All the way down in Montana, many museum workers and paleontologist were in the middle of working in a mountain. What they were doing was excavating bones and fossils. Two paleontologist were leading the excavation...when suddenly the ground began to shake. None of them knew what caused that until they heard something stopping down. Coming right out of the mountain was an actual living triceratops. As it unleashed a fierce roar, it charged right at them. If a charging rhino is dangerous, a charging triceratops is three times as bad.

...

The Gang

"Here we are, guys. Welcome to good old Montana." Gray said as he and the gang were driving their way straight into Montana.

"I wish we were going there for pleasure, but my mother did ask me to fill in for with the museum here since she couldn't make it." Lucy said.

"Your mother sure likes museum work. What kind is it this time?" Natsu asked.

"This time it's a dinosaur museum. Lots of bones and fossils were found right here in Montana." Lucy said.

"Good thing you're not a dog, Happy. Those bones would not last with your appetite." Natsu said with Happy a little offended by that. The gang kept on driving until they arrived at the dinosaur museum. They went on in and were met with tons of dinosaur skeletons with people dressed a little fancy. "I'm starting to feel a little undressed."

"I think I have a few things that could help us with this." Erza said.

"Welcome! Welcome!" All of them looked and was met with the director with him being dark skin and had black curly hair. "Don't mind being underdressed. All are welcomed to this museum. You must be the special guests that I was told was coming. My name is Cory Hilton. Which one of you is Heartfilia?"

"That would be me. My mother, Layla Heartfilia, is quite sorry she couldn't be here herself." Lucy said.

"That's quite fine." Cory said as the two of them shook hands. "The Heartfilias made great investors. We're just glad you're here."

"Mr. Hilton!" All of them looked and saw a paleontologist coming their way with him having auburn hair come on over. "Sorry if I'm interrupting. I thought you like to know that we managed to get a few specimens despite the...interruption."

"Thank you, Michael." Cory said. "Everyone, I like you to meet our own paleontologist, Michael Rivers. He's great as what he does. Most of the bones we have here is because of him."

"What can I say? The dinosaurs are speaking to me." Michael said.

"Please excuse me. We have have another matter to attend to, but I leave you in good hands. Justin!" Cory called as a well dressed man with black hair walked over. "This is Justin Brook. He's a student intern from college that has been helping our museum. Justin, could you give these nice folks here a tour of our museum."

"Of course, sir." Justin said so Cory and Michael walked off to talk about their other matters. "Well, shall we begin our tour?" He said as he started to show them around. "As I'm sure Mr. Hilton told you, we have many dinosaurs from the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods."

"Jurassic? You mean you're becoming Jurassic Park?" Natsu joked.

"That's only a movie Natsu. There's no way dinosaurs could still be alive." Gray said as Justin was trying to keep quiet about something.

"We've uncovered many bones and fossils in the mountain not far from here. In fact, we have a handy contraption that helps us with it, and there it is." Justin said as he showed them a large contraption that looked like a black wagon with metal legs and had three round frames over it. "That there is the FC-66, stands for Fossil Carrier from at least sixty-six million years ago."

"Wow! That's quite an invention!" Erza said as they were impressed by it. As Justin continued to show them around, Lucy spotted something that wasn't part of the tour.

"What the heck?! What happened here?!" Lucy said as they all now noticed a giant hole in the wall.

"That... Uh... I'm sorry, but I'm not really suppose to talk about it." Justin said. That sounded rather suspicious to all of them. Then, Happy saw something happening on the other side and alerted Natsu about it. Natsu looked and saw Coby and Michael talking to someone else with glasses and brown combed hair.

"Who's that over there?" Natsu asked.

"That would Albert Sevens. He's a paleontologist that works with Mr. Rivers." Justin said. "At first, he worked here before Mr. Rivers did, but I heard that Mr. Hilton is planning to let him go and have Mr. Rivers take his position." That sounded like it could cause some trouble.

"I tried to warn you. We must stop excavation. Michael, you saw it for yourself." Albert said.

"But it could also be a scientific opportunity. We could learn more than we already have." Michael said.

"I think it's too risky and dangerous, and the whole thing should be shutdown." Albert said as he turned away and left.

"Mr. Hilton!" Lucy called as the gang came over. "What's going on? Is everything okay?"

"Oh! Everything is fine, and nothing to worry about." Coby claimed.

"Sir, we can't keep this hidden." Michael said.

"And who is going to believe that an actual dinosaur tore through our wall?" Coby said.

"Wait. Did you say an actual dinosaur?" Gray questioned.

"That's right." Michael said as he was admitting to everything. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself, but there's a real triceratops alive and well. While we were excavating for new fossils and bones, it just showed up and attacked us."

"I take it also attacked your museum." Lucy said as she now sees what caused the hole. "How is it possible that a triceratops has been alive after millions of years?" It was a big question, and it got bigger when they all heard a roar. When they all turned to the museum, they saw people running for their lives as the triceratops smashed its way right through the wall.

"Well, you can ask it yourself." Natsu said. The triceratops came right at all of them, but they all moved out of the way and just kept going.

"I can't believe that was an actual dinosaur." Erza said.

"And it look what it's doing to my museum." Coby said as he wasn't pleased with all the damage that has been done. "I don't want to think of what might happen to my precious museum if this keeps up."

"Looks like we've got ourselves another mystery." Gray claimed.

"And this one is going to take up some studying of the dinosaur age." Lucy said as they need to get a little prehistoric for this mystery.

...

The Museum Library

"Luckily the museum comes with its own library. We can learn more about the triceratops and see if we can find something that could help us." Gray said as they all tried to learn more about triceratops.

"This feels more like a boring history class than a mystery." Natsu said as he and Happy weren't energetic about this part of the mystery.

"The name means three horn face, they among the last of the dinosaurs, they even have beaks with horns, but nothing about attacking museums." Erza said.

"Well, I've been studying up on the museum itself." Lucy said. "No way that dinosaur could be alive after so long, so I'm looking for a motive. Some of the museum's fossils and bones were discovered in the mountains not that far from here. It just so happens that the triceratops was also heading in that direction."

"Rivers said that's where he and his crew first encountered the dinosaur." Gray said. "It sounds like whatever is going on is happening up there. We need to get a closer look at it."

...

The Mountain

"We appreciate you taking us up to the mountain, Mr. Rivers." Lucy said as all of them were making their way through the mountain to solve the mystery of the triceratops.

"Call me Michael. I hear Mr. Rivers and I feel like I'm old." He said as he took the lead. "I'm also interested in finding that dinosaur myself. I've had an interest in dinosaurs since I was a kid. The fact that there could still be one alive is impressive. Our world is just filled with amazing creatures from the very beginning of time." They all made their way to the mountain and soon came across a cave entrance. "Here we are. We found some good bones and fossils in this cave."

"Do triceratops even live in caves?" Erza questioned.

"I don't know, but it's a good place to start." Gray said. All of them made their way inside with flashlights and had a look around. As they searched around, Lucy pointed the flashlight down and spotted something.

"Look!" Lucy said as she found a trail of footprints. "It looks like someone went through here."

"You're right." Michael said as he had a look. "From these tracks, someone went through here not that long ago."

"Only one problem." Erza said as they saw the tunnel splits in three different directions. "The tracks stop here. I can't tell which way they go."

"We'll have to split-up. Someone is down here and they could be behind this whole thing with the dinosaur." Gray said.

"You got a good point. You all be careful." Michael said as he went on his own down one cave. That was rather strange.

"Well, we better get going. The girls and I will take this one, Natsu and Happy can take the other one." Gray said, but Happy refused to go anywhere.

"You don't want to, Happy? Not even for this?" Natsu offered up a fishy treat for Happy. He just carried it with him as Happy followed after it down their cave while the others went down the other.

...

Gray and the Girls

"Nothing appears to be here." Erza said as Gray and the girls had a look around the cave. "I don't see how a dinosaur could be down here."

"Who do you guys think could be behind all of this?" Lucy questioned.

"What about Michael Rivers? He does love dinosaurs, and he did just now go alone. Why would he want to go off on his own?" Gray said.

"Well, I have my suspicions about that Albert Sevens." Lucy said. "He didn't seem that happy when we saw him. Plus, he's about to get laid off. That would surely upset someone."

"I have my suspicions about Justin. He sure does dress real nice for a college student that's working an internship." Erza said. "Either way, we need to figure what this dinosaur has to... Hold on. Do you all hear something?" They all took a listen and could hear a strange sound echoing through the cave. "Any idea what that could be?" None of them knew, but it was certainly something strange.

...

Natsu and Happy

Natsu and Happy had a search around the cave they went down, but they weren't coming up with anything either. No dinosaur, no clues, or anything.

"I don't know what we're suppose to find, but this cave is emptier than my stomach from that time Grandpa tried to get the whole family to become vegans." Natsu said. "No wonder Grandpa needs to try and get some meat on his bones. Right, Happy?" He laughed, but he didn't hear or even see Happy anywhere. "Happy? Where are you, little buddy?" He asked as he had a look around, but didn't see Happy anywhere. "You better not be trying to scare me again." Natsu wasn't in the mood for one of Happy's games. Suddenly, he felt something tickle the back of his neck. "Argh! Aw! Spider on my neck!" He shouted as he flailed around, but it was just Happy playing another joke on him as he came out and showed himself. "Why you little..." Natsu was upset with him right when...

"AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!"

"Please tell me that was you, Happy." Natsu said as he and Happy didn't like that sound, but Happy was claiming it wasn't him. "That's what I thought. Maybe we should..." The two of them were about to run down the cave until they saw the triceratops emerge from the shadows and forced them to have their backs against the cave wall. "Sorry! Wrong way!" He said as he and Happy ran for their lives with the triceratops chasing after them, both of them screaming as loud as they could.

...

The Gang

"That sounded like Natsu and Happy!" Lucy said as they could hear their screams and hurried to help.

"Lucy! Wait for us!" Gray called as he and Erza chased after her. The three of them kept running and tried to make their way through the caves until they spotted Happy and Natsu running in their direction. "What's wrong, you two?!"

"Just look behind us!" Natsu called as the triceratops could be seen now and was chasing after them. When the rest of them saw it, the three of them ran for their lives with Natsu and Happy. All five of them ran with three sharp horns right behind them motivating them to go faster. The five of them kept on running until they could see the exit and flew right out of there.

"Hold it!" Gray said as he managed to get them all to a stop. "Looks like we managed to lose it." He said with all them noticing it was now gone.

"Whatever is inside that mountain, that dinosaur clearly doesn't want anyone to find it." Lucy said.

"Hey! I heard screaming!" They all saw Michael came running out of the cave. "Are you all okay?"

"You just missed your dino try to make kabobs out of us." Natsu said.

"I did?! Darn that I missed it, but at least you all are okay." Michael said.

"Odd that he shows up just when the dinosaur disappeared." Gray whispered to Lucy. Michael did seem rather suspicious now, but Erza took a look around and noticed something else that was off.

"Eew! What's that black spot on Happy's back?!" Erza said. All of them looked and saw there was something right on Happy's back.

"That had to have happened when we were in the cave." Natsu said. Lucy took a sample with her finger and it seemed to be some sort of liquid. With her taking a look at it with her eyes, pieces of this puzzle were starting to fit together.

"I think I know what's going on, but we still need to catch that dinosaur." Lucy said. "I think I have a way. Michael, can you show me if there are other caves higher up on the mountain?" She asked as she might know what's going on.

...

Later

Once Lucy might have had this mystery solved, the only thing left was to catch the dinosaur. That's where Natsu and Happy came in. The two of them found themselves on a different part of the mountain and was at another cave.

"Really, why is it you and I are always the bait?" Natsu complained. They didn't like being bait all the time, but they had to do what they had to do. "Hey, Mr. Triceratops! You in there! I heard there's a lovely female triceratops that would love to meet you!" He called out to it, but there was no response. "You think the last living dino would want some companionship."

"AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" They could hear the triceratops now and it was charging right at the two of them.

"Remembered the plan, Happy. Hold our ground." Natsu said, but Happy was staying right where they were, but Happy wanted to run for it. The triceratops came right at them and they stayed there until the last minute. They both dived out of the way and that caused the triceratops to end up tumbling down the slope. It kept on going until it crashed down to the ground and wasn't moving.

"Nice work, guys." Gray said as they all came out and gathered around the dinosaur. "It worked just like we thought."

"Take a look at this." Erza said as she saw some of the dinosaur's skin was peeling off after that fall. "This thing is one of those carriers we saw at the museum earlier."

"Right. Someone modified it to make it look like a triceratops." Lucy said. "That means whoever is behind this is right in the driver's seat." They all moved the head and worked together to pull it right off and could see who it really was with him dizzy after that fall.

"Justin?!"

...

The Museum

"Justin caused all of this?" Coby said as the gang returned to the museum and gathered everyone together for this. "Why would he do something like this?"

"I thought it was odd that a college student could pay for such a nice outfit, and we know why now." Erza claimed.

"There's more than just fossils and bones in the mountains." Lucy said. "The black stain we saw on Happy's back was actually oil."

"Oil?! Black gold?!" Michael said as that was surprising news.

"She just said oil." Natsu said.

"Black gold is what you call oil." Gray said with annoyance.

"Justin came across and oil spring in the mountain and knew he could make a fortune from it." Lucy said. "That's why he created this living dinosaur. It was to scare people away while he mine as much oil as he could."

"The strange sound we heard in the mountain earlier was actually a machine trying to extract the oil out of the mountain." Gray said. "When Michael's team was digging for new fossils and bones, he worried that they might uncover the oil as well."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that's over. Now we can get back to work." Albert said as he tried to walk out of there.

"Not so fast, Albert." Lucy said as there was more to it. "Justin did have a part in this, but you did as well." She accused with all eyes on him now. "I did a little background check on our suspects. I found out that your father was once a miner. You would know how to extract oil, how to find it, and everything else needed. On top of about to be laid off, as well as being a paleontologist that was losing money, the oil would have you financially secured. Not to mention when the triceratops attacked the museum, Justin was here while you were mysteriously gone."

"That doesn't prove anything." Albert said.

"No, but Justin already claiming you were in charge to try and save himself does." Erza said. That was when the police put cuffs on Albert and Justin with them being taken away.

"We would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids." Albert claimed as the two of them were taken away.

"Good thing I was planning to let him go. Nice job, kids." Coby said as another mystery was solved. With the mystery done, the gang stuck around for a little while longer and helped out with cleaning the museum.

"It's a little too bad it wasn't a real dinosaur." Erza said. "Michael had a point earlier. Think of all that we could have learned from it."

"Maybe, but the world already has amazing creatures with long life spans." Lucy said. "Some animals live to be over a hundred. There's even a breed of jellyfish called immortal jellyfish. I'm afraid the time of the dinosaurs is just long over."

"Probably a good thing with all the giant meat eaters." Natsu said as he was clearing away some debris. That was when he heard a growling and instantly assumed the worst. "Not another dinosaur!" He claimed as he tried running for it, but he just saw it was Happy pulling another prank. "That does it, Happy! You're going to be a pile of bones when I get done with you!" He called and chased after his cat. The dinosaurs might be gone, but it looks like they're going to around for a long time.