Chapter 1

It was just another day for the Branson brothers, Duncan and Brody. Neither one was particularly popular at the local high school they attended together, but they never got bullied either.

After history class finished, Brody sidled up to one of their classmates as the brothers made their way to the bus loop.

"Hey, Jane, wanna hang out later?" he asked. The girl just walked away without answering.

"You know you don't have a shot with her, right?" Duncan smirked.

Brody elbowed him lightly. "I'm just trying to make new friends. I don't wanna be stuck hanging out with you for the rest of my life."

Duncan chuckled. "Ooh, shots fired! How are you gonna make new friends anyway? The only thing you like to talk about is some show no one's ever heard of."

"So? It's not like the stuff I watch is bad. And you're no different—all you do is sit around and watch movies," Brody shot back.

"And that's just the way I like it," Duncan replied, unbothered.

As the boys made their way outside, they came across the janitor.

"See ya tomorrow, lads."

"Bye, Mr. Cooper," the brothers chorused.

"I keep forgetting, is he Irish?" Duncan whispered.

"No, he's Scottish. We've been over this," Brody whispered back.

Once they got home, Duncan sat down in their living room, lit up a joint, and started watching a movie while Brody was busy doing his homework.

Deciding to get some dinner, Brody called out, "Hey, Duncan, I'm gonna get takeout. Want anything?"

"I'll have a cheeseburger," his brother called back.

After making sure their burgers were secure in the passenger seat, Brody started driving home. As he approached a stoplight, he suddenly felt a strong migraine come over him.

"What the hell?" he groaned. For a second, he thought he heard a roar, but it could have been the blood pounding through his ears. He felt almost like someone was speaking to him. Unknown to him, his eyes briefly flashed blue.

A honk behind him snapped him out of his daze, prompting him to start driving again. The headache was still there, but the sharp pain had been reduced to a dull ache.

When he got home, he set their dinner on the kitchen table. Duncan came in and was about to chow down before noticing his brother holding his head.

"Hey, you okay, man?"

"I'll be fine. It's just a headache." He winced as another brief stab of pain lit through him.

Duncan frowned. Am I high, or did his eyes just turn blue for a moment there?

The next day, the boys went about their business as usual. For Brody, the weekend meant the show Duncan mocked him for. And for Duncan, it meant getting high and watching movies until his eyes hurt.

Eventually, Brody spoke up. "Hey, dude, I think we should take a walk."

His brother scoffed at the idea. "Why?"

"Because we really need to get out more," Brody explained. "All you ever do is sit around and watch movies, and I'm not much better with all the Kamen Rider I watch."

Duncan just sighed, too lazy to argue.

Brody led them to a nearby forest with a hiking route. The brothers walked around for some time, but it was hard to enjoy the scenery with Duncan complaining all the way. As they finished the hike, Brody was about to say something when the feeling from yesterday came back. He put a hand to his head and started going back down the path.

"Hey, why're you going back that way?" Duncan frowned. "Aren't we finished?"

"I just need a few minutes without your bitching!" his brother spat out.

Duncan cringed at his bluntness but snapped back, "Well, sorry if I don't find trees and caves interesting!"

With that, the two split up. Duncan was about to walk home on his own when he realized something important.

"Dammit, he's got the house key!" He started jogging after his brother.

Brody kept walking through the forest, guided by the incomprehensible voice in his head. Next thing he knew, he was standing at the mouth of a cave they'd passed a while back.

At the voice's prompting, he entered the cave and found an out-of-the-way section of cave wall. Pressing the section caused a rumbling noise and a door opened in the wall, revealing a secret stairway. He would've been more surprised if not for the pain in his head.

Brody descended the stairs wordlessly, as if sleepwalking. At the bottom of the stairway was a huge cavern containing a pair of giant stone creatures. One of them resembled a triceratops, except the frill was a different shape. The other one looked like a Tyrannosaurus rex with small horns above its eyes. In between the two gigantic dinosaurs was a small pedestal with a box sitting on it. As he reached for the box—

"DUDE!"

His brother's shout finally cleared up the fog in his head. He turned around to see Duncan approaching him, looking at their surroundings in bewilderment. "What. The. Hell?"

Coming to his senses, Brody looked around and realized where he was.

His brother continued to rant, "You wander off for five minutes and find some secret entrance in a cave full of gigantic dinosaur statues? Sure, I smoke pot, but what are you on?!"

Before Brody could respond, the headache and voices came back in spades. Duncan took an involuntary step back as his brother's eyes lit up bright blue. As if in a trance, Brody turned to the pedestal and opened the box.

Inside were four bracelets, each with a clear gem embedded in it. But before Brody could take one, Duncan grabbed his wrist.

"I don't know what's gotten into you, man, but look around you. This is like something straight out of a movie. You take those things and you're asking for trouble."

The voice in his head intensified then, prompting Brody to shake off his brother and grab a bracelet. The moment he did, two things happened: the voice in his head vanished completely, and the whole cave started rumbling. Next thing they knew, the walls and ceiling had started falling apart around them—and as if that wasn't enough, the dinosaur statues started glowing.

"Oh, fuck it," Duncan said. He grabbed the whole box and started running like hell. Brody quickly followed his brother. They had to dodge and weave to avoid falling debris, but thankfully, they made it out of the cave before it collapsed entirely.

As soon as they could have a moment's rest, both boys' legs gave out as the dust settled around them.

Duncan glared at his brother. "For the record, I blame y—Wait, what happened to your face?" His criticism turned into concern when he saw some blood trickling down from Brody's hairline.

"I don't know," said Brody, touching his head gingerly. "Must have gotten hit with a rock while we were getting out of there. What about you? You told me not to grab the bracelet but then you took the whole box. What was that about?"

Duncan renewed his glare. "Yes, I took the whole box, but you'd already grabbed a bracelet and started the cave-in. After that, I figured, in for a penny, in for a pound. What do you think these even are, dinosaur friendship bracelets?"

Before Brody could think of a reply, the ground rumbled again, and a pair of ear-splitting roars sounded from the rubble.

"I think we should start running again," Brody said.

Before they could even get thirty feet, the T-rex and Triceratops burst from the ground.

No longer bound in stone, the dinosaurs were showing colors neither of the boys expected. The therapod was a deep blue with yellow teeth and a red frill and eyes, along with other red and silver highlights. The Triceratops-looking dino was white and had red and silver highlights of its own. It was like no picture they'd ever seen, no model in any museum.

"Don't move," Duncan whispered. "They can't see you if you don't move."

"That's only in movies, you idiot!" Brody shouted.

Seeing the brothers as easy targets, the dinos roared and charged. And so, the teens ran for their lives. Soon, they were running through the city streets.

"Let's split up and meet back at the house!" Brody suggested. Duncan nodded and broke off to the left.

The ginger teen ran down an escalator into the subway station where the white dino couldn't follow.

Brody, meanwhile, fled from the blue, horned T-Rex. Taking a sharp turn, he dashed through an alleyway. This didn't stop his pursuer, who simply busted through buildings that formed the alley. However, while this action didn't stop it, it did slow it down enough that Brody was able to get away.

Once the duo reached their neighborhood, the two let out a sigh of relief.

Brody smiled before a thought struck him. A look of horror slowly crossed his face. "Dude, we just led those things into a town with a bunch of other people to eat!"

Duncan blanched and pulled out his phone. "Oh God, it's already all over Twitter." He held out the phone, showing a livestream of the dinos attacking the city.

"What do we do?!" Brody was panicking. First, he had caused that cave-in and now the dinosaurs were running loose. "Do you have any idea how to fix this?"

"Me? Why the hell would I know what to do here?" Duncan asked.

"Because I sure as hell don't! You were right about the bracelets being a bad idea. You've seen a ton of movies! Haven't you seen any about dinosaur attacks?"

Freaked out a bit by his brother's panic, Duncan thought hard. "Okay, uh, maybe the bracelets are controllers or something like that. Y'know, in case those dinosaur things ever broke out?" he said, gesturing to the bracelets.

"That…actually sounds kind of reasonable," Brody agreed.

Using the news as a guide, the duo made their way through town. Once they got to the area where the beasts were, they were in for a surprise. In addition to simply smashing everything around them, the dinos were also spraying ice from their mouths, freezing anyone unlucky enough to get caught up in it.

"Duncan, I don't think these are normal dinosaurs," said Brody breathlessly. "Tell me again how you think these things can help?"

"Now that, I can't really guess."

Brody sighed and slipped one of the bracelets onto his wrist. "Okay, think. What to do?"

He tapped the gem, causing it to glow. Hoping this was a good sign, he pointed his arm at the T-Rex knock-off. Once he did, it stopped what it was doing and focused its attention on him. The gem on Brody's bracelet turned the same shade of blue as the dinosaur, causing it to shine and transform. It now bore a small mold resembling the head of the dino. A white light enveloped Brody, followed by an explosion of energy.

Duncan shielded his eyes, and when he looked again, he couldn't believe what he saw. Standing there was his brother, wearing an unusual-looking suit, deep blue with a pair of purple lines running from the neck down the sides of his arms until they met his wrists. The same purple lines extended from his hips down the sides of his legs, stopping when they met his boots. His chest was emblazoned with a silver dinosaur footprint, and on his waist was a silver belt with a gun holster. Then there was the helmet. It was modeled after the dinosaur he was facing, complete with a crown of ridges to simulate its horns.

"Uhh, is this like that Kamen Rider show you watch?" Duncan asked, otherwise at a loss for words.

Brody looked himself over. "That depends. Does this suit have big buggy eyes?"

"No."

"Then no, this is probably something different." He turned his attention back to the T-rex-looking dino. "Now, let's get these things under control."

Brody started fidgeting with the bracelet again, and as he did, he heard a low voice. Not the one that was messing with his head before. This one seemed to be coming directly from the dino. Most of it was incoherent yelling, but what got his attention was the occasional words of anger and confusion.

"Uhh, down boy?"

His brother groaned. "You're trying to talk that thing down?"

Ignoring him, Brody continued, "Please, stop what you're doing! You're hurting a lot of people who don't deserve it!" To both brothers' surprise, the larger dino gave Brody its attention and approached him. His bracelet allowed him to hear the doubt in its mind, so he went on. "We can be friends, right?"

The therapod contemplated this for a moment and roared as light covered its body. When the light faded, the boys saw that its color scheme had changed. Its eyes had turned yellow, its frill now turquoise, and the rest of its red highlights had turned purple.

Brody looked in awe at the transformation before realizing his bracelet had been glowing as it happened. The dinosaur leaned in close to him and growled something. Brody's eyes widened in understanding.

"WHAT?!" he shouted.

"What? What'd it say?" Duncan asked.

Brody turned around, frantically waving his hands. "N-Nothing! Nothing! Anyway, it's your turn."

His brother raised an eyebrow. "Me? Can't you get the other one yourself?"

"I would, but I get the feeling it's probably one creature per bracelet and one bracelet per guy," Brody explained.

His brother groaned and grabbed a bracelet, walking towards the ceratopsian. "Hey, while I'm doing this, could you google what kind of dinosaurs these things are?"

"Uh, okay, but I don't know their names, so how do I look them up?" Brody wondered.

Having put on the bracelet, Duncan held out his hand like his brother had with his dino, hoping the gesture would work just as well. "I don't know, just type 'T-rex with horns' for yours and then look at some Triceratops relatives for mine," he suggested.

While Brody de-morphed and pulled out his phone, the older Branson brother began fidgeting with his bracelet the same way his brother had. He succeeded, causing the bracelet's gem to glow white and gain a mold of its own, resembling the white Ceratopsian.

"Okay, the next step is—" Duncan said to himself, stopping abruptly as he triggered the transformation.

When the light faded, Duncan looked himself over. His suit was nearly identical to Brody's, except it was white instead of blue. After looking in a nearby window, he saw that his helmet was different too, resembling the white dino's head.

With that done, he began in the least tactful way possible. "Hey! Big Triceratops thingy! Over here!" Fortunately, it did manage to capture the white dino's attention. It roared in annoyance and Duncan's eyes widened as he realized he could understand it.

"Yeah? Well, I'm not shutting up or going away until you quit smashing the city!"

The beastie roared again, making Duncan chuckle. "You don't wanna be here either? Funny, I'm only here 'cause my brother dragged me off on a nature walk!"

As the two began to bond over their shared laziness, the dinosaur's color scheme changed like the blue one before it, with its red highlights turning purple.

Brody eventually interjected, "Hey there, two things—first, I found out the type of dinos these things are, and second, now that we've made friends with these guys, we should probably get out of here."

Duncan de-morphed, his suit turning back into energy and sucking into his morpher. "Why?"

"Because if people see us being friendly with the giant monsters that were just destroying the city, they might get the wrong idea," Brody explained.

Realizing his point, Duncan gestured for his new companion to follow, and the group began making its way out of town.

"So what kind of dinosaurs are these guys?" Duncan asked.

Brody pointed to the white one. "This one is a Chasmosaurus." Then he pointed to the blue one. "And this one is a Carnotaurus. Although, as much as these two look like dinosaurs, they're obviously not quite the same."

"I can explain," said a voice. The brothers looked down to see the little dinosaur mold on Duncan's bracelet moving its mouth. "We're actually descended from the genera you just named. Creatures like us call ourselves Dinozords."

"Fascinating," said Brody. "So, what were you guys rampaging about? I was wondering about that too."

"About that…After being asleep for so long, I actually can't remember," the white Zord looked at the blue Zord. "You remember anything?" The therapod shook its head. "Well, don't worry, I'm sure it'll come back to us eventually."

Duncan interjected, "Hey, do you guys have names?"

"We do," the Chasmozord said. "I'm Chazz and this is Carl."

As they got to the outskirts of town, Brody realized something important. "Wait, where are you two gonna stay?"

Carl spoke up through his bracelet, "Do not worry, mother." His tail started revolving like a drill, which he used to tunnel into the ground. "I can dig us a cave."

Once the new cave was deep enough, the Zords entered it.

"Let's catch up tomorrow," Chazz said.

With the matter of the Zords finally settled and the sun beginning to set, the brothers started walking home. Of course, there was one more question Duncan just had to ask.

"Did the big one really just call you mother?"

Brody groaned. "Don't start."

"Hah, oh my God!" Duncan fell to his hands and knees laughing as a look of realization crossed his face. "Don't tell me that's why he calmed down so quickly when you talked to him."

When his brother failed to deny it, Duncan laughed even harder. Brody sighed before a thought struck him. He re-opened the box. "There were four bracelets in here, right?" he asked.

Once Duncan managed to stop laughing, he answered, "Yeah, why?"

"Because we each took one, and I'm only seeing one left in here." He showed the open box to his brother.

Duncan got up off the ground, running a nervous hand through his ginger hair. "Aw shit, we must've dropped it somewhere."

Back at the cave, the rubble shifted as a hand burst out, followed by the rest of a strange new being. The entity resembled a knight with thick armor, and there were several other beings close behind him. One was a faceless grey humanoid in a robe and a witch's hat. Another looked like an anthropomorphic Mosasaur wearing nothing but a bathing suit. The last member of the group was a three-armed robot. Its face was just a visor, and its body was black and dark green. The arm on its right side ended in a cannon, while the left-side arms were a tube and a regular hand.

The knight strode forward, observing his surroundings before noticing a sparkle nearby. Walking over to it, he saw that it was a lone bracelet and picked it up.

Turning to the robed being and the robot, he began to give orders. "Lensia, contact our remaining forces off-world. Factoraze, start designing me a monster." He chuckled. "We're picking up where we left off."

Author's note: Hi, everyone. In case it wasn't obvious, Chazz and Carl are the Zords that make up the Blizzard Force Megazord. Also, Duncan and Brody's suits are mostly just recolored versions of the Tyranno and Tricera Ranger suits from Dino Thunder.