Dinosaur King: Prehistoric Peril

by Stoned Chompski

Two years after Rex had left, a new adventure comes into the lives of the D-Team. Dinosaur cards are being spotted all over the world again, and it's up to the D-Team to collect them all again. With familiar faces, their new journey will prove to be an epic one. However, a secret evil lurks behind the shadows, one that has proven to be their most deadly foe yet.

16. An Unthankful Thanksgiving

(Hey everyone. I'm not one for revealing personal things about me but I recently found out an online friend of mine committed suicide last month in August. I knew his mental health was declining but he would always stop and say hi to me and the boys. He and I weren't personally close but I considered him a dear friend of mine I would've gladly hung out with in real life.

Please, if any of you feel like you're all alone, call for help. Call the suicide hotline if you must. Your life, although might seem small, is far beyond valuable. It's precious, not just to you but to those around you. It hits even closer to me knowing he was the same age as me and that I've also dealt with suicidal thoughts in the past and came close to committing.

Call for help if you need to. Your life is precious.

Anyway, I also heard a rumor that Fanfiction is shutting down. I'm not sure if it is but if so… I just don't know how much bad news I can take.

Take care, y'all and try to stay positive.)

---

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!" Dr. Z yelled so loud, it literally shook the crashed Backland II. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST SPINY?!"

"It means exactly as it sounds, sir." Ed sheepishly says as he hangs his head down low.

"They had guns and we couldn't do anything." Ursula tried to reason with the mad doctor.

"SO?! You have dinosaurs! That should be enough!" Dr. Z yelled at his two henchman before transitioning to his other personality. "This is your fault. I shall feast on your organs as punishment."

Needless to say, this creeped out the two henchmen. 'EEEEUGH! Please don't feast on our organs!" Ursula pleaded.

"I still want my stomach so I can eat!" Ed begged.

"Shut up, fatty."

"Aww."

"It was one thing not coming back with that Centrosaurus, but it's another to lose ONE OF OUR DINOSAURS! HOW DID IT EVEN HAPPEN?!"

"Well… You see… Well- The thing is… Ed?" Ursula glances at the short man, hoping he could explain it better than her.

"A bunch of soldiers showed up and kidnapped him and they're working with that paleontologist, Adam McCallum." Ed explains, albeit in a fearful tone.

"MCCALLUM?!… I went to school with him."

"How is that possible?" Ursula whispered to Ed, whom merely shrugged in response.

"You three have been a thorn in my side ever since I employed you! I'm not gonna say 'since I adopted you' because even I'm not that cruel. But I am and I do not tolerate failure. Oh, shut up, Bartholomew. It's not their fault they're worthless."

"Words hurt you know." the two say at the same time in sadness.

"Doctor." Jonathan says as he approaches the mutant scientist, scaring him half to death.

"AAAA AAAAA AAAAAAH! JONATHAN! How many times do I have to tell you not to scare me like that?!" Dr. Z yelled at the android.

At that moment, Bartholomew suddenly chomped down onto the android's arm, having mistaken him for a human. Although Jonathan paid no attention to the primal animal. "My apologies, doctor. But don't you think you're being a little harsh on those two?" he asks.

"Of course not?! They botch everything they touch! And besides… there's three of them." Dr. Z says after forcing Bartholomew to stop biting on the android's arm, earning a hiss from him.

"My scanners indicate there are two life forms in front of you." Jonathan reveals.

Dr. Z turned around and saw, sure enough, that only Ursula and Ed were there, Zander having not joined up with them. "Hold up." he mumbles before counting the two henchmen in his head. 1. 2. Oho! I am blind! "Where is Zander?! This is still your fault!"

---

To answer Dr. Z's question, Zander was in fact at the same bar he gambled at, albeit this time it being more empty than last time. As he drank his scotch from his whiskey glass, he continued to stare at the picture of him holding a chibi sized Spiny in his arms, whom was currently trying to get out of his grasp. He sighed heavily before taking another sip of his drink, glancing at the bartender whom was cleaning a glass.

"Hey, buddy." he slurs, obviously drunk, earning the bartender's attention. "You ever feel like the world is cruel and that your life… is just… meaningless? That after losing someone close to you, it's not even worth living anymore? That you're just a shell of your former self with no will to live?"

The bartender simply shook his head, obviously not caring enough to listen to the drunk man's ramblings. "Nope." he quickly shoots down before going to another customer.

Zander sighed once more before taking a look back at the photo. "Spiny." he laments. He downed the rest of his drink before staring ahead. "I hope wherever you are, you're safe. I'll save you one way or another."

---

"I promise you that."

In the same undisclosed location in the middle of the desert-like terrain, deep down within the base was none other than Spiny, whom roared in pain as electricity struck him. In reality, he was shown inside a large test tube inside a large, underground lab that currently held two people: Mr. McCallum, and a man with lengthy, wavy unkempt brown hair and round glasses, smirking sinisterly at the Spinosaurus. The electricity stopped for a moment before Spiny was electrocuted once more, having to endure whatever experiments the two were performing on him. The paleontologist simply smirked at the helpless dinosaur in the large test tube as the electricity reflected off from his glasses. Spiny roared once more while Mr. McCallum's smirk grew, his eyes no longer visible due to the electricity reflecting from his lenses.

---

*Who Are You by The Who starts playing...*

*brief instrumental*

MAX TAYLOR

Whoooooooo are you?

ZOE DRAKE

Who, who, who who?

REX OWEN

Whoooooooo are you?

REESE

Who, who, who, who?

URSULA, ZANDER, ED

I really wanna know! (Whoooooooo are you?)

DR. Z

Oooooooh!

CHOMP, ACE, PARIS, TERRY, SPINY & TANK

Come on! Tell me who are you! You! You! AAAAAAAARE YOOOOOOOU!

Dinosaur King: Prehistoric Peril

---

"Thanksgiving is finally here!" Spike yelled at the top of his lungs as he danced around in his house. "Oh, how I love Thanksgiving! We get to have a nice, juicy turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce and-"

"Dad, I think you're missing the point on Thanksgiving… We get to have pumpkin pie!" Max excitedly exclaims, grinning at his father.

"Ooh! You're right! I can't believe I forgot about that!"

Currently, the Taylor's household was decorated with Thanksgiving-like decorations, with fake autumn leaves being strung around the house like Christmas lights. To add to this, a large cornucopia filled with fruit and surrounded by even more fake leaves was placed in the middle of the dining room table while Rex and Zoe simply stared at the two guys with deadpan expressions.

"When it comes to food, Max and his dad are pretty much the same person." Rex says with an embarrassed smile.

"I think they're both missing the point of Thanksgiving." Zoe adds.

"You're right, Zoe." Aki replies as she appears behind the two, briefly startling them. 'Thanksgiving is about giving thanks to all the wonderful things we have in life. What I'm thankful for this year is having a loving family and even more loving friends. Especially when they go out and save dinosaurs."

This killed the mood immediately as Max and Spike immediately stopped jumping, their enthusiasm quickly leaving the room as an angry glare took over Max's face. "Not all the time." he grumbles.

Aki then realized her mistake, having been told about the mission the other day when her son came home. She gasped slightly as she placed her hand over her mouth, an apologetic and sympathetic expression being painted on her face.

"Oh my. I'm so sorry, Max. I didn't mean-"

"It's alright." he interrupts her. "There wasn't anything we could do. We lost both the Centrosaurus and Spiny."

"Erm, please do remind me, is Spiny the one with the spikes?" Aki replies in confusion.

"No, that's Tank. Spiny's the Spinosaurus… Hence his name… 'Spiny'-"

"I get it, Rex." Aki quickly replies before turning back to her son. "As awful as that sounds, Max, I at least want you to have a good time when we go over to the ship for the huge Thanksgiving feast Jonathan and Ulga are making." At that moment, Aki's phone rang as she quickly answered it. "Hello-"

"ZE NAME IS HELGA! Auf Wiederhören." Helga says before hangin up, leaving a confused Aki standing in her place.

"How did she get my number?" she wonders aloud.

"Speaking of which, I better get back home and get ready." Zoe says as she grabs her backpack. "Thanks for letting me help decorate, Mrs. Taylor." She waves as she walks towards the door, Aki following her.

"Oh, thank you Zoe for helping me." she says as she opens the door for the pinkette. "As lovely as my two boys are, those two aren't really good at decorating."

"Hey! We tried our best!" Spike defended the two of them.

"Yeah, I even decorated my room!" Max exclaims.

"I'm pretty sure throwing a few leaves in your room doesn't count as 'decorating', Max." Rex replies in a deadpan tone.

"You're one to talk. You haven't even decorated your room." Max grumbles as he crosses his arms and pouts the other direction.

"You haven't even seen my room yet!"

Zoe and Aki simply sighed, both somewhat amused yet annoyed at the boy's antics before Zoe headed out the door. "I'll see you later tonight, Mrs. Taylor! You too, Mr. Taylor and Rex!" she waves as she walks out the door.

"What about me?" Max asks, pointing to himself. Zoe said nothing as she just stared at the brunette… before walking out of the house, leaving a pouting Max behind. "Ooooooh. She's lucky she's cute otherwise I would've… done… something really bad… Maybe draw an L on her forehead. I don't know."

"Wow, Max. You sure know how to get revenge." Rex sarcastically replies.

In response, Max threw the cornucopia right into Rex's face, the large horn thing covering his entire face as he fell down to the ground.

Back outside, Zoe continued to walk down the dimly lit street of Sanjo City at night, currently whistling to herself as she went on with her business. What she didn't notice was a winged creature flying out of a tree and into another, the sound of leaves rustling catching her attention. She turned around to see that there was no one there; doing a double take, she figured she must've imagined the sound or that it was the wind and continued with her walk. The same winged creature suddenly flew out of the tree before landing on top of a telephone pole, still going unnoticed by the pinkette.

Zoe turned around once more, hearing the sound of flapping, now having a more scared yet annoyed expression on her face. Doing another double take, she went back to walking, albeit in a slower, quieter tone so she could hear the possible sounds she was hearing. Indeed, the sounds of flapping and leaves rustling finalized her suspicions as she pulled out her DinoShot, aiming it like it was a gun.

"Who's there?!" she booms. To her surprise, no one was there as she stood underneath the lamp post. Glancing around and realizing she was alone (not really), she placed her DinoShot back into her pocket, still retaining her suspicious expression. "I better call Reese so she could pick me up."

Unfortunately for her, a shadowy, winged creature slowly hovered down before her as their fiery eyes glowed in the dark. She never got a chance to react as the winged creature suddenly covered her mouth with a sweet smelling rag, no doubt chloroform as she struggled in her attacker's grasp. Her muffled cries of help were heard as her DinoShot fell to the ground as she struggled to get out of her attacker's grasp, only to slowly lose consciousness. With one final breath, the chloroform did it's job as she got knocked out unconscious, her limp body falling into her attacker's hands as a familiar chuckle echoed through the night.

"Heh. Heh. Heh. Heh. Heh. Heeeeeeh." her attacker chuckled in the dark.

---

The D-Lab was anything but loud, as the only inhabitants inside were Reese, along with the D-Lab's A.I., Annoying Intelligence, W.E.S.L.E.Y., which they currently had no idea what it stood for. Along with those two were two others, more specifically chibi dinosaurs Terry and Tank, whom were lying next to each other in their doggy beds. In between them was a blue doggy bed that previously housed Spiny, with the two chibi dinosaurs having sadden expressions as they just laid there depressingly. While Reese was working on some obscure work the D-Lab does, seriously I don't know what they do, W.E.S.L.E.Y.'s screen currently showed the DVD logo just bouncing off the walls like vans. Right at that moment, the D-Lab's doors opened as Zander stumbled in in a depressing manner.

"Hey, Reese." he sighs as he walks over to the couch, feeling dizzy after having too much to drink.

The blonde in question turned to the tall man and immediately noticed his awkward walk while also smelling the alcohol reeking off of him. "Are you… drunk?" she asks.

Zander plopped himself down on the couch. "I needed a drink." he replies.

"I think you had more than one."

The tall man sighed as he leaned into the couch. "Do you mind if I stay here with you for a while? Ed and Ursula aren't going back to the apartment until a few hours and I don't feel like going back into the Backland." he asks his crush.

Reese turned to the tall man, feeling sad for him as she has never seen him this depressed before in her life, or at least the time she's known him that is. "You don't even have to ask." she replies in a sweet tone.

Zander couldn't help but smile after hearing this. "God, you're amazing. I wish I could marry you right now, Reese. Have you take care of me during these dark times… I'm glad I met you." he drunkenly says.

Unbeknownst to him, Reese had a massive blush on her face upon the drunken, wishful proposal, actually imagining herself settling down. She was never a romantic person, not once ever having a boyfriend in her life even though she was 26, but hearing someone else spew their feelings towards her in front of her made her heart flutter a bit.

"I'm sorry." Zander lazily replies, realizing what he said.

"No, it's- It's fine." she stammers, quickly going back to work.

"It's the alcohol talking." the tall man says. "You ever drank before?"

"Once when I first got my job at Omni-Tech. I'm a lightweight so one bottle is enough to get me drunk."

"Heh. We all start out like that. It takes Ed a while for him to get drunk since he's so fat, not that he drinks much that is. You know he doesn't think people should drink?"

"He and I both." Reese replies as she types away on her computer.

Zander sighed as he placed a hand on his forehead. "I don't know what I'm gonna do, Reese." he depressingly says. "Spiny was my best friend, believe it or not. He used to sleep with me in my bed at Zeta Point from time to time. Sometimes I'd even ride him while he was full sized." A tear suddenly escaped from his eyes as it fell down his cheek. "God, I miss him." By now, he was practically crying. "I should've done something. I should've called him back… I hope they're not doing anything to him."

Reese stopped her work, admittedly no longer being able to take Zander's crying. Not because she found it annoying, but because she just felt sad for him and seeing him sad… it hurt her. "Zander." she sternly says as she turns to the man. "It's not your fault. Those Black Eagle soldiers and Mr. McCallum took him. They're the ones to blame."

"You don't think I know that?!" Zander yells, startling Reese a bit. "Sorry. I… I didn't mean to yell."

"It's fine." Reese replies, not at all offended by his outburst. She got up from her seat and walked over to the couch he sat on, sitting right next to him as she placed a hand on his thigh to try and comfort him. "I… I'm not good at this, Zander. I've never been a people person as you can tell. I've always been an introvert so… I apologize if I'm not helping you."

"Reese." Zander says as he turns to her. "Just by being here is already cheering me up…" He looked back down again. "I just wish Spiny was here."

Another tear escaped from his eyes as he was suddenly embraced by Reese as she gave him a side hug, although due to his drunken and depressed attitude, he gave no reaction to it. "I promise you, Zander. I'll do whatever I can to help find Spiny. If Mr. McCallum is involved, then I should be able to find out who he works for. Find out who this 'Fist' is."

Zander chuckled slightly as he turned to her after she released him. "You're a good kid, you know that, Reese?" he smiles.

"I'm four years younger than you, Zander." she reminds him.

"Technically you're over 80 years older than me."

"I keep forgetting you and the Alpha Gang are from the future."

Zander suddenly grew a serious yet contemplating expression. "I'm not even sure I want to go back." he thinks aloud.

Reese raised an eyebrow in response. "What do you mean?" she asks.

Zander let out a long sigh in response. "Reese… For years I've been doing whatever I want, taking whatever I want, being your average villainous henchman. Yet, here I am… With dinosaurs… freedom… Yet when I look behind me, looking back at the life I chosen… There's not a single person I love left standing." He turns back to the blonde. "There's nothing waiting for me in the future, Reese. I don't have a family to return to. I don't have friends to stay with. All I have are Ed, Ursula, and Dr. Z. Sure, that might be enough… But it's nothing compared to everyone else around the world… I don't have anything, Reese. There's no point in me going back to the future when all I want in life is here in this time period."

Reese pondered for a moment about what he just said. "And… what is it that you want in life that's here?' she asks.

Zander continued to stare ahead, still avoiding eye contact as he just stared into the distance. "Love." he replies. The two sat together in silence as Reese took in his words while Zander bent forward, rubbing his scalp with his hand. "I miss Spiny." he mumbles after a long sigh.

"You love him that much, huh?" she asks.

"Like I said… he's my best friend."

Reese was silent for a moment as she looked down and pondered deeply. Unfortunately for the two of them, the heartfelt moment was ruined when W.E.S.L.E.Y. slowly floated down in between them, the same dumb fucking grin on his face.

~Reese and Zander sitting in a car. H. U. M. P. I. N. G.~

"Shut up, W.E.S.L.E.Y.." the two of them grumble at the same time.

---

Zoe's head pounded, having a head for ten as she slowly regained her vision and hearing. The last thing she remembered was walking home and someone covering her mouth as she smelt something sweet before passing out. She grumbled and groaned in pain as she rubbed her head, slowly regaining consciousness as she sat up.

"Ugh. What happened?" she asks. She then realized where, or more specifically, WHAT she was in. "What the?" Zoe was revealed to be in a large, glass cube with no air holes whatsoever. She stood up and looked out the cube, revealing that she was in some sort of field somewhere in the world as she began to knock on the glass. "Why am I in a… cube?" Right at that moment, a daffodil suddenly floated down from the air after spawning literally from thin air before landing in front of her. "Where'd that flower come from?"

The daffodil suddenly exploded as purple smoke filled the cube as Zoe began coughing up a storm from the smoke. On the upside, it smelt like grapes. At that moment, the sound of a vacuum starting up was heard as the smoke began to disappear as she slowly gained back her vision and was able to breathe.

"What the heck is going on?!" she shouts in utter anger.

"What's that sound?" asks a familiar, egotistical and self proclaimed evil voice that she immediately recognized. "Is it the sound of knuckles knocking on a giant glass cube because they were trapped inside with limited air? It might just be." Goma then suddenly floated down next to Zoe, a sadistic smirk on his face. "Oh wait, mortal. Where are your knuckles? LOOK DOWN! THAT'S RIGHT! IT WAS YOU TRAPPED IN THE GLASS CUBE THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME!"

"God damnit. Goma. What do you want?" Zoe asks, obviously annoyed by the humanoid alien.

"Foolish mortal! You cannot comprehend what Goma wants nor desires! You are Goma's prisoner in this glass prison, forced to endure the end of your days AS YOU SUFFOCATE! HAHAHAHAAAAA! Or… at least until your friends come to rescue you."

"Goma. Let me out. I have a Thanksgiving dinner to prepare for." Zoe says, not at all intimidated by the threat.

"What part of 'being Goma's prisoner' did you not understand, mortal? You aren't going anywhere! HAHAHAHAAAAA!"

"I'm serious! Let me out!"

"NEVER! Your comrades must rescue you first! And then I shall let you go, maybe. It depends how Goma feels." Goma admits, scratching his cheek.

"I don't have time to play games." Zoe replies with an eye roll.

"Aaaaah, yes! Life IS a game! Where you can go to college and mess up with unplanned pregnancy and start a family of 12! Before losing it all to bankruptcy! Or at least until someone makes it to the end of the goal. I'm not sure how the board game works." Goma shly admits before regaining his 'evil' composure. "I would not waste your precious air, mortal. There is a limited supply!"

"Are you serious?" Zoe asks, not at all believing a word he's saying.

"Do you see any holes in this cube, mortal?" Goma rhetorically asks as he smirks at the pinkette.

Zoe immediately began looking around. Sure enough, there were no air holes in the cube, meaning she did in fact have limited air. "Okay… Now I'm actually kind of getting scared."

"EXCELLENT! Now you shall wait until your friends show up and rescue you!" Goma booms. The two of them then stood in silence, literally waiting for Max and Rex to show up. "Aaaaaaaany minute now…" Goma says, still waiting for their arrival. "Hold on, I don't think I sent them the message yet."

"Are you KIDDING ME?!" Zoe shouts.

"No problem, mortal! I shall deliver this message as soon as possible!"

"And what about me?! I NEED AIR! How much air do I even have anyway?!"

Goma remained silent as he just stared at the pinkette. "I'll let you figure that out yourself." He says before his gauntlet begins to glow purple. "ZANX FOF NYUM!"

And with that, Goma disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke, leaving Zoe all alone in the giant glass cube that was literally floating in the sky for some obscure reason. "I really hate that guy." she mumbles in anger.

---

Rex was shown typing away on his laptop as he scrolled through whatever website he was on, his room decorated with the same autumn-like leaves all around his room, completed with a turkey plushie fitted with a plushie knife on it's back. At that moment, Max entered his room, not even bothering to knock as he just barged right in, holding a brown and orange sweater in his hands.

"Hey, Rex. Which sweater do you think I should wear at the dinner party? The brown one or the orange one?" he asks, raising both sweaters upon saying so.

Rex turned to his friend with a confused expression. "Since when do you care about what you wear?" he asks.

"I don't. I just wanted an excuse to barge into your room and invade your personal space and privacy." Max shrugs as he carelessly throws the sweaters behind him. "What're you doing?"

Rex turned back to his computer screen. "Doing some research on those Black Eagle guys we met the other day. Look at this." Max walked over to his desk and examined the screen as Rex began reading whatever article was on it. "It says here Black Eagle Security is a private security composed of discharged soldiers. Both honorable and dishonorable. It also says it's well known for breaking many human right laws, often killing civilians whether by accident or not during many of their missions."

"Why haven't they been shut down?" Max asks.

"Because they're the largest private security company in the world. You know how many lawyers they have? We'll need concrete proof if anyone were to shut them down."

"God, I hate the law and justice system." Max mumbles in anger. "Who's it run by? Maybe they're The Fist?"

Rex turned back to his computer. "Says here James Averiers owns 87% of the company." he reveals.

"Who owns the other 13%?"

"Someone named Nash Sullivan. Former SEAL soldier now owner of the largest wildlife preserve that he 'supposedly' often uses as a competitive animal fight ring… At least that's what the allegations section says of his Wikipedia page says so."

"That's horrible!"

"Yeah. No kidding." Rex agrees. "He often pairs up endangered species as a way of 'playing God' with nature. At least, that's what a former member of Black Eagle said before he mysteriously 'disappeared' according to this article."

"How much do you want to bet The Fist hired someone to kill him?" Max asks.

"I'll take 500 Alex."

Before they could discuss more, Aki knocked on Rex's door before popping her head in. "Max. Rex. Francis is here to see you." she says with a smile.

"Shut the door on him and tell him we're not here." Max immediately replies.

"What does he want?" Rex instead asks, curious as to why he was here.

"I don't know. All he said was, 'Goma sent me'. What name is that? Nigerian? Egyptian? European?" Aki asks.

"Oh great. More bad news." Max sarcastically replies.

The two made their way to the front door where Francis, wearing an orange sweater with a hand turkey on it, stood there, with a letter in his hand. "Hi Max. Hi Rex." he greets the two of them.

"What do you want, Frankie?" Max asks in sheer annoyance.

"Please don't call me that." Francis politely asks.

"Shut up, Frankie."

"Okay." Francis replies in a sad tone, hanging his head down low depressingly.

"You said Goma sent you? What does he want? Does he want the Gorgosaurus card again because I told him last week he's not getting it." Rex replies with a stern look.

"No, he just told me to give you this." Francis says before handing them a letter. "Say, you having Thanksgiving here-" Max immediately shut the door on Francis, leaving the teen outside in the cold as he just stared into the closed door centimeters away from his face. "Okay." he depressingly says before walking away.

"What does the letter say?" Max asks impatiently.

"I don't know. I haven't opened it yet." Rex replies before opening the envelope. "Okay, I've opened it."

"What does it say?"

Rex unfolded the letter only for a bright light to shine in his eyes, causing him to drop the letter to the ground as a hologram of Goma appeared from it. "Greetings mortals! It is I - Goma, Emperor of the Shadow Kingdom, as a hologram!" The hologram Goma announces dramatically.

"Every time he speaks, I start to hate him more and more." Max mumbles.

"Fuck you."

"Oh. This is live!" Max exclaims in shock, disturbed that he had insulted someone in front of them.

"Is what I would say if you were to say something rude about me!"

"Screw you!"

"You may be wondering why Goma has sent his minion to you to deliver this message! Well, I shall answer that question IN THE FORM OF ANOTHER! Are you missing a cute, annoying pink haired mortal by any chance?"

"I think he means Zoe." Max whispers to the blonde.

"What gave it away?" Rex sarcastically replies.

"BZZZZT! TIME'S UP! The answer is YES! I HAVE kidnapped your mortal friend! And here she is!"

The hologram suddenly turned to Zoe, whom was sitting with an annoyed expression on her face. "Please help me. I don't want to keep listening to this guy anymore. This is truly the ultimate hell." Zoe says, more annoyed than scared.

The hologram then changed back to Goma. "You may be wondering why Goma kidnapped your friend?" he rhetorically asks. "Goma is glad you asked, foolish mortals! Goma has found out that your ignorant species copied our holiday and changed it in reverse! Now your species celebrate Thanksgiving as a way of being thankful and all that mushy crap instead of duking it out on the kitchen table, fighting for the last meat and slaughtering our neighbors!"

"He's right. That is reversed." Max says with lidded eyes.

"So Goma has orchestrated a challenge for you mortals to compete, with your friend as the grand prize! So bring all those beasts with you and try to find me!"

"We don't even know where he is. He could literally be anywhere at this moment." Max says to the blonde.

"Colder."

"What?"

"Colder… Colder… Colder… Colder… Cold-"

"Why is he saying 'colder'?" Max asks with a raised brow.

Rex took a few steps out of the house before heading out to the sidewalk where he turned to the left. "Warmer… Waaaaarmeeeeeer."

"Oh, don't tell me he's playing 'Hot & Cold'!" Max yells in frustration.

"I'm playing 'Cold & Hot' by the way."

"OH COME ON! HE DIDN'T EVEN SAY IT RIGHT!"

Rex sighed in defeat as he hung his head low. "I'll call the Alpha Gang." he mumbles in annoyance.

"Warmer."

---

As jarring as the sight of a crashed spaceship on the side of your city's hill, Sanjo City's citizens were actually quite uncaring of it. Once they saw it crash, they did nothing about it, seeing it as just apart of their city now. That and they were just too lazy to do anything. As evident by a homeless man currently tripping out on some obscure drug (it's Fentanyl) as he was currently losing his balance. He suddenly fell backwards as he leaned up against the Backland, completely in another universe.

At that moment, a man suddenly approached the homeless addict. Singing by the way. "What da hell? No waaaaa-aaaaa-yeeeeee-eee-eeeeeeee! Oooooooh woooooo-aaaaaaaaah! What da heeeeeeeee-eeeeeell." the man sang in a beautiful, perfect pitch. "My boy! Yo, you good?"

Currently inside the crashed Backlander II, Dr. Cretacia and several Alpha Droids were busy preparing the dinner table, having a similar cornucopia on the table right smack in the middle. There were place mats in front of… Hold on, I gotta do some math real quick. Let's see, D-Team plus Alpha Gang equals 6, add Dr. Z, Rod and Laura which makes it 9. Gotta add the Taylors so Spike and Aki make it 11, the Drakes add three more to the mix, Dr. Drake, Mrs. Drake, and Reese, which now makes it 14. Add Rex and his parents which makes it 16, minus they're not androids. Hmmm. Yes. 18. THEY'RE ALL LEGAL NOW! There are currently 18 SEATS, counting the two androids even though I subtracted them but who cares cuz my math is suck… What was I talking about again?

"You know what I love about Thanksgiving, honey?" Dr. Cretacia asks as she hangs a stuffed turkey above the table.

"I don't understand why we're putting up so many decorations for some obscure, underrated holid- It's not even a holiday! It's just a day friends and family get together and have dinner and be thankful! I mean, the day afterwards, we're stomping all over grandma to get the new XBox after we just told her the previous night how thankful we are to have a nice grandma like her. I mean, for crying out loud, Cheryl, the history of Thanksgiving is dark. Why are we decorating for it anyway?" Dr. Ancient goes off on a rant.

"It's because the very next month, it's Christmas! And that's 1000x better than Thanksgiving!" Dr. Cretacia exclaims happily as she swung around on the giant turkey decoration she just hung up.

Behind her, the defective Alpha Droid could be seen chasing another Alpha Droid while his head was stuck in a giant turkey head… for some reason. ~YOU FUCKING STUPID BITCH! THIS STUPID FUCKING JUSTICE! ALL FUCKING RIGHTEOUS FUCKING NI-~ Thankfully, the Alpha Droid left the room before it could finish it's screaming.

"Jonathan, how's dinner coming along?" Dr. Ancient tiredly asks, his chaotic life slowly getting the best of him.

Jonathan stuck his head out from the kitchen as he wore a chef's hat and an apron that said 'KISS THE ROBOT CHEF'. "Preparations are almost complete, Master Ancient. But it appears we have burnt through three turkeys already." the android replies with little surprise in his tone at all as if it was the most casualist thing ever.

Helga then stuck her head from the kitchen as well. "I don't know vat's going on. It's like ze oven is not cooperating viz me." Helga replies.

Dr. Cretacia suddenly descended down via the hanging turkey before landing next to her husband. "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" she asks.

"Oh, I found ze problem!" Helga calls out from the kitchen. "Zere's a bit of nuclear fuel in zis oven. Has Dr. Z been messing wiz ze kitchen applicants again? Let me just take out zis nuclear rod." Right afterwards, an explosion was heard as smoke emitted from the kitchen, covering Jonathan in soot as he just stood there unaffected. "On ze bright side, I've fixed ze oven. On ze bad side, I broke ze oven."

"Nothing but some android power can't fix." Jonathan replies as he cracks his knuckles, causing a metallic crack sound to emit from them. "This should be fixed in a giffy. Don't worry, Dr. Cretacia. Those pies and turkey will be ready to go in the next hour."

"As long as the pies are fine, that's all that matters!" Dr. Cretaica waves with a smile.

At that moment, the same enraged Alpha Droid was shown still chasing the other Alpha Droid. ~I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD I'M GONNA FIND OUT-~

Right at that moment, the automatic doors opened revealing Dr. Z carrying in a knapsack that contained some large object inside, currently struggling due to his old age. "Grrr! Grrrr! Grrrr! Grrrraaaaaah! *toot*" Dr. Z grunts before farting, throwing the knapsack to the floor. "I brought us dinner! I was the one who killed it. Shut up, it was a team effort." Dr. Z says to his other self.

"What is that, doctor?" Dr. Ancient cautiously asks, noting the blood seeping from the sack.

"Isn't it obvious?" Dr. Z asks before opening up the bag, revealing the contents inside. "TA-DA!"

Needless to say, the two Ancients were not pleased to see the contents. "OH MY GOD!" Dr. Ancient yells in shock.

"OOOH!" Dr. Cretacia groans in disgust.

"WHY DID YOU KILL A TURKEY?! AND WHY IS IT'S HEAD NEARLY BITTEN OFF?! AND WHY IS IT NOT FROZEN?!" the male Ancient loudly shouts.

"I figured I'd catch tonight's dinner like a true dinosaur king. Seeing how I'm now 17.9999999999999999999% dinosaur, I must ACT like a dinosaur! So I went over to the nearest farm and hunted the biggest, juiciest turkey ever! The chase. It was… Magnificent. The taste and smell of blood as I sank my fangs into it's neck, watching it's life fade from it's eyes, struggling from my death grip, as I choke the living LIFE OUT OF THE- That's enough, Bartholomew."

"Dr. Z, we can't have that for dinner! It's a raw turkey! You need to skin it and freeze it and all that!" Dr. Ancient yells, more in disgust rather than anger

"Do not worry, Danny. I can skin the flesh off it's bones and pluck all of it's feathers out with my fangs. That won't be necessary, Bartholomew. We are not savages."

"And yet, you hunted a literal turkey… It's head is about to lose itself. I can see the thread of skin about to give." Dr. Cretacia says as she points to the bag.

"Go throw that thing away now! We're not having that for dinner!" Dr. Ancient scolds the old doctor.

"Fine! I'll just give it to Spi- Er, Terry! Or better yet, screw the dinosaurs! I'll give it to Bartholomew!" And just like that, Dr. Z bent forward and began to feast on the corpse of the dead turkey, or Bartholomew given how his eyes were now lizard-like and no longer human. "Tastes just like chicken."

"If you're going to eat a corpse, do it outside at least. Give it to the guy outside tripping out Fentanyl. I don't care." Dr. Ancient tiredly tells the mutant as he pointed to the door. Bartholomew growled before grabbing the corpse and dragging it outside of the room, leaving a trail of blood behind while also leaving the bloody knapsack in the room. "Cheryl, one of these days, I'm telling you… I'm gonna take his life."

"That's hot." Dr. Cretacia mumbles with a flirtatious smile.

Dr. Ancient merely shot his wife a disturbed look. The moment was, thankfully, interrupted when Ursula and Ed came walking into the room. "Have any of you seen, Zander?" she asks. "We've been trying to call him all day but he's not answering."

"We went to the bar he said he was going to but all we found was a drunken Welsh man with luscious blonde lockes." Ed adds.

"Why would we know where he is?" Dr. Cretacia asks.

The two stood there in silence, realizing she had a point. "I don't know." Ed mumbled.

At that moment, Ursula's Alpha Scanner began beeping, prompting her to take the scanner and answer the call, to which it was revealed to be Rex. "Ed. Ursula. We have a problem… Well, not really a problem, more of a nuisance." Rex says.

"Have you found Zander?" Ed asks in a hopeful tone.

"Nnnnno? But Goma kidnapped Zoe and now he wants all of us to go rescue her." Rex replies with half lidded eyes, obviously still annoyed by the humanoid alien's antics.

"Why should I rescue her?! She keeps calling me an old lady!" Ursula shouts in anger.

"I'll pay you 40 bucks."

"Deal."

"Ed?"

"I mean, I had no objections to begin with." Ed replies.

"Wait, hold on. What do you mean 'have we found Zander?'?" Max asks, going back to the first comment.

"So where's Zoe being held at?" the greenette asks with a raised eyebrow and a disinterested look.

"I don't know. We have to play 'Hot & Cold' apparently." Max replies with a shrug.

Ursula just glared at the screen while Ed just blankly stared at it, both in silence after hearing what the brunette said. "Are you freaking kidding me?" she asks in annoyance.

"Oooh! I love that game! It's next to my all time favorite, Life!" Ed exclaims in glee.

Max shoved his way into the screen. "Hey! I like that game too!" he exclaims.

"Now's not the time guys." Rex sternly says to the two. "Apparently Zoe has limited air so if we don't rescue her we could actually, literally lose her."

"Fine! We'll help you. It's better than staying here watching Dr. Z munch on a dead turkey." Ursula grumbles.

The two teens sat in silence as they shot the screen blank looks. "What?" Max asks with a raised brow.

---

About an hour later, the two Alpha Gang members met up with both Rex and Max as the four of them were currently playing Hot & Cold via the hologram of Goma that was given to the two kids. By now, the sun was already beginning to set as a beautiful orange sky lit up the area as the four were now walking in the city park. The four members could be seen as silhouettes as they trudged through the park, already getting tired of the hologram saying the same thing over and over again.

"Warmer… Warmer… Warmer… Warmer."

"I've actually gotten used to this by this point." Ursula mumbles.

"RED HOT! OH BABY, YOU'RE ON FIRE, MAMA!"

The four looked up in the sky only to grow shocked expressions once they saw the glass cube just floating in the sky, defying all laws of physics. "How did we miss this?" Rex asks in befuddlement.

At that moment, a cloud of purple smoke appeared in front of them as Goma rose from the smoke. "I AM HERE! TALKING LOUDLY AND EVILY! MWA HA HA HAAAA!" Goma laughs 'evilly'.

"Alright, Goma. We're here. Can you release Zoe now?" Rex asks in an agitated tone.

"FOOLISH MORTALS!" Goma interjects dramatically. "You have not even trialed through Goma's Thanksgiving Brawl that he calls, UNTHANKSTAKING! WHERE WE TAKE. EACH OTHER'S. LIVES! HAAAAAAA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAA!"

"We're not killing anyone!" Rex sternly says with a glare.

Goma in response blew a raspberry at him. "Ooooh, phewy! You humans always have to drown the fun in everything." he says in a bitter tone. "But it doesn't matter! You are forced to oblige every one of my commands! Because if you don't, your friend will DIE!"

Goma then pointed to Zoe in the giant glass cube, whom was now walking around in a stagger. "Oh, hey boys. How's it going/" she asks in a delirious tone.

"Is she alright?" Rex asks with a raised brow.

"Oh, I've been in this cube for a half hour now so my brain is really deprived of oxygen so I can't even put my sowerfdksfsjifhkosfhjd. ;/fds…."

"W- What?" Ed stammers.

"Oh God. She's slowly losing her mind from the lack of air." Rex says in a worried tone.

"It's like a plastic bag except it's a giant glass cube. Can you tell me where the bathroom is? I don't feel so well." Zoe asks before puking in the glass cube.

"Yeah, no. She's slowly dying in there. We need to do something." Rex mumbles.

"Don't worry, Zoe! I'll save you!" Max loudly exclaims in a heroic manner.

He suddenly took off his boot and threw it as hard as he could at the glass cube… only for it to barely touch the cube due to it being high in the air. His boot fell to the ground below where it passed a floating Goma, whom just stared at boot and Max in a mixture of surprise and disappointment.

"Why? Why would you do that?" Goma asks in surprise.

"Alright, it's clear you're not gonna release her so what do we have to do besides kill each other?" Rex asks.

"Plan A did not work according to plan, but Plan B will be your doom! Behold!" Goma then pointed to the ground where a large cage was shown, where the sounds of clucking from turkeys were heard. "In this cage is the aviary species your species eat on this day: TURKEYS!"

As if on cue, the cages opened as several pissed off looking turkeys were massive muscles came running out, all clucking aggressively as some got into a fight with one another. "Oh my God!" Ursula exclaims in shock.

"Yes! Cower mortals!"

"What's wrong with these turkeys?!" Max exclaims.

"Goma found their initial design to be petty and pathetic, so Goma amped up their power with a substance your human scientist calls, D-BAL MAX! HAHAHAAAAA!"

"You gave those turkey's steroids?! Why would you do that?!" the greenette shouts in utter confusion.

"To make Goma's challenge more challenging!" Goma loudly replies. "You see, mortal, if I were to utter a single word of today's challenge, your petty minds will explode and you will be dead! This challenge is your worst fear! IT'S DOUBLE SPACED!"

At that moment, Goma snapped his fingers as four pieces of papers suddenly poofed into existence into the hands of the four, confusing them at first. "Seriously! How are you doing this?!" Rex asks, baffled at Goma's seemingly limitless, yet simultaneously useless, powers.

"'Dear, mortals. Today's challenge is all about harvesting.'... What?" Ed questions.

"For the first challenge, you must gather all these hellbent, buffed turkeys that go to the gym into your goals! The Goals of FIRE!" Goma then pointed to several goals, which were just large incinerators stuck in the middle of two pens, red and blue for both teams. "You will be split into teams of two! Which is perfect, because I don't even like the number three! It's stupid!"

"If we do this, will you let Zoe go?" Max asks.

"But of course, mortal. Goma is nothing if not reliable." Goma replies with a wicked smile.

"I somehow doubt that." Rex replies.

"So I guess we're fighting you two again in capturing…" Max turned to the various turkeys, whom were all either in fist fights with each other or lifting weights they somehow got out of nowhere. "…steroid… ridden… turkeys… This is, by far, OFFICIALLY, THE weirdest day… in my life."

"Goma!" Ursula calls out.

"Yes, yes. I know. It's funny." Goma says as he was talking on some sort of alien phone. "Oh wait, hold on, Spock. Some loser is talking to me." With that, he hung up the phone. "FOOLISH MORTAL! You shall use your beasts in capturing these turkeys and whoever wins gets to move on to the second and final CHALLENGE!"

"Wait, there's only two challenges?! That's really dumb!" Max cries out in anger.

"YOU'RE DUMB! Anywho… GET TO WORK, MORTALS!" With that, Goma teleported into the glass cube that Zoe was in, lying on a couch he summoned with a box of popcorn and cream soda. "This should be fun to watch. You want some popcorn, mortal?" Zoe glanced at the bucket of popcorn before weakly reaching out for one, only for Goma to take it away at the second before she could even take a single piece of popcorn. "PSYCHE! HA HA HAHAAA! I am soooo evil!"

"Well, I guess we don't have a choice." Max says as he and Rex grab their DinoShots.

"DINO/ALPHA SLASH!"

All four dinosaurs roared into the air as Chomp and Ace faced their opponents, Terry and Tank respectively. "On my mark, feeble humans, you shall capture the aviaries. 5! 4! 3! 2!… 2 ½… 1! Gogogogogogo! They're running! They're running! Try to catch them!" With that, he fired a purple laser from his gauntlet into the air, striking the glass cube before coming back down onto his bucket of popcorn, instantly burning it. "Awwww."

"Even though these turkeys are pretty much horrific experiments when playing with both God and nature, this should be easy." Max arrogantly says as he cracks his fingers. As if God himself heard him, one of the turkeys suddenly barfed yellow acid, which instantly melted the grass before melting all the way down to the core of the earth. Needless to say, Max grew a fearful expression upon seeing this. "Fuck." he grumbles upon realizing his mistake.

---

Meanwhile, back at the D-Lab, Reese was now continuing her work after her heartfelt talk with Zander. Speaking of the tall man, Reese turned her head to see that he had fallen asleep on the couch, not necessarily lying on it but leaning on the armrest. For a moment, Reese took her eyes off her work to stare at the sleeping man, watching his stomach go up and down in a steady motion as light snores came from him. The blonde smiled, happy that Zander was at least getting some sleep, albeit worried about the hangover he would have the next day. Seeing how it was November in Japan, she knew it would get cold at night so she quickly got up from her seat to go fetch the Alpha Gang member a blanket.

Eventually, she came back with a fuzzy, golden blanket where she immediately placed it on the sleeping man, whom grew a smile before snuggling up with the blanket. Reese just stared down at the man peacefully sleeping on the couch, smiling at him. She would never dare admit it but for some reason, she was growing fond of Zander. Maybe it was his constant flirting or the fact he was the first guy to ever notice her before. Although truth be told, Reese always knew Zander to be a softy ever since he sacrificed the Parasaurolophus cards in Mexico two years ago, nothing what a heartless crook would do. And after hearing his drunken rant about his lonely life, saying he has no family, how no one is waiting for him back home, how Spiny was his only best friend, she knew deep down inside, Zander was a broken man yearning for love.

She had to admit, she didn't really find him physically attractive, although secretly she loved his tall stature and his lanky build. And those sunglasses did make him seem kind of cool in a 'trying too hard' type of way, mostly because she knew he was the type to try and impress someone in an exaggerated fashion. And that's what she liked about him. His quirkiness. His love for dinosaurs, even though he was working with a mad scientist, and his soft character as he tried to make himself look big and bad and scary. She knew he wasn't a villain, nor a heartless monster, but a man who just wants to be apart of something. She took pity on him, much like a kid joining the wrong crowd because he just wanted a friend. Now here he was. Her ally, working both with her and her sister along with her friends. She knew he changed for the better, and that's what she was most proud of in the end.

Call her crazy… but she could very well be falling for the poor man.

A yawn suddenly escaped her jaws before turning back to the supercomputer, promptly turning it off before walking over to the couch with Zander. She lifted the blanket before positioning herself underneath it, secretly snuggling up against the tall man for warmth as she placed her glasses on the nightstand beside the couch. With another yawn, she closed her eyes as she leaned on Zander's shoulder as a sort of pillow before closing her eyes. Cute, light snores came from her as she instantly fell asleep next to the tall man, the two of them now sleeping next to each other on the couch. The two stayed like that for a while before W.E.S.L.E.Y. floated down from the ceiling, the same dumb fucking grin on his face as he watched the two sleep together.

One might think W.E.S.L.E.Y. would do something annoying like blare an alarm in the two's ears, but not for this occasion. The A.I.'s screen briefly became static as his annoying grin turned to a more heartfelt smile; he hovered in front of the two before silently taking a photo of them. At that moment, a polaroid picture emitted from the slot on his box before falling to the floor, showing both Reese and Zander sleeping next to each other. W.E.S.L.E.Y.'s screen suddenly changed to a picture of a rainforest, with raindrops on his screen as he silently played the ambient sound of rain gently falling as crickets filled in the void.

The D-Lab was now dark as W.E.S.L.E.Y. continued to play soft, calming ambient nature music as the two adults slept soundly next to each other.

---

Back at the park, the steroid filled turkeys continued to run around as the dinosaurs continued to chase them, with Ace and Terry taking bites at them, either to scare them or eat them respectively. The two teams continued to try and herd the turkeys into the incinerators, basically herding them to their death. This is Goma after all so there's gotta be death and doom involved. A lot of insecurity.

"Thatta boy, Chomp! Herd those… turkeys… I could literally be doing anything else right now. Why am I doing this?" Max rhetorically asks in a shameful tone.

"Because you have a crush on Zoe." Rex smugly reminds him.

"Gee. Thanks Rex." Max grumbles.

One of the turkeys continued to cluck as Terry suddenly caught it in his mouth, immediately swallowing the turkey whole. "TERRY! Don't eat them! You're supposed to throw them in the fire!" Ursula shouts at her dinosaur.

"Any dead turkey that isn't from the incinerator from the underworld is deductible by 5 points!" Goma announces from the air, having teleported out of the glass cube that held Zoe.

"How many points are the turkeys in general?" Ed asks with a raised brow.

"2 points! The Alpha Turkey is worth 10 points." Goma answers.

"HAHA! You hear that, brats?! The Alpha Turkey! Right up our alley!" Ursula arrogantly shouts at the two teens before turning to the alien. "So what does the Alpha Turkey look like?"

"That." the purple alien points to the side.

The two Alpha Gang members turned to the direction only to grow shocked expressions. Sure enough, there was an extra buff looking turkey marching down the field with two other turkeys both in the back and in front of him. The Alpha Turkey strut down the field, his character brimming with confidence as he pretty much marched like he own the place, all while a toothy, chad-like toothy grin was on his face. The Alpha Turkey was no doubt the Alpha thanks to his extra muscles, as well as the fact that Why Not by Ghostface Playa was playing in the background as he continued to march in the park like he owned the place, like absolutely nothing could stop him. Every step he took was radiating power and dominance over everyone in the field.

"If God had wanted you to have Thanksgiving, he would not have created me!." the Alpha Turkey somehow spoke in John Michael Higgins' voice.

"That is one buff looking turkey." Ursula mumbles, unable to take the Alpha Turkey's chad-like character.

The buff turkey trio continued to strut down the park, the Alpha Turkey making every single other turkey so insignificant. That is, until Ace had accidentally caught the turkey in his mouth before eating it, scaring the other two turkeys away.

"Hey! Ace caught the Alpha Turkey! Do we get 10 points?" Rex asks the purple, humanoid alien.

"Wow. Goma was impressed with that one, mortal. You impressed the big dog… 'dude'." Goma imitated his thoughts on how humans spoke.

"Ew." Max mumbles.

"But do we get the points?"

"I don't know! I'm just making up all the rules as I go! Truth be told, I just felt like roasting these aviaries alive because it is Goma's homeworld tradition and he's feeling home sick." Goma says in a sadden tone as a tear escaped from his eye.

"You're sadistic! You know that! Like something is seriously wrong with you if you're burning turkeys alive because you're homesick!" Rex shouts at the alien.

"That and Goma is just so booooooooooored!" Goma dramatically exclaims.

"That's even worse!"

A group of turkeys could be seen running from Tank before the Saichania swung her tail at the group, sending them directly into the incinerator, making the points up to 15-17, D-Team, Alpha Gang respectively. A large, electronic scoreboard was kept track that showed the D-Team's and Alpha Gang's logos along with the numbered points on the glass. All of a sudden, at that moment, a hologram of 3 slot machine appeared on the glass cube.

"OOH! OOH! I love this game! It's called 'Test Your Reality'! Hahaa!" Goma announces as the 3 slot machines began spinning. After it began spinning, the three slots all landed on a picture of a stickman slipping on the floor. "Icy Floor! You never liked them in the game and you won't like 'em in real life! And it's funny BECAUSE I DON'T EVEN LIKE WINTER!"

All of a sudden, all the grass in the park suddenly transformed into ice, prompting the dinosaurs to slip and fall as the humans struggled to keep their balance. "I hate you, Goma! I hate you with all my heart!" Max curses before falling face first into the ice with Rex struggling to keep still.

"I hate you, too! Ooh, I love my fans. They're always so nice." Goma replies, wiping a tear from his eye.

The turkeys were even affected by the slippery floor as some of them literally slid into the Alpha Gang's incinerator, changing the score to 15-25. Ursula would've celebrated if it wasn't for the fact she was holding onto a pole to keep her balance. "I'm starting to think maybe we shouldn't have agreed to the megalomaniac alien with a fetish for speaking in 3rd person!" Ursula shouts as she hugged onto the pole for dear life.

Ed suddenly skated passed her in a graceful manner. "Speak for yourself." he says before hopping and doing a spin. "I knew taking those ice skating lessons would come in handy! If it weren't for Jessica, I would've won that ice skating tournament as well."

"I would not classify my 3rd person talking as a 'fetish'. It's more a personal choice stemmed from my traumatic childhood filled with harassment and abandonment from friends and family alike-"

"WHO ASKED YOU?!" Ursula shouts at the alien.

"Uh, Max? A little help here?" Rex asks as he struggles to keep his balance.

Max simply slid passed him, face first into the ice and ass in the air. "You're on your own, buddy." he tells him.

Tank and Ace could be seen running in place due to the icy ground below them, with Ace grabbing a passing turkey and throwing it into the incinerator. Several turkeys could be seen running away as Chomp chased them away before using his horns to toss them all into the incinerator, making the score 24-25.

"You guys have 30 seconds before the match is over! Who will win?! My money is the Alpha Team." Goma says to Zoe, whom looked like she was about to pass out any second now.

"I can't feel my …"

"You're so oxygen deprived, it's even affecting your speech! It's amazing! I LOVE WATCHING HUMANS SLOWLY DIE! Right after poker night. Goma loves black jack."

"I prefer Jack Black. He voices a good panda." Ed says, before slamming face first into a pole. "OOMPH!" Ed pulled his head back only to reveal that his tongue was stuck to the frozen pole."Awwwww maaaaaaan. Thith thucks. Urthula! Can you help me?"

"Help yourself! I'm trying to throw turkeys into an incinerator!" Ursula shouts before throwing a literal turkey into the incinerator, making the score 24-26.

"10 SECONDS!"

Terry roared as he swung his tail at a group of turkeys, sending them flying into the incinerator, making the score 24-30. Ace suddenly ran passed the incinerator before tossing several turkeys into his own incinerator with his head, now tying the score to 30-30.

"5! 4! 3- Aw screw it. TIME'S UP!" Goma shouts as purple electricity crackles at his fingertips. He suddenly shot out purple lightning bolts from his fingertips that instantly struck the remaining turkeys, turning them into literal Thanksgiving turkeys. "Alright. Goma's not gonna lie. That was reaaaaaaaally good. You did it, mortals! You managed to tie a game that means so little to me! It's funny because this is how we celebrate Thanksgiving on my homeworld."

With that said, all the ice disappeared as everyone regained their balance, aside from Ed, whom still had his tongue stuck to the pole. "Awwww." he says in a depressed tone.

"Okay." Max says, wiping some dirt off of his clothes. "So, it's quite obvious we tied. I'm not complaining. I'm just saying if I were actually trying… I would've won… Totally. I would've kicked all of your butts." Max pretentiously proclaims as he flexes his collar fitted with an arrogant smile.

"We played your stupid game, Goma! Can you release Zoe now?" Rex asks the purple alien.

"FOOLS!" Goma shouts dramatically. "You are not done with Goma's challenge! You have the second and FINAL CHALLENGE! IIIIIIIT'S… Hold on, let me check." Goma suddenly pulled out a piece of paper as well as some reading glasses as he began to read the piece of paper. "Huh. It says here your next challenge is beating me up… Why'd I put that in there?"

"Are you serious?! We're not done?!" Max shouts in anger.

"Whatever!" Goma replies before tossing his glasses and piece of paper away. "Feeble humans are obviously no match against me! Goma - Emperor of the Shadow Kingdom! And what's an emperor without his own priminitive, somewhat tamed beast! BEHOLD!"

Goma suddenly pulled out a dinosaur card before placing it on his chest plate which instantly disintegrated. At the same time, a hexagon baring the Space Pirates' symbol appeared on the ground as a fully grown Eocarcharia spawned into the battlefield. As soon as it spawned, it roared mightly into the air as the Space Pirates' symbol appeared on it's forehead. Needless to say, the four humans were shocked upon seeing this.

"WHAT THE?!" Ursula shouts in shock.

"That's bullcrap! You're cheating! You can't do that!" Max loudly booms at the alien while pointing his finger at him.

"WHERE'D DO YOU EVEN GET A DINOSAUR CARD?!" Rex shouts in utter confusion.

"If you must know, Goma bought it online!" Goma loudly replies. "Francis taught me about online trading and I traded boobymaster5009's beast card with Francis' college money! Now he'll never go to Harvard! HAAAAAA HA HA HAAAAAAA! I am sooo, soooo EVIL! Granted, I owe over $14,000 to the Russian Mafia now for this card. They said they'll cut off Goma's head if I don't pay them back."

"Great. Now we have a dinosaur to deal with." Ursula grumbles in anger as she crosses her arms and pouts.

"Thith thday jutht ithn't our thday." Ed lisps.

Goma's Eocarcharia roared at the four dinosaurs as they all got into battle ready positions. "Cower, mortals!" Goma shotus. "For you'll never best Goma and his primitive beast! I have named him after your human God known for breaking into your domain and eating your snacks! Because he will do the same thing and destroy your home and eat your food AND you! I named him… SANTA!"

Goma's Eocarcharia, now named Santa (yes, I'm calling him that now) roared into the air, as if it was proud of being named after a fat man with multiple B&E charges. Needless to say, the name was so stupid, it stunned the four into utter silence before Ursula suddenly shouted, "SANTA?!"

"Santa!" Goma replied.

Santa then roared into the air. (Santa!) it says in it's own dinosaur language.

Ursula simply just put her Alpha Scanner away and dramatically raised her arms in the air. "That's it. I'm out of here. There's only so much stupid I can take for a day." she says as he begins to walk away.

Her plans were thwarted when Rex grabbed her cape, only to get dragged with her due to his lack of muscles. Luckily, Max stepped in… literally, by stepping on Ursula's cape, stopping her flee from stupidity.

"I hate you two." she grumbles at them.

*Mysterio's theme from Spider-Man (2000) plays*

Goma suddenly teleported on top of Santa's head, an evil toothy grin on his face as he flapped his cape behind him. "Cower mortals, for this day shall be your last!" he proclaims to the four. "You will not survive the benevolent, unquenchable rage of Goma! Today will be your DOOM!"

Santa roared into the air before Goma teleported off of him, the entire field transforming into the prehistoric battlefield the last time they fought him. The four dinosaurs all got into battle ready positions as they all roared themselves, with the humans tightly gripping their own summoning devices. Santa suddenly charged forward, jaws gaping wide open as Terry charged at his opponent. In a move surprising everyone, the Eocarcharia latched his jaws around Terry's throat and swung him around before tossing him away, tripping Chomp with his tail before biting down onto Ace's neck. Tank suddenly came charging in only for Santa to throw the Carnotaurus at her, stopping her charge.

Chomp was in the middle of getting up when suddenly the carnivore latched onto his frill, earning a loud yell from the Triceratops before he was suddenly lifted into the air. Shortly afterwards, Santa charged forwards before slamming Chomp right on top of both Ace and Tank, earning painful roars from them. The Eocarcharia suddenly heard stomping from behind him, prompting him to swing his tail as Terry charged forward, his razor sharp teeth gaping. Santa's tail managed to trip Terry before he kicked him into the three other dinosaurs, knocking them down like bowling pins while sending them flying.

"How is a stupidly named dinosaur of obscure and questionable origins this good at fighting?" Ursula asks in utter disbelief.

"Pros and cons… Cons and pros? Maybe it's stupid name balances it's good fighting skills?" Rex guesses.

Ed suddenly pulled the pole off of his tongue after it had thawed out. "Heeeeeey! I'm free!" he cheers.

"RUSH B! RUSH B! RUSH B!" Max suddenly ordered the dinosaurs in a frantic tone.

All four dinosaurs began charging once again as Santa the Eocarcharia roared at his opponents, ready for their attacks. Meanwhile, up in the air, Goma was shown smirking evily down at his enemies, his wings flapping in the air as he suddenly pulled out a fire move card.

"Burn fools! FIRESTORM!" Goma announces before activating the move card on his chest plate.

"Wait! He has a move card?! Where did he get a move card?!" Rex shouts in utter confusion.

"INTERNET!"

Santa suddenly formed fire in his mouth before blasting a continuous line of fireballs into the air before gravity took control as all the fire balls began to fall down, as if it was raining fire. The four dinosaurs all stopped before scattering in a frantic panic as fireballs began to fall down onto them, crashing onto the ground while setting the grass on fire. Needless to say, this pretty much activated the dinosaurs' PTSD due to their last moments before extinction as they all pretty much began running around in a scared manner.

"Oh great! They're having Vietnam flashbacks now." Max mumbled in annoyance. At that moment, a rogue fireball landed directly onto him, surprisingly not setting him ablaze but instead leaving him smoked and burnt. "Ouch."

While the dinosaurs were distracted by their literal PTSD attacks, Santa took advantage of the chaos and rushed in, latching his jaws onto Tank's tail before swinging her around, much like Dino Swing but really, any normal attack can be used without a move card. He suddenly tossed her right into Chomp, where she crashed into him as they both struck and plowed through several rocks.

Ursula then pulled out the Fire Cannon move card. "This shit'll even up the score." she says with a wicked grin on her face. At that moment, a second move card suddenly ejected from the Alpha Scanner, to which she immediately grabbed. "Now we're talking!" she exclaims as small devil horns grew out from the sides of her head, fire ablazed in the background.

The greenette activated the move card as fire built up in Terry's mouth before he blew out a large fireball at his opponent. In response, Santa merely struck the fireball with his tail, instantly destroying it while taking less damage as a result. At that moment, Ace had managed to sneak around the Eocarcharia and struck him from behind, knocking the carnivore down to the ground before Terry suddenly lifted him, tossing him high into the air. Meanwhile, Zoe could be seen wandering around inside the glass cube, the effects of her oxygen deprived brain starting to become worse and worse as she was now becoming slowly hysterical.

"I wish I was a tree." she mumbled as she wandered around the cube.

Santa suddenly crashed into the side of the cube, but due to it being from another planet and being made out of a different, unknown element altogether, this didn't even leave a crack in it. At that moment, the same three slot machine hologram started up as the three slots began spinning. "I don't have a gambling addiction! GET OFF MY CASE!" Goma shouts defensively at no one as he hovers in the air, watching the Test Your Reality game spin. "Come ooooooon heads on fire. Come on. Goma has 10,000 Galaxian Bolts riding on it."

The TYR machine suddenly stopped on a symbol of someone jumping in the air with their feet on fire. "The Floor is Lava! Quick! Get on the couch! And don't break mom's vase!" Goma announces loudly.

At that moment, the earth began to crack as lava began to peer through it before suddenly the ground suddenly broke. Several chunks of the earth floated in what was now a sea of lava as both dinosaurs and humans struggled to keep their balance. Ed suddenly tripped as he dropped the lamp post his tongue was previously stuck to, which fell in the sea of lava and immediately began melting away.

"I'm starting to miss the Icy Floor now." he mumbles in fear.

Because of their larger size, especially Terry's since he was currently the largest, the dinosaurs all struggled to keep their balance on the floating plates of earth. Even Santa himself was having trouble, and he was currently winning the fight with his impressive fighting skills. Zoe merely looked out the glass cube with a hysteric look on her face.

"Phew! That looks kinda HOT down there. Don't swim in it!" she giggles before falling backwards afterwards.

"Well, I don't think close range attacks will work. Our dinos might fall in the lava… Wait. Is this lava even real or is it just a simulation?" Rex asks in uncertainty.

"Did you NOT see my lamp post fall in?" Ed asks.

"Fair enough." Rex shrugs.

Goma suddenly grabbed his Firestorm move card once more. "Here's a riddle for you fools. What's hot, orange, and about to rain down from the sky? Give up? It's Firestorm!" Goma proclaims as he places the move card on his chest plate, instantly disintegrating it upon touching it.

Once more, fire built up in Santa's mouth before he started spewing continuous fireballs in the air. "I know I said dinosaur battles are hot, but this is ridiculous!" Max proclaims as he literally hides behind Ursula's cape along with Ed.

"Get off me!" she yelled.

"How are they supposed to dodge that when there's boiling hot lava all around us?!" Rex cries out. At that moment, lava suddenly shot out from the… well, from the sea of lava, scaring Rex as he too joined the others in hiding behind Ursula.

"Grrrrr! Seriously?! This is getting old… Wait a minute…" she mumbled.

Ed suddenly stopped whimpering in fear. "Oh wait. I know what to do!" he says before grabbing a move card. "Earth Barrier!"

Violet crystals formed around Tank as she got in front of her teammates, the crystals forming into a large shield that covered the four dinosaurs. The Firestorm attack continued to rain down from the sky but merely bounced off or dissipated from Tank's crystal shield. Needless to say, the defense was a success.

"Heyyy, nice thinking Ed." Ursula complimented the fat man.

At that moment, lava suddenly spewed on the back of Ed's right leg, instantly setting his cuffs on fire. The fat man turned around to see that his right ankle now had lava on it and instead of screaming in horrific pain, Ed simply just patted the fire out like it was nothing. As if he was unaffected by the lava.

Ursula then ejected a move card herself. "Now it's my turn." she says before kissing the card and slicing it in her Alpha Scanner. "Time for Heat Eruption!"

Terry roared as literal meteors fell from the sky towards Santa the Eocarcharia, to whom roared in horror. Without much room to dodge, Santa took the attack directly, having been forced to stay in one spot rather than risk a failed jump into the sea of lava. Needless to say, he didn't stand a chance, as most of the meteors struck him directly, sending him flying away, thankfully out from the sea of lava. Unthankfully for Goma himself, the Eocarcharia was sent flying towards his direction.

"No! No! No! No! No! No! NOOOOOOOOOOO-" Goma's words were cut off when the Eocarcharia struck him in the air, sending him flying into the glass cube. "Damn it!"

"Ha ha." Zoe lazily laughed at his misfortune.

Thankfully, Santa landed on solid ground as the effects of the 'Test Your Reality' machine began to undo. The earth began to correct itself as the lava retreated back to the core as the ground began to go back to its normal status: just ground with a very, VERY visible lack of lava. Goma grabbed his head in pain as his gauntlet glowed purple, growing a hateful scowl before he teleported away.

Where he teleported was shortly revealed when he suddenly appeared on Santa's head, the same scowl now fitted with a glare on his face. "I see that Santa requires my assistance." he grumbles in anger. "Very well! Cower mortals for now you shall face Goma himself! Prepare yourself fools for the infinite, potent powers of Goma - Emperor of the Shadow Kingdom!" He proclaims as both of his gauntlet glowed purple once more.

"Oh boy. What's he doing now?" Rex grumbles in annoyance.

The violet alien suddenly released the energy in his gauntlets into the air before they fell down, creating several violet columns to rotate around him before spreading out. Needless to say, the dinosaurs all dodged out of the way as the rotating columns passed them, heading directly towards their human partners. The four humans all jumped out of the way on time as the columns dissipated into the air behind them.

Before anyone could say anything else, Goma began firing several large balls of dark purple energy high into the air before they came falling down. When they did, they made a loud CLAP! sound while sending small shockwaves into the ground upon impact. Some of the shockwaves hit the two herbivores of the battle, knocking them down to their feet while also knocking down Max and Ursula as well.

"Hey! Hey, he's cheating! You can't do that! Ban him! Votekick! F1! F1!" Max shouts at Goma as he points his finger at him.

"None of the Space Pirates could do that!" Ed cries out.

"I don't think those are natural powers. I think it's coming from his gloves." Rex acknowledges.

Santa suddenly came from out of nowhere and head butted Terry right at his head, knocking him down to the ground. The Eocarcharia suddenly grabbed Ace by the neck and tossed him into several trees, resulting in the Carnotaurus to be carded. "Ace!" Rex cried out as he ran to retrieve his partner's card.

"Hahahahahahahaha! Give up, mortals! You are no match for the powers and intellect of Goma!" the alien exclaims before grabbing out his move card once more. "Firestorm!"

Santa gathered fire in his mouth before he began spewing continuous fireballs into the air. In response, Ed brought out his own move card. "Ultimate Earth!" he calls out as he activates the move card.

Several violet crystals formed around as Tank charged towards the Eocarcharia, smashing through the crystals before striking Santa dead on. The Eocarcharia was sent flying before crashing to the ground, surprisingly not getting defeated just yet, proving his strong endurance. In response to the attack, Santa roared vigorously before charging towards the Saichania; seeing her enemy charging at her and not at all phased by her ultimate attack, Tank began to flee. Unfortunately for her, Santa grabbed her tail with his jaws, stopping any attempts to flee from the carnivore. The Eocarcharia threw Tank high into the air as she roared in terror, having no way to counter being literally thrown into the air. Before she was about to make contact with the ground, Santa smacked the Saichania with his tail, sending her flying like she was a baseball.

"And the Space Pirates win the Tournament Trophy of Grifball!" Goma exclaimed in a joking manner. As soon as Tank struck the earth, she was instantly carded, leaving only Terry and Chomp out in the field. However, because of the intense fighting he was doing, Santa was out of breath, evident by his excessive panting. "Rest my primitive minion. Goma shall take over for now."

With his master's permission, Santa ran off to recover his energy as Goma hovered the ground by a few feet. "Prepare yourself, foolish mortals, for Goma will not hold back his punches, his powers, and most importantly, HIS POTENT PRETENTIOUSNESS!"

Once more, Goma unleashed several violet columns around him before they began to spread out, rotating around him in an attempt to strike his opponents. Luckily for the other team, Terry and Chomp both leaped out of the way as the columns passed both them and their partners. Goma suddenly shot out several energy balls into the air as they all fell back down to the ground, emitting the same CLAPPING! upon striking the earth.

The purple alien suddenly began to build up power as violet energy started to get absorbed into his body as he crouched his body in the air. "Hey, wait a minute. This feels like a video game boss fight in an JRPG game." Max declares.

"Come again?" Ursula groans in confusion.

"Oooooh, I get what he means!" Ed suddenly exclaims. "He's saying that Goma's attack feels similar to a boss fight! He has different attacks in specific order before he charges up his ultimate attack that does devastating damage… Like what he's doing right now."

"Those fools. They have no idea how strong I'm getting and how MUCH THIS HURTS!" Goma exclaims as he continues to build up power.

"So how do we stop him from using his 'ultimate attack'?" Ursula asks, obviously having no clue how video games worked.

"Well normally we'd have to interrupt the attack first before he could-"

"Good enough for me!" Max exclaims before grabbing his shoe once more. "Take this you stupid, cape wearing moron!"

Max then threw his shoe towards Goma in an attempt to interrupt his attack. Needless to say, it didn't work as all it did was just bounce off of Goma's head, which did nothing but earn his attention. Goma stopped his charging as he looked down at Max, whom had a dead serious expression on his face. Goma however had a blank stare as he blinked a couple of times to take in the situation.

"Are you serious?" he asks in genuine disappointment.

"Hey, Tom Brady. Maybe you should use, oh I don't know, AN ACTUAL MOVE CARD?!" Ursula yells at her adolescent teammate.

"Freakin' unbelievable." Max mumbles in anger, mostly at the fact he lost his second shoe.

"Hahahahaha! I laugh at your foolish attempts to stop Goma!" the alien exclaims as he goes back to charging up power.

Max suddenly ejected a move card as it shot up in the air with him catching it in his hands. "Try this on for size, knucklehead. Lightning Strike!" the brunette yells as he activates the move card.

Chomp built up electricity in between his horns before firing it towards the unsuspecting Goma. Due to being distracted, Goma had no time to react as he was struck by the Lightning Strike, ultimately stopping him from charging up his ultimate attack.

"That's what I'm talking about! Bang! I make it look easy!" Max arrogantly cheers as he pumps his fist in the air.

"Owwwwwwww! That hurt! I'm gonna sue you like I'm faking a fall at work!" Goma proclaims before teleporting away. The two teams were momentarily silent, at first thinking Goma had retreated from the battle all together, until his voice suddenly echoed in the air. "Let's play Hide n' Seek, mortals. Try to find me if you can. Hahahahahahaha." Goma sinisterly chuckled in response.

"Is he seriously invisible?" Rex grumbles in annoyance.

"He said Hide n' Seek so he must be hiding somewhere and going invisible is pretty much cheating." Ed points out.

"I don't think Goma's one to play fair." Ursula responds back.

"Am I a bush? A rock? A park bench? A blade of grass?… A rock?" Goma's voice asked into the air for everyone to hear.

"I think he's hiding." Ed guesses.

"Please, do not set Goma on fire. I don't like it one bit." Goma's voice echoed through the air.

In response, Ursula then brought out the Heat Eruption card once more. "Hey Goma! Are you ready for some FIRE?!" she loudly asks before activating the move card.

Terry roared into the air as meteors fell from the sky, crashing into the ground while destroying anything it could. A tree that Santa was hiding behind was set ablaze, prompting the Eocarcharia to flee from his hiding spot. An abnormally large boulder was shown by a few trees as a meteor struck it, revealing that it was actually a hologram that Goma was hiding in. The alien suddenly flew high into the air as his cape was now on fire, doing his best to put out the flames.

"What did I just finish saying?!" he yells at the greenette before patting down his cape, putting out the fire. "No really. What did I just say? I forgot."

At that moment, the glass cube suddenly shot out another hologram as the Test Your Reality slot machine began spinning once more. "Oh great. I wonder what we'll get now." Max sarcastically says in an annoyed tone.

The three holographic slots continued spinning until it landed on a picture of a stickman running in what appeared to be yellow rain. "You better have brought your umbrellas feeble humans, because today's weather forecast calls for URINE RAIN! I am so, SO sorry!" Goma genuinely and loudly apologizes for the misfortune.

Right at that moment, storm clouds covered the entire sky as it literally began to start raining… well urine, on top of everyone. Needless to say, no one was happy about this result. "UGH!" Rex shouts in disgust as he looks at his pissed soaked clothes.

"MY HAIR! THIS IS SO UNSANITARY!" Ursula shouts in utter rage.

"I'm about to vomit." Ed says as he just shivers in his spot.

"Awwww, this is so disgusting! Don't come near me! I smell!" Max cries out as he tries to wipe the piss off of him.

The dinosaurs however were unaffected by this due to either their thick hides or because they're just animals who don't really care if they get pee on them. Even Goma was affected by the Urine Rain as he was now soaking wet from possibly THE MOST disgusting weather of all time.

"Why?! Why did I put that in there?!" Goma shouts in utter disgust as he squeezes his cape to get the piss out.

Unfortunately for him, he was struck by Terry's tail, sending him flying into several trees; upon crashing, Santa emerged from said trees and roared at his opponents, having rested up a bit to get back into the battle.

"Hey, Ursula! Let's finish this up with a fusion move so we can end this fight as soon as possible! And then take a shower." Max says to the greenette as a move card ejects from his DinoShot.

"I am ALL up for a hot shower." Ursula replies as she mimicked his movements.

The two then activated their move cards simultaneously. "Lightning Magma Strike!" Chomp built up electricity in between his horns before releasing a large lightning bolt towards the Eocarcharia. Terry built up magma in his mouth before stomping on the ground, firing a large column of magma towards the same dinosaur. The two attacks combined to create a spinning column of fire with electricity crackling from it before it finally struck it's target, striking Santa dead center, finally recalling him into a card and ending the battle.

"Take that you dumb, diamond headed, freak! Look at me! I'm the best! Yeah!" Max arrogantly cheers while pumping his fist on his chest.

"Finally! Now I can take a long, hot shower." Ursula sighs in relief.

The entire world reverted back to normal as Santa's card floated down onto Goma's body, whom was lying on several branches in the tree he was sent flying into. He noticed the card and the lack of a prehistoric battlefield, coming to the conclusion that he had lost the battle, resulting in him growling in anger. He flew out of the tree and hovered in the air, an enraged look on his face.

"You may have beaten Goma this time, but he will be back! With an umbrella next time!" Goma announces to his enemies.

"Yeah, don't care. Can you let Zoe out now?" Max asks in an uncaring tone with an unamused expression on his face.

Goma looked up to see Zoe currently walking around in circles in the glass cube, clearly oxygen deprived as she was going insane inside. "I like spinning. Spinning's fun." she says as she spins around in a circle before falling to the ground.

"FINE!" Goma exclaims in anger. "Take her! I don't even want her anyway! She'll probably nag me to wash the dishes or clean my room. NOBODY NAGS GOMA TO CLEAN HIS ROOM! Not even his own mother, WHOM HE DISINTEGRATED!… I miss her a lot."

With that said, he teleported out of sight, right as the giant glass cube cracked into several pieces before breaking, causing Zoe to fall to the ground. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" she screamed as she plummeted to the ground.

Luckily for her, she was caught when Max caught her in his arms, holding her bridal style with a concerned expression on his face. "Are you alright, Zoe?" he asks her in genuine concern.

Zoe took a moment to breathe in some much needed air before checking her surroundings, sighing in utter relief. "I am now. Thanks Max." she thanked him, before hugging him in his arms.

Max's face flushed red as a dumb smile appeared on his face. "You smell like rainbows." he mutters in a love struck tone.

"Uuuuh, I hate to break the heartwarming reunion but… Did anyone get… Santa's… card?" Rex awkwardly asks due to the absurdity of the sentence.

No one said anything when they realized one thing: they were left stranded in the park alone in the dark covered in urine without a dinosaur card. "I really want to beat Goma's face in." Max mutters in anger.

---

Reese's eyes fluttered open, the D-Lab's light lightly touching her eyelids to awake her from her slumber. She grunted as she began stretching her arms to wake herself up. It wasn't until she realized she was under a blanket that she found out she slept on the couch. Turning to her left, she saw a passed out Zander leaning his head against the couch, light snores coming from him. That's right. She fell asleep next to him after he passed out from the evening bar run. On Thanksgiving no less. While she was staring at the sleeping man, she couldn't help but smile, never seeing him this peaceful before. Keep in mind, for a while she thought he was just another goon in the Alpha Gang. Now she knows different.

As she was about to leave, her shoe stepped on something small that almost caused her to slip on the carpet. She looked down to see that it was a polaroid of some kind. Curious as to how it got there, she bent down and picked up to see that it was the picture W.E.S.L.E.Y. took of them while they were both asleep. Instead of blushing furiously in embarrassment, Reese grew a warm, soft smile with only a small blush on his face before stuffing the picture in her pocket.

Zander didn't need to know this just yet anyway. Speaking of the tall man, she heard him groaning as he shifted in his seat, indicating that he was waking up from his drunken slumber. The blonde turned around to see Zander stretching in his seat, a very tired look on his face as he grabbed his head. "What time is it?" he asks, half awake.

"It's…" Reese looked at her watch. "7:38. P.M.." she answers.

"What time did I get back?" Zander asks, now sitting up as he shifts positions.

Reese was about to answer but noticed something about the tall man. "Are you still drunk?" she asks.

Zander chuckled silently as he slightly nodded his head. "I didn't say anything embarrassing did I?" he asks.

Reese shook her head, a smile on her face. "No. You were fine. You went to sleep immediately." she says.

"It's weird."

"What is?"

Zander turned to his crush. "I dreamt that I proposed to you… Or… That I wished we were married." he says, chuckling a bit.

A small blush formed on Reese's cheek before she laughed a little. "Yeah, you're still drunk." she says, turning back to her computer.

"Not drunk enough to miss tonight's Thanksgiving dinner. Helga makes a mean pumpkin pie… Actually, she makes a mean everything." he says. "You going?"

"Miss out on Helga's famous stuffing? No way. I'm going."

"What time is dinner anyway?"

"In like 20 minutes."

"Welp." Zander stood up from the couch and stretched his limbs. "I better get ready. Take a shower, get rid of any drunk smell I have."

"Zander, you're still buzzed. You sure you're alright to go?"

"I'm having dinner, Reese. I'm not driving. Besides, I got some spare clothes at the Backland so I should be good to go."

Reese shrugged her shoulders. "Alright." she says, going back to whatever work she was doing.

Zander was about to leave but just realized that when he woke up, he was wrapped up in a blanket. Something he didn't remember doing. "Hey, did you…"

Reese turned to the man, curious as to why he didn't finish his sentence. "Did I what?" she asks.

Zander waved his hand dismissively. "Nevermind." he say before heading towards the door. "I'll see you at dinner. I'll make sure to not have you sit next to Dr. Z. He's a messy eater now that he has a dinosaur head. Later, Reese."

With that, Zander left the D-Lab, leaving Reese to contemplate and take in what the tall man just said. "Wait. What?"

She obviously had no idea about Dr. Z's terrible mutation on his own accord.

---

It was well passed 8 P.M. by now and everyone had already gathered around the Backland's very long dinner table that fit all 18 people. To be honest, my math sucks so I'm not sure how many people are there and I'm also incredibly lazy to make sure. No wonder I dropped out of school. Anyway, everyone was currently enjoying their dinner, some more than others (Ed and Max) while others took a more sophisticated way of eating… I mean Princess Zoe cuz, ya know, princessy personality. Like my cat. Reese sat next to Zander, filling up a glass of water for his headache as he barely touched his food.

"Drink, Zander. It'll make that headache in the morning go away faster." she says before taking some stuffing into her mouth… Not like that you sewer rats.

"Aw man! This is delicious!" Max exclaims, stuffing his mouth with whatever food he could put in.

"I know! Helga's an amazing cook!" Ed agrees, taking a large piece of turkey into his mouth.

Ursula, beside him, merely looked at the two in disgust while covering her food with a table mat. "Hey! Don't get your germs on my food!" she angrily yells.

Aki took a piece of pumpkin pie and stuffed it in her mouth, chewing it while a happy smile grew on her face. "Oh my. This is probably the best pumpkin pie I ever had." she says in glee.

"Zank you. Ze secret is zat zere is no secret." Helga says with a smile as she watched over the humans enjoying her meal with Jonathan standing next to her.

"When it comes to cleaning and cooking, Helga has no match. I should know. She did beat 'Johnny Cook' after all." Jonathan adds.

"You should try some of Aki's turkey. Maybe next year she could cook." Spike says with a fork of turkey in his hand.

"Don't get too ahead of yourself, Spike." Dr. Ancient says as he sat next to his wife. "Who knows how long we'll be in this time period. Once we get all the cards back, we're returning to the future."

"But with this new time machine, you can visit us whenever you want, right?" Max asks with his mouth full.

Instead of answering right away, Dr. Ancient just glanced to the side with an awkward expression. "Uuuuh." was all he said.

The dinner was suddenly interrupted when Dr. Cretacia banged her spoon on her glass of red wine. "Everyone. I'd like to have your attention." she calls out to the guests before glaring at a certain one. "That includes you Bartholomew."

Sure enough Dr. Z, whom was now Bartholomew at this point, was shown eating like an animal, ripping and tearing the turkey with his fangs. Upon hearing his name, he immediately stopped but began growling at the blonde mother. Meanwhile, Ursula just covered her food with the same place mat.

"I'm surrounded by savages." she mumbled in annoyance and anger.

"As you know," Dr. Cretacia continues. "me and my family are eternally grateful for your help in recovering our life's work and making sure they don't get in the wrong hands… Most of the time. I mean, yeah we lost six cards and failed to capture the Centrosaurus and lost Spiny as well and… 'Santa' as that purple loser calls it, but nonetheless, we are all thankful for your help. That's what I'm thankful for this thanksgiving."

"And I'm thankful that Helga makes wonderful food!" Ed exclaims as he continues to stuff his face with dinner.

"Seconded!" Max agrees, mimicking the fat man's eating habits.

"And I'm thankful for having great friends like Max and Zoe." Rex says as he stands up. "Always being by my side, helping me with everything. Always having my back and generally just being good friends."

"I guess I'm thankful that Dr. Z adopted us. If it weren't for him, we would probably be dead in a dumpster somewhere." Ursula speaks up with a small smile on her face.

"And I'm thankful that this turkey is ripe in fat and juices." Bartholomew grumbles said he takes a chunk and swallows it whole like an actual predator.

"Would you look at that? It appears Thanksgiving has made everyone thankful." Jonathan notes. "I shall join along and say I am grateful for Master Ancient creating me and bringing me into this wonderful life full of wonderful people… And Dr. Z."

"Hey!"

"And I'm thankful for having a wonderful family and a group of friends." Aki says with a smile.

"Oh, Aki. You flatter us. Especially when you keep delivering cookies to our pet store." Mrs. Drake waves with a smile.

Down below, it was shown that the now five chibi dinosaurs were eating out of doggy bowls, with the carnivores eating turkey and the herbivores eating vegetables. Ace turned to Terry after having finished his bowl, wondering if the chibi Tyrannosaurus would share his food. Needless to say, Ace learned his lesson to never disturb a hungry predator in the middle of eating, especially a Tyrannosaurus. Terry, having his food being spied upon, bit down on Ace's neck and pinned him to the ground, much like a mother cat scolding her kitten.

"Zander. What're you thankful for?" Reese asks the man beside her.

The tall man said nothing, instead just staring at the same photo of him and Spiny together in front of his untouched meal. A single tear fell from his eye as happy memories of the two played in his head like a movie. It wasn't until Reese placed a hand on his shoulder that snapped him out of his trance, turning to her to see that she was giving him a sympathetic expression. The tall man smiled before quickly standing up, raising a glass in the air.

"I'm not one to get mushy and emotional," he starts off before wiping the tear from his cheek. "But… I am thankful… that I have met every single one of you. Thankful that we can all be together. Enemies to friends." The D-Team smiled at the tall man. "Bosses to family." The Ancients smiled back at Zander. "And I'm thankful to have met you, Reese. Thank you for being a wonderful person." Reese smiled at this. "Even though all of us may not be here," He looked down to see the chibi dinosaurs all staring at him, albeit the two Alpha dinosaurs having more saddened look on their faces. It was obvious they were missing a certain Spinosaurus. "I am still thankful for the life I have… I wouldn't change it any other way… Spiny, wherever you are… Thank you."

After he sat down, everyone began clapping and applauding for his heartfelt speech. Dr. Cretacia wiped a tear from her cheek, as did Spike as well. Even the D-Kids applauded the tall man, they too secretly missing Spiny, feeling bad for their once enemy losing his friend. Helga and Jonathan were even clapping as they smiled at the Alpha member.

"If I could cry, I would." Jonathan whispered to Helga.

"Baah. Ve're androids. Ve may not cry but ve can still have emotions." Helga whispered back.

"Indeed."

After the applause, everyone sat back down in their seats and continued their meal. For once, Zander actually began eating for the first time that night. However, it was soon interrupted when Reese tapped his shoulder, prompting him to turn to the blonde.

"We'll find him… And we'll get him back… I promise." she softly says to him.

Zander smiled, his heart fluttering while still aching at the same time. "Thank you." he whispers.

---

Electricity sparked throughout the underground lab as several large mechanical arms pieced together what appeared to be a mechanical object of some sort. In another tube was none other than the Centrosaurus, whom was currently freaking out inside the glass tube due to the loud electricity and unknown environment it was in. The lab doors opened as Mr. McCallum entered, an intrigued expression on his face as he approached the second man with wavy hair and glasses, whom was currently working on the mechanical project with the arms.

"How's everything, Wrench?" he asks.

The man, now known as Wrench, turned around with a cocky smile on his face. "Like clockwork." he says in a nazily tone. "Once I'm done finishing with the armor and weapons, we can begin tests on that horned lizard over there. The Fist will be pleased when we get the final results, I can assure you."

"And the Spinosaurus?"

A large cell was shown in the shadows of the laboratory where a large dinosaur hidden in the shadows was currently sleeping. No doubt this was Spiny due to the huge sail on his back. Bones were scattered all over the cage, indicating that he was at least getting fed, albeit in a cage.

"The genetic upgrade has proved to be successful." Wrench's voice says. "With that thing by our side along with the armor and weapons… We will be unstoppable."

Spiny's eyes suddenly shot wide opened, revealing an angry glare into the camera while also revealing that his eyes were no longer yellow like before. They were now green and more lizard like with smaller slits.

Needless to say, whatever these guys did to Spiny, it changed him a lot. His roar, which was more grizzly bear-like before, was now more raspier, more benevolent… More animalistic. His roar echoed through the chambers as the two men continued their project.

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In memory of Clammy Cowboy/Ian Rawley

January 12, 1999 - August 8, 2022

"How are you guys on this fine Sunday evening."

We all miss you, buddy. Take care of him up there for us, God.