You Got Some Explaining To Do

After Daren finally was able to get Cipher away from the building, he decided to have his companions stay the night in the the Housing Dome since it had already become dark.

"I'm getting you a backscatcher." Daren said to the sleeping T-rex next to him.

"I thought what he did was kind of cute." Jessica admitted.

"Oh yeah. Well it's not cute that he damaged the outside of my building!" Daren gestured to the severe damage Cipherdias had left on the building. Pieces of the roof lay crumbled around the building.

"Don't be too upset." Samantha said. She was petting her deinonychus which was laying next to the fire Cipher had ignited to keep everyone warm through the night air. "He was just itchy."

"Just itchy?" Kevin chimed in. His hands were warming over the fire. His velociraptor was laying down on the sleeping rex's back with its legs in the air like a dog. "You should have seen when he just had a cold a year and a half ago. He nearly torched the mainbuilding." Kevin enlightened. "Thank goodness Jonah had the emergency fire extinguish system already installed in and around the building."

"This giant was spewing flame from his mouth and flaming mucus from his nostrils for two weeks." Daren said, patting the sleeping Cipherdias on snout. A smiled crossed his face. "It was pretty funny though when Jonah wanted to test that flame retardant suit he made."

Kevin started to laugh hysterically. "Re...remember how...Jonah came back to us...in the lab...with...with his clothes charred and...and his suit completely in ashes in a ziplock bag!" Kevin said through his chuckles. He eventually fell over in a fit of laughter.

Daren began to laugh as well. "He found out the hard way just how hot Cipher's fire actually was." Daren fell over laughing too. The girls only looked at the two guys with raised eyebrows in confusion.

"Uh...Boys?" Jessica called their attention. Daren and Kevin settled their laughter to listen. "I don't mean to interrupt your memoirs, but you and Daren have some explaining to do to me and Samantha."

"You're right." Kevin said sitting up.

"Yeah. We can laugh at Jonah's past failures later." Daren chuckled. "So...where to start?"

"How about explaining why that rex isn't in solid diamond anymore, for starters." Sam suggested.

"That's because Daren touched the diamond." Kevin stated.

"Come again?" Jessica asked.

"I think it'll take a little more explanation than that to understand what that's suppose to mean." Sam said.

"I'll explain...once again." Daren stated. "Me, Kevin, and Jonah took a team back to the site that was on the camera. We excuvated the dormant volcano and dug up Cipher in his diamond prison. We flew him back to the island and ran various tests. Most of which only Jonah really understood."

"That doesn't explain why he's here now, though." Sam said.

"I'm getting to that." Daren assured. "A little back story always makes a story more interesting, right?"

"I guess so." Jessica shrugged. Sam shrugged as well.

Daren sighed. "Where was I. Oh yeah, Jonah's test confirmed that it was one of the original dinosaurs from the Mesozoic era."

"So Cipher's one of the dinosaurs that you mentioned was imprisoned by the Guardians?" Sam questioned.

"Not exactly. Do you remeber my dad on the video saying he believed that Cipher was a Guardian?" Daren asked. The girls nodded. "Well I found out that he was right. I touched the diamond only once, and that was when it was sitting in Jonah's underground lab. I was staring at it and felt pulled towards it. I walked over to it and I placed my palm on it. A flash of light consumed me. Just like my father, I saw some of the truth about dinosaurs. Their clashing battles, their destructive power, their abilities of nature, and I saw Cipher with a group of other dinosaurs, who I couldn't quite make out what species they were, sealing away other dinosaurs into nature's prisons. Some were sealed in the ocean, some were selaed in the earth, and others elsewhere. Then the group Cipher was apart of was sealed themselves away individually. I figured then that they must have all been Guardians. I watched it all for what felt like hours."

"Me and Jonah were there at the time. We saw some sort of blinding flash. Next thing you know, Daren looked like he was in a trance, but it only lasted a couple of seconds to us." Kevin chimed in. "And when he came out of the trance the diamond shattered. Needless to say me and Jonah were scared shitless when we heard that T-rex roar at his new found freedom. Daren stood there, still with his palm out, as Cipher lowered his head to eye level with him."

"He touched my palm with his snout." Daren stated with vigor. "And then he spoke to me."

"More like growled to you." Kevin pointed out.

"Well, I understand what he's saying." Daren defended.

"Hold on. My head is starting to hurt." Jessica interrupted rubbing her temples. "Let me make sure I have this correct; Daren touched the diamond and it just shattered, right?" Daren nodded. "But before that, you spent hours watching dinosaurs fight, and then watched the Guardians seal the dinosaurs and themselves away, right?" Daren nodded again. "Okay, and when Cipher was finally free he touched your palm and now you understand everything he says."

"Sounds cheesy, I know, but that's right." Daren confirmed.

"Wow. I have a major headache now." Jessica complained.

"Oh stop whining. It's not that hard to understand." Sam said. "You know, for a technical genius you seem to struggle with some simple concepts."

"Don't blame me for the way my brain works." Jessica frowned and crossed her arms. Kevin chuckled at her cuteness, but Jessica shot him a nasty look.

Sam mentally rolled her eyes at Kevin and Jessica, and decided to ignore them and their blossoming feelings for each other. "So Daren, you mentioned something earlier today about a seeping affect."

"Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me." Daren smiled. "The Seeping Affect is what happened between me and Cipher."

Sam gave Daren a quizzical look. "Does it not defeat the purpose of using the word 'seeping' if the affect is immediate."

"It's not an immediate affect. It takes a couple of weeks to set in. Sarah and Jonah took days to start to understand their partners, though. But once your with them long enough, you begin to develop communication beyond just language." Daren explained. "For instance, Jonah's inhumanly high pitched whistles were an affect of his pachycephlasaurus. And Sarah's was..." Daren sighed. Sam noticed.

"You don't have to talk about her if you don't want." She sympathized.

"It's fine, really." Daren shook his head. "Sarah was able to communicate with telepathy with certain people and animals...I'm not sure what affect you, or Jessica, or Kevin's will have, but if it is telepathy please stay out of my head. Sarah use to bother me in my sleep on purpose." Daren laughed half-heartedly.

"Oh..." Sam paused. There was a moment of awkward silence. "Why was your Seeping Affect immediate, and everyone else longer?"

"Well, I guess Cipher sped up the process. He is a Guardian afterall." Daren shrugged.

"That reminds me of another question I have. If he's a Guardian, then shouldn't he know where the others are?" Sam questioned.

"I thought that too at first, but when I read my dad's journal I found out that the Guardians wiped the memories of every dinosaur they imprisoned; including themselves." Daren informed. "So Cipher has no knowledge of where his former companions may lie."

"Why would they do that?" Jessica asked. She had quit glaring at Kevin and taken interest in the conversation.

"Some sort of precaution on their part." Daren elaborated. "My dad wrote that from what he understood, the Guardians wiped out all memory that involved dinosaurs tapping into their most powerful abilites, so if any were to awaken unsupervised they would not cause catastrophic destruction. Though the catch is that Guardians like Cipher can't use their full power to stop all the other Mesozoic era dinosaurs that get loose. The ones that are cloned are not as powerful as them."

"It seems pointless for the Guardians to wipe their own memories though, becasue what if someone had disturbed a Guardian first? Wouldn't it just go back into its suspended animated state in a new location?" Jessica questioned.

"Not all of them." Daren sighed. "Accordingly to my father's journal, some Guardians were only kept in check by the fact that they knew they couldn't beat the more powerful Guardians by themselves. But if ever given the chance to rule over the other dinosaurs, they would take it instead of doing their duty for the greater good." Daren climbed atop Cipher's head and sat crossed-legged. The T-rex stirred a little, but did not wake. Daren patted the rex on the head. "I'm glad we dug up one of the good guys." Daren grinned.

"I guess that makes sense." Jessica started. "Better only to have a powerful dinosaur running amuck than a super powerful dinosaur destroying everything."

"You got it!" Kevin cheered.

"I wasn't asking you!" Jessica spat. "And I'm still not talking to you."

"I said I was sorry." Kevin frowned. "Oh, come on." Daren sighed as Kevin and Jessica began to argue again as they had done most of the day.

"Daren." Sam said, drawing his attention away from the arguement. "I have another question."

"Shoot." Daren encouraged. "You seem to be the only interested in what I have to say." He laughed gesturing to Kevin and Jessica arguing.

"Did you ever consider that maybe Cipher was the fire breathing dinosaur from the video, since he can breath fire?"

"I have thought about that in the past, but I realized that if it was him, then he would have horns on his head like that dinosaur. And then there's the fact that he was found in a giant diamond which most likely took a very long time to get to that size deep within the earth. His diamond probably only surfaced, because that other dinosaur might have caused the volcano to erupt...Plus breathing fire isn't the only thing Cipher can do. He has various other abilities as well."

"Then that means that fire breathing dinosaur is still roaming free and uncheked." Sam stated with a hint of fear.

"Don't worry. We have a Guardian onour side." Daren tried to ease her mind. "I'm sure no matter how strong that dinosaur's fire breath may be that it is no match for the flames of a Guardian."

"I guess you're right." Sam smiled weakly. "Daren-" She started.

"I know, I know; you have another question." Daren laughed.

"Yes." Sam giggled. "What are some of those other various abilities Cipher has?" At this question the T-rex rumbled and awoke. Daren hopped off when the rex shook himself of his unwanted passengers, much to the Vector's dislike, and settled back into place. Vector trotted over to Kevin, and curled up at his feet. Cipher made a series of low long and short growls, and then closed his eyes once more.

"He said he'll show you some tomorrow." Daren translated. "But now he says he's going back to sleep." Daren yawned. "I suggest we all take his example and turn in for the night."

"Okay." Sam yawned. "I'm kind of tired too." She grabbed a blanket and pillow that Daren had brought out of the slgihtly wrecked building and curled up near the dying fire.

"One hell of a first day, huh?" Daren was climbing onto Cipher's head again. He stretched out and laid down.

"Definitely." Sam replied and was instantly asleep.

"Hey, love birds!" Daren shouted towards Kevin and Jessica. Both of them looked up at Daren. They had appeared to have ceased their fighting and were now just talking. Jessica had a furious blush on her face when she realized what Daren had said to get their attention. "You guys might want to turn in for the night. We have a lot to do tomorrow." Daren put his hands behind his head and laid back. "And a lot to learn in a short amount of time." He thought.

XXXXXX

Perched in tree outside the dome, a man with high-powered binoculars watched the four companions and their dinosaurs. His skin matched the night sky, and his image in the tree was only illuminated by the moons light. His attention foucsed on the T-rex and the person laying on his head. The man sneered in disgust at the site.

"How dare he treat such a Guardian like a common mattress." The man put away his binoculars into a leather pack on his back. He turned and ran along the branch of the tree then leaped to another branch with great ease and poise. He landed next to a Pteranodon perched on the branch. The pterosaur had a modified saddle with reigns on its back. The man climbed into the saddle. "We shall keep an eye on this one, my friend." He spoke to the pterosaur. "Too much power has fallen into the hands of the igorant." The pteranodon nodded. It open its wings and flapped down one powerful time which was enough to send it 10 feet into the air. The man and his pteranodon disappeared into the night sky.

I looked at the disclaimer for this and I realized I had forgot to credit one of my favorite games that helped push with this idea; Jurassic Park: Scan Command. A game for the PC.

Any advice, or constructive criticism is very well welcomed.