"Oh, look. Tetrax already has the welcoming committee ready for us." – Shala remarked as he noticed that the floating platform had already descended and was waiting to take them up to the airship.
"Watch this, you guys. He's gonna lie down on the floor and say that he can finally relax." – Naver told Alice and Jay.
"Just because I did that the last three times doesn't mean I'm gonna do it now!" – Shala disagreed. "And, well, definitely not after you just pointed it out."
"But you were gonna?" – Alice asked him.
"Maaybe." – Shala mumbled. "I had a really stressful couple days, okay?" He didn't really mind Naver's comments, though, he was just playing along for the sake of it.
"Tell me about it." – Jay said to himself, clearly to mock him. "There are serious topics we need to discuss. What exactly did that Fusion say when you were listening in?" – he asked Shala and Naver as they stepped off the platform onto the airship.
"She said that Fusion Mandark doesn't have to worry about "him" anymore, whoever this him may be, because she'd take care of "him" herself. And that made it sound like this "him" was one of the intruders on the ship, so either me or Naver." – Shala told him. "I mean, nothing comes to mind on why he would be after me specifically. You?" – he asked Naver.
"Amnesia. No clue."
"Ah."
"And you don't know who the female Fusion was?"
"It was someone Shala knows in human form, though he can't pinpoint who exactly." – Naver explained.
"Well, it's not Alice, I can tell you this much." – Shala said.
"Well, who else could it be? Someone from your DexLabs days?" – Alice asked him.
"Well, it's definitely not Fassy, and not… no, I don't think so. So unless it ends up being a totally random person… I guess I don't know." – Shala concluded inconclusively. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I got something to talk to Tetrax about…" – Shala said as he went off, leaving Alice, Jay and Naver to sit down at an empty table at the ship's food court.
"Hey, hey, hey!" – Shala barged into the control room with the communications relay drive in his hand. "You better get an eviction notice ready, Tetrax, cause I'm getting my room back!"
Shala swung his hand to toss the drive to Tetrax, who immediately reacted to catch it, though Shala was only pretending to throw it to get a reaction out of Tetrax.
"Got you!" – Shala chuckled.
"That was highly irresponsible of you." – Tetrax noted.
"What? I wasn't actually gonna throw it. And besides, you're not Simon, it's not like you wouldn't've caught it."
"Please don't try that with me." – Simon asked.
"Let me rephrase that." – Tetrax clarified. "Throwing it would have been an irresponsible act from you. And one I would have not been surprised by."
"Shala, dude, that was awesome!" – Macy ran up to him.
"What was?" – Shala asked, wondering if she meant the fakeout throw or what.
"When they were jumping from one part of the ship to another, and then you walked the tightrope…"
"You were watching that?"
"That was exactly like when Cart-"
"Not the time, Macy." – Tetrax reminded her.
"There's still the matter of my room, you know." – Shala reminded Tetrax.
Tetrax sighed. "Between you and Tennyson, sometimes I wish I had remained a bounty hunter serving Vilgax. Alright, give the drive to Simon and let's go to your room."
"Hey, Simon, catch!" – Shala yelled as he pretended to toss the drive again.
"Dude, come on!"
"Got you again!"
Tetrax simply shook his head.
"So…" – Alice said what she thought everyone was waiting for to be said. "The question is… what do we do now?"
Naver looked at Jay to see what he was gonna say, but he remained his ever-silent self.
"I don't know. I was following Shala along. I guess I'll stick around on the airship." – Naver answered. "This is the last known place of my pre-amnesia self. Maybe I'll find a clue or something."
"Demongo is still out there." – Jay stated.
Alice considered for a moment. Was it a good idea to go with him again, after what had happened just now? Did he even want her around?
"What's your plan with him, then? Do you have a lead?" – Naver asked to Alice's relief, as that postponed this question… for the time being. She waited for Jay to answer, but this was one of the rare times that Jay's silence came not from his taciturn character, but rather undecidedness.
"We've… kinda lost the trail." – Alice ashamedly admitted.
"You what?" – Naver repeated. As they were talking, they watched Shala and Tetrax passing by, with Shala leading Tetrax to the living quarters. They seemed to be carrying a garbage bag.
"Well, he caved in the time lab, and the exit that opens into Green Maw is probably blocked by the fallen airship... and besides that, we have no other way to tell where he's gone…"
"We could ask Huntor if he caught Demongo on his cameras." – Jay suggested.
"True, but Demongo's avoided the cams so far, so we have to assume he knows where all of them are and how to, well, avoid them…" – Alice shot that idea down. "We can't use the Spectral Detector anymore, right?" – she then asked Jay.
"Only works short-range." – Jay laconically answered. As they watched the entrance to the living quarters that Shala and Tetrax had entered, they soon noticed several people leaving, which Naver recognized as the people from Shala's room that he had met the day before.
"Well, then the only lead we have is that village in the Fireswamps." – Alice concluded. Shala approached them, but instead of sitting down to talk he walked right past them, seemingly in a hurry.
"Where are you going?" – Alice asked him. "We're talking here!"
"Be back in a sec!" – Shala said off-handedly towards the area which Naver recognized had the vending machines. He gathered what Shala was about to do.
"Okay, so, besides the Demongo thing, what's gonna happen now? Are the comms being reestablished? Will they be taking us away from here?" – Naver asked.
"I mean, that's more of a Shala question, or a Tetrax one." – Alice told him. "Though, if contact does end up being reestablished, the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s are gonna come rushing back anyway, and you can take your leave then."
"You still trying to get away?" – Jay asked him, remembering their argument from before.
"I… no. I mean… I'm, no, I'm not." – Naver awkwardly answered. "I just wanted to know if we're still gonna be on our own." – he tried to explain himself. "But what's stopping the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s from flying here now? The comms may be down, but, well, they can still fly over here, can't they?"
"They… can't." – Jay slowly answered. "For one, on the same day that this airship was attacked and damaged, Fuse launched an attack in Twisted Forest on Mount Blackhead, and they're going to have their hands too full to keep up the regular S.C.A.M.P.E.R. schedule."
"But this is an emergency, isn't it?" – Alice interjected.
"Yes, and in a normal situation, they would have sent for some sort of evac. However…" – Jay said, and paused.
"However?" – Naver repeated, nudging him to finish the sentence.
"The Darklands are hard to find, even with the right coordinates, unless you have a constant radio connection." – Jay explained.
"What? Is it like… invisible or something?" – Naver asked them. "Huntor mentioned that they can't be seen on radar or satellite, I think."
"Not quite that, different." – Jay awkwardly tried to explain.
"Make way, you guys, coming through!" – Shala said as he passed by them, holding (or trying to old) 37 stacked cans of Radicola that he probably got from the soda machine just now, trying to carry them to his room. One of them dropped down to the floor and rolled away, so Shala bent down, trying to grab it with his hand (that was already full from all the other cans) and chased after it as it kept rolling.
"Are we gonna talk to him about that?" – Naver brought up.
"Trust me. I've tried." – Alice told him. "Many times."
"He's addicted." – Jay stated.
"Gee, what an astute observation." – Naver remarked. Though, after Jay glared at him, he decided to keep his mouth shut.
"Well, I don't care how many times I've talked to him about it, I gotta do it again or else he'll develop a kidney stone or something." – Alice said as she got up from the table and followed Shala to the living quarters.
"Oh, hey, you guys." – Shala greeted them obliviously, lying on his back on the bed, as they entered. "Make yourselves at home."
"Wow, this is the cleanest I've ever seen your room." – Alice remarked. The room was completely empty besides the essential furniture, the ungodly amount of Radicola cans on the table and the garbage bag on the floor.
"That's because Tetrax cleaned it up when he let those other guys live here." – Naver told her.
"Should have figured it wouldn't be you that cleaned your room." – Alice sighed as she sat down on the one single chair. Jay retreated into a corner, leaning against the wall. All Naver was left with was the table, which he sat down on, his legs flapping in the air.
"Okay, this looks a lot more like an intervention than I realized." – Alice remarked.
"A what now?" – Shala asked her.
"No, I was gonna tell you to stop drinking that damn soda, that you're like an alcoholic-"
"A Shalcoholic." – Shala corrected her.
Alice sighed. "Why the hell did you have to buy this much? No normal person does that." – she asked, pointing at the tower of cans on Shala's table next to Naver.
"We don't know how long are we gonna be stuck on this rock!" – Shala defended himself. "God knows if next month's shipment of Radicola is gonna arrive at all. And I'll be damned if I let these randos on the ship drain the remaining supply! No, thank you, not gonna happen."
"And how long do you think this is gonna last you?" – Jay sneered, breaking his usual stoicism, which took Alice somewhat aback.
"These should be enough for a week or two. But…" – Shala looked around suspiciously. "Don't tell anyone about this. I need to check if the rest of it is still there."
"The rest of it? You've got even more?" – Alice asked in disbelief as Shala got out of his bed, looked out the hallway to see if the coast was clear, then closed the door to his room. Without saying anything, he got down on his hands and knees and slid apart a panel that connected his bed to the floor."
"I just hope they didn't find it while they lived here…" – Shala muttered, as he reached in and dragged out… a large mini-fridge from under his bed.
"Please tell me that's not what I think it is." – Alice said in shock.
"Naver, remember how I told you there were things on the airship that not even Tetrax knew about?" – Shala said smugly. "Well, when he threatened to block my access to the vending machines, he didn't know about… this!" – he said impressively as he opened the fridge to reveal even more cans and bottles of Radicola inside. Alice facepalmed. Jay shook his head. Naver just stared at it. All the cans and bottles, rowed up. There were a couple of 2L bottles in the bottom section of it. And, of course, Shala had both the Radicola Classic and Radicola Unlimited in stock. The fridge was nearly full, so Shala wouldn't even be able to fit the new batch into it.
"If Tetrax tried to cut off my Radicola supply, I would still have my secret stash in here. I just needed to make sure that these other guys that Tetrax put in here were out of the way first." – Shala explained as they basked in the glory of Shala's Radicola temple.
"You know, my uncle was at a party once where a guy drank too much Radicola and exploded." – Alice told him, not being able to articulate anything else. "Straight up exploded."
"Yeah, you've mentioned that and, well, your uncle Dennis also claimed that the local park was lifted up into the air and flew away on three separate occasions, so he's not exactly what I would consider a "reliable source", alright?" – Shala answered with putting the "reliable source" in air quotation marks. "Crazy comes from her side of the family, not mine." – He then told Jay. Alice felt extremely embarrassed because of that specifically.
"Alright, this is getting us nowhere. Alice, you'll just have to accept the fact that your cousin is gonna get type 2 at age 25 and move on with it." – Naver told them.
"Finally! Well, the question stands. What do we do now?"
"That's what we've been talking about while you were out hoarding Radicola!" – Alice told him.
"Aren't you at least going to drink it?" – Jay asked Shala, who, despite his disapproval, seemed weirdly invested in Shala's Radicola quest.
"That is a very good question." – Shala told him. But he didn't continue.
"And?" – Naver asked him, also wondering when would he drink it, as he had been talking about this nonstop for as long as Naver's known him.
"I'm hungry right now, and when you drirnk Radicola while hungry it doesn't really taste as good. The hunger distracts you from truly enjoying the feeling. So, I'm gonna have to wait till I've had a bite to eat." – Shala explained.
"Whatever." – Jay rolled his eyes.
"So, what did Tetrax say about the comms? Are they going to be able to repair them?" – Alice asked Shala, who was now putting the new cans of Radicola into the mini-fridge.
"Well…" – Shala grunted while he reached for another can. "Tetrax said that contact with the mainland may or may not be successful, and that it will also likely require additional parts to complete. Stuff we'd have to retrieve from elsewhere on the island. But that it shouldn't be as hard as Green Maw." – he finished. He started at the fully-stocked fridge, wondering if he could somehow cram one more in there.
"That's some progress, at least." – Alice said to herself.
"What I'm wondering is, what do we do if backup doesn't come? How do we get off?" – Naver pondered.
"Well… the airship's thrusters are damaged, so that one's ruled out." – Shala told him.
"And we can't salvage all the ruined S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s either, right?" – Naver asked him.
"Nope."
"What if we built a ship?" – Alice proposed.
"We've already got a ship, and it's damaged. How the hell are we gonna build a whole new one?" – Shala rhetorically asked.
"No, I mean an actual ship. That goes on water."
"What? You mean like, an actual wooden old-timey ship? With sails? Alice, come on, you're not an 18th century explorer. How do you even get these ideas?"
"It could work, though."
"Yeah, and it'd take weeks. Or months. And do you know how to build a ship?"
"Well, you're an inventor for god's sake, Shala, you invent one. It's just taking into account the buoyancy and weight distribution and stuff like that, right?" – Alice suggested.
"Well, yeah, but… Actually, yeah, you're right. That could be interesting…" – Shala mumbled to himself.
"Building a ship would also require a large number of workers to be there non-stop. And they would also require protecting from incoming attacks. So unless we're able to get the entire current population of the Darklands in one spot, therefore abandoning all the other posts… I don't see it happening." – Jay interjected.
"Well, what are your suggestions, then?" – Shala asked him. "You're the one that's the time traveler, you can think outside the box! What about the Null Void? Can't we escape through there?"
"I…" – Jay paused. "I admit, I have never actually been to the Null Void."
"What?" – Shala laughed. "You mean, I have breached the space-time continuum into places you haven't?"
"Don't give yourself too much credit, most of the people on this ship have been to the Null Void." – Alice defended Jay.
"What is the Null Void?" – Naver asked them.
"It's like this alternate universe that the Plumbers use to jail alien criminals. But with the invasion and all, it was decided that the Academy, well, the Basic Training part of the Academy, anyway, would be built there so that the recruits could train in peace without, well, random monster attacks. I've been there, Alice too, and as she said, pretty much everyone's who's graduated the Academy has been there. Everyone who'd had a NanoCom." – Shala explained.
"Everyone except me." – Jay stated and held up his NanoCom for them to see. "The Academy was already destroyed at the time period I landed in. The training I got was on ground zero."
"And me, too." – Naver showed them his NanoCom. "I got mine from Lars."
"Yeah, I still don't know how the heck can you make someone else's NanoCom work. There's something weird about you." – Shala told Naver.
"You got one thing wrong." – Jay interrupted.
"Hm?"
"The Null Void is not an alternate universe. It's the empty space, the literal null void, that lies between the universes." – Jay explained.
"So, you do know stuff about it despite not being there."
"There's a thing or two that you pick up when you're protecting the veil of space-time." – Jay said as if it was nothing.
"Wait, I don't get it." – Naver told them. "So if it's empty space, how can it be a place?"
Shala looked at Jay, as he was admittedly more qualified to explain it to him. Jay considered it for a moment, and decided that a basic breakdown would be the best approach. He opened up a large, empty holographic window on his NanoCom.
"This is our universe." – Jay told him as he drew a circle on the holo-window as if it was a whiteboard.
"By our universe, you mean everything, right? Not just Earth, but the other planets, the other galaxies, too?" – Alice clarified.
"Yes. And consider this a second universe." – Jay drew another circle next to it.
"Wow, Jay's a real college professor now." – Shala mumbled to himself, amused.
"So what would this second dimension be like? Is it like an Earth that's similar to ours but with differences in human history?" – Naver raised his hand as if he was at school.
"No. You're thinking of alternate timelines. Other dimensions are on different planes of existence. You could never reach them just by travelling, as our dimension's space is infinite, and no matter how long you flew even at the speed of light, you would still be within the confines of this dimension." – Jay explained as he highlighted the circle on the board that he had represented as "our" dimension.
"But if our dimension is infinite, how can there be others beyond it? What could possibly exist beyond infinity?"
Jay paused, not having a prepared answer for that. Fortunately, Shala stepped up.
"Oh, that's simple, really. There can be many infinities. For an analogy, let me bring up the natural numbers. That is, the numbers that can exist in the real world. You know, one, two, three, four, five, a million, a billion, a boogolplex, etc. They go up to infinity, right?" – he asked, waiting for Naver to say "right". It took Naver a moment to realize that was what he was waiting for, though.
"Right."
But even though there's an infinite number of them, other numbers exist besides them. Two and a half. Negative five. Pi. Square root of 3. Zero. Etc, etc. In fact, you could say that there's an infinite amount of numbers just between number 1 and number 2, because the fractions can go on infinitely without hitting zero… are you getting all this, Naver?"
"I think so, I think. Yeah."
"And even though there's an infinity of numbers in there, there's even more of them in other places. More fractions that stretch on infinitely, sequences that can be arranged and rearranged an infinite amount of times, then the same thing with negative numbers…"
"And with that logic, there can be another infinite dimension besides the one we live in" – Naver confidently concluded.
"Exactly. Consider Jay's first drawn circle to be the infinite set of numbers between 0 and 1, and the second dimension to be the infinite set of numbers between 1 and 2. Two separate infinities that do not overlap each other that are, however, displayed here…" – he pointed to the circles – "…in a finite way. Back to you, Professor Jay Robert Zoomenheimer."
Jay, ignoring Shala's comment, continued. "This second dimension could be, for example, Ledgerdomain, which is where all the mana of the multiverse comes from, towards other dimensions. Then you can have a third dimension, that's… let's say, the Forge of Creation."
"There's also the Anti-Matter Universe." – Alice contributed.
"The Underworld." – Shala continued.
"Yes, exactly." – Jay said as he kept drawing more and more circles. "So these are all the different dimensions that exist out there, right? We don't know the number of them. It is highly likely that they, too, are infinite." – Jay explained.
"An infinity of infinities." – Shala said with inspiration.
Alice was also inspired by all this. Reality encompassed so much… An infinity of possibilities, so many things that she could explore someday…
"Sure." – Jay told Shala. Alice for a moment thought he was talking to her and confirming her thoughts before realizing what Jay was referring to.
Naver struggled to wrap his head around that one. "An infinity of infinities? I guess…"
"And this is what encompasses the multiverse." – Jay told them as he put all of the circles inside one, big circle that encompassed all of them.
"But you said they were infinite? There's like… 16 of these that you've drawn."
"Just like before, the number of them is infinite, but just so we can see them clearly, they're drawn to seem finite. All of those individual circles are supposed to represent an infinite amount of space too, even though we can clearly see their borders on the chart." – Shala explained. "You really expect Jay to draw an infinite amount of circles here?"
"Though, despite how infinite the infinite dimensions are, there's still some… "empty space" that remains in between that is not accounted for in any dimension." – Jay continued as he used the fill tool to color the space that remained in between all the circles yellow. Alice once more felt like she could get lost in Jay's monologues and listen to them for an infinity, though, she snapped out of it quickly this time.
"What I just highlighted is the Null Void." – Jay finally finished.
"Yeah, that makes sense. It's the bleed space between all the dimensions." – Shala said to himself.
"Okay, I think I got all that. I mean, I got the Null Void part, but I'm still trying to figure out the whole infinite infinities thing… But that's not really important right now." – Naver told them.
"I got a question." – Shala raised his hand.
"Yes, Shala?"
"That looks like a pizza."
Jay, ignoring the fact that it wasn't an actual question, looked back at what he had drawn on the board. Shala was right – each of the circles, which Jay used the color red to draw, looked like pepperonis, the Null Void in between them was the cheese, and the all-encompassing circle that contained everything was the crust.
"Is that everything that you got out of all that?" – Alice told him sternly.
"What? I already knew most of the stuff, or, well, hypothesized it. The lecture was for Naver. And I'm just hungry, alright? But I do have a legitimate question, though. How, as an experienced time traveler yourself, would you say the alternate timelines fit into all of this?"
"This… pizza, as you put it, contains just one timeline." – Jay explained. "A different timeline would be a second pizza, containing its own set of…" – Jay sighed. "Pepperoni dimensions, a third one would be yet different, and so on, and so on. Just like with dimensions, it is highly likely that there's an infinite number of them. Though, this analogy is flawed, as timelines tend to branch out from one another."
"So there's infinite timeline pizzas containing an infinite number of dimension pepperonis, each one of them infinitely large… that's very interesting." – Shala said to himself. "And, well, very yummy." – he added.
"Is there a Null Void that's between timelines instead of dimensions?" – Naver raised his hand.
"That… I do not know." – Jay admitted.
"That's so interesting…" – Alice thought.
"Okay, but now that we cleared up the questions about the multiverse and Null Void's place in it, the question still remains. Could we escape through it? Jay?"
"The answer is no." – Tetrax suddenly said as he opened the door and stepped into the room.
"How did you even… were you eavesdropping on us? How much have you heard?" – Shala asked, now worried about his Radicola stash that was now hidden under his bed again.
"I heard you discussing the multiverse and was interested in where you would take the conversation. However, we can under no circumstances open a portal into the Null Void."
"What circumstances?" – Shala asked.
"Where do you think we are?" – Tetrax asked him condescendingly. "We can not risk even a single Fusion creature making into the Null Void, especially not something like a Cephalopod."
"But the Academy is already filled with them, like, the training grounds and everything." – Shala objected.
"Those were simulations, not real spawns." – Alice explained.
"What?"
"Yeah. You didn't realize? I could tell the difference immediately. For one, they don't attack unless you attack them first." – Alice boasted.
"Well, not everyone of us is a Fusionologist expert, sorry." – Shala rolled his eyes. "So what's the big deal, anyway?"
"Even a single Fusion Monster, if left unchecked, could spread exponentially in such an uncontrolled environment as the Null Void. Furthermore, it might be able to access other dimensions besides this one, such as the ones illustrated by your friend. Zoomringer, was it?" – Tetrax referred to Jay. Then he looked at the map he had drawn. "Now I see why you started talking about pizza." – Tetrax added to himself.
"Okay, so the Null Void's off the table too. What can we do to get off this island, then?" – Shala asked Tetrax. "Don't tell me Alice's boat plan is the best we've got?"
"A boat? An actual Earth boat?" – Tetrax asked him, who had never actually seen one before (unless you count Jim's movie nights). The prospect even excited him somewhat. "You're saying it is possible to manufacture it with the resources we have on the island?"
"Yes, but it would take quite a workforce and a long time, so that's kinda like, the last resort if anything." – Shala told him.
"It might end up being the only resort if we're not able to reestablish contact." – Tetrax stated.
"So, is that possible? Can we bring the comms up?" – Naver asked him.
"That is… in fact, the reason why I came here." – Tetrax told them. "I'll need one of you for a mission."
Shala looked at all the others. "Yeah, I don't know, I'll let you guys have this one. I'm not really up for a mission right now."
Tetrax was unimpressed.
"What kind of mission?" – Naver asked to specify.
"There are further components needed for the communications system to work. I need someone to go out and collect them. The four of you are admittedly the most experienced fighters I have on the airship, ones that I can dispatch with full confidence."
"Yeah, like I was telling you guys." – Shala mentioned.
"I can do it." – Naver volunteered.
"You will? I thought you wanted to stay on the airship." – Alice asked him, surprised at his decision.
"Well, I do want to make myself useful, don't I?" – Naver explained himself, glancing at Jay for a moment. "And, well, I'm not leaving for good, it's just for a mission."
"Alright. Simon is in the process of running full diagnostics and will have a list of the specific details needed soon. Though, I can say for certain that your destination will be Forsaken Valley or Dinosaur Pass."
"Where it all began, huh?" – Naver said to himself.
"I dodged a bullet with this one. It's all the way on the other side of the island!" – Shala thought.
"See me in two hours at the control room for a full mission briefing." – Tetrax told Naver. "Oh, and Shala… we don't have any more available rooms, so your friends are gonna have to stay with you."
"Fine by me." – Shala shrugged.
Tetrax hurried off. Some people have an airship to run.
"Okay, so the four of us is sharing the room. I still get the bed, though." – Shala cleared up. "Also, you guys should watch out for Alice, she might get annoying."
"What's that supposed to mean?" – Alice objected.
"What do you mean, "what's that supposed to mean?" You know exactly what. You're always nagging, go do this, go do that. Shala, don't drink Radicola. Shala, take a shower. Shala, wash your hands after going to the toilet."
"Excuse me?" – Alice interrupted. Naver laughed.
"Okay, I'm kidding on that last one, but as long as you're staying here, you live under my rules."
"Right, right. Okay, I'm out." – Alice immediately said and got up. "Okay, I'm not "out" out, but come on, I think all of us want something to eat.
"Alright, finally." – Shala got up. "You guys coming?" – he asked Naver and Jay.
"So what are we getting?" – Naver asked as they headed for the food court.
"Burger Frenzy's still open! Hell yeah!" – Shala ran off.
"Of course. We're in the middle of the apocalypse in a prehistoric jungle and Burger Frenzy is still open." – Alice shook her head.
"And, of course, there's a line for it." – Shala shook his.
Jay split off from the group and walked off.
"Where the heck are you going?" – Shala called after him. Alice's heart sank a little, thinking that Jay was about to leave them for good.
"You do want to save the seats, no?" – Jay responded as he walked off.
"Oh. Alright." – Alice said.
"Well, what do you want us to get you?" – Shala yelled. Jay didn't respond.
"I don't think he really cares." – Naver commented.
"There he is! I hope you're hungry, Jay!" – Shala yelled as he saw Jay. Him, Naver and Alice, all carrying trays, sat down next to Jay.
"Since you didn't say anything and probably don't care anyway, we got you a Number Seven with a side of fries. And a Red Gush." – Shala remarked as he put stuff from Naver's tray in front of Jay. "That'll be 24 Taros, by the way."
Meanwhile, Shala had a huge pepperoni pizza right in front of him. Also with a side of fries, and a Red Gush as well. Naver didn't know what to get, so he let Shala pick a Number Nine for him, which ended up being huge.
"Did you have to pick the biggest burger they have?" – Naver disapprovingly asked him.
"You're lucky I didn't order two." – Shala laughed.
"Oh, laugh it up, because I would have made you eat it." – Naver retorted as he started eating his fries. "Hey, these are good."
"Good! Gladly! I'm famished!"
"You'd eat one of these? On top of that huge pizza?" – Naver challenged his claim.
"Shala doesn't look it, but when he's eating, he's a big eater." – Alice confirmed as she opened her own burger box. Shala was already enjoying his pizza.
"How come "Burger Frenzy" serves pizza?" – Jay asked him.
"All these fast food chains are always trying up to one-up their competition and come up with bigger and bigger stuff. Like they're doing a Pizza Frenzy but it's still a part of Burger Frenzy but you have to order separately. It's stupid. Just like how Rough Riders Chicken serves other stuff besides chicken."
"I don't know, I don't think any of what they serve is actual chicken." – Alice commented.
"Well, I don't like chicken, so we're at Burger-slash-Pizza Frenzy." – Shala concluded as he stuffed his face with pizza. "Take that, multiverse. I just ate Ledgerdomain." – he joked.
"Watch out, there's some Null Void on your nose!" – Alice followed up. Everyone laughed (besides Jay, of course, bu he still gave a reluctant smile).
"So, Naver, how is your first-ever fast food dinner?" – Shala then asked Naver.
"It's alright." – Naver said like it was nothing.
"Alright? Come on! Tell me with a straight face that this isn't great. Look, even Jay's enjoying himself! I thought he never enjoyed anything ever at all!" – Shala pointed out.
Jay stopped and looked at him, mouth still full of burger. After a slight pause that it took for Jay to swallow, he explained – "I always wanted to go to this place before the Future, back when I was a kid. Didn't get to a lot." Neither Shala nor Alice dared inquire into his privacy further.
"Surprised you're still here. Thought you'd consider this a waste of time." – Shala decided to stay instead.
"It is. But I haven't formulated my next plan of action yet. And I have some errands to run while I'm still on the ship."
"And you may feast on the frenzy of the burger kind until then.
"I guess it's better than canned beans." – Naver shrugged.
"You know, I think that's very interesting." – Alice said. "I've had this idea that fast food doesn't actually taste all that good, it's just that we're conditioned by the marketing and by peer pressur to enjoy them. See Naver here…" – Alice pointed the fry that she was holding at Naver, "…is basically a control group, a person who had never heard of Burger Frenzy before. It's nothing special for him. Meanwhile, you, Shala…" – Alice then pointed the fry to Shala. "…and even myself, have pretty much been brainwashed to keep buying burgers. That's why all the people are still lining up for Burger Frenzy even though Tetrax rationed all the other food for everyone." – Alice finished, and finally ate the fry.
"Ryan to command. They're onto us." – a Burger Frenzy cashier in the distance, listening in on her, spoke into his phone. Though, the connection was still down. Alice and the others didn't notice.
"Yeah, well, watch me." – Shala said challengingly as he shoved his face with another slice.
"I would be a hypocrite to tell you to stop, but at least I recognize what's going on." – Alice told him as she took another bite out of hers. Shala took a sip from his drink.
"So who's gonna say it?" – Naver spoke up.
"What?"
"Shala got a drink that wasn't Radicola. We all noticed that, right?"
"What? Those assholes don't have Radicola! What am I supposed to do? Eat this pizza without my drink?" – Shala defended himself. "I am an avid Radicola enjoyer, but that doesn't mean I won't drink other drinks if I don't have to!"
"It doesn't even taste all that good." – Alice remarked.
"Nope. You don't get to say that!" – Shala exclaimed and stood up from the table, now him pointing a fry at her. "WHO was the one always drinking it with me when we were kids?"
"Hey! Hey! That doesn't count!" – Alice objected.
"Why, Alice? That doesn't fit your narrative now, does it?"
"Hey, I was a kid back then!"
"Oh, and it just magically changed its taste over the years?"
Naver and Jay were watching this cousins' bickering play out, not really wanting to intervene.
"Admit it!" – Shala yelled. "You like Radicola! No, you lo-o-ove it!"
"Okay, maybe, just maybe, the taste of it is not what's wrong with it. BUT!" – Alice said loudly before Shala managed to interrupt. "That doesn't mean that you should drown yourself in several litres of it every day!"
"Hey, isn't that that guy that kicked us out?" – Jamie asked Troy from the next table over.
"Yeah, that's him. We can't do anything about it, though. The crystal man said the room was his." – Troy responded.
"So where are we gonna stay now?"
"Beats me. Tetrax said he'd find something for us." – Troy shrugged. "I'd rather get off the ship, though."
"No way am I stepping my foot anywhere else, man. Have you seen the stuff that's out there?" – Jamie told him.
"Yeah. Dinosaurs and stuff. I can take 'em. And besides, I wanna get to the SACT outpost that's on this island. It's in an area called Huntor's Crest. That's the only reason I even came here in the first place." – Troy explained.
"Oh yeah? What's so special there that you're willing to die out there for?" – Jamie asked snarkily.
"My girl." – Troy admitted. "She's a SACT Agent there."
"She hot?" – Jamie immediately asked. Troy glared at him. "I mean, come on. If you're willing to get your ass mauled for her, she's gotta be hot."
"Watch your mouth." – Troy said intimidatingly and gripped his fist tightly for Jamie to see.
"Yeah, whatever. Me, personally, I'm not about to risk my neck out here fighting dinosaurs or whatever. I'll kick back on the ship while the heroes do their job."
"I don't think you're getting it, dude. You're one of them now." – Troy told him. "It's about to be your job."
"Hey, they can't make me fight! I'm not trained for it! I'm just a civilian!"
Troy laughed. "Dude, this is the Darklands. We're on the front lines. There are no civilians here. You either get a gun and start shooting or you die. Simple as. And besides, Tetrax told me that he wanted to start whipping some of the more inexperienced people into shape."
"Seriously? He kicks me out of my room then expects me to go out there and fight?" – Jamie objected.
"The guy that kicked you out of the room was out there, doing a mission, earning his place to stay here. Yeah, I wish it wasn't me getting kicked out of the room too, but you gotta commend him for it. I'll be sure to do my part when I have to."
"Yeah, commend my ass, I was watching him on that mission and he's not exactly a superstar. Aaaand, hold that thought…" – Jamie stopped and stood up as he saw a hot Plumber girl passing by. "Man, do I love readheads…" – he muttered to himself as he started following her.
Troy watched Jamie's exchange with Plumber Kim, then watched him come back almost immediately. His face had a burning red hand-shaped outline from where Kim had slapped him.
"I blame Kiva for making me like redheads." – Jamie said.
"Don't talk to me anymore." – Troy sternly told him and left.
"And then Cheese started crawling all over Shala like a spider, trying to reach for his gun!" – Naver told them, and everyone (again, except Jay) laughed.
"Dude, that guy is more of a menace than the entire Fusion army." – Shala agreed. "Like, Dexlabs had to go through extensive repairs every time he showed up, we all know what he did on Dexter's ship, and if he ever makes his way up onto this one we're all probably doomed."
"What we should do is put Cheese on a rocket and send him to Planet Fusion." – Alice suggested. "The skies will be clear in, like, two days.
"How did you get rid of him?" – Jay inquired, also following along the story.
"Funny thing, actually. After Shala yelled "LORD FUSE CAN EAT MY ASS" to one of those beacon things…"
"You did WHAT?" – Alice asked while laughing.
"Nah, that was after we had already gotten rid of Cheese." – Shala corrected.
"Oh, yeah. But basically, when we defeated the monsters, no thanks to him, we started arguing about what to do with him and he wandered off."
"Just like that?" – Jay asked him.
"Yeah. Didn't even notice him going at first." – Shala told them. "But some say… Cheese is still out there. In this very jungle. And you never know when he might be… RIGHT BEHIND YOUR BACK!" – he suddenly yelled while pointing behind Jay. Alice, Jay and Naver all looked in that direction, but the only person in the vicinity was Tetrax walking in the distance. He stopped and looked at them momentarily then kept walking.
"I don't get it." – Naver said blankly.
"Oh, you Naver get any of my good jokes."
"Well, yeah, I've got amnesia, I have no idea what the heck you're referencing, so… wait, was that another… you know, nevermind."
"Don't you mean, Navermind?" – Alice put one in.
"Ayo!" – Shala yelled and hi-fived her.
"Not you too!" – Naver protested.
"Sorry, Naver. I won't do that again." – Alice smirked.
Shala then looked at Jay, half-expecting him to come up with a zinger, but then he remembered who he was looking at so he dropped it.
"Okay, we told you about Cheese. Any fun adventures happen to you two over at Forsaken?" – Shala asked Alice and Jay.
"No." – Jay laconically said.
"Unless you consider cave-ins fun." – Alice commented.
"Okay, then." – Shala said and quieted down. He still had two slices of the multiverse left to eat.
"Well, something's bound to happen the next time you guys go on an adventure. I mean, hopefully you don't run into Cheese, you know, but besides that…"
"So, anything interesting happened to you two out there?" – Naver asked Alice and Jay.
"Eh, nothing much. Found like a secret time lab Demongo had, but barely had any time to examine it. It caved in and we were wandering around underground all day. Not exactly an exciting place, to be honest." – Alice recounted.
"That's it? Come on, there's got to be something interesting that had happened! You told me you went surfing, right?"
Suddenly, Jay stood up and walked away without saying anything. As usual, his facial expression was impossible to tell. Shala and Naver (Shala with a stuffed face) looked at each other. Alice sat there for a moment, hesitant, but after considering it, she decided to get up and chase after him. Shala and Naver considered following, but then they looked at each other and wordlessly agreed that Alice, having spent the most time with him, was the most qualified to talk to him.
Though Alice wanted to talk to him, she didn't feel comfortable where they currently were – surrounded by various people at the food court and the bazaar. Knowing Jay, he was probably looking for a more solitary area. That's where Alice would catch up to talk to him.
And her thought turned out to be correct. Jay wandered off to the edge of the airship, which the people tended to avoid because of monster scares. Of course Jay would feel more comfortable avoiding the masses. Alice watched him sit down at the edge. As she approached him from the behind, the view of the landscape opened up in front of them. This was where green and gloomy Hero's Hollow ran out and transitioned into the ocean, which was colored the same shade of toxic green that Green Maw was. Fuse had successfully started infecting the ocean from here. Though, despite everything seeming twisted and hopeless, a ray of light so bright that you could barely even look at the sky without hurting your eyes managed to shine through the gloomy atmosphere of the Darklands and alleviate the view with its warmth.
Alice slowly walked up to Jay so as not to alert him. Though, he probably expected her. She sat down on the edge next to him, their legs hanging in the air together.
"Hey." – she said softly, hoping he'd be responsive. He wasn't. Alice was a bit disappointed and started thinking of what to say next.
"Hey." – Jay then suddenly said, which took Alice somewhat aback.
"Something bothering you?" – she continued.
"Yeah." – Jay sighed.
"Wow, I thought you wouldn't let anything bother you or stop you from carrying out the task." – Alice remarked, calling back to what he said before, hoping to alleviate the conversation just a little bit.
"That's the thing. I don't." – Jay muttered. Alice waited for him to elaborate, but, he didn't. For a moment, they sat there at the edge, watching the waves from their high point of view. Alice considered leaning into him, but decided that that was not a good idea.
"I think you want to talk." – she finally said. Jay said nothing, though judging by the microscopic changes in his constant expression, Alice was on the right track. "You want to talk, but you don't know how to. So, you leave and start sulking around." – she continued. Jay, despite this, kept silent.
"I agree, though. We should probably talk." – Alice then said. She then prepared herself for what she was about to suggest next. "I want to go with you again. Catch Demongo. And even after that, protecting the timeline… alternate dimensions… I want to see them. To explore the multiverse… and to do it, well, with you."
Jay looked away from the view and away from Alice, hoping to avoid eye contact as much as possible. Alice's heart sank in disappointment, because she knew what Jay thought about this.
"I… can't." – Jay finally struggled to say. "You know I can't."
"How can you say that?" – Alice objected. "After what we've been through…? I know you have feelings, Jay, no matter how much you deny them to yourself!"
"Alice." – Jay forced himself to looked at her, directly in the eyes. "You've made me feel things that I never knew I could feel. Be that before my trip to the future, or after. It doesn't get much more than that. But at the same time… that's the reason I can't." – Jay let out with a heavy sigh. It felt like there was a heavy boulder pressed on his windpipe, making each inhale and exhale harder than the one before.
"But…"
"You mentioned how I often say that I'm not gonna let anything slow me down from protecting the Earth." – Jay recalled, then paused. He tried to articulate what that meant in his head before he kept talking. That was easy, translating thoughts into words, though, was not. "When I said that, I only ever imagined the elements, the enemy, my own bodily limits… but there was something that I could have never comprehended." – Jay explained as he stared through Alice's eyes right into her beating heart. "And that's you, Alice. You make me worry. You make me feel… weird. You make me feel like everything's going to be alright as long as I'm with you…"
Alice stared back, holding her breath. She wished time froze forever at this very moment, because she knew there was a "but" coming right after.
"…and that's exactly why I can't have you around."
Alice exhaled in slow and painful disappointment. Of course this would end this way. There was simply no getting through to Jay, was there?
Jay's throat felt dry and sore, his vocal chords were shaking, each and every word he spoke from here on, but he powered through this. He had to get this over with, no matter how much he didn't want to. No matter how much he'd rather keep feeling the euphoria he felt every time he spoke to Alice, no matter how much he found himself excited to simply exist while being around her… He had to unleash this onto her as well as himself.
"I've never opened myself up to someone as I have, and I am, to you. But out there, in the field, I can't burden myself by worrying about your safety. Ever since my journey into the future, I've stayed away from working with others, I've been avoiding growing close, because I can't stand to lose someone else that I care about. I can't let someone else go through what I've been through. And I can't let that distract me from the mission, either."
"But living like that is gonna turn you into an empty husk of a person! I mean, it basically has already, and you don't wanna make it worse, do you?"
"If it means that everyone else's pain and torment will be lifted, I'll gladly give my own life, and my death in return."
"And when you die, Jay?" – Alice cut in. "Because if you keep this up, you are. You'll get overwhelmed by monsters. Your body's going to eventually give. Or maybe you'll simply miss a shot you shouldn't have missed. But alone, you'll die much quicker than with someone covering your six. And alone, you won't have anyone to take up your mission after you're gone. You've thought about that, haven't you?"
Jay remained silent once more. It was obvious that she had a point.
"I don't want others to carry the burden that I brought back with me from the Future." – he firmly said.
"And I don't want to come across your dead body somewhere, killed by the Fusions or by Demongo or whatever else is waiting for you out there." – Alice responded equally firmly. "And it'll be for no reason. No reason at all."
"You shouldn't worry about me." – Jay bluntly said. "That… that's the whole point. Going alone is so much easier when you don't have someone waiting for you." – he said as he looked into Alice's eyes. And yet, he saw her determination, unwavered as ever. "Maybe, though… when all this is over…" – he slowly gave in.
"When all this is over?" – Alice repeated. "When will it, then? When will you stop? After you catch Demongo, there's gonna be some other threat that you'll be deadset on taking on alone. Even if there's no Planet Fusion looming over us in the sky anymore, god be willing we live to see that happen, you'll still find something. Some calling. There's…" – Alice's voice cracked up. "There's always gonna be something with you, Jay, and I'm not telling you to drop it outright, I just want to help you. Help you with the mission, and help you with yourself. Please."
"Alice, I'm not…" – Jay momentarily paused to consider his wording – "…good with talking. So, please. Try to understand what I'm telling you. This is my personal mission. One that you latched yourself onto. I appreciate your company, but I'd also appreciate it if you respected my decision. I can't afford to let my feelings for you distract me from it." – Jay brashly told Alice. He felt the need to get away from her as quickly as possible, because any more of this and he'd might actually cave. And these emotions, emotions that he'd hadn't felt in a long time, maybe never, were coming in full force. He wiped his eyes as he got up and started walking away from Alice.
For a moment there, it looked to Alice like he was about to get off the ledge and nonchalantly jump from the ship entirely, which would be a very Jay way to exit the scene, though that, of course, did not happen. Jay walked away from Alice without another word, hoping that he had made everything clear to her. Alice, meanwhile, remained there, on edge while sitting on the edge. She had gotten really worked up about how Jay repeatedly refused to let her into his mission once more, and did the only thing she knew that would calm her down. She opened her NanoCom and started re-sorting her research files across various folders all over again. She, just like Jay, felt the need to wipe her eyes.
"And what if I can't find any more monsters to fight?"
"Then you return here. No point in you staying out there for no reason. We'll have to think of an alternative plan."
"Alright. Then, yeah, I'll be off then. I've got my vehicle. What else am I gonna need? I'll get provisions and stuff, right?"
"Of course. Though, we're sparse on water, but you'll have an opportunity to fill it up at the river. And you'll also have access to our weapons and ammunition inventory. You should talk to Simon about that."
"Excuse me?" – Alice looked into the room. Naver and Tetrax, who were discussing Naver's upcoming mission in Forsaken Valley, looked at her.
"I'm also going to be leaving the airship. I'll be going to Huntor's Crest. Well, Huntor's underground bunker underneath the Crest, where the Providence people are. Do you have a message you want to send to them or anything like that?"
"You're going?" – Tetrax asked, pleasantly surprised. "Good. That saves me the trouble of sending someone. Yes, in fact, I would like to send a message. For one, relay the location of the airship to them, though that is obvious. What I would like you to tell them is that I'd like to arrange a meeting with the people in charge. Not just Providence, but the SACT and the Plumbers as well. We're going to have to coordinate our forces, and I'd like them to keep it in mind, even if the comms don't get reestablished. I remember Shala mentioning that Captain Calan didn't survive the onslaught?" – Tetrax asked Alice.
Alice, who was one of the people Calan died saving, which she felt guilty about, slowly nodded.
"Well, whoever's in charge now. Tell them. And I'd appreciate it if they spread the word about this to the SACT and Plumbers as well." – Tetrax noted.
"Alright. Understood." – Alice enthusiastically agreed. After the conversation she had just had at the edge of the airship, she needed any excuse to get away from here.
"I'd register this as an official mission, but since the comms are down, that's not going to work. Same with… what's your name, again, kid?"
"Naver."
"Same with Naver here. I'll transfer 200 Taros to you whenever you decide to return." – Tetrax promised.
"Shala told me he's good for it." – Naver assured her.
"What? Why wouldn't I be?" – Tetrax turned to Naver. "Tell me. What else has Shala been telling you about me?" – he then interrogated Naver.
Shala had returned to his dwelling, which was now empty and featureless, with his every belonging shoved in a garbage bag that was resting in the center of the room. When you take away the garbage, the "food" and the mess, the room remains lacking character. Though, Shala didn't feel like unpacking.
Someone entered his room. Shala looked in case it was another unwanted intruder, or worse, Tetrax with a mission, but it was just Jay. He looked at Shala once, then sat down quietly in the corner in between the door frame and the closet. Ignoring the fact that Shala had a chair (though, his jacket was hanging on it at the moment), he remained on the floor. He did not say a word.
"Everything good with you, dude?" – Shala asked him. Though, that was pretty much what Jay was usually like, anyway.
"Fine." – Jay grunted without looking at him. Shala dropped it.
"So, you sticking around on the ship or going after Demongo?" – he then asked Jay. Though, Jay chose not to respond.
Shala decided to come to terms that Jay would now be "around". Like an outdoor cat, non-responsive and independent, yet still somewhat attached.
Shala got out of his bed, opened the secret compartment and pulled out the minifridge again, which was now so full that a couple cans fell out as Shala opened it. He started pulling them out one by one until he reached the ones in the way back, the ones that would be the coldest. He pulled out two and handed one to Jay.
Jay looked at him, not really sure what Shala was trying to do. He knew Jay wouldn't want something stupid like this. Though, ever since that conversation with Alice, he felt a sorrow in his heart. A hole in his soul that had always been there, the pain of which he had been accustomed to, started hurting all anew. And if this useless activity was what would make things better, then so be it. He accepted Shala's can.
Shala sat down on the floor as well, leaning back against his bed, face to face with Jay. Both of them opened their cans, though Jay paused before he started drinking. He wanted to see Shala's reaction to it. Watching him, it felt like he was drinking nectar of the gods.
"How is it?" – Jay asked him as Shala swallowed the super-fizzy and super-sweet drink.
"The best thing in the world." – Shala told him as it was Jay that sipped it now.
Best thing in the world? Probably not. He already had the best thing in the world right in front of him, and he let it go. Though, this unexpected comradery with the guy in front of him felt pretty close. As Shala and Jay drank Radicola together, the burning hole in Jay's soul mellowed out a little bit.
End of Chapter 21.
Extract from Alice Quickfeet's Fusion Monster research log:
Triceraclaw
Fusion Matter type – Cosmix
Power Level – 28
Boss: Triceraclaw Poppa
Location: Dinosaur Pass
Length: 25-30'
Boss length: 30-35'
Weight: approx. over 4000lb
Boss weight: even more than that
Special attacks:
Eruption: Yes
Corruption: Cosmix
Stun
Battery Drain
Description:
Massive monsters that, obviously, resemble the Triceratops. The major difference is that Triceraclaws' (as well as Triceraclops') backs are covered in armor. The armor is usually made out of random metal materials the Triceraclaw is able to find, or anything it manages to wreck, such as the communications towers or the summer camp construction materials that they tried to set up in the early days of the invasion. However, the Triceraclaw's armor is better organized and has less weak spots than its Forsaken Valley counterpart. However, beyond the armor, the Triceraclaw's body is weak and easily destabilized. Another key difference is that the Triceraclaw's tail ends with a thick and heavy club that they can swing around, which the Triceraclopses lack. This tail (as well as the armor) is reminiscent of the Ankylosaurus, suggesting that Fuse found such DNA to enhance his monsters with.
Behavivor:
The obvious functon of the Triceraclaws in Fuse's army is the raw brute force it is able to bring to the table. Though not as agile as some of the other monsters, one hit from a Triceraclaw is all that it takes for you to meet your maker. Their primary method of attack is simply by charging at the opponent, though the aforementioned club tail makes for an excellent backup weapon. This can be overwhelming especially for inexperienced fighters, who tend to freeze like a deer in the headlights. There is, however, an extremely simple counter-strategy to this. By jumping on the Triceraclaw's back, you avoid the risk of getting run over, as well as stay out of the tail's range. You'll have an opening to find the monster's weak spot, however, it will be short, as the Triceraclops will attempt to knock you off by ramming into something and making you lose balance. Though, they get disoriented for a couple seconds after they ram into something, a time that you may be able to use your advantage. Also, watch out for swooping Horrordactyls, as they like to synergize with the Triceraclaws. If for some reason you can't jump on its back, you can simply jump away as the monster is coming at you, preferably leading it to hit something hard to disorient it, giving us same results as before. Triceraclaws are also faster than you'd realize. It's impossible to outrun one without a vehicle. With a vehicle, however, a simple Stun or Snare is enough to leave them behind.
There is a secondary role to the Triceraclaws, however. A lot of them are outfitted by communications technology. Originally they salvaged the tech from the comms stations they themselves destroyed, but with later generations of the monsters, they come biologically built in. Their function is to spread and knock around the signal that comes from the Frilled Killers/Frilled Fiends and to relay it further to other monsters and to their commanding Fusions. However, due to their limited sense of smell and eyesight, they are not the best at gathering the information themselves.
Triceraclaws usually roam the jungle alone, spread out. This, coupled with their bad senses, makes them easy to avoid. However, if you're detected by anything else, especially a Frilled Fiend, the signal quickly travels to all the monsters in the vicinity and the Triceraclaws, made even more dangerous because they have backup now.
Triceraclaw Poppas are larger and have a stronger signal. They can be distinguished by the more detailed frills on top of their heads, made from more valuable wrecks. There's got to be some hierarchy among these creatures if the Boss versions get the more eye-catching details.
Absolutely nothing changes for the Triceraclaws under Fusion Control. Only thing is, they're able to fight more coordinated, now that they don't need to see their target, as the Fusion can simply tell them which direction to charge at.
Triceraclaws inhabit Dinosaur Pass, both sides of the river (though they understandably avoid the drawbridge). They tend to avoid Forsaken Valley, though there is no conflict between them and their Triceraclops cousins. It is unclear why Triceraclaws stick to Dino Pass. Perhaps something about their signal?
UPDATE 12/05 The Triceraclaws and Triceraclopses, along with a variety of Fusion Monsters from the southern part of the island, spontaneously started migrating north, through the Fireswamps, towards Huntor's Crest. Motive for this unknown.
Known Fusions that have controlled Triceraclaws:
Fusion Numbuh Four
Fusion Hex
Fusion Tetrax
Fusion Mandark
Fusion Rex
Fusion Jack
Fusion Courage