The night was still and quiet. It seemed that nothing was out, and all was fine. Then, a sound could be heard... the faint pitter pattering of small metal feet. It wasn't any of the reptools though, with Ace, Waldo, and Click Clack sleeping in the garage, while Revvit was back to sleeping on Ty's head in his cave after they, Skya, and Click-Clack had given support to Scratch a few hours ago. Instead, as Ty and Revvit slept in their cave, Dozer slept in his mound hideaway, Skya slept in the trees, her hook tongue going up and down as she lightly snored, and Ton-Ton slept in his pile of rocks, dreaming about a giant ramp made out of other ramps, Scrap-It was skittering about the area, currently ducking behind a rock. He was on a mission from D-Structs, who was watching from the trees nearby, and had JUST finished up, returning to the grumpy t-trux. He looked down to the little scraptool expectantly.

"Is it done?" He questioned, to which Scrap-It cackled a bit with a nod.

"Khe heh heh heh heh, oh yeah! I hope they sleep well tonight, cause they're gonna have a REAL bad dream when they wake up!"

...it took Scrap-It a moment to realize how dumb that sounded, stuttering as he tried to correct himself. "I mean, not when they wake up, because, you know, you don't dream when you're awake, and-"

D-Structs of course couldn't care less about Scrap-It failing to make the obvious 'waking nightmare' comment, and rolled his eyes before giving them a smack with his tail to shut them up then talking himself. "They'll NEVER stay in the crater after this." With an evil cackle, he headed off back to his own temporary territory with a recovering Skrap-It, ready for the chaos that was now set up for the morning...

Hours later, on that morning...

With the sun rising over the land, the various dinotrux were waking up, all of them giving a stretch and yawn as they awoke, with Ton-Ton naturally bursting out with energy from his rock pile, and zooming off to do his speedy stretches. Ty meanwhile rolled out of his cave, yawning and stretching with Revvit changing around the drill bits on his head to keep them limber before happily looking down to his large friend. "Morning, Ty! How are you feeling?"

Ty looked back up, admittedly still worried about Scratch after last night, but doing his best not to ruin Revvit's obviously high spirit this morning. "Great, but... I think my wrecking ball is still asleep." He looked back to it, giving it a nimble swing then bouncing it off of one of his treads a few times like a basketball. He then moved it back behind him, swung it around a few times, before finally smashing a nearby rock with it, all of which helped his chain and ball respectively. He sighed in relief once it was done. "There, that's better..."

"I can honestly say I've never seen a wrecking ball get bounced around like that..." Came a familiar voice from nearby, making Ty and Revvit perk up as they looked over. Sure enough, they saw Scratch coming up to them, still looking weary, but at least mostly recovered from last night. "I'm pretty sure physics are going to be calling you later to give you a stern talking to."

Ty chuckled, even if he didn't quite get the full gist of what Scratch was on about. "Hey, if they have a problem, they can say it to my face."

This made Scratch admittedly smile a bit, Skya, Ton-Ton, and Dozer by now coming over as the former spoke. "Hey, Scratch. Feeling better?"

"Eh... mostly? I don't feel like my batteries are low on power at least..." He looked over to Revvit. "Um, that IS what we run on, right?"

Revvit nodded. "Correct. We consume ore, it get's processed into fuel, the fuel going into a tank, and that tank helps power our systems."

Scratch rubbed his head. "And yet scraptors don't seem to eat ore... perhaps they have some sort of rechargeable battery deal?"

Revvit hummed in thought. "If it degrades over time, that WOULD explain why dinotrux have a larger lifespan then scraptors." He agreed.

Scratch nodded, though still confused. "I guess... but then where would they GET the battery..."

Before Revvit could ask what Scratch meant, leading to confusing talk about where dinotrux and scraptors come from, Dozer spoke up. "Hey, could we save the technical talk? I'm starving over here!"

Scratch looked a little annoyed at Dozer, before his growling stomach agreed that food was a priority right now, making him sigh a bit. "Fine, fine. Where are we getting it?" He questioned, glancing to the open fields where he came from.

Ty started rolling out, the others following. "Right this way. Let's eat!"

As the group made their way to some ore, Ton-Ton noticed Scratch rubbing his eyes as he went. "Hey dude, you okay? You don't look like you got enough sleep last night."

Skya shook her head a bit. "Probably not, given whatever nightmare he had."

Dozer glanced over. "Is THAT what I heard going on? How many times has this been now? Twice?"

Scratch shook his head a bit. "Three times, technically, if you count when I was living with Ty in his old valley."

Dozer snorted, glancing over to the t-trux. "How do you put up with it, Ty? The guy is a magnet for sleep deprivation!"

Ty looked over with a small scowl. "Hey, it's not his fault. He just needs help with getting the relaxation he needs to sleep."

Skya hummed. "More like he needs adjustments to his sleep circuits, if what Revvit did last night is anything to go by. You, uh... DID fix it up afterwards, right?"

Revvit blinked then rubbed his head in embarrassment. "I, uh... did not." The others looked to him in shock, making him wave his front legs. "Hey, it was late at night! I can not be expected to-!"

"GUYS, would you stop already?" Scratch called out, honestly getting embarrassed and annoyed at the others talking about him like this. "I'm fine, honestly. I did sleep afterwards. It was just a... very dreamless sleep. But whatever, let's just get some damn food, tune up, all that stuff and move on." The others went quiet at that, though Ty was still glancing at him concerned.

They eventually came to a spot where there were multiple loose looking rocks around, Ty gesturing to them. "Here we are, breakfast!"

Getting the idea, Scratch headed over to a loose rock and pushed it aside before diving his head in, quickly starting to gobble down some ore inside as he heard the other dinotrux head over to some other spots. After a good few bites though, he hummed in confusion, lifting his head out and speaking up. "Huh, this ore tastes... different. Is it new?" He smacked his clamp mouth a bit, feeling an odd stickyness on it.

Ty and Revvit looked confused, coming over to his hole as the former spoke. "No, this is the same ore we usually eat." He took a bite out of the ore himself, his confusion rising. "Hey, he's right... this ore tastes kind of funny." Scratch had taken another bite, coughing a bit at the odd stickyness the ore was causing, and noticed... some odd black stuff around Ty's jaw. What the...?

Dozer had taken a few bites out of his own ore pit and pulled his head out, his voice sounding a little odd. "Whadjua mem? Tafts fim ta-" There was then a weird creaking from Dozer's system, as he grunted in slight pain, and Scratch had noticed more black stuff in Dozer's mouth as he had talked.

"Guybs, I pink somptins nin-" Scratch had started to say, his own voice coming out odd, before he started gagging, his own systems now starting to creak and groan as he shuddered, suddenly feeling like his parts had thick spider web wrapped around it.

Ty blinked and looked worriedly to Ty, before it suddenly hit him. "Hold on... this ore tastes like... ike... tike tar!" His own jaw was becoming stiff, and he was starting to panic, Revvit's own panic quickly following.

"(Gasp!) Did you say tar?!" He asked in alarm.

Ty barely managed to get his own words back. "Yes, tar! TAR!"

Revvit jumped off Ty's head and went over to look into a nearby ore pit, then quickly called to the dinotrux. "Everyone, stop eating! There is tar on all the ore! It will gum up your systems!"

Ty looked frightfully over to Scratch, who was suddenly hacking and choking with pained wheezes as he held himself in shock, feeling like he was completely suffocating with the identified tar in his system. Ton-Ton was suddenly feeling the effects too, creaking and groaning as he came over. "But, uh, I already ate a ton of it!"

Scratch glanced over, a 'ton' pun coming to mind before his thoughts snapped back to his own gummed up systems, spazing out on the ground as Ton-Ton rolled around in a panic, smashing into a rock. "What am I gonna do?! What am I gonna dooohohoooo?! I'm too young to be gummed!"

Ty was panicking as well, desperately trying to carefully smack Scratch's chest with a tread to make him hack the tar back out, but it was too sticky. Scratch desperately tried to call back through his gummed mouth. "Whah-! Whahtar! W-WAHTAR!"

Ty was confused, but Revvit knew what Scratch was saying. "Quickly! We must get them to the watering hole and flush it out of their systems!"

Skya, who had thankfully not taken any bites of the gummy ore, since she had to lift it up to her mouth with her hook, nodded. "On it!" Quickly, she grabbed Scratch to toss him into Ton-Ton's bed then hooked the Ankylodump by the base of his neck himself, before quickly starting to drag them to the watering hole, the others heading over to some rocks to get the tar off from around their mouths.

Ton-Ton meanwhile could feel the gum going into his systems, determined to shut him down, making him wheeze. "Hah! Oh no! I can feel it! I'm feeling gummy! Hah! I peel guuum-"

By then though, Skya had reached her location, and quickly tossed Ton-Ton into the water, which was shallow enough for him to stick his head out of. "Drink it up!"

Ton-Ton promptly did so, and as the water flooded though his system, the tar started washing away, making him sigh in relief. "Ahhhh, much better dudes..."

Skya then grabbed Scratch, who by now was barely able to keep wiggling around with the amount of tar he got into his system combined with his smaller size, and splashed HIM down into the water too, keeping him submerged for a good few seconds. Despite some panic, Scratch quickly realized he could breathe under the water, the gaps in his body making the water come out every time he breathed out. After taking a few deep breaths while gulping down the water to unclog his own systems, Skya pulled him back out into the open and onto land, letting him hack out some water as she then pulled Ton-Ton out as well. He soon turned to her with a grateful smile. "Th-Thanks, Skya."

Skya nodded. "Don't mention it, Scratch."

Meanwhile, Ty and Dozer had found some rocks to scrape the tar away from their mouths, thankfully not having consumed enough tar for it to completely gum up their systems. Revvit spoke up as they did, back on Ty's head. "We are lucky none of us was hurt. D-Structs is getting more serious about forcing us out of the crater."

Skya and Ton-Ton came up at this point, the former speaking confidently. "I'm not going ANYWHERE. Except maybe to find some breakfast."

"And THEN what?" Ty retorted. "Let D-Structs coat it in tar again? We're going to fix this once and for all!"

"You suggesting we strike back? Take the battle to D-Structs?" Dozer asked, his mood getting dark. "Yeeeeah, maybe that WOULD be the best way to go! We CHARGE in there and turn him into nothing but a PILE OF BROKEN GEARS, AND TWISTED SCRAP METAL!"

Dozer was just about SCREAMING in anticipation for the plan, while the others looked at him in shock, Ty slowly coming up as the others got their metal jaws up from off the floor. "Um, actually, I was thinking we could BUILD a solution. You know, like a safe spot to store ore."

At this, Dozer calmed down. "Oh, yeah, right. Sorry, I get kind of cranky on an empty stomach."

"When are you NOT cranky though?" Came Scratch's voice from nearby, and the others turned to see him carrying some... non-tarred ore over, Ty recognizing it as the same piece he had given Scratch the night before. He plopped it down before jumping and giving it a smash with his tail, breaking it to pieces. "Here. It'll give us SOMETHING to go on for now."

The others gratefully came up to chow down, doing their best to evenly sort the food so everyone got an equal share, before Revvit headed over to a nearby rock, thinking. "Hmm, how about something like this?" He began to drill, the dinotrux and Scratch coming over to take a look at the schematics. "Top loaded and equipped with customized stations for all of us to feed, both big AND small."

"That's IT!" Ty agreed. "We can even build it by the garage so we can get filled up..."

"And TUNED up..." Revvit continued excitedly.

"At the same time!" Ty finished, sharing a tailbump with Revvit as Ton-Ton voiced his own agreement about this awesome plan, Scratch leaning in to make his own drill markings on the schematics as well as Ty spoke again. "We should build it with a super strong kind of rock, so D-Structs can't just do a smash and tar." He looked to the others. "Anyone know any super strong kinds of rocks?"

Scratch finish his markings and hummed a bit, remembering the first part of his dream last night with the idea of the mud bricks... before he could voice that though, Revvit spoke up first. "Oh, I love a challenge!"

That kept Scratch quiet, and as the others were talking, he sighed a bit, getting lost in his thoughts again.

"Well, they seem to know what they're doing. I may as well be a ghost to their projects by now..."

"Do you truly believe that, given all you've done so far, my friend?"

Huh, speaking of ghosts...

"It... honestly feels like it sometimes. I mean, can I honestly say I've been helping them with things when I either just get in the way or do barely anything that actually helps?"

"Any kind of help is good in a team. I'm sure your friends would agree with you on that."

"I guess..."

"You feel low on spirit, don't you?"

"Given my almost sleepless night, I'd say so."

"Perhaps conversing with your friends will help you there. You'd be amazed what a little conversation can do for the mind..."

"Hmph, you too, huh?"

"It's said for a reason, my friend. You won't know why until it's tried..."

Scratch thought about this a bit, but before he could complete his thoughts, he was suddenly nudged by Ty, snapping him out of the daze he was once again in as he looked over. "Huh? What?"

Ty was looking down to him. "Scratch, did you hear that?"

Scratch rubbed his head a bit. "...no. Sorry, I spaced out..."

Ty gave him a reassuring look. "It's alright. I was saying that I'm going to head with Revvit over to a rock expert who could help us with the build. Do you think you could help the others with finding some ore that hasn't been tarred?"

Scratch nodded in understanding. "Sure, I can do that. Um... where would we find it?"

Ty leaned down to the tiny bits of ore left on the ground. "Just follow the scent. Give this a good sniff, then you should be able to find more of it since you know what it smells like."

Scratch looked down to the bits of ore, the advice reminding him of what a canine would do. Then again, this world WAS full of feral-like mechnical creatures, so that did make sense. Leaning down, he sniffed around at the bits of ore, shivering a bit at the odd, yet strangely enticing smell. Moving away, he sniffed around again, before blinking. He could smell traces of it somewhere... quickly, he sped off, Ty smiling and nodding to the others, who promptly went off to follow, before he and Revvit went off in another direction. Revvit didn't know where... but Ty had a plan, that was for sure.

An hour later, on the outskirts of the crater...

"Any luck?"

"No! This is filled in as well!"

"Damn... Skya, you?"

"Yep, tarred."

Scratch sighed. D-Structs had not cut corners on this. Over the course of at least an hour, he had helped sniff out at least 20 different sites of fresh ore, and 5 sites where the group had been storing it for later. Every one of them had the pits filled up with tar, leaving them coated and inedible if they didn't want to be gummed up. Dozer growled, the trux regrouping with Scratch. "This is REALLY starting to annoy me!"

"Tell me about it." Skya agreed. "D-Structs would probably smash down the ore from Craneasaur cliffs to cover them in tar if he could."

Ton-Ton looked around at the land, noticing where they were. "Dudes, look how far we are! If we keep going, we'll be having to leave the whole crater itself just to get some food!"

Dozer huffed. "Which is exactly what D-Structs wants. He wants to make a point, and I don't intend on him making it."

Ton-Ton nodded eagerly. "Yeah!"

Skya sighed. "Unfortunately, he WILL make it if we don't find ANY ore around the crater... Scratch, any thoughts?"

Scratch however wasn't saying anything, instead gazing at the tarred ore. He was clearly contemplating something, and Skya nudged him, once again snapping him out of his daze. "Scratch?"

He glanced around. "Hm? Oh, uh... yeah, I don't know. It seems like we were pretty thorough in our search."

Dozer grunted. "Yeah, we figured that. We're looking at a Plan B now."

Ton Ton nodded. "Yeah, dude! Got any other ideas in that metal noggin of yours?"

Scratch looked back down to the tarred ore in thought. "...I mean..." He then shook his head. "...no, forget it." He turned away, looking and sniffing around for any more ore.

The dinotrux were left a little confused. "Huh? Forget what?" Dozer asked. "If you've got something to say, then-"

"I said FORGET IT." Scratch snapped back. "Head back to the garage and get yourselves a tune-up. I'll head out of the land and come back with some ore." With that, he raced off, the trux watching with odd expressions before turning and heading back to the garage, Dozer speaking in annoyance.

"Sheesh, and he prods ME for being grumpy... I almost like it."

Meanwhile, at a rocky place outside the crater...

Ty was approaching his target, Revvit on his head watching as they entered a land filled with rocks between high rocky walls. Eventually, he stopped, and Revvit saw exactly what Ty had been talking about. There were various dinotrux around, they were green, they were eating rocks, and they looked like large garbage compactors with metal spikes on top. They were...

"Stegarbasaurus's?" Revvit exclaimed, looking down to his large friend. "Ty, have you blown a gasket?! They are incredibly destructive creatures!"

"I know, but they eat rocks." Ty reasoned. "They've got to know which ones are strongest, right?" Determined for that professional, or at least second opinion, he headed forwards, soon calling to the pack. "Hey fellas! You got a sec?"

They all turned to him, and the reaction was exactly how one would predict. "T-Trux!" With a mad dash, they all left Ty in the dust, as well as a little distraught. Was there ANY creature that wouldn't run away at the first sight of him?

Revvit of course took the opportunity to speak up. "Weeelp, it was worth a try. Shall we try that lava rock/feldspar combination I suggested?" He asked eagerly.

"Wait, what about that one." Ty quickly said, pointing to a Stegarbasaurus that hadn't noticed the commotion, and was still chowing down on some rocks nearby.

As Ty approached though, he finally noticed, though THEIR reaction was different, heading over to another rock to chow down on it before speaking. "We'll, uh, we'll do this in a sec, okay t-trux?" He then chowed down on yet another rock as Ty waited nearby, seeing this certain Stegarbasaurus was more interested in his eating than being scared. Finally, with a mighty burp, he sighed. "Haah, alright, I'm ready."

Ty was confused. "Ready for what?"

"To fight." The Stegarbasaurus replied casually, turning sideways to the t-trux. "That's what you're here for, right?"

Without waiting for a response, he clicked his tail, before suddenly, the metal on his back SHOT towards Ty and Revvit, the latter yelling out in fear. "SPIKES!"

Ty barely ducked the wizzing spikes, then after popping out some new ones on his back, the Stegarbasaurus called out. "There's a lot more where that came from, so come on, scoot!" He then rammed headfirst right into Ty, sending Revvit flying off.

"Ty, this is NOT worth it!" The scared reptool said, but Ty wasn't deterred, pulling off a piece of metal that had stuck into him from the Stegarbasaurus's charge.

"Don't worry, Rev. I got this." Ty said back determinedly, and came forwards. He KNEW he could talk this dinotrux down if he pushed enough, and so tried again. "Stegarbasaurus, listen- NNG!" The stegarbasaurus came in with another firm headbutt to Ty, trying to push him back, but he kept on talking, despite some more charges that sent him rolling back. "I know usually when a t-trux comes rolling up, it means you're gonna get- GAH! -tailsmashed or your rock stolen. But not this time! This t-trux is here, because he needs your help building- NGAHA!"

After getting all his words out, Ty waited a moment, before the words started to sink into the stegarbasaurus's mind, and he looked up in surprise. "Build? Wait a sec... are you that weirdo?"

"Depends which weirdo you're talking about."

"The weirdo t-trux who teamed up with the oddball reptool, AND the freaky scraptor guy, then took on D-Structs, YEAH! Yeah, I've heard about you!"

Ty grinned proudly, talking to Revvit as they climbed back up to his head. "Heh, he heard about me~"

Revvit was soon back on Ty's head, looking back down to him. "He heard that you are a weirdo."

"I'll take weirdo over oddball." Ty retorted.

"And what about Scratch being freaky?" Revvit retorted back.

Ty ignored this, looking back to the Stegarbasaurus. "Name's Ty, and this..." He pointed to the reptool. "Is Revvit."

"Ooh, there's that tiny tool, heh heh, didn't see you there!" The Stegarbasaurus chuckled. "I bet you get that a lot, huh?"

"Actually no, first time..." Revvit sarcastically remarked, not impressed with the Stegarbasaurus so far, who finally introduced himself.

"Name's Garby! Pleased to meetcha!"

"You in?" Ty asked.

"Eh, why not? Though I don't know how you could build anything with THOSE little arms." Garby joked, swinging around to give Ty a playful smack to the side with his tail before moving back to the rocks to chow down a little more.

Ty meanwhile laughed, looking up to Revvit. "Ha ha ha ha ha! Hah, this guy's a riot, huh?"

"Not the word I would use..." Replied Revvit in exasperation. He REALLY wasn't impressed with his loudmouth now. I mean, Ty was really putting the expertise of the rock for the build in the robot hands of THIS guy? It was unfathomable... as Ty was coming forwards, he finally hopped onto his nose and looked the t-trux right in the eye in annoyance. "Ty, are you sure you want a trux like HIM to help us?!" He pointed his tail to Garby, who tossed a rock into the air and caught it with his mouth, chowing down before making another loud belch.

Ty meanwhile started to realize what was going on. "Wait a second, I know what's going on here. You're... jealous."

Revvit of course did NOT like this... slightly correct assumption. "ExCUSE me?"

"Yeah, you're jealous that we're asking someone else for advice for a change!"

Revvit quickly studdered out his denial. "Well, th-, it's not true, ha ha! As I said, I am worried about what this destructive creature will do to our home!"

"Jeeealouuuus~" Ty retorted.

"Destructive!"

"Jealous!"

"Destructive!"

"Destructive!" Ty suddenly said to turn the tables, and Revvit fell right into it.

"JEALOUS!"

"See? I knew you'd admit it." Ty smirked, but Revvit quickly tried to retort.

"What?! No, you know that's not what I meant!"

But Ty had already made up his mind, heading over to Garby, who was chowing down on another delicious rock, and then, with the sound of a truck horn, he suddenly let out a green smoke from his rear end, Revvit looking over in disgust before muttering to himself. "I have a bad feeling about this..."

Welp, there it is. My first actual page of fanfic writing for YEARS. Lemme know how it's holding up, and thanks to everyone who for some reason is still liking my work after all this time. Have a great day.

P.S, I gotta admit, looking over the previous chapters of this story make me... more than a little weary from how slightly cringey they are, both in the word mistakes, and ways I've worded a bunch of stuff. I definitely plan to eventually modify them to make them more tolerable to read.