Chubut, Argentine Republic, -70,456,782, night
The Carnotaurus sastrei pulled himself out of the lake and shook himself dry. He'd been chasing a hadrosauroid when the animal had shoved him off a hill, and he'd taken a rather nasty fall into the lake, then proceeded to spend an hour treading water trying to get out of it. He winced at the pain in his left leg, and limped away from the lake. He'd be doing his best to avoid large bodies of water from now on; he could get all of his water from meat anyway.
"That's a rather painful-looking limp you have there." The abelisaur swiveled his broad head to face the short, stocky...whatever-it-was. He was hard to make out in low light, but he smelled a rather lot like a mammal. "I'm not supposed to interfere with nature, but...perhaps I can give a separate version of you a better life. What do you say?"
The Carnotaurus, of course, didn't understand any of this proclamation, because he was a Carnotaurus and therefore couldn't even comprehend such lofty ideals. But something in the mammal's tone of voice was comforting to the injured dinosaur. So he lowered his broad horned head to meet the mammal's gaze, or at least where his gaze should've been. The mammal pulled out something that hummed...
And the dinosaur felt himself splitting, felt himself become himself but also somehow not himself at the same time. He saw himself get a new body distinct from his old one, saw his new body change color from dark gray and rust red to denim blue with horizontal yellow stripes. Most importantly for him, he felt his leg fix itself perfectly, even though the other him outside would most likely be permanently disabled.
He'd aced this challenge with flying (brand new and entirely unfamiliar) colors. Aced...past tense of ace...he liked the sound of that word.
Why not call himself that?
Sanjo City, 6:10 PM
"Dr. Taylor, you have a call from Dr. Owen," Reese said as she gave Spike his phone, Gideon Owen's face filling the screen. The D-Team had reconvened at the D-Lab to learn more about what Chomp and Terry knew about the Alpha Gang, which wasn't as much as they'd wanted but was still better than nothing. More concerning was Breeze; according to Chomp, the last time he'd seen her she was black with yellow blotches, not magenta and gray, and she didn't have that lisp or tendency to call herself "we" either. The implications were not lost on the kids.
"I'm always losing that darn thing!" Spike complained. "Dr. Owen, hi! Have ya dug up anything new?"
"I found a funny bone." Gideon laughed and gave Spike two thumbs up. "What's all the fossil about?"
"Hahahahaha! Dinosaur jokes!"
Then they began their...song. "What makes di-no-saurs ex-tinct?! Not ta-king a bath we think! Dig it!"
Chomp paused as he was about to sample one of Reese's pencils. "Do all humans act like this when they get this old?" he asked Reese.
Reese sighed. "No, just them. And back away from my pencils."
"Yes'm."
"Anyway, I have news regarding those dinosaur cards you told me about," Gideon went on. "I found two of them today."
"What?!" everyone in the D-Lab exclaimed.
"I'm here at a dig site in Alberta, Canada. Along with some amazing fossils from the Dinosaur Park Formation, I also found two egg-shaped capsules with cards inside them." He showed them to the D-Team.
"A Carnotaurus!" Rex exclaimed.
"And a Parasaurolophus!" Zoe added. "That one actually makes sense to find in Dinosaur Provincial Park!"
"Yes, but P. walkeri is also known from the Oldman Formation, which is where your dad found me!" Gideon chuckled. "And that's not a pun-based lie, either!"
As Gideon flipped over the cards, the kids noticed something. "Look, Zoe. Those markings on the back," Rex said. "They match our stones."
"We'll get partners of our own," Zoe breathed. "What do the stones do, exactly?" she asked Terry.
"Eh, I never really found out," Terry shrugged. "Best I know they're full a' energy that makes it possible to get us back out of the cards." He looked at the screen before realizing something. "Hey, Chomp! It's Ace and Paris!"
"Ace and Paris? All right!" Chomp whooped. "Those two knucklesaurs were some of our best friends the few times we got to be outside the cards! It'll be great to have them with us!"
"Well, if you're happy I'm happy," Rex smiled.
"Ah, Rex, is that you, my boy?" Gideon asked.
"Uncle Owen, I've been here the whole time," Rex said flatly. "And everything's fine, everything's just...kinda odd now. Talking, living dinosaurs are a thing now." He paused. "Can you...send the cards over? I'd really like to meet Chomp's friends."
"I sure can. I'll overnight them to the lab and you should have them first thing tomorrow morning if not earlier. Anyway, Dr. Taylor, I look forward to your analysis of the Daspletosaurus torosus braincase I'm sending with the cards as my excuse for sending you a package. And Rex, you can learn a lot from Dr. Taylor so pay close attention, okay?"
"Yeah, I will."
"Great! I have to get back to the dig now, but I'll send the cards over as soon as I can. Call if you need anything." Gideon hung up.
"And as for you guys, the DinoShots are just about done!" Spike said, showing three toy gun-like devices to the kids. "All we need to do is scan the stones you found with them, and you'll be able to summon any animal of Fire, Wind, Grass, or Lightning without needing to swipe the cards on the stones!"
"But they can only hold three distinct species of cards in all," Reese added, retrieving three large books from underneath her desk. "There isn't enough cache in their hard drives for more. Not yet, at least."
"Uh...Reese, what are those?" Max asked nervously.
"Your manuals," she replied simply.
"Those will take a year to read!" Zoe protested.
Rex coughed. "So why does Uncle Gideon know? I thought we were going to keep the whole thing about the cards a secret."
"Dr. Owen's the only one who knows of this besides us. He's a close friend of mine and taught me a lot of what I know, so I know I can trust him," Spike replied. "Well, those Alpha Gang creeps know about the cards too." He shuddered at the thought. "What evil things are they doing tonight, I wonder?"
Zeta Point, 6:45 PM
"Ah! Another one of my darling dinosaurs has been activated," Dr. Z crooned, his Scanner blinking red. The Alpha Gang was having dinner in their makeshift dining room, with a mini-sized Breeze and Snakepit eating dog food from bowls on the floor.
"Herr Doktor." The terrifying robot maid deceptively called "Helga" loomed over him. "No toys at the table!"
"It's not a toy, it's an instrument of science! And how can I eat at a time like this?" Dr. Z said dismissively. "Ursula! Zander! Ed! You're off on another capture mission!"
"Yes, sir!" the trio squeaked.
"No, you're not! No one is leaving until I see every plate is clean!" Helga barked.
"We wouldn't dream of leaving before that!" Zander gulped. Ursula began shoving food into her mouth and swallowing as fast as she could without choking. Ed was already done eating, but he began licking his plate clean just in case Helga got into one of her scrutinizing moods.
"And don't think I don't know about those vegetables you have hidden under your plate, Doktor."
"Those aren't mine, they're Ed's," Dr. Z lied. Helga wasn't exactly a good cook, but she was especially lousy at cooking vegetables. Especially cabbage. Guess what vegetable Helga was especially fond of making?
"I wasn't asking!" She began smacking Dr. Z roughly, the Alpha Gang exchanging a wince. The old man was deranged and guilty of several counts of weird forms of animal abuse, sure, but even he didn't deserve a beating from a misprogrammed maid robot.
Sanjo City, 7:18 PM
Max and his family (and Rex) were also having dinner. Aki was also not very good at cooking vegetables. Max, thankfully, had a herbivore nearby who was willing to try overboiled green peppers (which, while not actually vegetables, gave Max gas just as bad as any piece of broccoli would).
"Dr. Taylor, do you know when they're going to get here?" Rex asked.
"I believe your uncle said they'd come Double Express, which means they should be here at about 7:12 tomorrow morning. Uh, give or take."
"Awesome! Soon I might have a partner of my own!"
"What do you mean by 'partner'?" Rex froze. He'd completely forgotten that Aki was there.
Luckily for him, Spike was there too. "Oh, Rex and Zoe are planning on getting dogs just like Max, and his father found some strays in Canada that he's sending over to meet the kids!" Rex nodded in agreement, hoping that Aki wouldn't pry.
"So we'll have two dogs, then? A bit sudden, but if they're strays I can see why you'd want them out of the wild. Remember who'll be taking care of them." Aki noticed something else and smiled. "Max, you ate all the green peppers and carrots!"
Max could only smile smugly. He could tolerate his mom's carrots, carrots were really hard to get wrong, but he was grateful that Chomp was there to deal with the peppers. (And that his mother was oblivious enough to not notice what he was doing.) "Yeah, I guess I did." Suddenly, the phone rang. "I'll get it!" Max removed himself from the table and picked up. "What's up?"
"Max, thank goodness you're here! Reese said there's a new dinosaur in Egypt!" Zoe said frantically. "No clue what kind, but after dinner's over you should come over to the lab pronto!"
"Right, study session at the D-Lab? 8:30, you say?" Max fibbed.
Zoe understood the coded message. "Grab your books, we need to study our Egyptian history."
Same day, 8:34 PM
"What?! There are no flights until tomorrow night! You must understand, I have to get to Egypt right away!" Spike yelled into the phone.
Over at her table, Reese noticed something on her computer. "Well, this is interesting." On a world map were two blinking lights, one in Sanjo and the other in Giza. "I wonder..." She grabbed Zoe's DinoShot and plugged it into her computer, then began to type. Zigzagging lines sprouted between the cities.
"How long would walking take?" Max asked.
"Over three months," Reese replied. "But if I'm right, I can get you there in under three minutes. Maybe even less than one."
Ten minutes later
"You think you can teleport us to wherever the dinosaurs are?" Max asked as the kids stood on a large white platform originally used for decontamination.
Reese nodded. "I believe that the dinosaur search function and transport function are linked. Now all we need to do is a test run."
"Is that dangerous?" Zoe asked nervously.
"You'll be fine. It's incorporated into your DS', so just press the button right there where your finger is and you'll be sent to your destination."
"Don't forget me!" Spike said as he ran over, carrying an umbrella and wielding a pickaxe. "I'm a paleontologist! A dinosaur expert could be really handy out there!"
"Great! Let's go!" Max beamed as Spike joined them on the platform. He pushed a button on his DinoShot and the platform lit up. He disappeared just like the Alpha Gang had, Terry and Chomp disappearing too.
"Max, are you alright?" Reese called into her computer's phone application, which the DS had built into them.
"I'm fine!" Max called from the other end of the line. "I'm under the Sphinx! It's so cool! Also, it's daytime over here!"
"Egypt is six hours behind Japan, so that would be why," Reese said. "Also, it seems that only those with a card registered to a stone can be transported. You're on your own, Max."
Spike gulped. "Be safe, kiddo," he said. "Egypt was home to some of the largest exclusive carnivores that ever walked the planet during the mid-Cretaceous. And I bet one of them is the dinosaur who's out there."
"Thanks for the heads-up," Max replied. "I'll be careful."
Giza, 2:45 PM
Spiny roared as he charged at the camels, causing them to scatter. "Who's your boss? I'M your boss! Yeah! Now who's next? Come on out and fight like a drake! Cowards!" He hadn't had much luck finding any animals to assert his power over in the desert, but a camel herd was better than nothing. If he was going to get any respect in this place, he had to start somewhere.
From afar, the Alpha Trio watched the spinosaur's rant. "He's not charging for food," Zander observed. "He's trying to establish dominance. Makes sense, Ancient's notes did say that Spiny was a subordinate male during his original lifespan. Now that he's the only one of his kind around, he's trying to consolidate his power before anyone else can get it."
"Dominance against what?" Ursula scoffed. "I don't see any lions, the Pyramids are too far from the Nile for there to be crocodiles out here, and last I knew the Romans wiped out the local brown bears hundreds of years ago."
"Well, then he'd be going after the next-largest predator in Egypt," Ed gulped. "Humans."
Ursula stilled. "We're humans." She started shaking. "Zander, get Curvy. Blast that spinosaur into his card before he hydrates me to death!"
"Alright, one Einiosaurus procurvicornis coming up." Zander retrieved a card from his pockets and slid it through his own controller.
Elsewhere, Max found Spiny's capsule along with the Water stone. "Keep looking for the dinosaur, guys!" he told Chomp and Terry. "I'll save this for later." He put the stone into his pocket for safe-keeping.
Five minutes later
"Max, I found the Alpha Gang!" Terry exclaimed. "And Spiny!"
"Spiny?" Max asked as he and Chomp joined the tyrannosaur. "Who's Spiny?"
"Him," Chomp said, pointing at the panting spinosaur with his nose. A magenta and gray Einiosaurus stood opposite him, looking rather smug.
"He's got issues," Terry said idly. "Some kinda macho complex. Which means he's always willing to fight! I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE, SPINOSAURUS! I CAN FIGHT YOU WITH BOTH FEET TIED BEHIND MY BACK! I'LL HOP YOUR SORRY BUTT INTO THE GROUND!"
"I'm a bit busy, if you can't see!" Spiny groaned as he took another lightning bolt to the foot. "Stupid cheating centrosaurine got himself upgraded!"
"Cheating?" Curvy scoffed. "No, it's not cheating. There wasn't a rule against damage buffs."
"There should be a rule about being smug 24/7," Chomp grumbled.
"Alright, Terry! You go stop that Curvy guy!" Max instructed as he full-sized Terry. "Chomp, go after Spiny!"
"Will do, boss," Chomp saluted before charging at Spiny. "Spiny, that's Max, he's a good kid. He'll take good care of you, /s."
"Alright, but I'm not going down unless you make me," Spiny replied.
"Wouldn't have it any other way," Chomp smiled.
The fight was on.
Now, Terry had evolved specifically to take down dangerous prey like especially large ceratopsids. A smaller ceratopsid with a melted candle for a nose horn was just another prey animal. But Curvy, like Breeze, was upgraded for extra strength, and it showed. He also weighed a lot more than Breeze did and didn't have quite the elemental disadvantage, plus there was a move card involved. And Max hadn't brought out Volcano Burst for fear of damaging the monuments, so Terry had to make do with standard bites, kicks, and tail slaps.
Chomp had the advantage of element against Spiny, but Spiny was still a lot bigger than he was, plus he could grab at Chomp with his hands. It was anyone's guess who would win...
"Oh, wait, I've got two dinosaurs too," Zander remembered. With a slash, Snakepit slithered onto the scene, the Gorgosaurus ramming Terry into the ground hard enough to snap something in the larger tyrannosaur's back before sinking his teeth into Chomp's rear, using his fire powers to inflict further damage.
"THE IRONY!" Chomp exclaimed in agonizing pain (Hey, that almost rhymes!).
"Oh no you don't! Electric Charge!" Max called out the move card and swiped it down, letting Chomp blast Gorgon in the face with a bolt of lightning.
"Ow! Snakepit does not like that card!" Snakepit shouted as he recoiled, his face covered in electrical burns.
"Get the boy's cards!" Ursula whispered to Ed. "He can't use them if he doesn't have them!"
Ed nodded and pulled out a card. "Breeze, do your worst."
Max went to use his card again when a gust of wind blew them out of his face. "Oh, no! My move cards!"
Suddenly, Breeze tackled him, pushing him into the ground with her feet. "Ssssssurprissssse," she hissed. "Time for a rematch!"
"GET OFFA HIM!" Breeze looked up and was whacked in the face by Spiny's tall, flat, honestly newt-like tail. "EAT TAIL SMASH, MOTHA[OVERLY LONG STRING OF HORRIBLE PROFANITY CENSORED FOR MAX'S BENEFIT]!"
Breeze was flung into the air, but used her air powers to change direction midair and fly into Spiny like a living bullet. The impact smashed her crests, sure, but it also broke Spiny's sail, causing it to flop over limply. "Ha!" Breeze said, spitting blood out of her mouth as gore trickled down her face. "Not sssssssso sssssstrong without your ssssssspine, are you, Ssssspiny?"
"OW! OW! ALSO, OW!" Spiny knew he was close to getting carded thanks to how much HP that stunt took off of him. "I...defy...you..." he groaned weakly as he flopped onto the sand, which began to turn brown with blood.
"No, I think we defy you," Curvy gloated. "Electric Charge!" But before he could finish charging up, a blue blur rammed into him, redirecting the blast into Breeze's face. The Dilophosaurus was carded soon after.
"You were saying?" Ace smirked at the centrosaurine. "Long time no see, Curvy. Different colors, same old dip."
"YOU!" Curvy bellowed. "How dare you!"
"I could say the same for you, can-opener-face," Ace sighed. "Looks like it's my turn to clean up someone else's mess again. Yayyyyy," he deadpanned while doing the world's tiniest jazz hands.
Curvy roared. "DIE!" He charged at Ace, but Ace simply sidestepped him and tripped him with his foot, causing the ceratopsian to sprawl onto the ground. Ace jumped onto Curvy's back and began to bite and tear at it like the predator he was.
"Terry, are you alright?" Chomp asked while Snakepit readied himself for another charge.
"Ugh...how long was I out?" Terry groaned awake. "I...I can't feel my legs. How am I going to fight without my legs?!"
"Oh, my. Let me help you with that." Terry looked up as best he could at the pale green figure now standing over him. "Zoe, use Nature's Blessing on our allies."
"On it, Paris!" Zoe replied, calling out the card in question. Paris exhaled a faint green light that washed over Spiny, Chomp, and Terry. Terry's back was fixed, as was Spiny's sail, while Chomp felt his cauterized bite marks heal over.
Terry stood up and shook his legs. "Ohhhh, that feels good. Oh, Snakepit? You're in trouble now. Let's show this souped-up coelurosaur who's boss!"
"Show him who's boss?" Spiny grinned. "Best idea I've heard all day. TAIL SMASH!"
"Snakepit will crush you!" Snakepit growled as he prepared to bite Spiny's incoming tail off. He didn't get the chance, though, as Terry and Chomp pushed him into the ground while he was distracted. "Snakepit is being crushed instead! Snakepit does not appreciate irony!"
"Neither did I!" Chomp replied. "So let's see how you like it! CHARGE ME!"
"But my move cards!" Max protested.
"Here are your cards, Mr. Max," Paris said, trotting over and depositing the cards into his hands with her tongue. "I got them for you while the Alpha Gang was preoccupied with Breeze."
"Great! Also, gross!" Max swiped the slobbery card through his DinoShot. "ELECTRIC CHARGE!"
"Sayonara, Snakeboy!" Chomp declared as he let one final bolt hit Snakepit directly in the heart. With a shudder, down the tyrannosaur came. "And then there was one. Need help, Ace?"
"Not really!" Ace called back, his muzzle dripping with Curvy's blood, the ceratopsian hurt too badly to get up. "Just a bit more and..." One literal bit in the form of a bite to the neck later, and Curvy was carded. "There!"
"We did good, guys!" Zoe said, walking up with Rex. "Now let's get those other cards–"
"I don't think so!" An extendable claw came out of Ursula's Scanner and grabbed the Alpha Dinosaurs' cards. "We may have lost the spinosaur today, but we'll be back for him and all the others! Just you wait and see!" Ursula declared.
"Can I show them who's boss?" Spiny asked Chomp.
"Yeah, go ahead. You earned it," Chomp replied.
Spiny cracked his knuckles. "This will be fun." The Alpha Gang gulped in fear and teleported away. "Oh, come on!" he whined.
"Well, that happened," Max said. "So...Spiny. We...may have to defeat you. I'm sorry, but it's the only way to get you away from the Alpha Gang."
"You kidding? After how you guys came to help me I don't think I'll mind being part of your float," Spiny replied. "Especially the blue one, he took down Curvy like it was nothing. I wish I knew how to fight like that."
"I can teach you, but you'll have to let me defeat you first," Ace said. "Also, we might need a Water stone so Rex can even summon you."
"I found one by Spiny's capsule," Max said, retrieving it from his pocket. "Whew, it didn't break. That's good."
"Alright, now that that's settled...FIGHT ME!" Spiny roared.
"FIGHT ME YOURSELF!" Ace roared back.
"I PLAN TO!" They charged at each other and leapt into the air.
Sanjo City, 9:02 PM
"I don't believe it!" Spike exclaimed as he looked at the image of Spiny mid-leap on the screen. "That's what Spinosaurus actually looks like?!"
"Yep," Chomp confirmed while Spiny, now in mini-size along with the others, played tug-of-war with Terry and a rope, Ace and Paris by Chomp's and Spike's side at the computer. "You'll find some new fossils in the 2010s and Reddit is going to flip. Not saying where, though, don't want to mess up history that much."
"So you really are time-travelers from the future! That's so COOL! What else do we find out?"
"Dromaeosaurs were completely feathered, some nodosaurs were red, and Tsintaosaurus' crest doesn't look like what you currently think it looks like," Paris listed off the top of her head.
"I can't wait for the future!" Spike gushed.
"Also there's a global pandemic in the early 2020s that the Americans make worse with their absurd levels of incompetence, and Russia will decide to take over Europe towards the end of said pandemic," Ace added. The others glared at him. "What? He should know about those things!"
Spike shrank back. "Maybe I can wait for the future after all..."
Zeta Point, 11:33 PM
"They want move cards?" Dr. Z, an icepack on his head, grumbled as he stared into a test tube containing three cards. "I'll give them move cards. No one makes a fool out of Dr. Z...except for Seth, but only because he's smarter than me! And also really creepy."
"DOKTOR, IT IS TIME FOR BED!" came Helga's voice from down the hall.
Dr. Z gulped, not wanting another beating. "Y-yes, Helga! Lights will be out shortly, Helga!" He exited the laboratory and turned off the lights.