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...

30. Taken

Just then, before Moynihan could make another lunge at the boys, her eyes widened suddenly as something hit her, something very cold and almost moist. She lifted her head up and let out a loud screech as though she were in pain. She quickly turned her head over and she almost immediately noticed a large dark-skinned human behind her. She hissed angrily and turned around. Liam and McFinn slowly backed away, hoping that the raptor wasn't going to notice them as they put more distance between them and the dinosaur. Moynihan licked her chops as she glared down at Rodger with her glowing red eyes. Her movements, however, were becoming more and more sluggish and she started to shiver.

Rodger continued to spray the green Velociraptor, a few times taking a few steps closer as if he could spray more of her if he were closer. Moynihan's feet started to wobble as she was slowly losing energy. As she started to slump forward, Rodger closed his eyes and whispered, "I'm sorry, Ms. M...I didn't want to do this, but you left me with no choice." As he said that, Moynihan finally lost consciousness and fell to the ground, curling up and sleeping as if she was just stopping in this spot to take a nap. Rodger then looked over at Liam and McFinn. He was confident that they didn't overhear him when he had identified the raptor. McFinn was glancing down at the Chiller, looking confused. "Hey, are you two all right?" Rodger called out.

"Yeah, we're okay.." McFinn said. He glanced down at the raptor nervously, thinking that she was going to spring up and attack them at any second.

"Don't worry. She's completely knocked out." Rodger explained, hoping to ease McFinn's mind a little. "She's going to be asleep for a few hours."

"So what are you going to do with her now?" McFinn asked. "Kill her?"

"Kill her?" Rodger echoed. He quickly shook his head. "Oh no, sorry we're not. We didn't come here to kill this Velociraptor."

McFinn was confused. "But why not? That monster might attack someone else!"

Rodger shook his head. "No, McFinn. She's not a monster. She's just an animal running on instincts. It would be wrong to kill her for simply following instincts." He glanced over his shoulder. The team should be catching up to him soon. He had run out in front of them. He didn't know what was taking them so long. He glanced back at McFinn. "We already have plans for the raptor. Don't worry, you won't be seeing her again. So you can relax now." He looked over at Liam. "You too, Liam."

McFinn couldn't tear his eyes away from the sleeping Velociraptor. "I still don't feel too comfortable with her being this close to me, asleep or not..."

Rodger chuckled. "Don't worry so much, okay? She can't hurt you while she's asleep, unless you accidentally cut yourself somehow. But I don't see you being stupid enough to put your hand in her mouth or on her claws or anything. So I'm pretty sure you're safe."

McFinn nodded his head, looking up at Rodger. "Well, you do have a point. But still..." He gulped and glanced down at the raptor again. "I'm not going to let my guard down..."

Suddenly, there was a loud crackling sound and something shot through the air, pale yellow in color, and it was heading straight towards Liam and McFinn. Before the boys could move out of the way, the energy slammed against them. Their eyes shut tightly and they started screaming in pain. Rodger watched helplessly as the two boys were thrown back against the wall and slumped to the floor. They twitched a few times before finally falling limp. Rodger rushed towards them and gently nudged them with one of his feet. But the boys weren't responsive. At first, he thought they were dead, but he checked their vitals and found they were still alive; they were just knocked out. Rodger turned around to see the source of the attack and remained frozen where he stood.

There, standing in the door way with an evil smile on his face, was Dr. Veloci himself. In his hands, he held a dinosaur-like gun. It was a pale green color with what looked like black stripes. The face of it was shaped like a Spinosaurus and it looked a little longer than the Chiller and the Spiller, but it also looked thinner, suggesting it was more lightweight compared to those two weapons. Rodger could see a little smoke swirling out of the muzzle of the gun, indicating that it was recently fired several times. That meant that Victor must have used it earlier. Rodger felt his heart skip a beat as he imagined Victor shooting his friends with that. Gritting his teeth in anger, Rodger took a fighting stance, completely forgetting about the slight chance that Victor might not know he is a member of the Dino Squad.

Victor stared at the boy and chuckled darkly. He lowered the gun at his side and took a step forward. "Yes, try to fight me. I know you want to..." Rodger just narrowed his eyes further, his hands clenched into fists. "But I'm not sure if you want to do that. I already used this Zapper on your friends. And I have to tell you it works really well.."

Rodger's eyes widened in shock, then he narrowed them again. He pointed a finger roughly in Victor's direction and shouted in a demanding voice, "What have you done with my friends?! If you hurt them, I swear, I will..!"

Victor walked a little closer to Rodger, the Zapper still resting at his side as if he didn't plan to use it again. "What do you plan to do about it? If you must know, they are fine. But they won't be if you defy me.."

"What are you saying..?!" Rodger said, his eyes starting to glow.

Victor simply closed his eyes and leaned back slightly, looking almost proud of himself. "You didn't think I would come here alone, did you? I brought some of my men along..but then again.." He lowered his head and narrowed his eyes. "With how long you and your friends have been getting in my way, I'm sure you've already known that, am I right?" Rodger growled under his breath, but he didn't have a response for that question. Victor just smirked and chuckled. He glanced down at the Zapper and said, "I knocked out your friends with this weapon, but they will be fine. But if you defy me, I am going to have my men kill them before they regain consciousness."

Rodger gasped in horror. "No!" He called out and he started to run towards the door.

Quickly, Victor moved in his way, blocking the boy's path. "I'm afraid you're not going anywhere. And just to show you how serious I am..." Victor pulled out his radio and held it in his mouth, but the button to speak wasn't pressed down, so his men would not hear him speak. "Try to defy me again and your friends will die..." Rodger stood there in shock, his hands now relaxed and shaking as he realized how dire the situation has become. "Now, step away from the Velociraptor and I will be taking her and I'll be on my way." Victor did think of killing Caruso, but decided to wait.

Rodger's mind had gone into a blank. He couldn't think of what he could do. He didn't want to let Victor take Moynihan away. But at the same time, he didn't want Victor kill his friends. Rodger gritted his teeth in frustration. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He was in double lose situation. No matter what he could think of, it would only end with him losing someone. Victor had worked him into a corner now and he had to decide what was best for the team. Should he save Moynihan or should he save his teammates? What would they have wanted him to do? Then Rodger glanced at the radio and the weapon and got an idea.

Rodger took a step back, attempting to fool Victor into thinking that he was surrendering. Victor probably thought that he wouldn't go dino if he felt his friends were in danger. Victor smirked and started to walk forward. He held the gun up again, pointing it at him. Rodger suspected that Victor was going to make sure that he didn't try to stop him from taking Moynihan. Rodger waited until the right moment the strike. Victor then hooked the radio onto his shirt just in case he needed to access it quickly again. He then got out another gun and Rodger recognized it as one of the guns that shot out nets. Swiftly, Victor netted Moynihan.

As soon as Moynihan was netted, Rodger made his move. While Victor had his head turned away for those precious few seconds, he quickly transformed. He charged forward, but quickly slowed down. His intention wasn't to kill Victor. No, he had something very different in mind. Using his horns, he first knocked away the radio. It hit the ground several feet away, but remained in tact. Then with the other horn, Rodger knocked away the Zapper. Quickly he also knocked out the other weapon that Victor had. Now having no weapons or a way to call his men to order them to kill the other Dino Squad members, Victor found himself being pushed into the ground by the mad Styracosaurus.

Rodger glared down at Victor, putting his beak as close to Victor as he could in an attempt to intimidate him. But Victor just glared up at Rodger as if he wasn't even fazed. Rodger narrowed his eyes. 'You are not going to hurt my friends! Not while I can still fight!'

"Oh really?" Victor said, his voice calm and yet intimidating at the same time. "Am I supposed to be afraid of you? I defeated you in battle back at the lighthouse, or do you not remember? I could have killed you..."

Rodger snorted. 'That was just sheer luck you were able to get on my back!'

"Luck? Oh no..." Victor shook his head. "It was sheer luck that your Pterandon friend was able to knock me off when he did. Otherwise, I would have killed you."

'You wouldn't have had the guts to go through with it!' Rodger said boldly. He almost immediately regretted saying that, realizing what a terrible mistake it was going to be.

"Don't underestimate me, boy." Victor said in a darkened voice. "You will regret it. Your friend, Caruso, he regretted it.." Rodger bellowed in anger and he tried to attack Victor, but was suddenly knocked off by some unknown force. Victor had transformed into a Velociraptor and had managed to knock the dinosaur off of him. Rodger didn't go far, just enough so that Victor could get up off the ground. Victor lunged backwards, landing next to the net weapon.

When Victor changed back, Rodger realized what the man was going to do. 'Oh no you don't!' He charged forward, hoping to reach Victor before it was too late, but he reacted too late. Victor swiftly grabbed the weapon and shot out a net towards him. Rodger collapsed to the ground. He struggled frantically to get himself free. But every minute he struggled, he just continued to get even more entangled. 'No! Let me go!'

Victor ignored him and shot out another net. Rodger bellowed in shock as he felt the weight of another net land on his back. He tried to get up off the ground, but the net caused him to slip and fall. Victor smirked at Rodger's struggling. In an attempt to make sure that Rodger would not be able to get out in time, he shot several more nets at him until Rodger was now covered in about five nets. When he was sure that Rodger was completely entangled, he started to approach him, an evil smile on his face. Rodger looked over at him, his eyes narrowed in anger. "I told you not to defy me, boy.." Victor said in a cool voice.

Rodger shook his head, trying frantically to slice the nets open with his horns. But it was no use. He just couldn't seem to cut the net that was now encasing him with his horns. Combined, the nets were too thick for him to cut with his horns, and the nets were weighing him down so much that his neck was tiring out quickly. He eventually rested his head on the ground, unable to stand back up. 'You..you won't get away with this, Dr. Veloci!' Rodger said with what energy he had left from the struggling.

Victor only laughed. "I already have, little boy. I already have..." With that, he picked up the radio. Rodger's eyes widened in horror. Was Victor going to tell his men to go through with killing his friends? But to Rodger's surprise, that is not what Victor was doing. "Bring in the chopper. Now!"

A few seconds after Victor gave out his command, Rodger heard something loud, and then saw debris falling to the ground. He tried to crane his head up, but it was no use. Instead he rolled his dinosaur eyes towards the source of the sound. There was a large hole in the wall now. Rodger's eyes widened as he saw Victor's men rush in. Rodger tried to stand up, but he only fell back down again. He could only watch as Victor's men grabbed the net Moynihan was trapped in and started to drag her away towards the opening. 'No...No!' He called out.

Victor looked over in his direction, still smiling evilly. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of her..." He said in a menacing voice. With that, he grabbed his other weapon and started to walk towards the opening.

Rodger shifted back into human form. "Come back here...you rancid reptile! You can't do this!"

Victor bared his teeth and he turned his head back towards Rodger. "What did you just call me..?" Rodger gulped and realized his mistake. Before he could react, Victor leveled the Zapper with him and within seconds, a wave of yellow energy collided with him. Rodger screamed in pain as the electricity surged through his body before he finally collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Victor glared at him for a few seconds before turning his back to Rodger and walking through the opening. "Humans are just weak little creatures...and not very smart either."

Victor climbed inside the helicopter as his men continued to pull Moynihan on board. There wasn't much room to put a large, green Velociraptor, but they managed to make room. Once she was on board and secured, one of Victor's men immediately got into the control seat of the helicopter. He turned over to Victor and said, "Subject has been secured, sir. We're ready for take off."

Victor smirked. "Take us back to Raptor Dyne." With that, the red dinosaur-like helicopter lifted up into the air and quickly headed off into the distance. Victor closed his eyes, deep in thought. Was it really wise for him in letting the Dino Squad go? After all, they could prove troublesome. He pulled out his radio. "Ground team, move in and take those students in the hallway back to Raptor Dyne, and take the african-american child in the nearby classroom as well."

* * *

Terri glanced outside. It had gotten dark out already and she could see starts starting to glow in the sky. She then glanced down at her plate. Her mother had made some pork chops and potatoes today. Normally she would be reading a book or being forced to eat by her mother or father. But today, she didn't feel much like eating or reading. One of her books was sitting next to her on the table, but its cover was closed. She glanced at it and thought of picking it up, but decided against it. She held a fork in her hand and started to play with her food. But she didn't feel like eating. Her mind was too troubled for her to do much of anything at this point.

Terri's mother, Nevina, noticed her daughter's distress. She put down her fork and knife that she was using to cut up her meat and leaned forward on the table, her head resting on her hands. "Terri? Is something wrong, dear? You hadn't touched your food..or your book."

Terri lowered her gaze. "It's..it's nothing, mom..."

Then Bryant, Terri's father, spoke up. "Listen here, young lady. You can't fool us about these things. We can tell something is bothering you. If you want to talk to us about it, your mother and I are right here for you."

Terri exhaled deeply and smiled softly. She knew her parents would be willing to help her. But she wasn't sure if they could help her out with this problem. She turned her head towards the window, hoping to see her sister returning. But a few minutes had passed by and still no sign of her. Terri started to fear the worse. "It's Fiona. She isn't back home yet and dinner's almost done."

"Now now.." Bryant said as he held a piece of potato with his fork. "..just because your sister isn't back yet.." He put the potato in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. "..doesn't mean that anything is wrong. Maybe she and her friends got tied up with something and they're going to be late."

"Your father's right, dear." Nevina said sweetly. "I'm sure everything is just fine. Give your sister more time and before you know it, she'll be back, safe and sound."

Terri wanted to believe her parents, but something inside her told her something was wrong. She glanced out the window once more. There was still a little light outside, but it was quickly vanishing. Terri swallowed hard. She looked back at her parents. "I hope you guys are right..."

Bryant leaned back in his seat, a big smile on his face. "Why, I bet you they are probably having a lot of fun catching more of those mutantsaurs!"

* * *

Fiona groaned softly. She felt a pounding in her head, a headache like she never experienced before. She slowly opened up her eyes. Her vision was extremely cloudy and blurred. She couldn't make out any shapes, just a blend of colors. She weakly shook her head, trying to clear up her vision. When she looked again, he vision had become more clear. It was still blurry, but slowly she could make out shapes. There didn't seem to be too much around at first. She could see a few desks nearby. She could see what looked to be funnels in the distance. She saw something large and white on the walls. And for some reason, almost everything had a shade of red to it.

Suddenly, Fiona's eyes snapped wide open. Her vision had sharpened up completely and she became aware of where she was. She recognized this room. It was Raptor Dyne! She looked around. She could see the desks where she knew his scientists worked. She even recognized the computer where that one scientist tried to get a blood sample from her and her friends. The funnels she had seen where Victor's tubes where he had kept his failed experiments, or so it seemed. And the large white thing that she had seen was Victor's monitor, which was a good distance away. It was near the area where Moynihan had originally been shackled the last time Victor had captured her.

When Fiona tried to move so she could find a way to get out of here, she realized she couldn't move her arms. Her heart started to race when she realized that her arms, outstretched completely from her sides as if she were a cross, were clamped to the walls by metallic rings. She tried to move her legs and to her relief they were still free. She glanced down and saw that there was a larger metallic ring pushing up against her stomach, pinning her to the wall. Fiona would have tried to go dino, but she had quickly realized that the metallic rings were spiked. She could feel them pushing against her skin, although they weren't doing any damage. She realized that if she went dino, she would slice her hands and her stomach and it could be fatal, depending on the circumstances. She glanced over at her friends. They were still knocked out. Just like her, they, too, were clamped to the wall by spiked, metallic rings, each one fitted to fit their size. She was relieved that they were still alive at least. But how long was that going to last?

Then she felt something on her neck, something funny that wasn't supposed to be there. She tried to glance down, but she quickly realized there was no way for her to see whatever it was on her neck. She wanted to try to feel it with her hands, but they were clamped far from her sides. Despite her situation, Fiona tried to struggle against her metal bonds, hoping that, by some miracle, the rings were weak from fatigue. But to her disappointment, they were rather strong and she ended up expending her energy just trying to get free. Fiona then heard footsteps and looked over to see who was coming.

Victor chortled as he approached the girl. "I see you are finally awake."

Fiona bared her teeth. "Where are we?! What have you done to us?!"

Victor threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, my little girl..." He reached out and gently gripped her chin. "You should already know that by now. You're in Raptor Dyne, of course. And what have I done to you? Simple. I captured you. After all this time, I finally got all of you 'perfect dinosaurs', or should I say the Dino Squad?" He chuckled. Fiona just glared at him. "It was only a matter of time before I managed to catch you all. You should have known you wouldn't have been able to dodge me for very long..."

"Let us go, you creep!" Fiona struggled again, but once again felt something on her neck. She glanced down, somewhat curious to know what was on her neck. She glanced up at Victor and glared at him softly. She knew that he would explain to her what it was.

"I see you are curious about what I put on you teenagers." Victor said, a smirk on his face. Fiona glanced down again, frustrated that she couldn't see what it was. "It's really quite simple. I can't have you teens disrupting my work here, even though you aren't going to be here long.." Fiona looked confused by his statement on how they weren't going to be there long, but she decided not to ask him about it. "And that's why I put shock collars on you and your friends. If you do anything to disrupt me or defy me, you and your friends will receive a rather..painful electric shock." Fiona's eyes widened with fear as she looked down again nervously. "So if I were you, little child, I would hold my tongue." Victor said in a threatening tone. With that, he released his grip on her and took a step back.

Fiona looked at Victor, her eyes still wide with fear. She could have sworn she saw what might have been the button for the shock collars. She opened her mouth to speak, but, remembering the shock collars, immediately closed her mouth and lowered her head. Usually, she would be able to come up with some kind of plan to get her and her friends out of messes like this. But this time, it was different. They were all completely restrained, all wearing shock collars, all vulnerable to being hurt. What good would she be in helping her friends, with her arms bound like this? She couldn't even transform. She was useless.

Victor smirked as he watched Fiona start to despair. It was a fitting comeback for all the times these children have humiliated him and outsmarted him in the past. This is what they deserved after their constant interruptions of his precious experiments. They should have just kept their noses out of his business. They should have never crossed paths with him. Now they were going to regret ever going against him. He would have killed them already, but he felt like he wanted to make them suffer a little, make them regret ever going up against him. Whether or not he'll go through with it, he wasn't sure. But he wouldn't have to deal with them for too long. Once he was finished getting their DNA, he was going to kill them all.

Just then, the elevator doors opened up. Victor glanced over to see Oscura stepping out, holding a weapon in her hands. Victor smirked as he immediately recognized the weapon as he one that he had sent Oscura out to get in the first place. The weapon was yellow in color and had a mouth that resembled a Troodon's. It was similar to the Zapper, but lacked the stripes. Oscura walked over and handed the weapon to Victor. "It was a piece of cake getting it." Oscura said, sounding quite pleased with herself. "And the Dino Squad was..." She glanced over at the wall and noticed all five members of the team chained to it. Oscura chuckled. "Well well well...look at what we've got here..."

Fiona glared at Oscura and tried to lash out at her, but she was too far away and her binds were too strong. Oscura couldn't help but laugh at the girl's pathetic attempt at attacking her from this distance. Oscura looked at the other students, expecting them to try something stupid as well. But she was mildly disappointed that they were all knocked out. Oh well, they would be awake soon, and when they wake up, she was going to have a little fun with them, especially Caruso. The little coward would probably have a heart attack when he finds out where he is. Oscura couldn't wait to get his claws into him.

Victor noticed the way Oscura was looking at Caruso and quickly but lightly smacked her on the head. Oscura growled and rubbed her head, looking up at Victor with a confused look on her face. "I already have plans for that boy. Kista is the one who shall take care of him." Victor looked up over at Caruso and narrowed his eyes. "Although I should have gotten rid of him when I had the chance. I was a fool in letting him live..." With that, he started to walk towards the young boy.

Fiona's eyes widened and she started to struggle frantically. She was not going to let Victor hurt her boyfriend! She was not going to let Caruso suffer through the same pain as he did weeks ago! She was not going to let anyone get near him! "No!" She shouted as she thrashed against the wall. "Don't you dare touch him!"

But Victor decided to ignore the girl's words. He was tempted to shock her, but he decided to save that for later. Within a few seconds, he reached Caruso. The boy was still knocked out, but after a few more seconds, Victor started to see him stir and his eyes started to open up. Victor smirked. He immediately reached over and grabbed Caruso by the jaw, more roughly than he had with Fiona, and pushed his head hard against the wall. The sudden sensation caused Caruso to immediately open his eyes to see what was going on. When he saw Victor, he started to whimper, but was too frightened to speak. "Hello, little Caruso..." Victor said in a somewhat playful tone.

"Leave him alone!" Fiona shouted, trying to kick at Victor with her legs.

Caruso started to tremble in fear, and he could feel his heart racing. He hoped that this was all just a terrible nightmare and that he would wake up at any moment. But when Victor dug his claws into his face and Caruso felt the sharp pain of the talons digging into his skin, he realized this was no dream; it was reality. This made him feel even more frightened. It was almost like the nightmares he had been having were coming true. He had hoped and prayed that he would never had to face Victor again while feeling helpless, but here he was, chained to the wall with no way to defend himself. He winced in pain as Victor continued to dig his claws into him, drawing fresh blood from several small puncture wounds. Unable to take it anymore, Caruso jerked his head way. He managed to free his face, but Victor's claws slashed his skin, making several small cuts on his lower jaw. He cried out in pain.

Hearing Caruso's cry, Fiona became even more frantic and determined to save him. "Get away from him, you monster!" She yelled at Victor. This time, as she kicked towards Victor, she managed to land a blow. It was more of a grazing shot, but she still managed to hit him. Caruso was right next to her, so there wasn't much distance between her and Victor. She lashed out again, but this time she missed.

Although it didn't really hurt him much, Veloci growled softly, annoyed with the pesky human trying to kick him. He slowly turned his head over and stared at Fiona, who had a scowl on her face. Victor chuckled softly. He couldn't imagine how Fiona thought she could actually hurt him given the situation she was in. He thought of teaching her a lesson, doing something to her to make sure she didn't try to attack him like that again. He glanced back at Caruso, who trembled in fear. Victor couldn't help but smirk at the boy. His spirit had already been broken. He didn't really need to do anything to make sure the teen remained submissive towards him. Now it was time for him to break the boy's friends, and he'll start off with this feisty little girl.

Victor stepped away from Caruso and walked back over towards Fiona. The girl narrowed her eyes into slits and Victor could see a faint glow in her eyes. She tried to kick out at him again, and this time Victor was prepared. He immediately seized her leg with a strong, red-skinned hand with claws instead of fingernails. Fiona was momentarily surprised by the swift movement. Slowly, she started to feel afraid, realizing what situation she was now in. She struggled to free her leg from the mad scientist's grasp, but his grip was iron tight. Fiona tried to kick out with her other leg in order to free herself, but Victor grabbed that as well and he squeezed tightly. Fiona closed her eyes and grunted in pain. Victor contemplated breaking both of her legs but decided against it. Instead, he decided on something else.

He released her legs. Fiona let out a sigh of relief as she brought her legs back, but then started to feel worried when she saw Victor reaching over towards the device she had seen earlier. Victor pulled it out and aimed the somewhat long rod that stuck out of one end of the device at her. She leaned back and gulped, not sure what to expect. Victor smirked evilly as she pressed a button. Almost immediately, Fiona felt a painful wave of electricity run through her body. She through her head back and screamed loudly as Victor held the button down for a few seconds and then released it. Fiona hung her head and panted heavily, her eyes wide with both fear and pain. She looked up at Victor, her body twitching from the electric jolt.

Victor held the device up so that Fiona could see it. "This, my dear, is the remote that controls the electric shock collars you and your pathetic friends are wearing. Tempt me again, and I will turn the collar back on, and I promise you it will be longer and a lot more painful the next time.." He leaned in a little closer to Fiona and whispered in a harsh tone, "Do you understand me?" Fiona pulled her head back as far as she could go and nodded slowly. Victor smirked. "That's more like it..." He turned and walked away from her.

Fiona looked over at Caruso, who had his eyes on Victor, afraid to tear them away. Fiona felt terrible that she couldn't do much to comfort him. But she had to at least try to. "Caruso..." The blue-haired teenager slowly turned his head to face her. "We'll...we'll get out of this. You'll see..."

Caruso wanted to believe her. He truly did. But his gut was telling him that she was wrong. He should know. He had been here before and he had tried to escape, but failed. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I-I am sorry, F-Fiona..." He looked at her with a remorseful look on his face. "B-But there is no-no way to escape..."

Fiona looked shocked. "How can you say that? We were able to rescue you..."

"O-Only because y-you weren't already c-c-captured." Irwin said, frowning slightly. "I-It's different when you were c-captured. T-Trust me... I tried to escape myself, but.. I-I failed..." He hung his head. "I-If you g-guys hadn't come..I-I would have b-been V-V-Victor's prisoner forever..."

Fiona wanted to say something to cheer him up, but she couldn't think of anything. She glanced down at her feet. She started to think to herself. Could Caruso be right? Could there really be no way out of here? She and the others had been in here before and they escaped. But things were different back then. They had broken into Raptor Dyne to save Moynihan. They had thought of a plan ahead of time, and they were able to succeed. But this time, they were all captured and chained and Moynihan's mind was completely altered. She wouldn't be able to help them this time, and without away to get free, they couldn't escape anyway. And none of their families knew were they were and neither did Liam, McFinn, Mrs. Krell, or anyone else that they knew outside of their families. And even if they did know, what could they do to help? They had little to no experience against Victor. Fiona closed her eyes. It all seemed hopeless. But she couldn't just give up. There had to be a way. There just had to!

* * *

"Oooooo..." Max groaned and slowly opened up his eyes. A few minutes had gone by and Victor had left the kids to go check on something. Max took a moment and glanced around. He tried to move his arms, but discovered they were clamped hard against the wall. He started to pull on them as hard as he could, but he couldn't break free. And the jaggedness of the metallic rings prevented him from going dino to get free. He looked over and noticed Fiona and Caruso were awake, and Rodger and Buzz were starting to come to. "Fiona..." He said softly. "We're in Raptor Dyne..aren't we?"

Fiona looked at him. "Yes. I hate to say it, but yes..."

Rodger groaned softly as his eyes slowly fluttered open. His binds were larger and thicker than the others to support his weight since he was the physically largest and heaviest among the team. When he realized he was chained to the wall, he struggled, but only briefly. He had noticed Max, Fiona, and Caruso were awake and he thought that if they couldn't get free, he wasn't likely to have any luck himself. He looked over at Buzz, who was chained next to him. "Hey...Buzz. Are you awake?" He asked.

Buzz shook his head slowly as he opened up his eyes. He looked around and seemed confused. "Where...where are we...?" He asked groggily, struggling to keep his eyes open.

"We're at Raptor Dyne." Rodger said, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Victor must have taken us here while we were knocked out." Rodger could never forget the horrible pain that Victor put him through when he had shot him with that stupid Zapper gun.

Buzz's eyes snapped wide open and his head jerked up. He looked over at Rodger, his face filled with shock. "Raptor Dyne?! We're at Raptor Dyne?!" Rodger nodded his head slowly, the soft glare still on his face. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go get..." Then Buzz realized his arms were pinned against the wall. His eyes widened. "What's..what's this...? We're chained to the wall..."

"Thanks for that news flash..." Rodger said sarcastically, shaking his head slowly. Then he felt something around his neck. He tried to glance down to see what it was, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't see it. "What's this..around my neck?"

Max looked over. He saw something around Rodger's neck, sort of blackish grey in color. But he couldn't tell what its function was. "I'm not sure, Rodg. It looks like some sort of collar. But why would Victor put a collar on us?"

"That's because it's not just a collar." Fiona spoke up.

"Why is that, Fiona?" Max asked, glancing over at her.

Fiona looked down at her feet nervously. She wasn't sure how to tell them the bad news. "They're..shock collars." She said after a few moments of silence. She heard the boys' gasping except for Caruso. She couldn't bare to look at them. With her eyes still averted, she said, "Yeah..it's true. Victor had shocked me earlier while you guys were still knocked out." She shuddered at the memory. "It..it was horrible.. and Veloci said that he could do so much more damage if he wanted to."

"He electrocuted you..?" Max said, his eyes widened slowly. Anger started to well up inside of him and he growled, "That monster..."

"Well what are we going to do now?" Buzz said, his face filled with despair. "None of us are strong enough to break from these binds. And even if we do get free, if that lizard brain catches us, he could just use these shock collars to subdue us."

"Wh-What if we went d-dino?" Irwin suggested. "W-Wouldn't that b-break the collars?"

Rodger shook his head slowly. "Not unless they are adjustable, Caruso. Victor might have designed them that way because he might have wanted to prepare in case we did get free. Even if we went dino, the collars would likely still be there, doing as much, if not more, damage as before if Victor activates them."

"You just had to ask, didn't you?" Buzz said bitterly, glaring over at Caruso.

Caruso hung his head. "I'm sorry, B-Buzz..."

Buzz's expression quickly softened up and he started to feel guilty. "It's..it's all right, Caruso. I didn't mean to snap at you like that." Caruso didn't look back at him. Buzz sighed and hung his head as well. How did things get this bad? Ever since that darn invasion at the lighthouse, things just continued dropping downhill for him and the others. And now it got as low as it could have gotten: they were captured by Victor Veloci. There was no one left who had capable of rescuing them. Sure, there were a few people that knew of Victor, but what could they do? They didn't have dinosaur-morphing powers or the right equipment. And even if they tried to tell people what happened, who would believe them? In the majority of humanity's eyes, Victor was a humanitarian trying to better mankind. They wouldn't believe he was really a monster out to destroy them all. "The dude's got us this time..." Buzz muttered softly.

"Don't give up hope, Buzz." Max said, glancing over at the punk teenager. "We've been in bad situations before and we always managed to get free."

Buzz nodded his head, glaring softly over at Max. "Yeah, only because we had outside help or luck..." Buzz didn't really mean what he said and he knew Max knew that. He was just so confused and distressed over what has happened that he didn't know what else to do.

Rodger narrowed his eyes as he stared down at his feet. He started to feel angry with himself. He could have stopped this. He could have prevented Victor from taking them away to this wretched place. And yet he allowed himself to be shot by Victor and allowed himself to be captured. He was their last hope! And he had let them down! "I-I'm sorry you guys..."

Fiona looked over at Rodger. "Why? What for?"

"For letting you all down." Rodger said in a soft tone. His eyes widened slightly as he looked at each of his friends the best that he could. "I was the last one standing. It was up to me to save you guys. I could have stopped all of this. But instead I let you all down. I'm so sorry..." He lowered his head again, trying not to cry. He could feel his guilt eating him up inside.

"Rodger, don't beat yourself up over this." Max said sternly. "It wasn't your fault this had happened. None of us could have known it would happen." He offered Rodger a smile in hopes of comforting him. "I hate to see you like this Rodger. I'm sure you did a fine job trying to protect us back there. You at least tried, and that's good enough for us." To back up Max, the others all nodded their heads and agreed with him.

Although he was still feeling upset with himself, Rodger managed a small smile. "Thanks, you guys..." The others smiled back.

* * *

Several minutes later, the doors started to open up again. The Dino Squad looked up briefly, but they already knew who it was going to be. It was just another Raptor Dyne member. They looked away, not wanting to look in the eyes of another enemy. They didn't want to see the look of mockery that Veloci's men would have on their faces. They were certain that they would scoff at them and mock them, stating how easy it was to capture them when they weren't hiding behind the guise of a dinosaur. Since Victor's men knew that they were now human, they suspected that Victor's men would not be as intimidated by them. It would take more than just a dinosaur to frighten them away.

Stepping inside the laboratory was a familiar face: Michelle Brown. She had heard of the Dino Squad's capture and had come to see them. She had to choose her timing just right, however. If Victor or Oscura, or anyone, caught her talking with the enemy, she might get into big trouble. So she specifically chose a time when she was certain no one would be around. There was not going to be much time for her to converse, but it was still precious time she could use to talk to them, perhaps help them find a way to escape. That is, if they allow her to help them. Michelle looked back to make sure that she wasn't being followed and then continued to walk towards the teenagers that were hooked to the wall.

Once she had gotten within a couple feet, it was Buzz who first noticed who was approaching them. Buzz's eyes narrowed angrily. "You..what are you doing here?" He struggled against his bonds but to no avail. "Haven't you caused enough trouble for us? We're all captured now. What more can you take from us?"

Michelle was taken aback by this accusation. Was Buzz saying that she had planned all this? Did he really think that she was involved with their capture? She narrowed her eyes back and took a slightly hostile posture. "Now you listen here, bird brain! I did not plan any of this! I took no part in your capture! How can you blame me for this? I didn't take any part of this plan! I was here at Raptor Dyne! How could I have been one of those who captured you?"

"You could have given Victor some advice.." Buzz muttered angrily under his breath. "You had fought us before. You could have told him how to defeat us."

Michelle scoffed and put her hands on her hips. "And he's faced you more times than I have. So wouldn't it make more sense that he'd follow his own advice and not mine?" Buzz had no answer for that, but still continued to stare at her in a hostile manner. Rodger was doing the same, but he wasn't saying anything. Michelle turned her head towards Max, knowing that he was the most understanding of the team. He was the one who let her go before. Perhaps she should talk with him first. "Umm..hello there..." She said nervously.

Max looked at Michelle, his expression soft, neither happy nor sad. "Hello, Michelle. What brings you here?"

"I..heard about what had happened." Michelle lowered her head in shame. "I wish I could have stopped it." She looked back up at the team. "I didn't want any of you to get captured."

Buzz scoffed. "Yeah right..."

Max shot a glare at the punk teen. "Buzz!" He then looked at Michelle with a soft expression on his face. "It's quite all right, Michelle. There wasn't much you could have done..." He lowered his head. "But now I'm not sure how we can escape. I don't want to give up hope, but with these chains and electric shock collar...how can we hope to get out of here..?"

Michelle frowned slightly and tried to think of a solution. There just had to be a way for her to help them to escape. She didn't have the keys with her and she couldn't remove the shock collars herself. There had to be another way to help them. After a couple minutes, she did think of something that might work. It was tricky, but if she pulled it off, she could free them from both the chains and the shock collars. But she would need their cooperation as well. And she realized that she could use her claws to pick the lock on the shock collars; she didn't need keys to do so. She leaned in closer to Max and said in a soft tone of voice, "I know how I can get you guys free. But you need to listen to what I'm about to tell you and follow my advice without question. Got it?"

Max nodded his head. "Yes, I got it."

"Okay, first, I'm going to pick the lock on each of the shock collars. I am not going to take them off, though. I don't want Victor to think that someone helped them, so they'll still be fitted around your neck. They'll be loose, but it'll still look like they're clamped around your neck." Michelle explained. She looked at the students to make sure they were following what she was saying. She continued, "After that, I will try to convince Victor to unleash his three new mutantsaurs on you and..."

"See? She's just going to try to get us killed!" Rodger shouted, interrupting Michelle. He tried to struggle against his bonds so he could face Michelle, but he only ended up digging the spikes into his skin. "If it weren't for these spikes, I would be going Styracosaur on you!" He yelled at Michelle.

"Rodger, please!" Fiona yelled back. "Don't act so childish!"

"The spikes were where I was getting at actually." Michelle spoke up, smiling briefly before she frowned again. "You see, the spikes can actually be pushed in. They're sort of retractable. That's how Victor keeps the edges sharp. There is a button for that." She glanced over at the computer. "It's over there. Once I press the right button, the spikes will retract. Unfortunately, there is a code I would have to put in to make sure they stay in permanently. I do not know this code, so the spikes will only be withdrawn for a few seconds. Within that amount of time, go dino. You'll break free."

Max's eyes widened slightly. The plan did seem a little risky. And yet it also seemed genius. Michelle had come up with a solution for all their problems in how they were going to get out. If Michelle managed to free them, he would be eternally grateful. "Do you think it could work?"

Michelle nodded her head. "Yes. With your cooperation, it could work."

"How do we know this will work..?" Buzz said, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. He wasn't sure if he and the others should trust Michelle. For all they know, she might just be giving them false hope just to mock them.

Michelle looked over at him. She let out a soft sigh. "You will just have to trust me."

"Trust you?!" Buzz hissed. He bared his teeth at her, looking insulted that she would even suggest that after all she had put them through. How could she expect him to believe her now?

Michelle nodded her head. "Yes."

Buzz just looked away. "I'm not sure if I want to believe you. After the way you tricked me online..the way you had fooled all of us, the way you had almost killed Moynihan, and other things.." Buzz's expression softened up and he closed his eyes. "I just find it hard to trust you."

Michelle looked at him sympathetically. "I'm sorry to hear that. I apologize if I had hurt you that much." She said softly. But there was no time for her to carry out a conversation with Buzz. She started to hear footsteps and she knew that Victor was returning. She said quickly, "I'll be back later! Don't worry, I'll help you out of this!" With that, she quickly ran off.

After Michelle left, Victor, chuckling to himself, approached the students. The Dino Squad decided to keep quiet about what Michelle had told them. Even Buzz and Rodger, who trusted her the least, agreed amongst themselves that it was best that Victor didn't know about what happened. When Victor was within a few feet of the students, he couldn't help but smirk at them as they lay helpless in front of him. He could easily slit their throats if he wanted to, but he refrained himself from doing so. "Now what should I do with you kids now..?" He asked, but didn't expect an answer. He glanced over at Caruso, who cringed from his sight. Victor turned his gaze over to Fiona. He had already dealt with her. When he looked over at Buzz, his eyes widened slightly as he suddenly recognized the boy. "You..." He said softly as he walked over to Buzz.

Neil growled as he looked over at Victor as he approached him. "..what?" He asked in a darkened voice. Then Buzz's expression slowly changed into a more fearful look when Victor's eyes started to glow and he leaned in a little closer to the teen. "What? What did I do?"

"I remember you." Victor said. He extended one claw and pressed it under Buzz's chin, tilting the boy's head upwards slightly. "You're Neil Buzmati, one of the pathetic students who got nominated for that stupid scholarship."

Buzz growled. "It's not stupid!"

"Whatever." Victor rolled his eyes. Then he made another realization. One of his workers, the one that he had punished not too long ago, his last name was Buzmati. Was this his son? It must be. He carried a scent a little similar to his ex-worker. An eerie smile spread across his face. "Are you familiar with someone named Drew Buzmati?"

A feeling of anger welled up inside of Buzz. "Yeah..he's my no-good father who betrayed me! He told me that he worked for you and he knocked me out and took my blood!" Buzz shouted, turning his head away. "I thought he cared about me..."

Victor couldn't help but laugh. "You humans are so naive. Little boy, your father did not betray you." Buzz looked up at him in surprise. "He betrayed me. He couldn't stand the thought of what he did to you, so he tried to keep me from getting he DNA." Buzz's eyes widened as Victor told him this information. "He destroyed the vial that had your blood in it. But he won't be any trouble for me anymore... " Victor closed his eyes and smiled. "I've dealt with him personally..."

Buzz felt his heart race. He started to feel guilty that he had jumped to conclusions about his father. And he was feeling angry and fearful for what Victor might have done to him. His body trembling slightly, Buzz shouted, "What have you done to him?!"

Victor chortled softly. "Wouldn't you like to know..."

Buzz jerked his head away from Victor. "Tell me what you've done to him, you horrible creature!"

Victor narrowed his eyes. He lifted up his hand, claws fully extended. Instinctively, Buzz closed his eyes and turned his head away, waiting for the blow. Victor contemplated on striking him, but then decided against it. Smirking, he lowered his hand. "Now you understand your situation. Don't cross me, and you won't get hurt..." He looked over at Caruso briefly. If only that boy had learned his lesson as quickly as his little friends. "Now then, as for your stupid father, he's become a lucky volunteer in my latest experiment."

"What do you mean?" Buzz asked. "Another one of your primordial ooze experiments?"

Victor nodded his head. "Precisely, young lad. And some mind control too." He chuckled. "Of course, I already knew the mind control part would work. I tested it on your friend, Caruso, before and it worked, although not as well as I think it could have. Your teacher was introduced to a stronger, although slower dose." He took a step forward. "So your father received a combination of primordial ooze and a version of my 'mind control' chemical." Buzz was about to speak up, but quickly shut his mouth. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed Michelle to get out of here. "Your father was transformed into a mutantsaur, along with Zoom and O'Ryan."

Buzz's eyes widened in horror. He couldn't believe what he just heard. Buzz lowered his head, trying to make sense of everything that was going on. Buzz had been angry at his father earlier for betraying him, and how he realizes that his father still truly loved him and had risked his life to keep Victor from exploiting him. And now his father had paid the price for his actions and was nothing more than a mindless slave. Buzz started to shake, trying to hide his tears of guilt, feeling terrible for condemning his father so quickly. But he couldn't hold them back any longer and a single tear started to stream down his face.

Victor sneered as he brought a claw towards Buzz's face. He carefully pressed his claw under the boy's eye, catching his tear. Then he pulled it away and stared at the tiny drop of salty liquid on his claw. "Hmm.. you humans are so emotional.." Victor wiped the tear from his claw in disgust. "You weep and cry over stupid things like this because you allow yourselves to become too attached." Buzz glared harshly at him, but didn't say a word. Victor returned the glare, baring his sharp teeth, but didn't do anything to Buzz. "You disgusting little creature.." Victor whispered under his breath. Then Victor straightened up and looked up towards the ceiling. "Oh and you can forget about de-oozing your father, or whatever it is you humans call it.. I'm testing out a new batch of primordial ooze that's been modified to be resistant to those devices you were using to de-ooze my mutantsaurs."

"Wh-Why...?" Buzz asked coarsely. Victor cocked an eyebrow in curiosity. "Why...are you telling us this..? We're only going to develop stronger machinery to counteract it..."

Victor shook his head slowly. "No you're not. You see..." He leaned in so close to Buzz that the green-haired boy could feel the villain's breath hitting against his face. "After I am doing getting a blood sample from you and your friends, I am going to kill you." Buzz's eyes widened in shock. Victor couldn't help but laugh. "And I'm personally going to get the job done. So if I were you, little boy..." Victor placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I would squeeze in as much living as I could within the next couple hours. I'll be taking your blood in about two hours. Then after that, I'll end your lives. That way, you pesky Dino Squad teens won't be able to interfere with my plans anymore!" Victor started to laugh. His dark laughter reverberated and bounced off the walls, echoing throughout the laboratory.

* * *

About an hour later, Terri had managed to force herself to eat her meal. She glanced out the window yet again. She still couldn't see Fiona returning from whatever mission she was likely to be on. This only made her grow even more concerned. She looked over at her parents. They were trying to keep cool about the situation, but she could tell even they were starting to worry. Fiona had never been out this late before unless something was seriously wrong. But even though they were all worried about her, there was little to nothing they could do. They couldn't call the police because it was too risky; they might discover the truth about Fiona and her friends. They couldn't go out and find her. They didn't have the right equipment and they would only be putting themselves in danger. They couldn't even contact Fiona to see if she was all right. If they called her at the wrong time, they would only put her in grave danger.

Terri wasn't sure how long she would be able to stand remaining in the house without trying to do something to find the Dino Squad. She was becoming rather restless, fumbling around with her fork even though there was no more food on her plate. She hadn't gotten up from her seat for the past few hours. She hadn't even touched her book. Most of the time she was either looking out the window or staring off into the distance, running several thoughts through her mind. What should she do? Part of her wanted to go find her sister and her friends. But another part of her told her not to. She remembered the last time she had tried to help them. It had ended in disaster and she was temporarily banned from the lighthouse. She couldn't risk making the same mistake twice.

Then something caught her eye. There was movement outside the house. Terri felt her heart race. Could it be her sister finally returning home? But when Terri looked outside, she was gravely disappointed. There were two people approaching the house. They didn't wear the distinct outfit that Victor's men were usually seen wearing. Instead, it was a man and a woman. The man was blond while the woman had dark bluish hair that seemed eerily similar to Caruso's hair. She wondered if these were his parents. The couple approached the house and a couple seconds later, she heard them knocking on the door.

"Coming!" Nevina said as she quickly walked over to the door. With a smile on her face, she opened up the door and made a welcoming gesture. She recognized the couple as Caruso's parents. She had seen them before, although never got very acquainted with them. "Please, come inside." Nevina said as she stepped aside. Amanda and Jack smiled back and walked into the house. They made their way towards the kitchen and took a seat.

Bryant noticed the two new people sitting at the table and came over to greet them. "Oh why, hello there. What brings you two over here?" He asked, a gentle smile on his face.

Jack frowned slightly, looking both worried and concerned. Seeing this, Bryant and Nevina's expressions also changed to that of concern. Jack said, "Well..it's about our son, Irwin." Jack looked up at Bryant and Nevina. They looked at each other, almost as if they knew what Jack was going to say. They looked back and waited for the man to continue. "Well..you see..he's disappeared again. And the last time this happened, Ms. Moynihan had called to tell us what had happened."

"But this time around, no one contacted us. We thought that everything was fine and within a few hours he'd come home. At worse, he'd probably be very late." Amanda said. "But after a while, we grew concerned, so we called up the lighthouse. But..but no one was picking up."

Bryant's eyes widened. "No one? What of Ms. Moynihan? Didn't she pick up?"

Amanda shook her head. "No. She did not."

"That's strange..." Nevina commented worriedly. "She usually stays behind on missions and she's usually at the lighthouse at this time. She lives there, doesn't she? Surely she would be home."

"That's what we thought." Jack said, nodding his head. "That's why we are starting to become very worried about Irwin and his whereabouts. Tell me..." Jack leaned forward, now glancing down at Terri. "..did you see your sister return yet?"

Terri bit her lip. "N-No, sir.. I hadn't seen her since this morning."

Jack nodded his head. "The same with our son."

Nevina glanced up at her husband nervously. "You don't suppose something happened to them, do you?"

Bryant didn't have much of an answer. "I really don't know, dear. I suppose we can head down to the lighthouse and see if anyone is there. Maybe they're just working on something and they haven't been able to hear the phone ringing."

"For hours?" Terri spoke up, getting up from her seat. "I find that hard to believe. If Fiona was going to be this late due to a project, wouldn't she have called us up and told us?"

"Well..maybe..." Bryant tried to find a logical explanation, but nothing came to mind. He lowered his gaze, feeling bad for not being able to come up with anything to comfort Terri, his wife, or himself.

Terri took a step back and pushed in her seat. She then started to make her way towards the door. Nevina noticed what her daughter was doing and rushed over to try to stop her. "Terri, where do you think you're going at this hour?" She asked her daughter.

Terri responded, "I'm going to the lighthouse. Maybe something there will help clear up what had happened."

Nevina gripped her daughter's shoulders. "No, you have to stay here, Terri. I don't want to risk losing you, too..." Nevina said, staring at Terri straight in the eyes. "If it comes to that, your father and I will go."

"But mom...what if they aren't there?" Terri protested. "I know how to use the scanners there. I could track them down."

Nevina frowned and looked over at her husband, trying to see if he had any input on this. Bryant glanced at her, then looked over at Terri. He wasn't sure whose side he was on in this situation. He didn't want Terri to get hurt, but he also trusted her. She was a very smart young lady and she was more capable than even he had expected. Perhaps he should trust her on this. And yet, when he got right down to it, she was just a little girl. Unlike her sister, she couldn't transform. What if she had gotten hurt? Bryant wasn't sure if he could live with himself if that had happened. But at the same time, they were only going to the lighthouse. What was the worse that could possibly happen?

Bryant left the room for a few minutes. When he came back, he had grabbed the keys to the car outside. He looked at his wife and daughter, and then looked over at Amanda and Jack. He gestured towards the door with his head. "Come on. We're all going to that lighthouse."

* * *

"G-Guys..." Caruso whispered under his breath. "I-I'm scared..."

"Don't worry, Caruso. We'll get out of here..." Fiona said, trying to comfort him. But she was only fooling herself. How would they get out of this?

There was no clock in Raptor Dyne that they could see. As time slowly ticked away, they had no way of knowing when Victor was going to come back to take out blood. They had no idea how much time they still had left. And as each second passed by, the kids felt more and more dreadful feelings welling up inside of them. What about their families? How would they find out what had happened? Victor would probably talk to them and act like it was an accident. But the kids knew that Caruso's parents and Fiona's parents would not be fooled. They could, in theory, tell the other families what really happened. But would they believe them? There was a chance that the other families would think that they were crazy and completely dismiss it. But what would it matter anyway, if they believed them or not? It wouldn't change a thing.

The kids started to feel terrified of the idea of not being able to see their loved ones one more time. They would not be able to say goodbye to their parents and siblings. They wouldn't have the chance. Victor was going to deny them that. The kids couldn't being to imagine how dreadful the following day was going to be when their friends and families got word of their deaths. A single killing was bad enough, but a mass killing would leave too many emotional scars and it would be such a huge impact among so many people back in town. And worst of all, chances are was that Victor was going to get away with murder. He would likely frame someone else, perhaps a former worker of his, and they would be wrongfully charged with killing five students and a teacher. And Victor would be able to make a clean getaway and be able to continue his experiments without being hindered by the police.

Their only chance of getting out of this mess was if Michelle Brown was able to keep her promise. She had promised them that she would try to find a way to get them out of this. But their feelings about her were divided. Max, Fiona, and Caruso were all willing to give the girl the benefit of the doubt. There wasn't much worse that could happen to them right them. And Michelle hadn't tried to mock them or hurt them when she had came over, unlike Victor and Oscura. She also seemed really sincere when she said she wanted to help them escape. But Buzz and Rodger still remained uncertain about her. They still remained hostile towards her, but they refrained only because they had reluctantly agreed that she was their only hope. They were still worried that she was just going to lead them into another trap, but Max had brought up a good point to them. How could she trap them when they were already captured? Still, they didn't want to take any chances and were keeping their guard up.

Buzz closed his eyes softly, thinking about what Victor had said to him about an hour ago, or maybe it was two hours. He couldn't remember. Dr. Veloci had told him what had happened to his father. Buzz still felt terrible for what he had said about his father. He had pretty much called him a monster, and the man had risked his life to save his own. How could he have said that about his own father? Why did he so cruelly turn his back on him like that? Buzz shook his head slowly. There was no excuse for what he did, absolutely none. Buzz glanced over at Rodger. "I hope my dad forgives me..."

Rodger looked over at him. He had heard what Victor said about the boy's father and he felt sorry for Buzz. He nodded in agreement. "I'm sure he already has, Buzz."

"I hope you're right." Buzz said before looking away. There was something else he wanted to talk about as well, something that he should have brought up before. He turned his head back and tried his best to look over at Max. But he didn't need to see Max to know he was there. There was something he should have told Max, Fiona, and Caruso. He thought he had already told them what happened, but with all that's happened, he felt that they've forgotten. And Buzz didn't see anything wrong with reminding them of what he had said. "There's..something else I wanted to say.. I better say it before..time runs out.." He gulped, thinking about the deadline Dr. Veloci had told them.

"What is it?" Max asked, looking over at Buzz. "What did you want to tell us?"

"It's...the reason I've been so hard on Michelle." Buzz said softly, lowering his head. "You see...it's not really..just her...that I'm mad at.."

"Didn't you already tell us this?" Max asked, tilting his head.

"I-I guess so..I don't know..." Buzz explained. He felt a little strange explaining the same thing again. "It's just that..after what she did to me..online... I just... Well I already told you that she reminds me of Victor, didn't I?"

"Then..why are you telling us again? We already know what happened." Max said. After they had rescued Buzz, Moynihan had told them what Victor had done to trick Buzz.

"I had met her online." Buzz explained. The team, except for Max, looked at each other, suddenly remembering when Caruso had joked about Buzz having a girlfriend online. They had almost forgotten that Michelle was that online girl. They couldn't believe that they had nearly forgotten this. "I admit..I had a lot of fun with her. She was a good fighter. She almost beat me too..." Buzz let out a soft sigh. "And when she came to the school, I thought that we would have been great friends. And when she was being 'attacked', I really wanted to help her. But when she tricked us like she had and helped to take Caruso away, well I...I..." Buzz didn't know how to finish.

"We understand." Fiona spoke up. "And because of what Victor had done earlier, that must have been a really harsh blow... No wonder you find it hard to forgive Michelle."

"I won't lie to you. I'm still upset with Michelle." Max said. "After what she had done, it's hard to forgive her. But she is still trying to help us and we should at least give her one more chance to make up for what she did." He looked at Buzz. "I understand that it must have been very painful for you to relive being tricked like that, not once, but twice, and I understand that it's hard for you and Rodger to forgive Michelle. But if you don't let go of those hostile feelings you have against her, you'll never feel better. It will only get worse and worse and you'll just feel miserable for a very long time."

"But..how can I forgive her?" Buzz asked without looking at Max. "How can I just forget all the pain and misery that she had put us through?"

"I'm not saying you will forget what had happened." Max said. "You will never forget. But you can still forgive. That's the first step to recovery, Buzz. Forgiveness."

"Yeah, Buzz. It's terrible to hold a grudge for so long. I know it's only been a few weeks. But you should try to forgive Michelle soon." Fiona said softly. "Like Max said, it's the first step to recovery. If you don't forgive Michelle, you'll never feel completely better. It will still continue to eat away at your heart and the emotional pain may end up being too much for you one day. Please, Buzz, for your sake and our sake, please don't hold this grudge against Michelle. I'm still mad at her too, but I want to forgive her. I don't want to continue hating her like I do."

Buzz lowered his head. "I admit..neither do I..."

"Me neither." Rodger spoke up. "I never admitted it, but I did feel a little bad for how I was acting around Michelle. I just couldn't help myself.." He looked at Buzz sympathetically. "Seeing how you reacted to her, seeing how angry and upset she was making one of my best friends, I started to feel..very protective... I didn't want Michelle to hurt any of my friends again and that's why I didn't want to give her another chance. I was afraid that she would just end up hurting us again..."

Caruso now spoke up. "I-I-I felt awful when I had g-given her away the library... I-I wish I hadn't done that.. She didn't even d-d-do anything to hurt me..." He lowered his head in shame. "I-I wish I could apologize to her for that..."

"I'm sure you'll get the chance." Fiona said, smiling at the boy. Caruso smiled back, but he still had a saddened look in his eyes. Fiona lowered her head. She was no less guilty of how she treated Michelle than the others. But she didn't go as far as Rodger and Buzz. For a while, she didn't know completely why they were acting like that. And now she knew. "Perhaps, if we get out of this, we should all talk with Michelle and start over."

"That sounds like a great idea, Fiona." Max said as a broad smile spread across his face. "It's the least we could do..."

"But...but what if she isn't able to free us?" Buzz asked, his eyes narrowed slightly. "I mean, I know she works for Victor and all, but that doesn't guarantee that she'd be able to get us out of here."

"But I thought she had a plan...didn't she?" Fiona asked.

"Yes, a rather risky one." Buzz said as he tried to remember the exact details. "It could easily backfire on her. What if Victor spots her and stops her before she can fulfill her promise?"

"I guess all we can do is hope.." Max said as he glanced up at the ceiling. "Hope..and pray that we get out of here alive.." He didn't want to think of what would happen if Michelle was unable to keep her side of the deal. He hoped that she would be able to succeed. She was their only chance that they had left.

Just then, they heard footsteps. Looking over, they saw that it was Oscura. As much as it angered them to see her, they also couldn't help but be afraid for a few reasons. The main reasons that concerned them were that it was likely that she overheard them talking about Michelle and she could easily poison them if she wanted to. If she had heard them talking about Michelle, then she could easily sabotage the plan and have them all killed. And if she wanted to bite them, there would be nothing to hold her back. She could simply make them feel very sick so that when Victor came to finish them off, they would not be able to fight back, although they already couldn't fight back being bound to the wall like this. Oscura slowly walked up to them, eyeing the teenagers one by one, an evil smirk on her face. She hadn't said anything just yet. She looked like she just wanted to savor this moment. It made her feel superior compared to them. It made her feel empowered, that she could do whatever she wanted to them and they couldn't fight back.

"What do you want...?" Fiona said bitterly, not able to keep silent anymore.

"Have you come over her to mock us?" Rodger asked darkly, his eyes narrowed into slits. "I can tell from the look on your face..that's what you want to do."

Oscura tilted her head to one side. "Oh what makes you think that? Can't I just come over here and talk to a couple of old friends..?"

"We're not your friends!" Fiona shouted. Oscura, though still smiling, glared in Fiona's direction. She walked over to the girl and suddenly seized her chin with dino-like hands, digging her claws in. Fiona let out a cry of pain.

"F-Fiona!" Caruso called out in horror.

"You should be more respectful towards your superiors." Oscura said darkly in a manner that sounded so much like what Victor would say. She moved her other hand towards Fiona and, using a single finger, gently brushed a strand of hair from the girl's face. Fiona closed her eyes and tried to turn her head away. Oscura just smiled at her. "Otherwise, you could end up hurt."

"L-Leave her alone!" Caruso called out, starting to struggle against his binds. He was frantically trying to get free to get Oscura away from his girlfriend. Oscura looked over in his direction. It amused her to see the boy trying to escape. She released Fiona and started to walk towards Caruso. The boy tried to act brave, glaring at her, trying to hide his fear. But his eyes gave away his true feelings inside. He was absolutely terrified.

"Do you have something to say to me, little boy?" Oscura said in a playful tone of voice. Caruso hesitated, but slowly nodded his head. Oscura leaned very close to Caruso. "Then why don't you say it in my face?"

"Why don't you g-go jump off a cliff..." Caruso said bitterly.

Oscura's eyes widened slightly at that statement. Then she slowly narrowed her eyes, pulling her lips back into a snarl. She clenched a fist tightly, trying to keep herself from striking Caruso and killing him right on the spot. As much as she would have loved to do that, she had to obey Victor's rules and refrain from attacking. He was already upset with her when she told him she had bitten Moynihan. Luckily, Victor was able to come up with an antidote so that Moynihan wouldn't get sick from the Troodon poison. But she still felt the urge to teach Caruso a lesson. Extending claws on both hands, she suddenly dug her claws deep into his arm, deep into the same spot where he had been slashed by Victor's sickle claw. Caruso screamed loudly in pain.

"Caruso!" Fiona cried out, struggling to get free.

"Stop that!" Buzz called out.

"Let him go!" Rodger demanded.

"Leave him alone!" Max chimed in.

But Oscura ignored their pleas. She just continued to drive her claws deep into the boy's arm, smiling in satisfaction as she watched him scream and writhe against the wall, watched him as he tried to get away from the pain but had nowhere to go. After a few seconds, she finally released him. Caruso hung his head, panting heavily, his eyes still wide with pain. Oscura reached forward and gently tilted his head upwards so that he was looking at her. "Maybe now you will learn to show respect against a superior, you insignificant little coward..." She glanced at the other members of the Dino Squad. "And may this be a lesson for you, too. I might not be able to kill you, but..." She showed them her claws. "..if you tempt me, you will be begging me to kill you..."

"Oscura, that is enough!" A voice sounded out from behind Oscura. The girl growled softly and turned around to see Kista standing there. Oscura was somewhat expecting Michelle since the last time she was messing with the team, it was Michelle who had stopped her. But she also wasn't surprised to see Kista telling her to stop. Kista had been given orders by Victor to make sure that Oscura behaved during the couple hours that the Dino Squad had left to live. Kista folded up her arms and walked towards Oscura. "Didn't Victor tell you to leave them alone for a few hours? Who difficult is that?"

"Oh don't talk." Oscura muttered, staring up at the young woman with narrowed, dark eyes. "You know as well as I do that you would be doing the same thing, if you had the chance to." She glanced over at Caruso. "I am certain that you want to finish him off."

Kista sighed and looked over at Irwin. The kid looked at her in fear and started to shake. It was clear that he recognized who she was. Kista just smirked at him slightly, but she didn't make a menacing gesture towards him. What was the point? She was going to have her way with him relatively soon. She could wait until them. She looked back at Oscura. "I will kill him. But later on, when Veloci gives me the signal. Why should I waste my time messing with him now..." She bent her body forward slightly so she could put her face close to Oscura's. "...when I'll have the chance to later on?"

Oscura rolled her eyes. "You're just like Michelle. You're no fun at all..."

Kista just smiled and straightened herself up. "If you say so." She then turned away from Oscura and looked over at the Dino Squad. She didn't come over here just to scold Oscura. "Veloci's sent me to ask you kids a question. Do you want to see Ms. Moynihan again before you have to die..?"

"What have you done to her?!" Max shouted, even though he already knew the answer.

"Me? I didn't do anything." Kista said, slowly shaking her head. "But Victor has. He poisoned her mind, made her a Velociraptor once again. Wonderful, isn't it?" Kista said as she glanced up towards the ceiling. "Now finally we have another pure dinosaur ally... Finally, another dinosaur survivor."

At first, the Dino Squad didn't know what Kista meant by dinosaur survivor. But the more they thought of it, the more they realized the meaning of that statement. Fiona was the first to speak up. She looked at Kista, her eyes wide with shock. "You..you mean that you're a...a...?"

"A real dinosaur?" Kista said as she glanced over at the girl. "Yes. I am just like Victor and your precious teacher. I, too, survived the mass extinction that wiped out the other dinosaurs."

"But that's impossible! Ms. M said that only she and Victor survived!" Rodger shouted in disbelief.

"You idiot!" Kista growled at him. "Do you really think that your pathetic teacher would be able to know if all dinosaurs were wiped out? Trust me when I say this..." She walked over at Rodger and put her face close to his. "There are a lot more of us than she realizes...Living among you, in any place... I can guarantee you that no matter which country you go to, there'll be at least one dino survivor amongst them..."

"But if that was true..." Buzz said. "..wouldn't Victor try to recruit them? I mean, wouldn't he want to have all these dinosaurs on his side, helping him?"

"Ah, very true." Kista said, scratching her chin thoughtfully. She had to admit, she hadn't thought of that before. Then again, it could be that Victor just didn't know about them. "Victor is a very busy man. Do you really think he'd have time to recruit everyone? Besides..." Kista glanced around the laboratory. "..Victor has more than enough help from the humans he has recruited over the years. He has more members here than you can possibly count."

Max narrowed his eyes in disgust. "Why would anyone agree to work for that demon? Why would these people betray their own species?"

"Why would Moynihan betray her own species by helping you?" Kista asked, answering Max's question with one of her own. Max's eyes widened. He didn't have an answer for that. Kista continued, "Victor has been wondering about that for years. And yet there she was, your teacher, a sixty-five million year old Velociraptor, helping the two million year old human species, protecting them from Victor Veloci."

"But still..." Max said softly. "It's..it's one thing if only one member betrays its own species. But..." He looked at Kista straight in the eyes. "Raptor Dyne has hundreds, maybe thousands of members, millions perhaps? How could Victor have convinced them all to turn against their own kind? How could they all agree to destroy the human race? How can they turn back on their own families and friends and everyone else?"

Kista blinked a few times. She hadn't thought of that before. Max did have a good point. Just how did Victor manage to do it? Kista hadn't really asked Victor too much about it. She wasn't really all that interested in knowing how Victor managed to pull it off. But he did at least tell her a few things of how he was able to get them to change sides. Kista turned her back on Max, clasping her hands behind her back as she let herself go deep into thought. Max watched her curiously, wondering what she was going to do. He almost anticipated her to suddenly turn around and attack. But he didn't know Kista too well. He wasn't sure what she was like, other than she was an assassin that would kill only when told to. After a few minutes, Kista turned her head back towards the boy, her eyes glowing slightly. "The reason Victor managed to recruit those people depends on the situation, my boy."

"What do you mean?" Max asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Well, for one thing, Peter, that Apatosaurus you kids faced.." Kista said. "He was recruited by Victor for revenge. You see, Peter had been kicked out of a company years ago for his failed experiments, or something like that, I don't remember the exact details. But Victor found him and offered him a chance at revenge at that company. And thus Peter agreed to work with Victor Veloci at Raptor Dyne, hoping that, one day, he would be able to strike down the very company that shunned him out."

"So everyone here..is only here because they want revenge..?" Rodger asked softly, his voice laced with disgust. He knew there had to be a reason for why these people would turn against their own kind, and he knew that reason would be bad, but he never thought it would be like this. How selfish and cold-hearted could these men be to turn their backs on the human race all in the name of getting a chance for revenge?

"Not everyone." Kista said, smirking. "From what Victor told me, many more members, but not the rest of them, are forced to work for him because he uses fear to control them, and threats. He tells them that if they don't work for him, he would kill them. But if they submit to them, they would survive the transformation of the planet." She watched as the students looked at each other. They seemed almost surprised to hear this. Kista stifled a laugh. How could the children not know this? She guessed that they didn't know Veloci as well as she thought they did. Kista then lifted up her head and closed her eyes. She could hear Victor faintly calling out to her. He probably wanted her to feed the mutantsaurs again. "I've got to get going. I will see you kids later." She turned to walk away, but not before looking over at Caruso one last time. She grinned at him, watching as the boy cringed back. Kista chuckled and then quickly disappeared into the back part of the laboratory.

* * *

Kista arrived in the room where Victor was keeping the mutantsaurs. The three mutantsaurs were standing in the middle of the room rather than in their cages. Kista rolled her eyes. This likely meant that her hunch was right; Victor did want her to feed them. Kista walked over, eyeing each of the creatures one by one, smirking at the chains that kept them from attacking her. She wondered what would happen if she were to release them. Would they get out of Raptor Dyne? If they did, what would they do in Boston? She was tempted to try to find out, but she refrained herself from doing so. Victor would have her head if she did something like that, at least not when things were still not ready. The mutantsaurs narrowed their eyes at her and one of them snapped in her direction. She merely stepped away and they missed completely. She then growled and her eyes glowed. The mutantsaur's eyes widened slightly and it cringed back and Kista just walked away with a smirk to find Victor.

One of the mutantsaurs was a wolverine, Drew Buzmati to be precise. He was the first one to be mutated and had been trapped in this room longer than the other two. He was the most ferocious of the three. He was the one who had snapped at Kista. He had only cringed back because he had sensed Kista's power. Other than that, he was almost fearless, willing to attack anything or anyone that came near him, except for Victor Veloci of course. He was still bound by his will. Victor could make him do almost anything that he wanted him to and he didn't have any choice except to obey his every whim.

The mutantsaur standing next to him was a cheetah who used to be Zoom O'Donnell. Zoom was larger than Drew in size, but was more timid. Cheetahs were naturally fearful around other predators due to their lack of strength, and Zoom really showed it. He was terrified of Drew and O'Ryan and his body was very skinny, although spiky. He had long fangs growing from his jaws like a sabertooth and his ears were long and pointed. His tail was long and thin and quite spiky. Huge claws jetted out from his paws, looking too large for his legs to carry. Although he didn't have as much strength or courage among the mutantsaurs, he had one thing they didn't: speed. Zoom would be able to move quickly enough to avoid the Dino Squad's attacks, allowing him to sneak in attacks without them being able to fight back.

And then there was the last mutantsaur, a bear, and it used to be O'Ryan. He was the largest amongst the trio and the most muscular. He had the general shape of a grizzly bear, but with several differences. His claws were larger and longer. His tail was thick and long, more like a dinosaur tail. He had large spikes sticking out of his back, almost like Stegosaur plates, but more pointy and sharp. His mouth was slightly longer and jagged teeth jetted out from his top jaw and overlapped his bottom jaw. His ears were pointed, but much smaller than Zoom's. He was also digigrade like a dinosaur instead of plantigrade like a normal bear. He could still rear up on his hind legs and a swipe of his paw could crush concrete. He could easily take down the Tyrannosaurus Rex with a single blow.

Kista smirked. With these mutantsaurs combined with herself, Oscura, Michelle, and of course Veloci and the newcomer, Moynihan, the Dino Squad wouldn't stand a chance if they ever manage to escape. But she remembered why she came over here in the first place. She didn't see Victor anywhere yet. "Hello? Dr. Veloci? You called me?"

"Yes, of course." Victor said. His voice sounded slightly distant, indicating he was further down in the room. "I'm over here."

Kista walked over near the back of the room where she found Victor leaning against the wall. He didn't seem to be doing anything very important. Heck, it didn't look like he was doing anything at all. She started to wonder why Kista called her out here. Maybe he just wanted her opinion on something, or maybe he was just going to make some snide remark. Kista would have rolled her eyes right then if Victor wasn't looking at her as she approached him. As Kista got closer, she started to realize that Victor was not alone. She could see a shadow of a second figure close by. Kista cocked an eyebrow. Now who could be talking with Victor back there? She hadn't seen any of the men come by this way, but it could be possible they had slipped in without her realizing it. When she got closer, she realized it was Michelle. Now that was curious. She wondered why Michelle was back here. Could it be that she got in trouble with Victor again?

"Why have you called me back here?" Kista asked as she walked up to Victor, stopping a few feet away from him. She put her hands on her hips and waited for him to answer. Victor looked down at her and smirked softly, but almost creepily. Kista cocked an eyebrow again. "What? Is something on your mind? You look happy..too happy..."

"Oh not much.." Victor said as he gave a sideways glance to Michelle. "I just wanted to ask your opinion on something."

"Oh? Okay then.." Kista said, her eyes narrowed slightly. This was different. She had expected him to tell her to feed the mutantsaurs. But to ask for her opinion on something? That wasn't something the Velociraptor did very often. "What is it you wanted to ask me?"

"Michelle here has made a very..interesting suggestion." Victor said.

Kista lifted her head up slightly. "Oh really? And what did that human suggest to you?"

"To sic the mutantsaurs on the Dino Squad." Victor said, the dark smile still on his face. Kista looked at him in surprise and glanced down at Michelle. Did this little girl really make such a horrendous suggestion? Would Victor actually go through with it. She looked back at Victor, waiting for him to continue. "Yes, I know what you are thinking. But it would be a good opportunity to see how well my mind chemical really works...and it would also let me see just how good they are in battle. And who knows? Seeing the Dino Squad fighting in dino mode just might prove worthwhile..."

"So you're releasing them from their binds?" Kista asked curiously.

"Well not completely. You see, I still can't risk them hurting my mutantsaurs. If they prove valuable, I want them to be in perfect fighting condition. So I was thinking of just moving the teens, free to walk around but nothing else, into a large room, lock them inside, and let the mutantsaurs tack care of them." Victor explained. "But I would like your opinion on that, Kista. Do you think it's a good idea to just sic the mutantsaurs on them? Or do you think I should give the Dino Squad a fighting chance to make things more..interesting?"

Kista thought about this. She was sort of mixed on this suggestion. One part of her was against the idea of not giving the kids a chance to fight back. That didn't seem very sportsmanship-like, but then again, they weren't sportsmen; they were dinosaurs. And the kids were a threat to Raptor Dyne. Perhaps they should just finish them off as quickly as they could. It might be to risky to give them a chance to fight back. And yet, still, Kista felt uneasy about it. She wanted a challenge. She wanted to be able to fight them. She had been looking forward to it for so long. To let the mutantsaurs kill them without getting a chance to fight, it just didn't seem very fair to her, or them. And yet, she also couldn't forget that the kids were the enemy. If they gave them any leeway, they could probably find a way to overcome them and get away.

"Well..sir...What did you have in mind? I mean, were you going to kill all of them with the mutantsaurs..?" Kista asked softly, rubbing the back of her head. "Because I'm still interested in fighting them."

"But you already fought them." Victor explained, his eyes narrowed slightly. "You've had your fun. But now's not the time for fooling around."

"Yes..I know..." Kista muttered under her breath. "Well, could I at least kill Caruso? That is my job, isn't it? I would hate to let this job go unfinished."

Michelle's eyes widened. This isn't what she had in mind. She wasn't expecting Kista to ask a question like that. She looked up at Victor, almost dreading the answer he was going to give. Victor was rubbing his chin thoughtfully, trying to come up with an answer for Kista's question. Then a twisted smile spread across his face. "Why..yes... You can..."

* * *

Terri was the first one to step into the lighthouse. She looked left, and then right. The lighthouse was not completely dark. She noticed that some of the lights were still on. That didn't set too well with her. Moynihan wasn't the type to just waste energy like this. Then again, she didn't know the woman as well as her sister did, so maybe she was just jumping to conclusions. But the lighthouse somehow had a eerie atmosphere that was making her feel uneasy. She heard her parents and the two other people walking in as well, all remaining completely quiet. They weren't sure if something was in the lighthouse or not. Terri looked over at the stares and noticed something strange about them. She moved in closer to investigate.

Upon closer inspection, she could see claw marks on some of the stairs. That was unusual. Her sister and her friends didn't usually go dino in this room. And Rump wasn't big enough, even in dino mode, to make claw marks this big. So what could have caused them? The only thing that would make sense was if something as big as a Velociraptor had come into the lighthouse. Terri's eyes suddenly went wide. She started to get a vivid idea of what might have happened in the light house. "Veloci." She suddenly said out loud. Without thinking, she quickly ran up the steps, ignoring the reactions from her parents, Jack, and Amanda. She had to find out what had happened here. She just had to!

"Hello? Is anyone here?" Terri called out after she reached the top of the stairs. She quickly noticed the door to what she believed to be Joanne's bedroom was opened. That was strange, Terri thought as she approached the door. Usually it remained closed, no matter if Moynihan was inside or not. And it was rare for the Dino Squad to even go in here. It was Moynihan's private quarters in the lighthouse and they all knew that. So why was this door open? Terri was afraid to find out, but she didn't have a choice in the matter. Swallowing hard, she grabbed the door and slowly pushed it open a little wider and stepped into the room.

Terri gasped at what she was seeing inside the room. Things were all over the floor. There was several cracks and dents in the wall and in the ground. She could see something that she suspected was created by Buzz, but she couldn't tell for sure. Moynihan's bed and dresser were a mess, with things just laying all over the floor. She could see what she thought was blood staining the ground. There seemed to be some kind of struggle going on as well, but she couldn't tell for sure just what happened. She walked further into the room, horrified by what she was seeing. This confirmed her suspicions from earlier. Something terrible had happened here. If only she had left earlier to come here. Maybe there would have been something she could have done to help them. Maybe it would have made a difference. Now she had no idea where her sister or friends were. Terri could hear footsteps behind her, but she ignored them.

Then she heard something else. She thought she could hear whimpering coming from near Moynihan's bed. Curious, she walked inside. Perhaps someone had managed to stay behind. If so, that could help her and her family find out where Fiona and the others were. She walked up to the bed, trying to see if anyone was near it. She bent down, suspecting that they would be underneath the bed. "Hello? Is anyone underneath here? It's all right..It's just me, Terri!" She called out. She gently grabbed the bed sheet and lifted it up. The whining continued to get a little louder, almost as if whoever was underneath here was walking towards her. In the darkness underneath the bed, Terri could not tell who it was at first. But then she started to see somewhat glowing eyes and a small body coming towards her. It didn't take her long to realize who it was: Rump.

Without warning, Rump, who had gone into dino mode out of fear, leaped out from underneath the bed and pushed Terri onto her back, standing on her chest and stomach. Rump looked down at her for a few seconds before giving her a big lick on her cheek. Terri immediately wiped the drool away and managed to gently push Rump off of her. She immediately stood up and brushed herself off before looking back down at the dino mutant dog. She was a little disappointed. How was Rump going to help her find the others? But she was glad to at least to have found somebody, even if it was the rambunctious dog known as Rump. She bent down and started to pet his head. "You gave me a scare there, little guy." She said to him. Rump just panted and looked at her with the best dinosaur smile he could give her. If Terri didn't know any better, she'd think that Rump was alone for so long that he was extremely happy to finally see someone else, even if it was someone he didn't often see at the lighthouse.

"Terri? Why did you run off like that?" Nevina asked as she stepped into the room. She immediately froze as she looked around the room, noticing what a mess it was. She looked horrified at the sight of blood, but was able to remain calm. She then noticed Terri petting Rump. "Is Rump all right?" Nevina asked as she took a few steps towards her youngest daughter and the dog.

"I am pretty sure he's all right..." Terri said. By this time, Rump had calmed down enough to change back into his normal dog form. "..but I can't help but worry.. I found him underneath the bed. Something must have gotten in here to frighten him. Rump doesn't normally hide underneath the bed, or anything, like that except during a storm. And there hasn't been a storm recently."

"That is unusual." Nevina said, thinking.

"Did you find anything?" Bryant had arrived in the room. Close behind him were Caruso's parents. The three of them were also shocked by the mess in the room. It looked almost like a twister had swept through it. "What happened here?"

Terri looked at him with a worried expression. "I..I don't know, father. I don't know..."

After a few minutes, Amanda suddenly heard something. It was faint at first, but she was able to figure out where it was coming from. "Hey..does anyone else hear that beeping sound?"

Terri lifted up her head and tilted her head in one direction, trying to see if she could hear it too. After a little while, she could also hear the beeping sound. Her eyes widened. She knew what the beeping was. Quickly, she stood up and made her way towards the room with the scanners. Her parents and Caruso's parents quickly followed her. Within about a minute, they reached the scanning room. The beeping had gotten much louder and, even though the lights were strangely still on inside the room, they could see a faint reddish flashing near one part of the room. As they made their way towards the flashing, they realized that it wasn't a warning that they thought would have been on there. They had expeced to see some sort of intruder alert and from there find out who had gotten into the lighthouse.

But instead, they saw something completely different. Flashing on one of the screens, they could see what appeared to be two large images. One of them looked like a Velociraptor while the one next to it appeared to be a human. One was a solid red color while the other was black. The background was a bright white. As the screen flashed, the two icons seemed to glow almost threateningly and the background constantly switched from white to yellow, hurting their eyes if they stared at it too long. Right above it, they could see a few words flashing as well: WARNING: TRANSFER COMPLETE. What did that mean?

"Warning: Transfer Complete? Do you know what that means, Terri?" Bryant asked.

Terri tried to decipher the warning, but she had never encountered a warning like this before. She had a feeling it was something Victor had done, but it didn't make any sense. What had Victor transferred? There was no indication to tell her what he had done. She would have thought it was sensitive information that he could use to take control of the lighthouse or something. But the two avatars flashing on the screen left her baffled. What did they mean? Did they have something to do with the warning message? "I..I don't know. I never seen something like this before. It's got me baffled."

"Could it have something to do with Moynihan?" Amanda suggested, her eyes glued on the screen. "I mean, she is a Velociraptor disguised as a human, just like Veloci is. Could the computer actually be warning about her?"

"I'm not so sure. How would a computer know that?" Terri asked. But then she realized just what Victor was capable of. It didn't seem too far-fetched for him to develop the technology to create a system that could give a warning scan about a living person. But if that were the case, then what was the scanner trying to tell her about Moynihan? What had been transferred? She looked at the scanners, trying to think of what the answer could be. It had to be right in front of her, the answer, but she couldn't think of what it could have been. Then she took another look at the avatars and a sickening idea came into her head. "Oh no..." She hoped she was wrong.

"What is it, dear?" Nevina asked, feeling afraid of what her daughter might have been thinking. "Did you figure something out?"

"I think I have..." Terri said. "And I wish that I hadn't..."

"What did you figure out?" Jack asked. He had an arm around his wife in case she needed any comforting if Terri was going to confirm their fears. They both had an idea of what Terri was suspecting, but they didn't want to alarm anybody.

"I think Victor must have..somehow..." Terri said, her voice filled with dreadfulness. "..erased her human mind..." A sudden, uneasy silence fell upon the room.

* * *

The next hour had come too slowly and left too quickly. It felt like an eternity had gone by. In that time, there wasn't much talking amongst the Dino Squad. Their heads were filled with so many dreadful thoughts and questions. They wondered what would happen to them and what would happen to their families. Victor now knew their faces quite well and had even figured out their names, or so it seemed. Would he just leave their families alone? Or would he do something to eliminate a possible threat? They didn't know, and they weren't sure if they wanted to find out. Victor was probably going to tell them anyway, right before he would kill one of them. A couple of the kids looked over towards the place where they had last seen Victor walk out towards, expecting him to return any second now, with a needle in his hand.

"I just can't believe it..." Buzz said, breaking the silence. He slowly swung his unbound legs forward, allowing the heels of his feet bang against the wall. "I can't believe it's going to end like this... After all we have managed to accomplish, it all just comes crumbling down on us within a few hours."

"I know it seems hopeless, Buzz.."Rodger said, trying to comfort the punk kid. "But there might still be a way yet. Remember, we can't give up on hope. There might still be a chance to..."

"What chance? What hope is there left, Rodger? We're chained to the wall. Our families don't know where we are, and even if they did, they can't help us. We can't go dino because of the spikes. We can't retaliate against Victor because of the shock collars. What is there left to hope for Rodger?" Buzz said bitterly, closing his eyes softly. Rodger just looked at him, flabbergasted at the boy's behavior.

"Buzz, he was just trying to help you." Fiona said sternly.

"I know. But what's the point of giving ourselves false hope?" Buzz said without looking up.

"It would keep us from falling into despair." Fiona said in a serious tone. She truly did believe that. If they kept telling themselves they would never make it out, wouldn't that just bring them down and make them feel worse? Even if it wasn't going to work out, why not try to convince themselves and each other that there was still something that could be done? That would at least boost their spirits up, even if just by a tiny bit. "Please, Buzz, don't let yourself loose hope. Remember, there is still one chance we have left to get out of here."

"And what is that?" Buzz was now looking at Fiona. His face was stone, emotionless. "What could we possibly have left to hope for?"

Fiona spoke but one word. "Michelle."

Upon hearing that, Buzz laughed almost coldly. "Oh please! Do you really think she'd be able to fulfill her promise? Victor would spot her in a flash and be able to stop her. And we will just end up getting killed."

Fiona looked annoyed at the boy's negativity. "What is wrong with you, Buzz? You're never this negative."

"Yeah. What's gotten into you?" Max inquired, cocking an eyebrow.

"Nothing's gotten into me." Buzz said in defense. "Why do you guys think there's something wrong with me? I'm just looking at the situation realistically. If there's anything I've learned these past few weeks, it's never let any shred of hope bring you up too much, because if it fails, the blow will be all too painful."

"Is that what this is about, Buzz?" Max asked. If his arms weren't bound, they would be folded against his chest now in curiosity. "Are you afraid of getting hurt again?" Buzz looked at him for a few seconds and then slowly nodded his head. "I understand, Buzz. It is hard to try something again, if that something had hurt you before. But just because of what happened two weeks ago doesn't mean that you should just give up on hope, or anything, Buzz. Remember, we're all in this together. So please, Buzz, for your sake, for our sake, please, do not give up."