep an eye on Kista to see how close she is to us!"

O'Ryan rolled his eyes. "Oh please! I have my rear view mirrors!"

Zoom narrowed his eyes. He then looked out the rear view mirror that was on the passenger's side of the car. His eyes flew open wide when he saw a mouth full of sharp teeth coming towards them. He quickly grabbed onto his seat. "She's going to attack!"

O'Ryan said, "Not for long!" He quickly turned the car to one side, veering off the road for a few seconds before doing a complete turn and started to head in the opposite direction. He heard Kista roar in frustration and then heard the sound of her footsteps approaching them yet again.

"She's going to eat us!" Zoom cried out, trembling in fear.

"Grow a backbone!" O'Ryan shouted. He started to wonder why he agreed to work with this man. He was even more of a coward than he thought he was.

As soon as O'Ryan said that, they felt something massive and hard strike the side of the car. The vehicle turned upwards, causing the two men to panic. The car almost flipped completely over, but it soon righted itself. As it slammed back into the ground, the two men were jolted upwards from the sheer force of the car slamming into the ground. Zoom was breathing heavily, trying to calm down his speeding heart. O'Ryan, despite his best attempts to remain calm about the situation, was now white in the face, realizing how close they came to being severely injured, or even killed. His hands were sweaty as he tried to turn the wheel.

Just then, something caused the car to come to a complete stop. O'Ryan and Zoom were suddenly thrust forward, nearly banging their heads against the window shield. O'Ryan glanced down at the meters and then down at his foot. He hadn't done anything to make the car stop himself. That could only mean one thing: Kista had gotten a hold of the car! To confirm this, he looked at the rear view mirror and could see a white figure behind the car. It looked like Kista had grabbed the car's bumper with her jaws and was now pulling them back. O'Ryan tried pressing on the accelerator, spewing gray gas into the dinosaur's face. But she was relentless, driving her teeth further into the bumper and lifting up her head, pulling the car back.

Kista narrowed her eyes. Then she roughly pulled backwards and up, lifting the car up into the air. She managed to lift the car completely off the ground. Then she moved her head towards one side and then roughly thrust the car in the opposite direction and released her jaws. The car tumbled across the road and landed with a heavy thud at the other side of the road, landing in the grass. Smoke rose from the car, but there were no flames, just the sound of groans and moans coming from the car. Kista growled under her breath as she stomped towards the car. She was so heavy that her feet were creating shallow footprints in the road.

Once she reached the car, she straightened herself up, raising her head up much higher than normal. She stared down at the car, her eyes narrowed in determination as she tried to locate her intended target: the video camera. She lowered her head towards the window of the car that faced her; the car was on its side now. She peered inside and could see O'Ryan. And beside him, she could see Zoom. Both men were unconscious and she could see a little blood on their heads, indicating that they must have struck them when she flipped the car. Kista tilted her head to one side, trying to decide what she was going to do with these two men and how she was going to get to the camera, which she was sure was with Zoom and not O'Ryan. She bared her teeth and opened her jaws wide and slammed them on the driver's door. She could feel the metal twist and turning in her jaws as she ripped it from its hinges and tossed it away. Then she looked back down and her eyes widened slightly.

O'Ryan was looking up at her, his eyes narrowed in a combination of fear and anger. He was trying to move, but it looked as if he was in too much pain to move or perhaps he was stuck. Either way, that worked both against Kista and for her. It did complicate things since she had to get to Zoom, but it also helped her because it would ensure her that they wouldn't be able to get away from her. Kista lowered her head down towards O'Ryan and sniffed him. The man tried to swat her away, but the feel of his hand smacking against her nose hurt her no more than a simple mosquito bite. She simply snorted, her breath brushing so hard against his face that it blew his hair back. O'Ryan closed his eyes and looked away, waiting for Kista to make the final blow.

Kista glared down at him, wrinkling her nose in disgust. This pathetic human cowering before her, he wasn't even worth her time. She would never really consider eating him, if that was what he was thinking. She would have tried to talk to him, but quickly decided that he wasn't with her time. She bent down and gently gripped his arm with her jaws. She lifted him up in the air, roughly wrenching him free from the car. She tossed him aside, and then turned back to the car. She tried to lower her head into the car to snag the still unconscious Zoom O'Donnell. But her head was too big for the door to fit through. She growled in frustration and changed back into human form. She then climbed into the car, reaching towards Zoom's, which was still slung around his body.

Zoom's eyes slowly opened up and he looked over. His eyes immediately widened when he saw Kista moving towards him, her hand outstretched. He pulled his hand back and scratched at Kista's hand, striking it with enough force to send it flying back. Kista winced at the pain. It seemed Zoom had more energy than his partner did. But she wasn't going to give up. She continued to inch her way forward, her eyes glowing yellow in determination. Zoom tried to strike out at her again, but this time she was prepared. Kista suddenly reached out and gripped his wrist, squeezing so tightly that she dug her nails into his sin. Zoom winced in pain, his eyes shut tightly.

"Oh no you don't.." Kista hissed darkly. She reached forward with her other hand, confident that Zoom's other arm was pinned down at the man's side. She managed to grab a hold of the strap and began to pull on it.

"Let go of that...!" Zoom managed to say through his pain. He tried to pull his arm back so he could grab the bag, but Kista had a strong grip. He tried to wrench his other arm free, but his weight pushing it against the door made it impossible for him to get free. But he was determined to stop Kista. He couldn't let her take the footage. He just couldn't! "I need that! You don't have the right to take it from me!"

Kista's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Shut up, you little...!" She didn't manage to finish her sentence. She felt something grab her from behind. Before she could figure out what was going on, she felt herself being pulled from the car so swiftly that she released Zoom's bag and deeply scratched his arm with her fingernails. She was then pushed into the ground, strong arms pinning her hands at her sides. Hissing angrily, she looked up to see who had dared to try to stop her. She was hardly surprised to see O'Ryan standing above her.

"Leave him alone!" O'Ryan shouted at her, lowering his head a little as if he wanted to make sure that she had heard him correctly.

Kista rolled her eyes, looking completely unfazed by the man's threat. "And here, I did not think you even cared about him."

O'Ryan ignored her remark and gripped her tighter. "Just get out of here..." He growled darkly, trying to sound like he was a real threat. When Kista just smiled, he got even angrier. He pulled her up and then slammed her into the ground, forcing a grunt of pain from her. "I said get out of here, you...!"

Kista's eyes glowed once again as she chuckled darkly. Her teeth became pointed again, making her look almost like a vampire. "You humans are all the same. You think you can take something on and you fail, or you just not try at all. I am somewhat impressed that you tried to take me on, young man, but you really must learn how to pick your fights correctly. Otherwise..." A long, white tail grew from her behind and she bent it forward. She pressed the tail against O'Ryan's body and she easily pushed him off, knocking him into the ground. She quickly got onto her feet. "...you will get hurt."

O'Ryan quickly climbed up to his feet. Despite being knocked away, he quickly get himself between Kista and the vehicle. Why was he doing this? He couldn't figure out what compelled him to want to protect Zoom from this woman. Was it because he genuinely cared about him like a friend or even brother? Or was it as simple as wanting Zoom around to help fulfill the plan of revenge on the Dino Squad? O'Ryan growled in frustration against himself, but he had to keep his focus on Kista, who was now walking towards him slowly, deliberately. "Stay away!"

Kista chuckled, her hands glowing, exposing sharp claws. "And what are you going to do about it? You have no dinosaur form. You have no way to defend yourself. Why don't you make it easier for yourself and get out of my way?" She stopped walking forward and just stood there as if she was expecting O'Ryan to walk out of her way like she told him to. She put her hands against her hips, glaring at O'Ryan with her glowing, dinosaurian eyes. "Or are you willing to throw away your life over something so meaningless...?"

O'Ryan hesitated, listening to what Kista was telling him. He considered his options briefly, and then yelled, "What are you after?!"

"Why, the bag of course!" Kista said, a dark smile spreading across her face. She was trying her best not to laugh. How could this man be so dense that he didn't know what she was after? She didn't come here to kill them, really. She only wanted the bag. "Or more specifically, the camera. I don't want you to show that to anyone. I will make sure that no one ever sees that footage!"

"Whose side are you on?!" O'Ryan screeched at her, his eyes so wide with anger that Kista could easily see the veins in his eyes. "You work for Victor Veloci, don't you?! You are against this wretched Dino Squad! Why would you even care if this footage is shown or not?!"

"It would ruin Victor's plan! There's too many risks involved!" Kista yelled back, trying to get her point across. She tried her best not to charge at the man. "You humans are all so ignorant and so stupid! You don't even understand half the things that you say! You are all just a bunch of dulcet exasperates!"

"...I don't understand half the things that you say, you idiotic dino brain!" O'Ryan shouted, taking a step forward.

Kista's eyes widened in shock and then narrowed in anger. How dare he...He had no idea what he was talking about! "You filthy human..." She said angrily, something she would normally never say. She charged at him and slammed the man into the ground, pinning him down quickly.

O'Ryan grunted in pain and grabbed a hold of Kista's arms and tried to push her off of him. "Get your filthy paws off of me, you hideous reptile!" O'Ryan barked at her, still showing bravery despite his hidden fear of what Kista really was and what she was capable of. Kista didn't answer back. Instead, she continued to push him into the ground. Her dinosaur half enabled her to easily overpower O'Ryan, preventing him from escaping her. Eventually, O'Ryan could not fight back any longer and he let himself fall limp on the ground. He took in slow, deep breaths as he glared up at Kista, his teeth bared in uncertainty and fear.

Kista just stared down at him, pondering on what she should do with this man. She needed to get a hold of the camera before Zoom was able to get away. But she couldn't turn her back on this guy. He would likely recover relatively quickly and attack her from behind. She would have to do something to make sure that he wouldn't be a threat to her. She leaned back slightly and released her grip on one of his arms. She lifted up her hand, extending her claws. O'Ryan looked up at the hand in horror, his eyes focusing on the glinting tips as they grew from the fingertips. Kista narrowed her eyes further. "I am sorry." She said, although it was easy to tell, from the tone of her voice, that she didn't really mean it. "But you have left me with no choice..I must make sure that you don't try to interrupt me again..."

But before she could muster up enough energy to make the blow, something grabbed her from behind. A leather strap was caught around her neck and something pulled her forcefully backwards, pulling her off of O'Ryan and back a few steps. She nearly lost her balance as she grabbed a hold of the strap and tried to pull it off of her. Her eyes slowly moved backwards to try and catch a glimpse of who had her. But humans could not see directly behind them without turning their heads. Yet Kista didn't even need to turn her head to have a clue on who had grabbed her. "Zoom! Let me go!" She managed to say, gritting her teeth as she tried to loosen the strap that was pushing up against her throat, making it a bit hard for her to breathe.

Zoom had managed to climb out of the vehicle. Upon seeing his partner in danger, he had quickly grabbed his bag and slung the strap of it around Kista's neck and used as much strength as he dared to use to pull the bag back. He was attempting to subdue Kista, to force her into giving up. But even from this position, behind her where it was unlikely she could attack, and even with the strap against her throat, choking her, Zoom still felt paranoid about being this close to her. He knew this might cost him the job at Raptor Dyne. If Kista told Victor about this, Victor would fire him for sure! But for some reason, Zoom didn't care about that anymore. All he cared about was securing Kista, to make her feel as helpless as he did when she had gone dino on him, when she strapped him down, when she hurt him to make him submissive towards her.

"I won't let go!" Zoom shouted, pulling harder on the bag. "Not until you promise to leave us alone! I'm tired of you always trying to control me! I'm tired of you always getting the upper hand. Well guess what? That is not going to happen this time!" With that, he took a step back, pulling Kista backwards with him. Kista's eyes shut tightly, her teeth gritting in pain. "How does it feel, Kista? How does it feel being on the receiving end? Not so fun anymore, is it?" He asked her in a dark tone of voice.

Kista opened up one eye, glowing brightly, and she let out a low hiss. She was getting tired of this human. He was just as ignorant as Victor had said humans were. How dare this human try to make her submit to him?! "You..better let go of..me..or I will...!"

"Or you will what?" Zoom asked. "You going to go dino and eat me? That will prove how much of a monster you truly are!"

"Me? A monster..?" Kista choked, violently tugging at the rope to make Zoom let go, but the man managed to have a tight grip on the bag, not letting go and refusing to give up. "I'm hardly any more of a monster than you humans are! Take a look around this planet and what your kind is doing! Just be lucky that I'm more tolerant than Victor is!" Kista continued to struggle, trying to keep herself from going dino as she, deep down, for a reason she didn't know herself, didn't really want to severely hurt Zoom. Why was this? She didn't know for sure. "At least, if it were me..I'd let you humans live.."

Zoom's eyes narrowed. "Sure..that's exactly what you want me to believe..." He would have pulled on even tighter, but something was holding him back. He didn't want to kill Kista and yet he was too afraid to let her go. "After what you have done to me..why should I believe you?"

"Let's just..skip this talk." Kista said. "Just..give me the camera and I'll leave you alone. You won't hear from me again..I promise!"

Zoom's eyes narrowed further. "You expect me to believe that..?"

Finally, Kista could not take it anymore. She had tolerated this human holding her long enough. She would have to free herself before he ended up choking her to death. Why did she bother even showing him mercy? Why did she force herself to not use as much of her energy as she was capable of? Why was she turning into a weakling for this human? Was it because she cared about him? She shook her head. No, that couldn't be it. She glanced down at O'Ryan, who was watching the situation with eyes widened in fear. What was happening to them? What was up with these conflicting emotions? Humans are so strange, Kista thought. And what scared her more was that she was starting to think more like a human. She couldn't allow herself to feel this way. She just couldn't!

Kista suddenly transformed into her dinosaur form. The transformation caused the strap to break, freeing her from its grasp. Zoom was thrust backwards, landing hard onto his back. Kista stood over him, mouth agape, drool dripping from her jaws. Before Zoom could react, she pressed her foot against his body. She lowered her head, her muzzle dangerously close to Zoom's face. 'I told you to let me go...but you refused to listen to me.' Kista said, parting her jaws slightly to show her teeth to the photographer. 'Now I have no choice...'

Zoom's eyes widened in fear as Kista opened up her massive jaws. He felt his courage crumble down and his body started shaking. He realized his mistake in trying to restrain this woman. Why had he tried to do so? Why did he try to play hero to save O'Ryan anyway? Why did he care about him so much that he would be willing to sacrifice his life for him? He had barely even known the guy and O'Ryan was often a jerk to him and to others. Why did he care?

Zoom struggled under Kista's massive foot, trying to wrench himself free as he saw the jaws start to close in around him. If he didn't get himself free, Kista was going to kill him! "No..please..no! Don't kill me..!" He begged, his eyes closed tightly as if he were trying to avoid seeing his death coming at him in the form of huge teeth.

'Why should I stop?' Kista asked, pausing briefly as she stared down at the man. Even in dino mode, she still felt hesitate about actually killing this human. After all, it wasn't every day that she met someone who was brave enough to retort and challenge her even after they discovered her little secret; the fact that she was a dinosaur. She tilted her head in curiosity, waiting for the photographer to answer her question.

"Because...I..." Zoom started to say, but couldn't bring himself to finish.

'Because what?' Kista said, grinning. 'You're a coward?'

"I..." Zoom started to say, but he stopped himself. He didn't know what to say to Kista. He didn't want to make himself sound more of a coward than he already felt. "I don't know..."

'You don't know?' Kista chortled, feeling mildly amused by how Zoom was acting. How like him to act brave one second and then the next act like a total weakling. She snorted against the man's face and asked, 'Do you have anything to say for yourself before I kill you?' She didn't really mean it, of course. She just wanted to see how he reacted to the question.

Zoom shook his head rapidly. "No..you can't kill me..."

'Oh? Can't I?' Kista was loving this, the feeling of being in control. No wonder Victor loved this feeling of power. She was about to say something else when she managed to snap herself back to reality. She didn't want to be just like Victor Veloci. No, she was too good for that. She didn't join Raptor Dyne so that she could torment the humans. She tried to keep herself rather neutral about them. She herself didn't understand Victor at times. Why was she becoming like Victor? She let out a soft sigh and lifted her foot off of Zoom. She just couldn't go through with it. Not now, anyway.

Zoom didn't know what was going on. One minute, Kista was pinning him down, trying to kill him. The next, she released him and even looked remorseful over her actions. Zoom rubbed his forehead carefully. It has been a really strange evening, he had to admit. He looked over at O'Ryan, who was now on his feet. He looked just as flabbergasted as he did. Zoom had never experienced a night as random as this. Chased by a dinosaur, knocked down by a dinosaur, and that same dinosaur acting, what he perceived as, out-of-character. Zoom looked up towards the sky and saw that it was a full moon. Although he was not superstitious, could the full moon have had anything to do with it?

"Why are you releasing me?" Zoom asked, tilting his head to one side.

Kista looked at him. 'I don't know. I just felt compelled to release you.'

"I see.." Zoom nodded his head slowly, trying to understand Kista. She was making less sense almost every time he talked with her. He didn't know if it was because of what he was saying or if it was just because Kista really was this stupid and irrelevant. "And do you have any idea why you released me?"

"Let's just go..." O'Ryan said as he walked up to Zoom. He cautiously looked up at Kista. "Let's leave while she's still confused. Now is our chance to get out of here." Kista transformed back into her human state and began walking towards them. "Come on, let's get out of here!" He grabbed Zoom by his arms and started shaking him, almost like he was beginning for him to come with him.

Zoom was confused. Now O'Ryan was acting insane. What was wrong with him? This isn't like him! He grabbed O'Ryan's arms and managed to pry him off. What has gotten into this guy? "Let go of me! What is wrong with you? You never acted like this before!"

O'Ryan narrowed his eyes slightly. "What do you mean? I'm not acting any differently than usual. It is you who is acting strange."

Zoom shook his head. He was about say something when he felt two hands gripping him firmly but gently. Before Zoom knew what was going on, Kista flipped him completely around, forcing him to face her. She continued to grip him on the shoulders, her eyes locked onto his. Zoom started to shake a little, not sure what to expect. "Kista...?"

Then Kista did something that took Zoom by complete and utter shock. "I love you." She planted a kiss on Zoom's lips. Zoom started to struggle, but she just held onto him tighter, keeping him firmly in place.

Everything around Zoom suddenly warped and faded into nothingness, a blackness rapidly taking over. Sound seemed to go static and disappeared, and he started hearing faint voices. Zoom looked around. Everything had disappeared. He looked at his feet. Even the ground had disappeared, and yet he remained standing where he was. He tried to find any signs of O'Ryan or Kista, but they had faded away, completely vanishing into thin air. Then, just when he thought things couldn't get any weirder, images of multiple objects flew by for seemingly no reason, their imagery warped by whatever energy was present in this still blackness.

Then the voices started growing louder and more urgent. He started getting the sensation of being somewhere and he could almost feel eyes staring at him, boring into his soul. Then a bright light illuminated the darkness. Zoom closed his eyes and cried out in pain, the light hurting his eyes. Then the voices got loud enough for me to understand what they were saying and he was able to hear who was talking.

"So is he going to wake up anytime soon?" The voice was Kista. "It's kind of boring just watching him sleep."

"Just give him time." This voice belonged to Victor Veloci. "He did take quite a nasty blow. Why did you have to knock the car down?"

"I needed to get the camera." Kista said without hesitation.

Then a third voice joined in. Zoom didn't recognize it as anyone he knew. The voice sounded masculine. "I don't understand why you had to go dino on him though. Do you like showing off your dinosaur powers?"

A growl came from Kista. "Shut up, you. I'm..not in the mood."

"And why not?" The same masculine voice asked. "Or are you afraid to tell me?"

"Keep asking me, and I'll give you a reason to be afraid of me!" Kista yelled.

"Enough, you two!" Victor yelled, his voice at a slightly higher level than Kista's.

Zoom didn't know what was going on. He was suddenly very groggy and confused. His mind was becoming clouded. He didn't know what hit him. He suddenly felt a horrible pain in his head and he tried his best not to cry out. His closed his eyes tightly, gripping his head gently and trying to make the pain go away. Then he collapsed onto his knees and his world finally went totally dark.

"Look, I think he's waking up." Kista said, glancing down at the chair. Zoom was restrained in the chair. In a chair next to him, O'Ryan was secured. He was already awake and was struggling against his bonds. He glared daggers at Kista, who just looked away, an evil smile on her face. O'Ryan couldn't spew any insults at her. His mouth was secured and gagged with a piece of cloth. She had gagged him herself because he was starting to get on her nerves. She had tried to assure them that they would both be free if they answered her questions. But he didn't seem to want to listen to reason and thus she gagged him so that he wouldn't be able to complain anymore. Zoom, however, had no gag in his mouth. She kept her eyes on him as his eyes started to flutter open, slowly but surely.

Victor stood nearby, his arms folded up as he waited for the disgusting human to wake up. These two humans were brought into Raptor Dyne unconscious and injured, although not fatally. Kista had knocked them out when she flipped the car onto its side. He was not very pleased to learn she had done that. He was a little concerned that someone might have seen her. He wasn't too concerned about O'Ryan or Zoom, however. They didn't look too bad, anyway. Despite the nasty blow Kista had given to the car, the two men had only suffered minor blows to the head that were strong enough to knock them out. Kista said that she was just going to take the camera, but she did not know what to do with these two men, so she decided to take them with her to see what Victor himself would want to do with them. Victor tried to think of something, but for a while, he could not come up with anything. Eventually he came up with something that he thought suited the situation.

"Oooo..." Zoom groaned softly. He slowly moved his head up, his eyes opening up. "What..what happened...?" It took him a few moments to realize that he was strapped down. His eyes popped open even wider as he quickly came to his senses. He tried to pull his arms free, but they wouldn't budge. "What's..what's going on?!" He cried, feeling his heart race.

"Oh I think you should know very well what is going on." Victor said as he quickly moved forward. Finally, the human was awake. It took him long enough to wake up.

Zoom looked up at Victor. "Dr. Veloci...? What's this all about?"

Victor's face contorted in a snarl, making Zoom yelp and cringe back in the chair as Victor leaned forward. Zoom could have sworn that he saw Victor's sharp teeth bared at him for a brief second. "I'll show you what this is all about!" Victor reached behind him and quickly pulled out what looked like a bag. Zoom recognized it as his own bag. He looked up at Victor in fear, sensing what was going to happen next. Victor opened up the bag and put his hand inside it and began to rummage through. It didn't take very long for him to find what he was looking for. Very swiftly, he pulled it out. He glared at the camera for a few seconds and then held the camera out towards Zoom. "What is the meaning of this, O'Donnell? What were you doing with this camera?"

Zoom looked away, shivering. "I-It's my c-camera.. Why shouldn't it be with me?"

Victor growled and looked towards O'Ryan. He considered questioning him, but thought better of it. This whole situation would go a lot better without O'Ryan's attitude. He turned his attention back on Zoom. He knew Zoom was hiding something. Kista had already given him enough suspicion about Zoom. "Kista here told me that she saw you and O'Ryan near the restaurant where she had nearly managed to destroy Irwin Caruso!"

Zoom looked back at Victor. He gulped and said, "All right..yes.. we were there. But..but we weren't doing anything...We were..." Zoom was trying to come up with any excuse to tell Victor so that he would not find out about the footage that he had recorded. This was what Zoom had been dreading ever since he began this little scam with O'Ryan. He glanced back at O'Ryan, who was now looking away, looking very grumpy. Zoom glared at the man. This would not have happened if it weren't for him. Zoom looked back at Victor. "We were just...scouting..for... umm..."

"Dinosaurs?" Victor asked, his eyebrow arched up in curiosity. He was starting to wonder if there was any point in interrogating Zoom O'Donnell. He already knew what this man had done, even if he could not prove it...yet. But humans were so predictable. He had anticipated Zoom would try and bend the truth a little in his favor.

"No sir." Zoom said as confidently as he could. "I didn't see any dinosaur in that area. I think I might have seen a mutant, but..I think that was just my imagination." He hoped Victor would by that lie. He wanted to tell him anything to keep him from watching the video on that tape. If he found out that he and O'Ryan had planned on editing it and posting it online and such, he couldn't imagine how angry Victor would have gotten.

Victor nodded his head. This was exactly how he had expected Zoom to reply. But he figured out a possible way to make him confess. "I was there too. And I thought I saw something else..." Victor was lying of course, but what did Zoom know? "There were dinosaurs in that area..namely Kista here and Caruso. There were reports of a third...But I can't recall just which one it was..." Victor tapped his chin with a finger a couple times in a thoughtful manner. "Now what was that third dinosaur..?"

"A Spinosaurus." Zoom said before he realized what he had said. When he realized what he just said, his eyes grew wide and he quickly cringed back. He tried to cover his mouth, but quickly remembered that his arms were strapped down. He looked up at Victor, who know had a scary smile on his face.

Leaning down towards Zoom, Victor sneered, "How could you have known that, Mr. O'Donnell? You claim that you did not see any dinosaur. So how did you know that it was a Spinosaurus?" He tilted his head to one said, his smile softening a little to try and appear a little more friendly. "Please, enlighten me. I'd love to hear how you guessed the third dinosaur without even seeing any dinosaurs there."

Zoom gritted his teeth. Victor had tricked him into revealing the information that he wanted to hear. That was sneaky and underhanded! "You tricked me..." He accused Victor somewhat angrily. But he kept himself in check, not wanting to provoke an attack from Victor.

Victor leaned back and laughed. "And why does that surprise you? You should have expected such a thing from me..?" He placed a hand on Zoom's shoulders. "I have had many, many, long years of practice in deceiving humans. You should have realized that you cannot fool me quite so easily. How could you even hope to fool me when I, myself, have been around far longer than you have..?"

Zoom growled and looked away. He muttered softly, but loud enough for Victor to hear him. "Well if that is true, then how come a group of teenagers have apparently been fooling you for a long time before you realized what was going on..?" Victor's eyes widened slightly at that question. Zoom took notice and decided to continue on, feeling a little more confident. "You claim that humans would not be able to trick you and that you could always fool them. But let me tell you something.. If that were true, then those little..brats never would have known about you! And you would have caught them on day one! But you didn't, did you?!"

Victor's eyes glowed, narrowing into slits. He gripped Zoom by the throat and squeezed it tightly. Zoom's eyes widened briefly and then shut tightly in pain. He tried to free himself, but with his hands bound, he had no way to do it. Victor continued to squeeze Zoom's throat, not enough to kill him, but just enough to make it a little hard for the man to breathe and to cause him some pain. "The only reason those pathetic humans knew anything about me was because Moynihan told them about me! And the only reason they managed to outsmart me was because of Moynihan's training that I'm sure she puts them through! In fact, if it weren't for Moynihan, they never would have been able to see through my deceit!"

Adam, who was standing further back in the room and was the third voice that Zoom had heard but didn't recognize, took a few steps forward. "Perhaps you should just release him, sir." He normally would not try and suggest things to Victor while he was busy, but he wanted to try and stop Victor before he did unnecessary harm to Zoom. "After all, you wanted to interrogate him, didn't you? What good will he be for interrogation if you end up killing him?"

Victor growled softly, pausing as he thought about what Adam said. The man did make some sense. Victor looked back at Zoom and realized that his face was turning a shade of blue. Realizing that he was squeezing a little too tightly, Victor released his grip on Zoom, who then proceeded to take sharp, teeth breaths. Zoom's face color quickly returned to normal. Victor just looked at him callously. He could have easily killed him if he wanted to. But he did agree with what Adam said. If Zoom were dead, he would not be able to interrogate him anymore. And he wasn't finished with Zoom yet. He reached out towards him again, this time gripping his arm roughly. Zoom winced in pain, but didn't say anything. "So tell me, Zoom. Do you mind if I take a look at what you have recorded on this camera?"

"W-Well I..." Zoom started to say. He would have objected to it, but he knew that Victor would have just laughed in his face. There as nothing Zoom could do to stop Victor from looking at the tape. Heck, even if he were not strapped down into this chair, he wouldn't have been able to stop Victor from taking the camera. Victor could've easily taken it away from him even in human from for all he knew. "Go ahead." Zoom finally said, his voice bitter. He looked away. "I know there's no way to keep you from looking at it. So fine. Go ahead and look at it, lizard lips!"

Kista hissed softly. "Don't you dare say that..." Victor raised up a hand to silence her. Kista looked at him in confusion. "But Veloci... that perlustrate promontory just..."

"Yes, I know that Kista." Victor said quickly, looking at Zoom for a few seconds, and then turning them back to Kista. "But right now, I don't really care. So just please shut up for now, Kista."

"Well!" Kista said, sounding offended as she put her hands against her hips. But a smile came onto her face, indicating she wasn't really as mad as she sounded.

Victor turned his attention back on the camera. He opened up the side and pushed out the little monitor that most cameras come with. It didn't take him very long to find the power button. He turned on the tape and rewound the video for a few seconds. He wanted to be sure that, when he turned it on, he would at least see some of what Zoom had seen near the restaurant. After a few seconds, he stopped the tape and put his finger on the play button. But before he even pressed it, he quickly looked over the camera. He wanted to be sure that the footage hadn't been erased. He remembered one time when he tried to check the footage from a camera only to realize that there was a magnet attached to the camera, which had completely ruined the footage! But luckily, this camera didn't seem to have anything attached to it or anything wrong with it in general. Satisfied, Victor pressed the play button and began watching the video.

After a few minutes, perhaps ten at most, Victor shut the camera off and looked over at Victor, then at O'Ryan, and then back at the camera. Zoom had managed to record the entire battle that had occurred at the restaurant. Victor had seen Kista show up and not long after, two of the so-called 'perfect dinosaurs' showed up. He was impressed with how Kista was able to subdue them rather quickly. Kista had nearly killed Caruso in her jaws and she, twice, managed to nearly defeat the Spinosaurus. One thing that disappointed him, however, was the fact that Kista was nearly owned by a human. But not just any human, but a frail, old woman who would have been downright harmless if it weren't for that gun she had stolen from one of his men. But he couldn't really put full blame on Kista. And she was able to get free anyway, so it was like the tar didn't even effect her. He smirked. That's what a real species should be like.

His anger against Zoom and O'Ryan had quickly faded away. There was something in the video that took him by surprise, and then delighted him. He lost interest in punishing them. In fact, he felt he should thank the two men for the footage. It helped fill in another piece of the puzzle that he needed to get a DNA sample from all of the 'perfect dinosaurs'. Victor smiled evilly at Zoom and reached out towards him again. This time, he gently placed his hand on the man's shoulder, much to Zoom's confusion. "Well..I guess I should thank you and O'Ryan."

"Why?" Zoom asked, confused.

"Because you have done me a huge favor." Victor said, grinning.

"And what the heck did he do?" Adam asked from a distance. His head was tilted to one side and he looked curious to know what Victor thought Zoom and O'Ryan had done to help Victor Veloci.

Victor looked down at the camera, the evil smile broadening a little. "They have revealed to me the identity of one of the 'perfect dinosaurs'..."

Adam blinked a few times. What was Victor talking about? How could the video have shown anything like that? "And who is it..?"

"That same girl that tricked me into giving a precious amount of money towards some animal shelter.." Victor responded. He closed his eyes. "It was when one of my workers claimed to have captured all the 'perfect dinos' but it turned out to be a bunch of little brats. I don't recall the others too well; it was that girl I remember the most because of what she made me do." He remembered her from somewhere else too. She was the same girl he had seen with a rabbit when he was looking for mutant pets that his men were supposed to contaminate. But those two bumbling idiots didn't follow orders and, because of them, his experiment was ruined.

"And why is that a big deal?" Kista asked, shrugging her shoulders. "So what if she made you pay all that money? So what? You're a millionaire, aren't you? Or billionaire, whatever. You could have easily replaced that money quickly."

"It doesn't bother me too much, I suppose.." Victor said thoughtfully. "But anyway, now I know the identity of the Spinosaurus."

"Oh really?" Zoom said out of nowhere. Victor looked over at him, his eyes slightly narrowed, but other than that, there was no sign of anger on his face. Zoom chuckled lightly. "So tell me...what do you think the girl's name is? Can you tell that from the footage?"

Victor slowly shook his head. "No, I cannot tell just from the footage. But..." Victor turned around, holding his hands behind his back as if he were hiding something. A twisted smile appeared on his face. "There are ways to find out..."

The next day at school, Caruso was out on the football field. He was walking towards the locker room because his coach told him to go there. Caruso's mouth was still too sore and painful to wear the helmet and mouth piece as the coach had started making his students wear for added safety. The mouth piece continued to press against the cuts and scratches. The coach didn't understand how anyone could do that to their mouth, but Caruso never told him the story nor did he ever come up with an explanation. He had only told his coach he hurt his mouth. Despite not having a good story, there was no denying the injuries; they were as real as anything. The coach didn't want Caruso to hurt himself with the mouthpiece, so he immediately sent Caruso to the locker room.

Although disappointed that he wouldn't be able to play today, Caruso obeyed his coach without question. He immediately headed towards the locker room, thinking about what had happened last night. After Fiona had gotten done talking with Rodger, there was a meeting not long afterward. Buzz and Max were also contacted and they, along with Rodger, went up to the lighthouse to talk with each other about what to do. It shocked them when they found out there was another dinosaur out there, especially one that was larger than Max and perhaps faster too. But what frightened them even more was the fact that this dinosaur might have been the assassin that Michelle had warned them about earlier. Now Rodger and Buzz could no longer deny that Michelle was lying about the assassin.

After a long discussion, lasting about two hours, it was ultimately decided to take no direct action. They would not seek out this dinosaur and try to interrogate her like they had with Michelle. For one thing, they had no idea what this dinosaur looked like in human form. Not only that, but they had no clue what the dinosaur's human name was, so they had absolutely nothing to go on. It was true that the human and dinosaur forms often share similar coloration, however this could easily be changed. For one thing, Oscura's human form and dinosaur form had vastly different colors from one another. It's likely that Oscura, and Michelle, changed their outfits after receiving their dinosaur forms, perhaps to make it difficult to tell if they are the dinosaurs or not.

Instead of a direct approach, the Dino Squad, with advise from Ms. Moynihan, had decided to just wait and see if the white dinosaur returned again. They would keep their guard up and constantly look around their environment to see any signs of the dinosaur or even anyone that could possibly be this very dinosaur. There were some suspicions on who it could be, but there was no proof as of now. Moynihan encouraged them not to jump to conclusions if they suspect someone. She, instead, wanted them to keep an eye on the individual and wait and see if they ever transform or do anything out-of-the-ordinary, such as disappear into nowhere or sneak around certain places. But even this may not be able to pinpoint who the mysterious white dinosaur is. They knew little to nothing about her personality, except for one thing: her habit of using big, irrelevant words.

That, alone, might be their only lead to discovering the identity of the white dinosaur. There wasn't a lot of people that would use such a manner of talking. Heck, they didn't know anyone who talked like that. It wasn't much to go on, but it is their only clue that they have to link a human with a dinosaur. Caruso's heart raced as he continued to think about that assassin. He was still terrified about what had happened and how close he came to dying. He tried to push the thoughts out of his head, but they continued to haunt him, flooding back into his mind. He was hoping that some football would help him calm down, but he couldn't even do that, not with these injuries that Victor had given him around two weeks ago. Oh well, he did bring a book along, suggested by his mother, to read in case he ever got any free time. And he had some free time now, so perhaps he should read it.

Caruso reached the locker room. He opened up the door and quickly stepped inside. He was greeted with the familiar sight of a dark gray floor and rows of dark blue lockers, a couple of brown benches in each aisle. Caruso slowly walked further into the locker room. He didn't really like being in this room all alone and he could tell he was the only one in the room. The locker room wasn't too big, but it felt too large for him to be in alone. He quickly walked from one end of the room to the other, looking into each of the aisles to make sure that there was no one else in the locker room. He thought about taking a shower first. There was a small shower in the locker room that he had used time and time again in the past. Caruso decided that he could read later. He wanted to get cleaned up first. He placed the book he was carrying and placed it on the bench closest to the door that he had through and grabbed a towel from a rack nearby. He then made his way towards the shower.

Just then, he felt something grab him from behind. Caruso's eyes suddenly widened and the towel he was carrying was dropped to the floor. He started to struggle against whatever it was that was holding him. But he was pulled roughly backwards, nearly toppling onto his feet. An arm was wrapped around his body, pinning his arms at his sides. They weren't as thick as his arms were, but they were packed with muscle, possibly more than he had. He tried grabbing onto the arm and pulling it off of him, but it was useless. He then tried to scream for help, but swiftly, something hard and cold pressed against his neck so quickly that he nearly gagged on it. It didn't take him long to realize what the object was. It was a knife!

The figure behind him pulled him even closer, their grip on the knife tightening as they pressed it harder against his throat. As Caruso tried moving his head away from the knife, the figure simply moved the knife along with him, making sure it remained in a lethal position. Then the figure leaned forward, practically resting their head on his shoulder and whispered into his ear, "Don't try to move. Just hold still." The voice was feminine, making Caruso realize that he was being threatened by a woman. The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "I promise that if you hold still, this will go a lot faster. Do not prolong this more than it has to be." With that, she started slowly moving the knife to one side and Caruso knew what she was going to do. She was going to slit his throat!

Panicking, Caruso started to fight back. He wanted to try and bite the arm that was pushing him against the woman, but he couldn't move his head down without causing the knife to dig further into his skin. Instead, he transformed his fingernails into his Stegosaurus claws and started slashing the arm holding onto him. The figure let out a scream and released him. Caruso tried to run forward, but he felt the woman grab onto his ankle and pulling him to the floor. Caruso cried out in pain as his chin slammed heavily into the ground, making him bite his own tongue, producing a small puncture wound on it. Caruso tried to climb onto his feet, but he felt something heavy lay on top of him, keeping him onto the ground. The woman had quickly jumped onto him, using her body weight to make sure he stayed on the ground. Then she slung her left arm around his neck, pressing his throat against the hook of her arm as she quickly moved her arm back, roughly pulling Caruso's head back along with it.

Before Caruso knew what was going on, he felt the cold blade of the knife against his throat again. He panicked again and struggled on the ground, his Stegosaur claws on his arms digging into the metal, chipping a little, his shoes squeaking slightly as he kicked against the floor, trying to get up off the ground. But all he seemed to be doing was making the woman on his back increasingly angrily. She started to squeeze his neck a little tighter, making it a little difficult for him to breathe. He tried moving one of his arms behind him to try and slash the woman's arm again, but he suddenly felt a strong pain in his and and he quickly pulled it back. He noticed there were human bite marks there. The woman had actually bitten him, similar to how he had bitten Victor in an attempt to defend himself.

"You really like pushing your luck, don't you, kid?" The woman said, her voice filled with anger towards both his attempted escape and the fact that he had slashed up one of her arms pretty good. She could feel it trinkling down her arm, starting to stain Caruso's clothes. She pushed the knife further against his neck, but not enough to do any damage. "You could have just held still and your death would have been swift!" Caruso shuddered as she said that. "But perhaps you don't even deserve a quick death. I could easily just keep cutting up your body and letting you slowly bleed to death! How would you like that, kid? Do you want a slow, painful death or would you like a quick, rather painless one?" Her voice lowered into a harsh whisper. "It's up to you."

Caruso closed his eyes and started to cry. He was crying because of the situation that he was on and the fact that he might never see his friends again. Who was going to find him in time? No one could possibly hear him in here. The players were a good distance away and the door to this locker room was closed. There's no way that his cries for help would be heard, especially since the boys are usually rather noisy during a game. And he was frightened at the thought of never seeing his friends again. He couldn't imagine, didn't want to imagine, how torn up they would be to find his body again and this time he would really be dead. There would be no second chances, no miracles, no nothing this time. At least, after becoming physically exhausted from the struggling and emotionally exhausted from his grief and fear, Caruso fell limp on the ground, much to the woman's delight.

The woman chuckled. "I knew you would come to your senses kid." She readied the knife. "Don't worry, I'll make this as painless for you as possible." She started to press the knife into his throat, enough to only make a tiny, bloodless scratch. Then she prepared to swiftly pull the knife to one side, which would effectively slice his throat open, which would cause so much rapid bleeding that Caruso would die within a minute or two...

Suddenly, Caruso felt the weight being swiftly lifted off of him. He yelped when the knife cut his throat, but it made a small, harmless scratch. He immediately got up to his feet and looked over to see what had happened. He could now see his attacker. She looked like a young woman, perhaps looking no older than his mother. A few seconds later, Caruso was able to recognize who she was. Caruso was horrified to learn that his attacker was the new school librarian. He took a few steps back, his legs shaky, thinking about how close he came to being killed. Then he noticed what had caused her to release him. Someone was behind her, grabbing into her and pulling her back, as far back as they could away from Caruso himself. Caruso recognized the second person as Liam. "Liam?!" He cried in shock, although he felt relieved that someone had come to save him. But what was Liam doing here? This wasn't where he should be. Either way, he was grateful that Liam found him in time.

Liam was struggling to hold onto the woman, doing his best not to slip on the floor himself. This wasn't something he normally would do. He would not have even come here if it weren't for Ms. Moynihan. She had wanted him to find Caruso and give him some information. Why she couldn't do it herself later on, Liam wasn't sure. He was given a pass so he could go to the football field without running into any problems. When he had arrived, the coach had told him where Caruso was. But when Liam opened the door and saw what was going on, he hesitated only a few seconds before rushing over and helping Caruso. He had grabbed onto the woman and pulled her back as quickly as he could, hoping that he wasn't too late. Now he was hanging on, trying to keep himself from letting go. The woman was thrashing violently, trying to knock him off. But he couldn't be thrown off, not yet. He had to make sure that Caruso was fine.

Liam saw that Caruso was standing there, looking over at him in shock. Why wasn't the boy running away? "Caruso! Run! Get out of here!"